Lodge L8DD3 Cast Iron Double Dutch Oven</a>. The lids are different, but the bottom pots are similar. Between the two, I like the Lodge better. The Westinghouse has a rougher interior, which means that food is more likely to stick. The handles on the Lodge are finished better, with the inside of the handles being chamfered and smoothed. The Westinghouse ones are rough...see my picture. The Westinghouse has a bubble in the outside surface. It doesn't affect the pot's use...after all a pot is a pot and it doesn't penetrate to the interior...but it's a place for water to stay and rust to start after you wash out the pot. Sloppy.\\n\\nBottom line...there's a difference in manufacturing standards that's very visible when you compare the two products. The Lodge is domestically produced. There's no fundamental reason why this import can't be manufactured to the same standards, but it's not.\",\n \"Product: Our black colored 3 device universal remote is easy to set up and easy to use. This remote works with over 350 brands, and programming is a breeze. It can even control your digital converter box. It is perfect for today's DVR's and DVD players, it includes large keypads for easy navigation, and the partially backlit feature allows you to see the keys in the dark.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: It works well as a semi-universal remote...\\n\\nReview: This RCA universal works well as long as the code for your device is in the programming list. That's going to be pretty much always the case as long as the devices are in the standard TV/DVD/Satellite/Receiver/etc genre. Trying to get it to work with my Philips networked music player (NP2900/37. I lost the original remote) proved impossible.\\n\\nProgramming is easy...you hold down the button for the device and type in the five digit code. The power button lights up and that's it. There are two Aux buttons which can have any type of device assigned to them. You can use them if you have two devices of the same type.\\n\\nPower comes from three AAA cells. You have to supply them yourself. (-1/2 star)\\n\\nThe keyboard backlighting misses a number of keys. Come on, guys...way to save a penny or two on LED's. If you're going to advertise a backlit keypad, the least you can do is backlight ALL the keys. (-1/2 star)\\n\\nOther that that, this works fine. I can control my LG TV, Sony Receiver, Onkyo receiver and most other things. I just wished it worked with my Philips player. If you have any weird devices, you can download the code list from the web and see if they're listed. Just search on RCA RCRN08GR Codes.\",\n \"Product: pBelkin introduces Flip DVI-D, the first compact KVM switch that supports dual-link DVI monitors, such as Apple Cinema Display monitors. Now you can access two computers using the same monitor, keyboard, and mouse, and set of speakers. Flip features a stylish remote that can be placed anywhere on your desk. Simply press the button to flip your monitor from one computer to the next. The KVM and cables stay behind your computers, keeping your desktop free of clutter./p\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A very nice USB/DVI/Audio KVM\\n\\nReview: This KVM is a perfect fit to my needs. It works perfectly switching between my Mac Mini and one of my desktop Windows machines.\\n\\nMy monitor is a moderately-high resolution (1920x1200) Acer. I can't see any visual degradation compared to a direct connection to the computers...a vast improvement compared to other KVMs that I've used. I suspect that's due to the digital signals.\\n\\nThe remote control for the KVM is a small disk, about the size of a half-dollar and 1/4\\\" thick. A click on the top button and the screen, mouse and keyboard swap. Of course, that's exactly what's supposed to happen...\\nIn case you can't tell by looking at your screen, there's a small LED on the clicker that changes from yellow to green when it moves from channel one to channel two. The color of the LED matches the color of the cable connectors. As a user, it's possible to screw it up, but you'd really have to work at it. (maybe if you're color blind?)\\n\\nIncidentally, I'm not using the audio switching channel. I'd be listening to some music, need to swap computers, and have the audio channel change too. Very annoying.\\n\\nHighly recommended...as long as you have DVI connectors on your monitor and computers, I don't see any downsides.\",\n \"Product: Every element of Dynamo 300, from driver to amplifier to crossover to cabinet, is meticulously designed and manufactured to our highest standard. The result is staggering low-frequency performance for a subwoofer of its size and price. Perfect for either home theater or stereo applications, the Dynamo 300 is built with high-density materials to minimize cabinet resonance and provide a solid foundation for the high-output 8-inch woofer and high-current 75-watt, 150-watt peak amplifier. Whether you are looking for high performance bass to enhance your music experience or take your home theater system to the next level, a new Dynamo family subwoofer should be at the top of your list.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: This made a huge improvement in my home office audio system...\\n\\nReview: When I first received this subwoofer, I didn't particularly like it...I thought it sounded muddy. That quickly faded and it now sounds much cleaner.\\n\\nI'm using this in my home office audio system. Even with excellent bookshelf speakers, it's made a huge, huge improvement in the quality of the sound.\\n\\nOne comment about subwoofer size: go with the largest one that you can reasonably fit. You'll generally get better and cleaner low frequency response. If you're looking for a subwoofer for a home theater system and you like action movies, there's nothing like an explosion when you have 12\\\" sub in the system. The same is true if you listen to organ music or classical music with kettle drums. For most other purposes, and at normal volume levels, this is good choice.\",\n \"Product: New DSLR owners and photo hobbyists will appreciate the roomy and lightweight Orion DayPack 200. This camera backpack features a dual-compartment design purpose built to fit your completecamera kit and personal gear. A padded and mesh-covered backpad provides comfort and helps wickaway moisture. The contoured and lightly padded shoulder straps adjust to provide a custom fit andinclude a SlipLock loop on each side so you can attach a compatible pouch or bag to the pack. Pack up your camera body with attached lens, extra lenses, flash, charger, battery or otheraccessories in the fully padded lower compartment - it's built with thick foam walls and a reinforcedbottom. And it helps keep things safe and organized with adjustable, padded dividers you cancustomize to suit the size of your kit. Load the upper compartment with all kinds of creature comforts: lunch or snacks, wallet, maps, guidebooks, manuals, and a light fleece or rain jacket. It offers amplestorage space, plus a roomy mesh pocket to separate items.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Nice day pack for the photographer\\n\\nReview: This is a well constructed photographer's day pack. The bottom section has adjustable dividers to hold you camera, a couple of moderate-sized lenses and a flash unit....what you can stick in there depends on the size of each piece. The dividers and the pack exterior are made of foam wrapped in nylon to protect everything from the occasional bump and scrape.\\n\\nThe top section is your standard pack...a mesh pocket to hold keys and the other debris that would drift to the bottom and a section for lunch or whatever else you need.\\n\\nTo make a (not very) long story short...if you need something like this, buy it. I've been using the DayPack for a couple of weeks now and really like it.\",\n \"Product: This USB hub provides quick access to 4 USB 2.0 ports and is ideal for connecting an external hard drive, mobile phone or any other USB device to your computer.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Small, compact and works fine\\n\\nReview: There's not too much you can say about a USB hub...either it works or it doesn't. This one does. Data throughput seems to be roughly the same as my other hubs.\\n\\nThe power block is rated at 2.6 amps, so there should be adequate power for any connected device.\\n\\nTotal length, including the power and USB cable connectors is roughly 5\\\" and it's a little over 1\\\" wide and 1/2\\\" tall.\\n\\nUnlike most of the other small USB hubs, this one comes with a removable regular length USB cable to connect it to your computer. Most of the other ones that I own have a little stubby cable permanently attached.\\n\\nI should mention that I've been impressed in the past with Belkin customer support. I had one of their 7-port USB hubs fail after a couple of years of use and they promptly replaced it.\\n\\nIt works. It's small. If you need four more USB ports, this is a good way to go.\",\n \"Product: The Logitech Wireless Mouse M325-a better mix of precision and comfort. With its designed-for-Web scrolling, now everything you love to do online is easier. Designed to improve your online experience, the wheel also helps perfect scrolling when you're using other applications, such as Microsoft Office or Adobe PDF. --Micro-precise scrolling: New designed-for-Web scrolling makes searches, shopping and browsing easier. --Feel-good design: Contoured shape and textured rubber grips keep your hand comfortable even after long hours. --Long battery life: Up to 18 months of battery life virtually eliminates the need to change batteries. Battery life may vary based on user and computing conditions. --For Windows, Mac and Linux: Reliable wireless connection with tiny Logitech Unifying Nano-receiver that can stay in your laptop.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Small and fits well in the hand.\\n\\nReview: I've been a user of Microsoft mice for some time...most recently the Arc Touch Mouse. I like the feel of this mouse even better. It operates very smoothly without any need for additional software. There's no perceptible lag between the time I move the mouse and the movement of the screen cursor. I haven't had any problems using it on varied surfaces - Formica desktop, white paper, even my pants leg all work fine.\\n\\nIt does seem a bit of a stretch to claim a useful life of 18 months, but it's obvious that everything is designed to maximize battery lifetime - even the green power-on LED is very dim for the ten seconds that it's on. To stretch things to the max, you'll need to turn the slide switch on the bottom to the off position when you're not using the mouse. The mouse operates on one alkaline AA cell, which is pre-installed. A paper tag prevents the battery from discharging while sitting on the store shelf. The \\\"use by\\\" date on the battery was April 2014...more than enough time to allow the product to move from manufacturer to store but if it sits around, the 18 additional post-purchase months might be problematic. I'll let you know in a couple of years.\\n\\nAs an aside, one design feature that I particularly like is the slot in the battery compartment that stores the USB transceiver that plugs into the computer. My Microsoft mice all use two magnets, one in the mouse and the other in the USB doohickey, to keep them together. That works only until the back of the mouse gets banged.\\n\\nHighly recommended.\",\n \"Product: LCD protective cover for . Protects LCD from dust, cracks, and scratches\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Highly recommended protection for your camera.\\n\\nReview: This is a very thin sheet of plastic. The black border seen in the photograph raises it slightly above the actual LCD screen and prevents a moire pattern from forming. Unlike cell phone screen protectors, the adhesive is only around the edge; hence the need for he slight air gap. On a cell phone screen protector, the clear adhesive is in a continuous film across the width of the screen, which also eliminates the possibility of a moire pattern. Both methods work, but air gap prevents any possible damage to the LCD screen.\\n\\nOnce applied, this is virtually invisible and the only way to tell that it's there is the notch on the lower left corner. Otherwise it looks like it's part of the camera.\\n\\nHighly recommended protection for your camera.\",\n \"Product: An Amazon Brand.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: If a keyboard could be considered to be cute, this would definitely qualify\\n\\nReview: Small and light weight, this is working perfectly with my iPhone 4 with the applications that requires text entry. I haven't figured out how use it to move between home screens or select and start up an app, but it works beautifully otherwise. I can even type in my security code to wake up the phone from sleep mode.\\n\\nJust for fun, I also paired it with my main desktop computer and am typing this review on it. The keys are a bit smaller and closer together than a regular keyboard...but, despite my fumbling fingers, it's working quite well.\\n\\nMy only (very minor) complaint is that it takes a second or two to wake up from the low-power battery-saver mode. That's not a problem; you just hit a control key and wait a second or two.\",\n \"Product: Choose Your View Enhance your entertainment experience by finding the angle that's just right for you. Simply adjust the stand to your personal preference and sit back and view movies, video, and any other of your favorite content in comfort. When you're finished the cover folds closed to protect the screen with a soft interior lining that's smooth against your device. The slim, lightweight design slips easily into any bag without adding bulk.[ICON] Auto Wake Magnets Hidden Auto Wake Magnets wake up your iPad simply by opening the cover.[ICON] Multiple Viewing Angles Find the angle just right for you with the adjustable stand that customizes to your personal viewing preference. Protective Corners Snap in corners hold your iPad securely in place and keep it safe from damage. With a minimalist design approach the protective corners quietly fade into the background. Tab Closure When you're not using your iPad, the magnetized tab closure keeps the cover securely closed and your screen protected.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Protects while looking good\\n\\nReview: I got this cover to protect my new iPad. It uses four rubber corner pieces to securely hold it and to provide some protection against the occasional corner bump. Appearance-wise, the folio looks like it's covered with a grained leather material. It's obviously synthetic, but it looks good. The top cover can be folded under to allow the screen (in landscape mode) to be propped at various angles. It's less useful in portrait mode, at it can only hold the iPad at a 90 degree angle...not recommended as there's a tendency for it to tip forward. One reviewer reported problems with the magnet not activating the automatic screen shutoff when closing the case, but mine works perfectly.\\n\\nAll in all, I like this. It's reasonably priced, looks good and does the job.\",\n \"Product: The blue, customizable Windows touch tab on Sculpt Comfort Mouse revolutionizes the relationship between hardware and software, providing quick and easy access to the Start Menu, Cortana*, OneNote, Task View or virtual desktops.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Nicely shaped if you're right handed...\\n\\nReview: Some mice can fit in either hand. This one can't. It's very comfortable if you hold the mouse in your right hand. If you hold it in your left hand, it's shaped completely wrong.\\n\\nFunctionally, it works well. I'm using it with Win7 and it works exactly the way that a mouse is supposed to work...the cursor tracks, the left and right buttons work like left and right buttons should (duh!) and the wheel scrolls the screen. All the functions are programmable, so you can modify the defaults if you want to. The blue side button brings up the main start menu. It's a nice feature, except I keep accidentally pressing too hard with my thumb when sliding the mouse and accidentally popping it up. A second press and it goes away.\\n\\nI have a glass-top desk and it works (unlike many mice) on it...although there's some occasional skipping. Wooden surfaces are no problem.\",\n \"Product: The LIfeTrak Move C300 automatically tracks your calories burned, steps taken, and distance traveled. Your data displays right on your wrist for easy viewing. No extra parts or charging required! The Move C300 can also sync to some of your favorite health and fitness apps using Bluetooth Smart technology.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: I've been wearing his watch for about two months...\\n\\nReview: I didn't originally like it. It's fairly thick (13.5mm, or slightly over 1/2\\\") and the display has all the resolution of an old pong game. But after a while, I've grown to like it. I'm not exactly a jock, but it's nice to be able to see my heart rate when I'm exercising. The pedometer function seems to count steps with moderate accuracy, but that's not a function you need precision on...you're not exactly going to sit down for the rest of the day once you've hit your quota. The watch also uses your height, weight and exercise level to compute calories burned...useful if you're watching your weight.\\n\\nI'm not into high fashion, so I haven't purchased other colored bands, but they're available and easy to change if you wish.\\n\\nI haven't been able to tie it into the apps on my iPhone 4, but that's because it uses Bluetooth 4.0 and the iPhone 4 (and earlier) use an older version of Bluetooth. The iP 4S and newer use Bluetooth 4.0, so they should all work fine.\\n\\nMy recommendation? If you're looking for an inexpensive heart rate monitor and hate chest straps, this is a good solution.\",\n \"Product: Designed for mobile professionals, the Belkin Executive Leather Folio is the perfect companion for your iPad. It not only protects your tablet device, but also gives you multiple options for using your device. Users can rotate between portrait and landscape with the adjustable stand, and use the elastic hand strap to hold the device while surfing the internet or presenting to clients. The Belkin Executive Folio's soft interior lining and secure corners keep your device securely in place, and the magnetized tab closure keeps the cover securely closed and your screen protected when not in use. Professional, durable & versatile.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Looks good and securely holds your iPad...\\n\\nReview: This is a good looking iPad case for earlier generations of iPads. More recent versions don't fit.\\n\\nThe case can hold your iPad at four different viewing angles. There's no provision to rotate the iPad vertically...the case only really works in landscape mode. Bumps on the cover preset the different viewing angles. They also hold the cover away from the screen when the case is closed. A short strap wraps from the back to the front of the case to hold it closed when you're not using your iPad. There's a strong magnet stitch inside the strap to prevent it from accidentally opening.\\n\\nAn elastic strap allows you hold the iPad in one hand and write on it with the other. My wife, who works as a speech and language therapist, uses her iPad that way with her students. The strap is wide and not too tight...it's comfortable to use for extended periods of time.\\n\\nThe only real complaint is that the screen doesn't automatically turn off when you close the cover. Case manufacturers can add in a small magnet to trigger the off switch, but there isn't one in this cover. The magnet inside the strap would probably work if oriented correctly, but it isn't in my sample.\\n\\nThe lack of the screen shutoff dropped my rating from five stars to four. I have my iPad set to shut off the screen after a couple of minutes of inactivity, but it's still an unnecessary waste of battery power. Outside of that, I really like the look and feel of this case and wouldn't hesitate to buy it.\",\n \"Product: The Fat Gecko Mini Mount for GoPro Cameras uses an industrial locking suction cup to securely attach your GoPro to any smooth surface, including cars, surfboards, snowboards, wakeboards, helmets, non-textured walls, glass, and more. The adjustable joints let you set up and lock in the perfect angle to capture hands free pictures and video from almost anywhere, making the Impossible Shot, Possible! Unlike most consumer-grade suction cups, the Fat Gecko suction cup uses industrial materials and a patented design that forces the air out, then locks the suction in place until it is manually unlocked. The suction won't slip over time, and can withstand extreme cold, heat, water, snow, dust, wind and other harsh conditions without fail - even on the outside of an airplane! The Fat Gecko Mini utilizes a universal 1/4-20 tripod thread to let you attach any standard camera or camcorder up to 4 pounds, and also includes an adapter for GoPro cameras. An option 3\\\" extension tube is also included to expand the height of the Fat Gecko and allow for more flexibility in viewpoints from different mounting surfaces. A cold shoe is also included for mounting of flash units and lighting to the Fat Gecko Mini Mount, enabling you to have an ultra-compact mini lighting set up on the go! With its capability to attach to any smooth, non-porous surface, the Fat Gecko Mini provides users a unique, durable solution to capturing shots once considered impossible. Whether you are an adventure-seeker, commercial photographer or amateur filmmaker, the Fat Gecko Mini is a must-have item.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A secure, well designed suction cup base for your camera.\\n\\nReview: This holds tightly to smooth surfaces. It's easy to stick down...push the button in the center of the base to expel trapped air and then flip the lever to create suction. Air pressure does the rest.\\n\\nThe short, squat design reduces vibration. I don't recommend adding in the three inch extension unless you really need the extra height. I put my Sony NEX-6 on the extension and it became pretty sensitive to wind and external vibration. Image stabilization damped it, so the final pictures were still okay, but camera movement was much less without the extension.\\n\\nA couple other reviewers mentioned the length of the screw and the fact that it's hollow instead of solid. They're correct...it could be shorter, but the extra length doesn't affect camera stability. The ball portion of the upper joint is made of metal and it securely holds the screw. The amound of flex that's in the exposed portion of the screw between the camera base and the ball head is insignificant compared to the flex in the suction cup base. (The screw is actually a long set screw with a 1/8\\\" hex hole. That means that it's a tough, stiff steel alloy.) If it was a couple of inches long, I might be concerned, but the flex in a few tenths of an inch is insignificant. (Yes, my engineering side is showing)\\n\\nSo...if you can use a suction cup mount for your camera, this works well and I wouldn't hesitate to buy it just for that purpose. However, if you search Amazon for \\\"Fat Gecko\\\", you'll find a list of other things that can be used with the suction cup base...when I'm not using as a camera mount, you'll find it stuck to my windshield, holding my phone.\",\n \"Product: Seiki Super Slim Bluetooth Sound Bar\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: A good middle-tier Sound Bar\\n\\nReview: This is a rich sounding sound bar. It connected easily to my iPhone and fills the room with music. Besides the Bluetooth connection, other inputs include optical, Left and Right RCA jacks and a 3.5mm line-in jack. There's also a SD/MMC slot and USB connector on the far-right hand side. The FM tuner works okay at my house with the wire antenna extended...how well it'll work in your location is a function of the local radio signal strength.\\n\\nThe system does not use a separate power block; there's a plain, old-fashioned power cord permanently attached. You can see it in the picture of the back of the sound bar, but it looks like somebody either snipped it off, or cropped the dangly part out of the picture.\\n\\nTwo holes are in the back for wall mounting. The feet are screwed on, but can easily be removed with a small phillips screwdriver.\\n\\nBottom line..the sound quality isn't what you'll get out of a $250 sound bar with a separate sub-woofer, but for the $80 price tag, it's hard to beat. It looks good and the overall sound quality is above the \\\"acceptable\\\" level.\",\n \"Product: The NETGEAR GS308 8-Port Gigabit Switch is an ideal switch for your home network. It automatically connects to your router or modem using any port. With its rugged metal case, quiet operation and plug-and-play setup, it is a perfect upgrade to any home network. DC Power Adapter:12V / 0.5A,Max Power Consumption (Watts):3.52W\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: If you need a switch in your network, this is a good choice.\\n\\nReview: This is a basic 5-port network switch. It's designed with a green approach...the switch only uses enough power to get the signal down the line. Longer cables are driven harder, while shorter runs use less power. I plugged it in a couple of hours ago and it's barely warm. It's replacing an older Netgear switch, a GS105 v. 2, which was always running hot to the touch. As far as I can tell, there's no reason to waste the extra power...my office is hot enough as is. I'm not using it in a heavily loaded network, but the lower power doesn't seem to be affecting the network performance at all.\\n\\nAs I said in the headline, if you need a switch, this is a good choice.\",\n \"Product: Take the beat to the street with this portable speaker. The JAM Street wireless speaker was engineered to provide full sound in 360. Built to survive on the street, this splash-proof, drop-proof speaker is as tough as you are. The JAM Street easily pairs with any Bluetooth device. Use Bluetooth connectivity to wireless play up to 8 hours of music. An integrated carabiner, lets your JAM Street hitch a ride wherever life takes you. Need to pause your adventure so you can take a call? No problem! Whether youre hiking, biking or just hanging out, the JAM Street transitions from music to calls seamlessly.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: A well built portable speaker\\n\\nReview: Rugged construction, with a metal and rubber exterior. Definitely not waterproof and (with all the holes) I wouldn't take it to the beach, but this should survive the bumps and bruises of normal life. Physically, it's a little bigger than a portable phone handset and weighs slightly under a pound. It's too heavy to hang from a belt loop, but okay from a backpack. The carabineer is made out of metal, but hooks into something made from plastic. It looks plenty strong for normal use, but I wouldn't yank too hard on it.\\n\\nThe sound quality is good and it gets pretty loud. It paired quickly with both my iPad and iPhone. On the iPhone, it also acts as a speakerphone, although it's pretty much impossible to have a private phone call when it's broadcasting at the same volume as your music. ;-)\\n\\nCharging is through a small USB port on the bottom. The kit includes a short cable, but no wall adapter...you probably already have half a dozen of them sitting around from other devices. There's also a standard small audio plug on the bottom, if you prefer to have a wired connection instead of using Bluetooth. (Note that it's on the bottom. There's no way to stand it up with a wire plugged in)\\n\\nAll-in-all, I like this thing. It's pretty cool.\",\n \"Product: Watch your TV Anywhere - Sling box is the easy way to take your living room TV experience with you wherever you go. You'll be able to see each and every channel you have available on your television via Sling box. It works over Wi-Fi networks, as well as 3G and 4G cellular networks without restriction when you travel. Even internationally. Basically if you can connect to the Internet, you'll be able to watch all your channels live on any device, like your laptop, tablet, or phone. You can even use a streaming device like Roku or Apple TV to watch live TV on a second television. Watch your cable or satellite subscription at your vacation home or on that TV in the bedroom or basement. All without extra monthly fees. Sling box lets you watch your TV live in up to Full HD at 1080p resolution. It will connect with your home's Internet router via Wi-Fi or an Ethernet connection. You connect to your cable or satellite set-top box via component cables and the signal passes through to your TV. You can also connect it to your DVR, DVD, or Blu-ray Disc player/recorder or a video security camera if you choose. Integrated and external IR emitters give you the ability to control these remotely. Perfect for the sports fan - If you're a die-hard sports fan who travels, Sling box is a must-have. The extra channels and coverage you're already paying for are all available without having to worry about \\\"blackouts\\\" or device restrictions. And there are no monthly fees. Compatible with most Cable and Satellite providers - ATandT, Bright House Networks, Cablevision, Charter Communications, Comcast Xfinity, Cox Communications, DirecTV, Dish Network, Time Warner, and Verizon FiOs + more! Setup is simple, view your TV remotely from phones, tablets, PC/Mac, streaming devices, All with no monthly fees.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: How to remotely rot your brain...\\n\\nReview: We have the Comcast X1 system in our house. The slingbox M1 was super easy to install...you hook up five color-coded wires (R-G-B video and R-W audio), plug it in, install an app on your laptop (or desktop or iPad or...), answer some questions to configure the M1, set up an account on the Slingbox website, light a candle, say a prayer and you're up and running. With the most recent update, sacrificing a virgin is no longer necessary. The Slingbox can connect either through a wired Ethernet cable or wirelessly. Wired Ethernet is simple if you happen to have an outlet behind your TV (we do). Setting up the wi-fi connection is also trivial if you have a WPS compliant router...most recent ones are. If you don't, and you still want to go wireless, you should probably go scare up a virgin. You'll likely need it after all.\\n\\nLuckily, installation and configuration is something that's only done once. After that, the question becomes, \\\"How does it work?\\\" The answer is, \\\"really well.\\\" I can watch and control my TV from anywhere that I can access the internet. I've used it in my office, at local coffee shops and many other places. As long as the connection is solid, the picture has almost no glitches and buffering delay is minimal. I can pretend I'm working where ever I happen to be.\\n\\nMy only real complaint is that the iPad app costs another $15. When you pay $150 for something, it's really sleazy to ask your customer to shell out more for the app needed to make it work. It's a little bit like buying a new car and finding out that tires aren't included. Or lug nuts. Yes, the app for the PC is free, but come on, guys...\\n\\nSling is a recognized leader in remote TV access. They've been doing it for years and it shows in the design of this box.\\n\\nHighly Recommended.\",\n \"Product: B+W 55mm XS-Pro HTC Kaesemann Circular Polarizer with Multi-Resistant Nano Coating\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Expensive, but this the way to go...\\n\\nReview: In another review, I compared a clear B+W filter to hardened air...protective and optically neutral. That's how I feel about this one. it does what it's supposed to do and absolutely nothing else. This one is too new to require cleaning, but the nano coating on my clear filter has made it very easy to clean...and that's not been very often.\\n\\nThis polarizing filter is much lighter in color than my HOYA Pro1 polarizing filters. I haven't measured it, but it looks like at least one stop difference between the two without any (apparent) loss in polarizing ability.\\n\\nIf, like me, you don't want anything affecting your image quality, good filters are worth the investment. I don't think you can get any better than this...\",\n \"Product: With the same number of keys as a laptop, this thin yet durable aluminum alloy keyboard case is the ultimate in performance. Updated design features include backlit keys with three brightness levels, a detachable case, and Bluetooth Smart technology. The Belkin Qode Ultimate Pro Keyboard Case for iPad Air is the ultimate enhancement to your iPad Air experience. Innovative design features include backlit keys with three brightness levels, a detachable case, portrait and landscape viewing angles and Bluetooth Smart technology. This fully loaded keyboard case combines durable tablet protection, viewing versatility and a totally revamped typing experience, all in one lightweight, portable package.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A definite improvement from the non-Pro version...\\n\\nReview: I use both this and the non-Pro version. They're both solid, well-engineered cases with aluminum exteriors and bluetooth keyboards. The non-Pro version has the iPad frame permanently attached to the keyboard section. The Pro version uses magnets to hold them together. The magnets allow you to separate the two pieces when you don't need the keyboard and to rotate the iPad to a vertical position when you want it that way. The downside is that they separate pretty easily...if you're not careful and pick it up by the screen, the keyboard is liable to be left behind.\\n\\nThe Pro keyboard has backlighting, with three different levels of illumination, while the non-Pro version doesn't...it's practically impossible to use it in a darkened room. The Pro also can connect to two different Bluetooth devices, while the non-Pro one only hooks to one. Paring, like with most modern Bluetooth devices, is simple.\\n\\nThere are some differences in the keyboard layout, with the Pro version having a few additional keys. The extra keys reduce the need to hit the fn and shift keys quite so often. The colon/semi-colon key was moved to the right of the \\\"L\\\" key, where it's normally found. I definitely prefer the Pro layout over the older one. They've also added a couple of useful keyboard functions: fn-2 brings up the other running programs, similar to pressing the round button on the front of the iPad; fn-3 captures a screen image and stores it in your photo file. the latter is much easier than pressing the power and round button simultaneously, which is the normal method of screen capture. There's picture of my black non-Pro case and the white Pro case posted for comparison.\\n\\nThe Pro case added two sound directing ports at the bottom of the iPad...they're visible in one of my pictures In the non-Pro case, the sound leaves the iPad out the bottom and dissipate out into space. The Pro version guides them towards the viewer. The result is a richer and louder sound.\\n\\nMinor annoyance - the Pro moved the charging connector to the back, instead of the side. It's position interferes with the screen stand and makes it difficult to use while charging. I'm sure it was put there to reduce the size of the internal circuit board and save a bit in manufacturing cost. All in all, it was the right business decision and it's not a big deal. The keyboard almost never needs to be charged and it's easy enough to do overnight. Like a million other devices, it uses a standard micro-USB connector A charging cable is included, but you probably already have a dozen lying around your house..\\n\\nSo...having both cases, which one do I use? The Pro. I like the new keyboard and the ability to turn the iPad vertically. As a heavy user, those are critically important. If the cost isn't off-putting, this is the one to get.\",\n \"Product: OCZ, the most awarded SSD brand of all time, introduces the Vertex 460A for those seeking a high-performance yet value-minded SSD. Combining OCZ's own controller design and Toshiba's latest generation of flash, Vertex 460A keeps your system ahead of the game and delivers a faster, more responsive PC experience.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Solid performance for a reasonable price...\\n\\nReview: I put this into an external USB 3.0 enclosure, and not unexpectedly, the drive required formatting before my Win 8.1 laptop would recognize it. (\\\"Windows Key + X\\\" select Disk Management, then \\\"New Simple Volume\\\", leave the defaults alone and click Finish. It only took a minute or two.) Performance is very fast, especially considering that it's running through the USB interface and not directly connected to the guts of the computer. I was going to post my Seagate 1Gb HD + 8Gb SSD hybrid disk's results for comparison, but after running the benchmark for over 25 minutes it was only partially completed...the results were pretty pathetic.\\n\\nPower consumption is minimal. Even after running the benchmarks, it's only slightly above room temperature. Like all SSDs, since there are no moving parts, it's absolutely silent and mechanically rugged.\\n\\nA license for Acronis True Image 2013 comes included with the drive...it's used to clone your existing drive onto the new SSD You'll need to download it from the OCZ website; the license key is on a sticker on one of the inserts in the box. I did not use this version, but the ones that I purchased required that you remove your existing drive, put it in an external enclosure and mount the SSD in it's place. You then boot off the external drive and proceed to clone the old drive onto the new. Not swapping the drives first didn't produce a bootable clone. Doing so worked fine.\\n\\nOCZ has a free program on their website called \\\"SSD_Guru\\\" It allows you to tweak the performance and monitor the drive. It also recommended that I update the firmware from v1.00 to 1.01. Doing so was easy and fast.\\n\\nLong story short...this is inexpensive and works well. At the moment, there's a $20 rebate when purchased through Amazon, which brings the net price to under $80. That's really cheap for a quality SSD. However, unless you have a server to offload the larger files from your system, I strongly suggest thinking about purchasing the 480Gb version. With videos, programs and music, it really doesn't take much to use up 240Gb...and then you're back to upgrading again...\",\n \"Product: The MP230L Performance Mouse's unique track-on-glass sensor uses a high-definition laser that will follow your hand movements on a wide variety of desk surfaces. The 2.4GHz wireless connection via a USB nano receiver means there are no cords to clutter up your desk. The mouse is full-sized, offering complete comfort in an ergonomic design. In addition to the traditional two-button and scroll wheel top, side buttons offer quicker browser navigation. DPI adjustment buttons allow you to control the cursor tracking speed. And with Plug & Play installation, you'll be up and clicking almost the instant you plug in.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Tracks well on all kinds of surfaces....\\n\\nReview: I've been using this mouse for close to a month. It worked well on Windows 7, 8.1 and now Windows 10. Tracking has been flawless on various surfaces ranging from my old glass desk, to a polished granite countertop, to a wood table top. I didn't try it on a new sheet of glass to validate Kensington's claim about usability on glass...my desk has innumerable small scratches that make life easy for a mouse. Tracking resolution - which translated to how fast the cursor moves when you move the mouse - is easily changed with a couple of buttons on the top.\\n\\nMy only concern: This mouse is large. If you have small hands, it might be uncomfortable to use for an extended period of time. Personally, I started to develop some painful tendinitis in my mouse hand after using this for a couple of weeks. I've had that happen with other large mice, so it's not exclusive to this model. It's getting better now that I've switched back to my smaller Logitech mouse.\\n\\nI'm giving this a solid four stars. Personally, I'd prefer if it was a smaller, but that's strictly because I have small hands. YMMV.\",\n \"Product: Best in class Audio. Use in small room or any small space in home. Bathroom or other damp/steamy environment - (note: HEOS 1 is steam proof by itself and IPX4 waterproof with HEOS 1 Go Pack sold separately).\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Remarkable fidelity from a compact speaker\\n\\nReview: Remarkable fidelity for a small wireless speaker. We set it up in out family room and it's been providing background music for the last couple of weeks. I really am surprised at the quality of the sound...It's not what you'll get from a larger multi-speaker system, but it's much richer than I expected from such a small enclosure.\\n\\nIt was very easy to install on our network and is easy to control through the HEOS iPad/iPhone app. The app allows you to plan music from the major services: Pandora, Spotify, Tunein, Rhapsody, iHeart Radio, Sirius XM, Soundcloud, Tidal and Rdio. It'll also locate the music servers on your network and play whatever you have stored on them.\\n\\nI'd love to hear the HEOS 3, 5 and 7 models. If this is what the low end sound like, the others have to be absolutely phenomenal.\\n\\nHighly Recommended...\",\n \"Product: With stunning 2K resolution, the 27 BenQ SW2700PT monitor is equipped with 99% Adobe RGB, 100% sRGB, 100% Rec.709 color space coverage providing you with a wide range of spectacular colors to work with.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: The Asus PB278Q versus the BenQ SW2700PT\\n\\nReview: Update - Sept 5, 2017 - Just a brief update...after two years of daily use, I still think this monitor is terrific. I've run a calibration roughly every six months and the display remains bright and vibrant...no complaints whatsoever.\\n\\nI am currently running the BenQ SW2700 and the Asus PB278Q in a dual monitor configuration on a Windows 10 system. Theyre next to each other, running off the same Nvidia video card and calibrated using the same Spyder 4 colorimeter. Theyre both absolutely gorgeous displays, but the nod, by a nose, goes to the BenQ.\\n\\nSetup:\\nI have both monitors connected through DVI cables. (The correct cables are included with each monitor, but if you use older ones that you have lying around, you need to check the number of pins in the connector. If there are two blocks of nine pins instead of one block of 24 , its an older style that will limit the display resolution.) Both monitors also have DisplayPort and HDMI inputs, if your computer supports those instead of DVI. The Asus includes an old-style VGA port, but thats a bit like fueling your Lamborghini at Costco. It works, but seriously\\n\\nCalibration:\\nCalibration of the BenQ requires that the calibration device be plugged into a USB port on the side of the monitor. The BenQ, in turn, has a USB 3.0 input connector (on the bottom, next to the display cable connectors) thats plugged into a USB port on your computer. When calibrating the Asus, you don't need to change anything around. The Spyder calibration software simply goes through the various hub(s) to reach the Spyder. When calibrating the BenQ, that software already expects to run through the monitors USB ports.\\nBoth displays cover 100% of the sRGB color space. After calibration, the Asus measures at 78% of the AdobeRGB color space. The BenQ covers 99% of that space. The Palette Master Element software produces a more detailed chart, which is attached as a photo. As you can see, the error component ('E) is quite small.\\n\\n14 bit Look up Tablewhats that?\\nThe BenQ has a 14-bit look-up table inside the monitor to improve the color fidelity. For the non-technical reader, thats basically a table that tweaks the colors slightly so the screen more closely matches what its supposed to. For exampleThe computer says some pixel should be 128 128 128, but the screen actually puts out something equivalent to 127.5 128 128. The LUT takes the 128 128 128 and turns it into 128.5 128 128. By changing the value slightly, it basically fakes the screen into displaying what it should - 128 128 128. Something similar happens inside your computer when you calibrate your video card, but the video card doesnt have the fine granularity of the LUT.\\nThe values in the look-up table are programmed at the factory, but are overwritten when you go through the calibration process.\\nThe Asus doesnt have a comparable programmable look-up table. All color tweaking happens in the graphics card.\\n\\nColor Depth:\\nThe Asus can display 16.7 million colors. Thats 8-bits (256 levels) per RGB channel. The BenQ has 10-bits (1024 levels) per channel, for a total of 1.7 billion colors. The extra color depth is barely noticeable, but it allows smoother transitions when you have gradual color changes over a narrow range...assuming that you have an appropriate graphics card and source material that contains more than 8-bits. Most (if not all) consumer level graphics cards have only 8-bits per channel, which makes the extra bits irrelevant. The same is true for JPEG files, which are compressed to save storage space. To truly use the capabilities of the BenQ, you need a very expensive graphics card and work with RAW or 16-bit TIFF files.\\nThe BenQ comes with a hockey puck sized switch that sits in the base. By pressing the buttons, you can change the display between sRGB, AdobeRGB and black and white.\\n\\nPhysical Comparison:\\nIf you can't control the ambient light, the BenQ comes with a glare shield that can be wrapped around the screen.\\nThe Asus has a slightly larger base.\\nBoth screens have bezels that are between 7/8 and 1 wide.\\nThey both adjust up and down and tilt back and forth. The BenQ goes 1 lower than the Asus2 off the desk vs. 3\\nBoth monitors can be used in either portrait and landscape. Theyre HUGE when in portrait mode.\\nBoth have VESA mounts, if you want to put them on a swing arm. Otherwise, there's no reason not to use their stands.\\n\\nUp until this point, the Asus was my reference monitor. Its been dethroned. Its much more expensive, but if you demand uncompromising performance, the BenQ is the way to go.\",\n \"Product: Meet OnHub, the router from Google and TP-Link thats built for fast Wi-Fi on all your devices. OnHub provides Wi-Fi speeds up to 1900 mbps to help with smooth streaming, gaming, and downloading. Its unique design and 13 antennas provide reliable speed in every direction, covering up to 2,500 square feet. And OnHub can connect 100+ devices at the same time, so everyone can enjoy what they love to do online.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Powerful. Simple to set up. Limited in features\\n\\nReview: I received the TP-Link OnHub yesterday. Installation took about ten minutes, with most of that being dead time as it updated it's firmware. The OnHub is designed as a consumer-level device. The app makes it very easy to set-up, but the trade-off is that it lacks many of the technical options found in other high-end routers...but for 95% of the population, those features aren't necessary.\\n\\nIn operation, the TP-Link is screaming fast. I have a hardwired connection from my desktop computer to a switch and then on to the TP-Link. Measured download speed (my ISP is Comcast) is 240 Mbps. My previous router, an ASUS RT-87 (which is a pretty decent router) measured 170Mbps. The Google wireless app reports the connection as \\\"Good\\\", whatever the heck that means. Speedtest, running on the same phone and in the same room as the router, measured the actual speed at 235Mbps.\\n\\nWhat's it lacking? A WPS button for quickly adding wireless devices. Control over the DHCP address range. The ability to put a computer into the DMZ (a great way to get infected, BTW). Protection from malware infected websites (The ASUS included a connection to Trend Micro's database of malicious sites. It warned you if you were going to visit one of them). There's no way to adjust any wireless transmission parameter outside of the SSID. Permanent assignment of device priority. Setting up a schedule for a kid's computer and limiting the types of websites that they can visit. In other words, most of the knobs in a high-end router are missing.\\n\\nMy conclusion? This is a great device for many non-techies. It's lacking a lot of features that could be included in a future firmware release. If they're important to you, this isn't the device for your home. If not, it deserves a look.\",\n \"Product: white colors\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A hose + drip system off one connection...\\n\\nReview: For years, I've used two-way solid brass valves on my hose bibs, however our harsh California weather has finally done them in. They're permanently stuck in the open position. When these were offered to me as evaluation samples, I decided to take advantage of the offer...it saved me a trip to our local Home Depot.\\n\\nWhen tightened down, there's no leaking around the valves or connections. The levers on these are substantially longer than the ones on my old brass valves, which makes them easier to operate...even before the old ones began sticking. The brass ones have machined threads, while these have the threads cast into the body. Both designs work well. The valves let through plenty of water when fully open, although that's a function of your local water pressure and the condition of your pipes and faucet. We use a commercial-grade 3/4\\\" 100' garden hose and there's enough pressure at the far end to send water 25+ feet through the spray nozzle.\\n\\nLong story short...this works well. If you need to connect a second hose to a valve, this is a good option. I haven't had it long enough to see how it'll survive the ravages of California's weather. :-) I'll update this if the plastic starts to breakdown or if anything else goes wrong. Otherwise, you can assume that it's still in active daily use.\",\n \"Product: A long sleeve woven shirt made with non-iron end-on-end cotton fabric, a shadow check print, a collar with a button front and a shirttail hem in a slim fit style.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: I ordered both this and the non-slim version. For me, the slim is perfect!\\n\\nReview: This isn't just plain \\\"cool.\\\" It's Infinite Cool.\\n\\nExcept for some modest puckering on the seams, this is a nicely tailored men's shirt. I'm 6'1\\\" and 172lbs and my normal shirt size is 16-34/35. I ordered both this and the regular version. The slim cut is definitely thinner throughout the body than the regular version. Both fit me, but frankly, I prefer this version. (\\\"Traditional\\\" fit shirts from other brands are much larger than both of them...I find them practically unwearable.) Sleeve length is perfect and since I almost never wear a tie, the neck size is immaterial.\\n\\nLike the regular version, there is puckering on some of the seams. This is particularly noticeable on the seam that runs across the shoulder blades and is the primary reason that I'm only giving this four stars.\\n\\nThe cloth is 100% cotton. It's a bit stiff, but I expect that to soften with time and a few trips through the laundry. The material doesn't retain heat and is well suited for summer wear. So far, it's wrinkle resistant, with the inevitable small wrinkles disappearing with a bit of steam and hanging.\\n\\nIf you have an athletic build, this may be preferable to the non-slim cut. Otherwise, I'd stick with the regular version.\",\n \"Product: Thin stripes decorated the finely woven cotton poplin. Regular fit. Non-iron finish. Long sleeve, button-up shirt. Point collar. Single-button adjustable cuffs. Shirttail hem. Straight back yoke. 96% cotton, 4% Lycra® spandex. Machine wash cold, tumble dry low. Imported. Measurements: Length: 31 in Chest Measurement: 44 in Sleeve Length: 36 in Product measurements were taken using size MD. Please note that measurements may vary by size.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: An Infinitely Cool shirt.\\n\\nReview: This isn't just plain \\\"cool.\\\" It's Infinite Cool.\\n\\nExcept for some modest puckering on the seams, this is a nicely tailored men's shirt. I'm 6'1\\\" and 172lbs and my normal shirt size is 16-34/35. I ordered this in the large size and it fits me decently. The body is a bit larger than I like, but not seriously large...\\\"traditional\\\" fit shirts are much larger and practically unwearable. Sleeve length is perfect and since I almost never wear a tie, the neck size is immaterial.\\n\\nAs I mentioned, there is a bit of puckering on some of the seams. This is particularly noticible on the seam that runs across the shoulder blades and is the primary reason that I'm only giving this four stars.\\n\\nThe cloth is 100% cotton. It's a bit stiff, although I expect that to soften with time and wear. The dark blue color is bold and complimented nicely by the thin navy vertical stripes. The material doesn't retain heat and is well suited for summer wear. So far, it's been wrinkle resistant, with the inevitable small wrinkles disappearing with a bit of steam and hanging.\",\n \"Product: This wolverine work collection belt is a 44mm leather strap with border stitching and a harness buckle, comes in black and brown, sizes 32-inches - 46-inches\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Fits perfectly through my jean belt loops.\\n\\nReview: This is a good-looking belt. The one I received is somewhat different than what's shown in the picture, which is why I'm giving it four stars not five. If it was the same as what's pictured, I'd give it a five star review.\\n\\nSo, where's it different? The picture shows a near grain-less surface, but the one I received has a strong grain pattern. The pictured one also has a leather interior surface. This one has a fine mesh cloth bonded to the inside. The \\\"Wolverine\\\" logo is also black in the picture. It's just embossed in mine. Overall, the design isn't bad...it's just different. You need to get what you think you're ordering. Incidentally, the belt also has a matching strip of thin leather sewn to the inside of the belt where the holes are punched. The strip is both decorative and reinforces the holes.\\n\\nThe buckle is brass-colored, not brass. I sanded a bit off a back corner to see what it is made from..it's a silvery metal casting, copper plated, and has a brass colored top-coat. That's pretty standard for inexpensive belts and should last a long time before it starts to visibly wear.\\n\\nAll in all, despite the differences noted, I like this belt and will be wearing it often.\\n\\nNote: This was provided as a review sample.\",\n \"Product: Filled soft shell two pocket hooded jacket with full heavyweight sherpa lining.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: A warm mid-weight jacket\\n\\nReview: This is far warmer than a traditional hoodie..it's a mid-weight jacket with a hood. In the San Francisco bay area, where I live, it's probably all I will need all winter long. If you live in North Dakota, you'll need something a bit warmer. :-)\\n\\nThe fit is cut thin, like most Tommy Hilifiger clothes. I'm 6'1\\\" and weight around 170 lbs. and it fits me nicely... the sleeves are long enough and the body isn't too loose.\\n\\nMy only (minor) annoyance, and the reason that this is getting three stars, is that the fleece lining has been shedding little black hairs all over my shirt. I'm hoping that this is short term, but it'll be a while before I again wear a white shirt under this jacket.\",\n \"Product: The SKLZ Sport-Brella Portable Sun and Weather Shelter is a rugged umbrella structure with side flaps for full-cover protection. Top wind vents and side zippered windows allow for efficient airflow while internal pockets allow storage of stakes, valuables and gear UPF 50+ sun and weather protection Includes convenient carry bag plus tethers and ground stakes for extra stability\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Perfect for the beach\\n\\nReview: The Sport-Brella umbrella (who ever comes up with these names??) is a perfect accessory for a beach trip. It's easy to carry, fitting into a sleeve that's about four and a half feed long and six inches in diameter. A shoulder strap allows you to toss it over your shoulder while dealing with more important items like towels, coolers and the kids.\\n\\nPhysically, the center post and side anchor points keep the umbrella stable. The umbrella does a good job of blocking direct sunlight, but glare off of the sand and water can still give you a lot of UV exposure..it's definitely not a way to avoid using sunscreen. Incidentally, this thing is good sized. It does have a center vent to let through a moderate amount of wind, but there is a limit...unless you want to emulate Mary Poppins, I wouldn't set it up in a very windy location.\\n\\nLong story short...I really like it. Highly recommended\",\n \"Product: The experts behind Garden Safe brand know home gardening is as much abouthowyou grow aswhatyou grow. Since 2002, Garden Safe brand has delivered garden products including natural-based and botanically derived formulas to growers who prefer to control plant pests and diseases without traditional chemicals. Organic gardeners trust our solutions to keep garden pest control simple and let nature do the rest. Let goodness grow. Garden Safe Brand Crawling Insect Killer Containing Diatomaceous Earth is a no-odor, non-staining insect killer that contains diatomaceous earth. Use it both indoors and outdoors to kill listed crawling insects on contact. When crawling insects encounter or ingest this powder, they die within 24 hours. Insects cannot become immune to its killing action. This dust controls cockroaches, ants, beetles, fleas, bed bugs, carpet beetles, millipedes, crickets, silverfish and others as listed on the label. Use a hand duster, power duster or squeeze bottle (all sold separately) to apply Garden Safe Brand Crawling Insect Killer Containing Diatomaceous Earth. Dust in areas where crawling insects are found, including cracks and crevices; behind and beneath refrigerators, cabinets, stoves and garbage cans; window frames; and in attics and basements. Outdoors, dust on patios, in planting beds, along ant trails and around sewer pipes and drains. Repeat application when dust is no longer present.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Natural, non-toxic insect control\\n\\nReview: Diatomaceous Earth is the remains of prehistoric diatoms...extremely small sea creatures. Basically, it's sharp edged bits of silica. When an insect gets some on it's exoskeleton, the sharp edges cut through at the joints and the insect dies by dehydration. As long as you don't breathe it and get it into your lungs, it's completely non-toxic and harmless to humans and animals. (There is a food grade version that some people eat as a cure for intestinal parasites.)\\n\\nI've used it in my garden to get rid of ants, aphids and other insects. I dusted it onto our apricot and lemon trees and within a couple of days there was a huge reduction in the insect population. I also put a spoonful around the entrances to our many ant tunnels...it doesn't take much to have an effect. Unlike insecticides, which dissolve or chemically break down, this stuff is inert and lasts until it's moved by the bugs, rain or something else.\\n\\nIncidentally, this stuff will kill all crawling bugs. Dont use it if you're planning to also use ladybugs or praying mantises for insect control. On the other hand, I tried those and they didn't seem to work too well...the ladybugs flew away and I never did find out what happened to the praying mantises. This stuff stays where you put it.\\n\\nHighly Recommended.\",\n \"Product: The SILICRYLIC by Incipio is an innovative 2 part carrying case; a high quality Polycarbonate plastic interior embedded in a shock absorbing silicone core. The SILICRYLIC offers optimal protection, unparalleled comfort as well as easy access to all the iPhone's features.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: looks good, fits well, but not exactly Navy Blue\\n\\nReview: The silicone interior case is more of a light gray-blue and the outer hard shell is closer to a forest green. They work well together, but navy blue it's not. The outer case has a matt finish that will do a good job both hiding fingerprints and stop it from slipping out of my hand.\\n\\nThe kit also includes a screen protector and screen cleaning cloth. I'm not about to drop-test the thing, but the case looks like it'll protect the phone pretty well...\\n\\nUpdate - March 4, 2012 - About ten months after I started using this case, I've replaced it. The small dark piece of plastic that's visible above the sound off/on slide switch broke off about five months ago. The corners of the silicone case had a number of small rips. I've switched to the Otter Box, which looks like it will be much more rugged.\",\n \"Product: Compatible with potable GPS devices, smartphones, and 10-inch tablets, the AmazonBasics Universal Windshield and Dash Mount can keep your navigation device steady and in place even during the roughest rides\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: Nothing fancy, but it sort of works...\\n\\nReview: Right now, just for grins, I have this stuck to my dining room table, holding my iPad, while I type this review. It shakes a lot when I touch the screen, so I can't really recommend it as a typing stand, but that's not exactly the recommended use.\\n\\nIt's too tall to fit onto my dash without bumping into the windshield. Sticking it to the bottom of the windshield is no better...it hits against the dash. That might not be a problem if you have a windshield that slopes up at a sharper angle, but it's a royal fail in my old Lexus sedan. As a console mount (stuck to the ashtray under the radio) it works fine holding my iPhone, but it's specifically sold for dash and windshield use.\\n\\nYou can't switch easily between the iPad and iPhone...there are two sets of prongs with different lengths. One set is for phones while the other is for larger devices. You need to slide one set off and the other one on to accommodate different sizes. (Actually, I don't see any reason that you couldn't mix two prongs from one set with two from the other if you have a jumbo-sized phone (or a mini tablet))\\n\\nMy conclusion: it sort of does the job. It does hold my phone so I can use it as a GPS, albeit in the wrong spot. The suction cup base holds it securely. The (supplied) glue-down disk would be better, but that's a permanent addition and I'm not willing to do that to my car interior.\\n\\nMy rating? Just eh. Sorry guys.\",\n \"Product: Now you can get through the daily grind with one less thing to worry about: dropping your smart phone. Our engineers conceived two levels of protection: a tough chamfer design on the outside and a soft elastomeric lining on the inside. The result? Upon impact the Pelican ProGear Protector case deflects energy and cushions your phone, preventing damage to the fragile glass surface and sensitive electronics.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Very comfortable to hold. Excellent design...\\n\\nReview: Not the flashiest case in the world, but I really like it, much more than the Otterbox Commuter Ive been using with my Galaxy S4\\n Feels sturdy hard shell case that fits precisely\\n Snaps on easily; you just need to make sure its snapped in all around\\n No soft plastic parts which never seem to fit the way they should and tear or hang off.\\n Slim profile, doesnt add bulk, especially to what is already a wide phone.\\n Biggest plus -- Very comfortable, easy to hold shell. The rear of the case is wider than the front, so the grip is slanted inward. The back is plain, but its design again seems to minimize bulk and improve the comfort of the grip. With this case, my phone sits nicely and securely in my palm and I feel that I can easily maneuver my fingers on the screen.\\n Cons: Didnt come with a screen protector, which would have been nice. (-1 star)\",\n \"Product: Set out with LifeProof FR for Apple iPhone 6 and live with no limits. Waterproof and drop proof, FR for iPhone 6 has the guts to go into the thick of it and come out unscathed. Featuring a built-in screen protector, FR shields your iPhone 6 from Mother Natures worst. From ocean shores and mountain trails to desert dunes no environment is too extreme for LifeProof FR.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: This case isn't bullet proof, and it won't survive being dropped into an active volcano, but that's about it...\\n\\nReview: 1/2/16 Update - Own a 6s? Here's a link to my review of that case: https://www.amazon.com/review/R1KXRUG6J4GIHR/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm. It has some significant improvements...among other things, Amazon Basics charger cables fit!.\\n\\nSo far, my family has drowned four phones, busted up two, and performed unspeakable acts to a couple of others. You know the inscription over the entrance to hell in Dante's Inferno? That's what electronic devices look forward to in our house.\\n\\nThe LifeProof case may change all that. The iPhone that got dropped into the storm drain would have survived if it was in a LifeProof case. So would the one that sat in the rain-filled street gutter for twenty minutes. Or the one that fell out of a pocket onto the concrete. Get the picture?\\n\\nIf your house is at all like ours, buy this. Don't even think twice about it. With the shock mounting and waterproof gaskets, it's a bit bulky, but it's way cheaper than paying all those insurance deductibles.\\n\\nYou didn't really intend to go through life on a first-name basis with the Apple Store Genius Bar employees, did you?\\n\\nUpdate...3/10/2015...Well, as you can see from the photo, it worked. A certain spouse tripped in a parking lot and threw her phone on the way down. It hit the asphalt pretty hard. The case is a bit battered, but the phone survived without a scratch. (I want to add that LifeProof replaced the case under warranty. I went to their web site, filled out a form, sent in a picture and a replacement arrived in the mail. It couldn't have been easier.)\\n\\nUpdate #2...6/20/2015...I recommended that one of our friends buy this for her daughter. She'd just purchased an iPhone 6, which was a replacement for a couple of earlier phones that met untimely ends. Less than a day later I got a call...the new iPhone slipped out of her hand and hit a concrete walkway. Unlike every other phone she's owned, it survived. Way to go LifeProof!\\n\\nUpdate #3...7/20/2015...A couple of weeks ago, my daughter bought a LifeProof case. The first day she owned it, her phone was dropped in the can. Yesterday it was dropped onto the street. This thing is worth every dollar...\",\n \"Product: The weBoost Connect 4G-X is our most powerful 4G building booster. weBoost's Connect 4G-X is professional grade, allowing users to get better voice and data with fewer dropped calls, improved voice quality, faster uploads and downloads. The Connect 4G-X Booster increases cell signals up to 32x and enhances 4G LTE and 3G signals for buildings up to 7,500 sq ft. As with all of our boosters, it is compatible with all US networks including Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, US Cellular, Straight Talk and more. Quick and easy installation with easily instructions from our Quick Install Guide. All parts are included in the weBoost Connect 4G-X kit and friendly trained support staff on call to assist. All boosters come with a 30-day guarantee from manufacturer and a 2-year warranty.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: A significant boost in call quality...\\n\\nReview: We use AT&T for our cell phone provider. Reception in our house was so bad that they gave us a femto cell mini tower...without it, measured signal strength ranged from -109 dBm down to -113 dBm. To test this booster kit, I unplugged the femto cell, put the outside antenna on the roof, and ran the coax down into out family room. After tweaking the antenna direction a bit, measured signal strength in the room ran between -92 and -97 dBm. That's a significant boost in power and resulted in a much better call quality.\\n\\nInstallation is fairly simple, but you do have to maintain at least 20' separation between the two antennas. Basically, the cell booster picks up a signal with one antenna, amplifies it, and sends it out the other. If the antennas are too close together, you get feedback just like you do when you move a microphone too close to a speaker. In the case of the weBoost, the internal circuitry detects the oscillation and shuts it down. If that happens, one (or more) of the lights on the front turn red...you can't exactly hear a squeal at radio frequencies.\\n\\nI did have one problem installing the outside antenna...a local tower from a different carrier was overloading the receiver. When that happens, the front panel LED for the offending band turns from green to orange. It took a lot of tweaking of the antenna position and direction to get all the LED's to be simultaneously green. At one frustrating point, I actually mounted it on handle of a shovel and moved it around the yard trying to find a good location.\\n\\nIt's important to note that the Home 4G Cell Phone Booster kit is rated for only one or two rooms. It doesn't have enough power to cover a small house, much less a large one. If you need coverage over more space, look at the weBoost Connect 4G or the Connect 4G-X. Those are more expensive units, but have a stronger signal strength. (For the techies, the Home 4G boosts signal by 60dB; the Connect 4G by 65dB and the Connect 4G-X by 70dB.) That may not seem like much of a difference, but it is!)\\n\\nMy conclusion...this works and works well. Unlike a Femto Cell, or other carrier-specific transmitters, it boosts every signal from all carriers. If the small coverage area isn't a problem, this is a good option. Look at one of it's larger brethren if it is.\",\n \"Product: [Apple MFi Certified] Foxnovo 2-in-1 Lightning & Micro USB Cable, Sync Data & Cable Charging Cord for iPhone 6 Plus 5S 5C 5 4S, iPad Air, mini, Galaxy S6 S5 S4 S3, Note 4 3 2, and Other Android Phones Tablets (Green)\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A very usable charging cable.\\n\\nReview: This worked well on our recent vacation, keeping our iPhone and other devices charged. I particularly appreciated the little spring that keeps the Lightning adapter from being lost...it wouldn't have lasted a day without it.\\n\\nSo far, and unlike quite a few of my other cables, there's been no sign of gap developing between the wire and the connector body...It looks like they're firmly held together. The wire is quite flexible, but also appears to be heavy enough gauge so not to increase charging time appreciably. Because it's flat and appears to have a slick silicone outer layer, it rolls nicely and doesn't tangle easily.\\n\\nNote: I need to mention that I was provided this as a review sample. I've been using it for about three weeks and it continues to function perfectly. If it starts to wear out or show any other signs of abnormal behavior, I'll update this review accordingly.\",\n \"Product: Toaster Pro wirelessly connects smartphones, tablets, PCs and Macs to easily share, stream and transfer content. It can be used as a portable travel router, can act as a Wi-Fi repeater to extend the reach of your wireless network and even recharge your mobile devices through its built-in battery.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: A jack of all trades...\\n\\nReview: If you're looking for a full featured wireless router for your home, this isn't it. But, as a portable lightweight travel router, it's perfect. I spent time testing it on my home network and I'm impressed. Upload and download bandwidth measured at over 20 Mbs. I set it up as both a repeater for my wireless network and as an access point into the wired network...both worked well. There are no parental controls or other add-on features, but they're not necessary in a travel router. It works fine as your basic dumb router. All of these boxes arrive with the same password - 88888888. You need to change it to have any network security.\\n\\nYou can log directly into the routers internal web page, but I don't recommend it. The iOS app puts a pretty face onto the worlds ugliest user interface. You set up the router through the app and use it to transfer files on and off SD cards. The USB port is designed only as a power source. I tried plugging a low power hard disk into it and got nowhere. Charging capability through the USB port is pretty limited. You can use it for an emergency cell phone charge, but that's about it. I took the router apart, but didn't see any mAh rating on the battery. (It might have been on the back side that was stuck to the case.) From it's size, though, I would guess that it's in the 1000-1200 mA-hour range. Assuming that the rest of the router is off and not sucking power, that's only enough to partially charge a phone. Although there's a switch to turn wi-if on and off, there's no overall power switch. I didn't check the quiescent power drain, but you should make sure that it's fully charged before tossing it in your suitcase. Charging, BTW, is through a micro-USB connector. No power block is supplied, but you can charge it from your laptop or grab one from something else. Some other reviewers were complaining about it's absence, but most people have plenty already hanging around their house.\\n\\nSo...my conclusion? It's small, light and works. More functionallity could have definitely been built into the firmware, but it does what it does well. As the expression says, it's a jack of all trades, but a master of none.\",\n \"Product: Innovative twin-lever mechanism cuts stapling effort by 30%! Staples up to 30 sheets. Staples clinch flat so papers stack neatly. Metal and high-impact plastic construction. Easy-grip top, non-skid rubber base. 3\\\" throat depth. Top loads a full strip (210) of standard staples. Manufacturer's one-year warranty. All sheet capacities are based on 20-lb. bond.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: These staplers keep getting \\\"borrowed\\\" from my desk...\\n\\nReview: I've just purchased my fourth one...along a spare for when the inevitable happens...\\n\\nAs staplers go, this model works better than any stapler that I've ever owned. I use the <a data-hook=\\\"product-link-linked\\\" class=\\\"a-link-normal\\\" href=\\\"/MXB355M-Flat-Clinch-Staples-for-MXBHD50DFBK/dp/B000XP215O/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\\\">MXB355M - Flat-Clinch Staples for MXBHD50DFBK</a>, which are exceedingly sharp. The staples close flat, unlike standard staplers, which bend the ends into an arc. The result is that stapled corner of a pile of stapled documents doesn't bulge up.\\n\\nThe Max staplers are solidly built. There's some padding on the top of lever arm, which makes it comfortable to hold (and a bit of give if you whack it too hard).\\n\\nWhat else can I say? If you need a stapler, buy this one...and don't forget the staples.\",\n \"Product: Ergotrons patent pending lift-and-pivot motion technology. Easily lift, swing, tilt or turn your display with the touch of your fingertips. Extends or retracts up to 24.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Well built and strong\\n\\nReview: I bought this to support a heavy 24\\\" Acer monitor. I have clients that come to my office and I was thinking that it would be nice to easily rotate the screen so that they could also see it. Since then, though, I've found that the real benefit of the Ergotron LX is the ability to exactly position my screen where I can see it the best....about a foot above my desk and at the exact focal point of my reading glasses. No more leaning forward and end-of-day neck aches!\\n\\nThe quality of construction is excellent...this thing is almost completely metal. Although it's at the very edge of the specs, it has no problem supporting a 20lb monitor (and I suspect that the weight limit is more due to the strength of the internal springs than anything else). The arm shipped with two different mounting systems. One, a heavy duty desk-edge clamp, would probably have worked fine, but I opted to use the other one - a 5/16\\\" bolt passing through a hole drilled in the desktop. Using the bolt allows the screen to be moved to any position without worrying about the clamp coming loose...there's a lot of rotational force exerted by a heavy monitor hanging out on a long arm.\\n\\nLong and short of it...the Ergotron LX is terrific. I should have bought one years ago.\\n\\nUpdate - November 2009 - I contacted Ergotron to purchase second arm. I wanted to upgrade to a dual-monitor setup, but unfortunately, the arms aren't available for separate purchase. I appear to be stuck (Not nice, guys!), but, if you think you'll need one in the future, you should look at the dual-arm versions today...\",\n \"Product: In one step, the ScanSnap S510 scanner digitizes both sides of a document in a single pass, in color, and at an amazing speed of up to 18 pages per minute. With a touch of the button, the ScanSnap S510 scanner enhances the user experience with a host of automatic features, including auto paper size detection, auto de-skew and auto blank page removal. The included \\\"ScanSnap Organizer\\\" automatically converts scanned data into searchable PDF files, while the ScanSnap S510s image enhancement technology increases character recognition for more precise OCR accuracy. The bundled ABBYY FineReader software enables the user to scan documents directly to applications such as Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint software. Scan business cards directly to your contacts database with the included CardMinder application. CardMinder captures information written in 8 languages from scanned business cards images and stores this information in an easily accessible format. The quick menu provides dynamic control over the destination of scanned documents. If attaching scans directly to an email, the user can quickly change the file name and protect it with a password for added security. The ScanSnap S510 scanner easily installs via its USB 2.0 interface and its small footprint requires less space than a letter size piece of paper.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: A great office scanner\\n\\nReview: I have purchased two of these scanners. The one on my office desk sees almost daily use; the one at home is used less frequently. Between them, I've scanned well over 25000 sheets.\\n\\nWhat I like:\\n* Very compact. When the input and output trays are folded in, the scanner uses only 6\\\"x11\\\" of desk space - smaller than a sheet of paper.\\n* Well built. Unlike inexpensive consumer-level scanners, the ScanSnap has a substantial amount of mass. It feels like it has a powerful motor as well as a fairly substantial metal chassis inside.\\n* Very easy to use. There are two buttons on the front - Scan and Power. There is also a silver latch which pops opens the front, allowing the removal of any misfed pages.\\n* Both sides of a page are scanned at once. Blank pages can be automatically removed and skewed images straightened or rotated. Images can be scanned in black and white or in color, and the software can select which is most appropriate. You can set a default page size, or the scanner can set it based upon the document size. Resolution can be set in four different levels, from 75 dpi up to 600 dpi.\\n* It is fast! I just scanned 31 printed pages in 92 seconds. It took about seven seconds more to finish processing the data on my PC and putting up the thumbnail of the PDF. A faster computer (mine's nothing special) would obviously be quicker and eliminate the occasional data-transfer pause while scanning.\\n* The software package is good. A complete OEM version of Adobe Acrobat Standard 8.0 was included with each scanner. Acrobat 9.0 Standard retails for $265 by itself. The ABBY Fine Reader software does a good job of OCR'ing the scanned documents and making them searchable. Lastly, the ScanSnap Organizer helps in parking and retrieving the files.\\n* User replaceable pads and rollers. When the pads and rollers wear out and pages don't feed properly, you can purchase a pad and roller kit and fix the problem yourself. The pads are rated for 50,000 pages; the rollers for 100,000.\\n\\nWhat could be better:\\n* Double feeding. One of my scanners works almost perfectly; the other double feeds all too frequently. With both my scanners you have to be careful to fan previously stapled pages or the staple holes can pull an extra page through. Most double feeds are caught because of a slight misalignment in the pages. The misfed page appears to be longer than the previous page and this triggers an alert in the software.\\n* Mixed page size. Because of the way that the scanner detects double feeds, it can't handle a stack of mixed size pages. This is a problem when scanning receipts; business papers are generally letter or legal size. The solution, of course, is to scan each receipt separately.\\n* Imperfect scanning of vertical lines. If you scan a form with vertical lines (or a piece of graph paper) you'll see occasional offsets of a fraction of millimeter. There's also occasional color fringing caused by misalignment of C/M/Y colors. This generally isn't a problem for documents, but isn't acceptable for photos.\\n* Not TWAIN compliant. None of the standard software packages (at least that I've found!) contain a way to directly interface to this scanner. The ABBY software must be used to generate a PDF, or tie into Excel, PowerPoint, or Word. It's fairly seamless, but you can't use OmniPage or Textbridge Pro as your OCR program.\\n* Non-standard icons in ScanSnap Organizer. This is just a bad design decision. Whoever wrote ScanSnap Organizer hard-coded some really ugly icons into the program. When you create a subfolder, they're in blue...and look really bad if you look at them outside of Organizer. The same with the other directories that it creates.\\n* ScanSnap Organizer only allows one top-level directory to be used. By default, it sets it up in the Documents folder and labels it as \\\"My ScanSnap.\\\" That can be easily changed. What can't be changed is the fact that you can't have multiple top level directories...I'd like to be able to look at files sitting in \\\"My ScanSnap\\\" and in a different place altogether (i.e. on another networked computer) at once.\\n\\nDoes it work for me?\\nFor my purpose, it works very well. It's helped me tremendously reducing and organizing my office files. Stuff gets scanned, stored locally, backed up to my server and then automatically encrypted and backed up off-site. When a client calls, a few keystrokes and their information is up on my screen. It would, however, be a mistake to use it to scan in your family photo album. If that's an important feature, you should get a high-quality flatbed scanner instead.\",\n \"Product: In one step, the ScanSnap S510 scanner digitizes both sides of a document in a single pass, in color, and at an amazing speed of up to 18 pages per minute. With a touch of the button, the ScanSnap S510 scanner enhances the user experience with a host of automatic features, including auto paper size detection, auto de-skew and auto blank page removal. The included \\\"ScanSnap Organizer\\\" automatically converts scanned data into searchable PDF files, while the ScanSnap S510s image enhancement technology increases character recognition for more precise OCR accuracy. The bundled ABBYY FineReader software enables the user to scan documents directly to applications such as Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint software. Scan business cards directly to your contacts database with the included CardMinder application. CardMinder captures information written in 8 languages from scanned business cards images and stores this information in an easily accessible format. The quick menu provides dynamic control over the destination of scanned documents. If attaching scans directly to an email, the user can quickly change the file name and protect it with a password for added security. The ScanSnap S510 scanner easily installs via its USB 2.0 interface and its small footprint requires less space than a letter size piece of paper.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: A great office scanner\\n\\nReview: I have purchased two of these scanners. The one on my office desk sees almost daily use; the one at home is used less frequently. Between them, I've scanned well over 25000 sheets.\\n\\nWhat I like:\\n* Very compact. When the input and output trays are folded in, the scanner uses only 6\\\"x11\\\" of desk space - smaller than a sheet of paper.\\n* Well built. Unlike inexpensive consumer-level scanners, the ScanSnap has a substantial amount of mass. It feels like it has a powerful motor as well as a fairly substantial metal chassis inside.\\n* Very easy to use. There are two buttons on the front - Scan and Power. There is also a silver latch which pops opens the front, allowing the removal of any misfed pages.\\n* Both sides of a page are scanned at once. Blank pages can be automatically removed and skewed images straightened or rotated. Images can be scanned in black and white or in color, and the software can select which is most appropriate. You can set a default page size, or the scanner can set it based upon the document size. Resolution can be set in four different levels, from 75 dpi up to 600 dpi.\\n* It is fast! I just scanned 31 printed pages in 92 seconds. It took about seven seconds more to finish processing the data on my PC and putting up the thumbnail of the PDF. A faster computer (mine's nothing special) would obviously be quicker and eliminate the occasional data-transfer pause while scanning.\\n* The software package is good. A complete OEM version of Adobe Acrobat Standard 8.0 was included with each scanner. Acrobat 9.0 Standard retails for $265 by itself. The ABBY Fine Reader software does a good job of OCR'ing the scanned documents and making them searchable. Lastly, the ScanSnap Organizer helps in parking and retrieving the files.\\n* User replaceable pads and rollers. When the pads and rollers wear out and pages don't feed properly, you can purchase a pad and roller kit and fix the problem yourself. The pads are rated for 50,000 pages; the rollers for 100,000.\\n\\nWhat could be better:\\n* Double feeding. One of my scanners works almost perfectly; the other double feeds all too frequently. With both my scanners you have to be careful to fan previously stapled pages or the staple holes can pull an extra page through. Most double feeds are caught because of a slight misalignment in the pages. The misfed page appears to be longer than the previous page and this triggers an alert in the software.\\n* Mixed page size. Because of the way that the scanner detects double feeds, it can't handle a stack of mixed size pages. This is a problem when scanning receipts; business papers are generally letter or legal size. The solution, of course, is to scan each receipt separately.\\n* Imperfect scanning of vertical lines. If you scan a form with vertical lines (or a piece of graph paper) you'll see occasional offsets of a fraction of millimeter. There's also occasional color fringing caused by misalignment of C/M/Y colors. This generally isn't a problem for documents, but isn't acceptable for photos.\\n* Not TWAIN compliant. None of the standard software packages (at least that I've found!) contain a way to directly interface to this scanner. The ABBY software must be used to generate a PDF, or tie into Excel, PowerPoint, or Word. It's fairly seamless, but you can't use OmniPage or Textbridge Pro as your OCR program.\\n* Non-standard icons in ScanSnap Organizer. This is just a bad design decision. Whoever wrote ScanSnap Organizer hard-coded some really ugly icons into the program. When you create a subfolder, they're in blue...and look really bad if you look at them outside of Organizer. The same with the other directories that it creates.\\n* ScanSnap Organizer only allows one top-level directory to be used. By default, it sets it up in the Documents folder and labels it as \\\"My ScanSnap.\\\" That can be easily changed. What can't be changed is the fact that you can't have multiple top level directories...I'd like to be able to look at files sitting in \\\"My ScanSnap\\\" and in a different place altogether (i.e. on another networked computer) at once.\\n\\nDoes it work for me?\\nFor my purpose, it works very well. It's helped me tremendously reducing and organizing my office files. Stuff gets scanned, stored locally, backed up to my server and then automatically encrypted and backed up off-site. When a client calls, a few keystrokes and their information is up on my screen. It would, however, be a mistake to use it to scan in your family photo album. If that's an important feature, you should get a high-quality flatbed scanner instead.\",\n \"Product: C-Line's Write-on Project Folders in assorted colors will help you divide, organize and color code projects. The heavyweight archival quality polypropylene folder features a write-on tab for easy identification. It works with with pencil, ball point pen or permanent marker. The folder is open two sides for easy access, has a unique gusseted corner design allows folders to expand to hold up to 100 8-1/2 x 11 pages. The color assortment includes 5 each yellow, red, blue, gray and green. C-Line is a leading manufacturer of office supplies with a product line that features storage, identification and organization products.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Great for quickly identifying different projects...\\n\\nReview: I've been using polypropylene folders for years to organize our many projects. Their mechanical design is pretty standard...a piece of plastic is folded in half and then bonded on one open side. The resulting folder holds papers much better than a manila folder.\\n\\nThese are pretty much like the others, except they have a colored border and a large, full-width write-on tab. The color coding and the tab make it much easier to find a particular folder when they're stacked or in a work-in-process cabinet. They're also made from a bit thinner material than the other ones that I've used. As a practical matter, that shouldn't make much difference in their lifespan.\\n\\nI'm currently testing using <a data-hook=\\\"product-link-linked\\\" class=\\\"a-link-normal\\\" href=\\\"/Post-it-Super-Sticky-Removable-File-Folder-Labels-0-6-x-3-4-Inches-White-750-labels-2100-H/dp/B002K9ZKL8/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\\\">Post-it Super Sticky Removable File Folder Labels, 0.6 x 3.4 Inches , White, 750 labels (2100-H)</a>instead of writing directly onto the tab. It's not nearly as pretty, but they'll allow me to reuse the folder.\\n\\nIf you have multiple simultaneous projects, buy a box and try using them. I think you'll like the results.\",\n \"Product: Non-stick coated, black color stainless steel blades with black/purple soft grip handles, 8\\\", straight design. Durable and corrosion resistant. Allows easy cutting and cleaning of adhesives. Great for general office use or for school or craf projects.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: A tale of two scissors\\n\\nReview: I recently purchased two pair of titanium coated scissors from Amazon. One pair is the Officemate 8-inch scissors listed here; the other is the <a data-hook=\\\"product-link-linked\\\" class=\\\"a-link-normal\\\" href=\\\"/Scotch-Precision-Ultra-Edge-Non-Stick-Scissor-8-Inch-Brown-with-Assorted-Accent-Colors-Dot-Color-Will-Vary-1468TUNS-MIX/dp/B002QUZNQI/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\\\">Scotch Precision Ultra Edge Non Stick Scissor, 8-Inch, Brown with Assorted Accent Colors (Dot Color Will Vary) (1468TUNS-MIX)</a>, which costs several dollars more. I was curious whether the extra cost translated into any tangible benefits. The short answer is yes, but I'm not sure how much you'd see in normal use.\\n\\nBoth scissors came extremely sharp. The Officemate has definitely a lower level of finish, with roughness from machining clearly evident on the inside surfaces of the blades (the ones that face each other). The quality of finish on these surfaces affects the cutting edge and thus how the blades slide shut against each other. A smoother surface translates to a smoother cutting edge and closing action. Even when brand new, the Officemate scissors had a bit of roughness as the blades cut through paper. The Scotch scissors were absolutely smooth as they closed together. Both scissors, though, cut through paper cleanly and with minimal force. It should also be mentioned that the inside surfaces of the Scotch scissors are coated with a clear non-stick layer...they almost feel like non-stick cookware. I assume that it's this layer that leads to the non-stick claim.\\n\\nBoth scissors have screws at their pivot point to adjust the tension between the blades. The Officemate uses a standard phillips head screw; the Scotch uses a more expensive-looking machined slotted screw. Both work fine to adjust any play between the blades...the difference is appearance, not function.\\n\\nThe blades on both are exactly 8\\\" long from pivot to tip. The handle side on the Scotch is about 1/2\\\"+ longer, which provides more room for your fingers. The tips of the Scotch blades are rounded. The Officemate's tips are sharp, but thick; they aren't finely pointed like you'd find in precision scissors.\\n\\nAll in all, both scissors work just fine, but I'll give the nod to Scotch. It's better built and I like that in my tools.\",\n \"Product: Never has a label packed so much punch. These small White Square Labels can be customized to promote your company or product, or connect customers to your website and other digital media with a 2D barcode or QR Code. Theyre also perfect for your branding and promotional items and for use on packaging, mailings, brochures and other business products. White square printable labels have permanent adhesive that will stick to glass, metal, plastic, paper and more. Great for product laels, ingredient labels, jar labels and merchandising tags. The print-to-the-edge feature lets you add a full-color background to your brand logo, product name, address or message. The patented Easy Peel label sheets with the Pop-up Edge ensure a quick and easy application. Simply bend the label sheet back, peel and return the sheet to a flat position. Its that easy. With room to print a barcode and one line of text you can drive customers to your website, social networking feeds, video content, a map of your location or other information. The TrueBlock technology blocks out words or other dark colors underneath the label to provide more accurate barcode scans, while completely covering the surface below. Learn about the benefits of 2D barcodes and QR codes at avery.com/smallbiz. Easily create the codes or customize labels with your logo or other images at avery.com/print.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Another high quality product from Avery\\n\\nReview: These are your typical Avery labels. They use a permanent adhesive, so they stick tight and don't come off. These are \\\"blackout\\\" labels...the label is opaque enough to stop anything underneath the label from showing through. The labels are also spaced slightly apart on the sheet to allow printing to run from edge to edge. A QR code has white space around it, but product labels usually use a colored background.\\n\\nJust for fun, I printed a batch of labels using my laser and inkjet printers. Both worked nicely, although my inkjet produced a more uniform color; the laser was a bit blotchy. This may be more a function of the printer than the label...if your printer can normally print good looking solid color, it should do the same using these.\",\n \"Product: The Fellowes Star Plus Comb Binding Machine is an easy-to-use, light duty comb binding machine for the small office. Manually punches up to 12 sheets at a time and binds up to 150 sheets with a 3/4-Inch comb. Vertical document loader ensures consistent punch alignment. Efficient design allows user to punch & bind in a continuous manner. Adjustable edge guide centers documents with ease. Document thickness/comb guide helps user select proper comb width. A convenient built-in comb storage tray keeps supplies handy.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Super easy to use\\n\\nReview: The Fellows Pulsar Plus 300 Manual Comb Binding Machine (I wonder who comes up with these names... Is there a plain Pulsar? A Pulsar Minus? How about a Plus 299??) is, as the name says, a manual comb binding machine. It's very easy to use. You stick the paper in the top slot, making sure to align the left edge with the positioning stop, and pull the long lever. (It takes a bit of force if you're punching more than ten sheets, but I've tested it with the rated eighteen sheets and it works fine.) You then place the proper size comb behind the vertical pins and pull the short lever to open the comb rings. Drop the punched paper over the opened comb teeth and lift up on the short lever to close the comb. Voila! Instant binding.\\n\\nThe base has a tray for comb storage, along with a handy-dandy comb size measuring tool. To keep the janitorial staff happy and crud off the floor, there's also a tray to hold the punching chaff.\\n\\nIf you have moderate binding needs, this is an ideal machine for your office. If you're doing a lot of binding, you might consider the next size up or an electric version. OTOH, this will still work after aliens attack and destroy the power grid.\\n\\nHighly Recommended.\",\n \"Product: Fellowes I-Spire Series Lumbar Cushion\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: A partial fix for poor ergonomics\\n\\nReview: I have your typical inexpensive office chair. I got this cushion thinking that it would help with some lower back problems...a bulging L3/L4 disk is causing pain in my right leg, which becomes significantly worse after sitting for an hour or two. This cushion helped somewhat, but it's become obvious that the shape and angle of the seat (relative to the ground) are just as important.\\n\\nTo make a long story short, how well this works for you depends on the nature of your back injury. Your best (and most expensive) option is to replace your chair with one that has better back support and is fully adjustable. This cushion may work for you, but it's not going to overcome basic ergonomic flaws.\",\n \"Product: Canon CanoScan LiDE 220 Flatbed Scanner - 4800 dpi Optical\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: A good scanner for low-volume applications\\n\\nReview: Canon LiDE220 Scanner\\nThis is a good, simple scanner for home or office use. Its not designed for high volume scanning but is perfect for someone who needs a lightweight, portable scanner and is doing and average of ten to twenty scans per day.\\n\\nSetup is simple (at least if you follow instructions!), mainly consisting of putting the CD in the slot and letting it run. TWAIN, WIA and WIA2 drivers are installed in the process, which basically means that the scanner can be driven from inside most programs that support scanners. I use PaperPort to organize thousands of office files. The Canon LiDE220 showed up in the list of attached scanners as soon as it finished installing. It worked perfectly when I selected it and clicked on the Scan Now button. 300dpi full page scans took roughly 12 seconds per page.\\n\\nColor scans are decent. It works well for scanning a photo to a file, moving the image on-line or making average-size prints. The dynamic range or exact color matching isn't youll get from a high-end photo scanner, but its certainly good enough for most users.\\n\\nA note about the Send to Cloud function. Basically its a bit of marketing hyperbole. You can preset the destination of the scanned files in the driver. If you sent it to your Dropbox folder, your computer sends the file off to the Dropbox server, just like any other file thats dropped in there. Any other scanner that allows you to select the scanned files destination will do exactly the same.\\n\\nPhysically, the scanner is about the size of a large notebook computer. Its powered through the USB cable. No batteries or external power block is required. When not it use, I keep it on its side, sitting on a tall shelf in a bookcase.\\n\\nIm giving this a solid four starsthat translates to I like it. Its not a high-end scanner, but isn't designed to be. Its a good consumer-level device. Its perfect for those who have space constraints or as a compliment to a small single function printer. Its also portable and easy to move around. As I said, I like it. Ill probably end up beating it to death over the next year or twoIll report back if anything unusual shows up.\",\n \"Product: With over 5 years in development the new patented ECOmposter incorporates the best of known technologies to create top grade compost in as short a time frame as 4-6 weeks. The spherical shape, the air induction tubes, the optional base and the dark forest green color help promote the 4 key elements of composting while making it fun for the entire family. The nutrient rich compost can be added to all gardens and potted plants as a natural fertilizer.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: A great design for a composter. (Update: But....)\\n\\nReview: As a composter, this Ecomposter works great. The spherical shape doesn't have any corners to trap anything, while the internal air tubes break up any clumps as the composter rolls around. As long as you turn it regularly, the result is a well mixed, rapidly composting bundle of yard waste.\\n\\nIncidentally, this STC Ecomposter is not recommended for the following uses:\\n Fusion Reaction Chamber (see-Lawrence Livermore Shiva Project for details and pictures)\\n Dog Toy (unless you have a very large dog)\\n Soccer Ball\\n Christmas Tree Ornament\\n A birthday pinata\\n Lunar Lander and/or UFO.\\n\\nI do want to compliment STC on the assembly instructions. The instruction booklet is clearly written and well illustrated. Each type of part comes in its own labeled bag. Spares are included for the parts most likely to get lost. Assembly takes a while, but if you can follow instructions, you'll put this together in a couple of hours...or days... I recommend wearing some lightweight gloves while assembling the sphere. I pinched my skin a couple of times between various plastic pieces and gloves definitely helped once I put some on. And, as one other reviewer pointed out, don't assemble it inside. Only half a sphere will fit through a door. Trust me.\\n\\nNovember 24, 2010 update: After using the Ecomposter for a summer and change, I'm downgrading my original five stars to three. I have three different composters: this one, a <a data-hook=\\\"product-link-linked\\\" class=\\\"a-link-normal\\\" href=\\\"/Lifetime-60021-75-Gallon-Compost-Tumbler-Black/dp/B0030GG2FS/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\\\">Lifetime 60021 75-Gallon Compost Tumbler, Black</a> and a <a data-hook=\\\"product-link-linked\\\" class=\\\"a-link-normal\\\" href=\\\"/Earth-Machine-Compost-Bin/dp/B003S57WDM/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\\\">Earth Machine Compost Bin</a>. Of the three, the Lifetime 60021 has proven to be my favorite. The Ecomposter has a few problems. First, as the contents decompose, they pack down. The weight in the bottom of the sphere makes it difficult to turn. Being a sphere, there's nothing to grab hold of and putting my fingers in the holes only works if the contents aren't too heavy...I ended up using an old screwdriver stuck into the aeration holes to get some leverage. Second, the top is not particularly easy to remove and reattach. Dirt and (I assume) a bit of warpage add together and I need to brush off the track before I can turn the top back to the locked position. On the other hand, the Lifetime composter rotates around a center shaft. It opens and locks easily and seems to work just as well. It just doesn't look as cool. There's not much to say about the Earth Machine. It's simply a plastic cylinder (although technically it's a truncated cone) that you fill up with yard and kitchen waste. You let it sit and occasionally stick in something to mix it up. Of the three, I'd rank the Lifetime first, this second and the Earth Machine third...the latter just because it's boring.\",\n \"Product: Grow bigger, more beautiful flowers & more vegetables compared to unfed plants with Miracle-Gro Shake n Feed All Purpose Continuous Release Plant Food! This plant food is specially formulated with micronutrients to help plants grow strong. Plus, the formula prevents overfeeding or burning when used as directed. Great for both indoor and outdoor plants, the plant food will continue to feed plants for up to 3 months. Keep your garden looking its best with the help of Miracle-Gro.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Easy to use and works well...\\n\\nReview: Like many (if not most!) home gardeners, I've been using Miracle-Gro products for years. Their foliar sprays are very fast acting, but short-lived; the Shaken Feed products incorporate both fast-acting fertilizer and a polymer-coated slow-release component. The combination provides an immediate boost, plus a long tail.\\n\\nApplication The package says that a single application lasts up to three months. Because many of the trace minerals are water soluble and not in a time-release form , I prefer to use the recommended amount for the first spring feeding, and then feed roughly 2/3 of the recommended amount every two months thereafter. This 4-1/2 pound package will feed roughly 135 sq. ft. if you're using it in a vegetable garden or flower bed. For outdoor pots use 1 tbsp. for an 8 pot; 1.5 tbsp. for 10; 3 tbsp. for 12 and 5 tbsp. for 14 pots. Indoor plants should get half that amount.\\n\\nComposition Nitrogen 12%; Phosphate 4%; Potash 8%; Calcium 1.5%; Magnesium 1.4%; Sulfur 4.2%; Copper 0.05%; Iron 0.9%; Manganese - 0.35%; Zinc 0.1%.\\n\\nA few years ago, my daughter and I were in the back yard planting annuals. About half way through, she got a little lazy and stopped mixing fertilizer into the bottom of the hole. Those plants ended up much smaller than the ones that were fertilized...proof that both my soil is lousy and that this stuff really works.\\n\\nHighly Recommended...\",\n \"Product: Promote spectacular blooms and vibrant colors for flowering plants and roses with Miracle-Gro Shake n Feed Rose and Bloom Continuous Release Plant Food. This formula is specially made for new and existing roses and flowering plants. It also prevents overfeeding or burning when used as directed, and feeds up to 3 months! Take the guesswork out of feeding with Miracle-Gro Shake n Feed Rose and Bloom Continuous Release Plant Food.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Flowering plants eat this up!\\n\\nReview: Like many (if not most!) home gardeners, I've been using Miracle-Gro products for years. Their foliar sprays are very fast acting, but short-lived; the Shake'n Feed products incorporate both fast-acting fertilizer and a polymer-coated slow-release component. The combination provides an immediate boost, plus a long tail.\\n\\nApplication - The package says that a single application lasts up to three months. This 4-1/2 pound package will feed roughly 135 sq. ft. if you're using it in a flower bed.\\n\\nComposition - Nitrogen - 9%; Phosphate - 19%; Potash - 9%; Sulfur - 20% Some (6%-12.5%-6%) of the Nitrogen, Phosphate and Potash has a polymer coating to allow for slow-release. Note that this formulation, unlike it's all-purpose brethren, does not have any trace minerals. It also has a substantially higher sulfur content, which helps to lower your soil pH.\\n\\nUsage - I live in California, in an area with a long growing season. In Spring, I'll first apply Miracle-Gro All-Purpose plant food (also in the Shake'n Feed container). That formula has a higher nitrogen content to help plants get growing. A few months later, I'll switch to this around the flowering plants. It's not exactly a rigorously-tested protocol, but in practice, the combination works extremely well.\\n\\nHighly Recommended.\",\n \"Product: This product is great to control insects, diseases, and mites on your fruit and nut trees. Ortho Tree & Shrub Fruit Tree Spray can even be used up to the day of harvest. It kills eggs, as well as larval and adult stages of insects, and it provides control of insect pests including aphids, mealybugs, mites, scales, whiteflies, beetles, and other listed pests.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: A integrated fungicide/pesticide system\\n\\nReview: We have a real problem with pests in our yard. The apricot tree suffers from whiteflies and aphids, to the point of having had new growth die back. The meyer lemon takes the whiteflies and aphids, and adds in scale and a black smut. The roses occasionally get a rust that develops into black spot and leaf drop. And the nectarine tree gets leaf curl.\\n\\nAccording to the label, this stuff will nuke everything except for the leaf curl. Vine reviewers only have thirty days in which to write their reviews, so it's really too early to talk about long-term effectiveness, but preliminary results look really good. I mixed up a couple of gallons and sprayed half of each tree. There's a marked decrease in insect activity on the sprayed portions. I'll update this in a couple of weeks after I see how long that lasts.\\n\\nOne concern - which I address to the Ortho product manager (who reads these reviews) - is whether any residue from the product penetrates the skin of the lemons and gets incorporated into the lemon oil. I wouldn't expect to find any appreciable amount in the juice...it's pretty well protected by the thick rind. But the waxy outer layer of the rind where the zest is located? Oils are pretty soluble in waxes and other oils...\",\n \"Product: The first time you try Fiskars PowerGear2 Lopper, youll be amazed but its not magic, its gears. Fiskars patented-pending technology multiplies your leverage to give you up to 3X more power on every cut. This means you can power through thick branches that you wouldnt be able to cut with traditional loppers. Fiskars updated design includes modified gears and an innovative cam mechanism to optimize your cutting power in the middle of the cut where the branch is thickest and you need it most. The result is that every cut is even easier than Fiskars original PowerGear cutting tools. In fact, this lopper makes cutting so much easier its earned the Arthritis Foundations Ease of Use Commendation.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Enormous leverage has a cost.\\n\\nReview: These are very strong, well built loppers. The blades are close to 1/4\\\" thick, the pivot points are 1/4\\\" bolts and the handles are made from oval-shaped tubular steel. The orange portion of the handle, where your fingers wrap around, is a softer plastic to provide some cushioning. By unscrewing the nuts on the two pivot bolts, the silver blade looks like it can be easily removed for sharpening.\\n\\nThe downside with a geared lopper is that the handles have to be opened very wide to cut a large branch. The 3:1 force multiplier also applies to the operating angles...to open the jaws 20 degrees, you have to open the jaws 60 degrees. The 2\\\" capacity means that the handles are pretty much open to a straight line. That's okay if you have lots of room to maneuver and a lot of upper body strength, but if you don't, it can be pretty frustrating.\\n\\nSo...subject to that limitation, these work and work well. If you don't already own one, I suggest that you also look at the compound action tree pruners. Fiskars and Corona both make good ones...the Fiskars is less expensive. They don't have quite the leverage and have a smaller jaw capacity than these loppers, but they also can work in much closer quarters. One of those can be complemented with a non-geared lopper to make a good working set of tools. If you're just purchasing one thing, consider how often you'll need to cut large branches and whether or not the leverage is necessary in general use. It's been my experience (using the older model of these), that it usually isn't.\",\n \"Product: Featuring a 80-gallon (10.72 cubic feet) capacity, the Lifetime compost tumbler is the perfect addition to your backyard. The ingenious tumbler design easily turns on its axis for balance rotation, and the internal aeration bar mixes compost and provides air flow. Constructed of high-density polyethylene (HDPE), the compost tumbler is durable, UV-protected, and has dark, double-wall panels to absorb and retain heat. For added convenience, it has an extra large removable lid and a spring-loaded pin that locks rotation during filling. The composter is black with a galvanized steel base, and comes in 1 box, with a how to compost DVD included. Easy assembly with all hardware included.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: I've had this for three years now\\n\\nReview: Like several other people, I purchased my unit from Costco. It's been reliable, making compost from kitchen scraps and garden waste. The only complaint that I have (and the reason for four stars instead of five) is the rusting of the two steel brackets located at the bottom of the tumbler. By design, the tumbler settles with the door on top and the seam between two sections on the bottom. These brackets hold the sections together and are kept moist by any liquid draining from the tumbler...they really should be made from stainless steel.\\n\\nIn action, this works great. As long as items are fairly small to begin with, the composing action is quick and my vegetable garden loves the results. I'll buy another if I ever see them on sale.\",\n \"Product: Featuring 3 modes of operation, Solar Yard Shield is the most versatile and effective bird and animal repellent on the market. Unlike other pest repellents that only offer one repellent mode, Solar Yard Shield offers three pest repellent modes to ensure your property is protected from birds, rats, dogs, cats, fox, snakes and more. Audible - the audible mode uses a series of 7 different pre-recorded sounds that appeals to birds' and animals' auditory sense warning them of danger. Birds and many other pests hear at the same level of humans and therefore do not respond to ultrasonic devices. This mode the perfect solution for deterring pest birds like pigeons. Ultrasonic - the ultrasonic mode uses a selectable scale of ultrasonic and infrasonic waves allowing you to set the frequency for the desired pest you wish to deter. Combined - the combination mode uses both audible noises and ultrasonic and infrasonic waves to detect various unwanted pests and maximize effectiveness. In addition, Solar Yard Shield offers night time protection. The built-in light sensor automatically switches the unit to LED lights only for continuous property protection. For best results, Solar Yard Shield can be hung or inserted into the ground using the ground stake provided. This unit is perfect for those needing a solution to deter various types of pests.\\n\\nRating: 1.0\\n\\nSummary: Good try, but no cigar...\\n\\nReview: Ive tried other pest repellent systems that rely on a periodic buzzing sound. The only thing they repelled was methe buzzing sound drove me crazy. This guy is different. The electronics are much more sophisticated and generate a variety of sounds. Theyre all obnoxious. My dogs loved the barking sound and kept barking back. So, for that matter, did the neighbors.\\n\\nWhen I turned it up to ultrasonic mode, I think the local rat population threw a party.\\n\\nThere is a motion sensor that flashes the LEDs when it senses movement during the night. It worked for a couple of days, but I haven't seen a flash in the last two weeks. Thats not a good sign.\\n\\nIm going back to snap traps and the faithful rat-zapper. Not only do they work, but I know that those rats aren't bothering anyone else.\\n\\nUpdate: 9/2/2016 - So, I brought it indoors to try and determine what's wrong with the unit. Two of the batteries (NiCad 800mAh AA cells) are completely dead. The other two are sitting at 0.4V, which is a just barely alive. I suspect that the charging circuit died and the batteries drained themselves into oblivion. Oh well. Since I can't give zero, the review stays at one star. (Actually, in my book, using NiCd batteries instead of NiMH warrants a zero star review. Cadmium is environmentally toxic and there's no reason to use it.)\",\n \"Product: Dogs know pants are overrated, and that's why they love our Naked Essentials kibble. Grains? Fillers? Artificial anything? No way. More like real meat as the first ingredient and our Happy Tummeez Prebiotics + Probiotics to keep your dog feeling just right. Bonus? It's on shelves in grocery stores for your convenience, so you can stock up on human snacks and invite us over for a game of Bark-o Polo.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: You've spoiled my dog.\\n\\nReview: Maggie is dog with refined tastes and has never been shy about expressing herself. Up until now, she's been fine eating Taste of the Wild Salmon formula. When we received a sample of the \\\"I and love and you\\\" Naked Essentials Lamb and Bison, I thought I'd mix some in and see how she liked it.\\n\\nThe result is shown in the picture. She lifted a few mouthfuls of the mixture out of her bowl, dropped it on the ground, ate the Naked Essentials and left the Taste of the Wild. It was still there thirty minutes later. Last night, she was sitting next to a half-full bowl of TotW, whimpering. She wouldn't eat until I added some Naked Essentials. I've gone ahead and ordered the large size...there's a significant discount coupon available for a limited time. It's too bad she has 26 more pounds of TotW before I switch her over. ;-)\",\n \"Product: When you are working on device hardware, you need a reliable bit set for those teeny tiny screws. The Boxer Precision Screwdriver Bit Set is perfect for these kinds of jobs. This 30-piece set is for driving and retrieving very small screws with a handle fingertip swivel that gives you outstanding control and magnetically grabs and holds screws for super easy screw retrieval; You wont have to worry about losing them. The screwdriver itself is sturdy and easy to interchange the heads. This makes the already tedious job of working with small screws a bit less cumbersome as you have more tool to hold on to without sacrificing the ability to manipulate even the tiniest screws. The bits are durable and will not deform or strip when used on tight fasteners. The bits also have corresponding numbers etched into them for ease and organization. The included case holds each piece securely, and you can even hang it on the wall in front of your work bench. You can use this on your cellphone, laptop, or clock hardware, glasses, and even jewelry. This set is great for taking apart anything with small fasteners. Contents include: magnetic screwdriver handle; Torx T-3 through T-10, T-15, T-20; standard 1mm, 1.5mm, 2mm, 2.5mm, 3mm; Phillips 000, 00, 0, 1; PZ 0 and 1; Hex 0.7mm, 0.9mm, 1.3mm, 1.5mm, 2mm, 2.5mm, 3mm, 4mm\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A good set of tiny screwdrivers\\n\\nReview: This is a nice set of precision screwdrivers. They are well made, but the small sizes are easy to bend...not surprising given their size. There's a limit to what you can do with inexpensive alloys. If they were stronger and more resistant to bending, they'd become brittle and easy to snap.\\n\\nThe handle is easy to grip, with a top that can freely spin. The 4mm metal chuck has a magnet inside, which holds the bits in place. A slight bit of the magnetic field leaks out to the tip and acts to hold screws.\\n\\nIt's been a useful addition to my tool chest, allowing me to take apart all kinds of electronic toys. I just wish I remembered how they went back together again...\",\n \"Product: General Finishes water based stains have all the advantages of oil base stains: they spread easily, can be repaired, can be Blended effortlessly, and have plenty of open time. The thicker formula allows controlled penetration, which will reduce blotching on softer goods such as aspen, pine and maple.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: This color is a rich, dark red.\\n\\nReview: This is a classic Rosewood color. The only problem that I've had is some lifting of the dye with a subsequent application of Minwax's Polycrylic water-based finish. Not surprisingly, I haven't seen it with any traditional oil-based topcoats. There was also some lifting with the General Finish's High-Performance Polyurethane-Acrylic topcoat, but it wasn't nearly as bad as the Minwax...that left dark colored edges on the board from migrating dye. The GF HP Poly had color on the brush after brushing the stain, but it didn't have any puddling.\\n\\nApplication is simple. Brush it on and wipe the excess off with a adsorbent, non-linting paper towels. The wipe-off step also serves to smooth out any irregularities in the initial application. Let dry (well, if you're using an oil-based topcoat) and then proceed to the first finish coat. A light sanding with a 300+ grit sanding pad after each finish coat goes a long way to removing any surface irregularities.\",\n \"Product: 12W daylight spectrum magnifier desk lamp\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: It's not 17.5\\\" high when bent as shown in the picture...\\n\\nReview: Folded over, it's 13\\\" - 14\\\" high. The bulb is a day-light white circular fluorescent surrounding the magnifying glass. The lamp arrived with a really large silver caution label right on the front of the lamp...it says to only use 12W G10q replacement bulbs. The manufacturer should really place it on the rear of the housing where it wouldn't be so visually intrusive. Peeling it off left sticky residue on the lamp head.\\n\\nThe light is well diffused, without any hot spots. The magnifying glass is really made of glass and doesn't seem to have the visual aberrations often found in inexpensive lenses.\\n\\nAll-in-all, I'm giving this three stars (the \\\"It's ok\\\" category). The sticker and the short height combine to knock it down from four stars.\",\n \"Product: Ripping down large panels into smaller more manageable workpieces is one of the trickiest, most intimidating, and expensive steps of any wood project. Even if you're ripping with the nicest table saw, you're still forced to lift large heavy panels, balance them carefully to avoid binding and bowing, while at the same time trying to support the finished workpieces and waste material as they exit the saw. There is a faster way. There is an easier way! There is a better way. Introducing the all-new Kreg Rip-Cut. The Rip-Cut is an incredibly handy tool which speeds and simplifies the process of ripping down large plywood and MDF panels. No measuring, no marking, no chalk lines-the Rip-Cut quickly and easily attaches to almost any circular saw, letting you cut pieces from 1/8-Inch up to 24-Inch wide with tremendous accuracy. The Rip-Cut is a no-nonsense, straight forward, accessory for your circular saw. It features a durable design including a solid aluminum guide rail, an easy-to-read adjustable scale, and a reversible guide arm which works whether you're left or right handed and whether your blade is on the left or right side of the saw. It's an incredibly easy, precise, and affordable way to break down large panels for almost any project.\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: Requires a bit of caution when setting it up....\\n\\nReview: This is definitely not a replacement for a decent table saw.\\n\\n- It'll help accurately rip a sheet of plywood, but if the width of the piece being cut is less than 24\\\", the aluminum rail will run into the clamp that's used to hold the plywood in place.\\n- Only two set screws hold the saw base plate in position on the blue plastic plate. If you over tighten them, the plastic plate bows. If you don't tighten them enough, the saw plate can slip slightly out of position.\\n- If you remove and reattach your circular saw, you need to recalibrate the scale pointer. It takes less than a minute, but otherwise the scale will be slightly off...you're likely to end up with a 3\\\" rip cut actually measuring +- 1/16\\\" (or more).\\n- If the saw baseplate isn't pushed all the way forward against stop, the saw blade can be slightly out of parallel with the cut line. And that's assuming that the front of your saw baseplate is perpendicular to the saw blade itself.\\n\\nIf you're careful when attaching the saw to the blue sled, this works really well...I'm using it to cut the sheet goods for some cabinets and it's preforming without a hitch. Despite that, I'm only giving it two stars. There are simply too many places to inadvertently mess things up.\",\n \"Product: At Schlage, we know security. After all, we have been innovating locks for more than 90 years. Now, with the Touchscreen Deadbolt, we have created a door lock that combines all of our best security features into one lock redefining what it means to be secure. With our innovative touchscreen feature, you have the convenience of going keyless and no longer having keys to lose, hide, carry or forget. The fingerprint-resistant touchscreen ensures numbers wont be detectable to intruders after repeated use, safeguarding your home even more. The Schlage BE469WK is BHMA/ANSI Grade 1 certified, the highest residential rating. Built from high quality materials, this keyless deadbolt gives you the highest level of security at the main point of entry. Additionally, the Schlage BE469WK door lock comes with a built-in audible alarm sensor that alerts you to activity at the door. You can select between 3 alert modes, activity, tamper, or forced entry, providing alerts from first contact with door or handle to when the door is opened. Quickly and easily cycle between the three settings simply by pressing a button on the lock. The Schlage BE469WK includes a touchscreen deadbolt with one back-up key, four AA batteries, and user guide and installation instructions. If you plan to use this product with Z-wave systems other than Wink Home Automation System, please contact your Z-Wave provider to verify compatibility.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: The non-keypad side is really tall....\\n\\nReview: This does exactly what it's supposed to do. It's a good, solid keypad operated deadbolt. In fact, I'd give it a solid five stars if the back-side wasn't so large. It's fine for a side gate (where I have it installed) or a back door, but I think it's pretty clunky for a front door installation.\\n\\nFrom a functional perspective, it works well. I particularly like the auto relock feature (which can be enabled/disabled) where I have it...the gate has a spring to swing it closed and then automatically locks. The keypad is bright enough to be easily read when it's shaded...in bright sunlight, you don't really need the internal illumination. I have not yet tied it into the Nexia home automation system, but I've also purchased a Nexia-compatible thermostat and will be setting the system up soon. I don't anticipate any problems, but will update this I have any.\\n\\nConclusion: If you don't mind the size, I recommend this. If you do, skip it.\",\n \"Product: The 6\\\" Disc is positioned so it does not protrude above the belt, allowing you to sand the full range of your work.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: A good small sander for the small shop\\n\\nReview: I've been using this disc/belt sander for just over a month. The belt changing mechanism was initially a bit stiff, but loosened up with use...belt changing is fast and easy. Tracking needs to be adjusted each time, but that just takes a second. I purchased additional belts in grits ranging from 150 up to 800. They all have worked well for various wood and metal projects.\\n\\nDust collection is marginal. I guess that roughly 1/3 of the saw dust escapes, but it's certainly better than nothing. Unlike another reviewer, my Ridgid shop-vac hose fit tightly into the connection port. Hoses for a couple of others were too small...\\n\\nI also haven't had a problem with the motor bogging down while sanding, at least as long as I've used a light touch and let the sandpaper do it's work. Sanding the top of a 6\\\" x 7\\\" knife block was definitely more than it could easily handle. Push too hard and it slows down...but the sander works just fine if you don't overload it. If you're regularly sanding big blocks, you need a sander with a much more powerful motor.\\n\\nIs this a commercial, heavy duty sander? Not in the slightest. But if you need a good small sander for a home shop or for occasional use in a commercial environment, this (or one of its twin brethren) should work well.\",\n \"Product: The new Bosch IDS181BL 18-volt Lithium-Ion Compact Tough 1/4-Inch Hex Impact Driver- Bare Tool with L-Boxx-2 and Exact-Fit Insert Tray features an ultra-compact design, while delivering best-in-class application control. Plumbers, electricians, carpenters, HVAC professionals and other tradesmen can take advantage of the tools optimized performance for fast and great results. Tools in the new IDS181 Impactor line feature a compact head length of just 5.4-Inch and a lightweight design of just 2.9-Pound to deliver the best balance and control for 18-volt small- to medium-duty applications. The tools compact size also facilitates work in hard-to-reach spaces. The IDS181 line delivers 42 percent more runtime compared to similar in-class competitors, along with 15-Percent less torque and 10-Percent more speed for the best application control. The Bosch-built hammer and anvil system provides maximum impact endurance, increasing tool life and performance. The new impact drivers also feature an intelligent electronic protection system, including electronic motor protection, which increases motor life by protecting the motor in overload and stall situations, and electronic cell protection, which doubles battery life. The Bosch IDS181BL bare tool includes the L-Boxx-2 and Exact-Fit insert tray, which allows for complete organization, storage and mobility solution for professionals on the go. The Bosch L-BOXX system is a convenient way to expand your storage options as your tool collection grows. Fill the cases with tools and lock them together for easy transport, handling, and protection against damage. You can also stack and store them in your home shop to keep tools dust-free and easily accessible. The innovative click system allows for easy connection and disconnection of any number of L-Boxxs. With the ease of single-click stacking, each L-Boxx easily locks together for easy transport and handling.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: A good tool, but...\\n\\nReview: I've been using this impact driver for some time. Compared to my 12V DeWalt, it's more powerful, somewhat heavier and a bit taller. The head is compact and has been able to be used everywhere. In my use, which is admittedly not too heavy, the battery charges faster than it drains...by swapping batteries, I have never run dry.\\n\\nFor the price, though, this is an expensive tool. Unless you're overrun with spare Bosch batteries, I strongly suggest you look at the <a data-hook=\\\"product-link-linked\\\" class=\\\"a-link-normal\\\" href=\\\"/Bosch-CLPK234-181L-18-Volt-Lithium-Ion-2-Tool-Combo-Kit-with-1-2-Inch-Drill-Driver-1-4-Inch-Impact-Driver-2-Batteries-Charger-and-2-L-BOXX-Cases/dp/B00BQV5IW2/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\\\">Bosch CLPK234-181L 18-Volt Lithium-Ion 2-Tool Combo Kit with 1/2-Inch Drill/Driver, 1/4-Inch Impact Driver, 2 Batteries, Charger and 2 L-BOXX Cases</a> or the version with the canvas case. For the price of two batteries (if purchased separately), you get a free drill and another L-BOXX case. (That's why I've only given this three stars.) For that matter, if it's available, the reconditioned version <a data-hook=\\\"product-link-linked\\\" class=\\\"a-link-normal\\\" href=\\\"/Factory-Reconditioned-Bosch-CLPK234-181-RT-18V-Cordless-Lithium-Ion-1-2-in-Drill-Driver-and-Impact-Driver-Combo-Kit/dp/B00BA5HQVU/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\\\">Factory-Reconditioned Bosch CLPK234-181-RT 18V Cordless Lithium-Ion 1/2 in. Drill Driver and Impact Driver Combo Kit</a> is a great deal.\\n\\nLastly, the picture of the tool next to the L-BOXX is a bit misleading. The L-BOXX system is a good system to store and transport tools, but the actual box is much larger than the picture indicates. I've uploaded an actual photograph so you can see how big it really is. On the positive side, the L-BOXX-2 has room for drill bits, the charger, spare batteries and your lunch and possibly a spare change of clothes...or two. Unless you have other L-BOXX cases and want to snap them together, look seriously at the canvas case instead.\\n\\nAs a Hex Impact Driver, the Bosch IDS181BL is a good tool. I'm just not crazy about this incantation.\",\n \"Product: Auto Adjust Technology Automatically Adjusts To Any Thickness And Clamps Materials Up To 2-1/2\\\" Thick. Easy To Regulate Clamping Force Uses Just A Simple Thumbscrew And Extra-Large Padded Clamp Spreads Clamp Pressure Evenly. Heavy Duty, All Metal Construction, But With Ergonomic Padded Grips To Prevent Hand Fatigue. Compatible With Kreg Klamp Plate, Klamp Trak, And Klamp Vise Plate.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Caution! This does NOT fit into some standard 1/4\\\" tracks!\\n\\nReview: I recently finished building a table that incorporated Incra T-Track rails...the type that uses standard 1/4-20 hex head bolts to hold fixtures in place. The Kreg Automaxx clamps came with 5/16\\\" round head screws that were too big for the slots. Luckily the shaft of the screw fit...Substituting a cut-head 5/16\\\" (the type that's designed for tracks) screw worked, but that's not what's supplied.\\n\\nIn use, these are terrific. As the description says, you set the clamping pressure and it automatically adjusts for different thicknesses of stock. I would have given it five stars, if it came with a 1/4\\\" mounting screw. Buy one, but make sure it'll fit first. If not, pick up a couple of bolts to go with...\",\n \"Product: The DEWALT DCF680N1 8V MAX Gyroscopic Screwdriver 1-Battery Kit features motion activation which allows the user to control variable speed, along with forward and reversing action by simply twisting the tool left or right. Motion activated variable speed ranges from 0-430 rpm; intuitive motion activated control allows for precise fastening into wood, plastic and light-gauge metal. Adjustable two-position handle allows the user to choose either the straight in-line position or pistol-grip configuration and the 15 clutch position settings allow control when completing light fastening applications. This work light also features 2 LED headlights which enables illumination in confined areas without shadowing. Battery indicator on the tool allows end users to know when to charge packs - one pack covers 5 days of runtime with the typical user. 8V MAX battery pack allows for longer run-time and charges in one hour. One-handed loading 1/4\\\" hex-shank chuck allows for quick screwdriver bit change and holds 1\\\" bit tips. This is an Ideal tool for any professional end user looking for a compact, portable screwdriver with precise speed control. Applications include: #8x1 5/8\\\" Drywall Screw into 2\\\" x 4\\\" SPF, #8 & #6 Machine screw insertion and removal, #6 & #8 Cabinet hardware screws, electrical switch and outlet wall plate screws. Kit includes (1) 1 hour charger, (1) 8V MAX compact battery and Kit Bag.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: This takes a bit of getting used to...\\n\\nReview: This is different from your standard drill/screwdriver. With those guys, you push the switch and it turns. Push it harder and it spins faster. Do that with this and it just vibrates. Twist your wrist a bit and it starts to turn. Twist it farther and it spins faster. Bring it back to neutral and it slows and stops. Twist the other way and it'll spin in the other direction.\\n\\nThere's plenty of torque for most household tasks. I drove half a dozen 3\\\" #14 wood screws into pre-drilled holes without it lagging (much). It's perfect if you need to screw or unscrew a switch faceplate. The adjustable clutch prevents you from overdriving screws and stripping out holes.\\n\\nWhat don't I like? Well, with a traditional driver/drill, if I want to snug down a screw, I just tap the trigger. I'll often set the clutch fairly loose, drive in a bunch of screws, and then go back and tighten up everything with the clutch set much tighter. You can't do that with this tool. You push the button and nothing happens. You have to twist it slightly to get it to spin, but you can't turn it when the bit is in an already tightened down screw...you might as well be using a manual screwdriver at that point. Likewise, once it starts it turning, you can't untwist your wrist into a more relaxed position or it stops. If you let off the trigger to stop it, your wrist is already twisted...you have to remember to keep the power engaged and turn your wrist back to neutral when you do want to stop it. If you don't go back to a neutral position, you have to twist your wrist even farther to get it going again. That's uncomfortable.\\n\\nSo, as I said in the headline, this takes a bit to get used to. It's great for anything that can be tightened in one fell swoop. It's not if you want to snug up an almost tightened screw or bolt. It's comfortable to hold and the way the handle adjusts from straight to right-angle is cool. I'd give it a solid five stars if there was a way to disable the gyroscopic function and just use it as a plain old electric screwdriver. With it though, I'm only giving it three.\",\n \"Product: The BOSTITCH BTCK410L2 18v Lithium 2-Tool Combo Kit contains a BTC400 18v 1/2\\\" Lithium Drill/Driver and a BTC440 18v 1/4\\\" Hex Chuck Lithium Impact Driver. The BOSTITCH BTC400 Drill/Driver features a 2 Speed gear box (0-350. 0-1500 RPM) which covers a wide range of drilling and driving appliactions, a high output motor that delivers 480 in-lbs of torque, a 24-position clutch that reduces stripping of fasteners by properly adjusting the torque setting and it also has a 1/2\\\" keyless metal locking chuck for improved durability and bit retention. This drill/driver is compact and lightweight at only 3.7 lbs. and also has an integral L.E.D. worklight that helps provides greater visibility to work areas. The BOSTITCH BTC440 Impact Driver Kit features a high torque motor which delivers 1400 in-lbs of torque and designed with minimal reactionary torque which eliminates kick back. It also features a cold forged impact mechanism designed for maximum durability, also has an integral L.E.D. worklight and has a variable speed trigger for improved control during fastening applications. The kit includes: (1) BTC400 Lithium Drill/Driver, (1) BTC440 Lithium Impact Driver, (2) BTC480L Lithium Ion Batteries, (1) BTC492L 18V Lithium Ion Charger, (2) PH#2 Screwdriving Bit, (1) Bit Tip Storage, (1) Belt Clip and Kit Box.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: A powerful set of Drill/Drivers.\\n\\nReview: Bostitch isn't one of those companies that you think of when it comes to power tools. Pneumatic tools - nail guns, staplers, compressors - yes. But not drills. However, Bostich is a subsidiary of Stanley Porter-Cable, which also owns DeWalt, Black and Decker, and (of course!) Porter Cable...so the expertise to manufacture electric tools is already there. It's actually more of a question of marketing and product positioning, rather than anything else.\\n\\nThese two tools reflect Stanley's expertise in tool design. They're well balanced and easy to hold. They're powerful, and compare favorably with the other drills in my collection. The common heritage with other Stanley tools is evident when you look at them next to a DeWalt drill...look (for example) at the battery and the way that it locks to the drill.\\n\\nThere are two areas that I dislike. One is a lack of a charge indicator on the battery. It's one of those things that probably adds 25 cents to the manufacturing cost, and it's omission makes me wonder what other cost cutting measures were taken in design these tools. (I'd take them apart to see, but I'd never get them back together and working.) The other thing is more serious and the reason I've only given this set three stars. Like my DeWalt drill, when you release the trigger, the clutch mechanism slams the chuck to a stop. Unless you have the chuck really torqued down, the inertia from abrupt stop starts to loosen the drill bit and eventually it starts to slip and/or fall out. My Bosch drill (which is significantly more expensive) takes a fraction of a second to slow and stop, but the difference in holding power is significant...I can't tell you how many bits have dropped out of my DeWalt over the years.\\n\\nSo...for the price, this is a good set of tools. As long as you remember to tighten the drill chuck enough, it holds fine. If you don't, it'll remind you and you'll torque it down the next time. With that caveat, I wouldn't hesitate to purchase these.\",\n \"Product: Heres an exceptional way to store your woodworking tools, chisels, bits, screwdrivers, knives, and more. This Bora Pocket Tool Roll comes with 11 pockets, ranging in size from 3/8 to 2 1/4, allowing it to hold all of your precision tools, and keep them organized. The solid nylon and leather construction will last for years, and the sleeve pockets are strong, keeping everything safe and sound. True to its name, the tool roll rolls up, and the easy open-and-close hook and loop belt fastens it tight. Theres even a metal grommet to hang it on your pegboard, meaning all of your important finishing tools are always right where you need them. An excellent piece of Bora quality, no shop or garage is complete without one.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: A convenient way to hold your tools\\n\\nReview: Ballistic nylon exterior along with split leather lining. The lining extends to the bottom and the inside surfaces of the pockets. This is perfect if you want to hang a set of wrenches or something similar. It'll roll up and has a Velcro strap to hold it closed, but it's pretty stiff....especially if the top is also folded down to keep everything in place. Note that any tool over 8-1/2\\\" long will have a hard time fitting if you're folding the top down.\\n\\nIf you want to use it to hold anything besides wrenches, a set of wood chisels also fits nicely. Rasps and files will also work, but you need to be careful inserting and removing anything sharp...eventually they'll wear through the pockets. :-)\",\n \"Product: Designed to answer tradesmen demands for versatility, power and control, the new Bosch IDH182 18-Volt Lithium-Ion Impact or brings to market an industry first with its Socket Ready adapter. This adapter allows users to seamlessly change between 1/4-Inch screwdriver bits and 1/2-Inch sockets, thus removing the need for two tools or the hassle of broken socket adapters. Featuring innovative solutions such as the Socket Ready all-in-one tool holder, the IDH182 provides users with unmatched solutions to get the job done efficiently and effectively. The IDH182 is equipped with Bosch's next generation EC Brushless motor, which provides 2X motor life, superior efficiency for longer runtime and absolutely no maintenance. This tool also features intelligent electronic cell and motor protection engineered to increase tool and battery life, along with the Bosch-built hammer and anvil system that delivers maximum impact endurance and increased tool performance in wood and metal fastening applications. To complete tougher applications with maximum efficiency, the IDH182 delivers 1,650 in lbs of torque making if the most powerful impact driver in its class. Adjust tool speed and torque with a push of a button to maximize power or minimize fastener damage with the Bosch Performance Control System. The impact driver also features a compact head length of 6.2 Inch and weighs just 3.2 pounds when paired with a 2.0 Ah battery. In addition, the IDH182 is designed with the smallest grip diameter for best-in-class ergonomics and comfort and features the patented three LED design to provide maximum illumination of the work area without shadows. The IDH182-02L Kit Includes: (1) 18-Volt Brushless Socket Ready Impact Driver, (2) 2.0Ah Batteries, (1) Charger, (1) Double-ended Impact Bit, (1) Belt Clip and (1) L-BOXX-2 carrying case with an Exact-Fit Tool Insert Tray, which are part of a stackable storage system designed to improve tool organization and transportation on the jobsite.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: I own both the IDH 182 and the IDS 181\\n\\nReview: Whoever invented the combined 1/4\\\" hex chuck and the 1/2\\\" square shaft deserves a raise. I hope Bosch patented this...it's a brilliant innovation.\\n\\nIf you compare the two drivers, you should buy this. Here's why:\\n1. More torque. 1650 in-lbs vs 1350 in-lbs. The older tool promotes the lower torque as a benefit...it won't snap small screws as easily, but come on...neither would something powered by a couple of D-cells.\\n2. Electronic speed control. The IDH 182 has three variable speed ranges, selected by a button on the base. The IDH has one speed range.\\n3. Light switch. It's a minor thing, but the IDH has a on-off switch for the LEDs. The IDS's turn on when you pull on the trigger. That's better than not having them at all, but you really need the light when you can't easily see what you're doing and trying to get the tip of the driver into the screw slot. A switch makes more sense.\\n4. 1/2\\\" square shaft. You can always use a 1/4\\\" hex -> 1/2\\\" adapter (or a 1/4\\\" -> 3/8\\\"\\\" adapter, for that matter) in the IDS, but it just isn't the same. A direct 1/2\\\" drive is much more reliable.\\n\\nAny negatives? Just a couple...\\n1. Cost. The IDH is more expensive. If you rarely need to use a 1/2\\\" socket, the IDS with an adapter works fine. And right now, if you already have some 18v Bosch batteries, the battery-less version is an absolute bargain. (<a data-hook=\\\"product-link-linked\\\" class=\\\"a-link-normal\\\" href=\\\"/Bosch-Bare-Tool-IDS181BL-18-volt-Lithium-Ion-Compact-Tough-1-4-Inch-Hex-Impact-Driver-with-L-BOXX-2-and-Exact-Fit-Insert-Tray/dp/B00BD5G5A0/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\\\">Bosch Bare-Tool IDS181BL 18-volt Lithium-Ion Compact Tough 1/4-Inch Hex Impact Driver with L-BOXX-2 and Exact-Fit Insert Tray</a>)\\n2. The 1/2\\\" shaft lacks the ball that fits into the detent in the socket. There's a slip ring that increases the friction holding the sockets, but it's not as solid as the ball detent...the sockets come off pretty easily. If you spend all day using this with a socket, you may be better off with a dedicated driver without the hex socket.\\n3. Cosmetics. It's trivial, but why did they make the release ring (that reddish thing around the shaft) red? It clashes. It's ugly. Black or Bosch green would have been much nicer.\\n\\nThe L-BOXX case is large. I'm personally not a fan and prefer something smaller, but the system works well overall. If you need to move a bunch of tools to a job site, they lock together and you can carry everything at once. The size of the case works for something like this because there's also room for sockets. It's a bit overkill for my Bosch 12v drill, which fits into a tiny corner of the beast.\\n\\nAs I said above, if you are deciding between the two drivers, this is a better choice. I just wish it wasn't quite so expensive.\",\n \"Product: The SmartCode 913 touchpad electronic deadbolt is a one-touch locking motorized deadbolt. With your personalized code, you can enter your home with the convenience of keyless entry and the back-lit keypad provides increased visibility. SmartCode is easy to install, program and use, and operates on 4 AA batteries. It also features SmartKey Security as the back-up keyway. The Lifetime Polished Brass finish adds to the traditional look and feel of the product and makes a classic statement.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Solid and strong. It does what it's designed for...\\n\\nReview: I installed this lock onto our side garage door. It had a conventional lockset and I got tired of it swinging shut and locking me out. :-) Installation was very easy. Using the existing holes, it didn't take more than ten minutes from start to finish, and that included drilling a deeper hole in the door jamb. The lock is designed to fit into standard mounting profiles. It is important that you read the instructions and do things in the correct order...the computer in the lock needs to learn the orientation of your door to operate correctly.\\n\\nProgramming the lock is simple. You first push the programming button, type in 4-8 digit code and push the lock button. Erasing a code is just as easy. Programming button, followed by the code and then the lock button. The lock can store multiple codes, if you wish.\\n\\nThe SimpleKey feature allows you to rekey the lock without calling a locksmith. This allows you to use a single key throughout your house, assuming you have other Kwikset locks. It obviously doesn't work across brands...the side grooves are different.\\n\\n11/14/14 Update: I'd originally taken a point off because it isn't net enabled. It was pointed out to me in a comment that an add-on module is available to add that functionality. It was also mentioned that it's not really fair to take a point off for some feature that's not there. That's philosophical...do you review against an idealized perfect product, or against a perfect implementation of the existing one. As a practical matter, the latter seems more equitable...especially since my idea of perfection probably differs from yours. Bumping this up to five stars. What it does, it does really well.\",\n \"Product: Is your mobile device not charging properly, and you suspect the new charger that you bought recently?Do you want to check If your solar charger is giving proper current for your mobile device?Specification: Input voltage : 3.20 - 15.0V Resolution: 0.01V (/=10V) Measuring current: 0.00 -3.00a (10a max, but cannot work in 10a for long time) Resolution: 0.01A Capacitance measurement: 0-99999 MA/H Capacitance accumulation: Yes Power testing: 0.00-9.99-99.9W Over-voltage alarm: when voltage >/=5.6V, voltage digital point will Flash quickly Lacking-voltage alarm Over-current alarm : when current >/=3A, current digital point will Flash quickly Short-circuit alarm: current digital point will Flash quickly dual USB output Output I (dual function - device charging and data transfer)The charging current, in this case, is determined by compatibility. you can view the voltage and current values at the same time. Output II (device charging only)The built-in intelligent charging control IC matches the most appropriate and safest current for your devices automatically. It is used mainly for non-original chargers, but it is suitable for original chargers as well. This universal USB gadget is suitable for most of the mobile phones, mobile power, tablet PCS and other USB devices, like BC1.2, yt/d1591-2009 and non-bc1.2 (including iPad, iPhone and Samsung Galaxy).Get yours today by clicking “add to cart” above!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Okay, so I'm a nerd...\\n\\nReview: For 99% of the people in the world, it doesn't matter how your device is charging, only that it does. And then there's that other 1%. This meter is for us...\\n\\nThis thing is cool. It obviously reads both charging current and voltage. Accuracy isn't lab grade, but for $14, it's certainly good enough for most purposes. Either output can be used to measure/charge 1-amp devices; only output 1 has the 2-amp capacity for iPads and other \\\"high-power\\\" devices. It's easy to read and works well. There's only a mA or two of current needed to power the meter itself. Any affect on the USB supply should be completely swamped by the current drain of whatever device is attached..\\n\\nHighly Recommended!\",\n \"Product: Dremel Ultra-Saw™ Multi-Saw Tool Kit w/ 5 Accessories, US40-01. 7.5 Amp - for faster cutting and tougher applications. Faster speed of cut - rip through plywood and cut more metal. 3-in-1 tool - go beyond cutting and flush cutting with surface preparation applications including rust, paint, and thinset removal. Added durability - improved drive-train lasts 3x longer than the Saw-Max and its metal foot and guard handle tough applications. Excellent line of sight for precise, confident cuts. Includes: US40 Ultra-Saw™ Multi-Saw Tool. US410 4\\\" Diamond Surface Prep Wheel. US500 4\\\" Carbide Wood Cutting Wheel. US510 3.5\\\" Metal Cutting Wheel. US600 4\\\" Carbide Wood Flush Cutting Wheel. Auxiliary Handle. Tool Storage Bag., Lot of 1\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: A high-end tool for Dremel, but not quite professional grade...\\n\\nReview: I'm an advanced do-it-yourself'er. I do a lot of work around the house and like to purchase pro or near-pro tools. The Dremel Ultra-Saw fits in the latter category. It's suitable for occasional use, but doesn't appear to be built for heavy-duty usage.\\n\\nTwo things stand out. First, I've mostly used the wood cutting blade. It's wearing out pretty quickly. I've been using it on a number of projects and the wear is already pretty evident...it's an abrasive blade, not a toothed saw blade. I've cut metal a couple of times...mostly steel. It's worked as expected, the same as any other rotary cutter.\\n\\nMissing from the kit is a fitting for a dust port. The port's there, but there's nothing to hook to it. Using a dust bag when cutting metal would be a disaster (and probably the reason it wasn't included), but would be very useful when working with wood.\\n\\nThe base is spring loaded, which is perfect for plunge cutting. Like all other circular saws, it locks in place for fixed depth cuts. The maximum cutting depth is 3/4\\\". It would have been nice if they'd made it 1/8\\\" deeper to allow it to better clear 3/4\\\" lumber...sometimes it leaves a tiny piece at the bottom of the cut.\\n\\nEverything fits nicely into the carrying bag. It's made out of a heavy-grade material, with braided handles...not like the lightweight nylon bags some of the tool manufacturers are now using.\\n\\nLong story short, if you need a tool like this, the Dremel Ultra-Saw is a good choice.\",\n \"Product: The Foreman Pocket-Hole Machine (Item# DB210) makes it possible for woodworkers, cabinet shops, contractors, and dedicated do-it-yourselfers to complete projects using Kreg pocket-hole joinery with twice the speed and half the effort of a standard pocket-hole jig. Plus, the new Foreman Pocket-Hole Machine is built with the same quality and features of its predecessor, (Item# DB110), but costs less than half the price. Your will immediately appreciate all of the great features the upgraded Foreman has to offer. With one pull of the handle, they can start the motor, clamp their workpiece, and drill perfect pocket holes. The adjustable fence positions the workpiece for precise pocket depth, and a pair of adjustable stops provide repeatable accuracy. A powerful 110-volt motor enables fast drilling, and a quick-change chuck allows for fast, tool-free bit changes. Plus, the new Foreman is the first Kreg pocket-hole machine that can create all three types of Kreg pocket holes: Standard, Micro-PocketTM, and HD (Heavy-Duty). Please Note: Micro and HD Bits are sold separately. Combine these innovative features and you have the Kreg Foreman DB210 - the versatile, affordable, high -speed solution for pocket-hole construction.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: A valuable addition to the small shop...\\n\\nReview: Kreg makes a wide range of pocket hole jigs and machines, ranging from $22 mini jigs up through $10,000 five spindle pneumatic machines for the commercial cabinet shop. The DB210 is the newest addition to the product line, and at $400, is the least expensive of their various machines. As a semi-competent woodworking hobbyist, I've been using the Kreg K4 jig for years. When I was offered the chance to review the DB210, I gladly accepted. The DB210 is a cost-reduced version of Kreg's DB110 machine. At $800, that machine is targeted to the professional cabinet shop. At half the cost, this is within reach of the dedicated home woodworker and casual cabinet maker.\\n\\nInitial setup takes a few minutes. As mentioned in just about every other review, there's a short flexible tube that connects the back panel dust port to the chip collection chute under the drill bit. If you are going to use a active dust collection (aka a ShopVac), you need to hook that up. If not, you leave it off and the chips will collect under the deck. (If you do connect it and then run the machine without the vacuum attached, the tube will plug solid with chips...not advised). The vacuum port is smaller than the standard 2-1/4\\\" ShopVac hose. It fit my small Dirt Devil hose perfectly, but you'll need an adapter for most everything else.\\n\\nThe machine needs to be adjusted for different thicknesses of wood and screw lengths. It's not difficult, but you'll want to run one setup before changing to something else. (First, you move the fence to the position for the wood thickness; then you adjust the drill so the point just contacts the fence. You then use the supplied setup block to back the drill off a bit until the shoulders of the drill rest on the block at the location for the screw length....the block has steps for different screw lengths. You also need to adjust the clamp that holds the wood while drilling to match the wood thickness.) There are two small spring- loaded stop blocks built-in to the fence, but it takes a hex wrench to adjust their position. You're better off using a small C-clamp and a block of wood if you need to precisely position the pocket hole.\\n\\nWhen you pull down the arm, the motor turns on and the bit smoothly raises into the workpiece. The drill bit has a quick change hex base and is precisely positioned through a guide in the base plate. The metal guide is swapped out if you change drill sizes. I've cleanly cut a couple hundred holes; the manual says the bit should be good for roughly 5K holes in oak before it needs to be resharpened or replaced.\\n\\nSo...who should purchase the DB210? If you're just making a couple of cabinets a year, the K4 or K5 jigs are more than adequate. They're fast, easy to use and have almost no setup time. If you're a full-time cabinet shop, you'll want a higher end machine. This will work, but doesn't feel like it's designed for continuous heavy duty use. It's perfect, though, for the shop in the middle...the one that builds three to ten kitchens/closets/etc. per year. If that describes you, this machine will quickly earn back it's rather nominal price.\",\n \"Product: The Bora Portamate WTX clamp edge saw guide is the perfect addition to your circular saw, router or jig saw allowing you to make straight cuts with ease. Made out of heavy gauge, extruded aluminum, the WTX clamp edge is tough and durable. The adjustable end clamp slides easily along the precise channels eliminating the need for the internal channel bar reducing weight and wear. The locking handle grabs work surfaces and won't let go giving you a secure edge that won't budge so you can make precise track saw like cuts with a circular saw, jig saw or router. The WTX clamp edge is 50 inch's long and with the connector accessories you can add an additional 50 inches of cutting capacity. The handle is molded with a hanging notch for convenient storage while it's not in use.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Bora 543050 vs. 541050 vs 540950. Decisions, decisions, decisions...\\n\\nReview: Bora Clamp Comparison\\n\\nI have three Bora 50 clamps and two Emerson clampsthe 24 skinny and 99 wide-track versions. This clamp, the Bora 543050 WTX is the latest model. All previous versions use a steel rod, which runs the length of the clamp body, to pull the tailpiece tight against the wood when the lever is moved to the locked position. The head of the clamp, near the lever, stays fixed in place. The problem with the older design is that the tailpiece has to slide on the steel rod to adjust its position, and then hold tightly as the clamp is tightened. The earlier Boras and the Emerson clamps use a steel cam which squeezes down on the rod. Over time, the cam pieces can gouge the steel rod and make it difficult to slide the tailpiece smoothly into position. This has been especially true with my 24 Emerson clamp, which is close to ending up in the recycling bin. There are some nicks in my Bora 541050, but it's still very usableThey must use a tougher grade steel in the clamping rod.\\n\\nThe Bora 543050 WTX takes a different approach. The tailpiece slides in a track and when you squeeze it tight, it catches onto serrations inside the track.there is no steel rod. The headpiece lever contains a cam that presses against the headpiece, which in turn presses against the wood. Without the steel rod, the overall clamp is much lighter, yet still holds tightly. Ive uploaded pictures so you can see it in more detail.\\n\\nLike the Bora 541050 and the wide-track Emerson clamps, the top of the rail contains two T-track rails. These allow you to place stops on the track to accurately route groves, dados, flutes or practically anything else that doesn't need to run the width of the board. The t-tracks take a standard hex head bolt. Theyre also spaced to hold the Bora 542002 auxiliary clamp. Those devices allow you to flip the track upside down and use it as a looooooong clamp. (You need two of the track clamps to hold your workpiece flat. If you just use one, one side will be on the clamp and the other will be on the workbench!)\\n\\nThe Bora 543050 WTX is best used for ninety degree, straight across cuts. You can easily lock it a few degrees off kilter if you aren't careful, but it isn't designed to clamp at odd angles. If you need to make off-square cuts, the Bora 540950 is designed with flexible head and tail pieces and can be clamped at up to +-22.5 degrees. The trade-off is that the 540950 doesn't have the t-tracks and isn't extendable like the 543050. Its also a lot easier to clamp off square when you don't want it to be.\\n\\nSo.which one would I recommend? I've heavily used the 541050 since I bought it a couple of years ago. This clamp, the 543050, doesn't feel like it has as sturdy tail and headpieces as the older model. On the other hand, its perfectly functional, lighter weight and can be extended out to 100. I just haven't had as much experience with it to assess its durability. The Bora 540950 is more of a special purpose toolit's the choice if you think youll be making off-square cuts, otherwise I'd go with one of the others.\",\n \"Product: Paradise's low-voltage LED junior spot light is specifically designed for garden and lawn usage. Its improved efficiency is equivalent to 35W of halogen light, but only uses 7W of LED energy. Featuring an aluminum body with a sleek black finish, this product is covered by Paradise's limited 1-year warranty.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A bright, well designed LED spot light.\\n\\nReview: About a month ago, I wrote two one star reviews of Malibu lights...I'd just spent the day replacing several hundred dollars of broken fixtures. It's way too early to know how these will last, but the obvious flaws in the Malibu fixtures aren't present in this fixture. The ground mounting post in this fixture is plastic...it won't corrode. The pipe that holds the top piece fits tightly over the base piece...the Malibu has exposed bare aluminum threads holding the sections together. A number of them corroded and broke off at the threads. This doesn't have any exposed metal. The top section is heavy cast painted aluminum. All-In-all, this light looks like it'll last a long time.\\n\\nThe only remaining area of concern is the electrical connector. Those always seem to corrode after a couple of years. This time, I've coated it with liquid electrical tape, a thick goopy black liquid that dries to a waterproof coating. If that doesn't work, I'm stripping the wires and moving to waterproof twist nuts...it'll be a couple of years before I know.\\n\\nA 7 watt LED puts out an impressive amount of light. I have it pointing up, illuminating one of our backyard trees. It really looks nice at night.\\n\\nAre there cheaper lights available? Absolutely. And I've tossed them into the garbage every four or five years. I have every expectation that that won't be this guys fate. I'll keep you posted.\",\n \"Product: Get hot water where it's needed, when it's needed with the Bosch ES4 Tronic 3000 T Electric water heater. This 2.5-gallon capacity point-of-use mini-tank fits right under your sink and provides a practical and effective solution to your hot water needs. This smaller model can be plugged right into a 120-volt outlet with the 36-37\\\" cord, or can be installed in-line with a larger hot water source to provide \\\"on-demand\\\" use. The glass-lined tank offers great insulation and added durability, while the heater's fast recovery rate eliminates long waits for hot water. An external dial allows you to easily control the temperature range, and the temperature-and-pressure relief valve enhances your safety. The ES4 Tronic 3000 T from Bosch has a sleek and attractive exterior design that blends in seamlessly with existing dcor when installed in a visible location, making this heater a great option in any room.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Buy the 4.0 gallon unit instead and plan on putting in a dedicated power line...\\n\\nReview: We installed this in our master bathroom during a recent remodel. Plumbing is trivial and it just plugs into a wall socket. Simple retrofit...right? Not exactly. If you're planning on branching off the power run that feeds the existing bathroom counter sockets (like we were planning), it'll work only until someone plugs in a hair dryer. At that point, you pop the breaker. If you're lucky, it's the GFI built into the counter socket that blows. If not, you're making a trip to the power panel in the garage to reset the breaker. After that happens a couple times, you're spending a couple hundred (more) dollars on an electrician to run a dedicated feed. And, after all that, you realize that you should have spent $20 more and gotten the 4.0 gallon version...it's the same size and draws the same amount of power.\\n\\nDoes it work? Absolutely. Bosch is a top brand and knows how to build reliable appliances. I'm giving the 2.7 gallon version three stars only because, at the same size and for the nominal price difference, it's a bad purchase decision. As I said above, buy the 4.0 gallon version...assuming that it works as well as its smaller brethren, it's easily worth five stars.\",\n \"Product: The BORA WTX Clamp Edge and Saw Guide kit is the perfect addition to your woodworking and home projects. In plain terms, it provides an easy way to get straight cuts every time. The saw plate / saw sled attaches right to your circular saw, the clamp edge clamps down tightly to your material to be cut, and the saw plate slides right into it via a channel-lock system. This makes it a rigid, unwavering guide that keeps your blade straight and true. The saw plate attaches easily to most make and model circular saws, and works for both right handed and left handed models. The included clamp edge is 100 (big enough to fit across a standard 4x8 sheet) Straight cuts were never so easy, or affordable get one today and get better results with Bora Tool.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: The saw guide is great, but I don't like the clamp\\n\\nReview: This is basically a poor-mans track saw, with a few no-so-minor differences Traditional track saws cut exactly at the edge of the track. That's not the case here. When mounted on the saw plate, your circular saw blade will be offset, with the exact amount depending on where you clamp the saw on the plate. I'm using a Bosch 18-Volt 6-1/2-Inch Circular Saw and, after quite a bit of adjustment, have it set to cut exactly 1-1/2\\\" from the edge of the track. It also took some tweaking to get the saw blade to be exactly parallel to the edge of the rail. It was pretty close on the first pass, but a slight misadjustment can cause burning.\\n\\nI couldn't mount my saw so the little black cut indicator faced forward. It's not very important, since I measure out everything and have the blade to rail distance set precisely, but it would be nice if Bora's next design iteration included mounting nubs on both ends. If you use a different portable saw with a small base plate, you may have the same problem.\\n\\nNowonto the track portion\\nI have three Bora 50 clamps. This clamp, the Bora 543050 WTX is the latest model. All previous versions use a steel rod, which runs the length of the clamp body, to pull the tailpiece tight against the wood when the lever is moved to the locked position. The head of the clamp, near the lever, stays fixed in place. With the older design, the tailpiece slides on the steel rod to adjust its position, and then a steel cam holds it tightly as the clamp is tightened. The problem is that over time, the cam pieces gouge the rod and it becomes difficult to smoothly adjust the tailpiece.\\n\\nThe Bora 543050 WTX, which is whats in this set, takes a different approach. The tailpiece slides in a track and when you squeeze it tight, it catches onto small serrations inside the track...there is no steel rod. The headpiece lever contains a cam that presses against the headpiece, which in turn presses against the wood. Without the steel rod, the overall clamp is much lighter, yet, when clamped, still holds firmly. Its more difficult to get the tailpiece to lock in place and that's the downside of this design. With the older version, you slide the tailpiece into position and it holds as you tighten the clamp. It's been my experience that the tailpiece of this clamp often slides back when you try to tighten it down. It can be very annoying.\\n\\nSo, as I said at the beginning, combine the mounting plate and the edge clamp and you have a poor mans track saw. Its miles behind a Festool, DeWalt or other dedicated unit, but for most purposes the design works..as long as you can get the clamp to tighten\",\n \"Product: Nothing beats the finish of an Oscillating Spindle Sander for smoothing curved edges and when space is limited. You'll really appreciate this bench top version. With its large table surface and six different sanding drum diameters stowed neatly under the table the right sanding drum is a quick change away. Includes spindle wrenches table inserts and a 2-1/2\\\" dust port. Motor: 1/3 HP 110V single-phase 4A 60 Hz 1725 RPM spindle speed Toggle ON/OFF safety switch with locking tab Extra large 20\\\" x 14\\\" table Spindle oscillates at 72 SPM 2-1/2\\\" dust port Comes with six 4-1/2\\\" tall sanding spindles three 80 grit sleeves three 150 grit sleeves and 6 table inserts Approximate shipping weight: 37-Pound.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Effective, but painfully loud\\n\\nReview: I purchased this to help shape the concave curves in some of my kitchen knife handles. It works beautifully for that purpose. My only complaint is that it's insanely noisy when hooked to a dust collection system...as the rotating drum is raised, the air exit channel is restricted. The result is a painfully loud whooshing sound containing a lot of high frequency noise. This is one of the loudest machines in my shop...hearing protection is a must.\\n\\nIncidentally, I suggest purchasing additional 4-1/2\\\" sanding drums at the same time you get this. They're not expensive and you only get one of each size in a fairly course grit with the machine.\\n\\nUpdate - 6/8/2016 - After only a couple of months, the edge banding around the table has separated from the table. Not cool...I'm contacting Grizzly about a warranty claim.\",\n \"Product: 6-Inch Granite Bench Jointer with Helical Cutter Head Includes a Universal 15 Amp, 120V, 60Hz Motor. Helical cutterhead, cutterhead guard, tilting fence, pulleys, 4-Inch dust port, push blocks.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Poor quality control at the factory...\\n\\nReview: Steel City Jointer Review\\n\\nWhen I purchased this jointer, I was really hoping that I'd be able to give it five stars. I'm disappointed that I can't, but unfortunately, my copy typifies what you expect in Chinese-built machine tools.\\n\\nThe Good -\\n- When properly aligned, it cuts an almost mirror-finish. I expect that it'll work well in my home shop for many years to come...which is the only thing that's really important.\\n- The staggered cutting edges allow you to replace just one damaged segment without swapping out an entire blade.\\n\\nThe Bad -\\n- Coming out of the box, several cutting blades had nicks in them. Rotating them 90 degrees, to the second cutting edge, exposed a clean surface. The machine now works beautifully, but it's really uncool losing half the use of three cutters. (Update: I sent an email to Steel City asking for three replacement cutters. They immediately sent new ones.)\\n- Factory settings for the 90 and 135 degree fence stops (the set screws that limit rotation) weren't even close. None of the included hex wrenches fit the set screws, but odds are that you have the correct size somewhere around your shop.\\n- The dust exhaust port was slightly too small for my shop-vac hose. None of the fittings I had would work either. I ended up cutting a silt in the port to allow it to expand slightly and attach the hose. I drilled a small hole at the base of the slit as stress relief, but odds are it'll crack at some point in the future.\\n- The fence's horizontal and vertical adjustment locking arms can collide with each other. Not always, but in several different positions you need to fiddle to get them to tighten down.\\n- The return spring on the red safety cover popped out of it's mounting hole the first time I swung it open. It went back in easily enough, but it wasn't properly attached to the cover. I fully expect it to come loose again (it did)...hopefully not when the machine is running (it was).\\n\\nThe Ugly -\\n- The two granite bed pieces are set at an angle to the length of the machine. They roughly resemble a deck of an aircraft carrier. The pieces are flat, coplanar and properly adjusted relative to the jointer cutting blades, so there's no effect on operation, it's just sloppy workmanship. A factory with pride in their product would have sent it back to the line for rework.\\n- The label on the front of the machine is peeling off.\\n\\nSo, the Jointer works, and, after changing out the chipped knives, works well, but, as I said at the beginning, I'm disappointed. If I wanted to buy a tool built to HF standards, I would have gone to HF. I could have returned it, but none of the problems are insurmountable...they're just really, really annoying.\",\n \"Product: There is a subtle, but important difference for Bixbi between dog food and food for dogs. One is adequate. One is exceptional. Bixbi chooses exceptional. Rawbbleblends quality, nutrition and convenience in a way not previously seen in a complete and balanced food for dogs. NUTRITIOUS -- Dogs instinctively thrive on essential nutrients from the whole animal; raw animal protein, bones and vital organs. Rawbbleis a balanced ratio of protein, fat, bones, organs, vitamins and minerals to support health. CONVENIENT -- Rawbblecan be conveniently stored in its sealed bag, at room temperature, without refrigeration. The small pieces make handling and daily feeding easy and are great for training, treatingand traveling. SAFE -- Rawbbleonly uses USDA certified animal proteins from the USA. Bixbi's small batch freeze-drying technology locks in important nutrients, and their oxygen removal process ensures freshness in every bag, Raw Nutrition + Kibble Convenience. Just 2oz of Rawbble is equal to 8oz of conventional dog food.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Awesome as a supplement or as a treat. A bit dear as the primary food...\\n\\nReview: My dog, Maggie, is a picky eater. When trying a new food, Maggie will pick up a mouthful of the old/new mixture, dump it on the floor and pick through the debris, eating the pieces that smell good. This stuff passed the test with flying colors.\\n\\nThat being said, I would only use this as a treat, rather than as her main diet. First, as much as I love the mutt, it's very expensive. At the current price of $78 for a 30 ounce bag, it's far more expensive than the food that I eat...and that's taking into account the loss of water in being dehydrated. Secondly, the protein content is listed at 48%. Although that's to be expected since this is mostly dehydrated meat, it's far higher than most other premium foods and I suspect is much higher than required for good canine nutrition. If it needed to be that high, foods like Signature, Fromm and Taste of the Wild would have their protein levels pegged at that level.\\n\\nSo...even though Maggie would eat this stuff all day long, I'm uncomfortable giving this five stars. As I said in the title, it's awesome as a supplement or as a treat, but I just can't see it as the primary food.\",\n \"Product: A new edition of the illustrated architectural classic\\nNow in a third edition, this bestselling architectural reference features more than 1,100 line drawings, providing a highly visual means of learning about the fundamentals of building construction. This edition features coverage of ADA requirements and environmentally friendly materials, and also includes metric units in addition to the customary U.S. units. The book follows a typical design process--from selection of the building site to building components and mechanical systems to finish work and beyond. Topics are organized within each chapter according to their place in the CSI format. Building Construction Illustrated, Third Edition is an indispensable resource for architects, interior designers, and other building professionals who need to understand available materials and structural choices and how these affect building construction.\\n\\nFrancis D. K. Ching (Seattle, WA) is a registered architect and a professor at the University of Washington. He is the author of six highly successful books on the basic processes and forms of architectural design. Cassandra Adams (Berkeley, CA) is an architect and consultant in construction management and ecological design.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Very well written and comprehensive...\\n\\nReview: Unlike many of the other reviewers, I had no problem reading Building Construction Illustrated. The typeface is a little funky, but is designed to look like a handwritten font...it's a matter of personal preference.\\n\\nThe information is very comprehensive. I'm not a contractor or a student of the business, but have found it to be very helpful with my various home projects...It's nice to know that I'm doing something correctly. I strongly recommend that you use the \\\"Look Inside\\\" feature to see if the topics covered will be useful to you. What's missing in one person's knowledge may be well known to someone else. If it looks like it will be helpful, I wouldn't hesitate to add it to you library.\",\n \"Product: America’s Test Kitchen is well-known for its top-rated television shows with more than 4 million weekly public television viewers, bestselling cookbooks, magazines, websites, and cooking school. The highly reputable and recognizable brands of America’s Test Kitchen, Cook’s Illustrated, and Cook’s Country are the work of over 60 passionate chefs based in Boston, Massachusetts, who put ingredients, cookware, equipment, and recipes through objective, rigorous testing to identify the very best. Discover, learn, and expand your cooking repertoire with Julia Collin Davison, Bridget Lancaster, Jack Bishop, Dan Souza, Lisa McManus, Tucker Shaw, Bryan Roof, and our fabulous team of test cooks!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: More than just a cookbook...\\n\\nReview: Reading The Complete Cooking for Two is a learning experience. Each recipe starts with a \\\"Why this works\\\" section. The choice of ingredients is explained and alternatives presented. There are related notes...I'm looking at the recipe for White Corn Chile and there's a paragraph on the importance of rinsing canned beans. (Not just that you should, but why and the fact that the test kitchen actually tested the recipe with and without rinsed beans). The entire book is full of information like that.\\n\\nI'm giving a copy to my college-age daughter. Almost any trained monkey can follow a recipe, but really good cooking requires understanding of what you're doing and (most importantly) why. This book provides that information. Use the Look Inside feature to explore the contents and see what I mean....\\n\\nHighly Recommended!\"\n]","isConversational":false},"profile_size":{"kind":"number","value":105,"string":"105"},"task":{"kind":"string","value":"longlamp_3"},"split_kind":{"kind":"string","value":"user_based"},"id":{"kind":"number","value":1668,"string":"1,668"}}},{"rowIdx":1669,"cells":{"question_id":{"kind":"string","value":"A2SKSS5GW8NGY0"},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of \"5.0\" for a product with description \"Attractive and built to last, Blue Q's reusable shopping totes are ideal for groceries, picnics, going to the beach and so much morewhile leaving disposable waste behind! These large reusable bags stand up on their own, and are larger and stronger than their disposable counterpart, making them quite popular with grocery clerks. The small interior pocket is ideal for holding coupons, grocery lists, or a wallet. With waterproof construction, a reinforced floor panel, and super-strong recycled woven polypropylene and thick polyester thread seams, these bags will easily carry up to a 40 pound load of groceries! It's easy to make a sustainable statement your friends will notice with one of Blue Q's colorful, kitschy and edgy designs and prints. When you've finished shopping for the day, these reusable totes fold flat when empty for space saving and simple storage. Above all, this bag can help you eliminate thousands of paper and plastic bags over its lifetime, and choosing products made from post-consumer recycled materials promotes a more sustainable path for landfill-bound waste. The bags are made by taking old grain sacks and plastic water bottles, grinding them up, heating them into a type of thread, which is then woven to create a super-strong 95% post-consumer recycled polypropylene material. Only the handle and film required to screen the design are not made from recycled materials. Wipe clean with a damp cloth and mild soap, air dry. Responsibly made in China with fair labor practices. Size: 16\"W x 15\"H x 6\"D, 13\" long handles (5.5\" loop). Style: Pretty Bird.\". The summary of the review text is \"Gorgeous bright bird design, fantastic bags\"."},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"The city I live in recently instituted a tax on plastic shopping bags at stores, so I've gotten a little better about carrying my own bags. It's not that I'm really concerned about 5-10 cents or whatever the fee is, but a lot of stores have stopped offering bags, period.\n\nAnyway, I recently bought several Blue Q bags, including this one, and I couldn't be happier with them. Why do I love them?\n\n-Two sets of handles on the bag - one short and one longer set for over-the-shoulder use\n-Made of recycled materials\n-Just as bright as it looks in the picture - these bags get TONS of compliments\n-Waterproof and easily sterilized in case you end up hauling something gross (or if you buy meat and the juices get on stuff)\n-Folds up for easy storage, fits inside the large insulated resuable bag I got at Whole Foods\n-Durable - I've been using mine for a while now and they show no signs of wear or damage\n\nBasically, these are my favorite reusable shopping bags ever. I'll definitely be buying more designs as they become available."},"correct_answer":{"kind":"string","value":"The city I live in recently instituted a tax on plastic shopping bags at stores, so I've gotten a little better about carrying my own bags. It's not that I'm really concerned about 5-10 cents or whatever the fee is, but a lot of stores have stopped offering bags, period.\n\nAnyway, I recently bought several Blue Q bags, including this one, and I couldn't be happier with them. Why do I love them?\n\n-Two sets of handles on the bag - one short and one longer set for over-the-shoulder use\n-Made of recycled materials\n-Just as bright as it looks in the picture - these bags get TONS of compliments\n-Waterproof and easily sterilized in case you end up hauling something gross (or if you buy meat and the juices get on stuff)\n-Folds up for easy storage, fits inside the large insulated resuable bag I got at Whole Foods\n-Durable - I've been using mine for a while now and they show no signs of wear or damage\n\nBasically, these are my favorite reusable shopping bags ever. I'll definitely be buying more designs as they become available."},"documents":{"kind":"list like","value":["Product: Equipped with 30 piano-style treble keys and 32 bass buttons, the Barcelona30-Key Piano-StyleAccordion is ideal for the beginning or intermediate musician in search of a great value. The entry-level accordion comes in a variety of colors -- black, white, blue, gray, red, green, and tricolor (red, white, green) -- all of them beautifully designed, especially for such an economically priced instrument. Notable design elements include a marble faux exterior and a stylized bellows. In addition, the accordion comes with a deluxe hardshell carrying case with lock and key, so you can ensure that your instrument stays in mint condition. A great value that offers both attractive sound and design at an easily affordable price, the Barcelona30-Key Piano-StyleAccordion makes for a wonderful gift.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: A Good Beginner Accordion\n\nReview: First off, let me be very clear - if you're serious about playing the accordion and you know you'll be doing it for a long time, skip this instrument. On the other hand, if you're a beginning student and you're not sure whether it's going to become a regular part of your life, this accordion is perfect for you.\n\nThe Pros:\n\n-Decent-sized Keyboard (not the largest, but also not so small as to be a handicap early on)\n-32 Bass Buttons - It's a far cry from the number of bass buttons on most \"professional\" accordions, but a lot of more expensive student models come with just 12. This gives you a bit more to work with\n-Affordable - It's tough to find a new accordion for less\n-Comes with a case and straps. The case is pretty wimpy, but it WILL keep the dust off. If you're on a tight budget, the inclusion of these extras is great.\n-The accordion smells a little bit like a skating rink. You might consider this a con, but I don't mind the small dose of childhood nostalgia every time I practice.\n\nThe Cons:\n\n-This is not the smoothest accordion you'll ever find. It works, and it sounds okay, but it's nowhere near professional quality in feel and sound.\n-The free straps are functional, but not super comfortable for long practices. If you can spare another $30, I would highly recommend getting the Hohner padded straps sold elsewhere on Amazon. I'm very glad that I did.\n-You will eventually need to upgrade if you find that you love the accordion. On the bright side, you can probably sell this thing on Craigslist for at least 1/2 to 2/3rds of what you paid for it.\n\nIn summary, this is a great budget accordion for someone who wants to test the waters and see if the accordion is really for them. If you're very serious about the accordion, though, get something better. As much as I like mine, I'm already shopping for a nice Hohner or something similar to replace it. I'm glad I didn't drop $1000+ on a nice one from the beginning, though.","Product: The Dragonpad USA 6\" Microphone Studio Pop Filter was designed with one question in mind, how do you create a high quality, yet economical, solution for anyone who wants to record clearer audio in less takes? This pop filter is the answer. But why do you need a pop filter you ask? Two words, aspirated plosives. When speaking, or singing, certain letters and sounds (such as p and b) can create a burst of air which can lead to clipping in your recordings. The dual nylon layers in this filter work by trapping and dispersing the air caused by these letters, preventing the bursts from reaching your microphone. Additional benefits include reducing errant breath noise and removing lisping from some s sounds. The screen also protects your microphone from saliva and moisture. This magical screen is connected to a super flexible, but strong, 13 metal gooseneck. The articulated arm allows you to curve up, over, and around your stand to put the pop filter exactly where you want it. The metal c-clamp with thumbscrew fastener attaches the pop filter to most microphones and stands, while the soft padding protects the finish of whatever you put it on. Perfect for casual and professional recording this pop filter works great for recording, and live streaming, on YouTube and Twitch as well as recording pod-casts and voice over work. Avaialble in an assortment of colors/combinations to allow you the freedom to customize your studio exactly the way you like! Package will contain One (1) Pink on White Pop-Filter.\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: This thing was a waste of time...\n\nReview: I was not impressed with this pop filter at all. The filter part was too heavy to be supported by the metal arm, and the part that attached to the mic was prone to moving around, too (even after securing it very tightly). The whole thing just felt cheap, and I found that I spent more time trying to keep it in place than focusing on what was being recorded. I ultimately send it back and switched over to a Yeti microphone with a foam top. While some people say the foam covers aren't as good, I haven't noticed any issues with it, and others have said the audio sounds great.\n\nThe only redeeming feature is that it does do what a pop filter is supposed to do - it just doesn't do it in an easy or convenient way.","Product: Set your party table with these elegant flourish place cards from martha stewart crafts. Features scalloped edge and silver border. Includes 12-piece, 3-1/2-inch by 2-inch folded.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: I wish these worked in the printer...\n\nReview: I used these place cards as cookie labels for a party so I wouldn't have to keep telling people what kind of cookie they were able to grab. The cards looked great (see picture below), but they would have looked better with someone else's handwriting. After purchasing them, I came to the realization that it would have been really nice if they came in flat printer-sized sheets of cardstock with a Microsoft Word template for printing out the cards. Granted, some people have beautiful handwriting and they might like writing it on - but I don't, and a printing option would have been nice.\n\nIf I get these again, I'll probably get someone else to write on them or use a labelmaker to get a better overall look. It's a shame to spend money on the cards and then have the look cheapened by my less than beautiful penmanship. Still, that's a pretty minor issue and the cards themselves are simple, elegant, and high-quality. These would be great at almost any party or event.","Product: Sold as a set in a tray of 8 assorted colors. Comes with white, black, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, and red\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Colorful, long-lasting, and a great value for the price\n\nReview: I bought this sunblock for a circus trip to the Caribbean, and it's perfect. The colors are thick and bright, and the \"chapstick\" style containers make it easy to apply without getting your fingers all gross. I promised my sister that she and her kids could have the rest when I'm back from the trip, and they were extremely excited. You can make a lot of neat designs with this many colors - much more than with the old tubes of nothing but florescent colors. If you have a small makeup brush (or a set of small brushes), it would be pretty easy to use this for creating more detailed \"face painting\" designs.\n\nI really don't have any complaints about this sunblock. One of the tubes did sort of break, but it was easy to snap the piece back on, and it worked fine after that. The color stays put all day, and it doesn't sweat off or fade in water like a lot of sunblock does. At around $12-13 for 8 tubes, it's a better value than a lot of regular chapstick-style sunblocks...and it's fun!","Product: Travel Buddies luggage set for kids, are perfect for travelling near or far. The set includes a 18\" rolling ABS suitcase that is light weight but strong and also includes a matching 13\" back pack for daily travel essentials.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Great value, gorgeous suitcase set\n\nReview: This set offers a great value. I gifted the suitcase to my niece and the backpack to my nephew, and both were thrilled. The colors were as vibrant as in the pictures, the zippers worked smoothly, and everything felt generally sturdy. I will say that the backpack is not of a suitable size for daily school use. It might be alright for preschool or kindergarten, but it won't fit schoolbooks and notebooks in the size and amounts most kids carry. It's perfect for carrying a change of clothes or a few toys and snacks, though.\n\nThe only improvement I would have liked to see is spinner wheels instead of the plain non-rotating skate wheels. They're not bad, spinners would just be better.","Product: AVG Antivirus goes beyond simply detecting & removing viruses to deliver advanced preventative protection by blocking malicious links as you surf the web & scanning downloads before they reach your PC. You get: SECURITY Blocks viruses, spyware, & other malware Scans for malicious email attachments Scans web, Twitter, & Facebook links Protects you from harmful downloads And more PRIVACY File Shredder securely deletes files to prevent snooping Data Safe encrypts & password-protects private files Wi-Fi Guard helps you avoid dangerous Wi-Fi hotspots Anti-Spyware blocks spyware & adware from tracking you And more SPEED AVG Smart Scanner helps keep scans fast Lets you set auto-scans to run only when your PC is idle AUTO UPDATES Helps you stay ahead of the latest threats FREE 24/7 SUPPORT Our expert support team is just a free phone call or chat away-day or night, 365 days a year What's new in this version: Real-Time Cloud Detection to help instantly spot new malware outbreaks & better protect you against malicious websites\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: No viruses in 4-5 years of AVG products\n\nReview: For a long time, I was against using most antivirus programs. I had some bad experiences with the big brands (McAfee, etc.) slowing down my computer, charging a fortune fortune for updates, and not doing a very good job. Then, I got a nasty virus and finally decided to try out AVG. This was 4-5 years ago, and I've been using the premium version of AVG on my computers and phone ever since.\n\nAt the price listed on Amazon, this is a great bargain. You'll spend quite a bit more if you buy directly from AVG. I didn't have any issues getting this to work, though I see that some people did. I would assume AVG's support staff could help with issues, but I haven't had to contact them in all the years I've been using their products. I also haven't had any viruses or similar issues. I'll keep using AVG until that happens.","Product: AirBake brand has always been \"The Original Insulated Bakeware\". AirBake continues to provide the best baking results every time. AirBake Nonstick provides an overall enhanced baking performance with its insulated aluminum sheets and micro-dome technology to decrease bake times by up to 15% over traditional insulated bakeware. Two heavyweight aluminum steel sheets with a nonstick surface surround a layer of air. The air reduces the temperature of the metal that comes in contact with the food. The bottom sheet blocks the direct oven heat while the layer of air acts as an insulator preventing the top sheet from overheating. This means better browning, no burning, and moister baked goods. Insulated bakeware means cookies won't burn and the nonstick surface means clean-up is a breeze. Pan measures 16-inches x 14-inches. CARE INSTRUCTIONS: Before using your bakeware for the first time, wash and condition the bakeware by spreading one teaspoon of cooking oil over the interior with a clean cloth. Wipe off any excess. Avoid overheating your bakeware. In order to preserve and avoid scratches on your coating, we recommend the use of plastic utensils. Slight surface marks or abrasions are normal and will not affect the performance of the non-stick coating. With use, the non-stick surface may become slightly darker. This will not impair its performance. AirBake is designed to breathe and is not watertight. However, AirBake is dishwasher safe. DO NOT USE DISHWASHER DETERGENT TABS - the concentrated cleaning agents will damage the bakeware's finish. DO NOT SOAK - if water is inside pan layer, there is a risk of burning from steam release. If your pan has water inside the two sheets, place the pan upside down in a 250-degree oven for 30 minutes or until water is removed.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: The only cookie sheets I use...\n\nReview: I bake thousands of cookies every year for different parties and events, and Airbake pans are my absolute favorites. Even though many other types of pans claim to offer even baking and perfectly cooked bottoms, Airbake pans are the only ones I've ever used where it's so easy to get consistently perfect results. This is especially true for sugar cookies, where there's an extremely small window of time (even with an Airbake) to get them perfectly cooked with bottoms that aren't browned over and crunchy.\n\nAs you can probably tell, I'm a soft cookie person. If you like your cookies slightly browned and a little firmer or even crunchy, you may not appreciate the Airbake quite as much. Even still, it does tend to even out the baking and makes firm cookies firm all over rather than firm on the bottom and soft on top.\n\nOther tips for this pan: Make sure you wash by hand and use a washcloth instead of something really scratchy. This helps to preserve the coating and prevent it from ending up in the cookies. If you have pet birds or anyone with sensitive lungs, be very careful when using these pans. Keep them out of the room for hours during and after use, and be sure to ventilate the room. Heated nonstick coating is toxic to birds, and I've heard of some people having mild breathing issues when it's hot, too.\n\nFinally, if you continue to have trouble with burned bottoms (which is rare with these pans), try putting your pans on a higher section of the oven. These sheets are almost miracle workers, but even they can't save your cookies if you put them too close to the bottom of the oven. It also helps to bake just one at a time, no matter how tempting it might be to shove in 2-3 sheets at once to save time. Big cookie sheets change the circulation of air and heat in an oven, so having more than one can result in uneven baking.","Product: Warmies fully microwavable heatable Cozy Plush provide soothing warmth and comfort. Warmies are loved by millions worldwide. This innovative range continues to outsell all other microwavable products on the market. All of Intelex's soft toys are safe for all ages and are made using only the finest quality microwave safe materials. Warmies have the finest quality Flaxseed , fragranced with the very best dried French lavender. As this product is fully microwavable, to heat simply place the product in a microwave oven according to the directions on the product to release the wonderfully relaxing lavender aroma. Intelex prides itself on the fully microwavable aspect of their products that do NOT require a removable heatable inner bag. This makes using Intelex products not only easier, but also safer too. Ideal for use as a bed warmer to aid a restful night's sleep, or simply as an adorable soft toy. Warmies are loved by young and old alike. Warmies aid in relief of stress, hypertension, aches, pains, arthritis, chills, sinus pressure, migraines, bursitis, insomnia, cramps, colic, flu and tendonitis. The weight, warmth and lavender has been found to sooth, calm and focus individuals suffering from Autism and sensory processing disorders. These versatile products can also be used as a cold pack; simply place in a sealed freezer bag and place in the freezer for two to three hours. Ideal for reducing temperatures, easing sprains and bruises and reducing swelling. Take care when removing from the microwave oven. Do not ingest contents. Do not overheat. Reheat from room temperature only. For microwave use only. Surface wash only.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Great gift for new babies\n\nReview: I bought this for my new niece, and it was a big hit. I had previously purchased a Hot Hugs Elephant for my nephew, and it became one of his favorite stuffed animals as a baby and toddler. I let him help me pick out the toy we'd get for his new baby sister, and this is what he chose.\n\nUpon arrival, I noticed one big difference between this and the Hot Hugs stuffed animals. It's quite a bit heavier, and perhaps a bit floppier. As long as the guts are in it, it might be a bit heavy for a small child to lug around, but once you remove it, it's fine. When the warm guts are inside the sheep, though, it's very substantial and cuddly. I can see how a kid might really like it, especially one that has a hard time not being held and snuggled all night.\n\nAs for scent, the sheep smelled great. I would absolutely buy this again if my little sister decides to have more babies.","Product: Camco RV Folding Ironing Board with pressed-board top and has a quality fabric cover is small and easy to use.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Not for hard-core iron users, but otherwise great\n\nReview: I don't do a lot of ironing, and I actually got by just fine without an iron for years. However, my parents like to iron their clothing when they come to visit,so I figured I'd get a cheap, compact ironing board to stick in the closet for when they come to visit.\n\nI've used it a few times myself, and I found it to be perfectly satisfactory for someone who doesn't do a ton of ironing. If you wear dress shirts every day and you don't have your laundry sent out, you probably won't want this ironing board. The size makes it inefficient for someone who would use it a lot. It definitely takes longer to iron things when you don't have as much room to spread everything out. For an infrequent ironer or a guest bedroom,though, it's perfect. It would also be great for a small apartment, given that it folds up to be only slightly larger than a big laptop computer.\n\nI see that some of the other reviews are complaining about the cover ripping or glitter getting on clothing. Personally, I haven't experienced either of those problems. I did wipe it down with a damp cloth before putting clothing on it, so maybe that was enough to deal with any stray glitter (though I don't remember seeing any on the cloth afterwards). The cover seems pretty sturdy, but I guess if you hit it just right with the tip of an extra pointy iron, you might be able to rip it. I haven't tried.\n\nOverall, this is not the iron you want if you have space for a larger one and you do much ironing. The size and the line in the middle (where it folds in half) would be far too annoying for daily use. If you're an apartment dweller or someone who won't use it often, though, it's fantastic.","Product: Warmies fully microwavable heatable Cozy Plush provide soothing warmth and comfort. Warmies are loved by millions worldwide. This innovative range continues to outsell all other microwavable products on the market. All of Intelex's soft toys are safe for all ages and are made using only the finest quality microwave safe materials. Warmies have the finest quality Flaxseed , fragranced with the very best dried French lavender. As this product is fully microwavable, to heat simply place the product in a microwave oven according to the directions on the product to release the wonderfully relaxing lavender aroma. Intelex prides itself on the fully microwavable aspect of their products that do NOT require a removable heatable inner bag. This makes using Intelex products not only easier, but also safer too. Ideal for use as a bed warmer to aid a restful night's sleep, or simply as an adorable soft toy. Warmies are loved by young and old alike. Warmies aid in relief of stress, hypertension, aches, pains, arthritis, chills, sinus pressure, migraines, bursitis, insomnia, cramps, colic, flu and tendonitis. The weight, warmth and lavender has been found to sooth, calm and focus individuals suffering from Autism and sensory processing disorders. These versatile products can also be used as a cold pack; simply place in a sealed freezer bag and place in the freezer for two to three hours. Ideal for reducing temperatures, easing sprains and bruises and reducing swelling. Take care when removing from the microwave oven. Do not ingest contents. Do not overheat. Reheat from room temperature only. For microwave use only. Surface wash only.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Great gift for new babies\n\nReview: I bought this for my new niece, and it was a big hit. I had previously purchased a Hot Hugs Elephant for my nephew, and it became one of his favorite stuffed animals as a baby and toddler. I let him help me pick out the toy we'd get for his new baby sister, and this is what he chose.\n\nUpon arrival, I noticed one big difference between this and the Hot Hugs stuffed animals. It's quite a bit heavier, and perhaps a bit floppier. As long as the guts are in it, it might be a bit heavy for a small child to lug around, but once you remove it, it's fine. When the warm guts are inside the sheep, though, it's very substantial and cuddly. I can see how a kid might really like it, especially one that has a hard time not being held and snuggled all night.\n\nAs for scent, the sheep smelled great. I would absolutely buy this again if my little sister decides to have more babies.","Product: Camco RV Folding Ironing Board with pressed-board top and has a quality fabric cover is small and easy to use.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Not for hard-core iron users, but otherwise great\n\nReview: I don't do a lot of ironing, and I actually got by just fine without an iron for years. However, my parents like to iron their clothing when they come to visit,so I figured I'd get a cheap, compact ironing board to stick in the closet for when they come to visit.\n\nI've used it a few times myself, and I found it to be perfectly satisfactory for someone who doesn't do a ton of ironing. If you wear dress shirts every day and you don't have your laundry sent out, you probably won't want this ironing board. The size makes it inefficient for someone who would use it a lot. It definitely takes longer to iron things when you don't have as much room to spread everything out. For an infrequent ironer or a guest bedroom,though, it's perfect. It would also be great for a small apartment, given that it folds up to be only slightly larger than a big laptop computer.\n\nI see that some of the other reviews are complaining about the cover ripping or glitter getting on clothing. Personally, I haven't experienced either of those problems. I did wipe it down with a damp cloth before putting clothing on it, so maybe that was enough to deal with any stray glitter (though I don't remember seeing any on the cloth afterwards). The cover seems pretty sturdy, but I guess if you hit it just right with the tip of an extra pointy iron, you might be able to rip it. I haven't tried.\n\nOverall, this is not the iron you want if you have space for a larger one and you do much ironing. The size and the line in the middle (where it folds in half) would be far too annoying for daily use. If you're an apartment dweller or someone who won't use it often, though, it's fantastic.","Product: Paper Placemats with Scalloped edges.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Just about perfect for my purposes\n\nReview: Each year, I help a business associate host a party in Vegas. We rent out a penthouse and I always make a cookie buffet, which has become sort of a trademark of the event. Because we're flying in and we like to keep it fairly simple, we don't have any fancy serving dishes for all the cookies. Instead, I order disposable placemats, and they work wonderfully. I've uploaded a picture so you can see a non-professional image of them in action.\n\nThese blue placements are only slightly lighter than pictured, and you'll find they're very thin. You have to be careful when pulling them out of the package, as they're a little prone to tearing. The placemats are definitely not reusable, as the slightest bit of heat or moisture wrinkles or discolors them. My only complaint is that it would be really nice if there were a very thin layer of plastic or something to make the placemats sligtly less prone to getting oily or wet when things are placed on top. It's a very minor complaint, though.","Product: Protect your clothes from bugs and dust with the Gearbox wardrobe. Perfect to use as an extra closet or storage for your out-of-season clothes. Comes with 34 mesh pockets on the outside for shoes and accessories.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Not bad, for the price\n\nReview: I had looked at a few other under the bed shoe organizers before buying this one, and while the others appeared slightly more sturdy, this one seemed to be a much better value. With 16 spaces and a price under $15, it's very cost effective. Note that if you're a man with big feet, you may only be able to fit one shoe per slot. Then again, men generally have fewer shoes than women, so it works out.\n\nThe case is a little flimsy, particularly if it's not full. I don't actually own that many shoes, so I sometimes have a hard time getting it to push back under the bed without scrunching up and getting stuck. I usually just walk around to the other side and pull it and things flatten back out.\n\nI will say that it's not awesome for larger sneakers. Smaller pairs seem to fit fine, but if you have clunkier sneakers, you may need to put flip-flops or ballet flats or something similarly small in the surrounding holes. Overall, though, I'm very happy with this purchase. It lets me hide away the shoes I don't wear as often, but it also leaves them organized and easily accessible. If I ever decided to buy a lot more shoes, I would happily buy another one of these cases.","Product: The Bush Furniture Achieve Printer Stand File Cabinet adds modern flair to your home office or small business. Enjoy open and closed storage options while setting up your printer on the rugged work surface. Get organized thanks to an open storage compartment with adjustable shelf and a locking file drawer for letter or legal size documents. A great combination for a seamless look, the heights of the L Shaped Desk (sold separately) and Printer Stand File Cabinet match to extend your work surface. Contemporary and sophisticated, Achieve works well in any setting. Solidly constructed and Tested for wear and stain resistance, this quality furniture meets ANSI/SOHO standards for safety and performance. Backed by a Bush Furniture 6 Year Manufacturer's Warranty, Achieve features stylish tapered legs, and comes in Sweet Cherry with Brushed Nickel hardware, or Warm Oak with Black hardware. See the full collection for coordinating items available. American made with U.S. and imported parts.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Not bad, but it wasn't right for me\n\nReview: For what it is, this isn't a terrible piece of furniture. When it arrived, it had a few minor scratches and issues, but nothing too awful. Unfortunately, the photo makes it look a bit more modern than it actually is. In reality, it looks a bit dated and the \"wood\" color is a little lighter than the picture. As a result, it doesn't match my office at all, and I'm going to sell mine locally because it's FAR too much hassle to take it all apart and ship it back.\n\nAs far as assembly goes, prepare to devote the better part of an evening to it. It's not difficult, but there are a ton of steps and tiny pieces. If you're not very strong, you might want some assistance. I'm a relatively fit, 5'7\", 125 pound female and I found some parts of the assembly to be a bit heavy, but it wasn't impossible. I definitely couldn't lift the box it came in, though. I had to slide it off the cart and wrestle it over to the office.\n\nLike others have said, the locking mechanism is pretty wimpy - like a standard cheap file cabinet lock. I ended up getting a lockable fireproof filebox and colorful metal printer cart instead, as that allowed me to get the modern look and secure storage I wanted. On the other hand, you might like this piece, especially if you have the matching office furniture.","Product: Stately and unique, the Focus tree is one of most interesting trees around and will make the perfect complement to any home or office dcor. The twisting trunks reach skyward and suddenly burst into an explosion of green. With 378 leaves, this tree will fool even the smartest of birds, so watch for nests when you dust. Comes in a black pot with faux soil.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Not bad for the price...\n\nReview: My weird little 3-year-old nephew decided he wanted \"a toy tree\" for his 3rd birthday, and after a bit of eyebrow raising and questioning, we determined that he basically wanted a silk decorative tree. With dinosaurs. So, I bought this tree and hung little plastic dinosaurs and birthday money from the branches and it was a huge hit.\n\nThis was probably the cheapest tree on Amazon for the size I was looking for,and you can definitely tell it's not super fancy. It doesn't come with a proper pot, and the little black plastic thing on it isn't enough for the tree to balance well on carpet. You would definitely need to get a pot. The branches are a bit cheap feeling, but with a little effort, you can make them look reasonably good.\n\nAs decorative trees go, this is a pretty small one. If you're not sure, get out a tape measure and check it, because this is smaller than the fake trees I've seen in a lot of homes and offices. You might want something bigger. Still, if you need a tree this size and you don't want to spend a fortune, this is a great option. There was a bit of dust on the leaves when it arrived, but it didn't fall apart when I ran a washcloth over the leaves and branches, so I guess that means it's relatively sturdy.","Product: This versatile 6 Piece Colored Empty Magnetic Storage Tin Set, by Kamenstein, is space efficient, economical and great for use in a drawer. Perfect in the kitchen, office, garage or craft room for storing spices, arts & crafts, nuts and bolts, paper clips, keys, rubber bands or push pins. Features sift and pour lids with clear windows, making it easy to identify the contents inside. Hand wash. Set includes 6 tins (1 each: blue, red, green orange, purple and gray), each measures approximately 2-1/8 inch high x 2-3/8 inch diameter, and holds 4 ounce (liquid measure).\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: These jars make my kitchen happy\n\nReview: I love these spice jars. My kitchen is ultra-modern and colorful, and they look perfect on the side of my fridge. I uploaded a customer image if you're curious.\n\nThese jars are just the right size to hold one \"standard\" size jar of a spice. I know the standard size varies from brand to brand, but there were very few spices where I couldn't fit the whole bottle in one jar. The only downside is that on a couple that were REALLY full, I have to make sure I tilt the jar a bit so contents to pour out of the spout the second I open it.\n\nIf you need labels, Amazon does sell pre-printed spice labels. I don't have a label maker, so I opted for those, although a few spices weren't included so I left them hiding in the cabinet. I'm guessing a metallic Sharpie would work pretty well, too.","Product: Start your day with toast made your way using the Oster Jelly Bean 2-Slice Toaster. This bread toaster features extra-wide slots that can accommodate a wide variety of bread types, including thick bagel halves, hamburger buns, English muffins, frozen waffles, and other toast-able favorites. Dual bread guides automatically adjust to the thickness of the slices for perfect alignment and even browning on both sides, while a toast-lift lever promotes safe removal of toasted items. With the slight turn of a knob, the 2-slice toaster provides seven toast shade settings from light to dark, while Advanced Toasting Technology ensures consistent, even results every time. An anti-jam feature automatically shuts your toaster off in case of a jam for safe, hassle-free operation, and a cancel setting lets you stop the toasting process at any time. A removable, dishwasher-safe crumb tray makes cleanup simple. The sleek design with metallic purple finish will brighten up any kitchen.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: My little purple friend...\n\nReview: I love this toaster. When it arrived, I immediately noticed that it's much brighter and more attractive than the Amazon product image. It's quite shiny, so if that's not the look you're going for, you may want to consider a different toaster. I uploaded a photo of it in my kitchen, so you should be able to see it in action in the customer images section.\n\nAs far as toasting is concerned, I've had no problems. I'm actually a little confused by the other reviewer who said his bread didn't fit and couldn't get fully toasted. I use pretty standard bread (the Whole Foods store brand), and I've never had an issue with toast sticking out of the top. Maybe he's using super-sized bread, who knows.\n\nThe toaster does a great job with toasting things evenly, which is a big improvement over my last toaster. You may have to play around a little to get the perfect setting for the kind of bread/bagel you use, though, as a thicker piece will most likely need to be toasted longer and at a lower temperature if you want it toasted all the way through.\n\nIn all, there's really nothing I would change about this toaster. It might be a little cooler with an LED screen, but in terms of functionality and price, I would happily buy this again.","Product: These Luxury Hotel Bed skirts give your bed an elegant finished appearance. They feature contemporary tailored styling with pleats in each corner. Made from easy-care microfiber polyester fabric for wrinkle-resistance and colorfastness. Generous 14\" drop length to the floor, creating valuable under bed storage room. Sturdy platform holds bed skirt in place.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Color is wildly inaccurate, but otherwise it's perfectly fine\n\nReview: I bought this bedskirt because it looked like it was a nice deep shade of peacock green/blue. Instead, it was very close to the popular greenish color you see on a lot of hospital scrubs. It was totally wrong for the coloring of my bedroom, so I'm sending it back.\n\nI attempted to capture the true color in a photo, but even that is a little darker than the true color. You'll get the most accurate idea of the actual color if you use Google Image Search and search \"hospital scrubs\". It's not like the common blue ones, but it's almost identical to the green ones a lot of places use.\n\nAside from that, the fabric feels nice and very lightweight. If there were no color issues, I'd be happy to keep this bedskirt. Hopefully, this review can help someone else avoid the trouble of ordering a color they didn't expect or want.","Product: ShowerMate Bluetooth Speaker allows you to transform your showering routine into an unforgettable adventure. With this fun waterproof shower speaker, you can enjoy superior quality sound and sing alone to your favorite songs. Keep your device out of waters reach and answer your phone calls with a built-in high sensitivity microphone. Whether you are taking a relaxing hot bath or a quick shower, you will always have unlimited fun with the ShowerMate Bluetooth Speaker!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Why won't anyone call me in the shower?\n\nReview: For years, I've listened to music in the shower by turning up the volume on my phone and placing it on the counter. Although it worked, it was far from ideal. The phone was just loud enough to be annoying to anyone else nearby (I listen to a lot of Kenny G in the shower), and yet it was hard to hear it well over the sound of the water.\n\nWhen I saw this bluetooth shower speaker on sale, I figured it was worth $10-11 to give it a try. At this point, I regard it as one of my best <$20 purchases in the last few years. Fully charged, I've gotten over 2 weeks of shower use without needing to recharge. I'm not sure when it will need to be recharged, but once every couple weeks isn't bad at all. Considering I often take 2 showers in a day (after exercising), that's actually pretty incredible for such a cheap device.\n\nAlthough it's not high-end stereo sound quality, it's at least as good as what comes out of a phone, and you can hear it much better without cranking up the volume because it's right there in the shower with you. It's a little weird that it allows you to answer calls in the shower, but it's kind of cool knowing you can do it if you really want to. So far, people have not really responded to my invitations to call me when I'm in the shower, but I'm optimistic that someone will eventually take me up on it, and that the Shower-Mate will pass that new test with flying colors.","Product: Stylish airplan design, Great gift for bon voyage, frequent traveller, or first time traveller. It makes easier to spot your bag amoungst other similar bags on baggage claim\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Bright, fun, and SUPER sturdy\n\nReview: When asked what he was getting my sister for her birthday, our nephew answered, \"A green plane!\" To help make that a (useful) reality, I bought one of these luggage tags for him to give to her. It was a green tag with a picture of a plane - not quite a green plane, but close enough to amuse everyone.\n\nI was impressed with the overall quality of this luggage tag. It was thick and rubbery and not at all prone to breaking, tearing, or peeling like some I've seen in the past. It's also bright and colorful, and since they come in quite a few shades, you can easily match your tag to your luggage. Or, if you have really plain black luggage like everyone else in the world, you can pick a bright color to make your luggage stand out on the baggage carousel. The photos are a great representation of the tags, too - they're shiny and rubbery and bright, just like in the pictures.\n\nI will probably order a set of these for myself after my current tags wear out (and they're well on their way, given how much I travel). I trust these will last a long time, even if you check your luggage frequently.","Product: Go for a sexy yet sophisticated look in this bodycon midi dress with side crochet detail! This sleeveless style is perfect for showing off your curves while the length will keep your look modest. Simply pair with some killer heels for a night on the town\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Feels a little cheap, but looks fantastic\n\nReview: This dress definitely runs a little small, mostly in the hip area. I normally wear either a 2 or 4 in dresses, and I ended up needing in 8 in this one because my hips are a little on the curvy side. That aside, though, this dress looks really good. The pattern of lace along the sides has a slight slimming effect, and it really plays up any natural curviness you might have. It's also long enough and high-necked enough that your figure is the only thing you're showing off. If you're going for a classy look, this dress pulls it off.\n\nThe only complaint I have (and it's minor) is that the dress feels a little cheap. Granted, that's to be expected at this price. If I could find this exact dress with softer fabric and better lining, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. As it is, only the very top portion of the dress is lined, and it's done by doubling over a bit of the fabric underneath. It works, but if you aren't careful to smooth out the inner fabric, it can look a little bunched up.\n\nAlthough I'm not insanely tall (5'7\"), I often find that most dresses in stores are obscenely short. If you have the same problem, you'll love this dress. If you're really short, you might find it a bit too long. It hits me just above the knees.\n\nOverall, I would recommend this dress if you need something affordable but also sophisticated.","Product: New Balance, is dedicated to helping athletes achieve their goals. It's been their mission for more than a century. It's why they don't spend money on celebrity endorsements. They spend it on research and development. It's why they don't design products to fit an image. They design them to fit. New Balance is driven to make the finest shoes for the same reason athletes lace them up: to achieve the very best.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: A little clunky, but very comfortable\n\nReview: I've been working on my sneaker collection lately - making sure I have something to match the wide variety of leggings I wear to the gym and circus classes. I bought these sneakers because they're an unusual color. You don't see a ton of maroon sneakers.\n\nThey fit as expected and they're reasonably comfortable. I also got a really good deal on them, so I like that. The only thing I'm not wild about is that they're just a little clunkier than I expected/hoped. They're also a tiny bit heavier than a lot of the high-end running shoes in my closet. It's not a huge deal since they're comfortable and cute and I won't be wearing them everyday - it's just something I thought was worth mentioning.\n\nIn terms of size, I typically wear either an 8.5 or 9. For these, the 9 was a perfect fit. They seem to really grab your foot and offer good support, I wouldn't hesitate to play tennis in them (unless I'm at a snooty club with strict shoe rules). I wouldn't be too concerned about the quick start and stop movement while wearing them.","Product: The Celeste is a women's fully featured daypack complete with a padded laptop and tablet sleeve. Put it to use for school or work and even a trail hike on the weekends.\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: Only liked the look...\n\nReview: I was really excited when this backpack went on sale right as I found myself in need of a new one - but unfortunately, I ended up returning it. I normally use a backpack when traveling, so I like it to have a good carrying capacity. Unfortunately, this was the smallest backpack I had gotten in years. I also hated that it had so many extra snaps and straps hanging all over the place. It was just more stuff to dangle and get caught on things (and get dirty and disgusting in airports).\n\nThe other thing I really disliked about this backpack was the fit of the straps. I just couldn't make it fit comfortably, in spite of being a very normal-sized (5'7\", 130 pounds) adult woman. I ended up sending it back and buying a much cheaper standard unisex backpack that I like 100x better. The only thing I really liked about the Osprey backpack was the look, and that just wasn't enough for me to keep it.","Product: Momma's little girl will look adorable in this set from Gerber. Three sweet looks for one great price. Made of soft cotton for all day comfort. Ideal for giving as a gift\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Cute, practical, affordable - and NOT PINK!\n\nReview: It can be hard to find clothing for little girls that isn't overwhelmingly pink. My 1-year-old niece is a bit gingery (red hair, pale skin), so pink and red outfits just don't do her a lot of justice. That's not to say she looks bad, just that she looks much better in other colors. I was pleased to find this outfit when I was looking for summer clothing to send her way.\n\nThe outfit itself is great, and I especially like that it came with both a bodysuit and a regular top. That gives my sister a couple options, and it also gives her a matching backup piece in case the other one gets stained or soiled (those beet baby foods are a clothing killer).","Product: Aleader Women Water Shoe is made with lightweight mesh and a midfoot webbing system that integrates with slip on for lightweight breathability and an adaptive, supportive fit. Soft cushioning and breathable RB/Eva outsole,articulated flex grooves offer plush comfort and natural range of motion.The aqua/mesh slip on shoes can be functional used,for daily or travel walking with barefoot fitting give you exceptional comfort,for river walking or water aerobic sports,give you best performance and fun.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Great value for the money\n\nReview: I recently took a trip to Mexico and I knew I'd be going to places where I'd need water shoes - but I didn't want to carry around separate sneakers and water shoes. These worked perfectly. They fit comfortably like sneakers, and they don't look nearly as dorky as most water shoes. At the same time, they're great when you get in the water because they're extremely lightweight and there are small holes for drainage all over (including the bottom). They took a bit of getting used to in the water, as the soles are slightly buoyant. It's not hard to keep your feet at the bottom, but they do have a slight tendency to want to float upwards.\n\nIn terms of sizing, I would say I wear a size 9 roughly 70% of the time, and an 8.5 the other 30% of the time. In these shoes, an 8.5 was perfect. I was worried because 8.5 is all they had in stock when I ordered, and some people said they run small. I even ordered a backup pair of water shoes from another brand. Luckily, though, the 8.5 fit and I'm very happy with the purchase. They have a style similar to much more expensive water shoes, yet they're very reasonably priced.","Product: A Casual, Elegant Piece of Cardigan Sweaters That Fits For Variety of Occasions.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Very boxy, not for me\n\nReview: When I bought this, I was hoping for a cute fitted sweater to go over a t-shirt. I have a few similar sweaters from Banana Republic, but they have 3/4 sleeves and I waned a long sleeved variation. Unfortunately, I found this sweater to be quite large and baggy and not particularly flattering. It's very boxy, which might be fine if your shape is less curvy. However, I like things that highlight the difference between hips and waist, and it really didn't accomplish that.\n\nThe other issue is that the sweater arrived missing a button, and it didn't have one of those packets with an extra button I could sew on. That could be a fluke, but I figured I'd mention it since it could be a pattern in other reviews, too.","Product: Who is that little one in the big yellow hat? Your little boy can join Curious George on his next big adventure in these toddler boys athletic shoes! Durable and stylish, these Universal Studios Curious George toddler boys athletic shoes feature stylish uppers, hook and loop fastener, padded tongue and insoles, and sturdy non-marking out soles. Proper support and attractive styling make these Curious George shoes a perfect choice for your youngster!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Wonderful shoes for my niece\n\nReview: Even though these shoes say they're for boys, I ordered them for my 2-year-old niece and she loves them. Upon opening the box, she yelled, \"George!\" I like that the colors are not so boyish that they can easily be used as girl shoes without any weird comments.\n\nThe shoes fit as expected, and since they were ordered to be a bit large, she should get a good amount of time to wear them. She found them to be very comfortable. The quality was great, too. None of the stitched areas were loose, there were no strings hanging out anywhere, and the glue around the bottom seemed to be evenly applied. The hard rubber sole didn't have any areas that seemed to be peeling away from the bottom of the shoe. Although my niece isn't very wild, I'm pretty confident that these shoes could hold up to the kind of crazy play that rips most of my nephew's shoes apart.\n\nAlthough the yellow sole may show a bit of dirt, I like that it brightens up the shoe and gives it more of a unisex feel. The body of the shoe is gray, of course, which should help that part look newer for longer. Overall, I'm very happy with this purchase.","Product: DONNA BLING womens fashion sneakers from Italian athletic footwear and apparel manufacturer DIADORA. Blend of european styling and american comfort. Tweed, herringbone upper with suede leather inserts. Lace-up style with velcro strap. Low profile, anti-slip rubber sole. Removable athletic insole.\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: Runs small but wide, terribly uncomfortable\n\nReview: I'm not terribly picky about shoes, and I almost never have a problem with shoes I order online. I read that these ran small so I ordered a size larger than normal and they were fine on length. What was weird, though, is that they seemed extremely wide, and I don't have particularly narrow feet.\n\nThe shoes were very cute, and they would be a great pair of casual wear sneakers if only they were as comfortable as they are stylish. Unfortunately, in addition to being strangely wide, they were also very rigid and uncomfortable. I tried bending them and breaking them in through a couple days of normal wear, but nothing helped. These shoes just wouldn't work for me at all.","Product: Converse Chuck Taylor All Star No Problem Ox(Inf/Tod)-Green Kids alligator face is a fun sneaker with velcro and a wide smile.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: My nephew is the most stylish kid at daycare\n\nReview: I bought these shoes for my nephew because my sister (his mom) has always been a fan of Chucks and I also know she'd never spend the money to buy something like this new. Little kid feet grow too fast, and she's very practical.\n\nHowever, I am the weird aunt, and that means it's my job to spoil the kids and buy silly things like alligator Chucks. So I did. And he loved them. One recommendation, though: Don't buy these shoes AFTER buying the same kid a pair of light-up sneakers. Even though these are incredibly cool, they're a bit of a letdown after red and blue flashing sneakers. Still, my sister got a super cute video of the nephew \"eating\" his father with the scary alligator shoes, and I keep seeing them pop up in their Facebook pictures.\n\nOnce you get past the fact that these are a little expensive for a kids' sneaker, they're reasonably practical. The white parts all wipe down, and the green is dark enough to mask most light dirt. I'm told they're also very easy to get on and off, and they make him excited about putting on his shoes.","Product: For all the science freaks out there, you will love this Argon Chemistry Joke T-shirt!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: A gift that went over very well\n\nReview: My brother-in-law is a chemist, so I try to find a new science joke t-shirt every time his birthday rolls around. My sister says he wears the shirts nonstop, so it's good that I keep adding more to the rotation. He has one that says \"I wear this shirt periodically\" (with a picture of the periodic table), and she says he wears it much more than periodically.\n\nAnyway, I picked this one for his birthday earlier this month, and he loves it - perhaps more than some of the others. He said it has a great vintage fit, and that it's a bit longer than the others (even though they were the same size). My sister is glad she doesn't have to worry so much about accidentally shrinking this t-shirt and turning it into a nerdy crop top. I'm told the fabric was softer than a lot of standard t-shirts, too. If you want a nerdy shirt but you prefer a high-end sort of t-shirt, definitely go with this one instead of some of the others printed on cheap Gildan-type shirts.","Product: Be the center of attention with this shoulder pad ripple fabric bodycon dress. A definite must have for this season! Team up with a pair of our chunky heeled boots.\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: Almost seemed like a different dress...\n\nReview: I was not impressed with this dress. Although I ordered an 8, it fit more like an 2 (it was smaller than all the size 4 dresses in my closet). Although stretchy, the fabric was very thick and it didn't have a lot of give in an outward direction. Definitely order a size or two up if you go for this dress. It also seemed shorter than in the photo.\n\nThe other thing that was really weird is that the dress didn't match the picture. The sleeves actually appeared to be more of a cap sleeve, and they seemed almost detached - like if you handled it too roughly, they could fall off. I'm not really sure why the words \"shoulder pad\" were in the description, either. I didn't see any shoulder pads (although that's actually a good thing).\n\nBased on the pictures, I would almost wonder if I got the wrong dress - but it did seem to match in terms of color and fabric type. It just wasn't anything like what I would have expected based on the listing. Be sure to check and see if your size comes with free returns just in case you really don't like it.","Product: Comfy pullover hoodie in our classic tri-blend fleece. Threads for thought garments are completely sustainable, made from organic and recycled materials. A portion of all proceeds go to support the international rescue committee www.rescue.org and the natural resources defense council www.nrdc.org to support the excellent work that they do in the areas of humanitarian and environmental response. Enjoy your threads and wear them with pride\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: My least favorite Threads for Thought shirt\n\nReview: I've ordered a lot of Threads for Thought clothing over the years. I used to love their fitted women's t-shirts, and I've purchased a ton of their guy's sweatshirts for my best friend. I've always been happy with my purchases until this shirt. Given how small the men's stuff runs, I thought I'd get a medium sweatshirt for myself (a 5'7\", 130 pound female). Unfortunately, this is the first item I've gotten from them that didn't run obscenely small. It was still smaller than a typical men's medium, but not nearly as small as most of their items. It was too big for me, and the shoulders looked strange and held a weird shape.\n\nI had a friend try it on to see if it would suit him, and while it seemed to fit, it had really weird, abnormally pointy shoulders. It almost looked like he had on shoulderpads. As a result, he wasn't wild about it, either.\n\nThe fabric is soft and moderately thin, so it would be a great shirt if not for the odd shoulders. I do wish Threads for Thought sizing was more consistent, too. This isn't the first time I've encountered inconsistent sizing between their items (also had issues with women's leggings). Overall, I would strongly recommend buying their shirts in places where you can get free return shipping just in case it's not right for you.","Product: A real vampire bat's body encased in a clear Lucite acrylic resin block.Encased in a clear Lucite acrylic resin block. Makes an excellent paperweight as well as conversation or display piece.The bat's body is visible from all angles and its lifelike pose adds a chilling effect to this item.\n\nRating: 1.0\n\nSummary: Please think twice before buying this...\n\nReview: If you love bats, please don't support a product that results in the cruel capture and killing of wild bats. In fact, I have plenty of good ideas for any bat lover - a trip to a reputable zoo, a book about bats, cute online bat videos, stuffed toy bats, or even a donation to a bat sanctuary that helps protect and preserve bat species in the wild.\n\nWild bats are an important part of our ecosystem, helping bees to pollinate the plants we need to survive. I recently stayed at a tropical eco-hotel that used a colony of bats as mosquito control around the hotel. I didn't get bitten once. They're good little creatures, so please think twice before helping to create demand for more dead bats.","Product: The Essential workout short is designed to flatter gluts and thighs during every stage of your workout, a short that compliments all of your hard work.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Leaves little to the imagination, but they're cute\n\nReview: In my experience, Beyond Yoga bottoms seem to run about half a size smaller than brands like Athleta, Victoria's Secret, and Zella. These shorts were no exception,. Like some other people have mentioned, they do have a tendency to roll up if your hips are curvy. If you're more apple or banana than hourglass, you might not have that problem.\n\nAlthough I like these shorts, I tend to prefer them over a pair of contrasting color leggings. They're really short, and if you have much in the way of a butt (muscle or fat, either one), they get even shorter. They'd be great pole dancing shorts, if you're into pole fitness - lots of exposed skin for pole contact.\n\nI managed to get my pair on sale, and while I like them, I don't think I'd pay full price for them.","Product: The Spoga Exercise Yoga Mat features a double sided non-slip surface that helps prevent injuries. The mat features specially designed comfortable memory foam and offers great impact absorption. Thick enough to protect your back, arms, knees and joints, while still allowing you to grip the floor for balance, the non-skid ridges will ensure that the mat never slips during use. Offers exceptional resilience helps you to keep your balance during any exercise. Moisture resistant technology allows the mat to be easily washed with soap and water. Easy strapping and light weight feature are added to this mat for easy transport and storage convenience. Dimensions: 24\" wide and 71\" long, ensures comfort for people of all shapes and sizes. With high density foam material, the extra thick premium mat comfortably cushions your back, hips, knees, arms, elbows, and hands on hard floors.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: So much more comfortable than traditional mats\n\nReview: I'm confused by the reviews that say there was no strap with this mat. I initially thought it came without one, but it was wrapped up in the middle - so don't worry when you get it and you don't immediately see the straps. You'll need them, too, since many non-adjustable yoga mat straps are much too small for this thick mat. If you buy other straps that are more attractive than plain black, just make sure you buy adjustable ones. As you can see in my picture, though, there was a plain black strap with the mat. It smelled a little bit when I first opened it, but after leaving it unfolded overnight, that dissipated.\n\nAs some others have mentioned, there were a few tiny defects in the mat left from where the original packing cut into the edges a bit. They're very, very minor, though, and won't affect usage of the mat. It's a little bit heavy compared to thinner yoga mats, but that's to be expected. The color is really bright and vibrant,so I love that part.\n\nIn terms of usage, this mat is wonderful. I've always hated having to double or triple fold a mat for certain exercises. I don't have to do that at all with this one. It doesn't matter if the surface is concrete, hardwood, etc. It might be a little sponge-y for super intense balancing (handstands) since the mat has a little more give. However, for most purposes, it's great and it absorbs a lot of the pressure on your body.\n\nOne more thing - due to the thickness, this also doubles nicely as a nap mat for little kids.","Product: The Capri length of our legging keeps you cool and always pushing on. With flat seams and a waistband designed to be as comfortable against the body as possible.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Great leggings, comparable to much more expensive brands\n\nReview: When I first received these pants, I looked at them and thought, \"Wait, I'm supposed to fit into THAT??\" I typically wear somewhere between a small and medium in leggings and yoga pants, so I erred on the side of caution and ordered a medium. Still, it looked really, really small.\n\nLuckily, these leggings are a lot stretchier than you'd think by looking at them. Although they do seem to run a little small for the stated size, they fit perfectly. At 5'7\", they were a bit shorter on me than what you see in the picture. If you're much taller than me, you might find the length to be a little annoying. The waistband is great, and it doesn't seem significantly tighter than the rest of the pants (great for avoiding the dreaded muffin top). Compared to Athleta's Chaturanga leggings in size medium, these are a little bit smaller. If you're familiar with Zella leggings, they're also a bit smaller than their medium, too. The fit is fairly similar to the small yoga pants I've gotten from Victoria's Secret.\n.\nAs always, I subjected these capris to the mismatched underwear test. In case you're not familiar with that, it's where you try on the pants with underwear in a color that would be likely to show through, then bend over (as if you were stretching in a fitness class) and see if they show through in the mirror. These capris passed the test. If you wore them really tight, they might not - but when they fit you properly, you should be safe.","Product: Joe's USA(tm) Ladies Moisture Wicking Textured Golf Polos in 12 Colors . With a grid-like texture, this durable, smartly priced polo wicks moisture and controls odor--making it a favorite for team uniforming.Printed with Joe's USA(tm) Logo Inside\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Not the top for me...\n\nReview: I typically wear either a large in juniors sizes or a small in women's, and since this seemed to be directed more at adult women, I decided to go up one size (which is usually a good strategy with these sort of generic shirts. The medium ended up being too large, so I'll definitely be sending it back.\n\nUnfortunately, I won't be getting a replacement because I just wasn't wild about the fabric or the way the shirt hangs. It felt very thin, rough, and cheap. It felt like the kind of rough fabric they'd make cheap basketball shorts out of. Even though I ordered this shirt in bright red, I found that anything other than a red or flesh-toned bra was going to show through (not to mention the very obvious lines, much more than with many other polo shirts).\n\nIn terms of how it hangs, the shirt seems to be cut a little bit wide and it just looks droopy and lifeless. If you're a little wider in the torso, that might be great for your body style - but I'm more of a hip person so I really don't want anything that makes my waist look bigger. This isn't necessarily a terrible shirt, but it's definitely not the right one for me.","Product: The capri length of our Legging keeps you cool and always pushing on. With flat seams and a waistband designed to be as comfortable against the body as possible.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Very happy with these leggings\n\nReview: When I got these pants, I was a little startled by the color. What looked like a softer bubblegum pink turned out to be a very, very bright neon pink. It looks like the pink color you get from a highlighter. Still, I enjoy bright colors so I didn't have a problem with that.\n\nIn terms of size, these fit like a large small or a small medium. They look incredibly tiny, but they stretch quite a lot. I'm a bit high-waisted, so I occasionally find that leggings are too low-waisted and they cause either muffin top or cameltoe issues. These pants weren't too bad on either count as long as I buy medium. The same goes for the transparency. As long as I get the right size and wear flesh-toned undergarments, these are totally fine. For people having issues with those things I would recommend sizing up.\n\nMy favorite thing about these leggings is the softness of the fabric. They're not at all shiny and spandex-y like some leggings.","Product: Americolor Junior Kit, 8 Easy Squeeze .75 ounce bottles: Red Red , Deep Pink, Violet, Sky Blue, Lemon Yellow, Leaf Green, Orange, and Chocolate Brown. Nothing you have ever tried equals the coloring strength of these amazing colors. Imagine the coloring power of a paste in an easy-to-use gel. Soft Gel Paste is packaged in convenient squeeze bottles with a flip-top lid. By mixing and measuring using \"drops\" of Soft Gel Paste, you can achieve precise, easy-to-repeat colors every time.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: I know it's weird to get excited about food coloring...\n\nReview: For years, I've purchased the little jars of Wilton food coloring you find at big box general stores and craft stores. For years, I've found myself ever-so-slightly irritated at the process of getting out bit of food coloring on a toothpick or butter knife, then mixing it in, then realizing I didn't get enough, cleaning off my utensil and doing it again and again until the right color is reached. With this food coloring, that problem is no longer an issue. I love having food coloring in a squirt bottle instead of a jar. It may not be as easy to get the very last bit out of the bottle, but for convenience, it can't be beaten. You can also minimize that problem by storing the jars upside down in the original box.\n\nIn terms of color, I couldn't be happier. It didn't take nearly as much coloring as I expected to achieve really vibrant, bright colors. I will say that if you're looking for primary colors, you might not be totally happy with the blue. It's definitely more of a sky blue than a regular blue. The rest of the colors are exactly what you'd probably expect, though. I've included a picture of some cookies with the blue (and red and green) so you can get an idea of what you're getting.\n\nSince I often bake at my parents' home, I'll be buying a second set of these for their house before the fall and winter baking season is upon us. I'm very glad to have found this food coloring.","Product: Diet Documentary\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: The message was good...\n\nReview: The message in this film was sound, but it wasn't enough to make up for the fact that the entire documentary should have been condensed to roughly half its current length. I watched this with a friend, and after the first 15 minutes or so, we found ourselves saying, \"They JUST said this!\" to every other clip. In a few cases, I think they played the same commentary over, verbatim.\n\nThere are a lot of big names in the film, and I agree with the overall message that most of us should be eating far more vegetables. However, this film didn't really add anything new to the overall dialogue, and it seemed like they were really pushing the whole \"juicing\" lifestyle. I'm all for more vegetables, and juicing is one good way to get more, but it really takes the joy out of eating. I would have liked to see a slightly more moderate approach.","Product: Product Description HECTOR AND THE SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS is the uplifting story of one man's global quest to find out whether happiness truly exists. Featuring stunning performances from an all-star cast including Simon Pegg, Rosamund Pike, Toni Collette, Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgard and Jean Reno. Hector (Simon Pegg - Shaun of the Dead, The Worlds End, Paul) is an eccentric yet loveable psychiatrist who finds himself at a crossroads in life; his patients just aren t getting any happier and his life is going nowhere. Feeling trapped between his mundane daily routine and his neurotic girlfriend, Clara (Rosamund Pike - Made in Dagenham, Jack Reacher), Hector decides to break away from his sheltered London life and go on a global quest to find out whether happiness truly exists - and more importantly, whether it exists for Hector. Along the way he meets friends old and new, learning some valuable lessons on his journey of self discovery that proves equal parts colourful, dangerous, exotic and hilarious. Directed by Peter Chelsom (Funny Bones, Hear My Song) and featuring a career best performance from Simon Pegg as you ve never seen him before, HECTOR AND THE SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS is an inspirational, feel-good adventure that will leave you smiling. About the Director Peter Chelsom was born on April 20, 1956 in Blackpool, Lancashire, England. He is an actor and director, known for Serendipity (2001), Hannah Montana: The Movie (2009) and Shall We Dance (2004).\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Better than the book...\n\nReview: I read this book a couple years ago, and it was a quick, happy little read. I didn't expect to be wildly impressed by the movie, but it turned out to be one of those rare cases where the movie is actually better than the book. Why? The book is short, and it doesn't go the best job of really capturing the experiences Hector has on the road. It doesn't capture the utterly boring, unsatisfying existence Hector was plodding through before his trip. It describes those things, just not as well as the film version.\n\nIn the movie, you get wonderful acting, beautiful scenery, and widely varied pace from place to place. When Hector goes off on a patient in the beginning, you FEEL his frustration with the life he's leading. When he's living the high life in China, you really get a taste of the excitement and anticipation he would surely be feeling. When he finally lets loose and dances with his friends in Africa, you smile because you know he's a changed man.\n\nI'm not saying the book was bad at all, but this is one of those rare cases where the story is better told in film format, and all the right things came together to make it a good one.","Product: Mark Landis has been called one of the most prolific art forgers in US history. His impressive body of work spans thirty years, covering a wide range of painting styles and periods that includes 15th Century Icons, Picasso, and even Walt Disney. And while the copies could fetch impressive sums on the open market, Landis isn't in it for money. Posing as a philanthropic donor, a grieving executor of a family member's will, and most recently as a Jesuit priest, Landis has given away hundreds of works over the years to a staggering list of institutions across the United States. But after duping Matthew Leininger, a tenacious registrar who ultimately discovers the decades-long ruse and sets out to expose his philanthropic escapades to the art world, Landis must confront his own legacy and a chorus of museum professionals clamoring for him to stop. ART AND CRAFT starts out as a cat-and-mouse art caper, rooted in questions of authorship and authenticity -- but what emerges is an intimate story of obsession and the universal need for community, appreciation, and purpose.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Interesting, but not what I expected\n\nReview: I wouldn't call this guy a great art forger so much as he's a skilled mimic who's good at interpersonal deception. As the documentary explains, his forgeries are actually extremely easy to detect if someone attempts to do so. The real trick is that Landis has a lot of convincing characters he uses to persuade museums to take on his artwork. So - if you're looking for a story about the more technical aspects of forgery and detection, you'd probably prefer episodes of the BBC show \"Fake or Fortune\".\n\nThat's not to say this is a bad documentary, it's just not what you might expect when you read descriptions calling Landis the greatest art forger of our time. In reality, the greatest forger is probably someone who's gone largely undetected so far. Truly great forgeries take much more work to detect.\n\nWhat's interesting about this movie, though, is that Landis truly is a talented artist. Although he's working with inauthentic materials (Hobby Lobby frames and colored pencils, even), he produces work that convinces a lot of art museum employees who either lack the time, resources, or motivation to perform the most basic checks for authenticity. Although most of the deception occurs at smaller museums, the film mentions that some of his work has appeared in many of the largest art museums in the US. In some cases, the exact same work is donated to multiple museums. Insanity! Isn't there some database where even the laziest and time-hungry employees could search out the works to make sure they weren't claiming ownership of duplicates? It really makes you wonder...\n\nThe bulk of the film focuses on Landis and his personal history. It's a portrait of mental illness coupled with breathtaking talent. It can be a little slow at times, and it lacks structure that could have made it flow a bit better, but it's still very interesting.","Product: The surface of the smooth and bright\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Sturdy and effective case...\n\nReview: After spending almost $900 on a phone, I definitely wanted to get a good case. I was a little worried there wouldn't be any good cases for such an odd-shaped phone, but this one turned out to be perfect. I ordered the red one, and like another review said, it's not quite as pretty and shiny as it looks in the pictures. It's definitely more of a matte primary colored red than a pearly or shiny red.\n\nStill, I like the combination of hard case and rubbery case. I've dropped my phone a few times now from 3-4 foot heights onto tile and bamboo floors, and I haven't had any issues at all. There's a tiny mark in the bamboo where I dropped the phone once, but the phone itself is great. The other thing I like about this case is that the edge you wrap your fingers around is slightly curved. It makes it easier to get a good firm grip on the phone. The times I dropped it were times I was NOT holding it by that edge.\n\nFinally, if you've used your Galaxy Note Edge without a case at all, you probably realize it's very easy to bump the side screen and do things you didn't intend to do. Ever since I put my phone in this case, it stopped being a problem. There's a tiny lip that curves around that side, and that's just enough to keep your hand off the screen. The only thing that could make me happier about this case is if they had some patterned options or more attractive colors. The matte red is okay, but it wouldn't be my first choice. It's a shame iPhone people get to have all the fun with cases.","Product: With his warm and wonderous tone and texture, Kenny G is the Gentleman of Jazz. His saxophone takes us to places that quicken our senses and delight our imagination. As a teenaged member of Barry White's Love Unlimited Orchestra, Kenny learned about sensuality and seduction from a master, and over the course of his spectacular career he's applied those lessons to make smooth and sophisticated odes to romance, passions and spirituality. In the process he's become the world's best-selling instrumental and jazz musician. Arista. 2006.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: I hate buying CDs, but...\n\nReview: As a general rule, I don't buy CDs anymore. The only exception is if the CD offers something impossible to find or really incredible. In this case, I bought the CD for the liner notes. Given that Kenny G songs don't have lyrics, I've always wondered what inspired them or what they were about. You listen to the songs and your mind interprets them in various ways, but you never know if it's the same thing the artist had in mind. When I read that this particular album came with commentary on each song, I cringed a little at the idea of buying a CD and then hit the \"purchase\" button.\n\nI'm glad I did. Not only is it a good album (even though I already own copies of all the songs in MP3 format) - it's just cool being able to read through Kenny G's notes on each song. I've seen him in concert twice now, and while he's an incredibly warm and entertaining guy, you don't hear a lot of commentary on the specific songs. This was a nice change of pace.","Product: Simple, clean and full of features - this hardcover notebook is designed with the professional in mind.\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: Nice, but that sticker on the front needs to go...\n\nReview: I wanted to like this notebook. The lines are nice and narrow, the paper is smooth, and it's very sturdy. Unfortunately, It arrived with a giant sticker baked onto the front. Even though I tried to pull it off slowly and gently, it ripped the front of the notebook in several places, making it look beat up and cheap. When you're paying a bit extra for a premium notebook, it shouldn't be ripped up on the front from the first moment you get it. They should have used a type of sticker that released more easily (or better yet, no sticker at all).\n\nOtherwise, it's a great notebook. If you like to travel light, you might find the thick cardboard covers to be a bit much, but it's a very nice notebook with adequately thick paper and a handy plastic pocket. I just wish it wasn't all ripped up from a stupid marketing sticker.","Product: When youre in the middle of packing boxes, the last thing you want to do is search endlessly for the end of the tape. The search is over with Scotch Sure Start Shipping Packaging Tape. This tough, strong tape comes off the roll easily and smoothly with no slivering or splitting. This tape also delivers a smooth and quiet unwind, and when it quietly unwinds off the roll and onto your package, it stays onkeeping your package securely sealed. Clear to the core, Scotch Sure Start Packaging Tape works beautifully for home and office. It stands up to rough handlingbut so easy to handle. Scotch Sure Start Shipping Packaging Tapealways easy, always ready to help you get the job done.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: High quality packing tape\n\nReview: I volunteer from time to time at a charity that sends clothing and supplies to families in need. They use the most awful packing tape. It's thin, cheap, and prone to getting tangled or ripped in annoying ways. I spend way too much time trying to peel the tape off the roll and get it back to a straight edge (instead of many tiny rips).\n\nThis tape is the polar opposite of that cheap tape. It's what I use at home, and it makes box taping a quick and headache-free task. I've never seen it rip longways, and the dispenser ensures that it's almost always ready to use (every once in a great while, the roll gets bumped around in a drawer and the tape gets stuck back to the roll, but that's a storage issue rather than a dispenser issue).\n\nThis tape is also a much better value than the little rolls. It doesn't SEEM that much longer, but it really is. I would happily buy this again.","Product: Double wall, single wall construction. Stylish, colorful, and strong for a variety of applications. Medium-duty stacking strength for moderate use with or without shelving. Fast Fold quick and easy assembly. Deep, locking lift-off lid stays in place for secure file storage.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Sturdy and appropriately sized, but prepare to get dirty\n\nReview: These boxes are much more attractive than most similar boxes, and I still can't figure out why more brands don't attempt to make things like boxes and filing cabinets more attractive. I like that the boxes are wide enough for files, but short enough that it doesn't get really heavy if the box is totally full of papers and notebooks. I would imagine that most adults could carry a full box without too much trouble. The handles are nice and sturdy, and so far there's no sign of damage or wear as I've been moving mine around with full loads.\n\nThe only complaint I have is that as of January 2016 (when I ordered mine), they're still bleeding black ink all over the place. Mod Podge spray does solve the problem, but who wants to have to breathe that stuff in? It would be so much better if they could just use a different kind of coating/cardboard on the finished product and charge a little more if they have to. Nobody wants dirty hands every time they need to access something in one of their boxes.","Product: Color image class multifunction laser printer with wireless, print, scan, copy and fax functions, and all mode duplexing. Canon print business, air print, Mopria, Google Cloud print capabilities. Nfc and secure print capabilities.\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: Got a 60-pound paperweight, learned just how bad Canon's support is...\n\nReview: I'm not sure if I got a lemon or what, but this is the first printer of many I've owned that I was completely unable to set up. From the moment I powered it on, it flashed a red error light, even after repeatedly turning it off and on in hopes of clearing it out. When I went through the on-screen setup, I kept getting an error saying there was a job in progress (and there obviously wasn't a job in progress). I checked all over the machine to make sure I hadn't missed any tape or packing materials, and I didn't find anything. They also sent me the wrong driver disk, so I had to go online to get drivers. That didn't matter, though - because neither wireless nor USB hookups would find the printer.\n\nIt's possible this is just a fluke, but I want to caution anyone buying a piece of Canon equipment because their support is the real reason I'm returning this instead of exchanging or sending it in for repair. After a good hour of frustration, I called into their support line, around 11am on a Saturday. I went through their phone menu, only to finally be told they are closed. Why not just say that first? Or better yet, have a support staff on weekends like most companies these days.\n\nAfter that, I went to the website. I tried it in both Firefox and Chrome, and both gave errors when I tried to submit a support ticket. After another frustrating half hour of attempting to contact them in ANY way, I gave up. Even though it's over 60 pounds and a colossal pain to package it back up, I've had enough of dealing with Canon. Even if it was repaired, I hate the idea that owning this printer would mean I might have to contact them again at some point down the road.\n\nI can't vouch for how well it functions when it does work, but some of the other reviewers have done a great job of commenting on that side of things.","Product: Tinted, confidential and self-sealing envelopes, these are perfect for the home office or professional business setting.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: I would definitely buy these again\n\nReview: I bought these envelopes when I needed to do a bulk mailing, and they worked wonderfully. In addition to saving a ton of money over buying smaller packs at the store, the quality was great. Unlike some envelopes I've purchased where they weren't very flat and they got stuck in the printer, these went through with no issues at all.\n\nI also liked that the container they come in is reasonably sturdy, so it's great for storing any leftover envelopes. There's not a whole lot more I can say about these, but I felt like they definitely lived up to the promises made in the description (right size, security tinted so you can't read through the envelope, and reasonably good adhesive).","Product: The Catch master Moth and Pantry Pest Trap now comes in a 3 Pack! The best value in pest control just got even better. Household pests are more than just an unsightly nuisance; they can be major vectors of bacteria and viruses, not to mention the fact that they can destroy your foodstuffs when they enter your kitchen and pantry. with your health and safety in mind, Catch master brings you these super-effective, naturally activated moth traps that eradicate Indian meal moths, flour moths and most other food infesting moths. Non-toxic and easily disposable, these traps use pheromone lures to capture and destroy moths for up to three months, keeping your pantry and food stores clean and free from the threat of bacterial and viral infection. These traps will control the Indian Meal Moth, Tobacco Moth, Mediterranean Flour Moth and Raisin Moth. The pheromone lure is included and lasts for three months. Contains three traps and three pheromone lures in protective packages. Please refer to and follow the directions on the Catch master Moth Trap product label.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Safe for my birds and very effective\n\nReview: I really didn't want to buy these traps. Unfortunately, after spending weeks attempting to catch and release all the moths in my apartment (and throwing out tons of bad food), I had to either get traps or settle for living with moths in my home. I have pet birds, and I suspect the moths came in with dove seed or spray millet.\n\nThe hard thing about having birds and moths is that you can't use just any pest control method. Birds have extremely delicate respiratory systems and you can kill them or cause severe lung damage if you're not careful. Sprays are completely out of the question unless you relocate the birds for a week or more to let the place air out (and then wipe everything down for residue). These traps were labeled as bird safe and several other bird people mentioned that they worked well in their homes, so I bought them.\n\nI do want to note that I didn't put the traps NEAR the birds, though. They were all at least a room away, and I made sure the birds were closely monitored any time they were out of the cage. I have no idea whether the trap would be dangerous if they chewed on it (as parrots so often do with many things).\n\nI still feel bad about killing all those moths, but I have to admit the traps worked extremely well. I kept them out for about a month to get all the living moths plus any eggs that might hatch, and it wiped out the problem completely. Since then, I've developed a habit of freezing bird seed when I get it, then keeping it in an airtight container. The problem hasn't returned.","Product: Tightly rolled paper lollipop sticks that birds love to chew and peel, bunched together in a sturdy wooden block.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Great for the little parrots, too!\n\nReview: Over the years, I've purchased multiple copies of this toy - both from Amazon and local pet stores. It's a favorite at our house, and both my green cheek conure and my sun conure are big fans. Depending on their mood, they'll use it either as a perch or as a target of their playful aggression. For birds of this size, it ends up lasting quite a while, though I expect an amazon or macaw would make short work of it.\n\nIt took a while for my birds to decide they liked this, but I found that if I \"get it started\" by peeling one or two of the sticks just a bit, they take to it very quickly. My only real caution about this item is that if it gets wet (or if you put it near a water bowl they splash in), it can get very messy, very quickly. My birds have bathed and then perched, only to leave colorful footprints on their light-colored perches. It's not a huge deal, but if you're not expecting it, it can be a bit startling (especially if they're tracking the red dye of the base around, since it can look a bit bloody).\n\nOne more fun idea with this toy - get a spray millet and strip a few inches of the middle section, then weave that part of the stem through the lollipop sticks, effectively holding the spray millet in place. My birds love it when things move to different spots in their cage, and this has been a favorite for them.","Product: The Living World Pedi-Perch is an essential addition to your bird's home. It is a cement bird perch that helps trim and maintain blunt, well-groomed nails. The multi-grip wave surface promotes foot circulation and helps prevent arthritis and atrophy. In addition, the Pedi-Perch helps clean and condition the bird's beak.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Great perches, but check the measurements!\n\nReview: I recently bought one of these perches for my conure's long nails, and I ordered based on the stats posted here. According to the description, the diameter of the perch was 1 inch. When I received the perch, it was monstrously huge - more than 1 inch diameter at the smallest point, and over 2 inches at the wider parts. I had to send it back.\n\nMy recommendation would be to check the measurements elsewhere before buying. It's a great perch, but you need to get the right size. It's possible that the listing will be updated at some point and render my review inaccurate, but it's still better to quickly double-check so you don't have to waste time doing a return.","Product: Bird Kabobs are the ultimate shreddable bird toys. Made from a soft pithy wood. They are irresistible to all hookbill birds from parakeets to macaws. They satisfy the instinctual need of these birds to chew. They have been described as bird catnip. Recommended by veterinarians for for birds with feather picking problems. Legendary among bird lovers worldwide. You'll be amazed at the site of your bird enjoying the bird Kabob. These are truly the most sensational bird toys ever made.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Great toy, but take safety precautions\n\nReview: My sun conure absolutely adores these shreddable kabob toys. We've been through dozens over the 11 years she's lived with me, and she's always excited when I give her a new one.\n\nThat said, you have to be careful with these. First, make sure you tighten the loop at the top. The loop is big enough for a small bird to get their head stuck, and that would be horrific. You should also be careful to supervise your bird with this toy, especially in the beginning (as with any new toy). It's relatively easy to get a claw stuck in the rope, especially as the toy gets more shredded. I would love to see a version of this toy where it's mounted on a short wooden dowel with a metal fastener instead. It would be much safer, and I'd happily pay extra if that made it more expensive.","Product: Maturity and inactivity can lead to a loss of muscle mass. At the same time, adipose tissues will accumulate, so the risk of obesity is very real. The cat can lose its appetite because of dental problems and a poorer sense of smell and taste. The effects of aging become apparent especially in terms of kidney, joint function, immune and digestive systems. An exclusive combination of powerful antioxidants, including Vitamin E, to help allay the impact of free radicals responsible for cell ageing. A softer kibble, easily broken in your cat's mouth, can help to protect sensitive teeth and gums. Improved digestibility of the food in your cat's gastrointestinal tract may contribute to smaller and less foul smelling feces. Available in 2.5 lbs.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Great for an FIV+ cat with sore gums\n\nReview: When a stray cat showed up at my door and walked right in, I knew I had to help her. She was starving to death and had a bandage around her paw that was cutting off circulation and causing her paw to swell up to three times its normal size. After getting her to the vet, I found out she was FIV+, had a rib deformity, was not microchipped, and she had a lot of dental issues. They weren't able to guess her age with any accuracy, but because she had tender gums, I decided to try feeding her this semi-soft mature cat food.\n\nPrior to its arrival, she was eating a variety of other things I tried, and they all seemed to make her vomit. Royal Canin did not. The vomiting stopped almost immediately after she got this food, and she has been eating it happily for several months now. I give her this as a primary food, with the occasional wet food treat on the side. Her coat has gotten much healthier, her gums are a little less swollen, and she doesn't seem to have the constipation issues she was having before. I don't see us switching foods as long as she continues to enjoy this one.","Product: Birds are captivated by the sounds of the rainforest coming from this colorful and interactive toy. Tons of colorful beads cascade through small holes to mimic the tropical sounds of the rainforest. Made of tough polycarbonate\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Huge hit with my sun conure\n\nReview: My sun conure may be a small bird, but she adores this toy. We usually play with it together, as it's a bit heavy for her. However, once we get going, she will grab onto the plastic chain loops (places where you can connect the chain) and shake with all her might. She can usually get some sound out of it, and occasionally she'll toss it with such force that it swings back and she \"falls\" off the perch backwards and laughs hysterically. She loves it, and immediately climbs back up and goes after it again. She also likes to grab hold and bang it against her food bowl\n\nOther times, I'll just turn it from side to side so she can enjoy the sounds and colorful beads. I like to rotate my birds' toys for maximum stimulation, and I just put this one back in her cage after a month's absence. She hasn't stopped playing with it all night.","Product: The Hall of Mirrors Activitoy is one of our top selling classics. It's innovative design creates a bird sized fun house mirror so that your bird can see infinite images of itself. This stimulating toy is sure to delight your bird and help to keep him vibrant and energetic. Suitable for parakeets and cockatiels and other similar sized birds.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Birds love this mirror...\n\nReview: My parrots are apparently quite vain, as they can spend hours wedged inside this little mirror and chatting to themselves. It seems they enjoy it both as a mirror and as a cozy snuggle spot at the end of the perch (and they have those furry Birdy Buddy things, so it's not like I don't give them anything to cuddle).\n\nThe product is very sturdy, and I haven't noticed any cracks or breaks even after my sun conure chewed on hers. Still, as with all bird toys, be sure to check since your mileage may vary. A bigger bird would probably destroy this mirror with ease.\n\nPigeons and doves are also quite fond of this item, as a good friend of mine has purchased a couple for his aviary and they love them. The male is especially fond of practicing his mating sounds and movements in front of the mirror.\n\nOverall, 5 stars. I've yet to meet a bird that didn't like this particular mirror.","Product: The Hall of Mirrors Activitoy is one of our top selling classics. It's innovative design creates a bird sized fun house mirror so that your bird can see infinite images of itself. This stimulating toy is sure to delight your bird and help to keep him vibrant and energetic. Suitable for parakeets and cockatiels and other similar sized birds.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Birds love this mirror...\n\nReview: My parrots are apparently quite vain, as they can spend hours wedged inside this little mirror and chatting to themselves. It seems they enjoy it both as a mirror and as a cozy snuggle spot at the end of the perch (and they have those furry Birdy Buddy things, so it's not like I don't give them anything to cuddle).\n\nThe product is very sturdy, and I haven't noticed any cracks or breaks even after my sun conure chewed on hers. Still, as with all bird toys, be sure to check since your mileage may vary. A bigger bird would probably destroy this mirror with ease.\n\nPigeons and doves are also quite fond of this item, as a good friend of mine has purchased a couple for his aviary and they love them. The male is especially fond of practicing his mating sounds and movements in front of the mirror.\n\nOverall, 5 stars. I've yet to meet a bird that didn't like this particular mirror.","Product: The Creative Foraging Systems Foraging Carousel is the perfect good-time system for your favorite bird friends to keep entertained. The super-easy to mount Foraging Carousel can be hang on either side of the cage and it stays securely on place while your bird learns the four different ways to access the treat: Two open on hinges, one has to be pulled up from the front and one pulled up from the back. This gives Birdy a real challenge and turns treat time into play time, making it fun for you and your pet. Plus, Avian Veterinarians recommend Foraging Systems to help reduce stress and boredom in your Parrots life.The Carousel is made from Durable Polycarbonate and is very easy to clean and dishwasher safe. Dont wait any longer, Buy a Creative Foraging Systems Foraging Carousel today and see how happy your bird will be.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: My sun conure thought this was an evil monster sent to kill her\n\nReview: My sun conure has the Creative Foraging Systems Wheel already, and she loves it. Even after several years, she hasn't grown bored with it. This toy, on the other hand, was not well-received. First off, it doesn't seem to hang perfectly straight on the wall of the cage. Some of the doors wouldn't stay shut.\n\nStill, I gave it a try and put my bird's favorite treats in the doors that WOULD close. Unfortunately, she decided that this toy was actually a monster sent to kill her, and she cowered in the opposite corner of the cage until I realized I would never get her to like this thing. This is AFTER I let the toy sit near her cage for several days (so she could get used to seeing it). I ended up sending this back. Between the faulty doors that wouldn't stay shut and the fact that it was inflicting psychological torture on my bird, I didn't see any reason to keep it.","Product: Birds, especially parrots, have the urge and need to chew on things. The Paradise Toys Popsicle Sticks chew toy is the perfect thing to keep your favorite feathered friend happily occupied for hours on end. The toy will make Birdy delirious as he or she gleefully attacks the wooden sticks. Its pure joy to them and theyll love you forever when you hang it in their cage. Buy this fun and funky bird toy today and give your bird the time of their life.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: A favorite of my green cheek conure...\n\nReview: This is probably my green cheek conure's favorite toy in the whole world. I've purchased this toy from tons of different places over the years, including Amazon, and I expect I'll continue buying one every few months for as long as I'm lucky enough to have my little conure (she's 13 now). I tried giving one to my sun conure once, but she killed it within a couple hours so it was a very poor return on investment. I can imagine an Amazon or macaw or African gray would destroy it even faster.\n\nHowever, if you have a tiny bird like a green cheek conure or cockatiel or budgie, this is a fantastic toy. They get something they can properly destroy, and you get a happy, occupied little bird. I also wanted to point out that on all the ones I've purchased (including the ones here at Amazon), the middle beads were always made of wood. I strongly prefer that since the plastic seems more likely to cause problems.","Product: Trixie's rolanda cat tree will provide endless opportunities for cats to play, explore, scratch or just relax. Felines can sharpen their claws on one of four sisal wrapped scratching post instead of on your furniture or carpet, giving them a healthy outlet for their scratching instincts. for a nap or a cozy retreat, the cat can curl up inside the large condo with peek-a-boo hole at the top. It's covered in plush both inside and out. A sisal wrapped ladder leads directly up to the condo. Spunky cats can jump, climb or perch atop the top platform and lie in wait for unsuspecting prey or simply enjoy the view. It's padded and features a backrest for extra support. We also included a dangling plush toy and rope for added fun. The neutral tones are easy to integrate into your home dcor. Dimensions 18 by 20 by 51-Inch. Weight 30-pound. Color brown. Suitable for cats of all ages and activity levels. One year warranty.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: A nice compact option for small to mid-sized kitties\n\nReview: I purchased this cat tree for a friend's cat, and while she took a while to come around to it, she loves it now. The scratching post legs have saved furniture while indulging the cat's need to scratch, and the small footprint makes it perfect for the cat's small \"bedroom\". I particularly like the enclosed (and super soft) middle section since it gives the cat a quiet and safe place to hide out when it storms or when she just wants to be alone.\n\nThe only real caution about this cat tree is that it's a bit small and cramped for larger cats. This particular cat is about 9 pounds and relatively petite, so it's a reasonable size for her, but even still, I'd prefer to larger one for her if space allowed. If your cat is 13+ pounds, this tree is going to feel very small, and the top platform will be nearly useless.","Product: HQ flight cage is a multi-purpose bird cage. Great for smaller birds like parakeets, canaries, finches, lovebirds and cockatiels. 3/8-inch bar spacing. Comes with 2 trough feeders and cart stand.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: A solid choice for small to mid-sized birds\n\nReview: For the price, you won't find a better cage for a small to medium-sized bird (cockatiels, lovebirds, conures, finches, etc.). It's surprisingly hard to find a sizable cage with the bar spacing needed for tiny bird heads, and this one delivers. It's also very affordable compared to some of the fancier cages out there. I just purchased three of this cage for my birds, and I've purchased several other variations of this cage over the years. Some had a single large front door, which made it a little awkward to reach into parts of the cage. I definitely like that this one has both a top and bottom door.\n\nOne thing I don't like, though, is that the side doors were not as pictured, and they were not at all like the ones on my past cages. Instead of the normal wire openings you can see on the sides in the picture for this listing, the doors on the ones I received are more solid, and much harder to clip shut. And yes, you'll probably want to clip them shut, as parrots are sneaky and smart and they will escape (doves and finches, not so much). I learned that the hard way, and had a small bird fight on my hands. In the past, I've used the little metal fasteners I had left over from previously demolished bird toys. With the new side doors, I'm going to have to come up with a different solution. Zip ties would be chewed up pretty quickly, after all. I'd say I wish they would just stop making the side doors entirely, but they're REALLY handy armholes when you're trying to secure things to the back of the cage without someone to help you.\n\nOverall, this is a great cage for the money. I wish other cage manufacturers had better options for the little birds, but these cages will work until someone gets a clue and makes a large, fancy cage with small bar spacing. They're very sturdy, easy to clean, and cheap enough that I don't mind buying new ones every so often when I notice a bit of wear and tear.","Product: Prevue's cozy corner helps creates a protected environment that keeps your bird warm even in drafty areas or seasonal weather.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: My birds love these!\n\nReview: My sun conure and green cheek conure hate when I travel because it means they'll be staying in an unfamiliar place in smaller than usual cages. I make sure they have all their favorite toys and treats, but it's the Cozy Corner that makes it all work. Without their Cozy Corners, they're miserable and they don't sleep well. Once I put those in the cages, though, they simply cuddle up to the Cozy Corner and it calms them down instantly.\n\nI keep several sets of extra Cozy Corners around, both at home and when they're staying with my family or friends. Not only do I make sure they always have one in whatever cage they're using, but I also check them regularly for snags or holes. Birds can get stuck in loose strings or holes very easily, so it's important to make sure they're always using one that's perfectly intact.","Product: Coastal Pet Products-Comfort Soft Adjustable Mesh Cat Harness. This Comfortable, Lightweight Harness Is Great For Walking Your Cat. Not Only Does It Distribute Leash Pressure Evenly Across The Neck And Shoulders, It Adjusts To Fit. This Package Contains One Adjustable Harness. Fits Most Cats' Necks Between 10 Inches And 18 Inches, And Girths Between 14 Inches And 16 Inches. Comes In A Variety Of Colors. Each Sold Separately. Imported.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Not bad, but not suitable for all situations.\n\nReview: I've trained a number of cats to walk on leashes now, but it's only recently that I've used a harness like this. I'm training one cat to go live in anothe state, so I wanted to find a harness that would be TSA friendly. She hates to be held, so I was concerned she might get away when the carrier got x-rayed. Most cat harnesses have too much metal to make it through a metal detector, but this one just has one tiny metal ring. The rest is fabric or plastic.\n\nI would NOT recommend this harness for outdoor walks. For many cats, it goes uncomfortably high on the neck. More importantly, most cats can slip out of it pretty easily. Instead, I would recommend the kind that comes up from under both sides of the arms and fastens tightly around the shoulders.\n\nOn the other hand, if you're going to be indoors (like in a pet therapy situation) or you need a harness with very minimal metal, this might do the trick for you. The extra small was a good fit for the 7 pound female I've been working with.","Product: The Cliff bed ultra plush pet bed designed for pets up to 50 lbs. Removable and washable cushion cover, elevated bed for draft free sleeping. Full loft cushion. Bed size - 34.5\" length, 22.5\" wide, 17\" high. Enchanted Home Pet furniture eases your pet into a luxurious cushion that engulfs them in complete comfort and warmth. Inner cushion is designed to work with Enchanted Home Pet's Therapeutics products which can provide an added level of comfort for pets with aches and ailments with technology that provides heating cooling and magnetic therapy Born from the determination to develop the highest quality and most innovative products, Enchanted Home Pet's attention to detail, design and functionality is unmatched by any pet products anywhere.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Not quite like the photo...\n\nReview: We recently purchased this for an elderly cat with a bit of arthritis in her back legs. We wanted something that wasn't too tall, with plenty of room for her to extend her legs when necessary. Although this couch works, we did have a little trouble with it initially due to the weird cushions. Out of the box, the main cushion was extremely uneven and lumpy, as you can see in the photos. When she tried to lay on it, she would roll back into the lower areas.\n\nTo help out with the unevenness, we took turns sitting on the couch a little each day to help smoosh the cushion down. We also put a large towel over the couch to keep Captain Hook from rolling into the cracks, and to give her a bit of traction control. That seemed to help a lot, though I think it will be a bit longer before it's as flat as in the photo. We definitely would have preferred a higher quality cushion that wasn't so lumpy and mountainous out of the box. A more dense foam (or even a layer of memory foam) would have been great.","Product: Test your coordination and concentration with this set of three juggling balls. These bead-filled juggling balls are covered with bright multi-colored fabric and weighted just right for juggling ease. Included step-by-step instructions teach even the clumsiest of individuals how to juggle. You'll want to show off your juggling skills to everyone with these fabulous juggling balls. Includes 3 beaded juggling balls with stitched vinyl covering. Each ball measures approximately 2\" in diameter. Recommended for ages +.\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: These balls smelled funny\n\nReview: I order all my balls with Amazon and I'm usually more than satisfied - but these were definitely the worst. The first thing I noticed is that the balls were coated in some kind of fine powder. It left my hands sticky and it smelled terrible. Did Amazon send me toxic balls? Who knows...\n\nAnyway, after I thoroughly cleaned the balls, I decided to see how they handle. Balance wasn't bad, and the balls appeared to be evenly weighted. The real problem was durability. These balls have to be handled pretty delicately, and really - who does that? After a few drops, one of the balls was already starting to show some wear. After less than a week, I've already retired them. The last thing I need is to have odd-smelling balls spilling their contents all over my living room.","Product: It's the honest truth that Jiminy Cricket is not only a wise conscience but also a soft and cuddly one as a Mini Bean Bag Plush Toy! Wish upon a star for fun playtime with this dapper Jiminy Cricket plush figure.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: A lovely small gift and perfect gift to pair with a DVD...\n\nReview: One of my young relatives has a rare and fatal brain iron accumulation disease called INAD. As a result, she's lost a lot of muscle mass and she isn't able to hold heavy or large stuffed animals. This small Jiminy Cricket was perfect for her - and a great addition to her growing collection of small plush Disney creatures. Anything that can make her smile is an immediate 5-star product.\n\nI love the Jiminy because he's an under-appreciated Disney character and he doesn't really skew male or female in terms of who's interested in him. He also delivered some of the best, most uplifting lines in Disney history, so he would be a great gift along with a Pinocchio DVD (or any of his other films - he's been in quite a few Disney titles).","Product: Aurora World Flopsie animals are made with top quality materials and soft plush. The poly-bean filling is double bagged for safety and Flopsies feature lock washer eyes, ensuring durability and long time enjoyment. Aurora World is an industry leader with over 30 years of experience designing and manufacturing innovative, high quality plush products.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Looks just like a cat I know...\n\nReview: I bought this for my best friend's cats because it looks just like their friend Catcat (pictured here). We got Catcat to get her scent all over the stuffed toy, and now it serves as a nice substitute in between cat playdates. Initially, they even treated it a bit like another cat, with one going so far as to lick it - but now they know better and just enjoy it as a toy.\n\nThis would also be a great stuffed animal for a small child. It's super soft, and the combination of partial bean filling with mostly normal stuffing gives it a really nice floppiness. It's not so heavy or large that it would be a pain to drag around, but it's not so small that you need to worry about it getting lost easily.","Product: Find all of your favorite dinosaurs in this assortment of prehistoric creatures. This toy dino figure will make any themed party come alive. Animal figures are fun for any goody bag or as prizes for a school or church carnival.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Perfect for my needs...\n\nReview: These dinos are not huge or fancy, but they worked perfectly for my purposes. My 3-year-old nephew had requested \"a toy tree with dinosaurs\" for his birthday, so I bought a silk tree and hung these dinosaurs from the branches. That little weirdo loved it.\n\nThat said, there are a couple things that might bother you if you don't know in advance. First off, they ARE pretty small. They're not put-them-in-your-mouth-and-choke-on-them small, but they're only a few inches long. They make great pets for your action figures, and they can ride in toy cars pretty easily.\n\nYou also get quite a few duplicates. This didn't bother me (the nephew loves to match up like things), but I could see how some people might not like that. Other than those two things, though, I think it's a great set. They're cute, sturdy, and easy to clean (not too many weird crevices, and the paint didn't come off easily when scrubbing one."],"string":"[\n \"Product: Equipped with 30 piano-style treble keys and 32 bass buttons, the Barcelona30-Key Piano-StyleAccordion is ideal for the beginning or intermediate musician in search of a great value. The entry-level accordion comes in a variety of colors -- black, white, blue, gray, red, green, and tricolor (red, white, green) -- all of them beautifully designed, especially for such an economically priced instrument. Notable design elements include a marble faux exterior and a stylized bellows. In addition, the accordion comes with a deluxe hardshell carrying case with lock and key, so you can ensure that your instrument stays in mint condition. A great value that offers both attractive sound and design at an easily affordable price, the Barcelona30-Key Piano-StyleAccordion makes for a wonderful gift.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: A Good Beginner Accordion\\n\\nReview: First off, let me be very clear - if you're serious about playing the accordion and you know you'll be doing it for a long time, skip this instrument. On the other hand, if you're a beginning student and you're not sure whether it's going to become a regular part of your life, this accordion is perfect for you.\\n\\nThe Pros:\\n\\n-Decent-sized Keyboard (not the largest, but also not so small as to be a handicap early on)\\n-32 Bass Buttons - It's a far cry from the number of bass buttons on most \\\"professional\\\" accordions, but a lot of more expensive student models come with just 12. This gives you a bit more to work with\\n-Affordable - It's tough to find a new accordion for less\\n-Comes with a case and straps. The case is pretty wimpy, but it WILL keep the dust off. If you're on a tight budget, the inclusion of these extras is great.\\n-The accordion smells a little bit like a skating rink. You might consider this a con, but I don't mind the small dose of childhood nostalgia every time I practice.\\n\\nThe Cons:\\n\\n-This is not the smoothest accordion you'll ever find. It works, and it sounds okay, but it's nowhere near professional quality in feel and sound.\\n-The free straps are functional, but not super comfortable for long practices. If you can spare another $30, I would highly recommend getting the Hohner padded straps sold elsewhere on Amazon. I'm very glad that I did.\\n-You will eventually need to upgrade if you find that you love the accordion. On the bright side, you can probably sell this thing on Craigslist for at least 1/2 to 2/3rds of what you paid for it.\\n\\nIn summary, this is a great budget accordion for someone who wants to test the waters and see if the accordion is really for them. If you're very serious about the accordion, though, get something better. As much as I like mine, I'm already shopping for a nice Hohner or something similar to replace it. I'm glad I didn't drop $1000+ on a nice one from the beginning, though.\",\n \"Product: The Dragonpad USA 6\\\" Microphone Studio Pop Filter was designed with one question in mind, how do you create a high quality, yet economical, solution for anyone who wants to record clearer audio in less takes? This pop filter is the answer. But why do you need a pop filter you ask? Two words, aspirated plosives. When speaking, or singing, certain letters and sounds (such as p and b) can create a burst of air which can lead to clipping in your recordings. The dual nylon layers in this filter work by trapping and dispersing the air caused by these letters, preventing the bursts from reaching your microphone. Additional benefits include reducing errant breath noise and removing lisping from some s sounds. The screen also protects your microphone from saliva and moisture. This magical screen is connected to a super flexible, but strong, 13 metal gooseneck. The articulated arm allows you to curve up, over, and around your stand to put the pop filter exactly where you want it. The metal c-clamp with thumbscrew fastener attaches the pop filter to most microphones and stands, while the soft padding protects the finish of whatever you put it on. Perfect for casual and professional recording this pop filter works great for recording, and live streaming, on YouTube and Twitch as well as recording pod-casts and voice over work. Avaialble in an assortment of colors/combinations to allow you the freedom to customize your studio exactly the way you like! Package will contain One (1) Pink on White Pop-Filter.\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: This thing was a waste of time...\\n\\nReview: I was not impressed with this pop filter at all. The filter part was too heavy to be supported by the metal arm, and the part that attached to the mic was prone to moving around, too (even after securing it very tightly). The whole thing just felt cheap, and I found that I spent more time trying to keep it in place than focusing on what was being recorded. I ultimately send it back and switched over to a Yeti microphone with a foam top. While some people say the foam covers aren't as good, I haven't noticed any issues with it, and others have said the audio sounds great.\\n\\nThe only redeeming feature is that it does do what a pop filter is supposed to do - it just doesn't do it in an easy or convenient way.\",\n \"Product: Set your party table with these elegant flourish place cards from martha stewart crafts. Features scalloped edge and silver border. Includes 12-piece, 3-1/2-inch by 2-inch folded.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: I wish these worked in the printer...\\n\\nReview: I used these place cards as cookie labels for a party so I wouldn't have to keep telling people what kind of cookie they were able to grab. The cards looked great (see picture below), but they would have looked better with someone else's handwriting. After purchasing them, I came to the realization that it would have been really nice if they came in flat printer-sized sheets of cardstock with a Microsoft Word template for printing out the cards. Granted, some people have beautiful handwriting and they might like writing it on - but I don't, and a printing option would have been nice.\\n\\nIf I get these again, I'll probably get someone else to write on them or use a labelmaker to get a better overall look. It's a shame to spend money on the cards and then have the look cheapened by my less than beautiful penmanship. Still, that's a pretty minor issue and the cards themselves are simple, elegant, and high-quality. These would be great at almost any party or event.\",\n \"Product: Sold as a set in a tray of 8 assorted colors. Comes with white, black, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, and red\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Colorful, long-lasting, and a great value for the price\\n\\nReview: I bought this sunblock for a circus trip to the Caribbean, and it's perfect. The colors are thick and bright, and the \\\"chapstick\\\" style containers make it easy to apply without getting your fingers all gross. I promised my sister that she and her kids could have the rest when I'm back from the trip, and they were extremely excited. You can make a lot of neat designs with this many colors - much more than with the old tubes of nothing but florescent colors. If you have a small makeup brush (or a set of small brushes), it would be pretty easy to use this for creating more detailed \\\"face painting\\\" designs.\\n\\nI really don't have any complaints about this sunblock. One of the tubes did sort of break, but it was easy to snap the piece back on, and it worked fine after that. The color stays put all day, and it doesn't sweat off or fade in water like a lot of sunblock does. At around $12-13 for 8 tubes, it's a better value than a lot of regular chapstick-style sunblocks...and it's fun!\",\n \"Product: Travel Buddies luggage set for kids, are perfect for travelling near or far. The set includes a 18\\\" rolling ABS suitcase that is light weight but strong and also includes a matching 13\\\" back pack for daily travel essentials.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Great value, gorgeous suitcase set\\n\\nReview: This set offers a great value. I gifted the suitcase to my niece and the backpack to my nephew, and both were thrilled. The colors were as vibrant as in the pictures, the zippers worked smoothly, and everything felt generally sturdy. I will say that the backpack is not of a suitable size for daily school use. It might be alright for preschool or kindergarten, but it won't fit schoolbooks and notebooks in the size and amounts most kids carry. It's perfect for carrying a change of clothes or a few toys and snacks, though.\\n\\nThe only improvement I would have liked to see is spinner wheels instead of the plain non-rotating skate wheels. They're not bad, spinners would just be better.\",\n \"Product: AVG Antivirus goes beyond simply detecting & removing viruses to deliver advanced preventative protection by blocking malicious links as you surf the web & scanning downloads before they reach your PC. You get: SECURITY Blocks viruses, spyware, & other malware Scans for malicious email attachments Scans web, Twitter, & Facebook links Protects you from harmful downloads And more PRIVACY File Shredder securely deletes files to prevent snooping Data Safe encrypts & password-protects private files Wi-Fi Guard helps you avoid dangerous Wi-Fi hotspots Anti-Spyware blocks spyware & adware from tracking you And more SPEED AVG Smart Scanner helps keep scans fast Lets you set auto-scans to run only when your PC is idle AUTO UPDATES Helps you stay ahead of the latest threats FREE 24/7 SUPPORT Our expert support team is just a free phone call or chat away-day or night, 365 days a year What's new in this version: Real-Time Cloud Detection to help instantly spot new malware outbreaks & better protect you against malicious websites\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: No viruses in 4-5 years of AVG products\\n\\nReview: For a long time, I was against using most antivirus programs. I had some bad experiences with the big brands (McAfee, etc.) slowing down my computer, charging a fortune fortune for updates, and not doing a very good job. Then, I got a nasty virus and finally decided to try out AVG. This was 4-5 years ago, and I've been using the premium version of AVG on my computers and phone ever since.\\n\\nAt the price listed on Amazon, this is a great bargain. You'll spend quite a bit more if you buy directly from AVG. I didn't have any issues getting this to work, though I see that some people did. I would assume AVG's support staff could help with issues, but I haven't had to contact them in all the years I've been using their products. I also haven't had any viruses or similar issues. I'll keep using AVG until that happens.\",\n \"Product: AirBake brand has always been \\\"The Original Insulated Bakeware\\\". AirBake continues to provide the best baking results every time. AirBake Nonstick provides an overall enhanced baking performance with its insulated aluminum sheets and micro-dome technology to decrease bake times by up to 15% over traditional insulated bakeware. Two heavyweight aluminum steel sheets with a nonstick surface surround a layer of air. The air reduces the temperature of the metal that comes in contact with the food. The bottom sheet blocks the direct oven heat while the layer of air acts as an insulator preventing the top sheet from overheating. This means better browning, no burning, and moister baked goods. Insulated bakeware means cookies won't burn and the nonstick surface means clean-up is a breeze. Pan measures 16-inches x 14-inches. CARE INSTRUCTIONS: Before using your bakeware for the first time, wash and condition the bakeware by spreading one teaspoon of cooking oil over the interior with a clean cloth. Wipe off any excess. Avoid overheating your bakeware. In order to preserve and avoid scratches on your coating, we recommend the use of plastic utensils. Slight surface marks or abrasions are normal and will not affect the performance of the non-stick coating. With use, the non-stick surface may become slightly darker. This will not impair its performance. AirBake is designed to breathe and is not watertight. However, AirBake is dishwasher safe. DO NOT USE DISHWASHER DETERGENT TABS - the concentrated cleaning agents will damage the bakeware's finish. DO NOT SOAK - if water is inside pan layer, there is a risk of burning from steam release. If your pan has water inside the two sheets, place the pan upside down in a 250-degree oven for 30 minutes or until water is removed.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: The only cookie sheets I use...\\n\\nReview: I bake thousands of cookies every year for different parties and events, and Airbake pans are my absolute favorites. Even though many other types of pans claim to offer even baking and perfectly cooked bottoms, Airbake pans are the only ones I've ever used where it's so easy to get consistently perfect results. This is especially true for sugar cookies, where there's an extremely small window of time (even with an Airbake) to get them perfectly cooked with bottoms that aren't browned over and crunchy.\\n\\nAs you can probably tell, I'm a soft cookie person. If you like your cookies slightly browned and a little firmer or even crunchy, you may not appreciate the Airbake quite as much. Even still, it does tend to even out the baking and makes firm cookies firm all over rather than firm on the bottom and soft on top.\\n\\nOther tips for this pan: Make sure you wash by hand and use a washcloth instead of something really scratchy. This helps to preserve the coating and prevent it from ending up in the cookies. If you have pet birds or anyone with sensitive lungs, be very careful when using these pans. Keep them out of the room for hours during and after use, and be sure to ventilate the room. Heated nonstick coating is toxic to birds, and I've heard of some people having mild breathing issues when it's hot, too.\\n\\nFinally, if you continue to have trouble with burned bottoms (which is rare with these pans), try putting your pans on a higher section of the oven. These sheets are almost miracle workers, but even they can't save your cookies if you put them too close to the bottom of the oven. It also helps to bake just one at a time, no matter how tempting it might be to shove in 2-3 sheets at once to save time. Big cookie sheets change the circulation of air and heat in an oven, so having more than one can result in uneven baking.\",\n \"Product: Warmies fully microwavable heatable Cozy Plush provide soothing warmth and comfort. Warmies are loved by millions worldwide. This innovative range continues to outsell all other microwavable products on the market. All of Intelex's soft toys are safe for all ages and are made using only the finest quality microwave safe materials. Warmies have the finest quality Flaxseed , fragranced with the very best dried French lavender. As this product is fully microwavable, to heat simply place the product in a microwave oven according to the directions on the product to release the wonderfully relaxing lavender aroma. Intelex prides itself on the fully microwavable aspect of their products that do NOT require a removable heatable inner bag. This makes using Intelex products not only easier, but also safer too. Ideal for use as a bed warmer to aid a restful night's sleep, or simply as an adorable soft toy. Warmies are loved by young and old alike. Warmies aid in relief of stress, hypertension, aches, pains, arthritis, chills, sinus pressure, migraines, bursitis, insomnia, cramps, colic, flu and tendonitis. The weight, warmth and lavender has been found to sooth, calm and focus individuals suffering from Autism and sensory processing disorders. These versatile products can also be used as a cold pack; simply place in a sealed freezer bag and place in the freezer for two to three hours. Ideal for reducing temperatures, easing sprains and bruises and reducing swelling. Take care when removing from the microwave oven. Do not ingest contents. Do not overheat. Reheat from room temperature only. For microwave use only. Surface wash only.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Great gift for new babies\\n\\nReview: I bought this for my new niece, and it was a big hit. I had previously purchased a Hot Hugs Elephant for my nephew, and it became one of his favorite stuffed animals as a baby and toddler. I let him help me pick out the toy we'd get for his new baby sister, and this is what he chose.\\n\\nUpon arrival, I noticed one big difference between this and the Hot Hugs stuffed animals. It's quite a bit heavier, and perhaps a bit floppier. As long as the guts are in it, it might be a bit heavy for a small child to lug around, but once you remove it, it's fine. When the warm guts are inside the sheep, though, it's very substantial and cuddly. I can see how a kid might really like it, especially one that has a hard time not being held and snuggled all night.\\n\\nAs for scent, the sheep smelled great. I would absolutely buy this again if my little sister decides to have more babies.\",\n \"Product: Camco RV Folding Ironing Board with pressed-board top and has a quality fabric cover is small and easy to use.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Not for hard-core iron users, but otherwise great\\n\\nReview: I don't do a lot of ironing, and I actually got by just fine without an iron for years. However, my parents like to iron their clothing when they come to visit,so I figured I'd get a cheap, compact ironing board to stick in the closet for when they come to visit.\\n\\nI've used it a few times myself, and I found it to be perfectly satisfactory for someone who doesn't do a ton of ironing. If you wear dress shirts every day and you don't have your laundry sent out, you probably won't want this ironing board. The size makes it inefficient for someone who would use it a lot. It definitely takes longer to iron things when you don't have as much room to spread everything out. For an infrequent ironer or a guest bedroom,though, it's perfect. It would also be great for a small apartment, given that it folds up to be only slightly larger than a big laptop computer.\\n\\nI see that some of the other reviews are complaining about the cover ripping or glitter getting on clothing. Personally, I haven't experienced either of those problems. I did wipe it down with a damp cloth before putting clothing on it, so maybe that was enough to deal with any stray glitter (though I don't remember seeing any on the cloth afterwards). The cover seems pretty sturdy, but I guess if you hit it just right with the tip of an extra pointy iron, you might be able to rip it. I haven't tried.\\n\\nOverall, this is not the iron you want if you have space for a larger one and you do much ironing. The size and the line in the middle (where it folds in half) would be far too annoying for daily use. If you're an apartment dweller or someone who won't use it often, though, it's fantastic.\",\n \"Product: Warmies fully microwavable heatable Cozy Plush provide soothing warmth and comfort. Warmies are loved by millions worldwide. This innovative range continues to outsell all other microwavable products on the market. All of Intelex's soft toys are safe for all ages and are made using only the finest quality microwave safe materials. Warmies have the finest quality Flaxseed , fragranced with the very best dried French lavender. As this product is fully microwavable, to heat simply place the product in a microwave oven according to the directions on the product to release the wonderfully relaxing lavender aroma. Intelex prides itself on the fully microwavable aspect of their products that do NOT require a removable heatable inner bag. This makes using Intelex products not only easier, but also safer too. Ideal for use as a bed warmer to aid a restful night's sleep, or simply as an adorable soft toy. Warmies are loved by young and old alike. Warmies aid in relief of stress, hypertension, aches, pains, arthritis, chills, sinus pressure, migraines, bursitis, insomnia, cramps, colic, flu and tendonitis. The weight, warmth and lavender has been found to sooth, calm and focus individuals suffering from Autism and sensory processing disorders. These versatile products can also be used as a cold pack; simply place in a sealed freezer bag and place in the freezer for two to three hours. Ideal for reducing temperatures, easing sprains and bruises and reducing swelling. Take care when removing from the microwave oven. Do not ingest contents. Do not overheat. Reheat from room temperature only. For microwave use only. Surface wash only.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Great gift for new babies\\n\\nReview: I bought this for my new niece, and it was a big hit. I had previously purchased a Hot Hugs Elephant for my nephew, and it became one of his favorite stuffed animals as a baby and toddler. I let him help me pick out the toy we'd get for his new baby sister, and this is what he chose.\\n\\nUpon arrival, I noticed one big difference between this and the Hot Hugs stuffed animals. It's quite a bit heavier, and perhaps a bit floppier. As long as the guts are in it, it might be a bit heavy for a small child to lug around, but once you remove it, it's fine. When the warm guts are inside the sheep, though, it's very substantial and cuddly. I can see how a kid might really like it, especially one that has a hard time not being held and snuggled all night.\\n\\nAs for scent, the sheep smelled great. I would absolutely buy this again if my little sister decides to have more babies.\",\n \"Product: Camco RV Folding Ironing Board with pressed-board top and has a quality fabric cover is small and easy to use.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Not for hard-core iron users, but otherwise great\\n\\nReview: I don't do a lot of ironing, and I actually got by just fine without an iron for years. However, my parents like to iron their clothing when they come to visit,so I figured I'd get a cheap, compact ironing board to stick in the closet for when they come to visit.\\n\\nI've used it a few times myself, and I found it to be perfectly satisfactory for someone who doesn't do a ton of ironing. If you wear dress shirts every day and you don't have your laundry sent out, you probably won't want this ironing board. The size makes it inefficient for someone who would use it a lot. It definitely takes longer to iron things when you don't have as much room to spread everything out. For an infrequent ironer or a guest bedroom,though, it's perfect. It would also be great for a small apartment, given that it folds up to be only slightly larger than a big laptop computer.\\n\\nI see that some of the other reviews are complaining about the cover ripping or glitter getting on clothing. Personally, I haven't experienced either of those problems. I did wipe it down with a damp cloth before putting clothing on it, so maybe that was enough to deal with any stray glitter (though I don't remember seeing any on the cloth afterwards). The cover seems pretty sturdy, but I guess if you hit it just right with the tip of an extra pointy iron, you might be able to rip it. I haven't tried.\\n\\nOverall, this is not the iron you want if you have space for a larger one and you do much ironing. The size and the line in the middle (where it folds in half) would be far too annoying for daily use. If you're an apartment dweller or someone who won't use it often, though, it's fantastic.\",\n \"Product: Paper Placemats with Scalloped edges.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Just about perfect for my purposes\\n\\nReview: Each year, I help a business associate host a party in Vegas. We rent out a penthouse and I always make a cookie buffet, which has become sort of a trademark of the event. Because we're flying in and we like to keep it fairly simple, we don't have any fancy serving dishes for all the cookies. Instead, I order disposable placemats, and they work wonderfully. I've uploaded a picture so you can see a non-professional image of them in action.\\n\\nThese blue placements are only slightly lighter than pictured, and you'll find they're very thin. You have to be careful when pulling them out of the package, as they're a little prone to tearing. The placemats are definitely not reusable, as the slightest bit of heat or moisture wrinkles or discolors them. My only complaint is that it would be really nice if there were a very thin layer of plastic or something to make the placemats sligtly less prone to getting oily or wet when things are placed on top. It's a very minor complaint, though.\",\n \"Product: Protect your clothes from bugs and dust with the Gearbox wardrobe. Perfect to use as an extra closet or storage for your out-of-season clothes. Comes with 34 mesh pockets on the outside for shoes and accessories.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Not bad, for the price\\n\\nReview: I had looked at a few other under the bed shoe organizers before buying this one, and while the others appeared slightly more sturdy, this one seemed to be a much better value. With 16 spaces and a price under $15, it's very cost effective. Note that if you're a man with big feet, you may only be able to fit one shoe per slot. Then again, men generally have fewer shoes than women, so it works out.\\n\\nThe case is a little flimsy, particularly if it's not full. I don't actually own that many shoes, so I sometimes have a hard time getting it to push back under the bed without scrunching up and getting stuck. I usually just walk around to the other side and pull it and things flatten back out.\\n\\nI will say that it's not awesome for larger sneakers. Smaller pairs seem to fit fine, but if you have clunkier sneakers, you may need to put flip-flops or ballet flats or something similarly small in the surrounding holes. Overall, though, I'm very happy with this purchase. It lets me hide away the shoes I don't wear as often, but it also leaves them organized and easily accessible. If I ever decided to buy a lot more shoes, I would happily buy another one of these cases.\",\n \"Product: The Bush Furniture Achieve Printer Stand File Cabinet adds modern flair to your home office or small business. Enjoy open and closed storage options while setting up your printer on the rugged work surface. Get organized thanks to an open storage compartment with adjustable shelf and a locking file drawer for letter or legal size documents. A great combination for a seamless look, the heights of the L Shaped Desk (sold separately) and Printer Stand File Cabinet match to extend your work surface. Contemporary and sophisticated, Achieve works well in any setting. Solidly constructed and Tested for wear and stain resistance, this quality furniture meets ANSI/SOHO standards for safety and performance. Backed by a Bush Furniture 6 Year Manufacturer's Warranty, Achieve features stylish tapered legs, and comes in Sweet Cherry with Brushed Nickel hardware, or Warm Oak with Black hardware. See the full collection for coordinating items available. American made with U.S. and imported parts.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Not bad, but it wasn't right for me\\n\\nReview: For what it is, this isn't a terrible piece of furniture. When it arrived, it had a few minor scratches and issues, but nothing too awful. Unfortunately, the photo makes it look a bit more modern than it actually is. In reality, it looks a bit dated and the \\\"wood\\\" color is a little lighter than the picture. As a result, it doesn't match my office at all, and I'm going to sell mine locally because it's FAR too much hassle to take it all apart and ship it back.\\n\\nAs far as assembly goes, prepare to devote the better part of an evening to it. It's not difficult, but there are a ton of steps and tiny pieces. If you're not very strong, you might want some assistance. I'm a relatively fit, 5'7\\\", 125 pound female and I found some parts of the assembly to be a bit heavy, but it wasn't impossible. I definitely couldn't lift the box it came in, though. I had to slide it off the cart and wrestle it over to the office.\\n\\nLike others have said, the locking mechanism is pretty wimpy - like a standard cheap file cabinet lock. I ended up getting a lockable fireproof filebox and colorful metal printer cart instead, as that allowed me to get the modern look and secure storage I wanted. On the other hand, you might like this piece, especially if you have the matching office furniture.\",\n \"Product: Stately and unique, the Focus tree is one of most interesting trees around and will make the perfect complement to any home or office dcor. The twisting trunks reach skyward and suddenly burst into an explosion of green. With 378 leaves, this tree will fool even the smartest of birds, so watch for nests when you dust. Comes in a black pot with faux soil.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Not bad for the price...\\n\\nReview: My weird little 3-year-old nephew decided he wanted \\\"a toy tree\\\" for his 3rd birthday, and after a bit of eyebrow raising and questioning, we determined that he basically wanted a silk decorative tree. With dinosaurs. So, I bought this tree and hung little plastic dinosaurs and birthday money from the branches and it was a huge hit.\\n\\nThis was probably the cheapest tree on Amazon for the size I was looking for,and you can definitely tell it's not super fancy. It doesn't come with a proper pot, and the little black plastic thing on it isn't enough for the tree to balance well on carpet. You would definitely need to get a pot. The branches are a bit cheap feeling, but with a little effort, you can make them look reasonably good.\\n\\nAs decorative trees go, this is a pretty small one. If you're not sure, get out a tape measure and check it, because this is smaller than the fake trees I've seen in a lot of homes and offices. You might want something bigger. Still, if you need a tree this size and you don't want to spend a fortune, this is a great option. There was a bit of dust on the leaves when it arrived, but it didn't fall apart when I ran a washcloth over the leaves and branches, so I guess that means it's relatively sturdy.\",\n \"Product: This versatile 6 Piece Colored Empty Magnetic Storage Tin Set, by Kamenstein, is space efficient, economical and great for use in a drawer. Perfect in the kitchen, office, garage or craft room for storing spices, arts & crafts, nuts and bolts, paper clips, keys, rubber bands or push pins. Features sift and pour lids with clear windows, making it easy to identify the contents inside. Hand wash. Set includes 6 tins (1 each: blue, red, green orange, purple and gray), each measures approximately 2-1/8 inch high x 2-3/8 inch diameter, and holds 4 ounce (liquid measure).\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: These jars make my kitchen happy\\n\\nReview: I love these spice jars. My kitchen is ultra-modern and colorful, and they look perfect on the side of my fridge. I uploaded a customer image if you're curious.\\n\\nThese jars are just the right size to hold one \\\"standard\\\" size jar of a spice. I know the standard size varies from brand to brand, but there were very few spices where I couldn't fit the whole bottle in one jar. The only downside is that on a couple that were REALLY full, I have to make sure I tilt the jar a bit so contents to pour out of the spout the second I open it.\\n\\nIf you need labels, Amazon does sell pre-printed spice labels. I don't have a label maker, so I opted for those, although a few spices weren't included so I left them hiding in the cabinet. I'm guessing a metallic Sharpie would work pretty well, too.\",\n \"Product: Start your day with toast made your way using the Oster Jelly Bean 2-Slice Toaster. This bread toaster features extra-wide slots that can accommodate a wide variety of bread types, including thick bagel halves, hamburger buns, English muffins, frozen waffles, and other toast-able favorites. Dual bread guides automatically adjust to the thickness of the slices for perfect alignment and even browning on both sides, while a toast-lift lever promotes safe removal of toasted items. With the slight turn of a knob, the 2-slice toaster provides seven toast shade settings from light to dark, while Advanced Toasting Technology ensures consistent, even results every time. An anti-jam feature automatically shuts your toaster off in case of a jam for safe, hassle-free operation, and a cancel setting lets you stop the toasting process at any time. A removable, dishwasher-safe crumb tray makes cleanup simple. The sleek design with metallic purple finish will brighten up any kitchen.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: My little purple friend...\\n\\nReview: I love this toaster. When it arrived, I immediately noticed that it's much brighter and more attractive than the Amazon product image. It's quite shiny, so if that's not the look you're going for, you may want to consider a different toaster. I uploaded a photo of it in my kitchen, so you should be able to see it in action in the customer images section.\\n\\nAs far as toasting is concerned, I've had no problems. I'm actually a little confused by the other reviewer who said his bread didn't fit and couldn't get fully toasted. I use pretty standard bread (the Whole Foods store brand), and I've never had an issue with toast sticking out of the top. Maybe he's using super-sized bread, who knows.\\n\\nThe toaster does a great job with toasting things evenly, which is a big improvement over my last toaster. You may have to play around a little to get the perfect setting for the kind of bread/bagel you use, though, as a thicker piece will most likely need to be toasted longer and at a lower temperature if you want it toasted all the way through.\\n\\nIn all, there's really nothing I would change about this toaster. It might be a little cooler with an LED screen, but in terms of functionality and price, I would happily buy this again.\",\n \"Product: These Luxury Hotel Bed skirts give your bed an elegant finished appearance. They feature contemporary tailored styling with pleats in each corner. Made from easy-care microfiber polyester fabric for wrinkle-resistance and colorfastness. Generous 14\\\" drop length to the floor, creating valuable under bed storage room. Sturdy platform holds bed skirt in place.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Color is wildly inaccurate, but otherwise it's perfectly fine\\n\\nReview: I bought this bedskirt because it looked like it was a nice deep shade of peacock green/blue. Instead, it was very close to the popular greenish color you see on a lot of hospital scrubs. It was totally wrong for the coloring of my bedroom, so I'm sending it back.\\n\\nI attempted to capture the true color in a photo, but even that is a little darker than the true color. You'll get the most accurate idea of the actual color if you use Google Image Search and search \\\"hospital scrubs\\\". It's not like the common blue ones, but it's almost identical to the green ones a lot of places use.\\n\\nAside from that, the fabric feels nice and very lightweight. If there were no color issues, I'd be happy to keep this bedskirt. Hopefully, this review can help someone else avoid the trouble of ordering a color they didn't expect or want.\",\n \"Product: ShowerMate Bluetooth Speaker allows you to transform your showering routine into an unforgettable adventure. With this fun waterproof shower speaker, you can enjoy superior quality sound and sing alone to your favorite songs. Keep your device out of waters reach and answer your phone calls with a built-in high sensitivity microphone. Whether you are taking a relaxing hot bath or a quick shower, you will always have unlimited fun with the ShowerMate Bluetooth Speaker!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Why won't anyone call me in the shower?\\n\\nReview: For years, I've listened to music in the shower by turning up the volume on my phone and placing it on the counter. Although it worked, it was far from ideal. The phone was just loud enough to be annoying to anyone else nearby (I listen to a lot of Kenny G in the shower), and yet it was hard to hear it well over the sound of the water.\\n\\nWhen I saw this bluetooth shower speaker on sale, I figured it was worth $10-11 to give it a try. At this point, I regard it as one of my best <$20 purchases in the last few years. Fully charged, I've gotten over 2 weeks of shower use without needing to recharge. I'm not sure when it will need to be recharged, but once every couple weeks isn't bad at all. Considering I often take 2 showers in a day (after exercising), that's actually pretty incredible for such a cheap device.\\n\\nAlthough it's not high-end stereo sound quality, it's at least as good as what comes out of a phone, and you can hear it much better without cranking up the volume because it's right there in the shower with you. It's a little weird that it allows you to answer calls in the shower, but it's kind of cool knowing you can do it if you really want to. So far, people have not really responded to my invitations to call me when I'm in the shower, but I'm optimistic that someone will eventually take me up on it, and that the Shower-Mate will pass that new test with flying colors.\",\n \"Product: Stylish airplan design, Great gift for bon voyage, frequent traveller, or first time traveller. It makes easier to spot your bag amoungst other similar bags on baggage claim\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Bright, fun, and SUPER sturdy\\n\\nReview: When asked what he was getting my sister for her birthday, our nephew answered, \\\"A green plane!\\\" To help make that a (useful) reality, I bought one of these luggage tags for him to give to her. It was a green tag with a picture of a plane - not quite a green plane, but close enough to amuse everyone.\\n\\nI was impressed with the overall quality of this luggage tag. It was thick and rubbery and not at all prone to breaking, tearing, or peeling like some I've seen in the past. It's also bright and colorful, and since they come in quite a few shades, you can easily match your tag to your luggage. Or, if you have really plain black luggage like everyone else in the world, you can pick a bright color to make your luggage stand out on the baggage carousel. The photos are a great representation of the tags, too - they're shiny and rubbery and bright, just like in the pictures.\\n\\nI will probably order a set of these for myself after my current tags wear out (and they're well on their way, given how much I travel). I trust these will last a long time, even if you check your luggage frequently.\",\n \"Product: Go for a sexy yet sophisticated look in this bodycon midi dress with side crochet detail! This sleeveless style is perfect for showing off your curves while the length will keep your look modest. Simply pair with some killer heels for a night on the town\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Feels a little cheap, but looks fantastic\\n\\nReview: This dress definitely runs a little small, mostly in the hip area. I normally wear either a 2 or 4 in dresses, and I ended up needing in 8 in this one because my hips are a little on the curvy side. That aside, though, this dress looks really good. The pattern of lace along the sides has a slight slimming effect, and it really plays up any natural curviness you might have. It's also long enough and high-necked enough that your figure is the only thing you're showing off. If you're going for a classy look, this dress pulls it off.\\n\\nThe only complaint I have (and it's minor) is that the dress feels a little cheap. Granted, that's to be expected at this price. If I could find this exact dress with softer fabric and better lining, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. As it is, only the very top portion of the dress is lined, and it's done by doubling over a bit of the fabric underneath. It works, but if you aren't careful to smooth out the inner fabric, it can look a little bunched up.\\n\\nAlthough I'm not insanely tall (5'7\\\"), I often find that most dresses in stores are obscenely short. If you have the same problem, you'll love this dress. If you're really short, you might find it a bit too long. It hits me just above the knees.\\n\\nOverall, I would recommend this dress if you need something affordable but also sophisticated.\",\n \"Product: New Balance, is dedicated to helping athletes achieve their goals. It's been their mission for more than a century. It's why they don't spend money on celebrity endorsements. They spend it on research and development. It's why they don't design products to fit an image. They design them to fit. New Balance is driven to make the finest shoes for the same reason athletes lace them up: to achieve the very best.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: A little clunky, but very comfortable\\n\\nReview: I've been working on my sneaker collection lately - making sure I have something to match the wide variety of leggings I wear to the gym and circus classes. I bought these sneakers because they're an unusual color. You don't see a ton of maroon sneakers.\\n\\nThey fit as expected and they're reasonably comfortable. I also got a really good deal on them, so I like that. The only thing I'm not wild about is that they're just a little clunkier than I expected/hoped. They're also a tiny bit heavier than a lot of the high-end running shoes in my closet. It's not a huge deal since they're comfortable and cute and I won't be wearing them everyday - it's just something I thought was worth mentioning.\\n\\nIn terms of size, I typically wear either an 8.5 or 9. For these, the 9 was a perfect fit. They seem to really grab your foot and offer good support, I wouldn't hesitate to play tennis in them (unless I'm at a snooty club with strict shoe rules). I wouldn't be too concerned about the quick start and stop movement while wearing them.\",\n \"Product: The Celeste is a women's fully featured daypack complete with a padded laptop and tablet sleeve. Put it to use for school or work and even a trail hike on the weekends.\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: Only liked the look...\\n\\nReview: I was really excited when this backpack went on sale right as I found myself in need of a new one - but unfortunately, I ended up returning it. I normally use a backpack when traveling, so I like it to have a good carrying capacity. Unfortunately, this was the smallest backpack I had gotten in years. I also hated that it had so many extra snaps and straps hanging all over the place. It was just more stuff to dangle and get caught on things (and get dirty and disgusting in airports).\\n\\nThe other thing I really disliked about this backpack was the fit of the straps. I just couldn't make it fit comfortably, in spite of being a very normal-sized (5'7\\\", 130 pounds) adult woman. I ended up sending it back and buying a much cheaper standard unisex backpack that I like 100x better. The only thing I really liked about the Osprey backpack was the look, and that just wasn't enough for me to keep it.\",\n \"Product: Momma's little girl will look adorable in this set from Gerber. Three sweet looks for one great price. Made of soft cotton for all day comfort. Ideal for giving as a gift\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Cute, practical, affordable - and NOT PINK!\\n\\nReview: It can be hard to find clothing for little girls that isn't overwhelmingly pink. My 1-year-old niece is a bit gingery (red hair, pale skin), so pink and red outfits just don't do her a lot of justice. That's not to say she looks bad, just that she looks much better in other colors. I was pleased to find this outfit when I was looking for summer clothing to send her way.\\n\\nThe outfit itself is great, and I especially like that it came with both a bodysuit and a regular top. That gives my sister a couple options, and it also gives her a matching backup piece in case the other one gets stained or soiled (those beet baby foods are a clothing killer).\",\n \"Product: Aleader Women Water Shoe is made with lightweight mesh and a midfoot webbing system that integrates with slip on for lightweight breathability and an adaptive, supportive fit. Soft cushioning and breathable RB/Eva outsole,articulated flex grooves offer plush comfort and natural range of motion.The aqua/mesh slip on shoes can be functional used,for daily or travel walking with barefoot fitting give you exceptional comfort,for river walking or water aerobic sports,give you best performance and fun.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Great value for the money\\n\\nReview: I recently took a trip to Mexico and I knew I'd be going to places where I'd need water shoes - but I didn't want to carry around separate sneakers and water shoes. These worked perfectly. They fit comfortably like sneakers, and they don't look nearly as dorky as most water shoes. At the same time, they're great when you get in the water because they're extremely lightweight and there are small holes for drainage all over (including the bottom). They took a bit of getting used to in the water, as the soles are slightly buoyant. It's not hard to keep your feet at the bottom, but they do have a slight tendency to want to float upwards.\\n\\nIn terms of sizing, I would say I wear a size 9 roughly 70% of the time, and an 8.5 the other 30% of the time. In these shoes, an 8.5 was perfect. I was worried because 8.5 is all they had in stock when I ordered, and some people said they run small. I even ordered a backup pair of water shoes from another brand. Luckily, though, the 8.5 fit and I'm very happy with the purchase. They have a style similar to much more expensive water shoes, yet they're very reasonably priced.\",\n \"Product: A Casual, Elegant Piece of Cardigan Sweaters That Fits For Variety of Occasions.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Very boxy, not for me\\n\\nReview: When I bought this, I was hoping for a cute fitted sweater to go over a t-shirt. I have a few similar sweaters from Banana Republic, but they have 3/4 sleeves and I waned a long sleeved variation. Unfortunately, I found this sweater to be quite large and baggy and not particularly flattering. It's very boxy, which might be fine if your shape is less curvy. However, I like things that highlight the difference between hips and waist, and it really didn't accomplish that.\\n\\nThe other issue is that the sweater arrived missing a button, and it didn't have one of those packets with an extra button I could sew on. That could be a fluke, but I figured I'd mention it since it could be a pattern in other reviews, too.\",\n \"Product: Who is that little one in the big yellow hat? Your little boy can join Curious George on his next big adventure in these toddler boys athletic shoes! Durable and stylish, these Universal Studios Curious George toddler boys athletic shoes feature stylish uppers, hook and loop fastener, padded tongue and insoles, and sturdy non-marking out soles. Proper support and attractive styling make these Curious George shoes a perfect choice for your youngster!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Wonderful shoes for my niece\\n\\nReview: Even though these shoes say they're for boys, I ordered them for my 2-year-old niece and she loves them. Upon opening the box, she yelled, \\\"George!\\\" I like that the colors are not so boyish that they can easily be used as girl shoes without any weird comments.\\n\\nThe shoes fit as expected, and since they were ordered to be a bit large, she should get a good amount of time to wear them. She found them to be very comfortable. The quality was great, too. None of the stitched areas were loose, there were no strings hanging out anywhere, and the glue around the bottom seemed to be evenly applied. The hard rubber sole didn't have any areas that seemed to be peeling away from the bottom of the shoe. Although my niece isn't very wild, I'm pretty confident that these shoes could hold up to the kind of crazy play that rips most of my nephew's shoes apart.\\n\\nAlthough the yellow sole may show a bit of dirt, I like that it brightens up the shoe and gives it more of a unisex feel. The body of the shoe is gray, of course, which should help that part look newer for longer. Overall, I'm very happy with this purchase.\",\n \"Product: DONNA BLING womens fashion sneakers from Italian athletic footwear and apparel manufacturer DIADORA. Blend of european styling and american comfort. Tweed, herringbone upper with suede leather inserts. Lace-up style with velcro strap. Low profile, anti-slip rubber sole. Removable athletic insole.\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: Runs small but wide, terribly uncomfortable\\n\\nReview: I'm not terribly picky about shoes, and I almost never have a problem with shoes I order online. I read that these ran small so I ordered a size larger than normal and they were fine on length. What was weird, though, is that they seemed extremely wide, and I don't have particularly narrow feet.\\n\\nThe shoes were very cute, and they would be a great pair of casual wear sneakers if only they were as comfortable as they are stylish. Unfortunately, in addition to being strangely wide, they were also very rigid and uncomfortable. I tried bending them and breaking them in through a couple days of normal wear, but nothing helped. These shoes just wouldn't work for me at all.\",\n \"Product: Converse Chuck Taylor All Star No Problem Ox(Inf/Tod)-Green Kids alligator face is a fun sneaker with velcro and a wide smile.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: My nephew is the most stylish kid at daycare\\n\\nReview: I bought these shoes for my nephew because my sister (his mom) has always been a fan of Chucks and I also know she'd never spend the money to buy something like this new. Little kid feet grow too fast, and she's very practical.\\n\\nHowever, I am the weird aunt, and that means it's my job to spoil the kids and buy silly things like alligator Chucks. So I did. And he loved them. One recommendation, though: Don't buy these shoes AFTER buying the same kid a pair of light-up sneakers. Even though these are incredibly cool, they're a bit of a letdown after red and blue flashing sneakers. Still, my sister got a super cute video of the nephew \\\"eating\\\" his father with the scary alligator shoes, and I keep seeing them pop up in their Facebook pictures.\\n\\nOnce you get past the fact that these are a little expensive for a kids' sneaker, they're reasonably practical. The white parts all wipe down, and the green is dark enough to mask most light dirt. I'm told they're also very easy to get on and off, and they make him excited about putting on his shoes.\",\n \"Product: For all the science freaks out there, you will love this Argon Chemistry Joke T-shirt!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A gift that went over very well\\n\\nReview: My brother-in-law is a chemist, so I try to find a new science joke t-shirt every time his birthday rolls around. My sister says he wears the shirts nonstop, so it's good that I keep adding more to the rotation. He has one that says \\\"I wear this shirt periodically\\\" (with a picture of the periodic table), and she says he wears it much more than periodically.\\n\\nAnyway, I picked this one for his birthday earlier this month, and he loves it - perhaps more than some of the others. He said it has a great vintage fit, and that it's a bit longer than the others (even though they were the same size). My sister is glad she doesn't have to worry so much about accidentally shrinking this t-shirt and turning it into a nerdy crop top. I'm told the fabric was softer than a lot of standard t-shirts, too. If you want a nerdy shirt but you prefer a high-end sort of t-shirt, definitely go with this one instead of some of the others printed on cheap Gildan-type shirts.\",\n \"Product: Be the center of attention with this shoulder pad ripple fabric bodycon dress. A definite must have for this season! Team up with a pair of our chunky heeled boots.\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: Almost seemed like a different dress...\\n\\nReview: I was not impressed with this dress. Although I ordered an 8, it fit more like an 2 (it was smaller than all the size 4 dresses in my closet). Although stretchy, the fabric was very thick and it didn't have a lot of give in an outward direction. Definitely order a size or two up if you go for this dress. It also seemed shorter than in the photo.\\n\\nThe other thing that was really weird is that the dress didn't match the picture. The sleeves actually appeared to be more of a cap sleeve, and they seemed almost detached - like if you handled it too roughly, they could fall off. I'm not really sure why the words \\\"shoulder pad\\\" were in the description, either. I didn't see any shoulder pads (although that's actually a good thing).\\n\\nBased on the pictures, I would almost wonder if I got the wrong dress - but it did seem to match in terms of color and fabric type. It just wasn't anything like what I would have expected based on the listing. Be sure to check and see if your size comes with free returns just in case you really don't like it.\",\n \"Product: Comfy pullover hoodie in our classic tri-blend fleece. Threads for thought garments are completely sustainable, made from organic and recycled materials. A portion of all proceeds go to support the international rescue committee www.rescue.org and the natural resources defense council www.nrdc.org to support the excellent work that they do in the areas of humanitarian and environmental response. Enjoy your threads and wear them with pride\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: My least favorite Threads for Thought shirt\\n\\nReview: I've ordered a lot of Threads for Thought clothing over the years. I used to love their fitted women's t-shirts, and I've purchased a ton of their guy's sweatshirts for my best friend. I've always been happy with my purchases until this shirt. Given how small the men's stuff runs, I thought I'd get a medium sweatshirt for myself (a 5'7\\\", 130 pound female). Unfortunately, this is the first item I've gotten from them that didn't run obscenely small. It was still smaller than a typical men's medium, but not nearly as small as most of their items. It was too big for me, and the shoulders looked strange and held a weird shape.\\n\\nI had a friend try it on to see if it would suit him, and while it seemed to fit, it had really weird, abnormally pointy shoulders. It almost looked like he had on shoulderpads. As a result, he wasn't wild about it, either.\\n\\nThe fabric is soft and moderately thin, so it would be a great shirt if not for the odd shoulders. I do wish Threads for Thought sizing was more consistent, too. This isn't the first time I've encountered inconsistent sizing between their items (also had issues with women's leggings). Overall, I would strongly recommend buying their shirts in places where you can get free return shipping just in case it's not right for you.\",\n \"Product: A real vampire bat's body encased in a clear Lucite acrylic resin block.Encased in a clear Lucite acrylic resin block. Makes an excellent paperweight as well as conversation or display piece.The bat's body is visible from all angles and its lifelike pose adds a chilling effect to this item.\\n\\nRating: 1.0\\n\\nSummary: Please think twice before buying this...\\n\\nReview: If you love bats, please don't support a product that results in the cruel capture and killing of wild bats. In fact, I have plenty of good ideas for any bat lover - a trip to a reputable zoo, a book about bats, cute online bat videos, stuffed toy bats, or even a donation to a bat sanctuary that helps protect and preserve bat species in the wild.\\n\\nWild bats are an important part of our ecosystem, helping bees to pollinate the plants we need to survive. I recently stayed at a tropical eco-hotel that used a colony of bats as mosquito control around the hotel. I didn't get bitten once. They're good little creatures, so please think twice before helping to create demand for more dead bats.\",\n \"Product: The Essential workout short is designed to flatter gluts and thighs during every stage of your workout, a short that compliments all of your hard work.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Leaves little to the imagination, but they're cute\\n\\nReview: In my experience, Beyond Yoga bottoms seem to run about half a size smaller than brands like Athleta, Victoria's Secret, and Zella. These shorts were no exception,. Like some other people have mentioned, they do have a tendency to roll up if your hips are curvy. If you're more apple or banana than hourglass, you might not have that problem.\\n\\nAlthough I like these shorts, I tend to prefer them over a pair of contrasting color leggings. They're really short, and if you have much in the way of a butt (muscle or fat, either one), they get even shorter. They'd be great pole dancing shorts, if you're into pole fitness - lots of exposed skin for pole contact.\\n\\nI managed to get my pair on sale, and while I like them, I don't think I'd pay full price for them.\",\n \"Product: The Spoga Exercise Yoga Mat features a double sided non-slip surface that helps prevent injuries. The mat features specially designed comfortable memory foam and offers great impact absorption. Thick enough to protect your back, arms, knees and joints, while still allowing you to grip the floor for balance, the non-skid ridges will ensure that the mat never slips during use. Offers exceptional resilience helps you to keep your balance during any exercise. Moisture resistant technology allows the mat to be easily washed with soap and water. Easy strapping and light weight feature are added to this mat for easy transport and storage convenience. Dimensions: 24\\\" wide and 71\\\" long, ensures comfort for people of all shapes and sizes. With high density foam material, the extra thick premium mat comfortably cushions your back, hips, knees, arms, elbows, and hands on hard floors.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: So much more comfortable than traditional mats\\n\\nReview: I'm confused by the reviews that say there was no strap with this mat. I initially thought it came without one, but it was wrapped up in the middle - so don't worry when you get it and you don't immediately see the straps. You'll need them, too, since many non-adjustable yoga mat straps are much too small for this thick mat. If you buy other straps that are more attractive than plain black, just make sure you buy adjustable ones. As you can see in my picture, though, there was a plain black strap with the mat. It smelled a little bit when I first opened it, but after leaving it unfolded overnight, that dissipated.\\n\\nAs some others have mentioned, there were a few tiny defects in the mat left from where the original packing cut into the edges a bit. They're very, very minor, though, and won't affect usage of the mat. It's a little bit heavy compared to thinner yoga mats, but that's to be expected. The color is really bright and vibrant,so I love that part.\\n\\nIn terms of usage, this mat is wonderful. I've always hated having to double or triple fold a mat for certain exercises. I don't have to do that at all with this one. It doesn't matter if the surface is concrete, hardwood, etc. It might be a little sponge-y for super intense balancing (handstands) since the mat has a little more give. However, for most purposes, it's great and it absorbs a lot of the pressure on your body.\\n\\nOne more thing - due to the thickness, this also doubles nicely as a nap mat for little kids.\",\n \"Product: The Capri length of our legging keeps you cool and always pushing on. With flat seams and a waistband designed to be as comfortable against the body as possible.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Great leggings, comparable to much more expensive brands\\n\\nReview: When I first received these pants, I looked at them and thought, \\\"Wait, I'm supposed to fit into THAT??\\\" I typically wear somewhere between a small and medium in leggings and yoga pants, so I erred on the side of caution and ordered a medium. Still, it looked really, really small.\\n\\nLuckily, these leggings are a lot stretchier than you'd think by looking at them. Although they do seem to run a little small for the stated size, they fit perfectly. At 5'7\\\", they were a bit shorter on me than what you see in the picture. If you're much taller than me, you might find the length to be a little annoying. The waistband is great, and it doesn't seem significantly tighter than the rest of the pants (great for avoiding the dreaded muffin top). Compared to Athleta's Chaturanga leggings in size medium, these are a little bit smaller. If you're familiar with Zella leggings, they're also a bit smaller than their medium, too. The fit is fairly similar to the small yoga pants I've gotten from Victoria's Secret.\\n.\\nAs always, I subjected these capris to the mismatched underwear test. In case you're not familiar with that, it's where you try on the pants with underwear in a color that would be likely to show through, then bend over (as if you were stretching in a fitness class) and see if they show through in the mirror. These capris passed the test. If you wore them really tight, they might not - but when they fit you properly, you should be safe.\",\n \"Product: Joe's USA(tm) Ladies Moisture Wicking Textured Golf Polos in 12 Colors . With a grid-like texture, this durable, smartly priced polo wicks moisture and controls odor--making it a favorite for team uniforming.Printed with Joe's USA(tm) Logo Inside\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Not the top for me...\\n\\nReview: I typically wear either a large in juniors sizes or a small in women's, and since this seemed to be directed more at adult women, I decided to go up one size (which is usually a good strategy with these sort of generic shirts. The medium ended up being too large, so I'll definitely be sending it back.\\n\\nUnfortunately, I won't be getting a replacement because I just wasn't wild about the fabric or the way the shirt hangs. It felt very thin, rough, and cheap. It felt like the kind of rough fabric they'd make cheap basketball shorts out of. Even though I ordered this shirt in bright red, I found that anything other than a red or flesh-toned bra was going to show through (not to mention the very obvious lines, much more than with many other polo shirts).\\n\\nIn terms of how it hangs, the shirt seems to be cut a little bit wide and it just looks droopy and lifeless. If you're a little wider in the torso, that might be great for your body style - but I'm more of a hip person so I really don't want anything that makes my waist look bigger. This isn't necessarily a terrible shirt, but it's definitely not the right one for me.\",\n \"Product: The capri length of our Legging keeps you cool and always pushing on. With flat seams and a waistband designed to be as comfortable against the body as possible.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Very happy with these leggings\\n\\nReview: When I got these pants, I was a little startled by the color. What looked like a softer bubblegum pink turned out to be a very, very bright neon pink. It looks like the pink color you get from a highlighter. Still, I enjoy bright colors so I didn't have a problem with that.\\n\\nIn terms of size, these fit like a large small or a small medium. They look incredibly tiny, but they stretch quite a lot. I'm a bit high-waisted, so I occasionally find that leggings are too low-waisted and they cause either muffin top or cameltoe issues. These pants weren't too bad on either count as long as I buy medium. The same goes for the transparency. As long as I get the right size and wear flesh-toned undergarments, these are totally fine. For people having issues with those things I would recommend sizing up.\\n\\nMy favorite thing about these leggings is the softness of the fabric. They're not at all shiny and spandex-y like some leggings.\",\n \"Product: Americolor Junior Kit, 8 Easy Squeeze .75 ounce bottles: Red Red , Deep Pink, Violet, Sky Blue, Lemon Yellow, Leaf Green, Orange, and Chocolate Brown. Nothing you have ever tried equals the coloring strength of these amazing colors. Imagine the coloring power of a paste in an easy-to-use gel. Soft Gel Paste is packaged in convenient squeeze bottles with a flip-top lid. By mixing and measuring using \\\"drops\\\" of Soft Gel Paste, you can achieve precise, easy-to-repeat colors every time.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: I know it's weird to get excited about food coloring...\\n\\nReview: For years, I've purchased the little jars of Wilton food coloring you find at big box general stores and craft stores. For years, I've found myself ever-so-slightly irritated at the process of getting out bit of food coloring on a toothpick or butter knife, then mixing it in, then realizing I didn't get enough, cleaning off my utensil and doing it again and again until the right color is reached. With this food coloring, that problem is no longer an issue. I love having food coloring in a squirt bottle instead of a jar. It may not be as easy to get the very last bit out of the bottle, but for convenience, it can't be beaten. You can also minimize that problem by storing the jars upside down in the original box.\\n\\nIn terms of color, I couldn't be happier. It didn't take nearly as much coloring as I expected to achieve really vibrant, bright colors. I will say that if you're looking for primary colors, you might not be totally happy with the blue. It's definitely more of a sky blue than a regular blue. The rest of the colors are exactly what you'd probably expect, though. I've included a picture of some cookies with the blue (and red and green) so you can get an idea of what you're getting.\\n\\nSince I often bake at my parents' home, I'll be buying a second set of these for their house before the fall and winter baking season is upon us. I'm very glad to have found this food coloring.\",\n \"Product: Diet Documentary\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: The message was good...\\n\\nReview: The message in this film was sound, but it wasn't enough to make up for the fact that the entire documentary should have been condensed to roughly half its current length. I watched this with a friend, and after the first 15 minutes or so, we found ourselves saying, \\\"They JUST said this!\\\" to every other clip. In a few cases, I think they played the same commentary over, verbatim.\\n\\nThere are a lot of big names in the film, and I agree with the overall message that most of us should be eating far more vegetables. However, this film didn't really add anything new to the overall dialogue, and it seemed like they were really pushing the whole \\\"juicing\\\" lifestyle. I'm all for more vegetables, and juicing is one good way to get more, but it really takes the joy out of eating. I would have liked to see a slightly more moderate approach.\",\n \"Product: Product Description HECTOR AND THE SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS is the uplifting story of one man's global quest to find out whether happiness truly exists. Featuring stunning performances from an all-star cast including Simon Pegg, Rosamund Pike, Toni Collette, Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgard and Jean Reno. Hector (Simon Pegg - Shaun of the Dead, The Worlds End, Paul) is an eccentric yet loveable psychiatrist who finds himself at a crossroads in life; his patients just aren t getting any happier and his life is going nowhere. Feeling trapped between his mundane daily routine and his neurotic girlfriend, Clara (Rosamund Pike - Made in Dagenham, Jack Reacher), Hector decides to break away from his sheltered London life and go on a global quest to find out whether happiness truly exists - and more importantly, whether it exists for Hector. Along the way he meets friends old and new, learning some valuable lessons on his journey of self discovery that proves equal parts colourful, dangerous, exotic and hilarious. Directed by Peter Chelsom (Funny Bones, Hear My Song) and featuring a career best performance from Simon Pegg as you ve never seen him before, HECTOR AND THE SEARCH FOR HAPPINESS is an inspirational, feel-good adventure that will leave you smiling. About the Director Peter Chelsom was born on April 20, 1956 in Blackpool, Lancashire, England. He is an actor and director, known for Serendipity (2001), Hannah Montana: The Movie (2009) and Shall We Dance (2004).\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Better than the book...\\n\\nReview: I read this book a couple years ago, and it was a quick, happy little read. I didn't expect to be wildly impressed by the movie, but it turned out to be one of those rare cases where the movie is actually better than the book. Why? The book is short, and it doesn't go the best job of really capturing the experiences Hector has on the road. It doesn't capture the utterly boring, unsatisfying existence Hector was plodding through before his trip. It describes those things, just not as well as the film version.\\n\\nIn the movie, you get wonderful acting, beautiful scenery, and widely varied pace from place to place. When Hector goes off on a patient in the beginning, you FEEL his frustration with the life he's leading. When he's living the high life in China, you really get a taste of the excitement and anticipation he would surely be feeling. When he finally lets loose and dances with his friends in Africa, you smile because you know he's a changed man.\\n\\nI'm not saying the book was bad at all, but this is one of those rare cases where the story is better told in film format, and all the right things came together to make it a good one.\",\n \"Product: Mark Landis has been called one of the most prolific art forgers in US history. His impressive body of work spans thirty years, covering a wide range of painting styles and periods that includes 15th Century Icons, Picasso, and even Walt Disney. And while the copies could fetch impressive sums on the open market, Landis isn't in it for money. Posing as a philanthropic donor, a grieving executor of a family member's will, and most recently as a Jesuit priest, Landis has given away hundreds of works over the years to a staggering list of institutions across the United States. But after duping Matthew Leininger, a tenacious registrar who ultimately discovers the decades-long ruse and sets out to expose his philanthropic escapades to the art world, Landis must confront his own legacy and a chorus of museum professionals clamoring for him to stop. ART AND CRAFT starts out as a cat-and-mouse art caper, rooted in questions of authorship and authenticity -- but what emerges is an intimate story of obsession and the universal need for community, appreciation, and purpose.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Interesting, but not what I expected\\n\\nReview: I wouldn't call this guy a great art forger so much as he's a skilled mimic who's good at interpersonal deception. As the documentary explains, his forgeries are actually extremely easy to detect if someone attempts to do so. The real trick is that Landis has a lot of convincing characters he uses to persuade museums to take on his artwork. So - if you're looking for a story about the more technical aspects of forgery and detection, you'd probably prefer episodes of the BBC show \\\"Fake or Fortune\\\".\\n\\nThat's not to say this is a bad documentary, it's just not what you might expect when you read descriptions calling Landis the greatest art forger of our time. In reality, the greatest forger is probably someone who's gone largely undetected so far. Truly great forgeries take much more work to detect.\\n\\nWhat's interesting about this movie, though, is that Landis truly is a talented artist. Although he's working with inauthentic materials (Hobby Lobby frames and colored pencils, even), he produces work that convinces a lot of art museum employees who either lack the time, resources, or motivation to perform the most basic checks for authenticity. Although most of the deception occurs at smaller museums, the film mentions that some of his work has appeared in many of the largest art museums in the US. In some cases, the exact same work is donated to multiple museums. Insanity! Isn't there some database where even the laziest and time-hungry employees could search out the works to make sure they weren't claiming ownership of duplicates? It really makes you wonder...\\n\\nThe bulk of the film focuses on Landis and his personal history. It's a portrait of mental illness coupled with breathtaking talent. It can be a little slow at times, and it lacks structure that could have made it flow a bit better, but it's still very interesting.\",\n \"Product: The surface of the smooth and bright\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Sturdy and effective case...\\n\\nReview: After spending almost $900 on a phone, I definitely wanted to get a good case. I was a little worried there wouldn't be any good cases for such an odd-shaped phone, but this one turned out to be perfect. I ordered the red one, and like another review said, it's not quite as pretty and shiny as it looks in the pictures. It's definitely more of a matte primary colored red than a pearly or shiny red.\\n\\nStill, I like the combination of hard case and rubbery case. I've dropped my phone a few times now from 3-4 foot heights onto tile and bamboo floors, and I haven't had any issues at all. There's a tiny mark in the bamboo where I dropped the phone once, but the phone itself is great. The other thing I like about this case is that the edge you wrap your fingers around is slightly curved. It makes it easier to get a good firm grip on the phone. The times I dropped it were times I was NOT holding it by that edge.\\n\\nFinally, if you've used your Galaxy Note Edge without a case at all, you probably realize it's very easy to bump the side screen and do things you didn't intend to do. Ever since I put my phone in this case, it stopped being a problem. There's a tiny lip that curves around that side, and that's just enough to keep your hand off the screen. The only thing that could make me happier about this case is if they had some patterned options or more attractive colors. The matte red is okay, but it wouldn't be my first choice. It's a shame iPhone people get to have all the fun with cases.\",\n \"Product: With his warm and wonderous tone and texture, Kenny G is the Gentleman of Jazz. His saxophone takes us to places that quicken our senses and delight our imagination. As a teenaged member of Barry White's Love Unlimited Orchestra, Kenny learned about sensuality and seduction from a master, and over the course of his spectacular career he's applied those lessons to make smooth and sophisticated odes to romance, passions and spirituality. In the process he's become the world's best-selling instrumental and jazz musician. Arista. 2006.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: I hate buying CDs, but...\\n\\nReview: As a general rule, I don't buy CDs anymore. The only exception is if the CD offers something impossible to find or really incredible. In this case, I bought the CD for the liner notes. Given that Kenny G songs don't have lyrics, I've always wondered what inspired them or what they were about. You listen to the songs and your mind interprets them in various ways, but you never know if it's the same thing the artist had in mind. When I read that this particular album came with commentary on each song, I cringed a little at the idea of buying a CD and then hit the \\\"purchase\\\" button.\\n\\nI'm glad I did. Not only is it a good album (even though I already own copies of all the songs in MP3 format) - it's just cool being able to read through Kenny G's notes on each song. I've seen him in concert twice now, and while he's an incredibly warm and entertaining guy, you don't hear a lot of commentary on the specific songs. This was a nice change of pace.\",\n \"Product: Simple, clean and full of features - this hardcover notebook is designed with the professional in mind.\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: Nice, but that sticker on the front needs to go...\\n\\nReview: I wanted to like this notebook. The lines are nice and narrow, the paper is smooth, and it's very sturdy. Unfortunately, It arrived with a giant sticker baked onto the front. Even though I tried to pull it off slowly and gently, it ripped the front of the notebook in several places, making it look beat up and cheap. When you're paying a bit extra for a premium notebook, it shouldn't be ripped up on the front from the first moment you get it. They should have used a type of sticker that released more easily (or better yet, no sticker at all).\\n\\nOtherwise, it's a great notebook. If you like to travel light, you might find the thick cardboard covers to be a bit much, but it's a very nice notebook with adequately thick paper and a handy plastic pocket. I just wish it wasn't all ripped up from a stupid marketing sticker.\",\n \"Product: When youre in the middle of packing boxes, the last thing you want to do is search endlessly for the end of the tape. The search is over with Scotch Sure Start Shipping Packaging Tape. This tough, strong tape comes off the roll easily and smoothly with no slivering or splitting. This tape also delivers a smooth and quiet unwind, and when it quietly unwinds off the roll and onto your package, it stays onkeeping your package securely sealed. Clear to the core, Scotch Sure Start Packaging Tape works beautifully for home and office. It stands up to rough handlingbut so easy to handle. Scotch Sure Start Shipping Packaging Tapealways easy, always ready to help you get the job done.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: High quality packing tape\\n\\nReview: I volunteer from time to time at a charity that sends clothing and supplies to families in need. They use the most awful packing tape. It's thin, cheap, and prone to getting tangled or ripped in annoying ways. I spend way too much time trying to peel the tape off the roll and get it back to a straight edge (instead of many tiny rips).\\n\\nThis tape is the polar opposite of that cheap tape. It's what I use at home, and it makes box taping a quick and headache-free task. I've never seen it rip longways, and the dispenser ensures that it's almost always ready to use (every once in a great while, the roll gets bumped around in a drawer and the tape gets stuck back to the roll, but that's a storage issue rather than a dispenser issue).\\n\\nThis tape is also a much better value than the little rolls. It doesn't SEEM that much longer, but it really is. I would happily buy this again.\",\n \"Product: Double wall, single wall construction. Stylish, colorful, and strong for a variety of applications. Medium-duty stacking strength for moderate use with or without shelving. Fast Fold quick and easy assembly. Deep, locking lift-off lid stays in place for secure file storage.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Sturdy and appropriately sized, but prepare to get dirty\\n\\nReview: These boxes are much more attractive than most similar boxes, and I still can't figure out why more brands don't attempt to make things like boxes and filing cabinets more attractive. I like that the boxes are wide enough for files, but short enough that it doesn't get really heavy if the box is totally full of papers and notebooks. I would imagine that most adults could carry a full box without too much trouble. The handles are nice and sturdy, and so far there's no sign of damage or wear as I've been moving mine around with full loads.\\n\\nThe only complaint I have is that as of January 2016 (when I ordered mine), they're still bleeding black ink all over the place. Mod Podge spray does solve the problem, but who wants to have to breathe that stuff in? It would be so much better if they could just use a different kind of coating/cardboard on the finished product and charge a little more if they have to. Nobody wants dirty hands every time they need to access something in one of their boxes.\",\n \"Product: Color image class multifunction laser printer with wireless, print, scan, copy and fax functions, and all mode duplexing. Canon print business, air print, Mopria, Google Cloud print capabilities. Nfc and secure print capabilities.\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: Got a 60-pound paperweight, learned just how bad Canon's support is...\\n\\nReview: I'm not sure if I got a lemon or what, but this is the first printer of many I've owned that I was completely unable to set up. From the moment I powered it on, it flashed a red error light, even after repeatedly turning it off and on in hopes of clearing it out. When I went through the on-screen setup, I kept getting an error saying there was a job in progress (and there obviously wasn't a job in progress). I checked all over the machine to make sure I hadn't missed any tape or packing materials, and I didn't find anything. They also sent me the wrong driver disk, so I had to go online to get drivers. That didn't matter, though - because neither wireless nor USB hookups would find the printer.\\n\\nIt's possible this is just a fluke, but I want to caution anyone buying a piece of Canon equipment because their support is the real reason I'm returning this instead of exchanging or sending it in for repair. After a good hour of frustration, I called into their support line, around 11am on a Saturday. I went through their phone menu, only to finally be told they are closed. Why not just say that first? Or better yet, have a support staff on weekends like most companies these days.\\n\\nAfter that, I went to the website. I tried it in both Firefox and Chrome, and both gave errors when I tried to submit a support ticket. After another frustrating half hour of attempting to contact them in ANY way, I gave up. Even though it's over 60 pounds and a colossal pain to package it back up, I've had enough of dealing with Canon. Even if it was repaired, I hate the idea that owning this printer would mean I might have to contact them again at some point down the road.\\n\\nI can't vouch for how well it functions when it does work, but some of the other reviewers have done a great job of commenting on that side of things.\",\n \"Product: Tinted, confidential and self-sealing envelopes, these are perfect for the home office or professional business setting.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: I would definitely buy these again\\n\\nReview: I bought these envelopes when I needed to do a bulk mailing, and they worked wonderfully. In addition to saving a ton of money over buying smaller packs at the store, the quality was great. Unlike some envelopes I've purchased where they weren't very flat and they got stuck in the printer, these went through with no issues at all.\\n\\nI also liked that the container they come in is reasonably sturdy, so it's great for storing any leftover envelopes. There's not a whole lot more I can say about these, but I felt like they definitely lived up to the promises made in the description (right size, security tinted so you can't read through the envelope, and reasonably good adhesive).\",\n \"Product: The Catch master Moth and Pantry Pest Trap now comes in a 3 Pack! The best value in pest control just got even better. Household pests are more than just an unsightly nuisance; they can be major vectors of bacteria and viruses, not to mention the fact that they can destroy your foodstuffs when they enter your kitchen and pantry. with your health and safety in mind, Catch master brings you these super-effective, naturally activated moth traps that eradicate Indian meal moths, flour moths and most other food infesting moths. Non-toxic and easily disposable, these traps use pheromone lures to capture and destroy moths for up to three months, keeping your pantry and food stores clean and free from the threat of bacterial and viral infection. These traps will control the Indian Meal Moth, Tobacco Moth, Mediterranean Flour Moth and Raisin Moth. The pheromone lure is included and lasts for three months. Contains three traps and three pheromone lures in protective packages. Please refer to and follow the directions on the Catch master Moth Trap product label.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Safe for my birds and very effective\\n\\nReview: I really didn't want to buy these traps. Unfortunately, after spending weeks attempting to catch and release all the moths in my apartment (and throwing out tons of bad food), I had to either get traps or settle for living with moths in my home. I have pet birds, and I suspect the moths came in with dove seed or spray millet.\\n\\nThe hard thing about having birds and moths is that you can't use just any pest control method. Birds have extremely delicate respiratory systems and you can kill them or cause severe lung damage if you're not careful. Sprays are completely out of the question unless you relocate the birds for a week or more to let the place air out (and then wipe everything down for residue). These traps were labeled as bird safe and several other bird people mentioned that they worked well in their homes, so I bought them.\\n\\nI do want to note that I didn't put the traps NEAR the birds, though. They were all at least a room away, and I made sure the birds were closely monitored any time they were out of the cage. I have no idea whether the trap would be dangerous if they chewed on it (as parrots so often do with many things).\\n\\nI still feel bad about killing all those moths, but I have to admit the traps worked extremely well. I kept them out for about a month to get all the living moths plus any eggs that might hatch, and it wiped out the problem completely. Since then, I've developed a habit of freezing bird seed when I get it, then keeping it in an airtight container. The problem hasn't returned.\",\n \"Product: Tightly rolled paper lollipop sticks that birds love to chew and peel, bunched together in a sturdy wooden block.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Great for the little parrots, too!\\n\\nReview: Over the years, I've purchased multiple copies of this toy - both from Amazon and local pet stores. It's a favorite at our house, and both my green cheek conure and my sun conure are big fans. Depending on their mood, they'll use it either as a perch or as a target of their playful aggression. For birds of this size, it ends up lasting quite a while, though I expect an amazon or macaw would make short work of it.\\n\\nIt took a while for my birds to decide they liked this, but I found that if I \\\"get it started\\\" by peeling one or two of the sticks just a bit, they take to it very quickly. My only real caution about this item is that if it gets wet (or if you put it near a water bowl they splash in), it can get very messy, very quickly. My birds have bathed and then perched, only to leave colorful footprints on their light-colored perches. It's not a huge deal, but if you're not expecting it, it can be a bit startling (especially if they're tracking the red dye of the base around, since it can look a bit bloody).\\n\\nOne more fun idea with this toy - get a spray millet and strip a few inches of the middle section, then weave that part of the stem through the lollipop sticks, effectively holding the spray millet in place. My birds love it when things move to different spots in their cage, and this has been a favorite for them.\",\n \"Product: The Living World Pedi-Perch is an essential addition to your bird's home. It is a cement bird perch that helps trim and maintain blunt, well-groomed nails. The multi-grip wave surface promotes foot circulation and helps prevent arthritis and atrophy. In addition, the Pedi-Perch helps clean and condition the bird's beak.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Great perches, but check the measurements!\\n\\nReview: I recently bought one of these perches for my conure's long nails, and I ordered based on the stats posted here. According to the description, the diameter of the perch was 1 inch. When I received the perch, it was monstrously huge - more than 1 inch diameter at the smallest point, and over 2 inches at the wider parts. I had to send it back.\\n\\nMy recommendation would be to check the measurements elsewhere before buying. It's a great perch, but you need to get the right size. It's possible that the listing will be updated at some point and render my review inaccurate, but it's still better to quickly double-check so you don't have to waste time doing a return.\",\n \"Product: Bird Kabobs are the ultimate shreddable bird toys. Made from a soft pithy wood. They are irresistible to all hookbill birds from parakeets to macaws. They satisfy the instinctual need of these birds to chew. They have been described as bird catnip. Recommended by veterinarians for for birds with feather picking problems. Legendary among bird lovers worldwide. You'll be amazed at the site of your bird enjoying the bird Kabob. These are truly the most sensational bird toys ever made.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Great toy, but take safety precautions\\n\\nReview: My sun conure absolutely adores these shreddable kabob toys. We've been through dozens over the 11 years she's lived with me, and she's always excited when I give her a new one.\\n\\nThat said, you have to be careful with these. First, make sure you tighten the loop at the top. The loop is big enough for a small bird to get their head stuck, and that would be horrific. You should also be careful to supervise your bird with this toy, especially in the beginning (as with any new toy). It's relatively easy to get a claw stuck in the rope, especially as the toy gets more shredded. I would love to see a version of this toy where it's mounted on a short wooden dowel with a metal fastener instead. It would be much safer, and I'd happily pay extra if that made it more expensive.\",\n \"Product: Maturity and inactivity can lead to a loss of muscle mass. At the same time, adipose tissues will accumulate, so the risk of obesity is very real. The cat can lose its appetite because of dental problems and a poorer sense of smell and taste. The effects of aging become apparent especially in terms of kidney, joint function, immune and digestive systems. An exclusive combination of powerful antioxidants, including Vitamin E, to help allay the impact of free radicals responsible for cell ageing. A softer kibble, easily broken in your cat's mouth, can help to protect sensitive teeth and gums. Improved digestibility of the food in your cat's gastrointestinal tract may contribute to smaller and less foul smelling feces. Available in 2.5 lbs.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Great for an FIV+ cat with sore gums\\n\\nReview: When a stray cat showed up at my door and walked right in, I knew I had to help her. She was starving to death and had a bandage around her paw that was cutting off circulation and causing her paw to swell up to three times its normal size. After getting her to the vet, I found out she was FIV+, had a rib deformity, was not microchipped, and she had a lot of dental issues. They weren't able to guess her age with any accuracy, but because she had tender gums, I decided to try feeding her this semi-soft mature cat food.\\n\\nPrior to its arrival, she was eating a variety of other things I tried, and they all seemed to make her vomit. Royal Canin did not. The vomiting stopped almost immediately after she got this food, and she has been eating it happily for several months now. I give her this as a primary food, with the occasional wet food treat on the side. Her coat has gotten much healthier, her gums are a little less swollen, and she doesn't seem to have the constipation issues she was having before. I don't see us switching foods as long as she continues to enjoy this one.\",\n \"Product: Birds are captivated by the sounds of the rainforest coming from this colorful and interactive toy. Tons of colorful beads cascade through small holes to mimic the tropical sounds of the rainforest. Made of tough polycarbonate\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Huge hit with my sun conure\\n\\nReview: My sun conure may be a small bird, but she adores this toy. We usually play with it together, as it's a bit heavy for her. However, once we get going, she will grab onto the plastic chain loops (places where you can connect the chain) and shake with all her might. She can usually get some sound out of it, and occasionally she'll toss it with such force that it swings back and she \\\"falls\\\" off the perch backwards and laughs hysterically. She loves it, and immediately climbs back up and goes after it again. She also likes to grab hold and bang it against her food bowl\\n\\nOther times, I'll just turn it from side to side so she can enjoy the sounds and colorful beads. I like to rotate my birds' toys for maximum stimulation, and I just put this one back in her cage after a month's absence. She hasn't stopped playing with it all night.\",\n \"Product: The Hall of Mirrors Activitoy is one of our top selling classics. It's innovative design creates a bird sized fun house mirror so that your bird can see infinite images of itself. This stimulating toy is sure to delight your bird and help to keep him vibrant and energetic. Suitable for parakeets and cockatiels and other similar sized birds.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Birds love this mirror...\\n\\nReview: My parrots are apparently quite vain, as they can spend hours wedged inside this little mirror and chatting to themselves. It seems they enjoy it both as a mirror and as a cozy snuggle spot at the end of the perch (and they have those furry Birdy Buddy things, so it's not like I don't give them anything to cuddle).\\n\\nThe product is very sturdy, and I haven't noticed any cracks or breaks even after my sun conure chewed on hers. Still, as with all bird toys, be sure to check since your mileage may vary. A bigger bird would probably destroy this mirror with ease.\\n\\nPigeons and doves are also quite fond of this item, as a good friend of mine has purchased a couple for his aviary and they love them. The male is especially fond of practicing his mating sounds and movements in front of the mirror.\\n\\nOverall, 5 stars. I've yet to meet a bird that didn't like this particular mirror.\",\n \"Product: The Hall of Mirrors Activitoy is one of our top selling classics. It's innovative design creates a bird sized fun house mirror so that your bird can see infinite images of itself. This stimulating toy is sure to delight your bird and help to keep him vibrant and energetic. Suitable for parakeets and cockatiels and other similar sized birds.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Birds love this mirror...\\n\\nReview: My parrots are apparently quite vain, as they can spend hours wedged inside this little mirror and chatting to themselves. It seems they enjoy it both as a mirror and as a cozy snuggle spot at the end of the perch (and they have those furry Birdy Buddy things, so it's not like I don't give them anything to cuddle).\\n\\nThe product is very sturdy, and I haven't noticed any cracks or breaks even after my sun conure chewed on hers. Still, as with all bird toys, be sure to check since your mileage may vary. A bigger bird would probably destroy this mirror with ease.\\n\\nPigeons and doves are also quite fond of this item, as a good friend of mine has purchased a couple for his aviary and they love them. The male is especially fond of practicing his mating sounds and movements in front of the mirror.\\n\\nOverall, 5 stars. I've yet to meet a bird that didn't like this particular mirror.\",\n \"Product: The Creative Foraging Systems Foraging Carousel is the perfect good-time system for your favorite bird friends to keep entertained. The super-easy to mount Foraging Carousel can be hang on either side of the cage and it stays securely on place while your bird learns the four different ways to access the treat: Two open on hinges, one has to be pulled up from the front and one pulled up from the back. This gives Birdy a real challenge and turns treat time into play time, making it fun for you and your pet. Plus, Avian Veterinarians recommend Foraging Systems to help reduce stress and boredom in your Parrots life.The Carousel is made from Durable Polycarbonate and is very easy to clean and dishwasher safe. Dont wait any longer, Buy a Creative Foraging Systems Foraging Carousel today and see how happy your bird will be.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: My sun conure thought this was an evil monster sent to kill her\\n\\nReview: My sun conure has the Creative Foraging Systems Wheel already, and she loves it. Even after several years, she hasn't grown bored with it. This toy, on the other hand, was not well-received. First off, it doesn't seem to hang perfectly straight on the wall of the cage. Some of the doors wouldn't stay shut.\\n\\nStill, I gave it a try and put my bird's favorite treats in the doors that WOULD close. Unfortunately, she decided that this toy was actually a monster sent to kill her, and she cowered in the opposite corner of the cage until I realized I would never get her to like this thing. This is AFTER I let the toy sit near her cage for several days (so she could get used to seeing it). I ended up sending this back. Between the faulty doors that wouldn't stay shut and the fact that it was inflicting psychological torture on my bird, I didn't see any reason to keep it.\",\n \"Product: Birds, especially parrots, have the urge and need to chew on things. The Paradise Toys Popsicle Sticks chew toy is the perfect thing to keep your favorite feathered friend happily occupied for hours on end. The toy will make Birdy delirious as he or she gleefully attacks the wooden sticks. Its pure joy to them and theyll love you forever when you hang it in their cage. Buy this fun and funky bird toy today and give your bird the time of their life.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A favorite of my green cheek conure...\\n\\nReview: This is probably my green cheek conure's favorite toy in the whole world. I've purchased this toy from tons of different places over the years, including Amazon, and I expect I'll continue buying one every few months for as long as I'm lucky enough to have my little conure (she's 13 now). I tried giving one to my sun conure once, but she killed it within a couple hours so it was a very poor return on investment. I can imagine an Amazon or macaw or African gray would destroy it even faster.\\n\\nHowever, if you have a tiny bird like a green cheek conure or cockatiel or budgie, this is a fantastic toy. They get something they can properly destroy, and you get a happy, occupied little bird. I also wanted to point out that on all the ones I've purchased (including the ones here at Amazon), the middle beads were always made of wood. I strongly prefer that since the plastic seems more likely to cause problems.\",\n \"Product: Trixie's rolanda cat tree will provide endless opportunities for cats to play, explore, scratch or just relax. Felines can sharpen their claws on one of four sisal wrapped scratching post instead of on your furniture or carpet, giving them a healthy outlet for their scratching instincts. for a nap or a cozy retreat, the cat can curl up inside the large condo with peek-a-boo hole at the top. It's covered in plush both inside and out. A sisal wrapped ladder leads directly up to the condo. Spunky cats can jump, climb or perch atop the top platform and lie in wait for unsuspecting prey or simply enjoy the view. It's padded and features a backrest for extra support. We also included a dangling plush toy and rope for added fun. The neutral tones are easy to integrate into your home dcor. Dimensions 18 by 20 by 51-Inch. Weight 30-pound. Color brown. Suitable for cats of all ages and activity levels. One year warranty.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: A nice compact option for small to mid-sized kitties\\n\\nReview: I purchased this cat tree for a friend's cat, and while she took a while to come around to it, she loves it now. The scratching post legs have saved furniture while indulging the cat's need to scratch, and the small footprint makes it perfect for the cat's small \\\"bedroom\\\". I particularly like the enclosed (and super soft) middle section since it gives the cat a quiet and safe place to hide out when it storms or when she just wants to be alone.\\n\\nThe only real caution about this cat tree is that it's a bit small and cramped for larger cats. This particular cat is about 9 pounds and relatively petite, so it's a reasonable size for her, but even still, I'd prefer to larger one for her if space allowed. If your cat is 13+ pounds, this tree is going to feel very small, and the top platform will be nearly useless.\",\n \"Product: HQ flight cage is a multi-purpose bird cage. Great for smaller birds like parakeets, canaries, finches, lovebirds and cockatiels. 3/8-inch bar spacing. Comes with 2 trough feeders and cart stand.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: A solid choice for small to mid-sized birds\\n\\nReview: For the price, you won't find a better cage for a small to medium-sized bird (cockatiels, lovebirds, conures, finches, etc.). It's surprisingly hard to find a sizable cage with the bar spacing needed for tiny bird heads, and this one delivers. It's also very affordable compared to some of the fancier cages out there. I just purchased three of this cage for my birds, and I've purchased several other variations of this cage over the years. Some had a single large front door, which made it a little awkward to reach into parts of the cage. I definitely like that this one has both a top and bottom door.\\n\\nOne thing I don't like, though, is that the side doors were not as pictured, and they were not at all like the ones on my past cages. Instead of the normal wire openings you can see on the sides in the picture for this listing, the doors on the ones I received are more solid, and much harder to clip shut. And yes, you'll probably want to clip them shut, as parrots are sneaky and smart and they will escape (doves and finches, not so much). I learned that the hard way, and had a small bird fight on my hands. In the past, I've used the little metal fasteners I had left over from previously demolished bird toys. With the new side doors, I'm going to have to come up with a different solution. Zip ties would be chewed up pretty quickly, after all. I'd say I wish they would just stop making the side doors entirely, but they're REALLY handy armholes when you're trying to secure things to the back of the cage without someone to help you.\\n\\nOverall, this is a great cage for the money. I wish other cage manufacturers had better options for the little birds, but these cages will work until someone gets a clue and makes a large, fancy cage with small bar spacing. They're very sturdy, easy to clean, and cheap enough that I don't mind buying new ones every so often when I notice a bit of wear and tear.\",\n \"Product: Prevue's cozy corner helps creates a protected environment that keeps your bird warm even in drafty areas or seasonal weather.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: My birds love these!\\n\\nReview: My sun conure and green cheek conure hate when I travel because it means they'll be staying in an unfamiliar place in smaller than usual cages. I make sure they have all their favorite toys and treats, but it's the Cozy Corner that makes it all work. Without their Cozy Corners, they're miserable and they don't sleep well. Once I put those in the cages, though, they simply cuddle up to the Cozy Corner and it calms them down instantly.\\n\\nI keep several sets of extra Cozy Corners around, both at home and when they're staying with my family or friends. Not only do I make sure they always have one in whatever cage they're using, but I also check them regularly for snags or holes. Birds can get stuck in loose strings or holes very easily, so it's important to make sure they're always using one that's perfectly intact.\",\n \"Product: Coastal Pet Products-Comfort Soft Adjustable Mesh Cat Harness. This Comfortable, Lightweight Harness Is Great For Walking Your Cat. Not Only Does It Distribute Leash Pressure Evenly Across The Neck And Shoulders, It Adjusts To Fit. This Package Contains One Adjustable Harness. Fits Most Cats' Necks Between 10 Inches And 18 Inches, And Girths Between 14 Inches And 16 Inches. Comes In A Variety Of Colors. Each Sold Separately. Imported.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Not bad, but not suitable for all situations.\\n\\nReview: I've trained a number of cats to walk on leashes now, but it's only recently that I've used a harness like this. I'm training one cat to go live in anothe state, so I wanted to find a harness that would be TSA friendly. She hates to be held, so I was concerned she might get away when the carrier got x-rayed. Most cat harnesses have too much metal to make it through a metal detector, but this one just has one tiny metal ring. The rest is fabric or plastic.\\n\\nI would NOT recommend this harness for outdoor walks. For many cats, it goes uncomfortably high on the neck. More importantly, most cats can slip out of it pretty easily. Instead, I would recommend the kind that comes up from under both sides of the arms and fastens tightly around the shoulders.\\n\\nOn the other hand, if you're going to be indoors (like in a pet therapy situation) or you need a harness with very minimal metal, this might do the trick for you. The extra small was a good fit for the 7 pound female I've been working with.\",\n \"Product: The Cliff bed ultra plush pet bed designed for pets up to 50 lbs. Removable and washable cushion cover, elevated bed for draft free sleeping. Full loft cushion. Bed size - 34.5\\\" length, 22.5\\\" wide, 17\\\" high. Enchanted Home Pet furniture eases your pet into a luxurious cushion that engulfs them in complete comfort and warmth. Inner cushion is designed to work with Enchanted Home Pet's Therapeutics products which can provide an added level of comfort for pets with aches and ailments with technology that provides heating cooling and magnetic therapy Born from the determination to develop the highest quality and most innovative products, Enchanted Home Pet's attention to detail, design and functionality is unmatched by any pet products anywhere.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Not quite like the photo...\\n\\nReview: We recently purchased this for an elderly cat with a bit of arthritis in her back legs. We wanted something that wasn't too tall, with plenty of room for her to extend her legs when necessary. Although this couch works, we did have a little trouble with it initially due to the weird cushions. Out of the box, the main cushion was extremely uneven and lumpy, as you can see in the photos. When she tried to lay on it, she would roll back into the lower areas.\\n\\nTo help out with the unevenness, we took turns sitting on the couch a little each day to help smoosh the cushion down. We also put a large towel over the couch to keep Captain Hook from rolling into the cracks, and to give her a bit of traction control. That seemed to help a lot, though I think it will be a bit longer before it's as flat as in the photo. We definitely would have preferred a higher quality cushion that wasn't so lumpy and mountainous out of the box. A more dense foam (or even a layer of memory foam) would have been great.\",\n \"Product: Test your coordination and concentration with this set of three juggling balls. These bead-filled juggling balls are covered with bright multi-colored fabric and weighted just right for juggling ease. Included step-by-step instructions teach even the clumsiest of individuals how to juggle. You'll want to show off your juggling skills to everyone with these fabulous juggling balls. Includes 3 beaded juggling balls with stitched vinyl covering. Each ball measures approximately 2\\\" in diameter. Recommended for ages +.\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: These balls smelled funny\\n\\nReview: I order all my balls with Amazon and I'm usually more than satisfied - but these were definitely the worst. The first thing I noticed is that the balls were coated in some kind of fine powder. It left my hands sticky and it smelled terrible. Did Amazon send me toxic balls? Who knows...\\n\\nAnyway, after I thoroughly cleaned the balls, I decided to see how they handle. Balance wasn't bad, and the balls appeared to be evenly weighted. The real problem was durability. These balls have to be handled pretty delicately, and really - who does that? After a few drops, one of the balls was already starting to show some wear. After less than a week, I've already retired them. The last thing I need is to have odd-smelling balls spilling their contents all over my living room.\",\n \"Product: It's the honest truth that Jiminy Cricket is not only a wise conscience but also a soft and cuddly one as a Mini Bean Bag Plush Toy! Wish upon a star for fun playtime with this dapper Jiminy Cricket plush figure.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A lovely small gift and perfect gift to pair with a DVD...\\n\\nReview: One of my young relatives has a rare and fatal brain iron accumulation disease called INAD. As a result, she's lost a lot of muscle mass and she isn't able to hold heavy or large stuffed animals. This small Jiminy Cricket was perfect for her - and a great addition to her growing collection of small plush Disney creatures. Anything that can make her smile is an immediate 5-star product.\\n\\nI love the Jiminy because he's an under-appreciated Disney character and he doesn't really skew male or female in terms of who's interested in him. He also delivered some of the best, most uplifting lines in Disney history, so he would be a great gift along with a Pinocchio DVD (or any of his other films - he's been in quite a few Disney titles).\",\n \"Product: Aurora World Flopsie animals are made with top quality materials and soft plush. The poly-bean filling is double bagged for safety and Flopsies feature lock washer eyes, ensuring durability and long time enjoyment. Aurora World is an industry leader with over 30 years of experience designing and manufacturing innovative, high quality plush products.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Looks just like a cat I know...\\n\\nReview: I bought this for my best friend's cats because it looks just like their friend Catcat (pictured here). We got Catcat to get her scent all over the stuffed toy, and now it serves as a nice substitute in between cat playdates. Initially, they even treated it a bit like another cat, with one going so far as to lick it - but now they know better and just enjoy it as a toy.\\n\\nThis would also be a great stuffed animal for a small child. It's super soft, and the combination of partial bean filling with mostly normal stuffing gives it a really nice floppiness. It's not so heavy or large that it would be a pain to drag around, but it's not so small that you need to worry about it getting lost easily.\",\n \"Product: Find all of your favorite dinosaurs in this assortment of prehistoric creatures. This toy dino figure will make any themed party come alive. Animal figures are fun for any goody bag or as prizes for a school or church carnival.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Perfect for my needs...\\n\\nReview: These dinos are not huge or fancy, but they worked perfectly for my purposes. My 3-year-old nephew had requested \\\"a toy tree with dinosaurs\\\" for his birthday, so I bought a silk tree and hung these dinosaurs from the branches. That little weirdo loved it.\\n\\nThat said, there are a couple things that might bother you if you don't know in advance. First off, they ARE pretty small. They're not put-them-in-your-mouth-and-choke-on-them small, but they're only a few inches long. They make great pets for your action figures, and they can ride in toy cars pretty easily.\\n\\nYou also get quite a few duplicates. This didn't bother me (the nephew loves to match up like things), but I could see how some people might not like that. Other than those two things, though, I think it's a great set. They're cute, sturdy, and easy to clean (not too many weird crevices, and the paint didn't come off easily when scrubbing one.\"\n]","isConversational":false},"profile_size":{"kind":"number","value":68,"string":"68"},"task":{"kind":"string","value":"longlamp_3"},"split_kind":{"kind":"string","value":"user_based"},"id":{"kind":"number","value":1669,"string":"1,669"}}},{"rowIdx":1670,"cells":{"question_id":{"kind":"string","value":"A2HSZ8MKIJ6K6M"},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of \"5.0\" for a product with description \"Title: Dune, Frank Herbert (Hardcover)\nBinding: Hardcover\nClassics of Modern Literature\". The summary of the review text is \"Read it slowly and savour it. You only get to read Dune the first time once\"."},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"I am showing you the superhero syndrome and your own participation in it.\n\nFrank Herbert\n\nIt is difficult to review Dune by Frank Herbert because it is such a cornerstone of our contemporary SF literature. For me I read it young, and it is very much a part of my SF DNA, and images from the book and the film have stayed with me for most of my life.\n\nStarting in 1963, Frank Herbert wrote a serialisation of stories inspired by his journeys to Florence, Oregan where sand dunes were being stabilised by grasses. It was the first of its type, a science fiction novel telling a story of advanced ecological manipulation.\n\nIt strange to think that this story was first serialised in the SF magazine Analog, and then rejected by over 20 publishers before finally being published in 1965.\n\nThe book tells the story of a vast future society where huge houses control vast swathes of wealth, the whole controlled by an Emperor. When Leto of House Atreides becomes overly popular, he us a threat to the Emperor who sets out to destroy his house using House Harkonnen as his pawns.\n\nHouse Atreides falls, and Paul Atreides and his mother escape into the hostile deserts of Dune to start a new life with the Fremen\n\nPaul Atreides becomes the hero of his adopted people and will go on to lead great armies, and eventually defeat both the Harkonnen and the Emperor. But not without great trial and sacrifice for himself, his mother and his sister.\n\nSo Dune an epic SF tale with layers upon layers of detail. A book to read and re-read and to loose yourself in the characters, the religion, the politics and of course the planets\n\nSF Book Review, in summary\n\nI recommend it to every SF fan. Read it slowly and savour it. You only get to read Dune the first time once. And once you have, you never forget it."},"correct_answer":{"kind":"string","value":"I am showing you the superhero syndrome and your own participation in it.\n\nFrank Herbert\n\nIt is difficult to review Dune by Frank Herbert because it is such a cornerstone of our contemporary SF literature. For me I read it young, and it is very much a part of my SF DNA, and images from the book and the film have stayed with me for most of my life.\n\nStarting in 1963, Frank Herbert wrote a serialisation of stories inspired by his journeys to Florence, Oregan where sand dunes were being stabilised by grasses. It was the first of its type, a science fiction novel telling a story of advanced ecological manipulation.\n\nIt strange to think that this story was first serialised in the SF magazine Analog, and then rejected by over 20 publishers before finally being published in 1965.\n\nThe book tells the story of a vast future society where huge houses control vast swathes of wealth, the whole controlled by an Emperor. When Leto of House Atreides becomes overly popular, he us a threat to the Emperor who sets out to destroy his house using House Harkonnen as his pawns.\n\nHouse Atreides falls, and Paul Atreides and his mother escape into the hostile deserts of Dune to start a new life with the Fremen\n\nPaul Atreides becomes the hero of his adopted people and will go on to lead great armies, and eventually defeat both the Harkonnen and the Emperor. But not without great trial and sacrifice for himself, his mother and his sister.\n\nSo Dune an epic SF tale with layers upon layers of detail. A book to read and re-read and to loose yourself in the characters, the religion, the politics and of course the planets\n\nSF Book Review, in summary\n\nI recommend it to every SF fan. Read it slowly and savour it. You only get to read Dune the first time once. And once you have, you never forget it."},"documents":{"kind":"list like","value":["Product: Dance with the Dragons book\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Strictly speaking Game of Thrones is not Science Fiction, but I dare you to find one Sci Fi fan who does not love this series.\n\nReview: LOTS OF SPOILERS - warning!!!\n\nBest Sci-Fi TV\n\nI am currently dipping in and out of this book as I watch the new TV series.\n\nThere are two great features of GOT, one each character has their own chapter, and 2) you are therefore follow individual story lines without reference to the rest of the book.\n\nWhile in the first book there was a lot of cross overs between the stories, now in book five,a whole bunch of characters are on very separate quests.\n\nThis sunny Sunday it occured to me that this tome 5 was a bleak and depressing read.\n\n1) Daenerys is stuck with her 'rabbit ears', lots of political compromise and general married life misery\n\n2) Cersei and Marguery are both locked up awaiting trial, the first quite rightly the second more problematically\n\n3) Jaime wanders around the country breaking sieges, with compromises and promises\n\n4) Arya is off in Bravos - doing what - we're not sure, and its not relevant\n\n5) Bran is off North of the wall - doing what - we're not sure - and again the relevance is lost on me\n\n6) Jon Snow is having a miserable time dealing with a bunch of convicts sent north from Kinglanding, who seem set of having their own mini war within the wall\n\n7) Theon - & the Boltons Ramsey and Romsey - lets not even go there.\n\nBest Sci-Fi Book\n\nThe point of GOT if there was ever a point is that surely the Starks, and there were six children. One has to survive, win back and succeed as the new king - surely that has got to be the main point of this story.\n\nAt the end of this book it feels like all the Starks are irrelevant or about to die?\n\nWhich makes me think, why bother with book 8?\n\nNote to author, please can we have a happy ending, or something for the Starks?","Product: HardCover. Pub Date :2004-10-18 Pages: 400 Language: English Publisher: HarperCollins UK This deluxe slipcased edition of The Hobbit. printed and bound using superior materials including a silk ribbon marker. features the definitive text. plus Tolkien's paintings and drawings in full colour. and a special fold-out version of Thror's Map.Bilbo Baggins enjoys a quiet and contented life. with no desire to travel far from the comforts of home; then one day the wizard Gandalf and a band of dwarves arrive unexpectedly and enlist his services - as a burglar - on a dangerous expedition to raid the treasure-hoard of Smaug the dragon.Bilbo 's life is never to be the same again.Seldom has any book been so widely read and loved as JRRTolkien's classic tale. The Hobbit.Since its first publication in 1937 it has remained in print to delight each new generation of readers all over the worl...\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: the Hobbit has many original and memorable scenes. I love the trolls!\n\nReview: The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien is perhaps one of the best known fantasy novels in the world mainly because it is the precursor of the Lord of the Rings judged the book of the Millenium on Amazon in 1999.\n\nThis is a book that was read to me as a child and I can't think of a time when I did not have copy in my possession. And while I had read and re-read the LOTR every year since I first read in 1974, I can't say the same of the Hobbit.\n\nI did of course press into the hands of my daughters with the recommendation that 'this is a great book' and ' you must read it'. These have to be the two parental phrases most likely to turn your child off any work of fiction. No if you are reading this, then promise me you will never use them. Ever.\n\nHaving seen the two Peter Jackson films about the Hobbit, I did however decide to have a look at the original texts. I have always admired Peter Jackson's work on Tolkien's books but I wanted to judge for myself what he had done to the original text.\n\nI picked the book up and started to read it. I think like most of use, I flicked through the pages, reading the scenes between Bilbo and Gandalf, the trolls arguing about to cook and eat 12 dwarves and a hobbit, and of course the scenes with the dragon.\n\nThen I stopped myself and set out to read the whole thing. And of course I could not. I put the book down, went to make a cup of tea. 'suddenly' remembered I had urgent ironing to do. I even posted a few tweets with the book in one hand.\n\nSo yes the Hobbit has many original and memorable scenes in it, but it is written in a style which bears no resemblance to contemporary fiction, and rather than a page turner, it is very put-downable.\n\nThe Hobbit is and will always remains one the great novels in English language, even if it was just an early trial. It directly led to the most remarkable oeuvre in Fantasy fiction; The Lord of the Rings, and so for me at least it deserves its place in the pantheon of greats.\n\nSo dust of your copy, find the favourite scenes and enjoy.","Product: The enchanting prelude to \"The Lord of the Rings\"\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: the Hobbit has many original and memorable scenes. I love the trolls!\n\nReview: The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien is perhaps one of the best known fantasy novels in the world mainly because it is the precursor of the Lord of the Rings judged the book of the Millenium on Amazon in 1999.\n\nThis is a book that was read to me as a child and I can't think of a time when I did not have copy in my possession. And while I had read and re-read the LOTR every year since I first read in 1974, I can't say the same of the Hobbit.\n\nI did of course press into the hands of my daughters with the recommendation that 'this is a great book' and ' you must read it'. These have to be the two parental phrases most likely to turn your child off any work of fiction. No if you are reading this, then promise me you will never use them. Ever.\n\nHaving seen the two Peter Jackson films about the Hobbit, I did however decide to have a look at the original texts. I have always admired Peter Jackson's work on Tolkien's books but I wanted to judge for myself what he had done to the original text.\n\nI picked the book up and started to read it. I think like most of use, I flicked through the pages, reading the scenes between Bilbo and Gandalf, the trolls arguing about to cook and eat 12 dwarves and a hobbit, and of course the scenes with the dragon.\n\nThen I stopped myself and set out to read the whole thing. And of course I could not. I put the book down, went to make a cup of tea. 'suddenly' remembered I had urgent ironing to do. I even posted a few tweets with the book in one hand.\n\nSo yes the Hobbit has many original and memorable scenes in it, but it is written in a style which bears no resemblance to contemporary fiction, and rather than a page turner, it is very put-downable.\n\nThe Hobbit is and will always remains one the great novels in English language, even if it was just an early trial. It directly led to the most remarkable oeuvre in Fantasy fiction; The Lord of the Rings, and so for me at least it deserves its place in the pantheon of greats.\n\nSo dust of your copy, find the favourite scenes and enjoy.","Product: MOVIE TIE IN BOOKS WITH BEAUTIFUL COVERS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING WITH FRODO ON COVER, TWO TWO TOWERS WITH ELF ON COVER SHOOTING BOW AND ARROW AND THE RETURN OF THE KING WITH MORDOR ON COVER. BIGGER WELL MADE SOFTCOVER BOOKS. One Ring to rule them all. One Ring to find them. One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: the Hobbit has many original and memorable scenes. I love the trolls!\n\nReview: The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien is perhaps one of the best known fantasy novels in the world mainly because it is the precursor of the Lord of the Rings judged the book of the Millenium on Amazon in 1999.\n\nThis is a book that was read to me as a child and I can't think of a time when I did not have copy in my possession. And while I had read and re-read the LOTR every year since I first read in 1974, I can't say the same of the Hobbit.\n\nI did of course press into the hands of my daughters with the recommendation that 'this is a great book' and ' you must read it'. These have to be the two parental phrases most likely to turn your child off any work of fiction. No if you are reading this, then promise me you will never use them. Ever.\n\nHaving seen the two Peter Jackson films about the Hobbit, I did however decide to have a look at the original texts. I have always admired Peter Jackson's work on Tolkien's books but I wanted to judge for myself what he had done to the original text.\n\nI picked the book up and started to read it. I think like most of use, I flicked through the pages, reading the scenes between Bilbo and Gandalf, the trolls arguing about to cook and eat 12 dwarves and a hobbit, and of course the scenes with the dragon.\n\nThen I stopped myself and set out to read the whole thing. And of course I could not. I put the book down, went to make a cup of tea. 'suddenly' remembered I had urgent ironing to do. I even posted a few tweets with the book in one hand.\n\nSo yes the Hobbit has many original and memorable scenes in it, but it is written in a style which bears no resemblance to contemporary fiction, and rather than a page turner, it is very put-downable.\n\nThe Hobbit is and will always remains one the great novels in English language, even if it was just an early trial. It directly led to the most remarkable oeuvre in Fantasy fiction; The Lord of the Rings, and so for me at least it deserves its place in the pantheon of greats.\n\nSo dust of your copy, find the favourite scenes and enjoy.","Product: Box set of JRR Tolkien's incomparable classic\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: the Hobbit has many original and memorable scenes. I love the trolls!\n\nReview: The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien is perhaps one of the best known fantasy novels in the world mainly because it is the precursor of the Lord of the Rings judged the book of the Millenium on Amazon in 1999.\n\nThis is a book that was read to me as a child and I can't think of a time when I did not have copy in my possession. And while I had read and re-read the LOTR every year since I first read in 1974, I can't say the same of the Hobbit.\n\nI did of course press into the hands of my daughters with the recommendation that 'this is a great book' and ' you must read it'. These have to be the two parental phrases most likely to turn your child off any work of fiction. No if you are reading this, then promise me you will never use them. Ever.\n\nHaving seen the two Peter Jackson films about the Hobbit, I did however decide to have a look at the original texts. I have always admired Peter Jackson's work on Tolkien's books but I wanted to judge for myself what he had done to the original text.\n\nI picked the book up and started to read it. I think like most of use, I flicked through the pages, reading the scenes between Bilbo and Gandalf, the trolls arguing about to cook and eat 12 dwarves and a hobbit, and of course the scenes with the dragon.\n\nThen I stopped myself and set out to read the whole thing. And of course I could not. I put the book down, went to make a cup of tea. 'suddenly' remembered I had urgent ironing to do. I even posted a few tweets with the book in one hand.\n\nSo yes the Hobbit has many original and memorable scenes in it, but it is written in a style which bears no resemblance to contemporary fiction, and rather than a page turner, it is very put-downable.\n\nThe Hobbit is and will always remains one the great novels in English language, even if it was just an early trial. It directly led to the most remarkable oeuvre in Fantasy fiction; The Lord of the Rings, and so for me at least it deserves its place in the pantheon of greats.\n\nSo dust of your copy, find the favourite scenes and enjoy.","Product: [ Lies BY Grant, Michael ( Author ) ] { Paperback } 2014\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: A new series very compelling\n\nReview: This is a scary looking book and the back cover contains a warning of violence, which is well deserved. Very much in the style of the Hunger Games , and more so the Lord of the Flies, this book has all the adults disappear in the first moments and then proceeds to have teens fifteen and under are literally abandoned to try and run the world.\n\nI particularly like the fact that almost none of the protagonists can drive, and adult skills such as cooking, child minding, computers are spread among the population with an occasional child having a strong talent, and the rest being fairly clueless\n\nThe story never stops and you are forever on the edge of your seat, but with so many questions not answered at the end, it can feel a little unsatisfactory, but then there are sequels.\n\nSo read this in anticipation of a long journey through the sequels that follow","Product: Having completed his degree in sculpture, Nick moved into the computer games industry. For more than 21 years Nick worked as a graphic artist and creative director, helping to produce over forty titles, including many chart-topping hits. Nick has a passion for science and astronomy, often blogging about the latest mind-blowing discoveries made in quantum physics. He once even soloed a light aircraft, an experience hes tapping into now for the Cloud Riders trilogy.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Steam punk and parallel worlds in a fun YA novel. Great start from a new talent.\n\nReview: Nick Cook contacted me via Twitter about Cloud Riders. this is first novel published by three Hares Publishing and edited by Kathryn Price or Cornerstones.\n\nThe novel is set in Twister Alley in the USA and tells the story of Dom, a seventeen-year-old geek, picked on the sport and cheerleader clique at his local high-school, whose father is dead, and left him and his mother with little money and failing business. A Diner in twister Allee makes no money when there are no twisters. So the book which starts off very much as High School Musical meets Somewhere Over the Rainbow, when an airship falls out of a twister.\n\nI won't say very much about the story, except the pace really picks up when Dom finally plucks up his courage to break into the airship to discover its secrets.\n\nThe whole story has nice steampunk details and is an innovative take on the time travel / parallel universe genre.\n\nThe Science Fiction is less convincing, and I was particularly irritated by the all-healing Chi Stone. You rub or hold the stone above any injury and its special powers accelerate the healing. That's not science fiction, that's magic.\n\nSo all-told an interesting Steam-Punk parallel-worlds tale with a sequel to follow. A solid start from a brand new talent."],"string":"[\n \"Product: Dance with the Dragons book\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Strictly speaking Game of Thrones is not Science Fiction, but I dare you to find one Sci Fi fan who does not love this series.\\n\\nReview: LOTS OF SPOILERS - warning!!!\\n\\nBest Sci-Fi TV\\n\\nI am currently dipping in and out of this book as I watch the new TV series.\\n\\nThere are two great features of GOT, one each character has their own chapter, and 2) you are therefore follow individual story lines without reference to the rest of the book.\\n\\nWhile in the first book there was a lot of cross overs between the stories, now in book five,a whole bunch of characters are on very separate quests.\\n\\nThis sunny Sunday it occured to me that this tome 5 was a bleak and depressing read.\\n\\n1) Daenerys is stuck with her 'rabbit ears', lots of political compromise and general married life misery\\n\\n2) Cersei and Marguery are both locked up awaiting trial, the first quite rightly the second more problematically\\n\\n3) Jaime wanders around the country breaking sieges, with compromises and promises\\n\\n4) Arya is off in Bravos - doing what - we're not sure, and its not relevant\\n\\n5) Bran is off North of the wall - doing what - we're not sure - and again the relevance is lost on me\\n\\n6) Jon Snow is having a miserable time dealing with a bunch of convicts sent north from Kinglanding, who seem set of having their own mini war within the wall\\n\\n7) Theon - & the Boltons Ramsey and Romsey - lets not even go there.\\n\\nBest Sci-Fi Book\\n\\nThe point of GOT if there was ever a point is that surely the Starks, and there were six children. One has to survive, win back and succeed as the new king - surely that has got to be the main point of this story.\\n\\nAt the end of this book it feels like all the Starks are irrelevant or about to die?\\n\\nWhich makes me think, why bother with book 8?\\n\\nNote to author, please can we have a happy ending, or something for the Starks?\",\n \"Product: HardCover. Pub Date :2004-10-18 Pages: 400 Language: English Publisher: HarperCollins UK This deluxe slipcased edition of The Hobbit. printed and bound using superior materials including a silk ribbon marker. features the definitive text. plus Tolkien's paintings and drawings in full colour. and a special fold-out version of Thror's Map.Bilbo Baggins enjoys a quiet and contented life. with no desire to travel far from the comforts of home; then one day the wizard Gandalf and a band of dwarves arrive unexpectedly and enlist his services - as a burglar - on a dangerous expedition to raid the treasure-hoard of Smaug the dragon.Bilbo 's life is never to be the same again.Seldom has any book been so widely read and loved as JRRTolkien's classic tale. The Hobbit.Since its first publication in 1937 it has remained in print to delight each new generation of readers all over the worl...\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: the Hobbit has many original and memorable scenes. I love the trolls!\\n\\nReview: The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien is perhaps one of the best known fantasy novels in the world mainly because it is the precursor of the Lord of the Rings judged the book of the Millenium on Amazon in 1999.\\n\\nThis is a book that was read to me as a child and I can't think of a time when I did not have copy in my possession. And while I had read and re-read the LOTR every year since I first read in 1974, I can't say the same of the Hobbit.\\n\\nI did of course press into the hands of my daughters with the recommendation that 'this is a great book' and ' you must read it'. These have to be the two parental phrases most likely to turn your child off any work of fiction. No if you are reading this, then promise me you will never use them. Ever.\\n\\nHaving seen the two Peter Jackson films about the Hobbit, I did however decide to have a look at the original texts. I have always admired Peter Jackson's work on Tolkien's books but I wanted to judge for myself what he had done to the original text.\\n\\nI picked the book up and started to read it. I think like most of use, I flicked through the pages, reading the scenes between Bilbo and Gandalf, the trolls arguing about to cook and eat 12 dwarves and a hobbit, and of course the scenes with the dragon.\\n\\nThen I stopped myself and set out to read the whole thing. And of course I could not. I put the book down, went to make a cup of tea. 'suddenly' remembered I had urgent ironing to do. I even posted a few tweets with the book in one hand.\\n\\nSo yes the Hobbit has many original and memorable scenes in it, but it is written in a style which bears no resemblance to contemporary fiction, and rather than a page turner, it is very put-downable.\\n\\nThe Hobbit is and will always remains one the great novels in English language, even if it was just an early trial. It directly led to the most remarkable oeuvre in Fantasy fiction; The Lord of the Rings, and so for me at least it deserves its place in the pantheon of greats.\\n\\nSo dust of your copy, find the favourite scenes and enjoy.\",\n \"Product: The enchanting prelude to \\\"The Lord of the Rings\\\"\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: the Hobbit has many original and memorable scenes. I love the trolls!\\n\\nReview: The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien is perhaps one of the best known fantasy novels in the world mainly because it is the precursor of the Lord of the Rings judged the book of the Millenium on Amazon in 1999.\\n\\nThis is a book that was read to me as a child and I can't think of a time when I did not have copy in my possession. And while I had read and re-read the LOTR every year since I first read in 1974, I can't say the same of the Hobbit.\\n\\nI did of course press into the hands of my daughters with the recommendation that 'this is a great book' and ' you must read it'. These have to be the two parental phrases most likely to turn your child off any work of fiction. No if you are reading this, then promise me you will never use them. Ever.\\n\\nHaving seen the two Peter Jackson films about the Hobbit, I did however decide to have a look at the original texts. I have always admired Peter Jackson's work on Tolkien's books but I wanted to judge for myself what he had done to the original text.\\n\\nI picked the book up and started to read it. I think like most of use, I flicked through the pages, reading the scenes between Bilbo and Gandalf, the trolls arguing about to cook and eat 12 dwarves and a hobbit, and of course the scenes with the dragon.\\n\\nThen I stopped myself and set out to read the whole thing. And of course I could not. I put the book down, went to make a cup of tea. 'suddenly' remembered I had urgent ironing to do. I even posted a few tweets with the book in one hand.\\n\\nSo yes the Hobbit has many original and memorable scenes in it, but it is written in a style which bears no resemblance to contemporary fiction, and rather than a page turner, it is very put-downable.\\n\\nThe Hobbit is and will always remains one the great novels in English language, even if it was just an early trial. It directly led to the most remarkable oeuvre in Fantasy fiction; The Lord of the Rings, and so for me at least it deserves its place in the pantheon of greats.\\n\\nSo dust of your copy, find the favourite scenes and enjoy.\",\n \"Product: MOVIE TIE IN BOOKS WITH BEAUTIFUL COVERS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING WITH FRODO ON COVER, TWO TWO TOWERS WITH ELF ON COVER SHOOTING BOW AND ARROW AND THE RETURN OF THE KING WITH MORDOR ON COVER. BIGGER WELL MADE SOFTCOVER BOOKS. One Ring to rule them all. One Ring to find them. One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: the Hobbit has many original and memorable scenes. I love the trolls!\\n\\nReview: The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien is perhaps one of the best known fantasy novels in the world mainly because it is the precursor of the Lord of the Rings judged the book of the Millenium on Amazon in 1999.\\n\\nThis is a book that was read to me as a child and I can't think of a time when I did not have copy in my possession. And while I had read and re-read the LOTR every year since I first read in 1974, I can't say the same of the Hobbit.\\n\\nI did of course press into the hands of my daughters with the recommendation that 'this is a great book' and ' you must read it'. These have to be the two parental phrases most likely to turn your child off any work of fiction. No if you are reading this, then promise me you will never use them. Ever.\\n\\nHaving seen the two Peter Jackson films about the Hobbit, I did however decide to have a look at the original texts. I have always admired Peter Jackson's work on Tolkien's books but I wanted to judge for myself what he had done to the original text.\\n\\nI picked the book up and started to read it. I think like most of use, I flicked through the pages, reading the scenes between Bilbo and Gandalf, the trolls arguing about to cook and eat 12 dwarves and a hobbit, and of course the scenes with the dragon.\\n\\nThen I stopped myself and set out to read the whole thing. And of course I could not. I put the book down, went to make a cup of tea. 'suddenly' remembered I had urgent ironing to do. I even posted a few tweets with the book in one hand.\\n\\nSo yes the Hobbit has many original and memorable scenes in it, but it is written in a style which bears no resemblance to contemporary fiction, and rather than a page turner, it is very put-downable.\\n\\nThe Hobbit is and will always remains one the great novels in English language, even if it was just an early trial. It directly led to the most remarkable oeuvre in Fantasy fiction; The Lord of the Rings, and so for me at least it deserves its place in the pantheon of greats.\\n\\nSo dust of your copy, find the favourite scenes and enjoy.\",\n \"Product: Box set of JRR Tolkien's incomparable classic\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: the Hobbit has many original and memorable scenes. I love the trolls!\\n\\nReview: The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien is perhaps one of the best known fantasy novels in the world mainly because it is the precursor of the Lord of the Rings judged the book of the Millenium on Amazon in 1999.\\n\\nThis is a book that was read to me as a child and I can't think of a time when I did not have copy in my possession. And while I had read and re-read the LOTR every year since I first read in 1974, I can't say the same of the Hobbit.\\n\\nI did of course press into the hands of my daughters with the recommendation that 'this is a great book' and ' you must read it'. These have to be the two parental phrases most likely to turn your child off any work of fiction. No if you are reading this, then promise me you will never use them. Ever.\\n\\nHaving seen the two Peter Jackson films about the Hobbit, I did however decide to have a look at the original texts. I have always admired Peter Jackson's work on Tolkien's books but I wanted to judge for myself what he had done to the original text.\\n\\nI picked the book up and started to read it. I think like most of use, I flicked through the pages, reading the scenes between Bilbo and Gandalf, the trolls arguing about to cook and eat 12 dwarves and a hobbit, and of course the scenes with the dragon.\\n\\nThen I stopped myself and set out to read the whole thing. And of course I could not. I put the book down, went to make a cup of tea. 'suddenly' remembered I had urgent ironing to do. I even posted a few tweets with the book in one hand.\\n\\nSo yes the Hobbit has many original and memorable scenes in it, but it is written in a style which bears no resemblance to contemporary fiction, and rather than a page turner, it is very put-downable.\\n\\nThe Hobbit is and will always remains one the great novels in English language, even if it was just an early trial. It directly led to the most remarkable oeuvre in Fantasy fiction; The Lord of the Rings, and so for me at least it deserves its place in the pantheon of greats.\\n\\nSo dust of your copy, find the favourite scenes and enjoy.\",\n \"Product: [ Lies BY Grant, Michael ( Author ) ] { Paperback } 2014\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: A new series very compelling\\n\\nReview: This is a scary looking book and the back cover contains a warning of violence, which is well deserved. Very much in the style of the Hunger Games , and more so the Lord of the Flies, this book has all the adults disappear in the first moments and then proceeds to have teens fifteen and under are literally abandoned to try and run the world.\\n\\nI particularly like the fact that almost none of the protagonists can drive, and adult skills such as cooking, child minding, computers are spread among the population with an occasional child having a strong talent, and the rest being fairly clueless\\n\\nThe story never stops and you are forever on the edge of your seat, but with so many questions not answered at the end, it can feel a little unsatisfactory, but then there are sequels.\\n\\nSo read this in anticipation of a long journey through the sequels that follow\",\n \"Product: Having completed his degree in sculpture, Nick moved into the computer games industry. For more than 21 years Nick worked as a graphic artist and creative director, helping to produce over forty titles, including many chart-topping hits. Nick has a passion for science and astronomy, often blogging about the latest mind-blowing discoveries made in quantum physics. He once even soloed a light aircraft, an experience hes tapping into now for the Cloud Riders trilogy.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Steam punk and parallel worlds in a fun YA novel. Great start from a new talent.\\n\\nReview: Nick Cook contacted me via Twitter about Cloud Riders. this is first novel published by three Hares Publishing and edited by Kathryn Price or Cornerstones.\\n\\nThe novel is set in Twister Alley in the USA and tells the story of Dom, a seventeen-year-old geek, picked on the sport and cheerleader clique at his local high-school, whose father is dead, and left him and his mother with little money and failing business. A Diner in twister Allee makes no money when there are no twisters. So the book which starts off very much as High School Musical meets Somewhere Over the Rainbow, when an airship falls out of a twister.\\n\\nI won't say very much about the story, except the pace really picks up when Dom finally plucks up his courage to break into the airship to discover its secrets.\\n\\nThe whole story has nice steampunk details and is an innovative take on the time travel / parallel universe genre.\\n\\nThe Science Fiction is less convincing, and I was particularly irritated by the all-healing Chi Stone. You rub or hold the stone above any injury and its special powers accelerate the healing. That's not science fiction, that's magic.\\n\\nSo all-told an interesting Steam-Punk parallel-worlds tale with a sequel to follow. A solid start from a brand new talent.\"\n]","isConversational":false},"profile_size":{"kind":"number","value":7,"string":"7"},"task":{"kind":"string","value":"longlamp_3"},"split_kind":{"kind":"string","value":"user_based"},"id":{"kind":"number","value":1670,"string":"1,670"}}},{"rowIdx":1671,"cells":{"question_id":{"kind":"string","value":"A31V1QWRV8PTU0"},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of \"5.0\" for a product with description \"LOUD, FAST, RAMONES: THEIR TOUGHEST HITS stuffs a single CD with the band's 30 loudest punk hits spanning 1976-1995. Most comprehensive single-disc Greatest Hits collection available.\". The summary of the review text is \"Faster Than A Speeding Bullet\"."},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"The first time I saw the Ramones was at a rehearsal studio in NYC, opening for the Fast. Nobody had ever heard of them. They stepped on stage and started playing. Faster than any band I'd ever heard. Johnny was ripping at his guitar so viciously he sliced his thumb and sprayed everyone in the first row with blood. He never stopped. Or even winced. Joey wrapped himself around the mic (not in a sexy Jim Morrison kind of way, but like a catepillar.) Dee Dee counted off every song 1,2,3,4! It was the lyrics more than the speedy riffs - \"I don't wanna walk around with you, why do you wanna walk around with me?\" \"Beat on the brat with a baseball bat.\" \"Carbona! Not glue!\" Jaws dropped. Are they kidding? Is this a joke? Who ARE these guys? The club scene was new in NYC in the mid-70's. You couldn't NOT see the Ramones play live. They just got better & better, faster & louder. The songs stick in your head like glue. 30+ years later, they remain one of a kind. The smartest dumb band ever. RIP Joey, Dee Dee, Johnny!"},"correct_answer":{"kind":"string","value":"The first time I saw the Ramones was at a rehearsal studio in NYC, opening for the Fast. Nobody had ever heard of them. They stepped on stage and started playing. Faster than any band I'd ever heard. Johnny was ripping at his guitar so viciously he sliced his thumb and sprayed everyone in the first row with blood. He never stopped. Or even winced. Joey wrapped himself around the mic (not in a sexy Jim Morrison kind of way, but like a catepillar.) Dee Dee counted off every song 1,2,3,4! It was the lyrics more than the speedy riffs - \"I don't wanna walk around with you, why do you wanna walk around with me?\" \"Beat on the brat with a baseball bat.\" \"Carbona! Not glue!\" Jaws dropped. Are they kidding? Is this a joke? Who ARE these guys? The club scene was new in NYC in the mid-70's. You couldn't NOT see the Ramones play live. They just got better & better, faster & louder. The songs stick in your head like glue. 30+ years later, they remain one of a kind. The smartest dumb band ever. RIP Joey, Dee Dee, Johnny!"},"documents":{"kind":"list like","value":["Product: Ceramic non-stick 10 inch frying pan that allows you to broil, bake, braise, fry, steam or saute\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Read the Instructions First\n\nReview: Disclaimer: I did not buy this pan. I was given it as a birthday gift from a friend who bought hers, and mine, at WalMart. She told me to season it first. As an owner of my Grandma's cast iron frying pan - 80 years and counting - I know the rules about seasoning, cleaning, and using so you keep that frying surface functional.\n\nAnyway. I am following a fat-free health program to manage my diabetes and related health issues, not the least of which is losing weight. When my friend told me she made eggs in this thing without any oil of any kind I was skeptical. I'll be darned - the omelette I made sans fat was flawless. Fluffy, nicely browned, and slid right out of the frying pan without sticking. Sweet!\n\nGot it. Seasoned it. Have been using it since March. I had one instance where salmon skin burned and stuck to the fry pan. It could have been the marinade which has orange juice. Or it could have been my inept cooking skills. I got the baking soda, a few drops of water, and it cleaned right up to \"new\" state. I seasoned it again. Works fine.\n\nOK. This is not Cordon Bleu cookery. It's a cheap frying pan. I'm ordering 3 for my sister-in-law, brother and sister. This will be the first time I'm getting stuff mailed to me so the claims about dented, damaged, different saute pans may turn out to be true. If so, I will edit this review.\n\nBut if you got it via WalMart, and took the time to follow instructions, this pan works just fine and will last as long as any other $20 pan. Lord knows my much more expensive Calphalon have proven to be completely worthless as stick-free frying pans. I've bought several of those and they don't deliver nearly as well as this cheap, cheesy saute pan from a chain store.","Product: Neil Jordan's historical biopic of Irish revolutionary Michael Collins, the man who led a guerrilla war against the UK, helped negotiate the creation of the Irish Free State, and led the National Army during the Irish Civil War.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Rent The Wind That Shakes The Barley\n\nReview: My birthday is St. Patrick's Day, and I'm Irish. I've have family members and friends' grandparents who actually lived through all this before coming to America. I'm no slouch in my Irish history department. That being said, never let history get in the way of a good story, especially if it's being filmed.\n\nRather than debate the historical inaccuracies, or the lame love story subplot, or Julia Roberts performance, \"Michael Collins\" is a good, solid film, raised up by Liam Neeson as the Big Fella, Alan Rickman as Dev, and solid supporting turns by Aidan Quinn and Stephan Rea. It also looks darn good. Plus it's a serious attempt to unravel 20th century Irish rebellion and civil war. It ain't \"Braveheart\" but it tries hard.\n\nFor all it's strengths - and there are many - it doesn't really measure up as an epic. To mention this film in the same sentence as \"David Lean\" is laughable. Rent \"Lawrence of Arabia\" (no slouch itself in historical inaccuracies) or \"Bridge Over the River Kwai\" and THEN watch this film. Not.\n\nActing aside, it drags on. Attempts too much. Doesn't deliver. Rent \"The Wind That Shakes The Barley\" instead. What \"Michael Collins\" attempts to explain, \"...Barley\" delivers with a gripping story, great acting, and real shots to the heart.\n\nTo quote Marianne Faithfull's song, \"Ireland. Ireland. When will you be free?\"","Product: After a shot gun marriage, Lola loses the couples baby and relies for comfort on her dog, Sheba, who has run away, while Doc is a recovering alcoholic who blames Lola for his dropping out of medical school. Though still depressed and bitter about their past, the couple rents out a room to a young woman named Marie and while Marie brings happiness and young love into their home, she also brings old ghosts reminding Doc and Lola of their misfortunes.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Shirley, We Hardly Knew Ye\n\nReview: I grew up with Shirley Booth as the sweet but annoying Hazel (who would have this busybody as their maid? And who in 2008 can afford a maid?) I saw this movie on an television station late night movie. Her performance as the needy, loving, but pitiful woman tore me up & down. I remembering sobbing at the sadness of their lives. Burt Lancaster is also compelling as the younger, drunken Doc. In fact, I thought his youth, relative to hers, was an intentional part of the plot. The \"older\" woman seducing this studly young med student, who did the \"right thing.\" It may seem old fashioned now - I laughed out loud at the woman who wrote she should get a life. To wit I would say, read a book about life before the Women's Movement in the 1970's. Not the movie who's myopic here. Don't know if you would want to buy the film unless you've already seen it and know what a tour de force Shirley Booth's performanc is. But if you have seen it, and love well written, well acted drama about imperfect people in an imperfect world, this film is for you. PS - I am going to see S. Epatha Merkerson attempt this role on Broadway. Love S. Epatha but she's got some big shoes to fill!","Product: 12 terrified wannabe chefs compete with the cooking to win a world class restaurant. Gordon Ramsay the acerbic host of the show will challenge and fire the chefs at his whim. Featuring explosive confrontations and compelling intrigue as chefs stab each other in the back to get the ultimate prize. In the end its the chefs skill and their cooking that makes the difference.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Wouldn't work for him but would love to eat his food\n\nReview: I first saw Gordon Ramsey on BBC America and became hooked. Read about him in one of Anthony Bourdain's travel books (forgot the title) and smartacre Tony rated him as the best chef in Britain. That's high praise coming from the King of Snark. When he came to America to torture newbie chefs with their eye on the prize I had to watch. (Add to it that one of his sous chefs, Maryanne, was an acquaintance of a friend of mine. She got her gig wearing a \"I hate Rocco Dispirito\" tee shirt. Gordon recognized a kindred spirit.) If you haven't seen Hell's Kitchen, settle in for some high flyin' F-bombs and the meanest boss since Scrooge. But Gordon fights the good fight not for himself, but for his customers. It's all about the food and the paying customer. He makes grown men cry. He's had several pass out. He turns women chefs Hillary Clinton-tough. But he also paid the untrained but spunky cook from the Fried Chicken & Waffle House way through culinary school. Anybody who's seen him with his family on Gordon Ramsey's F-Word knows deep down inside he's a softy. I wouldn't want to work for him, but I'd love to eat his food. His commitment to fresh local ingridents made simply & carefully speaks volumes about him. I'm saving up for a night at his NYC restaurant. First NYC, and then Merry Olde England. A former soccer player can't be all bad!","Product: 12 terrified wannabe chefs compete with the cooking to win a world class restaurant. Gordon Ramsay the acerbic host of the show will challenge and fire the chefs at his whim. Featuring explosive confrontations and compelling intrigue as chefs stab each other in the back to get the ultimate prize. In the end its the chefs skill and their cooking that makes the difference.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Wouldn't work for him but would love to eat his food\n\nReview: I first saw Gordon Ramsey on BBC America and became hooked. Read about him in one of Anthony Bourdain's travel books (forgot the title) and smartacre Tony rated him as the best chef in Britain. That's high praise coming from the King of Snark. When he came to America to torture newbie chefs with their eye on the prize I had to watch. (Add to it that one of his sous chefs, Maryanne, was an acquaintance of a friend of mine. She got her gig wearing a \"I hate Rocco Dispirito\" tee shirt. Gordon recognized a kindred spirit.) If you haven't seen Hell's Kitchen, settle in for some high flyin' F-bombs and the meanest boss since Scrooge. But Gordon fights the good fight not for himself, but for his customers. It's all about the food and the paying customer. He makes grown men cry. He's had several pass out. He turns women chefs Hillary Clinton-tough. But he also paid the untrained but spunky cook from the Fried Chicken & Waffle House way through culinary school. Anybody who's seen him with his family on Gordon Ramsey's F-Word knows deep down inside he's a softy. I wouldn't want to work for him, but I'd love to eat his food. His commitment to fresh local ingridents made simply & carefully speaks volumes about him. I'm saving up for a night at his NYC restaurant. First NYC, and then Merry Olde England. A former soccer player can't be all bad!","Product: Remastered 2003 edition of their debut 1967 album. Recorded in LA during a Ritalin-fuelled \"long weekend\"\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: The Dead Album For Ramones Fans\n\nReview: I bought this album in 1967 at a Woolworth's cutout rack for $1.99. I was enthralled with what was happening in San Francisco at the time, and any band that released a disc was on my turntable. When I got it home, the Ramones-like pace was an unexpected blast into the center of my brain and ignighted all the nerves & synaps in my teenybopper body. I still connect to it the same way many, many, many (did I say many?) years later. I smile remembering the cheesy organ rave up & the first chords to \"Golden Road to Unlimited Devotion\". Par-ty ev-ver-ery day! (Full disclosure: I'm more of a Nuggets garage punk kind of gal. I didn't really \"get\" the Dead beyond the first four albums until I was middle aged.) Better late than never.","Product: Not just every single, but both sides of every single the Stones released during the '60s, 58 of the greatest rock 'n' roll songs ever waxed! Starts with their version of Chuck Berry's Come On , ends with Sympathy for the Devil , and in between lie one classic after another.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Lock up your daughters\n\nReview: That's what an early article about the Rolling Stones said. Hard to remember when the Stones were dangerous. The ying to the Beatles yang. Not to disparage the great music the Stones have made since leaving London Records all those years ago, but this collection houses all the best of their early works when they were pushing the outside of the envelope and setting the bar for every band at the time. The impact of their early, dangerous years is heard in every garage band, punk band, and metal band since. Not for nothing do rock guitarists all look like proto-typical Keef. Brian Jones wrote the book on dissipation. Even today, lead singers are throwbacks to early Mick, even if Mick himself sometimes comes off as a parody. Buy this - all the best early stuff in one place.","Product: The Second Solo Album from the Former Jefferson Airplane/Starship Vocalist was Recorded after She Dried Out in Rehab to Rid Herself of Accumulated Vices Over the Years. The Resulting Music was Not as Obtuse Or Adventurous as her Audiences Had Come to Expect from the Wild Woman of Rock, but She Rocked it Out Nonetheless on \"Full Moon Man\", \"Seasons\" and the Title Track.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Not the Grace Slick You Expect\n\nReview: I confess. After the debacle of \"Miracles\" I opted to not watch my favorite musicians from Jefferson Airplane descend into Vegas and state fair schlock meisters. As much as I love Grace Slick, and count her as the first female ROCK vocalist not beholden to the blues, jazz or folk, I couldn't watch the death spiral.\n\nSo. That being said. I missed Dreams when it first came out. Recently, I was shocked and appalled by the shoddy \"Best Of\" CD RCA threw together. I figured if nobody else was going to do it for me, I would create my very own Grace Slick box set.\n\nIn doing that I tracked down Dreams. I was blown away. Gone were the sometimes annoying Slick vocal idiosyncrasies, the too brittle biting tones, the too bombastic sarcastic lyrics. Instead, here was a full voiced, mature, reflective singer. She keeps her cutting edge, but with more personal songwriting. Her well known love of Spanish music is front and center in El Diablo. Garden of Man is breath taking in its evocative, ethereal washes of sound and double tracking vocals. Face to the Wind is epic beauty.\n\nDid I hear this correctly? Grace is singing a straight forward unabashed love song in Full Moon Man? Throughout her career Grace was never known for wearing her heart on her sleeve. Turns out it suits her. Who'd thunk it?\n\nHer new-found sobriety yields an AA anthem of sorts in Let It Go. It wouldn't be Grace Slick without a caustic, self-effacing turn. That comes in the middle of Do It the Hard Way with \"I'm the queen of the nuthouse!\"\n\nAll together, it's a beautifully complete piece of work. It's nearly a \"concept album\" in its themes. Above all, it's a virtuoso vocalist who's at peace with herself making the album she wants to make. If you love Grace Slick and may have missed it the first time like I did, track it down and buy it.","Product: The Second Solo Album from the Former Jefferson Airplane/Starship Vocalist was Recorded after She Dried Out in Rehab to Rid Herself of Accumulated Vices Over the Years. The Resulting Music was Not as Obtuse Or Adventurous as her Audiences Had Come to Expect from the Wild Woman of Rock, but She Rocked it Out Nonetheless on \"Full Moon Man\", \"Seasons\" and the Title Track.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: The Masterpiece We All Knew She Had In Her\n\nReview: I finally tracked this down on eBay and ordered the CD from Korea. I had the album on vinyl but wanted to have it on CD as I created my own \"box set\" of Grace's work. All of her other solo works are definitely hit or miss. There are gems to be sure but there's also a lack of focus. Not the case here - each and every song is beautiful, some hauntingly so. Grace reigns in her excesses and exploits her vocal range to magnificent results. For examples - Garden of Man is other worldly. Soft and mystical. Riveting. El Diablo exploits her love of Spanish music. Great acoustic guitar work and fluid vocals. Face to the Wind is the kind of epic ballad that Starship would've stunk up the joint with Mickey Thomas' caterwauling. Do It The Hard Way is classic Grace - a little sarcastic, a little world weary, benefitting from hard fought sobriety. If you can get your hands on Dreams, buy it. If you love Grace Slick's voice and songwriting, pay what you need to. It's the album we've always known she had in her.","Product: The band's 1967 debut, serves up 6 bonus tracks, including the Pigpen blues number \"Tastebud,\" a 23-minute live rendition of \"Viola Lee Blues,\" and the Owsley-inspired gem \"Alice D. Millionaire.\"\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: The Dead Album For Ramones Fans\n\nReview: I bought this album in 1967 at a Woolworth's cutout rack for $1.99. I was enthralled with what was happening in San Francisco at the time, and any band that released a disc was on my turntable. When I got it home, the Ramones-like pace was an unexpected blast into the center of my brain and ignighted all the nerves & synaps in my teenybopper body. I still connect to it the same way many, many, many (did I say many?) years later. I smile remembering the cheesy organ rave up & the first chords to \"Golden Road to Unlimited Devotion\". Par-ty ev-ver-ery day! (Full disclosure: I'm more of a Nuggets garage punk kind of gal. I didn't really \"get\" the Dead beyond the first four albums until I was middle aged.) Better late than never.","Product: Jefferson's Tree Of Liberty is an unusual Jefferson Starship album in a number of ways. First, it's the first covers album any Jefferson configuration has ever recorded in their five-decade career, which is a noteworthy event in itself, but that's not the only thing different about JTOL. When Jefferson Starship decided to cut a whole album of folk tunes popularized by their heroes and peers, it was decided to create a sound not too dissimilar to the early version of the Airplane that Kantner and Balin founded over 40 years ago. The CD features one song with Grace Slick and has Paul Kantner, David Freiberg, Darby Gould, Cathy Richardson, David LaFlamme, Mart Balin, David Grisman and Prairie Prince also on the CD.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Isn't This The Time?\n\nReview: Tree of Liberty is everything you've ever loved about Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship (exorcise the memory of the emasculated Starship.) Driven by Paul Kantner's ringing 12 string Rickenbacker, the soaring harmonies, this collecton is a call to arms, to dream, to go to the edge and beyond. Jeffersonians past, present, future, and even retired, are mostly present and accounted for. (Only Jorma is among the missing, and his finger picking acoustic skills would've fit right in. Maybe next time?) Never has America needed to be reminded of righteous anger, and putting that anger into positive motion to change the world, more than it does now.\n\nIt's an album of rebels and revolutionary anthems - across the times, across the oceans, across the continents. From Ireland, to Nicaragua, to union workers in the fields of California, to 13 upstart colonies declaring their independence from an oppressive monarchy, along the Underground Railroad, to utopian dreams of redemption, brotherhood, and peace, 19 soul rousing and blood pumping songs. Who would've thought the lustiest and loudest collection of songs would be made by (mostly) wooden instruments? Who would've thought the most passionate album to be released this year would come from Jefferson Starship?\n\nLest you think this is a dreary collection of political polemic dirges, think again. This is an album to listen to with people, two big bottles of wine, and to sing along to. After a few listens you won't be able to help yourself. The songs choices range from Woody Guthrie, the Weavers, Phil Ochs, Dylan, Lennon, Marley, and Sandy Denny. And from the greatest of them all, Traditional.\n\nIt kicks off with a rousing nod to \"Volunteers\" before it settles into the Weaver's classic \"Wasn't That A Time.\" Cathy Richardson is a welcome addition to the crew. She has the vocal chops and power of, dare I say it? Grace Slick, but with a gritty undertone that can go any way she wants to take the songs. David Laflamme's violin soars above the acoustic guitars and martial drums.\n\n\"Follow The Drinking Gourd\" is from the days of the Civil War, a road map for the Underground Railroad. Look up at the stars to the Big Dipper and imagine following it to freedom. The Weavers unearthed \"Santy Anno.\" Paul can't resist reminding us that in the future it will be space ships, before he leads the crew into a lusty sea shanty, you can practically feel the waves rolling with the banjo and squeezebox.\n\nDavid Frieberg takes a solo turn on Dino Valenti's poignant \"Cowboy On The Run,\" with beautiful pedal steel guitar by Barry Sless and piano by Chris Smith. David's wife, Linda Imerial, and Cathy Richardson provide sympathetic backup. It's pure Nashville.\n\nIt would take all day to hit all the highlights. But I would be remiss not giving a shout out to longtime Jefferson collaborators Darby Gould on Richard Thompson's \"Genesis Hall,\" Diana Mangano's full throttle support on \"The Royal Canal\" - beloved to Pogues' fans as \"The Auld Triangle.\" As befitting a guy born on St. Patrick's Day, Paul O'Kantner gruffly sings the prison lament of Irish Rebel Brendan Behan, with a dirty ole man \"heh heh\" during the part about the women's prison, followed with a storming \"Rising Of The Moon\".\n\nThe mash up of Bob Marley's \"Redemption Song\" with John Lennon's \"Imagine\" somehow works, heartfeltly delivered by Cathy Richardson. If there is one song to pick as a \"single\" - if things like that are still done - it's this one.\n\nBoth \"In A Crisis\" and \"On The Threshold of Fire\" remind me of the Paul Kantner circa BATE/Sunfighter. \"In A Crisis\" refrain sticks with you long after the song has stopped playing - \"In a crisis we cut away what we don't need anymore. In the good times we fight our way, fight our way back home.\" The whining guitar riff underneath, played with judicious economy by Slick Aguilar, underscores the haunting melody. \"On The Threshold of Fire\" could've fit right in the Hijack / Starship Suiteon BATE.\n\nMarty Balin contributes \"Maybe For You\" if anybody needed to reminded of his talent with a love song. I miss his sweet tenor. It's too bad he's not singing on the rest of the songs. Jack Casady makes an appearance on bass with his Armageddon-announcing rumble.\n\nDarby Gould's acapella version of Sandy Denny's \"Quiet Joys of Brotherhood\" sent shivers down my spine. Only one thing could top it, and that's Grace Slick singing \"Surprise...\" Some of Grace's best work was singing backup and harmony, as she is here. Too bad my CD says \"Untitled\" and there's no additional information as there are for the other songs.\n\nSurprise, indeed. This is one of the best releases of the year. If you love great songs, passionate singing and playing, need reminding that all evil needs to triumph is for good people to do nothing, then Tree of Liberty is for you. Lay your money down.","Product: KEEP AN EYE ON THE SKY-arriving September 15-spans 1968 to 1975 and the collection uncovers a trove of unreleased demos, unused mixes, alternate versions of songs, and a 1973 concert recorded in Memphis. The lavish packaging includes extensive liner notes, rare and never-before-seen photos, and insightful essays about the cult of Big Star and the band's history. Spotlighting the band's roots, the box set opens with several songs recorded before Big Star formed, including 'Try Again,' one of the first songs Bell and Chilton wrote together. Big Star inspired a fevered allegiance among fans of power pop, giving rise to a cult of believers who spent decades spreading the gospel. Their enthusiasm turned this obscure Memphis pop band-one that got little airplay, sold few records, and only played a handful of times-into a remarkable rock and roll resurrection story. Big Star's trek from obscure Memphis band to standard bearers for an entire genre of music has never been fully mapped-until now.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Music that never went or will go away\n\nReview: I delayed buying this collection. March 17th is my birthday. It is also the day that Alex Chilton died. Normally all I have to contend with is the St. Patrick's Day Parade in NYC. #2 drinking-by-amateurs-day after New Year's Eve. A good day to stay in. I was truly saddened by Alex Chilton's passing. This boxed set is my birthday gift to myself, and my toast to Alex Chilton.\n\nI bought the vinyl #1/Radio City reissue sometime in the '70's. I knew who Big Star were but when I finally scraped up enough cash the albums were gone from the record stores. Nor were they ever handed in at Free Being, my favorite re-cycled record store. Nobody, if anybody, who bought them ever traded them in. By the early '70's I was living in Manhattan, frequenting the downtown rock scene, I even upgraded my first apartment from one which had a bathtub in the kitchen to one with a proper bathroom. It was on Lexington Avenue, between 34 & 33rd.\n\nOne night, coming home from the clubs, I piled into the 1905 built elevator, with the steel door and grid you pulled shut. Alex Chilton & Jon Tiven (famous seminal rock critic & now blues songwriter) shoved into the tiny elevator. I recognized Alex but was too shy to speak. Said hello to Jon. Went up to my apartment. It wasn't until I bought Alex's early 45 rpm single \"Shaking the World from 33rd and Lex\" that I realized he was not some famous rock star guy, but my neighbor. Message to self, and anyone else: next time you are next to someone who's music, or art, or work, you admire, tell them so. Alex never heard it enough in his lifetime methinks.\n\nIf you already own the three Big Star records (which I do, in vinyl, on cassette, on CD) then this box is a treasure trove. Like other reviewers, I suggest you start with what has gone before. This collection of alternate versions, remastered originals, and a classic live 1973 gig (which I own on cassette, along with other Big Star live sets like \"Nobody Can Dance\" or the one from the college where I forget.) Big Star is the link from mid-sixties greatness - Byrds, Beatles, British Invasion, blue-eyed soul - with '70's glam, singer songerwriter nuances, and the soon-to-be Indie/Alternative bent. Like any art form that is transitional from one era to another there are bound to be originators who fall through the cracks. Think Velvet Underground, New York Dolls, Dictators, Modern Lovers, Television... the list goes on.\n\nI only saw Big Star live once. At Little Steven's Underground Garage Festival in 2004. It was a gluttinous affair - crammed with garage bands from all over the world, as well as originators - Electric Prunes, Nancy Sinatra, Richard and the Young Lions, the Creation, Pretty Things, capped off with the re-invented NY Dolls and Iggy & the Stooges (I'd mention the Strokes - they were there too - but coming in-between David Johansen and Iggy Pop, those two pros virtually pantsed Julian Casablancas and spanked him in front of 15k people.) It was easy to overlook Big Star. Too much sensory overload. They played a great set, filled with classic songs, to an appreciative multi-generational audience who relished the infrequent opportunity to see them perform. (C'mon, parents with kids wearing Dead Boys tee shirts were there. It was a pig-fest of great music. Maybe Lil Steve will get around to that promised DVD someday...)\n\nAnyway. I always thought I'd get the chance again to see Big Star live. They periodically surfaced. They were due to play SxSW this weekend. But not to be. Goodbye, Alex. This is the saddest rock & roll passing since December 8, 1980. It's a day or two since my birthday, St. Patrick's Day, but I'm toasting it to you and the great music you made throughout my lifetime. I still have the Box Tops first album in my record closet. \"Cry Like A Baby\" and \"The Letter\" were two of my favorites in High School. RIP. I'm blasting your tunes til the neighbors bang on my walls.","Product: 20-track collection from the godfathers of glam/trash rock includes three previously unreleased tracks, 'Courageous Cat Theme', 'Lone Star Queen', & 'Don't Mess With Cupid'. Mercury. 1994.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Not for Dolls Freaks\n\nReview: If you are a long time Dolls fan and completist, view this as a great CD for driving around in the car, or for working out at the gym. If you were born after they broke up, and think Motley Crue or Guns N Roses invented this type of music, if you didn't know that KISS used to open for the Dolls way back when, or viewed the semi-drag get up on the first album as something to be scared of, or think punk was invented by the Ramones or the Sex Pistols, you need to buy this now. NOTHING afterwards would've happened without the NY Dolls. Period. EOC. All that happened after the Velvet Underground is directly as response to the advent of the Dolls. If you love late 20th century rock, and you don't own this, buy now. 'Nuf said.","Product: Their seminal band together for only a year, Darby, Jerry and Grace Slick formed the core of this SF ballroom legend, whose influence--like the widening sway of the Velvet Underground--seems larger today than ever. The garage origins of Darby's classic, '\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Rhino Had Great Society In the Wrong Box Set\n\nReview: Rhino, the masters of the box set universe, included the Great Society on \"Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets\". They really belong on the original Nuggets psychedelic punk compilation. They were a truly wacky garage band with a world class lead singer. I put together my own Grace Slick box set, and the Great Society was the hardest part to fit in amongst the Airplane, Slick/Kantner, Jefferson Starship, and her solo stuff. They really are rock bottom raw. In a good way.\n\nI fit the profile of someone who must own everything Grace Slick. I still own the original two Great Society Columbia releases on vinyl, and agree with the reviewers who cite the fact that they were a truly original live band. I think their version of \"Sally Go 'Round the Roses\" is the definitive version, and the original Middle Eastern raga rock version of \"White Rabbit\" is hypnotic. All together more interesting than the Airplane's straight bolero (albeit nothing on earth comes close to Jack Casady's bass on that song, and Grace's blood curdling \"Feed your head!\" crescendo.) I'm also partial to their version of \"Outlaw Blues.\"\n\n\"Someone to Love,\" however, not so much. Doesn't matter if it's the studio version included here, or the live version on the Columbia set. It doesn't do much for me as a dirge-like lament. Leaden to the max. The Airplane's double-timed, amped up assault with Grace demanding, threatening, we better find somebody to love works for me.\n\nIt's a shame that those original Columbia live discs sound like they were recorded at the bottom of a deep well. But this disc is studio recorded power pop psychedelic punk. Despite other reviewers pans of \"Free Advice,\" I actually love the song. It's great to have multiple versions. I do believe that Sly Stone had the band do 50 takes before he finally gave up and quit. It's all about Mrs. Slick's free form wailing. There's an almost child-like joy in her letting lose with her voice. \"Hey, Ma! Look what I can do!\"\n\n\"That's How It Is,\" had it been released as a single, could very well have made it to the Top Ten. It's great folk rock pop. \"Father Bruce\" was a loving tribute to Lenny, one of Grace's heroes. Considering that even today she says she gets her news reports from Colbert, Jon Stewart, and Bill Maher, I guess it's comics for current events for her.\n\nNot an essential disc to be sure, but a great artifact of a bygone era and a good source of \"What if?\" debates. Certainly more than a footnote to the Airplane.","Product: In the early 70's, rock photographer Bob Gruen and his wife Nadya purchased a portable video recorder. In a period of three years they shot over 40 hours of New York Dolls footage. Now for the first time ever this footage is unveiled. This feature leng\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: When the Dolls Ruled\n\nReview: For those of you who saw the Dolls back in the '70's, this is a time capsule version that brings you back to Max's Kansas City, Kenny's Castaways, Club 82, and more. The Dolls are young, brash, alive, and vital. Seeing Johnny healthy and built, or Jerry Nolan chubby, it's worth the price of admission. All of the Dolls are energetic and engaging. At the time, the world was their oyster and there was no place to go but up. Great sloppy chaotic versions of their greatest non-hits. A nice feature of the DVD is the Performance Only section, as well as the commentary. It does bog down a little in the middle, but picks right back up again as soon as the band hits the stage. Some of the comments are very funny. The black & white photography lends a \"historic\" feel. It's way better than it should be, given the time & technology advances since then. It ends around with the Red Patent Leather gigs at the Little Hippodrome, but without fan fare or anything maudlin.","Product: The New York Dolls have reunited with Todd Rundgren, producer of their influential 1973 debut, to record their fourth studio album, 'Cause I Sez So, on Atco Records. Recorded at Utopia Sound Studio in Kauai, Hawaii, the album features original Dolls David Johansen (vocals) and Sylvain Sylvain (guitar) plus Steve Conte (guitar), Brian Delaney (drums), and Sami Yaffa (bass). The 12-song track list features 11 original compositions, including the first single ' 'Cause I Sez So' and a new version of 'Trash,' which was on their 1973 debut album. 'It was amazing working with Todd again, and I think we were able to evoke the special sound of our first album and drag it by the hair into the present,' says frontman Johansen..\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Sylvain Sylvain Is the Glue\n\nReview: As much as I love the Dolls (a quick read through my other NY Dolls reviews ought to explain,) I stalled buying this one. I was queasy when I saw Rundgren was at the helm. In my, and Jerry Nolan's, opinion he stunk up the joint with the production of the first NY Dolls album. (Listen to the demo tapes of A Hard Night's Day and compare.)\n\nBut history and true love won out, I bought this latest NY Dolls CD. It's a keeper. Bluesy, biting, mature. It's what the 1970's Dolls ought to sound like in 2009. Much is written about David Jo's way with words, wit, and his growling, gravelly vocal chops. At times he sounds like Howlin' Wolf if the Wolf had been born on Staten Island, and listened to some girl groups. Nothing to take away from David - be it the Dolls, his early solo albums, the Harry Smiths - David is always on the mark.\n\nBut it's Sylvain Sylvain who's the under rated glue holding together the signature sound. His sense of songsmithery, rhythm guitar, harmonies, and infectious energy keeps the NY Dolls sound alive. His rhythm guitar was overlooked, with such a presence as Johnny Thunders' reeling, lurching anarchistic solos. Syl was co-writer with David on much of the early solo albums, and throughout the Dolls career. Syl's the man.\n\nBut props to Steve Conte, Sami Yaffa, and Brian Delaney, they do not attempt to impersonate people who are no longer with us. They are gifted musicians in their own right. And it's their new energy and musicianship that make the Dolls once again vital. It's a band. It's the attitude that makes them the NY Dolls. Not David, Syl, and a couple of other guys in rent-a-band.\n\nAnd Rundgren? Well, it's better than the last time. Now that the Beatles have been remastered with 2010 technology, isn't it time to show the original Dolls some digital love?\n\nPS - Trash as a reggae tune works. Don't ask me why. But it does. Pour yourself a Dark & Stormy and get ready for a good listen.","Product: Ron and Russell Mael present a double-CD souvenir of Sparks recent Two Hands One Mouth European tour that saw the American brothers playing shows as a duo for the first time. With no band and no computers, Ron (two hands, on keyboards) and Russell (one mouth, on vocals) captured the very essence of Sparks and their extensive catalog. This unique performance is now available on Sparks first live album. This is the first ever official live recording of Sparks. The Two Hands One Mouth tour in Europe, from which these recordings were taken (the tour continued in Japan and soon America), has been an exceptional experience for us and, judging by the reaction and feedback, also a memorable and emotional event for Sparks fans. As a result, we want to celebrate the event with a souvenir for all Sparks fans that captures this tour and the unique format of the performance. While we began the tour with certain fears of not having the safety net of a band or computers, we soon realized that the format was wildly successful (for us and for the audience) in highlighting in the purest form the core elements of what Sparks has always been our musical world conveyed through our songs and our vocals and performed in a most aggressive way. Ron and Russell Mael\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Two Hands One Heart\n\nReview: When I bought tickets to this most recent US tour of just Russell and Ron Mael I was apprehensive. I'd only previously seen them with a full band. I've been a Sparks (formerly Half Nelson) fan for decades. Even has the pleasure of interviewing them for Trouser Press. One of my favorite bands of eccentric, heavily influenced by Gilbert & Sullivan, igneous, metamorphic & sedimentory rock. All of which are more \"rock\" than Sparks has been for nearly 40 years. But they still keep keeping on and I love them for it.\n\nTwo Hands One Mouth is one of the most satisfying Sparks compilations yet as it encompasses their entire catalog up to date and has nothing nor nobody interferring with their music. Ron's piano and keyboards showcase the beautiful melodies and dynamics that have always been there. Russell's vocals are unemcombered by histrionic production. He can still hit the notes and left to their own organic selves the brothers deliver.\n\nSee them live if you get the chance. Buy this live collection for sure. It's really delightful if you already know and love their work. If you DON'T but have heard of them, start here first. If you can't hang with this the others will scare you silly. Welcome back, brothers Mael. Looking forward to seeing you again real soon.","Product: Orijen Dry Cat Food is a premium cat food meal that aims to satisfy your cat's natural need for a highprotein diet by offering a rich source of varied meats and small amounts of fruits and vegetables. 80 of Orijen's formulation contains varied meats, including: freerun chicken and turkey, whole eggs and wildcaught fish. These meats are delivered fresh daily, keeping them preservative free, unfrozen and loaded with animal proteins and fats. Orijen is infused with marinesource DHA and EPA omega3 fatty acids, which support your cat's peak skin and coat conditioning. Instead of including corn, wheat or white rice, which fill many cat foods, Orijen features a full complement of regional fruits and vegetables that provide important vitamins, minerals and protector nutrients. Orijen is grain free and carbohydratelimited, which better resembles the natural dietary needs of cats. Contains 80 meat ingredients and 20 fruits and vegetables 6 different meats are used Grainfree and carbohydrate limited\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Finally! A holistic cat food they'll eat!\n\nReview: My 3 cats have turned their collective noses up at all my attempts to feed them holistic, organic, healthy kibble. I've tried organic living food with real chicken. Nope. That package was given to my friend's dog who'll eat anything, even stuff meant for cats. I was resigned to my cats Purina addiction and my role as an enabler.\n\nThen I saw this brand on Amazon. Read the reviews. A lot of the reviewers sounded like my cats - sensitive tummy non-stop yatzer after gobbling his food, ADD cat who acted as if I never fed her waking me up every morning for her morning eats, and one certified garbage-gut who eats anything (including corned beef and cabbage and mixed garden salad with balsalmic vinegrette.)\n\nI ordered the trial size. I was surprised to see that trial size was roughly the same size as a regular box of cat food at the grocery. I mixed the healthy stuff with the Purina. They ran, not walked, to the bowls.\n\nEveryday since I've increased the amount of the Orijen, and everyday they are gobbling it down. Best news of all, not once has any of the three puked on my carpets!\n\nI ordered the full bag today. I'm trying another flavor. But I think I've found a healthy brand that my cats will actually eat. Go figure!","Product: Tough chewers have met their match with Outward Hound Invincibles! Featuring 2 layers of super-tough fabric, and special squeakers that continue to squeak after being punctured, these lovable, cuddly and durable toys are made to keep your pup playing longer! Bound to become your best friends favorites, our lovable toys are durably designed with an engaging array of shapes, sounds and textures so you can have huge fun with your furry friend.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Pretty Darn Invincible And Fun\n\nReview: My sister and brother-in-law were adopted by a Labrabull mix puppy. Pitbulls love their toys. She's also teething at 4 months old. It was love at first sight. She took it, chomped on it, shook it around, ran back and forth with it, rolled around on the ground with the large snake wrapped around her squeeking all the while. It's been a month. No damage despite being seriously gnawed, shook, and tossed. She takes it every night and safely places it in her toy pile under the dining room table. My sis & bro-n-law stick it in her beautiful dog house she refuses to use. She only goes into it to get her snake back. Fun to watch her act out. A winner."],"string":"[\n \"Product: Ceramic non-stick 10 inch frying pan that allows you to broil, bake, braise, fry, steam or saute\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Read the Instructions First\\n\\nReview: Disclaimer: I did not buy this pan. I was given it as a birthday gift from a friend who bought hers, and mine, at WalMart. She told me to season it first. As an owner of my Grandma's cast iron frying pan - 80 years and counting - I know the rules about seasoning, cleaning, and using so you keep that frying surface functional.\\n\\nAnyway. I am following a fat-free health program to manage my diabetes and related health issues, not the least of which is losing weight. When my friend told me she made eggs in this thing without any oil of any kind I was skeptical. I'll be darned - the omelette I made sans fat was flawless. Fluffy, nicely browned, and slid right out of the frying pan without sticking. Sweet!\\n\\nGot it. Seasoned it. Have been using it since March. I had one instance where salmon skin burned and stuck to the fry pan. It could have been the marinade which has orange juice. Or it could have been my inept cooking skills. I got the baking soda, a few drops of water, and it cleaned right up to \\\"new\\\" state. I seasoned it again. Works fine.\\n\\nOK. This is not Cordon Bleu cookery. It's a cheap frying pan. I'm ordering 3 for my sister-in-law, brother and sister. This will be the first time I'm getting stuff mailed to me so the claims about dented, damaged, different saute pans may turn out to be true. If so, I will edit this review.\\n\\nBut if you got it via WalMart, and took the time to follow instructions, this pan works just fine and will last as long as any other $20 pan. Lord knows my much more expensive Calphalon have proven to be completely worthless as stick-free frying pans. I've bought several of those and they don't deliver nearly as well as this cheap, cheesy saute pan from a chain store.\",\n \"Product: Neil Jordan's historical biopic of Irish revolutionary Michael Collins, the man who led a guerrilla war against the UK, helped negotiate the creation of the Irish Free State, and led the National Army during the Irish Civil War.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Rent The Wind That Shakes The Barley\\n\\nReview: My birthday is St. Patrick's Day, and I'm Irish. I've have family members and friends' grandparents who actually lived through all this before coming to America. I'm no slouch in my Irish history department. That being said, never let history get in the way of a good story, especially if it's being filmed.\\n\\nRather than debate the historical inaccuracies, or the lame love story subplot, or Julia Roberts performance, \\\"Michael Collins\\\" is a good, solid film, raised up by Liam Neeson as the Big Fella, Alan Rickman as Dev, and solid supporting turns by Aidan Quinn and Stephan Rea. It also looks darn good. Plus it's a serious attempt to unravel 20th century Irish rebellion and civil war. It ain't \\\"Braveheart\\\" but it tries hard.\\n\\nFor all it's strengths - and there are many - it doesn't really measure up as an epic. To mention this film in the same sentence as \\\"David Lean\\\" is laughable. Rent \\\"Lawrence of Arabia\\\" (no slouch itself in historical inaccuracies) or \\\"Bridge Over the River Kwai\\\" and THEN watch this film. Not.\\n\\nActing aside, it drags on. Attempts too much. Doesn't deliver. Rent \\\"The Wind That Shakes The Barley\\\" instead. What \\\"Michael Collins\\\" attempts to explain, \\\"...Barley\\\" delivers with a gripping story, great acting, and real shots to the heart.\\n\\nTo quote Marianne Faithfull's song, \\\"Ireland. Ireland. When will you be free?\\\"\",\n \"Product: After a shot gun marriage, Lola loses the couples baby and relies for comfort on her dog, Sheba, who has run away, while Doc is a recovering alcoholic who blames Lola for his dropping out of medical school. Though still depressed and bitter about their past, the couple rents out a room to a young woman named Marie and while Marie brings happiness and young love into their home, she also brings old ghosts reminding Doc and Lola of their misfortunes.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Shirley, We Hardly Knew Ye\\n\\nReview: I grew up with Shirley Booth as the sweet but annoying Hazel (who would have this busybody as their maid? And who in 2008 can afford a maid?) I saw this movie on an television station late night movie. Her performance as the needy, loving, but pitiful woman tore me up & down. I remembering sobbing at the sadness of their lives. Burt Lancaster is also compelling as the younger, drunken Doc. In fact, I thought his youth, relative to hers, was an intentional part of the plot. The \\\"older\\\" woman seducing this studly young med student, who did the \\\"right thing.\\\" It may seem old fashioned now - I laughed out loud at the woman who wrote she should get a life. To wit I would say, read a book about life before the Women's Movement in the 1970's. Not the movie who's myopic here. Don't know if you would want to buy the film unless you've already seen it and know what a tour de force Shirley Booth's performanc is. But if you have seen it, and love well written, well acted drama about imperfect people in an imperfect world, this film is for you. PS - I am going to see S. Epatha Merkerson attempt this role on Broadway. Love S. Epatha but she's got some big shoes to fill!\",\n \"Product: 12 terrified wannabe chefs compete with the cooking to win a world class restaurant. Gordon Ramsay the acerbic host of the show will challenge and fire the chefs at his whim. Featuring explosive confrontations and compelling intrigue as chefs stab each other in the back to get the ultimate prize. In the end its the chefs skill and their cooking that makes the difference.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Wouldn't work for him but would love to eat his food\\n\\nReview: I first saw Gordon Ramsey on BBC America and became hooked. Read about him in one of Anthony Bourdain's travel books (forgot the title) and smartacre Tony rated him as the best chef in Britain. That's high praise coming from the King of Snark. When he came to America to torture newbie chefs with their eye on the prize I had to watch. (Add to it that one of his sous chefs, Maryanne, was an acquaintance of a friend of mine. She got her gig wearing a \\\"I hate Rocco Dispirito\\\" tee shirt. Gordon recognized a kindred spirit.) If you haven't seen Hell's Kitchen, settle in for some high flyin' F-bombs and the meanest boss since Scrooge. But Gordon fights the good fight not for himself, but for his customers. It's all about the food and the paying customer. He makes grown men cry. He's had several pass out. He turns women chefs Hillary Clinton-tough. But he also paid the untrained but spunky cook from the Fried Chicken & Waffle House way through culinary school. Anybody who's seen him with his family on Gordon Ramsey's F-Word knows deep down inside he's a softy. I wouldn't want to work for him, but I'd love to eat his food. His commitment to fresh local ingridents made simply & carefully speaks volumes about him. I'm saving up for a night at his NYC restaurant. First NYC, and then Merry Olde England. A former soccer player can't be all bad!\",\n \"Product: 12 terrified wannabe chefs compete with the cooking to win a world class restaurant. Gordon Ramsay the acerbic host of the show will challenge and fire the chefs at his whim. Featuring explosive confrontations and compelling intrigue as chefs stab each other in the back to get the ultimate prize. In the end its the chefs skill and their cooking that makes the difference.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Wouldn't work for him but would love to eat his food\\n\\nReview: I first saw Gordon Ramsey on BBC America and became hooked. Read about him in one of Anthony Bourdain's travel books (forgot the title) and smartacre Tony rated him as the best chef in Britain. That's high praise coming from the King of Snark. When he came to America to torture newbie chefs with their eye on the prize I had to watch. (Add to it that one of his sous chefs, Maryanne, was an acquaintance of a friend of mine. She got her gig wearing a \\\"I hate Rocco Dispirito\\\" tee shirt. Gordon recognized a kindred spirit.) If you haven't seen Hell's Kitchen, settle in for some high flyin' F-bombs and the meanest boss since Scrooge. But Gordon fights the good fight not for himself, but for his customers. It's all about the food and the paying customer. He makes grown men cry. He's had several pass out. He turns women chefs Hillary Clinton-tough. But he also paid the untrained but spunky cook from the Fried Chicken & Waffle House way through culinary school. Anybody who's seen him with his family on Gordon Ramsey's F-Word knows deep down inside he's a softy. I wouldn't want to work for him, but I'd love to eat his food. His commitment to fresh local ingridents made simply & carefully speaks volumes about him. I'm saving up for a night at his NYC restaurant. First NYC, and then Merry Olde England. A former soccer player can't be all bad!\",\n \"Product: Remastered 2003 edition of their debut 1967 album. Recorded in LA during a Ritalin-fuelled \\\"long weekend\\\"\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: The Dead Album For Ramones Fans\\n\\nReview: I bought this album in 1967 at a Woolworth's cutout rack for $1.99. I was enthralled with what was happening in San Francisco at the time, and any band that released a disc was on my turntable. When I got it home, the Ramones-like pace was an unexpected blast into the center of my brain and ignighted all the nerves & synaps in my teenybopper body. I still connect to it the same way many, many, many (did I say many?) years later. I smile remembering the cheesy organ rave up & the first chords to \\\"Golden Road to Unlimited Devotion\\\". Par-ty ev-ver-ery day! (Full disclosure: I'm more of a Nuggets garage punk kind of gal. I didn't really \\\"get\\\" the Dead beyond the first four albums until I was middle aged.) Better late than never.\",\n \"Product: Not just every single, but both sides of every single the Stones released during the '60s, 58 of the greatest rock 'n' roll songs ever waxed! Starts with their version of Chuck Berry's Come On , ends with Sympathy for the Devil , and in between lie one classic after another.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Lock up your daughters\\n\\nReview: That's what an early article about the Rolling Stones said. Hard to remember when the Stones were dangerous. The ying to the Beatles yang. Not to disparage the great music the Stones have made since leaving London Records all those years ago, but this collection houses all the best of their early works when they were pushing the outside of the envelope and setting the bar for every band at the time. The impact of their early, dangerous years is heard in every garage band, punk band, and metal band since. Not for nothing do rock guitarists all look like proto-typical Keef. Brian Jones wrote the book on dissipation. Even today, lead singers are throwbacks to early Mick, even if Mick himself sometimes comes off as a parody. Buy this - all the best early stuff in one place.\",\n \"Product: The Second Solo Album from the Former Jefferson Airplane/Starship Vocalist was Recorded after She Dried Out in Rehab to Rid Herself of Accumulated Vices Over the Years. The Resulting Music was Not as Obtuse Or Adventurous as her Audiences Had Come to Expect from the Wild Woman of Rock, but She Rocked it Out Nonetheless on \\\"Full Moon Man\\\", \\\"Seasons\\\" and the Title Track.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Not the Grace Slick You Expect\\n\\nReview: I confess. After the debacle of \\\"Miracles\\\" I opted to not watch my favorite musicians from Jefferson Airplane descend into Vegas and state fair schlock meisters. As much as I love Grace Slick, and count her as the first female ROCK vocalist not beholden to the blues, jazz or folk, I couldn't watch the death spiral.\\n\\nSo. That being said. I missed Dreams when it first came out. Recently, I was shocked and appalled by the shoddy \\\"Best Of\\\" CD RCA threw together. I figured if nobody else was going to do it for me, I would create my very own Grace Slick box set.\\n\\nIn doing that I tracked down Dreams. I was blown away. Gone were the sometimes annoying Slick vocal idiosyncrasies, the too brittle biting tones, the too bombastic sarcastic lyrics. Instead, here was a full voiced, mature, reflective singer. She keeps her cutting edge, but with more personal songwriting. Her well known love of Spanish music is front and center in El Diablo. Garden of Man is breath taking in its evocative, ethereal washes of sound and double tracking vocals. Face to the Wind is epic beauty.\\n\\nDid I hear this correctly? Grace is singing a straight forward unabashed love song in Full Moon Man? Throughout her career Grace was never known for wearing her heart on her sleeve. Turns out it suits her. Who'd thunk it?\\n\\nHer new-found sobriety yields an AA anthem of sorts in Let It Go. It wouldn't be Grace Slick without a caustic, self-effacing turn. That comes in the middle of Do It the Hard Way with \\\"I'm the queen of the nuthouse!\\\"\\n\\nAll together, it's a beautifully complete piece of work. It's nearly a \\\"concept album\\\" in its themes. Above all, it's a virtuoso vocalist who's at peace with herself making the album she wants to make. If you love Grace Slick and may have missed it the first time like I did, track it down and buy it.\",\n \"Product: The Second Solo Album from the Former Jefferson Airplane/Starship Vocalist was Recorded after She Dried Out in Rehab to Rid Herself of Accumulated Vices Over the Years. The Resulting Music was Not as Obtuse Or Adventurous as her Audiences Had Come to Expect from the Wild Woman of Rock, but She Rocked it Out Nonetheless on \\\"Full Moon Man\\\", \\\"Seasons\\\" and the Title Track.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: The Masterpiece We All Knew She Had In Her\\n\\nReview: I finally tracked this down on eBay and ordered the CD from Korea. I had the album on vinyl but wanted to have it on CD as I created my own \\\"box set\\\" of Grace's work. All of her other solo works are definitely hit or miss. There are gems to be sure but there's also a lack of focus. Not the case here - each and every song is beautiful, some hauntingly so. Grace reigns in her excesses and exploits her vocal range to magnificent results. For examples - Garden of Man is other worldly. Soft and mystical. Riveting. El Diablo exploits her love of Spanish music. Great acoustic guitar work and fluid vocals. Face to the Wind is the kind of epic ballad that Starship would've stunk up the joint with Mickey Thomas' caterwauling. Do It The Hard Way is classic Grace - a little sarcastic, a little world weary, benefitting from hard fought sobriety. If you can get your hands on Dreams, buy it. If you love Grace Slick's voice and songwriting, pay what you need to. It's the album we've always known she had in her.\",\n \"Product: The band's 1967 debut, serves up 6 bonus tracks, including the Pigpen blues number \\\"Tastebud,\\\" a 23-minute live rendition of \\\"Viola Lee Blues,\\\" and the Owsley-inspired gem \\\"Alice D. Millionaire.\\\"\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: The Dead Album For Ramones Fans\\n\\nReview: I bought this album in 1967 at a Woolworth's cutout rack for $1.99. I was enthralled with what was happening in San Francisco at the time, and any band that released a disc was on my turntable. When I got it home, the Ramones-like pace was an unexpected blast into the center of my brain and ignighted all the nerves & synaps in my teenybopper body. I still connect to it the same way many, many, many (did I say many?) years later. I smile remembering the cheesy organ rave up & the first chords to \\\"Golden Road to Unlimited Devotion\\\". Par-ty ev-ver-ery day! (Full disclosure: I'm more of a Nuggets garage punk kind of gal. I didn't really \\\"get\\\" the Dead beyond the first four albums until I was middle aged.) Better late than never.\",\n \"Product: Jefferson's Tree Of Liberty is an unusual Jefferson Starship album in a number of ways. First, it's the first covers album any Jefferson configuration has ever recorded in their five-decade career, which is a noteworthy event in itself, but that's not the only thing different about JTOL. When Jefferson Starship decided to cut a whole album of folk tunes popularized by their heroes and peers, it was decided to create a sound not too dissimilar to the early version of the Airplane that Kantner and Balin founded over 40 years ago. The CD features one song with Grace Slick and has Paul Kantner, David Freiberg, Darby Gould, Cathy Richardson, David LaFlamme, Mart Balin, David Grisman and Prairie Prince also on the CD.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Isn't This The Time?\\n\\nReview: Tree of Liberty is everything you've ever loved about Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship (exorcise the memory of the emasculated Starship.) Driven by Paul Kantner's ringing 12 string Rickenbacker, the soaring harmonies, this collecton is a call to arms, to dream, to go to the edge and beyond. Jeffersonians past, present, future, and even retired, are mostly present and accounted for. (Only Jorma is among the missing, and his finger picking acoustic skills would've fit right in. Maybe next time?) Never has America needed to be reminded of righteous anger, and putting that anger into positive motion to change the world, more than it does now.\\n\\nIt's an album of rebels and revolutionary anthems - across the times, across the oceans, across the continents. From Ireland, to Nicaragua, to union workers in the fields of California, to 13 upstart colonies declaring their independence from an oppressive monarchy, along the Underground Railroad, to utopian dreams of redemption, brotherhood, and peace, 19 soul rousing and blood pumping songs. Who would've thought the lustiest and loudest collection of songs would be made by (mostly) wooden instruments? Who would've thought the most passionate album to be released this year would come from Jefferson Starship?\\n\\nLest you think this is a dreary collection of political polemic dirges, think again. This is an album to listen to with people, two big bottles of wine, and to sing along to. After a few listens you won't be able to help yourself. The songs choices range from Woody Guthrie, the Weavers, Phil Ochs, Dylan, Lennon, Marley, and Sandy Denny. And from the greatest of them all, Traditional.\\n\\nIt kicks off with a rousing nod to \\\"Volunteers\\\" before it settles into the Weaver's classic \\\"Wasn't That A Time.\\\" Cathy Richardson is a welcome addition to the crew. She has the vocal chops and power of, dare I say it? Grace Slick, but with a gritty undertone that can go any way she wants to take the songs. David Laflamme's violin soars above the acoustic guitars and martial drums.\\n\\n\\\"Follow The Drinking Gourd\\\" is from the days of the Civil War, a road map for the Underground Railroad. Look up at the stars to the Big Dipper and imagine following it to freedom. The Weavers unearthed \\\"Santy Anno.\\\" Paul can't resist reminding us that in the future it will be space ships, before he leads the crew into a lusty sea shanty, you can practically feel the waves rolling with the banjo and squeezebox.\\n\\nDavid Frieberg takes a solo turn on Dino Valenti's poignant \\\"Cowboy On The Run,\\\" with beautiful pedal steel guitar by Barry Sless and piano by Chris Smith. David's wife, Linda Imerial, and Cathy Richardson provide sympathetic backup. It's pure Nashville.\\n\\nIt would take all day to hit all the highlights. But I would be remiss not giving a shout out to longtime Jefferson collaborators Darby Gould on Richard Thompson's \\\"Genesis Hall,\\\" Diana Mangano's full throttle support on \\\"The Royal Canal\\\" - beloved to Pogues' fans as \\\"The Auld Triangle.\\\" As befitting a guy born on St. Patrick's Day, Paul O'Kantner gruffly sings the prison lament of Irish Rebel Brendan Behan, with a dirty ole man \\\"heh heh\\\" during the part about the women's prison, followed with a storming \\\"Rising Of The Moon\\\".\\n\\nThe mash up of Bob Marley's \\\"Redemption Song\\\" with John Lennon's \\\"Imagine\\\" somehow works, heartfeltly delivered by Cathy Richardson. If there is one song to pick as a \\\"single\\\" - if things like that are still done - it's this one.\\n\\nBoth \\\"In A Crisis\\\" and \\\"On The Threshold of Fire\\\" remind me of the Paul Kantner circa BATE/Sunfighter. \\\"In A Crisis\\\" refrain sticks with you long after the song has stopped playing - \\\"In a crisis we cut away what we don't need anymore. In the good times we fight our way, fight our way back home.\\\" The whining guitar riff underneath, played with judicious economy by Slick Aguilar, underscores the haunting melody. \\\"On The Threshold of Fire\\\" could've fit right in the Hijack / Starship Suiteon BATE.\\n\\nMarty Balin contributes \\\"Maybe For You\\\" if anybody needed to reminded of his talent with a love song. I miss his sweet tenor. It's too bad he's not singing on the rest of the songs. Jack Casady makes an appearance on bass with his Armageddon-announcing rumble.\\n\\nDarby Gould's acapella version of Sandy Denny's \\\"Quiet Joys of Brotherhood\\\" sent shivers down my spine. Only one thing could top it, and that's Grace Slick singing \\\"Surprise...\\\" Some of Grace's best work was singing backup and harmony, as she is here. Too bad my CD says \\\"Untitled\\\" and there's no additional information as there are for the other songs.\\n\\nSurprise, indeed. This is one of the best releases of the year. If you love great songs, passionate singing and playing, need reminding that all evil needs to triumph is for good people to do nothing, then Tree of Liberty is for you. Lay your money down.\",\n \"Product: KEEP AN EYE ON THE SKY-arriving September 15-spans 1968 to 1975 and the collection uncovers a trove of unreleased demos, unused mixes, alternate versions of songs, and a 1973 concert recorded in Memphis. The lavish packaging includes extensive liner notes, rare and never-before-seen photos, and insightful essays about the cult of Big Star and the band's history. Spotlighting the band's roots, the box set opens with several songs recorded before Big Star formed, including 'Try Again,' one of the first songs Bell and Chilton wrote together. Big Star inspired a fevered allegiance among fans of power pop, giving rise to a cult of believers who spent decades spreading the gospel. Their enthusiasm turned this obscure Memphis pop band-one that got little airplay, sold few records, and only played a handful of times-into a remarkable rock and roll resurrection story. Big Star's trek from obscure Memphis band to standard bearers for an entire genre of music has never been fully mapped-until now.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Music that never went or will go away\\n\\nReview: I delayed buying this collection. March 17th is my birthday. It is also the day that Alex Chilton died. Normally all I have to contend with is the St. Patrick's Day Parade in NYC. #2 drinking-by-amateurs-day after New Year's Eve. A good day to stay in. I was truly saddened by Alex Chilton's passing. This boxed set is my birthday gift to myself, and my toast to Alex Chilton.\\n\\nI bought the vinyl #1/Radio City reissue sometime in the '70's. I knew who Big Star were but when I finally scraped up enough cash the albums were gone from the record stores. Nor were they ever handed in at Free Being, my favorite re-cycled record store. Nobody, if anybody, who bought them ever traded them in. By the early '70's I was living in Manhattan, frequenting the downtown rock scene, I even upgraded my first apartment from one which had a bathtub in the kitchen to one with a proper bathroom. It was on Lexington Avenue, between 34 & 33rd.\\n\\nOne night, coming home from the clubs, I piled into the 1905 built elevator, with the steel door and grid you pulled shut. Alex Chilton & Jon Tiven (famous seminal rock critic & now blues songwriter) shoved into the tiny elevator. I recognized Alex but was too shy to speak. Said hello to Jon. Went up to my apartment. It wasn't until I bought Alex's early 45 rpm single \\\"Shaking the World from 33rd and Lex\\\" that I realized he was not some famous rock star guy, but my neighbor. Message to self, and anyone else: next time you are next to someone who's music, or art, or work, you admire, tell them so. Alex never heard it enough in his lifetime methinks.\\n\\nIf you already own the three Big Star records (which I do, in vinyl, on cassette, on CD) then this box is a treasure trove. Like other reviewers, I suggest you start with what has gone before. This collection of alternate versions, remastered originals, and a classic live 1973 gig (which I own on cassette, along with other Big Star live sets like \\\"Nobody Can Dance\\\" or the one from the college where I forget.) Big Star is the link from mid-sixties greatness - Byrds, Beatles, British Invasion, blue-eyed soul - with '70's glam, singer songerwriter nuances, and the soon-to-be Indie/Alternative bent. Like any art form that is transitional from one era to another there are bound to be originators who fall through the cracks. Think Velvet Underground, New York Dolls, Dictators, Modern Lovers, Television... the list goes on.\\n\\nI only saw Big Star live once. At Little Steven's Underground Garage Festival in 2004. It was a gluttinous affair - crammed with garage bands from all over the world, as well as originators - Electric Prunes, Nancy Sinatra, Richard and the Young Lions, the Creation, Pretty Things, capped off with the re-invented NY Dolls and Iggy & the Stooges (I'd mention the Strokes - they were there too - but coming in-between David Johansen and Iggy Pop, those two pros virtually pantsed Julian Casablancas and spanked him in front of 15k people.) It was easy to overlook Big Star. Too much sensory overload. They played a great set, filled with classic songs, to an appreciative multi-generational audience who relished the infrequent opportunity to see them perform. (C'mon, parents with kids wearing Dead Boys tee shirts were there. It was a pig-fest of great music. Maybe Lil Steve will get around to that promised DVD someday...)\\n\\nAnyway. I always thought I'd get the chance again to see Big Star live. They periodically surfaced. They were due to play SxSW this weekend. But not to be. Goodbye, Alex. This is the saddest rock & roll passing since December 8, 1980. It's a day or two since my birthday, St. Patrick's Day, but I'm toasting it to you and the great music you made throughout my lifetime. I still have the Box Tops first album in my record closet. \\\"Cry Like A Baby\\\" and \\\"The Letter\\\" were two of my favorites in High School. RIP. I'm blasting your tunes til the neighbors bang on my walls.\",\n \"Product: 20-track collection from the godfathers of glam/trash rock includes three previously unreleased tracks, 'Courageous Cat Theme', 'Lone Star Queen', & 'Don't Mess With Cupid'. Mercury. 1994.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Not for Dolls Freaks\\n\\nReview: If you are a long time Dolls fan and completist, view this as a great CD for driving around in the car, or for working out at the gym. If you were born after they broke up, and think Motley Crue or Guns N Roses invented this type of music, if you didn't know that KISS used to open for the Dolls way back when, or viewed the semi-drag get up on the first album as something to be scared of, or think punk was invented by the Ramones or the Sex Pistols, you need to buy this now. NOTHING afterwards would've happened without the NY Dolls. Period. EOC. All that happened after the Velvet Underground is directly as response to the advent of the Dolls. If you love late 20th century rock, and you don't own this, buy now. 'Nuf said.\",\n \"Product: Their seminal band together for only a year, Darby, Jerry and Grace Slick formed the core of this SF ballroom legend, whose influence--like the widening sway of the Velvet Underground--seems larger today than ever. The garage origins of Darby's classic, '\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Rhino Had Great Society In the Wrong Box Set\\n\\nReview: Rhino, the masters of the box set universe, included the Great Society on \\\"Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets\\\". They really belong on the original Nuggets psychedelic punk compilation. They were a truly wacky garage band with a world class lead singer. I put together my own Grace Slick box set, and the Great Society was the hardest part to fit in amongst the Airplane, Slick/Kantner, Jefferson Starship, and her solo stuff. They really are rock bottom raw. In a good way.\\n\\nI fit the profile of someone who must own everything Grace Slick. I still own the original two Great Society Columbia releases on vinyl, and agree with the reviewers who cite the fact that they were a truly original live band. I think their version of \\\"Sally Go 'Round the Roses\\\" is the definitive version, and the original Middle Eastern raga rock version of \\\"White Rabbit\\\" is hypnotic. All together more interesting than the Airplane's straight bolero (albeit nothing on earth comes close to Jack Casady's bass on that song, and Grace's blood curdling \\\"Feed your head!\\\" crescendo.) I'm also partial to their version of \\\"Outlaw Blues.\\\"\\n\\n\\\"Someone to Love,\\\" however, not so much. Doesn't matter if it's the studio version included here, or the live version on the Columbia set. It doesn't do much for me as a dirge-like lament. Leaden to the max. The Airplane's double-timed, amped up assault with Grace demanding, threatening, we better find somebody to love works for me.\\n\\nIt's a shame that those original Columbia live discs sound like they were recorded at the bottom of a deep well. But this disc is studio recorded power pop psychedelic punk. Despite other reviewers pans of \\\"Free Advice,\\\" I actually love the song. It's great to have multiple versions. I do believe that Sly Stone had the band do 50 takes before he finally gave up and quit. It's all about Mrs. Slick's free form wailing. There's an almost child-like joy in her letting lose with her voice. \\\"Hey, Ma! Look what I can do!\\\"\\n\\n\\\"That's How It Is,\\\" had it been released as a single, could very well have made it to the Top Ten. It's great folk rock pop. \\\"Father Bruce\\\" was a loving tribute to Lenny, one of Grace's heroes. Considering that even today she says she gets her news reports from Colbert, Jon Stewart, and Bill Maher, I guess it's comics for current events for her.\\n\\nNot an essential disc to be sure, but a great artifact of a bygone era and a good source of \\\"What if?\\\" debates. Certainly more than a footnote to the Airplane.\",\n \"Product: In the early 70's, rock photographer Bob Gruen and his wife Nadya purchased a portable video recorder. In a period of three years they shot over 40 hours of New York Dolls footage. Now for the first time ever this footage is unveiled. This feature leng\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: When the Dolls Ruled\\n\\nReview: For those of you who saw the Dolls back in the '70's, this is a time capsule version that brings you back to Max's Kansas City, Kenny's Castaways, Club 82, and more. The Dolls are young, brash, alive, and vital. Seeing Johnny healthy and built, or Jerry Nolan chubby, it's worth the price of admission. All of the Dolls are energetic and engaging. At the time, the world was their oyster and there was no place to go but up. Great sloppy chaotic versions of their greatest non-hits. A nice feature of the DVD is the Performance Only section, as well as the commentary. It does bog down a little in the middle, but picks right back up again as soon as the band hits the stage. Some of the comments are very funny. The black & white photography lends a \\\"historic\\\" feel. It's way better than it should be, given the time & technology advances since then. It ends around with the Red Patent Leather gigs at the Little Hippodrome, but without fan fare or anything maudlin.\",\n \"Product: The New York Dolls have reunited with Todd Rundgren, producer of their influential 1973 debut, to record their fourth studio album, 'Cause I Sez So, on Atco Records. Recorded at Utopia Sound Studio in Kauai, Hawaii, the album features original Dolls David Johansen (vocals) and Sylvain Sylvain (guitar) plus Steve Conte (guitar), Brian Delaney (drums), and Sami Yaffa (bass). The 12-song track list features 11 original compositions, including the first single ' 'Cause I Sez So' and a new version of 'Trash,' which was on their 1973 debut album. 'It was amazing working with Todd again, and I think we were able to evoke the special sound of our first album and drag it by the hair into the present,' says frontman Johansen..\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Sylvain Sylvain Is the Glue\\n\\nReview: As much as I love the Dolls (a quick read through my other NY Dolls reviews ought to explain,) I stalled buying this one. I was queasy when I saw Rundgren was at the helm. In my, and Jerry Nolan's, opinion he stunk up the joint with the production of the first NY Dolls album. (Listen to the demo tapes of A Hard Night's Day and compare.)\\n\\nBut history and true love won out, I bought this latest NY Dolls CD. It's a keeper. Bluesy, biting, mature. It's what the 1970's Dolls ought to sound like in 2009. Much is written about David Jo's way with words, wit, and his growling, gravelly vocal chops. At times he sounds like Howlin' Wolf if the Wolf had been born on Staten Island, and listened to some girl groups. Nothing to take away from David - be it the Dolls, his early solo albums, the Harry Smiths - David is always on the mark.\\n\\nBut it's Sylvain Sylvain who's the under rated glue holding together the signature sound. His sense of songsmithery, rhythm guitar, harmonies, and infectious energy keeps the NY Dolls sound alive. His rhythm guitar was overlooked, with such a presence as Johnny Thunders' reeling, lurching anarchistic solos. Syl was co-writer with David on much of the early solo albums, and throughout the Dolls career. Syl's the man.\\n\\nBut props to Steve Conte, Sami Yaffa, and Brian Delaney, they do not attempt to impersonate people who are no longer with us. They are gifted musicians in their own right. And it's their new energy and musicianship that make the Dolls once again vital. It's a band. It's the attitude that makes them the NY Dolls. Not David, Syl, and a couple of other guys in rent-a-band.\\n\\nAnd Rundgren? Well, it's better than the last time. Now that the Beatles have been remastered with 2010 technology, isn't it time to show the original Dolls some digital love?\\n\\nPS - Trash as a reggae tune works. Don't ask me why. But it does. Pour yourself a Dark & Stormy and get ready for a good listen.\",\n \"Product: Ron and Russell Mael present a double-CD souvenir of Sparks recent Two Hands One Mouth European tour that saw the American brothers playing shows as a duo for the first time. With no band and no computers, Ron (two hands, on keyboards) and Russell (one mouth, on vocals) captured the very essence of Sparks and their extensive catalog. This unique performance is now available on Sparks first live album. This is the first ever official live recording of Sparks. The Two Hands One Mouth tour in Europe, from which these recordings were taken (the tour continued in Japan and soon America), has been an exceptional experience for us and, judging by the reaction and feedback, also a memorable and emotional event for Sparks fans. As a result, we want to celebrate the event with a souvenir for all Sparks fans that captures this tour and the unique format of the performance. While we began the tour with certain fears of not having the safety net of a band or computers, we soon realized that the format was wildly successful (for us and for the audience) in highlighting in the purest form the core elements of what Sparks has always been our musical world conveyed through our songs and our vocals and performed in a most aggressive way. Ron and Russell Mael\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Two Hands One Heart\\n\\nReview: When I bought tickets to this most recent US tour of just Russell and Ron Mael I was apprehensive. I'd only previously seen them with a full band. I've been a Sparks (formerly Half Nelson) fan for decades. Even has the pleasure of interviewing them for Trouser Press. One of my favorite bands of eccentric, heavily influenced by Gilbert & Sullivan, igneous, metamorphic & sedimentory rock. All of which are more \\\"rock\\\" than Sparks has been for nearly 40 years. But they still keep keeping on and I love them for it.\\n\\nTwo Hands One Mouth is one of the most satisfying Sparks compilations yet as it encompasses their entire catalog up to date and has nothing nor nobody interferring with their music. Ron's piano and keyboards showcase the beautiful melodies and dynamics that have always been there. Russell's vocals are unemcombered by histrionic production. He can still hit the notes and left to their own organic selves the brothers deliver.\\n\\nSee them live if you get the chance. Buy this live collection for sure. It's really delightful if you already know and love their work. If you DON'T but have heard of them, start here first. If you can't hang with this the others will scare you silly. Welcome back, brothers Mael. Looking forward to seeing you again real soon.\",\n \"Product: Orijen Dry Cat Food is a premium cat food meal that aims to satisfy your cat's natural need for a highprotein diet by offering a rich source of varied meats and small amounts of fruits and vegetables. 80 of Orijen's formulation contains varied meats, including: freerun chicken and turkey, whole eggs and wildcaught fish. These meats are delivered fresh daily, keeping them preservative free, unfrozen and loaded with animal proteins and fats. Orijen is infused with marinesource DHA and EPA omega3 fatty acids, which support your cat's peak skin and coat conditioning. Instead of including corn, wheat or white rice, which fill many cat foods, Orijen features a full complement of regional fruits and vegetables that provide important vitamins, minerals and protector nutrients. Orijen is grain free and carbohydratelimited, which better resembles the natural dietary needs of cats. Contains 80 meat ingredients and 20 fruits and vegetables 6 different meats are used Grainfree and carbohydrate limited\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Finally! A holistic cat food they'll eat!\\n\\nReview: My 3 cats have turned their collective noses up at all my attempts to feed them holistic, organic, healthy kibble. I've tried organic living food with real chicken. Nope. That package was given to my friend's dog who'll eat anything, even stuff meant for cats. I was resigned to my cats Purina addiction and my role as an enabler.\\n\\nThen I saw this brand on Amazon. Read the reviews. A lot of the reviewers sounded like my cats - sensitive tummy non-stop yatzer after gobbling his food, ADD cat who acted as if I never fed her waking me up every morning for her morning eats, and one certified garbage-gut who eats anything (including corned beef and cabbage and mixed garden salad with balsalmic vinegrette.)\\n\\nI ordered the trial size. I was surprised to see that trial size was roughly the same size as a regular box of cat food at the grocery. I mixed the healthy stuff with the Purina. They ran, not walked, to the bowls.\\n\\nEveryday since I've increased the amount of the Orijen, and everyday they are gobbling it down. Best news of all, not once has any of the three puked on my carpets!\\n\\nI ordered the full bag today. I'm trying another flavor. But I think I've found a healthy brand that my cats will actually eat. Go figure!\",\n \"Product: Tough chewers have met their match with Outward Hound Invincibles! Featuring 2 layers of super-tough fabric, and special squeakers that continue to squeak after being punctured, these lovable, cuddly and durable toys are made to keep your pup playing longer! Bound to become your best friends favorites, our lovable toys are durably designed with an engaging array of shapes, sounds and textures so you can have huge fun with your furry friend.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Pretty Darn Invincible And Fun\\n\\nReview: My sister and brother-in-law were adopted by a Labrabull mix puppy. Pitbulls love their toys. She's also teething at 4 months old. It was love at first sight. She took it, chomped on it, shook it around, ran back and forth with it, rolled around on the ground with the large snake wrapped around her squeeking all the while. It's been a month. No damage despite being seriously gnawed, shook, and tossed. She takes it every night and safely places it in her toy pile under the dining room table. My sis & bro-n-law stick it in her beautiful dog house she refuses to use. She only goes into it to get her snake back. Fun to watch her act out. A winner.\"\n]","isConversational":false},"profile_size":{"kind":"number","value":19,"string":"19"},"task":{"kind":"string","value":"longlamp_3"},"split_kind":{"kind":"string","value":"user_based"},"id":{"kind":"number","value":1671,"string":"1,671"}}},{"rowIdx":1672,"cells":{"question_id":{"kind":"string","value":"A264UDLWWRJ7X4"},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of \"1.0\" for a product with description \"10 pcs SD / MMC / SDHC / PRO DUO Memory Card Plastic Storage Jewel Case (memory card not included)\n( dimension : 1 3/8\" x 1 3/8\" x 1/4\" )\". The summary of the review text is \"Flimsy, cheaply-made and really not worth your time or money\"."},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"Very thin plastic. But also very thin as to what these cases can hold. These are NOT what used to come with the memory cards. Not only is the plastic thinner and the hinges weaker, but the entire compartment is not as thick. You cannot carry a microflash stick in this as you could with the old memory card holder. You cannot even fit some of the old memory cards in this. If you attempt it, the case either will not shut or flies open at the least provocation.\n\nA very poor product. Although I agree with other reviewers that these little cases are very difficult to find, I suggest you search elsewhere. Even for around five bucks, this product is a waste of money."},"correct_answer":{"kind":"string","value":"Very thin plastic. But also very thin as to what these cases can hold. These are NOT what used to come with the memory cards. Not only is the plastic thinner and the hinges weaker, but the entire compartment is not as thick. You cannot carry a microflash stick in this as you could with the old memory card holder. You cannot even fit some of the old memory cards in this. If you attempt it, the case either will not shut or flies open at the least provocation.\n\nA very poor product. Although I agree with other reviewers that these little cases are very difficult to find, I suggest you search elsewhere. Even for around five bucks, this product is a waste of money."},"documents":{"kind":"list like","value":["Product: Die 7Real kids vacation westie william kids dog\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Sturdy, attractive, easily assembled shelf\n\nReview: Sturdy, easily-assembled shelf for counter or floor. I especially like that the shelves may be attached at different heights -- that's what it means by \"adjustable\". For instance, I did not want the top shelf to be at the very top of the side supports. There are holes pre-drilled so that I was able to recess the top shelf a few inches so that there were sides on the top to hold my toiletries and towels.\n\nThe shelf is attractive. Narrow enough not to take up all your counter space or to fit in a tight place on the floor, but roomy enough to be handy. A friend saw it in my bathroom and immediately ordered one for herself. It would go with just about any decor. Just a very nice shelf.\n\nComes with all the hardware for assembly, including an Allen wrench. So no tools necessary. I put it together myself in about fifteen minutes.\n\nRecommended.","Product: Bold, yet timeless, red can instantly pull a look together. Much like slipping on a pair of sexy stilettos, wearing red can unleash a sense of confidence and power. So if you think you can't wear red, think again. Jouer In the Red Collection offers universally flattering shades. This gorgeous palette will take you seamlessly from day to night.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Really nice set for travel or purse\n\nReview: This little kit contains everything you need for a quick overnight or to keep in your purse for touch-ups. It contains translucent face powder; a nice neutral shade of bronze conturing powder; brown powder eyeshadow; peach powder eyeshadow; shimmery peach cream highlighter (could also be used for blush or on lips); shimmery light tan cream highlighter; pink lip gel.\n\nThe colors are all neutral and light. Nice for slicking on after the beach or while on a outdoor outing where you would want a very natural look. The colors will probably show up best on lighter complexions, although my middle daughter who is dark-skinned put on the highlighters and they looked excellent on her cheeks and under her brows.\n\nThe kit snaps apart and then snaps back together, but it is a little tricky to fit it back together once you have it apart. You have to line up hooks and holes and slides in the plastic. It finally works, but it takes a bit of practice. The kit does not come with any applicators except for the lip gel tub. I like brushes to put on my makeup, so I would carry a powder, blush and eyeshadow brush to use with the kit. However my daughters (college-age) did not find this to be a drawback and seem fine with applying these products with their fingertips or a tissue.\n\nI liked it, and you get a good bit of makeup in the kit.","Product: A remarkable blend of light and nourishing oils, Pure Spa Multi-Vitamin Dry Oil absorbs rapidly to impart moisture to skin without leaving an oily residue. Loaded with vitamins, anti-oxidants, such as omega-3, omega-6, and Dunaliella algae extract, this treatment helps combat the signs of aging while restoring skin to a soft, silky, and supple condition. The essential oils of Mandarin and Cedarwood enliven the senses.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Lovely dry oil spray with a light woodsy fragrance\n\nReview: I can no longer reach all the way down my back to put on body oil or lotion after a shower. I have used Neutrogena dry body oil for years, and I really like the ease with which it is absorbed and the fact that it is fragrance-free, but it's messy because it pours from the bottle.\n\nThis spray goes on just as nicely as the Neutrogena, and although it has a lovely soft fragrance, I find that if I shower at night and spray this on, the fragrance has faded by morning and it does not clash with my daytime perfume.\n\nI can spray it lightly on my back, and I do not have to rub it in.\n\nRecommended.","Product: An Amazon Brand.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: What a great sheet at a great price!\n\nReview: There are over 1600 reviews of this flannel sheet set (I ordered the 190 gram velvet flannel), and the average star rating is almost five. That makes perfect sense to me. I usually would not add my opinion in a review of a product which is already so well-represented by Amazon customer opinion, but I just had to make an exception here. This is one excellent sheet set.\n\nI ordered the gray and the ecru colors in queen size. Both are lovely heavyweight flannel (but not too heavy or stiff). The sheets have deep pockets which fit well on modern mattresses, including those with a pillow top. They wash like a dream in hot water, drying on high, with little or no shrinking, and no pilling. They are warm, cozy, easy-care and feel like a sheet costing a lot more money. Such excellent value for the price!\n\nHave a gift-giving occasion coming up like a wedding shower or housewarming? These would be perfect.\n\nHighly recommended.","Product: Audrey Hepburn - Breakfast at Tiffany's One Sheet, Movie Poster Print, 24 by 36\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Nice reproduction of an iconic poster\n\nReview: If I had the ten thousand dollars-plus it would cost to purchase an original of this gorgeous poster, it would already be hanging on my wall. But in the meanwhile, this is a good substitute. The colors are bright, the image is crisp, and the poster is printed on good quality heavy duty paper. The price is extremely reasonable. Of course it is not of the regulation size of an original, but it is a standard size for a poster, and so it is easy to find an inexpensive frame for it at any framing store or Walmart.\n\nAll in all, a good reproduction for the money, and a nice room brightener for a theater room, teen or dorm room.","Product: Audrey Hepburn - Breakfast at Tiffany's One Sheet, Movie Poster Print, 24 by 36\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Nice reproduction of an iconic poster\n\nReview: If I had the ten thousand dollars-plus it would cost to purchase an original of this gorgeous poster, it would already be hanging on my wall. But in the meanwhile, this is a good substitute. The colors are bright, the image is crisp, and the poster is printed on good quality heavy duty paper. The price is extremely reasonable. Of course it is not of the regulation size of an original, but it is a standard size for a poster, and so it is easy to find an inexpensive frame for it at any framing store or Walmart.\n\nAll in all, a good reproduction for the money, and a nice room brightener for a theater room, teen or dorm room.","Product: QuikServe Oven produces convection-like air circulation for rapid browning of snacks, appetizers or pizza bites as well as rapid baking for cookies, quiches and pastries\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Terrific little toaster/convection oven, especially for teen parties and those cooking for one or two\n\nReview: This handy, hard-working toaster/convection oven, which needs no pre-heating, is terrific for heating frozen hors d'oeuvres, pizzas and hotdogs. It's easy to clean, simple to operate, and small enough to sit out permanently on your countertop. I like it for entertaining as an auxillary to my big oven. But I can see that many people would make this their number one food heater.\n\nMy teenage daughters love to use this little oven when they have friends over. The fact that they don't have to wait for it to preheat (the regular stove takes up to ten minutes to preheat) makes it perfect for fixing a quick bite between movies. They like it for baking cookies in small batches, too. That way the cookies can be served hot each time.\n\nI gave one of these ovens to my oldest daughter when she moved into her own apartment. Her busy college schedule has her using this little oven more than any other appliance in the kitchen. I like it that she will make herself hot food at home, even if it is frozen, rather than buy take-out. So much more economical. Anybody cooking for only one or two people would probably find this oven a good buy. Heat up a small pizza, cut up an apple, pour a glass of milk, and you have a quick, cheap and pretty good meal.\n\nOverall, a handy little appliance which has a permanent spot on my countertop. I recommend it.","Product: FLUF lunch bags pack all of the things you want in your kid's lunch, and none of the things you don't. Made with 100% certified organic cotton and a tested food safe lining, they are free of BPA, phthalates and lead. Printed with water-based pigments, the fun and whimsical illustrations are coveted as much by grown ups as by kids. Fully machine washable (with a wipeable, water-resistant lining), these bags are easy to keep clean, functional, durable and - above all - safe and healthy.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Terrific lunch bag for a working adult\n\nReview: I am reviewing this lunch bag on the basis of my personal use. I go to work every day to an office, and I usually take my lunch because it's quicker, cheaper and healthier. What I love about this lunch bag:\n\n1. I love that it is open at the top. The lunch bag has a little snap to close it at the top, but I never use it. It is like a mini-shopping bag in that I can stuff it full to the brim with fruit, water, sandwich, utensils, soup, a Tupperware container, a can of nuts for the week -- whatever I want to carry. I have even smoushed my morning newspaper and a file folder into this little bag. The fact that it does NOT have a fold-over top like most lunch bags is a plus for me.\n\n2. I love that it is made of soft canvas (which washes magnificently) and that it is lined with soft plastic inside so that spills do not leak through.\n\n3. I love the sturdy construction of the lunch bag and the fact that it is easy to carry.\n\n4. I think the design on the bag is feminine and happy.\n\nFor me, there are no drawbacks to this lunch bag. However, if you are buying this bag for a child, or even for your teenager, I think that you should be sure that he/she will not spill lunch on the way to school/camp/whatever. The open design of this bag is not particularly child-friendly if it up-ends and the contents go flying. I like the design, and I think that an adult will appreciate its accessibility.","Product: Hamilton Beach Iced Tea Makers can quench your thirst in minutes. Try one in your kitchen or bring one to the office so you can enjoy a refreshing glass of iced tea whenever-and wherever-you want. Whether you're making iced tea for one person or more, you're sure to find the Hamilton Beach Iced Tea Maker model that's just right for you. This model is compatible with tea bags or loose tea and brew right into a glass.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Tea is Okay, but it spatters during brewing\n\nReview: This iced tea brewer is easy to use. It makes one glass at a time. You put bagged or loose tea into the filter and pour cold water into the compartment in the back. It only holds about 8 ounces of water. There is no steeping. As soon as the unit heats the water (which takes a minute or so), the tea stars coming out into the glass you have set below the spigot. The directions tell you to put a hot/cold unbreakable glass filled with ice to catch the tea. But I just catch it in a plastic cup and add the ice later.\n\nPros: The water heats really fast. The tea is tasty. The unit is easy to clean and is small and easy to store. It turns off automatically when the water compartment is empty. You can reuse the tea once the water has run through it once.\n\nCons: The darned thing spits tea droplets everywhere as the tea is dripping out into your glass. This is really annoying. I have this unit at work, and we have a white Formica countertop. I have to wipe up those tea spittles immediately or they stain the countertop.\n\nIt doesn't come with a hot/cold unbreakable plastic cup to catch the tea, and one of those costs about ten bucks. If you use a styrofoam cup, you have to brace it with something on either side (like the salt and pepper shakers) because the driving, splattering tea coming out of the spigot walks the cup right out from under the dripper.\n\nThis purchase was an experiment for me. I was spending a dollar a day at McDonald's for a large unsweetened ice tea to last me the day. Since I ordered this from the \"damaged\" list (something was supposed to be wrong with the packaging, but it was just fine), I only paid a little over $15 for it. It has already paid for itself. But I think I will try one of the units which makes a whole pitcher next time, and I hope it doesn't splatter all over the place during the brewing process. It is a little tedious making just one glass at a time.","Product: Enjoy a fresh cup of coffee with this BPA-Free borosilicate glass French press. Individual size accommodates up to 1 standard coffee cup.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Very nice for the price\n\nReview: I did not realize before I ordered this French press coffee pot that it would work better with coarse ground coffee. I did try it with the regular coffee I already had, and got grounds. So I ordered a small bag of Tim Horton's coarse ground, and it worked beautifully. The directions (which are on the outside of the box -- so don't throw the box away until you figure out the coffee maker) say to use a bit less coffee than I like. But I like my coffee on the very dark, robust side, so the second time I used extra.\n\nThe pot is easily cleaned and holds up well to daily usage. I have it at my office. It makes an excellent cup of coffee. I think it's especially nice for the price.","Product: Adjustable sandal with an anatomical foot bed for the ultimate in support\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: At last! A comfortable AND stylish sandal\n\nReview: I love this shoe. I have had sandals in this general style before, and they were pretty comfortable but not dressy enough for work. Then I have had gorgeous dressy sandals that pinched and rubbed and made me generally sorry I had worn them. So I have been looking for a sandal that has style and comfort. Look no further. This sandal was recommended on a Walking newsletter I receive, and so I thought it would be comfortable. But I was so pleasantly surprised by just how dressy it is, with the finished leather upper encrusted with little jewels, beads and stitching.\n\nThe sandal fits true to size, and needs no breaking in. I wore them to work on bare feet right out of the box (to show off my new pedicure), and when I got home eight hours later, I kept them on to walk the dogs. This is a great sandal. I want them in black, now, too.\n\nHighly recommended.","Product: This Coat Pocket Wallet is part of the Bosca Old Leather Collection. Complement your confident character with the classically designed Coat Pocket Wallet from Bosca. Leather's color is applied by hand-sponging vegetable dyes onto the leather according to a centuries-old Tuscan technique and then ironed to produce a deep and varied color that allows the hide's natural features to show through. Interior features a large divided currency well, two currency/receipt slots, and five card slots. Measurements: Bottom Width: 3 34 in Middle Width: 3 34 in Top Width: 3 34 in Depth: 12 in Height: 6 12 in Weight: 3 oz\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Quality, elegance, style -- This Wallet Deserves Six Stars\n\nReview: My husband will only carry these narrow \"breast pocket\"-style wallets. For many years, my mother purchased them for him at a small leather goods store in Florence whenever she was in Italy. He would carry them until they fell apart, literally, and although he is hard on his wallets, they would each last him for several years. Once my mother stopped her travels to Europe, I looked everywhere for something similar. I have finally found their equal in this country.\n\nThis wallet is gorgeous. The leather is supple, but not soft. It will stand up to use. The stitching is perfect. Inside it has five slanted slots for credit cards and four separate places for money, notes, photos. There is no plastic insert. It doesn't need one. This is not a tri-fold wallet, nor is it wide like a hip-pocket wallet. It is just a little larger overall than the dimensions of a check holder. It's made to be carried in the inner breast pocket of a jacket.\n\nThe wallet comes in a lovely box, imprinted \"BOSCA Est. 1911\" on the lid. Nice for wrapping.\n\nThis wallet exudes quality. It feels, looks and smells expensive. I purchased the cognac-colored leather this time. It is a rich reddish brown. If you want the perfect gift for a discerning gentleman, this is it.\n\nHighly recommended.","Product: A classic Disney animated fairy tale meets with the modern, live-action romantic comedy in Walt Disney Pictures ENCHANTED. Featuring an all-star cast, the film follows the beautiful princess Giselle (AMY ADAMS) as she is banished by an evil queen (SUSAN SARANDON) from her magical, musical animated land and finds herself in the gritty reality of the streets of modern-day Manhattan. Shocked by this strange new environment that doesn't operate on a happily ever after basis, Giselle is now adrift in a chaotic world badly in need of enchantment. But when Giselle begins to fall in love with a charmingly flawed divorce lawyer (PATRICK DEMPSEY) who has come to her aid -- even though she is already promised to a perfect fairy tale prince (JAMES MARSDEN) back home -- she has to wonder: can a storybook view of romance survive in the real world?\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: This film belongs in your permanent collection\n\nReview: I saw this movie at the theatre and liked it. I thought it was cute, and then sort of forgot about it. Months later, my kids rented the DVD, and I watched it again. Then I really liked it, and I ordered a copy for our DVD library. When I was watching it again today, I realized that I truly love this movie, and I needed to write a review of it. It's only after repeated viewings that I have finally recognized genius in this film. Disney has pulled out all the stops to make a hilarious live-action parody of its own invented genre of animated fairy-tale romance. I bet I have watched this movie ten times now, and I find something new every viewing.\n\nAmy Adams is an amazing actress. I loved her in <a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/Junebug/dp/B000BYRCQU/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\">Junebug</a> and <a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/The-Wedding-Date-Widescreen-Edition/dp/B0009OL7Z4/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\">The Wedding Date (Widescreen Edition)</a>. In Enchanted, she really makes you believe that she is the animated character of Giselle, come to life. Her dippy hand gestures and her wide-eyed straight delivery of truly goofy lines are superb. But what makes the performance even more amazing is the gradual transformation of Giselle from cartoonish to human before our very eyes. Adams never loses her Disney-princess innocence, but she becomes fully three-dimensional in her movements and her line readings as the film moves to a satisfying happily-ever-after for the stars. It's an inspired performance.\n\nThe other actors are equally good. Patrick Dempsey is now a confirmed hunky leading man -- I still recall him so clearly as a geek in his early teenage movies. James Marsden is also sigh-worthy. And Susan Sarandon as the Evil Stepmother -- what can I say? The woman is ageless, gorgeous, and can play anything.\n\nAnd the songs? Marvelous. When I took my kids to New York this past May, we spent half a day in Central Park, our Ipods plugged in, swooping around and singing out advice on \"How does she know you love her? How does she know you care?\" while we checked out all the places where they filmed the scenes from that number. (Yes, if you were in the park that Tuesday, that was us -- and no, we hadn't been drinking.)\n\nAnyway, if you do not own a copy of this movie, and if you have a romantic funny bone, buy it (in the widescreen version, of course) for your permanent collection.","Product: A \"charismatic\" (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) John Corbett (\"Sex and the City\") stars as a talented but immature actor who is forced to grow up when he finds he has a new rival in romance. Amy Smart (Varsity Blues), Sean Astin (the Lord of the Rings trilogy) and Patty Duke(The Miracle Worker) co-star in this feel-good story of self-discovery. Mike (Corbett) only wants to perform in great productions. So when a clueless amateur (Marcus Thomas) is given the lead in Cyrano de Bergerac, Mike decides he must personally train him. But when real lifebegins to mimic the play's love triangle and his protg falls for the girl Mike loves but can't commit to (Smart), suddenly it's Mike's turn to learnnot how to act, but how to live!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Lovely little movie, especially if you are into community theatre\n\nReview: A lonely guy whose girlfriend has just dumped him decides to audition for a chorus role in a local community theatre production of \"Cyrano de Bergerac\" and is unexpectedly cast in the lead in this charming film about actors who love the craft but will never make it in the big time.\n\nJohn Corbett and John Astin (pre-Lord of the Rings) have excellent supporting roles, respectively, as a good actor who just cannot make it outside of the small city, and a pompous entitled amateur who will be a familiar type to anyone who has ever done community theatre. Patty Duke (John Astin's mom) also has a wonderful cameo-type part as the irascible assistant director/stage manager/costume mistress that every community theatre has and cannot do without.\n\nJust an enjoyable, fun movie for all of us who love community theatre. I loved it.","Product: Part tragic, part comic, this outrageous look at life in the fast lane in the Academy Award-winning musical about Bob Fosse's excessive life in show business. Played by Roy Scheider, Fosse's alter-ego drives himself over the edge and soon finds he is caught between a recurring fantasy about his death and the reality of a near-death experience. Dazzlingly presented, this electrifying story about the perils of pushing yourself too hard is filled with Fosse's legendary song-and-dance choreography.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Belongs in Every Broadway Musical Lover's Film Collection\n\nReview: Bob Fosse's thinly-veiled autobiographical homage is everything a movie musical should be -- lively, tuneful, funny and even poignant.\n\nWith a cast which includes the wonderfully sexy Roy Scheider of <a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/Jaws-Widescreen-Anniversary-Collector-s-Edition/dp/B00004TDTO/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\">Jaws (Widescreen Anniversary Collector's Edition)</a> fame, Fosse acolytes Ann Reinking and Ben Vereen, and a fabulous pre-plastic surgery Jessica Lange as the gorgeous, ever-present Angel of Death, this musical story of a genius Broadway director with a death-wish, is nothing short of mesmerizing.\n\nThe story follows Fosse's own life story closely enough to be almost eerie -- even foreshadowing his ultimate demise from heart failure at an out-of-town new play try-out in Washington, D.C., which happened years after this movie was released. But even if it didn't, the movie stands on its own as a very gritty, sweaty and true-to-life look at what it takes to make it on Broadway.\n\nThis Special Music Edition of the DVD has some excellent special features. I especially liked the featurette on the evolution of Fosse's iconic choreography.\n\nIf you loved <a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/Cabaret/dp/6304698542/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\">Cabaret</a> (for which Fosse won the Best Director Oscar), and <a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/Chicago/dp/B00005JLSE/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\">Chicago</a>,( the play of which Fosse originally directed and choreographed on Broadwway), you will love this movie. And if you love it, you should have it in your permanent collections. Fosse was a true American treasure. His unique dance stylings will be influencing choreographers for generations to come.","Product: Screen legend Joan Crawford (\"Mildred Pierce,\" \"Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?\") stars as a congresswoman who returns to her alma mater to accept an honorary degree, and finds herself romantically involved with both the college president and a magazine photographer. Co-starring Eve Arden (\"Our Miss Brooks,\" \"Mildred Pierce\") and Robert Young (\"Father Knows Best,\" TV's \"Marcus Welby\"). Based on a play by Fay Kanin (\"The Opposite Sex,\" \"Teacher's Pet\").\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: A lesser entry in the Crawford filmography, but fascinating\n\nReview: I had never seen this Joan Crawford movie, made in the 1950s when she was in her forties. If you are a fan, then this should be in your library. Crawford has not yet made the transition here to the scarily overdone eyebrows and lips. Her figure is gorgeous -- if only I had looked that good in my forties. And she does the most that can be done with a script which is a tad underwritten. Once again, Crawford is the consummate professional actress.\n\nThe story is a nice love triangle. Crawford is a congresswoman who is invited back to give the commencement speech at her alma mater, a woman's college that looks to be modeled after Smith or Bryn Mawr. Only it really isn't her alma mater because years earlier, when she was on the verge of graduating, she was caught sneaking back into her dormitory at five o'clock in the morning and expelled. She would not give a reason why she was out so late, but obviously it was a assignation with a man whom she refused to name.\n\nThe two men interested in our heroine are the college president, played by Robert Young, and a savvy political reporter, played by Frank Lovejoy. The movie can't really make up its mind what genre it belongs to. The trailer (included on the DVD) calls it a romantic comedy. But it's not a laugh-fest. It's really rather serious, and explores the choices people make in their lives and whether people really change. Young actress Janice Rule, in her first major movie role, has a nice part as Robert Young's daughter. (Her most famous role is as Merle, the bitchy socialite girlfriend of James Stewart in \"Bell, Book and Candle.) There are also a couple of well-done love scenes.\n\nThere are two interesting facets about this movie which might appeal to collectors of movie lore. The first concerns the relationship between Joan Crawford and Janice Rule during the making of the film. The story goes that Crawford was so mean to Rule during the shoot (jealousy?) that years later she wrote a letter of apology for her horrible behavior. It's kind of interesting to think about the whole \"Mommy Dearest\" thing while watching these two on the screen together. The other is that the third prong of the love triangle is played by Frank Lovejoy who is really best known as a radio performer. So fans of old-time radio have a chance to see Lovejoy in a rare love-interest/leading man part in a motion picture. (Usually when Lovejoy is in a film, he plays a heavy or a cop.)\n\nRecommended for movie buffs and Joan Crawford fans.","Product: Extends iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 battery life almost a full charge\n\n\nPre-charged and ready to use\n\n\n\n1700mAh lithium-polymer battery provides reusable and rechargeable power\n\n\n\nMicro USB Cable included for syncing device and recharging case\n\n\n\nLED Battery Life and Charging Indicator\n\n\n\nOn/off button allows user to control charging\n\n\n\nFlexible case fits securely around your phone and has an optimized opening for camera flash\n\n\nRecharges in 2 hours at 5 watts\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Love the convenience, great for travel\n\nReview: What a great idea. This black case has a long-life lithium battery phone charger built-in so you will no longer have to worry if you are at work or at your weekend retreat and have suddenly realized you have left your charger at home.\n\nThe case is black and fits easily over my iPhone 4S. It does make the phone a little heavier than it was with just a regular case on it, but I really didn't mind that. You can control when the battery is on, so you don't drain the juice unnecessarily.\n\nThe only downside I can see is form over function. The case is very utilitarian-looking. I mean, it's black. Period. Since this is such a great idea, it would be nice if the case came in different colors and patterns. But for right now -- great idea and I love it.\n\nRecommended.","Product: Design features a beautiful equine sketch by Leonardo DaVinci. Perfect for any art or horse lover! Case is designed to fit iPhone 4 and 4S models. Slim fit snap-on case allows easy access to all buttons, controls and ports. Maintains a slim profile, covering the back and corners of the phone. Our covers are made using a dye-sublimation print process which results in a bold, clear image that will not fade, peel or scratch off. Perfect, stylish way to protect your iPhone! Copyright Insomniac Arts\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Pretty case, but brittle and not durable\n\nReview: I am planning on upgrading to an iPhone5 in June, so I didn't want to spend beaucoup bucks on a new case for my iPhone4S. Just something pretty to get me through. I usually purchase really expensive rubber cases for my iPhones and the last one I had lasted two years before finally wearing through at one corner.\n\nThis case is very attractive. The DaVinci horse design is unusual. Nice for a horse lover, but the case doesn't shout \"HORSE LOVER!\" like some of the ones with bright photographs on them. I like that since I am a horse lover, but also a professional woman and have to come across as conservative and serious at work. The case slips on easily, and you don't have to remove it to put the phone on your player.\n\nThe problem is that I purchased this case less than two months ago, dropped it once on an outside carpeted cement floor and the ensuing small chip has gradually widened until the case is flapping off the phone. So \"sturdy\" is not exactly this case's middle name. I am now going to have to purchase another case, and I really was hoping not to do that.\n\nSo, if you have a bunch of cases, and change them out to match your mood, this one is pretty. But if you are purchasing one case and want that case to last a reasonable amount of time, this is probably not your case.","Product: [Note: This product is an authorized CD-R and is manufactured on demand]\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: No one does the classics like Willie\n\nReview: Willie Nelson is a national treasure, but his rebel image definitely has a softer side, and he is appealing to an amazingly wide fan base. This album of standards is my seventy-nine-year old father's favorite CD. When he lost it in a move recently, he appealed to me to find him another copy and I was happy to turn to Amazon.\n\nMy parents have seen Willie Nelson in concert five times -- mostly when he appeared at Wolf Trap Farm Park outside Washington, D.C. But they invited us to accompany them the last time, and he gives quite a show. Even my teenaged daughters loved him.\n\nI recommend this easy-to-take CD for anyone who loves the \"old ones\" and loves the sexy growl in Willie's magic throat.","Product: Lenka - Lenka - Cd\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Listening to this CD Just Makes Me Happy\n\nReview: Having a rotten day? Slip in this upbeat CD from Australian singer Lenka and get a little zing of pop music. This talented singer-songwriter has created a wonderful collection of hummable tunes -- there's really not a bad track on this album. I'm a middle-aged mom who usually sticks to show tunes, but this whimsical, thoughtful, cheerful album appeals to all my sing-along sensibilities. My teenage daughters love her, too.\n\nI first heard of Lenka while watching last week's \"Grey's Anatomy.\" Her addictive song \"Trouble is a Friend\" was played during the closing minutes of the show. I wrote down the name of the CD and ordered it immediately. I have been listening to it ever since. I just love the beat, I love the lyrics, I love the tunes. This is my kind of music. Can't wait to hear her next effort.","Product: CroninCards \"Sight of the Stars\" New Year greeting card is designed to delight the recipient and reflect well on the sender. These cards have universal appeal and can be sent with confidence to any recipient.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Lovely Photo of Seven Sisters Constellation on New Year's Greeting Cards\n\nReview: Going into a tough, emotional holiday season, which was the first one my family celebrated after losing my mother, I just could not get into the groove of sending out Christmas greetings. It somehow seemed not in harmony with the subdued feeling of the holiday for all of us this year. Yet I received some gorgeous, heartfelt Christmas cards from friends and family. So I wanted to acknowledge them.\n\nThese lovely New Year's cards were the perfect solution for me. They contain an uplifting, inspirational message and an awesome photo of my favorite constellation -- the Pleiades (the Seven Sisters). I sent them to all the usual recipients of my Christmas cards, thanking them for their holiday thoughts, and telling them they were in my heart.\n\nThe cards are printed on heavy card stock and come with lovely heavyweight envelopes. They are well-priced, and very high-quality.","Product: The Silver Docking Station features three cable ports, four partitions for note pads, pens, markers and pencils, and a locking storage drawer. With a port in the back of the storage drawer, users can safely secure tablets, phones, or reading devices--even when charging. Constructed of heavy-gauge steel and coated with a scratch and chip-resistant finish, the Docking Station optimizes desk space and keeps small electronic devices organized and secure. A go green product from STEELMASTER, the Docking Station is made in the USA with more than 50% recycled content.\n\nRating: 1.0\n\nSummary: It's a clunky, ugly steel box\n\nReview: Why in the world do they call this thing a \"docking station\"? A docking station should have some method ingrained in its design to neatly and safely charge small electronic devices. Since most modern people have at least two or three such devices which need charging every night, and most of us also have spouses or children who also have two or three, a docking station should have at least five or six spaces to charge, and plugs and switches to accommodate the cords. This box not only does not accommodate enough devices, but its only feature which in any way makes it a receptacle for charging is that it has holes drilled in it where you can thread the cords. There are no outlets or switches on the box.\n\nThe box is heavy and cumbersome. It also has very sharp edges. The thing looks like it should be in someone's garage or shop to hold -- I don't know, maybe small tools or something. You do not want this ugly thing in your kitchen or office. I really don't get the locked drawer at the bottom, either. If you care enough to lock up something valuable, then why lock it in a portable box which a potential thief could just pick up and walk off with it?\n\nThis thing is stupid. A waste of materials.","Product: LASTS ALL YEAR. GUARANTEED!* This 14\" shelf with a 1\" deep plastic drawer is extra tall and sturdy. Its made just for your locker with a perfect fit for books, binders or anything else that needs shelf and drawer space. Heavy duty metal is why this shelf withstands daily wear and tear. Shelf holds up to 100 lbs., so students can LOAD IT UP! Its stackable, too. Securely place a shelf on top of another one to organize all of your school essentials. Limit stacking to 2 shelves. Designed for standard 12\"-wide school lockers. Overall size of 15 7/8\" x 11 1/2\" x 10 1/8\". *ACCO Brands will replace any Five Star binder that is returned within one year from the date of purchase. This guarantee does not cover damage due to misuse or abuse. Contact ACCO Brands Consumer Affairs for instructions. Based on independent laboratory test results that establish maximum weight capacity, the shelf will hold up to 100 lbs. of evenly distributed weight. Limit stacking to two shelves. This shelf is intended to be used in a standard 12\"-wide school locker.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Adds extra room to a half-locker, but there's a trick to inserting it\n\nReview: I bought this shelf for my half-locker at the gym. It works great. Very handy to have the extra space for my gear, plus I love the drawer for small makeup items, change, and a pen and notebook for recording my daily progress.\n\nI found that the locker door is not as wide as the inside of the locker, so there is a bit of trick getting the shelf set up inside the locker. I made the mistake of trying to insert it after already pulling the legs down. It would only fit sideways. But if you keep both legs up, slip the shelf into the locker, turn it to face front and then put the legs down -- it fits just fine. Be sure that the logo is to the front of the locker.\n\nNice shelf for a nice price.\n\nRecommended.","Product: Give space to your passion for writing with this Writing Gift Box set. This set features one pocket black ruled notebook and one matte black ABS roller pen with cap designed to stay attached to your Moleskine notebook.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Wonderful portable writing set for yourself or as a gift\n\nReview: I love this writing set. I have purchased several for gifts. It contains a Moleskine ruled notebook (192 pages, 3-1/2 by 5-1/2 inches) and a black ink pen. The box is totally cool. It's lightweight, but sturdy. It looks like it's just black, but the front is covered with embossed words related to writing and traveling like \"Write,\" Stories,\" \"Imagination,\" \"Lyrics,\" and \"dream.\" Inside the box is an expandable pocket. Both the box and the included notebook have elastic fasteners so that they will stay closed.\n\nThe gift box with its little notebook and pen makes a really nice presentation. But afterwards, the user can take out the black foam insert which holds the two included items in place, and then there is room in the box for more notebooks, pens, Post-Its, little souvenirs like stones or feathers or leaves, photographs -- and all in a very portable little box you can take anywhere.\n\nI have one of these sets I use myself and I have given them as gifts to friends who write or travel. Very much worth the price.","Product: Flex Hybrid NoteBinder is the next generation in portable organization. This is the one that acts like a notebook and works like a binder, offering both increased capacity and carrying convenience! Outfitted with the patented Tech Lock spine, its rings open and close easily for quick customizationstudents and professionals can make their own choices for personally fitted, fundamental features. Add what you need and remove what you don't!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: The lightweight binder that college students will love\n\nReview: If you are like me and went through college when the lightest notebooks you could buy had cardboard covers and metal rings, you will be envious that today's high-tech students have it so much better. This lightweight binder is perfect for stuffing in a backpack and schlepping around campus. The cover is not one you can easily doodle on, but it is strong and tear-resistant. The rings are not going to tear your fingers when you snap them closed because they are made of plastic. The notebook comes with plastic inserts to hold projects and notecards. Best of all, it's a tad over-sized, so it protects your assignments, even in rain, snow, sleet and falling into puddles. It's a better mousetrap, people. Buy several.","Product: Milo's Kitchen Chicken Grillers Home-Style Dog Treats. 100% real. Wholesome & delicious. Chicken recipe with natural smoke flavor. No artificial flavors or colors. Break into small pieces for your small dog.\n\nRating: 1.0\n\nSummary: Check the price per ounce and get the best deal on these excellent treats.\n\nReview: There is nothing wrong with Milo's Dog Treats. They are good and my dogs love them. But I am leaving this one-star review so that Amazon customers will be aware that some third-party sellers are ripping them off.\n\nBe sure you check the price per ounce you are receiving. For instance, third-party seller Smile 'n Save sells this 2.7 oz. bag of dog treats for almost exactly the same amount of money that you pay for the 18 oz. bag of MIlo dog treats elsewhere on Amazon. Plus, they charge half-again the price of the treats for shipping. It's a total rip-off. I also think it's deliberatly misleading. Customers see two bags of dog treats -- the photos make the treats look like they are about the same size -- and the price is almost exactly the same. But the flavor is different. So they order both bags. Only one bag is huge and the other is the size of a sandwich bag.\n\nTotally not cool. Check the price per ounce.","Product: The hauntingly prophetic classic novel set in a not-too-distant future where books are burned by a special task force of firemen. Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to burn books, which are forbidden, being the source of all discord and unhappiness. Even so, Montag is unhappy; there is discord in his marriage. Are books hidden in his house? The Mechanical Hound of the Fire Department, armed with a lethal hypodermic, escorted by helicopters, is ready to track down those dissidents who defy society to preserve and read books. The classic novel of a post-literate future, 'Fahrenheit 451' stands alongside Orwell's '1984' and Huxley's 'Brave New World' as a prophetic account of Western civilization's enslavement by the media, drugs and conformity. Bradbury's powerful and poetic prose combines with uncanny insight into the potential of technology to create a novel which over fifty years from first publication, still has the power to dazzle and shock.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Please do yourself a favor and re-read this classic if it has been ten years or more\n\nReview: [This review is for the paperback \"50th Anniversary Edition\" of the novel, which contains special additional essays and an interview which enrich the experience of reading the novel.]\n\nI'm not going to recount the plot details since this book should be a part of every book lover's lexicon. (If you have been off of the planet for the past half-century or so, this is a parable, set in the not-too-distant future, about book-burning. But the novel is really about what makes a person an individual. It postulates what people might be willing to give up in order to have \"peace of mind,\" and poses material enough for hours of stimulating debate about the real value of independent thought and its importance to society.)\n\nThis review is simply a friendly nudge for those of you out there who have already read this book once, perhaps when you were quite young, and have not re-visited it. I urge you to do so as soon as possible.\n\nI just re-read this incredible novel for the first time in thirty years. I picked it up because my teenage daughter is reading it as an assignment for an English class. I read it in high school, too, and I recall that I enjoyed it. But for some reason I had never re-read it. Bad move on my part. I got so much more out of the book now that I am older and have been in the world for awhile. The novel has aged beautifully. Actually, its insights, in light of our computer age and the changes which are being wrought in publishing and in the education of our children, are astoundingly relevant. This is a novel so current in its political and social re-imaginings that it could have been published last year.\n\nI love Bradbury's books. He is a master story teller. His <a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/The-Illustrated-Man/dp/0380973847/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\">The Illustrated Man</a> sits on my nightstand bookshelf right beside a copy of Ring Lardner's short stories, <a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/Ring-Around-the-Bases-The-Complete-Baseball-Stories-of-Ring-Lardner/dp/1570035318/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\">Ring Around the Bases: The Complete Baseball Stories of Ring Lardner</a> and a copy of F. Scott Fitzgerald's short storys, <a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/The-Short-Stories-of-F-Scott-Fitzgerald/dp/0684842505/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\">The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald</a>-- just in case I need to re-read a wonderful short story or two before sleep comes.\n\nBut as I said, I had not re-read this particular book in a long time. Not only did this futuristic masterpiece affect me completely differently when I read it again after such a long lapse of time, but I found so many nuances in the book which are just not present in the movie <a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/Fahrenheit-451/dp/B000087F6L/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\">Fahrenheit 451</a> (wonderful as the movie is.) I had forgotten how mesmerizing Bradbury's prose is. I had also forgotten that this novel won the National Book Award. It's a treasure, and a novel to be savored periodically throughout one's life.\n\nI especially like this edition which mentions on the cover that it was released as the \"50th Anniversary Edition.\" Not only does it contain Bradbury's 1979 Coda and 1983 Afterword, but there is an illuminating interview with the author where he discusses his own views about how the book has held up to the passing of the years, his approach to writing in general, how he views the \"future\" we are now living which he imagined in the early 1950s, and even what he considers the weaknesses of the movie version of his book.\n\nThis is great American literature. Please re-read early and often.","Product: Beyond her dark, hypnotic beauty and her unbroken success as a child star, ingenue, and mature actor, Natalie Wood possessed an enduring star quality that continues to entrance both women and men. Here is Natalie's story, from emotionally abused and exploited child star to troubled teen, through her years as a top international movie star and sex symbol and her romances with Elvis Presley, James Dean, Steve McQueen, Warren Beatty, and Robert Wagner, and concluding with the shocking revelations about her long unsolved drowning.\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: Wood Biography Reads like Tabloid Gossip rather than Serious Research\n\nReview: I found this biography occasionally interesting, but written in such a way that much of it comes across as the author's gossipy opinion rather than a product of her informed research. Natalie Wood is one of my favorite movie stars. She was beautiful, talented and died in a tragic drowning when she was only forty-three years old. This biography is certainly detailed, and contains many fascinating facts about the actress, her career, and her private life. But the book reads much like a very long profile from the National Enquirer, rather than a journalistic effort from a serious biographer.\n\nThe author inserts so much uninformed psychoanalysis of Natalie Wood's personality into the biography that her unsubstantiated opinions get in the way of any truth she may be imparting.\n\n For instance, the author's pet theory about Natalie Wood's persona is that she was in reality two people -- the movie star \"Natalie\" and the repressed Mama's girl, \"Natasha\" who did everything either to please or to get back at her overbearing stage mother. Some of this may be true. It would have certainly made an interesting chapter in the book. But the author relates most everything in the book back to this thesis. I found it tiresome after awhile.\n\nAnother thing which bothered me about the book is the author's conviction that Natalie Wood's death was not an accident -- she seems invested in creating a Marilyn Monroe-type conspiracy around the drowning. The death is foreshadowed throughout the book in Natalie's fear of \"dark water,\" and the facts surrounding the death are steeped in purple prose about what \"really happened\" that night. I think that the author has undermined her own credibility here. She makes it clear that Robert Wagner would not be interviewed for the book, and so she creates some kind of foul play insinuations. Was she mad that Wagner would not be associated with her book? Or does she have hard evidence that something was not right about the actress' death? The reader doesn't really know.\n\nUltimately the author has made her opinions and gossip the star of this biography, rather than letting Natalie Wood shine through. This is definitely not the definitive biography of this wonderful actress, but may be your cup of tea if you want to wade through titillation rather than hard evidence.","Product: THIS IS BRAND NEW BOOK.WE PROVIDE 100% CUSTOMER SATISFACTION.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Book Club members -- TAKE NOTE! Good choice for your club\n\nReview: If nothing else, this lushly evocative portrayal of a young woman in 1920s New York who may or may not be a murderer and a psychotic will generate a ton of discussion at a book club. So if you are choosing books for your group, give this one a look-see.\n\nRose Baker is a prim stenographer at a dank police precinct in the Lower East Side. The year is 1923, and Prohibition is meeting Flaming Youth in wild debauch in the speakeasies of America, but Rose is a firm outsider. She is only twenty-five, but seems older with her prissy demeanor and Victorian sense of propriety and manners. Rose prides herself on being the fastest and most accurate typist at the police precinct, but outside work, she hasn't much of a life. She lives in genteel poverty at a rooming house in Brooklyn. She is unmarried, unattached, an orphan who was raised in a Catholic foundling home run by strict nuns, and her only hobby seems to be observing the people around her. But Rose's world is turned on its ear when Odalie Lazare breezes into the police precinct and lands a job as a typist also. Odalie is personable, beautiful, charming and altogether Rose's opposite. Rose is drawn to her, and soon seems obsessed with the mercurial Odalie. But Odalie seems to be hiding secrets, and the more Rose is pulled into Odalie's life, the more Rose's life goes awry.\n\nThis novel is Suzanne Rindell's debut effort as a novelist, and a very good debut it is, too. While slow in parts, the novel contains wonderful passages of description of the era in which the novel is set, and of the characters in Rose's life. As mentioned by other reviewers, the novel does contain quite a few anachronisms which are quite jarring. It is unclear what the author intended by these phrases and modern usages of language, and that is something which your book club could probably spend an entire meeting discussing. Are the anachronisms merely poor editing or are they intentional for some reason? Also as mentioned by other reviewers, Rose is an \"unreliable narrator,\" which adds to the flavor of the book in hindsight as readers will enjoy some spirited debate as to what is really going on in this story.\n\nAltogether, I enjoyed this book, and think that others will also. I especially think that it is a book which lends itself to some great dialogues at the library or book store or wherever your book club meets.\n\nRecommended.","Product: Cora Seton loves cowboys, country life, gardening, bike-riding, and lazing around with a good book. Mother of four, wife to a computer programmer/eco-farmer, she ditched her California lifestyle eight years ago and moved to a remote logging town in northwestern British Columbia. Like the characters in her novels, Cora enjoys old-fashioned pursuits and modern technology, spending mornings transforming a neglected one-acre lot into a paradise of orchards, berry bushes and market gardens, and afternoons writing the latest Chance Creek romance novel on her iPad mini. Visit www.coraseton.com to read about new releases, and learn about contests and other cool events!\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Excellent premise marred by weak ending\n\nReview: Author Cora Seton comes up with a winning storyline for her romance novel about two likable people damaged by long-ago life events. Evan, the title's billionaire, and Bella, the spunky small animal vet estranged from her family, are interesting three-dimensional characters.\n\nThe plot centers around the intrepid couple appearing on a Survivor-like reality television show where the stakes could not be higher. If Bella wins, she receives $5 million to save her no-kill animal shelter and struggling veterinarian practice. If Evan wins, Bella must marry him for at least one year, thus saving his thriving tech company from falling into the clutches of his brother who is not as interested in helping humanity as he is the bottom line.\n\nThe rapid-fire interaction between the two main characters is excellent. Also well-done are the secondary characters such as the snarky television show director. I was drawn in completely during the first two-thirds of the book as Evan and Bella discover uncomfortable truths about themselves and each other while competing in difficult physical challenges in gorgeous Jasper National Park in Canada.\n\nBut the author let her readers down in the final third of the book. The ending feels rushed and unsatisfying. The villain of the book, the awful TV director, doesn't get any comeuppance -- no ending at all. It also seems quite obvious that the author is throwing in additional characters for future books who are clumsily introduced without any real connection to this book's story.\n\nI hope that this talented writer doesn't make the same mistake In subsequent novels. She is imaginative and writes an excellent backstory for her characters. Her dialog is natural and witty. She just needs to make sure that her plots fulfill the early promise she makes to her readers. Unfortunately, this one did not."],"string":"[\n \"Product: Die 7Real kids vacation westie william kids dog\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Sturdy, attractive, easily assembled shelf\\n\\nReview: Sturdy, easily-assembled shelf for counter or floor. I especially like that the shelves may be attached at different heights -- that's what it means by \\\"adjustable\\\". For instance, I did not want the top shelf to be at the very top of the side supports. There are holes pre-drilled so that I was able to recess the top shelf a few inches so that there were sides on the top to hold my toiletries and towels.\\n\\nThe shelf is attractive. Narrow enough not to take up all your counter space or to fit in a tight place on the floor, but roomy enough to be handy. A friend saw it in my bathroom and immediately ordered one for herself. It would go with just about any decor. Just a very nice shelf.\\n\\nComes with all the hardware for assembly, including an Allen wrench. So no tools necessary. I put it together myself in about fifteen minutes.\\n\\nRecommended.\",\n \"Product: Bold, yet timeless, red can instantly pull a look together. Much like slipping on a pair of sexy stilettos, wearing red can unleash a sense of confidence and power. So if you think you can't wear red, think again. Jouer In the Red Collection offers universally flattering shades. This gorgeous palette will take you seamlessly from day to night.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Really nice set for travel or purse\\n\\nReview: This little kit contains everything you need for a quick overnight or to keep in your purse for touch-ups. It contains translucent face powder; a nice neutral shade of bronze conturing powder; brown powder eyeshadow; peach powder eyeshadow; shimmery peach cream highlighter (could also be used for blush or on lips); shimmery light tan cream highlighter; pink lip gel.\\n\\nThe colors are all neutral and light. Nice for slicking on after the beach or while on a outdoor outing where you would want a very natural look. The colors will probably show up best on lighter complexions, although my middle daughter who is dark-skinned put on the highlighters and they looked excellent on her cheeks and under her brows.\\n\\nThe kit snaps apart and then snaps back together, but it is a little tricky to fit it back together once you have it apart. You have to line up hooks and holes and slides in the plastic. It finally works, but it takes a bit of practice. The kit does not come with any applicators except for the lip gel tub. I like brushes to put on my makeup, so I would carry a powder, blush and eyeshadow brush to use with the kit. However my daughters (college-age) did not find this to be a drawback and seem fine with applying these products with their fingertips or a tissue.\\n\\nI liked it, and you get a good bit of makeup in the kit.\",\n \"Product: A remarkable blend of light and nourishing oils, Pure Spa Multi-Vitamin Dry Oil absorbs rapidly to impart moisture to skin without leaving an oily residue. Loaded with vitamins, anti-oxidants, such as omega-3, omega-6, and Dunaliella algae extract, this treatment helps combat the signs of aging while restoring skin to a soft, silky, and supple condition. The essential oils of Mandarin and Cedarwood enliven the senses.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Lovely dry oil spray with a light woodsy fragrance\\n\\nReview: I can no longer reach all the way down my back to put on body oil or lotion after a shower. I have used Neutrogena dry body oil for years, and I really like the ease with which it is absorbed and the fact that it is fragrance-free, but it's messy because it pours from the bottle.\\n\\nThis spray goes on just as nicely as the Neutrogena, and although it has a lovely soft fragrance, I find that if I shower at night and spray this on, the fragrance has faded by morning and it does not clash with my daytime perfume.\\n\\nI can spray it lightly on my back, and I do not have to rub it in.\\n\\nRecommended.\",\n \"Product: An Amazon Brand.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: What a great sheet at a great price!\\n\\nReview: There are over 1600 reviews of this flannel sheet set (I ordered the 190 gram velvet flannel), and the average star rating is almost five. That makes perfect sense to me. I usually would not add my opinion in a review of a product which is already so well-represented by Amazon customer opinion, but I just had to make an exception here. This is one excellent sheet set.\\n\\nI ordered the gray and the ecru colors in queen size. Both are lovely heavyweight flannel (but not too heavy or stiff). The sheets have deep pockets which fit well on modern mattresses, including those with a pillow top. They wash like a dream in hot water, drying on high, with little or no shrinking, and no pilling. They are warm, cozy, easy-care and feel like a sheet costing a lot more money. Such excellent value for the price!\\n\\nHave a gift-giving occasion coming up like a wedding shower or housewarming? These would be perfect.\\n\\nHighly recommended.\",\n \"Product: Audrey Hepburn - Breakfast at Tiffany's One Sheet, Movie Poster Print, 24 by 36\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Nice reproduction of an iconic poster\\n\\nReview: If I had the ten thousand dollars-plus it would cost to purchase an original of this gorgeous poster, it would already be hanging on my wall. But in the meanwhile, this is a good substitute. The colors are bright, the image is crisp, and the poster is printed on good quality heavy duty paper. The price is extremely reasonable. Of course it is not of the regulation size of an original, but it is a standard size for a poster, and so it is easy to find an inexpensive frame for it at any framing store or Walmart.\\n\\nAll in all, a good reproduction for the money, and a nice room brightener for a theater room, teen or dorm room.\",\n \"Product: Audrey Hepburn - Breakfast at Tiffany's One Sheet, Movie Poster Print, 24 by 36\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Nice reproduction of an iconic poster\\n\\nReview: If I had the ten thousand dollars-plus it would cost to purchase an original of this gorgeous poster, it would already be hanging on my wall. But in the meanwhile, this is a good substitute. The colors are bright, the image is crisp, and the poster is printed on good quality heavy duty paper. The price is extremely reasonable. Of course it is not of the regulation size of an original, but it is a standard size for a poster, and so it is easy to find an inexpensive frame for it at any framing store or Walmart.\\n\\nAll in all, a good reproduction for the money, and a nice room brightener for a theater room, teen or dorm room.\",\n \"Product: QuikServe Oven produces convection-like air circulation for rapid browning of snacks, appetizers or pizza bites as well as rapid baking for cookies, quiches and pastries\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Terrific little toaster/convection oven, especially for teen parties and those cooking for one or two\\n\\nReview: This handy, hard-working toaster/convection oven, which needs no pre-heating, is terrific for heating frozen hors d'oeuvres, pizzas and hotdogs. It's easy to clean, simple to operate, and small enough to sit out permanently on your countertop. I like it for entertaining as an auxillary to my big oven. But I can see that many people would make this their number one food heater.\\n\\nMy teenage daughters love to use this little oven when they have friends over. The fact that they don't have to wait for it to preheat (the regular stove takes up to ten minutes to preheat) makes it perfect for fixing a quick bite between movies. They like it for baking cookies in small batches, too. That way the cookies can be served hot each time.\\n\\nI gave one of these ovens to my oldest daughter when she moved into her own apartment. Her busy college schedule has her using this little oven more than any other appliance in the kitchen. I like it that she will make herself hot food at home, even if it is frozen, rather than buy take-out. So much more economical. Anybody cooking for only one or two people would probably find this oven a good buy. Heat up a small pizza, cut up an apple, pour a glass of milk, and you have a quick, cheap and pretty good meal.\\n\\nOverall, a handy little appliance which has a permanent spot on my countertop. I recommend it.\",\n \"Product: FLUF lunch bags pack all of the things you want in your kid's lunch, and none of the things you don't. Made with 100% certified organic cotton and a tested food safe lining, they are free of BPA, phthalates and lead. Printed with water-based pigments, the fun and whimsical illustrations are coveted as much by grown ups as by kids. Fully machine washable (with a wipeable, water-resistant lining), these bags are easy to keep clean, functional, durable and - above all - safe and healthy.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Terrific lunch bag for a working adult\\n\\nReview: I am reviewing this lunch bag on the basis of my personal use. I go to work every day to an office, and I usually take my lunch because it's quicker, cheaper and healthier. What I love about this lunch bag:\\n\\n1. I love that it is open at the top. The lunch bag has a little snap to close it at the top, but I never use it. It is like a mini-shopping bag in that I can stuff it full to the brim with fruit, water, sandwich, utensils, soup, a Tupperware container, a can of nuts for the week -- whatever I want to carry. I have even smoushed my morning newspaper and a file folder into this little bag. The fact that it does NOT have a fold-over top like most lunch bags is a plus for me.\\n\\n2. I love that it is made of soft canvas (which washes magnificently) and that it is lined with soft plastic inside so that spills do not leak through.\\n\\n3. I love the sturdy construction of the lunch bag and the fact that it is easy to carry.\\n\\n4. I think the design on the bag is feminine and happy.\\n\\nFor me, there are no drawbacks to this lunch bag. However, if you are buying this bag for a child, or even for your teenager, I think that you should be sure that he/she will not spill lunch on the way to school/camp/whatever. The open design of this bag is not particularly child-friendly if it up-ends and the contents go flying. I like the design, and I think that an adult will appreciate its accessibility.\",\n \"Product: Hamilton Beach Iced Tea Makers can quench your thirst in minutes. Try one in your kitchen or bring one to the office so you can enjoy a refreshing glass of iced tea whenever-and wherever-you want. Whether you're making iced tea for one person or more, you're sure to find the Hamilton Beach Iced Tea Maker model that's just right for you. This model is compatible with tea bags or loose tea and brew right into a glass.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Tea is Okay, but it spatters during brewing\\n\\nReview: This iced tea brewer is easy to use. It makes one glass at a time. You put bagged or loose tea into the filter and pour cold water into the compartment in the back. It only holds about 8 ounces of water. There is no steeping. As soon as the unit heats the water (which takes a minute or so), the tea stars coming out into the glass you have set below the spigot. The directions tell you to put a hot/cold unbreakable glass filled with ice to catch the tea. But I just catch it in a plastic cup and add the ice later.\\n\\nPros: The water heats really fast. The tea is tasty. The unit is easy to clean and is small and easy to store. It turns off automatically when the water compartment is empty. You can reuse the tea once the water has run through it once.\\n\\nCons: The darned thing spits tea droplets everywhere as the tea is dripping out into your glass. This is really annoying. I have this unit at work, and we have a white Formica countertop. I have to wipe up those tea spittles immediately or they stain the countertop.\\n\\nIt doesn't come with a hot/cold unbreakable plastic cup to catch the tea, and one of those costs about ten bucks. If you use a styrofoam cup, you have to brace it with something on either side (like the salt and pepper shakers) because the driving, splattering tea coming out of the spigot walks the cup right out from under the dripper.\\n\\nThis purchase was an experiment for me. I was spending a dollar a day at McDonald's for a large unsweetened ice tea to last me the day. Since I ordered this from the \\\"damaged\\\" list (something was supposed to be wrong with the packaging, but it was just fine), I only paid a little over $15 for it. It has already paid for itself. But I think I will try one of the units which makes a whole pitcher next time, and I hope it doesn't splatter all over the place during the brewing process. It is a little tedious making just one glass at a time.\",\n \"Product: Enjoy a fresh cup of coffee with this BPA-Free borosilicate glass French press. Individual size accommodates up to 1 standard coffee cup.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Very nice for the price\\n\\nReview: I did not realize before I ordered this French press coffee pot that it would work better with coarse ground coffee. I did try it with the regular coffee I already had, and got grounds. So I ordered a small bag of Tim Horton's coarse ground, and it worked beautifully. The directions (which are on the outside of the box -- so don't throw the box away until you figure out the coffee maker) say to use a bit less coffee than I like. But I like my coffee on the very dark, robust side, so the second time I used extra.\\n\\nThe pot is easily cleaned and holds up well to daily usage. I have it at my office. It makes an excellent cup of coffee. I think it's especially nice for the price.\",\n \"Product: Adjustable sandal with an anatomical foot bed for the ultimate in support\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: At last! A comfortable AND stylish sandal\\n\\nReview: I love this shoe. I have had sandals in this general style before, and they were pretty comfortable but not dressy enough for work. Then I have had gorgeous dressy sandals that pinched and rubbed and made me generally sorry I had worn them. So I have been looking for a sandal that has style and comfort. Look no further. This sandal was recommended on a Walking newsletter I receive, and so I thought it would be comfortable. But I was so pleasantly surprised by just how dressy it is, with the finished leather upper encrusted with little jewels, beads and stitching.\\n\\nThe sandal fits true to size, and needs no breaking in. I wore them to work on bare feet right out of the box (to show off my new pedicure), and when I got home eight hours later, I kept them on to walk the dogs. This is a great sandal. I want them in black, now, too.\\n\\nHighly recommended.\",\n \"Product: This Coat Pocket Wallet is part of the Bosca Old Leather Collection. Complement your confident character with the classically designed Coat Pocket Wallet from Bosca. Leather's color is applied by hand-sponging vegetable dyes onto the leather according to a centuries-old Tuscan technique and then ironed to produce a deep and varied color that allows the hide's natural features to show through. Interior features a large divided currency well, two currency/receipt slots, and five card slots. Measurements: Bottom Width: 3 34 in Middle Width: 3 34 in Top Width: 3 34 in Depth: 12 in Height: 6 12 in Weight: 3 oz\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Quality, elegance, style -- This Wallet Deserves Six Stars\\n\\nReview: My husband will only carry these narrow \\\"breast pocket\\\"-style wallets. For many years, my mother purchased them for him at a small leather goods store in Florence whenever she was in Italy. He would carry them until they fell apart, literally, and although he is hard on his wallets, they would each last him for several years. Once my mother stopped her travels to Europe, I looked everywhere for something similar. I have finally found their equal in this country.\\n\\nThis wallet is gorgeous. The leather is supple, but not soft. It will stand up to use. The stitching is perfect. Inside it has five slanted slots for credit cards and four separate places for money, notes, photos. There is no plastic insert. It doesn't need one. This is not a tri-fold wallet, nor is it wide like a hip-pocket wallet. It is just a little larger overall than the dimensions of a check holder. It's made to be carried in the inner breast pocket of a jacket.\\n\\nThe wallet comes in a lovely box, imprinted \\\"BOSCA Est. 1911\\\" on the lid. Nice for wrapping.\\n\\nThis wallet exudes quality. It feels, looks and smells expensive. I purchased the cognac-colored leather this time. It is a rich reddish brown. If you want the perfect gift for a discerning gentleman, this is it.\\n\\nHighly recommended.\",\n \"Product: A classic Disney animated fairy tale meets with the modern, live-action romantic comedy in Walt Disney Pictures ENCHANTED. Featuring an all-star cast, the film follows the beautiful princess Giselle (AMY ADAMS) as she is banished by an evil queen (SUSAN SARANDON) from her magical, musical animated land and finds herself in the gritty reality of the streets of modern-day Manhattan. Shocked by this strange new environment that doesn't operate on a happily ever after basis, Giselle is now adrift in a chaotic world badly in need of enchantment. But when Giselle begins to fall in love with a charmingly flawed divorce lawyer (PATRICK DEMPSEY) who has come to her aid -- even though she is already promised to a perfect fairy tale prince (JAMES MARSDEN) back home -- she has to wonder: can a storybook view of romance survive in the real world?\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: This film belongs in your permanent collection\\n\\nReview: I saw this movie at the theatre and liked it. I thought it was cute, and then sort of forgot about it. Months later, my kids rented the DVD, and I watched it again. Then I really liked it, and I ordered a copy for our DVD library. When I was watching it again today, I realized that I truly love this movie, and I needed to write a review of it. It's only after repeated viewings that I have finally recognized genius in this film. Disney has pulled out all the stops to make a hilarious live-action parody of its own invented genre of animated fairy-tale romance. I bet I have watched this movie ten times now, and I find something new every viewing.\\n\\nAmy Adams is an amazing actress. I loved her in <a data-hook=\\\"product-link-linked\\\" class=\\\"a-link-normal\\\" href=\\\"/Junebug/dp/B000BYRCQU/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\\\">Junebug</a> and <a data-hook=\\\"product-link-linked\\\" class=\\\"a-link-normal\\\" href=\\\"/The-Wedding-Date-Widescreen-Edition/dp/B0009OL7Z4/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\\\">The Wedding Date (Widescreen Edition)</a>. In Enchanted, she really makes you believe that she is the animated character of Giselle, come to life. Her dippy hand gestures and her wide-eyed straight delivery of truly goofy lines are superb. But what makes the performance even more amazing is the gradual transformation of Giselle from cartoonish to human before our very eyes. Adams never loses her Disney-princess innocence, but she becomes fully three-dimensional in her movements and her line readings as the film moves to a satisfying happily-ever-after for the stars. It's an inspired performance.\\n\\nThe other actors are equally good. Patrick Dempsey is now a confirmed hunky leading man -- I still recall him so clearly as a geek in his early teenage movies. James Marsden is also sigh-worthy. And Susan Sarandon as the Evil Stepmother -- what can I say? The woman is ageless, gorgeous, and can play anything.\\n\\nAnd the songs? Marvelous. When I took my kids to New York this past May, we spent half a day in Central Park, our Ipods plugged in, swooping around and singing out advice on \\\"How does she know you love her? How does she know you care?\\\" while we checked out all the places where they filmed the scenes from that number. (Yes, if you were in the park that Tuesday, that was us -- and no, we hadn't been drinking.)\\n\\nAnyway, if you do not own a copy of this movie, and if you have a romantic funny bone, buy it (in the widescreen version, of course) for your permanent collection.\",\n \"Product: A \\\"charismatic\\\" (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) John Corbett (\\\"Sex and the City\\\") stars as a talented but immature actor who is forced to grow up when he finds he has a new rival in romance. Amy Smart (Varsity Blues), Sean Astin (the Lord of the Rings trilogy) and Patty Duke(The Miracle Worker) co-star in this feel-good story of self-discovery. Mike (Corbett) only wants to perform in great productions. So when a clueless amateur (Marcus Thomas) is given the lead in Cyrano de Bergerac, Mike decides he must personally train him. But when real lifebegins to mimic the play's love triangle and his protg falls for the girl Mike loves but can't commit to (Smart), suddenly it's Mike's turn to learnnot how to act, but how to live!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Lovely little movie, especially if you are into community theatre\\n\\nReview: A lonely guy whose girlfriend has just dumped him decides to audition for a chorus role in a local community theatre production of \\\"Cyrano de Bergerac\\\" and is unexpectedly cast in the lead in this charming film about actors who love the craft but will never make it in the big time.\\n\\nJohn Corbett and John Astin (pre-Lord of the Rings) have excellent supporting roles, respectively, as a good actor who just cannot make it outside of the small city, and a pompous entitled amateur who will be a familiar type to anyone who has ever done community theatre. Patty Duke (John Astin's mom) also has a wonderful cameo-type part as the irascible assistant director/stage manager/costume mistress that every community theatre has and cannot do without.\\n\\nJust an enjoyable, fun movie for all of us who love community theatre. I loved it.\",\n \"Product: Part tragic, part comic, this outrageous look at life in the fast lane in the Academy Award-winning musical about Bob Fosse's excessive life in show business. Played by Roy Scheider, Fosse's alter-ego drives himself over the edge and soon finds he is caught between a recurring fantasy about his death and the reality of a near-death experience. Dazzlingly presented, this electrifying story about the perils of pushing yourself too hard is filled with Fosse's legendary song-and-dance choreography.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Belongs in Every Broadway Musical Lover's Film Collection\\n\\nReview: Bob Fosse's thinly-veiled autobiographical homage is everything a movie musical should be -- lively, tuneful, funny and even poignant.\\n\\nWith a cast which includes the wonderfully sexy Roy Scheider of <a data-hook=\\\"product-link-linked\\\" class=\\\"a-link-normal\\\" href=\\\"/Jaws-Widescreen-Anniversary-Collector-s-Edition/dp/B00004TDTO/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\\\">Jaws (Widescreen Anniversary Collector's Edition)</a> fame, Fosse acolytes Ann Reinking and Ben Vereen, and a fabulous pre-plastic surgery Jessica Lange as the gorgeous, ever-present Angel of Death, this musical story of a genius Broadway director with a death-wish, is nothing short of mesmerizing.\\n\\nThe story follows Fosse's own life story closely enough to be almost eerie -- even foreshadowing his ultimate demise from heart failure at an out-of-town new play try-out in Washington, D.C., which happened years after this movie was released. But even if it didn't, the movie stands on its own as a very gritty, sweaty and true-to-life look at what it takes to make it on Broadway.\\n\\nThis Special Music Edition of the DVD has some excellent special features. I especially liked the featurette on the evolution of Fosse's iconic choreography.\\n\\nIf you loved <a data-hook=\\\"product-link-linked\\\" class=\\\"a-link-normal\\\" href=\\\"/Cabaret/dp/6304698542/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\\\">Cabaret</a> (for which Fosse won the Best Director Oscar), and <a data-hook=\\\"product-link-linked\\\" class=\\\"a-link-normal\\\" href=\\\"/Chicago/dp/B00005JLSE/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\\\">Chicago</a>,( the play of which Fosse originally directed and choreographed on Broadwway), you will love this movie. And if you love it, you should have it in your permanent collections. Fosse was a true American treasure. His unique dance stylings will be influencing choreographers for generations to come.\",\n \"Product: Screen legend Joan Crawford (\\\"Mildred Pierce,\\\" \\\"Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?\\\") stars as a congresswoman who returns to her alma mater to accept an honorary degree, and finds herself romantically involved with both the college president and a magazine photographer. Co-starring Eve Arden (\\\"Our Miss Brooks,\\\" \\\"Mildred Pierce\\\") and Robert Young (\\\"Father Knows Best,\\\" TV's \\\"Marcus Welby\\\"). Based on a play by Fay Kanin (\\\"The Opposite Sex,\\\" \\\"Teacher's Pet\\\").\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: A lesser entry in the Crawford filmography, but fascinating\\n\\nReview: I had never seen this Joan Crawford movie, made in the 1950s when she was in her forties. If you are a fan, then this should be in your library. Crawford has not yet made the transition here to the scarily overdone eyebrows and lips. Her figure is gorgeous -- if only I had looked that good in my forties. And she does the most that can be done with a script which is a tad underwritten. Once again, Crawford is the consummate professional actress.\\n\\nThe story is a nice love triangle. Crawford is a congresswoman who is invited back to give the commencement speech at her alma mater, a woman's college that looks to be modeled after Smith or Bryn Mawr. Only it really isn't her alma mater because years earlier, when she was on the verge of graduating, she was caught sneaking back into her dormitory at five o'clock in the morning and expelled. She would not give a reason why she was out so late, but obviously it was a assignation with a man whom she refused to name.\\n\\nThe two men interested in our heroine are the college president, played by Robert Young, and a savvy political reporter, played by Frank Lovejoy. The movie can't really make up its mind what genre it belongs to. The trailer (included on the DVD) calls it a romantic comedy. But it's not a laugh-fest. It's really rather serious, and explores the choices people make in their lives and whether people really change. Young actress Janice Rule, in her first major movie role, has a nice part as Robert Young's daughter. (Her most famous role is as Merle, the bitchy socialite girlfriend of James Stewart in \\\"Bell, Book and Candle.) There are also a couple of well-done love scenes.\\n\\nThere are two interesting facets about this movie which might appeal to collectors of movie lore. The first concerns the relationship between Joan Crawford and Janice Rule during the making of the film. The story goes that Crawford was so mean to Rule during the shoot (jealousy?) that years later she wrote a letter of apology for her horrible behavior. It's kind of interesting to think about the whole \\\"Mommy Dearest\\\" thing while watching these two on the screen together. The other is that the third prong of the love triangle is played by Frank Lovejoy who is really best known as a radio performer. So fans of old-time radio have a chance to see Lovejoy in a rare love-interest/leading man part in a motion picture. (Usually when Lovejoy is in a film, he plays a heavy or a cop.)\\n\\nRecommended for movie buffs and Joan Crawford fans.\",\n \"Product: Extends iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 battery life almost a full charge\\n\\n\\nPre-charged and ready to use\\n\\n\\n\\n1700mAh lithium-polymer battery provides reusable and rechargeable power\\n\\n\\n\\nMicro USB Cable included for syncing device and recharging case\\n\\n\\n\\nLED Battery Life and Charging Indicator\\n\\n\\n\\nOn/off button allows user to control charging\\n\\n\\n\\nFlexible case fits securely around your phone and has an optimized opening for camera flash\\n\\n\\nRecharges in 2 hours at 5 watts\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Love the convenience, great for travel\\n\\nReview: What a great idea. This black case has a long-life lithium battery phone charger built-in so you will no longer have to worry if you are at work or at your weekend retreat and have suddenly realized you have left your charger at home.\\n\\nThe case is black and fits easily over my iPhone 4S. It does make the phone a little heavier than it was with just a regular case on it, but I really didn't mind that. You can control when the battery is on, so you don't drain the juice unnecessarily.\\n\\nThe only downside I can see is form over function. The case is very utilitarian-looking. I mean, it's black. Period. Since this is such a great idea, it would be nice if the case came in different colors and patterns. But for right now -- great idea and I love it.\\n\\nRecommended.\",\n \"Product: Design features a beautiful equine sketch by Leonardo DaVinci. Perfect for any art or horse lover! Case is designed to fit iPhone 4 and 4S models. Slim fit snap-on case allows easy access to all buttons, controls and ports. Maintains a slim profile, covering the back and corners of the phone. Our covers are made using a dye-sublimation print process which results in a bold, clear image that will not fade, peel or scratch off. Perfect, stylish way to protect your iPhone! Copyright Insomniac Arts\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Pretty case, but brittle and not durable\\n\\nReview: I am planning on upgrading to an iPhone5 in June, so I didn't want to spend beaucoup bucks on a new case for my iPhone4S. Just something pretty to get me through. I usually purchase really expensive rubber cases for my iPhones and the last one I had lasted two years before finally wearing through at one corner.\\n\\nThis case is very attractive. The DaVinci horse design is unusual. Nice for a horse lover, but the case doesn't shout \\\"HORSE LOVER!\\\" like some of the ones with bright photographs on them. I like that since I am a horse lover, but also a professional woman and have to come across as conservative and serious at work. The case slips on easily, and you don't have to remove it to put the phone on your player.\\n\\nThe problem is that I purchased this case less than two months ago, dropped it once on an outside carpeted cement floor and the ensuing small chip has gradually widened until the case is flapping off the phone. So \\\"sturdy\\\" is not exactly this case's middle name. I am now going to have to purchase another case, and I really was hoping not to do that.\\n\\nSo, if you have a bunch of cases, and change them out to match your mood, this one is pretty. But if you are purchasing one case and want that case to last a reasonable amount of time, this is probably not your case.\",\n \"Product: [Note: This product is an authorized CD-R and is manufactured on demand]\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: No one does the classics like Willie\\n\\nReview: Willie Nelson is a national treasure, but his rebel image definitely has a softer side, and he is appealing to an amazingly wide fan base. This album of standards is my seventy-nine-year old father's favorite CD. When he lost it in a move recently, he appealed to me to find him another copy and I was happy to turn to Amazon.\\n\\nMy parents have seen Willie Nelson in concert five times -- mostly when he appeared at Wolf Trap Farm Park outside Washington, D.C. But they invited us to accompany them the last time, and he gives quite a show. Even my teenaged daughters loved him.\\n\\nI recommend this easy-to-take CD for anyone who loves the \\\"old ones\\\" and loves the sexy growl in Willie's magic throat.\",\n \"Product: Lenka - Lenka - Cd\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Listening to this CD Just Makes Me Happy\\n\\nReview: Having a rotten day? Slip in this upbeat CD from Australian singer Lenka and get a little zing of pop music. This talented singer-songwriter has created a wonderful collection of hummable tunes -- there's really not a bad track on this album. I'm a middle-aged mom who usually sticks to show tunes, but this whimsical, thoughtful, cheerful album appeals to all my sing-along sensibilities. My teenage daughters love her, too.\\n\\nI first heard of Lenka while watching last week's \\\"Grey's Anatomy.\\\" Her addictive song \\\"Trouble is a Friend\\\" was played during the closing minutes of the show. I wrote down the name of the CD and ordered it immediately. I have been listening to it ever since. I just love the beat, I love the lyrics, I love the tunes. This is my kind of music. Can't wait to hear her next effort.\",\n \"Product: CroninCards \\\"Sight of the Stars\\\" New Year greeting card is designed to delight the recipient and reflect well on the sender. These cards have universal appeal and can be sent with confidence to any recipient.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Lovely Photo of Seven Sisters Constellation on New Year's Greeting Cards\\n\\nReview: Going into a tough, emotional holiday season, which was the first one my family celebrated after losing my mother, I just could not get into the groove of sending out Christmas greetings. It somehow seemed not in harmony with the subdued feeling of the holiday for all of us this year. Yet I received some gorgeous, heartfelt Christmas cards from friends and family. So I wanted to acknowledge them.\\n\\nThese lovely New Year's cards were the perfect solution for me. They contain an uplifting, inspirational message and an awesome photo of my favorite constellation -- the Pleiades (the Seven Sisters). I sent them to all the usual recipients of my Christmas cards, thanking them for their holiday thoughts, and telling them they were in my heart.\\n\\nThe cards are printed on heavy card stock and come with lovely heavyweight envelopes. They are well-priced, and very high-quality.\",\n \"Product: The Silver Docking Station features three cable ports, four partitions for note pads, pens, markers and pencils, and a locking storage drawer. With a port in the back of the storage drawer, users can safely secure tablets, phones, or reading devices--even when charging. Constructed of heavy-gauge steel and coated with a scratch and chip-resistant finish, the Docking Station optimizes desk space and keeps small electronic devices organized and secure. A go green product from STEELMASTER, the Docking Station is made in the USA with more than 50% recycled content.\\n\\nRating: 1.0\\n\\nSummary: It's a clunky, ugly steel box\\n\\nReview: Why in the world do they call this thing a \\\"docking station\\\"? A docking station should have some method ingrained in its design to neatly and safely charge small electronic devices. Since most modern people have at least two or three such devices which need charging every night, and most of us also have spouses or children who also have two or three, a docking station should have at least five or six spaces to charge, and plugs and switches to accommodate the cords. This box not only does not accommodate enough devices, but its only feature which in any way makes it a receptacle for charging is that it has holes drilled in it where you can thread the cords. There are no outlets or switches on the box.\\n\\nThe box is heavy and cumbersome. It also has very sharp edges. The thing looks like it should be in someone's garage or shop to hold -- I don't know, maybe small tools or something. You do not want this ugly thing in your kitchen or office. I really don't get the locked drawer at the bottom, either. If you care enough to lock up something valuable, then why lock it in a portable box which a potential thief could just pick up and walk off with it?\\n\\nThis thing is stupid. A waste of materials.\",\n \"Product: LASTS ALL YEAR. GUARANTEED!* This 14\\\" shelf with a 1\\\" deep plastic drawer is extra tall and sturdy. Its made just for your locker with a perfect fit for books, binders or anything else that needs shelf and drawer space. Heavy duty metal is why this shelf withstands daily wear and tear. Shelf holds up to 100 lbs., so students can LOAD IT UP! Its stackable, too. Securely place a shelf on top of another one to organize all of your school essentials. Limit stacking to 2 shelves. Designed for standard 12\\\"-wide school lockers. Overall size of 15 7/8\\\" x 11 1/2\\\" x 10 1/8\\\". *ACCO Brands will replace any Five Star binder that is returned within one year from the date of purchase. This guarantee does not cover damage due to misuse or abuse. Contact ACCO Brands Consumer Affairs for instructions. Based on independent laboratory test results that establish maximum weight capacity, the shelf will hold up to 100 lbs. of evenly distributed weight. Limit stacking to two shelves. This shelf is intended to be used in a standard 12\\\"-wide school locker.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Adds extra room to a half-locker, but there's a trick to inserting it\\n\\nReview: I bought this shelf for my half-locker at the gym. It works great. Very handy to have the extra space for my gear, plus I love the drawer for small makeup items, change, and a pen and notebook for recording my daily progress.\\n\\nI found that the locker door is not as wide as the inside of the locker, so there is a bit of trick getting the shelf set up inside the locker. I made the mistake of trying to insert it after already pulling the legs down. It would only fit sideways. But if you keep both legs up, slip the shelf into the locker, turn it to face front and then put the legs down -- it fits just fine. Be sure that the logo is to the front of the locker.\\n\\nNice shelf for a nice price.\\n\\nRecommended.\",\n \"Product: Give space to your passion for writing with this Writing Gift Box set. This set features one pocket black ruled notebook and one matte black ABS roller pen with cap designed to stay attached to your Moleskine notebook.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Wonderful portable writing set for yourself or as a gift\\n\\nReview: I love this writing set. I have purchased several for gifts. It contains a Moleskine ruled notebook (192 pages, 3-1/2 by 5-1/2 inches) and a black ink pen. The box is totally cool. It's lightweight, but sturdy. It looks like it's just black, but the front is covered with embossed words related to writing and traveling like \\\"Write,\\\" Stories,\\\" \\\"Imagination,\\\" \\\"Lyrics,\\\" and \\\"dream.\\\" Inside the box is an expandable pocket. Both the box and the included notebook have elastic fasteners so that they will stay closed.\\n\\nThe gift box with its little notebook and pen makes a really nice presentation. But afterwards, the user can take out the black foam insert which holds the two included items in place, and then there is room in the box for more notebooks, pens, Post-Its, little souvenirs like stones or feathers or leaves, photographs -- and all in a very portable little box you can take anywhere.\\n\\nI have one of these sets I use myself and I have given them as gifts to friends who write or travel. Very much worth the price.\",\n \"Product: Flex Hybrid NoteBinder is the next generation in portable organization. This is the one that acts like a notebook and works like a binder, offering both increased capacity and carrying convenience! Outfitted with the patented Tech Lock spine, its rings open and close easily for quick customizationstudents and professionals can make their own choices for personally fitted, fundamental features. Add what you need and remove what you don't!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: The lightweight binder that college students will love\\n\\nReview: If you are like me and went through college when the lightest notebooks you could buy had cardboard covers and metal rings, you will be envious that today's high-tech students have it so much better. This lightweight binder is perfect for stuffing in a backpack and schlepping around campus. The cover is not one you can easily doodle on, but it is strong and tear-resistant. The rings are not going to tear your fingers when you snap them closed because they are made of plastic. The notebook comes with plastic inserts to hold projects and notecards. Best of all, it's a tad over-sized, so it protects your assignments, even in rain, snow, sleet and falling into puddles. It's a better mousetrap, people. Buy several.\",\n \"Product: Milo's Kitchen Chicken Grillers Home-Style Dog Treats. 100% real. Wholesome & delicious. Chicken recipe with natural smoke flavor. No artificial flavors or colors. Break into small pieces for your small dog.\\n\\nRating: 1.0\\n\\nSummary: Check the price per ounce and get the best deal on these excellent treats.\\n\\nReview: There is nothing wrong with Milo's Dog Treats. They are good and my dogs love them. But I am leaving this one-star review so that Amazon customers will be aware that some third-party sellers are ripping them off.\\n\\nBe sure you check the price per ounce you are receiving. For instance, third-party seller Smile 'n Save sells this 2.7 oz. bag of dog treats for almost exactly the same amount of money that you pay for the 18 oz. bag of MIlo dog treats elsewhere on Amazon. Plus, they charge half-again the price of the treats for shipping. It's a total rip-off. I also think it's deliberatly misleading. Customers see two bags of dog treats -- the photos make the treats look like they are about the same size -- and the price is almost exactly the same. But the flavor is different. So they order both bags. Only one bag is huge and the other is the size of a sandwich bag.\\n\\nTotally not cool. Check the price per ounce.\",\n \"Product: The hauntingly prophetic classic novel set in a not-too-distant future where books are burned by a special task force of firemen. Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to burn books, which are forbidden, being the source of all discord and unhappiness. Even so, Montag is unhappy; there is discord in his marriage. Are books hidden in his house? The Mechanical Hound of the Fire Department, armed with a lethal hypodermic, escorted by helicopters, is ready to track down those dissidents who defy society to preserve and read books. The classic novel of a post-literate future, 'Fahrenheit 451' stands alongside Orwell's '1984' and Huxley's 'Brave New World' as a prophetic account of Western civilization's enslavement by the media, drugs and conformity. Bradbury's powerful and poetic prose combines with uncanny insight into the potential of technology to create a novel which over fifty years from first publication, still has the power to dazzle and shock.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Please do yourself a favor and re-read this classic if it has been ten years or more\\n\\nReview: [This review is for the paperback \\\"50th Anniversary Edition\\\" of the novel, which contains special additional essays and an interview which enrich the experience of reading the novel.]\\n\\nI'm not going to recount the plot details since this book should be a part of every book lover's lexicon. (If you have been off of the planet for the past half-century or so, this is a parable, set in the not-too-distant future, about book-burning. But the novel is really about what makes a person an individual. It postulates what people might be willing to give up in order to have \\\"peace of mind,\\\" and poses material enough for hours of stimulating debate about the real value of independent thought and its importance to society.)\\n\\nThis review is simply a friendly nudge for those of you out there who have already read this book once, perhaps when you were quite young, and have not re-visited it. I urge you to do so as soon as possible.\\n\\nI just re-read this incredible novel for the first time in thirty years. I picked it up because my teenage daughter is reading it as an assignment for an English class. I read it in high school, too, and I recall that I enjoyed it. But for some reason I had never re-read it. Bad move on my part. I got so much more out of the book now that I am older and have been in the world for awhile. The novel has aged beautifully. Actually, its insights, in light of our computer age and the changes which are being wrought in publishing and in the education of our children, are astoundingly relevant. This is a novel so current in its political and social re-imaginings that it could have been published last year.\\n\\nI love Bradbury's books. He is a master story teller. His <a data-hook=\\\"product-link-linked\\\" class=\\\"a-link-normal\\\" href=\\\"/The-Illustrated-Man/dp/0380973847/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\\\">The Illustrated Man</a> sits on my nightstand bookshelf right beside a copy of Ring Lardner's short stories, <a data-hook=\\\"product-link-linked\\\" class=\\\"a-link-normal\\\" href=\\\"/Ring-Around-the-Bases-The-Complete-Baseball-Stories-of-Ring-Lardner/dp/1570035318/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\\\">Ring Around the Bases: The Complete Baseball Stories of Ring Lardner</a> and a copy of F. Scott Fitzgerald's short storys, <a data-hook=\\\"product-link-linked\\\" class=\\\"a-link-normal\\\" href=\\\"/The-Short-Stories-of-F-Scott-Fitzgerald/dp/0684842505/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\\\">The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald</a>-- just in case I need to re-read a wonderful short story or two before sleep comes.\\n\\nBut as I said, I had not re-read this particular book in a long time. Not only did this futuristic masterpiece affect me completely differently when I read it again after such a long lapse of time, but I found so many nuances in the book which are just not present in the movie <a data-hook=\\\"product-link-linked\\\" class=\\\"a-link-normal\\\" href=\\\"/Fahrenheit-451/dp/B000087F6L/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\\\">Fahrenheit 451</a> (wonderful as the movie is.) I had forgotten how mesmerizing Bradbury's prose is. I had also forgotten that this novel won the National Book Award. It's a treasure, and a novel to be savored periodically throughout one's life.\\n\\nI especially like this edition which mentions on the cover that it was released as the \\\"50th Anniversary Edition.\\\" Not only does it contain Bradbury's 1979 Coda and 1983 Afterword, but there is an illuminating interview with the author where he discusses his own views about how the book has held up to the passing of the years, his approach to writing in general, how he views the \\\"future\\\" we are now living which he imagined in the early 1950s, and even what he considers the weaknesses of the movie version of his book.\\n\\nThis is great American literature. Please re-read early and often.\",\n \"Product: Beyond her dark, hypnotic beauty and her unbroken success as a child star, ingenue, and mature actor, Natalie Wood possessed an enduring star quality that continues to entrance both women and men. Here is Natalie's story, from emotionally abused and exploited child star to troubled teen, through her years as a top international movie star and sex symbol and her romances with Elvis Presley, James Dean, Steve McQueen, Warren Beatty, and Robert Wagner, and concluding with the shocking revelations about her long unsolved drowning.\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: Wood Biography Reads like Tabloid Gossip rather than Serious Research\\n\\nReview: I found this biography occasionally interesting, but written in such a way that much of it comes across as the author's gossipy opinion rather than a product of her informed research. Natalie Wood is one of my favorite movie stars. She was beautiful, talented and died in a tragic drowning when she was only forty-three years old. This biography is certainly detailed, and contains many fascinating facts about the actress, her career, and her private life. But the book reads much like a very long profile from the National Enquirer, rather than a journalistic effort from a serious biographer.\\n\\nThe author inserts so much uninformed psychoanalysis of Natalie Wood's personality into the biography that her unsubstantiated opinions get in the way of any truth she may be imparting.\\n\\n For instance, the author's pet theory about Natalie Wood's persona is that she was in reality two people -- the movie star \\\"Natalie\\\" and the repressed Mama's girl, \\\"Natasha\\\" who did everything either to please or to get back at her overbearing stage mother. Some of this may be true. It would have certainly made an interesting chapter in the book. But the author relates most everything in the book back to this thesis. I found it tiresome after awhile.\\n\\nAnother thing which bothered me about the book is the author's conviction that Natalie Wood's death was not an accident -- she seems invested in creating a Marilyn Monroe-type conspiracy around the drowning. The death is foreshadowed throughout the book in Natalie's fear of \\\"dark water,\\\" and the facts surrounding the death are steeped in purple prose about what \\\"really happened\\\" that night. I think that the author has undermined her own credibility here. She makes it clear that Robert Wagner would not be interviewed for the book, and so she creates some kind of foul play insinuations. Was she mad that Wagner would not be associated with her book? Or does she have hard evidence that something was not right about the actress' death? The reader doesn't really know.\\n\\nUltimately the author has made her opinions and gossip the star of this biography, rather than letting Natalie Wood shine through. This is definitely not the definitive biography of this wonderful actress, but may be your cup of tea if you want to wade through titillation rather than hard evidence.\",\n \"Product: THIS IS BRAND NEW BOOK.WE PROVIDE 100% CUSTOMER SATISFACTION.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Book Club members -- TAKE NOTE! Good choice for your club\\n\\nReview: If nothing else, this lushly evocative portrayal of a young woman in 1920s New York who may or may not be a murderer and a psychotic will generate a ton of discussion at a book club. So if you are choosing books for your group, give this one a look-see.\\n\\nRose Baker is a prim stenographer at a dank police precinct in the Lower East Side. The year is 1923, and Prohibition is meeting Flaming Youth in wild debauch in the speakeasies of America, but Rose is a firm outsider. She is only twenty-five, but seems older with her prissy demeanor and Victorian sense of propriety and manners. Rose prides herself on being the fastest and most accurate typist at the police precinct, but outside work, she hasn't much of a life. She lives in genteel poverty at a rooming house in Brooklyn. She is unmarried, unattached, an orphan who was raised in a Catholic foundling home run by strict nuns, and her only hobby seems to be observing the people around her. But Rose's world is turned on its ear when Odalie Lazare breezes into the police precinct and lands a job as a typist also. Odalie is personable, beautiful, charming and altogether Rose's opposite. Rose is drawn to her, and soon seems obsessed with the mercurial Odalie. But Odalie seems to be hiding secrets, and the more Rose is pulled into Odalie's life, the more Rose's life goes awry.\\n\\nThis novel is Suzanne Rindell's debut effort as a novelist, and a very good debut it is, too. While slow in parts, the novel contains wonderful passages of description of the era in which the novel is set, and of the characters in Rose's life. As mentioned by other reviewers, the novel does contain quite a few anachronisms which are quite jarring. It is unclear what the author intended by these phrases and modern usages of language, and that is something which your book club could probably spend an entire meeting discussing. Are the anachronisms merely poor editing or are they intentional for some reason? Also as mentioned by other reviewers, Rose is an \\\"unreliable narrator,\\\" which adds to the flavor of the book in hindsight as readers will enjoy some spirited debate as to what is really going on in this story.\\n\\nAltogether, I enjoyed this book, and think that others will also. I especially think that it is a book which lends itself to some great dialogues at the library or book store or wherever your book club meets.\\n\\nRecommended.\",\n \"Product: Cora Seton loves cowboys, country life, gardening, bike-riding, and lazing around with a good book. Mother of four, wife to a computer programmer/eco-farmer, she ditched her California lifestyle eight years ago and moved to a remote logging town in northwestern British Columbia. Like the characters in her novels, Cora enjoys old-fashioned pursuits and modern technology, spending mornings transforming a neglected one-acre lot into a paradise of orchards, berry bushes and market gardens, and afternoons writing the latest Chance Creek romance novel on her iPad mini. Visit www.coraseton.com to read about new releases, and learn about contests and other cool events!\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Excellent premise marred by weak ending\\n\\nReview: Author Cora Seton comes up with a winning storyline for her romance novel about two likable people damaged by long-ago life events. Evan, the title's billionaire, and Bella, the spunky small animal vet estranged from her family, are interesting three-dimensional characters.\\n\\nThe plot centers around the intrepid couple appearing on a Survivor-like reality television show where the stakes could not be higher. If Bella wins, she receives $5 million to save her no-kill animal shelter and struggling veterinarian practice. If Evan wins, Bella must marry him for at least one year, thus saving his thriving tech company from falling into the clutches of his brother who is not as interested in helping humanity as he is the bottom line.\\n\\nThe rapid-fire interaction between the two main characters is excellent. Also well-done are the secondary characters such as the snarky television show director. I was drawn in completely during the first two-thirds of the book as Evan and Bella discover uncomfortable truths about themselves and each other while competing in difficult physical challenges in gorgeous Jasper National Park in Canada.\\n\\nBut the author let her readers down in the final third of the book. The ending feels rushed and unsatisfying. The villain of the book, the awful TV director, doesn't get any comeuppance -- no ending at all. It also seems quite obvious that the author is throwing in additional characters for future books who are clumsily introduced without any real connection to this book's story.\\n\\nI hope that this talented writer doesn't make the same mistake In subsequent novels. She is imaginative and writes an excellent backstory for her characters. Her dialog is natural and witty. She just needs to make sure that her plots fulfill the early promise she makes to her readers. Unfortunately, this one did not.\"\n]","isConversational":false},"profile_size":{"kind":"number","value":30,"string":"30"},"task":{"kind":"string","value":"longlamp_3"},"split_kind":{"kind":"string","value":"user_based"},"id":{"kind":"number","value":1672,"string":"1,672"}}},{"rowIdx":1673,"cells":{"question_id":{"kind":"string","value":"A13KNCFLH0IH2G"},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of \"3.0\" for a product with description \"The Voice Tracer 1500 lets you record documents and notes on the move. Back at your desk, simply connect the recorder to your PC, transfer your files and let the included software automatically turn your speech into text.\". The summary of the review text is \"Used as a regular recorder\"."},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"I've got to confess that I haven't had the time to invest in calibrating the Naturally Speaking software to my voice, and honestly not much use for it if I did. I wanted something that could transcribe interviews and lectures, with other people doing the lion's share of the talking. From the documentation, it seems that the best I could use this for would be to transcribe my own voice, which I don't have a ton of a need for, although I can see where others might.\n\nAs a standalone recorder, I can't fault it--it works just fine. And it may work wonders for transcribing your voice, but I don't think I'm going to find out. If you do want to buy this, you need to be aware that it's pretty much going to transcribe just your voice, and it's not going to be plug-and-play right out of the box--you need to put some time into calibrating it."},"correct_answer":{"kind":"string","value":"I've got to confess that I haven't had the time to invest in calibrating the Naturally Speaking software to my voice, and honestly not much use for it if I did. I wanted something that could transcribe interviews and lectures, with other people doing the lion's share of the talking. From the documentation, it seems that the best I could use this for would be to transcribe my own voice, which I don't have a ton of a need for, although I can see where others might.\n\nAs a standalone recorder, I can't fault it--it works just fine. And it may work wonders for transcribing your voice, but I don't think I'm going to find out. If you do want to buy this, you need to be aware that it's pretty much going to transcribe just your voice, and it's not going to be plug-and-play right out of the box--you need to put some time into calibrating it."},"documents":{"kind":"list like","value":["Product: Display Stand measures 4-3/4\" (12.07 cm) 3-3/4\" (9.53 cm) 1-3/4\" (4.45 cm) Sturdy acrylic base, machine riveted to a heavy vinyl coated, steel wire back brace Ideal for displaying serving trays, plates, tiles, artwork, framed photos, ad much more Lightweight and compact for easy storage and mobility Promote point of purchase sales and increase visibility Great for books, cookware, electronics, cosmetics, data entry and much more\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Decent stand for items with low centers of gravity\n\nReview: These are exactly as advertised--small stands for you to put things on. I got two sets to use at book signings--one for books, and one for some 12X18 foamcore \"posters\" I had made with my latest book's front and back cover. These stands were absolute champs for the books: easy to set up and quite sturdy. But the foamcore posters were another story. Because they had a high center of gravity, they fell over right away.\n\nI'm not sure what the exact break-even point is for height vs weight for these things, but when ordering keep in mind they are very lightweight, so if what you want to display is tall, you may have problems. I found another solution for the foamcore, and have used these several times at signings. They travel light and are quick to set up, so I'm quite happy with them.","Product: Bringing a modern, global vibe to all types of table settings, this Rachael Ray Ikat Stoneware 16-Piece Dinnerware Set combines style, color and function with bold, textural details. This dinnerware set is perfect for a relaxed weeknight meal or dinner parties and other special occasions with family and friends. This stoneware is holds heat beautifully, so plates of pasta carbonara and bowls of Rachael's Smoky Tomato and Couscous Soup stay warmer longer. All the pieces are microwave and dishwasher safe, which makes them perfect for fast cleanup after family meals or entertaining and they can be lightly warmed up to 250DegreeF. Best of all, the versatility of this vibrant dinnerware set mixes and matches with other pieces both within the pattern as well as from Rachael's other clever collections. Feed both eyes and appetite with a bold, colorful tabletop and delicious food served on this Rachael Ray Ikat Stoneware 16-Piece Dinnerware Set.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: I like these plates!\n\nReview: When I saw this offered on Vine, I ordered it, even though new plates weren't a priority for me. I'm glad I did. These are great plates, bowls, and cups. The colors are attractive and bold, and the dinnerware itself is solid. It feels weighty without being too heavy.\n\nI have one minor issue: one of the dinner plates arrived with a hairline fracture. It doesn't seem to be in danger of breaking in half, but there is a line visible through the center. If I had paid for these, I probably would have asked for a non-\"cracked\" plate.\n\nOther than that, I've got to say that these are a great addition to our kitchen, and they've stood up well to daily use.","Product: Miele's dynamic u1 cat & dog vacuum features a unique electro brush that follows the contours of your floor, automatically adjusting for different carpet depths and surface coverings - providing even, consistent suction and gentle cleaning. The cat & dog features Miele's AirClean sealed system, comprised of an AirClean Filter Bag and active air clean filter that captures and retains 99.9+% Of dirt, dust and allergens. The active air clean filter has active charcoal layers to neutralize and absorb unwanted pet odors. The Dynamic u1 cat & dog vacuum features a rotary dial control with four power settings that allows you to adjust the level of suction to the type of surface being cleaned. In addition to the standard included accessories - a dusting brush, upholstery tool and crevice nozzle - the cat & dog features a mini turbo brush that easily removes pet hair from furnishings. Other conveniences include an led headlight.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Quiet and thorough (and a little heavy)\n\nReview: Taking the Miele Dynamic U1 Cat and Dog Upright Vacuum out of the box, the first thing I noticed was a distinct lack of cats and/or dogs in the packaging and the device itself. It also isn't very well-proportioned for either the average cat or dog to operate. So if you have any confusion, let me set you straight: this isn't a vacuum powered by cats or dogs, and it (regrettably) isn't meant to be used by cats or dogs. Still, it's very useful, since it is designed to be used by a human (or, I'm guessing, any higher primate with sufficient motivation) to clean up after cats and/or dogs.\n\nAll that aside, how good a vacuum is this? Very, very good. It is the quietest vacuum I've ever owned. On the \"floor\" setting, it sounds like a loudish fan, and on \"carpet\" it makes a little more noise but is not nearly as loud as my Oreck (which is the model I already own so my best source of comparison). It also has something I've never seen in a vacuum before: a swivelneck, so you can execute turns without picking your vacuum up and doing a \"manual reset.\"\n\nSo far, I've noticed that the U1 does a great job of cleaning debris on both carpeted and smooth floors. One immediate difference with my Oreck that struck me was how much heavier the U1 is. I didn't exactly break a sweat vacuuming with it, but it was noticeably heavier than the Oreck, and if you have limited upper body strength or have to carry your vacuum up stairs, this could be an issue. For me, part of it my muscle memory: I was used to pushing around something much lighter, so the U1 probably seemed heavier than it really is (if that makes sense). By my second use, I can't say that I was bothered by the extra mass at all.\n\nSo if you're in the market for a vacuum, this is a really, really good one. Very pleased so far.","Product: Set out with LifeProof FR for Apple iPhone 5/5s/SE and live with no limits. Waterproof and drop proof, FR for iPhone 5/5s/SE has the guts to go into the thick of it and come out unscathed. Featuring a built-in screen protector, FR shields your iPhone 5/5s/SE from Mother Natures worst. From ocean shores and mountain trails to desert dunes no environment is too extreme for LifeProof FR.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Protective case with a few issues\n\nReview: This iPhone case installs relatively easily and encases the entire phone. It purports to be waterproof, but an included disclaimer advises you to test the case before entrusting your phone to it. I'd be fine with using this case to guard against accidental exposure, but I would not suggest jumping into a pool with it.\n\nI stopped using this case after a day for a few reasons. First: my TouchID hit rate went down from about 95% to 80%. Sometimes it worked as well as before, but at other times it just didn't. That's a little annoying and close to being a deal-breaker. Second, the screen protector got smudges quickly. Third (and this was the deal-breaker), the way the case extends around the phone makes it impossible to use my docking station. Using a standard charging cable still works, but I like my docking station, so I removed the case. I'll keep it if I know I'm going into a wet environment and absolutely need to bring my phone, but I'm not using it every day.","Product: Waste King L-8000: 1 horsepower garbage disposal with pre-installed power cord and sound insulation. Energy efficient permanent magnet motor and stainless steel swivel impellers reduce jamming. Fast and easy to install with a removable splashguard that is easy to clean and replace. Rust and corrosion-proof glass-filled nylon grind chamber and drain housing with stainless steel grinding components. Continuous feed technology. Front-mounted reset button for easy use. Safe to use with properly-sized septic tanks.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Elvis has left the building...this is the real king\n\nReview: I can't say enough about how great this garbage disposal is. It's powerful and not too loud. I upgraded from a 1/3 HP unit and the difference is immediately noticeable. Did I mention that it's quiet? When I first turned it on, I actually thought I it wasn't working, that's how quiet it is.\n\nI installed this myself, removing a 20 year-old 3-bolt system. I definitely recommend against getting the 3 bolt adapter. I bit the bullet and took the extra time and effort to remove the 3-bolt installation and I'm glad I did, since it gives me a little extra space below the disposal.\n\nONE IMPORTANT THING! Write down the serial number (located on the bottom of the unit) BEFORE installing it. Trust me, it will make your life easier. You need the serial number for the warranty.","Product: ZOOB BuilderZ 250 Piece Building Set comes with 6 instruction guides to make 36 creations including a ZOOBasuraus or a ZOOBcycle (or create your own). ZOOB is not like any other building set - the pieces include gears, axles and joints that snap, click, and pop together! With rotating, spinning and extendable parts you can actually design a toy to play with, instead of just building something to look at. Create monstersor vehiclesor monsters that turn into vehicles! The possibilities are as endless as your imagination! Recommended for children 6 years of age and older\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: My kids love it\n\nReview: This is a great, simple, and complicated toy. There are lots of pieces (250, just like it says) divided into five different types. Each type has a different combination of what I call balls or hooks at each end. You can use the pieces to build a variety of articulated structures (there are several guides with examples) or just link them together to create freeform sculptures.\n\nRight now I have a five- and eight-year old both playing with this set, and they are each getting something out of it. The younger one just likes manipulating the pieces and linking them together, and told me that doing this is going to strengthen her fingers. The older one is making stuff.\n\nI've got the usual caveats, which is that if your kids are like mine you'll be seeing these pieces turning up everywhere, and that you might want to keep an eye on your kids while they play with it so pieces don't go missing. So far, though, this has been a great toy.","Product: Design beautiful outdoor mandalas. What could be more fun than coloring on a sunny day? With the super-sized Mandala-Designer, you'll be an amazing street artist, sketching beautiful designs on any paved surface. Includes 2 Large Mandala Stencils, 6 Colored Chalks, Detailed Instructions.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Lots of fun! A new favorite outdoor toy\n\nReview: We got this last week and waited until the weekend when we could have some time with it. I wasn't completely sure that this would be a good fit for my 5 year-old, seeing how intricate the designs depicted are. I was a little afraid that it would end up with us not being able to reproduce anything close to what is shown, getting frustrated, and never using the kit again.\n\nOpening up the kit, I pulled out the stencils and chalk and at first was a little intimidated. Let me tell you, reading the directions is the best thing you can do at this point. They explain just how to use the stencil and also have several patterns for you to copy.\n\nWithin a few minutes, we were making mandala patterns together that actually looked very close to what they were supposed to look like. The little one loved them, which means this is a great toy.\n\nThe best validation for getting it came the next day, when she got the kit out by herself and made several patterns without any help from me. You can tell they weren't done by a professional artist, but they look pretty good.\n\nIf your kids are a certain age (I'm pretty sure that 5 is at the lower end, and I don't know the upper end, although I'll confess that I found making patterns quite therapeutic myself) they will probably love this kit and enjoy using it. You do need a nice stretch of concrete for them to work on, so take that into account if you're considering it.","Product: Kids build math-fact fluency with this challenging board game. Using numbered playing cards, create or change fact families on the triangle board. Be the first to play all your cards, and call out tri-FACTa! Game includes triangle game board, 100 cards (facts up to 20), and 4 trays. 2-4 players.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Really enjoying this game\n\nReview: This is a fun game for parents and kids looking to exercise their math skills. You start out with six cards, and the object of the game is to lose all of your cards by using them to make \"math facts\" (equations) in sets of 3. It is a simple game to learn, and since you're always working with different sets of numbers, no two games will be alike. Basically, the bottom two numbers in the triangle have to add up to the top number. The game comes with numbers from 0 to 20, and there are enough of them to work with to make the game varied.\n\nThe only hassle is if you get a run of high-value cards (let's say 16-20), it's difficult to make equations. So it's essential that you really randomize the deck before starting.\n\nI got this game to help my 5 year-old have more fun with math. Right now, it's still a little hard for her to play without coaching, but overall she really enjoys it, and I think as she gets better with math, we'll have a lot of fun with it.\n\nI've found this to be an enjoyable game for both of us so far, and I think that if your child is a little older she will get even more out of it.","Product: It's time for an exciting day at the midway with the Fun at the Fair play set by Mega Blokes Hello Kitty. Step right up and get your Hello Kitty tickets for lots of whirls and twirls on the buildable and moveable merry-go-round and Ferris wheel. When the rides are done, Hello Kitty meets with friends for some fun at the Teddy Bear ball toss carnival game. Hello Kitty is even wearing a cute fair outfit with pretty balloons! Ideal for ages 4-12.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Lots of small pieces of fun!\n\nReview: I got this for a 6 year-old and 3 year-old to play with since I had the idea that Mega Bloks were an over-sized version of Legos. In fact, as I discovered when the box came, they are just as small, if not smaller than, Legos. This is both good and bad; it's good in that it means this set has plenty of room for your children's creativity, but it's bad in that there are lots (223, as it says on the box) of very small pieces that can get lost.\n\nThe kids had a ball playing with this, even though they're not particularly into Hello Kitty. Once I found a Tupperware container for all of the pieces, I felt much better about this set. I think the key is to keep an eye on your kids while they're using it, make sure they at least keep everything in one place, and diligently sweep everything up after they are done. It might sound like I'm over-reacting, but there are some outrageously tiny pieces in this set. Overall, kids love it, so thumbs up.","Product: The Classic Chutes and Ladders Board Game requires players to avoid the chutes and climb the ladders to reach the final spot on the game board. Spin the spinner to determine how many spaces you move in this game for 2 to 4 players. Game includes large spinner, 4 movers with plastic bases, bi-fold game board and instructions.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Your hubris will be your downfall!\n\nReview: This is a retroactively fascinating game. I have to confess that I never played Chutes and Ladders as a kid--I was a Candyland guy all the way. But this game makes me wish I had. It has the \"vintage\" 1970s graphics, which are so awesomely moralistic that they reminded me how un-didactic most games are today (at least on the surface). Kids work hard or do nice stuff and they climb the ladder. They get lazy or greedy, and they go sliding down a chute. How can you not love this.\n\nI actually used the word \"hubris\" when I was going over the game with my 7 year-old, that's how great the graphics are. It's way better than Candyland IMHO, since Candyland just teaches you to gorge on sugary sweets. But who says you can't have both?"],"string":"[\n \"Product: Display Stand measures 4-3/4\\\" (12.07 cm) 3-3/4\\\" (9.53 cm) 1-3/4\\\" (4.45 cm) Sturdy acrylic base, machine riveted to a heavy vinyl coated, steel wire back brace Ideal for displaying serving trays, plates, tiles, artwork, framed photos, ad much more Lightweight and compact for easy storage and mobility Promote point of purchase sales and increase visibility Great for books, cookware, electronics, cosmetics, data entry and much more\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Decent stand for items with low centers of gravity\\n\\nReview: These are exactly as advertised--small stands for you to put things on. I got two sets to use at book signings--one for books, and one for some 12X18 foamcore \\\"posters\\\" I had made with my latest book's front and back cover. These stands were absolute champs for the books: easy to set up and quite sturdy. But the foamcore posters were another story. Because they had a high center of gravity, they fell over right away.\\n\\nI'm not sure what the exact break-even point is for height vs weight for these things, but when ordering keep in mind they are very lightweight, so if what you want to display is tall, you may have problems. I found another solution for the foamcore, and have used these several times at signings. They travel light and are quick to set up, so I'm quite happy with them.\",\n \"Product: Bringing a modern, global vibe to all types of table settings, this Rachael Ray Ikat Stoneware 16-Piece Dinnerware Set combines style, color and function with bold, textural details. This dinnerware set is perfect for a relaxed weeknight meal or dinner parties and other special occasions with family and friends. This stoneware is holds heat beautifully, so plates of pasta carbonara and bowls of Rachael's Smoky Tomato and Couscous Soup stay warmer longer. All the pieces are microwave and dishwasher safe, which makes them perfect for fast cleanup after family meals or entertaining and they can be lightly warmed up to 250DegreeF. Best of all, the versatility of this vibrant dinnerware set mixes and matches with other pieces both within the pattern as well as from Rachael's other clever collections. Feed both eyes and appetite with a bold, colorful tabletop and delicious food served on this Rachael Ray Ikat Stoneware 16-Piece Dinnerware Set.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: I like these plates!\\n\\nReview: When I saw this offered on Vine, I ordered it, even though new plates weren't a priority for me. I'm glad I did. These are great plates, bowls, and cups. The colors are attractive and bold, and the dinnerware itself is solid. It feels weighty without being too heavy.\\n\\nI have one minor issue: one of the dinner plates arrived with a hairline fracture. It doesn't seem to be in danger of breaking in half, but there is a line visible through the center. If I had paid for these, I probably would have asked for a non-\\\"cracked\\\" plate.\\n\\nOther than that, I've got to say that these are a great addition to our kitchen, and they've stood up well to daily use.\",\n \"Product: Miele's dynamic u1 cat & dog vacuum features a unique electro brush that follows the contours of your floor, automatically adjusting for different carpet depths and surface coverings - providing even, consistent suction and gentle cleaning. The cat & dog features Miele's AirClean sealed system, comprised of an AirClean Filter Bag and active air clean filter that captures and retains 99.9+% Of dirt, dust and allergens. The active air clean filter has active charcoal layers to neutralize and absorb unwanted pet odors. The Dynamic u1 cat & dog vacuum features a rotary dial control with four power settings that allows you to adjust the level of suction to the type of surface being cleaned. In addition to the standard included accessories - a dusting brush, upholstery tool and crevice nozzle - the cat & dog features a mini turbo brush that easily removes pet hair from furnishings. Other conveniences include an led headlight.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Quiet and thorough (and a little heavy)\\n\\nReview: Taking the Miele Dynamic U1 Cat and Dog Upright Vacuum out of the box, the first thing I noticed was a distinct lack of cats and/or dogs in the packaging and the device itself. It also isn't very well-proportioned for either the average cat or dog to operate. So if you have any confusion, let me set you straight: this isn't a vacuum powered by cats or dogs, and it (regrettably) isn't meant to be used by cats or dogs. Still, it's very useful, since it is designed to be used by a human (or, I'm guessing, any higher primate with sufficient motivation) to clean up after cats and/or dogs.\\n\\nAll that aside, how good a vacuum is this? Very, very good. It is the quietest vacuum I've ever owned. On the \\\"floor\\\" setting, it sounds like a loudish fan, and on \\\"carpet\\\" it makes a little more noise but is not nearly as loud as my Oreck (which is the model I already own so my best source of comparison). It also has something I've never seen in a vacuum before: a swivelneck, so you can execute turns without picking your vacuum up and doing a \\\"manual reset.\\\"\\n\\nSo far, I've noticed that the U1 does a great job of cleaning debris on both carpeted and smooth floors. One immediate difference with my Oreck that struck me was how much heavier the U1 is. I didn't exactly break a sweat vacuuming with it, but it was noticeably heavier than the Oreck, and if you have limited upper body strength or have to carry your vacuum up stairs, this could be an issue. For me, part of it my muscle memory: I was used to pushing around something much lighter, so the U1 probably seemed heavier than it really is (if that makes sense). By my second use, I can't say that I was bothered by the extra mass at all.\\n\\nSo if you're in the market for a vacuum, this is a really, really good one. Very pleased so far.\",\n \"Product: Set out with LifeProof FR for Apple iPhone 5/5s/SE and live with no limits. Waterproof and drop proof, FR for iPhone 5/5s/SE has the guts to go into the thick of it and come out unscathed. Featuring a built-in screen protector, FR shields your iPhone 5/5s/SE from Mother Natures worst. From ocean shores and mountain trails to desert dunes no environment is too extreme for LifeProof FR.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Protective case with a few issues\\n\\nReview: This iPhone case installs relatively easily and encases the entire phone. It purports to be waterproof, but an included disclaimer advises you to test the case before entrusting your phone to it. I'd be fine with using this case to guard against accidental exposure, but I would not suggest jumping into a pool with it.\\n\\nI stopped using this case after a day for a few reasons. First: my TouchID hit rate went down from about 95% to 80%. Sometimes it worked as well as before, but at other times it just didn't. That's a little annoying and close to being a deal-breaker. Second, the screen protector got smudges quickly. Third (and this was the deal-breaker), the way the case extends around the phone makes it impossible to use my docking station. Using a standard charging cable still works, but I like my docking station, so I removed the case. I'll keep it if I know I'm going into a wet environment and absolutely need to bring my phone, but I'm not using it every day.\",\n \"Product: Waste King L-8000: 1 horsepower garbage disposal with pre-installed power cord and sound insulation. Energy efficient permanent magnet motor and stainless steel swivel impellers reduce jamming. Fast and easy to install with a removable splashguard that is easy to clean and replace. Rust and corrosion-proof glass-filled nylon grind chamber and drain housing with stainless steel grinding components. Continuous feed technology. Front-mounted reset button for easy use. Safe to use with properly-sized septic tanks.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Elvis has left the building...this is the real king\\n\\nReview: I can't say enough about how great this garbage disposal is. It's powerful and not too loud. I upgraded from a 1/3 HP unit and the difference is immediately noticeable. Did I mention that it's quiet? When I first turned it on, I actually thought I it wasn't working, that's how quiet it is.\\n\\nI installed this myself, removing a 20 year-old 3-bolt system. I definitely recommend against getting the 3 bolt adapter. I bit the bullet and took the extra time and effort to remove the 3-bolt installation and I'm glad I did, since it gives me a little extra space below the disposal.\\n\\nONE IMPORTANT THING! Write down the serial number (located on the bottom of the unit) BEFORE installing it. Trust me, it will make your life easier. You need the serial number for the warranty.\",\n \"Product: ZOOB BuilderZ 250 Piece Building Set comes with 6 instruction guides to make 36 creations including a ZOOBasuraus or a ZOOBcycle (or create your own). ZOOB is not like any other building set - the pieces include gears, axles and joints that snap, click, and pop together! With rotating, spinning and extendable parts you can actually design a toy to play with, instead of just building something to look at. Create monstersor vehiclesor monsters that turn into vehicles! The possibilities are as endless as your imagination! Recommended for children 6 years of age and older\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: My kids love it\\n\\nReview: This is a great, simple, and complicated toy. There are lots of pieces (250, just like it says) divided into five different types. Each type has a different combination of what I call balls or hooks at each end. You can use the pieces to build a variety of articulated structures (there are several guides with examples) or just link them together to create freeform sculptures.\\n\\nRight now I have a five- and eight-year old both playing with this set, and they are each getting something out of it. The younger one just likes manipulating the pieces and linking them together, and told me that doing this is going to strengthen her fingers. The older one is making stuff.\\n\\nI've got the usual caveats, which is that if your kids are like mine you'll be seeing these pieces turning up everywhere, and that you might want to keep an eye on your kids while they play with it so pieces don't go missing. So far, though, this has been a great toy.\",\n \"Product: Design beautiful outdoor mandalas. What could be more fun than coloring on a sunny day? With the super-sized Mandala-Designer, you'll be an amazing street artist, sketching beautiful designs on any paved surface. Includes 2 Large Mandala Stencils, 6 Colored Chalks, Detailed Instructions.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Lots of fun! A new favorite outdoor toy\\n\\nReview: We got this last week and waited until the weekend when we could have some time with it. I wasn't completely sure that this would be a good fit for my 5 year-old, seeing how intricate the designs depicted are. I was a little afraid that it would end up with us not being able to reproduce anything close to what is shown, getting frustrated, and never using the kit again.\\n\\nOpening up the kit, I pulled out the stencils and chalk and at first was a little intimidated. Let me tell you, reading the directions is the best thing you can do at this point. They explain just how to use the stencil and also have several patterns for you to copy.\\n\\nWithin a few minutes, we were making mandala patterns together that actually looked very close to what they were supposed to look like. The little one loved them, which means this is a great toy.\\n\\nThe best validation for getting it came the next day, when she got the kit out by herself and made several patterns without any help from me. You can tell they weren't done by a professional artist, but they look pretty good.\\n\\nIf your kids are a certain age (I'm pretty sure that 5 is at the lower end, and I don't know the upper end, although I'll confess that I found making patterns quite therapeutic myself) they will probably love this kit and enjoy using it. You do need a nice stretch of concrete for them to work on, so take that into account if you're considering it.\",\n \"Product: Kids build math-fact fluency with this challenging board game. Using numbered playing cards, create or change fact families on the triangle board. Be the first to play all your cards, and call out tri-FACTa! Game includes triangle game board, 100 cards (facts up to 20), and 4 trays. 2-4 players.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Really enjoying this game\\n\\nReview: This is a fun game for parents and kids looking to exercise their math skills. You start out with six cards, and the object of the game is to lose all of your cards by using them to make \\\"math facts\\\" (equations) in sets of 3. It is a simple game to learn, and since you're always working with different sets of numbers, no two games will be alike. Basically, the bottom two numbers in the triangle have to add up to the top number. The game comes with numbers from 0 to 20, and there are enough of them to work with to make the game varied.\\n\\nThe only hassle is if you get a run of high-value cards (let's say 16-20), it's difficult to make equations. So it's essential that you really randomize the deck before starting.\\n\\nI got this game to help my 5 year-old have more fun with math. Right now, it's still a little hard for her to play without coaching, but overall she really enjoys it, and I think as she gets better with math, we'll have a lot of fun with it.\\n\\nI've found this to be an enjoyable game for both of us so far, and I think that if your child is a little older she will get even more out of it.\",\n \"Product: It's time for an exciting day at the midway with the Fun at the Fair play set by Mega Blokes Hello Kitty. Step right up and get your Hello Kitty tickets for lots of whirls and twirls on the buildable and moveable merry-go-round and Ferris wheel. When the rides are done, Hello Kitty meets with friends for some fun at the Teddy Bear ball toss carnival game. Hello Kitty is even wearing a cute fair outfit with pretty balloons! Ideal for ages 4-12.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Lots of small pieces of fun!\\n\\nReview: I got this for a 6 year-old and 3 year-old to play with since I had the idea that Mega Bloks were an over-sized version of Legos. In fact, as I discovered when the box came, they are just as small, if not smaller than, Legos. This is both good and bad; it's good in that it means this set has plenty of room for your children's creativity, but it's bad in that there are lots (223, as it says on the box) of very small pieces that can get lost.\\n\\nThe kids had a ball playing with this, even though they're not particularly into Hello Kitty. Once I found a Tupperware container for all of the pieces, I felt much better about this set. I think the key is to keep an eye on your kids while they're using it, make sure they at least keep everything in one place, and diligently sweep everything up after they are done. It might sound like I'm over-reacting, but there are some outrageously tiny pieces in this set. Overall, kids love it, so thumbs up.\",\n \"Product: The Classic Chutes and Ladders Board Game requires players to avoid the chutes and climb the ladders to reach the final spot on the game board. Spin the spinner to determine how many spaces you move in this game for 2 to 4 players. Game includes large spinner, 4 movers with plastic bases, bi-fold game board and instructions.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Your hubris will be your downfall!\\n\\nReview: This is a retroactively fascinating game. I have to confess that I never played Chutes and Ladders as a kid--I was a Candyland guy all the way. But this game makes me wish I had. It has the \\\"vintage\\\" 1970s graphics, which are so awesomely moralistic that they reminded me how un-didactic most games are today (at least on the surface). Kids work hard or do nice stuff and they climb the ladder. They get lazy or greedy, and they go sliding down a chute. How can you not love this.\\n\\nI actually used the word \\\"hubris\\\" when I was going over the game with my 7 year-old, that's how great the graphics are. It's way better than Candyland IMHO, since Candyland just teaches you to gorge on sugary sweets. But who says you can't have both?\"\n]","isConversational":false},"profile_size":{"kind":"number","value":10,"string":"10"},"task":{"kind":"string","value":"longlamp_3"},"split_kind":{"kind":"string","value":"user_based"},"id":{"kind":"number","value":1673,"string":"1,673"}}},{"rowIdx":1674,"cells":{"question_id":{"kind":"string","value":"A3DFQFWR8Q8KPM"},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of \"4.0\" for a product with description \"SUPCASE LG G4 Case - Unicorn Beetle Hybrid Protective Case - Clear Red\". The summary of the review text is \"Definitely a Bargain, But Remember You Get What You Pay For!\"."},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"Bought this about 3 weeks ago for my new G4 because I found the prices of other cases to be absolutely ridiculous. This is an awesome case for the price, you seriously cannot beat it.\n\nPros: Price, sturdy, kickstand, easy installation.\nCons: cheap material, not all rubber (I'm not entirely convinced it's going to do much if the phone is dropped any farther than from my pocket), the white color is very dingy looking very quick (corners peeling after only 3 weeks), and very hard to remove phone if needed.\n\nIf you're just looking for a cheap case to get you by, this is an incredible option, but if you're looking for something comparable to the $45 cases, this is not the case for you. Just remember, you get what you pay for. I'm okay with mine for now, but I'd imagine I'll upgrade eventually."},"correct_answer":{"kind":"string","value":"Bought this about 3 weeks ago for my new G4 because I found the prices of other cases to be absolutely ridiculous. This is an awesome case for the price, you seriously cannot beat it.\n\nPros: Price, sturdy, kickstand, easy installation.\nCons: cheap material, not all rubber (I'm not entirely convinced it's going to do much if the phone is dropped any farther than from my pocket), the white color is very dingy looking very quick (corners peeling after only 3 weeks), and very hard to remove phone if needed.\n\nIf you're just looking for a cheap case to get you by, this is an incredible option, but if you're looking for something comparable to the $45 cases, this is not the case for you. Just remember, you get what you pay for. I'm okay with mine for now, but I'd imagine I'll upgrade eventually."},"documents":{"kind":"list like","value":["Product: Rachel Aukes is the bestselling author of 100 Days in Deadland, which made Suspense Magazines Best of the Year list. She is also a Wattpad Star, her stories having over three million reads. When not writing, she can be found flying old airplanes across the Midwest countryside.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Aukes weaves a tale full of suspense, action, and spectacular emotions that left me begging for more!\n\nReview: Full review and more available at: [...]\n*****\nMy Thoughts:\n\nCan I just start out this review by saying that I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into when it came to Fringe Runner. Let me tell you guys how many sci-fi or space opera books I had read previously... none. Nope. Not a single one. Sci-Fi is not usually my bit. I'm as nerdy as they come. I love Star Wars, I can tell you all about space and astronomy (I went to Space Camp, for goodness sakes), but when it comes to Sci-Fi novels, I've never been interested. It's always been one of those genres that I always assumed worked better in the visual media (film, television, video games, etc). Well folks, I was wrong. Once again I underestimated the great Rachel Aukes.\n\nThose of you who are new to my blog and reviews may not be familiar with Aukes, but anyone who has been around since the beginning will be well-acquainted with Aukes and her most recent series, the Deadland Saga. You see, Aukes has changed my life once before. Yes, I didn't say shelves. I said life. Prior to Aukes, I was very 'on the fence' about horror novels, especially anything regarding zombies. Through her literary masterpieces, Aukes made me a believer in the best of ways. Her eloquent writing style, paired with an ability to craft emotions so strong, Nicholas Sparks himself should be jealous, Aukes changed my literary landscape in indescribable ways.\n\nI'd let Aukes guide me through the unknown once before, but was I confident she could change my views on the Sci-Fi genre? It didn't take long for me to find my answer.\n\nFrom the very first chapter, I was hooked.\n\nFringe Runner is one of the most unique and original novels I have read in a very long time. Leaping off the pages and into the most creative of fantasies my mind could conjure, Aukes weaves a tale full of suspense, action, and spectacular emotions that left me begging for more!\n\nThe very best part of Fringe Runner is that it's the perfect Sci-Fi read to get your feet wet. Whether your a seasoned pro or a beginner to the genre, you'll greatly appreciate the world Aukes has created. Why is it so perfect for new readers of the genre, you ask? One of the glowing stereotypes of a Sci-Fi space opera is the high fantasy-level of description the authors tend to pour into each volume, leading to a slow moving plot that requires far more attention than your average reader is willing/has time to commit to. Aukes totally wipes that stereotype off the slate by providing her readers a full glimpse into her world, including all necessary backstory and world-building, without making the experience a grueling one for the readers. She slips in all necessary knowledge by effortlessly weaving it within her narrative.\n\nA true testament to the talent of Aukes to break down the genre boundaries within the very first installment of this series.\n\nI won't say too much about the plot in an effort to avoid spoilers, but I can tell you that while there are lots of details and character to keep track of, it's fairly easy to plot out the key players in the story. The plot is full of turmoil both on the action side and the emotional one. Aukes is no stranger to either action or emotion, so this series was sure to impress from the start. The ending to Fringe Runner left me pumped to see what she has in store for the next installment in the series.\n\nAukes really nailed it with her characters in this one. Each character is different, paired with their own triumphs and personality (or physical) flaws. It's amazing to get into the minds of such a large cast of characters in a read of this size. We really learn so much about everyone in a way that doesn't veer far from the plot's intended path. One of my favorite things about a Rachel Aukes novel is that while you know they are intended for older, matured audiences, they aren't riddled with gore, harsh language, or explicit sex. Take note readers, Aukes is an author to watch!\n\nAs mentioned before, I haven't read any sci-fi novels previously so I have very little to compare Fringe Runner to. What I can say is that I truly enjoyed the futuristic setting and technologies. They were described in short context, as though everything was not out of the ordinary. I think that made for a much more enjoyable experience. With this in mind, I was fully able to immerse myself into the plot and setting without worrying about the technicalities or 'realism' or the story. I dove in head first and came out with a new appreciation for both Aukes and the genre.\n\nAs you can clearly see, I was absolutely blown away by Fringe Runner. My only complaint is that we have to wait for the next book in the series. I definitely could have used another hundred pages! It should come as absolutely no surprise that I am granting Fringe Runner by Rachel Aukes a near-perfect 5-star review. A perfect read for fans of the fantasy and sci-fi genres. Don't take my word for it, grab yourself a copy of Fringe Runner, available now from your favorite retailer. You will not be disappointed!\n\n*****","Product: Casey L. Bond resides in West Virginia with her husband and their two beautiful daughters. She loves to let her imaginary friends spill onto the blank page.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: The Series That Proves Dystopian Certainly is NOT Dead! Don't Miss This Series! One-Click Today!\n\nReview: Full review and more available at: http://oneguysguidetogoodreads.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-harvest-saga-reap-resist-reclaim-by.html\n\n**SPOILER FREE SERIES REVIEW**\n\n*****\nMy Thoughts:\n\nAlright readers, it's story time. So when I first joined the book community about two years ago, I was immediately told one thing: dystopian is dead. Coming right off the book highs of The Hunger Games and Divergent, the book world was fed up with all things dystopian. I won't lie, I really am not a fan of THG, but I loved Divergent, until the end anyway. I couldn't hardly believe that the bookish world could be through with this genre after only a few blockbuster hits. Surely there were more that I had missed. Two years later, I'm still hearing 'dystopian is dead', but you know what? Screw that. Since I've started blogging, I've read no less than ten new and absolutely incredible dystopian series that have absolutely blown other reads out of the water. Who is this 'they' that controls the market and who are they to say what is dead? My friends, if I have anything to say about it, dystopian is certainly not dead. In these two years, one fantastic series managed to slip under my radar. One series that, until I recently met the author, I had no idea existed. Could this 'new' series live up to the greatness of the dystopians before it?\n\nOh hell yes it did. And then some. The tower of greatness has fallen, my friends, a new author reigns supreme. Have you met Casey L. Bond?\n\nI can honestly say without hesitation that The Harvest Saga is EASILY sitting in my top 5 dystopian series of all time. Yeah people. It was that absolutely incredible. Three novels and I couldn't even stop reading long enough to review them. I devoured this series folks, and if you're smart, you will too!\n\nWhen it comes to the plot of The Harvest Saga, I can't even really begin to describe it to you in a way that even kind of tells you how awesome it is. If I had to comp it to something, I'd call it The Hunger Games-meets-Children of Men. So basically you have a society divided along resources where the women have become barren. Make sense? In all seriousness, I found The Harvest Saga to be one of the most unique and original creations that I have seen in months. I have never read anything quite like this. With action and plot twists on each and every page, it was one whirlwind adventure that I can't wait to relive again. Oh and did I mention the feels? Sweet Mother of Moses. Feels were caught. So many times. It isn't uncommon to expect heartbreak in a series of this genre, but I was clearly not expecting the level of heartbreak I felt several times. It was incredible. Bond pulled at my heartstrings in the greatest of ways. From Reap's opening paragraph to Reclaim's closing sentence, I was absolutely enveloped in the story Bond has created. I can't say that happens enough!\n\nFrom the very beginning the series hits the ground running and the action doesn't cease until the nail-biting conclusion that had my heart racing from anticipation! I laughed, I cried, I caught all the feels. Kudos to you Casey Bond, you've crafted a literary masterpiece worthy of the highest of praises.\n\nFor me, the greatest part of this series was the characters. Unlike other series, Bond really kept this one with a smaller cast. The series really perfectly followed the storyline of a handful of core characters and didn't ever once stray away from our main objective. Leading to a series that can be read extremely quickly with ease. Something Bond did in this series that I hadn't seen successfully executed many times before was the use of multiple POVs in the story. I don't mean alternating POVs, I mean multiple POVs at some points. I didn't keep a tally, but I'd say at one point there were no less than seven ongoing POVs in this series and I loved each and every one. Incredible. Bond did such a great job in developing her characters that I felt like I was right beside them, feeling their pain and reveling in their triumph with each passing chapter.\n\nOne of the great things about this novel in my eyes was the equal representation of gender roles. Far too often I find myself reading from a female author and I experience page after page of male bashing or male characters that are so weak I can hardly finish the story. Not with Bond and this series, both genders and all ages; people from all walks of life are written as equals. Now that's not to say there weren't gender roles in Bond's dystopian, I just, as a male reader, found her interpretation of the society to be a refreshing and rewarding experience.\n\nBond's setting for The Harvest Saga was deep-seeded in a reality that I didn't find too far from the realm of possibility. While technology definitely played a huge role in the story, I really didn't find the story to be bogged down on the sci-fi side of things. In fact, most of the technologies present in this futuristic novel are present today. It was very easy to imagine the lifestyle these characters were living in a way in which I could smell the woodsy scent of Orchard and see the towers of Vesuvius right from the comfort of my living room. With true writing talent as Bond's I was transplanted into her world in the greatest of ways. The intricate settings did an incredible job in setting the tone of the story as it changed from place to place.\n\nOh man. As I mentioned before, this series was one full of feels. More than that, though, it was one full of hard-hitting themes that left me questioning my own place in society. Themes such as family, freedom, privilege, industriousness, growing up, trust, love, and forgiveness were all explored thoroughly in a heartwarming way. Bond clearly wrote this series as a labor of love as the humanity involved is great. You can tell through the pages of this deeply touching trilogy that Bond herself bled into this pages, something I did not take advantage of. This series is as delicate as it is enthralling.\n\nAs you guys can clearly see, I developed a deep love for Abby Blue and her plight for the Lessers. Bond's incredible writing style was both creative and gripping. The way she seamlessly flowed from one installment to the next without bogging the reader down with the backlog was an incredible feat as well. In all honesty, I think this series would best be marketed as one massive tome. Selling this in three separate installments is torture to readers who can't get enough. Thankfully. I was fortunate enough to grab The Harvest Saga Box Set just for that reason. I cannot imagine have had to wait for each of these wonderful novels to hit the shelves.\n\nIf Casey L. Bond isn't an author you're familiar with, I suggest you rectify that, quick. She's got quite the catalog of reads built up and I cannot wait to devour each and every one.\n\nThe Harvest Saga took hold of my book mind and wouldn't let go. I've fought a book hangover for days. With unique and original plotting, exciting characters, and emotion enough to warm the coldest of heart, Bond excels with The Harvest Saga. Move over Suzanne Collins, there's a new Queen of YA Dystopian hot on your tail! It should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone that I am granting all three novels in The Harvest Saga near-perfect 5-star reviews. This will definitely not be the last you hear from me about this series. Be sure to add it to your TBR today. I promise you won't be disappointed!\n*****","Product: LAURA WARD is the author of PAST HEAVEN and the New Adult novel, NOT YET. She lives in Maryland with her loud and very loving three children and husband. Laura married her college sweetheart and is endlessly grateful for the support he has given her through all their years together, and especially toward her goal of writing books. When not picking up toy trucks, driving to lacrosse practice, or checking spelling homework, Laura is writing or reading romance novels.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Laura Ward Knocks Another One Out of the Park! Past Heaven is a MUST Read!\n\nReview: Full review and more available at: http://oneguysguidetogoodreads.blogspot.com/2015/01/past-heaven-by-laura-ward-release-day.html\n\n*********************************************************************************\nMy Thoughts:\n\nI feel like this is becoming a more and more common way to start out my posts, but I'm actually not complaining: I am not a fan of the romance genre, but this read made me a believer. I feel like I should start my posts with a new statement, how about: As a male, the romance genre is not my first pick, however, after reading some incredible reads as of late, my thoughts on the genre are slowly, but surely changing? How does that sound? Haha.\n\nI don't hate romance, I just don't want to read it. I'm a guy. That should make sense to most people. I have said numerous that I make exceptions on a case-by-case basis. When I make an exception for romance novels, it has to be something that sounds amazing to me. Something that I truly think will change my views on the genre. I'll be doggoned if Laura Ward hasn't done just that, twice. TWICE.\n\nYou guys may remember a few months ago where I read and reviewed Not Yet and it ended up being one of my favorite NA reads ever. It was equal parts mind blowing and emotional. Seriously, Laura hit me hard with that read. It should come as no surprise that when she messaged me to ask if I;d be interested in reviewing her second novel, Past Heaven, that I said yes without hesitation.\n\nBefore I get too far into specifics, I will say that this was the first 'adult' romance novel I have ever read. I have to say that I actually liked it a whole lot more than more NAs I have read. The story line was so much more mature and relatable than others I have read. It was a refreshing experience for me all the way around! Let's jump into it:\n\nPlot. I have to say that the synopsis for this story really does not do it justice. From the very first chapter, I was hooked. Out story is told in a dual-POV format in one of the most unique ways I have seen. I'm not really sure what made it so different, but it really was unlike others I have read. The prologue and epilogue are told from the POV of a very important secondary character, which really gave the story an 'outsiders' POV at the two most important times. A very interesting twist.\n\nNow when I was finally able to decipher what the book was about, I had this moment of this is def not realistic. Well, I was wrong. Maybe I've never seen the glamour of the Hollywood life that Reynolds Carter experiences, but I can tell you that this is exactly how I pictured it. Honestly, it's so hard to describe any of this without giving away the themes/tone of the novel.\n\nOne thing that really worked well for me in the story was the way the lot eventually shifted to revolve around the changed in the Atwater's lives, particularly the lives of the Liz's three young sons. As the oldest of three children raised by a single parent, that really hit home for me. Ward does an incredible job of placing all of her characters in interesting places within the plot to bring forth maximum feels. And let me tell ya, I caught the feels. SEVERAL times.\n\nCharacters. I'm not married. I'm not a parent. I'm not a Hollywood superstar, and I never will be. That being said, was still able to relate to the characters in this novel? Hell yes I was. It's been a long time since a cast of characters touched me the way those in Past Heaven have. Through heartbreaks and triumphs, I was able to feel every emotion Ward wrote.\n\nWhile I, again, can't say much, I will say without hesitation that Liz's three sons were the best part of the novel for me. Wow. I can't even begin to describe how pivotal they are to this novel, I really do not believe it could have worked without them. Cindy was a phenomenal addition to the cast and really played the best friend/comedic relief role to perfection. Liz has literally been through hell and back in her life and it was so refreshing to see a novel where she wasn't facing all of her hardships completely alone. Liz is a very strong character emotionally and extremely mature, I had so much respect for her in this film. Reynolds was a character that really surprised me. Normally characters such as his are the ones I detest, but in this instance he ended up being one of my favorite parts of the entire novel. He grows so much as a character and by the end of the novel, I was completely blown away at his character development.\n\nAnother thing Ward has done that has really opened my eyes and given her a special place in my bookish-heart is her inclusion of individuals with Intellectual Disabilities. She did it first with Not Yet and has now done it again in a HUGE way with Past Heaven. The way Laura weaves these unique and amazing individuals into her seamless storytelling is just one of the many amazing kudos I can give to this incredible woman. Laura isn't just an author, she an advocate for a better world and for that, I give her the highest of praises both on the page and off.\n\nSetting. This books jumps between several places. Liz's small town life on the east coast and Reynolds busy life in bustling Hollywood are the two main settings, but we see so much more than one would expect. Instead of seeing the negatives of all the settings as you do in most novels, Ward really does her best to show the positive sides of all walks of life. I think one of the most special parts of this read for me was seeing that celebrities, no matter how big, are still just people. They feel the same emotions and go through many of the same hardships as the average Joe. They just have more money! Seriously though, that was such an interesting take on superstardom and I really appreciated that insight. From the cities the story weaves between other fun settings including western ranches and Atlantic beaches. Ward's setting are so intricate that it takes little to no effort to place yourself right within the story. Particularly that of the Atwater home. Wow, I feel like I lived there by the end of the story, I could see it all so perfectly!\n\nTheme/Tone. I have a whole lot of thoughts to add in this category, but after rewriting what I have already written, I think I've touched on most of them. I would like to add a few of the overarching themes. Family- Liz and Reynolds both have vastly different family. It was so interesting to see how their dynamics and definitions of the term changed over the course of the novel. It was really great. Survivors Guilt- Liz has massive survivors guilt and depression after the loss of her husband. It was definitely to be expected, but I have a feeling this story will really hit home to those who have been in similar situations. The innocence of youth- Liz's children go through a lot in this novel, especially with the sudden inclusion of Reynolds in their lives. Seeing their development in this story really touched me. It was incredible to witness. This is not a happy novel. I mean, think about it. What do you expect? It's an awful thing that has happened to this family, but I can tell you that they pull through their hardships in the greatest way possible: together. Seriously.\n\nThe one last thing I'd like to touch on in this novel was the overall maturity of the story. As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, this is the first adult romance I have ever read. I am so used the NA genre, that I forget there is an entire genre dedicated to life post-college. You know, real life. I have always strayed away form these reads for a number of reasons, but after Past Heaven, I have decided to open my eyes a bit more to the genre. I do love a good YA or NA story, but to be completely honest, they are some of the most unrealistic and immature novels that I read. It was so incredibly refreshing to read about real people with real life problems. People with issues and who's number one source of rectifying them isn't sex. How great is that? Mature adults who are seeking adult solutions to life's problems? I can get on board that train any day of the week.\n\nAll-in-all, it should come as no surprise to anyone who is reading this that I am giving Past Heaven by Laura Ward a near-perfect 5-star review. Note that I didn't have a single negative critique of this read. I really just didn't. By the time I closed the final pages, I felt complete. Laura Ward has truly delivered a literary masterpiece. Kudos to you Laura Ward and thank you for another absolutely incredible novel. I cannot wait to see where you go from here! You are slowly, but surely, changing my mind about the romance genre and for that I thank you. Thanks for adding class, not trash, to a genre that have severely gone downhill in the past few years. Authors like you are forever changing the landscape for the better and I couldn't be more excited! Keep up the amazing work!\n*********************************************************************************","Product: Award-winning author Casey L. Bond lives in Milton, West Virginia with her husband and their two beautiful daughters. When shes not busy being a domestic goddess and chasing her baby girls, she loves to write young adult and new adult fiction.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Take note book world, we've got a new rising series on our hands. It's \"to die for\". Don't let this one slip away!\n\nReview: Full review and more available at: [...]\n*****\nMy Thoughts:\n\n\"There would always be reminders of my former life, like wounds that were torn open again and again. They would never heal, but I had eternity to bleed.\"\n\nAs anyone who follows this blog will well know, I am a huge Casey L. Bond fan. Admittedly, I haven't read her entire backlog and just recently jumped on board the Bond Bandwagon, but even based on the few works I have devoured, I can say with confidence that she's one of the most talented writers I've worked with as of late. Her stories are full of gripping emotion and such vivid plots and settings that really leave a lasting impression on the mind of her readers.\n\nAnyone who knows me also knows that I am absolutely obsessed with anything paranormal. And vampires? My favorite. Bring it on. But what happens when you miss the living dead with the undead? Can a novel with both vampires and zombies work in a post-apocalyptic setting? Hell yes. And so much more.\n\nAnyone who read my recent review of book one in this series, Frenzy, will well-remember that I absolutely adored each and every word. I absolutely fell in love with Bond's ability to craft a story beyond convention that didn't stick between the lines of what one would expect from a traditional novel of this genre. That's one of my favorite characteristics I look for in an author: pushing the limits, and does Bond ever!\n\nFrantic picks up right as we left our characters in Frenzy: confused, scared, and in one heck of a mess. With Portia's life on the line, she makes the only decision she has: drink from the blood of her poisoned ring and become the creature she's been raised to hate. A Nightcrawler. A Vampire. Being newly turned can only mean one thing: a new fledgling is in Frenzy. Can Blackwater handle the effects of another newly turned?\n\nBond really ups the ante with Frantic. With the same high-octane thrills and crippling feels as we saw in book one, Bond builds upon those emotions to craft an incredible sophomore outing in the series. I have to say there were several plot twists that I absolutely did not see coming and more than a few moments that left my heart heavy with emotions. This groundbreaking series is not to be missed. With a plot so fast paced, it was no surprise to me that I absolutely devoured this one.\n\nRetaining the same post-apocalyptic setting as book one, Bond delves more into the tone and psyche of the setting in book two. It's not so much about where you are, it's about what you make of it. Human? Infected? Vampire? Each setting means a different outcome for each race. Can three races with absolute different motives co-exist? Or are their motives really all that different?\n\nAs I mentioned before, Bond really challenges the conventions of the genre with this installment. It's so much more than what you see on the surface and that in itself will leave you with so many questions at the end of the novel. Questions that will leave you pondering everything you thought you knew about the genre and leave you begging for more!\n\nAs you can clearly see, book two spoke to me just as clearly as its' predecessor. It's full of emotion, grit, and appeal that only an author as talented as Casey L. Bond can delivery. A true nail biter from page one, Frantic is everything I needed in a sequel and more! It should come as absolutely no surprise that I am granting this second installment to The Frenzy Series a well-earned 5-star review. Take note book world, we've got a new rising series on our hands. It's to die for. Don't let this one slip away, add it to your TBR today!\n\n*****","Product: The first thing Christine does when she's getting ready to read a book is to crack the spine in at least five places. She wholeheartedly believes there is no place as comfy as the pages of a well-worn book. She's addicted to buying books, reading books, and writing books. Books, books, books. She also has a weakness for adventure, inappropriate humor, and coke (the caffeinated bubbly kind). Christine is from Forest Hill, Maryland where she lives with her husband, three kids, and her library of ugly spine books.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Everything I was looking for, and then some. An epic finale to an incredible series! HUGE kudos to Manzari!\n\nReview: Full review and more available at: http://oneguysguidetogoodreads.blogspot.com/2015/12/redemption-sophisticates-3-by-christine.html\n\n*****\nMy Thoughts:\n\nAs a reader, one of the most challenging aspects of the industry is anxiously awaiting the next installment in a series that is near and dear to your heart. With new novels hitting the shelves each day, as time goes on it gets easier, but your bookish mind is always ready for what your favorite authors have up their sleeves next. In the fall of 2014, I discovered a new-to-me young adult paranormal/dystopian series that truly blew me away. It was so far off the reach from my 'norm' that I still don't know exactly what prompted me to take the plunge, but I am so ridiculously glad I did. A new-to-me author and a new series were exactly what the doctor ordered. Deviation was fresh, original, and shook my world in the best of ways. Immediately after, I devoured Conviction and was yet again blown away. But that wasn't it. Manzari had one last story up her sleeve. The finale to end all finales, but I had to wait A YEAR to get my hands on it!\n\nWas Redemption worth the wait? Could it possibly live up to its' predecessors?\n\nHELL YES. And then some.\n\nOh man readers, I don't hardly know where to start. If you guys have read my reviews of the first two novels in this series, you'll know how much I absolutely loved each and every word in them. Manzari left us with a huge cliffhanger headed into the series finale that had me bouncing with excitement. Could this entire story come full story and end with one final round?\n\nOf all the incredible things I'll say about this one, I will say that, in my opinion, the very best part was that Manzari was able to wrap up the entire story to perfection. All loose ends were tied and the reader was left with a very satisfying conclusion to a mind-blowing series. With a plot a complex as The Sophisticates, I will admit that I had my doubts.\n\nThe plot for this one was extremely fast paced and Manzari took little time to rehash the past events of the previous installments. I highly suggest brushing up on the first two novels before diving into this one, because if you're anything like me, it's been awhile and you'd forgotten a lot. Once I was able to wrap my mind around the story and full immerse myself back into Manzari's world, I couldn't set this one down. I don't know the last time I devoured a story like Redemption. This should go without being said, but I will absolutely say that this is not a series you will be able to pick up on book three and understand what is happening, you must read books one and two before starting this one.\n\nAs a huge fan of Manzari's for quite some time now (and having read all of her published works), I was thoroughly impressed with the evolution of her writing style as evident in this latest release. From young adult to new adult romance, Manzari has recently branched out of her comfort zone and really knocked the ball out of the park (her New Adult Romance, Hooked, remains one of my all-time favorites in the genre). An incredible testament to her talent, Manzari completely astounded me with the final product of Redemption. The plot, character development, and intriguing settings made for one novel I was genuinely thrilled to have devoured.\n\nThe only real downside about this series is the huge cast that it features. I'm talking 40+ very important/supporting characters at all times. I won't lie, it's confusing. Names are thrown around so constantly that as a reader you have to take your time to get 'into' the world to know who is who and why they are important. After you can finally get that down, it makes a whole lot more sense. As a fan who had been away from the series for over a year, I found myself consulting the cast list (included in the front of the novel) several times. You know you've got a legit story on your hands when you need a cast list. Aside from the large cast of characters, it's refreshing to see that each character was truly written to perfection. The development throughout the series was truly a work of genius and a pleasure to read. Cleo, Ozzy, Rune, Queenie, and all the rest of the gang opened my eyes wider with each passing scene. I don't know that I've ever seen an author pour such complex emotions into so many YA characters in a series. I'm telling you folks, it's awesome!\n\nAs evident by the title of this novel, the entire storyline focuses on the overarching theme of 'redemption'. I won't lie, this one is an extremely deep read with some dark undertones that will leave the reader questioning their own beliefs and thoughts on redemption while struggling to keep their emotions in check with the plot twists and feels that Manzari throws their way. It's a beautiful tapestry the author weaves through her words. If you make it through this novel without reflecting on your own thoughts and beliefs, you've read it wrong friend.\n\nWith Redemption, the Sophisticates series is officially at a close. And to be honest, I'm okay with that. Manzari ended this series (one that's very close to my heart) on an incredible note. The ending was everything I was looking for and then some. Definitely not something I can say often enough.\n\nAs you guys can clearly see, with literary brilliance, Christine Manzari has wrapped up The Sophisticates series to perfection. I couldn't have been more pleased with the final result. It's been a genuine pleasure to consider myself one of this series' biggest fans and I absolutely cannot wait to share the love with an entire new group of readers. I absolutely highly recommend this series to all readers of YA, paranormal, dystopian, and sci-fi novels. You will not be disappointed. It should come as absolutely no surprise that I am granting Redemption a near-perfect 5-star review. Add this one to your TBR folks, it's a decision you won't soon regret. As for me, I won't mourn the finale to one of my all-time favorite series, I'll revel in the fact that I'm perfectly at peace knowing it received the sendoff it so desperately deserved. Kudos to you Manzari, you truly are a treasure to the genre. I absolutely cannot wait to see what you have in store next!\n\n*****"],"string":"[\n \"Product: Rachel Aukes is the bestselling author of 100 Days in Deadland, which made Suspense Magazines Best of the Year list. She is also a Wattpad Star, her stories having over three million reads. When not writing, she can be found flying old airplanes across the Midwest countryside.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Aukes weaves a tale full of suspense, action, and spectacular emotions that left me begging for more!\\n\\nReview: Full review and more available at: [...]\\n*****\\nMy Thoughts:\\n\\nCan I just start out this review by saying that I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into when it came to Fringe Runner. Let me tell you guys how many sci-fi or space opera books I had read previously... none. Nope. Not a single one. Sci-Fi is not usually my bit. I'm as nerdy as they come. I love Star Wars, I can tell you all about space and astronomy (I went to Space Camp, for goodness sakes), but when it comes to Sci-Fi novels, I've never been interested. It's always been one of those genres that I always assumed worked better in the visual media (film, television, video games, etc). Well folks, I was wrong. Once again I underestimated the great Rachel Aukes.\\n\\nThose of you who are new to my blog and reviews may not be familiar with Aukes, but anyone who has been around since the beginning will be well-acquainted with Aukes and her most recent series, the Deadland Saga. You see, Aukes has changed my life once before. Yes, I didn't say shelves. I said life. Prior to Aukes, I was very 'on the fence' about horror novels, especially anything regarding zombies. Through her literary masterpieces, Aukes made me a believer in the best of ways. Her eloquent writing style, paired with an ability to craft emotions so strong, Nicholas Sparks himself should be jealous, Aukes changed my literary landscape in indescribable ways.\\n\\nI'd let Aukes guide me through the unknown once before, but was I confident she could change my views on the Sci-Fi genre? It didn't take long for me to find my answer.\\n\\nFrom the very first chapter, I was hooked.\\n\\nFringe Runner is one of the most unique and original novels I have read in a very long time. Leaping off the pages and into the most creative of fantasies my mind could conjure, Aukes weaves a tale full of suspense, action, and spectacular emotions that left me begging for more!\\n\\nThe very best part of Fringe Runner is that it's the perfect Sci-Fi read to get your feet wet. Whether your a seasoned pro or a beginner to the genre, you'll greatly appreciate the world Aukes has created. Why is it so perfect for new readers of the genre, you ask? One of the glowing stereotypes of a Sci-Fi space opera is the high fantasy-level of description the authors tend to pour into each volume, leading to a slow moving plot that requires far more attention than your average reader is willing/has time to commit to. Aukes totally wipes that stereotype off the slate by providing her readers a full glimpse into her world, including all necessary backstory and world-building, without making the experience a grueling one for the readers. She slips in all necessary knowledge by effortlessly weaving it within her narrative.\\n\\nA true testament to the talent of Aukes to break down the genre boundaries within the very first installment of this series.\\n\\nI won't say too much about the plot in an effort to avoid spoilers, but I can tell you that while there are lots of details and character to keep track of, it's fairly easy to plot out the key players in the story. The plot is full of turmoil both on the action side and the emotional one. Aukes is no stranger to either action or emotion, so this series was sure to impress from the start. The ending to Fringe Runner left me pumped to see what she has in store for the next installment in the series.\\n\\nAukes really nailed it with her characters in this one. Each character is different, paired with their own triumphs and personality (or physical) flaws. It's amazing to get into the minds of such a large cast of characters in a read of this size. We really learn so much about everyone in a way that doesn't veer far from the plot's intended path. One of my favorite things about a Rachel Aukes novel is that while you know they are intended for older, matured audiences, they aren't riddled with gore, harsh language, or explicit sex. Take note readers, Aukes is an author to watch!\\n\\nAs mentioned before, I haven't read any sci-fi novels previously so I have very little to compare Fringe Runner to. What I can say is that I truly enjoyed the futuristic setting and technologies. They were described in short context, as though everything was not out of the ordinary. I think that made for a much more enjoyable experience. With this in mind, I was fully able to immerse myself into the plot and setting without worrying about the technicalities or 'realism' or the story. I dove in head first and came out with a new appreciation for both Aukes and the genre.\\n\\nAs you can clearly see, I was absolutely blown away by Fringe Runner. My only complaint is that we have to wait for the next book in the series. I definitely could have used another hundred pages! It should come as absolutely no surprise that I am granting Fringe Runner by Rachel Aukes a near-perfect 5-star review. A perfect read for fans of the fantasy and sci-fi genres. Don't take my word for it, grab yourself a copy of Fringe Runner, available now from your favorite retailer. You will not be disappointed!\\n\\n*****\",\n \"Product: Casey L. Bond resides in West Virginia with her husband and their two beautiful daughters. She loves to let her imaginary friends spill onto the blank page.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: The Series That Proves Dystopian Certainly is NOT Dead! Don't Miss This Series! One-Click Today!\\n\\nReview: Full review and more available at: http://oneguysguidetogoodreads.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-harvest-saga-reap-resist-reclaim-by.html\\n\\n**SPOILER FREE SERIES REVIEW**\\n\\n*****\\nMy Thoughts:\\n\\nAlright readers, it's story time. So when I first joined the book community about two years ago, I was immediately told one thing: dystopian is dead. Coming right off the book highs of The Hunger Games and Divergent, the book world was fed up with all things dystopian. I won't lie, I really am not a fan of THG, but I loved Divergent, until the end anyway. I couldn't hardly believe that the bookish world could be through with this genre after only a few blockbuster hits. Surely there were more that I had missed. Two years later, I'm still hearing 'dystopian is dead', but you know what? Screw that. Since I've started blogging, I've read no less than ten new and absolutely incredible dystopian series that have absolutely blown other reads out of the water. Who is this 'they' that controls the market and who are they to say what is dead? My friends, if I have anything to say about it, dystopian is certainly not dead. In these two years, one fantastic series managed to slip under my radar. One series that, until I recently met the author, I had no idea existed. Could this 'new' series live up to the greatness of the dystopians before it?\\n\\nOh hell yes it did. And then some. The tower of greatness has fallen, my friends, a new author reigns supreme. Have you met Casey L. Bond?\\n\\nI can honestly say without hesitation that The Harvest Saga is EASILY sitting in my top 5 dystopian series of all time. Yeah people. It was that absolutely incredible. Three novels and I couldn't even stop reading long enough to review them. I devoured this series folks, and if you're smart, you will too!\\n\\nWhen it comes to the plot of The Harvest Saga, I can't even really begin to describe it to you in a way that even kind of tells you how awesome it is. If I had to comp it to something, I'd call it The Hunger Games-meets-Children of Men. So basically you have a society divided along resources where the women have become barren. Make sense? In all seriousness, I found The Harvest Saga to be one of the most unique and original creations that I have seen in months. I have never read anything quite like this. With action and plot twists on each and every page, it was one whirlwind adventure that I can't wait to relive again. Oh and did I mention the feels? Sweet Mother of Moses. Feels were caught. So many times. It isn't uncommon to expect heartbreak in a series of this genre, but I was clearly not expecting the level of heartbreak I felt several times. It was incredible. Bond pulled at my heartstrings in the greatest of ways. From Reap's opening paragraph to Reclaim's closing sentence, I was absolutely enveloped in the story Bond has created. I can't say that happens enough!\\n\\nFrom the very beginning the series hits the ground running and the action doesn't cease until the nail-biting conclusion that had my heart racing from anticipation! I laughed, I cried, I caught all the feels. Kudos to you Casey Bond, you've crafted a literary masterpiece worthy of the highest of praises.\\n\\nFor me, the greatest part of this series was the characters. Unlike other series, Bond really kept this one with a smaller cast. The series really perfectly followed the storyline of a handful of core characters and didn't ever once stray away from our main objective. Leading to a series that can be read extremely quickly with ease. Something Bond did in this series that I hadn't seen successfully executed many times before was the use of multiple POVs in the story. I don't mean alternating POVs, I mean multiple POVs at some points. I didn't keep a tally, but I'd say at one point there were no less than seven ongoing POVs in this series and I loved each and every one. Incredible. Bond did such a great job in developing her characters that I felt like I was right beside them, feeling their pain and reveling in their triumph with each passing chapter.\\n\\nOne of the great things about this novel in my eyes was the equal representation of gender roles. Far too often I find myself reading from a female author and I experience page after page of male bashing or male characters that are so weak I can hardly finish the story. Not with Bond and this series, both genders and all ages; people from all walks of life are written as equals. Now that's not to say there weren't gender roles in Bond's dystopian, I just, as a male reader, found her interpretation of the society to be a refreshing and rewarding experience.\\n\\nBond's setting for The Harvest Saga was deep-seeded in a reality that I didn't find too far from the realm of possibility. While technology definitely played a huge role in the story, I really didn't find the story to be bogged down on the sci-fi side of things. In fact, most of the technologies present in this futuristic novel are present today. It was very easy to imagine the lifestyle these characters were living in a way in which I could smell the woodsy scent of Orchard and see the towers of Vesuvius right from the comfort of my living room. With true writing talent as Bond's I was transplanted into her world in the greatest of ways. The intricate settings did an incredible job in setting the tone of the story as it changed from place to place.\\n\\nOh man. As I mentioned before, this series was one full of feels. More than that, though, it was one full of hard-hitting themes that left me questioning my own place in society. Themes such as family, freedom, privilege, industriousness, growing up, trust, love, and forgiveness were all explored thoroughly in a heartwarming way. Bond clearly wrote this series as a labor of love as the humanity involved is great. You can tell through the pages of this deeply touching trilogy that Bond herself bled into this pages, something I did not take advantage of. This series is as delicate as it is enthralling.\\n\\nAs you guys can clearly see, I developed a deep love for Abby Blue and her plight for the Lessers. Bond's incredible writing style was both creative and gripping. The way she seamlessly flowed from one installment to the next without bogging the reader down with the backlog was an incredible feat as well. In all honesty, I think this series would best be marketed as one massive tome. Selling this in three separate installments is torture to readers who can't get enough. Thankfully. I was fortunate enough to grab The Harvest Saga Box Set just for that reason. I cannot imagine have had to wait for each of these wonderful novels to hit the shelves.\\n\\nIf Casey L. Bond isn't an author you're familiar with, I suggest you rectify that, quick. She's got quite the catalog of reads built up and I cannot wait to devour each and every one.\\n\\nThe Harvest Saga took hold of my book mind and wouldn't let go. I've fought a book hangover for days. With unique and original plotting, exciting characters, and emotion enough to warm the coldest of heart, Bond excels with The Harvest Saga. Move over Suzanne Collins, there's a new Queen of YA Dystopian hot on your tail! It should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone that I am granting all three novels in The Harvest Saga near-perfect 5-star reviews. This will definitely not be the last you hear from me about this series. Be sure to add it to your TBR today. I promise you won't be disappointed!\\n*****\",\n \"Product: LAURA WARD is the author of PAST HEAVEN and the New Adult novel, NOT YET. She lives in Maryland with her loud and very loving three children and husband. Laura married her college sweetheart and is endlessly grateful for the support he has given her through all their years together, and especially toward her goal of writing books. When not picking up toy trucks, driving to lacrosse practice, or checking spelling homework, Laura is writing or reading romance novels.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Laura Ward Knocks Another One Out of the Park! Past Heaven is a MUST Read!\\n\\nReview: Full review and more available at: http://oneguysguidetogoodreads.blogspot.com/2015/01/past-heaven-by-laura-ward-release-day.html\\n\\n*********************************************************************************\\nMy Thoughts:\\n\\nI feel like this is becoming a more and more common way to start out my posts, but I'm actually not complaining: I am not a fan of the romance genre, but this read made me a believer. I feel like I should start my posts with a new statement, how about: As a male, the romance genre is not my first pick, however, after reading some incredible reads as of late, my thoughts on the genre are slowly, but surely changing? How does that sound? Haha.\\n\\nI don't hate romance, I just don't want to read it. I'm a guy. That should make sense to most people. I have said numerous that I make exceptions on a case-by-case basis. When I make an exception for romance novels, it has to be something that sounds amazing to me. Something that I truly think will change my views on the genre. I'll be doggoned if Laura Ward hasn't done just that, twice. TWICE.\\n\\nYou guys may remember a few months ago where I read and reviewed Not Yet and it ended up being one of my favorite NA reads ever. It was equal parts mind blowing and emotional. Seriously, Laura hit me hard with that read. It should come as no surprise that when she messaged me to ask if I;d be interested in reviewing her second novel, Past Heaven, that I said yes without hesitation.\\n\\nBefore I get too far into specifics, I will say that this was the first 'adult' romance novel I have ever read. I have to say that I actually liked it a whole lot more than more NAs I have read. The story line was so much more mature and relatable than others I have read. It was a refreshing experience for me all the way around! Let's jump into it:\\n\\nPlot. I have to say that the synopsis for this story really does not do it justice. From the very first chapter, I was hooked. Out story is told in a dual-POV format in one of the most unique ways I have seen. I'm not really sure what made it so different, but it really was unlike others I have read. The prologue and epilogue are told from the POV of a very important secondary character, which really gave the story an 'outsiders' POV at the two most important times. A very interesting twist.\\n\\nNow when I was finally able to decipher what the book was about, I had this moment of this is def not realistic. Well, I was wrong. Maybe I've never seen the glamour of the Hollywood life that Reynolds Carter experiences, but I can tell you that this is exactly how I pictured it. Honestly, it's so hard to describe any of this without giving away the themes/tone of the novel.\\n\\nOne thing that really worked well for me in the story was the way the lot eventually shifted to revolve around the changed in the Atwater's lives, particularly the lives of the Liz's three young sons. As the oldest of three children raised by a single parent, that really hit home for me. Ward does an incredible job of placing all of her characters in interesting places within the plot to bring forth maximum feels. And let me tell ya, I caught the feels. SEVERAL times.\\n\\nCharacters. I'm not married. I'm not a parent. I'm not a Hollywood superstar, and I never will be. That being said, was still able to relate to the characters in this novel? Hell yes I was. It's been a long time since a cast of characters touched me the way those in Past Heaven have. Through heartbreaks and triumphs, I was able to feel every emotion Ward wrote.\\n\\nWhile I, again, can't say much, I will say without hesitation that Liz's three sons were the best part of the novel for me. Wow. I can't even begin to describe how pivotal they are to this novel, I really do not believe it could have worked without them. Cindy was a phenomenal addition to the cast and really played the best friend/comedic relief role to perfection. Liz has literally been through hell and back in her life and it was so refreshing to see a novel where she wasn't facing all of her hardships completely alone. Liz is a very strong character emotionally and extremely mature, I had so much respect for her in this film. Reynolds was a character that really surprised me. Normally characters such as his are the ones I detest, but in this instance he ended up being one of my favorite parts of the entire novel. He grows so much as a character and by the end of the novel, I was completely blown away at his character development.\\n\\nAnother thing Ward has done that has really opened my eyes and given her a special place in my bookish-heart is her inclusion of individuals with Intellectual Disabilities. She did it first with Not Yet and has now done it again in a HUGE way with Past Heaven. The way Laura weaves these unique and amazing individuals into her seamless storytelling is just one of the many amazing kudos I can give to this incredible woman. Laura isn't just an author, she an advocate for a better world and for that, I give her the highest of praises both on the page and off.\\n\\nSetting. This books jumps between several places. Liz's small town life on the east coast and Reynolds busy life in bustling Hollywood are the two main settings, but we see so much more than one would expect. Instead of seeing the negatives of all the settings as you do in most novels, Ward really does her best to show the positive sides of all walks of life. I think one of the most special parts of this read for me was seeing that celebrities, no matter how big, are still just people. They feel the same emotions and go through many of the same hardships as the average Joe. They just have more money! Seriously though, that was such an interesting take on superstardom and I really appreciated that insight. From the cities the story weaves between other fun settings including western ranches and Atlantic beaches. Ward's setting are so intricate that it takes little to no effort to place yourself right within the story. Particularly that of the Atwater home. Wow, I feel like I lived there by the end of the story, I could see it all so perfectly!\\n\\nTheme/Tone. I have a whole lot of thoughts to add in this category, but after rewriting what I have already written, I think I've touched on most of them. I would like to add a few of the overarching themes. Family- Liz and Reynolds both have vastly different family. It was so interesting to see how their dynamics and definitions of the term changed over the course of the novel. It was really great. Survivors Guilt- Liz has massive survivors guilt and depression after the loss of her husband. It was definitely to be expected, but I have a feeling this story will really hit home to those who have been in similar situations. The innocence of youth- Liz's children go through a lot in this novel, especially with the sudden inclusion of Reynolds in their lives. Seeing their development in this story really touched me. It was incredible to witness. This is not a happy novel. I mean, think about it. What do you expect? It's an awful thing that has happened to this family, but I can tell you that they pull through their hardships in the greatest way possible: together. Seriously.\\n\\nThe one last thing I'd like to touch on in this novel was the overall maturity of the story. As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, this is the first adult romance I have ever read. I am so used the NA genre, that I forget there is an entire genre dedicated to life post-college. You know, real life. I have always strayed away form these reads for a number of reasons, but after Past Heaven, I have decided to open my eyes a bit more to the genre. I do love a good YA or NA story, but to be completely honest, they are some of the most unrealistic and immature novels that I read. It was so incredibly refreshing to read about real people with real life problems. People with issues and who's number one source of rectifying them isn't sex. How great is that? Mature adults who are seeking adult solutions to life's problems? I can get on board that train any day of the week.\\n\\nAll-in-all, it should come as no surprise to anyone who is reading this that I am giving Past Heaven by Laura Ward a near-perfect 5-star review. Note that I didn't have a single negative critique of this read. I really just didn't. By the time I closed the final pages, I felt complete. Laura Ward has truly delivered a literary masterpiece. Kudos to you Laura Ward and thank you for another absolutely incredible novel. I cannot wait to see where you go from here! You are slowly, but surely, changing my mind about the romance genre and for that I thank you. Thanks for adding class, not trash, to a genre that have severely gone downhill in the past few years. Authors like you are forever changing the landscape for the better and I couldn't be more excited! Keep up the amazing work!\\n*********************************************************************************\",\n \"Product: Award-winning author Casey L. Bond lives in Milton, West Virginia with her husband and their two beautiful daughters. When shes not busy being a domestic goddess and chasing her baby girls, she loves to write young adult and new adult fiction.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Take note book world, we've got a new rising series on our hands. It's \\\"to die for\\\". Don't let this one slip away!\\n\\nReview: Full review and more available at: [...]\\n*****\\nMy Thoughts:\\n\\n\\\"There would always be reminders of my former life, like wounds that were torn open again and again. They would never heal, but I had eternity to bleed.\\\"\\n\\nAs anyone who follows this blog will well know, I am a huge Casey L. Bond fan. Admittedly, I haven't read her entire backlog and just recently jumped on board the Bond Bandwagon, but even based on the few works I have devoured, I can say with confidence that she's one of the most talented writers I've worked with as of late. Her stories are full of gripping emotion and such vivid plots and settings that really leave a lasting impression on the mind of her readers.\\n\\nAnyone who knows me also knows that I am absolutely obsessed with anything paranormal. And vampires? My favorite. Bring it on. But what happens when you miss the living dead with the undead? Can a novel with both vampires and zombies work in a post-apocalyptic setting? Hell yes. And so much more.\\n\\nAnyone who read my recent review of book one in this series, Frenzy, will well-remember that I absolutely adored each and every word. I absolutely fell in love with Bond's ability to craft a story beyond convention that didn't stick between the lines of what one would expect from a traditional novel of this genre. That's one of my favorite characteristics I look for in an author: pushing the limits, and does Bond ever!\\n\\nFrantic picks up right as we left our characters in Frenzy: confused, scared, and in one heck of a mess. With Portia's life on the line, she makes the only decision she has: drink from the blood of her poisoned ring and become the creature she's been raised to hate. A Nightcrawler. A Vampire. Being newly turned can only mean one thing: a new fledgling is in Frenzy. Can Blackwater handle the effects of another newly turned?\\n\\nBond really ups the ante with Frantic. With the same high-octane thrills and crippling feels as we saw in book one, Bond builds upon those emotions to craft an incredible sophomore outing in the series. I have to say there were several plot twists that I absolutely did not see coming and more than a few moments that left my heart heavy with emotions. This groundbreaking series is not to be missed. With a plot so fast paced, it was no surprise to me that I absolutely devoured this one.\\n\\nRetaining the same post-apocalyptic setting as book one, Bond delves more into the tone and psyche of the setting in book two. It's not so much about where you are, it's about what you make of it. Human? Infected? Vampire? Each setting means a different outcome for each race. Can three races with absolute different motives co-exist? Or are their motives really all that different?\\n\\nAs I mentioned before, Bond really challenges the conventions of the genre with this installment. It's so much more than what you see on the surface and that in itself will leave you with so many questions at the end of the novel. Questions that will leave you pondering everything you thought you knew about the genre and leave you begging for more!\\n\\nAs you can clearly see, book two spoke to me just as clearly as its' predecessor. It's full of emotion, grit, and appeal that only an author as talented as Casey L. Bond can delivery. A true nail biter from page one, Frantic is everything I needed in a sequel and more! It should come as absolutely no surprise that I am granting this second installment to The Frenzy Series a well-earned 5-star review. Take note book world, we've got a new rising series on our hands. It's to die for. Don't let this one slip away, add it to your TBR today!\\n\\n*****\",\n \"Product: The first thing Christine does when she's getting ready to read a book is to crack the spine in at least five places. She wholeheartedly believes there is no place as comfy as the pages of a well-worn book. She's addicted to buying books, reading books, and writing books. Books, books, books. She also has a weakness for adventure, inappropriate humor, and coke (the caffeinated bubbly kind). Christine is from Forest Hill, Maryland where she lives with her husband, three kids, and her library of ugly spine books.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Everything I was looking for, and then some. An epic finale to an incredible series! HUGE kudos to Manzari!\\n\\nReview: Full review and more available at: http://oneguysguidetogoodreads.blogspot.com/2015/12/redemption-sophisticates-3-by-christine.html\\n\\n*****\\nMy Thoughts:\\n\\nAs a reader, one of the most challenging aspects of the industry is anxiously awaiting the next installment in a series that is near and dear to your heart. With new novels hitting the shelves each day, as time goes on it gets easier, but your bookish mind is always ready for what your favorite authors have up their sleeves next. In the fall of 2014, I discovered a new-to-me young adult paranormal/dystopian series that truly blew me away. It was so far off the reach from my 'norm' that I still don't know exactly what prompted me to take the plunge, but I am so ridiculously glad I did. A new-to-me author and a new series were exactly what the doctor ordered. Deviation was fresh, original, and shook my world in the best of ways. Immediately after, I devoured Conviction and was yet again blown away. But that wasn't it. Manzari had one last story up her sleeve. The finale to end all finales, but I had to wait A YEAR to get my hands on it!\\n\\nWas Redemption worth the wait? Could it possibly live up to its' predecessors?\\n\\nHELL YES. And then some.\\n\\nOh man readers, I don't hardly know where to start. If you guys have read my reviews of the first two novels in this series, you'll know how much I absolutely loved each and every word in them. Manzari left us with a huge cliffhanger headed into the series finale that had me bouncing with excitement. Could this entire story come full story and end with one final round?\\n\\nOf all the incredible things I'll say about this one, I will say that, in my opinion, the very best part was that Manzari was able to wrap up the entire story to perfection. All loose ends were tied and the reader was left with a very satisfying conclusion to a mind-blowing series. With a plot a complex as The Sophisticates, I will admit that I had my doubts.\\n\\nThe plot for this one was extremely fast paced and Manzari took little time to rehash the past events of the previous installments. I highly suggest brushing up on the first two novels before diving into this one, because if you're anything like me, it's been awhile and you'd forgotten a lot. Once I was able to wrap my mind around the story and full immerse myself back into Manzari's world, I couldn't set this one down. I don't know the last time I devoured a story like Redemption. This should go without being said, but I will absolutely say that this is not a series you will be able to pick up on book three and understand what is happening, you must read books one and two before starting this one.\\n\\nAs a huge fan of Manzari's for quite some time now (and having read all of her published works), I was thoroughly impressed with the evolution of her writing style as evident in this latest release. From young adult to new adult romance, Manzari has recently branched out of her comfort zone and really knocked the ball out of the park (her New Adult Romance, Hooked, remains one of my all-time favorites in the genre). An incredible testament to her talent, Manzari completely astounded me with the final product of Redemption. The plot, character development, and intriguing settings made for one novel I was genuinely thrilled to have devoured.\\n\\nThe only real downside about this series is the huge cast that it features. I'm talking 40+ very important/supporting characters at all times. I won't lie, it's confusing. Names are thrown around so constantly that as a reader you have to take your time to get 'into' the world to know who is who and why they are important. After you can finally get that down, it makes a whole lot more sense. As a fan who had been away from the series for over a year, I found myself consulting the cast list (included in the front of the novel) several times. You know you've got a legit story on your hands when you need a cast list. Aside from the large cast of characters, it's refreshing to see that each character was truly written to perfection. The development throughout the series was truly a work of genius and a pleasure to read. Cleo, Ozzy, Rune, Queenie, and all the rest of the gang opened my eyes wider with each passing scene. I don't know that I've ever seen an author pour such complex emotions into so many YA characters in a series. I'm telling you folks, it's awesome!\\n\\nAs evident by the title of this novel, the entire storyline focuses on the overarching theme of 'redemption'. I won't lie, this one is an extremely deep read with some dark undertones that will leave the reader questioning their own beliefs and thoughts on redemption while struggling to keep their emotions in check with the plot twists and feels that Manzari throws their way. It's a beautiful tapestry the author weaves through her words. If you make it through this novel without reflecting on your own thoughts and beliefs, you've read it wrong friend.\\n\\nWith Redemption, the Sophisticates series is officially at a close. And to be honest, I'm okay with that. Manzari ended this series (one that's very close to my heart) on an incredible note. The ending was everything I was looking for and then some. Definitely not something I can say often enough.\\n\\nAs you guys can clearly see, with literary brilliance, Christine Manzari has wrapped up The Sophisticates series to perfection. I couldn't have been more pleased with the final result. It's been a genuine pleasure to consider myself one of this series' biggest fans and I absolutely cannot wait to share the love with an entire new group of readers. I absolutely highly recommend this series to all readers of YA, paranormal, dystopian, and sci-fi novels. You will not be disappointed. It should come as absolutely no surprise that I am granting Redemption a near-perfect 5-star review. Add this one to your TBR folks, it's a decision you won't soon regret. As for me, I won't mourn the finale to one of my all-time favorite series, I'll revel in the fact that I'm perfectly at peace knowing it received the sendoff it so desperately deserved. Kudos to you Manzari, you truly are a treasure to the genre. I absolutely cannot wait to see what you have in store next!\\n\\n*****\"\n]","isConversational":false},"profile_size":{"kind":"number","value":5,"string":"5"},"task":{"kind":"string","value":"longlamp_3"},"split_kind":{"kind":"string","value":"user_based"},"id":{"kind":"number","value":1674,"string":"1,674"}}},{"rowIdx":1675,"cells":{"question_id":{"kind":"string","value":"A337FU1WFZDS55"},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of \"4.0\" for a product with description \"MJ Fields is the USA Today bestselling author of numerous books, including the Love series, the Wrapped series, and the Men of Steel novels. She lives in central New York, surrounded by family and friends.\". The summary of the review text is \"Love these Caldwell boys\"."},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"No I didn't read the first book in this series but Im on my way right now to one click it. Once I started Morrisons story I couldn't put it down. Morrison is one of three strong men raised by their now deceased Momma. Their beloved Momma led a hard life but raised her boys to bring good to the world, not bad.\nMorrison Caldwell aka Aces has two faces, the loving brother that would do anything for his two brothers and sister in law and the high roller gambling shark with places in Vegas and Atlantic City. When he hits those towns he becomes an arrogant, pompous guy who loves the glitz and glamour and especially loves the women. Hes committed to not being committed and plans to never fall in love and his jaded attitude towards women will turn you off. But then he meets Hailey, has wild parking lot sex with her and cant get her out of his mind. Hailey comes with her own baggage. Young, with a daughter and a desire to gain the independence she has never had. Her husband is the low life villain in Sin City that runs the games and bought Hailey in a card game. Morrison cant get Hailey out of his mind and eventually takes up Haileys fight for independence.\nWhen Morrison falls, he falls hard and in his own words has no problems turning his balls over to Hailey if that makes her feel better and makes her love him. Morrison is patient with Hailey and I don't know if I loved the romance between Morrison and Hailey the best or Morrisons loving relationship with Ris-Priss, Haileys daughter, and their weekly date night. Hailey fights her love and holds onto her fear of being controlled again but finally has to let down all the barriers when she realizes Morrison loves her and wants only her heart and not to control her life.\nThe author made the emotions jump from the page and I definitely felt Morrison and Haileys struggles. I especially felt the strong family bond between Morrison and his brothers. Their beloved Momma raised three men who know how to treat a woman and put her on a pedestal. So many of these types of romances feel contrived but I felt this one with my heart. Loved Morrison, now going to read about the other brothers."},"correct_answer":{"kind":"string","value":"No I didn't read the first book in this series but Im on my way right now to one click it. Once I started Morrisons story I couldn't put it down. Morrison is one of three strong men raised by their now deceased Momma. Their beloved Momma led a hard life but raised her boys to bring good to the world, not bad.\nMorrison Caldwell aka Aces has two faces, the loving brother that would do anything for his two brothers and sister in law and the high roller gambling shark with places in Vegas and Atlantic City. When he hits those towns he becomes an arrogant, pompous guy who loves the glitz and glamour and especially loves the women. Hes committed to not being committed and plans to never fall in love and his jaded attitude towards women will turn you off. But then he meets Hailey, has wild parking lot sex with her and cant get her out of his mind. Hailey comes with her own baggage. Young, with a daughter and a desire to gain the independence she has never had. Her husband is the low life villain in Sin City that runs the games and bought Hailey in a card game. Morrison cant get Hailey out of his mind and eventually takes up Haileys fight for independence.\nWhen Morrison falls, he falls hard and in his own words has no problems turning his balls over to Hailey if that makes her feel better and makes her love him. Morrison is patient with Hailey and I don't know if I loved the romance between Morrison and Hailey the best or Morrisons loving relationship with Ris-Priss, Haileys daughter, and their weekly date night. Hailey fights her love and holds onto her fear of being controlled again but finally has to let down all the barriers when she realizes Morrison loves her and wants only her heart and not to control her life.\nThe author made the emotions jump from the page and I definitely felt Morrison and Haileys struggles. I especially felt the strong family bond between Morrison and his brothers. Their beloved Momma raised three men who know how to treat a woman and put her on a pedestal. So many of these types of romances feel contrived but I felt this one with my heart. Loved Morrison, now going to read about the other brothers."},"documents":{"kind":"list like","value":["Product: Maytag MVWX600XW 27\" Top-Load Washer with 3.6 cu. ft. Capacity, 10 Wash Cycles, 5 Temperature Settings, 800 RPM Spin Speed, CEE Tier III Energy Star Qualified and QuietSeries 200 Sound Package: White\n\nRating: 1.0\n\nSummary: Used to love Maytag - Hate this washer\n\nReview: This is my third Maytag washer in the last 20 years. First two were wonderful - one of them is 10 years old and still working in a rental house. This machine is awful. Why buy an energy efficient washer if you have to always put it on Bulky to make sure the machine is completely filled with water or wash a load two to three times to get it clean? Most times I have to wash a load twice and rinse it twice. Even then clothes do not come clean. Washed one pair of jeans twice and then had to scrape some dried food off with my fingernail, washed the spot under the faucent and it came clean. Use nothing but the HE detergent but clothes still do not come clean. Agree with the white spots on the clothes from detergent left behind...therefore the reason for multiple washes/rinses. Bought the extended warranty and that is a joke too. You do have to wait weeks to get a service call and then the service man says \"These HE machines aren't like the old washers with agitators, they don't clean as well but you'll have to live with it because the machine functions the way it should.\" I am about to become Maytag's worst nightmare and will most likely never buy another Maytag.","Product: Darby Briar is an American author who loves writing stories about men with broken souls and women who dont know their own strength. Shes a lover of fiction whether it be a movie or book, but prefers stories with some romance, and a happy ending. She grew up in Utah and still lives in the northern part of the state. Shes married and her and her husband have three adorable kids.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: One of the best romances so far this year - give me the next book soon\n\nReview: Seldom do I read a new, first time author and get such a quality story. This author gave me a story that once started, I couldn't put down. Loved the characters, especially Maverick and Ember. The secondary characters were so engaging that I can't wait to read their stories, all of them including Griz's story. Griz is older but he's been with the club since it was created. Then there is Edge, and Edge is really the next one I want. I can't say enough good things about this book. My only hope is that the author doesn't make us wait long for book 2 and that she delivers the same quality in book 2 as she delivered in this one. I can see myself reading this book again and would give it more stars if I could. That's how much I enjoyed this book.","Product: By day, Jayna Vixen is a doctoral-level consultant, supermom, and wife. No one knows that beneath the crisp, pressed suit and the many awards and degrees lies a temptress who lures you in with her masterful storytelling. The author lives in southern California with her dog, her husband, and her (former) preemie son.\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: Cliffhanger - No ending - Wait for the next book?\n\nReview: While this book was not bad and in fact IF it had come to some logical conclusion, I probably would rate it higher. I just hate these new \"installment\" books where you pay $2.99 for half a book and then must buy another book to get to some type of ending. I really, really hate it when the author does not let the reader know that the book is just a part of an ongoing series of books that you have to read to get the full story. I was surprised to see so many high ratings for the book when it ends so abruptly and leaves the reader hanging. When you read as many books as I do and when the second book FINALLY comes out, then I have to go back and re-read or review the prior book to refresh myself on the story. Amazon should require that authors tell potential buyers that it is an installment series.","Product: Anne Malcom has been an avid reader since before she can remember, her mother responsible for her love of reading. It started with magical journeys into the world of Hogwarts and Middle Earth, then as she grew up her reading tastes grew with her. Her love of reading doesnt discriminate, she reads across many genres, although classics like Little Women and Gone with the Wind will hold special places in her heart. She also cant get enough romance, especially when some possessive alpha males throw their weight around. One day, in a reading slump, Cade and Gwens story came to her and started taking up space in her head until she put their story into words. Now that she has started, it doesnt look like shes going to stop anytime soon, with many more characters demanding their story be told as well. Raised in small town New Zealand, Anne had a truly special childhood, growing up in one of the most beautiful countries in the world. She has backpacked across Europe, ridden camels in the Sahara and eaten her way through Italy, loving every moment. For now, shes back at home in New Zealand and quite happy. But who knows when the travel bug will bite her again.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Wish I could rate it more than 5 stars\n\nReview: First let me say I recommend every book in this series. With that said, you can read this one as a standalone. What some may not like about the book is that it is part 1 of a two part book. So yes, there is a cliff hanger there at the end but book two is expected out any day now. Fans of Kristen Ashley and lovers of romance without detailed eroticism will love it. There is more of a focus on the love and I loved that. It made my heart smile to see the love between Lexie and Killian.\n\nWe first met Lexie and Killian in book 2 of the series, Out of the Ashes. I don't usually like the YA/NA genre but this author writes in such a way that you forget these are actually young teenagers at the start of the story. Both Killian and Lexie are not your usual 16/17 year olds and are much more mature,. Killian acts much more mature than most 17 year olds but I guess his childhood/mom made him grow up quick. At 17 he's a man to hold onto. Even though they are very young, you feel that unique first love, true love feel.\n\nIt is really long. When I saw the length when I opened it, I thought oh my, but let me tell you I was so absorbed in the book that I wanted it to be actually longer. This author has shown such exceptional growth from the very first book. She writes the kind of love story that grabs your heart and makes you actually feel the characters' feelings. And it's not just the romantic partners, it's the deep relationships between mother/daughter, step-father/daughter, friends and other family. She writes the kind of family/friend relationships that we all dream of.\n\nI am happy to say that I received a first draft Beta/ARC of this book from the author. even in the first draft, it was a 5 star read for me. Seldom do I read a book that the characters draw me in and make such an impact on my emotions. You will be missing a great love story if you don't one click this one and read it. I can't wait for the next one. It's going to be just as good.","Product: Jayne Blue is two sisters who love writing romantic suspense featuring strong heroines and those hunky alpha men we all dream about. They got their start in the genre when they were little while cooking up elaborate plots for their Barbie dolls to the irritation of all their friends (Hey...she doesn't HAVE to be from Malibu just because that's what the box says!). For more information about Jayne's books and new release news, sign up for her newsletter at jayneblue.com.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: A great addition to a very good series\n\nReview: 4.5 stars for me. This was a great addition to this series. Strong, independent heroine who is not afraid to stand her ground. A hero who is a really good guy but has suffered from witnessing his mother's murder when he was eight years old. I could go on and on about what I liked in this book but suffice it to say I highly recommend it if you want to read a good love story with some strong characters.\nI've reached the point that with this author I am going to be surprised to read a book of hers' that I do not like. She has such a great way of writing realistic characters that feel like everyday people. The dialogue is not forced or out of characters and the way she can write strong, alpah-possessive men will melt you. I can't wait for the next one in this series. I also recommend her other series also."],"string":"[\n \"Product: Maytag MVWX600XW 27\\\" Top-Load Washer with 3.6 cu. ft. Capacity, 10 Wash Cycles, 5 Temperature Settings, 800 RPM Spin Speed, CEE Tier III Energy Star Qualified and QuietSeries 200 Sound Package: White\\n\\nRating: 1.0\\n\\nSummary: Used to love Maytag - Hate this washer\\n\\nReview: This is my third Maytag washer in the last 20 years. First two were wonderful - one of them is 10 years old and still working in a rental house. This machine is awful. Why buy an energy efficient washer if you have to always put it on Bulky to make sure the machine is completely filled with water or wash a load two to three times to get it clean? Most times I have to wash a load twice and rinse it twice. Even then clothes do not come clean. Washed one pair of jeans twice and then had to scrape some dried food off with my fingernail, washed the spot under the faucent and it came clean. Use nothing but the HE detergent but clothes still do not come clean. Agree with the white spots on the clothes from detergent left behind...therefore the reason for multiple washes/rinses. Bought the extended warranty and that is a joke too. You do have to wait weeks to get a service call and then the service man says \\\"These HE machines aren't like the old washers with agitators, they don't clean as well but you'll have to live with it because the machine functions the way it should.\\\" I am about to become Maytag's worst nightmare and will most likely never buy another Maytag.\",\n \"Product: Darby Briar is an American author who loves writing stories about men with broken souls and women who dont know their own strength. Shes a lover of fiction whether it be a movie or book, but prefers stories with some romance, and a happy ending. She grew up in Utah and still lives in the northern part of the state. Shes married and her and her husband have three adorable kids.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: One of the best romances so far this year - give me the next book soon\\n\\nReview: Seldom do I read a new, first time author and get such a quality story. This author gave me a story that once started, I couldn't put down. Loved the characters, especially Maverick and Ember. The secondary characters were so engaging that I can't wait to read their stories, all of them including Griz's story. Griz is older but he's been with the club since it was created. Then there is Edge, and Edge is really the next one I want. I can't say enough good things about this book. My only hope is that the author doesn't make us wait long for book 2 and that she delivers the same quality in book 2 as she delivered in this one. I can see myself reading this book again and would give it more stars if I could. That's how much I enjoyed this book.\",\n \"Product: By day, Jayna Vixen is a doctoral-level consultant, supermom, and wife. No one knows that beneath the crisp, pressed suit and the many awards and degrees lies a temptress who lures you in with her masterful storytelling. The author lives in southern California with her dog, her husband, and her (former) preemie son.\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: Cliffhanger - No ending - Wait for the next book?\\n\\nReview: While this book was not bad and in fact IF it had come to some logical conclusion, I probably would rate it higher. I just hate these new \\\"installment\\\" books where you pay $2.99 for half a book and then must buy another book to get to some type of ending. I really, really hate it when the author does not let the reader know that the book is just a part of an ongoing series of books that you have to read to get the full story. I was surprised to see so many high ratings for the book when it ends so abruptly and leaves the reader hanging. When you read as many books as I do and when the second book FINALLY comes out, then I have to go back and re-read or review the prior book to refresh myself on the story. Amazon should require that authors tell potential buyers that it is an installment series.\",\n \"Product: Anne Malcom has been an avid reader since before she can remember, her mother responsible for her love of reading. It started with magical journeys into the world of Hogwarts and Middle Earth, then as she grew up her reading tastes grew with her. Her love of reading doesnt discriminate, she reads across many genres, although classics like Little Women and Gone with the Wind will hold special places in her heart. She also cant get enough romance, especially when some possessive alpha males throw their weight around. One day, in a reading slump, Cade and Gwens story came to her and started taking up space in her head until she put their story into words. Now that she has started, it doesnt look like shes going to stop anytime soon, with many more characters demanding their story be told as well. Raised in small town New Zealand, Anne had a truly special childhood, growing up in one of the most beautiful countries in the world. She has backpacked across Europe, ridden camels in the Sahara and eaten her way through Italy, loving every moment. For now, shes back at home in New Zealand and quite happy. But who knows when the travel bug will bite her again.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Wish I could rate it more than 5 stars\\n\\nReview: First let me say I recommend every book in this series. With that said, you can read this one as a standalone. What some may not like about the book is that it is part 1 of a two part book. So yes, there is a cliff hanger there at the end but book two is expected out any day now. Fans of Kristen Ashley and lovers of romance without detailed eroticism will love it. There is more of a focus on the love and I loved that. It made my heart smile to see the love between Lexie and Killian.\\n\\nWe first met Lexie and Killian in book 2 of the series, Out of the Ashes. I don't usually like the YA/NA genre but this author writes in such a way that you forget these are actually young teenagers at the start of the story. Both Killian and Lexie are not your usual 16/17 year olds and are much more mature,. Killian acts much more mature than most 17 year olds but I guess his childhood/mom made him grow up quick. At 17 he's a man to hold onto. Even though they are very young, you feel that unique first love, true love feel.\\n\\nIt is really long. When I saw the length when I opened it, I thought oh my, but let me tell you I was so absorbed in the book that I wanted it to be actually longer. This author has shown such exceptional growth from the very first book. She writes the kind of love story that grabs your heart and makes you actually feel the characters' feelings. And it's not just the romantic partners, it's the deep relationships between mother/daughter, step-father/daughter, friends and other family. She writes the kind of family/friend relationships that we all dream of.\\n\\nI am happy to say that I received a first draft Beta/ARC of this book from the author. even in the first draft, it was a 5 star read for me. Seldom do I read a book that the characters draw me in and make such an impact on my emotions. You will be missing a great love story if you don't one click this one and read it. I can't wait for the next one. It's going to be just as good.\",\n \"Product: Jayne Blue is two sisters who love writing romantic suspense featuring strong heroines and those hunky alpha men we all dream about. They got their start in the genre when they were little while cooking up elaborate plots for their Barbie dolls to the irritation of all their friends (Hey...she doesn't HAVE to be from Malibu just because that's what the box says!). For more information about Jayne's books and new release news, sign up for her newsletter at jayneblue.com.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: A great addition to a very good series\\n\\nReview: 4.5 stars for me. This was a great addition to this series. Strong, independent heroine who is not afraid to stand her ground. A hero who is a really good guy but has suffered from witnessing his mother's murder when he was eight years old. I could go on and on about what I liked in this book but suffice it to say I highly recommend it if you want to read a good love story with some strong characters.\\nI've reached the point that with this author I am going to be surprised to read a book of hers' that I do not like. She has such a great way of writing realistic characters that feel like everyday people. The dialogue is not forced or out of characters and the way she can write strong, alpah-possessive men will melt you. I can't wait for the next one in this series. I also recommend her other series also.\"\n]","isConversational":false},"profile_size":{"kind":"number","value":5,"string":"5"},"task":{"kind":"string","value":"longlamp_3"},"split_kind":{"kind":"string","value":"user_based"},"id":{"kind":"number","value":1675,"string":"1,675"}}},{"rowIdx":1676,"cells":{"question_id":{"kind":"string","value":"A24D4ND2K1TEOA"},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of \"4.0\" for a product with description \"Certified gold by the RIAA. (11/93)\". The summary of the review text is \"VIVA HATE : a good place to start\"."},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"Morrissey's career thus far has been full of incredible highs and some rather confusing lows, but overall, he's proven himself to be a songwriter and lyricist of unique talent and an undefineable charm. this was his first album after The Smiths disbanded and it shows him in fine form. classic songs such as \"Everyday Is Like Sunday\", \"Hairdresser On Fire\" and the quintessential \"Suedehead\" are all career-defining moments and snapshots of genuine pop genius. elsewhere on the album, things get a little darker and moodier with the orchestral snippet of \"Angel, Angel, Down We Go Together\", the haunting ambience of \"Late Night, Maudlin Street,\" and the scathing \"Alsatian Cousin.\" Viva Hate may not be the most solid solo record from Morrissey, but it's a fine album and a bright start of more great things to come."},"correct_answer":{"kind":"string","value":"Morrissey's career thus far has been full of incredible highs and some rather confusing lows, but overall, he's proven himself to be a songwriter and lyricist of unique talent and an undefineable charm. this was his first album after The Smiths disbanded and it shows him in fine form. classic songs such as \"Everyday Is Like Sunday\", \"Hairdresser On Fire\" and the quintessential \"Suedehead\" are all career-defining moments and snapshots of genuine pop genius. elsewhere on the album, things get a little darker and moodier with the orchestral snippet of \"Angel, Angel, Down We Go Together\", the haunting ambience of \"Late Night, Maudlin Street,\" and the scathing \"Alsatian Cousin.\" Viva Hate may not be the most solid solo record from Morrissey, but it's a fine album and a bright start of more great things to come."},"documents":{"kind":"list like","value":["Product: box 103 - 24\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: the great escape is a great album\n\nReview: more great songs from Blur. great packaging, superb musicianship and brilliant lyrics. with 15 songs, there is *almost* too much good music here to fully digest in one sitting. and sometimes these songs seem to be jagged or too aloof to really enjoy; but then you'll find yourself humming the melodies in your head and you'll have to go back and listen again and again. finely crafted pop songs with a huge dose of english humor and healthy sarcasm. \"The Universal\" is probably my favorite Blur song of all time, but there are plenty of other great ones here like \"Stereotypes,\" \"Charmless Man,\" and \"He Thought Of Cars.\" and is it just me; or does \"Best Days\" sound like it may have hugely influenced some songs in the Radiohead canon?","Product: Ghostface Killah ~ Ironman\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: part gangsta, part superhero, part shoe inspector...?\n\nReview: Ghostface's delivery is one that is both abstract, yet contains enough charm to pull the average listener into his world. his lyrics contain in-jokes, references to mythical places, and scattershot memories from his childhood...90% of the time, you have no idea what he's talking about; but you feel it. although this is Ghostface's first solo album, he sounds like a seasoned veteran; handling the curves of RZA's soulful, yet mysteriously minimalistic beats and samples, and allowing his personality to shine through with each verse. there's absolutely no negative thing about this cd...but one point that has always confused me is the cover and graphic design direction. what exactly are Ghostface, Raekwon, and Cappadonna doing on the cover? overseeing the production of the latest Wu-Wear shoe line? and notice the cheezy laboratory test tubes up on the shelf with the dry ice smoke coming out. haha...what??? i mean, that's cool and all, but you have to admit, it's a weird concept for a hip hop album. but then again, it's Ghostface.","Product: Certified at 500 thousand units by the RIAA. (2/01)\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: BONA DRAG : worthy\n\nReview: Bona Drag, although a compilation of singles, feels like a proper album. it rolls along with pop finesse and fine songwriting that reveals different facets to the Morrissey sound. the moody numbers like \"Will Never Marry\" and \"He Knows I'd Love To See Him\" are slightly dramatic and have the power to hold the listener tight within their \"late-night listening\" grasp. while the punchier tracks such as \"Hairdresser On Fire\", \"Interesting Drug\", and \"Piccadilly Palare\" are some of the more strong tracks that he's ever recorded. bristling with energy and a profound sense of english wit. and you can't go wrong with the classic songs on here such as \"Everyday Is Like Sunday\", \"Ouija Board, Ouija Board\" and the definitive Moz standout \"Suedehead\". arguably, his finest single ever. Bona Drag serves as a great testament to great songs, but also a safe buy for the curious listener looking to furthur explore the world of Morrissey.","Product: [Note: This product is an authorized CD-R and is manufactured on demand]\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: KILL UNCLE : hmmmm\n\nReview: Kill Uncle is my least favorite Morrissey album for two reasons: first, the production is flat and has a tacky 80's feel to it. second, the songs sound directionless and dull. there are a few exceptions, \"Sing Your Life\" is a charming tune that has a really great upright bass sound and a simple melody line that is very nice. if the remainder of Kill Uncle carried the charm of this one song, then all would be well, but alas, it's not so. there are some dreadful songs on here, for starters, \"Mute Witness\" with it's cheesy keyboard vamp and electric guitar that sounds like it was ripped straight off of a Mike & the Mechanics album. eck. thankfully, it's not all such a thud...\"Driving Your Girlfriend Home\" and \"King Leer\" both have twisted vocal lines and a weird sense of melody that seems hard to get into upon first listens. but after repeated spins, grows very deep. both are very cool songs. i also like \"(I'm) The End Of The Family Line\" which sounds like a it could have been a lost b-side of The Smiths. so, from the whole album, these are the only songs that i really like (hmmm....i think i would be a little more drawn to \"Tony The Pony\" if it were a b-side); not the greatest moment in the Morrissey discography.","Product: Triumphant 1994 album includes \"Girls & Boys\" ; \"To The End\" and \"Parklife\".\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: the 2nd of the best 3\n\nReview: the first song, the unescapeably catchy \"Girls & Boys\" lunges out of the starting gate with an inspired fusing of the Kinks and electrolash. it's a dazzling display of dancing rythms and snappy singing. things continue to go well into \"Tracy Jacks\" and on into the great \"End of a Century.\" by the time \"Parklife\" was released, Blur was a well oiled machine. having escaped the potential of being a one-hit wonder with their first single off their first album. they expanded upon their intelligent and fabulously catchy british-styled songwriting for their second album (the great \"Modern Life is Rubbish\"), but here on \"Parklife\" the band sounds more confident in their swagger and their stance. banging out ridiculously wonderful songs like \"London Loves,\" \"Clover Over Dover\" and maintaining a good sense of the human condition on songs like \"To the End\" and \"This Is A Low.\" a wonderfully well rounded album that only catapulted their star higher and higher. as with all their albums, the layout of \"Parklife\" is both visually stunning as well as clever and kinda funny. no question about it, this album is a winner on all levels.","Product: CD is new and still sealed. There are no cuts, holes or marks. All artwork is complete and intact.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: top of the pile\n\nReview: it's a bit hard to imagine the impact that this album had when it was first released. back in 1993, there wasn't a vast amount of death metal bands that were concerned with fusing elements of progressive rock and jazz into their compositions. Death had begun incorporating some of these styles in their Leprosy and Spiritual healing albums; but they seemed to be merely flirting with those ideas and used them sparingly within the structure of their songs. but with the advent of Individual Thought Patterns, Death found a renewed power of sound using equal amounts death metal and progressive riffing. Listening to this album and comparing it to their previous efforts, you'll notice a really big step in production (the bass is much more streamlined and fluid here, the drums sound tighter, and the guitars more distinct), and you'll notice the amazing advancements in songwriting. every single song on I.T.P. displays an increased presence of dynamics, agility, and creativity that really blew every other band clearly out of the water. where as Death were once an old school brutal death metal band with a lot of leanings towards classic thrash, the newfound committment to this more thoughtful approach added depth, maturity, and colour to their already impressive legacy. one thing that i love so much about this album, is that Death did not try and change the shape of their sound or their band. they never did a 180 degree turn with their music. they stayed completely metal, but they just upped the ante (and the IQ) of the entire genre (which they basically created). in other words, it all seems like a natural progression. if you are sitting here reading this review and you are a thinking \"wow...sounds great, i gotta get this album\", there's one more thing that needs to be pointed out. this album succeeds not just because of the great production, not just for the excellent songwriting, but also because of the inclusion of Andy LaRocque (on loan from King Diamond) on second guitar. the explosive power between Chuck Schuldiner and LaRocque is absolutely breathtaking. the solos sweep faster, the riffs punch harder, and the ideas are limitless. all of these factors concrete the status of this album as a classic monument to thinking man's metal and a pinnacle for lesser bands to strive for!","Product: TRACKLISTING: 01.IN A SENTIMENTAL MOOD (4:12) 02.TAKE THE COLTRANE (4:40) 03.BIG NICK (4:25) 04.STEVIE (4:20) 05.MY LITTLE BROWN BOOK (5:20) 06.ANGELICA (5:56) 07.THE FEELING OF JAZZ (5:30)\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: DUKE ELLINGTON & JOHN COLTRANE: a casual, unchallenging listen\n\nReview: this pairing of jazz greats is such a strange idea. two very different musical thinkers who you might think would clash in the studio, join together in a nice little collaboration. the problem is, it's a little too nice. there is no real spark here and the players seem to be genuinely delighted to be playing together, but there is no overt displays of passion in these songs. \"In A Sentimental Mood\" starts off very warm and nice and it's great to hear Coltrane's playing over Duke's piano. but once you get the general idea, it's all of the same. overall, it's a nice little cd, but i cannot recommend it highly, there are many many more worthwhile albums that were made seperately by these two artists. still, if the mood hits you, you can slip on your cardigan and your pipe and slippers and listen to this by the fire.","Product: Available again at a new low price for a limited time. Digitally remastered and authorised by the group. Reissue of theveteran French prog act's 1970 album. Standard double jewelcase.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: the Magma journey begins here\n\nReview: Magma is not an easy band to describe to people. in fact, i feel like the term \"band\" is not adequate and is misleading. the same goes for labels and genres like \"prog\" or \"fusion.\" sure, there are plenty of those styles represented within Magma's core sound; and their influences are easily felt in their music. but Magma, to me, are a force...a gigantic, almost monsterous presence that cannot be ignored. their sound is huge and massive, filled with moments of terror and beauty. stark minimal rhythms give way to colourful audio explosions, drenched with harmonious voices and thundering bass and guitar. and the drums...wow. well, the drumming is just brilliant. this French group has enjoyed legendary status for decades, and has been highly influential (spawing many Zuehl obsessed bands...Ruins, Guapo, The Flying Luttenbachers...just to name a few), but yet their overall appeal is quite limited. probably due in no small part to their choice of language to sing in (a language called Kobian, which Christian Vander, drummer and mastermind behind Magma, has invented in order to explain the concepts behind his group's music and lyrical stance). there pieces are long and full of complexities and brilliant twists and turns...dark, treacherous, disonant avant-prog with intense crescendoes that bubble and boil with an electrifying power and joy that is both familiar and strangely alien to the senses.\n\nKobaia is the debut 2cd album and marks a signifigant starting point for this adventerous group. these songs are great testimonies to the unique vision that Vander has; and Kobaia is a fine offering for fans. it's certainly a bit rough around the edges and alot of the songs on here seem to be slightly under developed, but this was their first album...so it's understandable. the sound quality of Kobaia is really 70's sounding and is justly deserving of a remastering job. it would be nice to hear these levels pumped up and overall mix needs a good kick. the influence of John Coltrane is especially deep on these first recordings. just listen to the first few minutes of \"Aina.\" sadly, there are no female vocals in Magma as of this time, and their presence is missed. in my opinion, Magma sounds million times better with Stella's angelic voice. but Kobaia is worth the purchase just to hear the glorious swing of the title track and realize that this is where the Magma journey began.","Product: 1999 release by the absolute masters of death metal. Six tracks, including 'Tragedies Blows At Horizon', 'Solarfall', and 'Years Of Silent Sorrow'. Standard jewelcase.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: black metal's coldest sound refined\n\nReview: Immortal's ridiculously fast approach to their special frostbitten brand of black metal gets a slight overhaul on this album. the production becomes a bit more crystalized and the tunes get a bit more melodic. the pace has slowed down a bit with a focus more on a mid paced thrashy kind of groove that suits them well. the same lyrical themes are present as on past records: epic battles atop frozen mountaintops and tributes to the fictional kingdom of Blashyrkh adorn these songs. but which icy warlord approved this particular photo session? oh my. heehee...no matter, a small misstep (albeit a hilarious one) that only adds a whole new level of fun to this album. At The Heart Of Winter may not appeal to the diehard Immortal fans who think that they are no good without the non-stop blur of blast beats; but for those who like a bit of melody with their grim blackened metal should not hesitate inspecting this colossal masterpiece.","Product: BJORK POST\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: an artsy second solo cd\n\nReview: say goodbye to the deliciously demented Sugarcubes, and say hello to Bjork solo pop star! in her old bands it was obvious that there was a mighty strong force brewing in her mind and with her vocals. sometimes her ideas seemed suffocated by her fellow band member's contributions; so thank god that someone had the sense to let her go solo and really explore the outer and inner dephths of her talent. now that she has enjoyed a healthy and high profile solo career for quite some time; it's amazing to take a look back at her past catalogue and examine her progression over the years.\n\nand here's the second album...the sophmore slump(?). no, not exactly...but this album took alot longer to grow on me. it seems like there is some kind of transition going on here within these songs, and there are some great great songs on this cd, but as a whole, it can get kind of lost. the album starts off with the very dark and very un-tuneful \"Army of Me.\" i'm still surprised that this song has become so popular; not because it's not a great song, because it is...but it's just so \"out there\" for a pop song. it sounds more like a military marching pop song (hence the title) than something you'd want to listen to in your car with the windows down. then on to the achingly beautiful \"Hyper-ballad\" and \"The Modern Things\" which both soar up and down with the orchestrated chorus and gentle electronic treatment. the song everyone knows from this album is \"It's Oh So Quiet\" with it's jazzy sound and cutesy lyrics about falling in love. it's a good song but it sticks out like a sore thumb on this album. it sounds like a leftover from Bjork's \"Gling-Glo\" album. don't get me wrong, it's a good song...but very out of place on \"Post.\" the remainder of the album sort of settles in a snoozy and dreamy song mix with \"Isobel\" and \"I Miss You\" being nice standouts. there's a nice homey snuggly feel to alot of the second half of this album that seems to be more organicly coherent than the first half.\n\n\"Post\" did grow on me the more i listed to it...but of all her solo cd's, this one remains as a somewhat difficult album to fully wrap my arms around. i adore Bjork's artistic vision and i have a hard time trying to tell people who don't own any of her solo albums which one is best to start with, but in my opinion, \"Post\" is probably not the best place for a new Bjork fan to begin exploring.\n\nnow...bring on the ungoldy amount of remixes!","Product: 1993 release for Scandinavian metal act. Eight tracks including, 'Unsilent Storms in the North Abyss', 'A Sign for the Norse Hordes to Ride', 'The Sun No Longer Rises' & 'Frozen by Icewinds'. Osmose Productions.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Relentless Black Metal Masterpiece\n\nReview: Pure Holocaust, easily Immortal's strongest and most focused album, finds the band in fine form. exploding with razor sharp riffs, blazingly fast drumming and some of the best vocals the black metal world has ever heard! i was truly blown away when i heard this record for the first time. the production is perfect...not too pristine, but allowing each instrument to be heard fairly clearly. the main thing here is, of course, the guitars. the wall of sound and noise that blasts forth with each song is pretty overwhelming. the drums and bass provide solid back up and the songs are fast and relentless...barely allowing the listener take a breath as each song pummels along with no regard for speed or safety. the graphic design is simple and basic, allowing the band's trademark grim image to speak for itself. Immortal's future albums like At The Heart Of Winter and Sons Of Northern Darkness will see the group slowing down a little bit and adding more variation to their sound; but in terms of Immortal's speedier era, Pure Holocaust stands as a monument to their power and defining greatness. Hail!","Product: Bj?rk Vespertine Japanese CD album\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: a warm masterpiece = 4.5 stars\n\nReview: every single one of Bjork's albums have suffered in one category: uniformity. there have always been great songs on every record she has ever made...but the theme of each album has come across as convoluted and confused at times. \"Debut\" was very fresh-faced and still leaning on alot of traditional pop formulas. \"Post\" took the artsy songwriting craft a little further with some overall interesting results. \"Homogenic\" was almost perfect...but still a little rough around the edges. but now with \"Vespertine\" the full realization of all that Bjork can be has finally come to fruition. the music contained on this album is nothing short of mystical and magikal...like nothing ever heard. it sounds like these songs were written in a cave somewhere in the distant barren Icelandic ice mountains with only a soft fire and dancing faries and wolfcubs as the backup...well...if those faries and wolfcubs could operate a laptop. what i'm saying is that there is an amazing primitive quality to this music that seems to be woven straight from Bjork's own hair and fueled by her very blood. it's very minimal, yet lush. it's tuneful, but not poppy. the songs will stick in your head...but you will find yourself listening vry deeply everytime you play them. there is no denying that this cd deserves you full and complete surrender.","Product: The Mars Volta Deloused in the Comatorium Japanese CD album\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Heady Angular Rock brimming with creativity and hooks\n\nReview: when the celebrated Texas band At The Drive-In broke up and splintered into two seperate groups, alot of people were bummed...but very excited at the possibilites of what each group's music would be like. everyone knew that both groups would probably be great...but i don't think that anyone could have predicted the sheer brilliance and force of this amazing album. even when i heard the Mars Volta's previous release, the excellent Tremulant ep, it only hinted at the greatness that was to come with this full-length. these songs share a lot in common with ATDI, the driving melodies, the strong guitar lines that are heavy on the fretboard fireworks, and the overall energy that is presented openly within their songwriting; but now there are alot more interesting elements and twists thrown into the mix. the songs are much more developed and there's a generous amount of strange sound affects and loopy psychadelic electronics that submerge the whole album in a thick, dense texture. for some, De-loused In The Comatorium will be too intense, and too busy..maybe too muddled in it's approach and it's ideas...but for those who enjoy a challenging listen, it comes highly highly recommended.","Product: (2LP) MF Doom & Madlib's otherworldly debut collaboration, breaking rules & rhymes... accept no substitute\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: perhaps this is over my head?\n\nReview: while i wanted to love this album, i have only grown to like it well enough. it has alot of charm and personality, and Doom's voice is so great, recalling a melding of the lazy, smokey slur of Guru with the marble-mouthed delivery of Sensational. the music is also pretty cool, but really busy and i get a bit of an overstuffed feeling from it. too many samples, too much noise clouding up the beats. i guess i like my hip hop a little more spread out on the sonic pallette. the songs are very quick little snippets that come across more like unfinished business rather than a fully realized album. god, i want to like this more because there are some great things about this recording...but it has yet to really bowl me over.","Product: Original recipe! The first Skin Graft full-length album back in print! Alternative Press declared Face of Collapse the Top Album of the Nineties. Found on \"best of\" lists everywhere!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: this album will kill you\n\nReview: it's hard to believe that this record is over 10 years old! and what's even more amazing is that it still stands head and shoulders above all these technical mathy rock bands that seem to crop up every thirty seconds these days.\n\nthe songs on this record are relentless and savage, yet with all the raw crazed energy, these guys can play. the music is intense and frighteningly tight. it's like the technical aspects of prog rock bands like King Crimson or Yes have been anally violated and have become bitter and very very mean. but with all the time changes and stop on a dime pauses, Dazzling Killmen never really veer into a cold unfeeling territory inhabited by bands like Dillenger Escape Plan or Don Cabellero. the vocals on this record are sung from a very disturbing perspective on life. you can almost feel the sweat and spit and bile being flung around the studio as the vocals were laid down.\n\nFace Of Collapse is an unstoppable juggernaut of an album that grabs you by the throat and refuses to let go until it has drained every drop of blood from your worthless body.\n\nit's beyond math rock, beyond metal, beyond technical...beyond sanity.","Product: Brenda Kahn ~ Epiphany In Brooklyn\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: superb spikey folk rock\n\nReview: throughout Epiphany In Brooklyn, Brenda Kahn's acoustic guitar strums along with a fiery drive that enforces her sharp songwriting skills. her songs are stories littered with colourful characters and broken bleeding hearts. the music is Dylan-esque in it's basic approach, but employs plenty of heart and soul to make it stand out as her own. this is a superb collection of songs with \"She's In Love\" probably being my all time favorite. Brenda has a skill for penning some great lyrics and she comes accross as a master storyteller with a sarcastic smirk that seems to cut both ways. i first bought this album on cassette after seeing her \"Eggs On Drugs\" video on some very small independent music video show years and years ago. eventually, i wore the tape out and was saddened to learn that this cd went out of print. thankfully, i got lucky when i found this in a used bin and i've been enjoying relistening back to these great songs full of love, life, wisdom and wit.","Product: Reissue of the original album recorded by Banco in 1973.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: best album from Italy's best band!\n\nReview: prog rock, in general, is quite a dramatic form of music. the genre tends to embrace a theaterical approach to the ragged canvas of rock music and requires a virtuosic level of playing ability from it's band members. throught it's conception, there have been some heralded names in the prog rock circuit whose greatness cannot be denied....some obvious examples are King Crimson, Yes, ELP. but my favorite prog bands are those from Italy. there'sd just something about the Italian's brand of prog rock that appeals to me in a great way. i think it has something to do with the language. the Italiano accent just sounds like a perfect match with the melodramatic feeling of the songs and the twisted , complex melodies that stream forth. the Italians also seem to have a special place for discordanance within their songs; and (when done right) it's impact can be overwhelming.\n\nBanco's 2nd album begins with a beautiful melody that instantly captures one's listening attention with it's glorious tone and mysterious depth. as the album progresses, it becomes clear that this band is at the peak of it's powers. the songs shift through various cycles and stages; incorporating delicate acoustic passages, spacey keyboard parts, and full-throttle rock and roll guitar. but as untamed and wild as it gets, it's all held together by a gripping sense of melancholy and drama that never fails to excite.","Product: Arcturus: Aspera Hiems Symfonia / Constellation / My Angel 2 CD Set 2002 CDL0029CD USA\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Those who aspire infinetly !!!\n\nReview: the great Arcturus \"Aspera Hiems...\" album re-released and remastered along with ultra rare early singles. first of all, the cover and overall graphic design is a stunning vision of aurora borealis colours, bones, text ripped from books of magik and science, and the surface of the moon. the classic \"Aspera...\" album sounds great remastered. it def. beefs up the sound from the charmingly thinly produced original...but it doesn't beef it up *too* much. the second disc contains the rare early Arcturus stuff and it all sounds pretty neat. for those of us who were not lucky enough to pick up the originals, it's great to get a listen to some of these tracks. it's interesting to me to listen to how almost \"goth\" sounding that alot of the early stuff sounds. in fact, it sounds more like an un-realized, less bizzare version of alot of the material the band would later do on the metal space opera album \"La Masquarade Infernale.\" there's even a few filler tracks from those sessions thrown on here \"for your amusement only\" (as the liner notes say). this is a great release for lovers of dark, spacey, mystik metal. long live Arcturus.","Product: This Beautifully Reflective Album, Packed by Fantastic Orchestration, Shows a Real Return to Form for Neil Hannon.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: best Divine Comedy record? Yes!\n\nReview: after the Regeneration album, i wasn't sure what to expect from this new Divine Comedy album. the band that i had initially fallen in love with, had drastically decided to change their style; going from charming and bombastic pop with a dramatic flair, to a more moody and slightly Radiohead-ish kind of sound.\n\ni found myself beginning to like their newfound sound, but i missed the charm of the older material. now with the brilliantly titled \"Absent Friends\", Neil Hannon and company seems to have found the perfect balance between the charm and the mood. \"Leaving Today\" and \"The Wreck Of The Beautiful\" are some of the most achingly gorgeous melodies that have ever seen the light of day. these songs are like the kind of pop songs that Erik Satie might have written if he were a pop star. really affecting and haunting. and it's so so good to have the humor back in the lyrics. i really missed the wit in such lines like \"you and i go together like the molar and the drill\" from \"Sticks And Stones.\" there are so many great and classic songs on this album that if i were to go through them all, it would just be non-stop gushing. so suffice it to say, this is my favorite Divine Comedy album and a great place to start if you're the slightest bit curious about this wonderful and irresistable band. and is it just me, or does the song \"Freedom Road\" sound just like another song? i cannot place it. is it a cover? hmmm..drives me crazy everytime i hear it. oh well... Absent Friends is a perfect album full of priceless orchestral moody pop songs that are truly unforgettable. listening to this, i can finally appreciate the previous album, Regeneration even more now; because it's the stepping stone to this unrivaled greatness.","Product: A mix of queer politics; explicit sexuality, symphonic indie pop; and theatrical spectacle that borders on the religious, Toronto's the Hidden Cameras are the brainchild of singer/songwriter/guitarist Joel Gibb. Meanwhile, the group's elaborate live performances, which include up to 30 go-go dancers, strippers, and musicians, as well as videos, projected lyrics, and heavy audience participation, won the group a widespread and devoted following in Canada. 2003's Rough Trade debut The Smell of Our Own reflected some of the group's more elaborate sound than Ecce Homo did, and spread the Hidden Cameras' subversively catchy music further a field.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: music is my boyfriend\n\nReview: after being pleasantly surprised by The Hidden Cameras' debut album; i was excited to hear this new record. the more i listened to The Smell Of Our Own, the more i grew to enjoy the sweet and gentle harmonies and delightfully perfect pop songwriting...and the lyrical focus just made it more unique and charming overall. i was hoping for more of the same with this new album. and thankfully, the band applies the \"if it ain't broke, don't fix it\" approach to this new batch of tunes. alot of these new songs seem to have a little bit more of a small theater play feeling to them. i can imagine a few band members standing on a stage in a little community, doing their own rendition of songs from \"Our Town.\" there's something quaint and homey about the tone of this band's music. just like with their first album, one song jumps out and grabs me...on Mississauga Goddam, that song is \"Builds The Bone.\" it's a simple song with minimal instrumentation, but it has a strong impact. really gorgeous and strangely moving in it's haunting simplicity."],"string":"[\n \"Product: box 103 - 24\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: the great escape is a great album\\n\\nReview: more great songs from Blur. great packaging, superb musicianship and brilliant lyrics. with 15 songs, there is *almost* too much good music here to fully digest in one sitting. and sometimes these songs seem to be jagged or too aloof to really enjoy; but then you'll find yourself humming the melodies in your head and you'll have to go back and listen again and again. finely crafted pop songs with a huge dose of english humor and healthy sarcasm. \\\"The Universal\\\" is probably my favorite Blur song of all time, but there are plenty of other great ones here like \\\"Stereotypes,\\\" \\\"Charmless Man,\\\" and \\\"He Thought Of Cars.\\\" and is it just me; or does \\\"Best Days\\\" sound like it may have hugely influenced some songs in the Radiohead canon?\",\n \"Product: Ghostface Killah ~ Ironman\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: part gangsta, part superhero, part shoe inspector...?\\n\\nReview: Ghostface's delivery is one that is both abstract, yet contains enough charm to pull the average listener into his world. his lyrics contain in-jokes, references to mythical places, and scattershot memories from his childhood...90% of the time, you have no idea what he's talking about; but you feel it. although this is Ghostface's first solo album, he sounds like a seasoned veteran; handling the curves of RZA's soulful, yet mysteriously minimalistic beats and samples, and allowing his personality to shine through with each verse. there's absolutely no negative thing about this cd...but one point that has always confused me is the cover and graphic design direction. what exactly are Ghostface, Raekwon, and Cappadonna doing on the cover? overseeing the production of the latest Wu-Wear shoe line? and notice the cheezy laboratory test tubes up on the shelf with the dry ice smoke coming out. haha...what??? i mean, that's cool and all, but you have to admit, it's a weird concept for a hip hop album. but then again, it's Ghostface.\",\n \"Product: Certified at 500 thousand units by the RIAA. (2/01)\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: BONA DRAG : worthy\\n\\nReview: Bona Drag, although a compilation of singles, feels like a proper album. it rolls along with pop finesse and fine songwriting that reveals different facets to the Morrissey sound. the moody numbers like \\\"Will Never Marry\\\" and \\\"He Knows I'd Love To See Him\\\" are slightly dramatic and have the power to hold the listener tight within their \\\"late-night listening\\\" grasp. while the punchier tracks such as \\\"Hairdresser On Fire\\\", \\\"Interesting Drug\\\", and \\\"Piccadilly Palare\\\" are some of the more strong tracks that he's ever recorded. bristling with energy and a profound sense of english wit. and you can't go wrong with the classic songs on here such as \\\"Everyday Is Like Sunday\\\", \\\"Ouija Board, Ouija Board\\\" and the definitive Moz standout \\\"Suedehead\\\". arguably, his finest single ever. Bona Drag serves as a great testament to great songs, but also a safe buy for the curious listener looking to furthur explore the world of Morrissey.\",\n \"Product: [Note: This product is an authorized CD-R and is manufactured on demand]\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: KILL UNCLE : hmmmm\\n\\nReview: Kill Uncle is my least favorite Morrissey album for two reasons: first, the production is flat and has a tacky 80's feel to it. second, the songs sound directionless and dull. there are a few exceptions, \\\"Sing Your Life\\\" is a charming tune that has a really great upright bass sound and a simple melody line that is very nice. if the remainder of Kill Uncle carried the charm of this one song, then all would be well, but alas, it's not so. there are some dreadful songs on here, for starters, \\\"Mute Witness\\\" with it's cheesy keyboard vamp and electric guitar that sounds like it was ripped straight off of a Mike & the Mechanics album. eck. thankfully, it's not all such a thud...\\\"Driving Your Girlfriend Home\\\" and \\\"King Leer\\\" both have twisted vocal lines and a weird sense of melody that seems hard to get into upon first listens. but after repeated spins, grows very deep. both are very cool songs. i also like \\\"(I'm) The End Of The Family Line\\\" which sounds like a it could have been a lost b-side of The Smiths. so, from the whole album, these are the only songs that i really like (hmmm....i think i would be a little more drawn to \\\"Tony The Pony\\\" if it were a b-side); not the greatest moment in the Morrissey discography.\",\n \"Product: Triumphant 1994 album includes \\\"Girls & Boys\\\" ; \\\"To The End\\\" and \\\"Parklife\\\".\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: the 2nd of the best 3\\n\\nReview: the first song, the unescapeably catchy \\\"Girls & Boys\\\" lunges out of the starting gate with an inspired fusing of the Kinks and electrolash. it's a dazzling display of dancing rythms and snappy singing. things continue to go well into \\\"Tracy Jacks\\\" and on into the great \\\"End of a Century.\\\" by the time \\\"Parklife\\\" was released, Blur was a well oiled machine. having escaped the potential of being a one-hit wonder with their first single off their first album. they expanded upon their intelligent and fabulously catchy british-styled songwriting for their second album (the great \\\"Modern Life is Rubbish\\\"), but here on \\\"Parklife\\\" the band sounds more confident in their swagger and their stance. banging out ridiculously wonderful songs like \\\"London Loves,\\\" \\\"Clover Over Dover\\\" and maintaining a good sense of the human condition on songs like \\\"To the End\\\" and \\\"This Is A Low.\\\" a wonderfully well rounded album that only catapulted their star higher and higher. as with all their albums, the layout of \\\"Parklife\\\" is both visually stunning as well as clever and kinda funny. no question about it, this album is a winner on all levels.\",\n \"Product: CD is new and still sealed. There are no cuts, holes or marks. All artwork is complete and intact.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: top of the pile\\n\\nReview: it's a bit hard to imagine the impact that this album had when it was first released. back in 1993, there wasn't a vast amount of death metal bands that were concerned with fusing elements of progressive rock and jazz into their compositions. Death had begun incorporating some of these styles in their Leprosy and Spiritual healing albums; but they seemed to be merely flirting with those ideas and used them sparingly within the structure of their songs. but with the advent of Individual Thought Patterns, Death found a renewed power of sound using equal amounts death metal and progressive riffing. Listening to this album and comparing it to their previous efforts, you'll notice a really big step in production (the bass is much more streamlined and fluid here, the drums sound tighter, and the guitars more distinct), and you'll notice the amazing advancements in songwriting. every single song on I.T.P. displays an increased presence of dynamics, agility, and creativity that really blew every other band clearly out of the water. where as Death were once an old school brutal death metal band with a lot of leanings towards classic thrash, the newfound committment to this more thoughtful approach added depth, maturity, and colour to their already impressive legacy. one thing that i love so much about this album, is that Death did not try and change the shape of their sound or their band. they never did a 180 degree turn with their music. they stayed completely metal, but they just upped the ante (and the IQ) of the entire genre (which they basically created). in other words, it all seems like a natural progression. if you are sitting here reading this review and you are a thinking \\\"wow...sounds great, i gotta get this album\\\", there's one more thing that needs to be pointed out. this album succeeds not just because of the great production, not just for the excellent songwriting, but also because of the inclusion of Andy LaRocque (on loan from King Diamond) on second guitar. the explosive power between Chuck Schuldiner and LaRocque is absolutely breathtaking. the solos sweep faster, the riffs punch harder, and the ideas are limitless. all of these factors concrete the status of this album as a classic monument to thinking man's metal and a pinnacle for lesser bands to strive for!\",\n \"Product: TRACKLISTING: 01.IN A SENTIMENTAL MOOD (4:12) 02.TAKE THE COLTRANE (4:40) 03.BIG NICK (4:25) 04.STEVIE (4:20) 05.MY LITTLE BROWN BOOK (5:20) 06.ANGELICA (5:56) 07.THE FEELING OF JAZZ (5:30)\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: DUKE ELLINGTON & JOHN COLTRANE: a casual, unchallenging listen\\n\\nReview: this pairing of jazz greats is such a strange idea. two very different musical thinkers who you might think would clash in the studio, join together in a nice little collaboration. the problem is, it's a little too nice. there is no real spark here and the players seem to be genuinely delighted to be playing together, but there is no overt displays of passion in these songs. \\\"In A Sentimental Mood\\\" starts off very warm and nice and it's great to hear Coltrane's playing over Duke's piano. but once you get the general idea, it's all of the same. overall, it's a nice little cd, but i cannot recommend it highly, there are many many more worthwhile albums that were made seperately by these two artists. still, if the mood hits you, you can slip on your cardigan and your pipe and slippers and listen to this by the fire.\",\n \"Product: Available again at a new low price for a limited time. Digitally remastered and authorised by the group. Reissue of theveteran French prog act's 1970 album. Standard double jewelcase.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: the Magma journey begins here\\n\\nReview: Magma is not an easy band to describe to people. in fact, i feel like the term \\\"band\\\" is not adequate and is misleading. the same goes for labels and genres like \\\"prog\\\" or \\\"fusion.\\\" sure, there are plenty of those styles represented within Magma's core sound; and their influences are easily felt in their music. but Magma, to me, are a force...a gigantic, almost monsterous presence that cannot be ignored. their sound is huge and massive, filled with moments of terror and beauty. stark minimal rhythms give way to colourful audio explosions, drenched with harmonious voices and thundering bass and guitar. and the drums...wow. well, the drumming is just brilliant. this French group has enjoyed legendary status for decades, and has been highly influential (spawing many Zuehl obsessed bands...Ruins, Guapo, The Flying Luttenbachers...just to name a few), but yet their overall appeal is quite limited. probably due in no small part to their choice of language to sing in (a language called Kobian, which Christian Vander, drummer and mastermind behind Magma, has invented in order to explain the concepts behind his group's music and lyrical stance). there pieces are long and full of complexities and brilliant twists and turns...dark, treacherous, disonant avant-prog with intense crescendoes that bubble and boil with an electrifying power and joy that is both familiar and strangely alien to the senses.\\n\\nKobaia is the debut 2cd album and marks a signifigant starting point for this adventerous group. these songs are great testimonies to the unique vision that Vander has; and Kobaia is a fine offering for fans. it's certainly a bit rough around the edges and alot of the songs on here seem to be slightly under developed, but this was their first album...so it's understandable. the sound quality of Kobaia is really 70's sounding and is justly deserving of a remastering job. it would be nice to hear these levels pumped up and overall mix needs a good kick. the influence of John Coltrane is especially deep on these first recordings. just listen to the first few minutes of \\\"Aina.\\\" sadly, there are no female vocals in Magma as of this time, and their presence is missed. in my opinion, Magma sounds million times better with Stella's angelic voice. but Kobaia is worth the purchase just to hear the glorious swing of the title track and realize that this is where the Magma journey began.\",\n \"Product: 1999 release by the absolute masters of death metal. Six tracks, including 'Tragedies Blows At Horizon', 'Solarfall', and 'Years Of Silent Sorrow'. Standard jewelcase.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: black metal's coldest sound refined\\n\\nReview: Immortal's ridiculously fast approach to their special frostbitten brand of black metal gets a slight overhaul on this album. the production becomes a bit more crystalized and the tunes get a bit more melodic. the pace has slowed down a bit with a focus more on a mid paced thrashy kind of groove that suits them well. the same lyrical themes are present as on past records: epic battles atop frozen mountaintops and tributes to the fictional kingdom of Blashyrkh adorn these songs. but which icy warlord approved this particular photo session? oh my. heehee...no matter, a small misstep (albeit a hilarious one) that only adds a whole new level of fun to this album. At The Heart Of Winter may not appeal to the diehard Immortal fans who think that they are no good without the non-stop blur of blast beats; but for those who like a bit of melody with their grim blackened metal should not hesitate inspecting this colossal masterpiece.\",\n \"Product: BJORK POST\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: an artsy second solo cd\\n\\nReview: say goodbye to the deliciously demented Sugarcubes, and say hello to Bjork solo pop star! in her old bands it was obvious that there was a mighty strong force brewing in her mind and with her vocals. sometimes her ideas seemed suffocated by her fellow band member's contributions; so thank god that someone had the sense to let her go solo and really explore the outer and inner dephths of her talent. now that she has enjoyed a healthy and high profile solo career for quite some time; it's amazing to take a look back at her past catalogue and examine her progression over the years.\\n\\nand here's the second album...the sophmore slump(?). no, not exactly...but this album took alot longer to grow on me. it seems like there is some kind of transition going on here within these songs, and there are some great great songs on this cd, but as a whole, it can get kind of lost. the album starts off with the very dark and very un-tuneful \\\"Army of Me.\\\" i'm still surprised that this song has become so popular; not because it's not a great song, because it is...but it's just so \\\"out there\\\" for a pop song. it sounds more like a military marching pop song (hence the title) than something you'd want to listen to in your car with the windows down. then on to the achingly beautiful \\\"Hyper-ballad\\\" and \\\"The Modern Things\\\" which both soar up and down with the orchestrated chorus and gentle electronic treatment. the song everyone knows from this album is \\\"It's Oh So Quiet\\\" with it's jazzy sound and cutesy lyrics about falling in love. it's a good song but it sticks out like a sore thumb on this album. it sounds like a leftover from Bjork's \\\"Gling-Glo\\\" album. don't get me wrong, it's a good song...but very out of place on \\\"Post.\\\" the remainder of the album sort of settles in a snoozy and dreamy song mix with \\\"Isobel\\\" and \\\"I Miss You\\\" being nice standouts. there's a nice homey snuggly feel to alot of the second half of this album that seems to be more organicly coherent than the first half.\\n\\n\\\"Post\\\" did grow on me the more i listed to it...but of all her solo cd's, this one remains as a somewhat difficult album to fully wrap my arms around. i adore Bjork's artistic vision and i have a hard time trying to tell people who don't own any of her solo albums which one is best to start with, but in my opinion, \\\"Post\\\" is probably not the best place for a new Bjork fan to begin exploring.\\n\\nnow...bring on the ungoldy amount of remixes!\",\n \"Product: 1993 release for Scandinavian metal act. Eight tracks including, 'Unsilent Storms in the North Abyss', 'A Sign for the Norse Hordes to Ride', 'The Sun No Longer Rises' & 'Frozen by Icewinds'. Osmose Productions.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Relentless Black Metal Masterpiece\\n\\nReview: Pure Holocaust, easily Immortal's strongest and most focused album, finds the band in fine form. exploding with razor sharp riffs, blazingly fast drumming and some of the best vocals the black metal world has ever heard! i was truly blown away when i heard this record for the first time. the production is perfect...not too pristine, but allowing each instrument to be heard fairly clearly. the main thing here is, of course, the guitars. the wall of sound and noise that blasts forth with each song is pretty overwhelming. the drums and bass provide solid back up and the songs are fast and relentless...barely allowing the listener take a breath as each song pummels along with no regard for speed or safety. the graphic design is simple and basic, allowing the band's trademark grim image to speak for itself. Immortal's future albums like At The Heart Of Winter and Sons Of Northern Darkness will see the group slowing down a little bit and adding more variation to their sound; but in terms of Immortal's speedier era, Pure Holocaust stands as a monument to their power and defining greatness. Hail!\",\n \"Product: Bj?rk Vespertine Japanese CD album\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: a warm masterpiece = 4.5 stars\\n\\nReview: every single one of Bjork's albums have suffered in one category: uniformity. there have always been great songs on every record she has ever made...but the theme of each album has come across as convoluted and confused at times. \\\"Debut\\\" was very fresh-faced and still leaning on alot of traditional pop formulas. \\\"Post\\\" took the artsy songwriting craft a little further with some overall interesting results. \\\"Homogenic\\\" was almost perfect...but still a little rough around the edges. but now with \\\"Vespertine\\\" the full realization of all that Bjork can be has finally come to fruition. the music contained on this album is nothing short of mystical and magikal...like nothing ever heard. it sounds like these songs were written in a cave somewhere in the distant barren Icelandic ice mountains with only a soft fire and dancing faries and wolfcubs as the backup...well...if those faries and wolfcubs could operate a laptop. what i'm saying is that there is an amazing primitive quality to this music that seems to be woven straight from Bjork's own hair and fueled by her very blood. it's very minimal, yet lush. it's tuneful, but not poppy. the songs will stick in your head...but you will find yourself listening vry deeply everytime you play them. there is no denying that this cd deserves you full and complete surrender.\",\n \"Product: The Mars Volta Deloused in the Comatorium Japanese CD album\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Heady Angular Rock brimming with creativity and hooks\\n\\nReview: when the celebrated Texas band At The Drive-In broke up and splintered into two seperate groups, alot of people were bummed...but very excited at the possibilites of what each group's music would be like. everyone knew that both groups would probably be great...but i don't think that anyone could have predicted the sheer brilliance and force of this amazing album. even when i heard the Mars Volta's previous release, the excellent Tremulant ep, it only hinted at the greatness that was to come with this full-length. these songs share a lot in common with ATDI, the driving melodies, the strong guitar lines that are heavy on the fretboard fireworks, and the overall energy that is presented openly within their songwriting; but now there are alot more interesting elements and twists thrown into the mix. the songs are much more developed and there's a generous amount of strange sound affects and loopy psychadelic electronics that submerge the whole album in a thick, dense texture. for some, De-loused In The Comatorium will be too intense, and too busy..maybe too muddled in it's approach and it's ideas...but for those who enjoy a challenging listen, it comes highly highly recommended.\",\n \"Product: (2LP) MF Doom & Madlib's otherworldly debut collaboration, breaking rules & rhymes... accept no substitute\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: perhaps this is over my head?\\n\\nReview: while i wanted to love this album, i have only grown to like it well enough. it has alot of charm and personality, and Doom's voice is so great, recalling a melding of the lazy, smokey slur of Guru with the marble-mouthed delivery of Sensational. the music is also pretty cool, but really busy and i get a bit of an overstuffed feeling from it. too many samples, too much noise clouding up the beats. i guess i like my hip hop a little more spread out on the sonic pallette. the songs are very quick little snippets that come across more like unfinished business rather than a fully realized album. god, i want to like this more because there are some great things about this recording...but it has yet to really bowl me over.\",\n \"Product: Original recipe! The first Skin Graft full-length album back in print! Alternative Press declared Face of Collapse the Top Album of the Nineties. Found on \\\"best of\\\" lists everywhere!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: this album will kill you\\n\\nReview: it's hard to believe that this record is over 10 years old! and what's even more amazing is that it still stands head and shoulders above all these technical mathy rock bands that seem to crop up every thirty seconds these days.\\n\\nthe songs on this record are relentless and savage, yet with all the raw crazed energy, these guys can play. the music is intense and frighteningly tight. it's like the technical aspects of prog rock bands like King Crimson or Yes have been anally violated and have become bitter and very very mean. but with all the time changes and stop on a dime pauses, Dazzling Killmen never really veer into a cold unfeeling territory inhabited by bands like Dillenger Escape Plan or Don Cabellero. the vocals on this record are sung from a very disturbing perspective on life. you can almost feel the sweat and spit and bile being flung around the studio as the vocals were laid down.\\n\\nFace Of Collapse is an unstoppable juggernaut of an album that grabs you by the throat and refuses to let go until it has drained every drop of blood from your worthless body.\\n\\nit's beyond math rock, beyond metal, beyond technical...beyond sanity.\",\n \"Product: Brenda Kahn ~ Epiphany In Brooklyn\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: superb spikey folk rock\\n\\nReview: throughout Epiphany In Brooklyn, Brenda Kahn's acoustic guitar strums along with a fiery drive that enforces her sharp songwriting skills. her songs are stories littered with colourful characters and broken bleeding hearts. the music is Dylan-esque in it's basic approach, but employs plenty of heart and soul to make it stand out as her own. this is a superb collection of songs with \\\"She's In Love\\\" probably being my all time favorite. Brenda has a skill for penning some great lyrics and she comes accross as a master storyteller with a sarcastic smirk that seems to cut both ways. i first bought this album on cassette after seeing her \\\"Eggs On Drugs\\\" video on some very small independent music video show years and years ago. eventually, i wore the tape out and was saddened to learn that this cd went out of print. thankfully, i got lucky when i found this in a used bin and i've been enjoying relistening back to these great songs full of love, life, wisdom and wit.\",\n \"Product: Reissue of the original album recorded by Banco in 1973.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: best album from Italy's best band!\\n\\nReview: prog rock, in general, is quite a dramatic form of music. the genre tends to embrace a theaterical approach to the ragged canvas of rock music and requires a virtuosic level of playing ability from it's band members. throught it's conception, there have been some heralded names in the prog rock circuit whose greatness cannot be denied....some obvious examples are King Crimson, Yes, ELP. but my favorite prog bands are those from Italy. there'sd just something about the Italian's brand of prog rock that appeals to me in a great way. i think it has something to do with the language. the Italiano accent just sounds like a perfect match with the melodramatic feeling of the songs and the twisted , complex melodies that stream forth. the Italians also seem to have a special place for discordanance within their songs; and (when done right) it's impact can be overwhelming.\\n\\nBanco's 2nd album begins with a beautiful melody that instantly captures one's listening attention with it's glorious tone and mysterious depth. as the album progresses, it becomes clear that this band is at the peak of it's powers. the songs shift through various cycles and stages; incorporating delicate acoustic passages, spacey keyboard parts, and full-throttle rock and roll guitar. but as untamed and wild as it gets, it's all held together by a gripping sense of melancholy and drama that never fails to excite.\",\n \"Product: Arcturus: Aspera Hiems Symfonia / Constellation / My Angel 2 CD Set 2002 CDL0029CD USA\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Those who aspire infinetly !!!\\n\\nReview: the great Arcturus \\\"Aspera Hiems...\\\" album re-released and remastered along with ultra rare early singles. first of all, the cover and overall graphic design is a stunning vision of aurora borealis colours, bones, text ripped from books of magik and science, and the surface of the moon. the classic \\\"Aspera...\\\" album sounds great remastered. it def. beefs up the sound from the charmingly thinly produced original...but it doesn't beef it up *too* much. the second disc contains the rare early Arcturus stuff and it all sounds pretty neat. for those of us who were not lucky enough to pick up the originals, it's great to get a listen to some of these tracks. it's interesting to me to listen to how almost \\\"goth\\\" sounding that alot of the early stuff sounds. in fact, it sounds more like an un-realized, less bizzare version of alot of the material the band would later do on the metal space opera album \\\"La Masquarade Infernale.\\\" there's even a few filler tracks from those sessions thrown on here \\\"for your amusement only\\\" (as the liner notes say). this is a great release for lovers of dark, spacey, mystik metal. long live Arcturus.\",\n \"Product: This Beautifully Reflective Album, Packed by Fantastic Orchestration, Shows a Real Return to Form for Neil Hannon.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: best Divine Comedy record? Yes!\\n\\nReview: after the Regeneration album, i wasn't sure what to expect from this new Divine Comedy album. the band that i had initially fallen in love with, had drastically decided to change their style; going from charming and bombastic pop with a dramatic flair, to a more moody and slightly Radiohead-ish kind of sound.\\n\\ni found myself beginning to like their newfound sound, but i missed the charm of the older material. now with the brilliantly titled \\\"Absent Friends\\\", Neil Hannon and company seems to have found the perfect balance between the charm and the mood. \\\"Leaving Today\\\" and \\\"The Wreck Of The Beautiful\\\" are some of the most achingly gorgeous melodies that have ever seen the light of day. these songs are like the kind of pop songs that Erik Satie might have written if he were a pop star. really affecting and haunting. and it's so so good to have the humor back in the lyrics. i really missed the wit in such lines like \\\"you and i go together like the molar and the drill\\\" from \\\"Sticks And Stones.\\\" there are so many great and classic songs on this album that if i were to go through them all, it would just be non-stop gushing. so suffice it to say, this is my favorite Divine Comedy album and a great place to start if you're the slightest bit curious about this wonderful and irresistable band. and is it just me, or does the song \\\"Freedom Road\\\" sound just like another song? i cannot place it. is it a cover? hmmm..drives me crazy everytime i hear it. oh well... Absent Friends is a perfect album full of priceless orchestral moody pop songs that are truly unforgettable. listening to this, i can finally appreciate the previous album, Regeneration even more now; because it's the stepping stone to this unrivaled greatness.\",\n \"Product: A mix of queer politics; explicit sexuality, symphonic indie pop; and theatrical spectacle that borders on the religious, Toronto's the Hidden Cameras are the brainchild of singer/songwriter/guitarist Joel Gibb. Meanwhile, the group's elaborate live performances, which include up to 30 go-go dancers, strippers, and musicians, as well as videos, projected lyrics, and heavy audience participation, won the group a widespread and devoted following in Canada. 2003's Rough Trade debut The Smell of Our Own reflected some of the group's more elaborate sound than Ecce Homo did, and spread the Hidden Cameras' subversively catchy music further a field.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: music is my boyfriend\\n\\nReview: after being pleasantly surprised by The Hidden Cameras' debut album; i was excited to hear this new record. the more i listened to The Smell Of Our Own, the more i grew to enjoy the sweet and gentle harmonies and delightfully perfect pop songwriting...and the lyrical focus just made it more unique and charming overall. i was hoping for more of the same with this new album. and thankfully, the band applies the \\\"if it ain't broke, don't fix it\\\" approach to this new batch of tunes. alot of these new songs seem to have a little bit more of a small theater play feeling to them. i can imagine a few band members standing on a stage in a little community, doing their own rendition of songs from \\\"Our Town.\\\" there's something quaint and homey about the tone of this band's music. just like with their first album, one song jumps out and grabs me...on Mississauga Goddam, that song is \\\"Builds The Bone.\\\" it's a simple song with minimal instrumentation, but it has a strong impact. really gorgeous and strangely moving in it's haunting simplicity.\"\n]","isConversational":false},"profile_size":{"kind":"number","value":20,"string":"20"},"task":{"kind":"string","value":"longlamp_3"},"split_kind":{"kind":"string","value":"user_based"},"id":{"kind":"number","value":1676,"string":"1,676"}}},{"rowIdx":1677,"cells":{"question_id":{"kind":"string","value":"A2JAEZ0FMAMJVW"},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of \"4.0\" for a product with description \"For anyone serious about singing, but unfamiliar with how to get a professional vocal sound, TC-Helicon is releasing Perform-V - its most intuitive and straightforward vocal processor to date. Designed to remove the obstacles that singers typically face in performance, Perform-V lets vocalists focus entirely on their performance by providing easy control of tried-and-true vocal sounds while it expertly polishes the production values via intelligent Tone functions (Adaptive EQ, Compression, De-easing and Gating), automatic mic input gain, pitch correction and anti-feedback algorithms. Using Perform-V is as simple as plugging in a mic, and it snaps directly onto the mic stand - just where a singer needs it. For singers wanting to go beyond the essential sounds included in the box, TC-Helicon offers hundreds of iconic vocal sounds for free download, using sister company TC Electronics proprietary technology (known from their Tone Print app) to \"beam\" presets directly from a smartphone to Perform-V, without the need for accessories or even a wireless/Bluetooth connection.\". The summary of the review text is \"making it better for live vocals\"."},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"My daughter does a lot of singing. She has a Boss VE-20 vocal processor as a mainstay when she does home recording, and she loves it. This TC-Helicon product offers some similar vocal processing but does so in a package that is much easier to manage on the fly, making it better for live vocals.\n\nThe interface comprises a number of buttons that change illumination color when they're activated. Holding a button for a few seconds allows the singer to dial in different levels of a respective effect, such as the echo or reverb. The harmony function can be adjusted for the intensity of the doubling voice, but adjusting the tuning of the harmony is dependent on providing an audio input into the Perform V so that it can gauge what would sound good depending on the key you're playing in. There is also a mild autotune function to provide some gentle pitch correction. You can assign your favorite setting to preset buttons.\n\nMy daughter uses a Shure SM58 microphone, but the unit can be used and adjusted without an external microphone. There is a small microphone built in at the bottom right of the interface panel. You can wear headphones and sing into that microphone to adjust the device. Not bad for a bit of practicing.\n\nThe Perform V also has an automatic gain setting. You hold the microphone button for a few seconds and sing loudly into your mic, and the device does the rest.\n\nYou can add a few additional effects (e.g., hard autotune or \"megaphone\") by using an app to \"beam\" them from your cellphone speaker into the onboard microphone on the Perform V. (Back to the days of 1200 baud modems!)\n\nOverall, it's an easy to use tool with pretty good results. We weren't huge fans of the vocal harmony feature, but everything else worked well enough to make this a useable tool that would benefit live vocalists looking to clean up and enhance their sound."},"correct_answer":{"kind":"string","value":"My daughter does a lot of singing. She has a Boss VE-20 vocal processor as a mainstay when she does home recording, and she loves it. This TC-Helicon product offers some similar vocal processing but does so in a package that is much easier to manage on the fly, making it better for live vocals.\n\nThe interface comprises a number of buttons that change illumination color when they're activated. Holding a button for a few seconds allows the singer to dial in different levels of a respective effect, such as the echo or reverb. The harmony function can be adjusted for the intensity of the doubling voice, but adjusting the tuning of the harmony is dependent on providing an audio input into the Perform V so that it can gauge what would sound good depending on the key you're playing in. There is also a mild autotune function to provide some gentle pitch correction. You can assign your favorite setting to preset buttons.\n\nMy daughter uses a Shure SM58 microphone, but the unit can be used and adjusted without an external microphone. There is a small microphone built in at the bottom right of the interface panel. You can wear headphones and sing into that microphone to adjust the device. Not bad for a bit of practicing.\n\nThe Perform V also has an automatic gain setting. You hold the microphone button for a few seconds and sing loudly into your mic, and the device does the rest.\n\nYou can add a few additional effects (e.g., hard autotune or \"megaphone\") by using an app to \"beam\" them from your cellphone speaker into the onboard microphone on the Perform V. (Back to the days of 1200 baud modems!)\n\nOverall, it's an easy to use tool with pretty good results. We weren't huge fans of the vocal harmony feature, but everything else worked well enough to make this a useable tool that would benefit live vocalists looking to clean up and enhance their sound."},"documents":{"kind":"list like","value":["Product: This latest generation of iTrack Solo is the easiest way to record instruments and vocals on your Lightning-compatible iPad. Simply plug into the legendary Focusrite preamp and dedicated instrument input to start capturing your sound in pristine quality, using the very best in digital audio technology. Compact, lightweight and housed in rugged aluminium case, iTrack Solo is the perfect companion for any singer-songwriter who wants to make exceptional demos on iPad, Mac or PC.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: And excellent introductory package for high quality home recording\n\nReview: If you're looking for a practical and effective USB interface for recording vocals or instrument level inputs, the iTrack Studio is a pretty good solution.\n\nThe complete package includes the interface, a decent microphone and XLR cable, and a pair of headphones that appear to have been made by AKG, which is a company well known in studios for making excellent monitoring headphones. (The headband on the headphones is an AKG design similar to the band on my AKG K240DFs, which are stellar studio monitoring headphones.)\n\nThe interface is easy to use. When using it with a computer, it derives power from the USB port. If you use it with your tablet, you have to use the separate included adapter to power the interface.\n\nThe interface should work with most DAWs and recording software. If you don't already have such programs, the package includes the right to download and use a lite version of Abelton Live, which gives you practical recording abilities.\n\nThe microphone is fairly good. It's substantial and much more sensitive than the Shure SM58 I usually use for vocals.\n\nThe headphones are sealed so they help to attenuate outside noises. The interface has a headphone monitor output that drives the headphones to decent levels.\n\nOverall, this is a great package if you're looking to generate good quality recordings of vocals/acoustic instruments (through the microphone) or electronic instruments (through the line input). Highly recommended.","Product: Top Quality Craftmanship, Hand Made in the USA, Longest Straps on the Market, Partial Proceeds Goes to Animal Rescue,\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: A great deal for a fun, well made strap\n\nReview: So the strap was 77% off the retail price. My elder child loves jaguars and leopards. How could I pass it up?\n\nThe strap is sturdy. The first thing I noticed upon handling it is its heft. This isn't a basic nylon strap by any means. It's got a thick construction, with the faux fur on top of a woven nylon base. The ends are leather, and the hardware is metal, not plastic. The strap can be adjusted to be quite long.\n\nThe faux fur \"print\" is nicely detailed. It feels nice, not like some cheap stuffed animal fur feels. Looks pretty sharp.\n\nIt's comfortable and holds fast on my electric guitar. And part of the profits go to animal rescue efforts. Can't argue with that.\n\nIn all, this is a pretty great strap, especially for the price Amazon is presently charging. Check it out.","Product: The Planet Waves 1UCT6-10 is a 10-pack of heavy Cortex picks.Cortex picks are precision molded to eliminate grain structures, allowing for dynamic pick response. This unique material closely resembles actual tortoise shell in feel and sound yet offers high strength, durability and heat resistance. Cortex long lasting picks offer excellent attack with a clean, crisp tone for superior note definition, allowing notes to leap from your strings.Planet Waves, part of the D'Addario family of brands, is known for innovative, problem-solving, quality musical accessories. Planet Waves offers a complete line of award-winning accessories including cables, picks, tuners, capos, straps, humidifiers, maintenance tools and more.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Nice -- and actually translucent in appearance\n\nReview: I got a sample of these Cortex picks. I've been playing for more than 25 years now and had never used anything other than celluloid picks and gemstone picks made by Stoneworks (check them out!).\n\nThese picks are heavy gauge. They appear different from the photo -- they're translucent. Pretty, actually.\n\nIf you drop one on a table, it makes a decidedly different sound from a celluloid pick. It almost sounds brittle.\n\nFor strumming, these are great. You get a nice, clean tone and decent feel. They aren't highly flexible. They're fine for picking out single notes, which ring out nicely given the picks' relatively sharp attack. More or less what you'd expect from a heavier pick.\n\nThey hold up decently. I didn't notice wear on them until after more than a week of playing.\n\nIn all, they're good quality picks that work well if you like a sharp attack and bright chords.","Product: Simplify your life and beautify your utensil or junk drawer with Totally Bamboo's 6-inch by 12-inch and 2 1/2-inch tall Drawer Organizer. It features thin walls so it doesn't take up too much space, allowing you to easily add other organizers to the same drawer. Made entirely of bamboo, distinctively attractive and super strong. Wash by hand with warm water and occasionally use Totally Bamboo's Revitalizing Oil to extend life and beauty. From the original bamboo cutting board company, Totally Bamboo, this drawer organizer is a beautiful and functional addition to any kitchen. Bamboo is the natural alternative for all things wood. It is the fastest growing plant on our planet and does not require any special care to grow. In fact, it is a grass that produces more oxygen than a hard wood forest of comparable size, it helps to reduce carbon dioxide gases blamed for global warming, and it helps to prevent soil erosion through its widespread root system and large canopy. At Totally Bamboo, we are proud to say we use only the highest quality bamboo, harvested at the optimum age of 5 years from our own bamboo forests. There are over 1200 species of bamboo; however, we choose to use Moso timber bamboo for its strength, density and versatility. As an added bonus, it is not a habitat for pandas. Our factories adhere to a very stringent protocol for curing and processing the bamboo, ensuring the highest quality product. We take steps to ensure that our employees are well taken care of and work in a safe and hazard free environment. Our goal is continuous improvement through design, developing new, unique and innovative products which appeal to the environmentally conscious.\n\nRating: 1.0\n\nSummary: Poor design and weak adhesive\n\nReview: I bought one of these as a gift. The concept is great -- bamboo is a renewable resource, etc., and looks attractive. However, the design and construction are shoddy. The tray is made of very thin bamboo, not much more than 1/8\" thick. The corners are the problem here. They have a slight relief where they interface to try to maximize surface area contact. However, there just isn't enough surface area. The tray I got had a corner that was completely \"split,\" probably because the adhesive the manufacturer used was insufficient to hold the two pieces together along such a tiny surface. It wasn't broken or damaged by shipping; it just wasn't joined properly.\n\nI've had really mixed results with products from Totally Bamboo. Some cutting boards have been great and have held up well when properly maintained. This organizer, on the other hand, is going back. It just isn't designed well.","Product: With 20 buttons, the Logitech G600 MMO Gaming Mouse is the most customizable and easy-to-use mouse specifically designed for mastering your favorite MMOs\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Decent MMO mouse, but may not satisfy everyone\n\nReview: I received a demo unit of the G600 Gaming Mouse to evaluate. I have been using gaming mice for many years and now mainly use a Logitech G500.\n\nThis G600 is a pretty good unit, but it's not going to be for everyone.\n\nERGONOMICS\n----------\n\nThe mouse is somewhat awkward to use at first for a couple of reasons. First, it has a ring-finger button. That's right -- there are three buttons up front on this mouse. The idea is that you'll use the ring-finger button as a \"shift\" key so you can assign two functions to each of the other sixteen buttons on the mouse. The mouse has a decent \"fingerprint free\" texture on it that will keep it from slipping. It's pleasant. However, on a white mouse, that textured surface might be tough to keep clean over time.\n\nThe dozen buttons on the left side of the mouse are comfortable to operate, but they do require that you shift your grip on the mouse (at least for me) to hit them all. I noticed it was next to impossible to hit some of them with my thumb while also holding down the ring-finger button as a shift key.\n\nThe mouse is fairly substantial in terms of size. It feels taller than most mice on the left because of the button pad. It seems wider across the front because of the ring-finger button. It weighs less than my G500; however, that's because I added all of the supplied weights to the G500 (it can be customized). The G600 does not include a weight tray -- it's one size fits all in terms of weight. It's heavier than a basic optical mouse, but it doesn't feel as heavy as my fully loaded G500. Overall, it feels solid -- the construction is good.\n\nThe mouse has two large sliding pads on the bottom, one in front and one in back. It moves smoothly on my SteelSeries mousepad.\n\nIn all, this mouse is fairly comfortable to use, but don't be surprised if you find yourself adjusting your grip to avoid the ring-finger shift button. I found it was more comfortable to use my ring finger on the right side of the mouse instead of on top of it.\n\nThe scroll wheel is rubbery and moves with fairly positive \"clicks.\" Not noisy clicks, just well defined units of advancement. It can shift right or left and functions as a button when pushed. It does not spin freely, like the Logitech Revolution mice.\n\nThe USB cord has a braided jacket and a Velcro loop that you can use to gather up excess cord. It's pretty long. No wireless here. But, then, not many people prefer wireless mice when gaming, and this is certainly a mouse intended principally for gaming.\n\nSOFTWARE\n--------\n\nThis mouse will only be fully functional on Windows Vista or Windows 7. The software will not offer full customization of the buttons to people using XP. (There is no software for the G600 for XP.) If you do have Windows Vista or Windows 7, the Logitech software is pretty easy to use to assign functions/macros to the various keys. The software will let you set up multiple profiles, a few of which can be stored in the mouse's memory at any given time. Overall, the software is good and easy to use.\n\nPERFORMANCE\n-----------\n\nThis is a MMO mouse. For giggles, I tried to use it to play Team Fortress 2. It's not well suited to shooters like that. I also found that I didn't like it all that much for general productivity work or web surfing. Too many buttons and a bit too large. However, it's got a great laser engine with exceptionally high resolution tracking. (You can adjust all that in the software, too, and shift on the fly from twitch gaming to precise targeting.) It works pretty well in its intended arena; however, I did find I sometimes accidentally hit the ring-finger shift button if I didn't keep my ring finger on the right side of the mouse instead of near the top of the mouse. It would take a lot of physical training to get used to the mouse and to keep that from happening. It's just not something you think about with two-button mice, but it can feel downright odd (and interfere with play) if you're not used to it. The buttons all work smoothly. It's not easy to push any of the side buttons accidentally -- they require enough pressure to make sure you don't accidentally trigger them, but not so much that you have to labor to trigger them. There are some tactile cues on the left-side buttons that help you figure out where your thumb is without looking.\n\nLOOKS\n-----\n\nYou can see that this version of the mouse comes with a slick black-and-white color scheme. The buttons on the side can be adjusted to various colors. Or you can let the mouse gradually pulse through all of them. Maybe a bit gaudy, but a nice feature for people go to lengths to dress up their gaming rigs with an illuminated color scheme. The big pad of buttons on the left of the mouse may look a bit less than sleek, but this is a mouse designed in form-follows-function style, and that pad of buttons is really what the G600 is all about.\n\nOverall, I highly recommend this mouse to MMO players. Just make sure you've got another mouse with fewer buttons for your shooters, when you want to keep it simple and straightforward.","Product: Get blown away by your games AND movies in Dolby Digital Surround Sound with the Turtle Beach Ear Force PX4. With up to 15 hours of uninterrupted, crystal clear wireless play, the PX4 not only dominates for PS4, PS3 and Xbox 360 games, but lets you experience Netflix or Blu-Ray Disc movies in cinematic surround sound. Don't settle for less; get the Turtle Beach Audio Advantage today.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Good features at the price, but not truly wireless if you want to use the microphone with PS4\n\nReview: This is a reasonable headset, but it's not entirely wireless when using with PS4.\n\nThe wireless transmitter is powered via a hardwired USB cable. The audio signal from the console comes in through an included optical digital cable. However, if you want to use the microphone feature with PS4, you have to plug a cable from the headset to the controller, so it's not entirely wireless. The microphone can be positioned easily to your liking with a poseable metal \"snake\" covering the wire.\n\nBattery life is good and the headset can function while charging.\n\nThe audio is clean and detailed enough for gaming, although I wouldn't make these my main headphones for music listening. The surround sound feature uses sophisticated algorithms to make you perceive directional sound without multiple drivers in each earcup. It works well enough.\n\nI have not tried to use the Bluetooth feature to field phone calls while gaming -- I just don't talk on the phone while playing games at the same time. I could see that being useful to some people, however.\n\nThese are clearly designed for a younger crowd and have a gaming aesthetic. Construction is largely plastic, but the headset feels well made.","Product: Designed for performance gaming enthusiasts, Logitech G303 Daedalus Apex's advanced optical sensor has maximum tracking accuracy up to 12,000DPI. Make it personal with RGB Customizable lighting. Some profile settings require Logitech Gaming Software available for download at logitech.com/downloads\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Small and light with a great sensor for FPS\n\nReview: The G303 is an optical (not laser) mouse with an insanely accurate sensor. The design is symmetrical, although the forward and back buttons are on the left side of the mouse. I play a lot of FPS, especially Team Fortress 2, and I found this mouse easy to adjust to after using a much heavier, asymmetrical G5 for the past few years.\n\nThe box contains only the mouse. Logitech no longer includes a driver or software in the box. If you want to use all of the mouse's features, you have to go to Logitech's website and download their latest gaming drivers and software.\n\nAs for features, the mouse is straightforward. You have the obvious left and right buttons along with a clickable scroll wheel. This scroll wheel does not use the Logitech technology that lets it spin freely -- it is a click wheel with a definite feeling of resistance between each click. There are forward and back buttons on the left side of the mouse. Below the scroll wheel is a button that allows you to switch among four levels of sensitivity, which are adjustable within the software. On the bottom, the mouse has gliding \"feet\" on all four sides, not just front and back.\n\nI used it with a hard gaming pad. The software allows you to optimize the sensor for the gaming surface you're using as well as to adjust the sensitivity levels of the mouse (choose among pre-programmed profiles or customize them, or create and save your own). You can also adjust the illumination scheme of the mouse if you're into that kind of thing.\n\nOverall performance is highly accurate. I was having no difficulty aiming as any class in TF2, including sniper. The adjustable sensitivity is nice if you need extra detail. I actually used it with Photoshop to pare down some pixels. It worked well.\n\nI give this mouse high marks overall, but especially for the accuracy of its sensor. It took me a little getting used to the smaller size of the mouse; however, it is comfortable and feels solidly assembled. Time will tell if it will hold up -- I've had problems with corded Logitech mice in the past developing shorts in the cord or with failing left buttons that start double clicking or clicking with almost no pressure at all (especially on the G5). This one feels pretty good now. If I experience any issues, I'll update this review.","Product: Boost your productivity with Corel PDF Fusion, an all-in-one PDF creator that lets you view files, plus assemble, edit and create PDFs. View more than 100 different file types just by dragging and dropping them into the Welcome Screen. Take pages from multiple files, including documents, spreadsheets and presentations, and combine them into a single PDF to share with anyone. Add new text, bookmarks and comments. Plus, convert files to PDF, XPS and DOC formats with just a click.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Easy to use, powerful enough for basic .pdf tasks\n\nReview: I've used Adobe Acrobat and PDFDocs. Corel's PDF Fusion is easier to use than either of those programs and, while not as powerful as Acrobat, can do quite a bit in terms of manipulating and creating .pdf files. The interface is fairly simple. You can drag and drop files, change their order, and publish them to .pdf files. You can split .pdf files apart, stitch multiple files together, etc., all in a fairly intuitive graphical interface. It even provides a .pdf printer that lets you print any document (e.g., a Word document from within Word or a webpage in Chrome or Firefox) to a .pdf file. It's an incredibly useful feature.\n\nGiven the ubiquity of .pdf files, it's helpful to have a program like this one on your computer. This one is stable, plays nice with other software, and gets the job done. And it doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Check it out.","Product: It's Windows reimagined and reinvented from a solid core of Windows 7 speed and reliability. It's an all-new touch interface. It's a new Windows for new devices. And it's easy to try now-whether you're installing it for the first time, or moving from Windows 8 Consumer Preview.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: A decent upgrade that gets knocked too much\n\nReview: I installed this Windows 8 64-bit Upgrade on a machine I built several years ago around an Asus AMD 790X chipset motherboard and Phenom II 965BE processor. The machine had been running Windows 7 Pro 64-bit.\n\nFirst, the upgrade was relatively straightforward. After inserting the disc and selecting the relevant menu options, it was off to the races. Although it is an upgrade package that will upgrade the existing operating system, it was not able to preserve the programs I had installed on Windows 7. It did save several settings; however, I had to reinstall Office, Photoshop, etc.\n\nIt found drivers on the installation disc for most devices I had attached, with the exception of a TP-Link wireless adapter. That device requires a hard-wire connection to the ethernet to allow Windows 8 to pull the driver from the Microsoft Windows Update site.\n\nOverall, the installation process was quick -- less than 1/2 an hour -- and relatively painless.\n\nThe Windows 8 Metro interface has taken some flak, especially when run on a desktop system. Although it takes a little getting used to, it is actually quite flexible. If you hunt around for information about keyboard shortcuts, you'll find that pressing the WINDOWS key and the X key will pull up a power user menu that will get you right into the control panel, disk management, etc. These keyboard based shortcuts are great. Microsoft screwed up here by failing to include any direction about their existence.\n\nThe biggest adjustment is the absence of the start button menu. However, its functions are all still there. You just have to learn how to access them. For example, from the start page in Metro, you can just start typing to run a search for a file or app. You don't need the search box in the old start menu to do that.\n\nFor those who complain about booting to Metro instead of desktop, I wonder whether they're just looking for things to gripe about. When you boot into Metro, you just need one mouse click to proceed to the desktop. Have we become so flaccid and spoiled that a single mouse click is too much labor and too much delay in our lives? Really?\n\nThe system boots and shuts down in no time flat -- I have a Sandisk SSD in the computer, and it boots into Windows after POST (the power on self test diagnostic) in under ten seconds.\n\nOverall, this package works decently to upgrade your OS to Microsoft's latest offering. You probably don't need to make the upgrade if Windows 7 is still working well for you. You'll get faster boot times and some small system improvements, but it isn't an earthshattering performance boost.\n\nWhen Windows 8.1 rolls out later this year and permits users to boot directly to a desktop with some kind of start menu, more users may find occasion to upgrade.","Product: VideoStudio Pro X7 EN Mini-Box. Enjoy the faster easier way to make great-looking videos and slideshows. Corel VideoStudio Pro X7 offers new time-saving 64-bit power faster 4K and HD render times fresh creative content and the new movie-making mode FastFlick. Immerse yourself in the creativity of streamlined workspaces including the improved multi-track timeline. Create a huge range of video projects from action-cam and personal videos to slideshows video blogs screen recordings stop motion animation and much more. Whether creating for YouTube or DVD business or pleasure VideoStudio Pro X7 makes it simple and fun to bring your video vision to any screen.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Relatively easy, and fast on a 64-bit machine with memory\n\nReview: I've been using Video Studio Pro for the last three iterations. This easily is the best revision to date.\n\nI'm using this on a machine I built with an AMD FX-8320 (eight core) processor with 16 gb of RAM. I'm using Windows 8.1 64-bit. The 64-bit code runs fast on the computer, and it renders video quickly. I'm finding that it will render 1080p video in MP4 format about twice as quick as X6 did. That's a great software-driven upgrade.\n\nThe interface has minor tweaks that have made it somewhat more intuitive than prior versions, especially for exporting projects to video, etc.\n\nThe feature set is largely the same as prior versions. You can do quite a lot with this software and don't have to be a rocket scientist to do it. That said, Adobe's products offer some additional functionality for true power users.\n\nOverall, I continue to recommend this as a reasonably priced video editor. It's faster and more stable than before, and improvement is always welcome.","Product: Cyberlink PowerDVD 14 Ultra\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Decent software for viewing DVDs and Blu-Rays on a Windows 8.1 machine, but hijacks media file associations\n\nReview: We installed this software on my daughter's PC, which is running Windows 8.1. She has a 16:9 monitor, and the PowerDVD software allows her to watch DVDs and Blu-Ray discs on the machine. At first, playback was really choppy. I figured out that the software wasn't syncing with the monitor's 60hz refresh rate and located a setting that allowed me to change that. Overall, this software is quite functional and allows you to view video in a number of formats, including several HD formats.\n\nAnd that brings me to my beef with this program. It altered nearly every media file-type association in the operating system to make itself the default program, ruining the balance between my daughter's video editing, photo editing, and music playback software and requiring about 1/2 an hour to repair. Shame on Cyberlink for NOT EVEN GIVING THE USER AN OPTION NOT TO ALTER FILE ASSOCIATIONS DURING INSTALLATION. How hard can it be to give the user that option? Not at all. That makes this software user unfriendly -- I'm tech savvy, but some people will have a heck of a time figuring out how to get their media files lined up the way they had them.\n\nWe haven't used the cloud-based solution offered with this package yet. I'll update this review when we do.\n\nSo, overall, this is like the Swiss Army knife of video playback software. My only real gripe--and it's a major one--is that the programmers will hijack your media file associations without warning and provide you no option to set them manually to this program before they alter them.","Product: Expand your artistic capabilities with Corel Painter Essentials 5 Digital Art Suite for PC and Mac. Sketch, draw, or paint to create amazing art at any skill level, whether from scratch or existing photos. Brush and other art tools closely mimic real oil paint, chalk, charcoal, watercolor, and other media with Corel's RealBristle technology. Convert photos into paintings with a click, or use the brush of your choice to personalize your creation. Native 64-bit support ensures that you can find all the essential tools you need for your individual workflow. Wacom tablet support and the2-in-1 mobile painting interface give you flexibility to create your work organically on-the-go with fine-tuning via keyboard input.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Pretty powerful graphics program and excellent at the price\n\nReview: Over the years, I have used any number of photo editing and graphics programs, ranging from Adobe PhotoShop to CorelDraw to PaintShop Pro. However, I've never used anything quite like Painter Essentials 5.\n\nThis program is designed to help you convert your photographs into art. It has a number of tools that will let you paint using your photographs as a jumping off point. It also has filters and algorithms that will automatically convert your photographs into pre-selected styles (e.g., watercolor). The program gives you controls of numerous parameters and is quite powerful for the price.\n\nI have toyed around with it using a mouse and also a Bamboo pad and pen. Both work well. You don't have to be a whiz to get in and start fooling around. However, if you want to do anything serious with this program, prepare to spend some time learning its process. The online help isn't bad, but to get the most out of this you'll have to spend some time with it.\n\nIt installed and ran like a breeze on an Intel i7-3770K machine I built a few years ago, running Windows 8.1 with 16gb of RAM and a decent AMD video card. The controls were smooth and responsive.\n\nIf you have a yen to make painterly scenes or portraits from your photographs, this is a powerful program that will let you do it. Just be ready to invest time learning how to get the most out of it.","Product: Explore an impressive sensory selection of realistic Natural-Media that perfectly emulates real life art materials and imaginative art materials that can't be found in the real world. With Painter 2016, you can experience the incomparable harmony of Audio Expression, smart photo cloning, killer composition tools, physics-inspired Particle brushes, and in-app learning-all in high DPI. No matter what media you choose, you will enjoy the speed and power of painting with a hybrid native 64-bit Mac and PC application that's compatible with Photoshop files and Adobe Brush import. Discover the world's most expressive paint program and change what's possible in art.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Powerful artistic content creation\n\nReview: Painter 2016 is a powerful program for artistic treatment of photographs and for digital art creation. I have used a variety of Corel and Adobe programs for photo editing, but Painter stands apart in light of the wide variety of brushes/pencils/pens available as well as other features that are geared towards someone who may actually have worked in ink and paint.\n\nAlthough it is a powerful program with myriad options, Corel has attempted to ease the steepness of the learning curve. From the opening screen, it is possible to launch a layout for people who are new to Painter, which gives various tips and instructions about workflow/layout and options.\n\nI found it easy to explore and to get up and running. Using a Wacom Bamboo tablet, I was able to work some landscape photographs into vaguely artistic looking pieces. I'm still learning, and there are a lot of tutorials available. Most of the menu options and toolbars are relatively intuitive, so I didn't have much difficulty getting going.\n\nThis version of the program features some bells and whistles, like the option to make brushes responsive to audio, so you can vary width, etc., to the beat of music playing on your PC. It's a fun toy, but I'm not sure I see it as a \"go to\" option for treating photographs.\n\nThe software runs fluidly on my Intel i7-3770k based PC with 16 gb of RAM and a good AMD video card. I did not have trouble moving or editing large canvases with many layers.\n\nIn all, this is a powerful artistic tool. As a relative novice to \"photo painting\" (as opposed to photo editing), I found the interface and workflow manageable and intuitive. I look forward to continuing to explore the capabilities of this program.","Product: Eternity Eau De Toilette Spray 3.4 Oz/ 100 Ml for Men by Calvin Klein\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Decent lighter fragrance, but doesn't last long for me\n\nReview: Eternity is a classic fragrance of the early 1990s, when every male lawyer under the age of 50 working in Manhattan had at least 100ml in his briefcase at all times. This is a fairly clean smelling scent with subtle spices that strikes me with notes of lemon, lavender, basil, and sandalwood. Some days it can smell a bit soapy. Unfortunately for me, it does not last very long on my skin and is more or less gone after a few hours. Whether that is an issue of body chemistry--fragrances act differently on different people--or of formulation, I don't know. It is generally subtle, not cloying, and not likely to offend anyone; I have never heard of anyone outright disliking this fragrance.","Product: An intensive spa-grade micro-dermabrasion that helps resurface to visibly reduce fine lines and even skin tone, revealing smoother and younger looking skin. An alternative to conventional chemical dermabrasion, this effective formula made with certified organic ingredients, clay, and micro-particles of grape seed and jojoba gently resurfaces, smoothes and softens. Replenishes, restores and renews with a proprietary blend of fruit stem cells which have been infused into an organic resveratrol-rich grapeseed base. Softens & moisturizes skin with Vitamin E. Soothes post-exfoliation with chamomile & aloe vera.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: A bit tricky and expensive, and results vary -- why not make a single application available?\n\nReview: This product gives you six vials of serum and some special pads that are supposed to moisturize and firm the skin under the eyes to reduce wrinkles, etc.\n\nOverall, the product is somewhat messy to apply. You have to get the algae pads into position and saturate them with the serum. It isn't a quick or simple process and requires a fair bit of skill to get right. You may waste some pads trying to learn how to apply the product.\n\nMy wife reported no irritation from the serum. She liked the way it smelled -- it was mild with no strong chemical odors.\n\nShe reported that her skin felt better, but it wasn't immediately apparent that the serum had caused any wrinkle reduction. Her skin is generally fine so she doesn't exactly have a lot of wrinkles to remove. In other words, there was not a \"day and night\" difference here. Perhaps other people will achieve different results because of their skin type.\n\nWith six vials of serum, you're paying about $12 per treatment. That seems like a lot, but it isn't as much as you would pay at a spa.\n\nOverall, we did not see tremendous results, but that may be because my wife's eyes do not need a lot of help. It would be nice if Juice would make an individual application available so people could try this product for $12. Without knowing what results you'll see, it's hard to justify splashing out $70.","Product: This 8 inch rubber blade table fan combines innovative design and excellent airflow. The rubber blade is safe to touch and will automatically stop when touched, and the smart motor will keep the blade at idle until obstruction is removed. Easy-to-use control dial for turning the fan on or off, with whisper quiet operation. Lightweight at just 3 pounds. Features overheat protection with automatic shut-off. Measures 6 by 9-1/2 by 10 inches, with 1-year limited warranty.\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: Quiet, weak fan with a design problem\n\nReview: I needed a fan for the office and was intrigued by the promise that this would be a quiet, safe fan.\n\nThe fan is something of a disappointment for the price.\n\nFirst, although the fan is quiet, it moves relatively little air. It was difficult to feel it even when it was less than four feet away.\n\nSecond, the fan almost immediately had trouble bringing the blades up to speed. The fan would turn incredibly slowly at first and only gradually ramp up. I believe this affected the motor.\n\nFinally, within a year, the fan wouldn't start up. Turn the switch to on, and nothing happens. It turns out that the bearing at the back of the motor shaft is not permanently lubricated. The friction was enough to keep the fan blades from turning, probably doing some damage to the electrical motor even before it \"seized,\" causing it to work too hard. I had to remove two screws that hold the motor/blade assembly in place, remove it, remove the mounting bracket at the back of the motor, add a few drops of a lubricating oil (NOT WD-40!), and reassemble. It's starting up again and seems to be working better than before.\n\nThis could be a decent fan if the company would do a better job with the basic engineering.","Product: This 8 inch rubber blade table fan combines innovative design and excellent airflow. The rubber blade is safe to touch and will automatically stop when touched, and the smart motor will keep the blade at idle until obstruction is removed. Easy-to-use control dial for turning the fan on or off, with whisper quiet operation. Lightweight at just 3 pounds. Features overheat protection with automatic shut-off. Measures 6 by 9-1/2 by 10 inches, with 1-year limited warranty.\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: Quiet, weak fan with a design problem\n\nReview: I needed a fan for the office and was intrigued by the promise that this would be a quiet, safe fan.\n\nThe fan is something of a disappointment for the price.\n\nFirst, although the fan is quiet, it moves relatively little air. It was difficult to feel it even when it was less than four feet away.\n\nSecond, the fan almost immediately had trouble bringing the blades up to speed. The fan would turn incredibly slowly at first and only gradually ramp up. I believe this affected the motor.\n\nFinally, within a year, the fan wouldn't start up. Turn the switch to on, and nothing happens. It turns out that the bearing at the back of the motor shaft is not permanently lubricated. The friction was enough to keep the fan blades from turning, probably doing some damage to the electrical motor even before it \"seized,\" causing it to work too hard. I had to remove two screws that hold the motor/blade assembly in place, remove it, remove the mounting bracket at the back of the motor, add a few drops of a lubricating oil (NOT WD-40!), and reassemble. It's starting up again and seems to be working better than before.\n\nThis could be a decent fan if the company would do a better job with the basic engineering.","Product: Enjoy professional results on all your favorite baked goods with a Professional Bread Maker from America's number one brand. Our exclusive collapsible kneading paddles collapse automatically before baking begins to prevent holes in the bottom of your loaf for better results. An exclusive automatic fruit and nut dispenser adds extras automatically, so you can enjoy freshly baked fruit and nut bread without waiting around. Easy-to-use controls offer 14 baking functions, including low carb, gluten free and artisan dough, with 3 loaf sizes up to 2 pounds and light, medium and dark crust color. The delay bake timer can be set up to 15 hours. Our Perfect Bake technology ensures even heat for better baking, while useful accessories like a collapsible measuring cup and adjustable measuring spoon make adding ingredients easy. All this, plus a recipe book with over 80 recipes included.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Great bread, not easy to clean\n\nReview: The Breadman BK1060S is a fairly attractive kitchen appliance. The stainless steel looks good, and fit and finish reflect decent build quality.\n\nWe used the machine to make bread from a few Hodgson Mill mixes. They worked well. The loaves came out with good crust and had good texture and consistency. In short, the machine makes good quality bread without much difficulty; however, if you want to try adding nuts and berries or more complex recipes, the machine has a flexible set of features that will allow you to add some variety.\n\nThe principal drawback we noticed is that the auto-folding dough paddles are not easily removed. Dough baked underneath the paddles (i.e., between the paddle base and the loaf pan) and is quite difficult to clean. We tried soaking the paddles in water, but they still wouldn't budge. I suppose a bit of shortening on the shaft they attach to prior to use might make removal easier. This is the major shortcoming we found in the device.\n\nAside from the cleaning issue, it's a good machine.","Product: Bissell Trilogy, 81M9 The Bissell Trilogy Vacuum offers 3 ways to clean OxyPro Carpet Spot & Stain Remover stores on board to spot clean when you vacuum, and the conveniently located brush roll on/off switch allows you to vacuum either carpets or hard floors at the flip of a switch. This 12 amp upright bagless vacuum, with a 15-inch cleaning path, 6X Cyclonic System, and complete set of onboard tools, provides a powerful clean. Vacuuming is the time when spots and stains are noticed on your carpet. With a convenient holster for a Bissell OxyPro Carpet Spot & Stain Remover, you can quickly treat a spot or stain when you are vacuuming. Simply treat the spot or stain according to the directions on the can. Let the OxyPro work its magicvacuuming when dry. OxyPro Carpet Spot & Stain Remover removes tough set in stains all the way to the backing, such as red wine, cola, coffee/tea, fruit juice, and gravy. OxyPro is safe for all carpet types, including wool, nylon, acrylic and stain resistant carpet. Leaves carpet safe for children and pets when used as directed. Cyclonic separation keeps filters cleaner, longer, for superior suction power. With cyclonic cleaning, more dirt stays in the dirt container versus going to the filters. As filters clog, suction is reduced and cleaning performance drops. Therefore, by keeping filters clean longer, overall cleaning performance is improved.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Pretty powerful vacuum, but a bit heavy\n\nReview: The Bissell Trilogy is, overall, a pretty decent vacuum cleaner. It has powerful suction, good filtration, a long cord, a clever storage system for the extension wand attachment, and a dirt cup that is easy to remove and empty. It is as good or better (especially with regard to the dirt cup) than comparable models from Hoover that I've used. Overall, the construction is pretty good. You do need a screwdriver to attach a few of the plastic pieces that hold attachments, and those screws are not driven into prethreaded holes -- you drive them right into the unthreaded plastic holes, which requires some force.\n\nThe turbo brush attachment works well to clean small areas, such as carpeted stairs. It's comparable to the turbo attachment I've used on a Hoover. The suction turns the brush -- no separate electrical motor for that agitator.\n\nCord and tool storage are fine. The separate holder for a can of carpet cleaner is a bit gimmicky for my taste, but you may find it useful if you use carpet cleaner often.\n\nI only have a few complaints. Overall the unit is a bit on the heavy side. Also, if the unit approaches too close to upright when running, the brush will stop rotating. (The brush can be controlled with its own power switch on the top left of the unit.) It would be nice if the cord were retractable given how long it is.\n\nIn all, it seems like a quality unit. Time will tell how durable it is.","Product: T-Fal Ultraglide 4476 iron embodies ingenuity and innovation for easy ironing and high performance. Thoughtfully designed iron smoothes out wrinkles quickly and easily. Ultraglide ceramic soleplate has the best glide, with incomparable smoothness, scratch-resistance and non-stick properties. Pointed tip works well for getting into pleats, between buttons, and along seams. Iron produces continuous steam (up to 35-gram per minute),delivers a powerful burst of steam (80-gram/min) as needed to help smooth out stubborn wrinkles from difficult fabrics. Continuous steam and soleplate temperature are both adjustable to the fabric type. For added convenience, iron comes with extra large sealed inlet opening for easy filling and to prevent spills, large 9-ounce water-tank size means fewer refills necessary. Use iron on a flat surface for traditional ironing or hold it upright for vertically steaming out wrinkles from hanging drapes and delicate garments. Easycord system keeps the cord out of the way when ironing and prevents from re-wrinkling already-ironed fabrics . Dual self-cleaning technology with calc-recollecting valve and integrated anti-scale system provide better long-lasting performances while the anti-drip system prevents water leaks when the iron is not hot enough to steam. Lightweight, the 1700-watt iron endears itself to users with its soft grip handle for ergonomic comfort. Extra-large heel helps to prevent tipping over and is perfect to wrap up the cord when the iron is stored. For peace of mind and added safety, iron comes with a 3-way auto off feature. Iron will shut off automatically after 30 seconds of inactivity if left on its soleplate or tipped over on its side; if left vertically on its heel rest, it will shut off after 8 minutes. Iron measures approximately 5.9 by 11.1-inch and carries a one year limited warranty.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Excellent iron at a decent price\n\nReview: I'd been using a Rowenta iron for the past few years. This T-fal iron is every bit as functional at about 1/3 the price. It is easy to fill with water. It doesn't spill. It heats up quickly. It can generate steam in both horizontal and upright positions, which is helpful to me when steaming suits. The sole plate does glide easily over fabric -- it doesn't stick the way the steel sole plate on the Rowenta does.\n\nThe cord is somewhat articulated at the back of the iron. I've had no problems with the cord getting in the way.\n\nThe construction is solid, but this iron is much lighter than the Rowenta, which makes it more comfortable to use.\n\nIn all, this is a pretty good iron at the price. If I'd known about this, I'd never have purchased the more expensive Rowenta.","Product: The DeLonghi DD70PE Energy Star 70-pint Dehumidifier with Patented Pump features a worry-free pump function that allows the unit to continuously discharge moisture without constantly emptying a bucket. The unit can pump water upward to drain out a basement window or into a sink, up to 16 feet with the provided hose. The electronic controls and LCD display allow you to adjust relative humidity, monitor room temperature and set the 24-hour timer. With its frontally located tank and transparent water level window, you can easily see how much water has been collected if you choose to use the tank function. The tank has a 6-liter capacity and an alarm alerts you when it is filled. Package Content: 70-pint dehumidifier16 ft. hose3 ft. hosemanualwarranty\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Gets the job done, and the pump allows flexibility in locating the unit\n\nReview: We have previously used a Kenmore dehumidifier and a Friedrich model that has a pump. Our basement drain is not in a convenient place, so we had to empty the Kenmore daily into a utility sink. The Friedrich was a big step up -- we could set the unit near the utility sink and have it pump the water it pulled from the air up into the sink. It worked pretty well--and we no longer had to make daily visits to the dehumidifier--but it wasn't that easy to control the \"auto on\" humidity levels, etc. We ended up leaving it running more than we needed it to be running.\n\nThat's where this DeLonghi comes in. It offers relatively intuitive digital controls that make programming the dehumidifier a snap. You can set the duration of cycles and so forth, using the display to follow the program. Pretty good set up.\n\nOverall, the unit isn't incredibly heavy, but it seems to be well made. Will update this review if there is any change in performance over time.","Product: The DeLonghi 50-pint dehumidifier with patented pump features a worry-free pump function that allows the unit to continuously discharge moisture without constantly emptying a bucket. The unit can pump water upward to drain out a basement window or into a sink, up to 16 feet with the provided hose. The electronic controls and LCD display allow you to adjust relative humidity, monitor room temperature and set the 24-hour timer. With its frontally located tank and transparent water level window, you can easily see how much water has been collected if you choose to use the tank function. The tank has a 6-liter capacity and an alarm alerts you when it is filled. If your dehumidifier is not collecting water, please try the following: Increase the heat in the room to see if the unit collects more water. Clean the filter. Move the dehumidifier to another area for a short time. Set the humidistat to a lower humidity setting. If the unit is not collecting water, the environment may not have a high enough humidity level. At home test: To find out if the room you are using the dehumidifier in has humidity, fill a glass with ice water and set it in the room. Check after 30 to 45 minutes to see if condensation has formed on the outside of the glass. If no condensation has formed, there is no humidity to be collected. If condensation has formed, your unit should be extracting moisture from the air.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Solid unit -- pump feature is nice\n\nReview: We have previously used a Kenmore dehumidifier and a Friedrich model that has a pump. Our basement drain is not in a convenient place, so we had to empty the Kenmore daily into a utility sink. The Friedrich was a big step up -- we could set the unit near the utility sink and have it pump the water it pulled from the air up into the sink. It worked pretty well--and we no longer had to make daily visits to the dehumidifier--but it wasn't that easy to control the \"auto on\" humidity levels, etc. We ended up leaving it running more than we needed it to be running.\n\nThat's where this DeLonghi comes in. It offers relatively intuitive digital controls that make programming the dehumidifier a snap. You can set the duration of cycles and so forth, using the display to follow the program. Pretty good set up.\n\nOverall, the unit isn't incredibly heavy, but it seems to be well made. Will update this review if there is any change in performance over time.","Product: The perfect marriage of style and function; Totally Bamboo's 100-percent natural marbled bamboo cutting and serving board combines dependability and elegance for everyday use. Made from natural flat grain and marbled inlay bamboo this board provides all the benefits of our bamboo's ruggedness with an exotic look. The boards are reversible with a generous groove on one side for catching juices and the other side for use as a serving platter. Board measures 18-inch by 11-Inch. Care: wash with warm water and a mild detergent. To season new board, generously apply Totally Bamboo's Revitalizing Oil (sold separately) every few days for the first month. For regular upkeep and to extend the life of the board, oil when the board appears dry or as needed. Not dishwasher safe. Bamboo is a grass that grows to maturity in 5 years and does not need to be replanted, artificially irrigated or fertilized, making it one of the world's most renewable resources. Do the world a favor, Do Bamboo.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Beautiful big bamboo board\n\nReview: This is a handsome bamboo cutting board. The overall finish is good on the top (with the inlay), but it was a little more rough on the back than I would have expected. There were a small handful of bamboo fibers sticking out in a few places.\n\nThe board needs to be handled carefully if you want it to last. Wash by hand only with warm (not hot) water and gentle soaps. And use a food-grade mineral oil periodically to condition the bamboo and keep it from drying out and splitting.\n\nIt's a big board, and it's fun to use as a serving tray. I'd hesitate to use it as a cutting board because it's too attractive. In my opinion, knife marks would detract from the appearance.\n\nMade in China by actual pandas.","Product: Delicious coffee directly into your mug in 5 minutes. It features a doubled-lined stainless steel filter which results in a rich, aromatic cup of coffee.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Great coffee with one reservation\n\nReview: This single-cup hand-pour coffee filter is reusable and doesn't require any paper filters. With a medium grind, you can add near-boiling water slowly to the grounds to extract a lot of flavor. The stainless steel filter insert is extremely fine and will stop most sediment from getting into your mug, although it isn't quite as good at that as a paper filter is.\n\nMy only qualm is that the way the stainless filter cone is joined along one side leaves a seam that has some unprotected and sharp metal on it. I'm a little nervous that, if I don't pay attention one day, I might cut a finger on the seam. Other than that, it's a fine way to make a delicious cup of coffee.","Product: The French Perle Pistachio Everything Bowl features intricate detailing inspired by hand-embroidered fabrics. A carved beaded motif of scrolls and jewel-like elements punctuates the sophisticated, elegant look.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Pretty mug, but it arrived with chips in the base and does not seem as durable as other stoneware I've owned\n\nReview: Overall, it's a nice looking mug with substantial weight. However, the stoneware does not seem durable. Amazon demonstrated this by shipping the mug, which is not boxed or otherwise wrapped, loose in a box with a couple of air packets. It arrived with big chips out of the base and pulverized material in the box. [BE CAREFUL ORDERING THIS FROM AMAZON AS IT MAY ARRIVE BROKEN.] It's tough to tell how much abuse it received in shipment; however, given the way the base chipped, and given the feel of the exposed material, this does not compare with other stoneware I've owned, such as Mikasa mugs that I've had for more than 20 years that have taken a lot of banging around without exhibiting similar chips or flaws. The edge of the base is relatively thin and I expect that chipping may be a problem over time in any event.","Product: You'll never miss your wake up call with this convenient travel fold-up alarm with USB port to enable you to charge your phone. The Travel Projection Alarm Clock from La Crosse Technology features a soft backlight and auto-focus projection of time onto your wall or ceiling. The LCD displays the calendar date with weekday and active alarm icon.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Decent, but LCD is hard to see from some angles\n\nReview: This travel alarm clock is a very basic clock with a few neat features. First, it can run from power from a USB port on a computer or a USB charger through a micro USB input on the side of the clock. A cable is included. When it is powered from a USB port, it constantly projects the time on the ceiling through a lens on the top right side of the clock. Also, when running from USB power, it is possible to charge a 1.0A device from an output port on the side of the clock (same side as the input). This output will not work if only using two AAA batteries.\n\nMy only real complaint is that the LCD is difficult to view from certain angles and looks almost blank. Also, the image accompanying this product does not accurately depict the screen, which is a standard silver screen with dark numbers.\n\nOverall, it's a decent, functional alarm clock. It does not have the radio feature that some La Crosse clocks have, so it's up to you to set the time. The AAA batteries (not included) are supposed to last about a year.","Product: Product DescriptionThe ESPRO Press is designed to take the customers own carefully crafted preferences the bean and roast, the leaf and marry them with a perfected environment for brewing.Two innovations are at the heart of the process. First, ESPROs patented double micro-filter gives people the distinct, rich flavor theyd expect, without all the mess associated with a traditional press. And second, the design of the press and filters prevents over-extracted coffee or tea from entering the beverage once the plunger is pushed down.For French-press coffee lovers, the ESPRO Press accomplishes what was previously impossible: deep and rich flavor, with all the aromatic oils, yet without any grit in their cup.Espro IncWere in the midst of a renaissance. Blends are giving way to single varietals. Freshness is being carefully managed. The stories of the farmer and responsible agriculture are becoming known. Quality is being rewarded and consumers are becoming connoisseurs.At ESPRO, were proud to be a vital part of that movement.We craft tools that help people make better coffee, tea, and espresso. We are obsessed with combining time-tested brewing techniques with technology and innovation to bring the form and function of our products to the highest ideal. We are dedicated to flavor and process and craft and creativity.Everything we do supports coffee and tea lovers to make their best cup - simply, every day, all over the world.Thats what we mean when we say, ESPRO MAKE IT BETTERReviewsWIRED - A French Press that works.WINE SPECTATOR - The best press pot Ive ever used.NEW YORK TIMES - The payoff is a rich, clean, aromatic cup of coffee. And the insulated container, which maintains the coffee temperature, is lovely enough to go on the table.MARTHA STEWART - It works! The result is a richly flavored, super aromatic cup of coffee without the usual silt in the bottom.POPULAR SCIENCE - It definitely achieves its goal to bring a press-pot cup of coffee without the grit ... since it's noticeably lighter and cleaner I'm almost tempted to put it in its own category.AwardsIn 2015, The Espro Travel Press received the Specialty Coffee Association of America Best New Product Award, and the Coffeefest Best New Product Award.In 2016, The Espro Press P5 received the Specialty Coffee Association of America Best New Product Award, and the World Tea Expo Best New Product Award.The same brewing and filtering technology is in the Espro Press P3, and all of our Espro Presses.Friends For Life GuaranteeWe design products that make better coffee, tea, and espresso, and are built to last. We guarantee it.If customers are not satisfied with an ESPRO product when they receive it, or if one of our products does not perform over time, they may return it to us for a repair, replacement, or refund. Damage due to improper use, lack of cleaning, or wear and tear will be repaired at a reasonable charge.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Really nice press at a reasonable price\n\nReview: For about twenty-five years, I've had a Bodum French press. I only used it periodically because it would leave so much sediment in the coffee.\n\nThis Espro press has a double fine mesh filter that brews great tasting coffee without the sediment. The set includes paper filters that you can interpose in the double filter in order to reduce oils in the coffee.\n\nYou have to use a coarse grind -- you don't want to clog the filters and make it impossible to \"plunge\" them through the brewing coffee.\n\nThe glass pitcher is nice and thick and has a tab that helps to lock it into the plastic handle/holder assembly.\n\nThe whole thing is easy to clean up and brews enough for a few medium sized cups of coffee.\n\nOverall, this is one well-engineered press that yields great tasting coffee. Two thumbs up!","Product: The Sculpted Faux Leather Platform Bed with Footboard by Zinus will transform your bedroom. It ships in one carton with the footboard, frame, legs, and wooden slats conveniently located in the zippered compartment in the back of the headboard for easy assembly. This Sculpted Faux Leather Platform Bed features a headboard and footboard style frame, with wood slats and exposed feet for support. Espresso colored faux leather for a luxurious look that makes an excellent addition to any bedroom. Another comfort innovation from Zinus. Pioneering comfort.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: It looks like leather, ships intelligently, and is easy to assemble\n\nReview: We have had a few memory foam mattresses for a couple of years. They had replaced a traditional inner-spring mattress. We had them resting on the old mattresses' box springs. When the opportunity to try an attractive looking platform bed arose, we couldn't pass it up.\n\nThis Zinus bed exceeded expectations in nearly every department.\n\nFirst, the packaging. The bed has a clever compartment in the back of the headboard that allows the slats and hardware to be shipped INSIDE THE HEADBOARD! So you get one large shipping package that is basically the headboard itself.\n\nSecond, the faux leather. As a child, I had an inexpensive \"reading chair\" in the basement of my house. That chair looked like something from 2001: A Space Odyssey or the Jetsons. It had a wide, white resin base that supported a space age looking chair on a thin, tapered column. It had a large Naugahyde seating surface. I was fearful that the \"faux leather\" of this bed might look like that Naugahyde. GOOD NEWS, EVERYBODY: it doesn't look like Naugahyde! It actually closely resembles leather. The color is good and even, and, unlike the Naugahyde that has haunted my dreams for years, it doesn't look like vinyl or plastic. Better still, the stitching holding it in place seems to be of good quality. I have hopes that this faux leather will stand the test of time.\n\nThird, assembly and build quality. This bed is simple to assemble, as others have noted. This is not some kind of IKEA project with dozens of hex-head screws you have to line up. I would be surprised if it took anyone more than 30 minutes to get this set up. It goes together well, and the resulting product is quite sturdy. It supports our 12\" memory foam mattress with no problems.\n\nOverall, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of this bed, especially at this sub-$300 price point. Recommended.","Product: The Tufted Faux Leather Platform Bed with Footboard by Zinus will transform your bedroom. It ships in one carton with the frame, legs, and wooden slats conveniently located in the zippered compartment in the back of the headboard for easy assembly. This Tufted Faux Leather Platform Bed features a headboard and footboard style frame, with wood slats and exposed feet for support. Espresso colored faux leather for a luxurious look that makes an excellent addition to any bedroom. For use with mattresses not greater than 13 inches in height. Another comfort innovation from Zinus. Pioneering comfort.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Faux leather? Certainly doesn't look like faux!\n\nReview: We have had a memory foam mattress for a couple of years. It replaced a traditional inner-spring mattress. We had it resting on the old mattresses' box spring. When the opportunity to try an attractive looking platform bed arose, we couldn't pass it up.\n\nThis Zinus bed exceeded expectations in nearly every department.\n\nFirst, the packaging. The bed has a clever compartment in the back of the headboard that allows the slats and hardware to be shipped INSIDE THE HEADBOARD! So you get one large shipping package that is basically the headboard itself.\n\nSecond, the faux leather. As a child, I had an inexpensive \"reading chair\" in the basement of my house. That chair looked like something from 2001: A Space Odyssey or the Jetsons. It had a wide, white resin base that supported a space age looking chair on a thin, tapered column. It had a large Naugahyde seating surface. I was fearful that the \"faux leather\" of this bed might look like that Naugahyde. GOOD NEWS, EVERYBODY: it doesn't look like Naugahyde! It actually closely resembles leather. The color is good and even, and, unlike the Naugahyde that has haunted my dreams for years, it doesn't look like vinyl or plastic. Better still, the stitching holding it in place seems to be of good quality. I have hopes that this faux leather will stand the test of time.\n\nThird, assembly and build quality. The bed is simple to assemble, as others have noted. This is not some kind of IKEA project with dozens of hex-head screws you have to line up. I would be surprised if it took anyone more than 30 minutes to get this set up. It goes together well, and the resulting product is quite sturdy. It supports our 13\" memory foam mattress with no problems.\n\nOverall, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of this bed, especially at this sub-$300 price point. Recommended.","Product: BISSELL ProHeat 2X Lift-Off Pet refreshes your carpets with a deeper clean. Its unique and innovative design offers upright cleaning and a detachable, portable deep cleaner to tackle pet messes on stairs, on upholstery, in the car, and wherever stains hide. It features of two rows of PowerBrushes, get at the dirt that hides deep within carpet fibers, and HeatWave Technology which helps maintain constant water temperature throughout the cleaning process.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: This machine does a decent job, but it is cheaply engineered and leaky for the price\n\nReview: We have had a few carpet cleaners over the years. This one from Bissell manages to do a fair job of cleaning carpet, but it seems quite cheap for the price. It also requires a large amount of cleaning formula to clean even small rooms.\n\nThe cleaner requires some assembly. The handle is affixed to the body of the unit with four insubstantial screws. As a result, the handle assembly on this unit seems much cheaper and insubstantial than even on prior Bissell products we've owned. This is a shame and appears to mark a trend in which even fairly expensive minor appliances are of poorer quality than they used to be. It's a shame as better screws would only cost the company a few cents. This is false economy.\n\nThe unit has a few other problems. If you pull it back, it always leaves formula behind the suction. And if you pull it back to get that formula, it leaks still more, requiring you to continue to pull it back. It's ridiculous that a machine this expensive would dribble out formula in a somewhat uncontrolled fashion.\n\nWe have five cats, and this unit did do a fair job of pulling soil and hair out of the carpet. However, it spit cat hairballs all over the place, even after the room was thoroughly vacuumed first with a Dyson Animal vacuum. It also required almost all of the included formula to clean the carpet in just a few small rooms.\n\nThere are no instructions included with the unit. You have to download them from Bissell. They include guidance on cleaning the unit, which requires you to dispose of any cleaning solution that you happen not to use. Overall, it seems like the instructions are geared towards requiring you to purchase a lot of cleaning fluid from Bissell in a \"razor and blade\" sales strategy.\n\nThe bottom line is that this is an expensive unit that feels cheap and, despite being properly assembled, leaks fluid in amounts much greater than one would hope. While it did a pretty good job of pulling soil out of our carpets, it seems too expensive for what you get. It's difficult to understand why a company like Bissell cannot provide a better machine for the price.\n\nRecommended with serious reservations.","Product: Today everyone's craving Mexican cuisine. The unique flavors and textures from the south of the border are delighting the taste buds in homes across the country. Now award-winning chef, cookbook author, and restaurant own Rich Bayless presents a collection of fine cookware and housewares designed to serve the unique needs of Mexican cooking. Created in partnership with GORHAM, The Mexican Kitchen Collection offers the right pieces for today's growing market of home chefs hungry to create their own fiestas of fabulous foods.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Great quality and wonderfully functional. And HEAVY!\n\nReview: This is one heavy cast iron dual-burner griddle/grilling griddle. The iron includes the Gorham foundry marks on the handles.\n\nIt supposedly comes pre-seasoned. However, we followed the instructions and seasoned it by coating it lightly with oil and baking it for an hour at a moderately low temperature. With cast iron, you don't use harsh soaps to clean it. You want to build up a \"patina\" to keep the product well seasoned. Cleaning it is a little difficult, however, simply because it is such a heavy item.\n\nAs for performance, it's great. The smooth side works great for tortillas, and the grill side is deep enough that the meats you cook develop decent marks and don't just sit in their own juices.\n\nOverall, this is a great piece of cookware. Just keep in mind that it's quite heavy and difficult to maneuver when you're cleaning.","Product: A soft architectural shape accentuated by clean, frosted lines create a captivating texture on the Harding crystal 12 inch smoke Vase. Crafted of European non-lead crystal, the vase's Muted color and contemporary silhouette offers a touch of sophistication a soft architectural shape accentuated by clean, frosted lines create a captivating texture on the Harding crystal 12 inch smoke Vase. Crafted of European non-lead crystal, the vase's Muted color and contemporary silhouette offers a touch of sophistication to any setting.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Overall nice design, but mechanical blemishes mar this one\n\nReview: My wife and I have Lenox china, and I have always thought of the brand as one associated with quality. I was disappointed in this vase.\n\nFrom a distance, the vase looks fine. The lower portion is covered with fine grooves that give the crystal an opaque, smoky quality. However, on the example I received, there are a number of scratches in the clear crystal just above the grooves, perhaps where some machine bumped it as it rotating the vase to cut the grooves. These scratches do not appear to have resulted from the shipping process. In fact, the vase was packed well and securely with adequate cushioning. There are also some small drips in the neck of the vase, which appear dark in color. Perhaps its from an overapplication of the colorant the company used to create the smoky appearance on the glass. This is not the kind of lax quality control I would expect from Lenox.\n\nIf the vase hadn't had these flaws, I would have given it five stars. However, for this price, I see these flaws as a significant defect that detracts from the vase.","Product: \"Obviously, informal parties deserve the same kind of professional sound quality as large-scale events do. Semiprofessional DJs too need dependable equipment. The K 81 DJ fit the bill perfectly. Their closed-back earphones, for instance, provide optimum isolation from ambient noise. The K 81 DJ will take heavy usage easily, and their high SPL capability ensures excellent sound quality. Finally, their level of wearing comfort is as impressive as their powerful low end and accurate imaging. Their distinguishing features include: 3D-Axis folding mechanism for ease of handling and good user comfort. Folded down into a thin package, the k 81 dj are ready for use anytime High sound pressure level: High SPL capability for any type of event in any environment. Legendary AKG sound quality Closed-back earphones: Isolating ear cups attenuate ambient noise, keeping even quiet passages clearly audible Maximum ruggedness Detented adjustable headband \"\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Great performance at this price point\n\nReview: I bought these AKGs as the result of my search for a decent sealed headphone to replace my Sennheiser PX100s, which just weren't cutting it on the train. I'm amazed at the difference. These, like the Senns, have a 32 ohm impedence, so they're easy to drive with a portable player. At first blush, they reveal much more detail in the music than the PX100s do, including a more coherent and present high end. I'm hearing a lot more detail even in songs encoded in WMA format at 128kbs. The bass is controlled but does not lack. I have had AKG reference headphones in the past (240DFs). While these are not in that league, they easily sound as good as the Sennheiser 280 Pros that I've got. Better than the 280s on a portable, too, as they are easier to drive. These are smaller, supraaural headphones. Though they're not as portable as the Sennheiser PX100s, they're much easier to wear during the commute than the 280 Pros. All in all, they're a great deal for someone with a portable player. Check them out if you're looking for a good balance of portability, noise attenuation, and sonics at a reasonable price.\n\n------\n\nFebruary 2007 Update:\n\nThe left channel started shorting out recently. I am sending these in to AKG for warranty service. It must be a weak wire -- I take good care of these headphones.","Product: \"Obviously, informal parties deserve the same kind of professional sound quality as large-scale events do. Semiprofessional DJs too need dependable equipment. The K 81 DJ fit the bill perfectly. Their closed-back earphones, for instance, provide optimum isolation from ambient noise. The K 81 DJ will take heavy usage easily, and their high SPL capability ensures excellent sound quality. Finally, their level of wearing comfort is as impressive as their powerful low end and accurate imaging. Their distinguishing features include: 3D-Axis folding mechanism for ease of handling and good user comfort. Folded down into a thin package, the k 81 dj are ready for use anytime High sound pressure level: High SPL capability for any type of event in any environment. Legendary AKG sound quality Closed-back earphones: Isolating ear cups attenuate ambient noise, keeping even quiet passages clearly audible Maximum ruggedness Detented adjustable headband \"\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Great bang for the buck, and good warranty service\n\nReview: I have had a pair of 81DJs for about a year-and-a-half now. They continue to be my favorite headphones for use with my Creative Zen, and they sound even better plugged into my HeadRoom desktop amp. They have great bass that isn't overwhelming, decent isolation, and pretty good design. The upper treble is slightly rolled off, but that beats a strident or harsh high end.\n\nThe cord is the weak link here. It's long (9ft) but flimsy. After about one year, the plug on mine started losing continuity in the left channel. It was clear the wire had broken internally where it connected to the plug. I contacted AKG, who asked me to ship them to their center in California. In a little more than a week, I had a new pair. (They can't replace the cord, it seems.) Great warranty, great customer service.\n\nIn sub-$100 sealed headphones, I've got a pair of Sennheiser 280 Pros, too, but I favor these over the 280 Pros for most music. The Senns have better isolation and a better cord, but they're hardly portable, and they're harder to drive (64 ohms) than the 81DJs (32 ohms) with a portable player. The 81DJs have got better sound overall -- things always seem a bit muted in the 280 Pros at the high and low ends, even through the headphone amplifier. (Neither pair is as good as AKG's 701s or 240DFs, though that's a different league.)\n\nI don't think they can be beat by any other sealed design headphones in this price range. A good buy.","Product: Delivering Mayhem to the Mainstream Long thought to be the market of the conservative gamer, the affordable mainstream products, which use to suffer only adequate performance, now experiences a frame rate revival with the SAPPHIRE HD 3850. Built upon the award winning Radeon HD 3850 core, the SAPPHIRE 3850 offers a comprehensive feature-set that eclipses previous and current mainstream offerings. Unleash the enthusiast inside you with support for advanced technologies such as DirectX 10 and Shader Model 4 support, integrated HDCP support for Blu-ray/HD DVD decoding and for extreme enthusiast, Jam a SAPPHIRE HD 3850 into your rig and still have some coin left over to buy that title you have been waiting for!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Great card for an older system\n\nReview: I've got a Dell Dimension 8300 as my computer for work. It still runs perfectly, and I'm not going to replace it anytime soon. But the graphics performance with its old video card lagged. I replaced an nVidia 6200 AGP card with this ATI-based Sapphire card. What a difference. The WinXP drivers from Sapphire's website run well on this 3 ghz Pentium 4HT system (I skipped the drivers on the CD-ROM that came with the card). No conflicts, no problems. I'd upgraded the power supply in the computer when the old one started failing earlier in the year, and the PCI-E six pin cable fit the card perfectly (there's a 2x4 Molex adapter if you don't have the PCI-E cable on your power supply). I switched over the AGP interface to 256 bit in BIOS, and the graphics are cranking along. I can actually get decent framerates on Team Fortress 2 and Half Life 2 (running via Steam) with mixed settings. It's a lot faster for general work 2D graphics, too. Screens don't lag when scrolling quickly, etc. So far, a great card.","Product: The K240 MKII professional over-ear, semi-open headphones are a long-time standard in studios, in orchestras and on stages around the world. Its advanced Varimotion 30 mm XXL transducers deliver solid low end, accurate mids and crystal-clear highs. The semi-open design provides the airiness of open headphones with the powerful bass response of closed designs. For more than three decades, professional engineers and musicians have made the K240 the most widely used headphones in studios and at live consoles around the world.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Great value, great sound at price point, but no longer made in Austria\n\nReview: I've been an AKG fan since the late 1980s, when I bought my first pair of AKG K240DF headphones. Over the years, I've owned a few pairs of the 240DFs and a pair of 701s, as well as some Beyerdynamics.\n\nI was somewhat disappointed to see on the box that these are now \"Engineered in Austria/Made in China\" headphones. Ever since Harman acquired AKG, they've been experimenting with the brand and finding ways to extract value. I guess you can't blame them, but it's sad to see a proud Austrian audio company being revamped like this.\n\nIn all, the build quality on these Chinese-made K240MKIIs is similar to the Austrian-made K240DFs I've owned. The leatherette earpads are the same. The auto-adjusting headband is also the same. Now, however, they are engineered with a detachable cord that joins at the left earcup. AKG also provides some velour-type earpads and a straight and coiled cord. At the price of just over one hundred dollars, you get quite a lot for your money. The K240DFs were about twice as expensive and didn't come with all the extra goodies.\n\nAs for sound, it generally takes awhile for AKGs using this type of diaphragm to \"burn in\" and achieve their mature sound. I've got these coupled with a <a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/HRT-HeadStreamer-USB-powered-Headphone-DAC-Amplifier/dp/B0067Z6BNC/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\">HRT HeadStreamer USB-powered Headphone DAC/Amplifier</a>, which is a good quality USB DAC and amplifier -- I highly recommend HRT's products. I use these cans at work to listen to my music library, which is encoded in the lossless FLAC format. (At home, I use a class A HeadRoom desktop headphone amp and 701s or Beyerdynamic DT770s.)\n\nHere are my impressions. First, you need to use these with an amplifier. Even though they are rated at 55 ohms (compared with the professional studio 600 ohm K240DFs), the sound you get when driving them from a phone or average MP3 player is subpar at best. Adding the dedicated headphone amp really opens these up. Second, the sound is pretty good. These are based on a legendary AKG monitoring design and have a pretty even and accurate presentation. There is no undue emphasis at any frequency. The bass is present and well controlled. The mids and highs are coherent, with a smooth midrange and good treble extension. If they sound a bit brittle or bright at first, remember that it takes time to condition the diaphragms to their mature state -- the 701s took a few hundred hours of play before they really achieved that. These are no exception to the general AKG rule.\n\nThe music is reasonably well detailed coming from the HeadStreamer. However, these do not approach the level of detail and subtlety that the 701s are capable of presenting, and you aren't going to get quite as full a soundstage. But if you don't do an A-B comparison, you're not going to miss that. What you will notice with these over others in this price range is that you're hearing well into the music and that the music sounds really good and accurate.\n\nThese are incredibly comfortable to wear, too. They fit securely but not firmly -- I wear glasses and these don't bother me at all. The flexibility of the headband will allow you to pull an earcup away to hear someone without wrecking the headphones.\n\nIn sum, I'd recommend these as a good entry level audiophile headphone. While they're made in China now, they still have the legendary AKG accuracy and the build quality hasn't suffered in any readily apparent way. However, I'd use them for listening at home, not as portable headphones. They really do need amplification to sound their best.","Product: Delivering Mayhem to the Mainstream Long thought to be the market of the conservative gamer, the affordable mainstream products, which use to suffer only adequate performance, now experiences a frame rate revival with the SAPPHIRE HD 3850. Built upon the award winning Radeon HD 3850 core, the SAPPHIRE 3850 offers a comprehensive feature-set that eclipses previous and current mainstream offerings. Unleash the enthusiast inside you with support for advanced technologies such as DirectX 10 and Shader Model 4 support, integrated HDCP support for Blu-ray/HD DVD decoding and for extreme enthusiast, Jam a SAPPHIRE HD 3850 into your rig and still have some coin left over to buy that title you have been waiting for!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Great card for an older system\n\nReview: I've got a Dell Dimension 8300 as my computer for work. It still runs perfectly, and I'm not going to replace it anytime soon. But the graphics performance with its old video card lagged. I replaced an nVidia 6200 AGP card with this ATI-based Sapphire card. What a difference. The WinXP drivers from Sapphire's website run well on this 3 ghz Pentium 4HT system (I skipped the drivers on the CD-ROM that came with the card). No conflicts, no problems. I'd upgraded the power supply in the computer when the old one started failing earlier in the year, and the PCI-E six pin cable fit the card perfectly (there's a 2x4 Molex adapter if you don't have the PCI-E cable on your power supply). I switched over the AGP interface to 256 bit in BIOS, and the graphics are cranking along. I can actually get decent framerates on Team Fortress 2 and Half Life 2 (running via Steam) with mixed settings. It's a lot faster for general work 2D graphics, too. Screens don't lag when scrolling quickly, etc. So far, a great card.","Product: The K240 MKII professional over-ear, semi-open headphones are a long-time standard in studios, in orchestras and on stages around the world. Its advanced Varimotion 30 mm XXL transducers deliver solid low end, accurate mids and crystal-clear highs. The semi-open design provides the airiness of open headphones with the powerful bass response of closed designs. For more than three decades, professional engineers and musicians have made the K240 the most widely used headphones in studios and at live consoles around the world.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Great value, great sound at price point, but no longer made in Austria\n\nReview: I've been an AKG fan since the late 1980s, when I bought my first pair of AKG K240DF headphones. Over the years, I've owned a few pairs of the 240DFs and a pair of 701s, as well as some Beyerdynamics.\n\nI was somewhat disappointed to see on the box that these are now \"Engineered in Austria/Made in China\" headphones. Ever since Harman acquired AKG, they've been experimenting with the brand and finding ways to extract value. I guess you can't blame them, but it's sad to see a proud Austrian audio company being revamped like this.\n\nIn all, the build quality on these Chinese-made K240MKIIs is similar to the Austrian-made K240DFs I've owned. The leatherette earpads are the same. The auto-adjusting headband is also the same. Now, however, they are engineered with a detachable cord that joins at the left earcup. AKG also provides some velour-type earpads and a straight and coiled cord. At the price of just over one hundred dollars, you get quite a lot for your money. The K240DFs were about twice as expensive and didn't come with all the extra goodies.\n\nAs for sound, it generally takes awhile for AKGs using this type of diaphragm to \"burn in\" and achieve their mature sound. I've got these coupled with a <a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/HRT-HeadStreamer-USB-powered-Headphone-DAC-Amplifier/dp/B0067Z6BNC/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\">HRT HeadStreamer USB-powered Headphone DAC/Amplifier</a>, which is a good quality USB DAC and amplifier -- I highly recommend HRT's products. I use these cans at work to listen to my music library, which is encoded in the lossless FLAC format. (At home, I use a class A HeadRoom desktop headphone amp and 701s or Beyerdynamic DT770s.)\n\nHere are my impressions. First, you need to use these with an amplifier. Even though they are rated at 55 ohms (compared with the professional studio 600 ohm K240DFs), the sound you get when driving them from a phone or average MP3 player is subpar at best. Adding the dedicated headphone amp really opens these up. Second, the sound is pretty good. These are based on a legendary AKG monitoring design and have a pretty even and accurate presentation. There is no undue emphasis at any frequency. The bass is present and well controlled. The mids and highs are coherent, with a smooth midrange and good treble extension. If they sound a bit brittle or bright at first, remember that it takes time to condition the diaphragms to their mature state -- the 701s took a few hundred hours of play before they really achieved that. These are no exception to the general AKG rule.\n\nThe music is reasonably well detailed coming from the HeadStreamer. However, these do not approach the level of detail and subtlety that the 701s are capable of presenting, and you aren't going to get quite as full a soundstage. But if you don't do an A-B comparison, you're not going to miss that. What you will notice with these over others in this price range is that you're hearing well into the music and that the music sounds really good and accurate.\n\nThese are incredibly comfortable to wear, too. They fit securely but not firmly -- I wear glasses and these don't bother me at all. The flexibility of the headband will allow you to pull an earcup away to hear someone without wrecking the headphones.\n\nIn sum, I'd recommend these as a good entry level audiophile headphone. While they're made in China now, they still have the legendary AKG accuracy and the build quality hasn't suffered in any readily apparent way. However, I'd use them for listening at home, not as portable headphones. They really do need amplification to sound their best.","Product: Engineered for comfort and designed for beauty, the diNovo Keyboard features a wireless modular design that combines easily with a notebook stand and mouse to help you type and work in a more natural position for improved comfort. The modern, elegant styling is accented by an ultra-slim profile, glossy black finish, and brushed aluminum and a full-size number pad. The PerfectStroke key system provides more key travel than typical notebook keyboards, so every keystroke is comfortable, fluid, and silent. Three-year battery life minimizes the hassle of replacing batteries, while Logitech 2.4 GHz wireless technology provides a powerful and reliable connection.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Wonderful, smooth typing keyboard\n\nReview: Amazon recently was selling these keyboards for half of MSRP, and Logitech was offering a healthy rebate on top of that. When all was said and done, I got one of these last week for 1/5 of MSRP. That's a steal for this keyboard.\n\nI got this to replace a dodgy old Dell keyboard I had at work. The difference is night and day. The keystrokes are smooth, and I can type much more quickly on this keyboard. I have experienced no delays when typing, as noted by one reviewer. The key spacing is fine. I don't mind that the function keys are right along the top of the number keys. I haven't hit any by accident. While I haven't hit the \"eject\" key, it is pretty close to the backspace key (just above it), and that might bother some users.\n\nThe wireless flexibility is great. The build quality is solid -- it's heavier than I thought it would be. The rubber feet have it parked -- it doesn't slide around once it's placed.\n\nI haven't seen the need to get the SetPoint software installed, so I am missing out on some functionality, but it's only bells and whistles. All of the basics work well without the software.\n\nI consider myself lucky to have gotten such a great deal on a well designed keyboard. Thanks, Amazon.\n------------------\n\nUPDATE 8/18/09\n\nI tried installing the SetPoint software, which I downloaded from Logitech's website, just to check it out. (I know I got the correct SetPoint software because I used Logitech's web tool to identify the proper version of SetPoint for this keyboard.) BIG MISTAKE. While the software appears slick and unlocks a few extra functions, it started causing lag in the communication between the keyboard and the CPU. I got a lot of lag in typing from time to time depending on the program I was using. It was distractingly bad. I uninstalled the SetPoint software, and everything is humming along perfectly again. This happened on a Pentium 4 machine running Win XP SP3 (32 bit). So, great keyboard, but Logitech's software is bloatware, especially when you consider how little functionality it actually provides vs. the amount of memory it chews up.","Product: The Case Logic SLRC-200 SLR Camera Holster (Black) is compatible with most SLRs with a kit lens. Features a Water-proof EVA base that withstands the elements and allows the case to stand up on its own. Memory foam on interior helps protect your delicate LCD screen and a zippered compartment on front of case stores memory cards, batteries and other small accessories. Removable shoulder strap included. Internal Dimensions: 6.75\" x 7.5\" x 6.5\". 25 Year Warranty!\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Functional DSLR holster, but don't expect a lot of features\n\nReview: We've been using this holster with a Nikon DSLR camera, principally with a 50mm prime lens and the basic kit zoom lens. It works well as a holster for the camera. The zippers all work smoothly, and the camera is snug in the holster. The nylon fabric seems to be stitched together pretty well and gives the impression that the holster will be durable.\n\nAs for feature set, the holster is pretty basic. There's an outside pocket, but it's pretty tiny. You could put the lens cap, a lens filter, or a memory card or two in it, but don't expect to carry spare batteries or a charger. It comes with a rudimentary strap that hooks onto D-rings on both sides of the holster. The strap is a bit on the thin side and has no padding. It can get a bit uncomfortable after long carry periods.\n\nIn all, this is a fine basic holster for DSLR cameras provided you're not using a long zoom or telephoto lens -- I'd worry about fit.\n\nIf you're seeking a no-frills holster, this will probably suit your needs adequately.","Product: The Case Logic MSEC-2 EVA Molded Compact Camera Case. Features a hard, molded EVA shell exterior to securely protect your camera. Holds most slim-line cameras. Lanyard attachment for hands-free portability. 25 Year Warranty!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Fine case for today's point and shoot digital cameras\n\nReview: This case does a great job with our Nikon S3000. The size is perfect. The zipper works smoothly. The color of the case is attractive, and it has a substantial feel. This isn't a rigid clamshell case made from rigid plastic. Rather, it's a sturdy molded EVA case that will likely protect a point and shoot camera from modest drops or bumps. EVA is an acronym for ethylene vinyl acetate. It is a polymer that feels a bit like a rubbery foam, and it is known for its flexibility. It has good barrier properties (e.g., it resists water) and generally won't show stress cracks over time. It is resistant to UV, too, so it shouldn't fade.\n\nIn the final analysis, this is a cool little jacket for a point and shoot camera that should keep it from being scuffed up by other items in your bag or pocket.","Product: Protect your investment in your Intel or AMD CPU, and make it run better. Excessive heat is the deadly enemy of high-performance silicon, and the Air Series A50 CPU cooler can extend your CPUs lifetime by efficiently drawing that heat away. Youll get faster performance, too. Intel Core i5 and Core i7 processors automatically overclock when conditions are right. Add the A50 and your CPU will detect that its running cooler, and instantly boost its speed when you need it. Of course, if youre not using a Core i5 or Core i7 or if you prefer to overclock manually, the Air Series A50 will still give you the temperature headroom you need. Spend 15 minutes installing the A50 and enjoy years of improved CPU performance.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: A basic microprocessor air-cooling unit\n\nReview: I recently installed a Corsair A50 on a Phenom II 965 BE processor (3.4 ghz quad core). It was simple to install on the AM3 socket -- it includes a mounting bracket that simply clips the unit firmly into place against the microprocessor. After applying a thermal interface compound, it literally took me less than a minute to install the unit.\n\nHowever, the unit could be a bit better for the price. The flat surface that faces the processor isn't nearly flat. The copper heat pipes are ground more or less flat, but they're finished pretty roughly. No mirror finish here. And the aluminum bracket around the pipes is recessed slightly, so the aluminum does not come into contact with the processor. This leaves you with three 6 mm copper pipes spaced a millimeter or so apart running across the microprocessor. That isn't the best surface to surface contact area. More surface area contact would allow this unit to transfer more heat away from the microprocessor. Corsair knows how to make a better interface -- they did it on their H50 unit, which has a completely flat metal plate that makes uniform contact once coated with a thin layer of thermal interface compound. Why they went cheaper on this unit, which isn't exactly inexpensive, is beyond me.\n\nThe supplied 120mm fan is pretty quiet but isn't PWM equipped. No matter. I run it at standard voltage/full RPMs and cannot hear it in a Lian Li mid tower case. If you're dying for PWM control, you could probably slip another standard 120mm fan into the mounting bracket, which attaches to the fan with common silicone rubber \"pins.\" (The fan is already mounted to the bracket, but you could remove the pins and reuse them.)\n\nIn all, this cooler gets the job done (the AMD idles around 32c and gets to about 50c under full load), but you could probably do a bit better for your money with a CoolerMaster 212, which usually runs about a sawbuck or so cheaper and which seems to be pretty equivalent in construction and materials. I got this when there was a rebate that made it equivalent in price to the CoolerMaster. I wouldn't spend the full retail price to replace it -- I'd go with a CoolerMaster.","Product: Callisto 60GB SSD-SATA 2.5IN RW 285 275MBS\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: A solid Muskin SSD\n\nReview: I recently picked up on of these Callisto Deluxe SSDs to use as the Win 7 boot drive in a new system I built. It's blazing fast -- from \"on\" to full boot of Windows 7 is less than 20 seconds, and that includes the mobo splash screen. 60 gigs is plenty of space to use as a boot drive, especially if you load up your less intensive programs on another drive. Just make sure to do all the usual Win 7 tweaks to ensure longevity and performance (e.g., turn off defrag, eliminate page file on this drive, etc.).\n\nThe packaging was really good -- the drive comes encased in a foam \"book,\" so even if Amazon fails to put padding in the box, the drive should arrive unscathed. It also comes with a 3.5\" adapter to fit in a desktop drive bay.\n\nI've had good luck with several sets of Mushkin memory modules, from DDR to DDR3, and this seems like another reliable product from them. Highly recommended.\n\nAs an afterthought, I should mention that Mushkin is an American company. Although some of the components are probably manufactured abroad, their products are assembled in the United States. It's good to be able to support a high-tech American company that gets its products right, has high quality, and features responsive customer service, unlike some vendors based in Taiwan, etc.","Product: The ILC Classic series from Lowepro is specially built to fit a variety of compact digital powerhouses, such as: ILC, micro four-thirds, or mirrorless cameras. Classic in style and streamlined in construction, each bag is padded from top to bottom to protect your valuable gear. The ILC Classic 50 is scaled down to accommodate the camera with its attached kit lens up to 14-45 mm.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Lowepro makes solid camera bags\n\nReview: LowePro makes some pretty fine camera bags at reasonable prices. The construction is solid, the hardware is substantial and decently machined, the zippers are all robust and operate well, and the nylon feels like it would stand up to a lot of abuse over time. This bag is great for smaller enthusiast cameras, giving you plenty of room to bring along extra batteries or memory cards. I've had a LowePro bag for an SLR for about six years, and it still looks new despite having gone on numerous trips across the country and to state parks. I expect this one will hold up just as well. In all, this is a solid, high quality bag that provides a great balance of utility and manageable size. You'd be hard pressed to find something better at the price.","Product: There are plenty of backpacks out there, so how do you know which to pick? Well, our Backpack has the look and the durability, as well as the room to hold your stuff. But there's also a battery inside with enough juice to charge your Smartphone twice. Charging your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch has never been easier.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Nicely made backpack with juice for portables\n\nReview: The Powerbag is a nice backpack. It is constructed of a sturdy nylon material and has a nice lining. The main attraction here is the Li-Ion battery, which has good capacity and can help recharge portable devices.\n\nThe Li-Ion battery is easily removable from the charging module in the outer pocket of the bag. It ejects and inserts easily. But I don't know why anyone would need to remove it short of replacing it. It charges in the bag via an included AC adapter and a neat covered charging port on the bag (flip a cap up to reveal the input for the adapter).\n\nThe battery has sufficient capacity to charge a few cell phone batteries. If you're in the field without access to a car charger, this is a tremendous boon. You can use the battery and its USB-type output to hook up and charge any manner of devices that will take a charge via USB 5v standards.\n\nThe bag is comfortable, too. The straps are nicely padded and there is a chest strap as well. In all, it's a pretty well thought out product. It's expensive and therefore probably not for everyone. But if you have a job that takes you out into the field and you need to keep electronic devices running while away from outlets and 12v car sockets for awhile, then this might just be for you.","Product: Lowepro DSLR Video Fastpack 250 AW Black Backpack\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Well made pack with a lot of storage\n\nReview: We needed a replacement for a camera bag that one of our cats destroyed. I jumped at the opportunity to evaluate and review this Lowepro backpack-style pack.\n\nWe have a Nikon D70s with a charger and a couple of lenses, a few filters, and CompactFlash memory cards. This pack stores them all with room to spare.\n\nThe lower part of the pack unzips to reveal a compartment with adjustable dividers. (The flap folds up from the side of the pack, so it's best used when the pack is lying flat on a surface. You can place your camera and lenses here. The top of the pack unzips like a regular backpack to reveal a storage space that offers decent capacity. It's smaller than a regular backpack storage compartment because the space rests on top of the camera compartment. Suffice it to say, you aren't going to be using this to carry textbooks around. This is certainly designed to be a camera bag.\n\nThe construction is sturdy. It's ballistic nylon for the most part, and the camera compartment at the bottom of the pack has some structure to it, definitely enough to prevent minor crushing of your equipment. It's comfortable to wear but may be a bit much for people who are used to a smaller camera holster.","Product: Sporting three Balanced Armature driver units (full range, woofer and tweeter), these audiophile-friendly in-ear headphones are buffed out for serious sound. Tune into a dramatic soundscape of clear, sparkling highs and deep, bottomless lows with these XBA-3 Balanced Armature in-ear headphones. With a full-range driver, woofer and tweeter, these premium headphones sport three Sony Balanced Armature driver units precision engineered to optimize your music.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Competent sound, but not the best value in IEMs or headphones generally\n\nReview: I've been a headphone audiophile for years. At present, my headphone rig consists of a <a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/HRT-Music-Streamer-II-High-Resolution-USB-D-A-Converter/dp/B0038O38S6/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\">HRT Music Streamer II + High Resolution USB D/A Converter</a> running through a HeadRoom Desktop headphone amp with \"Max\" electronics (full class A) powered by a HeadRoom power supply. Most of my listening is CD material that's been ripped to FLAC using a bit-perfect program (dBpoweramp) that also will capture the 20-bit encoding on HDCDs and output it as 24-bit depth files (20 bits and 4 zeros of \"padding\"). In all this is a pretty good rig that will really let you hear what headphones can do. I'm telling you this because I believe you've got to know what people are using to drive headphones if you're going to evaluate their evaluations. ;)\n\nOff the bat, I'll fess up to being an AKG fan, which will tell people of my general bias. I like the sound of their <a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/AKG-K-701-WHITE-HEADPHONES/dp/B000EBBJ6Y/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\">AKG K 701 WHITE HEADPHONES</a>, which are incredibly accurate headphones with a fairly neutral response curve. Some accuse them of being lean on bass, but that's not correct. They have plenty of bass, but it's musical and integrated, not over-emphasized (more on this below).\n\nHaving said all that by way of disclosure, on to the Sonys.\n\nThe build quality is adequate. Sony bills these as having some magnesium in them to help suppress vibrations. The cord is really flexible and has a somewhat flattened profile rather than a circular one. There is relatively little microphonic cord noise from the cord bumping things compared to other IEMs I've used. However, the cord splits to left and right asymmetrically: it's got a really short left cord and a much longer right cord. I have no idea why Sony did this. In any event, the main cord will run to the left side of your head, and you can run the right cord behind your neck to your right ear. The plug terminates in an L that feels pretty delicate. I don't know how well these would hold up over time if you used them on a daily commute (my main use for IEMs).\n\nThese IEMs offer some of the best noise isolation I've experienced, far better than my <a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/Ultimate-Ears-TripleFi-10-Noise-Isolating-Earphones/dp/B0019RBJOE/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\">Ultimate Ears TripleFi 10 Noise Isolating Earphones</a>. The tips are like the typical silicone flanges; however, they have foam behind the silicone. I really can't hear anything around me when I have these in and properly sealed. On the downside, however, I find that the smallest tips that will give me a seal become pretty uncomfortable after only about 30 minutes. They put too much outward pressure on my ear canals.\n\nThe sound is fairly good overall, but it falls a bit short of what I would expect in this price range. The best feature is the midrange. It is smooth -- vocals sound quite natural, as do most acoustic instruments. Joni Mitchell's voice on the HDCD-mastered recording of Blue was liquid and emotive. Quite nice. The treble is not as detailed or forward as I'd like -- it's a bit laid back, subdued. This results in these IEMs deemphasizing some high-end detail that I get in the 701s and other IEMs, like Ultimate Ears Triple.fis (despite their stated frequency response). That is, the detail is often there; it's just not forward in the presentation. Cymbals also sound a bit flat, sometimes almost muffled. Yet these IEMs do create a sense of air around acoustic instruments -- it's not that they can't reproduce highs; they're just subdued.\n\nMy biggest gripe is the bass. As I said, I'm a fan of the natural sounding bass you get from AKG 701s that are properly driven with good amplification. These Sonys have plenty of bass and good bass extension, but it doesn't always sound organic. It's emphasized in the lowest registers and I find it overwhelming on any track that has prominent bass. For example, listening to Morphine (bass, saxophone, vocals, and drums) is not very pleasant on these -- the bass just dominates. Nick Lowe's \"Marie Provost\" becomes a thumpy mess, as does a lot of his Jesus of Cool. Same goes for electronic music. Daft Punk ends up creating incredible amounts of low end bass through these IEMS. Bass drums sometimes become overly prominent, which I found when listening to Fugazi's \"Badmouth,\" for example So the bass doesn't always sound as integrated and musical as it does through the 701s and UEs. On the other hand, the bass is fairly well controlled in the lowest registers, not just boomy. In that respect, I prefer these to the <a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/Atrio-Future-Sonic-010-044-Atrio-by-FutureSonics-Earphone-MG7-Pro-Chocolate/dp/B0013NVTTE/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\">Atrio Future Sonic 010-044 Atrio by FutureSonics Earphone, MG7 Pro (Chocolate)</a>, which have a dedicated bass driver, not an armature, and which put out ridiculous amounts of bass.\n\nWhen it comes to bass, though, things become quite subjective. A lot of people prefer an emphasized bass and will probably find these fit the bill for them. (I think a lot of people misjudge bass in headphones because they don't get the impact in their sternum, etc., that they're used to when hearing music from speakers/PA systems, so they tend to seek more bass to compensate for the lack of powerful waves of air hitting their torsos, etc.)\n\nI also listened to these through a Samsung Galaxy IIS phone. Without the power of the HeadRoom amp to drive them, the sound became more compressed and the bass was less well controlled. They didn't sound that good on the phone. For 12 ohm impedance IEMs, these do seem to require a fair bit of power to sound their best. Accordingly, I'd actually recommend that you use some kind of portable headphone amplification with these if you really want to open them up.\n\nSo, in all, I find these are competent IEMs. You get good isolation and a smooth, clear, relaxed sound, but you lose some high end excitement and detail. I found them best for acoustic music (jazz, like the remastered Miles Davis Kind of Blue recording, folk, orchestral), where their tendency to emphasize the bass is not as pronounced. They wouldn't be my first choice in this price range: I can't listen to them for lengthy periods both because they're uncomfortable for me and because the emphasized bass is exhausting to me, but your mileage may vary if you like a fair bit of bass in your IEMs. Still, I'd consider getting some Ultimate Ears Triple.fis and saving the extra money.","Product: ogitech G710 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Lightning fast, whisper quietplus responsive tactile keys With this high-performance gaming keyboard, you can make the right moves with faster, flawless, precision. Quiet non-clicking keys with superior tactile feedback help you enter commands more rapidlyand reduce distracting noise so you can keep your ears in the game.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Excellent mechanical keyboard with useful gaming features (UPDATE -- KEY SWITCH FAILURE)\n\nReview: I've used gaming mice for years and have consistently been impressed by Logitech's quality in that field. The G710+, Logitech's latest gaming keyboard, holds up that tradition of quality and offers several worthwhile features for gamers.\n\nFirst off, this is not an inexpensive keyboard by any stretch. It uses mechanical switches, which are incredibly responsive and durable. Mechanical switch keyboards are favored by many people who do coding and gaming for their responsiveness and durability. This is an incredibly comfortable keyboard for typing. I find it preferable to my Logitech Illuminated Keyboard, my prior favorite. Although the G710+ is somewhat louder, it isn't as loud as some IBM-style mechanical keyboards I've used in the past.\n\nThe keyboard comes with a detachable plastic palm rest and includes the standard height-adjusting legs in the back for those who prefer their keyboards to sit at more of an angle.\n\nThe keyboard also features a USB 2.0 port on the back, just to the right of the keyboard's wire. Be forewarned, however, that this passthrough USB port requires that you use two USB ports on your computer when you're hooking up the keyboard. The keyboard's wire has two \"male\" USB connectors at its end, one for the keyboard input and the other serving essentially as a USB extension cord to the port on the back of the keyboard. I found the keyboard's additional USB port useful when hooking up my headset rather than hooking it up to the ports on the front of my Lian Li tower case. (I built my own PC.) Some might find it disappointing that the port doesn't support USB 3.0, but most peripherals you're likely to plug into a gaming keyboard, such as a headset, just don't require that much speed.\n\nThe layout of the keyboard is familiar with one minor quibble. The keys sometimes invert the characters. In other words, the key with the \"=\" sign on it shows the = sign above the + sign. This is the opposite of most keyboards. This is part of the keyboard's illumination scheme. The numbers and many of the punctuation marks are all illuminated but positioned above the characters that one usually accesses with the SHIFT key. It's not a huge deal for touch typists, but some might find it confusing. It throws me off if I look at the keyboard when I'm typing. (NOTE: More punctuation keys on the sample I received are inverted than are shown in the product pictures here. For example, on the sample I received, the period and comma are respectively above the \"less than\" and \"greater than\" signs. Double quotation marks are below the single quotation marks, etc. I do not know if the sample I received is typical in terms of that layout. The product pictures do show that the number keys invert the characters.)\n\nAs for the illumination, it is quite bright in its high setting. The keys are clearly etched and are easy to read, even when the lights are on. The illumination brightness is adjustable via a dedicated pair of keys above the F11 and F12 keys. One adjusts the brightness of the ASDW and cursor arrow keys, and the other adjusts the brightness of the remaining keys. This is a neat feature that people who play first person shooters might appreciate if they only want to light up the ASDW keys in a darkened room while playing an atmospheric game like Dead Space.\n\nThe keyboard features basic audio controls, including a volume wheel and a mute button.\n\nThere is a row of six dedicated macro \"G\" keys on the far left. Using Logitech's gaming keyboard software (available from their website), you can use several preexisting profiles for popular games to assign functions to those keys. For example, I play a lot of Team Fortress 2, which is in Logitech's profile database. The gaming software found that game on my PC and allowed me to map out various in-game functions to the macro keys.\n\nYou can also program macros directly into the keyboard by using the M keys on the top row on the left side. These keys allow you to program and assign up to three macros to each G key. You just hit the MR key, hit the relevant G key, and then type the keys to record to that macro. Hit the MR key again, and you've got your macro. If you hit the G key and then hit the M2 or M3 key, you can add the second and third macros to that key.\n\nThe keyboard features a dedicated key that will switch off the Windows key and Menu key when you're playing games. Although this can also be done via software, it's nice to be able to keep accidental keystrokes on those keys from bouncing you out of intense firefights, etc., and into the Windows menu, an incredibly frustrating situation. The key has an LED indicator near the top right of the keyboard to show when you've disabled the Windows key and Menu key.\n\nThe keyboard's aesthetics are fairly basic, with the G710+ logo printed in a few places on the side bevels and above the cursor arrow keys. There is an orange plastic frame around the G keys that I could live without, but your mileage may vary.\n\nIn gaming situations, the keyboard works really well, and it's a vast improvement over my Illuminated Keyboard, which was an excellent keyboard in its own right. I'm able to execute series of moves in TF2 and Crysis 2 without any input issues at all. No ghosting or anything.\n\nIn all, I'd say this is an excellent keyboard for people who enjoy gaming and have the money to spend. You can get comparably functional gaming keyboards for less, but the mechanical keys here make this an investment that's likely to last a long time.\n\nMy only quibble is that I wish they hadn't inverted so many of the depicted characters and their SHIFT alternate characters on the keys. It wouldn't be so bad if they'd permitted you to have the illumination shift when you hit the shift key so you didn't ever have to remember what character you were going to get.\n\nIn all, highly recommended.\n\n----------------\n\nUPDATE MARCH 2016\n\nO e of the keys o the keyboard failed today. Guess which o e. Expected lo ger life from mecha ical switches. It's a shame because it was otherwise a pretty dece t keyboard.","Product: The CAN is a portable, modern-day Boom Box plus speakerphone that is ideal for parties, gatherings and your own personal listening. The CAN is the best way to free your music but still keep it in a tight package. Enjoy deeper, more powerful advanced audio performance from this tiny, yet mighty, portable Bluetooth speaker. It will work with all Smartphone's, MP3 players, PC's, tablets, and more. Choose to use the device wirelessly (Works with any Apple, Android, BlackBerry or any other Bluetooth-enabled device.) or through its 3.5mm, AUX-IN, wired stereo connection. Listen to music, make & receive calls or just share the excitement when you want, where you want. The CAN delivers audio in all of its clarity with booming sound unusual for a Bluetooth speaker this size. Its specific audio cavity structure and Super Shock technology with 3D Digital Dynamic Bass engine allows the small, lightweight speaker to reproduce deep, full sound. The speaker is tiny enough (only 8.5 ozs.) to carry in one hand or fit in a pocket. You can control almost everything with your Bluetooth device - playlists, streaming music, volume, etc. And you'll find power switches and volume buttons on the speaker. No need for a remote control. Place the CAN where you want, and the 50-foot wireless range lets you keep your phone, tablet or other device close at hand. The included travel pouch makes it safe to carry and allows instant playing anywhere.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Heavy, questionable construction, somewhat harsh sound\n\nReview: By way of disclosure, I was provided with a sample of this speaker for review purposes. I have tried to be objective in my evaluation of the product.\n\nI have used several portable Bluetooth speakers, and this Tonez CAN speaker is not among my favorites.\n\nThe unit is compact and portable. It is fairly heavy and feels solid up top -- the upper part of the barrel is some kind of metal alloy. The bottom part, however, is plastic. The fit and finish of the bottom part is lacking -- the control switches do not feel sturdy, and they do not line up well in their respective slots. In my sample, the speaker element is not centered. If you view it from the top, the speaker appears to be off center. Not great build quality for fit and finish overall.\n\nThe interface is not intuitive, and the instructions could be much more clear. Prepare to puzzle through if you try to go beyond the most basic feature of pairing this with a Bluetooth audio device to stream music.\n\nThe speaker can get quite loud; however, the sound quality is not smooth. The unit creates decent bass without massive distortion for a small speaker, but there is a harsh brightness to the sound.\n\nIn terms of long term durability, I have concerns because of the design. Unlike other portable Bluetooth speakers I've used, the speaker element is exposed here -- there is a little bar across the top of the unit, but you can still see (and touch) the diaphragm immediately under that. Given that portable speakers are sometimes tossed into a backpack or bag, that design element makes me nervous.\n\nI had no problems pairing the unit with my phone or a Bluetooth-enabled PC, going further than that, however, required frequent recourse to the instructions, which themselves are not a model of clarity.\n\nIn all, there are other speakers in this price range that seem better made and which offer better sound. I've had luck with a less expensive ANKER speaker and with one made by Simple Audio that was much more intuitive to use and which had a more even tonal signature. This speaker isn't horrible by any stretch; it's just that you can do better for the money.","Product: The Curve 50 amplified indoor HDTV antenna propels antenna design to new heights with a clean and graceful arched structure reminiscent of popular smartphone docking stations. Catering to consumers who want access to free over-the-air OTA HDTV in their homes but desire a unique, designer feel, the modern look of the Curve 50 is on display whether its placed on a shelf, countertop or table. Made to be a simple plug-in-and-go experience, the Curve 50 amplified high definition TV antenna provides consumers with free access to over-the-air TV broadcast channels in full 1080 HDTV. The Curve 50 is intended for users in more remote locationsup to 50 miles from a tower.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: An HDTV antenna that works\n\nReview: We have this amplified Mohu Leaf and one of their standard Leaf antennas, too. They work wonderfully.\n\nThe antenna is only a little thicker than a sheet of construction paper. It can be positioned vertically or horizontally and can even be tacked to a wall.\n\nWe get more stations with this antenna than with any Terk or RCA antenna that we've used. Most signals come in well and we don't get break up in the signals. We're a few miles outside of Philadelphia, and we pick up stations from Delaware and New Jersey with these antennas.\n\nIn our area, this one doesn't do much more than the standard Leaf does. That is probably because we're so close to a large city. So I cannot comment about how well the signal amplifier works.\n\nIn all, though, this is one of the best antennas I've ever used for a television. No fuss, great results. You owe it to yourself to consider this antenna if you are having trouble pulling in digital broadcasts.","Product: The Sculpt Ergonomic Keyboard and Mouse is built on advanced ergonomic design. Sculpt Ergonomic Desktop is built on advanced ergonomic principles, with a split keyboard layout that keeps wrists and forearms in a relaxed position, and a cushioned palm rest to provide wrist support. The domed keyboard shape works to reduce and correct wrist pronation that can cause pain and limited mobility. True comfort for lasting productivity - Sculpt Ergonomic Desktop is designed for productivity, with an eye on ergonomic excellence. By providing a relaxed, comfortable computing experience, it enables you to work without the stress, strain, and discomfort of other keyboards and mice you may have used in the past. Its all in the angles - The natural arc keyboard layout follows the curve of your fingertips for a more natural way of typing. Reverse tilt design positions the keyboard at the correct angle to give you a straight, neutral wrist position. Additionally, the shape of the mouse is designed for maximum wrist comfort. Plus its Windows button provides one-touch access to the Windows Start Menu. Dimensions for Keyboard: Length: 15.4\" / 392mm x Width: 8.96\" / 228mm. Dimensions for Mouse: Length: 3.87\" / 98.2mm x Width: 3.13\" / 74.9mm. Dimensions for Number Pad: Length: 5.21\" / 132mm x Width: 3.65\" / 92.8mm.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Interesting design marred by lack of durable construction and some keyboard oddities\n\nReview: By way of disclosure, I received a sample of the Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic Desktop for evaluation purposes. I have endeavored to keep that fact from interfering with my review of this product.\n\nThe desktop includes four pieces: 1) a wireless keyboard; 2) an optical wireless mouse; 3) a wireless numeric keypad; and 4) a USB dongle receiver.\n\nI am using this product with a computer I built myself a few years ago. It's based on an AMD Phenom II x4 965BE processor and runs Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit. I have been using the product for about a month now in an office environment.\n\nI have used various keyboards over the years, principally from Microsoft and Logitech, including mechanical switch keyboards, gaming keyboards, the Microsoft Natural keyboard, and the Logitech Illuminated keyboard. I learned to touch type in high school and type documents on a regular basis in my work.\n\nMy initial impression was that this Microsoft set is a bit pricey for what it is. The keyboard itself is a split ergonomic design. The keys vary in size as you get close to the center of the keyboard, with the N key being quite massive. It has an integrated wrist rest that feels like fine suede, but which is probably composed of rubber with some kind of foam underlayer. The wrist rest is not detachable. I find that it has become quite discolored after only about a month of use -- in an office environment, it isn't easy to wash the wrist rest, and it appears to be collecting sweat and dead skin (gross!). That said, the wrist rest is comfortable. I do not know how long it will last, however. It would be nice if it were removable.\n\nSpeaking of removable, the keyboard has no adjustable legs in the back, making it unlike most keyboards I've ever used. Instead, it has a big piece of plastic that magnetically fastens under the FRONT of the keyboard, elevating it and putting your hands and arms into greater alignment, easy the strain on your wrists and possibly helping to avoid posture that fosters carpal tunnel syndrome. In all, I find the keyboard quite comfortable to type on; however, even after a month of regular use, I have not become fully accustomed to the odd key spacing or locations of some of the keys that usually are configured differently at the right side of the keyboard. In other words, I find that the layout of this keyboard presents significant accuracy issues for my typing.\n\nThe key feel is adequate, similar to many laptop keyboards. The keys aren't tall, and strokes are relatively short compared to those on more traditional keyboards. When I type quickly, I do not encounter ghosting problems.\n\nI found the function keys and escape keys annoying. They are tiny and do not feel well constructed. They feel like they will pop off. They do not have the same soft touch as the rest of the keyboard. What is more, there is no dedicated \"Function\" or \"Fn\" key to permit you to use the second function for the function keys (e.g., adjusting volume via the F3 and F4 keys). You have to throw a flimsy mechanical switch at the top right of the board to the \"Fn\" position. This is a chintzy design feature that was not well thought out.\n\nThe mouse is comfortable to use and tracks well for office use, though I wouldn't ever try to use it for gaming. It has the usual right and left M1 and M2 buttons. It has two additional buttons. One is the blue Window button on the top of the mouse, away from any place where you would likely press it accidentally. By default, it calls up the START menu in Windows 7. The other button is a \"browser back\" button on the left side of the mouse in the rubberized and sculpted thumb recess. It is under the rubber but you can feel where it is without any issues. The mouse is easy to grip in light of its rounded shape and rubberized thumb rest. However, there is a materials issue here again. After only one month of use, the rubberized thumb rest is wearing out and getting slick and shiny where the \"browser back\" button is located. It is much less pleasant feeling now. I don't know how much longer this non-removable rubber will last before it wears through or ruptures. You can replace the AA cells in the mouse by removing the magnetically connected gliding ring on the bottom of the mouse, and you can switch the mouse off with a mechanical throw switch on the bottom of the mouse.\n\nThe numeric keypad is unremarkable. It's nice to be able to put it aside when you don't need it. However, the supplied coin battery in my evaluation unit has died in less than one month. That seems atypical, and I wonder whether there was a problem with the battery or a key sticking down on the keypad that caused a significant power drain.\n\nI have had no problems with the connection between the keyboard, mouse, or keypad and the computer. The basic software Microsoft offers to allow you to change the function of the mouse buttons is adequate and unremarkable.\n\nIn all, this desktop is comfortable to use. There are some design quibbles I have with the keyboard, especially the lack of a Fn key and the odd placement of the various keys on the right side of the board. I also question the materials Microsoft used, which do not seem durable at all. For the price, I would expect something that would appear to offer a greater useful product life.","Product: The Philips 4GB Voice Tracer 1400 Digital Recorder lets you record notes and documents on-the-go. It supports both stereo MP3 and stereo PCM (WAV) recording formats, which enables you to utilize a variety of bit-rates ranging from 8 to 1411 kbps. It also features 4GB of built-in NAND flash memory, a micro-USB 2.0 port for high-speed data transfers, a voice volume indicator and a microSD card slot that supports up to 32GB of memory expansion.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Solid basic digital voice recorder with good feature set\n\nReview: This Philips digital voice recorder performs well and is not difficult to use. The attractive features include stereo microphones with adjustable sensitivity, adjustable recording quality (from highly compressed MP3 to uncompressed WAV), and expandable memory. With 2 GB of onboard memory, you're not likely to run out of space unless you're doing extensive recording in full, uncompressed quality.\n\nBattery life seems pretty good. The device is quick to power on, and it's not difficult to review/edit your sound files.\n\nThe device's construction is plastic, but it feels solidly assembled. Despite that, it's pretty light and comfortable to hold in the hand.\n\nAudio playback isn't stellar from the device itself. The onboard speaker will let you hear voice recordings decently, but it isn't as if you're going to get any kind of decent sound out of it. However, it isn't difficult to move sound files from the device to a computer.\n\nIn all, if you're looking for a good all-around digital voice recorder, this Philips model is one you should look into. It isn't spectacularly fancy, but it gets the job done and seems pretty reliable.","Product: Columbia PFG line is more than just great gear and apparel, it's a way of life. Packed with angler-friendly details, our fishing clothing, shoes and hats are comfortable and able to stand up to abuse.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Thin mounting factor, fast SSD\n\nReview: By way of disclosure, I received a sample of this product for evaluation purposes. I have tried to be objective.\n\nI've used SSD drives from various manufacturers over the past several years, including Mushkin, OCZ, Crucial, Samsung, and Intel, installing them in computers I've built. Overall, I've had a good experience with SSDs, although the Mushkin and OCZ drives used a Sandforce controller that was a bit sketchy in the long run.\n\nThis Toshiba has a thin mounting factor and can easily install in a notebook computer. I am using it in a desktop with a mounting adapter (2.5\" mount to 3.5\" hard drive bay).\n\nIt was simple to get up and running. I already had the BIOS of the machine set to ACHI instead of IDE. ACHI optimal for SSD performance. I used an Apricorn USB to SATA adapter and Apricorn's software to clone the older SSD to this one, which worked flawlessly.\n\nHooked up to a SATA 6 port on the motherboard (it's in a i7-3770k Intel processor PC with an Asus motherboard), the drive is blazing fast. Windows 8.1 boots to desktop in mere seconds. Applications and programs launch almost instantaneously. People can talk about benchmarks until the cows come home, but those numbers don't mean much -- the actual user experience is more informative. And this drive makes operating a PC a wonderful experience. This drive makes a PC snappy.\n\nIt has plenty of room for most users. Provided you don't have a large multimedia library you intend to put on notebook PC with a single drive, this drive makes for an excellent operating system drive (i.e., to house Windows and your main programs) with space to spare.\n\nOverall, it's been as good so far as drives I've used made by Samsung and Intel. Good bang for your buck. This one is well worth considering.","Product: Quality style and big sound merge in a body so slim it can be slipped in everywhere. Built-in NFC technologies makes smartphone pairing as easy as a touch.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Nice design and good for voice, not so hot for music\n\nReview: This Philips Bluetooth speaker is nicely designed. It's thin, compact, and portable, and it feels solidly made. The metal volume wheel is a nice touch, as is the space by it through which you can pass a lanyard.\n\nI had no trouble pairing it with my smartphone.\n\nThe sound of the speaker is adequate, but it isn't anything to get excited about. It works well for voice in movies or phone calls, and it gets pretty loud without undue distortion. However, it's a tiny speaker and it doesn't sound all that wonderful for music. In terms of sound quality for music, it reminds me of an old AM transistor radio I had as a kid. I have portable speakers from Simple Audio and Anker that sound better for music. Still, given that portability and not high fidelity is the key point here, it is sufficient for most people's needs.\n\nOverall, it's a great little speaker if you need some sound and don't want to use headphones.","Product: AKG never moves forward without improving on what it already does so well - and by having a complete grasp of the relevant marketplace. As a result, the new AKG Y55 closed-back headphones address the needs of the on-the-go lifestyle - and the music-lover who wants a leg-up on their game. These premium headphones offer quality sound and adhere to a DJ-specific list of essential, show-ready features. From its long-lasting, comfortable fit to its closed-back design, the Y55s are all about enhancing the sound through reinforcing bass response while removing unwanted external interference. Extremely versatile, their universal, inline remote/mic on a detachable cable and plug adaptor add on-the-job functionality. From their fold-flat design for safe and easy transport to their complementary style with the availability in 4 cool colors, these are the headphones to take you to the next level of listening. Portable. Durable. Loud and proud. Accurate, lightweight and flexible. AKG understands - because we listen. Why would you expect anything less from AKG?\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Good update on AKG's K619 model, now with detachable cord. Great sound, but tight and uncomfortable for people who wear glasses.\n\nReview: My first pair of real headphones was a set of AKG K240DFs more than twenty-five years ago. This Austrian company has been a stalwart in the recording industry for decades. They also make several fine consumer-grade headphones. (While I like AKG, I'm not a total fanboy. Over the years, I've also picked up some audiophile headphones from Beyerdynamic and Shure.)\n\nThese Y55 headphones are an update of AKG's K619 model from a year or so ago. (I have a pair of the K619s.) The sound is identical to my ears. The principal difference between these and the K619s is that the Y55 features a detachable cord. That is a great improvement -- portable headphones often fail because of stresses on the cord which cause the signal to become intermittent, wrecking the headphones. If you can replace the cord, you don't have to junk otherwise perfectly fine headphones.\n\nThese do suffer a bit from the same defect that made the K619s a little less than optimal. These are supraural headphones. That means they sit on your ears, not around your ears. Accordingly, they put pressure on your ears. The \"snug fit\" that AKG advertises is no joke. These really do clamp down pretty tight. If you wear glasses, prepare for pain after about 15 minutes of wearing them. There is no way to loosen their relentless grip. Great if you're a jogger without glasses; not so hot if you're listening while sitting at home and wearing glasses.\n\nWith glasses off, I find they're not uncomfortable. The memory foam in the earpads is pleasant. (Another reviewer inaccurately stated that the earpads are \"gel,\" but they're actually memory foam covered in pleather.)\n\nThe sound is excellent for consumer-grade headphones. There is good treble extension without harshness. The mids aren't recessed, which is good for a closed-back headphone -- sealed headphones historically have tended to have trouble with muddy mids. The bass is pumped up a bit, making these competitive in a younger market where listeners tend to like bass to be emphasized. Although these headphones have 40mm drivers, not the 50mm drivers common in many audiophile grade headphones, there is no lack of bass \"oomph.\" That said, the bass, while pronounced, isn't wildly out of control or inaccurate (compare with Beats, which don't sound nearly as good to me). However, if you're a purist looking for an honest response curve, look elsewhere.\n\nThe headphones are high sensitivity and are easy to drive. They produce a lot of volume/sound pressure from low input voltages, so they work well with portable devices like smartphones. I listened to them both with my Samsung smartphone (OK) and with a Headroom headphone amp fed with a MusicStreamer II+ DAC and FLAC files (better than OK). The amp did tighten things up a bit, but it was probably overkill.\n\nGeneral build quality is quite good. The earcups pivot in several directions, so they can adjust to your ears.\n\nAt least one other reviewer inaccurately claimed that these are noise cancelling headphones. They're not. However, they are sealed headphones that passively attenuate environmental noise. I used them on my commute on mass transit trains and they did block out a lot of ambient noise, so I didn't have to crank the volume on my phone to be able to hear.\n\nBOTTOM LINE: The Y55 is a worthy update of the portable K619 model. The detachable cord is a big plus. Sound quality is great, but the bass is boosted. They are tight: if you wear glasses, you might want to find another portable headphone.","Product: Audio-Technica ATH-MSR7 SonicPro Over-Ear Headphones - (Black)\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Nicely made, pretty decent sealed circumaural headphones\n\nReview: I have listened to music through headphones for decades, starting with a pair of AKG K240DFs back in the 1980s. My preference is for a neutral sounding headphone with a slightly forward/detailed presentation. That is not something easy to come by in sealed circumaural headphones in this price range, but Audio-Technica has managed it here.\n\nIn terms of appearance, the headphones are well finished. The gun metal/brown pleather look may not appeal to everyone, especially as AT has included some funky anodized-look red accents. But to each his own.\n\nAs for fit, they're circumaural (around the ear), not supraaural (on the ear). The memory foam covered with pleather makes for comfortable pads that give decent noise attenuation. You don't hear a lot of what's going on around you, and those around you do not hear what you're listening to. I used these on my commute on mass transit rail, and they did a good job damping the sound of the El train. However, they're a bit tight. I wear a 7 3/4 hat, though, so my head is a bit bigger than average.\n\nThe cord is detachable, which is nice. However, because of its comparatively stiff jacketing and the way it attaches to the left earcup, it transmits a lot of \"microphonic\" cord noise to the left earcup. In other words, when the cord moves and brushes or bumps against something, you'll certainly notice it -- sort of like a stethoscope.\n\nAs for overall sound, I evaluated using three sources: my Galaxy phone, a HRT MicroStreamer (DAC and headphone amp), and a HeadRoom Desktop headphone amp with Class A upgrades. Although a portable device can easily drive these, I found that the sound really benefitted from amplification, smoothing the treble response, which verged on grainy and harsh when driven from the Galaxy, and tightening and controlling the bass. If you can afford a portable headphone amplifier, it will serve you well with these headphones. These do have some emphasis in the bass. Other than that, they're relatively neutral in the mids and treble. They have excellent detail retrieval -- I could hear well into the music listening to FLAC files via the MicroStreamer and Desktop amps.\n\nThese do not suffer from common sealed headphone problems such as recessed mids or an overly closed soundstage. They're nowhere near as good as my Shure 1440s or AKG 701s (both of which are open designs) for a sense of air around the performance, but they're better than my Beyerdynamic 770s. As an aside, imaging isn't really a headphone highlight area anyway unless you're listening to recordings made using a binaural setup. Most stereo recordings are not engineered to image and soundstage well on headphones as opposed to speakers. This has to do with the fact that, listening with headphones to stereo recordings that aren't made using a binaural setup, your right ear doesn't hear any musical information from the left channel and vice versa, although listening with speakers both of your ears do hear sound from both channels.)\n\nThe overall sonic presentation is slightly forward and detailed, not smooth and relaxed (a la certain Sennheiser models).\n\nOverall, these are a solid set of sealed headphones that can be used at home or with portable devices. They have an elegant, classic appearance and feel well made.\n\nMy only substantive complaint is the cord microphonics, which are distracting when using the headphones in a portable fashion.","Product: ASUS Wireless Duo Wireless Hard Drive support every major operating system with expandable storage and integrated SD Card reader. Fir any further issues, please reach out to ASUS's customer support @ 1-812-282-2787 or Web: http://service.asus.com\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: Neat concept, but falls down on actual functionality\n\nReview: I've been using personal computers since the early 1980s and am still frequently amazed by the innovative products that companies turn out. I'm also fairly tech savvy and have built a few computers in recent years. I have had experience with ASUS before and have used their motherboards in all of the computers I've built. So I was excited to try this product.\n\nI have a big audio media library (more than 500gb of FLAC files) and was excited to try this portable wireless hard drive as a way to play those files around the house without uploading them a few at a time to my Android smart phone, which only has about 32gb of storage. Unfortunately, it hasn't worked out.\n\nAs for the drive itself, it is stylish, with a wave pattern under the glossy top surface. It has some non-skid nubs on the bottom to keep it in position where you set it down. And it has a USB 3.0 micro input, a power button, and a card reader slot. The USB input and card reader are covered with little plastic/rubber plugs that attach to the body of the drive. Pretty simple, and a sleek design. It's bulkier than a standard portable hard drive these days, but that clearly has to do with the included battery, card reader, and WiFi radio in the unit.\n\nBut, for me at any rate, this drive falls down on compatibility and functionality. After charging it for the recommended time, I tried hooking it up to the USB 3.0 ports on two of my computers using the included cable and pressed the power button. The power indicator came on on the drive. And then . . . nothing. Windows 8.1 did not recognize this drive on the USB 3.0 port. I know there is nothing wrong with the ports because I have other USB 3.0 portable drives that function perfectly on them. I made sure the USB 3.0 driver on the computers was updated to the most recent version -- it was -- but I could not get this drive to show up using the included cable. So I tried one of my older micro-terminated USB 2.0 cables plugged into the USB 3.0 ports on the computers. Surprise surprise, the drive showed up now on both computers. Perhaps the included cable was somehow defective.\n\nI got my media library loaded onto the drive in a few hours. I then downloaded the ASUS Wireless Duo app from the Android store and followed the instructions. I set my phone to use the WiFi signal from the Duo (a LED indicator next to the power button on the drive shows when WiFi is active) and started the app. Nothing. It will not show the drive or its contents in the app. After error messages, it keeps putting me back into the local storage on the phone, a Galaxy Note 3 running Lollipop. Troubleshooting hasn't worked. Overall, this has been quite frustrating and disappointing.\n\nI'll update this review if I can get the WiFi function working from ASUS's app. If not, this stands as a two-star device because it is expensive and bulky for a 1 TB portable drive without the promised wireless functionality and promised Android compatibility.","Product: MEGACRA Bluetooth TV sound bar\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Pleasantly full and accurate sound from small, sleek units\n\nReview: I hooked up a pair of the MartinLogan Motion 4 speakers to spruce up the sound of the TV we have in our bedroom. Using a Yamaha receiver with decent current capability, these speakers really open up. Using the SPDIF output from our Verizon FIOS box and the DAC in the receiver, we get clear dialog and sound for TV and movies. At times, the tweeters are actually a bit too revealing -- stations that don't do a good job with their audio (e.g., ones that run poorly produced local ads) stand exposed before you as you hear all the hiss and compression.\n\nUsing a Harman/Kardan DVD player as an audio source, the speakers do a good job with music to reasonably loud volumes. They're wonderful for acoustic and folk, competent for jazz, and fair for rock/dance. We're using them without a subwoofer (it's a bedroom set up, after all), so music that depends on thumping bass comes up a bit short. For acoustic, jazz, and classical, however, they do a nice job of imaging (given the source we're using to drive them) and provide a good, airy presentation that makes instruments sound natural.\n\nThese knock the socks off the old 5 1/4\" Infinity speakers we used to use, making those sound like an old man with chest congestion by comparison.\n\nThe piano-black plastic finish is attractive, but you'll see plenty of fingerprints and dust. Get some microfiber cleaning cloths to keep them clean and free from scratches. The grilles are OK, but they don't seem to detach at all. No biggie.\n\nAll in all, these are a solid choice for someone looking to take a step up from the bulk, consumer-oriented Polk/Infinity bookshelf speakers that you find at most big box electronics stores.","Product: TSST Ultra-Portable Wireless Bluetooth Speaker S6, Clear and Powerful Sound, Flip Cover for Protection and Various Way of Stand, Works with iPhone, iPad, iPod, SAMSUNG Galaxy Phones, Galaxy Tabs, LG Smartphones, iTouch, Blackberry, Nexus, Lumia, MP3 Players, etc.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Decent inexpensive portable Bluetooth speaker but it does not \"provide the services on life and safety\" [sic]\n\nReview: This S6 portable Bluetooth speaker is a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, it is quite simple to use and, for the price, offers fairly decent sound. On the other hand, it has some features that are hit and miss, like the integrated cover/stand. For example, the vinyl/pleather cover is glued to the back of the device and is one with it and cannot be removed. It secures to the front of the device with concealed magnets when closed.\n\nThe speaker was simple to use. After charging it via a USB port or phone charger with Micro USB cable, just hold the power button down for a few seconds, and the speaker enters pairing mode. It paired immediately with my Galaxy Note 3. There is a red LED concealed under the metal mesh in the curved edge of the speaker (at bottom in the product photo) that shows when it is charging, and a blue/white LED that shows when in pairing mode.\n\nThe speaker does not have a volume dial or rocker switch. It is controlled by the device with which it's paired.\n\nThe speaker has two ports -- one is Micro USB for charging, and the other is the AUX jack, so you can plug in a 1/8\" cable to listen to non-Bluetooth sources. (It isn't clear to me how to control volume for line level input across the 1/8\" port. If it's a variable level source, you use the volume dial on the source device.) The power button is the only control on the speaker. That's it. There no volume control or microphone for hands-free speakerphone calls.\n\nFrankly, the sound is not great in absolute terms. I listened to some FLAC files from my music library on my phone, and the sound is boomy and there is no detail retrieval. However, in this price range, the sound is competitive. It can get surprisingly loud. It suffices for audio for streaming video or for background music. But this is by no means an audiophile product.\n\nI've included a photo of the first page of the \"INTRONDUCTION\" [sic] pamphlet that comes with the speaker. Don't expect to understand the instructions. It's an ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US sort of document. It's a good thing that it's so easy to use the speaker. Just don't expect it to \"provide the services on life and safety.\"\n\nBottom line, this is a simple, cheap Bluetooth speaker that functions well for about three sawbucks. If you are looking for portable audio with a low price tag and acceptable sound, this one should be on your list.","Product: The Archer C2600 unleashes your homes Wi-Fi with blazing 4-stream technology. Game online and stream in 4K HD with four streams of data at 2.53Gbps of total Wi-Fi throughput over dual 2.4GHz (800Mbps) and 5GHz (1733Mbps) bands. MU-MIMO serves more devices at once for faster Wi-Fi and less wait time. Enjoy non-stop entertainment on your smartphones, smart TVs, and game consoles and experience high-speed connections during heavy network traffic thanks to a powerful 1.4GHz dual-core CPU. Beamforming targets and delivers stronger signal to each connected device for maximum performance. Manage Wi-Fi settings from your mobile device with the Tether App.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Fast and great signal\n\nReview: We are using this TP-Link wireless router via a bridged Verizon FiOS coax modem/router. It replaced a Linksys router that was several years old.\n\nThe router was easy to set up and configure. It looks sharp and does not get as hot as the Linksys did.\n\nWe are getting great reception around the house, probably owing to the MIMO antenna setup. This includes a PC that sits upstairs from the router by a wall that has a heavy wire mesh lath screen in it (i.e., a big impediment to wireless signals!).\n\nThe router doesn't hiccup even when several members of the household are simultaneously streaming content from our broadband connection. It will deliver the full 75mbs of bandwidth wirelessly, which beats the Linksys it replaced. We are not experiencing signal dropouts either. All in all, a great wireless router.","Product: PNY Anarchy 16GB Kit (2x8GB) DDR3 2133MHz (PC3-17000) CL10 Desktop Memory (BLUE) - MD16GK2D3213310AB. For more than 30 years, PNY has been rigorously engineering, sourcing, testing, and manufacturing memory upgrades for thousands of the most popular PC platforms.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Decent kit, but overkill unless you're running shared memory video solutions\n\nReview: Decent memory, but you're unlikely to detect a performance difference vs 1600 mhz RAM unless you're running a system that uses shared memory for video (such as an AMD APU system based on the FM2+ socket). The latencies on this memory tend to nullify the boost in clock speed when compared with tight timings on a 1600 mhz kit (like 8-8-8-24 or better). Also, you will not see much speed difference in basic applications like web surfing or YouTube viewing (despite some ludicrous and unsupportable claims in reviews here to the contrary). It's only in memory intensive processing that you'll actually notice any difference.\n\nThat said, this is a good kit for the price. It runs well in an AMD 8320 system on a Gigabyte 990FX motherboard. It just isn't noticeably faster in everyday use than the 1866 mhz 9-9-9-27 1T command rate RAM it replaced.","Product: APC 11-Outlet Surge Protector Power Strip with USB Charging Ports, 2880 Joules, SurgeArrest Home/Office (P11U2)\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Good strip -- the charging is a nice feature\n\nReview: I've used APC products for years, going back to an Uninterruptible Power Supply in the mid 1990s. They usually make fine power solutions.\n\nThis surge protector power strip is no exception. Although much of it is plastic and is made in China, the features are good. It has a relatively flat, angled plug so you can get it into an outlet behind furniture. The charging ports are a nice extra feature and provide a pretty quick charge at 2.4 amp capacity at 5 volts. The unit also has LEDs to signal whether there's a wiring fault in the outlet/building power (usually an open ground or reversed hot/neutral) that might prevent full surge protection.\n\nOverall, it's a nice power supply strip and basic surge protector. I wish it were a little more substantial feeling, but that just seems to be the way things are made these days.","Product: The Seagate Mobile HDD offers a thin size, huge storage and amazing value. Seagate's highest-capacity thin 7mm laptop drives, in capacities up to 2TB. Incredible value with best cost per TB and cost per millimeter for thin mobile/laptop customers. Light in weight to support portable computers without adding bulk. Enables drop-in 2TB capacity transition without the weight of traditional laptop drives. Stores up to 200,000 photos, 250,000 songs or 124 hours of high-definition video. Standard SATA 6Gb/s interface promotes ease of integration into an existing mobile/laptop design. Easy deployment for laptop upgrades while enabling the small 7mm form factor system design. Ideal for traditional laptops, convertible and detachable storage and slim consumer electronic devices.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Good value for a notebook form factor hard drive with a lot of storage\n\nReview: I needed some backup space for a large media library. This Seagate drive has a smaller form factor (2.5\", common for notebook computers vs. the standard 3.5\" desktop spinning hard drive size), which is what I was looking for. I dropped it into a USB 3.0 external drive housing from Orico: (<a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/ORICO-2599US3-Tool-Free-USB-3-0-Hard-Drive-Disk-HDD-External-Enclosure-Case-With-USB-3-0-Cable-for-9-5mm-7mm-2-5-quot-SATA-HDD-and-SSD-Black/dp/B011I5ZTIS/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\">ORICO 2599US3 Tool Free USB 3.0 Hard Drive Disk HDD External Enclosure Case With USB 3.0 Cable for 9.5mm 7mm 2.5\" SATA HDD and SSD-Black</a>). It slid right in and, after formatting the drive in Windows 10's disk management application, I had nearly 2 full terabytes of space to back up my lossless audio collection.\n\nTransfer speeds were good across the USB 3.0 connection, although I'm sure the drive is capable of better speeds if it is attached directly to a SATA port in a notebook computer. I have not been able to locate any information about the speed at which the drive spins (i.e., some notebook hard drives are 5400 rpm and some are slower). The seek time on this drive is fair but not outstanding. Still, with the smaller launch profile of Windows 10, it would likely work well as a main drive in a notebook irrespective of the rotational speed and seek time.\n\nIn all, a great value for a large amount of storage. SSDs are coming down in price, but you can't even come close to this amount of storage for less than several hundreds of dollars for even a basic SSD.","Product: Stay connected during your wildest outdoor adventures. With a rugged, fully waterproof* design, emergency features and a 35-mile range, the T600 H2O keeps you connected and protected during your extreme outdoor activities. The T600 H2O is packed with top-of-the-line radio features, including the ability to float* and a water-activated flashlight. The flashlight also includes a red LED to preserve night vision. With these exceptional capabilities, you can count on the T600 H2O to deliver reliable communications during your wildest adventures - whether by land or by sea. How far can I expect my radios to communicate? The communication range quoted is calculated based on an unobstructed line of sight test under optimum conditions. Actual range will vary depending on terrain and conditions, and is often less than the maximum possible. Your actual range will be limited by several factors including, but not limited to: terrain, weather conditions, electromagnetic interference and obstructions.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Great pair of radio handsets with clever features\n\nReview: My dad got a pair of Motorola walkie talkies about fifteen years ago, and they were great. This latest line of water resistant digital walkie talkies demonstrates how far things have come in that period. From the LED flashlight to the multiple channel and substantial range, these handsets are durable and easy to use. We have used them around the neighborhood and have had no connectivity issues within about a mile. We haven't had the opportunity to use them out in the wild, although we're looking forward to taking them along on some rafting trips later this summer.\n\nThe handsets offer multiple channels, a variety of clever functions (e.g., the belt clip doubles as a whistle!), and great sound quality. I will update this review once we have a chance to put them through their paces out on the river.","Product: PNYs Elite X USB 3.0 is Built for Speed & Convenience. Get the most out of the USB 3.0 port on your new computer. Experience USB 3.0 next generation speed performance with transfer speeds up to 185MB/sec! Its the perfect solution for easily storing and quickly transferring all your large documents, high-resolution photos, HD videos, and more. USB 3.0 offers the same ease-of-use and plug-and-play capabilities as previous generations of USB technologies, but with exceptional speed improvements. Designed for Reliable Portable Storage PNY's Elite X USB 3.0 Flash Drive is designed with convenience and portability in mind. This USB 3.0 Flash Drive is small in size, but big on performance!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Decent flash drive with incredible capacity for the price\n\nReview: As a kid in the 1980s with a Commodore 64 computer, I used to think that 140K of storage on a floppy disk was pretty great. I could never have imagined this kind of storage capacity or transfer speeds in a small device like this USB flash drive.\n\nHooking this up to a USB 3.0 port on a computer I built with an AMD processor and an ASUS motherboard and running Windows 10, I'm getting incredible transfer speeds on my lossless music files and on videos (usually north of 60mb per second). While USB 3.0 is capable of raw transfer speeds much higher than that, remember that this device has to record the data into memory. 60mb per second is pretty quick for recording data on a flash drive.\n\nThe unit isn't the sturdiest one I've ever encountered: it's got a plastic housing that seems a little chintzy. There is a sliding cover for the USB connector, but it doesn't always stay in place if you throw it in a bag or put it in your pocket. Still, if you take reasonably good care of it, it seems like it will stand the test of time.","Product: This high-quality Digital Audio Converter (DAC) delivers upgraded sound to any USB compatible computer. The USB DAC is ideal when used to bypass the low-grade internal sound card in your computer, adding a higher fidelity to your digital music library. Included with this DAC is a unique music player software package incorporating Direct Streaming Technology which outputs an exact bit-copy of the original source by resampling the Kernel Mixer of your PC. The software is compatible with Windows, MacOS and Linux operating systems. Power is supplied to the USB Box via the USB port. 4-Inch width x 1.5-Inch Height x 5.6-Inch depth; weight 1.2 lbs. Silver or Black finish.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Excellent little USB DAC for average applications\n\nReview: My ten-year old office cd player/radio was stolen several weeks ago. Rather than buy a replacement--I couldn't find anything comparable--I picked up one of these Pro-Ject USB Boxes (Amazon had the silvers ones at less than half of list price for a short span) and some decent amplified speakers to pry my music collection from the hard drive of my work computer. Obviously, that's not an audiophile set up. However, converting the 0s and 1s to music outside of the computer improved the sound significantly over the internal soundcard's analog outputs. There is no crackling or hiss, which I was getting from the Creative Audigy PCI card's outputs.\n\nI can imagine that this would be a satisfactory DAC for most listeners for most applications. Audiophiles might take issue with it for a few reasons. However, if you're listening to any kind of lossy compressed files (i.e., most MP3, AAC, or WMA files), you won't worry that the box is powered by the computer's USB line voltage (5v) instead of a better regulated and cleaner separate power supply. My collection is in lossless compression, but I don't hear any incredible difference between those files and the one or two MP3 downloads I have in the collection. The amplified speakers I'm using simply aren't revealing enough to demonstrate exactly how the USB Box is handling everything. (At home, I use a solid Headroom DAC and headroom amplifier -- that rig reveals a clear difference between lossless and lossy compression.)\n\nThat said, the setup sounds good and clean. The USB Box is doing its job well. It's solidly made and is heavier than you might expect such a small unit to be. It has rubber feet so it doesn't slide around. It's also quite simple -- there's a USB mini port for the input from the computer, and there's a pair of RCA outputs (L + R). There are no switches, lights, or other unnecessary complexity. Setup was simple. I plugged the USB cable into it, and Windows XP recognized it immediately. You can use the included software or other media players.\n\nIt's a neat little device. Check it out.\n\n-----------\n\nUPDATE 8/17/09\n\nThe Pro-Ject USB Box failed today, only about a month after I started using it. It still generates output, but it is full of digital distortion, as if a chip in the box has partially failed. It is the box, not my computer, as another outboard USB DAC from Headroom works fine with the computer. So now I'll get to try out Pro-Ject's customer support. I'll report back what my experience is. [It turns out that Sumiko is the U.S. distributor of this product for Pro-Ject, which is an Austrian company with a factory in the Czech Republic. Sumiko advised me that Amazon handles the warranty claims. Amazon is going to send me a replacement unit in exchange for mine.]\n\nUPDATE 8/20/09\n\nBecause Amazon doesn't have the item in stock and doesn't know when more will arrive, I asked that they refund me for the defective unit. They are doing so. So the customer service experience was pretty good over all, although the failure of the Pro-Ject USB Box after a month was a disappointment. I'm going to try an HRT MusicStreamer instead.","Product: The Mushkin Enhanced Redline Series stands in a class by itself. No other memory modules on the face of the globe can compare with the Redline in terms of performance or speed. Redline Series modules grace the world's most elite systems; if you want your rig be world-class as well, just take the Redline.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Another Solid Mushkin Product\n\nReview: My experience with Mushkin runs from some DDR memory I got to expand an old Dell, one of their Callisto SSDs, and this excellent set of DDR3-1600 sticks. (I purchased this RAM from another site, where there are frequently Mushkin rebates. Got it for four sawbucks less.)\n\nI installed this memory in a system I built on an ASUS P6-X58D-E motherboard with an i7-930 processor. Initially, the memory was running at a slower clock speed with looser timings. However, a quick change in the BIOS to select the memory's XMP profile worked perfectly. CPUID reports 6-8-6-24 timing at 1.65 volts. Haven't tried to OC it, but I've read of others doing so with success and tighter timing. (UPDATE: I've tightened the timing up to 6-8-6-20, and still no errors in Memtest+.)\n\nThe REDLINE series is just about top of the line for Mushkin, standing above their BLACKLINE and shoulder to shoulder with their new RIDGELINE. Having had good experiences with Mushkin memory in the past, I expect this set will last a good long time. Having read a lot of reviews written by disappointed consumers of memory from other manufacturers (like G.Skill, OCZ, and Corsair), Mushkin is going to continue be my first choice in the future. I highly recommend their products.","Product: If you listen to music on headphones via a computer, iPad, Surface tablet or a Samsung Galaxy S ll or lll phone and want better sound quality then HRT's HeadStreamer Mobile is the perfect solution. Technically, HeadStreamer Mobile is a USB-connected and powered dedicated headphone amplifier/sound card designed to seamlessly interface with PC, Linux, and Macintosh computers, iPads (1, 2 & 3), Microsoft Surface tablet and the Samsung Galaxy S ll and lll phones. It directly decodes the digital music data stream from the computer, tablet or phone's hard drive into analog music for headphone listening.\n\nLike other HRT products, set up and operation is super-easy: just use the included USB cable to hook the USB input of the HeadStreamer Mobile into any available USB port on the host computer*. The HeadStreamer Mobile automatically performs an \"electronic handshake\" with the source device and tells it that the HeadStreamer Mobile is here, that it is to get all audio signals sent to it instead of the Digital-to-Analog converter (DAC) that is built into the computer, tablet or phone... And that's it, the HeadStreamer Mobile, is in charge of all data-transfer timing instructions. Then just plug your headphones into the 1/8\" analog output jack on HeadStreamer Mobile. Now you are ready to stream some music, either directly by playing a disc through the computers optical drive, or read as a digital file from your computer, tablet or phone's hard drive. You will literally never need a stand-alone CD player again to enjoy all the music in your CD collection in high quality sound through headphones. If you happen to have other higher-resolution files (up to 24bit/96k) stored on your HD, you can also play them in their full native resolution (no up-sampling).\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Amazing little DAC/amp -- UPDATE: Now Discontinued\n\nReview: For years, I've done most of my listening via DAC and headphone configurations, streaming lossless files from my computer. I have a HeadRoom Desktop amp with their DAC circa 2006. I was an HRT early adopter, however, and picked up the original MusicStreamer+ back in 2008. That was a great product, and the company let me upgrade it to a MusicStreamer II+ at a steep discount last year so I could get the benefits of their new asynchronous USB circuit. (I tell you this because, during that process, I was in direct contact with Kevin Halverson, the company's owner, who is quite enthusiastic about bringing great sound to people at reasonable prices. Great service!)\n\nAnyway, when I wanted to get a portable amp so I could listen at work, I went back to HRT, having been impressed with their low-cost solutions in the past. The HeadStreamer lives up to the excellent reputation the company has been earning.\n\nI listen with a set of AKG K240 Mk. II headphones at 55 ohms impedance and stream FLAC encoded files at 16/44.1 and 24/44.1 from a machine running WinXP 32. This little DAC/amp does them justice. The sound is detailed and clear, with actual separation of instruments. The bass is tight and controlled and sounds great on the AKGs. Mids and highs are clear without being harsh.\n\nMy only complaint is that I sometimes get a bit of lag/computer induced distortion when switching files in Outlook. No WASPI in WinXP 32. (I have no similar problems using the HeadStreamer on my home PC running Win 7 64 and using WASPI.) That isn't the fault of the HeadStreamer, though.\n\nIn all, this and a decent pair of headphones will give you amazing results and bang for your buck for less than you would spend on an entry-level consumer grade home receiver and speakers. If you really want to hear well into your music, check this little wonder out.\n\n-------------\nUPDATE\n-------------\n\nThis product is now discontinued by HRT in favor of their newer MicroStreamer, which, like the HeadStreamer, is an outboard DAC and headphone amp. However, the MicroStreamer also has a line level output that makes it suitable for use as a line source for a home amplifier. It's a bit pricier, so you still might be interested in snapping up one of these excellent little HeadStreamers before they're all gone.","Product: Packed carefully, it will be shipped quickly from Amazon. Good condition as secondhand goods! There are small scratches because it is second hands but no problem enjoy using this.No Box, instruction manual, amp device only, no accessories .Thank you!!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Excellent DAC and amp, but, given other options out there, only really viable for a niche market\n\nReview: After downloading the driver from Sony's website, we were off and running with this headphone amp on a Windows 8.1 machine.\n\nI've used several headphone amps over the years, from HeadRoom's Desktop amp with Class A circuitry to HRT's portable HeadStreamer (with asynchronous DAC) and MicroStreamer (with asynchronous DAC).\n\nOverall, the build quality on this Sony unit is solid, with metal everywhere. The volume control is smooth and has a feel of quality. The \"bumpers\" on the front, designed to protect the headphone plug and volume knob in portable use, take some getting used to -- I couldn't plug in a solid body 1/8 to 1/4 adapter. You'll have to use a 1/8 to 1/4 jack cord-type adapter if you want to use your traditional larger phones with this.\n\nThe unit has a rechargeable battery, and it runs off of that DC power source. It will use a computer's USB port to recharge, but it does not operate from the computer power source alone. (Both of the HRT's regenerate the 5v from the computer's USB port to power themselves.)\n\nThe sound is great. It will drive my Austrian AKG 701s to respectable levels with clarity and authority.\n\nI have ripped my CD library in FLAC format using dBpoweramp's ripping utility, which guarantees bit-perfect files. It also will retrieve HDCD information and encode it in 24-bit format (leaving a few 0s above the 20 bits in the HDCD signal), which I did. Those FLAC files sounded great playing back through this unit. Like the HRTs, this unit uses an asychronous USB interface, so you don't have to spring for some bazillion dollar USB cord to make it sound respectable. Most standard cords are just fine because the unit guards against the kind of cord-induced jitter that you can get from the older adaptive USB interface, where the DAC is at the mercy of the incoming signal and the computer's clock.\n\nI have a few 96khz files as well. As you would expect, those come through marvelously, too. The Sony isn't limited to the 24 bit/96khz of a USB 1 interface like the HRT models -- it uses the full USB 2.0 bandwith, so it can accept 192khz inputs. I don't have any audio encoded at that resolution at this point, but based on what I'm hearing with the 96khz files, I can only guess that this PHA-2 would handle it well.\n\nOverall, the sound is deep and clear. Listening to some of my classical files, I get good separation among instruments and plenty of bass definition. The three-dimensional soundstaging of the AKG K701s shines with this amp, with great separation among instruments. Same holds for rock and electronic. The Sony uses its DC battery well and has plenty of dynamic oomph, even with the 701s. Overall, the sound is smoother and more refined than the portable USB-powered HeadStreamer or MicroStreamer.\n\nMy only qualm is that I would like to be able to listen without having to worry about the level of the battery. With the single cord from the computer, however, it seems limited to either listening or charging, not both at once.\n\nAlthough this unit is well equipped to be used with a portable device, like an iPod or smartphone, I have not tried to use this with a portable device. I still have a Zune, which isn't compatible. And I don't like the idea of having this unit strapped to my smartphone because I actually have to use my phone a lot for work, not just listening. But Sony includes a rubber spacer and a few straps that will fasten this securely to a phone or other portable device. (You have to select your input source manually with a switch on the back of the unit.)\n\nOverall, if you're just looking for something to use with a laptop computer or at home, you might do well to check out the HRT MicroStreamer and put the difference into the headphones. If you're really looking for a battery powered amp to use with a portable device on long airplane trips, etc., I think this would be an excellent choice. But given all the other options on the market for USB DACs/headphone amplifiers, it really is a niche product for a niche market (i.e., the traveler with a high-resolution library on portable devices). The sound is even, deep, and excellent, but it's hard to justify the additional expense over competing products unless you really need the battery-powered portability of this one.","Product: The Riis expands from an overnight bag to a weekender simply by changing the position of the shoulder strap. Two interior zip pockets, as well as three slip pockets and pen holders, offer additional ways to organize essentials inside this duffle.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Sharp looking and functional; handles could be better\n\nReview: This duffle bag is nicely finished. It looks really sharp. The leather is good quality and smells like . . . leather. The zippers are metal and operate smoothly. Inside, there is a fabric lining that includes a few pockets, including a zippered one inside of the front of the bag. The nylon is a substantial ballistic-type nylon and is relatively smooth (not like Cordura). The strap also is substantial, sort of like a thicker version of a seatbelt. There is no shoulder pad on the strap.\n\nMy only grip is the handles. They are finished in leather but have little to no padding. If you had anything remotely heavy in the bag, it would be quite uncomfortable to carry without the shoulder strap.\n\nOverall, it's a great looking bag that seems like it will hold up well. Just remember to take good care of the leather bottom.","Product: The new OD-1 is guaranteed to shift your knife need into OverDrive. Designed by Lee Williams, the OD-1 features a blade of Sandvik 14C28N stainless steel for superior hardness, excellent corrosion resistance, and its ability to be sharpened to a precision edge. This premium blade is paired with a handsome two-toned handletextured, black G-10 on one side and pure stainless steel on the other. The OD-1 features Flipper ambidextrous opening; just pull back on the blade protrusion and flick your wrist forward slightly to open the blade and lock it in place. Once the blade is open, the blade protrusion folds neatly into a recess in the liner to give the OD-1 a smooth line all the way down.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Excellent value in an American made knife\n\nReview: I've owned various utility and camping knives over the years, from a Puma Backpacker forged in Solingen, Germany that I got as a young teen to Swiss Army knives and a few other folding blades. This American made Kershaw knife is among my favorites for its size, ergonomics, fit and finish, and blend of features.\n\nFirst off, the G-10 scale makes it easy for a right handed person to keep a grip on this knife, even when working in wet conditions. G-10 is a composite with fiberglass at its core, and it provides an excellent traction surface. It's also tough as nails. The reverse side of the knife is finished stainless steel. It doesn't have a separate scale on it -- the stainless steel side is part of the knife's frame. It's fairly substantial and includes the \"frame lock\" feature that, when the blade is deployed, keeps the knife rock solid -- that blade doesn't wiggle a bit. It's still easy to close the knife, but it does take two hands. It's an ingenious system. Because that side of the knife is a slab of stainless steel, and because the frame lock feature works by having a part of the frame move behind the blade when deployed, there is a cut in the back side that allows that part of the frame to move and provide this useful function.\n\nThe blade, made of a high carbon steel specifically engineered to provide durable and sharp cutting edges for knives and razors, is easy to deploy. The knife has a leveraged system. You pull on the small knurled fixture on the back of the knife near the blade's pivot point, and the blade deploys readily. (This is not like Kershaw flipper knives where you generally need to flick your wrist while pulling an extended tang -- compare with the Skyline, for example. This one will fully deploy the blade just by pulling on the knurled fixture. My wife, who cannot easily open a flipper knife, deploys this blade with no problem. That's the advantage of levers, as Archimedes would have told you. Still, it requires enough deliberate force that, unless you're the type who routinely runs with scissors and acts carelessly with razor sharp knives, you're not going to deploy it accidentally when removing it from your pocket.) With the blade deployed, the knurled fixture finds repose in a recess in the back of the knife, giving it smooth lines. Another reviewer complains that the knurled deploying fixture might cause injury. Unless you go around indiscriminately thrusting your hands into your pockets with great force, however, I can't see that being a realistic problem. The fixture is round. You'd really have to punch your hand into your pocket before that would pose any kind of a risk to you. You'd be more likely to cut yourself on your car keys. Or a quarter.\n\nThe edge is razor sharp and well ground from the factory. This knife has a blade just over 3 inches long and is useful for many small chores. The point is very fine, however, so it obviously isn't for heavy piercing tasks -- with a harder stainless steel blade like this one, you might break the point if you use it for heavy piercing or prying. But it's a marvelous utility knife for edge uses. I was surprised by the thickness of the back side of the blade -- thicker than a Kershaw Blur.\n\nAs with many Kershaw knives, there are two sets of small screw holes that permit the owner to reverse the clip, which is well-finished stainless steel and laser engraved with the Kershaw name.\n\nAt bottom, this is a great value and shows that Americans are still adept at manufacturing cleverly-engineered high quality goods. In the hand, this knife simply feels like it was manufactured to specific tolerances. It's light but feels substantial. The fit and finish are excellent. While some people who demand absolute symmetry in everything might not like the stainless steel side of the knife, it gives the knife a unique look. (It vaguely reminds me of those Swiss watches that allow you to see some of the gears in the movement through the face -- the engineering is obvious and part of what makes the knife attractive.) To each his own, I suppose. Just don't let it blind you to the fact that this is one handy EDC knife.","Product: Four waves of increasingly deadly alien attacks have left most of Earth decimated. Against a backdrop of fear and distrust, Cassie (Chloë Grace Moretz) is on the run, desperately trying to save her younger brother. As she prepares for the inevitable and lethal 5th wave, Cassie teams up with a young man who may become her final hope – if she can only trust him.\n\nRating: 1.0\n\nSummary: Don't bother. Read Heinlein's The Puppet Masters instead.\n\nReview: There is nothing original to see in The 5th Wave. The premise is an alien invasion of earth, proceeding in waves, each one designed to eliminate and soften up the human population. After some fairly laughable acting and implausible development, the aliens arrive. Only you never see them because they essentially take over people. (Heinlein's Puppet Masters, anyone?) In an attempt to make this into some kind of post-apocalyptic anti-authority thriller like The Hunger Games or Divergent, the story pits children (good) against adults (bad). There is almost no character development, and the story lurches on for what seems to be an eternity before reaching a pretty dismal \"resolution\" that doesn't actually resolve much of anything other than the fact that you realize you just wasted precious moments of your life on a slapdash excuse for a sci-fi Chloe Grace Moretz vehicle that never gets out of the gate.","Product: I want to play my music through my car stereo and answer phones call via the built-in bluetooth in my phone.\"\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Works well enough, but not needed in many new cars\n\nReview: I have a Samsung Galaxy SII phone. I use it with a Logitech bluetooth adapter at work to stream music over a pair of desktop speakers, so I was used to using Bluetooth for audio. I figured that this Belkin product would be worth checking out for an older car that can play CDs but not mp3 files from disc.\n\nThe device installs easily and the wires aren't too obtrusive. The audio quality is good enough for road use and is sufficient for both music and calls. Others have noted that the device doesn't autoconnect. I end up having to go through a screen or two on the phone to hook it up and get audio playing. And, if I'm not careful about it, the music just starts blaring out of the phone. That's a small hassle, but a notable one.\n\nThe device seems reasonably durable.\n\nAll in all, this is a reasonable solution for people with cars that don't have the latest Sync systems. It might not be the most convenient system in the world, but it gets the job done fairly well and will save you from hauling around massive libraries of CDs.","Product: Motorola P617 rapid dual USB car charger with micro USB data cable provides universal power to charge via USB. Each port provides 850 mA of power for rapid charge and conveniently charges most products within two hours.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Motorola makes some good car chargers\n\nReview: This Motorola dual charger gets the job done. I previously had a Motorola auto charger that had a single micro USB output. It worked pretty well; however, the cable wasn't detachable -- if you didn't have a micro USB input on the device you were trying to charge, you were sunk.\n\nThis dual charger, which does include a USB to micro USB cable, provides much more flexibility. Not only can my wife and I charge our phones at the same time, but we can swap out the cables and, using other cables, charge our daughter's Nintendo DS, etc.\n\nThe charger will top off our phones (Samsung Galaxy SII) pretty quickly.\n\nIt seats securely in the 12 volt outlet and has an LED indicator to show the electrical connection with the car is in effect.\n\nIn all, it's a fine charger. The detachable cable makes it easier to store and gives it the flexibility that many people need given the broad assortment of gadgets in our lives these days. Because it has two outlets, it lets those of us swimming in gadgets to keep them charged.","Product: OtterBox is known for making highly protective cases that work when it really matters. The slim Commuter Series case is one that you can rely on to guard your device against damage from drops and scrapes.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Good case for Note 3\n\nReview: By way of disclosure, I received a sample of this product for evaluation purposes.\n\nI previously had a hybrid Spigen case on my Note 3. While it looked nice, it added quite a bit to the sides of the phone, which made it even harder to hold. It also didn't offer much of a ridge around the screen, which made me nervous that I might break the screen if the phone fell on its face.\n\nThis OtterBox case is narrower around the sides of the phone and offers a larger, rubberized ridge around the screen.\n\nThe port covers line up well. I'm not a tremendous fan of them, though, because they put some pressure on whatever connector you're plugging in, which results in lateral pressure on the ports in the phone. That can't be great. But they do keep dust out.\n\nThe side buttons line up well. I have no difficulties turning the phone off or waking it up, and the volume adjuster works well, too.\n\nThe case has a plastic shield that attaches over the bulk of the inner case, which has a bit of a rubbery consistency. The plastic makes it easy to slip the phone in and out of your pocket.\n\nI already had a good screen protector on my phone, so I didn't use the included one and cannot comment on it, but OtterBox does provide a small microfiber cloth to help you clean the screen of dust and oils before applying the screen protector, which is a nice thought.\n\nOverall, I found this to be a better case than the Spigen case for the way I use the phone. It isn't ostentatious. Just functional. I recommend it without reservation. I just wish they didn't make the port covers put so much pressure on connectors.","Product: Layers of color and texture combine with a tailored fit for ultimate protection and style. Rubber silicone base cushions phone while rigid shell protects device from bumps and scratches. Full access to all buttons and ports keep you connected and able to use your phone's many capabilities.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Pretty good case for the money. Somewhat difficult to snap rigid portion on phone during assembly.\n\nReview: My wife was looking for a better case than the wallet case she had for her S4. This Case Logic case is a hybrid, with a rubberized interior that jackets the phone and a hard shell that fits over the interior. It was a little difficult fitting the hard shell over the interior jacket -- it is really stiff.\n\nThe cutouts all line up properly. The on/off and volume switches operate well. They are covered by the interior jacket and protrude through cutouts in the hard shell.\n\nThe design on the back is a bit funky, but it aids in holding the phone -- those grooves give your fingers something to hold on to. No telling yet whether a lot of grime/dust/lint will accumulate there between the shell and interior jacket.\n\nThere is a raised bezel around the edge of the screen, so it can be placed face down without much risk of scratching the glass.\n\nIn all, it's a pretty decent case. I have an Otter Box case on my phone, and this comes close in quality for a lot less money.","Product: On-the-road charging recreated for your power-hungry devices.PowerIQ: Compatibility maximized.Not all charging ports are created equal. Standard ports only charge Apple OR Android devices at full speed. But with PowerIQ technology, each port intelligently identifies your device and seeks to maximize its charging speed (up to 2.4 amps).Powerful yet safe.Using top-grade microchips and built-in fail-safes, we ensure you receive full power and also full safety C it'll never overpower your devices. We incorporated a unique dual-circuit protection system that prevents overvoltage, overcurrent, overheating and short circuits. CE & FCC certified, rest easy knowing your 24W of power is fully under control.Low-profile power.Not only is the Anker? 24W Car Charger powerful, it's also among the smallest in size C beating out even most 10W / 15W options and the same size as our 18W model. Our goal was to keep it light, unobtrusive, and compact C to get the job done with minimal distraction.Popular Compatible Models:Apple (Lightning connector not included): iPhone 5S 5C 5 4S 4; iPads and iPods (except the iPod Classic)Android (Micro-USB connector included): Samsung Galaxy S5 S4 S3 S2, Galaxy Note 3 2; Motorola Droid RAZR MAXX Moto X; HTC One X V S Android (Micro USB 3.0 compatible connector included): Samsung Galaxy S5, Note 3 (To connect, plug the built-in Micro USB tip into the larger of the two connection ports on your device.)\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Fast charging in the car\n\nReview: By way of disclosure, I received a sample of this product for evaluation purposes.\n\nThe ANKER 24W dual port charger is a compact unit. It comes with a USB cable with a Lightning connector for recent Apple products, but you can use your own cords with the popular Micro USB connectors.\n\nThis unit is compact and fits into a vehicle's 12v cigarette lighter power source. It does not have any power indicator LEDs, but it features two charging ports. Using it with my Galaxy Note 3 phone, it charges faster than other chargers I've used in the past. It can charge two devices, like my phone and my daughter's Android tablet, without slowing down the charging time.\n\nThe included cord works well with Apple products; it came in handy when a friend needed to charge an iPad.\n\nIt feels well made. Check it out if you're looking for a good car charger.","Product: The Kodiak Plus takes the popular Kodiak power bank, and makes it, well, better. We added 40% more power into a slimmer and sleeker form factor, dropped a 2nd USB port so you can share your power (if that's your thing), and maintained the shockproof and waterproof features that have come to be the envy of every bar-goer and outdoorsman globally.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Well Made and Great Capacity\n\nReview: This portable power source has worked well to charge our Android phones and even other devices that use a 5V USB MICRO input (e.g., wireless headphones).\n\nThe battery pack is covered with a textured rubber. The end with the charging port (input is USB MICRO and there are two USB female connectors for 1A and 2.1A outputs) is covered with a rubber cap that flips back but does not detach. This cap provides some measure of protection from dust and moisture, although I don't know that I'd want to be submerging the pack to find out just how well it keeps water out.\n\nThe LED indicators that show remaining battery level light up at the press of a button and can be seen through the rubber cap. They also light up when you plug in a device to charge to show that charging is occurring.\n\nOverall, this pack seems like it will hold up well over time. It isn't light, but it is portable and has enough capacity to charge several phones or a tablet and a phone. If you spend a lot of time away from your home and car, this is a great portable charger.","Product: Studio C, the best value in a 5.0\" high definition smartphone available in 5 vibrant colors. Factory installed Android 5.0 Lollipop OS. Super capacity 3000 mAh battery , 1.3 GHz Quad Core Mediatek processor with Arm Mali 400 GPU. 8MP autofocus 3265x2449 camera with 2MP Front camera.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Tremendous bargain for a capable unlocked phone\n\nReview: This is the second BLU smartphone I've had a chance to try. I'm still impressed. For a c-note, you can get an unlocked phone with Android Lollipop, a decent screen, a decent camera, and capabilities that match many competing brands that would cost you hundreds of dollars more. Sure, this phone doesn't have a top-of-the-line processor or massive amounts of internal RAM or storage, but the storage is expandable through microSD cards. And the RAM is not a problem unless you are someone who actually needs to be performing several tasks at once, and that isn't most of us. For basic smartphone use, this phone is more than adequate.\n\nThe build quality is fine. It is plasticy, but for the price it's a much nicer phone than you might expect. The included transparent cover helps to protect the plastic body against minor bumps and scratches.\n\nThe phone has pretty good battery life, too. It has a 3000 mAh battery that will keep you going all day, even if you're surfing the web over WiFi or watching a video.\n\nCall quality is fine.\n\nLollipop is fairly smooth on this phone. There are times when an app is a bit slow to launch, but I don't think that's unique to this phone: my Galaxy Note 3 has similar stutters and hiccups in Lollipop.\n\nOverall, this is a tremendous bargain smartphone. If you're content not to have the absolute top-of-the-line phone and want to save yourself hundreds of dollars, check out BLU's offerings.","Product: Introducing Strada, the only leather smartphone folio case for your Samsung Galaxy S6 that combines modern, slim, and sleek style with trusted OtterBox protection.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: A good case with some minor tradeoffs\n\nReview: OtterBox is a well-regarded manufacturer of cases for smartphones. I have had several over the years.\n\nThis one lives up to the general quality I've come to expect. It fits well and switches and plugs are accessible.\n\nThis case has a flip cover that protects the screen well if you're throwing the phone into a purse or backpack. You can also put some cards into the cover, almost like a slim wallet. The tradeoff is that the cover can get in the way if you're trying to snap a quick picture, etc. It can fold over and get in the way of the lens. It also makes checking the screen a bit more of an involved process. That said, you should know ahead of time whether that is something that will matter to you.\n\nOverall, I like the case. It keeps the phone in like-new condition and is attractive.","Product: Worry less while youre on the job. Defender Series for Pixel XL 5.5 combines three ultra-tough layers to guard your device against serious drops, dirt, scrapes and bumps. The built in screen film stops display scratches, plus the included holster gives you the quick draw on calls and texts. Defender Series works hard to protect your device.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Wonderful case, but lose the built in screen protector.\n\nReview: The OtterBox Defender case fits my Pixel XL perfectly. I did not like the built in screen protector, however, which allowed dust/hairs to get between it and the screen and which also had some weird oily/iridescent distortion. (The screen protector does not adhere to the screen -- there is potential for space between it and the glass of the screen that admits dust, etc.) So I carefully removed the screen protector, which is held in place with gummy adhesive.\n\nOther than the screen protector, the case is wonderful. It is relatively easy to hold (the rubber-like rim is easy to grip) and protects the phone on all sides. No problems with sound or sensors being obscured. It's a great case.","Product: Billy Bragg, once-described as a \"one-man Clash,\" has spent the last two decades writing and performing passionate, witty, socially conscious music. On September 6, Yep Roc Records will re-issue \"Live and Dubious,\" Billy's first album containing live material, combined with \"The Internationale,\" a 1990 EP of global and historical political anthems and revolutionary ballads. \"The Internationale\" features everything from a brass band and a Welsh choir on the title track to the Spanish language \"Nicaragua, Nicaraguita.\" The equally fiery \"Live and Dubious,\" originally released in 1988 with the subtitle \"Help Save the Youth of America,\" came with this message from Billy: \"I have no vote in your Presidential election yet its outcome will directly affect my future and the future of millions of people around the world ... Remember, when you elect a President, you are electing a President for all of us. Please be more careful this time.\" Six-Panel Mini-Jacket. Yep Records. 2006.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Excellent remastering, but packaging is marginal\n\nReview: These discs include Bragg's Internationale and Live and Dubious EPs, with some bonus tracks. The second disc is a DVD that contains material from a small handful of Bragg concerts in the 1980s when there were still a few serious communist/socialist countries in the world.\n\nThe remastering of the music is great. This is, perhaps, Bragg's most overtly political music, with much of it consisting of his renditions of socialist standards.\n\nAnyway, the content is great. The packaging, however, is marginal. It's just a cardboard sleeve. The discs slide in and out. There is nearly nothing by way of liner notes. For the price, you might hope for more. And Amazon is charging nearly twice what I paid new for this at a local record store (two Hamiltons!). Outrageous, especially when Bragg himself put a legend on the original cover of this disc telling people not to pay more than 3.99 English pounds for it. But, then, we're making the world safe for capitalism, right?","Product: This sleekly contemporary design heavy duty sharpener fits into any office or classroom. The innovative Pencil Saver feature prevents over-sharpening, and the large receptacle for shavings prevents mess. Like all X-ACTO sharpeners, the cutters are hardened steel, ensuring long use and durable cutting surfaces. The powerful DC motor ensures multiple pencil sharpenings without overheating. X-ACTO, the most recognized brand in cutting. X-ACTO blades have provided precision cutting excellence for over 90 years.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Gets the job done, but doesn't inspire confidence\n\nReview: The X-ACTO Work Pro is a decent sharpener, but its motor probably will not bowl you over. The sharpener starts automatically when you insert a pencil. It chuffs along and, within about ten seconds, you have a razor sharp pencil. It uses rotary cutters, sort of like the classic hand operated sharpeners in school classrooms. It has no-skid feet and stays where you put it. It's about six inches deep and four inches high.\n\nThe only negative here is that the motor sounds like it's having a tough time. It sounds strained and bogs down a bit even when feeding a Dixon Ticonderoga in gently. The motor never jams or stops -- it just sometimes sounds like it's having a really tough time turning the rotary cutters. Still the pencil feeds in at a relatively uniform rate, and pencil after pencil comes out razor sharp. It's a two amp motor and may be slightly underpowered. Because it seems to bog down a bit, I worry that the windings in the motor may overheat with any kind of prolonged use (e.g., a sharpening marathon of several pencils in a row).\n\nThe instruction pamphlet says that the unit has a Pencil-Saver feature: the motor is supposed to change in tone when the pencil is sharp; however, I didn't notice any change in motor sound when the pencil was sharp. No matter, though. You can feel the change in resistance as you feed in the pencil. Unless you pay no attention to what you're doing, you'll know how much you need to feed to get a sharp pencil.\n\nIt does use 120v wall power. The cord is approximately four feet long.\n\nTake note that the warranty is two-years on the cutting rollers and only 90 days on all remaining parts. It will be interesting to see whether the electric motor holds up over time with regular use. I don't worry about the cutting rollers. X-ACTO uses fine cutting steel.\n\nTake note that this sharpener is intended only for regular wooden pencils, not colored art pencils. The manual specifically warns against sharpening anything other than standard pencils in it. X-ACTO claims the cutting mechanism will be fouled by the waxier colored leads of art pencils.\n\nAt work, I use a Panasonic electric sharpener, and it produces similar results without sounding strained. If Elmer's (X-ACTO's parent company) wants to compete successfully in this market segment, they might need to beef up the motor a tad. That would eliminate the only negative aspect of this sharpener. As it is, it works. It produces good results. It just sounds lousy achieving them.","Product: The Axiom Collection by Pilot is available as a retractable ball point pen with a distinguished flair. With its balanced metal barrel, traction dimples and contemporary design, the Axiom offers both style and writing comfort. Axiom is available in four bold black, cobalt blue, cherry red and pearl white matte metallic finishes with attractive silver accents. Outfitted with a high quality retracting mechanism, Axiom writes in blue ink with a medium point. Each Axiom is merchandised in an elegant Pilot navy leather box.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Good pen at a reasonable price\n\nReview: By way of disclosure, I received a free sample of this product for evaluation purposes. I have tried to be objective.\n\nI collect pens. Over the years, I've used ballpoints and fountain pens manufactured by various top notch pen makers, like Parker, Pelikan, Lamy, and Rotring. This Pilot pen holds its own with pens costing much more.\n\nThe construction is good. The barrel is sturdy, made of metal, and has a bit of heft to it, but it isn't a heavy pen. The ink is a standard Pilot refill and it writes quite smoothly and without skipping. It's almost like a gel ink.\n\nThe only part of this pen that seems to be a cut corner is the button you depress to deploy or retract the point. That button feels like it may be made of plastic.\n\nThe matte black finish does not show fingerprints. The dots on the grip appear to be more cosmetic than functional -- they do not improve my hold on the pen. The pen is a somewhat larger diameter than most people are probably used to with disposable pens, but I find it comfortable to hold.\n\nOverall, if you want a somewhat special pen without paying through the nose, this is a good choice.","Product: Mechanical Pencil 0.7mm. Ergonomic triangular barrel with rubber grip for relaxed and easy writing. Sliding lead sleeve for non-stop writing. Cushioned lead for high level of break resisitance. Twist eraser, extra large refill cavity holds 12 leads.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Nice mechanical pencil - comfortable to hold\n\nReview: I've used Staedtler pens before and was impressed. So when I was looking for a mechanical pencil, I decided to give them a try. I'm glad I did.\n\nThis pencil isn't the fanciest thing in the world. It is mostly plastic construction. However, the rubberized triangular grip is comfortable to hold. It isn't overly thick as the photo might lead you to believe, but it is thicker than a standard pencil. It measures just under 6\" in length.\n\nThe eraser is interesting. If you twist the end of the pencil clockwise, it extends. It's small, though, and I can't say I'd actually use it much -- I try to keep an eraser handy.\n\nThe barrel is a nice metallic blue color. The pencil itself is manufactured in Japan, which surprised me -- most of Staedtler's products are made in Germany.\n\nAnyway, if you're looking for a mechanical pencil that is better than average but still in the price range where you won't pull out your hair if someone nicks it, then check it out.","Product: Maximize your daily efficiency with the PIXMA MX472 Wireless Office All-In-One Printer. The PIXMA MX472 excels in connectivity. With Google Cloud Print and Air Print, you can print wirelessly from your compatible smartphone or tablet from virtually anywhere around the office. It's loaded with timesaving features as well, including an automatic document feeder which holds up to 30 sheets. And when it comes time to change ink or add paper, the Fast Front feature makes it quick and easy-right at the front of the printer! Plus, the optional XL or XXL pigment black ink cartridges mean you can print longer before having to replace your cartridges.;;Another great feature of the PIXMA MX472 is My Image Garden software. My Image Garden puts all your favorite printing features, such as Special Filters and full HD Movie Print, in one convenient software application. It helps you organize your photos with calendar view and facial recognition.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Amazing for the price, but they'll get you on ink costs\n\nReview: I previously had a Canon MX432. This MX472 works every bit as well and seems to have better/cleaner print quality. On good paper, it's difficult to distinguish the black and white printing from a laser printer unless you closely scrutinize it.\n\nI have the printer set up in my office. I run with with a USB connection to my computer -- wireless isn't an option because I don't have a wireless network configured in the office. I use it mainly for scanning and printing correspondence when the support staff isn't around.\n\nMy computer is running Windows 8.1. The printer has a good driver and software suite that will handle everything from scanning to .pdf files to printing photos, although this isn't a spectacular photo printer. I have been impressed with the auto-feeder and use it frequently to scan documents that I need for court filings. The scan quality is good, even using the auto-feeder.\n\nThe ink cartridges are easy to replace. However, they're painful to replace: they're incredibly expensive. Even the higher capacity cartridges do not yield an incredible number of pages before they're tapped out. The ink ends up being more expensive than perfume. Make sure you scope out the ink prices and page yields before you commit. The software suite will let you monitor your ink levels, and they go down quickly if you do any substantial amount of printing. If you need to print a lot, then you might be better off looking to a dedicated laser printer.\n\nThe set up and menu systems are not too hard to navigate, especially if you keep your manual at the ready.\n\nAs it is, this is a functional multifunction device. I never had any problems with the MX432, and I haven't had any problems (fingers crossed) with this unit either. Highly recommended if you can bear the costs of the ink.","Product: Professional black padfolio with leather-like cover and sleek flexible design takes you through the year in style. Contains one refillable note pad with undated, graphed sheets for notes and room for up to 8 tasks with check-off boxes. Copper accent rivets add sophistication and style. Notes pad has perforated sheets for easy, clean removal. Flap pocket on the inside front cover holds loose sheets. 12.25 x 9.25 x .25 inches overall.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Attractive, but really for home or office use, not use in the field\n\nReview: The At-A-Glance padfolio provides you with a flexible jacket for a standard notepad. It comes with a pad of tight graph paper, handy if you have to sketch things in proportion. But you can replace that with standard notepaper pads.\n\nThe cover is flexible and leather-like. It is most similar to nubuck leather, with a soft, matte appearance. This surface does show fingerprints as dark smudges, so don't get this one if you've always got your hand in a bag of Frito-Lay potato chips. Like nubuck leather, it will also show scuffs.\n\nThe padfolio isn't rigid. It won't be any sturdier than whatever notepad you put into it. No biggie if you're using it in conference rooms for meetings, but that may be a factor if you're taking it out to worksites.\n\nOverall, it's an attractive notepad cover and well suited to office use.","Product: Paper Mate InkJoy Gel Pens, Medium Point, Red, 3 Count\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Good flow and feel\n\nReview: These Inkjoy pens write smoothly and are easy to hold. I have the .7 mm tips, which provide a decently thin line for handwriting.\n\nThe ink does seem to dry quickly. I don't usually have a problem with smearing, so I don't know if these actually live up to the claim that there is significantly less smudging as a result of this ink formulation. What I can tell you is that the pens lay down ink smoothly without skips.\n\nThe barrel of the pen is a little wider than what I'm used to. It's easy to hold, but definitely thicker than one of the PaperMates or Bics you'd get from the supply closet at the office.\n\nOverall, these are fine gel ink pens.","Product: Scotts Natural Lawn Food builds a thick, green lawn ... naturally! You dont have to worry about waiting after application before you can use your lawn again - it is safe to walk on immediately after application! Plus, the lawn food can be used around kids and pets. Apply it during any season to any grass type to start your lawn towards thicker, natural grass versus unfed grass.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Safe way to green up lawn without concentrated chemical salts, but has odor\n\nReview: This fertilizer mostly consists of chicken manure. It does not have pesticides or weed-killing herbicides in it, and it isn't full of chemical salts like most lawn fertilizers. Our family has used this product from time to time and it yields pretty good results. We mostly stick with corn gluten meal these days, though, because it naturally helps to prevent crabgrass and other weeds by killing the seeds naturally when they germinate. This won't do that, but it will help give your lawn the nitrogen that will help to green up the grass.\n\nThe only real downside is that it has an odor when it gets wet. You also have to be careful about securing it because little critters love to get into this stuff and eat it/roll in it. Keep it away from your pet dogs and cats or they'll have rotten breath!","Product: ust plug in a Victor Mini PestChaser and this high-tech device produces high frequency ultrasounds that repel rodents. As an added feature, the Mini PestChaser is also equipped with a new nightlight feature that provides a soft glow in the dark. The plug-in unit's mini size and discreet design make it ideal for all living areas in your home or business. Simply plug it into an outlet near entryways and it begins to produce a sound that drives mice, rats and other rodents crazy. The ultrasound, with over 80 oscillations per second, emitted at varying volumes and varying frequencies keep rodents from becoming used to the sound. The sound cannot be heard by humans or non-rodent pets such as cats, dogs, birds and fish. Users can experience a reduction in rodent activity in as little as 6 to 10 days. One unit typically provides 3 to 5 years of service.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: They seem to work, but they're not really much in the nightlight department\n\nReview: We occasionally get mice in our kitchen in the winter, so I wanted to see whether these rodent repellers live up to their name. They seem to work. Our cats used to park themselves on the floor in front of the oven -- the mice would get in behind the oven. About a week after placing two of these in outlets in the kitchen, I noticed that the cats weren't parking themselves in front of the oven anymore. The mice just weren't there.\n\nAs nightlights, these are very dim. They don't illuminate much, but they can be markers in a dark room so you have a sense of where you are.\n\nOverall, I was surprised. These seem to work. And they don't appear to bother our cats. Bonus!","Product: Restyled for 2014, the Weber Q 320 is now the Weber Q 3200. The grill has the same great performance and sleek styling, but adds new aesthetics that are both functional and fun, including larger grip handle and control knobs, ergonomic side handles, sturdy front and rear cradles, large fold-down side tables with improved rigidity plus the familiar Weber Q logo prominently branded in the lid. This full-sized gas grill with a small-footprint and fold-down tables is at home in any outdoor space. Split grates allow for a grate/griddle cooking combination: Just replace one of the grates with the Q 3000-series compatible griddle (sold separately) and experiment with a new method of preparing breakfast, lunch and dinner on your grill. The combined primary grilling surface and warming rack areas offer 462 square inches of cooking space, perfect when grilling for a crowd. Grill all your favorite dishes from large roasts to delicate fish and vegetables. The infinite control burner valve locks in your desired cooking temperature to cook efficiently at any temperature from low to high. An electronic ignition system makes starting the grill as easy as pushing a button. Sold with a sturdy cart thats mounted on wheels, the Weber Q3200 comes with a host of convenient extras, including built-in thermometer and grill handle light for grilling in low-light conditions, 3 tool hooks for convenient storage of tools and utensils and to maximize your grate cooking area theres a handy place to stow the warming rack. A bracket behind the perforated screen secures a 20-lb. propane tank (tank not included) and stores one grate or one griddle.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Assembly Instructions Could Be Clearer, but Overall a Good Semi-Portable Grill\n\nReview: By way of disclosure, I received a sample of this grill for evaluation purposes. I have been a Weber customer in the past and still have one of their propane grills. I have tried to be objective in this review.\n\nThe Q3200 represents one of the higher end models in the Q line of Weber grills. It's principal features are a push button ignition, stainless steel burners (2), an enameled iron cooking grate, and an aluminum hood. It also includes two side tables that can be dropped down when not needed to make the grill smaller.\n\nThe assembly instructions for this grill were not among the clearer instructions I've ever used. There is no verbal guidance: it is all images. A few steps were quite puzzling. For example, the push button ignition mounts into the face of the grill from behind, but there is no explanation of how the pieces are supposed to fit together to ensure a firm fit. I had to use a process of trial and error.\n\nAside from the lackluster instructions, assembly wasn't too difficult. The hardest part was getting the legs lined up with the cross beams and then cranking the screws in. The plastic/resin does not appear to be pre-threaded, so a few of the screws took more force than one would expect.\n\nThe materials here are not all top of the line. While the aluminum hood, stainless burner, and enameled grate of the grill itself are nice, the plastic/resin legs that support it and the side tables are nothing to write home about. (When popping the side tables up and down to test them, I started wondering how many times I'd be able to do so before the plastic/resin started to crack or give way.) The propane cylinder, not included, is screened by a thin piece of plastic that you have to pop into the frame created by the front legs of the grill. It is only held in by the tension created by bowing the plastic. To me, this was the cheapest part of the design. The plastic screen does not feel like it would last much more than a season.\n\nHeat control is by way of two dials, one of which controls gas flow to the larger burner, which is like a ring that reaches the front and back of the grill. There is a smaller dial that controls the smaller burner in the middle of the grill. The combination is supposed to permit you to do indirect grilling (using only the ring and putting your food in the center of the cooking surface). Other Weber grills I've used have had \"flavorizer\" bars over the burners to keep fat from dripping directly on them. This grill is much shallower overall and does not have such bars. Instead, its cooking grate has solid horizontal bars integrated into it over the locations of each burner. That will probably help to prevent flare ups. However, I expect over time that much more of the fat that drips from meat to reach the bottom of this grill as it will not be burning on any flavorizer bars.\n\nThe lid is light, being made of aluminum. Weber includes an LED light that attaches to the handle assembly. It rattles inside, perhaps because it contains a mechanical switch that automatically will turn the light on or off depending on whether the lid is lowered or raised. Not a bad feature, especially if you're using the grill in a place that doesn't have outdoor overhead lighting.\n\nIn all, this Q3200 is a decent performing propane grill. It is shallower and has a smaller cooking surface than many other Webers, but if you don't need all that extra real estate, this one will stretch your propane tanks further. Aside from the cooking grates, the grill is lightweight and easy to move. In fact, the substantial grates are probably almost as heavy as the rest of the grill combined.\n\nOverall, recommended for people looking for a decent gas grill but who do not expect to be hosting massive cook outs.","Product: GE LED bulbs last up to 25,000 hours and use 75% less energy. GE energy smart LED general purpose bulbs are designed to direct light all around the bulb, distributing a more uniform, soft light that's similar to a traditional bulb.Made in China.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Gives light similar to incandescent, but at a much lower energy cost\n\nReview: We have a couple of LED bulbs from Cree and Philips. This is the first GE bulb we've used in the house.\n\nThis bulb gives off a fair bit of light, and it has the slightly yellow cast that one expects from traditional incandescent bulbs.\n\nAlthough the dimensions of the neck of the bulb are a little wider than those of a traditional bulb, it fit perfectly well in a floor lamp that we cannot put a CFL bulb in without a socket extender. So that's a plus.\n\nThe heatsink fins along the sides of the bulb do not cause any odd shadows.\n\nIn all, if you're a fan of traditional incandescent lighting but are looking to cut back on energy consumption, you should seriously consider this modern replacement.","Product: The NEW Delta Miter saw stand provides safe and convenient access to place you miter saw so that the work can be supported properly. Large wheels provide better mobility and the one-step folding action makes storage a breeze.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Functional and sturdy portable stand\n\nReview: I have a fifteen-year old Delta TwinLaser 12\" compound miter saw that has lived on a table in our basement that I built myself. This collapseable stand would have been great when I was redoing trim on the second floor! It makes the saw portable (within reason), and the extensions are functional enough to hold trim flat for detailed angle cutting (e.g., crown molding).\n\nThe overall construction is sturdy without being monumentally heavy. It feels like it will hold up well.\n\nIf you're mechanically inclined, it's simple to assemble. Had it done in under an hour.\n\nIt's nice that it can fold up when not in use. It takes up a bit less floor space that way.\n\nOverall, I've been impressed with Delta products over the years. My miter saw is still true and working great all these years later. Glad that it now has a \"home away from home\" so-to-speak.","Product: Design beautiful outdoor mandalas. What could be more fun than coloring on a sunny day? With the super-sized Mandala-Designer, you'll be an amazing street artist, sketching beautiful designs on any paved surface. Includes 2 Large Mandala Stencils, 6 Colored Chalks, Detailed Instructions.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Fun for young artists\n\nReview: By way of disclosure, I received a free sample of this product for review purposes. I have tried to be objective in this review.\n\nOur family has a fair bit of experience with Ravensburger puzzles, games, and mandala designers. OUr girls have enjoyed their products, which are almost uniformly high quality.\n\nThis mandala designer for sidewalk/pavement use is no exception. It is a folding template with a number of stenciled designs. You put it down, make some marks to show how you're orienting the template, trace your outline, and rotate the template and trace again. After you repeat the process a few times, a mandala takes shape. This one includes some colored chalk, and you can get more at many stores that sell Crayola products or at craft stores.\n\nOur elementary school-aged daughter loves this and made a number of designs with it. The only word of caution is that you have to be careful how you fold it to store it. If you do it the wrong way and force it, you might cause the material of the template to fatigue and start to tear/fall apart along seams.\n\nIn all, a great toy for creative kids.","Product: Techno Kids Marble Trax Under Sea Adventure will inspire your little one's creativity with even more components to build their marble run masterpieces. This fun underwater themed construction set includes more than 50 colorful and easy to put together construction pieces. The sturdy pieces offer unlimited building options for your kids to explore their inventiveness and imaginations. Colors may vary. Ages 4+ years.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Good basic marble run, but limited to one configuration\n\nReview: This marble chute is not difficult to assemble and feels sturdy once assembled.\n\nThe \"Learning Journey\" moniker may not be warranted, though, as it doesn't actually teach kids much about sea life. It just has some cartoon images of sea creatures on it.\n\nIt includes three \"marbles,\" one of which has an LED inside and which flashes.\n\nUnlike some other marble chutes (e.g., Quadrilla), this one cannot be reconfigured to make different tracks. It is what it is.\n\nOverall, the materials are of decent quality and fit together well. A younger child -- around four-years old -- would probably have fun with this. However, if your children are a bit older, you might want to look at marble runs made of components that allow kids to configure different tracks and indulge their creativity a bit more. For older kids, this one does not have much staying power.","Product: Parrot Mini Drone Rolling Spider - Bluetooth 4.0 Controlled Robotic Toy-Fly & RollWhite. For any further queries please contact Parrots Technical Support team at 877-9PARROT (972-7768) or online at http://www.parrot.com/usa/support/hotline.Parrot tutorial videos are available here: Set up process: http://youtu.be/BsTvOozjcxg Easy piloting maneuvers: http://youtu.be/YOcjtbAxzR4 Advanced piloting & wheels and ace mode: http://youtu.be/OxDhzyElL1s.We recommend customers to update their Rolling Spider to the latest firmware version to enjoy the new improvements brought for Rolling Spider\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Fun, but a few issues with control and motor heat\n\nReview: My daughter had a R/C helicopter that gave up the ghost, and she was excited to have a chance to try out this drone.\n\nThe drone is controlled via Bluetooth by your smartphone or tablet. Unfortunately, the drone and the Parrot app you have to download requires that your device have the Bluetooth 4.0 standard. My daughter was disappointed when her Nexus 7 tablet from a few years ago would not pair with or control the drone.\n\nWe charged the drone and got the app on a compatible Android device. The drone paired quickly once we ran the app. However, the controls were not working well. We could control whether the drone ascended or descended, and we could make it turn left or right, but no matter which direction we moved the horizontal control in, it would only fly backwards, never forwards. It worked much better with the wheels removed.\n\nThe app has a battery meter in it. We started off with about 8 minutes of flight time. That does go pretty quickly. The battery takes about an hour to recharge from a USB port on our computer. You can get extra batteries and could probably swap them out for more flight time.\n\nAside from the control issue, I noticed that the electric motors that power the rotors get incredibly hot after the drone hovers for a minute or so. I mean they get hotter than hot coffee hot. I'd recommend caution if you're letting children pilot the drone, not only because of the heat but because of the potential for injury from the spinning blades. (To reach the on off switch, you have to pick the drone up. You can't turn it off remotely. If anyone touches your smartphone/tablet while you're holding it, you would probably be hurt.)\n\nThe drone does have a neat feature that automatically shuts off the rotors if the drone comes into contact with anything. That is nifty engineering and will probably protect the propellers from causing much damage or from being terribly damaged if you fly it into a wall or the ground.\n\nIn all, it's a fun toy drone. Just make sure your Bluetooth-equipped device is up to the required specs.","Product: Based on the movie Star Wars Episode VII. Features battle action sounds, cockpit canopy opens and closes, wings open into attack mode, removable retractable landing gear. Requires batteries: (2) LR44 (Included). No tools, paint or glue needed for assembly.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Snap Tite has come a long way\n\nReview: My third grader loves building things. She assembled this model X-Wing Fighter in about five minutes.\n\nRevell's \"SNAP TITE\" models have come a long way since I was a kid in the 70s and 80s. The pieces fit together well, the instructions were clear, and the finished product seems to have no inclination of falling apart. This surprises me given that a few pieces (like the long blasters on the ends of the wings) are simply held on by a tab-in-slot connection. If a kid is pretty rough with it, it may come apart, but I don't see that happening in ordinary play. It certainly will hold together better than Legos. (Don't worry: she'll hold together. Hear me, baby? Hold together!)\n\nThe wings fold flat and extend into X battle position and will hold relatively well in either position. The forward landing strut can retract into the body of the ship. (The rear struts can be pulled off if you want -- they don't retract.)\n\nIf you press on the R2 unit behind the opening canopy, you'll be rewarded with a somewhat harsh digital sample of one of three sounds, including one that sounds like the blasters firing.\n\nWhen I saw the movie in the theater as a first grader, I would have given my arm and my teeth for a kit like this. If the reboot of the series does not disappoint, I can see this being a toy in high demand early in the new year."],"string":"[\n \"Product: This latest generation of iTrack Solo is the easiest way to record instruments and vocals on your Lightning-compatible iPad. Simply plug into the legendary Focusrite preamp and dedicated instrument input to start capturing your sound in pristine quality, using the very best in digital audio technology. Compact, lightweight and housed in rugged aluminium case, iTrack Solo is the perfect companion for any singer-songwriter who wants to make exceptional demos on iPad, Mac or PC.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: And excellent introductory package for high quality home recording\\n\\nReview: If you're looking for a practical and effective USB interface for recording vocals or instrument level inputs, the iTrack Studio is a pretty good solution.\\n\\nThe complete package includes the interface, a decent microphone and XLR cable, and a pair of headphones that appear to have been made by AKG, which is a company well known in studios for making excellent monitoring headphones. (The headband on the headphones is an AKG design similar to the band on my AKG K240DFs, which are stellar studio monitoring headphones.)\\n\\nThe interface is easy to use. When using it with a computer, it derives power from the USB port. If you use it with your tablet, you have to use the separate included adapter to power the interface.\\n\\nThe interface should work with most DAWs and recording software. If you don't already have such programs, the package includes the right to download and use a lite version of Abelton Live, which gives you practical recording abilities.\\n\\nThe microphone is fairly good. It's substantial and much more sensitive than the Shure SM58 I usually use for vocals.\\n\\nThe headphones are sealed so they help to attenuate outside noises. The interface has a headphone monitor output that drives the headphones to decent levels.\\n\\nOverall, this is a great package if you're looking to generate good quality recordings of vocals/acoustic instruments (through the microphone) or electronic instruments (through the line input). Highly recommended.\",\n \"Product: Top Quality Craftmanship, Hand Made in the USA, Longest Straps on the Market, Partial Proceeds Goes to Animal Rescue,\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A great deal for a fun, well made strap\\n\\nReview: So the strap was 77% off the retail price. My elder child loves jaguars and leopards. How could I pass it up?\\n\\nThe strap is sturdy. The first thing I noticed upon handling it is its heft. This isn't a basic nylon strap by any means. It's got a thick construction, with the faux fur on top of a woven nylon base. The ends are leather, and the hardware is metal, not plastic. The strap can be adjusted to be quite long.\\n\\nThe faux fur \\\"print\\\" is nicely detailed. It feels nice, not like some cheap stuffed animal fur feels. Looks pretty sharp.\\n\\nIt's comfortable and holds fast on my electric guitar. And part of the profits go to animal rescue efforts. Can't argue with that.\\n\\nIn all, this is a pretty great strap, especially for the price Amazon is presently charging. Check it out.\",\n \"Product: The Planet Waves 1UCT6-10 is a 10-pack of heavy Cortex picks.Cortex picks are precision molded to eliminate grain structures, allowing for dynamic pick response. This unique material closely resembles actual tortoise shell in feel and sound yet offers high strength, durability and heat resistance. Cortex long lasting picks offer excellent attack with a clean, crisp tone for superior note definition, allowing notes to leap from your strings.Planet Waves, part of the D'Addario family of brands, is known for innovative, problem-solving, quality musical accessories. Planet Waves offers a complete line of award-winning accessories including cables, picks, tuners, capos, straps, humidifiers, maintenance tools and more.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Nice -- and actually translucent in appearance\\n\\nReview: I got a sample of these Cortex picks. I've been playing for more than 25 years now and had never used anything other than celluloid picks and gemstone picks made by Stoneworks (check them out!).\\n\\nThese picks are heavy gauge. They appear different from the photo -- they're translucent. Pretty, actually.\\n\\nIf you drop one on a table, it makes a decidedly different sound from a celluloid pick. It almost sounds brittle.\\n\\nFor strumming, these are great. You get a nice, clean tone and decent feel. They aren't highly flexible. They're fine for picking out single notes, which ring out nicely given the picks' relatively sharp attack. More or less what you'd expect from a heavier pick.\\n\\nThey hold up decently. I didn't notice wear on them until after more than a week of playing.\\n\\nIn all, they're good quality picks that work well if you like a sharp attack and bright chords.\",\n \"Product: Simplify your life and beautify your utensil or junk drawer with Totally Bamboo's 6-inch by 12-inch and 2 1/2-inch tall Drawer Organizer. It features thin walls so it doesn't take up too much space, allowing you to easily add other organizers to the same drawer. Made entirely of bamboo, distinctively attractive and super strong. Wash by hand with warm water and occasionally use Totally Bamboo's Revitalizing Oil to extend life and beauty. From the original bamboo cutting board company, Totally Bamboo, this drawer organizer is a beautiful and functional addition to any kitchen. Bamboo is the natural alternative for all things wood. It is the fastest growing plant on our planet and does not require any special care to grow. In fact, it is a grass that produces more oxygen than a hard wood forest of comparable size, it helps to reduce carbon dioxide gases blamed for global warming, and it helps to prevent soil erosion through its widespread root system and large canopy. At Totally Bamboo, we are proud to say we use only the highest quality bamboo, harvested at the optimum age of 5 years from our own bamboo forests. There are over 1200 species of bamboo; however, we choose to use Moso timber bamboo for its strength, density and versatility. As an added bonus, it is not a habitat for pandas. Our factories adhere to a very stringent protocol for curing and processing the bamboo, ensuring the highest quality product. We take steps to ensure that our employees are well taken care of and work in a safe and hazard free environment. Our goal is continuous improvement through design, developing new, unique and innovative products which appeal to the environmentally conscious.\\n\\nRating: 1.0\\n\\nSummary: Poor design and weak adhesive\\n\\nReview: I bought one of these as a gift. The concept is great -- bamboo is a renewable resource, etc., and looks attractive. However, the design and construction are shoddy. The tray is made of very thin bamboo, not much more than 1/8\\\" thick. The corners are the problem here. They have a slight relief where they interface to try to maximize surface area contact. However, there just isn't enough surface area. The tray I got had a corner that was completely \\\"split,\\\" probably because the adhesive the manufacturer used was insufficient to hold the two pieces together along such a tiny surface. It wasn't broken or damaged by shipping; it just wasn't joined properly.\\n\\nI've had really mixed results with products from Totally Bamboo. Some cutting boards have been great and have held up well when properly maintained. This organizer, on the other hand, is going back. It just isn't designed well.\",\n \"Product: With 20 buttons, the Logitech G600 MMO Gaming Mouse is the most customizable and easy-to-use mouse specifically designed for mastering your favorite MMOs\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Decent MMO mouse, but may not satisfy everyone\\n\\nReview: I received a demo unit of the G600 Gaming Mouse to evaluate. I have been using gaming mice for many years and now mainly use a Logitech G500.\\n\\nThis G600 is a pretty good unit, but it's not going to be for everyone.\\n\\nERGONOMICS\\n----------\\n\\nThe mouse is somewhat awkward to use at first for a couple of reasons. First, it has a ring-finger button. That's right -- there are three buttons up front on this mouse. The idea is that you'll use the ring-finger button as a \\\"shift\\\" key so you can assign two functions to each of the other sixteen buttons on the mouse. The mouse has a decent \\\"fingerprint free\\\" texture on it that will keep it from slipping. It's pleasant. However, on a white mouse, that textured surface might be tough to keep clean over time.\\n\\nThe dozen buttons on the left side of the mouse are comfortable to operate, but they do require that you shift your grip on the mouse (at least for me) to hit them all. I noticed it was next to impossible to hit some of them with my thumb while also holding down the ring-finger button as a shift key.\\n\\nThe mouse is fairly substantial in terms of size. It feels taller than most mice on the left because of the button pad. It seems wider across the front because of the ring-finger button. It weighs less than my G500; however, that's because I added all of the supplied weights to the G500 (it can be customized). The G600 does not include a weight tray -- it's one size fits all in terms of weight. It's heavier than a basic optical mouse, but it doesn't feel as heavy as my fully loaded G500. Overall, it feels solid -- the construction is good.\\n\\nThe mouse has two large sliding pads on the bottom, one in front and one in back. It moves smoothly on my SteelSeries mousepad.\\n\\nIn all, this mouse is fairly comfortable to use, but don't be surprised if you find yourself adjusting your grip to avoid the ring-finger shift button. I found it was more comfortable to use my ring finger on the right side of the mouse instead of on top of it.\\n\\nThe scroll wheel is rubbery and moves with fairly positive \\\"clicks.\\\" Not noisy clicks, just well defined units of advancement. It can shift right or left and functions as a button when pushed. It does not spin freely, like the Logitech Revolution mice.\\n\\nThe USB cord has a braided jacket and a Velcro loop that you can use to gather up excess cord. It's pretty long. No wireless here. But, then, not many people prefer wireless mice when gaming, and this is certainly a mouse intended principally for gaming.\\n\\nSOFTWARE\\n--------\\n\\nThis mouse will only be fully functional on Windows Vista or Windows 7. The software will not offer full customization of the buttons to people using XP. (There is no software for the G600 for XP.) If you do have Windows Vista or Windows 7, the Logitech software is pretty easy to use to assign functions/macros to the various keys. The software will let you set up multiple profiles, a few of which can be stored in the mouse's memory at any given time. Overall, the software is good and easy to use.\\n\\nPERFORMANCE\\n-----------\\n\\nThis is a MMO mouse. For giggles, I tried to use it to play Team Fortress 2. It's not well suited to shooters like that. I also found that I didn't like it all that much for general productivity work or web surfing. Too many buttons and a bit too large. However, it's got a great laser engine with exceptionally high resolution tracking. (You can adjust all that in the software, too, and shift on the fly from twitch gaming to precise targeting.) It works pretty well in its intended arena; however, I did find I sometimes accidentally hit the ring-finger shift button if I didn't keep my ring finger on the right side of the mouse instead of near the top of the mouse. It would take a lot of physical training to get used to the mouse and to keep that from happening. It's just not something you think about with two-button mice, but it can feel downright odd (and interfere with play) if you're not used to it. The buttons all work smoothly. It's not easy to push any of the side buttons accidentally -- they require enough pressure to make sure you don't accidentally trigger them, but not so much that you have to labor to trigger them. There are some tactile cues on the left-side buttons that help you figure out where your thumb is without looking.\\n\\nLOOKS\\n-----\\n\\nYou can see that this version of the mouse comes with a slick black-and-white color scheme. The buttons on the side can be adjusted to various colors. Or you can let the mouse gradually pulse through all of them. Maybe a bit gaudy, but a nice feature for people go to lengths to dress up their gaming rigs with an illuminated color scheme. The big pad of buttons on the left of the mouse may look a bit less than sleek, but this is a mouse designed in form-follows-function style, and that pad of buttons is really what the G600 is all about.\\n\\nOverall, I highly recommend this mouse to MMO players. Just make sure you've got another mouse with fewer buttons for your shooters, when you want to keep it simple and straightforward.\",\n \"Product: Get blown away by your games AND movies in Dolby Digital Surround Sound with the Turtle Beach Ear Force PX4. With up to 15 hours of uninterrupted, crystal clear wireless play, the PX4 not only dominates for PS4, PS3 and Xbox 360 games, but lets you experience Netflix or Blu-Ray Disc movies in cinematic surround sound. Don't settle for less; get the Turtle Beach Audio Advantage today.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Good features at the price, but not truly wireless if you want to use the microphone with PS4\\n\\nReview: This is a reasonable headset, but it's not entirely wireless when using with PS4.\\n\\nThe wireless transmitter is powered via a hardwired USB cable. The audio signal from the console comes in through an included optical digital cable. However, if you want to use the microphone feature with PS4, you have to plug a cable from the headset to the controller, so it's not entirely wireless. The microphone can be positioned easily to your liking with a poseable metal \\\"snake\\\" covering the wire.\\n\\nBattery life is good and the headset can function while charging.\\n\\nThe audio is clean and detailed enough for gaming, although I wouldn't make these my main headphones for music listening. The surround sound feature uses sophisticated algorithms to make you perceive directional sound without multiple drivers in each earcup. It works well enough.\\n\\nI have not tried to use the Bluetooth feature to field phone calls while gaming -- I just don't talk on the phone while playing games at the same time. I could see that being useful to some people, however.\\n\\nThese are clearly designed for a younger crowd and have a gaming aesthetic. Construction is largely plastic, but the headset feels well made.\",\n \"Product: Designed for performance gaming enthusiasts, Logitech G303 Daedalus Apex's advanced optical sensor has maximum tracking accuracy up to 12,000DPI. Make it personal with RGB Customizable lighting. Some profile settings require Logitech Gaming Software available for download at logitech.com/downloads\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Small and light with a great sensor for FPS\\n\\nReview: The G303 is an optical (not laser) mouse with an insanely accurate sensor. The design is symmetrical, although the forward and back buttons are on the left side of the mouse. I play a lot of FPS, especially Team Fortress 2, and I found this mouse easy to adjust to after using a much heavier, asymmetrical G5 for the past few years.\\n\\nThe box contains only the mouse. Logitech no longer includes a driver or software in the box. If you want to use all of the mouse's features, you have to go to Logitech's website and download their latest gaming drivers and software.\\n\\nAs for features, the mouse is straightforward. You have the obvious left and right buttons along with a clickable scroll wheel. This scroll wheel does not use the Logitech technology that lets it spin freely -- it is a click wheel with a definite feeling of resistance between each click. There are forward and back buttons on the left side of the mouse. Below the scroll wheel is a button that allows you to switch among four levels of sensitivity, which are adjustable within the software. On the bottom, the mouse has gliding \\\"feet\\\" on all four sides, not just front and back.\\n\\nI used it with a hard gaming pad. The software allows you to optimize the sensor for the gaming surface you're using as well as to adjust the sensitivity levels of the mouse (choose among pre-programmed profiles or customize them, or create and save your own). You can also adjust the illumination scheme of the mouse if you're into that kind of thing.\\n\\nOverall performance is highly accurate. I was having no difficulty aiming as any class in TF2, including sniper. The adjustable sensitivity is nice if you need extra detail. I actually used it with Photoshop to pare down some pixels. It worked well.\\n\\nI give this mouse high marks overall, but especially for the accuracy of its sensor. It took me a little getting used to the smaller size of the mouse; however, it is comfortable and feels solidly assembled. Time will tell if it will hold up -- I've had problems with corded Logitech mice in the past developing shorts in the cord or with failing left buttons that start double clicking or clicking with almost no pressure at all (especially on the G5). This one feels pretty good now. If I experience any issues, I'll update this review.\",\n \"Product: Boost your productivity with Corel PDF Fusion, an all-in-one PDF creator that lets you view files, plus assemble, edit and create PDFs. View more than 100 different file types just by dragging and dropping them into the Welcome Screen. Take pages from multiple files, including documents, spreadsheets and presentations, and combine them into a single PDF to share with anyone. Add new text, bookmarks and comments. Plus, convert files to PDF, XPS and DOC formats with just a click.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Easy to use, powerful enough for basic .pdf tasks\\n\\nReview: I've used Adobe Acrobat and PDFDocs. Corel's PDF Fusion is easier to use than either of those programs and, while not as powerful as Acrobat, can do quite a bit in terms of manipulating and creating .pdf files. The interface is fairly simple. You can drag and drop files, change their order, and publish them to .pdf files. You can split .pdf files apart, stitch multiple files together, etc., all in a fairly intuitive graphical interface. It even provides a .pdf printer that lets you print any document (e.g., a Word document from within Word or a webpage in Chrome or Firefox) to a .pdf file. It's an incredibly useful feature.\\n\\nGiven the ubiquity of .pdf files, it's helpful to have a program like this one on your computer. This one is stable, plays nice with other software, and gets the job done. And it doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Check it out.\",\n \"Product: It's Windows reimagined and reinvented from a solid core of Windows 7 speed and reliability. It's an all-new touch interface. It's a new Windows for new devices. And it's easy to try now-whether you're installing it for the first time, or moving from Windows 8 Consumer Preview.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: A decent upgrade that gets knocked too much\\n\\nReview: I installed this Windows 8 64-bit Upgrade on a machine I built several years ago around an Asus AMD 790X chipset motherboard and Phenom II 965BE processor. The machine had been running Windows 7 Pro 64-bit.\\n\\nFirst, the upgrade was relatively straightforward. After inserting the disc and selecting the relevant menu options, it was off to the races. Although it is an upgrade package that will upgrade the existing operating system, it was not able to preserve the programs I had installed on Windows 7. It did save several settings; however, I had to reinstall Office, Photoshop, etc.\\n\\nIt found drivers on the installation disc for most devices I had attached, with the exception of a TP-Link wireless adapter. That device requires a hard-wire connection to the ethernet to allow Windows 8 to pull the driver from the Microsoft Windows Update site.\\n\\nOverall, the installation process was quick -- less than 1/2 an hour -- and relatively painless.\\n\\nThe Windows 8 Metro interface has taken some flak, especially when run on a desktop system. Although it takes a little getting used to, it is actually quite flexible. If you hunt around for information about keyboard shortcuts, you'll find that pressing the WINDOWS key and the X key will pull up a power user menu that will get you right into the control panel, disk management, etc. These keyboard based shortcuts are great. Microsoft screwed up here by failing to include any direction about their existence.\\n\\nThe biggest adjustment is the absence of the start button menu. However, its functions are all still there. You just have to learn how to access them. For example, from the start page in Metro, you can just start typing to run a search for a file or app. You don't need the search box in the old start menu to do that.\\n\\nFor those who complain about booting to Metro instead of desktop, I wonder whether they're just looking for things to gripe about. When you boot into Metro, you just need one mouse click to proceed to the desktop. Have we become so flaccid and spoiled that a single mouse click is too much labor and too much delay in our lives? Really?\\n\\nThe system boots and shuts down in no time flat -- I have a Sandisk SSD in the computer, and it boots into Windows after POST (the power on self test diagnostic) in under ten seconds.\\n\\nOverall, this package works decently to upgrade your OS to Microsoft's latest offering. You probably don't need to make the upgrade if Windows 7 is still working well for you. You'll get faster boot times and some small system improvements, but it isn't an earthshattering performance boost.\\n\\nWhen Windows 8.1 rolls out later this year and permits users to boot directly to a desktop with some kind of start menu, more users may find occasion to upgrade.\",\n \"Product: VideoStudio Pro X7 EN Mini-Box. Enjoy the faster easier way to make great-looking videos and slideshows. Corel VideoStudio Pro X7 offers new time-saving 64-bit power faster 4K and HD render times fresh creative content and the new movie-making mode FastFlick. Immerse yourself in the creativity of streamlined workspaces including the improved multi-track timeline. Create a huge range of video projects from action-cam and personal videos to slideshows video blogs screen recordings stop motion animation and much more. Whether creating for YouTube or DVD business or pleasure VideoStudio Pro X7 makes it simple and fun to bring your video vision to any screen.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Relatively easy, and fast on a 64-bit machine with memory\\n\\nReview: I've been using Video Studio Pro for the last three iterations. This easily is the best revision to date.\\n\\nI'm using this on a machine I built with an AMD FX-8320 (eight core) processor with 16 gb of RAM. I'm using Windows 8.1 64-bit. The 64-bit code runs fast on the computer, and it renders video quickly. I'm finding that it will render 1080p video in MP4 format about twice as quick as X6 did. That's a great software-driven upgrade.\\n\\nThe interface has minor tweaks that have made it somewhat more intuitive than prior versions, especially for exporting projects to video, etc.\\n\\nThe feature set is largely the same as prior versions. You can do quite a lot with this software and don't have to be a rocket scientist to do it. That said, Adobe's products offer some additional functionality for true power users.\\n\\nOverall, I continue to recommend this as a reasonably priced video editor. It's faster and more stable than before, and improvement is always welcome.\",\n \"Product: Cyberlink PowerDVD 14 Ultra\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Decent software for viewing DVDs and Blu-Rays on a Windows 8.1 machine, but hijacks media file associations\\n\\nReview: We installed this software on my daughter's PC, which is running Windows 8.1. She has a 16:9 monitor, and the PowerDVD software allows her to watch DVDs and Blu-Ray discs on the machine. At first, playback was really choppy. I figured out that the software wasn't syncing with the monitor's 60hz refresh rate and located a setting that allowed me to change that. Overall, this software is quite functional and allows you to view video in a number of formats, including several HD formats.\\n\\nAnd that brings me to my beef with this program. It altered nearly every media file-type association in the operating system to make itself the default program, ruining the balance between my daughter's video editing, photo editing, and music playback software and requiring about 1/2 an hour to repair. Shame on Cyberlink for NOT EVEN GIVING THE USER AN OPTION NOT TO ALTER FILE ASSOCIATIONS DURING INSTALLATION. How hard can it be to give the user that option? Not at all. That makes this software user unfriendly -- I'm tech savvy, but some people will have a heck of a time figuring out how to get their media files lined up the way they had them.\\n\\nWe haven't used the cloud-based solution offered with this package yet. I'll update this review when we do.\\n\\nSo, overall, this is like the Swiss Army knife of video playback software. My only real gripe--and it's a major one--is that the programmers will hijack your media file associations without warning and provide you no option to set them manually to this program before they alter them.\",\n \"Product: Expand your artistic capabilities with Corel Painter Essentials 5 Digital Art Suite for PC and Mac. Sketch, draw, or paint to create amazing art at any skill level, whether from scratch or existing photos. Brush and other art tools closely mimic real oil paint, chalk, charcoal, watercolor, and other media with Corel's RealBristle technology. Convert photos into paintings with a click, or use the brush of your choice to personalize your creation. Native 64-bit support ensures that you can find all the essential tools you need for your individual workflow. Wacom tablet support and the2-in-1 mobile painting interface give you flexibility to create your work organically on-the-go with fine-tuning via keyboard input.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Pretty powerful graphics program and excellent at the price\\n\\nReview: Over the years, I have used any number of photo editing and graphics programs, ranging from Adobe PhotoShop to CorelDraw to PaintShop Pro. However, I've never used anything quite like Painter Essentials 5.\\n\\nThis program is designed to help you convert your photographs into art. It has a number of tools that will let you paint using your photographs as a jumping off point. It also has filters and algorithms that will automatically convert your photographs into pre-selected styles (e.g., watercolor). The program gives you controls of numerous parameters and is quite powerful for the price.\\n\\nI have toyed around with it using a mouse and also a Bamboo pad and pen. Both work well. You don't have to be a whiz to get in and start fooling around. However, if you want to do anything serious with this program, prepare to spend some time learning its process. The online help isn't bad, but to get the most out of this you'll have to spend some time with it.\\n\\nIt installed and ran like a breeze on an Intel i7-3770K machine I built a few years ago, running Windows 8.1 with 16gb of RAM and a decent AMD video card. The controls were smooth and responsive.\\n\\nIf you have a yen to make painterly scenes or portraits from your photographs, this is a powerful program that will let you do it. Just be ready to invest time learning how to get the most out of it.\",\n \"Product: Explore an impressive sensory selection of realistic Natural-Media that perfectly emulates real life art materials and imaginative art materials that can't be found in the real world. With Painter 2016, you can experience the incomparable harmony of Audio Expression, smart photo cloning, killer composition tools, physics-inspired Particle brushes, and in-app learning-all in high DPI. No matter what media you choose, you will enjoy the speed and power of painting with a hybrid native 64-bit Mac and PC application that's compatible with Photoshop files and Adobe Brush import. Discover the world's most expressive paint program and change what's possible in art.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Powerful artistic content creation\\n\\nReview: Painter 2016 is a powerful program for artistic treatment of photographs and for digital art creation. I have used a variety of Corel and Adobe programs for photo editing, but Painter stands apart in light of the wide variety of brushes/pencils/pens available as well as other features that are geared towards someone who may actually have worked in ink and paint.\\n\\nAlthough it is a powerful program with myriad options, Corel has attempted to ease the steepness of the learning curve. From the opening screen, it is possible to launch a layout for people who are new to Painter, which gives various tips and instructions about workflow/layout and options.\\n\\nI found it easy to explore and to get up and running. Using a Wacom Bamboo tablet, I was able to work some landscape photographs into vaguely artistic looking pieces. I'm still learning, and there are a lot of tutorials available. Most of the menu options and toolbars are relatively intuitive, so I didn't have much difficulty getting going.\\n\\nThis version of the program features some bells and whistles, like the option to make brushes responsive to audio, so you can vary width, etc., to the beat of music playing on your PC. It's a fun toy, but I'm not sure I see it as a \\\"go to\\\" option for treating photographs.\\n\\nThe software runs fluidly on my Intel i7-3770k based PC with 16 gb of RAM and a good AMD video card. I did not have trouble moving or editing large canvases with many layers.\\n\\nIn all, this is a powerful artistic tool. As a relative novice to \\\"photo painting\\\" (as opposed to photo editing), I found the interface and workflow manageable and intuitive. I look forward to continuing to explore the capabilities of this program.\",\n \"Product: Eternity Eau De Toilette Spray 3.4 Oz/ 100 Ml for Men by Calvin Klein\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Decent lighter fragrance, but doesn't last long for me\\n\\nReview: Eternity is a classic fragrance of the early 1990s, when every male lawyer under the age of 50 working in Manhattan had at least 100ml in his briefcase at all times. This is a fairly clean smelling scent with subtle spices that strikes me with notes of lemon, lavender, basil, and sandalwood. Some days it can smell a bit soapy. Unfortunately for me, it does not last very long on my skin and is more or less gone after a few hours. Whether that is an issue of body chemistry--fragrances act differently on different people--or of formulation, I don't know. It is generally subtle, not cloying, and not likely to offend anyone; I have never heard of anyone outright disliking this fragrance.\",\n \"Product: An intensive spa-grade micro-dermabrasion that helps resurface to visibly reduce fine lines and even skin tone, revealing smoother and younger looking skin. An alternative to conventional chemical dermabrasion, this effective formula made with certified organic ingredients, clay, and micro-particles of grape seed and jojoba gently resurfaces, smoothes and softens. Replenishes, restores and renews with a proprietary blend of fruit stem cells which have been infused into an organic resveratrol-rich grapeseed base. Softens & moisturizes skin with Vitamin E. Soothes post-exfoliation with chamomile & aloe vera.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: A bit tricky and expensive, and results vary -- why not make a single application available?\\n\\nReview: This product gives you six vials of serum and some special pads that are supposed to moisturize and firm the skin under the eyes to reduce wrinkles, etc.\\n\\nOverall, the product is somewhat messy to apply. You have to get the algae pads into position and saturate them with the serum. It isn't a quick or simple process and requires a fair bit of skill to get right. You may waste some pads trying to learn how to apply the product.\\n\\nMy wife reported no irritation from the serum. She liked the way it smelled -- it was mild with no strong chemical odors.\\n\\nShe reported that her skin felt better, but it wasn't immediately apparent that the serum had caused any wrinkle reduction. Her skin is generally fine so she doesn't exactly have a lot of wrinkles to remove. In other words, there was not a \\\"day and night\\\" difference here. Perhaps other people will achieve different results because of their skin type.\\n\\nWith six vials of serum, you're paying about $12 per treatment. That seems like a lot, but it isn't as much as you would pay at a spa.\\n\\nOverall, we did not see tremendous results, but that may be because my wife's eyes do not need a lot of help. It would be nice if Juice would make an individual application available so people could try this product for $12. Without knowing what results you'll see, it's hard to justify splashing out $70.\",\n \"Product: This 8 inch rubber blade table fan combines innovative design and excellent airflow. The rubber blade is safe to touch and will automatically stop when touched, and the smart motor will keep the blade at idle until obstruction is removed. Easy-to-use control dial for turning the fan on or off, with whisper quiet operation. Lightweight at just 3 pounds. Features overheat protection with automatic shut-off. Measures 6 by 9-1/2 by 10 inches, with 1-year limited warranty.\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: Quiet, weak fan with a design problem\\n\\nReview: I needed a fan for the office and was intrigued by the promise that this would be a quiet, safe fan.\\n\\nThe fan is something of a disappointment for the price.\\n\\nFirst, although the fan is quiet, it moves relatively little air. It was difficult to feel it even when it was less than four feet away.\\n\\nSecond, the fan almost immediately had trouble bringing the blades up to speed. The fan would turn incredibly slowly at first and only gradually ramp up. I believe this affected the motor.\\n\\nFinally, within a year, the fan wouldn't start up. Turn the switch to on, and nothing happens. It turns out that the bearing at the back of the motor shaft is not permanently lubricated. The friction was enough to keep the fan blades from turning, probably doing some damage to the electrical motor even before it \\\"seized,\\\" causing it to work too hard. I had to remove two screws that hold the motor/blade assembly in place, remove it, remove the mounting bracket at the back of the motor, add a few drops of a lubricating oil (NOT WD-40!), and reassemble. It's starting up again and seems to be working better than before.\\n\\nThis could be a decent fan if the company would do a better job with the basic engineering.\",\n \"Product: This 8 inch rubber blade table fan combines innovative design and excellent airflow. The rubber blade is safe to touch and will automatically stop when touched, and the smart motor will keep the blade at idle until obstruction is removed. Easy-to-use control dial for turning the fan on or off, with whisper quiet operation. Lightweight at just 3 pounds. Features overheat protection with automatic shut-off. Measures 6 by 9-1/2 by 10 inches, with 1-year limited warranty.\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: Quiet, weak fan with a design problem\\n\\nReview: I needed a fan for the office and was intrigued by the promise that this would be a quiet, safe fan.\\n\\nThe fan is something of a disappointment for the price.\\n\\nFirst, although the fan is quiet, it moves relatively little air. It was difficult to feel it even when it was less than four feet away.\\n\\nSecond, the fan almost immediately had trouble bringing the blades up to speed. The fan would turn incredibly slowly at first and only gradually ramp up. I believe this affected the motor.\\n\\nFinally, within a year, the fan wouldn't start up. Turn the switch to on, and nothing happens. It turns out that the bearing at the back of the motor shaft is not permanently lubricated. The friction was enough to keep the fan blades from turning, probably doing some damage to the electrical motor even before it \\\"seized,\\\" causing it to work too hard. I had to remove two screws that hold the motor/blade assembly in place, remove it, remove the mounting bracket at the back of the motor, add a few drops of a lubricating oil (NOT WD-40!), and reassemble. It's starting up again and seems to be working better than before.\\n\\nThis could be a decent fan if the company would do a better job with the basic engineering.\",\n \"Product: Enjoy professional results on all your favorite baked goods with a Professional Bread Maker from America's number one brand. Our exclusive collapsible kneading paddles collapse automatically before baking begins to prevent holes in the bottom of your loaf for better results. An exclusive automatic fruit and nut dispenser adds extras automatically, so you can enjoy freshly baked fruit and nut bread without waiting around. Easy-to-use controls offer 14 baking functions, including low carb, gluten free and artisan dough, with 3 loaf sizes up to 2 pounds and light, medium and dark crust color. The delay bake timer can be set up to 15 hours. Our Perfect Bake technology ensures even heat for better baking, while useful accessories like a collapsible measuring cup and adjustable measuring spoon make adding ingredients easy. All this, plus a recipe book with over 80 recipes included.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Great bread, not easy to clean\\n\\nReview: The Breadman BK1060S is a fairly attractive kitchen appliance. The stainless steel looks good, and fit and finish reflect decent build quality.\\n\\nWe used the machine to make bread from a few Hodgson Mill mixes. They worked well. The loaves came out with good crust and had good texture and consistency. In short, the machine makes good quality bread without much difficulty; however, if you want to try adding nuts and berries or more complex recipes, the machine has a flexible set of features that will allow you to add some variety.\\n\\nThe principal drawback we noticed is that the auto-folding dough paddles are not easily removed. Dough baked underneath the paddles (i.e., between the paddle base and the loaf pan) and is quite difficult to clean. We tried soaking the paddles in water, but they still wouldn't budge. I suppose a bit of shortening on the shaft they attach to prior to use might make removal easier. This is the major shortcoming we found in the device.\\n\\nAside from the cleaning issue, it's a good machine.\",\n \"Product: Bissell Trilogy, 81M9 The Bissell Trilogy Vacuum offers 3 ways to clean OxyPro Carpet Spot & Stain Remover stores on board to spot clean when you vacuum, and the conveniently located brush roll on/off switch allows you to vacuum either carpets or hard floors at the flip of a switch. This 12 amp upright bagless vacuum, with a 15-inch cleaning path, 6X Cyclonic System, and complete set of onboard tools, provides a powerful clean. Vacuuming is the time when spots and stains are noticed on your carpet. With a convenient holster for a Bissell OxyPro Carpet Spot & Stain Remover, you can quickly treat a spot or stain when you are vacuuming. Simply treat the spot or stain according to the directions on the can. Let the OxyPro work its magicvacuuming when dry. OxyPro Carpet Spot & Stain Remover removes tough set in stains all the way to the backing, such as red wine, cola, coffee/tea, fruit juice, and gravy. OxyPro is safe for all carpet types, including wool, nylon, acrylic and stain resistant carpet. Leaves carpet safe for children and pets when used as directed. Cyclonic separation keeps filters cleaner, longer, for superior suction power. With cyclonic cleaning, more dirt stays in the dirt container versus going to the filters. As filters clog, suction is reduced and cleaning performance drops. Therefore, by keeping filters clean longer, overall cleaning performance is improved.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Pretty powerful vacuum, but a bit heavy\\n\\nReview: The Bissell Trilogy is, overall, a pretty decent vacuum cleaner. It has powerful suction, good filtration, a long cord, a clever storage system for the extension wand attachment, and a dirt cup that is easy to remove and empty. It is as good or better (especially with regard to the dirt cup) than comparable models from Hoover that I've used. Overall, the construction is pretty good. You do need a screwdriver to attach a few of the plastic pieces that hold attachments, and those screws are not driven into prethreaded holes -- you drive them right into the unthreaded plastic holes, which requires some force.\\n\\nThe turbo brush attachment works well to clean small areas, such as carpeted stairs. It's comparable to the turbo attachment I've used on a Hoover. The suction turns the brush -- no separate electrical motor for that agitator.\\n\\nCord and tool storage are fine. The separate holder for a can of carpet cleaner is a bit gimmicky for my taste, but you may find it useful if you use carpet cleaner often.\\n\\nI only have a few complaints. Overall the unit is a bit on the heavy side. Also, if the unit approaches too close to upright when running, the brush will stop rotating. (The brush can be controlled with its own power switch on the top left of the unit.) It would be nice if the cord were retractable given how long it is.\\n\\nIn all, it seems like a quality unit. Time will tell how durable it is.\",\n \"Product: T-Fal Ultraglide 4476 iron embodies ingenuity and innovation for easy ironing and high performance. Thoughtfully designed iron smoothes out wrinkles quickly and easily. Ultraglide ceramic soleplate has the best glide, with incomparable smoothness, scratch-resistance and non-stick properties. Pointed tip works well for getting into pleats, between buttons, and along seams. Iron produces continuous steam (up to 35-gram per minute),delivers a powerful burst of steam (80-gram/min) as needed to help smooth out stubborn wrinkles from difficult fabrics. Continuous steam and soleplate temperature are both adjustable to the fabric type. For added convenience, iron comes with extra large sealed inlet opening for easy filling and to prevent spills, large 9-ounce water-tank size means fewer refills necessary. Use iron on a flat surface for traditional ironing or hold it upright for vertically steaming out wrinkles from hanging drapes and delicate garments. Easycord system keeps the cord out of the way when ironing and prevents from re-wrinkling already-ironed fabrics . Dual self-cleaning technology with calc-recollecting valve and integrated anti-scale system provide better long-lasting performances while the anti-drip system prevents water leaks when the iron is not hot enough to steam. Lightweight, the 1700-watt iron endears itself to users with its soft grip handle for ergonomic comfort. Extra-large heel helps to prevent tipping over and is perfect to wrap up the cord when the iron is stored. For peace of mind and added safety, iron comes with a 3-way auto off feature. Iron will shut off automatically after 30 seconds of inactivity if left on its soleplate or tipped over on its side; if left vertically on its heel rest, it will shut off after 8 minutes. Iron measures approximately 5.9 by 11.1-inch and carries a one year limited warranty.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Excellent iron at a decent price\\n\\nReview: I'd been using a Rowenta iron for the past few years. This T-fal iron is every bit as functional at about 1/3 the price. It is easy to fill with water. It doesn't spill. It heats up quickly. It can generate steam in both horizontal and upright positions, which is helpful to me when steaming suits. The sole plate does glide easily over fabric -- it doesn't stick the way the steel sole plate on the Rowenta does.\\n\\nThe cord is somewhat articulated at the back of the iron. I've had no problems with the cord getting in the way.\\n\\nThe construction is solid, but this iron is much lighter than the Rowenta, which makes it more comfortable to use.\\n\\nIn all, this is a pretty good iron at the price. If I'd known about this, I'd never have purchased the more expensive Rowenta.\",\n \"Product: The DeLonghi DD70PE Energy Star 70-pint Dehumidifier with Patented Pump features a worry-free pump function that allows the unit to continuously discharge moisture without constantly emptying a bucket. The unit can pump water upward to drain out a basement window or into a sink, up to 16 feet with the provided hose. The electronic controls and LCD display allow you to adjust relative humidity, monitor room temperature and set the 24-hour timer. With its frontally located tank and transparent water level window, you can easily see how much water has been collected if you choose to use the tank function. The tank has a 6-liter capacity and an alarm alerts you when it is filled. Package Content: 70-pint dehumidifier16 ft. hose3 ft. hosemanualwarranty\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Gets the job done, and the pump allows flexibility in locating the unit\\n\\nReview: We have previously used a Kenmore dehumidifier and a Friedrich model that has a pump. Our basement drain is not in a convenient place, so we had to empty the Kenmore daily into a utility sink. The Friedrich was a big step up -- we could set the unit near the utility sink and have it pump the water it pulled from the air up into the sink. It worked pretty well--and we no longer had to make daily visits to the dehumidifier--but it wasn't that easy to control the \\\"auto on\\\" humidity levels, etc. We ended up leaving it running more than we needed it to be running.\\n\\nThat's where this DeLonghi comes in. It offers relatively intuitive digital controls that make programming the dehumidifier a snap. You can set the duration of cycles and so forth, using the display to follow the program. Pretty good set up.\\n\\nOverall, the unit isn't incredibly heavy, but it seems to be well made. Will update this review if there is any change in performance over time.\",\n \"Product: The DeLonghi 50-pint dehumidifier with patented pump features a worry-free pump function that allows the unit to continuously discharge moisture without constantly emptying a bucket. The unit can pump water upward to drain out a basement window or into a sink, up to 16 feet with the provided hose. The electronic controls and LCD display allow you to adjust relative humidity, monitor room temperature and set the 24-hour timer. With its frontally located tank and transparent water level window, you can easily see how much water has been collected if you choose to use the tank function. The tank has a 6-liter capacity and an alarm alerts you when it is filled. If your dehumidifier is not collecting water, please try the following: Increase the heat in the room to see if the unit collects more water. Clean the filter. Move the dehumidifier to another area for a short time. Set the humidistat to a lower humidity setting. If the unit is not collecting water, the environment may not have a high enough humidity level. At home test: To find out if the room you are using the dehumidifier in has humidity, fill a glass with ice water and set it in the room. Check after 30 to 45 minutes to see if condensation has formed on the outside of the glass. If no condensation has formed, there is no humidity to be collected. If condensation has formed, your unit should be extracting moisture from the air.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Solid unit -- pump feature is nice\\n\\nReview: We have previously used a Kenmore dehumidifier and a Friedrich model that has a pump. Our basement drain is not in a convenient place, so we had to empty the Kenmore daily into a utility sink. The Friedrich was a big step up -- we could set the unit near the utility sink and have it pump the water it pulled from the air up into the sink. It worked pretty well--and we no longer had to make daily visits to the dehumidifier--but it wasn't that easy to control the \\\"auto on\\\" humidity levels, etc. We ended up leaving it running more than we needed it to be running.\\n\\nThat's where this DeLonghi comes in. It offers relatively intuitive digital controls that make programming the dehumidifier a snap. You can set the duration of cycles and so forth, using the display to follow the program. Pretty good set up.\\n\\nOverall, the unit isn't incredibly heavy, but it seems to be well made. Will update this review if there is any change in performance over time.\",\n \"Product: The perfect marriage of style and function; Totally Bamboo's 100-percent natural marbled bamboo cutting and serving board combines dependability and elegance for everyday use. Made from natural flat grain and marbled inlay bamboo this board provides all the benefits of our bamboo's ruggedness with an exotic look. The boards are reversible with a generous groove on one side for catching juices and the other side for use as a serving platter. Board measures 18-inch by 11-Inch. Care: wash with warm water and a mild detergent. To season new board, generously apply Totally Bamboo's Revitalizing Oil (sold separately) every few days for the first month. For regular upkeep and to extend the life of the board, oil when the board appears dry or as needed. Not dishwasher safe. Bamboo is a grass that grows to maturity in 5 years and does not need to be replanted, artificially irrigated or fertilized, making it one of the world's most renewable resources. Do the world a favor, Do Bamboo.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Beautiful big bamboo board\\n\\nReview: This is a handsome bamboo cutting board. The overall finish is good on the top (with the inlay), but it was a little more rough on the back than I would have expected. There were a small handful of bamboo fibers sticking out in a few places.\\n\\nThe board needs to be handled carefully if you want it to last. Wash by hand only with warm (not hot) water and gentle soaps. And use a food-grade mineral oil periodically to condition the bamboo and keep it from drying out and splitting.\\n\\nIt's a big board, and it's fun to use as a serving tray. I'd hesitate to use it as a cutting board because it's too attractive. In my opinion, knife marks would detract from the appearance.\\n\\nMade in China by actual pandas.\",\n \"Product: Delicious coffee directly into your mug in 5 minutes. It features a doubled-lined stainless steel filter which results in a rich, aromatic cup of coffee.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Great coffee with one reservation\\n\\nReview: This single-cup hand-pour coffee filter is reusable and doesn't require any paper filters. With a medium grind, you can add near-boiling water slowly to the grounds to extract a lot of flavor. The stainless steel filter insert is extremely fine and will stop most sediment from getting into your mug, although it isn't quite as good at that as a paper filter is.\\n\\nMy only qualm is that the way the stainless filter cone is joined along one side leaves a seam that has some unprotected and sharp metal on it. I'm a little nervous that, if I don't pay attention one day, I might cut a finger on the seam. Other than that, it's a fine way to make a delicious cup of coffee.\",\n \"Product: The French Perle Pistachio Everything Bowl features intricate detailing inspired by hand-embroidered fabrics. A carved beaded motif of scrolls and jewel-like elements punctuates the sophisticated, elegant look.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Pretty mug, but it arrived with chips in the base and does not seem as durable as other stoneware I've owned\\n\\nReview: Overall, it's a nice looking mug with substantial weight. However, the stoneware does not seem durable. Amazon demonstrated this by shipping the mug, which is not boxed or otherwise wrapped, loose in a box with a couple of air packets. It arrived with big chips out of the base and pulverized material in the box. [BE CAREFUL ORDERING THIS FROM AMAZON AS IT MAY ARRIVE BROKEN.] It's tough to tell how much abuse it received in shipment; however, given the way the base chipped, and given the feel of the exposed material, this does not compare with other stoneware I've owned, such as Mikasa mugs that I've had for more than 20 years that have taken a lot of banging around without exhibiting similar chips or flaws. The edge of the base is relatively thin and I expect that chipping may be a problem over time in any event.\",\n \"Product: You'll never miss your wake up call with this convenient travel fold-up alarm with USB port to enable you to charge your phone. The Travel Projection Alarm Clock from La Crosse Technology features a soft backlight and auto-focus projection of time onto your wall or ceiling. The LCD displays the calendar date with weekday and active alarm icon.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Decent, but LCD is hard to see from some angles\\n\\nReview: This travel alarm clock is a very basic clock with a few neat features. First, it can run from power from a USB port on a computer or a USB charger through a micro USB input on the side of the clock. A cable is included. When it is powered from a USB port, it constantly projects the time on the ceiling through a lens on the top right side of the clock. Also, when running from USB power, it is possible to charge a 1.0A device from an output port on the side of the clock (same side as the input). This output will not work if only using two AAA batteries.\\n\\nMy only real complaint is that the LCD is difficult to view from certain angles and looks almost blank. Also, the image accompanying this product does not accurately depict the screen, which is a standard silver screen with dark numbers.\\n\\nOverall, it's a decent, functional alarm clock. It does not have the radio feature that some La Crosse clocks have, so it's up to you to set the time. The AAA batteries (not included) are supposed to last about a year.\",\n \"Product: Product DescriptionThe ESPRO Press is designed to take the customers own carefully crafted preferences the bean and roast, the leaf and marry them with a perfected environment for brewing.Two innovations are at the heart of the process. First, ESPROs patented double micro-filter gives people the distinct, rich flavor theyd expect, without all the mess associated with a traditional press. And second, the design of the press and filters prevents over-extracted coffee or tea from entering the beverage once the plunger is pushed down.For French-press coffee lovers, the ESPRO Press accomplishes what was previously impossible: deep and rich flavor, with all the aromatic oils, yet without any grit in their cup.Espro IncWere in the midst of a renaissance. Blends are giving way to single varietals. Freshness is being carefully managed. The stories of the farmer and responsible agriculture are becoming known. Quality is being rewarded and consumers are becoming connoisseurs.At ESPRO, were proud to be a vital part of that movement.We craft tools that help people make better coffee, tea, and espresso. We are obsessed with combining time-tested brewing techniques with technology and innovation to bring the form and function of our products to the highest ideal. We are dedicated to flavor and process and craft and creativity.Everything we do supports coffee and tea lovers to make their best cup - simply, every day, all over the world.Thats what we mean when we say, ESPRO MAKE IT BETTERReviewsWIRED - A French Press that works.WINE SPECTATOR - The best press pot Ive ever used.NEW YORK TIMES - The payoff is a rich, clean, aromatic cup of coffee. And the insulated container, which maintains the coffee temperature, is lovely enough to go on the table.MARTHA STEWART - It works! The result is a richly flavored, super aromatic cup of coffee without the usual silt in the bottom.POPULAR SCIENCE - It definitely achieves its goal to bring a press-pot cup of coffee without the grit ... since it's noticeably lighter and cleaner I'm almost tempted to put it in its own category.AwardsIn 2015, The Espro Travel Press received the Specialty Coffee Association of America Best New Product Award, and the Coffeefest Best New Product Award.In 2016, The Espro Press P5 received the Specialty Coffee Association of America Best New Product Award, and the World Tea Expo Best New Product Award.The same brewing and filtering technology is in the Espro Press P3, and all of our Espro Presses.Friends For Life GuaranteeWe design products that make better coffee, tea, and espresso, and are built to last. We guarantee it.If customers are not satisfied with an ESPRO product when they receive it, or if one of our products does not perform over time, they may return it to us for a repair, replacement, or refund. Damage due to improper use, lack of cleaning, or wear and tear will be repaired at a reasonable charge.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Really nice press at a reasonable price\\n\\nReview: For about twenty-five years, I've had a Bodum French press. I only used it periodically because it would leave so much sediment in the coffee.\\n\\nThis Espro press has a double fine mesh filter that brews great tasting coffee without the sediment. The set includes paper filters that you can interpose in the double filter in order to reduce oils in the coffee.\\n\\nYou have to use a coarse grind -- you don't want to clog the filters and make it impossible to \\\"plunge\\\" them through the brewing coffee.\\n\\nThe glass pitcher is nice and thick and has a tab that helps to lock it into the plastic handle/holder assembly.\\n\\nThe whole thing is easy to clean up and brews enough for a few medium sized cups of coffee.\\n\\nOverall, this is one well-engineered press that yields great tasting coffee. Two thumbs up!\",\n \"Product: The Sculpted Faux Leather Platform Bed with Footboard by Zinus will transform your bedroom. It ships in one carton with the footboard, frame, legs, and wooden slats conveniently located in the zippered compartment in the back of the headboard for easy assembly. This Sculpted Faux Leather Platform Bed features a headboard and footboard style frame, with wood slats and exposed feet for support. Espresso colored faux leather for a luxurious look that makes an excellent addition to any bedroom. Another comfort innovation from Zinus. Pioneering comfort.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: It looks like leather, ships intelligently, and is easy to assemble\\n\\nReview: We have had a few memory foam mattresses for a couple of years. They had replaced a traditional inner-spring mattress. We had them resting on the old mattresses' box springs. When the opportunity to try an attractive looking platform bed arose, we couldn't pass it up.\\n\\nThis Zinus bed exceeded expectations in nearly every department.\\n\\nFirst, the packaging. The bed has a clever compartment in the back of the headboard that allows the slats and hardware to be shipped INSIDE THE HEADBOARD! So you get one large shipping package that is basically the headboard itself.\\n\\nSecond, the faux leather. As a child, I had an inexpensive \\\"reading chair\\\" in the basement of my house. That chair looked like something from 2001: A Space Odyssey or the Jetsons. It had a wide, white resin base that supported a space age looking chair on a thin, tapered column. It had a large Naugahyde seating surface. I was fearful that the \\\"faux leather\\\" of this bed might look like that Naugahyde. GOOD NEWS, EVERYBODY: it doesn't look like Naugahyde! It actually closely resembles leather. The color is good and even, and, unlike the Naugahyde that has haunted my dreams for years, it doesn't look like vinyl or plastic. Better still, the stitching holding it in place seems to be of good quality. I have hopes that this faux leather will stand the test of time.\\n\\nThird, assembly and build quality. This bed is simple to assemble, as others have noted. This is not some kind of IKEA project with dozens of hex-head screws you have to line up. I would be surprised if it took anyone more than 30 minutes to get this set up. It goes together well, and the resulting product is quite sturdy. It supports our 12\\\" memory foam mattress with no problems.\\n\\nOverall, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of this bed, especially at this sub-$300 price point. Recommended.\",\n \"Product: The Tufted Faux Leather Platform Bed with Footboard by Zinus will transform your bedroom. It ships in one carton with the frame, legs, and wooden slats conveniently located in the zippered compartment in the back of the headboard for easy assembly. This Tufted Faux Leather Platform Bed features a headboard and footboard style frame, with wood slats and exposed feet for support. Espresso colored faux leather for a luxurious look that makes an excellent addition to any bedroom. For use with mattresses not greater than 13 inches in height. Another comfort innovation from Zinus. Pioneering comfort.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Faux leather? Certainly doesn't look like faux!\\n\\nReview: We have had a memory foam mattress for a couple of years. It replaced a traditional inner-spring mattress. We had it resting on the old mattresses' box spring. When the opportunity to try an attractive looking platform bed arose, we couldn't pass it up.\\n\\nThis Zinus bed exceeded expectations in nearly every department.\\n\\nFirst, the packaging. The bed has a clever compartment in the back of the headboard that allows the slats and hardware to be shipped INSIDE THE HEADBOARD! So you get one large shipping package that is basically the headboard itself.\\n\\nSecond, the faux leather. As a child, I had an inexpensive \\\"reading chair\\\" in the basement of my house. That chair looked like something from 2001: A Space Odyssey or the Jetsons. It had a wide, white resin base that supported a space age looking chair on a thin, tapered column. It had a large Naugahyde seating surface. I was fearful that the \\\"faux leather\\\" of this bed might look like that Naugahyde. GOOD NEWS, EVERYBODY: it doesn't look like Naugahyde! It actually closely resembles leather. The color is good and even, and, unlike the Naugahyde that has haunted my dreams for years, it doesn't look like vinyl or plastic. Better still, the stitching holding it in place seems to be of good quality. I have hopes that this faux leather will stand the test of time.\\n\\nThird, assembly and build quality. The bed is simple to assemble, as others have noted. This is not some kind of IKEA project with dozens of hex-head screws you have to line up. I would be surprised if it took anyone more than 30 minutes to get this set up. It goes together well, and the resulting product is quite sturdy. It supports our 13\\\" memory foam mattress with no problems.\\n\\nOverall, I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of this bed, especially at this sub-$300 price point. Recommended.\",\n \"Product: BISSELL ProHeat 2X Lift-Off Pet refreshes your carpets with a deeper clean. Its unique and innovative design offers upright cleaning and a detachable, portable deep cleaner to tackle pet messes on stairs, on upholstery, in the car, and wherever stains hide. It features of two rows of PowerBrushes, get at the dirt that hides deep within carpet fibers, and HeatWave Technology which helps maintain constant water temperature throughout the cleaning process.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: This machine does a decent job, but it is cheaply engineered and leaky for the price\\n\\nReview: We have had a few carpet cleaners over the years. This one from Bissell manages to do a fair job of cleaning carpet, but it seems quite cheap for the price. It also requires a large amount of cleaning formula to clean even small rooms.\\n\\nThe cleaner requires some assembly. The handle is affixed to the body of the unit with four insubstantial screws. As a result, the handle assembly on this unit seems much cheaper and insubstantial than even on prior Bissell products we've owned. This is a shame and appears to mark a trend in which even fairly expensive minor appliances are of poorer quality than they used to be. It's a shame as better screws would only cost the company a few cents. This is false economy.\\n\\nThe unit has a few other problems. If you pull it back, it always leaves formula behind the suction. And if you pull it back to get that formula, it leaks still more, requiring you to continue to pull it back. It's ridiculous that a machine this expensive would dribble out formula in a somewhat uncontrolled fashion.\\n\\nWe have five cats, and this unit did do a fair job of pulling soil and hair out of the carpet. However, it spit cat hairballs all over the place, even after the room was thoroughly vacuumed first with a Dyson Animal vacuum. It also required almost all of the included formula to clean the carpet in just a few small rooms.\\n\\nThere are no instructions included with the unit. You have to download them from Bissell. They include guidance on cleaning the unit, which requires you to dispose of any cleaning solution that you happen not to use. Overall, it seems like the instructions are geared towards requiring you to purchase a lot of cleaning fluid from Bissell in a \\\"razor and blade\\\" sales strategy.\\n\\nThe bottom line is that this is an expensive unit that feels cheap and, despite being properly assembled, leaks fluid in amounts much greater than one would hope. While it did a pretty good job of pulling soil out of our carpets, it seems too expensive for what you get. It's difficult to understand why a company like Bissell cannot provide a better machine for the price.\\n\\nRecommended with serious reservations.\",\n \"Product: Today everyone's craving Mexican cuisine. The unique flavors and textures from the south of the border are delighting the taste buds in homes across the country. Now award-winning chef, cookbook author, and restaurant own Rich Bayless presents a collection of fine cookware and housewares designed to serve the unique needs of Mexican cooking. Created in partnership with GORHAM, The Mexican Kitchen Collection offers the right pieces for today's growing market of home chefs hungry to create their own fiestas of fabulous foods.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Great quality and wonderfully functional. And HEAVY!\\n\\nReview: This is one heavy cast iron dual-burner griddle/grilling griddle. The iron includes the Gorham foundry marks on the handles.\\n\\nIt supposedly comes pre-seasoned. However, we followed the instructions and seasoned it by coating it lightly with oil and baking it for an hour at a moderately low temperature. With cast iron, you don't use harsh soaps to clean it. You want to build up a \\\"patina\\\" to keep the product well seasoned. Cleaning it is a little difficult, however, simply because it is such a heavy item.\\n\\nAs for performance, it's great. The smooth side works great for tortillas, and the grill side is deep enough that the meats you cook develop decent marks and don't just sit in their own juices.\\n\\nOverall, this is a great piece of cookware. Just keep in mind that it's quite heavy and difficult to maneuver when you're cleaning.\",\n \"Product: A soft architectural shape accentuated by clean, frosted lines create a captivating texture on the Harding crystal 12 inch smoke Vase. Crafted of European non-lead crystal, the vase's Muted color and contemporary silhouette offers a touch of sophistication a soft architectural shape accentuated by clean, frosted lines create a captivating texture on the Harding crystal 12 inch smoke Vase. Crafted of European non-lead crystal, the vase's Muted color and contemporary silhouette offers a touch of sophistication to any setting.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Overall nice design, but mechanical blemishes mar this one\\n\\nReview: My wife and I have Lenox china, and I have always thought of the brand as one associated with quality. I was disappointed in this vase.\\n\\nFrom a distance, the vase looks fine. The lower portion is covered with fine grooves that give the crystal an opaque, smoky quality. However, on the example I received, there are a number of scratches in the clear crystal just above the grooves, perhaps where some machine bumped it as it rotating the vase to cut the grooves. These scratches do not appear to have resulted from the shipping process. In fact, the vase was packed well and securely with adequate cushioning. There are also some small drips in the neck of the vase, which appear dark in color. Perhaps its from an overapplication of the colorant the company used to create the smoky appearance on the glass. This is not the kind of lax quality control I would expect from Lenox.\\n\\nIf the vase hadn't had these flaws, I would have given it five stars. However, for this price, I see these flaws as a significant defect that detracts from the vase.\",\n \"Product: \\\"Obviously, informal parties deserve the same kind of professional sound quality as large-scale events do. Semiprofessional DJs too need dependable equipment. The K 81 DJ fit the bill perfectly. Their closed-back earphones, for instance, provide optimum isolation from ambient noise. The K 81 DJ will take heavy usage easily, and their high SPL capability ensures excellent sound quality. Finally, their level of wearing comfort is as impressive as their powerful low end and accurate imaging. Their distinguishing features include: 3D-Axis folding mechanism for ease of handling and good user comfort. Folded down into a thin package, the k 81 dj are ready for use anytime High sound pressure level: High SPL capability for any type of event in any environment. Legendary AKG sound quality Closed-back earphones: Isolating ear cups attenuate ambient noise, keeping even quiet passages clearly audible Maximum ruggedness Detented adjustable headband \\\"\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Great performance at this price point\\n\\nReview: I bought these AKGs as the result of my search for a decent sealed headphone to replace my Sennheiser PX100s, which just weren't cutting it on the train. I'm amazed at the difference. These, like the Senns, have a 32 ohm impedence, so they're easy to drive with a portable player. At first blush, they reveal much more detail in the music than the PX100s do, including a more coherent and present high end. I'm hearing a lot more detail even in songs encoded in WMA format at 128kbs. The bass is controlled but does not lack. I have had AKG reference headphones in the past (240DFs). While these are not in that league, they easily sound as good as the Sennheiser 280 Pros that I've got. Better than the 280s on a portable, too, as they are easier to drive. These are smaller, supraaural headphones. Though they're not as portable as the Sennheiser PX100s, they're much easier to wear during the commute than the 280 Pros. All in all, they're a great deal for someone with a portable player. Check them out if you're looking for a good balance of portability, noise attenuation, and sonics at a reasonable price.\\n\\n------\\n\\nFebruary 2007 Update:\\n\\nThe left channel started shorting out recently. I am sending these in to AKG for warranty service. It must be a weak wire -- I take good care of these headphones.\",\n \"Product: \\\"Obviously, informal parties deserve the same kind of professional sound quality as large-scale events do. Semiprofessional DJs too need dependable equipment. The K 81 DJ fit the bill perfectly. Their closed-back earphones, for instance, provide optimum isolation from ambient noise. The K 81 DJ will take heavy usage easily, and their high SPL capability ensures excellent sound quality. Finally, their level of wearing comfort is as impressive as their powerful low end and accurate imaging. Their distinguishing features include: 3D-Axis folding mechanism for ease of handling and good user comfort. Folded down into a thin package, the k 81 dj are ready for use anytime High sound pressure level: High SPL capability for any type of event in any environment. Legendary AKG sound quality Closed-back earphones: Isolating ear cups attenuate ambient noise, keeping even quiet passages clearly audible Maximum ruggedness Detented adjustable headband \\\"\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Great bang for the buck, and good warranty service\\n\\nReview: I have had a pair of 81DJs for about a year-and-a-half now. They continue to be my favorite headphones for use with my Creative Zen, and they sound even better plugged into my HeadRoom desktop amp. They have great bass that isn't overwhelming, decent isolation, and pretty good design. The upper treble is slightly rolled off, but that beats a strident or harsh high end.\\n\\nThe cord is the weak link here. It's long (9ft) but flimsy. After about one year, the plug on mine started losing continuity in the left channel. It was clear the wire had broken internally where it connected to the plug. I contacted AKG, who asked me to ship them to their center in California. In a little more than a week, I had a new pair. (They can't replace the cord, it seems.) Great warranty, great customer service.\\n\\nIn sub-$100 sealed headphones, I've got a pair of Sennheiser 280 Pros, too, but I favor these over the 280 Pros for most music. The Senns have better isolation and a better cord, but they're hardly portable, and they're harder to drive (64 ohms) than the 81DJs (32 ohms) with a portable player. The 81DJs have got better sound overall -- things always seem a bit muted in the 280 Pros at the high and low ends, even through the headphone amplifier. (Neither pair is as good as AKG's 701s or 240DFs, though that's a different league.)\\n\\nI don't think they can be beat by any other sealed design headphones in this price range. A good buy.\",\n \"Product: Delivering Mayhem to the Mainstream Long thought to be the market of the conservative gamer, the affordable mainstream products, which use to suffer only adequate performance, now experiences a frame rate revival with the SAPPHIRE HD 3850. Built upon the award winning Radeon HD 3850 core, the SAPPHIRE 3850 offers a comprehensive feature-set that eclipses previous and current mainstream offerings. Unleash the enthusiast inside you with support for advanced technologies such as DirectX 10 and Shader Model 4 support, integrated HDCP support for Blu-ray/HD DVD decoding and for extreme enthusiast, Jam a SAPPHIRE HD 3850 into your rig and still have some coin left over to buy that title you have been waiting for!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Great card for an older system\\n\\nReview: I've got a Dell Dimension 8300 as my computer for work. It still runs perfectly, and I'm not going to replace it anytime soon. But the graphics performance with its old video card lagged. I replaced an nVidia 6200 AGP card with this ATI-based Sapphire card. What a difference. The WinXP drivers from Sapphire's website run well on this 3 ghz Pentium 4HT system (I skipped the drivers on the CD-ROM that came with the card). No conflicts, no problems. I'd upgraded the power supply in the computer when the old one started failing earlier in the year, and the PCI-E six pin cable fit the card perfectly (there's a 2x4 Molex adapter if you don't have the PCI-E cable on your power supply). I switched over the AGP interface to 256 bit in BIOS, and the graphics are cranking along. I can actually get decent framerates on Team Fortress 2 and Half Life 2 (running via Steam) with mixed settings. It's a lot faster for general work 2D graphics, too. Screens don't lag when scrolling quickly, etc. So far, a great card.\",\n \"Product: The K240 MKII professional over-ear, semi-open headphones are a long-time standard in studios, in orchestras and on stages around the world. Its advanced Varimotion 30 mm XXL transducers deliver solid low end, accurate mids and crystal-clear highs. The semi-open design provides the airiness of open headphones with the powerful bass response of closed designs. For more than three decades, professional engineers and musicians have made the K240 the most widely used headphones in studios and at live consoles around the world.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Great value, great sound at price point, but no longer made in Austria\\n\\nReview: I've been an AKG fan since the late 1980s, when I bought my first pair of AKG K240DF headphones. Over the years, I've owned a few pairs of the 240DFs and a pair of 701s, as well as some Beyerdynamics.\\n\\nI was somewhat disappointed to see on the box that these are now \\\"Engineered in Austria/Made in China\\\" headphones. Ever since Harman acquired AKG, they've been experimenting with the brand and finding ways to extract value. I guess you can't blame them, but it's sad to see a proud Austrian audio company being revamped like this.\\n\\nIn all, the build quality on these Chinese-made K240MKIIs is similar to the Austrian-made K240DFs I've owned. The leatherette earpads are the same. The auto-adjusting headband is also the same. Now, however, they are engineered with a detachable cord that joins at the left earcup. AKG also provides some velour-type earpads and a straight and coiled cord. At the price of just over one hundred dollars, you get quite a lot for your money. The K240DFs were about twice as expensive and didn't come with all the extra goodies.\\n\\nAs for sound, it generally takes awhile for AKGs using this type of diaphragm to \\\"burn in\\\" and achieve their mature sound. I've got these coupled with a <a data-hook=\\\"product-link-linked\\\" class=\\\"a-link-normal\\\" href=\\\"/HRT-HeadStreamer-USB-powered-Headphone-DAC-Amplifier/dp/B0067Z6BNC/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\\\">HRT HeadStreamer USB-powered Headphone DAC/Amplifier</a>, which is a good quality USB DAC and amplifier -- I highly recommend HRT's products. I use these cans at work to listen to my music library, which is encoded in the lossless FLAC format. (At home, I use a class A HeadRoom desktop headphone amp and 701s or Beyerdynamic DT770s.)\\n\\nHere are my impressions. First, you need to use these with an amplifier. Even though they are rated at 55 ohms (compared with the professional studio 600 ohm K240DFs), the sound you get when driving them from a phone or average MP3 player is subpar at best. Adding the dedicated headphone amp really opens these up. Second, the sound is pretty good. These are based on a legendary AKG monitoring design and have a pretty even and accurate presentation. There is no undue emphasis at any frequency. The bass is present and well controlled. The mids and highs are coherent, with a smooth midrange and good treble extension. If they sound a bit brittle or bright at first, remember that it takes time to condition the diaphragms to their mature state -- the 701s took a few hundred hours of play before they really achieved that. These are no exception to the general AKG rule.\\n\\nThe music is reasonably well detailed coming from the HeadStreamer. However, these do not approach the level of detail and subtlety that the 701s are capable of presenting, and you aren't going to get quite as full a soundstage. But if you don't do an A-B comparison, you're not going to miss that. What you will notice with these over others in this price range is that you're hearing well into the music and that the music sounds really good and accurate.\\n\\nThese are incredibly comfortable to wear, too. They fit securely but not firmly -- I wear glasses and these don't bother me at all. The flexibility of the headband will allow you to pull an earcup away to hear someone without wrecking the headphones.\\n\\nIn sum, I'd recommend these as a good entry level audiophile headphone. While they're made in China now, they still have the legendary AKG accuracy and the build quality hasn't suffered in any readily apparent way. However, I'd use them for listening at home, not as portable headphones. They really do need amplification to sound their best.\",\n \"Product: Delivering Mayhem to the Mainstream Long thought to be the market of the conservative gamer, the affordable mainstream products, which use to suffer only adequate performance, now experiences a frame rate revival with the SAPPHIRE HD 3850. Built upon the award winning Radeon HD 3850 core, the SAPPHIRE 3850 offers a comprehensive feature-set that eclipses previous and current mainstream offerings. Unleash the enthusiast inside you with support for advanced technologies such as DirectX 10 and Shader Model 4 support, integrated HDCP support for Blu-ray/HD DVD decoding and for extreme enthusiast, Jam a SAPPHIRE HD 3850 into your rig and still have some coin left over to buy that title you have been waiting for!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Great card for an older system\\n\\nReview: I've got a Dell Dimension 8300 as my computer for work. It still runs perfectly, and I'm not going to replace it anytime soon. But the graphics performance with its old video card lagged. I replaced an nVidia 6200 AGP card with this ATI-based Sapphire card. What a difference. The WinXP drivers from Sapphire's website run well on this 3 ghz Pentium 4HT system (I skipped the drivers on the CD-ROM that came with the card). No conflicts, no problems. I'd upgraded the power supply in the computer when the old one started failing earlier in the year, and the PCI-E six pin cable fit the card perfectly (there's a 2x4 Molex adapter if you don't have the PCI-E cable on your power supply). I switched over the AGP interface to 256 bit in BIOS, and the graphics are cranking along. I can actually get decent framerates on Team Fortress 2 and Half Life 2 (running via Steam) with mixed settings. It's a lot faster for general work 2D graphics, too. Screens don't lag when scrolling quickly, etc. So far, a great card.\",\n \"Product: The K240 MKII professional over-ear, semi-open headphones are a long-time standard in studios, in orchestras and on stages around the world. Its advanced Varimotion 30 mm XXL transducers deliver solid low end, accurate mids and crystal-clear highs. The semi-open design provides the airiness of open headphones with the powerful bass response of closed designs. For more than three decades, professional engineers and musicians have made the K240 the most widely used headphones in studios and at live consoles around the world.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Great value, great sound at price point, but no longer made in Austria\\n\\nReview: I've been an AKG fan since the late 1980s, when I bought my first pair of AKG K240DF headphones. Over the years, I've owned a few pairs of the 240DFs and a pair of 701s, as well as some Beyerdynamics.\\n\\nI was somewhat disappointed to see on the box that these are now \\\"Engineered in Austria/Made in China\\\" headphones. Ever since Harman acquired AKG, they've been experimenting with the brand and finding ways to extract value. I guess you can't blame them, but it's sad to see a proud Austrian audio company being revamped like this.\\n\\nIn all, the build quality on these Chinese-made K240MKIIs is similar to the Austrian-made K240DFs I've owned. The leatherette earpads are the same. The auto-adjusting headband is also the same. Now, however, they are engineered with a detachable cord that joins at the left earcup. AKG also provides some velour-type earpads and a straight and coiled cord. At the price of just over one hundred dollars, you get quite a lot for your money. The K240DFs were about twice as expensive and didn't come with all the extra goodies.\\n\\nAs for sound, it generally takes awhile for AKGs using this type of diaphragm to \\\"burn in\\\" and achieve their mature sound. I've got these coupled with a <a data-hook=\\\"product-link-linked\\\" class=\\\"a-link-normal\\\" href=\\\"/HRT-HeadStreamer-USB-powered-Headphone-DAC-Amplifier/dp/B0067Z6BNC/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\\\">HRT HeadStreamer USB-powered Headphone DAC/Amplifier</a>, which is a good quality USB DAC and amplifier -- I highly recommend HRT's products. I use these cans at work to listen to my music library, which is encoded in the lossless FLAC format. (At home, I use a class A HeadRoom desktop headphone amp and 701s or Beyerdynamic DT770s.)\\n\\nHere are my impressions. First, you need to use these with an amplifier. Even though they are rated at 55 ohms (compared with the professional studio 600 ohm K240DFs), the sound you get when driving them from a phone or average MP3 player is subpar at best. Adding the dedicated headphone amp really opens these up. Second, the sound is pretty good. These are based on a legendary AKG monitoring design and have a pretty even and accurate presentation. There is no undue emphasis at any frequency. The bass is present and well controlled. The mids and highs are coherent, with a smooth midrange and good treble extension. If they sound a bit brittle or bright at first, remember that it takes time to condition the diaphragms to their mature state -- the 701s took a few hundred hours of play before they really achieved that. These are no exception to the general AKG rule.\\n\\nThe music is reasonably well detailed coming from the HeadStreamer. However, these do not approach the level of detail and subtlety that the 701s are capable of presenting, and you aren't going to get quite as full a soundstage. But if you don't do an A-B comparison, you're not going to miss that. What you will notice with these over others in this price range is that you're hearing well into the music and that the music sounds really good and accurate.\\n\\nThese are incredibly comfortable to wear, too. They fit securely but not firmly -- I wear glasses and these don't bother me at all. The flexibility of the headband will allow you to pull an earcup away to hear someone without wrecking the headphones.\\n\\nIn sum, I'd recommend these as a good entry level audiophile headphone. While they're made in China now, they still have the legendary AKG accuracy and the build quality hasn't suffered in any readily apparent way. However, I'd use them for listening at home, not as portable headphones. They really do need amplification to sound their best.\",\n \"Product: Engineered for comfort and designed for beauty, the diNovo Keyboard features a wireless modular design that combines easily with a notebook stand and mouse to help you type and work in a more natural position for improved comfort. The modern, elegant styling is accented by an ultra-slim profile, glossy black finish, and brushed aluminum and a full-size number pad. The PerfectStroke key system provides more key travel than typical notebook keyboards, so every keystroke is comfortable, fluid, and silent. Three-year battery life minimizes the hassle of replacing batteries, while Logitech 2.4 GHz wireless technology provides a powerful and reliable connection.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Wonderful, smooth typing keyboard\\n\\nReview: Amazon recently was selling these keyboards for half of MSRP, and Logitech was offering a healthy rebate on top of that. When all was said and done, I got one of these last week for 1/5 of MSRP. That's a steal for this keyboard.\\n\\nI got this to replace a dodgy old Dell keyboard I had at work. The difference is night and day. The keystrokes are smooth, and I can type much more quickly on this keyboard. I have experienced no delays when typing, as noted by one reviewer. The key spacing is fine. I don't mind that the function keys are right along the top of the number keys. I haven't hit any by accident. While I haven't hit the \\\"eject\\\" key, it is pretty close to the backspace key (just above it), and that might bother some users.\\n\\nThe wireless flexibility is great. The build quality is solid -- it's heavier than I thought it would be. The rubber feet have it parked -- it doesn't slide around once it's placed.\\n\\nI haven't seen the need to get the SetPoint software installed, so I am missing out on some functionality, but it's only bells and whistles. All of the basics work well without the software.\\n\\nI consider myself lucky to have gotten such a great deal on a well designed keyboard. Thanks, Amazon.\\n------------------\\n\\nUPDATE 8/18/09\\n\\nI tried installing the SetPoint software, which I downloaded from Logitech's website, just to check it out. (I know I got the correct SetPoint software because I used Logitech's web tool to identify the proper version of SetPoint for this keyboard.) BIG MISTAKE. While the software appears slick and unlocks a few extra functions, it started causing lag in the communication between the keyboard and the CPU. I got a lot of lag in typing from time to time depending on the program I was using. It was distractingly bad. I uninstalled the SetPoint software, and everything is humming along perfectly again. This happened on a Pentium 4 machine running Win XP SP3 (32 bit). So, great keyboard, but Logitech's software is bloatware, especially when you consider how little functionality it actually provides vs. the amount of memory it chews up.\",\n \"Product: The Case Logic SLRC-200 SLR Camera Holster (Black) is compatible with most SLRs with a kit lens. Features a Water-proof EVA base that withstands the elements and allows the case to stand up on its own. Memory foam on interior helps protect your delicate LCD screen and a zippered compartment on front of case stores memory cards, batteries and other small accessories. Removable shoulder strap included. Internal Dimensions: 6.75\\\" x 7.5\\\" x 6.5\\\". 25 Year Warranty!\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Functional DSLR holster, but don't expect a lot of features\\n\\nReview: We've been using this holster with a Nikon DSLR camera, principally with a 50mm prime lens and the basic kit zoom lens. It works well as a holster for the camera. The zippers all work smoothly, and the camera is snug in the holster. The nylon fabric seems to be stitched together pretty well and gives the impression that the holster will be durable.\\n\\nAs for feature set, the holster is pretty basic. There's an outside pocket, but it's pretty tiny. You could put the lens cap, a lens filter, or a memory card or two in it, but don't expect to carry spare batteries or a charger. It comes with a rudimentary strap that hooks onto D-rings on both sides of the holster. The strap is a bit on the thin side and has no padding. It can get a bit uncomfortable after long carry periods.\\n\\nIn all, this is a fine basic holster for DSLR cameras provided you're not using a long zoom or telephoto lens -- I'd worry about fit.\\n\\nIf you're seeking a no-frills holster, this will probably suit your needs adequately.\",\n \"Product: The Case Logic MSEC-2 EVA Molded Compact Camera Case. Features a hard, molded EVA shell exterior to securely protect your camera. Holds most slim-line cameras. Lanyard attachment for hands-free portability. 25 Year Warranty!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Fine case for today's point and shoot digital cameras\\n\\nReview: This case does a great job with our Nikon S3000. The size is perfect. The zipper works smoothly. The color of the case is attractive, and it has a substantial feel. This isn't a rigid clamshell case made from rigid plastic. Rather, it's a sturdy molded EVA case that will likely protect a point and shoot camera from modest drops or bumps. EVA is an acronym for ethylene vinyl acetate. It is a polymer that feels a bit like a rubbery foam, and it is known for its flexibility. It has good barrier properties (e.g., it resists water) and generally won't show stress cracks over time. It is resistant to UV, too, so it shouldn't fade.\\n\\nIn the final analysis, this is a cool little jacket for a point and shoot camera that should keep it from being scuffed up by other items in your bag or pocket.\",\n \"Product: Protect your investment in your Intel or AMD CPU, and make it run better. Excessive heat is the deadly enemy of high-performance silicon, and the Air Series A50 CPU cooler can extend your CPUs lifetime by efficiently drawing that heat away. Youll get faster performance, too. Intel Core i5 and Core i7 processors automatically overclock when conditions are right. Add the A50 and your CPU will detect that its running cooler, and instantly boost its speed when you need it. Of course, if youre not using a Core i5 or Core i7 or if you prefer to overclock manually, the Air Series A50 will still give you the temperature headroom you need. Spend 15 minutes installing the A50 and enjoy years of improved CPU performance.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: A basic microprocessor air-cooling unit\\n\\nReview: I recently installed a Corsair A50 on a Phenom II 965 BE processor (3.4 ghz quad core). It was simple to install on the AM3 socket -- it includes a mounting bracket that simply clips the unit firmly into place against the microprocessor. After applying a thermal interface compound, it literally took me less than a minute to install the unit.\\n\\nHowever, the unit could be a bit better for the price. The flat surface that faces the processor isn't nearly flat. The copper heat pipes are ground more or less flat, but they're finished pretty roughly. No mirror finish here. And the aluminum bracket around the pipes is recessed slightly, so the aluminum does not come into contact with the processor. This leaves you with three 6 mm copper pipes spaced a millimeter or so apart running across the microprocessor. That isn't the best surface to surface contact area. More surface area contact would allow this unit to transfer more heat away from the microprocessor. Corsair knows how to make a better interface -- they did it on their H50 unit, which has a completely flat metal plate that makes uniform contact once coated with a thin layer of thermal interface compound. Why they went cheaper on this unit, which isn't exactly inexpensive, is beyond me.\\n\\nThe supplied 120mm fan is pretty quiet but isn't PWM equipped. No matter. I run it at standard voltage/full RPMs and cannot hear it in a Lian Li mid tower case. If you're dying for PWM control, you could probably slip another standard 120mm fan into the mounting bracket, which attaches to the fan with common silicone rubber \\\"pins.\\\" (The fan is already mounted to the bracket, but you could remove the pins and reuse them.)\\n\\nIn all, this cooler gets the job done (the AMD idles around 32c and gets to about 50c under full load), but you could probably do a bit better for your money with a CoolerMaster 212, which usually runs about a sawbuck or so cheaper and which seems to be pretty equivalent in construction and materials. I got this when there was a rebate that made it equivalent in price to the CoolerMaster. I wouldn't spend the full retail price to replace it -- I'd go with a CoolerMaster.\",\n \"Product: Callisto 60GB SSD-SATA 2.5IN RW 285 275MBS\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A solid Muskin SSD\\n\\nReview: I recently picked up on of these Callisto Deluxe SSDs to use as the Win 7 boot drive in a new system I built. It's blazing fast -- from \\\"on\\\" to full boot of Windows 7 is less than 20 seconds, and that includes the mobo splash screen. 60 gigs is plenty of space to use as a boot drive, especially if you load up your less intensive programs on another drive. Just make sure to do all the usual Win 7 tweaks to ensure longevity and performance (e.g., turn off defrag, eliminate page file on this drive, etc.).\\n\\nThe packaging was really good -- the drive comes encased in a foam \\\"book,\\\" so even if Amazon fails to put padding in the box, the drive should arrive unscathed. It also comes with a 3.5\\\" adapter to fit in a desktop drive bay.\\n\\nI've had good luck with several sets of Mushkin memory modules, from DDR to DDR3, and this seems like another reliable product from them. Highly recommended.\\n\\nAs an afterthought, I should mention that Mushkin is an American company. Although some of the components are probably manufactured abroad, their products are assembled in the United States. It's good to be able to support a high-tech American company that gets its products right, has high quality, and features responsive customer service, unlike some vendors based in Taiwan, etc.\",\n \"Product: The ILC Classic series from Lowepro is specially built to fit a variety of compact digital powerhouses, such as: ILC, micro four-thirds, or mirrorless cameras. Classic in style and streamlined in construction, each bag is padded from top to bottom to protect your valuable gear. The ILC Classic 50 is scaled down to accommodate the camera with its attached kit lens up to 14-45 mm.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Lowepro makes solid camera bags\\n\\nReview: LowePro makes some pretty fine camera bags at reasonable prices. The construction is solid, the hardware is substantial and decently machined, the zippers are all robust and operate well, and the nylon feels like it would stand up to a lot of abuse over time. This bag is great for smaller enthusiast cameras, giving you plenty of room to bring along extra batteries or memory cards. I've had a LowePro bag for an SLR for about six years, and it still looks new despite having gone on numerous trips across the country and to state parks. I expect this one will hold up just as well. In all, this is a solid, high quality bag that provides a great balance of utility and manageable size. You'd be hard pressed to find something better at the price.\",\n \"Product: There are plenty of backpacks out there, so how do you know which to pick? Well, our Backpack has the look and the durability, as well as the room to hold your stuff. But there's also a battery inside with enough juice to charge your Smartphone twice. Charging your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch has never been easier.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Nicely made backpack with juice for portables\\n\\nReview: The Powerbag is a nice backpack. It is constructed of a sturdy nylon material and has a nice lining. The main attraction here is the Li-Ion battery, which has good capacity and can help recharge portable devices.\\n\\nThe Li-Ion battery is easily removable from the charging module in the outer pocket of the bag. It ejects and inserts easily. But I don't know why anyone would need to remove it short of replacing it. It charges in the bag via an included AC adapter and a neat covered charging port on the bag (flip a cap up to reveal the input for the adapter).\\n\\nThe battery has sufficient capacity to charge a few cell phone batteries. If you're in the field without access to a car charger, this is a tremendous boon. You can use the battery and its USB-type output to hook up and charge any manner of devices that will take a charge via USB 5v standards.\\n\\nThe bag is comfortable, too. The straps are nicely padded and there is a chest strap as well. In all, it's a pretty well thought out product. It's expensive and therefore probably not for everyone. But if you have a job that takes you out into the field and you need to keep electronic devices running while away from outlets and 12v car sockets for awhile, then this might just be for you.\",\n \"Product: Lowepro DSLR Video Fastpack 250 AW Black Backpack\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Well made pack with a lot of storage\\n\\nReview: We needed a replacement for a camera bag that one of our cats destroyed. I jumped at the opportunity to evaluate and review this Lowepro backpack-style pack.\\n\\nWe have a Nikon D70s with a charger and a couple of lenses, a few filters, and CompactFlash memory cards. This pack stores them all with room to spare.\\n\\nThe lower part of the pack unzips to reveal a compartment with adjustable dividers. (The flap folds up from the side of the pack, so it's best used when the pack is lying flat on a surface. You can place your camera and lenses here. The top of the pack unzips like a regular backpack to reveal a storage space that offers decent capacity. It's smaller than a regular backpack storage compartment because the space rests on top of the camera compartment. Suffice it to say, you aren't going to be using this to carry textbooks around. This is certainly designed to be a camera bag.\\n\\nThe construction is sturdy. It's ballistic nylon for the most part, and the camera compartment at the bottom of the pack has some structure to it, definitely enough to prevent minor crushing of your equipment. It's comfortable to wear but may be a bit much for people who are used to a smaller camera holster.\",\n \"Product: Sporting three Balanced Armature driver units (full range, woofer and tweeter), these audiophile-friendly in-ear headphones are buffed out for serious sound. Tune into a dramatic soundscape of clear, sparkling highs and deep, bottomless lows with these XBA-3 Balanced Armature in-ear headphones. With a full-range driver, woofer and tweeter, these premium headphones sport three Sony Balanced Armature driver units precision engineered to optimize your music.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Competent sound, but not the best value in IEMs or headphones generally\\n\\nReview: I've been a headphone audiophile for years. At present, my headphone rig consists of a <a data-hook=\\\"product-link-linked\\\" class=\\\"a-link-normal\\\" href=\\\"/HRT-Music-Streamer-II-High-Resolution-USB-D-A-Converter/dp/B0038O38S6/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\\\">HRT Music Streamer II + High Resolution USB D/A Converter</a> running through a HeadRoom Desktop headphone amp with \\\"Max\\\" electronics (full class A) powered by a HeadRoom power supply. Most of my listening is CD material that's been ripped to FLAC using a bit-perfect program (dBpoweramp) that also will capture the 20-bit encoding on HDCDs and output it as 24-bit depth files (20 bits and 4 zeros of \\\"padding\\\"). In all this is a pretty good rig that will really let you hear what headphones can do. I'm telling you this because I believe you've got to know what people are using to drive headphones if you're going to evaluate their evaluations. ;)\\n\\nOff the bat, I'll fess up to being an AKG fan, which will tell people of my general bias. I like the sound of their <a data-hook=\\\"product-link-linked\\\" class=\\\"a-link-normal\\\" href=\\\"/AKG-K-701-WHITE-HEADPHONES/dp/B000EBBJ6Y/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\\\">AKG K 701 WHITE HEADPHONES</a>, which are incredibly accurate headphones with a fairly neutral response curve. Some accuse them of being lean on bass, but that's not correct. They have plenty of bass, but it's musical and integrated, not over-emphasized (more on this below).\\n\\nHaving said all that by way of disclosure, on to the Sonys.\\n\\nThe build quality is adequate. Sony bills these as having some magnesium in them to help suppress vibrations. The cord is really flexible and has a somewhat flattened profile rather than a circular one. There is relatively little microphonic cord noise from the cord bumping things compared to other IEMs I've used. However, the cord splits to left and right asymmetrically: it's got a really short left cord and a much longer right cord. I have no idea why Sony did this. In any event, the main cord will run to the left side of your head, and you can run the right cord behind your neck to your right ear. The plug terminates in an L that feels pretty delicate. I don't know how well these would hold up over time if you used them on a daily commute (my main use for IEMs).\\n\\nThese IEMs offer some of the best noise isolation I've experienced, far better than my <a data-hook=\\\"product-link-linked\\\" class=\\\"a-link-normal\\\" href=\\\"/Ultimate-Ears-TripleFi-10-Noise-Isolating-Earphones/dp/B0019RBJOE/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\\\">Ultimate Ears TripleFi 10 Noise Isolating Earphones</a>. The tips are like the typical silicone flanges; however, they have foam behind the silicone. I really can't hear anything around me when I have these in and properly sealed. On the downside, however, I find that the smallest tips that will give me a seal become pretty uncomfortable after only about 30 minutes. They put too much outward pressure on my ear canals.\\n\\nThe sound is fairly good overall, but it falls a bit short of what I would expect in this price range. The best feature is the midrange. It is smooth -- vocals sound quite natural, as do most acoustic instruments. Joni Mitchell's voice on the HDCD-mastered recording of Blue was liquid and emotive. Quite nice. The treble is not as detailed or forward as I'd like -- it's a bit laid back, subdued. This results in these IEMs deemphasizing some high-end detail that I get in the 701s and other IEMs, like Ultimate Ears Triple.fis (despite their stated frequency response). That is, the detail is often there; it's just not forward in the presentation. Cymbals also sound a bit flat, sometimes almost muffled. Yet these IEMs do create a sense of air around acoustic instruments -- it's not that they can't reproduce highs; they're just subdued.\\n\\nMy biggest gripe is the bass. As I said, I'm a fan of the natural sounding bass you get from AKG 701s that are properly driven with good amplification. These Sonys have plenty of bass and good bass extension, but it doesn't always sound organic. It's emphasized in the lowest registers and I find it overwhelming on any track that has prominent bass. For example, listening to Morphine (bass, saxophone, vocals, and drums) is not very pleasant on these -- the bass just dominates. Nick Lowe's \\\"Marie Provost\\\" becomes a thumpy mess, as does a lot of his Jesus of Cool. Same goes for electronic music. Daft Punk ends up creating incredible amounts of low end bass through these IEMS. Bass drums sometimes become overly prominent, which I found when listening to Fugazi's \\\"Badmouth,\\\" for example So the bass doesn't always sound as integrated and musical as it does through the 701s and UEs. On the other hand, the bass is fairly well controlled in the lowest registers, not just boomy. In that respect, I prefer these to the <a data-hook=\\\"product-link-linked\\\" class=\\\"a-link-normal\\\" href=\\\"/Atrio-Future-Sonic-010-044-Atrio-by-FutureSonics-Earphone-MG7-Pro-Chocolate/dp/B0013NVTTE/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\\\">Atrio Future Sonic 010-044 Atrio by FutureSonics Earphone, MG7 Pro (Chocolate)</a>, which have a dedicated bass driver, not an armature, and which put out ridiculous amounts of bass.\\n\\nWhen it comes to bass, though, things become quite subjective. A lot of people prefer an emphasized bass and will probably find these fit the bill for them. (I think a lot of people misjudge bass in headphones because they don't get the impact in their sternum, etc., that they're used to when hearing music from speakers/PA systems, so they tend to seek more bass to compensate for the lack of powerful waves of air hitting their torsos, etc.)\\n\\nI also listened to these through a Samsung Galaxy IIS phone. Without the power of the HeadRoom amp to drive them, the sound became more compressed and the bass was less well controlled. They didn't sound that good on the phone. For 12 ohm impedance IEMs, these do seem to require a fair bit of power to sound their best. Accordingly, I'd actually recommend that you use some kind of portable headphone amplification with these if you really want to open them up.\\n\\nSo, in all, I find these are competent IEMs. You get good isolation and a smooth, clear, relaxed sound, but you lose some high end excitement and detail. I found them best for acoustic music (jazz, like the remastered Miles Davis Kind of Blue recording, folk, orchestral), where their tendency to emphasize the bass is not as pronounced. They wouldn't be my first choice in this price range: I can't listen to them for lengthy periods both because they're uncomfortable for me and because the emphasized bass is exhausting to me, but your mileage may vary if you like a fair bit of bass in your IEMs. Still, I'd consider getting some Ultimate Ears Triple.fis and saving the extra money.\",\n \"Product: ogitech G710 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Lightning fast, whisper quietplus responsive tactile keys With this high-performance gaming keyboard, you can make the right moves with faster, flawless, precision. Quiet non-clicking keys with superior tactile feedback help you enter commands more rapidlyand reduce distracting noise so you can keep your ears in the game.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Excellent mechanical keyboard with useful gaming features (UPDATE -- KEY SWITCH FAILURE)\\n\\nReview: I've used gaming mice for years and have consistently been impressed by Logitech's quality in that field. The G710+, Logitech's latest gaming keyboard, holds up that tradition of quality and offers several worthwhile features for gamers.\\n\\nFirst off, this is not an inexpensive keyboard by any stretch. It uses mechanical switches, which are incredibly responsive and durable. Mechanical switch keyboards are favored by many people who do coding and gaming for their responsiveness and durability. This is an incredibly comfortable keyboard for typing. I find it preferable to my Logitech Illuminated Keyboard, my prior favorite. Although the G710+ is somewhat louder, it isn't as loud as some IBM-style mechanical keyboards I've used in the past.\\n\\nThe keyboard comes with a detachable plastic palm rest and includes the standard height-adjusting legs in the back for those who prefer their keyboards to sit at more of an angle.\\n\\nThe keyboard also features a USB 2.0 port on the back, just to the right of the keyboard's wire. Be forewarned, however, that this passthrough USB port requires that you use two USB ports on your computer when you're hooking up the keyboard. The keyboard's wire has two \\\"male\\\" USB connectors at its end, one for the keyboard input and the other serving essentially as a USB extension cord to the port on the back of the keyboard. I found the keyboard's additional USB port useful when hooking up my headset rather than hooking it up to the ports on the front of my Lian Li tower case. (I built my own PC.) Some might find it disappointing that the port doesn't support USB 3.0, but most peripherals you're likely to plug into a gaming keyboard, such as a headset, just don't require that much speed.\\n\\nThe layout of the keyboard is familiar with one minor quibble. The keys sometimes invert the characters. In other words, the key with the \\\"=\\\" sign on it shows the = sign above the + sign. This is the opposite of most keyboards. This is part of the keyboard's illumination scheme. The numbers and many of the punctuation marks are all illuminated but positioned above the characters that one usually accesses with the SHIFT key. It's not a huge deal for touch typists, but some might find it confusing. It throws me off if I look at the keyboard when I'm typing. (NOTE: More punctuation keys on the sample I received are inverted than are shown in the product pictures here. For example, on the sample I received, the period and comma are respectively above the \\\"less than\\\" and \\\"greater than\\\" signs. Double quotation marks are below the single quotation marks, etc. I do not know if the sample I received is typical in terms of that layout. The product pictures do show that the number keys invert the characters.)\\n\\nAs for the illumination, it is quite bright in its high setting. The keys are clearly etched and are easy to read, even when the lights are on. The illumination brightness is adjustable via a dedicated pair of keys above the F11 and F12 keys. One adjusts the brightness of the ASDW and cursor arrow keys, and the other adjusts the brightness of the remaining keys. This is a neat feature that people who play first person shooters might appreciate if they only want to light up the ASDW keys in a darkened room while playing an atmospheric game like Dead Space.\\n\\nThe keyboard features basic audio controls, including a volume wheel and a mute button.\\n\\nThere is a row of six dedicated macro \\\"G\\\" keys on the far left. Using Logitech's gaming keyboard software (available from their website), you can use several preexisting profiles for popular games to assign functions to those keys. For example, I play a lot of Team Fortress 2, which is in Logitech's profile database. The gaming software found that game on my PC and allowed me to map out various in-game functions to the macro keys.\\n\\nYou can also program macros directly into the keyboard by using the M keys on the top row on the left side. These keys allow you to program and assign up to three macros to each G key. You just hit the MR key, hit the relevant G key, and then type the keys to record to that macro. Hit the MR key again, and you've got your macro. If you hit the G key and then hit the M2 or M3 key, you can add the second and third macros to that key.\\n\\nThe keyboard features a dedicated key that will switch off the Windows key and Menu key when you're playing games. Although this can also be done via software, it's nice to be able to keep accidental keystrokes on those keys from bouncing you out of intense firefights, etc., and into the Windows menu, an incredibly frustrating situation. The key has an LED indicator near the top right of the keyboard to show when you've disabled the Windows key and Menu key.\\n\\nThe keyboard's aesthetics are fairly basic, with the G710+ logo printed in a few places on the side bevels and above the cursor arrow keys. There is an orange plastic frame around the G keys that I could live without, but your mileage may vary.\\n\\nIn gaming situations, the keyboard works really well, and it's a vast improvement over my Illuminated Keyboard, which was an excellent keyboard in its own right. I'm able to execute series of moves in TF2 and Crysis 2 without any input issues at all. No ghosting or anything.\\n\\nIn all, I'd say this is an excellent keyboard for people who enjoy gaming and have the money to spend. You can get comparably functional gaming keyboards for less, but the mechanical keys here make this an investment that's likely to last a long time.\\n\\nMy only quibble is that I wish they hadn't inverted so many of the depicted characters and their SHIFT alternate characters on the keys. It wouldn't be so bad if they'd permitted you to have the illumination shift when you hit the shift key so you didn't ever have to remember what character you were going to get.\\n\\nIn all, highly recommended.\\n\\n----------------\\n\\nUPDATE MARCH 2016\\n\\nO e of the keys o the keyboard failed today. Guess which o e. Expected lo ger life from mecha ical switches. It's a shame because it was otherwise a pretty dece t keyboard.\",\n \"Product: The CAN is a portable, modern-day Boom Box plus speakerphone that is ideal for parties, gatherings and your own personal listening. The CAN is the best way to free your music but still keep it in a tight package. Enjoy deeper, more powerful advanced audio performance from this tiny, yet mighty, portable Bluetooth speaker. It will work with all Smartphone's, MP3 players, PC's, tablets, and more. Choose to use the device wirelessly (Works with any Apple, Android, BlackBerry or any other Bluetooth-enabled device.) or through its 3.5mm, AUX-IN, wired stereo connection. Listen to music, make & receive calls or just share the excitement when you want, where you want. The CAN delivers audio in all of its clarity with booming sound unusual for a Bluetooth speaker this size. Its specific audio cavity structure and Super Shock technology with 3D Digital Dynamic Bass engine allows the small, lightweight speaker to reproduce deep, full sound. The speaker is tiny enough (only 8.5 ozs.) to carry in one hand or fit in a pocket. You can control almost everything with your Bluetooth device - playlists, streaming music, volume, etc. And you'll find power switches and volume buttons on the speaker. No need for a remote control. Place the CAN where you want, and the 50-foot wireless range lets you keep your phone, tablet or other device close at hand. The included travel pouch makes it safe to carry and allows instant playing anywhere.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Heavy, questionable construction, somewhat harsh sound\\n\\nReview: By way of disclosure, I was provided with a sample of this speaker for review purposes. I have tried to be objective in my evaluation of the product.\\n\\nI have used several portable Bluetooth speakers, and this Tonez CAN speaker is not among my favorites.\\n\\nThe unit is compact and portable. It is fairly heavy and feels solid up top -- the upper part of the barrel is some kind of metal alloy. The bottom part, however, is plastic. The fit and finish of the bottom part is lacking -- the control switches do not feel sturdy, and they do not line up well in their respective slots. In my sample, the speaker element is not centered. If you view it from the top, the speaker appears to be off center. Not great build quality for fit and finish overall.\\n\\nThe interface is not intuitive, and the instructions could be much more clear. Prepare to puzzle through if you try to go beyond the most basic feature of pairing this with a Bluetooth audio device to stream music.\\n\\nThe speaker can get quite loud; however, the sound quality is not smooth. The unit creates decent bass without massive distortion for a small speaker, but there is a harsh brightness to the sound.\\n\\nIn terms of long term durability, I have concerns because of the design. Unlike other portable Bluetooth speakers I've used, the speaker element is exposed here -- there is a little bar across the top of the unit, but you can still see (and touch) the diaphragm immediately under that. Given that portable speakers are sometimes tossed into a backpack or bag, that design element makes me nervous.\\n\\nI had no problems pairing the unit with my phone or a Bluetooth-enabled PC, going further than that, however, required frequent recourse to the instructions, which themselves are not a model of clarity.\\n\\nIn all, there are other speakers in this price range that seem better made and which offer better sound. I've had luck with a less expensive ANKER speaker and with one made by Simple Audio that was much more intuitive to use and which had a more even tonal signature. This speaker isn't horrible by any stretch; it's just that you can do better for the money.\",\n \"Product: The Curve 50 amplified indoor HDTV antenna propels antenna design to new heights with a clean and graceful arched structure reminiscent of popular smartphone docking stations. Catering to consumers who want access to free over-the-air OTA HDTV in their homes but desire a unique, designer feel, the modern look of the Curve 50 is on display whether its placed on a shelf, countertop or table. Made to be a simple plug-in-and-go experience, the Curve 50 amplified high definition TV antenna provides consumers with free access to over-the-air TV broadcast channels in full 1080 HDTV. The Curve 50 is intended for users in more remote locationsup to 50 miles from a tower.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: An HDTV antenna that works\\n\\nReview: We have this amplified Mohu Leaf and one of their standard Leaf antennas, too. They work wonderfully.\\n\\nThe antenna is only a little thicker than a sheet of construction paper. It can be positioned vertically or horizontally and can even be tacked to a wall.\\n\\nWe get more stations with this antenna than with any Terk or RCA antenna that we've used. Most signals come in well and we don't get break up in the signals. We're a few miles outside of Philadelphia, and we pick up stations from Delaware and New Jersey with these antennas.\\n\\nIn our area, this one doesn't do much more than the standard Leaf does. That is probably because we're so close to a large city. So I cannot comment about how well the signal amplifier works.\\n\\nIn all, though, this is one of the best antennas I've ever used for a television. No fuss, great results. You owe it to yourself to consider this antenna if you are having trouble pulling in digital broadcasts.\",\n \"Product: The Sculpt Ergonomic Keyboard and Mouse is built on advanced ergonomic design. Sculpt Ergonomic Desktop is built on advanced ergonomic principles, with a split keyboard layout that keeps wrists and forearms in a relaxed position, and a cushioned palm rest to provide wrist support. The domed keyboard shape works to reduce and correct wrist pronation that can cause pain and limited mobility. True comfort for lasting productivity - Sculpt Ergonomic Desktop is designed for productivity, with an eye on ergonomic excellence. By providing a relaxed, comfortable computing experience, it enables you to work without the stress, strain, and discomfort of other keyboards and mice you may have used in the past. Its all in the angles - The natural arc keyboard layout follows the curve of your fingertips for a more natural way of typing. Reverse tilt design positions the keyboard at the correct angle to give you a straight, neutral wrist position. Additionally, the shape of the mouse is designed for maximum wrist comfort. Plus its Windows button provides one-touch access to the Windows Start Menu. Dimensions for Keyboard: Length: 15.4\\\" / 392mm x Width: 8.96\\\" / 228mm. Dimensions for Mouse: Length: 3.87\\\" / 98.2mm x Width: 3.13\\\" / 74.9mm. Dimensions for Number Pad: Length: 5.21\\\" / 132mm x Width: 3.65\\\" / 92.8mm.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Interesting design marred by lack of durable construction and some keyboard oddities\\n\\nReview: By way of disclosure, I received a sample of the Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic Desktop for evaluation purposes. I have endeavored to keep that fact from interfering with my review of this product.\\n\\nThe desktop includes four pieces: 1) a wireless keyboard; 2) an optical wireless mouse; 3) a wireless numeric keypad; and 4) a USB dongle receiver.\\n\\nI am using this product with a computer I built myself a few years ago. It's based on an AMD Phenom II x4 965BE processor and runs Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit. I have been using the product for about a month now in an office environment.\\n\\nI have used various keyboards over the years, principally from Microsoft and Logitech, including mechanical switch keyboards, gaming keyboards, the Microsoft Natural keyboard, and the Logitech Illuminated keyboard. I learned to touch type in high school and type documents on a regular basis in my work.\\n\\nMy initial impression was that this Microsoft set is a bit pricey for what it is. The keyboard itself is a split ergonomic design. The keys vary in size as you get close to the center of the keyboard, with the N key being quite massive. It has an integrated wrist rest that feels like fine suede, but which is probably composed of rubber with some kind of foam underlayer. The wrist rest is not detachable. I find that it has become quite discolored after only about a month of use -- in an office environment, it isn't easy to wash the wrist rest, and it appears to be collecting sweat and dead skin (gross!). That said, the wrist rest is comfortable. I do not know how long it will last, however. It would be nice if it were removable.\\n\\nSpeaking of removable, the keyboard has no adjustable legs in the back, making it unlike most keyboards I've ever used. Instead, it has a big piece of plastic that magnetically fastens under the FRONT of the keyboard, elevating it and putting your hands and arms into greater alignment, easy the strain on your wrists and possibly helping to avoid posture that fosters carpal tunnel syndrome. In all, I find the keyboard quite comfortable to type on; however, even after a month of regular use, I have not become fully accustomed to the odd key spacing or locations of some of the keys that usually are configured differently at the right side of the keyboard. In other words, I find that the layout of this keyboard presents significant accuracy issues for my typing.\\n\\nThe key feel is adequate, similar to many laptop keyboards. The keys aren't tall, and strokes are relatively short compared to those on more traditional keyboards. When I type quickly, I do not encounter ghosting problems.\\n\\nI found the function keys and escape keys annoying. They are tiny and do not feel well constructed. They feel like they will pop off. They do not have the same soft touch as the rest of the keyboard. What is more, there is no dedicated \\\"Function\\\" or \\\"Fn\\\" key to permit you to use the second function for the function keys (e.g., adjusting volume via the F3 and F4 keys). You have to throw a flimsy mechanical switch at the top right of the board to the \\\"Fn\\\" position. This is a chintzy design feature that was not well thought out.\\n\\nThe mouse is comfortable to use and tracks well for office use, though I wouldn't ever try to use it for gaming. It has the usual right and left M1 and M2 buttons. It has two additional buttons. One is the blue Window button on the top of the mouse, away from any place where you would likely press it accidentally. By default, it calls up the START menu in Windows 7. The other button is a \\\"browser back\\\" button on the left side of the mouse in the rubberized and sculpted thumb recess. It is under the rubber but you can feel where it is without any issues. The mouse is easy to grip in light of its rounded shape and rubberized thumb rest. However, there is a materials issue here again. After only one month of use, the rubberized thumb rest is wearing out and getting slick and shiny where the \\\"browser back\\\" button is located. It is much less pleasant feeling now. I don't know how much longer this non-removable rubber will last before it wears through or ruptures. You can replace the AA cells in the mouse by removing the magnetically connected gliding ring on the bottom of the mouse, and you can switch the mouse off with a mechanical throw switch on the bottom of the mouse.\\n\\nThe numeric keypad is unremarkable. It's nice to be able to put it aside when you don't need it. However, the supplied coin battery in my evaluation unit has died in less than one month. That seems atypical, and I wonder whether there was a problem with the battery or a key sticking down on the keypad that caused a significant power drain.\\n\\nI have had no problems with the connection between the keyboard, mouse, or keypad and the computer. The basic software Microsoft offers to allow you to change the function of the mouse buttons is adequate and unremarkable.\\n\\nIn all, this desktop is comfortable to use. There are some design quibbles I have with the keyboard, especially the lack of a Fn key and the odd placement of the various keys on the right side of the board. I also question the materials Microsoft used, which do not seem durable at all. For the price, I would expect something that would appear to offer a greater useful product life.\",\n \"Product: The Philips 4GB Voice Tracer 1400 Digital Recorder lets you record notes and documents on-the-go. It supports both stereo MP3 and stereo PCM (WAV) recording formats, which enables you to utilize a variety of bit-rates ranging from 8 to 1411 kbps. It also features 4GB of built-in NAND flash memory, a micro-USB 2.0 port for high-speed data transfers, a voice volume indicator and a microSD card slot that supports up to 32GB of memory expansion.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Solid basic digital voice recorder with good feature set\\n\\nReview: This Philips digital voice recorder performs well and is not difficult to use. The attractive features include stereo microphones with adjustable sensitivity, adjustable recording quality (from highly compressed MP3 to uncompressed WAV), and expandable memory. With 2 GB of onboard memory, you're not likely to run out of space unless you're doing extensive recording in full, uncompressed quality.\\n\\nBattery life seems pretty good. The device is quick to power on, and it's not difficult to review/edit your sound files.\\n\\nThe device's construction is plastic, but it feels solidly assembled. Despite that, it's pretty light and comfortable to hold in the hand.\\n\\nAudio playback isn't stellar from the device itself. The onboard speaker will let you hear voice recordings decently, but it isn't as if you're going to get any kind of decent sound out of it. However, it isn't difficult to move sound files from the device to a computer.\\n\\nIn all, if you're looking for a good all-around digital voice recorder, this Philips model is one you should look into. It isn't spectacularly fancy, but it gets the job done and seems pretty reliable.\",\n \"Product: Columbia PFG line is more than just great gear and apparel, it's a way of life. Packed with angler-friendly details, our fishing clothing, shoes and hats are comfortable and able to stand up to abuse.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Thin mounting factor, fast SSD\\n\\nReview: By way of disclosure, I received a sample of this product for evaluation purposes. I have tried to be objective.\\n\\nI've used SSD drives from various manufacturers over the past several years, including Mushkin, OCZ, Crucial, Samsung, and Intel, installing them in computers I've built. Overall, I've had a good experience with SSDs, although the Mushkin and OCZ drives used a Sandforce controller that was a bit sketchy in the long run.\\n\\nThis Toshiba has a thin mounting factor and can easily install in a notebook computer. I am using it in a desktop with a mounting adapter (2.5\\\" mount to 3.5\\\" hard drive bay).\\n\\nIt was simple to get up and running. I already had the BIOS of the machine set to ACHI instead of IDE. ACHI optimal for SSD performance. I used an Apricorn USB to SATA adapter and Apricorn's software to clone the older SSD to this one, which worked flawlessly.\\n\\nHooked up to a SATA 6 port on the motherboard (it's in a i7-3770k Intel processor PC with an Asus motherboard), the drive is blazing fast. Windows 8.1 boots to desktop in mere seconds. Applications and programs launch almost instantaneously. People can talk about benchmarks until the cows come home, but those numbers don't mean much -- the actual user experience is more informative. And this drive makes operating a PC a wonderful experience. This drive makes a PC snappy.\\n\\nIt has plenty of room for most users. Provided you don't have a large multimedia library you intend to put on notebook PC with a single drive, this drive makes for an excellent operating system drive (i.e., to house Windows and your main programs) with space to spare.\\n\\nOverall, it's been as good so far as drives I've used made by Samsung and Intel. Good bang for your buck. This one is well worth considering.\",\n \"Product: Quality style and big sound merge in a body so slim it can be slipped in everywhere. Built-in NFC technologies makes smartphone pairing as easy as a touch.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Nice design and good for voice, not so hot for music\\n\\nReview: This Philips Bluetooth speaker is nicely designed. It's thin, compact, and portable, and it feels solidly made. The metal volume wheel is a nice touch, as is the space by it through which you can pass a lanyard.\\n\\nI had no trouble pairing it with my smartphone.\\n\\nThe sound of the speaker is adequate, but it isn't anything to get excited about. It works well for voice in movies or phone calls, and it gets pretty loud without undue distortion. However, it's a tiny speaker and it doesn't sound all that wonderful for music. In terms of sound quality for music, it reminds me of an old AM transistor radio I had as a kid. I have portable speakers from Simple Audio and Anker that sound better for music. Still, given that portability and not high fidelity is the key point here, it is sufficient for most people's needs.\\n\\nOverall, it's a great little speaker if you need some sound and don't want to use headphones.\",\n \"Product: AKG never moves forward without improving on what it already does so well - and by having a complete grasp of the relevant marketplace. As a result, the new AKG Y55 closed-back headphones address the needs of the on-the-go lifestyle - and the music-lover who wants a leg-up on their game. These premium headphones offer quality sound and adhere to a DJ-specific list of essential, show-ready features. From its long-lasting, comfortable fit to its closed-back design, the Y55s are all about enhancing the sound through reinforcing bass response while removing unwanted external interference. Extremely versatile, their universal, inline remote/mic on a detachable cable and plug adaptor add on-the-job functionality. From their fold-flat design for safe and easy transport to their complementary style with the availability in 4 cool colors, these are the headphones to take you to the next level of listening. Portable. Durable. Loud and proud. Accurate, lightweight and flexible. AKG understands - because we listen. Why would you expect anything less from AKG?\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Good update on AKG's K619 model, now with detachable cord. Great sound, but tight and uncomfortable for people who wear glasses.\\n\\nReview: My first pair of real headphones was a set of AKG K240DFs more than twenty-five years ago. This Austrian company has been a stalwart in the recording industry for decades. They also make several fine consumer-grade headphones. (While I like AKG, I'm not a total fanboy. Over the years, I've also picked up some audiophile headphones from Beyerdynamic and Shure.)\\n\\nThese Y55 headphones are an update of AKG's K619 model from a year or so ago. (I have a pair of the K619s.) The sound is identical to my ears. The principal difference between these and the K619s is that the Y55 features a detachable cord. That is a great improvement -- portable headphones often fail because of stresses on the cord which cause the signal to become intermittent, wrecking the headphones. If you can replace the cord, you don't have to junk otherwise perfectly fine headphones.\\n\\nThese do suffer a bit from the same defect that made the K619s a little less than optimal. These are supraural headphones. That means they sit on your ears, not around your ears. Accordingly, they put pressure on your ears. The \\\"snug fit\\\" that AKG advertises is no joke. These really do clamp down pretty tight. If you wear glasses, prepare for pain after about 15 minutes of wearing them. There is no way to loosen their relentless grip. Great if you're a jogger without glasses; not so hot if you're listening while sitting at home and wearing glasses.\\n\\nWith glasses off, I find they're not uncomfortable. The memory foam in the earpads is pleasant. (Another reviewer inaccurately stated that the earpads are \\\"gel,\\\" but they're actually memory foam covered in pleather.)\\n\\nThe sound is excellent for consumer-grade headphones. There is good treble extension without harshness. The mids aren't recessed, which is good for a closed-back headphone -- sealed headphones historically have tended to have trouble with muddy mids. The bass is pumped up a bit, making these competitive in a younger market where listeners tend to like bass to be emphasized. Although these headphones have 40mm drivers, not the 50mm drivers common in many audiophile grade headphones, there is no lack of bass \\\"oomph.\\\" That said, the bass, while pronounced, isn't wildly out of control or inaccurate (compare with Beats, which don't sound nearly as good to me). However, if you're a purist looking for an honest response curve, look elsewhere.\\n\\nThe headphones are high sensitivity and are easy to drive. They produce a lot of volume/sound pressure from low input voltages, so they work well with portable devices like smartphones. I listened to them both with my Samsung smartphone (OK) and with a Headroom headphone amp fed with a MusicStreamer II+ DAC and FLAC files (better than OK). The amp did tighten things up a bit, but it was probably overkill.\\n\\nGeneral build quality is quite good. The earcups pivot in several directions, so they can adjust to your ears.\\n\\nAt least one other reviewer inaccurately claimed that these are noise cancelling headphones. They're not. However, they are sealed headphones that passively attenuate environmental noise. I used them on my commute on mass transit trains and they did block out a lot of ambient noise, so I didn't have to crank the volume on my phone to be able to hear.\\n\\nBOTTOM LINE: The Y55 is a worthy update of the portable K619 model. The detachable cord is a big plus. Sound quality is great, but the bass is boosted. They are tight: if you wear glasses, you might want to find another portable headphone.\",\n \"Product: Audio-Technica ATH-MSR7 SonicPro Over-Ear Headphones - (Black)\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Nicely made, pretty decent sealed circumaural headphones\\n\\nReview: I have listened to music through headphones for decades, starting with a pair of AKG K240DFs back in the 1980s. My preference is for a neutral sounding headphone with a slightly forward/detailed presentation. That is not something easy to come by in sealed circumaural headphones in this price range, but Audio-Technica has managed it here.\\n\\nIn terms of appearance, the headphones are well finished. The gun metal/brown pleather look may not appeal to everyone, especially as AT has included some funky anodized-look red accents. But to each his own.\\n\\nAs for fit, they're circumaural (around the ear), not supraaural (on the ear). The memory foam covered with pleather makes for comfortable pads that give decent noise attenuation. You don't hear a lot of what's going on around you, and those around you do not hear what you're listening to. I used these on my commute on mass transit rail, and they did a good job damping the sound of the El train. However, they're a bit tight. I wear a 7 3/4 hat, though, so my head is a bit bigger than average.\\n\\nThe cord is detachable, which is nice. However, because of its comparatively stiff jacketing and the way it attaches to the left earcup, it transmits a lot of \\\"microphonic\\\" cord noise to the left earcup. In other words, when the cord moves and brushes or bumps against something, you'll certainly notice it -- sort of like a stethoscope.\\n\\nAs for overall sound, I evaluated using three sources: my Galaxy phone, a HRT MicroStreamer (DAC and headphone amp), and a HeadRoom Desktop headphone amp with Class A upgrades. Although a portable device can easily drive these, I found that the sound really benefitted from amplification, smoothing the treble response, which verged on grainy and harsh when driven from the Galaxy, and tightening and controlling the bass. If you can afford a portable headphone amplifier, it will serve you well with these headphones. These do have some emphasis in the bass. Other than that, they're relatively neutral in the mids and treble. They have excellent detail retrieval -- I could hear well into the music listening to FLAC files via the MicroStreamer and Desktop amps.\\n\\nThese do not suffer from common sealed headphone problems such as recessed mids or an overly closed soundstage. They're nowhere near as good as my Shure 1440s or AKG 701s (both of which are open designs) for a sense of air around the performance, but they're better than my Beyerdynamic 770s. As an aside, imaging isn't really a headphone highlight area anyway unless you're listening to recordings made using a binaural setup. Most stereo recordings are not engineered to image and soundstage well on headphones as opposed to speakers. This has to do with the fact that, listening with headphones to stereo recordings that aren't made using a binaural setup, your right ear doesn't hear any musical information from the left channel and vice versa, although listening with speakers both of your ears do hear sound from both channels.)\\n\\nThe overall sonic presentation is slightly forward and detailed, not smooth and relaxed (a la certain Sennheiser models).\\n\\nOverall, these are a solid set of sealed headphones that can be used at home or with portable devices. They have an elegant, classic appearance and feel well made.\\n\\nMy only substantive complaint is the cord microphonics, which are distracting when using the headphones in a portable fashion.\",\n \"Product: ASUS Wireless Duo Wireless Hard Drive support every major operating system with expandable storage and integrated SD Card reader. Fir any further issues, please reach out to ASUS's customer support @ 1-812-282-2787 or Web: http://service.asus.com\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: Neat concept, but falls down on actual functionality\\n\\nReview: I've been using personal computers since the early 1980s and am still frequently amazed by the innovative products that companies turn out. I'm also fairly tech savvy and have built a few computers in recent years. I have had experience with ASUS before and have used their motherboards in all of the computers I've built. So I was excited to try this product.\\n\\nI have a big audio media library (more than 500gb of FLAC files) and was excited to try this portable wireless hard drive as a way to play those files around the house without uploading them a few at a time to my Android smart phone, which only has about 32gb of storage. Unfortunately, it hasn't worked out.\\n\\nAs for the drive itself, it is stylish, with a wave pattern under the glossy top surface. It has some non-skid nubs on the bottom to keep it in position where you set it down. And it has a USB 3.0 micro input, a power button, and a card reader slot. The USB input and card reader are covered with little plastic/rubber plugs that attach to the body of the drive. Pretty simple, and a sleek design. It's bulkier than a standard portable hard drive these days, but that clearly has to do with the included battery, card reader, and WiFi radio in the unit.\\n\\nBut, for me at any rate, this drive falls down on compatibility and functionality. After charging it for the recommended time, I tried hooking it up to the USB 3.0 ports on two of my computers using the included cable and pressed the power button. The power indicator came on on the drive. And then . . . nothing. Windows 8.1 did not recognize this drive on the USB 3.0 port. I know there is nothing wrong with the ports because I have other USB 3.0 portable drives that function perfectly on them. I made sure the USB 3.0 driver on the computers was updated to the most recent version -- it was -- but I could not get this drive to show up using the included cable. So I tried one of my older micro-terminated USB 2.0 cables plugged into the USB 3.0 ports on the computers. Surprise surprise, the drive showed up now on both computers. Perhaps the included cable was somehow defective.\\n\\nI got my media library loaded onto the drive in a few hours. I then downloaded the ASUS Wireless Duo app from the Android store and followed the instructions. I set my phone to use the WiFi signal from the Duo (a LED indicator next to the power button on the drive shows when WiFi is active) and started the app. Nothing. It will not show the drive or its contents in the app. After error messages, it keeps putting me back into the local storage on the phone, a Galaxy Note 3 running Lollipop. Troubleshooting hasn't worked. Overall, this has been quite frustrating and disappointing.\\n\\nI'll update this review if I can get the WiFi function working from ASUS's app. If not, this stands as a two-star device because it is expensive and bulky for a 1 TB portable drive without the promised wireless functionality and promised Android compatibility.\",\n \"Product: MEGACRA Bluetooth TV sound bar\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Pleasantly full and accurate sound from small, sleek units\\n\\nReview: I hooked up a pair of the MartinLogan Motion 4 speakers to spruce up the sound of the TV we have in our bedroom. Using a Yamaha receiver with decent current capability, these speakers really open up. Using the SPDIF output from our Verizon FIOS box and the DAC in the receiver, we get clear dialog and sound for TV and movies. At times, the tweeters are actually a bit too revealing -- stations that don't do a good job with their audio (e.g., ones that run poorly produced local ads) stand exposed before you as you hear all the hiss and compression.\\n\\nUsing a Harman/Kardan DVD player as an audio source, the speakers do a good job with music to reasonably loud volumes. They're wonderful for acoustic and folk, competent for jazz, and fair for rock/dance. We're using them without a subwoofer (it's a bedroom set up, after all), so music that depends on thumping bass comes up a bit short. For acoustic, jazz, and classical, however, they do a nice job of imaging (given the source we're using to drive them) and provide a good, airy presentation that makes instruments sound natural.\\n\\nThese knock the socks off the old 5 1/4\\\" Infinity speakers we used to use, making those sound like an old man with chest congestion by comparison.\\n\\nThe piano-black plastic finish is attractive, but you'll see plenty of fingerprints and dust. Get some microfiber cleaning cloths to keep them clean and free from scratches. The grilles are OK, but they don't seem to detach at all. No biggie.\\n\\nAll in all, these are a solid choice for someone looking to take a step up from the bulk, consumer-oriented Polk/Infinity bookshelf speakers that you find at most big box electronics stores.\",\n \"Product: TSST Ultra-Portable Wireless Bluetooth Speaker S6, Clear and Powerful Sound, Flip Cover for Protection and Various Way of Stand, Works with iPhone, iPad, iPod, SAMSUNG Galaxy Phones, Galaxy Tabs, LG Smartphones, iTouch, Blackberry, Nexus, Lumia, MP3 Players, etc.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Decent inexpensive portable Bluetooth speaker but it does not \\\"provide the services on life and safety\\\" [sic]\\n\\nReview: This S6 portable Bluetooth speaker is a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, it is quite simple to use and, for the price, offers fairly decent sound. On the other hand, it has some features that are hit and miss, like the integrated cover/stand. For example, the vinyl/pleather cover is glued to the back of the device and is one with it and cannot be removed. It secures to the front of the device with concealed magnets when closed.\\n\\nThe speaker was simple to use. After charging it via a USB port or phone charger with Micro USB cable, just hold the power button down for a few seconds, and the speaker enters pairing mode. It paired immediately with my Galaxy Note 3. There is a red LED concealed under the metal mesh in the curved edge of the speaker (at bottom in the product photo) that shows when it is charging, and a blue/white LED that shows when in pairing mode.\\n\\nThe speaker does not have a volume dial or rocker switch. It is controlled by the device with which it's paired.\\n\\nThe speaker has two ports -- one is Micro USB for charging, and the other is the AUX jack, so you can plug in a 1/8\\\" cable to listen to non-Bluetooth sources. (It isn't clear to me how to control volume for line level input across the 1/8\\\" port. If it's a variable level source, you use the volume dial on the source device.) The power button is the only control on the speaker. That's it. There no volume control or microphone for hands-free speakerphone calls.\\n\\nFrankly, the sound is not great in absolute terms. I listened to some FLAC files from my music library on my phone, and the sound is boomy and there is no detail retrieval. However, in this price range, the sound is competitive. It can get surprisingly loud. It suffices for audio for streaming video or for background music. But this is by no means an audiophile product.\\n\\nI've included a photo of the first page of the \\\"INTRONDUCTION\\\" [sic] pamphlet that comes with the speaker. Don't expect to understand the instructions. It's an ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US sort of document. It's a good thing that it's so easy to use the speaker. Just don't expect it to \\\"provide the services on life and safety.\\\"\\n\\nBottom line, this is a simple, cheap Bluetooth speaker that functions well for about three sawbucks. If you are looking for portable audio with a low price tag and acceptable sound, this one should be on your list.\",\n \"Product: The Archer C2600 unleashes your homes Wi-Fi with blazing 4-stream technology. Game online and stream in 4K HD with four streams of data at 2.53Gbps of total Wi-Fi throughput over dual 2.4GHz (800Mbps) and 5GHz (1733Mbps) bands. MU-MIMO serves more devices at once for faster Wi-Fi and less wait time. Enjoy non-stop entertainment on your smartphones, smart TVs, and game consoles and experience high-speed connections during heavy network traffic thanks to a powerful 1.4GHz dual-core CPU. Beamforming targets and delivers stronger signal to each connected device for maximum performance. Manage Wi-Fi settings from your mobile device with the Tether App.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Fast and great signal\\n\\nReview: We are using this TP-Link wireless router via a bridged Verizon FiOS coax modem/router. It replaced a Linksys router that was several years old.\\n\\nThe router was easy to set up and configure. It looks sharp and does not get as hot as the Linksys did.\\n\\nWe are getting great reception around the house, probably owing to the MIMO antenna setup. This includes a PC that sits upstairs from the router by a wall that has a heavy wire mesh lath screen in it (i.e., a big impediment to wireless signals!).\\n\\nThe router doesn't hiccup even when several members of the household are simultaneously streaming content from our broadband connection. It will deliver the full 75mbs of bandwidth wirelessly, which beats the Linksys it replaced. We are not experiencing signal dropouts either. All in all, a great wireless router.\",\n \"Product: PNY Anarchy 16GB Kit (2x8GB) DDR3 2133MHz (PC3-17000) CL10 Desktop Memory (BLUE) - MD16GK2D3213310AB. For more than 30 years, PNY has been rigorously engineering, sourcing, testing, and manufacturing memory upgrades for thousands of the most popular PC platforms.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Decent kit, but overkill unless you're running shared memory video solutions\\n\\nReview: Decent memory, but you're unlikely to detect a performance difference vs 1600 mhz RAM unless you're running a system that uses shared memory for video (such as an AMD APU system based on the FM2+ socket). The latencies on this memory tend to nullify the boost in clock speed when compared with tight timings on a 1600 mhz kit (like 8-8-8-24 or better). Also, you will not see much speed difference in basic applications like web surfing or YouTube viewing (despite some ludicrous and unsupportable claims in reviews here to the contrary). It's only in memory intensive processing that you'll actually notice any difference.\\n\\nThat said, this is a good kit for the price. It runs well in an AMD 8320 system on a Gigabyte 990FX motherboard. It just isn't noticeably faster in everyday use than the 1866 mhz 9-9-9-27 1T command rate RAM it replaced.\",\n \"Product: APC 11-Outlet Surge Protector Power Strip with USB Charging Ports, 2880 Joules, SurgeArrest Home/Office (P11U2)\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Good strip -- the charging is a nice feature\\n\\nReview: I've used APC products for years, going back to an Uninterruptible Power Supply in the mid 1990s. They usually make fine power solutions.\\n\\nThis surge protector power strip is no exception. Although much of it is plastic and is made in China, the features are good. It has a relatively flat, angled plug so you can get it into an outlet behind furniture. The charging ports are a nice extra feature and provide a pretty quick charge at 2.4 amp capacity at 5 volts. The unit also has LEDs to signal whether there's a wiring fault in the outlet/building power (usually an open ground or reversed hot/neutral) that might prevent full surge protection.\\n\\nOverall, it's a nice power supply strip and basic surge protector. I wish it were a little more substantial feeling, but that just seems to be the way things are made these days.\",\n \"Product: The Seagate Mobile HDD offers a thin size, huge storage and amazing value. Seagate's highest-capacity thin 7mm laptop drives, in capacities up to 2TB. Incredible value with best cost per TB and cost per millimeter for thin mobile/laptop customers. Light in weight to support portable computers without adding bulk. Enables drop-in 2TB capacity transition without the weight of traditional laptop drives. Stores up to 200,000 photos, 250,000 songs or 124 hours of high-definition video. Standard SATA 6Gb/s interface promotes ease of integration into an existing mobile/laptop design. Easy deployment for laptop upgrades while enabling the small 7mm form factor system design. Ideal for traditional laptops, convertible and detachable storage and slim consumer electronic devices.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Good value for a notebook form factor hard drive with a lot of storage\\n\\nReview: I needed some backup space for a large media library. This Seagate drive has a smaller form factor (2.5\\\", common for notebook computers vs. the standard 3.5\\\" desktop spinning hard drive size), which is what I was looking for. I dropped it into a USB 3.0 external drive housing from Orico: (<a data-hook=\\\"product-link-linked\\\" class=\\\"a-link-normal\\\" href=\\\"/ORICO-2599US3-Tool-Free-USB-3-0-Hard-Drive-Disk-HDD-External-Enclosure-Case-With-USB-3-0-Cable-for-9-5mm-7mm-2-5-quot-SATA-HDD-and-SSD-Black/dp/B011I5ZTIS/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\\\">ORICO 2599US3 Tool Free USB 3.0 Hard Drive Disk HDD External Enclosure Case With USB 3.0 Cable for 9.5mm 7mm 2.5\\\" SATA HDD and SSD-Black</a>). It slid right in and, after formatting the drive in Windows 10's disk management application, I had nearly 2 full terabytes of space to back up my lossless audio collection.\\n\\nTransfer speeds were good across the USB 3.0 connection, although I'm sure the drive is capable of better speeds if it is attached directly to a SATA port in a notebook computer. I have not been able to locate any information about the speed at which the drive spins (i.e., some notebook hard drives are 5400 rpm and some are slower). The seek time on this drive is fair but not outstanding. Still, with the smaller launch profile of Windows 10, it would likely work well as a main drive in a notebook irrespective of the rotational speed and seek time.\\n\\nIn all, a great value for a large amount of storage. SSDs are coming down in price, but you can't even come close to this amount of storage for less than several hundreds of dollars for even a basic SSD.\",\n \"Product: Stay connected during your wildest outdoor adventures. With a rugged, fully waterproof* design, emergency features and a 35-mile range, the T600 H2O keeps you connected and protected during your extreme outdoor activities. The T600 H2O is packed with top-of-the-line radio features, including the ability to float* and a water-activated flashlight. The flashlight also includes a red LED to preserve night vision. With these exceptional capabilities, you can count on the T600 H2O to deliver reliable communications during your wildest adventures - whether by land or by sea. How far can I expect my radios to communicate? The communication range quoted is calculated based on an unobstructed line of sight test under optimum conditions. Actual range will vary depending on terrain and conditions, and is often less than the maximum possible. Your actual range will be limited by several factors including, but not limited to: terrain, weather conditions, electromagnetic interference and obstructions.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Great pair of radio handsets with clever features\\n\\nReview: My dad got a pair of Motorola walkie talkies about fifteen years ago, and they were great. This latest line of water resistant digital walkie talkies demonstrates how far things have come in that period. From the LED flashlight to the multiple channel and substantial range, these handsets are durable and easy to use. We have used them around the neighborhood and have had no connectivity issues within about a mile. We haven't had the opportunity to use them out in the wild, although we're looking forward to taking them along on some rafting trips later this summer.\\n\\nThe handsets offer multiple channels, a variety of clever functions (e.g., the belt clip doubles as a whistle!), and great sound quality. I will update this review once we have a chance to put them through their paces out on the river.\",\n \"Product: PNYs Elite X USB 3.0 is Built for Speed & Convenience. Get the most out of the USB 3.0 port on your new computer. Experience USB 3.0 next generation speed performance with transfer speeds up to 185MB/sec! Its the perfect solution for easily storing and quickly transferring all your large documents, high-resolution photos, HD videos, and more. USB 3.0 offers the same ease-of-use and plug-and-play capabilities as previous generations of USB technologies, but with exceptional speed improvements. Designed for Reliable Portable Storage PNY's Elite X USB 3.0 Flash Drive is designed with convenience and portability in mind. This USB 3.0 Flash Drive is small in size, but big on performance!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Decent flash drive with incredible capacity for the price\\n\\nReview: As a kid in the 1980s with a Commodore 64 computer, I used to think that 140K of storage on a floppy disk was pretty great. I could never have imagined this kind of storage capacity or transfer speeds in a small device like this USB flash drive.\\n\\nHooking this up to a USB 3.0 port on a computer I built with an AMD processor and an ASUS motherboard and running Windows 10, I'm getting incredible transfer speeds on my lossless music files and on videos (usually north of 60mb per second). While USB 3.0 is capable of raw transfer speeds much higher than that, remember that this device has to record the data into memory. 60mb per second is pretty quick for recording data on a flash drive.\\n\\nThe unit isn't the sturdiest one I've ever encountered: it's got a plastic housing that seems a little chintzy. There is a sliding cover for the USB connector, but it doesn't always stay in place if you throw it in a bag or put it in your pocket. Still, if you take reasonably good care of it, it seems like it will stand the test of time.\",\n \"Product: This high-quality Digital Audio Converter (DAC) delivers upgraded sound to any USB compatible computer. The USB DAC is ideal when used to bypass the low-grade internal sound card in your computer, adding a higher fidelity to your digital music library. Included with this DAC is a unique music player software package incorporating Direct Streaming Technology which outputs an exact bit-copy of the original source by resampling the Kernel Mixer of your PC. The software is compatible with Windows, MacOS and Linux operating systems. Power is supplied to the USB Box via the USB port. 4-Inch width x 1.5-Inch Height x 5.6-Inch depth; weight 1.2 lbs. Silver or Black finish.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Excellent little USB DAC for average applications\\n\\nReview: My ten-year old office cd player/radio was stolen several weeks ago. Rather than buy a replacement--I couldn't find anything comparable--I picked up one of these Pro-Ject USB Boxes (Amazon had the silvers ones at less than half of list price for a short span) and some decent amplified speakers to pry my music collection from the hard drive of my work computer. Obviously, that's not an audiophile set up. However, converting the 0s and 1s to music outside of the computer improved the sound significantly over the internal soundcard's analog outputs. There is no crackling or hiss, which I was getting from the Creative Audigy PCI card's outputs.\\n\\nI can imagine that this would be a satisfactory DAC for most listeners for most applications. Audiophiles might take issue with it for a few reasons. However, if you're listening to any kind of lossy compressed files (i.e., most MP3, AAC, or WMA files), you won't worry that the box is powered by the computer's USB line voltage (5v) instead of a better regulated and cleaner separate power supply. My collection is in lossless compression, but I don't hear any incredible difference between those files and the one or two MP3 downloads I have in the collection. The amplified speakers I'm using simply aren't revealing enough to demonstrate exactly how the USB Box is handling everything. (At home, I use a solid Headroom DAC and headroom amplifier -- that rig reveals a clear difference between lossless and lossy compression.)\\n\\nThat said, the setup sounds good and clean. The USB Box is doing its job well. It's solidly made and is heavier than you might expect such a small unit to be. It has rubber feet so it doesn't slide around. It's also quite simple -- there's a USB mini port for the input from the computer, and there's a pair of RCA outputs (L + R). There are no switches, lights, or other unnecessary complexity. Setup was simple. I plugged the USB cable into it, and Windows XP recognized it immediately. You can use the included software or other media players.\\n\\nIt's a neat little device. Check it out.\\n\\n-----------\\n\\nUPDATE 8/17/09\\n\\nThe Pro-Ject USB Box failed today, only about a month after I started using it. It still generates output, but it is full of digital distortion, as if a chip in the box has partially failed. It is the box, not my computer, as another outboard USB DAC from Headroom works fine with the computer. So now I'll get to try out Pro-Ject's customer support. I'll report back what my experience is. [It turns out that Sumiko is the U.S. distributor of this product for Pro-Ject, which is an Austrian company with a factory in the Czech Republic. Sumiko advised me that Amazon handles the warranty claims. Amazon is going to send me a replacement unit in exchange for mine.]\\n\\nUPDATE 8/20/09\\n\\nBecause Amazon doesn't have the item in stock and doesn't know when more will arrive, I asked that they refund me for the defective unit. They are doing so. So the customer service experience was pretty good over all, although the failure of the Pro-Ject USB Box after a month was a disappointment. I'm going to try an HRT MusicStreamer instead.\",\n \"Product: The Mushkin Enhanced Redline Series stands in a class by itself. No other memory modules on the face of the globe can compare with the Redline in terms of performance or speed. Redline Series modules grace the world's most elite systems; if you want your rig be world-class as well, just take the Redline.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Another Solid Mushkin Product\\n\\nReview: My experience with Mushkin runs from some DDR memory I got to expand an old Dell, one of their Callisto SSDs, and this excellent set of DDR3-1600 sticks. (I purchased this RAM from another site, where there are frequently Mushkin rebates. Got it for four sawbucks less.)\\n\\nI installed this memory in a system I built on an ASUS P6-X58D-E motherboard with an i7-930 processor. Initially, the memory was running at a slower clock speed with looser timings. However, a quick change in the BIOS to select the memory's XMP profile worked perfectly. CPUID reports 6-8-6-24 timing at 1.65 volts. Haven't tried to OC it, but I've read of others doing so with success and tighter timing. (UPDATE: I've tightened the timing up to 6-8-6-20, and still no errors in Memtest+.)\\n\\nThe REDLINE series is just about top of the line for Mushkin, standing above their BLACKLINE and shoulder to shoulder with their new RIDGELINE. Having had good experiences with Mushkin memory in the past, I expect this set will last a good long time. Having read a lot of reviews written by disappointed consumers of memory from other manufacturers (like G.Skill, OCZ, and Corsair), Mushkin is going to continue be my first choice in the future. I highly recommend their products.\",\n \"Product: If you listen to music on headphones via a computer, iPad, Surface tablet or a Samsung Galaxy S ll or lll phone and want better sound quality then HRT's HeadStreamer Mobile is the perfect solution. Technically, HeadStreamer Mobile is a USB-connected and powered dedicated headphone amplifier/sound card designed to seamlessly interface with PC, Linux, and Macintosh computers, iPads (1, 2 & 3), Microsoft Surface tablet and the Samsung Galaxy S ll and lll phones. It directly decodes the digital music data stream from the computer, tablet or phone's hard drive into analog music for headphone listening.\\n\\nLike other HRT products, set up and operation is super-easy: just use the included USB cable to hook the USB input of the HeadStreamer Mobile into any available USB port on the host computer*. The HeadStreamer Mobile automatically performs an \\\"electronic handshake\\\" with the source device and tells it that the HeadStreamer Mobile is here, that it is to get all audio signals sent to it instead of the Digital-to-Analog converter (DAC) that is built into the computer, tablet or phone... And that's it, the HeadStreamer Mobile, is in charge of all data-transfer timing instructions. Then just plug your headphones into the 1/8\\\" analog output jack on HeadStreamer Mobile. Now you are ready to stream some music, either directly by playing a disc through the computers optical drive, or read as a digital file from your computer, tablet or phone's hard drive. You will literally never need a stand-alone CD player again to enjoy all the music in your CD collection in high quality sound through headphones. If you happen to have other higher-resolution files (up to 24bit/96k) stored on your HD, you can also play them in their full native resolution (no up-sampling).\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Amazing little DAC/amp -- UPDATE: Now Discontinued\\n\\nReview: For years, I've done most of my listening via DAC and headphone configurations, streaming lossless files from my computer. I have a HeadRoom Desktop amp with their DAC circa 2006. I was an HRT early adopter, however, and picked up the original MusicStreamer+ back in 2008. That was a great product, and the company let me upgrade it to a MusicStreamer II+ at a steep discount last year so I could get the benefits of their new asynchronous USB circuit. (I tell you this because, during that process, I was in direct contact with Kevin Halverson, the company's owner, who is quite enthusiastic about bringing great sound to people at reasonable prices. Great service!)\\n\\nAnyway, when I wanted to get a portable amp so I could listen at work, I went back to HRT, having been impressed with their low-cost solutions in the past. The HeadStreamer lives up to the excellent reputation the company has been earning.\\n\\nI listen with a set of AKG K240 Mk. II headphones at 55 ohms impedance and stream FLAC encoded files at 16/44.1 and 24/44.1 from a machine running WinXP 32. This little DAC/amp does them justice. The sound is detailed and clear, with actual separation of instruments. The bass is tight and controlled and sounds great on the AKGs. Mids and highs are clear without being harsh.\\n\\nMy only complaint is that I sometimes get a bit of lag/computer induced distortion when switching files in Outlook. No WASPI in WinXP 32. (I have no similar problems using the HeadStreamer on my home PC running Win 7 64 and using WASPI.) That isn't the fault of the HeadStreamer, though.\\n\\nIn all, this and a decent pair of headphones will give you amazing results and bang for your buck for less than you would spend on an entry-level consumer grade home receiver and speakers. If you really want to hear well into your music, check this little wonder out.\\n\\n-------------\\nUPDATE\\n-------------\\n\\nThis product is now discontinued by HRT in favor of their newer MicroStreamer, which, like the HeadStreamer, is an outboard DAC and headphone amp. However, the MicroStreamer also has a line level output that makes it suitable for use as a line source for a home amplifier. It's a bit pricier, so you still might be interested in snapping up one of these excellent little HeadStreamers before they're all gone.\",\n \"Product: Packed carefully, it will be shipped quickly from Amazon. Good condition as secondhand goods! There are small scratches because it is second hands but no problem enjoy using this.No Box, instruction manual, amp device only, no accessories .Thank you!!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Excellent DAC and amp, but, given other options out there, only really viable for a niche market\\n\\nReview: After downloading the driver from Sony's website, we were off and running with this headphone amp on a Windows 8.1 machine.\\n\\nI've used several headphone amps over the years, from HeadRoom's Desktop amp with Class A circuitry to HRT's portable HeadStreamer (with asynchronous DAC) and MicroStreamer (with asynchronous DAC).\\n\\nOverall, the build quality on this Sony unit is solid, with metal everywhere. The volume control is smooth and has a feel of quality. The \\\"bumpers\\\" on the front, designed to protect the headphone plug and volume knob in portable use, take some getting used to -- I couldn't plug in a solid body 1/8 to 1/4 adapter. You'll have to use a 1/8 to 1/4 jack cord-type adapter if you want to use your traditional larger phones with this.\\n\\nThe unit has a rechargeable battery, and it runs off of that DC power source. It will use a computer's USB port to recharge, but it does not operate from the computer power source alone. (Both of the HRT's regenerate the 5v from the computer's USB port to power themselves.)\\n\\nThe sound is great. It will drive my Austrian AKG 701s to respectable levels with clarity and authority.\\n\\nI have ripped my CD library in FLAC format using dBpoweramp's ripping utility, which guarantees bit-perfect files. It also will retrieve HDCD information and encode it in 24-bit format (leaving a few 0s above the 20 bits in the HDCD signal), which I did. Those FLAC files sounded great playing back through this unit. Like the HRTs, this unit uses an asychronous USB interface, so you don't have to spring for some bazillion dollar USB cord to make it sound respectable. Most standard cords are just fine because the unit guards against the kind of cord-induced jitter that you can get from the older adaptive USB interface, where the DAC is at the mercy of the incoming signal and the computer's clock.\\n\\nI have a few 96khz files as well. As you would expect, those come through marvelously, too. The Sony isn't limited to the 24 bit/96khz of a USB 1 interface like the HRT models -- it uses the full USB 2.0 bandwith, so it can accept 192khz inputs. I don't have any audio encoded at that resolution at this point, but based on what I'm hearing with the 96khz files, I can only guess that this PHA-2 would handle it well.\\n\\nOverall, the sound is deep and clear. Listening to some of my classical files, I get good separation among instruments and plenty of bass definition. The three-dimensional soundstaging of the AKG K701s shines with this amp, with great separation among instruments. Same holds for rock and electronic. The Sony uses its DC battery well and has plenty of dynamic oomph, even with the 701s. Overall, the sound is smoother and more refined than the portable USB-powered HeadStreamer or MicroStreamer.\\n\\nMy only qualm is that I would like to be able to listen without having to worry about the level of the battery. With the single cord from the computer, however, it seems limited to either listening or charging, not both at once.\\n\\nAlthough this unit is well equipped to be used with a portable device, like an iPod or smartphone, I have not tried to use this with a portable device. I still have a Zune, which isn't compatible. And I don't like the idea of having this unit strapped to my smartphone because I actually have to use my phone a lot for work, not just listening. But Sony includes a rubber spacer and a few straps that will fasten this securely to a phone or other portable device. (You have to select your input source manually with a switch on the back of the unit.)\\n\\nOverall, if you're just looking for something to use with a laptop computer or at home, you might do well to check out the HRT MicroStreamer and put the difference into the headphones. If you're really looking for a battery powered amp to use with a portable device on long airplane trips, etc., I think this would be an excellent choice. But given all the other options on the market for USB DACs/headphone amplifiers, it really is a niche product for a niche market (i.e., the traveler with a high-resolution library on portable devices). The sound is even, deep, and excellent, but it's hard to justify the additional expense over competing products unless you really need the battery-powered portability of this one.\",\n \"Product: The Riis expands from an overnight bag to a weekender simply by changing the position of the shoulder strap. Two interior zip pockets, as well as three slip pockets and pen holders, offer additional ways to organize essentials inside this duffle.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Sharp looking and functional; handles could be better\\n\\nReview: This duffle bag is nicely finished. It looks really sharp. The leather is good quality and smells like . . . leather. The zippers are metal and operate smoothly. Inside, there is a fabric lining that includes a few pockets, including a zippered one inside of the front of the bag. The nylon is a substantial ballistic-type nylon and is relatively smooth (not like Cordura). The strap also is substantial, sort of like a thicker version of a seatbelt. There is no shoulder pad on the strap.\\n\\nMy only grip is the handles. They are finished in leather but have little to no padding. If you had anything remotely heavy in the bag, it would be quite uncomfortable to carry without the shoulder strap.\\n\\nOverall, it's a great looking bag that seems like it will hold up well. Just remember to take good care of the leather bottom.\",\n \"Product: The new OD-1 is guaranteed to shift your knife need into OverDrive. Designed by Lee Williams, the OD-1 features a blade of Sandvik 14C28N stainless steel for superior hardness, excellent corrosion resistance, and its ability to be sharpened to a precision edge. This premium blade is paired with a handsome two-toned handletextured, black G-10 on one side and pure stainless steel on the other. The OD-1 features Flipper ambidextrous opening; just pull back on the blade protrusion and flick your wrist forward slightly to open the blade and lock it in place. Once the blade is open, the blade protrusion folds neatly into a recess in the liner to give the OD-1 a smooth line all the way down.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Excellent value in an American made knife\\n\\nReview: I've owned various utility and camping knives over the years, from a Puma Backpacker forged in Solingen, Germany that I got as a young teen to Swiss Army knives and a few other folding blades. This American made Kershaw knife is among my favorites for its size, ergonomics, fit and finish, and blend of features.\\n\\nFirst off, the G-10 scale makes it easy for a right handed person to keep a grip on this knife, even when working in wet conditions. G-10 is a composite with fiberglass at its core, and it provides an excellent traction surface. It's also tough as nails. The reverse side of the knife is finished stainless steel. It doesn't have a separate scale on it -- the stainless steel side is part of the knife's frame. It's fairly substantial and includes the \\\"frame lock\\\" feature that, when the blade is deployed, keeps the knife rock solid -- that blade doesn't wiggle a bit. It's still easy to close the knife, but it does take two hands. It's an ingenious system. Because that side of the knife is a slab of stainless steel, and because the frame lock feature works by having a part of the frame move behind the blade when deployed, there is a cut in the back side that allows that part of the frame to move and provide this useful function.\\n\\nThe blade, made of a high carbon steel specifically engineered to provide durable and sharp cutting edges for knives and razors, is easy to deploy. The knife has a leveraged system. You pull on the small knurled fixture on the back of the knife near the blade's pivot point, and the blade deploys readily. (This is not like Kershaw flipper knives where you generally need to flick your wrist while pulling an extended tang -- compare with the Skyline, for example. This one will fully deploy the blade just by pulling on the knurled fixture. My wife, who cannot easily open a flipper knife, deploys this blade with no problem. That's the advantage of levers, as Archimedes would have told you. Still, it requires enough deliberate force that, unless you're the type who routinely runs with scissors and acts carelessly with razor sharp knives, you're not going to deploy it accidentally when removing it from your pocket.) With the blade deployed, the knurled fixture finds repose in a recess in the back of the knife, giving it smooth lines. Another reviewer complains that the knurled deploying fixture might cause injury. Unless you go around indiscriminately thrusting your hands into your pockets with great force, however, I can't see that being a realistic problem. The fixture is round. You'd really have to punch your hand into your pocket before that would pose any kind of a risk to you. You'd be more likely to cut yourself on your car keys. Or a quarter.\\n\\nThe edge is razor sharp and well ground from the factory. This knife has a blade just over 3 inches long and is useful for many small chores. The point is very fine, however, so it obviously isn't for heavy piercing tasks -- with a harder stainless steel blade like this one, you might break the point if you use it for heavy piercing or prying. But it's a marvelous utility knife for edge uses. I was surprised by the thickness of the back side of the blade -- thicker than a Kershaw Blur.\\n\\nAs with many Kershaw knives, there are two sets of small screw holes that permit the owner to reverse the clip, which is well-finished stainless steel and laser engraved with the Kershaw name.\\n\\nAt bottom, this is a great value and shows that Americans are still adept at manufacturing cleverly-engineered high quality goods. In the hand, this knife simply feels like it was manufactured to specific tolerances. It's light but feels substantial. The fit and finish are excellent. While some people who demand absolute symmetry in everything might not like the stainless steel side of the knife, it gives the knife a unique look. (It vaguely reminds me of those Swiss watches that allow you to see some of the gears in the movement through the face -- the engineering is obvious and part of what makes the knife attractive.) To each his own, I suppose. Just don't let it blind you to the fact that this is one handy EDC knife.\",\n \"Product: Four waves of increasingly deadly alien attacks have left most of Earth decimated. Against a backdrop of fear and distrust, Cassie (Chloë Grace Moretz) is on the run, desperately trying to save her younger brother. As she prepares for the inevitable and lethal 5th wave, Cassie teams up with a young man who may become her final hope – if she can only trust him.\\n\\nRating: 1.0\\n\\nSummary: Don't bother. Read Heinlein's The Puppet Masters instead.\\n\\nReview: There is nothing original to see in The 5th Wave. The premise is an alien invasion of earth, proceeding in waves, each one designed to eliminate and soften up the human population. After some fairly laughable acting and implausible development, the aliens arrive. Only you never see them because they essentially take over people. (Heinlein's Puppet Masters, anyone?) In an attempt to make this into some kind of post-apocalyptic anti-authority thriller like The Hunger Games or Divergent, the story pits children (good) against adults (bad). There is almost no character development, and the story lurches on for what seems to be an eternity before reaching a pretty dismal \\\"resolution\\\" that doesn't actually resolve much of anything other than the fact that you realize you just wasted precious moments of your life on a slapdash excuse for a sci-fi Chloe Grace Moretz vehicle that never gets out of the gate.\",\n \"Product: I want to play my music through my car stereo and answer phones call via the built-in bluetooth in my phone.\\\"\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Works well enough, but not needed in many new cars\\n\\nReview: I have a Samsung Galaxy SII phone. I use it with a Logitech bluetooth adapter at work to stream music over a pair of desktop speakers, so I was used to using Bluetooth for audio. I figured that this Belkin product would be worth checking out for an older car that can play CDs but not mp3 files from disc.\\n\\nThe device installs easily and the wires aren't too obtrusive. The audio quality is good enough for road use and is sufficient for both music and calls. Others have noted that the device doesn't autoconnect. I end up having to go through a screen or two on the phone to hook it up and get audio playing. And, if I'm not careful about it, the music just starts blaring out of the phone. That's a small hassle, but a notable one.\\n\\nThe device seems reasonably durable.\\n\\nAll in all, this is a reasonable solution for people with cars that don't have the latest Sync systems. It might not be the most convenient system in the world, but it gets the job done fairly well and will save you from hauling around massive libraries of CDs.\",\n \"Product: Motorola P617 rapid dual USB car charger with micro USB data cable provides universal power to charge via USB. Each port provides 850 mA of power for rapid charge and conveniently charges most products within two hours.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Motorola makes some good car chargers\\n\\nReview: This Motorola dual charger gets the job done. I previously had a Motorola auto charger that had a single micro USB output. It worked pretty well; however, the cable wasn't detachable -- if you didn't have a micro USB input on the device you were trying to charge, you were sunk.\\n\\nThis dual charger, which does include a USB to micro USB cable, provides much more flexibility. Not only can my wife and I charge our phones at the same time, but we can swap out the cables and, using other cables, charge our daughter's Nintendo DS, etc.\\n\\nThe charger will top off our phones (Samsung Galaxy SII) pretty quickly.\\n\\nIt seats securely in the 12 volt outlet and has an LED indicator to show the electrical connection with the car is in effect.\\n\\nIn all, it's a fine charger. The detachable cable makes it easier to store and gives it the flexibility that many people need given the broad assortment of gadgets in our lives these days. Because it has two outlets, it lets those of us swimming in gadgets to keep them charged.\",\n \"Product: OtterBox is known for making highly protective cases that work when it really matters. The slim Commuter Series case is one that you can rely on to guard your device against damage from drops and scrapes.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Good case for Note 3\\n\\nReview: By way of disclosure, I received a sample of this product for evaluation purposes.\\n\\nI previously had a hybrid Spigen case on my Note 3. While it looked nice, it added quite a bit to the sides of the phone, which made it even harder to hold. It also didn't offer much of a ridge around the screen, which made me nervous that I might break the screen if the phone fell on its face.\\n\\nThis OtterBox case is narrower around the sides of the phone and offers a larger, rubberized ridge around the screen.\\n\\nThe port covers line up well. I'm not a tremendous fan of them, though, because they put some pressure on whatever connector you're plugging in, which results in lateral pressure on the ports in the phone. That can't be great. But they do keep dust out.\\n\\nThe side buttons line up well. I have no difficulties turning the phone off or waking it up, and the volume adjuster works well, too.\\n\\nThe case has a plastic shield that attaches over the bulk of the inner case, which has a bit of a rubbery consistency. The plastic makes it easy to slip the phone in and out of your pocket.\\n\\nI already had a good screen protector on my phone, so I didn't use the included one and cannot comment on it, but OtterBox does provide a small microfiber cloth to help you clean the screen of dust and oils before applying the screen protector, which is a nice thought.\\n\\nOverall, I found this to be a better case than the Spigen case for the way I use the phone. It isn't ostentatious. Just functional. I recommend it without reservation. I just wish they didn't make the port covers put so much pressure on connectors.\",\n \"Product: Layers of color and texture combine with a tailored fit for ultimate protection and style. Rubber silicone base cushions phone while rigid shell protects device from bumps and scratches. Full access to all buttons and ports keep you connected and able to use your phone's many capabilities.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Pretty good case for the money. Somewhat difficult to snap rigid portion on phone during assembly.\\n\\nReview: My wife was looking for a better case than the wallet case she had for her S4. This Case Logic case is a hybrid, with a rubberized interior that jackets the phone and a hard shell that fits over the interior. It was a little difficult fitting the hard shell over the interior jacket -- it is really stiff.\\n\\nThe cutouts all line up properly. The on/off and volume switches operate well. They are covered by the interior jacket and protrude through cutouts in the hard shell.\\n\\nThe design on the back is a bit funky, but it aids in holding the phone -- those grooves give your fingers something to hold on to. No telling yet whether a lot of grime/dust/lint will accumulate there between the shell and interior jacket.\\n\\nThere is a raised bezel around the edge of the screen, so it can be placed face down without much risk of scratching the glass.\\n\\nIn all, it's a pretty decent case. I have an Otter Box case on my phone, and this comes close in quality for a lot less money.\",\n \"Product: On-the-road charging recreated for your power-hungry devices.PowerIQ: Compatibility maximized.Not all charging ports are created equal. Standard ports only charge Apple OR Android devices at full speed. But with PowerIQ technology, each port intelligently identifies your device and seeks to maximize its charging speed (up to 2.4 amps).Powerful yet safe.Using top-grade microchips and built-in fail-safes, we ensure you receive full power and also full safety C it'll never overpower your devices. We incorporated a unique dual-circuit protection system that prevents overvoltage, overcurrent, overheating and short circuits. CE & FCC certified, rest easy knowing your 24W of power is fully under control.Low-profile power.Not only is the Anker? 24W Car Charger powerful, it's also among the smallest in size C beating out even most 10W / 15W options and the same size as our 18W model. Our goal was to keep it light, unobtrusive, and compact C to get the job done with minimal distraction.Popular Compatible Models:Apple (Lightning connector not included): iPhone 5S 5C 5 4S 4; iPads and iPods (except the iPod Classic)Android (Micro-USB connector included): Samsung Galaxy S5 S4 S3 S2, Galaxy Note 3 2; Motorola Droid RAZR MAXX Moto X; HTC One X V S Android (Micro USB 3.0 compatible connector included): Samsung Galaxy S5, Note 3 (To connect, plug the built-in Micro USB tip into the larger of the two connection ports on your device.)\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Fast charging in the car\\n\\nReview: By way of disclosure, I received a sample of this product for evaluation purposes.\\n\\nThe ANKER 24W dual port charger is a compact unit. It comes with a USB cable with a Lightning connector for recent Apple products, but you can use your own cords with the popular Micro USB connectors.\\n\\nThis unit is compact and fits into a vehicle's 12v cigarette lighter power source. It does not have any power indicator LEDs, but it features two charging ports. Using it with my Galaxy Note 3 phone, it charges faster than other chargers I've used in the past. It can charge two devices, like my phone and my daughter's Android tablet, without slowing down the charging time.\\n\\nThe included cord works well with Apple products; it came in handy when a friend needed to charge an iPad.\\n\\nIt feels well made. Check it out if you're looking for a good car charger.\",\n \"Product: The Kodiak Plus takes the popular Kodiak power bank, and makes it, well, better. We added 40% more power into a slimmer and sleeker form factor, dropped a 2nd USB port so you can share your power (if that's your thing), and maintained the shockproof and waterproof features that have come to be the envy of every bar-goer and outdoorsman globally.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Well Made and Great Capacity\\n\\nReview: This portable power source has worked well to charge our Android phones and even other devices that use a 5V USB MICRO input (e.g., wireless headphones).\\n\\nThe battery pack is covered with a textured rubber. The end with the charging port (input is USB MICRO and there are two USB female connectors for 1A and 2.1A outputs) is covered with a rubber cap that flips back but does not detach. This cap provides some measure of protection from dust and moisture, although I don't know that I'd want to be submerging the pack to find out just how well it keeps water out.\\n\\nThe LED indicators that show remaining battery level light up at the press of a button and can be seen through the rubber cap. They also light up when you plug in a device to charge to show that charging is occurring.\\n\\nOverall, this pack seems like it will hold up well over time. It isn't light, but it is portable and has enough capacity to charge several phones or a tablet and a phone. If you spend a lot of time away from your home and car, this is a great portable charger.\",\n \"Product: Studio C, the best value in a 5.0\\\" high definition smartphone available in 5 vibrant colors. Factory installed Android 5.0 Lollipop OS. Super capacity 3000 mAh battery , 1.3 GHz Quad Core Mediatek processor with Arm Mali 400 GPU. 8MP autofocus 3265x2449 camera with 2MP Front camera.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Tremendous bargain for a capable unlocked phone\\n\\nReview: This is the second BLU smartphone I've had a chance to try. I'm still impressed. For a c-note, you can get an unlocked phone with Android Lollipop, a decent screen, a decent camera, and capabilities that match many competing brands that would cost you hundreds of dollars more. Sure, this phone doesn't have a top-of-the-line processor or massive amounts of internal RAM or storage, but the storage is expandable through microSD cards. And the RAM is not a problem unless you are someone who actually needs to be performing several tasks at once, and that isn't most of us. For basic smartphone use, this phone is more than adequate.\\n\\nThe build quality is fine. It is plasticy, but for the price it's a much nicer phone than you might expect. The included transparent cover helps to protect the plastic body against minor bumps and scratches.\\n\\nThe phone has pretty good battery life, too. It has a 3000 mAh battery that will keep you going all day, even if you're surfing the web over WiFi or watching a video.\\n\\nCall quality is fine.\\n\\nLollipop is fairly smooth on this phone. There are times when an app is a bit slow to launch, but I don't think that's unique to this phone: my Galaxy Note 3 has similar stutters and hiccups in Lollipop.\\n\\nOverall, this is a tremendous bargain smartphone. If you're content not to have the absolute top-of-the-line phone and want to save yourself hundreds of dollars, check out BLU's offerings.\",\n \"Product: Introducing Strada, the only leather smartphone folio case for your Samsung Galaxy S6 that combines modern, slim, and sleek style with trusted OtterBox protection.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: A good case with some minor tradeoffs\\n\\nReview: OtterBox is a well-regarded manufacturer of cases for smartphones. I have had several over the years.\\n\\nThis one lives up to the general quality I've come to expect. It fits well and switches and plugs are accessible.\\n\\nThis case has a flip cover that protects the screen well if you're throwing the phone into a purse or backpack. You can also put some cards into the cover, almost like a slim wallet. The tradeoff is that the cover can get in the way if you're trying to snap a quick picture, etc. It can fold over and get in the way of the lens. It also makes checking the screen a bit more of an involved process. That said, you should know ahead of time whether that is something that will matter to you.\\n\\nOverall, I like the case. It keeps the phone in like-new condition and is attractive.\",\n \"Product: Worry less while youre on the job. Defender Series for Pixel XL 5.5 combines three ultra-tough layers to guard your device against serious drops, dirt, scrapes and bumps. The built in screen film stops display scratches, plus the included holster gives you the quick draw on calls and texts. Defender Series works hard to protect your device.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Wonderful case, but lose the built in screen protector.\\n\\nReview: The OtterBox Defender case fits my Pixel XL perfectly. I did not like the built in screen protector, however, which allowed dust/hairs to get between it and the screen and which also had some weird oily/iridescent distortion. (The screen protector does not adhere to the screen -- there is potential for space between it and the glass of the screen that admits dust, etc.) So I carefully removed the screen protector, which is held in place with gummy adhesive.\\n\\nOther than the screen protector, the case is wonderful. It is relatively easy to hold (the rubber-like rim is easy to grip) and protects the phone on all sides. No problems with sound or sensors being obscured. It's a great case.\",\n \"Product: Billy Bragg, once-described as a \\\"one-man Clash,\\\" has spent the last two decades writing and performing passionate, witty, socially conscious music. On September 6, Yep Roc Records will re-issue \\\"Live and Dubious,\\\" Billy's first album containing live material, combined with \\\"The Internationale,\\\" a 1990 EP of global and historical political anthems and revolutionary ballads. \\\"The Internationale\\\" features everything from a brass band and a Welsh choir on the title track to the Spanish language \\\"Nicaragua, Nicaraguita.\\\" The equally fiery \\\"Live and Dubious,\\\" originally released in 1988 with the subtitle \\\"Help Save the Youth of America,\\\" came with this message from Billy: \\\"I have no vote in your Presidential election yet its outcome will directly affect my future and the future of millions of people around the world ... Remember, when you elect a President, you are electing a President for all of us. Please be more careful this time.\\\" Six-Panel Mini-Jacket. Yep Records. 2006.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Excellent remastering, but packaging is marginal\\n\\nReview: These discs include Bragg's Internationale and Live and Dubious EPs, with some bonus tracks. The second disc is a DVD that contains material from a small handful of Bragg concerts in the 1980s when there were still a few serious communist/socialist countries in the world.\\n\\nThe remastering of the music is great. This is, perhaps, Bragg's most overtly political music, with much of it consisting of his renditions of socialist standards.\\n\\nAnyway, the content is great. The packaging, however, is marginal. It's just a cardboard sleeve. The discs slide in and out. There is nearly nothing by way of liner notes. For the price, you might hope for more. And Amazon is charging nearly twice what I paid new for this at a local record store (two Hamiltons!). Outrageous, especially when Bragg himself put a legend on the original cover of this disc telling people not to pay more than 3.99 English pounds for it. But, then, we're making the world safe for capitalism, right?\",\n \"Product: This sleekly contemporary design heavy duty sharpener fits into any office or classroom. The innovative Pencil Saver feature prevents over-sharpening, and the large receptacle for shavings prevents mess. Like all X-ACTO sharpeners, the cutters are hardened steel, ensuring long use and durable cutting surfaces. The powerful DC motor ensures multiple pencil sharpenings without overheating. X-ACTO, the most recognized brand in cutting. X-ACTO blades have provided precision cutting excellence for over 90 years.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Gets the job done, but doesn't inspire confidence\\n\\nReview: The X-ACTO Work Pro is a decent sharpener, but its motor probably will not bowl you over. The sharpener starts automatically when you insert a pencil. It chuffs along and, within about ten seconds, you have a razor sharp pencil. It uses rotary cutters, sort of like the classic hand operated sharpeners in school classrooms. It has no-skid feet and stays where you put it. It's about six inches deep and four inches high.\\n\\nThe only negative here is that the motor sounds like it's having a tough time. It sounds strained and bogs down a bit even when feeding a Dixon Ticonderoga in gently. The motor never jams or stops -- it just sometimes sounds like it's having a really tough time turning the rotary cutters. Still the pencil feeds in at a relatively uniform rate, and pencil after pencil comes out razor sharp. It's a two amp motor and may be slightly underpowered. Because it seems to bog down a bit, I worry that the windings in the motor may overheat with any kind of prolonged use (e.g., a sharpening marathon of several pencils in a row).\\n\\nThe instruction pamphlet says that the unit has a Pencil-Saver feature: the motor is supposed to change in tone when the pencil is sharp; however, I didn't notice any change in motor sound when the pencil was sharp. No matter, though. You can feel the change in resistance as you feed in the pencil. Unless you pay no attention to what you're doing, you'll know how much you need to feed to get a sharp pencil.\\n\\nIt does use 120v wall power. The cord is approximately four feet long.\\n\\nTake note that the warranty is two-years on the cutting rollers and only 90 days on all remaining parts. It will be interesting to see whether the electric motor holds up over time with regular use. I don't worry about the cutting rollers. X-ACTO uses fine cutting steel.\\n\\nTake note that this sharpener is intended only for regular wooden pencils, not colored art pencils. The manual specifically warns against sharpening anything other than standard pencils in it. X-ACTO claims the cutting mechanism will be fouled by the waxier colored leads of art pencils.\\n\\nAt work, I use a Panasonic electric sharpener, and it produces similar results without sounding strained. If Elmer's (X-ACTO's parent company) wants to compete successfully in this market segment, they might need to beef up the motor a tad. That would eliminate the only negative aspect of this sharpener. As it is, it works. It produces good results. It just sounds lousy achieving them.\",\n \"Product: The Axiom Collection by Pilot is available as a retractable ball point pen with a distinguished flair. With its balanced metal barrel, traction dimples and contemporary design, the Axiom offers both style and writing comfort. Axiom is available in four bold black, cobalt blue, cherry red and pearl white matte metallic finishes with attractive silver accents. Outfitted with a high quality retracting mechanism, Axiom writes in blue ink with a medium point. Each Axiom is merchandised in an elegant Pilot navy leather box.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Good pen at a reasonable price\\n\\nReview: By way of disclosure, I received a free sample of this product for evaluation purposes. I have tried to be objective.\\n\\nI collect pens. Over the years, I've used ballpoints and fountain pens manufactured by various top notch pen makers, like Parker, Pelikan, Lamy, and Rotring. This Pilot pen holds its own with pens costing much more.\\n\\nThe construction is good. The barrel is sturdy, made of metal, and has a bit of heft to it, but it isn't a heavy pen. The ink is a standard Pilot refill and it writes quite smoothly and without skipping. It's almost like a gel ink.\\n\\nThe only part of this pen that seems to be a cut corner is the button you depress to deploy or retract the point. That button feels like it may be made of plastic.\\n\\nThe matte black finish does not show fingerprints. The dots on the grip appear to be more cosmetic than functional -- they do not improve my hold on the pen. The pen is a somewhat larger diameter than most people are probably used to with disposable pens, but I find it comfortable to hold.\\n\\nOverall, if you want a somewhat special pen without paying through the nose, this is a good choice.\",\n \"Product: Mechanical Pencil 0.7mm. Ergonomic triangular barrel with rubber grip for relaxed and easy writing. Sliding lead sleeve for non-stop writing. Cushioned lead for high level of break resisitance. Twist eraser, extra large refill cavity holds 12 leads.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Nice mechanical pencil - comfortable to hold\\n\\nReview: I've used Staedtler pens before and was impressed. So when I was looking for a mechanical pencil, I decided to give them a try. I'm glad I did.\\n\\nThis pencil isn't the fanciest thing in the world. It is mostly plastic construction. However, the rubberized triangular grip is comfortable to hold. It isn't overly thick as the photo might lead you to believe, but it is thicker than a standard pencil. It measures just under 6\\\" in length.\\n\\nThe eraser is interesting. If you twist the end of the pencil clockwise, it extends. It's small, though, and I can't say I'd actually use it much -- I try to keep an eraser handy.\\n\\nThe barrel is a nice metallic blue color. The pencil itself is manufactured in Japan, which surprised me -- most of Staedtler's products are made in Germany.\\n\\nAnyway, if you're looking for a mechanical pencil that is better than average but still in the price range where you won't pull out your hair if someone nicks it, then check it out.\",\n \"Product: Maximize your daily efficiency with the PIXMA MX472 Wireless Office All-In-One Printer. The PIXMA MX472 excels in connectivity. With Google Cloud Print and Air Print, you can print wirelessly from your compatible smartphone or tablet from virtually anywhere around the office. It's loaded with timesaving features as well, including an automatic document feeder which holds up to 30 sheets. And when it comes time to change ink or add paper, the Fast Front feature makes it quick and easy-right at the front of the printer! Plus, the optional XL or XXL pigment black ink cartridges mean you can print longer before having to replace your cartridges.;;Another great feature of the PIXMA MX472 is My Image Garden software. My Image Garden puts all your favorite printing features, such as Special Filters and full HD Movie Print, in one convenient software application. It helps you organize your photos with calendar view and facial recognition.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Amazing for the price, but they'll get you on ink costs\\n\\nReview: I previously had a Canon MX432. This MX472 works every bit as well and seems to have better/cleaner print quality. On good paper, it's difficult to distinguish the black and white printing from a laser printer unless you closely scrutinize it.\\n\\nI have the printer set up in my office. I run with with a USB connection to my computer -- wireless isn't an option because I don't have a wireless network configured in the office. I use it mainly for scanning and printing correspondence when the support staff isn't around.\\n\\nMy computer is running Windows 8.1. The printer has a good driver and software suite that will handle everything from scanning to .pdf files to printing photos, although this isn't a spectacular photo printer. I have been impressed with the auto-feeder and use it frequently to scan documents that I need for court filings. The scan quality is good, even using the auto-feeder.\\n\\nThe ink cartridges are easy to replace. However, they're painful to replace: they're incredibly expensive. Even the higher capacity cartridges do not yield an incredible number of pages before they're tapped out. The ink ends up being more expensive than perfume. Make sure you scope out the ink prices and page yields before you commit. The software suite will let you monitor your ink levels, and they go down quickly if you do any substantial amount of printing. If you need to print a lot, then you might be better off looking to a dedicated laser printer.\\n\\nThe set up and menu systems are not too hard to navigate, especially if you keep your manual at the ready.\\n\\nAs it is, this is a functional multifunction device. I never had any problems with the MX432, and I haven't had any problems (fingers crossed) with this unit either. Highly recommended if you can bear the costs of the ink.\",\n \"Product: Professional black padfolio with leather-like cover and sleek flexible design takes you through the year in style. Contains one refillable note pad with undated, graphed sheets for notes and room for up to 8 tasks with check-off boxes. Copper accent rivets add sophistication and style. Notes pad has perforated sheets for easy, clean removal. Flap pocket on the inside front cover holds loose sheets. 12.25 x 9.25 x .25 inches overall.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Attractive, but really for home or office use, not use in the field\\n\\nReview: The At-A-Glance padfolio provides you with a flexible jacket for a standard notepad. It comes with a pad of tight graph paper, handy if you have to sketch things in proportion. But you can replace that with standard notepaper pads.\\n\\nThe cover is flexible and leather-like. It is most similar to nubuck leather, with a soft, matte appearance. This surface does show fingerprints as dark smudges, so don't get this one if you've always got your hand in a bag of Frito-Lay potato chips. Like nubuck leather, it will also show scuffs.\\n\\nThe padfolio isn't rigid. It won't be any sturdier than whatever notepad you put into it. No biggie if you're using it in conference rooms for meetings, but that may be a factor if you're taking it out to worksites.\\n\\nOverall, it's an attractive notepad cover and well suited to office use.\",\n \"Product: Paper Mate InkJoy Gel Pens, Medium Point, Red, 3 Count\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Good flow and feel\\n\\nReview: These Inkjoy pens write smoothly and are easy to hold. I have the .7 mm tips, which provide a decently thin line for handwriting.\\n\\nThe ink does seem to dry quickly. I don't usually have a problem with smearing, so I don't know if these actually live up to the claim that there is significantly less smudging as a result of this ink formulation. What I can tell you is that the pens lay down ink smoothly without skips.\\n\\nThe barrel of the pen is a little wider than what I'm used to. It's easy to hold, but definitely thicker than one of the PaperMates or Bics you'd get from the supply closet at the office.\\n\\nOverall, these are fine gel ink pens.\",\n \"Product: Scotts Natural Lawn Food builds a thick, green lawn ... naturally! You dont have to worry about waiting after application before you can use your lawn again - it is safe to walk on immediately after application! Plus, the lawn food can be used around kids and pets. Apply it during any season to any grass type to start your lawn towards thicker, natural grass versus unfed grass.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Safe way to green up lawn without concentrated chemical salts, but has odor\\n\\nReview: This fertilizer mostly consists of chicken manure. It does not have pesticides or weed-killing herbicides in it, and it isn't full of chemical salts like most lawn fertilizers. Our family has used this product from time to time and it yields pretty good results. We mostly stick with corn gluten meal these days, though, because it naturally helps to prevent crabgrass and other weeds by killing the seeds naturally when they germinate. This won't do that, but it will help give your lawn the nitrogen that will help to green up the grass.\\n\\nThe only real downside is that it has an odor when it gets wet. You also have to be careful about securing it because little critters love to get into this stuff and eat it/roll in it. Keep it away from your pet dogs and cats or they'll have rotten breath!\",\n \"Product: ust plug in a Victor Mini PestChaser and this high-tech device produces high frequency ultrasounds that repel rodents. As an added feature, the Mini PestChaser is also equipped with a new nightlight feature that provides a soft glow in the dark. The plug-in unit's mini size and discreet design make it ideal for all living areas in your home or business. Simply plug it into an outlet near entryways and it begins to produce a sound that drives mice, rats and other rodents crazy. The ultrasound, with over 80 oscillations per second, emitted at varying volumes and varying frequencies keep rodents from becoming used to the sound. The sound cannot be heard by humans or non-rodent pets such as cats, dogs, birds and fish. Users can experience a reduction in rodent activity in as little as 6 to 10 days. One unit typically provides 3 to 5 years of service.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: They seem to work, but they're not really much in the nightlight department\\n\\nReview: We occasionally get mice in our kitchen in the winter, so I wanted to see whether these rodent repellers live up to their name. They seem to work. Our cats used to park themselves on the floor in front of the oven -- the mice would get in behind the oven. About a week after placing two of these in outlets in the kitchen, I noticed that the cats weren't parking themselves in front of the oven anymore. The mice just weren't there.\\n\\nAs nightlights, these are very dim. They don't illuminate much, but they can be markers in a dark room so you have a sense of where you are.\\n\\nOverall, I was surprised. These seem to work. And they don't appear to bother our cats. Bonus!\",\n \"Product: Restyled for 2014, the Weber Q 320 is now the Weber Q 3200. The grill has the same great performance and sleek styling, but adds new aesthetics that are both functional and fun, including larger grip handle and control knobs, ergonomic side handles, sturdy front and rear cradles, large fold-down side tables with improved rigidity plus the familiar Weber Q logo prominently branded in the lid. This full-sized gas grill with a small-footprint and fold-down tables is at home in any outdoor space. Split grates allow for a grate/griddle cooking combination: Just replace one of the grates with the Q 3000-series compatible griddle (sold separately) and experiment with a new method of preparing breakfast, lunch and dinner on your grill. The combined primary grilling surface and warming rack areas offer 462 square inches of cooking space, perfect when grilling for a crowd. Grill all your favorite dishes from large roasts to delicate fish and vegetables. The infinite control burner valve locks in your desired cooking temperature to cook efficiently at any temperature from low to high. An electronic ignition system makes starting the grill as easy as pushing a button. Sold with a sturdy cart thats mounted on wheels, the Weber Q3200 comes with a host of convenient extras, including built-in thermometer and grill handle light for grilling in low-light conditions, 3 tool hooks for convenient storage of tools and utensils and to maximize your grate cooking area theres a handy place to stow the warming rack. A bracket behind the perforated screen secures a 20-lb. propane tank (tank not included) and stores one grate or one griddle.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Assembly Instructions Could Be Clearer, but Overall a Good Semi-Portable Grill\\n\\nReview: By way of disclosure, I received a sample of this grill for evaluation purposes. I have been a Weber customer in the past and still have one of their propane grills. I have tried to be objective in this review.\\n\\nThe Q3200 represents one of the higher end models in the Q line of Weber grills. It's principal features are a push button ignition, stainless steel burners (2), an enameled iron cooking grate, and an aluminum hood. It also includes two side tables that can be dropped down when not needed to make the grill smaller.\\n\\nThe assembly instructions for this grill were not among the clearer instructions I've ever used. There is no verbal guidance: it is all images. A few steps were quite puzzling. For example, the push button ignition mounts into the face of the grill from behind, but there is no explanation of how the pieces are supposed to fit together to ensure a firm fit. I had to use a process of trial and error.\\n\\nAside from the lackluster instructions, assembly wasn't too difficult. The hardest part was getting the legs lined up with the cross beams and then cranking the screws in. The plastic/resin does not appear to be pre-threaded, so a few of the screws took more force than one would expect.\\n\\nThe materials here are not all top of the line. While the aluminum hood, stainless burner, and enameled grate of the grill itself are nice, the plastic/resin legs that support it and the side tables are nothing to write home about. (When popping the side tables up and down to test them, I started wondering how many times I'd be able to do so before the plastic/resin started to crack or give way.) The propane cylinder, not included, is screened by a thin piece of plastic that you have to pop into the frame created by the front legs of the grill. It is only held in by the tension created by bowing the plastic. To me, this was the cheapest part of the design. The plastic screen does not feel like it would last much more than a season.\\n\\nHeat control is by way of two dials, one of which controls gas flow to the larger burner, which is like a ring that reaches the front and back of the grill. There is a smaller dial that controls the smaller burner in the middle of the grill. The combination is supposed to permit you to do indirect grilling (using only the ring and putting your food in the center of the cooking surface). Other Weber grills I've used have had \\\"flavorizer\\\" bars over the burners to keep fat from dripping directly on them. This grill is much shallower overall and does not have such bars. Instead, its cooking grate has solid horizontal bars integrated into it over the locations of each burner. That will probably help to prevent flare ups. However, I expect over time that much more of the fat that drips from meat to reach the bottom of this grill as it will not be burning on any flavorizer bars.\\n\\nThe lid is light, being made of aluminum. Weber includes an LED light that attaches to the handle assembly. It rattles inside, perhaps because it contains a mechanical switch that automatically will turn the light on or off depending on whether the lid is lowered or raised. Not a bad feature, especially if you're using the grill in a place that doesn't have outdoor overhead lighting.\\n\\nIn all, this Q3200 is a decent performing propane grill. It is shallower and has a smaller cooking surface than many other Webers, but if you don't need all that extra real estate, this one will stretch your propane tanks further. Aside from the cooking grates, the grill is lightweight and easy to move. In fact, the substantial grates are probably almost as heavy as the rest of the grill combined.\\n\\nOverall, recommended for people looking for a decent gas grill but who do not expect to be hosting massive cook outs.\",\n \"Product: GE LED bulbs last up to 25,000 hours and use 75% less energy. GE energy smart LED general purpose bulbs are designed to direct light all around the bulb, distributing a more uniform, soft light that's similar to a traditional bulb.Made in China.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Gives light similar to incandescent, but at a much lower energy cost\\n\\nReview: We have a couple of LED bulbs from Cree and Philips. This is the first GE bulb we've used in the house.\\n\\nThis bulb gives off a fair bit of light, and it has the slightly yellow cast that one expects from traditional incandescent bulbs.\\n\\nAlthough the dimensions of the neck of the bulb are a little wider than those of a traditional bulb, it fit perfectly well in a floor lamp that we cannot put a CFL bulb in without a socket extender. So that's a plus.\\n\\nThe heatsink fins along the sides of the bulb do not cause any odd shadows.\\n\\nIn all, if you're a fan of traditional incandescent lighting but are looking to cut back on energy consumption, you should seriously consider this modern replacement.\",\n \"Product: The NEW Delta Miter saw stand provides safe and convenient access to place you miter saw so that the work can be supported properly. Large wheels provide better mobility and the one-step folding action makes storage a breeze.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Functional and sturdy portable stand\\n\\nReview: I have a fifteen-year old Delta TwinLaser 12\\\" compound miter saw that has lived on a table in our basement that I built myself. This collapseable stand would have been great when I was redoing trim on the second floor! It makes the saw portable (within reason), and the extensions are functional enough to hold trim flat for detailed angle cutting (e.g., crown molding).\\n\\nThe overall construction is sturdy without being monumentally heavy. It feels like it will hold up well.\\n\\nIf you're mechanically inclined, it's simple to assemble. Had it done in under an hour.\\n\\nIt's nice that it can fold up when not in use. It takes up a bit less floor space that way.\\n\\nOverall, I've been impressed with Delta products over the years. My miter saw is still true and working great all these years later. Glad that it now has a \\\"home away from home\\\" so-to-speak.\",\n \"Product: Design beautiful outdoor mandalas. What could be more fun than coloring on a sunny day? With the super-sized Mandala-Designer, you'll be an amazing street artist, sketching beautiful designs on any paved surface. Includes 2 Large Mandala Stencils, 6 Colored Chalks, Detailed Instructions.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Fun for young artists\\n\\nReview: By way of disclosure, I received a free sample of this product for review purposes. I have tried to be objective in this review.\\n\\nOur family has a fair bit of experience with Ravensburger puzzles, games, and mandala designers. OUr girls have enjoyed their products, which are almost uniformly high quality.\\n\\nThis mandala designer for sidewalk/pavement use is no exception. It is a folding template with a number of stenciled designs. You put it down, make some marks to show how you're orienting the template, trace your outline, and rotate the template and trace again. After you repeat the process a few times, a mandala takes shape. This one includes some colored chalk, and you can get more at many stores that sell Crayola products or at craft stores.\\n\\nOur elementary school-aged daughter loves this and made a number of designs with it. The only word of caution is that you have to be careful how you fold it to store it. If you do it the wrong way and force it, you might cause the material of the template to fatigue and start to tear/fall apart along seams.\\n\\nIn all, a great toy for creative kids.\",\n \"Product: Techno Kids Marble Trax Under Sea Adventure will inspire your little one's creativity with even more components to build their marble run masterpieces. This fun underwater themed construction set includes more than 50 colorful and easy to put together construction pieces. The sturdy pieces offer unlimited building options for your kids to explore their inventiveness and imaginations. Colors may vary. Ages 4+ years.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Good basic marble run, but limited to one configuration\\n\\nReview: This marble chute is not difficult to assemble and feels sturdy once assembled.\\n\\nThe \\\"Learning Journey\\\" moniker may not be warranted, though, as it doesn't actually teach kids much about sea life. It just has some cartoon images of sea creatures on it.\\n\\nIt includes three \\\"marbles,\\\" one of which has an LED inside and which flashes.\\n\\nUnlike some other marble chutes (e.g., Quadrilla), this one cannot be reconfigured to make different tracks. It is what it is.\\n\\nOverall, the materials are of decent quality and fit together well. A younger child -- around four-years old -- would probably have fun with this. However, if your children are a bit older, you might want to look at marble runs made of components that allow kids to configure different tracks and indulge their creativity a bit more. For older kids, this one does not have much staying power.\",\n \"Product: Parrot Mini Drone Rolling Spider - Bluetooth 4.0 Controlled Robotic Toy-Fly & RollWhite. For any further queries please contact Parrots Technical Support team at 877-9PARROT (972-7768) or online at http://www.parrot.com/usa/support/hotline.Parrot tutorial videos are available here: Set up process: http://youtu.be/BsTvOozjcxg Easy piloting maneuvers: http://youtu.be/YOcjtbAxzR4 Advanced piloting & wheels and ace mode: http://youtu.be/OxDhzyElL1s.We recommend customers to update their Rolling Spider to the latest firmware version to enjoy the new improvements brought for Rolling Spider\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Fun, but a few issues with control and motor heat\\n\\nReview: My daughter had a R/C helicopter that gave up the ghost, and she was excited to have a chance to try out this drone.\\n\\nThe drone is controlled via Bluetooth by your smartphone or tablet. Unfortunately, the drone and the Parrot app you have to download requires that your device have the Bluetooth 4.0 standard. My daughter was disappointed when her Nexus 7 tablet from a few years ago would not pair with or control the drone.\\n\\nWe charged the drone and got the app on a compatible Android device. The drone paired quickly once we ran the app. However, the controls were not working well. We could control whether the drone ascended or descended, and we could make it turn left or right, but no matter which direction we moved the horizontal control in, it would only fly backwards, never forwards. It worked much better with the wheels removed.\\n\\nThe app has a battery meter in it. We started off with about 8 minutes of flight time. That does go pretty quickly. The battery takes about an hour to recharge from a USB port on our computer. You can get extra batteries and could probably swap them out for more flight time.\\n\\nAside from the control issue, I noticed that the electric motors that power the rotors get incredibly hot after the drone hovers for a minute or so. I mean they get hotter than hot coffee hot. I'd recommend caution if you're letting children pilot the drone, not only because of the heat but because of the potential for injury from the spinning blades. (To reach the on off switch, you have to pick the drone up. You can't turn it off remotely. If anyone touches your smartphone/tablet while you're holding it, you would probably be hurt.)\\n\\nThe drone does have a neat feature that automatically shuts off the rotors if the drone comes into contact with anything. That is nifty engineering and will probably protect the propellers from causing much damage or from being terribly damaged if you fly it into a wall or the ground.\\n\\nIn all, it's a fun toy drone. Just make sure your Bluetooth-equipped device is up to the required specs.\",\n \"Product: Based on the movie Star Wars Episode VII. Features battle action sounds, cockpit canopy opens and closes, wings open into attack mode, removable retractable landing gear. Requires batteries: (2) LR44 (Included). No tools, paint or glue needed for assembly.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Snap Tite has come a long way\\n\\nReview: My third grader loves building things. She assembled this model X-Wing Fighter in about five minutes.\\n\\nRevell's \\\"SNAP TITE\\\" models have come a long way since I was a kid in the 70s and 80s. The pieces fit together well, the instructions were clear, and the finished product seems to have no inclination of falling apart. This surprises me given that a few pieces (like the long blasters on the ends of the wings) are simply held on by a tab-in-slot connection. If a kid is pretty rough with it, it may come apart, but I don't see that happening in ordinary play. It certainly will hold together better than Legos. (Don't worry: she'll hold together. Hear me, baby? Hold together!)\\n\\nThe wings fold flat and extend into X battle position and will hold relatively well in either position. The forward landing strut can retract into the body of the ship. (The rear struts can be pulled off if you want -- they don't retract.)\\n\\nIf you press on the R2 unit behind the opening canopy, you'll be rewarded with a somewhat harsh digital sample of one of three sounds, including one that sounds like the blasters firing.\\n\\nWhen I saw the movie in the theater as a first grader, I would have given my arm and my teeth for a kit like this. If the reboot of the series does not disappoint, I can see this being a toy in high demand early in the new year.\"\n]","isConversational":false},"profile_size":{"kind":"number","value":97,"string":"97"},"task":{"kind":"string","value":"longlamp_3"},"split_kind":{"kind":"string","value":"user_based"},"id":{"kind":"number","value":1677,"string":"1,677"}}},{"rowIdx":1678,"cells":{"question_id":{"kind":"string","value":"A17QT2FP635F2M"},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of \"5.0\" for a product with description \"Dr Ho's Pads with replacement gel pad\". The summary of the review text is \"Massages well and is for those looking for a super hard roller\"."},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"This is my first ever foam roller which I purchased to massage my sore muscles after working out and to increase circulation. I have tried a few at the gym which seemed way too soft, so I purchased this extra firm roller. The roller is made from a blue hard rubber on the outer layer with hard rubber massaging knubs and a black plastic inner core. This is a lot harder than I expected, with virtually no give. I had to modify the use by not putting my entire body weight on it, and it will have to be something I work my way up to. That being said, this is still a very well made product that is exactly what it says it is. It did massage my muscles and stretch out the post workout soreness. As far as the smell, the roller did arrive sealed in plastic wrap and did give off a rubber/plastic odor but it was not offensive and dissipated quickly. All in all, a very durable good quality product although a little too hard for me to start off with. I would definitely purchase another, just little less firm.\n\nDisclaimer: I received this product either for free or at a discounted price in exchange for an honest review.\n\nAs an Amazon member, I depend heavily on fellow Amazon member's reviews for researching potential purchases. I strive to help others by providing informative reviews detailing my personal experiences with the products I purchase. Your positive feedback lets me know I succeeded in doing that, so if this review has helped you, kindly let me know by rating it \"Helpful.\" Thank you!"},"correct_answer":{"kind":"string","value":"This is my first ever foam roller which I purchased to massage my sore muscles after working out and to increase circulation. I have tried a few at the gym which seemed way too soft, so I purchased this extra firm roller. The roller is made from a blue hard rubber on the outer layer with hard rubber massaging knubs and a black plastic inner core. This is a lot harder than I expected, with virtually no give. I had to modify the use by not putting my entire body weight on it, and it will have to be something I work my way up to. That being said, this is still a very well made product that is exactly what it says it is. It did massage my muscles and stretch out the post workout soreness. As far as the smell, the roller did arrive sealed in plastic wrap and did give off a rubber/plastic odor but it was not offensive and dissipated quickly. All in all, a very durable good quality product although a little too hard for me to start off with. I would definitely purchase another, just little less firm.\n\nDisclaimer: I received this product either for free or at a discounted price in exchange for an honest review.\n\nAs an Amazon member, I depend heavily on fellow Amazon member's reviews for researching potential purchases. I strive to help others by providing informative reviews detailing my personal experiences with the products I purchase. Your positive feedback lets me know I succeeded in doing that, so if this review has helped you, kindly let me know by rating it \"Helpful.\" Thank you!"},"documents":{"kind":"list like","value":["Product: Easy glide precision retractable rotary cutter. Ideal to use for quilting and knitting projects, papers, scrapbooks.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Perfect for my quilting!\n\nReview: Just used my new 'Yazy-Craft' Rotary Fabric Cutter with it's retractable blade, and I was impressed with the sharpness of the blade and the neatness of the cuts. The cutter was comfortable in my hand and easy to use. I really like the safety factor of the retractable blade, unlike my other one that has an exposed blade with a separate protective cover. This one also has a blade lock for storage, and also to prevent someone from squeezing the lever and accidentally cutting themselves. I used the cutter to cut out my squares for the new quilt that I am making and it cut and rolled nicely along my straightedge. The cuts were neat and precise. The yellow and black color is cool and makes it easy to locate in my quilt bag. I look forward to many years of use and many cuts to be made.\n\nDisclaimer: I received this product either for free or at a discounted price in exchange for an honest review.\n\nAs an Amazon member, I depend heavily on fellow Amazon member's reviews for researching potential purchases. I strive to help others by providing informative reviews detailing my personal experiences with the products I purchase. Your positive feedback lets me know I succeeded in doing that, so if this review has helped you, kindly let me know by rating it \"Helpful.\" Thank you!","Product: 6 pack of plastic cap with logo printing Caution: Remember to burp regularly during second fermentation to prevent unnecessary stress on glass bottles.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: What a nice bottle set!\n\nReview: I just received my bottle set and am very impressed with the overall quality. The set includes (6) 16 oz glass bottles with attached lids, a bottle brush to clean them with, and a silicone funnel for quick and easy filling. The bottles are very thick and durable, and the perfect size for many things. I personally make my own Limoncello and I am always looking for nice bottles to give as gifts or transport it in. These bottles are exactly what I have been looking for and their flip top lids seal air-tight and do not leak, even when tipped on its side. The bottles have a unique look and feature a design that makes them easy to grip with less of a chance of them sliding out of your hand and dropping. I am super satisfied with these and will be buying more!\n\nAs an Amazon member, I depend heavily on fellow Amazon member's reviews for researching potential purchases. I strive to help others by providing informative reviews detailing my personal experiences with the products I purchase. Your positive feedback lets me know I succeeded in doing that, so [...]","Product: Stay fit and healthy - enjoy nutritious homemade meals everywhere with the #1 food storage containers by freshware!are you sick and tired of spending money on buying readymade unhealthy food?meet the ultimate meal prep containers, your new best friend in the kitchen!provide yourself and your kids with a decent meal prep of controlled portions with main course, salad, baby food, dressings, condiments, sauces, fruit, soup and healthy snacks, all nicely packed in this super convenient bento lunch box container. These food Savers can also be used as school lunch box, last nights dinner, or slime containers for the kids!supreme quality and premium design combined!these reusable lunch containers with lids for meal prepping are made from 100% BPA, PVC, and Phthalate free food-safe material. Stackable, airtight and leak-proof when closed - these deli containers won't let your food spill all over the pace. Our clear lids and 32 oz Containers make it easy to see What's inside so you know exactly what you're grabbing for in the fridge or lunch box, making life so much simpler. Microwave, dishwasher, and freezer safe!our easy open lids are made with flexible pet plastic that will never break. healthy lifestyle starts with Freshware: - prepare more meals in advance and freeze them for the busy days when you won't have time to cook. - microwave them to enjoy a delicious hot meal. - clean them hassle free in the dishwasher top rack. box size: 4.6 inch top diameter x 3.4 inch base diameter x 5.4 inch height. Volume: 32 Ounce/1 quart. Pack of 24. these meal prep/ portion control/ 21 day fix/ food storage containers are a great new alternative to expensive plastic containers. Perfect lunch boxes for kids or bento box for work, while they are highly recommended by most fitness experts.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Seem sturdy but one was seriously cracked with no damage to packing box.....\n\nReview: I just received my Freshware Food To Go Meal Preparation Containers in two different sizes for my use in storing foodstuffs. I was impressed that these containers and lids are microwave, freezer and dishwasher safe. Included in the same shipment were my two orders: a box of 24 count, 32 ounce containers... and...a box of 36 count, 16 ounce containers, each with airtight lids. The 16 ounce containers and lids were in perfect condition. The containers appear to be sturdy enough to be used as intended, however when I opened the box of 32 ounce containers, the very first one on the stack was severely cracked and broken, resulting in sharp jagged edges along the bottom and along the sides. It should be noted that there was absolutely no damage or marks on the outside of the box which would indicate any abuse during shipment. I was a little disappointed to see that, since these containers are intended to be used in the microwave oven and also are supposed to be suitable for variable temperatures during hot and cold food storage. This may be a freak occurrence and I still intend on using the containers for storing foods but will cautiously watch for any safety issues and any future problems.","Product: This slip resistant bath tub mat by MakExpress is designed for your shower in order to prevent accidents by adhering to the floor with numerous suction cups. This Bath Tub Mat holds securely to your bath or shower floor to give you reliable footing while doing bathing. This is ideal for kids and the family. It comes with a slight texture surface, which is great for massaging your feet. It is machine washable as well. Package Dimensions: 17 x 3 x 3.75 inches.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Large and stays put\n\nReview: I got my MakExpress non slip rubber comfort bath mat 2 days ago and put it right into my bathtub to put it to use. The 17 inch x 36 inch size really impressed me since it fit nicely into my bathtub and is certainly a large enough size to be comfortable when moving around while taking a shower. The numerous suction cups mounted on the bottom of the bath mat keep it securely in place and has not moved at all since I installed it, although it takes a little getting use to when stepping on those little bumps in the mat where the suction cups are mounted. The foam rubber type material is soft to the touch and soft and comfortable to stand on, and the drain holes shed the shower water effectively. The off white color blends nicely with the bone color of my bathtub surface and is hardly noticeable. I have not had the occasion to clean the mat surface other than to rinse it off when I get out of the shower but I am hoping that is cleans up easily when the time comes, hopefully with a mild detergent. As a gal with long thick hair, the hair that falls out in the shower does snag in and around the holes and is sort of difficult to fish out however I am still looking forward to much use of this bath mat. Time will tell how it holds up.\n\nDisclaimer: I received this product either for free or at a discounted price in exchange for an honest review.\n\nAs an Amazon member, I depend heavily on fellow Amazon member's reviews for researching potential purchases. I strive to help others by providing informative reviews detailing my personal experiences with the products I purchase. Your positive feedback lets me know I succeeded in doing that, so if this review has helped you, kindly let me know by rating it \"Helpful.\" Thank you!","Rating: 5.0\n\nSummary: So pretty! Looks like something you would find in a high end store!\n\nReview: I just received my Laksmi chiffon tank and upon opening it I was completely surprised at the quality of this shirt. It is a silky, non-wrinkly, non-snaggy, layered soft chiffon material you would find in a high end store. The top has adjustable spaghetti straps which I find extremely convenient, as I almost always need to shorten the straps on everything I buy. They adjusted easily and glided to where I needed them with no tugging or fighting. The material is super light and flowy, and the orange/red color that I ordered is not see through at all. I am a 32 bust size (120 lbs) and went by the size chart and ordered a medium which listed a bust size of 32.2 but this top was pretty big on me and I definitely needed a small. I can still make it work but I have a lot of room to spare so I would say this top runs big. That being said, this top is quite gorgeous and of superior quality. The design is printed neatly and clearly and this looks like an expensive top (that you could also wear as a dress). 10 stars! Love this top.\n\nDisclaimer: I received this product either for free or at a discounted price in exchange for an honest review.\n\nAs an Amazon member, I depend heavily on fellow Amazon member's reviews for researching potential purchases. I strive to help others by providing informative reviews detailing my personal experiences with the products I purchase. Your positive feedback lets me know I succeeded in doing that, so if this review has helped you, kindly let me know by rating it \"Helpful.\" Thank you!","Product: Clear Bra is a nearly invisible, \"always-on\" alternative to bulky and often problematic vinyl front-end protectors. You have to be close to the vehicle, and look hard, to spot this stuff. As with vinyl bras, it offers protection from stone chips, insects, small scratches, and the wear-and-tear sand-blasting effect from years of driving.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Looking forward to keeping my hood chip-free!\n\nReview: Just received my 'VVIVID Vinyl Clear Bra Paint Protective' film sheet that I plan to install on the hood of my SUV. The size is listed as being 17.90 X 54 inches which should be a sufficient size for most vehicles. As I said, I have an SUV so I am hoping that it is wide enough to cover the hood front and the front fender tis as well. I may have to slice the film in half lengthwise if need be. The film looks nice and clear and thin enough so as to not be so noticeable on the vehicle hood and yet give it the protection that I want. My one complaint is that the package did not come with instructions for the installation, however I went online to the website and found the installation procedures which seem clear and precise. I have installed decals to cars in the past similarly to these instructions, so this process should go well. I cant' wait to get going on this project.\n\nDisclaimer: I received this product either for free or at a discounted price in exchange for an honest review.\n\nAs an Amazon member, I depend heavily on fellow Amazon member's reviews for researching potential purchases. I strive to help others by providing informative reviews detailing my personal experiences with the products I purchase. Your positive feedback lets me know I succeeded in doing that, so if this review has helped you, kindly let me know by rating it \"Helpful.\" Thank you!","Product: Zacro Submersible Aquarium Heater Fish Tank Heater with Protective Sleeve and Digital Temperature Readout,315W\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Nice design and good quality heater\n\nReview: I just received my Zacro submersible 300-watt heater and was excited to test it out. I am in the process of setting up my 75 gallon fish tank and needed a new heater for the tropical fish I am going to add once I set it up. It was very straight forward and easy to use. The instructions state it can be used for aquariums from 53-99 gallons and can be set to temperatures between 65-93 degrees Fahrenheit. The heater is made from high quality thick glass, is fully submersible, and includes suction cups for desired positioning. It also comes with an extra LCD digital thermometer for ensured temperature accuracy. Since I did not yet have my aquarium set up, I tested it out in the bathtub to see how it worked. It did heat the water to my set temperature and did seem to maintain it constantly. It heats in cycles, turning on and off regularly so it alternates between heat running for 5-10 minutes and then heat off for 5-10 minutes. So far I have no complaints and the product worked great when tested. I look forward to using it in my new aquarium soon!\n\nDisclaimer: I received this product either for free or at a discounted price in exchange for an honest review.\n\nAs an Amazon member, I depend heavily on fellow Amazon member's reviews for researching potential purchases. I strive to help others by providing informative reviews detailing my personal experiences with the products I purchase. Your positive feedback lets me know I succeeded in doing that, [...] Thank you!"],"string":"[\n \"Product: Easy glide precision retractable rotary cutter. Ideal to use for quilting and knitting projects, papers, scrapbooks.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Perfect for my quilting!\\n\\nReview: Just used my new 'Yazy-Craft' Rotary Fabric Cutter with it's retractable blade, and I was impressed with the sharpness of the blade and the neatness of the cuts. The cutter was comfortable in my hand and easy to use. I really like the safety factor of the retractable blade, unlike my other one that has an exposed blade with a separate protective cover. This one also has a blade lock for storage, and also to prevent someone from squeezing the lever and accidentally cutting themselves. I used the cutter to cut out my squares for the new quilt that I am making and it cut and rolled nicely along my straightedge. The cuts were neat and precise. The yellow and black color is cool and makes it easy to locate in my quilt bag. I look forward to many years of use and many cuts to be made.\\n\\nDisclaimer: I received this product either for free or at a discounted price in exchange for an honest review.\\n\\nAs an Amazon member, I depend heavily on fellow Amazon member's reviews for researching potential purchases. I strive to help others by providing informative reviews detailing my personal experiences with the products I purchase. Your positive feedback lets me know I succeeded in doing that, so if this review has helped you, kindly let me know by rating it \\\"Helpful.\\\" Thank you!\",\n \"Product: 6 pack of plastic cap with logo printing Caution: Remember to burp regularly during second fermentation to prevent unnecessary stress on glass bottles.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: What a nice bottle set!\\n\\nReview: I just received my bottle set and am very impressed with the overall quality. The set includes (6) 16 oz glass bottles with attached lids, a bottle brush to clean them with, and a silicone funnel for quick and easy filling. The bottles are very thick and durable, and the perfect size for many things. I personally make my own Limoncello and I am always looking for nice bottles to give as gifts or transport it in. These bottles are exactly what I have been looking for and their flip top lids seal air-tight and do not leak, even when tipped on its side. The bottles have a unique look and feature a design that makes them easy to grip with less of a chance of them sliding out of your hand and dropping. I am super satisfied with these and will be buying more!\\n\\nAs an Amazon member, I depend heavily on fellow Amazon member's reviews for researching potential purchases. I strive to help others by providing informative reviews detailing my personal experiences with the products I purchase. Your positive feedback lets me know I succeeded in doing that, so [...]\",\n \"Product: Stay fit and healthy - enjoy nutritious homemade meals everywhere with the #1 food storage containers by freshware!are you sick and tired of spending money on buying readymade unhealthy food?meet the ultimate meal prep containers, your new best friend in the kitchen!provide yourself and your kids with a decent meal prep of controlled portions with main course, salad, baby food, dressings, condiments, sauces, fruit, soup and healthy snacks, all nicely packed in this super convenient bento lunch box container. These food Savers can also be used as school lunch box, last nights dinner, or slime containers for the kids!supreme quality and premium design combined!these reusable lunch containers with lids for meal prepping are made from 100% BPA, PVC, and Phthalate free food-safe material. Stackable, airtight and leak-proof when closed - these deli containers won't let your food spill all over the pace. Our clear lids and 32 oz Containers make it easy to see What's inside so you know exactly what you're grabbing for in the fridge or lunch box, making life so much simpler. Microwave, dishwasher, and freezer safe!our easy open lids are made with flexible pet plastic that will never break. healthy lifestyle starts with Freshware: - prepare more meals in advance and freeze them for the busy days when you won't have time to cook. - microwave them to enjoy a delicious hot meal. - clean them hassle free in the dishwasher top rack. box size: 4.6 inch top diameter x 3.4 inch base diameter x 5.4 inch height. Volume: 32 Ounce/1 quart. Pack of 24. these meal prep/ portion control/ 21 day fix/ food storage containers are a great new alternative to expensive plastic containers. Perfect lunch boxes for kids or bento box for work, while they are highly recommended by most fitness experts.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Seem sturdy but one was seriously cracked with no damage to packing box.....\\n\\nReview: I just received my Freshware Food To Go Meal Preparation Containers in two different sizes for my use in storing foodstuffs. I was impressed that these containers and lids are microwave, freezer and dishwasher safe. Included in the same shipment were my two orders: a box of 24 count, 32 ounce containers... and...a box of 36 count, 16 ounce containers, each with airtight lids. The 16 ounce containers and lids were in perfect condition. The containers appear to be sturdy enough to be used as intended, however when I opened the box of 32 ounce containers, the very first one on the stack was severely cracked and broken, resulting in sharp jagged edges along the bottom and along the sides. It should be noted that there was absolutely no damage or marks on the outside of the box which would indicate any abuse during shipment. I was a little disappointed to see that, since these containers are intended to be used in the microwave oven and also are supposed to be suitable for variable temperatures during hot and cold food storage. This may be a freak occurrence and I still intend on using the containers for storing foods but will cautiously watch for any safety issues and any future problems.\",\n \"Product: This slip resistant bath tub mat by MakExpress is designed for your shower in order to prevent accidents by adhering to the floor with numerous suction cups. This Bath Tub Mat holds securely to your bath or shower floor to give you reliable footing while doing bathing. This is ideal for kids and the family. It comes with a slight texture surface, which is great for massaging your feet. It is machine washable as well. Package Dimensions: 17 x 3 x 3.75 inches.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Large and stays put\\n\\nReview: I got my MakExpress non slip rubber comfort bath mat 2 days ago and put it right into my bathtub to put it to use. The 17 inch x 36 inch size really impressed me since it fit nicely into my bathtub and is certainly a large enough size to be comfortable when moving around while taking a shower. The numerous suction cups mounted on the bottom of the bath mat keep it securely in place and has not moved at all since I installed it, although it takes a little getting use to when stepping on those little bumps in the mat where the suction cups are mounted. The foam rubber type material is soft to the touch and soft and comfortable to stand on, and the drain holes shed the shower water effectively. The off white color blends nicely with the bone color of my bathtub surface and is hardly noticeable. I have not had the occasion to clean the mat surface other than to rinse it off when I get out of the shower but I am hoping that is cleans up easily when the time comes, hopefully with a mild detergent. As a gal with long thick hair, the hair that falls out in the shower does snag in and around the holes and is sort of difficult to fish out however I am still looking forward to much use of this bath mat. Time will tell how it holds up.\\n\\nDisclaimer: I received this product either for free or at a discounted price in exchange for an honest review.\\n\\nAs an Amazon member, I depend heavily on fellow Amazon member's reviews for researching potential purchases. I strive to help others by providing informative reviews detailing my personal experiences with the products I purchase. Your positive feedback lets me know I succeeded in doing that, so if this review has helped you, kindly let me know by rating it \\\"Helpful.\\\" Thank you!\",\n \"Rating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: So pretty! Looks like something you would find in a high end store!\\n\\nReview: I just received my Laksmi chiffon tank and upon opening it I was completely surprised at the quality of this shirt. It is a silky, non-wrinkly, non-snaggy, layered soft chiffon material you would find in a high end store. The top has adjustable spaghetti straps which I find extremely convenient, as I almost always need to shorten the straps on everything I buy. They adjusted easily and glided to where I needed them with no tugging or fighting. The material is super light and flowy, and the orange/red color that I ordered is not see through at all. I am a 32 bust size (120 lbs) and went by the size chart and ordered a medium which listed a bust size of 32.2 but this top was pretty big on me and I definitely needed a small. I can still make it work but I have a lot of room to spare so I would say this top runs big. That being said, this top is quite gorgeous and of superior quality. The design is printed neatly and clearly and this looks like an expensive top (that you could also wear as a dress). 10 stars! Love this top.\\n\\nDisclaimer: I received this product either for free or at a discounted price in exchange for an honest review.\\n\\nAs an Amazon member, I depend heavily on fellow Amazon member's reviews for researching potential purchases. I strive to help others by providing informative reviews detailing my personal experiences with the products I purchase. Your positive feedback lets me know I succeeded in doing that, so if this review has helped you, kindly let me know by rating it \\\"Helpful.\\\" Thank you!\",\n \"Product: Clear Bra is a nearly invisible, \\\"always-on\\\" alternative to bulky and often problematic vinyl front-end protectors. You have to be close to the vehicle, and look hard, to spot this stuff. As with vinyl bras, it offers protection from stone chips, insects, small scratches, and the wear-and-tear sand-blasting effect from years of driving.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Looking forward to keeping my hood chip-free!\\n\\nReview: Just received my 'VVIVID Vinyl Clear Bra Paint Protective' film sheet that I plan to install on the hood of my SUV. The size is listed as being 17.90 X 54 inches which should be a sufficient size for most vehicles. As I said, I have an SUV so I am hoping that it is wide enough to cover the hood front and the front fender tis as well. I may have to slice the film in half lengthwise if need be. The film looks nice and clear and thin enough so as to not be so noticeable on the vehicle hood and yet give it the protection that I want. My one complaint is that the package did not come with instructions for the installation, however I went online to the website and found the installation procedures which seem clear and precise. I have installed decals to cars in the past similarly to these instructions, so this process should go well. I cant' wait to get going on this project.\\n\\nDisclaimer: I received this product either for free or at a discounted price in exchange for an honest review.\\n\\nAs an Amazon member, I depend heavily on fellow Amazon member's reviews for researching potential purchases. I strive to help others by providing informative reviews detailing my personal experiences with the products I purchase. Your positive feedback lets me know I succeeded in doing that, so if this review has helped you, kindly let me know by rating it \\\"Helpful.\\\" Thank you!\",\n \"Product: Zacro Submersible Aquarium Heater Fish Tank Heater with Protective Sleeve and Digital Temperature Readout,315W\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Nice design and good quality heater\\n\\nReview: I just received my Zacro submersible 300-watt heater and was excited to test it out. I am in the process of setting up my 75 gallon fish tank and needed a new heater for the tropical fish I am going to add once I set it up. It was very straight forward and easy to use. The instructions state it can be used for aquariums from 53-99 gallons and can be set to temperatures between 65-93 degrees Fahrenheit. The heater is made from high quality thick glass, is fully submersible, and includes suction cups for desired positioning. It also comes with an extra LCD digital thermometer for ensured temperature accuracy. Since I did not yet have my aquarium set up, I tested it out in the bathtub to see how it worked. It did heat the water to my set temperature and did seem to maintain it constantly. It heats in cycles, turning on and off regularly so it alternates between heat running for 5-10 minutes and then heat off for 5-10 minutes. So far I have no complaints and the product worked great when tested. I look forward to using it in my new aquarium soon!\\n\\nDisclaimer: I received this product either for free or at a discounted price in exchange for an honest review.\\n\\nAs an Amazon member, I depend heavily on fellow Amazon member's reviews for researching potential purchases. I strive to help others by providing informative reviews detailing my personal experiences with the products I purchase. Your positive feedback lets me know I succeeded in doing that, [...] Thank you!\"\n]","isConversational":false},"profile_size":{"kind":"number","value":7,"string":"7"},"task":{"kind":"string","value":"longlamp_3"},"split_kind":{"kind":"string","value":"user_based"},"id":{"kind":"number","value":1678,"string":"1,678"}}},{"rowIdx":1679,"cells":{"question_id":{"kind":"string","value":"A18AW14NE61NOT"},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of \"5.0\" for a product with description \"Sergeant's good behavior pheromone collar helps cats in fearful or stressful situations (separation anxiety, visitors, other household cats, Loud Noises, new baby, vet Visits, traveling). good behavior pheromone collar provides a convenient alternative to diffusers- the collar goes where your cat goes!\". The summary of the review text is \"and the most headstrong of the pair lets me pet her in daylight once a day and doesn't act like I going to suck her brains out t\"."},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"I had some doubts but got collars for all cats in the house - the two former ferals have been with me almost 18 months and are still skittish. After 10 days with the collars, I am noticing a big difference. The animaniacs don't immediately jump off the sofa and hide under it when I enter the room, and the most headstrong of the pair lets me pet her in daylight once a day and doesn't act like I going to suck her brains out through her ear. My eldest cat is not exhibiting a neurotic behavior that he's been demonstrating for the past 3 years since our old kitty died, and the next eldest is more mellow. My middle child is still skittish but between the collars and the Feliway diffusers, I think we'll see greater harmony in the house in a few more weeks!"},"correct_answer":{"kind":"string","value":"I had some doubts but got collars for all cats in the house - the two former ferals have been with me almost 18 months and are still skittish. After 10 days with the collars, I am noticing a big difference. The animaniacs don't immediately jump off the sofa and hide under it when I enter the room, and the most headstrong of the pair lets me pet her in daylight once a day and doesn't act like I going to suck her brains out through her ear. My eldest cat is not exhibiting a neurotic behavior that he's been demonstrating for the past 3 years since our old kitty died, and the next eldest is more mellow. My middle child is still skittish but between the collars and the Feliway diffusers, I think we'll see greater harmony in the house in a few more weeks!"},"documents":{"kind":"list like","value":["Product: Non-scratch formula gently and quickly dissolves tarnish from silver, chrome and other shiny surfaces. Anti-tarnish ingredient keeps silver beautiful longer.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Twinkle shines & protects!\n\nReview: I have a set of silverplate that was a wedding gift to my parents in 1967 - my mother gave it to me when I went off to college. We had never used it because it was \"nice\" silverware and we mostly used stainless steel flatware. For years, this set of Oneida Community Plate \"Silver Sands\" stayed wrapped in cloth in a drawer. After I ended a 4 year relationship that I had thought would end only in marriage - I thought, \"What the hell! It's not like I can expect to receive a set of silverware for a wedding gift myself\" and started using it as my daily silverware about 10 years ago.\n\nOver the last several years, I have had the other problem - more than 8 people at my house and a constant chasing around to wash silverware (or retrieve it from the trash - those careless guests have not been invited back).\n\nOver the last couple of months, I have been watching E-bay for pieces to add to my collection. A few cocktail forks and some demitasse spoons, a couple dinner forks - all so clean and sparkling that I realized how tarnished my silverplate had become. Finally, I scored someone else's wedding gift: 38 pieces for $34 including shipping.\n\nWhen it arrived - it wasn't in much better shape than my own set, so I pulled out the products from under the sink: Twinkle and Tarn-X. Honestly, it had been so long since I polished my silver, that I couldn't remember what product worked best.\n\nI spent most of the evening with Twinkle - the Tarn-X smelled so bad that I didn't want to work with it in the livingroom with a movie. I went through many old rags with the Twinkle and the silverware from my drawer was looking quite good. The next morning, I finished up the Twinkle and started with Tarn-X. The pieces I cleaned with Tarn-x - particularly the soup spoons (or tablespoons) - ended up looking far worse than the pieces cleaned with Twinkle. In fact - Tarn-X stripped the shine from the bowl of the spoons!\n\nI did not soak the pieces in the Tarn-X - and I did put all the pieces into clean water after, changing out the water from my 3 gallon basin frequently. I switched to some sample sizes of Colgate toothpaste which worked better than Tarn-x, though not as good as Twinkle.\n\nIn the end - I really regret using Tarn-X at all, and plan to return my unfinished bottle to the store with a letter asking them to discontinue carrying the product. It's toxic and it's damaging to the products it claims to be cleaning.\n\nThe silverplate cleaned with Twinkle is still shiny and mirror-like, even damaged pieces are improved with a cleaning with Twinkle. My mom confirmed: Twinkle was always her mother's choice for polishing silver, too!","Product: Ideal for silver, chrome, other shiny surfaces.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Twinkle shines & protects!\n\nReview: I have a set of silverplate that was a wedding gift to my parents in 1967 - my mother gave it to me when I went off to college. We had never used it because it was \"nice\" silverware and we mostly used stainless steel flatware. For years, this set of Oneida Community Plate \"Silver Sands\" stayed wrapped in cloth in a drawer. After I ended a 4 year relationship that I had thought would end only in marriage - I thought, \"What the hell! It's not like I can expect to receive a set of silverware for a wedding gift myself\" and started using it as my daily silverware about 10 years ago.\n\nOver the last several years, I have had the other problem - more than 8 people at my house and a constant chasing around to wash silverware (or retrieve it from the trash - those careless guests have not been invited back).\n\nOver the last couple of months, I have been watching E-bay for pieces to add to my collection. A few cocktail forks and some demitasse spoons, a couple dinner forks - all so clean and sparkling that I realized how tarnished my silverplate had become. Finally, I scored someone else's wedding gift: 38 pieces for $34 including shipping.\n\nWhen it arrived - it wasn't in much better shape than my own set, so I pulled out the products from under the sink: Twinkle and Tarn-X. Honestly, it had been so long since I polished my silver, that I couldn't remember what product worked best.\n\nI spent most of the evening with Twinkle - the Tarn-X smelled so bad that I didn't want to work with it in the livingroom with a movie. I went through many old rags with the Twinkle and the silverware from my drawer was looking quite good. The next morning, I finished up the Twinkle and started with Tarn-X. The pieces I cleaned with Tarn-x - particularly the soup spoons (or tablespoons) - ended up looking far worse than the pieces cleaned with Twinkle. In fact - Tarn-X stripped the shine from the bowl of the spoons!\n\nI did not soak the pieces in the Tarn-X - and I did put all the pieces into clean water after, changing out the water from my 3 gallon basin frequently. I switched to some sample sizes of Colgate toothpaste which worked better than Tarn-x, though not as good as Twinkle.\n\nIn the end - I really regret using Tarn-X at all, and plan to return my unfinished bottle to the store with a letter asking them to discontinue carrying the product. It's toxic and it's damaging to the products it claims to be cleaning.\n\nThe silverplate cleaned with Twinkle is still shiny and mirror-like, even damaged pieces are improved with a cleaning with Twinkle. My mom confirmed: Twinkle was always her mother's choice for polishing silver, too!","Product: The VKP250 Deluxe Food Strainer by VICTORIO is a great way to make all of your favorite sauces, purees, juices and jams without the painstaking peeling and coring. It quickly separates fruit or vegetable puree from unwanted skins, seeds and stems. Mounts to surfaces up to 2 inches thick.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: It really DOES produce more sauce per pound of tomatoes!\n\nReview: For years, I made sauce by plunging tomatoes into hot water to peel them -- then seeding them -- and straining the seeds to get more juice (and pressing the skins in a chinois). About 8 years ago, I received a Kitchen Aid with the set of attachments that included the food mill attachment. That food mill attachment certainly made life a lot easier but I was still doing a lot of work -- seeding the tomatoes, cooking them down, letting them cool and then putting them through the food mill attachment. The Kitchen Aid food mill attachment is much smaller and comes to a point at the end -- so it jams up with skins a LOT, and the metal mesh straining sleeve fills up with fibers. I had to stop and clean it out quite often.\n\nA few years ago, I happened to see the Victorio food strainer and sauce maker -- and I thought about it, but kept putting it off because -- well, I already have something similar, right? Finally, this year -- I saw that there was a new model out and they have dropped the price so I took the plunge.\n\nI honestly wish I had tried this YEARS ago. My only improvements on this would be to improve where the handle fits into the body to reduce dripping from there, and to increase the height of the thing so that I could put a larger bowl under to catch the sauce.\n\nI put through 20# each of San Marzano and Beefsteak tomatoes and ended up with 15 qts of sauce (not even including the 3 qts of juice from seeding them). Two weeks earlier, I had 60# of San Marzano tomatoes and ended up with 18 qts of sauce using the KA -- I probably cooked it down longer but still -- I am pretty sure that I got a LOT more sauce using the Victorio. I'll update my review next season with additional results.","Product: Combining patented BowFrame technology with mesh fabric for breathability, the Therm-a-Rest LuxuryLite Mesh Cot offers superior, off-the-ground sleeping comfort anywhere you camp. Now offered in an expanded range of sizes, the extremely packable outdoor cot is a great choice for comfort, whether you're camping in arid high country or horse-packing through the Southwest. All Mesh Cot sizes include a stuff sack for easy and lightweight packing.\n\nRating: 1.0\n\nSummary: I tried the double twist as instructed by the manufacturer and it was slightly better. I brought the thing along with me to ...\n\nReview: So many people have raved about this cot -- from a backpacking trip two years ago clear up to a coworker earlier this summer. I decided to give it a try for Cycle Oregon and bought one when the price dipped a bit. I set it up as soon as I got it, tried it out (though I did not sleep on it). I found that it sagged and my bottom was consistently on the floor (I'm a real whale, at 5'10\" and 150#). I tried the double twist as instructed by the manufacturer and it was slightly better. I brought the thing along with me to Cycle Oregon and you know what? It sucks to sleep on this darned thing!\n\nSetting it up is overly complicated (and noisy) and it is just not better than sleeping on the ground with an air pad. I could not get comfortable - not on my back or my side - I even inflated my air pad in the middle of the night and tried using it on the cot (too slippery) and finally just ended up on the floor of the tent. I didn't try it again -- despite the cocky German/Austrian guy across the way who insisted that if I didn't like it, I was \"doing it wrong.\" It just wasn't comfortable. YMMV.","Product: A Eurythmics-obsessed, small-town Ohio youth comes to terms with his sexual identity and his New Wave fashion sense in this gentle coming-out drama, which is set in 1984. When closeted Sandusky teen Eric (Chris Stafford) and his best friend, Maggie (Tina Holmes), accept summer jobs in food service at the local amusement park, they befriend their lesbian manager, Angie (Lea DeLaria), and a gay college student named Rod (Andersen Gabrych). Sparks fly between the two boys, even as Maggie waits patiently in the wings for Eric's affections. Rod eventually gives Chris the first-time experience he was looking for, then promptly heads back to Ohio State, leaving the younger guy to spend his entire senior year looking for love -- and the perfect bleach job. As Eric's outsider fashions raise eyebrows with his loving parents, he learns that his frustrated pianist mom (Stephanie McVay) is going to have to get a job to help send him to study music in New York. Meanwhile, Eric ventures out to the local gay disco, a hopping joint run by none other than his old boss, Maggie, who shows him the ropes and gives him just enough rope to hang himself. Stung by a meaningless sexual experience and pining away for the otherwise involved Rod, Eric decides to sleep with the saintly Maggie. But he's too open and sensitive to pull a fast one over on her; crestfallen at his rejection and his willingness to toy with her affections, she ends the friendship, leaving Eric to confide in his mother -- and find his place in the gay community. Written by Todd Stephens, directed by David Moreton, and produced by both, Edge of Seventeen was screened as part of the American Spectrum at Sundance in 1999. Stephens would return with the similarly themed Gypsy 83 in 2001. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Sensitive & Well Done Coming of Age Flick\n\nReview: This was a very well done film - the day-to-day 80s feel was perfect and not overdone, the way the kids act and dressed was exactly as I remember the mid 80s. I knew folks who went to Sandusky High School in that period -- and yes, they dressed like that.\n\nSandusky isn't exactly a \"hick town in the Midwest\" as a Netflix reviewer noted when they thought the protagonist's hair & clothing were unrealistic.\n\nIn my mind - he was perfect.\n\nAll kids in the mid-late 80s dressed like that, peroxided their hair, (straight) boys in eyeliner... it was perfect. The story was well written, poignant and really easy to relate to as a coming of age story. I liked this one!","Product: From the team that brought you \"Pride and Prejudice.\" Set in a richly portrayed society well-stocked with eccentric nobles and gossipy villagers, the story centers around 17-year-old Molly Gibson, the only daughter of a respected country Doctor.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Faithful interpretation of a complex book\n\nReview: This production is tremendously well acted, and it sticks fairly closely to the original story. Due to the limitations of conversion to screen, some things were cut - such as Mollys missing Cynthias wedding due to lingering cold/flu and her resulting stay in The Towers, and a few other things.\n\nI think Mrs Gibson comes off as a bit more of a twit in the book, and Cynthia as more of a twit in the film. The film also left out the whole storyline about Rogers wranglership - which came with a stipend (or fellowship) that allowed him to finance his brothers clandestine marriage & travel, and that Rogers whole trip to Africa was a way to make money to allow his father to continue with a project to improve the property - thus improving his fathers feelings about himself as able to provide work for his tenants. There are some things that the film does which surprised me and which I thought were really good - such as Lady Cumnors speech impediment - not written into the book (in my memory) but which is entirely possible and highly amusing. I also adore the way that they dramatized Cynthias teenage outbursts, running out of rooms and door slamming - and the Miss Brownings voices and reactions.\n\nI do wish Roger wasn't quite so handsome in the film, as he was not described as such in the book. The film talks about several classes in the social hierarchy - focusing more on the classes which are seen more or less as social equals - with the words, deeds, feelings & lives of servants noticeably absent.\n\nOverall - its quite a good production and its telling a time old tale of the conflicts of teenagers with their parents over who they want to date, young men striving to make their own ways while remaining close to their fathers.","Product: The astonishing true story of Hitlers private secretary coming to terms with working alongside unspeakable evil after remaining silent for nearly sixty years. In 1942, Traudl Junge was an apolitical22-year-old chosen from a clerical pool to work as one of Adolf Hitlers private secretaries. Working day-in, day-out for Hitler, Junge viewed him as a surrogate father figure, private and polite, nothing like the crazed rhetorician of his speeches. Shielded from the knowledge of Hitlers acts of atrocity and convinced she was in the center of information, she was actually in a blind spot. As theNazi regime teetered on destruction and Hitler plunged further into madness, Junge witnessed everything up to the final chaotic days in the bunker. Completed just months before Traudl Junges death,BLIND SPOT: HITLERS SECRETARY is a riveting personal history which demands to be seen by all.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Excellent Primary Source Material\n\nReview: If I was much more intensely interested in the subject, I think that this would be a more interesting film to me. This is basically 60 minutes of very cogent, if repetitive, autobiography and recollections of an elderly woman who was in Hitler's steno pool. She says basically the same things I have heard from other folks her age - she was young, naive, insulated and just didn't think too hard about what was going on around her. She feels remorse and guilt.\n\nShe does not seem unrehearsed -- so, I'm sure she's talked with friends over the years about the subject. The film is all just of the subject speaking into the camera with little if any off camera commentary, questions or prompting. No additional footage or narrative is included. Great primary source material for a high schooler writing a paper or for a die hard WWII history buff.","Product: TV adaptation of Jane Austen's novel. Anne Elliott (Sally Hawkins) has spent years regretting her rejection of Captain Wentworth (Rupert Penry-Jones)'s proposal of marriage, her family having been against the match on grounds of class. When he returns from sea they meet but, instead of finding romance, are kept apart through a series of misunderstandings. Anne is being pursued by her cousin, Mr Elliott (Tobias Menzies), while Captain Wentworth is regarded as a very eligible bachelor and has a stream of young women with marriage in mind beating a path to his door.\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: Not as good as the Ciaran Hinds 1995 version\n\nReview: If you're looking for a well acted, true-to-story interpretation of Persuasion - this is not it. See the 1995 Ciaran Hinds version, instead.\n\nIn this one - the haircuts are contemporary, the acting is moderately good but not memorable. Missing in this interpretation is the sense of stifling lack of privacy, the tension and the constant monitoring by family and others that keeps the pair from really communicating clearly.\n\nIt's not as good a story as the book nor as good as the previous versions of the film. One of my favorite parts of the story is where Captain Wentworth writes out the letter while overhearing a conversation and unable to actually talk with Anne - and with a subtle motion, calls her attention to the note he has hidden - and her reaction. She did not go running all over town - that's just crazy. Oy. Get the 1995 version.","Product: Just as Nigella Lawson and Martha Stewart have turned Americans and Britons into nations of wannabe domestic goddesses, the Victorians had their own preacher in the shape of Mrs. Isabella Beeton.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Well Acted & Engaging\n\nReview: I first caught this on PBS last year -- and watched it through beginning to end this year after having seen Anna Madeley in \"Affinity\" (and she's even lovelier in person and a very petite woman). I really like this movie -- I enjoy the narration \"from the grave\" and the narration of instructions and recipes from the books, the 3rd wall acknowledgment. It tells a story of a smart woman who is doing her best to do her own thing -- and her struggles to give the benefit of doubt to her husband. Her story has a sad ending but it's a really great story nonetheless. Seriously, folks - we're talking about an era when women would die of pneumonia from washing their hair when the weather was too cold (shampoo was only invented in the 1920s). Highly recommended.","Product: Twinkle Silver Polish Kit 2 Pack - Malco - 4 3/8 OZ, Twinkle Silver Cleaner, Silver Polish Kit Quickly Dissolves Tarnish, Gentle, Easy To Apply, Anti Tarnish Ingredient Keeps Silver Beautiful Longer.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Twinkle shines & protects!\n\nReview: I have a set of silverplate that was a wedding gift to my parents in 1967 - my mother gave it to me when I went off to college. We had never used it because it was \"nice\" silverware and we mostly used stainless steel flatware. For years, this set of Oneida Community Plate \"Silver Sands\" stayed wrapped in cloth in a drawer. After I ended a 4 year relationship that I had thought would end only in marriage - I thought, \"What the hell! It's not like I can expect to receive a set of silverware for a wedding gift myself\" and started using it as my daily silverware about 10 years ago.\n\nOver the last several years, I have had the other problem - more than 8 people at my house and a constant chasing around to wash silverware (or retrieve it from the trash - those careless guests have not been invited back).\n\nOver the last couple of months, I have been watching E-bay for pieces to add to my collection. A few cocktail forks and some demitasse spoons, a couple dinner forks - all so clean and sparkling that I realized how tarnished my silverplate had become. Finally, I scored someone else's wedding gift: 38 pieces for $34 including shipping.\n\nWhen it arrived - it wasn't in much better shape than my own set, so I pulled out the products from under the sink: Twinkle and Tarn-X. Honestly, it had been so long since I polished my silver, that I couldn't remember what product worked best.\n\nI spent most of the evening with Twinkle - the Tarn-X smelled so bad that I didn't want to work with it in the livingroom with a movie. I went through many old rags with the Twinkle and the silverware from my drawer was looking quite good. The next morning, I finished up the Twinkle and started with Tarn-X. The pieces I cleaned with Tarn-x - particularly the soup spoons (or tablespoons) - ended up looking far worse than the pieces cleaned with Twinkle. In fact - Tarn-X stripped the shine from the bowl of the spoons!\n\nI did not soak the pieces in the Tarn-X - and I did put all the pieces into clean water after, changing out the water from my 3 gallon basin frequently. I switched to some sample sizes of Colgate toothpaste which worked better than Tarn-x, though not as good as Twinkle.\n\nIn the end - I really regret using Tarn-X at all, and plan to return my unfinished bottle to the store with a letter asking them to discontinue carrying the product. It's toxic and it's damaging to the products it claims to be cleaning.\n\nThe silverplate cleaned with Twinkle is still shiny and mirror-like, even damaged pieces are improved with a cleaning with Twinkle. My mom confirmed: Twinkle was always her mother's choice for polishing silver, too!","Product: Wysong Vegan is a natural meatless vegetarian dog and cat food designed to be used with an alternative fresh meat source or in conjunction with other Wysong meat based diets such as Archetype and the Au Jus canned diets. Wysong Vegan is rich in vitamins, minerals, probiotics and enzymes.\n\nRating: 1.0\n\nSummary: Great idea but... do the cats like it?\n\nReview: The answer is: not really. All but one of my 4 cats picks around the Wysong kibble, leaving it in the bowl.\n\nI love the concept but the kitties aren't sold. Not by one little dry piece of kibble.\n\nI have mixed it in with their other foods - and they pick around it. It's been over 4 weeks and they just won't eat it.\n\nThe formerly feral kitten who has only been indoors for 4 of her 9 months won't eat it and PURRS when I give her the other dry food.\n\nThe 7 y.o. cat who thinks broccoli stalk bits and mango and strawberry crowns are food - steals bitter lettuces out of the salad bowl. Even he won't eat it (though grudgingly with some water added, he'll eat some).\n\nThe greedy 6 y.o. cat - who growls at the 7 y.o. over broccoli bits and who always hoovers everyone else's food - won't eat it.\n\nThe geriatric cat who has pretty much eaten everything I have given him in 14 years (he's 19) - won't eat it.\n\nEven the ants won't eat it!\n\nIs there any cat who eats this and likes it or is it basically kitty prison food?\n\nI updated my rating to a single star - great concept but if the cats won't eat it, it's not really worth buying.","Product: Unusual book\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: or what might work better til almost til the end\n\nReview: To be honest - this book took me a very long time to get through. It's incredibly dense -- I'd divide the parts of it into \"whoa, how did I never hear of this!\" and \"already covered this in my MA program\" and \"I must've been checked out to not have put this together from the news.\"\n\nThe entire book is very heavy on documentation and detail - but not a lot of very strong thesis development or a strong position about what's to be done, or what might work better til almost til the end. Some of the chapters felt uneven in their development.\n\nWhat this boils down to for me is documenting the case against \"disaster capitalism\" -- that flavor of free market capitalism promulgated by Milton Friedman, the Chicago Boys, technocrats and the IMF all around the world. This is old hat for anyone with a MA in Latin American studies -- most of what I studied in the early 90s was about how Latin American governments heading toward a more community/commons focused flavor of democratic socialism were violently undermined by the US government.\n\nSome of the other developments she describes -- Poland, Russia, Israel, Iraq, New Orleans, Lebanon -- provide a fascinating extension of the maturation of this beastly form of capitalism that thrives on continued growth of profits resulting in an ever widening concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the few and deepening gulf between the haves and have nots.\n\nThe questions I have always had about capitalism are around distribution and the common good. Why does our system depend on constant growth? Why not meet demand and ensure distribution of the necessary resources to everyone, as well as jobs? Why does everything have to grow more and more, faster and faster? Nothing in nature is like that -- things get to the end of a lifecycle and then they end. What will happen if we allow free market capitalism to continue to grow? As the author points out - it generates enough disasters along the way to keep growth and profits up. What will the next incarnation look like?\n\nI'd love to see an update of this book -- I know Venezuela has fallen on hard times, and New Orleans looks like \"business as usual.\" In the US - we have certainly had a number of dramatic turns of events in the last 10 years since the book was printed to illustrate the Chicago Boys handiwork on our home turf. What will it take for people to see what they are giving up and to take responsibility and work together to create a better, more just, socioeconomic system?"],"string":"[\n \"Product: Non-scratch formula gently and quickly dissolves tarnish from silver, chrome and other shiny surfaces. Anti-tarnish ingredient keeps silver beautiful longer.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Twinkle shines & protects!\\n\\nReview: I have a set of silverplate that was a wedding gift to my parents in 1967 - my mother gave it to me when I went off to college. We had never used it because it was \\\"nice\\\" silverware and we mostly used stainless steel flatware. For years, this set of Oneida Community Plate \\\"Silver Sands\\\" stayed wrapped in cloth in a drawer. After I ended a 4 year relationship that I had thought would end only in marriage - I thought, \\\"What the hell! It's not like I can expect to receive a set of silverware for a wedding gift myself\\\" and started using it as my daily silverware about 10 years ago.\\n\\nOver the last several years, I have had the other problem - more than 8 people at my house and a constant chasing around to wash silverware (or retrieve it from the trash - those careless guests have not been invited back).\\n\\nOver the last couple of months, I have been watching E-bay for pieces to add to my collection. A few cocktail forks and some demitasse spoons, a couple dinner forks - all so clean and sparkling that I realized how tarnished my silverplate had become. Finally, I scored someone else's wedding gift: 38 pieces for $34 including shipping.\\n\\nWhen it arrived - it wasn't in much better shape than my own set, so I pulled out the products from under the sink: Twinkle and Tarn-X. Honestly, it had been so long since I polished my silver, that I couldn't remember what product worked best.\\n\\nI spent most of the evening with Twinkle - the Tarn-X smelled so bad that I didn't want to work with it in the livingroom with a movie. I went through many old rags with the Twinkle and the silverware from my drawer was looking quite good. The next morning, I finished up the Twinkle and started with Tarn-X. The pieces I cleaned with Tarn-x - particularly the soup spoons (or tablespoons) - ended up looking far worse than the pieces cleaned with Twinkle. In fact - Tarn-X stripped the shine from the bowl of the spoons!\\n\\nI did not soak the pieces in the Tarn-X - and I did put all the pieces into clean water after, changing out the water from my 3 gallon basin frequently. I switched to some sample sizes of Colgate toothpaste which worked better than Tarn-x, though not as good as Twinkle.\\n\\nIn the end - I really regret using Tarn-X at all, and plan to return my unfinished bottle to the store with a letter asking them to discontinue carrying the product. It's toxic and it's damaging to the products it claims to be cleaning.\\n\\nThe silverplate cleaned with Twinkle is still shiny and mirror-like, even damaged pieces are improved with a cleaning with Twinkle. My mom confirmed: Twinkle was always her mother's choice for polishing silver, too!\",\n \"Product: Ideal for silver, chrome, other shiny surfaces.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Twinkle shines & protects!\\n\\nReview: I have a set of silverplate that was a wedding gift to my parents in 1967 - my mother gave it to me when I went off to college. We had never used it because it was \\\"nice\\\" silverware and we mostly used stainless steel flatware. For years, this set of Oneida Community Plate \\\"Silver Sands\\\" stayed wrapped in cloth in a drawer. After I ended a 4 year relationship that I had thought would end only in marriage - I thought, \\\"What the hell! It's not like I can expect to receive a set of silverware for a wedding gift myself\\\" and started using it as my daily silverware about 10 years ago.\\n\\nOver the last several years, I have had the other problem - more than 8 people at my house and a constant chasing around to wash silverware (or retrieve it from the trash - those careless guests have not been invited back).\\n\\nOver the last couple of months, I have been watching E-bay for pieces to add to my collection. A few cocktail forks and some demitasse spoons, a couple dinner forks - all so clean and sparkling that I realized how tarnished my silverplate had become. Finally, I scored someone else's wedding gift: 38 pieces for $34 including shipping.\\n\\nWhen it arrived - it wasn't in much better shape than my own set, so I pulled out the products from under the sink: Twinkle and Tarn-X. Honestly, it had been so long since I polished my silver, that I couldn't remember what product worked best.\\n\\nI spent most of the evening with Twinkle - the Tarn-X smelled so bad that I didn't want to work with it in the livingroom with a movie. I went through many old rags with the Twinkle and the silverware from my drawer was looking quite good. The next morning, I finished up the Twinkle and started with Tarn-X. The pieces I cleaned with Tarn-x - particularly the soup spoons (or tablespoons) - ended up looking far worse than the pieces cleaned with Twinkle. In fact - Tarn-X stripped the shine from the bowl of the spoons!\\n\\nI did not soak the pieces in the Tarn-X - and I did put all the pieces into clean water after, changing out the water from my 3 gallon basin frequently. I switched to some sample sizes of Colgate toothpaste which worked better than Tarn-x, though not as good as Twinkle.\\n\\nIn the end - I really regret using Tarn-X at all, and plan to return my unfinished bottle to the store with a letter asking them to discontinue carrying the product. It's toxic and it's damaging to the products it claims to be cleaning.\\n\\nThe silverplate cleaned with Twinkle is still shiny and mirror-like, even damaged pieces are improved with a cleaning with Twinkle. My mom confirmed: Twinkle was always her mother's choice for polishing silver, too!\",\n \"Product: The VKP250 Deluxe Food Strainer by VICTORIO is a great way to make all of your favorite sauces, purees, juices and jams without the painstaking peeling and coring. It quickly separates fruit or vegetable puree from unwanted skins, seeds and stems. Mounts to surfaces up to 2 inches thick.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: It really DOES produce more sauce per pound of tomatoes!\\n\\nReview: For years, I made sauce by plunging tomatoes into hot water to peel them -- then seeding them -- and straining the seeds to get more juice (and pressing the skins in a chinois). About 8 years ago, I received a Kitchen Aid with the set of attachments that included the food mill attachment. That food mill attachment certainly made life a lot easier but I was still doing a lot of work -- seeding the tomatoes, cooking them down, letting them cool and then putting them through the food mill attachment. The Kitchen Aid food mill attachment is much smaller and comes to a point at the end -- so it jams up with skins a LOT, and the metal mesh straining sleeve fills up with fibers. I had to stop and clean it out quite often.\\n\\nA few years ago, I happened to see the Victorio food strainer and sauce maker -- and I thought about it, but kept putting it off because -- well, I already have something similar, right? Finally, this year -- I saw that there was a new model out and they have dropped the price so I took the plunge.\\n\\nI honestly wish I had tried this YEARS ago. My only improvements on this would be to improve where the handle fits into the body to reduce dripping from there, and to increase the height of the thing so that I could put a larger bowl under to catch the sauce.\\n\\nI put through 20# each of San Marzano and Beefsteak tomatoes and ended up with 15 qts of sauce (not even including the 3 qts of juice from seeding them). Two weeks earlier, I had 60# of San Marzano tomatoes and ended up with 18 qts of sauce using the KA -- I probably cooked it down longer but still -- I am pretty sure that I got a LOT more sauce using the Victorio. I'll update my review next season with additional results.\",\n \"Product: Combining patented BowFrame technology with mesh fabric for breathability, the Therm-a-Rest LuxuryLite Mesh Cot offers superior, off-the-ground sleeping comfort anywhere you camp. Now offered in an expanded range of sizes, the extremely packable outdoor cot is a great choice for comfort, whether you're camping in arid high country or horse-packing through the Southwest. All Mesh Cot sizes include a stuff sack for easy and lightweight packing.\\n\\nRating: 1.0\\n\\nSummary: I tried the double twist as instructed by the manufacturer and it was slightly better. I brought the thing along with me to ...\\n\\nReview: So many people have raved about this cot -- from a backpacking trip two years ago clear up to a coworker earlier this summer. I decided to give it a try for Cycle Oregon and bought one when the price dipped a bit. I set it up as soon as I got it, tried it out (though I did not sleep on it). I found that it sagged and my bottom was consistently on the floor (I'm a real whale, at 5'10\\\" and 150#). I tried the double twist as instructed by the manufacturer and it was slightly better. I brought the thing along with me to Cycle Oregon and you know what? It sucks to sleep on this darned thing!\\n\\nSetting it up is overly complicated (and noisy) and it is just not better than sleeping on the ground with an air pad. I could not get comfortable - not on my back or my side - I even inflated my air pad in the middle of the night and tried using it on the cot (too slippery) and finally just ended up on the floor of the tent. I didn't try it again -- despite the cocky German/Austrian guy across the way who insisted that if I didn't like it, I was \\\"doing it wrong.\\\" It just wasn't comfortable. YMMV.\",\n \"Product: A Eurythmics-obsessed, small-town Ohio youth comes to terms with his sexual identity and his New Wave fashion sense in this gentle coming-out drama, which is set in 1984. When closeted Sandusky teen Eric (Chris Stafford) and his best friend, Maggie (Tina Holmes), accept summer jobs in food service at the local amusement park, they befriend their lesbian manager, Angie (Lea DeLaria), and a gay college student named Rod (Andersen Gabrych). Sparks fly between the two boys, even as Maggie waits patiently in the wings for Eric's affections. Rod eventually gives Chris the first-time experience he was looking for, then promptly heads back to Ohio State, leaving the younger guy to spend his entire senior year looking for love -- and the perfect bleach job. As Eric's outsider fashions raise eyebrows with his loving parents, he learns that his frustrated pianist mom (Stephanie McVay) is going to have to get a job to help send him to study music in New York. Meanwhile, Eric ventures out to the local gay disco, a hopping joint run by none other than his old boss, Maggie, who shows him the ropes and gives him just enough rope to hang himself. Stung by a meaningless sexual experience and pining away for the otherwise involved Rod, Eric decides to sleep with the saintly Maggie. But he's too open and sensitive to pull a fast one over on her; crestfallen at his rejection and his willingness to toy with her affections, she ends the friendship, leaving Eric to confide in his mother -- and find his place in the gay community. Written by Todd Stephens, directed by David Moreton, and produced by both, Edge of Seventeen was screened as part of the American Spectrum at Sundance in 1999. Stephens would return with the similarly themed Gypsy 83 in 2001. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Sensitive & Well Done Coming of Age Flick\\n\\nReview: This was a very well done film - the day-to-day 80s feel was perfect and not overdone, the way the kids act and dressed was exactly as I remember the mid 80s. I knew folks who went to Sandusky High School in that period -- and yes, they dressed like that.\\n\\nSandusky isn't exactly a \\\"hick town in the Midwest\\\" as a Netflix reviewer noted when they thought the protagonist's hair & clothing were unrealistic.\\n\\nIn my mind - he was perfect.\\n\\nAll kids in the mid-late 80s dressed like that, peroxided their hair, (straight) boys in eyeliner... it was perfect. The story was well written, poignant and really easy to relate to as a coming of age story. I liked this one!\",\n \"Product: From the team that brought you \\\"Pride and Prejudice.\\\" Set in a richly portrayed society well-stocked with eccentric nobles and gossipy villagers, the story centers around 17-year-old Molly Gibson, the only daughter of a respected country Doctor.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Faithful interpretation of a complex book\\n\\nReview: This production is tremendously well acted, and it sticks fairly closely to the original story. Due to the limitations of conversion to screen, some things were cut - such as Mollys missing Cynthias wedding due to lingering cold/flu and her resulting stay in The Towers, and a few other things.\\n\\nI think Mrs Gibson comes off as a bit more of a twit in the book, and Cynthia as more of a twit in the film. The film also left out the whole storyline about Rogers wranglership - which came with a stipend (or fellowship) that allowed him to finance his brothers clandestine marriage & travel, and that Rogers whole trip to Africa was a way to make money to allow his father to continue with a project to improve the property - thus improving his fathers feelings about himself as able to provide work for his tenants. There are some things that the film does which surprised me and which I thought were really good - such as Lady Cumnors speech impediment - not written into the book (in my memory) but which is entirely possible and highly amusing. I also adore the way that they dramatized Cynthias teenage outbursts, running out of rooms and door slamming - and the Miss Brownings voices and reactions.\\n\\nI do wish Roger wasn't quite so handsome in the film, as he was not described as such in the book. The film talks about several classes in the social hierarchy - focusing more on the classes which are seen more or less as social equals - with the words, deeds, feelings & lives of servants noticeably absent.\\n\\nOverall - its quite a good production and its telling a time old tale of the conflicts of teenagers with their parents over who they want to date, young men striving to make their own ways while remaining close to their fathers.\",\n \"Product: The astonishing true story of Hitlers private secretary coming to terms with working alongside unspeakable evil after remaining silent for nearly sixty years. In 1942, Traudl Junge was an apolitical22-year-old chosen from a clerical pool to work as one of Adolf Hitlers private secretaries. Working day-in, day-out for Hitler, Junge viewed him as a surrogate father figure, private and polite, nothing like the crazed rhetorician of his speeches. Shielded from the knowledge of Hitlers acts of atrocity and convinced she was in the center of information, she was actually in a blind spot. As theNazi regime teetered on destruction and Hitler plunged further into madness, Junge witnessed everything up to the final chaotic days in the bunker. Completed just months before Traudl Junges death,BLIND SPOT: HITLERS SECRETARY is a riveting personal history which demands to be seen by all.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Excellent Primary Source Material\\n\\nReview: If I was much more intensely interested in the subject, I think that this would be a more interesting film to me. This is basically 60 minutes of very cogent, if repetitive, autobiography and recollections of an elderly woman who was in Hitler's steno pool. She says basically the same things I have heard from other folks her age - she was young, naive, insulated and just didn't think too hard about what was going on around her. She feels remorse and guilt.\\n\\nShe does not seem unrehearsed -- so, I'm sure she's talked with friends over the years about the subject. The film is all just of the subject speaking into the camera with little if any off camera commentary, questions or prompting. No additional footage or narrative is included. Great primary source material for a high schooler writing a paper or for a die hard WWII history buff.\",\n \"Product: TV adaptation of Jane Austen's novel. Anne Elliott (Sally Hawkins) has spent years regretting her rejection of Captain Wentworth (Rupert Penry-Jones)'s proposal of marriage, her family having been against the match on grounds of class. When he returns from sea they meet but, instead of finding romance, are kept apart through a series of misunderstandings. Anne is being pursued by her cousin, Mr Elliott (Tobias Menzies), while Captain Wentworth is regarded as a very eligible bachelor and has a stream of young women with marriage in mind beating a path to his door.\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: Not as good as the Ciaran Hinds 1995 version\\n\\nReview: If you're looking for a well acted, true-to-story interpretation of Persuasion - this is not it. See the 1995 Ciaran Hinds version, instead.\\n\\nIn this one - the haircuts are contemporary, the acting is moderately good but not memorable. Missing in this interpretation is the sense of stifling lack of privacy, the tension and the constant monitoring by family and others that keeps the pair from really communicating clearly.\\n\\nIt's not as good a story as the book nor as good as the previous versions of the film. One of my favorite parts of the story is where Captain Wentworth writes out the letter while overhearing a conversation and unable to actually talk with Anne - and with a subtle motion, calls her attention to the note he has hidden - and her reaction. She did not go running all over town - that's just crazy. Oy. Get the 1995 version.\",\n \"Product: Just as Nigella Lawson and Martha Stewart have turned Americans and Britons into nations of wannabe domestic goddesses, the Victorians had their own preacher in the shape of Mrs. Isabella Beeton.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Well Acted & Engaging\\n\\nReview: I first caught this on PBS last year -- and watched it through beginning to end this year after having seen Anna Madeley in \\\"Affinity\\\" (and she's even lovelier in person and a very petite woman). I really like this movie -- I enjoy the narration \\\"from the grave\\\" and the narration of instructions and recipes from the books, the 3rd wall acknowledgment. It tells a story of a smart woman who is doing her best to do her own thing -- and her struggles to give the benefit of doubt to her husband. Her story has a sad ending but it's a really great story nonetheless. Seriously, folks - we're talking about an era when women would die of pneumonia from washing their hair when the weather was too cold (shampoo was only invented in the 1920s). Highly recommended.\",\n \"Product: Twinkle Silver Polish Kit 2 Pack - Malco - 4 3/8 OZ, Twinkle Silver Cleaner, Silver Polish Kit Quickly Dissolves Tarnish, Gentle, Easy To Apply, Anti Tarnish Ingredient Keeps Silver Beautiful Longer.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Twinkle shines & protects!\\n\\nReview: I have a set of silverplate that was a wedding gift to my parents in 1967 - my mother gave it to me when I went off to college. We had never used it because it was \\\"nice\\\" silverware and we mostly used stainless steel flatware. For years, this set of Oneida Community Plate \\\"Silver Sands\\\" stayed wrapped in cloth in a drawer. After I ended a 4 year relationship that I had thought would end only in marriage - I thought, \\\"What the hell! It's not like I can expect to receive a set of silverware for a wedding gift myself\\\" and started using it as my daily silverware about 10 years ago.\\n\\nOver the last several years, I have had the other problem - more than 8 people at my house and a constant chasing around to wash silverware (or retrieve it from the trash - those careless guests have not been invited back).\\n\\nOver the last couple of months, I have been watching E-bay for pieces to add to my collection. A few cocktail forks and some demitasse spoons, a couple dinner forks - all so clean and sparkling that I realized how tarnished my silverplate had become. Finally, I scored someone else's wedding gift: 38 pieces for $34 including shipping.\\n\\nWhen it arrived - it wasn't in much better shape than my own set, so I pulled out the products from under the sink: Twinkle and Tarn-X. Honestly, it had been so long since I polished my silver, that I couldn't remember what product worked best.\\n\\nI spent most of the evening with Twinkle - the Tarn-X smelled so bad that I didn't want to work with it in the livingroom with a movie. I went through many old rags with the Twinkle and the silverware from my drawer was looking quite good. The next morning, I finished up the Twinkle and started with Tarn-X. The pieces I cleaned with Tarn-x - particularly the soup spoons (or tablespoons) - ended up looking far worse than the pieces cleaned with Twinkle. In fact - Tarn-X stripped the shine from the bowl of the spoons!\\n\\nI did not soak the pieces in the Tarn-X - and I did put all the pieces into clean water after, changing out the water from my 3 gallon basin frequently. I switched to some sample sizes of Colgate toothpaste which worked better than Tarn-x, though not as good as Twinkle.\\n\\nIn the end - I really regret using Tarn-X at all, and plan to return my unfinished bottle to the store with a letter asking them to discontinue carrying the product. It's toxic and it's damaging to the products it claims to be cleaning.\\n\\nThe silverplate cleaned with Twinkle is still shiny and mirror-like, even damaged pieces are improved with a cleaning with Twinkle. My mom confirmed: Twinkle was always her mother's choice for polishing silver, too!\",\n \"Product: Wysong Vegan is a natural meatless vegetarian dog and cat food designed to be used with an alternative fresh meat source or in conjunction with other Wysong meat based diets such as Archetype and the Au Jus canned diets. Wysong Vegan is rich in vitamins, minerals, probiotics and enzymes.\\n\\nRating: 1.0\\n\\nSummary: Great idea but... do the cats like it?\\n\\nReview: The answer is: not really. All but one of my 4 cats picks around the Wysong kibble, leaving it in the bowl.\\n\\nI love the concept but the kitties aren't sold. Not by one little dry piece of kibble.\\n\\nI have mixed it in with their other foods - and they pick around it. It's been over 4 weeks and they just won't eat it.\\n\\nThe formerly feral kitten who has only been indoors for 4 of her 9 months won't eat it and PURRS when I give her the other dry food.\\n\\nThe 7 y.o. cat who thinks broccoli stalk bits and mango and strawberry crowns are food - steals bitter lettuces out of the salad bowl. Even he won't eat it (though grudgingly with some water added, he'll eat some).\\n\\nThe greedy 6 y.o. cat - who growls at the 7 y.o. over broccoli bits and who always hoovers everyone else's food - won't eat it.\\n\\nThe geriatric cat who has pretty much eaten everything I have given him in 14 years (he's 19) - won't eat it.\\n\\nEven the ants won't eat it!\\n\\nIs there any cat who eats this and likes it or is it basically kitty prison food?\\n\\nI updated my rating to a single star - great concept but if the cats won't eat it, it's not really worth buying.\",\n \"Product: Unusual book\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: or what might work better til almost til the end\\n\\nReview: To be honest - this book took me a very long time to get through. It's incredibly dense -- I'd divide the parts of it into \\\"whoa, how did I never hear of this!\\\" and \\\"already covered this in my MA program\\\" and \\\"I must've been checked out to not have put this together from the news.\\\"\\n\\nThe entire book is very heavy on documentation and detail - but not a lot of very strong thesis development or a strong position about what's to be done, or what might work better til almost til the end. Some of the chapters felt uneven in their development.\\n\\nWhat this boils down to for me is documenting the case against \\\"disaster capitalism\\\" -- that flavor of free market capitalism promulgated by Milton Friedman, the Chicago Boys, technocrats and the IMF all around the world. This is old hat for anyone with a MA in Latin American studies -- most of what I studied in the early 90s was about how Latin American governments heading toward a more community/commons focused flavor of democratic socialism were violently undermined by the US government.\\n\\nSome of the other developments she describes -- Poland, Russia, Israel, Iraq, New Orleans, Lebanon -- provide a fascinating extension of the maturation of this beastly form of capitalism that thrives on continued growth of profits resulting in an ever widening concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the few and deepening gulf between the haves and have nots.\\n\\nThe questions I have always had about capitalism are around distribution and the common good. Why does our system depend on constant growth? Why not meet demand and ensure distribution of the necessary resources to everyone, as well as jobs? Why does everything have to grow more and more, faster and faster? Nothing in nature is like that -- things get to the end of a lifecycle and then they end. What will happen if we allow free market capitalism to continue to grow? As the author points out - it generates enough disasters along the way to keep growth and profits up. What will the next incarnation look like?\\n\\nI'd love to see an update of this book -- I know Venezuela has fallen on hard times, and New Orleans looks like \\\"business as usual.\\\" In the US - we have certainly had a number of dramatic turns of events in the last 10 years since the book was printed to illustrate the Chicago Boys handiwork on our home turf. What will it take for people to see what they are giving up and to take responsibility and work together to create a better, more just, socioeconomic system?\"\n]","isConversational":false},"profile_size":{"kind":"number","value":12,"string":"12"},"task":{"kind":"string","value":"longlamp_3"},"split_kind":{"kind":"string","value":"user_based"},"id":{"kind":"number","value":1679,"string":"1,679"}}},{"rowIdx":1680,"cells":{"question_id":{"kind":"string","value":"ADFOJ2MNIUTEQ"},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of \"5.0\" for a product with description \"The ultimate stealth flask. Cocktail Caddy flasks for cruises are made so you can get your own alcohol safely on board of the cruise ship. So you can save money on your drinks on your next vacation. Made only with BPA free food grade material so it won't affect the taste of your drinks. Each flask hold 1 fifth of alcohol (25 oz). Designs are changed every 6 months to ensure nobody recognizes them as flasks. CLICK THE ADD TO CART BUTTON AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE.\". The summary of the review text is \"They are BIG and very convincing \"fakes\"\"."},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"Normally the first thing I do is post pictures of an item that I review so that everyone can see how nice it is....and this is VERY authentic looking...but I can't post it because then the authorities would know what to look for when searching my bag when boarding a cruise! These are VERY genuine looking, down to the shampoo and conditioner ingredient list. The bottles come with 4 seals so they can be reused for a second cruise. The bottles are BIG and hold 750mL (over 25oz) each! What's better is that you won't get that funky taste from using a mouthwash bottle as I've seen people do. These bottles come with instructions on how to use/attach the seals, too. A great item for anyone that cruises (or a gift for a friend going on a cruise). *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*"},"correct_answer":{"kind":"string","value":"Normally the first thing I do is post pictures of an item that I review so that everyone can see how nice it is....and this is VERY authentic looking...but I can't post it because then the authorities would know what to look for when searching my bag when boarding a cruise! These are VERY genuine looking, down to the shampoo and conditioner ingredient list. The bottles come with 4 seals so they can be reused for a second cruise. The bottles are BIG and hold 750mL (over 25oz) each! What's better is that you won't get that funky taste from using a mouthwash bottle as I've seen people do. These bottles come with instructions on how to use/attach the seals, too. A great item for anyone that cruises (or a gift for a friend going on a cruise). *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*"},"documents":{"kind":"list like","value":["Product: 8 openings wood wall hanging picture photo frame;\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Very large & nicely made\n\nReview: This comes in a very large box (26.8 x 13.4 x 0.8 inches) and has a good weight to it (6.1 pounds). It is safely packaged in styrofoam and protected with a thin foam sheet that is wrapped around the front of the frame. The frame itself holds 7 photos of varying sizes and is a nice \"centerpiece\" for a collage on a wall or is big enough to stand alone. There are two mounting brackets on the back for hanging with nails. Because it is heavy I would definitely recommend using anchors in the wall so that it can handle the weight of the frame. There are swivel brackets for holding the back in the frame, much better than the cheaper frames where you have to bend the metal pieces each time you want to change a photo. Very nice, I can't wait to have some great \"friend\" photos printed to put in this frame and hang it! *I received this product at a discount in return for my honest and unbiased review.*","Product: Lunch Bags Tote,Made of Fine Neoprene Material,Art Image on Both Sides,Folds flat for storage.We have Many Fantastic Design for Your Choices,This is a Idea Lunch Bag for Your Kids to School,or for you to Work,Shopping,you can also take it as a Baby Bag,You can use it to take lunch, drinks, breast milk and etc. it is Soft and Comfortable It has a smell when we first got it, but you can wash it in the washing machine and air dried it and it will be fine,you can wash it multiple times and it still looks new. The bottom stretches and kind of widens so you can really stuff a lot of things in there and it zips closed to keep things in there place. It also keeps food cold all day with a small ice pack. Dimension:Size:11.8\\\"(30cm) Tall x 11.2\\\" (28.5cm)Wide x 6.29\\\"(16.5cm) (Bottom Wide) Weight:160g\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: So CUTE and very nicely made!\n\nReview: A great neoprene lunch tote with handles that is shipped flat and opens up to a large lunch bag. The stitching is well made and holds a good amount of lunch foods and snack perfectly with an easy to grasp handle. The neoprene material also helps keep your food and drink bottle cool. There is a cute pug doggie design on both the front and the back side and it is a very good image, very clear and great printing job. This is great to have when you need to bring your own lunch to work or school and want to keep your food cool in a stylish way. There are 23 patterns to choose from. There is also a zippered top so that your food won't fall out in transport. Very nicely made. I have included a few of my own product photos for you to see rather than relying on stock photos in the listing. *I received a sample of this item in return for an honest and unbiased review*","Product: Stacking Lunch Box - Two Tier Tiffin w/ Vacuum Seal Lid & Stainless Steel Interior and Built in Carrying Handles - BPA Free - Our two layer lunchbox features a durable, food grade stainless steel interior. Two layer design allows you to separate your food. Arched handle provides convenient carrying and locks snap securely fasten both compartments together. The top tier's vacuum seal prevents spills and keeps your food fresh. Holds 6 cups. Dishwasher and freezer safe.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Bigger than I expected\n\nReview: I like the design and size of this tiffin container. The two bottom bowls are much bigger than I expected and I like that they can hold hot food. The top container has a rubber stopper which can be popped out so that steam can escape the top tier. The two handles lay down flush or pop up for easy carrying. The lid stays on tightly with the rubber seal. I really like this set for bringing my lunch to and from work. The only thing that would make this better is if there was a place or compartment for my utensils. *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*","Product: The 12 ounce Asobu Vino Opener Cup has all the great benefits from the Vino2Go with an added twist - an added corkscrew that easy pops in and out of the bottom of your vino - making it a truly versatile on-the-go wine cup. Take the bug-resistant, spill proof and unbreakable cup anywhere! Hand wash.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Corkscrew is built in! So clever!\n\nReview: Such a clever design! This is a plastic cup that is great for outdoor use and it still looks just like a wine glass! The neat thing is, the part that looks like a spiral \"stem\" is actually a corkscrew that can be popped out of the bottom! Such a clever design! I love that the top has a small spout that has a flip-lid and can seal shut while not in use. I also like that this is unbreakable! Great for camping, picnics, and sitting out on the deck/porch/patio! Friday and Saturday nights we sit out with friends and this will be so great to have instead of a glass! *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*","Product: Why Mulberry Silk 1. FEWER WRINKLES: Mulberry silk is hypoallergenic and can help skin maintain moisture, it never absorb facial creams, and it is super smooth and soft to prevent wrinkles. 2. PREVENT HAIR LOSS: Mulberry silk fibers structure is very similar to human hair, so that it allows hair to slide gently across the pillowcase to prevent hair loss. 3. LONGER-LASTING HAIRSTYLE: Mulberry silk pillowcases are super soft and smooth, they can longer lasting blow dries, best for those who have long hair. 4.PROMOTE HEALTH & Great SLEEP: Mulberry silk has 18 types of naturally occurring compounds that are believed to promote positive health care functions. Silk is a natural body temperature regulator. That's why silk is much better than satin. Silk Care 1.COOL WASH Always wash your silk pillowcase in warm, not hot water setting machine washes at 30 degrees or on a silk setting. 2.USE OF PROTECTIVE BAGS If machine washing, try to place the item in a protective bag to prevent the pulling action of your washing machine. 3.DRYING Hanging your silk pillowcase on a washing line is preferable to machine drying, away from direct sunlight and radiators. We recommend not tumbling dry. 4.IRONING Try to iron your silk pillowcase when slightly damp and use a cool setting. Your item should be ironed on the inside at all times. 5.NEVER BLEACH Or use any kind of bleaching agent. Bleach damages the silk fiber and will destroy silk pillowcase. 6.NEVER SHAMPOO Do not attempt to substitute a washing agent for shampoo.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Beautiful & heavenly to sleep on!\n\nReview: While I understand the \"beauty\" effects that this pillow case claims to offer, I just like it because it is so smooth and comfortable and feels great to sleep on. The pillow comes in a pretty gift box that includes a little drawstring bag with other color samples and an actual silk moth cocoon. The pillow case is neatly folded and wrapped in plastic. Once I took it out I saw that the top side is silk and the bottom is cotton. As other people have mentioned in their reviews that they feel that this is a method to \"cut corners\" while in fact it is not. Anyone who has had any experience with silk pillows would know that silks is very smooth and pillows tend to slide inside. The reason that the bottom of this case is cotton is so that the case doesn't slide around. I do like that there is a zipper to close the pillow so that it doesn't slide out. It is incredibly nice and so soft and comfortable to sleep on. *I received a sample of this item in return for an honest and unbiased review*","Product: TOSSWARE is the perfect upscale disposable (but 100% recyclable!) drinkware for any occasion. Our products embody the elegant look and feel of crystal without the shatter. Best of all, they are BPA-free and made with the highest quality recycled PET polymer, so you can save the planet without sacrificing sophistication. Its style meets simplicity with TOSSWARE!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Totally reusable! Great \"glasses\"\n\nReview: I'm totally impressed with these \"glasses\" from the moment I unpacked them from the shipping carton! This set of shatterproof glasses come with every 3 glasses individually wrapped and sealed in a plastic package, then the four packages are nicely boxed. The box keeps the glasses in perfect condition during storage and shipping. The glasses snap into each other for storage which is nice for transporting them and for storage purposes. The glasses are much sturdier than plastic cups you buy for parties and you can totally handwash these and reuse them. They really are crystal clear and look like glass. The glasses are also BPA free so you don't have to worry about contaminating yourself by using them. These are great for parties & picnics because of the fact that they are shatterproof, yet sturdy. These are a full 18 oz and are nice for soda, beer, cocktails, or even water. Definitely a much nicer presentation and easier clean-up for a party because they can be tossed and are completely recyclable!\nI have included some photos so that you can see the details that I see, rather than relying on the stock photos on Amazon. *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*\n\nI brought these to a bingo and gave one to each person at my table (8 total) and everyone LOVED them! Some people kept them to wash and reuse and one person just tossed it in the trash. I didn't even feel badly because that's what they are for, toss or keep!","Product: America's birthday. Be proud to be an American and let it show in your choice of celebration party supplies. Splashes of traditional stripes mixed with classic white stars creates a show of your patriotic spirit and faith in the red, white and blue for whatever occasion. Pair this design with solid navy and classic red to put a spark into your picnic, 4th of July celebration, soldier's homecoming or just to show your support of our troops at your next barbeque.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Cute for barbecues in the summer\n\nReview: These are perfect for 4th of July, Memorial Day, or Labor Day parties! Very patriotic plates and napkins for your barbeque party! The blue looks like denim with stitching which is cute. There are 50 large plates and 50 small dessert or sides plates....and 100 napkins! This would be perfect for a party of 40ish people, I'd say, assuming that each person will use a plate, but sometimes two and another one for dessert/cake. The only thing that would make this set better is if it included cups! That would be perfect! A one-stop shopping for party goods!\n\nThe plates are strong enough that they won't sag under the weight of a hamburger or heavier sides. The plates also look to have a coating on it so that they don't absorb the moisture which can also lead to sagging or even worse, tears! This plate doesn't get soggy. They are constructed well, better than most cheapie paper plates. The napkins are 2-ply and absorbent and are super cute.\n\nThe only downfall of this is that they are a little pricey but you definitely get a quality product for the price. I guess it really is, you get what you pay for in this instance.\n\nI have included a few of my own product photos for you to see rather than relying on stock photos in the listing. *I received this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*","Product: Every night you sleep on your mattress, but do you know what youre sleeping in? While youre sleeping, your body sheds millions of skin flakes and loses up to one liter of body fluid through your skin, pores, and mouth. Now, you can enjoy peace of mind with our Rest Assure Terry Cotton 100% Waterproof Mattress Cover. Available in Twin, Twin XL, Full, Queen, and King; your entire family can sleep comfortably knowing they are sleeping clean. The unique design is made to defend against dust, dust mites, allergens, and bacteria. With the 10 year warranty, you will be protected for years from spills, accidents, and stains. The cover will fit mattresses 8-24 in height and cover the top and sides of your mattress. Do not iron or dry clean.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Perfect for preventing allergies!!\n\nReview: This is exactly what the doctor ordered, literally. The allergist recommended that we get our son a mattress cover to help reduce dust mites & other allergens so we bought this. I really love the feel of the sheets, they feel breathable and are terrycloth fabric. They also offer another layer of padding to the bed and the sheet does feel strong and durable and is well made. It is just as easy to put on your bed as a sheet and offers allergy protection which will help has helped my son with his sneezing fits in the morning. Happy it is machine washable too! Comes with a 10 year warranty. *I received this product at a discount in exchange for my honest and unbiased review*","Product: Star Wars Cutting Board - Millennium Falcon - Take your cutting into Hyperspace Made from an acrylic material, this cutting board is perfect for any Star Wars fan! Measures approx. 39.4cm (L) x 29.2cm W).\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Super cute conversation piece!\n\nReview: A little pricey for what it is, but it's pretty cute! It is an acrylic board cut in the shape of a Millennium Falcon with a design sticker on the bottom but sealed in the acrylic. It is nicely packaged in a branded clear plastic shell, great for gift giving. The cutting board has rubberized feet to keep it from sliding around. I think it would make a great conversation piece for any Star Wars fans! You could easily use it as a cheese tray or other type of serving tray where you could cut items on it during use (bread, fruit, etc). I personally think I'm going to leave it out on the counter so my teenage son stops using the countertop to cut food on! He's killing my countertop! Hopefully he is drawn to the Star Wars theme and uses the cutting board!\n\nIt is a good size, you can use it to cut or serve bigger items (15\" by 11\"). The listing on Amazon doesn't say it but the packaging says that the cutting board is dishwasher safe. The package also states that the acrylic surface will not blunt your knives, which is good to know.\n\nI've read a few bad reviews but I think it's pretty awesome, just a hair pricey. But that makes sense because it is \"officially licensed\".\n\nI have included a few of my own product photos for you to see rather than relying on stock photos in the listing. *I received a sample of this item in return for an honest and unbiased review*","Product: Easy to use, this pump action sealer will quickly become your favorite bar tool. Makes a great housewarming gift! It includes two rubber stoppers that create an airtight vacuum seal. The pump handle is ergonomically designed for easier pumping action and to avoid pinching that can occur with other pumps Feature: 100% brand new and high quality. Material: Plastic Wine bottle sealer vacuum pump, preserve your wine for later use Includes two rubber stoppers that create an air-tight vacuum seal Size: 4.8 / 12.2cm Color: Black Package Content: 1x Wine Bottle Vacuum Sealer 1x 2 Stoppers How To Use: To seal bottle, place stopper on top of the wine bottle opening Place pump on top of stopper and hold in place Lowly pull pump handle to remove air and create vacuum seal To remove stopper, to release the vacuum seal by pulling the tow taps on top of the stopper together\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Nice set, easy way to preserve your wine.\n\nReview: Cute gift set! This would make a really nice present but you might want to keep it for yourself! The hanging bubble display includes the bottle opener with two stoppers attractively displayed. The pump is plastic (as shown in pic). The pump slides easily for use. The two stoppers fit nicely into the bottle and all you do is firmly hold the pump firmly on top of the stoppers and pump the air out of the bottle. The stoppers are air-tight so that no air is released. By taking the air out of the wine bottles you preserve the wine for a longer period of time. A great item to have if you are a wine drinker! *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*","Product: ??? Exposure To Air Causes Wine To Oxidize Quickly Which Causes An Unfavorable Change In The Wine's Flavor And Color. Use Our Vacuum Pump And Accompanying Wine Stopper To Create a Good Vacuum Seal For Your Opened Wine Bottle, Keeping Your Wine Fresh-Tasting Longer.;??? The Stoppers Have One-Way Valves That Allow The Air To Be Pulled From The Bottle But Not Forced Back In. Our Easy-To-Use Pump Fits Snugly Over The Stoppers And By Pulling Up Gently On The Handle The Air Is Drawn From The Bottle, And When The Handle Is Pushed Back Down The Air Is Forced Away From The Bottle. Repeat To Draw More Air From The Bottle.;??? The Set Includes One Hand Pump And Two Rubber Stoppers. These All Come In A Nice, Attractive Box Making This Set Very Suitable For Gifting.;??? All Components Are Made Of Quality Materials And Are Designed To Serve For Years Of Use.;??? 100% MONEY BACK GUARANTEE: If You Are Not Satisfied With Our Product For Any Reason, Give Us The Opportunity To Address Your Concerns. We Stand By Our Product And Believe You Will Be Happy With It, But If It Fails To Meet Your Expectations, We Will Do Our Very Best To Make It Right - Even If It Means Replacing It Or Refunding Your Money.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Preserve your wine by pumping out the air!\n\nReview: Cute gift set! This would make a really nice present but you might want to keep it for yourself! The box opens with a slide off top to reveal the bottle opener with two stoppers attractively displayed. The pump is mostly plastic with a metal grip (as shown in pic). The pump slides easily. The two stoppers fit nicely into the bottle and all you do is firmly hold the pump on the stoppers and pump the air out of the bottle. The stoppers are air-tight so that no air is released. By taking the air out of the wine bottles you preserve the wine for a longer period of time. A great item to have if you are a wine drinker! *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*","Product: Our 100% Cotton Canvas Laundry Bag is ideal for almost all standard laundry hampers and racks. Our durable cotton will make carrying laundry easy. Has a drawstring closure and cord lock to secure laundry in bag. Measure 28inches x 36 inches. Machine washable.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: HUGE & heavy duty!\n\nReview: So impressed with these canvas drawstring bags! They are heavy-duty canvas and the quality is wonderful. The stitching and accessories are well made. The bags are HUGE and you can easily fit two loads of laundry in each large bag. I really like that the set comes with three bags, you can separate by colors and whites and then have one bag left for clean & folded clothes (easy for carrying or transporting from place to place). The drawstring has a toggle button clasp so that you don't have to tie or accidentally tangle the cord up and your items won't spill out. I think this would be great to bring one or two on vacations with you to use in the closet for you to throw dirty or soiled clothing into and then thrown into your suitcase and bring home to dump into your washer right away!\nThe color is definitely a tan canvas with a white braided drawstring cord. All three bags are the same size 28inches x 36 inches. They are totally washable, and I would probably turn them inside-out to wash. If you have a laundry basket that you use, this may fit as a liner, but that really depends on the size of your laundry basket, of course.\nGreat bags, reasonable price, highly recommended!\n\nI have included a few of my own product photos for you to see rather than relying on stock photos in the listing. *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*","Product: Kleen Freak Counter Coasters feature a washable, nonslip coaster base in rectangular shape that is perfect for kitchen and bathroom sinks. The double-sided absorbent inserts stop messes before they happen. Plus, the inserts are replaceable, making cleanup quick and easy.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Great for dinner parties!\n\nReview: This is much bigger than a regular coaster and is intended for use with large wine bottles or other bottles that tend to drip (you can also use it for large cups, as I am using it for a 32oz iced drink and it is perfect). Provided that your liquid isn't discolored, you can reuse this many times, but if you drip something with a color such as wine you can slide the absorbent pad out and replace it with another (the package comes with 3 extra replacement pads. The base itself is a silver colored plastic piece that has three little lip areas that hold the absorbent coaster in place. You can get different styles for refils which is a fun & novel idea! I like that I can change the pad to suit my mood or the dcor of the room I am using it in. Changing the pad takes two seconds, you just slide it out and slide the new one back in. I have included a few of my own product photos for you to see rather than relying on stock photos in the listing. *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*","Product: Besli 20 Pieces Premium Stainless Steel Flatware Set\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Formal or informal placesetting! Very pretty!\n\nReview: First and foremost, this set of flatware doesn't come packed in a retail box which may be off-putting for a buyer that may be expecting to give this as a gift. Each piece (all 20 pieces) are individually wrapped in a cellophane bag and then each type of utensil is wrapped in a rubber band. Then all little bundles are wrapped in one larger bag and then packed with sufficient packing material to keep them from bouncing around and getting damaged in shipping.\nEach utensil is durable and solid and made up of stainless steel. The design at the neck of each utensil is pretty and sets this set apart for your average run of the mill plain sets. The design is very attractive on a formal or informal table setting. The handles are narrow and tapered but are comfortable to hold.\nI also like that the set is easy to rinse under water and can be thrown into a dishwasher for an more thorough wash. A very nice set!\nI have included a few of my own product photos for you to see rather than relying on stock photos in the listing. *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*","Product: SIIG's Bluetooth Wireless Mini Keyboard works smoothly with your Bluetooth enabled desktop or notebook computer. This keyboard has scissor key switch structure that gives comfort touch with tactile feedback, and a compact footprint with an 85-key layout for space saving and portability. The 6 media player control function keys (Play/Pause, Previous, Next, Volume Up, Down and Mute) allow for quick multimedia player control. Additional features include built-in On/Off power switch, smart power management function to extend battery life, and battery power status LEDs to alert you when the batteries are low\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Great to have a keyboard for my tablet!\n\nReview: This works on smart phones and tablets! It's great to take with you on a trip instead of lugging a bulky computer with you! It was easy to set up, just open the battery cover on the back and insert two AA batteries. Once you have that set up you can turn the power to ON and then push the CONNECT button to become visible on your device (in the bluetooth area). It sends you a code to enter on the keyboard and then you are ready to use it! As long as the keyboard is in the ON position it will work in any application! It's a smaller keyboard than I am used to so it takes some getting used to. There are a lot of special keys on the keyboard to help you navigate. The keyboard is easy to throw into your computer bag or purse, it is very thin and lightweight. There is a yellow bumper that goes around the entire keyboard to protect it from bumps. *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*","Product: Compatible with all iPod and iPhone models, except iPod Shuffle This Combo Pack Includes: USB Home Charger Adapter Home charger adapter allows charging at home or in the office via USB cable connection. Simply plug in the USB cable, and plug the adapter into the wall. Compact, lightweight, portable, stylish, easy to store. Charger: Input: 100V - 240V (U.S. & World Standard). Best replacement for original charger. Wall charger chargers your iphone/ipod quickly. IC chip inside recognizes a fully charged battery and automatically switches to a saver mode iPod / iPhone can still be used during charging Condition: Brand new. 3rd Party Products, Not an Apple product.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Great to have around the house, office, and for travel! a\n\nReview: It is SO nice to have extras of these adapters for the house and the office! I am always looking around trying to find the one or two that I have. These are even nicer looking that the white or black ones that I have. I am keeping the pink and purple in my desk at work and the yellow will be great for the office and the black and white will be perfect for my living room. The colors look even nicer in person, as they are glossy and bright. They work perfectly and charge ANYTHING that uses a USB for charging (most cords these days!). They are also small enough to take a few on vacation! They come bagged together in a resealable \"ziplock type\" bag and each wrapped in a plastic wrap to keep them from being scratched in shipping. *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*","Product: Fashionforward meets function. The Targus 13.3\" Twill Sleeve has a slim and sleek design that allows you to carry this case anywhere you go, and taps into your inner style seekers when looking for a stylish case.The exterior is made of a durable, easytoclean twill material to add a layer of protection when transporting your laptop. The interior has a soft lining to help prevent scratches A snap closure keeps your laptop secure. Easily slip the sleeve into another bag/backpack or carry on its own Designed to protect laptops, Ultrabooks and MacBook Air and Pro with up to 13.3\" screens Waterresistant and easy to clean twill\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Really cute & stylish!\n\nReview: I'm very happy to notice immediately that the color matches the \"stock\" photos perfectly, there were no surprises there. What you can see in the close up photos is that the stitching is white and stands out boldly for a stylish and classy look. The flip-over snap is an open circle that fits perfectly over the snap on the case and clasps tightly for a good, safe fit. The inside lining of the case has a soft, grey suede texture and the sides are padded to protect your computer. The case itself is on the thin side and there is definitely not enough room to pack your cords, but, if you are just running out to the coffee shop to do a few hours of work this is perfect to protect it (or in my case, I have a charging cord at work and at home so carrying my cord isn't a necessity). You could even throw this into a backpack or messenger bag for easy carrying. A nice case to protect your big investment! *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*","Product: feature -Shock & water resistant high-performance loud speaker -Premium speaker driver to deliver enhanced music listening experience with HD acoustic and crystal clear sound -Low energy consumption and eco-friendly Bluetooth wireless technology -Reinforced rugged shock-resistance material -High efficiency audio wireless connectivity -Up to 6 hours of playtime, 6.5 days of standby time, or 7 hours of talk time -Universal compatibility with Android and iPhone, iPad, tablets, smartphones, iPods, MP3, MP4 and other Bluetooth enabled digital players -Comes with a built-in hook and a FREE camping snap hook for outdoor use with maximum portability -Built-in mic for hands-free talking -Built-in high density battery Specification -Bluetooth 3.0 + EDR -Playback time: Up to 6 hours - Charging time: 2-4 hour - Connection range: 33 feet - Battery: 500mAh lithium battery - Waterproof level: iPX4 Warranty & support - Email between 9am - 6pm PST will be answered with 24 business hours - 1 year full manufacture product warranty included\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Great little shower speaker!\n\nReview: This speaker is very rugged and is great for the outdoors/camping/hiking/beach. The bass and treble are balanced but there is a slight \"hollow\" sound. I would give this a 4.5 star if I could. It was incredibly easy to set up the Bluetooth. With the power in the ON position (button on side) you will be prompted by a \"ding\" letting you know that the speaker is ready to be paired. Then you go onto your cell phone>settings>Bluetooth> and select the speaker that shows up as available to pair with and the \"ding\" will prompt you again letting you know that they are paired. Very easy.\n\nThere are three important buttons (aside from the on/off switch):\n1) Volume Down (hold down) and \"go back a song\" (fast push)\n2) Play/Pause\n3) Volume Up (hold down) and \"skip to next song\" (fast push)\n\nThe front is a metal mesh covering the speaker and the other sides are a rubberized plastic with a waterproof cover for the micro-USB charging and card slot. There is a microphone built in to take the incoming calls on your phone that is being sent bluetooth. There is a suction cup on the back for you to attach it to you shower wall/door (water-resistant, NOT water-proof...so keep it sort of away from direct stream of water). If you can't use the suction cup (we can't) there is also a little carabiner clip you can use to hang it from your shower rings. I am very pleased with it! This speaker would also make a very nice gift. *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*","Product: Feature -High definition 3W + 3W watt loud speakers -40mm loudspeaker premium drivers -Built-in 3.5mm aux port -Built-in TF card reader for easy music access -Built-in microphone for hands-free talking -6 hours of wireless playback time and 10 hours of talk time -Built-in 1600mAh high capacity rechargeable battery -Battery display on iPhone and iPad Specification -Built-in 3.5mm audio port for wired or Bluetooth 3.0 wireless connectivity -Playback time: up to 10 hours wired and 6 hours with Bluetooth wireless connection -Speaker driver: 40mm -Charging time: 2.5-3.5 hours -Connection range: 33 feet -Operating frequency: 2.4-2.48GHz -Battery: Built-in rechargeable 3.7V 1600mAh lithium-ion battery -Unit weight: 12oz -Dimension : 5.7 x 1.77 x 2.36 inches -Speaker driver: stereo, 40MM, 4Ohm -LF diaphragm dimension: 25*40 MM -Signal-to-Noise Ratio: 40db -Distortion: 1% -Large speaker cavity inside for excellent sound effect -Passive subwoofer inside delivers outstanding bass -Battery status can be displayed on iPhone\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Great sound from a tough little speaker!\n\nReview: This is a smaller speaker that packs a lot of punch! The bass and treble are balanced and can play very loudly without any distortion of sound. It was incredibly easy to set up the Bluetooth with the speaker. With the power in the ON position (button on side under rubber flap) you will be prompted by a voice telling you that the speaker is ready to be paired. Then you go onto your cell phone>settings>Bluetooth> and select the speaker that shows up as available to pair with and the voice will prompt you again letting you know that they are paired. Very easy.\n\nThe speaker is a small rectangle (5.7 x 1.77 x 2.36 inches) and will fit just about anywhere. The bottom has a rubberized pad so that the speaker will not slide with vibration. The casing is a heavy duty metal that feels incredibly strong and durable. There is a microphone built into the speaker so you can take your incoming calls via Bluetooth. An instruction booklet is included in the box as well which really helps you walk through all the functions this speaker offers (volume control, skip ahead or go back, and 3D). The rubber covered button controls are on the side. I'm guessing that all of the covers on the buttons make it splash proof but definitely not waterproof.\n\nTo charge the unit you can use the attached cord. There is also a TF card reader for you to directly put music in the speaker (which means you won't need to be tethered to a phone if you don't want to be.\n\nThis is a really SUCH nice speaker that compares well with other, much higher priced brand name speakers (beats, skull candy, etc). I am very impressed with the sound and quality of the unit and think it is SO worth the retail price! It would also make a very nice gift (in fact I was going to give this as a gift but decided I love it too much to give it away!). *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*","Product: Show off your style and tech-savvy with Freah Pelle Designs computer bags. Freah stands for fresh, stylish, and ultramodern. Combined with Pelle, Italian for leather, Freah Pelle designs offer a chic, exciting alternative to the usual lackluster computer bag. The Freah Pelle Laptop Bag is designed for style and versatility. The slim modern design transports your laptop and its accessories in style without the added bulk. Available in the season's hottest designs, this laptop bags fits most 12.5 to 13.3 laptops including MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Ultrabook, and other top brands. Carry it in clutch-style as a case or use the removable shoulder strap included for your convenience.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Beautiful bag that could be used as computer bag OR as a purse!\n\nReview: This bag is so adorable and could also be used as a purse, rather than a computer bag! To start, the gold colored hardware on the bag is heavy duty and well made. The zipper glides well on the zipper teeth and the clasps on the long strap (included inside bag) are sturdy while looking classy. The larger pouch is large enough to hold my 13\" laptop with a plastic shell case on it.\n\nThe exterior case is great for cords or earbuds, but with a full 13\" laptop in the bag you won't have room for a heavy duty adapter. The crosshatch design is stylish and the leather feels durable. The construction and stitching are also strong and look to be very nicely made. There is piping all the way around the bag which adds a nice touch. The entire bag is padded well and has a soft cotton lining to protect your computer. I've included a bunch of photos so that you can see the details up close. *I received this item in return for my honest and unbiased review*","Product: With a compact profile and ergonomic design, the TAC501 Bluetooth alarm clock is both charming and practical. It supports Bluetooth audio and call streaming, for wireless audio and hands-free conversations, and also features an aux-in port for a wired connection to most devices. A USB charging port allows you to play and charge your devices at the same time. The alarm clock also lets you wake to FM radio with a six-station preset memory, or a traditional buzzer.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: A lot of neat features!\n\nReview: Pretty good sound quality of this speaker! The bass and treble are balanced and can play loudly without distortion of sound. It was incredibly easy to set up the Bluetooth with the speaker (with the power on you push the mode button and when it chimes on the screen you go onto your cell phone>settings>Bluetooth> and select the speaker to pair with). Once it pairs your will hear a cute little chime.\n\nThe speaker is wide and narrow and can fit just about anywhere. Most Bluetooth speakers don't offer the radio function but this one does, and even displays the radio station on the digital display. There is a microphone built in so you can take the incoming calls on your phone via Bluetooth. An instruction booklet is included in the box as well which really helps you walk through all the functions this speaker offers.\n\nThe only problem I had was that once I stuck the little clear backing into the top of the speaker to hold my phone, my phone leaned a bit forward, rather than straight up how it should. I blame this on the thick battery case I have on my phone, but if you also have a thick case on it may not sit well either. I like that there is a USB port on top that you can use to plug in your phone and charge it.\n\nI am pleased with my decision to purchase this speaker! It would also make a very nice gift.\n\nI have included a few of my own product photos for you to see rather than relying on stock photos in the listing. *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*","Product: Head-to-toe warmth is provided by this long Sportoli puffer coat . Its thick down alternative filling, along with elasticized wrists, flaps on the hood, and a fleece bonus scarf, ensure utmost warmth in winter's extremes. Feminine smocking at waist. Available in sizes 4 to 16 (for other size ranges, please see our storefront).\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Really cute coat for girls!\n\nReview: So cute! It totally looks just like it does in the photo (colors & design). There is a nice elastic waist and the cuffs are also elastic so the air doesn't sneak in through the sleeves. The bottom doesn't have elastic but is long and keeps your child's entire torso warm. The zipper is plastic but the zipper pulls and snaps are all metal. The scarf is fleece and cozy and helps keep your child even warmer than the coat alone. There is a good amount of warm stuffing in the coat and works well to keep your child warm and looks cute in the process. The hood is permanently attached and is great for snowy or rainy days. I think it runs \"slightly\" small. I ordered a 7/8 and it is only slightly large for my 5 year old niece. It's polyester and I've included pictures of the \"care\" tag as well as other \"detail\" photos. *I received this product at a discount in return for my honest and unbiased review.*","Product: Active Play presents the Sporter S3 Scooter. This 3 wheeled scooter is self propelling. Make a skiing twist motion to propel the Sporter forward. Three wheels and more stable than two wheels. There is a front brake. It folds flat for easy transporting and storage. Maximum weight of child should not exceed 220 pounds.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Easy to assemble and fun to use!\n\nReview: Super cool scooter! This scooter comes in a tall box that weighs a lot but surprisingly it's not that complicated to put together an only took us about 10 minutes to finish (easy to follow instructions and comes with everything you need to put it together). I love that there is a hand-break to use, that's one of my pet peeves with the Razor scooters, it's harder to stop those. This is really cool, it's powered by wiggling and really gives your kid a good workout! My son is on the larger side for the scooter but it still works perfectly and he loves it! The handles are rubber and grippy for easy holding and handling. The wheels are a good solid construction, roll nicely, and handle all types of surfaces like driveways, sidewalks, and gravel. Such a fun scooter!!!","Product: The Xtreme Bright Pro series Elite lantern is the perfect high-powered lantern and flashlight for all your outdoor recreational activities. An infrared remote (pictured above) works from up to 20 feet away, so you can operate the lantern from virtually anywhere within your campsite. With 24 ultra bright LED bulbs, the extreme lantern is great for all types of outdoor activities, but with a built in Compass - see above pictures, this lantern is nothing short of essential for every camping, hiking, hunting and fishing excursion. The lantern can be used as a super bright light for a workshop or garage, and also a great addition to your hiking and camping accessories. The lantern is battery powered and the bulbs never need to be changed. Buy now for a 100 percent money back lifetime guarantee! available in red, white and Black.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Bright remote controlled lantern!\n\nReview: A great camping lantern! The LED lights are very bright and the remote control makes this SO convenient to use from anywhere on your campsite (20 ft away, max). It takes three D batteries which aren't included. They are very easy to install, you just unscrew the bottom and pull out the battery compartment to pop them in. The on/off button is rubberized for easy use. There is also a handy indicator light on the remote control so you will always know if it is working or needs batteries. There are 24 very bright LEDs. Two really nice features are that there is a built in compass and a pop up hook, both on the handle. The remote control also has a metal clip that can hook onto a hook on the handle or onto a keyring or somewhere in your tent. The lantern comes nicely packaged in a box for safe shipping. *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*","Product: Whether you're heading to the gym or off on a run, you want to focus on your workout, not be weighed down with your smartphone, wallet and keys. That's why you shouldn't lace up your sneakers and step outside your door until you've fastened the Active Rhino Running Exercise & Fitness Belt. Whether you use it as a running belt or a fitness belt at the gym, our iPhone 6/iPhone 6 Plus exercise case belt will free you of worries about what to do with your mobile device and other valuables. Here's why it's the best iPhone holder for running and working out on Amazon. Only the Active Rhino iPhone 6/iPhone 6 Plus belt case has: - AN iPHONE 6 RUNNING CASE FOR YOUR WAIST! A conventional iPhone 6 case stuffed into your pocket can make it hard for you to run, and those fitness armband cases can cut into your skin and slip out of place when you pick up speed. Our iPhone 6 belt case fits around your waist, where it will stay out of your way and keep your phone perfectly safe. - A FULLY ADJUSTABLE BELT DESIGN. Our iPhone 6 Plus running belt is so simple to adjust that you'll have it comfortably fitted in seconds. Don't choose a belt that will delay your workouts! Pick the one with the easy-to-pull Velcro closure! - A REFLECTIVE LOGO. No need to wear added reflective apparel to stay safe while on a run! Our iPhone 6 plus running case belt helps simplify things with a reflective logo to make you easy to spot. - EXTRA STORAGE. Our running belt doesn't just have room for a phone. There's also a roomy second pocket for stashing your ID, a credit card and cash. The key clip will work with all types of keys, even those fobs that don't fit in other fitness belts. Focus on your workout, not on keeping your stuff safe! Discover how comfortable and convenient keeping your gear with you at the gym or on a run can be with the best iPhone running case on Amazon! Order the Active Rhino Running Exercise & Fitness Belt today!\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Fully adjustable. Roomy pockets\n\nReview: The whole front half of the belt is a large, super stretchy pocket with two small slits that open wide to stick your items in for storage while running. The holes are sewn well and seem sturdy enough for repeated use. I would suggest that once you put your items into the pouch you flip the openings to the inside for safe keeping. Inside the pocket there is an attached elastic strap with a clip on the end to attach your keys to. One side has a large plastic buckle where the strap fits through and adjusts using velcro. The velcro loops aren't large and so I was concerned about using it and having it fall off but there are two things that will put my mind at ease. 1) If I press hard to \"seal\" the two pieces it has a good grip, and 2) Once you flip it the flap will be on the inside, preventing it to open because it will be against my body. *I received this product at a discount in return for my honest and unbiased review. These opinions are my own.*","Product: Improve Your Yoga Experience with this high quality, super soft, light weight, highly absorbent 100% Microfiber full size mat towel and matching Hand Towel combo set. Makes a great gift! Backed By Elite Yoga Gear 100% Money BackSatisfaction Guarantee! Click the Button \"Add To Cart\" at the Top of This Page to Improve The Quality of Your Personal Yoga Experience!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Thin, grippy, and soft.\n\nReview: I love the feel of the micro, it is much more \"grippy\" than the terry cloth yoga towels on the market. I use this on top of the icky yoga mats at the gym rather than have to carry my own yoga mat. The texture is so nice and keeps me from slipping while I'm in the awkward poses. It's easy to toss in the washer (which is something you can't do with a yoga mat!). I really like the color, it is true to the picture. It's thin, too which makes it easy to roll up and light to carry. I'm very happy with it! The matching mini-towel is exactly the same but smaller for using when you get all sweaty! Cute set. The only thing that would make this combo even better is if it came with a carrying case or a strap to be able to roll it up and throw it in my gym bag. *I received this item in return for an honest and unbiased review*","Product: These weightlifting gloves from Ixion Gear are great for both, men and women. They offer an integrated, comfortable wrist wrap to provide you the extra support for those heavy lifts. They offer breathable material across the top of the hand with heavy, durable padding on the palm. These gloves are a well-rounded choice for beginners to the pros. If you're into training, exercise, lifting, or just hitting the gym for a workout, these are a GREAT choice!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: A weightlifters MUST have!\n\nReview: SO much better than I anticipated! These offer a broad coverage on your hands. I got the large for my husband and it fit him perfectly. The finger length is about to the first knuckle. The inside of the glove is leather with strips of rubber (as shown in the picture) to help grip the barbell. Most of the glove is leather or synthetic leather that looks like real leather. Some parts look like they are a breathable cotton weave that is stretchy, like between the fingers and on the outside of the thumb. The strap wraps around the wrist to support it when lifting heavy weights. They are well made and work well for gripping the barbell and keeping your hands from getting torn up from the barbell (or callused). Comes with a one year guarantee, too! A definite necessity for any weight lifter (even non-professionals) !! *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*","Product: Sick of heavy, wet, soggy and sand filled beach, picnic blankets? We thought so. If only Oprah knew - we are sure she would add it to Oprah's favorite things. We were fed up of all those heavy, big picnic blankets too. It made the relaxing day at beach a chore. Noone wants to bring the beach home in the car or washing machine. Reid Retail's newest item is machine washable lightweight and you just shake the sand straight off the blanket when you are done - plus it drys super fast. Our Guarantee - We believe in it so much that if you are not satisfied we will take it back no questions asked. Period!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Great for travel bags!\n\nReview: <div id=\"video-block-R1VI0MVIODLPR6\" class=\"a-section a-spacing-small a-spacing-top-mini video-block\"></div><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"\" value=\"https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/D1IBkZwtIHS.mp4\" class=\"video-url\"><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"\" value=\"https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31fLh9LiuFS.png\" class=\"video-slate-img-url\"> To start, this is a a GREAT size for traveling! I was eager to try this product because the size will be great to pack in my travel bag on a cruise which will be going to four different beaches. It's an extended cruise so the more space I can save in my bag, the better!\n\nThe blanket comes folded up inside of a stretchy cloth holder which is just about fist sized. When you pull the blanket out of it, the bag turns inside out and is actually attached so you don't lose it (a great feature!). The fabric itself is a durable, rip-proof, sand-proof, weatherproof material that is easy to wipe dry and clean. Each corner has two features that make this blanket stand above the rest, 1 is a braided cord that is meant to be used with a stake in the ground so that your blanket won't fly away, and a black pocket in the shape of a triangle which can be filled with sand to help weigh it down. Now the side that goes DOWN is the plastic coated side so that the sand won't stick to it and it is waterproof so that all you need to do is shake off any sand. The top side has a softer side and you can see the lines in the rip stop material which means if the blanket gets a hole in it, it won't get larger because the material has a built in grid which will keep it from running like pantyhose.\n\nThe size is perfectly comfortable with two people laying on it but if you are just using it to sit on the beach or at a concert you can easily fit 4 or 5 people on it. I have included a few product photos and a short video for you to see. *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*","Product: This is the latest Hoco premium PU leather case to join the window view range of cases. Made exclusively for the galaxy S4 it combines a great functional design with the unique feel and form one of the best PU leather products we have seen. Hoco have designed this case with both protection and usability in mind whilst managing to maintain a relatively slim finish considering the workmanship and materials used. Your Samsung galaxy S4 is held securely in position via ultra-tough hard polycarbonate shell, leaving the screen complete clear from any interference. Ideal for touch screen and typing. The folding front cover also has a clear view window which you can see the date and time battery life and much more. The front cover also features a nice metal Hoco logo. You still have access to the galaxy S4S ports and functions such as, speakers, headphone jack port, volume, camera and power down button. Features: Made from premium grade faux leather soft high grade embossed super-fiber felt lining keeps screen and phone clean whilst protecting from knocks and bumps. Full access to all ports and slots. Saves battery life with magnetic sleep wake function.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Love that it has a cover!\n\nReview: This comes nicely packaged in a clear plastic display box. The backing is a hard plastic shell while the cover is a more flexible plastic. The cover has a magnetic closure that powers the phone on and off when used....a very cool feature. When you get the package there are three plastic covers on the clear window on the cover to insure that you receive the item in good condition with no scratches. One is black and the other two are clear, one on the front and one on the inside. Be sure to take these off for best visibility of the clock feature. I like the front cover feature--if I drop my phone I know it won't get scratched.","Product: iPalm ring holder is a must have for smart phone users. Not only to secure your device from potential falling hazard, you can now take pictures easier than ever without worrying about handshakes! iPalm Ring can also be used as phone stand when you watch video, youtube, or play music. Our 360 degree roating function will be able to adjust the inclination of your LCD screen. Not to mention we include a free ring hook for car in the package so you can throw your huge, annoying, stretch required phone holder thats blocking your A/C, windows (you know you might get a ticket for that), or even occupied your CD player. Now you can just hook it up and enjoy! You probably noticed about a fact that a phone looks much prettier when it stands in a certain angle than it is laid flat on your table. So what are you waiting for? iPalm Ring is a small, simple, price friendly tool that will highly enhance your living standard and protect your property! Get yours while supplies last!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Totally worth protecting your big investment for a few bucks!\n\nReview: This little item is ingenious! The colored square is plastic (which I actually thought was going to be metal) with a double sided sticky foam on the back. All you have to do is peel off the protective plastic off and stick it to the back of your phone/case. I stuck mine on the back of my battery phone case. It seems to be very well attached. I love that I can use the ring as a grip OR a stand. I can rotate the ring around for comfort. Included is a little black piece that also has the sticky backing that can be attached in a convenient place to HANG your phone by the hook. The ring fits perfectly on the black hook piece.\n\nI really like having this extra security of having my finger attached. I notoriously (seriously, my friends make fun of me) drop my phone ALL the time! This will really help me keep a good grip on my phone! One time I even shattered my screen. This little $10 investment will save everyone $100 a screen repair charge! Totally worth protecting your big investment for a few bucks!\n\nI have included a few of my own product photos for you to see rather than relying on stock photos in the listing. *I received this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*","Product: The Cellfy Bag provides a unique carrying solution for your smartphone, or wallet items. Take great selfies while you're out and about, traveling, or from a car window. Attach the suction cup to glass, set a timer, stick your phone in the pouch and let the Cellfy Bag acts as a tripod for taking great self photos, or in Groups. Nobody get's left out of the photo!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: My new favorite wristlet!\n\nReview: A very clever and well designed wristlet! The design is so that you can attach the pouch to a flat surface with a suction cup that is nicely hidden while in use (see photos) and the camera can be set up in either landscape or portrait mode. You could also use the pouch for other items such as a regular camera or keys and credit cards. The wrist strap is detachable if you don't want to use it (and throw it in your larger purse or tote bag). I love the durable nylon and that it is so well made. The inside of BOTH zipper pockets are lined with a very soft, fuzzy, white lining. Lovely little wristlet! *This product was provided to me for a discount in exchange for an honest and unbiased review*","Product: Sidekick Kick Mats are the perfect solution for protecting the back of your car seats from muddy little feet. Sidekick comes in a 2 count pack so you can cover both the driver and passenger seats. The size is perfect for full coverage keeping your car seat free from mud, scuff marks and wet feet. Universal fit for most vehicle types. They come complete with handy organizer pockets for drink bottles, food, favourite toys, ipad or ipods. Protect your automotive car seats with quality, durable Sidekick seat protectors. Get your 100% Customer Satisfaction Warranty. No risk to you. To save your back seats use the coupon code to get Sidekick Car Seat Protectors.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: I needed a car seat protector that is easy to use and works\n\nReview: These are exactly what I needed! My son constantly kicks the back of my seat in the car and I always have to clean it. I needed a car seat protector that is easy to use and works. This is perfect! I like that the top has a snap-together adjustable strap to fit on any seat. The bottom strap is usually where I run into problems (on other brand seat protectors) but this one is perfect because it's a stretchy strap that goes across the entire back so that when you put it over your seat it won't slip or slide on the bottom. I'm also thrilled that this is a package of two! Usually it is sold as one and then you have twice the expense. It's also great that it's not JUST the protector, it has one large and one small velcro pocket to hold stuff. I recieved this product in return for an honest review.","Product: Here comes Newest 2015 accuteck dreamcolor series postal scale. Compared to old version, accuteck brings customers a colorful choice of scales, available in Cool black, Classical Silver, Luxury Gold, and Charming Red. No more boring and no more dull when you are weighing items. Pick a color to match your house or office. Make your mailing job a fun! Newest 2015 Dreamcolor series not only bring colors to your daily mailing, it will also provide more convenience for small business owners. It was renovated to be USB powered and energy saving. You don't need to worry about finding a wall plug or worry about the cable is not enough long for wall plug, and you can just bring that with you when you are using your computers since it is USB powered. It will save you tons of batteries though it runs on batteries and we will give free batteries too. For a best convenience, it will come with AC adapter too.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Great for a small shipping business!\n\nReview: This a great compact scale that does BIG jobs! It measures 11.2\" x 6.1\" x 1.4\" but can weight up to 86lbs accurately! There are different modes which you can easily change between using the push buttons: Pounds/ounces, ounces, kilograms/grams, grams; Smart Tare And Hold feature. The scale has a good sturdy weight to it but it really is small enough to be portable and can be thrown into a briefcase, computer bag, or a backpack.\n\nThe scale comes with instructions, an AC adapter to plug into the wall and a USB adaptor, and 3 AAA batteries. The top of the scale opens up for some reason, which I haven't figured out yet (another reviewer suggested that it is to hold rolling items in place). The back-lit display is large and easy to read. This is a great scale for someone that does a good amount of shipping for a living, such as a seller on ebay or amazon!","Product: A must have garden accent for your miniature fairy collection! Our miniature fairy Door includes 4 doors in 4 different colors: green blue pink and brown and 4 different designs: yellow bee, purple butterfly, brown owl and blue dragonfly! A fun addition to your Home, Lawn, Patio, Indoors, Outdoors, deck or garden decor! Or give it as a gift to your wife mother, sister, aunt, friend or daughter! Painted and sculpted in amazing detail. Made of Resin. Each door measures approximately 5\" tall x 4\" wide.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Really cute addition to your garden!\n\nReview: The four fairy garden door entryways are adorable and the details are very well done. Each door has a different theme with different colors with glitter and vivid colored paint. The doors would prop nicely in front of a tree stump or even a little mound to make it look like little fairies live in your garden.\n\nThese would look cute in your garden! The paint job is great and the colors are bright and whimsical and each door has a touch of sparkle and floral details. Each door is completely different from the other so you could even have a whole little garden village with all four doors! Some have stone fronts and others have brick, some have round doors while others are square.\n\nThese are very nicely made, the feel almost like concrete, but are actually light and made from ceramic. All four doors come layered with cardboard between each door, then wrapped in bubble wrap for extra padding and then put in a brown box with another bubble wrap over top. Each door is about 5\" tall x 4\" wide and has a wider base so that each stands on it's own.\n\nThese add so much fun and whimsy to your garden! Makes a great gift too!\n\nI have included a few of my own product photos for you to see rather than relying on stock photos in the listing. *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*","Product: Travel with your best friend in safety with this dog booster seat! The Pet Booster Seat allows you to drive comfortably with your pet. Strap the booster seat to the back cushion of the passenger side and place your dog comfortably in its chair. Safety leash keeps your pet safe and secure! The zippered front compartment makes traveling even easier allowing you to bring along your pets favorite treats and toys. Cute dog in picture not included. Recommended for SMALL dogs up to 10 lbs.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Secure doggie booster seat\n\nReview: This is great for SMALL dogs. Upon pulling the contents out of the box I found a fleece liner, an extra strap, and the seat itself. The bag is made well but some of the velcro pieces didn't line up completely perfect. It was kind of hard to figure out how to line up the different velcro pieces but when I found the strap holes it was easier to get it all together. The straps all have plastic clasps for easy set up. There is also a zipper pouch along the front to keep little extras (poop bags, leash, etc). The seat seems secure once all put into place. I wish the fleece actually ran across the bottom of the seat in addition to the sides but overall I like it and it's a really cute seat so our puppy can see out the windows and be securely strapped in at the same time! *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*","Product: Jack's Premium Beef Links are made from USDA inspected facilities with 100% USA beef in edible collagen casing. They do not contain artifical ingredients that can potentially harm your pet. They are full of natural smoke beefy flavor! Moreover, we vacuum seal our treats to insure the freshness. You can smell the freshness when you open it!! They can be easily broken into small pieces which make them perfect training aid. Again, they are healthy and fresh. Your canine babies are much more sensitive to freshness and flavor than we are. Let your dog experience the Jack's Premium difference, it will become Your Dog's Favorite Place To Shop!!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Our friends dog LOVED it!!\n\nReview: Wow! We bought these as a gift for our friends dog and he absolutely gobbled one of these really fast (like 5 minutes)! He came back sniffing around for more as soon as he was done. I've never seen him so excited about a treat! They definitely are more of a snack rather than a slow chew toy like a \"bully stick\". The links come attached, three linked in a row. I used scissors to cut between each pair to give the dog one. He really enjoyed it. I keep the others in a ziplock back to keep them sealed for freshness for the next time we visit him. I give this product two thumbs up (well, I guess technically the dog gives it two \"paws\" up!) *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*","Product: Our Texas sized thick bully sticks are thick and long!! See attached photos to view the ruler and the nickel as the reference. Also compare the difference between Jack's and those sold in stores! They are all natural and made locally in Texas, USA. They are from USDA inspected facilities. We do not add bleach or other chemicals that can potentially harm your pet. GUARANTEED FRESH!! They are being cooked and hand packaged daily to insure freshness. Furthermore, we vacuum seal our treats. You can smell the freshness when you open it! Amazing Smokey Flavor!! As we freshly cook them here at Texas, our unique way of cooking adds amazing smoky flavor to them! While others says low odor, we actually encourage you to smell our bully sticks when you open the bag and smell your dogs after they chew them. You will be amazed by the pleasant smoky smell, and even more so your dogs!! Again, these are FRESH. Your canine babies are much more sensitive to freshness and flavor than we are. Let your dog experience the Jack's Premium difference, it will become Your Dog's Favorite Place To Shop!!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: The dog LOVES these!\n\nReview: Wow! We bought these as a gift for our friends dog and he absolutely gobbled one of these and really enjoyed it! He came back sniffing around for more as soon as he was done. I've never seen him so excited about a treat! While \"bully sticks\" are meant to last a long time, he is an older, larger puppy and is teething so he chewed through it pretty fast. But, he really enjoyed it.\nThe bully sticks slightly vary in size and came in a vacuum sealed bag. I keep the others in a ziplock back to keep them sealed for freshness for the next time we visit him. I give this product two thumbs up (well, I guess technically the dog gives it two \"paws\" up!) *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*","Product: 720P HD Wireless Smart Doorbell\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: SAFER HOME! Needs a few app tweaks.... but awesome!\n\nReview: Seriously this is the neatest home safety accessory you didn't know existed!\n\nThe alarm comes nicely packaged in a picture box which includes everything you need to install the doorbell and get started. My husband removed our old wired doorbell and wired the new doorbell in about 10 minutes, and then it took us another 10 minutes to download the app on our phone and register for an account in order to start using the camera. Surprisingly it worked on one of our three networks that it said it most likely wouldn't work on, which was a pleasant surprise! This part of the process was SO easy!\n\nUsing the app:\nSo, the positive side is that I can see anyone at my door at any time I want. The downside is that it is somewhat sensitive and sends me alerts when someone walks near the door (which is frequent). I want to see if there is a way to change the sensitivity.\n\nIt is SO cool that when the doorbell rings I get an alert which I click on the alert and it takes me right to the camera with a button to turn on the chat. This is where I ran into a little bit of a problem. I have to hold the talk button down for a long while and then it shows that the mic is on. Sometimes this button works, sometimes it doesn't. There is also a mute button that doesn't seem to mute the person on the camera end OR me. Other than this everything works perfectly. I do like that at any time I can see what is going on outside of my house and that I can watch clips of all motions. This makes me feel much safer in my home!\n\nThe video quality is fantastic, only a small delay and you can see details, you can even see at night with the infared lights. You can also have multiple users on the camera, not just one. There is a place to add users in the app who must be added by the first user. I'm sure there are a ton more features that I haven't accessed yet!\n\nI really think my biggest issue is an application problem, not a camera problem so I am hopeful that app updates will fix these issues. I love, love, love the camera/doorbell and feel safer with it!\n\nI have included a few of my own product photos for you to see rather than relying on stock photos in the listing. *I received this item in return for an honest and unbiased review*","Product: IlluStory by Lulu Jr. gives children the opportunity to write, illustrate and publish their very own hardcover book! After writing and illustrating their story, the child receives a 7\" x 9\" hardcover book with up to 20 pages including a dedication page, a title page and an \"About the Author\" page. IlluStory has been a top choice for creative children since 1993, having won over 10 toy and education industry awards. Parent's Choice, Creative Child magazine, Better Homes & Gardens, Dr. Toy and Fat Brain and are just a few of the organizations that have recognized IlluStory with awards. Your child will build their self-esteem and strengthen their creativity and literacy skills by writing, illustrating and publishing a story of their very own and the book lasts a lifetime. Your young author creates their characters, develops the plot and chooses the setting and everything else about their story. IlluStory is a great way to connect with your child and guide them in project-based learning or, by using the included materials they can create a storybook all by themselves. IlluStory by Lulu Jr. includes ready-to-use book pages, 10 washable markers, online creation tools, a postage-paid envelope and instructions for creating your very own professionally printed hardcover book. The production and delivery of the finished book is included in the price. Your young author will develop a sense of pride and accomplishment writing, creating and publishing their story. When the finished product arrives at your door and your child holds their book in their hands, they will feel they have achieved something very special. Recommended age: 6+.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Unlocks your child's creativity!\n\nReview: This is such a great idea! When I was a child I remember fondly making a book and binding it at school (in fact my mom recently came across it and gave it to me!). I even remembered the story I wrote. This kit captures the imagination of a young child and with a little guidance from an adult can create a masterpiece of their own! Not only does the child \"write\" the book, you send it in with a pre-paid label and the book is set and bound and a \"real\" book is sent back to the child! How awesome! We have only just begun the first stages of writing our book but my 7-year-old son is so excited about writing his own book!!! Can't wait to see the final product (\"child receives a 7\" x 9\" hardcover book with up to 20 pages including a dedication page, a title page and an \"About the Author\" page\").\nThe kit includes:\nReady-to-use book pages\nmarkers\na postage-paid envelope\ninstructions for creating your very own Awesome Book.\nand a Quick Start Guide full of ideas, tips, and inspiration\n\nRecommended ages: 6 and up\n\n*This product was provided to me for a discount in exchange for an honest and unbiased review*","Product: Get your little chef in training The gift of a lifetime with the Teamson Kids Whitewith red counter top play kitchen. Classy White with a splash of vibrant red provide a vintage look. This play kitchen is designed to give your children The ultimate pretend play experience! Kitchen can be connected or detached to serve as two separate pieces.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Perfect for yars of enjoyment!\n\nReview: Please plan a couple of hours for putting this together! It is pretty doable but you need to expect to spend some time on it. Kind of like Ikea products, nice when it's together but takes a while to get there. The kitchen is super cute and looks so nice when put together! The colors are bold and pretty and looks just like the \"stock photos\". There is plenty of storage space for food and dishes and other play kitchen items in the sink/cabinets and the fridge is entirely made up of storage shelves.. While there are two units, they do come packaged together. I was hoping to give my friend the fridge for Christmas for her daughter but it comes packaged together so it would be odd to give her part of the gift and not all. The only other alternative is to build it and then wrap it. The sink/cabinets and the fridge do NOT attach, they are two units that match and can be put anywhere. The units are durable and are filled with many hours of imaginative play! Super cute set that your kids will get years of pleasure from! *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*","Product: The perfect size and weight for children and beginners. Soft rubber that wont break if it falls on the ground. Professional aluminum sticks and all in a beautiful tin can - the perfect gift...........Mister M is one of the most famous Open Air Artists in the world. Performing for over 20 years around the globe, he produces high quality juggling products for young and old. Quality, know-how and price make his products stand out above the rest. And if you have any questions, he personally takes the time to make sure you are 100% satisfied - GUARANTEED!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: REALLY nice quality!!!! Fun toy!\n\nReview: Nicely packaged in a tin gift box with a see-through lid, this package is ALL top notch quality! The Diabolo is very nicely made, I've seen \"cheap\" ones and this definitely is the real deal. The middle of the main piece is metal and the rubber is somewhat soft and forgiving in case you drop it on the floor (which you will). The sticks come in 2 pieces and need to be screwed together before using. The cord between the two sticks is what you use to spin the Diabolo and it is a strong, weaved cord which I'm guessing is nylon. The sticks are aluminum so they are light and strong and the handles are foam for grip and comfort. I LOVE this set and am giving it as a gift to my husband. We learned to use this in a circus school and I think he will love playing with it with our children! You can scan the QR code on the enclosed card to go to the online video instructional video. *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*","Product: Dress in Shamrock Style with St. Patrick's Day Costume Accessories! These add the perfect touch of Irish pride!!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Such a fun kit of goodies for St Patrick's Day!\n\nReview: A great St Patrick's Day kit for a school party, a great big family party, or a festival! The assortment is full of fun items for both kids and adults! The assortment includes 109 items in total. There are 12 beaded necklaces, all green and packaged separately. They are just like Mardi Gras beads, plastic beads on string. There are two dozen rubber bracelets with shamrock cut outs on them, also packaged in it's own bag. One single green latex balloon which says the company name and \"Happy St. Patrick's Day\" on it. And last but not least, a bunch of packages of shamrock tattoos (assorted styles good for girls and boys) from Oriental Trading company. There are 72 tattoos in total. I've taken a few photos so you can see what everything really looks like, as opposed to the \"stock\" photos posted. I think it's a great bundle of fun accessories to bring to a party! *I received a sample of this item in return for an honest and unbiased review*","Product: Color Minneapolis is an adult coloring book that will take you places! Find your coloring zen while learning about the top 23 landmarks that make the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota unique. This book features 27 full, detailed 8.5x11 coloring pages of notable Minneapolis landmarks. Included are the Foshay Tower, the Crystal Court, St. Mary's Basilica, and more. Printed opposite each coloring page you'll find a short written history and fun fact about each location, and an original black and white photo. This is a great gift for friends, family, and self, whether you and they are Minnesota locals or distant admirers. Page Count: 100 Cover: Silky matte finish Dimensions: 8.5 x 11.0 x 0.3 inches Binding: Perfect bound Local Color Books combines photography, humor, and culture to celebrate the landmarks that make each US city unique.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Nice quality paper stock with bold and beautiful designs!\n\nReview: This book comes nicely wrapped in a plastic wrapper to protect the cover and pages from getting dirty or bent during storage and shipping. Upon opening it the first thing that I noticed was that the title of the book is actually what you see in the photo which I thought was funny. I assumed that was just the \"ad\" picture, but it's not. Not that it matters but I was surprised.\n\nThe pages are square and you can color them in the book or use a blade or scissors to cut them out (great for framing after you color them!). Since I am a lefty the fold in the spine of the book often interferes with my coloring/writing/drawing so I prefer to cut them out of the book.\n\nThe book is full of a GREAT variety of designs. Some are themed, christmas, tea party, and food...while others are aquatic, floral, or just really elaborate designs. They vary in difficulty, some have big, wide open areas to color and others are very precise and detailed that require a stead hand for coloring. Some of the pages are covered in designs while others have a shape (butterfly, leaf, feather, circle, etc). A few of the designs take up 3/4 of the page and have a blank side which you can color or leave white.\n\nThe paper stock is thicker than printer or book paper, nice and solid paper, not flimsy at all. The black ink is bold and well printed. I actually am quite impressed with the book. I was going to give it as a gift but after seeing how lovely it is I plan on using it with my 7 year old for some good old fashioned coloring fun together!!! I have included a few photos for you to see the designs and quality of the book. *I received a sample of this item in return for an honest and unbiased review*","Product: Having a Party? Use these bestselling toys in Anchor Seashells Sailboat Sea Life Theme. Great for Ahoy Nautical Party Supplies for Wedding Birthday Party Baby Shower and more! Includes: 72 NAUTICAL GLITTER TATTOOS includes: Seashells, Sailboat, Anchors, Sea Creatures etc. 12 NAUTICAL PENCILS; 48 NAUTICAL ERASERS- 24 Anchors & 24 Sailboats. 12 NAUTICAL STICKER SHEETS. These are great for classroom rewards party handouts etc.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Stickers and tattoos are a nice size!\n\nReview: This is a great package of nautical and summer beach themed goodies! All items are shipped in a white plastic shipping bag and are packed in a cardboard box with packing material for shipping from the Amazon warehouse. They arrived in perfect condition!\n\nUpon opening the package I discovered that there are twelve individual packages with a hang-tag sealed in a bag and another packet filled with all of the cute tattoos. Each of the dozen packages includes a sticker sheet with six stickers, a pencil, and four erasers (2 in the shape of of an anchor and 2 in the shape of a sailboat). The tattoos are actually larger than I anticipated and there are a TON of them! I also want to point out that the quality of the tattoo is very nice, they even have glitter in them and the designs are much cuter in person than in the photos.\n\nSets like this are great for making treat bags for kids or for taking to parties for the kids to play with! You could also use them for treasure chest filler! I am planning on bringing these to a Memorial Day party for the kids to play with, they will have fun with them!\n\nI have included a few of my own product photos for you to see rather than relying on stock photos in the listing. *I received this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*","Product: Eliminating grains can be a surprisingly easy way to lose weight, boost mental function, increase energy, and prevent chronic disease. To help readers kick their addiction to wheat, Lose Wheat in 4 Weeks offers a practical 28-day detox plan and 150 delicious, grain-free recipes. To ensure a smooth transition, the meal plan begins with quick and easy comfort foods before gradually introducing new ingredients and easy culinary techniques commonly used in grain-free cooking.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Great book for guidance in going wheat-free\n\nReview: My mother decided to go wheat-free for numerous reasons and then told me about all of the other positive side effects of going wheat-free. This book lists so many health issues that can be solved by just giving up wheat. Some of the health issues include, ...weight issues, high blood sugar, chronic inflamation, digestive disorders, and various neurological disorders\nThe book first describes the different types of wheat-free diets including Paleo, Keto, and Grain Brain diets and explains what happens inside of your body when you eat wheat (glycemic index and blood sugar). Then there is a 28-day detox plan for breaking the cycle and getting through wheat-withrdawl. There is a nice long list of substitutes at the end of that chapter. Chapter 3 walks you through preparing your kitchen for the change. Chapter 4 is a meal plan for the month and the rest of the chapters are recipes to help you manage the wheat-free lifestyle. There is also an appendix with tips for eating out which is really helpful.\nNow that I've seen my mother's results from going wheat-free I am going to use this book as a reference guide in my introduction to a new diet in hopes that I have the same results!"],"string":"[\n \"Product: 8 openings wood wall hanging picture photo frame;\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Very large & nicely made\\n\\nReview: This comes in a very large box (26.8 x 13.4 x 0.8 inches) and has a good weight to it (6.1 pounds). It is safely packaged in styrofoam and protected with a thin foam sheet that is wrapped around the front of the frame. The frame itself holds 7 photos of varying sizes and is a nice \\\"centerpiece\\\" for a collage on a wall or is big enough to stand alone. There are two mounting brackets on the back for hanging with nails. Because it is heavy I would definitely recommend using anchors in the wall so that it can handle the weight of the frame. There are swivel brackets for holding the back in the frame, much better than the cheaper frames where you have to bend the metal pieces each time you want to change a photo. Very nice, I can't wait to have some great \\\"friend\\\" photos printed to put in this frame and hang it! *I received this product at a discount in return for my honest and unbiased review.*\",\n \"Product: Lunch Bags Tote,Made of Fine Neoprene Material,Art Image on Both Sides,Folds flat for storage.We have Many Fantastic Design for Your Choices,This is a Idea Lunch Bag for Your Kids to School,or for you to Work,Shopping,you can also take it as a Baby Bag,You can use it to take lunch, drinks, breast milk and etc. it is Soft and Comfortable It has a smell when we first got it, but you can wash it in the washing machine and air dried it and it will be fine,you can wash it multiple times and it still looks new. The bottom stretches and kind of widens so you can really stuff a lot of things in there and it zips closed to keep things in there place. It also keeps food cold all day with a small ice pack. Dimension:Size:11.8\\\\\\\"(30cm) Tall x 11.2\\\\\\\" (28.5cm)Wide x 6.29\\\\\\\"(16.5cm) (Bottom Wide) Weight:160g\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: So CUTE and very nicely made!\\n\\nReview: A great neoprene lunch tote with handles that is shipped flat and opens up to a large lunch bag. The stitching is well made and holds a good amount of lunch foods and snack perfectly with an easy to grasp handle. The neoprene material also helps keep your food and drink bottle cool. There is a cute pug doggie design on both the front and the back side and it is a very good image, very clear and great printing job. This is great to have when you need to bring your own lunch to work or school and want to keep your food cool in a stylish way. There are 23 patterns to choose from. There is also a zippered top so that your food won't fall out in transport. Very nicely made. I have included a few of my own product photos for you to see rather than relying on stock photos in the listing. *I received a sample of this item in return for an honest and unbiased review*\",\n \"Product: Stacking Lunch Box - Two Tier Tiffin w/ Vacuum Seal Lid & Stainless Steel Interior and Built in Carrying Handles - BPA Free - Our two layer lunchbox features a durable, food grade stainless steel interior. Two layer design allows you to separate your food. Arched handle provides convenient carrying and locks snap securely fasten both compartments together. The top tier's vacuum seal prevents spills and keeps your food fresh. Holds 6 cups. Dishwasher and freezer safe.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Bigger than I expected\\n\\nReview: I like the design and size of this tiffin container. The two bottom bowls are much bigger than I expected and I like that they can hold hot food. The top container has a rubber stopper which can be popped out so that steam can escape the top tier. The two handles lay down flush or pop up for easy carrying. The lid stays on tightly with the rubber seal. I really like this set for bringing my lunch to and from work. The only thing that would make this better is if there was a place or compartment for my utensils. *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*\",\n \"Product: The 12 ounce Asobu Vino Opener Cup has all the great benefits from the Vino2Go with an added twist - an added corkscrew that easy pops in and out of the bottom of your vino - making it a truly versatile on-the-go wine cup. Take the bug-resistant, spill proof and unbreakable cup anywhere! Hand wash.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Corkscrew is built in! So clever!\\n\\nReview: Such a clever design! This is a plastic cup that is great for outdoor use and it still looks just like a wine glass! The neat thing is, the part that looks like a spiral \\\"stem\\\" is actually a corkscrew that can be popped out of the bottom! Such a clever design! I love that the top has a small spout that has a flip-lid and can seal shut while not in use. I also like that this is unbreakable! Great for camping, picnics, and sitting out on the deck/porch/patio! Friday and Saturday nights we sit out with friends and this will be so great to have instead of a glass! *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*\",\n \"Product: Why Mulberry Silk 1. FEWER WRINKLES: Mulberry silk is hypoallergenic and can help skin maintain moisture, it never absorb facial creams, and it is super smooth and soft to prevent wrinkles. 2. PREVENT HAIR LOSS: Mulberry silk fibers structure is very similar to human hair, so that it allows hair to slide gently across the pillowcase to prevent hair loss. 3. LONGER-LASTING HAIRSTYLE: Mulberry silk pillowcases are super soft and smooth, they can longer lasting blow dries, best for those who have long hair. 4.PROMOTE HEALTH & Great SLEEP: Mulberry silk has 18 types of naturally occurring compounds that are believed to promote positive health care functions. Silk is a natural body temperature regulator. That's why silk is much better than satin. Silk Care 1.COOL WASH Always wash your silk pillowcase in warm, not hot water setting machine washes at 30 degrees or on a silk setting. 2.USE OF PROTECTIVE BAGS If machine washing, try to place the item in a protective bag to prevent the pulling action of your washing machine. 3.DRYING Hanging your silk pillowcase on a washing line is preferable to machine drying, away from direct sunlight and radiators. We recommend not tumbling dry. 4.IRONING Try to iron your silk pillowcase when slightly damp and use a cool setting. Your item should be ironed on the inside at all times. 5.NEVER BLEACH Or use any kind of bleaching agent. Bleach damages the silk fiber and will destroy silk pillowcase. 6.NEVER SHAMPOO Do not attempt to substitute a washing agent for shampoo.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Beautiful & heavenly to sleep on!\\n\\nReview: While I understand the \\\"beauty\\\" effects that this pillow case claims to offer, I just like it because it is so smooth and comfortable and feels great to sleep on. The pillow comes in a pretty gift box that includes a little drawstring bag with other color samples and an actual silk moth cocoon. The pillow case is neatly folded and wrapped in plastic. Once I took it out I saw that the top side is silk and the bottom is cotton. As other people have mentioned in their reviews that they feel that this is a method to \\\"cut corners\\\" while in fact it is not. Anyone who has had any experience with silk pillows would know that silks is very smooth and pillows tend to slide inside. The reason that the bottom of this case is cotton is so that the case doesn't slide around. I do like that there is a zipper to close the pillow so that it doesn't slide out. It is incredibly nice and so soft and comfortable to sleep on. *I received a sample of this item in return for an honest and unbiased review*\",\n \"Product: TOSSWARE is the perfect upscale disposable (but 100% recyclable!) drinkware for any occasion. Our products embody the elegant look and feel of crystal without the shatter. Best of all, they are BPA-free and made with the highest quality recycled PET polymer, so you can save the planet without sacrificing sophistication. Its style meets simplicity with TOSSWARE!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Totally reusable! Great \\\"glasses\\\"\\n\\nReview: I'm totally impressed with these \\\"glasses\\\" from the moment I unpacked them from the shipping carton! This set of shatterproof glasses come with every 3 glasses individually wrapped and sealed in a plastic package, then the four packages are nicely boxed. The box keeps the glasses in perfect condition during storage and shipping. The glasses snap into each other for storage which is nice for transporting them and for storage purposes. The glasses are much sturdier than plastic cups you buy for parties and you can totally handwash these and reuse them. They really are crystal clear and look like glass. The glasses are also BPA free so you don't have to worry about contaminating yourself by using them. These are great for parties & picnics because of the fact that they are shatterproof, yet sturdy. These are a full 18 oz and are nice for soda, beer, cocktails, or even water. Definitely a much nicer presentation and easier clean-up for a party because they can be tossed and are completely recyclable!\\nI have included some photos so that you can see the details that I see, rather than relying on the stock photos on Amazon. *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*\\n\\nI brought these to a bingo and gave one to each person at my table (8 total) and everyone LOVED them! Some people kept them to wash and reuse and one person just tossed it in the trash. I didn't even feel badly because that's what they are for, toss or keep!\",\n \"Product: America's birthday. Be proud to be an American and let it show in your choice of celebration party supplies. Splashes of traditional stripes mixed with classic white stars creates a show of your patriotic spirit and faith in the red, white and blue for whatever occasion. Pair this design with solid navy and classic red to put a spark into your picnic, 4th of July celebration, soldier's homecoming or just to show your support of our troops at your next barbeque.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Cute for barbecues in the summer\\n\\nReview: These are perfect for 4th of July, Memorial Day, or Labor Day parties! Very patriotic plates and napkins for your barbeque party! The blue looks like denim with stitching which is cute. There are 50 large plates and 50 small dessert or sides plates....and 100 napkins! This would be perfect for a party of 40ish people, I'd say, assuming that each person will use a plate, but sometimes two and another one for dessert/cake. The only thing that would make this set better is if it included cups! That would be perfect! A one-stop shopping for party goods!\\n\\nThe plates are strong enough that they won't sag under the weight of a hamburger or heavier sides. The plates also look to have a coating on it so that they don't absorb the moisture which can also lead to sagging or even worse, tears! This plate doesn't get soggy. They are constructed well, better than most cheapie paper plates. The napkins are 2-ply and absorbent and are super cute.\\n\\nThe only downfall of this is that they are a little pricey but you definitely get a quality product for the price. I guess it really is, you get what you pay for in this instance.\\n\\nI have included a few of my own product photos for you to see rather than relying on stock photos in the listing. *I received this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*\",\n \"Product: Every night you sleep on your mattress, but do you know what youre sleeping in? While youre sleeping, your body sheds millions of skin flakes and loses up to one liter of body fluid through your skin, pores, and mouth. Now, you can enjoy peace of mind with our Rest Assure Terry Cotton 100% Waterproof Mattress Cover. Available in Twin, Twin XL, Full, Queen, and King; your entire family can sleep comfortably knowing they are sleeping clean. The unique design is made to defend against dust, dust mites, allergens, and bacteria. With the 10 year warranty, you will be protected for years from spills, accidents, and stains. The cover will fit mattresses 8-24 in height and cover the top and sides of your mattress. Do not iron or dry clean.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Perfect for preventing allergies!!\\n\\nReview: This is exactly what the doctor ordered, literally. The allergist recommended that we get our son a mattress cover to help reduce dust mites & other allergens so we bought this. I really love the feel of the sheets, they feel breathable and are terrycloth fabric. They also offer another layer of padding to the bed and the sheet does feel strong and durable and is well made. It is just as easy to put on your bed as a sheet and offers allergy protection which will help has helped my son with his sneezing fits in the morning. Happy it is machine washable too! Comes with a 10 year warranty. *I received this product at a discount in exchange for my honest and unbiased review*\",\n \"Product: Star Wars Cutting Board - Millennium Falcon - Take your cutting into Hyperspace Made from an acrylic material, this cutting board is perfect for any Star Wars fan! Measures approx. 39.4cm (L) x 29.2cm W).\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Super cute conversation piece!\\n\\nReview: A little pricey for what it is, but it's pretty cute! It is an acrylic board cut in the shape of a Millennium Falcon with a design sticker on the bottom but sealed in the acrylic. It is nicely packaged in a branded clear plastic shell, great for gift giving. The cutting board has rubberized feet to keep it from sliding around. I think it would make a great conversation piece for any Star Wars fans! You could easily use it as a cheese tray or other type of serving tray where you could cut items on it during use (bread, fruit, etc). I personally think I'm going to leave it out on the counter so my teenage son stops using the countertop to cut food on! He's killing my countertop! Hopefully he is drawn to the Star Wars theme and uses the cutting board!\\n\\nIt is a good size, you can use it to cut or serve bigger items (15\\\" by 11\\\"). The listing on Amazon doesn't say it but the packaging says that the cutting board is dishwasher safe. The package also states that the acrylic surface will not blunt your knives, which is good to know.\\n\\nI've read a few bad reviews but I think it's pretty awesome, just a hair pricey. But that makes sense because it is \\\"officially licensed\\\".\\n\\nI have included a few of my own product photos for you to see rather than relying on stock photos in the listing. *I received a sample of this item in return for an honest and unbiased review*\",\n \"Product: Easy to use, this pump action sealer will quickly become your favorite bar tool. Makes a great housewarming gift! It includes two rubber stoppers that create an airtight vacuum seal. The pump handle is ergonomically designed for easier pumping action and to avoid pinching that can occur with other pumps Feature: 100% brand new and high quality. Material: Plastic Wine bottle sealer vacuum pump, preserve your wine for later use Includes two rubber stoppers that create an air-tight vacuum seal Size: 4.8 / 12.2cm Color: Black Package Content: 1x Wine Bottle Vacuum Sealer 1x 2 Stoppers How To Use: To seal bottle, place stopper on top of the wine bottle opening Place pump on top of stopper and hold in place Lowly pull pump handle to remove air and create vacuum seal To remove stopper, to release the vacuum seal by pulling the tow taps on top of the stopper together\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Nice set, easy way to preserve your wine.\\n\\nReview: Cute gift set! This would make a really nice present but you might want to keep it for yourself! The hanging bubble display includes the bottle opener with two stoppers attractively displayed. The pump is plastic (as shown in pic). The pump slides easily for use. The two stoppers fit nicely into the bottle and all you do is firmly hold the pump firmly on top of the stoppers and pump the air out of the bottle. The stoppers are air-tight so that no air is released. By taking the air out of the wine bottles you preserve the wine for a longer period of time. A great item to have if you are a wine drinker! *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*\",\n \"Product: ??? Exposure To Air Causes Wine To Oxidize Quickly Which Causes An Unfavorable Change In The Wine's Flavor And Color. Use Our Vacuum Pump And Accompanying Wine Stopper To Create a Good Vacuum Seal For Your Opened Wine Bottle, Keeping Your Wine Fresh-Tasting Longer.;??? The Stoppers Have One-Way Valves That Allow The Air To Be Pulled From The Bottle But Not Forced Back In. Our Easy-To-Use Pump Fits Snugly Over The Stoppers And By Pulling Up Gently On The Handle The Air Is Drawn From The Bottle, And When The Handle Is Pushed Back Down The Air Is Forced Away From The Bottle. Repeat To Draw More Air From The Bottle.;??? The Set Includes One Hand Pump And Two Rubber Stoppers. These All Come In A Nice, Attractive Box Making This Set Very Suitable For Gifting.;??? All Components Are Made Of Quality Materials And Are Designed To Serve For Years Of Use.;??? 100% MONEY BACK GUARANTEE: If You Are Not Satisfied With Our Product For Any Reason, Give Us The Opportunity To Address Your Concerns. We Stand By Our Product And Believe You Will Be Happy With It, But If It Fails To Meet Your Expectations, We Will Do Our Very Best To Make It Right - Even If It Means Replacing It Or Refunding Your Money.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Preserve your wine by pumping out the air!\\n\\nReview: Cute gift set! This would make a really nice present but you might want to keep it for yourself! The box opens with a slide off top to reveal the bottle opener with two stoppers attractively displayed. The pump is mostly plastic with a metal grip (as shown in pic). The pump slides easily. The two stoppers fit nicely into the bottle and all you do is firmly hold the pump on the stoppers and pump the air out of the bottle. The stoppers are air-tight so that no air is released. By taking the air out of the wine bottles you preserve the wine for a longer period of time. A great item to have if you are a wine drinker! *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*\",\n \"Product: Our 100% Cotton Canvas Laundry Bag is ideal for almost all standard laundry hampers and racks. Our durable cotton will make carrying laundry easy. Has a drawstring closure and cord lock to secure laundry in bag. Measure 28inches x 36 inches. Machine washable.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: HUGE & heavy duty!\\n\\nReview: So impressed with these canvas drawstring bags! They are heavy-duty canvas and the quality is wonderful. The stitching and accessories are well made. The bags are HUGE and you can easily fit two loads of laundry in each large bag. I really like that the set comes with three bags, you can separate by colors and whites and then have one bag left for clean & folded clothes (easy for carrying or transporting from place to place). The drawstring has a toggle button clasp so that you don't have to tie or accidentally tangle the cord up and your items won't spill out. I think this would be great to bring one or two on vacations with you to use in the closet for you to throw dirty or soiled clothing into and then thrown into your suitcase and bring home to dump into your washer right away!\\nThe color is definitely a tan canvas with a white braided drawstring cord. All three bags are the same size 28inches x 36 inches. They are totally washable, and I would probably turn them inside-out to wash. If you have a laundry basket that you use, this may fit as a liner, but that really depends on the size of your laundry basket, of course.\\nGreat bags, reasonable price, highly recommended!\\n\\nI have included a few of my own product photos for you to see rather than relying on stock photos in the listing. *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*\",\n \"Product: Kleen Freak Counter Coasters feature a washable, nonslip coaster base in rectangular shape that is perfect for kitchen and bathroom sinks. The double-sided absorbent inserts stop messes before they happen. Plus, the inserts are replaceable, making cleanup quick and easy.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Great for dinner parties!\\n\\nReview: This is much bigger than a regular coaster and is intended for use with large wine bottles or other bottles that tend to drip (you can also use it for large cups, as I am using it for a 32oz iced drink and it is perfect). Provided that your liquid isn't discolored, you can reuse this many times, but if you drip something with a color such as wine you can slide the absorbent pad out and replace it with another (the package comes with 3 extra replacement pads. The base itself is a silver colored plastic piece that has three little lip areas that hold the absorbent coaster in place. You can get different styles for refils which is a fun & novel idea! I like that I can change the pad to suit my mood or the dcor of the room I am using it in. Changing the pad takes two seconds, you just slide it out and slide the new one back in. I have included a few of my own product photos for you to see rather than relying on stock photos in the listing. *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*\",\n \"Product: Besli 20 Pieces Premium Stainless Steel Flatware Set\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Formal or informal placesetting! Very pretty!\\n\\nReview: First and foremost, this set of flatware doesn't come packed in a retail box which may be off-putting for a buyer that may be expecting to give this as a gift. Each piece (all 20 pieces) are individually wrapped in a cellophane bag and then each type of utensil is wrapped in a rubber band. Then all little bundles are wrapped in one larger bag and then packed with sufficient packing material to keep them from bouncing around and getting damaged in shipping.\\nEach utensil is durable and solid and made up of stainless steel. The design at the neck of each utensil is pretty and sets this set apart for your average run of the mill plain sets. The design is very attractive on a formal or informal table setting. The handles are narrow and tapered but are comfortable to hold.\\nI also like that the set is easy to rinse under water and can be thrown into a dishwasher for an more thorough wash. A very nice set!\\nI have included a few of my own product photos for you to see rather than relying on stock photos in the listing. *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*\",\n \"Product: SIIG's Bluetooth Wireless Mini Keyboard works smoothly with your Bluetooth enabled desktop or notebook computer. This keyboard has scissor key switch structure that gives comfort touch with tactile feedback, and a compact footprint with an 85-key layout for space saving and portability. The 6 media player control function keys (Play/Pause, Previous, Next, Volume Up, Down and Mute) allow for quick multimedia player control. Additional features include built-in On/Off power switch, smart power management function to extend battery life, and battery power status LEDs to alert you when the batteries are low\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Great to have a keyboard for my tablet!\\n\\nReview: This works on smart phones and tablets! It's great to take with you on a trip instead of lugging a bulky computer with you! It was easy to set up, just open the battery cover on the back and insert two AA batteries. Once you have that set up you can turn the power to ON and then push the CONNECT button to become visible on your device (in the bluetooth area). It sends you a code to enter on the keyboard and then you are ready to use it! As long as the keyboard is in the ON position it will work in any application! It's a smaller keyboard than I am used to so it takes some getting used to. There are a lot of special keys on the keyboard to help you navigate. The keyboard is easy to throw into your computer bag or purse, it is very thin and lightweight. There is a yellow bumper that goes around the entire keyboard to protect it from bumps. *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*\",\n \"Product: Compatible with all iPod and iPhone models, except iPod Shuffle This Combo Pack Includes: USB Home Charger Adapter Home charger adapter allows charging at home or in the office via USB cable connection. Simply plug in the USB cable, and plug the adapter into the wall. Compact, lightweight, portable, stylish, easy to store. Charger: Input: 100V - 240V (U.S. & World Standard). Best replacement for original charger. Wall charger chargers your iphone/ipod quickly. IC chip inside recognizes a fully charged battery and automatically switches to a saver mode iPod / iPhone can still be used during charging Condition: Brand new. 3rd Party Products, Not an Apple product.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Great to have around the house, office, and for travel! a\\n\\nReview: It is SO nice to have extras of these adapters for the house and the office! I am always looking around trying to find the one or two that I have. These are even nicer looking that the white or black ones that I have. I am keeping the pink and purple in my desk at work and the yellow will be great for the office and the black and white will be perfect for my living room. The colors look even nicer in person, as they are glossy and bright. They work perfectly and charge ANYTHING that uses a USB for charging (most cords these days!). They are also small enough to take a few on vacation! They come bagged together in a resealable \\\"ziplock type\\\" bag and each wrapped in a plastic wrap to keep them from being scratched in shipping. *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*\",\n \"Product: Fashionforward meets function. The Targus 13.3\\\" Twill Sleeve has a slim and sleek design that allows you to carry this case anywhere you go, and taps into your inner style seekers when looking for a stylish case.The exterior is made of a durable, easytoclean twill material to add a layer of protection when transporting your laptop. The interior has a soft lining to help prevent scratches A snap closure keeps your laptop secure. Easily slip the sleeve into another bag/backpack or carry on its own Designed to protect laptops, Ultrabooks and MacBook Air and Pro with up to 13.3\\\" screens Waterresistant and easy to clean twill\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Really cute & stylish!\\n\\nReview: I'm very happy to notice immediately that the color matches the \\\"stock\\\" photos perfectly, there were no surprises there. What you can see in the close up photos is that the stitching is white and stands out boldly for a stylish and classy look. The flip-over snap is an open circle that fits perfectly over the snap on the case and clasps tightly for a good, safe fit. The inside lining of the case has a soft, grey suede texture and the sides are padded to protect your computer. The case itself is on the thin side and there is definitely not enough room to pack your cords, but, if you are just running out to the coffee shop to do a few hours of work this is perfect to protect it (or in my case, I have a charging cord at work and at home so carrying my cord isn't a necessity). You could even throw this into a backpack or messenger bag for easy carrying. A nice case to protect your big investment! *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*\",\n \"Product: feature -Shock & water resistant high-performance loud speaker -Premium speaker driver to deliver enhanced music listening experience with HD acoustic and crystal clear sound -Low energy consumption and eco-friendly Bluetooth wireless technology -Reinforced rugged shock-resistance material -High efficiency audio wireless connectivity -Up to 6 hours of playtime, 6.5 days of standby time, or 7 hours of talk time -Universal compatibility with Android and iPhone, iPad, tablets, smartphones, iPods, MP3, MP4 and other Bluetooth enabled digital players -Comes with a built-in hook and a FREE camping snap hook for outdoor use with maximum portability -Built-in mic for hands-free talking -Built-in high density battery Specification -Bluetooth 3.0 + EDR -Playback time: Up to 6 hours - Charging time: 2-4 hour - Connection range: 33 feet - Battery: 500mAh lithium battery - Waterproof level: iPX4 Warranty & support - Email between 9am - 6pm PST will be answered with 24 business hours - 1 year full manufacture product warranty included\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Great little shower speaker!\\n\\nReview: This speaker is very rugged and is great for the outdoors/camping/hiking/beach. The bass and treble are balanced but there is a slight \\\"hollow\\\" sound. I would give this a 4.5 star if I could. It was incredibly easy to set up the Bluetooth. With the power in the ON position (button on side) you will be prompted by a \\\"ding\\\" letting you know that the speaker is ready to be paired. Then you go onto your cell phone>settings>Bluetooth> and select the speaker that shows up as available to pair with and the \\\"ding\\\" will prompt you again letting you know that they are paired. Very easy.\\n\\nThere are three important buttons (aside from the on/off switch):\\n1) Volume Down (hold down) and \\\"go back a song\\\" (fast push)\\n2) Play/Pause\\n3) Volume Up (hold down) and \\\"skip to next song\\\" (fast push)\\n\\nThe front is a metal mesh covering the speaker and the other sides are a rubberized plastic with a waterproof cover for the micro-USB charging and card slot. There is a microphone built in to take the incoming calls on your phone that is being sent bluetooth. There is a suction cup on the back for you to attach it to you shower wall/door (water-resistant, NOT water-proof...so keep it sort of away from direct stream of water). If you can't use the suction cup (we can't) there is also a little carabiner clip you can use to hang it from your shower rings. I am very pleased with it! This speaker would also make a very nice gift. *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*\",\n \"Product: Feature -High definition 3W + 3W watt loud speakers -40mm loudspeaker premium drivers -Built-in 3.5mm aux port -Built-in TF card reader for easy music access -Built-in microphone for hands-free talking -6 hours of wireless playback time and 10 hours of talk time -Built-in 1600mAh high capacity rechargeable battery -Battery display on iPhone and iPad Specification -Built-in 3.5mm audio port for wired or Bluetooth 3.0 wireless connectivity -Playback time: up to 10 hours wired and 6 hours with Bluetooth wireless connection -Speaker driver: 40mm -Charging time: 2.5-3.5 hours -Connection range: 33 feet -Operating frequency: 2.4-2.48GHz -Battery: Built-in rechargeable 3.7V 1600mAh lithium-ion battery -Unit weight: 12oz -Dimension : 5.7 x 1.77 x 2.36 inches -Speaker driver: stereo, 40MM, 4Ohm -LF diaphragm dimension: 25*40 MM -Signal-to-Noise Ratio: 40db -Distortion: 1% -Large speaker cavity inside for excellent sound effect -Passive subwoofer inside delivers outstanding bass -Battery status can be displayed on iPhone\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Great sound from a tough little speaker!\\n\\nReview: This is a smaller speaker that packs a lot of punch! The bass and treble are balanced and can play very loudly without any distortion of sound. It was incredibly easy to set up the Bluetooth with the speaker. With the power in the ON position (button on side under rubber flap) you will be prompted by a voice telling you that the speaker is ready to be paired. Then you go onto your cell phone>settings>Bluetooth> and select the speaker that shows up as available to pair with and the voice will prompt you again letting you know that they are paired. Very easy.\\n\\nThe speaker is a small rectangle (5.7 x 1.77 x 2.36 inches) and will fit just about anywhere. The bottom has a rubberized pad so that the speaker will not slide with vibration. The casing is a heavy duty metal that feels incredibly strong and durable. There is a microphone built into the speaker so you can take your incoming calls via Bluetooth. An instruction booklet is included in the box as well which really helps you walk through all the functions this speaker offers (volume control, skip ahead or go back, and 3D). The rubber covered button controls are on the side. I'm guessing that all of the covers on the buttons make it splash proof but definitely not waterproof.\\n\\nTo charge the unit you can use the attached cord. There is also a TF card reader for you to directly put music in the speaker (which means you won't need to be tethered to a phone if you don't want to be.\\n\\nThis is a really SUCH nice speaker that compares well with other, much higher priced brand name speakers (beats, skull candy, etc). I am very impressed with the sound and quality of the unit and think it is SO worth the retail price! It would also make a very nice gift (in fact I was going to give this as a gift but decided I love it too much to give it away!). *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*\",\n \"Product: Show off your style and tech-savvy with Freah Pelle Designs computer bags. Freah stands for fresh, stylish, and ultramodern. Combined with Pelle, Italian for leather, Freah Pelle designs offer a chic, exciting alternative to the usual lackluster computer bag. The Freah Pelle Laptop Bag is designed for style and versatility. The slim modern design transports your laptop and its accessories in style without the added bulk. Available in the season's hottest designs, this laptop bags fits most 12.5 to 13.3 laptops including MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Ultrabook, and other top brands. Carry it in clutch-style as a case or use the removable shoulder strap included for your convenience.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Beautiful bag that could be used as computer bag OR as a purse!\\n\\nReview: This bag is so adorable and could also be used as a purse, rather than a computer bag! To start, the gold colored hardware on the bag is heavy duty and well made. The zipper glides well on the zipper teeth and the clasps on the long strap (included inside bag) are sturdy while looking classy. The larger pouch is large enough to hold my 13\\\" laptop with a plastic shell case on it.\\n\\nThe exterior case is great for cords or earbuds, but with a full 13\\\" laptop in the bag you won't have room for a heavy duty adapter. The crosshatch design is stylish and the leather feels durable. The construction and stitching are also strong and look to be very nicely made. There is piping all the way around the bag which adds a nice touch. The entire bag is padded well and has a soft cotton lining to protect your computer. I've included a bunch of photos so that you can see the details up close. *I received this item in return for my honest and unbiased review*\",\n \"Product: With a compact profile and ergonomic design, the TAC501 Bluetooth alarm clock is both charming and practical. It supports Bluetooth audio and call streaming, for wireless audio and hands-free conversations, and also features an aux-in port for a wired connection to most devices. A USB charging port allows you to play and charge your devices at the same time. The alarm clock also lets you wake to FM radio with a six-station preset memory, or a traditional buzzer.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: A lot of neat features!\\n\\nReview: Pretty good sound quality of this speaker! The bass and treble are balanced and can play loudly without distortion of sound. It was incredibly easy to set up the Bluetooth with the speaker (with the power on you push the mode button and when it chimes on the screen you go onto your cell phone>settings>Bluetooth> and select the speaker to pair with). Once it pairs your will hear a cute little chime.\\n\\nThe speaker is wide and narrow and can fit just about anywhere. Most Bluetooth speakers don't offer the radio function but this one does, and even displays the radio station on the digital display. There is a microphone built in so you can take the incoming calls on your phone via Bluetooth. An instruction booklet is included in the box as well which really helps you walk through all the functions this speaker offers.\\n\\nThe only problem I had was that once I stuck the little clear backing into the top of the speaker to hold my phone, my phone leaned a bit forward, rather than straight up how it should. I blame this on the thick battery case I have on my phone, but if you also have a thick case on it may not sit well either. I like that there is a USB port on top that you can use to plug in your phone and charge it.\\n\\nI am pleased with my decision to purchase this speaker! It would also make a very nice gift.\\n\\nI have included a few of my own product photos for you to see rather than relying on stock photos in the listing. *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*\",\n \"Product: Head-to-toe warmth is provided by this long Sportoli puffer coat . Its thick down alternative filling, along with elasticized wrists, flaps on the hood, and a fleece bonus scarf, ensure utmost warmth in winter's extremes. Feminine smocking at waist. Available in sizes 4 to 16 (for other size ranges, please see our storefront).\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Really cute coat for girls!\\n\\nReview: So cute! It totally looks just like it does in the photo (colors & design). There is a nice elastic waist and the cuffs are also elastic so the air doesn't sneak in through the sleeves. The bottom doesn't have elastic but is long and keeps your child's entire torso warm. The zipper is plastic but the zipper pulls and snaps are all metal. The scarf is fleece and cozy and helps keep your child even warmer than the coat alone. There is a good amount of warm stuffing in the coat and works well to keep your child warm and looks cute in the process. The hood is permanently attached and is great for snowy or rainy days. I think it runs \\\"slightly\\\" small. I ordered a 7/8 and it is only slightly large for my 5 year old niece. It's polyester and I've included pictures of the \\\"care\\\" tag as well as other \\\"detail\\\" photos. *I received this product at a discount in return for my honest and unbiased review.*\",\n \"Product: Active Play presents the Sporter S3 Scooter. This 3 wheeled scooter is self propelling. Make a skiing twist motion to propel the Sporter forward. Three wheels and more stable than two wheels. There is a front brake. It folds flat for easy transporting and storage. Maximum weight of child should not exceed 220 pounds.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Easy to assemble and fun to use!\\n\\nReview: Super cool scooter! This scooter comes in a tall box that weighs a lot but surprisingly it's not that complicated to put together an only took us about 10 minutes to finish (easy to follow instructions and comes with everything you need to put it together). I love that there is a hand-break to use, that's one of my pet peeves with the Razor scooters, it's harder to stop those. This is really cool, it's powered by wiggling and really gives your kid a good workout! My son is on the larger side for the scooter but it still works perfectly and he loves it! The handles are rubber and grippy for easy holding and handling. The wheels are a good solid construction, roll nicely, and handle all types of surfaces like driveways, sidewalks, and gravel. Such a fun scooter!!!\",\n \"Product: The Xtreme Bright Pro series Elite lantern is the perfect high-powered lantern and flashlight for all your outdoor recreational activities. An infrared remote (pictured above) works from up to 20 feet away, so you can operate the lantern from virtually anywhere within your campsite. With 24 ultra bright LED bulbs, the extreme lantern is great for all types of outdoor activities, but with a built in Compass - see above pictures, this lantern is nothing short of essential for every camping, hiking, hunting and fishing excursion. The lantern can be used as a super bright light for a workshop or garage, and also a great addition to your hiking and camping accessories. The lantern is battery powered and the bulbs never need to be changed. Buy now for a 100 percent money back lifetime guarantee! available in red, white and Black.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Bright remote controlled lantern!\\n\\nReview: A great camping lantern! The LED lights are very bright and the remote control makes this SO convenient to use from anywhere on your campsite (20 ft away, max). It takes three D batteries which aren't included. They are very easy to install, you just unscrew the bottom and pull out the battery compartment to pop them in. The on/off button is rubberized for easy use. There is also a handy indicator light on the remote control so you will always know if it is working or needs batteries. There are 24 very bright LEDs. Two really nice features are that there is a built in compass and a pop up hook, both on the handle. The remote control also has a metal clip that can hook onto a hook on the handle or onto a keyring or somewhere in your tent. The lantern comes nicely packaged in a box for safe shipping. *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*\",\n \"Product: Whether you're heading to the gym or off on a run, you want to focus on your workout, not be weighed down with your smartphone, wallet and keys. That's why you shouldn't lace up your sneakers and step outside your door until you've fastened the Active Rhino Running Exercise & Fitness Belt. Whether you use it as a running belt or a fitness belt at the gym, our iPhone 6/iPhone 6 Plus exercise case belt will free you of worries about what to do with your mobile device and other valuables. Here's why it's the best iPhone holder for running and working out on Amazon. Only the Active Rhino iPhone 6/iPhone 6 Plus belt case has: - AN iPHONE 6 RUNNING CASE FOR YOUR WAIST! A conventional iPhone 6 case stuffed into your pocket can make it hard for you to run, and those fitness armband cases can cut into your skin and slip out of place when you pick up speed. Our iPhone 6 belt case fits around your waist, where it will stay out of your way and keep your phone perfectly safe. - A FULLY ADJUSTABLE BELT DESIGN. Our iPhone 6 Plus running belt is so simple to adjust that you'll have it comfortably fitted in seconds. Don't choose a belt that will delay your workouts! Pick the one with the easy-to-pull Velcro closure! - A REFLECTIVE LOGO. No need to wear added reflective apparel to stay safe while on a run! Our iPhone 6 plus running case belt helps simplify things with a reflective logo to make you easy to spot. - EXTRA STORAGE. Our running belt doesn't just have room for a phone. There's also a roomy second pocket for stashing your ID, a credit card and cash. The key clip will work with all types of keys, even those fobs that don't fit in other fitness belts. Focus on your workout, not on keeping your stuff safe! Discover how comfortable and convenient keeping your gear with you at the gym or on a run can be with the best iPhone running case on Amazon! Order the Active Rhino Running Exercise & Fitness Belt today!\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Fully adjustable. Roomy pockets\\n\\nReview: The whole front half of the belt is a large, super stretchy pocket with two small slits that open wide to stick your items in for storage while running. The holes are sewn well and seem sturdy enough for repeated use. I would suggest that once you put your items into the pouch you flip the openings to the inside for safe keeping. Inside the pocket there is an attached elastic strap with a clip on the end to attach your keys to. One side has a large plastic buckle where the strap fits through and adjusts using velcro. The velcro loops aren't large and so I was concerned about using it and having it fall off but there are two things that will put my mind at ease. 1) If I press hard to \\\"seal\\\" the two pieces it has a good grip, and 2) Once you flip it the flap will be on the inside, preventing it to open because it will be against my body. *I received this product at a discount in return for my honest and unbiased review. These opinions are my own.*\",\n \"Product: Improve Your Yoga Experience with this high quality, super soft, light weight, highly absorbent 100% Microfiber full size mat towel and matching Hand Towel combo set. Makes a great gift! Backed By Elite Yoga Gear 100% Money BackSatisfaction Guarantee! Click the Button \\\"Add To Cart\\\" at the Top of This Page to Improve The Quality of Your Personal Yoga Experience!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Thin, grippy, and soft.\\n\\nReview: I love the feel of the micro, it is much more \\\"grippy\\\" than the terry cloth yoga towels on the market. I use this on top of the icky yoga mats at the gym rather than have to carry my own yoga mat. The texture is so nice and keeps me from slipping while I'm in the awkward poses. It's easy to toss in the washer (which is something you can't do with a yoga mat!). I really like the color, it is true to the picture. It's thin, too which makes it easy to roll up and light to carry. I'm very happy with it! The matching mini-towel is exactly the same but smaller for using when you get all sweaty! Cute set. The only thing that would make this combo even better is if it came with a carrying case or a strap to be able to roll it up and throw it in my gym bag. *I received this item in return for an honest and unbiased review*\",\n \"Product: These weightlifting gloves from Ixion Gear are great for both, men and women. They offer an integrated, comfortable wrist wrap to provide you the extra support for those heavy lifts. They offer breathable material across the top of the hand with heavy, durable padding on the palm. These gloves are a well-rounded choice for beginners to the pros. If you're into training, exercise, lifting, or just hitting the gym for a workout, these are a GREAT choice!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A weightlifters MUST have!\\n\\nReview: SO much better than I anticipated! These offer a broad coverage on your hands. I got the large for my husband and it fit him perfectly. The finger length is about to the first knuckle. The inside of the glove is leather with strips of rubber (as shown in the picture) to help grip the barbell. Most of the glove is leather or synthetic leather that looks like real leather. Some parts look like they are a breathable cotton weave that is stretchy, like between the fingers and on the outside of the thumb. The strap wraps around the wrist to support it when lifting heavy weights. They are well made and work well for gripping the barbell and keeping your hands from getting torn up from the barbell (or callused). Comes with a one year guarantee, too! A definite necessity for any weight lifter (even non-professionals) !! *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*\",\n \"Product: Sick of heavy, wet, soggy and sand filled beach, picnic blankets? We thought so. If only Oprah knew - we are sure she would add it to Oprah's favorite things. We were fed up of all those heavy, big picnic blankets too. It made the relaxing day at beach a chore. Noone wants to bring the beach home in the car or washing machine. Reid Retail's newest item is machine washable lightweight and you just shake the sand straight off the blanket when you are done - plus it drys super fast. Our Guarantee - We believe in it so much that if you are not satisfied we will take it back no questions asked. Period!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Great for travel bags!\\n\\nReview: <div id=\\\"video-block-R1VI0MVIODLPR6\\\" class=\\\"a-section a-spacing-small a-spacing-top-mini video-block\\\"></div><input type=\\\"hidden\\\" name=\\\"\\\" value=\\\"https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/D1IBkZwtIHS.mp4\\\" class=\\\"video-url\\\"><input type=\\\"hidden\\\" name=\\\"\\\" value=\\\"https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31fLh9LiuFS.png\\\" class=\\\"video-slate-img-url\\\"> To start, this is a a GREAT size for traveling! I was eager to try this product because the size will be great to pack in my travel bag on a cruise which will be going to four different beaches. It's an extended cruise so the more space I can save in my bag, the better!\\n\\nThe blanket comes folded up inside of a stretchy cloth holder which is just about fist sized. When you pull the blanket out of it, the bag turns inside out and is actually attached so you don't lose it (a great feature!). The fabric itself is a durable, rip-proof, sand-proof, weatherproof material that is easy to wipe dry and clean. Each corner has two features that make this blanket stand above the rest, 1 is a braided cord that is meant to be used with a stake in the ground so that your blanket won't fly away, and a black pocket in the shape of a triangle which can be filled with sand to help weigh it down. Now the side that goes DOWN is the plastic coated side so that the sand won't stick to it and it is waterproof so that all you need to do is shake off any sand. The top side has a softer side and you can see the lines in the rip stop material which means if the blanket gets a hole in it, it won't get larger because the material has a built in grid which will keep it from running like pantyhose.\\n\\nThe size is perfectly comfortable with two people laying on it but if you are just using it to sit on the beach or at a concert you can easily fit 4 or 5 people on it. I have included a few product photos and a short video for you to see. *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*\",\n \"Product: This is the latest Hoco premium PU leather case to join the window view range of cases. Made exclusively for the galaxy S4 it combines a great functional design with the unique feel and form one of the best PU leather products we have seen. Hoco have designed this case with both protection and usability in mind whilst managing to maintain a relatively slim finish considering the workmanship and materials used. Your Samsung galaxy S4 is held securely in position via ultra-tough hard polycarbonate shell, leaving the screen complete clear from any interference. Ideal for touch screen and typing. The folding front cover also has a clear view window which you can see the date and time battery life and much more. The front cover also features a nice metal Hoco logo. You still have access to the galaxy S4S ports and functions such as, speakers, headphone jack port, volume, camera and power down button. Features: Made from premium grade faux leather soft high grade embossed super-fiber felt lining keeps screen and phone clean whilst protecting from knocks and bumps. Full access to all ports and slots. Saves battery life with magnetic sleep wake function.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Love that it has a cover!\\n\\nReview: This comes nicely packaged in a clear plastic display box. The backing is a hard plastic shell while the cover is a more flexible plastic. The cover has a magnetic closure that powers the phone on and off when used....a very cool feature. When you get the package there are three plastic covers on the clear window on the cover to insure that you receive the item in good condition with no scratches. One is black and the other two are clear, one on the front and one on the inside. Be sure to take these off for best visibility of the clock feature. I like the front cover feature--if I drop my phone I know it won't get scratched.\",\n \"Product: iPalm ring holder is a must have for smart phone users. Not only to secure your device from potential falling hazard, you can now take pictures easier than ever without worrying about handshakes! iPalm Ring can also be used as phone stand when you watch video, youtube, or play music. Our 360 degree roating function will be able to adjust the inclination of your LCD screen. Not to mention we include a free ring hook for car in the package so you can throw your huge, annoying, stretch required phone holder thats blocking your A/C, windows (you know you might get a ticket for that), or even occupied your CD player. Now you can just hook it up and enjoy! You probably noticed about a fact that a phone looks much prettier when it stands in a certain angle than it is laid flat on your table. So what are you waiting for? iPalm Ring is a small, simple, price friendly tool that will highly enhance your living standard and protect your property! Get yours while supplies last!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Totally worth protecting your big investment for a few bucks!\\n\\nReview: This little item is ingenious! The colored square is plastic (which I actually thought was going to be metal) with a double sided sticky foam on the back. All you have to do is peel off the protective plastic off and stick it to the back of your phone/case. I stuck mine on the back of my battery phone case. It seems to be very well attached. I love that I can use the ring as a grip OR a stand. I can rotate the ring around for comfort. Included is a little black piece that also has the sticky backing that can be attached in a convenient place to HANG your phone by the hook. The ring fits perfectly on the black hook piece.\\n\\nI really like having this extra security of having my finger attached. I notoriously (seriously, my friends make fun of me) drop my phone ALL the time! This will really help me keep a good grip on my phone! One time I even shattered my screen. This little $10 investment will save everyone $100 a screen repair charge! Totally worth protecting your big investment for a few bucks!\\n\\nI have included a few of my own product photos for you to see rather than relying on stock photos in the listing. *I received this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*\",\n \"Product: The Cellfy Bag provides a unique carrying solution for your smartphone, or wallet items. Take great selfies while you're out and about, traveling, or from a car window. Attach the suction cup to glass, set a timer, stick your phone in the pouch and let the Cellfy Bag acts as a tripod for taking great self photos, or in Groups. Nobody get's left out of the photo!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: My new favorite wristlet!\\n\\nReview: A very clever and well designed wristlet! The design is so that you can attach the pouch to a flat surface with a suction cup that is nicely hidden while in use (see photos) and the camera can be set up in either landscape or portrait mode. You could also use the pouch for other items such as a regular camera or keys and credit cards. The wrist strap is detachable if you don't want to use it (and throw it in your larger purse or tote bag). I love the durable nylon and that it is so well made. The inside of BOTH zipper pockets are lined with a very soft, fuzzy, white lining. Lovely little wristlet! *This product was provided to me for a discount in exchange for an honest and unbiased review*\",\n \"Product: Sidekick Kick Mats are the perfect solution for protecting the back of your car seats from muddy little feet. Sidekick comes in a 2 count pack so you can cover both the driver and passenger seats. The size is perfect for full coverage keeping your car seat free from mud, scuff marks and wet feet. Universal fit for most vehicle types. They come complete with handy organizer pockets for drink bottles, food, favourite toys, ipad or ipods. Protect your automotive car seats with quality, durable Sidekick seat protectors. Get your 100% Customer Satisfaction Warranty. No risk to you. To save your back seats use the coupon code to get Sidekick Car Seat Protectors.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: I needed a car seat protector that is easy to use and works\\n\\nReview: These are exactly what I needed! My son constantly kicks the back of my seat in the car and I always have to clean it. I needed a car seat protector that is easy to use and works. This is perfect! I like that the top has a snap-together adjustable strap to fit on any seat. The bottom strap is usually where I run into problems (on other brand seat protectors) but this one is perfect because it's a stretchy strap that goes across the entire back so that when you put it over your seat it won't slip or slide on the bottom. I'm also thrilled that this is a package of two! Usually it is sold as one and then you have twice the expense. It's also great that it's not JUST the protector, it has one large and one small velcro pocket to hold stuff. I recieved this product in return for an honest review.\",\n \"Product: Here comes Newest 2015 accuteck dreamcolor series postal scale. Compared to old version, accuteck brings customers a colorful choice of scales, available in Cool black, Classical Silver, Luxury Gold, and Charming Red. No more boring and no more dull when you are weighing items. Pick a color to match your house or office. Make your mailing job a fun! Newest 2015 Dreamcolor series not only bring colors to your daily mailing, it will also provide more convenience for small business owners. It was renovated to be USB powered and energy saving. You don't need to worry about finding a wall plug or worry about the cable is not enough long for wall plug, and you can just bring that with you when you are using your computers since it is USB powered. It will save you tons of batteries though it runs on batteries and we will give free batteries too. For a best convenience, it will come with AC adapter too.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Great for a small shipping business!\\n\\nReview: This a great compact scale that does BIG jobs! It measures 11.2\\\" x 6.1\\\" x 1.4\\\" but can weight up to 86lbs accurately! There are different modes which you can easily change between using the push buttons: Pounds/ounces, ounces, kilograms/grams, grams; Smart Tare And Hold feature. The scale has a good sturdy weight to it but it really is small enough to be portable and can be thrown into a briefcase, computer bag, or a backpack.\\n\\nThe scale comes with instructions, an AC adapter to plug into the wall and a USB adaptor, and 3 AAA batteries. The top of the scale opens up for some reason, which I haven't figured out yet (another reviewer suggested that it is to hold rolling items in place). The back-lit display is large and easy to read. This is a great scale for someone that does a good amount of shipping for a living, such as a seller on ebay or amazon!\",\n \"Product: A must have garden accent for your miniature fairy collection! Our miniature fairy Door includes 4 doors in 4 different colors: green blue pink and brown and 4 different designs: yellow bee, purple butterfly, brown owl and blue dragonfly! A fun addition to your Home, Lawn, Patio, Indoors, Outdoors, deck or garden decor! Or give it as a gift to your wife mother, sister, aunt, friend or daughter! Painted and sculpted in amazing detail. Made of Resin. Each door measures approximately 5\\\" tall x 4\\\" wide.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Really cute addition to your garden!\\n\\nReview: The four fairy garden door entryways are adorable and the details are very well done. Each door has a different theme with different colors with glitter and vivid colored paint. The doors would prop nicely in front of a tree stump or even a little mound to make it look like little fairies live in your garden.\\n\\nThese would look cute in your garden! The paint job is great and the colors are bright and whimsical and each door has a touch of sparkle and floral details. Each door is completely different from the other so you could even have a whole little garden village with all four doors! Some have stone fronts and others have brick, some have round doors while others are square.\\n\\nThese are very nicely made, the feel almost like concrete, but are actually light and made from ceramic. All four doors come layered with cardboard between each door, then wrapped in bubble wrap for extra padding and then put in a brown box with another bubble wrap over top. Each door is about 5\\\" tall x 4\\\" wide and has a wider base so that each stands on it's own.\\n\\nThese add so much fun and whimsy to your garden! Makes a great gift too!\\n\\nI have included a few of my own product photos for you to see rather than relying on stock photos in the listing. *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*\",\n \"Product: Travel with your best friend in safety with this dog booster seat! The Pet Booster Seat allows you to drive comfortably with your pet. Strap the booster seat to the back cushion of the passenger side and place your dog comfortably in its chair. Safety leash keeps your pet safe and secure! The zippered front compartment makes traveling even easier allowing you to bring along your pets favorite treats and toys. Cute dog in picture not included. Recommended for SMALL dogs up to 10 lbs.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Secure doggie booster seat\\n\\nReview: This is great for SMALL dogs. Upon pulling the contents out of the box I found a fleece liner, an extra strap, and the seat itself. The bag is made well but some of the velcro pieces didn't line up completely perfect. It was kind of hard to figure out how to line up the different velcro pieces but when I found the strap holes it was easier to get it all together. The straps all have plastic clasps for easy set up. There is also a zipper pouch along the front to keep little extras (poop bags, leash, etc). The seat seems secure once all put into place. I wish the fleece actually ran across the bottom of the seat in addition to the sides but overall I like it and it's a really cute seat so our puppy can see out the windows and be securely strapped in at the same time! *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*\",\n \"Product: Jack's Premium Beef Links are made from USDA inspected facilities with 100% USA beef in edible collagen casing. They do not contain artifical ingredients that can potentially harm your pet. They are full of natural smoke beefy flavor! Moreover, we vacuum seal our treats to insure the freshness. You can smell the freshness when you open it!! They can be easily broken into small pieces which make them perfect training aid. Again, they are healthy and fresh. Your canine babies are much more sensitive to freshness and flavor than we are. Let your dog experience the Jack's Premium difference, it will become Your Dog's Favorite Place To Shop!!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Our friends dog LOVED it!!\\n\\nReview: Wow! We bought these as a gift for our friends dog and he absolutely gobbled one of these really fast (like 5 minutes)! He came back sniffing around for more as soon as he was done. I've never seen him so excited about a treat! They definitely are more of a snack rather than a slow chew toy like a \\\"bully stick\\\". The links come attached, three linked in a row. I used scissors to cut between each pair to give the dog one. He really enjoyed it. I keep the others in a ziplock back to keep them sealed for freshness for the next time we visit him. I give this product two thumbs up (well, I guess technically the dog gives it two \\\"paws\\\" up!) *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*\",\n \"Product: Our Texas sized thick bully sticks are thick and long!! See attached photos to view the ruler and the nickel as the reference. Also compare the difference between Jack's and those sold in stores! They are all natural and made locally in Texas, USA. They are from USDA inspected facilities. We do not add bleach or other chemicals that can potentially harm your pet. GUARANTEED FRESH!! They are being cooked and hand packaged daily to insure freshness. Furthermore, we vacuum seal our treats. You can smell the freshness when you open it! Amazing Smokey Flavor!! As we freshly cook them here at Texas, our unique way of cooking adds amazing smoky flavor to them! While others says low odor, we actually encourage you to smell our bully sticks when you open the bag and smell your dogs after they chew them. You will be amazed by the pleasant smoky smell, and even more so your dogs!! Again, these are FRESH. Your canine babies are much more sensitive to freshness and flavor than we are. Let your dog experience the Jack's Premium difference, it will become Your Dog's Favorite Place To Shop!!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: The dog LOVES these!\\n\\nReview: Wow! We bought these as a gift for our friends dog and he absolutely gobbled one of these and really enjoyed it! He came back sniffing around for more as soon as he was done. I've never seen him so excited about a treat! While \\\"bully sticks\\\" are meant to last a long time, he is an older, larger puppy and is teething so he chewed through it pretty fast. But, he really enjoyed it.\\nThe bully sticks slightly vary in size and came in a vacuum sealed bag. I keep the others in a ziplock back to keep them sealed for freshness for the next time we visit him. I give this product two thumbs up (well, I guess technically the dog gives it two \\\"paws\\\" up!) *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*\",\n \"Product: 720P HD Wireless Smart Doorbell\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: SAFER HOME! Needs a few app tweaks.... but awesome!\\n\\nReview: Seriously this is the neatest home safety accessory you didn't know existed!\\n\\nThe alarm comes nicely packaged in a picture box which includes everything you need to install the doorbell and get started. My husband removed our old wired doorbell and wired the new doorbell in about 10 minutes, and then it took us another 10 minutes to download the app on our phone and register for an account in order to start using the camera. Surprisingly it worked on one of our three networks that it said it most likely wouldn't work on, which was a pleasant surprise! This part of the process was SO easy!\\n\\nUsing the app:\\nSo, the positive side is that I can see anyone at my door at any time I want. The downside is that it is somewhat sensitive and sends me alerts when someone walks near the door (which is frequent). I want to see if there is a way to change the sensitivity.\\n\\nIt is SO cool that when the doorbell rings I get an alert which I click on the alert and it takes me right to the camera with a button to turn on the chat. This is where I ran into a little bit of a problem. I have to hold the talk button down for a long while and then it shows that the mic is on. Sometimes this button works, sometimes it doesn't. There is also a mute button that doesn't seem to mute the person on the camera end OR me. Other than this everything works perfectly. I do like that at any time I can see what is going on outside of my house and that I can watch clips of all motions. This makes me feel much safer in my home!\\n\\nThe video quality is fantastic, only a small delay and you can see details, you can even see at night with the infared lights. You can also have multiple users on the camera, not just one. There is a place to add users in the app who must be added by the first user. I'm sure there are a ton more features that I haven't accessed yet!\\n\\nI really think my biggest issue is an application problem, not a camera problem so I am hopeful that app updates will fix these issues. I love, love, love the camera/doorbell and feel safer with it!\\n\\nI have included a few of my own product photos for you to see rather than relying on stock photos in the listing. *I received this item in return for an honest and unbiased review*\",\n \"Product: IlluStory by Lulu Jr. gives children the opportunity to write, illustrate and publish their very own hardcover book! After writing and illustrating their story, the child receives a 7\\\" x 9\\\" hardcover book with up to 20 pages including a dedication page, a title page and an \\\"About the Author\\\" page. IlluStory has been a top choice for creative children since 1993, having won over 10 toy and education industry awards. Parent's Choice, Creative Child magazine, Better Homes & Gardens, Dr. Toy and Fat Brain and are just a few of the organizations that have recognized IlluStory with awards. Your child will build their self-esteem and strengthen their creativity and literacy skills by writing, illustrating and publishing a story of their very own and the book lasts a lifetime. Your young author creates their characters, develops the plot and chooses the setting and everything else about their story. IlluStory is a great way to connect with your child and guide them in project-based learning or, by using the included materials they can create a storybook all by themselves. IlluStory by Lulu Jr. includes ready-to-use book pages, 10 washable markers, online creation tools, a postage-paid envelope and instructions for creating your very own professionally printed hardcover book. The production and delivery of the finished book is included in the price. Your young author will develop a sense of pride and accomplishment writing, creating and publishing their story. When the finished product arrives at your door and your child holds their book in their hands, they will feel they have achieved something very special. Recommended age: 6+.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Unlocks your child's creativity!\\n\\nReview: This is such a great idea! When I was a child I remember fondly making a book and binding it at school (in fact my mom recently came across it and gave it to me!). I even remembered the story I wrote. This kit captures the imagination of a young child and with a little guidance from an adult can create a masterpiece of their own! Not only does the child \\\"write\\\" the book, you send it in with a pre-paid label and the book is set and bound and a \\\"real\\\" book is sent back to the child! How awesome! We have only just begun the first stages of writing our book but my 7-year-old son is so excited about writing his own book!!! Can't wait to see the final product (\\\"child receives a 7\\\" x 9\\\" hardcover book with up to 20 pages including a dedication page, a title page and an \\\"About the Author\\\" page\\\").\\nThe kit includes:\\nReady-to-use book pages\\nmarkers\\na postage-paid envelope\\ninstructions for creating your very own Awesome Book.\\nand a Quick Start Guide full of ideas, tips, and inspiration\\n\\nRecommended ages: 6 and up\\n\\n*This product was provided to me for a discount in exchange for an honest and unbiased review*\",\n \"Product: Get your little chef in training The gift of a lifetime with the Teamson Kids Whitewith red counter top play kitchen. Classy White with a splash of vibrant red provide a vintage look. This play kitchen is designed to give your children The ultimate pretend play experience! Kitchen can be connected or detached to serve as two separate pieces.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Perfect for yars of enjoyment!\\n\\nReview: Please plan a couple of hours for putting this together! It is pretty doable but you need to expect to spend some time on it. Kind of like Ikea products, nice when it's together but takes a while to get there. The kitchen is super cute and looks so nice when put together! The colors are bold and pretty and looks just like the \\\"stock photos\\\". There is plenty of storage space for food and dishes and other play kitchen items in the sink/cabinets and the fridge is entirely made up of storage shelves.. While there are two units, they do come packaged together. I was hoping to give my friend the fridge for Christmas for her daughter but it comes packaged together so it would be odd to give her part of the gift and not all. The only other alternative is to build it and then wrap it. The sink/cabinets and the fridge do NOT attach, they are two units that match and can be put anywhere. The units are durable and are filled with many hours of imaginative play! Super cute set that your kids will get years of pleasure from! *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*\",\n \"Product: The perfect size and weight for children and beginners. Soft rubber that wont break if it falls on the ground. Professional aluminum sticks and all in a beautiful tin can - the perfect gift...........Mister M is one of the most famous Open Air Artists in the world. Performing for over 20 years around the globe, he produces high quality juggling products for young and old. Quality, know-how and price make his products stand out above the rest. And if you have any questions, he personally takes the time to make sure you are 100% satisfied - GUARANTEED!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: REALLY nice quality!!!! Fun toy!\\n\\nReview: Nicely packaged in a tin gift box with a see-through lid, this package is ALL top notch quality! The Diabolo is very nicely made, I've seen \\\"cheap\\\" ones and this definitely is the real deal. The middle of the main piece is metal and the rubber is somewhat soft and forgiving in case you drop it on the floor (which you will). The sticks come in 2 pieces and need to be screwed together before using. The cord between the two sticks is what you use to spin the Diabolo and it is a strong, weaved cord which I'm guessing is nylon. The sticks are aluminum so they are light and strong and the handles are foam for grip and comfort. I LOVE this set and am giving it as a gift to my husband. We learned to use this in a circus school and I think he will love playing with it with our children! You can scan the QR code on the enclosed card to go to the online video instructional video. *I received a sample of this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*\",\n \"Product: Dress in Shamrock Style with St. Patrick's Day Costume Accessories! These add the perfect touch of Irish pride!!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Such a fun kit of goodies for St Patrick's Day!\\n\\nReview: A great St Patrick's Day kit for a school party, a great big family party, or a festival! The assortment is full of fun items for both kids and adults! The assortment includes 109 items in total. There are 12 beaded necklaces, all green and packaged separately. They are just like Mardi Gras beads, plastic beads on string. There are two dozen rubber bracelets with shamrock cut outs on them, also packaged in it's own bag. One single green latex balloon which says the company name and \\\"Happy St. Patrick's Day\\\" on it. And last but not least, a bunch of packages of shamrock tattoos (assorted styles good for girls and boys) from Oriental Trading company. There are 72 tattoos in total. I've taken a few photos so you can see what everything really looks like, as opposed to the \\\"stock\\\" photos posted. I think it's a great bundle of fun accessories to bring to a party! *I received a sample of this item in return for an honest and unbiased review*\",\n \"Product: Color Minneapolis is an adult coloring book that will take you places! Find your coloring zen while learning about the top 23 landmarks that make the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota unique. This book features 27 full, detailed 8.5x11 coloring pages of notable Minneapolis landmarks. Included are the Foshay Tower, the Crystal Court, St. Mary's Basilica, and more. Printed opposite each coloring page you'll find a short written history and fun fact about each location, and an original black and white photo. This is a great gift for friends, family, and self, whether you and they are Minnesota locals or distant admirers. Page Count: 100 Cover: Silky matte finish Dimensions: 8.5 x 11.0 x 0.3 inches Binding: Perfect bound Local Color Books combines photography, humor, and culture to celebrate the landmarks that make each US city unique.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Nice quality paper stock with bold and beautiful designs!\\n\\nReview: This book comes nicely wrapped in a plastic wrapper to protect the cover and pages from getting dirty or bent during storage and shipping. Upon opening it the first thing that I noticed was that the title of the book is actually what you see in the photo which I thought was funny. I assumed that was just the \\\"ad\\\" picture, but it's not. Not that it matters but I was surprised.\\n\\nThe pages are square and you can color them in the book or use a blade or scissors to cut them out (great for framing after you color them!). Since I am a lefty the fold in the spine of the book often interferes with my coloring/writing/drawing so I prefer to cut them out of the book.\\n\\nThe book is full of a GREAT variety of designs. Some are themed, christmas, tea party, and food...while others are aquatic, floral, or just really elaborate designs. They vary in difficulty, some have big, wide open areas to color and others are very precise and detailed that require a stead hand for coloring. Some of the pages are covered in designs while others have a shape (butterfly, leaf, feather, circle, etc). A few of the designs take up 3/4 of the page and have a blank side which you can color or leave white.\\n\\nThe paper stock is thicker than printer or book paper, nice and solid paper, not flimsy at all. The black ink is bold and well printed. I actually am quite impressed with the book. I was going to give it as a gift but after seeing how lovely it is I plan on using it with my 7 year old for some good old fashioned coloring fun together!!! I have included a few photos for you to see the designs and quality of the book. *I received a sample of this item in return for an honest and unbiased review*\",\n \"Product: Having a Party? Use these bestselling toys in Anchor Seashells Sailboat Sea Life Theme. Great for Ahoy Nautical Party Supplies for Wedding Birthday Party Baby Shower and more! Includes: 72 NAUTICAL GLITTER TATTOOS includes: Seashells, Sailboat, Anchors, Sea Creatures etc. 12 NAUTICAL PENCILS; 48 NAUTICAL ERASERS- 24 Anchors & 24 Sailboats. 12 NAUTICAL STICKER SHEETS. These are great for classroom rewards party handouts etc.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Stickers and tattoos are a nice size!\\n\\nReview: This is a great package of nautical and summer beach themed goodies! All items are shipped in a white plastic shipping bag and are packed in a cardboard box with packing material for shipping from the Amazon warehouse. They arrived in perfect condition!\\n\\nUpon opening the package I discovered that there are twelve individual packages with a hang-tag sealed in a bag and another packet filled with all of the cute tattoos. Each of the dozen packages includes a sticker sheet with six stickers, a pencil, and four erasers (2 in the shape of of an anchor and 2 in the shape of a sailboat). The tattoos are actually larger than I anticipated and there are a TON of them! I also want to point out that the quality of the tattoo is very nice, they even have glitter in them and the designs are much cuter in person than in the photos.\\n\\nSets like this are great for making treat bags for kids or for taking to parties for the kids to play with! You could also use them for treasure chest filler! I am planning on bringing these to a Memorial Day party for the kids to play with, they will have fun with them!\\n\\nI have included a few of my own product photos for you to see rather than relying on stock photos in the listing. *I received this item at a discount in return for an honest and unbiased review*\",\n \"Product: Eliminating grains can be a surprisingly easy way to lose weight, boost mental function, increase energy, and prevent chronic disease. To help readers kick their addiction to wheat, Lose Wheat in 4 Weeks offers a practical 28-day detox plan and 150 delicious, grain-free recipes. To ensure a smooth transition, the meal plan begins with quick and easy comfort foods before gradually introducing new ingredients and easy culinary techniques commonly used in grain-free cooking.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Great book for guidance in going wheat-free\\n\\nReview: My mother decided to go wheat-free for numerous reasons and then told me about all of the other positive side effects of going wheat-free. This book lists so many health issues that can be solved by just giving up wheat. Some of the health issues include, ...weight issues, high blood sugar, chronic inflamation, digestive disorders, and various neurological disorders\\nThe book first describes the different types of wheat-free diets including Paleo, Keto, and Grain Brain diets and explains what happens inside of your body when you eat wheat (glycemic index and blood sugar). Then there is a 28-day detox plan for breaking the cycle and getting through wheat-withrdawl. There is a nice long list of substitutes at the end of that chapter. Chapter 3 walks you through preparing your kitchen for the change. Chapter 4 is a meal plan for the month and the rest of the chapters are recipes to help you manage the wheat-free lifestyle. There is also an appendix with tips for eating out which is really helpful.\\nNow that I've seen my mother's results from going wheat-free I am going to use this book as a reference guide in my introduction to a new diet in hopes that I have the same results!\"\n]","isConversational":false},"profile_size":{"kind":"number","value":45,"string":"45"},"task":{"kind":"string","value":"longlamp_3"},"split_kind":{"kind":"string","value":"user_based"},"id":{"kind":"number","value":1680,"string":"1,680"}}},{"rowIdx":1681,"cells":{"question_id":{"kind":"string","value":"A328547P5BGZC"},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of \"5.0\" for a product with description \"A massive drug operation changes the lives of three conflicted New York cops. Burned-out vet Eddie Dugan (Richard Gere) is close to retirement; narcotics cop Sal Procida (Ethan Hawke) faces the difficult task of caring for his large family on his ordinary salary; undercover officer Clarence \"Tango\" Butler (Don Cheadle) finds his loyalties beginning to shift toward a powerful drug dealer. Over seven chaotic days, the three men are drawn toward a fateful crime and destiny.\". The summary of the review text is \"Every choice has consequences....\"."},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"WATCH THIS MOVIE!\n\nOne of the most popular subjects for movies is police drama, let that drama happen in New York and you have yourself a fine movie, thus \"Brooklyn's Finest\".\n\nAn all star cast makes this story happen, Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke and Wesley Snipes!\n\nThe story is three seperate stories that all are loosely interconnected and come together at the end. Think other roundabout stories like <a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/Crash/dp/B000A3XY5A/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\">Crash</a>,<a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/The-Air-I-Breathe/dp/B0014Z4OKW/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\">The Air I Breathe</a> and <a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/11-14/dp/B000ALM40I/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\">11:14</a>!\n\nRichard Gere is excellent as Officer Eddie Dugan, a hard nosed cop whose about to retire, he's seen it all and can't wait to walk away from the life. Don Cheadle is Tango, the undercover cop thats in so deep, reality is starting to blur. Ethan Hawke is Detective Sal Procida, he has issues and needs money for his family. Then there is Wesley Snipes a.k.a. Casanova Phillips, a drug dealer, \"the\" drug dealer!\n\nAs a fan of cop dramas, this movie is a must see!\n\nIf you enjoy \"Brooklyn's Finest\", definitely check out - <a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/Pride-and-Glory/dp/B001MZ5W46/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\">Pride and Glory</a>,<a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/We-Own-the-Night/dp/B0010HOZLM/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\">We Own the Night</a> and <a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/The-Departed/dp/B000M5AJQI/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\">The Departed</a>!\n\nEnjoy~"},"correct_answer":{"kind":"string","value":"WATCH THIS MOVIE!\n\nOne of the most popular subjects for movies is police drama, let that drama happen in New York and you have yourself a fine movie, thus \"Brooklyn's Finest\".\n\nAn all star cast makes this story happen, Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke and Wesley Snipes!\n\nThe story is three seperate stories that all are loosely interconnected and come together at the end. Think other roundabout stories like <a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/Crash/dp/B000A3XY5A/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\">Crash</a>,<a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/The-Air-I-Breathe/dp/B0014Z4OKW/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\">The Air I Breathe</a> and <a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/11-14/dp/B000ALM40I/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\">11:14</a>!\n\nRichard Gere is excellent as Officer Eddie Dugan, a hard nosed cop whose about to retire, he's seen it all and can't wait to walk away from the life. Don Cheadle is Tango, the undercover cop thats in so deep, reality is starting to blur. Ethan Hawke is Detective Sal Procida, he has issues and needs money for his family. Then there is Wesley Snipes a.k.a. Casanova Phillips, a drug dealer, \"the\" drug dealer!\n\nAs a fan of cop dramas, this movie is a must see!\n\nIf you enjoy \"Brooklyn's Finest\", definitely check out - <a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/Pride-and-Glory/dp/B001MZ5W46/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\">Pride and Glory</a>,<a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/We-Own-the-Night/dp/B0010HOZLM/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\">We Own the Night</a> and <a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/The-Departed/dp/B000M5AJQI/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\">The Departed</a>!\n\nEnjoy~"},"documents":{"kind":"list like","value":["Product: MANAGEMENT is a romantic comedy that chronicles a chance meeting between Mike Cranshaw (Steve Zahn) and Sue Claussen (Jennifer Aniston). When Sue checks into the roadside motel owned by Mike's parents in Arizona, what starts with a bottle of wine \"compliments of MANAGEMENT\" soon evolves into a multi-layered, cross-country journey of two people looking for a sense of purpose. Mike, an aimless dreamer, bets it all on a trip to Sue's workplace in Maryland only to find that she has no place for him in her carefully ordered life. Buttoned down and obsessed with making a difference in the world, Sue goes back to her yogurt mogul ex-boyfriend Jango (Woody Harrelson), who promises her a chance to head his charity operations. But, having found something worth fighting for, Mike pits his hopes against Sue's practicality, and the two embark on a twisted, bumpy, freeing journey to discover that their place in the world just might be together.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: A romantic comedy gem...\n\nReview: \"Management\" is a very quirky, fun and irresistible movie!\n\nA great cast - Steve Zahn <a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/National-Security/dp/B00008WI9O/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\">National Security</a>,<a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/Joy-Ride/dp/B00005UV34/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\">Joy Ride</a> and Jennifer Aniston <a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/The-Break-Up-Full-Screen-Edition/dp/B000HCPS8U/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\">The Break-Up (Full Screen Edition)</a>,<a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/Marley-and-Me-Single-Disc-Edition/dp/B001REZM6K/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\">Marley and Me (Single-Disc Edition)</a> team up for a fun time, the movie also stars Woody Harrelson <a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/Kingpin/dp/6305161860/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\">Kingpin</a> as Aniston's zany ex -boyfriend (Jango).\n\nIf your looking for a good movie to relax and have a few laughs, this is it. Zahn and Aniston really do have that certain chemistry in this movie and it shows.\n\nIf you debating on whether or not you want to watch this one, ignore the 3 or 4 bad reviews and listen to the many, many good ones here, its definitely worth your time.\n\nEnjoy~","Product: Avatar is the story of ex-Marine Jake, a paraplegic war veteran, who finds himself thrust into hostilities on a distant planet filled with exotic life forms, Pandora. As an Avatar, a human consciousness in an alien body, he finds himself torn between two worlds in a desperate fight for his own survival and that of the indigenous people. Those from Earth find themselves at odds with each other and the local culture.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Absolutely amazing on blu-ray....\n\nReview: \"Avatar\" on Blu-ray is absolutely amazing, the picture is truly incredible! This movie is quite an experience the first time you see it.\n\nI own alot of Blu-rays, nothing comes close to this picture quality!\n\nAfter seeing the movie in 3-D in the theater, I knew the Blu-ray dvd version would be great. I was also happy with the fact, that although this version doesn't have all the bells and whistles (extra footage, special features and trailers) that the extended DVD versions due out later this year will have, the Blu-ray does come with a regular DVD. Which has been great for me, because I've been able to lend it out to my friends, so they can enjoy it along with their families. Personally I would not have wanted to wait until the end of the year to see \"Avatar\" again. This is the highest grossing movie ever, a worldwide phenomenon, if it turns out that the extended Blu-ray dvd is that much more amazing then this version, I'll buy it again.\n\nIf you haven't seen this unbelievable \"epic\" movie, do yourself a favor and watch it on Blu-ray ASAP!\n\n*** By the looks of reading the other reviews here, seems that some older Blu-ray player models cannot play \"Avatar\" without a firmware update. I do find that pretty ridiculous, not that the dvd requires an update of the Blu-ray player itself, but that they don't give consumers buying this at the store a fair warning. I would be extremely upset, if I purchased \"Avatar\" only to find out that I couldn't play it. This is noted at the top of Amazon's page however, good on them for that. My player is around six months old and had no issues playing the dvd. If your unsure, you may want to rent it first on Blu-ray!\n\n\"Avatar\" is the future of movies and I'm looking forward to more....\n\nEnjoy~","Product: A 40-year-old housepainter named Dominick Birdsey, from a spectacularly dysfunctional family, is the narrator of this long novel about the search for self-acceptance. A \"New York Times\" Notable Book for 1998.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: The Journey of Life.....\n\nReview: Wow, I'm glad I finally discovered Wally Lamb!\n\n\"I Know This Much Is True\" is a great book. At a mammoth 897 pages, reading the book itself is a journey, as is the story of twins, Dominick & Thomas Birdsey.\n\nVery rewarding throughout, it puts you right there in the characters lives. Wally Lamb masterfully draws you in with each character and real life drama that is never sugar coated. Anyone can relate to someone in this book in your real life.\n\nIn my opinion, any book that can make you feel, really truly feel for the characters, is a masterpiece. Lamb's characters will have you on their side one minute and then you will be against them the next.\n\nAs another reviewer stated, this is one of those books that becomes part of your life for a while. For me that is absolutely true, I looked forwarding to reading it every night for the two weeks it took me to finish.\n\nA very, very well crafted plot and alot of surprises and unexpected outcomes in the end. As your reading this book, you'll naturally make alot of assumptions and have your own idea of whats going to happen next or at the end and Wally Lamb will leave you dumbfounded every time.\n\nA wonderful book, I know this much is true!\n\nAfter finishing \"I Know This Much Is True\", I'm looking forward to reading Wally's other novels, \"She's Come Undone\" & \"The Hour I First Believed","Product: Ron Carlson teaches Creative Writing at Arizona State University. He is the author of six books of fiction: At the Jim Bridger (stories), The Hotel Eden (stories, Plan B for the Middle Class (stories), The News of the World (stories), Truants (novel), and Betrayed by F.Scott Fitzgerald (novel)\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Great stories, great writing....\n\nReview: an almost perfect collection of short stories...\n\n\"The Hotel Eden\" was my first reading by Ron Carlson and I found him only due strictly to the fact that I read a rave review for his new book, \"The Signal\" and wound up getting this one instead.\n\nI love short stories and I have read several in the last few months, this book is right at the top as far as pure originality and stories that put you through the range of emotions. Ron Carlson could probably write about anything and make it so magical and interesting you couldn't put it down.\n\nThe book has twelve stories, all of which really, really impressed me. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of Mr. Carlson's short stories soon.\n\nthis outstanding collection includes:\n\nKeith - a great story about unexpected, unusual friendship\n(amazing story that has now been made into a movie)\n\nThe Prisoner of Bluestone - a man, a gas station and his ex wife (one of my favorites in the book, hard to describe without giving anything away)\n\nOxygen - a college student who takes a summer job as an oxygen delivery man, learns alot more about himself and the world\n\nDr. Slime - a man teamed up w/ his brothers actress girlfriend, are on a mission to find out where he's getting the money he's bringing home, why he's so bruised up and why their are so many pills over the house (one of those stories that doesn't quite make sense, then at a certain point, gives you that wonderful ah ha moment)\n\nA Note On The Type - a criminal on the run, learns about respect in an unusual way\n\nThe Chromium Hook - a spooky, yet very well crafted tale told by several different characters\n\nThe House Goes Up - a woman has an all too flawless plan to make things go her way, everytime w/ men\n\nWhat We Wanted To Do - they have a plan and its a good plan, but so far its just not working\n\nThe Hotel Eden - a young couple in London meet a new friend, who has all the wildest stories, all the right answers and knows all the right people/places, but who is he really\n\nZanduce At Second - a professional baseball player has killed eleven people now, by way of foul ball\n\nNightcap - a man has a fling, an unusual fling\n\nDown The Green River - a man and an old friend and her son take a journey down the river in a raft, only to face a hole in the raft and nudists\n\nI highly recommend this collection to anyone that likes short stories and great writing!"],"string":"[\n \"Product: MANAGEMENT is a romantic comedy that chronicles a chance meeting between Mike Cranshaw (Steve Zahn) and Sue Claussen (Jennifer Aniston). When Sue checks into the roadside motel owned by Mike's parents in Arizona, what starts with a bottle of wine \\\"compliments of MANAGEMENT\\\" soon evolves into a multi-layered, cross-country journey of two people looking for a sense of purpose. Mike, an aimless dreamer, bets it all on a trip to Sue's workplace in Maryland only to find that she has no place for him in her carefully ordered life. Buttoned down and obsessed with making a difference in the world, Sue goes back to her yogurt mogul ex-boyfriend Jango (Woody Harrelson), who promises her a chance to head his charity operations. But, having found something worth fighting for, Mike pits his hopes against Sue's practicality, and the two embark on a twisted, bumpy, freeing journey to discover that their place in the world just might be together.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A romantic comedy gem...\\n\\nReview: \\\"Management\\\" is a very quirky, fun and irresistible movie!\\n\\nA great cast - Steve Zahn <a data-hook=\\\"product-link-linked\\\" class=\\\"a-link-normal\\\" href=\\\"/National-Security/dp/B00008WI9O/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\\\">National Security</a>,<a data-hook=\\\"product-link-linked\\\" class=\\\"a-link-normal\\\" href=\\\"/Joy-Ride/dp/B00005UV34/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\\\">Joy Ride</a> and Jennifer Aniston <a data-hook=\\\"product-link-linked\\\" class=\\\"a-link-normal\\\" href=\\\"/The-Break-Up-Full-Screen-Edition/dp/B000HCPS8U/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\\\">The Break-Up (Full Screen Edition)</a>,<a data-hook=\\\"product-link-linked\\\" class=\\\"a-link-normal\\\" href=\\\"/Marley-and-Me-Single-Disc-Edition/dp/B001REZM6K/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\\\">Marley and Me (Single-Disc Edition)</a> team up for a fun time, the movie also stars Woody Harrelson <a data-hook=\\\"product-link-linked\\\" class=\\\"a-link-normal\\\" href=\\\"/Kingpin/dp/6305161860/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\\\">Kingpin</a> as Aniston's zany ex -boyfriend (Jango).\\n\\nIf your looking for a good movie to relax and have a few laughs, this is it. Zahn and Aniston really do have that certain chemistry in this movie and it shows.\\n\\nIf you debating on whether or not you want to watch this one, ignore the 3 or 4 bad reviews and listen to the many, many good ones here, its definitely worth your time.\\n\\nEnjoy~\",\n \"Product: Avatar is the story of ex-Marine Jake, a paraplegic war veteran, who finds himself thrust into hostilities on a distant planet filled with exotic life forms, Pandora. As an Avatar, a human consciousness in an alien body, he finds himself torn between two worlds in a desperate fight for his own survival and that of the indigenous people. Those from Earth find themselves at odds with each other and the local culture.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Absolutely amazing on blu-ray....\\n\\nReview: \\\"Avatar\\\" on Blu-ray is absolutely amazing, the picture is truly incredible! This movie is quite an experience the first time you see it.\\n\\nI own alot of Blu-rays, nothing comes close to this picture quality!\\n\\nAfter seeing the movie in 3-D in the theater, I knew the Blu-ray dvd version would be great. I was also happy with the fact, that although this version doesn't have all the bells and whistles (extra footage, special features and trailers) that the extended DVD versions due out later this year will have, the Blu-ray does come with a regular DVD. Which has been great for me, because I've been able to lend it out to my friends, so they can enjoy it along with their families. Personally I would not have wanted to wait until the end of the year to see \\\"Avatar\\\" again. This is the highest grossing movie ever, a worldwide phenomenon, if it turns out that the extended Blu-ray dvd is that much more amazing then this version, I'll buy it again.\\n\\nIf you haven't seen this unbelievable \\\"epic\\\" movie, do yourself a favor and watch it on Blu-ray ASAP!\\n\\n*** By the looks of reading the other reviews here, seems that some older Blu-ray player models cannot play \\\"Avatar\\\" without a firmware update. I do find that pretty ridiculous, not that the dvd requires an update of the Blu-ray player itself, but that they don't give consumers buying this at the store a fair warning. I would be extremely upset, if I purchased \\\"Avatar\\\" only to find out that I couldn't play it. This is noted at the top of Amazon's page however, good on them for that. My player is around six months old and had no issues playing the dvd. If your unsure, you may want to rent it first on Blu-ray!\\n\\n\\\"Avatar\\\" is the future of movies and I'm looking forward to more....\\n\\nEnjoy~\",\n \"Product: A 40-year-old housepainter named Dominick Birdsey, from a spectacularly dysfunctional family, is the narrator of this long novel about the search for self-acceptance. A \\\"New York Times\\\" Notable Book for 1998.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: The Journey of Life.....\\n\\nReview: Wow, I'm glad I finally discovered Wally Lamb!\\n\\n\\\"I Know This Much Is True\\\" is a great book. At a mammoth 897 pages, reading the book itself is a journey, as is the story of twins, Dominick & Thomas Birdsey.\\n\\nVery rewarding throughout, it puts you right there in the characters lives. Wally Lamb masterfully draws you in with each character and real life drama that is never sugar coated. Anyone can relate to someone in this book in your real life.\\n\\nIn my opinion, any book that can make you feel, really truly feel for the characters, is a masterpiece. Lamb's characters will have you on their side one minute and then you will be against them the next.\\n\\nAs another reviewer stated, this is one of those books that becomes part of your life for a while. For me that is absolutely true, I looked forwarding to reading it every night for the two weeks it took me to finish.\\n\\nA very, very well crafted plot and alot of surprises and unexpected outcomes in the end. As your reading this book, you'll naturally make alot of assumptions and have your own idea of whats going to happen next or at the end and Wally Lamb will leave you dumbfounded every time.\\n\\nA wonderful book, I know this much is true!\\n\\nAfter finishing \\\"I Know This Much Is True\\\", I'm looking forward to reading Wally's other novels, \\\"She's Come Undone\\\" & \\\"The Hour I First Believed\",\n \"Product: Ron Carlson teaches Creative Writing at Arizona State University. He is the author of six books of fiction: At the Jim Bridger (stories), The Hotel Eden (stories, Plan B for the Middle Class (stories), The News of the World (stories), Truants (novel), and Betrayed by F.Scott Fitzgerald (novel)\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Great stories, great writing....\\n\\nReview: an almost perfect collection of short stories...\\n\\n\\\"The Hotel Eden\\\" was my first reading by Ron Carlson and I found him only due strictly to the fact that I read a rave review for his new book, \\\"The Signal\\\" and wound up getting this one instead.\\n\\nI love short stories and I have read several in the last few months, this book is right at the top as far as pure originality and stories that put you through the range of emotions. Ron Carlson could probably write about anything and make it so magical and interesting you couldn't put it down.\\n\\nThe book has twelve stories, all of which really, really impressed me. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of Mr. Carlson's short stories soon.\\n\\nthis outstanding collection includes:\\n\\nKeith - a great story about unexpected, unusual friendship\\n(amazing story that has now been made into a movie)\\n\\nThe Prisoner of Bluestone - a man, a gas station and his ex wife (one of my favorites in the book, hard to describe without giving anything away)\\n\\nOxygen - a college student who takes a summer job as an oxygen delivery man, learns alot more about himself and the world\\n\\nDr. Slime - a man teamed up w/ his brothers actress girlfriend, are on a mission to find out where he's getting the money he's bringing home, why he's so bruised up and why their are so many pills over the house (one of those stories that doesn't quite make sense, then at a certain point, gives you that wonderful ah ha moment)\\n\\nA Note On The Type - a criminal on the run, learns about respect in an unusual way\\n\\nThe Chromium Hook - a spooky, yet very well crafted tale told by several different characters\\n\\nThe House Goes Up - a woman has an all too flawless plan to make things go her way, everytime w/ men\\n\\nWhat We Wanted To Do - they have a plan and its a good plan, but so far its just not working\\n\\nThe Hotel Eden - a young couple in London meet a new friend, who has all the wildest stories, all the right answers and knows all the right people/places, but who is he really\\n\\nZanduce At Second - a professional baseball player has killed eleven people now, by way of foul ball\\n\\nNightcap - a man has a fling, an unusual fling\\n\\nDown The Green River - a man and an old friend and her son take a journey down the river in a raft, only to face a hole in the raft and nudists\\n\\nI highly recommend this collection to anyone that likes short stories and great writing!\"\n]","isConversational":false},"profile_size":{"kind":"number","value":4,"string":"4"},"task":{"kind":"string","value":"longlamp_3"},"split_kind":{"kind":"string","value":"user_based"},"id":{"kind":"number","value":1681,"string":"1,681"}}},{"rowIdx":1682,"cells":{"question_id":{"kind":"string","value":"A24WUY5ENO7S0O"},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of \"5.0\" for a product with description \"Keep your valuable items close. Great for travel, outdoor activities, or shopping at the mall. Fastens securely to the waist with a 38 inch adjustable strap. Plenty of room to store valuables in 5 separate compartments featuring black zipper pulls and buckles. Water resistant, heavy-duty 600 Denier exterior in a tree camouflage design. Measures 15\" x 6\" x3-1/2\"\". The summary of the review text is \"You will wonder how you lived without it!\"."},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"Decided to go after this because I needed a great way to carry my DSLR when hiking and biking. The center pocket is roomy for my Fuji9800. Side pockets hold memory cards and spare batteries.\n\nNot really a fashion bug but this looks really good on me!\n\nKeeps all my photo gear within quick reach!\n\n`Great for long walks and hiking excursions....hands free!\n\nI also use it to go fishing in the backwoods and carry all my little fly boxes right in it.\n\nGreat for carrying a snack while hunting.\n\nI am a non-paid reviewer, and received this product for free or at a great discount for doing a fair and honest review. I only review items my readers would like to know more about."},"correct_answer":{"kind":"string","value":"Decided to go after this because I needed a great way to carry my DSLR when hiking and biking. The center pocket is roomy for my Fuji9800. Side pockets hold memory cards and spare batteries.\n\nNot really a fashion bug but this looks really good on me!\n\nKeeps all my photo gear within quick reach!\n\n`Great for long walks and hiking excursions....hands free!\n\nI also use it to go fishing in the backwoods and carry all my little fly boxes right in it.\n\nGreat for carrying a snack while hunting.\n\nI am a non-paid reviewer, and received this product for free or at a great discount for doing a fair and honest review. I only review items my readers would like to know more about."},"documents":{"kind":"list like","value":["Product: Sprouts Cold Remedy is a blend of herbs containing properties that help the body resist and kill unwanted foreign substances, preventing the virus from attacking cells. It boosts the immune system and keeps the virus from multiplying. It also helps the body expel mucus from the respiratory tract.\n\nThe ingredients and amounts of specific herbs is based on information from famous herbalists who have years of research to back their knowledge and observations. After an immense amount of research, testing and retesting, a final formula was created.\n\n\nStart taking the Sprouts Cold Remedy immediately at the onset of symptoms. Take one dropper 2-3 times daily. Chances are that within a few hours, you will forget that you even felt a cold coming on beforehand. \nIf cold symptoms are already present, start by taking one dropper immediately and then repeat every 4 hours. Symptoms should improve significantly within 24 hours.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Within the day I had relief......\n\nReview: Sprouts Voice Remedy/Cold Remedy Review\n\nSprouts Voice Remedy/Cold Remedy Review\n\n2015 Brent Reece\n\nOkay here is the long awaited eval on the sprouts Cold Remedy/Voice Remedy!!\n\nThere was and is a small glitch in the shipping date for Tomoson reviews. So I decided to just get all over it and get it posted. This herbal remedy is specifically tailored towards relief from sore throats and the common cold.\n\nIt contains the following herbal ingredients:\n\nEchinacea purpea herb, red root, green tea, elderberry, thyme herb, red clover herb, myrrh gum, mullein leaf, and ginger root. Bound together using natural Glycerin. With Deionized Water. Made from all KOSHER nutrients.\n\nWith my acid reflux I get a lot of sore throats and they are also a precursor to me for a bad cold that is trying to get a hold of me! Last week I had a cold coming on and used the drops as described. Within the day I had relief and continued daily treatment for about four more days!\n\nI love holistic medicine when it works!\n\nTo get your bottle to try and see if you can kick the medications. Follow this link to Amazon.com\n\nCopy and paste into your Browser:\n\nhttp://www.amazon.com/Sprouts-Remedy-Common-Throat-Congestion/dp/B007P63SCE/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1435606687&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=sproutscold+remedy+for+sore+throats+and+cold><span style=color:#0000ff; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;>http://www.amazon.com/Sprouts-Remedy-Common-Throat-Congestion/dp/B007P63SCE/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1435606687&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=sproutscold+remedy+for+sore+throats+and+cold\n\nI received a free product for this review. The opinions expressed here are my own and I was not compensated in any way for my review other than getting the product to test. All reviews are unbiased and fair. Meant solely for informing my readers on what is out there that interests them.\n\nBrent Reece(Northwoods Wanderings)\n\nRead more: http://www.skinnymoose.com/wanderings/2015/06/29/sprouts-voice-remedycold-remedy-review/#ixzz3eUzOpIKp","Product: This clip hanger is perfect for both hanging articles of clothing at home as well as a display to customers and prospective buyers. These hangers are suitable for jeans, scarves, coats and even boots. These clips are made from high grade stainless steel and thus are rust proof. The hooks ends have a non-slip grip by using additional tension grasp with gripping teeth that can keep the boot upright and prevent ugly creases. Simply hang the boots in the closet or on a pole. Despite being a reliable and incredibly durable hanger, the minimalist and low profile design makes it easy to transport and store away for future use. The attractive and stylish chrome finish adds an added sense of value to any garment being hung on the unit. These attributes make this clothing hanger perfect for use in closets, particularly with poles. This coat hanger is great value for money. In addition to the standard use cases, these hooks can be utilized in hundreds of other ways. Use it in your utility closet to hold a bag of rags instead of taking up precious space with a full size hanger. In your kitchen, hang the hook from an upper cabinet doorknob to suspend recipes at eye level and clear precious counter space, the uses are really endless. BOOT HOLDERS are designed to hang boots in the safest yet most space-efficient manner BOOT ORGANIZER is strong enough to hold the heaviest boots yet gentle enough to avoid crushing suede LAUNDRY CLIPS are portable and suitable for both indoor and outdoor use. CLIP HOOKS are a great way to organize your life. Use it in your home, RV, or while travelling BOOT HANGER allows you to use save time and money as more portable and space efficient METAL CLOTHESPINS that are crafted with the highest quality stainless steel that will not corrode\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: A truly great item for all homes!!\n\nReview: Awesome clips for hanging clothes, boots and in a pinch have used them to divide a tent with a blanket! Built to last for years and a great item for all laundry rooms and for all you RV nuts!! So many uses for these it is hard to just limit it to a couple ideas for this review!\n\nA campers best friend....because you never know when that sleeping bag is gonna need to dried out again! Get caught in the deluge once and these things will pay for themselves! As well as useful for a dozen other uses where that pop up all the time in the wilds camping.\n\nBoots/shoes/sneakers wet when you get home...hang them in the shower overnight to dry!\n\nA truly great item for all homes!!\n\nThis is an uncompensated review, all opinions are my own. Completely unbiased and honest evaluations are all I do.","Product: Sturdy 30m Waterproof Case Shoot underwater up to 30 meters,ideal for surfing, swimming or water skiing, diving. 2-inch HD Display & 140 Degree Lens Vtin waterproof action camcorder is easily to watch the video and picture with 2-inch screen. Capture the world in a lens with six high quality layers perspective ensuring nothing will be missed out. 11 FREE Items Many kinds of accessories that you can mount it on the bike, the surfboard, helmet, car and anywhere you want, shoot the very moment. High Quality Pictures & Videos ,which is the better version make better quality! Full HD video is up to 1080P@30fps,720p@60fps, 720p@30fps and pictures up to 12M Note: 1. Make sure you get a Class 6 or above Micro SD card with the storage at least 8G and at most 32G; 2. When you use the action cam for the first time, please make it fully charged for long lifespan. Specification: LCD Display: 2.0LTPS Lens: 170 wide angle filed of view Language:English/Deutsch/ Franais/ Espaol/ Italiano/ Portugus/P Storage: Micro SDHC,class 6 or above. Support storage 8G to 32G.(Micro SD card is not included) Battery Working Life:1080p/90min Accessories Included: 1 X waterproof case 1 X Back clip 1 X Hand Bar 1 X Mount 2 1 X Mount 3 1 X Helmet Mounts 1 X Battery 1 X Bandages 1 X USB cable 1 X User Manual\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: If you are looking for a fish finder that will work as hard and in as many places as you do.....this is it!!\n\nReview: Finally a fish finder sonar for those of us who fish in something other than a bass boat!\n\nAs an avid kayaker and canoeist, I love this unit!\n\nI now carry an extra pole for using it and can concentrate on fishing specific waters that are more productive.\n\nIt is awesome to be able to fish a deadwater up a back country mountain stream and know what the depth and temps are!\n\nTo be able to see fish in the blackwater is also equally amazing.\n\nTo use this and not have to buy a crap load of batteries s the coolest thing of all!\n\nI also use this in local rivers I plan on fly fishing to map out the deeper holes and channels!\n\nYesterday I tool it out and used it icefishing!\n\nIf you are looking for a fish finder that will work as hard and in as many places as you do.....this is it!!\n\nI am a non-paid reviewer, and received this product for free or at a great discount for doing a fair and honest review. I only review items my readers would like to know more about.","Product: This USB 3.0 DVD external hard drive Burner provides faster data transfer speed. This CD drive external USB is a perfect companion for laptops or computers without inbuilt hard drive or CD ROM. With this external DVD CD drive/ CD Burner, you can watch DVD movies, burn files, movies to a CD/DVD (DVD burning software not included, install software and create backup discs etc. easy to use this CD drive supports plug and play. Support Compact disc - CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-RAM, DVD-R DL, DVD DL, DVD-ROM product description this ultra slim External DVD read write adopted with USB 3.0 technology allows for faster data transfer speed than the external CD DVD drive USB 2.0 but it is compatible with USB 2.0 and USB 1.1 ports. 1. External DVD drive is tray loading external portable ODD Caddy which is suitable to USB 2.0/3.0 connector desktop or laptop. 2. Power consumption: 35W 3. Certification: RoHS, CE and FC certification this external DVD Burner have been tested to comply with FCC standards for home or office use Technical specification 1. Type: CD-RW/DVD-RW Burner/Writer/drive 2. Usb interface: USB 3.0 (backwards compatible with USB2.0&1.0) 3. Read speed: CD: 24x, dvd(double/single layer): 8x 4. Write speed: CD-R: 24x, CD-RW: 16x (us-rw), DVD+/-R: 8x, DVD double layer: Max.6x, DVD-RAM: 5x, DVD+RW: 8x, DVD-RW: 6x 5. External DVD drive product Dimensions): 6.7In*6.6In*1.1in 6. Net Weight: 12.8 ounces instructions for use 1. This external DVD drive has a data line interface that connects to USB port of the computer. On the computer screen on the lower right corner should appear external CD drive icon. 2. Click on the desktop, open the \"My computer\", in \"the mobile storage device should display the external DVD icon\" 3. Click on this icon button, select the \"pop\" In the tray into the appropriate disk read. Package include: 1x CD-RW/DVD-RW drive with USB 3.0 cable attached at the back and 1 user manual.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: If you are looking for a backup drive or an alternate drive for your computer. HERE IT IS!!\n\nReview: How many people still own laptops? I sure do!\n\nI am not a fan of the tablet alone as a computing/business communication device. I think a laptop gives you many more options and supports better communication and record keeping. What does that have to do with an external drive?\n\nWell if you buy anyone of a number of laptops still out there the poor internal drive is bound to be the first thing to start having issues. So as a precaution I prefer to rely on using an external drive unit inn deference to wearing out my laptop. Not to mention a lot of external drives like this enable you to use information your built in may not be able to.\n\nThis is a fully compatible DVD drive.....A CD/RW drive and also a DVD/RW drive! So it will allow you to use all the usual media! Your onboard drive may not accept all three.\n\nThis also facilitates copying data discs or \"Digital Business Cards\". Rather than making up DBC's and wasting discs I can burn copies at will of my master disc.\n\nI also do a lot of Graphics work and share my work with others who want their own disc of a joint project. These I can burn off as needed and not have to keep all these projects on my laptop for any period of time. I burn a master and then copy it using the external as the player and my internal as the burner.\n\nI should also note that this is a strictly plug and play drive so there are a lot more devices it can most likely connect to. I plan on trying it with an old laptop from decades back as a way to load games onto it for the grandbabies to play with. Curious as to see if it would useable with a tablet as a storage manager. A lot of good stuff on a tablet could be archived if burned to disc just like with a laptop.\n\nAll I can say is it works really well and has opened up a great many ways for me to save my work and share it on discs! If you are looking for a backup drive or an alternate drive for your computer. HERE IT IS!!\n\nI am a non-paid reviewer, and received this product for free or at a great discount for doing a fair and honest review. I only review items my readers would like to know more about.\n\nRead more reviews like this at: http://www.skinnymoose.com/wanderings","Product: We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Lots of Support for yourworkout!\n\nReview: AZPORT Waist Trimmer Belt\n2015 Brent Reece\n\nIf I looked anything like the model in the picture be assured I would not need this product. All of us aging outdoorsman need a little support when it comes to weightloss and working out!\n\nThe belt was easy to put on takle off and wore very well. It gave me great back support and aided my sweating just like it was suppose to. But I can honestly say I can see no difference after 3 weeks of wearing it.\n\nNot all weightloss is the same from person to person.\n\nProduct description:\n\nAZSPORT Waist Trimmer Your Portable Sauna Belt to Accelerate Weight Loss for a trimmer and toned ab!\n\nLooking good is the key to gaining self-confidence. But for many of us, one of the most annoying problems that keep us from being fabulously fit is the belly fat.\n\nEverybody dreams to have a much trimmer and toned tummy but the mid section flab has always been the hardest to go.\n\nLosing weight and a few inches in the waist is a struggle for both men and women.\n\nWaist trimmer belts are not just new concepts of fashion. With AZSPORT, exercise and proper diet,\n you can start to get rid of the stubborn belly fat and get so much more out of life.\n\nHere is how AZSPORT Waist Trimmer may help you:\n\nMaximize burn during Work Out by retaining body heat\n Accelerate weight loss\n Help shed off the excess water weight\n Trim and tone your tummy\n Support your lower back and abdominal muscles\n Help improve posture\n Enhance circulation in the abdominal area during exercise\n\nBuy yours on Amazon\n\nI received a free product for this review. The opinions expressed here are my own and I was not compensated in any way for my review other than getting the product to test. All reviews are unbiased and fair. Meant solely for informing my readers on what is out there that interests them.\n\n- Brent Reece(Northwoods Wanderings)\n\nRead more: http://www.skinnymoose.com/wanderings/#ixzz3dTL0MJKt","Product: Headache, skin irritations, and uncomfortable feeling are some of the problems brought by the heat, I know because I've experienced them all and I'm sure you've been as well, but you don't have to worry anymore because we brought you the super soft snap towel that you'll surely going to love! Benefits and How To Use: Soak the PVA Towels in warm water for first time use. This shammy towel can hold up moisture for such a long time even during intense heat Wring out the excess water Activate the cooling power of this running towel in a snap! When it gets dry, just soak the gym towel in cold water and it will be as cool as a cucumber again. You may put it on your head or your neck to experience the cooling sensation. This is ideal when you are out for exhausting activities as it relieves stress and heat. Soft and lightweight and can be brought when you are out on a trip. Just rinse the sports towels and place it in its storage tube. This super cold towel can be washed by machine or by hands. You may use it as: Gym Towel Camping Towel Gardening Towel Crossfit Towel Construction Towel Auto-maintenance Towel Pet Towel Baby Towel Zumba Towel And if you order today we have a special bonus just for you: A Bonus Rubber for additional comfort and stability and a Free Ebook \"How to Stay Cool on a Hot Scorching Day\" that includes the easiest way on how to stay cool during intense sunny day!! What is your risk? Nothing! If you are not happy with our product we will refund 100% Money-Back Guarantee! Don't Take Our Word for It! You Will Surely Love Our Divlor Breakthrough Cooling Towel! CLICK THE \"ADD TO CART\" BUTTON ABOVE TO START TO FEEL AS COOL AS A CUCUMBER! GET IT WHILE IT'S IN STOCK!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: I can say without hesitation that this works!! Buy one...use it!! Try to prove me wrong!!\n\nReview: \"Stay Cool as a Cucumber\" is what the package said.\n\nWell I can honestly say it does just that!\n\nHere in Maine we have a yearly tradition called \"haying\". That's where you mow and bail Timothy Hay for your domestic critters to eat over the coming months, and on through the winter. The haying is done in the Heat of August!! This work truly defines the term DOG DAYS OF AUGUST. It is hot and miserable work.\n\nThis cooling towel was the hit of the mow and bail that day as I shared it around with the crew. The younger members were \"bullet proof\" and cared not to try the towel at all at first. But by 2:00pm they were interested. We all had the chance to try it. Reactivating it between swaps so each user got it at it's coolest from the ice water in the cooler.\n\nI can say without hesitation that this works!! Buy one...use it!! Try to prove me wrong!!\n\nI am a non-paid reviewer, and received this product for doing a fair and honest review. I only review items my readers would like to know more about.\n\nRead more reviews like this at: http://www.skinnymoose.com/wanderings","Product: Welcome to Cooler LED Flashlight Amazon Page. can bottle stubby holder - can bottle stubby cooler Designed for: Party's, boating, camping, fishing, sports, nightlife, outdoors, fun and safety. High powered multi LED lights and top quality fully stitched neoprene coolers. Also including smaller insert coolers for thin bottles and cans plus carry/storage bag. and please also \"LIKE US\" on facebook. - These are the \"COOLEST\" drinks ever, it's the future right NOW! - Night time drinks look and are awesome when illuminated with Cooler Torch. - Be the life of the party with our visually entertaining and \"cool\" drink accessory that will be a hit at parties, clubs, concerts, pubs, private functions, camping, fishing, BBQ's, weddings, festivals, New Years Eve and more. - Stand out from the crowd with Custom Design Cooler Torch and Beam Party Coolers. Fun, fishing, hunting, camping, party - Glowing drinks rock with, Cooler Torch and Beams. - Fun Camping, Fishing and Hunting - Cooler Torch Beams-Light Up Bottles. - A Powerful (White, Green, Flashing Red Beam). - Our CoolerTorch fits perfect for larger bottles and we included a smaller size cup insert for smaller drink sizes. There are 9 LED lights inside the cooler base with RED, WHITE and GREEN bright LED lights. Also included is your purpose made beautiful draw string bag for your cooler flash light, We hope you enjoy the product. for Outdoors Fishing Camping Hiking Sports Parties and Events. And lastly I should mention that our Cooler Flashlight Torch includes, all the required batteries, and a special insert to accommodate small diameter drink bottles and comes with a purpose made beautiful draw string bag. ++Flask. After you Water Filter H2O prove that's its cleaner Illuminate it in our CoolerTorch\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Have fun with your entertaining and add a Cool KOOZIE FLASHLIGHT to the mix. It will make you a standout in the crowd!\n\nReview: Now this is a cool idea!!\n\nThink about it you are at a party and set down your beer and go to the restroom and come back. There are three beers sitting where yours was....which is yours? Do you really want to chance drinking after someone?\n\nBring in the Koozie.....your beer stands out in the crowd!\n\nYou can go with a green glow like me...or pink and purple or standard black with white light. Beer getting low? Switch to flashing red and let your host know you are about to go dry! Wanna set a mood switch to white and the area around you and your beer is a bathed in a whitish glow with a beverage tint.\n\nIf you are wine drinker always let your guests know where the freshest wine is sitting by putting it in the Koozie and the glowing beverage will guide them to a second glass. There are a multitude of fun uses for it.\n\nWish they had this back in my party days!!\n\nHave fun with your entertaining and add a Cool KOOZIE FLASHLIGHT to the mix. It will make you a standout in the crowd!\n\nI am a non-paid reviewer, and received this product for free or at a great discount for doing a fair and honest review. I only review items my readers would like to know more about.\n\nRead more reviews like this at: http://www.skinnymoose.com/wanderings","Product: Crafted in a vibrant red with a shiny gold lid, theClassic Safari Shotgun Shell Style Stainless Steel Vacuum Bottle is perfect for the hunter or outdoor lover in your life. This water bottle features a T304 stainless steel liner, double wall construction, one-touch stopper, and a brushed finish screw-down cap. This product comes in a gift boxed. Type: Water BottlesAssembledColor: RedDimensions: 11.5 inches tall x 3.9 inches in diameter\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Its a freaking 12 gauge shot shell thermos!\n\nReview: Maxam Classic Safari Shotgun Shell Style 33.8oz (1l) Stainless Steel Vacuum Bottle\n2016 Brent Reece\n\nClassic Safari Shotgun Shell Style 33.8oz\n\nProduct Info:\n Features T304 stainless steel liner, double wall construction, one-touch stopper, and brushed finish screw-down cap. Measures 11-1/2 tall, 3-7/8 in diameter. Limited lifetime warranty. Gift boxed\n\nThe Review:\n\nCome on really? Look at it!!\n\nIts a freaking 12 gauge shot shell thermos!\n\nWhat could be cooler than that!!\n\nIt really works..and does so, very well!!\n\nMaxam has done very well here and I love this for my daily coffee and have used it twice for some good New England Chowder to go to work with me!!\n\nGet yours at : Amazon\n\nDefinitely a 5 star product!!\n *****\n\nI am a non-paid reviewer; I receive products for free or at extreme discounts solely to do an honest and unbiased review on! The opinions expressed here are solely my own.\n\nRead more: [...]","Product: Fire up that grill this summer and use the KOVOT BBQ Grill Kabob Set to impress your guests with perfectly grilled kabobs. Included are two kabob cages that hold all those delicious ingredients in place so you wont lose that onion chunk or piece of steak to the fiery depths of your grill any more! The set also comes with a brush so you can baste your kabobs for maximum taste. These are made of stainless steel construction with a wood handle. Kabob holders measure at 17 x 2 x 2\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Now here comes these cool HOLDERS, that do away with the skewer all together! THE SKEWER IS DEAD!\n\nReview: KOVOT BBQ Kabob Holders\n 2016 Brent Reece\n\nIs there anything better than a great kabob fresh off the Grill?\n\nGranted the whole business with the skewers can be a real drag unless you have the stainless steel variety. Soaking wooden skewers is complete foolishness. Thereby forego that and go to metal skewers at first step. Be sure to do 2 per person or you will catch heck from someone. 2 per person along with the odd other BBQ throw ons will be more than enough for most.\n\nNow here comes these cool HOLDERS, that do away with the skewer all together!\n\nTHE SKEWER IS DEAD!\n\nGet all of the goodness of BBQ and none of the frustration of skewers! The meat and veggies rest comfortably and securely inside these handy handled Cages of tastyness!\n\nWhen you use one they clean up very easily!\n\nRead This:\n\n Stainless Steel Construction With Wood Handles\n Two Kabob Cages That Hold All Those Delicious Ingredients In Place So You Wont Lose That Onion Chunk Or Piece Of Steak To The Fiery Depths Of Your Grill Any More\n A Brush Is Included So You Can Baste Your Kabobs For Maximum Taste\n Kabob Holders Measure at 18 x 2 x 2\n\nConclusion:\n\nIf you are like me and love your food on the grill you need these to add a new dimension in grilling. No more sticks or skewers to fiddle with.\n\nSeriously Have you ever wondered what the next evolution in fine grilling was going to be? This is it! Skewerless KABOBS!!\n\nGet Yours at: Amazon\n\nI am an unpaid Reviewer who receives items for free or at extreme discount. To give an honest and objective review. All opinions are my own!\n\nRead more: [...]","Product: A responsible dog owner always tries to do the right thing. They keep their dogs as their children so they wont let that annoying situation happens, such as barks your neighbors or howls at the midnight. And the MOTOSOX bark collar is the selection of thousands of responsible dog keepers. It can correct your dog's wrong behavior within a short period at your comfortable home! With 5 level of beep vibration training and harmless shock training. Automatic self-protective mode protects your dog from punishment of mis-trigger. Simple design makes it easier to use. The adjustable fiber collar is suitable for all dogs. Rechargeable: A single charge can last for 14 days. Rainproof materials allow your dog to release their nature in the rain. SPECIFICATIONS Weight: 2 ounces Color: black Size: 53.42.8 cm Suitable for dogs: aged over 2 months, weight over 30kg. Power: 10-12 V (its safe but not recommended for 24 hours) PACKAGE INCLUDED 1 x Receiver 1 x Adjustable belt 2 x Long shock electrodes 2 x Short shock electrodes 1 x USB charging cable 1 x Test light bulb 1 x Manual\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: I am so convinced that Cujo Control makes the best gear in this arena,will not ever feature any other company on my sight.\n\nReview: Cujo Control cc 810 Remote Dog Training Collar\n2016 Brent Reece\n\nThis is Rossie.hes a four year old Border Collie. He hates walking on a leash!\n\nHe is prone to distractions from passing cars and OMGhe hates motorcycles!!\n\nHere he s pulling sideways wickedly!!\n\nOnce the collar was on and he was educated to it we were able to use vibration and alert noises to curtail most of his anxious behaviors. We only had to tingle him once or twice before he understood he had to stop pulling so hard and had to stay focused on walking on the lead with us.\n\nThe change was quite dramatic!\n\nWe were easily able to get him to walk on the left, the standard way dogs are trained. Plus we positively reinforced his great behaviors, and severely limited the use of the collar. The collar has sound..vibration.and shock. Using the latter as sparingly as possible insures that it is that much more effective when used. Rossie learned very quickly vibration was the same as NO! Sounds and a verbal NO was more severe. No and a tingle was OMG!!!! NO!!!\n\nNo matter what he started to do if I hit the vibration he would usually stop. But from time to time his nose would draw him to disobey the heal and vibration became sound.a warning that tingle was pending. That immediately worked in his mind inside of 24 hours of the first use! Motorcycles twice got him tingled before he stopped reacting to them going by.\n\nHe actually strives to do as asked out of love, and enjoys floor time with lots of scratching and belly rubs. He has become an extremely obedient child in a fur coat in my house. I know it was in part do to the great gear we used from CUJO CONTROL. Rossie will be an ongoing project because he was rescued just a short time ago and hes 4 years old. By now he has figured out most of the things in life he sees in a normal day. Leashes were not on that list until he came here. I am hoping to take him to the park in a few months and play catch with him off lead. Right now I am too leery of his running streak to take that chance. We are buying a new house this summer and will build him a run outside so he can stay off the lead as much as possible. I am laying the foundation of trust with him everyday and the Cujo collar assists this by controlling his negative behaviors. The commands still come from us and he is doing amazingly well with them. But all things take time to actually modify.\n\nProduct information:\n TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR DOG With your new Cujo Control LCD Remote Dog Training Collar, you will have the ability to train any breed and all dogs 10 to 200 pounds. Your rainrpoof shock collar has 16 sensitivity settings and correction levels for vibration and static shock, plus a beep sound mode.\n EASY TO USE Our professional grade water-resistant receiver and collar/transmitter fits all dogs. The ingenious design with improved microchip makes it super easy to operate and train any dog, small, medium, or large. The high quality and adjustable collar provides the perfect comfort fit for your pet.\n PREVENT ACCIDENTS AND UNSAFE SITUATIONS Your durable electric e-collar can keep your dog from running in the street, or fighting with other animals and boasts an ultra range over 330 yards.\n BASIC OBEDIENCE TRAINING From sit and shake, to stay and heal, your weatherproof remote device does it all. The remote has a blue backlight for low light condition viewing. It also has a power saving feature to save on battery life and improve your convenience of operation.\n\nWhere to get yous: AMAZON\n\nI am so convinced that Cujo Control makes the best gear in this arena. I will not ever feature any other company on this sight. If you desire more reviews feel free to follow the Amazon link and cross reference the competition. But before you doread all the reviews on the CC810 first!!\n\nI am a non-paid reviewer, and received this product for free or at a great discount for doing a fair and honest review. I only review items my readers would like to know more about.\n\nRead more:[...]","Product: Ohuhu\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Ohuhu has designed and built a very competitive product for this challenging market!\n\nReview: Swat Bipodwhen accuracy counts!\n2016 Brent Reece\n\nBipods are often used in Predator hunting to support the forend for longer shots at smaller targets.\n\nBasic Military position for distance shooting is the prone!!\n\n Product Info:\n\nProduct Description\n Ohuhu s Tactical OP/SWAT Bipod is a handy, accuracy-enhancing accessory for your rifle!\n\nMade with durable, high quality aluminum, rubber feet for a firm grip. It also includes dual mounts Picatinny and Swivel Stud Mounts! It is simple to install and set up and equipped with posi-locks for extra stability.\n For the perfect shots and angles, simply adjustable the extendable legs to the height of your desire, with adjustable height from 6.5 to 7.0 inches. When not in use, fold the arms and take it on the go!\n\nSpecifications:\n -Material: Aluminum\n -Mount: Picatinny and Swivel Stud Mounts\n -Adjustable Height: 6.5 to 7.0 inches\n -Weight: 9.2 oz /260g\n -Package Demission: 6.7 x 3.2 x 2.4inch / 17 x 8 x 6cm\n\nPackage Includes:\n -1 x Ohuhu Bipod\n -1 x Swivel Stud Mount\n\nConclusion:\n\nAs an avid shooter I have had several bipods and this one is the equal or better of the group! I would put this one up against a Harris bipod and know it was cheaper and shot just as well!!\n\nOhuhu has designed and built a very competitive product for this challenging market! It is light but very solid and mounts very easily via the sling stud. The bolt through mount secures the base to the gun. Then the bipod attaches via a picatinny rail built into the stud mount! All elements are solid and no rattles or noises were heard to detract or interfere with a hunt!!\n\nAnyone who bench shoots will want of these! Creates that 3 point rest most shooters prefer to use for accurate shooting at the range!\n Who needs sandbags?\n\nGet Yours here: AMAZON\n\nI am a non-paid reviewer; I receive products for free or at extreme discounts solely to do an honest and unbiased review on! The opinions expressed here are solely my own.\n\nRead more: [...]"],"string":"[\n \"Product: Sprouts Cold Remedy is a blend of herbs containing properties that help the body resist and kill unwanted foreign substances, preventing the virus from attacking cells. It boosts the immune system and keeps the virus from multiplying. It also helps the body expel mucus from the respiratory tract.\\n\\nThe ingredients and amounts of specific herbs is based on information from famous herbalists who have years of research to back their knowledge and observations. After an immense amount of research, testing and retesting, a final formula was created.\\n\\n\\nStart taking the Sprouts Cold Remedy immediately at the onset of symptoms. Take one dropper 2-3 times daily. Chances are that within a few hours, you will forget that you even felt a cold coming on beforehand. \\nIf cold symptoms are already present, start by taking one dropper immediately and then repeat every 4 hours. Symptoms should improve significantly within 24 hours.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Within the day I had relief......\\n\\nReview: Sprouts Voice Remedy/Cold Remedy Review\\n\\nSprouts Voice Remedy/Cold Remedy Review\\n\\n2015 Brent Reece\\n\\nOkay here is the long awaited eval on the sprouts Cold Remedy/Voice Remedy!!\\n\\nThere was and is a small glitch in the shipping date for Tomoson reviews. So I decided to just get all over it and get it posted. This herbal remedy is specifically tailored towards relief from sore throats and the common cold.\\n\\nIt contains the following herbal ingredients:\\n\\nEchinacea purpea herb, red root, green tea, elderberry, thyme herb, red clover herb, myrrh gum, mullein leaf, and ginger root. Bound together using natural Glycerin. With Deionized Water. Made from all KOSHER nutrients.\\n\\nWith my acid reflux I get a lot of sore throats and they are also a precursor to me for a bad cold that is trying to get a hold of me! Last week I had a cold coming on and used the drops as described. Within the day I had relief and continued daily treatment for about four more days!\\n\\nI love holistic medicine when it works!\\n\\nTo get your bottle to try and see if you can kick the medications. Follow this link to Amazon.com\\n\\nCopy and paste into your Browser:\\n\\nhttp://www.amazon.com/Sprouts-Remedy-Common-Throat-Congestion/dp/B007P63SCE/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1435606687&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=sproutscold+remedy+for+sore+throats+and+cold><span style=color:#0000ff; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;>http://www.amazon.com/Sprouts-Remedy-Common-Throat-Congestion/dp/B007P63SCE/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1435606687&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=sproutscold+remedy+for+sore+throats+and+cold\\n\\nI received a free product for this review. The opinions expressed here are my own and I was not compensated in any way for my review other than getting the product to test. All reviews are unbiased and fair. Meant solely for informing my readers on what is out there that interests them.\\n\\nBrent Reece(Northwoods Wanderings)\\n\\nRead more: http://www.skinnymoose.com/wanderings/2015/06/29/sprouts-voice-remedycold-remedy-review/#ixzz3eUzOpIKp\",\n \"Product: This clip hanger is perfect for both hanging articles of clothing at home as well as a display to customers and prospective buyers. These hangers are suitable for jeans, scarves, coats and even boots. These clips are made from high grade stainless steel and thus are rust proof. The hooks ends have a non-slip grip by using additional tension grasp with gripping teeth that can keep the boot upright and prevent ugly creases. Simply hang the boots in the closet or on a pole. Despite being a reliable and incredibly durable hanger, the minimalist and low profile design makes it easy to transport and store away for future use. The attractive and stylish chrome finish adds an added sense of value to any garment being hung on the unit. These attributes make this clothing hanger perfect for use in closets, particularly with poles. This coat hanger is great value for money. In addition to the standard use cases, these hooks can be utilized in hundreds of other ways. Use it in your utility closet to hold a bag of rags instead of taking up precious space with a full size hanger. In your kitchen, hang the hook from an upper cabinet doorknob to suspend recipes at eye level and clear precious counter space, the uses are really endless. BOOT HOLDERS are designed to hang boots in the safest yet most space-efficient manner BOOT ORGANIZER is strong enough to hold the heaviest boots yet gentle enough to avoid crushing suede LAUNDRY CLIPS are portable and suitable for both indoor and outdoor use. CLIP HOOKS are a great way to organize your life. Use it in your home, RV, or while travelling BOOT HANGER allows you to use save time and money as more portable and space efficient METAL CLOTHESPINS that are crafted with the highest quality stainless steel that will not corrode\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A truly great item for all homes!!\\n\\nReview: Awesome clips for hanging clothes, boots and in a pinch have used them to divide a tent with a blanket! Built to last for years and a great item for all laundry rooms and for all you RV nuts!! So many uses for these it is hard to just limit it to a couple ideas for this review!\\n\\nA campers best friend....because you never know when that sleeping bag is gonna need to dried out again! Get caught in the deluge once and these things will pay for themselves! As well as useful for a dozen other uses where that pop up all the time in the wilds camping.\\n\\nBoots/shoes/sneakers wet when you get home...hang them in the shower overnight to dry!\\n\\nA truly great item for all homes!!\\n\\nThis is an uncompensated review, all opinions are my own. Completely unbiased and honest evaluations are all I do.\",\n \"Product: Sturdy 30m Waterproof Case Shoot underwater up to 30 meters,ideal for surfing, swimming or water skiing, diving. 2-inch HD Display & 140 Degree Lens Vtin waterproof action camcorder is easily to watch the video and picture with 2-inch screen. Capture the world in a lens with six high quality layers perspective ensuring nothing will be missed out. 11 FREE Items Many kinds of accessories that you can mount it on the bike, the surfboard, helmet, car and anywhere you want, shoot the very moment. High Quality Pictures & Videos ,which is the better version make better quality! Full HD video is up to 1080P@30fps,720p@60fps, 720p@30fps and pictures up to 12M Note: 1. Make sure you get a Class 6 or above Micro SD card with the storage at least 8G and at most 32G; 2. When you use the action cam for the first time, please make it fully charged for long lifespan. Specification: LCD Display: 2.0LTPS Lens: 170 wide angle filed of view Language:English/Deutsch/ Franais/ Espaol/ Italiano/ Portugus/P Storage: Micro SDHC,class 6 or above. Support storage 8G to 32G.(Micro SD card is not included) Battery Working Life:1080p/90min Accessories Included: 1 X waterproof case 1 X Back clip 1 X Hand Bar 1 X Mount 2 1 X Mount 3 1 X Helmet Mounts 1 X Battery 1 X Bandages 1 X USB cable 1 X User Manual\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: If you are looking for a fish finder that will work as hard and in as many places as you do.....this is it!!\\n\\nReview: Finally a fish finder sonar for those of us who fish in something other than a bass boat!\\n\\nAs an avid kayaker and canoeist, I love this unit!\\n\\nI now carry an extra pole for using it and can concentrate on fishing specific waters that are more productive.\\n\\nIt is awesome to be able to fish a deadwater up a back country mountain stream and know what the depth and temps are!\\n\\nTo be able to see fish in the blackwater is also equally amazing.\\n\\nTo use this and not have to buy a crap load of batteries s the coolest thing of all!\\n\\nI also use this in local rivers I plan on fly fishing to map out the deeper holes and channels!\\n\\nYesterday I tool it out and used it icefishing!\\n\\nIf you are looking for a fish finder that will work as hard and in as many places as you do.....this is it!!\\n\\nI am a non-paid reviewer, and received this product for free or at a great discount for doing a fair and honest review. I only review items my readers would like to know more about.\",\n \"Product: This USB 3.0 DVD external hard drive Burner provides faster data transfer speed. This CD drive external USB is a perfect companion for laptops or computers without inbuilt hard drive or CD ROM. With this external DVD CD drive/ CD Burner, you can watch DVD movies, burn files, movies to a CD/DVD (DVD burning software not included, install software and create backup discs etc. easy to use this CD drive supports plug and play. Support Compact disc - CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-RAM, DVD-R DL, DVD DL, DVD-ROM product description this ultra slim External DVD read write adopted with USB 3.0 technology allows for faster data transfer speed than the external CD DVD drive USB 2.0 but it is compatible with USB 2.0 and USB 1.1 ports. 1. External DVD drive is tray loading external portable ODD Caddy which is suitable to USB 2.0/3.0 connector desktop or laptop. 2. Power consumption: 35W 3. Certification: RoHS, CE and FC certification this external DVD Burner have been tested to comply with FCC standards for home or office use Technical specification 1. Type: CD-RW/DVD-RW Burner/Writer/drive 2. Usb interface: USB 3.0 (backwards compatible with USB2.0&1.0) 3. Read speed: CD: 24x, dvd(double/single layer): 8x 4. Write speed: CD-R: 24x, CD-RW: 16x (us-rw), DVD+/-R: 8x, DVD double layer: Max.6x, DVD-RAM: 5x, DVD+RW: 8x, DVD-RW: 6x 5. External DVD drive product Dimensions): 6.7In*6.6In*1.1in 6. Net Weight: 12.8 ounces instructions for use 1. This external DVD drive has a data line interface that connects to USB port of the computer. On the computer screen on the lower right corner should appear external CD drive icon. 2. Click on the desktop, open the \\\"My computer\\\", in \\\"the mobile storage device should display the external DVD icon\\\" 3. Click on this icon button, select the \\\"pop\\\" In the tray into the appropriate disk read. Package include: 1x CD-RW/DVD-RW drive with USB 3.0 cable attached at the back and 1 user manual.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: If you are looking for a backup drive or an alternate drive for your computer. HERE IT IS!!\\n\\nReview: How many people still own laptops? I sure do!\\n\\nI am not a fan of the tablet alone as a computing/business communication device. I think a laptop gives you many more options and supports better communication and record keeping. What does that have to do with an external drive?\\n\\nWell if you buy anyone of a number of laptops still out there the poor internal drive is bound to be the first thing to start having issues. So as a precaution I prefer to rely on using an external drive unit inn deference to wearing out my laptop. Not to mention a lot of external drives like this enable you to use information your built in may not be able to.\\n\\nThis is a fully compatible DVD drive.....A CD/RW drive and also a DVD/RW drive! So it will allow you to use all the usual media! Your onboard drive may not accept all three.\\n\\nThis also facilitates copying data discs or \\\"Digital Business Cards\\\". Rather than making up DBC's and wasting discs I can burn copies at will of my master disc.\\n\\nI also do a lot of Graphics work and share my work with others who want their own disc of a joint project. These I can burn off as needed and not have to keep all these projects on my laptop for any period of time. I burn a master and then copy it using the external as the player and my internal as the burner.\\n\\nI should also note that this is a strictly plug and play drive so there are a lot more devices it can most likely connect to. I plan on trying it with an old laptop from decades back as a way to load games onto it for the grandbabies to play with. Curious as to see if it would useable with a tablet as a storage manager. A lot of good stuff on a tablet could be archived if burned to disc just like with a laptop.\\n\\nAll I can say is it works really well and has opened up a great many ways for me to save my work and share it on discs! If you are looking for a backup drive or an alternate drive for your computer. HERE IT IS!!\\n\\nI am a non-paid reviewer, and received this product for free or at a great discount for doing a fair and honest review. I only review items my readers would like to know more about.\\n\\nRead more reviews like this at: http://www.skinnymoose.com/wanderings\",\n \"Product: We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Lots of Support for yourworkout!\\n\\nReview: AZPORT Waist Trimmer Belt\\n2015 Brent Reece\\n\\nIf I looked anything like the model in the picture be assured I would not need this product. All of us aging outdoorsman need a little support when it comes to weightloss and working out!\\n\\nThe belt was easy to put on takle off and wore very well. It gave me great back support and aided my sweating just like it was suppose to. But I can honestly say I can see no difference after 3 weeks of wearing it.\\n\\nNot all weightloss is the same from person to person.\\n\\nProduct description:\\n\\nAZSPORT Waist Trimmer Your Portable Sauna Belt to Accelerate Weight Loss for a trimmer and toned ab!\\n\\nLooking good is the key to gaining self-confidence. But for many of us, one of the most annoying problems that keep us from being fabulously fit is the belly fat.\\n\\nEverybody dreams to have a much trimmer and toned tummy but the mid section flab has always been the hardest to go.\\n\\nLosing weight and a few inches in the waist is a struggle for both men and women.\\n\\nWaist trimmer belts are not just new concepts of fashion. With AZSPORT, exercise and proper diet,\\n you can start to get rid of the stubborn belly fat and get so much more out of life.\\n\\nHere is how AZSPORT Waist Trimmer may help you:\\n\\nMaximize burn during Work Out by retaining body heat\\n Accelerate weight loss\\n Help shed off the excess water weight\\n Trim and tone your tummy\\n Support your lower back and abdominal muscles\\n Help improve posture\\n Enhance circulation in the abdominal area during exercise\\n\\nBuy yours on Amazon\\n\\nI received a free product for this review. The opinions expressed here are my own and I was not compensated in any way for my review other than getting the product to test. All reviews are unbiased and fair. Meant solely for informing my readers on what is out there that interests them.\\n\\n- Brent Reece(Northwoods Wanderings)\\n\\nRead more: http://www.skinnymoose.com/wanderings/#ixzz3dTL0MJKt\",\n \"Product: Headache, skin irritations, and uncomfortable feeling are some of the problems brought by the heat, I know because I've experienced them all and I'm sure you've been as well, but you don't have to worry anymore because we brought you the super soft snap towel that you'll surely going to love! Benefits and How To Use: Soak the PVA Towels in warm water for first time use. This shammy towel can hold up moisture for such a long time even during intense heat Wring out the excess water Activate the cooling power of this running towel in a snap! When it gets dry, just soak the gym towel in cold water and it will be as cool as a cucumber again. You may put it on your head or your neck to experience the cooling sensation. This is ideal when you are out for exhausting activities as it relieves stress and heat. Soft and lightweight and can be brought when you are out on a trip. Just rinse the sports towels and place it in its storage tube. This super cold towel can be washed by machine or by hands. You may use it as: Gym Towel Camping Towel Gardening Towel Crossfit Towel Construction Towel Auto-maintenance Towel Pet Towel Baby Towel Zumba Towel And if you order today we have a special bonus just for you: A Bonus Rubber for additional comfort and stability and a Free Ebook \\\"How to Stay Cool on a Hot Scorching Day\\\" that includes the easiest way on how to stay cool during intense sunny day!! What is your risk? Nothing! If you are not happy with our product we will refund 100% Money-Back Guarantee! Don't Take Our Word for It! You Will Surely Love Our Divlor Breakthrough Cooling Towel! CLICK THE \\\"ADD TO CART\\\" BUTTON ABOVE TO START TO FEEL AS COOL AS A CUCUMBER! GET IT WHILE IT'S IN STOCK!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: I can say without hesitation that this works!! Buy one...use it!! Try to prove me wrong!!\\n\\nReview: \\\"Stay Cool as a Cucumber\\\" is what the package said.\\n\\nWell I can honestly say it does just that!\\n\\nHere in Maine we have a yearly tradition called \\\"haying\\\". That's where you mow and bail Timothy Hay for your domestic critters to eat over the coming months, and on through the winter. The haying is done in the Heat of August!! This work truly defines the term DOG DAYS OF AUGUST. It is hot and miserable work.\\n\\nThis cooling towel was the hit of the mow and bail that day as I shared it around with the crew. The younger members were \\\"bullet proof\\\" and cared not to try the towel at all at first. But by 2:00pm they were interested. We all had the chance to try it. Reactivating it between swaps so each user got it at it's coolest from the ice water in the cooler.\\n\\nI can say without hesitation that this works!! Buy one...use it!! Try to prove me wrong!!\\n\\nI am a non-paid reviewer, and received this product for doing a fair and honest review. I only review items my readers would like to know more about.\\n\\nRead more reviews like this at: http://www.skinnymoose.com/wanderings\",\n \"Product: Welcome to Cooler LED Flashlight Amazon Page. can bottle stubby holder - can bottle stubby cooler Designed for: Party's, boating, camping, fishing, sports, nightlife, outdoors, fun and safety. High powered multi LED lights and top quality fully stitched neoprene coolers. Also including smaller insert coolers for thin bottles and cans plus carry/storage bag. and please also \\\"LIKE US\\\" on facebook. - These are the \\\"COOLEST\\\" drinks ever, it's the future right NOW! - Night time drinks look and are awesome when illuminated with Cooler Torch. - Be the life of the party with our visually entertaining and \\\"cool\\\" drink accessory that will be a hit at parties, clubs, concerts, pubs, private functions, camping, fishing, BBQ's, weddings, festivals, New Years Eve and more. - Stand out from the crowd with Custom Design Cooler Torch and Beam Party Coolers. Fun, fishing, hunting, camping, party - Glowing drinks rock with, Cooler Torch and Beams. - Fun Camping, Fishing and Hunting - Cooler Torch Beams-Light Up Bottles. - A Powerful (White, Green, Flashing Red Beam). - Our CoolerTorch fits perfect for larger bottles and we included a smaller size cup insert for smaller drink sizes. There are 9 LED lights inside the cooler base with RED, WHITE and GREEN bright LED lights. Also included is your purpose made beautiful draw string bag for your cooler flash light, We hope you enjoy the product. for Outdoors Fishing Camping Hiking Sports Parties and Events. And lastly I should mention that our Cooler Flashlight Torch includes, all the required batteries, and a special insert to accommodate small diameter drink bottles and comes with a purpose made beautiful draw string bag. ++Flask. After you Water Filter H2O prove that's its cleaner Illuminate it in our CoolerTorch\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Have fun with your entertaining and add a Cool KOOZIE FLASHLIGHT to the mix. It will make you a standout in the crowd!\\n\\nReview: Now this is a cool idea!!\\n\\nThink about it you are at a party and set down your beer and go to the restroom and come back. There are three beers sitting where yours was....which is yours? Do you really want to chance drinking after someone?\\n\\nBring in the Koozie.....your beer stands out in the crowd!\\n\\nYou can go with a green glow like me...or pink and purple or standard black with white light. Beer getting low? Switch to flashing red and let your host know you are about to go dry! Wanna set a mood switch to white and the area around you and your beer is a bathed in a whitish glow with a beverage tint.\\n\\nIf you are wine drinker always let your guests know where the freshest wine is sitting by putting it in the Koozie and the glowing beverage will guide them to a second glass. There are a multitude of fun uses for it.\\n\\nWish they had this back in my party days!!\\n\\nHave fun with your entertaining and add a Cool KOOZIE FLASHLIGHT to the mix. It will make you a standout in the crowd!\\n\\nI am a non-paid reviewer, and received this product for free or at a great discount for doing a fair and honest review. I only review items my readers would like to know more about.\\n\\nRead more reviews like this at: http://www.skinnymoose.com/wanderings\",\n \"Product: Crafted in a vibrant red with a shiny gold lid, theClassic Safari Shotgun Shell Style Stainless Steel Vacuum Bottle is perfect for the hunter or outdoor lover in your life. This water bottle features a T304 stainless steel liner, double wall construction, one-touch stopper, and a brushed finish screw-down cap. This product comes in a gift boxed. Type: Water BottlesAssembledColor: RedDimensions: 11.5 inches tall x 3.9 inches in diameter\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Its a freaking 12 gauge shot shell thermos!\\n\\nReview: Maxam Classic Safari Shotgun Shell Style 33.8oz (1l) Stainless Steel Vacuum Bottle\\n2016 Brent Reece\\n\\nClassic Safari Shotgun Shell Style 33.8oz\\n\\nProduct Info:\\n Features T304 stainless steel liner, double wall construction, one-touch stopper, and brushed finish screw-down cap. Measures 11-1/2 tall, 3-7/8 in diameter. Limited lifetime warranty. Gift boxed\\n\\nThe Review:\\n\\nCome on really? Look at it!!\\n\\nIts a freaking 12 gauge shot shell thermos!\\n\\nWhat could be cooler than that!!\\n\\nIt really works..and does so, very well!!\\n\\nMaxam has done very well here and I love this for my daily coffee and have used it twice for some good New England Chowder to go to work with me!!\\n\\nGet yours at : Amazon\\n\\nDefinitely a 5 star product!!\\n *****\\n\\nI am a non-paid reviewer; I receive products for free or at extreme discounts solely to do an honest and unbiased review on! The opinions expressed here are solely my own.\\n\\nRead more: [...]\",\n \"Product: Fire up that grill this summer and use the KOVOT BBQ Grill Kabob Set to impress your guests with perfectly grilled kabobs. Included are two kabob cages that hold all those delicious ingredients in place so you wont lose that onion chunk or piece of steak to the fiery depths of your grill any more! The set also comes with a brush so you can baste your kabobs for maximum taste. These are made of stainless steel construction with a wood handle. Kabob holders measure at 17 x 2 x 2\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Now here comes these cool HOLDERS, that do away with the skewer all together! THE SKEWER IS DEAD!\\n\\nReview: KOVOT BBQ Kabob Holders\\n 2016 Brent Reece\\n\\nIs there anything better than a great kabob fresh off the Grill?\\n\\nGranted the whole business with the skewers can be a real drag unless you have the stainless steel variety. Soaking wooden skewers is complete foolishness. Thereby forego that and go to metal skewers at first step. Be sure to do 2 per person or you will catch heck from someone. 2 per person along with the odd other BBQ throw ons will be more than enough for most.\\n\\nNow here comes these cool HOLDERS, that do away with the skewer all together!\\n\\nTHE SKEWER IS DEAD!\\n\\nGet all of the goodness of BBQ and none of the frustration of skewers! The meat and veggies rest comfortably and securely inside these handy handled Cages of tastyness!\\n\\nWhen you use one they clean up very easily!\\n\\nRead This:\\n\\n Stainless Steel Construction With Wood Handles\\n Two Kabob Cages That Hold All Those Delicious Ingredients In Place So You Wont Lose That Onion Chunk Or Piece Of Steak To The Fiery Depths Of Your Grill Any More\\n A Brush Is Included So You Can Baste Your Kabobs For Maximum Taste\\n Kabob Holders Measure at 18 x 2 x 2\\n\\nConclusion:\\n\\nIf you are like me and love your food on the grill you need these to add a new dimension in grilling. No more sticks or skewers to fiddle with.\\n\\nSeriously Have you ever wondered what the next evolution in fine grilling was going to be? This is it! Skewerless KABOBS!!\\n\\nGet Yours at: Amazon\\n\\nI am an unpaid Reviewer who receives items for free or at extreme discount. To give an honest and objective review. All opinions are my own!\\n\\nRead more: [...]\",\n \"Product: A responsible dog owner always tries to do the right thing. They keep their dogs as their children so they wont let that annoying situation happens, such as barks your neighbors or howls at the midnight. And the MOTOSOX bark collar is the selection of thousands of responsible dog keepers. It can correct your dog's wrong behavior within a short period at your comfortable home! With 5 level of beep vibration training and harmless shock training. Automatic self-protective mode protects your dog from punishment of mis-trigger. Simple design makes it easier to use. The adjustable fiber collar is suitable for all dogs. Rechargeable: A single charge can last for 14 days. Rainproof materials allow your dog to release their nature in the rain. SPECIFICATIONS Weight: 2 ounces Color: black Size: 53.42.8 cm Suitable for dogs: aged over 2 months, weight over 30kg. Power: 10-12 V (its safe but not recommended for 24 hours) PACKAGE INCLUDED 1 x Receiver 1 x Adjustable belt 2 x Long shock electrodes 2 x Short shock electrodes 1 x USB charging cable 1 x Test light bulb 1 x Manual\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: I am so convinced that Cujo Control makes the best gear in this arena,will not ever feature any other company on my sight.\\n\\nReview: Cujo Control cc 810 Remote Dog Training Collar\\n2016 Brent Reece\\n\\nThis is Rossie.hes a four year old Border Collie. He hates walking on a leash!\\n\\nHe is prone to distractions from passing cars and OMGhe hates motorcycles!!\\n\\nHere he s pulling sideways wickedly!!\\n\\nOnce the collar was on and he was educated to it we were able to use vibration and alert noises to curtail most of his anxious behaviors. We only had to tingle him once or twice before he understood he had to stop pulling so hard and had to stay focused on walking on the lead with us.\\n\\nThe change was quite dramatic!\\n\\nWe were easily able to get him to walk on the left, the standard way dogs are trained. Plus we positively reinforced his great behaviors, and severely limited the use of the collar. The collar has sound..vibration.and shock. Using the latter as sparingly as possible insures that it is that much more effective when used. Rossie learned very quickly vibration was the same as NO! Sounds and a verbal NO was more severe. No and a tingle was OMG!!!! NO!!!\\n\\nNo matter what he started to do if I hit the vibration he would usually stop. But from time to time his nose would draw him to disobey the heal and vibration became sound.a warning that tingle was pending. That immediately worked in his mind inside of 24 hours of the first use! Motorcycles twice got him tingled before he stopped reacting to them going by.\\n\\nHe actually strives to do as asked out of love, and enjoys floor time with lots of scratching and belly rubs. He has become an extremely obedient child in a fur coat in my house. I know it was in part do to the great gear we used from CUJO CONTROL. Rossie will be an ongoing project because he was rescued just a short time ago and hes 4 years old. By now he has figured out most of the things in life he sees in a normal day. Leashes were not on that list until he came here. I am hoping to take him to the park in a few months and play catch with him off lead. Right now I am too leery of his running streak to take that chance. We are buying a new house this summer and will build him a run outside so he can stay off the lead as much as possible. I am laying the foundation of trust with him everyday and the Cujo collar assists this by controlling his negative behaviors. The commands still come from us and he is doing amazingly well with them. But all things take time to actually modify.\\n\\nProduct information:\\n TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR DOG With your new Cujo Control LCD Remote Dog Training Collar, you will have the ability to train any breed and all dogs 10 to 200 pounds. Your rainrpoof shock collar has 16 sensitivity settings and correction levels for vibration and static shock, plus a beep sound mode.\\n EASY TO USE Our professional grade water-resistant receiver and collar/transmitter fits all dogs. The ingenious design with improved microchip makes it super easy to operate and train any dog, small, medium, or large. The high quality and adjustable collar provides the perfect comfort fit for your pet.\\n PREVENT ACCIDENTS AND UNSAFE SITUATIONS Your durable electric e-collar can keep your dog from running in the street, or fighting with other animals and boasts an ultra range over 330 yards.\\n BASIC OBEDIENCE TRAINING From sit and shake, to stay and heal, your weatherproof remote device does it all. The remote has a blue backlight for low light condition viewing. It also has a power saving feature to save on battery life and improve your convenience of operation.\\n\\nWhere to get yous: AMAZON\\n\\nI am so convinced that Cujo Control makes the best gear in this arena. I will not ever feature any other company on this sight. If you desire more reviews feel free to follow the Amazon link and cross reference the competition. But before you doread all the reviews on the CC810 first!!\\n\\nI am a non-paid reviewer, and received this product for free or at a great discount for doing a fair and honest review. I only review items my readers would like to know more about.\\n\\nRead more:[...]\",\n \"Product: Ohuhu\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Ohuhu has designed and built a very competitive product for this challenging market!\\n\\nReview: Swat Bipodwhen accuracy counts!\\n2016 Brent Reece\\n\\nBipods are often used in Predator hunting to support the forend for longer shots at smaller targets.\\n\\nBasic Military position for distance shooting is the prone!!\\n\\n Product Info:\\n\\nProduct Description\\n Ohuhu s Tactical OP/SWAT Bipod is a handy, accuracy-enhancing accessory for your rifle!\\n\\nMade with durable, high quality aluminum, rubber feet for a firm grip. It also includes dual mounts Picatinny and Swivel Stud Mounts! It is simple to install and set up and equipped with posi-locks for extra stability.\\n For the perfect shots and angles, simply adjustable the extendable legs to the height of your desire, with adjustable height from 6.5 to 7.0 inches. When not in use, fold the arms and take it on the go!\\n\\nSpecifications:\\n -Material: Aluminum\\n -Mount: Picatinny and Swivel Stud Mounts\\n -Adjustable Height: 6.5 to 7.0 inches\\n -Weight: 9.2 oz /260g\\n -Package Demission: 6.7 x 3.2 x 2.4inch / 17 x 8 x 6cm\\n\\nPackage Includes:\\n -1 x Ohuhu Bipod\\n -1 x Swivel Stud Mount\\n\\nConclusion:\\n\\nAs an avid shooter I have had several bipods and this one is the equal or better of the group! I would put this one up against a Harris bipod and know it was cheaper and shot just as well!!\\n\\nOhuhu has designed and built a very competitive product for this challenging market! It is light but very solid and mounts very easily via the sling stud. The bolt through mount secures the base to the gun. Then the bipod attaches via a picatinny rail built into the stud mount! All elements are solid and no rattles or noises were heard to detract or interfere with a hunt!!\\n\\nAnyone who bench shoots will want of these! Creates that 3 point rest most shooters prefer to use for accurate shooting at the range!\\n Who needs sandbags?\\n\\nGet Yours here: AMAZON\\n\\nI am a non-paid reviewer; I receive products for free or at extreme discounts solely to do an honest and unbiased review on! The opinions expressed here are solely my own.\\n\\nRead more: [...]\"\n]","isConversational":false},"profile_size":{"kind":"number","value":11,"string":"11"},"task":{"kind":"string","value":"longlamp_3"},"split_kind":{"kind":"string","value":"user_based"},"id":{"kind":"number","value":1682,"string":"1,682"}}},{"rowIdx":1683,"cells":{"question_id":{"kind":"string","value":"AAVR3MHZJSTSU"},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of \"4.0\" for a product with description \"T.K. Leigh, otherwise known as Tracy Leigh Kellam, is a USA Today Bestselling author of the Beautiful Mess series, in addition to several other works. Originally from New England, she now resides in sunny Southern California with her husband, dog, and three cats, all of which she has rescued (including the husband). In late 2015, she gave birth to her first (and only) baby. When shes not planted in front of her computer, writing away, she can be found training for her next marathon (of which she has run over fifteen fulls and far too many halfs to recall) or humming The Imperial March from Star Wars to her daughter, who giggles every time she hears it. T.K. Leigh is represented by Jane Dystel of Dystel & Goderich Literary Management. All publishing inquiries, including audio, foreign, and film rights, should be directed to her.\". The summary of the review text is \"its not an intense off the records hot romance but it has a sweet vibe to it with a flare of comedy\"."},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"The Other Side Of Someday is a romantic comedy, its not an intense off the records hot romance but it has a sweet vibe to it with a flare of comedy. I would give this book a 4 stars and highly recommend to others. I have read most books by this author and she has a brilliant mind and can give us some great book boyfriends and highly likable heroines and she didn't disappoint with Sebby & Baylee.\n\nBaylee is at a crossroad in her life... she is moving to a new city... dealing with a divorce... and also trying to move on from her mother's death. When she meets a hot sexy stranger in the park... or should I say her dog meets a dog in the park that belongs to the hot sexy stranger her life will start to change... for the better???\n\nSebby is one of the youngest producers to make it big in Hollywood and his is focusing on his career and his current long distance relationship... when he finds himself intrigued by something more than work and his current girlfriend he isn't sure how to handle the situation....\n\nWhen Sebby and Baylee find there lives tangling and twisting more together how will they handle the extreme bond they have formed???\n\nGet to one clicking to find out what happens in this new romance from T.K. Leigh!!!"},"correct_answer":{"kind":"string","value":"The Other Side Of Someday is a romantic comedy, its not an intense off the records hot romance but it has a sweet vibe to it with a flare of comedy. I would give this book a 4 stars and highly recommend to others. I have read most books by this author and she has a brilliant mind and can give us some great book boyfriends and highly likable heroines and she didn't disappoint with Sebby & Baylee.\n\nBaylee is at a crossroad in her life... she is moving to a new city... dealing with a divorce... and also trying to move on from her mother's death. When she meets a hot sexy stranger in the park... or should I say her dog meets a dog in the park that belongs to the hot sexy stranger her life will start to change... for the better???\n\nSebby is one of the youngest producers to make it big in Hollywood and his is focusing on his career and his current long distance relationship... when he finds himself intrigued by something more than work and his current girlfriend he isn't sure how to handle the situation....\n\nWhen Sebby and Baylee find there lives tangling and twisting more together how will they handle the extreme bond they have formed???\n\nGet to one clicking to find out what happens in this new romance from T.K. Leigh!!!"},"documents":{"kind":"list like","value":["Product: ASA\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: What bitter sweet book\n\nReview: ASA was the sixth and final book in The Marked Men Series and it was a sad and bitter sweet to see this series come to and end. I absolutely loved this book and this series and would recommend to others. Even though these books can most likely be read as stand alone's I just wouldn't recommend it.. this book especially because you will get every character from the other stories in this one and see how all there lives get wrapped up in a perfect bow. Well maybe not all is perfect but I feel like it was worth every 5 stars that I would give this story.... But don't worry Divas she is writing more about the secondary characters but it will be in a new series called The Saint Of Denver Series, the first book will start out with Sayer and Zeb's story and I have to say I am soooo looking forward to there tale because wow you thought opposites attract with some the marked men I have a feeling this one will blow our minds! If you haven't read the whole series this the order you should read-- Rule, Jet, Rome, Nash, Rowdy, and finally Asa. Wow what a crazy ride this story was, I have to say I can't really pinpoint which story in this series was my absolute favorite but Asa really did steal my heart and my panties.\n\nRoyal and Asa are as opposite as they come when it comes to priorities but in the bedroom they are put together like missing puzzle pieces and they steam up the sheets. But is this enough for a real relationship when morals come into play. Can the cop and the bad guy actually be a real couple? Or will too many things stand in there way? Tragedy, twists and turns will billow into this story and will leave you speechless but how will it all play out??\n\nGo get this book and the whole series! You will not be disappointed.. I truly missed hearing about Rule ,Jet, Rome, Nash, and Rowdy because it had been so long since I read there stories but this book will bring it all back and leave you wanting to go back and read there stories all over again. Thanks Jay Crownover for giving this Indie world the Marked Men and making it leave a lasting impression that I will never forget.. oh and I do believe you will always be known to me as the first book I read about prince alberts and loved every second of it! Ahhh good by marked men but no worries I will visit you all again very soon!","Product: T.K. Leigh, otherwise known as Tracy Leigh Kellam, is the USA Today Bestselling author of the Beautiful Mess series, in addition to several other works. Originally from New England, she now resides in sunny Southern California with her husband, dog, and three cats, all of which she has rescued (including the husband). In late 2015, she gave birth to her first (and only) baby. When shes not planted in front of her computer, writing away, she can be found training for her next marathon (of which she has run over twenty fulls and far too many halfs to recall) or chasing her daughter around the house. T.K. Leigh is represented by Jane Dystel of Dystel & Goderich Literary Management. All publishing inquiries, including audio, foreign, and film rights, should be directed to her.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: 5 stars and highly recommend to others\n\nReview: Wow what a cluster of emotions this book brought out in me! I would give this book a 4.5 stars and highly recommend to others. This story started out a bit slow for me but when it picked up it didn't stop.. This isn't a typical book that I would read because it doesn't have a huge romance feel to it.. It does touch on relationships and how the struggle is real when one is truly in trouble.. This book had me crying multiple times .. It will break ur heart if ur a mother because my biggest fear is something that is touched in this story.. So be prepared!\nThis is quite a thriller and I was very happy to read about these characters old and new and how in all come to circle. If you haven't read the Beautiful Mess series as a whole you need to pick it up right away along with The Deception Duet because it will better help you understand the characters in this story.. Well that's IMO.\n\nI will not waste my words with spoilers or giving away the story line but I will tell you tread lightly with this book it will blow you away with the turns it takes! Thanks for a great story look forward to much more in the future from this author!","Product: Ellie is a reader, writer and overall bookaholic. After pursuing her childhood dream of becoming a writer, she released her debut novel, \"This Time Around.\" Now she spends much of her time dreaming up new characters and stories to write, or curled up with her Kindle reading books by her many favorite authors.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Love story at its best\n\nReview: Breakdown a great journey of a young girl trying to break away from being the shadow of her twin brother Dex and being hopelessly in love with the brothers best friend Nate. This story will send you in a tailspin of emotions because you will love Nate but you will want to strangle him for not going for what he wants because of a friendship. This story will have serious heart break and make you cry happy and sad tears. I would give this book a 4 star and most definitely will be recommending to others.\n\nAmy has always been the girl that all the guys seen as just a friend, why you ask because her twin brother happens to be the most protective man on the planet and always warns all the guys away from his sister. Amy is torn because not only does she despise her brother for what he did she wants Nate her brother's best friend to notice her, and when her and Nate share an amazing kiss and he pushes her away she is devastated. She does what every girl would do in her position she goes away to college and tries to live her life. She even manages to be in a relationship that she finds that she will cherish because she finally found a man that sees her as Amy the girlfriend not just a girl as a friend. But when she brings him home for the holiday break her impression of him will soon change and she finds herself in a very twisted situation when she comes up pregnant and he leaves her to deal with it on her own.\n\nNate believe it or not isn't a playboy, he wants the true love the happily ever after but can't seem to find someone worthy of that love. Well he knows one woman that would fit that profile but she is off limits.. Amy... after he finally gave in a kissed her when they were teenagers he knew he made a mistake because not only is she off limits it just made him want her more. So he leaves town and makes a life for himself .. but when he comes back home when tragedy strikes and finds a broken Amy will he be able to still live with himself if he didn't finally give into what he has always felt for her?\n\nI'll consider myself the luckiest man on earth if I ever have something half as special as they have. Unlike all my friends, who go through girls like they go through socks, I'm looking for that one person who will be my lifelong best friend. I see real, true love every day when I look at my parents, and that's what I want, too. I want the real thing.-- Nate\n\nWill Amy and Nate finally realize life is too short to give up on what you want? Or will circumstances and fate keep getting in there way?\n\nI look forward to so much more from this author! And I really hope we get Dex's story because hot damn a sexy bad boy Marine is a wet dream come true! Thanks for a great story and hope for more in the near future.","Product: LAURA WARD is the author of PAST HEAVEN and the New Adult novel, NOT YET. She lives in Maryland with her loud and very loving three children and husband. Laura married her college sweetheart and is endlessly grateful for the support he has given her through all their years together, and especially toward her goal of writing books. When not picking up toy trucks, driving to lacrosse practice, or checking spelling homework, Laura is writing or reading romance novels.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: AMAZING 5 star read!\n\nReview: Not every love story has a happy ending,\nbut the great ones, no matter how they end,\nchange your life.\nLove is the only thing more powerful in this world than death.\nLove transcends.\nAnd in the end, all any of us can hope for,\nis a love that is past heaven.\n\nThe first thing I have to say is Laura Ward is an amazing author.. she has completely blown me away with Past Heaven and her first story Not Yet. I would have never guessed this was only her second story because she is brilliant and everyone should pick up her books! This book took me to a whole new level of respect for her as a writer.. she simply broke my heart and slowly pieced it back together. The level of intensity she portrays in her writing is simply amazing. I am thankful I took a chance on a new Indy author like her when I picked up Not Yet many months ago and because of that I knew when I decided to read Past Heaven that I wouldn't be disappointed. Thanks for sharing your amazing story with us once again and keep on moving lady you have a long road ahead of you in this crazy book world! I would give this story 5 heavenly stars! Ladies you will need some tissues and a change of panties because she will give you so many emotions while reading this you will simply be thanking her by the end.\n\nLiz thought her life was complete when she married her husband Jack. He was the perfect man and she had 3 amazing sons. But when tragedy strikes her to the core she doesn't know how to move on from such a devastating loss. But she slowly starts to piece her life back together because she has to be strong for her boys because now that is all she has to live for.\nWhen she gets approached to do a movie about Jack, she doesn't know what to think but when she finally decides that this is what he deserves because he helped so many sick and unfortunate people her life will once again be turned upside down.\n\nReynolds is the hot movie star who is burned out with the big Hollywood life and wants to do something about it. He finds himself wanting to write a screenplay for a movie and what better way to do that then write about a man who changed many lives? What he will find will be more than he expected. He will finally get what he is looking for but is the movie that finally gives him the piece of mind he has been wanting or is an amazing woman and her family?\n\nLiz will have her doubts and Reynolds will have his as well.. but when they start to dig through the life that Liz thought was so perfect she will find secrets she didn't want to know.. and this will throw her in turmoil once again.. but this time will she be alone? Can she love again or trust that Reynolds will be there for her after this movie breaks? Can they find love Past Heaven?\n\nYou need to go get this book... it is standalone and no cliffy! The main characters will blow you away but the side characters, the children they will play a huge roll in this book as well and it was great seeing how this story unfolded and seeing the demons fought. Thanks Laura I look forward to so much more amazing stories in the future.. you are the reason I will always give new authors a chance!","Product: New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal and international bestselling author Samantha Towle began her first novel in 2008 while on maternity leave. She completed the manuscript five months later and hasn't stopped writing since. She has written contemporary romances, THE STORM SERIES, THE REVVED SERIES, TROUBLE and WHEN I WAS YOURS. She has also written paranormal romances, THE BRINGER and the ALEXANDRA JONES SERIES, all penned to tunes of The Killers, Kings of Leon, Adele, The Doors, Oasis, Fleetwood Mac, and more of her favourite musicians. A native of Hull and a graduate of Salford University, she lives with her husband, Craig, in East Yorkshire with their son and daughter.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Mighty Jake Is back!\n\nReview: Well If you had any doubt that Jake Wethers couldn't possibly steal your heart any more or melt your panties right off your body.. well your in for a quite a ride because this book is freaking amazing and will make all those feelings come back tenfold! I would give this book a huge mighty storming 5 stars and would highly recommend to others! I didn't realize how much I missed these characters until I picked up this book. I was quite surprised at how much was given to us in this little novella, but boy oh boy did it pack quite a punch! So Ladies are y'all ready for some more Tru and Jake love saga? Cause I was not prepared for what I received and wowsers it blew me away. Thanks for another great ride with these characters and its makes me wanna do another read through of the others books in this series..oh yes I have to without a doubt! Get to one clickin you don't wanna miss this one Jake/Tru/Mighty Storm fans!","Product: When I walk into a book store I feel at home. When I smell the pages of a brand new book things make sense. When I read I am who I always wanted to be. I read to escape and I write so others can as well. My family, my actress dog Bella, coffee, and a steamy love story are a few of my most precious things. Keep up to date with future releases: https://shanavanterpool.com Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Author-Shana-Vanterpool-404672296399311\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: I will not give away any spoilers in this review or talk about what this book entails just know if u like a book with a little d\n\nReview: This book... I was at a loss for words for many days after reading this story.. Wasn't sure how I felt about it .. But the more I sat and thought about what I was going to write for my review I realized if a story can pull this kind of mind blitz on me then its worth everyone to read! I would give it a 4 stars and tell all to read with caution and keep an open mind because you are going to be upset at times .. You are going to want to shed tears.. And mostly you may have a moment of complete insanity that you might throw your kindle.. But it will take you on a dark ride and leave you wanting more at the end! I will not give away any spoilers in this review or talk about what this book entails just know if u like a book with a little darkness and one that can give you all the feels this is for you! Get to one clicking because I want other people on this roller coaster ride with me.. Because whats the fun of riding one by yourself! I do look forward to much more in the future from this author she hasn't disappointed me yet!","Product: A.L. Jackson is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of contemporary and new adult romance. She first found a love for writing during her days as a young mother and college student. She filled the journals she carried with short stories and poems used as an emotional outlet for the difficulties and joys she found in day-to-day life. Years later, she shared a short story shed been working on with her two closest friends and, with their encouragement, this story became her first full length novel. A.L. now spends her days writing in Southern Arizona where she lives with her husband and three children. Connect with A.L. Jackson online: www.aljacksonauthor.com www.facebook.com/aljacksonauthor\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: I would give this book a 4 stars and would most definitely recommend to others\n\nReview: Drowning To Breathe was the 2nd book in the Bleeding Stars series and the conclusion of Baz and Shea's incredible journey. I anticipated this release for quite some time and was pleasantly surprised at the outcome. It was definitely and rocky journey for these two and they don't go down without a fight. I would give this book a 4 stars and would most definitely recommend to others. This is not a standalone so you do need to read A Stone In The Sea first.\n\nI will not give a way much with this review but I will tell you A.L. Jackson is brilliant and her writing skills are of the charts! This book had a little of everything you would want in a story. The sexy scenes were smokin' hot and panty melting! There is not one book by this author that I woudn't read because she has not once disappointed me yet.\n\nI look forward to much more from this author in the future starting with more in this series.. this may have been Baz and Shea's ending but we have a whole rock band of Sunder to explore! Coming up: Where Lightning Strikes (Lyrik's story), Through The Storm (Austin's story), Embers and Ash (Ash's story), and finally Whispers In Winter (Zee's story).\n\nGet to one-clicking now cause you don't wanna miss out on this great ending!","Product: Since the release of her debut contemporary romance novel, Off Sides, in January 2013, Sawyer Bennett has released more than 30 books and has been featured on both the USA Today and New York Times bestseller lists on multiple occasions. A reformed trial lawyer from North Carolina, Sawyer uses real life experience to create relatable, sexy stories that appeal to a wide array of readers. From new adult to erotic contemporary romance, Sawyer writes something for just about everyone. Sawyer likes her Bloody Marys strong, her martinis dirty, and her heroes a combination of the two. When not bringing fictional romance to life, Sawyer is a chauffeur, stylist, chef, maid, and personal assistant to a very active toddler, as well as full-time servant to two adorably naughty dogs. She believes in the good of others, and that a bad day can be cured with a great work-out, cake, or a combination of the two.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Going out with a BANG\n\nReview: Wicked Bond is the 5th and final book in the Wicked Horse series, and even though I was dying to get Bridger's story I feel a little empty now that this incredibly erotic series is over with, but its bitter sweet to say the least. I would give this book a 5 stars and highly recommend to others. I am going to go out a limb here and say I think this was actually my favorite book in this series, and let me tell you that is saying a lot because I have devoured every book so far... but it was just something about this final story that brought it all together! Some would say that you can read each of these books as a standalone, but I feel that if you truly want the whole picture you need to pick up all 5 books, and don't worry you will not be disappointed!\n\nBridger is they mysterious man of The Silo, he has dabbed in any and everything that makes the Silo... but he has never once showed in interest romantically with any woman for years. He has his reasons for not getting to close... but can one woman change that for him??\n\nMaggie, she is in a terrible situation and when she wakes in house that she has no clue how she got there she panics.. she tries to escape.. but soon she realizes that the owner of the house she now resides is not out to hurt her... he may very well be her savior.\n\nGet to one clicking to see what happens in this amazing ending to a wonderfully sinful journey! Thanks Sawyer for another wonderful book a great ending to a wonderful series! I look forward to much more in the future!","Product: Felicia Lynn is a transplanted Florida girl, born and raised, who lives just north of Atlanta, GA with her husband, daughter, dog and cat. She spends most of her days holed up in a cozy chair with a cup of tea and her laptop, writing about the characters that live in her head. When shes not writing youll find her hanging out with her family and friends! She loves reading, taking long walks, chatting with her Facebook family, and listening to music, especially live music. A self-declared lover of all things baseball, she is obsessed with every aspect of the game!!! Felicia writes contemporary romance, because love stories make people happy. Even in the midst of anguish and turmoil, true love can turn life around, and the process is beautiful. Most of Felicia's stories are based on real life experiences, which she embellishes to tell a story. She is currently working on her second novel, titled Loves Learning Curve.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Ok read.. sweet but not overly powerful\n\nReview: Tied up in Heartstrings was the first book in The Heartstrings series and is Garret and Alexis's story. I would rate this book a 3 stars. It was a little to insta-love for me... but there is a tragedy that will break you hearts. I would say this story is a romance that will warm your hearts and Garret is a bit of a softy and romance is his thing truly.. but maybe a little to romantic for my liking. 2 people that knew eachother in college will meet again and can they finally be together? Alexis has lost the love of her life but she has something to live for her daughter. Garret has made it big with his band but his heart has always belong to one girl and he is determined that finally there stars have aligned and he will make her his at any cost. Can Alexis handle another relationship or will it all fall apart because she can't let her heart get tied up in heartstrings again? Well you will have to go pick up this book to find out.","Product: USA Today bestselling author, Laura Ward, writes sweet and sexy stories that will hopefully make you look at the world in a different way. Her books include the Not Yet series: Not Yet, Until Now, Someday Soon, and Because of You. Her Contemporary Romance standalone is titled, Past Heaven. She is also the co-author of the College Bound series: The Pledge, The Color of Us, and The Sound of Your Heart (Releasing July 13, 2018.) Laura lives in Maryland with her loud and very loving three children and husband. She married her college sweetheart and is endlessly grateful for the support he has given her through all their years together, and especially toward her dream of writing books. When not picking up toy trucks, driving to lacrosse practice, or checking spelling homework, Laura is writing or reading romance novels.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: this story just like all the others in this series blew me away\n\nReview: Wow, this story just like all the others in this series blew me away. This is the fourth book in the series and the steam has not died down a bit, if anything it has pumped up even more. I would give this story a 4.5 stars and highly recommend to others. I was impressed with the depth and angst in this book as well as the steam and characters. This author is amazing and if you haven't any of her stories you are truly missing out!\n\nThis story finally tells us the tale of Ricky and his family tragedies he faces and Aveline a new character- who I absolutely adore.\n\nAveline and Ricky both have had tragedies in there lives... when they first meet its the bad boy and the quiet girl.. but when one realizes there tragedies intertwine will they be more set out for revenge than love? Or can love over power it all?\n\nI don't want to give away to much with my review because there is a pretty big twist in this story and I want the readers to find it out for themselves.. and feel the emotion behind it that I did while flipping through the pages of this fantastic story.\n\nI look forward to much much more from this author, there is not a book YET that she has written that hasn't stolen a piece of my soul and heart. Get to one clicking to see what happens!"],"string":"[\n \"Product: ASA\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: What bitter sweet book\\n\\nReview: ASA was the sixth and final book in The Marked Men Series and it was a sad and bitter sweet to see this series come to and end. I absolutely loved this book and this series and would recommend to others. Even though these books can most likely be read as stand alone's I just wouldn't recommend it.. this book especially because you will get every character from the other stories in this one and see how all there lives get wrapped up in a perfect bow. Well maybe not all is perfect but I feel like it was worth every 5 stars that I would give this story.... But don't worry Divas she is writing more about the secondary characters but it will be in a new series called The Saint Of Denver Series, the first book will start out with Sayer and Zeb's story and I have to say I am soooo looking forward to there tale because wow you thought opposites attract with some the marked men I have a feeling this one will blow our minds! If you haven't read the whole series this the order you should read-- Rule, Jet, Rome, Nash, Rowdy, and finally Asa. Wow what a crazy ride this story was, I have to say I can't really pinpoint which story in this series was my absolute favorite but Asa really did steal my heart and my panties.\\n\\nRoyal and Asa are as opposite as they come when it comes to priorities but in the bedroom they are put together like missing puzzle pieces and they steam up the sheets. But is this enough for a real relationship when morals come into play. Can the cop and the bad guy actually be a real couple? Or will too many things stand in there way? Tragedy, twists and turns will billow into this story and will leave you speechless but how will it all play out??\\n\\nGo get this book and the whole series! You will not be disappointed.. I truly missed hearing about Rule ,Jet, Rome, Nash, and Rowdy because it had been so long since I read there stories but this book will bring it all back and leave you wanting to go back and read there stories all over again. Thanks Jay Crownover for giving this Indie world the Marked Men and making it leave a lasting impression that I will never forget.. oh and I do believe you will always be known to me as the first book I read about prince alberts and loved every second of it! Ahhh good by marked men but no worries I will visit you all again very soon!\",\n \"Product: T.K. Leigh, otherwise known as Tracy Leigh Kellam, is the USA Today Bestselling author of the Beautiful Mess series, in addition to several other works. Originally from New England, she now resides in sunny Southern California with her husband, dog, and three cats, all of which she has rescued (including the husband). In late 2015, she gave birth to her first (and only) baby. When shes not planted in front of her computer, writing away, she can be found training for her next marathon (of which she has run over twenty fulls and far too many halfs to recall) or chasing her daughter around the house. T.K. Leigh is represented by Jane Dystel of Dystel & Goderich Literary Management. All publishing inquiries, including audio, foreign, and film rights, should be directed to her.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: 5 stars and highly recommend to others\\n\\nReview: Wow what a cluster of emotions this book brought out in me! I would give this book a 4.5 stars and highly recommend to others. This story started out a bit slow for me but when it picked up it didn't stop.. This isn't a typical book that I would read because it doesn't have a huge romance feel to it.. It does touch on relationships and how the struggle is real when one is truly in trouble.. This book had me crying multiple times .. It will break ur heart if ur a mother because my biggest fear is something that is touched in this story.. So be prepared!\\nThis is quite a thriller and I was very happy to read about these characters old and new and how in all come to circle. If you haven't read the Beautiful Mess series as a whole you need to pick it up right away along with The Deception Duet because it will better help you understand the characters in this story.. Well that's IMO.\\n\\nI will not waste my words with spoilers or giving away the story line but I will tell you tread lightly with this book it will blow you away with the turns it takes! Thanks for a great story look forward to much more in the future from this author!\",\n \"Product: Ellie is a reader, writer and overall bookaholic. After pursuing her childhood dream of becoming a writer, she released her debut novel, \\\"This Time Around.\\\" Now she spends much of her time dreaming up new characters and stories to write, or curled up with her Kindle reading books by her many favorite authors.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Love story at its best\\n\\nReview: Breakdown a great journey of a young girl trying to break away from being the shadow of her twin brother Dex and being hopelessly in love with the brothers best friend Nate. This story will send you in a tailspin of emotions because you will love Nate but you will want to strangle him for not going for what he wants because of a friendship. This story will have serious heart break and make you cry happy and sad tears. I would give this book a 4 star and most definitely will be recommending to others.\\n\\nAmy has always been the girl that all the guys seen as just a friend, why you ask because her twin brother happens to be the most protective man on the planet and always warns all the guys away from his sister. Amy is torn because not only does she despise her brother for what he did she wants Nate her brother's best friend to notice her, and when her and Nate share an amazing kiss and he pushes her away she is devastated. She does what every girl would do in her position she goes away to college and tries to live her life. She even manages to be in a relationship that she finds that she will cherish because she finally found a man that sees her as Amy the girlfriend not just a girl as a friend. But when she brings him home for the holiday break her impression of him will soon change and she finds herself in a very twisted situation when she comes up pregnant and he leaves her to deal with it on her own.\\n\\nNate believe it or not isn't a playboy, he wants the true love the happily ever after but can't seem to find someone worthy of that love. Well he knows one woman that would fit that profile but she is off limits.. Amy... after he finally gave in a kissed her when they were teenagers he knew he made a mistake because not only is she off limits it just made him want her more. So he leaves town and makes a life for himself .. but when he comes back home when tragedy strikes and finds a broken Amy will he be able to still live with himself if he didn't finally give into what he has always felt for her?\\n\\nI'll consider myself the luckiest man on earth if I ever have something half as special as they have. Unlike all my friends, who go through girls like they go through socks, I'm looking for that one person who will be my lifelong best friend. I see real, true love every day when I look at my parents, and that's what I want, too. I want the real thing.-- Nate\\n\\nWill Amy and Nate finally realize life is too short to give up on what you want? Or will circumstances and fate keep getting in there way?\\n\\nI look forward to so much more from this author! And I really hope we get Dex's story because hot damn a sexy bad boy Marine is a wet dream come true! Thanks for a great story and hope for more in the near future.\",\n \"Product: LAURA WARD is the author of PAST HEAVEN and the New Adult novel, NOT YET. She lives in Maryland with her loud and very loving three children and husband. Laura married her college sweetheart and is endlessly grateful for the support he has given her through all their years together, and especially toward her goal of writing books. When not picking up toy trucks, driving to lacrosse practice, or checking spelling homework, Laura is writing or reading romance novels.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: AMAZING 5 star read!\\n\\nReview: Not every love story has a happy ending,\\nbut the great ones, no matter how they end,\\nchange your life.\\nLove is the only thing more powerful in this world than death.\\nLove transcends.\\nAnd in the end, all any of us can hope for,\\nis a love that is past heaven.\\n\\nThe first thing I have to say is Laura Ward is an amazing author.. she has completely blown me away with Past Heaven and her first story Not Yet. I would have never guessed this was only her second story because she is brilliant and everyone should pick up her books! This book took me to a whole new level of respect for her as a writer.. she simply broke my heart and slowly pieced it back together. The level of intensity she portrays in her writing is simply amazing. I am thankful I took a chance on a new Indy author like her when I picked up Not Yet many months ago and because of that I knew when I decided to read Past Heaven that I wouldn't be disappointed. Thanks for sharing your amazing story with us once again and keep on moving lady you have a long road ahead of you in this crazy book world! I would give this story 5 heavenly stars! Ladies you will need some tissues and a change of panties because she will give you so many emotions while reading this you will simply be thanking her by the end.\\n\\nLiz thought her life was complete when she married her husband Jack. He was the perfect man and she had 3 amazing sons. But when tragedy strikes her to the core she doesn't know how to move on from such a devastating loss. But she slowly starts to piece her life back together because she has to be strong for her boys because now that is all she has to live for.\\nWhen she gets approached to do a movie about Jack, she doesn't know what to think but when she finally decides that this is what he deserves because he helped so many sick and unfortunate people her life will once again be turned upside down.\\n\\nReynolds is the hot movie star who is burned out with the big Hollywood life and wants to do something about it. He finds himself wanting to write a screenplay for a movie and what better way to do that then write about a man who changed many lives? What he will find will be more than he expected. He will finally get what he is looking for but is the movie that finally gives him the piece of mind he has been wanting or is an amazing woman and her family?\\n\\nLiz will have her doubts and Reynolds will have his as well.. but when they start to dig through the life that Liz thought was so perfect she will find secrets she didn't want to know.. and this will throw her in turmoil once again.. but this time will she be alone? Can she love again or trust that Reynolds will be there for her after this movie breaks? Can they find love Past Heaven?\\n\\nYou need to go get this book... it is standalone and no cliffy! The main characters will blow you away but the side characters, the children they will play a huge roll in this book as well and it was great seeing how this story unfolded and seeing the demons fought. Thanks Laura I look forward to so much more amazing stories in the future.. you are the reason I will always give new authors a chance!\",\n \"Product: New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal and international bestselling author Samantha Towle began her first novel in 2008 while on maternity leave. She completed the manuscript five months later and hasn't stopped writing since. She has written contemporary romances, THE STORM SERIES, THE REVVED SERIES, TROUBLE and WHEN I WAS YOURS. She has also written paranormal romances, THE BRINGER and the ALEXANDRA JONES SERIES, all penned to tunes of The Killers, Kings of Leon, Adele, The Doors, Oasis, Fleetwood Mac, and more of her favourite musicians. A native of Hull and a graduate of Salford University, she lives with her husband, Craig, in East Yorkshire with their son and daughter.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Mighty Jake Is back!\\n\\nReview: Well If you had any doubt that Jake Wethers couldn't possibly steal your heart any more or melt your panties right off your body.. well your in for a quite a ride because this book is freaking amazing and will make all those feelings come back tenfold! I would give this book a huge mighty storming 5 stars and would highly recommend to others! I didn't realize how much I missed these characters until I picked up this book. I was quite surprised at how much was given to us in this little novella, but boy oh boy did it pack quite a punch! So Ladies are y'all ready for some more Tru and Jake love saga? Cause I was not prepared for what I received and wowsers it blew me away. Thanks for another great ride with these characters and its makes me wanna do another read through of the others books in this series..oh yes I have to without a doubt! Get to one clickin you don't wanna miss this one Jake/Tru/Mighty Storm fans!\",\n \"Product: When I walk into a book store I feel at home. When I smell the pages of a brand new book things make sense. When I read I am who I always wanted to be. I read to escape and I write so others can as well. My family, my actress dog Bella, coffee, and a steamy love story are a few of my most precious things. Keep up to date with future releases: https://shanavanterpool.com Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Author-Shana-Vanterpool-404672296399311\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: I will not give away any spoilers in this review or talk about what this book entails just know if u like a book with a little d\\n\\nReview: This book... I was at a loss for words for many days after reading this story.. Wasn't sure how I felt about it .. But the more I sat and thought about what I was going to write for my review I realized if a story can pull this kind of mind blitz on me then its worth everyone to read! I would give it a 4 stars and tell all to read with caution and keep an open mind because you are going to be upset at times .. You are going to want to shed tears.. And mostly you may have a moment of complete insanity that you might throw your kindle.. But it will take you on a dark ride and leave you wanting more at the end! I will not give away any spoilers in this review or talk about what this book entails just know if u like a book with a little darkness and one that can give you all the feels this is for you! Get to one clicking because I want other people on this roller coaster ride with me.. Because whats the fun of riding one by yourself! I do look forward to much more in the future from this author she hasn't disappointed me yet!\",\n \"Product: A.L. Jackson is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of contemporary and new adult romance. She first found a love for writing during her days as a young mother and college student. She filled the journals she carried with short stories and poems used as an emotional outlet for the difficulties and joys she found in day-to-day life. Years later, she shared a short story shed been working on with her two closest friends and, with their encouragement, this story became her first full length novel. A.L. now spends her days writing in Southern Arizona where she lives with her husband and three children. Connect with A.L. Jackson online: www.aljacksonauthor.com www.facebook.com/aljacksonauthor\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: I would give this book a 4 stars and would most definitely recommend to others\\n\\nReview: Drowning To Breathe was the 2nd book in the Bleeding Stars series and the conclusion of Baz and Shea's incredible journey. I anticipated this release for quite some time and was pleasantly surprised at the outcome. It was definitely and rocky journey for these two and they don't go down without a fight. I would give this book a 4 stars and would most definitely recommend to others. This is not a standalone so you do need to read A Stone In The Sea first.\\n\\nI will not give a way much with this review but I will tell you A.L. Jackson is brilliant and her writing skills are of the charts! This book had a little of everything you would want in a story. The sexy scenes were smokin' hot and panty melting! There is not one book by this author that I woudn't read because she has not once disappointed me yet.\\n\\nI look forward to much more from this author in the future starting with more in this series.. this may have been Baz and Shea's ending but we have a whole rock band of Sunder to explore! Coming up: Where Lightning Strikes (Lyrik's story), Through The Storm (Austin's story), Embers and Ash (Ash's story), and finally Whispers In Winter (Zee's story).\\n\\nGet to one-clicking now cause you don't wanna miss out on this great ending!\",\n \"Product: Since the release of her debut contemporary romance novel, Off Sides, in January 2013, Sawyer Bennett has released more than 30 books and has been featured on both the USA Today and New York Times bestseller lists on multiple occasions. A reformed trial lawyer from North Carolina, Sawyer uses real life experience to create relatable, sexy stories that appeal to a wide array of readers. From new adult to erotic contemporary romance, Sawyer writes something for just about everyone. Sawyer likes her Bloody Marys strong, her martinis dirty, and her heroes a combination of the two. When not bringing fictional romance to life, Sawyer is a chauffeur, stylist, chef, maid, and personal assistant to a very active toddler, as well as full-time servant to two adorably naughty dogs. She believes in the good of others, and that a bad day can be cured with a great work-out, cake, or a combination of the two.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Going out with a BANG\\n\\nReview: Wicked Bond is the 5th and final book in the Wicked Horse series, and even though I was dying to get Bridger's story I feel a little empty now that this incredibly erotic series is over with, but its bitter sweet to say the least. I would give this book a 5 stars and highly recommend to others. I am going to go out a limb here and say I think this was actually my favorite book in this series, and let me tell you that is saying a lot because I have devoured every book so far... but it was just something about this final story that brought it all together! Some would say that you can read each of these books as a standalone, but I feel that if you truly want the whole picture you need to pick up all 5 books, and don't worry you will not be disappointed!\\n\\nBridger is they mysterious man of The Silo, he has dabbed in any and everything that makes the Silo... but he has never once showed in interest romantically with any woman for years. He has his reasons for not getting to close... but can one woman change that for him??\\n\\nMaggie, she is in a terrible situation and when she wakes in house that she has no clue how she got there she panics.. she tries to escape.. but soon she realizes that the owner of the house she now resides is not out to hurt her... he may very well be her savior.\\n\\nGet to one clicking to see what happens in this amazing ending to a wonderfully sinful journey! Thanks Sawyer for another wonderful book a great ending to a wonderful series! I look forward to much more in the future!\",\n \"Product: Felicia Lynn is a transplanted Florida girl, born and raised, who lives just north of Atlanta, GA with her husband, daughter, dog and cat. She spends most of her days holed up in a cozy chair with a cup of tea and her laptop, writing about the characters that live in her head. When shes not writing youll find her hanging out with her family and friends! She loves reading, taking long walks, chatting with her Facebook family, and listening to music, especially live music. A self-declared lover of all things baseball, she is obsessed with every aspect of the game!!! Felicia writes contemporary romance, because love stories make people happy. Even in the midst of anguish and turmoil, true love can turn life around, and the process is beautiful. Most of Felicia's stories are based on real life experiences, which she embellishes to tell a story. She is currently working on her second novel, titled Loves Learning Curve.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Ok read.. sweet but not overly powerful\\n\\nReview: Tied up in Heartstrings was the first book in The Heartstrings series and is Garret and Alexis's story. I would rate this book a 3 stars. It was a little to insta-love for me... but there is a tragedy that will break you hearts. I would say this story is a romance that will warm your hearts and Garret is a bit of a softy and romance is his thing truly.. but maybe a little to romantic for my liking. 2 people that knew eachother in college will meet again and can they finally be together? Alexis has lost the love of her life but she has something to live for her daughter. Garret has made it big with his band but his heart has always belong to one girl and he is determined that finally there stars have aligned and he will make her his at any cost. Can Alexis handle another relationship or will it all fall apart because she can't let her heart get tied up in heartstrings again? Well you will have to go pick up this book to find out.\",\n \"Product: USA Today bestselling author, Laura Ward, writes sweet and sexy stories that will hopefully make you look at the world in a different way. Her books include the Not Yet series: Not Yet, Until Now, Someday Soon, and Because of You. Her Contemporary Romance standalone is titled, Past Heaven. She is also the co-author of the College Bound series: The Pledge, The Color of Us, and The Sound of Your Heart (Releasing July 13, 2018.) Laura lives in Maryland with her loud and very loving three children and husband. She married her college sweetheart and is endlessly grateful for the support he has given her through all their years together, and especially toward her dream of writing books. When not picking up toy trucks, driving to lacrosse practice, or checking spelling homework, Laura is writing or reading romance novels.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: this story just like all the others in this series blew me away\\n\\nReview: Wow, this story just like all the others in this series blew me away. This is the fourth book in the series and the steam has not died down a bit, if anything it has pumped up even more. I would give this story a 4.5 stars and highly recommend to others. I was impressed with the depth and angst in this book as well as the steam and characters. This author is amazing and if you haven't any of her stories you are truly missing out!\\n\\nThis story finally tells us the tale of Ricky and his family tragedies he faces and Aveline a new character- who I absolutely adore.\\n\\nAveline and Ricky both have had tragedies in there lives... when they first meet its the bad boy and the quiet girl.. but when one realizes there tragedies intertwine will they be more set out for revenge than love? Or can love over power it all?\\n\\nI don't want to give away to much with my review because there is a pretty big twist in this story and I want the readers to find it out for themselves.. and feel the emotion behind it that I did while flipping through the pages of this fantastic story.\\n\\nI look forward to much much more from this author, there is not a book YET that she has written that hasn't stolen a piece of my soul and heart. Get to one clicking to see what happens!\"\n]","isConversational":false},"profile_size":{"kind":"number","value":10,"string":"10"},"task":{"kind":"string","value":"longlamp_3"},"split_kind":{"kind":"string","value":"user_based"},"id":{"kind":"number","value":1683,"string":"1,683"}}},{"rowIdx":1684,"cells":{"question_id":{"kind":"string","value":"AF1AFYMONI8DY"},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of \"5.0\" for a product with description \"Libby has a good life with a gorgeous husband and a home by the sea. But over time she is becoming more unsure if Jack has ever loved her - and if he is over the death of Eve, his first wife. When fate intervenes in their relationship, Libby decides to find out all she can about the man she hastily married and the seemingly perfect Eve. But in doing so she unearths devastating secrets. Frightened by what she finds and the damage it could cause, Libby starts to worry that she too will end up like the first woman Jack loved ...\". The summary of the review text is \"There are three in this marriage, and one is dead...\"."},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"Another stunning story from the wonderful Ms Koomson. If you have not read anything by this British writer, then get started. Libby is a smart, lovely woman, nuts about her just as perfect husband Jack. She knows Jack was married previously to the beautiful and mysterious Eve, who died accidentally and who Libby feels is an ever present shadow in her marriage to Jack. However it is not until Libby and Jack are involved in a car accident, during which Libby is seriously injured that she begins to seriously question the unspoken presence of Eve in their marriage. And whether Jack is over his first wife, or even if he was complicit in some way in her death.\n\nTold in the present, and in flash backs, Libby, while recovering at home from her accident, gradually discovers the truth about Eve, her life, and how she came to die. I so can't give anything away as to the story line because then all the surprises and suspense will be gone! So trust me on this, it is a great story, plenty of suspense, twists and surprises. Libby and Jack are both great characters, and who knows where the guilt lies or how much Libby's mind is playing tricks on her. But Eve is the outstanding character, and clearly the author is deeply attached to the person she has created. This is a page turning and riveting read, and you may well be hooked on this writer for quite some time."},"correct_answer":{"kind":"string","value":"Another stunning story from the wonderful Ms Koomson. If you have not read anything by this British writer, then get started. Libby is a smart, lovely woman, nuts about her just as perfect husband Jack. She knows Jack was married previously to the beautiful and mysterious Eve, who died accidentally and who Libby feels is an ever present shadow in her marriage to Jack. However it is not until Libby and Jack are involved in a car accident, during which Libby is seriously injured that she begins to seriously question the unspoken presence of Eve in their marriage. And whether Jack is over his first wife, or even if he was complicit in some way in her death.\n\nTold in the present, and in flash backs, Libby, while recovering at home from her accident, gradually discovers the truth about Eve, her life, and how she came to die. I so can't give anything away as to the story line because then all the surprises and suspense will be gone! So trust me on this, it is a great story, plenty of suspense, twists and surprises. Libby and Jack are both great characters, and who knows where the guilt lies or how much Libby's mind is playing tricks on her. But Eve is the outstanding character, and clearly the author is deeply attached to the person she has created. This is a page turning and riveting read, and you may well be hooked on this writer for quite some time."},"documents":{"kind":"list like","value":["Product: This is NOT a signature edition. It's a paperback called \"Remembered Death\" by Agatha Christie. The original British Title: \"Sparkling Cyanide\". From inside the front cover: Your Wife Rosemary Didn't Kill Herself. She Was Murdered! George Barton received this strange anonymous note almost a year after Rosemary's death. It had all started at Rosemary's birthday party. The six guests saw her take a glass of champagne. Suddenly she slumped to the floor-dead. The verdict: suicide by poison. But after the note, people started to remember things: Rosemary's passionate letter to a mysterious lover, \"Leopard.\" Handsome Anthony Browne's threats. The fact that Rosemary's penniless sister stood to inherit all of her fabulous fortune. Then somebody remembered one thing too many. So the killer struck again! From the back cover: It was certainly a strange kind of party to celebrate Rosemary's birthday. Every guest had a motive for her murder....\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Murder at the Dinner Table\n\nReview: Isn't she wonderful, the most widely published author in the English language after the Bible and Shakespeare! She isn't called the Queen of Mystery for nothing. Imagine having this fantastic storyteller as your grandmother. Bedtime stories sure would be something else! I haven't read Agatha Chrisite for years and years, and ambling through the library one day recently, waiting for something to pop out at me, this did! Like so many of her stories, this murder involves just a small group of people, intimately linked to the deceased, with more than likely one of the remainings to no longer alive at the end of it all. So as well as pondering over who did it, you are also left pondering who isn't going to make it.\n\nThe title refers to the means of death - cyanide in a glass of French champagne. Rosemary Barton is the first deceased, whose death at the dinner table, with previously mentioned small group of people, opens the story. The remaining characters are her older husband George, her younger sister Iris, her husband's personal assistant Ruth, her lover Stephen Farraday, another male 'friend' Anthony Browne and lastly Sandra, the wife of Stephen Farraday. All with their intriguing back stories, and their motives, but do they have the means? And who else won't be left standing by the end?\n\nBrilliant stuff, such insight and understanding into the human condition, what motivates us, and why we behave in certain ways. And she writes so easily, making her novels very readable and compelling. With the last of the Hercule Poirot TV movies starring David Suchet being made this year, hopefully interest will be revived in the marvellous and timeless books written by Agatha Christie.","Product: THE NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER. WINNER OF THE 2010 COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD. 264 wood and ivory carvings, none of them bigger than a matchbox: Edmund de Waal was entranced when he first encountered the collection in his great uncle Iggie's Tokyo apartment. When he later inherited the 'netsuke', they unlocked a story far larger and more dramatic than he could ever have imagined. From a burgeoning empire in Odessa to fin de siecle Paris, from occupied Vienna to Tokyo, Edmund de Waal traces the netsuke's journey through generations of his remarkable family against the backdrop of a tumultuous century. 'You have in your hands a masterpiece' Frances Wilson, Sunday Times. 'The most brilliant book I've read for years...A rich tale of the pleasure and pains of what it is to be human' Bettany Hughes, Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year. 'A complex and beautiful book' Diana Athill.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: A Thing of Beauty is a Joy Forever\n\nReview: Edmund De Waal is a very well-known and highly regarded English potter and ceramicist. In keeping with many great artists his passion and dedication to his art was apparent from a very young age and once he earned his first class honours from Cambridge University he turned his energies and focus to his art. His specific interest appears to have laid in Japanese porcelain and to this end he studied in Japan, where coincidentally his great uncle, Ignace Ephrussi had lived for many years. Uncle Iggie fled Austria in the late 1930s for America and ended up in Japan after the war helping with the reconstruction process. He never left. What also remained with him till his death when they were inherited by Edmund, was a collection of 264 tiny hand carved wood and ivory carvings - netsuke - small enough to fit in the palm of a hand or a trouser pocket. And more importantly small enough to be moved around and kept safe.\n\nEdmund is a direct descendant of the extremely wealthy and very upwardly mobile Russian-Jewish Ephrussi family whose fortune was made from humble origins as grain merchants in Odessa. By the 1860s the family had become the greatest grain exporters in the world, extremely wealthy and influential. The family had branched out into finance with their own banks and extensive business interests through Europe. In the 1870s the two sons were sent respectively to Paris and Vienna to further develop and cement the family's interests in Europe. Despite being incredibly rich and influential in many areas of high society the family was nevertheless Jewish and subject to many of the prejudices and antisemitism that were so prevalent at the time. It all came to a a head of course in the 1930s with the family in Vienna in particular losing literally everything they had ever possessed including their own identities. But miraculously, for the most part, they survived. Edmund's Uncle Iggie was one of the survivors. As was the collection of netsuke which had made its way to the Paris of the 1870s when they were first purchased by man about town/art collector/writer and critic Charles Ephrussi to Vienna to Japan and finally to Edmund in England. And that is all I will say about the story of the netsuke because this is story you need to read for yourself.\n\nThis is such a great read because of the way it is told. Edmund, as the custodian of the netsuke including his favourite the hare with amber eyes, feels enormous responsibility for the collection he has inherited. He is captivated by the collection's history and how it is integral to the history of his own family. And so he finds the story taking over his own life as he travels to Odessa, Paris, Vienna and Tokyo uncovering the lives of his family in these places. It would be easy to turn this story into a strict narrative with family anecdotes, and the horrors of war and antisemitism that we are so familiar with. But no, the author loves these family members of his, he wants to get beyond what they do, gets under their skins, becomes incredibly intimate with them. His artist's eye, with its intensity and impeccable eye for detail has given us a portrayal of a family and its history, surrounded by limitless wealth and beautiful things that nevertheless never really finds full acceptance into the society it wants to be accepted in. And the only constant is the netsuke collection that becomes the one remaining link between Edmund and his own young family, and the Ephrussis who left Russia with such huge hopes in the 1870s.\n\nAs a book of writing it is not perfect. Edmund is a tad indulgent of some of his predecessors, especially Charles in late 19th century Paris. In fact a lot of this was lost on me - I have never read Proust, and some of the artists I have never heard of, but Google has been working over time since filling me in.\n\nThis is a book club book so it is not mine, but I will be finding my own copy. It is the type of book, when you want a few moments to be reminded of beauty in the world, you can pick this up, open any chapter and be swept back into a time and history we have lost, with love and strength of family at its core. For me the one line review on the back cover by A.S Byatt sums it all up - 'Weird, strange and gripping'.","Product: Controversial and compelling, \"In Cold Blood\" reconstructs the murder in 1959 of a Kansas farmer, his wife and both their children. Truman Capote's comprehensive study of the killings and subsequent investigation explores the circumstances surrounding this terrible crime and the effect it had on those involved. At the centre of his study are the amoral young killers Perry Smith and Dick Hickcock, who, vividly drawn by Capote, are shown to be reprehensible yet entirely and frighteningly human. The book that made Capote's name, In Cold Blood is a seminal work of modern prose, a remarkable synthesis of journalistic skill and powerfully evocative narrative.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Spine chillingly brilliant and horrifying\n\nReview: No review from me will ever do this book justice. I can't say marvellous, fabulous, fantastic and all those other uplifting and positive words, because the book is about murder most horrible - in cold blood no less. But as a quality book, a well written, put together and very memorable book to read, it is, for me, right up there with the best. There are many, many very interesting and insightful and passionate reviews on Goodreads and other places about this book. The most memorable review I read was by a man who grew up in the state of Kansas. It was near the small town of Holcomb in south west Kansas, that one night in November 1959, the Clutter family of four were tied up, tortured then shot in their beds by two petty criminals looking for a safe full of money. The reviewer met a librarian who grew up not far from the Clutter farm, and vividly remembers her father putting locks on all the outside doors of the house after the murders. She sounds scared when she is telling the reviewer this some 55 years later. Truman Capote also conveys very vividly this fear that the local people had about what had happened in their small safe farming community.\n\nThe book is subtitled 'A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences'. It marked Capote's first foray into what we now call the non-fiction novel, a new genre at the time he wrote this book in the 1960s. After the murders occurred Capote and his friend Harper Lee travelled to Kansas and interviewed as many people as they could about the family, the community, the murder and so on. Smith and Hickock, the two killers, were eventually hanged for their crime. But not before Capote also spent time interviewing them. His book also tells their stories and how they came to be killers. Apparently some of the things in the book are not strictly correct, but it does not detract from what is a captivating read, the perfection of his character portrayals, the whole horrifying next door feel about it all. It is a book of horror, chillingly so, made more so by it being written in the neutral tones of reportage.","Product: Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Bridget's life - as chaotic as ever\n\nReview: Having come to this book months after it was released and the disbelief and shock that devoted Bridget fans felt on reading it, I knew, sort of, what to expect. Bridget, alone, again, looking for love. Nothing new there.\n\nSo much effort, mentally, physically and emotionally was at the centre of Bridget finding true love in the first two books that there was a certain emptiness in the reading of most of this sequel. There is really no Darcy in this, other than in her memory, although I did like her seeing glimpses of him in her son - yes, let's bring back Darcy. What a dream of a man, and what a dream of a couple they were. And that is the problem with this book - there is not one single adult relationship that comes anywhere near close to the relationship Bridget and Darcy had. Her friends, who I barely remember from the other books, are awful - flaky, directionless, boring, unhappy and I have no idea why Bridget continues to be friends with any of them. Daniel, who I never particularly liked, is a disaster, as intensely narcissistic as ever, and it catches up with him. What a freak. Even Bridget doubts her own judgement in having him babysit her children. Eventually.\n\nSo Bridget is unhappy in widowhood. It is now five years since Darcy left this mortal coil. She has two young children, Billy at school and Mabel almost at school. She still, yes still, obsesses about her weight, her alcoholic intake, her daily life is still chaotic. As well as being Mum, which she actually does incredibly well - good on you Jones, she is developing her talents as a writer of screenplays. To my horror she decides to join Twitter and her daily tally of followers joins the daily update of weight, calorie intake, texts received - all the stuff that heralds the beginning of a new day in the world of Bridget Jones.\n\nThis Twitter stuff is awful, with swags of text in the book transcribing these awful Twitter exchanges she has. She meets a man though - #Roxter, which I kept misreading as Rooster! You cougar Jones. Hot and steamy romance ensues. Hot and steamy romance ends. Jones moves on, book ends.\n\nAt times, I must say, the real Bridget Jones shone through, and I felt like I was meeting up with an old friend, she is such a honey. But it has been twenty years or so since we first met Bridget and she hasn't really changed or grown up at all. I honestly could not believe she was 50, she was still wittering on just like she did when juggling Darcy and Daniel. Had she not done any maturing/growing up during her years as Mrs Darcy and having her babies? Intensely annoying. I don't know anyone who is the same person they were 20 years ago.\n\nI thought about giving up, but I also wanted to find out if she finds true happiness again..... Nevertheless I feel we have reached the end of the road with Jones, and maybe we should leave her to live the rest of her life in peace and happiness without disgruntled readers knocking her off her pedestal.","Product: I am Pilgrim\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Pure escapism, but totally awesome\n\nReview: Oh my goodness, awesome read! I wish that I had this to read during recent holidays instead of some of the other books I read. I could have sat and sat and just read and read, instead of having to constantly get up and attend to stuff. So much going on in this 800 plus page door stop, it was an absolute whirlwind going on all the time. Just as entertaining are some of the online reviews - people hating it! For the purists out there, have to agree that it is populist fiction in the same vein as The Da Vinci Code, but to prevent it being too ridiculous it has much more of Robert Ludlum or Frederick Forsyth written all over it lifting it to a higher level than Dan Brown. And there is going to be movie, and there is a Facebook page!\n\nThis is a story of our times - Islam vs Christianity, Arab world vs America world, displaced populations, 9/11, terrorism, revenge, greed, murder. And this is what keeps it grounded in reality and makes it so compelling. At its heart this is a story of two men - Pilgrim and the Saracen. Pilgrim is a retired American secret agent so far off the grid that officially he does not exist. There is plenty of his back story in this which could be a movie all on its own. Parallel to Pilgrim's narration of his story is that of the Saracen, Saudi Arabian by birth, witness all his life to war, destruction, murder, terrorism, takes it upon himself to single handedly destroy America in a daring, devastating and deadly plan. It falls upon the heavily loaded shoulders of Pilgrim to stop him. At the same time, Pilgrim has been called into to help solve a gruesome murder that bears the hallmarks of things that only he would know about.\n\nIt is fabulous stuff, and I just did not want it to end. I had no idea how it would end, who would be living and who would not. Grab it and read it.","Product: BRAND NEW, Exactly same ISBN as listed, Please double check ISBN carefully before ordering.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: A novel about memories and I forgot to mention how funny parts of this are\n\nReview: This is such a wonderful book, so beautifully written, heart breaking and uplifting all at the same time. It is story of a life that has been sentenced to death, a mystery surrounding another death, how the memories of a child are often distorted from the reality.\n\nMemory, or Mnemosyne in Zimbabwean, is languishing in the Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison in Harare for the murder of the man, Lloyd Hendricks, to whom she was sold as a child. She denies the murder, and although there is much mystery about her relationship with Lloyd through most of the book, it is fairly clear she did not murder him.\n\nShe is however, a woman of two different worlds. For Lloyd was white, a university professor, who lived in an affluent part of town. She comes from an impoverished, traditional village life background, and flourishes in her new white world. Just as unusual is that Memory is a black albino, so finds that she is neither white nor black, a creature of oddness in both the black community and in the white community. Suspicion and mutterings follow Memory everywhere, and when Lloyd is found dead, Memory is the one charged, found guilty and sentenced to death. In an attempt to make sense of her life and how she has ended up in prison, she is writing a memoir that may also help her appeal to find her innocent.\n\nThe story moves effortlessly from the day to day tedium and anxiety of daily prison life, to Memory's childhood, her parents and siblings. As a child, she has some unanswered questions such as why there were never any grandparents or aunts, uncles and cousins in their lives as all the other children had. Two of her siblings are dead, was this why her mother was such a troubled soul? There comes the day when Memory, at age eight, is sold to Lloyd, and the next phase of her life begins, so leading up to the time she is charged with the murder. . This is all set against the backdrop of political unrest and fight for independence that dominated Rhodesia/Zimbabwe in the 1970s-1980s, as well as the seizures of white farmers' land and often their murders in retribution.\n\nBy the end of the book, Memory has dissected her memories sufficiently, and with some unexpected knowledge from a surprising source, she finally finds the answers that make sense of the confusing childhood and family life she had.\n\nI loved the way how the characters are so carefully developed and revealed through the course of the book - her parents and other adults of her village, her fellow prisoners and prison guards, Lloyd. It is almost as if we are part of Memory's own remembering of her life, this is our journey as much as hers. At the end, as with much of Memory's life to date, she is neither a free woman, nor an imprisoned woman. But a type of peace is reached.","Product: A train stops at a railway station. A young woman jumps off. She has wild hair, sloppy clothes, a distracted air. She looks indian, yet she is somehow not. The sudden violence of what happens next leaves the other passengers gasping.the train terminates at jarmuli, a temple town by the sea. Here, among pilgrims, priests and ashrams, three old women disembark only to encounter the girl once again. What is someone like her doing in this remote corner, which attracts only worshippers? over the next five days, the old women live out their long-planned dream of a holiday together; their temple guide finds ecstasy in forbidden love; and the girl is joined by a photographer battling his own demons. The fullforce of the evil and violence beneath the serene surface of the town becomes evident when their lives overlap and collide. Unexpected connections are revealed between devotion and violence, friendship and fear as jarmuli is revealed as a place with a long, dark past that transforms all who encounter it. This is a stark and unflinching novel by a spellbinding storyteller, about religion, love, and violence in the modern world.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Beautiful descriptive writing, the taste and feel of India drips off the page, but not a nice story.\n\nReview: Exquisetly written and totally evocative of modern day India, still caught it would seem between the demands of the consumerist 21st century, and the deep rooted spiritulism at the core of what India is all about. I loved the writing, the drawing of the characters, the small and minute detail of each of them and the exchanges that take place between them. Amidst the chaos of modern day India, it is the intimacy of the relationships between people, the ties that bind, that stand out so much in this story.\n\nBut it is not a nice story, and throughout there is an undertone of menace, of impending disaster, and as the Guardian reviewer put it, 'violence and misogyny abound'. Such a prevalent theme in novels of India.\n\nNomita, now a young woman, has returned to India, having left at about the age of 12, when she was fostered/adopted by a woman in Norway. When she was about 6 or 7, she lost her entire family during a time of violence, was rescued with a number of other young girls from a boat and they were all placed in the care of a highly respected and adored spiritual leader at his ashram. His good name is of course a cover for a range of abuse that takes place at the ashram and the girls are among the victims. Nom's whole childhood is pretty grim, including her time in Norway, and now as a young woman she wishes to find some closure by returning to the ashram, abandoned and derelict. The town itself is still a major pilgrimage destination and floods of tourists visit.\n\nAs a result Nom runs into other characters in the story including 3 elderly women travelling together to make a once in a lifetime pilgrimage, a photographer travelling with Nom who is also using the visit to make a documentary about the town and its sacred sites, a young man who is a tourist guide at the very famous temple everyone is visiting, a chai-wallah and his young assistant. All around is the dust, the noise, the crowds of people, the colour of saris, the smell of spices, as the interactions between all these people unfolds. There isn't a great deal of plot, and the whole thing is really pretty grim, but as I say, the writing is gorgeous."],"string":"[\n \"Product: This is NOT a signature edition. It's a paperback called \\\"Remembered Death\\\" by Agatha Christie. The original British Title: \\\"Sparkling Cyanide\\\". From inside the front cover: Your Wife Rosemary Didn't Kill Herself. She Was Murdered! George Barton received this strange anonymous note almost a year after Rosemary's death. It had all started at Rosemary's birthday party. The six guests saw her take a glass of champagne. Suddenly she slumped to the floor-dead. The verdict: suicide by poison. But after the note, people started to remember things: Rosemary's passionate letter to a mysterious lover, \\\"Leopard.\\\" Handsome Anthony Browne's threats. The fact that Rosemary's penniless sister stood to inherit all of her fabulous fortune. Then somebody remembered one thing too many. So the killer struck again! From the back cover: It was certainly a strange kind of party to celebrate Rosemary's birthday. Every guest had a motive for her murder....\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Murder at the Dinner Table\\n\\nReview: Isn't she wonderful, the most widely published author in the English language after the Bible and Shakespeare! She isn't called the Queen of Mystery for nothing. Imagine having this fantastic storyteller as your grandmother. Bedtime stories sure would be something else! I haven't read Agatha Chrisite for years and years, and ambling through the library one day recently, waiting for something to pop out at me, this did! Like so many of her stories, this murder involves just a small group of people, intimately linked to the deceased, with more than likely one of the remainings to no longer alive at the end of it all. So as well as pondering over who did it, you are also left pondering who isn't going to make it.\\n\\nThe title refers to the means of death - cyanide in a glass of French champagne. Rosemary Barton is the first deceased, whose death at the dinner table, with previously mentioned small group of people, opens the story. The remaining characters are her older husband George, her younger sister Iris, her husband's personal assistant Ruth, her lover Stephen Farraday, another male 'friend' Anthony Browne and lastly Sandra, the wife of Stephen Farraday. All with their intriguing back stories, and their motives, but do they have the means? And who else won't be left standing by the end?\\n\\nBrilliant stuff, such insight and understanding into the human condition, what motivates us, and why we behave in certain ways. And she writes so easily, making her novels very readable and compelling. With the last of the Hercule Poirot TV movies starring David Suchet being made this year, hopefully interest will be revived in the marvellous and timeless books written by Agatha Christie.\",\n \"Product: THE NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER. WINNER OF THE 2010 COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD. 264 wood and ivory carvings, none of them bigger than a matchbox: Edmund de Waal was entranced when he first encountered the collection in his great uncle Iggie's Tokyo apartment. When he later inherited the 'netsuke', they unlocked a story far larger and more dramatic than he could ever have imagined. From a burgeoning empire in Odessa to fin de siecle Paris, from occupied Vienna to Tokyo, Edmund de Waal traces the netsuke's journey through generations of his remarkable family against the backdrop of a tumultuous century. 'You have in your hands a masterpiece' Frances Wilson, Sunday Times. 'The most brilliant book I've read for years...A rich tale of the pleasure and pains of what it is to be human' Bettany Hughes, Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year. 'A complex and beautiful book' Diana Athill.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A Thing of Beauty is a Joy Forever\\n\\nReview: Edmund De Waal is a very well-known and highly regarded English potter and ceramicist. In keeping with many great artists his passion and dedication to his art was apparent from a very young age and once he earned his first class honours from Cambridge University he turned his energies and focus to his art. His specific interest appears to have laid in Japanese porcelain and to this end he studied in Japan, where coincidentally his great uncle, Ignace Ephrussi had lived for many years. Uncle Iggie fled Austria in the late 1930s for America and ended up in Japan after the war helping with the reconstruction process. He never left. What also remained with him till his death when they were inherited by Edmund, was a collection of 264 tiny hand carved wood and ivory carvings - netsuke - small enough to fit in the palm of a hand or a trouser pocket. And more importantly small enough to be moved around and kept safe.\\n\\nEdmund is a direct descendant of the extremely wealthy and very upwardly mobile Russian-Jewish Ephrussi family whose fortune was made from humble origins as grain merchants in Odessa. By the 1860s the family had become the greatest grain exporters in the world, extremely wealthy and influential. The family had branched out into finance with their own banks and extensive business interests through Europe. In the 1870s the two sons were sent respectively to Paris and Vienna to further develop and cement the family's interests in Europe. Despite being incredibly rich and influential in many areas of high society the family was nevertheless Jewish and subject to many of the prejudices and antisemitism that were so prevalent at the time. It all came to a a head of course in the 1930s with the family in Vienna in particular losing literally everything they had ever possessed including their own identities. But miraculously, for the most part, they survived. Edmund's Uncle Iggie was one of the survivors. As was the collection of netsuke which had made its way to the Paris of the 1870s when they were first purchased by man about town/art collector/writer and critic Charles Ephrussi to Vienna to Japan and finally to Edmund in England. And that is all I will say about the story of the netsuke because this is story you need to read for yourself.\\n\\nThis is such a great read because of the way it is told. Edmund, as the custodian of the netsuke including his favourite the hare with amber eyes, feels enormous responsibility for the collection he has inherited. He is captivated by the collection's history and how it is integral to the history of his own family. And so he finds the story taking over his own life as he travels to Odessa, Paris, Vienna and Tokyo uncovering the lives of his family in these places. It would be easy to turn this story into a strict narrative with family anecdotes, and the horrors of war and antisemitism that we are so familiar with. But no, the author loves these family members of his, he wants to get beyond what they do, gets under their skins, becomes incredibly intimate with them. His artist's eye, with its intensity and impeccable eye for detail has given us a portrayal of a family and its history, surrounded by limitless wealth and beautiful things that nevertheless never really finds full acceptance into the society it wants to be accepted in. And the only constant is the netsuke collection that becomes the one remaining link between Edmund and his own young family, and the Ephrussis who left Russia with such huge hopes in the 1870s.\\n\\nAs a book of writing it is not perfect. Edmund is a tad indulgent of some of his predecessors, especially Charles in late 19th century Paris. In fact a lot of this was lost on me - I have never read Proust, and some of the artists I have never heard of, but Google has been working over time since filling me in.\\n\\nThis is a book club book so it is not mine, but I will be finding my own copy. It is the type of book, when you want a few moments to be reminded of beauty in the world, you can pick this up, open any chapter and be swept back into a time and history we have lost, with love and strength of family at its core. For me the one line review on the back cover by A.S Byatt sums it all up - 'Weird, strange and gripping'.\",\n \"Product: Controversial and compelling, \\\"In Cold Blood\\\" reconstructs the murder in 1959 of a Kansas farmer, his wife and both their children. Truman Capote's comprehensive study of the killings and subsequent investigation explores the circumstances surrounding this terrible crime and the effect it had on those involved. At the centre of his study are the amoral young killers Perry Smith and Dick Hickcock, who, vividly drawn by Capote, are shown to be reprehensible yet entirely and frighteningly human. The book that made Capote's name, In Cold Blood is a seminal work of modern prose, a remarkable synthesis of journalistic skill and powerfully evocative narrative.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Spine chillingly brilliant and horrifying\\n\\nReview: No review from me will ever do this book justice. I can't say marvellous, fabulous, fantastic and all those other uplifting and positive words, because the book is about murder most horrible - in cold blood no less. But as a quality book, a well written, put together and very memorable book to read, it is, for me, right up there with the best. There are many, many very interesting and insightful and passionate reviews on Goodreads and other places about this book. The most memorable review I read was by a man who grew up in the state of Kansas. It was near the small town of Holcomb in south west Kansas, that one night in November 1959, the Clutter family of four were tied up, tortured then shot in their beds by two petty criminals looking for a safe full of money. The reviewer met a librarian who grew up not far from the Clutter farm, and vividly remembers her father putting locks on all the outside doors of the house after the murders. She sounds scared when she is telling the reviewer this some 55 years later. Truman Capote also conveys very vividly this fear that the local people had about what had happened in their small safe farming community.\\n\\nThe book is subtitled 'A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences'. It marked Capote's first foray into what we now call the non-fiction novel, a new genre at the time he wrote this book in the 1960s. After the murders occurred Capote and his friend Harper Lee travelled to Kansas and interviewed as many people as they could about the family, the community, the murder and so on. Smith and Hickock, the two killers, were eventually hanged for their crime. But not before Capote also spent time interviewing them. His book also tells their stories and how they came to be killers. Apparently some of the things in the book are not strictly correct, but it does not detract from what is a captivating read, the perfection of his character portrayals, the whole horrifying next door feel about it all. It is a book of horror, chillingly so, made more so by it being written in the neutral tones of reportage.\",\n \"Product: Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Bridget's life - as chaotic as ever\\n\\nReview: Having come to this book months after it was released and the disbelief and shock that devoted Bridget fans felt on reading it, I knew, sort of, what to expect. Bridget, alone, again, looking for love. Nothing new there.\\n\\nSo much effort, mentally, physically and emotionally was at the centre of Bridget finding true love in the first two books that there was a certain emptiness in the reading of most of this sequel. There is really no Darcy in this, other than in her memory, although I did like her seeing glimpses of him in her son - yes, let's bring back Darcy. What a dream of a man, and what a dream of a couple they were. And that is the problem with this book - there is not one single adult relationship that comes anywhere near close to the relationship Bridget and Darcy had. Her friends, who I barely remember from the other books, are awful - flaky, directionless, boring, unhappy and I have no idea why Bridget continues to be friends with any of them. Daniel, who I never particularly liked, is a disaster, as intensely narcissistic as ever, and it catches up with him. What a freak. Even Bridget doubts her own judgement in having him babysit her children. Eventually.\\n\\nSo Bridget is unhappy in widowhood. It is now five years since Darcy left this mortal coil. She has two young children, Billy at school and Mabel almost at school. She still, yes still, obsesses about her weight, her alcoholic intake, her daily life is still chaotic. As well as being Mum, which she actually does incredibly well - good on you Jones, she is developing her talents as a writer of screenplays. To my horror she decides to join Twitter and her daily tally of followers joins the daily update of weight, calorie intake, texts received - all the stuff that heralds the beginning of a new day in the world of Bridget Jones.\\n\\nThis Twitter stuff is awful, with swags of text in the book transcribing these awful Twitter exchanges she has. She meets a man though - #Roxter, which I kept misreading as Rooster! You cougar Jones. Hot and steamy romance ensues. Hot and steamy romance ends. Jones moves on, book ends.\\n\\nAt times, I must say, the real Bridget Jones shone through, and I felt like I was meeting up with an old friend, she is such a honey. But it has been twenty years or so since we first met Bridget and she hasn't really changed or grown up at all. I honestly could not believe she was 50, she was still wittering on just like she did when juggling Darcy and Daniel. Had she not done any maturing/growing up during her years as Mrs Darcy and having her babies? Intensely annoying. I don't know anyone who is the same person they were 20 years ago.\\n\\nI thought about giving up, but I also wanted to find out if she finds true happiness again..... Nevertheless I feel we have reached the end of the road with Jones, and maybe we should leave her to live the rest of her life in peace and happiness without disgruntled readers knocking her off her pedestal.\",\n \"Product: I am Pilgrim\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Pure escapism, but totally awesome\\n\\nReview: Oh my goodness, awesome read! I wish that I had this to read during recent holidays instead of some of the other books I read. I could have sat and sat and just read and read, instead of having to constantly get up and attend to stuff. So much going on in this 800 plus page door stop, it was an absolute whirlwind going on all the time. Just as entertaining are some of the online reviews - people hating it! For the purists out there, have to agree that it is populist fiction in the same vein as The Da Vinci Code, but to prevent it being too ridiculous it has much more of Robert Ludlum or Frederick Forsyth written all over it lifting it to a higher level than Dan Brown. And there is going to be movie, and there is a Facebook page!\\n\\nThis is a story of our times - Islam vs Christianity, Arab world vs America world, displaced populations, 9/11, terrorism, revenge, greed, murder. And this is what keeps it grounded in reality and makes it so compelling. At its heart this is a story of two men - Pilgrim and the Saracen. Pilgrim is a retired American secret agent so far off the grid that officially he does not exist. There is plenty of his back story in this which could be a movie all on its own. Parallel to Pilgrim's narration of his story is that of the Saracen, Saudi Arabian by birth, witness all his life to war, destruction, murder, terrorism, takes it upon himself to single handedly destroy America in a daring, devastating and deadly plan. It falls upon the heavily loaded shoulders of Pilgrim to stop him. At the same time, Pilgrim has been called into to help solve a gruesome murder that bears the hallmarks of things that only he would know about.\\n\\nIt is fabulous stuff, and I just did not want it to end. I had no idea how it would end, who would be living and who would not. Grab it and read it.\",\n \"Product: BRAND NEW, Exactly same ISBN as listed, Please double check ISBN carefully before ordering.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: A novel about memories and I forgot to mention how funny parts of this are\\n\\nReview: This is such a wonderful book, so beautifully written, heart breaking and uplifting all at the same time. It is story of a life that has been sentenced to death, a mystery surrounding another death, how the memories of a child are often distorted from the reality.\\n\\nMemory, or Mnemosyne in Zimbabwean, is languishing in the Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison in Harare for the murder of the man, Lloyd Hendricks, to whom she was sold as a child. She denies the murder, and although there is much mystery about her relationship with Lloyd through most of the book, it is fairly clear she did not murder him.\\n\\nShe is however, a woman of two different worlds. For Lloyd was white, a university professor, who lived in an affluent part of town. She comes from an impoverished, traditional village life background, and flourishes in her new white world. Just as unusual is that Memory is a black albino, so finds that she is neither white nor black, a creature of oddness in both the black community and in the white community. Suspicion and mutterings follow Memory everywhere, and when Lloyd is found dead, Memory is the one charged, found guilty and sentenced to death. In an attempt to make sense of her life and how she has ended up in prison, she is writing a memoir that may also help her appeal to find her innocent.\\n\\nThe story moves effortlessly from the day to day tedium and anxiety of daily prison life, to Memory's childhood, her parents and siblings. As a child, she has some unanswered questions such as why there were never any grandparents or aunts, uncles and cousins in their lives as all the other children had. Two of her siblings are dead, was this why her mother was such a troubled soul? There comes the day when Memory, at age eight, is sold to Lloyd, and the next phase of her life begins, so leading up to the time she is charged with the murder. . This is all set against the backdrop of political unrest and fight for independence that dominated Rhodesia/Zimbabwe in the 1970s-1980s, as well as the seizures of white farmers' land and often their murders in retribution.\\n\\nBy the end of the book, Memory has dissected her memories sufficiently, and with some unexpected knowledge from a surprising source, she finally finds the answers that make sense of the confusing childhood and family life she had.\\n\\nI loved the way how the characters are so carefully developed and revealed through the course of the book - her parents and other adults of her village, her fellow prisoners and prison guards, Lloyd. It is almost as if we are part of Memory's own remembering of her life, this is our journey as much as hers. At the end, as with much of Memory's life to date, she is neither a free woman, nor an imprisoned woman. But a type of peace is reached.\",\n \"Product: A train stops at a railway station. A young woman jumps off. She has wild hair, sloppy clothes, a distracted air. She looks indian, yet she is somehow not. The sudden violence of what happens next leaves the other passengers gasping.the train terminates at jarmuli, a temple town by the sea. Here, among pilgrims, priests and ashrams, three old women disembark only to encounter the girl once again. What is someone like her doing in this remote corner, which attracts only worshippers? over the next five days, the old women live out their long-planned dream of a holiday together; their temple guide finds ecstasy in forbidden love; and the girl is joined by a photographer battling his own demons. The fullforce of the evil and violence beneath the serene surface of the town becomes evident when their lives overlap and collide. Unexpected connections are revealed between devotion and violence, friendship and fear as jarmuli is revealed as a place with a long, dark past that transforms all who encounter it. This is a stark and unflinching novel by a spellbinding storyteller, about religion, love, and violence in the modern world.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Beautiful descriptive writing, the taste and feel of India drips off the page, but not a nice story.\\n\\nReview: Exquisetly written and totally evocative of modern day India, still caught it would seem between the demands of the consumerist 21st century, and the deep rooted spiritulism at the core of what India is all about. I loved the writing, the drawing of the characters, the small and minute detail of each of them and the exchanges that take place between them. Amidst the chaos of modern day India, it is the intimacy of the relationships between people, the ties that bind, that stand out so much in this story.\\n\\nBut it is not a nice story, and throughout there is an undertone of menace, of impending disaster, and as the Guardian reviewer put it, 'violence and misogyny abound'. Such a prevalent theme in novels of India.\\n\\nNomita, now a young woman, has returned to India, having left at about the age of 12, when she was fostered/adopted by a woman in Norway. When she was about 6 or 7, she lost her entire family during a time of violence, was rescued with a number of other young girls from a boat and they were all placed in the care of a highly respected and adored spiritual leader at his ashram. His good name is of course a cover for a range of abuse that takes place at the ashram and the girls are among the victims. Nom's whole childhood is pretty grim, including her time in Norway, and now as a young woman she wishes to find some closure by returning to the ashram, abandoned and derelict. The town itself is still a major pilgrimage destination and floods of tourists visit.\\n\\nAs a result Nom runs into other characters in the story including 3 elderly women travelling together to make a once in a lifetime pilgrimage, a photographer travelling with Nom who is also using the visit to make a documentary about the town and its sacred sites, a young man who is a tourist guide at the very famous temple everyone is visiting, a chai-wallah and his young assistant. All around is the dust, the noise, the crowds of people, the colour of saris, the smell of spices, as the interactions between all these people unfolds. There isn't a great deal of plot, and the whole thing is really pretty grim, but as I say, the writing is gorgeous.\"\n]","isConversational":false},"profile_size":{"kind":"number","value":7,"string":"7"},"task":{"kind":"string","value":"longlamp_3"},"split_kind":{"kind":"string","value":"user_based"},"id":{"kind":"number","value":1684,"string":"1,684"}}},{"rowIdx":1685,"cells":{"question_id":{"kind":"string","value":"A8KPP7GP7VJ18"},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of \"5.0\" for a product with description \"Kathy Reichs is forensic anthropologist for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, State of North Carolina, and for the Laboratorie de Sciences Judiciaires et de Medecine Legale for the province of Quebec. She is one of only fifty-six forensic anthropologists certified by the American Board of Forensic Antrhopology, and served on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. A professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Dr Reichs is a native of Chicago, hwere she received her Ph.D at Northwestern. She divides her time between Charlotte and Montreal, and is a frequent expert witness in criminal trials.\". The summary of the review text is \"Guaranteed to Give you Nightmares\"."},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"Tempe is in Guatemala, helping to unearth the bodies of 28 villagers disappeared (killed by the govt.) during the civil war there. Two of her colleagues are attacked, one dies. Tempe has to be careful, as there could still be people in the government that were involved in the massacre.\n\nThen she gets involved with the disappearance of four girls, one of them the daughter of the Canadian ambassador and all of a sudden the authorities that were so eager for her help with the decomposing bodies of the villagers want her out of Dodge.\n\nTo add to the plot there is a Latin love interest who just happened to go to school with old flame Ryan who comes to Guatemala because one of the four missing girls is the daughter of the Canadian Ambassador.\n\nThis book seemed somehow different than Reichs' previous four. That's not bad, an author should change and grow. Tempe seems to have a little more punch. Also this book starts off on a dark note that lasts throughout, but with Reich's detailed description of the death pit, how could it not be dark.\n\nA word of caution, don't read this five star thriller before dinner, especially the secptic tank part, because it'll definitely throw you off your feed. Don't read it before bed either, because if you do, nightmares are guaranteed. Read it on a rainy day, then watch an episode of the Honeymooners to get it out of your system."},"correct_answer":{"kind":"string","value":"Tempe is in Guatemala, helping to unearth the bodies of 28 villagers disappeared (killed by the govt.) during the civil war there. Two of her colleagues are attacked, one dies. Tempe has to be careful, as there could still be people in the government that were involved in the massacre.\n\nThen she gets involved with the disappearance of four girls, one of them the daughter of the Canadian ambassador and all of a sudden the authorities that were so eager for her help with the decomposing bodies of the villagers want her out of Dodge.\n\nTo add to the plot there is a Latin love interest who just happened to go to school with old flame Ryan who comes to Guatemala because one of the four missing girls is the daughter of the Canadian Ambassador.\n\nThis book seemed somehow different than Reichs' previous four. That's not bad, an author should change and grow. Tempe seems to have a little more punch. Also this book starts off on a dark note that lasts throughout, but with Reich's detailed description of the death pit, how could it not be dark.\n\nA word of caution, don't read this five star thriller before dinner, especially the secptic tank part, because it'll definitely throw you off your feed. Don't read it before bed either, because if you do, nightmares are guaranteed. Read it on a rainy day, then watch an episode of the Honeymooners to get it out of your system."},"documents":{"kind":"list like","value":["Product: 'This is my central philosophy: one starts off with something as an academic study but from it stems a series of important things to say which must be got over to a greater audience in a variety of forms. So to some extent one foxes everyone by simultaneously being scholar and academic, populariser and communicator, and sticking to the belief that these are not incompatible.' - Roy Strong, 1971. For almost forty years, Roy Strong has been in the public spotlight - as the director of the National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum, as a broadcaster, consultant and lecturer, and as the author of many books on art, history, garden design and food. Published to celebrate Roy Strong's 70th birthday in August 2005, this collection of pieces showcases the wide range of his interests and passions: from a meditation on the nature of beauty and reflections on the English national character to the passionate defence of the importance of history and an assessment of the consequences of devolution. Along the way, we learn about Sir Roy's first years at the National Portrait Gallery as a young assistant keeper, hear his personal recollections of the Queen Mother, and read his poignant and moving thoughts on the nature of grief and happiness. This collection will be cherished by the many people who have followed Sir Roy's long career with admiration and devotion; for others, it will provide the perfect introduction to the life and work of this national treasure.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Save the Killer or Not, That is the Question\n\nReview: Dr. Jessie Copeland, a gifted and respected neurosurgeon at one of Boston's leading hospitals, is dedicated to her work and to her patients, she is also at the forefront of developing a ground breaking technique that will revolutionize brain surgery.\n\nClaude Malloche is suffeirng from a brain tumor and wants Jesse to treat him with her new technique, but he's a ruthless killer. Jessie faces a serious dilemma, if she saves him, he'll undoubtedly go on to kill again. To ensure that Jessie do her level best, Malloche holds both the hospital and the city to ransom. If Jessie fails, hundreds of innocent people will die.\n\nMichael Palmer has written another pulse pounding medical thriller that drips with excitement, one you won't want to miss.","Product: Here is one of those rare novels, so captivatingly original, so absurdly funny, surprising and moving, that it crosses all boundaries. In 1971 Mao's campaign against the intellectuals is at its height. Our narrator and his best friend, Luo, distinctly unintellectual but guilty of being the sons of doctors, have been sent to a remote mountain village to be 'reeducated'. The kind of education that takes place among the peasants of Phoenix Mountain involves carting buckets of excrement up and down precipitous, foggy paths, but the two seventeen-year-olds have a violin and their sense of humour to keep them going. Further distraction is provided by the attractive daughter of the local tailor, possessor of a particularly fine pair of feet. Their true re-education starts, however, when they discover a comrade's hidden stash of classics of great nineteenth-century Western literature - Balzac, Dickens, Dumas, Tolstoy and others, in Chinese translation. They need all their ingenuity to get their hands on the forbidden books, but when they do their lives are turned upside down. And not only their lives: after listening to their dangerously seductive retellings of Balzac, the Little Seamstress will never be the same again. Without betraying the truth of what happened, Dai Sijie transforms the bleak events of China's Cultural Revolution into an enchanting and unexpected story about the resilience of the human spirit and the magical power of great storytelling.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Balzac And The Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie\n\nReview: During the Cultural Revolution in China any boy or girl who had finished high school was labeled an intellectual and was sent to the countryside to be re-educated and this fate falls on young Luo.\n\nHe brings an alarm clock shaped like a rooster with him and since the villagers had never seen one before, they turn it into an idol. Luo takes advantage of that by changing the time now and then to gain an extra hour's sleep from a headmaster who depends upon the clock to tell him when to send him out to work. The work he does for the \"good of the revolution\" is grinding, filthy labor for which he's not paid. It's no wonder he tries to escape from it now and then.\n\nNo one being re-educated is permitted to read anything except Mao's book of sayings, but Luo gets a hold of a book written by Balzac and the world of ideas opens. He wants other books. Then he meets the beautiful young seamstress and shares Balzac with her and now she too, wants books.\n\nLuo falls in love and wants to get them for her, not only to please her but also to raise her up from her lack of education to become something other than just a peasant girl. In his desire to \"re-educate\" the girl he loves, resides lies their ultimate future.\n\nThis is a wonderful five star story that will take you to a place you've never been and will perhaps teach you a little about relationship and love. In my opinion you should get this little book, it'll capture your heart.","Product: The Source by James A Michener; Intern by Doctor X; Hotel St Gregory by Arthur Hailey; To Sir, With Love by ER Braithwaite\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Couldn't Put it Down\n\nReview: Psychologist Jeremy Carrier's life fell apart when the love of his life was brutally murdered and though six months have gone by, he is still shattered by her death, and the fact that he was a suspect in his girlfriend's murder made his ordeal infinitely worse.\n\nNow Homicide detective Bob Doresh is back at the hospital with more questions. A forty-five year old prostitute named Tyrene Mazursky has been murdered in the same fashion and Doresh wants to know if Jeremy has an alibi. Then another prostitute is murdered.\n\nDr. Arthur Chess, sort of a professor emeritus at the hospital where Jeremy works, befriends him and invites him to a get together with several other oldsters who have irregular meetings to discuss whatever catches their fancy and now it looks like conspiracy, serial killers and unsolved murders have caught their interest.\n\nSlowly Chess feeds Jeremy clues as he feels the pressure of the police closing in and the urgency of having to solve the murder before the killer strikes again or the police arrest him and throw away the key.\n\nKellerman has introduced a new protagonist and though he's not the Alex Delaware we've come to know and love, I suspect we'll be seen more of Dr. Carrier in the next couple of years and I for one wouldn't mind that at all.","Product: Paperback-Acceptable-Red cover instead of white and same book.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Sometimes a Little Knowledge Can be a Deadly Thing\n\nReview: Matthew Mercer works on Capitol Hill writing Interior Appropriations for Congressman Cordell. The committee the congressman serves on decides where and when discretionary monies are spent. His best friend Harris Sandler is a Senate staff member and deals with the orientation of Congressional pages.\n\nHarris is the kind of guy everybody likes, confident, sure of himself and he likes to play games. Like pinning the Lorax, the Dr. Seuss character who speakes for the trees \"for the trees have no tonuges,\" on Congressman Enemark's lapel when he's not looking. The congressman is the Dean of the House and Congress's longest serving Member and according to Matthew, \"He'd clearcut Oregon, hang billboards in the Grand Canyon, and vote to pave over his own garden with baby seal skins if he thought it'd get him some cash.\"\n\nMatthew is bored and cynical, looking for excitement, so when Harris introduces him to a clandestine game betting on the likelihood of various pieces of legislation being passed, he plays. It's a harmless little betting game centered around how many votes there will be on a particular bill. One day the bet concerns a trivial government land sale that Matthew has the power to control. It's a sure thing and Matthew and Harris bet their savings.\n\nThe way the game works, each person invites one other person to play, so each player knows only two others, the rest of the players are kept anonymous. But the game hides an explosive secret and turns deadly when someone close to them winds up dead. Now they realize the rules have changed and that they're about to become the game's next victims as a ruthless killer is on their trail.\n\nThey turn to the only person who they can trust, a young and idealistic black Senate page named Viv who, because she can move around the Capitol undetected and in and out of private offices without raising suspicion, turns out to be the perfect person to save their bacon.\n\nTHE ZERO GAME was an excellent read, but Mr. Metzer writes in the first person present tense and that took me a whole chapter to get used to, but once I did I was caught up in the book and the game, unable to quit till both were finished, plus as an added benefit I relearned how government really works. Something I think I learned back in college, but sadly forgot, however it's something I'm certainly going to remember the next time I go to the polls.","Product: Paperback-Acceptable-Red cover instead of white and same book.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Couldn't Put it Down\n\nReview: Psychologist Jeremy Carrier's life fell apart when the love of his life was brutally murdered and though six months have gone by, he is still shattered by her death, and the fact that he was a suspect in his girlfriend's murder made his ordeal infinitely worse.\n\nNow Homicide detective Bob Doresh is back at the hospital with more questions. A forty-five year old prostitute named Tyrene Mazursky has been murdered in the same fashion and Doresh wants to know if Jeremy has an alibi. Then another prostitute is murdered.\n\nDr. Arthur Chess, sort of a professor emeritus at the hospital where Jeremy works, befriends him and invites him to a get together with several other oldsters who have irregular meetings to discuss whatever catches their fancy and now it looks like conspiracy, serial killers and unsolved murders have caught their interest.\n\nSlowly Chess feeds Jeremy clues as he feels the pressure of the police closing in and the urgency of having to solve the murder before the killer strikes again or the police arrest him and throw away the key.\n\nKellerman has introduced a new protagonist and though he's not the Alex Delaware we've come to know and love, I suspect we'll be seen more of Dr. Carrier in the next couple of years and I for one wouldn't mind that at all."],"string":"[\n \"Product: 'This is my central philosophy: one starts off with something as an academic study but from it stems a series of important things to say which must be got over to a greater audience in a variety of forms. So to some extent one foxes everyone by simultaneously being scholar and academic, populariser and communicator, and sticking to the belief that these are not incompatible.' - Roy Strong, 1971. For almost forty years, Roy Strong has been in the public spotlight - as the director of the National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum, as a broadcaster, consultant and lecturer, and as the author of many books on art, history, garden design and food. Published to celebrate Roy Strong's 70th birthday in August 2005, this collection of pieces showcases the wide range of his interests and passions: from a meditation on the nature of beauty and reflections on the English national character to the passionate defence of the importance of history and an assessment of the consequences of devolution. Along the way, we learn about Sir Roy's first years at the National Portrait Gallery as a young assistant keeper, hear his personal recollections of the Queen Mother, and read his poignant and moving thoughts on the nature of grief and happiness. This collection will be cherished by the many people who have followed Sir Roy's long career with admiration and devotion; for others, it will provide the perfect introduction to the life and work of this national treasure.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Save the Killer or Not, That is the Question\\n\\nReview: Dr. Jessie Copeland, a gifted and respected neurosurgeon at one of Boston's leading hospitals, is dedicated to her work and to her patients, she is also at the forefront of developing a ground breaking technique that will revolutionize brain surgery.\\n\\nClaude Malloche is suffeirng from a brain tumor and wants Jesse to treat him with her new technique, but he's a ruthless killer. Jessie faces a serious dilemma, if she saves him, he'll undoubtedly go on to kill again. To ensure that Jessie do her level best, Malloche holds both the hospital and the city to ransom. If Jessie fails, hundreds of innocent people will die.\\n\\nMichael Palmer has written another pulse pounding medical thriller that drips with excitement, one you won't want to miss.\",\n \"Product: Here is one of those rare novels, so captivatingly original, so absurdly funny, surprising and moving, that it crosses all boundaries. In 1971 Mao's campaign against the intellectuals is at its height. Our narrator and his best friend, Luo, distinctly unintellectual but guilty of being the sons of doctors, have been sent to a remote mountain village to be 'reeducated'. The kind of education that takes place among the peasants of Phoenix Mountain involves carting buckets of excrement up and down precipitous, foggy paths, but the two seventeen-year-olds have a violin and their sense of humour to keep them going. Further distraction is provided by the attractive daughter of the local tailor, possessor of a particularly fine pair of feet. Their true re-education starts, however, when they discover a comrade's hidden stash of classics of great nineteenth-century Western literature - Balzac, Dickens, Dumas, Tolstoy and others, in Chinese translation. They need all their ingenuity to get their hands on the forbidden books, but when they do their lives are turned upside down. And not only their lives: after listening to their dangerously seductive retellings of Balzac, the Little Seamstress will never be the same again. Without betraying the truth of what happened, Dai Sijie transforms the bleak events of China's Cultural Revolution into an enchanting and unexpected story about the resilience of the human spirit and the magical power of great storytelling.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Balzac And The Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie\\n\\nReview: During the Cultural Revolution in China any boy or girl who had finished high school was labeled an intellectual and was sent to the countryside to be re-educated and this fate falls on young Luo.\\n\\nHe brings an alarm clock shaped like a rooster with him and since the villagers had never seen one before, they turn it into an idol. Luo takes advantage of that by changing the time now and then to gain an extra hour's sleep from a headmaster who depends upon the clock to tell him when to send him out to work. The work he does for the \\\"good of the revolution\\\" is grinding, filthy labor for which he's not paid. It's no wonder he tries to escape from it now and then.\\n\\nNo one being re-educated is permitted to read anything except Mao's book of sayings, but Luo gets a hold of a book written by Balzac and the world of ideas opens. He wants other books. Then he meets the beautiful young seamstress and shares Balzac with her and now she too, wants books.\\n\\nLuo falls in love and wants to get them for her, not only to please her but also to raise her up from her lack of education to become something other than just a peasant girl. In his desire to \\\"re-educate\\\" the girl he loves, resides lies their ultimate future.\\n\\nThis is a wonderful five star story that will take you to a place you've never been and will perhaps teach you a little about relationship and love. In my opinion you should get this little book, it'll capture your heart.\",\n \"Product: The Source by James A Michener; Intern by Doctor X; Hotel St Gregory by Arthur Hailey; To Sir, With Love by ER Braithwaite\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Couldn't Put it Down\\n\\nReview: Psychologist Jeremy Carrier's life fell apart when the love of his life was brutally murdered and though six months have gone by, he is still shattered by her death, and the fact that he was a suspect in his girlfriend's murder made his ordeal infinitely worse.\\n\\nNow Homicide detective Bob Doresh is back at the hospital with more questions. A forty-five year old prostitute named Tyrene Mazursky has been murdered in the same fashion and Doresh wants to know if Jeremy has an alibi. Then another prostitute is murdered.\\n\\nDr. Arthur Chess, sort of a professor emeritus at the hospital where Jeremy works, befriends him and invites him to a get together with several other oldsters who have irregular meetings to discuss whatever catches their fancy and now it looks like conspiracy, serial killers and unsolved murders have caught their interest.\\n\\nSlowly Chess feeds Jeremy clues as he feels the pressure of the police closing in and the urgency of having to solve the murder before the killer strikes again or the police arrest him and throw away the key.\\n\\nKellerman has introduced a new protagonist and though he's not the Alex Delaware we've come to know and love, I suspect we'll be seen more of Dr. Carrier in the next couple of years and I for one wouldn't mind that at all.\",\n \"Product: Paperback-Acceptable-Red cover instead of white and same book.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Sometimes a Little Knowledge Can be a Deadly Thing\\n\\nReview: Matthew Mercer works on Capitol Hill writing Interior Appropriations for Congressman Cordell. The committee the congressman serves on decides where and when discretionary monies are spent. His best friend Harris Sandler is a Senate staff member and deals with the orientation of Congressional pages.\\n\\nHarris is the kind of guy everybody likes, confident, sure of himself and he likes to play games. Like pinning the Lorax, the Dr. Seuss character who speakes for the trees \\\"for the trees have no tonuges,\\\" on Congressman Enemark's lapel when he's not looking. The congressman is the Dean of the House and Congress's longest serving Member and according to Matthew, \\\"He'd clearcut Oregon, hang billboards in the Grand Canyon, and vote to pave over his own garden with baby seal skins if he thought it'd get him some cash.\\\"\\n\\nMatthew is bored and cynical, looking for excitement, so when Harris introduces him to a clandestine game betting on the likelihood of various pieces of legislation being passed, he plays. It's a harmless little betting game centered around how many votes there will be on a particular bill. One day the bet concerns a trivial government land sale that Matthew has the power to control. It's a sure thing and Matthew and Harris bet their savings.\\n\\nThe way the game works, each person invites one other person to play, so each player knows only two others, the rest of the players are kept anonymous. But the game hides an explosive secret and turns deadly when someone close to them winds up dead. Now they realize the rules have changed and that they're about to become the game's next victims as a ruthless killer is on their trail.\\n\\nThey turn to the only person who they can trust, a young and idealistic black Senate page named Viv who, because she can move around the Capitol undetected and in and out of private offices without raising suspicion, turns out to be the perfect person to save their bacon.\\n\\nTHE ZERO GAME was an excellent read, but Mr. Metzer writes in the first person present tense and that took me a whole chapter to get used to, but once I did I was caught up in the book and the game, unable to quit till both were finished, plus as an added benefit I relearned how government really works. Something I think I learned back in college, but sadly forgot, however it's something I'm certainly going to remember the next time I go to the polls.\",\n \"Product: Paperback-Acceptable-Red cover instead of white and same book.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Couldn't Put it Down\\n\\nReview: Psychologist Jeremy Carrier's life fell apart when the love of his life was brutally murdered and though six months have gone by, he is still shattered by her death, and the fact that he was a suspect in his girlfriend's murder made his ordeal infinitely worse.\\n\\nNow Homicide detective Bob Doresh is back at the hospital with more questions. A forty-five year old prostitute named Tyrene Mazursky has been murdered in the same fashion and Doresh wants to know if Jeremy has an alibi. Then another prostitute is murdered.\\n\\nDr. Arthur Chess, sort of a professor emeritus at the hospital where Jeremy works, befriends him and invites him to a get together with several other oldsters who have irregular meetings to discuss whatever catches their fancy and now it looks like conspiracy, serial killers and unsolved murders have caught their interest.\\n\\nSlowly Chess feeds Jeremy clues as he feels the pressure of the police closing in and the urgency of having to solve the murder before the killer strikes again or the police arrest him and throw away the key.\\n\\nKellerman has introduced a new protagonist and though he's not the Alex Delaware we've come to know and love, I suspect we'll be seen more of Dr. Carrier in the next couple of years and I for one wouldn't mind that at all.\"\n]","isConversational":false},"profile_size":{"kind":"number","value":5,"string":"5"},"task":{"kind":"string","value":"longlamp_3"},"split_kind":{"kind":"string","value":"user_based"},"id":{"kind":"number","value":1685,"string":"1,685"}}},{"rowIdx":1686,"cells":{"question_id":{"kind":"string","value":"A202FGBQHO5638"},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of \"4.0\" for a product with description \"\"Two Thumbs Up!\" rave Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper and the Movies. Billy Elliot is the heartwarming story of a young boy from a working-class family who discovers a passion that will change his life forever. Eleven-year-old miner's son Billy Elliot is on his way to boxing lessons when he stumbles upon a ballet class. Billy secretly joins the class, knowing that his blue-collar family would never understand. Under the guidance of his teacher Mrs. Wilkinson (Academy Award-nominee Julie Walters), Billy's raw talent takes flight. But when his father discovers his son's ambition, Billy must fight for his dreams and his destiny. With Oscar-worthy performances, Rex Reed (The New York Observer) calls \"a triumph!\" Don't miss Billy Elliot - the triumphant tale of one boy who reaches beyond his place in the world to follow his heart's desire.\". The summary of the review text is \"Miner's Son Is Desperate To Dance\"."},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"'Billy Elliot', a small UK film released in 2000, has taken on a life of its' own & become a Broadway production, almost in spite of itself. But it's a heartwarming story of a miner's son determined to dance ballet.\n\nWe meet motherless Billy (Jamie Bell) during the 1984 miner's strike in County Durham. His grandmother is bordering on Alzheimer's, & it's his duty to track her down when she wanders off. Father (Gary Lewis) & brother Tony (Jamie Draven) are picketing the mines. Despite having no income, Dad finds a way to pay for Billy's boxing lessons weekly.\n\nBilly's life changes when the workingman's club that holds his boxing class is invaded by a beginner's ballet class, taught by Mrs. Wilkinson (Julie Waters). The 1st week he watches from the sidelines; the 2nd week finds him hesitantly joining in, despite his lack of any appropriate dance gear. Initially brisk, Mrs Wilkinson sees hidden depths to Billy, & soon is tutoring him privately, unknown to Billy's family, who all think he's attending boxing class.\n\nWhen the truth is revealed, Mr Elliot hits the roof. Tony is unbelieving. Only Billy's best friend Michael (secretly gay, & played by Stuart Wells) is accepting of his choice.\n\nJamie Bell's performance as Billy is spot-on. The script, written by Lee Hall, is partly based on a real dancer. Stephen Daldry ably directs. Your heart will be warmed by the end of 'Billy Elliot'. This is a movie the whole family can enjoy!\n\nWonderful music is used throughout the film. There are a number of T. Rex songs, as well as a stunning sequence to 'A Town Called Malice'."},"correct_answer":{"kind":"string","value":"'Billy Elliot', a small UK film released in 2000, has taken on a life of its' own & become a Broadway production, almost in spite of itself. But it's a heartwarming story of a miner's son determined to dance ballet.\n\nWe meet motherless Billy (Jamie Bell) during the 1984 miner's strike in County Durham. His grandmother is bordering on Alzheimer's, & it's his duty to track her down when she wanders off. Father (Gary Lewis) & brother Tony (Jamie Draven) are picketing the mines. Despite having no income, Dad finds a way to pay for Billy's boxing lessons weekly.\n\nBilly's life changes when the workingman's club that holds his boxing class is invaded by a beginner's ballet class, taught by Mrs. Wilkinson (Julie Waters). The 1st week he watches from the sidelines; the 2nd week finds him hesitantly joining in, despite his lack of any appropriate dance gear. Initially brisk, Mrs Wilkinson sees hidden depths to Billy, & soon is tutoring him privately, unknown to Billy's family, who all think he's attending boxing class.\n\nWhen the truth is revealed, Mr Elliot hits the roof. Tony is unbelieving. Only Billy's best friend Michael (secretly gay, & played by Stuart Wells) is accepting of his choice.\n\nJamie Bell's performance as Billy is spot-on. The script, written by Lee Hall, is partly based on a real dancer. Stephen Daldry ably directs. Your heart will be warmed by the end of 'Billy Elliot'. This is a movie the whole family can enjoy!\n\nWonderful music is used throughout the film. There are a number of T. Rex songs, as well as a stunning sequence to 'A Town Called Malice'."},"documents":{"kind":"list like","value":["Product: It's 1985 and Stevo is that rare animal, a punk rocker in the Mormon stronghold of Salt Lake City, Utah. He just graduated from college with honors and now his life is a nutty roller coaster ride of rock shows, stealing cars, beating up rednecks and non-stop partying with his buddy, Heroin Bob, andhis girlfriend. But with the scene getting lame and Stevo going nowhere fast, he has to put his punk ideals to the test. With a choice between \"No Future\" and Harvard Law School, what's a guy with blue hair supposed to do? Fueled by a classic punk rock soundtrack and hilarious, energetic performances from Matthew Lillard (Scream, She's All That), Michael Goorjian (Leaving Las Vegas, Hard Rain) and Annabeth Gish (Beautiful Girls, Nixon), SLC PUNK is one punk's madcap search for a way to grow up without selling out.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Bullseye view of the Reagan era...\n\nReview: I caught \"SLC Punk\" primarily because I had been so impressed with Matthew Lillard's work in \"Hackers\" (see my earlier review). However, I was drawn right into the movie as I recognised myself & many of the people I had known in the early 80's on the screen.\nIt isn't just personal identification that leads me to recommend this film. \"SLC Punk\" is a classic coming-of-age story about the angry young man too intelligent for his surroundings, questioning the values & lifestyles of those around him. Since JD Salinger's \"Catcher in the Rye\", every generation has had it's defining story of this type. \"Repo Man\" & \"Drugstore Cowboy\" are earlier movies that came to mind while I watched \"SLC Punk\" for similarities in attitude & style. I was particularly impressed with the cinematography of the \"drug\" scenes; they caught the visual jerkiness of LSD very effectively.\nMatthew Lillard's performance as Steve-O was dead-on & very touching. He definitely stands out altho the rest of the cast is uniformly fine (if unknown)!\nOf course, the soundtrack rocks! From the ironic anger of the closer (the Dead Kennedy's \"Kill the Poor\") to pre-punk classics by the Stooges & Lou Reed (punk's godfathers) the choices of music are always interesting, if sometimes surprising.\nWhether you were an 80's punk or simply a fan of well-done, non-Hollywood \"product\", \"SLC Punk\" is worth your time; anyone who has ever rebelled against anything will find something they can relate to here.","Product: Existenz [VHS]\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Videodrome 20 years on........\n\nReview: David Cronenberg is a very sick man. Everytime I tape another one of his movies & sit down to watch it, I wonder about an industry that would continue to give this man money with which to record his personal obsessions. Of course, the fact that I find it necessary to tape & watch the films provides the answer!\n\"eXistenZ\" is, in a nutshell, Cronenberg's return to the themes of his first film \"Videodrome\". Since \"Videodrome\" was produced at the dawn of the cable era, it used the video aspect of modern society to make its' points. Now that computer gaming is so much a part of modern society, Cronenberg has found an even more potent tool for his surgical dissections of mass media.\nTo viewers who haven't seen this earlier work, Cronenberg's repeated use of \"bioports\", \"gamepods\" & other artifacts of mutant genentech may seem ripped out of William Gibson's later works. However, \"Videodrome\" presented us with repellent representations of man merging with plastic way back in the late 70's (well before Gibson was a household name). The vision however has grown much darker. We've watched the progression thru the intermediate works of \"Dead Ringers\", \"the Krays\" & \"Naked Lunch\" but \"eXistenZ\" is so dark as to be almost unwatchable at times.\nI realize I am completely ignoring any plot synopses, but you can read other reviews for that. I will mention that Jennifer Jason Leigh does excellent work as the \"demoness Allegra Geller\" & Jude Law does an excellent \"PR nerd\" keeping an American accent credibly thruout.\nWill you enjoy \"eXistenZ\"? That depends on your gross-out factor. If you enjoy watching amorphous pulsating blobs slithering into apertures in people's spinal columns, the answer is a resounding YES. For the rest of us, the answer is a little more ambivalent. The issues dealt with are important & thought- provoking. It is the manner in which Cronenberg chooses to present them that makes me state he is a very sick man!","Product: United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: German ( Dolby Surround ), English ( Subtitles ), WIDESCREEN (1.66:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Interactive Menu, Photo Gallery, Production Notes, Remastered, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: This movie portrays the drug scene in Berlin in the 70s, following tape recordings of Christiane F. 14 years old Christiane lives with her mother and little sister in a typical multi-storey apartment building in Berlin. She's fascinated by the 'Sound', a new disco with most modern equipment. Although she's legally too young, she asks a friend to take her. There she meets Detlef, who's in a clique where everybody's on drugs. Step by step she gets drawn deeper into the scene. SCREENED/AWARDED AT: Montreal World Film Festival, ...Christiane F (1981) ( Christiane F. - Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zo )\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Gritty, no holds barred look at life on the streets...\n\nReview: It's surprising to me that more American cinema buffs have not seen \"Christiane F.\". Directed by noted auteur Uli Edel who went on to direct the simarilarily themed \"Last Exit to Brooklyn\", \"Christiane F\" brings the working class teen world of 1970's Berlin vividly to life.\n\nFollowing the book \"Christiane F\" very closely, the film shows us the downward spiral of a 13 year old heroin addict played by Nadja Brunckhorst. The young actress does a wonderful job, physically deteriorating through out the story. She's in every single scene in the movie, and it's quite surprising that such a young actress who could carry an entire film did so little work in her later career.\n\nDavid Bowie's music is used to wonderful effect to underscore the hopelessness of these young junkies lives. His late 70's instrumental works with Brian Eno add greatly to the emotional impact of \"Christiane F\". Only the concert scene where Bowie performs \"Station to Station\" appears slightly gratuitous; at least, Christiane making direct eye contact with Bowie is a bit out of place in this otherwise uber-realistic film.\n\nThe scenes of shooting up in filthy subway bathrooms will probably make many viewers uncomfortable with their uncompromising realism. So too, the graphic depictions of young teens selling themselves for sex to desperately lonely middle-aged Berliners. The withdrawal scene when Detlef & Christiane try to kick heroin together is a brutal sequence, but absolutely realistic.\n\nIf a film such as \"Last Exit to Brooklyn\" is your cup of tea, you shouldn't miss \"Christiane F.\" If graphic depictions of shooting up heroin make you squeamish, you may want to give this film a miss; it will be your loss however, because this film is a gem that any true cinemiste should see.","Product: OUT OF PRINT\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: 40 Going On 14...\n\nReview: When I first heard about this movie, back when it was debuting at Sundance, I couldn't wait to see it. When it did finally come to my town, I dragged my husband to it; it certainly confused him, seeing his 39 year old computer nerd wife turn into a teen age skate rat overnight!\nIn my mispent youth, I lived about 20 miles south of Dogtown & idolized Tony Alva. I had his magazine shots covering my walls; I memorized every issue of Skateboarder when it arrived in my mailbox. I also spent every available moment gonzoing the local hilly streets with my friends. As soon as I was old enough to get my own place, where did I move to? You guessed it, Dogtown. I don't talk much about those days now, or at least I didn't until DOGTOWN & Z-BOYS came out.\nThis movie is wonderful. It really captures what that time felt like, when skateboarding was still closely allied to surfing & just finding it's own identity. The archival footage is amazing, especially the P.O.P. sequence, & the early shots of the Z-Boys at Paul Revere & Bellagio. The editing is brilliant, & the music rocks! What is truly remarkable is that it manages to make skateboarding accessible & enjoyable to those who never participated, such as my husband. He's just as blown away at some of the footage as I was.\nThe DVD transfer is great. It's nice to be able to slow down some of the sections, or freeze a frame to get a better look, or just repeat your fave sections over & over again. The voice-over commentary by Peralta on the bonus track adds many anecdotes that had to be left out of the film, as well as giving credit to many of the people who contributed footage the documentary relies heavily on. There's also an additional, uncut film of today's Tony A during a pool session, which is nice to see.\nThe only reason this film doesn't get 5 stars is because of some of the people it left out. Where's Tom Inouye, of the notorious Inouye's Pool Service? When it came to outlaw pool-finding, Tom was the man! Laura Thornhill was probably the only other hard-core girl who got attention at the time; she's completely unmentioned. Although Stacy Peralta gets his props for modesty, he sometimes errs on the side of being TOO modest; there was a spectacular Arizona Pipe session I recall that goes unmentioned, one that Stacy made history at. It would have been nice to see some of that footage too.\nAll in all, Dogtown & Z-Boys can't be beat if you remember those days. If you're at the age where all this is new to you, it's a great way to learn where all those moves you're busting came from.\nNow to dig out some OP's & Vans, & I'll be stylin' again...","Product: Good girl Mary (Jena Malone) and her best friend Hilary Faye (Mandy Moore) are at the top of the food chain at American Eagle Christian High School. But all that is about to change in this \"subversively funny\" (USA Today) teen comedy about hype, hypocrisy and high school. Also starring Macaulay Culkin and Patrick Fugit, Saved! is \"a boldly hilarious satire\" (Rolling Stone)!\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: NOT A Pro-Christian Movie At All\n\nReview: 'Saved!', a 2004 release, is not what it first appears to be. Despite taking place at a Christian high-school, with a group of devout seniors at its' center, 'Saved!' mocks those who blindly follow some dogma, simply because they're told to do so.\n\nThe film opens with Mary's (Jenna Malone) decision to 'save' her bf from homosexual tendencies by allowing him to take her virginity. Catching him in the middle of ogling photos of naked men, his excitement is adequate to perform the task. But finding his stash of magazines, his evangelical parents send him to a 'pray away the gay' facility, leaving Mary bereft.\n\nMary's group of friends includes queen-bee Hilary Faye (Mandy Moore), who acts as if carting around her wheelchair-bound brother Roland (Macaulay Culkin) is a pleasure. We also meet school-slut Cassandra (Eva Amurri) & new student Patrick (Patrick Fugit) who's the pastor's son.\n\nPatrick is intrigued by Mary, partly due to her complete lack of interest in him. She has bigger problems, you see. Her one-afternoon stand with her bf has left her pregnant. Not 'possibly pregnant' or 'a little bit pregnant', but full on 'oh s***, how did THIS happen?' pregnant. Meanwhile Roland & Cassandra begin a romantic flirtation...\n\nA side-story involves Mary's single-mum (Mary Louise Parker) falling for the very-married Pastor Skip.\n\nAll these storylines converge at the school prom, where VERY pregnant Mary is proudly accompanied by Patrick. When she goes into labor during the prom, not only do her friends gather round, her mother drives down, & her gay bf & his new partner are also on hand.\n\nAll the actors acquit themselves well, although it seems difficult to believe that a teenage boy would continue to be attracted to a girl bearing another boy's child. Macaulay Culkin is especially notable as Roland.\n\n'Saved!' was directed & co-written by Brian Dannelly. One of its' producers is Michael Stipe. With those type of credentials, a sly poke at religions seems inevitable.\n\nDo buy 'Saved!'. You'll thank me for it!","Product: See the gripping rise of the first all-girl hard rock band, its hopes and dreams, and its eventual disintegration as the result of media belittling, in-fighting and drug use amidst rumors of verbal and emotional abuse by the band's management.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: All music documentaries should be this good!\n\nReview: Victory Tischler-Blue's \"Edgeplay\" is a riveting, emotional, brutally honest film about what happens when a cruel, manipulative man pumps 6 teen girls full of dreams.\n\nThe Runaways were a groundbreaking rock group whose influence over the years belies their mediocre record sales at the time. Somewhat manufactured in that none of the girls knew each other before being picked out by uber-scenester Kim Fowley, they still managed to forge a raw identity of their own while rebelling against his emotional abuse. Having been a 13 year old in Los Angeles at the time of their first album release, I can personally attest to the dreams they inspired amongst their fans.\n\nAll the girls involved except Joan Jett co-operated fully in this documentary. The interviewer / director was one of The Runaways herself: Vicky Blue was the bass player who replaced Jackie Fox after Jackie left the band. Even Kari Chrome who never played onstage, but contributed songs to the first album & was instrumental in Kim's initial concept of the band is interviewed.\n\nCherie Curry has previously written of her experiences in her autobiography \"Neon Angel\" but, judging from this documentary, left huge gaps in her book. All the dirt, all the hurt, all the damage done to fragile teen egos is finally aired in \"Edgeplay\". Cherie admits to sexual relationships both with other members of the band as well as a long-term one with \"hands on\" manager Scott Anderson which left her pregnant during their European tour. Her combustible relationship with Lita Ford (who spends most of her interviews either having to be reminded of recordings or glossing over her violent temper) led to Cherie's departure from the band.\n\nJackie Fox (the first bass player) discusses the real reason she abruptly left The Runaways in Tokyo at the peak of their fame. The revelation leaves her in tears, and the scars from the experience remain on her body to this day.\n\nThe most affecting interviewee is Sandy West, the drummer. As with most drummers, Sandy was never an intellectual or prone to analyzing situations. She just wanted to play drums & have a good time. Greedy, manipulative power plays took her life away from her & the final scene is of her tear-streaked face wondering why the original members can't reunite & record together again. It's a wrenching scene that illustrates vividly the damage done to these young girls.\n\nMs. Tischler-Blue also interviews both Sandy & Cherie's mother's which provides an excellent background on how Kim Fowley was able to abuse these young women so freely. Kim himself spends his interview time blustering & dodging questions, never coming close to admitting the wreckage he made of these 7 lives.\n\nThe extras aren't much, but do provide some additional background to \"Edgeplay\". There is a Video Gallery, which consists of some of the background footage used with more of Kim Fowley's bluster playing over it. The only other extras are 3 different promotional trailers. Interestingly, much of the promotional footage was not actually used in \"Edgeplay\". The final one, called \"Edge-Tap\" is hilarious, and a much needed antidote to the raw emotional footage of the film.\n\nAbsolutely recommended to anyone who wants to see what really goes on in the rock world. With the current mania for tarting up young teen girls & displaying them as sexual objects on MTV, \"Edgeplay\" is amazingly relevant to today's music business. Get this DVD!","Product: Full Screen Feature - All Regions -Language: English (Only) - Subtitles: Traditional Chinese, English, Cantonese Mandarin.\nDisc holder and disc are in like new condition.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Videodrome 20 years on........\n\nReview: David Cronenberg is a very sick man. Everytime I tape another one of his movies & sit down to watch it, I wonder about an industry that would continue to give this man money with which to record his personal obsessions. Of course, the fact that I find it necessary to tape & watch the films provides the answer!\n\"eXistenZ\" is, in a nutshell, Cronenberg's return to the themes of his first film \"Videodrome\". Since \"Videodrome\" was produced at the dawn of the cable era, it used the video aspect of modern society to make its' points. Now that computer gaming is so much a part of modern society, Cronenberg has found an even more potent tool for his surgical dissections of mass media.\nTo viewers who haven't seen this earlier work, Cronenberg's repeated use of \"bioports\", \"gamepods\" & other artifacts of mutant genentech may seem ripped out of William Gibson's later works. However, \"Videodrome\" presented us with repellent representations of man merging with plastic way back in the late 70's (well before Gibson was a household name). The vision however has grown much darker. We've watched the progression thru the intermediate works of \"Dead Ringers\", \"the Krays\" & \"Naked Lunch\" but \"eXistenZ\" is so dark as to be almost unwatchable at times.\nI realize I am completely ignoring any plot synopses, but you can read other reviews for that. I will mention that Jennifer Jason Leigh does excellent work as the \"demoness Allegra Geller\" & Jude Law does an excellent \"PR nerd\" keeping an American accent credibly thruout.\nWill you enjoy \"eXistenZ\"? That depends on your gross-out factor. If you enjoy watching amorphous pulsating blobs slithering into apertures in people's spinal columns, the answer is a resounding YES. For the rest of us, the answer is a little more ambivalent. The issues dealt with are important & thought- provoking. It is the manner in which Cronenberg chooses to present them that makes me state he is a very sick man!","Product: PRIDE is inspired by an extraordinary true story. It's the summer of 1984, Margaret Thatcher is in power and the National Union of Mineworkers is on strike, prompting a London-based group of gay and lesbian activists to raise money to support the strikers' families. Initially rebuffed by the Union, the group identifies a tiny mining village in Wales and sets off to make their donation in person. As the strike drags on, the two groups discover that standing together makes for the strongest union of all...\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Mostly Honest Depiction Of Recent Gay History\n\nReview: Fact-based 'Pride' was released in 2014, but the events it depicts took place 30 years earlier, in England.\n\nOn the day of the London Pride Parade we meet (entirely fictitious) Joe (George MacKay). He's snuck away from his home in Bromley to watch the Parade & maybe even (gasp!) meet other gay men. Almost immediately he's seized upon by a participant (Tony, played by Matthew Finn) to assist in carrying a banner. Meanwhile, charismatic Mark (Ben Schnetzer) has seen a news item about the striking coal workers being beaten up by the police. Instantly he decides to spearhead a fundraising group for the miners. After all, aren't they being subjected to the same types of pressure that gays & lesbians have long experienced?\n\nSteph (Faye Marsay) is initially the only lesbian who joins. Exiled Welshman Gethin (Andrew Scott) owns a bookstore where the group meets. His partner, flamboyant Jonathan (Dominic West) initially rejects joining them, until the day when it's time to go meet the miners in Wales.\n\nAnd who ARE the miners that accept their support? It's the village of Onllwyn, in the Dulais Valley of Wales. An older, open-minded lady named Hefina (Imelda Staunton) happens to answer the phone when the group calls, & welcomes them to the fold. She has Dai (Paddy Considine) go to London to meet them. Initially shy, he soon warms up to being shown around the town.\n\nBill Nighy ably portrays hesitant Cliff, a deeply-closeted (or so he thinks) gay man residing in Onllwyn. Sian (Jessica Gunning) has just recently joined the committee, & can't understand what all the fuss is about....But trouble rears its' ugly head in the deeply homophobic character of Maureen (Lisa Palfrey).\n\nThe events 'Pride' portrays are a vital part of recent LGBT history. The storyline involving fictitious Joe is absolutely unnecessary & a distraction to the real events depicted onscreen. Written by Stephen Beresford, the film stands up to repeated viewings. I've only ranked it a '3' since Amazon doesn't allow fractions, but if you have any interest in the Gay Pride movement you'll want to see this film.","Product: THE IMITATION GAME is a gripping, acclaimed thriller that tells the incredible true story of unsung war hero Alan Turing, the British mathematician responsible for cracking the German Enigma code during World War II. Benedict Cumberbatch (The Fifth Estate, Star Trek Into Darkness, and TVs Sherlock) and Keira Knightley (BAFTA nominee for Atonement, Oscar nominee for Pride and Prejudice) star as Turing and his ally and fellow code-breaker Joan Clarke, alongside a top-notch cast, including Matthew Goode (Stoker, A Single Man), Mark Strong (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), Rory Kinnear (Skyfall), Charles Dance (Gosford Park, TV's Game of Thrones), Allen Leech (In Fear, TVs Downton Abbey) and Matthew Beard (An Education).\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Strong Bio-Film Despite Its' Attempt To Be Oscar Bait\n\nReview: 'The Imitation Game', starring Benedict Cumberbatch as computer-inventor Alan Turing, is Oscar bait. It also happens to be a fine film on its' own merits.\n\nThe film opens in 1951 with Manchester police arriving at Alan Turing's flat, to compile data about a theft Turing suffered. But Turing will have none of it, which piques an Inspector's interest, so he goes to work digging up dirt about Turing's past.\n\nWhen Inspector Nock enquires about Turing's WW2 duties, he discovers nothing. Not 'nothing' as in mediocre, run-of-the-mill. 'Nothing' as in 'zilch, zero, nada'. Turing has a manila envelope with nothing in it at all.\n\nFlash back to 1939, the 1st year of Britain's involvement in WW2. Alan arrives at Bletchley Park, summoned there by its' head. He's cold, rude, & generally standoffish, which makes the Commander annoyed. But as one of the best mathematical minds in Britain, he can't be turned away.\n\nAnd so begins the tragic, triumphant story of Alan Turing's life. It's told in an intersecting series of flashbacks: Alan as a socially-awkward pre-teen (played amusingly well by Alan Lawther), in love with his best friend Christopher (Jack Bannon); Turing building 'Christopher' (a 'universal digital computer') during the war years at Bletchley Park, fighting both his own superiors & his co-workers for his obsession; Turing, accused of homosexuality by the Manchester Police, relating his memories to Inspector Nock.\n\nThere are others who play a role in Turing's life: Joan Clarke (Keira Knightley), another math genius recruited thru a newspaper ad, & Hugh (Matthew Goode) is the rather handsome cad amongst Turing's cadre of geniuses. Knightley especially shines, as the improbably pretty co-worker, who becomes engaged to Alan so that she can remain at Bletchley.\n\nBut it's Cumberbatch's interpretation of the difficult genius Turing that truly impresses. Cumberbatch first attained fame as the title character in 'Sherlock'; here he plays a sort of real-life version of that character. A long-time gay-rights ally, in 'The Imitation Game' Cumberbatch gets to proclaim his polemic of gay equality to the world. Keeping the dark hair acquired during his filming of 'Sherlock' (though much shorter in 'The Imitation Game'), Cumberbatch's quirky looks & lovely rich voice do justice to the memory of unjustly accused Turing.\n\nTruly a tour-de-force performance, in a film full of them. See 'The Imitation Game' & understand what led to the invention of the computer you're currently reading this on.","Product: United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital 5.1 ), English ( Subtitles ), ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN (2.35:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Anamorphic Widescreen, Interactive Menu, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: Neil McCormick (Ben Barnes) always knew he'd be famous. A young Irish songwriter and budding genius, nothing less than a life of rock n' roll stardom will do. But there's only room for one singer in school band The Hype and his friend Paul's already bagged the job. So Neil forms his own band with his brother Ivan (Robert Sheehan). There's only one problem: The Hype have changed their name. To 'U2'. And Paul (Martin McCann) has turned into 'Bono'. Naturally there's only one option for Neil: become bigger than U2. The brothers head to London in their quest for fame, but their every action is dwarfed by the soaring success of their old school rivals. And when Ivan discovers the shocking truth behind Neil's rivalry with U2, it threatens to destroy everything. As his rock n' roll dream crashes and burns, is Neil forever destined to live in the shadows of superstardom? And what if the answer lies in... Killing Bono? ...Killing Bono ( I Was Bono's Doppelgnger )\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: Do NOT Expect To See The Book On Screen!\n\nReview: Right off I'll tell you I'm a big fan of Neil McCormick's memoir, 'Killing Bono'. In it he relates going to school with the future members of U2 in a wry, self-deprecating tone. The book 'Killing Bono' is funny, but also the viewpoint of someone who's known the future Bono & the Edge since they were Paul Hewson & Dave Evans.\n\nWhen I saw that the writers of 'The Commitments' & Ben Barnes were attached to the film of the book, I was pleasantly anticipating seeing one of my favorite music books rendered on film. I saw the film soon after it came out. I just watched it again, to verify my (unfortunately) negative impression of the project. Bottom line: this film is NOT 'Killing Bono'!\n\nMy objections started as the film opens with Neil McCormick (Ben Barnes) driving thru London, fulminating on how Bono is living HIS life. He pulls up across the street from where U2's new album 'The Joshua Tree' is being feted. Neil gets out & points a gun in Bono's general direction, saying 'It's my only option'. Which is all fine IF it had been in the book. But it wasn't. The idea of McCormick murdering Bono is suggested by Bono himself, during one of their interminable phone conversations.\n\nCut to Temple Mount school, where all the (late 20's to mid 30's) actors are playing at being 15. Same actors. No real effort given to make them look as if they were teenagers. Paul Hewson (Martin McCann) is standing in front of a notice posted on the bulletin board by Larry Mullins, who is searching for other students to form a band with. This scene, as well as those that follow it, point out 1) that NONE of the cast remotely resembles their real-life counterparts, & 2) Hewson is saintly, even at 15. This is just sheer & utter bs!\n\nBono is infamous for making speeches. As Liam Neeson recently pointed out, he'll talk on the phone for HOURS, without a pause for his listener to get a word in edgewise. He's humorous, & passionate about causes as diverse as AIDS, famine & debt in 3rd World countries, & his business ventures (Elevation Partners being one of them). The other members of U2 have been known to complain about Bono's causes interfering with recording or touring or ...\n\nMeek & saintly, observing everyone with a secretive, Mona Lisa smile? Not hardly!\n\nBut I digress. Here's the deal: NOTHING in this movie occurs in the book! Sure, the characters names remain the same, but the script veers wildly off into the wild blue yonder, concocting events & conversations that never happened. It's a perfectly pleasant way to kill 2 hours, if you're not expecting to see the memoir on-screen. But for those of us who've read (& loved!) the book, it's a tragic waste of talent.","Product: Oprah's book club...A very interesting read.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: So enjoyable you'll be angry!\n\nReview: \"Daughter of Fortune\" by Isabel Allende pulls you in, involves you, then drops you like a stone! The story of Eliza Somers is also the story of Tao Ch'ien, a Chinese acupunturist & Eliza's comrade/benefactor. Both stories are interwoven with those of surrounding characters, sometimes to the detriment of narrative; often I wasn't sure what order events had actually occurred in & sometimes even the author seemed confused!\nYet throughout the novel, the characters seem real enough that the reader gets angry with their actions or sympathises with decisions, as well as feeling the surroundings with clarity. This only adds to the disappointment of the ending which seems completely arbitrary; there is simply no reason for the story to end where it does, and many many questions are left unanswered.\nI suppose it is ambiguities such as this that make \"Daughter of Fortune\" a work of literature rather than simply a historical romance or bodice ripper. However, being arty for arts sake doesn't necessarily satisfy. Please Ms. Allende, either write a sequel or an epilogue for future additions! You're not being fair to your readers!","Product: Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin tales are widely acknowledged to be the greatest series of historical novels ever written. To commemorate the 40th anniversary of their beginning, with Master and Commander, these evocative stories are being re-issued in paperback with smart new livery. This is the seventh book in the series. Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin are ordered home by despatch vessel to bring the news of their latest victory to the government. But Maturin is a marked man for the havoc he has wrought in the French intelligence network in the New World, and the attentions of two privateers soon become menacing. The chase that follows through the fogs and shallows of the Grand Banks is as thrilling, as tense and as unexpected in its culmination as anything Patrick O'Brian has written. Then, among other things, follows a shipwreck and a particularly sinister internment in the notorious Temple Prison in Paris. Once again, the tigerish and fascinating Diana Villiers redresses the balance in this man's world of seamanship and war.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Maturin at the forefront...\n\nReview: In \"The Surgeon's Mate\", as the title suggests, Stephen Maturin is the main protagonist. Although of course Jack Aubrey is always present to help Maturin accomplish his goals, most of the action revolves around intelligence activities.\nThe book opens right where the previous \"The Fortune of War\" ended. Maturin & Aubrey sail into Halifax Canada as conquering warriors & are much acclaimed by the locals (with some humorous entanglements for Aubrey). Soon, tho, we are back at sea, being pursued by privateers paid to kill Maturin. From this point on there is almost constant action, for Maturin has new intelligence assignments as well as unfinished business with the French. Meanwhile, his personal life continues rocky due to Diana Villiers presence. Of course, all will end happily as Patrick O'Brian lets you know by his choice of titles.\nIt is hard to critically discuss \"The Surgeon's Mate\" as a stand-alone novel, since so much of it is a continuation of plots begun in \"The Fortune of War\". It is complex, exciting, & definitely not the best choice as your introduction to the Aubrey/Maturin series. At the very least, read \"The Fortune of War\" before embarking upon this particular voyage. You will enjoy all the more for having done so!","Product: trade paperback, vg+ In stock shipped from our UK warehouse\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: The most complex Aubrey/Maturin novel...\n\nReview: I made a serious mistake when I first read the Aubrey/Maturin books: I read them out of sequence. Thus, when I first came to \"Post Captain\" which is the 2nd in the series & sets up many themes in the novels to come, I already knew how dilemmas would be resolved. This contributed to a feeling of irritation the first time I read it, especially as much occurs on land in a Jane Austen-esque style.\nThis time around I am re-reading all 20 books in order, & I find \"Post Captain\" to have many nuances I overlooked the first time. It is one of the funniest books in the series. There are some scenes (such as Maturin's first arrival on deck of Aubrey's acting command the \"Lively\") in which O'Brian's dry humor will have you in stitches. Of course this is also the novel in which Maturin contributes his much-quoted explanation for the term \"dog-watch\". The consequences of Pulling's celebration on being made lieutanant are hysterical; but in the dense plotting of \"Post Captain\" these moments are leavening to the sense of a lee-shore looming in the distance.\nIf you are currently reading the Aubrey/Maturin novels, you don't need a recommendation to get \"Post Captain\". Just take my advice & don't read this book out of sequence if possible. If you are thinking of starting this series, do so with \"Master & Commander\". You'll be happy you did!","Product: trade paperback, vg++\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Aubrey hoists his pennant...\n\nReview: \"The Mauritius Command\" opens a few years after the end of \"HMS Surprise\". Jack has discovered married life to be very different than he imagined, & longs to be back at sea. The arrival of Stephen Maturin (& mushrooms) stirs the household to a frenzy.\nThis humorous beginning shows Patrick O'Brian's masterful abilities. In a few deft strokes, the past years are filled in with no heavy exposition or flashbacks, & the events to come are put into motion. Aubrey faces many new challenges in the course of \"The Mauritius Command\", having to learn to sooth battling egos, command while refraining from fighting, & create a fighting machine from almost nothing. His faithful follower Tom Pullings plays an expanded role in this tale as the captain of a transport & deus ex machina, while Stephen Maturin's political abilities overshadow his medical duties.\nThis is one of the most exciting Aubrey/Maturin novels, a real \"Boys Own Life\" type tale, full of gunplay, cat & mouse feints & hearty comradeship. The most exciting aspect of it is that it all really happened (of course with different protagonists!). Learn about a forgotten campaign of the Napoleonic wars & enjoy yourself in the process! Read \"The Mauritius Command\"!","Product: Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. 100% Money Back Guarantee.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: A moment frozen & forever there...\n\nReview: What an interesting idea for a novel: Tracy Chevalier has taken a painting of an unknown woman by a painter about whom we know almost nothing & written the story behind it's creation as seen thru the eyes of it's subject. \"Girl With A Pearl Earring\" is the result, & an impressive novel it is.\nHowever, it impresses in terms of craft, of technique. As I read it, I couldn't help comparing it to the marvelous \"Memoirs of A Geisha\" which also takes us into the mind of a young girl in a world very foreign to most readers. Where \"Memoirs...\" fully involved the reader both in descriptions of daily life in a vanished world & in the people populating it, \"Girl With A Pearl Earring\" exists more as a set piece. There are exquisite sketches of the dour, plodding life of the average Delft citizen in the 17th century, but they never breath. I never felt I understood why the main characters acted as they did, I never felt in sympathy with the dilemmas that formed the core of the book & the resolution felt forced somehow. Also, viewing the painting that inspired the book, I simply didn't feel this was a plausible \"back-story\".\nVermeer's paintings are quiet, frozen moments of daily life that seem forever trapped in amber. \"Girl With A Pearl Earring\" gives a similar feel to the reader. If you prefer a quiet, contemplative book that is primarily focused on thought rather than action, you will probably enjoy this novel more than I did. I guess I'll just never appreciate literature....","Product: Sam Quinones is a journalist, author, and storyteller whose two acclaimed books of narrative nonfiction about Mexico and Mexican immigration—True Tales from Another Mexico and Antonio’s Gun and Delfino’s Dream—have made him, according to the San Francisco Chronicle Book Review, “the most original writer on Mexico and the border.” He writes True Tales: A Reporter’s Blog and edits Tell Your True Tale, a storytelling page. He lives in Southern California. Contact him at www.samquinones.com.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: So Good I Thought I Was Dreaming!\n\nReview: 'Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic' is a timely book. It's an important book. It's even a well-written book!\n\nAuthor & crime-reporter Sam Quinones stumbled upon the subject nearly 2 decades ago. By his account, he was given a whispered lead that 'Mexicans from some small village' were delivering quality black-tar heroin like pizza. An addict calls a number provided by another addict, & was told where & when to pick up their order. What made this rumor really intriguing to Quinones is that this wasn't happening in big-city, traditional heroin centers. It was in small & medium size cities in the central & western portions of the US. Places like Portsmouth OH. Portland OR. Columbia SC.\n\nFurther piquing his interest, Quinones discovered that 1) the clientele were all middle-to-upper-class Anglos, the children of judges & doctors & business owners, 2) that nearly all of them had initially been addicted to Oxycontin, but switched opiates when Oxy became too expensive for their habits, & 3) that this entire new wave of heroin addicts could be blamed on the aggressive marketing tactics of Purdue Pharmaceuticals, who claimed Oxycontin wasn't addictive because it was time-released. Adding insult to injury, the tidal wave of deaths-by-opiate overdose almost exactly mirrored the amount of Oxy's that were being prescribed! Quinones couldn't believe no one else had noticed this!\n\nOnly they had. The parents of the deceased broke their silence, one by one. The government officials in health, law-enforcement & the judiciary were becoming swamped with this new & unheard-of wave of deaths. Ground Zero (as Quinones terms it) was Portsmouth OH, where the only new businesses that succeeded were 'pill-mills', which had lines snaking down the streets with addicts waiting for their turns with the doctor.\n\nMeanwhile, in small-town Mexico ('ranchos' as defined by the author) black-tar heroin was being produced cheaply. It wasn't sold locally; almost all of it was shipped to the US, to be distributed by non-English speaking drivers who carried pagers that displayed delivery codes. None of them actually used the products they carried in small balloons in their mouths; they were on salary, & focused on customer service. Rotated in & out of small-town America in 6 month segments, their primary goal in life was appearing to be a 'big man' to the folks back home in the ranchos of Nayarit.\n\nEngagingly written, 'Dreamland' weaves these 2 complementary stories skillfully, from the early cluelessness of the municipal police to the dreams & goals of the Hispanic drivers & cell-chiefs. It's a sobering look at life in the Rust Belt.\n\nHowever, one little problem niggled at me throughout this book: whenever Quinones writes 'couple', he DOESN'T write 'of'. He writes statements like 'bought a couple balloons', which REALLY took me out of the flow of the narrative. Yes, it's a minor annoyance, one any good editor should have picked up on. It's partly why this review only got 4 stars instead of 5. But if that deters you from reading 'Dreamland', then you're making a mistake. This is a cutting indictment of early 21st century American culture."],"string":"[\n \"Product: It's 1985 and Stevo is that rare animal, a punk rocker in the Mormon stronghold of Salt Lake City, Utah. He just graduated from college with honors and now his life is a nutty roller coaster ride of rock shows, stealing cars, beating up rednecks and non-stop partying with his buddy, Heroin Bob, andhis girlfriend. But with the scene getting lame and Stevo going nowhere fast, he has to put his punk ideals to the test. With a choice between \\\"No Future\\\" and Harvard Law School, what's a guy with blue hair supposed to do? Fueled by a classic punk rock soundtrack and hilarious, energetic performances from Matthew Lillard (Scream, She's All That), Michael Goorjian (Leaving Las Vegas, Hard Rain) and Annabeth Gish (Beautiful Girls, Nixon), SLC PUNK is one punk's madcap search for a way to grow up without selling out.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Bullseye view of the Reagan era...\\n\\nReview: I caught \\\"SLC Punk\\\" primarily because I had been so impressed with Matthew Lillard's work in \\\"Hackers\\\" (see my earlier review). However, I was drawn right into the movie as I recognised myself & many of the people I had known in the early 80's on the screen.\\nIt isn't just personal identification that leads me to recommend this film. \\\"SLC Punk\\\" is a classic coming-of-age story about the angry young man too intelligent for his surroundings, questioning the values & lifestyles of those around him. Since JD Salinger's \\\"Catcher in the Rye\\\", every generation has had it's defining story of this type. \\\"Repo Man\\\" & \\\"Drugstore Cowboy\\\" are earlier movies that came to mind while I watched \\\"SLC Punk\\\" for similarities in attitude & style. I was particularly impressed with the cinematography of the \\\"drug\\\" scenes; they caught the visual jerkiness of LSD very effectively.\\nMatthew Lillard's performance as Steve-O was dead-on & very touching. He definitely stands out altho the rest of the cast is uniformly fine (if unknown)!\\nOf course, the soundtrack rocks! From the ironic anger of the closer (the Dead Kennedy's \\\"Kill the Poor\\\") to pre-punk classics by the Stooges & Lou Reed (punk's godfathers) the choices of music are always interesting, if sometimes surprising.\\nWhether you were an 80's punk or simply a fan of well-done, non-Hollywood \\\"product\\\", \\\"SLC Punk\\\" is worth your time; anyone who has ever rebelled against anything will find something they can relate to here.\",\n \"Product: Existenz [VHS]\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Videodrome 20 years on........\\n\\nReview: David Cronenberg is a very sick man. Everytime I tape another one of his movies & sit down to watch it, I wonder about an industry that would continue to give this man money with which to record his personal obsessions. Of course, the fact that I find it necessary to tape & watch the films provides the answer!\\n\\\"eXistenZ\\\" is, in a nutshell, Cronenberg's return to the themes of his first film \\\"Videodrome\\\". Since \\\"Videodrome\\\" was produced at the dawn of the cable era, it used the video aspect of modern society to make its' points. Now that computer gaming is so much a part of modern society, Cronenberg has found an even more potent tool for his surgical dissections of mass media.\\nTo viewers who haven't seen this earlier work, Cronenberg's repeated use of \\\"bioports\\\", \\\"gamepods\\\" & other artifacts of mutant genentech may seem ripped out of William Gibson's later works. However, \\\"Videodrome\\\" presented us with repellent representations of man merging with plastic way back in the late 70's (well before Gibson was a household name). The vision however has grown much darker. We've watched the progression thru the intermediate works of \\\"Dead Ringers\\\", \\\"the Krays\\\" & \\\"Naked Lunch\\\" but \\\"eXistenZ\\\" is so dark as to be almost unwatchable at times.\\nI realize I am completely ignoring any plot synopses, but you can read other reviews for that. I will mention that Jennifer Jason Leigh does excellent work as the \\\"demoness Allegra Geller\\\" & Jude Law does an excellent \\\"PR nerd\\\" keeping an American accent credibly thruout.\\nWill you enjoy \\\"eXistenZ\\\"? That depends on your gross-out factor. If you enjoy watching amorphous pulsating blobs slithering into apertures in people's spinal columns, the answer is a resounding YES. For the rest of us, the answer is a little more ambivalent. The issues dealt with are important & thought- provoking. It is the manner in which Cronenberg chooses to present them that makes me state he is a very sick man!\",\n \"Product: United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: German ( Dolby Surround ), English ( Subtitles ), WIDESCREEN (1.66:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Interactive Menu, Photo Gallery, Production Notes, Remastered, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: This movie portrays the drug scene in Berlin in the 70s, following tape recordings of Christiane F. 14 years old Christiane lives with her mother and little sister in a typical multi-storey apartment building in Berlin. She's fascinated by the 'Sound', a new disco with most modern equipment. Although she's legally too young, she asks a friend to take her. There she meets Detlef, who's in a clique where everybody's on drugs. Step by step she gets drawn deeper into the scene. SCREENED/AWARDED AT: Montreal World Film Festival, ...Christiane F (1981) ( Christiane F. - Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zo )\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Gritty, no holds barred look at life on the streets...\\n\\nReview: It's surprising to me that more American cinema buffs have not seen \\\"Christiane F.\\\". Directed by noted auteur Uli Edel who went on to direct the simarilarily themed \\\"Last Exit to Brooklyn\\\", \\\"Christiane F\\\" brings the working class teen world of 1970's Berlin vividly to life.\\n\\nFollowing the book \\\"Christiane F\\\" very closely, the film shows us the downward spiral of a 13 year old heroin addict played by Nadja Brunckhorst. The young actress does a wonderful job, physically deteriorating through out the story. She's in every single scene in the movie, and it's quite surprising that such a young actress who could carry an entire film did so little work in her later career.\\n\\nDavid Bowie's music is used to wonderful effect to underscore the hopelessness of these young junkies lives. His late 70's instrumental works with Brian Eno add greatly to the emotional impact of \\\"Christiane F\\\". Only the concert scene where Bowie performs \\\"Station to Station\\\" appears slightly gratuitous; at least, Christiane making direct eye contact with Bowie is a bit out of place in this otherwise uber-realistic film.\\n\\nThe scenes of shooting up in filthy subway bathrooms will probably make many viewers uncomfortable with their uncompromising realism. So too, the graphic depictions of young teens selling themselves for sex to desperately lonely middle-aged Berliners. The withdrawal scene when Detlef & Christiane try to kick heroin together is a brutal sequence, but absolutely realistic.\\n\\nIf a film such as \\\"Last Exit to Brooklyn\\\" is your cup of tea, you shouldn't miss \\\"Christiane F.\\\" If graphic depictions of shooting up heroin make you squeamish, you may want to give this film a miss; it will be your loss however, because this film is a gem that any true cinemiste should see.\",\n \"Product: OUT OF PRINT\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: 40 Going On 14...\\n\\nReview: When I first heard about this movie, back when it was debuting at Sundance, I couldn't wait to see it. When it did finally come to my town, I dragged my husband to it; it certainly confused him, seeing his 39 year old computer nerd wife turn into a teen age skate rat overnight!\\nIn my mispent youth, I lived about 20 miles south of Dogtown & idolized Tony Alva. I had his magazine shots covering my walls; I memorized every issue of Skateboarder when it arrived in my mailbox. I also spent every available moment gonzoing the local hilly streets with my friends. As soon as I was old enough to get my own place, where did I move to? You guessed it, Dogtown. I don't talk much about those days now, or at least I didn't until DOGTOWN & Z-BOYS came out.\\nThis movie is wonderful. It really captures what that time felt like, when skateboarding was still closely allied to surfing & just finding it's own identity. The archival footage is amazing, especially the P.O.P. sequence, & the early shots of the Z-Boys at Paul Revere & Bellagio. The editing is brilliant, & the music rocks! What is truly remarkable is that it manages to make skateboarding accessible & enjoyable to those who never participated, such as my husband. He's just as blown away at some of the footage as I was.\\nThe DVD transfer is great. It's nice to be able to slow down some of the sections, or freeze a frame to get a better look, or just repeat your fave sections over & over again. The voice-over commentary by Peralta on the bonus track adds many anecdotes that had to be left out of the film, as well as giving credit to many of the people who contributed footage the documentary relies heavily on. There's also an additional, uncut film of today's Tony A during a pool session, which is nice to see.\\nThe only reason this film doesn't get 5 stars is because of some of the people it left out. Where's Tom Inouye, of the notorious Inouye's Pool Service? When it came to outlaw pool-finding, Tom was the man! Laura Thornhill was probably the only other hard-core girl who got attention at the time; she's completely unmentioned. Although Stacy Peralta gets his props for modesty, he sometimes errs on the side of being TOO modest; there was a spectacular Arizona Pipe session I recall that goes unmentioned, one that Stacy made history at. It would have been nice to see some of that footage too.\\nAll in all, Dogtown & Z-Boys can't be beat if you remember those days. If you're at the age where all this is new to you, it's a great way to learn where all those moves you're busting came from.\\nNow to dig out some OP's & Vans, & I'll be stylin' again...\",\n \"Product: Good girl Mary (Jena Malone) and her best friend Hilary Faye (Mandy Moore) are at the top of the food chain at American Eagle Christian High School. But all that is about to change in this \\\"subversively funny\\\" (USA Today) teen comedy about hype, hypocrisy and high school. Also starring Macaulay Culkin and Patrick Fugit, Saved! is \\\"a boldly hilarious satire\\\" (Rolling Stone)!\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: NOT A Pro-Christian Movie At All\\n\\nReview: 'Saved!', a 2004 release, is not what it first appears to be. Despite taking place at a Christian high-school, with a group of devout seniors at its' center, 'Saved!' mocks those who blindly follow some dogma, simply because they're told to do so.\\n\\nThe film opens with Mary's (Jenna Malone) decision to 'save' her bf from homosexual tendencies by allowing him to take her virginity. Catching him in the middle of ogling photos of naked men, his excitement is adequate to perform the task. But finding his stash of magazines, his evangelical parents send him to a 'pray away the gay' facility, leaving Mary bereft.\\n\\nMary's group of friends includes queen-bee Hilary Faye (Mandy Moore), who acts as if carting around her wheelchair-bound brother Roland (Macaulay Culkin) is a pleasure. We also meet school-slut Cassandra (Eva Amurri) & new student Patrick (Patrick Fugit) who's the pastor's son.\\n\\nPatrick is intrigued by Mary, partly due to her complete lack of interest in him. She has bigger problems, you see. Her one-afternoon stand with her bf has left her pregnant. Not 'possibly pregnant' or 'a little bit pregnant', but full on 'oh s***, how did THIS happen?' pregnant. Meanwhile Roland & Cassandra begin a romantic flirtation...\\n\\nA side-story involves Mary's single-mum (Mary Louise Parker) falling for the very-married Pastor Skip.\\n\\nAll these storylines converge at the school prom, where VERY pregnant Mary is proudly accompanied by Patrick. When she goes into labor during the prom, not only do her friends gather round, her mother drives down, & her gay bf & his new partner are also on hand.\\n\\nAll the actors acquit themselves well, although it seems difficult to believe that a teenage boy would continue to be attracted to a girl bearing another boy's child. Macaulay Culkin is especially notable as Roland.\\n\\n'Saved!' was directed & co-written by Brian Dannelly. One of its' producers is Michael Stipe. With those type of credentials, a sly poke at religions seems inevitable.\\n\\nDo buy 'Saved!'. You'll thank me for it!\",\n \"Product: See the gripping rise of the first all-girl hard rock band, its hopes and dreams, and its eventual disintegration as the result of media belittling, in-fighting and drug use amidst rumors of verbal and emotional abuse by the band's management.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: All music documentaries should be this good!\\n\\nReview: Victory Tischler-Blue's \\\"Edgeplay\\\" is a riveting, emotional, brutally honest film about what happens when a cruel, manipulative man pumps 6 teen girls full of dreams.\\n\\nThe Runaways were a groundbreaking rock group whose influence over the years belies their mediocre record sales at the time. Somewhat manufactured in that none of the girls knew each other before being picked out by uber-scenester Kim Fowley, they still managed to forge a raw identity of their own while rebelling against his emotional abuse. Having been a 13 year old in Los Angeles at the time of their first album release, I can personally attest to the dreams they inspired amongst their fans.\\n\\nAll the girls involved except Joan Jett co-operated fully in this documentary. The interviewer / director was one of The Runaways herself: Vicky Blue was the bass player who replaced Jackie Fox after Jackie left the band. Even Kari Chrome who never played onstage, but contributed songs to the first album & was instrumental in Kim's initial concept of the band is interviewed.\\n\\nCherie Curry has previously written of her experiences in her autobiography \\\"Neon Angel\\\" but, judging from this documentary, left huge gaps in her book. All the dirt, all the hurt, all the damage done to fragile teen egos is finally aired in \\\"Edgeplay\\\". Cherie admits to sexual relationships both with other members of the band as well as a long-term one with \\\"hands on\\\" manager Scott Anderson which left her pregnant during their European tour. Her combustible relationship with Lita Ford (who spends most of her interviews either having to be reminded of recordings or glossing over her violent temper) led to Cherie's departure from the band.\\n\\nJackie Fox (the first bass player) discusses the real reason she abruptly left The Runaways in Tokyo at the peak of their fame. The revelation leaves her in tears, and the scars from the experience remain on her body to this day.\\n\\nThe most affecting interviewee is Sandy West, the drummer. As with most drummers, Sandy was never an intellectual or prone to analyzing situations. She just wanted to play drums & have a good time. Greedy, manipulative power plays took her life away from her & the final scene is of her tear-streaked face wondering why the original members can't reunite & record together again. It's a wrenching scene that illustrates vividly the damage done to these young girls.\\n\\nMs. Tischler-Blue also interviews both Sandy & Cherie's mother's which provides an excellent background on how Kim Fowley was able to abuse these young women so freely. Kim himself spends his interview time blustering & dodging questions, never coming close to admitting the wreckage he made of these 7 lives.\\n\\nThe extras aren't much, but do provide some additional background to \\\"Edgeplay\\\". There is a Video Gallery, which consists of some of the background footage used with more of Kim Fowley's bluster playing over it. The only other extras are 3 different promotional trailers. Interestingly, much of the promotional footage was not actually used in \\\"Edgeplay\\\". The final one, called \\\"Edge-Tap\\\" is hilarious, and a much needed antidote to the raw emotional footage of the film.\\n\\nAbsolutely recommended to anyone who wants to see what really goes on in the rock world. With the current mania for tarting up young teen girls & displaying them as sexual objects on MTV, \\\"Edgeplay\\\" is amazingly relevant to today's music business. Get this DVD!\",\n \"Product: Full Screen Feature - All Regions -Language: English (Only) - Subtitles: Traditional Chinese, English, Cantonese Mandarin.\\nDisc holder and disc are in like new condition.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Videodrome 20 years on........\\n\\nReview: David Cronenberg is a very sick man. Everytime I tape another one of his movies & sit down to watch it, I wonder about an industry that would continue to give this man money with which to record his personal obsessions. Of course, the fact that I find it necessary to tape & watch the films provides the answer!\\n\\\"eXistenZ\\\" is, in a nutshell, Cronenberg's return to the themes of his first film \\\"Videodrome\\\". Since \\\"Videodrome\\\" was produced at the dawn of the cable era, it used the video aspect of modern society to make its' points. Now that computer gaming is so much a part of modern society, Cronenberg has found an even more potent tool for his surgical dissections of mass media.\\nTo viewers who haven't seen this earlier work, Cronenberg's repeated use of \\\"bioports\\\", \\\"gamepods\\\" & other artifacts of mutant genentech may seem ripped out of William Gibson's later works. However, \\\"Videodrome\\\" presented us with repellent representations of man merging with plastic way back in the late 70's (well before Gibson was a household name). The vision however has grown much darker. We've watched the progression thru the intermediate works of \\\"Dead Ringers\\\", \\\"the Krays\\\" & \\\"Naked Lunch\\\" but \\\"eXistenZ\\\" is so dark as to be almost unwatchable at times.\\nI realize I am completely ignoring any plot synopses, but you can read other reviews for that. I will mention that Jennifer Jason Leigh does excellent work as the \\\"demoness Allegra Geller\\\" & Jude Law does an excellent \\\"PR nerd\\\" keeping an American accent credibly thruout.\\nWill you enjoy \\\"eXistenZ\\\"? That depends on your gross-out factor. If you enjoy watching amorphous pulsating blobs slithering into apertures in people's spinal columns, the answer is a resounding YES. For the rest of us, the answer is a little more ambivalent. The issues dealt with are important & thought- provoking. It is the manner in which Cronenberg chooses to present them that makes me state he is a very sick man!\",\n \"Product: PRIDE is inspired by an extraordinary true story. It's the summer of 1984, Margaret Thatcher is in power and the National Union of Mineworkers is on strike, prompting a London-based group of gay and lesbian activists to raise money to support the strikers' families. Initially rebuffed by the Union, the group identifies a tiny mining village in Wales and sets off to make their donation in person. As the strike drags on, the two groups discover that standing together makes for the strongest union of all...\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Mostly Honest Depiction Of Recent Gay History\\n\\nReview: Fact-based 'Pride' was released in 2014, but the events it depicts took place 30 years earlier, in England.\\n\\nOn the day of the London Pride Parade we meet (entirely fictitious) Joe (George MacKay). He's snuck away from his home in Bromley to watch the Parade & maybe even (gasp!) meet other gay men. Almost immediately he's seized upon by a participant (Tony, played by Matthew Finn) to assist in carrying a banner. Meanwhile, charismatic Mark (Ben Schnetzer) has seen a news item about the striking coal workers being beaten up by the police. Instantly he decides to spearhead a fundraising group for the miners. After all, aren't they being subjected to the same types of pressure that gays & lesbians have long experienced?\\n\\nSteph (Faye Marsay) is initially the only lesbian who joins. Exiled Welshman Gethin (Andrew Scott) owns a bookstore where the group meets. His partner, flamboyant Jonathan (Dominic West) initially rejects joining them, until the day when it's time to go meet the miners in Wales.\\n\\nAnd who ARE the miners that accept their support? It's the village of Onllwyn, in the Dulais Valley of Wales. An older, open-minded lady named Hefina (Imelda Staunton) happens to answer the phone when the group calls, & welcomes them to the fold. She has Dai (Paddy Considine) go to London to meet them. Initially shy, he soon warms up to being shown around the town.\\n\\nBill Nighy ably portrays hesitant Cliff, a deeply-closeted (or so he thinks) gay man residing in Onllwyn. Sian (Jessica Gunning) has just recently joined the committee, & can't understand what all the fuss is about....But trouble rears its' ugly head in the deeply homophobic character of Maureen (Lisa Palfrey).\\n\\nThe events 'Pride' portrays are a vital part of recent LGBT history. The storyline involving fictitious Joe is absolutely unnecessary & a distraction to the real events depicted onscreen. Written by Stephen Beresford, the film stands up to repeated viewings. I've only ranked it a '3' since Amazon doesn't allow fractions, but if you have any interest in the Gay Pride movement you'll want to see this film.\",\n \"Product: THE IMITATION GAME is a gripping, acclaimed thriller that tells the incredible true story of unsung war hero Alan Turing, the British mathematician responsible for cracking the German Enigma code during World War II. Benedict Cumberbatch (The Fifth Estate, Star Trek Into Darkness, and TVs Sherlock) and Keira Knightley (BAFTA nominee for Atonement, Oscar nominee for Pride and Prejudice) star as Turing and his ally and fellow code-breaker Joan Clarke, alongside a top-notch cast, including Matthew Goode (Stoker, A Single Man), Mark Strong (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), Rory Kinnear (Skyfall), Charles Dance (Gosford Park, TV's Game of Thrones), Allen Leech (In Fear, TVs Downton Abbey) and Matthew Beard (An Education).\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Strong Bio-Film Despite Its' Attempt To Be Oscar Bait\\n\\nReview: 'The Imitation Game', starring Benedict Cumberbatch as computer-inventor Alan Turing, is Oscar bait. It also happens to be a fine film on its' own merits.\\n\\nThe film opens in 1951 with Manchester police arriving at Alan Turing's flat, to compile data about a theft Turing suffered. But Turing will have none of it, which piques an Inspector's interest, so he goes to work digging up dirt about Turing's past.\\n\\nWhen Inspector Nock enquires about Turing's WW2 duties, he discovers nothing. Not 'nothing' as in mediocre, run-of-the-mill. 'Nothing' as in 'zilch, zero, nada'. Turing has a manila envelope with nothing in it at all.\\n\\nFlash back to 1939, the 1st year of Britain's involvement in WW2. Alan arrives at Bletchley Park, summoned there by its' head. He's cold, rude, & generally standoffish, which makes the Commander annoyed. But as one of the best mathematical minds in Britain, he can't be turned away.\\n\\nAnd so begins the tragic, triumphant story of Alan Turing's life. It's told in an intersecting series of flashbacks: Alan as a socially-awkward pre-teen (played amusingly well by Alan Lawther), in love with his best friend Christopher (Jack Bannon); Turing building 'Christopher' (a 'universal digital computer') during the war years at Bletchley Park, fighting both his own superiors & his co-workers for his obsession; Turing, accused of homosexuality by the Manchester Police, relating his memories to Inspector Nock.\\n\\nThere are others who play a role in Turing's life: Joan Clarke (Keira Knightley), another math genius recruited thru a newspaper ad, & Hugh (Matthew Goode) is the rather handsome cad amongst Turing's cadre of geniuses. Knightley especially shines, as the improbably pretty co-worker, who becomes engaged to Alan so that she can remain at Bletchley.\\n\\nBut it's Cumberbatch's interpretation of the difficult genius Turing that truly impresses. Cumberbatch first attained fame as the title character in 'Sherlock'; here he plays a sort of real-life version of that character. A long-time gay-rights ally, in 'The Imitation Game' Cumberbatch gets to proclaim his polemic of gay equality to the world. Keeping the dark hair acquired during his filming of 'Sherlock' (though much shorter in 'The Imitation Game'), Cumberbatch's quirky looks & lovely rich voice do justice to the memory of unjustly accused Turing.\\n\\nTruly a tour-de-force performance, in a film full of them. See 'The Imitation Game' & understand what led to the invention of the computer you're currently reading this on.\",\n \"Product: United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital 5.1 ), English ( Subtitles ), ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN (2.35:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Anamorphic Widescreen, Interactive Menu, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: Neil McCormick (Ben Barnes) always knew he'd be famous. A young Irish songwriter and budding genius, nothing less than a life of rock n' roll stardom will do. But there's only room for one singer in school band The Hype and his friend Paul's already bagged the job. So Neil forms his own band with his brother Ivan (Robert Sheehan). There's only one problem: The Hype have changed their name. To 'U2'. And Paul (Martin McCann) has turned into 'Bono'. Naturally there's only one option for Neil: become bigger than U2. The brothers head to London in their quest for fame, but their every action is dwarfed by the soaring success of their old school rivals. And when Ivan discovers the shocking truth behind Neil's rivalry with U2, it threatens to destroy everything. As his rock n' roll dream crashes and burns, is Neil forever destined to live in the shadows of superstardom? And what if the answer lies in... Killing Bono? ...Killing Bono ( I Was Bono's Doppelgnger )\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: Do NOT Expect To See The Book On Screen!\\n\\nReview: Right off I'll tell you I'm a big fan of Neil McCormick's memoir, 'Killing Bono'. In it he relates going to school with the future members of U2 in a wry, self-deprecating tone. The book 'Killing Bono' is funny, but also the viewpoint of someone who's known the future Bono & the Edge since they were Paul Hewson & Dave Evans.\\n\\nWhen I saw that the writers of 'The Commitments' & Ben Barnes were attached to the film of the book, I was pleasantly anticipating seeing one of my favorite music books rendered on film. I saw the film soon after it came out. I just watched it again, to verify my (unfortunately) negative impression of the project. Bottom line: this film is NOT 'Killing Bono'!\\n\\nMy objections started as the film opens with Neil McCormick (Ben Barnes) driving thru London, fulminating on how Bono is living HIS life. He pulls up across the street from where U2's new album 'The Joshua Tree' is being feted. Neil gets out & points a gun in Bono's general direction, saying 'It's my only option'. Which is all fine IF it had been in the book. But it wasn't. The idea of McCormick murdering Bono is suggested by Bono himself, during one of their interminable phone conversations.\\n\\nCut to Temple Mount school, where all the (late 20's to mid 30's) actors are playing at being 15. Same actors. No real effort given to make them look as if they were teenagers. Paul Hewson (Martin McCann) is standing in front of a notice posted on the bulletin board by Larry Mullins, who is searching for other students to form a band with. This scene, as well as those that follow it, point out 1) that NONE of the cast remotely resembles their real-life counterparts, & 2) Hewson is saintly, even at 15. This is just sheer & utter bs!\\n\\nBono is infamous for making speeches. As Liam Neeson recently pointed out, he'll talk on the phone for HOURS, without a pause for his listener to get a word in edgewise. He's humorous, & passionate about causes as diverse as AIDS, famine & debt in 3rd World countries, & his business ventures (Elevation Partners being one of them). The other members of U2 have been known to complain about Bono's causes interfering with recording or touring or ...\\n\\nMeek & saintly, observing everyone with a secretive, Mona Lisa smile? Not hardly!\\n\\nBut I digress. Here's the deal: NOTHING in this movie occurs in the book! Sure, the characters names remain the same, but the script veers wildly off into the wild blue yonder, concocting events & conversations that never happened. It's a perfectly pleasant way to kill 2 hours, if you're not expecting to see the memoir on-screen. But for those of us who've read (& loved!) the book, it's a tragic waste of talent.\",\n \"Product: Oprah's book club...A very interesting read.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: So enjoyable you'll be angry!\\n\\nReview: \\\"Daughter of Fortune\\\" by Isabel Allende pulls you in, involves you, then drops you like a stone! The story of Eliza Somers is also the story of Tao Ch'ien, a Chinese acupunturist & Eliza's comrade/benefactor. Both stories are interwoven with those of surrounding characters, sometimes to the detriment of narrative; often I wasn't sure what order events had actually occurred in & sometimes even the author seemed confused!\\nYet throughout the novel, the characters seem real enough that the reader gets angry with their actions or sympathises with decisions, as well as feeling the surroundings with clarity. This only adds to the disappointment of the ending which seems completely arbitrary; there is simply no reason for the story to end where it does, and many many questions are left unanswered.\\nI suppose it is ambiguities such as this that make \\\"Daughter of Fortune\\\" a work of literature rather than simply a historical romance or bodice ripper. However, being arty for arts sake doesn't necessarily satisfy. Please Ms. Allende, either write a sequel or an epilogue for future additions! You're not being fair to your readers!\",\n \"Product: Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin tales are widely acknowledged to be the greatest series of historical novels ever written. To commemorate the 40th anniversary of their beginning, with Master and Commander, these evocative stories are being re-issued in paperback with smart new livery. This is the seventh book in the series. Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin are ordered home by despatch vessel to bring the news of their latest victory to the government. But Maturin is a marked man for the havoc he has wrought in the French intelligence network in the New World, and the attentions of two privateers soon become menacing. The chase that follows through the fogs and shallows of the Grand Banks is as thrilling, as tense and as unexpected in its culmination as anything Patrick O'Brian has written. Then, among other things, follows a shipwreck and a particularly sinister internment in the notorious Temple Prison in Paris. Once again, the tigerish and fascinating Diana Villiers redresses the balance in this man's world of seamanship and war.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Maturin at the forefront...\\n\\nReview: In \\\"The Surgeon's Mate\\\", as the title suggests, Stephen Maturin is the main protagonist. Although of course Jack Aubrey is always present to help Maturin accomplish his goals, most of the action revolves around intelligence activities.\\nThe book opens right where the previous \\\"The Fortune of War\\\" ended. Maturin & Aubrey sail into Halifax Canada as conquering warriors & are much acclaimed by the locals (with some humorous entanglements for Aubrey). Soon, tho, we are back at sea, being pursued by privateers paid to kill Maturin. From this point on there is almost constant action, for Maturin has new intelligence assignments as well as unfinished business with the French. Meanwhile, his personal life continues rocky due to Diana Villiers presence. Of course, all will end happily as Patrick O'Brian lets you know by his choice of titles.\\nIt is hard to critically discuss \\\"The Surgeon's Mate\\\" as a stand-alone novel, since so much of it is a continuation of plots begun in \\\"The Fortune of War\\\". It is complex, exciting, & definitely not the best choice as your introduction to the Aubrey/Maturin series. At the very least, read \\\"The Fortune of War\\\" before embarking upon this particular voyage. You will enjoy all the more for having done so!\",\n \"Product: trade paperback, vg+ In stock shipped from our UK warehouse\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: The most complex Aubrey/Maturin novel...\\n\\nReview: I made a serious mistake when I first read the Aubrey/Maturin books: I read them out of sequence. Thus, when I first came to \\\"Post Captain\\\" which is the 2nd in the series & sets up many themes in the novels to come, I already knew how dilemmas would be resolved. This contributed to a feeling of irritation the first time I read it, especially as much occurs on land in a Jane Austen-esque style.\\nThis time around I am re-reading all 20 books in order, & I find \\\"Post Captain\\\" to have many nuances I overlooked the first time. It is one of the funniest books in the series. There are some scenes (such as Maturin's first arrival on deck of Aubrey's acting command the \\\"Lively\\\") in which O'Brian's dry humor will have you in stitches. Of course this is also the novel in which Maturin contributes his much-quoted explanation for the term \\\"dog-watch\\\". The consequences of Pulling's celebration on being made lieutanant are hysterical; but in the dense plotting of \\\"Post Captain\\\" these moments are leavening to the sense of a lee-shore looming in the distance.\\nIf you are currently reading the Aubrey/Maturin novels, you don't need a recommendation to get \\\"Post Captain\\\". Just take my advice & don't read this book out of sequence if possible. If you are thinking of starting this series, do so with \\\"Master & Commander\\\". You'll be happy you did!\",\n \"Product: trade paperback, vg++\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Aubrey hoists his pennant...\\n\\nReview: \\\"The Mauritius Command\\\" opens a few years after the end of \\\"HMS Surprise\\\". Jack has discovered married life to be very different than he imagined, & longs to be back at sea. The arrival of Stephen Maturin (& mushrooms) stirs the household to a frenzy.\\nThis humorous beginning shows Patrick O'Brian's masterful abilities. In a few deft strokes, the past years are filled in with no heavy exposition or flashbacks, & the events to come are put into motion. Aubrey faces many new challenges in the course of \\\"The Mauritius Command\\\", having to learn to sooth battling egos, command while refraining from fighting, & create a fighting machine from almost nothing. His faithful follower Tom Pullings plays an expanded role in this tale as the captain of a transport & deus ex machina, while Stephen Maturin's political abilities overshadow his medical duties.\\nThis is one of the most exciting Aubrey/Maturin novels, a real \\\"Boys Own Life\\\" type tale, full of gunplay, cat & mouse feints & hearty comradeship. The most exciting aspect of it is that it all really happened (of course with different protagonists!). Learn about a forgotten campaign of the Napoleonic wars & enjoy yourself in the process! Read \\\"The Mauritius Command\\\"!\",\n \"Product: Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. 100% Money Back Guarantee.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: A moment frozen & forever there...\\n\\nReview: What an interesting idea for a novel: Tracy Chevalier has taken a painting of an unknown woman by a painter about whom we know almost nothing & written the story behind it's creation as seen thru the eyes of it's subject. \\\"Girl With A Pearl Earring\\\" is the result, & an impressive novel it is.\\nHowever, it impresses in terms of craft, of technique. As I read it, I couldn't help comparing it to the marvelous \\\"Memoirs of A Geisha\\\" which also takes us into the mind of a young girl in a world very foreign to most readers. Where \\\"Memoirs...\\\" fully involved the reader both in descriptions of daily life in a vanished world & in the people populating it, \\\"Girl With A Pearl Earring\\\" exists more as a set piece. There are exquisite sketches of the dour, plodding life of the average Delft citizen in the 17th century, but they never breath. I never felt I understood why the main characters acted as they did, I never felt in sympathy with the dilemmas that formed the core of the book & the resolution felt forced somehow. Also, viewing the painting that inspired the book, I simply didn't feel this was a plausible \\\"back-story\\\".\\nVermeer's paintings are quiet, frozen moments of daily life that seem forever trapped in amber. \\\"Girl With A Pearl Earring\\\" gives a similar feel to the reader. If you prefer a quiet, contemplative book that is primarily focused on thought rather than action, you will probably enjoy this novel more than I did. I guess I'll just never appreciate literature....\",\n \"Product: Sam Quinones is a journalist, author, and storyteller whose two acclaimed books of narrative nonfiction about Mexico and Mexican immigration—True Tales from Another Mexico and Antonio’s Gun and Delfino’s Dream—have made him, according to the San Francisco Chronicle Book Review, “the most original writer on Mexico and the border.” He writes True Tales: A Reporter’s Blog and edits Tell Your True Tale, a storytelling page. He lives in Southern California. Contact him at www.samquinones.com.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: So Good I Thought I Was Dreaming!\\n\\nReview: 'Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic' is a timely book. It's an important book. It's even a well-written book!\\n\\nAuthor & crime-reporter Sam Quinones stumbled upon the subject nearly 2 decades ago. By his account, he was given a whispered lead that 'Mexicans from some small village' were delivering quality black-tar heroin like pizza. An addict calls a number provided by another addict, & was told where & when to pick up their order. What made this rumor really intriguing to Quinones is that this wasn't happening in big-city, traditional heroin centers. It was in small & medium size cities in the central & western portions of the US. Places like Portsmouth OH. Portland OR. Columbia SC.\\n\\nFurther piquing his interest, Quinones discovered that 1) the clientele were all middle-to-upper-class Anglos, the children of judges & doctors & business owners, 2) that nearly all of them had initially been addicted to Oxycontin, but switched opiates when Oxy became too expensive for their habits, & 3) that this entire new wave of heroin addicts could be blamed on the aggressive marketing tactics of Purdue Pharmaceuticals, who claimed Oxycontin wasn't addictive because it was time-released. Adding insult to injury, the tidal wave of deaths-by-opiate overdose almost exactly mirrored the amount of Oxy's that were being prescribed! Quinones couldn't believe no one else had noticed this!\\n\\nOnly they had. The parents of the deceased broke their silence, one by one. The government officials in health, law-enforcement & the judiciary were becoming swamped with this new & unheard-of wave of deaths. Ground Zero (as Quinones terms it) was Portsmouth OH, where the only new businesses that succeeded were 'pill-mills', which had lines snaking down the streets with addicts waiting for their turns with the doctor.\\n\\nMeanwhile, in small-town Mexico ('ranchos' as defined by the author) black-tar heroin was being produced cheaply. It wasn't sold locally; almost all of it was shipped to the US, to be distributed by non-English speaking drivers who carried pagers that displayed delivery codes. None of them actually used the products they carried in small balloons in their mouths; they were on salary, & focused on customer service. Rotated in & out of small-town America in 6 month segments, their primary goal in life was appearing to be a 'big man' to the folks back home in the ranchos of Nayarit.\\n\\nEngagingly written, 'Dreamland' weaves these 2 complementary stories skillfully, from the early cluelessness of the municipal police to the dreams & goals of the Hispanic drivers & cell-chiefs. It's a sobering look at life in the Rust Belt.\\n\\nHowever, one little problem niggled at me throughout this book: whenever Quinones writes 'couple', he DOESN'T write 'of'. He writes statements like 'bought a couple balloons', which REALLY took me out of the flow of the narrative. Yes, it's a minor annoyance, one any good editor should have picked up on. It's partly why this review only got 4 stars instead of 5. But if that deters you from reading 'Dreamland', then you're making a mistake. This is a cutting indictment of early 21st century American culture.\"\n]","isConversational":false},"profile_size":{"kind":"number","value":16,"string":"16"},"task":{"kind":"string","value":"longlamp_3"},"split_kind":{"kind":"string","value":"user_based"},"id":{"kind":"number","value":1686,"string":"1,686"}}},{"rowIdx":1687,"cells":{"question_id":{"kind":"string","value":"A34BRH9R7DHXWU"},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of \"5.0\" for a product with description \"Jay McLean is the author of the More Series, including More Than This, More Than Her, More Than Him and soon to be released, More Than Forever. She also has two standalones coming soon titled The Road, and Combative. Jay is an avid reader, writer, and most of all, procrastinator. When she's not doing any of those things, she can be found running after her two little boys, or devouring some tacky reality TV show. She writes what she loves to read, which are books that can make her laugh, make her smile, make her hurt, and make her feel. You can follow Jay on Instagram and twitter @jaymcleanauthor. You can also find her on her blog at www.jaymcleanauthor.com where you can subscribe to her newsletter and get teasers and updates first hand, her Facebook page at www.facebook.com/jaymcleanauthor or her fan group on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/moreserieslovers, or you can contact Jay directly at jay@jaymcleanauthor.com All her other social media links can be found below. Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/jaymcleanauthor/ Google Plus: http://bit.ly/1uY8DJY Google Plus Jaybirds group: http://bit.ly/1n66EhR Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4724550.Jay_McLean For publishing rights (Foreign & Domestic) Film, or television, please contact my agent, Erica Spellman-Silverman, at Trident Media Group.\". The summary of the review text is \"5 Why can't I stop crying Stars!!\"."},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"I don't know why I had doubts about this book. This books was just as beautiful as every other book in this series! Oh my god, Lucy and Cam's story just broke my heart! Seriously, I think I cried throughout the whole book. I just couldn't stop! Every little thing had me ready to bawl. It's just so emotional. I was so emotional. Couldn't help it. It happens when you're as invested into to characters story as I was.\n\nCam is someone I've always loved but to be honest I never really paid much attention to him in the previous books. But after reading this book I think he might be my favorite of the bunch! He's protective, loyal, sweet, PERECT. Just perfect and everything Lucy needed in her life. The way he came into her life and just refuse to leave had my heart melting.\n\nI've always loved Lucy and her funny sense of humor but reading this book I got to see a whole new side of her, the part of her that's broken and sad. I loved Lucy and I love her family and I honestly can't believe how much she's been though and how strong she is. Both Lucy and Cam are two strong characters who never once waver from each other for 5 long years.\n\nI knew things were going to change, it's only natural. There's no way they could have stayed in that happy bubble they've been in, it's not realistic. I thought I was ready...but I wasn't. I so wasn't. Nothing felt like unnecessary drama or unneeded, you could tell that it killed the author to write these scenes as much as it hurt us readers to read them. But my god, did they hurt. Like unbearable, tear-stained pillowcase hurt. Like seriously Jay McLean: WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME?!!??!\n\nI didn't think I could get through the rest of the book but thankfully I did. And it was beautiful and everything I needed. It felt like forever to get Cam and Lucy's story but it was well worth the wait. And now, I can't wait to read Dylan and Heidi's story because despite some peoples hate towards her, I like her and I feel like their love is similar to Cam and Lucy's except in order for them to grow, Dylan needed to leave for a little bit. But now he's back and I know that they are each others forever."},"correct_answer":{"kind":"string","value":"I don't know why I had doubts about this book. This books was just as beautiful as every other book in this series! Oh my god, Lucy and Cam's story just broke my heart! Seriously, I think I cried throughout the whole book. I just couldn't stop! Every little thing had me ready to bawl. It's just so emotional. I was so emotional. Couldn't help it. It happens when you're as invested into to characters story as I was.\n\nCam is someone I've always loved but to be honest I never really paid much attention to him in the previous books. But after reading this book I think he might be my favorite of the bunch! He's protective, loyal, sweet, PERECT. Just perfect and everything Lucy needed in her life. The way he came into her life and just refuse to leave had my heart melting.\n\nI've always loved Lucy and her funny sense of humor but reading this book I got to see a whole new side of her, the part of her that's broken and sad. I loved Lucy and I love her family and I honestly can't believe how much she's been though and how strong she is. Both Lucy and Cam are two strong characters who never once waver from each other for 5 long years.\n\nI knew things were going to change, it's only natural. There's no way they could have stayed in that happy bubble they've been in, it's not realistic. I thought I was ready...but I wasn't. I so wasn't. Nothing felt like unnecessary drama or unneeded, you could tell that it killed the author to write these scenes as much as it hurt us readers to read them. But my god, did they hurt. Like unbearable, tear-stained pillowcase hurt. Like seriously Jay McLean: WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME?!!??!\n\nI didn't think I could get through the rest of the book but thankfully I did. And it was beautiful and everything I needed. It felt like forever to get Cam and Lucy's story but it was well worth the wait. And now, I can't wait to read Dylan and Heidi's story because despite some peoples hate towards her, I like her and I feel like their love is similar to Cam and Lucy's except in order for them to grow, Dylan needed to leave for a little bit. But now he's back and I know that they are each others forever."},"documents":{"kind":"list like","value":["Product: Together Patch and Nora have overcome the secrets riddled in Patch's dark past, bridged two irreconcilable worlds and faced heart-wrenching tests of betrayal, loyalty and trust...and all for a love that will transcend the boundary between heaven and earth. Armed with nothing but their absolute faith in one another, Patch and Nora enter a desperate fight to stop a villain who holds the power to shatter everything they've worked for - and their love - forever.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: World of Books reviews\n\nReview: I love love LOVE Patch and Nora's relationship! OK so maybe I just really love Patch but still. The seconds book has definitely improved and while I loved the first book, I think this book is even better.\n\nRight from the beginning of the book I was completely hooked and couldn't put the book down for a second. Granted, I was seriously getting annoyed with Nora in the beginning but she quickly becomes bearable and I actually admire the choices she makes. I really liked how she didn't go running to Patch for everything and she tried to be independent. And what I liked even more about this book was that when things went bad between Nora and Patch she didn't just go running back to Patch like they usually do in books. She actually said no and told Patch to back the hell up (she didn't say it in those exact words of course but you get the idea). But I'll admit: Nora really needs to stop automatically assuming things when she doesn't know ANYTHING. I don't want to put in any spoilers so I'll just leave it at that but trust me, I guarantee you're going to be yelling at you're book in frustration for a good part of the book.\n\nBut back to how much I liked this book: This book really made me smile. A lot. You can only imagine how many strange looks I got on the train while I was reading this book because I kept smiling randomly and trying not to laugh. It probably had a lot to do with Patch's sexy comments and Vee's crazy ideas. I'm really happy that Becca left Vee as a supporting best friend and didn't try to make Vee into some sort of scheming crazy friend or something. I really like Vee, and whenever she shows up in the scene it's almost a guarantee that a smile will be showing up on my face.\n\nSo many things are revealed in this book, so many secrets from the past that had me eagerly flipping through the pages to find out what would happen next. There's about 427 pages in this book but I flew through it like it was only 200 pages. And the ending...oh my god it leaves you craving to run to the nearest book store and buying the next book. I literally just bought this book a few days ago and I finished it in one day and now I REALLY want to buy Silence the third book in the Hush Hush series. Crescendo was an amazing sequel and I really can't wait to find out what's next for this series.","Product: Kelly Elliott is a contemporary romance writer and the author of the Wanted series. She lives in Texas with her husband and daughter. Visit Kelly at authorkellyelliott.blogspot.com.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: World of Books reviews\n\nReview: I am so in love with this book!\n\nThis book felt different then any other book I've read. I don't know what it is but I loved every minute of the book. The writing style is different then I'm used to but I quickly grew used to it. Now I'm not usually one to care about this but this book needs some serious editing! I usually just ignore things like grammatical errors and what not but there were just too many not to notice and get a little irritated with it.\n\nI thought I would find Ellie's insecurities annoying but I felt the complete opposite. Honestly, I hate weak characters. I hate when the girl is all sad and wallowing in self pity and expects everyone to take care of her and feel bad for her but I was pleasantly surprised that Ellie wasn't like that at all. She's gone through a lot and yes, she looks for her brother to help take care of her at times but for the most part she's actually pretty strong. Everyone, especially her brother Jeff and Gunner act like she's so fragile and sometimes it was hard to think of her as more then Jeff's little sister.\n\nGunner was perfect. From the moment he saw Ellie, he was hooked. I loved how well he treated her and I swear every other work that came out of his mouth had me thinking \"Aww!\" I just loved that he wasn't a douche or mean or had anger issues like more book guys seem to have today. Don't get me wrong, I love those guys too but it was refreshing to read about a sweet, sexy guy who isn't afraid to run after the girl he wants like a lost puppy. I especially loved Gunner's grandparents; they're that adorable old, lovable couple that always know the right thing to say.\n\nI can not wait to read Ari (Ellie's best friend) and Jeff's book. A big reason that I loved this book was because of them. They are such a hot mess (I swear that song One More Night by Maroon 5 fits them perfectly!) and their constant fighting and drama had me hooked on their story. I really hope their story comes out soon because I can't wait to find out what happens between them two.\n\nI have to point out that I absolutely loved that Kelly Elliott made music a pretty big part of this book. I loved listening to all the songs mentioned in the book and they really made me love the book more. This book was also longer then I thought it would be. It took me almost two days to finish it which for me, is long. But I loved it and I loved that nothing was rushed.\n\nOverall, as her debut book, I think Kelly Elliott did a pretty good job. With a really good editor this book could be beyond amazing but besides that I really enjoyed Wanted. I really look forward to reading more from her!","Product: Jen Frederick lives with her husband, child, and one rambunctious dog. She's been reading stories all her life but never imagined writing one of her own. Jen loves to hear from readers so drop her a line atjensfrederick@gmail.com.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: World of Books reviews\n\nReview: 4.5 stars!\n\nI love the idea behind this story and I especially love all the characters. I can't wait to get to know them better, especially Noah's roommates.\n\nFrom start to finish this book captured my attention but I couldn't help but feel a little bit disappointed. I wish it was longer. I feel like there could be so much more to Noah and Graces' story and even though I know it won't happen, I wish they'd get another book.\n\nI don't think anyone will have a problem with Noah or Grace. I'm happy to say that Grace didn't annoy me at all. Sure she can act a little stupid at times but she's only 19 and she doesn't really know what she wants in life. As for Noah? He's PERFECT. He's smart, determined, sexy and a little broken. But he doesn't let his past determine his future, not anymore.\n\nI don't want to give away anything that happens in the book so I'm going to stop here but I really urge you to give this book a chance!\n\nDefinite read for New Adult fans and for anyone who loves a sexy alpha male!","Product: Krista & Becca Ritchie are identical twinsone a science nerd, the other a comic book geekbut with their shared passion for writing, they combined their mental powers as kids and have never stopped telling stories. Now in their early twenties, they write about other twenty-somethings navigating through life, college, and romance. They love superheroes, flawed characters, and soul mate love. They are the New Adult authors of the Addicted series and Calloway Sisters spin-off series, and you can find them on almost every social media, frolicking around like wannabe unicorns.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: These books are the reason why I love to read..\n\nReview: As if this book could be anything less than perfect. My favorite author duo has done it again (not surprisingly) and have reminded me why I love reading so much. This entire series is why I love to read. And why I'll never stop.\n\nKrista and Becca Ritchie are two authors I found last year and have read and loved every single book they've written. Every book is uniquely beautiful, filled with heart-stopping moments, laughs, and amazing character development. Each character feels so real; at this point, these characters are my friends and I desperately despise that I can jump into this book and be a part of their group. Add in some of the best writing I've read in a while, and you've got a hit for me. I don't know what it is about their writing but I just love it so much. I connect instantly with each book, I'm\nnever bored and I never want the books to end. And for me this is a big thing because I have so many other things going on in my life so when I can find a book (let alone a series) that makes me forget everything else going on and has my attention from start to finish, I know I have a keeper.\n\nRose Cobalt is one of my favorite heroines EVER. I love her and connect with her character so much. She's so independent, strong and doesn't let anyone tell her who she is or what she can do. She is everything I strive to be like. And this book was no different. She is just as flawless as before except now we get to see her continue to grow and be more confident in who she is. I know that some people don't understand how Rose can be so cold and see her actions as being mean to Connor but it's exactly why I love her. I don't see her as being mean to him but rather reminded Connor that the world doesn't revolve around him. Plus their little heated convos are like foreplay for them and it's always fun to see Rose get riled up over Connor's comments.\n\nConnor Cobalt is unlike any character I've ever read before. He is a narcissist who appears to be better and more knowing than everyone else. But even god-like people have a weakness and in this book we get to learn more about who Connor is and how he became who he is today. He goes through the most character development in this book and I think it's for the better. Connor will always be seen as an untouchable character in my eyes and through every hurdle he's had to jump to protect his friends and family, no matter the outcome, I've grown to love and respect him even more. His love for Rose and Jane have no bounds and even though love feels like a foreign concept to Connor, Rose has made him open his heart and accept these human feelings for what they are.\n\nOh and in case if you're wondering about the sex: it is HOT. And very much Rose and Connor's \"Missionary with a few altercations\". I love, love, love how sexy their sex lives are and that they own up to their preferences. I love how the sex scenes never felt unnecessary or just there to add some spice. Each scene was important and showed us another part of these characters.\n\nGetting to be with the group again and seeing that dynamic they have is one of my favorite parts of these books. Even though it's not Raisy or Lilo's book, we still get to check in with them and they are very much a important part of this book. Lily and Lo scenes made me a little misty-eyed because of how much they've grown and how strong they are now. And Raisy scenes just made me more anxious for their book. They are the most private out of the group and there's so much going on behind the scenes that we don't get that I know we'll find out more about in Long Way Down.\n\nThroughout this book we get to see Rose and Connor work together as a team and while things are not easy for them, I love how they never once lose faith in each other and never doubt that it's all worth it. Even though it kills me that this will be the last book in their POV, I'm thoroughly satisfied with how things end. I will always want more of them but I will satisfy myself with rereading their books over and over. Fan of the series will love this book and if you haven't read this series yet I honestly don't know what you're waiting for. Start from the beginning with Addicted to You and enjoy the ride!","Product: Alyssa Rose Ivy is a Young Adult and New Adult author who loves to weave stories with romance and a southern setting. Although raised in the New York area, she fell in love with the South after moving to New Orleans for college. After years as a perpetual student, she turned back to her creative side and decided to write. She lives in North Carolina with her husband and two young children, and she can usually be found with a cup of coffee in her hand.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: World of Books reviews\n\nReview: I really enjoyed Derailed, the first book in the Clayton Falls series so I was really excited to read Veer. And honestly, I loved this book even more then the first!\n\nI was so happy that Gavin and Becca got their own story. I really liked them in the first book and even though I didn't imagine them together when I read the first book they really are great together. There's a lot more to both characters then I originally thought so it was really great getting to know them better.\n\nBecca comes to Clayton Falls after she loses her summer job and Molly helps her get a job in Clayton Falls. She's not really sure what to expect of this small town but it's definitely different from what she's used to. When she meets Gavin they don't exactly hit it off and even though Molly made him sound like a great guy, Becca isn't convinced.\n\nGavin doesn't know what it is about Becca that makes him lose his control but when he's around her she makes him feel things he hasn't for years. And that scares him. He doesn't want to get his heart broken and especially with someone only hear for the summer. And yet, he can't stop thinking about her.\n\nThings seemed to move quickly in this book but at the same time went slowly at all the right parts. I really liked the way the story flowed and I couldn't seem to let go of my kindle.\n\nAlyssa Rose Ivy is well on her way to becoming a favorite author for me and I can't wait to read the next book in this series. Hopefully Jake (Ben's brother) or even Gavin's younger brother will get their own story.","Product: Theresa M Jones is just a regular small town, Texas girl. When she isn't at work at a local Medical Equipment provider,you can find her at home with her husband and two beautiful (and rambunctious) kiddos. In her spare time- as if there ever was such a thing as \"spare time\" - she reads and reviews books on her book blog, and writes paranormal romance novels. POWER (The Descendent Trilogy #1) is her debut New Adult (Mature YA) Paranormal Romance novel.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: World of Books reviews\n\nReview: When Theresa first came to me, asking me to be a part of her upcoming book tour I was excited and a little nervous. What if I didn't enjoy the book? There's nothing worse then having to write a bad review. But luckily that was not the case with this book at all!\n\nAllison is just trying to live her life. But these weird dreams just don't seem to want to let her go. I liked her from the moment the story started. She's a single mother who's trying to do what's best for her daughter. But add in crazy dreams, paranormal events and super hot teacher and suddenly her life is anything but normal.\n\nI don't know how much is too much say because I don't want to give anything away but this book is made of awesomeness. As her debut book I feel like Theresa did an amazing job. I love the writing, the plot is captivating and I can't wait to read the next book.\n\nParanormal lovers will love this! And if you're a fan of New Adult then you'll probably enjoy this even more. Definite read for me.\n\n*Received from Author as part of blog tour.","Product: New York Times and USA Today Best Selling Author Michelle A. Valentine is a Central Ohio nurse turned author of erotic romance and New Adult novels. Her love of hard-rock music and tattoos inspire her sexy novels.\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: Just not my cup of tea...\n\nReview: I cannot believe how much I disliked this book. I knew from the synopsis that this book was going to be a bit cliche but I loved Michelle A. Valentine's previous books so I gave it a shot. Um...no. Just no. This book is a cross between Real by Katy Evans and every other New Adult book out there. Not original at all.\n\nAnna is this super innocent 21 year old who is essentially running away from home and living with her Aunt and cousin across the country. She meets Xavier on the plane, has no idea who he is but notices how incredibly sexy he is. Of course he notices her right away and takes a quick interest in her.\n\nAnyway of course now she's completely infatuated with him and can't stop thinking about him. He in return keeps talking about how he's \"evil\" and \"not good enough for her\" which by the way is so freaking annoying. I'm tired of the guys in books always coming up with stupid ass reasons as to why they can't be with the heroine. Always insisting they're not good enough. And then of course, he has to go and messes up in a HUGE way that left me literally screaming with rage at no one in particular for about 30 minutes.\n\nAt this point I hate Xavier and I think Anna is so beyond naive, I can barely stand them. But then of course Anna continues on her stupid ways and lets just say it gets worse from there.\n\nThis book literally takes place all in the span of about two weeks and yet by the end of the first week their declaring love and going at it like rabbits? Oh and apparently she \"read\" somewhere that you can't get pregnant unless it's a certain week or some other stupid reason so they don't use protection...\n\nThe list can go on and on but I'm going to stop there because I don't want to spoil anything else for anyone. I'm upset that I didn't enjoy this book but I guess it just wasn't for me. Yes, there is a second book and it will be a continuation of these characters. Will I be reading it? NOPE."],"string":"[\n \"Product: Together Patch and Nora have overcome the secrets riddled in Patch's dark past, bridged two irreconcilable worlds and faced heart-wrenching tests of betrayal, loyalty and trust...and all for a love that will transcend the boundary between heaven and earth. Armed with nothing but their absolute faith in one another, Patch and Nora enter a desperate fight to stop a villain who holds the power to shatter everything they've worked for - and their love - forever.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: World of Books reviews\\n\\nReview: I love love LOVE Patch and Nora's relationship! OK so maybe I just really love Patch but still. The seconds book has definitely improved and while I loved the first book, I think this book is even better.\\n\\nRight from the beginning of the book I was completely hooked and couldn't put the book down for a second. Granted, I was seriously getting annoyed with Nora in the beginning but she quickly becomes bearable and I actually admire the choices she makes. I really liked how she didn't go running to Patch for everything and she tried to be independent. And what I liked even more about this book was that when things went bad between Nora and Patch she didn't just go running back to Patch like they usually do in books. She actually said no and told Patch to back the hell up (she didn't say it in those exact words of course but you get the idea). But I'll admit: Nora really needs to stop automatically assuming things when she doesn't know ANYTHING. I don't want to put in any spoilers so I'll just leave it at that but trust me, I guarantee you're going to be yelling at you're book in frustration for a good part of the book.\\n\\nBut back to how much I liked this book: This book really made me smile. A lot. You can only imagine how many strange looks I got on the train while I was reading this book because I kept smiling randomly and trying not to laugh. It probably had a lot to do with Patch's sexy comments and Vee's crazy ideas. I'm really happy that Becca left Vee as a supporting best friend and didn't try to make Vee into some sort of scheming crazy friend or something. I really like Vee, and whenever she shows up in the scene it's almost a guarantee that a smile will be showing up on my face.\\n\\nSo many things are revealed in this book, so many secrets from the past that had me eagerly flipping through the pages to find out what would happen next. There's about 427 pages in this book but I flew through it like it was only 200 pages. And the ending...oh my god it leaves you craving to run to the nearest book store and buying the next book. I literally just bought this book a few days ago and I finished it in one day and now I REALLY want to buy Silence the third book in the Hush Hush series. Crescendo was an amazing sequel and I really can't wait to find out what's next for this series.\",\n \"Product: Kelly Elliott is a contemporary romance writer and the author of the Wanted series. She lives in Texas with her husband and daughter. Visit Kelly at authorkellyelliott.blogspot.com.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: World of Books reviews\\n\\nReview: I am so in love with this book!\\n\\nThis book felt different then any other book I've read. I don't know what it is but I loved every minute of the book. The writing style is different then I'm used to but I quickly grew used to it. Now I'm not usually one to care about this but this book needs some serious editing! I usually just ignore things like grammatical errors and what not but there were just too many not to notice and get a little irritated with it.\\n\\nI thought I would find Ellie's insecurities annoying but I felt the complete opposite. Honestly, I hate weak characters. I hate when the girl is all sad and wallowing in self pity and expects everyone to take care of her and feel bad for her but I was pleasantly surprised that Ellie wasn't like that at all. She's gone through a lot and yes, she looks for her brother to help take care of her at times but for the most part she's actually pretty strong. Everyone, especially her brother Jeff and Gunner act like she's so fragile and sometimes it was hard to think of her as more then Jeff's little sister.\\n\\nGunner was perfect. From the moment he saw Ellie, he was hooked. I loved how well he treated her and I swear every other work that came out of his mouth had me thinking \\\"Aww!\\\" I just loved that he wasn't a douche or mean or had anger issues like more book guys seem to have today. Don't get me wrong, I love those guys too but it was refreshing to read about a sweet, sexy guy who isn't afraid to run after the girl he wants like a lost puppy. I especially loved Gunner's grandparents; they're that adorable old, lovable couple that always know the right thing to say.\\n\\nI can not wait to read Ari (Ellie's best friend) and Jeff's book. A big reason that I loved this book was because of them. They are such a hot mess (I swear that song One More Night by Maroon 5 fits them perfectly!) and their constant fighting and drama had me hooked on their story. I really hope their story comes out soon because I can't wait to find out what happens between them two.\\n\\nI have to point out that I absolutely loved that Kelly Elliott made music a pretty big part of this book. I loved listening to all the songs mentioned in the book and they really made me love the book more. This book was also longer then I thought it would be. It took me almost two days to finish it which for me, is long. But I loved it and I loved that nothing was rushed.\\n\\nOverall, as her debut book, I think Kelly Elliott did a pretty good job. With a really good editor this book could be beyond amazing but besides that I really enjoyed Wanted. I really look forward to reading more from her!\",\n \"Product: Jen Frederick lives with her husband, child, and one rambunctious dog. She's been reading stories all her life but never imagined writing one of her own. Jen loves to hear from readers so drop her a line atjensfrederick@gmail.com.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: World of Books reviews\\n\\nReview: 4.5 stars!\\n\\nI love the idea behind this story and I especially love all the characters. I can't wait to get to know them better, especially Noah's roommates.\\n\\nFrom start to finish this book captured my attention but I couldn't help but feel a little bit disappointed. I wish it was longer. I feel like there could be so much more to Noah and Graces' story and even though I know it won't happen, I wish they'd get another book.\\n\\nI don't think anyone will have a problem with Noah or Grace. I'm happy to say that Grace didn't annoy me at all. Sure she can act a little stupid at times but she's only 19 and she doesn't really know what she wants in life. As for Noah? He's PERFECT. He's smart, determined, sexy and a little broken. But he doesn't let his past determine his future, not anymore.\\n\\nI don't want to give away anything that happens in the book so I'm going to stop here but I really urge you to give this book a chance!\\n\\nDefinite read for New Adult fans and for anyone who loves a sexy alpha male!\",\n \"Product: Krista & Becca Ritchie are identical twinsone a science nerd, the other a comic book geekbut with their shared passion for writing, they combined their mental powers as kids and have never stopped telling stories. Now in their early twenties, they write about other twenty-somethings navigating through life, college, and romance. They love superheroes, flawed characters, and soul mate love. They are the New Adult authors of the Addicted series and Calloway Sisters spin-off series, and you can find them on almost every social media, frolicking around like wannabe unicorns.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: These books are the reason why I love to read..\\n\\nReview: As if this book could be anything less than perfect. My favorite author duo has done it again (not surprisingly) and have reminded me why I love reading so much. This entire series is why I love to read. And why I'll never stop.\\n\\nKrista and Becca Ritchie are two authors I found last year and have read and loved every single book they've written. Every book is uniquely beautiful, filled with heart-stopping moments, laughs, and amazing character development. Each character feels so real; at this point, these characters are my friends and I desperately despise that I can jump into this book and be a part of their group. Add in some of the best writing I've read in a while, and you've got a hit for me. I don't know what it is about their writing but I just love it so much. I connect instantly with each book, I'm\\nnever bored and I never want the books to end. And for me this is a big thing because I have so many other things going on in my life so when I can find a book (let alone a series) that makes me forget everything else going on and has my attention from start to finish, I know I have a keeper.\\n\\nRose Cobalt is one of my favorite heroines EVER. I love her and connect with her character so much. She's so independent, strong and doesn't let anyone tell her who she is or what she can do. She is everything I strive to be like. And this book was no different. She is just as flawless as before except now we get to see her continue to grow and be more confident in who she is. I know that some people don't understand how Rose can be so cold and see her actions as being mean to Connor but it's exactly why I love her. I don't see her as being mean to him but rather reminded Connor that the world doesn't revolve around him. Plus their little heated convos are like foreplay for them and it's always fun to see Rose get riled up over Connor's comments.\\n\\nConnor Cobalt is unlike any character I've ever read before. He is a narcissist who appears to be better and more knowing than everyone else. But even god-like people have a weakness and in this book we get to learn more about who Connor is and how he became who he is today. He goes through the most character development in this book and I think it's for the better. Connor will always be seen as an untouchable character in my eyes and through every hurdle he's had to jump to protect his friends and family, no matter the outcome, I've grown to love and respect him even more. His love for Rose and Jane have no bounds and even though love feels like a foreign concept to Connor, Rose has made him open his heart and accept these human feelings for what they are.\\n\\nOh and in case if you're wondering about the sex: it is HOT. And very much Rose and Connor's \\\"Missionary with a few altercations\\\". I love, love, love how sexy their sex lives are and that they own up to their preferences. I love how the sex scenes never felt unnecessary or just there to add some spice. Each scene was important and showed us another part of these characters.\\n\\nGetting to be with the group again and seeing that dynamic they have is one of my favorite parts of these books. Even though it's not Raisy or Lilo's book, we still get to check in with them and they are very much a important part of this book. Lily and Lo scenes made me a little misty-eyed because of how much they've grown and how strong they are now. And Raisy scenes just made me more anxious for their book. They are the most private out of the group and there's so much going on behind the scenes that we don't get that I know we'll find out more about in Long Way Down.\\n\\nThroughout this book we get to see Rose and Connor work together as a team and while things are not easy for them, I love how they never once lose faith in each other and never doubt that it's all worth it. Even though it kills me that this will be the last book in their POV, I'm thoroughly satisfied with how things end. I will always want more of them but I will satisfy myself with rereading their books over and over. Fan of the series will love this book and if you haven't read this series yet I honestly don't know what you're waiting for. Start from the beginning with Addicted to You and enjoy the ride!\",\n \"Product: Alyssa Rose Ivy is a Young Adult and New Adult author who loves to weave stories with romance and a southern setting. Although raised in the New York area, she fell in love with the South after moving to New Orleans for college. After years as a perpetual student, she turned back to her creative side and decided to write. She lives in North Carolina with her husband and two young children, and she can usually be found with a cup of coffee in her hand.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: World of Books reviews\\n\\nReview: I really enjoyed Derailed, the first book in the Clayton Falls series so I was really excited to read Veer. And honestly, I loved this book even more then the first!\\n\\nI was so happy that Gavin and Becca got their own story. I really liked them in the first book and even though I didn't imagine them together when I read the first book they really are great together. There's a lot more to both characters then I originally thought so it was really great getting to know them better.\\n\\nBecca comes to Clayton Falls after she loses her summer job and Molly helps her get a job in Clayton Falls. She's not really sure what to expect of this small town but it's definitely different from what she's used to. When she meets Gavin they don't exactly hit it off and even though Molly made him sound like a great guy, Becca isn't convinced.\\n\\nGavin doesn't know what it is about Becca that makes him lose his control but when he's around her she makes him feel things he hasn't for years. And that scares him. He doesn't want to get his heart broken and especially with someone only hear for the summer. And yet, he can't stop thinking about her.\\n\\nThings seemed to move quickly in this book but at the same time went slowly at all the right parts. I really liked the way the story flowed and I couldn't seem to let go of my kindle.\\n\\nAlyssa Rose Ivy is well on her way to becoming a favorite author for me and I can't wait to read the next book in this series. Hopefully Jake (Ben's brother) or even Gavin's younger brother will get their own story.\",\n \"Product: Theresa M Jones is just a regular small town, Texas girl. When she isn't at work at a local Medical Equipment provider,you can find her at home with her husband and two beautiful (and rambunctious) kiddos. In her spare time- as if there ever was such a thing as \\\"spare time\\\" - she reads and reviews books on her book blog, and writes paranormal romance novels. POWER (The Descendent Trilogy #1) is her debut New Adult (Mature YA) Paranormal Romance novel.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: World of Books reviews\\n\\nReview: When Theresa first came to me, asking me to be a part of her upcoming book tour I was excited and a little nervous. What if I didn't enjoy the book? There's nothing worse then having to write a bad review. But luckily that was not the case with this book at all!\\n\\nAllison is just trying to live her life. But these weird dreams just don't seem to want to let her go. I liked her from the moment the story started. She's a single mother who's trying to do what's best for her daughter. But add in crazy dreams, paranormal events and super hot teacher and suddenly her life is anything but normal.\\n\\nI don't know how much is too much say because I don't want to give anything away but this book is made of awesomeness. As her debut book I feel like Theresa did an amazing job. I love the writing, the plot is captivating and I can't wait to read the next book.\\n\\nParanormal lovers will love this! And if you're a fan of New Adult then you'll probably enjoy this even more. Definite read for me.\\n\\n*Received from Author as part of blog tour.\",\n \"Product: New York Times and USA Today Best Selling Author Michelle A. Valentine is a Central Ohio nurse turned author of erotic romance and New Adult novels. Her love of hard-rock music and tattoos inspire her sexy novels.\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: Just not my cup of tea...\\n\\nReview: I cannot believe how much I disliked this book. I knew from the synopsis that this book was going to be a bit cliche but I loved Michelle A. Valentine's previous books so I gave it a shot. Um...no. Just no. This book is a cross between Real by Katy Evans and every other New Adult book out there. Not original at all.\\n\\nAnna is this super innocent 21 year old who is essentially running away from home and living with her Aunt and cousin across the country. She meets Xavier on the plane, has no idea who he is but notices how incredibly sexy he is. Of course he notices her right away and takes a quick interest in her.\\n\\nAnyway of course now she's completely infatuated with him and can't stop thinking about him. He in return keeps talking about how he's \\\"evil\\\" and \\\"not good enough for her\\\" which by the way is so freaking annoying. I'm tired of the guys in books always coming up with stupid ass reasons as to why they can't be with the heroine. Always insisting they're not good enough. And then of course, he has to go and messes up in a HUGE way that left me literally screaming with rage at no one in particular for about 30 minutes.\\n\\nAt this point I hate Xavier and I think Anna is so beyond naive, I can barely stand them. But then of course Anna continues on her stupid ways and lets just say it gets worse from there.\\n\\nThis book literally takes place all in the span of about two weeks and yet by the end of the first week their declaring love and going at it like rabbits? Oh and apparently she \\\"read\\\" somewhere that you can't get pregnant unless it's a certain week or some other stupid reason so they don't use protection...\\n\\nThe list can go on and on but I'm going to stop there because I don't want to spoil anything else for anyone. I'm upset that I didn't enjoy this book but I guess it just wasn't for me. Yes, there is a second book and it will be a continuation of these characters. Will I be reading it? NOPE.\"\n]","isConversational":false},"profile_size":{"kind":"number","value":7,"string":"7"},"task":{"kind":"string","value":"longlamp_3"},"split_kind":{"kind":"string","value":"user_based"},"id":{"kind":"number","value":1687,"string":"1,687"}}},{"rowIdx":1688,"cells":{"question_id":{"kind":"string","value":"ADKZOXAOV8EXD"},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of \"4.0\" for a product with description \"When you want to leave as little as possible on the camera once the strap is removed, the ADAPT-ITS are the solution. The rugged, flexible ADAPT-ITS System Connector is the low-profile way to transform any camera to be compatible with a swivel hook connection. The ADAPT-ITS System Connector is available in sets of four.\". The summary of the review text is \"Good design, cheap materials\"."},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"This review applies to the Swivel Hook Connector, Classic Strap, and Adapt-its combination. If you are like me and use many cameras but don't want to maintain many permanently attached straps, and sometimes wish to use a camera with no strap, then OP/TECH has a solution for you. The tiny plastic Adapt-it loops are the only things that remain permanently in your camera rings, and then you snap in the Swivel Hook Connector; it removes very quickly also.\n\nThis is a good design and makes more sense than threading those awful ugly narrow nylon straps through your rings. However, OP/TECH has used rather poor materials; the black straps on the Swivel Hook item look to be the very cheapest type of loosely woven polyester from China.\n\nThe whole system is flexible, inexpensive and it works - but the appearance and durability may not match your fine quality cameras. Also, the unique item is the tiny Adapt-it loop; once you have those you can attach many kinds of straps and swivel hooks. You don't need the rest of the OP/TECH."},"correct_answer":{"kind":"string","value":"This review applies to the Swivel Hook Connector, Classic Strap, and Adapt-its combination. If you are like me and use many cameras but don't want to maintain many permanently attached straps, and sometimes wish to use a camera with no strap, then OP/TECH has a solution for you. The tiny plastic Adapt-it loops are the only things that remain permanently in your camera rings, and then you snap in the Swivel Hook Connector; it removes very quickly also.\n\nThis is a good design and makes more sense than threading those awful ugly narrow nylon straps through your rings. However, OP/TECH has used rather poor materials; the black straps on the Swivel Hook item look to be the very cheapest type of loosely woven polyester from China.\n\nThe whole system is flexible, inexpensive and it works - but the appearance and durability may not match your fine quality cameras. Also, the unique item is the tiny Adapt-it loop; once you have those you can attach many kinds of straps and swivel hooks. You don't need the rest of the OP/TECH."},"documents":{"kind":"list like","value":["Product: Since 1845, Scientific American has been educating and delighting readers with in-depth coverage on a broad range of scientific topics. Every month government leaders, c-suite executives, investors, students and informed citizens from all professions depend on Scientific American for reporting on advances that impact the economy and careers, financial markets, global health, and the environment. Scientific American subscriptions include 12 print and 12 digital issues (Tablet Edition for iPad, downloadable PDFs, and browser based access to gated content on ScientificAmerican.com).\n\nRating: 1.0\n\nSummary: From science to cupcakes; sad decline of an institution\n\nReview: Witnessing the editorial deterioration of Scientific American over the years has been a sad disappointment. I began to read SA in my high school library nearly fifty years ago. From the 60's through the 80s' it was a serious and dignified journal with explanations by major scientists of their own work. The Amateur Scientist and Mathematical Recreations columns had many devotees. In these years many who chose careers in science credited SA as an inspiration. Apparently it was not considered cool or profitable enough by its publishers however; sometime in the 90's SA was taken over by a new crowd, the articles now written by journalists, and it became strongly politicized, with a shrill liberal agenda. They turned away from hard science and devoted more pages to psychology and social issues, often with a clear bias attached. Many of the columnists were no longer significant thinkers but just some cronies of the editor - borderline cranks whose monthly \"thoughts\" are not worth the paper. Steve Mirsky, the \"humorist,\" is simply a waste of a page and Michael Shermer has nothing new to say. (Jeff Sachs however is an exception - he is a genuine leader in international development.)\n\nThere has also been an ongoing obsession with the evolution / creationist debate, not bringing any new scientific insights as a leading science magazine could and should have done, just elitist religion-bashing and constant ridicule of the \"stupid\" creationists. Embarrassing even to non-religious readers. Even the art direction is wacky, highly impressionistic (people with blue heads and swoopy arcs in outer space seem to be used for ALL subjects) and of no value for illustrating the content.\n\nDuring most of this phase the editor was John Rennie, a mediocre mind who had no business leading such an important institution. He guided Scientific American down a soft path which dissipated fifty years of prestige. Very sad. Recently his understudy Mariette DiChristina has taken over. She also is a journalist rather than an intellectual leader with a personal grasp of the vastness of modern science. None of these people are PhDs. The advisory board of famous scientists seems to be only for show; I am surprised they allow their names to be used as the magazine slides downhill.\n\nThe bottom point so far has been the September, 2009 issue where the magazine's hack staff (not a panel of real scientists) took it upon themselves to choose the greatest \"origins\" in the history of the universe. Among their choices; Scotch tape, the vibrator (female sex toy), the paper clip, intermittent windshield wipers, and cupcakes. Yes, cupcakes. The venerable Scientific American, continuously published for 160 years, chose the paper clip and the cupcake as two of the most important innovations of all time. What a pack of idiots. This is what happens when Nobel Prize winners are replaced by Steve Mirsky.\n\nIt didn't have to be like that. Magazines like Smithsonian and National Geographic have maintained their identity and high editorial standards consistently, decade after decade, while SA has lost it. During a period where science itself has exploded on every front, Scientific American has been surpassed by many other sources in print and on the Web. HowStuffWorks attracts ten times the readership of the SA website, likewise Discovery. Popular Science has become much more sophisticated in recent years. Wired News is brilliant. PhysOrg is an excellent way to keep up across the sciences. The Web pages of Science and Nature highlight recent discoveries. Physical Review Focus interprets recent developments for students and non-experts, and does a very good job.\n\nAfter forty years of subscribing, I will not renew. Others who may not be renewing include your local library or university - after being taken over recently by the Nature Group, the most aggressively profit hungry of the academic publishers, Scientific American announced they were raising their subscription price to libraries by a factor of 10X - as if they were a major archival research journal rather than a pop-science disposable like Psychology Today. Good strategy folks - piddling away the uniqueness of your franchise while arrogantly raising the price.","Product: If you have a task where wiping precision and reliability are important, Kimtech Industrial Cleaning Wipes (Kimtex Wipers) are an excellent choice. They are designed for wiping tasks where low lint or the use of chemicals is required, as the polypropylene sheets are specially engineered for critical applications involving solvents, inks and paints. These absorbent sheets are acid-, base- and solvent-resistant, and ideal for use with lubricants, oil and grease. Whether you're responsible for cleaning by hand, manufacturing / assembly, pre-packaging wipe-down or refinishing, these industrial wipers are essential tools of the trade.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: High tech, scratch-free cleanup, chemically resistant\n\nReview: Anyone who has been around a lab or precision workshop is familiar with Kimwipes which are made from wood fiber and used to clean optics or precision mechanisms, whenever it's not acceptable to leave fibers behind as with ordinary paper towels.\n\nThese Kimtex wipers are one step more high tech. These are not wood fiber or paper fiber but post-consumer polypropylene and work very well for cleaning up chemical spills, solvents, oils. Tough but soft and scratch free. If you don't know exactly the chemical makeup of your surface, or think it may be strongly acidic or basic, these are your best bet, very benign.\n\nI just used these with alcohol pads to clean up a 50 year old collector's camera. Did a nice job.","Product: To extend the life of your tools, you can count on 3-IN-ONE Pneumatic Tool Oil. It quickly dissolves gum and sludge, and provides rust prevention. Professional grade formula quickly dissolves gum and sludge. Removes calcium build-up and moisture for improved tool performance. Waterproof formula minimizes rust formation under extreme conditions. Marksman Spout for easy precision application. Ideal for all types of pneumatic tools. 50-state VOC compliant.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Excellent for cleaning and lubing firearms\n\nReview: It is easy to get confused about the differences between products like WD-40, 3-IN-ONE oil, and this pneumatic version of the latter optimized for pneumatic tools (you know, the kind you see in your local auto shop, powered from an air compressor hose). The WD-40 company owns all these brands and the differences are subtle. 3-IN-ONE oil is a general purpose household lube. WD-40 is not primarily for lubrication but is a penetrating solvent to drive out moisture. The Pneumatic oil lubricates with low viscosity but also has strong cleaning abilties. It is formulated to stand up to high pressure moving parts better than the old 3-IN-ONE. I use it for firearms, which have requirements similar to pneumatic tools - dissolving deposits and then lightly lubricating against high speed mechanical actions. Great stuff.","Product: Quick & to the point. 3 bundles of Zen pipe cleaners hard bristle, there are 44 in each bundle, giving you a 132 total each pipe cleaner measures approximately 6 inches long, making cleaning even easier. Zen the name you know & can trust for all your cleaning needs & 420 help these are the ideal length for many pre-school, kindergarten, elementary & jr. And high school teachers, as well as Sunday school classes for arts & crafts projects even those of you who repair old antique tube radios, t.V.'S, & even the more complex ham radios / receivers (especially from 1918-1965) such as philco, rca, admiral, Zenith, hall crafters, sears, Brewster, crossly, firestone, plus hundreds more here is a recent buyers testimony, stub and rishi purchased these pipe cleaners because I use them to clean the sockets of very old tube type radios. There is an entire community of old radio repair guys and collectors who are faced with not finding pipe cleaners at the neighborhood drug store. Not only that but most of these guys (I do not) smoke pipes.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Delivered on a silver platter\n\nReview: Not all pipe cleaners are alike. These include stiffer plastic bristles mixed into the usual fluffy cotton. I plan to use them for firearms cleaning, where the stronger scouring should help get residue out of nooks and crannies.\n\nWhat really impressed me was how they were delivered to my house. I recently signed up for Amazon Prime, which guarantees delivery of any item in two days. So, on a Saturday, a Fed Ex truck rolled into my driveway and the driver handed me a small parcel with one item inside, this five dollar package of pipe cleaners, period. I was amazed. Other than delivering them on a silver platter or a velvet cushion, or giving me a kiss on the cheek before getting back in the Fed Ex truck (the driver was a woman), I don't know what more Amazon could have done in the way of service. Bravo!","Product: Quick & to the point. 3 bundles of Zen pipe cleaners hard bristle, there are 44 in each bundle, giving you a 132 total each pipe cleaner measures approximately 6 inches long, making cleaning even easier. Zen the name you know & can trust for all your cleaning needs & 420 help these are the ideal length for many pre-school, kindergarten, elementary & jr. And high school teachers, as well as Sunday school classes for arts & crafts projects even those of you who repair old antique tube radios, t.V.'S, & even the more complex ham radios / receivers (especially from 1918-1965) such as philco, rca, admiral, Zenith, hall crafters, sears, Brewster, crossly, firestone, plus hundreds more here is a recent buyers testimony, stub and rishi purchased these pipe cleaners because I use them to clean the sockets of very old tube type radios. There is an entire community of old radio repair guys and collectors who are faced with not finding pipe cleaners at the neighborhood drug store. Not only that but most of these guys (I do not) smoke pipes.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Delivered on a silver platter\n\nReview: Not all pipe cleaners are alike. These include stiffer plastic bristles mixed into the usual fluffy cotton. I plan to use them for firearms cleaning, where the stronger scouring should help get residue out of nooks and crannies.\n\nWhat really impressed me was how they were delivered to my house. I recently signed up for Amazon Prime, which guarantees delivery of any item in two days. So, on a Saturday, a Fed Ex truck rolled into my driveway and the driver handed me a small parcel with one item inside, this five dollar package of pipe cleaners, period. I was amazed. Other than delivering them on a silver platter or a velvet cushion, or giving me a kiss on the cheek before getting back in the Fed Ex truck (the driver was a woman), I don't know what more Amazon could have done in the way of service. Bravo!","Product: Easily Manage Your Money\n\nRating: 1.0\n\nSummary: Utterly and permanently hopeless\n\nReview: Mac users know that Quicken has completely failed to support their OS X products in recent years with a pathetic and near-clownish series of missteps. The last version of Quicken for Mac that supports BillPay is eight years old (Q for M 2007) and had a major disruption a year or two ago when Apple dropped legacy support for applications which had never been properly upgraded. This went on for months and I was forced to maintain a separate partition on my Mac which used an older OS just to keep Quicken 2007 running. Really shameful and unprofessional on the part of Intuit. Financial software is not like a word processor; having payments become lost or irregular is anxiety provoking.\n\nNow two weeks ago BillPay failed once again; some OL 290 error where the Quicken servers could not connect to the financial institutions. During this period of weeks the Quicken website advised either moving to Quicken for Mac 2015 or following some other path, for which they gave \"instructions\" which were literally incomprehensible. I am quite sure no ever followed those instructions even once, and I am also sure no one at Intuit ever tested them out on users. Incredibly stupid.\n\nSo I came over here to look at Quicken for Mac 2015, hoping it was finally a true Mac version of Quicken for Windows. No. It does not support BillPay!! And the reviews here on Amazon are extremely bad and point out many other fails.\n\nQuicken for Mac 2007 has now been patched and works again - temporarily I'm sure - but I'm done. After being with Quicken for Mac for years and paying Quicken BillPay $10 per month (about $1,000 over seven years), I am finally giving up on them, once and for all. My Bank of America account has its own online bill payment service, and I will just try to find some other Mac product to keep my register. One solution for Mac would be to run Parallels and use the Windows version of Quicken, but I now distrust Intuit so much I am reluctant to do even that.\n\nWhy is that Intuit, founded in 1983, can't program its way out of a paper bag when it comes to Mac OS? Because Intuit is not exactly a company at all in the normal sense - rather a bizzaro roll-up which has acquired and divested software projects and placed them in noncommunicating groups which share only a name. Turbotax in San Diego has a skilled Mac team and produces a consistently excellent Mac product but Quicken is a separate company located elsewhere and I suspect their only Mac \"programmer\" is a high school intern.\n\nIf Intuit people are reading this, some advice: Your customers would have more respect for you if you would just be honest and DROP your Mac offerings; they don't work and are not professionally produced. Your reputation in the Mac community could not be worse. Just go away.","Product: Serta, a brand you can trust, for this fabulous High-Density 4 pound Solid Visco Elastic Memory Foam is a full 2 inch thick for better comfort and support. Originally designed for NASA, this space age foam cradles your body in luxurious comfort, reducing pressure points that cause tossing and turning. The temperature-sensitive foam simulates a flotation effect.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Short term memory only\n\nReview: I bought the 4\" version of this. The pad opened nicely over a few hours and the odor dissipated within a day or two. So far so good.\n\nThe idea of memory foam is that when you press it down, it stays pressed for a while. But apparently not all visco-elastic (memory foams) are created equal. There are shades of grey, from old-fashioned bounce-right-back foams at one end to high quality viscoelastics which take a long time to bounce back from impressions, and retain that property in use. The market leader in this field (starts with a \"T\") claims they have a proprietary process to manufacture the foam which gives it a slow recovery and a long service life. I had assumed this was marketing hype, but after using this Serta-labeled topper, I am more ready to believe it may be true.\n\nThis product is in the middle; it starts out with a modest memory property, somewhere in-between true viscoelastic and the old bouncy stuff. It's nice to sleep on, I like it, and I recommend it, especially at the low price. But it's not real memory foam. And note that one website which sells this Serta brand has the following warning: \"Due to the nature of Memory Foam the firmness level of every item is unique. Please be advised that even similar products may produce different firmness results.\" What? Every item unique? We expect that from buying strawberries, but not manufactured products.\n\nMy conclusion is that the most reliable high quality memory foam on the market is probably that very expensive \"T\" stuff, and to get that effect there is no other choice. This topper item is not bad at all. You may like it as an improvement over what you have now, and it costs way less. But don't expect it to have the same strong permanent viscoelastic property.","Product: Serta, a brand you can trust, for this fabulous High-Density 4 pound Solid Visco Elastic Memory Foam is a full 2 inch thick for better comfort and support. Originally designed for NASA, this space age foam cradles your body in luxurious comfort, reducing pressure points that cause tossing and turning. The temperature-sensitive foam simulates a flotation effect.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Short term memory only\n\nReview: I bought the 4\" version of this. The pad opened nicely over a few hours and the odor dissipated within a day or two. So far so good.\n\nThe idea of memory foam is that when you press it down, it stays pressed for a while. But apparently not all visco-elastic (memory foams) are created equal. There are shades of grey, from old-fashioned bounce-right-back foams at one end to high quality viscoelastics which take a long time to bounce back from impressions, and retain that property in use. The market leader in this field (starts with a \"T\") claims they have a proprietary process to manufacture the foam which gives it a slow recovery and a long service life. I had assumed this was marketing hype, but after using this Serta-labeled topper, I am more ready to believe it may be true.\n\nThis product is in the middle; it starts out with a modest memory property, somewhere in-between true viscoelastic and the old bouncy stuff. It's nice to sleep on, I like it, and I recommend it, especially at the low price. But it's not real memory foam. And note that one website which sells this Serta brand has the following warning: \"Due to the nature of Memory Foam the firmness level of every item is unique. Please be advised that even similar products may produce different firmness results.\" What? Every item unique? We expect that from buying strawberries, but not manufactured products.\n\nMy conclusion is that the most reliable high quality memory foam on the market is probably that very expensive \"T\" stuff, and to get that effect there is no other choice. This topper item is not bad at all. You may like it as an improvement over what you have now, and it costs way less. But don't expect it to have the same strong permanent viscoelastic property.","Product: Cut fries measure 3/8\". Cast iron with stainless steel blades can cut up to 50 lbs of potatoes in 1 hr. Includes Suction Cup feet for counter top use or can be bolted to countertop or wall for effortless vertical use. Disassembles for cleaning.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Not ideal for household use\n\nReview: Long story short: This is not designed for household use and you're not going to be happy with it.\n\nNow the details. We enjoy sweet potato frites which are somewhat firmer and harder to cut than white potatoes, especially in the preferred 1/4\" gauge. The little plastic consumer type French fry cutters one finds at Walmart are flimsy and useless. This is a big, heavy duty restaurant version and far stronger than the smaller cheapies. However, it is still a bit of a struggle to cut sweet potatoes. In spite of the long lever arm, we had to cut the potatoes into quarters first. Also, it requires applying some serious force to the handle, so it is imperative to BOLT the unit down to a table before you begin, or a board which you clamp to the table - the accessory suction cup feet are not enough. This unit really is designed for commercial kitchens, oriented towards rapid production of large quantities. It's too big for the home kitchen, needs a dedicated bench, and is time-consuming to clean. For home use, Williams-Sonoma makes a more compact, vertical unit with which you force the die down onto the knife grid - no lever. But it's mostly plastic and a bit overpriced.\n\nSince we're stuck with this, here's what I've done to modify the unit: First, bolted it onto an L-shaped pair of boards so it can be clamped to the table in a vertical position and removed at will. Second, I have disassembled and put aside the whole lever arm and instead I use a wooden mallet to whack the die directly down on the cutting grid. One more note: While the main unit is nicely made, we ordered the 1/4\" cutter and die accessory to supplement the 3/8\" blades which are supplied - which cost an extra $30. When the 1/4\" blade set arrived, they were poorly manufactured and did not fit the mounting holes. Amazon replaced the set with a better one, but annoying nevertheless.","Product: This ceramic coffee grinder features a ceramic grinding mechanism that will never alter the flavor of the grinds, resulting in fresh, flavorful, and pure coffee. The grinding mechanism is made from an advanced ceramic close in hardness to diamond that will never rust providing ultra long-life performance. The grind adjustment allows for fine to coarse grinds and the non-slip base ensures stability. The glass container is reusable and dishwasher safe. Great for Turkish coffee, salt, pepper, green tea and sesame seeds too ! Use and Care: Clean with a neutral detergent and soft sponge. Rinse thoroughly.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Combination grinder and morning aerobics for coffee fanatics\n\nReview: Kyocera makes such wonderful precision products. I have several of their ceramic knives. This hand grinder not only works for coffee but would be perfect for grinding fresh spices for Indian cooking. (In that case you will need to clean carefully between uses.) Also a hand grinder gives a bit of morning physical activity instead of just sitting there like a lump watching machines do the work. So probably live a bit longer with this one.\n\nBut truly folks, is it necessary to be so obsessive about details such as methods of grinding coffee? Coffee nerds will tell you that common electric blade grinders are bad bad bad, heat up the grounds and give uneven extraction of particulates. And that you need this hand grinder or an expensive electric burr grinder. Horse pucky. Put your finger in the grounds after blade grinding and you will detect only the tiniest temperature rise; so much for that theory. And the particle sizes? I challenge the fanatics to prove by blind taste testing that it makes any detectable difference. I do agree that grinding fresh beans at home, in small quantities, gives the best coffee, but how you do so probably makes no signficant difference.","Product: Craft your ideal comfort zone with De'Longhi heaters. Warm, sweet home.\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: Lightweight. Loud fan. Odd appearance.\n\nReview: Electric space heaters are all 100% efficient in terms of converting electricity to heat so the differences are marginal. I'm comparing this with an oil filled electric radiator which I've had for years. The oil is used as an intermediary between the very hot heating element and the air. It's made of metal and quite heavy, about 30 lbs, but very silent in operation.\n\nThis DeLonghi ceramic element heater just blows warm air. It is a fraction of the weight, maybe 5 lbs. It has a couple of features I consider gimmicks such as a remote control which is not really necessary and it rotates to cast air over an arc, but this does not really add much since the room will heat up whether it rotates or not. It is made of cheap Chinese plastic and feels flimsy. It is designed in a sculpted tower form which is supposed to be supermodern and cool but to my eye looks like an evil robot. The worst feature is the fan, which may be relatively quiet as fans go but still so much noisier and more intrusive than my oil filled heater.\n\nThe main reason to buy this would be the portability, especially if someone with limited strength needs to frequently move it from room to room, since it is so lightweight and has a convenient carry handle at the top. For all other reasons I prefer my oil radiator, which is more solid, durable and silent.\n\nFinally, the manual claims it has a \"Eco mode\" which manages the heater level and \"saves 40%\" in energy. What this means is the element is cycled on and off, but energy saving? Pure hype; the long term electricity use to maintain your room at a certain temperature is not going to change because it heats up faster or slower. This would be 3 star product but I'm reducing to 2 for the misleading claim.","Product: Spotlighted by GQ magazine as one of the \"Best Stuff of 2012,\" the Presso ROK is an environmentally friendly manual espresso maker created with durable engine-grade metal guaranteed to last at least 10 years. Going above and beyond simple espresso, the innovative ROK comes with a stainless steel frothier to produce rich milk for lattes, cappuccinos and macchiato -- all without using one bit of electricity. Created with traditionalists and espresso enthusiasts in mind, this London-designed espresso maker lets you exact complete control over brewing pressure using the two levers located on the sides of the ROK. Since this espresso maker brews with ground coffee, so you're not limited by capsule and pod selection. The ROK comes packaged in a modern reusable storage tin, complete with accessories including a tamper/measuring spoon and detachable double-shot spout. Should any of the metal parts fail within a decade of your original purchase, Presso will replace the components gratis.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: ROK versus Aerobie test\n\nReview: This is a head-to-head comparison of the ROK with the Aerobie, both hand operated espresso makers.\n\nThe chemistry of coffee brewing is such that raising the pressure extracts significantly different fractions. This is why espresso from one of those ten-thousand dollar Italian coffee bar machines tastes so different from drip brew. There are a number of home units which use steam pressure and attempt to approximate the professional result. But what happens after the North Koreans bring down our power grid and you're left with just your woodstove and a bunker full of coffee beans, MRE's and ammunition? What to do for your daily espresso hit? The Aerobie is a few bits of plastic in which you apply hand pressure - actually, more like intense elbow grease - to force a syringe of hot water through the grounds. The ROK is built more like a conventional electric powered espresso, with the same type of coffee grounds module, but without the electricity; you force hot water through the compressed grounds by operating a pair of gear-leveraged arms.\n\nBoth these units are overpriced. The ROK is a lovely piece of machined aluminum but at $200 there are a number of powered units in the same price range with good reviews. It also comes in elaborate 'designer' packaging which includes a big tin can, the size of a small waste basket - I rather resented paying for that fluff, only to discard it. The Aerobie on the other hand, which costs less than $30, should cost even less - it's just a few bits of Chinese plastic. (If you lose the little filter cap, as I did, it costs almost half the price of a new unit to replace it. Ripoff.) The ROK is easier to operate, with less chance of the whole thing skittering across the table and making a mess, as can happen if you operate the Aerobie on top of an unstable small cup.\n\nHow about the coffee quality? I compared them head to head, on the same day with the same freshly ground coffee. My impression is they both achieve about the same overpressure at the grounds, but I like the Aerobie method better overall. It's more flexible in that one can vary the amount of grounds or water whereas the ROK uses fixed quantities of each. The ROK produces a small volume of a brew which I would describe as \"faintly reminiscent of espresso\" rather than coffee-bar espresso. The Aerobie can produce the same, or a larger volume of strong coffee. Given the low price of the Aerobie (even if that low price should really be even lower) and the greater degree of control, I preferred it. If you want something like real espresso at home, there is no alternative to an expensive powered unit. As for North Korea - solar panels are the anwer to that.","Product: Miracle Blade World Class Quality Steak Knives at an Affordable Price. These Knives are flash forged, Stainless Steel Blades. These knives have perfectly balanced handles, and can slice through anything and will always stay super sharp. These knives never need sharpening. Never needs sharpening. Dimensions: Side to Side Overall Width: 1\". End to End Overall Length:8.5\". Blade Length: 4\".\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: NOT stainless steel. Cannot be sharpened. Consider then disposable.\n\nReview: These are very inexpensive steak knives but I actually don't use them that way: I keep eight in a box for everyday use in food prep, then throw them in the dishwasher. They are OK for what they are; ergonomically designed, sharp, well shaped, machine washable and CHEAP.\n\nHowever, the blades are marked \"China\" and \"Stainless Steel.\" But these are as much Stainless Steel as I am Arnold Schwarzenegger. The blades spot with rust immediately coming from the dishwasher. Blatantly false advertising.\n\nSecond, they can't be sharpened, certainly not at home. The edge shape is a complex curve formed by some machine or laser manufacturing process. The Miracle Blades outfit says they \"never need sharpening\" which really means - there is no way to do so.\n\nThese are to be used a while and when dull, discarded. Two stars.","Product: The Whirlpool AD70GUSB Energy Star 70-Pint 2-Speed Dehumidifier is an affordable and eco-friendly dehumidifier for large-sized spaces and operates at temperatures as low as 38 degrees F. This Energy Star-qualified model removes 70 pints of damaging moisture per day from spaces up to 1500 square feet. Three operating modes (normal, continuous and auto dry) make it a versatile choice. During the dehumidification process, water accumulates in the tank or is automatically emptied into a drain using a drainage hose such as a standard garden hose (drainage hose not included). Additional features include a programmable timer, adjustable humidistat, auto shut-off and full-tank alert.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Efficient - but be sure you want this instead of A/C\n\nReview: I live in Western Mass in a lovely rural area. Our summer days are only rarely hot enough to require A/C but often quite humid, leading to mildew in clothes closets and general discomfort. Using an air conditioner to dry the air sometimes means it is too cold.\n\nA dehumdifier is on the same principle as an A/C except the cold air is confined within the unit. However, the hot, dried air is expelled into the room. So the unit does decrease humidity but at the same time increases the room temperature. It works best in a humid but cold and clammy room (but must be above 38F). If your room is both too hot and too humid, a room A/C with an outside vent is what you want.\n\nThis unit is very efficient. It brought down the humidity in a large room from 85% to 45% very quickly. The sign that it's working is that it collected a quart of water in a half hour! It's relatively quiet on LOW fan; by which I mean about the level of a good quality A/C; there is still a significant level of noise.\n\nThe unit is on wheels so it does not need to be lifted too often, but there is a fold out carrying handle. The water collection bin is slightly difficult to open but not seriously. There is an option to pipe the collected water into a drain instead of collecting in bin.\n\nSeems high quality. I recommend it.","Product: Enjoy the high-temperature cooking that cast iron provides with this versatile casserole. It's ideal for slow-cooking stews and braised dishes on the cooktop, as well as roasts and baking in the oven. Also perfect for cobblers and cornbread. The lid doubles as a grill pan and can be used for grilling steaks, burgers, chicken, or vegetables. Plus, the porcelain enamel interior coating doesn't require seasoning.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Heavy duty iron crockpot with unusual interior surface\n\nReview: Cast iron crockpots are not new but KitchenAid is offering this high quality - and rather expensive - version. A mass of iron holds heat and in addition this one has an enamel outside surface. So far, not different from other pots of the type; the unusual feature is the interior, a type of rough enamel surface instead of the usual smooth like Le Creuset.\n\nWe tried this out by cooking a favorite chicken and potato slow cook recipe. Results were excellent but the interior is definitely not nonstick - it's extra work to clean up. KitchenAid claims this surface stains less and browns food more than the familiar white porcelain interior. Maybe, but I expect many people would prefer the easier cleanup of the smooth version. It is dishwasher safe however.\n\nAnother wrinkle is the clever lid which does double duty as a grill plate; the interior of this part is smooth black enamel.\n\nOverall a well designed piece of cookware, heavy, quality, well made, should last a long time. Four stars because the interior surface is a mixed blessing.","Product: With little care, your coffee maker will provide you with many years of service and pleasure. Your coffee maker is made with copper which is the choice of the gourmet professionals for cooking. It is considered the finest practical conductor of heat. It's primary advantage is that it requires only low to moderate heat to obtain the best results. This is why the copper is the perfect material to use for Turkish coffee pots. It is lined with tin which is the most commonly preferred choice for copper cookware (tin is the silver colored metal inside your pot). BEFORE USING Wash your new coffee maker in warm water with a mild soap or dish detergent. ESSENTIAL PRECAUTIONS Never place your coffee pot in a dishwasher. Never boil your pot dry. Never use metallic utensils to stir your coffee. Use only wood or plastic spoons. Never use steel wool or abrasive pads that could scratch your coffee pot. CLEANING You can use the commercially available cleaning materials for copper or tin to clean your coffee pot if you need to, but remember it's OK to let your pot turn dark. It adds character! Outside: Non abrasive pad or sponge is the best. Inside: Tin is a soft metal and should be cleaned with a dishcloth or sponge only. Never use abrasive cleaning materials like scouring pads or metal scrapers on your coffee pot. Rinse thoroughly after washing and dry to avoid spotting. It is best to rinse it right after use so that residual coffee grinds don't dry and harden.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Charming, handcrafted - but allow three weeks for delivery\n\nReview: This is a handcrafted copper pot lined with tin, made in a Turkish shop or village - the traditional design for making Turkish coffee. Like all handcrafted articles, it varies from piece to piece. The decoration is charming. Mine had quite a bit of solder flux inside which took some cleaning. I would call the copper thickness and tin thickness adequate but not really heavy duty. The seller included a little bag of ground Turkish coffee in the package. I'm looking forward to making Turkish coffee tomorrow - there are instructions on the internet, YouTube videos, etc.\n\nHowever, before ordering this you should know it is mailed ... FROM TURKEY .. so allow three weeks for delivery. This is not really explained anywhere on the Amazon product page.","Product: The French Perle Ice Blue Everything Bowl features intricate detailing inspired by hand-embroidered fabrics. A carved beaded motif of scrolls and jewel-like elements punctuates the sophisticated, elegant look.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Nice aesthetics but poor heat retention and way too heavy.\n\nReview: This is a lovely, nicely designed coffee or tea mug. The color I chose for review is a pale robin's egg blue and other colors are available. It is well made and all ceramic, with a large capacity about 14 oz. It has no metal, and so can be microwaved. It is narrow and will fit an automobile cupholder.\n\nHowever, it is more aesthetic than functional. I would call this mug \"semi-insulated;\" it is made with a double ceramic wall with an air gap between. (The air gap is not sealed up but can be accessed from a plastic plug.) The problem is that double wall ceramic is not an efficient way to insulate. I actually did a little scientific test in my Secret Mountain Laboratory, using a digital industrial thermometer. I put 126F water at the same time into three vessels, this mug, a simple coffee cup, and a stainless vacuum travel mug. After about half an hour, the standard cup was down to 95F, this Lenox was about 105F and the stainless vacuum one was about 115F. So it is not as insulating as a vacuum thermos, but more so than a single wall ordinary cup.\n\nHowever, the double ceramic wall makes it remarkably heavy compared to an ordinary mug the same capacity. Filled with coffee, it weighs about 2.5 lbs! If you are one of those people who goes power walking with little hand weights, you could now carry your cup of Earl Grey and get exercise at the same time!\n\nAll in all, this is attractive but not really so efficient. An ordinary vacuum mug sold everywhere from Starbucks to Walmart will keep coffee warmer longer and weighs one third as much.","Product: The perfect kitchen shears for cutting herbs, meat, poultry, fish and even bone, with a dishwasher-safe design that you can take apart for easy cleaning. Whether youre stripping stems, chopping vegetables, opening packaging or cutting meat, these all-purpose shears go from one task to the next without complaining. A serrated blade edge grips for precision no matter what youre cutting, and sculpted handle loops with Softgrip touchpoints bring Fiskars hallmark comfort to every use. Plus, a take-apart, dishwasher-safe design makes post-meal cleanup a cinch.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Special design for flat cutting such as pizza\n\nReview: Fiskars is a Finnish company which has been making cutlery for about 400 years. They are excellent on the design side for things like scissors and garden tools, but also use modern manufacturing (this means high tech plastic) to keep prices down. Always excellent quality and one of my favorite consumer companies.\n\nThis product is a design exercise, a bit of an oddly bent kitchen / household scissors with a blade guard on the lower jaw. This allows one to cut flat items such as pizza and also not mar the tabletop. It does work and will find other uses such as fabric.\n\nI like it but I expect the number of times it is really needed with be relatively few. If you are buying just one shears for the kitchen, I would pick the Fiskars Heavy Duty.","Product: Its perfectly okay to be a coffee snob and want to ground your own beans with this electric coffee grinder. And youll be making a definite fashion statement as well with its stainless steel housing, perfect for any kitchen. Its compact stature takes up minimal space but still offers up to 2.1 ounces of bean capacity. Operation is simple as you just press the pulse button to start and let go when youre done. Let your grinder multi task and use it for spices as well.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Small capacity, very uneven grind, numerous minor design fails\n\nReview: I am comparing this with my Kitchen Aid grinder. The Westinghouse is very quiet by comparison and the motor seems higher speed and more refined. However, that's the end of the pluses and there are too many minuses:\n\n-Its capacity is much smaller. If you make coffee for more than two people, it's not going to be enough.\n-And if you fill it more than 2/3, some beans will not grind at all.\n-The portion of grounds under the blades ends up much finer and more powdery than the top volume, and tends to jam. This is a serious fail; this morning I ground coffee and ended up with a portion of properly ground, a portion of fine powder, and a few untouched beans. No.\n-Slight scattered grounds tend to interfere with the dish fitting in the grinder,\n-The little hole for the electric cord is constantly out of place\n\nThese are all signs which indicate that the product was not thoroughly tested before being released. It looks nice, but many design fails. Not worthy of the name Westinghouse or Toshiba. I recommend my Kitchen Aid grinder.","Product: Perfect for any crowd the Ergo Serv Vacuum Insulated Teapot has a built in removable tea infuser. Elegant and functional the double-wall stainless steel wall keeps tea warm for hours. For more than 90 years, Stanley has offered high quality, durable thermal-insulated bottles. For people who work or play outdoors, Stanley is a premium line of insulated containers backed by a lifetime guarantee. It won't break. Never has, never will. Stanley is a brand of privately-held Pacific Market International (PMI) and is headquartered in Seattle, with offices in London and Shanghai.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Highly recommended - but one design flaw\n\nReview: This is a Stanley commercial product intended for fancy restaurants or hotel room service to deliver a carafe made with fresh loose tea. Holds about 28 usable oz, enough for one person to have 3-4 cups. The unit is very well constructed and keeps liquids hot a long time. The handle is perfectly balanced and the thumb valve is very nice. So far, the design is brilliant.\n\nBut making tea in it directly, as intended, does not work well, at least with the included components. The supplied tea infuser which fits inside has no perforations on its bottom half, so hot water does not penetrate where the tea leaves sit! Also, everyone who makes tea knows that leaves cannot be allowed to sit in the water indefinitely. But there is no means to pluck the infuser out of very hot water; must use a fork or the like. I suspect the designer never actually made tea in it, or this would have been noticed.\n\nBut I do use it to brew tea every day. Instead of the supplied infuser, I found a very long skinny plastic tea basket which fits inside but can also be easily plucked out. This works fine.\n\nI am subtracting one star for this - but still highly recommended.","Product: This sandwich knife features a strong serrated blade which allows to slice through foods without squeezing and damaging the interior of the food. Perfect addition to add to your knife collection for slicing deli sandwiches, panini's, salami, pastries, rolls and more. Made in Solingen, Germany, lifetime warranty.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Well designed in every detail\n\nReview: This is a very well designed kitchen knife which I plan to use every day. It's just the right shape and size, with a finger gap in the Asian Santoku style. It has a rounded tip, which is safer and permits spreading. Best of all, serrated - serration makes a knife 10X easier at cutting.\n\nThis Wusthof also has a subtle but important feature - it is ground so that you can easily sharpen it at home. The back of the knife (opposite side from the scallops) has a subtle bevel at the edge. This means that, following this angle, you can draw a ceramic rod to sharpen efficiently. To compare a serrated knife which does NOT have this, take a look at the Spyderco Serrated Kitchen Paring Knife. This is just flat to the edge on the side opposite of the scallops, making it impossible to sharpen properly at home without altering the factory angle.\n\nAll in very well designed and worth the moderate price. If you want only one kitchen knife, this is the one.","Product: TheSwivel HookSystem Connector is great for use on small bags, cases, battery packs and more. It can be used with theUtility LooporAdapt-Its. TheSwivel HookSystem Connector is available in sets of two.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Good design, cheap materials\n\nReview: This review applies to the Swivel Hook Connector, Classic Strap, and Adapt-its combination. If you are like me and use many cameras but don't want to maintain many permanently attached straps, and sometimes wish to use a camera with no strap, then OP/TECH has a solution for you. The tiny plastic Adapt-it loops are the only things that remain permanently in your camera rings, and then you snap in the Swivel Hook Connector; it removes very quickly also.\n\nThis is a good design and makes more sense than threading those awful ugly narrow nylon straps through your rings. However, OP/TECH has used rather poor materials; the black straps on the Swivel Hook item look to be the very cheapest type of loosely woven polyester from China.\n\nThe whole system is flexible, inexpensive and it works - but the appearance and durability may not match your fine quality cameras. Also, the unique item is the tiny Adapt-it loop; once you have those you can attach many kinds of straps and swivel hooks. You don't need the rest of the OP/TECH.","Product: Design for 2.5\" SATA HDD (up to 9.5mm height) with Active LED to indicate power and data access and it has shock absorbent rubber strip on top and bottom.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Correct for SATA drives\n\nReview: I was not so familiar with the intimate technological history of little disc drives that I knew the difference between an IDE drive (older obsolete type) and a SATA drive (new cool type). As a result at first I ordered the wrong one (IDE) for my MacBook drive replacement, had to send it back, and get this one which is corrrect for SATA. The difference is one letter in the Macally model number; PHR-250CC versus PHRS-250CC. I am still irritated that the Amazon product description did not explain this difference for non-experts. Grrr.\n\nOnce I obtained the correct drive, it went together easily and came with all cables to use the drive as FireWire or USB 2. It's just a piece of extruded aluminum and a connector and some cables. Must cost about $2 to manufacture. It works fine. Get the right one.","Product: Design for 2.5\" SATA HDD (up to 9.5mm height) with Active LED to indicate power and data access and it has shock absorbent rubber strip on top and bottom.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Correct for SATA drives\n\nReview: I was not so familiar with the intimate technological history of little disc drives that I knew the difference between an IDE drive (older obsolete type) and a SATA drive (new cool type). As a result at first I ordered the wrong one (IDE) for my MacBook drive replacement, had to send it back, and get this one which is corrrect for SATA. The difference is one letter in the Macally model number; PHR-250CC versus PHRS-250CC. I am still irritated that the Amazon product description did not explain this difference for non-experts. Grrr.\n\nOnce I obtained the correct drive, it went together easily and came with all cables to use the drive as FireWire or USB 2. It's just a piece of extruded aluminum and a connector and some cables. Must cost about $2 to manufacture. It works fine. Get the right one.","Product: Offering a dramatic, ultra-wide 110-degree picture angle, the 2.4x AF-S DX NIKKOR 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED lens is ideal for landscapes, interiors, architecture and more. With two ED glass and three hybrid aspherical lens elements, Nikon Super Integrated Coating (SIC) and the exclusive Nikon Silent Wave Motor, the AF-S DX NIKKOR 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED lens delivers the exceptional image quality and fast handling that defines NIKKOR optics.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Excellent on DX and works on FX too\n\nReview: Another work of Nikon lens genius which gives the ability to take dramatic, unusual, never-before-available, super-wide pix. As recently as a few years ago, before Nikon learned to mass produce aspheric elements, manufacturing this complex 14 element lens at reasonable cost would have been impossible. Compared to the earlier 12-24mm, significantly wider angle.\n\nA nice suprise is that this DX lens can also be used FX, with some limitations of course. Although it will give the full zoom range only when used on the smaller DX format, it actually covers the frame of an FX camera - not over the full range but from 24mm down to about 18mm focal length, with acceptable vignetting (edge darkening). I am using it that way on my film Nikon F6 and digital D700. (For the D700, turn the DX Crop default OFF and turn the Vignette Control to HIGH.) This is pretty cool because it means that someone who wants only occasional use of an 18-24mm lens on a full frame camera does not have to go out and buy a new lens if they already have this one.\n\nI disagree with the reviewers who complain about the plastic, Made in China construction. If this lens were made of brass and steel like a Leica, it would weigh twice as much, cost much more, and be no better photographically. Is it more important to have the controls be smooth than to capture new kinds of photos? In my opinion Nikon has taken the right approach - state of the art computational design, innovative manufacturing of aspheric elements, good enough construction, and breakthrough capability affordable for the amateur photog.","Product: Sony has engineered an impressively small camera that takes incredibly good photographs. In fact, the NEX-5 camera has all quality of a DSLR in about half the size and weight and far less complex. Pulling off this minor miracle took some clever innovations in glass, silicon and software code. The Sony NEX-5 is the interchangeable lens camera that goes wherever you do. Enjoy Full HD 1080/60i movies, astounding low-light pictures, continuous shooting up to 7 fps, incredible panorama shots, and Live View on a tilting 3.0-inch LCD. World's first in class with 1080/60i Full HD movies Sweep Panorama captures incredible landscapes 6-image layering - Anti Motion Blur & Hand-held Twilight Live View on the LCD; what you see is what you get Tiltable 3.0 LCD, 920K pixels, TruBlack screen LCD tilts down 45 , up 80 for high, low-angle shots Accepts Sony E-mount lenses Detachable flash unit is compact, yet powerful iAUTO mode, you get the right settings automatically On-screen Help Guide explains modes and settings On-screen Shooting Tips help you shoot like a pro Manual Focus Assist for razor-sharp images Background Defocus control for stunning shots Advanced Anti-Dust Technology keeps imager clean HDMI output with BRAVIA Sync compatibility Dual slot for media card (MS & SD media)Specifications Effective Picture Resolution - Approx. 14.2 MP Imaging Sensor - Exmor APS HD CMOS sensor (23.4 X 15.6mm) Lens Mount Type - Sony E-mount Lens Type - E-mount 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 OSS Focal Length - 27-82.5mm (35mm equivalent) Type - Tiltable 3 TFT TruBlack LCD (921,600 pixels) Live View - Yes Flash Type - Smart accessory terminal (HVL-F7S Flash Supplied), GN 7 Media Type - MSPRO Duo/Pro-HG Duo/PRO-HG HX Duo media & SD/SDHC/SDXC media Audio Format - Dolby Digital (AC-3) / MPEG-4 AAC-LC Image Mode - JPEG RAW, RAW+JPEG Image Size - Up to L (12M)\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Use your old manual lenses, microscope, or backyard telescope with a high res digital back\n\nReview: The Sony NEX is basically a little box containing a DSLR sized sensor, an interchangeable lens flange, and an LCD. In other words, a digital camera back. I bought it specifically to be able to make use of my collection of old Pentax Takumar screw mount (M42) manual lenses from the 1970's. These old lenses have wonderful optical and mechanical quality - but how to make use of them for digital photography? When I learned that one can buy an M42-to-e mount adapter for the NEX, I decided to try it.\n\nFirst, this is a delightful device with all the Sony magic for precision manufacturing of tiny consumer products. The mechanical shutter whirs and clicks charmingly (but is a bit noisey for candid photography in public). More and more NEX lenses are being offered and Sony does support full use of their existing range of alpha lenses on the NEX5, but it requires use of an expensive adapter - makes sense only if you already have those lenses. But how does the NEX work with the old Takumar lenses? Answer: it works, but with some limitations. There is a digital magnifier to help with manual focus, but of course this is slow. No auto exposure; one must use manual shutter and aperture settings. And naturally the Sony lens anti-vibration system will not be operational. Finally, the old manual lenses were designed for full frame 35mm, so you are not really getting the most out of them when you have to factor in the 1.5X crop factor. All in all, using this with the old lenses is a bit of a parlor trick, more like an old fashioned view camera than a pocket point-and-shoot, and works best on a tripod. As a hobbyist, I enjoy fiddling around with stuff like this but it's not really very practical for active photography.\n\nWhere the NEX series really shines is for attachment to backyard amateur telescopes, a spotting scope, or a conventional optical microscope; if you check around the internet you will find plenty of adapters to do those things and some mind boggling images. Through the wonders of mass production for consumer products, this sensor is far higher quality and lower cost than most of the dedicated digital backs sold for microscopy, which until now cost about a thousand dollars for 5 megapixels. Cool!\n\nBut what about image quality? I compared both JPEGs and RAW with the NEX-5 with the 18-55 kit lens, a Canon S95 pocket camera, and my Nikon D7000. I tried this at ISO 1600 and also ISO 400. For the JPEG's, the NEX5 using the 18-55 Sony zoom gave a distinctly nicer image than the Canon but not quite comparable with the Nikon. However, when I repeated the test with RAW instead of JPEG files, the NEX 5 images were just as good as the Nikon. I conclude that while the sensor is superb, the JPEG processing in the Sony is imperfect.\n\nOther observations: Battery runs down quickly. Also, although the NEX-5 has a big 24x18mm sensor like a DSLR, it does not offer the instantaneous shutter response of a DSLR - there is a bit of lag, more like a pocket camera. Also one must go through the menu system for all the special settings and this is tedious. Also the autofocus sometimes seem a bit confused or slow to respond. Finally the NEX lenses such as the 18-55 are only so-so optically. They are plasticky, and not up to the build quality of the body.\n\nSummary: Deficiencies as noted but a beautiful precision product and great fun to use. Yes, the smallest camera with this level of image quality. For the use of old legacy lenses, a bit too complicated - it would be more worthwhile if someone would put out something like this with a FULL frame sensor to take maximum advantage of the millions of SLR lenses floating around out there. Do I recommend buying the NEX 5? Definitely, if you will be attaching to a telescope or microscope, if you're a gadget freak like me, or for those attracted by the full package beyond ordinary still photos - high quality movies, HDR, panoramas, and (believe it or not), 3D.\n\nFinally, this is a new product and still under development. Sony is getting a good sales response and can be counted on to improve the system over time, so you may want to wait and get the next generation. Be sure to update the firmware from the Sony website; although I only bought my NEX5 last week, it came with Version 01 and the latest is already 04. You will also have to download the separate little manuals for V2 (taking 3D photos to be played back on 3D TV) and V3 (soft keys) and V4 (other new stuff).","Product: Record live music, lectures and notes with this digital voice recorder featuring a built-in 2GB flash memory, a memory card slot and an easy-to-read display. Press record and capture every sound. This compact and convenient ICD-PX312 digital voice recorder goes wherever you do to confidently capture and store audio with a built-in 2GB flash memory providing up to 530 hours of recording time, plus additional storage available through the microSD memory card slot (memory card sold separately). With Intelligent Noise Cut technology greatly reducing background sound, your recordings will be crisp and clear in quality. Other features include Voice Operated Recording technology, a built-in speaker and an easy-to-read display. So slip this digital voice recorder into your pocket and know you'll never miss a beat even during the longest of lectures or an epic all-night jam session.Compatible Memory Cards : MicroSD.Inputs and Outputs: Headphone Output(s) : 1 (Minijack, Stereo), Microphone Input : 1 (Minijack, Stereo) and USB Port(s) : 1 (Mini-B jack), High-Speed USB Compatible.What's in the box: USB connecting cable (1), IC Recorder (1), Application Software, Sound Organizer (CD-ROM) (1), LR03 (size AAA) Alkaline batteries (2) and Operating Instructions (1).\n\nRating: 1.0\n\nSummary: Good sound. Bad user interface. VERY bad manual.\n\nReview: This is a cute little Sony recorder, precision made and shaped, with the typical superb Sony materials and manufacturing. There are two good things about the functionality. First, it records with excellent sound quality. Second, you can plug it in with a USB cord so you can see, listen to or save the sound files on your computer.\n\nThat's the end of the good stuff. The user interface is atrocious. The buttons are too small and the scrolling menus on the top of the display, in microscopic type. A good consumer product can be used without reading the manual. Not this one. You are going to need to read the manual and first, you are going to need to FIND the manual. It's not in the box. It's not on the CD supplied. Finally you discover it's recorded on the the device itself; you need to plug into your computer with a USB cable and there it is, 146 pages long. Yes, 146 pages of fine print in extremely poor English and so badly written as to be nearly incomprehensible. Ladies and gentlemen, any manufacturer who puts out a 146 page manual for a little voice recorder is admitting their pathetic dorkiness.\n\nWhen you finally attempt to read this you will find hilarious instructions such as \"according to various recording scene, you can change the items for recording.\" Good to read out loud for a laugh but rather annoying if one is in a hurry. Why are the recording modes called \"scenes?\" Bad English translation. And what functions are actually detailed in the manual? A bizarre array of generally pointless features such as moving sound files from one folder to another or between the memory resources (built in vs micro card). You can divide a sound file in two. You can make marks on tracks. You can erase the marks. You can protect files. You can burn a CD of your recordings. But these are all things which, in the unlikely event anyone really wanted to do them at all, are much easier by plugging into a computer and manipulating the files there.\n\nSo why bother? These 'features' seem to be packed in as selling points only. I am willing to bet that not a single individual anywhere in the world has ever actually used these options. Useless clutter.\n\nUnfortunately the same complaint about pointless complications combined with extremely poor instruction manuals applies to almost all Japanese manufacturers of consumer electronics and all their products, including cameras. The primary reason for this is a cultural disconnect. Japanese consumers in the home market seem to love a plethora of tiny buttons and intricate menus whereas Americans and Europeans prefer a minimal, cleaner interface. But the Japanese makers are oblivious to this and make no effort to design for their actual customers. I am particularly irritated by the microscopic type on the LCD as one tries to scroll through the settings, for which I actually had to use a magnifying glass. What exactly is the logic for using only 3 mm of the 29 mm tall display for the scrolling menus? Did Sony ever actually TEST the usability of the product on actual customers before distributing it? Arrogance.\n\nI feel so strongly about the amazingly stupid interface and amazingly bad manual that I am giving a one star rating for this voice recorder which in terms of basic sound quality and physical construction would rate much higher.\n\nMy advice: Buy the cheapest versions of Sony or Olympus products, which tend to have the same basic voice performance but fewer pointless bells and whistles.","Product: More than a pocket camera, the 24.3 megapixel NEX-7 exceeds expectations. Here’s performance that would give most DSLRs camera envy, including interchangeable lenses, a 2359K dot OLED eye-level TTL viewfinder, up to 10fps shooting, and outstanding Tri-Navi 3-dial manual control. HD movies are superb with Full 1920 x 1080 resolution at 60p, 60i and 24p.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Superb images, flawed interface. NEX 5n is a better choice.\n\nReview: This is a review of my new NEX-7, a lovely, precision made piece of pocket magic. I hope Amazon readers will indulge me if I first make a few observations about the great Sony Corporation, and then some thoughts about the future of of digital cameras in the age of the iPhone.\n\nI have a longtime fondness for Sony dating from the 1970's when my job required constant international travel. This was before personal computers and the internet; I depended on my Sony Walkman, my Sony microcassette recorder, my Sony shortwave radios, and all the other jewels of miniature electronics Sony produced in those days with imagination and precision. Trinitron. The U-Matic 3/4\" video players we used for education and training before Betamax and VHS. Unfortunately in recent decades Sony has not stayed on the leading edge of consumer electronics. The company grew large and subdivided, replacing a strong sense of design coherence led by Akio Morita, with management by committee. The secret of Apple, and the reason Apple surpassed Sony, is mainly that one individual, Steve Jobs, maintained a coherent personal vision of product rightness over a long period of time and a variety of platforms. Sony on the other hand divided into a conglomerate of disconnected businesses. For example, unlike Apple, Sony's foray into the content industry (movies, music) did not really feed back to enhance their hardware products. There is not one Sony company but several; the people who make the new Sony Tablet P or the Bloggie MP4 recorders probably have never met the camera team. The CEO of Sony in recent years, Howard Stringer, was not a digital visionary but a clueless corporate \"Mister Businessman.\" As I write this Sony has lost billions for eight years and has just announced 10,000 more layoffs. The new CEO says his focus will be \"One Sony.\" I hope so because the disconnects within the Sony group are evident in this NEX 7; it is excellent photographically but lacks integration in other important ways.\n\nSony was an early player in digital cameras and has remained strong, unlike their losing battle to stay in the television market or the MP3 market. In 2006 they committed to full-on competition with Canon and Nikon by buying out the Konica-Minolta line. Their DSLRs are first rate and they are the first to offer translucent non-moving mirror SLR's. Now with the NEX line of mirrorless, large sensor cameras, Sony has a hit and is hoping to lead the next phase of consumer photography. Or rather I should say, of ENTHUSIAST photography since as we all know, mass market photography today is increasingly dominated by the smartphone / iPhone with a vast array of third party software apps. More about that later. However, design by committee is evident in the Sony NEX 7; it gives the feeling that the features marked for incorporation came from a show of hands in a giant meeting rather than a unified concept. In sensors, Sony is pretty much the best in the world. Ditto for their marvelous manufacturing. But in user interface, in image processing and compression, in viewfinders, in lenses, in connectivity, wireless, software, in overall system architecture - they are uneven. Moreover, the camera group seems stuck in a past where cameras were in a silo by themselves. How sad that they seem unable to pull together Sony's amazing range of corporate skills in wireless, computers, etc., to focus them all on any one product.\n\nOK, that's my history essay. Thanks for reading. Now on to testing the NEX 7. After having mine on backorder at Amazon for EIGHT MONTHS, it finally arrived a few days ago. I was also fortunate to capture one of the Zeiss 24mm NEX E-mount lenses, a gem (except it is overpriced and lacks image stabilization). I made a direct comparison with my Nikon D7000 for basic image quality and evaluated the other features as best I could, without yet having read every page of the 211 page (!) manual. There are three basics of digital photography: 1) image quality including JPEG efficiency, 2) handling quality including size, weight, speed, and ease of use and 3) connectivity, networking, and special techniques. I am leaving out cost; if that is your metric, I can tell you right now that you can buy a very good digital camera which will produce excellent photos for about one seventh what I spent for this baby with the Zeiss lens.\n\n1. Image quality. I compared indoor both RAW and JPEG images from the NEX 7, 24 MP with my Nikon D7000, 16 MP. They certainly should be comparable since Nikon in fact uses a Sony sensor similar to that in the NEX 5n. I did this at ISO 100, 800 and 3200, trying to match the lenses between the two as comparably as I could, prime for prime, zoom for zoom. The results were mixed. With RAW images, the Nikon D7000 had a slight but definite edge, with more contrast and smoothness, especially in the shadows. (This implies the NEX 5n sensor may also be better than 7 at high ISO.) But with JPEGs it was the other way; at both high and low ISO, the NEX-7 images were distinctly superior to the Nikon in clarity and punch. The difference was greatest at ISO 3200. So it seems when JPEG compression is brought in, the Sony boys have a slight edge in the fine details of their algorithm for image compression. The differences are subtle; let's call it even. The NEX 7 produces beautiful, sharp, dynamic photos, really nice, and every bit as good as the best half-frame DSLR. So far so good.\n\n2. Handling. So if the image quality is top grade, and the slim NEX 7 is so much lighter and smaller than my top of the line Nikon half-frame DSLR, and I am much more likely to take it with me when I travel, does it mean I'm ready to switch over completely? No, I'm not. For one thing, I have been shooting Nikon SLR's since John F. Kennedy was president. Nothing feels as comfortable and natural to me as having that funny clacking box held up to my eye, allowing me to see exactly what the lens will see. The NEX 7 comes with an EVF (electronic viewfinder) which means a little television you squint at through a lens as if it were a real viewfinder. This has been touted as a great advance but I find I don't like it. For one thing, the EVF display - in spite of being a state of the art 2.4MP OLED - is rough compared to a real life image. The picture has sparklies and the colors are off, and the proximity feature (viewfinder doesn't turn itself on until your eye is near the camera, to save battery) is disconcerting. And the information there is simply a duplicate of what can be seen on the much nicer, big LCD on the back, which has a handy tilt mount. With the LCD one can watch as the exposure is adjusted and see the changes in real time, which doesn't work so well using the EVF. The big display also helps more with focus; there is a digital zoom and a Sony feature called \"focus peaking,\" visible color marking of the in-focus area that allows fine manual focus. This is my favorite feature and makes it much easier to use manual lenses from Pentax / Leica / Canon. This electronic assist for manual focus, which is also on the 5n, is one of the best reasons for buying a NEX.\n\n3. Features and connectivity. The NEX 7 offers approximately 50 settings, ranging from gimmicks I am unlikely to ever use (camera fires the shutter when it detects a smile - will this work with my dog?) to those I use constantly (exposure comp, ISO, white balance) to those which sound intriguing but will need trying out to see if they really work (HDR, dynamic range). This all could have been organized more simply and some of the choices are head scratchers. For example: white balance and meter mode appear under the Brightness/Color menu, not the Camera menu nor the Settings menu. There are many such illogical, confusing choices. For example, there are an interesting set of \"picture effects\" which can emphasize one color, etc. These effects are fun to play with; I have uploaded a sample on the product page which picks out the reds in my neighbor's barn. But if I next want to try picking out the yellows in the scene rather than the reds, I must push or twist no fewer than six buttons and wheels, going back through the menus tediously to start over again with the next Picture Effect. Also, since there is no way to go backwards on these effects to the unaltered image, skilled photographers (the ones who would buy the NEX 7 in the first place) will prefer to apply effects like these in postprocessing rather than in the camera. So this entire feature set is more gimmick than useful. In general, the user definable wheels and buttons on the NEX only whetted my appetite for even more programmability. It would be much better if the camera would allow me to set up ALL my own menus the way that makes sense to me - for example gathering all the rarely used items in one menu so as to reduce clutter, and then another menu with a short list of items I use frequently. Instead, I'm left trying to figure out the obscure choices made for me by a Sony engineer sitting in a cubicle in Tokyo. Also, it is evident Sony did not try out the prototype on enough users before freezing the design. For example, a dedicated movie shutter button is placed where it is vulnerable to being pushed by accident, resulting in frequent unintended movie recordings, which must then be reversed through a nest of menus. This may sound minor but in fact is so irritating I may have to tape a piece of cardboard over the button. Numerous other reviewers have complained about this; it is a mistake and should have been caught before product release. And why do we need a separate shutter button for movies anyway? Other notes: Battery life is short compared to pocket cameras, especially when the EVF is on. Autofocus is a bit slow. Connectivity should have been higher on the list. No wireless, no GPS, and no ability to communicate with computer or phone except by ordinary USB download. Finally, there is a huge missing feature; after setting the 50 options, there is no way to SAVE the configuration. If you are not sure you remember what you set, your only choices are to go through all the menus again, which is tedious, or else 'reset all' in which case you must start from scratch next time.\n\nLens choices are an issue for such an expensive \"pro quality\" body. Available e-mount Sony lenses are mostly not up to the body in quality. The 18-55mm kit lens has a plastic lens barrel. It is also hard to understand why Sony chose to develop a new e-mount at all instead of simply using their established alpha-mount with its large existing lens portfolio. Apparently this was for lens compatibility with their video camcorders, but that has no relevance for me. There will be more lenses to come; Sony appears to have been somewhat taken aback by the success of the NEX series and is scrambling to catch up. In the meantime, it's a significant plus that numerous accessory mount adapters are available for non-Sony lenses, even old manual lenses from the 1970's - many photographers are buying NEX 3, 5 or 7 for this reason alone.\n\nSummary: I am having a delightful time playing with the NEX 7 - but then I'm a gadget lover as well as a photographer. I enjoy the soft snickety-snick of the focal plane shutter. It's a sweet, complex toy and lots of fun, and a worthy successor to the Sony marvels of decades past. Build quality, an area where Sony is unsurpassed, is refined and precise. It produces images as least as good and in some cases better than my big, heavy Nikon DSLR, but is much lighter and smaller. It does not feel as natural to hold as an SLR, but it's going to be around my neck more of the time, and you can't take a picture unless you have your camera. The problem with the NEX is that the architecture does not feel as if it came from the mind of a single inspired designer. Rather there is a \"pile of features,\" some brilliant and some gimmicky. I don't think the new wave of NEX type mirrorless cameras make DSLR's obsolete quite yet. Perhaps we would one days see a full frame camera similar to the NEX? One which would be designed from the get-go to make full use of the tens of millions of legacy full frame Nikon / Canon / Pentax / Leica lenses out there?\n\nOverall, I'm a bit disappointed in Sony. I wish the NEX 7 could have been a breakthrough in user programmability, wireless connectivity, and interface design to go along with the innovative mirrorless mechanicals - but it is not. It adds more photographic capability only in conventional terms; bigger sensor, more pixels, smaller box, more features. Yes, there are more user choices for the buttons and wheels than usual but for the most part, the interface is like other cameras, only more so. And there are too many details to learn. The very fact of needing a 211 page manual shows it is too complicated. At this point in photographic history, conventional digital cameras are hitting a wall. As smartphones come with better and better internal cameras (the 8MP sensor on my iPhone 4S is as good as my digicam from a few years ago), the devices identified primarily as cameras need to meet them from the other direction, becoming more like cell phones. All portable devices these days should have wireless connectivity, it's a no-brainer. And what if the NEX 7 allowed for third party apps? The first brand to break out of the 'camera' silo and offer a programmable high end photography solution will be a true breakthrough. NEX 7, for all its niceness and precision, is not that breakthrough.\n\nConclusion: It is difficult to recommend the NEX 7 given its slightly uneven design, flaws in the interface, expanded size, high price and paucity of quality lenses. Its big feature is the EVF which I did not find to my liking. It seems to me the Sony NEX 5n is the sweet spot of the NEX line. It has most of the best features of the NEX 7 for about half the price. The EVF is optional as an accessory for the 5n. And it's smaller and lighter weight and has slightly less digital noise than the 7 at high ISO due to fewer megapixels. The touch screen on the 5n is also useful. And you may not need to use your whole vacation to read the 5n manual - it only has 82 pages.","Product: The Targus Wi-Fi Laser Mouse combines technology and a hassle-free connection to bring you optimal comfort and usage. No more dealing with wires or wireless receivers. This mouse simply connects using your computer's Wi-Fi receiver. The high-precision laser sensor allows for accurate performance on almost every surface. The integrated four-way scroll wheel allows you to scroll horizontally and vertically. The mouse supports Windows 7 task switching with the touch of one button. The mouse comes equipped with two high-quality Energizer batteries and is designed to provide up to 12 months of battery life depending on usage.\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: Not a good idea\n\nReview: Selected this for review because I don't like my current big clumsy mouse. Why is a WiFi mouse better than Bluetooth I wonder? Let's find out. A bit over-packaged in layers of plastic, cardboard, tape. When I initially tried to install on a recent Lenovo notebook with Windows 7, install aborted with message \"No SoftAP supported adapter present.\" It turns out (this was my work computer) that this was due to not logging in as Admin. So I was finally able to install.\n\nThe mouse is a handy size and works smoothly. The difference between WiFi and Bluetooth is invisible once it's set up, provided both are turned on. But if you decide to turn off your WiFi.. for example, you want to force computer to use ethernet .. then the mouse is disabled also. Bluetooth mouse, independent of wireless and internet setup, is a better idea.\n\nThere are no advantages over Bluetooth and some disadvantages. Send this one to the dustbin of history.","Product: \"Easy to use\" voice recorder with premium upgrades.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Nice and simple, with big buttons\n\nReview: I keep a voice recorder handy in my truck to make notes to myself. The functions I want are very simple; record, play back, and erase, with good sound quality. That's it. After searching the dozens of slightly different models made by Olympus and Sony, I chose this one for its simplicity. The Japanese are wonderful at making small consumer electronics but their sense of what it means to \"improve\" the product typically runs to more and tinier buttons and more arcane and rarely used bells and whistles. For this model, someone apparently convinced Olympus to actually SIMPLIFY the product and use big fat buttons! Yay!\n\nThree notes on usage. There are three recording modes: Conversation, Music, and Dictation. The Dictation mode is useless - compressed and distorted. The Conversation mode is excessively sensitive and picks up wind noise and engine noise when I'm driving. The Music mode works best, as the microphone is set to be less sensitive and picks up only my voice when I speak close to the recorder.\n\nSecond, a slight annoyance; to conserve battery power, the unit goes to sleep after a few minutes of nonuse. But when I want to record, I have to press the button and wait a time until it awakens - it's only a few seconds but feels like forever - and then press the button again to record. This delay is irritating.\n\nFinally, the manual is like too many Japanese manuals - printed in tiny type on cheap paper and difficult to understand, an afterthought rather than a well designed teaching tool. Also it's 212 pages long - but only 7 of those pages are in English and the rest in more than 30 other languages. Why burden me with this fat book?","Product: Audio-Technica ATH-MSR7 SonicPro Over-Ear Headphones - (Black)\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Listen to string quartet while mowing on lawn tractor?\n\nReview: Before getting into the performance of these, I have to comment on the excessive and wasteful packaging. They came buried inside a box inside another box inside ANOTHER box. The inner box had a cloth lining like a little casket, fancy but a little much. Audio-Technics packages it this way I suppose to market it as a 'luxury' product - but the customer pays not only for the packaging, which is immediately discarded, but also for the landfill fees. How about simpler pkg. and lower price?\n\nIn sound quality, these are very good. Comparing directly with my classic Sony MDR-V6, they are cleaner and richer on vocals, and have an almost three dimensional effect. Neutral sound, not overly bass heavy as in Dr Dre. These are also very comfortable, with a good ear seal pad, fit well, and are easy to wear for long periods. As headphones, top of the line.\n\nThe noise cancellation does work provided you have reasonable expectations. I first tested these listening to Neil Young with my iPad standing in my kitchen next to the exhaust fan, which is quite loud. I turned the noise cancellation switch on and off. They suppress the fan noise mostly in the middle ranges, leaving a higher frequency hiss. The fan noise does not magically vanish, but is suppressed and becomes less dominant. Same story when I tried the ultimate test; listen to Borodin string quartet from my iPhone while riding on my lawn tractor with the mowing deck on, which is VERY loud. The noise cancellation suppressing the loud \"thrumming\" sound but has minimal effect on the \"whirring\" component. So I still can't listen to string quartet while mowing, but perhaps too much to expect. For less overwhelming noise such as my furnace hot air kicking on, yes, these do drop that to utter silence. I have read that another A-T noice cancelling headphone has a selection switch for the amount of NC. These don't.\n\nOverall these are excellent quality, comfortable headphones. The sound cancellation is effective against moderate but not overwhelming noise. Finally, I believe these are overpriced, possibly because seller believes perceived value is higher that way. Which is annoying. Five stars for the headphone sound, four stars for noise cancellation, three stars for the packaging overkill and inflated price.","Product: Eyefi Mobi Pro is a 32GB Wi-Fi SDHC memory card that connects cameras to smartphones, tablets or computers. Selectively transfer RAW and JPEG images via an existing Wi-Fi network or via Mobi Pro's own private Wi-Fi network. Includes 1-yr subscription to Eyefi Cloud for syncing photos to any Web-enabled device.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Get your DSLR into the connected world instantly\n\nReview: Photographers know how slow the Nikons and Canons of the world have been to get with it in terms of connectivity and the internet. Most cameras are still in the stone age when compared to an iPhone, which is why iPhones are used to take more photos every day then all the 'real cameras' in the world put together. And there is still not one high end camera which can be programmed with third party apps like an iPhone.\n\nFor the connectivity part, this eyefi card fills the gap very nicely. Some genius in silicon valley realized that wireless chips including a complete radio are now so small that they can easily be incorporated into the same SD card that records your photos. I downloaded the app for my iMac, plugged the eyefi SD card into my DSLR, activated it and took a few snaps, and they were instantly transmitted to my Mac desktop. Perfect. There are other features I haven't explored yet such the eyefi cloud service, or using with an iPhone directly.\n\nOne small caveat is that DSLR photos are intended to be high in quality, not small in file size for emailing or such. So if I use this to transfer to my iPhone, I will have to set my Canon D70 to downsize the pixels and image quality so as not to swamp the iPhone with a large number of 10 MB photo files. But that's a small price to pay.\n\nThis is a great invention. Highly recommended","Product: Stereo recorder that is packed with premium features. Premium quality recording packed with features to enhance efficiency. Perfect for use in all environments. Use it for business meetings, classroom lectures, or just about anything.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Simple Mode works. Plays well with computers\n\nReview: Olympus along with Sony have pretty much cornered the market on small voice recorders. One problem is they put out so many models - more than 20 from Olympus - it is hard to know which to choose. I keep a voice recorder in my truck, an Olympus DP-311, to take notes as I drive. To use it safely it must be easy to read and ideally have its own light source in the display. Another problem - too complicated. I chose the DP-311 because it's simpler than others, and has larger buttons -- Olympus says this model is for \"elderly\" users, thanks. To compare this new WS-853, I used a new setting called \"Simple Mode\" which means the more specialized settings are suppressed to give just basic recording functions, and also the font on the display is larger and easier to read. I suspect that Olympus included this \"Simple Mode\" because of complaints from customers like me that their recorders had become too tricky.\n\nNeither recorder is instantly on; if they have been off for awhile, it's necessary to press (any) button to wake them up before they can record. This is annoying, but the startup time of the 853 is noticeably quicker than the 311. It also has distinctly better sound, and stereo, although this is more significant for recording meetings than in the front seat of my truck.\n\nThe big new wrinkle of the 853 is computer-friendliness. Whereas the 311 can only be played back by actually listening and scribbling notes, the 853 has a USB connector on the top and when plugged into my Mac, comes up as a folder full of sound files without the need to do anything special. It is only necessary to click on these and the computer plays back the memos, very handy and easily saved as sound files with no need to transcribe. (It seems it may also possible to use voice recognition software to actually transcribe the memos, but I haven't figured out how to do that yet.) Also the batteries are rechargeable and charge while it's plugged in.\n\nAlthough the 311 has a larger display and is easier to read and use at night, the 853 is more sophisticated and higher in sound quality. It is better suited for recording of meetings, and definitely convenient if you work with a computer all day. Not expensive either. Recommended. Five stars.","Product: Do you like bass? Advanced Bluetooth control and Auto EQ let you operate the Debut S10EQ from your smartphone. A 10-inch bass driver, powered by a 400-Watt BASH amplifier and enhanced by a 10-inch passive radiator, creates awesome low frequencies and a stunning sense of realism.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Powerful clean bass with clever automatic self equalization for a particular room, through your iPhone\n\nReview: In case you are not in the audio world, Andrew Jones is a well known speaker designer who was associated with Pioneer for years and also some smaller speciality companies. ELAC is an old German consumer electronics company which apparently has been out of the US market for some time but is well respected in Europe. They brought in Jones to design a new line of components for the US - hence this subwoofer. There are also larger and smaller subwoofers in the line - I know they do this to meet different price points, but I would have more faith in a manufacturer if they just said \"This is our subwoofer, we recommend it for most installations\" instead of offering these somewhat bogus options.\n\nBecause the low frequencies have wavelengths comparable to room size, any subwoofer must be tuned to individual rooms and placement or the room resonances will make them sound terrible. The unique feature of this product is a supercool up to date use of software and instrumentation to do this for you in the form of an iPhone app. The app does the work of adjusting to the room automatically - it uses the iPhone microphone to detect test sounds which the electronics sends out via the woofer - and equalize to the room. This uses digital and sensor technology everyone already has - our smartphone - which otherwise would be expensive to provide. Sophisticated and clever.\n\nHow does it work? Pretty well I thinkl. I put this in a difficult acoustic space - a studio with a large open floor going up to a loft with a high peaked ceiling which can cause funny echoes. The self adjustment process worked pretty smoothly - it sounds clean and there are no boomy resonances. Very powerful subwoofer! I listened to a heavy choral piece I like and it was beautiful.\n\nRecommended. There is a lot of technology here and the results are good. Should you get the larger or smaller model? Don't know, but in most cases with home appliances, the middle of the range is the one the maker actually thinks people should buy.","Product: Acer Aspire AZ3-715-UR61 All-in-One Desktop PC comes with these specs: 6th Generation Intel Core i5-6400T processor 2.2GHz with Turbo Boost Technology up to 2.8GHz, Windows 10 Home, 23.8\" Full HD Widescreen LED Back-lit Display, 8GB DDR4 Memory, NVIDIA GeForce 940M Graphics with 2GB of DDR3 Video Memory, 1TB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive, 8X DVD SuperMulti Double-Layer Drive, Digital Media Card Reader - Secure Digital Card, Built-in Full HD (1080P) Webcam, 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 LE, Dolby-optimized surround sound system, Acer True Harmony High-Performance Sound System, 4 - USB 3.0 Ports, 1 - USB 2.0 Ports, Wireless Keyboard and Mouse, 25.3 lbs. | 11.5kg (system unit only), 2 Year Parts and Labor Limited Warranty with Toll Free Tech Support, Registration/ Limited Warranty Card (DQ.B2XAA.001)\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Nice hardware for the price\n\nReview: I'm writing this primarily from my viewpoint as a Mac user who does need a PC for certain things such as interacting with my employer's network. So it's been a while since I've come in contact with the all-pervasive Microsoft ecosystem and there is no way to review this without also reviewing Windows 10.\n\nOK. This is a very nicely laid out, up to date, lightweight and compact desktop PC. It is visually attractive and easy to set up. However, it uses an ugly power brick instead of having the power supply inside the \"All in One\" - it's actually an \"All in Two.\" Except for this, the hardware is pretty nice and I'm impressed for the low price. Display is big and bright, Core i5 processor, 1TB storage and 8GB of RAM, and a built-in DVD drive which most computers these days no longer have. And it's very compact. It has sufficient computing power for most users or students in daily tasks, unless one has special needs such as editing videos. I have an ASUS laptop with about the same specs and price range but this Acer seems like nicer build quality and better display. So far so good.\n\nAs noted, this is my first look at Windows 10 - it's pleasant and smooth. But it's clear that everything about the software built in to this computer is designed to make you Microsoft's bitch, now and forever. As you learn your way around, you need to bob and weave to avoid the come-ons for dozens of Microsoft sign-ups. There is a reason it's such a reasonable price - this is a loss leader intended more than anything as a Microsoft marketing machine dropped into your living room to entangle you in their world from the moment you fire it up. \"Give away the hardware; we'll get them on the software.\"\n\nTo be honest Apple does this also, but less aggressively. Bottom line; this is a very nice up to date computer and an excellent bargain. But if you have the time and skill, wipe the disk and go Linux.","Product: Asus Gold NB F556UA-AS54, 15.6\" FHD, matte, Intel i5-6200U 2.3 GHz, 8GB DDR3, Intel HD, 256G SSD, DL DVDRW/CD-RW, Windows 10 (64bit), 802.11AC, VGA Camera, Bluetooth 4.1 For wireless software update click https://www.asus.com/support/Download/3/826/0/1/CPUDRIVER_X556UA/45/\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Functional and up-to-date for an amazingly low price\n\nReview: This is a large screen laptop PC with a DVD drive (nice to have since most computers no longer include). It's clear from the first moments of use however that this guy is built to a price; the power plug is wobbly, the on button is sticky, the display is lower contrast than one would like and has a narrow viewing angle, and the keyboard is cheesy and shallow. The display lid is dismayingly bendy; no glass or solid backbone at all, and if you twist it a bit, the LCD gets all weird. Plastic and not the very finest kind of plastic either ..\n\nHowever, the electronics is up to date and has sufficient power for most day to day tasks; i5 processor, 8 GB of memory, and a 256 GB solid state drive. Although the latter might seem small compared to a basic 1-2 TB mechanical drive, it's actually adequate for my work needs, very fast to boot up, and super reliable. The audio on this ASUS is advertised as better than most it does seem to have nice sound. Windows 10 is standard.\n\nThe main feature is the incredibly low price; the rest is bearable if a bit plasticky. I can live with the display although it's not brilliant, but the keyboard is not going to be loved by anyone who types all day every day. (I am a Mac user at home, and I am used to really good keyboards and displays.) However, I plan to use this PC exclusively for work, to interact with my employer's VPN from the road, and for that purpose it's fine, adequate, modern and cheap.\n\nNo one is going to fall in love with this laptop as the sweetest ever made, but it's impressive that China is able to produce a functional, up to date computer and sell it retail for such a low price - about the same price as the design that One Laptop Per Child tried to develop offering much lower grade specs. There is a lesson here about the efficiency of market forces vs. well intentioned nonprofits.\n\nThis is a great computer to buy your high school or college kid - plenty adequate for students. But if you care about keyboard and display quality, worth spending more.","Product: Gigastone PhotoFast iOS Micro SD card reader is the worlds smallest and fastest iOS drive in the market. Download the free i-flashdrive one application from the app store to access the essential and unique features developed by photo fast. Play content Direct from the iOS card reader on to your iPhone or iPad whether it is your go Pro Parachute video or your latest scuba adventure. The iOS card reader always works wherever you are, No network connection required. No battery or re-charging required. JUST continuous access to your adventures, memories or important files whenever you need. Streaming video clips, music, working on your latest business proposals or sharing your favorite holiday photos with the family are just some of the great features of the iOS card reader. Microsd card is not included\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Much more flexible than Apple SD Camera Card reader\n\nReview: I have a collection of images I need to use occasionally for work but don't want to permanently store on my iPad Pro. What is the best way to access this via some kind of external storage?\n\nApple makes a device for the iPad called a 'Lightning to SD Card Camera Reader' which reads an SD card from a digital camera. Unfortunately, it is designed by Apple precisely to prevent using it as general purpose external storage, I suppose because they think it would compete with their high priced internal storage. It will only read files which are specifically titled as photos or videos if from a camera such as Canon, not more general image files such as any JPG or TIFF with a random name. It is possible to trick it by labeling JPG images as if they came from a camera, but that is quite tedious and time consuming. And even then it won't allow the images to be viewed directly from the SD card - they can only be imported into the iPad.\n\nEnter this PhotoFast device which is much more flexible (requires downloading an App). You can plug the microSD card into computer, load any sort of image file or video or other file types, and then plug into the iPad through the tiny PhotoFast device. They can now be opened and viewed from the card WITHOUT needing to import them. Much better. Five stars. So there, Apple!","Product: Keep everything you need in one place with i-Blason iPad Pro 2016 Hybrid Slim Book Case with Stand. Crafted with Premium quality synthetic leather, this case is beautifully crafted and fully functional. Slip your new iPad Pro in a form-fitting hard shell case that protects and secures your tablet while innovative lining ensures your screen will stay scratch free when case is opened and closed. Hold you ID, Credit Cards, and Cash all in one place with integrated slots, and take your case with you on the go with stand case that allows you to prop up your tablet and watch your favorite shows on the go.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Inexpensive, protective and several clever features\n\nReview: This is a very clever, low cost case for the iPad Pro 9.7. When I picked up the Pro recently I looked at the Apple case but was really offended by the price tag. Somehow I didn't mind paying $900 for the iPad, but an extra $130 for the front and back of a plastic case?\n\nThis i-Blason for 1/10 the price is clever and has several things I like. The material it is made of - a synthetic fake leather - is not highly elegant but sturdy and protective from drops. Also it folds into a stand to watch movies in landscape mode. Also it has a fold-out handle to grip the iPad while reading in bed. Also it has a slot for the Apple Pencil. All these features are thoughtful and clever. If you would like a similar design but better materials and a higher price, look at the UAG.","Product: Exchange files quickly and easily between your Apple device and USB-equipped PC with Verbatims Store n Go Dual USB 3.0 Flash Drive. Instantly add storage to your iPhone, iPad or other Apple device, so you have room to capture more photos and video or free up memory for new content. This drive is compatible with Apple iPhone, iPad and iPod products, ensuring the highest quality and reliability. Using Verbatims free Store n Go app, available for download from the App Store, you can transfer and view content on your drive. Transferring those files to your PC is a snap simply insert the drive into a USB port and move content as you please\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Carry extra files for your iPhone or iPad. Simple and it works. A few annoyances.\n\nReview: This is a very handy device, especially if your iPhone or iPad has limited capacity or there are files, including images and videos, that you use only rarely or prefer to carry on external storage. The basic functioning is very simple; you plug in the USB to your Mac or PC and transfer the files. Then you plug the Lightning connector into your iOS device. You can then play videos or other files directly from the Verbatim, or import if you like. There are other brands, such as PhotoFast, but this Verbatim seems simpler to use.\n\nHowever, a few comments on the fine details.\n\n1. The one I received for review is only 16GB. If you buy one, definitely go for the 64 GB which costs only a few bucks more.\n2. There are two plastic caps on the connectors; the cap on the Lightning side is threaded on a retainer but the USB cap is loose. It will be lost very quickly. Bad design.\n3. Although this device and my iMac are both USB 3, transfer speeds were annoyingly slow.\n4. This will not plug into the Lightning port on my iPad without removing the case - very annoying.\n4. There is a 62 page manual of which 5 are in English and the rest in Polish, Korean, etc. Slightly annoying.\n\nOverall, worth having but a few irritations.","Product: The base for Apple Pencil provides an elegant storage solution for Apple Pencil between uses. Holding the Apple Pencil upright, it protects the tip while allowing easy access to the device. The Compact accessory Mirrors the minimal design of the Apple Pencil and iPad Pro, and merges seamlessly with any desktop environment.\n\nRating: 1.0\n\nSummary: Nonfunctional base does NOT charge Apple Pencil\n\nReview: I selected this for review because a nice charging stand for my Apple pencil is a good idea. The Pencil does not require a lot of energy but runs down in a few days even if you don't use it.\n\nI've now received the Belkin base to discover, to my astonishment, that it's not a charging stand.. does not charge the Apple pencil nor does it do anything whatsoever. Just holds the pencil in a little shiney base! Design fail - a base for a gadget which needs regular charging but which does not charge it and costs TWENTY FIVE DOLLARS!! Wow, great deal.\n\nPerhaps the stupidity of this product was inspired by the stupidity of the Apple pencil design itself. First, the Apple pencil is supposed to be charged by sticking it into the Lightning connector on the bottom of your iPad. Well, it sticks out like a sore thumb and is highly vulnerable to being knocked out or broken off. A bad idea .. and you can't even use the iPad while it's charging. Second, the connector of the Apple pencil is positive (male) so you can't charge it from your regular charging cord, they provide a small, easily lost adaptor for this. Stupid Number 2. Finally, it comes with a tiny cap - the cap has no function but is subject to being instantly lost. How many people still have their cap after a month or two, please raise your hands? Three Stupids, a record for an Apple product.\n\nThe Apple Pencil in itself is nice to use and allows pressure sensitive drawing and so forth. I use it every day. But these design fails on the charging and adapters and caps - I am surprised at Apple, the great design company. And now this useless Belkin 'pencil holder??' Does the Apple Pencil somehow radiate an invisible stupidity field?","Product: The KF models are for those users who put priority on mobility, offering a line-up for users ranging from beginners to advanced amateurs. You can always count on Fujinon to deliver the highest quality lens with its award winning coatings on the new KF series binoculars. With the environment in mind Fujinon has incorporated eco-glass that makes all glass material free of any toxins. The KF series are available in a precise center focus system. Like all Fujinon Binoculars, the KF Series are Water Proof. The KF series binoculars are backed with Fujifilm Limited Lifetime Warranty (The warranty does not cover rubber, caps or accessories)\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Just as good as Leica optics\n\nReview: I am blessed to live in a rural area of New England where from my front porch I see wildlife every day; deer, wild turkeys, an occasional black bear and today, on the stream that runs by my house, a Great Blue Heron. My main binoculars are a very high end set of Canon glass which has image stabilization, serious weather proofing and superb optics. The only problem is that it cost $1200, is huge, and weighs 45 oz. I also have some very compact Nikon binoculars for backpacking, which cost 1/10 as much, weigh 1/5 as much and are barely larger than a tuna sandwich. But they do not have anywhere near the same visual quality.\n\nThe Fujifilm binocs reviewed here are between these two extremes and an excellent fit for what 99% of people want in binoculars for - birding, boating or hunting. They are lightweight and waterproof enough for the occasional rainstorm (but probably not enough for shipboard use in a raging squall).\n\nI found the optical quality excellent, with low distortion, flat field, and bright, contrasty, extremely sharp images. Although 8X32 is in the mid range of light gathering power, these give the subjective impression of very high brightness. Fujifilm is a huge and respected maker of cameras, industrial optical systems, and formerly, film.\n\nThese are an excellent choice. Is it worth spending more than this? No, not for conventional glass. You could go for Leica binocs with the same basic specs, but they will be no better and cost you 5 times as much. I do have to say though that once you've experienced active image stabilization, which locks in the image and zeros out shaky hands, it's difficult to go back to ordinary passive optics. If you use binocs all day, yes. Otherwise, these Fujis are about as good as anyone needs.","Product: Stainless steel case with a brown leather bracelet with contrast stitching. Fixed stainless steel bezel. Black dial with luminous hands and Arabic numeral hour markers. Minute markers. GMT scale appears around the inner ring. Date display appears at the 3 o'clock position. Automatic movement. Scratch resistant sapphire crystal. Solid case back. Case diameter: 38 mm. Case thickness: 11 mm. Tang clasp. Water resistant at 100 meters/ 330 feet. Functions: hours, minutes, seconds, date. Additional Info: h70655533. Hamilton Khaki Field Men's Watch H70455533.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: No antireflection treatment on sapphire crystal - better ones available\n\nReview: These are a classic design and I love the look. Everything about this watch is totally old school and good, with the exception of one flaw - a fatal flaw in my case. They have a sapphire crystal but it is not antireflection coated - there is a signficant and disturbing glare which makes the watch face less than perfectly visible. If you go to your local watch shop and hold this up side by side with an Omega, which has some proprietary coating on both sides the sapphire which makes the crystal almost completely invisible, you will see exactly what I mean. This makes a big difference in daily use. Granted that an Omega costs a lot more, the pricepoint of the Khaki is still not cheap. They need to do better on the crystal glare - especially since Hamilton and Omega are parts of the same company.","Product: Kenneth Cole REACTION 3-pack cotton stretch boxer brief\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Well cut, lightweight, comfortable - if you don't mind the logo\n\nReview: Like most men, I'm pretty picky about my underwear. I prefer the style known as 'woven boxers' which means the leg is more extended but the fabric is somewhat elastic. Normally I have bought from Landsend. These Kenneth Coles are well cut and feel very comfortable, and the fabric is quite light weight. But it's impossible to tell right off the bat how they will hold up over months and years of washing and drying machines. Although these are XL size and fit well now, if they shrink at all they will be uncomfortable. So far so good but time will tell.\n\nI am also a little put off by the large Kenneth Cole Reaction logo on the waist band - I'm an older guy and prefer not to wear advertisements.","Product: Designed for Swedish Moose hunters, this small axe not only cuts wood but also meat and bone. The rounded and polished poll is used in skinning, and the grooved handle keeps the axe in your hands even when they're wet. 19" handle. 1.5 lb head. Leather sheath is included.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: A classic. Pass it down to your children.\n\nReview: An axe is a humble tool but one still notices small details of design. This is a modest sized version by the Swedish firm Gransfors Bruks - superbly shaped and crafted. This company is old school and an individual craftsman signs each piece he has made. Gransfors makes a range of axes; this one is a handy size for camping and is carefully designed for multipurpose use including light woodchopping and processing of deer or elk. It won an award from a Swedish industrial design group. I liked it better than the 'carpenter' model which is about the same size but shaped with a straight edge - too specialized.\n\nOne of those perfect things. Expensive but a tool you will use your whole life and pass down.","Product: The TR1200-DT5 Treadmill Desk combines our most popular office treadmill with our standing desk, providing everything you need to begin walking while you work. The console is integrated directly within the armrest of the standing desk, providing all the activity feedback you desire, including readouts for steps, walking time, distance, calories and speed. The dependable 20 by 50 walking surface is equipped with six impact-absorbing compression shocks, supporting users up to 350-pounds. Quiet operation lets you stay respectful of coworkers while you walk for miles each day without impacting office productivity. High-quality components suppress mechanical noise and subdue vibration, keeping your focus on the task at hand. Unwanted cables are history, as an industry-exclusive internal cable management system maintains a clean aesthetic. The newly-updated standing desk adjusts from 33.5 to 52.5, allowing you to find proper ergonomic positioning whether short or tall. The wide desktop provides a spacious working area while still leaving enough room for all your office supplies. Backed with a lifetime frame warranty, a three-year motor warranty, two-year parts warranty, and one-year labor warranty.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Requires a major commitment to an altered lifestyle\n\nReview: As someone who works from home and can sit in front of a computer up to 10 hours a day, I ordered this the same day I read Susan Orlean's article about it in the New Yorker. What convinced me was the research showing how bad it is for your body to sit for hours - and that the negative effects are NOT canceled just because you also get an hour of intense exercise every day! Yikes.\n\nThe Lifespan unit gets five stars for design and materials; excellent quality. But it is important to understand that setting this up in your home office is a major commitment to altering your lifestyle. The unit is expensive, heavy, and will take up your floorspace. Once you install it with your main work computer on the platform, there is really no going back. It's a big transition and not everyone is going to find it to their liking.\n\nAfter walking for several hours a day, or for very fine work, I do need to take a rest and sit down from time to time, especially in the evening, so I set up my second computer on a separate table to be able to sometimes use a computer the old fashioned way! In other words, I found I needed to partially undue the commitment to using the computer only with the treadmill. Also, standing at the computer without running the treadmill, even for short periods, is very uncomfortable for my lower back. Very small adjustments in the height of the monitor and keyboard make a big difference in comfort as hours go by. I finally found that having my laptop on the treadmill desk worked much better than the desktop computer, because one is then looking down at the display, which is easier on the neck. Most of the photos you will see of treadmill desks use a laptop, not a desktop monitor. Be prepared to play around with these variations.\n\nSo do I like it or not? Overall, this has been successful in keeping me from sitting like a blob through the working day and putting my daily physiological pattern in a healthier direction. But after several weeks I am still not completely adjusted to it. My advice: If you depend on using a computer to earn a living in your home office, be aware you are committing to a significantly altered daily experience. If at all possible, I recommend finding a way to try it before buying.\n\nFinally, one minor and one major criticism: The manufacturer recommends lubricating the belt before first use but there is not even a small bottle of silicone oil included. And the warranty is ONLY activated if you register the product within 30 days. If you don't notice this unusual requirement in the fine print - which appears to violate consumer protection laws in some states - you may find yourself with an invalid warranty if the motor fails three years later.","Product: Bikes are works of art, so treating your ride like a simple machine doesn't do it justice. When you ride in to the office or just park in the garage, propping your steed up with the saris cycle BOSS bike rack shows it the respect it deserves and keeps things looking sleek and stylish. This lightweight steel stand uses rubber-coated steel fingers to support your bike by the rear axle, and rocks a foldable design that makes for easy transport between home, work, school, and anywhere else you ride to.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Fits some bikes well, not others\n\nReview: People who may not own two or three expensive high end bicycles probably find it surprising that anyone is worried how to store a bike. Don't you just lean it against a wall? No, it will fall over and be damaged. In my workshop I have a horizonally mounted hook which balances a bike under the seat and keeps it off the floor - until someone walks by and knock it off. Kickstand? No, kickstands are frowned on for high end road bikes and in any case cause the bike to slump over sideways and take up too much space. And for winter storage, it's a good idea to keep the tires unloaded. The right bike stand is as difficult to find as the Higgs Boson.\n\nThe Saris product is a well-made and simple bike stand, all metal, foldable. It has an upright, rubber-covered metal fork which supports the bike by catching the rear axle, between the hub and frame. Also there is a groove for the tire. Unfortunately, there are no adjustments, and bikes vary a lot in the details of their construction. The stand works and is relatively stable with my Klein roadie, whose rear axle hub-to-frame space is narrow. For my vintage 700C Bianchi however, which has a longer stretch of axle between hub and frame, the fork is way too loose, and the bike flops excessively.\n\nRecommend you try this or at least examine closely before buying. Other solutions exist. IMHO the best overall is a wall mounted pair of clamps which support the entire top bar, not just a single point under the seat. This is stable, gets the bike off the tires, and frees up floor space. You can make your own by buying a couple of large rubber covered screw-in hooks.","Product: Adventure has never been more beautiful than Charlie's Angels! Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu star as the captivating crime-fighting trio who are masters of disguise, espionage and martial arts. When a devious mastermind embroils them in a plot to destroy individual privacy, the Angels are on the spot with their brains, brawn and high-tech toys. Aided by their loyal sidekick Bosley (Bill Murray), the girls are about to bring down the bad guys when a terrible secret is revealed that makes the Angels a target of assassination. Now, it's a matter of life or death as the stunningly smart detectives use their state-of-the-art skills to kick evil's butt in this sexy, high-octane comedy!\n\nRating: 1.0\n\nSummary: Hollywood at its worst\n\nReview: Just pathetically bad. Did professionals make this or was it a junior high school project? Acting is atrocious. Special effects shockingly amateurish; in one shot I could see a wire pulling a metal plate in the back of someone's jacket as they reacted to an explosion. Dialog childish and stupid. Sex jokes crude and embarrassing. Not even two beauties such as Cameron Diaz or Lucy Liu were able to make this worth watching. Drew Barrymore, who is not in their league, produced this movie and put herself in it as well, out of vanity. She is a witless moron with no taste or intelligence. Her only claim to fame is an unusually druggy and dysfunctional adolescence. Due to a famous family, she is a Hollywood insider and has been able to survive in the industry, producing cheap commercial products which appeal to the lowest level of consumer taste.\n\nThe original TV series was clever, and the movie could have been a tongue-in-cheek delight. Unfortunately, it is a disaster. The Hollywood scriptwriters and directors who worked on this were simply the worst in the industry. Most appalling of all is that this trainwreck was a financial success - made a huge profit over its production cost. Depressing that the public will buy such dreck. This must give Hollywood a cynical sense that quality doesn't matter in their business, which is sad.\n\nAlso it spawned some kind of horrible sequel which is said to be even worse. Reviews of \"Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle\" talk about how much BETTER the first movie was!! Shudder. This must make the sequel THE all time worst movie ever produced.\n\nThe bottom of the Hollywood barrel.","Product: PAL/Region 0. Double-disc German edition of the film known as 'Downfall' in the US. It's the last days of Adolf Hitler, April 1945, and Hitler's personal secretary Traudl Junge finds herself in the Der Fuhrer's bunker. Facing inevitable defeat, Hilter's moods range from defiance to fight or flee, remain loyal or opt for self-preservation. Eva Braun parties while Magda Goebbels kills her children. The movie goes on to show how Hitler and Eva lived their last hours in the Bunker.Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel. Written by Bernd Eichinger. Based on the book Inside Hitler's Bunker by Joachim Fest; and the book Bis zur letzten Stunde by Traudl Junge and Melissa Muller. In German, with English subtitles. Running time: 155 minutes. Includes a bonus DVD with nearly 3 hours of extras! No US DVD release until late 2005 * Please note you will need an All Code DVD player to view. Full Specs; DISC ONE, The movie (theatrical version), DISC TWO, Audio description in German Hitler's Last Days -documentary (58 mins), Making of 'The Downfall -featurette (50 mins), Melissa Mller (author of the book 'Bis zur letzten Stunde') speaks about Traudl Junge (9 mins), 'The bunker' - A virtual tour, Interviews with: - Bruno Ganz, - Alexandra Maria Lara, - Corinna Harfouch, - Ullirch Matthes, - Julianne Khler, - Heino Ferch, - Bernd Eichinger (producer), - Joachim Fest (writer), - Oliver Hirschbiegel (director), Cast and crew biographies, Biographies of the historic figures, Subtitles: English and German HoH, Picture format: 1.78:1 Anamorphic PAL ,Soundtrack(s): German DTS 5.1 , German Dolby Digital 5.1 Case type: 2-Disc Digi-Pack Notes: Packaged in a slipcase.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Well done movie, touchy subject\n\nReview: This is a very well-made semi-documentary about Hitler's final days. The sets, the acting, the dialog are all excellent.\n\nAfter seeing the movie, my main question was how much of the events and speeches were historical and which parts were fictionalized, written for the movie? For example, the horrific speeches by Goebbels and Hitler to the effect that the German civilian population deserved to suffer now because they had proved to be weak - how do we know Goebbels actually said that? I wondered, because some aspects of the movie were clearly fictionalized to make a better story. For example when the heroine, Hitler's secretary played by the lovely Alexandra Maria Lara, escapes Berlin after the downfall, it would not have been the gentle bicycle ride in the countryside as depicted. In reality, she could not have - and in actuality did not - escape from the systematic massive gang rapes of German women by Russian soldiers in the aftermath of May, 1945.\n\nBut in trying to read more about the historically accurate story, what I discovered, to my surprise, was the remarkable level of continuing discomfort that still prevents many from coming to grips with the Hitler era, especially within Germany, 65 years down the road. For example, this movie was itself virtually ignored by the German press. Some complained that the depiction was too kind to Hitler and the others, humanizing them by showing their tenderness within their own families. Others were afraid the movie would encourage Neo-Nazis. The Third Reich was supposed to last a thousand years. Apparently what will take a thousand years is for Germany to be able to deal with it.\n\nI never was able to find out if the dialog was historically accurate.","Product: DEEP WATER is the stunning true story of the fateful voyage of Donald Crowhurst, an amateur yachtsman who enters the most daring nautical challenge ever the very first solo, non-stop, round-the-world boat race.\n\nRating: 1.0\n\nSummary: Incredibly boring and depressing\n\nReview: This is about an around the world sailing race but primarily follows the one sailor who was woefully unready, with a poorly prepared boat and inadequate skills. He should never have been allowed to start the race. Unable to complete the course, he lies about his position and then, with no way out, goes crazy and commits suicide. A very sad and depressing story, and quite boring. Why would anyone watch this? There is one figure in the film who is even more distressing than the sailor protagonist, a newspaper reporter who exploits every fiber of tragedy for profit, even tormenting the sailor's family by sadistically rubbing it in that their husband and father killed himself. A sick movie. Don't watch it.","Product: Marianne Faithfull stars as Maggie, a middle-aged widow who, desperate to raise money to pay for her grandson`s medical bills, takes a hostess job in a sex club. She soon transforms herself into the much sought after and highly paid Irina Palm, the best right hand in London. Along with her new persona, Maggie gains renewed self-confidence, realizing she is not as old and unattractive as she thought. But her two worlds collide as her clandestine existence provokes the suspicions of her family and inquisitive neighbors alike.\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: Unpleasant movie watching experience\n\nReview: This is an odd movie by Sam Garbarsky, a Belgian former advertising person who now makes feature films. Although it technically well done and has received respectful reviews here and other places, I found it unpleasant and depressing.\n\nThe two principal actors, Marianne Faithful and Miki Manojlovic, are excellent in difficult parts. However, the atmosphere is distasteful. Irina, a middle aged woman who needs money for her grandson, is constrained to go to work giving anonymous handjobs in a seamy sex parlor. In the first place, this is a preposterous premise; it is just hard to believe this is what any 50 year old conservative grandmother would actually do in real life, and there is nothing we learn about Irina's background that would make this plausible. Second, the atmosphere of the sex shop is unappealing and the movie spends a lot of time there. Third, her son and daughter-in-law are disrespectful to her, cruel really, which I found even more unpleasant to watch and seemed unecessary to the premise. When her involvement as a sex worker is discovered, her son and her friends are merciless in their contempt. If that is not enough to depress you, the backstory is a terminally ill grandchild. Really cheery way to spend a couple of hours. There is a love story between the principals, but it's not enough to redeem the whole.\n\nNot every movie has to be fun and lighthearted of course but difficult or disturbing films reward us with a powerful drama or a powerful truth. In this case, I did admire the filmaking skill but watching this was just not enjoyable, and I failed to see the point.\nIf you would like to see an also difficult but much more uplifting European drama of family conflict, I recommend \"Edge of Heaven.\"","Product: DEEP WATER is the stunning true story of the fateful voyage of Donald Crowhurst, an amateur yachtsman who enters the most daring nautical challenge ever the very first solo, non-stop, round-the-world boat race.\n\nRating: 1.0\n\nSummary: Incredibly boring and depressing\n\nReview: This is about an around the world sailing race but primarily follows the one sailor who was woefully unready, with a poorly prepared boat and inadequate skills. He should never have been allowed to start the race. Unable to complete the course, he lies about his position and then, with no way out, goes crazy and commits suicide. A very sad and depressing story, and quite boring. Why would anyone watch this? There is one figure in the film who is even more distressing than the sailor protagonist, a newspaper reporter who exploits every fiber of tragedy for profit, even tormenting the sailor's family by sadistically rubbing it in that their husband and father killed himself. A sick movie. Don't watch it.","Product: Marianne Faithfull stars as Maggie, a middle-aged widow who, desperate to raise money to pay for her grandson`s medical bills, takes a hostess job in a sex club. She soon transforms herself into the much sought after and highly paid Irina Palm, the best right hand in London. Along with her new persona, Maggie gains renewed self-confidence, realizing she is not as old and unattractive as she thought. But her two worlds collide as her clandestine existence provokes the suspicions of her family and inquisitive neighbors alike.\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: Unpleasant movie watching experience\n\nReview: This is an odd movie by Sam Garbarsky, a Belgian former advertising person who now makes feature films. Although it technically well done and has received respectful reviews here and other places, I found it unpleasant and depressing.\n\nThe two principal actors, Marianne Faithful and Miki Manojlovic, are excellent in difficult parts. However, the atmosphere is distasteful. Irina, a middle aged woman who needs money for her grandson, is constrained to go to work giving anonymous handjobs in a seamy sex parlor. In the first place, this is a preposterous premise; it is just hard to believe this is what any 50 year old conservative grandmother would actually do in real life, and there is nothing we learn about Irina's background that would make this plausible. Second, the atmosphere of the sex shop is unappealing and the movie spends a lot of time there. Third, her son and daughter-in-law are disrespectful to her, cruel really, which I found even more unpleasant to watch and seemed unecessary to the premise. When her involvement as a sex worker is discovered, her son and her friends are merciless in their contempt. If that is not enough to depress you, the backstory is a terminally ill grandchild. Really cheery way to spend a couple of hours. There is a love story between the principals, but it's not enough to redeem the whole.\n\nNot every movie has to be fun and lighthearted of course but difficult or disturbing films reward us with a powerful drama or a powerful truth. In this case, I did admire the filmaking skill but watching this was just not enjoyable, and I failed to see the point.\nIf you would like to see an also difficult but much more uplifting European drama of family conflict, I recommend \"Edge of Heaven.\"","Product: Avatar is the story of ex-Marine Jake, a paraplegic war veteran, who finds himself thrust into hostilities on a distant planet filled with exotic life forms, Pandora. As an Avatar, a human consciousness in an alien body, he finds himself torn between two worlds in a desperate fight for his own survival and that of the indigenous people. Those from Earth find themselves at odds with each other and the local culture.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: What happens on Pandora, stays on Pandora\n\nReview: This is the essence of a commercial Hollywood movie, slick and professional on the production values, shallow on the ideas, and a bit of ad-hoc environmentalism thrown in to curry favor with the LA politically correct set who decide Academy Award nominations. The real star of this movie is the computer of course - Cameron spent a boatload of money generating graphics in groundbreaking 3D. I haven't seen the 3D theater version, but the home Blu-Ray is spectacular enough. Wondrous synthetic imagery. How do they do it, such convincing imaginary beasts and foliage from another world?? The best part; swooping around the treetops and waterfalls on the backs of flying dragons. The digital wizards who created this - Wow.\n\nBut all the imagination is with the computer programmers. The producers settled for a simple-minded story line, just an updated version of Rainforest Indians versus Evil White Exploiters (EWE) Who Want Their Minerals. The Indians ride around on fantastically imagined space-horsies and actually chant war cries; Yip Yip Yip, like Apaches in a John Wayne movie. I noticed with puzzlement that the Indians (OK, Navi) are called Great Warriors - they carry long bows and 4' arrows - but it is never made clear exactly whom they make war against since there don't seem to be any other tribes. We only see them in defense mode, worshipping the Great Tree and being all touchie-feelie with The Spirit of the Forest. And morally superior to the wretched EWE's, who are cartoon villains with no redeeming qualities. Just bad, bad people.\n\nOf course there is a love interest. The EWE sends a guy, and the guy falls in love with a squaw. Who wouldn't fall in love with this squaw, she's nine feet tall, blue, long long hair, and eyes as big as bowling balls? She does have a weird nose but it seems to run in her family, and everyone is too polite to mention it.\n\nAnd of course Sigourney Weaver has made a career of being brave whenever scarey monsters are around. And Michelle Rodriguez is the same sexy tough chick as always, on any planet or century, so long as they have helicopters and guns and she can bust some caps. This shows that tough babes with guns will still be there in the far future, which I found comforting.\n\nSo watch this for the amazing computer graphics - but all the talk about its cosmic meaning? Give me a break.\n\nOK now, let's try to envision the sequel - at least one is said to be in the works. I see the story picking up after the Navi drive out the EWE and have a pow-wow where they realize that mining Unobtanium on their own is not such a bad idea after all. There are roadblocks - galactic regulators who throw a lot of environmental red tape in their way, but the Navi hire some high power lawyers and manage to strip mine the rainforest. This pollutes their planet of course but hey, they become wealthy, trade their dragon-bird rides for black Cadillac Space-Utility-Vehicles with tinted windows, the whole bit. Now we know that in the long run, Indians want only one thing - casinos - and the Navi are no different. So they build the biggest casino on any world - a fantastic Las Vegas of the future - with giant rainforest hotels (\"Pandora's Box\") built over that waterfall. And very tall blue cocktail waitresses in skimpy outfits who bring tall blue signature drinks in tall blue glasses (Nav-tinis) made with exotic fruits and atomic vodka, right to your gaming table. Soon Pandora becomes known throughout the galaxy as a wide-open planet .. even a few Nav-a-Ho's cruise the casinos whispering if anybody wants a 'Blue-Job.' A Blue-Job? I won't even speculate what that might mean. What happens on Pandora stays on Pandora.","Product: New Yorks intense street dancing underground comes alive in eye-popping Digital 3D in the third installment of the Step Up franchise as the raw, passion-fuelled culture goes global. A tight-knit group of street dancers, including Luke (Rick Malambri) and Natalie (Sharni Vinson), team up with NYU freshman Moose (Adam Sevani), and find themselves pitted against the worlds best break dancers in a high-stakes showdown that will change their lives forever. Region-Free Blu-ray 3D, playable on all US players. 3D Blu-ray player and 3D-capable HDTV required to play 3D content.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Some amazing dancing, some fake dancing\n\nReview: Forget the story line here, which is beyond stupid, and forget the acting, which is even stupider; just fast forward to the dance scenes.\n\nThese are mixed. Hollywood has a love/hate relationship with street culture and never seems to know whether to present it raw or smooth it up and digest it into 'professional' work.\n\nSome of the more authentic hiphop pieces are amazing in their athleticism. And some of the produced pieces are first rate also. Adam G. Sevani is a super talented young guy; his takeoff on Fred Astaire's\"I Won't Dance Don't Ask Me\" is one of the best dance performances in movies since Gene Kelly - his partner Alyson Stoner is almost as good.\n\nOn the other hand there are some faked up production numbers. The two main characters are replaced by dancer doubles in some places - easy to spot and jarring. In other places the frame rate of a dance sequence is artificially speeded up so it will appear more difficult than it is - obvious and a cheap trick.\n\nSo a mixture. But still a fun movie.","Product: This documentary feature takes an in-depth look at the rapid rise and dramatic fall of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer. Nicknamed \"The Sheriff of Wall Street,\" when he was NY's Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer prosecuted crimes by Americas largest financial institutions and some of the most powerful executives in the country. After his election as Governor, with the largest margin in the state's history, many believed Spitzer was on his way to becoming the nation's first Jewish President. Then, shockingly, Spitzers meteoric rise turned into a precipitous fall when the New York Times revealed that Spitzer--the paragon of rectitude--had been caught seeing prostitutes. As his powerful enemies gloated, his supporters questioned the timing of it all: as the Sheriff fell, so did the financial markets, in a cataclysm that threatened to unravel the global economy. With unique access to the escort world as well as friends, colleagues and enemies of the ex-Governor (many of whom have come forward for the first time) the film explores the hidden contours of this tale of hubris, sex, and power.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: The man who wasn't nice\n\nReview: This is a remarkable documentary about the rise and fall of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer; most remarkable in that Spitzer actually agreed to be interviewed on camera for this bio film and did not shy away from the most embarrassing questions. The interviewer is skillful in bringing out both Spitzer's very real professional achievements as a crusading prosecutor and his personal weaknesses.\n\nMore interesting to me than his sexual involvements were his extremely combative interactions with Wall St. big shots as prosecutor, or legislative colleagues as governor. The escort agency also said that Spitzer was a difficulty and unfriendly client. Apparently just not very nice in his interactions with people. On the macro level of ethics, he was a hero. On the micro level of everyday interactions, clueless.\n\nFor a film that consists largely of talking heads, this is a powerful drama. The prostitute Spitzer came to be associated with - it turns out he saw the woman only once - is seen as not very interesting and only a small part of the story. Spitzer's real downfall was that he made so many enemies. In that atmosphere, the smallest mistake will be punished. A brilliant intellect but little understanding how to relate to people, whether as a prosecutor, a politician, or even as client of an escort service. The film is skillfully done and well worth watching.\n\nPostScript: Spitzer has recently resurfaced as a CNN reporter and interviewer, doing quite a good job. But true to form, his relationship with a cohost dissolved in a personality conflict. Guy never learns.","Product: Visionary director Alma Har el presents a beautiful and moving portrait of a forgotten California tourist town, weaving together the stories of its inhabitants with surreal poetry and beauty.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: DVD out-takes better than movie\n\nReview: Bombay Beach is an art-school cinema exercise / reality show about a marginal community of down-and-outers in the remote desert of the Salton Sea in California. These are the last residents of an ecological disaster zone and their lives are very odd. Nevertheless, I was bored by the film. Although the filmaker did seem to care about the people she followed, her film is static; no development, even for a documentary. In spite of being juiced up by a couple of music-video style song and dance numbers (I'm not making this up), it barely kept my attention. So why did it win New York film awards? Because New York art-jerks (they dress in black) enjoy discouraging stuff, the weirder the better, and even more they love the perception of America as a wasteland. It also didn't hurt that the Tribeca film clique just happen to be close friends with the director and her husband; it was their turn to get the award.\n\nSo I was glad that I checked out the Extras section of the DVD before giving up on the film. The brief section \"Where are they now?\" is worth more than the rest of the movie. We see that CJ, the black teen struggling to develop as an athlete, did indeed make it to a midwestern university on a football scholarship; heart warming. We see the filmaker Alma Har'el in real life (with flaming red hair of a shade not contemplated by the Creator) greeting the little boy Ben on a sponsored trip to the Tribeca Film Festival with sincere affection, and even better we learn that through visiting NYC Ben fortuitously receives better medical attention for his behavior difficulties than the bizarre over-medication he suffered at home. These are uplifting things, so much more real and interesting than the pretentious cinematography and faked up songs of the main presentation. Here is an example of a filmaker so overshadowed by what her \"we dress in black, we think in black\" art-jerk friends consider stylish that she censored the best human energy from her own movie. Says something about the conformity which governs the art world today.","Product: When Carol (Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine, Elizabeth) walks into a New York City department store and meets Therese (Academy Award nominee Rooney Mara, Her, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) an unlikely friendship sparks. Carol is an elegant socialite going through a bitter divorce while Therese is just starting out in life; unsure of who she wants to be. Mesmerized by each other, they face a choice: deny their hearts desires or defy societys conventions but in doing so, risk life as they know it. From director Todd Haynes (Im Not There, Far From Heaven) and based on the best-selling novel, Carol is a powerful romance fueled by the danger and exhilaration of forbidden love.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Politically brave for its time but artistically dull\n\nReview: This movie came with such an advance buzz that I was surprised to find it slow and dull. Cate Blanchett plays Carol in a minimalistic, quiet fashion; of course her elegance and beauty shine through. But Rooney Mara does not convincingly fill out her part; she is a mousey cipher and we learn almost nothing about her. She does not seem passionate about her photography, merely submissive and unsure of herself.\n\nI was surprised that this received such extravagant praise and so many Oscar nominations - but I see now these were for political bravery rather than art. Certainly at the time the book was publshed in the early fifties, a lesbian love story was groundbreaking. Today, not so much.\n\nThe photography, shot on 16mm film, has a period feel and the 1950's clothes and autos - wonderful.","Product: DVD Region 1, US Rated R, 105 minutes, FORTISSIMOFILMS.\n\nRating: 1.0\n\nSummary: Unbelievably boring, pointless and tedious\n\nReview: This film is unbelievably boring, pointless and tedious. Just stupefyingly bad. Some young losers in Taiwan have aimless lives. We watch them smoke cigarettes. That's about it. Oh yeah, they play in the snow on one occasion. There is no story. There is no development. A waste of one hour and forty five minutes of your life. That the Cannes Film Festival voted this self-indulgent dreck a winner simply boggles the mind.\n\nThe real mystery is where pretentious film critics get their adoration for this movie. \"Deeply moving\" says Christian Science Monitor. Yes, moving me to tears. \"An amazing film.\" says the New York Post. Amazing that anyone actually went through with this project.\n\nI could point a camera at a wall for six hours and some candypants film critic would no doubt write a profound essay about it. \"Transcendently beautiful. Deeply symbolic of our entire human condition. A watershed in cinema history.\"\n\nIs it that the critics are afraid to look stupid if they say a famous director's movie is a dud? Maybe film school students should reread the The Emperor's New Clothes? The one where all the officials of the kingdom, in their eagerness to curry favor and be politically correct, fall all over each other oohing and aahing about the king's unusual new wardrobe choices... until a ten year old says, hey, the king actually has no clothes on this time.","Product: Simply place this 15x magnification lens directly over your cell phone's camera lens to obtain magnified views! The reusable lens is made of specially treated plastic that has moderate adhesive properties. The lens securely adheres to the camera lens without causing damage, peels off easily when you're finished using it, and can be reapplied over and over. The included carrying case provides a handy platform on which to rest your phone while taking photos. Scratch-proof and washable, the lens is recommended for use with 5 megapixel or higher cameras.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Small magnifying lens, way overpriced\n\nReview: This is a tiny lens made of a plastic that has a natural stickiness; you paste it on your iPhone lens and it magnifies. It's like a contact lens.\n\nIt's cute and it more or less works; you can get some ragged but useful close up photos of any texture or small object. Great toy for a school kid's science project.\n\nFour negatives. First, you're very likely to lose it unless you put it back in its little case after use. Since many users will be children, it will be lost quickly - if not swallowed. Second, the stickiness will fade unless you clean it each time in soap and water. Third, it is not shaped as well as could be; seems spherical whereas an asphere is best for this application to produce sharp images. Fourth, this tiny bit of plastic cost about 15 cents to manufacture - and sells for 15 bucks. Way overpriced. I'm all for entrepreneurship but this is a bit offensive.\n\nIf the company is reading this, I would like to suggest that for $15 you might include a small book, aimed at kids, which shows examples how you can use a microscope and some ideas for science projects. That might be less of a ripoff.","Product: Panasonic KX-TG6411T Dect 6.0 Cordless Phone\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Smart phone, dumb menus\n\nReview: I wanted a simple cordless phone without an answering machine, without multiple handsets, without a built-in jacuzzi or bread machine or MP3 player, just a phone. This one has a nice compact design and pretty decent sound quality - although of course not as good as a corded phone. Along with many other Japanese consumer products however, especially those from Panasonic it seems, the menu system and owner's manual are so wacky that you could entertain guests at a party just by reading the instructions out loud. Example: This phone has Caller ID. Let's say I want to check who a missed call was from. So this is how you do it. Ready? Here we go:\n\nPress Menu\nPress #\nPress 2\nPress 1\nPress 3\nPress Down\n\nThere you are! Only SIX buttons to remember in order to look at your last missed call! And there are dozens of these three-number codes for different phone settings - but nowhere in the owner's manual is there a chart of all of them in one place. Panasonic tends to produce reliable hardware, but their manual-writing and user interfaces are really bad. Perhaps it's a disconnect between the culture of Japan and the US. Or perhaps they just don't get it. Three stars.","Product: Removable fasteners provide a secure hold and allow you to remove cleanly without wall damage. Secures flush to wall surface and allows you to adjust as needed. Great for posters and lightweight calendars. Includes six sets. Holds: Up to 3 lbs per set Permanent/Removable/Repositionable: Removable Repositionable.\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: Direct comparison with 3M Command strips\n\nReview: I would very much like to attach picture frames to the recently refinished walls of my old New England house without banging in nails. These adhesive thingies are an attractive alternative, but do they work?\n\nThis JSB product is branded \"Velcro\" (hooks on one layer, loops on the other) and is rated nominally for 6 lbs. I compared it directly with a similar product, similar size tape from Home Depot called \"3M Command\" strips which have a different structure; hooks on both sides and they snap together. These are rated on the label as 16 lbs. I applied them both according to instructions on the same simulated wall backing and then testing them side by side, pulling sideways - or as sideways as I could manage - with a vice grip pliers.\n\nMy results: I was not terrifically impressed with either product. The manufacturers seem to rate these things resisting a purely lateral force, with no outward component, which is unrealistic - it's too easy to pull outward without meaning to. The JSB peels into hook and loop instantly with the slightest out of plane pulling force. The 3M also pulls off with an outward pull, although not quite as easily. These tapes are designed for hanging very flat, thin items; if you try to hang an object with any third dimension to it, or hang a frame by a wire or such, they may fall off.\n\nOf the two, the 3M Command is a bit stronger, although I doubt if it's 16/6 = 2.5X stronger.\n\nBottom line: Don't trust these tapes with anything breakable.","Product: Ricoh SP 311DNw Mono Laser Printer (30 ppm) (360 MHz) (128 MB) (8.5\" x 14\") (1200 x 600 dpi) (Duplex) (USB) (Ethernet) (Wireless) (Energy Star) (250 Sheet Input Capacity) (50 Sheet Multipurpose Tray).\n\nRating: 1.0\n\nSummary: Not Macintosh compatible. Confusing, useless instructions.\n\nReview: Not many products make me angry but I just spent half a day, 100 sheets of wasted paper and repeated searches of the internet only to discover that this product is NOT Mac compatible. It is astonishing when Apple is the number one consumer electronics company in the world and used in a large number of homes, home offices and colleges and universities, that a company would put out a printer which cannot be made to work with Mac. Even more annoying, there is no warning of this on the box or the Amazon product page, so one could easily order it and have it not function. Stupid and thoughtless.\n\nIn addition the instructions shipped with the printer come on a dozen little brochures, all incomprehensible and printed in ten languages jumbled on top of each other. Literally impossible to understand. Who has time for this? Ricoh appears to be clueless how to provide ease of use to customers. Pathetic morons. There are not many products from major manufacturers which have more One Star reviews than any other, a clear indication of a very poorly managed corporation.\n\nNote added later: After much investigation and Apple Support discussions, I finally found third party shareware called Gutenprint which does allow the printer to connect to Mac, but only via USB - wireless still does not work.\n\nIt seems even Amazon reviewers who use PC have equally bad experiences. Skip this printer. The Brother 2270 is a more reliable choice and the refills for it more widely available, and its output looks cleaner than this Ricoh.","Product: The Streamlight Propolymer Xenon Flashlight was truly built to last! This handheld flashlight features a high density super tough nylon construction with a rubber face cap. Its waterproof and shock resistant making it the perfect companion on any of your outdoor adventures! The Propolymer flashlight features 7 bright LED lights (available in blue or white) and a tail switch for momentary blink or constant on settings. A wrist lanyard a 4 AA batteries are included.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Two similar Streamlights, one focussed, one long battery life\n\nReview: Streamlight makes flashlights for professionals - first responders, fire departments, military - shockproof, waterproof and come in a highly visible emergency yellow color and meet certification standards for departmental use. Here I am comparing two similar models, about the same size, both use 4AA batteries. I will post the same review under each.\n\nThis model, the 68202, uses 7 moderate brightness LEDs and produces a broad, soft illumination - it burns for 155 hours on one set of batteries.\n\nThe other model, the 68244 item is an extremely bright single Luxeon LED with a tightly focussed beam. But runs only for 4 hours or so due to the high current drain of the Luxeon.\n\nI own both of them; the Luxeon super bright focussed model is best for seeing a long way out of doors, and the 7 LED model is best in an emergency kit, because the batteries will last so much longer. They both have a very positive push button in the base. The Streamlight website has many other models, all well designed and rugged; not the wimpy flashlights you find in local stores. If you can't decide, I recommend the 68202 for most people.","Product: The Streamlight Propolymer Xenon Flashlight was truly built to last! This handheld flashlight features a high density super tough nylon construction with a rubber face cap. Its waterproof and shock resistant making it the perfect companion on any of your outdoor adventures! The Propolymer flashlight features 7 bright LED lights (available in blue or white) and a tail switch for momentary blink or constant on settings. A wrist lanyard a 4 AA batteries are included.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Two similar Streamlights, one focussed, one long battery life\n\nReview: Streamlight makes flashlights for professionals - first responders, fire departments, military - shockproof, waterproof and come in a highly visible emergency yellow color and meet certification standards for departmental use. There are many models but here I am discussing two similar ones, about the same size, both use 4AA batteries. I will post the same review under each.\n\nThe 68244 item (this product) is an extremely bright single Luxeon LED with a tightly focussed beam. But it runs only for 4 hours or so.\n\nAnother model almost the same size, the 68202, uses 7 lower brightness LEDs and produces a broader, softer illumination - but it one for 155 hours on one set of batteries.\n\nI own both of them; the Luxeon super bright focussed model is best for seeing a long way out of doors, and the 7 LED model is best in an emergency kit, because the batteries will last so much longer. They both have a very positive push button in the base. The Streamlight website has many other models, all well designed and rugged; not the wimpy flashlights you find in local stores. I recommend the 68202 unless you really need the focussed beam.","Product: Turn-Lock feature allows the user to lock and leave without a key. Ideal for front, back and side entry doors where deadbolts are required. Grade 2 ANSI/BHMA certified. Commercial grade clutching motor drive. Vandal resistant free-spinning deadbolt turn. Code control; 6-digit programming code required to add and delete user codes. Warning sounds after four incorrect codes entered; keypad disabled for 30 seconds. Mechanical key override. Pre-set with random 6-digit programming code and two random 4-digit user codes. 19 user code capacity; 10,000 user code combinations. Blue LEDs illuminate the keypad on demand. Locks can be re-keyed to match existing locks. 9-volt alkaline battery included. Fits most standard door preps. Just a screwdriver needed for installation on pre-prepped doors. LATCH: 1" x 2-1/4" radius corner faceplate, 1" housing diameter - requires 1" edge bore, 1" throw with Triple-Option square corner, radius corner and circular drive-in faceplates. STRIKES: 1-1/8" x 2-3/4", square corner, no box, latch strike. BACKSET: adjustable backset, fits 2-3/8" to 2-3/4" backsets. CYLINDER: 5-pin solid brass, keyed 5-pin, C keyway, keyed different (KD). The door thickness range is 1-5/8 to 2 inches thick (41mm-51mm) standard . KEYS: nickel silver cut keys, 5-pin, C-section. Minimum 5-1/2" center-to-center distance between cross bore holes. All-metal chassis and escutcheons. Silicone rubber, wear-resistant buttons.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: The best of the digital locks\n\nReview: I have two buildings to maintain with three exterior doors and besides this lock I have tried the Yale Touchscreen and the Kwiklock digitals. This is by far the best because it's a simple reliable design. It's manual, you turn the knob yourself. Both the Yale and Kwikset have motors which drive the deadbolt, meaning they use up batteries fast and may fail in cold weather. And the Yale has a touchscreen, which is flashy but stupid - you have to take your gloves off to operate.\n\nAt this point all three of my locks are the same Schlage model, this one. It's bulletproof and does the main thing one wants from a digital lock - eliminate keys and allow for adding and deleting codes. It's made of solid metal (the Kwikset has a plastic case painted with fake silver).\n\nMy only complaints are very minor. First, keep the programming instructions and programming code in a safe place because you'll never remember it all. Second, if you want to tell a visitor how to lock up when they leave, you need to explain that they should push the button labeled \"Schlage\" and then turn the knob. It should be more self explanatory by indicating that you need to manually turn the knob.\n\nA great solid product, five stars.","Product: This 14 Function Micro tool has an all stainless steel construction and features spring loaded pliers and titanium handles for long life.\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: Let's support the originators, not offshore ripoffs\n\nReview: This is a nice pocket multi-tool with a pliers, tiny scissors, small screwdrivers, etc etc.. all the things you might need to rebuild civilization after global warming wipes it out. All the pieces are nicely machined and finished, smooth and sharp. Pretty well made. And it sells for about the price of a six pack of microbrew! Miracle. However, it bothered me that the design is an obvious ripoff of pocket multi-tool designs pioneered by Leatherman and others, American entrepreneurs, designers and mechanical engineers who conceived a new family of tools and worked hard to make them available. I'm willing to pay a little more to support the inventors and not offshore factories who copy and reproduce their designs with cheap labor.","Product: The new Bosch IDS181BL 18-volt Lithium-Ion Compact Tough 1/4-Inch Hex Impact Driver- Bare Tool with L-Boxx-2 and Exact-Fit Insert Tray features an ultra-compact design, while delivering best-in-class application control. Plumbers, electricians, carpenters, HVAC professionals and other tradesmen can take advantage of the tools optimized performance for fast and great results. Tools in the new IDS181 Impactor line feature a compact head length of just 5.4-Inch and a lightweight design of just 2.9-Pound to deliver the best balance and control for 18-volt small- to medium-duty applications. The tools compact size also facilitates work in hard-to-reach spaces. The IDS181 line delivers 42 percent more runtime compared to similar in-class competitors, along with 15-Percent less torque and 10-Percent more speed for the best application control. The Bosch-built hammer and anvil system provides maximum impact endurance, increasing tool life and performance. The new impact drivers also feature an intelligent electronic protection system, including electronic motor protection, which increases motor life by protecting the motor in overload and stall situations, and electronic cell protection, which doubles battery life. The Bosch IDS181BL bare tool includes the L-Boxx-2 and Exact-Fit insert tray, which allows for complete organization, storage and mobility solution for professionals on the go. The Bosch L-BOXX system is a convenient way to expand your storage options as your tool collection grows. Fill the cases with tools and lock them together for easy transport, handling, and protection against damage. You can also stack and store them in your home shop to keep tools dust-free and easily accessible. The innovative click system allows for easy connection and disconnection of any number of L-Boxxs. With the ease of single-click stacking, each L-Boxx easily locks together for easy transport and handling.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Small tool, big box, giant system\n\nReview: Before you order this product, please notice the fine print this is the BARE TOOL with NO battery or charger. This means you need to already have some other 18V Bosch tool on hand - I have the DDH181 drill. What you WILL receive with the bare tool however, whether you want it or not, is a gigantic case called the L-BOXX-2, part of a set of tool cases which lock together into a sort of mega-plastic toolcase. The box system is certainly not for everyone and seems to me strange to open this big interlocking case and find the small bare tool rattling around inside - I would rather have had Bosch forget the case and reduce the price by 1/3, or provide a smaller case for just a bare tool. But the manufacturers know that few people use just one tool; their marketing is based on a System and pushing you to lock into their System. It's manipulative and annoying.\n\nAs for the tool itself; Bosch makes high end power tools for the homeowner - durable enough for contractors or industry. They are precision made and feel like quality. I compared this driver with my Makita BTD142 which is about the same size, but the Bosch is a bit heavier and definitely more powerful. I drove a long screw into a hardwood block; the Makita got bogged down but the Bosch did better. Nice. Bosch has a plastic housing but much better quality plastic than the cheapo Makita. If you like precision tools you will like Bosch.\n\nMy problem is that I have too many incompatible batteries around; Makita 18V, Makita 14.4V, Bosch 18V, Bosch 12V. I suppose it's too much to ask that the manufacturers agree on a standard and offer interchangeable batteries and chargers. If I were starting over I would commit to Bosch, but I already have many Makita tools and not every function is available in both. If you are just starting to set up your shop, makes sense to go Bosch and stick to it. The best deals are available if you buy a set of tools with a charger and two batteries. But if you already have a bunch of tools from a different maker, it's a harder decision. If I had the choice, I would buy from an open source supplier who competes on quality, performance and cost and doesn't try to force me into their System.","Product: Remember when power tools were actually powerful? WENs 12-inch swing, variable speed drill press with laser centering device, is a powerhouse for your shop. Packed with features that youll find in larger more industrial type drill presses. This bench-top, cast iron drill press has the power to drill through metal, wood and other materials. Max drill capacity is 5/8 in 1 thick cast iron. The variable speed feature allows you to target in the exact speed (infinitely from 580-3200 RPM) that works for your project. While you are working you simply move a lever and adjust the speed as needed. No pulleys and belts to change! Our design uses a mechanical variable speed which allows for the same power and torque through the entire speed range. A digital readout powered by LEDs displays the running speed. Constructed with a rigid frame consisting of cast iron: head, table, and base, ensures accurate holes. Its powerful induction motor features ball bearings for an extended life and it all comes together with smooth and balanced performance even at high speeds. The 5/8 chuck with MT2 spindle taper gives you versatility with a variety of bits and features on-board chuck key storage, so you never have to hunt around for it. Worktable bevels 45 left and right for those tricky operations for the perfect right angles consistently. Base has predrilled holes for mounting onto a bench or work stand. Slotted table allows for mounting clamps and vises for effective mounting. The X-pattern laser locks-on to your drill points saving on guesswork and sparing expensive materials. A versatile and valuable tool for any shop especially when you expand its range of use with optional accessories such as mortising attachments, drum sanders, circle cutters, etc. Since 1951, WEN has proudly produced innovative powered tools focused on value delivering meaningful features that will help you complete and enjoy the work as much as the project. Remember when you could drill with laser precision? Remember WEN. DO NOT use power tools in the presence of flammable liquids or gases\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Excellent - for the price\n\nReview: If you want a drill press in your home workshop, there are basically two affordable choices. First, you could look on Craigslist for something being sold used. The problem, unless you are really lucky, is that things like drill presses don't normally get sold until they are elderly, juddering hulks. If the spindle is worn out, how are you going to replace it in a 40 year old tool? Out of curiosity I just did a little research; a Sears catalog benchtop drill press in 1962 weighed about 300 lbs and cost about $200. That's in 1962 dollars of course, the equivalent of $1,600 today! If you are willing to pay $2-4000, yeah you can still find a nice newly manufactured unit made in the US or Europe, and it will be lovely. I can't afford that and probably you can't either.\n\nThe other choice is an affordable unit from .. I have trouble saying the word .. CHINA. I have mixed feelings about Chinese products. On the one hand the rough castings and chunky parts will not make someone happy who loves precision. On the other hand China has democratized tools like this - bringing down the price by a large factor. This WEN unit is quite good enough for my purposes and I'm happy with it. It's a little larger and heavier than the very cheapest, with slightly better components and a longer reach. All the parts fit together well and assembling it was a cinch. It runs and works. For 250 bucks, I'll take it.","Product: Designed to answer tradesmen demands for versatility, power and control, the new Bosch IDH182 18-Volt Lithium-Ion Impact or brings to market an industry first with its Socket Ready adapter. This adapter allows users to seamlessly change between 1/4-Inch screwdriver bits and 1/2-Inch sockets, thus removing the need for two tools or the hassle of broken socket adapters. Featuring innovative solutions such as the Socket Ready all-in-one tool holder, the IDH182 provides users with unmatched solutions to get the job done efficiently and effectively. The IDH182 is equipped with Bosch's next generation EC Brushless motor, which provides 2X motor life, superior efficiency for longer runtime and absolutely no maintenance. This tool also features intelligent electronic cell and motor protection engineered to increase tool and battery life, along with the Bosch-built hammer and anvil system that delivers maximum impact endurance and increased tool performance in wood and metal fastening applications. To complete tougher applications with maximum efficiency, the IDH182 delivers 1,650 in lbs of torque making if the most powerful impact driver in its class. Adjust tool speed and torque with a push of a button to maximize power or minimize fastener damage with the Bosch Performance Control System. The impact driver also features a compact head length of 6.2 Inch and weighs just 3.2 pounds when paired with a 2.0 Ah battery. In addition, the IDH182 is designed with the smallest grip diameter for best-in-class ergonomics and comfort and features the patented three LED design to provide maximum illumination of the work area without shadows. The IDH182-02L Kit Includes: (1) 18-Volt Brushless Socket Ready Impact Driver, (2) 2.0Ah Batteries, (1) Charger, (1) Double-ended Impact Bit, (1) Belt Clip and (1) L-BOXX-2 carrying case with an Exact-Fit Tool Insert Tray, which are part of a stackable storage system designed to improve tool organization and transportation on the jobsite.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Excellent tool, unwanted box\n\nReview: Bosch makes a line of 'professional' power tools at a notch higher quality level than most consumer products (Makita); the materials are better and the motors theoretically more durable. They also cost more. This is an impact driver with a brushless motor and is considered by Bosch to be contractor grade as opposed to the 181 line which are \"standard duty\" with nonbrushless motors. It is precision made with an appealing design; plastic but high quality plastic. In use it seems strong, but not really very different from my Makita. The difference is presumably in longevity in daily use. However, the price is about twice what I paid for the same functionality from Makita, with the charger and two batteries.\n\nIt's a beautiful impact driver - five stars for that in itself. However, the way it is bundled by Bosch I find irritating. The tool with battery is just over 8\" tall. However, it came rattling around in a giant 17\" plastic case which Bosch tries to promote as their proprietary L-BOXX system of interlocking plastic cases. And then Amazon was forced to ship the whole thing in a giant 26\" carton. It's wasteful. What's that you say, I'm being an ungrateful wretch to complain about a free box? Sorry, but it's not actually free - the L-BOXX accounts for about fifty bucks of the product price.","Product: The DEWALT DWE402 4-1/2\" 11-amp Paddle Switch Angle Grinder features the next generation 11 Amp AC/DC 11,000 rpm motor, which provides the best power to weight/size ratio available (1.8HP). It's Dust Ejection System provides durability by ejecting damaging dust and debris particles that enter the tool. The oversized brushes provide 2X brush life over previous model (D28402) and the large spiral bevel gear provides long transmission life. This grinder offers a One-Touch guard that allows for 360 degree rotation of the guard with a single action. The Quick-Change wheel release allows tool free wheel removal without need for a wrench. It has a top mounted and protected spindle lock button that maximizes the depth of cut without compromising durability. The uniquely small gripping surface in this power class allows for the best comfort available in this class. It also offers a newly designed side handle which provides excellent ergonomics while oversized threading provides durability. Auto-off brushes shut the tool down when the brushes need replacing to avoid tool damage and a paddle switch with safety lock-off prevents accidental start up. Matching wheel flanges allow the use of common accessories. Includes: (1) 2-position side handle, (1) 4-1/2\" One-Touch (T27) Guard.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: A classic tool - but on the large side if you don't need the full power\n\nReview: Dewalt is the standard in angle grinders and you will find them all over the industrial world and in metal working schools. This is one heck of a useful tool, powerful and durable. The kinks have been ironed out of this classic design - it just works. The low price is a real bargain - would be higher if these were not sold in such large numbers.\n\nHowever, don't let the reasonable price draw you into buying this 11 amp unit if you don't really need the full power - because it is large and weighs over 6 lbs. Dewalt, Makita and Bosch all make smaller, lighter 7 amp products which cost about the same but are easier to handle in tight spaces.","Product: 3M secure fit safety eyewear is a game changer in comfort and security of fit. Features 3M pressure diffusion temple technology - a scientific advancement that helps Diffuse pressure over the ear, Enhancing comfort while ensuring a secure fit. As soon as\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Very light weight but this combo package is not the best way to buy\n\nReview: I use safety glasses for many types of shop work, and for using a string trimmer on the lawn, etc. This is a set of three; clear, sun and yellow. The sun version, yes useful. The yellow ones? Sometimes used by shooters to enhance target contrast but I doubt if I will use this pair.\n\nThese do fit over my spectacles, so good on that. They are also very lightweight, so much so that I was skeptical how much protection they would offer. However the package says they meet the ANSI standard Z787.1-2010 so I guess they are OK.\n\nThese are nice but I don't know about buying the three-pack with the yellow and sun models. For the price I would prefer to buy three of the clear ones, since I know they will scratch over time.","Product: Tucker Max drinks to excess at inappropriate times, disregards social norms, indulges every whim, takes no responsibility for his actions, rebels against any authority, mocks idiots and posers, sleeps with more women than is safe or reasonable and generally just acts like an asshole. \"I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell\" contains everything the modern-day bounder that is Tucker Max has written since he started sharing his depraved reality with an audience of millions.\n\nRating: 1.0\n\nSummary: Funny at first.. but author is truly a jerk\n\nReview: If you can get past all the vomit and bowel activity, it's funny at first to read Tucker Max misadventures. But I was increasingly offended by the author's displays of contempt, just below the surface, towards the very women who are his enablers and benefactors. His ever ready hostility shows its ugly head if any of them pushes back even slightly, whereupon he immediately unleashes a vicious tirade of verbal abuse, calling them the worst possible names in loud public humiliations, and making it clear what he really thinks of them. This guy has issues. First he does everything he can to get women into bed, and then immediately turns on them with ridicule and contempt for having fallen for it. For some reason, because they are \"girls\" and he's a \"boy,\" he thinks this is OK. Nice guy.\n\nEven more baffling is that there continue to be legions of females who not only don't mind being treated this way but seem to seek it out. I wonder how many of the girls Tucker Max encounters understand what his attitude towards them really is. Book should be required reading for teen age girls; don't get used this way, if you have any self-respect.","Product: Will be shipped from US. Used books may not include companion materials, may have some shelf wear, may contain highlighting/notes, may not include CDs or access codes. 100% money back guarantee.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: A love story of writers and revolutionaries\n\nReview: 'To the Finland Station' is Edmund Wilson's novel-like narrative of the personalities who pioneered the ideas of social equality in the 150 years leading up to the Russian Revolution. This is not a history of the political events but rather the personalities of the activists and their life stories. Included are heartbreaking episodes such as the tale of Babeuf who saw the abolition of property as the prerequisite for human equality, and who was guillotined in France along with his followers for passionately declaring his ideas. Also here are early Utopians such as Owen, a successful Welsh industrialist who established actual working communities on early communist principles, including the Owenite commune in New Harmony, Indiana. It was Owen who argued that marriage was also a form of property, and promoted the sexual freedom of women with its echoes a hundred years later. The second half of the book tracks the entry of revolutionary ideas into Germany, England, Austria, Prussia through Lassalle, Marx, Engels - and their image of class struggle as the main dynamic of history. Included are the petty rivalries among the principals, and plain old gossip, such as that Marx - the uncompromising absolutist of world economics - was clueless in his own personal financial life, and dependent on his friend Engels to pay his bills.\n\nThe book can be read as another kind of history as well, not only regarding the early Communist theorists as such but also about the writers who were their cheerleaders during the 1920's and 30's. Wilson and other true believers were so wrapped up with the utopian goal that they were slow to come to terms with the dark side of the actuality as it was practiced in Stalinist Russia. So, read Wilson not only as an historic journey of ideas, but also as a record of the sometimes foolish love story between liberal intellectuals and revolutionaries.\n\nFor those interested in writing, Wilson's style is unique. There are dense, half-page, complex sentences but nevertheless he manages to convey subtle meanings with elegance."],"string":"[\n \"Product: Since 1845, Scientific American has been educating and delighting readers with in-depth coverage on a broad range of scientific topics. Every month government leaders, c-suite executives, investors, students and informed citizens from all professions depend on Scientific American for reporting on advances that impact the economy and careers, financial markets, global health, and the environment. Scientific American subscriptions include 12 print and 12 digital issues (Tablet Edition for iPad, downloadable PDFs, and browser based access to gated content on ScientificAmerican.com).\\n\\nRating: 1.0\\n\\nSummary: From science to cupcakes; sad decline of an institution\\n\\nReview: Witnessing the editorial deterioration of Scientific American over the years has been a sad disappointment. I began to read SA in my high school library nearly fifty years ago. From the 60's through the 80s' it was a serious and dignified journal with explanations by major scientists of their own work. The Amateur Scientist and Mathematical Recreations columns had many devotees. In these years many who chose careers in science credited SA as an inspiration. Apparently it was not considered cool or profitable enough by its publishers however; sometime in the 90's SA was taken over by a new crowd, the articles now written by journalists, and it became strongly politicized, with a shrill liberal agenda. They turned away from hard science and devoted more pages to psychology and social issues, often with a clear bias attached. Many of the columnists were no longer significant thinkers but just some cronies of the editor - borderline cranks whose monthly \\\"thoughts\\\" are not worth the paper. Steve Mirsky, the \\\"humorist,\\\" is simply a waste of a page and Michael Shermer has nothing new to say. (Jeff Sachs however is an exception - he is a genuine leader in international development.)\\n\\nThere has also been an ongoing obsession with the evolution / creationist debate, not bringing any new scientific insights as a leading science magazine could and should have done, just elitist religion-bashing and constant ridicule of the \\\"stupid\\\" creationists. Embarrassing even to non-religious readers. Even the art direction is wacky, highly impressionistic (people with blue heads and swoopy arcs in outer space seem to be used for ALL subjects) and of no value for illustrating the content.\\n\\nDuring most of this phase the editor was John Rennie, a mediocre mind who had no business leading such an important institution. He guided Scientific American down a soft path which dissipated fifty years of prestige. Very sad. Recently his understudy Mariette DiChristina has taken over. She also is a journalist rather than an intellectual leader with a personal grasp of the vastness of modern science. None of these people are PhDs. The advisory board of famous scientists seems to be only for show; I am surprised they allow their names to be used as the magazine slides downhill.\\n\\nThe bottom point so far has been the September, 2009 issue where the magazine's hack staff (not a panel of real scientists) took it upon themselves to choose the greatest \\\"origins\\\" in the history of the universe. Among their choices; Scotch tape, the vibrator (female sex toy), the paper clip, intermittent windshield wipers, and cupcakes. Yes, cupcakes. The venerable Scientific American, continuously published for 160 years, chose the paper clip and the cupcake as two of the most important innovations of all time. What a pack of idiots. This is what happens when Nobel Prize winners are replaced by Steve Mirsky.\\n\\nIt didn't have to be like that. Magazines like Smithsonian and National Geographic have maintained their identity and high editorial standards consistently, decade after decade, while SA has lost it. During a period where science itself has exploded on every front, Scientific American has been surpassed by many other sources in print and on the Web. HowStuffWorks attracts ten times the readership of the SA website, likewise Discovery. Popular Science has become much more sophisticated in recent years. Wired News is brilliant. PhysOrg is an excellent way to keep up across the sciences. The Web pages of Science and Nature highlight recent discoveries. Physical Review Focus interprets recent developments for students and non-experts, and does a very good job.\\n\\nAfter forty years of subscribing, I will not renew. Others who may not be renewing include your local library or university - after being taken over recently by the Nature Group, the most aggressively profit hungry of the academic publishers, Scientific American announced they were raising their subscription price to libraries by a factor of 10X - as if they were a major archival research journal rather than a pop-science disposable like Psychology Today. Good strategy folks - piddling away the uniqueness of your franchise while arrogantly raising the price.\",\n \"Product: If you have a task where wiping precision and reliability are important, Kimtech Industrial Cleaning Wipes (Kimtex Wipers) are an excellent choice. They are designed for wiping tasks where low lint or the use of chemicals is required, as the polypropylene sheets are specially engineered for critical applications involving solvents, inks and paints. These absorbent sheets are acid-, base- and solvent-resistant, and ideal for use with lubricants, oil and grease. Whether you're responsible for cleaning by hand, manufacturing / assembly, pre-packaging wipe-down or refinishing, these industrial wipers are essential tools of the trade.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: High tech, scratch-free cleanup, chemically resistant\\n\\nReview: Anyone who has been around a lab or precision workshop is familiar with Kimwipes which are made from wood fiber and used to clean optics or precision mechanisms, whenever it's not acceptable to leave fibers behind as with ordinary paper towels.\\n\\nThese Kimtex wipers are one step more high tech. These are not wood fiber or paper fiber but post-consumer polypropylene and work very well for cleaning up chemical spills, solvents, oils. Tough but soft and scratch free. If you don't know exactly the chemical makeup of your surface, or think it may be strongly acidic or basic, these are your best bet, very benign.\\n\\nI just used these with alcohol pads to clean up a 50 year old collector's camera. Did a nice job.\",\n \"Product: To extend the life of your tools, you can count on 3-IN-ONE Pneumatic Tool Oil. It quickly dissolves gum and sludge, and provides rust prevention. Professional grade formula quickly dissolves gum and sludge. Removes calcium build-up and moisture for improved tool performance. Waterproof formula minimizes rust formation under extreme conditions. Marksman Spout for easy precision application. Ideal for all types of pneumatic tools. 50-state VOC compliant.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Excellent for cleaning and lubing firearms\\n\\nReview: It is easy to get confused about the differences between products like WD-40, 3-IN-ONE oil, and this pneumatic version of the latter optimized for pneumatic tools (you know, the kind you see in your local auto shop, powered from an air compressor hose). The WD-40 company owns all these brands and the differences are subtle. 3-IN-ONE oil is a general purpose household lube. WD-40 is not primarily for lubrication but is a penetrating solvent to drive out moisture. The Pneumatic oil lubricates with low viscosity but also has strong cleaning abilties. It is formulated to stand up to high pressure moving parts better than the old 3-IN-ONE. I use it for firearms, which have requirements similar to pneumatic tools - dissolving deposits and then lightly lubricating against high speed mechanical actions. Great stuff.\",\n \"Product: Quick & to the point. 3 bundles of Zen pipe cleaners hard bristle, there are 44 in each bundle, giving you a 132 total each pipe cleaner measures approximately 6 inches long, making cleaning even easier. Zen the name you know & can trust for all your cleaning needs & 420 help these are the ideal length for many pre-school, kindergarten, elementary & jr. And high school teachers, as well as Sunday school classes for arts & crafts projects even those of you who repair old antique tube radios, t.V.'S, & even the more complex ham radios / receivers (especially from 1918-1965) such as philco, rca, admiral, Zenith, hall crafters, sears, Brewster, crossly, firestone, plus hundreds more here is a recent buyers testimony, stub and rishi purchased these pipe cleaners because I use them to clean the sockets of very old tube type radios. There is an entire community of old radio repair guys and collectors who are faced with not finding pipe cleaners at the neighborhood drug store. Not only that but most of these guys (I do not) smoke pipes.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Delivered on a silver platter\\n\\nReview: Not all pipe cleaners are alike. These include stiffer plastic bristles mixed into the usual fluffy cotton. I plan to use them for firearms cleaning, where the stronger scouring should help get residue out of nooks and crannies.\\n\\nWhat really impressed me was how they were delivered to my house. I recently signed up for Amazon Prime, which guarantees delivery of any item in two days. So, on a Saturday, a Fed Ex truck rolled into my driveway and the driver handed me a small parcel with one item inside, this five dollar package of pipe cleaners, period. I was amazed. Other than delivering them on a silver platter or a velvet cushion, or giving me a kiss on the cheek before getting back in the Fed Ex truck (the driver was a woman), I don't know what more Amazon could have done in the way of service. Bravo!\",\n \"Product: Quick & to the point. 3 bundles of Zen pipe cleaners hard bristle, there are 44 in each bundle, giving you a 132 total each pipe cleaner measures approximately 6 inches long, making cleaning even easier. Zen the name you know & can trust for all your cleaning needs & 420 help these are the ideal length for many pre-school, kindergarten, elementary & jr. And high school teachers, as well as Sunday school classes for arts & crafts projects even those of you who repair old antique tube radios, t.V.'S, & even the more complex ham radios / receivers (especially from 1918-1965) such as philco, rca, admiral, Zenith, hall crafters, sears, Brewster, crossly, firestone, plus hundreds more here is a recent buyers testimony, stub and rishi purchased these pipe cleaners because I use them to clean the sockets of very old tube type radios. There is an entire community of old radio repair guys and collectors who are faced with not finding pipe cleaners at the neighborhood drug store. Not only that but most of these guys (I do not) smoke pipes.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Delivered on a silver platter\\n\\nReview: Not all pipe cleaners are alike. These include stiffer plastic bristles mixed into the usual fluffy cotton. I plan to use them for firearms cleaning, where the stronger scouring should help get residue out of nooks and crannies.\\n\\nWhat really impressed me was how they were delivered to my house. I recently signed up for Amazon Prime, which guarantees delivery of any item in two days. So, on a Saturday, a Fed Ex truck rolled into my driveway and the driver handed me a small parcel with one item inside, this five dollar package of pipe cleaners, period. I was amazed. Other than delivering them on a silver platter or a velvet cushion, or giving me a kiss on the cheek before getting back in the Fed Ex truck (the driver was a woman), I don't know what more Amazon could have done in the way of service. Bravo!\",\n \"Product: Easily Manage Your Money\\n\\nRating: 1.0\\n\\nSummary: Utterly and permanently hopeless\\n\\nReview: Mac users know that Quicken has completely failed to support their OS X products in recent years with a pathetic and near-clownish series of missteps. The last version of Quicken for Mac that supports BillPay is eight years old (Q for M 2007) and had a major disruption a year or two ago when Apple dropped legacy support for applications which had never been properly upgraded. This went on for months and I was forced to maintain a separate partition on my Mac which used an older OS just to keep Quicken 2007 running. Really shameful and unprofessional on the part of Intuit. Financial software is not like a word processor; having payments become lost or irregular is anxiety provoking.\\n\\nNow two weeks ago BillPay failed once again; some OL 290 error where the Quicken servers could not connect to the financial institutions. During this period of weeks the Quicken website advised either moving to Quicken for Mac 2015 or following some other path, for which they gave \\\"instructions\\\" which were literally incomprehensible. I am quite sure no ever followed those instructions even once, and I am also sure no one at Intuit ever tested them out on users. Incredibly stupid.\\n\\nSo I came over here to look at Quicken for Mac 2015, hoping it was finally a true Mac version of Quicken for Windows. No. It does not support BillPay!! And the reviews here on Amazon are extremely bad and point out many other fails.\\n\\nQuicken for Mac 2007 has now been patched and works again - temporarily I'm sure - but I'm done. After being with Quicken for Mac for years and paying Quicken BillPay $10 per month (about $1,000 over seven years), I am finally giving up on them, once and for all. My Bank of America account has its own online bill payment service, and I will just try to find some other Mac product to keep my register. One solution for Mac would be to run Parallels and use the Windows version of Quicken, but I now distrust Intuit so much I am reluctant to do even that.\\n\\nWhy is that Intuit, founded in 1983, can't program its way out of a paper bag when it comes to Mac OS? Because Intuit is not exactly a company at all in the normal sense - rather a bizzaro roll-up which has acquired and divested software projects and placed them in noncommunicating groups which share only a name. Turbotax in San Diego has a skilled Mac team and produces a consistently excellent Mac product but Quicken is a separate company located elsewhere and I suspect their only Mac \\\"programmer\\\" is a high school intern.\\n\\nIf Intuit people are reading this, some advice: Your customers would have more respect for you if you would just be honest and DROP your Mac offerings; they don't work and are not professionally produced. Your reputation in the Mac community could not be worse. Just go away.\",\n \"Product: Serta, a brand you can trust, for this fabulous High-Density 4 pound Solid Visco Elastic Memory Foam is a full 2 inch thick for better comfort and support. Originally designed for NASA, this space age foam cradles your body in luxurious comfort, reducing pressure points that cause tossing and turning. The temperature-sensitive foam simulates a flotation effect.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Short term memory only\\n\\nReview: I bought the 4\\\" version of this. The pad opened nicely over a few hours and the odor dissipated within a day or two. So far so good.\\n\\nThe idea of memory foam is that when you press it down, it stays pressed for a while. But apparently not all visco-elastic (memory foams) are created equal. There are shades of grey, from old-fashioned bounce-right-back foams at one end to high quality viscoelastics which take a long time to bounce back from impressions, and retain that property in use. The market leader in this field (starts with a \\\"T\\\") claims they have a proprietary process to manufacture the foam which gives it a slow recovery and a long service life. I had assumed this was marketing hype, but after using this Serta-labeled topper, I am more ready to believe it may be true.\\n\\nThis product is in the middle; it starts out with a modest memory property, somewhere in-between true viscoelastic and the old bouncy stuff. It's nice to sleep on, I like it, and I recommend it, especially at the low price. But it's not real memory foam. And note that one website which sells this Serta brand has the following warning: \\\"Due to the nature of Memory Foam the firmness level of every item is unique. Please be advised that even similar products may produce different firmness results.\\\" What? Every item unique? We expect that from buying strawberries, but not manufactured products.\\n\\nMy conclusion is that the most reliable high quality memory foam on the market is probably that very expensive \\\"T\\\" stuff, and to get that effect there is no other choice. This topper item is not bad at all. You may like it as an improvement over what you have now, and it costs way less. But don't expect it to have the same strong permanent viscoelastic property.\",\n \"Product: Serta, a brand you can trust, for this fabulous High-Density 4 pound Solid Visco Elastic Memory Foam is a full 2 inch thick for better comfort and support. Originally designed for NASA, this space age foam cradles your body in luxurious comfort, reducing pressure points that cause tossing and turning. The temperature-sensitive foam simulates a flotation effect.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Short term memory only\\n\\nReview: I bought the 4\\\" version of this. The pad opened nicely over a few hours and the odor dissipated within a day or two. So far so good.\\n\\nThe idea of memory foam is that when you press it down, it stays pressed for a while. But apparently not all visco-elastic (memory foams) are created equal. There are shades of grey, from old-fashioned bounce-right-back foams at one end to high quality viscoelastics which take a long time to bounce back from impressions, and retain that property in use. The market leader in this field (starts with a \\\"T\\\") claims they have a proprietary process to manufacture the foam which gives it a slow recovery and a long service life. I had assumed this was marketing hype, but after using this Serta-labeled topper, I am more ready to believe it may be true.\\n\\nThis product is in the middle; it starts out with a modest memory property, somewhere in-between true viscoelastic and the old bouncy stuff. It's nice to sleep on, I like it, and I recommend it, especially at the low price. But it's not real memory foam. And note that one website which sells this Serta brand has the following warning: \\\"Due to the nature of Memory Foam the firmness level of every item is unique. Please be advised that even similar products may produce different firmness results.\\\" What? Every item unique? We expect that from buying strawberries, but not manufactured products.\\n\\nMy conclusion is that the most reliable high quality memory foam on the market is probably that very expensive \\\"T\\\" stuff, and to get that effect there is no other choice. This topper item is not bad at all. You may like it as an improvement over what you have now, and it costs way less. But don't expect it to have the same strong permanent viscoelastic property.\",\n \"Product: Cut fries measure 3/8\\\". Cast iron with stainless steel blades can cut up to 50 lbs of potatoes in 1 hr. Includes Suction Cup feet for counter top use or can be bolted to countertop or wall for effortless vertical use. Disassembles for cleaning.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Not ideal for household use\\n\\nReview: Long story short: This is not designed for household use and you're not going to be happy with it.\\n\\nNow the details. We enjoy sweet potato frites which are somewhat firmer and harder to cut than white potatoes, especially in the preferred 1/4\\\" gauge. The little plastic consumer type French fry cutters one finds at Walmart are flimsy and useless. This is a big, heavy duty restaurant version and far stronger than the smaller cheapies. However, it is still a bit of a struggle to cut sweet potatoes. In spite of the long lever arm, we had to cut the potatoes into quarters first. Also, it requires applying some serious force to the handle, so it is imperative to BOLT the unit down to a table before you begin, or a board which you clamp to the table - the accessory suction cup feet are not enough. This unit really is designed for commercial kitchens, oriented towards rapid production of large quantities. It's too big for the home kitchen, needs a dedicated bench, and is time-consuming to clean. For home use, Williams-Sonoma makes a more compact, vertical unit with which you force the die down onto the knife grid - no lever. But it's mostly plastic and a bit overpriced.\\n\\nSince we're stuck with this, here's what I've done to modify the unit: First, bolted it onto an L-shaped pair of boards so it can be clamped to the table in a vertical position and removed at will. Second, I have disassembled and put aside the whole lever arm and instead I use a wooden mallet to whack the die directly down on the cutting grid. One more note: While the main unit is nicely made, we ordered the 1/4\\\" cutter and die accessory to supplement the 3/8\\\" blades which are supplied - which cost an extra $30. When the 1/4\\\" blade set arrived, they were poorly manufactured and did not fit the mounting holes. Amazon replaced the set with a better one, but annoying nevertheless.\",\n \"Product: This ceramic coffee grinder features a ceramic grinding mechanism that will never alter the flavor of the grinds, resulting in fresh, flavorful, and pure coffee. The grinding mechanism is made from an advanced ceramic close in hardness to diamond that will never rust providing ultra long-life performance. The grind adjustment allows for fine to coarse grinds and the non-slip base ensures stability. The glass container is reusable and dishwasher safe. Great for Turkish coffee, salt, pepper, green tea and sesame seeds too ! Use and Care: Clean with a neutral detergent and soft sponge. Rinse thoroughly.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Combination grinder and morning aerobics for coffee fanatics\\n\\nReview: Kyocera makes such wonderful precision products. I have several of their ceramic knives. This hand grinder not only works for coffee but would be perfect for grinding fresh spices for Indian cooking. (In that case you will need to clean carefully between uses.) Also a hand grinder gives a bit of morning physical activity instead of just sitting there like a lump watching machines do the work. So probably live a bit longer with this one.\\n\\nBut truly folks, is it necessary to be so obsessive about details such as methods of grinding coffee? Coffee nerds will tell you that common electric blade grinders are bad bad bad, heat up the grounds and give uneven extraction of particulates. And that you need this hand grinder or an expensive electric burr grinder. Horse pucky. Put your finger in the grounds after blade grinding and you will detect only the tiniest temperature rise; so much for that theory. And the particle sizes? I challenge the fanatics to prove by blind taste testing that it makes any detectable difference. I do agree that grinding fresh beans at home, in small quantities, gives the best coffee, but how you do so probably makes no signficant difference.\",\n \"Product: Craft your ideal comfort zone with De'Longhi heaters. Warm, sweet home.\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: Lightweight. Loud fan. Odd appearance.\\n\\nReview: Electric space heaters are all 100% efficient in terms of converting electricity to heat so the differences are marginal. I'm comparing this with an oil filled electric radiator which I've had for years. The oil is used as an intermediary between the very hot heating element and the air. It's made of metal and quite heavy, about 30 lbs, but very silent in operation.\\n\\nThis DeLonghi ceramic element heater just blows warm air. It is a fraction of the weight, maybe 5 lbs. It has a couple of features I consider gimmicks such as a remote control which is not really necessary and it rotates to cast air over an arc, but this does not really add much since the room will heat up whether it rotates or not. It is made of cheap Chinese plastic and feels flimsy. It is designed in a sculpted tower form which is supposed to be supermodern and cool but to my eye looks like an evil robot. The worst feature is the fan, which may be relatively quiet as fans go but still so much noisier and more intrusive than my oil filled heater.\\n\\nThe main reason to buy this would be the portability, especially if someone with limited strength needs to frequently move it from room to room, since it is so lightweight and has a convenient carry handle at the top. For all other reasons I prefer my oil radiator, which is more solid, durable and silent.\\n\\nFinally, the manual claims it has a \\\"Eco mode\\\" which manages the heater level and \\\"saves 40%\\\" in energy. What this means is the element is cycled on and off, but energy saving? Pure hype; the long term electricity use to maintain your room at a certain temperature is not going to change because it heats up faster or slower. This would be 3 star product but I'm reducing to 2 for the misleading claim.\",\n \"Product: Spotlighted by GQ magazine as one of the \\\"Best Stuff of 2012,\\\" the Presso ROK is an environmentally friendly manual espresso maker created with durable engine-grade metal guaranteed to last at least 10 years. Going above and beyond simple espresso, the innovative ROK comes with a stainless steel frothier to produce rich milk for lattes, cappuccinos and macchiato -- all without using one bit of electricity. Created with traditionalists and espresso enthusiasts in mind, this London-designed espresso maker lets you exact complete control over brewing pressure using the two levers located on the sides of the ROK. Since this espresso maker brews with ground coffee, so you're not limited by capsule and pod selection. The ROK comes packaged in a modern reusable storage tin, complete with accessories including a tamper/measuring spoon and detachable double-shot spout. Should any of the metal parts fail within a decade of your original purchase, Presso will replace the components gratis.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: ROK versus Aerobie test\\n\\nReview: This is a head-to-head comparison of the ROK with the Aerobie, both hand operated espresso makers.\\n\\nThe chemistry of coffee brewing is such that raising the pressure extracts significantly different fractions. This is why espresso from one of those ten-thousand dollar Italian coffee bar machines tastes so different from drip brew. There are a number of home units which use steam pressure and attempt to approximate the professional result. But what happens after the North Koreans bring down our power grid and you're left with just your woodstove and a bunker full of coffee beans, MRE's and ammunition? What to do for your daily espresso hit? The Aerobie is a few bits of plastic in which you apply hand pressure - actually, more like intense elbow grease - to force a syringe of hot water through the grounds. The ROK is built more like a conventional electric powered espresso, with the same type of coffee grounds module, but without the electricity; you force hot water through the compressed grounds by operating a pair of gear-leveraged arms.\\n\\nBoth these units are overpriced. The ROK is a lovely piece of machined aluminum but at $200 there are a number of powered units in the same price range with good reviews. It also comes in elaborate 'designer' packaging which includes a big tin can, the size of a small waste basket - I rather resented paying for that fluff, only to discard it. The Aerobie on the other hand, which costs less than $30, should cost even less - it's just a few bits of Chinese plastic. (If you lose the little filter cap, as I did, it costs almost half the price of a new unit to replace it. Ripoff.) The ROK is easier to operate, with less chance of the whole thing skittering across the table and making a mess, as can happen if you operate the Aerobie on top of an unstable small cup.\\n\\nHow about the coffee quality? I compared them head to head, on the same day with the same freshly ground coffee. My impression is they both achieve about the same overpressure at the grounds, but I like the Aerobie method better overall. It's more flexible in that one can vary the amount of grounds or water whereas the ROK uses fixed quantities of each. The ROK produces a small volume of a brew which I would describe as \\\"faintly reminiscent of espresso\\\" rather than coffee-bar espresso. The Aerobie can produce the same, or a larger volume of strong coffee. Given the low price of the Aerobie (even if that low price should really be even lower) and the greater degree of control, I preferred it. If you want something like real espresso at home, there is no alternative to an expensive powered unit. As for North Korea - solar panels are the anwer to that.\",\n \"Product: Miracle Blade World Class Quality Steak Knives at an Affordable Price. These Knives are flash forged, Stainless Steel Blades. These knives have perfectly balanced handles, and can slice through anything and will always stay super sharp. These knives never need sharpening. Never needs sharpening. Dimensions: Side to Side Overall Width: 1\\\". End to End Overall Length:8.5\\\". Blade Length: 4\\\".\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: NOT stainless steel. Cannot be sharpened. Consider then disposable.\\n\\nReview: These are very inexpensive steak knives but I actually don't use them that way: I keep eight in a box for everyday use in food prep, then throw them in the dishwasher. They are OK for what they are; ergonomically designed, sharp, well shaped, machine washable and CHEAP.\\n\\nHowever, the blades are marked \\\"China\\\" and \\\"Stainless Steel.\\\" But these are as much Stainless Steel as I am Arnold Schwarzenegger. The blades spot with rust immediately coming from the dishwasher. Blatantly false advertising.\\n\\nSecond, they can't be sharpened, certainly not at home. The edge shape is a complex curve formed by some machine or laser manufacturing process. The Miracle Blades outfit says they \\\"never need sharpening\\\" which really means - there is no way to do so.\\n\\nThese are to be used a while and when dull, discarded. Two stars.\",\n \"Product: The Whirlpool AD70GUSB Energy Star 70-Pint 2-Speed Dehumidifier is an affordable and eco-friendly dehumidifier for large-sized spaces and operates at temperatures as low as 38 degrees F. This Energy Star-qualified model removes 70 pints of damaging moisture per day from spaces up to 1500 square feet. Three operating modes (normal, continuous and auto dry) make it a versatile choice. During the dehumidification process, water accumulates in the tank or is automatically emptied into a drain using a drainage hose such as a standard garden hose (drainage hose not included). Additional features include a programmable timer, adjustable humidistat, auto shut-off and full-tank alert.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Efficient - but be sure you want this instead of A/C\\n\\nReview: I live in Western Mass in a lovely rural area. Our summer days are only rarely hot enough to require A/C but often quite humid, leading to mildew in clothes closets and general discomfort. Using an air conditioner to dry the air sometimes means it is too cold.\\n\\nA dehumdifier is on the same principle as an A/C except the cold air is confined within the unit. However, the hot, dried air is expelled into the room. So the unit does decrease humidity but at the same time increases the room temperature. It works best in a humid but cold and clammy room (but must be above 38F). If your room is both too hot and too humid, a room A/C with an outside vent is what you want.\\n\\nThis unit is very efficient. It brought down the humidity in a large room from 85% to 45% very quickly. The sign that it's working is that it collected a quart of water in a half hour! It's relatively quiet on LOW fan; by which I mean about the level of a good quality A/C; there is still a significant level of noise.\\n\\nThe unit is on wheels so it does not need to be lifted too often, but there is a fold out carrying handle. The water collection bin is slightly difficult to open but not seriously. There is an option to pipe the collected water into a drain instead of collecting in bin.\\n\\nSeems high quality. I recommend it.\",\n \"Product: Enjoy the high-temperature cooking that cast iron provides with this versatile casserole. It's ideal for slow-cooking stews and braised dishes on the cooktop, as well as roasts and baking in the oven. Also perfect for cobblers and cornbread. The lid doubles as a grill pan and can be used for grilling steaks, burgers, chicken, or vegetables. Plus, the porcelain enamel interior coating doesn't require seasoning.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Heavy duty iron crockpot with unusual interior surface\\n\\nReview: Cast iron crockpots are not new but KitchenAid is offering this high quality - and rather expensive - version. A mass of iron holds heat and in addition this one has an enamel outside surface. So far, not different from other pots of the type; the unusual feature is the interior, a type of rough enamel surface instead of the usual smooth like Le Creuset.\\n\\nWe tried this out by cooking a favorite chicken and potato slow cook recipe. Results were excellent but the interior is definitely not nonstick - it's extra work to clean up. KitchenAid claims this surface stains less and browns food more than the familiar white porcelain interior. Maybe, but I expect many people would prefer the easier cleanup of the smooth version. It is dishwasher safe however.\\n\\nAnother wrinkle is the clever lid which does double duty as a grill plate; the interior of this part is smooth black enamel.\\n\\nOverall a well designed piece of cookware, heavy, quality, well made, should last a long time. Four stars because the interior surface is a mixed blessing.\",\n \"Product: With little care, your coffee maker will provide you with many years of service and pleasure. Your coffee maker is made with copper which is the choice of the gourmet professionals for cooking. It is considered the finest practical conductor of heat. It's primary advantage is that it requires only low to moderate heat to obtain the best results. This is why the copper is the perfect material to use for Turkish coffee pots. It is lined with tin which is the most commonly preferred choice for copper cookware (tin is the silver colored metal inside your pot). BEFORE USING Wash your new coffee maker in warm water with a mild soap or dish detergent. ESSENTIAL PRECAUTIONS Never place your coffee pot in a dishwasher. Never boil your pot dry. Never use metallic utensils to stir your coffee. Use only wood or plastic spoons. Never use steel wool or abrasive pads that could scratch your coffee pot. CLEANING You can use the commercially available cleaning materials for copper or tin to clean your coffee pot if you need to, but remember it's OK to let your pot turn dark. It adds character! Outside: Non abrasive pad or sponge is the best. Inside: Tin is a soft metal and should be cleaned with a dishcloth or sponge only. Never use abrasive cleaning materials like scouring pads or metal scrapers on your coffee pot. Rinse thoroughly after washing and dry to avoid spotting. It is best to rinse it right after use so that residual coffee grinds don't dry and harden.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Charming, handcrafted - but allow three weeks for delivery\\n\\nReview: This is a handcrafted copper pot lined with tin, made in a Turkish shop or village - the traditional design for making Turkish coffee. Like all handcrafted articles, it varies from piece to piece. The decoration is charming. Mine had quite a bit of solder flux inside which took some cleaning. I would call the copper thickness and tin thickness adequate but not really heavy duty. The seller included a little bag of ground Turkish coffee in the package. I'm looking forward to making Turkish coffee tomorrow - there are instructions on the internet, YouTube videos, etc.\\n\\nHowever, before ordering this you should know it is mailed ... FROM TURKEY .. so allow three weeks for delivery. This is not really explained anywhere on the Amazon product page.\",\n \"Product: The French Perle Ice Blue Everything Bowl features intricate detailing inspired by hand-embroidered fabrics. A carved beaded motif of scrolls and jewel-like elements punctuates the sophisticated, elegant look.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Nice aesthetics but poor heat retention and way too heavy.\\n\\nReview: This is a lovely, nicely designed coffee or tea mug. The color I chose for review is a pale robin's egg blue and other colors are available. It is well made and all ceramic, with a large capacity about 14 oz. It has no metal, and so can be microwaved. It is narrow and will fit an automobile cupholder.\\n\\nHowever, it is more aesthetic than functional. I would call this mug \\\"semi-insulated;\\\" it is made with a double ceramic wall with an air gap between. (The air gap is not sealed up but can be accessed from a plastic plug.) The problem is that double wall ceramic is not an efficient way to insulate. I actually did a little scientific test in my Secret Mountain Laboratory, using a digital industrial thermometer. I put 126F water at the same time into three vessels, this mug, a simple coffee cup, and a stainless vacuum travel mug. After about half an hour, the standard cup was down to 95F, this Lenox was about 105F and the stainless vacuum one was about 115F. So it is not as insulating as a vacuum thermos, but more so than a single wall ordinary cup.\\n\\nHowever, the double ceramic wall makes it remarkably heavy compared to an ordinary mug the same capacity. Filled with coffee, it weighs about 2.5 lbs! If you are one of those people who goes power walking with little hand weights, you could now carry your cup of Earl Grey and get exercise at the same time!\\n\\nAll in all, this is attractive but not really so efficient. An ordinary vacuum mug sold everywhere from Starbucks to Walmart will keep coffee warmer longer and weighs one third as much.\",\n \"Product: The perfect kitchen shears for cutting herbs, meat, poultry, fish and even bone, with a dishwasher-safe design that you can take apart for easy cleaning. Whether youre stripping stems, chopping vegetables, opening packaging or cutting meat, these all-purpose shears go from one task to the next without complaining. A serrated blade edge grips for precision no matter what youre cutting, and sculpted handle loops with Softgrip touchpoints bring Fiskars hallmark comfort to every use. Plus, a take-apart, dishwasher-safe design makes post-meal cleanup a cinch.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Special design for flat cutting such as pizza\\n\\nReview: Fiskars is a Finnish company which has been making cutlery for about 400 years. They are excellent on the design side for things like scissors and garden tools, but also use modern manufacturing (this means high tech plastic) to keep prices down. Always excellent quality and one of my favorite consumer companies.\\n\\nThis product is a design exercise, a bit of an oddly bent kitchen / household scissors with a blade guard on the lower jaw. This allows one to cut flat items such as pizza and also not mar the tabletop. It does work and will find other uses such as fabric.\\n\\nI like it but I expect the number of times it is really needed with be relatively few. If you are buying just one shears for the kitchen, I would pick the Fiskars Heavy Duty.\",\n \"Product: Its perfectly okay to be a coffee snob and want to ground your own beans with this electric coffee grinder. And youll be making a definite fashion statement as well with its stainless steel housing, perfect for any kitchen. Its compact stature takes up minimal space but still offers up to 2.1 ounces of bean capacity. Operation is simple as you just press the pulse button to start and let go when youre done. Let your grinder multi task and use it for spices as well.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Small capacity, very uneven grind, numerous minor design fails\\n\\nReview: I am comparing this with my Kitchen Aid grinder. The Westinghouse is very quiet by comparison and the motor seems higher speed and more refined. However, that's the end of the pluses and there are too many minuses:\\n\\n-Its capacity is much smaller. If you make coffee for more than two people, it's not going to be enough.\\n-And if you fill it more than 2/3, some beans will not grind at all.\\n-The portion of grounds under the blades ends up much finer and more powdery than the top volume, and tends to jam. This is a serious fail; this morning I ground coffee and ended up with a portion of properly ground, a portion of fine powder, and a few untouched beans. No.\\n-Slight scattered grounds tend to interfere with the dish fitting in the grinder,\\n-The little hole for the electric cord is constantly out of place\\n\\nThese are all signs which indicate that the product was not thoroughly tested before being released. It looks nice, but many design fails. Not worthy of the name Westinghouse or Toshiba. I recommend my Kitchen Aid grinder.\",\n \"Product: Perfect for any crowd the Ergo Serv Vacuum Insulated Teapot has a built in removable tea infuser. Elegant and functional the double-wall stainless steel wall keeps tea warm for hours. For more than 90 years, Stanley has offered high quality, durable thermal-insulated bottles. For people who work or play outdoors, Stanley is a premium line of insulated containers backed by a lifetime guarantee. It won't break. Never has, never will. Stanley is a brand of privately-held Pacific Market International (PMI) and is headquartered in Seattle, with offices in London and Shanghai.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Highly recommended - but one design flaw\\n\\nReview: This is a Stanley commercial product intended for fancy restaurants or hotel room service to deliver a carafe made with fresh loose tea. Holds about 28 usable oz, enough for one person to have 3-4 cups. The unit is very well constructed and keeps liquids hot a long time. The handle is perfectly balanced and the thumb valve is very nice. So far, the design is brilliant.\\n\\nBut making tea in it directly, as intended, does not work well, at least with the included components. The supplied tea infuser which fits inside has no perforations on its bottom half, so hot water does not penetrate where the tea leaves sit! Also, everyone who makes tea knows that leaves cannot be allowed to sit in the water indefinitely. But there is no means to pluck the infuser out of very hot water; must use a fork or the like. I suspect the designer never actually made tea in it, or this would have been noticed.\\n\\nBut I do use it to brew tea every day. Instead of the supplied infuser, I found a very long skinny plastic tea basket which fits inside but can also be easily plucked out. This works fine.\\n\\nI am subtracting one star for this - but still highly recommended.\",\n \"Product: This sandwich knife features a strong serrated blade which allows to slice through foods without squeezing and damaging the interior of the food. Perfect addition to add to your knife collection for slicing deli sandwiches, panini's, salami, pastries, rolls and more. Made in Solingen, Germany, lifetime warranty.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Well designed in every detail\\n\\nReview: This is a very well designed kitchen knife which I plan to use every day. It's just the right shape and size, with a finger gap in the Asian Santoku style. It has a rounded tip, which is safer and permits spreading. Best of all, serrated - serration makes a knife 10X easier at cutting.\\n\\nThis Wusthof also has a subtle but important feature - it is ground so that you can easily sharpen it at home. The back of the knife (opposite side from the scallops) has a subtle bevel at the edge. This means that, following this angle, you can draw a ceramic rod to sharpen efficiently. To compare a serrated knife which does NOT have this, take a look at the Spyderco Serrated Kitchen Paring Knife. This is just flat to the edge on the side opposite of the scallops, making it impossible to sharpen properly at home without altering the factory angle.\\n\\nAll in very well designed and worth the moderate price. If you want only one kitchen knife, this is the one.\",\n \"Product: TheSwivel HookSystem Connector is great for use on small bags, cases, battery packs and more. It can be used with theUtility LooporAdapt-Its. TheSwivel HookSystem Connector is available in sets of two.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Good design, cheap materials\\n\\nReview: This review applies to the Swivel Hook Connector, Classic Strap, and Adapt-its combination. If you are like me and use many cameras but don't want to maintain many permanently attached straps, and sometimes wish to use a camera with no strap, then OP/TECH has a solution for you. The tiny plastic Adapt-it loops are the only things that remain permanently in your camera rings, and then you snap in the Swivel Hook Connector; it removes very quickly also.\\n\\nThis is a good design and makes more sense than threading those awful ugly narrow nylon straps through your rings. However, OP/TECH has used rather poor materials; the black straps on the Swivel Hook item look to be the very cheapest type of loosely woven polyester from China.\\n\\nThe whole system is flexible, inexpensive and it works - but the appearance and durability may not match your fine quality cameras. Also, the unique item is the tiny Adapt-it loop; once you have those you can attach many kinds of straps and swivel hooks. You don't need the rest of the OP/TECH.\",\n \"Product: Design for 2.5\\\" SATA HDD (up to 9.5mm height) with Active LED to indicate power and data access and it has shock absorbent rubber strip on top and bottom.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Correct for SATA drives\\n\\nReview: I was not so familiar with the intimate technological history of little disc drives that I knew the difference between an IDE drive (older obsolete type) and a SATA drive (new cool type). As a result at first I ordered the wrong one (IDE) for my MacBook drive replacement, had to send it back, and get this one which is corrrect for SATA. The difference is one letter in the Macally model number; PHR-250CC versus PHRS-250CC. I am still irritated that the Amazon product description did not explain this difference for non-experts. Grrr.\\n\\nOnce I obtained the correct drive, it went together easily and came with all cables to use the drive as FireWire or USB 2. It's just a piece of extruded aluminum and a connector and some cables. Must cost about $2 to manufacture. It works fine. Get the right one.\",\n \"Product: Design for 2.5\\\" SATA HDD (up to 9.5mm height) with Active LED to indicate power and data access and it has shock absorbent rubber strip on top and bottom.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Correct for SATA drives\\n\\nReview: I was not so familiar with the intimate technological history of little disc drives that I knew the difference between an IDE drive (older obsolete type) and a SATA drive (new cool type). As a result at first I ordered the wrong one (IDE) for my MacBook drive replacement, had to send it back, and get this one which is corrrect for SATA. The difference is one letter in the Macally model number; PHR-250CC versus PHRS-250CC. I am still irritated that the Amazon product description did not explain this difference for non-experts. Grrr.\\n\\nOnce I obtained the correct drive, it went together easily and came with all cables to use the drive as FireWire or USB 2. It's just a piece of extruded aluminum and a connector and some cables. Must cost about $2 to manufacture. It works fine. Get the right one.\",\n \"Product: Offering a dramatic, ultra-wide 110-degree picture angle, the 2.4x AF-S DX NIKKOR 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED lens is ideal for landscapes, interiors, architecture and more. With two ED glass and three hybrid aspherical lens elements, Nikon Super Integrated Coating (SIC) and the exclusive Nikon Silent Wave Motor, the AF-S DX NIKKOR 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED lens delivers the exceptional image quality and fast handling that defines NIKKOR optics.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Excellent on DX and works on FX too\\n\\nReview: Another work of Nikon lens genius which gives the ability to take dramatic, unusual, never-before-available, super-wide pix. As recently as a few years ago, before Nikon learned to mass produce aspheric elements, manufacturing this complex 14 element lens at reasonable cost would have been impossible. Compared to the earlier 12-24mm, significantly wider angle.\\n\\nA nice suprise is that this DX lens can also be used FX, with some limitations of course. Although it will give the full zoom range only when used on the smaller DX format, it actually covers the frame of an FX camera - not over the full range but from 24mm down to about 18mm focal length, with acceptable vignetting (edge darkening). I am using it that way on my film Nikon F6 and digital D700. (For the D700, turn the DX Crop default OFF and turn the Vignette Control to HIGH.) This is pretty cool because it means that someone who wants only occasional use of an 18-24mm lens on a full frame camera does not have to go out and buy a new lens if they already have this one.\\n\\nI disagree with the reviewers who complain about the plastic, Made in China construction. If this lens were made of brass and steel like a Leica, it would weigh twice as much, cost much more, and be no better photographically. Is it more important to have the controls be smooth than to capture new kinds of photos? In my opinion Nikon has taken the right approach - state of the art computational design, innovative manufacturing of aspheric elements, good enough construction, and breakthrough capability affordable for the amateur photog.\",\n \"Product: Sony has engineered an impressively small camera that takes incredibly good photographs. In fact, the NEX-5 camera has all quality of a DSLR in about half the size and weight and far less complex. Pulling off this minor miracle took some clever innovations in glass, silicon and software code. The Sony NEX-5 is the interchangeable lens camera that goes wherever you do. Enjoy Full HD 1080/60i movies, astounding low-light pictures, continuous shooting up to 7 fps, incredible panorama shots, and Live View on a tilting 3.0-inch LCD. World's first in class with 1080/60i Full HD movies Sweep Panorama captures incredible landscapes 6-image layering - Anti Motion Blur & Hand-held Twilight Live View on the LCD; what you see is what you get Tiltable 3.0 LCD, 920K pixels, TruBlack screen LCD tilts down 45 , up 80 for high, low-angle shots Accepts Sony E-mount lenses Detachable flash unit is compact, yet powerful iAUTO mode, you get the right settings automatically On-screen Help Guide explains modes and settings On-screen Shooting Tips help you shoot like a pro Manual Focus Assist for razor-sharp images Background Defocus control for stunning shots Advanced Anti-Dust Technology keeps imager clean HDMI output with BRAVIA Sync compatibility Dual slot for media card (MS & SD media)Specifications Effective Picture Resolution - Approx. 14.2 MP Imaging Sensor - Exmor APS HD CMOS sensor (23.4 X 15.6mm) Lens Mount Type - Sony E-mount Lens Type - E-mount 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 OSS Focal Length - 27-82.5mm (35mm equivalent) Type - Tiltable 3 TFT TruBlack LCD (921,600 pixels) Live View - Yes Flash Type - Smart accessory terminal (HVL-F7S Flash Supplied), GN 7 Media Type - MSPRO Duo/Pro-HG Duo/PRO-HG HX Duo media & SD/SDHC/SDXC media Audio Format - Dolby Digital (AC-3) / MPEG-4 AAC-LC Image Mode - JPEG RAW, RAW+JPEG Image Size - Up to L (12M)\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Use your old manual lenses, microscope, or backyard telescope with a high res digital back\\n\\nReview: The Sony NEX is basically a little box containing a DSLR sized sensor, an interchangeable lens flange, and an LCD. In other words, a digital camera back. I bought it specifically to be able to make use of my collection of old Pentax Takumar screw mount (M42) manual lenses from the 1970's. These old lenses have wonderful optical and mechanical quality - but how to make use of them for digital photography? When I learned that one can buy an M42-to-e mount adapter for the NEX, I decided to try it.\\n\\nFirst, this is a delightful device with all the Sony magic for precision manufacturing of tiny consumer products. The mechanical shutter whirs and clicks charmingly (but is a bit noisey for candid photography in public). More and more NEX lenses are being offered and Sony does support full use of their existing range of alpha lenses on the NEX5, but it requires use of an expensive adapter - makes sense only if you already have those lenses. But how does the NEX work with the old Takumar lenses? Answer: it works, but with some limitations. There is a digital magnifier to help with manual focus, but of course this is slow. No auto exposure; one must use manual shutter and aperture settings. And naturally the Sony lens anti-vibration system will not be operational. Finally, the old manual lenses were designed for full frame 35mm, so you are not really getting the most out of them when you have to factor in the 1.5X crop factor. All in all, using this with the old lenses is a bit of a parlor trick, more like an old fashioned view camera than a pocket point-and-shoot, and works best on a tripod. As a hobbyist, I enjoy fiddling around with stuff like this but it's not really very practical for active photography.\\n\\nWhere the NEX series really shines is for attachment to backyard amateur telescopes, a spotting scope, or a conventional optical microscope; if you check around the internet you will find plenty of adapters to do those things and some mind boggling images. Through the wonders of mass production for consumer products, this sensor is far higher quality and lower cost than most of the dedicated digital backs sold for microscopy, which until now cost about a thousand dollars for 5 megapixels. Cool!\\n\\nBut what about image quality? I compared both JPEGs and RAW with the NEX-5 with the 18-55 kit lens, a Canon S95 pocket camera, and my Nikon D7000. I tried this at ISO 1600 and also ISO 400. For the JPEG's, the NEX5 using the 18-55 Sony zoom gave a distinctly nicer image than the Canon but not quite comparable with the Nikon. However, when I repeated the test with RAW instead of JPEG files, the NEX 5 images were just as good as the Nikon. I conclude that while the sensor is superb, the JPEG processing in the Sony is imperfect.\\n\\nOther observations: Battery runs down quickly. Also, although the NEX-5 has a big 24x18mm sensor like a DSLR, it does not offer the instantaneous shutter response of a DSLR - there is a bit of lag, more like a pocket camera. Also one must go through the menu system for all the special settings and this is tedious. Also the autofocus sometimes seem a bit confused or slow to respond. Finally the NEX lenses such as the 18-55 are only so-so optically. They are plasticky, and not up to the build quality of the body.\\n\\nSummary: Deficiencies as noted but a beautiful precision product and great fun to use. Yes, the smallest camera with this level of image quality. For the use of old legacy lenses, a bit too complicated - it would be more worthwhile if someone would put out something like this with a FULL frame sensor to take maximum advantage of the millions of SLR lenses floating around out there. Do I recommend buying the NEX 5? Definitely, if you will be attaching to a telescope or microscope, if you're a gadget freak like me, or for those attracted by the full package beyond ordinary still photos - high quality movies, HDR, panoramas, and (believe it or not), 3D.\\n\\nFinally, this is a new product and still under development. Sony is getting a good sales response and can be counted on to improve the system over time, so you may want to wait and get the next generation. Be sure to update the firmware from the Sony website; although I only bought my NEX5 last week, it came with Version 01 and the latest is already 04. You will also have to download the separate little manuals for V2 (taking 3D photos to be played back on 3D TV) and V3 (soft keys) and V4 (other new stuff).\",\n \"Product: Record live music, lectures and notes with this digital voice recorder featuring a built-in 2GB flash memory, a memory card slot and an easy-to-read display. Press record and capture every sound. This compact and convenient ICD-PX312 digital voice recorder goes wherever you do to confidently capture and store audio with a built-in 2GB flash memory providing up to 530 hours of recording time, plus additional storage available through the microSD memory card slot (memory card sold separately). With Intelligent Noise Cut technology greatly reducing background sound, your recordings will be crisp and clear in quality. Other features include Voice Operated Recording technology, a built-in speaker and an easy-to-read display. So slip this digital voice recorder into your pocket and know you'll never miss a beat even during the longest of lectures or an epic all-night jam session.Compatible Memory Cards : MicroSD.Inputs and Outputs: Headphone Output(s) : 1 (Minijack, Stereo), Microphone Input : 1 (Minijack, Stereo) and USB Port(s) : 1 (Mini-B jack), High-Speed USB Compatible.What's in the box: USB connecting cable (1), IC Recorder (1), Application Software, Sound Organizer (CD-ROM) (1), LR03 (size AAA) Alkaline batteries (2) and Operating Instructions (1).\\n\\nRating: 1.0\\n\\nSummary: Good sound. Bad user interface. VERY bad manual.\\n\\nReview: This is a cute little Sony recorder, precision made and shaped, with the typical superb Sony materials and manufacturing. There are two good things about the functionality. First, it records with excellent sound quality. Second, you can plug it in with a USB cord so you can see, listen to or save the sound files on your computer.\\n\\nThat's the end of the good stuff. The user interface is atrocious. The buttons are too small and the scrolling menus on the top of the display, in microscopic type. A good consumer product can be used without reading the manual. Not this one. You are going to need to read the manual and first, you are going to need to FIND the manual. It's not in the box. It's not on the CD supplied. Finally you discover it's recorded on the the device itself; you need to plug into your computer with a USB cable and there it is, 146 pages long. Yes, 146 pages of fine print in extremely poor English and so badly written as to be nearly incomprehensible. Ladies and gentlemen, any manufacturer who puts out a 146 page manual for a little voice recorder is admitting their pathetic dorkiness.\\n\\nWhen you finally attempt to read this you will find hilarious instructions such as \\\"according to various recording scene, you can change the items for recording.\\\" Good to read out loud for a laugh but rather annoying if one is in a hurry. Why are the recording modes called \\\"scenes?\\\" Bad English translation. And what functions are actually detailed in the manual? A bizarre array of generally pointless features such as moving sound files from one folder to another or between the memory resources (built in vs micro card). You can divide a sound file in two. You can make marks on tracks. You can erase the marks. You can protect files. You can burn a CD of your recordings. But these are all things which, in the unlikely event anyone really wanted to do them at all, are much easier by plugging into a computer and manipulating the files there.\\n\\nSo why bother? These 'features' seem to be packed in as selling points only. I am willing to bet that not a single individual anywhere in the world has ever actually used these options. Useless clutter.\\n\\nUnfortunately the same complaint about pointless complications combined with extremely poor instruction manuals applies to almost all Japanese manufacturers of consumer electronics and all their products, including cameras. The primary reason for this is a cultural disconnect. Japanese consumers in the home market seem to love a plethora of tiny buttons and intricate menus whereas Americans and Europeans prefer a minimal, cleaner interface. But the Japanese makers are oblivious to this and make no effort to design for their actual customers. I am particularly irritated by the microscopic type on the LCD as one tries to scroll through the settings, for which I actually had to use a magnifying glass. What exactly is the logic for using only 3 mm of the 29 mm tall display for the scrolling menus? Did Sony ever actually TEST the usability of the product on actual customers before distributing it? Arrogance.\\n\\nI feel so strongly about the amazingly stupid interface and amazingly bad manual that I am giving a one star rating for this voice recorder which in terms of basic sound quality and physical construction would rate much higher.\\n\\nMy advice: Buy the cheapest versions of Sony or Olympus products, which tend to have the same basic voice performance but fewer pointless bells and whistles.\",\n \"Product: More than a pocket camera, the 24.3 megapixel NEX-7 exceeds expectations. Here’s performance that would give most DSLRs camera envy, including interchangeable lenses, a 2359K dot OLED eye-level TTL viewfinder, up to 10fps shooting, and outstanding Tri-Navi 3-dial manual control. HD movies are superb with Full 1920 x 1080 resolution at 60p, 60i and 24p.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Superb images, flawed interface. NEX 5n is a better choice.\\n\\nReview: This is a review of my new NEX-7, a lovely, precision made piece of pocket magic. I hope Amazon readers will indulge me if I first make a few observations about the great Sony Corporation, and then some thoughts about the future of of digital cameras in the age of the iPhone.\\n\\nI have a longtime fondness for Sony dating from the 1970's when my job required constant international travel. This was before personal computers and the internet; I depended on my Sony Walkman, my Sony microcassette recorder, my Sony shortwave radios, and all the other jewels of miniature electronics Sony produced in those days with imagination and precision. Trinitron. The U-Matic 3/4\\\" video players we used for education and training before Betamax and VHS. Unfortunately in recent decades Sony has not stayed on the leading edge of consumer electronics. The company grew large and subdivided, replacing a strong sense of design coherence led by Akio Morita, with management by committee. The secret of Apple, and the reason Apple surpassed Sony, is mainly that one individual, Steve Jobs, maintained a coherent personal vision of product rightness over a long period of time and a variety of platforms. Sony on the other hand divided into a conglomerate of disconnected businesses. For example, unlike Apple, Sony's foray into the content industry (movies, music) did not really feed back to enhance their hardware products. There is not one Sony company but several; the people who make the new Sony Tablet P or the Bloggie MP4 recorders probably have never met the camera team. The CEO of Sony in recent years, Howard Stringer, was not a digital visionary but a clueless corporate \\\"Mister Businessman.\\\" As I write this Sony has lost billions for eight years and has just announced 10,000 more layoffs. The new CEO says his focus will be \\\"One Sony.\\\" I hope so because the disconnects within the Sony group are evident in this NEX 7; it is excellent photographically but lacks integration in other important ways.\\n\\nSony was an early player in digital cameras and has remained strong, unlike their losing battle to stay in the television market or the MP3 market. In 2006 they committed to full-on competition with Canon and Nikon by buying out the Konica-Minolta line. Their DSLRs are first rate and they are the first to offer translucent non-moving mirror SLR's. Now with the NEX line of mirrorless, large sensor cameras, Sony has a hit and is hoping to lead the next phase of consumer photography. Or rather I should say, of ENTHUSIAST photography since as we all know, mass market photography today is increasingly dominated by the smartphone / iPhone with a vast array of third party software apps. More about that later. However, design by committee is evident in the Sony NEX 7; it gives the feeling that the features marked for incorporation came from a show of hands in a giant meeting rather than a unified concept. In sensors, Sony is pretty much the best in the world. Ditto for their marvelous manufacturing. But in user interface, in image processing and compression, in viewfinders, in lenses, in connectivity, wireless, software, in overall system architecture - they are uneven. Moreover, the camera group seems stuck in a past where cameras were in a silo by themselves. How sad that they seem unable to pull together Sony's amazing range of corporate skills in wireless, computers, etc., to focus them all on any one product.\\n\\nOK, that's my history essay. Thanks for reading. Now on to testing the NEX 7. After having mine on backorder at Amazon for EIGHT MONTHS, it finally arrived a few days ago. I was also fortunate to capture one of the Zeiss 24mm NEX E-mount lenses, a gem (except it is overpriced and lacks image stabilization). I made a direct comparison with my Nikon D7000 for basic image quality and evaluated the other features as best I could, without yet having read every page of the 211 page (!) manual. There are three basics of digital photography: 1) image quality including JPEG efficiency, 2) handling quality including size, weight, speed, and ease of use and 3) connectivity, networking, and special techniques. I am leaving out cost; if that is your metric, I can tell you right now that you can buy a very good digital camera which will produce excellent photos for about one seventh what I spent for this baby with the Zeiss lens.\\n\\n1. Image quality. I compared indoor both RAW and JPEG images from the NEX 7, 24 MP with my Nikon D7000, 16 MP. They certainly should be comparable since Nikon in fact uses a Sony sensor similar to that in the NEX 5n. I did this at ISO 100, 800 and 3200, trying to match the lenses between the two as comparably as I could, prime for prime, zoom for zoom. The results were mixed. With RAW images, the Nikon D7000 had a slight but definite edge, with more contrast and smoothness, especially in the shadows. (This implies the NEX 5n sensor may also be better than 7 at high ISO.) But with JPEGs it was the other way; at both high and low ISO, the NEX-7 images were distinctly superior to the Nikon in clarity and punch. The difference was greatest at ISO 3200. So it seems when JPEG compression is brought in, the Sony boys have a slight edge in the fine details of their algorithm for image compression. The differences are subtle; let's call it even. The NEX 7 produces beautiful, sharp, dynamic photos, really nice, and every bit as good as the best half-frame DSLR. So far so good.\\n\\n2. Handling. So if the image quality is top grade, and the slim NEX 7 is so much lighter and smaller than my top of the line Nikon half-frame DSLR, and I am much more likely to take it with me when I travel, does it mean I'm ready to switch over completely? No, I'm not. For one thing, I have been shooting Nikon SLR's since John F. Kennedy was president. Nothing feels as comfortable and natural to me as having that funny clacking box held up to my eye, allowing me to see exactly what the lens will see. The NEX 7 comes with an EVF (electronic viewfinder) which means a little television you squint at through a lens as if it were a real viewfinder. This has been touted as a great advance but I find I don't like it. For one thing, the EVF display - in spite of being a state of the art 2.4MP OLED - is rough compared to a real life image. The picture has sparklies and the colors are off, and the proximity feature (viewfinder doesn't turn itself on until your eye is near the camera, to save battery) is disconcerting. And the information there is simply a duplicate of what can be seen on the much nicer, big LCD on the back, which has a handy tilt mount. With the LCD one can watch as the exposure is adjusted and see the changes in real time, which doesn't work so well using the EVF. The big display also helps more with focus; there is a digital zoom and a Sony feature called \\\"focus peaking,\\\" visible color marking of the in-focus area that allows fine manual focus. This is my favorite feature and makes it much easier to use manual lenses from Pentax / Leica / Canon. This electronic assist for manual focus, which is also on the 5n, is one of the best reasons for buying a NEX.\\n\\n3. Features and connectivity. The NEX 7 offers approximately 50 settings, ranging from gimmicks I am unlikely to ever use (camera fires the shutter when it detects a smile - will this work with my dog?) to those I use constantly (exposure comp, ISO, white balance) to those which sound intriguing but will need trying out to see if they really work (HDR, dynamic range). This all could have been organized more simply and some of the choices are head scratchers. For example: white balance and meter mode appear under the Brightness/Color menu, not the Camera menu nor the Settings menu. There are many such illogical, confusing choices. For example, there are an interesting set of \\\"picture effects\\\" which can emphasize one color, etc. These effects are fun to play with; I have uploaded a sample on the product page which picks out the reds in my neighbor's barn. But if I next want to try picking out the yellows in the scene rather than the reds, I must push or twist no fewer than six buttons and wheels, going back through the menus tediously to start over again with the next Picture Effect. Also, since there is no way to go backwards on these effects to the unaltered image, skilled photographers (the ones who would buy the NEX 7 in the first place) will prefer to apply effects like these in postprocessing rather than in the camera. So this entire feature set is more gimmick than useful. In general, the user definable wheels and buttons on the NEX only whetted my appetite for even more programmability. It would be much better if the camera would allow me to set up ALL my own menus the way that makes sense to me - for example gathering all the rarely used items in one menu so as to reduce clutter, and then another menu with a short list of items I use frequently. Instead, I'm left trying to figure out the obscure choices made for me by a Sony engineer sitting in a cubicle in Tokyo. Also, it is evident Sony did not try out the prototype on enough users before freezing the design. For example, a dedicated movie shutter button is placed where it is vulnerable to being pushed by accident, resulting in frequent unintended movie recordings, which must then be reversed through a nest of menus. This may sound minor but in fact is so irritating I may have to tape a piece of cardboard over the button. Numerous other reviewers have complained about this; it is a mistake and should have been caught before product release. And why do we need a separate shutter button for movies anyway? Other notes: Battery life is short compared to pocket cameras, especially when the EVF is on. Autofocus is a bit slow. Connectivity should have been higher on the list. No wireless, no GPS, and no ability to communicate with computer or phone except by ordinary USB download. Finally, there is a huge missing feature; after setting the 50 options, there is no way to SAVE the configuration. If you are not sure you remember what you set, your only choices are to go through all the menus again, which is tedious, or else 'reset all' in which case you must start from scratch next time.\\n\\nLens choices are an issue for such an expensive \\\"pro quality\\\" body. Available e-mount Sony lenses are mostly not up to the body in quality. The 18-55mm kit lens has a plastic lens barrel. It is also hard to understand why Sony chose to develop a new e-mount at all instead of simply using their established alpha-mount with its large existing lens portfolio. Apparently this was for lens compatibility with their video camcorders, but that has no relevance for me. There will be more lenses to come; Sony appears to have been somewhat taken aback by the success of the NEX series and is scrambling to catch up. In the meantime, it's a significant plus that numerous accessory mount adapters are available for non-Sony lenses, even old manual lenses from the 1970's - many photographers are buying NEX 3, 5 or 7 for this reason alone.\\n\\nSummary: I am having a delightful time playing with the NEX 7 - but then I'm a gadget lover as well as a photographer. I enjoy the soft snickety-snick of the focal plane shutter. It's a sweet, complex toy and lots of fun, and a worthy successor to the Sony marvels of decades past. Build quality, an area where Sony is unsurpassed, is refined and precise. It produces images as least as good and in some cases better than my big, heavy Nikon DSLR, but is much lighter and smaller. It does not feel as natural to hold as an SLR, but it's going to be around my neck more of the time, and you can't take a picture unless you have your camera. The problem with the NEX is that the architecture does not feel as if it came from the mind of a single inspired designer. Rather there is a \\\"pile of features,\\\" some brilliant and some gimmicky. I don't think the new wave of NEX type mirrorless cameras make DSLR's obsolete quite yet. Perhaps we would one days see a full frame camera similar to the NEX? One which would be designed from the get-go to make full use of the tens of millions of legacy full frame Nikon / Canon / Pentax / Leica lenses out there?\\n\\nOverall, I'm a bit disappointed in Sony. I wish the NEX 7 could have been a breakthrough in user programmability, wireless connectivity, and interface design to go along with the innovative mirrorless mechanicals - but it is not. It adds more photographic capability only in conventional terms; bigger sensor, more pixels, smaller box, more features. Yes, there are more user choices for the buttons and wheels than usual but for the most part, the interface is like other cameras, only more so. And there are too many details to learn. The very fact of needing a 211 page manual shows it is too complicated. At this point in photographic history, conventional digital cameras are hitting a wall. As smartphones come with better and better internal cameras (the 8MP sensor on my iPhone 4S is as good as my digicam from a few years ago), the devices identified primarily as cameras need to meet them from the other direction, becoming more like cell phones. All portable devices these days should have wireless connectivity, it's a no-brainer. And what if the NEX 7 allowed for third party apps? The first brand to break out of the 'camera' silo and offer a programmable high end photography solution will be a true breakthrough. NEX 7, for all its niceness and precision, is not that breakthrough.\\n\\nConclusion: It is difficult to recommend the NEX 7 given its slightly uneven design, flaws in the interface, expanded size, high price and paucity of quality lenses. Its big feature is the EVF which I did not find to my liking. It seems to me the Sony NEX 5n is the sweet spot of the NEX line. It has most of the best features of the NEX 7 for about half the price. The EVF is optional as an accessory for the 5n. And it's smaller and lighter weight and has slightly less digital noise than the 7 at high ISO due to fewer megapixels. The touch screen on the 5n is also useful. And you may not need to use your whole vacation to read the 5n manual - it only has 82 pages.\",\n \"Product: The Targus Wi-Fi Laser Mouse combines technology and a hassle-free connection to bring you optimal comfort and usage. No more dealing with wires or wireless receivers. This mouse simply connects using your computer's Wi-Fi receiver. The high-precision laser sensor allows for accurate performance on almost every surface. The integrated four-way scroll wheel allows you to scroll horizontally and vertically. The mouse supports Windows 7 task switching with the touch of one button. The mouse comes equipped with two high-quality Energizer batteries and is designed to provide up to 12 months of battery life depending on usage.\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: Not a good idea\\n\\nReview: Selected this for review because I don't like my current big clumsy mouse. Why is a WiFi mouse better than Bluetooth I wonder? Let's find out. A bit over-packaged in layers of plastic, cardboard, tape. When I initially tried to install on a recent Lenovo notebook with Windows 7, install aborted with message \\\"No SoftAP supported adapter present.\\\" It turns out (this was my work computer) that this was due to not logging in as Admin. So I was finally able to install.\\n\\nThe mouse is a handy size and works smoothly. The difference between WiFi and Bluetooth is invisible once it's set up, provided both are turned on. But if you decide to turn off your WiFi.. for example, you want to force computer to use ethernet .. then the mouse is disabled also. Bluetooth mouse, independent of wireless and internet setup, is a better idea.\\n\\nThere are no advantages over Bluetooth and some disadvantages. Send this one to the dustbin of history.\",\n \"Product: \\\"Easy to use\\\" voice recorder with premium upgrades.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Nice and simple, with big buttons\\n\\nReview: I keep a voice recorder handy in my truck to make notes to myself. The functions I want are very simple; record, play back, and erase, with good sound quality. That's it. After searching the dozens of slightly different models made by Olympus and Sony, I chose this one for its simplicity. The Japanese are wonderful at making small consumer electronics but their sense of what it means to \\\"improve\\\" the product typically runs to more and tinier buttons and more arcane and rarely used bells and whistles. For this model, someone apparently convinced Olympus to actually SIMPLIFY the product and use big fat buttons! Yay!\\n\\nThree notes on usage. There are three recording modes: Conversation, Music, and Dictation. The Dictation mode is useless - compressed and distorted. The Conversation mode is excessively sensitive and picks up wind noise and engine noise when I'm driving. The Music mode works best, as the microphone is set to be less sensitive and picks up only my voice when I speak close to the recorder.\\n\\nSecond, a slight annoyance; to conserve battery power, the unit goes to sleep after a few minutes of nonuse. But when I want to record, I have to press the button and wait a time until it awakens - it's only a few seconds but feels like forever - and then press the button again to record. This delay is irritating.\\n\\nFinally, the manual is like too many Japanese manuals - printed in tiny type on cheap paper and difficult to understand, an afterthought rather than a well designed teaching tool. Also it's 212 pages long - but only 7 of those pages are in English and the rest in more than 30 other languages. Why burden me with this fat book?\",\n \"Product: Audio-Technica ATH-MSR7 SonicPro Over-Ear Headphones - (Black)\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Listen to string quartet while mowing on lawn tractor?\\n\\nReview: Before getting into the performance of these, I have to comment on the excessive and wasteful packaging. They came buried inside a box inside another box inside ANOTHER box. The inner box had a cloth lining like a little casket, fancy but a little much. Audio-Technics packages it this way I suppose to market it as a 'luxury' product - but the customer pays not only for the packaging, which is immediately discarded, but also for the landfill fees. How about simpler pkg. and lower price?\\n\\nIn sound quality, these are very good. Comparing directly with my classic Sony MDR-V6, they are cleaner and richer on vocals, and have an almost three dimensional effect. Neutral sound, not overly bass heavy as in Dr Dre. These are also very comfortable, with a good ear seal pad, fit well, and are easy to wear for long periods. As headphones, top of the line.\\n\\nThe noise cancellation does work provided you have reasonable expectations. I first tested these listening to Neil Young with my iPad standing in my kitchen next to the exhaust fan, which is quite loud. I turned the noise cancellation switch on and off. They suppress the fan noise mostly in the middle ranges, leaving a higher frequency hiss. The fan noise does not magically vanish, but is suppressed and becomes less dominant. Same story when I tried the ultimate test; listen to Borodin string quartet from my iPhone while riding on my lawn tractor with the mowing deck on, which is VERY loud. The noise cancellation suppressing the loud \\\"thrumming\\\" sound but has minimal effect on the \\\"whirring\\\" component. So I still can't listen to string quartet while mowing, but perhaps too much to expect. For less overwhelming noise such as my furnace hot air kicking on, yes, these do drop that to utter silence. I have read that another A-T noice cancelling headphone has a selection switch for the amount of NC. These don't.\\n\\nOverall these are excellent quality, comfortable headphones. The sound cancellation is effective against moderate but not overwhelming noise. Finally, I believe these are overpriced, possibly because seller believes perceived value is higher that way. Which is annoying. Five stars for the headphone sound, four stars for noise cancellation, three stars for the packaging overkill and inflated price.\",\n \"Product: Eyefi Mobi Pro is a 32GB Wi-Fi SDHC memory card that connects cameras to smartphones, tablets or computers. Selectively transfer RAW and JPEG images via an existing Wi-Fi network or via Mobi Pro's own private Wi-Fi network. Includes 1-yr subscription to Eyefi Cloud for syncing photos to any Web-enabled device.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Get your DSLR into the connected world instantly\\n\\nReview: Photographers know how slow the Nikons and Canons of the world have been to get with it in terms of connectivity and the internet. Most cameras are still in the stone age when compared to an iPhone, which is why iPhones are used to take more photos every day then all the 'real cameras' in the world put together. And there is still not one high end camera which can be programmed with third party apps like an iPhone.\\n\\nFor the connectivity part, this eyefi card fills the gap very nicely. Some genius in silicon valley realized that wireless chips including a complete radio are now so small that they can easily be incorporated into the same SD card that records your photos. I downloaded the app for my iMac, plugged the eyefi SD card into my DSLR, activated it and took a few snaps, and they were instantly transmitted to my Mac desktop. Perfect. There are other features I haven't explored yet such the eyefi cloud service, or using with an iPhone directly.\\n\\nOne small caveat is that DSLR photos are intended to be high in quality, not small in file size for emailing or such. So if I use this to transfer to my iPhone, I will have to set my Canon D70 to downsize the pixels and image quality so as not to swamp the iPhone with a large number of 10 MB photo files. But that's a small price to pay.\\n\\nThis is a great invention. Highly recommended\",\n \"Product: Stereo recorder that is packed with premium features. Premium quality recording packed with features to enhance efficiency. Perfect for use in all environments. Use it for business meetings, classroom lectures, or just about anything.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Simple Mode works. Plays well with computers\\n\\nReview: Olympus along with Sony have pretty much cornered the market on small voice recorders. One problem is they put out so many models - more than 20 from Olympus - it is hard to know which to choose. I keep a voice recorder in my truck, an Olympus DP-311, to take notes as I drive. To use it safely it must be easy to read and ideally have its own light source in the display. Another problem - too complicated. I chose the DP-311 because it's simpler than others, and has larger buttons -- Olympus says this model is for \\\"elderly\\\" users, thanks. To compare this new WS-853, I used a new setting called \\\"Simple Mode\\\" which means the more specialized settings are suppressed to give just basic recording functions, and also the font on the display is larger and easier to read. I suspect that Olympus included this \\\"Simple Mode\\\" because of complaints from customers like me that their recorders had become too tricky.\\n\\nNeither recorder is instantly on; if they have been off for awhile, it's necessary to press (any) button to wake them up before they can record. This is annoying, but the startup time of the 853 is noticeably quicker than the 311. It also has distinctly better sound, and stereo, although this is more significant for recording meetings than in the front seat of my truck.\\n\\nThe big new wrinkle of the 853 is computer-friendliness. Whereas the 311 can only be played back by actually listening and scribbling notes, the 853 has a USB connector on the top and when plugged into my Mac, comes up as a folder full of sound files without the need to do anything special. It is only necessary to click on these and the computer plays back the memos, very handy and easily saved as sound files with no need to transcribe. (It seems it may also possible to use voice recognition software to actually transcribe the memos, but I haven't figured out how to do that yet.) Also the batteries are rechargeable and charge while it's plugged in.\\n\\nAlthough the 311 has a larger display and is easier to read and use at night, the 853 is more sophisticated and higher in sound quality. It is better suited for recording of meetings, and definitely convenient if you work with a computer all day. Not expensive either. Recommended. Five stars.\",\n \"Product: Do you like bass? Advanced Bluetooth control and Auto EQ let you operate the Debut S10EQ from your smartphone. A 10-inch bass driver, powered by a 400-Watt BASH amplifier and enhanced by a 10-inch passive radiator, creates awesome low frequencies and a stunning sense of realism.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Powerful clean bass with clever automatic self equalization for a particular room, through your iPhone\\n\\nReview: In case you are not in the audio world, Andrew Jones is a well known speaker designer who was associated with Pioneer for years and also some smaller speciality companies. ELAC is an old German consumer electronics company which apparently has been out of the US market for some time but is well respected in Europe. They brought in Jones to design a new line of components for the US - hence this subwoofer. There are also larger and smaller subwoofers in the line - I know they do this to meet different price points, but I would have more faith in a manufacturer if they just said \\\"This is our subwoofer, we recommend it for most installations\\\" instead of offering these somewhat bogus options.\\n\\nBecause the low frequencies have wavelengths comparable to room size, any subwoofer must be tuned to individual rooms and placement or the room resonances will make them sound terrible. The unique feature of this product is a supercool up to date use of software and instrumentation to do this for you in the form of an iPhone app. The app does the work of adjusting to the room automatically - it uses the iPhone microphone to detect test sounds which the electronics sends out via the woofer - and equalize to the room. This uses digital and sensor technology everyone already has - our smartphone - which otherwise would be expensive to provide. Sophisticated and clever.\\n\\nHow does it work? Pretty well I thinkl. I put this in a difficult acoustic space - a studio with a large open floor going up to a loft with a high peaked ceiling which can cause funny echoes. The self adjustment process worked pretty smoothly - it sounds clean and there are no boomy resonances. Very powerful subwoofer! I listened to a heavy choral piece I like and it was beautiful.\\n\\nRecommended. There is a lot of technology here and the results are good. Should you get the larger or smaller model? Don't know, but in most cases with home appliances, the middle of the range is the one the maker actually thinks people should buy.\",\n \"Product: Acer Aspire AZ3-715-UR61 All-in-One Desktop PC comes with these specs: 6th Generation Intel Core i5-6400T processor 2.2GHz with Turbo Boost Technology up to 2.8GHz, Windows 10 Home, 23.8\\\" Full HD Widescreen LED Back-lit Display, 8GB DDR4 Memory, NVIDIA GeForce 940M Graphics with 2GB of DDR3 Video Memory, 1TB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive, 8X DVD SuperMulti Double-Layer Drive, Digital Media Card Reader - Secure Digital Card, Built-in Full HD (1080P) Webcam, 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 LE, Dolby-optimized surround sound system, Acer True Harmony High-Performance Sound System, 4 - USB 3.0 Ports, 1 - USB 2.0 Ports, Wireless Keyboard and Mouse, 25.3 lbs. | 11.5kg (system unit only), 2 Year Parts and Labor Limited Warranty with Toll Free Tech Support, Registration/ Limited Warranty Card (DQ.B2XAA.001)\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Nice hardware for the price\\n\\nReview: I'm writing this primarily from my viewpoint as a Mac user who does need a PC for certain things such as interacting with my employer's network. So it's been a while since I've come in contact with the all-pervasive Microsoft ecosystem and there is no way to review this without also reviewing Windows 10.\\n\\nOK. This is a very nicely laid out, up to date, lightweight and compact desktop PC. It is visually attractive and easy to set up. However, it uses an ugly power brick instead of having the power supply inside the \\\"All in One\\\" - it's actually an \\\"All in Two.\\\" Except for this, the hardware is pretty nice and I'm impressed for the low price. Display is big and bright, Core i5 processor, 1TB storage and 8GB of RAM, and a built-in DVD drive which most computers these days no longer have. And it's very compact. It has sufficient computing power for most users or students in daily tasks, unless one has special needs such as editing videos. I have an ASUS laptop with about the same specs and price range but this Acer seems like nicer build quality and better display. So far so good.\\n\\nAs noted, this is my first look at Windows 10 - it's pleasant and smooth. But it's clear that everything about the software built in to this computer is designed to make you Microsoft's bitch, now and forever. As you learn your way around, you need to bob and weave to avoid the come-ons for dozens of Microsoft sign-ups. There is a reason it's such a reasonable price - this is a loss leader intended more than anything as a Microsoft marketing machine dropped into your living room to entangle you in their world from the moment you fire it up. \\\"Give away the hardware; we'll get them on the software.\\\"\\n\\nTo be honest Apple does this also, but less aggressively. Bottom line; this is a very nice up to date computer and an excellent bargain. But if you have the time and skill, wipe the disk and go Linux.\",\n \"Product: Asus Gold NB F556UA-AS54, 15.6\\\" FHD, matte, Intel i5-6200U 2.3 GHz, 8GB DDR3, Intel HD, 256G SSD, DL DVDRW/CD-RW, Windows 10 (64bit), 802.11AC, VGA Camera, Bluetooth 4.1 For wireless software update click https://www.asus.com/support/Download/3/826/0/1/CPUDRIVER_X556UA/45/\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Functional and up-to-date for an amazingly low price\\n\\nReview: This is a large screen laptop PC with a DVD drive (nice to have since most computers no longer include). It's clear from the first moments of use however that this guy is built to a price; the power plug is wobbly, the on button is sticky, the display is lower contrast than one would like and has a narrow viewing angle, and the keyboard is cheesy and shallow. The display lid is dismayingly bendy; no glass or solid backbone at all, and if you twist it a bit, the LCD gets all weird. Plastic and not the very finest kind of plastic either ..\\n\\nHowever, the electronics is up to date and has sufficient power for most day to day tasks; i5 processor, 8 GB of memory, and a 256 GB solid state drive. Although the latter might seem small compared to a basic 1-2 TB mechanical drive, it's actually adequate for my work needs, very fast to boot up, and super reliable. The audio on this ASUS is advertised as better than most it does seem to have nice sound. Windows 10 is standard.\\n\\nThe main feature is the incredibly low price; the rest is bearable if a bit plasticky. I can live with the display although it's not brilliant, but the keyboard is not going to be loved by anyone who types all day every day. (I am a Mac user at home, and I am used to really good keyboards and displays.) However, I plan to use this PC exclusively for work, to interact with my employer's VPN from the road, and for that purpose it's fine, adequate, modern and cheap.\\n\\nNo one is going to fall in love with this laptop as the sweetest ever made, but it's impressive that China is able to produce a functional, up to date computer and sell it retail for such a low price - about the same price as the design that One Laptop Per Child tried to develop offering much lower grade specs. There is a lesson here about the efficiency of market forces vs. well intentioned nonprofits.\\n\\nThis is a great computer to buy your high school or college kid - plenty adequate for students. But if you care about keyboard and display quality, worth spending more.\",\n \"Product: Gigastone PhotoFast iOS Micro SD card reader is the worlds smallest and fastest iOS drive in the market. Download the free i-flashdrive one application from the app store to access the essential and unique features developed by photo fast. Play content Direct from the iOS card reader on to your iPhone or iPad whether it is your go Pro Parachute video or your latest scuba adventure. The iOS card reader always works wherever you are, No network connection required. No battery or re-charging required. JUST continuous access to your adventures, memories or important files whenever you need. Streaming video clips, music, working on your latest business proposals or sharing your favorite holiday photos with the family are just some of the great features of the iOS card reader. Microsd card is not included\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Much more flexible than Apple SD Camera Card reader\\n\\nReview: I have a collection of images I need to use occasionally for work but don't want to permanently store on my iPad Pro. What is the best way to access this via some kind of external storage?\\n\\nApple makes a device for the iPad called a 'Lightning to SD Card Camera Reader' which reads an SD card from a digital camera. Unfortunately, it is designed by Apple precisely to prevent using it as general purpose external storage, I suppose because they think it would compete with their high priced internal storage. It will only read files which are specifically titled as photos or videos if from a camera such as Canon, not more general image files such as any JPG or TIFF with a random name. It is possible to trick it by labeling JPG images as if they came from a camera, but that is quite tedious and time consuming. And even then it won't allow the images to be viewed directly from the SD card - they can only be imported into the iPad.\\n\\nEnter this PhotoFast device which is much more flexible (requires downloading an App). You can plug the microSD card into computer, load any sort of image file or video or other file types, and then plug into the iPad through the tiny PhotoFast device. They can now be opened and viewed from the card WITHOUT needing to import them. Much better. Five stars. So there, Apple!\",\n \"Product: Keep everything you need in one place with i-Blason iPad Pro 2016 Hybrid Slim Book Case with Stand. Crafted with Premium quality synthetic leather, this case is beautifully crafted and fully functional. Slip your new iPad Pro in a form-fitting hard shell case that protects and secures your tablet while innovative lining ensures your screen will stay scratch free when case is opened and closed. Hold you ID, Credit Cards, and Cash all in one place with integrated slots, and take your case with you on the go with stand case that allows you to prop up your tablet and watch your favorite shows on the go.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Inexpensive, protective and several clever features\\n\\nReview: This is a very clever, low cost case for the iPad Pro 9.7. When I picked up the Pro recently I looked at the Apple case but was really offended by the price tag. Somehow I didn't mind paying $900 for the iPad, but an extra $130 for the front and back of a plastic case?\\n\\nThis i-Blason for 1/10 the price is clever and has several things I like. The material it is made of - a synthetic fake leather - is not highly elegant but sturdy and protective from drops. Also it folds into a stand to watch movies in landscape mode. Also it has a fold-out handle to grip the iPad while reading in bed. Also it has a slot for the Apple Pencil. All these features are thoughtful and clever. If you would like a similar design but better materials and a higher price, look at the UAG.\",\n \"Product: Exchange files quickly and easily between your Apple device and USB-equipped PC with Verbatims Store n Go Dual USB 3.0 Flash Drive. Instantly add storage to your iPhone, iPad or other Apple device, so you have room to capture more photos and video or free up memory for new content. This drive is compatible with Apple iPhone, iPad and iPod products, ensuring the highest quality and reliability. Using Verbatims free Store n Go app, available for download from the App Store, you can transfer and view content on your drive. Transferring those files to your PC is a snap simply insert the drive into a USB port and move content as you please\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Carry extra files for your iPhone or iPad. Simple and it works. A few annoyances.\\n\\nReview: This is a very handy device, especially if your iPhone or iPad has limited capacity or there are files, including images and videos, that you use only rarely or prefer to carry on external storage. The basic functioning is very simple; you plug in the USB to your Mac or PC and transfer the files. Then you plug the Lightning connector into your iOS device. You can then play videos or other files directly from the Verbatim, or import if you like. There are other brands, such as PhotoFast, but this Verbatim seems simpler to use.\\n\\nHowever, a few comments on the fine details.\\n\\n1. The one I received for review is only 16GB. If you buy one, definitely go for the 64 GB which costs only a few bucks more.\\n2. There are two plastic caps on the connectors; the cap on the Lightning side is threaded on a retainer but the USB cap is loose. It will be lost very quickly. Bad design.\\n3. Although this device and my iMac are both USB 3, transfer speeds were annoyingly slow.\\n4. This will not plug into the Lightning port on my iPad without removing the case - very annoying.\\n4. There is a 62 page manual of which 5 are in English and the rest in Polish, Korean, etc. Slightly annoying.\\n\\nOverall, worth having but a few irritations.\",\n \"Product: The base for Apple Pencil provides an elegant storage solution for Apple Pencil between uses. Holding the Apple Pencil upright, it protects the tip while allowing easy access to the device. The Compact accessory Mirrors the minimal design of the Apple Pencil and iPad Pro, and merges seamlessly with any desktop environment.\\n\\nRating: 1.0\\n\\nSummary: Nonfunctional base does NOT charge Apple Pencil\\n\\nReview: I selected this for review because a nice charging stand for my Apple pencil is a good idea. The Pencil does not require a lot of energy but runs down in a few days even if you don't use it.\\n\\nI've now received the Belkin base to discover, to my astonishment, that it's not a charging stand.. does not charge the Apple pencil nor does it do anything whatsoever. Just holds the pencil in a little shiney base! Design fail - a base for a gadget which needs regular charging but which does not charge it and costs TWENTY FIVE DOLLARS!! Wow, great deal.\\n\\nPerhaps the stupidity of this product was inspired by the stupidity of the Apple pencil design itself. First, the Apple pencil is supposed to be charged by sticking it into the Lightning connector on the bottom of your iPad. Well, it sticks out like a sore thumb and is highly vulnerable to being knocked out or broken off. A bad idea .. and you can't even use the iPad while it's charging. Second, the connector of the Apple pencil is positive (male) so you can't charge it from your regular charging cord, they provide a small, easily lost adaptor for this. Stupid Number 2. Finally, it comes with a tiny cap - the cap has no function but is subject to being instantly lost. How many people still have their cap after a month or two, please raise your hands? Three Stupids, a record for an Apple product.\\n\\nThe Apple Pencil in itself is nice to use and allows pressure sensitive drawing and so forth. I use it every day. But these design fails on the charging and adapters and caps - I am surprised at Apple, the great design company. And now this useless Belkin 'pencil holder??' Does the Apple Pencil somehow radiate an invisible stupidity field?\",\n \"Product: The KF models are for those users who put priority on mobility, offering a line-up for users ranging from beginners to advanced amateurs. You can always count on Fujinon to deliver the highest quality lens with its award winning coatings on the new KF series binoculars. With the environment in mind Fujinon has incorporated eco-glass that makes all glass material free of any toxins. The KF series are available in a precise center focus system. Like all Fujinon Binoculars, the KF Series are Water Proof. The KF series binoculars are backed with Fujifilm Limited Lifetime Warranty (The warranty does not cover rubber, caps or accessories)\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Just as good as Leica optics\\n\\nReview: I am blessed to live in a rural area of New England where from my front porch I see wildlife every day; deer, wild turkeys, an occasional black bear and today, on the stream that runs by my house, a Great Blue Heron. My main binoculars are a very high end set of Canon glass which has image stabilization, serious weather proofing and superb optics. The only problem is that it cost $1200, is huge, and weighs 45 oz. I also have some very compact Nikon binoculars for backpacking, which cost 1/10 as much, weigh 1/5 as much and are barely larger than a tuna sandwich. But they do not have anywhere near the same visual quality.\\n\\nThe Fujifilm binocs reviewed here are between these two extremes and an excellent fit for what 99% of people want in binoculars for - birding, boating or hunting. They are lightweight and waterproof enough for the occasional rainstorm (but probably not enough for shipboard use in a raging squall).\\n\\nI found the optical quality excellent, with low distortion, flat field, and bright, contrasty, extremely sharp images. Although 8X32 is in the mid range of light gathering power, these give the subjective impression of very high brightness. Fujifilm is a huge and respected maker of cameras, industrial optical systems, and formerly, film.\\n\\nThese are an excellent choice. Is it worth spending more than this? No, not for conventional glass. You could go for Leica binocs with the same basic specs, but they will be no better and cost you 5 times as much. I do have to say though that once you've experienced active image stabilization, which locks in the image and zeros out shaky hands, it's difficult to go back to ordinary passive optics. If you use binocs all day, yes. Otherwise, these Fujis are about as good as anyone needs.\",\n \"Product: Stainless steel case with a brown leather bracelet with contrast stitching. Fixed stainless steel bezel. Black dial with luminous hands and Arabic numeral hour markers. Minute markers. GMT scale appears around the inner ring. Date display appears at the 3 o'clock position. Automatic movement. Scratch resistant sapphire crystal. Solid case back. Case diameter: 38 mm. Case thickness: 11 mm. Tang clasp. Water resistant at 100 meters/ 330 feet. Functions: hours, minutes, seconds, date. Additional Info: h70655533. Hamilton Khaki Field Men's Watch H70455533.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: No antireflection treatment on sapphire crystal - better ones available\\n\\nReview: These are a classic design and I love the look. Everything about this watch is totally old school and good, with the exception of one flaw - a fatal flaw in my case. They have a sapphire crystal but it is not antireflection coated - there is a signficant and disturbing glare which makes the watch face less than perfectly visible. If you go to your local watch shop and hold this up side by side with an Omega, which has some proprietary coating on both sides the sapphire which makes the crystal almost completely invisible, you will see exactly what I mean. This makes a big difference in daily use. Granted that an Omega costs a lot more, the pricepoint of the Khaki is still not cheap. They need to do better on the crystal glare - especially since Hamilton and Omega are parts of the same company.\",\n \"Product: Kenneth Cole REACTION 3-pack cotton stretch boxer brief\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Well cut, lightweight, comfortable - if you don't mind the logo\\n\\nReview: Like most men, I'm pretty picky about my underwear. I prefer the style known as 'woven boxers' which means the leg is more extended but the fabric is somewhat elastic. Normally I have bought from Landsend. These Kenneth Coles are well cut and feel very comfortable, and the fabric is quite light weight. But it's impossible to tell right off the bat how they will hold up over months and years of washing and drying machines. Although these are XL size and fit well now, if they shrink at all they will be uncomfortable. So far so good but time will tell.\\n\\nI am also a little put off by the large Kenneth Cole Reaction logo on the waist band - I'm an older guy and prefer not to wear advertisements.\",\n \"Product: Designed for Swedish Moose hunters, this small axe not only cuts wood but also meat and bone. The rounded and polished poll is used in skinning, and the grooved handle keeps the axe in your hands even when they're wet. 19" handle. 1.5 lb head. Leather sheath is included.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A classic. Pass it down to your children.\\n\\nReview: An axe is a humble tool but one still notices small details of design. This is a modest sized version by the Swedish firm Gransfors Bruks - superbly shaped and crafted. This company is old school and an individual craftsman signs each piece he has made. Gransfors makes a range of axes; this one is a handy size for camping and is carefully designed for multipurpose use including light woodchopping and processing of deer or elk. It won an award from a Swedish industrial design group. I liked it better than the 'carpenter' model which is about the same size but shaped with a straight edge - too specialized.\\n\\nOne of those perfect things. Expensive but a tool you will use your whole life and pass down.\",\n \"Product: The TR1200-DT5 Treadmill Desk combines our most popular office treadmill with our standing desk, providing everything you need to begin walking while you work. The console is integrated directly within the armrest of the standing desk, providing all the activity feedback you desire, including readouts for steps, walking time, distance, calories and speed. The dependable 20 by 50 walking surface is equipped with six impact-absorbing compression shocks, supporting users up to 350-pounds. Quiet operation lets you stay respectful of coworkers while you walk for miles each day without impacting office productivity. High-quality components suppress mechanical noise and subdue vibration, keeping your focus on the task at hand. Unwanted cables are history, as an industry-exclusive internal cable management system maintains a clean aesthetic. The newly-updated standing desk adjusts from 33.5 to 52.5, allowing you to find proper ergonomic positioning whether short or tall. The wide desktop provides a spacious working area while still leaving enough room for all your office supplies. Backed with a lifetime frame warranty, a three-year motor warranty, two-year parts warranty, and one-year labor warranty.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Requires a major commitment to an altered lifestyle\\n\\nReview: As someone who works from home and can sit in front of a computer up to 10 hours a day, I ordered this the same day I read Susan Orlean's article about it in the New Yorker. What convinced me was the research showing how bad it is for your body to sit for hours - and that the negative effects are NOT canceled just because you also get an hour of intense exercise every day! Yikes.\\n\\nThe Lifespan unit gets five stars for design and materials; excellent quality. But it is important to understand that setting this up in your home office is a major commitment to altering your lifestyle. The unit is expensive, heavy, and will take up your floorspace. Once you install it with your main work computer on the platform, there is really no going back. It's a big transition and not everyone is going to find it to their liking.\\n\\nAfter walking for several hours a day, or for very fine work, I do need to take a rest and sit down from time to time, especially in the evening, so I set up my second computer on a separate table to be able to sometimes use a computer the old fashioned way! In other words, I found I needed to partially undue the commitment to using the computer only with the treadmill. Also, standing at the computer without running the treadmill, even for short periods, is very uncomfortable for my lower back. Very small adjustments in the height of the monitor and keyboard make a big difference in comfort as hours go by. I finally found that having my laptop on the treadmill desk worked much better than the desktop computer, because one is then looking down at the display, which is easier on the neck. Most of the photos you will see of treadmill desks use a laptop, not a desktop monitor. Be prepared to play around with these variations.\\n\\nSo do I like it or not? Overall, this has been successful in keeping me from sitting like a blob through the working day and putting my daily physiological pattern in a healthier direction. But after several weeks I am still not completely adjusted to it. My advice: If you depend on using a computer to earn a living in your home office, be aware you are committing to a significantly altered daily experience. If at all possible, I recommend finding a way to try it before buying.\\n\\nFinally, one minor and one major criticism: The manufacturer recommends lubricating the belt before first use but there is not even a small bottle of silicone oil included. And the warranty is ONLY activated if you register the product within 30 days. If you don't notice this unusual requirement in the fine print - which appears to violate consumer protection laws in some states - you may find yourself with an invalid warranty if the motor fails three years later.\",\n \"Product: Bikes are works of art, so treating your ride like a simple machine doesn't do it justice. When you ride in to the office or just park in the garage, propping your steed up with the saris cycle BOSS bike rack shows it the respect it deserves and keeps things looking sleek and stylish. This lightweight steel stand uses rubber-coated steel fingers to support your bike by the rear axle, and rocks a foldable design that makes for easy transport between home, work, school, and anywhere else you ride to.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Fits some bikes well, not others\\n\\nReview: People who may not own two or three expensive high end bicycles probably find it surprising that anyone is worried how to store a bike. Don't you just lean it against a wall? No, it will fall over and be damaged. In my workshop I have a horizonally mounted hook which balances a bike under the seat and keeps it off the floor - until someone walks by and knock it off. Kickstand? No, kickstands are frowned on for high end road bikes and in any case cause the bike to slump over sideways and take up too much space. And for winter storage, it's a good idea to keep the tires unloaded. The right bike stand is as difficult to find as the Higgs Boson.\\n\\nThe Saris product is a well-made and simple bike stand, all metal, foldable. It has an upright, rubber-covered metal fork which supports the bike by catching the rear axle, between the hub and frame. Also there is a groove for the tire. Unfortunately, there are no adjustments, and bikes vary a lot in the details of their construction. The stand works and is relatively stable with my Klein roadie, whose rear axle hub-to-frame space is narrow. For my vintage 700C Bianchi however, which has a longer stretch of axle between hub and frame, the fork is way too loose, and the bike flops excessively.\\n\\nRecommend you try this or at least examine closely before buying. Other solutions exist. IMHO the best overall is a wall mounted pair of clamps which support the entire top bar, not just a single point under the seat. This is stable, gets the bike off the tires, and frees up floor space. You can make your own by buying a couple of large rubber covered screw-in hooks.\",\n \"Product: Adventure has never been more beautiful than Charlie's Angels! Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu star as the captivating crime-fighting trio who are masters of disguise, espionage and martial arts. When a devious mastermind embroils them in a plot to destroy individual privacy, the Angels are on the spot with their brains, brawn and high-tech toys. Aided by their loyal sidekick Bosley (Bill Murray), the girls are about to bring down the bad guys when a terrible secret is revealed that makes the Angels a target of assassination. Now, it's a matter of life or death as the stunningly smart detectives use their state-of-the-art skills to kick evil's butt in this sexy, high-octane comedy!\\n\\nRating: 1.0\\n\\nSummary: Hollywood at its worst\\n\\nReview: Just pathetically bad. Did professionals make this or was it a junior high school project? Acting is atrocious. Special effects shockingly amateurish; in one shot I could see a wire pulling a metal plate in the back of someone's jacket as they reacted to an explosion. Dialog childish and stupid. Sex jokes crude and embarrassing. Not even two beauties such as Cameron Diaz or Lucy Liu were able to make this worth watching. Drew Barrymore, who is not in their league, produced this movie and put herself in it as well, out of vanity. She is a witless moron with no taste or intelligence. Her only claim to fame is an unusually druggy and dysfunctional adolescence. Due to a famous family, she is a Hollywood insider and has been able to survive in the industry, producing cheap commercial products which appeal to the lowest level of consumer taste.\\n\\nThe original TV series was clever, and the movie could have been a tongue-in-cheek delight. Unfortunately, it is a disaster. The Hollywood scriptwriters and directors who worked on this were simply the worst in the industry. Most appalling of all is that this trainwreck was a financial success - made a huge profit over its production cost. Depressing that the public will buy such dreck. This must give Hollywood a cynical sense that quality doesn't matter in their business, which is sad.\\n\\nAlso it spawned some kind of horrible sequel which is said to be even worse. Reviews of \\\"Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle\\\" talk about how much BETTER the first movie was!! Shudder. This must make the sequel THE all time worst movie ever produced.\\n\\nThe bottom of the Hollywood barrel.\",\n \"Product: PAL/Region 0. Double-disc German edition of the film known as 'Downfall' in the US. It's the last days of Adolf Hitler, April 1945, and Hitler's personal secretary Traudl Junge finds herself in the Der Fuhrer's bunker. Facing inevitable defeat, Hilter's moods range from defiance to fight or flee, remain loyal or opt for self-preservation. Eva Braun parties while Magda Goebbels kills her children. The movie goes on to show how Hitler and Eva lived their last hours in the Bunker.Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel. Written by Bernd Eichinger. Based on the book Inside Hitler's Bunker by Joachim Fest; and the book Bis zur letzten Stunde by Traudl Junge and Melissa Muller. In German, with English subtitles. Running time: 155 minutes. Includes a bonus DVD with nearly 3 hours of extras! No US DVD release until late 2005 * Please note you will need an All Code DVD player to view. Full Specs; DISC ONE, The movie (theatrical version), DISC TWO, Audio description in German Hitler's Last Days -documentary (58 mins), Making of 'The Downfall -featurette (50 mins), Melissa Mller (author of the book 'Bis zur letzten Stunde') speaks about Traudl Junge (9 mins), 'The bunker' - A virtual tour, Interviews with: - Bruno Ganz, - Alexandra Maria Lara, - Corinna Harfouch, - Ullirch Matthes, - Julianne Khler, - Heino Ferch, - Bernd Eichinger (producer), - Joachim Fest (writer), - Oliver Hirschbiegel (director), Cast and crew biographies, Biographies of the historic figures, Subtitles: English and German HoH, Picture format: 1.78:1 Anamorphic PAL ,Soundtrack(s): German DTS 5.1 , German Dolby Digital 5.1 Case type: 2-Disc Digi-Pack Notes: Packaged in a slipcase.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Well done movie, touchy subject\\n\\nReview: This is a very well-made semi-documentary about Hitler's final days. The sets, the acting, the dialog are all excellent.\\n\\nAfter seeing the movie, my main question was how much of the events and speeches were historical and which parts were fictionalized, written for the movie? For example, the horrific speeches by Goebbels and Hitler to the effect that the German civilian population deserved to suffer now because they had proved to be weak - how do we know Goebbels actually said that? I wondered, because some aspects of the movie were clearly fictionalized to make a better story. For example when the heroine, Hitler's secretary played by the lovely Alexandra Maria Lara, escapes Berlin after the downfall, it would not have been the gentle bicycle ride in the countryside as depicted. In reality, she could not have - and in actuality did not - escape from the systematic massive gang rapes of German women by Russian soldiers in the aftermath of May, 1945.\\n\\nBut in trying to read more about the historically accurate story, what I discovered, to my surprise, was the remarkable level of continuing discomfort that still prevents many from coming to grips with the Hitler era, especially within Germany, 65 years down the road. For example, this movie was itself virtually ignored by the German press. Some complained that the depiction was too kind to Hitler and the others, humanizing them by showing their tenderness within their own families. Others were afraid the movie would encourage Neo-Nazis. The Third Reich was supposed to last a thousand years. Apparently what will take a thousand years is for Germany to be able to deal with it.\\n\\nI never was able to find out if the dialog was historically accurate.\",\n \"Product: DEEP WATER is the stunning true story of the fateful voyage of Donald Crowhurst, an amateur yachtsman who enters the most daring nautical challenge ever the very first solo, non-stop, round-the-world boat race.\\n\\nRating: 1.0\\n\\nSummary: Incredibly boring and depressing\\n\\nReview: This is about an around the world sailing race but primarily follows the one sailor who was woefully unready, with a poorly prepared boat and inadequate skills. He should never have been allowed to start the race. Unable to complete the course, he lies about his position and then, with no way out, goes crazy and commits suicide. A very sad and depressing story, and quite boring. Why would anyone watch this? There is one figure in the film who is even more distressing than the sailor protagonist, a newspaper reporter who exploits every fiber of tragedy for profit, even tormenting the sailor's family by sadistically rubbing it in that their husband and father killed himself. A sick movie. Don't watch it.\",\n \"Product: Marianne Faithfull stars as Maggie, a middle-aged widow who, desperate to raise money to pay for her grandson`s medical bills, takes a hostess job in a sex club. She soon transforms herself into the much sought after and highly paid Irina Palm, the best right hand in London. Along with her new persona, Maggie gains renewed self-confidence, realizing she is not as old and unattractive as she thought. But her two worlds collide as her clandestine existence provokes the suspicions of her family and inquisitive neighbors alike.\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: Unpleasant movie watching experience\\n\\nReview: This is an odd movie by Sam Garbarsky, a Belgian former advertising person who now makes feature films. Although it technically well done and has received respectful reviews here and other places, I found it unpleasant and depressing.\\n\\nThe two principal actors, Marianne Faithful and Miki Manojlovic, are excellent in difficult parts. However, the atmosphere is distasteful. Irina, a middle aged woman who needs money for her grandson, is constrained to go to work giving anonymous handjobs in a seamy sex parlor. In the first place, this is a preposterous premise; it is just hard to believe this is what any 50 year old conservative grandmother would actually do in real life, and there is nothing we learn about Irina's background that would make this plausible. Second, the atmosphere of the sex shop is unappealing and the movie spends a lot of time there. Third, her son and daughter-in-law are disrespectful to her, cruel really, which I found even more unpleasant to watch and seemed unecessary to the premise. When her involvement as a sex worker is discovered, her son and her friends are merciless in their contempt. If that is not enough to depress you, the backstory is a terminally ill grandchild. Really cheery way to spend a couple of hours. There is a love story between the principals, but it's not enough to redeem the whole.\\n\\nNot every movie has to be fun and lighthearted of course but difficult or disturbing films reward us with a powerful drama or a powerful truth. In this case, I did admire the filmaking skill but watching this was just not enjoyable, and I failed to see the point.\\nIf you would like to see an also difficult but much more uplifting European drama of family conflict, I recommend \\\"Edge of Heaven.\\\"\",\n \"Product: DEEP WATER is the stunning true story of the fateful voyage of Donald Crowhurst, an amateur yachtsman who enters the most daring nautical challenge ever the very first solo, non-stop, round-the-world boat race.\\n\\nRating: 1.0\\n\\nSummary: Incredibly boring and depressing\\n\\nReview: This is about an around the world sailing race but primarily follows the one sailor who was woefully unready, with a poorly prepared boat and inadequate skills. He should never have been allowed to start the race. Unable to complete the course, he lies about his position and then, with no way out, goes crazy and commits suicide. A very sad and depressing story, and quite boring. Why would anyone watch this? There is one figure in the film who is even more distressing than the sailor protagonist, a newspaper reporter who exploits every fiber of tragedy for profit, even tormenting the sailor's family by sadistically rubbing it in that their husband and father killed himself. A sick movie. Don't watch it.\",\n \"Product: Marianne Faithfull stars as Maggie, a middle-aged widow who, desperate to raise money to pay for her grandson`s medical bills, takes a hostess job in a sex club. She soon transforms herself into the much sought after and highly paid Irina Palm, the best right hand in London. Along with her new persona, Maggie gains renewed self-confidence, realizing she is not as old and unattractive as she thought. But her two worlds collide as her clandestine existence provokes the suspicions of her family and inquisitive neighbors alike.\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: Unpleasant movie watching experience\\n\\nReview: This is an odd movie by Sam Garbarsky, a Belgian former advertising person who now makes feature films. Although it technically well done and has received respectful reviews here and other places, I found it unpleasant and depressing.\\n\\nThe two principal actors, Marianne Faithful and Miki Manojlovic, are excellent in difficult parts. However, the atmosphere is distasteful. Irina, a middle aged woman who needs money for her grandson, is constrained to go to work giving anonymous handjobs in a seamy sex parlor. In the first place, this is a preposterous premise; it is just hard to believe this is what any 50 year old conservative grandmother would actually do in real life, and there is nothing we learn about Irina's background that would make this plausible. Second, the atmosphere of the sex shop is unappealing and the movie spends a lot of time there. Third, her son and daughter-in-law are disrespectful to her, cruel really, which I found even more unpleasant to watch and seemed unecessary to the premise. When her involvement as a sex worker is discovered, her son and her friends are merciless in their contempt. If that is not enough to depress you, the backstory is a terminally ill grandchild. Really cheery way to spend a couple of hours. There is a love story between the principals, but it's not enough to redeem the whole.\\n\\nNot every movie has to be fun and lighthearted of course but difficult or disturbing films reward us with a powerful drama or a powerful truth. In this case, I did admire the filmaking skill but watching this was just not enjoyable, and I failed to see the point.\\nIf you would like to see an also difficult but much more uplifting European drama of family conflict, I recommend \\\"Edge of Heaven.\\\"\",\n \"Product: Avatar is the story of ex-Marine Jake, a paraplegic war veteran, who finds himself thrust into hostilities on a distant planet filled with exotic life forms, Pandora. As an Avatar, a human consciousness in an alien body, he finds himself torn between two worlds in a desperate fight for his own survival and that of the indigenous people. Those from Earth find themselves at odds with each other and the local culture.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: What happens on Pandora, stays on Pandora\\n\\nReview: This is the essence of a commercial Hollywood movie, slick and professional on the production values, shallow on the ideas, and a bit of ad-hoc environmentalism thrown in to curry favor with the LA politically correct set who decide Academy Award nominations. The real star of this movie is the computer of course - Cameron spent a boatload of money generating graphics in groundbreaking 3D. I haven't seen the 3D theater version, but the home Blu-Ray is spectacular enough. Wondrous synthetic imagery. How do they do it, such convincing imaginary beasts and foliage from another world?? The best part; swooping around the treetops and waterfalls on the backs of flying dragons. The digital wizards who created this - Wow.\\n\\nBut all the imagination is with the computer programmers. The producers settled for a simple-minded story line, just an updated version of Rainforest Indians versus Evil White Exploiters (EWE) Who Want Their Minerals. The Indians ride around on fantastically imagined space-horsies and actually chant war cries; Yip Yip Yip, like Apaches in a John Wayne movie. I noticed with puzzlement that the Indians (OK, Navi) are called Great Warriors - they carry long bows and 4' arrows - but it is never made clear exactly whom they make war against since there don't seem to be any other tribes. We only see them in defense mode, worshipping the Great Tree and being all touchie-feelie with The Spirit of the Forest. And morally superior to the wretched EWE's, who are cartoon villains with no redeeming qualities. Just bad, bad people.\\n\\nOf course there is a love interest. The EWE sends a guy, and the guy falls in love with a squaw. Who wouldn't fall in love with this squaw, she's nine feet tall, blue, long long hair, and eyes as big as bowling balls? She does have a weird nose but it seems to run in her family, and everyone is too polite to mention it.\\n\\nAnd of course Sigourney Weaver has made a career of being brave whenever scarey monsters are around. And Michelle Rodriguez is the same sexy tough chick as always, on any planet or century, so long as they have helicopters and guns and she can bust some caps. This shows that tough babes with guns will still be there in the far future, which I found comforting.\\n\\nSo watch this for the amazing computer graphics - but all the talk about its cosmic meaning? Give me a break.\\n\\nOK now, let's try to envision the sequel - at least one is said to be in the works. I see the story picking up after the Navi drive out the EWE and have a pow-wow where they realize that mining Unobtanium on their own is not such a bad idea after all. There are roadblocks - galactic regulators who throw a lot of environmental red tape in their way, but the Navi hire some high power lawyers and manage to strip mine the rainforest. This pollutes their planet of course but hey, they become wealthy, trade their dragon-bird rides for black Cadillac Space-Utility-Vehicles with tinted windows, the whole bit. Now we know that in the long run, Indians want only one thing - casinos - and the Navi are no different. So they build the biggest casino on any world - a fantastic Las Vegas of the future - with giant rainforest hotels (\\\"Pandora's Box\\\") built over that waterfall. And very tall blue cocktail waitresses in skimpy outfits who bring tall blue signature drinks in tall blue glasses (Nav-tinis) made with exotic fruits and atomic vodka, right to your gaming table. Soon Pandora becomes known throughout the galaxy as a wide-open planet .. even a few Nav-a-Ho's cruise the casinos whispering if anybody wants a 'Blue-Job.' A Blue-Job? I won't even speculate what that might mean. What happens on Pandora stays on Pandora.\",\n \"Product: New Yorks intense street dancing underground comes alive in eye-popping Digital 3D in the third installment of the Step Up franchise as the raw, passion-fuelled culture goes global. A tight-knit group of street dancers, including Luke (Rick Malambri) and Natalie (Sharni Vinson), team up with NYU freshman Moose (Adam Sevani), and find themselves pitted against the worlds best break dancers in a high-stakes showdown that will change their lives forever. Region-Free Blu-ray 3D, playable on all US players. 3D Blu-ray player and 3D-capable HDTV required to play 3D content.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Some amazing dancing, some fake dancing\\n\\nReview: Forget the story line here, which is beyond stupid, and forget the acting, which is even stupider; just fast forward to the dance scenes.\\n\\nThese are mixed. Hollywood has a love/hate relationship with street culture and never seems to know whether to present it raw or smooth it up and digest it into 'professional' work.\\n\\nSome of the more authentic hiphop pieces are amazing in their athleticism. And some of the produced pieces are first rate also. Adam G. Sevani is a super talented young guy; his takeoff on Fred Astaire's\\\"I Won't Dance Don't Ask Me\\\" is one of the best dance performances in movies since Gene Kelly - his partner Alyson Stoner is almost as good.\\n\\nOn the other hand there are some faked up production numbers. The two main characters are replaced by dancer doubles in some places - easy to spot and jarring. In other places the frame rate of a dance sequence is artificially speeded up so it will appear more difficult than it is - obvious and a cheap trick.\\n\\nSo a mixture. But still a fun movie.\",\n \"Product: This documentary feature takes an in-depth look at the rapid rise and dramatic fall of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer. Nicknamed \\\"The Sheriff of Wall Street,\\\" when he was NY's Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer prosecuted crimes by Americas largest financial institutions and some of the most powerful executives in the country. After his election as Governor, with the largest margin in the state's history, many believed Spitzer was on his way to becoming the nation's first Jewish President. Then, shockingly, Spitzers meteoric rise turned into a precipitous fall when the New York Times revealed that Spitzer--the paragon of rectitude--had been caught seeing prostitutes. As his powerful enemies gloated, his supporters questioned the timing of it all: as the Sheriff fell, so did the financial markets, in a cataclysm that threatened to unravel the global economy. With unique access to the escort world as well as friends, colleagues and enemies of the ex-Governor (many of whom have come forward for the first time) the film explores the hidden contours of this tale of hubris, sex, and power.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: The man who wasn't nice\\n\\nReview: This is a remarkable documentary about the rise and fall of New York Governor Eliot Spitzer; most remarkable in that Spitzer actually agreed to be interviewed on camera for this bio film and did not shy away from the most embarrassing questions. The interviewer is skillful in bringing out both Spitzer's very real professional achievements as a crusading prosecutor and his personal weaknesses.\\n\\nMore interesting to me than his sexual involvements were his extremely combative interactions with Wall St. big shots as prosecutor, or legislative colleagues as governor. The escort agency also said that Spitzer was a difficulty and unfriendly client. Apparently just not very nice in his interactions with people. On the macro level of ethics, he was a hero. On the micro level of everyday interactions, clueless.\\n\\nFor a film that consists largely of talking heads, this is a powerful drama. The prostitute Spitzer came to be associated with - it turns out he saw the woman only once - is seen as not very interesting and only a small part of the story. Spitzer's real downfall was that he made so many enemies. In that atmosphere, the smallest mistake will be punished. A brilliant intellect but little understanding how to relate to people, whether as a prosecutor, a politician, or even as client of an escort service. The film is skillfully done and well worth watching.\\n\\nPostScript: Spitzer has recently resurfaced as a CNN reporter and interviewer, doing quite a good job. But true to form, his relationship with a cohost dissolved in a personality conflict. Guy never learns.\",\n \"Product: Visionary director Alma Har el presents a beautiful and moving portrait of a forgotten California tourist town, weaving together the stories of its inhabitants with surreal poetry and beauty.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: DVD out-takes better than movie\\n\\nReview: Bombay Beach is an art-school cinema exercise / reality show about a marginal community of down-and-outers in the remote desert of the Salton Sea in California. These are the last residents of an ecological disaster zone and their lives are very odd. Nevertheless, I was bored by the film. Although the filmaker did seem to care about the people she followed, her film is static; no development, even for a documentary. In spite of being juiced up by a couple of music-video style song and dance numbers (I'm not making this up), it barely kept my attention. So why did it win New York film awards? Because New York art-jerks (they dress in black) enjoy discouraging stuff, the weirder the better, and even more they love the perception of America as a wasteland. It also didn't hurt that the Tribeca film clique just happen to be close friends with the director and her husband; it was their turn to get the award.\\n\\nSo I was glad that I checked out the Extras section of the DVD before giving up on the film. The brief section \\\"Where are they now?\\\" is worth more than the rest of the movie. We see that CJ, the black teen struggling to develop as an athlete, did indeed make it to a midwestern university on a football scholarship; heart warming. We see the filmaker Alma Har'el in real life (with flaming red hair of a shade not contemplated by the Creator) greeting the little boy Ben on a sponsored trip to the Tribeca Film Festival with sincere affection, and even better we learn that through visiting NYC Ben fortuitously receives better medical attention for his behavior difficulties than the bizarre over-medication he suffered at home. These are uplifting things, so much more real and interesting than the pretentious cinematography and faked up songs of the main presentation. Here is an example of a filmaker so overshadowed by what her \\\"we dress in black, we think in black\\\" art-jerk friends consider stylish that she censored the best human energy from her own movie. Says something about the conformity which governs the art world today.\",\n \"Product: When Carol (Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine, Elizabeth) walks into a New York City department store and meets Therese (Academy Award nominee Rooney Mara, Her, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) an unlikely friendship sparks. Carol is an elegant socialite going through a bitter divorce while Therese is just starting out in life; unsure of who she wants to be. Mesmerized by each other, they face a choice: deny their hearts desires or defy societys conventions but in doing so, risk life as they know it. From director Todd Haynes (Im Not There, Far From Heaven) and based on the best-selling novel, Carol is a powerful romance fueled by the danger and exhilaration of forbidden love.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Politically brave for its time but artistically dull\\n\\nReview: This movie came with such an advance buzz that I was surprised to find it slow and dull. Cate Blanchett plays Carol in a minimalistic, quiet fashion; of course her elegance and beauty shine through. But Rooney Mara does not convincingly fill out her part; she is a mousey cipher and we learn almost nothing about her. She does not seem passionate about her photography, merely submissive and unsure of herself.\\n\\nI was surprised that this received such extravagant praise and so many Oscar nominations - but I see now these were for political bravery rather than art. Certainly at the time the book was publshed in the early fifties, a lesbian love story was groundbreaking. Today, not so much.\\n\\nThe photography, shot on 16mm film, has a period feel and the 1950's clothes and autos - wonderful.\",\n \"Product: DVD Region 1, US Rated R, 105 minutes, FORTISSIMOFILMS.\\n\\nRating: 1.0\\n\\nSummary: Unbelievably boring, pointless and tedious\\n\\nReview: This film is unbelievably boring, pointless and tedious. Just stupefyingly bad. Some young losers in Taiwan have aimless lives. We watch them smoke cigarettes. That's about it. Oh yeah, they play in the snow on one occasion. There is no story. There is no development. A waste of one hour and forty five minutes of your life. That the Cannes Film Festival voted this self-indulgent dreck a winner simply boggles the mind.\\n\\nThe real mystery is where pretentious film critics get their adoration for this movie. \\\"Deeply moving\\\" says Christian Science Monitor. Yes, moving me to tears. \\\"An amazing film.\\\" says the New York Post. Amazing that anyone actually went through with this project.\\n\\nI could point a camera at a wall for six hours and some candypants film critic would no doubt write a profound essay about it. \\\"Transcendently beautiful. Deeply symbolic of our entire human condition. A watershed in cinema history.\\\"\\n\\nIs it that the critics are afraid to look stupid if they say a famous director's movie is a dud? Maybe film school students should reread the The Emperor's New Clothes? The one where all the officials of the kingdom, in their eagerness to curry favor and be politically correct, fall all over each other oohing and aahing about the king's unusual new wardrobe choices... until a ten year old says, hey, the king actually has no clothes on this time.\",\n \"Product: Simply place this 15x magnification lens directly over your cell phone's camera lens to obtain magnified views! The reusable lens is made of specially treated plastic that has moderate adhesive properties. The lens securely adheres to the camera lens without causing damage, peels off easily when you're finished using it, and can be reapplied over and over. The included carrying case provides a handy platform on which to rest your phone while taking photos. Scratch-proof and washable, the lens is recommended for use with 5 megapixel or higher cameras.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Small magnifying lens, way overpriced\\n\\nReview: This is a tiny lens made of a plastic that has a natural stickiness; you paste it on your iPhone lens and it magnifies. It's like a contact lens.\\n\\nIt's cute and it more or less works; you can get some ragged but useful close up photos of any texture or small object. Great toy for a school kid's science project.\\n\\nFour negatives. First, you're very likely to lose it unless you put it back in its little case after use. Since many users will be children, it will be lost quickly - if not swallowed. Second, the stickiness will fade unless you clean it each time in soap and water. Third, it is not shaped as well as could be; seems spherical whereas an asphere is best for this application to produce sharp images. Fourth, this tiny bit of plastic cost about 15 cents to manufacture - and sells for 15 bucks. Way overpriced. I'm all for entrepreneurship but this is a bit offensive.\\n\\nIf the company is reading this, I would like to suggest that for $15 you might include a small book, aimed at kids, which shows examples how you can use a microscope and some ideas for science projects. That might be less of a ripoff.\",\n \"Product: Panasonic KX-TG6411T Dect 6.0 Cordless Phone\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Smart phone, dumb menus\\n\\nReview: I wanted a simple cordless phone without an answering machine, without multiple handsets, without a built-in jacuzzi or bread machine or MP3 player, just a phone. This one has a nice compact design and pretty decent sound quality - although of course not as good as a corded phone. Along with many other Japanese consumer products however, especially those from Panasonic it seems, the menu system and owner's manual are so wacky that you could entertain guests at a party just by reading the instructions out loud. Example: This phone has Caller ID. Let's say I want to check who a missed call was from. So this is how you do it. Ready? Here we go:\\n\\nPress Menu\\nPress #\\nPress 2\\nPress 1\\nPress 3\\nPress Down\\n\\nThere you are! Only SIX buttons to remember in order to look at your last missed call! And there are dozens of these three-number codes for different phone settings - but nowhere in the owner's manual is there a chart of all of them in one place. Panasonic tends to produce reliable hardware, but their manual-writing and user interfaces are really bad. Perhaps it's a disconnect between the culture of Japan and the US. Or perhaps they just don't get it. Three stars.\",\n \"Product: Removable fasteners provide a secure hold and allow you to remove cleanly without wall damage. Secures flush to wall surface and allows you to adjust as needed. Great for posters and lightweight calendars. Includes six sets. Holds: Up to 3 lbs per set Permanent/Removable/Repositionable: Removable Repositionable.\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: Direct comparison with 3M Command strips\\n\\nReview: I would very much like to attach picture frames to the recently refinished walls of my old New England house without banging in nails. These adhesive thingies are an attractive alternative, but do they work?\\n\\nThis JSB product is branded \\\"Velcro\\\" (hooks on one layer, loops on the other) and is rated nominally for 6 lbs. I compared it directly with a similar product, similar size tape from Home Depot called \\\"3M Command\\\" strips which have a different structure; hooks on both sides and they snap together. These are rated on the label as 16 lbs. I applied them both according to instructions on the same simulated wall backing and then testing them side by side, pulling sideways - or as sideways as I could manage - with a vice grip pliers.\\n\\nMy results: I was not terrifically impressed with either product. The manufacturers seem to rate these things resisting a purely lateral force, with no outward component, which is unrealistic - it's too easy to pull outward without meaning to. The JSB peels into hook and loop instantly with the slightest out of plane pulling force. The 3M also pulls off with an outward pull, although not quite as easily. These tapes are designed for hanging very flat, thin items; if you try to hang an object with any third dimension to it, or hang a frame by a wire or such, they may fall off.\\n\\nOf the two, the 3M Command is a bit stronger, although I doubt if it's 16/6 = 2.5X stronger.\\n\\nBottom line: Don't trust these tapes with anything breakable.\",\n \"Product: Ricoh SP 311DNw Mono Laser Printer (30 ppm) (360 MHz) (128 MB) (8.5\\\" x 14\\\") (1200 x 600 dpi) (Duplex) (USB) (Ethernet) (Wireless) (Energy Star) (250 Sheet Input Capacity) (50 Sheet Multipurpose Tray).\\n\\nRating: 1.0\\n\\nSummary: Not Macintosh compatible. Confusing, useless instructions.\\n\\nReview: Not many products make me angry but I just spent half a day, 100 sheets of wasted paper and repeated searches of the internet only to discover that this product is NOT Mac compatible. It is astonishing when Apple is the number one consumer electronics company in the world and used in a large number of homes, home offices and colleges and universities, that a company would put out a printer which cannot be made to work with Mac. Even more annoying, there is no warning of this on the box or the Amazon product page, so one could easily order it and have it not function. Stupid and thoughtless.\\n\\nIn addition the instructions shipped with the printer come on a dozen little brochures, all incomprehensible and printed in ten languages jumbled on top of each other. Literally impossible to understand. Who has time for this? Ricoh appears to be clueless how to provide ease of use to customers. Pathetic morons. There are not many products from major manufacturers which have more One Star reviews than any other, a clear indication of a very poorly managed corporation.\\n\\nNote added later: After much investigation and Apple Support discussions, I finally found third party shareware called Gutenprint which does allow the printer to connect to Mac, but only via USB - wireless still does not work.\\n\\nIt seems even Amazon reviewers who use PC have equally bad experiences. Skip this printer. The Brother 2270 is a more reliable choice and the refills for it more widely available, and its output looks cleaner than this Ricoh.\",\n \"Product: The Streamlight Propolymer Xenon Flashlight was truly built to last! This handheld flashlight features a high density super tough nylon construction with a rubber face cap. Its waterproof and shock resistant making it the perfect companion on any of your outdoor adventures! The Propolymer flashlight features 7 bright LED lights (available in blue or white) and a tail switch for momentary blink or constant on settings. A wrist lanyard a 4 AA batteries are included.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Two similar Streamlights, one focussed, one long battery life\\n\\nReview: Streamlight makes flashlights for professionals - first responders, fire departments, military - shockproof, waterproof and come in a highly visible emergency yellow color and meet certification standards for departmental use. Here I am comparing two similar models, about the same size, both use 4AA batteries. I will post the same review under each.\\n\\nThis model, the 68202, uses 7 moderate brightness LEDs and produces a broad, soft illumination - it burns for 155 hours on one set of batteries.\\n\\nThe other model, the 68244 item is an extremely bright single Luxeon LED with a tightly focussed beam. But runs only for 4 hours or so due to the high current drain of the Luxeon.\\n\\nI own both of them; the Luxeon super bright focussed model is best for seeing a long way out of doors, and the 7 LED model is best in an emergency kit, because the batteries will last so much longer. They both have a very positive push button in the base. The Streamlight website has many other models, all well designed and rugged; not the wimpy flashlights you find in local stores. If you can't decide, I recommend the 68202 for most people.\",\n \"Product: The Streamlight Propolymer Xenon Flashlight was truly built to last! This handheld flashlight features a high density super tough nylon construction with a rubber face cap. Its waterproof and shock resistant making it the perfect companion on any of your outdoor adventures! The Propolymer flashlight features 7 bright LED lights (available in blue or white) and a tail switch for momentary blink or constant on settings. A wrist lanyard a 4 AA batteries are included.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Two similar Streamlights, one focussed, one long battery life\\n\\nReview: Streamlight makes flashlights for professionals - first responders, fire departments, military - shockproof, waterproof and come in a highly visible emergency yellow color and meet certification standards for departmental use. There are many models but here I am discussing two similar ones, about the same size, both use 4AA batteries. I will post the same review under each.\\n\\nThe 68244 item (this product) is an extremely bright single Luxeon LED with a tightly focussed beam. But it runs only for 4 hours or so.\\n\\nAnother model almost the same size, the 68202, uses 7 lower brightness LEDs and produces a broader, softer illumination - but it one for 155 hours on one set of batteries.\\n\\nI own both of them; the Luxeon super bright focussed model is best for seeing a long way out of doors, and the 7 LED model is best in an emergency kit, because the batteries will last so much longer. They both have a very positive push button in the base. The Streamlight website has many other models, all well designed and rugged; not the wimpy flashlights you find in local stores. I recommend the 68202 unless you really need the focussed beam.\",\n \"Product: Turn-Lock feature allows the user to lock and leave without a key. Ideal for front, back and side entry doors where deadbolts are required. Grade 2 ANSI/BHMA certified. Commercial grade clutching motor drive. Vandal resistant free-spinning deadbolt turn. Code control; 6-digit programming code required to add and delete user codes. Warning sounds after four incorrect codes entered; keypad disabled for 30 seconds. Mechanical key override. Pre-set with random 6-digit programming code and two random 4-digit user codes. 19 user code capacity; 10,000 user code combinations. Blue LEDs illuminate the keypad on demand. Locks can be re-keyed to match existing locks. 9-volt alkaline battery included. Fits most standard door preps. Just a screwdriver needed for installation on pre-prepped doors. LATCH: 1" x 2-1/4" radius corner faceplate, 1" housing diameter - requires 1" edge bore, 1" throw with Triple-Option square corner, radius corner and circular drive-in faceplates. STRIKES: 1-1/8" x 2-3/4", square corner, no box, latch strike. BACKSET: adjustable backset, fits 2-3/8" to 2-3/4" backsets. CYLINDER: 5-pin solid brass, keyed 5-pin, C keyway, keyed different (KD). The door thickness range is 1-5/8 to 2 inches thick (41mm-51mm) standard . KEYS: nickel silver cut keys, 5-pin, C-section. Minimum 5-1/2" center-to-center distance between cross bore holes. All-metal chassis and escutcheons. Silicone rubber, wear-resistant buttons.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: The best of the digital locks\\n\\nReview: I have two buildings to maintain with three exterior doors and besides this lock I have tried the Yale Touchscreen and the Kwiklock digitals. This is by far the best because it's a simple reliable design. It's manual, you turn the knob yourself. Both the Yale and Kwikset have motors which drive the deadbolt, meaning they use up batteries fast and may fail in cold weather. And the Yale has a touchscreen, which is flashy but stupid - you have to take your gloves off to operate.\\n\\nAt this point all three of my locks are the same Schlage model, this one. It's bulletproof and does the main thing one wants from a digital lock - eliminate keys and allow for adding and deleting codes. It's made of solid metal (the Kwikset has a plastic case painted with fake silver).\\n\\nMy only complaints are very minor. First, keep the programming instructions and programming code in a safe place because you'll never remember it all. Second, if you want to tell a visitor how to lock up when they leave, you need to explain that they should push the button labeled \\\"Schlage\\\" and then turn the knob. It should be more self explanatory by indicating that you need to manually turn the knob.\\n\\nA great solid product, five stars.\",\n \"Product: This 14 Function Micro tool has an all stainless steel construction and features spring loaded pliers and titanium handles for long life.\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: Let's support the originators, not offshore ripoffs\\n\\nReview: This is a nice pocket multi-tool with a pliers, tiny scissors, small screwdrivers, etc etc.. all the things you might need to rebuild civilization after global warming wipes it out. All the pieces are nicely machined and finished, smooth and sharp. Pretty well made. And it sells for about the price of a six pack of microbrew! Miracle. However, it bothered me that the design is an obvious ripoff of pocket multi-tool designs pioneered by Leatherman and others, American entrepreneurs, designers and mechanical engineers who conceived a new family of tools and worked hard to make them available. I'm willing to pay a little more to support the inventors and not offshore factories who copy and reproduce their designs with cheap labor.\",\n \"Product: The new Bosch IDS181BL 18-volt Lithium-Ion Compact Tough 1/4-Inch Hex Impact Driver- Bare Tool with L-Boxx-2 and Exact-Fit Insert Tray features an ultra-compact design, while delivering best-in-class application control. Plumbers, electricians, carpenters, HVAC professionals and other tradesmen can take advantage of the tools optimized performance for fast and great results. Tools in the new IDS181 Impactor line feature a compact head length of just 5.4-Inch and a lightweight design of just 2.9-Pound to deliver the best balance and control for 18-volt small- to medium-duty applications. The tools compact size also facilitates work in hard-to-reach spaces. The IDS181 line delivers 42 percent more runtime compared to similar in-class competitors, along with 15-Percent less torque and 10-Percent more speed for the best application control. The Bosch-built hammer and anvil system provides maximum impact endurance, increasing tool life and performance. The new impact drivers also feature an intelligent electronic protection system, including electronic motor protection, which increases motor life by protecting the motor in overload and stall situations, and electronic cell protection, which doubles battery life. The Bosch IDS181BL bare tool includes the L-Boxx-2 and Exact-Fit insert tray, which allows for complete organization, storage and mobility solution for professionals on the go. The Bosch L-BOXX system is a convenient way to expand your storage options as your tool collection grows. Fill the cases with tools and lock them together for easy transport, handling, and protection against damage. You can also stack and store them in your home shop to keep tools dust-free and easily accessible. The innovative click system allows for easy connection and disconnection of any number of L-Boxxs. With the ease of single-click stacking, each L-Boxx easily locks together for easy transport and handling.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Small tool, big box, giant system\\n\\nReview: Before you order this product, please notice the fine print this is the BARE TOOL with NO battery or charger. This means you need to already have some other 18V Bosch tool on hand - I have the DDH181 drill. What you WILL receive with the bare tool however, whether you want it or not, is a gigantic case called the L-BOXX-2, part of a set of tool cases which lock together into a sort of mega-plastic toolcase. The box system is certainly not for everyone and seems to me strange to open this big interlocking case and find the small bare tool rattling around inside - I would rather have had Bosch forget the case and reduce the price by 1/3, or provide a smaller case for just a bare tool. But the manufacturers know that few people use just one tool; their marketing is based on a System and pushing you to lock into their System. It's manipulative and annoying.\\n\\nAs for the tool itself; Bosch makes high end power tools for the homeowner - durable enough for contractors or industry. They are precision made and feel like quality. I compared this driver with my Makita BTD142 which is about the same size, but the Bosch is a bit heavier and definitely more powerful. I drove a long screw into a hardwood block; the Makita got bogged down but the Bosch did better. Nice. Bosch has a plastic housing but much better quality plastic than the cheapo Makita. If you like precision tools you will like Bosch.\\n\\nMy problem is that I have too many incompatible batteries around; Makita 18V, Makita 14.4V, Bosch 18V, Bosch 12V. I suppose it's too much to ask that the manufacturers agree on a standard and offer interchangeable batteries and chargers. If I were starting over I would commit to Bosch, but I already have many Makita tools and not every function is available in both. If you are just starting to set up your shop, makes sense to go Bosch and stick to it. The best deals are available if you buy a set of tools with a charger and two batteries. But if you already have a bunch of tools from a different maker, it's a harder decision. If I had the choice, I would buy from an open source supplier who competes on quality, performance and cost and doesn't try to force me into their System.\",\n \"Product: Remember when power tools were actually powerful? WENs 12-inch swing, variable speed drill press with laser centering device, is a powerhouse for your shop. Packed with features that youll find in larger more industrial type drill presses. This bench-top, cast iron drill press has the power to drill through metal, wood and other materials. Max drill capacity is 5/8 in 1 thick cast iron. The variable speed feature allows you to target in the exact speed (infinitely from 580-3200 RPM) that works for your project. While you are working you simply move a lever and adjust the speed as needed. No pulleys and belts to change! Our design uses a mechanical variable speed which allows for the same power and torque through the entire speed range. A digital readout powered by LEDs displays the running speed. Constructed with a rigid frame consisting of cast iron: head, table, and base, ensures accurate holes. Its powerful induction motor features ball bearings for an extended life and it all comes together with smooth and balanced performance even at high speeds. The 5/8 chuck with MT2 spindle taper gives you versatility with a variety of bits and features on-board chuck key storage, so you never have to hunt around for it. Worktable bevels 45 left and right for those tricky operations for the perfect right angles consistently. Base has predrilled holes for mounting onto a bench or work stand. Slotted table allows for mounting clamps and vises for effective mounting. The X-pattern laser locks-on to your drill points saving on guesswork and sparing expensive materials. A versatile and valuable tool for any shop especially when you expand its range of use with optional accessories such as mortising attachments, drum sanders, circle cutters, etc. Since 1951, WEN has proudly produced innovative powered tools focused on value delivering meaningful features that will help you complete and enjoy the work as much as the project. Remember when you could drill with laser precision? Remember WEN. DO NOT use power tools in the presence of flammable liquids or gases\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Excellent - for the price\\n\\nReview: If you want a drill press in your home workshop, there are basically two affordable choices. First, you could look on Craigslist for something being sold used. The problem, unless you are really lucky, is that things like drill presses don't normally get sold until they are elderly, juddering hulks. If the spindle is worn out, how are you going to replace it in a 40 year old tool? Out of curiosity I just did a little research; a Sears catalog benchtop drill press in 1962 weighed about 300 lbs and cost about $200. That's in 1962 dollars of course, the equivalent of $1,600 today! If you are willing to pay $2-4000, yeah you can still find a nice newly manufactured unit made in the US or Europe, and it will be lovely. I can't afford that and probably you can't either.\\n\\nThe other choice is an affordable unit from .. I have trouble saying the word .. CHINA. I have mixed feelings about Chinese products. On the one hand the rough castings and chunky parts will not make someone happy who loves precision. On the other hand China has democratized tools like this - bringing down the price by a large factor. This WEN unit is quite good enough for my purposes and I'm happy with it. It's a little larger and heavier than the very cheapest, with slightly better components and a longer reach. All the parts fit together well and assembling it was a cinch. It runs and works. For 250 bucks, I'll take it.\",\n \"Product: Designed to answer tradesmen demands for versatility, power and control, the new Bosch IDH182 18-Volt Lithium-Ion Impact or brings to market an industry first with its Socket Ready adapter. This adapter allows users to seamlessly change between 1/4-Inch screwdriver bits and 1/2-Inch sockets, thus removing the need for two tools or the hassle of broken socket adapters. Featuring innovative solutions such as the Socket Ready all-in-one tool holder, the IDH182 provides users with unmatched solutions to get the job done efficiently and effectively. The IDH182 is equipped with Bosch's next generation EC Brushless motor, which provides 2X motor life, superior efficiency for longer runtime and absolutely no maintenance. This tool also features intelligent electronic cell and motor protection engineered to increase tool and battery life, along with the Bosch-built hammer and anvil system that delivers maximum impact endurance and increased tool performance in wood and metal fastening applications. To complete tougher applications with maximum efficiency, the IDH182 delivers 1,650 in lbs of torque making if the most powerful impact driver in its class. Adjust tool speed and torque with a push of a button to maximize power or minimize fastener damage with the Bosch Performance Control System. The impact driver also features a compact head length of 6.2 Inch and weighs just 3.2 pounds when paired with a 2.0 Ah battery. In addition, the IDH182 is designed with the smallest grip diameter for best-in-class ergonomics and comfort and features the patented three LED design to provide maximum illumination of the work area without shadows. The IDH182-02L Kit Includes: (1) 18-Volt Brushless Socket Ready Impact Driver, (2) 2.0Ah Batteries, (1) Charger, (1) Double-ended Impact Bit, (1) Belt Clip and (1) L-BOXX-2 carrying case with an Exact-Fit Tool Insert Tray, which are part of a stackable storage system designed to improve tool organization and transportation on the jobsite.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Excellent tool, unwanted box\\n\\nReview: Bosch makes a line of 'professional' power tools at a notch higher quality level than most consumer products (Makita); the materials are better and the motors theoretically more durable. They also cost more. This is an impact driver with a brushless motor and is considered by Bosch to be contractor grade as opposed to the 181 line which are \\\"standard duty\\\" with nonbrushless motors. It is precision made with an appealing design; plastic but high quality plastic. In use it seems strong, but not really very different from my Makita. The difference is presumably in longevity in daily use. However, the price is about twice what I paid for the same functionality from Makita, with the charger and two batteries.\\n\\nIt's a beautiful impact driver - five stars for that in itself. However, the way it is bundled by Bosch I find irritating. The tool with battery is just over 8\\\" tall. However, it came rattling around in a giant 17\\\" plastic case which Bosch tries to promote as their proprietary L-BOXX system of interlocking plastic cases. And then Amazon was forced to ship the whole thing in a giant 26\\\" carton. It's wasteful. What's that you say, I'm being an ungrateful wretch to complain about a free box? Sorry, but it's not actually free - the L-BOXX accounts for about fifty bucks of the product price.\",\n \"Product: The DEWALT DWE402 4-1/2\\\" 11-amp Paddle Switch Angle Grinder features the next generation 11 Amp AC/DC 11,000 rpm motor, which provides the best power to weight/size ratio available (1.8HP). It's Dust Ejection System provides durability by ejecting damaging dust and debris particles that enter the tool. The oversized brushes provide 2X brush life over previous model (D28402) and the large spiral bevel gear provides long transmission life. This grinder offers a One-Touch guard that allows for 360 degree rotation of the guard with a single action. The Quick-Change wheel release allows tool free wheel removal without need for a wrench. It has a top mounted and protected spindle lock button that maximizes the depth of cut without compromising durability. The uniquely small gripping surface in this power class allows for the best comfort available in this class. It also offers a newly designed side handle which provides excellent ergonomics while oversized threading provides durability. Auto-off brushes shut the tool down when the brushes need replacing to avoid tool damage and a paddle switch with safety lock-off prevents accidental start up. Matching wheel flanges allow the use of common accessories. Includes: (1) 2-position side handle, (1) 4-1/2\\\" One-Touch (T27) Guard.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A classic tool - but on the large side if you don't need the full power\\n\\nReview: Dewalt is the standard in angle grinders and you will find them all over the industrial world and in metal working schools. This is one heck of a useful tool, powerful and durable. The kinks have been ironed out of this classic design - it just works. The low price is a real bargain - would be higher if these were not sold in such large numbers.\\n\\nHowever, don't let the reasonable price draw you into buying this 11 amp unit if you don't really need the full power - because it is large and weighs over 6 lbs. Dewalt, Makita and Bosch all make smaller, lighter 7 amp products which cost about the same but are easier to handle in tight spaces.\",\n \"Product: 3M secure fit safety eyewear is a game changer in comfort and security of fit. Features 3M pressure diffusion temple technology - a scientific advancement that helps Diffuse pressure over the ear, Enhancing comfort while ensuring a secure fit. As soon as\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Very light weight but this combo package is not the best way to buy\\n\\nReview: I use safety glasses for many types of shop work, and for using a string trimmer on the lawn, etc. This is a set of three; clear, sun and yellow. The sun version, yes useful. The yellow ones? Sometimes used by shooters to enhance target contrast but I doubt if I will use this pair.\\n\\nThese do fit over my spectacles, so good on that. They are also very lightweight, so much so that I was skeptical how much protection they would offer. However the package says they meet the ANSI standard Z787.1-2010 so I guess they are OK.\\n\\nThese are nice but I don't know about buying the three-pack with the yellow and sun models. For the price I would prefer to buy three of the clear ones, since I know they will scratch over time.\",\n \"Product: Tucker Max drinks to excess at inappropriate times, disregards social norms, indulges every whim, takes no responsibility for his actions, rebels against any authority, mocks idiots and posers, sleeps with more women than is safe or reasonable and generally just acts like an asshole. \\\"I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell\\\" contains everything the modern-day bounder that is Tucker Max has written since he started sharing his depraved reality with an audience of millions.\\n\\nRating: 1.0\\n\\nSummary: Funny at first.. but author is truly a jerk\\n\\nReview: If you can get past all the vomit and bowel activity, it's funny at first to read Tucker Max misadventures. But I was increasingly offended by the author's displays of contempt, just below the surface, towards the very women who are his enablers and benefactors. His ever ready hostility shows its ugly head if any of them pushes back even slightly, whereupon he immediately unleashes a vicious tirade of verbal abuse, calling them the worst possible names in loud public humiliations, and making it clear what he really thinks of them. This guy has issues. First he does everything he can to get women into bed, and then immediately turns on them with ridicule and contempt for having fallen for it. For some reason, because they are \\\"girls\\\" and he's a \\\"boy,\\\" he thinks this is OK. Nice guy.\\n\\nEven more baffling is that there continue to be legions of females who not only don't mind being treated this way but seem to seek it out. I wonder how many of the girls Tucker Max encounters understand what his attitude towards them really is. Book should be required reading for teen age girls; don't get used this way, if you have any self-respect.\",\n \"Product: Will be shipped from US. Used books may not include companion materials, may have some shelf wear, may contain highlighting/notes, may not include CDs or access codes. 100% money back guarantee.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A love story of writers and revolutionaries\\n\\nReview: 'To the Finland Station' is Edmund Wilson's novel-like narrative of the personalities who pioneered the ideas of social equality in the 150 years leading up to the Russian Revolution. This is not a history of the political events but rather the personalities of the activists and their life stories. Included are heartbreaking episodes such as the tale of Babeuf who saw the abolition of property as the prerequisite for human equality, and who was guillotined in France along with his followers for passionately declaring his ideas. Also here are early Utopians such as Owen, a successful Welsh industrialist who established actual working communities on early communist principles, including the Owenite commune in New Harmony, Indiana. It was Owen who argued that marriage was also a form of property, and promoted the sexual freedom of women with its echoes a hundred years later. The second half of the book tracks the entry of revolutionary ideas into Germany, England, Austria, Prussia through Lassalle, Marx, Engels - and their image of class struggle as the main dynamic of history. Included are the petty rivalries among the principals, and plain old gossip, such as that Marx - the uncompromising absolutist of world economics - was clueless in his own personal financial life, and dependent on his friend Engels to pay his bills.\\n\\nThe book can be read as another kind of history as well, not only regarding the early Communist theorists as such but also about the writers who were their cheerleaders during the 1920's and 30's. Wilson and other true believers were so wrapped up with the utopian goal that they were slow to come to terms with the dark side of the actuality as it was practiced in Stalinist Russia. So, read Wilson not only as an historic journey of ideas, but also as a record of the sometimes foolish love story between liberal intellectuals and revolutionaries.\\n\\nFor those interested in writing, Wilson's style is unique. There are dense, half-page, complex sentences but nevertheless he manages to convey subtle meanings with elegance.\"\n]","isConversational":false},"profile_size":{"kind":"number","value":73,"string":"73"},"task":{"kind":"string","value":"longlamp_3"},"split_kind":{"kind":"string","value":"user_based"},"id":{"kind":"number","value":1688,"string":"1,688"}}},{"rowIdx":1689,"cells":{"question_id":{"kind":"string","value":"A3E60W2GO0PAXP"},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of \"4.0\" for a product with description \"Let Freedom Ring! Add this iconic Colonial tri-corner hat as an American Revolutionary War hero. This 18th Century piece of Americana is perfect for any distinguished Colonial gentleman.\". The summary of the review text is \"The inside of the hat provides a comfortable fit. It's been kind of hit or miss ...\"."},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"This is a really cute hat and actually very attractive. It's a solid black with gold decorative trim. There are also three gold buttons that you can fasten to give it that colonial style shape. If you don't button it, it's more of a round shape. The inside of the hat provides a comfortable fit. It's been kind of hit or miss with the fit though. It fits me perfectly, it's way too large for my kids, and doesn't fit my husband's big head. As is the nature of felt, it does attract lint and fuzz, but it's easy enough to clean off with a lint roller.\n\nIt is a very well made hat. It seems like it would withstand quite a bit of use. The gold trim on my hat is a bit frayed where the ends meet, but I plan to trim it up and add a little glue. That should fix it up well and I've had no other issues with it. It's a lot of fun and will surely be used for live action roll play in our homeschool history units. I received this item for free in exchange for my completely honest review."},"correct_answer":{"kind":"string","value":"This is a really cute hat and actually very attractive. It's a solid black with gold decorative trim. There are also three gold buttons that you can fasten to give it that colonial style shape. If you don't button it, it's more of a round shape. The inside of the hat provides a comfortable fit. It's been kind of hit or miss with the fit though. It fits me perfectly, it's way too large for my kids, and doesn't fit my husband's big head. As is the nature of felt, it does attract lint and fuzz, but it's easy enough to clean off with a lint roller.\n\nIt is a very well made hat. It seems like it would withstand quite a bit of use. The gold trim on my hat is a bit frayed where the ends meet, but I plan to trim it up and add a little glue. That should fix it up well and I've had no other issues with it. It's a lot of fun and will surely be used for live action roll play in our homeschool history units. I received this item for free in exchange for my completely honest review."},"documents":{"kind":"list like","value":["Product: The Rachael Ray Lasagna Lugger holds most 9 inch X 13 inch baking dishes. This stylish and durable, insulated meal carrier is great for transporting your favorite lasagna, signature dish, casserole or dessert to parties, potlucks, picnics and BBQ's. Use it at home to keep food hot or cold until the guests arrive. Constructed of built-to-last, 600 denier material with Triple-Tek foam insulation and Temperfoil radiant barrier for exceptional retention of heat and cold. Measures approximately 16.5 L X 10.5 W X 4 H\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: I'm so glad that I purchased this right before the holidays\n\nReview: I'm so glad that I purchased this right before the holidays! We tried it for the first time today and were able to successfully transfer one small container of veggie fajitas and another small container of refried beans to a pre-Thanksgiving party. None of which were all that hot to begin with. They stayed plenty warm until lunch and they continued to stay warm for quite some time after that. I didn't pay close attention to how long they were warm, but I'd say that it was close to 6 hours. I was incredibly impressed.\n\nThere's a single interior compartment to haul your food in. Plus one shallow zipper pocket on the top. The handles secure on the top of the lugger via a button. It seems like it's well made and that it will last quite a while. The color combo is super attractive - bright, fresh, and simple. I am really very happy with this and anticipate using it often!!","Product: 3pc graduated cylinder set with exceptional strength, stability and brilliant transparency. Bio Scientific cylinders have superior resistance to chemicals, contaminates and drastic changes in temperature. Hexagonal base and clean, blue Calibrated graduations. 100% money back guarantee\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: but was still lacking the cornerstone of any good laboratory - graduated cylinders\n\nReview: I am trying to prepare a science lab of sorts for my children at our homeschool. I have accumulated several scientific tools, but was still lacking the cornerstone of any good laboratory - graduated cylinders!! These are excellent quality. I so often see junky plastic ones for kids, but I remember using glass graduated cylinders at a young age in school and I want my kids to have the science experience with great supplies as well.\n\nThese are a very sturdy and heavy duty borosilicate glass. Even the base is glass. There are three sizes - 100 ml, 50 ml, and 10 ml. The three cylinders all have the traditional measuring marks on them in a blue color. Very easy to read! I think that these will get us through quite a bit of science education. We have used them some just for learning the marks a little and how to measure liquids. We don't have any broken glass yet so here's to hoping they last many years!! I did receive this set at a discount in exchange for my completely honest review and it is really great quality.","Product: 12492260 features: -material: stainless steel. -Hand whisk with the rotating mechanism. Dimensions: overall Length - top to bottom: -15.20\". overall width - side to side: -2.76\". overall depth - front to back: -2.76\". overall product weight: -8.48 lbs.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: I love this handy whisk\n\nReview: I love this handy whisk! It reminds me of the old manual beaters that we had growing up before everybody had stand mixers. I looked at some of the poor reviews for the whisk and I didn't experience any of the things that they mentioned. I was so surprised that there would be any negative reviews, honestly. I have made pancakes with this whisk several times and it is so easy. Just press the top of the handle down and the bottom rotates very quickly. It made a very simple task out of the beating that I would usually be doing. I like that it is substantially longer than my usual whisk. I have also used it to make gravy once and it's especially nice over the hot stove. My kids always love helping in the kitchen and they got a big kick out of this. it's just extra fun to use!\n\nThe whisk is of solid construction and a nice stainless steel. I love a good stainless steel kitchen tool! They look shiny and new for ages. I think that this will last longer than my whisks usually last. Those long whisks so often get mangled and bent! The whisk is quite simple to hand wash and dry. It looks very nice in with my kitchen tools; replacing my old whisk in the honorary spot on the counter. (The other whisk has been banished to a drawer.) I received this at a discount in exchange for an honest review and I highly recommend it!","Product: The Perfect Mobster/ Gangster Costume Accessory Bundle. Gangster costume accessories includes, pinstriped gangster hat, black adjustable suspenders,and mobster sunglasses. This Bundle is the perfect for Halloween Parties, 20's Themed party, roaring 20's, mob costumes, gangster costumes and so much more.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: There are no sharp or pointy edges so the hat is pretty comfortable. The glasses are smooth plastic with dark ...\n\nReview: This trio is just the answer to a low key costume for just a few bucks. It comes with a black and white pinstripe fedora, shades, and suspenders. Throw on a basic button up shirt, some black pants, and dress shoes. You're set!\n\nThe fedora is a type of durable mesh. It can become misshapen if not handled properly so handle with care. Ours arrived a little bent, but we were able to shape it back again. It will fit an average sized person's head. There are no sharp or pointy edges so the hat is pretty comfortable. The glasses are smooth plastic with dark lenses and the suspenders are very versatile. They seem like they'd fit a wide range of people.\n\nIt's a great set and I'm glad to have it around for next Halloween. I have a flapper dress and my husband has this so that will make things simple! I highly recommend this. I received this at a discount in exchange for my honest opinion.","Product: Here at Elementi Moderni, were all about high quality coffee products. WE LOVE COFFEE and know that you do, too! We also know that you want a french press that's going to deliver consistently hot coffee. So we've brought you the Elementi French Press with its durable 18/10 stainless steel construction and reliable fine mesh filter. Pamper yourself! Enjoy homemade quality coffee at a fraction of the price!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: I have never tasted anything quite like it. We are able to make a \"pot\" ...\n\nReview: I think it's time to get back to simpler coffee!\n\nWe have gone through so many different coffee makers over the years - a fancy complicated espresso maker, regular drip coffee pot w/ carafe, pod coffee makers with carafes and single servings, etc. I had heard people praise french press coffee, but I honestly thought that it couldn't be that much different. Well, I was wrong.\n\nFirst of all, this french press is just gorgeous. It just feels kind of extra special to use it. The stainless is very sleek and the slightly modern, while still being classic, lines are very attractive. The measuring spoon that it came with is so very handy. We had an extra magnet hanging around from one of the kid's craft projects and just popped it onto the fridge with the magnet. No gluing required! It's very convenient to just grab it from the fridge to measure the coffee. It also clips onto the bag, but we take ours out and store it in another container so we haven't used that feature.\n\nAll that you do is pour hot water into the press with the coffee, quickly and briefly stir, and let it brew for 3-4 minutes. Sometimes we let it go for a bit longer. Then press the plunger and pour the coffee into your cup. That's it! For some reason, I thought that it would be more complicated than that. Nope!\n\nThis coffee has so much more body and a richer taste. I have never tasted anything quite like it. We are able to make a \"pot\" of coffee and both drink on it throughout breakfast without it cooling off too much. We are thinking about giving our coffee pot away now because we are french press converts! We received this press at a discount in exchange for an honest review.","Product: At Bar Essentials we provide the ultimate product for the ultimate experience. Our Moscow Mule copper mug gift set is one of a kind. With 2 copper shot glasses, 2 glass straws, and a cocktail recipe eBook it makes our set the most unique and valuable out. Backed by 100% money back guarantee you can buy with 100% confidence. Scroll up and get yours now!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: The cup is very sleek and sturdy. I love the hammered look\n\nReview: This is simply a gorgeous Moscow Mule set.\n\nIt's a 16 oz hammered copper mug, glass straw that is slightly shorter than a typical drinking straw, and 2 oz copper shot glass.\n\nThe cup is very sleek and sturdy. I love the hammered look. It really gives it an artisan touch. It doesn't have any liner and it's just pure copper. It seems like one can never have enough shot glasses so the coordinating shot glass is a nice touch! Especially beautiful ones that don't say, \"One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor\"! ;-) I have yet to see any sort of drink set come with a glass straw and it is really gorgeous. I love the way it feels to drink out of and it doesn't feel terribly fragile. We now have two mule mugs and this one is definitely the favorite among me and my husband. We love barware and this is up there with the most unique pieces that we have along with our port sippers!\n\nThis set with some ginger beer, vodka, and limes would make for a fabulous gift basket. I received the set for free in exchange for my completely honest review.","Product: Make your celebration truly memorable with our fun confetti cannon popper. Take the confetti poppers out at your party and start popping! Our party popper uses compressed air to launch confetti, making them safe for use anywhere. Each popper measure 11 long and is made of high quality material. The party popper operates using spring action and shoots confetti into the air up to 9 feet. This is an exciting way to share the happiness and is sure to be a hit at any party. Be the coolest person in the party shooting confetti at your friends! Its perfect to liven up your parties, carnivals, weddings, election rallies, performances and sporting events. Spice up your party or celebration with these little monsters! Specifications: Size: 11 Inch Available Packs: Single / 3 / Pack of 6 / Pack of 12 / Pack of 24 / Pack of 96 Note: Point away from the face and other people. Do not dismantle confetti before use or reload after use.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: these are a ton of fun! Really\n\nReview: <div id=\"video-block-R2BLTAL5HSOCQ3\" class=\"a-section a-spacing-small a-spacing-top-mini video-block\"></div><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"\" value=\"https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/C1bB8Z1eW0S.mp4\" class=\"video-url\"><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"\" value=\"https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81uIoFjMZNS.png\" class=\"video-slate-img-url\"> Wow. So, these are a ton of fun! Really. A lot!! You get 12 huge confetti party poppers in the order. They're very substantial, use compressed air, and have a ton of large gorgeous paper confetti just ready to fly out. It's also quite loud!! Hah! Quite a surprise. Make sure to read the directions prior to use. By my video, you can tell that my husband didn't really read the directions. ;-) After you remove the bottom pink paper piece, just twist the very bottom silver section. We tried to twist the larger bottom portion, but couldn't get it to pop until the effort was directed right at that silver part. These would be absolutely wonderful for a celebration. Get them!! So worth it! I received these poppers at a discount for a completely honest review and they're honestly fantastic!","Product: Set of 4 Stunning Silver Filigree Napkin Rings with Clear Rhinestones\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: I was very disappointed with this product\n\nReview: I was very disappointed with this product. It actually photographs fairly well, but in person they just look pretty cheaply made.\n\nOne of mine arrived completely broken off of the ring and the others were bent. It's actually easy enough to bend back, but the metal is so flimsy that it seems like it won't last long after having to be reshaped so much. The back is also glued on in a way that has much of the glue seeping over the edge so it's very visible when you look at the back.\n\nI don't feel like I can use these with guests as I was planning to. My kids will be happy to play pretend with them though. I received these napkin rings for free in exchange for my completely honest review.","Product: Wilton's Camouflage Sugar Sheets come in a variety of colors. Create quick and delicious treats. Camouflage pattern.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Made for a really cute cake!\n\nReview: Fun product! It worked even better than I had hoped! I wasn't the one who actually used them, but that was the report that I got from the person who made the cake. She said that it was a little tricky to work with, but that she adjusted to them quickly. Kind of like phyllo dough - there's a learning curve! It was most DEFINITELY a more affordable option than a themed cake from a bakery and helped solidify the baby shower camo theme.\n\nI have seen people complain about the flavor, but I just thought that it was sweet and the texture didn't bother me. I didn't see anybody scooting it to the side and throwing it away like I sometimes see with fondant either. So I guess that's just a highly subjective matter!\n\nThe item also came very quickly with my prime membership. That's a good thing because we ordered at the last minute and literally didn't have a day to spare!!","Product: We are COZA DESIGN: from the world of our ideas comes the belief that design is for all. For all moments, all spaces, all dreams, all tones. It is the Democracy of design put in practice each day throughout Brazil and abroad. Everything began almost three decades ago, when plastic gained more creative forms, bolder colors and the cozy signature. From that point until today, hundreds of new products have been developed along with new possibilities. Ideas that always carried with the focus of being ahead, anticipating trends, launching concepts, listening to consumers, respecting the environment and stimulating more and more what is new. COZA DESIGN. Originally designed.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Originally I was disappointed when I couldn't use this like I anticipated\n\nReview: The claim that this fits \"all kitchen sinks\" is a bit of a stretch. We have a rather large industrial sink in our kitchen and it doesn't fit on the edges, but we have still been able to use it quite well.\n\nThis is shallow and deep enough to be able to rinse off wash, rinse, and dry utensils as well as fruits and vegetables. We made a huge batch of guacamole using this to rinse off all of the produce and it was so much simpler than the usual perforated bowl style that we usually use. Tomatoes, avocados, jalapeos, and especially cilantro. I was able to fan out the cilantro to really separate the leaves and rinse them well. I've also used it to wash berries. I mean, it just works really well for that sort of thing. Utensils, tiny pinch pots, straws, and those random odds and ends that get tossed around in the dishwasher also work really well in this too.\n\nOriginally I was disappointed when I couldn't use this like I anticipated, but it actually has worked out really well. I received this at a discount in exchange for my honest review.","Product: These fun and unique plush animal hats are sure to get some compliments when added to your animal costume. These animal hats are great for farm yard or zoo fun of all kinds. Perfect for Birthdays, theme parties, or dress up any day of the year..\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: We have been having a great time with this moose hat\n\nReview: We have been having a great time with this moose hat! I mean, a moose hat? It's just pretty fun to have!! It has a likeness to Bullwinkle and is just really cute!\n\nIt's made from a felt-like material and is filled with a soft material so it's very comfortable to wear. Everything is distributed well so it does't feel like the antlers are weighing it down in any particular place. It also has a soft yet shiny black lining on the inside of that hat so it really molds to the head. It's a little large on my youngest, who just turned 4, but it fit my almost 6 year old better. It also fits the adults in the house and the velcro strap that fits around the chin helps keep it in place even better. It's adorable and we plan to use it for Halloween next year. However, I wouldn't be surprised if the 4 year old tries to wear it as a winter hat next year as well.\n\nIf you're looking for a moose hat, well, I must say that I've never seen one better! I received this hat for free in exchange for my completely honest review and we've been enjoying it so much!","Product: Anchor Alloy Pendant Vintage Style Pendant Adjustable Leather Cord Necklace Featuring an eye catching. This stylish jewelry is bound to give even the simplest appearance a unique outstanding touch. Make a fashion statement. You'll thank us !\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: This is a nice, masculine necklace\n\nReview: This is a nice, masculine necklace. It comes with an aged silver anchor on a brown leather cord. The cord is soft while still being rugged. The cord is also completely adjustable with slide knots. The anchor itself is a very solid substantial charm that has a good bit of detail on it. The only one drawback to this necklace, for me, is that the bead between the top of the anchor and the cord is not fixed in place. It moves a bit when you move so the anchor gets crooked. I have thought about tying a knot to keep it in place and I may do that in the future. It's a good statement piece and a bit larger than I anticipated. Make sure to pay attention to the size in the listing. Overall, I like this necklace and I hope that my husband likes it for Christmas as well! I received this at a discount in exchange for my completely honest review.","Product: Water never tasted so good. Simple, clean, green... Apana's Pure glass water bottles. The clarity and quality of glass meets style. Our glass bottles are annealed to give them the extra strength and durability for on-the-go use, and they exceed all FDA standards. Food safe silicone sleeves protect the glass and provide ample grip surface when you're on the move. The sleeve also features a triple-thick boot at the base to provide extra impact protection and the leak-proof cap has a unique double-wall construction for greater protection. The whole bottle is dishwasher perfect with no need to remove the sleeve for washing. 100% BPA-Free. 22-ounce capacity.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: A few key features that I enjoy with this bottle\n\nReview: I am a fan of glass bottles. We even used glass baby bottles for pumped milk when our kids were babies!\n\nA few key features that I enjoy with this bottle:\n\n- color selection\n- water droplet peek a boo glass design\n- dishwasher safe\n- no need to remove sleeve to wash\n- wide opening to clean interior of bottle\n- lid securely snaps closed\n- small nickel-sized drinking hole\n- leak-proof (so far anyways!)\n- lighter weight than some of my other glass bottles\n\nI rarely do bullet point style reviews, but sometimes there are just too many pros to write a ton of full sentences about each thing!! :-)\n\nMy kids are 3 and 5 and they can't quite open or close the bottle. That defeats the whole purpose of the very secure lid. For that reason, I would just caution against getting it for anybody without full mobility of their hands. I think it's great for pretty much anybody else though. I received this bottle at a discount in exchange for my completely honest review and I hope that it helps with your purchase decision!","Product: The CloudNine Body Board will enhance your day at the beach, river or water park. Riding the waves and surfing the ocean will leave you refreshed and rejuvenated. Our high quality body board is durable and lightweight. Fun for all ages and a beautiful design.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Some of them looked pretty neat, but none of them compares to this ...\n\nReview: Oh man. This is such an attractive body board!! We have had our fair share of body boards over the years. Some of them looked pretty neat, but none of them compares to this one. It's like a piece of artwork. Yes, I'm very impressed by the beauty of a piece of foam! LOL\n\nOther than the looks, it has done okay so far. We haven't used it to hit up the waves so when we take it to the beach I'll be giving it the real hardcore test! We have just played around with it here at home and used it in the pool. Compared to our other boards, it seems to be the same density and the ankle strap appears to be about the same. I've never seen a big difference among the body boards that we've used. We usually get them from the local sporting goods store or from one of the random shops near the beach in Galveston. They're all just your standard body board and so is this one, but it's just that much more attractive. I did receive this at a discount in exchange for my completely honest review and this has been my experience thus far.","Product: From Disneynature, the studio that brought you EARTH, OCEANS, AFRICAN CATS and CHIMPANZEE, comes WINGS OF LIFE -- a stunning adventure full of intrigue, drama and mesmerizing beauty. Narrated by Meryl Streep, this intimate and unprecedented look at butterflies, hummingbirds, bees, bats and flowers is a celebration of life, as a third of the world's food supply depends on these incredible -- and increasingly threatened -- creatures. Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg, WINGS OF LIFE utilizes riveting high-speed, closer-than-close filmmaking techniques to showcase in spectacular detail these unsung heroes of our planet.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: This is the best nature documentary I've ever seen\n\nReview: This is the best nature documentary I've ever seen. As a homeschooler, I try to take cues from my children about the subjects to highlight. They are really into gardening, butterflies, birds, and things of that sort right now. This was absolutely captivating for both of them, ages 3 and 5.\n\nThis touches on bats, butterflies, birds, etc and their life cycle, feeding, migration on a global scale from a flower's \"perspective\". It is really amazing to see how everything is connected. I really love how the end ties it all together with environmental responsibility and a call to action. It inspired me.\n\nMeryl Streep as the narrator is quite nice. She really does a lovely job and her voice seamlessly blends in with the breathtaking visuals. I have never reviewed any sort of tv or movie on Amazon, but I was so impressed by this today that I had to come here and praise it. You should check it out!","Product: Have a flea infestation and not sure how to stop it? The Victor Ultimate Flea Trap controls indoor flea problems with a 93% catch rate, helping you keep your family and pets safe from these pests. The trap is designed to catch fleas and even lure them out of upholstery up to 30ft away. The trap can be used time and time again with the Ultimate Flea Trap Refills. The refills come with 3 glue discs which are easy to replace. To replace, simply insert the glue discs (Victor logo side facing up) into the trap, remove protective sheet to reveal the Super Grabber glue, and place the trap anywhere indoors where fleas are wreaking havoc. Formula is non-toxic and odorless, making it a great option to use in homes with children and pets.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: The fleas were terrible in most of our rural neighborhood a few months ...\n\nReview: We have been using the Victor flea traps <a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/Victor-M230-Ultimate-Flea-Trap/dp/B000668Z96/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\">Victor M230 Ultimate Flea Trap</a>, along with these refills, for the past 6 months or so. The fleas were terrible in most of our rural neighborhood a few months ago and we had such a hard time getting them under control. We wanted something chemical free and that would be safe to use around our kids and pets. This fit our needs well.\n\nThese help us keep an eye on things and we haven't had an outbreak since we started using these. We purchased three units and periodically move them into different rooms of our house. We've even turned some family and friends in the area onto the traps. We change out the sticky pad in each of our traps about once a month so we pay about $5.00 a month for flea control. You just can't beat that! The most difficult thing is just remembering to plug the lights in!!","Product: The C-Well Multi Light is truly the most useful light you will ever own. We have customers using this handy light for everything from reading books to working on their car. Its multiple power sources means it can be used easily on your laptop in a low light area with the USB to your night side table with the AC plug to your tent in the mountains with AAAs (all included). The durable alloy arms insure long life and if you do have an issue please contact us and we will be happy to replace your C-well light right away.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: This is really a fantastic light!\n\nReview: I was a book nerd as a kid. I have had many many a clip on light over the past 25 years or so since I started reading late at night! Who needs sleep when you can read?!\n\nThis is really a fantastic light!! You can clip it onto a variety of surfaces with the large padded clip. It opens up very wide to accomodate. You can put 3AAA batteries in the unit and use it in the car, camping, etc or plug it in via the included USB cable or AC adaptor. It has two lights that are incredibly easy to move around and you can point them in many directions. You can turn both lights on or just one and you can also choose between two brightnesses. We have set it up for our kids to use in the car too. Clip it to something in the middle and then swivel one to shine on each of two kids. We have a no touching rule so wherever we put it is where it stays!\n\nIt's really a very highly customizable light and I have never ever been happier with one before! I hope that this light lasts us a long while and we will likely get another one or two of these for our family. I received this fantastic little light for free in exchange for my completely honest review and I hope that's very helpful."],"string":"[\n \"Product: The Rachael Ray Lasagna Lugger holds most 9 inch X 13 inch baking dishes. This stylish and durable, insulated meal carrier is great for transporting your favorite lasagna, signature dish, casserole or dessert to parties, potlucks, picnics and BBQ's. Use it at home to keep food hot or cold until the guests arrive. Constructed of built-to-last, 600 denier material with Triple-Tek foam insulation and Temperfoil radiant barrier for exceptional retention of heat and cold. Measures approximately 16.5 L X 10.5 W X 4 H\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: I'm so glad that I purchased this right before the holidays\\n\\nReview: I'm so glad that I purchased this right before the holidays! We tried it for the first time today and were able to successfully transfer one small container of veggie fajitas and another small container of refried beans to a pre-Thanksgiving party. None of which were all that hot to begin with. They stayed plenty warm until lunch and they continued to stay warm for quite some time after that. I didn't pay close attention to how long they were warm, but I'd say that it was close to 6 hours. I was incredibly impressed.\\n\\nThere's a single interior compartment to haul your food in. Plus one shallow zipper pocket on the top. The handles secure on the top of the lugger via a button. It seems like it's well made and that it will last quite a while. The color combo is super attractive - bright, fresh, and simple. I am really very happy with this and anticipate using it often!!\",\n \"Product: 3pc graduated cylinder set with exceptional strength, stability and brilliant transparency. Bio Scientific cylinders have superior resistance to chemicals, contaminates and drastic changes in temperature. Hexagonal base and clean, blue Calibrated graduations. 100% money back guarantee\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: but was still lacking the cornerstone of any good laboratory - graduated cylinders\\n\\nReview: I am trying to prepare a science lab of sorts for my children at our homeschool. I have accumulated several scientific tools, but was still lacking the cornerstone of any good laboratory - graduated cylinders!! These are excellent quality. I so often see junky plastic ones for kids, but I remember using glass graduated cylinders at a young age in school and I want my kids to have the science experience with great supplies as well.\\n\\nThese are a very sturdy and heavy duty borosilicate glass. Even the base is glass. There are three sizes - 100 ml, 50 ml, and 10 ml. The three cylinders all have the traditional measuring marks on them in a blue color. Very easy to read! I think that these will get us through quite a bit of science education. We have used them some just for learning the marks a little and how to measure liquids. We don't have any broken glass yet so here's to hoping they last many years!! I did receive this set at a discount in exchange for my completely honest review and it is really great quality.\",\n \"Product: 12492260 features: -material: stainless steel. -Hand whisk with the rotating mechanism. Dimensions: overall Length - top to bottom: -15.20\\\". overall width - side to side: -2.76\\\". overall depth - front to back: -2.76\\\". overall product weight: -8.48 lbs.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: I love this handy whisk\\n\\nReview: I love this handy whisk! It reminds me of the old manual beaters that we had growing up before everybody had stand mixers. I looked at some of the poor reviews for the whisk and I didn't experience any of the things that they mentioned. I was so surprised that there would be any negative reviews, honestly. I have made pancakes with this whisk several times and it is so easy. Just press the top of the handle down and the bottom rotates very quickly. It made a very simple task out of the beating that I would usually be doing. I like that it is substantially longer than my usual whisk. I have also used it to make gravy once and it's especially nice over the hot stove. My kids always love helping in the kitchen and they got a big kick out of this. it's just extra fun to use!\\n\\nThe whisk is of solid construction and a nice stainless steel. I love a good stainless steel kitchen tool! They look shiny and new for ages. I think that this will last longer than my whisks usually last. Those long whisks so often get mangled and bent! The whisk is quite simple to hand wash and dry. It looks very nice in with my kitchen tools; replacing my old whisk in the honorary spot on the counter. (The other whisk has been banished to a drawer.) I received this at a discount in exchange for an honest review and I highly recommend it!\",\n \"Product: The Perfect Mobster/ Gangster Costume Accessory Bundle. Gangster costume accessories includes, pinstriped gangster hat, black adjustable suspenders,and mobster sunglasses. This Bundle is the perfect for Halloween Parties, 20's Themed party, roaring 20's, mob costumes, gangster costumes and so much more.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: There are no sharp or pointy edges so the hat is pretty comfortable. The glasses are smooth plastic with dark ...\\n\\nReview: This trio is just the answer to a low key costume for just a few bucks. It comes with a black and white pinstripe fedora, shades, and suspenders. Throw on a basic button up shirt, some black pants, and dress shoes. You're set!\\n\\nThe fedora is a type of durable mesh. It can become misshapen if not handled properly so handle with care. Ours arrived a little bent, but we were able to shape it back again. It will fit an average sized person's head. There are no sharp or pointy edges so the hat is pretty comfortable. The glasses are smooth plastic with dark lenses and the suspenders are very versatile. They seem like they'd fit a wide range of people.\\n\\nIt's a great set and I'm glad to have it around for next Halloween. I have a flapper dress and my husband has this so that will make things simple! I highly recommend this. I received this at a discount in exchange for my honest opinion.\",\n \"Product: Here at Elementi Moderni, were all about high quality coffee products. WE LOVE COFFEE and know that you do, too! We also know that you want a french press that's going to deliver consistently hot coffee. So we've brought you the Elementi French Press with its durable 18/10 stainless steel construction and reliable fine mesh filter. Pamper yourself! Enjoy homemade quality coffee at a fraction of the price!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: I have never tasted anything quite like it. We are able to make a \\\"pot\\\" ...\\n\\nReview: I think it's time to get back to simpler coffee!\\n\\nWe have gone through so many different coffee makers over the years - a fancy complicated espresso maker, regular drip coffee pot w/ carafe, pod coffee makers with carafes and single servings, etc. I had heard people praise french press coffee, but I honestly thought that it couldn't be that much different. Well, I was wrong.\\n\\nFirst of all, this french press is just gorgeous. It just feels kind of extra special to use it. The stainless is very sleek and the slightly modern, while still being classic, lines are very attractive. The measuring spoon that it came with is so very handy. We had an extra magnet hanging around from one of the kid's craft projects and just popped it onto the fridge with the magnet. No gluing required! It's very convenient to just grab it from the fridge to measure the coffee. It also clips onto the bag, but we take ours out and store it in another container so we haven't used that feature.\\n\\nAll that you do is pour hot water into the press with the coffee, quickly and briefly stir, and let it brew for 3-4 minutes. Sometimes we let it go for a bit longer. Then press the plunger and pour the coffee into your cup. That's it! For some reason, I thought that it would be more complicated than that. Nope!\\n\\nThis coffee has so much more body and a richer taste. I have never tasted anything quite like it. We are able to make a \\\"pot\\\" of coffee and both drink on it throughout breakfast without it cooling off too much. We are thinking about giving our coffee pot away now because we are french press converts! We received this press at a discount in exchange for an honest review.\",\n \"Product: At Bar Essentials we provide the ultimate product for the ultimate experience. Our Moscow Mule copper mug gift set is one of a kind. With 2 copper shot glasses, 2 glass straws, and a cocktail recipe eBook it makes our set the most unique and valuable out. Backed by 100% money back guarantee you can buy with 100% confidence. Scroll up and get yours now!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: The cup is very sleek and sturdy. I love the hammered look\\n\\nReview: This is simply a gorgeous Moscow Mule set.\\n\\nIt's a 16 oz hammered copper mug, glass straw that is slightly shorter than a typical drinking straw, and 2 oz copper shot glass.\\n\\nThe cup is very sleek and sturdy. I love the hammered look. It really gives it an artisan touch. It doesn't have any liner and it's just pure copper. It seems like one can never have enough shot glasses so the coordinating shot glass is a nice touch! Especially beautiful ones that don't say, \\\"One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor\\\"! ;-) I have yet to see any sort of drink set come with a glass straw and it is really gorgeous. I love the way it feels to drink out of and it doesn't feel terribly fragile. We now have two mule mugs and this one is definitely the favorite among me and my husband. We love barware and this is up there with the most unique pieces that we have along with our port sippers!\\n\\nThis set with some ginger beer, vodka, and limes would make for a fabulous gift basket. I received the set for free in exchange for my completely honest review.\",\n \"Product: Make your celebration truly memorable with our fun confetti cannon popper. Take the confetti poppers out at your party and start popping! Our party popper uses compressed air to launch confetti, making them safe for use anywhere. Each popper measure 11 long and is made of high quality material. The party popper operates using spring action and shoots confetti into the air up to 9 feet. This is an exciting way to share the happiness and is sure to be a hit at any party. Be the coolest person in the party shooting confetti at your friends! Its perfect to liven up your parties, carnivals, weddings, election rallies, performances and sporting events. Spice up your party or celebration with these little monsters! Specifications: Size: 11 Inch Available Packs: Single / 3 / Pack of 6 / Pack of 12 / Pack of 24 / Pack of 96 Note: Point away from the face and other people. Do not dismantle confetti before use or reload after use.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: these are a ton of fun! Really\\n\\nReview: <div id=\\\"video-block-R2BLTAL5HSOCQ3\\\" class=\\\"a-section a-spacing-small a-spacing-top-mini video-block\\\"></div><input type=\\\"hidden\\\" name=\\\"\\\" value=\\\"https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/C1bB8Z1eW0S.mp4\\\" class=\\\"video-url\\\"><input type=\\\"hidden\\\" name=\\\"\\\" value=\\\"https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81uIoFjMZNS.png\\\" class=\\\"video-slate-img-url\\\"> Wow. So, these are a ton of fun! Really. A lot!! You get 12 huge confetti party poppers in the order. They're very substantial, use compressed air, and have a ton of large gorgeous paper confetti just ready to fly out. It's also quite loud!! Hah! Quite a surprise. Make sure to read the directions prior to use. By my video, you can tell that my husband didn't really read the directions. ;-) After you remove the bottom pink paper piece, just twist the very bottom silver section. We tried to twist the larger bottom portion, but couldn't get it to pop until the effort was directed right at that silver part. These would be absolutely wonderful for a celebration. Get them!! So worth it! I received these poppers at a discount for a completely honest review and they're honestly fantastic!\",\n \"Product: Set of 4 Stunning Silver Filigree Napkin Rings with Clear Rhinestones\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: I was very disappointed with this product\\n\\nReview: I was very disappointed with this product. It actually photographs fairly well, but in person they just look pretty cheaply made.\\n\\nOne of mine arrived completely broken off of the ring and the others were bent. It's actually easy enough to bend back, but the metal is so flimsy that it seems like it won't last long after having to be reshaped so much. The back is also glued on in a way that has much of the glue seeping over the edge so it's very visible when you look at the back.\\n\\nI don't feel like I can use these with guests as I was planning to. My kids will be happy to play pretend with them though. I received these napkin rings for free in exchange for my completely honest review.\",\n \"Product: Wilton's Camouflage Sugar Sheets come in a variety of colors. Create quick and delicious treats. Camouflage pattern.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Made for a really cute cake!\\n\\nReview: Fun product! It worked even better than I had hoped! I wasn't the one who actually used them, but that was the report that I got from the person who made the cake. She said that it was a little tricky to work with, but that she adjusted to them quickly. Kind of like phyllo dough - there's a learning curve! It was most DEFINITELY a more affordable option than a themed cake from a bakery and helped solidify the baby shower camo theme.\\n\\nI have seen people complain about the flavor, but I just thought that it was sweet and the texture didn't bother me. I didn't see anybody scooting it to the side and throwing it away like I sometimes see with fondant either. So I guess that's just a highly subjective matter!\\n\\nThe item also came very quickly with my prime membership. That's a good thing because we ordered at the last minute and literally didn't have a day to spare!!\",\n \"Product: We are COZA DESIGN: from the world of our ideas comes the belief that design is for all. For all moments, all spaces, all dreams, all tones. It is the Democracy of design put in practice each day throughout Brazil and abroad. Everything began almost three decades ago, when plastic gained more creative forms, bolder colors and the cozy signature. From that point until today, hundreds of new products have been developed along with new possibilities. Ideas that always carried with the focus of being ahead, anticipating trends, launching concepts, listening to consumers, respecting the environment and stimulating more and more what is new. COZA DESIGN. Originally designed.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Originally I was disappointed when I couldn't use this like I anticipated\\n\\nReview: The claim that this fits \\\"all kitchen sinks\\\" is a bit of a stretch. We have a rather large industrial sink in our kitchen and it doesn't fit on the edges, but we have still been able to use it quite well.\\n\\nThis is shallow and deep enough to be able to rinse off wash, rinse, and dry utensils as well as fruits and vegetables. We made a huge batch of guacamole using this to rinse off all of the produce and it was so much simpler than the usual perforated bowl style that we usually use. Tomatoes, avocados, jalapeos, and especially cilantro. I was able to fan out the cilantro to really separate the leaves and rinse them well. I've also used it to wash berries. I mean, it just works really well for that sort of thing. Utensils, tiny pinch pots, straws, and those random odds and ends that get tossed around in the dishwasher also work really well in this too.\\n\\nOriginally I was disappointed when I couldn't use this like I anticipated, but it actually has worked out really well. I received this at a discount in exchange for my honest review.\",\n \"Product: These fun and unique plush animal hats are sure to get some compliments when added to your animal costume. These animal hats are great for farm yard or zoo fun of all kinds. Perfect for Birthdays, theme parties, or dress up any day of the year..\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: We have been having a great time with this moose hat\\n\\nReview: We have been having a great time with this moose hat! I mean, a moose hat? It's just pretty fun to have!! It has a likeness to Bullwinkle and is just really cute!\\n\\nIt's made from a felt-like material and is filled with a soft material so it's very comfortable to wear. Everything is distributed well so it does't feel like the antlers are weighing it down in any particular place. It also has a soft yet shiny black lining on the inside of that hat so it really molds to the head. It's a little large on my youngest, who just turned 4, but it fit my almost 6 year old better. It also fits the adults in the house and the velcro strap that fits around the chin helps keep it in place even better. It's adorable and we plan to use it for Halloween next year. However, I wouldn't be surprised if the 4 year old tries to wear it as a winter hat next year as well.\\n\\nIf you're looking for a moose hat, well, I must say that I've never seen one better! I received this hat for free in exchange for my completely honest review and we've been enjoying it so much!\",\n \"Product: Anchor Alloy Pendant Vintage Style Pendant Adjustable Leather Cord Necklace Featuring an eye catching. This stylish jewelry is bound to give even the simplest appearance a unique outstanding touch. Make a fashion statement. You'll thank us !\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: This is a nice, masculine necklace\\n\\nReview: This is a nice, masculine necklace. It comes with an aged silver anchor on a brown leather cord. The cord is soft while still being rugged. The cord is also completely adjustable with slide knots. The anchor itself is a very solid substantial charm that has a good bit of detail on it. The only one drawback to this necklace, for me, is that the bead between the top of the anchor and the cord is not fixed in place. It moves a bit when you move so the anchor gets crooked. I have thought about tying a knot to keep it in place and I may do that in the future. It's a good statement piece and a bit larger than I anticipated. Make sure to pay attention to the size in the listing. Overall, I like this necklace and I hope that my husband likes it for Christmas as well! I received this at a discount in exchange for my completely honest review.\",\n \"Product: Water never tasted so good. Simple, clean, green... Apana's Pure glass water bottles. The clarity and quality of glass meets style. Our glass bottles are annealed to give them the extra strength and durability for on-the-go use, and they exceed all FDA standards. Food safe silicone sleeves protect the glass and provide ample grip surface when you're on the move. The sleeve also features a triple-thick boot at the base to provide extra impact protection and the leak-proof cap has a unique double-wall construction for greater protection. The whole bottle is dishwasher perfect with no need to remove the sleeve for washing. 100% BPA-Free. 22-ounce capacity.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A few key features that I enjoy with this bottle\\n\\nReview: I am a fan of glass bottles. We even used glass baby bottles for pumped milk when our kids were babies!\\n\\nA few key features that I enjoy with this bottle:\\n\\n- color selection\\n- water droplet peek a boo glass design\\n- dishwasher safe\\n- no need to remove sleeve to wash\\n- wide opening to clean interior of bottle\\n- lid securely snaps closed\\n- small nickel-sized drinking hole\\n- leak-proof (so far anyways!)\\n- lighter weight than some of my other glass bottles\\n\\nI rarely do bullet point style reviews, but sometimes there are just too many pros to write a ton of full sentences about each thing!! :-)\\n\\nMy kids are 3 and 5 and they can't quite open or close the bottle. That defeats the whole purpose of the very secure lid. For that reason, I would just caution against getting it for anybody without full mobility of their hands. I think it's great for pretty much anybody else though. I received this bottle at a discount in exchange for my completely honest review and I hope that it helps with your purchase decision!\",\n \"Product: The CloudNine Body Board will enhance your day at the beach, river or water park. Riding the waves and surfing the ocean will leave you refreshed and rejuvenated. Our high quality body board is durable and lightweight. Fun for all ages and a beautiful design.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Some of them looked pretty neat, but none of them compares to this ...\\n\\nReview: Oh man. This is such an attractive body board!! We have had our fair share of body boards over the years. Some of them looked pretty neat, but none of them compares to this one. It's like a piece of artwork. Yes, I'm very impressed by the beauty of a piece of foam! LOL\\n\\nOther than the looks, it has done okay so far. We haven't used it to hit up the waves so when we take it to the beach I'll be giving it the real hardcore test! We have just played around with it here at home and used it in the pool. Compared to our other boards, it seems to be the same density and the ankle strap appears to be about the same. I've never seen a big difference among the body boards that we've used. We usually get them from the local sporting goods store or from one of the random shops near the beach in Galveston. They're all just your standard body board and so is this one, but it's just that much more attractive. I did receive this at a discount in exchange for my completely honest review and this has been my experience thus far.\",\n \"Product: From Disneynature, the studio that brought you EARTH, OCEANS, AFRICAN CATS and CHIMPANZEE, comes WINGS OF LIFE -- a stunning adventure full of intrigue, drama and mesmerizing beauty. Narrated by Meryl Streep, this intimate and unprecedented look at butterflies, hummingbirds, bees, bats and flowers is a celebration of life, as a third of the world's food supply depends on these incredible -- and increasingly threatened -- creatures. Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg, WINGS OF LIFE utilizes riveting high-speed, closer-than-close filmmaking techniques to showcase in spectacular detail these unsung heroes of our planet.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: This is the best nature documentary I've ever seen\\n\\nReview: This is the best nature documentary I've ever seen. As a homeschooler, I try to take cues from my children about the subjects to highlight. They are really into gardening, butterflies, birds, and things of that sort right now. This was absolutely captivating for both of them, ages 3 and 5.\\n\\nThis touches on bats, butterflies, birds, etc and their life cycle, feeding, migration on a global scale from a flower's \\\"perspective\\\". It is really amazing to see how everything is connected. I really love how the end ties it all together with environmental responsibility and a call to action. It inspired me.\\n\\nMeryl Streep as the narrator is quite nice. She really does a lovely job and her voice seamlessly blends in with the breathtaking visuals. I have never reviewed any sort of tv or movie on Amazon, but I was so impressed by this today that I had to come here and praise it. You should check it out!\",\n \"Product: Have a flea infestation and not sure how to stop it? The Victor Ultimate Flea Trap controls indoor flea problems with a 93% catch rate, helping you keep your family and pets safe from these pests. The trap is designed to catch fleas and even lure them out of upholstery up to 30ft away. The trap can be used time and time again with the Ultimate Flea Trap Refills. The refills come with 3 glue discs which are easy to replace. To replace, simply insert the glue discs (Victor logo side facing up) into the trap, remove protective sheet to reveal the Super Grabber glue, and place the trap anywhere indoors where fleas are wreaking havoc. Formula is non-toxic and odorless, making it a great option to use in homes with children and pets.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: The fleas were terrible in most of our rural neighborhood a few months ...\\n\\nReview: We have been using the Victor flea traps <a data-hook=\\\"product-link-linked\\\" class=\\\"a-link-normal\\\" href=\\\"/Victor-M230-Ultimate-Flea-Trap/dp/B000668Z96/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\\\">Victor M230 Ultimate Flea Trap</a>, along with these refills, for the past 6 months or so. The fleas were terrible in most of our rural neighborhood a few months ago and we had such a hard time getting them under control. We wanted something chemical free and that would be safe to use around our kids and pets. This fit our needs well.\\n\\nThese help us keep an eye on things and we haven't had an outbreak since we started using these. We purchased three units and periodically move them into different rooms of our house. We've even turned some family and friends in the area onto the traps. We change out the sticky pad in each of our traps about once a month so we pay about $5.00 a month for flea control. You just can't beat that! The most difficult thing is just remembering to plug the lights in!!\",\n \"Product: The C-Well Multi Light is truly the most useful light you will ever own. We have customers using this handy light for everything from reading books to working on their car. Its multiple power sources means it can be used easily on your laptop in a low light area with the USB to your night side table with the AC plug to your tent in the mountains with AAAs (all included). The durable alloy arms insure long life and if you do have an issue please contact us and we will be happy to replace your C-well light right away.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: This is really a fantastic light!\\n\\nReview: I was a book nerd as a kid. I have had many many a clip on light over the past 25 years or so since I started reading late at night! Who needs sleep when you can read?!\\n\\nThis is really a fantastic light!! You can clip it onto a variety of surfaces with the large padded clip. It opens up very wide to accomodate. You can put 3AAA batteries in the unit and use it in the car, camping, etc or plug it in via the included USB cable or AC adaptor. It has two lights that are incredibly easy to move around and you can point them in many directions. You can turn both lights on or just one and you can also choose between two brightnesses. We have set it up for our kids to use in the car too. Clip it to something in the middle and then swivel one to shine on each of two kids. We have a no touching rule so wherever we put it is where it stays!\\n\\nIt's really a very highly customizable light and I have never ever been happier with one before! I hope that this light lasts us a long while and we will likely get another one or two of these for our family. I received this fantastic little light for free in exchange for my completely honest review and I hope that's very helpful.\"\n]","isConversational":false},"profile_size":{"kind":"number","value":17,"string":"17"},"task":{"kind":"string","value":"longlamp_3"},"split_kind":{"kind":"string","value":"user_based"},"id":{"kind":"number","value":1689,"string":"1,689"}}},{"rowIdx":1690,"cells":{"question_id":{"kind":"string","value":"A1JNDXTL02R9WG"},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of \"4.0\" for a product with description \"Easily keep your garden supplies and a variety of other tools neatly organized with the Velcro USA Clip Strip Ties. Featuring a lightweight construction the low profile adjustable design straps are ideal for all bundling and organizational needs from securing garden hoses to wrapping electrical cords. Measures 1/2\" by 8\".\". The summary of the review text is \"They feel cheap but do the job\"."},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"I have a make shift server rack in a closet upstairs that has about 16 cat5 cables running to it 2 large computers, 4 external hard drives, monitor and tons of other stuff. I did not want a rats nest of wires I wanted it to look clean and be easy to add to. Using zip ties is great, but cutting them all off and risking my wires in the process isn't worth it. I finally just ordered these velcro strips because of the price. I expected thicker more durable feeling strips. I decided to try them since they were so cheap instead of returning them. They seem to do the job nicely, I cannot find any major annoying features or issues with them. They were able to hold on to 3 thick VGA cables and 3 coax lines to my rack without coming loose so I feel good about them. Just don't expect something that feels really high end. Also I should note that they come in rolls so you need to tear them apart at the seams. Not a big problem, but again not what I expected."},"correct_answer":{"kind":"string","value":"I have a make shift server rack in a closet upstairs that has about 16 cat5 cables running to it 2 large computers, 4 external hard drives, monitor and tons of other stuff. I did not want a rats nest of wires I wanted it to look clean and be easy to add to. Using zip ties is great, but cutting them all off and risking my wires in the process isn't worth it. I finally just ordered these velcro strips because of the price. I expected thicker more durable feeling strips. I decided to try them since they were so cheap instead of returning them. They seem to do the job nicely, I cannot find any major annoying features or issues with them. They were able to hold on to 3 thick VGA cables and 3 coax lines to my rack without coming loose so I feel good about them. Just don't expect something that feels really high end. Also I should note that they come in rolls so you need to tear them apart at the seams. Not a big problem, but again not what I expected."},"documents":{"kind":"list like","value":["Product: Computer Grafix films can be run through Inkjet or Laser printers/copiers to create unique designs right from your own computer. Print vibrant images, crisp text, custom overlays, journaling, window effects, stickers and photos on Computer Grafix blank transparencies. Try rubber stamping and embossing to add extra texture and dimension to all of your projects. These films make designing your scrapbook pages and paper crafts more creative than ever!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Great for crafting at an AMAZING PRICE!!!!\n\nReview: This worked amazingly for what I needed it for! I was making spooky crystal balls for halloween and this did the trick. It is perfectly transparent. They worked amazing in my laser jet printer. It comes out ready to go, you don't have to wait for ink to dry or anything. You just have to make sure that you are printing on the \"rough\" side. I even scratched at the images I printed and it didn't come of!\n\nThe best thing about this is the price. I went to all of my local office supply stores and you can only buy these in boxes of 50 or larger. For a box of 50 the lowest price I found was just over 48 bucks! Im not a teacher so I would never have the need for more than a handful of these. I order two just in case and for the 10 crystal balls I made (and one mess up) i only used one and a half pages! so I will have plenty for years to come for crafting!!","Product: use bistro chalk markers on chalkboards, light boards, windows and windshields. They are opaque, water based, pigmented and erasable when dry.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: 6mm tip is bigger than I thought\n\nReview: (This is Chris' wife leaving this review!) I don't know anything about chalk markers... I bought these to write on chalkboard contact paper that I use to make labels for my jams and jellies. I figured 6mm would be a pretty thin tip but it's not, so if you are looking to use these on something small don't bother. I use a punch for my labels and the punch measures almost 2 1/4 inches across and I can barely fit the word strawberry. I can't speak for the erase ability of these since I don't need to erase my food labels. I can say that they don't smudge though! * I changed my 3 star review to 5 star. I don't think it is fair to give 3 stars because the tip if too big for what I wanted to use it for.*","Product: Computer Grafix films can be run through Inkjet or Laser printers/copiers to create unique designs right from your own computer. Print vibrant images, crisp text, custom overlays, journaling, window effects, stickers and photos on Computer Grafix blank transparencies. Try rubber stamping and embossing to add extra texture and dimension to all of your projects. These films make designing your scrapbook pages and paper crafts more creative than ever!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Great for crafting at an AMAZING PRICE!!!!\n\nReview: This worked amazingly for what I needed it for! I was making spooky crystal balls for halloween and this did the trick. It is perfectly transparent. They worked amazing in my laser jet printer. It comes out ready to go, you don't have to wait for ink to dry or anything. You just have to make sure that you are printing on the \"rough\" side. I even scratched at the images I printed and it didn't come of!\n\nThe best thing about this is the price. I went to all of my local office supply stores and you can only buy these in boxes of 50 or larger. For a box of 50 the lowest price I found was just over 48 bucks! Im not a teacher so I would never have the need for more than a handful of these. I order two just in case and for the 10 crystal balls I made (and one mess up) i only used one and a half pages! so I will have plenty for years to come for crafting!!","Product: Do not start console before plugging the racing wheel in, the wheel won't connect correctly. This is with all controllers and racing wheels.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: It works but it's \"big brother\" is a far better choice.\n\nReview: This wheel is fine, it does the job but nothing more. If you've ever played a good working arcade racing game you'll notice force feedback. The wheel pulls and gives some resistance to the player which makes it more realistic and fun in my opinion. I originally bought this wheel to avoid spending the three hundred dollar TX wheel. I didn't get it from Amazon, instead the Microsoft Store (The wheel was in awful condition and missing the breakaway cable, whats with that?). I was immediately disappointed, its just a rubber band to hold the wheel in the center position. I knew that going in but it really felt like that when I got a hold of it. You may think: \"Why is force feedback important?\" If you're really into racing games you've got to feel the force feedback. Once you do, you realize how much that output from the game to your hands lets you feel how your car is handling. My times increased significantly when I could feel when my car was losing traction, going out of control and the satisfying feeling of correcting a skid.\n\nThis wheel works but don't expect much other than a very basic experience. Save the money, if possible, for the TX Italia wheel. It's leaps ahead of this one.","Product: Ion Drum Rocker Cymbal Expansion Kit; Add another cymbal to your Drum Rocker! Able to be used with Rock Band, Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour video games and other drum modules, the Ion Drum Rocker has really taken the Main Stage by storm. With this cymbal expansion you can add another cymbal to the mix to give this power-house setup adding an extra dynamic to your game and an extra cymbal trigger when using a drum module. Just mount the included hardware anywhere an your Drum Rocker stand, attach the cymbal and connect the cable to add another assignable cymbal pad. Ion includes a set of color-assignment rings for easy recognition of which color your symbol corresponds to on screen.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Works great dual purpose!\n\nReview: I'll start off by saying I didn't buy this for an Ion Drum kit. I have an Alesis DM10 Studio Kit that I also use for Rock Band. I was looking to add another cymbal to my kit so I bought the 12 inch Alesis cymbal but knew it didn't come with mounting hardware. Someone told me to pick up one of these with it because mounting hardware for my rack could cost me close to $50 anyway. So I bought this cymbal while I wait for my other to arrive, I tried it out and was plesantly surprised. The cymbal is the exact same as one of my non-chokable Alesis cymbals, it just doesnt say \"Alesis\" on it. As far as Rock Band performance goes, its great, no double triggering or anything. So if you just want an Ion Cymbal for RB this will be great of course, if you want an extra cymbal for the Alesis kits this should also work great and have no trouble mounting to your rack.","Product: The user-friendly OXO Good Grips Food Scale with Pull-Out Display is ideal for weighing ingredients --baking essentials, meat, produce, herbs, spices and more. The easy-to-read digital display features large numbers and measures in 1/8-ounce (US) and 1-gram (metric) increments for exceptional accuracy. Place food directly on the stainless steel platform or on a plate or in a bowl. The digital display easily pulls away from the base to prevent shadowing from large plates or bowls. An optional backlight illuminates the display for extra visibility and a convenient weight indicator shows how much of the 11-lb capacity is left. Press the Zero button to offset the weight of a container or to reset the weight before adding additional ingredients. The Scales stainless steel platform can be removed for quick handwashing and thin profile and cordless design ensure easy setup, cleanup and storage. Intended for cooking, baking, diet portion measurement and more, the OXO Good Grips Food Scale with Pull-Out Display is highly recommended by Cooks Illustrated. Four AAA batteries included.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: best scale i have ever had\n\nReview: (This is Chris' wife leaving this review) It used to be I would have to buy a new scale every year because they didn't hold up! I bought this scale almost a year ago and I use it every week. I love the pull out screen and the back lighting. The other scales I have bought show the weights as 1.4 lbs. or 3.2 lbs...This one shows it as fractions which are what most recipes use, like 4 3/4 or 5 7/8. Even with how much i use it, I still haven't had to replace the batteries. The top is removable for easy clean up. A REALLY awesome feature is, if you have your bowl on the scale and you are adding your ingredients and you're on your third ingredient (i add one then zero it add the next zero it again) you get a phone call or someone is at the door in the middle of you adding 345 g of sugar...by the time you get back the scale has gone to sleep...FUUUUUUUUUUUU just hit the on button and BAM it remembers where you are at instead of zeroing out! I can't tell you how many times this has happened to me! Best feature hands down!","Product: The user-friendly OXO Good Grips Food Scale with Pull-Out Display is ideal for weighing ingredients --baking essentials, meat, produce, herbs, spices and more. The easy-to-read digital display features large numbers and measures in 1/8-ounce (US) and 1-gram (metric) increments for exceptional accuracy. Place food directly on the stainless steel platform or on a plate or in a bowl. The digital display easily pulls away from the base to prevent shadowing from large plates or bowls. An optional backlight illuminates the display for extra visibility and a convenient weight indicator shows how much of the 11-lb capacity is left. Press the Zero button to offset the weight of a container or to reset the weight before adding additional ingredients. The Scales stainless steel platform can be removed for quick handwashing and thin profile and cordless design ensure easy setup, cleanup and storage. Intended for cooking, baking, diet portion measurement and more, the OXO Good Grips Food Scale with Pull-Out Display is highly recommended by Cooks Illustrated. Four AAA batteries included.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: best scale i have ever had\n\nReview: (This is Chris' wife leaving this review) It used to be I would have to buy a new scale every year because they didn't hold up! I bought this scale almost a year ago and I use it every week. I love the pull out screen and the back lighting. The other scales I have bought show the weights as 1.4 lbs. or 3.2 lbs...This one shows it as fractions which are what most recipes use, like 4 3/4 or 5 7/8. Even with how much i use it, I still haven't had to replace the batteries. The top is removable for easy clean up. A REALLY awesome feature is, if you have your bowl on the scale and you are adding your ingredients and you're on your third ingredient (i add one then zero it add the next zero it again) you get a phone call or someone is at the door in the middle of you adding 345 g of sugar...by the time you get back the scale has gone to sleep...FUUUUUUUUUUUU just hit the on button and BAM it remembers where you are at instead of zeroing out! I can't tell you how many times this has happened to me! Best feature hands down!","Product: The Tightvac Storage System is a unique patented vacuum seal closure system which allows moisture to escape, keeping your goods dry & oxygen free. The 1-1/2 pound/ 24 oz. Tightvac is the perfect size storage for coffee, tea, flour, pasta, snacks, pet treats or food, sugar, and any other dry good items. Great for travel & camping. Tightvacs save you money and guarantee fresher for longer food storage. Store any of the Tightvac containers conveniently in the pantry, on the countertop, in the refrigerator or freezer. The Tightvac's easy to use system creates a vacuum seal simply by pushing the button on the lid as you close it/press again to open, simple! Use all of our products; Tightvacs, Coffeevacs, Everythingvacs & Vitavacs for a multitude of household storage purposes, from small to large, in a variety of colors & styles. Hand wash only.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: great container for coffee!\n\nReview: I use this container to store my coffees that I can buy only seasonally. I have some coconut coffee that has been in one of the containers for 4-5 months and still tastes and smells as fresh as the day I bought it. I bought two 10 ounce bags and poured them in here and there was plenty of room for third bag even.\n\nthis container is way bigger than I expected it to be. it has a small foot print, but is very tall. not every attractive to place on a counter if you have more than one.\n\nI ordered two sizes and when I received the order one was sealed in plastic and wrapped up to protect the finish. the other was not and was scratched to hell. looked like it had been kicked down the street a few times. I requested a new one and the replacement came wrapped exactly like the other one (the good one)","Product: Convert unused corner space into storage space with this attractive, satin nickel pole caddy. The unique wall-hugging baskets can be positioned at any height, making this an ideal storage solution for either tubs or showers. Three baskets are 2-1/2-Inch deep and the fourth is 3-1/2-Inch deep, allowing even the largest and tallest of bottles to stay securely inside the heavy-gauge wire baskets. Fits standing ceilings up to 8 ft. 1 in. No tools needed for most installations. (For 60 to 70.5 in., and 81 to 91.5 in., pole heights, tube cutting may be required. Use it either in the bathtub between ceiling and the tub ledge corner or inside the shower directly down to the floor. Additional extensions for taller ceilings are available to purchase from the manufacturer. The attractive rust-resistant satin nickel finish is durable and wipes clean with just a damp cloth. All installation options have simple to follow instructions in words and illustrations. In addition, a toll-free USA based Customer Service department is available. Note: Assembly instructions can be previewed by clicking the link under \"Technical Specification\" below.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Great storage but floppy and doesnt feel secure.\n\nReview: My wife bought this on a Black Friday sale, we've had one of those hanging-from-the-water-spout style baskets for years. I always wanted to try a corner rack for more storage space. My wife likes to keep just about everything that doesnt plug into an outlet in the shower, hopefully she won't read this. I'd often knock something off and fear for my toes in the split second it took to reach the tub floor. This shower caddy does a good job of not letting things slip between cracks and fall out. Our biggest complaint is, its floppy. The spring isn't really tight enough to make a good connection between our tub and the ceiling. We have a normal height ceiling, 8 feet. I have a small fear the hose from the shower nozzle could get behind the shelf and pull it out during high speed showering. If we replace this at some point I will likely insist we buy one that is more like a shower curtain rod, where you turn the pole to make it tighter rather than relying on a spring. The whole caddy bounces around when I pump the soap out of the shampoo container. We don't have a lot of confidence this will last for years.","Product: Reduce mixing time and the need to scrape ingredients down the side of the bowl when you're mixing with this beater, which features a flexible edge that thoroughly scrapes ingredients into the bowl. Fits models KV25G and KP26M1X.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Works great but has some issues.\n\nReview: This blade was a replacement for the Flex Edge Beater I bought with my mixer almost 5 years ago. The blade is great for my baking. I love using the soft side to scrape the extra butter that is left on the wrappers when adding butter to my recipes. I also use the soft side to wipe my spatulas clean after scraping down the bowl between mixings.\n\nThe one major issue I have with this product is that the white coating does come off. Not ALL of it...but in \"high traffic\" areas. (see pictures) I am certain that some of the flakes have come off in the food I am using the blade to make! Also the silicone edge becomes brittle after a time. The one I am replacing is almost split all the way through. But 5 years of use considering the price isn't too bad!","Product: DataComm Electronics 1-Gang Recessed Low Voltage Cable Plates are used to install low voltage cables behind your flat panel TV, amplifier, or other audio and video devices. These plates are designed to be installed onto a low voltage mounting bracket. The cable plates can be installed with the opening facing up or down.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Makes a nice clean finish!\n\nReview: We decided to mount our new 60 in tv but didn't want the wires to hang between the tv and the entertainment stand. So we looked into these. We were a little nervous to be cutting into the walls to install this. We used <a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/Arlington-LV1-1CS-Single-Gang-Low-Voltage-Mounting-Bracket-Device/dp/B000UEAJWU/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\">Arlington LV1-1CS Single Gang Low Voltage Mounting Bracket Device</a> an old work bracket to draw an outline as a starting off point so we didn't cut TOO big. It would be nice if the plate came with a template for cutting! Because we ended up having to make each hole a little bit bigger. And that extra time and work can get frustrating!\n\nMake sure you buy the old work brackets with these, so you have something screw the plate onto! We forgot and had to run to Lowes in the middle of trying to mount our tv.","Product: Elgato Game Capture HD, for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3, Xbox One and Xbox 360, or Wii U Gameplay, Full HD 1080p\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Very impressed! Only a few minor issues.\n\nReview: This is my third capture device. Its by far the best, even though its the most expensive. I recently purchased a Macbook Pro with Retina Display which made my Roxio Game Capture useless since it doesnt work with Mac. The El Gato works great on Mac, it seems to be mainly designed for Mac but also works for Windows. The HD recording is really excellent, the quality is very high while the file size remains reasonable. My Roxio Game Capture was 480p only but the file size on high quality was around 1GB per minute. The software works nearly perfect, the only issues I've run into are exporting to iMovie, it gets to the end and just stop working most of the time. But you can always go to the Finder and get your video file there. My biggest complaint about this item is the loss in quality on the TV while its passing through the El Gato. It made my picture look dull and washed out, it was instantly noticeable. The upside is after using the software video settings (which DO affect the TV's look!) and slightly altering the HDTV's settings I was able to get (mostly) back to normal. The last complaint is hard to really complain about, it was a misunderstanding on my part. I read that there was \"zero video lag\" and thought that was great. I sometimes take my Xbox 360 out of town with me but don't want to rely on a TV being available. So I will use my laptop and a capture device to play my games, that will not work with the El Gato. There is a major lag on your computer screen, up to 2-3 seconds in some cases. Yet the TV seems to have zero lag, as advertised. I use it to record Rock Band videos, Rock Band is a game that relies heavily on everything being in sync. I had to change my games calibration settings by 5 milliseconds, so if there is any lag, its hardly noticeable.\n\nIt would be very difficult for me to find any real reason to tell someone not to buy this. I cant speak for Windows but its works great on Mac. Its amazing how HDMI 1080p recording has reached an affordable price and not require an outrageously high end machine. Dont go cheap, Roxio makes a decent recording device but save the extra money and get the better product.","Product: Instantly add 1 TB of storage space to your computer Simple plug-and-play connectivity via USB cable USB powered, no AC adapter required USB 3.0 interface for extremely fast data transfer speeds (USB 2.0 compatible) Drive is automatically recognized by Windows; no software instillation required\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Seems to be great for Xbox One storage!\n\nReview: I bought two of these to extend my Xbox One's space. I didn't plug them into a PC at any point so I can't speak to that. Both Xbox Ones immediately recognized the drives and asked to format them. Formatting was finished in seconds and I had 2.3TB of total storage between the internal and external drives on my console (with nothing installed). This is a very small drive, it fits in my hand. I like that it is powered over the one USB cable. They drives are quiet, I can only barely hear them running when I'm within 2 feet of the drives and the room is silent around me. I've permanently stored them behind the consoles so they are essentially silent even when my rooms are quiet. There is one small blue status light that blinks when its being accessed. Luckily its a pretty faint light so it shouldn't be an annoyance in dark rooms. I've been running them for about 2 weeks now with no glitches or issues. The drives seem fast which is a must for gaming, I chose this drive because of other's reviews showing they usually reach their advertised speeds. My only complaint is the short USB cable, its probably 1 foot long. If you're using it on your desk with your PC or just looking to extend your Xbox One's storage it should be fine.\n\nPros:\n-Small\n-Quiet\n-Works great with Xbox One\n\nCons:\n-Short cable","Product: The Arbalest Protective Case is made of Hybrid TPU (edge) and PC(back) and features a screen protector. Together they provide excellent protection for the iPod Touch 5th/6th Generation.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: You cant beat it for the price.\n\nReview: I wanted a simple case for my new ipod. The only place I normally use my ipod is in bed at night. my last ipod got scratched like crazy from falling out of the bed between the headboard and the matress. So i wanted to make sure this one didn't scratch! I had a snap together clear case for my last one but the pieces that snapped together eventually broke. That is why I was looking for a single piece case.\n\nThe backing is a frost color, would have been better if full clear! There is a hole on the back of the case for the strap brad...but it is impossible to put the strap on with the case on. The hole should have been bigger. And the headphone jack hole is too small for the rubber around the base of the actual headphone plug. You really have to force it in there. So that hole should have been made bigger too. The good thing about this case is the band of color around the case. It is rubberized and very grippy. It makes holding the ipod easy, it doesnt feel like its going to slip right out of your hand! The cleaning cloth that comes with it is a really nice size too! Some times when you order cheaper off brand cases you get a cleaning cloth the size of a postage stamp! It also came with the hard card like otter boxes so you can smooth out the screen protector!","Product: The Black LG Tone Pro Bluetooth Stereo Headset from LG brings you the high-quality audio experience of stereo sound with the convenience of Bluetooth technology. Up to 15 hours of talk time and 10 hours of listening time keep you connected to your music and social life whenever you need it. With its unique form factor and sleek design, the LG Tone Pro is an around-the-neck wearing style, ensuring you comfort throughout the day. Includes travel charger. Features of the LG Tone Pro include advanced multipoint connection, bass boost, text to speech, vibrating call alert, audible pairing assistances, audible battery status alert, auto-reconnect, microphone mute, noise reduction and echo cancellation, and toggle vibration on/off selection. The headset is apt and HD Voice compatible and integrates with Google Voice Actions. Includes travel charger. Refer page 12 in the User Manual for troubleshooting steps.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: LG Tone HBS-750 Bluetooth headset - Great Bluetooth headphones!\n\nReview: I waited a week or so to try these out before reviewing since I've read some hit and miss reviews. For clarification I got the LG Tone HBS-750 Bluetooth headset model. I don't use them for talking much but when I did I was outdoors and I asked my wife (the caller) \"Can you hear me okay? I'm on my headset.\" she replied: \"Oh, I had no idea you were using the Bluetooth.\" So its pretty good quality from what I can tell. I love that it shows the battery life on screen on my phone. The vibrating function is helpful but I don't really use it much for talking. I mainly purchased these for listening to music and podcasts while working. The music quality is really nice, good bass and no distortion. I used to have the Jabra Clipper for that use but I normally found I couldn't hear the music in loud areas. The LG Tone is so loud I was able to mow my lawn today while listening to a podcast and even had to turn it down. I find these to be over all well made, and worth the price.","Product: Smaller than your average wallet with Wireless N technology, the D-Link Wireless N Day/Night Home Network Camera (DCS-932L), is the perfect camera for your home or small office. The Built-in IR LEDs lets you see what is going on even when there is little or no light. A compact design with integrated antenna, you can place the DCS-932L virtually anywhere, even in the smallest corners of your home. You can easily view what is going on at home without having to be there via the Internet, or from the mydlink app. Set up a camera near your entryway or in any room to monitor what is happening around the house, day amp; night. The Wireless N Day/Night Home Network Camera is ideal for every household.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Very good as long as you've got realistic expectations.\n\nReview: These are handy little cameras. I like to leave a few around the house to keep an eye on our crazy cat while were out of town. She gets a little odd so checking in on her makes us feel a lot better. You can place them anywhere as long as you have power and WIFI or an ethernet port nearby. We use one in our garage because of the motion detection. When the door opens, we get alerts on our phones. If we thought \"Did we close the door?\" we can now just take a look rather than buying some complicated garage door opener with internet capabilities. I've used them in creative ways, I was charging a jet ski battery and didn't want to keep going to check if it was done. I just put one of the cameras where it could see the indicator light and saved several unneeded trips to check on it. These are cheap enough to just put them anywhere you want to see something. I don't recommend using them outdoors other than in your garage. They seem to handle the heat of a Texas summer just fine in the garage but they certainly aren't waterproof. The night vision is good for indoor short distances (I'd say 10ft of well lit space). The audio is surprisingly sensitive. I've heard things in other rooms on these cameras. Its not the best quality audio but you can make out whats going on pretty easily. Video quality is fine, don't expect HD, you can probably get 480p out of these with a decent connection. I've had a few issues with the D-link app, it seems like if I watch a camera too long or too often it goes offline for about 10-15 minutes and then comes back. It could have been a poor network connection and I've recently changed it up and have not noticed the issue.\n\nIf you're more tech savvy, you can have these feed to a computer running IP camera software and use it more like a regular security camera set up. I've tried it but don't have a lot of use for it. It did work pretty well though. Just be prepared for a lot of network traffic if you go that route, constant video streaming from several cameras may make your WIFI slower for other devices. I'd suggest using wired only at that point and put them on their own switch that links to your router or main switch.\n\nIf you pay Amazon's prices for this, you're buying them at the right price. I own 3 now plus one that pans and tilts. I recommend these.","Product: Get more for your money from this comfortable, good-looking utility pant. It's built of sturdy fabric for hard wear and easy care. The flattering flat front looks sharp wherever work takes you--field to the office, back shop to the back yard. Tradesmen swear by the 874's comfort and durability; office guys praise the look, fit, quality, and price. The 874 is comprised of Heavyweight 8.5 oz. twill of easy-care and 65% polyester/35% cotton. The pant comes in a wide choice of fade-resistant colors with a 26\" to 72\" waist sizing variance.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: These last through tough jobs and many washes.\n\nReview: I've had 5 pairs of these pants for over 2 years. I wear one pair each day of the work week. I'm a Pest Control Technician and often find my self climbing on rooftops and sitting on them while doing exclusion work. Before I wore Dickies, I'd wear normal dress pants which lasted a good one visit on top of a room before holes were forming. The Dickies are tough, I've been on my knees and behind on roof tops and never had a hole. I go under houses and have to crawl around in rocks and dirt but have yet to find a hole. After two years of wearing these and washing repeatedly, they are finally starting to fade a little and start to get the fuzzies or \"Pilling\" on the fabric. I also love the range of waist and length sizes. If you're short and fat, you can get pants without hemming, if you're tall and skinny, they've got sizes for that frame also. Its great. If you do any sort of labor and need quality work pants, don't hesitate to order these.\n\nMy only complaint is the fit, they always run a little small. I have to buy one size up just to ensure they fit. It's not flattering when you're picking your size but keep that in mind.\n\nUpdate: Its May 2017 and I still have these same pairs of pants I originally ordered. They each get worn/washed about once a week, a pair for each work day. I have a couple of pairs that are finally getting thin in the crotch from rubbing but no holes or tears anywhere.","Product: Get more for your money from this comfortable, good-looking utility pant. It's built of sturdy fabric for hard wear and easy care. The flattering flat front looks sharp wherever work takes you--field to the office, back shop to the back yard. Tradesmen swear by the 874's comfort and durability; office guys praise the look, fit, quality, and price. The 874 is comprised of Heavyweight 8.5 oz. twill of easy-care and 65% polyester/35% cotton. The pant comes in a wide choice of fade-resistant colors with a 26\" to 72\" waist sizing variance.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: These last through tough jobs and many washes.\n\nReview: I've had 5 pairs of these pants for over 2 years. I wear one pair each day of the work week. I'm a Pest Control Technician and often find my self climbing on rooftops and sitting on them while doing exclusion work. Before I wore Dickies, I'd wear normal dress pants which lasted a good one visit on top of a room before holes were forming. The Dickies are tough, I've been on my knees and behind on roof tops and never had a hole. I go under houses and have to crawl around in rocks and dirt but have yet to find a hole. After two years of wearing these and washing repeatedly, they are finally starting to fade a little and start to get the fuzzies or \"Pilling\" on the fabric. I also love the range of waist and length sizes. If you're short and fat, you can get pants without hemming, if you're tall and skinny, they've got sizes for that frame also. Its great. If you do any sort of labor and need quality work pants, don't hesitate to order these.\n\nMy only complaint is the fit, they always run a little small. I have to buy one size up just to ensure they fit. It's not flattering when you're picking your size but keep that in mind.\n\nUpdate: Its May 2017 and I still have these same pairs of pants I originally ordered. They each get worn/washed about once a week, a pair for each work day. I have a couple of pairs that are finally getting thin in the crotch from rubbing but no holes or tears anywhere.","Product: Get more for your money from this comfortable, good-looking utility pant. It's built of sturdy fabric for hard wear and easy care. The flattering flat front looks sharp wherever work takes you--field to the office, back shop to the back yard. Tradesmen swear by the 874's comfort and durability; office guys praise the look, fit, quality, and price. The 874 is comprised of Heavyweight 8.5 oz. twill of easy-care and 65% polyester/35% cotton. The pant comes in a wide choice of fade-resistant colors with a 26\" to 72\" waist sizing variance.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: These last through tough jobs and many washes.\n\nReview: I've had 5 pairs of these pants for over 2 years. I wear one pair each day of the work week. I'm a Pest Control Technician and often find my self climbing on rooftops and sitting on them while doing exclusion work. Before I wore Dickies, I'd wear normal dress pants which lasted a good one visit on top of a room before holes were forming. The Dickies are tough, I've been on my knees and behind on roof tops and never had a hole. I go under houses and have to crawl around in rocks and dirt but have yet to find a hole. After two years of wearing these and washing repeatedly, they are finally starting to fade a little and start to get the fuzzies or \"Pilling\" on the fabric. I also love the range of waist and length sizes. If you're short and fat, you can get pants without hemming, if you're tall and skinny, they've got sizes for that frame also. Its great. If you do any sort of labor and need quality work pants, don't hesitate to order these.\n\nMy only complaint is the fit, they always run a little small. I have to buy one size up just to ensure they fit. It's not flattering when you're picking your size but keep that in mind.\n\nUpdate: Its May 2017 and I still have these same pairs of pants I originally ordered. They each get worn/washed about once a week, a pair for each work day. I have a couple of pairs that are finally getting thin in the crotch from rubbing but no holes or tears anywhere.","Product: Get more for your money from this comfortable, good-looking utility pant. It's built of sturdy fabric for hard wear and easy care. The flattering flat front looks sharp wherever work takes you--field to the office, back shop to the back yard. Tradesmen swear by the 874's comfort and durability; office guys praise the look, fit, quality, and price. The 874 is comprised of Heavyweight 8.5 oz. twill of easy-care and 65% polyester/35% cotton. The pant comes in a wide choice of fade-resistant colors with a 26\" to 72\" waist sizing variance.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: These last through tough jobs and many washes.\n\nReview: I've had 5 pairs of these pants for over 2 years. I wear one pair each day of the work week. I'm a Pest Control Technician and often find my self climbing on rooftops and sitting on them while doing exclusion work. Before I wore Dickies, I'd wear normal dress pants which lasted a good one visit on top of a room before holes were forming. The Dickies are tough, I've been on my knees and behind on roof tops and never had a hole. I go under houses and have to crawl around in rocks and dirt but have yet to find a hole. After two years of wearing these and washing repeatedly, they are finally starting to fade a little and start to get the fuzzies or \"Pilling\" on the fabric. I also love the range of waist and length sizes. If you're short and fat, you can get pants without hemming, if you're tall and skinny, they've got sizes for that frame also. Its great. If you do any sort of labor and need quality work pants, don't hesitate to order these.\n\nMy only complaint is the fit, they always run a little small. I have to buy one size up just to ensure they fit. It's not flattering when you're picking your size but keep that in mind.\n\nUpdate: Its May 2017 and I still have these same pairs of pants I originally ordered. They each get worn/washed about once a week, a pair for each work day. I have a couple of pairs that are finally getting thin in the crotch from rubbing but no holes or tears anywhere.","Product: Get more for your money from this comfortable, good-looking utility pant. It's built of sturdy fabric for hard wear and easy care. The flattering flat front looks sharp wherever work takes you--field to the office, back shop to the back yard. Tradesmen swear by the 874's comfort and durability; office guys praise the look, fit, quality, and price. The 874 is comprised of Heavyweight 8.5 oz. twill of easy-care and 65% polyester/35% cotton. The pant comes in a wide choice of fade-resistant colors with a 26\" to 72\" waist sizing variance.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: These last through tough jobs and many washes.\n\nReview: I've had 5 pairs of these pants for over 2 years. I wear one pair each day of the work week. I'm a Pest Control Technician and often find my self climbing on rooftops and sitting on them while doing exclusion work. Before I wore Dickies, I'd wear normal dress pants which lasted a good one visit on top of a room before holes were forming. The Dickies are tough, I've been on my knees and behind on roof tops and never had a hole. I go under houses and have to crawl around in rocks and dirt but have yet to find a hole. After two years of wearing these and washing repeatedly, they are finally starting to fade a little and start to get the fuzzies or \"Pilling\" on the fabric. I also love the range of waist and length sizes. If you're short and fat, you can get pants without hemming, if you're tall and skinny, they've got sizes for that frame also. Its great. If you do any sort of labor and need quality work pants, don't hesitate to order these.\n\nMy only complaint is the fit, they always run a little small. I have to buy one size up just to ensure they fit. It's not flattering when you're picking your size but keep that in mind.\n\nUpdate: Its May 2017 and I still have these same pairs of pants I originally ordered. They each get worn/washed about once a week, a pair for each work day. I have a couple of pairs that are finally getting thin in the crotch from rubbing but no holes or tears anywhere.","Product: Get more for your money from this comfortable, good-looking utility pant. It's built of sturdy fabric for hard wear and easy care. The flattering flat front looks sharp wherever work takes you--field to the office, back shop to the back yard. Tradesmen swear by the 874's comfort and durability; office guys praise the look, fit, quality, and price. The 874 is comprised of Heavyweight 8.5 oz. twill of easy-care and 65% polyester/35% cotton. The pant comes in a wide choice of fade-resistant colors with a 26\" to 72\" waist sizing variance.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: These last through tough jobs and many washes.\n\nReview: I've had 5 pairs of these pants for over 2 years. I wear one pair each day of the work week. I'm a Pest Control Technician and often find my self climbing on rooftops and sitting on them while doing exclusion work. Before I wore Dickies, I'd wear normal dress pants which lasted a good one visit on top of a room before holes were forming. The Dickies are tough, I've been on my knees and behind on roof tops and never had a hole. I go under houses and have to crawl around in rocks and dirt but have yet to find a hole. After two years of wearing these and washing repeatedly, they are finally starting to fade a little and start to get the fuzzies or \"Pilling\" on the fabric. I also love the range of waist and length sizes. If you're short and fat, you can get pants without hemming, if you're tall and skinny, they've got sizes for that frame also. Its great. If you do any sort of labor and need quality work pants, don't hesitate to order these.\n\nMy only complaint is the fit, they always run a little small. I have to buy one size up just to ensure they fit. It's not flattering when you're picking your size but keep that in mind.\n\nUpdate: Its May 2017 and I still have these same pairs of pants I originally ordered. They each get worn/washed about once a week, a pair for each work day. I have a couple of pairs that are finally getting thin in the crotch from rubbing but no holes or tears anywhere.","Product: Get more for your money from this comfortable, good-looking utility pant. It's built of sturdy fabric for hard wear and easy care. The flattering flat front looks sharp wherever work takes you--field to the office, back shop to the back yard. Tradesmen swear by the 874's comfort and durability; office guys praise the look, fit, quality, and price. The 874 is comprised of Heavyweight 8.5 oz. twill of easy-care and 65% polyester/35% cotton. The pant comes in a wide choice of fade-resistant colors with a 26\" to 72\" waist sizing variance.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: These last through tough jobs and many washes.\n\nReview: I've had 5 pairs of these pants for over 2 years. I wear one pair each day of the work week. I'm a Pest Control Technician and often find my self climbing on rooftops and sitting on them while doing exclusion work. Before I wore Dickies, I'd wear normal dress pants which lasted a good one visit on top of a room before holes were forming. The Dickies are tough, I've been on my knees and behind on roof tops and never had a hole. I go under houses and have to crawl around in rocks and dirt but have yet to find a hole. After two years of wearing these and washing repeatedly, they are finally starting to fade a little and start to get the fuzzies or \"Pilling\" on the fabric. I also love the range of waist and length sizes. If you're short and fat, you can get pants without hemming, if you're tall and skinny, they've got sizes for that frame also. Its great. If you do any sort of labor and need quality work pants, don't hesitate to order these.\n\nMy only complaint is the fit, they always run a little small. I have to buy one size up just to ensure they fit. It's not flattering when you're picking your size but keep that in mind.\n\nUpdate: Its May 2017 and I still have these same pairs of pants I originally ordered. They each get worn/washed about once a week, a pair for each work day. I have a couple of pairs that are finally getting thin in the crotch from rubbing but no holes or tears anywhere.","Product: Get more for your money from this comfortable, good-looking utility pant. It's built of sturdy fabric for hard wear and easy care. The flattering flat front looks sharp wherever work takes you--field to the office, back shop to the back yard. Tradesmen swear by the 874's comfort and durability; office guys praise the look, fit, quality, and price. The 874 is comprised of Heavyweight 8.5 oz. twill of easy-care and 65% polyester/35% cotton. The pant comes in a wide choice of fade-resistant colors with a 26\" to 72\" waist sizing variance.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: These last through tough jobs and many washes.\n\nReview: I've had 5 pairs of these pants for over 2 years. I wear one pair each day of the work week. I'm a Pest Control Technician and often find my self climbing on rooftops and sitting on them while doing exclusion work. Before I wore Dickies, I'd wear normal dress pants which lasted a good one visit on top of a room before holes were forming. The Dickies are tough, I've been on my knees and behind on roof tops and never had a hole. I go under houses and have to crawl around in rocks and dirt but have yet to find a hole. After two years of wearing these and washing repeatedly, they are finally starting to fade a little and start to get the fuzzies or \"Pilling\" on the fabric. I also love the range of waist and length sizes. If you're short and fat, you can get pants without hemming, if you're tall and skinny, they've got sizes for that frame also. Its great. If you do any sort of labor and need quality work pants, don't hesitate to order these.\n\nMy only complaint is the fit, they always run a little small. I have to buy one size up just to ensure they fit. It's not flattering when you're picking your size but keep that in mind.\n\nUpdate: Its May 2017 and I still have these same pairs of pants I originally ordered. They each get worn/washed about once a week, a pair for each work day. I have a couple of pairs that are finally getting thin in the crotch from rubbing but no holes or tears anywhere.","Product: Get more for your money from this comfortable, good-looking utility pant. It's built of sturdy fabric for hard wear and easy care. The flattering flat front looks sharp wherever work takes you--field to the office, back shop to the back yard. Tradesmen swear by the 874's comfort and durability; office guys praise the look, fit, quality, and price. The 874 is comprised of Heavyweight 8.5 oz. twill of easy-care and 65% polyester/35% cotton. The pant comes in a wide choice of fade-resistant colors with a 26\" to 72\" waist sizing variance.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: These last through tough jobs and many washes.\n\nReview: I've had 5 pairs of these pants for over 2 years. I wear one pair each day of the work week. I'm a Pest Control Technician and often find my self climbing on rooftops and sitting on them while doing exclusion work. Before I wore Dickies, I'd wear normal dress pants which lasted a good one visit on top of a room before holes were forming. The Dickies are tough, I've been on my knees and behind on roof tops and never had a hole. I go under houses and have to crawl around in rocks and dirt but have yet to find a hole. After two years of wearing these and washing repeatedly, they are finally starting to fade a little and start to get the fuzzies or \"Pilling\" on the fabric. I also love the range of waist and length sizes. If you're short and fat, you can get pants without hemming, if you're tall and skinny, they've got sizes for that frame also. Its great. If you do any sort of labor and need quality work pants, don't hesitate to order these.\n\nMy only complaint is the fit, they always run a little small. I have to buy one size up just to ensure they fit. It's not flattering when you're picking your size but keep that in mind.\n\nUpdate: Its May 2017 and I still have these same pairs of pants I originally ordered. They each get worn/washed about once a week, a pair for each work day. I have a couple of pairs that are finally getting thin in the crotch from rubbing but no holes or tears anywhere.","Product: The Invincible Marine BR59810 Transom Tie-Down Straps are common on bass and high performance boats, and measure 2-inches by 4-feet. This tie-down strap secures the boats transom to most trailers, and provides a safe and reliable transport with each use! The vinyl coated s-hooks prevent scratches and dinks, protecting your boat from unnecessary damage. This is the ultimate tie-down system in convenience, style and innovation, and is perfect for rigging boats or trailers! Whether you're outfitting your boat for the first time, or replacing well-worn nautical parts, this product is an essential accessory for your boating and domestic needs, and is perfect for nautical journeys and mechanical maintenance. Precision and reliability are the marks of quality that this product has proven time and time again, guaranteeing steadfast performance with each use. The Invincible Marine BR59810 Transom Tie-Down Straps comes with a 1-year limited warranty and protects against manufacturing and workmanship defects. Rugged, tough and reliable, Invincible Marine is well-known for their hardworking nautical line. For freshwater and saltwater boating, Invincible Marine designs products for avid fishermen and weekend boaters. Quality, utility and innovation go into every Invincible Marine product giving you more time on the water.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Very well made marine straps!\n\nReview: These Straps are HEAVY DUTY! We bought a second jet ski and needed shorter straps since the anchor points are closer together on the double ski trailer. They still have excess strap tails but the straps have a very handy velcro loop to secure it so its not flapping around. The hooks are very thick gage and the rubber coating on them is very thick as well. The original ones we bought from the dealer had small cheap looking hooks and the coating on them was thin and rubbed through to the metal with in a few uses, which eventually led to rusting. They clamp down very well and do not loosen with bumpy rides. Our old straps were loose every time you turned around because the clamps were of poor quality, and the only thing that insured they didn't loosen was a well tied knot! I would recommend these to anyone with jet ski's, boats, or any other marine product!","Product: Embracing the same large platform and 8 hex pin system for stellar grip and traction, the new Chester pedal from RaceFace is every bit as tough as their alloy cousin - only this time, constructed with a nylon composite body to shave off the grams. The Chester's bearing and bushing system is fully serviceable and the cro-mo axle is fully sealed, for a highly durable and lightweight pedal that offers great performance at an incredible value.Features: Fully serviceable bearing & bushing system 8 hex traction pins per side Lightweight nylon composite body Fully sealed cro-mo axle Large platform with same grip as traditional alloy pedals\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Great budget pedals, I'm very pleased.\n\nReview: I bought my first expensive ($3k+) new bike and didn't want the $4 pedals they put on them at the shop. The bike shop showed me a few of their pedals but most were $150 or more. I figured I'm buying an expensive bike, I need to cut cost somewhere. I looked on Amazon and found these Race Face pedals. I was worried they'd feel cheap when I got them but to my surprise they are excellent pedals. I've ridden demo bikes with metal pedals similar to these but I think I actually prefer these Race Face composite pedals over super expensive metal pedals. I stay firmly planted on my bike even on rough trails, they seem to be pretty light weight and have survived several pedal strikes on rocks and roots. I'm now looking at a second pair for my new road/fitness bike. I ordered the black pedals but I love the color options for matching them to your bike's color scheme. I think I'll go blue for the road bike. Pick these up!","Product: Constructed in our superlight quick-drying 4-way stretch polyester, these shorts are packed with features. A excellent choice for bike packing, bicycle touring and adventure cycling, they also crossover to hiking, trail running, Rock climbing and travel\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Great shorts that aren't too long, the padded liner is not good.\n\nReview: I've always had trouble finding a pair of mountain bike shorts. I'm a shorter stocky guy and every other pair of riding shorts are so long I look like I'm wearing high water pants. I ordered these knowing I was risking it but the price was great and Amazon had free returns. They fit me perfectly! I even ordered a second pair while they were half price. I like the zippered pockets so I can leave my phone in there. I used to have to get it out of my hydration pack anytime I needed it, which is a hassle when you're alone on a new trail and trying to use an app to navigate. I wish the upper pockets were zippered, having stuff in the lower pockets just beats up your knees when pedaling fast. I normally wear knee pads so its not an issue for me. The liner shorts are nearly pointless. They are thinner than the $9 pair I bought from Amazon. The lack of a decent liner is the biggest let down for me.","Product: Our screen protectors are made from Optical Grade Crystal Film which are custom cut to ensure a perfect fit every time. Constructed in three layers; a scratch resistant surface polymer, a hardened protective mask to prevent deep cuts damaging your device and finally a patented silicone gel that creates a vacuum to securely 'cling' to the device screen. Our screen protectors use no adhesive and there is no spraying anything to the protector or the device.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Not a great back screen protector but does the job\n\nReview: I bought these for the back of my iPhonef because my case came with a front cover, and i wanted to make sure the apple logo didn't get the usual ring around it from the opening in the back of the case. The back is all one piece....so it goes over the white lines in the back and it looks terrible. I don't really care since its in a case but if i didn't I would have thrown it in the trash. It doesn't adhere to the lines on the back of the phone so if you didn't have a case it would come off very easily since that is 4 points of entry for dirt, dust, and foreign objects to get stuck in! The last back screen protector came in three parts. The top section, the middle, and the bottom part, and it looked and functioned better!","Product: WARNING: This product can expose you to chemicals which is [are] known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm. For more information go to www.P65Warnings.ca.gov.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: clears up smoke smell pretty well\n\nReview: My husbands (Chris) mother had us order this for her. Her husband smokes and they spray this in the house when people come over or when they leave to freshen up the place. Neither Chris or I smoke so we can smell smoke from a mile away, and when they freshen up the house with this its very hard to detect the smell. It isn't a permanent fix but it does work for a little while. Her husband also uses it in his truck and it works very well in there too!\n\nWe have some of this in the house as well. We use it when there is a some stinky trash or when I stink up the house with cooking (garlic onions etc..) and it is amazing. When the trash gets stinky before the bag is full we will spray this in the can and close the lid once in a while and it keeps the smell at bay for awhile. It doesn't take much either. we have a 2000 sq. ft house and the down stairs is half of that. i spray one burst in the kitchen, one in the dining, one in the living, one in the stair well, and one in the bathroom/front door area, and that is almost too much! So use sparingly!","Product: Designed for gamers, this 600-watt peak power inverter from Bravo View plugs into any 12-volt outlet to keep your electronic devices charged up and ready to go. It converts your car's battery power so you can power up laptops, video game systems, small appliances, and even many large flat-screen TVs from your vehicle. The INV-400 includes a cigarette lighter connection cable and audio/video game plate.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Great inverter for small devices, could be a littler sturdier.\n\nReview: I used this on a long road trip where we had several devices needing a charge. I plugged in a power strip to charge 2 iPhones and a couple of Go Pro batteries at once. Of course being careful in calculating the wattage. It did a great job, didn't get too hot and we didn't have to smell the odd odors that come out of these things sometimes. I would give it a full 5 stars but it doesnt feel very sturdy. I'm not saying it will fall to pieces immediately but if you're frequently plugging and unplugging it you may start to weaken it. Occasional use would probably suit this best, or just leave it in all the time. I would recommend this to just about anyone.","Product: Designed for gamers, this 600-watt peak power inverter from Bravo View plugs into any 12-volt outlet to keep your electronic devices charged up and ready to go. It converts your car's battery power so you can power up laptops, video game systems, small appliances, and even many large flat-screen TVs from your vehicle. The INV-400 includes a cigarette lighter connection cable and audio/video game plate.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Great inverter for small devices, could be a littler sturdier.\n\nReview: I used this on a long road trip where we had several devices needing a charge. I plugged in a power strip to charge 2 iPhones and a couple of Go Pro batteries at once. Of course being careful in calculating the wattage. It did a great job, didn't get too hot and we didn't have to smell the odd odors that come out of these things sometimes. I would give it a full 5 stars but it doesnt feel very sturdy. I'm not saying it will fall to pieces immediately but if you're frequently plugging and unplugging it you may start to weaken it. Occasional use would probably suit this best, or just leave it in all the time. I would recommend this to just about anyone.","Product: Reese custom built trailer hitches feature solid all-welded construction for maximum strength and safety. Computer aided design, fatigue and stress testing insure a robust design that provides a lifetime of trouble free towing. Each hitch is engineered and \"Tested Tough\" to deliver the absolute highest quality trailer hitch available anywhere. Looks great and work great with our full line of hitch accessories (sold separately), including our exclusive InterLock hitch ball and ball mount \"One Wrench Tightening System\". All of our hitches meet and exceed V-5, CSA and SAE J684 standards and are inspected for quality and workmanship. Designed for a perfect fit and a great look, with many no drill applications for quick and easy DIY installation. The METALSHIELD protective coating process is a three step finish consisting of a rust inhibiting primer, dipped E-coat electrostatic coating to insure total finish coverage and finally an outer powder coat finish for durability. The METALSHIELD process is an OEM compatible finish providing the best corrosion protection over brands that use only powder coat on their products. All our hitches are custom built according to exact manufacturer and model year specifications and test fitted to ensure a perfect fit, ease of installation and superior towing performance.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: A sturdy hitch with easy installation.\n\nReview: I was very pleased with this hitch. I needed to put a Thule T2 bike rack on the car, both are roughly 30lb full suspension mountain bikes and the bike rack weighs 50lb. The installation was quite easy to my surprise. I did it myself, I had to get creative and let one side lay on my leg while I got the bolts in on one side. Once I got all sides started I used a torque wrench to make sure they were tightened to specifications. I'd strongly recommend using the torque wrench. I didn't have one initially, I did my best to crank it down with a regular socket wrench. It felt \"good enough\" but I decided to run to the hardware store and buy an 18 inch torque wrench. I was surprised when I realized how loose it still was, once I got it torqued to spec it was solid. I stood on the hitch and bounced to check it out. I luckily didn't have any issues with the rack being bent during shipping like others have said.\n\nOnce more note, I bought this for a 2013 Rav4. While it fits perfectly, anything you're towing is going to have little ground clearance. Its not the hitch's fault, the Rav4 just doesnt have a lot of clearance. Our bike rack has hit the ground on steep driveways, not the outer part of the rack but the part thats sticking out from the hitch. I measured the ground clearance for our rack at the hitch point and it was only 8 inches. Granted, the car was loaded with camping gear, the bikes/rack weight but even unloaded we only had 9.5 inches.","Product: These are goggles that can interchange to become sunglasses. Temples interchange with the strap. Frame has vented foam padding for comfort and wind blockage. Lenses are shatterproof, polycarbonate, UV400 protection and have anti-fog coating. Comes with a soft case. Available with smoked mirrored lenses only. Great for watersports since it floats.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: I've had mine 2+ years and they are still great!\n\nReview: I'm really pleased with these. I've had them for over 2 years now. I wear them while riding my jet ski to keep my eyes from drying out or getting tons of water in them suddenly. I use the elastic strap so ensure they're stuck on my head at high speeds. They are not water or air tight. There are small grooves in the rubber seal but it does keep a good amount of air and water out. I wear contacts while riding and they would constantly dry out with sunglasses on. They have never dried out while wearing these but when I do have a huge wave or splash go over the front of the jet ski I can get some water in them. Its not been an issue and its only during extreme circumstances. They seem to be sturdy and have stood up to me not taking the best care of them. While not in use, I leave them in the compartment between the seat and the handle bars with other objects flopping around while the jet skis are trailered to and from the lake. I've not noticed any scratches or signs of them breaking anytime soon even with my neglect. I've been considering getting a second pair for mountain biking and just to have one in case mine do break. These really are great glasses for jet skiing.\n\nI should mention they get plenty of use, I ride frequently 8 months out of the year, during the 3-4 hot south Texas months I go out about once a week. I even ride off and on during the winter months all while using these.","Product: Package also includes: DVD detailing spa setup and maintenance, Heating System, Insulated Cover, Filtration System with filter cartridge - type VI, Ground Cloth, Inflation Hose, Chemical floater, Heavy-duty repair patch.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: I bought mine a year and a half ago and it still works great!\n\nReview: Were on season 2 with this hot tub. I got it in November 2016 and was worried it wouldnt last long. We used it almost daily until mid May 2017. Its been set up on our back porch, we don't get brutally cold winters in south Texas but we did have several below freezing nights. I usually keep it at 100 so its not heating constantly, then turn it up a few hours before we want to get in it. I have been turning the pump off for an hour or two each day for a while to hopefully extend the life of it. After our first season with the tub I was worried it wouldnt work when we took it out of storage. Other than finding it had built up some mold, it was in perfect working order. We bleached the mold, rinsed it really well and it's been running since October 2017 with no problems. I do clean the filters at least twice a week and replace them every month or so. I also drain about half of the tubs water and refill it once a month. Its a small amount of water for two adults to be in nightly for a month without refreshing it. I see no reason why it won't last until this end of this season. If it doesnt work when we pull it out later this year I won't be too upset. It was $350 and we used it so often it will probably come out to $1 for each use. You can't even come close to getting a real hot tub for that price, you can barely pay a month's payment for one for the price of this thing. Manage your expectations, take good care of it and you should be very pleased with this purchase. Unless you get one that just doesnt work out of the box. This is a great hot tub for the price. I'm so glad I bought it.\n\nI noticed a few negative reviews saying \"i wasn't paid to lie about this\". Just to be clear, I was not paid anything for this review. I was skeptical just like most people who've seen the negative reviews but I'm going on year two with this and still very happy."],"string":"[\n \"Product: Computer Grafix films can be run through Inkjet or Laser printers/copiers to create unique designs right from your own computer. Print vibrant images, crisp text, custom overlays, journaling, window effects, stickers and photos on Computer Grafix blank transparencies. Try rubber stamping and embossing to add extra texture and dimension to all of your projects. These films make designing your scrapbook pages and paper crafts more creative than ever!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Great for crafting at an AMAZING PRICE!!!!\\n\\nReview: This worked amazingly for what I needed it for! I was making spooky crystal balls for halloween and this did the trick. It is perfectly transparent. They worked amazing in my laser jet printer. It comes out ready to go, you don't have to wait for ink to dry or anything. You just have to make sure that you are printing on the \\\"rough\\\" side. I even scratched at the images I printed and it didn't come of!\\n\\nThe best thing about this is the price. I went to all of my local office supply stores and you can only buy these in boxes of 50 or larger. For a box of 50 the lowest price I found was just over 48 bucks! Im not a teacher so I would never have the need for more than a handful of these. I order two just in case and for the 10 crystal balls I made (and one mess up) i only used one and a half pages! so I will have plenty for years to come for crafting!!\",\n \"Product: use bistro chalk markers on chalkboards, light boards, windows and windshields. They are opaque, water based, pigmented and erasable when dry.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: 6mm tip is bigger than I thought\\n\\nReview: (This is Chris' wife leaving this review!) I don't know anything about chalk markers... I bought these to write on chalkboard contact paper that I use to make labels for my jams and jellies. I figured 6mm would be a pretty thin tip but it's not, so if you are looking to use these on something small don't bother. I use a punch for my labels and the punch measures almost 2 1/4 inches across and I can barely fit the word strawberry. I can't speak for the erase ability of these since I don't need to erase my food labels. I can say that they don't smudge though! * I changed my 3 star review to 5 star. I don't think it is fair to give 3 stars because the tip if too big for what I wanted to use it for.*\",\n \"Product: Computer Grafix films can be run through Inkjet or Laser printers/copiers to create unique designs right from your own computer. Print vibrant images, crisp text, custom overlays, journaling, window effects, stickers and photos on Computer Grafix blank transparencies. Try rubber stamping and embossing to add extra texture and dimension to all of your projects. These films make designing your scrapbook pages and paper crafts more creative than ever!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Great for crafting at an AMAZING PRICE!!!!\\n\\nReview: This worked amazingly for what I needed it for! I was making spooky crystal balls for halloween and this did the trick. It is perfectly transparent. They worked amazing in my laser jet printer. It comes out ready to go, you don't have to wait for ink to dry or anything. You just have to make sure that you are printing on the \\\"rough\\\" side. I even scratched at the images I printed and it didn't come of!\\n\\nThe best thing about this is the price. I went to all of my local office supply stores and you can only buy these in boxes of 50 or larger. For a box of 50 the lowest price I found was just over 48 bucks! Im not a teacher so I would never have the need for more than a handful of these. I order two just in case and for the 10 crystal balls I made (and one mess up) i only used one and a half pages! so I will have plenty for years to come for crafting!!\",\n \"Product: Do not start console before plugging the racing wheel in, the wheel won't connect correctly. This is with all controllers and racing wheels.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: It works but it's \\\"big brother\\\" is a far better choice.\\n\\nReview: This wheel is fine, it does the job but nothing more. If you've ever played a good working arcade racing game you'll notice force feedback. The wheel pulls and gives some resistance to the player which makes it more realistic and fun in my opinion. I originally bought this wheel to avoid spending the three hundred dollar TX wheel. I didn't get it from Amazon, instead the Microsoft Store (The wheel was in awful condition and missing the breakaway cable, whats with that?). I was immediately disappointed, its just a rubber band to hold the wheel in the center position. I knew that going in but it really felt like that when I got a hold of it. You may think: \\\"Why is force feedback important?\\\" If you're really into racing games you've got to feel the force feedback. Once you do, you realize how much that output from the game to your hands lets you feel how your car is handling. My times increased significantly when I could feel when my car was losing traction, going out of control and the satisfying feeling of correcting a skid.\\n\\nThis wheel works but don't expect much other than a very basic experience. Save the money, if possible, for the TX Italia wheel. It's leaps ahead of this one.\",\n \"Product: Ion Drum Rocker Cymbal Expansion Kit; Add another cymbal to your Drum Rocker! Able to be used with Rock Band, Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour video games and other drum modules, the Ion Drum Rocker has really taken the Main Stage by storm. With this cymbal expansion you can add another cymbal to the mix to give this power-house setup adding an extra dynamic to your game and an extra cymbal trigger when using a drum module. Just mount the included hardware anywhere an your Drum Rocker stand, attach the cymbal and connect the cable to add another assignable cymbal pad. Ion includes a set of color-assignment rings for easy recognition of which color your symbol corresponds to on screen.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Works great dual purpose!\\n\\nReview: I'll start off by saying I didn't buy this for an Ion Drum kit. I have an Alesis DM10 Studio Kit that I also use for Rock Band. I was looking to add another cymbal to my kit so I bought the 12 inch Alesis cymbal but knew it didn't come with mounting hardware. Someone told me to pick up one of these with it because mounting hardware for my rack could cost me close to $50 anyway. So I bought this cymbal while I wait for my other to arrive, I tried it out and was plesantly surprised. The cymbal is the exact same as one of my non-chokable Alesis cymbals, it just doesnt say \\\"Alesis\\\" on it. As far as Rock Band performance goes, its great, no double triggering or anything. So if you just want an Ion Cymbal for RB this will be great of course, if you want an extra cymbal for the Alesis kits this should also work great and have no trouble mounting to your rack.\",\n \"Product: The user-friendly OXO Good Grips Food Scale with Pull-Out Display is ideal for weighing ingredients --baking essentials, meat, produce, herbs, spices and more. The easy-to-read digital display features large numbers and measures in 1/8-ounce (US) and 1-gram (metric) increments for exceptional accuracy. Place food directly on the stainless steel platform or on a plate or in a bowl. The digital display easily pulls away from the base to prevent shadowing from large plates or bowls. An optional backlight illuminates the display for extra visibility and a convenient weight indicator shows how much of the 11-lb capacity is left. Press the Zero button to offset the weight of a container or to reset the weight before adding additional ingredients. The Scales stainless steel platform can be removed for quick handwashing and thin profile and cordless design ensure easy setup, cleanup and storage. Intended for cooking, baking, diet portion measurement and more, the OXO Good Grips Food Scale with Pull-Out Display is highly recommended by Cooks Illustrated. Four AAA batteries included.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: best scale i have ever had\\n\\nReview: (This is Chris' wife leaving this review) It used to be I would have to buy a new scale every year because they didn't hold up! I bought this scale almost a year ago and I use it every week. I love the pull out screen and the back lighting. The other scales I have bought show the weights as 1.4 lbs. or 3.2 lbs...This one shows it as fractions which are what most recipes use, like 4 3/4 or 5 7/8. Even with how much i use it, I still haven't had to replace the batteries. The top is removable for easy clean up. A REALLY awesome feature is, if you have your bowl on the scale and you are adding your ingredients and you're on your third ingredient (i add one then zero it add the next zero it again) you get a phone call or someone is at the door in the middle of you adding 345 g of sugar...by the time you get back the scale has gone to sleep...FUUUUUUUUUUUU just hit the on button and BAM it remembers where you are at instead of zeroing out! I can't tell you how many times this has happened to me! Best feature hands down!\",\n \"Product: The user-friendly OXO Good Grips Food Scale with Pull-Out Display is ideal for weighing ingredients --baking essentials, meat, produce, herbs, spices and more. The easy-to-read digital display features large numbers and measures in 1/8-ounce (US) and 1-gram (metric) increments for exceptional accuracy. Place food directly on the stainless steel platform or on a plate or in a bowl. The digital display easily pulls away from the base to prevent shadowing from large plates or bowls. An optional backlight illuminates the display for extra visibility and a convenient weight indicator shows how much of the 11-lb capacity is left. Press the Zero button to offset the weight of a container or to reset the weight before adding additional ingredients. The Scales stainless steel platform can be removed for quick handwashing and thin profile and cordless design ensure easy setup, cleanup and storage. Intended for cooking, baking, diet portion measurement and more, the OXO Good Grips Food Scale with Pull-Out Display is highly recommended by Cooks Illustrated. Four AAA batteries included.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: best scale i have ever had\\n\\nReview: (This is Chris' wife leaving this review) It used to be I would have to buy a new scale every year because they didn't hold up! I bought this scale almost a year ago and I use it every week. I love the pull out screen and the back lighting. The other scales I have bought show the weights as 1.4 lbs. or 3.2 lbs...This one shows it as fractions which are what most recipes use, like 4 3/4 or 5 7/8. Even with how much i use it, I still haven't had to replace the batteries. The top is removable for easy clean up. A REALLY awesome feature is, if you have your bowl on the scale and you are adding your ingredients and you're on your third ingredient (i add one then zero it add the next zero it again) you get a phone call or someone is at the door in the middle of you adding 345 g of sugar...by the time you get back the scale has gone to sleep...FUUUUUUUUUUUU just hit the on button and BAM it remembers where you are at instead of zeroing out! I can't tell you how many times this has happened to me! Best feature hands down!\",\n \"Product: The Tightvac Storage System is a unique patented vacuum seal closure system which allows moisture to escape, keeping your goods dry & oxygen free. The 1-1/2 pound/ 24 oz. Tightvac is the perfect size storage for coffee, tea, flour, pasta, snacks, pet treats or food, sugar, and any other dry good items. Great for travel & camping. Tightvacs save you money and guarantee fresher for longer food storage. Store any of the Tightvac containers conveniently in the pantry, on the countertop, in the refrigerator or freezer. The Tightvac's easy to use system creates a vacuum seal simply by pushing the button on the lid as you close it/press again to open, simple! Use all of our products; Tightvacs, Coffeevacs, Everythingvacs & Vitavacs for a multitude of household storage purposes, from small to large, in a variety of colors & styles. Hand wash only.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: great container for coffee!\\n\\nReview: I use this container to store my coffees that I can buy only seasonally. I have some coconut coffee that has been in one of the containers for 4-5 months and still tastes and smells as fresh as the day I bought it. I bought two 10 ounce bags and poured them in here and there was plenty of room for third bag even.\\n\\nthis container is way bigger than I expected it to be. it has a small foot print, but is very tall. not every attractive to place on a counter if you have more than one.\\n\\nI ordered two sizes and when I received the order one was sealed in plastic and wrapped up to protect the finish. the other was not and was scratched to hell. looked like it had been kicked down the street a few times. I requested a new one and the replacement came wrapped exactly like the other one (the good one)\",\n \"Product: Convert unused corner space into storage space with this attractive, satin nickel pole caddy. The unique wall-hugging baskets can be positioned at any height, making this an ideal storage solution for either tubs or showers. Three baskets are 2-1/2-Inch deep and the fourth is 3-1/2-Inch deep, allowing even the largest and tallest of bottles to stay securely inside the heavy-gauge wire baskets. Fits standing ceilings up to 8 ft. 1 in. No tools needed for most installations. (For 60 to 70.5 in., and 81 to 91.5 in., pole heights, tube cutting may be required. Use it either in the bathtub between ceiling and the tub ledge corner or inside the shower directly down to the floor. Additional extensions for taller ceilings are available to purchase from the manufacturer. The attractive rust-resistant satin nickel finish is durable and wipes clean with just a damp cloth. All installation options have simple to follow instructions in words and illustrations. In addition, a toll-free USA based Customer Service department is available. Note: Assembly instructions can be previewed by clicking the link under \\\"Technical Specification\\\" below.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Great storage but floppy and doesnt feel secure.\\n\\nReview: My wife bought this on a Black Friday sale, we've had one of those hanging-from-the-water-spout style baskets for years. I always wanted to try a corner rack for more storage space. My wife likes to keep just about everything that doesnt plug into an outlet in the shower, hopefully she won't read this. I'd often knock something off and fear for my toes in the split second it took to reach the tub floor. This shower caddy does a good job of not letting things slip between cracks and fall out. Our biggest complaint is, its floppy. The spring isn't really tight enough to make a good connection between our tub and the ceiling. We have a normal height ceiling, 8 feet. I have a small fear the hose from the shower nozzle could get behind the shelf and pull it out during high speed showering. If we replace this at some point I will likely insist we buy one that is more like a shower curtain rod, where you turn the pole to make it tighter rather than relying on a spring. The whole caddy bounces around when I pump the soap out of the shampoo container. We don't have a lot of confidence this will last for years.\",\n \"Product: Reduce mixing time and the need to scrape ingredients down the side of the bowl when you're mixing with this beater, which features a flexible edge that thoroughly scrapes ingredients into the bowl. Fits models KV25G and KP26M1X.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Works great but has some issues.\\n\\nReview: This blade was a replacement for the Flex Edge Beater I bought with my mixer almost 5 years ago. The blade is great for my baking. I love using the soft side to scrape the extra butter that is left on the wrappers when adding butter to my recipes. I also use the soft side to wipe my spatulas clean after scraping down the bowl between mixings.\\n\\nThe one major issue I have with this product is that the white coating does come off. Not ALL of it...but in \\\"high traffic\\\" areas. (see pictures) I am certain that some of the flakes have come off in the food I am using the blade to make! Also the silicone edge becomes brittle after a time. The one I am replacing is almost split all the way through. But 5 years of use considering the price isn't too bad!\",\n \"Product: DataComm Electronics 1-Gang Recessed Low Voltage Cable Plates are used to install low voltage cables behind your flat panel TV, amplifier, or other audio and video devices. These plates are designed to be installed onto a low voltage mounting bracket. The cable plates can be installed with the opening facing up or down.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Makes a nice clean finish!\\n\\nReview: We decided to mount our new 60 in tv but didn't want the wires to hang between the tv and the entertainment stand. So we looked into these. We were a little nervous to be cutting into the walls to install this. We used <a data-hook=\\\"product-link-linked\\\" class=\\\"a-link-normal\\\" href=\\\"/Arlington-LV1-1CS-Single-Gang-Low-Voltage-Mounting-Bracket-Device/dp/B000UEAJWU/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8\\\">Arlington LV1-1CS Single Gang Low Voltage Mounting Bracket Device</a> an old work bracket to draw an outline as a starting off point so we didn't cut TOO big. It would be nice if the plate came with a template for cutting! Because we ended up having to make each hole a little bit bigger. And that extra time and work can get frustrating!\\n\\nMake sure you buy the old work brackets with these, so you have something screw the plate onto! We forgot and had to run to Lowes in the middle of trying to mount our tv.\",\n \"Product: Elgato Game Capture HD, for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3, Xbox One and Xbox 360, or Wii U Gameplay, Full HD 1080p\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Very impressed! Only a few minor issues.\\n\\nReview: This is my third capture device. Its by far the best, even though its the most expensive. I recently purchased a Macbook Pro with Retina Display which made my Roxio Game Capture useless since it doesnt work with Mac. The El Gato works great on Mac, it seems to be mainly designed for Mac but also works for Windows. The HD recording is really excellent, the quality is very high while the file size remains reasonable. My Roxio Game Capture was 480p only but the file size on high quality was around 1GB per minute. The software works nearly perfect, the only issues I've run into are exporting to iMovie, it gets to the end and just stop working most of the time. But you can always go to the Finder and get your video file there. My biggest complaint about this item is the loss in quality on the TV while its passing through the El Gato. It made my picture look dull and washed out, it was instantly noticeable. The upside is after using the software video settings (which DO affect the TV's look!) and slightly altering the HDTV's settings I was able to get (mostly) back to normal. The last complaint is hard to really complain about, it was a misunderstanding on my part. I read that there was \\\"zero video lag\\\" and thought that was great. I sometimes take my Xbox 360 out of town with me but don't want to rely on a TV being available. So I will use my laptop and a capture device to play my games, that will not work with the El Gato. There is a major lag on your computer screen, up to 2-3 seconds in some cases. Yet the TV seems to have zero lag, as advertised. I use it to record Rock Band videos, Rock Band is a game that relies heavily on everything being in sync. I had to change my games calibration settings by 5 milliseconds, so if there is any lag, its hardly noticeable.\\n\\nIt would be very difficult for me to find any real reason to tell someone not to buy this. I cant speak for Windows but its works great on Mac. Its amazing how HDMI 1080p recording has reached an affordable price and not require an outrageously high end machine. Dont go cheap, Roxio makes a decent recording device but save the extra money and get the better product.\",\n \"Product: Instantly add 1 TB of storage space to your computer Simple plug-and-play connectivity via USB cable USB powered, no AC adapter required USB 3.0 interface for extremely fast data transfer speeds (USB 2.0 compatible) Drive is automatically recognized by Windows; no software instillation required\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Seems to be great for Xbox One storage!\\n\\nReview: I bought two of these to extend my Xbox One's space. I didn't plug them into a PC at any point so I can't speak to that. Both Xbox Ones immediately recognized the drives and asked to format them. Formatting was finished in seconds and I had 2.3TB of total storage between the internal and external drives on my console (with nothing installed). This is a very small drive, it fits in my hand. I like that it is powered over the one USB cable. They drives are quiet, I can only barely hear them running when I'm within 2 feet of the drives and the room is silent around me. I've permanently stored them behind the consoles so they are essentially silent even when my rooms are quiet. There is one small blue status light that blinks when its being accessed. Luckily its a pretty faint light so it shouldn't be an annoyance in dark rooms. I've been running them for about 2 weeks now with no glitches or issues. The drives seem fast which is a must for gaming, I chose this drive because of other's reviews showing they usually reach their advertised speeds. My only complaint is the short USB cable, its probably 1 foot long. If you're using it on your desk with your PC or just looking to extend your Xbox One's storage it should be fine.\\n\\nPros:\\n-Small\\n-Quiet\\n-Works great with Xbox One\\n\\nCons:\\n-Short cable\",\n \"Product: The Arbalest Protective Case is made of Hybrid TPU (edge) and PC(back) and features a screen protector. Together they provide excellent protection for the iPod Touch 5th/6th Generation.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: You cant beat it for the price.\\n\\nReview: I wanted a simple case for my new ipod. The only place I normally use my ipod is in bed at night. my last ipod got scratched like crazy from falling out of the bed between the headboard and the matress. So i wanted to make sure this one didn't scratch! I had a snap together clear case for my last one but the pieces that snapped together eventually broke. That is why I was looking for a single piece case.\\n\\nThe backing is a frost color, would have been better if full clear! There is a hole on the back of the case for the strap brad...but it is impossible to put the strap on with the case on. The hole should have been bigger. And the headphone jack hole is too small for the rubber around the base of the actual headphone plug. You really have to force it in there. So that hole should have been made bigger too. The good thing about this case is the band of color around the case. It is rubberized and very grippy. It makes holding the ipod easy, it doesnt feel like its going to slip right out of your hand! The cleaning cloth that comes with it is a really nice size too! Some times when you order cheaper off brand cases you get a cleaning cloth the size of a postage stamp! It also came with the hard card like otter boxes so you can smooth out the screen protector!\",\n \"Product: The Black LG Tone Pro Bluetooth Stereo Headset from LG brings you the high-quality audio experience of stereo sound with the convenience of Bluetooth technology. Up to 15 hours of talk time and 10 hours of listening time keep you connected to your music and social life whenever you need it. With its unique form factor and sleek design, the LG Tone Pro is an around-the-neck wearing style, ensuring you comfort throughout the day. Includes travel charger. Features of the LG Tone Pro include advanced multipoint connection, bass boost, text to speech, vibrating call alert, audible pairing assistances, audible battery status alert, auto-reconnect, microphone mute, noise reduction and echo cancellation, and toggle vibration on/off selection. The headset is apt and HD Voice compatible and integrates with Google Voice Actions. Includes travel charger. Refer page 12 in the User Manual for troubleshooting steps.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: LG Tone HBS-750 Bluetooth headset - Great Bluetooth headphones!\\n\\nReview: I waited a week or so to try these out before reviewing since I've read some hit and miss reviews. For clarification I got the LG Tone HBS-750 Bluetooth headset model. I don't use them for talking much but when I did I was outdoors and I asked my wife (the caller) \\\"Can you hear me okay? I'm on my headset.\\\" she replied: \\\"Oh, I had no idea you were using the Bluetooth.\\\" So its pretty good quality from what I can tell. I love that it shows the battery life on screen on my phone. The vibrating function is helpful but I don't really use it much for talking. I mainly purchased these for listening to music and podcasts while working. The music quality is really nice, good bass and no distortion. I used to have the Jabra Clipper for that use but I normally found I couldn't hear the music in loud areas. The LG Tone is so loud I was able to mow my lawn today while listening to a podcast and even had to turn it down. I find these to be over all well made, and worth the price.\",\n \"Product: Smaller than your average wallet with Wireless N technology, the D-Link Wireless N Day/Night Home Network Camera (DCS-932L), is the perfect camera for your home or small office. The Built-in IR LEDs lets you see what is going on even when there is little or no light. A compact design with integrated antenna, you can place the DCS-932L virtually anywhere, even in the smallest corners of your home. You can easily view what is going on at home without having to be there via the Internet, or from the mydlink app. Set up a camera near your entryway or in any room to monitor what is happening around the house, day amp; night. The Wireless N Day/Night Home Network Camera is ideal for every household.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Very good as long as you've got realistic expectations.\\n\\nReview: These are handy little cameras. I like to leave a few around the house to keep an eye on our crazy cat while were out of town. She gets a little odd so checking in on her makes us feel a lot better. You can place them anywhere as long as you have power and WIFI or an ethernet port nearby. We use one in our garage because of the motion detection. When the door opens, we get alerts on our phones. If we thought \\\"Did we close the door?\\\" we can now just take a look rather than buying some complicated garage door opener with internet capabilities. I've used them in creative ways, I was charging a jet ski battery and didn't want to keep going to check if it was done. I just put one of the cameras where it could see the indicator light and saved several unneeded trips to check on it. These are cheap enough to just put them anywhere you want to see something. I don't recommend using them outdoors other than in your garage. They seem to handle the heat of a Texas summer just fine in the garage but they certainly aren't waterproof. The night vision is good for indoor short distances (I'd say 10ft of well lit space). The audio is surprisingly sensitive. I've heard things in other rooms on these cameras. Its not the best quality audio but you can make out whats going on pretty easily. Video quality is fine, don't expect HD, you can probably get 480p out of these with a decent connection. I've had a few issues with the D-link app, it seems like if I watch a camera too long or too often it goes offline for about 10-15 minutes and then comes back. It could have been a poor network connection and I've recently changed it up and have not noticed the issue.\\n\\nIf you're more tech savvy, you can have these feed to a computer running IP camera software and use it more like a regular security camera set up. I've tried it but don't have a lot of use for it. It did work pretty well though. Just be prepared for a lot of network traffic if you go that route, constant video streaming from several cameras may make your WIFI slower for other devices. I'd suggest using wired only at that point and put them on their own switch that links to your router or main switch.\\n\\nIf you pay Amazon's prices for this, you're buying them at the right price. I own 3 now plus one that pans and tilts. I recommend these.\",\n \"Product: Get more for your money from this comfortable, good-looking utility pant. It's built of sturdy fabric for hard wear and easy care. The flattering flat front looks sharp wherever work takes you--field to the office, back shop to the back yard. Tradesmen swear by the 874's comfort and durability; office guys praise the look, fit, quality, and price. The 874 is comprised of Heavyweight 8.5 oz. twill of easy-care and 65% polyester/35% cotton. The pant comes in a wide choice of fade-resistant colors with a 26\\\" to 72\\\" waist sizing variance.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: These last through tough jobs and many washes.\\n\\nReview: I've had 5 pairs of these pants for over 2 years. I wear one pair each day of the work week. I'm a Pest Control Technician and often find my self climbing on rooftops and sitting on them while doing exclusion work. Before I wore Dickies, I'd wear normal dress pants which lasted a good one visit on top of a room before holes were forming. The Dickies are tough, I've been on my knees and behind on roof tops and never had a hole. I go under houses and have to crawl around in rocks and dirt but have yet to find a hole. After two years of wearing these and washing repeatedly, they are finally starting to fade a little and start to get the fuzzies or \\\"Pilling\\\" on the fabric. I also love the range of waist and length sizes. If you're short and fat, you can get pants without hemming, if you're tall and skinny, they've got sizes for that frame also. Its great. If you do any sort of labor and need quality work pants, don't hesitate to order these.\\n\\nMy only complaint is the fit, they always run a little small. I have to buy one size up just to ensure they fit. It's not flattering when you're picking your size but keep that in mind.\\n\\nUpdate: Its May 2017 and I still have these same pairs of pants I originally ordered. They each get worn/washed about once a week, a pair for each work day. I have a couple of pairs that are finally getting thin in the crotch from rubbing but no holes or tears anywhere.\",\n \"Product: Get more for your money from this comfortable, good-looking utility pant. It's built of sturdy fabric for hard wear and easy care. The flattering flat front looks sharp wherever work takes you--field to the office, back shop to the back yard. Tradesmen swear by the 874's comfort and durability; office guys praise the look, fit, quality, and price. The 874 is comprised of Heavyweight 8.5 oz. twill of easy-care and 65% polyester/35% cotton. The pant comes in a wide choice of fade-resistant colors with a 26\\\" to 72\\\" waist sizing variance.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: These last through tough jobs and many washes.\\n\\nReview: I've had 5 pairs of these pants for over 2 years. I wear one pair each day of the work week. I'm a Pest Control Technician and often find my self climbing on rooftops and sitting on them while doing exclusion work. Before I wore Dickies, I'd wear normal dress pants which lasted a good one visit on top of a room before holes were forming. The Dickies are tough, I've been on my knees and behind on roof tops and never had a hole. I go under houses and have to crawl around in rocks and dirt but have yet to find a hole. After two years of wearing these and washing repeatedly, they are finally starting to fade a little and start to get the fuzzies or \\\"Pilling\\\" on the fabric. I also love the range of waist and length sizes. If you're short and fat, you can get pants without hemming, if you're tall and skinny, they've got sizes for that frame also. Its great. If you do any sort of labor and need quality work pants, don't hesitate to order these.\\n\\nMy only complaint is the fit, they always run a little small. I have to buy one size up just to ensure they fit. It's not flattering when you're picking your size but keep that in mind.\\n\\nUpdate: Its May 2017 and I still have these same pairs of pants I originally ordered. They each get worn/washed about once a week, a pair for each work day. I have a couple of pairs that are finally getting thin in the crotch from rubbing but no holes or tears anywhere.\",\n \"Product: Get more for your money from this comfortable, good-looking utility pant. It's built of sturdy fabric for hard wear and easy care. The flattering flat front looks sharp wherever work takes you--field to the office, back shop to the back yard. Tradesmen swear by the 874's comfort and durability; office guys praise the look, fit, quality, and price. The 874 is comprised of Heavyweight 8.5 oz. twill of easy-care and 65% polyester/35% cotton. The pant comes in a wide choice of fade-resistant colors with a 26\\\" to 72\\\" waist sizing variance.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: These last through tough jobs and many washes.\\n\\nReview: I've had 5 pairs of these pants for over 2 years. I wear one pair each day of the work week. I'm a Pest Control Technician and often find my self climbing on rooftops and sitting on them while doing exclusion work. Before I wore Dickies, I'd wear normal dress pants which lasted a good one visit on top of a room before holes were forming. The Dickies are tough, I've been on my knees and behind on roof tops and never had a hole. I go under houses and have to crawl around in rocks and dirt but have yet to find a hole. After two years of wearing these and washing repeatedly, they are finally starting to fade a little and start to get the fuzzies or \\\"Pilling\\\" on the fabric. I also love the range of waist and length sizes. If you're short and fat, you can get pants without hemming, if you're tall and skinny, they've got sizes for that frame also. Its great. If you do any sort of labor and need quality work pants, don't hesitate to order these.\\n\\nMy only complaint is the fit, they always run a little small. I have to buy one size up just to ensure they fit. It's not flattering when you're picking your size but keep that in mind.\\n\\nUpdate: Its May 2017 and I still have these same pairs of pants I originally ordered. They each get worn/washed about once a week, a pair for each work day. I have a couple of pairs that are finally getting thin in the crotch from rubbing but no holes or tears anywhere.\",\n \"Product: Get more for your money from this comfortable, good-looking utility pant. It's built of sturdy fabric for hard wear and easy care. The flattering flat front looks sharp wherever work takes you--field to the office, back shop to the back yard. Tradesmen swear by the 874's comfort and durability; office guys praise the look, fit, quality, and price. The 874 is comprised of Heavyweight 8.5 oz. twill of easy-care and 65% polyester/35% cotton. The pant comes in a wide choice of fade-resistant colors with a 26\\\" to 72\\\" waist sizing variance.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: These last through tough jobs and many washes.\\n\\nReview: I've had 5 pairs of these pants for over 2 years. I wear one pair each day of the work week. I'm a Pest Control Technician and often find my self climbing on rooftops and sitting on them while doing exclusion work. Before I wore Dickies, I'd wear normal dress pants which lasted a good one visit on top of a room before holes were forming. The Dickies are tough, I've been on my knees and behind on roof tops and never had a hole. I go under houses and have to crawl around in rocks and dirt but have yet to find a hole. After two years of wearing these and washing repeatedly, they are finally starting to fade a little and start to get the fuzzies or \\\"Pilling\\\" on the fabric. I also love the range of waist and length sizes. If you're short and fat, you can get pants without hemming, if you're tall and skinny, they've got sizes for that frame also. Its great. If you do any sort of labor and need quality work pants, don't hesitate to order these.\\n\\nMy only complaint is the fit, they always run a little small. I have to buy one size up just to ensure they fit. It's not flattering when you're picking your size but keep that in mind.\\n\\nUpdate: Its May 2017 and I still have these same pairs of pants I originally ordered. They each get worn/washed about once a week, a pair for each work day. I have a couple of pairs that are finally getting thin in the crotch from rubbing but no holes or tears anywhere.\",\n \"Product: Get more for your money from this comfortable, good-looking utility pant. It's built of sturdy fabric for hard wear and easy care. The flattering flat front looks sharp wherever work takes you--field to the office, back shop to the back yard. Tradesmen swear by the 874's comfort and durability; office guys praise the look, fit, quality, and price. The 874 is comprised of Heavyweight 8.5 oz. twill of easy-care and 65% polyester/35% cotton. The pant comes in a wide choice of fade-resistant colors with a 26\\\" to 72\\\" waist sizing variance.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: These last through tough jobs and many washes.\\n\\nReview: I've had 5 pairs of these pants for over 2 years. I wear one pair each day of the work week. I'm a Pest Control Technician and often find my self climbing on rooftops and sitting on them while doing exclusion work. Before I wore Dickies, I'd wear normal dress pants which lasted a good one visit on top of a room before holes were forming. The Dickies are tough, I've been on my knees and behind on roof tops and never had a hole. I go under houses and have to crawl around in rocks and dirt but have yet to find a hole. After two years of wearing these and washing repeatedly, they are finally starting to fade a little and start to get the fuzzies or \\\"Pilling\\\" on the fabric. I also love the range of waist and length sizes. If you're short and fat, you can get pants without hemming, if you're tall and skinny, they've got sizes for that frame also. Its great. If you do any sort of labor and need quality work pants, don't hesitate to order these.\\n\\nMy only complaint is the fit, they always run a little small. I have to buy one size up just to ensure they fit. It's not flattering when you're picking your size but keep that in mind.\\n\\nUpdate: Its May 2017 and I still have these same pairs of pants I originally ordered. They each get worn/washed about once a week, a pair for each work day. I have a couple of pairs that are finally getting thin in the crotch from rubbing but no holes or tears anywhere.\",\n \"Product: Get more for your money from this comfortable, good-looking utility pant. It's built of sturdy fabric for hard wear and easy care. The flattering flat front looks sharp wherever work takes you--field to the office, back shop to the back yard. Tradesmen swear by the 874's comfort and durability; office guys praise the look, fit, quality, and price. The 874 is comprised of Heavyweight 8.5 oz. twill of easy-care and 65% polyester/35% cotton. The pant comes in a wide choice of fade-resistant colors with a 26\\\" to 72\\\" waist sizing variance.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: These last through tough jobs and many washes.\\n\\nReview: I've had 5 pairs of these pants for over 2 years. I wear one pair each day of the work week. I'm a Pest Control Technician and often find my self climbing on rooftops and sitting on them while doing exclusion work. Before I wore Dickies, I'd wear normal dress pants which lasted a good one visit on top of a room before holes were forming. The Dickies are tough, I've been on my knees and behind on roof tops and never had a hole. I go under houses and have to crawl around in rocks and dirt but have yet to find a hole. After two years of wearing these and washing repeatedly, they are finally starting to fade a little and start to get the fuzzies or \\\"Pilling\\\" on the fabric. I also love the range of waist and length sizes. If you're short and fat, you can get pants without hemming, if you're tall and skinny, they've got sizes for that frame also. Its great. If you do any sort of labor and need quality work pants, don't hesitate to order these.\\n\\nMy only complaint is the fit, they always run a little small. I have to buy one size up just to ensure they fit. It's not flattering when you're picking your size but keep that in mind.\\n\\nUpdate: Its May 2017 and I still have these same pairs of pants I originally ordered. They each get worn/washed about once a week, a pair for each work day. I have a couple of pairs that are finally getting thin in the crotch from rubbing but no holes or tears anywhere.\",\n \"Product: Get more for your money from this comfortable, good-looking utility pant. It's built of sturdy fabric for hard wear and easy care. The flattering flat front looks sharp wherever work takes you--field to the office, back shop to the back yard. Tradesmen swear by the 874's comfort and durability; office guys praise the look, fit, quality, and price. The 874 is comprised of Heavyweight 8.5 oz. twill of easy-care and 65% polyester/35% cotton. The pant comes in a wide choice of fade-resistant colors with a 26\\\" to 72\\\" waist sizing variance.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: These last through tough jobs and many washes.\\n\\nReview: I've had 5 pairs of these pants for over 2 years. I wear one pair each day of the work week. I'm a Pest Control Technician and often find my self climbing on rooftops and sitting on them while doing exclusion work. Before I wore Dickies, I'd wear normal dress pants which lasted a good one visit on top of a room before holes were forming. The Dickies are tough, I've been on my knees and behind on roof tops and never had a hole. I go under houses and have to crawl around in rocks and dirt but have yet to find a hole. After two years of wearing these and washing repeatedly, they are finally starting to fade a little and start to get the fuzzies or \\\"Pilling\\\" on the fabric. I also love the range of waist and length sizes. If you're short and fat, you can get pants without hemming, if you're tall and skinny, they've got sizes for that frame also. Its great. If you do any sort of labor and need quality work pants, don't hesitate to order these.\\n\\nMy only complaint is the fit, they always run a little small. I have to buy one size up just to ensure they fit. It's not flattering when you're picking your size but keep that in mind.\\n\\nUpdate: Its May 2017 and I still have these same pairs of pants I originally ordered. They each get worn/washed about once a week, a pair for each work day. I have a couple of pairs that are finally getting thin in the crotch from rubbing but no holes or tears anywhere.\",\n \"Product: Get more for your money from this comfortable, good-looking utility pant. It's built of sturdy fabric for hard wear and easy care. The flattering flat front looks sharp wherever work takes you--field to the office, back shop to the back yard. Tradesmen swear by the 874's comfort and durability; office guys praise the look, fit, quality, and price. The 874 is comprised of Heavyweight 8.5 oz. twill of easy-care and 65% polyester/35% cotton. The pant comes in a wide choice of fade-resistant colors with a 26\\\" to 72\\\" waist sizing variance.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: These last through tough jobs and many washes.\\n\\nReview: I've had 5 pairs of these pants for over 2 years. I wear one pair each day of the work week. I'm a Pest Control Technician and often find my self climbing on rooftops and sitting on them while doing exclusion work. Before I wore Dickies, I'd wear normal dress pants which lasted a good one visit on top of a room before holes were forming. The Dickies are tough, I've been on my knees and behind on roof tops and never had a hole. I go under houses and have to crawl around in rocks and dirt but have yet to find a hole. After two years of wearing these and washing repeatedly, they are finally starting to fade a little and start to get the fuzzies or \\\"Pilling\\\" on the fabric. I also love the range of waist and length sizes. If you're short and fat, you can get pants without hemming, if you're tall and skinny, they've got sizes for that frame also. Its great. If you do any sort of labor and need quality work pants, don't hesitate to order these.\\n\\nMy only complaint is the fit, they always run a little small. I have to buy one size up just to ensure they fit. It's not flattering when you're picking your size but keep that in mind.\\n\\nUpdate: Its May 2017 and I still have these same pairs of pants I originally ordered. They each get worn/washed about once a week, a pair for each work day. I have a couple of pairs that are finally getting thin in the crotch from rubbing but no holes or tears anywhere.\",\n \"Product: Get more for your money from this comfortable, good-looking utility pant. It's built of sturdy fabric for hard wear and easy care. The flattering flat front looks sharp wherever work takes you--field to the office, back shop to the back yard. Tradesmen swear by the 874's comfort and durability; office guys praise the look, fit, quality, and price. The 874 is comprised of Heavyweight 8.5 oz. twill of easy-care and 65% polyester/35% cotton. The pant comes in a wide choice of fade-resistant colors with a 26\\\" to 72\\\" waist sizing variance.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: These last through tough jobs and many washes.\\n\\nReview: I've had 5 pairs of these pants for over 2 years. I wear one pair each day of the work week. I'm a Pest Control Technician and often find my self climbing on rooftops and sitting on them while doing exclusion work. Before I wore Dickies, I'd wear normal dress pants which lasted a good one visit on top of a room before holes were forming. The Dickies are tough, I've been on my knees and behind on roof tops and never had a hole. I go under houses and have to crawl around in rocks and dirt but have yet to find a hole. After two years of wearing these and washing repeatedly, they are finally starting to fade a little and start to get the fuzzies or \\\"Pilling\\\" on the fabric. I also love the range of waist and length sizes. If you're short and fat, you can get pants without hemming, if you're tall and skinny, they've got sizes for that frame also. Its great. If you do any sort of labor and need quality work pants, don't hesitate to order these.\\n\\nMy only complaint is the fit, they always run a little small. I have to buy one size up just to ensure they fit. It's not flattering when you're picking your size but keep that in mind.\\n\\nUpdate: Its May 2017 and I still have these same pairs of pants I originally ordered. They each get worn/washed about once a week, a pair for each work day. I have a couple of pairs that are finally getting thin in the crotch from rubbing but no holes or tears anywhere.\",\n \"Product: The Invincible Marine BR59810 Transom Tie-Down Straps are common on bass and high performance boats, and measure 2-inches by 4-feet. This tie-down strap secures the boats transom to most trailers, and provides a safe and reliable transport with each use! The vinyl coated s-hooks prevent scratches and dinks, protecting your boat from unnecessary damage. This is the ultimate tie-down system in convenience, style and innovation, and is perfect for rigging boats or trailers! Whether you're outfitting your boat for the first time, or replacing well-worn nautical parts, this product is an essential accessory for your boating and domestic needs, and is perfect for nautical journeys and mechanical maintenance. Precision and reliability are the marks of quality that this product has proven time and time again, guaranteeing steadfast performance with each use. The Invincible Marine BR59810 Transom Tie-Down Straps comes with a 1-year limited warranty and protects against manufacturing and workmanship defects. Rugged, tough and reliable, Invincible Marine is well-known for their hardworking nautical line. For freshwater and saltwater boating, Invincible Marine designs products for avid fishermen and weekend boaters. Quality, utility and innovation go into every Invincible Marine product giving you more time on the water.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Very well made marine straps!\\n\\nReview: These Straps are HEAVY DUTY! We bought a second jet ski and needed shorter straps since the anchor points are closer together on the double ski trailer. They still have excess strap tails but the straps have a very handy velcro loop to secure it so its not flapping around. The hooks are very thick gage and the rubber coating on them is very thick as well. The original ones we bought from the dealer had small cheap looking hooks and the coating on them was thin and rubbed through to the metal with in a few uses, which eventually led to rusting. They clamp down very well and do not loosen with bumpy rides. Our old straps were loose every time you turned around because the clamps were of poor quality, and the only thing that insured they didn't loosen was a well tied knot! I would recommend these to anyone with jet ski's, boats, or any other marine product!\",\n \"Product: Embracing the same large platform and 8 hex pin system for stellar grip and traction, the new Chester pedal from RaceFace is every bit as tough as their alloy cousin - only this time, constructed with a nylon composite body to shave off the grams. The Chester's bearing and bushing system is fully serviceable and the cro-mo axle is fully sealed, for a highly durable and lightweight pedal that offers great performance at an incredible value.Features: Fully serviceable bearing & bushing system 8 hex traction pins per side Lightweight nylon composite body Fully sealed cro-mo axle Large platform with same grip as traditional alloy pedals\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Great budget pedals, I'm very pleased.\\n\\nReview: I bought my first expensive ($3k+) new bike and didn't want the $4 pedals they put on them at the shop. The bike shop showed me a few of their pedals but most were $150 or more. I figured I'm buying an expensive bike, I need to cut cost somewhere. I looked on Amazon and found these Race Face pedals. I was worried they'd feel cheap when I got them but to my surprise they are excellent pedals. I've ridden demo bikes with metal pedals similar to these but I think I actually prefer these Race Face composite pedals over super expensive metal pedals. I stay firmly planted on my bike even on rough trails, they seem to be pretty light weight and have survived several pedal strikes on rocks and roots. I'm now looking at a second pair for my new road/fitness bike. I ordered the black pedals but I love the color options for matching them to your bike's color scheme. I think I'll go blue for the road bike. Pick these up!\",\n \"Product: Constructed in our superlight quick-drying 4-way stretch polyester, these shorts are packed with features. A excellent choice for bike packing, bicycle touring and adventure cycling, they also crossover to hiking, trail running, Rock climbing and travel\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Great shorts that aren't too long, the padded liner is not good.\\n\\nReview: I've always had trouble finding a pair of mountain bike shorts. I'm a shorter stocky guy and every other pair of riding shorts are so long I look like I'm wearing high water pants. I ordered these knowing I was risking it but the price was great and Amazon had free returns. They fit me perfectly! I even ordered a second pair while they were half price. I like the zippered pockets so I can leave my phone in there. I used to have to get it out of my hydration pack anytime I needed it, which is a hassle when you're alone on a new trail and trying to use an app to navigate. I wish the upper pockets were zippered, having stuff in the lower pockets just beats up your knees when pedaling fast. I normally wear knee pads so its not an issue for me. The liner shorts are nearly pointless. They are thinner than the $9 pair I bought from Amazon. The lack of a decent liner is the biggest let down for me.\",\n \"Product: Our screen protectors are made from Optical Grade Crystal Film which are custom cut to ensure a perfect fit every time. Constructed in three layers; a scratch resistant surface polymer, a hardened protective mask to prevent deep cuts damaging your device and finally a patented silicone gel that creates a vacuum to securely 'cling' to the device screen. Our screen protectors use no adhesive and there is no spraying anything to the protector or the device.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Not a great back screen protector but does the job\\n\\nReview: I bought these for the back of my iPhonef because my case came with a front cover, and i wanted to make sure the apple logo didn't get the usual ring around it from the opening in the back of the case. The back is all one piece....so it goes over the white lines in the back and it looks terrible. I don't really care since its in a case but if i didn't I would have thrown it in the trash. It doesn't adhere to the lines on the back of the phone so if you didn't have a case it would come off very easily since that is 4 points of entry for dirt, dust, and foreign objects to get stuck in! The last back screen protector came in three parts. The top section, the middle, and the bottom part, and it looked and functioned better!\",\n \"Product: WARNING: This product can expose you to chemicals which is [are] known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm. For more information go to www.P65Warnings.ca.gov.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: clears up smoke smell pretty well\\n\\nReview: My husbands (Chris) mother had us order this for her. Her husband smokes and they spray this in the house when people come over or when they leave to freshen up the place. Neither Chris or I smoke so we can smell smoke from a mile away, and when they freshen up the house with this its very hard to detect the smell. It isn't a permanent fix but it does work for a little while. Her husband also uses it in his truck and it works very well in there too!\\n\\nWe have some of this in the house as well. We use it when there is a some stinky trash or when I stink up the house with cooking (garlic onions etc..) and it is amazing. When the trash gets stinky before the bag is full we will spray this in the can and close the lid once in a while and it keeps the smell at bay for awhile. It doesn't take much either. we have a 2000 sq. ft house and the down stairs is half of that. i spray one burst in the kitchen, one in the dining, one in the living, one in the stair well, and one in the bathroom/front door area, and that is almost too much! So use sparingly!\",\n \"Product: Designed for gamers, this 600-watt peak power inverter from Bravo View plugs into any 12-volt outlet to keep your electronic devices charged up and ready to go. It converts your car's battery power so you can power up laptops, video game systems, small appliances, and even many large flat-screen TVs from your vehicle. The INV-400 includes a cigarette lighter connection cable and audio/video game plate.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Great inverter for small devices, could be a littler sturdier.\\n\\nReview: I used this on a long road trip where we had several devices needing a charge. I plugged in a power strip to charge 2 iPhones and a couple of Go Pro batteries at once. Of course being careful in calculating the wattage. It did a great job, didn't get too hot and we didn't have to smell the odd odors that come out of these things sometimes. I would give it a full 5 stars but it doesnt feel very sturdy. I'm not saying it will fall to pieces immediately but if you're frequently plugging and unplugging it you may start to weaken it. Occasional use would probably suit this best, or just leave it in all the time. I would recommend this to just about anyone.\",\n \"Product: Designed for gamers, this 600-watt peak power inverter from Bravo View plugs into any 12-volt outlet to keep your electronic devices charged up and ready to go. It converts your car's battery power so you can power up laptops, video game systems, small appliances, and even many large flat-screen TVs from your vehicle. The INV-400 includes a cigarette lighter connection cable and audio/video game plate.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Great inverter for small devices, could be a littler sturdier.\\n\\nReview: I used this on a long road trip where we had several devices needing a charge. I plugged in a power strip to charge 2 iPhones and a couple of Go Pro batteries at once. Of course being careful in calculating the wattage. It did a great job, didn't get too hot and we didn't have to smell the odd odors that come out of these things sometimes. I would give it a full 5 stars but it doesnt feel very sturdy. I'm not saying it will fall to pieces immediately but if you're frequently plugging and unplugging it you may start to weaken it. Occasional use would probably suit this best, or just leave it in all the time. I would recommend this to just about anyone.\",\n \"Product: Reese custom built trailer hitches feature solid all-welded construction for maximum strength and safety. Computer aided design, fatigue and stress testing insure a robust design that provides a lifetime of trouble free towing. Each hitch is engineered and \\\"Tested Tough\\\" to deliver the absolute highest quality trailer hitch available anywhere. Looks great and work great with our full line of hitch accessories (sold separately), including our exclusive InterLock hitch ball and ball mount \\\"One Wrench Tightening System\\\". All of our hitches meet and exceed V-5, CSA and SAE J684 standards and are inspected for quality and workmanship. Designed for a perfect fit and a great look, with many no drill applications for quick and easy DIY installation. The METALSHIELD protective coating process is a three step finish consisting of a rust inhibiting primer, dipped E-coat electrostatic coating to insure total finish coverage and finally an outer powder coat finish for durability. The METALSHIELD process is an OEM compatible finish providing the best corrosion protection over brands that use only powder coat on their products. All our hitches are custom built according to exact manufacturer and model year specifications and test fitted to ensure a perfect fit, ease of installation and superior towing performance.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A sturdy hitch with easy installation.\\n\\nReview: I was very pleased with this hitch. I needed to put a Thule T2 bike rack on the car, both are roughly 30lb full suspension mountain bikes and the bike rack weighs 50lb. The installation was quite easy to my surprise. I did it myself, I had to get creative and let one side lay on my leg while I got the bolts in on one side. Once I got all sides started I used a torque wrench to make sure they were tightened to specifications. I'd strongly recommend using the torque wrench. I didn't have one initially, I did my best to crank it down with a regular socket wrench. It felt \\\"good enough\\\" but I decided to run to the hardware store and buy an 18 inch torque wrench. I was surprised when I realized how loose it still was, once I got it torqued to spec it was solid. I stood on the hitch and bounced to check it out. I luckily didn't have any issues with the rack being bent during shipping like others have said.\\n\\nOnce more note, I bought this for a 2013 Rav4. While it fits perfectly, anything you're towing is going to have little ground clearance. Its not the hitch's fault, the Rav4 just doesnt have a lot of clearance. Our bike rack has hit the ground on steep driveways, not the outer part of the rack but the part thats sticking out from the hitch. I measured the ground clearance for our rack at the hitch point and it was only 8 inches. Granted, the car was loaded with camping gear, the bikes/rack weight but even unloaded we only had 9.5 inches.\",\n \"Product: These are goggles that can interchange to become sunglasses. Temples interchange with the strap. Frame has vented foam padding for comfort and wind blockage. Lenses are shatterproof, polycarbonate, UV400 protection and have anti-fog coating. Comes with a soft case. Available with smoked mirrored lenses only. Great for watersports since it floats.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: I've had mine 2+ years and they are still great!\\n\\nReview: I'm really pleased with these. I've had them for over 2 years now. I wear them while riding my jet ski to keep my eyes from drying out or getting tons of water in them suddenly. I use the elastic strap so ensure they're stuck on my head at high speeds. They are not water or air tight. There are small grooves in the rubber seal but it does keep a good amount of air and water out. I wear contacts while riding and they would constantly dry out with sunglasses on. They have never dried out while wearing these but when I do have a huge wave or splash go over the front of the jet ski I can get some water in them. Its not been an issue and its only during extreme circumstances. They seem to be sturdy and have stood up to me not taking the best care of them. While not in use, I leave them in the compartment between the seat and the handle bars with other objects flopping around while the jet skis are trailered to and from the lake. I've not noticed any scratches or signs of them breaking anytime soon even with my neglect. I've been considering getting a second pair for mountain biking and just to have one in case mine do break. These really are great glasses for jet skiing.\\n\\nI should mention they get plenty of use, I ride frequently 8 months out of the year, during the 3-4 hot south Texas months I go out about once a week. I even ride off and on during the winter months all while using these.\",\n \"Product: Package also includes: DVD detailing spa setup and maintenance, Heating System, Insulated Cover, Filtration System with filter cartridge - type VI, Ground Cloth, Inflation Hose, Chemical floater, Heavy-duty repair patch.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: I bought mine a year and a half ago and it still works great!\\n\\nReview: Were on season 2 with this hot tub. I got it in November 2016 and was worried it wouldnt last long. We used it almost daily until mid May 2017. Its been set up on our back porch, we don't get brutally cold winters in south Texas but we did have several below freezing nights. I usually keep it at 100 so its not heating constantly, then turn it up a few hours before we want to get in it. I have been turning the pump off for an hour or two each day for a while to hopefully extend the life of it. After our first season with the tub I was worried it wouldnt work when we took it out of storage. Other than finding it had built up some mold, it was in perfect working order. We bleached the mold, rinsed it really well and it's been running since October 2017 with no problems. I do clean the filters at least twice a week and replace them every month or so. I also drain about half of the tubs water and refill it once a month. Its a small amount of water for two adults to be in nightly for a month without refreshing it. I see no reason why it won't last until this end of this season. If it doesnt work when we pull it out later this year I won't be too upset. It was $350 and we used it so often it will probably come out to $1 for each use. You can't even come close to getting a real hot tub for that price, you can barely pay a month's payment for one for the price of this thing. Manage your expectations, take good care of it and you should be very pleased with this purchase. Unless you get one that just doesnt work out of the box. This is a great hot tub for the price. I'm so glad I bought it.\\n\\nI noticed a few negative reviews saying \\\"i wasn't paid to lie about this\\\". Just to be clear, I was not paid anything for this review. I was skeptical just like most people who've seen the negative reviews but I'm going on year two with this and still very happy.\"\n]","isConversational":false},"profile_size":{"kind":"number","value":35,"string":"35"},"task":{"kind":"string","value":"longlamp_3"},"split_kind":{"kind":"string","value":"user_based"},"id":{"kind":"number","value":1690,"string":"1,690"}}},{"rowIdx":1691,"cells":{"question_id":{"kind":"string","value":"A34XPZS5DXA6HA"},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of \"5.0\" for a product with description \"176-pages\". The summary of the review text is \"Ramona is not average even when she is average....\"."},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"Ramona is a fun loving young one, who does nothing but pester her sister. It is never her goal to do so, it just happens. Although she is now in first grade this still hasn't changed too much.\nRamona now attends the same school as her sister Beezus, and now that shes there she is let down. It isn't what she expected, in fact, it doesn't seem to be any fun at all.\nMs. Cleary's Ramona books are a fun read full of humor, but she never neglects to address the problems that really face school age children. As a child reading these books I remember that it helped put things into perspective for me, although at the time that probably wasn't the word I used.\nI would recommend this book to all children, and even to adults with children."},"correct_answer":{"kind":"string","value":"Ramona is a fun loving young one, who does nothing but pester her sister. It is never her goal to do so, it just happens. Although she is now in first grade this still hasn't changed too much.\nRamona now attends the same school as her sister Beezus, and now that shes there she is let down. It isn't what she expected, in fact, it doesn't seem to be any fun at all.\nMs. Cleary's Ramona books are a fun read full of humor, but she never neglects to address the problems that really face school age children. As a child reading these books I remember that it helped put things into perspective for me, although at the time that probably wasn't the word I used.\nI would recommend this book to all children, and even to adults with children."},"documents":{"kind":"list like","value":["Product: Los Angeles is enduring a heat wave and a crime wave, so the pressure on police officer Michael Harrigan (Danny Glover) to solve a strange string of murders is mounting. Harrigan thinks the culprit can be found among the warring gangs and drug cartels, but FBI Special Agent Peter Keyes (Gary Busey) knows the horrible truth: Their killer is a fearsome extraterrestrial (Kevin Peter Hall) with keen hunting abilities that include superior night vision and the power to make itself invisible.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Good Considering the Shoes it had to Fill\n\nReview: Considering that this is a sequal to one of my favorite movies of all time it wasn't half bad. To follow in the wake of a movie the caliber of Predator is hard to do.\nIn my opinion the only reason this movie worked at all is because of the changes the makers of the film made to the setting and the cast. If they had tried to do a sequal without these changes it probably would have flopped. It was good that they shook things up and gave the veiwers something else to ponder.\nNow in the jungles of Los Angeles instead of the jungles of a Souoth American country the hunt has begun yet again. Danny Clover does a great job of avoiding his own slaughter,and does eventually take down the bad guy. If you go into this movie expecting a film of the same caliber of its predecessor you will be slightly disapointed, but if you have an open mind be prepared for a not perfect, but enjoyable ride.","Product: run time 2 hour 12 mins.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: What an Amazing Woman\n\nReview: Wow! This is not another Pretty Woman by any means. Julia's character is a struggling mother who has no question in her mind as to the right and wrong of a whole town's situation, and she isn't afraid to hunt down the evidence and the answers she needs. Erin Brockovich is based on the true story of a woman at the end of her means who is scratching and clawing to keep from drowning while supporting her children, and saving a town. Roberts does an exceptional job portraying Brockovich.\nKudos to both Julia for a job well done, and Erin for making her life what she wanted it to be, while helping those who couldn't have done it on their own.","Product: SHREK - SPECIAL EDITION VIDEOCASSETTE. The Party continues....MORE SHREK than ever before! All-New Extended Ending. - DVS Home Video Described movies for people who have trouble seeing the screen.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Not What I Would Have Expected.\n\nReview: I am huge Disney fan, and went into this movie not expecting to enjoy it nearly as much as I would have a Disney film, but my son wanted to see it, so I of course obliged. I was pleasantly surprised, and had no trouble adding this film to the presents under the Christmas tree.\nSherk is a ogre and a loner to the highest degree. He doesn't believe in fairy tales, and that point is made clear within the first 10 mintues of the film by a very outrageously funny scene in the out house. Sherk isn't prepared for love, or friendship, but he finds both.\nThis is a film that the whole family can enjoy. It is laced with adult caliber humor that is easily hidden from the children in your company by making them laugh at the same time due to a facial expression or action placed at the same time as the witty remark. The ending will not dissapoint the romantics, and for those of you who aren't, don't stop or leave or rewind too soon. You will love Shrek's Kareoke in Swap.","Product: Accoring to the London Times, translater, Richmond Lattimer has come about as near as any man could to conveying, in English, the utterly alien movment and structure of Homer's poetry...\"\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: The World's Oldest and Greatest Adventure Story\n\nReview: This is an amazing story. What is more amazing is that this story has traveresed thousands of years and existed primarily through an oral telling, and of course was written down in later years. There is no wonder that this is a classic in many languages.\nTo put is most simply this is a story told of a man who has extremely poor luck, but always comes out of his adventures the hero. He can only do so by having superior physical strength and by out-smarting things that were stronger than he was. It is because of these characteristics that the reader knows just how important strength and smarts were to the ancient Greeks. A man wasn't complete unless he possesed both. You will also find that the classic Greek tradgedy is also present."],"string":"[\n \"Product: Los Angeles is enduring a heat wave and a crime wave, so the pressure on police officer Michael Harrigan (Danny Glover) to solve a strange string of murders is mounting. Harrigan thinks the culprit can be found among the warring gangs and drug cartels, but FBI Special Agent Peter Keyes (Gary Busey) knows the horrible truth: Their killer is a fearsome extraterrestrial (Kevin Peter Hall) with keen hunting abilities that include superior night vision and the power to make itself invisible.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Good Considering the Shoes it had to Fill\\n\\nReview: Considering that this is a sequal to one of my favorite movies of all time it wasn't half bad. To follow in the wake of a movie the caliber of Predator is hard to do.\\nIn my opinion the only reason this movie worked at all is because of the changes the makers of the film made to the setting and the cast. If they had tried to do a sequal without these changes it probably would have flopped. It was good that they shook things up and gave the veiwers something else to ponder.\\nNow in the jungles of Los Angeles instead of the jungles of a Souoth American country the hunt has begun yet again. Danny Clover does a great job of avoiding his own slaughter,and does eventually take down the bad guy. If you go into this movie expecting a film of the same caliber of its predecessor you will be slightly disapointed, but if you have an open mind be prepared for a not perfect, but enjoyable ride.\",\n \"Product: run time 2 hour 12 mins.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: What an Amazing Woman\\n\\nReview: Wow! This is not another Pretty Woman by any means. Julia's character is a struggling mother who has no question in her mind as to the right and wrong of a whole town's situation, and she isn't afraid to hunt down the evidence and the answers she needs. Erin Brockovich is based on the true story of a woman at the end of her means who is scratching and clawing to keep from drowning while supporting her children, and saving a town. Roberts does an exceptional job portraying Brockovich.\\nKudos to both Julia for a job well done, and Erin for making her life what she wanted it to be, while helping those who couldn't have done it on their own.\",\n \"Product: SHREK - SPECIAL EDITION VIDEOCASSETTE. The Party continues....MORE SHREK than ever before! All-New Extended Ending. - DVS Home Video Described movies for people who have trouble seeing the screen.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Not What I Would Have Expected.\\n\\nReview: I am huge Disney fan, and went into this movie not expecting to enjoy it nearly as much as I would have a Disney film, but my son wanted to see it, so I of course obliged. I was pleasantly surprised, and had no trouble adding this film to the presents under the Christmas tree.\\nSherk is a ogre and a loner to the highest degree. He doesn't believe in fairy tales, and that point is made clear within the first 10 mintues of the film by a very outrageously funny scene in the out house. Sherk isn't prepared for love, or friendship, but he finds both.\\nThis is a film that the whole family can enjoy. It is laced with adult caliber humor that is easily hidden from the children in your company by making them laugh at the same time due to a facial expression or action placed at the same time as the witty remark. The ending will not dissapoint the romantics, and for those of you who aren't, don't stop or leave or rewind too soon. You will love Shrek's Kareoke in Swap.\",\n \"Product: Accoring to the London Times, translater, Richmond Lattimer has come about as near as any man could to conveying, in English, the utterly alien movment and structure of Homer's poetry...\\\"\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: The World's Oldest and Greatest Adventure Story\\n\\nReview: This is an amazing story. What is more amazing is that this story has traveresed thousands of years and existed primarily through an oral telling, and of course was written down in later years. There is no wonder that this is a classic in many languages.\\nTo put is most simply this is a story told of a man who has extremely poor luck, but always comes out of his adventures the hero. He can only do so by having superior physical strength and by out-smarting things that were stronger than he was. It is because of these characteristics that the reader knows just how important strength and smarts were to the ancient Greeks. A man wasn't complete unless he possesed both. You will also find that the classic Greek tradgedy is also present.\"\n]","isConversational":false},"profile_size":{"kind":"number","value":4,"string":"4"},"task":{"kind":"string","value":"longlamp_3"},"split_kind":{"kind":"string","value":"user_based"},"id":{"kind":"number","value":1691,"string":"1,691"}}},{"rowIdx":1692,"cells":{"question_id":{"kind":"string","value":"A30TK6U7DNS82R"},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of \"5.0\" for a product with description \"It is a memorable film...blessed with an honest script, good direction, and sound performance.\". The summary of the review text is \"Brilliantly directed and acted\"."},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"Stanwyck's lawyer describing to the jury, in ultra-dramatic terms, how the jewelry hypnotized her into stealing it, and hypnotized her into returning it--but first she had to get to Long Island and you need money to do that--so she stopped in at the \"hock shop\"--is just the first of the priceless setpieces of Mitchell Leisen's classic weeper REMEMBER THE NIGHT. People say Preston Sturges is responsible for how great this movie is, but I give Leisen lots of credit, and I don't know if I would have liked a Sturges-directed REMEMBER THE NIGHT. You know there would have been more of the scenes which might have looked great on paper, but are clunkers on film--the scene where the cow eats Stanwyck's hat, the scene where the angry farmer brings McMurray and Stanwyck to the Pennsylvania JP (and she has to set fire to the wastepaper basket to escape). Well--these scenes are beneath the talents of the stars--they might as well have gotten Bud Abbott and Joan Davis to play them.\n\nAs for the scenes with \"Snowflake,\" they are hard to take! Maybe the one is sort of cute when McMurray impersonates Snowflake's voice on the phone, but the caller tells him he will never be an actor. But then you see Snowflake looking puzzled in the background and you just cringe.\n\nThose NYC scenes do have a peculiar pre-Code flavor to them, though, don't they? Sophisticated isn't the word! They're downright seamy just like Stanwyck pictures of 10 years before, with the implication that Fat Mike is delivering Lee to Sargent for sexual favors that will get her off the hook and result in a reduced or dismissed charge--and that's par for the course in prosecutorial circles. At any rate, that's what Fat Mike seems to believe is going on--Lee too. She's shocked when it develops that John Sergeant isn't going to require her to sleep with him. So there's a bit of noir flavor in the first half of the picture, but once Beulah Bondi and Elizabeth Patterson enter the action, the movie becomes incomparably richer and more satisfying.\n\nOthers have described it better, the way Bondi treads a delicate course between coming to care for Stanwyck, and knowing that marrying her would be ruinous for John's career. We may not agree with Bondi's position, and in fact we were rooting for the aunt to win in the debate, but Leisen's camera insists that we pay her respect and take her argument seriously. Only under the pressure of Bondi's loving admonition, I think, is Stanwyck really able to change, able to see why her own harum-scarum life isn't ultimately very satisfactory. I have no words for the scene in which Bondi pulls the strings of the old fashioned girdle to reduce Stanwyck's waistline from 25 ot 26 to a 1910 ideal of 19. It is tender, physical, practical, luminous--and educational too--we were like, OMG, look at all those crazy underwears!\n\nAnd yes, what about that title!!! Even something corny like \"Second Chance\" would have been more comprehensible."},"correct_answer":{"kind":"string","value":"Stanwyck's lawyer describing to the jury, in ultra-dramatic terms, how the jewelry hypnotized her into stealing it, and hypnotized her into returning it--but first she had to get to Long Island and you need money to do that--so she stopped in at the \"hock shop\"--is just the first of the priceless setpieces of Mitchell Leisen's classic weeper REMEMBER THE NIGHT. People say Preston Sturges is responsible for how great this movie is, but I give Leisen lots of credit, and I don't know if I would have liked a Sturges-directed REMEMBER THE NIGHT. You know there would have been more of the scenes which might have looked great on paper, but are clunkers on film--the scene where the cow eats Stanwyck's hat, the scene where the angry farmer brings McMurray and Stanwyck to the Pennsylvania JP (and she has to set fire to the wastepaper basket to escape). Well--these scenes are beneath the talents of the stars--they might as well have gotten Bud Abbott and Joan Davis to play them.\n\nAs for the scenes with \"Snowflake,\" they are hard to take! Maybe the one is sort of cute when McMurray impersonates Snowflake's voice on the phone, but the caller tells him he will never be an actor. But then you see Snowflake looking puzzled in the background and you just cringe.\n\nThose NYC scenes do have a peculiar pre-Code flavor to them, though, don't they? Sophisticated isn't the word! They're downright seamy just like Stanwyck pictures of 10 years before, with the implication that Fat Mike is delivering Lee to Sargent for sexual favors that will get her off the hook and result in a reduced or dismissed charge--and that's par for the course in prosecutorial circles. At any rate, that's what Fat Mike seems to believe is going on--Lee too. She's shocked when it develops that John Sergeant isn't going to require her to sleep with him. So there's a bit of noir flavor in the first half of the picture, but once Beulah Bondi and Elizabeth Patterson enter the action, the movie becomes incomparably richer and more satisfying.\n\nOthers have described it better, the way Bondi treads a delicate course between coming to care for Stanwyck, and knowing that marrying her would be ruinous for John's career. We may not agree with Bondi's position, and in fact we were rooting for the aunt to win in the debate, but Leisen's camera insists that we pay her respect and take her argument seriously. Only under the pressure of Bondi's loving admonition, I think, is Stanwyck really able to change, able to see why her own harum-scarum life isn't ultimately very satisfactory. I have no words for the scene in which Bondi pulls the strings of the old fashioned girdle to reduce Stanwyck's waistline from 25 ot 26 to a 1910 ideal of 19. It is tender, physical, practical, luminous--and educational too--we were like, OMG, look at all those crazy underwears!\n\nAnd yes, what about that title!!! Even something corny like \"Second Chance\" would have been more comprehensible."},"documents":{"kind":"list like","value":["Product: CRAZY SEXY CANCER - WELLNESS VERSION\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Her Metier Is Helping Others Overcome Fear\n\nReview: She never really does reveal what makes cancer sexy, but surely part of it is her developing romance with the man behind the camera, Brian Fassett. Brian makes himself indispensable to Kris, and is at her side no matter what New Age diet she tries next. Even when she's down, he stays up. In fact Brian hardly shows any emotions in the video, he's just a steady sort of man for a bubbly and optimistic woman.\n\nHer dilemma is a tragic one: she has an inoperable and untreatable cancer that paradoxically enough doesn't need treatment because its growth is undetectably slow. What's the sense is subjecting oneself to nauseating chemo when, in fact, you're doing fine without it? And yet she sometimes suffers from existential panic, for even though she's not in pain or even \"sick,\" she's a walking time bomb and one of these days that cancer might spread.\n\nShe's a lot like Chloe Sevigny and no wonder she wasn't getting many parts as an actress, she was probably losing all the good ones to Chloe. My wife says I'm crazy and that Kris Carr is charismatic. However, she's not charismatic enough to make me eat 80 percent raw foods and start juicing, and she becomes sort of johnny one note about how delicious juices are and how much she's in love. Of course she's delighted to be alive, and she surrounds herself with other young women stricken with cancer and they are her posse (didn't see any of them at her wedding though, maybe they're just illness friends and not wedding guest type friends). Sad to see the brilliant black playwright struggling with getting one final play done! We learned that the woman, Oni Faida Lampley, a brilliant actress and so great in the Kevin Costner movie DRAGONFLY, died last month and this movie is a great tribute to her spirit, though her death of course is not covered in this tape. Maybe there will be a sequel to talk about those young women for whom the diets and juicing do not help.\n\nOn an amusing note, Kris Carr has many Julia Roberts-style montages of herself doing funny walks across the screen, sometimes breaking into the \"funky chicken,\" in an assortment of size 4 play clothes and kooky hats. I counted and there are 11 such montages in the film, more than any other movie I ever remember seeing. A record?","Product: CRAZY SEXY CANCER - WELLNESS VERSION\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Her Metier Is Helping Others Overcome Fear\n\nReview: She never really does reveal what makes cancer sexy, but surely part of it is her developing romance with the man behind the camera, Brian Fassett. Brian makes himself indispensable to Kris, and is at her side no matter what New Age diet she tries next. Even when she's down, he stays up. In fact Brian hardly shows any emotions in the video, he's just a steady sort of man for a bubbly and optimistic woman.\n\nHer dilemma is a tragic one: she has an inoperable and untreatable cancer that paradoxically enough doesn't need treatment because its growth is undetectably slow. What's the sense is subjecting oneself to nauseating chemo when, in fact, you're doing fine without it? And yet she sometimes suffers from existential panic, for even though she's not in pain or even \"sick,\" she's a walking time bomb and one of these days that cancer might spread.\n\nShe's a lot like Chloe Sevigny and no wonder she wasn't getting many parts as an actress, she was probably losing all the good ones to Chloe. My wife says I'm crazy and that Kris Carr is charismatic. However, she's not charismatic enough to make me eat 80 percent raw foods and start juicing, and she becomes sort of johnny one note about how delicious juices are and how much she's in love. Of course she's delighted to be alive, and she surrounds herself with other young women stricken with cancer and they are her posse (didn't see any of them at her wedding though, maybe they're just illness friends and not wedding guest type friends). Sad to see the brilliant black playwright struggling with getting one final play done! We learned that the woman, Oni Faida Lampley, a brilliant actress and so great in the Kevin Costner movie DRAGONFLY, died last month and this movie is a great tribute to her spirit, though her death of course is not covered in this tape. Maybe there will be a sequel to talk about those young women for whom the diets and juicing do not help.\n\nOn an amusing note, Kris Carr has many Julia Roberts-style montages of herself doing funny walks across the screen, sometimes breaking into the \"funky chicken,\" in an assortment of size 4 play clothes and kooky hats. I counted and there are 11 such montages in the film, more than any other movie I ever remember seeing. A record?","Product: The MagniLamp (GN-55) from Carson is a fully adjustable hand-held or hands-free magnifying lamp with a scratch resistant oversized acrylic lens (Lens Diameter: 4.0 inches). This magnifying glass has a 2x power magnification with a 3.5x power spot lens. It is compact and lightweight and makes for a great low vision reading aide. The MagniLamp is perfect for any desktop or workbench. It is LED lighted with 2 super bright LED lights. The MagniLamp is powered by 2 AA batteries (not included). The flexible, fully adjustable neck allows you to position the magnifier lens to the point where you need it most. The MagniLamp is extremely versatile and can be used for reading fine print, labels, books, magazines, coupons, model building, hobbies, soldering, arts, crafts, needlework and other tasks. Use the 3.5x power spot lens for close inspection of currency, coins, stamps, insects, wildlife, small electronics and more! The MagniLamp is backed by Carson's limited lifetime warranty. At Carson, we strive to make sure our customers are 100% satisfied with the quality of our magnifiers. We are so confident in our magnifiers that we back them with a Lifetime Limited Warranty! Carson will repair or replace your magnifier if it is found to have manufacturing defects in materials or workmanship. Please contact Carson for additional warranty details.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Convenient And Money Saving\n\nReview: You don't have to use the stand but for me that's the whole point of the item. So many magnifiers leave you unable to do fine knitting, sewing or woodworking because your hands just aren't free. Even reading a book becomes a chore if you have to use both hands to keep the book from flopping closed in your lap, and yet using a magnifying glass with your teeth is not practical. This stand answers the needs of many a busy man or woman. For you could poke the magnifier into a nearby shelf and position your work underneath it, but this stand obviates the need for that.\n\nYou can magnify your material so it looks as though it's twice the real size, and there's a spot to double that size too for fine calibrations. I gave one to an old friend who makes tin soldiers out of old fishing lures, and it's incredibly detailed work which he pursues with a specially built little soldering iron. It's a tool so tiny that if he sets it down on the arm of a sofa it gets lost in the slipcover, except for its heat. This lighted spot, he says, allows him to make three times as many toy soldiers in one session than ever before, even when he was younger and nimbler in the fingers.\n\nFor those of you who just want to focus a bright spot light on a hard-to-see object like a will, this might be the answer. One of my specialties is rare books and detecting forgeries in and of first editions (or \"so-called\" first editions), and recently I pulled my MagniLamo over to my library table, where a first edition of one of Yeats' Cuala Press broadsides was lying. Concentrating all of its power on the spot where Yeats was supposed to have signed the work, I could see right away it was a rubber stamp or ballpoint reproduction of Yeats' signature -- not a bad forgery, all things considered, and one that might have cost me plenty.","Product: Oversized 44 x 28 true 2-sided house banner flag made of heavyweight weather-resistant 420 denier nylon. High quality applique & embroidery makes this flag fly high above the competition. Comes with sleeve for hanging on standard house flagpole and also has hang tabs for added versatility. Length: 28. Width: 0.5. Height: 44\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: A Magic Carpet of Pride\n\nReview: A kind friend brought over the flag pennant knowing my love of the Cardinals and of bright, cheerful things in general. This baby is no pushover, either. It's nearly a square yard of flapping, screaming Card Fever. I have three poles outside my window, and this pennant fits nicely via the top sleeve so that neighbors can't help but notice that a Cards fan lives in their hood. One or two of them have teased me, saying that my Cards banner seems to be slightly larger and hung higher than the traditional US flag (the \"Stars and Stripes Forever\"), but as I tell them, that is just an optical illusion due to the color red being so prominent on the banner, both on bird and background, what you might call the \"field.\"\n\nEven those who don't follow the ballgames will recognize the familiar red bird, its good nature and its competitiveness with other birds. The cardinal, as we all know, has staying power. It's the team that boasted over the years such Hall of Famers as Stan \"the Man\" Musial, and Grover Cleveland Alexander, not to mention Cy Young himself, Dizzy Dean, Rabbit Maranville, Leo Durocher, the Fordham Flash Frankie Frisch, and Enos Slaughter, just to name a few. The banner is as big as a magic flying carpet; let it take you away on a never-ending tour of imagination and baseball firepower.\n\nFirst thing in the morning, I will order another one through Amazon.com, and take my chances. Which if my neighbors and/or fellow Cards fans shall I gift with this red surprise? Not everyone has the big personality it takes to display a red flag outside your front door, especially here in dim, foggy old San Francisco, where our own ballteam has plenty of vociferous boosters. Well, we'll see. In the meantime, let the red bird soar and to all who know better, better luck next year.","Product: Oversized 44 x 28 true 2-sided house banner flag made of heavyweight weather-resistant 420 denier nylon. High quality applique & embroidery makes this flag fly high above the competition. Comes with sleeve for hanging on standard house flagpole and also has hang tabs for added versatility. Length: 28. Width: 0.5. Height: 44\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: A Magic Carpet of Pride\n\nReview: A kind friend brought over the flag pennant knowing my love of the Cardinals and of bright, cheerful things in general. This baby is no pushover, either. It's nearly a square yard of flapping, screaming Card Fever. I have three poles outside my window, and this pennant fits nicely via the top sleeve so that neighbors can't help but notice that a Cards fan lives in their hood. One or two of them have teased me, saying that my Cards banner seems to be slightly larger and hung higher than the traditional US flag (the \"Stars and Stripes Forever\"), but as I tell them, that is just an optical illusion due to the color red being so prominent on the banner, both on bird and background, what you might call the \"field.\"\n\nEven those who don't follow the ballgames will recognize the familiar red bird, its good nature and its competitiveness with other birds. The cardinal, as we all know, has staying power. It's the team that boasted over the years such Hall of Famers as Stan \"the Man\" Musial, and Grover Cleveland Alexander, not to mention Cy Young himself, Dizzy Dean, Rabbit Maranville, Leo Durocher, the Fordham Flash Frankie Frisch, and Enos Slaughter, just to name a few. The banner is as big as a magic flying carpet; let it take you away on a never-ending tour of imagination and baseball firepower.\n\nFirst thing in the morning, I will order another one through Amazon.com, and take my chances. Which if my neighbors and/or fellow Cards fans shall I gift with this red surprise? Not everyone has the big personality it takes to display a red flag outside your front door, especially here in dim, foggy old San Francisco, where our own ballteam has plenty of vociferous boosters. Well, we'll see. In the meantime, let the red bird soar and to all who know better, better luck next year.","Product: In America, can a man be guilty until proven innocent? Suppose you picked up this morning's newspaper and your life was a front page headline... and everything they said was accurate but not true. This is the dilemma that must be faced in this timely drama about the incredible power of the press. Michael Gallagher (played by Paul Newman in an Oscar(r)-nominated role) reads in the paper that he is the subject of a criminal investigation. Suddenly, everything he has ever worked for is in jeopardy. He confronts the author, Megan Carter (Sally Field), a relentless investigative reporter. Together they learn that the story was purposely leaked to Carter as part of a plot by the chief investigator.Gallagher's life hangs in the balance as he and Carter try to uncover the truth.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Absence of Love Interest\n\nReview: The movie is an OK exercise in First Amendment privileges and the power of the press to ruin innocent people's lives, but basically it turns a yawn-making subject into a Florida travelogue that rivals MIAMI VICE and De Palma's SCARFACE for imaginative use of Florida locations.\n\nSally Field and Paul Newman make an uneasy match together. The truth is that, at 55, he is a wee bit too old for her and might well have played her father. She isn't looking good either, but I give her credit for taking a part which isn't entirely sympathetic, for she could have traded on her lovability factor (\"You like me!\") for years without wandering into the heavy waters of something like ABSENCE OF MALICE. Paul Newman has a role made for him, down to the twist \"Sting\" ending which will remind you of a dozen other movies he made over the years (and continues to make, God bless him). --Such as THE VERDICT or BUTCH CASSIDY.\n\nWith his frosty blue eyes I can see him playing an Irishman, though it's a stretch. This is right around the period where his screen persona began to go over the top, from leading man to full-on legend, and he hasn't really aged since. Eighty this year, Newman remains one of our favorite leading men, but ABSENCE OF MALICE doesn't really do anything for him one way or the other. Melinda Dillon, whose career really should have been a big one, shows a lot of restrained power here, but nothing that suggests that she and Sally Field should have switched roles as was whispered back during the original release of this movie.","Product: An American nurse living and working in Tokyo is exposed to a mysterious supernatural curse, one that locks a person in a powerful rage before claiming their life and spreading to another victim.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Good horror movie, and Grace Zabriskie is awesome.\n\nReview: If you haven't seen the original and just want to watch an American remake, this is the one for you, plus it has the bonus of featuring one of America's finest actresses, one often underused or ill utilized by directors who don't know what to make of her sterling talent. I'm not talking about Sarah (BUFFY) Michelle Gellar, not this time, but instead I speak today of Grace Zabriskie, the actress who plays the elderly woman who sleeps on the floor and seems so haunted by the violent deaths of everyone she knows.\n\nGrace Zabriskie has one of those faces you've seen over and over again, often playing disturbed or Satanic mothers along the lines of Angela Lansbury's character in THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE. Her other forte is playing supportive, rather helpless and pathetic mothers who are nevertheless sweet and loving. I first became aware of Ms. Zabriskie's sweeping talent while watching the US soap opera of the 1980s, SANTA BARBARA. She took a nothing part and filled it with every kind of theatrical, filmic gesture, elevating an ordinary show into the kind of thing you would tape every day just on the off chance that she would make an appearance on it. (That's actually not fair to SB which in many ways was one of the most innovative shows on TV.) Then my friends who knew I liked Grace Zabriskie would call me and tell me they had spotted her in other shows and films. She played one of the hardened factory hands in NORMA RAE and she excelled in DRUGSTORE COWBOY. She was the mother of Laura Palmer in the series of TWIN PEAKS, and she was Debra Winge's mother in AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN. Need I say more? For twenty-five years she has been giving us her all, and in THE GRUDGE she gives no quarter to the general shoddiness of the production. She attacks the part as though she were playing Gertrude in HAMLET (which she is in a way). Watch her as she turns white, and her struggles for breath, and her anguished pleas to Sarah Michelle Gellar, the co-star with whom she seems to have the most empathy. If they had an entry for GREATNESS in the dictionary, there would be a little picture of Grace Zabriskie to illustrate the noun.\n\nBy the way, she is a talented writer too, much more talented than the screenwriters of most of the movies, and she's made almost 100!","Product: The son of a Jewish Cantor must defy his father in order to pursue his dream of being a pop singer.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: If you ask me . . .\n\nReview: \"America' should have won the Oscar for the best song of 1980! Actually the year 1980 was a great one for pop music in the movies, unlike the stark crops of recent years. The official nominees included \"Fame\" and \"Out There On My Own,\" both from FAME, \"On the Road Again\" by Willie Nelson, and \"9 to 5\" by Dolly Parton. There was also one dud, \"People Alone,\" from THE COMPETITION which hasn't stood the test of time.\n\nIf you ask me, \"America\" should have been nominated and could have won, even under such stiff competition. And I know some of you will say the same of \"Hello Again\" and \"Love on the Rocks\" two of Neil's softer tunes.\n\nHowever, XANADU fans are still smarting over the total lack of Oscar recognition for the many great tracks in the movie--\"Suddenly,\" \"Magic,\" \"Xanadu,\" \"All Over the World\" and \"Suspended in Time.\" As for which soundtrack LP is the better bargain, I call it a draw!\n\nPS, by the way, the award went to FAME which isn't a disgrace.","Product: Clint Eastwood and Geraldine Page star in this tense psychological drama of love and betrayal. During the Civil War a wounded Union soldier is sheltered by the headmistress and students of a girls' academy in the South. As his health returns his desire increases, but can he trust these enemy women not to turn him in? He takes his chances but soon realizes that his benefactress can't be trusted...with his love or with his life! His lustful ambition turns quickly against him and the story follows him through a series of nerve-shattering events, including realistic scenes that are among the boldest, most shocking ever witnessed on film. Directed by Don Siegel, with a sultry score by Lalo Schifrin, this bittersweet thriller of hidden passions is set in one of America's romantic eras.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Geraldine Page runs a School for Girls\n\nReview: If you've gotten a chance to see Don Siegel's films then you know enough to expect some violent rock'em sock'em action. The new DVD of THE KILLERS illustrates that, with even Ronald Reagan grim and nasty as all get out. In THE BEGUILED, Siegel takes on a kind of George Cukor subject, a girls academy during the period of the American expansion of the Civil War, run by Geraldine Page, the Broadway actress who had a brief run of major Hollywood parts perhaps ten years prior to this film. The BEGUILED was a kind of comeback for her, although of course her fans don't ordinarily see it that way, preferring to think that she remained big while the pictures grew small, which in a way of course is very true. She's dynamite in her scenes with Clint Eastwood, with whom she shares a rebellious spark of iconoclasm. If you've seen her tearing up the screen in SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH with Paul Newman, you'll recognize the way she can command the screen and make tough men cry.\n\nIn later years this film was unofficially re-made, with James Caan and Kathy Bates in MISERY. MISERY, directed by Rob Reiner, was a kind of homage to the central storyline of THE BEGUILED, with Clint as a kind of prisoner to a crazy woman, and oh, what happens to their legs in both films is shocking even by today's standards.\n\nSome people actually prefer MISERY but for me, I would like to see THE BEGUILED rather than MISERY because the older film also has Elizabeth Hartman in a smallish part, and she's always worth a trip to Netflix or whatever. And Pamelyn Ferdin, the little girl from WHAT's THE MATTER WITH HELEN and THE MEPHISTO WALTZ, is adorable and spooky as the girl who saves Clint Eastwood at first, only to lead him to Page's door.","Product: \"Four superb young actresses\" (Newsweek)including two-time Oscar(r) winner* Jodie Fostershine in this \"intimate, astonishing and powerful\" (Los Angeles Times) film from director Adrian Lyne (Unfaithful) and screenwriter Gerald Ayres (Rich and Famous) that'll take you on a rock 'n' roll filled trip through the fast lane of teenage life in the San FernandoValley. Jeanie (Foster) has a lot to cope with. Her mom (Sally Kellerman) is divorced and desperate, her friends abuse drugs, and she has to deal with immature boys and \"boring\" North Hollywood High. Luckily, she's got rebel gal pals to party with till she drops! But when her best friend Annie (Cherie Currie) runs away from her abusive father, Jeanie has to grow up fast or lose her friendforever.*1991: Actress, The Silence of the Lambs; 1988: Actress, The Accused\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: \"A Hole In Your Old Brown Overcoat\"\n\nReview: Jodie Foster is directed carefully by Adrian Lyne to break out of her typical cerebral mode and thuis give a performnance of real physical depth. You'll notice in almost every scene she's in, she's always touching, feeling, caressing the bodies of the other performers, the boys and girls alike, she can't take their hands off them, even when she's speaking of something else. And yet her need to feel flesh doesn't suggest sexual hunger, it seems instead related to a maternal instinct, for she's the one who's always taking acre of everyone else, even her own mother (Sally Kellerman). The scene where Jodie Foster climbs into bed with sleepy, nerve-wracked Kellerman and reads to her out of Plato--of all philosophers!-- touches something real in all of us who have ever wondered, who is the other half of myself? Yes, now and then Lyne crosses over the border into a realm of David Bailey bad taste, especially in the opening credit sequence that so lovingly explores the bodies of the four sleeping \"foxes\" who are having a sleepover. It might almost be an erotic thriller from SHOWTIME. However, that's what happens when you experiment, you risk bad taste, and I'd rather have a picture that was all bad taste as long as it was doing something unique. And most of the time the photography serves the characters well, showing the weakness as well as the strength, the maturity as well as the traces of childishness on the faces of all his young stars.\n\nScott Baio never changes expression in the movie, but we feel we know his thoughts anyhow and can feel what he's thinking in every scene. Part of this is to the credit of an exceptionally literate screenplay. People always brag on about, oh, I don't know, Peter Greenaway, but he's done nothing as good as FOXES. Maybe it's the title, but FOXES doesn't get much credit, does it? Jodie Foster should have gotten the Oscar for this movie, she does better work here than in either of the films for which she actually won Academy Awards. And Cherie Currie is fantastic too, she actually manages to seem like she's in some documentary about her own life, fragile, endangered, willful, ultimately inexplicable like all human beings.\n\nAnd the whole milieu of an as yet ungentrified LA feels lived in, like an Altman landscape. You really believe these four girls live in this ugly, parched and commercialized space, so that when they visit Randy Quaid's canyon place, it really must feel to them like another world.","Product: Back To School\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Farewell, Rodney, You've Graduated At Last\n\nReview: As the word reaches us that Rodney Dangerfield has died without waking up from his coma, we take this occasion to salute him by viewing one more time his comedy classic, \"BACK TO SCHOOL.\" Adrienne Barbeau is in it, playing a trophy wife of yesteryear, grasping and unfaithful, she's only in it for the money any more. Thornton Melon runs a men's store called, \"TALL AND FAT,\" and I would have liked to see a whole sequel to BACK TO SCHOOL that focussed on the day to day life of running this haberdashery. Anyway he's rich enough to be able to afford to hire Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. to write a term paper for him. Sam Kinison is in the movie too as the history professor--crazy and out of this world! And Sally Kellerman is more subdued than usual playing Diane Turner, the English professor who, in a memorable scene, makes Rodney analyze the meaning of Dylan Thomas' famous poem, \"Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.\"\n\nRobert Downey Jr is in the movie too, he's always good for a laugh or two. And Keith Gordon plays the son, maybe his best part after the young son of Angie Dickinson in DRESSED TO KILL. But most of all the picture belongs to the one and only Rodney Dangerfield. Rodney, we will miss your attitude and your \"I get no respect\" whining. You always saw things the way the common man did. We salute you for your tremendous achievements. As Dylan Thomas said,\n\n\"And you, my father, there on the sad height,\n\nCurse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.\n\nDo not go gentle into that good night.\n\nRage, rage against the dying of the light.\"","Product: Danny Kaye doing what he does best in this colorful, glossy musical written by Hart with songs by Loesser, singing favorites \"Thumbelina,\" \"Inchworm\" and \"Ugly Duckling.\" Playing the great and cuddly writer of children's stories, Kaye's Anderson hopes to woo a glamorous Copenhagen actress. It earned six Academy Award Nominations, including Best Song (\"Thumbelina\") and is available digitally remastered with stereo sound.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Mammas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Danny Kaye\n\nReview: HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN is a fantastic show, produced by Samuel Goldwyn as a showcase for his greatest star, with music by the toast of Broadway and Hollywood, Frank Loesser, and a veritable corncucopia of dated ballet sequences by impish little Roland Petit, at that time very much the secret boyfriend of legendary ballerina Margot Fonteyn. So what happened? Why is this movie so awful? I guess it depends on how much you can take of Danny Kaye.\n\nWhen I was a boy he was acknowledged by our parents as the funniest man alive, and on Saturday afternoons we were herded into matinee re-releases of his biggest hits, all of them lousy in my eyes, but my mom and dad thought them all laugh fests. Even the sad story of THE FIVE PENNIES fit into this category, ie lousy. This was my first experience with the terrible shock all children feel when we first find out our parents are 100 per cent wrong. Danny Kaye would be up there on the screen in that motley cap with little bells on it, playing medieval in THE COURT JESTER, and all the parents in the theater would be sobbing with laughter, while all the kids were snarling and mashing chewing gum into the cement floor of the cinema. In HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN, Danny Kaye is platonically, but extremely in love with Zizi Jeanmaire, and even way back then I knew she was mis-cast. The filmmmakers must have wanted to use either Leslie Caron or Moira Shearer, and instead somehow wound up with the giggly, cross eyed Jeanmaire who sort of looks like a taller version of Georgette on THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW. In the meantime she is married to Farley Granger. The erotic tension between Danny Kaye, supposedly a heterosexual, and Farley Granger, ditto, is greater than that of Granger and John Dall in Hitchcock's ROPE, with Jeanmaire sort of a substitute shuttlecock the two are parrying over, like a piece of Steuben glass. She's dreadful and she dances through at least 45 minutes of the movie. Her name is \"Doro,\" I suppose sort of a Danish name, but really nobody ever was named \"Doro.\"\n\nThe real Danish beauty is Erik Bruhn, the best dancer of the 1950s, who has a prominent part in the dancing and almost saves it from Petit's wretched excess, but actually you'll have more fun just pressing your freeze frame button on Bruhn's beefcake, without having to actually watch the choreography (he's in the ice skating ballet).\n\nFrank Loesser's songs are all good, but there's only six or seven of them. Danny Kaye hams it up and hogs them all. He is dangerous to children, he pretends to love them and yet looking at his mad little eyes you know he hates them.","Product: 1183 AD: King Henry II's three sons all want to inherit the throne, but he won't commit to a choice. They and his wife variously plot to force him.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Pork in the Trees Come Morning\n\nReview: Anthony Harvey, who replaced George Cukor as Katharine Hepburn's favorite director during this period, had his work cut out for him just keeping a cast of hotheads in line. O'Toole and Hepburn get most of the plum dialogue, though Anthony Hopkins does well with his portion. Henry gets sarcastic and nasty, always taking the dim view of things, whereas Eleanor is more pragmatic and even optimistic. Who can forget their exchange about hell freezing over? \"The day those stout hearts band together is the day that pigs get wings,\" he raves. She takes a moment, glances mischievously, and replies, \"There'll be pork in the trees come morning.\" Indeed the movie is one long debate about human nature and how and if it came be improved.\n\nWhen I was a boy my favorite play was Goldman's LION IN WINTER and Dad took me to the Broadway version which starred Rosemary Harris, then very young, probably not even thirty yet, and she was outstanding. It was hard to see how a woman so young could have given birth to three grown sons. In the Broadway cast some of the sons were probably older than Harris. But as anyone knows, she is an extremely powerful actress with a sort of ageless craggy look. Probably even as a baby she never looked young, and she was perfect as Eleanor.\n\nAnother prominent reviewer credits \"Julie\" Harris with creating the part on the stage. No sir, I'm afraid you've got your Harrises mixed up. I like Julie Harris as an actress too, but the play would have ground to a halt with Julie Harris and her fey sweetness playing the tough as nails Eleanor of Acquitaine.\n\nThe play was great, but it didn't have Katharine Hepburn, and it didn't have the fantastic brass and metal clanging choral work of John Barry's famous film score. That music won't let you rest; more than any other element it brings the past into the action of the movie in an almost visceral way. You almost forget you don't actually speak Latin yourself, it sounds so natural.","Product: Doris Day portrays a rich young wife living in London who is the target of life-threatening phone calls and near fatal accidents. Everyone becomes a potential murderer, including her debonair husband, an adoring next- door-neighbor, and a construction foreman working nearby. Academy Award Nominations: Best (Color) Costume Design.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Last Of Its Kind\n\nReview: Doris plays Kit Preston, an American woman who is stuck in London with an attentive businessman husband who is sort of absent-minded in that charming British way. Tony Preston is played by Rex Harrison, then at the peak of his career and relishing the big box office opportunities that were coming his way after his comeback in Broadway's MY FAIR LADY. For following the suspicious death of a girlfriend, Harrison had been thrown out of Hollywood in the late 1940s and bounced back to the stage, he and his wife both labelled box office poison for everyone blamed him for the death of our beloved Carole Landis, and others derided Lilli Palmer for sticking to him.\n\nThe triumph of MY FAIR LADY was spoiled a bit by the illness of Harrison's wife, Kay Kendall, who died during the filming of MIDNIGHT LACE. Rex Harrison was notoriously difficult to deal with anyhow, and despite Doris Day's best efforts, she never felt comfortable with him, and he did nothing to hide his contempt for her American accent, and mocked her singing whenever possible. Perhaps this feeling of being off-kilter aided Day's performance for she was able to turn her wounded feelings into her performance, as a woman alone in a cruel world of British people who are all more sophisticated than her, and the only people who are nice to her are Americans (or played by Americans, such as Myrna Loy and John Gavin). What do British people make of MIDNIGHT LACE, where everyone English in portrayed as a martinet, a drunk or a nut?\n\nOh well, Doris' characterization is shrewdly observed and frequently makes the viewer feel she was in real distress. She had played this type of role before-such as her turn in Hitchcock's thriller THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (also set partly in London!) and as the air hostess in JULIE, married to the erotomaniac Louis Jourdan. In LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME she had reached similar heights of paranoia and betrayal, and some have criticized MIDNIGHT LACE for not bringing anything new to her rainbow of roles. Is it a coincidence that this was her last true dramatic part? (Well, there was CAPRICE, the spy thriller, but that is as much a slapstick comedy as it is a drama.) After Kit Preston, she could only have played Medea to feel more pain. The comfort of cozy cute parts must have seemed an attractive harbor to Doris Day, and of course she did them spectacularly. Still it's a shame she never again played on our heart strings as she had in the past.","Product: Bought new -viewed once. Republic Pictures Home Video series. From Private Collection. Pristine Condition.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Elizabeth Montgomery on DVD\n\nReview: She is one of the miost beautiful of all Hollywood actresses as well as among the most beloved, thanks largely to her years playing Samantha on BEWITCHED. She was Hollywood royalty, the daughter of the dashing patriot Robert Montgomery, a man with huge influence in the movie world, an actor of light comedy who matured during the War years into a serious actor, then a director and producer with enormous resources. And yet Elizabeth Montgomery's large screen appearances can be counted on the fingers of one hand. What happened?\n\nShe is simply sublime in this, her very first movie role (though some say she appears in THEY WERE EXPENDABLE in the short bit where Robert Montgomery remembers his family back at home). She made a big impression on moviegoers, and Otto Preminger took every care to make her look luscious, designing her period clothes with care and giving her many closeups, some of them quite extraneous to his story of a man on trial for vilifying the Armed Services with his rash Cassandra-like predictions of doom for the Air Force. People must have wondered what was Elizabeth Montgomery's character even doing in the picture? It is certainly dragged in from left field. And yet she was a welcome attraction in this movie. That one pink and orange Schiaparelli concoction Preminger dressed her in made her look like a tall, cool parfait. And yet what happened after this movie? Nothing--not another movie for seven years -- not until BEACH PARTY (1963) where she's only in the movie for like twenty seconds! It's totally unfair.\n\nIt is said by those in the know that Elizabeth was in line to play the parts Preminger was planning for her to take in his upcoming films, BONJOUR TRISTESSE and Shaw's SAINT JOAN. She wiuld have been perfect in both, of course. Was it that she wouldn;t go along with his notorious casting couch system and that's why she lost both parts to the unbalanced and yet quite talented Iowan Jean Seberg? And she was relegated to appearing on TV dramas including her own father's vanity showcase? Poor Miss Montgomery married the much older Gig Young and tried to get away from her golden trap, and yet she never could until she unleashed Gig Young (who had been a bosom buddy of her Dad's) and stopped playing Daddy's little girl, much like Jane Fonda had to do later on in the 1960s. Anyway let this wonderful film stand in as a testament of a career that took a much different direction. But it could have been Elizabeth Montgomery who played all the parts that say, Shirley Jones or Natalie Wood later did. She was just squelched.","Product: A remake of the William Shakespeare classic play. Appalled by the murder of his mentor, Julius Caesar, Mark Antony declares war on his assassins - especially Cassius and \"the honorable\" Brutus, who only reluctantly took part in the crime.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Lead Performance Rotten as Hell\n\nReview: But the rest of the movie is good. It doesn't have the severity of the Brando version by Mankiewicz, with tough old Louis Calhern as Caesar and Satanic Edmond O'Brien as Casca. That was in a stark, nearly noir black and white--even the red hair of Mankiewicz' leading ladies Deborah Kerr and Greer Garson was muted to a silvery gray that served them ill. In this sixties rendition, the colorful hills of Rome call back fond memories of Zeffirelli's stagings of ROMEO and TAMING OF THE SHREW. Unfortunately the DVD gives us an inadequate and misleading account of most of the colorful setups, which on screen were a beauty photographed by Ken Higgins, the man who brought us Swinging England with his location work on GEORGY GIRL and DARLING.\n\nStuart Burge, the director, had a spotty career, but for a while he was on a roll and he was Olivier's favorite director for a bit. He directed the film of UNCLE VANYA with Olivier and Michael Redgrave, as well as Olivier's unbelievably hammy take on the Moor of Venice in OTHELLO. I wonder if Olivier was busy when Burge was hired for Othello, or if Heston kind of bumped Olivier out of the way. Surely Olivier would have made a more suitable Brutus than did our own homeboy Jason Robards Jr. whose performance has got to be in the hall of shame, hopelessly conceived, and possibly executed while he was drunk. There's no other explanation for how bad he is.\n\nCharlton Heston, Richard Chamberlain, Robert Vaughn otherwise make you think that Americans can really take Shakespeare in stride. It's a shame we didn't see Heston in more Shakespearean parts. He can be a terribly good actor, and even in bad parts is pretty persuasive. This is his Planet of the Apes Mark Antony, fully committed to saving the world for the human beings. I enjoyed the movie, but in some parts you'll be stupefied by the shoffy condition of the release, and by Robards' bottom of the barrel (or bottle?) take on Brutus.","Product: A black soldier faces the bullets of the Japanese and the arrows of racial prejudice in this powerful WWII drama staring Frank Lovejoy and Lloyd Bridges.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: \"Coward, Take My Coward Hand\"\n\nReview: Watched this one having read Donald Bogle's book and curious about James Edwards, MGM's first black leading man in the 1940s. Bogle paints Edwards as a dangerous rebel, skilled in New York acting techniques and like other newcomers to the screen, Brando and Clift, striving to bring a new realism to glossy studio confections. And in the period there seems to have been a shortlived interest in producing progressive, \"social awareness\" pictures that inevitably included racial struggle. All of the Hollywood studios made one or two apiece during a single year, and MGM turned out this one (along with INTRUDER IN THE DUST, an old fashioned, classic film compared to the B-movie innovations of HOME OF THE BRAVE). It is a curious piece of work, but Edwards' performance is transfigurative. He rips up the screen as Private Peter Moss, a black serviceman attached to a white volunteer platoon of engineers assigned to mao out a dangerous Pacific atoll at the height of World War II.\n\nBlacks weren't integrated into the larger Armed Services, and only later would Harry Truman force the policy of integration down the army's throat, but of course there were individual liberals and \"social conservatives\" everywhere, even during the 1940s. Lloyd Bridges plays a boyhood friend of \"Mossy,\" and he seems genuinely, even freakishly colorblind, not understanding why Moss has a problem being his friend. For him, racism doesn't exist except if individual people see it as a problem. His character, Finch, a warm volkstmlich type of guy, gets captured by the Japanese on the island and the rest of the platoon, in hiding while surveying. Were the Japanese so cruel as this movie makes them out to be? To lure the remaining men out of the underbrush, they pierce Finch with bayonets to make him scream, over and over again. No wonder Mossy suffers from post traumatic stress and loses the ability to walk again!\n\nA kindly yet gruff psychiatrist (Jeff Corey, authoritative and hammy as Freud himself) is assigned to snap Mossy out of it and return him to society in one piece.\n\nBut how can he do that when society itself has race consciousness embedded in it?\n\nIt's the rare US film in which a contemporary poem, in this case Eve Merriam's \"The Coward,\" is given a full and dramatic close reading that preciptates the action on the one hand, and on the other helps to characterize one of the other GIs, the gruff sergeant, Mingo (Frank Lovejoy), whose wife supposedly wrote the poem, then a Dear John letter to him.\n\n- Only we two, and yet our howling can\n\nEncircle the world's end.\n\nFrightened, you are my only friend.\n\nAnd frightened, we are everyone.\n\nSomeone must make a stand.\n\nCoward, take my coward's hand.\n\nWhile Edwards is ostensibly the main character, HOME OF THE BRAVE is Corey's show too, and their pas de deux in the film's last quarter has the genuine power and sweep of director Mark Robson's best work.","Product: The tragic life of jazz great Bix Beiderbecke, one of the few white musicians to florish in the mostly black jazz scene.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Impressive Parable of Race Relations in the USA\n\nReview: I was struck watching it this time around with how very much the racial politics of Dorothy Baker's roman a clef are present in Curtiz' version of the story. Well, as it happens the movie was written by Carl Foreman, the left-leaning screenwriter, soon to be blacklisted, who was responsible a few years earlier for HOME OF THE BRAVE, the first Hollywood film to delve seriously into the problems of the black soldier and vet, the film that made a star out of James Edwards.\n\nIn YOUNG MAN, white trumpeter Rick Martin's nightly pilgrimage to \"GALBA'S\" club is almost an obsession with him, obviously he is there to somehow suck up the black jazzmen's talent for improvisation and, for lack of a better word, you might call \"soul.\" Every night he's there, for hours, after his own shift gets off at 1:00 a.m., and sometimes they invite him up with jam with them. It's during one of these late night sessions that he delivers a heart stopping, angel-sweet version of Richard Rodger's luscious \"WITH A SONG IN MY HEART.\" He's framed in a black and white composition with lustrous grays glinting up and down the trumpet, courtesy of the insanely talented cinematographer Ted McCord, who did so many of the Warner Brothers noir-tinged features, everything from FLAMINGO ROAD to JUHNNY BELINDA. Juano Hernandez is the black jazz master Art Hazzard, who plays the hidden idol of both Kirk Douglas' and Doris Day's character. When they watch him play in the nightclub, a conventional set without his usual fire, the disappointment, bewilderment and realizations in their gaze show us so much about race relations in the USA in the quick-moving postwar era. Hernandez was on a roll in 1950, fresh from his triumph in Clarence Brown's INTRUDER IN THE DUST, this Curtiz film was but one of three movies he made this year! And soon, for Juano Hernandez too, the so-called \"gray-list\" would remove him from cinema screens for years to come: too uppity, too independent, too ethnic, too righteous. Check out his portrayal of Hazzard in this film, it is a corker.\n\nYOUNG MAN WITH A HORN is a mood picture, and Kirk Douglas is up for the challenge. It's nearly a tone poem of difficult relations between humans--Kirk's guilt, Doris' sudden and embarrassing desire for him, Lauren Bacall's rich, affluent, smorgasbord sexual preference games. It has something for everyone, if you've got nothing to lose and the sky over your head has lost its stars.","Product: EXCELLENT MOVIE\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: RIP Teresa Wright 1918-2005\n\nReview: With great sadness we find out today that Teresa Wright has died, in Connecticut, at the age of 86. She wasn't necessarily a legend like some of her peers, but her acting embodied a warmth and a skill much like her somewhat later counterpart Patricia Neal, who oddly enough also (like Wright) made her name on the Broadway stage in Lillian Hellman parts. When Teresa Wright first came to Hollywood, the studio system was alive and kicking and it gave her initially the best roles of her career. She arrived in Hollywood with the rest of THE LITTLE FOXES company, and stayed around to make little pictures like PRIDE OF THE YANKEES and Mrs. MINIVER.\n\nOne of her husbands was Niven (\"Duel in the Sun\") Busch, who wrote wonderful parts for you in PURSUED and TRACK OF THE CAT, two films which parlayed your ingenue perfection against Robert Mitchum's sexual bravado. It is said that he wrote DUEL IN THE SUN for Teresa Wright to play, though I can't imagine her writhing across the desert with the elan of Jennifer Jones. Another husband, Robert Anderson, made memorable use of her screen image in I NEVER SANG FOR MY FATHER. For some reason she was a writer's actress, and many of Hollywood's top screenwriters vied for her services. No one did better for Teresa Wright than Thornton Wilder, the Pulitzer Prize winning playwright who wrote SHADOW OF A DOUBT with the teen specialist Sally Benson. Wilder's memorable portrait of a small town, filled with ordinary people, that becomes the churning pool of a serial killer, was instantly acclaimed upon its release in 1943, and in the years since has come to be seen as one of Alfred Hitchcock's finest and most revealing pictures. And Teresa Wright gleams at the center of the whirlpool as \"Charlie,\" on the surface an innocent enough teenager in a small Northern California town, but with secret depths that link her filmically to \"Uncle Charlie,\" the part Joseph Cotten played so beautifully. It's not only that their names are the same, but they seem like two halves of the same person; and the audience senses this without being hit over the head with it due to careful writing and brilliant staging by Hitchcock. In its own way SHADOW OF A DOUBT is as disturbing and transgressive as any of the contemporary film noir pictures, and will haunt you forever once you see it.\n\nGoodbye, Teresa Wright, your powers of shadow and light will live forever. You are an actress for the ages.","Product: Detailed item info Jennie Lee is the lead singer of a rock 'n' roll band from a tough, working-class neighborhood. The band members are an unlikely group of friends with volatile personalities who are determined to take the band on the road for the summer. Product Highlights Video Trailer: Product Details Number of Tapes: 1 Rating: PG-13 (MPAA) Film Country: USA Sound: HiFi Sound, Stereo Sound UPC: 086162165535 Additional Details Genre: Dramas Format: VHS\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Astounding Scott Coffey Showcase\n\nReview: Yes, it is a good movie but what is important is the performance by Scott Coffey that lifts it out of the doldrums and raises it to cinema lightning. Whenever he appears, you can't watch anyone else, including such certified scene stealers as Julia Roberts and Trini Alvarado. Trini, as the car thief Mooch, gets to have some nice romantic moments with Nicky, the young pianist who could have led the Van Cliburn lifestyle but instead has opted out to discover his heterosexuality on the beaches of Charleston, SC, playing volleyball and managing to work up the nerve to kiss the abrasive, sociopathic Mooch with his gorgeous, plumlike lips. As Jennie Lee, the woman who sets the plot in motion with her scheme to leave the rough city and have a rocking beach party summer, Justine Bateman is worth every penny the producers paid her.\n\nI can't personally imagine how she ever missed being not only the number one movie star in the world, but also a pop singer on the order of Joan Jett or Kelly Clarkson.\n\nShe sings everything with conviction, and when the plot requires her to stumble on a song, she does it equally well. And she doesn't stop rocking as long as she's in front of a mike.\n\nThe plot is sort of about Liam Neeson who used to be somebody in the rock world; his beach home is decorated with gold records documenting his storied career, and he's burnt out since his wife died, but along comes one young girl who gets him to write that one song again. JUST LIKE RENT. This song, \"Talk to Me,\" isn't as egregious as \"One Star Glory,\" or whatever the Rent version is, but in both shows, they build up the song through the whole plot, so that whatever follows can't live up to the hype. But who cares when Scott Coffey is 1) showing off the craziest flat top hairdo of the whole 1980s 2) then switching to a hat and suspenders 3) playing a really tall piano standing up, his little hands making flapping motions on the keyboard as though he were making pancakes or pizza. His chest, and stomach, are absolutely flat--you could make a level out of him for your I-Phone app. I fully expected him to run off with Deborah Harry at the end of the movie but, instead, he -- well, you have to see for yourself. He is marvelous whether essaying Rachmaninoff or Steve Cropper, he's the Coffey Man.","Product: VHS\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: \"--And Don't Be Stingy, Baby.\"\n\nReview: Garbo seems to float onto the screen like a genie let out of a corked bottle, she moves like liquid mercury, slumping at the bar and barking at the aggrieved bartender, \"Gimmie a Visky--chinger ale on the side--and don't be stingy, baby.\" It's as though the director, Clarence Brown, wanted as soon as possible to get it out of the way--Garbo's first words heard on film--to jump right into the heart of the picture. Her performance is all jitters and sighs, restless, despite the heavy alcholic haze that lingers over the film like a miasma, despite the apparently refreshing boat scenes, which really look as though they were filmed out in the ocean. If anyone could steal this movie away from Greta Garbo, it would be Marie Dressler, who has a small part--astonishly small, considering her stature at the time of one of MGM's biggest box office draws. If Garbo was MGN's prestige star, Dressler was the one the people loved and they'd flock to see her in anything. A strange kettle of fish when a fifty-something former hasbeen becomes the world's greatest star. It would be an unlikely occurrence if this was to happen again in today's Hollywood, although I suppose there was a moment, in 1986 or so, when Bette Midler was the biggest sensation in the movies and she is said to have saved Disney Studios with a string of box office hits. From DOWN AND OUT IN BEVERLY HILLS through BEACHES she approached Marie Dressler's total box office domination . . .","Product: 42nd Street (Colorized) [VHS]\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: A Study in Competing Dance Styles\n\nReview: Peggy Sawyer is a young woman with big wooden slats on her feet who just loves to dance (Ruby Keeler, who plays Peggy with the old style wooden taps on her shoes, had been the protege of the gangster Owney Madden in the Prohibition nightclubs of New York, and it is said that the singer Al Jolson had to pay $100,000 to release Keeler from Madden's \"contract.\"\n\nAt this distance it's difficult to see what made Ruby Keeler the center of this titanic struggle of lovers' jealousy, but she seems like a nice enough person. Her famous \"clunky\" style of tap was not her own invention, but she brought the style forward from turn of the century models, giving it a new kick start in some sequences here that look like she's trying to nail down the entire stage floor. Those who compare her dancing to that of Ginger Rogers are missing the point--actually, they are making an important point in that in this single film we can see several generations of dance styles combine and ignite, Keeler's nightclub stage style, a hangover from vaudeville; Rogers' new, ballroom influenced and infinitely more subtle style (which she gives only hints of in 42nd Street) and the whole dance-non-dance world of Busky Berkeley, the choreographer whose \"girls\" didn't really have to move a step, they can just stand there while the camera travels around them executing the movements, a totally cinematic dance creation which became one of the few original inventions in film in the early 1930s.\n\nBerkeley's massive dance creations look forward in time as well as back (to the stage models of Max Reinhardt and other \"super directors\") and their futuristic qualities are often noted and admired. It was a style that culminated, oddly enough, in the massed athletes and marchers assembled by Berkeley's admirer, Leni Riefenstahl, in her OLYMPIAD of a few years later.\n\nIf they remade this film today they might dress Dick Powell up differently in the scene in which Peggy stumbles into Billy's dressing room, catching him in his underwear; but they couldn't cast a cuter guy or a fresher, more vibrant sexual vibe. He's fantastic in the film, and he gives Ruby Keeler sex, just as she gives him back her adoration, a mirror of ours.","Product: New VHS TAPE!!! still in plastic wrapped, in excellent condition. Fast shipping...U-2\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: First and In Some Ways The Best--\n\nReview: --of Greer Garson's many films with Walter Pidgeon. Greer Garson was an odd sort of movie star. For one thing she always seemed to be about 10 years older than the parts she was cast in, making me wonder if maybe she lied about her age when Louis B. Mayer first found her in the UK. (Mayer had made one last scouting trip to Europe right before war broke out, and sailed back home not only with Greer Garson but with Hedy Lamarr in another stateroom! Not a bad haul!) She had to be lit carefully otherwise her long face took on the aspect of a friendly horse. And once she was established in Hollywood, she displaced Norma Shearer as the \"queen of the MGM lot,\" effectively kicking Norma upstairs and into retirement, but basically because Mayer was tired of catering towards Shearer and he saw Garson as the ideal replacement.\n\nIn BLOSSOMS IN THE DUST we see something of the way she might really have looked, for she was born to act in Technicolor, and the compositions of the furnishings, costumes and even the interior decoration are all astonishinly lovely. For its day, BLOSSOMS was sort of a scandalous picture. I suppose MGM felt it could get away with a pinch of \"naughtiness\" if they had Garson to give that naughtiness the \"ladylike\" touch she was famous for. Another of her Pidgeon pictures was actually titled, \"SCANDAL AT SCOURIE.\" In real life, she was responsible for two scandals, she married her own \"son\" (the actor who had played her son in MRS MINIVER), and also going on and on and on for the world's longest acceptance speech when she picked up the Oscar for the same film. Her speech in BLOSSOMS to the Texas legislature is long, but watching it you can see why Americans loved her. She represented a fantasy of England, a fantasy so broadly based that she could play a Texan (Edna Gladney), preposterous as it seems, and get away with it, just as she later got away with playing Madame Curie (!!)\n\nThe story is sentimental but we don't watch Greer Garson movies for slapstick value nor for biting social commentary, we watch them to provoke tears which she always does, simply and certainly as cutting up an onion. She's great and this is one of her very best pictures.","Product: VHS\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Hepburn, Huston, Moorehead and More\n\nReview: June Allyson was pencilled in tentatively as the studio's choice for Jade, the young and rebellious daughter-in-law of a provincial Chinese family, until Joseph Pasternak was made aware of Katharine Hepburn's sudden interest in the property. As a newcomer to the studio, Allyson was foisted off into a lesser property, Two Girls and a Sailor, to allow Ms. Hepburn the chance to stretch her muscles once again. Pasternak would reward Allyson for her acquiescence by gradually building her and Van Johnson into a screen love team that eventually eclipsed (in terms of box office popularity) the older pairing of Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. Looking back on DRAGON SEED today, it is hard to imagine it with June Allyson's husky jocularity, but that is because we are used to Hepburn's New England angularity which makes her Asian makeup almost transparent. Most of the actors look (initially) bizarre, but we get used to them pretty quick. By the time the film is about thirty minutes on, we have forgotten the repellent and offensive makeup work, and we are concentrating on the story, and on the wonderful way Jack Conway had with actors. And oh, what a band of actors he has assembled here. Aline MacMahon did little memorable screen work, though she popped up in everything from GOLD DIGGERS of 1933 to DIAMOND HEAD, but was she ever better than here, playing essentially the O-LAN role from THE GOOD EARTH? Hurd Hatfield is splendid, evil with a human face, evil nearly decipherable. Agnes Moorehead is a good match for him, slimy and repellent, utterly self-obsessed and a liar. Conway stages the big scenes with the bad characters with relish, almost as though he enjoyed them more than the milk and water meekness of Turhan Bey, etc.\n\nPauline Kael used to recommend this film, freaky as it is, for one superbly directed setpiece that, she said, equalled the best of Hitchcock for downright sweating suspense. All those who have seen this film know which scene it is--and for those of you who are DRAGON SEED virgins, you're in for a treat.","Product: vhs tape.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: The Wind Beneath My Wings\n\nReview: Lillian Gish evening last night when we had Hambone and Hillie on the one hand (late period Gish where she was brought in like an old mailbox, kept on the corner for a scene or two, then hauled away back to her town house) and THE WIND on the other. Of the two we preferred the later film. I used to love Lillian Gish and believed in her and I believed in the sanctity of silent film and all those wonderful sentiments Kevin Brownlow and Louise Brooks wrote about. But not any more. It took me a few reels of old style Lillian Gish to get over it. Everyone knows the story from the title alone, but what you may not understand is that Gish starts to go crazy the minute a breeze hits her face, and it doesn't get better.\n\nSPOILERS. Finally she gets someone who says he will take her away to a place, a quiet place, where the wind doesn't blow. Should have been the looney bin if you ask me. But in a way, she is still a remarkable actress even under the outdated conditions of film acting that seem so ludicrous to us today. (However, why is it that properly viewed in the proper number of frames per second, etc., most silent acting holds up today, Pickford, Swanson, Novarro, Fairbanks, Bow, etc., all remarkably naturalistic and real--and then there's Gish, acting acting ACTING with every quivering pore of her body--on a shelf all her own--the shelf of madness). I liked the way instead of becoming more fluttery as she does in Duel in the Sun, her Letty in THE WIND straightens her shoulders more and more, the way Bette Davis sort of acted with shoulders, so that by the time she's really mad she resembles one of the old straightback chairs in my grandmother's parlor.\n\nHer acting choices, while counterintuitive and madly different, are sometimes just meh. People say she was thrownout of MGM after just five pictures in a row, all flops, but they're not taking into account that audiences just didn't want to see her any more. They had had enough and they wanted her back on the New York stage or playing Ophelia in the real, Danish castle of Elsinore, and then later on in life they enjoyed seeing her in SNOOP SISTERS type vehicles. There was always Dorothy Gish for people to warm up to, while Lillian stood to one side, aloof and cold, and perhaps a little disapproving of Dorothy's mad, drunken passion for Louis Calhern, but never showing it--so she was capable of the kind of restraint Victor Seastrom insisted she check at the old corral during the filming of THE WIND. Much has been made of the tragic ending the suits at MGM deleted, but I'll tell you, if it ever comes to light, and the ominous delay in the DVD release of THE WIND might be a sign that it's in the wind (as it were), I will personally destroy every copy of the directors cut they issue, if it's the last thing I do.","Product: Brand New VHS TAPE Sealed (as shown) \"Great Lie [VHS]\" Fast shipping..(T-21)\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: One of Goulding's Best\n\nReview: Reading the recent biography of Edmund Goulding inspired me to see as many of his films as I can. During 30 Days of Oscar on Turner, they showed THE GREAT LIE which I have not seen in probably over three years. Age has not slowed it down much. For many moderns, it's hard to understand the box office appeal of a man like George Brent. (I put to one side the somewhat different reasons why we might be excused from wondering how Bette Davis and Mary Astor ever became stars.) Brent plays a horndog in THE GREAT LIE who marries Mary Astor while he's drunk, and then lives to regret it once he realizes his \"true\" love is for Bette Davis, who happens to be Astor's friend. See, it's a sordid little story, raised to true heights of elevation when Astor announces she's pregnant with Brent's baby and then Brent's plane goes down into the Amazon!\n\nThinking he's dead, Astor panics and with the baby's best interests at heart, Davis offers to bring up the baby as her own. It's funny how in this film Astor plays the hard-hearted playgirl (a variation on her Brigid Shaughnessy role in THE MALTESE FALCON) while Bette Davis does surprisingly well as the \"nice girl\" from down South, when in truth she could have played the other part very well.\n\nHattie McDaniel is also in this movie--one of her better parts, though really they're all the same, however in this film both Astor and Davis treat her almost as if she was an equal, it's rather refreshing. And Hattie's brother, Sam, is in the movie too, it's always twice the fun when this talented pair of siblings got to co-star.\n\nThere's lots and lots of music, as befits a Goulding film, for Sandra (Mary Astor) is supposed to be a concert pianist and actually looks as though she's playing some of the passages. Did you know Goulding wrote most of the music for most of the films he directed? His talents knew no bounds.","Product: Russ Ward, after 30 years of producing Broadway plays, is ready to quit. His secretary, Ellie Brown, on being given notice, tells him she loves him. Russ proceeds to turn this into a hit play starring Ellie and romance her in a May-December affair.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: \"A Lucky Star's Above, but not for me\"\n\nReview: The film was actually a remake of an earlier 30s film called, \"ACCENT ON YOUTH.\" Directed by a forgotten master, Wesley Ruggles, ACCENT ON YOUTH is a sparkling comedy that starred Herbert Marshall as the older (50ish) playwright, and Sylvia Sidney as his devoted secretary Linda. Marvelous Astrid Allwyn played Genevieve, the other woman--Allwyn, a familiar screen presence in the 30s with dozens of small parts to her credit, including an important one in CHARLIE CHAN'S SECRET. And amusingly Lon Chaney Jr. figured as one of the \"young people\" in ACCENT ON YOUTH. He wasn't yet typecast in horror parts.\n\nIn the 1950s remake, Gable plays the producer and Carroll Baker his young, naive assistant (the names are changed in the remake so she's no longer LINDA. They have a May-December romance that's actually pretty touching. It might be Carroll Baker's best part, she's not straining to be super-sexy nor is she twitching with Actors Studio neurosis. Gable gives anm easy, restrained performance as a man who's always had more sex appeal than he's been comfortable with. Lilli Palmer is supposed to be more Gable's age, and here she plays his former wife with whom the sparks are still flying. The theatrical milieu is appropriately amusing, quips flying like darts, and Walter Lang, the director of such celebrated screen musicals as THE KING AND I, STATE FAIR, and CALL ME MADAM, really knows how to fill up the screen with lively tableaux. The script is by John Michael Hayes, the renowned screenwriter who worked with Hitchcock on several of his best 50s pictures, and of course the original play was written by Samson Raphaelson, one of the geniuses of the American theater in the 1930s. They don't get much more amusing than the tender, rueful, BUT NOT FOR ME. You'll be humming the wonderful Gershwin tune from reel one: \"With love to lead the way/ I've found more clouds of gray/ Than any Russian play could guarantee . . .\"","Product: It Started in Naples VHS Tape\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: For Better or for Worse\n\nReview: I walked into the living room and the TV was on but suddenly my wife, sitting near the remote, snapped it off as though it was something she didn't want me to see, her face nearly expressionless except for a gleam of worry in her eye, the sort of look one wears when ones keeping a secret. But we are both New Narrative writers and usually there are no secrets between us! When I picked up the remote and switched it to reverse, I could she that she was watching some kind of highly colored vintage melodrama set on the Island of Capri. Eventually she broke down in giggles and admitted hysterically that she was watching Sophia Loren and Clark Gable in Melville Shavelsons It Started In Naples (1960).\n\nThis is really my kind of picture and not hers, so I must have infected her with rom-com fever! Well, rewind it, Ill watch it with you, I offered, but she wouldnt hear of it, she was too caught up in the action. She said she would just recap things for me. Previously, on It Started in Naples, she began, and quickly running through how this little 8 year old boy was the center of a custody war not between two divorcing people (perhaps there was no divorce in Italy in 1960, we guessed), but between Sophia Loren, whose sister had married a bohemian American ex-pat calledwe never did find out what he was called, but he was the younger brother of important US corporation lawyer Clark Gable. And her sister and his brother had perished in a Fiat crash, or perhaps the car had gone off the narrow twisty mountain roads above Capris beautiful blue watersleaving behind a son whom aunt Sophia Lorena second rate cabaret entertainer with little talent but a fabulous figurewas trying to bring up, when she thought of it. Eventually they were going to get together, but not before a lot of neorealismo hijinx and a lot of vino and cheese and grapes went down, and sexy dancing and captivating photography. Many on IMDB claim that this is their favorite movie of all time. Well, for one thing, it is a blistering anti American satire of imperialist business and law practices, the whole Ugly American thing Clark Gable embodies. This is harsh pseudo Billy Wilder stuff! Its like A Foreign Affair with Loren in the Dietrich role, and Gable in the Jean Arthur role. Gable is incredibly withered and shrunken, but still magnetic, and game for anything. In this role its almost tragic that his American sophistication and wariness of being played almost loses him his chance to find the one boy he had never even known he wanted, his 8 year old self, half American, half pleasure-mad Italian.\n\nThe little boy is like nothing on earth Ive ever seen in the movies. With long arms and legs, and tiny playsuits, his face often dirty, he gets drunk, sneaks cigarettes, just wants to have a good time in Capri. His English is rusty, and we could barely make out what he was saying half the time, but hes learning American slang (Im a tough guy, see?) as fast as Gable can dish it out. Often in his underweara weird Italian pair of Ur-Jockey shorts youd never find on an American boy--he stays out all night, steals trinkets and things he thinks his aunt might like, knows far too much about sin and gambling, and avoids the hated school house. His mouth always running, his bare feet stirring up a continuous whirligig cloud of dust, like the old Roadrunner cartoons, or Pigpen from Peanuts. Hes thoroughly criminal, like little Jackie Earle Haley from The Bad News Bears, or actually like a boy from an earlier Italian strain of cinema, like the boy in De Sicas Bicycle Thief. De Sica is in the movie too, playing Gables lawyer, super tall and handsome and expansive and a double-crosser, like everyone else in this tourism-driven island.\n\nLoren is gorgeous, but more slovenly than usual in her US films, often wearing one weird blue ensemble with green underpinnings that doesnt know if its a house dress or a cocktail dress. Its like the producers forgot to buy her any more outfits. This one factor allows he movie to go into overdrive, insisting on its status as neo-realistic, that she should keep wearing the same dress every day like an ordinary housewife of Italy. And the sunny criminality of the boy (the child actor, Marietto, who actually was about 13 when he played the role), and De Sicas practiced vamping, its practically a potted history of postwar Italian cinema. But in bright color, brighter than anything Visconti or Bava ever achieved. Its like the cinematographers and set designers here were practicing for upcoming Jacques Demy movies, for not until The Umbrellas of Cherbourg would there be a movie where you really didn't care what was happening on the screen, everything was so luscious like flowers blooming before your eyes. When Gable and Loren slip out of a motorboat and into the velvety waters of Capris Blue Grotto, part of your brain knows its not them, but you don't care, they're svelte silhouettes at play in all the moonlit waters of the earth.","Product: Benny plays a big band trumpeter who falls asleep and dreams he is an archangel, sent to destroy earth because persecution and hatred have soared out of control. A light-hearted, farcical approach to the apocolypse that's quite enjoyable, despite Benny's longstanding jokes about being ashamed of it.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Too Cold For Comfort?\n\nReview: Jack Benny and Alexis Smith will never win any popularity contests as the m,ost lovable stars in the movies. For both of them, there's a sheen of cold that keeps them from the complete warmth we love about our top stars, from Marilyn to John Wayne to Ingrid Bergman; for Benny and Smith, it's like the old carton of sherbet that Debbie Reynolds finds in her freezer when Albert Brooks comes home to live with her once again. He opens it, it's all coated with ice, and Debbie explains, \"Honey, that's just its protective shell!\"\n\nHowever this vehicle plays up to their strengths, with Benny as a peculiar angel (a trumpeter with a delusion of angelhood) and Alexis Smith looking radiant as she pretends to play a harp in a 40s orchestra. She's no Harpo Marx but the instrument itself suits her down to the ground. The big set-pieces and the heaven sequences are designed and photographed by Robert Burks in an amazing simulacrum of classic Surrealist cinema; Burks, of course, would later shoot all the great Hitchcock pictures of the 1950s, from Strangers on a Train to Vertigo, and he anticipates some of the magic realism of those pictures with his imagery here, it's just confounding what he was able to do. You'd think that George Pal was behind these fantasies.\n\nI don't know why some movies just slip into obscurity, and maybe the financial debacle of this one has given it a bad name, but it is prime for rediscovery now. If it's a failure it's a fascinating one. Just give it a chance and you'll find yourself with your jaw down on the floor. Had HORN BLOWS AT MIDNIGHT been signed by Ernst Lubitsch, or Michael Powell, it would be popping up on Ten Best Lists all the time, and Criterion would have issued a deluxe DVD edition of it long ago (a limited edition, probably and it would have been taken off the market thus causing artificial price increases all over the internet).","Product: Disney Adventure\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: In Search of Box Office Validation\n\nReview: Hayley Mills made this picture after starring in the weird psychodrama WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND for director Bryan Forbes and before beginning work on one of her most well-loved features, playing Nancy in SUIMMER MAGIC. Compared to those two films, IN SEARCH OF THE CASTAWAYS is no classic, but what it has in spades is large lashings of adventure and action.\n\nMaurice Chevalier had been graylisted for many years due to suspicions that he had collaborated with the Nazis during the Vichy regime of World War II. Nothing was ever proven one way or the other, but it took the combined push of Billy Wilder, Vincente Minnelli, and Jean Neguelsco to rehabilitate Chevalier in the late 1950s, in a 1-2-3 punch (respectively, LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON, GIGI, and COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS, each of which managed to feature Chevalier opposite a Hollywood leading lady (Hepburn, Caron, Kerr) in order to assure success. After that, directors continued to employ Maurice Chevalier and he made nearly as many films in the last 15 years of his life than he had in the prime of his box office appeal (1930s). He was often asked to step in and lend Gallic charm to many an international souffle, and if pressed he would sing, dance, and wave around his famous hat a little. In SEARCH he has what might be the largest of all his post-GIGI roles, and surprise, he's quite believable in the part. Maybe they should have used him as an action star more often. I can almost picture him playing Robert Shaw's part in JAWS!\n\nSEARCH also has a youngster playing the part of Hayley Mills brother, the actor Keith Hamshire, who was not used to Disney filmmaking and indeed never made another movie of any kind again, despite rumors for years that he later played in one of the early blockbuster porn films by Gerald Damiano.\n\nAll in all, this is a pleasant film with two wonderful performances and a rollicking scenario from the brain of Jules Verne.","Product: Marilyn Monroe plays a secretary to a nervous boss. Comedy.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: They Don't Get Any Cuter\n\nReview: This was Harmon Jones' first job as a director, after working as an ace editor for 20th Century Fox for some time (THE HOUSE ON 92ND STREET, BOOMERANG, ANNA AND THE KING OF SIAM were all edited by Jones). It's a good one, though not so much for Marilyn Monroe's brief appearance. She's good, but she's not \"Marilyn\" in this one, and in only one brief moment, when she sticks out her tongue pertly at her exasperating boss, will viewers recognize the comic Marilyn of the years to come. That said, she is already very beautiful, but this is a movie filled with beautiful women paired with homely or goofball guys.\n\nThe best reason to watch AS YOUNG AS YOU FEEL is for the charming performance by veteran Constance Bennett. \"Connie\" plays Lucille McKinley, a discontented society wife whose husband (Albert Dekker, a creep) is only interested in money and social position (and in Marilyn, his secretary), leaving poor Connie to fritter around looking for love in all the wrong places. She is wonderful playing the part, her long years as a star allowing her to steal the show whenever she appears on screen. She has a wide range of facial expressions, pouts and moues, and you can read her thoughts through her eyes--a marvelous gift for an actress. Her interplay with her son, the teenage Russ Tamblyn, is priceless. He can see right through her to her inner insecurity, and he plays on it for all it's worth. The scenes where she responds to Monty Woolley's invitation to \"rhumba\" with him are beautifully played and should have garnered Constance Bennett an Oscar nomination.\n\nJean Peters, meanwhile, plays the daughter of Allyn Joslyn and Thelma Ritter. They're all sitting around the breakfast table acting very Brooklyn and ethnic (it's the same menage author Paddy Chayefsky used later, to better effect, in his screenplay for A CATERED AFFAIR), in rumpled bathrobes, and meanwhile Jean Peters is eating breakfast in a sleeveless skintight evening gown cut down to there. She's very alluring, you can see why David Wayne is so mad about her. On the other hand, Thelma Ritter plays Della as though the spirit of camp had pitched its last tent on her aging brow. I usually love her, but she is completely overboard in this one, playing a housewife who regrets the day when she used to be \"on the stage\" as some kind of nightclub singer. The soundtrack plays \"Temptation\" whenever she appears or reaches for her scrapbook of her show business past. It would be funny if it wasn't so sad.\n\nThe central gimmick is so implausible it's not even worth mentioning, but you get the picture, somehow everyone in America mistakes Monty Woolley for someone he's not, and he becomes famous for it. Watching this today, it's clear that Harmon Jones had the talent to be a new kind of Billy Wilder, but subsequent studio interference saw him switch his attention from social comedies like this one, to B Westerns, and then out of features entirely and into TV. It's a shame, isn't it, but his inspired direction of the sublime Constance Bennett will live as long as anything by, say, Ernst Lubitsch, it's that delightful.","Product: Drama\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Now, Where are my Pants?\n\nReview: James Bridges only made eight movies, all of them flawed but fascinating, and September 30, 1955 is as good a place as any to start to penetrate the heart of the mystery. For one thing, it has the feel of an intensely personal, autobiographical film, heavily influenced by Truffaut and Cassavetes, and yet it is filled with unlikely contrivance and coincidence, and the two different modes never coalesce properly--but a remarkable tension builds between them. Just when you're ready to write this one off, a moment of pure cinema drops in from out of nowhere to change your mind. The movie is \"high concept\" to a degree, since it is all about what happens to Richard Thomas in the hours directly after James Dean's death in 1955. Thomas plays Jimmy J, a sensitive young college student down South and a huge Dean fan. We sometimes forget that when Dean died he had released only one big movie, East of Eden, and the two others that cemented his legend had yet to appear. But he already had a legend, and Jimmy J wants to embody it, to serve it, like a first century Christian in a Cecil de Mille epic of Rome.\n\nHe is torn between two girls, the homecoming princess Charlotte, played by Deborah Benson, and the freaky Billie Jean (Lisa Blount, who unfortunately has to perform in the shadow of Susan Tyrell as her mom). His friends include Tom Hulce and Dennis Christopher, both playing straight in this film, or somewhat straight, it's like Jimmy J has two little Platos running with him. And then there's Dennis Quaid! Jimmy J loves James Dean, Tom Hulce loves Richard Thomas, and Dennis just stands around looking gorgeous and glowering.\n\nBridges' films usually manage to get his leading man down to his underwear and in September 30, 1955 he takes this structural element to extremes, it's almost as though, distraught by Dean's death, Jimmy J can't seem to remember that boys wear pants. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Depends on how you feel about the former \"John Boy\" trying, through sheer acting concentration, to summon up a single ounce of sexual charisma. The movie uses (\"borrows\") snatches of Leonard Rosenman's famous Dean theme and sometimes this seems a bit heavyhanded, and yet one forgives this movie almost everything simply because it's so odd and ambitious.","Product: June Bride [VHS]\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Noel Coward Meets Ma Kettle\n\nReview: Not an important picture per se, but a pleasurable one. Davis and Montgomery can do it all, and their acting in these ridiculous roles is outstanding. All of their years of training and perfecting their screen timing pay off here, as with effortless elegance and wit they parry back and forth the bright lines handed them by the screenwriting team. It's a pyrotechnic display of sparks and lightning, particularly at the opening scenes, when Montgomery attempts to seduce Davis in her own apartment. When the \"HOME LIFE\" crew arrives in Indiana it's almost as if a different movie was starting, less Noel Coward than Ma Kettle.\n\nIsn't that Barbara Bates playing the putative June Bride--the one who plays Phoebe at the end of ALL ABOUT EVE? It's chilling to see her here acting all phony with Bette Davis. She's supposed to be a down home girl, and she proves it with a strange Southern accent as though she'd been brought up in Mississippi instead of Indiana. Her younger sister, \"Boo,\" is the real heart of the picture and as played by Betty Lynn she's not as adorable as she's supposed to be. Miss Lynn was much better as Loretta Young's daughter in MOTHER WAS A FRESHMAN, where the camera could really take a long look at the hard edges behind her round eager face. In contrast, Mary Wickes, so often a hapless clown in the movies, actually looks pretty nifty, even sexy, in her modified \"New Look\" sophisticated clothes. Fay Bainter, playing Paula, goes through the whole picture apparently believing she is the main character in the film, but she's tremendously warm and loveable.\n\nAnd what happened to Raymond Roe, who plays \"Bud,\" the young groom? He's like a cross between Farley Granger and Darryl Hickman, but blond. He had interesting parts in STRANGE BARGAIN and DEAR WIFE, but this is his biggest part by far (that I know of). By the time 1950 rolled around his career was all but over. Why? One of the great Hollywood mysteries is why some actors seem to have been given contracts, billing, the \"buildup\" and maybe they were let go for some reason, but today they look great. Raymond Roe should have been a big, big star!","Product: VHS WAS ONLY VIEWED ONCE, COVER IS PERFECT FOR A GIFT. FULL OF SUSPENCE DURING WORLD WAR II IN OPERATING ROOM DRAMA.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Tragically Overlooked Gray and Campbell\n\nReview: I always hate movies that open up with all of the cast introduced one by one wearing surgical masks. But here, it works better than in its rivals, because of the suspense factor involved. When Alistair Sim's narrating character, Inspector Cockrill, tells us that two of these people will soon be dead, and a third a murderer, naturally we get curious. Yes, it is a bit of a stretch distinguishing between the four female characters, and in fact I think the screenwriters actually forgot to do much about one of them (or else some scenes hit the cutting room floor), but they are played by some tragically overlooked stars of England, so I enjoy myself just working out who is who. When Freddie can't make up her mind between Trevor Howard, to whom she is engaged, or Leo Genn, the little Mike Myers lookalike who's supposedly a brilliant surgeon here, she's hard to sympathize with, and in fact she seems a bit of a tart.\n\nShe is played by the brilliant Sally Gray, whose own personal life was more dramatic than any two or three of her movies. She was an up and coming starlet in the early 40s when a nervous collapse took her off the screen for four or five years. GREEN FOR DANGER was only her third film after her dramatic comeback, and audiences would have been scrutinizing \"Freddie\" carefully, the way they did Gene Tierney in ADVISE AND CONSENT, for any lingering signs of instability. It's still hard to understand how she got insured. Gray seemed to want to travel deeper into neurosis after her cure, and of course the British cinema likewise had grown darker and more crime-driven. Then we have Judy Campbell as Sister Bates, the tall actress with the Kay Francis look. Campbell's films are few, she only made ten, but she is well known for her creative partnership with Noel Coward, for her introduction of \"A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square,\" and for being the mother of the only and only Jane Birkin! Little of Campbell's chic or cheer shows through the anguish of her characterization of the abandoned mistress here, but she certainly commands attention when she runs around the nurses and doctors dance crying to all and sundry that she has figured out the murder.\n\nThat bit is one of the screenplay's occasional clunkers. Like the end when Cockrill asks all the suspects to re-enact the crime, using Freddie as bait. The plot needs these things to happen, but Sidney Gilliatt's direction fails to disguise how convenient and unbelievable these developments are.\n\nSally Gray was to re-team with Christianna Brand (the author of the novel GREEN FOR DANGER and one of the certified Golden Age detective writers) on another film, the little seen THE MARK OF CAIN, directed by the fascinating Brian Desmond Hurst, that Criterion should release next.","Product: A Jewish matron falls in love with a Japanese widower.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: A Majority of the One Percent\n\nReview: I was watching the bizarre makeup jobs in the current Cloud Atlas, in the segment set in Korea, and Hugo Weaving and Jim Sturgess are made up in what amounts to \"yellowface\" when suddenly I remembered watching A Majority of One long ago and thinking, why on earth did they put Alec Guinness in the part of the Japanese millionaire? Back then, the answer was that people thought Alec Guinness was such a great actor he could play anything! Even 20 years later, Guinness was being cast as a native of India in David Lean's film of Passage to India, and it didn't really work there for him. Maybe times had changed, but even in the 60s there must have been an eyebrow or two raised up seeing Guinness acting like Peter Lorre with gray stripes painted under his eyes, and looking down at the floor instead of looking at Rosalind Russell's face.\n\nBasically the acting is so stylized that many will not buy it, but after awhile, I just let the pleasures of the story sink in and before I knew it, my liberal tear glands had been stimulated and I was all abawl and nosedeep in Kleenexes. Watching this movie must have made Rodgers and Hammerstein wonder why they had even bothered with the sturm und drang of South Pacific, because here was South Pacific, except perfected. They must have felt like two John the Baptists preaching the coming glory of A Majority of One. In fact it's not surprising that Hammerstein died not too long after the release of the Majority of One movie--his work on earth complete. Maybe South Pacific does better in the scenery department, though those tragic red and yellow and blue filters are still recalled with horror by every musical fan. But at least the actors seemed like they were outside, somewhere, in South Pacific. I daresay that stage sets were used both for Brooklyn, Pan An cabin interiors, and all of Japan--which amounts to two plain looking streets and as dockside steamer lounge. The rest of the budget for the movie must have been spent in hiring box office titans Russell and Guinness. I'd like to say a few words concerning the performances of Madlyn Rhue and Ray Danton as Russell's daughter and son-in-law. They are wonderfully Mad Men in their ways of dressing, speaking, and sexing it up. Danton is particular swaggers through his ambassadorial role as though he thinks he';s playing the lead in a biopic about Hugh Hefner. The young actor who plays Eddie, the vicious Japanese houseboy, is worthy of a Quentin Tarantino cameo himself. He is extraordinary in his part, a shot of sheer adrenaline in a very dainty and refined picture.\n\nAs many have noted, Rosalind Russell is supposed to play a Jewish widow in this movie, and she is famous for trying to relate Jewish holidays and customs to Japanese ones, as though to underline the point that it's a small world after all. I have no idea of how to say You're welcome in Japanese, but I expect that if ever put to the test, I would say, Don't Touch My Mustache, since Russell advises her charges to do just that, not once, but three times in the picture. If you liked Hiroshima Mon Amour, A Majority of One might upset you with its somewhat casual attitude towards the markets opened up by the atom bomb, but there you go, you can't please everyone. After awhile you do notice how the movie is one big commercial for capitalism, the trade conference stuff is so boring until you realize that the whole point is that America and Japan can get along because both countries have an appreciation for getting wealthy. Would Guinness have gotten to first base with Russell had he not been a plutocrat? Hard to say.","Product: A Canterbury Tale is a 1944 British film by the film-making team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. It takes its title from The Canterbury Tales of Geoffrey Chaucer, and loosely uses Chaucer's theme of 'eccentric characters on a religious pilgrimage' to highlight the wartime experiences of the citizens of Kent, and encourage wartime Anglo-American friendship and understanding.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: \"Do You Believe In The Soul?\"\n\nReview: It doesn't have the instant charm of I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING, and Sheils Sim, the ingenue whose first film role this was, doesn't have the swanky, leading lady adorableness that Wendy Hiller radiates in IKWIG, and yet when all is said and done it may be A CANTERBURY TALE that you'll remember longer.\n\nIf you are new to Michael Powell's work you might want to watch THE RED SHOES or PEEPING TOM right away, maybe BLACK NARCISSUS. His other movies take a little getting used to, as most of them are genuinely odd. And perhaps nothing is as odd as the storyline of A CANTERBURY TALE, in which eleven young women have been molested at night by a fleeting stranger in Home Guard uniform pouring glue in their hair during the blackout. Okay, that's weird, but what's even stranger is that right away we find out who the culprit is, and the suspense is going to be, will the three pilgrims let him off the hook or not?\n\nOn the commentary track, Sheila Sim, now 80 something and still very sharp and lovely, recalls an earlier version of the script in which the \"Glueman\" didn't use glue at all, but rather ran around ripping girls' skirts with a pair of scissors, and in her recollection this aspect was changed because of its sexual connotations. Interesting that Powell thought of the glue-on-hair scheme since he was the film world's greatest hair fetishist, just as Cecil B. DeMille had a thing for feet. Sim relates that it wasn't until she read Powell's memoirs A LIFE IN MOVIES did she realize he was bitterly disappointed that Deborah Kerr had ankled the part, and that she (Sim) was not even a close second. But I think by the end of the film her performance is so beautiful it makes you happy Kerr stayed home and did something else instead. All of them are good, but of course the jewel in the crown is the performance of John Sweet as the American sergeant Bob Johnson, with his little slits for eyes and his mountain of fried hair and his incomparable aura of sincerity, as though America was both the youngest and the oldest nation in the world. There's nobody like him in the movies, not even Henry Fonda in YOUNG MR LINCOLN or James Stewart in DESTRY RIDES AGAIN or Burl Ives in FROSTY THE SNOWMAN is anywhere near as folksy as the amazing Mr. Sweet.\n\nEric Portman could be a killer, he's so cold and grim. When he and Sheila Sim share a \"secret understanding,\" the movie seems to be all about carnal love and the way it flip flops into the spiritual. Their scene, hiding in the heather on top of a hill, is the centerpiece of a modern morality tale. The film opens windows in the soul. It has a little knock in it, like a motor car. A CANTERBURY TALE has been beautifully restored; you can see every drop of glue in Sheils Sim's side-parted hair. Haven't seen them all, but I'd say this might be the best DVD of summer 2006.","Product: Actors: Jeanette MacDonald, Jos Iturbi, Jane Powell, Edward Arnold, Harry Davenport Directors: Fred M. Wilcox Writers: Albert Mannheimer, Frederick Kohner, John Meehan, Sonya Levien Producers: Joe Pasternak Format: Color, NTSC Rated: NR (Not Rated) Number of tapes: 1 Studio: MGM (Warner) VHS Release Date: September 1, 1998 Run Time: 115 minutes\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: The Birds And The Bees\n\nReview: The shades of night were falling fast for Jeanette MacDonald when she opened the script for \"THREE DARING DAUGHTERS,\" originally titled \"THE BIRDS AND THE BEES\" till Joe Pasternak got his mitts on it. One quick look convinced her that she was now no longer MGM's golden girl, and in fact the studio planned to pair her with the balding, glinty-eyed Cuban born pianist Jose Iturbi, who could barely be understood through his native accent. He had a charming voice actually, somewhat reminiscent of Charles Boyer's, but everyone knew he was no Clark Gable or even a Nelson Eddy. His talent was all in his hands, not his face. As Jeannette MacDonald rang for another pot of tea, she continued to peruse the script, with growing dismay. Not only was she to be playing a mother, but she had two grown daughters and a third, younger, but even horribler one!\n\nGrown daughters--the aging star's nightmare!\n\nEspecially when one of them was going to be played by Jane Powell, then trumpeted by Louis B. Mayer as the \"new Jeannette MacDonald\"! Jane Powell is actually a talented actress and singer, but she lacks something of MacDonald's sparkle, sophistication and sexuality. \"Something\"? Make that \"all\"!\n\nMany have noted the end of the picture, when Powell and MacDonald make up their differences by singing \"Springtide\" together. You can see the sadness of MacDonald's eyes. There's a bit of sadness, too, in Jane Powell's hairdo, which looks as though two glazed danishes had been placed directly over her eyebrows and left to hang there, like fruit, until the tree dies. Jose Iturbi plays the new man in the life of the mother of the three sisters, who despise him because they are living in denial, hoping their dad, Charlie, might come home from the hinterlands after all. Iturbi says, \"You girls wouldn't approve of me if I were Hercules--Apollo--and General Douglas MacArthur all rolled into one!\"\n\nHe's no Apollo that's for sure.\n\nMeanwhile millionaire Edward Arnold is hanging around to make sure all turns out okay for Jeanette. It might be that he, too, was once in love with her, but lost out to the absent \"Charlie,\" one of those men who hates relationships and is afraid of intimacy.\n\nThe movie is a sad winding down of one of the great careers in show business, however all is not lost for those of us who love Jeanette MacDonald, especially if you can fast forward through the other scenes of the three girls interfering and scheming and pulling tricks. Not that they aren't cute girls, they are, they just are misguided and obnoxious. Obviously Shirley Temple and Margaret O'Brien were busy so they hired the other two non-Jane Powell daughters.","Product: The town of Cavity Rock, northern California, is ecstatic. The local paper - the Cavity Rock, California Times Leader - has just been selected as America's best small town newspaper. The reward is that Cavity Rock gets to deploy its hometown reporter overseas to write a series of dispatches titled \"Small Town Looks at the War.\" And so newly minted foreign correspondent Homer Smith (Robert Young) is dragged from his eight viewing of a film starring his favorite star, Marcia Warren.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Walk Like An Egyptian\n\nReview: This month on TCM the star of the month has been Nelson Eddy and Jeanette McDonald, and good old Robert Osborne has been playing films by this duo every Monday night. And not just the old chestnuts either but the unusual ones that the two stars made when they were apart from each other. I suppose Mayer figured, why put two of them in the same movie, it would be more cost efficient to spread out the love. Thus last night we saw, first, the bizarre, ethereal BALALAIKA which teams Nelson Eddy with the Czech sensation Ilona Massey; and then the action switched to CAIRO, rather a different cut of cloth.\n\nThe credits tell the story better than I can. The credits play across a backdrop of Egyptian postcard pictures, the desert sands, filmy desert tents pitched at oases, the Sphinx in the moonlight, and yet schizoohrenically these postcard sketches have been tagged, as if by graffiti, for a child's hand has drawn stick figure pictures all over the scenery, a toy boy and a toy girl dance upon the sands, a dog barks, a gun goes off, with the pop exclamation \"Bang\" next to it. All of this indicates right away that CAIRO is one spy picture that's not taking itself too seriously.\n\nJeanette MacDonald isn't looking her absolute best but that's ok, she is still startlingly beautiful and chic; well, she should be, she's playing a movie star, Marcia Warren who for some reason has been stranded in North Africa since the outbreak of World War II. For company she has the incomparable Ethel Waters as her personal maid, Cleona Jones. Watch the fun as Waters attempts to steal every scene she's in from anyone who's around. In pictures like CAIRO Ethel Waters proved that she has more star power than nearly anyone else on the big screen at the time. And director WS Van Dyke nearly lets her get away with it. The looks and comments she throws at Jeanette are howlingly funny and true. Yes, she's the maid, but something fiercely independent rattles through her persona like an icy wind through an abandoned greenhouse.\n\nRobert Young is appealing as usual. In the past few days I've seen three Robert Young pictures and have just begun to realize what a tragically overlooked actor he is! He is, simply put, always good in a variety of roles. Here he plays Homer Smith, a real Preston Sturges sort of character, the everyday guy from back home, Cavity Lake, California, who gets to play boy reporter all over the pleasure spots and bombed out convoys of the Mediterranean. Young is a good match for MacDonald and I wish they had made more films together, for she gives him sex appeal and he gives her a chance to be the homegirl sort of everyday person she always was, deep underneath the diva trappings. Or maybe I'm projecting. People called her the \"Iron Butterfly,\" probably for good reason, but as the years go by she looks more and more like one of the premiere actresses of Hollywood; her singing is just the icing on the cake. When I was a boy I couldn't stand her singing. Now I can tolerate it. However I'd watch her reading (or singing) the phone book, she is utterly enchanting no matter what she does.","Product: This romantic adventure, set during World War II, features two Navy men vying for the love of the same woman. Tyrone Powers stars as Lieutenant Ward Stewart, a rakish Navy man recently assigned to a new post on a submarine. While on a train headed to Washington D.C., Stewart meets teacher Jean Hewlitt (Anne Baxter), quickly falls for her, and eventually succeeds in gaining her affection. What Stewart doesn't know is that Hewlitt is the girlfriend of his commanding officer, Lt. Commander Dewey Connors (Dana Andrews). After a dangerous mission is completed, Stewart asks Hewlitt to marry him, and she accepts. Further complications develop when both officers set off together on a dangerous mission to destroy a Nazi base--after Connors discovers that his subordinate has been pursuing his women. CRASH DRIVE is a fine drama, presenting a love triangle that truly tests the conflicts between romantic love and loyalty to one's friends and one's country.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Love Triangle and Anti-Nazi Sea Action\n\nReview: Oliver Cromwell Jones, the black cook, is given a lot of screen time and the screen play treats him as an integral part of the mission. He is played by Ben Carter, one of the actors profiled in Donald Bogle's recent book BRIGHT BOULEVARDS, BOLD DREAMS; he was the agent for black Los Angeles actors who got in trouble with his clients because he often took the best parts and played them himself! This is definitely one of those cases, for he has a scene with James Gleason for which he should have been nominated for an Oscar, he's so good in the part--and it isn't one of Hollywood's wretched racially stereotypical parts, but one with real human feeling, dignity, comedy all mixed together. Gleason is super too.\n\nHowever the picture really belongs to its headlining trio of stars, and they all rise to the occasion. Anne Baxter is not photographed very well. One of the characters picks up her photograph and looks at it saying, \"She's so beautiful,\" but in truth she looks awful and her face is round as a beach ball. But she's perky, soulful, repressed in turns. I love the part where she teaching a squadron of schoolgirls how to shoot an arrow into a line of targets. The girls are dressed in incredibly tight school uniforms (archery outfits I guess) and all move like robots or the dancers in a Robert Palmer video, all releasing their arrows at exactly the same time. The odd thing is that they're supposed to be nervous and giggly about the sudden appearance of Tyrone Power, so all of them miss the target. Baxter is just terrible playing the part--did she ever get good, no not really, but they wrote better parts for her later on. However except for her face she looks wonderful and the designers have some great 40s clothes for her, including several pairs of red gloves which they must have thought would be a big trendsetter in 1943. Dana Andrews is very trim and not as creepy as usual. Acting (and good looks) honors belong to Tyrone Power, who has one of those scenes where his dotty grandma (Dame May Whitty) opens up a childhood scrapbook and points out to his girl (Baxter) a photo of her grandson as a baby boy, naked, bare ass hanging in the air. He's all embarrassed and slams the book down on Grandma's hands. They have a funny relationship. She calls him \"Stinky,\" and he greets her fondly as \"Butch.\" Dame May Whitty could play a hard, cold aristocrat; but here she's the loveable kind, sort of like Marie Dressler used to play.\n\nThe Technicolor transfer on the DVD is superb. I wonder when people went to the movies in the 1940s if they zeroed in on Technicolor pictures and felt disappointed when a movie was in black and white. The blues, reds, and purples of CRASH DIVE are so rich and lustrous you feel as though it had been melted down from velvet.","Product: vhs\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Better Than FROM HELL\n\nReview: Give this one a chance, for very few movies (horror genre or otherwise) have been built upon an uncanny resemblance between two stars, one male, one female, and DR JEKYLL AND SISTER HYDE has a sort of gritty vitality that lifts it out of the ordinary Hammer league. Partly this is to the credit of Roy Ward Baker, but mostly it is due to the inspired playing of Ralph Bates and his female counterpart Martine Beswicke, each of them looking glorious and evil in what has become the signature role in both careers. Bates must have been an awfully small man; Martine B towers over him like King Kong over Fay Wray--not that you see them both in the same shot, but you can measure them visually because both use the same sets and in a lot of cases, Ralph Bates barely comes up to the doorknob of the Edinburgh laboratory where Jekyll does his foul work.\n\nBeswicke's dark eyes and pouting, petulant lips will remind 21st century fanboys of Angelina Jolie, maybe a little slighter, but even scarier in the part of Sister Hyde. It's a little kinky I suppose that she's \"really\" a man, but Ralph Bates never really gets himself in any sex situations he can't extricate himself from. I guess that would have been too much even for the decadent 70s phase of Hammer films in which nudity and Lesbianism became de rigueur (Bates had just come off LUST FOR A VAMPIRE when assigned this film).\n\nListening to Ward Baker, Brian Clemens and Martine on the commentary track makes you realize how much was lost first by Ralph Bates' curtailed career, then by his death. He really was a marvellous actor, even if he was short (he was able to project on screen so that audiences read him as tall and commanding).","Product: Welcome to Port Chester University, where the Politically Correct go head-to-head with the Party Animals in the rowdiest college comedy since \"Animal House.\" With all the new social rules on political correctness, the only fun place left on campus is The Pit, an outlawed underground fraternity house. Here, no behavior is too offensive and no lifestyle too bizarre. These fraternity brothers and sisters are lazy, lawless and loud - and determined to turn PCU back into the party school it was meant to be!\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: \"A Bridge Too Far! Caine and Hackman in the Same Movie!\"\n\nReview: A little of Jeremy goes a long way, but I know plenty of people love him, and now that he has attained mass popularity playing the agent in ENTOURAGE on HBO, his new fans who are looking back for earlier traces of his brilliance should come here first. This is the movie that should have catapulted him into stardom, and on the DVD track a sulky, offhand Jeremy Piven reveals some of the frustration he must have felt when as it happened, the movie died a terrible death during its very first weekend at the box office and nearly ended the careers of all concerned.\n\nPiven is always complaining about poor Hart Bochner and how he felt stifled by Bochner's conservative direction and his insistence on sticking to the script. You'd think Jeremy was some kind of Robert Altman/John Cassavetes veteran the way he swears by improvising your lines even when you've got a really good script. Of course he had a very good bit in Altman's THE PLAYER. Directors are drawn to his ability to play a selfish, self-absorbed heel. On the DVD commentary he comes across as supremely bored with everything, including his own performance.\n\nEveryone who hates being PC will find their egos massaged by this light-hearted, and really very conservative movie which is really only for college students and those who remember being on the odds with the PC culture while they were in college. If you didn't go to college you won't find it half as funny as those who have. Add a point if you're drunk or high.","Product: BRAND NEW IN ORIGINAL WRAP\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: When We Were Young\n\nReview: Dopy yet captivating, 1969 wears its heart on its sleeve. Winona Ryder has beautiful hippie outfits. Robert Downey Jr is fascinating to watch. His character just seems like him. Because he always plays drugged-out losers whose worlds are about to collapse, his movies always seem to be his autogiography, just like the old time-stars like Lana Turner or John Wayne. Yet in this film Kiefer's the real star, and he isn't bad. With his blond, blond hair he looks very much as though he might actually have been the son of Mariette Hartley.\n\nThe anti war stuff was a little cimplified but good. Winona makes a startling speech at her high school graduation, asking the crowd why we have to go fight a war that no one in the US actually understands. Watching it today, we realize we should be asking ourselves these questions all over again. I wonder if the movie might have been more of a success today than in 1988. Ryder made this film right between BEETLEJUICE and HEATHERS, when she was still a giant star, and yet it barely saw release.\n\nAmong the elders, Bruce Dern, Mariette Hartley and Joanna Cassidy are all excellent. Joanna Cassidy isn't as lean and mean as she is on SIX FEET UNDER, she has more flesh on her, but she looks marvelous, like Claudia Cardinale playing a hippie.\n\nThere's a scene where Sutherland's VW van, decked up in hippie colors, passes a convoy of soldier boys on a lonely highway, and Ryder leans out the window and makes the peace sign at them with a beatific smile. At first the soldiers respond violently and obscenely and then, as more and more trucks are passed, the mood of the soldiers seems to shift and a few give the peace sign back. Then more and more of them. All the while on the soundtrack \"Wooden Ships\" is playing (the Jefferson Airplane version). Some of the scenes were touching, others a little goofy.","Product: VHS -GIFT QUALITY ORIGINAL USA VHS;PLAYS & LOOKS GREAT;DOMESTIC SHIPS 1ST CLASS & WITH DELIVERY CONFIRMATION!!! MUCH MUCH FASTER INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING THAN AMAZON INDICATES!!!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Magnificent Action and Thrills\n\nReview: If they are bringing THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY to DVD finally, then maybe it's time to unravel the complications surrounding this film and feature it on DVD. SO PROUDLY WE HAIL is one of the greatest of all war movies, and because it is told from a woman's point of view (so to speak, it still had a male director in the person of Mark Sandrich) it is sometimes ridiculed and derided, usually by armchair critics who should walk a mile in a nurse's shoes before daring to denigrate her bravery under fire.\n\nClaudette Colbert plays Janet Davidson. An unusual choice for a nurse, Colbert eschews most of her usual glamor (except for the San Francisco embarkation) and really gives herself to the part. Colbert is often good when she has to play against strong women, and here Sandrich surrounds her with a gallery of independent types, the way Francois Ozon made Catherine Deneueve shine in the recent 8 1/2 WOMEN. Janet is a born leader even though she can only be photographed on one side of her face, which somewhat limits her utilitarian duty during battle scenes. Even covered with grime and jungle grease, Colbert still can turn heads, and when she meets George Reeves, the sparks ignite, hot enough to burn Corregidor down to the ground.\n\nVeronica Lake plays up her dark side playing Lieutenant D'Arcy, a time bomb just waiting to explode. Often seen as soignee and bewitching, with that cute fringe of hair playing peekaboo with her eyes, Lake here is going for a Cornell Woolrich-style vengeance against the Japanese. If Tarantino had made KILL BILL in the 1940s Lake would have beat Uma Thurman in the role easily. She's hotter than a pistol and she's Ms. 45.\n\nPaulette Goddard has, I think, the most challenging role and I agree with other reviewers who say this is Goddard's best part. While Colbert and Lake really just occupy the same acting space throughout the movie, Goddard's character has to change, so that viewers watch her mature from a fly by night flapper with only men on her mind, to a woman with a heart who lives to help others, not just impress them with her oomph. It's harder than it looks to walk that line, but Goddard pulls it off without a whimper. Often cast as the sexpot pure and simple, or the gold-digging mantrap she apparently was in real life, Goddard is entirely persuasive in her role, and like Lake, she's a natural at action scenes. I want her to be my nurse. Her romance with \"Kansas\" is kind of cute too.\n\nAll in all, an underrated movie with the kind of plot that screws in deeper and deeper, unbearably tight, like DAS BOOT, except set in the Pacific.","Product: VHS Tape\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: One of Fonda's Finest\n\nReview: The more I see of Peter Fonda's 70s films the more I'm beginning to feel that he had a more interesting career than either his father or his sister during that decade. In FUTUREWORLD he's a seasoned print journalist who's constantly comparing his prowess with the superficial nose for news displayed by his adorable ex-girlfriend \"Socks,\" played with elan by a game Blythe Danner. The two of them clash often and frequently during the first half of the movie, but then like HIS GIRL FRIDAY they decide to lie down with the lambs and from then on their chemistry grows by leaps and bounds. One needs the other's talents, and Fonda and Danner fully inhabit the characters of Tracy (\"Socks\") and Chuck. They go to FUTUREWORLD on an all expense paid business trip to drum up publicity for the 1.5 billion dollar dream vacation resort, which had died a death in the wake of the WESTWORLD debacle. It seems that world leaders are arriving in droves to escape earthly problems, and Peter Fonda begins to suspect that, just like roach motel, you can Czech in to FUTUREWORLD but you can't Czech out.\n\nSome have said that the production values of FUTUREWORLD betray a poverty of MGM resources. I think on the contrary it looks more expen$ive than WESTWORLD. It can't have been cheap to hire Yul Brynner to do that strange dream tango. Someone told me that they probably only had Brynner's services for one weekend, or else he died in the middle of filming because otherwise, why not give him a bigger part? It would have been awesome if he had come out at the end, as the gunslinger, to kill all the robots who wanted (spoilers ahead) to replace all the world leaders with Delos-friendly hybrids.\n\nThe acting was great all the way through, and the love story between the Stuart Margolin character and his friend, robot Clark (named after Clark Kent, the \"man of steel\") was heartbreaking, worthy of Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhall in BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN. It's rare to find a good gay love story in the middle of a 1970s sci fi actioner, but here you go, if it had teeth it would bite you.","Product: Vintage VHS tape\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Not Quite A David Lean Movie\n\nReview: Mel Gibson is appealing and charismatic as Fletcher Christian. Much more so than the 1935 version, Donaldson's BOUNTY depicts the mutiny as a clash in values arising from Britain's hidebound class system, with Fletcher Christian the Cavalier and Captain Bligh the Roundhead, Christian the noble bohemian and Bligh the civil servant obnssesed with getting head in the world by hook or by crook, a man with a vision so small he can't see the big picture. In the 1935 version, you'd imagine that Clark Gable came from a lower class than Charles Laughton, but here it's all so clear. Casting Olivier as the one of the officers on the impugning admiralty panel was a stroke of genius (besides giving the movie that touch of class) in the way that he clearly cannot understand Hopkins' Uriah Heep-style singlemindedness.\n\nDavid Lean wanted to make this movie in the late 1970s and he had the boat made to his specifications years before. Robert Bolt's script was originally written in two parts, THE LAWBREAKERS and THE LONG ARM OF THE LAW, and Lean spent four years trying to get Warner Brothers to back him properly. When Bolt had a stroke, Lean despaired of ever being allowed to make the picture he wanted to, and abandoned his sketches and went on to think about his alternative project, Forster's PASSAGE TO INDIA. In the meantime, severely cheaper director Roger Donaldson was given Bolt's script and asked to make a single picture from it.\n\nHe showed a Lean-like appreciation of nature vs. civilization, the photographer's eye, even a Lean-like casting sense, with early appearances by Liam Neeson and Daniel Day Lewis. Hopkins gives the picture its gravitas, Gibson its glamor. He is crazy good looking in this part, a true successor to Gable and Brando. Funny how he plays a fellow called \"Christian\" in this movie, and then got all Christian in real life! Be careful what you wish for.","Product: Noel Coward's popular stage comedy BLITHE SPIRIT\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: \"Over the top like a flash and skimming down the other side like a dragonfly!\"\n\nReview: Better to get the British version and import it while using a non-regional DVD then sit through the affront to the eyes that the American company is trying to sell us. David Lean's Technicolor is always exquisite, and never more so than in the complicated color designs of BLITHE SPIRIT, in which Charles and Ruth Condomine (Rex Harrison and Constance Cummings) sail through a variety of tweedy outfits that are so brilliantly detailed you can \"read\" every tooth in the houndstooth. (And Cummings has some wonderful period evening gowns that still look exquisite--she has a lovely figure here and always looks great, even when you're struggling to learn to like her.)\n\nAnd then there's Elvira (Kay Hammond), summoned back from the dead by whom? (I won't say here, because that's the central mystery of the film, but it's a shocking solution.) Elvira, once Charles's first wife, was a serial flirt and cheater but she had life to her--more so than Ruth, and at first when she returns you tend to like her and her sodden attitude towards everything romantic and divine. In comparison, Ruth suddenly seems ultra middleclass. Hammond, not often seen on screen, makes an indelible impression--she's sort of squat and round, but sexy, she's like Joan Blondell gone rotten--and her wardrobe and makeup add to the impression, for her skin is painted a pale yellowy green and her blonde curls seem waterlogged, squishy, and yet her scarlet nails and mouth are still vibrant and \"jungle red,\" like Kylie Minogue's in her video for her new single \"2 Hearts.\" I wonder if the brainstorming design team always buzzing around Kylie caught a glimpse of Kay Hammond in BLITHE SPIRIT and decided that was the look they want to recreate. Anyhow it's almost like a miasma of death that surrounds Elvira, who is also lit in white, blue and yellow lights so she possesses an altogether different reality than the living mortals she goes around smirking at. It's not horrible but it plays close to it, closer than one ordinarily thinks wartime UK film capable of.\n\nMargaret Rutherford meanwhile is in her own dimension as Madame Arcati, half Girl Guide, half elemental herself, always swinging two or three sets of beads around her neck, always in motion, her tufts of hair swirling all points of the compass as she's always on the lookout for the otherworldly. When Elvira obliges Charles by blowing air onto Margaret Rutherford's cheek, then her bare elbow, and Rutherford explodes into a near carnal ecstasy, it's the most obviously sexual moment in all of Lean's film work.","Product: Joan Crawford in Queen Bee.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Like Wimps, I Tell You!\n\nReview: Crawford's Columbia period resulted in some of her very best movies. In fact, the 50s as a whole were great for her, and I'd rather watch a 50's Joan movie than a 40s or 30's--for the most part. She seemed to be trying out many different things, showing different colors. All right, most of them pretty garish, but she wasn't afraid to think big. But in one respect the fifties let her down, and that is her men. OMG, they are pretty dire, by and large. Here and there you have someone unique, a Jack Palance, a Sterling Hayden, a Jeff Chandler--not that any of the three are particularly good actors, but they're masculine! But what's a girl to do when paired up with a dud like Wendell Corey or Michael Wilding or, as in QUEEN BEE, Barry Sullivan and John Ireland, none of whom could keep up with her a minute. (I can't make up my mind about Cliff Robertson, in AUTUMN LEAVES, a superb picture, but wouldn't it have been better with someone ballsier? Or should he have been weak and weird, like Cliff? Oh, the eternal questions when you're ranking the different Joan Crawford eras.\n\nI liked QUEEN BEE a lot, but never has Crawford been surrounded by so many inept supporting actors. Everyone loves Betsy Palmet, me too, but she was not the right actress to play the sister-in-law part. Fay Wray is great, but Ranald McDougall's screenplay trapdoors her right out of the film after the first ten minutes, and in her play we get the eternally deadfaced Lucy Marlow, with her tiny eyes the size of baby caviare eggs. To her credit, Lucy Marlow pioneered a screen presence for the presentday star Renee Zellweger. They must have thought audiences wanted baby voiced, tiny eyed chipmunk faced stars and to our shame, we sat there and took it like wimps.","Product: Story of a light-skinned Negro doctor who, along with his family, passes for white in a New Hampshire town.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Haunting Parable of US Race Relations\n\nReview: The movie reeks of a certain kind of social realism that would later, in the 1950s, bloom into such \"classics\" as REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS, THE WILD ONE, etc, but LOST BOUNDARIES fascinates because of its race theme and the way n which it employs white actors to pass as black, even while the characters are black passing for white. Alfred Werker, the director, brings a Hawthornean sense of pain and desolation to the New England scenes, which are scary precisely because they're all set in Greek Revival style churches and private houses, very upper middle class, and yet they look like whitened sepulchres, for everything's white without a drop of color, as though some Puritan or Shaker influence from hundreds of years past had interdicted even the slightest shade of color. Mel Ferrer and Beatrice Pearson are splendid in the parts of the older Carters, Scott and Marcia, the ones who decide to marry because (amng other things) each has exactly the same quotient of black and white blood, although in the secondhalf of the movie, when they are supposed to be grown up with teen children of their own, it's a little ridiculous, and Beatrice Pearson in particular still looks around 14, though bravely the actress agreed to wear what must have been some heavy padding around her hips and waist to make her seem \"matronly.\"\n\nSusan Douglas, as her teen daughter Shelley, has a sad face even when she's happy, and when she's sad, misery has no word for it! The scene where Carleton Carpenter, as her white boyfriend \"Andy,\" stops her as she walks across the bridge where he's fishing, is astonishing: both actors play it with immense conviction, and at the end, when Carpenter can't understand why Douglas won't be going to the dance with him any more, it's heartbreaking: he's so sweet you'd think he was retarded. (Maybe he's supposed to be?) It seemed to me that in all the town of Keenham, there was one soul who didn't have a racist bone in his body--thus the town was saved, a la Sodom and Gomorrah?\n\nRichard Hylton, who plays the teen son who comes to find that his family's been living a lie, is also good. He's like a Dean Stockwell type totally enchanted with his own image (we see him narcissistically examining himself in a mirror, then the mirror turns dark around the edges as he realizes that the beauty he has so admired is that of a \"Negro\"). He runs off to New York, to what looks like some fascinating actual location footage of Harlem, and there gets mixed up in a gun battle between two rival guys who are trying to kill each other. Happily, Canada Lee is on the case--the great Canada Lee, perhaps the finest actor of the entire piece.\n\nSome of the dialogue is overwritten, some of it seems to be missing, as though the actors were given blank pages and the directions, \"Act with your eyes,\" but the daring of the movie is still very much tangible after nearly 60 years. You could sink your teeth and bite into it. I can't imagine how Hollywood could actually have made this movie. Every note, even the false ones, is perfect.","Product: Long Dark Hall [VHS]\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: British Noir from Half a Century Past\n\nReview: You wonder how the two stars could face each other playing the parts they did, only a few years after Rex Harrison was caught with his pants down and Carole Landis lay tragically dead, a suicide? Lilli Palmer stuck by her man and she and \"Sexy Rexy\" were banished from Hollywood--at the time, people thought, forever.\n\nHere they play a married man with a gorgeous wife who just can't keep from straying. He's having a passionate affair with a young showgirl, who just happens to wind up murdered, and because his knife is left at the scene of the crime, a seedy theatrical boarding house run by Brenda de Banzie, the coppers come for him, shocking his wife. Lilli's parents come to survey the emotional wreackage left in the wake of the revelation of Rex's affair. Funny how she's German of course, but she has conventional English parents (no explanation given for her wobbly accent).\n\nThe real killer is disclosed early on, and he becomes obsessed with Lilli Palmer and manages to insert himself into her life little by little. This is the chilling, creepy part of the movie, quite suspenseful, but most of the picture is a kind of dull trial drama set in a frame story of an American anti-capital punishment journalist who begs his UK confrere for one last story to use as the final setpiece in a book he's writing about unfairly condemned men. \"I've got just the case for you, old chap, the Rex Harrison story,\" and the movie begins. In a sense THE LONG DARK HALL is a replay of Hitchcock's THE PARADINE CASE, and they probably skimped by using the same Old Bailey set and the same motheaten barrister wigs and robes.\n\nRex seems to be acting out the tortures of the damned, while Lilli sometimes wears a look on her face that says, serves him right, the cheating schweinhund. The \"long dark hall\" of the title is strangely underused, considering it's pretty atmospheric and positively cries out for a second scene in which the killer tries to strangle Lilli Palmer there. Alas no! Nonetheless it's a hardcore noir affair and well worth watching for its damned-if-you-do, nobody-cares attitude towards individual fate and collective responsibility.","Product: Drama\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Add A Star If You Like Goldie Hawn\n\nReview: If you do, you'll be in hog heaven as Hawn portrays a piece of beach trash who tries a little late to mend her ways. The relationship between her character and that of her son, who looks to be around 11 or 12 in the film, is one of the enduring accounts in the movies of a mother trying to stay too young and a boy overcome by urges he didn't know he had. The young actor who plays the boy, David Arnott, does a fine job maneuvering between trying to be just a kid and having to deal with unexpected adult complexities. He breaks your heart as he attempts valiantly to be the father to the eternally youthful and hedonistic character Goldie Hawn plays, she should be the mother but she doesn't know how to. And Arliss Howard is in the movie too, always underrated, with killer looks and a mean streak that gives him a bit of Warren Oates-like excitement. This movie tries to stretch Goldie Hawn's acting chops a bit but I think people will always prefer her in kind of ditsy comedy roles. This one hit too close to home for her many fans to enjoy it, and there aren't really enough boy-watchers out there to have made this a huge hit on account of the then-unknown David Arnott.\n\nIt's the kind of American movie that was being made in the age of the New American Cinema of the 1970s, a character-driven study of laziness, cruelty and unexpected courage, more akin perhaps to SUGARLAND EXPRESS or SHAMPOO than to any of Goldie's other films. She and Arnott should team up for another picture today, it could be a hit, if enough marketing muscle is leveraged to get those asses into the seats as they say.","Product: Travel to the Beauregard Hotel where the eccentric guests all share one common trait loneliness. Theres Major Pollack (David Niven), who hides a dark secret behind a polished military veneer; Sibyl Railton-Bell (Deborah Kerr), a shy, neurotic old maid who lacks the courage to break away from her domineering mother; John Malcolm (Burt Lancaster), a disenchanted writer who drowns his bitterness in a pool of alcohol; and Ann Shankland (Rita Hayworth), whose narcissism masks a deep fear of growing old alone and unloved. In one emotional evening, these four unhappy misfits will bare their innermost secrets and change each others lives forever.\nNominated for six 1958 Oscars and winner of two, Separate Tables is a provocative and intelligent film (Variety), a cinematic masterpiece of compassion and touching sensitivity.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Not the Best Rattigan But It Will Do\n\nReview: Wendy Hiller perhaps preserves best what we love about Rattigan's stage works, her dignity, her bitterness, the \"insideness\" of her despair, and her unfailing good manners and diplomacy. She's excellent. Most of the others, even Gladys Cooper and David Niven, seem to have been injected with essence of ham and turned loose on the set. They are way over the top! It's as though the actors were each trying to out-act the others in a giant free for all. Rita Hayworth is probably the most obvious case of bad acting, but she is actually quite moving in her part. Ann *knows* she's from a different world, *knows* that the others will resent her beauty, glamor and flame, so she's defiant. And Haywrorth can break your heart even in her beauty, particularly as it began to fade after the Aly Khan years. Here she's trying to whip Burt Lancaster (John, her former husband) into a sexual frenzy, and all of a sudden Rita--not Ann--doesn't really feel up to it. Some say she should not be receiving top billing in this movie, but I disagree. Watching her is the best reason to see this show.\n\nThe other reason is to see how American filmmakers tiptoed around homosexuality in the late 1950s. Niven's character is a retired soldier who hangs around the hotel acting terribly British and stiff upper lip, while Deborah Kerr's Sybil hangs on to his every word though he doesn't seem to encourage her affections. Then a small newspaper article appears claiming that he is in remand for a sex crime. In the movie you never really find out what Niven has done. All we know is that he was bothering girls in a cinema. In a sense it doesn't matter what he's done, dramatically the point is that this crime separates him from respectable society, and the boarders of the hotel make up a petition to get Wendy Hiller to ask him to leave, and the plot hangs on whether or not Deborah Kerr will join the haters, or whether she'll forgive Niven for his attentions to the young girls and cast her lot with his, or whether her hateful selfish mother (Gladys Cooper) will prevail.\n\nIn the play, the crime Niven committed was picking up boys--underage boys of 15 ot 16 I guess. Well, not picking them up but \"groping\" them. I wonder how this would go down today. Obviously it was too strong for moviegoers of 1958. Would Niven have won the Oscar if he played some kind of homosexual deviant? Would Deborah Kerr have pledged her love to him nevertheless? What about Megan's Law--wouldn't all the other boarders have been able to track his comings and goings on the internet? Rattigan's plea for tolerance is a loaded gun standing in the corner just waiting to explode.","Product: vhs movie\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Why did Draper never make another picture!?!\n\nReview: Don't Make Waves is an enchanting oddity from the UK director Alexander Mackendrick who made THE SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS and many previous British comedies with Alec Guinness and the like. And underneath its hip, mod clothing DON'T MAKE WAVES shares with the Ealing comedies many similar views towards the world and its neurotic inhabitants. What everyone looks at first, of course, is the talent, including Claudia Cardinale in an amazing array of outfits and sunglasses and more eye makeup than she had ever worn before. Then there was the card that says \"Introducing Sharon Tate,\" who takes your breath away with her glamor and her exotic looks. She is rather like Bo Derek in \"10\" even wearing the same kind of bikini in her entrance. With Robert Webber in both movies, 10 and Don't Make Waves, the similarity is very striking. Here Webber plays the husband cheating on Joanna Barnes with a Malibu mistress (Cardinale, very kittenish and charming, and confused about what she wants out of life). Tony Curtis is all right, but for some reason you could watch the whole movie and never find out who he is and why he came to California. You keep expecting him to reveal something about his past and he never does.\n\nThe Byrds' title song isn't one of their strongest numbers but the twangy guitars and patented harmonies announce right away, as soon as the MGM lion has roared, that we are in Southern California and everything is just a dream away.\n\nThe climactic landslide reminds me of a later pair of California films that both try to sum everything up, Altman's SHORT CUTS and Anderson's MAGNOLIA. You'll see why!\n\nMost of all the movie belongs to David Draper, the bodybuilder who was Mr. Universe, as many of the other reviewers here on Amazon have noted. Draper plays Harry, willing to give up sex to get better \"glutes.\" He is a very sweet, amazingly good actor whom Mackendrick gives many of the movie's best moments. David Draper's own website has a contemporary article about his appearance in DON'T MAKE WAVES, with a staged photo of himself and Cardinale looking as though they were playing Rusty and Myra in MYRA BRECKINRIDGE.\n\nAll in all, it's a wonderful picture with a great performance by David Draper.","Product: Drama\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: An Original and a Copy\n\nReview: I love the documentaries that come with the Criterion boxed set and I especially admire Morris Engel for his courage in standing up to the big studios. That said, Lovers and Lollipops isn't a great movie. Though it may be a great work of art. Oh what a paradox.\n\nIt is really the story of Hamlet if Hamlet was not the prince of Denmark but instead a small girl living with her mom in a charming mid-1950s Manhattan apartment.\n\nAnd it is oddly similar to Francoise Sagan's Bonjour Tristesse, in which the heroine will do anything, and I mean anything, to make sure her father doesn't re-marry, and the tension is between her hatred of Deborah Kerr and her growing admiration for her, even though she has vowed to destroy her. Her the little girl is determined to get Larry out of her life even if it means destroying her mother's main chance for a happy new life. And yet she likes Larry and has many good times with him. He buys her a miniature sailboat, and a dancing bear doll that claps cymbals together--from the old Macy's toy department--clever product placement of the Macy's bag. He reads to her, jokes with her, but maybe Peggy knows that deep down he doesn't really like her and his affectionate-seeming banter is only part of his ploy to win her mother's heart. Ann (the mother, played by Lori March) is bright enough, but in some ways she's dumb as a post.\n\nOh, those lollipops! Stanley Kubrick had Lolita licking a lollipop, but little Peggy plants hers, stick down, in the sand at Jones Beach, and then washes off the sand by sticking them under the incoming waves. No wonder Ann gets so upset with Larry! I didn't understand exactly what it was about Larry's father. Larry wanted Ann to meet his father but to make no mention of Peggy? So whatever happened to that plot, it just went the way of the lollipops I guess. The film itself remains as a great open window into a long-ago bourgeois dream of Manhattan without crime, without dirt, without race, a Jamesian New York modeled on the London of What Maisie Knew.\n\nWeddings and Babies attempts to widen the racial paradigms of L&L by introducing the character of Bea, a nomadic lonely soul who hails from--what, Sweden I guess. She is played by Viveka Lindfors who seems to be channeling the spirit of Anna Magnani, who was very much alive at the time and who is responsible, by her carbon copy here--well, make that a very faint 4th generation Xerox--for the link between the Engel-Orkin films and the original neo-realismo of De Sica and Rossellini.","Product: EXCELLENT MOVIE!!!!!!!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: \"Many a Tear Has to Fall\"\n\nReview: If you've never fallen hard, this film won't be for you. It's for all the rest of us who have loved and lost. Amanda De Cadenet isn't a natural actress, but she's filled with the joy of living and had wonderful reactions to everything. She makes you believe that, even though she has the magnetic Phillipe in her corner, she might still feel a little bit empty inside when she wakes up in the morning. As for Eric, well, the jury is out on him. I have found that most movie fans (who have seen his work) hate him, especially if they are guys. Women, it seems, have a higher Schaeffer tolerance. I think he's great myself, but I can see how his manner might put off some people, plus if you're not from New York you're not going to get the whole Eric Schaeffer gestalt. He's super talented and FALL, I think, is his best picture.\n\nGenre fans remember the actor playing \"Philippe,\" Rudolf Martin, from his several appearances on Fox's \"24\" and prior to that, he made a memorable Dracula on the \"Buffy vs. Dracula\" episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Martin makes the role his own, here, and doesn't use any tricks to put across his version of the cuckolded European, bamboozled by Sarah's search for true love.\n\nYou might also like IF LUCY FELL if you like this one. Schaeffer's more recent efforts inbclude the bizarre WIREY SPINDELL, which is sort of like what DECONSTRUCTING HARRY was for the career of Woody Allen, and the newish MIND THE GAP, nearly an anthology film like DEAD OF NIGHT or O HENRY'S FULL HOUSE. FALL is another kettle of fish, a swooning, fullblown passionate romance; it's like something the late great Max Ophuls might have made in another era with Joan Fontaine and James Mason.","Product: Critically acclaimed as one of the best films of the year -- Miramax Home Entertainment is proud to present SMOKE SIGNALS -- a distinguished winner at the Sundance Film Festival! Though Victor and Thomas have lived their entire young lives in the same tiny town, they couldn't have less in common! But when Victor is urgently called away, it's Thomas who comes up with the money to pay for his trip. There's just one thing Victor has to do: take Thomas along for the ride! You're in for a rare and entertaining comic treat as this most unlikely pair leave home on what becomes an unexpectedly unforgettable adventure of friendship and discovery!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Genius of Chris Eyre\n\nReview: Can I get the version with the bonus deleted scenes in which the two boys send a little e-mail to Suzy Song, apologizing for abusing her hospitality and sneaking out at the dead of night? I really miss those scenes and I feel that in the butchered version of the movie, Victor never really does learn anything. He inherits from his father the great fauly of running away (cowardice) which ruined his life up until Suzy's phone call. We see her towards the last half of the movie utterly changed by the ingratitude of the boys.\n\nWas she supposed to be too old to be romantically interested in Adam Beach? I don't think so! Sparks fly between them as actors, but the script carefully tiptoes past any hint of a romance. Maybe the director felt that involving Suzy with both father and son bordered on the incestuous but, hey, it worked with father and son and now that Arnold Joseph was dead, the message for her should be, time to move on to the luscious, lean, chiseled son played by Adam Beach with a muscular intenstity reminiscent of Alain Delon's brooding profile in Visconti's ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS. I kept watching SMOKE SIGNALS admiring the way Chris Eyre took many of Visconti's tropes--for surely he is a fan of ROCCO as well as many other midperiod Visconti masterpieces--and turned them on their head, reigniting them for a new generation. Though in my opinion by eliminating all sexuality he threw the baby out with the bathwater.\n\nMaybe Evan Adams' character was supposed to be in love with Adam Beach's. The movie is pretty feeble without that suggestion, for why else would Thomas offer his life savings to Victor, and why would he be so excited and tremulous about the prospect of spending six days with him, side by side, braids flapping about his shoulders like wings? In the hospital the young woman tells the boys, \"You two are my heroes. You're just like the Lone Ranger and Tonto.\" When Thomas replies, \"More like Tonto and Tonto\" you could hear the groans all over the theater because it was such a lame setup.","Product: (VHS VIDEO) Girl on a Motorcycle was originally released in the U.S. by Warner Brothers in 1968 as Naked Under Leather, severely edited for an R rating. Now for the first time, Anchor Bay Entertainment presents the uncensored European version of this cult classic. Marianne Faithfull stars as a bored, small town newlywed who decides to leave her husband for her ex-lover Alain Delon. Clad only her fur lined leather jumpsuit, she takes off on her Harley for the long ride through the most beautiful countryside and cities of Europe. While riding, she experiences explicitly erotic fantasies about Delon and their torrid affair.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Almost forgot le skiing!!!\n\nReview: Marianne Faithfull is exquisite, but as other reviewers have hinted she does not take easily to a motorcycle. She gets better as the movie goes along, but until then her voiceover is way, way embarrassing when she speaks of her passion for the motorbike and how it makes her free and how her husband, the sap, would never understand her. At times the v.o. reaches heights and depths Marguerite Duras might have envied, and that's not entirely a compliment. Faithfull is always wonderful to look at, and Jack Cardiff must have been physically enamored of her, he makes her look so sexy. I loved seeing her in that 360 degree pan and I wondered how this was accomplished in the age before computer generated effects, likewise for the opening circus nightmare in which Faithfull, as the unfaithful bride Rebecca, is shown standing on the back of a cantering horse parading around a one-ring circus, while Alain Delon in ringmaster garb snaps the leather off of her body piece by piece. I'm like, how is this happening?\n\nI don't remember where Marianne Faithfull's ancestors came from, but this is one international coproduction where you're thinking, too bad she has to pretend to be French in this--or is she English? Or German, or Swiss? She doesn't really try to be anything other than Marianne Faithfull in leather. Her husband wasn't too bad, except modern orthodontics would have given him perhaps a half an inch more gum: when he pulls up his lip you see no gum at all, just teeth the length of piano keys. Alain Delon, as the professor Rebecca falls for, is charming when he wants to be, callous when he wants to be, and always cute as a Beatle. His looks would be popular all over again today. He could play on Gossip Girl with that remarkable face. No wonder Romy Schneider broke her heart over him, Nico too, Visconti as well. Is he still alive? We know that Marianne roughened up her image to gain critical viability, did he have to do the same?\n\nCardiff died within the last few months, aged 94. (The new issue of Cinema Retro has a cool interview with him regarding his work with Errol Flynn on the neverfinished \"William Tell\" film.) The movies he directed, those of them I've seen, are a mixed bag, but in Girl with a Motorcycle he brings to the project the same passion for gorgeous women that distinguished his contributions to others' films, including The Red Shoes, Marilyn Monroe in The Prince and the Showgirl, Leslie Caron in Fanny, and of course Ava Gardner in Barefoot Contessa and Pandora and the Flying Dutchman. Girl on a Motorcycle isn't perhaps very dramatically satisfying, but it is a great showcase for his star.\n\nOh, the ski chalet scene--ten stars! And Faithfull's Lanvin wardrobe--a knockout!","Product: Maybe I'll Come Home in the Spring [VHS]\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Great part for Sally Field\n\nReview: One of the greatest telefilms ever made, from an era in which filmmakers were first sensing the possibilities of the form. Sally Field will break your heart as Denny, the young hippie girl who returns to her mom and dad and their ultra-square suburban lifestyle, after a year or so away from home exploring the complicated hippie life with a boyfriend, \"Flack\" (the young David Carradine). 40s and 50s screen star Eleanor Parker is super as the icy mother; she makes the most out of a difficult role, outdoing Mary Tyler Moore's part in ORDINARY PEOPLE and doing it ten years earlier, when it was a braver career choice. Jackie Cooper is all right as the Dad, but he and Carradine are no match for the female super acting power of Field and Parker.\n\n It's not a big blockbuster sort of picture, but it is one that you'll take to your heart, and I wonder if Sally Field ever really topped her acting work in this movie. By all means get the DVD, and revel in a different time and place.","Product: A group of teenagers gather on Halloween night to discuss their sleepy town. Being descendants of those who lived through a night of terror when the dead were summoned, they decide to recreate the ghoulish night for their own Halloween. The town is turned upside down when the zombies join the Halloween celebration.\n\nProduct Details\nNumber of Discs: 1\nRating: Not Rated\nFilm Country: USA\nSound: Stereo Sound, Surround Sound\nUPC: 013131153392\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: The Midnight Hour Has Halloween Power\n\nReview: Fans of cheesy Halloween movies are thrilled to have their own made for TV favorite from the big hair 1980s returned to them. In its day it was notable for its smooth mixing of cast members both black and white into one jolly high school-themed spookfest. The young actors look like they were having a whale of a time. Even Levar Burton, from ROOTS, was showing a more happy go lucky side to his personality as he essayed Vinnie Davis, one of a bunch of youths who love to go to museums and read out the hieroglyphics on ancient scrolls for kicks. The lovely Shari Belafonte also gets to read from the scroll as well, and the Halloween curse of Pitchford Cove gets unleashed just in time for October 31. Belafonte sings, too, and a whole jukebox filled with catchy monster themed pop songs plays all through the soundtrack.\n\nThe white stars are charming too, though less memorable. As the young lovers from different \"time zones\" Jonna Lee and Lee Montgomery have their moments, while Cindy Morgan really looks like a period piece. They should put a picture of her in the dictionary under the word \"eighties.\" The movie is lightweight, not very scary, it's cute in the way of something like ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING. Expect no more than that and you won't be disappointed.\n\nWilliam Bleich who wrote this movie was also responsible for the Abel Ferrara big rig trucking movie called THE GLADIATOR with a fanboy cast of Ken Wahl, Nancy Allen, and Stan Shaw (plus 60s icons Rosemary Forsyth and Linda Thorson in smaller roles). Bleich was a competent scenarist who could keep his audience in the palm of his hand by pressing all the right buttons, and MIDNIGHT HOUR shows him at his best. Veteran TV director Jack Bender presided, but the juice is largely Bleich's. If you like Derek McCormack's books, you're going to scream when MIDNIGHT HOUR revs up.","Product: Product Description\nSYNOPSIS\n\"Modern incarnations Girl\" tells the story: In 1987, Jenna or an upcoming adult little girl. But she was too slow too own maturity, his chest Taiping the gluteal too flat, not only by parents everywhere controls, small school guy also has no interest to her. So alone playing on their own disappointment Jenna heaven seven minutes \"Wishing games, want to grow up quickly and to live a life of most wanted ...\nThe next day, her dream has come true. Jenna woke up and found that already in 2004, their 30-year-old not only has a charming beauty and a perfect figure, also has a good job envied, cool and favored. New life Jenna extremely excited, however, also maintained Jenna this childish thinking how to deal with her 30-year-old adult life mud?\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: It Wins You Over with its Upbeat Style\n\nReview: Gary Winick, the director, deserves a lot of credit for taking on the onerous job of trying to make Jennifer Garner a big movie star. He's extremely skilled with actors, and I remember him way back when making a little movie with Michael Imperioli, the fellow who plays Christopher on The Sopranos, and Mira Sorvino from ROMY AND MICHELLE's HIGH SCHOOL REUNION. In addition I believe his previous films featured the very last screen appearances of both Gregory Hines and George Plimpton, so you know he's used to working with the best. Most of all, we remember Gary Winick for making TADPOLE, which if you remember was all about a very young boy who wanted to date a 40 year old woman, and how our bodies are wired to pick up romantic signals from even the most unlikely people. Winick finds a sweet brand of comedy from all this, and you can see it in the might-have-been troubling scene in 13 GOING ON 30 in which Jennifer Garner goes over to pick up a 13 year old boy in a restaurant and is only stopped when Judy Greer tells her, \"Do you want to go to jail!\"\n\nBoth Garner and Greer make great impressions. Garner is all over the place with her acting, but most of the time she successfully channels an adorable young girl. The scene where she sings LOVE IS A BATTLEFIELD at a slumber party is worth the price of admission, and you'll like the end credits in which the slumber party girls' singing is mixed into Pat Benatar's robust MTV version of the number. Judy Greer has a difficult part to play too. Everyone loved her on TV, playing Kitty on ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, Jason Bateman's secretary who despises him, and she is lovely here and you can see how she has a great future playing the girl you love to hate.\n\nBut most of all you will come out of this fantasy feeling a little bit better about yourself and about the choices you have made and have yet to make.","Product: the original FIRST RUN EDITION MGM MUSICAL-MGM HOME VIDEO #M300796, 1962, RATED-G, 127MINS, IN SHRINK WRAP,Very Collectible In The Original COVER , VERY RARE DVD'S VERY , IMPRESSIVE VHS OUT OF PRINT MOVIES\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Doris Day's Finest Moment?\n\nReview: I'm reviewing just the Billy Rose's Jumbo and not the multi-DVD set many are talking about here, they must have arrived to the review arena through another channel. For some reason, though I consider myself a great Doris Day fan, I must have subconsciously avoided seeing \"Billy Rose's Jumbo\" until late last week, when I watched it over several days so as not to overdose with pleasure if I stayed with it too long. Mostly I'd get to a big musical number and then I'd pause and everyone in the room watching it with me would have to stand, at my invitation, and applaud the playersand the director, Charles Walters, beyond a doubt one of the greatest musical directors of all time. Was he buried at MGM? I think so. He certainly stood in the shadow of the big players like Minnelli and Donen, tsk tslk, but here he outdoes himself.\n\nSo why was it so unappealing for so long? Well, I'm old enough to remember my grandparents coming back from an evening showing of Billy Rose's Jumbo at the Smithtown Senior Center, late in the 1980s, and their lips were locked, as if stricken by terror or contempt, and Mom said that as far as she knew, they never spoke of their evening out, ever again, but she too remembered they looked terrified, as though they'd seen something awful. That, and the idea of Martha Raye, and Jimmy Durante, and Jumbo himself, and the old time period setting and Doris Day dressed as a clown, well, they all seemed awful ideas, visually and otherwise, and maybe I didn't like the idea of the title itself! Why call it \"Billy Rose's Jumbo?\" Even in 1961 was Billy Rose still a thing? He couldn't have been bringing in too many customers if so. Was it in his contract, that if ever they made a film of Jumbo it had to have his name in it somewhere, like National Lampoon's Van Wilder or Lee Daniels' The Butler?\n\nWhatever! I began watching with enormous resistance but as soon as ten minutes in, I realized I was seeing perhaps the last film of Doris Day's great, and bizarre, drama period. Paralleling her real life to an eerie degree, the films of this period have her suffering because of a man, and no one, ever, in real life or in the movies, suffers like Doris Day. remember Julie with Louis Jourdan? Midnight Lace with Rex Harrison? Love Me or Leave Me with Cagney? Well, you get the picture, but here she is, in shock as it turns out over and over her beloved rogue of a father (Jimmy Durante) has a secret shadow side; he's addicted to gambling and puts their livelihood, and that of dozens of other humans and animals, at risk while he goes and gambles away the nights' takings, and in the morning, it's Doris who has to deal with the disaster. \"Oh Pop, not again, you didn't!\" she wails, having to face the contempt and the misery on the faces of every one in the circus they have let down. In a way I read this as Doris Day's take on the old legend of Drt Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, where Hyde goes out, gets drunk, gets high, carouses with whores and kills people, and in the morning it's Jekyll who must pay the price. (Or the other way around, now I can't remember.) Anyhow this aspect of the movie is as compelling as anything Cassavetes ever had Gena Rowlands do, and yet they get all the credit while it was Doris and Chuck Walters who did the spadework a good ten years or more, and on a tightrope literally, and trapezes, and in clown makeup! As if that isn't bad enough,\n\n(Spoilers ahead),\n\nDoris is forced to suffer the loss of her beloved pet Jumbo, and these scenes alone should have won her the Oscar she has been denied for over sixty years. She is magnificent, touching, strong, desperate, loving and fearful all at once as she attempts to console the lachrymose 22,000 pound beast, who doesn't want to go onto the truck and leave the only humans who have ever been kind to him. And if that isn't enough,\n\n(More spoilers)\n\nStephen Boyd, as Doris' love interest, has a terrible secret all his own. This part of the picture reminds me very much of a Minnelli picture of the same vintage called Home from the Hill. He is the son of a tyrannical circus potentate determined to use Durante's gambling addiction to wrest control of the circus and Jumbo and amalgamate them into their own supercircus, the way that the Ringling Brothers took over Barnum & Bailey's and boasted about it! It is sheer colonialism and to its credit, the movie, \"Billy Rose's Jumbo,\" emerges with a sane and thoughtout Marxist approach to the brawling America unregulated and unleashed capitalism raging at the period (the movie must take place before the first world war, I would think?) and also at the time of its making, the zenith of Cold War fears of the other, exploited by the masters of war to create a giant spectacle under which they could consolidate their holdings in, well, everything. At the end of the movie we understand that an arte povera is needed to restore art to its correct place in society. The film accomplishes all this so beautifully that one takes it as a bittersweet goodbye to a corrupt and venal studio system, but it is as if Walters and company are out on a limb, sawing it off of the dead tree and yet they know they have nowhere themselves to land except into thin air. It is an effective and long goodbye.\n\nI liked Stephen Boyd in thishe should have played in more dramas like this one, tough and gritty as a mouthful of Kansas dirt. Martha Raye, whose shtick was that of the plain, lascivious woman, looks beautiful here once in a while, a flicker of magic, while Doris gets to sing Little Girl Blue by Rodgers and Hart and then to stop singing it and instead she acts it out with the fullbodied passion of the great Balanchine dancers like Maria Tallchief or Gelsey Kirkland. Impressive, and yet did it win her any awards? My grandfather was especially harsh about this movie. Even though they saw it for free, he said it was the worst night of his life, he would have paid money not to have to see Raye and Day in their final clown sequence.","Product: New never open 100% guarantee or your money back...\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: It Happened in Oaktown\n\nReview: We turned on True Crime as part of a project to watch all the films of screenwriter Larry Gross, and this one turned out to be a gem. Primarily a showcase for Clint Eastwood, the film has a hypnotic power that sees us through some rocky shoals. Mostly, the director has a problem with his star actor--he's too old to play the part, and at first it's disconcerting to see him canoodling in a quiet Oakland bar with a fellow reporter Mary McCormick. The film says she's 23 (though I must say she looks older), but he must be 70 and we start doing all kinds of subtraction in our head. At heart the movie is a study of a man falling apart, losing everything the good old fashioned Richard Yates way, and the conceit of the movie is that it all takes place within that Aristotelian framework of 24 hours (plus a little epilogue that must take place several months after the main course of the plot, for it's Christmastime, and Clint is Santa).\n\nOakland never looked so good or so bad, and I doubt that Eastwood ever assembled a better cast of actors all the way around. Isaiah Washington and Lisa Gay Hamilton are both magical in parts that fall outside their usual acting range--here they're Christians struggling through his final hours on Death Row, with Michael McKean as an officious chaplain. In the outside world Clint is cheating, smoking up a storm, cuckolding his boss, fooling women who see through him. Chief among them is Diane Venora as his long -suffering wife. Once again Venora proves that she has the dark acting chops that should have landed her starring parts in every Cassavetes movie ever made: she actually looks as if her suffering is not going to be wiped off when the camera's aren't rolling. I think she must still be crying somewhere, helplessly, over Clint's roving eye. That Venora hasn't the Oscar nods of, say, Meryl Streep, is the real \"true crime\" here","Product: A poignant and moving story about two emotionally disturbed teenagers who fall in love in an institution. Interactive Menus, Filmographies & awards, Scene Access, Production Credits\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: An Excellent Exploration of OCD and Schizophrenia\n\nReview: I watched the modern version with Sidney Poitier; not a bad little show, but there was just so much that Oprah had to leave out for TV.\n\nThis is the real thing and unadulterated pop psychology. It's amazing how back then, people knew a lot about OCD even if they didn't have the words we use to describe it. Keir Dullea is great playing David, sort of like the boy James Dean played in REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, with similar issues around his mom and dad, but without the sexual magnetism. He's good looking, Keir Dullea, but you can't really watch him for too long without thinking of Noel Coward's famous riposte when he was asked his opinion of Dullea's talent. \"Keir Dullea,\" he quipped, \"gone tomorrow.\"\n\nNevertheless, although he seems a little old to play the part, he is miles better than Lukas Haas who played David Clemens in the Oprah version. Haas seems to suffer from every other kind of mental disability EXCEPT for OCD. Poor boy isn't really over being terrified in Witness. Keir Dullea seems properly obsessive. He was also very good in the wonderful Otto Preminger thriller BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING, also available now in DVD, but similarly, without a commentary track! Why not? What is preventing us from hearing how Keir Dullea feels about his classic 60s films?\n\nIf you watch real hard you will see the lovely Karen Lynn Gorney in a small role. Karen was only 15 when she made this movie and her acting is first rate, an early warning of the massive talent that made her a fan favorite as Tara on ALL MY CHILDREN and then later, she made a million hearts flutter playing stylish Stephanie in the original SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER.","Product: A Star Is Born [VHS]\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Lose that Long Footage\n\nReview: I love A Star Is Born and I have ever since I saw it first, on TV. I couldn't figure out how Judy Garland was so old looking, and my father said, \"It's because she's been around the mill,\" so I thought until a recent viewing that she was a millworker while financing her musical career with Danny's band. Seeing it again, it seems fine that she's not a young girl just starting out, what kind of story would that be? We want someone who's been hurt by life and who has unexplained traumas in her past (watch closely now, as Garland's face darkens as she remembers waiting tables. \"I'll never do that again,\" she vows, and I'm thinking, I was a waiter, it wasn't that bad!).... we don't want a Lola Lavery to be the center of the movie. Well, \"Lost in Translation\" by Sofia Coppola was a little bit like a Star is Born remake, wasn't it? The mistake of that movie was in assuming we'd find the heroine enchanting because of Scarlet Johansson's unlived in face and attitude.\n\nWell, enough about that, I just wanted to reiterate that, for the most part, Robert Osborne, Judy Garland was not 15 years too old to play the part.\n\nThe movie progresses in infinitely small, naturalistic bumps between one scene and the next, so that we get an almost novelistic drenching in textures and atmospheres, all in the service of character development. And yet the movie seems \"written\" only in its setpieces, the scenes we all remember, where the characters all more eloquent than we imagine they would actually be in \"real life.\" I noticed last night how the film progresses by revelation, and everything moving the plot forward is something overheard by the protagonists, that shatters their views of reality. Norman's all content after Esther performs her big \"production number to end all production numbers,\" but then he signs for the delivery boy who calls him \"Mr. Lester.\" Norman at the race track, Libby making a hash of his face, and hearing people whisper (no, not even whisper, shouting) \"He's drunk... He's been drunk for years.\"\n\nFinally the big, and satisfying shock, when Norman overhears Oliver's real opinion of his acting. The scene should have won James Mason an Oscar, but Charles Bickford is also supremely skillful at delivering the speech in question. Tom Noonan's big speech bucking up Esther is well done too... you can't believe she's going to fall for such hokum, and then, when she does, you realize her character has changed and she has \"gone Hollywood\" in a real, and terrible way.\n\nLoved the dressing room at Oliver Niles studios, and the seaside house Norman builds for Esther, but actually I liked the Oleander Arms the best, I think. It is the most glamorous and evocative motel I've ever seen in the movies or out of them.\n\nBut it is a long movie that's for sure. At the Intermission credit I seriously considered pressing \"exit,\" under the belief that all the succeeding scenes had been scarred into my memory ever since my mill-working days. But I'm glad I stayed! I cried, but even when I was crying I thought how vain of Esther to tell Norman, \"Oh, I'll sing to you from the kitchen window, my soft wondering number It's a New World, and yet you'll hear me over the pounding Malibu surf.\"","Product: The ups and downs of Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., famed producer of extravagant stage revues, are portrayed.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Circus of the Stars\n\nReview: THE GREAT ZIEGFELD, often misspelled as Ziegfield, a lavish biopic from the consistently underrated MGM director Robert Z. Leonard (did the \"Z\" stand for \"Ziegfeld\"? I don't think so). The true facts of Flo Ziegfeld's marriage to soubrette Billie Burke may never be known, but Eve Golden's 2000 biography of Anna Held gave a good, wide-screen picture of his charm and business savvy. In Leonard's film, William Powell is magnificently sensual and aristocratic, while Luise Rainer breaks your heart as the petite, submissive, flirtatious Anna. Her famous phone scene won her the Oscar; when she uses the telephone to congratulate Flo on his marriage to Billie Burke, her regret and sorrow and loss play directly into the camera, which seems to eat them up like so much chocolate. Rainer's acting is hammy, though not as much as contemporary actresses like Meryl Streep or Jessica Lange, both of whom would have swallowed the phone for an Oscar.\n\nPeople in the 1930s must have laughed at the idea of Myrna Loy playing Billie Burke, seeing as though they had the real Billie Burke right there to compare to her and as everyone knows, they are absolutely nothing alike. Though the offstage Billie Burke must have been more of a femme fatale than we think of \"Glinda\" as being, she denied, for example, having sex with Flo while he was still married to Anna. That would have spoiled her somewhat sexless, daffy image, sort of the Carol Channing of her day. The movie invents a fictional showgirl and has Virginia Bruce play her with a rapacity and blowsy sex lure not seen again until the recent Elizabeth Berkley classic SHOWGIRLS with Gina Gershon. Berkley and Gershon seem like virgins compared to Virginia Bruce playing \"Audrey.\"\n\nIn other casting, having Fannie Brice playing herself must have been a no-brainer, but the truth is that the great stars of Ziegfeld made very few movies and were skittish about playing for the movie cameras. Or else they weren't good looking enough (like Ethel Merman)! Or else they were black and so doomed to underemployment in the racist structures of classic Hollywood cinema--think of Bert Williams for example, a star on Broadway, a nobody in Hollywood. Or else they had signed up to other studios and weren't available for MGM--Eddie Cantor made plenty of money for Sam Goldwyn, W.C. Fields for Paramount. Will Rogers, for example, had a long term contract with Fox and before his tragic 1935 had entertained a proposal by which he would have left Fox for MGM, nixing it saying, I've got a good thing going here as Fox's biggest star, but at MGM I'd just be another Fannie Brice.\n\nThus we get Ray Bolger in THE GREAT ZIEGFELD. And Harriet (\"Who?\") Hoctor. Still it's spectacular and no picture that introduces the divine Dennis Morgan can, in my opinion, receive anything fewer than four stars.","Product: VHS tape. Full Harvest Brand new in original plastic.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Mr. And Mrs. Smith\n\nReview: The book is slightly different, due to the exigencies of the plot the screenwriters had to divulge a certain surprise in the movie because celluloid's visual nature left them no way to tell the story properly. In the book you don't find out who Charles Rainier's secretary is until the very last pages. In the movie, you know as soon as the door opens and Greer Garson enters. She's fine in this role, and she and Ronald Colman have a chemistry together that she just doesn't have with Walter Pidgeon. The one thing in this story that I just don't buy is why, why, why would Paula marry a man escaped from a mental hospital? Oh yes, eventually his good nature becomes obvious, but any sensible woman would have turned and ran once she realized he had just stepped out of an asylum and was still obviously feeble in the head. However, if she had not married him, where would the story be, so I'm ready to swallow it, and it helps that Garson really makes you believe she's interested in Colman, not just congenially, then romantically, but there's a sexual spark between them right from the beginning. And this is heightened by the way she is protective of him, as though he were her son. I love the way she calls him \"Smithy.\" And that country cottage they live in is also out of this world isn't it?\n\nWhen Colman becomes Charles Rainier that's where his real acting begins, he manages to convince you that he is indeed a genius businessman and the head of a querulous family, and yet still somewhere in his head is the foggy period in which he lived his life as \"Smithy\" and loved and was loved by a woman he just can't remember. No wonder poor Kitty (the seductive Susan Peters, quite winning in the part) doesn't stand much of a chance with Rainier, alluring and confident as she is.\n\nYou just hope and hope that somehow he will regain his memory (or lose his memory, depending on what side you take on the memory loss debate). Every time I see the film I still fall victim to the suspense built in to the story, and the bravura acting of Garson and Colman go the distance every time. Yes, I would agree with the many reviewers who have commented that actually both Garson and Colman are about ten years older than the characters they are supposed to be playing. But suffering has ennobled them both, and I don't think the audience would have accepted Paula if played by a young girl. The mature, sophisticated Greer Garson is perfectly cast.","Product: Eleven jurors are convinced that the defendant is guilty of murder. The twelfth has no doubt of his innocence. How can this one man steer the others toward the same conclusion? It's a case of seemingly overwhelming evidence against a teenager accused of killing his father in \"one of the best pictures ever made\" (The Hollywood Reporter).\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: The Launch of Lumet\n\nReview: It was a curiosity piece even back in its day, a trying time for the movie industry when the studio moguls were trying desperately to compete with TV any way they could think of. If huge screens and stereophonic sound couldn't put those asses into the seats, then maybe actual rip offs of already aired TV programs might. (We see this same thinking today with studio remakes of such old TV series as BEWITCHED, SWAT, THE MOD SQUAD, DUKES OF HAZZARD, really anything that is remembered fondly). Here they sent in TV director par excellence Sidney Lumet, with a limited budget, to film Reginald Rose's controversial teleplay he called \"TWELVE ANGRY MEN.\" They gave him one bona fide movie star and for the rest of the parts they hired a bunch of so called \"character actors\" including Broadway's own Lee J. Cobb, a man tormented by the role he had played in the McCarthy Era, when to save his own skin he had named name after name to anti-Communist inquisitors and ruined countless careers. When he sweats in this movie you can see the guilt streaming from his pores, it's almost as though you can touch your finger to the screen and it woild be wet.\n\nThe movie wasn't an overwhelming box office hit, but it had its partisans, and it launched Lumet's career as a reliable film director who could bring projects in on time AND work well with \"difficult\" talent. When we watch the show today we see the faults in the play's mise-en-scene, but we note the skill with which Lumet puts the cast through their paces and manages to bring some variety in his endless re-stagings of conversations between angelic Fonda and the all-too-human rest of them.\n\nAs other reviewers have noticed, if it was today, one of the jurors would have early on beaten Fonda to a pulp and had a mistrial called. Especially if, like Ed Begley, they had tickets to an important ball game they didn't want to miss.","Product: A beautiful sex bomb movie star (Russell) is kidnapped. She thinks it is a publicity stunt, but it's not. The kidnappers fall in love with her and decide to cancel. The movie star declines the cancellation. No kidnapping...no career.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Tragic Memory of Free Bubble Gum\n\nReview: Loved seeing the long ago location shots of LA and the PCH--check out the mighty international airport, with its two terminals which must have seemed like a grand palace of aviation back then. I don't know about the house that Ralph Meeker and Keenan Wynn have holed up in. If that's a real house, it should be in all the guidebooks. Jane Russell doesn't get to sing much in this movie but she does wear three great outfits, including the fuzzy pink nightgown they give her to cover up her sex appeal. She carries on a delightful and extended exchange with Meeker about \"bubble gum,\" a word coded with shades of meaning involving sexuality and the pursuit of pleasure to which she has devoted all her life, but he far too little. He complains that when he was a poor boy, there was one store in his neighborhood that would close on Sundays and holidays, and when it was closed, the kids wouldd read the sign in the window that said, \"Free Bubble Gum,\" but when the store was open, the bubble gum was not free and it was stale to boot.\n\nJane Russell sums him up nicely saying that even though he's grown, he's still living his life like the embittered and cheated little boy he once was.\n\nLater she tells him that the reason that he didn't try to make love to her while she was in his power is that maybe he doesn't like the flavor of bubble gum she offers to him!\n\nI guess Hollywood must have been infected with bubble gum metaphors because right after we saw this show, we watched AUTUMN LEAVES and Joan Crawford keeps begging Cliff Robertson to date girls his own age but he sighs and tells her, he tried, but they were \"jitterbugs\" and \"bubble gum addicts,\" chewing and popping the gum in his ear while they were in his arms on the dancefloor. Joan can't help cracking up at Cliff's woebegone expression as he describes these \"bubble gum addicts.\"\n\nIn THE FUZZY PINK NIGHTGOWN (in beautiful black and white, with a percussive Billy May soundtrack that's out of this world), Ralph Meeker got one of his very few leading man parts. He's a revelation, hard as nails when he has to be, but soft and kittenish, wearing on fetching cashmere sweater after another. It's all about the masculinity in THE FUZZY PINK NIGHTGOWN, and Meeker proves that just like his name, he's enough man to be a woman when it feels right.","Product: Barbara Streisand is a knockout as Dolly Levi, the woman \"who arranges things like furniture and daffodils and lives.\" And Hello Dolly, is the blockbuster musical you'll want to see her in again and again. The famed plot concerns Dolly, a young widow and professional matchmaker who sets her sights, and whatever else she can muster, on conquering tight-fisted Yonkers merchant, Horace Vandergeider, beautifully played by Walter Matthau. How she does it has to be the grandest, singingest, dancingest, marchingest flag-wavingest musical there ever was.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: In Praise of Marianne McAndrew\n\nReview: The time has come again for TCM Oscar month and thus begins my annual agony of trying to love Hello Dolly, though everything in me screams, no, life is too short to watch it for a fourteenth or fifteenth time. But, it is an interesting movie in that I never watch it the same way twice and every time I see it, things jump out at me that I missed before. I have discovered that such a thing isn't necessarily a sign that it's a good movie. Anyhow here it begins again, that widescale view of the New York set on the old Fox lot, totally still, frozen in time, black and wide seeping to sepia, and then a whistle blows and the tiny car starts puttering along the elevated railway in the top right of the screen, and a circle appears around it, an iris sweep, and as it sweeps and covers more and more of the screen, the frozen 1 color people attain full color and start walking and skipping and in one cases rolling a hoop down the huge Manhattan thoroughfare and the movie begins. Soon Barbara Streisand will perform her first number, in the terminal, establishing that she is Dolly Levi and that everyone knows and adores her and that she can solve anybody's problems.\n\nI've decided this time around that it's not really Barbra's fault, but the role doesn't fit her as well as some of her others, that's all. In some viewings I'm on her side, but last year after watching the amazing Preminger Skidoo I decided the hell with Ernest Lehman, Carol Channing would have been great playing Hello Dolly and not too old or plain for the part. So that set me against Barbara momentarily. But now I've regained my balance. If the movie belongs to anyone, I've decided, it's to the undersung and unrecognized goddess Marianne McAndrew (who plays Irene Molloy--perfectly, without a single flaw). She must have been under contract to Fox: I remember her about a year later, playing the heroine in Russ Meyer's The Seven Minutes (and perfectly, without a single flaw), but what happened to her? On the strength of her work in this and the Meyer movie, she should be getting Lifetime Achievement Awards, but she's more or less forgotten today and even in her prime, fans scratched their heads wondering if she was the one who played Princess on Father Knows Best, or if she was the plain girl on Petticoat Junction. I hate even to look her up on the IMDB for fear that she has passed on without receiving her due as the linchpin of Hello, Dolly!\n\nAs Irene Molloy her entrance is built up by Streisand trumpeting her as the perfect solution to Horace Vandergelder's problems, and Horace himself (stout, blowsy Walter Matthau) apparently sees her the same way. She is gorgeous, with the manners of a countess and yet the blithe, warm heart of a democrat. She can even make you believe that Michael Crawford attracts her, and that's the ultimate test of any actress, and that it's worthwhile spending her entire savings on a meal that will take her out of a rut. No actress can listen as well as she can; a wry twist of her lips gives her that Mona Lisa ambiguity that men have pondered for centuries. And yet she is here, a precious cameo holding up the entire vast structure of Gene Kelly's Hello, Dolly, which would otherwise come tumbling down into ruined casements and the dust of mere players.","Product: \"Get ready for fun!\" (Leah Rozen, People) with the \"feel good movie of the year!\" (Clay Smith, Access Hollywood) Love Actually is the ultimate romantic comedy from the makers of Bridget Jones's Diary and Notting Hill. Funny, irresistible and heartwarming, an all-star cast (Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Colin Firth and Emma Thompson, to name a few!) will take you on a breathtaking tour of love's delightful twists and turns. Fall under the spell of Love Actually and share the laughs and charm again and again.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Christmas classic or anti-fat diatribe?\n\nReview: Both! Nothing says Christmas to me like Love Actually, with its all important childrens Christmas pageant, and its race to find out which pop star will land the coveted Christmas #1, and Rowan Atkinson at the jewelry counter creating an extravagant paper turkey of a wrapped present. This time however watching it at Christmas on Wednesday, I noticed for the first time all the many gibes about fat people that writer director Richard Curtis puts in just about everywhere. I guess youd call it a Leitmotif! With its ten storylines, theres room for all sorts of social commentary. Its a two hours and fifteen minutes movie, the longest romcom ever, but if you took out the anti-fat jokes and agitprop, it would be maybe one hundred minutes tops.\n\nThe movie begins with Bill Nighys worn=out rock star Billy Mack trying to remember the new lyrics to Christmas is All Around, watched over by his seen-it-all, tolerant to a fault manager Joe, who stays with him even though hes a joke to everyone else in the show. We all love this story because we like watching an underdog come back, nd right away we see the fattest person in the movie, as though to clue us in, this is going to be a picture in which peoples physical frailties are going to be relentlessly mocked.\n\nIn succeeding scenes we see normal sized people being dismissed by the skinny as too fat, and even the thin ones are fretting about their weight. Perhaps a seasonal touch for when the holidays come we all have to worry about rich food. But Love Actually gets nasty, particularly when Hugh Grant, as prime minister David, meets his new assistant Natalie, from the wrong side of the tracks, and instantly the chief of staff apologizes to David for saddling him with a fat assistant. Martine McCutcheon isn't violently slim like Kate Moss, but shes attractive (in a weird way, almost as though she didn't have enough features in her face) and she dresses in red often, as though to show shes spirited and full of life, the way we know Maureen Stapleton embodies life in Woody Allens Interiors, whereas Geraldine Page embodies death, since Stepleton wears scarlet and Page beige. Anyhow it takes Hugh Grant a long time to work out how he feels about Martine McCutcheon because of the social opprobrium she creates wherever she treads. If she was so scandalously fat, I wondered, how did she get the job of handing out the chocolate biscuits anyhow, at Number Ten Downing Street, which seems like a foul place in this movie. Except for that one large pre-Raphaelite painting in the hall.\n\nOkay then, same thing happens to Alan Rickman, attracted to Mia at his office amd yet saddled with Karen and her fondness for Joni Mitchell who taught her how to feel. I didn't really think Emma Thompson was fat either, but Richard Curtis gives her this scene where she has to try to wriggle into a dress thats too small for her now, though once she fit into it handily when she was Mias age and wore a size zero. Its a complicated role that Emma Thompson doesn't make any easier by not having gained weight for the part. Shes a thin woman whos acting as though shes too large to fit into a dressextraordinary work, yet watching this scene I wonder how well it reflects ordinary society of today where if you're just a little bit heavy you're cast into perdition, and have things gotten better in the past ten years, when Love Actually was filmed? I doubt it. Today, Martine McCutcheon would not be giving out Scotch to the US president and wearing red, shed be in jail.\n\nAnd the anti-fat theme even reaches out to beyond the borders of the UK, as Colin Firth, in love with a thin Portuguese waitress, learns her language and comes unannounced at Christmastime to ask her father for her \"hands in marriage,\" and the father calls for his daughter and it's not Aurelia at all, but Sophia, the fat one! She's not only fat but mean and jealous and plain. Even Aurelia fears gaining weight and becoming like Sophia. Sophia gets some good laughs in her final moments, but it's pretty gross of Richard Curtis to play the fat card one more time just when you thought it was going to be a feel good ending.","Product: The year's most disturbing thriller explores the unsettling possibility that the dead can contact usall we have to do is listen. When architect Jonathan Rivers (Michael Keaton) loses his wife in a tragic accident, he turns to the shadowy, unnerving world of Electronic Voice Phenomenon - communication from beyond the grave. But as he begins to penetrate the mysteries of EVP, Jonathan makes a shocking discovery: once a portal to the other world is opened, there's no telling what will come through it.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Unger All The Way\n\nReview: I take it as an article of faith that WHITE NOISE the movie is in no way based on WHITE NOISE, the classic novel by Don De Lillo so many postmoderns adore, but Deborah Kara Unger is certainly acting as though she had never heard the news and is trying the best she can to give a reasonable screen interpretation of De Lillo's trademark disconnects and fleecy philosophy. As she did in Cronenberg's CRASH, Unger steals the movie out from under her more expressive co-stars. She's not \"sleepwalking\" as many critics affirm, indeed what she's doing is really the opposite of sleepwalking, whatever that might be. She enters a scene all bristly like a beautiful, statuesque hedgehog, with every one of her sensory cells on high alert. As she plays Sara, the bookstore owner whose fiance died eight months before, you wonder why the screenwriters didn't make the dead man her husband. Why hold the line at \"fiance\"? Is it to encourage viewers into thinking that hey, maybe she didn't really love him, maybe she's ready to move on to assuage Michael Keaton's grief at losing his wife (played briefly by Chandra West). She's become addicted to fat Raymond's EVP sessions in which she finally makes a breakthrough, realizing that the mumbled words her dead fiance was saying were \"Sara, yes.\"\n\nLater Michael Keaton realizes that everyone who appears on the white noise broadcasts and podcasts was actually alive at the time their signals were being transmitted around the world, visible only to trained, or untrained, EVP readers. That makes sense to me. Does that mean that Sara's fiance had been filmed saying \"Sara, yes,\" while still alive? And does that mean that the three tall shadowy figures had him murdered from beyond the grave? With her tall, gaunt, utterly vulnerable and broad face, Unger manages to suggest all these plot points with but a single sideways look. She's totally involved in her acting, and at the same time that pathetic glance seems to be pleading and remonstating with her agents, \"Let me out of here!\" You get the same doubleness of affect watching the later films of Marilyn Monroe, in which she always seems to be waiting for approval from someone to the side of the camera, Lee or Paula Strasberg perhaps, Svengalis to her poor Trilby.\n\nI've read dozens of comments from my other Amazon compatriots about this movie and no one has been able to decipher why Deborah Kara Unger a) takes that mysterious sleeping pill or b) changes her mind as soon as Michael Keaton leaves her bedroom to take a few aspirin. She winds up on the railing of her balcony; narratologically speaking it's no surprise, but her doing so has no real motive in the plot unless you figure she's actually in cahoots with the real conspirators. With a lesser actress, someone like, oh, say, Gwyneth Paltrow or Reese Witherspoon, she wouldn't have gone off the balcony at all. She or her agents would have put their foot down right off and said, \"Michael Keaton hasn't made a movie in years, let him take the fall.\" But Unger gives everything to her art and for that reason alone she (and to a lesser degree the incomparable Chandra West) makes seeing WHITE NOISE a supreme lesson in the power of Thespis over the humdrum nothingness of Hollywood-funded Vancouver-based filmmaking.","Product: Domestic disaster looms for male nurse Greg Focker (Stiller) when his straight-laced, ex-CIA father-in-law (De Niro) asks to meet his wildly unconventional mom and dad (Streisand and Hoffman). It's family bonding gone hysterically haywire, in the must-see comedy critics are calling \"A laugh riot!\" (Larry King)\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Love of the Loved\n\nReview: Dragooned into watching this one, what a mistake! Although, I do agree with others that the casting of Hoffman and Streisand is out of this world. They couldn't have been better, though whoever did Streisand's makeup should be taken out to the Everglades and shot like a croc. But the same catasrtophe happens to youngish Teri Polo in this film. In the first one, she looked pretty, in this one, she looks harsh and garish, older than Blythe Danner. It's like they hate her.\n\nIt must have been madness on the set as for decades people have been saying that Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand were the most demanding and difficult stars in Hollywood. Has time mellowed them, or have they finally woken up and smelled the coffee, that their careers have pretty much ended as stars, sure Barbra can still sing, but for the rest, are either of them ever going to get as simpatico a hand-made part as the script of MEET THE FOCKERS gives them? As Bernie and Roz Focker, they shine. Everyone's good, but the movie itself just sits there, nothing happens and nobody really cares. Ben Stiller gets himself in one embarrassing situation after another, but the actor has played this role so many times before we don't even feel for him any longer.\n\nI liked that the Fockers cherished their son so much, never made him feel inadequate, smothered him with kisses, framed his jock and his 9th place bowling ribbons and trophies. In their eyes he's the best male nurse in the world.\n\nDe Niro's CIA thing continues to be creepy. For the next Focker picture I'd like Hay Roach to step down and somebody like Ken Loach or George Clooney take over the directors chair and show De Niro's character invading and decimating Ghana or Ecuador or somewhere. Find the laughs there, Focker.","Product: Jason thought his inheritance was going to be a gift of money and lots of it. Was he ever in for a big surprise. Produced by Life Media and Dean River Productions, and based on the best-selling book \"The Ultimate Gift\" by Jim Stovall, the story sends trust fund baby Jason Stevens on an improbable journey of discovery, having to answer the ultimate question: \"What is the relationship between wealth and happiness?\" Jason had a very simple relationship with his impossibly wealthy grandfather, Howard \"Red\" Stevens. He hated him. No heart-to-heart talks, no warm fuzzies. So of course he figured that when Red died, the whole \"reading of the will\" thing would be another simple cash transaction, that his grandfather's money would allow him to continue living in the lifestyle to which he had become accustomed. But what Red left him was anything but simple. Red instead devised a plan for Jason to experience a crash course on life. Twelve tasks, which Red calls \"gifts,\" each challenging Jason in an improbable way, the accumulation of which would change him forever. Featuring an all-star cast including Golden Globe winner and six-time Emmy nominee Brian Dennehy, Academy Award and Golden Globe nominee James Garner, and Academy Award nominee Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine, Signs).\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Grand Return to the Cinema for One of Hollywood's Most Often Overlooked Leading Ladies\n\nReview: For Christmas I gave myself the ultimate gift and watched the film everyone's been talking about in my neighborhood, the story of a rich boy who suddenly finds himself cut off without a dime by henchmen of his late grandfather (James Garner), so that even his car gets towed away while he watches, angry and ashamed. That part I couldn't figure out, couldn't he just call the police? In the US even your creditors can't simply siphon every penny out of your bank account, but then again maybe the government can and this is the film's way of showing that Texas oilman Red Stevens (the Garner role) is actually a top government official. Garner plays him as though he was playing George Bush Sr, and even the makeup people seem in on the act, carefully blotching Garner's skin and rearranging his hairline to give him a striking resemblance to the former President.\n\nThe older man, Red, has never been forgiven by young Jason for reasons that remain shadowy through most of the story, emerging only when Jason goes to Ecuador and enjoys a multicultural romance with an attractive, if somewhat older, Ecuadorian librarian and human rights worker. It seems that Jason's dad died under mysterious circumstances and all along Jason has been convinced that Red had something to do with it. Why Red never told Jason the truth when he was alive I don't know.\n\nAnother muted romance is between Mr. Henderson, the ancient lawyer living on due to having received Red's kidney, and Lee Meriweather, the former Miss America and Catwoman on Batman, who makes a triumphant return to the big screen as Miss Hastings, his assistant or secretary or whatever she is. The two of them are obviously in love, but maybe the interracial aspect of their romance was causing the producers some concern, so they share only some glowing, eerily lit closeups, and their heads are always photographed togetherthisclose like two petals on a daisy.\n\nI wept buckets throughout the movie and anyone whose heart isn't made out of stone will do the same. I dock the movie several notches because of its abysmal photography, like a cheesy featurette on a Balkan TV channel of the 60s; the limp Rob Lowe wannabe Drew Fuller playing the lead in a dreadful performance based totally on his hair; and also of course, the message about worship which is tacked on to what was otherwise a movie all about wealth, poverty, family and disease.","Product: An artist with Tourette Syndrome falls in love with his best friend's pregnant girlfriend.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Push Comes to Shove\n\nReview: I have to give this one five stars because my wife says she won't speak to me unless I do. She claims this ia a fabulous love story. I don't know about that! When the movie begins, it's about a confused artist Lyle (Rob Morrow, with curly locks and a round, greasy face) who seems to be doing OK career-wise, represented by a major New York dealer and selling like crazy, he should be sitting on top of the world, and yet because he has Tourette's syndrome he's unhappy, and when it gets going the syndrome causes him to see things in a confused and yet dramatic way, like two lenses grinding against each other.\n\nThis and other optical values are supposedly inspired by the visual struggles of real life Tourettes patients. Rob Morrow wrote, directed, produced and stars in the movie and gives it everything he got. He has so many touching moments he creates mini-montages continually, in order I suppose to fit him into as many cute moues as possible. I put my foot down at one scene where he is supposed to be a birth coach for Callie (Laura Linney), the woman he wants but can't have because 1) she's the girlfriend of his best friend and 2) because he's so alienated and weird. This montage features a large rubber ball over which she is supposed to rub her stomach, rest her head, just roll around on, and other jump cut type glimpses, and then you see Lyle rolling around on it, caught up in the spirit of now the way I imagine Tourettes' syndrome, with its emphasis on sharp guttural moans and also obscenities in childhood, accustoms you to. But what do I know about Tourettes? My wife watched a video on You Tube, Twitch and Shout, the video Rob Morrow says inspired him to create the character of Lyle the successful artist. And the movie had a guy with curly hair and a round greasy face who twitched and popped just like Morrow, but cuter.\n\nShould Laura Linney (foxy in a red haircut she should have learned to love) stay with the man who made her pregnant, even though he, Mike (Craig Sheffer) has gone off to Burundi to join the Doctors without Borders organization? Well, remember Beyond Borders with Clive Owen and Angelina Jolie protecting infants from landmines? Well, Laura Linney and Rob Morrow are the schlubs they left behind, and this is their story.","Product: Jane's Mom (Stockard Channing, TV's \"West Wing,\" \"Grease\") assumes her popular daughter is just like every other fifteen-year-old girl - a little confused about growing up, but a great kid at heart. Jane figures her mom is just like any other mom - a little too protective, but only because she loves her. Both of them believe they have a good relationship. Then Jane meets Taylor, the new girl at school, and falls madly in love with her. Suddenly, everyone is trying to figure out how to cope with the realization that Jane is a lesbian. Her classmates are having trouble treating her like a human being, and her mom refuses to have anything to do with Jane's experiment. The trouble is, this is not just a phase. Jane knows she's gay. If her mom can't or won't accept that fact, their relationship could be broken forever. Through the help of new friends and a lot of soul searching, Jane learns to accept herself and her sexuality. Now the challenge is finding a way to help her mom remember how much she loves her daughter.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Teacher of the Year\n\nReview: After watching DEAD LIKE ME for two seasons we knew Ellen Muth's cracked honeycomb of a voice, and flicking through the channels we wondered if this was some \"lost episode\" of DEAD LIKE ME but instead, we saw Stockard Channing as her mother instead of that cold hearted Cynthia Stevenson, so we settled in for the duration to see how DEAD LIKE ME would have played out if Georgia had been a lesbian, and if her mother had been Rizzo from GREASE. There's one point in THE TRUTH ABOUT JANE when you will swear Stockard Channing feels compelled to belt out \"There Are Worse Things I Can Do,\" especially when her daughter asks her if she graduated from high school without having sex.\n\nAnother star of note is the exquisite Kelly Rowan, who later went on to play Kirsten Cohen on The O.C. Here she looks even more fabulous if that's possible as the dedicated high school English teacher. She acts so totally real you could swear she was a real teacher, except for one thing, she is too chic. In her little black cocktail dress and a perfect white shell cardigan, and little black heels, she is the teacher of a young girl's dreams. In the story of the movie, Jane is having a terrible time of it trying to come to terms with a new found desure to be with Taylor, the new girl in town, 24 hours a day. Taylor's mom is a complete psycho and beats her up all the time. However for sheer human awfulness, there's no one quite like poor Jane's younger brother Brad.\n\nFirst he spies on Taylor and Jane while they are kissing. Then he tells everyone at school so that Jane becomes the victim of virulent homophobia and her parents wind up getting anonymous phone calls informing them that their daughter is having an affair with a female classmate! Stockard Channing doesn't know who to believe. Though she's a cool mom in many ways, she's also rigid as a fencepost when it comes to Jane and her sexuality. She's certain Jane is straight and can't see it any other way.\n\nLuckily the divine Kelly Rowan is in Jane's corner. I'm not surprised that this movie led to bigger and better parts for La Rowan, it is the dictionary definition of a breakout part.\n\nAnd now, can anyone tell me what happened to our wonderful Ellen Muth? She seems to have fallen right off the face of the earth ever since wrapping up DEAD LIKE ME.\n\nShe was looking pretty haggard during the last episodes of the series, and hopefully she's getting a bit of a \"rest.\"","Product: Northern California's majestic Redwood Forest is the scene for a chance encounter between two young children (Matthew Garber, Karen Dotrice) and Jasper (Tom Lowell), a two-foot-high gnome. Jasper has been desperately searching for a suitable bride to please Knobby (Walter Brennan), his 900-year-old grandfather. Surprised and delighted with their find, the children agree to help Jasper with his predicament -- a problem that develops into a wild chase when an enterprising showman (Sean McClory) discovers the gnomes and quickly masterminds a kidnapping plot!|The film is based on a book by renowned author Upton Sinclair.|The \"gnome-mobile\" is actually a 1930s Rolls Royce.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: A Car Load Of Fun\n\nReview: Robert Stevenson's delightful little 1967 film deserves to be seen in a widescreen edition, but your kids won't really care. The catchy music and wonderful theme song, \"In the Gnome Mobile\" will have you tapping your foot for sheer joy, and perhaps you will be swept away in a wave of nostalgia at seeing the last teaming of Matthew Garber and Karem Dotrice, considerably more mature than they were three years earlier in Stevenson's MARY POPPINS. Robert Stevenson had a lovely way with directing children--he made Elizabeth Taylor a star in the Orson Welles JANE EYRE--and his touch is surefire with young Garber and Dotrice. Sad to think that this was his last film (he died in 1977) but it is a memorable one, not least for Walter Brennan's dual role--wonder if he got two salaries, he deserved them!\n\nWatching the THE GNOME-MOBILE, even in its mutilated pan and scan version, turns into a whole snapshot album of treats. Fans with long memories will recall Sean McGlory from two classic John Wayne films of the early 1950s--THE QUIET MAN in which he played Owen Glynn, and also the rarely seen today ISLAND IN THE SKY, in which he played Wayne's co-pilot. Disney fans will recall he had appearances in both FOLLOW ME, BOYS and THE HAPPIEST MILLIONAIRE. He died too soon, in 2003, without the Disney Legend status he deserved, but his performance here as Horatio Quaxton is filled with generous touches and a lot of old school hilarity.\n\nThe beautiful redwood forest at the beginning and the end of the film, shows a Disney comfortable with location filming. Wonder where these sequences took place? Must be somewhere in Northern California or Oregon?","Product: Honey Daniels (Jessica Alba) is a struggling hip-hop dancer who's got all the moves, talent and relentless passion to succeed. She's been waiting all her life to show the world her dance moves and now her dream is just a step away. Inspired by the energy and music of the streets, she risks her shot at the big time to reach out, take a chance and make it on her own terms. Pulse-pounding music and awesome dance moves ignite this exhilarating story of passion, determination and finding the courage to follow your dreams. Also starring Mekhi Phifer (8 Mile) and featuring hip-hop sensations Missy Elliott and Lil' Romeo.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: The Greatest Love Of All\n\nReview: Is mine for Jessica Alba! HONEY was filled with memorable dancers and a clutch of tunes that all sort of sound the same but have enough difference between them to disti8nghuish them-just. Genuwine seemed like a creep because he accepted Katrina instead of Honey as a choreographer, I can't understand why Genuwine got himself talked into accepting a part which shows him to be so heartless he disappoints a whole community center's worth of little kids\n\nBy contrast, Tweet, who doesn't seem like she has much talent, shows that at any rate she's full of heart by showing up and paying money to get into Honey's big dance benefit, even after Honey's been blackballed out of the music video business by a jealous ex lover.\n\nLil Romeo showed some spunk as Benny, the little boy who would rather be a drug dealer than a dancer, for the movie\n\nJessica Alba is so beautiful and sweet in this movie you can easily believe she is the daughter of Lonette McKee, once the most beautiful woman in the movies and even here, at age 50 or so, still fantastic looking. Poor Lonette is probably wondering why she doesn't get the plum parts she used to in such films as COTTON CLUB and MALCOLM X but she's got nothing to be ashamed about! Her fans have never forgotten her crooning \"How Long Has This Been Going On?\" in ROUND MIDNIGHT and we will never will! What they should have done in HONEY is have a duet with Lonette McKee and Missy Elliott.\n\nMeanwhile Mekhi Phifer is adorable as the lovesick barber who clawed his way outta the gangs, and as for David Moscow (who plays Michael, the hyorndog viedo director), he was so cute in BIG and NEWSIES that we hope this turn towards sexual harassment is just a momentary aberration on his part.\n\nThe final number, \"I Believe,\" is just as good as the climax \"I Sing The Body Electric\" in FAME. If only Jessica Alba danced in it my happiness would be complete,\n\nThe movie has every cliche under the sun but I wouldn't have it any other way. I just wonder about one thing, why the head gangster (BB, played by Wes Williams), who threatens to make life miserable for Honey and Chaz doesn't do anything beyond making empty threats. I thought at the very least he would have had one of the child gang members killed or the barber shop torched, or, well, I don't want to disappoint fellow viewers any more than we already are.","Product: A \"happening\" - if ever there was one - befell on June 17, 1967 in the sylvan setting of Central Park, led by the one and only Barbra Streisand. If you missed it or don't remember it, you can share the magic of this extraordinary concert with this videocassette - recorded in Hi-Fi and released by CBS/FOX in 1987 - which makes the event strangely intimate while this beloved superstar sings her heart out before 135,000 fans. The wide range of selections include \"The Nearness of You,: \"Down With Love,\" \"Love is Like a New Born Child,\" \"I Can See It\" (from The Fantasticks), \"Love is a Bore,\" \"He Torched Me\" (from Drat! The Cat), \"I'm All Smiles,\" \"Marty the Martian,\" \"Natural Sounds,\" \"Second Hand Rose,\" \"People,\" \"Silent Night\" (so beautifully appropriate for this balmy evening), and \"Happy Days Are Here Again\" - at which point the crowd does not let her leave the stage. The cheers nearly overpower the recurring vamp played by the bountiful orchestra accompanying each of the curtain calls the audience demands. Among all of the stars that shone in the sky that night, Ms. Streisand was the brightest of them all! (Playing time=60 minutes)\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: The Wind Cried Mary\n\nReview: From the reviews I knew the movie was going to be a letdown, but we had fun watching it and got suckered in by the spooky, melancholy sound of the wind stirring the grass and the leaves at the top of the incredibly tall trees. From that standpoint the film's technical credits get high marks. I even liked James Newton Howard's score, but I have a weakness for overemphatic film music--at least I thought that Howard understood the plot of the film, possibly better than MNS himself.\n\nTIRAMISU SPOILER AHEAD!\n\nThe movie made us examine our own lives as Plato urges us to do. We walked a mile in the other man's moccasins thinking that if a rare virus sprung up on the wind and made us try to kill ourselves, how would we do it? It's not as easy as it sounds! Sure, you could slide a hatpin out of your long hair and stab yourself in the throat with it, but most of us don't have that sort of hair ornament. You saw what happened when Philadelphia comes to a standstill and an armed cop falls to the ground, his pistol clattering on the cobblestones, and a woman picks it up, then the gun falls again, well, that gun gets a lot of use, it's because people are literally starving for ways to kill themselves. First off, I decided, I would smoke a carton of cigarettes and enjoy a pitcher of margaritas... then see what happened. Maybe a heroin overdose? In the movie we marvelled how the characters managed to off themselves using just the tools at hand, like McGyvers in revsrse--I never would have thought of lying down on the lawn and letting a mower tear me to shreds.... though jumping out of a building is a natural. Mark Wahlberg, John Leguizamo, Zooey Deschanel were all uniformly terrible, and Betty Buckley brought back memories of Carrie, where she played the girls' understanding gym teacher... does she ever survive till the end credits in any of her movies?\n\nMost of all I thought M. Night misplayed Zooey Deschanel's secret. We knew she was harboring a guilty secret, but why did it have to be something as banal as sharing a tiramisu dessert with \"Joey\"? Why couldn't they have had sex like most guilty lovers? Did he died for this dessert sin? Or is he still alive at the end of the movie? We were all ready for the twist ending in which it would be revealed that A;ma's pregnancy was the result, not of that one dessert date, but of a long campaign to drive Mark Wahlberg mad with their deceit--so the twist ending would be, \"You told me you had dessert with him and now I found out you're having his baby!\" \"But you seemed stressed otherwise I would have told you sooner, I just made up that part about the tiramisu.\"","Product: Bells of Innocence is about 3 men who find themselves trapped in a bizarre Texas town. The people all act strange, and only one woman and a mysterious stranger(Chuck Norris) will help them. A powerful immortal controls the town with his demonic horde. Good and evil battle for the town and its children, and the 3 men will help decide the outcome. Their only weapon is their faith, but will even it be enough to save them?\nBOI is a good film. The actors aren't that great, but the storyline is good and the special effects work for a budget film. It's slow in parts and could have used some serious trimming, but for the most part the story moves along. There are some action sequences with Chuck's son, Mike, doing most of the fighting (Chuck doesn't throw a single punch). Don't be mistaken though, this is a plot-driven story, not a fighting one. Even though this is touted as a Christian film, profanity is used twice in it (though I have no idea why you'd do that in a church film).\nAn interesting concept, and I guess it works. Imagine a Christian episode of the X-Files. The climax of the film is the payoff for watching it. It's just a shame that it takes so long to reach the really good part. But hey, it's definitely better than the Left Behind films. Recommended.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: The \"BELLS\" go TING A LING A LING\n\nReview: I have seen BELLS ARE RINGING with Dean Martin and BELLS OF ST MARY'S with Bing Crosby and this movie is better than both of them. The only thing it lacks, that the other two BELLS movies have, is some strong singing by good male singers. But for action, suspense, martial arts and Christianity, this movie outdoes BELLS ARE RINGING for sure, and it squeaks by the ultra-religious BELLS OF ST MARY'S by a nose, for its dark story of Stan taking over all the members of a little Mexican town is rather scary, which I liked. However, some singing would have been good because Chuck Norris has a great voice. And the film's composer, Amin Emam, knows how to write a good melody when he wants to. Between Amin Emam and Alin Bijan, the director, I get mixed up with the names of the principal filmmakers, God bless them all.\n\nMike Norris, now there's a he-man. He was one of the best reasons to go to see Dad Chuck's earlier movies OCTAGON and FORCE OF ONE. here he does his old man one better, and even convinced the paterfamilias to co-star with him in a strange, unearthly part. I'm almost convinced he was an angel! Mike Norris is a powerful filmmaker with the best intentions. Some have said the two Norrises don't look that much alike, and some have speculated that maybe Mike was adopted by Chuck and his wife as part of their program to take care of all the unloved children of the world. But actually if you study the facial hair of both Matthew (Chuck) and Jux (Mike) in this movie, you will see a rewarding similarity. They have the same beard! (In Mike's case mere stubble.)\n\nI wondered why they use the name \"Ceres\" for their little town of the damned. For Ceres in ancient mythology was not a devilish figure. Instead she was the goddess of the harvest, of renewed springtime, and the abundance of good food. We get the word \"cereal\" from her name. Here, the town itself is pretty ugly and worse of all, there's no way out! Listen for the bells of innocence, for they ring for thee!","Product: It's a film about 6 teenagers from diverse backgrounds - among them the school's star basketball player - who conspire to break into a SAT testing center to steal the answers in hope of acing their exam. They quickly realize that the answer to their problems and the key to their happiness do not lie in achieving a perfect score.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Good Showcase for Chris\n\nReview: The film is all about the SATs and I'm surprised that ETS allowed them to make it. Certainly it makes ETS look like a company with a bunch of nitwits running it, and in addition shows that they have lousy security and any bunch of six random idiot teens could break in and get all of the answers to any particular SAT exam. Was product placement so important to ETS that they let the filmmakers run down their whole organization in this way? This is not even to mention the gfeneralized, pervasive indictment of the whole SAT system that the Scarlett Johansson character, Francesca, spouts throughout the whole movie and which is, indeed, the movie's most interesting selling point. It's like the FAHRENHEIT 911 of standardized testing.\n\nOtherwise it falls into a slavish imitation of THE BREAKFAST CLUB, with a bit of HARRY AND KUMAR GO TO WHITE CASTLE thrown in, redeemed by the presence of the divine Chris Evans, who makes every movie he's in an overwhelming visual and sensory experience, as though Aldous Huxley had released some pleasure-inducing \"soma\" gas into the ventilation system of the theater you're watching him in. Is he a real person, or actually a god come to earth to provide nirvana to the millions? Here he plays \"Kyle,\" sort of a switch up for Chris in a way, as the thoughtful would-be architect who can't get good enough SAT scores to get himself into Cornell. (\"Cornell University,\" the guidance counselor adds, just in case we were thinking it was Cornell Community College Kyle was aiming for.)\n\nChris has played characters called Jake, Adam, Ben, Bryan AND Ryan, Seth, Bryce and Johnny Storm, but Kyle is one of his best parts yet. A row of perfection, like clay ducks in a shooting gallery, each identical, all of them ideal.","Product: He was more than one of America's favorite leading men, he was a true icon of the silver screen. Academy Award winner James Stewart's sincere, easygoing charm and everyman style endeared him to generations of fans around the globe, and now, for the first time ever, five of his most beloved and enduring classic are together in this deluxe DVD collection, The James Stewart Hollywood Legend Collection. Ride out with James in the adventurous westerns Destry Rides Again and Winchester '73, thrill to the terrifying suspense of director Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo and Rear Window, and be charmed all over again with James and his \"imaginary\" rabbit Harvey. It's an award-winning, dream-come-true of cinematic classics that brings home a Hollywood legend on DVD.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Four Aces and a Joker\n\nReview: I don't know, it's a great collection but I disagree with the other reviewers who claim that this is one boxed set with no clunkers. I admire Stewart's work in the movies, and four of his greatest are here, but although HARVEY does have \"classic status,\" and Stewart clearly loved the movie, to me it's a tedious bore. I want to like it, but it just doesn't have much staying power. There must have been a whole genre of Hollywood movies back then, these light fantasies like ARSENIC AND OLD LACE, Broadway comedies with zany old folks lost in the fog belt, and younger people joining in the fog. During World War II these plays were especially in vogue. HARVEY was a big Broadway hit by the Denver playwright in 1944, featuring Frank Fay as Elwood P. Doud (what we think of as the Jimmy Stewart part, but when Stewart made Harvey he had to overcome people thinking that he had stolen away the part from the beloved Frank Fay, the man who married Barbara Stanwyck before Robert Taylor did.) People loved Frank Fay the same way we love Tom Hanks now. But the rights to film HARVEY were so tangled up that it took years to bring to the screen, and by the time it did the vogue was pretty much over for ther kind of light, bibulous trifle it represented. It's a tough picture to enjoy because all the actors (including Stewart) seem to be trying too hard. The complications of the plot may have worked onstage, but characters just keep mounting up and Elwood P. Doud seems more sinister as time goes by.\n\nSorry to be a naysayer, but HARVEY sticks out in this collection--it may have been one of Jimmy Stewart;s signature roles, but times have changed to the point where we like Stewart in his tortured persona (VERTIGO, BEND OF THE RIVER, ANATOMY OF A MURDER, ROPE, TWO RODE TOGETHER) than when he plays the kook.\n\nHowever, the set is still a bargain and you can always use the HARVEY disk as a coaster, so I give this 5 stars.","Product: When their child dies at a young age in an accident, a couple turns to a maverick and his cutting edge stem cell research to bring their son back through cloning. The resultant child is very similar to their original son, but something has changed.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Rebecca Romijn, we worship you (but get another movie)!\n\nReview: Rebecca Romijn, you are a goddess but you hve got to stop making these movies that are beneath you! You are great in Godsend, showing the grief and determination and slyness and hysteria of a woman who has lost one son and is not about to let that happen twice. You really mop up the screen with your acting and you blow away poor Greg Kinnear right off the screen, and you hold your own with de Niro.\n\nBut in this movie, just like in this summer's THE PUNISHER, you are so far superior to your material that there's a complete disconnect, with the critics and the public. Let's face it, you're a genre queen now like Linnea Quigley or someone, after FEMME FATALE it would take two or three Charlize Theron-style uglify-the-supermodel type roles for you to get an ounce of respect in Hollywood. Hmmm, a dilemma, but you're just making it worse for yourself! Rebecca Romijn, we love you, get up!","Product: Nominated* for nine Academy Awards(r), this heart-warming, soul-stirring (Variety) portrait of life on the homefront during World War II is a magnificent picture rich in humor and poignant with heartbreak (The Hollywood Reporter). Claudette Colbert heads an all-star cast,including Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten and Shirley Temple, in this beautifully produced picture that gets into your heart (Los Angeles Examiner). With her husband Tim off at war, Anne Hilton (Colbert) struggles to be a pillar of strength for her daughters Jane (Jones) and Bridget (Temple). During America's darkest hours, she bravely steers her girls through heartbreak and hardships as she eagerly awaits news from overseas and wonders if life will ever be the same. *1944: Best Picture, Actress (Colbert), Supporting Actor (Monty Woolley), Supporting Actress (Jones), Cinematography (B&W), Art Direction (B&W), Editing, Music Score (won), Special Effects\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: The Glamor and the Heartbreak\n\nReview: I saw this film at the Castro Theater here in San Francisco during a two week Selznick Festival during which Ronald Haver spoke before every film.\n\nHaver said that Selznick had to pay Colbert triple her usual salary because it was the first time she'd be playing the mother part, and she argued that after you play a mother once, Hollywood will never again cast you in the femme fatale part. She was right! Her career never again reached the heights it had once hit regularly.\n\nNo matter, she gave a great performance and showed what an ordinary American woman can do in time of war. The ironic thing is that Colbert was French herself, which makes her conversation with Alla Nazimova towards the end of the movie even more bizarre (the one about \"You are America to me, Mrs. Hilton.\")\n\nThe movie itself is super-long and sometimes contrived but for the most part it is one of the greatest spectacles of US cinema. Just the lighting in the big canteen dance is enough to make your eyes bug out of your head. The hundreds of extras doing the jitterbug--and then hearing the sound of the planes propelling the boys away to an uncertain destination. And of course the sequence where Jane and Bill have to part and she goes running after his train, crying and trying not to hit any pillars, is a famous tearjerker. And how sexy is the day when Jane and Bill go out to the country and get caught in the rain and the barn and the straw--it's better than THE OUTLAW!\n\nBecause the movie employed so many gay stars (not Jennifer Jones or Shirley Temple) it has a strange kind of artificial glamor to it that gives you pause, as do so many of the films of John Cromwell. Agnes Moorehead is completely free of vanity in this movie, she says and does things that any other actress would have balked at. Haver said that people threw things at her on the street after this film came out, she gave such an unsparing portrait of a selfish hoarder and sex maniac.\n\nGuy Madison looks fantastic and he's really a golden boy in this movie, making Robert Walker look absolutely po-faced in comparison. Seems like I saw Rhonda Fleming, too, at the dance sequence--could she really be in this film? I don't know if she was contracted to Selznick or not.\n\nDid you know that, in typical DOS fashion, producer Selznick pressured each one of his leads to sign some version of this statement (and used them in publicity)-- \"'Since You Went Away' is the finest picture in which I've ever appeared'\"? Jennifer Jones, Shirley Temple, Monty Woolley, Joseph Cotten, Robert Walker and Claudette Colbert all complied, reluctantly or not.","Product: Two gamblers must leave New York City after one loses a lot of money. Doing what all gamblers in trouble would do, they hurry to the gambling capital Las Vegas to turn their luck around.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: After Nick Dawson's Biography\n\nReview: I read Nick Dawson's biography of Hal Ashby and admired the young Scottish biographer's attempt to make sense out of the mad rush of US life in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. What a challenge, and in the book he announces that he has uncovered, with the help of Ashby's daughter, Ashby's own cut of LOOKIN TO GET OUT in the UCLA film archives. He made the movie sound so good I pre-ordered the thing on Amazon and counted the days till it appeared. So this is all your fault, Mr. Dawson! In this case, I'm terribly grateful, because I too had heard the stories of how awful GET OUT was and if you hadn't been so persuasive I wouldn't have given the picture a first chance, much less a second.\n\nWe watched it on New Years Day, and it was a good way to begin what I hope will be a much better year than last year. Ashby's direction is topnotch and from the beginning he establishes a mood and atmosphere that carries the movie in a rather different direction than the Vegas Vacation sort of caper movie I had written it off as. The movie is like something Robert Altman might have made in his heyday, and Jon Voight and Burt Young excel as hardcore loser gamblers who can't keep a twenty dollar bill in their wallets. In their Morningside Heights apartment life is so squalid that we were reminded forcible of Voight and Dustin Hoffman in Midnight Cowboy. In fact the whole movie is like Midnight Cowboy + The Sting, is you can picture that. Then they have to go to Las Vegas; this part of the setup seemed awfully forced but once they got to the MGM Grand, the movie starts to improve in innumerable ways.\n\nFor one thing Ann-Margret's there, and she used to be involved with Voight way back when (six years ago) and we hear she has a five year old daughter, and I'm a sucker for any movie that makes me do the math of pregnancy. Patricia (Ann-Margret) is being kept by the manager of the hotel, slick Bernie Gold, and again based on the average caper movie you wouldn't think you would like this character but the actor, and the writing, makes him strangely sympathetic. I would have liked a whole movie based on this guy, he's a real cool cat.\n\nSpeaking of cool cats we get tiny glimpses not only of Angelina Jolie, but of Siegfried and Roy! Very eerie! Anyhow if you like the old, slapdash, ragged narratives that Ashby (and a packl of other talented US directors) used to present us in the golden age of the New American Cinema, get ready for another fantastic addition to that list of great pictures. Again my thanks to Nick Dawson for the tip.","Product: M. Night Shyamalan (SIGNS, UNBREAKABLE, THE SIXTH SENSE), the director who brought you the world's greatest thrillers on DVD, now creates his most thought-provoking triumph yet ... breaking international records and dazzling audiences around the globe! THE VILLAGE is a smart, edge-of-your-seat chiller crawling with terrifying surprises and frightening twists and turns. An isolated, tight-knit community lives in mortal fear of an oppressive evil inhabiting the forbidden forest just beyond their tiny village. So frightening that no one ventures into the woods ... until one villager dares to face the unknown. With unforgettable performances from Joaquin Phoenix, Sigourney Weaver, William Hurt, Adrien Brody, and newcomer Bryce Dallas Howard, this powerful motion picture is one of Hollywood's best psychological thrillers and ranks with the best of Hitchcock!\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: It Takes a Village\n\nReview: Not knowing what to expect except that it was going to be a movie disaster, one of the most ridiculed flops of all time, we started watching THE VILLAGE and were surprised to find ourselves getting caught up in the storyline. Not that you couldn't see the twist coming a mile away, perhaps within the first ten minute of the movie. And yet the power of the tragic love triangle is gripping, perhaps due to the writing, but also certainly to the performances of the three young actors, Adrien Brody, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Joaquin Phoenix.\n\nPhoenix and Dallas Howard have more chemistry here than he did with Reese Witherspoon in WALK THE LINE! In THE VILLAGE, his character, Lucius Hunt, plays a game of \"Ring of Fire\" that's really chilling, and when Ivy has to go on an epic journey to save his life it's totally involving, because we've gotten to care about the character. (SPOILERS.) I did find it hard to believe that her father, who is supposed to adore her, made her go through the whole routine alone, even though she's blind for goodness sake, and when he tells her about the stream and the hidden road he didn't even mention to the 15 foot tall fence she bumps into? Well, maybe it was built after his time I suppose, but it just seemed cruel and, if I were her, I would never, ever speak to my father ever again! I'd be like, \"Oh, so you took a vow never to go to \"the towns\" again? Well, I'm taking a vow that you're dead.\"\n\n(MORE SPOILERS.) Are we supposed to understand that William Hurt and Sigourney Weaver were involved at one time? Maybe he is supposed to be the father of Joaquin Phoenix? If so, isn't it dangerous to let the two young people get engaged if they are brother and sister?\n\nI kept thinking that the movie might have been better had it been made in the 1960s, and the William Hurt character could have been played by Vincent Price, Byrce Dallas Howard as the blind girl might have been Mia Farrow, Brendan Gleeson's character would have been Peter Cushing (can't you see him playing the opening scene weeping over the little coffin of his 7 year old boy Daniel?), and the retarded young man could have been Oliver Reed in his Hammer days.","Product: Boston-bred bartender Troy Duffy discovers overnight success when he sells his screen play, The Boondock Saints, to Miramax President Harvey Weinstein. After several months of calls go un-returned, the film is dropped by Miramax and picked up by a smaller company for half its original budget.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Billy Connolly Cameo a Highlight\n\nReview: He's pretty gross, but something got cut out of the movie, something that might have given it some balance. As it stands you just get bored with seeing Troy Duffy attack anyone who dares criticize him. Twice, three times, four times, that would have been enough to establish his character as a sociopath. But directors Montana and Smith just play it over and over again, maybe forty-five times. Enough! I guess working with Troy didn't teach them anything about restraint.\n\nNaturally the documentary makes me curious to see BOONDOCK SAINTS. Most of the actors glimpsed in the movie, hanging out at Duffy's bar and grill, seem to be auditioning, like Patrick Swayze, a legend in Hollywood but a man who badly needs a shot of adrenaline career-wise. When it comes to actually making the film, BOONDOCK SAINTS behind the scenes footage shows us more extended interviews with Willem Dafoe and with Scotland's Billy Connolly, who comes across as an honestly swell guy, not to mention a living legend, who must have been either momentarily blinded to Troy's faults, or he's big enough to forgive him.\n\nYes, life in Hollywood is surreal, like something Salvador Dali and Bunuel cooked up together on a slow Spanish afternoon. And Harvey Weinstein seems like slime. But Troy, did you have to be so condescending to every human being on planet earth? Your mom should have told you, when you were a little boy, that you can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar. Watching OVERNIGHT leaves you with a headache but I can't imagine anyone not profiting from watching at least 20 minutes of it.","Product: A good movie\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Vanity, Thy Name Is Spacey\n\nReview: I usually have a soft spot for the \"pet projects\" of the stars, even when they fail spectacularly, like Marlon Brando's ONE EYED JACKS or Barbra Streisand's YENTL. Even when they're bad you feel something's at stake, that passion is involved. John Wayne wore all his hats for THE ALAMO (1960) and when America didn't embrace it as enthusiastically as he had hoped, it broke his spirit, embittered him a little. And some stars never even have pet projects--do you think Elizabeth Taylor ever really cared about what movie she was making? It was the old factory mentality for Liz, punch in, punch out, bye, have a nice weekend. Thus I really wanted to like BEYOND THE SEA and when I didn't, I finally figured out the problem. It was the pet project of a star who isn't really a star, and inside this bright jewelbox of a film is nobody you can really care about.\n\nThese projects are all about vanity and Spacey must never get bored with hearing how much he's like Bobby Darin, singing, dancing, acting, they even look alike with that fake little nose-strip he's got pasted on his face in this film. Was turning the picture into a meta-fictional 8 1/2 meditation on fame and disease the wise thing to do? Oh, who knows, it gives the movie a startling beginning and provides a \"reason\" for those spectacular sub-ALL THAT JAZZ dance sequences that keep popping up every ten minutes or so (BEYOND THE SEA, UP A LAZY RIVER, etc), numbers without a lick of sense to them or even any real choreography. At least ALL THAT JAZZ had Bob Fosse. BEYOND THE SEA's got-- Kevin Spacey of course (and Rob Ashford, the Broadway choregrapher whose dances for THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE five years ago had everyone gasping in despair).\n\nThe truth is, the BobbY Darin story was done much better in VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, and the actor playing Tony Polar (the late lamented Tony Scotti) was more like Darin than Spacey will ever be. Darin's romance with brilliant and tragic Sandra Dee is already amply chronicled in the magnificent trilogy of Universal films they made together, COME SEPTEMBER, IF A MAN ANSWERS, and the superb THAT FUNNY FEELING. Watch any of these shows instead, they'll bring you more love.","Product: A true and moving story of a brave Scottish immigrant family and their losing battle against the rigors of the frontier wilderness. When the parents die, the children keep the family and their Wisconsin homestead together.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Casualties of the Wild Frontier\n\nReview: Robert osborne said this was the greatest tearjerker of all time so I devoted days of my Christmas vacation to watching the thing, sneaking it on when my wife was out of the room, for she hates tear jerkers and prefers more artistic pictures.\n\nYes, I was a little disapppointed in the results, for at the end I came away thinking, that was awfully sad, but when I touched my face I felt no tears, only the familiar dryness that comes when a face has been pressed too close to the TV screen. In fact I hadn't come close to crying once, except maybe when the Scots accents of Cameron Mitchell and Glynis Johns threatened to undermine my understanding of their dialogue.\n\nAll I can say is that in classic Hollywood, audiences must have been allowed enormous freedom, for surely today no actors would be allowed to use so broad an accent. It was like watching a Ken Loach movie, whwre three quarters of the time you frankly can't make out what the actors are saying, you just pick up cues by their body language or their grim expressions. In this movie, I would say that Cameron Mitchell takes acting honors, while Glynis Johns, usually so sensuous, chic and modern, is badly miscast as the prim, ignorant, straitlaced pioneer lass who yearns only to learn to read and later, to make sure her children are placed in good homes. If this was really her plan, she sure chose a feeble way to ensure it would happen.\n\nSPOILERS AHEAD. The children are surrounded by horrible adults taken out of a Sinclair Lewis vision of American life, so that when their parents die one by one, so that the oldest boy is 12 when he and his five younger siblings are orphaned, he must somehow find places to lodge them, going around in the dead of winter with kids on his sleigh, begging the horrid neighbors to take them in one by one. This part I imagine if I was a little boy in the 1950s, and I was watching this in the movie theater, I would find utterly sad, but as an adult I just wondered how they were going to make this feasible. They just changed it around so that the adults are all now sweet and helpful, eager to assist young Robbie and to adopt even the plainest and most backward of the kids.\n\nI kept thinking what would really happen if this was real life. We know the frontier was not a nurturing place for children, and that sixty per cent of them died before the age of 14. Unfortunately some of these children would become pawns in the expanding sex trade of Wisconsin, while others would just perish in the snow. Now that's a tragedy. But the movie says, based on a true story, and when that happens, you know they have maybe 1 per cent true story and the rest Hollywood hackery.\n\nEND OF SPOILERS.\n\nPatty McCormack plays the same part as she played in THE BAD SEED, she's Rhoda Penmark all over again, bossing around the unfortunate children in her care. She must be the only child in the movie who went on to do anything else? Although some have said that the boy who played on LASSIE is also in this film. The one with the freckles was probably sacrificed by some cult as being cursed with the mark of Cain.","Product: Director Dario Argento returns with this vicious thriller about a serial killer who taunts police with online video poker. But for every round the cops lose, a kidnapped young girl is mutilated live via webcam. Italian detective (Stefania Rocca) and Iri\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Dario Does It Again\n\nReview: THE CARD PLAYER isn't Argento's greatest film or ever close to it, but it is miles ahead of the worst (PHANTOM) and in fact would be perfectly entertaining if we weren't expecting something a little, I don't know, more. More gruesome? More disjointed? More garish and flooded with saturated color?\n\nThe odd thing is that the film keeps getting better and better as it goes along, the set-pieces building up, the suspense growing, the attachment between the two leads growing stronger and more tender, until you actually believe they're in love. Stefania Rocca is quite an actress, and as for Liam Cunningham, he's no Liam Neeson but he works well with Rocca, they're quite natural together. They play two cops from different nations drawn together to solve a case in common, the Video Poker murders, played on a computer from a remote location in Rome, one blocked from police surveillance by firewalls.\n\nThe plot calls for the police to secure the services of the nation's best poker player. But when he sits down to play, you hardly know why. Video poker must be the world's easiest game. My cat could have played the poker game with as iuch skill as young Remo exhibits. Five cards are dealt you, you get to decide which to hold and which to substitute. Big deal! You then either win or lose. It was an odd turn of the plot, but made sense visually I guess, it just seems peculiar that Stefania Rocca couldn't have played poker against \"The Joker\" from the very first victim, instead of dragging in Ramo against his will. Though the affection between Ramo and Anna was the best part of the film, and the scene where she catches him smoking a joint in the toilet was very sweet (and unlike anything else I can remember in Argento, same with the aftermath of the game in which Lucia's fate is decided). The young actor who plays Ramo is adorable, thin enough to slip under a doorway, but wily and a \"playa.\" He seems like a little boy until the scene in the cafe where he lets his gonads get him into trouble deep. I don't know, I've watched Argento's films for a long time and after awhile you notice, the young actors he casts are all like Cadinot gods! What is the story with that I wonder!?!?!","Product: FUNNY HA HA - DVD Movie\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Docked for Some Truly Ugly T-Shirt Abuse\n\nReview: At the outset it's pretty crummy, but by the end of the film we were rooting for Marnie (Kate Dollenmeyer) to succeed with her program of bettering herself. She's not a great actress, and sometimes she looks better than others, but you do keep watching. At first, when she stumbles drunk into the tattoo parlor and asks for a Celtic cross, you're like \"Oh no,\" but little by little first time director Andrew Bujalski allows us a deeper access into her heart. I liked the scene where she and Alex spot a girlfriend passed out at the steering wheel of her car, parked in front of Marnie's apartment, and Marnie drops everything, even the chance to lure Alex into her bed, just to help the poor drunk girl. Thus charity trumps lust for once, and makes the rest of the picture easier to take, for we realize there's more to Marnie than just being the kind of girl every guy wants to kiss, but not to go out on a whole date with.\n\nAlex, the irresponsible boy, is well played by Christian Rudder. Alex' longtime relationship with the va-va-voom Nina has reached a temporary excursus point when FUNNY HA HA begins, and he seems to be single, and when Matnie hears about this news indirectly from her pals Rachel and Dave, she can't help but linger a little too long at Alex's flame. She knows he's wrong for her, but he's got her number in some white boy way, and she can't help herself. The attentions of Mitchell, the gawky geek who temps with her the \"Intellitech,\" deflect her not a whit.\n\nThe film slightly overdoes how Marnie is supposed to be a beauty, and Mitchell a nerd. I just didn't believe this angle of the story, and it's easy to see that writer/director/editor Andrew Bujalski isn't very much into it, for he rewards himself with healthy close-ups that show, after all, he's a hot guy despite himself. The actors can't really act, but all in all, FUNNY HA HA is considerably superior to SHADOWS, the Cassavetes film to which it has been frequently compared.\n\nThose awful T-shirts that Marnie wears are enough reason to dock this film a star however.","Product: Co-produced by Amrimage-Spectra and Productions Conte IV, a subsidiary of Cirque du Soleil Images,Midnight Sun features 150 circus artists, entertainers and street performers, as well as over 100 singers and musicians. All these artists came together on July 11, 2004, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Festival International de Jazz de Montral and Cirque du Soleil's 20th birthday by performing in a magnificent show on the main stage of the Festival International de Jazz de Montral.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: In the Midnight Hour\n\nReview: I enjoyed VAREKAI for its offhandedness, did you know the title means \"Whatever\" in the Romany language, the legendary tongue of the Gypsies? You can also watch a sort of \"REAL WORLD VAREKAI Also, La Nouba, which was filmed inside, in a theater at Walt Disney World, with a lot of wire work like Hong Kong action movies with Jet Li-only Jet Li fails to make an appearance and it looks sort of Vegasy and schlocky, without the childlike wonder of some previous Cirque du Soleil shows. Even Alegria was better, the Australian extravaganza that used some optical shtick that made it very different. On the one hand, the increased used of video projections makes for better TV, and on the other, sometimes it's hard to see what's live and what was added in post-production. On DVD, you can slow the action to a crawl, and sometimes you see things you weren't supposed to.\n\nI wondered what it would be like to be present at the taping of one of the Cirque de Soleil spectacles that come out every year, so when I heard that they were going to be filming on the streets of Montreal, I packed my travel clothes and bags and headed for the hills-literally, for the beautiful city is ringed with hills and you see the streets jammed pack with tourist types in stupid T-shirts and open mouthed spectators, many of us eating those French fries dipped in vinegar. Meanwhile the spectacular tightrope stunts and fire walking and acrobats were whizzing about our heads, and the thunderous music that sounds like Vangelis at top volume was echoing in our ears as day turned to night, red streaks in the sky, and a young man edging a chair across a thin rope of steel, instinctively you turned to make sure you were not under him, so precarious was his position.\n\nCirque Du Soleil is unique in that it is a collaborative effort, without any \"star-making machinery,\" and individual performers are downplayed in favor of anonymous and heavily costumed ensembles. Even if you could recognize a particular actor (and how could you when they're all in makeup worthy of Kabuki) you might nor recognize him next time around. Due to this limitation, you don't look forward year to year to seeing your favorites because there aren't any, and due to this also, the shows are pretty short. MIDNIGHT SUN's total presentation, I imagine, isn't much longer than an hour and half. But you'll be rubbing your eyes with delight for a long time after.\n\nBut it is not from 1988! It is much more recent than that! Must be an error on Amazon's part.","Product: Four children...Two horse thieves...One amazing adventure! Saddle up and get ready to ride on a daredevil rescue mission that's a holiday delight! For four children in a small outback town, it's the last day of school and the first day of the Christmas season! So when they spy a pair of strangers hiding among the trees, they're too busy dreaming about the presents under their own tree to notice anything suspicious. But later that night, while the family is asleep, someone steals their father's prized horses. And to make matters worse, Dad's so upset that he decides to cancel the holiday altogether! But there's one thing the thieves didn't count on: these kids aren't about to let anyone steal their Christmas joy! Now with their saddlebags stocked full of hilarious tricks and traps,the amateur detectives head for the hills determined to catch the bad guys, bring back the horses and save the spirit of the season! Hit the trail for \"humor, action and comedy\" (The Film Daily) in this yuletide adventure that'll make every day seem like Christmas!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Christmas in High Summer\n\nReview: Ben Mankiewicz made a big deal out of Chips Rafferty's star billing in the movie, as though his presence was enough reason to see any movie he appeared in. But in this one Chips is subdued rather, and plays one of three horse thieves who make life miserable for a bunch of white farmers scattered over the bush country of Australia during Christmas week. The other two thieves are comically dumpy and round, and at least a head sorter than Chips, so when he walks among them he looks like a maypolethey call him \"Long Bill,\" and you can see why. When the three thieves are together they invariably resemble a phallus and two testicles, no matter which way they disport themselves.\n\nThe real magic of the film is an enchanting cast of kids, one Aboriginal boy called \"Neza,\" one English boy visiting Oz called \"Michael,\" he 's the one with the eye-glasses rather like Piggy in Lord of the Fliesand a white boy and his two sisters who are Australian born and bred, independent beyond belief, feisty, realistically not always perfect angels. The younger girl, \"Snow,\" is so much like a little boy that I'm sure many who watch the movie think she is a boyI've read the other reviewers' comments here and see how they could stumble into this error, because you would simply never see as androgynous a character in any movie made for kids today, in this country or in Australia. She is amazing, a performance that could stand next to that of Margaret O'Brien in Meet Me in St Louis, or little Jean-Pierre Laud in Les quatre cent coups. I guess \"Snow\" is ironic because in Australia, Christmas arrives in igh summer when the kids get off of school for summer vacation. The Christmas tree the parents decorate is so cheap ad garish looking, it makes the one from Charlie Brown's Christmas look ready for the White House lawn. I never did figure out why the tree is so crumby, especially when the mother and father are drop dead farmer chic, the mother in particular wearing the \"new Look\" of Christian Dior way out in the Bush, rolling pie crusts with her hair perfectly styled and maquillage just so. They are surprised when their kids, none of them over ten I guess, don't show up after three days off on horseback from the back country. I guess kids just had more freedom in a wild country.\n\nStarving, the kids wind up cooking over an outdoor fire a big skillet of snakes, and then live grubs, wriggling in closeup like the most horrifying science class you ever took in middle school. Then you see them disappear down the kids' throats. I hope all concerned got hazard pay for that one scene. Nothing else in the movie is half as disgusting, but it is a tense movie and makes later Disney ripoffs like \"Spin and Marty\" look flat and malnourished. Hail to \"Bush Christmas,\" with \"Love Actually\" the best Christmas picture I've seen in ages.","Product: Rachel McAdams and Cillian Murphy star in this Wes Craven film. Extras include outtakes, bloopers, making-of footage, interview, and commentary.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: There, and Back Again\n\nReview: In one touching scene at the airport, Lisa (Rachel McAdams) gets a caffe latte spilled all across her business suit so she takes to the ladies room where, trying to mop up her jacket, she looks in the mirror and once again notices a disfiguring scar along her sternum, really looked more like an ugly scratch with blood mounting behind it. Now whatever happened to that? Did the screenwriters ever write in an explanation for this, or was it just to make you feel sorry for Lisa?\n\nI kept waiting for the other shoe to fall, for her to explain that she feels stronger since her tracheotomy (or whatever it was), and that's why she won't take any more guff from international terrorists.\n\nShe is so beautiful, you can't take your eyes off of her, and certainly those who question why such a young woman has such an important job at the hotel, well, a, of course she does, and b, on the other hand, is her job as important as all that? She just seems to be some sort of glorified customer service flunky, making sure everyone gets mints on their pillow. It's not like she's a brain surgeon. OK, I was the first one to yelp when Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Lois Lane was played by Kate Bosworth, who looks all of 16, in the recent SUPERMAN RETURNS. But indeed I think Rachel McAdams is ideally cast. Bottom line, of course, she can do nothing wrong. She could have played her own father too, and I would have been nodding my head, remarking for the 1000th time, she is so admirably versatile!\n\nIt's Cillian Murphy who seems stuck in a rut, first BATMAN BEGINS, then this, which is the same part, except, not as scary. What will he play next, someone of the same ilk who actually doesn't commit any crimes? Or mild ones, like jaywalking or not rewinding videotapes? Well, if Rachel McAdams is in it, I'm there.\n\nLooked like they had Brian Cox for one afternoon and managed to film all his scenes in rapid succession, thereby freeing him up for his eleven other 2005 releases. You got to hand it to the man, he's everywhere, like brie.","Product: Rising stars Amy Adams and Ben McKenzie light up the screen in this award-winning comedy about love, family, ambition, and the choices that come with each. When worldly art dealer Madeleine (Embeth Davidtz) meets her new Southern in-laws, she finds herself questioning the things she values most inthis powerful and funny hit that critics call \"one of the best pictures of the year!\" (Andrew Sarris, The New York Observer)\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: JUNEBUG through Film History\n\nReview: Like many others I too was puzzled by how little attention the film pays to George, the elder brother whose return to family life sparks all the later contretemps and tragedies.\n\nIt's clear he becomes a different man once he gets into the orbit of family, but really the director and screenwriter have little interest in him. Compare this fil;m to its spiritual forebears, BUS RILEY'S BACK IN TOWN or ALL FALL DOWN, and you'll not how the spirit of William Inge has mutated, albeit in a very charming and quirky way, so that we never find out why Ryan (excuse me, Ben McKenzie) has it in for his brother, nor why Ashley (Amy Adams) winds up being his opposite number in a sort of BRIEF ENCOUNTER doomed love scene at her hospital ward,\n\nThe early scene of Adams and Embeth Davidtz sizing each other up on the couch is like a living, breathing \"tableau vivant\" in honor of Steven Spielberg, who discovered both actresses in very disparate projects, Adams in CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, Davidtz indelible as the abused Jewish prisoner in SCHINDLER'S LIST. Spielberg isn't always credited sufficiently for giving his actresses a chance to shine--the interchangeable girls of the Indiana Jones series are the rule, not the exception--but sometimes he comes through in a big way, from the many fine black actresses in THE COLOR PURPLE, to little Drew Barrymore in ET, to Goldie Hawn in SUGARLAND EXPRESS (even before that, with Joan Crawford in that eerie NIGHT GALLERY episode). I loved Davidtz in this film, finally an intelligent, compassionate, exhilaratingly alive woman in the movies, a role Norma Shearer might have played, with just as fine a grace.","Product: Three young women turn to pills because of their lives in show business.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: \"Well Broadway doesn't GO for booze and dope!\"\n\nReview: After KING KONG I suppose there was really nothing great from Hollywood's Golden Era to bring out on DVD except for this, the Mount Everest of 60s film musicals. And soon, June 13, right in time for summer, we will be able to feast our eyes at last on the most addictive cinematic treat ever made. I know there are some who say it's the worst movie ever made, and I used to be in that party as well. But every time I watch it now, and it's always on AMC, I have new respect for the makers of the film, especially director Mark Robson, who really is trying to bring life and reality into a somewhat bizarre script. Robson has plenty of prestige credits to his name; he started working with Val Lewton and then climbed out of B-movies with the noir explosion of the late 40s, when right in a row he knocked out CHAMPION, ROUGHSHOD, and HOME OF THE BRAVE. Something of the raw power of these films clings to VALLEY's frilly edges; not just in the over the top voyage of Neely O'Hara down to the alleys of San Francisco's North Beach, where she staggers from bar to bar looking for a jukebox to play one of her bygone hits. \"I used to be Neely O'Hara!\" Now, if Brando had said that, everyone would have believed it, but Patty Duke, perhaps she was a little too young to be playing the part. Anyhow the San Francisco of VALLEY OF THE DOLLS has long gone now, and the alleys and flea-bag hotels where Neely shacks up with any stranger have been replaced by expensive, sterile boutique tourist hotels, and yet we can still identify with her panicked sense that the world has gone by a little too fast for comfort. We all wake up and wonder what hit us, what happened, where did it all start going wrong?\n\nMark Robson was Canadian and could view American problems with a gimlet eye, an inherently cinematic one at that. Audiences shrief with pleasure at the montage sequences of VALLEY, like the one where Neely exercises frantically in a series of improbably gym outfits, while learning musical numbers and berating Martin Milner in between. The truth is, we are exhilarated by Robson's mastery of one of the cinema's oldest tricks, fast motion to make life seem more precious and magical. Melies perfected it; Robson just brings it to life once again with that incredibly earnest Andre Previn soundtrack.\n\nSo, about Patty Duke I'm of two minds, but basically, when I see the show now I am always impressed by how totally she gives herself to the role, even if she can't always stretch her talent all the way across its other side. Her wisecracks and her \"sexiness\" are tasteless, but her singing voice is ebullient, filled with life, fun, you can imagine, yes, she might have been a Broadway star. She's so short though that occasionally you catch the set designers rearranging chairs (giving them longer legs, etc) to make her look less like a little girl and more like a mini-Bardot.\n\nShe still brings me to tears every time she's in the sanitarium and Tony's there and she has the inspired idea to sing \"Come Live with Me\" directly to him and somehow he remembers who he is for a minute and manages to croak out a few bars. It doesn't seem like something the thoughtless Neely would do, but we forget, she's basically good at heart, she's just been hurt too early in life.\n\nAnne Welles (Barbara Parkins) has another fantastic montage, when she becomes the Gillian girl on TV and they dress her in dozens of colorful caftans and mini-dresses while the backgrounds shift from one psychedelic light-show-based blob to the next. She maintains her Canadian cool throughout. I only really love Anne when she gets herself concerned about poor Jennifer.\n\nJennifer North (Sharon Tate) is exquisite in every scene. There is no question in my mind that she should have won the Oscar for playing in VALLEY. People shrugged and said, she can't act. That's true, but only in a very limited way. Mark Robson had the patience of a saint and really helped Sharon overcome her natural shyness and false self-consciousness. The scenes where she has to act in a trailer for a French \"nudey\" movie, while at the same time, she's watching the trailer in disgust, are awesome, and how about when she and Tony are leaving Lincoln Center and he falters, then collapses. I've heard from several sources that Robson filmed the scene without telling Sharon Tate that Tony was going to fall down, thus capturing what looks like honest surprise and consternation and worry. Perhaps the DVD will show the screen tests that Jean Seberg did for \"Jennifer.\" THAT would be a coup!\n\nAll this and \"I'll Plant My Own Tree,\" \"Give a Little More,\" and that world beating swinging love song, \"It's Impossible.\"\n\nAnd George Jessel.\n\n\"Goodbye, pussycat--meow!\"","Product: Rarely seen British thriller set in Scotland during World War II. A man excavating a bombsight discovers a spy, and sets out to stop his diabolical efforts. Leslie Banks, Alastair Sim and John Mills star. Directed by Anthony Asquith (\"The Winslow Boy\"). AKA: \"Bombsight Stolen.\" 86 min. Standard; Soundtrack: English.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: As good as Hitchcock\n\nReview: COTTAGE TO LET takes place in Britain during the early days of WWII, when rationing was a problem people grumbled at, when Cockney twerps were bused out to the country and put up wherever there was an extra bed. George Cole, who has one of those faces only a mother could love, is the leading character here, evacuated from his home and his \"mum\" and brought to live in an incredibly eccentric family estate in Scotland populated by servants and \"quality.\" Cole's cynical attitude melts when he comes across another temporary guest, a Spitfire pilot (John Mills) who has turned up in a nearby loch apparently shot down and his arm broken. Lucky to be alive, Mills is given some plushy quarters at Barrington Manor, and a doctor and a nurse brought in to see to his healing. In addition, the lovely young ingenue takes an interest in his case and the two of them quickly strike up a close friendship based on similar senses of humor and a thoroughly modern sense of fun.\n\nHowever nothing is what it appears to be! This movie will forcibly remind you of some of Hitchcock's films of the 30s and 40s, perhaps The 39 STEPS, SABOTEUR, THE LADY VANISHES most immediately. Director Anthony Asquith keeps a chatty script going with all sorts in in-the-camera editing. Watch them around a breakfast table, how his camera pans to the one doing the listening who will then swerve and grab the attention of a third guest, while the fluid camerawork continues in a pleasing, if somewhat dizzying, 360 degree pan. Asquith really brings out the best in his stars, including making Alistair Sim seem almost human, while Leslie Banks, as the brilliant inventor John Barrington, is simply put, astonishing just in his being himself. Was there ever an American star with so much of the ordinary person to him as Banks? Maybe Spencer Tracy, but Tracy always seems so showy and fake-sincere next to Leslie Bank's eternal get-on-with-it. Okay, so he doesn't seem like he's in the same movie as Jeanne de Cazalis, giving an over the top performance as his scatterbrained wife that would make Beatrice Lillie seem sober as Anna Akhmatova, but as though in recognition of this factor, they don't seem to have any scenes together, as though to say, it's a double feature--it's a witty surreal social comedy starring De Cazalis, and it's a slice of life story about the development of an innovative bombsight that stars Banks and the rest. So the bizarre interplay of tones make not be to everyone's liking, but the story and the direction really give a lot of pleasure to an audience, especially the audience that always wished Hitchcock had squeezed in just one more movie during his Selznick period!","Product: Former British secret agent Harry Palmer (Michael Caine) now runs a Private Investigation company in Russia. He gets a job to locate and recover a consignment of stolen Plutonium, and with the help of colleague Nikolai Petrov (Jason Connery) he sets off to St. Petersburg to try and find it. Along the way he must deal with the violent Russian Mafia, and also find Nikolai's girlfriend Tatiana (Tanya Jackson) who has been kidnapped.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: The best of the Harry Palmer series\n\nReview: British thriller writer Len Deighton started writing the Harry Palmer books back in the 60s during the \"spy boom\" initiated by Ian Fleming and John Le Carre. Harry Palmer was sometimes called the \"thinking man's James Bond,\" based on the way Michael Caine tipped a pair of plain brown National Health specs across his nose to make him look more intellectual. Also the plots of the novels sometimes aspired to achieve the kind of complexity and moodiness of Le Carre's, with cheating wives, duplicitous bosses, the planting of double and triple agents, and the legacy of long-ago sins that come back to haunt our hero on present life.\n\nCaine was more of a party boy than the books' Harry Palmer but he gave the first films their energy. Women were drawn to him including the incredible Eva Renzi and the tragic Francoise Dorleac. That said, no one was really that upset when, after three movies, Caine quit the role even though he had two more movies to film under his contract with Saltzsman. The three films (FUNERAL IN BERLIN, THE IPCRESS FILE, and BILLION DOLLAR BRAIN) had done okay, but it was clear that they were not in the same running as the Bond films as far as a potential franchise went.\n\nFinally, in the 1990s, during a lull in Caine's career, he made the final two pictures about Harry Palmer, and nobody even noticed. Actually it might be more profitable to think of them as good Jason Connery vehicles, for Connery Jr. appears in both, claiming to have had a Dad in British intelligence (!!!) but playing Russian, and he's terrific in the part, menacing, sexy, and giving off showers of sparks every time he's on screen. (In the first one he's joined by Mia Sara, whom he married.) In MIDNIGHT IN ST. PETERSBURG, we feel the weight of the whole Cold War collapsing into an unruly capitalism as Caine, looking gaunt and ghastly, even in the comforting 3/4 raincoat Harry never leaves home without, stumbles around the former Leningrad searching for a plot. The movie comes and goes in bits and pieces, as though every scene was filmed without recourse to a proper script and the actors were just winging it on the fly, with lots of Russian flags flapping around them, but you wonder if they ever went to Russia or were they just in the studio. That said, it's a fabulously entertaining movie with great lashings of high style, fun, and espionage double crosses. Jason Connery, in his Russian chav avatar, will curdle your borscht and put hair on your chest.","Product: During an historic counter-terrorism summit in Spain, the President of the United States is struck down by an assassin's bullet. Eight strangers have a perfect view of the kill, but what did they really see? As the minutes leading up to the fatal shot are replayed through the eyes of each eyewitness, the reality of the assassination takes shape. But just when you think you know the answer, the shattering final truth is revealed. VANTAGE POINT is a mindbending political action-thriller starring Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, Academy Award Winner Forest Whitaker (Best Actor 2006, The Last King of Scotland), with Sigourney Weaver and Academy Award winner William Hurt (Best Actor 1985, Kiss of the Spider Woman).\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: You Figure It Out\n\nReview: Critics have heaped scorn on the movie's improbabilities and on the lame politics of the movie, but I found only one real sticking point. A suspected terrorist is running for his very life through the streets of Madrid, and a team of crack Secret Service agents in top physical condition are chasing him on foot--for blocks and blocks, through high speed traffic and up and down the sides of buildings. And there's Forest Whitaker, bringing up the rear all right, but only slightly, a camcorder glued to his eye, not even breathing hard. He just keeps going and going, this tubby guy, he's like the energizer beach ball. I just didn't believe that Forest Whitaker of all people was up for the role of persistent sprinter. Why not get Lance Armstrong or someone? Did they hope to take advantage of Whitaker's acting talents? He didn't take them on location, must have left them back at home in the USA.\n\nThey must have had Sigourney Weaver for fifteen minutes; she's on the screen so little I was convinced this was an elaborate coverup and that Forest Whitaker would pause, duck behind a Moorish pillar, and strip off the Forest makeup as emerge as Ripley from Alien. She might as well have been the secret head of the terrorist ring, it would make about as much sense as what did happen. So go with the fun and don't expect a good movie, just a broad strokes one.\n\nOh, check out the stunt work when cars and trucks all converge on Anna, the young crying girl forzen, like a deer in the headlights, of a busy Mexican underpass. The two disc special edition will reveal what anybody can see--no children were put in danger--they just used a grown woman stuntwoman, the one from DEATH PROOF I think, and dressed her in a child's white dress, and then made super scaled big cars to menace her and make her look small in comparison.","Product: Young VietNam vet stumbles upon remnants of a drug deal gone bad in W. Texas 1980 -- he's hunted by two vicious assassins who want t he money back.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Best Terminator Movie since the Original\n\nReview: I've read that they are trying to land Christian Bale for the starring part in the upcoming TERMINATOR SALVATION, but someone tell the producers to line up Javier Bardem, Spain's most popular star, to play his robotic unstoppable super-rival. This is the best Terminator picture since the original one. By far! Bardem does things with an air gun that you never saw Schwarzenegger even try to attempt. We saw this movie over the Thanksgiving holiday with a friend, and all of us were sitting gripping the arms of our chairs white-knuckled, so tensed up with suspense we were hyperventilating.\n\nI liked Javier Bardem when he played Cuban in BEFORE NIGHT FALLS, the Reinaldo Arenas story, but here he plays a man called Anton Chigurh (Josh Brolin twitches when he hears the name, snorts \"Sugar?\" as though to underscore how evil a man could have so sweet a name), who is charged with getting back $2 million dollars in drug money. Josh stumbles onto this cache of money, packed neatly into a highly distinctive portfolio bag, whilst out deer hunting on a lazy day somewhere on the Texas Mexico border. Not far away, Tommy Lee Jones as the state's most seen it all sheriff contemplates happy retirement with Tess Harper, both of them made up to show they've spent too much time in the sun. The movie's set in 1980, not too long ago on the calendar, but let's face it, any movie set in the past before cell phones and the internet is going to seem like it's from the distant Old West past. When a motel has a sign, \"Free HBO,\" or another character refers to an ATM, at first you think it's some sort of anachronism, like seeing that wristwatch on Moses' wrist in THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, then you stop and think, well maybe they did have HBO and ATMs back in 1980 but otherwise, you're just left wondering why did they bother trying to situate the story back 27 years? It would have played just as well in today's era, or slightly in the future like the other Terminator movies. Maybe this one is like a prequel of sorts, only it's not an origin story, instead Chigurh seems fully formed and totally evil from the very first time he ambles onto the screen, in his moptop Beatles haircut and dragging that oxygen tank. He doesn't say much, but what he says is packed full of contempt for human nature, as befits his slightly monstrous physical makeup. The Coen Brothers, whose dialogue is often self-reflexive to the point of being goofy, here play it down a bit and keep it on the level of the famous \"Hasta la vista, baby\" quips Arnold fired off in parts 1 and 2.\n\nI didn't really understand why they (or author Cormac McCarthy called it NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, but apparently it comes from Yeats' poem \"Sailing to Byzantium,\" which became early on a rallying cry for the cyborg movement with its repeated please to leave the human behind and move into a post-human re-mix. \"Once out of nature I shall never take/ My bodily form from any natural thing.\"\n\nSome of the action setpieces here rival the ones James Cameron dreamed up for the original movies. The very first one, even before Javier Bardem shows up, has Josh Brolin catapulting down a rocksliding hill and slamming belly first into a quickmoving river while a feral dog races after him only a nip away from his butt the whole time. Ferocious action filmmaking at its finest. My favorite part was on line waiting for tickets for the show and the guy in front of me asked for two for \"No Country Music for Old Men.\" Oh brother, where art thou?","Product: A couple with a broken relationship learns some valuable lessons about love, life, and sacrifice in this romantic drama based on a novel by W. Somerset Maugham. It's 1925, and Dr. Walter Fane (Edward Norton) is a physician and bacteriologist who has become smitten with Kitty (Naomi Watts), the beautiful daughter of a wealthy and socially prominent family. Walter proposes marriage to Kitty and she accepts; however, while he clearly loves her, Kitty is more interested in her reputation than Walter's feelings, as she's recently turned 25, an age by which most of her peers have already wed. Kitty and Walter move to Shanghai, where he sets up a practice and she takes a lover, the British Vice Consul Charles Townsend (Liev Schreiber). When Walter learns of his wife's infidelity, he becomes furious, and impulsively volunteers to travel to China to work in a village stricken with a major cholera epidemic. While Walter's actions are meant to punish Kitty rather than reflect his own benevolence, the daily trials of living in a community in crisis have a striking impact on the couple, giving them a new and deeper perspective on their relationship. The Painted Veil is the third screen adaptation of Maugham's best-selling novel of the same name; a 1934 version starred Greta Garbo and Herbert Marshall, while Eleanor Parker and Bill Travers played the leads in a 1957 remake titled The Seventh Sin.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Now, what was the painted veil in the movie?\n\nReview: Watched this one all impressed by superior acting of the two stars, but really it's hard to imagine why they decided to make this particular story, it's so old fashioned and after awhile you have to ask yourself, are we supposed to admire these British people, their position in China seems anomalous and just plain wrong, I found myself cheering when the Chinese youths decided to menace Naomi Watts and knocked her out of her howdah in the crowded alleys of the town. Maybe that's mean spirited of me, but then again the film seems to recognize the problems of its raison d'etre on more than one occasion. Kitty Fane (Naomi Watts) comes home all thrilled by the good charitable work Diana Rigg and the other nuns are doing, but Walter (Ed Norton) sets her straight with a grim, they're stealing babies to turn them into Catholics. You can see that Kitty doesn't think that such a bad idea after all. Then there's the pre-teen Chinese orphan who refuses to answer to her Western name. Good for her! And what about that Chinese attache general or whatever he was, could they have picked someone who looks less Asian? Love to see an Eastern telling of THE PAINTED VEIL, I guess the Ron Howard movie of a few years back, GUNG HO, would be the nearest equivalent.\n\nBut whatever qualms I have about the movie, Watts and Norton are fantastic, and in Norton's marvelous nude scene there's one trick I never thought I'd see captured on film. He's waking up having made love to his wife after many years of treating her coldly, and he's trying to sneak out of her bedroom without waking her, and we see him retreating away from the camera and then Watts speaks, startling him to such a degree we see him freeze and yet his buttocks quiver, delicately, magnificently. Was this CGI or just more of that Oscar worthy Norton total command of the body? Whatever it is, he should do it in every movie and perhaps on one of those old fashioned whistle-stop trains that used to bring politicans to every city in the nation, and he could step out on a bunting-lined caboose at every stop and show the folks what fine acting is really all about.","Product: America's favorite pot-dealing soccer mom is more addictive than ever in the third season of WEEDS, the highly acclaimed Showtime(r) Original Series. Emmy (r) and Golden Globe(r) winner MARY-LOUISE PARKER stars as Nancy Botwin, a single mom who resorts to dealing pot after her husband dies suddenly. But when an off beat way to make ends meet grows into a mini-empire, the mother of all dealers finds she may be in over her head - and on the verge of taking everyone else with her. Hilarious and subversive, WEEDS is the hit that put the herb in suburb.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Still watchable, but seams are showing\n\nReview: I like the show and we sailed through Vol III in about a week's time, but it is pretty forgettable! Nothing in the previous seasons prepared us for the unbelievable dips in the storytelling, particularly those involving Andy, Nancy's affable, ne-er-do-well brother in law. If I was the actor, I would be crying every day, realizing that a once promising part had apparently led the writers into thinking they could just ask me to do anything and my contract would require me to do it. There's no other excuse for the Andy joins the army storyline or even worse, the one in which Andy joins the adult film industry by using his foot. It is a black mark on TV, though who knows, some may think it funny.\n\nIt's almost as though they have one crew of writers for two weeks, then another one comes along and sweeps everything out. How about Nancy longing for friends and growing obsessed, to the point of sketching her repeatedly on a pad of paper, with her husband's former wife and stalking to stalk her so that they can be pals? And whatever did happen to the money both women were searching for? They just dropped it, probably because they were fired. I don't know how the actors keep track of how they're supposed to be feeling and who they've not slept with by this point. Mary Kate Olsen -- lots of bad karma. Matthew Modine -- not appealing.\n\nNever thought I'd say this, but I'm getting tired of drugs, and also tired of the way WEEDS, which seemed like sort of a progressive show to begin with, treats its black actors and characters. They are either Mandingo type studs, or drug mules, or dumb as posts. When Conrad and Nancy had their big lovemaking scene, where she's sitting down and he's standing before her, the camera just gawks at his naked hips grinding away, as though his butt was the biggest thing ever to appear on TV. And then cut away, and then back to it. It's still playing in some lunatic chamber of my mind.","Product: This summer is gonna ROCK! Get ready to sing and dance like never before with the electrifying Disney Channel Original Movie CAMP ROCK! Disney's exclusive DVD and Blu-ray(TM) Disc explode with \"Too Cool\" bonus features, including an exclusive extended ending and \"How To Be A Rock Star,\" a sensational series full of tips and secrets from the CAMP ROCK cast to help make your real-life rock star dream come true! When Mitchie gets a chance to attend Camp Rock, her life takes an unpredictable twist, and she learns just how important it is to be true to yourself. Join the platinum-selling Jonas Brothers and the hottest cast of performers at the coolest summer camp anywhere! Experience CAMP ROCK in a whole new way in this Extended Rock Star Edition, packed with hit music, hip dance moves and bonus features that will have you singing, dancing and rocking over and over again.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: \"This is real, this is me\"\n\nReview: Can't help but think of HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL while watching CAMP ROCK, but it has some charms of its own and it isn't EXACTLY a cookie cutter replica of the two HSM movies--though I will say that setting it in a summer camp for musicians is a tiny bit like the setting of the second HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL, especially the many scenes of HSM2 and CAMP ROCK set in the institutional kitchens while cooking and washing dishes and peeling potatoes for 100s of people--OK, those scenes were the same.\n\nExcept that in HSM2 Gabriella did not have to be pretend to be a rich spoiled daughter of a Japanese CEO, and she did not have to lie about her mother being a cook. That makes the new picture a little bid sadder and a little bit more serious, because Mitchie definitely has mother-daughter shame issues. Sort of like Susan Kohner did in the Douglas Sirk version of IMITATION OF LIFE, Mitchie is bitterly ashamed to have a mother who cooks for a living and works at \"Connie's Catering Company.\"\n\nBy the way, all the food Connie makes in the movie looks fantastic, especially the cupcakes and those fake CDs covered with icing! Disney should put together a \"Connie's Catering Cookbook,\" to showcase some of the wonderful food featured in CAMP ROCK. I'm surprised the students weren't super fat getting to sample Connie's delicious wares. Instead they're fairly slim, especially the two rapping dance boys who get to lead the Hasta la Vista crew.\n\nBut the music is the important thing. There aren't any numbers as catchy as the songs in HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL or as \"What Time Is It?\" in HSM 2, but give them time, they will grow on you. The horrible blonde Tess Tyler actually gets to sing two of the better numbers in the score, \"Too Cool for You\" and her finale with all the mirrors, and most of the kids get to chime in here and there. Demi Lovato as Mitchie Torres is cute in a Mary Diaz way, but she smiles way too much! While we watched the movie at my apartment, a crowd of grownups gathered with a big quart of Scotch and we were told to take a drink every time Mitchie shows that appealing grin, and everyone was drunk within the first twenty minutes. She's wonderful in the part (especially in the sad moments) but, enough with the choppers, Demi! Two of us had an argument about the young actress, and one said that her resemblance to Demi Moore was so strong she must be the daughter of the veteran star from the 1980s and 1990s.\n\nBut I think of her as her own creation, and she's very believable. As Shane Gray, the bad boy rock star, Joe Jonas wires the floor with Zac Efron. His big bushy black eyebrows look like crows feathers--feathers form a 600 pound crow. How does he even see out from under those brows? Maybe that's why his gaze seems fixed to the ground, as though he were a shy wallflower. The other two brothers have regular eyebrows, it's just Joe who's had the brow transplants I guess. He is sort of like John Cuaack, if Cusack had any sex appeal, and sort of like Joe D'Allesandro, if the latter were a topnotch rock musician. Anyhow Mitchie and Shane have a lot of chemistry, and I think should somehow be incorporated (or promoted) into the upcoming big screen HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3 SENIOR YEAR.","Product: Former British secret agent Harry Palmer (Michael Caine) now runs a Private Investigation company in Russia. He gets a job to locate and recover a consignment of stolen Plutonium, and with the help of colleague Nikolai Petrov (Jason Connery) he sets off to St. Petersburg to try and find it. Along the way he must deal with the violent Russian Mafia, and also find Nikolai's girlfriend Tatiana (Tanya Jackson) who has been kidnapped.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: The best of the Harry Palmer series\n\nReview: British thriller writer Len Deighton started writing the Harry Palmer books back in the 60s during the \"spy boom\" initiated by Ian Fleming and John Le Carre. Harry Palmer was sometimes called the \"thinking man's James Bond,\" based on the way Michael Caine tipped a pair of plain brown National Health specs across his nose to make him look more intellectual. Also the plots of the novels sometimes aspired to achieve the kind of complexity and moodiness of Le Carre's, with cheating wives, duplicitous bosses, the planting of double and triple agents, and the legacy of long-ago sins that come back to haunt our hero on present life.\n\nCaine was more of a party boy than the books' Harry Palmer but he gave the first films their energy. Women were drawn to him including the incredible Eva Renzi and the tragic Francoise Dorleac. That said, no one was really that upset when, after three movies, Caine quit the role even though he had two more movies to film under his contract with Saltzsman. The three films (FUNERAL IN BERLIN, THE IPCRESS FILE, and BILLION DOLLAR BRAIN) had done okay, but it was clear that they were not in the same running as the Bond films as far as a potential franchise went.\n\nFinally, in the 1990s, during a lull in Caine's career, he made the final two pictures about Harry Palmer, and nobody even noticed. Actually it might be more profitable to think of them as good Jason Connery vehicles, for Connery Jr. appears in both, claiming to have had a Dad in British intelligence (!!!) but playing Russian, and he's terrific in the part, menacing, sexy, and giving off showers of sparks every time he's on screen. (In the first one he's joined by Mia Sara, whom he married.) In MIDNIGHT IN ST. PETERSBURG, we feel the weight of the whole Cold War collapsing into an unruly capitalism as Caine, looking gaunt and ghastly, even in the comforting 3/4 raincoat Harry never leaves home without, stumbles around the former Leningrad searching for a plot. The movie comes and goes in bits and pieces, as though every scene was filmed without recourse to a proper script and the actors were just winging it on the fly, with lots of Russian flags flapping around them, but you wonder if they ever went to Russia or were they just in the studio. That said, it's a fabulously entertaining movie with great lashings of high style, fun, and espionage double crosses. Jason Connery, in his Russian chav avatar, will curdle your borscht and put hair on your chest.","Product: During an historic counter-terrorism summit in Spain, the President of the United States is struck down by an assassin's bullet. Eight strangers have a perfect view of the kill, but what did they really see? As the minutes leading up to the fatal shot are replayed through the eyes of each eyewitness, the reality of the assassination takes shape. But just when you think you know the answer, the shattering final truth is revealed. VANTAGE POINT is a mindbending political action-thriller starring Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, Academy Award Winner Forest Whitaker (Best Actor 2006, The Last King of Scotland), with Sigourney Weaver and Academy Award winner William Hurt (Best Actor 1985, Kiss of the Spider Woman).\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: You Figure It Out\n\nReview: Critics have heaped scorn on the movie's improbabilities and on the lame politics of the movie, but I found only one real sticking point. A suspected terrorist is running for his very life through the streets of Madrid, and a team of crack Secret Service agents in top physical condition are chasing him on foot--for blocks and blocks, through high speed traffic and up and down the sides of buildings. And there's Forest Whitaker, bringing up the rear all right, but only slightly, a camcorder glued to his eye, not even breathing hard. He just keeps going and going, this tubby guy, he's like the energizer beach ball. I just didn't believe that Forest Whitaker of all people was up for the role of persistent sprinter. Why not get Lance Armstrong or someone? Did they hope to take advantage of Whitaker's acting talents? He didn't take them on location, must have left them back at home in the USA.\n\nThey must have had Sigourney Weaver for fifteen minutes; she's on the screen so little I was convinced this was an elaborate coverup and that Forest Whitaker would pause, duck behind a Moorish pillar, and strip off the Forest makeup as emerge as Ripley from Alien. She might as well have been the secret head of the terrorist ring, it would make about as much sense as what did happen. So go with the fun and don't expect a good movie, just a broad strokes one.\n\nOh, check out the stunt work when cars and trucks all converge on Anna, the young crying girl forzen, like a deer in the headlights, of a busy Mexican underpass. The two disc special edition will reveal what anybody can see--no children were put in danger--they just used a grown woman stuntwoman, the one from DEATH PROOF I think, and dressed her in a child's white dress, and then made super scaled big cars to menace her and make her look small in comparison.","Product: Young VietNam vet stumbles upon remnants of a drug deal gone bad in W. Texas 1980 -- he's hunted by two vicious assassins who want t he money back.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Best Terminator Movie since the Original\n\nReview: I've read that they are trying to land Christian Bale for the starring part in the upcoming TERMINATOR SALVATION, but someone tell the producers to line up Javier Bardem, Spain's most popular star, to play his robotic unstoppable super-rival. This is the best Terminator picture since the original one. By far! Bardem does things with an air gun that you never saw Schwarzenegger even try to attempt. We saw this movie over the Thanksgiving holiday with a friend, and all of us were sitting gripping the arms of our chairs white-knuckled, so tensed up with suspense we were hyperventilating.\n\nI liked Javier Bardem when he played Cuban in BEFORE NIGHT FALLS, the Reinaldo Arenas story, but here he plays a man called Anton Chigurh (Josh Brolin twitches when he hears the name, snorts \"Sugar?\" as though to underscore how evil a man could have so sweet a name), who is charged with getting back $2 million dollars in drug money. Josh stumbles onto this cache of money, packed neatly into a highly distinctive portfolio bag, whilst out deer hunting on a lazy day somewhere on the Texas Mexico border. Not far away, Tommy Lee Jones as the state's most seen it all sheriff contemplates happy retirement with Tess Harper, both of them made up to show they've spent too much time in the sun. The movie's set in 1980, not too long ago on the calendar, but let's face it, any movie set in the past before cell phones and the internet is going to seem like it's from the distant Old West past. When a motel has a sign, \"Free HBO,\" or another character refers to an ATM, at first you think it's some sort of anachronism, like seeing that wristwatch on Moses' wrist in THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, then you stop and think, well maybe they did have HBO and ATMs back in 1980 but otherwise, you're just left wondering why did they bother trying to situate the story back 27 years? It would have played just as well in today's era, or slightly in the future like the other Terminator movies. Maybe this one is like a prequel of sorts, only it's not an origin story, instead Chigurh seems fully formed and totally evil from the very first time he ambles onto the screen, in his moptop Beatles haircut and dragging that oxygen tank. He doesn't say much, but what he says is packed full of contempt for human nature, as befits his slightly monstrous physical makeup. The Coen Brothers, whose dialogue is often self-reflexive to the point of being goofy, here play it down a bit and keep it on the level of the famous \"Hasta la vista, baby\" quips Arnold fired off in parts 1 and 2.\n\nI didn't really understand why they (or author Cormac McCarthy called it NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, but apparently it comes from Yeats' poem \"Sailing to Byzantium,\" which became early on a rallying cry for the cyborg movement with its repeated please to leave the human behind and move into a post-human re-mix. \"Once out of nature I shall never take/ My bodily form from any natural thing.\"\n\nSome of the action setpieces here rival the ones James Cameron dreamed up for the original movies. The very first one, even before Javier Bardem shows up, has Josh Brolin catapulting down a rocksliding hill and slamming belly first into a quickmoving river while a feral dog races after him only a nip away from his butt the whole time. Ferocious action filmmaking at its finest. My favorite part was on line waiting for tickets for the show and the guy in front of me asked for two for \"No Country Music for Old Men.\" Oh brother, where art thou?","Product: A couple with a broken relationship learns some valuable lessons about love, life, and sacrifice in this romantic drama based on a novel by W. Somerset Maugham. It's 1925, and Dr. Walter Fane (Edward Norton) is a physician and bacteriologist who has become smitten with Kitty (Naomi Watts), the beautiful daughter of a wealthy and socially prominent family. Walter proposes marriage to Kitty and she accepts; however, while he clearly loves her, Kitty is more interested in her reputation than Walter's feelings, as she's recently turned 25, an age by which most of her peers have already wed. Kitty and Walter move to Shanghai, where he sets up a practice and she takes a lover, the British Vice Consul Charles Townsend (Liev Schreiber). When Walter learns of his wife's infidelity, he becomes furious, and impulsively volunteers to travel to China to work in a village stricken with a major cholera epidemic. While Walter's actions are meant to punish Kitty rather than reflect his own benevolence, the daily trials of living in a community in crisis have a striking impact on the couple, giving them a new and deeper perspective on their relationship. The Painted Veil is the third screen adaptation of Maugham's best-selling novel of the same name; a 1934 version starred Greta Garbo and Herbert Marshall, while Eleanor Parker and Bill Travers played the leads in a 1957 remake titled The Seventh Sin.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Now, what was the painted veil in the movie?\n\nReview: Watched this one all impressed by superior acting of the two stars, but really it's hard to imagine why they decided to make this particular story, it's so old fashioned and after awhile you have to ask yourself, are we supposed to admire these British people, their position in China seems anomalous and just plain wrong, I found myself cheering when the Chinese youths decided to menace Naomi Watts and knocked her out of her howdah in the crowded alleys of the town. Maybe that's mean spirited of me, but then again the film seems to recognize the problems of its raison d'etre on more than one occasion. Kitty Fane (Naomi Watts) comes home all thrilled by the good charitable work Diana Rigg and the other nuns are doing, but Walter (Ed Norton) sets her straight with a grim, they're stealing babies to turn them into Catholics. You can see that Kitty doesn't think that such a bad idea after all. Then there's the pre-teen Chinese orphan who refuses to answer to her Western name. Good for her! And what about that Chinese attache general or whatever he was, could they have picked someone who looks less Asian? Love to see an Eastern telling of THE PAINTED VEIL, I guess the Ron Howard movie of a few years back, GUNG HO, would be the nearest equivalent.\n\nBut whatever qualms I have about the movie, Watts and Norton are fantastic, and in Norton's marvelous nude scene there's one trick I never thought I'd see captured on film. He's waking up having made love to his wife after many years of treating her coldly, and he's trying to sneak out of her bedroom without waking her, and we see him retreating away from the camera and then Watts speaks, startling him to such a degree we see him freeze and yet his buttocks quiver, delicately, magnificently. Was this CGI or just more of that Oscar worthy Norton total command of the body? Whatever it is, he should do it in every movie and perhaps on one of those old fashioned whistle-stop trains that used to bring politicans to every city in the nation, and he could step out on a bunting-lined caboose at every stop and show the folks what fine acting is really all about.","Product: America's favorite pot-dealing soccer mom is more addictive than ever in the third season of WEEDS, the highly acclaimed Showtime(r) Original Series. Emmy (r) and Golden Globe(r) winner MARY-LOUISE PARKER stars as Nancy Botwin, a single mom who resorts to dealing pot after her husband dies suddenly. But when an off beat way to make ends meet grows into a mini-empire, the mother of all dealers finds she may be in over her head - and on the verge of taking everyone else with her. Hilarious and subversive, WEEDS is the hit that put the herb in suburb.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Still watchable, but seams are showing\n\nReview: I like the show and we sailed through Vol III in about a week's time, but it is pretty forgettable! Nothing in the previous seasons prepared us for the unbelievable dips in the storytelling, particularly those involving Andy, Nancy's affable, ne-er-do-well brother in law. If I was the actor, I would be crying every day, realizing that a once promising part had apparently led the writers into thinking they could just ask me to do anything and my contract would require me to do it. There's no other excuse for the Andy joins the army storyline or even worse, the one in which Andy joins the adult film industry by using his foot. It is a black mark on TV, though who knows, some may think it funny.\n\nIt's almost as though they have one crew of writers for two weeks, then another one comes along and sweeps everything out. How about Nancy longing for friends and growing obsessed, to the point of sketching her repeatedly on a pad of paper, with her husband's former wife and stalking to stalk her so that they can be pals? And whatever did happen to the money both women were searching for? They just dropped it, probably because they were fired. I don't know how the actors keep track of how they're supposed to be feeling and who they've not slept with by this point. Mary Kate Olsen -- lots of bad karma. Matthew Modine -- not appealing.\n\nNever thought I'd say this, but I'm getting tired of drugs, and also tired of the way WEEDS, which seemed like sort of a progressive show to begin with, treats its black actors and characters. They are either Mandingo type studs, or drug mules, or dumb as posts. When Conrad and Nancy had their big lovemaking scene, where she's sitting down and he's standing before her, the camera just gawks at his naked hips grinding away, as though his butt was the biggest thing ever to appear on TV. And then cut away, and then back to it. It's still playing in some lunatic chamber of my mind.","Product: This summer is gonna ROCK! Get ready to sing and dance like never before with the electrifying Disney Channel Original Movie CAMP ROCK! Disney's exclusive DVD and Blu-ray(TM) Disc explode with \"Too Cool\" bonus features, including an exclusive extended ending and \"How To Be A Rock Star,\" a sensational series full of tips and secrets from the CAMP ROCK cast to help make your real-life rock star dream come true! When Mitchie gets a chance to attend Camp Rock, her life takes an unpredictable twist, and she learns just how important it is to be true to yourself. Join the platinum-selling Jonas Brothers and the hottest cast of performers at the coolest summer camp anywhere! Experience CAMP ROCK in a whole new way in this Extended Rock Star Edition, packed with hit music, hip dance moves and bonus features that will have you singing, dancing and rocking over and over again.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: \"This is real, this is me\"\n\nReview: Can't help but think of HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL while watching CAMP ROCK, but it has some charms of its own and it isn't EXACTLY a cookie cutter replica of the two HSM movies--though I will say that setting it in a summer camp for musicians is a tiny bit like the setting of the second HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL, especially the many scenes of HSM2 and CAMP ROCK set in the institutional kitchens while cooking and washing dishes and peeling potatoes for 100s of people--OK, those scenes were the same.\n\nExcept that in HSM2 Gabriella did not have to be pretend to be a rich spoiled daughter of a Japanese CEO, and she did not have to lie about her mother being a cook. That makes the new picture a little bid sadder and a little bit more serious, because Mitchie definitely has mother-daughter shame issues. Sort of like Susan Kohner did in the Douglas Sirk version of IMITATION OF LIFE, Mitchie is bitterly ashamed to have a mother who cooks for a living and works at \"Connie's Catering Company.\"\n\nBy the way, all the food Connie makes in the movie looks fantastic, especially the cupcakes and those fake CDs covered with icing! Disney should put together a \"Connie's Catering Cookbook,\" to showcase some of the wonderful food featured in CAMP ROCK. I'm surprised the students weren't super fat getting to sample Connie's delicious wares. Instead they're fairly slim, especially the two rapping dance boys who get to lead the Hasta la Vista crew.\n\nBut the music is the important thing. There aren't any numbers as catchy as the songs in HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL or as \"What Time Is It?\" in HSM 2, but give them time, they will grow on you. The horrible blonde Tess Tyler actually gets to sing two of the better numbers in the score, \"Too Cool for You\" and her finale with all the mirrors, and most of the kids get to chime in here and there. Demi Lovato as Mitchie Torres is cute in a Mary Diaz way, but she smiles way too much! While we watched the movie at my apartment, a crowd of grownups gathered with a big quart of Scotch and we were told to take a drink every time Mitchie shows that appealing grin, and everyone was drunk within the first twenty minutes. She's wonderful in the part (especially in the sad moments) but, enough with the choppers, Demi! Two of us had an argument about the young actress, and one said that her resemblance to Demi Moore was so strong she must be the daughter of the veteran star from the 1980s and 1990s.\n\nBut I think of her as her own creation, and she's very believable. As Shane Gray, the bad boy rock star, Joe Jonas wires the floor with Zac Efron. His big bushy black eyebrows look like crows feathers--feathers form a 600 pound crow. How does he even see out from under those brows? Maybe that's why his gaze seems fixed to the ground, as though he were a shy wallflower. The other two brothers have regular eyebrows, it's just Joe who's had the brow transplants I guess. He is sort of like John Cuaack, if Cusack had any sex appeal, and sort of like Joe D'Allesandro, if the latter were a topnotch rock musician. Anyhow Mitchie and Shane have a lot of chemistry, and I think should somehow be incorporated (or promoted) into the upcoming big screen HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3 SENIOR YEAR.","Product: This standard love story adapted by Leonard Spigelgass from his stage play was acclaimed when it was released for probing into the nature of prejudice. Rosalind Russell plays Mrs. Jacoby, a Jewish widow living in Brooklyn whose daughter Alice (Madlyn Rhue) is married to Jerome (Ray Danton), a U.S. diplomat newly assigned to Japan. Because of Jerome's new post, Mrs. Jacoby decides to visit the land of the rising sun, and once there, she meets Koichi Asano (Alec Guinness). Asano is a suave, sophisticated, and wealthy man with an aesthetically impressive Tokyo home. After the two meet, love starts to blossom. This was one of the rare '60s films geared to the older set but it is significant that even during this period Hollywood still chose to cast a white actor (albeit Alec Guinness!) in the role of Asano.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: A Majority of the One Percent\n\nReview: I was watching the bizarre makeup jobs in the current Cloud Atlas, in the segment set in Korea, and Hugo Weaving and Jim Sturgess are made up in what amounts to \"yellowface\" when suddenly I remembered watching A Majority of One long ago and thinking, why on earth did they put Alec Guinness in the part of the Japanese millionaire? Back then, the answer was that people thought Alec Guinness was such a great actor he could play anything! Even 20 years later, Guinness was being cast as a native of India in David Lean's film of Passage to India, and it didn't really work there for him. Maybe times had changed, but even in the 60s there must have been an eyebrow or two raised up seeing Guinness acting like Peter Lorre with gray stripes painted under his eyes, and looking down at the floor instead of looking at Rosalind Russell's face.\n\nBasically the acting is so stylized that many will not buy it, but after awhile, I just let the pleasures of the story sink in and before I knew it, my liberal tear glands had been stimulated and I was all abawl and nosedeep in Kleenexes. Watching this movie must have made Rodgers and Hammerstein wonder why they had even bothered with the sturm und drang of South Pacific, because here was South Pacific, except perfected. They must have felt like two John the Baptists preaching the coming glory of A Majority of One. In fact it's not surprising that Hammerstein died not too long after the release of the Majority of One movie--his work on earth complete. Maybe South Pacific does better in the scenery department, though those tragic red and yellow and blue filters are still recalled with horror by every musical fan. But at least the actors seemed like they were outside, somewhere, in South Pacific. I daresay that stage sets were used both for Brooklyn, Pan An cabin interiors, and all of Japan--which amounts to two plain looking streets and as dockside steamer lounge. The rest of the budget for the movie must have been spent in hiring box office titans Russell and Guinness. I'd like to say a few words concerning the performances of Madlyn Rhue and Ray Danton as Russell's daughter and son-in-law. They are wonderfully Mad Men in their ways of dressing, speaking, and sexing it up. Danton is particular swaggers through his ambassadorial role as though he thinks he';s playing the lead in a biopic about Hugh Hefner. The young actor who plays Eddie, the vicious Japanese houseboy, is worthy of a Quentin Tarantino cameo himself. He is extraordinary in his part, a shot of sheer adrenaline in a very dainty and refined picture.\n\nAs many have noted, Rosalind Russell is supposed to play a Jewish widow in this movie, and she is famous for trying to relate Jewish holidays and customs to Japanese ones, as though to underline the point that it's a small world after all. I have no idea of how to say You're welcome in Japanese, but I expect that if ever put to the test, I would say, Don't Touch My Mustache, since Russell advises her charges to do just that, not once, but three times in the picture. If you liked Hiroshima Mon Amour, A Majority of One might upset you with its somewhat casual attitude towards the markets opened up by the atom bomb, but there you go, you can't please everyone. After awhile you do notice how the movie is one big commercial for capitalism, the trade conference stuff is so boring until you realize that the whole point is that America and Japan can get along because both countries have an appreciation for getting wealthy. Would Guinness have gotten to first base with Russell had he not been a plutocrat? Hard to say.","Product: A culinary legend provides a frustrated office worker with a new recipe for life in Julie & Julia, the true stories of how Julia Child's (Meryl Streep) life and cookbook inspired fledgling writer Julie Powell (Amy Adams) to whip up 524 recipes in 365 days and introduce a new generation to the magic of French cooking. Stanley Tucci (The Devil Wears Prada) co-stars in director Nora Ephron's delicious comedy about joy, obsession and butter. Bon apptit!\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: The past and the present\n\nReview: As a young American boy growing up in rural France, I learned early on that French cooking can be sublime and that the key to healthy eating is really enjoying your food. While my American cousins in the US had their birthday parties at Chuck E. Cheese and played \"pin the tail on the donkey\" and \"musical chairs,\" we had many parties at which the only activity would be cooking contests. Ecah child would get three ingredients upon entering the maison, and was told to make the best dish he or she could manage within, say, a two and a half hour cooking time. The winner got a special prize of a blue ribbon, the traditiona; \"cordon bleu\" of the master chef. When Julia Child (played by Meryl Streep) came to France, she was childless and felt the absence of living children ruefully. It was all the more ironic, my mother told us, that her last name was \"Child.\" Streep maybe overplays this a little bit, for when you see the movie, and Meryl Streep is bustling across a town square and she happens to see a child, which she must have seen daily, she crumples her face and clutches the hand of Paul Child (played by Stanley Tucci) and understanding Paul must cheer her up, usually by taking her to a three star restaurant and ordering some boned fish.\n\nI feel that if Julie Powell (played by Amy Adams) had had children too, or even cared about them, the dynamic of Nora Ephron's popular 2009 biopic would have altered considerably. As one watches Julie & Julia today, does no one flash on Luis Bunuel's That Osbcure Object of Desire and his use of Angela Molina and Carole Bouquet to play the same part (Conchita)? To me Ephron was trying to pull off something of the surrealist impudence of Bunuel and she's certainly earned the right to go there, after all those movies with Meg Ryan.\n\nWe kept waiting for Julie's cat to have a reaction shot all its own, and finally in the very last reel of the movie there it is. The cat stretches out in spastic ecstasy (looks like an expensive CGI shot) at something extraordinary in Julie Powell's change of heart. I love when directors cut to the pet of the main characters to signal how animals see behind temporary misunderstandings to penetrate right to the heart of a cute situation.\n\nI also was reminded of The Wizard of Oz as Meryl Streep walks around urban Paris and everyone is shorter than her. They must have picked little people to play the little people. And say, when did Meryl Streep become to go-to girl for expressions of delight and pleasure? In this movie and in Mamma Mia, every frame has her breaking into ecstatic smiles at how fabulous foreign people are (food too). First that Greek island in Mamma Mia, then this incisive look at 20th century cordon bleu secrets.","Product: 20th Century All About Steve (Blu-ray)Mary Horowitz (SandraBullock) is a cruciverbalist - a crossword puzzleconstructor. Her brain spins at warp speed with an endless stream of arcane information. She can come up with the perfect word - and dozens with the same meaning - at a moment's notice, but \"normal\" behavior eludes her. Take, for example, the fact that she lives with eccentric parents. Or her inability to engage in social intercourse without dropping a litany of twenty-dollar words and unleashinga tsunami of trivia. Then, there's the matter of her omnipresent fire-engine-red go-go boots. For Mary, nothing is typical, especially relationships.When she is set up on a blind date with handsome cable-news cameraman Steve (Bradley Cooper), Mary thinks the chemistry is undeniable - that Steve is\"the one.\" Steve, on the other hand, thinks Mary is crazy. Mary, who just knows she's found her soul mate, decides to do anything and go anywhere to be with him. Mary's escalating infatuation with Steve, is encouraged encouraged by the self-serving actions of news reporter Hartman Hughes (Thomas Haden Church), who enjoys torturing his insolent cameraman at every opportunity. With Mary never far behind and Hartman urging her on, Steve becomes increasingly unhinged. But when Mary becomes embroiled in the news story of the year, Steve and Hartmanbegin to see things differently. Despite the media storm surrounding her, Mary with her upbeat unaffected manner brings together a small community ofnew friends. And all who encounter her will realize that sometimes the ones who don't fit in are the ones who really stand out.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Not a bad movie!\n\nReview: I'll never forget that I wanted to celebrate the first semester of grad school, so we went to the movies to see Sandra Bullock in All About Steve in September. When we entered the theater, we were puzzled since we were the only ones there, and when the lights went down we each took a different row just like you might on an unexpectedly empty plane during a night flight. The movie began with just the two of us, and we weren't even bored yet, when the film ground to a halt, literally. The screen went dark, the lights went up in the house, and an official of the movie chain approached us in our rows. Apologetically he said that the showing had been cancelled due to poor attendance and that we would be getting our money back.\n\n\"When's the next showing?\" asked my wife.\n\n\"There won't be any more,\" he said apologetically.\n\n\"But it just opened on Friday.\" (This was Sunday afternoon.)\n\n\"We won't be showing it again,\" said the manager. \"Starting at 7:00 p/m we're bringing back Star Trek.\"\n\n\"We saw that,\" we objected. But as it turned out we saw it a second time, and it was fine. We saw a lot of things in the movie we'd missed first time around. Nevertheless we were wondering whatever happened to Mary Horowitz (Sandra Bullock) after she schlepped to Oklahoma to follow the CCN team covering the little girl with three legs. So it was great when the DVD came out, and we could watch the rest of the show. Not a bad movie!","Product: Please contact customer service with any issues around Digital codes: Phone: 800-860-2878 Email: consumer@sphecustomersupport.sony.com\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: One shock after another\n\nReview: In Burlesque, the actress Kristen Bell, who I remember from TV's Veronica Mars, does the sort of total reinvention, bordering on scarification, that won Charlize Theron an Oscar when she tried it in Monster. After the movie we were all sitting there, saying, \"That was Kristen Bell?\" The film has her playing Nikki, a dancer with enormous talent and charisma who's hobbled by two nasty problems--megalomania and alcoholism. Something's a little wonky with the script, which seems to be playing on two time scales at once.... One in which Nikki is roughly the contemporary of Christina Aguilera's character, maybe a bit older (in fact Bell is five months older than Aguilera), and the other in which Nikki was around when together, she and Cher started the burlesque dance palace around which the movie, and their lives, revolve. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who was scratching his head when the big parking lot scene took place and Nikki started giving Cher (I mean \"Tess\") a guilt trip for preferring the new girl Ali! That's the part where Cher says, what about all the years I held your hair up out of the toilet bowl while you were vomiting everything but your memories?\n\nIt almost seems that their memories changed and transformed as the decades passed. Both Nikki and Tess look pretty ageless, but Nikki actually seems younger than Tess because at least she can still move her body. Cher parades through the movie as though she had no feet and is being wheeled about on casters by invisible unions whose members are all fieldmice, On the minus side, there is perhaps one spectacular musical number too many, but outside of that, Burlesque is perfect.","Product: Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman and Mila Kunis star in this sci-fi action thriller. 30 years after an unspecified environmental disaster, a lone man, Eli (Washington), fights his way across the desolate wasteland of a post-apocalyptic America guarding a sacred book called the Book of Eli, which holds the secrets that can bring civilisation back from the brink of destruction and save humankind. His principal threat is despotic town leader Carnegie (Oldman), who will stop at nothing to get hold of the book and use its secrets to take control of society.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Sepia Tones Usually Mean a Dreary and Pretentious Flick\n\nReview: It did have the effect of making us argue afterwards, and all weekend long, about the two so-called surprise twists in the picture. It's worth seeing if only for that good post-mortem that sends you to the diner arguing over french fries about the real meaning of the scene between Denzel Washington and Jennifer Beals.\n\nOtherwise, the film is ridiculously bleak and heavyhanded. Tumbleweeds, check. Sepia tones throughout, check. Cannibals, check. It is a patchwork of familiar elements that you have seen done better in a hundred other movies. In one scene, Denzel is held captive in a cell-like room decorated only by a tattered poster from a long-ago 70s apocalypse film, Don Johnson in A Boy and His Dog--itself so much better than The Book of Eli it seemed almost as if the movie was taunting itself! But instead it was probably intended as a homage... Much of the movie was one homage stitched onto another... When Mila Kunis made the sign of the cross to a leering Gary Oldman, it was so much like Bram Stoker's Dracula it was crazy! And what about the old, decrepit desert house occupied by the two seniors, who call themselves George and Martha? Their names recall the central couple in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, but why?\n\nDenzel, Gary Oldman, most of the actors were good, but against all odds. The things they had to say and act out were ludicrous. Defeated, perhaps by her character arc, perhaps by her own limitations, was poor Mila Kunis. I thought Kylie Minogue, much as I love her, a bad actress, but Mila Kunis makes Kylie seem like Dame Judi Dench in comparison. And yet, I wound up liking her just the same, especially when I read the interview with her that said in preparation for playing \"Solara\" opposite Denzel Washington, she had tried to read the Bible. \"Which part?\" \"The first part. Genesis. But I just couldn't finish it. It was good but it was boring.\" Now, that's what my dad used to call \"stick to it-ive-ness.\"","Product: Forest Whitaker and Carlos Mencia star in this clash-of-cultures comedy about two overbearing dads who must put aside their differences to plan a wedding for their children, Marcus (Lance Gross) and Lucia (America Ferrera), in less than two weeks. As the wedding brings out the best and worst in both families, the young couple soon discovers the true meaning of love and finds there is truth to the saying -- that when you marry someone, you marry their entire family.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Charming comedy with serious scenes galore.\n\nReview: The movie is touted as a comedy, but I found the serious sides more affecting, and in this way it reminded me of the great 70s films of the new American cinema like NASHVILLE. The director must have been watching some Altman films to get across the special blend of inconsequential chitchat with real heartbreak, like the scene where the two sisters are dissing their mother at the bridal shop, not realizing that she's there listening it--the camera makes a slight lateral movement, revealing the mother's stricken face as she learns what the girls really think of her (that she's a fool with an empty life) and suddenly all the sadness she's been holding back manifests itself on her face. Diana Maria Riva simply shines in this scene, and it's not the only one. It's as if the screenwriters were thinking of it as her movie.\n\nThough the others get some good scenes too, even when the acting's not so good. Like Anjelah Johnson, who plays one of the sisters. Kept thinking, what is she getting at? through the whole picture. She is so unappealing I couldn't imagine why Lucia wanted her to be her bridesmaid. Bt that's not really fair, it's just the part that was badly written, almost as though the original script had her playing a lesbian but halfway through the producers nipped it in the bud figuring that the target audience wouldn't care for it, and just left her character high and dry without any real story.\n\nForest Whitaker and Carlos Mencia were OK in their parts, but really it was the actors in the background who give the movie its edge. My favorite, once-popular Shannyn Sossamon, is terrific, hilarious, playing a brief part as one of Forest whitaker's super young conquests, \"Ashley.\" I kept wishing she'd be back in the movie, but alas, she was just there playing a glorified cameo. Here's looking at you, Shannyn Sossamon, and I hear great things about ROAD TO NOWHERE, maybe that will lead you back to being a fullfledged movie star once again,","Product: Sandra Bullock is at her funniest in THE PROPOSAL -- the fresh, laugh-out-loud romantic comedy on Blu-ray Disc(TM) with its hi-def picture and theater-quality sound. On the verge of being deported and losing the high-powered job she lives for, the controlling Margaret (Bullock) announces she's engaged to her unsuspecting, put-upon assistant Andrew (Ryan Reynolds). After proposing a few demands of his own, the mismatched couple heads to Alaska, where they have four short days to convince his quirky family and a very skeptical immigration agent that their charade is real. Featuring a star-studded supporting cast, including Mary Steenburgen, Craig T. Nelson and the delightfully inappropriate Betty White, this madcap comedy will have you saying \"yes\" to THE PROPOSAL again and again -- especially in Blu-ray High Definition.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Make way for tomorrow\n\nReview: Others may give this five stars, and I would have given this four, had not I just seen the new Criterion DVD release of Make Way for Tomorrow, with Victor Moore and Beulah Bondi, a classic from the 1930s which gives some hints on the kind of movie The Proposal might have been--a movie that deals honestly with the plight of the aged in our society.\n\nGrandma Annie is a woman from the hard country before Alaska was a state, and though near death today in a prosperous and tamed Sitka, her memories range widely back to the earliest days of white civilization, when it was just her and a bear, and the man she married long ago. Her original wedding dress she has kept nicely pressed, in a style that recalls the suffragette age, with a soupcon of Isadora Duncan-inspired flowing robes to give it some classical spice. For the wealthy Paxton family, Grandma Annie (nicely played by Betty White) is an authentic throwback not only to the days of the pioneers, but to an older people as well--the Indians. In private she still performs the dances of the First Nations, calling on the spirit of the forests, the totem animals, and the surrounding oceans, to help her dance the way of the female shaman.\n\nHer family life is grim, so she keeps holding on to the dreams and memories, as do many elders in our society. Her son (or son in law? We couldn't decide) Joe Paxton, is a bitter tycoon for whom all the money in the world can't heal the thwarted desires in his heart. His wife, Mary Steenburgen, feels weird when a woman pretty much her own age comes to her mansion and tells her she's engaged to Mary's son, a young stripling who has left the tribe and moved to New York, city of the big steeples. Grandma Annie goes to the woods and makes tribal noises, having adapted the place to a stage set on which to perform her own performativity as a native woman. Is she trying to make reparations, in her own quiet way, to the original Native settlers of the Sitka area? We don't know. The movie wastes a lot of time on its subplot, which involves the ponytailed city woman (Sandra Bullock) deciding that Alaska life isn't too bad in a hundred story mansion on the top of the hill with every retail outlet in the town bearing your name.\n\nGrandma Annie takes matters into her own hands at the dramatic conclusion, but my wife and I both felt disappointed that her struggles were trivialized, and that she was in the movie to make Sandra Bullock look like a younger actress than she is.\n\nIt could have been a trailblazing cinematic document, and the best parts of it are!","Product: Freshmen orientation means fresh meat. And there's no one fresher than Scott, a blue-eyed virgin who can't wait to get off for the first time. Next up, meet Ivan. He's a tanned bad boy with a monster bulge who teases us for a while before finally breaking out the big gun under his tight boxer briefs. Cody likes it rough. He flexes his waxed, tattooed torso and shows us how he likes to be spanked. His tight ass is just begging for it. Noah is a Spring Break stud who strips out of his trunks for a soapy tug job in a steamy shower. And you won't believe how hard Jordan gets after a tough workout. He rubs himself raw and makes a mess all over his washboard abs. This is one class you don't want to skip! Packed with all real, uncensored action, it's Guys Gone Wild: Freshmen Orientation!\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: To sum it up for next time\n\nReview: While we wait for the sequel, SPRING BREAK EXPLOSION, here's my impressions of the first GUYS GONE WILD disc. And maybe a lesson or two for the makers of the first one, because it let us down quite a bit and maybe with SPRING BREAK they will make some reparations. First, the plusses. For the most part the GGW guys are great looking, with a few duds sprinkled in here or there to keep us grounded. It's true after awhile they all begin to look alike. They have the same body type, the same haircut, the same goofy expressions frozen on their faces as their jaws try to speak in words after twelve tequilas, they shrug, they give up speaking, they concentrate hard on opening the drawstring to their pants. The sound equipment the interviewers use is horrible, and this is one DVD that might be better viewed with the mute button completely off. The interviewers can be heard screeching extremely loud, but the boys' answers are pretty mumbled, and it's not only the liquor that makes them sound underwater, it's the lack of attention placed on getting the audio right. To a lesser degree the same is true of the video. These girls can get a guy to strip off his boxers and get down to nothing at all in ten seconds flat, but they can't photograph him worth a darn.\n\nHire someone who can work both ends of a camera is what I say. The camera's bobbing up and down like it's on a buoy out in a storm, it's like the BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, and when you can see anything, it's just for a flash. The other problem is, the running time is under an hour. I guess a fool and his money are soon parted but in this day of six-hour porn DVDS, who is going to be fooled twice with a 50 minute short? Get some extra footage in there pronto.\n\nI can't wait until these guys, who have all presumably signed releases, try to get work as adults. Hopefully they won't be running as congressmen or anything that would require full disclosure. Granted we all go a little crazy when we're juiced up, but doing it for video, that's a lapse in judgment--however it's one I'm glad they made. It will give a picture of what American youth thought appropriate in the year of our Lord 2005. Now let's just have more of it and I will rest happy. Oh, and to really add a star, girls, get them to have sex with each other on camera. How hard could that be?","Product: Academy Award winners Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts come together for a romantic and optimistic comedy about how its never too late to reinvent yourself. When he suddenly finds himself without his long-standing blue-collar job, Larry Crowne (Hanks) enrolls at his local college to start over. There, he becomes part of an eclectic community of students and develops a crush on his teacher (Roberts). Now this simple guy will discover that when you think everything worth having has passed you by, you just might find your reason to live.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Public Speaking Made Easy\n\nReview: I always enjoy a good movie with Julia Roberts, and I found this one gave us Roberts fans complete satisfaction. She stars as Mercedes Tainot, a community college teacher in Southern California trapped in a loveless marriage to a writer of epic-sized fantasy novels like A GAME OF THRONES, only not very successful. Mercedes feels used by her husband, and for some reason feels especially irked when it is revealed that he (Bryan Cranston, not bad in an underwritten part) is exposed as the type of buy who, as soon as Julia Roberts leaves the house, heads for the @sexchannels on his computer. Like that's supposed to be a terrible crime against humanity. Meanwhile Tom Hanks (we are not told but I assume he is pornfree) has become a student in Mercedes' public speaking class. This part of the movie was very intriguing, for all to seldom do the movies show an actual class in operation from beginning to end, well, at any rate you get to learn something here. I learned a lot about public speaking from Julia Roberts' sensible, no nonsense advice.\n\nShe says that when you begin to speak, you should look up and directly confront the face of someone way to the left of you. A few minutes later, raise your head from your notes once again, and address someone directly in front of you. Then try swiveling your head to catch the attention of those on your right. By the time you have done this, advises the Oscar-winning star, you will have made the whole room feel like they've just had a direct conversation with you--you will have gotten through to them.\n\nAs in every other movie where the heroine has an unusual or bizarre name, I suspected an anagram right away. Like the way the name of the heroine in THE TIME TRAVELLER'S WIFE anagrammed out to \"Isabel Archer,\" the heroine of Henry James' novel THE WINGS OF THE DOVE, I sat upon the name \"Mercedes Tainot\" wondering how to puzzle out its secrets. It must have signified something to Tom Hanks, who wrote the serviceable screenplay as a vanity vehicle for himself. But what? I worked out a few anagrams, but do any of them really make sense as a \"Rosebud\"-style revelation to the inner meaning of LARRY CROWNE? There's \"Mister Anecdote,\" which I like, also, \"Comedian Tester,\" which would have been good in some other movie perhaps, not this one however. Then there's \"Remote Distance,\" but to me that hardly describes the one and only Julia Roberts! Maybe someone more regal and haughty like Charlotte Rampling, or Naomi Campbell!","Product: - IMPORT FROM KOREA - LANGUAGE: FRENCH - SUBTITLES: ENGLISH, KOREAN and NONE - NTSC ALL REGIONS - Genevive, 17, lives with her widowed mother, who owns an umbrella shop in Cherbourg. She and Guy, a twenty-year-old auto mechanic, are secretly in love and want to marry, but when she reveals this to her mother, her mother objects on the grounds that Genevive is too young and Guy is not mature or well-established enough, particularly since he has not yet done his required military service. Shortly after this, Guy is drafted to serve in the war in Algeria. Before he leaves, he and Genevive consummate their love for each other, which results in her becoming pregnant. While Guy is away they drift apart, and Genevive, strongly encouraged by her mother, accepts a marriage proposal from a well-to-do gem dealer named Roland Cassard, who has fallen in love with her at first sight and has promised to bring up her child as his own.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Sunny French Musical with US Antecedents\n\nReview: While Demy's color-saturated backdrops and coordinated dresses and suits have been justly praised, his achievement has to be seen in context. In imitation of the stylized set-ups of Vincente Minnelli's ZIEGFELD FOLLIES and CABIN IN THE SKY, Demy's camera snakes through the picturesque streets of Cherbourg, poking into shop windows, racing ahead around corners with a brisk, airy pace, unafraid and remarkably steady and obtrusive. The camera is everywhere, most obviously trying to penetrate the great beauty of its young stars as they throw their lives away; Demy uses the lens as Sherlock Holmes used his magnifying glass, to blow up the smallest gesture, frown or smile until it achieves meaning.\n\nFrom George Sidney's luscious color palette, Demy borrows the idea of color as a psychological screen, filtering in emotions as the screen twists from cyan to yellow to a deep, passionate scarlet that sometimes turns unexpectedly prim, when money and sense raise their hands to object. The opening sequence of BYE BYE BIRDIE, Ann-Margret blazing against a back projection of Yves-Klein blue, is said to have been screened by Demy over and over during the arduous months of preparation for this film, though no two central performances could be more different than Deneuve's and Ann-Margret's.\n\nFinally, we can see the stylish fingerprints of Stanley Donen all throughout the interior designs of TUOC. In the interior of the shop where Genevieve and her mother work, it's like a retail version of the apartment where Ingrid Bergman lives in INDISCREET, with its fantastic array of French prints in their startling, moderne frames, against which Bergman moved in her tight gold dress as a soignee woman of the world, not quite in her first youth, just as Anne Vernon, playing Deneuve's mother, is characterized as much by her wallpaper as by the flickers of memory that animate her still beautiful eyes. Some have said that Demy's film lacks what 40s and 50s musicals had, namely, dance sequences (later, of course, Demy went overboard with the dance in the ROCHEFORT follow-up), and yet a dynamism animates the interplay, a bow in Terpsichore's direction.","Product: new\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Adam and Drew Make Beautiful Music Together\n\nReview: It's a heartwarming blend of action, comedy, and romance as Adam Sandler, and a band of hilarious animals you haven't seen the likes of since Eddie Murphy in Doctor Doolittle, start dating pretty Drew Barrymore. I could have sworn some of the animals were the very same ones! And wasn't the little spider monkey the same monkey that appeared years ago in FRIENDS? Anyhow Hawaiian locations bring out the best in all the animals, and in our romantic love interests, Adam and Drew, neither of whom have ever been as appealing, not even in their previous blockbuster together, THE WEDDING SINGER. Though I will say it was hard to believe in Adam Sandler as some kind of ladies' man because, well, he has only average looks and from some angles looks doped up. The producers of this film have cast him as some kind of sex magnet, the sort of role Cary Grant used to play. Anyhow, once he meets and falls head over heels for Drew, he becomes more plausible. Indeed she is charming, though her disease, as Dan Aykroyd explains it, is kind of tragic.\n\nThe director Peter Segal who made ANGER MANAGEMENT, again with Adam, has performed a subtler job this time around. The cliches of romantic comedy prove themselves anew. And the animal action would please even Doris Day. I hope she gets a chance to see this movie. Perhaps she would agree to perform in the sequel.","Product: Elysium (Bilingual) [DVD + UltraViolet]\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Alice through the Looking Glass\n\nReview: I had the same feeling of general letdown that most of you had, and I didn't even see District 9 to get pumped up about it! But, the relentless marketing of Elysium prepared me for something grander and more interesting than what I got. The cover of Entertainment Weekly, for example, way back in May, that read \"Neill Blonkamp Saves the Summer Blockbuster.\"\n\nIf not for that letdown, I'd give this show an A +. Any movie that puts Jodie Foster in it--here at her most scary and all too human a role, a capitalist driven to shady measures--rather like the part she played in the Spike Lee movie about the heist--any movie with Jodie in it automatically gets a pass from me because she is a genius actor! Matt Damon is not so lucky, and I don't mean even to hint at the spoilers, but I just mean his role is sort of undeveloped and just like the working class of the world he rarely gets to speak his mind or change expression. However maybe I'm wrong, because Diego Luna as Julio, Max's best friend, is very expressive, almost languid like Oscar Wilde, and lacks the bruises and welts the makeup artists have painted all over Matt's body. He seems to have wandered in from another movie, perhaps one that Merchant and Ivory were about to make when they died.\n\nThe movie seems to pivot on the great coincidence of Matt wandering into the only emergency ward in which his childhood sweetheart happens to be working and happens to be on staff. What? Well, they were careful to make the point that few medical services exist to help out the poor, but still! Earth is supposed to be so severely overpopulated there aren't enough resources for anybody. If I was Alice Braga, I'd change my agent! Alice, you're great in this as Fray the nurse with the cute little girl Matilda, but you were also great playing the exact same role in I Am Legend years ago, and maybe these post apocalyptic spectacles are killing the thing that made you Alice Braga. You don't want your audience to remember you in these parts, but that's what they're going to do, in 2054, when they're old men but still remembering when they were fifteen and saw their first Brazilian woman on screen.","Product: MMA star Gina Carano (Haywire, Fast and Furious 6) stars as Ava, a trained fighter with a dark past in this intense action/thriller from director John Stockwell (Blue Crush, Crazy/Beautiful). When her new husband (Cam Gigandet, Twilight) vanishes during their Caribbean honeymoon, Ava uncovers a violent underworld of conspiracy in the middle of an island paradise. Armed with a deadly set of skills, Ava sets out to discover the truth and to take down the men she thinks are responsible for her husband's abduction, one by one. Ismael Cruz Cordova (The Good Wife), Luis Guzmn (Traffic), Treat Williams (Chicago Fire), Amaury Nolasco (Prison Break), Stephen Lang (Avatar) and Danny Trejo (Machete) co-star. Written by James Robert Johnston and Bennett Yellin.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Blood and White Satin\n\nReview: The movie begins with Ava dressing in a wedding gown and her future sister-in-law assuring her that from now on she will have a new family. Flashbacks indicate that Ava's own childhood was pretty weird, with a mercenary/gangbanger/cult leader (I never did decide what he was) father teaching her about what pain is like and how to give everything you've got. We decided that even though Ava (Gina Carano) is marrying into a rich family, she has secrets in her past that are returning for some reason, to trouble her today. Director John Stockwell is recalling visually the wedding at the beginning of The Deer Hunter, only a little bit more subtle. I didn't even know who Gina Carano was, but as every fan knows, she is like nobody else in the movies, and I began wondering why the movie was focusing in on this one girl and why, whenever she opened her mouth, it seemed like a different actress was speaking through her.(often Sally Kellerman and some other actress much older than she must be).\n\nBecause the movie is called \"In the Blood\" we figured that the movie would involve Gina Carano discovering that she is carrying the DNA of her evil, violent, perverted father (Stephen Lang) in her blood, and that somehow she would wreak favor and destroy the white-bread family she was moving into. You could see Treat Williams asking his son (five minutes before the wedding) what he knew about the girl's history, her past, her criminal record. But then the film turned a dazzling crystal color and the groom stepped into the light and he was Cam Gigandet, finally landing a suitable role after his triumph playing \"Jack\" in Burlesque, the tragic musical that it now appears, in the kind light of history, was 2010's best film and possibly of the whole 21st century. Yes, Cam Gigandet, though he no longer sports Jack's signature derby or fedora or whatever that hat Joel Grey wore in Cabaret, the bartender in Burlesgue who cynically welcomes Christina Aguilera to Los Angeles while Cher sings \"Welcome to Burlesque\" at her failing downtown nightclub. Cynical, yes, but a heart of gold and when he sees Ali Rose (Christina) stuck homeless in a rainstorm, he impulsively invites her into his apartment and they will be chaste roommates sparring over his bad habits, her ambition, and his charming trait of walking through his living room naked a the day God made him in France or wherever. But now he marries Gina Carano and a whole new epic romance awaits him. The nice sister kisses her passionately as the young couple embarks on a honeymoon to what is evidently Puerto Rico but which the script claims is an \"island off Puerto Rice,\" I suppose because it is so poverty stricken and violent that the real Puerto Rico might sue. And the montage of a great honeymoon takes up the next ten minutes of the movie, I loved it.\n\nTragically enough, however, Gina and Cam become embroiled in some local politics, corrupt cops, and a zip-line attraction that is a one way ticket to certain death. I can't explain any further about \"In the Blood\" without revealing the huge twist in the plot, only to say that I was wrong, Gina Carano does not turn evil or become a vampire or any of the scenarios the opening sequences had prepared me for. I just want to add a few words about her, sometimes she resembles a smaller version of the actress who was Jayne Mansfield's daughter, but much younger and toned like gold in the Puerto Rican sun. Even sweaty and with carrying a flick knife in her teeth, her clothes torn and her hair lopsided, she is ravishing to behold and never ever makes a move unworthy of a star. You can't take your eyes off of her and lucky, talented Cam Gigandet, who together make up the best screen couple since, well, he starred in Burlesque with Christina Aquilera and taught her that not all jaded wannabe songwriters are bad. Let the critics and Rotten Tomatoes type of people sneer at her accent and her habit of reading from cue cards mounted slightly to the right side of the camera, we were asking ourselves, Who is this amazing vital creature and what other movies can we see her in? It has been a week of binging ever since and I am still infatuated with this magnificent, multi-careered action star. What other actresses (and actors) get from drama school and perhaps from inherent talent, she gets from klcking down doors barefeet, bleeding from the scalp, T-shirt ripped in ten places, valiant as Norma Shearer in Romeo and Juliet, and what she won't do for her Romeo! And somehow it works.","Product: 1935 - B/W. Bought new - viewed once. From Private Collection. Pristine Condition\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: We Have Ways To Make Men Talk\n\nReview: I give extra points to this movie for just its one famous line, Mohammed Khan threatening his captives with the little phrase, \"We have ways to make men talk.\"\n\nBut thinking about it's how silly is it to cast Douglas Dumbrille as Mohammed Khan, the radical Moslem leader of the rebellion? Didn't they have any Indian actors in Hollywood who could have played the part? Dumbrille made quite a career out of ethnic types, but he was actually from Hamilton, Ontario. Abbott and Costello fans will recall him playing the Sheik in ABBOTT & COSTELLO JOIN THE FOREIGN LEGION, and he was also menacing (though Russian) in CHARLIE CHAN CITY IN DARKNESS. I gues he could play just about everything, but it is really a stretch to make him the Islam insurgent who wants to capture two million rounds of ammo from the British to whom it \"properly\" belongs.\n\nNowhere in the movie is there any attempt to make sense out of the fact that the British are fish out of water in Afghanistan. None of the characters ever says to each other, \"Why are we here in the first place?\" They just act like it's their duty to save Asia from itself--the white man's burden. That said, Cooper and Tone have tremendous chemistry together, like Newman and Redford, only more or less the same age range. But as British soldiers? I don't think so!\n\nWhy didn't they just say they were Americans? Richard Cromwell makes a strong impression--he was the fellow who married Angela Lansbury without telling her he batted for the other team (they divorced after a year or so). Here he's fresh, vigorous, very much the tenderfoot to Coop's strawfoot. The casting works here, and he even sounds a bit more British than the others, even though he was born about two miles from the studio where they shot this super action adventure. Another who makes a strong impression is the one and only \"Panther Woman\" from ISLAND OF LOST SOULS--Kathleen Burke, whose mysterious and exotic beauty always got her cast as something \"special.\" She was the pride of Hammond, Indiana, a suburb of Chicago and at one time one of Indiana's largest industrial centers. The Doublemint Twins are from there, and also the famous Xmas movie A CHRISTMAS STORY is laid in Hammond.\n\nLIVES OF A BENGAL LANCER became a classic in its day, even though people were wondering, what about that plural \"lives\" in the title. Shouldn't it have been \"LIVES OF SOME BENGAL LANCERS\"? Others were sure it evoked the specter of reincarnation. It is one of director Henry Hathaway's perennial crowd pleasers and now, at last, it is available on DVD!","Product: OUT OF PRINT\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: What a great cast!\n\nReview: Super cast can't save a disappointing erotic thriller. But everyone is in there giving it their best shot. Patricia Charbonneau, now why didn't she ever become a star? She's good at acting and she's beautiful too. Maybe mass audiences were put off by her coldness and the slightly nasal quality of her speaking voice. Wonder what she's doing today. As her best friend, Patti D'Arbanville is also very good in a thankless part. Watching CALL ME you can see why Patti never really hit it big, she's too plain, everything she has Teri Garr had twice as much of and did it ten times better, but still she's pretty good. As the plot unfolds we see Patricia Charbonneau getting an obscene phone call in New York, and she gets so turned on by the man's voice, that she follows his instructions to the letter. Sort of like an old fashioned version of the recent Meg Ryan flop by Jane Campion, IN THE CUT.\n\nThe men in CALL ME are great and they include David Straithairn who made all those John Sayles movies, and also Steve Buscemi, so you see they could have borrowed some of this footage for the last season of THE SOPRANOS and shown Buscemi and Straithairn in flashback as young men.","Product: David Lean's beautiful adaptation of Noel Coward's play is an absorbing as well as charming look at an English family's struggle for stability between the two World Wars. Lean does a masterful job of gently penetrating human nature with truly imaginative camera direction. Robert Newton and Celia Johnson are brilliant, with an especially poignant performance by Johnson. One of David Lean's best cinematic accomplishments.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: A Family Finds Entertainment\n\nReview: In a way this is nothing more than a Technicolor remake of CAVALCADE, and not as good, so save yourself the agony and see CAVALCADE instead; but on the other hand if you haven't seen the previous Noel Coward pageant play, this one is tasty indeed, not least because of the glorious color effects, so that every scene looks like it's being projected on the softest of apple blossoms. The stage set (a suburban London kitchen and family room) is lovingly installed in act one, and we never really leave it until the young couple at the beginning (Robert Newton and Celia Johnson) get old and gray by the end. It feels like a play, like David Lean hasn't even tried to open it up, but it may be that he was still under the iron rule of Noel Coward who hated having cinematic imagination applied to his masterworks.\n\nSome people can't stand Coward when he goes all lower class and shows us the little people nobler than their betters. For others, that's exactly the Coward we love! You;ll have to make up your own mind on this one. Is Celia Johnson remotely believable as a woman of the lower middleclass? Not for the first couple of hours, then when the plot kicks in where her errant daughter, Queenie (played ineptly by Kay Walsh) leaves the family to go off with a married rotter, Johnson suddenly springs to life and gets cold, withdrawn and bitter as all get out. The ending should have you in tears. I'm still crying, in some ways it's more affecting than BRIEF ENCOUNTER's repressed passions.\n\nRobert Newton is the heart and soul of the movie and you can see everything through his eyes--Celia Johnson's like a beautiful curiosity, but not really a \"subject\" the way Newton is. The calamities he incurs would test the patience of Job and yet he just keeps keeping on--the famous British stiff upper lip I guess. His sister, Sylvia, is crazily devilish with her complete and utter self-centeredness. She makes everyone around her, even the selfish, seem like they care about others. Question, how did they get those shots of the main actors payign respects to the coffin of King George V? And where did they get Technicolor footage of Neville Chamberlain waving a white handkerchief from the window of 10 Downing Street on the eve of his appeasement victory?","Product: Cartouche [VHS] [VHS Tape] [1964]\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: RIP Philippe de Broca, Farewell, A Bientot\n\nReview: In CARTOUCHE you made the rest of the 60s filmmakers seem out of date, and in Belmondo and Cardinale you found the perfect actors who could add the bubbles to your brand of filmic champagne. Now that you are gone, we think back to all the pleasures you have given us over the years, from your little parts in BREATHLESS and 400 BLOWS, to your most recent work discovering the Welsh coalminer's daughter Catherine Zeta Jones, and we are grateful to you for your inspired interventions and pizzazz. Not since Ernst Lubitsch has flair been filmed so perfectly and gallantly, and not since Clouzot has action been so well blended with nail-biting suspense. Our hearts are sad today and we wish your extended family well in these difficult days. Belmondo and Cardinale are still with us and thanks to you, we will always have them in excelsis, as the perfect man and woman au cinema. Merci, De Broca!","Product: In director Anatole Litvak's FIVE MILES TO MIDNIGHT, a sexy European woman, Lisa (Sophia Loren), marries a domineering, jealous American, Robert (Anthony Perkins), and becomes trapped in a violent marriage. Much to her relief, Robert leaves on business, only to plunge to his death in a plane crash. Even more shocking for Lisa, however, is learning her husband is, in fact, still alive and planning to collect insurance money by playing dead. The film leads the viewer down a road of deception and suspense, a journey further complicated by Lisa's friends, two journalists (Gig Young, Jean-Pierre Aumont), whom she confides in about her dastardly situation. While Loren plays her typically sensual self, Perkins is eerie and unnerving, and the film's surprise ending is supremely thrilling.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: The Tale Of The Airport Insurance\n\nReview: Don't you love Anthony Perkins? He's at his very best in FIVE MILES TO MIDNIGHT, a suspense thriller from the last days of JFK's administration. He's teamed with his perdurable co-star Sophia Loren, the tasty Italian import whom Tony first met as they played country bumpkins in a ludicrous adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS. Here Sophia is playing a European woman, which is all to the good, who somehow gets entangled with a mixed up American vet, sort of like Howard Hughes, played by Tony Perkins. What Sophia Loren doesn't realize is that her husband is crazy, abusive and violent!\n\nAnother 25 years later they re-did this movie with Julia Roberts playing the abused wife who fakes her own death to escape from a savage hubby. Here PERKINS fakes his own death to avoid financial ruin and also, it seems, to be in a better position to drive Sophia Loren insane! Poor Lisa, who happens to have two high placed pals, Jean Pierre Aumont and Gig Young, seasoned reporters, from whom she must conceal her tale of woe, a tale so bizarre nobody would believe it! Her cover story isn't very coherent, and no one can figure out why the plane crash that killed Robert might not have been kosher. Some lovely European vistas are glimpsed out the windows of the hotels and restaurants in the movie. You can make out Rousseau's grave in one such cutaway. When Sophia Loren starts falling for Gig Young, while trying to preserve the secret that her husband is still alive, it's another twist of the knife for all concerned!\n\nNowadays the theme of the battered wife is a cliche, but back then it was scandalous, simply scandalous. People theorized that Sophia Loren's own marriage wasn't too far removed from the union of Bob and Lisa, and other fans resented the way director Anatole Litwak seems to have directed Tony Perkins to act exactly like Norman Bates, except even more evil. It's a school of hard knocks for all of them, and only Gig Young seems 100 per cent innocent. I kept asking myself, if I were forced to make a choice between Tony Perkins and Gig Young, what would I do? It was this salubrious dilemma that kept me up five miles to midnight.","Product: Item in picture is mine, and the one you will receive. Original VHS Pepe in good working condition.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: The Questions of Pepe\n\nReview: George Sidney, one of Hollywood's most underrated directors, never made an awful film, but this one comes close, mostly due to its insufferably cloying use of Cantinflas--one of Mexico's smartest, wittiest movie stars ever--but here you'd think he was a moron, a smiling bobblehead of Mexican folk wisdom and simplicity.\n\nIndeed Cantinflas, as \"Pepe,\" whom you might call the original \"horse whisperer,\" is incredibly good in the movie, which makes it a drag to have to give it a big two thumbs down for political reasons. He's not playing a Stepin Fetchit EXACTLY, and in fact he's always seen as wiser than the silly norteamericanos who try to patronize him, but the whole thing about he loves the horse so much he calls him \"my son\" (not just once but approximately forty or forty-five times) leaves you grating your teeth.\n\nAnd also it seems to emasculate Cantinflas who was, like Elvis, super sexy. Here the movie pokes fun of the way his pants slide low, low, low down his hips. Au contraire, such ease with undress is one reason why Cantinflas is sex appeal on two legs! And yet through the whole movie you don't even know if he's in love with Shirley Jones or is he just playing Sancho Panza hoping to get his master, the failed Hollywood director Ted Holt (Dan Dailey), into bed with la Jones--here playing a beat bohemian--and doing it rather well too -- of course she's always good no matter what she does, and George Sidney--who directed many glamor girls into performances of real depth and soul and originality, from Kim Novak to Ann-Margret--gives Shirley Jones what she never had elsewhere, a contemporary pizzazz, like street chic.\n\nWhen she (or her double) dances in the underground nightclub with Michael Mickey Callan, my pulses were on fire!\n\nBut basically the movie is a fantastic treasure trove of forgotten performances and curiosities; let me cite only the amazing dance trio of Dailey, Cantinflas, and Maurice Chevalier in a reprise of \"Mimi\" in a luxurious Mexican nightclub, and at the other end of the spectrum a buzarre, Dali Influenced number in which Pepe and Debbie Reynolds (as herself), dressed in identical \"Mexican\" costumes, tumble out of the mouth of a giant bottle of tequila and perform a drunken, Jack Cole style tumble dance to, yes, \"Tequila.\" PEPE was Eugene Loring's last film, and the dance director/choreographer, who had done everything from FUNNY FACE to YOLANDA AND THE THIEF in the past, here retires with some of his most inventive and convincing dances--in a movie nobody even knows about. The title number, with Shirley Jones in a dirndl, belting out the song while leading a donkey and three hundred Mexican extras, and Pepe, down a steep traffic filled hill on the narrowest street in the world, has got to be seen to be believed, and you'll still be scratching your head--why? How? What? Where? When?\n\nLet's bring back PEPE in a big way. If every man, woman and child in the US and Mexico would see it, I'm convinced that -- well, wait a second-- there might be race riots at the border-- and yet it is an unbelievable compendium of fun. With Bing Crosby, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon (in character in his role in SOME LIKE IT HOT), Ann B. Davis, Greer Garson, Bobby Darin, and Edward G. Robinson.","Product: Emmanuelle In Space F\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Queen of Outer Space\n\nReview: Emmanuelle gets elected to become the captain of a group of strange, space men and women from a distant galazy, led by Haffron, a cute guy who knows next to nothing about sex. Haffron has a sort of Patrick Swayze looks and must come from some kingdom too poor to buy any underwear. Emmanuelle, ever playful, has had a showdown with her earth boyfriend, Philip, not a bad sort but a jealous fellow who won't let her explore her sense of adventure. With this in mind, she has sex with Haffron as they perform monitored with a hundred wires which allow the rest of the crew to monitor their bodily sensations.\n\nWhat can Emmanuelle, a lovely girl played by the incomparable Kirsta Allen, teach a bunch of overeducated, brainiac space creatures? Well, first off, none of them have ever had sex since in their nation, to procreate one must simply slough oneself in two, and that's how children are made, therefore there has n ever ben a need for sex. Bowever, Haffron so enjoys the earthly delights of Emmanuelle that he becomes a sex addict sort of, and poses as Emmanuelle's brother as she returns to earth to confront jealous Philip, who, as it happens, is giving his missing fiancee a taste of her own medicine by throwing a wild orgiastic party. She twitches her nose and changes out of Krista Allen's body into another (so that Phil won't recognize her) and attempts to seduce him to test her theory that he's a cheater, while Haffron tries to pick up different [...] at the party. They succeed and the two couples have sex in adjoining rooms. Dumb old Haffron picks up a \"professional\" who asks him for $200. \"What's 'money'?\" he asks in his inane royal hiccup. When he drops his pants her eyes widen and she rushes right over. \"Never mind, this is a freeby!\" she announces.\n\nIn space, Emmanuelle accepts the thanks of the space people for treating Haffron so well, but says that even becoming their queen won't satisfy her need for travelling to Egypt so they better let her abdicate. Instead, they accept all her conditions, and allow her to go on her planned barge down the Nile on a swinging singles cruise. Haffron accompanies her, telling her he loves her and to prove it, he says, that even if she changes her body for another female passenger, he will still know it's her, instantly. Farcically he fails to identify her and beds four other women, all of them charming and witty and nubile, but none of them really up to Krista Allen's gold standards.\n\nBadly shot on cheap video stock, but highly recommended nevertheless. FIRST CONTACT's a winner all the way through.","Product: Wealthy widower Richard Keaton engages young widow Elizabeth 'Liz' Guinness as the 4th consecutive nanny for his pre-teen, equally science-devoted son Andrew, with instructions to disturb neither. She learns of mother Alycia's fatal fall, an official suicide but was probably murder. Dad keeps Andy at a distance, so he draws towards Liz. Real danger starts when Richard's brother, novelist Blain, arrives with his friend Jillian, to sell the ancestral estate against Richard's will.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Mary Poppins With Sex\n\nReview: Charles Jarrott, who helmed the nearly forgotten studio fiasco THE OTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT, followed up years later with another \"Midnight Movie,\" AT THE MIDNIGHT HOUR, this one a different kettle of fish entirely but one marked with the good taste and understatement that have long been a hallmark of Jarrott's films but which deserted him on THE OTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT. This movie was produced by Harlequin-the romance company, trying to break into the profitable Lifetime For Women oligarchy with some productions of their own. It's a shame the Harlequin movie studio didn't last longer than a year or two, but during that time they made some interesting productions, including the unforgettable CHANGE OF PLANS in which twin sisters tried to bamboozle the eternally sexy Rick Springfield of \"Jessie's Girl\" fame.\n\nAT THE MIDNIGHT HOUR goes way, way British. They couldn't get Hugh Grant so they went with aging matinee idol Simon MacCorkindale, whom I have never forgiven ever since DEATH ON THE NILE, and here he plays a sort of Rochester type character (from Jane Eyre) who hires Elizabeth Guinness as nanny for his young tots. It's not Mary Poppins, for instantly sparks strike between aristocratic Richard and slightly repressed Elizabeth, who spends much of the first twenty minutes pursing her lips tightly, as though she'd just swallowed a lemon whole, but then she softens up as love, and the children, bring them together. Poor Elizabeth has to suffer as she finds out that Richard had another woman in his life, though not half as seriously as she imagines, and a touch of jealousy haunts her dreams. This part is played by Patsy Kensit, who has made 65 movies and still looks younger than springtime. I don't know how she does it; such profligacy harkens back to the glory days of the 1930s when a star like Myrna Loy or John Wayne might make ten or eleven movies a year. I look forward to everything Kensit churns out, even when it's soapy dreck like this one, just because she's so beautiful and so set in her ways.\n\nIf you liked REBECCA you might like this one. It's corny, but well played by two attractive stars, no longer in their first youth, but with the skills born of long practice at make believe and falling in love in front of the cameras. And the mansion that it all takes place in is fetching indeed. You can just imagine the Plantagenets throwing people's heads off of its battlements into the moat.","Product: Stagedoor Manor is a Catskills camp where Americas youngest aspiring Broadway stars--kids more interested in Auntie Mame than Britney Spears--gather to sing and dance their hearts out. In essence, life becomes a cabaret, and the kids in Alexandra Shivas enchanting documentary become its shining stars. Some see camp as a means of escaping the troubles of their home lives; others see it as a step towards becoming Stagedoors next star, like notable camp alums Natalie Portman (Stars Wars) and Zach Braff (Garden State).\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: Cinema Verite Portrait of Folly, Ego, and Cruelty\n\nReview: STAGEDOOR is a brutal documentary that exposes the bizarre methods of a theatrical summer camp for teens in the Catskills, and the awful people who staff it. Not to mention it makes the children look like monsters. Are there any agreeable characters in the movie? Maybe one or two, but the filmmakers seem to delight in revealing the worst aspects of the theatrical personality.\n\nI don't know who comes across worse. There's the one male teacher with the artfully haystacked-up hair, who takes the honors drama class and tells them on their first meeting that there are one too many students in the group, and before the end of the class they are going to have to kick one out, and he forces each student in turn to name one who should be evicted. Then at the end he tells them laughingly it was just an exercise. Then there's the large woman who's the director I guess, who has a hissy fit over some bad student behavior and rounds them up, asking them why didn't they just spit at her. Talk about a drama queen! The film focuses on five students, but not very successfully. None of them seem very talented, but is that just the luck of the draw, that sometimes doc-makers pick their subjects early and then they just peter out, or are they making a case against letting teens act? The one black boy who plays the Tim Curry role in Annie has confidence, and a role in Broadway's THE LION KING on his resume, but he's got very little stage presence, while the girl Nicole seems to think she can get by on her comic antics offstage, it's painful to watch adolescent awkwardness this close up.\n\nThe actual operations of Stagedoor Manor are awesome--it's hard to believe that the staff can cast, direct, produce, rehearse and open twelve musicals in three weeks. The weird thing is the built-in caste system. Not all campers are equal, the best ones wind up in their own cabaret which they bring to seniors at two neighboring hotels, old men and women who looks barely alive, while up on the stage, the kids are singing and dancing their hearts out. Non-cabaret kids are wildly jealous of the elite--it's just another layer of ugliness in a remarkably ugly film.","Product: Emmy Award winner Tina Fey writes, executive produces, and stars as Liz Lemon, the head writer of a live variety program in New York City. Liz's life is turned upside down when brash new network executive Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin in his Golden Globe winning role) interferes with her show, bringing the wildly unpredictable Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) into the cast. Now it's up to Liz to manage the mayhem and still try and have a life.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Soars Then Falters, Still It's Great\n\nReview: We finished watching season two of 30 Rock feeling that the writers strike had put a damper on the quality of the final five episodes (pretty much all of disc two), and as Tina Fey explains, those episodes are missing out on the improvised dialogue that ordinarily spikes up every episode. Seems the actors didn't want to add even the slightest little thing, in solidarity with the striking scripters. So the last five episodes are a bit stiff and awkward, and on top of that the season arc had to be hastily erected and concluded in a much shorter number of episodes than it had been launched to last. Oh well, it's fine, but I'm just saying, the quality suffers a little because you're used to the Rolls Royce of shows, then suddenly it's just a tricked-out hummer. Shame because, in every other way, the season has seemed on the brink of topping season one with ease. The actors all seem much more comfortable with their roles, and Alec Baldwin is now in his own grand world of genius, in which he can say or do the craziest things and they all make sense. Tina herself as Liz Lemon must have rebelled against the way her stylists had gradually made her more and more chic during the finals episodes of season one, so she had become indistinguishable from the leading ladies of ordinary shows. Remember when that happened to Roseanne and all of a sudden Roseanne looked like Bruce Weber was photographing her for Vogue? When Liz was dating Lloyd it was the same sort of thing.\n\nNow all that's changed and she is the hapless mess we adore, and she sticks with it, though watching her on season three's opener last night (when she is trying to adopt a baby from gruff, sadistic Megan Mullally) she had put herself all together and I was thinking, uh-oh, she's all glamorous again, but by the end of the episode things had fallen apart.\n\nI don't know, but I'm sort of tired of Kenneth and would rather see more of Jonathan, but Jonathan himself is becoming much more like Lloyd--the other Lloyd, the one on Entourage. It's like writers in general think there's only two ways for male PA's to be, and neither of them are pretty. We didn't like it in the movies when Meryl Streep was so outrageously nasty to her assistants in The Devil Wears Prada, but on TV, and when it's a man who's doing it, it's all so super comical, but it sets my remaining teeth on edge.","Product: PLAYROOM introduces us to Max, Jimmy, Norm, Nick and Jason at the age of eighteen. Friends since early childhood, they have bonded deeper than natural brothers. As eighteen-year-old men, we share with them their dreams, loves, and friendships as well as life s hopes and frustrations. We, once again, meet them at age forty and learn how their lives have unfolded as we experience their marriages, strengths and disappointments. Together they are capable of celebrating with each other their emotions in an open and honest fashion. The group is together now on their annual football weekend, this year in Philadelphia. While bonding and enjoying the vibrant nightlife, they become separated only to find a darkness they have never known. It becomes a struggle of life or death where everyone must pay the price.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Five Go Adventuring Again\n\nReview: Five teen boys from an Eastern suburb enjoy a kegger at Maximo's parents' place, inviting the hottest chicks in town sometime in the 1980s. Twenty years later, most of the clique has gotten married and settled down, but they still blow off steam once a year during a big city weekend getaway. This year it's Philadelphia, ostensibly for an Eagles game, but for a few of the now grown men it's their chance to cheat on their wives and live it up and do cocaine without worrying about the consequences. They're all still boys at heart and the movie makes that clear once every thirty-five or forty seconds.\n\nThey each have different personalities, though the movie is underwritten as to what the personalities are, and the actors apparently have a lot of room to ham it up in the best Cassavetes style (\"Husbands\" anyone?), so you get the impression one is secretly a coward, another a sex addict, a third one probably a closet case, while Max is really trying to grow up, and the last guy (Nick) is the one who was raised by alcoholics so his personality has been deformed in some unclear way, but he's a cheater.\n\nWhat they don't know (or most of them don't know) is that this year their group has been targeted by a David Lynch-like crew of pornographers who plan to kidnap and sexually molest the best looking of them. Led by a creepy old man (Robert Blake in LOST HIGHWAY, anyone?) this film crew locks up Nick and Jason in the eponymous \"playroom\" and proceed to make them into chemslaves, keeping them chained to their beds with only a single sheet between them and strap-on horrors they could not previously have imagined. The two actors do grand work looking like they've been put through hell, in a scene that goes back and forth with rapid cuts to a nightclub where the un-kidnapped members of the Five are watching a female stripper with rapt amusement. I get the impression the director is saying, porn is great while you're watching it, but when you're forced to bend over a jungle gym and be filmed with a electrified and sparking club inserted deep into your rectum, it's not that funny, is it, funny boy? These scenes are filmed in the most grim INLAND EMPIRE way, with the suspense being mostly about, will they be saved before they are snuffed out on video? How will we know?\n\nOne of the mad old man's lead actresses is a hooker to whom Max, the hero, had been inexplicably kind years ago, saving her from a beating at the hands of a john she had cheated. Years later, after the hardening of her human instincts and five years more on the street, has that spark of humanity been crushed in her, or will she risk her own life to give Max a helping hand when he needs it? The boys all have wives and kids back at home in suburbia. . who will return? Who will become addicted to the snuff lifestyle? This movie has two clever twists, and doesn't need them, how's that? Otherwise DELIVERANCE did it rather better, except these guys have the kind of body John Travolta had in the SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER sequel, STAYING ALIVE, directed by Sylvester Stallone.","Product: Child bride Claudia Naughton has made life difficult for her husband David because she \ncan't stand living so far away from her mother. She's also afraid her husband doesn't find \nher desirable enough. To remedy both situations, she sells their farm to an opera singer so \nthey'll have to move back to the city near her mother, and she tries to make her husband \njealous by flirting with a neighbor. Eventually, Claudia has to learn to grow when she discovers that she's about to become a mother and that her own mother is gravely ill.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: A Problem Like Claudia\n\nReview: A Broadway success for Dorothy McGuire, the movie version got her signed to a contract with Selznick and she became one of his stable of beloved, often quirky stars. He must have liked them that way, like Jennifer Jones and Ingrid Bergman.\n\nClaudia is a great role for an actress, but I don't suppose just ay talenbted actress could have carried it off, and McGuire is note perfect. Does she look twenty? Some of the time. And her scatterbrained comments on everything from kittens to ketchup will have you scratching your head in delight. Critic Molly Haskell in her classic From Reverence to Rape, while praising McGuire's sheer adorability and comic gifts, criticized the script for making McGuire into an artificial child who is afraid of full marital sex and plagued by the requirement to be a great housekeeper, but when you watch Claudia, at least today, she seems always eager for sex and she doesn't care a fig about housekeeping. And yet there is that weird energy about Claudia, she's too childlike and willful to be an actual adult; she lacks the reality principle that keeps most of us locked up tight emotionally. Robert Young plays off of this beautifully; you can see why he's drawn to her extreme sensuality, but a little bit afraid for her mental stability. The actresses of the sixties who pioneered mental anguish (Glenda Jackson, Liv Ullmann, Anne Bancroft) actually were taking a leaf from McGuire's book, for when Claudia is down, man, she is really really in a dark dark place.\n\nIna Claire playing Mrs. Brown, Claudia's mother, is also perfect in the part, although perhaps too beautiful and serene and witty. How old was she anyway? She should have kept up in the movies for decades more after this! And the other characters (like Ina Claire, sophisticated foils for McGuire's innocent if slightly deranged goodness) are put through their paces by \"women's director\" Edmund Goulding. I sometimes think Goulding is the actual George Cukor and Cukor a second or third rate Edmund Goulding: is that sacrilegious to say? I love his fussy, yet bold camera swoops and turns. Watch what happens when Bertha answers the phone inside the country cottage, calls out to David (Robert Young) to come and answer the phone; he's outside in the courtyard having a smoke, but he leaves way over to the far side of the screen and enters the house so you see him cross through a nest of silvery and gauze-festooned glass, finally picking up the phone--then reversing and bringing the whole apparatus out of the house again. We're watching all this movement, wondering why Goulding allows it so much time, and we don't realize until the very end of the scene that (spoiler ahead) McGuire has been listening in on the phone conversation that follows, and it devastates her. As Douglas Sirk lets the TV in All That Heaven Allows become a piece of furniture of symbolic dystopia, the windows, the walls, that Robert Young walks among reveal to us his confusion, his passion, his anxiety and his pride. He is among the greatest movie actors of all time, much greater than his successors, Robert Mitchum, Robert Redford, Robert DeNiro, Robert Pattinson; and yet, we can't see him \"acting\" so we think he's just Marcus Welby Knows Best.","Product: Japan only cd with different back artwork and with exclusive bonus track - goodnight my love\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: You Give Love, You Get Love\n\nReview: When I was young and in a vulnerable place in my life, Paula Abdul's music meant a great deal to me and helped me to see thr bright spots in a dark cloud that was then passing over my life. Paula didn't have the greatest voice in the world, but engineering technology helped her over the hump. Her dancing style seemed so original, but she taught it to Janet Jackson first, and Janet did it better than she did, so that oddly enough Paula seemed like a clumsy imitator of Janet's moves, and her voice seemed even weaker than Janet's. The truth is that both of them are great, but for different reasons. And nothing will replace the masterpiece that is SPELLBOUND. I love the graphics on the cover that show Paula under attack by the kind of typeface that Prince used to use to show emotional distress. This is the period when she was experimenting not just with different techno beats, but with different photo looks too--partly caused by fluctuating weight gain and loss--remember the video which anamorphically stretched her out so she looked like she was eight feet tall?\n\n\"Rush Rush,\" the great hit single, had a romantic video of its own with Paula pursued by heartthrob Keanu Reeves; some cynics disputed whether Keanu, who looked so stoned in the video, even knew he was being photographed at the time. It is one of the key ballads of the 20th century, right up there with \"If Ever I Would Leave You\" by Lerner and Loewe, \"But Not For Me,\" by Gershwin, and Cole Porter's \"Night and Day.\" RUSH RUSH brings it all home, and it's not just about sensual longing, it's about philosophy and the pull of narrative and the way story-telling is the key to a long life:\n\n\"Here's my story, and the story goes: you give love, you get love, and more than Heaven knows.\" The music perfectly complements the words and imitates the adrenaline rush of that moment when you fall in love for the very first time. For me it represented the moment when someone I loved died, a miserable death of a tragic disease. I would sit in his room and play RUSH RUSH over and over again until he felt momentarily at peace. The lamp was set low so the shadows played over his face and his twitching hands. We had a joke that someday Paula Abdul would burst into the room eight feet tall and extremely thin. Or perhaps Keanu might just fall in.","Product: I will ship by EMS or SAL items in stock in Japan. It is approximately 7-14days on delivery date. You wholeheartedly support customers as satisfactory. Thank you for you seeing it.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Sentimental? Maybe! But go-oo-oo-od!\n\nReview: She didn't have the jazzy pipes of Bing Crosby or Rosemary Clooney, but she had a clear, pleasant voice that had a lot of warmth to it, like bringing your cold hands up against a warm teapot. This box set has many of her greatest classics on it. \"The White Cliffs of Dover\" was inspired by England's privation during World War II, and although it was written by an American who had never been to Dover (and who didn't know that bluebirds are far and few between on those chalky cliffs), English people loved it too. Another popular song, \"We'll Meet Again,\" still speaks to people separated by war and other disasters, it's cheerful, but there's a tear behind the smile.\n\nVera Lynn is still alive, nearly ninety, though her days of public performance came to a gentle halt in the mid-1990s. We saw quite a bit of her then, for that was the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, and whole generations of her fans have been dying every day. Some youngsters however still admire her clarion call of a voice, and I hope that one day we will be seeing her three feature films on DVD, for she wasn't a bad little actress either. The films were \"We'll Meet Again,\" \"Rhythm Serenade,\" and \"One Exciting Night.\"\n\nIn the meantime, film fans who love Kubrick's \"Dr Strangelove\" are innately familiar with Vera Lynn's majesty, because she can be heard singing over the final scenes of the film.","Product: Sophomore album for the former Spice Girl. 12 tracks including the first single & #1 hit 'It's Raining Men', 'Shake Your Bootie Cutie', 'Feels Like Sex', 'Don't Call Me Baby' & 'Heaven And Hell (Being Geri Hallowell)'. 2001 release.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: She's not Ginger Spice any more\n\nReview: Instead she's some kind of strange blend of American TV star and srpport act for the CARRY ON comedies. \"It'a Raining Men\" was never the world's most difficult song but it does call for a singer with a powerful voice like the original duo who sang it, the Weather Girls. Why give this to Geri to carry? Surely something more suitable could ave been found, like Lee Hazelwood's \"Some Velvet Morning,\" a tune written in such a tiny range that even Kate Moss does a reputable job with it in a duet with Primal Scream on their DIRTY HITS LP.\n\n Still it's a rousing album with plenty of assured vocals from Ms. Halliwell. I think she's finally found her groove, but her weight loss and gain will keep her from finding an identity in the US because no way, no how will she ever again look like the skinny rake she plays on the cover.","Product: River Runs Red encompasses the energy and aggression that the band was known for in their live shows of the day, presented in a hardcore/thrash format, with shards of heavy metal cutting through at times. This album has been remastered for the first time since it's release over 15 years ago\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Keith Caputo, a Lou Reed for a New Generation\n\nReview: Caputo's voice just haunts you even when the CD is just sitting there in its case; the CD vibrates slightly with the insane emotion he manages to pour out of what is technically a very slight voice with little or no range. Some other singers have had this amazing luck--people like Leonard Cohen for example. But Caputo has it in spades and THE RIVER RUNS RED must be his masterpiece. It's just so crazy.\n\nThe little spoken word intermissions, named after the days of the week, should have tipped you off from the beginning that you were getting your head into some pretty deep water. So often our bands just deliver straight music and never bother to think about all the other things (just ambient noise for example, or taped conversations, or just background sounds) that might be recorded and listeners might find some meaning in. Take Lou Reed delivering the uber-odd METAL MACHINE MUSIC literally banging instruments through the studio viz fuzzy feedback and still managing to capture the soul of an era even without melody. Life Of Agony updates some of these ideas casually, as though they weren't revolutionary the way they come out on RIVER RUNS RED. Listening close you get the whole back story of our hero. He's not a bad kid, he's just misunderstood--by his family, by his girl, by his teachers and friends and people at work. Or then, as you start to suspect, maybe he IS a bad kid.\n\nAt any rate he thinks so. The incendiary lyrics of \"Bad Seed,\" to my mind the killer cut on the LP, make that very clear. Caputo sounds bemused by his own powers; it's as though a miracle had happened and he had finally traced his lineage back to some unnameable evil. Horrible, but at least you know where you are (ask Scott Evil in the Austin Powers movies, who's like the big screen equivalent of Life of Agony.)","Product: River Runs Red encompasses the energy and aggression that the band was known for in their live shows of the day, presented in a hardcore/thrash format, with shards of heavy metal cutting through at times. This album has been remastered for the first time since it's release over 15 years ago\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Keith Caputo, a Lou Reed for a New Generation\n\nReview: Caputo's voice just haunts you even when the CD is just sitting there in its case; the CD vibrates slightly with the insane emotion he manages to pour out of what is technically a very slight voice with little or no range. Some other singers have had this amazing luck--people like Leonard Cohen for example. But Caputo has it in spades and THE RIVER RUNS RED must be his masterpiece. It's just so crazy.\n\nThe little spoken word intermissions, named after the days of the week, should have tipped you off from the beginning that you were getting your head into some pretty deep water. So often our bands just deliver straight music and never bother to think about all the other things (just ambient noise for example, or taped conversations, or just background sounds) that might be recorded and listeners might find some meaning in. Take Lou Reed delivering the uber-odd METAL MACHINE MUSIC literally banging instruments through the studio viz fuzzy feedback and still managing to capture the soul of an era even without melody. Life Of Agony updates some of these ideas casually, as though they weren't revolutionary the way they come out on RIVER RUNS RED. Listening close you get the whole back story of our hero. He's not a bad kid, he's just misunderstood--by his family, by his girl, by his teachers and friends and people at work. Or then, as you start to suspect, maybe he IS a bad kid.\n\nAt any rate he thinks so. The incendiary lyrics of \"Bad Seed,\" to my mind the killer cut on the LP, make that very clear. Caputo sounds bemused by his own powers; it's as though a miracle had happened and he had finally traced his lineage back to some unnameable evil. Horrible, but at least you know where you are (ask Scott Evil in the Austin Powers movies, who's like the big screen equivalent of Life of Agony.)","Product: The year 1969 was a magical time for music. Nothing captured the change and excitement better than The Mama Cass Television Program, a unique and colorful special starring the beloved \"Mama\" Cass Elliot -- a \"flower-power\" hour that hasn't been seen since. Cass sings her big hit Dream A Little Dream Of Me and rare solo versions of The Mamas & The Papas' classics California Dreamin' and Monday, Monday -- plus Dancing In The Street, The River Of Life and I Can Dream, Can't I? John Sebastian, Joni Mitchell and Mary Travers join Cass for sing-a-longs that are pure '60s music utopia. John presents She's A Lady and teams with Cass on Darlin' Companion. Joni performs Both Sides Now and Mary offers And When I Die. All three women join together for a stirring version of Bob Dylan's I Shall Be Released. Comic Buddy Hackett as well as actors Martin Landau and Barbara Bain also appear in a pair of humorous sketches with Cass. Bonus footage includes Cass and Sammy Davis, Jr. singing I Dig Rock & Roll Music plus an interview with John Sebastian remembering Cass and The Mamas & The Papas.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Great outfits and costumes, but Cass seems nervous\n\nReview: Cass' TV variety pilot is great fun to watch, but in some ways also painful.\n\nWhen Cass and Buddy Hackett were together, the camera cuts in close on the hands in her lap, and she seems like she's pulling her fingers apart, out of nervousness I expect, though she keeps her eyes on Hackett's. She seems like she must have been a wonderful listener; when she listens to Mary Travers sing, or Joni Mitchell play the guitar, she looks as if she is in awe. (Well, she had displayed this lovely quality in the Monterey Pop movie, where the camera catches her mouthing the word \"Wow\" like a mantra.) I never liked Buddy Hackett, but he is excellent here, and don't fast forward through his scenes, he has that sort of broken down Chaplin appeal that people misguidedly ascribed to Jackie Gleason. Maybe it was a little gauche of him to boast to Cass about how much weight he's lost in recent years: does she look a little wounded, or fatigued, during this part of their interchange?\n\nBizarre also to see Cass, Mary Travers and John Sebastian all in the same show. Each had been a significant part of a great pop group, but going solo is always fraught with peril, and you might say that none of them were ever as good alone as they were when they were in their groups. But you can see they each had style! Joni seems too smart and eccentric for TV, doesn't she, though she still thought of herself at least in part as an entertainer. She and Cass share a sequined, hippie designer sense of style, while Mary Tarvers, with her long blonde processed hair and her minidress of blue zirconium, looks like Nico in the days of the Silver Factory. Mary Travers' bangs were also copied from Nico. Goodness knows Joni had bangs, but Mary's continue right past her eyelashes! When it's her turn to sing she rises up from her chair as though \"I just gotta dance while I sing.\" Well, it's not reallty dancding but it is really sixties and you got to love it.\n\nAnother unfortunate note, Mama Cass' backing band is brilliant and soul-inflected and all that, but it's weird that they were called \"Hamfat.\" You know why.","Product: Gel Ink Ballpoint pen from Japanese stationary brand, Pilot. Total 15 colors available. HI-Tec-C ballpoint pen allows you to write Very Smooth writing with very fine line\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: A breath of 60s air\n\nReview: As an American boy growing up in France, I got used to the French way of doing things very quicklyso quickly that my Dad worried that French ways were taking away some essential kernel of \"American-ness\" from me. It wasn't overnight, of course, for French ways are so different than those my parents had taught us on Long Islandbut after awhile I began to think of every French product as better than the ones I had left behind in Smithtown. The game of Risk, for example, I preferred infinitely to the bourgeois American Monopoly with its sordid focus on Capital. The Risk we played at home, of course, was itself a bastardized version of Albert Lamorisse's French original. Luckily we could play both versions often on one bureau, sweeping our pieces madly in the French style and being more sedate and mannered when we went back to the American board. Anyhow Dad was glad that there was at least one American staple I found superior to its French avatar, and that was the simple ballpoint pen. Though many of my classmates a l'ecole had, of course, beautiful pens that were almost family heirlooms, and many carried the Montblanc pen like it was a badge of cultural superiority, I was always so glad when cousins and merchants back home airmailed me et ma soeur the latest round of Pilot pensthe beautiful Pilot with their jaunty caps and their slim, yet strong, plastic encasements. \"Encasements\"is that how you would say it in the US?\n\nThey had to be strong, for I was a rough and tumble athletic teen, always ready for s gang fight or a rigorous round of ptanque, and the pens in my back pocket sometimes brokeif they were Montblanc pensand a sharp collision with turf, or another garcon's foot, might leave mon cul a hideous mess of blue or blank ink. I ordered the 12 pack of Pilot Hu-Tec-C Maica pens recently through Amazon Prime, and as soon as I unwrapped the brown paper of the box, my years in De Gaulle's France came back to me like the madeline that made Marcel swoon back to an earlier, simpler time, in Proust's 7 volume novel Remembrance of Things Past. Of course with today's sleek Japanese influence the pebs themselves are rather different, and kind of clunky, wouldn't you say, their encasements encumbered with useless protrusionsthough the glittering jewel cameo laid into each pen top is charming, like a diamond almost in its brightness. Like other owners, I too am perplexed about the color range Pilot is giving us in the Hi-Tec-C 12 pack. There are something like three or four orangesfrom gold to apricot to a pale root beerwhy so many I wonder? It's not like many people of any age or gender do much writing in orange shades do they? Oh, maybe they do in Japan. I bought out some old French stationery that I kept, a stone blue, and when I tried writing a note to ma soeur with the \"Apricot Orange\" pen I couldn't even see any marks on it! Looked like invisible ink. Similarly there is a scarlet and two pinks, and I can't tell them apart,\n\nThe caps are constantly being mixed up, but maybe that's just me. Each 12 pack should be issued with a separate, extra assortment of tops, just in case they slip onto the carpet while writing. My wife said, why not use the orange and black pens you complain about everyday and every nuit, and make a pen and ink drawing of the San Francisco Giants stadiumour uniforms, you see, are orange and black. I think I will. She is toujours the one with the best ideas and knows her colors well, having had them \"done\" herself by a certified New Age color consultant. Boasting all those orange shadesthe Pilot 12 pack is what we in the New Age would call an \"Autumn\" set. \"They write beautifully,\" my wife says, \"and I love them.\" She keeps stealing them to grade student papers with. We are bringing this pen set to our four-year annual color palette review, and seeing if it makes the grade with our Franco American style. However I will never lose my memories, not so long as these pens stay on my desk like beautiful reminders of the land of my birth.","Product: A middle-aged diplomat is accosted in an airport lounge and his identity stolen! Sir Stafford Nye's journey home from Malaya to London takes an unexpected twist in the passenger lounge at Frankfurt -- a young woman confides in him that someone is trying to kill her. Yet their paths are to cross again and again -- and each time the mystery woman is introduced as a different person. Equally at home in any guise in any society she draws Sir Stafford into a game of political intrigue more dangerous than he could possibly imagine. In an arena where no-one can be sure of anyone, Nye must do battle with a well-armed, well-financed, well-trained -- and invisible -- enemy!\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Backwards into the Past\n\nReview: I remnember when this book came out and I, a child at the time, knew something was sadly wrong with Agatha Christie. For years I couldn't look this book in the face. But after reading Laura Thompson's new biography of Christie, in which Thompson writes vigorously of PASSENGER as Christie's late, brilliant modernist masterpiece, I decided to give it another shot. This time I decided to read it backwards, hoping to be able to follow the action a little better if I knew what to look for.\n\nDo you know, it works very well this way!\n\nI remain sympathetic to the complaint of the reader from April 2003 who said that a large group of good guys (none of them the book's three main good characters) trap a pair of the bad guys. You would think that at least one of the main people (Stafford Nye, Matilda or Renata) would show up at the finale in the Scottish highlands but I guess not. I was still shocked out of my wits at the unmasking! And then, reading backwards, I discovered that I had many, many chapters still to go before the other unmasking, when you find out about the big Hitler cult of the golden Siegfried boy from South America! So for an ordinary reader this would come about halfway through the book the other way, and then you'd be treading water while Admiral Blunt met with Mr. Robinson and Mr. Horsham met with Edward Altamount, et cetera, et cetera, lots of conversations, most of them quite grave.\n\nI also realized that at heart PASSENGER is a sort of rewrite of Christie's 1958 play VERDICT, her famous flop play which still holds a special place in my heart. PASSENGER devolves, liek VERDICT, into the story of a refugee woman called Lisa, escaped from Hitler's terror, who becomes the assistant to a great scientist based in the British Isles, and who falls in love with him even though he is fairly distant to her. This sort of Celia Johnson passion must have meant a lot to Christie, and here she gives Lisa (in VERDICT her name was Lisa, too!) the happy ending she was otherwise denied. I had the satisfying sense of a door closing, that perfect click when something unsettled finds its own true way home.","Product: Christie, Agatha, Postern of Fate\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: New light on Dame Agatha Christie's last days\n\nReview: Since its publication, POSTERN OF FATE has received largely execrable reviews, with some labelling it \"tedious\" and others finding themselvs unable to follow its byzantinely boring plot. Look at the reviews on Amazon for samples. Now comes new evidence that the version of POSTERN OF FATE which we have was severely edited and that Christie's original may be a very different (and more cogent) work than the one we all know and abhor.\n\nSotheby's was offering the \"complete Dictaphone recording of Agatha Christie dictating her last novel\" including the original dictaphone belts she used (sixty of them). This was evidently put up for sale by her secretary, Mrs. Jolly. Did you know that \"Postern of Fate\" was Christie's sub=title for the novel and that the real title is \"Doom's Caravan\"? Sotheby's catalogue, from which I quote here, reveals that \"the text incorporated here differs substantially in very many instances from the final, printed version . . . Among the most striking differences might be noted the following. [WARNING -- SPOILERS AHEAD.] The group responsible for Mary Jordan's murder is here more clearly identified as a Fascist cell amd many more details of, and clues about, them are given in a substantial section eventually cut. The motivation for the murder of old Isaac by a descendant of this group who is endeavouring to bring Fascism to England is, accordinly, more substantiated in the present version; moreover, in the way this material is here worked, clues are thrown out so as apparently to implicate a different murderer. The rearrangement of the final, printed version, in which some of these chapters are placed earlier, also leaves a few threads hanging loose, evidently because of poor editing, there remain in the printed version a few references to certain of these sections which had either by then been moved in such a way that the references are inappropriate or else cut alttogether . . .\"\n\nPerhaps it is the case that Christie's last novel isn't the sad, woolgathering, near-Alzheimers experience it presently seems to be, but instead it was the victim of \"poor editing\"? Wouldn't it be great if a critical edition of POSTERN OF FATE--or should we call it DOOM'S CARAVAN--could be prepared by the Christie estate which would clear up some of these inconsistencies and restore the blot from her reputation?\n\nI give this book only 4 stars because, well, it isn't all that good, and until her original version is restored, this is all we're going to have.","Product: A newly reissued edition of Agatha Christie's 'Mary Westmacott' novel, a Crime of the Heart novel about a loyal wife's discovery of her husband's infidelity. 'The one book that has satisfied me completely - the book I always wanted to write.' Agatha Christie Returning from a visit to her daughter in Iraq, Joan Scudamore finds herself unexpectedly alone and stranded in an isolated rest house by flooding of the railway tracks. This sudden solitude compels Joan to assess her life for the first time ever and face up to many of the truths about herself. Looking back over the years, Joan painfully re-examines her attitudes, relationships and actions and becomes increasingly uneasy about the person who is revealed to her!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: \"Nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose . . .\"\n\nReview: One of the most beautiful love stories ever told, ABSENT IN THE SPRING takes Henry James' donnee about an unreliable narrator, and brings it to a peak of perfection even James might have envied. Joan Scudamore, the unlikeable, ultimately tragic figure at the heart of the novel, is delayed coming home to England and stuck in a \"rest house\" in the desert outside Baghdad for what amounts to days on end, with nothing to read after finishing the life of Lady Catherine Dysart, and John Buchan's THE POWER HOUSE. With no one who speaks English toi chat with, and not even a deck of cards, she finds herself thrown back on her own devices, which grow increasingly threadbare until she begins reflecting, at first smugly and then with more self-awareness, on her own life as a young bride, mother, and suburban wife to Rodney, a successful county solicitor.\n\nIt soon becomes apparent to the reader that, unbeknownst to Joan, everyone in her life either pities or despises her. Her grown children can't bear to see her around, and her husband feels sorry for her apparently sociopathic inability to care for anyone else but herself. And little by little we realize, as Joan does, that in fact Rodney once had an affair that was the kind of thing great songs are written for, an affair with a married woman in their little town, not an exotic beauty, in fact rather a dowdy, plain woman called Leslie Sherston. As Joan becomes more and more shocked at what the depths of the subconscious are telling her, her walks outside the rest house into the desert become more and more perilous, for so strong are her memories that she loses track of where she is and threatens to get lose in the desert sand, under the implacable, cruel sun.\n\nShe feels God has deserted her completely. In the words of one of Shakespeare's sonnets, \"From you have I been absent in the spring.\" Joan was absent in her marriage, absent from Rodney, because she only believed in a certain limited bourgeois way of knowledge. He in turn absented himself from her by falling in love with the charming, if doomed, Leslie Sherston. Rodney and Leslie are too \"fine\" as human beings to have actually slept together, but like Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson in BRIEF ENCOUNTER, an erotic and romantic tension animates their every interchange.\n\nAgatha Christie wrote six novels under the name of Mary Westmacott. At the end of this one, Joan's feverish memories begin to break down into sentence fragments.\n\nEach paragraph is only a sentence long.\n\nAn emotional sentence.\n\nA fragment, a piece of something.\n\nOh, God, Joan prays, make me a normal woman again!\n\nSome people can never get it straight and still, even in 2006, they doubt that Christie is one of the greatest Modernist writers in the English language.\n\nFools!\n\nThey're blind, unseeing, fools, do you hear me?","Product: Charles Osbornes adapation of Agatha Christies classic play, Spiders Web, features Clarissa, the wife of a Foreign Office diplomat given to daydreaming. Supposing I were to come down one morning and find a dead body in the library, what should I do? she muses. Clarissa has her chance to fi\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Kiss of the Spider Woman\n\nReview: Is Charles Osborne still alive? If so he's got to be in his eighties surely. When he \"novelized\" Christie's 1954 play SPIDER'S WEB he was already pretty old. What a shame he stopped for, even if the novels that resulted weren't a patch on Christie's own writing, they were a welcome addition to the long line of Christie titles, and there were still more plays to be mined surely? It would have been cool to have a novel of VERDICT, for my money Christie's best play. But maybe VERDICT was too psychological for Osborne's method? He seems to have worked out a method in which he used every line of dialogue and acres of stage directions, but perhaps he was enjoined by the estate from entering into the consciousness of any of the characters, which makes the novel read stiffly and never allows us any entry into caring about them.\n\nA better bet might have been Christie's trio of one act plays RULE OF THREE. They could have been turned into a collection of short novels in the style of MURDER IN THE MEWS without losing much \"interiority.\"\n\nIn SPIDER'S WEB, I should add, much of Cjristie's superb characterization and drama does come through. Although a sophisticated comedy thriller on the outside, the core story is very dark and painfu. Clarissa is not only an amusing airhead in the Kay Kendall/Glynis Johns manner but she is also a woman attempting to heal a child broken by severe abuse, now her stepdaughter but threatened by a return of the original trauma in the person of her malevolent stepfather Oliver Costello. Little Pippa is terrified beyond reason of Oliver (and of her own mother, the drugridden addict Miranda, beautiful, selfish, utterly lost). Clarissa will go to any lengths to prevent Pippa, now 11 or 12, from being forced to go back into the house of horrors she'd gone mad in.\n\nEven in Osborne's \"novel by rote\" a lot of this comes through, and powerfully, because I guess Christie's dialogue is so good, and her imagination so terrifying.","Product: BOOKS\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: In Praise of Marina\n\nReview: Out of Zhivago's loves I always liked Marina the best and, when the movie came out, I was puzzled to see that David Lean and Robert Bolt had left her out, excised her completely. It made me wonder why, why leave out the enchanting figure of Marina, the only one in Zhivago's world who was as faithful to him as a dog is to his master, one who was there at the beginning\n\nMaybe they thought that audiences were already being asked to swallow too much. Yurii Andreievich had married Tonia already, and had Sasha with her, and then the good doctor had found himself madly in love with Lara. That tragic romance ended badly and then Yuri finds himself completely without friends or family and he stumbles, like a bum, back into the life of Marina. I guess the filmmakers thought that they were painting Lara and Uri to have the greatest love of all time, so where did Marina fit in? Anyone who's read the book knows that Marina's love for Yuri was stronger by far than the crazy, tender, adulterous love of Lara. Zhivago is such a good poet that Tonia, Lara and Marina are all aquiver when he draws near them.\n\nMarina is more mature (when she re-encounters Yuri) and it's hard to imaghine what actress of the mid-60s would have best been able to essay her character--had Lean and Bolt been more faithful to the novel and included the Marina-Yuri story in it. She is a woman whom time has touched, but lightly, and she has seen the ravages of the Revolution first-hand, while still remaining touched and open to the possibilities of new love. If they could have gotten her, Audrey Hepburn would have been a good choice, sort of the Audrey Hepburn of ROBIN AND MARIAN and TWO FOR THE ROAD. Another performance that comes to mind is Claudia Cardinale in ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST--women who have lived and suffered and whose spirit still flames and seeks the higher ground. But perhaps Hepburn and Cardinale were too beautiful (or glamorous) and Pasternak wanted us to find the beauty in a plainer woman.\n\nThe book is a very different experience than the movie; structured as a poem, the novel moves laterally from time period to time period, while individual associations link disparate stories. We remember that Pasternak was writing about characters of another generation than his own, and that he had already seen the death of Stalin and the public demolition of the dictator's relationship, when he published his novel at last. As a boy he had dreamed of becoming a musician, and it is said that he aped Scriabin in his earliest works. Certainly some of Scriabin's theories of synaesthesia carry over into the marvelously sensual passages of ZHIVAGO, where everything--smells, tastes, the pressures of flesh and flesh--all blend into image.","Product: Halloween Party\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: For Judith Butler Fans\n\nReview: Anyone who enjoys modern philosophy will get a kick out of the heroine of HALLOWEEN PARTY, the incredibly gorgeous \"Undine\"-esque blonde, Judith Butler, who shares a strange, prophetic resemblance to the present day theorist and author of GENDER TROUBLE--also called Judith Butler. I wonder if Ms. Butler has read this book but I imagine she has, she's an omnivorous reader with high levels of intellectual curiosity, and she would find so much about \"performing gender\" here she could write another sequel to her own famous work.\n\nOne of the better late Christie novels for sure, HALLOWEEN PARTY takes it time getting started but winds up genuinely involving. I wanted to find out who dun it and I didn't like being interrupted in my reading of the final chapters. But that's not to say it doesn't have its problems!\n\nThe central mysteries that Poirot must solve are, what if anything did little Joyce Reynolds see--she claimed to have witnessed a murder and someone shuts her up by drowning her in a tub bobbing with apples! And also what did Rowena Drake see when she dropped an entire glass vase of autumn perennials down a flight of stairs? I have read this book a few times now and always get caught up in figuring out these two mysteries. For Christie lovers, this plot has comforting echoes of previous books, for example the mysterious gaze on Marina Gregg's face in THE MIRROR CRACK'D FROM SIDE TO SIDE with Miss Marple. I found the central situation of the landscape architect, beautiful Michael Garfield, a little bit like ENDLESS NIGHT and strangely reminiscent of Christie's beautiful short story, \"In the Cool of the Evening\" published in STAR OVER BETHLEHEM.\n\nI also enjoyed having the two teenage boys of the novel step up in their hippie outfits, rose colored vests and fawn trousers, and turn into Poirot's two Baker Street Irregular boys. Wish we had seen more of them in other novels by Christie, for I was getting pretty tired of Ariadne Oliver by this juncture! What about that Halloween party with the \"snapdragon\" game and that strange one where the girls gather in a dark room and look into a mirror to see the faces of the men they will marry? Christie utterly fails to spell out the mechanics of this one in a way that anyone could understand, and what a shame, for I am having an upcoming party and would love to have a hand mirror in which my guests both male and female would gaze and instead of seeing their own faces, they'd see some spectral ghost faces of like, Brad Pitt or no, I know, the late Brad Renfro (RIP)!","Product: The book is brand new and will be shipped from US.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Peter Heywood not so bad as Alexander says\n\nReview: My family is related to Peter Heywood's and I don't think, after reading over the evidence pro and con, that Heywood was the spoiled, rich man's son that Caroline Alexander makes him out to be. It has long been a \"fact\" in our family that Peter H. was sort of a Regency St. Francis, famous for giving away everything that he owned, even to the very shirt on his back and the money out of his pockets. That said, Ms. Alexander is a skilled writer, marvelous at painting atmospheres, and both the frigid English manners and the warm, riotous Tahitian \"adagios of islands\" are luminously evoked. She knows how to lay out a complicated story on several levels at one time, satisfying both the historian in all of us and also the child who likes to hear a romantic tale. The book is beautifully done and I'm not surprised it has been an international bestseller. Has it altered our appreciation of the famous movie with Gable and Laughton? I think not. All of the versions I've seen (including the one with Mel Gibson and the notorious Brando one) have some merit, and the story of conflict is one that keeps repeating itself over and over like a nightmare of civilization. Caroline Alexander sees it as a class fable, in which poor old William Bligh may have whipped a few men here and there, but no worse than the way he was treated as a boy and young man.\n\nSo continues the cycle of abuse, lo, even unto the next generation. All in all, a tiptop read.","Product: The new-look series of Hercule Poirot books for the 21st Century. Sir Claud Amory has discovered the formula for a new powerful explosive, which is stolen by one of the large household of relatives and friends. Locking everyone in the library, Sir Claud switches off the lights to allow the thief to replace the formula on the table, no questions asked. When the lights come on, however, he is dead, and Hercule Poirot -- with assistance from Hastings and Inspector Japp -- has to unravel a tangle of family feuds, old flames and suspicious foreigners to find the killer and prevent a global catastophe.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Like I love my men . . .\n\nReview: BLACK COFFEE the novel suffers from Charles Osborne's timidity in adapting Agatha Christie stage dialogue into a prose fiction equivalent. Wearily the reader sits through every blessed thing that was said on stage (or so it seems) plus every stage direction, for most of which Osborne fails to achieve any sort of actual verbal equivalence, so that we never can figure out what exactly the characters are doing in that room at Abbot's Cleve. On the other hand, the one chapter where Osborne just went crazy and wrote the whole thing from scratch (chapter one, set in Poirot's tidy flat in London) doesn't work either, so it's not exactly a problem inherent in novelization, he's just not that good a writer perhaps.\n\nHowever he did get better, and the other two books he wrote are less painful than this one.\n\nIn BLACK COFFEE, for example, the whole plot turns on a vase filled with spills used to help the fire in the huge fireplace, and whereas we would have seen the vase instantly on stage, and watched characters playing with the spills throughout the entire play, here we have no idea that they are present, much less what they are, until Poirot points them out to his sidekick, Hastings, in the play's penultimate moments. Fair play? I think not. We're being toyed with by a man who doesn't care if we have all the information or not, he's just slugging it out doggedly till the play's last scene.\n\nStrange chronology too! We forget that Hastings wasn't in on every adventure of Poirot's, and that when she turned to BLACK COFFEE in 1930, she was bringing him back after an absence of several years. Osborne's odd interjections suggest that this story takes place sometime after the events of LORD EDGWARE DIES, which of course came later, in the mid-1930s... I wonder why, it's puzzling. I'll have to go to my copy of the actual play to see if Christie had that pervy scene of Hastings (a married man, of course, though Bella is off in the Argentine) spying on glamorous flapper Barbara Amory as she lies sunbathing on what she thinks is a private, enclosed garden spot.","Product: The second novel in Lewis's science fiction trilogy tells of Dr Ransom's voyage to the planet of Perelandra (Venus). In the second novel in C.S. Lewis's classic science fiction trilogy, Dr Ransom is called to the paradise planet of Perelandra, or Venus, which turns out to be a beautiful Eden-like world. He is horrified to find that his old enemy, Dr Weston, has also arrived and is putting him in grave peril once more. As the mad Weston's body is taken over by the forces of evil, Ransom engages in a desperate struggle to save the innocence of Perelandra!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Should have been filmed instead of the Narnia books\n\nReview: It seems as though the success of the Lord of the Rings trilogy has inspired filmmakers to tackle another huge project, and they have settled on CS Lewis' Narnia books, taking a flyer with Andrew Adamson's production first of the LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE. If you ask me (of course no one did LOL), this space trilogy of Lewis' would have been a natural, for some of its virtues could be reproduced on film, and perhaps the scope of film could have salvaged some of its weaknesses.\n\nAs many have noticed, OUT OF THE SILENT PLANET, while giant in conception, is the tightest of the three, and each book becomes more of a baggy monster than the one before. Dr. Ransom is introduced, and kidnapped to an alien planet where overtones of Miltonic good and evil tickle the fancy of the reader while provoking a great deal of suspense as to his fate, and the fate of the whole universe.\n\nRansom is a fascinating character, scientist blended with he-man and activist--would have been perfect for Sean Connery, say, twenty years ago.\n\nIn the meantime I urge all readers to give OUT OF THE SILENT PLANET a try, even if you're not into science fiction per se. It has a great deal to tell us about the world we all still live in right now.","Product: Throughout his trial Jack had maintained his innocence, claiming he was hitchhiking on the night of the murder and he had been picked up by a middle-aged man in a dark car. Unable to locate this mystery man the police viewed Jacks story as a lie. Dr Arthur Calgary was the stranger in question, but he arrives too late for Ja\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Christie's \"Waiting for Godot\"\n\nReview: ORDEAL BY INNOCENCE is one of the difficult Christies from her most controversial period, in which her novels grew longer and longer, while some argue her energies were primarily directed towards the stage where she was amazingly successful and the Queen of the West End for a few years. The novels of the same time grow ponderous, as though overswollen with social and moral anxiety, and this is one of the touchstones of the era, cited by Christie herself in her AUTOBIOGRAPHY as among her own personal favorites.\n\nIs it a plot she cooked up, then abandoned, for her contemporaneous drama THE UNEXPECTED GUEST? It seems like it, right down to the gloomy, Stygian opening in which a mystery man crashes into the closed society of a wealthy family grieving over a recent loss.\n\nAs usual, Christie studs the novel with references to all sorts of high and low culture. As many have noticed, the character of Jacko Argyle seems borrowed from the real life \"Let Him Have It\" case of Derek Bentley and Christopher Craig, while she makes much of the famous line from Racine's PHEDRE that goes, \"C'est Venus toute entiere a sa proie attache\" (She is Venus, now indistinguishable from her prey) and the beautiful Jean Ingelow ballad for which Arthur Sullivan wrote the music,\n\nAh, maid most dear, I am not here,\n\nI have no place, no part,\n\nNo dwelling more by sea or shore,\n\nBut only in thy heart!\n\nO fair dove! O fond dove!\n\nTill night rose over the bourne,\n\nThe dove on the mast as we sailed fast,\n\nDid mourn, and mourn, and mourn,\n\nDid mourn, and mourn.\n\nMost curious of all, from our point of view, is Christie's reference to WAITING FOR GODOT--Hester Argyle and Donald Craig are said to have attended an amateur production of the play in a tiny suburban town two years before the action of the novel proper begins. Indeed, seeing this play turns out to be Hester's alibi during the slaying of her mother! GODOT was then a very new play in English, though it had premiered in French three or four years before the writing of ORDEAL BY INNOCENCE. We don't expect to find Beckett in Agatha Christie, or vice versa, but a case might be made that the two playwrights and modernists had much more in common, and the bizarre comedy and overweening sadness of Vladimir and Estragon find weary analogues in the plight of the Argyle family, a collection of misfits who are all sitting around waiting for something to make their miserable lives meaningful. They don't know their salvation lies in the unlikely form of Arthur Calgary, a geophysicist whose temporary amnesia led to the crackup of the strange, totally convincing plot behind Rachel Argyle's murder.\n\nAll the characters speak of the \"calamity of the innocent,\" but Christie's theme here is really forgiveness. How do the children she adopted forgive Rachel Argyle for tearing them away from their blood kin? How does the polio-stricken air ace Philip Durrant forgive the fate that condemned him to a wheelchair? How does Calgary forgive himself for letting Jacko perish in prison? Though it has its longueurs and dead patches, ORDEAL BY INNOCENCE is amazingly beautiful, reflective, yes, and suspenseful. It's not easy to see who did it, and the ending is a classic surprise. Christie's plots are Apollonian and worked out with a clinician's perfection, but her storytelling is surprisingly intuitive, moving sideways, working by allusion and rhyme.\n\nThe three love stories in the book, too, are all gracefully done. One forgets how much Christie knew about love (and betrayal). And how about that child ruining Tina's alibi by reporting the landing of a sputnik! (That turns out to be Tina's much-bruited \"bubble car,\" a sensation of the 1956-57 period that were the closest contemporary design has come to sn actual spacecraft-inspired mass-produced car.)","Product: Paperback. Pub Date :2008-02-04 Pages: 496 Language: English Publisher: HarperCollins UK Taut. menacing. sinister. gripping. intelligent. action-packed - everything you could want from a thriller.Jack Whalen was an LAPD patrol cop for twelve years.He left under a cloud and now hes not really sure what he is.One thing he does know is that he loves his wife. Amy.So when she goes missing on a routine business trip to Seattle his world is shaken.Jack sets out to search for her. only to discover that there is something far more mysterious going on than her disappearance.Then Jack is contacted by a childhood acquaintance. Gary Fisher.Fisher. now a lawyer. wants Jacks help in solving a puzzle thrown up by businessmans will.Its a puzzle that involves some unsolved slayings: could there be more to Garys sudden reappearance in Jacks life than hes letting onMeanwhile. a ten-year-old gi...\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: He Man Women Haters Club\n\nReview: I don't think I understood the whole thing, but it's not all my fault. Deliberately author Michael Marshall splits up his story between the first person narration of ex-cop/coffee table book captionist Jack Whelan, with a variety of third person accounts that are purposely confusing and disparate, so that you need a second reading to be able to piece it all together properly. I kept skimming and skimming, thinking with my fingers crossed that \"this will all make sense later, I'm sure,\" but eventually I got at least a glimmer of a storyline involving a young nine year old girl who at first seems like she's been kidnapped by an evil, foul smelling man, but within a few pages we find out that this \"abduction\" is not really what it seems and the the 9 year old, cute little Madison, exhibits the cold, maniacal soullessness of an adult, and an especially demented one at that.\n\nBut why? Why? Why? She's like Patty McCormack in THE BAD SEED, but why? Author Marshall has a new theory about why some kids hit the ground running, while others just go to the devil. He grabs your lapels and shakes this theory into you until you reach a point where you just want to slap his hands away, he's so insistent.\n\nOn the home front, Jack is married to a woman who, just like in all the best postwar noir stories, isn't what she seems. This part of the story would seem more original if it hadn't been done just last month in the techno thriller HOOKED. Searching for the truth about his wife, Jack turns more and more to an old high school friend, Gary Fisher, once an idolized athletic hero in school, later a top lawyer, but obviously a man with a burning mission. As Jack grows suspicious of Amy, he grows closer and closer to Gary (who in the conventional thriller would have been a woman I think), and their eventual friendship and bonding has a distinct homoerotic charge to it as they both learn that women (and little girls) can't be trusted. Marshall makes you read through to the end but you'll be scratching your head over many of his plot choices, and I can't make up my mind whether the story is actually crazy stupid, or maybe too smart for a moron like myself.","Product: A fascinating exploration of the contents of Agatha Christie's 73 recently discovered notebooks, including illustrations, deleted extracts, and two unpublished Poirot stories. When Agatha Christie died in 1976, aged 85, she had become the world's most popular author. With sales of more than two billion copies worldwide in more than 100 countries, she had achieved the impossible - more than one book every year since the 1920s, every one a bestseller. So prolific was Agatha Christie's output - 66 crime novels, 20 plays, 6 romance books under a pseudonym and over 150 short stories - it was often claimed that she had a photographic memory. Was this true? Or did she resort over those 55 years to more mundane methods of working out her ingenious crimes? Following the death of Agatha's daughter, Rosalind, at the end of 2004, a remarkable secret was revealed. Unearthed among her affairs at the family home of Greenway were Agatha Christie's private notebooks, 73 handwritten volumes of notes, lists and drafts outlining all her plans for her many books, plays and stories. Buried in this treasure trove, all in her unmistakable handwriting, are revelations about her famous books that will fascinate anyone who has ever read or watched an Agatha Christie story. What is the 'deleted scene' in her first book, The Mysterious Affair at Styles? How did the infamous twist in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, really come about? Which very famous Poirot novel started life as an adventure for Miss Marple? Which books were designed to have completely different endings, and what were they? Full of details she was too modest to reveal in her own Autobiography, this remarkable new book includes a wealth of extracts and pages reproduced directly from the notebooks and her letters, plus for the first time two newly discovered complete Hercule Poirot short stories never before published.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: A Virgil called Curran\n\nReview: The 73 notebooks were written the scrawl of a chicken, very different from the famous autograph signature we all know from countless reproductions. There must have been many times when Curran might have felt like giving up, but after months of practice, he says he was able to decipher the writing pretty quickly. Oddly, he says, Christie's handwriting improved with age, rather than the reverse.\n\nThis is not a variorum or facsimile edition of the notebooks by any means, but rather Curran's selection, with copious comments, of Christie's musings and reworkings over the years. His transcriptions look letter-perfect (a generous sampling of the handwritten entries allows us to peruse both the way she wrote something, and the way Curran took it down). I couldn't spot a flaw.\n\nChristie lovers will find much to marvel at here. My own hunger for more and more Christie, good or bad, started when I was a child. I had a recurring dream--one I still have, years later,--in which I'm in a bookstore, library, friend's house, looking at books, and I see an Agatha Christie novel I've never heard of before. I sit down and read through it, and even want to copy it down, but lack a pencil (ha ha, Freudian I guess), and think of filching it from the premises, but lack the balls. Sometimes I wake from the dream with a title and a few words still in my head. but always with a sense of loss and emptiness. Now Curran's edition has assuaged some of the ache. We hear of dozens of unrealized projects, and quite a few of them fully realized, but withdrawn from the marketplace for one reason or another. Two \"new\" stories are included here, both from the 1930s: one an adumbration of Dumb Witness, the other a bizarre alternate take to \"The Capture of Cerberus,\" the final adventure in \"The Labours of Hercules.\" But I want more, Mr. Curran! Please give us the goods.\n\nWith the approval of the estate, Curran shows that he is not necessarily beholden to some of the fictitious \"legends\" the estate has engendered. He pretty much proves, for example, that SLEEPING MURDER was written probably 10 years later than the story given out by the Christie people (and by Christie herself). Why the deception? It made for a better story, perhaps. One would like to see the original version of CURTAIN, too, which in its published state seemed oddly neutered and sort of de-WWII'ed, brought into a timeless sort of past with little or no referent to 1930s/1940s conditions (unlike the other novels she actually published at the time). In an amusing development, Christie seems to have settled on the title \"Cover Her Face\" for what we now know as Sleeping Murder, only to be unpleasantly surprised when, in the 1960s, PD James of all people published her first novel using Christie's title, so then it was back to the drawing board. Wonder if James ever found out.\n\nThe book is a generous gift, with something pleasing on every page. I don't think, on the other hand, that much is gained by Curran's insistence on using the original title of \"And Then There Were None\" at every turn, on the grounds that Christie preferred it. That's not good enough reason to throw it around as frequently as he does. Someone might have tried to talk him out of it.\n\nYes, he plunges us right into the thick of things, the moment when she thinks of a plot, and then changes it with a rub of the pen. Start with a setting--so many to choose from--too bad we never got the one behind the scenes at the department store with the models at the fashion store. Or the hospital setting (except insofar as it appears in the one act play \"The Patient.\") When she had accomplished a task, she crossed out the note for it, as one with a shopping list of grocery items might do when the item in question has been put into the cart. Curran's most counterintuitive, but ultimately reasonable editorial decision, has been to round up various Christie novels and plays, into various categories, and then discuss the notebook entries for that bunch alone. Thus there's a chapter on \"The Nursery Rhyme Murders,\" another on \"Murder Abroad\" (and on \"Murder Abroad\"). In a way it's reminiscent of the old Dodd, Mead omnibuses like Spies Among Us. But it works, in general. It is not a method Curran sticks to with much rigor, happily: there is always room in these pages for a sidebar article about how he finds the solution of, say, Murder in Mesopotamia utterly bogus. So he brings in his own readings too, he's not just a constant apologist for Christie.\n\nI had never heard of John Curran before the announcement that he was editing Agatha Christie's notebooks, but now I can see how and why he got to become the leading authority on Agatha Christie. I hope he will out his authority and expertise, not to mention his closeness to the Christie Estate, to the best of use, and bring to print the unpublished Christie manuscripts he has seen and evaluated.","Product: Book by W. Somerset Maugham\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: \"Be happy, happy, happy\"\n\nReview: Life's too short, as we learn in Somerset Maugham, to live it compromised by ugly feeling or jealousy, and it's also too short to read all of his stories of the South Seas collected in this Volume 4 of his Collected Short Stories. (Apparently through some quirk of Amazon, reviews of any of the four volumes of his collected are given here under Volume 4, and probably under each volume too. Oh well, maybe it makes sense, but I notice that practically every other review here is for Volume 1 which must have all the anthology pieces in it.) Here I really liked two stories, The Book Bag and P & O. It's true what they say, his stories are told simply and seem like they're going to be bor-r-r-i-i-n-n-g, but by page two or three you're hooked.\n\n\"The Book-Bag\" is one of the most daring, since it brings up the topic of brother-sister incest. The narrator has little luggage but as if to make up for it carries around with him an enormous book-bag, like Santa's sack, and the native porters transporting it on his many island hops, curse him mightily. In Tenggarah, in Malaya, the Narrator gets out and engages a resident called Mark Featherstone and the two of them play cards at the club and drink and talk about Byron and his supposed affair with Augusta, his sister. One man leaves his cards spilled across the floor and stumbles out, and the narrator realizes, oops, I've put my foot in my mouth. He then gets to hear the story of a sister so far gone on her brother that, when he leaves her to return to England on a brief trip, goes a little nuts. I won't say what happens because it's too intense! But here Maugham approaches a Racinean intensity of sexual feeling that still leaves you seared.\n\nIn \"P & O\" the focus is on Mrs. Hamlyn, on her way home back to England from Yokohama, where her husband has abruptly abandoned her, not for a young flapper which might be excusable, but for a middle aged woman even older than she! Mrs. Hamlyn is hurt and bewildered, and her emotions shut down so she feels nothing. At Malaya the ship stops to pick up cargo and passengers, among them a simple Irishman called Gallagher, who soon becomes sick on the voyage--sick with hiccups. Maugham was a M.D. himself and could really work up a case of hiccups into something disastrous, and before long Gallagher is near death. The story is really all about (as I began writing) life being too short for regret. \"We live to be happy so short a time and we are so long dead.\" Mrs. Hamlyn's emotional journey is at the core of Maugham's story, but there are tremendous chills and thrills from following what apparently is a simple case of hiccuping but which soon turns into something far more sinister and chilling. Yes, this book is filled with so-called Orientalism, the mysterious ways of the East always painted as too arcane for white men to understand (or too primitive, exactly the opposite fault from the over-elaboration that Asians are elsewhere accused of). But in some stories, you really do feel the sense of culture shock when two worlds collide, each with its own set of learned responses, no world essentially any better than the other.","Product: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof first heated up Broadway in 1955 with its gothic American story of brothers vying for their dying father's inheritance amid a whirlwind of sexuality, untethered in the person of Maggie the Cat. The play also daringly showcased the burden of sexuality repressed in the agony of her husband, Brick Pollitt. In spite of the public controversy Cat stirred up, it was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the Drama Critics Circle Award for that year. Williams, as he so often did with his plays, rewrote Cat on a Hot Tin Roof for many years-the present version was originally produced at the American Shakespeare Festival in 1974 with all the changes that made Williams finally declare the text to be definitive, and was most recently produced on Broadway in the 2003-04 season. This definitive edition also includes Williams' essay \"Person-to-Person,\" Williams' notes on the various endings, and a short chronology of the author's life. One of America's greatest living playwrights, as well as a friend and colleague of Williams, Edward Albee has written a concise introduction to the play from a playwright's perspective, examining the candor, sensuality, power, and impact of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof then and now.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: \"Skipper Is Dead But I'm Alive! Maggie The Cat Is Alive!\"\n\nReview: Only Williams could have gotten away with naming his hero \"Brick,\" as names were always his strong suit. He found comfort in names, and a wild exotic beauty, and even in his last faltering years was usually able to pull a final name out of his hat, something perfect. I remember seeing CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF on stage, with Elizabeth Ashley, some time before I read the play, so naturally my experience of the text is colored by Ashley's sizzling interpretation of Maggie the Cat, all hisses and feral screams. She was so strong I can barely remember who played Brick or Big Daddy in that production. I think it was Keir Dullea from DAVID AND LISA. Maybe Big Daddy was the man from the MUNSTERS TV show. What we, the audience, cared about was if Maggie was going to get her wway and triumph over all the mendacity and the \"no neck monsters\" that were swarming the plantation.\n\nMaggie gets angry, but mostly we value her for her tenderness. Even when she knows her husband has lost his heart over a long-gone teammate, and that he's probably gay, she never gives up the ship. She knows that without her in his corner 100 per cent, he'll give up, drown in his own sorrows. He needs her to kick his ass and bring him back to the land of the awake. She wasn't going to be an enabler, she would always discourage him from drinking from the time he got up in the morning till he passed out at night, his crutches tangled up in his boxer shorts. For Brick, drinking is a way out of his tortured memories of Skipper, the boy he loved in high school and college. Taking a drink is \"like a switch, clickin' off in my head. Turns the hot light off and the cool one on and all of a sudden, there's peace.\" Secretly the family has a plan to ship his butt off to Rainbow Hill, sort of a Betty Ford Clinic without the mercy.\n\nWe love Maggie trying to semaphor the truth into his thick skull by screaming, \"Skipper is dead but I'm alive! Maggie the Cat is alive!\"","Product: Book by French, Nicci\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Scariest of All Her Books\n\nReview: Partly because Miranda, the decorating heroine of SECRET SMILE, is in some ways more vulnerable than this writing couple's previous heroines. She's a little bit rough and tumble and also feels loved less than her other siblings. She's vulnerable when Brendan meets her, and vulnerable when he next takes up with her sister. When Brendan does something terrible to her little brother, Troy, her anguish knows no bounds. You have to love her! Especially when she starts showing some gumption and begins, slowly at first, to fight back against the face of evil. It's always good when they start fighting back, especially when this involves putting one's clever hat on and going back to investigate the secret past of the enemy. In Brendan's case, there is no end to the horror of his being. But by this time Kerry is wise enough to deter the serpent . . .\n\nIt's amusing to see some of our Top 100 reviewers accidentally revealing themselves with this book. As anyone who has read the book knows, the name of one of the main characters is misspelled on the book jacket copy. Some of our reviewers, well, it doesn't look like they've read the book at all because guess what? They discuss the part of the plot that was on the book jacket using the wrong spelling of the name! Oh well, what do they say, \"marry in haste, repent in leisure.\"","Product: Unusual book\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: A Crusader Against Racism\n\nReview: None of my students had ever read, or even heard of, Shirley Jackson nor her famous story \"The Lottery\" when I taught a fiction workshop in a prestigious MFA writing program eighteen months ago, so I have to believe that, with the proliferation of newer models, Shirley Jackson doesn't have the cachet she once had. Maybe Shelley Jackson has taken her place in the minds and hearts of young writers today. (Both writers grew up in the Bay Area and we are proud of them both!) Anyhow \"The Lottery\" was a big hit and many said that it reminded them of a film project that would be a good fit for disgraced movie director M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, The Village). \"Professor Killian, are there other Shirley Jackson stories as chilling as The Lottery?\" My brow furrowed. \"Not exactly,\" I admitted. \"She wrote some scary novels, but I can tell you're not interested in those.\"\n\nFinally one student slapped down a wellworn paperback copy of \"The Lottery and Other Stories\" onto the seminar table. \"Talk about a one hit wonder!\" he snorted. It was up to me to stand up for the other stories in the volume which, though none of them are exactly as perfect as the title piece, still carry a certain amount of resonance even sixty years later. We noticed that much of the work was written during World War II, with the consequence that men play small parts in general in these stories. It's mostly a women's world, and the women are really messed up. In \"The Tooth,\" a housewife from upstate takes the bus down to Manhattan to get a tooth seen to, and somewhere along the way she loses her mind and thinks that she has a demon lover. By the end of the tale a sordid amnesia has set in. In \"Pillar of Salt,\" another married woman goes to Manhattan and has a breakdown just from the noise and bustle of city life. You'd think an editor would have spoken to Miss Jackson pointing out the similarity between the two stories. But maybe it's a systemic failure she's pointing to--the way in which society has both denigrated women and put them up on a pedestal. And in many of the stories, it's another woman who's the enemy. Jackson attacks the casual racism and anti-Semitism of the period in that forthright 1947 fashion that we loved so much in Gentleman's Agreement and Intruder in the Dust, but on other issues, like that of identity, she seems curiously muted, perhaps convinced that human beings are constitutionally drawn towards evil and malice. So, it's not a cheerful book by any means.\n\nNeither is it a particularly compelling one. For some reason The New Yorker was encouraging vague markers of identification, for everyone in the book seems to have the same name and the same futile tags. This one wears a housedress, that one carries a pug dog, and that's about it, they're all pretty shadowy and prejudiced. And lost! Lost in the broken dreams of post-Fordist America.","Product: book\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Where Angels Fear to Tread\n\nReview: Novelist Deacon Kane is haunted by the death of his son by drowning four years ago, and his reputation has slid in the college where he teaches creative writing and English lit, slid to a point where everyone's watching him to see if he makes it to class, which he rarely does any more. His boss, Dolan, really has it in for him. Just one thing seems to amuse Deacon Kane, his affair with a married woman, Meg, a painter with a huge house on top of Peconic Bay, who hustles him out of her bed whenever she thinks her husband might arrive, but otherwise she seems totally uncaring and absent. It isn't a good relationship, but hey, any port in a storm especially if you're a human wreck.\n\nMeanwhile someone is running around abducting male students (18, 19 years of age) and somehow managing to drown them in a way that leaves forensics baffled. Could these deaths be accidental?\n\nPossible Spoilers Ahead--Minor:\n\nThe police are beginning to believe that Dunk is behind them. Maybe he's gone right off the deep end. Maybe he's a serial killer with a sexual kink that forces him to re-play the tragedy of his son's drowning by casting older boys in his young son's role as victim. His frequent blackouts leave him without an alibi.\n\nDaniel Judson embodies this mystery within a David Lynch atmosphere of conspiracy, cover-up, immoral doings, and a mysterious giant black man who seems to be watching out for Dunk--or is he trying to kill him? Judson is great at atmosphere, and Eastern Long Island has never been portrayed more creepily.\n\nWhat I didn't like was the absurd plot, which depends on an extraordinary amount of coincidence. On the one hand there is a criminal mastermind with far too many helpers; on the other hand, there's a good bunch of people whose motivations are just as murky as the killers. I never cared once for Duncan Kane, and on top of everything else Judson really makes women look like monsters. That's his prerogative of course, and it does add to the noir-ish feel of his book, but by the end we all have a different idea of what he imagines the \"darkest place\" to actually be.\n\nFinally, when the mask is torn off the face of the killer, and the reader can't remember who he is, you're in trouble.\n\nOtherwise a grand read by one of the genre's best technicians.","Product: Michael Connelly (born July 21, 1956, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American author of detective novels, notably those featuring Detective Hieronymus \"Harry\" Bosch. Bosch, named after the Dutch painter of the same name, is the protagonist of a series of Connelly's novels. The character is an LAPD detective. The Black Echo, the first book featuring Bosch, won the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Award for Best First Novel of 1992. Connelly has written other books outside the Bosch series, including Blood Work, which was made into a 2002 movie directed by and starring Clint Eastwood. In 2006, The Lincoln Lawyer was selected as one of ten books to feature in Richard and Judy's televised book club. Connelly is a graduate of the University of Florida, where he earned a bachelors degree in journalism. In addition to his books, Connelly has written for television.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Writing at a Crawl\n\nReview: THE CLOSERS plods, and the whole weight of the novel depends on Harry and Kiz making a choice to investigate a certain line of questioning, that takes them farther and farther away from the real killer, and in fact turns out to have absolutely nothing to do with the case. However fate is on their side. A fake newspaper story, planted to \"smoke out\" the individual they believe is their killer, instead \"smokes out\" the real killer who pretty much falls in their lap. Thus they solved the case but in an extremely slow-moving and ass-backward way.\n\nIn the meantime Harry keeps making mistakes, offending Kiz (who has gotten a lot more touchy for some reason) and then having to apologize to her. I used to like her, but Connelly has made her a one-woman disapproval board. All she does is sniff and look upset. Connelly has got to give her more of a story, for here all she does is first bolster, then deflate Harry's wavering confidence. Never anything helpful to the case, just her own hurt feelings. And she's no better than Harry when it comes to figuring out the cold cases.\n\nHarry Bosch has done this kind of work before, so I don't agree with the reviewers who accuse Connelly of jumping on the bandwagon of the current vogue for the cold case. One of the suspects in fact works as a producer for the popular CBS TV show, so Connelly might be poking fun at our sick obsession with crime. However this particular suspect gets lost in the shuffle and never actually appears in the flesh. It's as though the author forgot all about this red herring! What's going on there? It's not like the story ever goes anywhere. Harry and Kiz just try to fit Roland Mackey into their grand theory of racism and rage, and even though he doesn't fit, they still try to cram him in, like a chimp forcing a piece of a jigsaw into the rest of the puzzle by mashing it with his fists. For three hundred pages we see them do this, with poetry added, the lame poetry of \"We speak for the dead\" that strikes me as particularly unconvincing when we never see the victim up close, we're just told over and over again that her death is a tragedy.\n\nI love Connelly's work but I'm beginning to think that, for some reason probably connected to money, he's writing far too much. A book or more a year means, each book is getting worse and worse.\n\nI give this one three stars because, well, despite everything he manages to deliver a surprise at the end, and well, Harry still is one of the great creations of the roman policier.","Product: The title of this book is a translation from the German of Das Narrenschiff, a moral allegory by Sebastian Brant. The author read it in Basel in the summer of 1932 when she had still vividly in mind the impressions of her fist voyage to Europe. She took for her own this simple almost universal image of the ship of this world on its voyage to eternity.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: \"Ship of Fools on a Cruel Sea\"\n\nReview: I got into SHIP OF FOOLS back in the day when I was a Deadhead and followed the band around from stadium to stadium. \"Ship of Fools\" as many know is one of their loveliest ballads and would never fail but put me in a trance. At one bookstore in the Bay Area I spotted lyricist Robert Hunter and I gathered together all my courage to approach him and to tell him how much his lyrics had meant to me and my kind. Somewhat to my surprise he asked me to name one of his songs that I loved. \"Ship of Fools,\" I said. In the years since I have sometimes wondered why I didn't ask about \"Row Jimmy\" since that is even more puzzling. But anyway Hunter couldn't have been more receptive and even charming. I asked him where he found the inspiration to write \"Ship of Fools\" and he mentioned the Renaissance or medieval tradition of the ship of fools journeying out into the main without a solid plan and how it's a metaphor for the religious voyage of life. He mentioned other works based on this legend including Lewis Carroll's \"The Hunting of the Snark\" and finally, Katherine Anne Porter's novel SHIP OF FOOLS, which he said he had read in the 1960s, close to when it came out originally.\n\nSHIP OF FOOLS tells the story of a group of German nationals on a boat from Bremen to the USA, and it is apparently based on a real life voyage. Jews by the boatload were attempting to escape from an atrocious abd repressive regime, and what they did not realize is that the shipboard lifestyle was a microcosm for the pains of the rest of the world. We meet dozens of characters, some more skillfully developed than others, including a young American couple through whose eyes we get to see the whole tragedy unfolding.\n\nThere is a tragic romance between a middle-aged countess and the ship's doctor, and a sense of foreboding about the whole voyage. The champagne and the crepe paper and the sparklers are out over the dark Atlantic, but we sense the lights going out all over the world.\n\nPorter worked over thirty years writing this, her only novel, and when it came out it was a commercial success and a Book of the Month Club selection, though in general the critics were disappointed that it did not hit the heights of the short stories that had made her name starting in the 1920s. Some have criticized this book as too slow and too portentous. To me it hits the right note over and over again. There is a movie version of this novel, directed by earnest, plodding Stanley Kramer, but I think if I saw it, it could not begin to compare to my experience of either the novel nor the song. \"Now I cannot share thy laughter, ship of fools.\"","Product: Traces of blood were found in the bedroom twenty-four year-old Scott Dunn shared with his girlfriend Leisha--but there was no body, no weapon, no witnesses. Just the charmingly manipulative Leisha, and a case growing colder by the day. What no one counted on was the fierce determination of a father who was driven to find out what happened on that violent night, and why.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: The Vidocq Society Comes To The Rescue\n\nReview: Scott Dunn was a wiz at fixing up cars and installing stereos in them, and he took special pride in his own \"yellow submarine.\" Surely he wouldn't have left town without it? But his father, Jim, hadn't heard from him in some time. When he rang up the boy at home, a strange woman answered the phone. Thus begins the true-crime puzzler TRAIL OF BLOOD.\n\nPoor Scott was only 24 when he met Leisha, the sort of woman who pops up in noir movies in the late 1940s to destroy the men who loves her. Leisha was seeing a few other guys on the side, just to keep her hand in, but she hated being rejected.\n\nWhen Jim came to see the house she shared with Scott, he wondered why she had a big couch right over a patch of carpet and why an afghan was covering the spots the couch could not. Once you pulled up the afghan and moved the couch, you could see where a huge section of the wall-to-wall carpet had simply been hacked out. And Leisha pretended she had never noticed this before!\n\nLocal police and the DA said to Jim, \"Sorry about your son, but without a body there is no case.\" He was in despair until he turned on the TV and happened, just happened, to see a profile of the mysterious \"Vidocq Society,\" about which I will say no more.\n\nThe book tells a lot about fathers and sons and it's a sort of plea to sons to keep in better touch with their fathers, and also to fathers, it gives the wise advice that you should cherish your son while you can, he may not be with you forever.","Product: Margaret Moos Pick is the executive producer and head writer for the Riverwalk Jazz radio series on Public Radio International, and was a founding producer of A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor. She has previously collaborated with National Pu\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory\n\nReview: Roald Dahl called his famous story Charlie and the Chocolate Factory after having encountered the legend of of Charles A. See, and now veteran penswoman Margaret Moos Pick tells the whole incredible story from a woman's point of view, in a book lavishly illustrated with sepia (and cocoa) colored photographs from the company archives. No Oompa Loompas here, but you will find many unusual tidbits that will amuse you and titillate your senses.\n\nLet Moos Pick take you into the secret factory itself, into the so-called \"enrobing room\" and right through the brain tank where Sees officials and chefs determine what the next flavor of candy shall be.\n\nWe've seen it all in WILLY WONKA, and to a lesser degree, remember when Dick Van Dyke drove up to the Scrumptious Candy Factory in CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG? Well, finally the inside guide to how you make candy and how you sell it, from a one room roadside stand in a lousy, Depression California, to a revolution in fine chocolate, offering everything from marzipan, mocha milk, creme de coconut, and champagne infusions that would have been illegal under Prohibition. Lucy and Ethel worked the assembly line in a Sees store, in one of the famous I LOVE LUCY episodes, find out more about it here.\n\nRemember, reading uses up calories! But don't spoil your weight loss program by absently stuffing handfuls of Sees candy into your mouth as you flip the pages of this diverting little truffle of a story. Add a star if you're into candy or California labor history.","Product: Collects Batman #1, 4, 63, 73,-74, 110, 159, 163, 251, & 321, Detective Comics #168 & 475-476, World's Finest #61 & 88, Brave & the Bold #111, Joker #3, Batman Kellogg's Special, and Batman newspaper strips featuring the Joker. Introduction by Mike Gold. The 'Clown Prince of Crime' is featured in 19 classic tales by such comic book legends as Bob Kane, Carmine Infantino, Jim Aparo, Murphy Anderson, Neal Adams, Marshall Rogers, and Walt Simonson. Softcover, 288 pages, full color.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: The Clown Prince of Crime\n\nReview: Here the Joker in the Batman comics gets his own book, which would suit his enormous vanity down to a T. Fans are divided as to whether the \"Dark Knight\" noir side of the Batman is the only acceptable face to the comic, and in general the lighthearted camp approach of the 1960s TV show is mocked and derided today. Everyone's looking for angst, particularly in their cartoon super-heroes. And so the Joker, with his chalk-white face and his manic grin, is no longer in, though even the zaniest of the late 1950s strips portrayed him as a man mentally torn between madness and street smarts. Fans of the dark approach like the way in which, by the 1970s, the Joker was actually killing people, often in horrible ways, in place of the surprise \"laughing gas\" tricks and comic crimes he resorted to back in the day. Both tribes of fans will find plenty to like in this book.\n\nIt's interesting to note how literate they must have assumed their audience to be back in the 40s and 50s. One story has the Joker adopting disguises--the costumes of famous characters of comedy--to commit his crimes in. I'm not talking Lucy and Ricky here, but Mr. Micawber from David Copperfield, Pagliacci, Pickwick, and Falstaff (who invades a performance of HAMLET and makes a spectacle of himself with his lines from Henry V.) Try that one out on today's comic readers!\n\nThe most negligible story here is \"Crime-of-the-Month Club\" from 1957, in which The Joker tries to sell thugs his own \"brilliantly conceived\" caper plans for crimes, each one for some reason obviously tied in with particular months (April fools, June brides), in an auction pyramid scheme with some foreshadowing of the EBay of the present day. It's fluff, and it's not even good fluff. On the other end of the spectrum is the epic, Sergio Leone inspired \"The Joker's Five-Way Revenge\" from 1973, in which the Joker dispatches, one by one, five of his goons with terrifying power and real dementia, while the Batman runs always a step or two behind. It's grim, and some like them grim. I myself prefer the stories which pair the Joker with the blonde sex bomb \"Sparrow,\" and the spooky transformations of \"Clay-Face\" from earlier on in the Joker's long career. One story that didn't make it into the book, though the editors were tempted, is the one that paired Batman and the Joker with none other than Jerry Lewis. Seems to me he would have been a great movie Joker, probably better than Jack Nicholson. Nicholson has his famous \"killer smile,\" but Jerry had the real killer mind....\n\nMike Gold and Mark Wald supply notes that are pretty informative and the comics look good (except for their color registers). I dock the book a notch only because it's actually too much of a good thing, for after a while you get tired of the Joker, and maybe 18 or 19 stories in a row was pushing it.","Product: A powerful human tale of turning tragedy to triumph. He offers rare insight to the emotional journey he personally experienced while being an inmate inside Alcatraz.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Prisoner: Cell Block H\n\nReview: I too met Darwin E. Coon during a recent trip to Alcatraz, which was brilliant. Coon sat in a shack on the pier with a young man who claimed to be his \"nephew.\" This nephew did all the talking and would occasionally nudge old Darwin, who sat beside looking stolid and bored, with his elbow, prompting him to answer some questions from a countless stream of fans who, right off the boat from the island prison, wanted to ask him a zillion questions. Apparently he found his way to the souvenir shack every Saturday so you can often meet him, shake his hand and get him to autograph a copy of ALCATRAZ THE TRUE END OF THE LINE. Otherwise he's sort of like Iron Eyes Cody, a man of few words. The nephew said to me, \"My uncle wants to know if you want him to sign your copy of the book with his prison number.\" \"Sure,\" I replied, after a glance at my companion the video artist Karla Milosevich. \"That number thing would be awesome.\" Darwin Coon took pen from nephew and scrawled his number on the front free endpaper of my book: \"#1422.\" We looked at it in awe. \"I had no idea the numbers were so short.\"\n\nDarwin Coon looked at me impassively as though to say, \"LIFE is short you little pipsqueak.\"\n\nHis book is great and tells you all about the different animals kept by the Alcatraz inmates. No other book I know goes into such detail about the different pets smuggled in by prisoners. There's a great story about Sam, the fellow who found a lizard and trained it to be his pet, and every day he would walk the lizard around the prison on a gold chain, rather like the French symbolist poet Gerald de Nerval who walked around the Luxemnbourg Gardens with a pet lobster on a leash. In Sam's case the ending was tragic, for a seagull swooped down and carried off the little lizard!\n\nAnother prisoner made a tiny tuxedo for his pet mouse, complete with top hat! They were like a bunch of male Beatrix Potters over there; their love of animals will warm any human hearts.","Product: In the aftermath of the battle with Twilight's army, Buffy has developed a host of new powers, but when will the other shoe drop, and will it be a cute shoe, or an ugly one? Still reeling from the losses of war, Willow goes looking for missing allies, and discovers a horrifying truth about several of the Slayer army's recent ordeals. Adding to the mayhem is the unexpected return of Angel, in his Season Eight debut!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Never Did Figure This One Out\n\nReview: It took me until Volume 7, \"Twilight\" of Season Eight, to figure out which of George Jeanty's drawings was supposed to be which character. Either he got better at it, or I did, because this time around I had no problem whatsoever. Even Kennedy looks like Kennedy and I could barely remember her from the last hideous season of BTVS the TV show. And Angel really looks like Angel!\n\nI liked seeing them together, but yeah, why did he have to kill hundreds of her potentials and why was he rotten? Never did figure this one out, and the whole universe-reinventing-itself plot was so much like Promethea I began to appreciate Promethea in a new way.\n\nI did like the pure whimsy of it. So Amy, Warren, and the General show up--pure malice, right? But in an instant once their priorities have changed they're all pals again, cracking jokes and going on adventures again. I wish that somehow they had thought of a way to bring Joyce back. And also, a way for Buffy to recall that indeed, she and Angel did have their promised reunion (on the best episode of ANGEL) only Angel had to wipe out all Buffy's memories of the event otherwise, well, now I can't remember why, but it was probably to save the world on some level.\n\nOutside of that, TWILIGHT is great.... To me it doesn't really matter the haphazard logic of the plot, as long as they're together I'm like the fans that greeted Astaire's reunion with Ginger Rogers in the abysmal BARKLEYS OF BROADWAY, ugh.","Product: Denice Stephenson is a special project archivist for the Peoples Temple Collection at the California Historical Society. Since 2000, she has provided assistance to researchers for family, scholarly, and media projects related to Jonestown and the Peoples Temple. She lives in San Francisco.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: The Bad and the Beautiful\n\nReview: This book has been lying around our place ever since we went to see a dramatization of the Peoples Temple story last year over at Berkeley Rep. The other day I picked it up and haven't stopped reading since.\n\nJim Jones could have been a figure of great historic importance, and the accounts in this book (and elsewhere of course) attest to an admirable, and early, anti-racism which manifested itself in many forms. The tragedy of what happened to him can never be fully explained. How did so many give up their lives to the control of one man, no matter how gifted? The testimonies of the survivors, and the voices of those who died at Guyana, are eloquent and really shine to the sharp editing skills of Denice Stephenson and the California Historical Society staff who assisted her in this project. And yet there's still no answer.\n\nSeems to me there are two types of person, and Jim Jones had them combined in his personality likje a hybrid. There was the man of empathy, the fellow who tries to make everyone feel at home. Marceline Jones tells the story of some poor folk, shabbily dressed, who apologized to Jones for coming into the Temple with patches. He just bowed and acknowledged them with a nod of his head, a kindly smile, and in a stage whisper he said, \"Just to make you feel better, I'll have you know there's a huge hole in the seat of my pants right now.\" And then the other man who loved the sound of his own voice even when it was ranting nonsense like over the squeaky loudspeakers of Jonestown. (Like, why name it \"Jonestown\" unless you're really looking to shore up your ego?) How did these two personalities wind up bound in the same brain?","Product: Will be shipped from US. Used books may not include companion materials, may have some shelf wear, may contain highlighting/notes, may not include CDs or access codes. 100% money back guarantee.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: And Around And Around We Go\n\nReview: I'm always late to the party, but I want to give my two cents about TILT A WHIRL, which was one of the best thrillers I've read in ages. Unlike other reviewers, I didn't let the Pepto pink cover put me off, nor did its picture of a roller coaster get me down. I was hooked right away by the narrative voice of the enchanting deputy Danny Boyle, who works as everyman describing to us he breadths and lineaments of the impenetrable Officer Ceepak, truly a cop in a million. If ever there was a book made for the movies, it was this one, and I hope the author laughs all the way to the bank, he deserves it, for rarely have i been on such a wild ride. The metaphor of the \"tilt-a-whirl\" is a great one, and Grabenstein seems determined not to let us down, for every time you think you have the story in your eyesights, a violent twist in the plot will shoot you down and you have to start building up readers confidence all over again.\n\nFor newcomers to the book, just rest assured that everything you learn in the first fifty pages will be set absolutely upside down by page 100, and this reversal happens over and over again. There's not one but two amazing twist endings.\n\nThe only thing that smacked of Hollywood hokum was the remarkable and totally unbelievable scene where two of the chief villains spend twenty or so pages telling the good guys the entire plot, how they did it, right down to the smallest detail, whereas in real life they would have lawyered up right away. this always happens in the Bond movies, where one whole reel is spent with the villain bragging about his world domination plans, but in an otherwise realistic police thriller, there's no room for this kind of unreal scene.\n\nI can't make up my mind whether or not I think Danny and Ceepak should return. They were great in this one book, but I wonder if their strawfoot-tenderfoot act would get stale the second time around. Anyhow, this is the kind of novel that makes roller coasters redundant. Grabenstein has the kind of talent lesser writers would sell their right arms for.","Product: Will be shipped from US. Used books may not include companion materials, may have some shelf wear, may contain highlighting/notes, may not include CDs or access codes. 100% money back guarantee.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: And Around And Around We Go\n\nReview: I'm always late to the party, but I want to give my two cents about TILT A WHIRL, which was one of the best thrillers I've read in ages. Unlike other reviewers, I didn't let the Pepto pink cover put me off, nor did its picture of a roller coaster get me down. I was hooked right away by the narrative voice of the enchanting deputy Danny Boyle, who works as everyman describing to us he breadths and lineaments of the impenetrable Officer Ceepak, truly a cop in a million. If ever there was a book made for the movies, it was this one, and I hope the author laughs all the way to the bank, he deserves it, for rarely have i been on such a wild ride. The metaphor of the \"tilt-a-whirl\" is a great one, and Grabenstein seems determined not to let us down, for every time you think you have the story in your eyesights, a violent twist in the plot will shoot you down and you have to start building up readers confidence all over again.\n\nFor newcomers to the book, just rest assured that everything you learn in the first fifty pages will be set absolutely upside down by page 100, and this reversal happens over and over again. There's not one but two amazing twist endings.\n\nThe only thing that smacked of Hollywood hokum was the remarkable and totally unbelievable scene where two of the chief villains spend twenty or so pages telling the good guys the entire plot, how they did it, right down to the smallest detail, whereas in real life they would have lawyered up right away. this always happens in the Bond movies, where one whole reel is spent with the villain bragging about his world domination plans, but in an otherwise realistic police thriller, there's no room for this kind of unreal scene.\n\nI can't make up my mind whether or not I think Danny and Ceepak should return. They were great in this one book, but I wonder if their strawfoot-tenderfoot act would get stale the second time around. Anyhow, this is the kind of novel that makes roller coasters redundant. Grabenstein has the kind of talent lesser writers would sell their right arms for.","Product: Text: English, Norwegian (translation)\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Can I handle the seasons of my life? One woman's poignant reflections in snow covered hills.\n\nReview: In Liv Ullmanns memoir Changing, only a few colors stain the crystal radiance of the skies above Norway, gray, pink, white, black; someone holds the great Norwegian star for a few minutes, then lets her fall back to the rocks of Faro Island, and yet even though it hurts to be so deeply in love, and you're betraying your husband, you still feel like life is worth living. All your allegiances are to the theater, and then top the cinema of Ingmar Bergman. All the phones are rotary, yet she longs to work on stage because that is one place in which you don't hear the phone, she says. How different from today, where you can stay in touch with your daughter even if you are onstage playing one of your signature parts (in Liv Ullmanns case, she became famous as she tells us at nineteen, in a Scandinavian town beginning with a S, (I just looked it up, it was Stavanger), playing Anne Frank; and later there was her sensational success as Nora in Ibsens A Dolls House, which she takes on a long straw hat circuit trail in the Sweden of the 1960s, and Norway in the 1979s, entertaining farmers and forest rangers in run down dinner theaters that had not seen a single play for over thirty and in some cases over one hundred years.\n\nEverywhere the weather haunts her. The sun breaking through the snowcaps, the threat of the ground shifting beneath your feet, that moment between autumn and winter when you can see your refection in the snow covered hills. When this book came out during Americas bicentennial, it made an enormous impression on young California feminists and hedonists, who took the message of perpetual cosmic and personal shift to heart. The young Stevie Nicks took the emotional and wintry landscape of Ullmanns difficult Scandinavia and condensed this book into her signature song. Like Landslide, Ullmanns memoir is haunted by the puckish spirits of a girl child, her own child self, orphaned by a WWII accident and a beautiful, willful mother, and by her own daughter Linn, whom she gave birth to during her five year long affair with director Bergman. One or the other of the two little girls appears on nearly every page. As Stevie sings, Ive been afraid of changing, cause Ive built my life around you. Bergman was so jealous that he was the source of all of her fears and joys. He was like Lindsay Buckingham, the way Stevie writes about him in Silver Springs. Then little Linn broke the ice and made Liv see she was living in what had turned into an emotional nightmare.\n\nWhen she left, Liv fled to Southern California as Stevie did. Time makes us bolder, said the latter. Even children get older. Eternal changing, but one thing that did not change is Livs penchant for human depravity. She dated Henry Kissinger, and apparently thought this behavior sort of cute. She had the opportunity many times to poison the worlds most evil living man, and yet she stayed her hand. The only star who comes off looking bad in this Landslide of an autobiography is Vanessa Redgrave, like Liv a stranger in Hollywood, but otherwise an inhuman freak who is interested in Liv only if she will write her a huge check to support the cause of violent Trotskyite revolution. It was a strange era in Hollywood, one never to be repeated, a time in which these two weird, beautiful, Nordic powerhouses could each be asked to anchor a huge Hollywood musical: Redgrave the box office disappointment Camelot; Ullmann, the total disaster of the legendary Lost Horizon musical. I guess there was also Jean Seberg, weird like them, European sort of, sort of respected for her acting, and so perplexingly cast as the lead both men wanted in Paint Your Wagon. But she at any rate was from America, like our own songwriting virtuoso, the one and only Stevie Nicks. I can only say that Camelot, Lost Horizon and Paint Your Wagon would have all been improved with the casting of Nicks, who has never been given her due in American movies, nor those of any other country or planet!","Product: Daniel Kane is currently a lecturer in American Literature at the University of East Anglia, England. He is the author of All Poets Welcome: The Lower East Side Poetry Scene in the 1960s (University of California Press), and his poems have appeared in Denver Quarterly, Exquisite Corpse, and The Hat. Born in New York City, Kane was educated at Marlboro College and has a Ph.D. from New York University.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: When poets talk together . . .\n\nReview: -it's not often they talk about poetry. More often than not you'll hear them gossiping about money, sex, jobs, politics, just like anybody else. It's refreshening indeed to have a whole book devoted to interviews in which the poets speak candidly about the thing only they have to share-how they wrote the poetry in the first place. Daniel Kane, the distinguished historian who wrote All Poets Welcome: The Lower East Side Poetry Scene in the 1960s, has done an admirable job first of selecting a representative group of avant-garde poets, then drawing them out, making them feel comfortable enough to speak freely about the sources and techniques of their writing. In addition, I can recommend this book to people who are curious about experimental poetry, but can't bring themselves to jump off into the deep end without a parachute. It's very user friendly, and yet at the same time, you don't get the feeling you're being talked down to. Some of the poets are quite well known (Creeley, Koch, Ashbery) while others are on the up and coming list. Even the most interviewed among them wind up saying things you've never heard before. That's the mark of a good interviewer.","Product: Robert Buuck is a retired business executive now rekindling his long deferred interest in writing. In this his first novel, he draws on his thirty year history in the medical device industry as well as his extensive experience in the financing and staffing of early stage companies. Bob and his wife Gail are residents of Paradise Valley, Arizona and also retain a summer home in Minnesota.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Top-Notch Thriller Set in the Medical Device Industry\n\nReview: Robert Buucks new novel reveals him as the heir apparent of Louis Auchincloss and Jeffrey Deaver, a novelist of the business world who creates a serial killer like none other whom you have ever seen. Set largely in the USA, thought captivating sidetrips to Canada, Mexico, and Britain, The Second Profile takes us deep into the hidden world of Quanticos FBI, as well as in the strange, rarefied world of medical device companies, about which you will learn a good hundred thousand words worth, more than anyone knows except probably Stephen Hawking who by this stage, is living on them like Courtney Love lives on Nirvana residuals.\n\nOne manprofiler Jay Harris (I was thinking perhaps a tip of the hat to Thomas Harris creator of the worlds greatest profilers?)and two women, biblically called Martha and Marydominate the story, along with over two hundred supplementary characters, as Buuck creates a cat and mouse game you have not often seen played so well or so diplomatically. The time? It could have been yesterday, and the dates aren't always clear, but the present day of the company seems to have been in 1994 or 1995sometime before computers got to be on everyones desks. And the crimes of the serial killer stretch way back, a good fourteen years before anyone starts to notice. Buuck plays his hand slowly, like an expert croupier, but before long you are caught up in the story of a conspiracy so involved and complex only a genius could understand it all. A genius without even Google, in a book where everyone is obsessed with looking everything up. How did we ever survive? Well, crime ran rampant in an age without consistent surveillance.\n\nAbly edited by poet and healer Marianne Morris, The Second Profile tells the oldest story in the world, as evil attempts to overthrow good. We see innocent animals being used in experiments as mere guinea pigs. These scenes are not as graphic as I was afraid they were going to be (though they're effective all right!) We see a rowdy convention break down into a one-on-one appointment between a trained assassin and his innocent target. But who is innocent in the world of top medical device makers? Very few it seems, and the same goes for FBI hierarchy, still haunted by the spectre of J Edgar Hoover and his insane drive for personal publicity. Theres a vigilante among the suspects, dealing death to those who would violate the rights of coastal fisherman, and top scientists.\n\nMary Devlin is a British nurse from the lower classes whose father, Tommy, makes a heroic struggle to drag his whole family into the middle classand this in a country where posh means everything. After a happy alliance with an aristocrat, Mary loses both father and lover, comes to terms with their legacies, and secretly devotes her energies to saving animals from the death camps of medical device labs. Across the pond as you might say, beautiful Martha Landnauer similarly loses all who are dear to her in a tragic road accident, and learns how to use computers in an age so long ago that Keira Knightley was then the only other woman to know code. Martha uses her amazing tech skills to build up her late husbands firm of headhunters in the medical device field.\n\nAnother endearing character is the black junior reporter for the Washington Post who against all odds gets a great scoop into a FBI quest to identify a 14-year old crime wave. Young Michael Montgomery proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that a good journalism school can make even a medical device fraud scandal interesting and hire-worthy. By the end of the book he triumphs over seasoned reporters three and four times his age, and wins the affections of his crush, an FBI staffer whos gorgeous and sexy as well as Jodie Foster-esque smart.\n\nImpressed by this book, I hope he writes several more in which Jay Harris intuits whole profiles out of people with just a glance, or inquiring simple things like were you one of twins? I personally do not understand the art of the profiler and, to add to Harris mystique, Buuck never spells out exactly how Jay Harris does it. But we believe it, oh yes indeed. Buuck can take unlikely story elements and spin them over decades until they build a narrative trap made out of spiderweb but thick as barbed wire, into which the evil fly saunters, and then dies squirming. One of his best characters is a paid assassin who also has a grudge against the medical device industry. Im amazed so many people know about an industry about which I know nothing, particularly one that seems to do nothing but kill animals and disappoint those who implant their devices. Beside Jay, I would love to hear more adventures of Martha, Mary and Michael Montgomery, who all meet in a taut, exciting climax set around a steep railing in a Texas hotel during a wedding reception for I won't say who. Five stars for The Second Profile! A round of exotic cocktails for the man who put it all together in an unlikely combo of gore, scientific acumen, sex appeal, high fashion, hit men, J-school and suspense.","Product: literary biography\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Entertaining, lightweight fun, especially for Anglophiles\n\nReview: Congratulations to Penelope Hughes-Hallett for coming up with a novel way to put together a book of historical subjects and reference--by narrowing her focus to one particular dinner, and the people who came to it, she can actually find more insight and give us a broader picture of her multiple subjects than if her canvas, like one of Haydon's, was big across as the River Thames. Haydon emerges as a provocative, vain, loveable and talented man with an incorrigbly high opinion of himself, a sort of rogue, but a heroic Englishman in the best sense. As other reviewers have noted, William Wordsworth--not usually a sparkplug of fun or dynamism--comes off terrifically well, perhaps he was a man at his best with a tableful of male peers and far away from the women who perplexed him so. I hope other cultural historians pick up on Hughes-Hallett's \"meal\" method and soon, perhaps, we will have an \"Immortal Lunch\" or \"Breakfast\" too.","Product: Warm Bodies by Donald R. Morris\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Bring This Back To Print!\n\nReview: This warm-hearted comic novel about a Lieutenant (junior grade) in the peacetime US Navy of the 1950s should be back in print, it is a minor classic of its time and place. It was made into the kind of stupid Hollywood film ALL HANDS ON DECK (1961) but the book has a wonderful charm and it's filled with rueful stories about the Navy that will ring true with anyone who's ever been in the service--or been in love, because it is a pretty good love story too.\n\nDonald Morris went on to more sober literary chronicles, he became the author of the amazing THE WASHING OF THE SPEARS which attempted to tell the story of the Zulu's war against ther British from the Zulu point of view. It is said that Hemingway gave Morris the idea for his groundbreaking book.\n\nYou can see in WARM BODIES his sympathy for other races, as the most memorable character in the book is an enlisted man called S.E. (Shrieking Eagle) Garfield, a genius with hardware who refuses to speak anything but his native Chickasaw. (In the film this character was played by Buddy Hackett, who did a pretty good job but of course he wasn't Indian.)\n\nThe book details the plight of naval officers who aren't married, \"confirmed bachelors,\" and how they try to make themselves comfortable homes on board their ships. In one funny episode a girlfriend tries to teach Morris how to make \"something called beer balls.\" In another storyline he tries to goose the sailors into doing more chipping of rust off the hull of the ship. \"Chipping irons never wear out, and they never break. Sailors may surreptitiously drop them overboard, but the boatswain invariably has new ones ready. No one was ever been able to make a boatswain admit that he has run out of chipping irons. Rudolph Rush claimed that eighteen and one half per cent of the United States defense budget was spent on chipping irons.\"\n\nSince Morris wrote the book, the term \"Warm Bodies\" has passed from naval slang into the general population, but it's worth going back and seeing how he phrased it. \"A Warm Body is a man with at least one arm and two fingers who can pick something up when he is told to. Warm Bodies can carry boxes, count small objects, turn on lights, chip paint, and sweep.\" Sounds like zombies, don't they?\n\nPat Boone played Donald Morris in the long-ago film, and Barbara Eden played Sally Hobson, the Southern girl from Little Hominy (near Lye, Virginia) with whom he falls in love. What a book! What a great raconteur!","Product: Collectible Back Issue Comic Boo\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Back to the Beat\n\nReview: The eighth season of Buffy begins with a drift across the sky, Buffy and three slayers seemingly floating through space, though Buffy is carrying what looks like a huge gun. Gun? What happened to the prohibition against slayers using firepower? Oh well she was always on her own trip anyway and answerable only to her late mother, sometimes. Whedon must have made a deal with actress Sarah Michelle Gellar, for it's her face, at least the best stab illustrator Georges Jeanty can give at it. Wonder if SMG is feeling a little, I don't know, overexposed right now? Maybe that's part of the joke about there being three doubles for Buffy, one in Rome dating the Immortal, one to come in \"The Chain\" I guess, and the other working as a decoy drawing vampire fire with her looks and general Buffy demeanor. And a fourth in Hollywood still trying for that acting career in such bombs as THE GRUDGE and SOUTHLAND TALES--the way Cordelia started out on ANGEL, a hasbeen before she really gets started!\n\nAnyway, Xander is directing operations and has a lovely, shy second in command, Renee, who's halfway in love with him and don't think he don't know it! What a switch from the old days when Xander still had two eyes and his virginity.\n\nThe main Big Bad this season is going to be some kind of military industrial thing trying to rally the American public around the concept of the Slayers as \"terrorists.\" Tall order but, to his credit, Joss is making this development more or less thinkable. They have that huge crater that used to be Sunnydale as evidence of nuclear-like power manifested by Buffy . . . And it looks like a familiar rival of Buffy and Willow's has been waiting for just this moment to resurface . . .\n\nBut which one? Here's a clue, the old mnemonic for remembering the spelling of \"arithmetic.\" A Rat In The House May Eat The Ice Cream!"],"string":"[\n \"Product: CRAZY SEXY CANCER - WELLNESS VERSION\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Her Metier Is Helping Others Overcome Fear\\n\\nReview: She never really does reveal what makes cancer sexy, but surely part of it is her developing romance with the man behind the camera, Brian Fassett. Brian makes himself indispensable to Kris, and is at her side no matter what New Age diet she tries next. Even when she's down, he stays up. In fact Brian hardly shows any emotions in the video, he's just a steady sort of man for a bubbly and optimistic woman.\\n\\nHer dilemma is a tragic one: she has an inoperable and untreatable cancer that paradoxically enough doesn't need treatment because its growth is undetectably slow. What's the sense is subjecting oneself to nauseating chemo when, in fact, you're doing fine without it? And yet she sometimes suffers from existential panic, for even though she's not in pain or even \\\"sick,\\\" she's a walking time bomb and one of these days that cancer might spread.\\n\\nShe's a lot like Chloe Sevigny and no wonder she wasn't getting many parts as an actress, she was probably losing all the good ones to Chloe. My wife says I'm crazy and that Kris Carr is charismatic. However, she's not charismatic enough to make me eat 80 percent raw foods and start juicing, and she becomes sort of johnny one note about how delicious juices are and how much she's in love. Of course she's delighted to be alive, and she surrounds herself with other young women stricken with cancer and they are her posse (didn't see any of them at her wedding though, maybe they're just illness friends and not wedding guest type friends). Sad to see the brilliant black playwright struggling with getting one final play done! We learned that the woman, Oni Faida Lampley, a brilliant actress and so great in the Kevin Costner movie DRAGONFLY, died last month and this movie is a great tribute to her spirit, though her death of course is not covered in this tape. Maybe there will be a sequel to talk about those young women for whom the diets and juicing do not help.\\n\\nOn an amusing note, Kris Carr has many Julia Roberts-style montages of herself doing funny walks across the screen, sometimes breaking into the \\\"funky chicken,\\\" in an assortment of size 4 play clothes and kooky hats. I counted and there are 11 such montages in the film, more than any other movie I ever remember seeing. A record?\",\n \"Product: CRAZY SEXY CANCER - WELLNESS VERSION\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Her Metier Is Helping Others Overcome Fear\\n\\nReview: She never really does reveal what makes cancer sexy, but surely part of it is her developing romance with the man behind the camera, Brian Fassett. Brian makes himself indispensable to Kris, and is at her side no matter what New Age diet she tries next. Even when she's down, he stays up. In fact Brian hardly shows any emotions in the video, he's just a steady sort of man for a bubbly and optimistic woman.\\n\\nHer dilemma is a tragic one: she has an inoperable and untreatable cancer that paradoxically enough doesn't need treatment because its growth is undetectably slow. What's the sense is subjecting oneself to nauseating chemo when, in fact, you're doing fine without it? And yet she sometimes suffers from existential panic, for even though she's not in pain or even \\\"sick,\\\" she's a walking time bomb and one of these days that cancer might spread.\\n\\nShe's a lot like Chloe Sevigny and no wonder she wasn't getting many parts as an actress, she was probably losing all the good ones to Chloe. My wife says I'm crazy and that Kris Carr is charismatic. However, she's not charismatic enough to make me eat 80 percent raw foods and start juicing, and she becomes sort of johnny one note about how delicious juices are and how much she's in love. Of course she's delighted to be alive, and she surrounds herself with other young women stricken with cancer and they are her posse (didn't see any of them at her wedding though, maybe they're just illness friends and not wedding guest type friends). Sad to see the brilliant black playwright struggling with getting one final play done! We learned that the woman, Oni Faida Lampley, a brilliant actress and so great in the Kevin Costner movie DRAGONFLY, died last month and this movie is a great tribute to her spirit, though her death of course is not covered in this tape. Maybe there will be a sequel to talk about those young women for whom the diets and juicing do not help.\\n\\nOn an amusing note, Kris Carr has many Julia Roberts-style montages of herself doing funny walks across the screen, sometimes breaking into the \\\"funky chicken,\\\" in an assortment of size 4 play clothes and kooky hats. I counted and there are 11 such montages in the film, more than any other movie I ever remember seeing. A record?\",\n \"Product: The MagniLamp (GN-55) from Carson is a fully adjustable hand-held or hands-free magnifying lamp with a scratch resistant oversized acrylic lens (Lens Diameter: 4.0 inches). This magnifying glass has a 2x power magnification with a 3.5x power spot lens. It is compact and lightweight and makes for a great low vision reading aide. The MagniLamp is perfect for any desktop or workbench. It is LED lighted with 2 super bright LED lights. The MagniLamp is powered by 2 AA batteries (not included). The flexible, fully adjustable neck allows you to position the magnifier lens to the point where you need it most. The MagniLamp is extremely versatile and can be used for reading fine print, labels, books, magazines, coupons, model building, hobbies, soldering, arts, crafts, needlework and other tasks. Use the 3.5x power spot lens for close inspection of currency, coins, stamps, insects, wildlife, small electronics and more! The MagniLamp is backed by Carson's limited lifetime warranty. At Carson, we strive to make sure our customers are 100% satisfied with the quality of our magnifiers. We are so confident in our magnifiers that we back them with a Lifetime Limited Warranty! Carson will repair or replace your magnifier if it is found to have manufacturing defects in materials or workmanship. Please contact Carson for additional warranty details.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Convenient And Money Saving\\n\\nReview: You don't have to use the stand but for me that's the whole point of the item. So many magnifiers leave you unable to do fine knitting, sewing or woodworking because your hands just aren't free. Even reading a book becomes a chore if you have to use both hands to keep the book from flopping closed in your lap, and yet using a magnifying glass with your teeth is not practical. This stand answers the needs of many a busy man or woman. For you could poke the magnifier into a nearby shelf and position your work underneath it, but this stand obviates the need for that.\\n\\nYou can magnify your material so it looks as though it's twice the real size, and there's a spot to double that size too for fine calibrations. I gave one to an old friend who makes tin soldiers out of old fishing lures, and it's incredibly detailed work which he pursues with a specially built little soldering iron. It's a tool so tiny that if he sets it down on the arm of a sofa it gets lost in the slipcover, except for its heat. This lighted spot, he says, allows him to make three times as many toy soldiers in one session than ever before, even when he was younger and nimbler in the fingers.\\n\\nFor those of you who just want to focus a bright spot light on a hard-to-see object like a will, this might be the answer. One of my specialties is rare books and detecting forgeries in and of first editions (or \\\"so-called\\\" first editions), and recently I pulled my MagniLamo over to my library table, where a first edition of one of Yeats' Cuala Press broadsides was lying. Concentrating all of its power on the spot where Yeats was supposed to have signed the work, I could see right away it was a rubber stamp or ballpoint reproduction of Yeats' signature -- not a bad forgery, all things considered, and one that might have cost me plenty.\",\n \"Product: Oversized 44 x 28 true 2-sided house banner flag made of heavyweight weather-resistant 420 denier nylon. High quality applique & embroidery makes this flag fly high above the competition. Comes with sleeve for hanging on standard house flagpole and also has hang tabs for added versatility. Length: 28. Width: 0.5. Height: 44\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: A Magic Carpet of Pride\\n\\nReview: A kind friend brought over the flag pennant knowing my love of the Cardinals and of bright, cheerful things in general. This baby is no pushover, either. It's nearly a square yard of flapping, screaming Card Fever. I have three poles outside my window, and this pennant fits nicely via the top sleeve so that neighbors can't help but notice that a Cards fan lives in their hood. One or two of them have teased me, saying that my Cards banner seems to be slightly larger and hung higher than the traditional US flag (the \\\"Stars and Stripes Forever\\\"), but as I tell them, that is just an optical illusion due to the color red being so prominent on the banner, both on bird and background, what you might call the \\\"field.\\\"\\n\\nEven those who don't follow the ballgames will recognize the familiar red bird, its good nature and its competitiveness with other birds. The cardinal, as we all know, has staying power. It's the team that boasted over the years such Hall of Famers as Stan \\\"the Man\\\" Musial, and Grover Cleveland Alexander, not to mention Cy Young himself, Dizzy Dean, Rabbit Maranville, Leo Durocher, the Fordham Flash Frankie Frisch, and Enos Slaughter, just to name a few. The banner is as big as a magic flying carpet; let it take you away on a never-ending tour of imagination and baseball firepower.\\n\\nFirst thing in the morning, I will order another one through Amazon.com, and take my chances. Which if my neighbors and/or fellow Cards fans shall I gift with this red surprise? Not everyone has the big personality it takes to display a red flag outside your front door, especially here in dim, foggy old San Francisco, where our own ballteam has plenty of vociferous boosters. Well, we'll see. In the meantime, let the red bird soar and to all who know better, better luck next year.\",\n \"Product: Oversized 44 x 28 true 2-sided house banner flag made of heavyweight weather-resistant 420 denier nylon. High quality applique & embroidery makes this flag fly high above the competition. Comes with sleeve for hanging on standard house flagpole and also has hang tabs for added versatility. Length: 28. Width: 0.5. Height: 44\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: A Magic Carpet of Pride\\n\\nReview: A kind friend brought over the flag pennant knowing my love of the Cardinals and of bright, cheerful things in general. This baby is no pushover, either. It's nearly a square yard of flapping, screaming Card Fever. I have three poles outside my window, and this pennant fits nicely via the top sleeve so that neighbors can't help but notice that a Cards fan lives in their hood. One or two of them have teased me, saying that my Cards banner seems to be slightly larger and hung higher than the traditional US flag (the \\\"Stars and Stripes Forever\\\"), but as I tell them, that is just an optical illusion due to the color red being so prominent on the banner, both on bird and background, what you might call the \\\"field.\\\"\\n\\nEven those who don't follow the ballgames will recognize the familiar red bird, its good nature and its competitiveness with other birds. The cardinal, as we all know, has staying power. It's the team that boasted over the years such Hall of Famers as Stan \\\"the Man\\\" Musial, and Grover Cleveland Alexander, not to mention Cy Young himself, Dizzy Dean, Rabbit Maranville, Leo Durocher, the Fordham Flash Frankie Frisch, and Enos Slaughter, just to name a few. The banner is as big as a magic flying carpet; let it take you away on a never-ending tour of imagination and baseball firepower.\\n\\nFirst thing in the morning, I will order another one through Amazon.com, and take my chances. Which if my neighbors and/or fellow Cards fans shall I gift with this red surprise? Not everyone has the big personality it takes to display a red flag outside your front door, especially here in dim, foggy old San Francisco, where our own ballteam has plenty of vociferous boosters. Well, we'll see. In the meantime, let the red bird soar and to all who know better, better luck next year.\",\n \"Product: In America, can a man be guilty until proven innocent? Suppose you picked up this morning's newspaper and your life was a front page headline... and everything they said was accurate but not true. This is the dilemma that must be faced in this timely drama about the incredible power of the press. Michael Gallagher (played by Paul Newman in an Oscar(r)-nominated role) reads in the paper that he is the subject of a criminal investigation. Suddenly, everything he has ever worked for is in jeopardy. He confronts the author, Megan Carter (Sally Field), a relentless investigative reporter. Together they learn that the story was purposely leaked to Carter as part of a plot by the chief investigator.Gallagher's life hangs in the balance as he and Carter try to uncover the truth.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Absence of Love Interest\\n\\nReview: The movie is an OK exercise in First Amendment privileges and the power of the press to ruin innocent people's lives, but basically it turns a yawn-making subject into a Florida travelogue that rivals MIAMI VICE and De Palma's SCARFACE for imaginative use of Florida locations.\\n\\nSally Field and Paul Newman make an uneasy match together. The truth is that, at 55, he is a wee bit too old for her and might well have played her father. She isn't looking good either, but I give her credit for taking a part which isn't entirely sympathetic, for she could have traded on her lovability factor (\\\"You like me!\\\") for years without wandering into the heavy waters of something like ABSENCE OF MALICE. Paul Newman has a role made for him, down to the twist \\\"Sting\\\" ending which will remind you of a dozen other movies he made over the years (and continues to make, God bless him). --Such as THE VERDICT or BUTCH CASSIDY.\\n\\nWith his frosty blue eyes I can see him playing an Irishman, though it's a stretch. This is right around the period where his screen persona began to go over the top, from leading man to full-on legend, and he hasn't really aged since. Eighty this year, Newman remains one of our favorite leading men, but ABSENCE OF MALICE doesn't really do anything for him one way or the other. Melinda Dillon, whose career really should have been a big one, shows a lot of restrained power here, but nothing that suggests that she and Sally Field should have switched roles as was whispered back during the original release of this movie.\",\n \"Product: An American nurse living and working in Tokyo is exposed to a mysterious supernatural curse, one that locks a person in a powerful rage before claiming their life and spreading to another victim.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Good horror movie, and Grace Zabriskie is awesome.\\n\\nReview: If you haven't seen the original and just want to watch an American remake, this is the one for you, plus it has the bonus of featuring one of America's finest actresses, one often underused or ill utilized by directors who don't know what to make of her sterling talent. I'm not talking about Sarah (BUFFY) Michelle Gellar, not this time, but instead I speak today of Grace Zabriskie, the actress who plays the elderly woman who sleeps on the floor and seems so haunted by the violent deaths of everyone she knows.\\n\\nGrace Zabriskie has one of those faces you've seen over and over again, often playing disturbed or Satanic mothers along the lines of Angela Lansbury's character in THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE. Her other forte is playing supportive, rather helpless and pathetic mothers who are nevertheless sweet and loving. I first became aware of Ms. Zabriskie's sweeping talent while watching the US soap opera of the 1980s, SANTA BARBARA. She took a nothing part and filled it with every kind of theatrical, filmic gesture, elevating an ordinary show into the kind of thing you would tape every day just on the off chance that she would make an appearance on it. (That's actually not fair to SB which in many ways was one of the most innovative shows on TV.) Then my friends who knew I liked Grace Zabriskie would call me and tell me they had spotted her in other shows and films. She played one of the hardened factory hands in NORMA RAE and she excelled in DRUGSTORE COWBOY. She was the mother of Laura Palmer in the series of TWIN PEAKS, and she was Debra Winge's mother in AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN. Need I say more? For twenty-five years she has been giving us her all, and in THE GRUDGE she gives no quarter to the general shoddiness of the production. She attacks the part as though she were playing Gertrude in HAMLET (which she is in a way). Watch her as she turns white, and her struggles for breath, and her anguished pleas to Sarah Michelle Gellar, the co-star with whom she seems to have the most empathy. If they had an entry for GREATNESS in the dictionary, there would be a little picture of Grace Zabriskie to illustrate the noun.\\n\\nBy the way, she is a talented writer too, much more talented than the screenwriters of most of the movies, and she's made almost 100!\",\n \"Product: The son of a Jewish Cantor must defy his father in order to pursue his dream of being a pop singer.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: If you ask me . . .\\n\\nReview: \\\"America' should have won the Oscar for the best song of 1980! Actually the year 1980 was a great one for pop music in the movies, unlike the stark crops of recent years. The official nominees included \\\"Fame\\\" and \\\"Out There On My Own,\\\" both from FAME, \\\"On the Road Again\\\" by Willie Nelson, and \\\"9 to 5\\\" by Dolly Parton. There was also one dud, \\\"People Alone,\\\" from THE COMPETITION which hasn't stood the test of time.\\n\\nIf you ask me, \\\"America\\\" should have been nominated and could have won, even under such stiff competition. And I know some of you will say the same of \\\"Hello Again\\\" and \\\"Love on the Rocks\\\" two of Neil's softer tunes.\\n\\nHowever, XANADU fans are still smarting over the total lack of Oscar recognition for the many great tracks in the movie--\\\"Suddenly,\\\" \\\"Magic,\\\" \\\"Xanadu,\\\" \\\"All Over the World\\\" and \\\"Suspended in Time.\\\" As for which soundtrack LP is the better bargain, I call it a draw!\\n\\nPS, by the way, the award went to FAME which isn't a disgrace.\",\n \"Product: Clint Eastwood and Geraldine Page star in this tense psychological drama of love and betrayal. During the Civil War a wounded Union soldier is sheltered by the headmistress and students of a girls' academy in the South. As his health returns his desire increases, but can he trust these enemy women not to turn him in? He takes his chances but soon realizes that his benefactress can't be trusted...with his love or with his life! His lustful ambition turns quickly against him and the story follows him through a series of nerve-shattering events, including realistic scenes that are among the boldest, most shocking ever witnessed on film. Directed by Don Siegel, with a sultry score by Lalo Schifrin, this bittersweet thriller of hidden passions is set in one of America's romantic eras.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Geraldine Page runs a School for Girls\\n\\nReview: If you've gotten a chance to see Don Siegel's films then you know enough to expect some violent rock'em sock'em action. The new DVD of THE KILLERS illustrates that, with even Ronald Reagan grim and nasty as all get out. In THE BEGUILED, Siegel takes on a kind of George Cukor subject, a girls academy during the period of the American expansion of the Civil War, run by Geraldine Page, the Broadway actress who had a brief run of major Hollywood parts perhaps ten years prior to this film. The BEGUILED was a kind of comeback for her, although of course her fans don't ordinarily see it that way, preferring to think that she remained big while the pictures grew small, which in a way of course is very true. She's dynamite in her scenes with Clint Eastwood, with whom she shares a rebellious spark of iconoclasm. If you've seen her tearing up the screen in SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH with Paul Newman, you'll recognize the way she can command the screen and make tough men cry.\\n\\nIn later years this film was unofficially re-made, with James Caan and Kathy Bates in MISERY. MISERY, directed by Rob Reiner, was a kind of homage to the central storyline of THE BEGUILED, with Clint as a kind of prisoner to a crazy woman, and oh, what happens to their legs in both films is shocking even by today's standards.\\n\\nSome people actually prefer MISERY but for me, I would like to see THE BEGUILED rather than MISERY because the older film also has Elizabeth Hartman in a smallish part, and she's always worth a trip to Netflix or whatever. And Pamelyn Ferdin, the little girl from WHAT's THE MATTER WITH HELEN and THE MEPHISTO WALTZ, is adorable and spooky as the girl who saves Clint Eastwood at first, only to lead him to Page's door.\",\n \"Product: \\\"Four superb young actresses\\\" (Newsweek)including two-time Oscar(r) winner* Jodie Fostershine in this \\\"intimate, astonishing and powerful\\\" (Los Angeles Times) film from director Adrian Lyne (Unfaithful) and screenwriter Gerald Ayres (Rich and Famous) that'll take you on a rock 'n' roll filled trip through the fast lane of teenage life in the San FernandoValley. Jeanie (Foster) has a lot to cope with. Her mom (Sally Kellerman) is divorced and desperate, her friends abuse drugs, and she has to deal with immature boys and \\\"boring\\\" North Hollywood High. Luckily, she's got rebel gal pals to party with till she drops! But when her best friend Annie (Cherie Currie) runs away from her abusive father, Jeanie has to grow up fast or lose her friendforever.*1991: Actress, The Silence of the Lambs; 1988: Actress, The Accused\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: \\\"A Hole In Your Old Brown Overcoat\\\"\\n\\nReview: Jodie Foster is directed carefully by Adrian Lyne to break out of her typical cerebral mode and thuis give a performnance of real physical depth. You'll notice in almost every scene she's in, she's always touching, feeling, caressing the bodies of the other performers, the boys and girls alike, she can't take their hands off them, even when she's speaking of something else. And yet her need to feel flesh doesn't suggest sexual hunger, it seems instead related to a maternal instinct, for she's the one who's always taking acre of everyone else, even her own mother (Sally Kellerman). The scene where Jodie Foster climbs into bed with sleepy, nerve-wracked Kellerman and reads to her out of Plato--of all philosophers!-- touches something real in all of us who have ever wondered, who is the other half of myself? Yes, now and then Lyne crosses over the border into a realm of David Bailey bad taste, especially in the opening credit sequence that so lovingly explores the bodies of the four sleeping \\\"foxes\\\" who are having a sleepover. It might almost be an erotic thriller from SHOWTIME. However, that's what happens when you experiment, you risk bad taste, and I'd rather have a picture that was all bad taste as long as it was doing something unique. And most of the time the photography serves the characters well, showing the weakness as well as the strength, the maturity as well as the traces of childishness on the faces of all his young stars.\\n\\nScott Baio never changes expression in the movie, but we feel we know his thoughts anyhow and can feel what he's thinking in every scene. Part of this is to the credit of an exceptionally literate screenplay. People always brag on about, oh, I don't know, Peter Greenaway, but he's done nothing as good as FOXES. Maybe it's the title, but FOXES doesn't get much credit, does it? Jodie Foster should have gotten the Oscar for this movie, she does better work here than in either of the films for which she actually won Academy Awards. And Cherie Currie is fantastic too, she actually manages to seem like she's in some documentary about her own life, fragile, endangered, willful, ultimately inexplicable like all human beings.\\n\\nAnd the whole milieu of an as yet ungentrified LA feels lived in, like an Altman landscape. You really believe these four girls live in this ugly, parched and commercialized space, so that when they visit Randy Quaid's canyon place, it really must feel to them like another world.\",\n \"Product: Back To School\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Farewell, Rodney, You've Graduated At Last\\n\\nReview: As the word reaches us that Rodney Dangerfield has died without waking up from his coma, we take this occasion to salute him by viewing one more time his comedy classic, \\\"BACK TO SCHOOL.\\\" Adrienne Barbeau is in it, playing a trophy wife of yesteryear, grasping and unfaithful, she's only in it for the money any more. Thornton Melon runs a men's store called, \\\"TALL AND FAT,\\\" and I would have liked to see a whole sequel to BACK TO SCHOOL that focussed on the day to day life of running this haberdashery. Anyway he's rich enough to be able to afford to hire Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. to write a term paper for him. Sam Kinison is in the movie too as the history professor--crazy and out of this world! And Sally Kellerman is more subdued than usual playing Diane Turner, the English professor who, in a memorable scene, makes Rodney analyze the meaning of Dylan Thomas' famous poem, \\\"Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night.\\\"\\n\\nRobert Downey Jr is in the movie too, he's always good for a laugh or two. And Keith Gordon plays the son, maybe his best part after the young son of Angie Dickinson in DRESSED TO KILL. But most of all the picture belongs to the one and only Rodney Dangerfield. Rodney, we will miss your attitude and your \\\"I get no respect\\\" whining. You always saw things the way the common man did. We salute you for your tremendous achievements. As Dylan Thomas said,\\n\\n\\\"And you, my father, there on the sad height,\\n\\nCurse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.\\n\\nDo not go gentle into that good night.\\n\\nRage, rage against the dying of the light.\\\"\",\n \"Product: Danny Kaye doing what he does best in this colorful, glossy musical written by Hart with songs by Loesser, singing favorites \\\"Thumbelina,\\\" \\\"Inchworm\\\" and \\\"Ugly Duckling.\\\" Playing the great and cuddly writer of children's stories, Kaye's Anderson hopes to woo a glamorous Copenhagen actress. It earned six Academy Award Nominations, including Best Song (\\\"Thumbelina\\\") and is available digitally remastered with stereo sound.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Mammas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Danny Kaye\\n\\nReview: HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN is a fantastic show, produced by Samuel Goldwyn as a showcase for his greatest star, with music by the toast of Broadway and Hollywood, Frank Loesser, and a veritable corncucopia of dated ballet sequences by impish little Roland Petit, at that time very much the secret boyfriend of legendary ballerina Margot Fonteyn. So what happened? Why is this movie so awful? I guess it depends on how much you can take of Danny Kaye.\\n\\nWhen I was a boy he was acknowledged by our parents as the funniest man alive, and on Saturday afternoons we were herded into matinee re-releases of his biggest hits, all of them lousy in my eyes, but my mom and dad thought them all laugh fests. Even the sad story of THE FIVE PENNIES fit into this category, ie lousy. This was my first experience with the terrible shock all children feel when we first find out our parents are 100 per cent wrong. Danny Kaye would be up there on the screen in that motley cap with little bells on it, playing medieval in THE COURT JESTER, and all the parents in the theater would be sobbing with laughter, while all the kids were snarling and mashing chewing gum into the cement floor of the cinema. In HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN, Danny Kaye is platonically, but extremely in love with Zizi Jeanmaire, and even way back then I knew she was mis-cast. The filmmmakers must have wanted to use either Leslie Caron or Moira Shearer, and instead somehow wound up with the giggly, cross eyed Jeanmaire who sort of looks like a taller version of Georgette on THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW. In the meantime she is married to Farley Granger. The erotic tension between Danny Kaye, supposedly a heterosexual, and Farley Granger, ditto, is greater than that of Granger and John Dall in Hitchcock's ROPE, with Jeanmaire sort of a substitute shuttlecock the two are parrying over, like a piece of Steuben glass. She's dreadful and she dances through at least 45 minutes of the movie. Her name is \\\"Doro,\\\" I suppose sort of a Danish name, but really nobody ever was named \\\"Doro.\\\"\\n\\nThe real Danish beauty is Erik Bruhn, the best dancer of the 1950s, who has a prominent part in the dancing and almost saves it from Petit's wretched excess, but actually you'll have more fun just pressing your freeze frame button on Bruhn's beefcake, without having to actually watch the choreography (he's in the ice skating ballet).\\n\\nFrank Loesser's songs are all good, but there's only six or seven of them. Danny Kaye hams it up and hogs them all. He is dangerous to children, he pretends to love them and yet looking at his mad little eyes you know he hates them.\",\n \"Product: 1183 AD: King Henry II's three sons all want to inherit the throne, but he won't commit to a choice. They and his wife variously plot to force him.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Pork in the Trees Come Morning\\n\\nReview: Anthony Harvey, who replaced George Cukor as Katharine Hepburn's favorite director during this period, had his work cut out for him just keeping a cast of hotheads in line. O'Toole and Hepburn get most of the plum dialogue, though Anthony Hopkins does well with his portion. Henry gets sarcastic and nasty, always taking the dim view of things, whereas Eleanor is more pragmatic and even optimistic. Who can forget their exchange about hell freezing over? \\\"The day those stout hearts band together is the day that pigs get wings,\\\" he raves. She takes a moment, glances mischievously, and replies, \\\"There'll be pork in the trees come morning.\\\" Indeed the movie is one long debate about human nature and how and if it came be improved.\\n\\nWhen I was a boy my favorite play was Goldman's LION IN WINTER and Dad took me to the Broadway version which starred Rosemary Harris, then very young, probably not even thirty yet, and she was outstanding. It was hard to see how a woman so young could have given birth to three grown sons. In the Broadway cast some of the sons were probably older than Harris. But as anyone knows, she is an extremely powerful actress with a sort of ageless craggy look. Probably even as a baby she never looked young, and she was perfect as Eleanor.\\n\\nAnother prominent reviewer credits \\\"Julie\\\" Harris with creating the part on the stage. No sir, I'm afraid you've got your Harrises mixed up. I like Julie Harris as an actress too, but the play would have ground to a halt with Julie Harris and her fey sweetness playing the tough as nails Eleanor of Acquitaine.\\n\\nThe play was great, but it didn't have Katharine Hepburn, and it didn't have the fantastic brass and metal clanging choral work of John Barry's famous film score. That music won't let you rest; more than any other element it brings the past into the action of the movie in an almost visceral way. You almost forget you don't actually speak Latin yourself, it sounds so natural.\",\n \"Product: Doris Day portrays a rich young wife living in London who is the target of life-threatening phone calls and near fatal accidents. Everyone becomes a potential murderer, including her debonair husband, an adoring next- door-neighbor, and a construction foreman working nearby. Academy Award Nominations: Best (Color) Costume Design.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Last Of Its Kind\\n\\nReview: Doris plays Kit Preston, an American woman who is stuck in London with an attentive businessman husband who is sort of absent-minded in that charming British way. Tony Preston is played by Rex Harrison, then at the peak of his career and relishing the big box office opportunities that were coming his way after his comeback in Broadway's MY FAIR LADY. For following the suspicious death of a girlfriend, Harrison had been thrown out of Hollywood in the late 1940s and bounced back to the stage, he and his wife both labelled box office poison for everyone blamed him for the death of our beloved Carole Landis, and others derided Lilli Palmer for sticking to him.\\n\\nThe triumph of MY FAIR LADY was spoiled a bit by the illness of Harrison's wife, Kay Kendall, who died during the filming of MIDNIGHT LACE. Rex Harrison was notoriously difficult to deal with anyhow, and despite Doris Day's best efforts, she never felt comfortable with him, and he did nothing to hide his contempt for her American accent, and mocked her singing whenever possible. Perhaps this feeling of being off-kilter aided Day's performance for she was able to turn her wounded feelings into her performance, as a woman alone in a cruel world of British people who are all more sophisticated than her, and the only people who are nice to her are Americans (or played by Americans, such as Myrna Loy and John Gavin). What do British people make of MIDNIGHT LACE, where everyone English in portrayed as a martinet, a drunk or a nut?\\n\\nOh well, Doris' characterization is shrewdly observed and frequently makes the viewer feel she was in real distress. She had played this type of role before-such as her turn in Hitchcock's thriller THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (also set partly in London!) and as the air hostess in JULIE, married to the erotomaniac Louis Jourdan. In LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME she had reached similar heights of paranoia and betrayal, and some have criticized MIDNIGHT LACE for not bringing anything new to her rainbow of roles. Is it a coincidence that this was her last true dramatic part? (Well, there was CAPRICE, the spy thriller, but that is as much a slapstick comedy as it is a drama.) After Kit Preston, she could only have played Medea to feel more pain. The comfort of cozy cute parts must have seemed an attractive harbor to Doris Day, and of course she did them spectacularly. Still it's a shame she never again played on our heart strings as she had in the past.\",\n \"Product: Bought new -viewed once. Republic Pictures Home Video series. From Private Collection. Pristine Condition.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Elizabeth Montgomery on DVD\\n\\nReview: She is one of the miost beautiful of all Hollywood actresses as well as among the most beloved, thanks largely to her years playing Samantha on BEWITCHED. She was Hollywood royalty, the daughter of the dashing patriot Robert Montgomery, a man with huge influence in the movie world, an actor of light comedy who matured during the War years into a serious actor, then a director and producer with enormous resources. And yet Elizabeth Montgomery's large screen appearances can be counted on the fingers of one hand. What happened?\\n\\nShe is simply sublime in this, her very first movie role (though some say she appears in THEY WERE EXPENDABLE in the short bit where Robert Montgomery remembers his family back at home). She made a big impression on moviegoers, and Otto Preminger took every care to make her look luscious, designing her period clothes with care and giving her many closeups, some of them quite extraneous to his story of a man on trial for vilifying the Armed Services with his rash Cassandra-like predictions of doom for the Air Force. People must have wondered what was Elizabeth Montgomery's character even doing in the picture? It is certainly dragged in from left field. And yet she was a welcome attraction in this movie. That one pink and orange Schiaparelli concoction Preminger dressed her in made her look like a tall, cool parfait. And yet what happened after this movie? Nothing--not another movie for seven years -- not until BEACH PARTY (1963) where she's only in the movie for like twenty seconds! It's totally unfair.\\n\\nIt is said by those in the know that Elizabeth was in line to play the parts Preminger was planning for her to take in his upcoming films, BONJOUR TRISTESSE and Shaw's SAINT JOAN. She wiuld have been perfect in both, of course. Was it that she wouldn;t go along with his notorious casting couch system and that's why she lost both parts to the unbalanced and yet quite talented Iowan Jean Seberg? And she was relegated to appearing on TV dramas including her own father's vanity showcase? Poor Miss Montgomery married the much older Gig Young and tried to get away from her golden trap, and yet she never could until she unleashed Gig Young (who had been a bosom buddy of her Dad's) and stopped playing Daddy's little girl, much like Jane Fonda had to do later on in the 1960s. Anyway let this wonderful film stand in as a testament of a career that took a much different direction. But it could have been Elizabeth Montgomery who played all the parts that say, Shirley Jones or Natalie Wood later did. She was just squelched.\",\n \"Product: A remake of the William Shakespeare classic play. Appalled by the murder of his mentor, Julius Caesar, Mark Antony declares war on his assassins - especially Cassius and \\\"the honorable\\\" Brutus, who only reluctantly took part in the crime.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Lead Performance Rotten as Hell\\n\\nReview: But the rest of the movie is good. It doesn't have the severity of the Brando version by Mankiewicz, with tough old Louis Calhern as Caesar and Satanic Edmond O'Brien as Casca. That was in a stark, nearly noir black and white--even the red hair of Mankiewicz' leading ladies Deborah Kerr and Greer Garson was muted to a silvery gray that served them ill. In this sixties rendition, the colorful hills of Rome call back fond memories of Zeffirelli's stagings of ROMEO and TAMING OF THE SHREW. Unfortunately the DVD gives us an inadequate and misleading account of most of the colorful setups, which on screen were a beauty photographed by Ken Higgins, the man who brought us Swinging England with his location work on GEORGY GIRL and DARLING.\\n\\nStuart Burge, the director, had a spotty career, but for a while he was on a roll and he was Olivier's favorite director for a bit. He directed the film of UNCLE VANYA with Olivier and Michael Redgrave, as well as Olivier's unbelievably hammy take on the Moor of Venice in OTHELLO. I wonder if Olivier was busy when Burge was hired for Othello, or if Heston kind of bumped Olivier out of the way. Surely Olivier would have made a more suitable Brutus than did our own homeboy Jason Robards Jr. whose performance has got to be in the hall of shame, hopelessly conceived, and possibly executed while he was drunk. There's no other explanation for how bad he is.\\n\\nCharlton Heston, Richard Chamberlain, Robert Vaughn otherwise make you think that Americans can really take Shakespeare in stride. It's a shame we didn't see Heston in more Shakespearean parts. He can be a terribly good actor, and even in bad parts is pretty persuasive. This is his Planet of the Apes Mark Antony, fully committed to saving the world for the human beings. I enjoyed the movie, but in some parts you'll be stupefied by the shoffy condition of the release, and by Robards' bottom of the barrel (or bottle?) take on Brutus.\",\n \"Product: A black soldier faces the bullets of the Japanese and the arrows of racial prejudice in this powerful WWII drama staring Frank Lovejoy and Lloyd Bridges.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: \\\"Coward, Take My Coward Hand\\\"\\n\\nReview: Watched this one having read Donald Bogle's book and curious about James Edwards, MGM's first black leading man in the 1940s. Bogle paints Edwards as a dangerous rebel, skilled in New York acting techniques and like other newcomers to the screen, Brando and Clift, striving to bring a new realism to glossy studio confections. And in the period there seems to have been a shortlived interest in producing progressive, \\\"social awareness\\\" pictures that inevitably included racial struggle. All of the Hollywood studios made one or two apiece during a single year, and MGM turned out this one (along with INTRUDER IN THE DUST, an old fashioned, classic film compared to the B-movie innovations of HOME OF THE BRAVE). It is a curious piece of work, but Edwards' performance is transfigurative. He rips up the screen as Private Peter Moss, a black serviceman attached to a white volunteer platoon of engineers assigned to mao out a dangerous Pacific atoll at the height of World War II.\\n\\nBlacks weren't integrated into the larger Armed Services, and only later would Harry Truman force the policy of integration down the army's throat, but of course there were individual liberals and \\\"social conservatives\\\" everywhere, even during the 1940s. Lloyd Bridges plays a boyhood friend of \\\"Mossy,\\\" and he seems genuinely, even freakishly colorblind, not understanding why Moss has a problem being his friend. For him, racism doesn't exist except if individual people see it as a problem. His character, Finch, a warm volkstmlich type of guy, gets captured by the Japanese on the island and the rest of the platoon, in hiding while surveying. Were the Japanese so cruel as this movie makes them out to be? To lure the remaining men out of the underbrush, they pierce Finch with bayonets to make him scream, over and over again. No wonder Mossy suffers from post traumatic stress and loses the ability to walk again!\\n\\nA kindly yet gruff psychiatrist (Jeff Corey, authoritative and hammy as Freud himself) is assigned to snap Mossy out of it and return him to society in one piece.\\n\\nBut how can he do that when society itself has race consciousness embedded in it?\\n\\nIt's the rare US film in which a contemporary poem, in this case Eve Merriam's \\\"The Coward,\\\" is given a full and dramatic close reading that preciptates the action on the one hand, and on the other helps to characterize one of the other GIs, the gruff sergeant, Mingo (Frank Lovejoy), whose wife supposedly wrote the poem, then a Dear John letter to him.\\n\\n- Only we two, and yet our howling can\\n\\nEncircle the world's end.\\n\\nFrightened, you are my only friend.\\n\\nAnd frightened, we are everyone.\\n\\nSomeone must make a stand.\\n\\nCoward, take my coward's hand.\\n\\nWhile Edwards is ostensibly the main character, HOME OF THE BRAVE is Corey's show too, and their pas de deux in the film's last quarter has the genuine power and sweep of director Mark Robson's best work.\",\n \"Product: The tragic life of jazz great Bix Beiderbecke, one of the few white musicians to florish in the mostly black jazz scene.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Impressive Parable of Race Relations in the USA\\n\\nReview: I was struck watching it this time around with how very much the racial politics of Dorothy Baker's roman a clef are present in Curtiz' version of the story. Well, as it happens the movie was written by Carl Foreman, the left-leaning screenwriter, soon to be blacklisted, who was responsible a few years earlier for HOME OF THE BRAVE, the first Hollywood film to delve seriously into the problems of the black soldier and vet, the film that made a star out of James Edwards.\\n\\nIn YOUNG MAN, white trumpeter Rick Martin's nightly pilgrimage to \\\"GALBA'S\\\" club is almost an obsession with him, obviously he is there to somehow suck up the black jazzmen's talent for improvisation and, for lack of a better word, you might call \\\"soul.\\\" Every night he's there, for hours, after his own shift gets off at 1:00 a.m., and sometimes they invite him up with jam with them. It's during one of these late night sessions that he delivers a heart stopping, angel-sweet version of Richard Rodger's luscious \\\"WITH A SONG IN MY HEART.\\\" He's framed in a black and white composition with lustrous grays glinting up and down the trumpet, courtesy of the insanely talented cinematographer Ted McCord, who did so many of the Warner Brothers noir-tinged features, everything from FLAMINGO ROAD to JUHNNY BELINDA. Juano Hernandez is the black jazz master Art Hazzard, who plays the hidden idol of both Kirk Douglas' and Doris Day's character. When they watch him play in the nightclub, a conventional set without his usual fire, the disappointment, bewilderment and realizations in their gaze show us so much about race relations in the USA in the quick-moving postwar era. Hernandez was on a roll in 1950, fresh from his triumph in Clarence Brown's INTRUDER IN THE DUST, this Curtiz film was but one of three movies he made this year! And soon, for Juano Hernandez too, the so-called \\\"gray-list\\\" would remove him from cinema screens for years to come: too uppity, too independent, too ethnic, too righteous. Check out his portrayal of Hazzard in this film, it is a corker.\\n\\nYOUNG MAN WITH A HORN is a mood picture, and Kirk Douglas is up for the challenge. It's nearly a tone poem of difficult relations between humans--Kirk's guilt, Doris' sudden and embarrassing desire for him, Lauren Bacall's rich, affluent, smorgasbord sexual preference games. It has something for everyone, if you've got nothing to lose and the sky over your head has lost its stars.\",\n \"Product: EXCELLENT MOVIE\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: RIP Teresa Wright 1918-2005\\n\\nReview: With great sadness we find out today that Teresa Wright has died, in Connecticut, at the age of 86. She wasn't necessarily a legend like some of her peers, but her acting embodied a warmth and a skill much like her somewhat later counterpart Patricia Neal, who oddly enough also (like Wright) made her name on the Broadway stage in Lillian Hellman parts. When Teresa Wright first came to Hollywood, the studio system was alive and kicking and it gave her initially the best roles of her career. She arrived in Hollywood with the rest of THE LITTLE FOXES company, and stayed around to make little pictures like PRIDE OF THE YANKEES and Mrs. MINIVER.\\n\\nOne of her husbands was Niven (\\\"Duel in the Sun\\\") Busch, who wrote wonderful parts for you in PURSUED and TRACK OF THE CAT, two films which parlayed your ingenue perfection against Robert Mitchum's sexual bravado. It is said that he wrote DUEL IN THE SUN for Teresa Wright to play, though I can't imagine her writhing across the desert with the elan of Jennifer Jones. Another husband, Robert Anderson, made memorable use of her screen image in I NEVER SANG FOR MY FATHER. For some reason she was a writer's actress, and many of Hollywood's top screenwriters vied for her services. No one did better for Teresa Wright than Thornton Wilder, the Pulitzer Prize winning playwright who wrote SHADOW OF A DOUBT with the teen specialist Sally Benson. Wilder's memorable portrait of a small town, filled with ordinary people, that becomes the churning pool of a serial killer, was instantly acclaimed upon its release in 1943, and in the years since has come to be seen as one of Alfred Hitchcock's finest and most revealing pictures. And Teresa Wright gleams at the center of the whirlpool as \\\"Charlie,\\\" on the surface an innocent enough teenager in a small Northern California town, but with secret depths that link her filmically to \\\"Uncle Charlie,\\\" the part Joseph Cotten played so beautifully. It's not only that their names are the same, but they seem like two halves of the same person; and the audience senses this without being hit over the head with it due to careful writing and brilliant staging by Hitchcock. In its own way SHADOW OF A DOUBT is as disturbing and transgressive as any of the contemporary film noir pictures, and will haunt you forever once you see it.\\n\\nGoodbye, Teresa Wright, your powers of shadow and light will live forever. You are an actress for the ages.\",\n \"Product: Detailed item info Jennie Lee is the lead singer of a rock 'n' roll band from a tough, working-class neighborhood. The band members are an unlikely group of friends with volatile personalities who are determined to take the band on the road for the summer. Product Highlights Video Trailer: Product Details Number of Tapes: 1 Rating: PG-13 (MPAA) Film Country: USA Sound: HiFi Sound, Stereo Sound UPC: 086162165535 Additional Details Genre: Dramas Format: VHS\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Astounding Scott Coffey Showcase\\n\\nReview: Yes, it is a good movie but what is important is the performance by Scott Coffey that lifts it out of the doldrums and raises it to cinema lightning. Whenever he appears, you can't watch anyone else, including such certified scene stealers as Julia Roberts and Trini Alvarado. Trini, as the car thief Mooch, gets to have some nice romantic moments with Nicky, the young pianist who could have led the Van Cliburn lifestyle but instead has opted out to discover his heterosexuality on the beaches of Charleston, SC, playing volleyball and managing to work up the nerve to kiss the abrasive, sociopathic Mooch with his gorgeous, plumlike lips. As Jennie Lee, the woman who sets the plot in motion with her scheme to leave the rough city and have a rocking beach party summer, Justine Bateman is worth every penny the producers paid her.\\n\\nI can't personally imagine how she ever missed being not only the number one movie star in the world, but also a pop singer on the order of Joan Jett or Kelly Clarkson.\\n\\nShe sings everything with conviction, and when the plot requires her to stumble on a song, she does it equally well. And she doesn't stop rocking as long as she's in front of a mike.\\n\\nThe plot is sort of about Liam Neeson who used to be somebody in the rock world; his beach home is decorated with gold records documenting his storied career, and he's burnt out since his wife died, but along comes one young girl who gets him to write that one song again. JUST LIKE RENT. This song, \\\"Talk to Me,\\\" isn't as egregious as \\\"One Star Glory,\\\" or whatever the Rent version is, but in both shows, they build up the song through the whole plot, so that whatever follows can't live up to the hype. But who cares when Scott Coffey is 1) showing off the craziest flat top hairdo of the whole 1980s 2) then switching to a hat and suspenders 3) playing a really tall piano standing up, his little hands making flapping motions on the keyboard as though he were making pancakes or pizza. His chest, and stomach, are absolutely flat--you could make a level out of him for your I-Phone app. I fully expected him to run off with Deborah Harry at the end of the movie but, instead, he -- well, you have to see for yourself. He is marvelous whether essaying Rachmaninoff or Steve Cropper, he's the Coffey Man.\",\n \"Product: VHS\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: \\\"--And Don't Be Stingy, Baby.\\\"\\n\\nReview: Garbo seems to float onto the screen like a genie let out of a corked bottle, she moves like liquid mercury, slumping at the bar and barking at the aggrieved bartender, \\\"Gimmie a Visky--chinger ale on the side--and don't be stingy, baby.\\\" It's as though the director, Clarence Brown, wanted as soon as possible to get it out of the way--Garbo's first words heard on film--to jump right into the heart of the picture. Her performance is all jitters and sighs, restless, despite the heavy alcholic haze that lingers over the film like a miasma, despite the apparently refreshing boat scenes, which really look as though they were filmed out in the ocean. If anyone could steal this movie away from Greta Garbo, it would be Marie Dressler, who has a small part--astonishly small, considering her stature at the time of one of MGM's biggest box office draws. If Garbo was MGN's prestige star, Dressler was the one the people loved and they'd flock to see her in anything. A strange kettle of fish when a fifty-something former hasbeen becomes the world's greatest star. It would be an unlikely occurrence if this was to happen again in today's Hollywood, although I suppose there was a moment, in 1986 or so, when Bette Midler was the biggest sensation in the movies and she is said to have saved Disney Studios with a string of box office hits. From DOWN AND OUT IN BEVERLY HILLS through BEACHES she approached Marie Dressler's total box office domination . . .\",\n \"Product: 42nd Street (Colorized) [VHS]\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A Study in Competing Dance Styles\\n\\nReview: Peggy Sawyer is a young woman with big wooden slats on her feet who just loves to dance (Ruby Keeler, who plays Peggy with the old style wooden taps on her shoes, had been the protege of the gangster Owney Madden in the Prohibition nightclubs of New York, and it is said that the singer Al Jolson had to pay $100,000 to release Keeler from Madden's \\\"contract.\\\"\\n\\nAt this distance it's difficult to see what made Ruby Keeler the center of this titanic struggle of lovers' jealousy, but she seems like a nice enough person. Her famous \\\"clunky\\\" style of tap was not her own invention, but she brought the style forward from turn of the century models, giving it a new kick start in some sequences here that look like she's trying to nail down the entire stage floor. Those who compare her dancing to that of Ginger Rogers are missing the point--actually, they are making an important point in that in this single film we can see several generations of dance styles combine and ignite, Keeler's nightclub stage style, a hangover from vaudeville; Rogers' new, ballroom influenced and infinitely more subtle style (which she gives only hints of in 42nd Street) and the whole dance-non-dance world of Busky Berkeley, the choreographer whose \\\"girls\\\" didn't really have to move a step, they can just stand there while the camera travels around them executing the movements, a totally cinematic dance creation which became one of the few original inventions in film in the early 1930s.\\n\\nBerkeley's massive dance creations look forward in time as well as back (to the stage models of Max Reinhardt and other \\\"super directors\\\") and their futuristic qualities are often noted and admired. It was a style that culminated, oddly enough, in the massed athletes and marchers assembled by Berkeley's admirer, Leni Riefenstahl, in her OLYMPIAD of a few years later.\\n\\nIf they remade this film today they might dress Dick Powell up differently in the scene in which Peggy stumbles into Billy's dressing room, catching him in his underwear; but they couldn't cast a cuter guy or a fresher, more vibrant sexual vibe. He's fantastic in the film, and he gives Ruby Keeler sex, just as she gives him back her adoration, a mirror of ours.\",\n \"Product: New VHS TAPE!!! still in plastic wrapped, in excellent condition. Fast shipping...U-2\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: First and In Some Ways The Best--\\n\\nReview: --of Greer Garson's many films with Walter Pidgeon. Greer Garson was an odd sort of movie star. For one thing she always seemed to be about 10 years older than the parts she was cast in, making me wonder if maybe she lied about her age when Louis B. Mayer first found her in the UK. (Mayer had made one last scouting trip to Europe right before war broke out, and sailed back home not only with Greer Garson but with Hedy Lamarr in another stateroom! Not a bad haul!) She had to be lit carefully otherwise her long face took on the aspect of a friendly horse. And once she was established in Hollywood, she displaced Norma Shearer as the \\\"queen of the MGM lot,\\\" effectively kicking Norma upstairs and into retirement, but basically because Mayer was tired of catering towards Shearer and he saw Garson as the ideal replacement.\\n\\nIn BLOSSOMS IN THE DUST we see something of the way she might really have looked, for she was born to act in Technicolor, and the compositions of the furnishings, costumes and even the interior decoration are all astonishinly lovely. For its day, BLOSSOMS was sort of a scandalous picture. I suppose MGM felt it could get away with a pinch of \\\"naughtiness\\\" if they had Garson to give that naughtiness the \\\"ladylike\\\" touch she was famous for. Another of her Pidgeon pictures was actually titled, \\\"SCANDAL AT SCOURIE.\\\" In real life, she was responsible for two scandals, she married her own \\\"son\\\" (the actor who had played her son in MRS MINIVER), and also going on and on and on for the world's longest acceptance speech when she picked up the Oscar for the same film. Her speech in BLOSSOMS to the Texas legislature is long, but watching it you can see why Americans loved her. She represented a fantasy of England, a fantasy so broadly based that she could play a Texan (Edna Gladney), preposterous as it seems, and get away with it, just as she later got away with playing Madame Curie (!!)\\n\\nThe story is sentimental but we don't watch Greer Garson movies for slapstick value nor for biting social commentary, we watch them to provoke tears which she always does, simply and certainly as cutting up an onion. She's great and this is one of her very best pictures.\",\n \"Product: VHS\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Hepburn, Huston, Moorehead and More\\n\\nReview: June Allyson was pencilled in tentatively as the studio's choice for Jade, the young and rebellious daughter-in-law of a provincial Chinese family, until Joseph Pasternak was made aware of Katharine Hepburn's sudden interest in the property. As a newcomer to the studio, Allyson was foisted off into a lesser property, Two Girls and a Sailor, to allow Ms. Hepburn the chance to stretch her muscles once again. Pasternak would reward Allyson for her acquiescence by gradually building her and Van Johnson into a screen love team that eventually eclipsed (in terms of box office popularity) the older pairing of Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. Looking back on DRAGON SEED today, it is hard to imagine it with June Allyson's husky jocularity, but that is because we are used to Hepburn's New England angularity which makes her Asian makeup almost transparent. Most of the actors look (initially) bizarre, but we get used to them pretty quick. By the time the film is about thirty minutes on, we have forgotten the repellent and offensive makeup work, and we are concentrating on the story, and on the wonderful way Jack Conway had with actors. And oh, what a band of actors he has assembled here. Aline MacMahon did little memorable screen work, though she popped up in everything from GOLD DIGGERS of 1933 to DIAMOND HEAD, but was she ever better than here, playing essentially the O-LAN role from THE GOOD EARTH? Hurd Hatfield is splendid, evil with a human face, evil nearly decipherable. Agnes Moorehead is a good match for him, slimy and repellent, utterly self-obsessed and a liar. Conway stages the big scenes with the bad characters with relish, almost as though he enjoyed them more than the milk and water meekness of Turhan Bey, etc.\\n\\nPauline Kael used to recommend this film, freaky as it is, for one superbly directed setpiece that, she said, equalled the best of Hitchcock for downright sweating suspense. All those who have seen this film know which scene it is--and for those of you who are DRAGON SEED virgins, you're in for a treat.\",\n \"Product: vhs tape.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: The Wind Beneath My Wings\\n\\nReview: Lillian Gish evening last night when we had Hambone and Hillie on the one hand (late period Gish where she was brought in like an old mailbox, kept on the corner for a scene or two, then hauled away back to her town house) and THE WIND on the other. Of the two we preferred the later film. I used to love Lillian Gish and believed in her and I believed in the sanctity of silent film and all those wonderful sentiments Kevin Brownlow and Louise Brooks wrote about. But not any more. It took me a few reels of old style Lillian Gish to get over it. Everyone knows the story from the title alone, but what you may not understand is that Gish starts to go crazy the minute a breeze hits her face, and it doesn't get better.\\n\\nSPOILERS. Finally she gets someone who says he will take her away to a place, a quiet place, where the wind doesn't blow. Should have been the looney bin if you ask me. But in a way, she is still a remarkable actress even under the outdated conditions of film acting that seem so ludicrous to us today. (However, why is it that properly viewed in the proper number of frames per second, etc., most silent acting holds up today, Pickford, Swanson, Novarro, Fairbanks, Bow, etc., all remarkably naturalistic and real--and then there's Gish, acting acting ACTING with every quivering pore of her body--on a shelf all her own--the shelf of madness). I liked the way instead of becoming more fluttery as she does in Duel in the Sun, her Letty in THE WIND straightens her shoulders more and more, the way Bette Davis sort of acted with shoulders, so that by the time she's really mad she resembles one of the old straightback chairs in my grandmother's parlor.\\n\\nHer acting choices, while counterintuitive and madly different, are sometimes just meh. People say she was thrownout of MGM after just five pictures in a row, all flops, but they're not taking into account that audiences just didn't want to see her any more. They had had enough and they wanted her back on the New York stage or playing Ophelia in the real, Danish castle of Elsinore, and then later on in life they enjoyed seeing her in SNOOP SISTERS type vehicles. There was always Dorothy Gish for people to warm up to, while Lillian stood to one side, aloof and cold, and perhaps a little disapproving of Dorothy's mad, drunken passion for Louis Calhern, but never showing it--so she was capable of the kind of restraint Victor Seastrom insisted she check at the old corral during the filming of THE WIND. Much has been made of the tragic ending the suits at MGM deleted, but I'll tell you, if it ever comes to light, and the ominous delay in the DVD release of THE WIND might be a sign that it's in the wind (as it were), I will personally destroy every copy of the directors cut they issue, if it's the last thing I do.\",\n \"Product: Brand New VHS TAPE Sealed (as shown) \\\"Great Lie [VHS]\\\" Fast shipping..(T-21)\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: One of Goulding's Best\\n\\nReview: Reading the recent biography of Edmund Goulding inspired me to see as many of his films as I can. During 30 Days of Oscar on Turner, they showed THE GREAT LIE which I have not seen in probably over three years. Age has not slowed it down much. For many moderns, it's hard to understand the box office appeal of a man like George Brent. (I put to one side the somewhat different reasons why we might be excused from wondering how Bette Davis and Mary Astor ever became stars.) Brent plays a horndog in THE GREAT LIE who marries Mary Astor while he's drunk, and then lives to regret it once he realizes his \\\"true\\\" love is for Bette Davis, who happens to be Astor's friend. See, it's a sordid little story, raised to true heights of elevation when Astor announces she's pregnant with Brent's baby and then Brent's plane goes down into the Amazon!\\n\\nThinking he's dead, Astor panics and with the baby's best interests at heart, Davis offers to bring up the baby as her own. It's funny how in this film Astor plays the hard-hearted playgirl (a variation on her Brigid Shaughnessy role in THE MALTESE FALCON) while Bette Davis does surprisingly well as the \\\"nice girl\\\" from down South, when in truth she could have played the other part very well.\\n\\nHattie McDaniel is also in this movie--one of her better parts, though really they're all the same, however in this film both Astor and Davis treat her almost as if she was an equal, it's rather refreshing. And Hattie's brother, Sam, is in the movie too, it's always twice the fun when this talented pair of siblings got to co-star.\\n\\nThere's lots and lots of music, as befits a Goulding film, for Sandra (Mary Astor) is supposed to be a concert pianist and actually looks as though she's playing some of the passages. Did you know Goulding wrote most of the music for most of the films he directed? His talents knew no bounds.\",\n \"Product: Russ Ward, after 30 years of producing Broadway plays, is ready to quit. His secretary, Ellie Brown, on being given notice, tells him she loves him. Russ proceeds to turn this into a hit play starring Ellie and romance her in a May-December affair.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: \\\"A Lucky Star's Above, but not for me\\\"\\n\\nReview: The film was actually a remake of an earlier 30s film called, \\\"ACCENT ON YOUTH.\\\" Directed by a forgotten master, Wesley Ruggles, ACCENT ON YOUTH is a sparkling comedy that starred Herbert Marshall as the older (50ish) playwright, and Sylvia Sidney as his devoted secretary Linda. Marvelous Astrid Allwyn played Genevieve, the other woman--Allwyn, a familiar screen presence in the 30s with dozens of small parts to her credit, including an important one in CHARLIE CHAN'S SECRET. And amusingly Lon Chaney Jr. figured as one of the \\\"young people\\\" in ACCENT ON YOUTH. He wasn't yet typecast in horror parts.\\n\\nIn the 1950s remake, Gable plays the producer and Carroll Baker his young, naive assistant (the names are changed in the remake so she's no longer LINDA. They have a May-December romance that's actually pretty touching. It might be Carroll Baker's best part, she's not straining to be super-sexy nor is she twitching with Actors Studio neurosis. Gable gives anm easy, restrained performance as a man who's always had more sex appeal than he's been comfortable with. Lilli Palmer is supposed to be more Gable's age, and here she plays his former wife with whom the sparks are still flying. The theatrical milieu is appropriately amusing, quips flying like darts, and Walter Lang, the director of such celebrated screen musicals as THE KING AND I, STATE FAIR, and CALL ME MADAM, really knows how to fill up the screen with lively tableaux. The script is by John Michael Hayes, the renowned screenwriter who worked with Hitchcock on several of his best 50s pictures, and of course the original play was written by Samson Raphaelson, one of the geniuses of the American theater in the 1930s. They don't get much more amusing than the tender, rueful, BUT NOT FOR ME. You'll be humming the wonderful Gershwin tune from reel one: \\\"With love to lead the way/ I've found more clouds of gray/ Than any Russian play could guarantee . . .\\\"\",\n \"Product: It Started in Naples VHS Tape\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: For Better or for Worse\\n\\nReview: I walked into the living room and the TV was on but suddenly my wife, sitting near the remote, snapped it off as though it was something she didn't want me to see, her face nearly expressionless except for a gleam of worry in her eye, the sort of look one wears when ones keeping a secret. But we are both New Narrative writers and usually there are no secrets between us! When I picked up the remote and switched it to reverse, I could she that she was watching some kind of highly colored vintage melodrama set on the Island of Capri. Eventually she broke down in giggles and admitted hysterically that she was watching Sophia Loren and Clark Gable in Melville Shavelsons It Started In Naples (1960).\\n\\nThis is really my kind of picture and not hers, so I must have infected her with rom-com fever! Well, rewind it, Ill watch it with you, I offered, but she wouldnt hear of it, she was too caught up in the action. She said she would just recap things for me. Previously, on It Started in Naples, she began, and quickly running through how this little 8 year old boy was the center of a custody war not between two divorcing people (perhaps there was no divorce in Italy in 1960, we guessed), but between Sophia Loren, whose sister had married a bohemian American ex-pat calledwe never did find out what he was called, but he was the younger brother of important US corporation lawyer Clark Gable. And her sister and his brother had perished in a Fiat crash, or perhaps the car had gone off the narrow twisty mountain roads above Capris beautiful blue watersleaving behind a son whom aunt Sophia Lorena second rate cabaret entertainer with little talent but a fabulous figurewas trying to bring up, when she thought of it. Eventually they were going to get together, but not before a lot of neorealismo hijinx and a lot of vino and cheese and grapes went down, and sexy dancing and captivating photography. Many on IMDB claim that this is their favorite movie of all time. Well, for one thing, it is a blistering anti American satire of imperialist business and law practices, the whole Ugly American thing Clark Gable embodies. This is harsh pseudo Billy Wilder stuff! Its like A Foreign Affair with Loren in the Dietrich role, and Gable in the Jean Arthur role. Gable is incredibly withered and shrunken, but still magnetic, and game for anything. In this role its almost tragic that his American sophistication and wariness of being played almost loses him his chance to find the one boy he had never even known he wanted, his 8 year old self, half American, half pleasure-mad Italian.\\n\\nThe little boy is like nothing on earth Ive ever seen in the movies. With long arms and legs, and tiny playsuits, his face often dirty, he gets drunk, sneaks cigarettes, just wants to have a good time in Capri. His English is rusty, and we could barely make out what he was saying half the time, but hes learning American slang (Im a tough guy, see?) as fast as Gable can dish it out. Often in his underweara weird Italian pair of Ur-Jockey shorts youd never find on an American boy--he stays out all night, steals trinkets and things he thinks his aunt might like, knows far too much about sin and gambling, and avoids the hated school house. His mouth always running, his bare feet stirring up a continuous whirligig cloud of dust, like the old Roadrunner cartoons, or Pigpen from Peanuts. Hes thoroughly criminal, like little Jackie Earle Haley from The Bad News Bears, or actually like a boy from an earlier Italian strain of cinema, like the boy in De Sicas Bicycle Thief. De Sica is in the movie too, playing Gables lawyer, super tall and handsome and expansive and a double-crosser, like everyone else in this tourism-driven island.\\n\\nLoren is gorgeous, but more slovenly than usual in her US films, often wearing one weird blue ensemble with green underpinnings that doesnt know if its a house dress or a cocktail dress. Its like the producers forgot to buy her any more outfits. This one factor allows he movie to go into overdrive, insisting on its status as neo-realistic, that she should keep wearing the same dress every day like an ordinary housewife of Italy. And the sunny criminality of the boy (the child actor, Marietto, who actually was about 13 when he played the role), and De Sicas practiced vamping, its practically a potted history of postwar Italian cinema. But in bright color, brighter than anything Visconti or Bava ever achieved. Its like the cinematographers and set designers here were practicing for upcoming Jacques Demy movies, for not until The Umbrellas of Cherbourg would there be a movie where you really didn't care what was happening on the screen, everything was so luscious like flowers blooming before your eyes. When Gable and Loren slip out of a motorboat and into the velvety waters of Capris Blue Grotto, part of your brain knows its not them, but you don't care, they're svelte silhouettes at play in all the moonlit waters of the earth.\",\n \"Product: Benny plays a big band trumpeter who falls asleep and dreams he is an archangel, sent to destroy earth because persecution and hatred have soared out of control. A light-hearted, farcical approach to the apocolypse that's quite enjoyable, despite Benny's longstanding jokes about being ashamed of it.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Too Cold For Comfort?\\n\\nReview: Jack Benny and Alexis Smith will never win any popularity contests as the m,ost lovable stars in the movies. For both of them, there's a sheen of cold that keeps them from the complete warmth we love about our top stars, from Marilyn to John Wayne to Ingrid Bergman; for Benny and Smith, it's like the old carton of sherbet that Debbie Reynolds finds in her freezer when Albert Brooks comes home to live with her once again. He opens it, it's all coated with ice, and Debbie explains, \\\"Honey, that's just its protective shell!\\\"\\n\\nHowever this vehicle plays up to their strengths, with Benny as a peculiar angel (a trumpeter with a delusion of angelhood) and Alexis Smith looking radiant as she pretends to play a harp in a 40s orchestra. She's no Harpo Marx but the instrument itself suits her down to the ground. The big set-pieces and the heaven sequences are designed and photographed by Robert Burks in an amazing simulacrum of classic Surrealist cinema; Burks, of course, would later shoot all the great Hitchcock pictures of the 1950s, from Strangers on a Train to Vertigo, and he anticipates some of the magic realism of those pictures with his imagery here, it's just confounding what he was able to do. You'd think that George Pal was behind these fantasies.\\n\\nI don't know why some movies just slip into obscurity, and maybe the financial debacle of this one has given it a bad name, but it is prime for rediscovery now. If it's a failure it's a fascinating one. Just give it a chance and you'll find yourself with your jaw down on the floor. Had HORN BLOWS AT MIDNIGHT been signed by Ernst Lubitsch, or Michael Powell, it would be popping up on Ten Best Lists all the time, and Criterion would have issued a deluxe DVD edition of it long ago (a limited edition, probably and it would have been taken off the market thus causing artificial price increases all over the internet).\",\n \"Product: Disney Adventure\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: In Search of Box Office Validation\\n\\nReview: Hayley Mills made this picture after starring in the weird psychodrama WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND for director Bryan Forbes and before beginning work on one of her most well-loved features, playing Nancy in SUIMMER MAGIC. Compared to those two films, IN SEARCH OF THE CASTAWAYS is no classic, but what it has in spades is large lashings of adventure and action.\\n\\nMaurice Chevalier had been graylisted for many years due to suspicions that he had collaborated with the Nazis during the Vichy regime of World War II. Nothing was ever proven one way or the other, but it took the combined push of Billy Wilder, Vincente Minnelli, and Jean Neguelsco to rehabilitate Chevalier in the late 1950s, in a 1-2-3 punch (respectively, LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON, GIGI, and COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS, each of which managed to feature Chevalier opposite a Hollywood leading lady (Hepburn, Caron, Kerr) in order to assure success. After that, directors continued to employ Maurice Chevalier and he made nearly as many films in the last 15 years of his life than he had in the prime of his box office appeal (1930s). He was often asked to step in and lend Gallic charm to many an international souffle, and if pressed he would sing, dance, and wave around his famous hat a little. In SEARCH he has what might be the largest of all his post-GIGI roles, and surprise, he's quite believable in the part. Maybe they should have used him as an action star more often. I can almost picture him playing Robert Shaw's part in JAWS!\\n\\nSEARCH also has a youngster playing the part of Hayley Mills brother, the actor Keith Hamshire, who was not used to Disney filmmaking and indeed never made another movie of any kind again, despite rumors for years that he later played in one of the early blockbuster porn films by Gerald Damiano.\\n\\nAll in all, this is a pleasant film with two wonderful performances and a rollicking scenario from the brain of Jules Verne.\",\n \"Product: Marilyn Monroe plays a secretary to a nervous boss. Comedy.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: They Don't Get Any Cuter\\n\\nReview: This was Harmon Jones' first job as a director, after working as an ace editor for 20th Century Fox for some time (THE HOUSE ON 92ND STREET, BOOMERANG, ANNA AND THE KING OF SIAM were all edited by Jones). It's a good one, though not so much for Marilyn Monroe's brief appearance. She's good, but she's not \\\"Marilyn\\\" in this one, and in only one brief moment, when she sticks out her tongue pertly at her exasperating boss, will viewers recognize the comic Marilyn of the years to come. That said, she is already very beautiful, but this is a movie filled with beautiful women paired with homely or goofball guys.\\n\\nThe best reason to watch AS YOUNG AS YOU FEEL is for the charming performance by veteran Constance Bennett. \\\"Connie\\\" plays Lucille McKinley, a discontented society wife whose husband (Albert Dekker, a creep) is only interested in money and social position (and in Marilyn, his secretary), leaving poor Connie to fritter around looking for love in all the wrong places. She is wonderful playing the part, her long years as a star allowing her to steal the show whenever she appears on screen. She has a wide range of facial expressions, pouts and moues, and you can read her thoughts through her eyes--a marvelous gift for an actress. Her interplay with her son, the teenage Russ Tamblyn, is priceless. He can see right through her to her inner insecurity, and he plays on it for all it's worth. The scenes where she responds to Monty Woolley's invitation to \\\"rhumba\\\" with him are beautifully played and should have garnered Constance Bennett an Oscar nomination.\\n\\nJean Peters, meanwhile, plays the daughter of Allyn Joslyn and Thelma Ritter. They're all sitting around the breakfast table acting very Brooklyn and ethnic (it's the same menage author Paddy Chayefsky used later, to better effect, in his screenplay for A CATERED AFFAIR), in rumpled bathrobes, and meanwhile Jean Peters is eating breakfast in a sleeveless skintight evening gown cut down to there. She's very alluring, you can see why David Wayne is so mad about her. On the other hand, Thelma Ritter plays Della as though the spirit of camp had pitched its last tent on her aging brow. I usually love her, but she is completely overboard in this one, playing a housewife who regrets the day when she used to be \\\"on the stage\\\" as some kind of nightclub singer. The soundtrack plays \\\"Temptation\\\" whenever she appears or reaches for her scrapbook of her show business past. It would be funny if it wasn't so sad.\\n\\nThe central gimmick is so implausible it's not even worth mentioning, but you get the picture, somehow everyone in America mistakes Monty Woolley for someone he's not, and he becomes famous for it. Watching this today, it's clear that Harmon Jones had the talent to be a new kind of Billy Wilder, but subsequent studio interference saw him switch his attention from social comedies like this one, to B Westerns, and then out of features entirely and into TV. It's a shame, isn't it, but his inspired direction of the sublime Constance Bennett will live as long as anything by, say, Ernst Lubitsch, it's that delightful.\",\n \"Product: Drama\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Now, Where are my Pants?\\n\\nReview: James Bridges only made eight movies, all of them flawed but fascinating, and September 30, 1955 is as good a place as any to start to penetrate the heart of the mystery. For one thing, it has the feel of an intensely personal, autobiographical film, heavily influenced by Truffaut and Cassavetes, and yet it is filled with unlikely contrivance and coincidence, and the two different modes never coalesce properly--but a remarkable tension builds between them. Just when you're ready to write this one off, a moment of pure cinema drops in from out of nowhere to change your mind. The movie is \\\"high concept\\\" to a degree, since it is all about what happens to Richard Thomas in the hours directly after James Dean's death in 1955. Thomas plays Jimmy J, a sensitive young college student down South and a huge Dean fan. We sometimes forget that when Dean died he had released only one big movie, East of Eden, and the two others that cemented his legend had yet to appear. But he already had a legend, and Jimmy J wants to embody it, to serve it, like a first century Christian in a Cecil de Mille epic of Rome.\\n\\nHe is torn between two girls, the homecoming princess Charlotte, played by Deborah Benson, and the freaky Billie Jean (Lisa Blount, who unfortunately has to perform in the shadow of Susan Tyrell as her mom). His friends include Tom Hulce and Dennis Christopher, both playing straight in this film, or somewhat straight, it's like Jimmy J has two little Platos running with him. And then there's Dennis Quaid! Jimmy J loves James Dean, Tom Hulce loves Richard Thomas, and Dennis just stands around looking gorgeous and glowering.\\n\\nBridges' films usually manage to get his leading man down to his underwear and in September 30, 1955 he takes this structural element to extremes, it's almost as though, distraught by Dean's death, Jimmy J can't seem to remember that boys wear pants. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Depends on how you feel about the former \\\"John Boy\\\" trying, through sheer acting concentration, to summon up a single ounce of sexual charisma. The movie uses (\\\"borrows\\\") snatches of Leonard Rosenman's famous Dean theme and sometimes this seems a bit heavyhanded, and yet one forgives this movie almost everything simply because it's so odd and ambitious.\",\n \"Product: June Bride [VHS]\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Noel Coward Meets Ma Kettle\\n\\nReview: Not an important picture per se, but a pleasurable one. Davis and Montgomery can do it all, and their acting in these ridiculous roles is outstanding. All of their years of training and perfecting their screen timing pay off here, as with effortless elegance and wit they parry back and forth the bright lines handed them by the screenwriting team. It's a pyrotechnic display of sparks and lightning, particularly at the opening scenes, when Montgomery attempts to seduce Davis in her own apartment. When the \\\"HOME LIFE\\\" crew arrives in Indiana it's almost as if a different movie was starting, less Noel Coward than Ma Kettle.\\n\\nIsn't that Barbara Bates playing the putative June Bride--the one who plays Phoebe at the end of ALL ABOUT EVE? It's chilling to see her here acting all phony with Bette Davis. She's supposed to be a down home girl, and she proves it with a strange Southern accent as though she'd been brought up in Mississippi instead of Indiana. Her younger sister, \\\"Boo,\\\" is the real heart of the picture and as played by Betty Lynn she's not as adorable as she's supposed to be. Miss Lynn was much better as Loretta Young's daughter in MOTHER WAS A FRESHMAN, where the camera could really take a long look at the hard edges behind her round eager face. In contrast, Mary Wickes, so often a hapless clown in the movies, actually looks pretty nifty, even sexy, in her modified \\\"New Look\\\" sophisticated clothes. Fay Bainter, playing Paula, goes through the whole picture apparently believing she is the main character in the film, but she's tremendously warm and loveable.\\n\\nAnd what happened to Raymond Roe, who plays \\\"Bud,\\\" the young groom? He's like a cross between Farley Granger and Darryl Hickman, but blond. He had interesting parts in STRANGE BARGAIN and DEAR WIFE, but this is his biggest part by far (that I know of). By the time 1950 rolled around his career was all but over. Why? One of the great Hollywood mysteries is why some actors seem to have been given contracts, billing, the \\\"buildup\\\" and maybe they were let go for some reason, but today they look great. Raymond Roe should have been a big, big star!\",\n \"Product: VHS WAS ONLY VIEWED ONCE, COVER IS PERFECT FOR A GIFT. FULL OF SUSPENCE DURING WORLD WAR II IN OPERATING ROOM DRAMA.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Tragically Overlooked Gray and Campbell\\n\\nReview: I always hate movies that open up with all of the cast introduced one by one wearing surgical masks. But here, it works better than in its rivals, because of the suspense factor involved. When Alistair Sim's narrating character, Inspector Cockrill, tells us that two of these people will soon be dead, and a third a murderer, naturally we get curious. Yes, it is a bit of a stretch distinguishing between the four female characters, and in fact I think the screenwriters actually forgot to do much about one of them (or else some scenes hit the cutting room floor), but they are played by some tragically overlooked stars of England, so I enjoy myself just working out who is who. When Freddie can't make up her mind between Trevor Howard, to whom she is engaged, or Leo Genn, the little Mike Myers lookalike who's supposedly a brilliant surgeon here, she's hard to sympathize with, and in fact she seems a bit of a tart.\\n\\nShe is played by the brilliant Sally Gray, whose own personal life was more dramatic than any two or three of her movies. She was an up and coming starlet in the early 40s when a nervous collapse took her off the screen for four or five years. GREEN FOR DANGER was only her third film after her dramatic comeback, and audiences would have been scrutinizing \\\"Freddie\\\" carefully, the way they did Gene Tierney in ADVISE AND CONSENT, for any lingering signs of instability. It's still hard to understand how she got insured. Gray seemed to want to travel deeper into neurosis after her cure, and of course the British cinema likewise had grown darker and more crime-driven. Then we have Judy Campbell as Sister Bates, the tall actress with the Kay Francis look. Campbell's films are few, she only made ten, but she is well known for her creative partnership with Noel Coward, for her introduction of \\\"A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square,\\\" and for being the mother of the only and only Jane Birkin! Little of Campbell's chic or cheer shows through the anguish of her characterization of the abandoned mistress here, but she certainly commands attention when she runs around the nurses and doctors dance crying to all and sundry that she has figured out the murder.\\n\\nThat bit is one of the screenplay's occasional clunkers. Like the end when Cockrill asks all the suspects to re-enact the crime, using Freddie as bait. The plot needs these things to happen, but Sidney Gilliatt's direction fails to disguise how convenient and unbelievable these developments are.\\n\\nSally Gray was to re-team with Christianna Brand (the author of the novel GREEN FOR DANGER and one of the certified Golden Age detective writers) on another film, the little seen THE MARK OF CAIN, directed by the fascinating Brian Desmond Hurst, that Criterion should release next.\",\n \"Product: A Jewish matron falls in love with a Japanese widower.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A Majority of the One Percent\\n\\nReview: I was watching the bizarre makeup jobs in the current Cloud Atlas, in the segment set in Korea, and Hugo Weaving and Jim Sturgess are made up in what amounts to \\\"yellowface\\\" when suddenly I remembered watching A Majority of One long ago and thinking, why on earth did they put Alec Guinness in the part of the Japanese millionaire? Back then, the answer was that people thought Alec Guinness was such a great actor he could play anything! Even 20 years later, Guinness was being cast as a native of India in David Lean's film of Passage to India, and it didn't really work there for him. Maybe times had changed, but even in the 60s there must have been an eyebrow or two raised up seeing Guinness acting like Peter Lorre with gray stripes painted under his eyes, and looking down at the floor instead of looking at Rosalind Russell's face.\\n\\nBasically the acting is so stylized that many will not buy it, but after awhile, I just let the pleasures of the story sink in and before I knew it, my liberal tear glands had been stimulated and I was all abawl and nosedeep in Kleenexes. Watching this movie must have made Rodgers and Hammerstein wonder why they had even bothered with the sturm und drang of South Pacific, because here was South Pacific, except perfected. They must have felt like two John the Baptists preaching the coming glory of A Majority of One. In fact it's not surprising that Hammerstein died not too long after the release of the Majority of One movie--his work on earth complete. Maybe South Pacific does better in the scenery department, though those tragic red and yellow and blue filters are still recalled with horror by every musical fan. But at least the actors seemed like they were outside, somewhere, in South Pacific. I daresay that stage sets were used both for Brooklyn, Pan An cabin interiors, and all of Japan--which amounts to two plain looking streets and as dockside steamer lounge. The rest of the budget for the movie must have been spent in hiring box office titans Russell and Guinness. I'd like to say a few words concerning the performances of Madlyn Rhue and Ray Danton as Russell's daughter and son-in-law. They are wonderfully Mad Men in their ways of dressing, speaking, and sexing it up. Danton is particular swaggers through his ambassadorial role as though he thinks he';s playing the lead in a biopic about Hugh Hefner. The young actor who plays Eddie, the vicious Japanese houseboy, is worthy of a Quentin Tarantino cameo himself. He is extraordinary in his part, a shot of sheer adrenaline in a very dainty and refined picture.\\n\\nAs many have noted, Rosalind Russell is supposed to play a Jewish widow in this movie, and she is famous for trying to relate Jewish holidays and customs to Japanese ones, as though to underline the point that it's a small world after all. I have no idea of how to say You're welcome in Japanese, but I expect that if ever put to the test, I would say, Don't Touch My Mustache, since Russell advises her charges to do just that, not once, but three times in the picture. If you liked Hiroshima Mon Amour, A Majority of One might upset you with its somewhat casual attitude towards the markets opened up by the atom bomb, but there you go, you can't please everyone. After awhile you do notice how the movie is one big commercial for capitalism, the trade conference stuff is so boring until you realize that the whole point is that America and Japan can get along because both countries have an appreciation for getting wealthy. Would Guinness have gotten to first base with Russell had he not been a plutocrat? Hard to say.\",\n \"Product: A Canterbury Tale is a 1944 British film by the film-making team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. It takes its title from The Canterbury Tales of Geoffrey Chaucer, and loosely uses Chaucer's theme of 'eccentric characters on a religious pilgrimage' to highlight the wartime experiences of the citizens of Kent, and encourage wartime Anglo-American friendship and understanding.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: \\\"Do You Believe In The Soul?\\\"\\n\\nReview: It doesn't have the instant charm of I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING, and Sheils Sim, the ingenue whose first film role this was, doesn't have the swanky, leading lady adorableness that Wendy Hiller radiates in IKWIG, and yet when all is said and done it may be A CANTERBURY TALE that you'll remember longer.\\n\\nIf you are new to Michael Powell's work you might want to watch THE RED SHOES or PEEPING TOM right away, maybe BLACK NARCISSUS. His other movies take a little getting used to, as most of them are genuinely odd. And perhaps nothing is as odd as the storyline of A CANTERBURY TALE, in which eleven young women have been molested at night by a fleeting stranger in Home Guard uniform pouring glue in their hair during the blackout. Okay, that's weird, but what's even stranger is that right away we find out who the culprit is, and the suspense is going to be, will the three pilgrims let him off the hook or not?\\n\\nOn the commentary track, Sheila Sim, now 80 something and still very sharp and lovely, recalls an earlier version of the script in which the \\\"Glueman\\\" didn't use glue at all, but rather ran around ripping girls' skirts with a pair of scissors, and in her recollection this aspect was changed because of its sexual connotations. Interesting that Powell thought of the glue-on-hair scheme since he was the film world's greatest hair fetishist, just as Cecil B. DeMille had a thing for feet. Sim relates that it wasn't until she read Powell's memoirs A LIFE IN MOVIES did she realize he was bitterly disappointed that Deborah Kerr had ankled the part, and that she (Sim) was not even a close second. But I think by the end of the film her performance is so beautiful it makes you happy Kerr stayed home and did something else instead. All of them are good, but of course the jewel in the crown is the performance of John Sweet as the American sergeant Bob Johnson, with his little slits for eyes and his mountain of fried hair and his incomparable aura of sincerity, as though America was both the youngest and the oldest nation in the world. There's nobody like him in the movies, not even Henry Fonda in YOUNG MR LINCOLN or James Stewart in DESTRY RIDES AGAIN or Burl Ives in FROSTY THE SNOWMAN is anywhere near as folksy as the amazing Mr. Sweet.\\n\\nEric Portman could be a killer, he's so cold and grim. When he and Sheila Sim share a \\\"secret understanding,\\\" the movie seems to be all about carnal love and the way it flip flops into the spiritual. Their scene, hiding in the heather on top of a hill, is the centerpiece of a modern morality tale. The film opens windows in the soul. It has a little knock in it, like a motor car. A CANTERBURY TALE has been beautifully restored; you can see every drop of glue in Sheils Sim's side-parted hair. Haven't seen them all, but I'd say this might be the best DVD of summer 2006.\",\n \"Product: Actors: Jeanette MacDonald, Jos Iturbi, Jane Powell, Edward Arnold, Harry Davenport Directors: Fred M. Wilcox Writers: Albert Mannheimer, Frederick Kohner, John Meehan, Sonya Levien Producers: Joe Pasternak Format: Color, NTSC Rated: NR (Not Rated) Number of tapes: 1 Studio: MGM (Warner) VHS Release Date: September 1, 1998 Run Time: 115 minutes\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: The Birds And The Bees\\n\\nReview: The shades of night were falling fast for Jeanette MacDonald when she opened the script for \\\"THREE DARING DAUGHTERS,\\\" originally titled \\\"THE BIRDS AND THE BEES\\\" till Joe Pasternak got his mitts on it. One quick look convinced her that she was now no longer MGM's golden girl, and in fact the studio planned to pair her with the balding, glinty-eyed Cuban born pianist Jose Iturbi, who could barely be understood through his native accent. He had a charming voice actually, somewhat reminiscent of Charles Boyer's, but everyone knew he was no Clark Gable or even a Nelson Eddy. His talent was all in his hands, not his face. As Jeannette MacDonald rang for another pot of tea, she continued to peruse the script, with growing dismay. Not only was she to be playing a mother, but she had two grown daughters and a third, younger, but even horribler one!\\n\\nGrown daughters--the aging star's nightmare!\\n\\nEspecially when one of them was going to be played by Jane Powell, then trumpeted by Louis B. Mayer as the \\\"new Jeannette MacDonald\\\"! Jane Powell is actually a talented actress and singer, but she lacks something of MacDonald's sparkle, sophistication and sexuality. \\\"Something\\\"? Make that \\\"all\\\"!\\n\\nMany have noted the end of the picture, when Powell and MacDonald make up their differences by singing \\\"Springtide\\\" together. You can see the sadness of MacDonald's eyes. There's a bit of sadness, too, in Jane Powell's hairdo, which looks as though two glazed danishes had been placed directly over her eyebrows and left to hang there, like fruit, until the tree dies. Jose Iturbi plays the new man in the life of the mother of the three sisters, who despise him because they are living in denial, hoping their dad, Charlie, might come home from the hinterlands after all. Iturbi says, \\\"You girls wouldn't approve of me if I were Hercules--Apollo--and General Douglas MacArthur all rolled into one!\\\"\\n\\nHe's no Apollo that's for sure.\\n\\nMeanwhile millionaire Edward Arnold is hanging around to make sure all turns out okay for Jeanette. It might be that he, too, was once in love with her, but lost out to the absent \\\"Charlie,\\\" one of those men who hates relationships and is afraid of intimacy.\\n\\nThe movie is a sad winding down of one of the great careers in show business, however all is not lost for those of us who love Jeanette MacDonald, especially if you can fast forward through the other scenes of the three girls interfering and scheming and pulling tricks. Not that they aren't cute girls, they are, they just are misguided and obnoxious. Obviously Shirley Temple and Margaret O'Brien were busy so they hired the other two non-Jane Powell daughters.\",\n \"Product: The town of Cavity Rock, northern California, is ecstatic. The local paper - the Cavity Rock, California Times Leader - has just been selected as America's best small town newspaper. The reward is that Cavity Rock gets to deploy its hometown reporter overseas to write a series of dispatches titled \\\"Small Town Looks at the War.\\\" And so newly minted foreign correspondent Homer Smith (Robert Young) is dragged from his eight viewing of a film starring his favorite star, Marcia Warren.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Walk Like An Egyptian\\n\\nReview: This month on TCM the star of the month has been Nelson Eddy and Jeanette McDonald, and good old Robert Osborne has been playing films by this duo every Monday night. And not just the old chestnuts either but the unusual ones that the two stars made when they were apart from each other. I suppose Mayer figured, why put two of them in the same movie, it would be more cost efficient to spread out the love. Thus last night we saw, first, the bizarre, ethereal BALALAIKA which teams Nelson Eddy with the Czech sensation Ilona Massey; and then the action switched to CAIRO, rather a different cut of cloth.\\n\\nThe credits tell the story better than I can. The credits play across a backdrop of Egyptian postcard pictures, the desert sands, filmy desert tents pitched at oases, the Sphinx in the moonlight, and yet schizoohrenically these postcard sketches have been tagged, as if by graffiti, for a child's hand has drawn stick figure pictures all over the scenery, a toy boy and a toy girl dance upon the sands, a dog barks, a gun goes off, with the pop exclamation \\\"Bang\\\" next to it. All of this indicates right away that CAIRO is one spy picture that's not taking itself too seriously.\\n\\nJeanette MacDonald isn't looking her absolute best but that's ok, she is still startlingly beautiful and chic; well, she should be, she's playing a movie star, Marcia Warren who for some reason has been stranded in North Africa since the outbreak of World War II. For company she has the incomparable Ethel Waters as her personal maid, Cleona Jones. Watch the fun as Waters attempts to steal every scene she's in from anyone who's around. In pictures like CAIRO Ethel Waters proved that she has more star power than nearly anyone else on the big screen at the time. And director WS Van Dyke nearly lets her get away with it. The looks and comments she throws at Jeanette are howlingly funny and true. Yes, she's the maid, but something fiercely independent rattles through her persona like an icy wind through an abandoned greenhouse.\\n\\nRobert Young is appealing as usual. In the past few days I've seen three Robert Young pictures and have just begun to realize what a tragically overlooked actor he is! He is, simply put, always good in a variety of roles. Here he plays Homer Smith, a real Preston Sturges sort of character, the everyday guy from back home, Cavity Lake, California, who gets to play boy reporter all over the pleasure spots and bombed out convoys of the Mediterranean. Young is a good match for MacDonald and I wish they had made more films together, for she gives him sex appeal and he gives her a chance to be the homegirl sort of everyday person she always was, deep underneath the diva trappings. Or maybe I'm projecting. People called her the \\\"Iron Butterfly,\\\" probably for good reason, but as the years go by she looks more and more like one of the premiere actresses of Hollywood; her singing is just the icing on the cake. When I was a boy I couldn't stand her singing. Now I can tolerate it. However I'd watch her reading (or singing) the phone book, she is utterly enchanting no matter what she does.\",\n \"Product: This romantic adventure, set during World War II, features two Navy men vying for the love of the same woman. Tyrone Powers stars as Lieutenant Ward Stewart, a rakish Navy man recently assigned to a new post on a submarine. While on a train headed to Washington D.C., Stewart meets teacher Jean Hewlitt (Anne Baxter), quickly falls for her, and eventually succeeds in gaining her affection. What Stewart doesn't know is that Hewlitt is the girlfriend of his commanding officer, Lt. Commander Dewey Connors (Dana Andrews). After a dangerous mission is completed, Stewart asks Hewlitt to marry him, and she accepts. Further complications develop when both officers set off together on a dangerous mission to destroy a Nazi base--after Connors discovers that his subordinate has been pursuing his women. CRASH DRIVE is a fine drama, presenting a love triangle that truly tests the conflicts between romantic love and loyalty to one's friends and one's country.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Love Triangle and Anti-Nazi Sea Action\\n\\nReview: Oliver Cromwell Jones, the black cook, is given a lot of screen time and the screen play treats him as an integral part of the mission. He is played by Ben Carter, one of the actors profiled in Donald Bogle's recent book BRIGHT BOULEVARDS, BOLD DREAMS; he was the agent for black Los Angeles actors who got in trouble with his clients because he often took the best parts and played them himself! This is definitely one of those cases, for he has a scene with James Gleason for which he should have been nominated for an Oscar, he's so good in the part--and it isn't one of Hollywood's wretched racially stereotypical parts, but one with real human feeling, dignity, comedy all mixed together. Gleason is super too.\\n\\nHowever the picture really belongs to its headlining trio of stars, and they all rise to the occasion. Anne Baxter is not photographed very well. One of the characters picks up her photograph and looks at it saying, \\\"She's so beautiful,\\\" but in truth she looks awful and her face is round as a beach ball. But she's perky, soulful, repressed in turns. I love the part where she teaching a squadron of schoolgirls how to shoot an arrow into a line of targets. The girls are dressed in incredibly tight school uniforms (archery outfits I guess) and all move like robots or the dancers in a Robert Palmer video, all releasing their arrows at exactly the same time. The odd thing is that they're supposed to be nervous and giggly about the sudden appearance of Tyrone Power, so all of them miss the target. Baxter is just terrible playing the part--did she ever get good, no not really, but they wrote better parts for her later on. However except for her face she looks wonderful and the designers have some great 40s clothes for her, including several pairs of red gloves which they must have thought would be a big trendsetter in 1943. Dana Andrews is very trim and not as creepy as usual. Acting (and good looks) honors belong to Tyrone Power, who has one of those scenes where his dotty grandma (Dame May Whitty) opens up a childhood scrapbook and points out to his girl (Baxter) a photo of her grandson as a baby boy, naked, bare ass hanging in the air. He's all embarrassed and slams the book down on Grandma's hands. They have a funny relationship. She calls him \\\"Stinky,\\\" and he greets her fondly as \\\"Butch.\\\" Dame May Whitty could play a hard, cold aristocrat; but here she's the loveable kind, sort of like Marie Dressler used to play.\\n\\nThe Technicolor transfer on the DVD is superb. I wonder when people went to the movies in the 1940s if they zeroed in on Technicolor pictures and felt disappointed when a movie was in black and white. The blues, reds, and purples of CRASH DIVE are so rich and lustrous you feel as though it had been melted down from velvet.\",\n \"Product: vhs\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Better Than FROM HELL\\n\\nReview: Give this one a chance, for very few movies (horror genre or otherwise) have been built upon an uncanny resemblance between two stars, one male, one female, and DR JEKYLL AND SISTER HYDE has a sort of gritty vitality that lifts it out of the ordinary Hammer league. Partly this is to the credit of Roy Ward Baker, but mostly it is due to the inspired playing of Ralph Bates and his female counterpart Martine Beswicke, each of them looking glorious and evil in what has become the signature role in both careers. Bates must have been an awfully small man; Martine B towers over him like King Kong over Fay Wray--not that you see them both in the same shot, but you can measure them visually because both use the same sets and in a lot of cases, Ralph Bates barely comes up to the doorknob of the Edinburgh laboratory where Jekyll does his foul work.\\n\\nBeswicke's dark eyes and pouting, petulant lips will remind 21st century fanboys of Angelina Jolie, maybe a little slighter, but even scarier in the part of Sister Hyde. It's a little kinky I suppose that she's \\\"really\\\" a man, but Ralph Bates never really gets himself in any sex situations he can't extricate himself from. I guess that would have been too much even for the decadent 70s phase of Hammer films in which nudity and Lesbianism became de rigueur (Bates had just come off LUST FOR A VAMPIRE when assigned this film).\\n\\nListening to Ward Baker, Brian Clemens and Martine on the commentary track makes you realize how much was lost first by Ralph Bates' curtailed career, then by his death. He really was a marvellous actor, even if he was short (he was able to project on screen so that audiences read him as tall and commanding).\",\n \"Product: Welcome to Port Chester University, where the Politically Correct go head-to-head with the Party Animals in the rowdiest college comedy since \\\"Animal House.\\\" With all the new social rules on political correctness, the only fun place left on campus is The Pit, an outlawed underground fraternity house. Here, no behavior is too offensive and no lifestyle too bizarre. These fraternity brothers and sisters are lazy, lawless and loud - and determined to turn PCU back into the party school it was meant to be!\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: \\\"A Bridge Too Far! Caine and Hackman in the Same Movie!\\\"\\n\\nReview: A little of Jeremy goes a long way, but I know plenty of people love him, and now that he has attained mass popularity playing the agent in ENTOURAGE on HBO, his new fans who are looking back for earlier traces of his brilliance should come here first. This is the movie that should have catapulted him into stardom, and on the DVD track a sulky, offhand Jeremy Piven reveals some of the frustration he must have felt when as it happened, the movie died a terrible death during its very first weekend at the box office and nearly ended the careers of all concerned.\\n\\nPiven is always complaining about poor Hart Bochner and how he felt stifled by Bochner's conservative direction and his insistence on sticking to the script. You'd think Jeremy was some kind of Robert Altman/John Cassavetes veteran the way he swears by improvising your lines even when you've got a really good script. Of course he had a very good bit in Altman's THE PLAYER. Directors are drawn to his ability to play a selfish, self-absorbed heel. On the DVD commentary he comes across as supremely bored with everything, including his own performance.\\n\\nEveryone who hates being PC will find their egos massaged by this light-hearted, and really very conservative movie which is really only for college students and those who remember being on the odds with the PC culture while they were in college. If you didn't go to college you won't find it half as funny as those who have. Add a point if you're drunk or high.\",\n \"Product: BRAND NEW IN ORIGINAL WRAP\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: When We Were Young\\n\\nReview: Dopy yet captivating, 1969 wears its heart on its sleeve. Winona Ryder has beautiful hippie outfits. Robert Downey Jr is fascinating to watch. His character just seems like him. Because he always plays drugged-out losers whose worlds are about to collapse, his movies always seem to be his autogiography, just like the old time-stars like Lana Turner or John Wayne. Yet in this film Kiefer's the real star, and he isn't bad. With his blond, blond hair he looks very much as though he might actually have been the son of Mariette Hartley.\\n\\nThe anti war stuff was a little cimplified but good. Winona makes a startling speech at her high school graduation, asking the crowd why we have to go fight a war that no one in the US actually understands. Watching it today, we realize we should be asking ourselves these questions all over again. I wonder if the movie might have been more of a success today than in 1988. Ryder made this film right between BEETLEJUICE and HEATHERS, when she was still a giant star, and yet it barely saw release.\\n\\nAmong the elders, Bruce Dern, Mariette Hartley and Joanna Cassidy are all excellent. Joanna Cassidy isn't as lean and mean as she is on SIX FEET UNDER, she has more flesh on her, but she looks marvelous, like Claudia Cardinale playing a hippie.\\n\\nThere's a scene where Sutherland's VW van, decked up in hippie colors, passes a convoy of soldier boys on a lonely highway, and Ryder leans out the window and makes the peace sign at them with a beatific smile. At first the soldiers respond violently and obscenely and then, as more and more trucks are passed, the mood of the soldiers seems to shift and a few give the peace sign back. Then more and more of them. All the while on the soundtrack \\\"Wooden Ships\\\" is playing (the Jefferson Airplane version). Some of the scenes were touching, others a little goofy.\",\n \"Product: VHS -GIFT QUALITY ORIGINAL USA VHS;PLAYS & LOOKS GREAT;DOMESTIC SHIPS 1ST CLASS & WITH DELIVERY CONFIRMATION!!! MUCH MUCH FASTER INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING THAN AMAZON INDICATES!!!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Magnificent Action and Thrills\\n\\nReview: If they are bringing THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY to DVD finally, then maybe it's time to unravel the complications surrounding this film and feature it on DVD. SO PROUDLY WE HAIL is one of the greatest of all war movies, and because it is told from a woman's point of view (so to speak, it still had a male director in the person of Mark Sandrich) it is sometimes ridiculed and derided, usually by armchair critics who should walk a mile in a nurse's shoes before daring to denigrate her bravery under fire.\\n\\nClaudette Colbert plays Janet Davidson. An unusual choice for a nurse, Colbert eschews most of her usual glamor (except for the San Francisco embarkation) and really gives herself to the part. Colbert is often good when she has to play against strong women, and here Sandrich surrounds her with a gallery of independent types, the way Francois Ozon made Catherine Deneueve shine in the recent 8 1/2 WOMEN. Janet is a born leader even though she can only be photographed on one side of her face, which somewhat limits her utilitarian duty during battle scenes. Even covered with grime and jungle grease, Colbert still can turn heads, and when she meets George Reeves, the sparks ignite, hot enough to burn Corregidor down to the ground.\\n\\nVeronica Lake plays up her dark side playing Lieutenant D'Arcy, a time bomb just waiting to explode. Often seen as soignee and bewitching, with that cute fringe of hair playing peekaboo with her eyes, Lake here is going for a Cornell Woolrich-style vengeance against the Japanese. If Tarantino had made KILL BILL in the 1940s Lake would have beat Uma Thurman in the role easily. She's hotter than a pistol and she's Ms. 45.\\n\\nPaulette Goddard has, I think, the most challenging role and I agree with other reviewers who say this is Goddard's best part. While Colbert and Lake really just occupy the same acting space throughout the movie, Goddard's character has to change, so that viewers watch her mature from a fly by night flapper with only men on her mind, to a woman with a heart who lives to help others, not just impress them with her oomph. It's harder than it looks to walk that line, but Goddard pulls it off without a whimper. Often cast as the sexpot pure and simple, or the gold-digging mantrap she apparently was in real life, Goddard is entirely persuasive in her role, and like Lake, she's a natural at action scenes. I want her to be my nurse. Her romance with \\\"Kansas\\\" is kind of cute too.\\n\\nAll in all, an underrated movie with the kind of plot that screws in deeper and deeper, unbearably tight, like DAS BOOT, except set in the Pacific.\",\n \"Product: VHS Tape\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: One of Fonda's Finest\\n\\nReview: The more I see of Peter Fonda's 70s films the more I'm beginning to feel that he had a more interesting career than either his father or his sister during that decade. In FUTUREWORLD he's a seasoned print journalist who's constantly comparing his prowess with the superficial nose for news displayed by his adorable ex-girlfriend \\\"Socks,\\\" played with elan by a game Blythe Danner. The two of them clash often and frequently during the first half of the movie, but then like HIS GIRL FRIDAY they decide to lie down with the lambs and from then on their chemistry grows by leaps and bounds. One needs the other's talents, and Fonda and Danner fully inhabit the characters of Tracy (\\\"Socks\\\") and Chuck. They go to FUTUREWORLD on an all expense paid business trip to drum up publicity for the 1.5 billion dollar dream vacation resort, which had died a death in the wake of the WESTWORLD debacle. It seems that world leaders are arriving in droves to escape earthly problems, and Peter Fonda begins to suspect that, just like roach motel, you can Czech in to FUTUREWORLD but you can't Czech out.\\n\\nSome have said that the production values of FUTUREWORLD betray a poverty of MGM resources. I think on the contrary it looks more expen$ive than WESTWORLD. It can't have been cheap to hire Yul Brynner to do that strange dream tango. Someone told me that they probably only had Brynner's services for one weekend, or else he died in the middle of filming because otherwise, why not give him a bigger part? It would have been awesome if he had come out at the end, as the gunslinger, to kill all the robots who wanted (spoilers ahead) to replace all the world leaders with Delos-friendly hybrids.\\n\\nThe acting was great all the way through, and the love story between the Stuart Margolin character and his friend, robot Clark (named after Clark Kent, the \\\"man of steel\\\") was heartbreaking, worthy of Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhall in BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN. It's rare to find a good gay love story in the middle of a 1970s sci fi actioner, but here you go, if it had teeth it would bite you.\",\n \"Product: Vintage VHS tape\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Not Quite A David Lean Movie\\n\\nReview: Mel Gibson is appealing and charismatic as Fletcher Christian. Much more so than the 1935 version, Donaldson's BOUNTY depicts the mutiny as a clash in values arising from Britain's hidebound class system, with Fletcher Christian the Cavalier and Captain Bligh the Roundhead, Christian the noble bohemian and Bligh the civil servant obnssesed with getting head in the world by hook or by crook, a man with a vision so small he can't see the big picture. In the 1935 version, you'd imagine that Clark Gable came from a lower class than Charles Laughton, but here it's all so clear. Casting Olivier as the one of the officers on the impugning admiralty panel was a stroke of genius (besides giving the movie that touch of class) in the way that he clearly cannot understand Hopkins' Uriah Heep-style singlemindedness.\\n\\nDavid Lean wanted to make this movie in the late 1970s and he had the boat made to his specifications years before. Robert Bolt's script was originally written in two parts, THE LAWBREAKERS and THE LONG ARM OF THE LAW, and Lean spent four years trying to get Warner Brothers to back him properly. When Bolt had a stroke, Lean despaired of ever being allowed to make the picture he wanted to, and abandoned his sketches and went on to think about his alternative project, Forster's PASSAGE TO INDIA. In the meantime, severely cheaper director Roger Donaldson was given Bolt's script and asked to make a single picture from it.\\n\\nHe showed a Lean-like appreciation of nature vs. civilization, the photographer's eye, even a Lean-like casting sense, with early appearances by Liam Neeson and Daniel Day Lewis. Hopkins gives the picture its gravitas, Gibson its glamor. He is crazy good looking in this part, a true successor to Gable and Brando. Funny how he plays a fellow called \\\"Christian\\\" in this movie, and then got all Christian in real life! Be careful what you wish for.\",\n \"Product: Noel Coward's popular stage comedy BLITHE SPIRIT\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: \\\"Over the top like a flash and skimming down the other side like a dragonfly!\\\"\\n\\nReview: Better to get the British version and import it while using a non-regional DVD then sit through the affront to the eyes that the American company is trying to sell us. David Lean's Technicolor is always exquisite, and never more so than in the complicated color designs of BLITHE SPIRIT, in which Charles and Ruth Condomine (Rex Harrison and Constance Cummings) sail through a variety of tweedy outfits that are so brilliantly detailed you can \\\"read\\\" every tooth in the houndstooth. (And Cummings has some wonderful period evening gowns that still look exquisite--she has a lovely figure here and always looks great, even when you're struggling to learn to like her.)\\n\\nAnd then there's Elvira (Kay Hammond), summoned back from the dead by whom? (I won't say here, because that's the central mystery of the film, but it's a shocking solution.) Elvira, once Charles's first wife, was a serial flirt and cheater but she had life to her--more so than Ruth, and at first when she returns you tend to like her and her sodden attitude towards everything romantic and divine. In comparison, Ruth suddenly seems ultra middleclass. Hammond, not often seen on screen, makes an indelible impression--she's sort of squat and round, but sexy, she's like Joan Blondell gone rotten--and her wardrobe and makeup add to the impression, for her skin is painted a pale yellowy green and her blonde curls seem waterlogged, squishy, and yet her scarlet nails and mouth are still vibrant and \\\"jungle red,\\\" like Kylie Minogue's in her video for her new single \\\"2 Hearts.\\\" I wonder if the brainstorming design team always buzzing around Kylie caught a glimpse of Kay Hammond in BLITHE SPIRIT and decided that was the look they want to recreate. Anyhow it's almost like a miasma of death that surrounds Elvira, who is also lit in white, blue and yellow lights so she possesses an altogether different reality than the living mortals she goes around smirking at. It's not horrible but it plays close to it, closer than one ordinarily thinks wartime UK film capable of.\\n\\nMargaret Rutherford meanwhile is in her own dimension as Madame Arcati, half Girl Guide, half elemental herself, always swinging two or three sets of beads around her neck, always in motion, her tufts of hair swirling all points of the compass as she's always on the lookout for the otherworldly. When Elvira obliges Charles by blowing air onto Margaret Rutherford's cheek, then her bare elbow, and Rutherford explodes into a near carnal ecstasy, it's the most obviously sexual moment in all of Lean's film work.\",\n \"Product: Joan Crawford in Queen Bee.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Like Wimps, I Tell You!\\n\\nReview: Crawford's Columbia period resulted in some of her very best movies. In fact, the 50s as a whole were great for her, and I'd rather watch a 50's Joan movie than a 40s or 30's--for the most part. She seemed to be trying out many different things, showing different colors. All right, most of them pretty garish, but she wasn't afraid to think big. But in one respect the fifties let her down, and that is her men. OMG, they are pretty dire, by and large. Here and there you have someone unique, a Jack Palance, a Sterling Hayden, a Jeff Chandler--not that any of the three are particularly good actors, but they're masculine! But what's a girl to do when paired up with a dud like Wendell Corey or Michael Wilding or, as in QUEEN BEE, Barry Sullivan and John Ireland, none of whom could keep up with her a minute. (I can't make up my mind about Cliff Robertson, in AUTUMN LEAVES, a superb picture, but wouldn't it have been better with someone ballsier? Or should he have been weak and weird, like Cliff? Oh, the eternal questions when you're ranking the different Joan Crawford eras.\\n\\nI liked QUEEN BEE a lot, but never has Crawford been surrounded by so many inept supporting actors. Everyone loves Betsy Palmet, me too, but she was not the right actress to play the sister-in-law part. Fay Wray is great, but Ranald McDougall's screenplay trapdoors her right out of the film after the first ten minutes, and in her play we get the eternally deadfaced Lucy Marlow, with her tiny eyes the size of baby caviare eggs. To her credit, Lucy Marlow pioneered a screen presence for the presentday star Renee Zellweger. They must have thought audiences wanted baby voiced, tiny eyed chipmunk faced stars and to our shame, we sat there and took it like wimps.\",\n \"Product: Story of a light-skinned Negro doctor who, along with his family, passes for white in a New Hampshire town.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Haunting Parable of US Race Relations\\n\\nReview: The movie reeks of a certain kind of social realism that would later, in the 1950s, bloom into such \\\"classics\\\" as REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS, THE WILD ONE, etc, but LOST BOUNDARIES fascinates because of its race theme and the way n which it employs white actors to pass as black, even while the characters are black passing for white. Alfred Werker, the director, brings a Hawthornean sense of pain and desolation to the New England scenes, which are scary precisely because they're all set in Greek Revival style churches and private houses, very upper middle class, and yet they look like whitened sepulchres, for everything's white without a drop of color, as though some Puritan or Shaker influence from hundreds of years past had interdicted even the slightest shade of color. Mel Ferrer and Beatrice Pearson are splendid in the parts of the older Carters, Scott and Marcia, the ones who decide to marry because (amng other things) each has exactly the same quotient of black and white blood, although in the secondhalf of the movie, when they are supposed to be grown up with teen children of their own, it's a little ridiculous, and Beatrice Pearson in particular still looks around 14, though bravely the actress agreed to wear what must have been some heavy padding around her hips and waist to make her seem \\\"matronly.\\\"\\n\\nSusan Douglas, as her teen daughter Shelley, has a sad face even when she's happy, and when she's sad, misery has no word for it! The scene where Carleton Carpenter, as her white boyfriend \\\"Andy,\\\" stops her as she walks across the bridge where he's fishing, is astonishing: both actors play it with immense conviction, and at the end, when Carpenter can't understand why Douglas won't be going to the dance with him any more, it's heartbreaking: he's so sweet you'd think he was retarded. (Maybe he's supposed to be?) It seemed to me that in all the town of Keenham, there was one soul who didn't have a racist bone in his body--thus the town was saved, a la Sodom and Gomorrah?\\n\\nRichard Hylton, who plays the teen son who comes to find that his family's been living a lie, is also good. He's like a Dean Stockwell type totally enchanted with his own image (we see him narcissistically examining himself in a mirror, then the mirror turns dark around the edges as he realizes that the beauty he has so admired is that of a \\\"Negro\\\"). He runs off to New York, to what looks like some fascinating actual location footage of Harlem, and there gets mixed up in a gun battle between two rival guys who are trying to kill each other. Happily, Canada Lee is on the case--the great Canada Lee, perhaps the finest actor of the entire piece.\\n\\nSome of the dialogue is overwritten, some of it seems to be missing, as though the actors were given blank pages and the directions, \\\"Act with your eyes,\\\" but the daring of the movie is still very much tangible after nearly 60 years. You could sink your teeth and bite into it. I can't imagine how Hollywood could actually have made this movie. Every note, even the false ones, is perfect.\",\n \"Product: Long Dark Hall [VHS]\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: British Noir from Half a Century Past\\n\\nReview: You wonder how the two stars could face each other playing the parts they did, only a few years after Rex Harrison was caught with his pants down and Carole Landis lay tragically dead, a suicide? Lilli Palmer stuck by her man and she and \\\"Sexy Rexy\\\" were banished from Hollywood--at the time, people thought, forever.\\n\\nHere they play a married man with a gorgeous wife who just can't keep from straying. He's having a passionate affair with a young showgirl, who just happens to wind up murdered, and because his knife is left at the scene of the crime, a seedy theatrical boarding house run by Brenda de Banzie, the coppers come for him, shocking his wife. Lilli's parents come to survey the emotional wreackage left in the wake of the revelation of Rex's affair. Funny how she's German of course, but she has conventional English parents (no explanation given for her wobbly accent).\\n\\nThe real killer is disclosed early on, and he becomes obsessed with Lilli Palmer and manages to insert himself into her life little by little. This is the chilling, creepy part of the movie, quite suspenseful, but most of the picture is a kind of dull trial drama set in a frame story of an American anti-capital punishment journalist who begs his UK confrere for one last story to use as the final setpiece in a book he's writing about unfairly condemned men. \\\"I've got just the case for you, old chap, the Rex Harrison story,\\\" and the movie begins. In a sense THE LONG DARK HALL is a replay of Hitchcock's THE PARADINE CASE, and they probably skimped by using the same Old Bailey set and the same motheaten barrister wigs and robes.\\n\\nRex seems to be acting out the tortures of the damned, while Lilli sometimes wears a look on her face that says, serves him right, the cheating schweinhund. The \\\"long dark hall\\\" of the title is strangely underused, considering it's pretty atmospheric and positively cries out for a second scene in which the killer tries to strangle Lilli Palmer there. Alas no! Nonetheless it's a hardcore noir affair and well worth watching for its damned-if-you-do, nobody-cares attitude towards individual fate and collective responsibility.\",\n \"Product: Drama\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Add A Star If You Like Goldie Hawn\\n\\nReview: If you do, you'll be in hog heaven as Hawn portrays a piece of beach trash who tries a little late to mend her ways. The relationship between her character and that of her son, who looks to be around 11 or 12 in the film, is one of the enduring accounts in the movies of a mother trying to stay too young and a boy overcome by urges he didn't know he had. The young actor who plays the boy, David Arnott, does a fine job maneuvering between trying to be just a kid and having to deal with unexpected adult complexities. He breaks your heart as he attempts valiantly to be the father to the eternally youthful and hedonistic character Goldie Hawn plays, she should be the mother but she doesn't know how to. And Arliss Howard is in the movie too, always underrated, with killer looks and a mean streak that gives him a bit of Warren Oates-like excitement. This movie tries to stretch Goldie Hawn's acting chops a bit but I think people will always prefer her in kind of ditsy comedy roles. This one hit too close to home for her many fans to enjoy it, and there aren't really enough boy-watchers out there to have made this a huge hit on account of the then-unknown David Arnott.\\n\\nIt's the kind of American movie that was being made in the age of the New American Cinema of the 1970s, a character-driven study of laziness, cruelty and unexpected courage, more akin perhaps to SUGARLAND EXPRESS or SHAMPOO than to any of Goldie's other films. She and Arnott should team up for another picture today, it could be a hit, if enough marketing muscle is leveraged to get those asses into the seats as they say.\",\n \"Product: Travel to the Beauregard Hotel where the eccentric guests all share one common trait loneliness. Theres Major Pollack (David Niven), who hides a dark secret behind a polished military veneer; Sibyl Railton-Bell (Deborah Kerr), a shy, neurotic old maid who lacks the courage to break away from her domineering mother; John Malcolm (Burt Lancaster), a disenchanted writer who drowns his bitterness in a pool of alcohol; and Ann Shankland (Rita Hayworth), whose narcissism masks a deep fear of growing old alone and unloved. In one emotional evening, these four unhappy misfits will bare their innermost secrets and change each others lives forever.\\nNominated for six 1958 Oscars and winner of two, Separate Tables is a provocative and intelligent film (Variety), a cinematic masterpiece of compassion and touching sensitivity.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Not the Best Rattigan But It Will Do\\n\\nReview: Wendy Hiller perhaps preserves best what we love about Rattigan's stage works, her dignity, her bitterness, the \\\"insideness\\\" of her despair, and her unfailing good manners and diplomacy. She's excellent. Most of the others, even Gladys Cooper and David Niven, seem to have been injected with essence of ham and turned loose on the set. They are way over the top! It's as though the actors were each trying to out-act the others in a giant free for all. Rita Hayworth is probably the most obvious case of bad acting, but she is actually quite moving in her part. Ann *knows* she's from a different world, *knows* that the others will resent her beauty, glamor and flame, so she's defiant. And Haywrorth can break your heart even in her beauty, particularly as it began to fade after the Aly Khan years. Here she's trying to whip Burt Lancaster (John, her former husband) into a sexual frenzy, and all of a sudden Rita--not Ann--doesn't really feel up to it. Some say she should not be receiving top billing in this movie, but I disagree. Watching her is the best reason to see this show.\\n\\nThe other reason is to see how American filmmakers tiptoed around homosexuality in the late 1950s. Niven's character is a retired soldier who hangs around the hotel acting terribly British and stiff upper lip, while Deborah Kerr's Sybil hangs on to his every word though he doesn't seem to encourage her affections. Then a small newspaper article appears claiming that he is in remand for a sex crime. In the movie you never really find out what Niven has done. All we know is that he was bothering girls in a cinema. In a sense it doesn't matter what he's done, dramatically the point is that this crime separates him from respectable society, and the boarders of the hotel make up a petition to get Wendy Hiller to ask him to leave, and the plot hangs on whether or not Deborah Kerr will join the haters, or whether she'll forgive Niven for his attentions to the young girls and cast her lot with his, or whether her hateful selfish mother (Gladys Cooper) will prevail.\\n\\nIn the play, the crime Niven committed was picking up boys--underage boys of 15 ot 16 I guess. Well, not picking them up but \\\"groping\\\" them. I wonder how this would go down today. Obviously it was too strong for moviegoers of 1958. Would Niven have won the Oscar if he played some kind of homosexual deviant? Would Deborah Kerr have pledged her love to him nevertheless? What about Megan's Law--wouldn't all the other boarders have been able to track his comings and goings on the internet? Rattigan's plea for tolerance is a loaded gun standing in the corner just waiting to explode.\",\n \"Product: vhs movie\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Why did Draper never make another picture!?!\\n\\nReview: Don't Make Waves is an enchanting oddity from the UK director Alexander Mackendrick who made THE SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS and many previous British comedies with Alec Guinness and the like. And underneath its hip, mod clothing DON'T MAKE WAVES shares with the Ealing comedies many similar views towards the world and its neurotic inhabitants. What everyone looks at first, of course, is the talent, including Claudia Cardinale in an amazing array of outfits and sunglasses and more eye makeup than she had ever worn before. Then there was the card that says \\\"Introducing Sharon Tate,\\\" who takes your breath away with her glamor and her exotic looks. She is rather like Bo Derek in \\\"10\\\" even wearing the same kind of bikini in her entrance. With Robert Webber in both movies, 10 and Don't Make Waves, the similarity is very striking. Here Webber plays the husband cheating on Joanna Barnes with a Malibu mistress (Cardinale, very kittenish and charming, and confused about what she wants out of life). Tony Curtis is all right, but for some reason you could watch the whole movie and never find out who he is and why he came to California. You keep expecting him to reveal something about his past and he never does.\\n\\nThe Byrds' title song isn't one of their strongest numbers but the twangy guitars and patented harmonies announce right away, as soon as the MGM lion has roared, that we are in Southern California and everything is just a dream away.\\n\\nThe climactic landslide reminds me of a later pair of California films that both try to sum everything up, Altman's SHORT CUTS and Anderson's MAGNOLIA. You'll see why!\\n\\nMost of all the movie belongs to David Draper, the bodybuilder who was Mr. Universe, as many of the other reviewers here on Amazon have noted. Draper plays Harry, willing to give up sex to get better \\\"glutes.\\\" He is a very sweet, amazingly good actor whom Mackendrick gives many of the movie's best moments. David Draper's own website has a contemporary article about his appearance in DON'T MAKE WAVES, with a staged photo of himself and Cardinale looking as though they were playing Rusty and Myra in MYRA BRECKINRIDGE.\\n\\nAll in all, it's a wonderful picture with a great performance by David Draper.\",\n \"Product: Drama\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: An Original and a Copy\\n\\nReview: I love the documentaries that come with the Criterion boxed set and I especially admire Morris Engel for his courage in standing up to the big studios. That said, Lovers and Lollipops isn't a great movie. Though it may be a great work of art. Oh what a paradox.\\n\\nIt is really the story of Hamlet if Hamlet was not the prince of Denmark but instead a small girl living with her mom in a charming mid-1950s Manhattan apartment.\\n\\nAnd it is oddly similar to Francoise Sagan's Bonjour Tristesse, in which the heroine will do anything, and I mean anything, to make sure her father doesn't re-marry, and the tension is between her hatred of Deborah Kerr and her growing admiration for her, even though she has vowed to destroy her. Her the little girl is determined to get Larry out of her life even if it means destroying her mother's main chance for a happy new life. And yet she likes Larry and has many good times with him. He buys her a miniature sailboat, and a dancing bear doll that claps cymbals together--from the old Macy's toy department--clever product placement of the Macy's bag. He reads to her, jokes with her, but maybe Peggy knows that deep down he doesn't really like her and his affectionate-seeming banter is only part of his ploy to win her mother's heart. Ann (the mother, played by Lori March) is bright enough, but in some ways she's dumb as a post.\\n\\nOh, those lollipops! Stanley Kubrick had Lolita licking a lollipop, but little Peggy plants hers, stick down, in the sand at Jones Beach, and then washes off the sand by sticking them under the incoming waves. No wonder Ann gets so upset with Larry! I didn't understand exactly what it was about Larry's father. Larry wanted Ann to meet his father but to make no mention of Peggy? So whatever happened to that plot, it just went the way of the lollipops I guess. The film itself remains as a great open window into a long-ago bourgeois dream of Manhattan without crime, without dirt, without race, a Jamesian New York modeled on the London of What Maisie Knew.\\n\\nWeddings and Babies attempts to widen the racial paradigms of L&L by introducing the character of Bea, a nomadic lonely soul who hails from--what, Sweden I guess. She is played by Viveka Lindfors who seems to be channeling the spirit of Anna Magnani, who was very much alive at the time and who is responsible, by her carbon copy here--well, make that a very faint 4th generation Xerox--for the link between the Engel-Orkin films and the original neo-realismo of De Sica and Rossellini.\",\n \"Product: EXCELLENT MOVIE!!!!!!!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: \\\"Many a Tear Has to Fall\\\"\\n\\nReview: If you've never fallen hard, this film won't be for you. It's for all the rest of us who have loved and lost. Amanda De Cadenet isn't a natural actress, but she's filled with the joy of living and had wonderful reactions to everything. She makes you believe that, even though she has the magnetic Phillipe in her corner, she might still feel a little bit empty inside when she wakes up in the morning. As for Eric, well, the jury is out on him. I have found that most movie fans (who have seen his work) hate him, especially if they are guys. Women, it seems, have a higher Schaeffer tolerance. I think he's great myself, but I can see how his manner might put off some people, plus if you're not from New York you're not going to get the whole Eric Schaeffer gestalt. He's super talented and FALL, I think, is his best picture.\\n\\nGenre fans remember the actor playing \\\"Philippe,\\\" Rudolf Martin, from his several appearances on Fox's \\\"24\\\" and prior to that, he made a memorable Dracula on the \\\"Buffy vs. Dracula\\\" episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Martin makes the role his own, here, and doesn't use any tricks to put across his version of the cuckolded European, bamboozled by Sarah's search for true love.\\n\\nYou might also like IF LUCY FELL if you like this one. Schaeffer's more recent efforts inbclude the bizarre WIREY SPINDELL, which is sort of like what DECONSTRUCTING HARRY was for the career of Woody Allen, and the newish MIND THE GAP, nearly an anthology film like DEAD OF NIGHT or O HENRY'S FULL HOUSE. FALL is another kettle of fish, a swooning, fullblown passionate romance; it's like something the late great Max Ophuls might have made in another era with Joan Fontaine and James Mason.\",\n \"Product: Critically acclaimed as one of the best films of the year -- Miramax Home Entertainment is proud to present SMOKE SIGNALS -- a distinguished winner at the Sundance Film Festival! Though Victor and Thomas have lived their entire young lives in the same tiny town, they couldn't have less in common! But when Victor is urgently called away, it's Thomas who comes up with the money to pay for his trip. There's just one thing Victor has to do: take Thomas along for the ride! You're in for a rare and entertaining comic treat as this most unlikely pair leave home on what becomes an unexpectedly unforgettable adventure of friendship and discovery!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Genius of Chris Eyre\\n\\nReview: Can I get the version with the bonus deleted scenes in which the two boys send a little e-mail to Suzy Song, apologizing for abusing her hospitality and sneaking out at the dead of night? I really miss those scenes and I feel that in the butchered version of the movie, Victor never really does learn anything. He inherits from his father the great fauly of running away (cowardice) which ruined his life up until Suzy's phone call. We see her towards the last half of the movie utterly changed by the ingratitude of the boys.\\n\\nWas she supposed to be too old to be romantically interested in Adam Beach? I don't think so! Sparks fly between them as actors, but the script carefully tiptoes past any hint of a romance. Maybe the director felt that involving Suzy with both father and son bordered on the incestuous but, hey, it worked with father and son and now that Arnold Joseph was dead, the message for her should be, time to move on to the luscious, lean, chiseled son played by Adam Beach with a muscular intenstity reminiscent of Alain Delon's brooding profile in Visconti's ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS. I kept watching SMOKE SIGNALS admiring the way Chris Eyre took many of Visconti's tropes--for surely he is a fan of ROCCO as well as many other midperiod Visconti masterpieces--and turned them on their head, reigniting them for a new generation. Though in my opinion by eliminating all sexuality he threw the baby out with the bathwater.\\n\\nMaybe Evan Adams' character was supposed to be in love with Adam Beach's. The movie is pretty feeble without that suggestion, for why else would Thomas offer his life savings to Victor, and why would he be so excited and tremulous about the prospect of spending six days with him, side by side, braids flapping about his shoulders like wings? In the hospital the young woman tells the boys, \\\"You two are my heroes. You're just like the Lone Ranger and Tonto.\\\" When Thomas replies, \\\"More like Tonto and Tonto\\\" you could hear the groans all over the theater because it was such a lame setup.\",\n \"Product: (VHS VIDEO) Girl on a Motorcycle was originally released in the U.S. by Warner Brothers in 1968 as Naked Under Leather, severely edited for an R rating. Now for the first time, Anchor Bay Entertainment presents the uncensored European version of this cult classic. Marianne Faithfull stars as a bored, small town newlywed who decides to leave her husband for her ex-lover Alain Delon. Clad only her fur lined leather jumpsuit, she takes off on her Harley for the long ride through the most beautiful countryside and cities of Europe. While riding, she experiences explicitly erotic fantasies about Delon and their torrid affair.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Almost forgot le skiing!!!\\n\\nReview: Marianne Faithfull is exquisite, but as other reviewers have hinted she does not take easily to a motorcycle. She gets better as the movie goes along, but until then her voiceover is way, way embarrassing when she speaks of her passion for the motorbike and how it makes her free and how her husband, the sap, would never understand her. At times the v.o. reaches heights and depths Marguerite Duras might have envied, and that's not entirely a compliment. Faithfull is always wonderful to look at, and Jack Cardiff must have been physically enamored of her, he makes her look so sexy. I loved seeing her in that 360 degree pan and I wondered how this was accomplished in the age before computer generated effects, likewise for the opening circus nightmare in which Faithfull, as the unfaithful bride Rebecca, is shown standing on the back of a cantering horse parading around a one-ring circus, while Alain Delon in ringmaster garb snaps the leather off of her body piece by piece. I'm like, how is this happening?\\n\\nI don't remember where Marianne Faithfull's ancestors came from, but this is one international coproduction where you're thinking, too bad she has to pretend to be French in this--or is she English? Or German, or Swiss? She doesn't really try to be anything other than Marianne Faithfull in leather. Her husband wasn't too bad, except modern orthodontics would have given him perhaps a half an inch more gum: when he pulls up his lip you see no gum at all, just teeth the length of piano keys. Alain Delon, as the professor Rebecca falls for, is charming when he wants to be, callous when he wants to be, and always cute as a Beatle. His looks would be popular all over again today. He could play on Gossip Girl with that remarkable face. No wonder Romy Schneider broke her heart over him, Nico too, Visconti as well. Is he still alive? We know that Marianne roughened up her image to gain critical viability, did he have to do the same?\\n\\nCardiff died within the last few months, aged 94. (The new issue of Cinema Retro has a cool interview with him regarding his work with Errol Flynn on the neverfinished \\\"William Tell\\\" film.) The movies he directed, those of them I've seen, are a mixed bag, but in Girl with a Motorcycle he brings to the project the same passion for gorgeous women that distinguished his contributions to others' films, including The Red Shoes, Marilyn Monroe in The Prince and the Showgirl, Leslie Caron in Fanny, and of course Ava Gardner in Barefoot Contessa and Pandora and the Flying Dutchman. Girl on a Motorcycle isn't perhaps very dramatically satisfying, but it is a great showcase for his star.\\n\\nOh, the ski chalet scene--ten stars! And Faithfull's Lanvin wardrobe--a knockout!\",\n \"Product: Maybe I'll Come Home in the Spring [VHS]\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Great part for Sally Field\\n\\nReview: One of the greatest telefilms ever made, from an era in which filmmakers were first sensing the possibilities of the form. Sally Field will break your heart as Denny, the young hippie girl who returns to her mom and dad and their ultra-square suburban lifestyle, after a year or so away from home exploring the complicated hippie life with a boyfriend, \\\"Flack\\\" (the young David Carradine). 40s and 50s screen star Eleanor Parker is super as the icy mother; she makes the most out of a difficult role, outdoing Mary Tyler Moore's part in ORDINARY PEOPLE and doing it ten years earlier, when it was a braver career choice. Jackie Cooper is all right as the Dad, but he and Carradine are no match for the female super acting power of Field and Parker.\\n\\n It's not a big blockbuster sort of picture, but it is one that you'll take to your heart, and I wonder if Sally Field ever really topped her acting work in this movie. By all means get the DVD, and revel in a different time and place.\",\n \"Product: A group of teenagers gather on Halloween night to discuss their sleepy town. Being descendants of those who lived through a night of terror when the dead were summoned, they decide to recreate the ghoulish night for their own Halloween. The town is turned upside down when the zombies join the Halloween celebration.\\n\\nProduct Details\\nNumber of Discs: 1\\nRating: Not Rated\\nFilm Country: USA\\nSound: Stereo Sound, Surround Sound\\nUPC: 013131153392\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: The Midnight Hour Has Halloween Power\\n\\nReview: Fans of cheesy Halloween movies are thrilled to have their own made for TV favorite from the big hair 1980s returned to them. In its day it was notable for its smooth mixing of cast members both black and white into one jolly high school-themed spookfest. The young actors look like they were having a whale of a time. Even Levar Burton, from ROOTS, was showing a more happy go lucky side to his personality as he essayed Vinnie Davis, one of a bunch of youths who love to go to museums and read out the hieroglyphics on ancient scrolls for kicks. The lovely Shari Belafonte also gets to read from the scroll as well, and the Halloween curse of Pitchford Cove gets unleashed just in time for October 31. Belafonte sings, too, and a whole jukebox filled with catchy monster themed pop songs plays all through the soundtrack.\\n\\nThe white stars are charming too, though less memorable. As the young lovers from different \\\"time zones\\\" Jonna Lee and Lee Montgomery have their moments, while Cindy Morgan really looks like a period piece. They should put a picture of her in the dictionary under the word \\\"eighties.\\\" The movie is lightweight, not very scary, it's cute in the way of something like ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING. Expect no more than that and you won't be disappointed.\\n\\nWilliam Bleich who wrote this movie was also responsible for the Abel Ferrara big rig trucking movie called THE GLADIATOR with a fanboy cast of Ken Wahl, Nancy Allen, and Stan Shaw (plus 60s icons Rosemary Forsyth and Linda Thorson in smaller roles). Bleich was a competent scenarist who could keep his audience in the palm of his hand by pressing all the right buttons, and MIDNIGHT HOUR shows him at his best. Veteran TV director Jack Bender presided, but the juice is largely Bleich's. If you like Derek McCormack's books, you're going to scream when MIDNIGHT HOUR revs up.\",\n \"Product: Product Description\\nSYNOPSIS\\n\\\"Modern incarnations Girl\\\" tells the story: In 1987, Jenna or an upcoming adult little girl. But she was too slow too own maturity, his chest Taiping the gluteal too flat, not only by parents everywhere controls, small school guy also has no interest to her. So alone playing on their own disappointment Jenna heaven seven minutes \\\"Wishing games, want to grow up quickly and to live a life of most wanted ...\\nThe next day, her dream has come true. Jenna woke up and found that already in 2004, their 30-year-old not only has a charming beauty and a perfect figure, also has a good job envied, cool and favored. New life Jenna extremely excited, however, also maintained Jenna this childish thinking how to deal with her 30-year-old adult life mud?\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: It Wins You Over with its Upbeat Style\\n\\nReview: Gary Winick, the director, deserves a lot of credit for taking on the onerous job of trying to make Jennifer Garner a big movie star. He's extremely skilled with actors, and I remember him way back when making a little movie with Michael Imperioli, the fellow who plays Christopher on The Sopranos, and Mira Sorvino from ROMY AND MICHELLE's HIGH SCHOOL REUNION. In addition I believe his previous films featured the very last screen appearances of both Gregory Hines and George Plimpton, so you know he's used to working with the best. Most of all, we remember Gary Winick for making TADPOLE, which if you remember was all about a very young boy who wanted to date a 40 year old woman, and how our bodies are wired to pick up romantic signals from even the most unlikely people. Winick finds a sweet brand of comedy from all this, and you can see it in the might-have-been troubling scene in 13 GOING ON 30 in which Jennifer Garner goes over to pick up a 13 year old boy in a restaurant and is only stopped when Judy Greer tells her, \\\"Do you want to go to jail!\\\"\\n\\nBoth Garner and Greer make great impressions. Garner is all over the place with her acting, but most of the time she successfully channels an adorable young girl. The scene where she sings LOVE IS A BATTLEFIELD at a slumber party is worth the price of admission, and you'll like the end credits in which the slumber party girls' singing is mixed into Pat Benatar's robust MTV version of the number. Judy Greer has a difficult part to play too. Everyone loved her on TV, playing Kitty on ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, Jason Bateman's secretary who despises him, and she is lovely here and you can see how she has a great future playing the girl you love to hate.\\n\\nBut most of all you will come out of this fantasy feeling a little bit better about yourself and about the choices you have made and have yet to make.\",\n \"Product: the original FIRST RUN EDITION MGM MUSICAL-MGM HOME VIDEO #M300796, 1962, RATED-G, 127MINS, IN SHRINK WRAP,Very Collectible In The Original COVER , VERY RARE DVD'S VERY , IMPRESSIVE VHS OUT OF PRINT MOVIES\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Doris Day's Finest Moment?\\n\\nReview: I'm reviewing just the Billy Rose's Jumbo and not the multi-DVD set many are talking about here, they must have arrived to the review arena through another channel. For some reason, though I consider myself a great Doris Day fan, I must have subconsciously avoided seeing \\\"Billy Rose's Jumbo\\\" until late last week, when I watched it over several days so as not to overdose with pleasure if I stayed with it too long. Mostly I'd get to a big musical number and then I'd pause and everyone in the room watching it with me would have to stand, at my invitation, and applaud the playersand the director, Charles Walters, beyond a doubt one of the greatest musical directors of all time. Was he buried at MGM? I think so. He certainly stood in the shadow of the big players like Minnelli and Donen, tsk tslk, but here he outdoes himself.\\n\\nSo why was it so unappealing for so long? Well, I'm old enough to remember my grandparents coming back from an evening showing of Billy Rose's Jumbo at the Smithtown Senior Center, late in the 1980s, and their lips were locked, as if stricken by terror or contempt, and Mom said that as far as she knew, they never spoke of their evening out, ever again, but she too remembered they looked terrified, as though they'd seen something awful. That, and the idea of Martha Raye, and Jimmy Durante, and Jumbo himself, and the old time period setting and Doris Day dressed as a clown, well, they all seemed awful ideas, visually and otherwise, and maybe I didn't like the idea of the title itself! Why call it \\\"Billy Rose's Jumbo?\\\" Even in 1961 was Billy Rose still a thing? He couldn't have been bringing in too many customers if so. Was it in his contract, that if ever they made a film of Jumbo it had to have his name in it somewhere, like National Lampoon's Van Wilder or Lee Daniels' The Butler?\\n\\nWhatever! I began watching with enormous resistance but as soon as ten minutes in, I realized I was seeing perhaps the last film of Doris Day's great, and bizarre, drama period. Paralleling her real life to an eerie degree, the films of this period have her suffering because of a man, and no one, ever, in real life or in the movies, suffers like Doris Day. remember Julie with Louis Jourdan? Midnight Lace with Rex Harrison? Love Me or Leave Me with Cagney? Well, you get the picture, but here she is, in shock as it turns out over and over her beloved rogue of a father (Jimmy Durante) has a secret shadow side; he's addicted to gambling and puts their livelihood, and that of dozens of other humans and animals, at risk while he goes and gambles away the nights' takings, and in the morning, it's Doris who has to deal with the disaster. \\\"Oh Pop, not again, you didn't!\\\" she wails, having to face the contempt and the misery on the faces of every one in the circus they have let down. In a way I read this as Doris Day's take on the old legend of Drt Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, where Hyde goes out, gets drunk, gets high, carouses with whores and kills people, and in the morning it's Jekyll who must pay the price. (Or the other way around, now I can't remember.) Anyhow this aspect of the movie is as compelling as anything Cassavetes ever had Gena Rowlands do, and yet they get all the credit while it was Doris and Chuck Walters who did the spadework a good ten years or more, and on a tightrope literally, and trapezes, and in clown makeup! As if that isn't bad enough,\\n\\n(Spoilers ahead),\\n\\nDoris is forced to suffer the loss of her beloved pet Jumbo, and these scenes alone should have won her the Oscar she has been denied for over sixty years. She is magnificent, touching, strong, desperate, loving and fearful all at once as she attempts to console the lachrymose 22,000 pound beast, who doesn't want to go onto the truck and leave the only humans who have ever been kind to him. And if that isn't enough,\\n\\n(More spoilers)\\n\\nStephen Boyd, as Doris' love interest, has a terrible secret all his own. This part of the picture reminds me very much of a Minnelli picture of the same vintage called Home from the Hill. He is the son of a tyrannical circus potentate determined to use Durante's gambling addiction to wrest control of the circus and Jumbo and amalgamate them into their own supercircus, the way that the Ringling Brothers took over Barnum & Bailey's and boasted about it! It is sheer colonialism and to its credit, the movie, \\\"Billy Rose's Jumbo,\\\" emerges with a sane and thoughtout Marxist approach to the brawling America unregulated and unleashed capitalism raging at the period (the movie must take place before the first world war, I would think?) and also at the time of its making, the zenith of Cold War fears of the other, exploited by the masters of war to create a giant spectacle under which they could consolidate their holdings in, well, everything. At the end of the movie we understand that an arte povera is needed to restore art to its correct place in society. The film accomplishes all this so beautifully that one takes it as a bittersweet goodbye to a corrupt and venal studio system, but it is as if Walters and company are out on a limb, sawing it off of the dead tree and yet they know they have nowhere themselves to land except into thin air. It is an effective and long goodbye.\\n\\nI liked Stephen Boyd in thishe should have played in more dramas like this one, tough and gritty as a mouthful of Kansas dirt. Martha Raye, whose shtick was that of the plain, lascivious woman, looks beautiful here once in a while, a flicker of magic, while Doris gets to sing Little Girl Blue by Rodgers and Hart and then to stop singing it and instead she acts it out with the fullbodied passion of the great Balanchine dancers like Maria Tallchief or Gelsey Kirkland. Impressive, and yet did it win her any awards? My grandfather was especially harsh about this movie. Even though they saw it for free, he said it was the worst night of his life, he would have paid money not to have to see Raye and Day in their final clown sequence.\",\n \"Product: New never open 100% guarantee or your money back...\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: It Happened in Oaktown\\n\\nReview: We turned on True Crime as part of a project to watch all the films of screenwriter Larry Gross, and this one turned out to be a gem. Primarily a showcase for Clint Eastwood, the film has a hypnotic power that sees us through some rocky shoals. Mostly, the director has a problem with his star actor--he's too old to play the part, and at first it's disconcerting to see him canoodling in a quiet Oakland bar with a fellow reporter Mary McCormick. The film says she's 23 (though I must say she looks older), but he must be 70 and we start doing all kinds of subtraction in our head. At heart the movie is a study of a man falling apart, losing everything the good old fashioned Richard Yates way, and the conceit of the movie is that it all takes place within that Aristotelian framework of 24 hours (plus a little epilogue that must take place several months after the main course of the plot, for it's Christmastime, and Clint is Santa).\\n\\nOakland never looked so good or so bad, and I doubt that Eastwood ever assembled a better cast of actors all the way around. Isaiah Washington and Lisa Gay Hamilton are both magical in parts that fall outside their usual acting range--here they're Christians struggling through his final hours on Death Row, with Michael McKean as an officious chaplain. In the outside world Clint is cheating, smoking up a storm, cuckolding his boss, fooling women who see through him. Chief among them is Diane Venora as his long -suffering wife. Once again Venora proves that she has the dark acting chops that should have landed her starring parts in every Cassavetes movie ever made: she actually looks as if her suffering is not going to be wiped off when the camera's aren't rolling. I think she must still be crying somewhere, helplessly, over Clint's roving eye. That Venora hasn't the Oscar nods of, say, Meryl Streep, is the real \\\"true crime\\\" here\",\n \"Product: A poignant and moving story about two emotionally disturbed teenagers who fall in love in an institution. Interactive Menus, Filmographies & awards, Scene Access, Production Credits\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: An Excellent Exploration of OCD and Schizophrenia\\n\\nReview: I watched the modern version with Sidney Poitier; not a bad little show, but there was just so much that Oprah had to leave out for TV.\\n\\nThis is the real thing and unadulterated pop psychology. It's amazing how back then, people knew a lot about OCD even if they didn't have the words we use to describe it. Keir Dullea is great playing David, sort of like the boy James Dean played in REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, with similar issues around his mom and dad, but without the sexual magnetism. He's good looking, Keir Dullea, but you can't really watch him for too long without thinking of Noel Coward's famous riposte when he was asked his opinion of Dullea's talent. \\\"Keir Dullea,\\\" he quipped, \\\"gone tomorrow.\\\"\\n\\nNevertheless, although he seems a little old to play the part, he is miles better than Lukas Haas who played David Clemens in the Oprah version. Haas seems to suffer from every other kind of mental disability EXCEPT for OCD. Poor boy isn't really over being terrified in Witness. Keir Dullea seems properly obsessive. He was also very good in the wonderful Otto Preminger thriller BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING, also available now in DVD, but similarly, without a commentary track! Why not? What is preventing us from hearing how Keir Dullea feels about his classic 60s films?\\n\\nIf you watch real hard you will see the lovely Karen Lynn Gorney in a small role. Karen was only 15 when she made this movie and her acting is first rate, an early warning of the massive talent that made her a fan favorite as Tara on ALL MY CHILDREN and then later, she made a million hearts flutter playing stylish Stephanie in the original SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER.\",\n \"Product: A Star Is Born [VHS]\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Lose that Long Footage\\n\\nReview: I love A Star Is Born and I have ever since I saw it first, on TV. I couldn't figure out how Judy Garland was so old looking, and my father said, \\\"It's because she's been around the mill,\\\" so I thought until a recent viewing that she was a millworker while financing her musical career with Danny's band. Seeing it again, it seems fine that she's not a young girl just starting out, what kind of story would that be? We want someone who's been hurt by life and who has unexplained traumas in her past (watch closely now, as Garland's face darkens as she remembers waiting tables. \\\"I'll never do that again,\\\" she vows, and I'm thinking, I was a waiter, it wasn't that bad!).... we don't want a Lola Lavery to be the center of the movie. Well, \\\"Lost in Translation\\\" by Sofia Coppola was a little bit like a Star is Born remake, wasn't it? The mistake of that movie was in assuming we'd find the heroine enchanting because of Scarlet Johansson's unlived in face and attitude.\\n\\nWell, enough about that, I just wanted to reiterate that, for the most part, Robert Osborne, Judy Garland was not 15 years too old to play the part.\\n\\nThe movie progresses in infinitely small, naturalistic bumps between one scene and the next, so that we get an almost novelistic drenching in textures and atmospheres, all in the service of character development. And yet the movie seems \\\"written\\\" only in its setpieces, the scenes we all remember, where the characters all more eloquent than we imagine they would actually be in \\\"real life.\\\" I noticed last night how the film progresses by revelation, and everything moving the plot forward is something overheard by the protagonists, that shatters their views of reality. Norman's all content after Esther performs her big \\\"production number to end all production numbers,\\\" but then he signs for the delivery boy who calls him \\\"Mr. Lester.\\\" Norman at the race track, Libby making a hash of his face, and hearing people whisper (no, not even whisper, shouting) \\\"He's drunk... He's been drunk for years.\\\"\\n\\nFinally the big, and satisfying shock, when Norman overhears Oliver's real opinion of his acting. The scene should have won James Mason an Oscar, but Charles Bickford is also supremely skillful at delivering the speech in question. Tom Noonan's big speech bucking up Esther is well done too... you can't believe she's going to fall for such hokum, and then, when she does, you realize her character has changed and she has \\\"gone Hollywood\\\" in a real, and terrible way.\\n\\nLoved the dressing room at Oliver Niles studios, and the seaside house Norman builds for Esther, but actually I liked the Oleander Arms the best, I think. It is the most glamorous and evocative motel I've ever seen in the movies or out of them.\\n\\nBut it is a long movie that's for sure. At the Intermission credit I seriously considered pressing \\\"exit,\\\" under the belief that all the succeeding scenes had been scarred into my memory ever since my mill-working days. But I'm glad I stayed! I cried, but even when I was crying I thought how vain of Esther to tell Norman, \\\"Oh, I'll sing to you from the kitchen window, my soft wondering number It's a New World, and yet you'll hear me over the pounding Malibu surf.\\\"\",\n \"Product: The ups and downs of Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., famed producer of extravagant stage revues, are portrayed.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Circus of the Stars\\n\\nReview: THE GREAT ZIEGFELD, often misspelled as Ziegfield, a lavish biopic from the consistently underrated MGM director Robert Z. Leonard (did the \\\"Z\\\" stand for \\\"Ziegfeld\\\"? I don't think so). The true facts of Flo Ziegfeld's marriage to soubrette Billie Burke may never be known, but Eve Golden's 2000 biography of Anna Held gave a good, wide-screen picture of his charm and business savvy. In Leonard's film, William Powell is magnificently sensual and aristocratic, while Luise Rainer breaks your heart as the petite, submissive, flirtatious Anna. Her famous phone scene won her the Oscar; when she uses the telephone to congratulate Flo on his marriage to Billie Burke, her regret and sorrow and loss play directly into the camera, which seems to eat them up like so much chocolate. Rainer's acting is hammy, though not as much as contemporary actresses like Meryl Streep or Jessica Lange, both of whom would have swallowed the phone for an Oscar.\\n\\nPeople in the 1930s must have laughed at the idea of Myrna Loy playing Billie Burke, seeing as though they had the real Billie Burke right there to compare to her and as everyone knows, they are absolutely nothing alike. Though the offstage Billie Burke must have been more of a femme fatale than we think of \\\"Glinda\\\" as being, she denied, for example, having sex with Flo while he was still married to Anna. That would have spoiled her somewhat sexless, daffy image, sort of the Carol Channing of her day. The movie invents a fictional showgirl and has Virginia Bruce play her with a rapacity and blowsy sex lure not seen again until the recent Elizabeth Berkley classic SHOWGIRLS with Gina Gershon. Berkley and Gershon seem like virgins compared to Virginia Bruce playing \\\"Audrey.\\\"\\n\\nIn other casting, having Fannie Brice playing herself must have been a no-brainer, but the truth is that the great stars of Ziegfeld made very few movies and were skittish about playing for the movie cameras. Or else they weren't good looking enough (like Ethel Merman)! Or else they were black and so doomed to underemployment in the racist structures of classic Hollywood cinema--think of Bert Williams for example, a star on Broadway, a nobody in Hollywood. Or else they had signed up to other studios and weren't available for MGM--Eddie Cantor made plenty of money for Sam Goldwyn, W.C. Fields for Paramount. Will Rogers, for example, had a long term contract with Fox and before his tragic 1935 had entertained a proposal by which he would have left Fox for MGM, nixing it saying, I've got a good thing going here as Fox's biggest star, but at MGM I'd just be another Fannie Brice.\\n\\nThus we get Ray Bolger in THE GREAT ZIEGFELD. And Harriet (\\\"Who?\\\") Hoctor. Still it's spectacular and no picture that introduces the divine Dennis Morgan can, in my opinion, receive anything fewer than four stars.\",\n \"Product: VHS tape. Full Harvest Brand new in original plastic.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Mr. And Mrs. Smith\\n\\nReview: The book is slightly different, due to the exigencies of the plot the screenwriters had to divulge a certain surprise in the movie because celluloid's visual nature left them no way to tell the story properly. In the book you don't find out who Charles Rainier's secretary is until the very last pages. In the movie, you know as soon as the door opens and Greer Garson enters. She's fine in this role, and she and Ronald Colman have a chemistry together that she just doesn't have with Walter Pidgeon. The one thing in this story that I just don't buy is why, why, why would Paula marry a man escaped from a mental hospital? Oh yes, eventually his good nature becomes obvious, but any sensible woman would have turned and ran once she realized he had just stepped out of an asylum and was still obviously feeble in the head. However, if she had not married him, where would the story be, so I'm ready to swallow it, and it helps that Garson really makes you believe she's interested in Colman, not just congenially, then romantically, but there's a sexual spark between them right from the beginning. And this is heightened by the way she is protective of him, as though he were her son. I love the way she calls him \\\"Smithy.\\\" And that country cottage they live in is also out of this world isn't it?\\n\\nWhen Colman becomes Charles Rainier that's where his real acting begins, he manages to convince you that he is indeed a genius businessman and the head of a querulous family, and yet still somewhere in his head is the foggy period in which he lived his life as \\\"Smithy\\\" and loved and was loved by a woman he just can't remember. No wonder poor Kitty (the seductive Susan Peters, quite winning in the part) doesn't stand much of a chance with Rainier, alluring and confident as she is.\\n\\nYou just hope and hope that somehow he will regain his memory (or lose his memory, depending on what side you take on the memory loss debate). Every time I see the film I still fall victim to the suspense built in to the story, and the bravura acting of Garson and Colman go the distance every time. Yes, I would agree with the many reviewers who have commented that actually both Garson and Colman are about ten years older than the characters they are supposed to be playing. But suffering has ennobled them both, and I don't think the audience would have accepted Paula if played by a young girl. The mature, sophisticated Greer Garson is perfectly cast.\",\n \"Product: Eleven jurors are convinced that the defendant is guilty of murder. The twelfth has no doubt of his innocence. How can this one man steer the others toward the same conclusion? It's a case of seemingly overwhelming evidence against a teenager accused of killing his father in \\\"one of the best pictures ever made\\\" (The Hollywood Reporter).\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: The Launch of Lumet\\n\\nReview: It was a curiosity piece even back in its day, a trying time for the movie industry when the studio moguls were trying desperately to compete with TV any way they could think of. If huge screens and stereophonic sound couldn't put those asses into the seats, then maybe actual rip offs of already aired TV programs might. (We see this same thinking today with studio remakes of such old TV series as BEWITCHED, SWAT, THE MOD SQUAD, DUKES OF HAZZARD, really anything that is remembered fondly). Here they sent in TV director par excellence Sidney Lumet, with a limited budget, to film Reginald Rose's controversial teleplay he called \\\"TWELVE ANGRY MEN.\\\" They gave him one bona fide movie star and for the rest of the parts they hired a bunch of so called \\\"character actors\\\" including Broadway's own Lee J. Cobb, a man tormented by the role he had played in the McCarthy Era, when to save his own skin he had named name after name to anti-Communist inquisitors and ruined countless careers. When he sweats in this movie you can see the guilt streaming from his pores, it's almost as though you can touch your finger to the screen and it woild be wet.\\n\\nThe movie wasn't an overwhelming box office hit, but it had its partisans, and it launched Lumet's career as a reliable film director who could bring projects in on time AND work well with \\\"difficult\\\" talent. When we watch the show today we see the faults in the play's mise-en-scene, but we note the skill with which Lumet puts the cast through their paces and manages to bring some variety in his endless re-stagings of conversations between angelic Fonda and the all-too-human rest of them.\\n\\nAs other reviewers have noticed, if it was today, one of the jurors would have early on beaten Fonda to a pulp and had a mistrial called. Especially if, like Ed Begley, they had tickets to an important ball game they didn't want to miss.\",\n \"Product: A beautiful sex bomb movie star (Russell) is kidnapped. She thinks it is a publicity stunt, but it's not. The kidnappers fall in love with her and decide to cancel. The movie star declines the cancellation. No kidnapping...no career.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Tragic Memory of Free Bubble Gum\\n\\nReview: Loved seeing the long ago location shots of LA and the PCH--check out the mighty international airport, with its two terminals which must have seemed like a grand palace of aviation back then. I don't know about the house that Ralph Meeker and Keenan Wynn have holed up in. If that's a real house, it should be in all the guidebooks. Jane Russell doesn't get to sing much in this movie but she does wear three great outfits, including the fuzzy pink nightgown they give her to cover up her sex appeal. She carries on a delightful and extended exchange with Meeker about \\\"bubble gum,\\\" a word coded with shades of meaning involving sexuality and the pursuit of pleasure to which she has devoted all her life, but he far too little. He complains that when he was a poor boy, there was one store in his neighborhood that would close on Sundays and holidays, and when it was closed, the kids wouldd read the sign in the window that said, \\\"Free Bubble Gum,\\\" but when the store was open, the bubble gum was not free and it was stale to boot.\\n\\nJane Russell sums him up nicely saying that even though he's grown, he's still living his life like the embittered and cheated little boy he once was.\\n\\nLater she tells him that the reason that he didn't try to make love to her while she was in his power is that maybe he doesn't like the flavor of bubble gum she offers to him!\\n\\nI guess Hollywood must have been infected with bubble gum metaphors because right after we saw this show, we watched AUTUMN LEAVES and Joan Crawford keeps begging Cliff Robertson to date girls his own age but he sighs and tells her, he tried, but they were \\\"jitterbugs\\\" and \\\"bubble gum addicts,\\\" chewing and popping the gum in his ear while they were in his arms on the dancefloor. Joan can't help cracking up at Cliff's woebegone expression as he describes these \\\"bubble gum addicts.\\\"\\n\\nIn THE FUZZY PINK NIGHTGOWN (in beautiful black and white, with a percussive Billy May soundtrack that's out of this world), Ralph Meeker got one of his very few leading man parts. He's a revelation, hard as nails when he has to be, but soft and kittenish, wearing on fetching cashmere sweater after another. It's all about the masculinity in THE FUZZY PINK NIGHTGOWN, and Meeker proves that just like his name, he's enough man to be a woman when it feels right.\",\n \"Product: Barbara Streisand is a knockout as Dolly Levi, the woman \\\"who arranges things like furniture and daffodils and lives.\\\" And Hello Dolly, is the blockbuster musical you'll want to see her in again and again. The famed plot concerns Dolly, a young widow and professional matchmaker who sets her sights, and whatever else she can muster, on conquering tight-fisted Yonkers merchant, Horace Vandergeider, beautifully played by Walter Matthau. How she does it has to be the grandest, singingest, dancingest, marchingest flag-wavingest musical there ever was.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: In Praise of Marianne McAndrew\\n\\nReview: The time has come again for TCM Oscar month and thus begins my annual agony of trying to love Hello Dolly, though everything in me screams, no, life is too short to watch it for a fourteenth or fifteenth time. But, it is an interesting movie in that I never watch it the same way twice and every time I see it, things jump out at me that I missed before. I have discovered that such a thing isn't necessarily a sign that it's a good movie. Anyhow here it begins again, that widescale view of the New York set on the old Fox lot, totally still, frozen in time, black and wide seeping to sepia, and then a whistle blows and the tiny car starts puttering along the elevated railway in the top right of the screen, and a circle appears around it, an iris sweep, and as it sweeps and covers more and more of the screen, the frozen 1 color people attain full color and start walking and skipping and in one cases rolling a hoop down the huge Manhattan thoroughfare and the movie begins. Soon Barbara Streisand will perform her first number, in the terminal, establishing that she is Dolly Levi and that everyone knows and adores her and that she can solve anybody's problems.\\n\\nI've decided this time around that it's not really Barbra's fault, but the role doesn't fit her as well as some of her others, that's all. In some viewings I'm on her side, but last year after watching the amazing Preminger Skidoo I decided the hell with Ernest Lehman, Carol Channing would have been great playing Hello Dolly and not too old or plain for the part. So that set me against Barbara momentarily. But now I've regained my balance. If the movie belongs to anyone, I've decided, it's to the undersung and unrecognized goddess Marianne McAndrew (who plays Irene Molloy--perfectly, without a single flaw). She must have been under contract to Fox: I remember her about a year later, playing the heroine in Russ Meyer's The Seven Minutes (and perfectly, without a single flaw), but what happened to her? On the strength of her work in this and the Meyer movie, she should be getting Lifetime Achievement Awards, but she's more or less forgotten today and even in her prime, fans scratched their heads wondering if she was the one who played Princess on Father Knows Best, or if she was the plain girl on Petticoat Junction. I hate even to look her up on the IMDB for fear that she has passed on without receiving her due as the linchpin of Hello, Dolly!\\n\\nAs Irene Molloy her entrance is built up by Streisand trumpeting her as the perfect solution to Horace Vandergelder's problems, and Horace himself (stout, blowsy Walter Matthau) apparently sees her the same way. She is gorgeous, with the manners of a countess and yet the blithe, warm heart of a democrat. She can even make you believe that Michael Crawford attracts her, and that's the ultimate test of any actress, and that it's worthwhile spending her entire savings on a meal that will take her out of a rut. No actress can listen as well as she can; a wry twist of her lips gives her that Mona Lisa ambiguity that men have pondered for centuries. And yet she is here, a precious cameo holding up the entire vast structure of Gene Kelly's Hello, Dolly, which would otherwise come tumbling down into ruined casements and the dust of mere players.\",\n \"Product: \\\"Get ready for fun!\\\" (Leah Rozen, People) with the \\\"feel good movie of the year!\\\" (Clay Smith, Access Hollywood) Love Actually is the ultimate romantic comedy from the makers of Bridget Jones's Diary and Notting Hill. Funny, irresistible and heartwarming, an all-star cast (Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Colin Firth and Emma Thompson, to name a few!) will take you on a breathtaking tour of love's delightful twists and turns. Fall under the spell of Love Actually and share the laughs and charm again and again.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Christmas classic or anti-fat diatribe?\\n\\nReview: Both! Nothing says Christmas to me like Love Actually, with its all important childrens Christmas pageant, and its race to find out which pop star will land the coveted Christmas #1, and Rowan Atkinson at the jewelry counter creating an extravagant paper turkey of a wrapped present. This time however watching it at Christmas on Wednesday, I noticed for the first time all the many gibes about fat people that writer director Richard Curtis puts in just about everywhere. I guess youd call it a Leitmotif! With its ten storylines, theres room for all sorts of social commentary. Its a two hours and fifteen minutes movie, the longest romcom ever, but if you took out the anti-fat jokes and agitprop, it would be maybe one hundred minutes tops.\\n\\nThe movie begins with Bill Nighys worn=out rock star Billy Mack trying to remember the new lyrics to Christmas is All Around, watched over by his seen-it-all, tolerant to a fault manager Joe, who stays with him even though hes a joke to everyone else in the show. We all love this story because we like watching an underdog come back, nd right away we see the fattest person in the movie, as though to clue us in, this is going to be a picture in which peoples physical frailties are going to be relentlessly mocked.\\n\\nIn succeeding scenes we see normal sized people being dismissed by the skinny as too fat, and even the thin ones are fretting about their weight. Perhaps a seasonal touch for when the holidays come we all have to worry about rich food. But Love Actually gets nasty, particularly when Hugh Grant, as prime minister David, meets his new assistant Natalie, from the wrong side of the tracks, and instantly the chief of staff apologizes to David for saddling him with a fat assistant. Martine McCutcheon isn't violently slim like Kate Moss, but shes attractive (in a weird way, almost as though she didn't have enough features in her face) and she dresses in red often, as though to show shes spirited and full of life, the way we know Maureen Stapleton embodies life in Woody Allens Interiors, whereas Geraldine Page embodies death, since Stepleton wears scarlet and Page beige. Anyhow it takes Hugh Grant a long time to work out how he feels about Martine McCutcheon because of the social opprobrium she creates wherever she treads. If she was so scandalously fat, I wondered, how did she get the job of handing out the chocolate biscuits anyhow, at Number Ten Downing Street, which seems like a foul place in this movie. Except for that one large pre-Raphaelite painting in the hall.\\n\\nOkay then, same thing happens to Alan Rickman, attracted to Mia at his office amd yet saddled with Karen and her fondness for Joni Mitchell who taught her how to feel. I didn't really think Emma Thompson was fat either, but Richard Curtis gives her this scene where she has to try to wriggle into a dress thats too small for her now, though once she fit into it handily when she was Mias age and wore a size zero. Its a complicated role that Emma Thompson doesn't make any easier by not having gained weight for the part. Shes a thin woman whos acting as though shes too large to fit into a dressextraordinary work, yet watching this scene I wonder how well it reflects ordinary society of today where if you're just a little bit heavy you're cast into perdition, and have things gotten better in the past ten years, when Love Actually was filmed? I doubt it. Today, Martine McCutcheon would not be giving out Scotch to the US president and wearing red, shed be in jail.\\n\\nAnd the anti-fat theme even reaches out to beyond the borders of the UK, as Colin Firth, in love with a thin Portuguese waitress, learns her language and comes unannounced at Christmastime to ask her father for her \\\"hands in marriage,\\\" and the father calls for his daughter and it's not Aurelia at all, but Sophia, the fat one! She's not only fat but mean and jealous and plain. Even Aurelia fears gaining weight and becoming like Sophia. Sophia gets some good laughs in her final moments, but it's pretty gross of Richard Curtis to play the fat card one more time just when you thought it was going to be a feel good ending.\",\n \"Product: The year's most disturbing thriller explores the unsettling possibility that the dead can contact usall we have to do is listen. When architect Jonathan Rivers (Michael Keaton) loses his wife in a tragic accident, he turns to the shadowy, unnerving world of Electronic Voice Phenomenon - communication from beyond the grave. But as he begins to penetrate the mysteries of EVP, Jonathan makes a shocking discovery: once a portal to the other world is opened, there's no telling what will come through it.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Unger All The Way\\n\\nReview: I take it as an article of faith that WHITE NOISE the movie is in no way based on WHITE NOISE, the classic novel by Don De Lillo so many postmoderns adore, but Deborah Kara Unger is certainly acting as though she had never heard the news and is trying the best she can to give a reasonable screen interpretation of De Lillo's trademark disconnects and fleecy philosophy. As she did in Cronenberg's CRASH, Unger steals the movie out from under her more expressive co-stars. She's not \\\"sleepwalking\\\" as many critics affirm, indeed what she's doing is really the opposite of sleepwalking, whatever that might be. She enters a scene all bristly like a beautiful, statuesque hedgehog, with every one of her sensory cells on high alert. As she plays Sara, the bookstore owner whose fiance died eight months before, you wonder why the screenwriters didn't make the dead man her husband. Why hold the line at \\\"fiance\\\"? Is it to encourage viewers into thinking that hey, maybe she didn't really love him, maybe she's ready to move on to assuage Michael Keaton's grief at losing his wife (played briefly by Chandra West). She's become addicted to fat Raymond's EVP sessions in which she finally makes a breakthrough, realizing that the mumbled words her dead fiance was saying were \\\"Sara, yes.\\\"\\n\\nLater Michael Keaton realizes that everyone who appears on the white noise broadcasts and podcasts was actually alive at the time their signals were being transmitted around the world, visible only to trained, or untrained, EVP readers. That makes sense to me. Does that mean that Sara's fiance had been filmed saying \\\"Sara, yes,\\\" while still alive? And does that mean that the three tall shadowy figures had him murdered from beyond the grave? With her tall, gaunt, utterly vulnerable and broad face, Unger manages to suggest all these plot points with but a single sideways look. She's totally involved in her acting, and at the same time that pathetic glance seems to be pleading and remonstating with her agents, \\\"Let me out of here!\\\" You get the same doubleness of affect watching the later films of Marilyn Monroe, in which she always seems to be waiting for approval from someone to the side of the camera, Lee or Paula Strasberg perhaps, Svengalis to her poor Trilby.\\n\\nI've read dozens of comments from my other Amazon compatriots about this movie and no one has been able to decipher why Deborah Kara Unger a) takes that mysterious sleeping pill or b) changes her mind as soon as Michael Keaton leaves her bedroom to take a few aspirin. She winds up on the railing of her balcony; narratologically speaking it's no surprise, but her doing so has no real motive in the plot unless you figure she's actually in cahoots with the real conspirators. With a lesser actress, someone like, oh, say, Gwyneth Paltrow or Reese Witherspoon, she wouldn't have gone off the balcony at all. She or her agents would have put their foot down right off and said, \\\"Michael Keaton hasn't made a movie in years, let him take the fall.\\\" But Unger gives everything to her art and for that reason alone she (and to a lesser degree the incomparable Chandra West) makes seeing WHITE NOISE a supreme lesson in the power of Thespis over the humdrum nothingness of Hollywood-funded Vancouver-based filmmaking.\",\n \"Product: Domestic disaster looms for male nurse Greg Focker (Stiller) when his straight-laced, ex-CIA father-in-law (De Niro) asks to meet his wildly unconventional mom and dad (Streisand and Hoffman). It's family bonding gone hysterically haywire, in the must-see comedy critics are calling \\\"A laugh riot!\\\" (Larry King)\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Love of the Loved\\n\\nReview: Dragooned into watching this one, what a mistake! Although, I do agree with others that the casting of Hoffman and Streisand is out of this world. They couldn't have been better, though whoever did Streisand's makeup should be taken out to the Everglades and shot like a croc. But the same catasrtophe happens to youngish Teri Polo in this film. In the first one, she looked pretty, in this one, she looks harsh and garish, older than Blythe Danner. It's like they hate her.\\n\\nIt must have been madness on the set as for decades people have been saying that Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand were the most demanding and difficult stars in Hollywood. Has time mellowed them, or have they finally woken up and smelled the coffee, that their careers have pretty much ended as stars, sure Barbra can still sing, but for the rest, are either of them ever going to get as simpatico a hand-made part as the script of MEET THE FOCKERS gives them? As Bernie and Roz Focker, they shine. Everyone's good, but the movie itself just sits there, nothing happens and nobody really cares. Ben Stiller gets himself in one embarrassing situation after another, but the actor has played this role so many times before we don't even feel for him any longer.\\n\\nI liked that the Fockers cherished their son so much, never made him feel inadequate, smothered him with kisses, framed his jock and his 9th place bowling ribbons and trophies. In their eyes he's the best male nurse in the world.\\n\\nDe Niro's CIA thing continues to be creepy. For the next Focker picture I'd like Hay Roach to step down and somebody like Ken Loach or George Clooney take over the directors chair and show De Niro's character invading and decimating Ghana or Ecuador or somewhere. Find the laughs there, Focker.\",\n \"Product: Jason thought his inheritance was going to be a gift of money and lots of it. Was he ever in for a big surprise. Produced by Life Media and Dean River Productions, and based on the best-selling book \\\"The Ultimate Gift\\\" by Jim Stovall, the story sends trust fund baby Jason Stevens on an improbable journey of discovery, having to answer the ultimate question: \\\"What is the relationship between wealth and happiness?\\\" Jason had a very simple relationship with his impossibly wealthy grandfather, Howard \\\"Red\\\" Stevens. He hated him. No heart-to-heart talks, no warm fuzzies. So of course he figured that when Red died, the whole \\\"reading of the will\\\" thing would be another simple cash transaction, that his grandfather's money would allow him to continue living in the lifestyle to which he had become accustomed. But what Red left him was anything but simple. Red instead devised a plan for Jason to experience a crash course on life. Twelve tasks, which Red calls \\\"gifts,\\\" each challenging Jason in an improbable way, the accumulation of which would change him forever. Featuring an all-star cast including Golden Globe winner and six-time Emmy nominee Brian Dennehy, Academy Award and Golden Globe nominee James Garner, and Academy Award nominee Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine, Signs).\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Grand Return to the Cinema for One of Hollywood's Most Often Overlooked Leading Ladies\\n\\nReview: For Christmas I gave myself the ultimate gift and watched the film everyone's been talking about in my neighborhood, the story of a rich boy who suddenly finds himself cut off without a dime by henchmen of his late grandfather (James Garner), so that even his car gets towed away while he watches, angry and ashamed. That part I couldn't figure out, couldn't he just call the police? In the US even your creditors can't simply siphon every penny out of your bank account, but then again maybe the government can and this is the film's way of showing that Texas oilman Red Stevens (the Garner role) is actually a top government official. Garner plays him as though he was playing George Bush Sr, and even the makeup people seem in on the act, carefully blotching Garner's skin and rearranging his hairline to give him a striking resemblance to the former President.\\n\\nThe older man, Red, has never been forgiven by young Jason for reasons that remain shadowy through most of the story, emerging only when Jason goes to Ecuador and enjoys a multicultural romance with an attractive, if somewhat older, Ecuadorian librarian and human rights worker. It seems that Jason's dad died under mysterious circumstances and all along Jason has been convinced that Red had something to do with it. Why Red never told Jason the truth when he was alive I don't know.\\n\\nAnother muted romance is between Mr. Henderson, the ancient lawyer living on due to having received Red's kidney, and Lee Meriweather, the former Miss America and Catwoman on Batman, who makes a triumphant return to the big screen as Miss Hastings, his assistant or secretary or whatever she is. The two of them are obviously in love, but maybe the interracial aspect of their romance was causing the producers some concern, so they share only some glowing, eerily lit closeups, and their heads are always photographed togetherthisclose like two petals on a daisy.\\n\\nI wept buckets throughout the movie and anyone whose heart isn't made out of stone will do the same. I dock the movie several notches because of its abysmal photography, like a cheesy featurette on a Balkan TV channel of the 60s; the limp Rob Lowe wannabe Drew Fuller playing the lead in a dreadful performance based totally on his hair; and also of course, the message about worship which is tacked on to what was otherwise a movie all about wealth, poverty, family and disease.\",\n \"Product: An artist with Tourette Syndrome falls in love with his best friend's pregnant girlfriend.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Push Comes to Shove\\n\\nReview: I have to give this one five stars because my wife says she won't speak to me unless I do. She claims this ia a fabulous love story. I don't know about that! When the movie begins, it's about a confused artist Lyle (Rob Morrow, with curly locks and a round, greasy face) who seems to be doing OK career-wise, represented by a major New York dealer and selling like crazy, he should be sitting on top of the world, and yet because he has Tourette's syndrome he's unhappy, and when it gets going the syndrome causes him to see things in a confused and yet dramatic way, like two lenses grinding against each other.\\n\\nThis and other optical values are supposedly inspired by the visual struggles of real life Tourettes patients. Rob Morrow wrote, directed, produced and stars in the movie and gives it everything he got. He has so many touching moments he creates mini-montages continually, in order I suppose to fit him into as many cute moues as possible. I put my foot down at one scene where he is supposed to be a birth coach for Callie (Laura Linney), the woman he wants but can't have because 1) she's the girlfriend of his best friend and 2) because he's so alienated and weird. This montage features a large rubber ball over which she is supposed to rub her stomach, rest her head, just roll around on, and other jump cut type glimpses, and then you see Lyle rolling around on it, caught up in the spirit of now the way I imagine Tourettes' syndrome, with its emphasis on sharp guttural moans and also obscenities in childhood, accustoms you to. But what do I know about Tourettes? My wife watched a video on You Tube, Twitch and Shout, the video Rob Morrow says inspired him to create the character of Lyle the successful artist. And the movie had a guy with curly hair and a round greasy face who twitched and popped just like Morrow, but cuter.\\n\\nShould Laura Linney (foxy in a red haircut she should have learned to love) stay with the man who made her pregnant, even though he, Mike (Craig Sheffer) has gone off to Burundi to join the Doctors without Borders organization? Well, remember Beyond Borders with Clive Owen and Angelina Jolie protecting infants from landmines? Well, Laura Linney and Rob Morrow are the schlubs they left behind, and this is their story.\",\n \"Product: Jane's Mom (Stockard Channing, TV's \\\"West Wing,\\\" \\\"Grease\\\") assumes her popular daughter is just like every other fifteen-year-old girl - a little confused about growing up, but a great kid at heart. Jane figures her mom is just like any other mom - a little too protective, but only because she loves her. Both of them believe they have a good relationship. Then Jane meets Taylor, the new girl at school, and falls madly in love with her. Suddenly, everyone is trying to figure out how to cope with the realization that Jane is a lesbian. Her classmates are having trouble treating her like a human being, and her mom refuses to have anything to do with Jane's experiment. The trouble is, this is not just a phase. Jane knows she's gay. If her mom can't or won't accept that fact, their relationship could be broken forever. Through the help of new friends and a lot of soul searching, Jane learns to accept herself and her sexuality. Now the challenge is finding a way to help her mom remember how much she loves her daughter.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Teacher of the Year\\n\\nReview: After watching DEAD LIKE ME for two seasons we knew Ellen Muth's cracked honeycomb of a voice, and flicking through the channels we wondered if this was some \\\"lost episode\\\" of DEAD LIKE ME but instead, we saw Stockard Channing as her mother instead of that cold hearted Cynthia Stevenson, so we settled in for the duration to see how DEAD LIKE ME would have played out if Georgia had been a lesbian, and if her mother had been Rizzo from GREASE. There's one point in THE TRUTH ABOUT JANE when you will swear Stockard Channing feels compelled to belt out \\\"There Are Worse Things I Can Do,\\\" especially when her daughter asks her if she graduated from high school without having sex.\\n\\nAnother star of note is the exquisite Kelly Rowan, who later went on to play Kirsten Cohen on The O.C. Here she looks even more fabulous if that's possible as the dedicated high school English teacher. She acts so totally real you could swear she was a real teacher, except for one thing, she is too chic. In her little black cocktail dress and a perfect white shell cardigan, and little black heels, she is the teacher of a young girl's dreams. In the story of the movie, Jane is having a terrible time of it trying to come to terms with a new found desure to be with Taylor, the new girl in town, 24 hours a day. Taylor's mom is a complete psycho and beats her up all the time. However for sheer human awfulness, there's no one quite like poor Jane's younger brother Brad.\\n\\nFirst he spies on Taylor and Jane while they are kissing. Then he tells everyone at school so that Jane becomes the victim of virulent homophobia and her parents wind up getting anonymous phone calls informing them that their daughter is having an affair with a female classmate! Stockard Channing doesn't know who to believe. Though she's a cool mom in many ways, she's also rigid as a fencepost when it comes to Jane and her sexuality. She's certain Jane is straight and can't see it any other way.\\n\\nLuckily the divine Kelly Rowan is in Jane's corner. I'm not surprised that this movie led to bigger and better parts for La Rowan, it is the dictionary definition of a breakout part.\\n\\nAnd now, can anyone tell me what happened to our wonderful Ellen Muth? She seems to have fallen right off the face of the earth ever since wrapping up DEAD LIKE ME.\\n\\nShe was looking pretty haggard during the last episodes of the series, and hopefully she's getting a bit of a \\\"rest.\\\"\",\n \"Product: Northern California's majestic Redwood Forest is the scene for a chance encounter between two young children (Matthew Garber, Karen Dotrice) and Jasper (Tom Lowell), a two-foot-high gnome. Jasper has been desperately searching for a suitable bride to please Knobby (Walter Brennan), his 900-year-old grandfather. Surprised and delighted with their find, the children agree to help Jasper with his predicament -- a problem that develops into a wild chase when an enterprising showman (Sean McClory) discovers the gnomes and quickly masterminds a kidnapping plot!|The film is based on a book by renowned author Upton Sinclair.|The \\\"gnome-mobile\\\" is actually a 1930s Rolls Royce.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A Car Load Of Fun\\n\\nReview: Robert Stevenson's delightful little 1967 film deserves to be seen in a widescreen edition, but your kids won't really care. The catchy music and wonderful theme song, \\\"In the Gnome Mobile\\\" will have you tapping your foot for sheer joy, and perhaps you will be swept away in a wave of nostalgia at seeing the last teaming of Matthew Garber and Karem Dotrice, considerably more mature than they were three years earlier in Stevenson's MARY POPPINS. Robert Stevenson had a lovely way with directing children--he made Elizabeth Taylor a star in the Orson Welles JANE EYRE--and his touch is surefire with young Garber and Dotrice. Sad to think that this was his last film (he died in 1977) but it is a memorable one, not least for Walter Brennan's dual role--wonder if he got two salaries, he deserved them!\\n\\nWatching the THE GNOME-MOBILE, even in its mutilated pan and scan version, turns into a whole snapshot album of treats. Fans with long memories will recall Sean McGlory from two classic John Wayne films of the early 1950s--THE QUIET MAN in which he played Owen Glynn, and also the rarely seen today ISLAND IN THE SKY, in which he played Wayne's co-pilot. Disney fans will recall he had appearances in both FOLLOW ME, BOYS and THE HAPPIEST MILLIONAIRE. He died too soon, in 2003, without the Disney Legend status he deserved, but his performance here as Horatio Quaxton is filled with generous touches and a lot of old school hilarity.\\n\\nThe beautiful redwood forest at the beginning and the end of the film, shows a Disney comfortable with location filming. Wonder where these sequences took place? Must be somewhere in Northern California or Oregon?\",\n \"Product: Honey Daniels (Jessica Alba) is a struggling hip-hop dancer who's got all the moves, talent and relentless passion to succeed. She's been waiting all her life to show the world her dance moves and now her dream is just a step away. Inspired by the energy and music of the streets, she risks her shot at the big time to reach out, take a chance and make it on her own terms. Pulse-pounding music and awesome dance moves ignite this exhilarating story of passion, determination and finding the courage to follow your dreams. Also starring Mekhi Phifer (8 Mile) and featuring hip-hop sensations Missy Elliott and Lil' Romeo.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: The Greatest Love Of All\\n\\nReview: Is mine for Jessica Alba! HONEY was filled with memorable dancers and a clutch of tunes that all sort of sound the same but have enough difference between them to disti8nghuish them-just. Genuwine seemed like a creep because he accepted Katrina instead of Honey as a choreographer, I can't understand why Genuwine got himself talked into accepting a part which shows him to be so heartless he disappoints a whole community center's worth of little kids\\n\\nBy contrast, Tweet, who doesn't seem like she has much talent, shows that at any rate she's full of heart by showing up and paying money to get into Honey's big dance benefit, even after Honey's been blackballed out of the music video business by a jealous ex lover.\\n\\nLil Romeo showed some spunk as Benny, the little boy who would rather be a drug dealer than a dancer, for the movie\\n\\nJessica Alba is so beautiful and sweet in this movie you can easily believe she is the daughter of Lonette McKee, once the most beautiful woman in the movies and even here, at age 50 or so, still fantastic looking. Poor Lonette is probably wondering why she doesn't get the plum parts she used to in such films as COTTON CLUB and MALCOLM X but she's got nothing to be ashamed about! Her fans have never forgotten her crooning \\\"How Long Has This Been Going On?\\\" in ROUND MIDNIGHT and we will never will! What they should have done in HONEY is have a duet with Lonette McKee and Missy Elliott.\\n\\nMeanwhile Mekhi Phifer is adorable as the lovesick barber who clawed his way outta the gangs, and as for David Moscow (who plays Michael, the hyorndog viedo director), he was so cute in BIG and NEWSIES that we hope this turn towards sexual harassment is just a momentary aberration on his part.\\n\\nThe final number, \\\"I Believe,\\\" is just as good as the climax \\\"I Sing The Body Electric\\\" in FAME. If only Jessica Alba danced in it my happiness would be complete,\\n\\nThe movie has every cliche under the sun but I wouldn't have it any other way. I just wonder about one thing, why the head gangster (BB, played by Wes Williams), who threatens to make life miserable for Honey and Chaz doesn't do anything beyond making empty threats. I thought at the very least he would have had one of the child gang members killed or the barber shop torched, or, well, I don't want to disappoint fellow viewers any more than we already are.\",\n \"Product: A \\\"happening\\\" - if ever there was one - befell on June 17, 1967 in the sylvan setting of Central Park, led by the one and only Barbra Streisand. If you missed it or don't remember it, you can share the magic of this extraordinary concert with this videocassette - recorded in Hi-Fi and released by CBS/FOX in 1987 - which makes the event strangely intimate while this beloved superstar sings her heart out before 135,000 fans. The wide range of selections include \\\"The Nearness of You,: \\\"Down With Love,\\\" \\\"Love is Like a New Born Child,\\\" \\\"I Can See It\\\" (from The Fantasticks), \\\"Love is a Bore,\\\" \\\"He Torched Me\\\" (from Drat! The Cat), \\\"I'm All Smiles,\\\" \\\"Marty the Martian,\\\" \\\"Natural Sounds,\\\" \\\"Second Hand Rose,\\\" \\\"People,\\\" \\\"Silent Night\\\" (so beautifully appropriate for this balmy evening), and \\\"Happy Days Are Here Again\\\" - at which point the crowd does not let her leave the stage. The cheers nearly overpower the recurring vamp played by the bountiful orchestra accompanying each of the curtain calls the audience demands. Among all of the stars that shone in the sky that night, Ms. Streisand was the brightest of them all! (Playing time=60 minutes)\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: The Wind Cried Mary\\n\\nReview: From the reviews I knew the movie was going to be a letdown, but we had fun watching it and got suckered in by the spooky, melancholy sound of the wind stirring the grass and the leaves at the top of the incredibly tall trees. From that standpoint the film's technical credits get high marks. I even liked James Newton Howard's score, but I have a weakness for overemphatic film music--at least I thought that Howard understood the plot of the film, possibly better than MNS himself.\\n\\nTIRAMISU SPOILER AHEAD!\\n\\nThe movie made us examine our own lives as Plato urges us to do. We walked a mile in the other man's moccasins thinking that if a rare virus sprung up on the wind and made us try to kill ourselves, how would we do it? It's not as easy as it sounds! Sure, you could slide a hatpin out of your long hair and stab yourself in the throat with it, but most of us don't have that sort of hair ornament. You saw what happened when Philadelphia comes to a standstill and an armed cop falls to the ground, his pistol clattering on the cobblestones, and a woman picks it up, then the gun falls again, well, that gun gets a lot of use, it's because people are literally starving for ways to kill themselves. First off, I decided, I would smoke a carton of cigarettes and enjoy a pitcher of margaritas... then see what happened. Maybe a heroin overdose? In the movie we marvelled how the characters managed to off themselves using just the tools at hand, like McGyvers in revsrse--I never would have thought of lying down on the lawn and letting a mower tear me to shreds.... though jumping out of a building is a natural. Mark Wahlberg, John Leguizamo, Zooey Deschanel were all uniformly terrible, and Betty Buckley brought back memories of Carrie, where she played the girls' understanding gym teacher... does she ever survive till the end credits in any of her movies?\\n\\nMost of all I thought M. Night misplayed Zooey Deschanel's secret. We knew she was harboring a guilty secret, but why did it have to be something as banal as sharing a tiramisu dessert with \\\"Joey\\\"? Why couldn't they have had sex like most guilty lovers? Did he died for this dessert sin? Or is he still alive at the end of the movie? We were all ready for the twist ending in which it would be revealed that A;ma's pregnancy was the result, not of that one dessert date, but of a long campaign to drive Mark Wahlberg mad with their deceit--so the twist ending would be, \\\"You told me you had dessert with him and now I found out you're having his baby!\\\" \\\"But you seemed stressed otherwise I would have told you sooner, I just made up that part about the tiramisu.\\\"\",\n \"Product: Bells of Innocence is about 3 men who find themselves trapped in a bizarre Texas town. The people all act strange, and only one woman and a mysterious stranger(Chuck Norris) will help them. A powerful immortal controls the town with his demonic horde. Good and evil battle for the town and its children, and the 3 men will help decide the outcome. Their only weapon is their faith, but will even it be enough to save them?\\nBOI is a good film. The actors aren't that great, but the storyline is good and the special effects work for a budget film. It's slow in parts and could have used some serious trimming, but for the most part the story moves along. There are some action sequences with Chuck's son, Mike, doing most of the fighting (Chuck doesn't throw a single punch). Don't be mistaken though, this is a plot-driven story, not a fighting one. Even though this is touted as a Christian film, profanity is used twice in it (though I have no idea why you'd do that in a church film).\\nAn interesting concept, and I guess it works. Imagine a Christian episode of the X-Files. The climax of the film is the payoff for watching it. It's just a shame that it takes so long to reach the really good part. But hey, it's definitely better than the Left Behind films. Recommended.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: The \\\"BELLS\\\" go TING A LING A LING\\n\\nReview: I have seen BELLS ARE RINGING with Dean Martin and BELLS OF ST MARY'S with Bing Crosby and this movie is better than both of them. The only thing it lacks, that the other two BELLS movies have, is some strong singing by good male singers. But for action, suspense, martial arts and Christianity, this movie outdoes BELLS ARE RINGING for sure, and it squeaks by the ultra-religious BELLS OF ST MARY'S by a nose, for its dark story of Stan taking over all the members of a little Mexican town is rather scary, which I liked. However, some singing would have been good because Chuck Norris has a great voice. And the film's composer, Amin Emam, knows how to write a good melody when he wants to. Between Amin Emam and Alin Bijan, the director, I get mixed up with the names of the principal filmmakers, God bless them all.\\n\\nMike Norris, now there's a he-man. He was one of the best reasons to go to see Dad Chuck's earlier movies OCTAGON and FORCE OF ONE. here he does his old man one better, and even convinced the paterfamilias to co-star with him in a strange, unearthly part. I'm almost convinced he was an angel! Mike Norris is a powerful filmmaker with the best intentions. Some have said the two Norrises don't look that much alike, and some have speculated that maybe Mike was adopted by Chuck and his wife as part of their program to take care of all the unloved children of the world. But actually if you study the facial hair of both Matthew (Chuck) and Jux (Mike) in this movie, you will see a rewarding similarity. They have the same beard! (In Mike's case mere stubble.)\\n\\nI wondered why they use the name \\\"Ceres\\\" for their little town of the damned. For Ceres in ancient mythology was not a devilish figure. Instead she was the goddess of the harvest, of renewed springtime, and the abundance of good food. We get the word \\\"cereal\\\" from her name. Here, the town itself is pretty ugly and worse of all, there's no way out! Listen for the bells of innocence, for they ring for thee!\",\n \"Product: It's a film about 6 teenagers from diverse backgrounds - among them the school's star basketball player - who conspire to break into a SAT testing center to steal the answers in hope of acing their exam. They quickly realize that the answer to their problems and the key to their happiness do not lie in achieving a perfect score.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Good Showcase for Chris\\n\\nReview: The film is all about the SATs and I'm surprised that ETS allowed them to make it. Certainly it makes ETS look like a company with a bunch of nitwits running it, and in addition shows that they have lousy security and any bunch of six random idiot teens could break in and get all of the answers to any particular SAT exam. Was product placement so important to ETS that they let the filmmakers run down their whole organization in this way? This is not even to mention the gfeneralized, pervasive indictment of the whole SAT system that the Scarlett Johansson character, Francesca, spouts throughout the whole movie and which is, indeed, the movie's most interesting selling point. It's like the FAHRENHEIT 911 of standardized testing.\\n\\nOtherwise it falls into a slavish imitation of THE BREAKFAST CLUB, with a bit of HARRY AND KUMAR GO TO WHITE CASTLE thrown in, redeemed by the presence of the divine Chris Evans, who makes every movie he's in an overwhelming visual and sensory experience, as though Aldous Huxley had released some pleasure-inducing \\\"soma\\\" gas into the ventilation system of the theater you're watching him in. Is he a real person, or actually a god come to earth to provide nirvana to the millions? Here he plays \\\"Kyle,\\\" sort of a switch up for Chris in a way, as the thoughtful would-be architect who can't get good enough SAT scores to get himself into Cornell. (\\\"Cornell University,\\\" the guidance counselor adds, just in case we were thinking it was Cornell Community College Kyle was aiming for.)\\n\\nChris has played characters called Jake, Adam, Ben, Bryan AND Ryan, Seth, Bryce and Johnny Storm, but Kyle is one of his best parts yet. A row of perfection, like clay ducks in a shooting gallery, each identical, all of them ideal.\",\n \"Product: He was more than one of America's favorite leading men, he was a true icon of the silver screen. Academy Award winner James Stewart's sincere, easygoing charm and everyman style endeared him to generations of fans around the globe, and now, for the first time ever, five of his most beloved and enduring classic are together in this deluxe DVD collection, The James Stewart Hollywood Legend Collection. Ride out with James in the adventurous westerns Destry Rides Again and Winchester '73, thrill to the terrifying suspense of director Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo and Rear Window, and be charmed all over again with James and his \\\"imaginary\\\" rabbit Harvey. It's an award-winning, dream-come-true of cinematic classics that brings home a Hollywood legend on DVD.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Four Aces and a Joker\\n\\nReview: I don't know, it's a great collection but I disagree with the other reviewers who claim that this is one boxed set with no clunkers. I admire Stewart's work in the movies, and four of his greatest are here, but although HARVEY does have \\\"classic status,\\\" and Stewart clearly loved the movie, to me it's a tedious bore. I want to like it, but it just doesn't have much staying power. There must have been a whole genre of Hollywood movies back then, these light fantasies like ARSENIC AND OLD LACE, Broadway comedies with zany old folks lost in the fog belt, and younger people joining in the fog. During World War II these plays were especially in vogue. HARVEY was a big Broadway hit by the Denver playwright in 1944, featuring Frank Fay as Elwood P. Doud (what we think of as the Jimmy Stewart part, but when Stewart made Harvey he had to overcome people thinking that he had stolen away the part from the beloved Frank Fay, the man who married Barbara Stanwyck before Robert Taylor did.) People loved Frank Fay the same way we love Tom Hanks now. But the rights to film HARVEY were so tangled up that it took years to bring to the screen, and by the time it did the vogue was pretty much over for ther kind of light, bibulous trifle it represented. It's a tough picture to enjoy because all the actors (including Stewart) seem to be trying too hard. The complications of the plot may have worked onstage, but characters just keep mounting up and Elwood P. Doud seems more sinister as time goes by.\\n\\nSorry to be a naysayer, but HARVEY sticks out in this collection--it may have been one of Jimmy Stewart;s signature roles, but times have changed to the point where we like Stewart in his tortured persona (VERTIGO, BEND OF THE RIVER, ANATOMY OF A MURDER, ROPE, TWO RODE TOGETHER) than when he plays the kook.\\n\\nHowever, the set is still a bargain and you can always use the HARVEY disk as a coaster, so I give this 5 stars.\",\n \"Product: When their child dies at a young age in an accident, a couple turns to a maverick and his cutting edge stem cell research to bring their son back through cloning. The resultant child is very similar to their original son, but something has changed.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Rebecca Romijn, we worship you (but get another movie)!\\n\\nReview: Rebecca Romijn, you are a goddess but you hve got to stop making these movies that are beneath you! You are great in Godsend, showing the grief and determination and slyness and hysteria of a woman who has lost one son and is not about to let that happen twice. You really mop up the screen with your acting and you blow away poor Greg Kinnear right off the screen, and you hold your own with de Niro.\\n\\nBut in this movie, just like in this summer's THE PUNISHER, you are so far superior to your material that there's a complete disconnect, with the critics and the public. Let's face it, you're a genre queen now like Linnea Quigley or someone, after FEMME FATALE it would take two or three Charlize Theron-style uglify-the-supermodel type roles for you to get an ounce of respect in Hollywood. Hmmm, a dilemma, but you're just making it worse for yourself! Rebecca Romijn, we love you, get up!\",\n \"Product: Nominated* for nine Academy Awards(r), this heart-warming, soul-stirring (Variety) portrait of life on the homefront during World War II is a magnificent picture rich in humor and poignant with heartbreak (The Hollywood Reporter). Claudette Colbert heads an all-star cast,including Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten and Shirley Temple, in this beautifully produced picture that gets into your heart (Los Angeles Examiner). With her husband Tim off at war, Anne Hilton (Colbert) struggles to be a pillar of strength for her daughters Jane (Jones) and Bridget (Temple). During America's darkest hours, she bravely steers her girls through heartbreak and hardships as she eagerly awaits news from overseas and wonders if life will ever be the same. *1944: Best Picture, Actress (Colbert), Supporting Actor (Monty Woolley), Supporting Actress (Jones), Cinematography (B&W), Art Direction (B&W), Editing, Music Score (won), Special Effects\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: The Glamor and the Heartbreak\\n\\nReview: I saw this film at the Castro Theater here in San Francisco during a two week Selznick Festival during which Ronald Haver spoke before every film.\\n\\nHaver said that Selznick had to pay Colbert triple her usual salary because it was the first time she'd be playing the mother part, and she argued that after you play a mother once, Hollywood will never again cast you in the femme fatale part. She was right! Her career never again reached the heights it had once hit regularly.\\n\\nNo matter, she gave a great performance and showed what an ordinary American woman can do in time of war. The ironic thing is that Colbert was French herself, which makes her conversation with Alla Nazimova towards the end of the movie even more bizarre (the one about \\\"You are America to me, Mrs. Hilton.\\\")\\n\\nThe movie itself is super-long and sometimes contrived but for the most part it is one of the greatest spectacles of US cinema. Just the lighting in the big canteen dance is enough to make your eyes bug out of your head. The hundreds of extras doing the jitterbug--and then hearing the sound of the planes propelling the boys away to an uncertain destination. And of course the sequence where Jane and Bill have to part and she goes running after his train, crying and trying not to hit any pillars, is a famous tearjerker. And how sexy is the day when Jane and Bill go out to the country and get caught in the rain and the barn and the straw--it's better than THE OUTLAW!\\n\\nBecause the movie employed so many gay stars (not Jennifer Jones or Shirley Temple) it has a strange kind of artificial glamor to it that gives you pause, as do so many of the films of John Cromwell. Agnes Moorehead is completely free of vanity in this movie, she says and does things that any other actress would have balked at. Haver said that people threw things at her on the street after this film came out, she gave such an unsparing portrait of a selfish hoarder and sex maniac.\\n\\nGuy Madison looks fantastic and he's really a golden boy in this movie, making Robert Walker look absolutely po-faced in comparison. Seems like I saw Rhonda Fleming, too, at the dance sequence--could she really be in this film? I don't know if she was contracted to Selznick or not.\\n\\nDid you know that, in typical DOS fashion, producer Selznick pressured each one of his leads to sign some version of this statement (and used them in publicity)-- \\\"'Since You Went Away' is the finest picture in which I've ever appeared'\\\"? Jennifer Jones, Shirley Temple, Monty Woolley, Joseph Cotten, Robert Walker and Claudette Colbert all complied, reluctantly or not.\",\n \"Product: Two gamblers must leave New York City after one loses a lot of money. Doing what all gamblers in trouble would do, they hurry to the gambling capital Las Vegas to turn their luck around.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: After Nick Dawson's Biography\\n\\nReview: I read Nick Dawson's biography of Hal Ashby and admired the young Scottish biographer's attempt to make sense out of the mad rush of US life in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. What a challenge, and in the book he announces that he has uncovered, with the help of Ashby's daughter, Ashby's own cut of LOOKIN TO GET OUT in the UCLA film archives. He made the movie sound so good I pre-ordered the thing on Amazon and counted the days till it appeared. So this is all your fault, Mr. Dawson! In this case, I'm terribly grateful, because I too had heard the stories of how awful GET OUT was and if you hadn't been so persuasive I wouldn't have given the picture a first chance, much less a second.\\n\\nWe watched it on New Years Day, and it was a good way to begin what I hope will be a much better year than last year. Ashby's direction is topnotch and from the beginning he establishes a mood and atmosphere that carries the movie in a rather different direction than the Vegas Vacation sort of caper movie I had written it off as. The movie is like something Robert Altman might have made in his heyday, and Jon Voight and Burt Young excel as hardcore loser gamblers who can't keep a twenty dollar bill in their wallets. In their Morningside Heights apartment life is so squalid that we were reminded forcible of Voight and Dustin Hoffman in Midnight Cowboy. In fact the whole movie is like Midnight Cowboy + The Sting, is you can picture that. Then they have to go to Las Vegas; this part of the setup seemed awfully forced but once they got to the MGM Grand, the movie starts to improve in innumerable ways.\\n\\nFor one thing Ann-Margret's there, and she used to be involved with Voight way back when (six years ago) and we hear she has a five year old daughter, and I'm a sucker for any movie that makes me do the math of pregnancy. Patricia (Ann-Margret) is being kept by the manager of the hotel, slick Bernie Gold, and again based on the average caper movie you wouldn't think you would like this character but the actor, and the writing, makes him strangely sympathetic. I would have liked a whole movie based on this guy, he's a real cool cat.\\n\\nSpeaking of cool cats we get tiny glimpses not only of Angelina Jolie, but of Siegfried and Roy! Very eerie! Anyhow if you like the old, slapdash, ragged narratives that Ashby (and a packl of other talented US directors) used to present us in the golden age of the New American Cinema, get ready for another fantastic addition to that list of great pictures. Again my thanks to Nick Dawson for the tip.\",\n \"Product: M. Night Shyamalan (SIGNS, UNBREAKABLE, THE SIXTH SENSE), the director who brought you the world's greatest thrillers on DVD, now creates his most thought-provoking triumph yet ... breaking international records and dazzling audiences around the globe! THE VILLAGE is a smart, edge-of-your-seat chiller crawling with terrifying surprises and frightening twists and turns. An isolated, tight-knit community lives in mortal fear of an oppressive evil inhabiting the forbidden forest just beyond their tiny village. So frightening that no one ventures into the woods ... until one villager dares to face the unknown. With unforgettable performances from Joaquin Phoenix, Sigourney Weaver, William Hurt, Adrien Brody, and newcomer Bryce Dallas Howard, this powerful motion picture is one of Hollywood's best psychological thrillers and ranks with the best of Hitchcock!\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: It Takes a Village\\n\\nReview: Not knowing what to expect except that it was going to be a movie disaster, one of the most ridiculed flops of all time, we started watching THE VILLAGE and were surprised to find ourselves getting caught up in the storyline. Not that you couldn't see the twist coming a mile away, perhaps within the first ten minute of the movie. And yet the power of the tragic love triangle is gripping, perhaps due to the writing, but also certainly to the performances of the three young actors, Adrien Brody, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Joaquin Phoenix.\\n\\nPhoenix and Dallas Howard have more chemistry here than he did with Reese Witherspoon in WALK THE LINE! In THE VILLAGE, his character, Lucius Hunt, plays a game of \\\"Ring of Fire\\\" that's really chilling, and when Ivy has to go on an epic journey to save his life it's totally involving, because we've gotten to care about the character. (SPOILERS.) I did find it hard to believe that her father, who is supposed to adore her, made her go through the whole routine alone, even though she's blind for goodness sake, and when he tells her about the stream and the hidden road he didn't even mention to the 15 foot tall fence she bumps into? Well, maybe it was built after his time I suppose, but it just seemed cruel and, if I were her, I would never, ever speak to my father ever again! I'd be like, \\\"Oh, so you took a vow never to go to \\\"the towns\\\" again? Well, I'm taking a vow that you're dead.\\\"\\n\\n(MORE SPOILERS.) Are we supposed to understand that William Hurt and Sigourney Weaver were involved at one time? Maybe he is supposed to be the father of Joaquin Phoenix? If so, isn't it dangerous to let the two young people get engaged if they are brother and sister?\\n\\nI kept thinking that the movie might have been better had it been made in the 1960s, and the William Hurt character could have been played by Vincent Price, Byrce Dallas Howard as the blind girl might have been Mia Farrow, Brendan Gleeson's character would have been Peter Cushing (can't you see him playing the opening scene weeping over the little coffin of his 7 year old boy Daniel?), and the retarded young man could have been Oliver Reed in his Hammer days.\",\n \"Product: Boston-bred bartender Troy Duffy discovers overnight success when he sells his screen play, The Boondock Saints, to Miramax President Harvey Weinstein. After several months of calls go un-returned, the film is dropped by Miramax and picked up by a smaller company for half its original budget.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Billy Connolly Cameo a Highlight\\n\\nReview: He's pretty gross, but something got cut out of the movie, something that might have given it some balance. As it stands you just get bored with seeing Troy Duffy attack anyone who dares criticize him. Twice, three times, four times, that would have been enough to establish his character as a sociopath. But directors Montana and Smith just play it over and over again, maybe forty-five times. Enough! I guess working with Troy didn't teach them anything about restraint.\\n\\nNaturally the documentary makes me curious to see BOONDOCK SAINTS. Most of the actors glimpsed in the movie, hanging out at Duffy's bar and grill, seem to be auditioning, like Patrick Swayze, a legend in Hollywood but a man who badly needs a shot of adrenaline career-wise. When it comes to actually making the film, BOONDOCK SAINTS behind the scenes footage shows us more extended interviews with Willem Dafoe and with Scotland's Billy Connolly, who comes across as an honestly swell guy, not to mention a living legend, who must have been either momentarily blinded to Troy's faults, or he's big enough to forgive him.\\n\\nYes, life in Hollywood is surreal, like something Salvador Dali and Bunuel cooked up together on a slow Spanish afternoon. And Harvey Weinstein seems like slime. But Troy, did you have to be so condescending to every human being on planet earth? Your mom should have told you, when you were a little boy, that you can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar. Watching OVERNIGHT leaves you with a headache but I can't imagine anyone not profiting from watching at least 20 minutes of it.\",\n \"Product: A good movie\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Vanity, Thy Name Is Spacey\\n\\nReview: I usually have a soft spot for the \\\"pet projects\\\" of the stars, even when they fail spectacularly, like Marlon Brando's ONE EYED JACKS or Barbra Streisand's YENTL. Even when they're bad you feel something's at stake, that passion is involved. John Wayne wore all his hats for THE ALAMO (1960) and when America didn't embrace it as enthusiastically as he had hoped, it broke his spirit, embittered him a little. And some stars never even have pet projects--do you think Elizabeth Taylor ever really cared about what movie she was making? It was the old factory mentality for Liz, punch in, punch out, bye, have a nice weekend. Thus I really wanted to like BEYOND THE SEA and when I didn't, I finally figured out the problem. It was the pet project of a star who isn't really a star, and inside this bright jewelbox of a film is nobody you can really care about.\\n\\nThese projects are all about vanity and Spacey must never get bored with hearing how much he's like Bobby Darin, singing, dancing, acting, they even look alike with that fake little nose-strip he's got pasted on his face in this film. Was turning the picture into a meta-fictional 8 1/2 meditation on fame and disease the wise thing to do? Oh, who knows, it gives the movie a startling beginning and provides a \\\"reason\\\" for those spectacular sub-ALL THAT JAZZ dance sequences that keep popping up every ten minutes or so (BEYOND THE SEA, UP A LAZY RIVER, etc), numbers without a lick of sense to them or even any real choreography. At least ALL THAT JAZZ had Bob Fosse. BEYOND THE SEA's got-- Kevin Spacey of course (and Rob Ashford, the Broadway choregrapher whose dances for THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE five years ago had everyone gasping in despair).\\n\\nThe truth is, the BobbY Darin story was done much better in VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, and the actor playing Tony Polar (the late lamented Tony Scotti) was more like Darin than Spacey will ever be. Darin's romance with brilliant and tragic Sandra Dee is already amply chronicled in the magnificent trilogy of Universal films they made together, COME SEPTEMBER, IF A MAN ANSWERS, and the superb THAT FUNNY FEELING. Watch any of these shows instead, they'll bring you more love.\",\n \"Product: A true and moving story of a brave Scottish immigrant family and their losing battle against the rigors of the frontier wilderness. When the parents die, the children keep the family and their Wisconsin homestead together.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Casualties of the Wild Frontier\\n\\nReview: Robert osborne said this was the greatest tearjerker of all time so I devoted days of my Christmas vacation to watching the thing, sneaking it on when my wife was out of the room, for she hates tear jerkers and prefers more artistic pictures.\\n\\nYes, I was a little disapppointed in the results, for at the end I came away thinking, that was awfully sad, but when I touched my face I felt no tears, only the familiar dryness that comes when a face has been pressed too close to the TV screen. In fact I hadn't come close to crying once, except maybe when the Scots accents of Cameron Mitchell and Glynis Johns threatened to undermine my understanding of their dialogue.\\n\\nAll I can say is that in classic Hollywood, audiences must have been allowed enormous freedom, for surely today no actors would be allowed to use so broad an accent. It was like watching a Ken Loach movie, whwre three quarters of the time you frankly can't make out what the actors are saying, you just pick up cues by their body language or their grim expressions. In this movie, I would say that Cameron Mitchell takes acting honors, while Glynis Johns, usually so sensuous, chic and modern, is badly miscast as the prim, ignorant, straitlaced pioneer lass who yearns only to learn to read and later, to make sure her children are placed in good homes. If this was really her plan, she sure chose a feeble way to ensure it would happen.\\n\\nSPOILERS AHEAD. The children are surrounded by horrible adults taken out of a Sinclair Lewis vision of American life, so that when their parents die one by one, so that the oldest boy is 12 when he and his five younger siblings are orphaned, he must somehow find places to lodge them, going around in the dead of winter with kids on his sleigh, begging the horrid neighbors to take them in one by one. This part I imagine if I was a little boy in the 1950s, and I was watching this in the movie theater, I would find utterly sad, but as an adult I just wondered how they were going to make this feasible. They just changed it around so that the adults are all now sweet and helpful, eager to assist young Robbie and to adopt even the plainest and most backward of the kids.\\n\\nI kept thinking what would really happen if this was real life. We know the frontier was not a nurturing place for children, and that sixty per cent of them died before the age of 14. Unfortunately some of these children would become pawns in the expanding sex trade of Wisconsin, while others would just perish in the snow. Now that's a tragedy. But the movie says, based on a true story, and when that happens, you know they have maybe 1 per cent true story and the rest Hollywood hackery.\\n\\nEND OF SPOILERS.\\n\\nPatty McCormack plays the same part as she played in THE BAD SEED, she's Rhoda Penmark all over again, bossing around the unfortunate children in her care. She must be the only child in the movie who went on to do anything else? Although some have said that the boy who played on LASSIE is also in this film. The one with the freckles was probably sacrificed by some cult as being cursed with the mark of Cain.\",\n \"Product: Director Dario Argento returns with this vicious thriller about a serial killer who taunts police with online video poker. But for every round the cops lose, a kidnapped young girl is mutilated live via webcam. Italian detective (Stefania Rocca) and Iri\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Dario Does It Again\\n\\nReview: THE CARD PLAYER isn't Argento's greatest film or ever close to it, but it is miles ahead of the worst (PHANTOM) and in fact would be perfectly entertaining if we weren't expecting something a little, I don't know, more. More gruesome? More disjointed? More garish and flooded with saturated color?\\n\\nThe odd thing is that the film keeps getting better and better as it goes along, the set-pieces building up, the suspense growing, the attachment between the two leads growing stronger and more tender, until you actually believe they're in love. Stefania Rocca is quite an actress, and as for Liam Cunningham, he's no Liam Neeson but he works well with Rocca, they're quite natural together. They play two cops from different nations drawn together to solve a case in common, the Video Poker murders, played on a computer from a remote location in Rome, one blocked from police surveillance by firewalls.\\n\\nThe plot calls for the police to secure the services of the nation's best poker player. But when he sits down to play, you hardly know why. Video poker must be the world's easiest game. My cat could have played the poker game with as iuch skill as young Remo exhibits. Five cards are dealt you, you get to decide which to hold and which to substitute. Big deal! You then either win or lose. It was an odd turn of the plot, but made sense visually I guess, it just seems peculiar that Stefania Rocca couldn't have played poker against \\\"The Joker\\\" from the very first victim, instead of dragging in Ramo against his will. Though the affection between Ramo and Anna was the best part of the film, and the scene where she catches him smoking a joint in the toilet was very sweet (and unlike anything else I can remember in Argento, same with the aftermath of the game in which Lucia's fate is decided). The young actor who plays Ramo is adorable, thin enough to slip under a doorway, but wily and a \\\"playa.\\\" He seems like a little boy until the scene in the cafe where he lets his gonads get him into trouble deep. I don't know, I've watched Argento's films for a long time and after awhile you notice, the young actors he casts are all like Cadinot gods! What is the story with that I wonder!?!?!\",\n \"Product: FUNNY HA HA - DVD Movie\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Docked for Some Truly Ugly T-Shirt Abuse\\n\\nReview: At the outset it's pretty crummy, but by the end of the film we were rooting for Marnie (Kate Dollenmeyer) to succeed with her program of bettering herself. She's not a great actress, and sometimes she looks better than others, but you do keep watching. At first, when she stumbles drunk into the tattoo parlor and asks for a Celtic cross, you're like \\\"Oh no,\\\" but little by little first time director Andrew Bujalski allows us a deeper access into her heart. I liked the scene where she and Alex spot a girlfriend passed out at the steering wheel of her car, parked in front of Marnie's apartment, and Marnie drops everything, even the chance to lure Alex into her bed, just to help the poor drunk girl. Thus charity trumps lust for once, and makes the rest of the picture easier to take, for we realize there's more to Marnie than just being the kind of girl every guy wants to kiss, but not to go out on a whole date with.\\n\\nAlex, the irresponsible boy, is well played by Christian Rudder. Alex' longtime relationship with the va-va-voom Nina has reached a temporary excursus point when FUNNY HA HA begins, and he seems to be single, and when Matnie hears about this news indirectly from her pals Rachel and Dave, she can't help but linger a little too long at Alex's flame. She knows he's wrong for her, but he's got her number in some white boy way, and she can't help herself. The attentions of Mitchell, the gawky geek who temps with her the \\\"Intellitech,\\\" deflect her not a whit.\\n\\nThe film slightly overdoes how Marnie is supposed to be a beauty, and Mitchell a nerd. I just didn't believe this angle of the story, and it's easy to see that writer/director/editor Andrew Bujalski isn't very much into it, for he rewards himself with healthy close-ups that show, after all, he's a hot guy despite himself. The actors can't really act, but all in all, FUNNY HA HA is considerably superior to SHADOWS, the Cassavetes film to which it has been frequently compared.\\n\\nThose awful T-shirts that Marnie wears are enough reason to dock this film a star however.\",\n \"Product: Co-produced by Amrimage-Spectra and Productions Conte IV, a subsidiary of Cirque du Soleil Images,Midnight Sun features 150 circus artists, entertainers and street performers, as well as over 100 singers and musicians. All these artists came together on July 11, 2004, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Festival International de Jazz de Montral and Cirque du Soleil's 20th birthday by performing in a magnificent show on the main stage of the Festival International de Jazz de Montral.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: In the Midnight Hour\\n\\nReview: I enjoyed VAREKAI for its offhandedness, did you know the title means \\\"Whatever\\\" in the Romany language, the legendary tongue of the Gypsies? You can also watch a sort of \\\"REAL WORLD VAREKAI Also, La Nouba, which was filmed inside, in a theater at Walt Disney World, with a lot of wire work like Hong Kong action movies with Jet Li-only Jet Li fails to make an appearance and it looks sort of Vegasy and schlocky, without the childlike wonder of some previous Cirque du Soleil shows. Even Alegria was better, the Australian extravaganza that used some optical shtick that made it very different. On the one hand, the increased used of video projections makes for better TV, and on the other, sometimes it's hard to see what's live and what was added in post-production. On DVD, you can slow the action to a crawl, and sometimes you see things you weren't supposed to.\\n\\nI wondered what it would be like to be present at the taping of one of the Cirque de Soleil spectacles that come out every year, so when I heard that they were going to be filming on the streets of Montreal, I packed my travel clothes and bags and headed for the hills-literally, for the beautiful city is ringed with hills and you see the streets jammed pack with tourist types in stupid T-shirts and open mouthed spectators, many of us eating those French fries dipped in vinegar. Meanwhile the spectacular tightrope stunts and fire walking and acrobats were whizzing about our heads, and the thunderous music that sounds like Vangelis at top volume was echoing in our ears as day turned to night, red streaks in the sky, and a young man edging a chair across a thin rope of steel, instinctively you turned to make sure you were not under him, so precarious was his position.\\n\\nCirque Du Soleil is unique in that it is a collaborative effort, without any \\\"star-making machinery,\\\" and individual performers are downplayed in favor of anonymous and heavily costumed ensembles. Even if you could recognize a particular actor (and how could you when they're all in makeup worthy of Kabuki) you might nor recognize him next time around. Due to this limitation, you don't look forward year to year to seeing your favorites because there aren't any, and due to this also, the shows are pretty short. MIDNIGHT SUN's total presentation, I imagine, isn't much longer than an hour and half. But you'll be rubbing your eyes with delight for a long time after.\\n\\nBut it is not from 1988! It is much more recent than that! Must be an error on Amazon's part.\",\n \"Product: Four children...Two horse thieves...One amazing adventure! Saddle up and get ready to ride on a daredevil rescue mission that's a holiday delight! For four children in a small outback town, it's the last day of school and the first day of the Christmas season! So when they spy a pair of strangers hiding among the trees, they're too busy dreaming about the presents under their own tree to notice anything suspicious. But later that night, while the family is asleep, someone steals their father's prized horses. And to make matters worse, Dad's so upset that he decides to cancel the holiday altogether! But there's one thing the thieves didn't count on: these kids aren't about to let anyone steal their Christmas joy! Now with their saddlebags stocked full of hilarious tricks and traps,the amateur detectives head for the hills determined to catch the bad guys, bring back the horses and save the spirit of the season! Hit the trail for \\\"humor, action and comedy\\\" (The Film Daily) in this yuletide adventure that'll make every day seem like Christmas!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Christmas in High Summer\\n\\nReview: Ben Mankiewicz made a big deal out of Chips Rafferty's star billing in the movie, as though his presence was enough reason to see any movie he appeared in. But in this one Chips is subdued rather, and plays one of three horse thieves who make life miserable for a bunch of white farmers scattered over the bush country of Australia during Christmas week. The other two thieves are comically dumpy and round, and at least a head sorter than Chips, so when he walks among them he looks like a maypolethey call him \\\"Long Bill,\\\" and you can see why. When the three thieves are together they invariably resemble a phallus and two testicles, no matter which way they disport themselves.\\n\\nThe real magic of the film is an enchanting cast of kids, one Aboriginal boy called \\\"Neza,\\\" one English boy visiting Oz called \\\"Michael,\\\" he 's the one with the eye-glasses rather like Piggy in Lord of the Fliesand a white boy and his two sisters who are Australian born and bred, independent beyond belief, feisty, realistically not always perfect angels. The younger girl, \\\"Snow,\\\" is so much like a little boy that I'm sure many who watch the movie think she is a boyI've read the other reviewers' comments here and see how they could stumble into this error, because you would simply never see as androgynous a character in any movie made for kids today, in this country or in Australia. She is amazing, a performance that could stand next to that of Margaret O'Brien in Meet Me in St Louis, or little Jean-Pierre Laud in Les quatre cent coups. I guess \\\"Snow\\\" is ironic because in Australia, Christmas arrives in igh summer when the kids get off of school for summer vacation. The Christmas tree the parents decorate is so cheap ad garish looking, it makes the one from Charlie Brown's Christmas look ready for the White House lawn. I never did figure out why the tree is so crumby, especially when the mother and father are drop dead farmer chic, the mother in particular wearing the \\\"new Look\\\" of Christian Dior way out in the Bush, rolling pie crusts with her hair perfectly styled and maquillage just so. They are surprised when their kids, none of them over ten I guess, don't show up after three days off on horseback from the back country. I guess kids just had more freedom in a wild country.\\n\\nStarving, the kids wind up cooking over an outdoor fire a big skillet of snakes, and then live grubs, wriggling in closeup like the most horrifying science class you ever took in middle school. Then you see them disappear down the kids' throats. I hope all concerned got hazard pay for that one scene. Nothing else in the movie is half as disgusting, but it is a tense movie and makes later Disney ripoffs like \\\"Spin and Marty\\\" look flat and malnourished. Hail to \\\"Bush Christmas,\\\" with \\\"Love Actually\\\" the best Christmas picture I've seen in ages.\",\n \"Product: Rachel McAdams and Cillian Murphy star in this Wes Craven film. Extras include outtakes, bloopers, making-of footage, interview, and commentary.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: There, and Back Again\\n\\nReview: In one touching scene at the airport, Lisa (Rachel McAdams) gets a caffe latte spilled all across her business suit so she takes to the ladies room where, trying to mop up her jacket, she looks in the mirror and once again notices a disfiguring scar along her sternum, really looked more like an ugly scratch with blood mounting behind it. Now whatever happened to that? Did the screenwriters ever write in an explanation for this, or was it just to make you feel sorry for Lisa?\\n\\nI kept waiting for the other shoe to fall, for her to explain that she feels stronger since her tracheotomy (or whatever it was), and that's why she won't take any more guff from international terrorists.\\n\\nShe is so beautiful, you can't take your eyes off of her, and certainly those who question why such a young woman has such an important job at the hotel, well, a, of course she does, and b, on the other hand, is her job as important as all that? She just seems to be some sort of glorified customer service flunky, making sure everyone gets mints on their pillow. It's not like she's a brain surgeon. OK, I was the first one to yelp when Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Lois Lane was played by Kate Bosworth, who looks all of 16, in the recent SUPERMAN RETURNS. But indeed I think Rachel McAdams is ideally cast. Bottom line, of course, she can do nothing wrong. She could have played her own father too, and I would have been nodding my head, remarking for the 1000th time, she is so admirably versatile!\\n\\nIt's Cillian Murphy who seems stuck in a rut, first BATMAN BEGINS, then this, which is the same part, except, not as scary. What will he play next, someone of the same ilk who actually doesn't commit any crimes? Or mild ones, like jaywalking or not rewinding videotapes? Well, if Rachel McAdams is in it, I'm there.\\n\\nLooked like they had Brian Cox for one afternoon and managed to film all his scenes in rapid succession, thereby freeing him up for his eleven other 2005 releases. You got to hand it to the man, he's everywhere, like brie.\",\n \"Product: Rising stars Amy Adams and Ben McKenzie light up the screen in this award-winning comedy about love, family, ambition, and the choices that come with each. When worldly art dealer Madeleine (Embeth Davidtz) meets her new Southern in-laws, she finds herself questioning the things she values most inthis powerful and funny hit that critics call \\\"one of the best pictures of the year!\\\" (Andrew Sarris, The New York Observer)\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: JUNEBUG through Film History\\n\\nReview: Like many others I too was puzzled by how little attention the film pays to George, the elder brother whose return to family life sparks all the later contretemps and tragedies.\\n\\nIt's clear he becomes a different man once he gets into the orbit of family, but really the director and screenwriter have little interest in him. Compare this fil;m to its spiritual forebears, BUS RILEY'S BACK IN TOWN or ALL FALL DOWN, and you'll not how the spirit of William Inge has mutated, albeit in a very charming and quirky way, so that we never find out why Ryan (excuse me, Ben McKenzie) has it in for his brother, nor why Ashley (Amy Adams) winds up being his opposite number in a sort of BRIEF ENCOUNTER doomed love scene at her hospital ward,\\n\\nThe early scene of Adams and Embeth Davidtz sizing each other up on the couch is like a living, breathing \\\"tableau vivant\\\" in honor of Steven Spielberg, who discovered both actresses in very disparate projects, Adams in CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, Davidtz indelible as the abused Jewish prisoner in SCHINDLER'S LIST. Spielberg isn't always credited sufficiently for giving his actresses a chance to shine--the interchangeable girls of the Indiana Jones series are the rule, not the exception--but sometimes he comes through in a big way, from the many fine black actresses in THE COLOR PURPLE, to little Drew Barrymore in ET, to Goldie Hawn in SUGARLAND EXPRESS (even before that, with Joan Crawford in that eerie NIGHT GALLERY episode). I loved Davidtz in this film, finally an intelligent, compassionate, exhilaratingly alive woman in the movies, a role Norma Shearer might have played, with just as fine a grace.\",\n \"Product: Three young women turn to pills because of their lives in show business.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: \\\"Well Broadway doesn't GO for booze and dope!\\\"\\n\\nReview: After KING KONG I suppose there was really nothing great from Hollywood's Golden Era to bring out on DVD except for this, the Mount Everest of 60s film musicals. And soon, June 13, right in time for summer, we will be able to feast our eyes at last on the most addictive cinematic treat ever made. I know there are some who say it's the worst movie ever made, and I used to be in that party as well. But every time I watch it now, and it's always on AMC, I have new respect for the makers of the film, especially director Mark Robson, who really is trying to bring life and reality into a somewhat bizarre script. Robson has plenty of prestige credits to his name; he started working with Val Lewton and then climbed out of B-movies with the noir explosion of the late 40s, when right in a row he knocked out CHAMPION, ROUGHSHOD, and HOME OF THE BRAVE. Something of the raw power of these films clings to VALLEY's frilly edges; not just in the over the top voyage of Neely O'Hara down to the alleys of San Francisco's North Beach, where she staggers from bar to bar looking for a jukebox to play one of her bygone hits. \\\"I used to be Neely O'Hara!\\\" Now, if Brando had said that, everyone would have believed it, but Patty Duke, perhaps she was a little too young to be playing the part. Anyhow the San Francisco of VALLEY OF THE DOLLS has long gone now, and the alleys and flea-bag hotels where Neely shacks up with any stranger have been replaced by expensive, sterile boutique tourist hotels, and yet we can still identify with her panicked sense that the world has gone by a little too fast for comfort. We all wake up and wonder what hit us, what happened, where did it all start going wrong?\\n\\nMark Robson was Canadian and could view American problems with a gimlet eye, an inherently cinematic one at that. Audiences shrief with pleasure at the montage sequences of VALLEY, like the one where Neely exercises frantically in a series of improbably gym outfits, while learning musical numbers and berating Martin Milner in between. The truth is, we are exhilarated by Robson's mastery of one of the cinema's oldest tricks, fast motion to make life seem more precious and magical. Melies perfected it; Robson just brings it to life once again with that incredibly earnest Andre Previn soundtrack.\\n\\nSo, about Patty Duke I'm of two minds, but basically, when I see the show now I am always impressed by how totally she gives herself to the role, even if she can't always stretch her talent all the way across its other side. Her wisecracks and her \\\"sexiness\\\" are tasteless, but her singing voice is ebullient, filled with life, fun, you can imagine, yes, she might have been a Broadway star. She's so short though that occasionally you catch the set designers rearranging chairs (giving them longer legs, etc) to make her look less like a little girl and more like a mini-Bardot.\\n\\nShe still brings me to tears every time she's in the sanitarium and Tony's there and she has the inspired idea to sing \\\"Come Live with Me\\\" directly to him and somehow he remembers who he is for a minute and manages to croak out a few bars. It doesn't seem like something the thoughtless Neely would do, but we forget, she's basically good at heart, she's just been hurt too early in life.\\n\\nAnne Welles (Barbara Parkins) has another fantastic montage, when she becomes the Gillian girl on TV and they dress her in dozens of colorful caftans and mini-dresses while the backgrounds shift from one psychedelic light-show-based blob to the next. She maintains her Canadian cool throughout. I only really love Anne when she gets herself concerned about poor Jennifer.\\n\\nJennifer North (Sharon Tate) is exquisite in every scene. There is no question in my mind that she should have won the Oscar for playing in VALLEY. People shrugged and said, she can't act. That's true, but only in a very limited way. Mark Robson had the patience of a saint and really helped Sharon overcome her natural shyness and false self-consciousness. The scenes where she has to act in a trailer for a French \\\"nudey\\\" movie, while at the same time, she's watching the trailer in disgust, are awesome, and how about when she and Tony are leaving Lincoln Center and he falters, then collapses. I've heard from several sources that Robson filmed the scene without telling Sharon Tate that Tony was going to fall down, thus capturing what looks like honest surprise and consternation and worry. Perhaps the DVD will show the screen tests that Jean Seberg did for \\\"Jennifer.\\\" THAT would be a coup!\\n\\nAll this and \\\"I'll Plant My Own Tree,\\\" \\\"Give a Little More,\\\" and that world beating swinging love song, \\\"It's Impossible.\\\"\\n\\nAnd George Jessel.\\n\\n\\\"Goodbye, pussycat--meow!\\\"\",\n \"Product: Rarely seen British thriller set in Scotland during World War II. A man excavating a bombsight discovers a spy, and sets out to stop his diabolical efforts. Leslie Banks, Alastair Sim and John Mills star. Directed by Anthony Asquith (\\\"The Winslow Boy\\\"). AKA: \\\"Bombsight Stolen.\\\" 86 min. Standard; Soundtrack: English.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: As good as Hitchcock\\n\\nReview: COTTAGE TO LET takes place in Britain during the early days of WWII, when rationing was a problem people grumbled at, when Cockney twerps were bused out to the country and put up wherever there was an extra bed. George Cole, who has one of those faces only a mother could love, is the leading character here, evacuated from his home and his \\\"mum\\\" and brought to live in an incredibly eccentric family estate in Scotland populated by servants and \\\"quality.\\\" Cole's cynical attitude melts when he comes across another temporary guest, a Spitfire pilot (John Mills) who has turned up in a nearby loch apparently shot down and his arm broken. Lucky to be alive, Mills is given some plushy quarters at Barrington Manor, and a doctor and a nurse brought in to see to his healing. In addition, the lovely young ingenue takes an interest in his case and the two of them quickly strike up a close friendship based on similar senses of humor and a thoroughly modern sense of fun.\\n\\nHowever nothing is what it appears to be! This movie will forcibly remind you of some of Hitchcock's films of the 30s and 40s, perhaps The 39 STEPS, SABOTEUR, THE LADY VANISHES most immediately. Director Anthony Asquith keeps a chatty script going with all sorts in in-the-camera editing. Watch them around a breakfast table, how his camera pans to the one doing the listening who will then swerve and grab the attention of a third guest, while the fluid camerawork continues in a pleasing, if somewhat dizzying, 360 degree pan. Asquith really brings out the best in his stars, including making Alistair Sim seem almost human, while Leslie Banks, as the brilliant inventor John Barrington, is simply put, astonishing just in his being himself. Was there ever an American star with so much of the ordinary person to him as Banks? Maybe Spencer Tracy, but Tracy always seems so showy and fake-sincere next to Leslie Bank's eternal get-on-with-it. Okay, so he doesn't seem like he's in the same movie as Jeanne de Cazalis, giving an over the top performance as his scatterbrained wife that would make Beatrice Lillie seem sober as Anna Akhmatova, but as though in recognition of this factor, they don't seem to have any scenes together, as though to say, it's a double feature--it's a witty surreal social comedy starring De Cazalis, and it's a slice of life story about the development of an innovative bombsight that stars Banks and the rest. So the bizarre interplay of tones make not be to everyone's liking, but the story and the direction really give a lot of pleasure to an audience, especially the audience that always wished Hitchcock had squeezed in just one more movie during his Selznick period!\",\n \"Product: Former British secret agent Harry Palmer (Michael Caine) now runs a Private Investigation company in Russia. He gets a job to locate and recover a consignment of stolen Plutonium, and with the help of colleague Nikolai Petrov (Jason Connery) he sets off to St. Petersburg to try and find it. Along the way he must deal with the violent Russian Mafia, and also find Nikolai's girlfriend Tatiana (Tanya Jackson) who has been kidnapped.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: The best of the Harry Palmer series\\n\\nReview: British thriller writer Len Deighton started writing the Harry Palmer books back in the 60s during the \\\"spy boom\\\" initiated by Ian Fleming and John Le Carre. Harry Palmer was sometimes called the \\\"thinking man's James Bond,\\\" based on the way Michael Caine tipped a pair of plain brown National Health specs across his nose to make him look more intellectual. Also the plots of the novels sometimes aspired to achieve the kind of complexity and moodiness of Le Carre's, with cheating wives, duplicitous bosses, the planting of double and triple agents, and the legacy of long-ago sins that come back to haunt our hero on present life.\\n\\nCaine was more of a party boy than the books' Harry Palmer but he gave the first films their energy. Women were drawn to him including the incredible Eva Renzi and the tragic Francoise Dorleac. That said, no one was really that upset when, after three movies, Caine quit the role even though he had two more movies to film under his contract with Saltzsman. The three films (FUNERAL IN BERLIN, THE IPCRESS FILE, and BILLION DOLLAR BRAIN) had done okay, but it was clear that they were not in the same running as the Bond films as far as a potential franchise went.\\n\\nFinally, in the 1990s, during a lull in Caine's career, he made the final two pictures about Harry Palmer, and nobody even noticed. Actually it might be more profitable to think of them as good Jason Connery vehicles, for Connery Jr. appears in both, claiming to have had a Dad in British intelligence (!!!) but playing Russian, and he's terrific in the part, menacing, sexy, and giving off showers of sparks every time he's on screen. (In the first one he's joined by Mia Sara, whom he married.) In MIDNIGHT IN ST. PETERSBURG, we feel the weight of the whole Cold War collapsing into an unruly capitalism as Caine, looking gaunt and ghastly, even in the comforting 3/4 raincoat Harry never leaves home without, stumbles around the former Leningrad searching for a plot. The movie comes and goes in bits and pieces, as though every scene was filmed without recourse to a proper script and the actors were just winging it on the fly, with lots of Russian flags flapping around them, but you wonder if they ever went to Russia or were they just in the studio. That said, it's a fabulously entertaining movie with great lashings of high style, fun, and espionage double crosses. Jason Connery, in his Russian chav avatar, will curdle your borscht and put hair on your chest.\",\n \"Product: During an historic counter-terrorism summit in Spain, the President of the United States is struck down by an assassin's bullet. Eight strangers have a perfect view of the kill, but what did they really see? As the minutes leading up to the fatal shot are replayed through the eyes of each eyewitness, the reality of the assassination takes shape. But just when you think you know the answer, the shattering final truth is revealed. VANTAGE POINT is a mindbending political action-thriller starring Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, Academy Award Winner Forest Whitaker (Best Actor 2006, The Last King of Scotland), with Sigourney Weaver and Academy Award winner William Hurt (Best Actor 1985, Kiss of the Spider Woman).\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: You Figure It Out\\n\\nReview: Critics have heaped scorn on the movie's improbabilities and on the lame politics of the movie, but I found only one real sticking point. A suspected terrorist is running for his very life through the streets of Madrid, and a team of crack Secret Service agents in top physical condition are chasing him on foot--for blocks and blocks, through high speed traffic and up and down the sides of buildings. And there's Forest Whitaker, bringing up the rear all right, but only slightly, a camcorder glued to his eye, not even breathing hard. He just keeps going and going, this tubby guy, he's like the energizer beach ball. I just didn't believe that Forest Whitaker of all people was up for the role of persistent sprinter. Why not get Lance Armstrong or someone? Did they hope to take advantage of Whitaker's acting talents? He didn't take them on location, must have left them back at home in the USA.\\n\\nThey must have had Sigourney Weaver for fifteen minutes; she's on the screen so little I was convinced this was an elaborate coverup and that Forest Whitaker would pause, duck behind a Moorish pillar, and strip off the Forest makeup as emerge as Ripley from Alien. She might as well have been the secret head of the terrorist ring, it would make about as much sense as what did happen. So go with the fun and don't expect a good movie, just a broad strokes one.\\n\\nOh, check out the stunt work when cars and trucks all converge on Anna, the young crying girl forzen, like a deer in the headlights, of a busy Mexican underpass. The two disc special edition will reveal what anybody can see--no children were put in danger--they just used a grown woman stuntwoman, the one from DEATH PROOF I think, and dressed her in a child's white dress, and then made super scaled big cars to menace her and make her look small in comparison.\",\n \"Product: Young VietNam vet stumbles upon remnants of a drug deal gone bad in W. Texas 1980 -- he's hunted by two vicious assassins who want t he money back.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Best Terminator Movie since the Original\\n\\nReview: I've read that they are trying to land Christian Bale for the starring part in the upcoming TERMINATOR SALVATION, but someone tell the producers to line up Javier Bardem, Spain's most popular star, to play his robotic unstoppable super-rival. This is the best Terminator picture since the original one. By far! Bardem does things with an air gun that you never saw Schwarzenegger even try to attempt. We saw this movie over the Thanksgiving holiday with a friend, and all of us were sitting gripping the arms of our chairs white-knuckled, so tensed up with suspense we were hyperventilating.\\n\\nI liked Javier Bardem when he played Cuban in BEFORE NIGHT FALLS, the Reinaldo Arenas story, but here he plays a man called Anton Chigurh (Josh Brolin twitches when he hears the name, snorts \\\"Sugar?\\\" as though to underscore how evil a man could have so sweet a name), who is charged with getting back $2 million dollars in drug money. Josh stumbles onto this cache of money, packed neatly into a highly distinctive portfolio bag, whilst out deer hunting on a lazy day somewhere on the Texas Mexico border. Not far away, Tommy Lee Jones as the state's most seen it all sheriff contemplates happy retirement with Tess Harper, both of them made up to show they've spent too much time in the sun. The movie's set in 1980, not too long ago on the calendar, but let's face it, any movie set in the past before cell phones and the internet is going to seem like it's from the distant Old West past. When a motel has a sign, \\\"Free HBO,\\\" or another character refers to an ATM, at first you think it's some sort of anachronism, like seeing that wristwatch on Moses' wrist in THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, then you stop and think, well maybe they did have HBO and ATMs back in 1980 but otherwise, you're just left wondering why did they bother trying to situate the story back 27 years? It would have played just as well in today's era, or slightly in the future like the other Terminator movies. Maybe this one is like a prequel of sorts, only it's not an origin story, instead Chigurh seems fully formed and totally evil from the very first time he ambles onto the screen, in his moptop Beatles haircut and dragging that oxygen tank. He doesn't say much, but what he says is packed full of contempt for human nature, as befits his slightly monstrous physical makeup. The Coen Brothers, whose dialogue is often self-reflexive to the point of being goofy, here play it down a bit and keep it on the level of the famous \\\"Hasta la vista, baby\\\" quips Arnold fired off in parts 1 and 2.\\n\\nI didn't really understand why they (or author Cormac McCarthy called it NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, but apparently it comes from Yeats' poem \\\"Sailing to Byzantium,\\\" which became early on a rallying cry for the cyborg movement with its repeated please to leave the human behind and move into a post-human re-mix. \\\"Once out of nature I shall never take/ My bodily form from any natural thing.\\\"\\n\\nSome of the action setpieces here rival the ones James Cameron dreamed up for the original movies. The very first one, even before Javier Bardem shows up, has Josh Brolin catapulting down a rocksliding hill and slamming belly first into a quickmoving river while a feral dog races after him only a nip away from his butt the whole time. Ferocious action filmmaking at its finest. My favorite part was on line waiting for tickets for the show and the guy in front of me asked for two for \\\"No Country Music for Old Men.\\\" Oh brother, where art thou?\",\n \"Product: A couple with a broken relationship learns some valuable lessons about love, life, and sacrifice in this romantic drama based on a novel by W. Somerset Maugham. It's 1925, and Dr. Walter Fane (Edward Norton) is a physician and bacteriologist who has become smitten with Kitty (Naomi Watts), the beautiful daughter of a wealthy and socially prominent family. Walter proposes marriage to Kitty and she accepts; however, while he clearly loves her, Kitty is more interested in her reputation than Walter's feelings, as she's recently turned 25, an age by which most of her peers have already wed. Kitty and Walter move to Shanghai, where he sets up a practice and she takes a lover, the British Vice Consul Charles Townsend (Liev Schreiber). When Walter learns of his wife's infidelity, he becomes furious, and impulsively volunteers to travel to China to work in a village stricken with a major cholera epidemic. While Walter's actions are meant to punish Kitty rather than reflect his own benevolence, the daily trials of living in a community in crisis have a striking impact on the couple, giving them a new and deeper perspective on their relationship. The Painted Veil is the third screen adaptation of Maugham's best-selling novel of the same name; a 1934 version starred Greta Garbo and Herbert Marshall, while Eleanor Parker and Bill Travers played the leads in a 1957 remake titled The Seventh Sin.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Now, what was the painted veil in the movie?\\n\\nReview: Watched this one all impressed by superior acting of the two stars, but really it's hard to imagine why they decided to make this particular story, it's so old fashioned and after awhile you have to ask yourself, are we supposed to admire these British people, their position in China seems anomalous and just plain wrong, I found myself cheering when the Chinese youths decided to menace Naomi Watts and knocked her out of her howdah in the crowded alleys of the town. Maybe that's mean spirited of me, but then again the film seems to recognize the problems of its raison d'etre on more than one occasion. Kitty Fane (Naomi Watts) comes home all thrilled by the good charitable work Diana Rigg and the other nuns are doing, but Walter (Ed Norton) sets her straight with a grim, they're stealing babies to turn them into Catholics. You can see that Kitty doesn't think that such a bad idea after all. Then there's the pre-teen Chinese orphan who refuses to answer to her Western name. Good for her! And what about that Chinese attache general or whatever he was, could they have picked someone who looks less Asian? Love to see an Eastern telling of THE PAINTED VEIL, I guess the Ron Howard movie of a few years back, GUNG HO, would be the nearest equivalent.\\n\\nBut whatever qualms I have about the movie, Watts and Norton are fantastic, and in Norton's marvelous nude scene there's one trick I never thought I'd see captured on film. He's waking up having made love to his wife after many years of treating her coldly, and he's trying to sneak out of her bedroom without waking her, and we see him retreating away from the camera and then Watts speaks, startling him to such a degree we see him freeze and yet his buttocks quiver, delicately, magnificently. Was this CGI or just more of that Oscar worthy Norton total command of the body? Whatever it is, he should do it in every movie and perhaps on one of those old fashioned whistle-stop trains that used to bring politicans to every city in the nation, and he could step out on a bunting-lined caboose at every stop and show the folks what fine acting is really all about.\",\n \"Product: America's favorite pot-dealing soccer mom is more addictive than ever in the third season of WEEDS, the highly acclaimed Showtime(r) Original Series. Emmy (r) and Golden Globe(r) winner MARY-LOUISE PARKER stars as Nancy Botwin, a single mom who resorts to dealing pot after her husband dies suddenly. But when an off beat way to make ends meet grows into a mini-empire, the mother of all dealers finds she may be in over her head - and on the verge of taking everyone else with her. Hilarious and subversive, WEEDS is the hit that put the herb in suburb.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Still watchable, but seams are showing\\n\\nReview: I like the show and we sailed through Vol III in about a week's time, but it is pretty forgettable! Nothing in the previous seasons prepared us for the unbelievable dips in the storytelling, particularly those involving Andy, Nancy's affable, ne-er-do-well brother in law. If I was the actor, I would be crying every day, realizing that a once promising part had apparently led the writers into thinking they could just ask me to do anything and my contract would require me to do it. There's no other excuse for the Andy joins the army storyline or even worse, the one in which Andy joins the adult film industry by using his foot. It is a black mark on TV, though who knows, some may think it funny.\\n\\nIt's almost as though they have one crew of writers for two weeks, then another one comes along and sweeps everything out. How about Nancy longing for friends and growing obsessed, to the point of sketching her repeatedly on a pad of paper, with her husband's former wife and stalking to stalk her so that they can be pals? And whatever did happen to the money both women were searching for? They just dropped it, probably because they were fired. I don't know how the actors keep track of how they're supposed to be feeling and who they've not slept with by this point. Mary Kate Olsen -- lots of bad karma. Matthew Modine -- not appealing.\\n\\nNever thought I'd say this, but I'm getting tired of drugs, and also tired of the way WEEDS, which seemed like sort of a progressive show to begin with, treats its black actors and characters. They are either Mandingo type studs, or drug mules, or dumb as posts. When Conrad and Nancy had their big lovemaking scene, where she's sitting down and he's standing before her, the camera just gawks at his naked hips grinding away, as though his butt was the biggest thing ever to appear on TV. And then cut away, and then back to it. It's still playing in some lunatic chamber of my mind.\",\n \"Product: This summer is gonna ROCK! Get ready to sing and dance like never before with the electrifying Disney Channel Original Movie CAMP ROCK! Disney's exclusive DVD and Blu-ray(TM) Disc explode with \\\"Too Cool\\\" bonus features, including an exclusive extended ending and \\\"How To Be A Rock Star,\\\" a sensational series full of tips and secrets from the CAMP ROCK cast to help make your real-life rock star dream come true! When Mitchie gets a chance to attend Camp Rock, her life takes an unpredictable twist, and she learns just how important it is to be true to yourself. Join the platinum-selling Jonas Brothers and the hottest cast of performers at the coolest summer camp anywhere! Experience CAMP ROCK in a whole new way in this Extended Rock Star Edition, packed with hit music, hip dance moves and bonus features that will have you singing, dancing and rocking over and over again.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: \\\"This is real, this is me\\\"\\n\\nReview: Can't help but think of HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL while watching CAMP ROCK, but it has some charms of its own and it isn't EXACTLY a cookie cutter replica of the two HSM movies--though I will say that setting it in a summer camp for musicians is a tiny bit like the setting of the second HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL, especially the many scenes of HSM2 and CAMP ROCK set in the institutional kitchens while cooking and washing dishes and peeling potatoes for 100s of people--OK, those scenes were the same.\\n\\nExcept that in HSM2 Gabriella did not have to be pretend to be a rich spoiled daughter of a Japanese CEO, and she did not have to lie about her mother being a cook. That makes the new picture a little bid sadder and a little bit more serious, because Mitchie definitely has mother-daughter shame issues. Sort of like Susan Kohner did in the Douglas Sirk version of IMITATION OF LIFE, Mitchie is bitterly ashamed to have a mother who cooks for a living and works at \\\"Connie's Catering Company.\\\"\\n\\nBy the way, all the food Connie makes in the movie looks fantastic, especially the cupcakes and those fake CDs covered with icing! Disney should put together a \\\"Connie's Catering Cookbook,\\\" to showcase some of the wonderful food featured in CAMP ROCK. I'm surprised the students weren't super fat getting to sample Connie's delicious wares. Instead they're fairly slim, especially the two rapping dance boys who get to lead the Hasta la Vista crew.\\n\\nBut the music is the important thing. There aren't any numbers as catchy as the songs in HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL or as \\\"What Time Is It?\\\" in HSM 2, but give them time, they will grow on you. The horrible blonde Tess Tyler actually gets to sing two of the better numbers in the score, \\\"Too Cool for You\\\" and her finale with all the mirrors, and most of the kids get to chime in here and there. Demi Lovato as Mitchie Torres is cute in a Mary Diaz way, but she smiles way too much! While we watched the movie at my apartment, a crowd of grownups gathered with a big quart of Scotch and we were told to take a drink every time Mitchie shows that appealing grin, and everyone was drunk within the first twenty minutes. She's wonderful in the part (especially in the sad moments) but, enough with the choppers, Demi! Two of us had an argument about the young actress, and one said that her resemblance to Demi Moore was so strong she must be the daughter of the veteran star from the 1980s and 1990s.\\n\\nBut I think of her as her own creation, and she's very believable. As Shane Gray, the bad boy rock star, Joe Jonas wires the floor with Zac Efron. His big bushy black eyebrows look like crows feathers--feathers form a 600 pound crow. How does he even see out from under those brows? Maybe that's why his gaze seems fixed to the ground, as though he were a shy wallflower. The other two brothers have regular eyebrows, it's just Joe who's had the brow transplants I guess. He is sort of like John Cuaack, if Cusack had any sex appeal, and sort of like Joe D'Allesandro, if the latter were a topnotch rock musician. Anyhow Mitchie and Shane have a lot of chemistry, and I think should somehow be incorporated (or promoted) into the upcoming big screen HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3 SENIOR YEAR.\",\n \"Product: Former British secret agent Harry Palmer (Michael Caine) now runs a Private Investigation company in Russia. He gets a job to locate and recover a consignment of stolen Plutonium, and with the help of colleague Nikolai Petrov (Jason Connery) he sets off to St. Petersburg to try and find it. Along the way he must deal with the violent Russian Mafia, and also find Nikolai's girlfriend Tatiana (Tanya Jackson) who has been kidnapped.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: The best of the Harry Palmer series\\n\\nReview: British thriller writer Len Deighton started writing the Harry Palmer books back in the 60s during the \\\"spy boom\\\" initiated by Ian Fleming and John Le Carre. Harry Palmer was sometimes called the \\\"thinking man's James Bond,\\\" based on the way Michael Caine tipped a pair of plain brown National Health specs across his nose to make him look more intellectual. Also the plots of the novels sometimes aspired to achieve the kind of complexity and moodiness of Le Carre's, with cheating wives, duplicitous bosses, the planting of double and triple agents, and the legacy of long-ago sins that come back to haunt our hero on present life.\\n\\nCaine was more of a party boy than the books' Harry Palmer but he gave the first films their energy. Women were drawn to him including the incredible Eva Renzi and the tragic Francoise Dorleac. That said, no one was really that upset when, after three movies, Caine quit the role even though he had two more movies to film under his contract with Saltzsman. The three films (FUNERAL IN BERLIN, THE IPCRESS FILE, and BILLION DOLLAR BRAIN) had done okay, but it was clear that they were not in the same running as the Bond films as far as a potential franchise went.\\n\\nFinally, in the 1990s, during a lull in Caine's career, he made the final two pictures about Harry Palmer, and nobody even noticed. Actually it might be more profitable to think of them as good Jason Connery vehicles, for Connery Jr. appears in both, claiming to have had a Dad in British intelligence (!!!) but playing Russian, and he's terrific in the part, menacing, sexy, and giving off showers of sparks every time he's on screen. (In the first one he's joined by Mia Sara, whom he married.) In MIDNIGHT IN ST. PETERSBURG, we feel the weight of the whole Cold War collapsing into an unruly capitalism as Caine, looking gaunt and ghastly, even in the comforting 3/4 raincoat Harry never leaves home without, stumbles around the former Leningrad searching for a plot. The movie comes and goes in bits and pieces, as though every scene was filmed without recourse to a proper script and the actors were just winging it on the fly, with lots of Russian flags flapping around them, but you wonder if they ever went to Russia or were they just in the studio. That said, it's a fabulously entertaining movie with great lashings of high style, fun, and espionage double crosses. Jason Connery, in his Russian chav avatar, will curdle your borscht and put hair on your chest.\",\n \"Product: During an historic counter-terrorism summit in Spain, the President of the United States is struck down by an assassin's bullet. Eight strangers have a perfect view of the kill, but what did they really see? As the minutes leading up to the fatal shot are replayed through the eyes of each eyewitness, the reality of the assassination takes shape. But just when you think you know the answer, the shattering final truth is revealed. VANTAGE POINT is a mindbending political action-thriller starring Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, Academy Award Winner Forest Whitaker (Best Actor 2006, The Last King of Scotland), with Sigourney Weaver and Academy Award winner William Hurt (Best Actor 1985, Kiss of the Spider Woman).\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: You Figure It Out\\n\\nReview: Critics have heaped scorn on the movie's improbabilities and on the lame politics of the movie, but I found only one real sticking point. A suspected terrorist is running for his very life through the streets of Madrid, and a team of crack Secret Service agents in top physical condition are chasing him on foot--for blocks and blocks, through high speed traffic and up and down the sides of buildings. And there's Forest Whitaker, bringing up the rear all right, but only slightly, a camcorder glued to his eye, not even breathing hard. He just keeps going and going, this tubby guy, he's like the energizer beach ball. I just didn't believe that Forest Whitaker of all people was up for the role of persistent sprinter. Why not get Lance Armstrong or someone? Did they hope to take advantage of Whitaker's acting talents? He didn't take them on location, must have left them back at home in the USA.\\n\\nThey must have had Sigourney Weaver for fifteen minutes; she's on the screen so little I was convinced this was an elaborate coverup and that Forest Whitaker would pause, duck behind a Moorish pillar, and strip off the Forest makeup as emerge as Ripley from Alien. She might as well have been the secret head of the terrorist ring, it would make about as much sense as what did happen. So go with the fun and don't expect a good movie, just a broad strokes one.\\n\\nOh, check out the stunt work when cars and trucks all converge on Anna, the young crying girl forzen, like a deer in the headlights, of a busy Mexican underpass. The two disc special edition will reveal what anybody can see--no children were put in danger--they just used a grown woman stuntwoman, the one from DEATH PROOF I think, and dressed her in a child's white dress, and then made super scaled big cars to menace her and make her look small in comparison.\",\n \"Product: Young VietNam vet stumbles upon remnants of a drug deal gone bad in W. Texas 1980 -- he's hunted by two vicious assassins who want t he money back.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Best Terminator Movie since the Original\\n\\nReview: I've read that they are trying to land Christian Bale for the starring part in the upcoming TERMINATOR SALVATION, but someone tell the producers to line up Javier Bardem, Spain's most popular star, to play his robotic unstoppable super-rival. This is the best Terminator picture since the original one. By far! Bardem does things with an air gun that you never saw Schwarzenegger even try to attempt. We saw this movie over the Thanksgiving holiday with a friend, and all of us were sitting gripping the arms of our chairs white-knuckled, so tensed up with suspense we were hyperventilating.\\n\\nI liked Javier Bardem when he played Cuban in BEFORE NIGHT FALLS, the Reinaldo Arenas story, but here he plays a man called Anton Chigurh (Josh Brolin twitches when he hears the name, snorts \\\"Sugar?\\\" as though to underscore how evil a man could have so sweet a name), who is charged with getting back $2 million dollars in drug money. Josh stumbles onto this cache of money, packed neatly into a highly distinctive portfolio bag, whilst out deer hunting on a lazy day somewhere on the Texas Mexico border. Not far away, Tommy Lee Jones as the state's most seen it all sheriff contemplates happy retirement with Tess Harper, both of them made up to show they've spent too much time in the sun. The movie's set in 1980, not too long ago on the calendar, but let's face it, any movie set in the past before cell phones and the internet is going to seem like it's from the distant Old West past. When a motel has a sign, \\\"Free HBO,\\\" or another character refers to an ATM, at first you think it's some sort of anachronism, like seeing that wristwatch on Moses' wrist in THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, then you stop and think, well maybe they did have HBO and ATMs back in 1980 but otherwise, you're just left wondering why did they bother trying to situate the story back 27 years? It would have played just as well in today's era, or slightly in the future like the other Terminator movies. Maybe this one is like a prequel of sorts, only it's not an origin story, instead Chigurh seems fully formed and totally evil from the very first time he ambles onto the screen, in his moptop Beatles haircut and dragging that oxygen tank. He doesn't say much, but what he says is packed full of contempt for human nature, as befits his slightly monstrous physical makeup. The Coen Brothers, whose dialogue is often self-reflexive to the point of being goofy, here play it down a bit and keep it on the level of the famous \\\"Hasta la vista, baby\\\" quips Arnold fired off in parts 1 and 2.\\n\\nI didn't really understand why they (or author Cormac McCarthy called it NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, but apparently it comes from Yeats' poem \\\"Sailing to Byzantium,\\\" which became early on a rallying cry for the cyborg movement with its repeated please to leave the human behind and move into a post-human re-mix. \\\"Once out of nature I shall never take/ My bodily form from any natural thing.\\\"\\n\\nSome of the action setpieces here rival the ones James Cameron dreamed up for the original movies. The very first one, even before Javier Bardem shows up, has Josh Brolin catapulting down a rocksliding hill and slamming belly first into a quickmoving river while a feral dog races after him only a nip away from his butt the whole time. Ferocious action filmmaking at its finest. My favorite part was on line waiting for tickets for the show and the guy in front of me asked for two for \\\"No Country Music for Old Men.\\\" Oh brother, where art thou?\",\n \"Product: A couple with a broken relationship learns some valuable lessons about love, life, and sacrifice in this romantic drama based on a novel by W. Somerset Maugham. It's 1925, and Dr. Walter Fane (Edward Norton) is a physician and bacteriologist who has become smitten with Kitty (Naomi Watts), the beautiful daughter of a wealthy and socially prominent family. Walter proposes marriage to Kitty and she accepts; however, while he clearly loves her, Kitty is more interested in her reputation than Walter's feelings, as she's recently turned 25, an age by which most of her peers have already wed. Kitty and Walter move to Shanghai, where he sets up a practice and she takes a lover, the British Vice Consul Charles Townsend (Liev Schreiber). When Walter learns of his wife's infidelity, he becomes furious, and impulsively volunteers to travel to China to work in a village stricken with a major cholera epidemic. While Walter's actions are meant to punish Kitty rather than reflect his own benevolence, the daily trials of living in a community in crisis have a striking impact on the couple, giving them a new and deeper perspective on their relationship. The Painted Veil is the third screen adaptation of Maugham's best-selling novel of the same name; a 1934 version starred Greta Garbo and Herbert Marshall, while Eleanor Parker and Bill Travers played the leads in a 1957 remake titled The Seventh Sin.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Now, what was the painted veil in the movie?\\n\\nReview: Watched this one all impressed by superior acting of the two stars, but really it's hard to imagine why they decided to make this particular story, it's so old fashioned and after awhile you have to ask yourself, are we supposed to admire these British people, their position in China seems anomalous and just plain wrong, I found myself cheering when the Chinese youths decided to menace Naomi Watts and knocked her out of her howdah in the crowded alleys of the town. Maybe that's mean spirited of me, but then again the film seems to recognize the problems of its raison d'etre on more than one occasion. Kitty Fane (Naomi Watts) comes home all thrilled by the good charitable work Diana Rigg and the other nuns are doing, but Walter (Ed Norton) sets her straight with a grim, they're stealing babies to turn them into Catholics. You can see that Kitty doesn't think that such a bad idea after all. Then there's the pre-teen Chinese orphan who refuses to answer to her Western name. Good for her! And what about that Chinese attache general or whatever he was, could they have picked someone who looks less Asian? Love to see an Eastern telling of THE PAINTED VEIL, I guess the Ron Howard movie of a few years back, GUNG HO, would be the nearest equivalent.\\n\\nBut whatever qualms I have about the movie, Watts and Norton are fantastic, and in Norton's marvelous nude scene there's one trick I never thought I'd see captured on film. He's waking up having made love to his wife after many years of treating her coldly, and he's trying to sneak out of her bedroom without waking her, and we see him retreating away from the camera and then Watts speaks, startling him to such a degree we see him freeze and yet his buttocks quiver, delicately, magnificently. Was this CGI or just more of that Oscar worthy Norton total command of the body? Whatever it is, he should do it in every movie and perhaps on one of those old fashioned whistle-stop trains that used to bring politicans to every city in the nation, and he could step out on a bunting-lined caboose at every stop and show the folks what fine acting is really all about.\",\n \"Product: America's favorite pot-dealing soccer mom is more addictive than ever in the third season of WEEDS, the highly acclaimed Showtime(r) Original Series. Emmy (r) and Golden Globe(r) winner MARY-LOUISE PARKER stars as Nancy Botwin, a single mom who resorts to dealing pot after her husband dies suddenly. But when an off beat way to make ends meet grows into a mini-empire, the mother of all dealers finds she may be in over her head - and on the verge of taking everyone else with her. Hilarious and subversive, WEEDS is the hit that put the herb in suburb.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Still watchable, but seams are showing\\n\\nReview: I like the show and we sailed through Vol III in about a week's time, but it is pretty forgettable! Nothing in the previous seasons prepared us for the unbelievable dips in the storytelling, particularly those involving Andy, Nancy's affable, ne-er-do-well brother in law. If I was the actor, I would be crying every day, realizing that a once promising part had apparently led the writers into thinking they could just ask me to do anything and my contract would require me to do it. There's no other excuse for the Andy joins the army storyline or even worse, the one in which Andy joins the adult film industry by using his foot. It is a black mark on TV, though who knows, some may think it funny.\\n\\nIt's almost as though they have one crew of writers for two weeks, then another one comes along and sweeps everything out. How about Nancy longing for friends and growing obsessed, to the point of sketching her repeatedly on a pad of paper, with her husband's former wife and stalking to stalk her so that they can be pals? And whatever did happen to the money both women were searching for? They just dropped it, probably because they were fired. I don't know how the actors keep track of how they're supposed to be feeling and who they've not slept with by this point. Mary Kate Olsen -- lots of bad karma. Matthew Modine -- not appealing.\\n\\nNever thought I'd say this, but I'm getting tired of drugs, and also tired of the way WEEDS, which seemed like sort of a progressive show to begin with, treats its black actors and characters. They are either Mandingo type studs, or drug mules, or dumb as posts. When Conrad and Nancy had their big lovemaking scene, where she's sitting down and he's standing before her, the camera just gawks at his naked hips grinding away, as though his butt was the biggest thing ever to appear on TV. And then cut away, and then back to it. It's still playing in some lunatic chamber of my mind.\",\n \"Product: This summer is gonna ROCK! Get ready to sing and dance like never before with the electrifying Disney Channel Original Movie CAMP ROCK! Disney's exclusive DVD and Blu-ray(TM) Disc explode with \\\"Too Cool\\\" bonus features, including an exclusive extended ending and \\\"How To Be A Rock Star,\\\" a sensational series full of tips and secrets from the CAMP ROCK cast to help make your real-life rock star dream come true! When Mitchie gets a chance to attend Camp Rock, her life takes an unpredictable twist, and she learns just how important it is to be true to yourself. Join the platinum-selling Jonas Brothers and the hottest cast of performers at the coolest summer camp anywhere! Experience CAMP ROCK in a whole new way in this Extended Rock Star Edition, packed with hit music, hip dance moves and bonus features that will have you singing, dancing and rocking over and over again.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: \\\"This is real, this is me\\\"\\n\\nReview: Can't help but think of HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL while watching CAMP ROCK, but it has some charms of its own and it isn't EXACTLY a cookie cutter replica of the two HSM movies--though I will say that setting it in a summer camp for musicians is a tiny bit like the setting of the second HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL, especially the many scenes of HSM2 and CAMP ROCK set in the institutional kitchens while cooking and washing dishes and peeling potatoes for 100s of people--OK, those scenes were the same.\\n\\nExcept that in HSM2 Gabriella did not have to be pretend to be a rich spoiled daughter of a Japanese CEO, and she did not have to lie about her mother being a cook. That makes the new picture a little bid sadder and a little bit more serious, because Mitchie definitely has mother-daughter shame issues. Sort of like Susan Kohner did in the Douglas Sirk version of IMITATION OF LIFE, Mitchie is bitterly ashamed to have a mother who cooks for a living and works at \\\"Connie's Catering Company.\\\"\\n\\nBy the way, all the food Connie makes in the movie looks fantastic, especially the cupcakes and those fake CDs covered with icing! Disney should put together a \\\"Connie's Catering Cookbook,\\\" to showcase some of the wonderful food featured in CAMP ROCK. I'm surprised the students weren't super fat getting to sample Connie's delicious wares. Instead they're fairly slim, especially the two rapping dance boys who get to lead the Hasta la Vista crew.\\n\\nBut the music is the important thing. There aren't any numbers as catchy as the songs in HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL or as \\\"What Time Is It?\\\" in HSM 2, but give them time, they will grow on you. The horrible blonde Tess Tyler actually gets to sing two of the better numbers in the score, \\\"Too Cool for You\\\" and her finale with all the mirrors, and most of the kids get to chime in here and there. Demi Lovato as Mitchie Torres is cute in a Mary Diaz way, but she smiles way too much! While we watched the movie at my apartment, a crowd of grownups gathered with a big quart of Scotch and we were told to take a drink every time Mitchie shows that appealing grin, and everyone was drunk within the first twenty minutes. She's wonderful in the part (especially in the sad moments) but, enough with the choppers, Demi! Two of us had an argument about the young actress, and one said that her resemblance to Demi Moore was so strong she must be the daughter of the veteran star from the 1980s and 1990s.\\n\\nBut I think of her as her own creation, and she's very believable. As Shane Gray, the bad boy rock star, Joe Jonas wires the floor with Zac Efron. His big bushy black eyebrows look like crows feathers--feathers form a 600 pound crow. How does he even see out from under those brows? Maybe that's why his gaze seems fixed to the ground, as though he were a shy wallflower. The other two brothers have regular eyebrows, it's just Joe who's had the brow transplants I guess. He is sort of like John Cuaack, if Cusack had any sex appeal, and sort of like Joe D'Allesandro, if the latter were a topnotch rock musician. Anyhow Mitchie and Shane have a lot of chemistry, and I think should somehow be incorporated (or promoted) into the upcoming big screen HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 3 SENIOR YEAR.\",\n \"Product: This standard love story adapted by Leonard Spigelgass from his stage play was acclaimed when it was released for probing into the nature of prejudice. Rosalind Russell plays Mrs. Jacoby, a Jewish widow living in Brooklyn whose daughter Alice (Madlyn Rhue) is married to Jerome (Ray Danton), a U.S. diplomat newly assigned to Japan. Because of Jerome's new post, Mrs. Jacoby decides to visit the land of the rising sun, and once there, she meets Koichi Asano (Alec Guinness). Asano is a suave, sophisticated, and wealthy man with an aesthetically impressive Tokyo home. After the two meet, love starts to blossom. This was one of the rare '60s films geared to the older set but it is significant that even during this period Hollywood still chose to cast a white actor (albeit Alec Guinness!) in the role of Asano.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A Majority of the One Percent\\n\\nReview: I was watching the bizarre makeup jobs in the current Cloud Atlas, in the segment set in Korea, and Hugo Weaving and Jim Sturgess are made up in what amounts to \\\"yellowface\\\" when suddenly I remembered watching A Majority of One long ago and thinking, why on earth did they put Alec Guinness in the part of the Japanese millionaire? Back then, the answer was that people thought Alec Guinness was such a great actor he could play anything! Even 20 years later, Guinness was being cast as a native of India in David Lean's film of Passage to India, and it didn't really work there for him. Maybe times had changed, but even in the 60s there must have been an eyebrow or two raised up seeing Guinness acting like Peter Lorre with gray stripes painted under his eyes, and looking down at the floor instead of looking at Rosalind Russell's face.\\n\\nBasically the acting is so stylized that many will not buy it, but after awhile, I just let the pleasures of the story sink in and before I knew it, my liberal tear glands had been stimulated and I was all abawl and nosedeep in Kleenexes. Watching this movie must have made Rodgers and Hammerstein wonder why they had even bothered with the sturm und drang of South Pacific, because here was South Pacific, except perfected. They must have felt like two John the Baptists preaching the coming glory of A Majority of One. In fact it's not surprising that Hammerstein died not too long after the release of the Majority of One movie--his work on earth complete. Maybe South Pacific does better in the scenery department, though those tragic red and yellow and blue filters are still recalled with horror by every musical fan. But at least the actors seemed like they were outside, somewhere, in South Pacific. I daresay that stage sets were used both for Brooklyn, Pan An cabin interiors, and all of Japan--which amounts to two plain looking streets and as dockside steamer lounge. The rest of the budget for the movie must have been spent in hiring box office titans Russell and Guinness. I'd like to say a few words concerning the performances of Madlyn Rhue and Ray Danton as Russell's daughter and son-in-law. They are wonderfully Mad Men in their ways of dressing, speaking, and sexing it up. Danton is particular swaggers through his ambassadorial role as though he thinks he';s playing the lead in a biopic about Hugh Hefner. The young actor who plays Eddie, the vicious Japanese houseboy, is worthy of a Quentin Tarantino cameo himself. He is extraordinary in his part, a shot of sheer adrenaline in a very dainty and refined picture.\\n\\nAs many have noted, Rosalind Russell is supposed to play a Jewish widow in this movie, and she is famous for trying to relate Jewish holidays and customs to Japanese ones, as though to underline the point that it's a small world after all. I have no idea of how to say You're welcome in Japanese, but I expect that if ever put to the test, I would say, Don't Touch My Mustache, since Russell advises her charges to do just that, not once, but three times in the picture. If you liked Hiroshima Mon Amour, A Majority of One might upset you with its somewhat casual attitude towards the markets opened up by the atom bomb, but there you go, you can't please everyone. After awhile you do notice how the movie is one big commercial for capitalism, the trade conference stuff is so boring until you realize that the whole point is that America and Japan can get along because both countries have an appreciation for getting wealthy. Would Guinness have gotten to first base with Russell had he not been a plutocrat? Hard to say.\",\n \"Product: A culinary legend provides a frustrated office worker with a new recipe for life in Julie & Julia, the true stories of how Julia Child's (Meryl Streep) life and cookbook inspired fledgling writer Julie Powell (Amy Adams) to whip up 524 recipes in 365 days and introduce a new generation to the magic of French cooking. Stanley Tucci (The Devil Wears Prada) co-stars in director Nora Ephron's delicious comedy about joy, obsession and butter. Bon apptit!\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: The past and the present\\n\\nReview: As a young American boy growing up in rural France, I learned early on that French cooking can be sublime and that the key to healthy eating is really enjoying your food. While my American cousins in the US had their birthday parties at Chuck E. Cheese and played \\\"pin the tail on the donkey\\\" and \\\"musical chairs,\\\" we had many parties at which the only activity would be cooking contests. Ecah child would get three ingredients upon entering the maison, and was told to make the best dish he or she could manage within, say, a two and a half hour cooking time. The winner got a special prize of a blue ribbon, the traditiona; \\\"cordon bleu\\\" of the master chef. When Julia Child (played by Meryl Streep) came to France, she was childless and felt the absence of living children ruefully. It was all the more ironic, my mother told us, that her last name was \\\"Child.\\\" Streep maybe overplays this a little bit, for when you see the movie, and Meryl Streep is bustling across a town square and she happens to see a child, which she must have seen daily, she crumples her face and clutches the hand of Paul Child (played by Stanley Tucci) and understanding Paul must cheer her up, usually by taking her to a three star restaurant and ordering some boned fish.\\n\\nI feel that if Julie Powell (played by Amy Adams) had had children too, or even cared about them, the dynamic of Nora Ephron's popular 2009 biopic would have altered considerably. As one watches Julie & Julia today, does no one flash on Luis Bunuel's That Osbcure Object of Desire and his use of Angela Molina and Carole Bouquet to play the same part (Conchita)? To me Ephron was trying to pull off something of the surrealist impudence of Bunuel and she's certainly earned the right to go there, after all those movies with Meg Ryan.\\n\\nWe kept waiting for Julie's cat to have a reaction shot all its own, and finally in the very last reel of the movie there it is. The cat stretches out in spastic ecstasy (looks like an expensive CGI shot) at something extraordinary in Julie Powell's change of heart. I love when directors cut to the pet of the main characters to signal how animals see behind temporary misunderstandings to penetrate right to the heart of a cute situation.\\n\\nI also was reminded of The Wizard of Oz as Meryl Streep walks around urban Paris and everyone is shorter than her. They must have picked little people to play the little people. And say, when did Meryl Streep become to go-to girl for expressions of delight and pleasure? In this movie and in Mamma Mia, every frame has her breaking into ecstatic smiles at how fabulous foreign people are (food too). First that Greek island in Mamma Mia, then this incisive look at 20th century cordon bleu secrets.\",\n \"Product: 20th Century All About Steve (Blu-ray)Mary Horowitz (SandraBullock) is a cruciverbalist - a crossword puzzleconstructor. Her brain spins at warp speed with an endless stream of arcane information. She can come up with the perfect word - and dozens with the same meaning - at a moment's notice, but \\\"normal\\\" behavior eludes her. Take, for example, the fact that she lives with eccentric parents. Or her inability to engage in social intercourse without dropping a litany of twenty-dollar words and unleashinga tsunami of trivia. Then, there's the matter of her omnipresent fire-engine-red go-go boots. For Mary, nothing is typical, especially relationships.When she is set up on a blind date with handsome cable-news cameraman Steve (Bradley Cooper), Mary thinks the chemistry is undeniable - that Steve is\\\"the one.\\\" Steve, on the other hand, thinks Mary is crazy. Mary, who just knows she's found her soul mate, decides to do anything and go anywhere to be with him. Mary's escalating infatuation with Steve, is encouraged encouraged by the self-serving actions of news reporter Hartman Hughes (Thomas Haden Church), who enjoys torturing his insolent cameraman at every opportunity. With Mary never far behind and Hartman urging her on, Steve becomes increasingly unhinged. But when Mary becomes embroiled in the news story of the year, Steve and Hartmanbegin to see things differently. Despite the media storm surrounding her, Mary with her upbeat unaffected manner brings together a small community ofnew friends. And all who encounter her will realize that sometimes the ones who don't fit in are the ones who really stand out.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Not a bad movie!\\n\\nReview: I'll never forget that I wanted to celebrate the first semester of grad school, so we went to the movies to see Sandra Bullock in All About Steve in September. When we entered the theater, we were puzzled since we were the only ones there, and when the lights went down we each took a different row just like you might on an unexpectedly empty plane during a night flight. The movie began with just the two of us, and we weren't even bored yet, when the film ground to a halt, literally. The screen went dark, the lights went up in the house, and an official of the movie chain approached us in our rows. Apologetically he said that the showing had been cancelled due to poor attendance and that we would be getting our money back.\\n\\n\\\"When's the next showing?\\\" asked my wife.\\n\\n\\\"There won't be any more,\\\" he said apologetically.\\n\\n\\\"But it just opened on Friday.\\\" (This was Sunday afternoon.)\\n\\n\\\"We won't be showing it again,\\\" said the manager. \\\"Starting at 7:00 p/m we're bringing back Star Trek.\\\"\\n\\n\\\"We saw that,\\\" we objected. But as it turned out we saw it a second time, and it was fine. We saw a lot of things in the movie we'd missed first time around. Nevertheless we were wondering whatever happened to Mary Horowitz (Sandra Bullock) after she schlepped to Oklahoma to follow the CCN team covering the little girl with three legs. So it was great when the DVD came out, and we could watch the rest of the show. Not a bad movie!\",\n \"Product: Please contact customer service with any issues around Digital codes: Phone: 800-860-2878 Email: consumer@sphecustomersupport.sony.com\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: One shock after another\\n\\nReview: In Burlesque, the actress Kristen Bell, who I remember from TV's Veronica Mars, does the sort of total reinvention, bordering on scarification, that won Charlize Theron an Oscar when she tried it in Monster. After the movie we were all sitting there, saying, \\\"That was Kristen Bell?\\\" The film has her playing Nikki, a dancer with enormous talent and charisma who's hobbled by two nasty problems--megalomania and alcoholism. Something's a little wonky with the script, which seems to be playing on two time scales at once.... One in which Nikki is roughly the contemporary of Christina Aguilera's character, maybe a bit older (in fact Bell is five months older than Aguilera), and the other in which Nikki was around when together, she and Cher started the burlesque dance palace around which the movie, and their lives, revolve. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who was scratching his head when the big parking lot scene took place and Nikki started giving Cher (I mean \\\"Tess\\\") a guilt trip for preferring the new girl Ali! That's the part where Cher says, what about all the years I held your hair up out of the toilet bowl while you were vomiting everything but your memories?\\n\\nIt almost seems that their memories changed and transformed as the decades passed. Both Nikki and Tess look pretty ageless, but Nikki actually seems younger than Tess because at least she can still move her body. Cher parades through the movie as though she had no feet and is being wheeled about on casters by invisible unions whose members are all fieldmice, On the minus side, there is perhaps one spectacular musical number too many, but outside of that, Burlesque is perfect.\",\n \"Product: Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman and Mila Kunis star in this sci-fi action thriller. 30 years after an unspecified environmental disaster, a lone man, Eli (Washington), fights his way across the desolate wasteland of a post-apocalyptic America guarding a sacred book called the Book of Eli, which holds the secrets that can bring civilisation back from the brink of destruction and save humankind. His principal threat is despotic town leader Carnegie (Oldman), who will stop at nothing to get hold of the book and use its secrets to take control of society.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Sepia Tones Usually Mean a Dreary and Pretentious Flick\\n\\nReview: It did have the effect of making us argue afterwards, and all weekend long, about the two so-called surprise twists in the picture. It's worth seeing if only for that good post-mortem that sends you to the diner arguing over french fries about the real meaning of the scene between Denzel Washington and Jennifer Beals.\\n\\nOtherwise, the film is ridiculously bleak and heavyhanded. Tumbleweeds, check. Sepia tones throughout, check. Cannibals, check. It is a patchwork of familiar elements that you have seen done better in a hundred other movies. In one scene, Denzel is held captive in a cell-like room decorated only by a tattered poster from a long-ago 70s apocalypse film, Don Johnson in A Boy and His Dog--itself so much better than The Book of Eli it seemed almost as if the movie was taunting itself! But instead it was probably intended as a homage... Much of the movie was one homage stitched onto another... When Mila Kunis made the sign of the cross to a leering Gary Oldman, it was so much like Bram Stoker's Dracula it was crazy! And what about the old, decrepit desert house occupied by the two seniors, who call themselves George and Martha? Their names recall the central couple in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, but why?\\n\\nDenzel, Gary Oldman, most of the actors were good, but against all odds. The things they had to say and act out were ludicrous. Defeated, perhaps by her character arc, perhaps by her own limitations, was poor Mila Kunis. I thought Kylie Minogue, much as I love her, a bad actress, but Mila Kunis makes Kylie seem like Dame Judi Dench in comparison. And yet, I wound up liking her just the same, especially when I read the interview with her that said in preparation for playing \\\"Solara\\\" opposite Denzel Washington, she had tried to read the Bible. \\\"Which part?\\\" \\\"The first part. Genesis. But I just couldn't finish it. It was good but it was boring.\\\" Now, that's what my dad used to call \\\"stick to it-ive-ness.\\\"\",\n \"Product: Forest Whitaker and Carlos Mencia star in this clash-of-cultures comedy about two overbearing dads who must put aside their differences to plan a wedding for their children, Marcus (Lance Gross) and Lucia (America Ferrera), in less than two weeks. As the wedding brings out the best and worst in both families, the young couple soon discovers the true meaning of love and finds there is truth to the saying -- that when you marry someone, you marry their entire family.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Charming comedy with serious scenes galore.\\n\\nReview: The movie is touted as a comedy, but I found the serious sides more affecting, and in this way it reminded me of the great 70s films of the new American cinema like NASHVILLE. The director must have been watching some Altman films to get across the special blend of inconsequential chitchat with real heartbreak, like the scene where the two sisters are dissing their mother at the bridal shop, not realizing that she's there listening it--the camera makes a slight lateral movement, revealing the mother's stricken face as she learns what the girls really think of her (that she's a fool with an empty life) and suddenly all the sadness she's been holding back manifests itself on her face. Diana Maria Riva simply shines in this scene, and it's not the only one. It's as if the screenwriters were thinking of it as her movie.\\n\\nThough the others get some good scenes too, even when the acting's not so good. Like Anjelah Johnson, who plays one of the sisters. Kept thinking, what is she getting at? through the whole picture. She is so unappealing I couldn't imagine why Lucia wanted her to be her bridesmaid. Bt that's not really fair, it's just the part that was badly written, almost as though the original script had her playing a lesbian but halfway through the producers nipped it in the bud figuring that the target audience wouldn't care for it, and just left her character high and dry without any real story.\\n\\nForest Whitaker and Carlos Mencia were OK in their parts, but really it was the actors in the background who give the movie its edge. My favorite, once-popular Shannyn Sossamon, is terrific, hilarious, playing a brief part as one of Forest whitaker's super young conquests, \\\"Ashley.\\\" I kept wishing she'd be back in the movie, but alas, she was just there playing a glorified cameo. Here's looking at you, Shannyn Sossamon, and I hear great things about ROAD TO NOWHERE, maybe that will lead you back to being a fullfledged movie star once again,\",\n \"Product: Sandra Bullock is at her funniest in THE PROPOSAL -- the fresh, laugh-out-loud romantic comedy on Blu-ray Disc(TM) with its hi-def picture and theater-quality sound. On the verge of being deported and losing the high-powered job she lives for, the controlling Margaret (Bullock) announces she's engaged to her unsuspecting, put-upon assistant Andrew (Ryan Reynolds). After proposing a few demands of his own, the mismatched couple heads to Alaska, where they have four short days to convince his quirky family and a very skeptical immigration agent that their charade is real. Featuring a star-studded supporting cast, including Mary Steenburgen, Craig T. Nelson and the delightfully inappropriate Betty White, this madcap comedy will have you saying \\\"yes\\\" to THE PROPOSAL again and again -- especially in Blu-ray High Definition.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Make way for tomorrow\\n\\nReview: Others may give this five stars, and I would have given this four, had not I just seen the new Criterion DVD release of Make Way for Tomorrow, with Victor Moore and Beulah Bondi, a classic from the 1930s which gives some hints on the kind of movie The Proposal might have been--a movie that deals honestly with the plight of the aged in our society.\\n\\nGrandma Annie is a woman from the hard country before Alaska was a state, and though near death today in a prosperous and tamed Sitka, her memories range widely back to the earliest days of white civilization, when it was just her and a bear, and the man she married long ago. Her original wedding dress she has kept nicely pressed, in a style that recalls the suffragette age, with a soupcon of Isadora Duncan-inspired flowing robes to give it some classical spice. For the wealthy Paxton family, Grandma Annie (nicely played by Betty White) is an authentic throwback not only to the days of the pioneers, but to an older people as well--the Indians. In private she still performs the dances of the First Nations, calling on the spirit of the forests, the totem animals, and the surrounding oceans, to help her dance the way of the female shaman.\\n\\nHer family life is grim, so she keeps holding on to the dreams and memories, as do many elders in our society. Her son (or son in law? We couldn't decide) Joe Paxton, is a bitter tycoon for whom all the money in the world can't heal the thwarted desires in his heart. His wife, Mary Steenburgen, feels weird when a woman pretty much her own age comes to her mansion and tells her she's engaged to Mary's son, a young stripling who has left the tribe and moved to New York, city of the big steeples. Grandma Annie goes to the woods and makes tribal noises, having adapted the place to a stage set on which to perform her own performativity as a native woman. Is she trying to make reparations, in her own quiet way, to the original Native settlers of the Sitka area? We don't know. The movie wastes a lot of time on its subplot, which involves the ponytailed city woman (Sandra Bullock) deciding that Alaska life isn't too bad in a hundred story mansion on the top of the hill with every retail outlet in the town bearing your name.\\n\\nGrandma Annie takes matters into her own hands at the dramatic conclusion, but my wife and I both felt disappointed that her struggles were trivialized, and that she was in the movie to make Sandra Bullock look like a younger actress than she is.\\n\\nIt could have been a trailblazing cinematic document, and the best parts of it are!\",\n \"Product: Freshmen orientation means fresh meat. And there's no one fresher than Scott, a blue-eyed virgin who can't wait to get off for the first time. Next up, meet Ivan. He's a tanned bad boy with a monster bulge who teases us for a while before finally breaking out the big gun under his tight boxer briefs. Cody likes it rough. He flexes his waxed, tattooed torso and shows us how he likes to be spanked. His tight ass is just begging for it. Noah is a Spring Break stud who strips out of his trunks for a soapy tug job in a steamy shower. And you won't believe how hard Jordan gets after a tough workout. He rubs himself raw and makes a mess all over his washboard abs. This is one class you don't want to skip! Packed with all real, uncensored action, it's Guys Gone Wild: Freshmen Orientation!\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: To sum it up for next time\\n\\nReview: While we wait for the sequel, SPRING BREAK EXPLOSION, here's my impressions of the first GUYS GONE WILD disc. And maybe a lesson or two for the makers of the first one, because it let us down quite a bit and maybe with SPRING BREAK they will make some reparations. First, the plusses. For the most part the GGW guys are great looking, with a few duds sprinkled in here or there to keep us grounded. It's true after awhile they all begin to look alike. They have the same body type, the same haircut, the same goofy expressions frozen on their faces as their jaws try to speak in words after twelve tequilas, they shrug, they give up speaking, they concentrate hard on opening the drawstring to their pants. The sound equipment the interviewers use is horrible, and this is one DVD that might be better viewed with the mute button completely off. The interviewers can be heard screeching extremely loud, but the boys' answers are pretty mumbled, and it's not only the liquor that makes them sound underwater, it's the lack of attention placed on getting the audio right. To a lesser degree the same is true of the video. These girls can get a guy to strip off his boxers and get down to nothing at all in ten seconds flat, but they can't photograph him worth a darn.\\n\\nHire someone who can work both ends of a camera is what I say. The camera's bobbing up and down like it's on a buoy out in a storm, it's like the BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, and when you can see anything, it's just for a flash. The other problem is, the running time is under an hour. I guess a fool and his money are soon parted but in this day of six-hour porn DVDS, who is going to be fooled twice with a 50 minute short? Get some extra footage in there pronto.\\n\\nI can't wait until these guys, who have all presumably signed releases, try to get work as adults. Hopefully they won't be running as congressmen or anything that would require full disclosure. Granted we all go a little crazy when we're juiced up, but doing it for video, that's a lapse in judgment--however it's one I'm glad they made. It will give a picture of what American youth thought appropriate in the year of our Lord 2005. Now let's just have more of it and I will rest happy. Oh, and to really add a star, girls, get them to have sex with each other on camera. How hard could that be?\",\n \"Product: Academy Award winners Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts come together for a romantic and optimistic comedy about how its never too late to reinvent yourself. When he suddenly finds himself without his long-standing blue-collar job, Larry Crowne (Hanks) enrolls at his local college to start over. There, he becomes part of an eclectic community of students and develops a crush on his teacher (Roberts). Now this simple guy will discover that when you think everything worth having has passed you by, you just might find your reason to live.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Public Speaking Made Easy\\n\\nReview: I always enjoy a good movie with Julia Roberts, and I found this one gave us Roberts fans complete satisfaction. She stars as Mercedes Tainot, a community college teacher in Southern California trapped in a loveless marriage to a writer of epic-sized fantasy novels like A GAME OF THRONES, only not very successful. Mercedes feels used by her husband, and for some reason feels especially irked when it is revealed that he (Bryan Cranston, not bad in an underwritten part) is exposed as the type of buy who, as soon as Julia Roberts leaves the house, heads for the @sexchannels on his computer. Like that's supposed to be a terrible crime against humanity. Meanwhile Tom Hanks (we are not told but I assume he is pornfree) has become a student in Mercedes' public speaking class. This part of the movie was very intriguing, for all to seldom do the movies show an actual class in operation from beginning to end, well, at any rate you get to learn something here. I learned a lot about public speaking from Julia Roberts' sensible, no nonsense advice.\\n\\nShe says that when you begin to speak, you should look up and directly confront the face of someone way to the left of you. A few minutes later, raise your head from your notes once again, and address someone directly in front of you. Then try swiveling your head to catch the attention of those on your right. By the time you have done this, advises the Oscar-winning star, you will have made the whole room feel like they've just had a direct conversation with you--you will have gotten through to them.\\n\\nAs in every other movie where the heroine has an unusual or bizarre name, I suspected an anagram right away. Like the way the name of the heroine in THE TIME TRAVELLER'S WIFE anagrammed out to \\\"Isabel Archer,\\\" the heroine of Henry James' novel THE WINGS OF THE DOVE, I sat upon the name \\\"Mercedes Tainot\\\" wondering how to puzzle out its secrets. It must have signified something to Tom Hanks, who wrote the serviceable screenplay as a vanity vehicle for himself. But what? I worked out a few anagrams, but do any of them really make sense as a \\\"Rosebud\\\"-style revelation to the inner meaning of LARRY CROWNE? There's \\\"Mister Anecdote,\\\" which I like, also, \\\"Comedian Tester,\\\" which would have been good in some other movie perhaps, not this one however. Then there's \\\"Remote Distance,\\\" but to me that hardly describes the one and only Julia Roberts! Maybe someone more regal and haughty like Charlotte Rampling, or Naomi Campbell!\",\n \"Product: - IMPORT FROM KOREA - LANGUAGE: FRENCH - SUBTITLES: ENGLISH, KOREAN and NONE - NTSC ALL REGIONS - Genevive, 17, lives with her widowed mother, who owns an umbrella shop in Cherbourg. She and Guy, a twenty-year-old auto mechanic, are secretly in love and want to marry, but when she reveals this to her mother, her mother objects on the grounds that Genevive is too young and Guy is not mature or well-established enough, particularly since he has not yet done his required military service. Shortly after this, Guy is drafted to serve in the war in Algeria. Before he leaves, he and Genevive consummate their love for each other, which results in her becoming pregnant. While Guy is away they drift apart, and Genevive, strongly encouraged by her mother, accepts a marriage proposal from a well-to-do gem dealer named Roland Cassard, who has fallen in love with her at first sight and has promised to bring up her child as his own.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Sunny French Musical with US Antecedents\\n\\nReview: While Demy's color-saturated backdrops and coordinated dresses and suits have been justly praised, his achievement has to be seen in context. In imitation of the stylized set-ups of Vincente Minnelli's ZIEGFELD FOLLIES and CABIN IN THE SKY, Demy's camera snakes through the picturesque streets of Cherbourg, poking into shop windows, racing ahead around corners with a brisk, airy pace, unafraid and remarkably steady and obtrusive. The camera is everywhere, most obviously trying to penetrate the great beauty of its young stars as they throw their lives away; Demy uses the lens as Sherlock Holmes used his magnifying glass, to blow up the smallest gesture, frown or smile until it achieves meaning.\\n\\nFrom George Sidney's luscious color palette, Demy borrows the idea of color as a psychological screen, filtering in emotions as the screen twists from cyan to yellow to a deep, passionate scarlet that sometimes turns unexpectedly prim, when money and sense raise their hands to object. The opening sequence of BYE BYE BIRDIE, Ann-Margret blazing against a back projection of Yves-Klein blue, is said to have been screened by Demy over and over during the arduous months of preparation for this film, though no two central performances could be more different than Deneuve's and Ann-Margret's.\\n\\nFinally, we can see the stylish fingerprints of Stanley Donen all throughout the interior designs of TUOC. In the interior of the shop where Genevieve and her mother work, it's like a retail version of the apartment where Ingrid Bergman lives in INDISCREET, with its fantastic array of French prints in their startling, moderne frames, against which Bergman moved in her tight gold dress as a soignee woman of the world, not quite in her first youth, just as Anne Vernon, playing Deneuve's mother, is characterized as much by her wallpaper as by the flickers of memory that animate her still beautiful eyes. Some have said that Demy's film lacks what 40s and 50s musicals had, namely, dance sequences (later, of course, Demy went overboard with the dance in the ROCHEFORT follow-up), and yet a dynamism animates the interplay, a bow in Terpsichore's direction.\",\n \"Product: new\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Adam and Drew Make Beautiful Music Together\\n\\nReview: It's a heartwarming blend of action, comedy, and romance as Adam Sandler, and a band of hilarious animals you haven't seen the likes of since Eddie Murphy in Doctor Doolittle, start dating pretty Drew Barrymore. I could have sworn some of the animals were the very same ones! And wasn't the little spider monkey the same monkey that appeared years ago in FRIENDS? Anyhow Hawaiian locations bring out the best in all the animals, and in our romantic love interests, Adam and Drew, neither of whom have ever been as appealing, not even in their previous blockbuster together, THE WEDDING SINGER. Though I will say it was hard to believe in Adam Sandler as some kind of ladies' man because, well, he has only average looks and from some angles looks doped up. The producers of this film have cast him as some kind of sex magnet, the sort of role Cary Grant used to play. Anyhow, once he meets and falls head over heels for Drew, he becomes more plausible. Indeed she is charming, though her disease, as Dan Aykroyd explains it, is kind of tragic.\\n\\nThe director Peter Segal who made ANGER MANAGEMENT, again with Adam, has performed a subtler job this time around. The cliches of romantic comedy prove themselves anew. And the animal action would please even Doris Day. I hope she gets a chance to see this movie. Perhaps she would agree to perform in the sequel.\",\n \"Product: Elysium (Bilingual) [DVD + UltraViolet]\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Alice through the Looking Glass\\n\\nReview: I had the same feeling of general letdown that most of you had, and I didn't even see District 9 to get pumped up about it! But, the relentless marketing of Elysium prepared me for something grander and more interesting than what I got. The cover of Entertainment Weekly, for example, way back in May, that read \\\"Neill Blonkamp Saves the Summer Blockbuster.\\\"\\n\\nIf not for that letdown, I'd give this show an A +. Any movie that puts Jodie Foster in it--here at her most scary and all too human a role, a capitalist driven to shady measures--rather like the part she played in the Spike Lee movie about the heist--any movie with Jodie in it automatically gets a pass from me because she is a genius actor! Matt Damon is not so lucky, and I don't mean even to hint at the spoilers, but I just mean his role is sort of undeveloped and just like the working class of the world he rarely gets to speak his mind or change expression. However maybe I'm wrong, because Diego Luna as Julio, Max's best friend, is very expressive, almost languid like Oscar Wilde, and lacks the bruises and welts the makeup artists have painted all over Matt's body. He seems to have wandered in from another movie, perhaps one that Merchant and Ivory were about to make when they died.\\n\\nThe movie seems to pivot on the great coincidence of Matt wandering into the only emergency ward in which his childhood sweetheart happens to be working and happens to be on staff. What? Well, they were careful to make the point that few medical services exist to help out the poor, but still! Earth is supposed to be so severely overpopulated there aren't enough resources for anybody. If I was Alice Braga, I'd change my agent! Alice, you're great in this as Fray the nurse with the cute little girl Matilda, but you were also great playing the exact same role in I Am Legend years ago, and maybe these post apocalyptic spectacles are killing the thing that made you Alice Braga. You don't want your audience to remember you in these parts, but that's what they're going to do, in 2054, when they're old men but still remembering when they were fifteen and saw their first Brazilian woman on screen.\",\n \"Product: MMA star Gina Carano (Haywire, Fast and Furious 6) stars as Ava, a trained fighter with a dark past in this intense action/thriller from director John Stockwell (Blue Crush, Crazy/Beautiful). When her new husband (Cam Gigandet, Twilight) vanishes during their Caribbean honeymoon, Ava uncovers a violent underworld of conspiracy in the middle of an island paradise. Armed with a deadly set of skills, Ava sets out to discover the truth and to take down the men she thinks are responsible for her husband's abduction, one by one. Ismael Cruz Cordova (The Good Wife), Luis Guzmn (Traffic), Treat Williams (Chicago Fire), Amaury Nolasco (Prison Break), Stephen Lang (Avatar) and Danny Trejo (Machete) co-star. Written by James Robert Johnston and Bennett Yellin.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Blood and White Satin\\n\\nReview: The movie begins with Ava dressing in a wedding gown and her future sister-in-law assuring her that from now on she will have a new family. Flashbacks indicate that Ava's own childhood was pretty weird, with a mercenary/gangbanger/cult leader (I never did decide what he was) father teaching her about what pain is like and how to give everything you've got. We decided that even though Ava (Gina Carano) is marrying into a rich family, she has secrets in her past that are returning for some reason, to trouble her today. Director John Stockwell is recalling visually the wedding at the beginning of The Deer Hunter, only a little bit more subtle. I didn't even know who Gina Carano was, but as every fan knows, she is like nobody else in the movies, and I began wondering why the movie was focusing in on this one girl and why, whenever she opened her mouth, it seemed like a different actress was speaking through her.(often Sally Kellerman and some other actress much older than she must be).\\n\\nBecause the movie is called \\\"In the Blood\\\" we figured that the movie would involve Gina Carano discovering that she is carrying the DNA of her evil, violent, perverted father (Stephen Lang) in her blood, and that somehow she would wreak favor and destroy the white-bread family she was moving into. You could see Treat Williams asking his son (five minutes before the wedding) what he knew about the girl's history, her past, her criminal record. But then the film turned a dazzling crystal color and the groom stepped into the light and he was Cam Gigandet, finally landing a suitable role after his triumph playing \\\"Jack\\\" in Burlesque, the tragic musical that it now appears, in the kind light of history, was 2010's best film and possibly of the whole 21st century. Yes, Cam Gigandet, though he no longer sports Jack's signature derby or fedora or whatever that hat Joel Grey wore in Cabaret, the bartender in Burlesgue who cynically welcomes Christina Aguilera to Los Angeles while Cher sings \\\"Welcome to Burlesque\\\" at her failing downtown nightclub. Cynical, yes, but a heart of gold and when he sees Ali Rose (Christina) stuck homeless in a rainstorm, he impulsively invites her into his apartment and they will be chaste roommates sparring over his bad habits, her ambition, and his charming trait of walking through his living room naked a the day God made him in France or wherever. But now he marries Gina Carano and a whole new epic romance awaits him. The nice sister kisses her passionately as the young couple embarks on a honeymoon to what is evidently Puerto Rico but which the script claims is an \\\"island off Puerto Rice,\\\" I suppose because it is so poverty stricken and violent that the real Puerto Rico might sue. And the montage of a great honeymoon takes up the next ten minutes of the movie, I loved it.\\n\\nTragically enough, however, Gina and Cam become embroiled in some local politics, corrupt cops, and a zip-line attraction that is a one way ticket to certain death. I can't explain any further about \\\"In the Blood\\\" without revealing the huge twist in the plot, only to say that I was wrong, Gina Carano does not turn evil or become a vampire or any of the scenarios the opening sequences had prepared me for. I just want to add a few words about her, sometimes she resembles a smaller version of the actress who was Jayne Mansfield's daughter, but much younger and toned like gold in the Puerto Rican sun. Even sweaty and with carrying a flick knife in her teeth, her clothes torn and her hair lopsided, she is ravishing to behold and never ever makes a move unworthy of a star. You can't take your eyes off of her and lucky, talented Cam Gigandet, who together make up the best screen couple since, well, he starred in Burlesque with Christina Aquilera and taught her that not all jaded wannabe songwriters are bad. Let the critics and Rotten Tomatoes type of people sneer at her accent and her habit of reading from cue cards mounted slightly to the right side of the camera, we were asking ourselves, Who is this amazing vital creature and what other movies can we see her in? It has been a week of binging ever since and I am still infatuated with this magnificent, multi-careered action star. What other actresses (and actors) get from drama school and perhaps from inherent talent, she gets from klcking down doors barefeet, bleeding from the scalp, T-shirt ripped in ten places, valiant as Norma Shearer in Romeo and Juliet, and what she won't do for her Romeo! And somehow it works.\",\n \"Product: 1935 - B/W. Bought new - viewed once. From Private Collection. Pristine Condition\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: We Have Ways To Make Men Talk\\n\\nReview: I give extra points to this movie for just its one famous line, Mohammed Khan threatening his captives with the little phrase, \\\"We have ways to make men talk.\\\"\\n\\nBut thinking about it's how silly is it to cast Douglas Dumbrille as Mohammed Khan, the radical Moslem leader of the rebellion? Didn't they have any Indian actors in Hollywood who could have played the part? Dumbrille made quite a career out of ethnic types, but he was actually from Hamilton, Ontario. Abbott and Costello fans will recall him playing the Sheik in ABBOTT & COSTELLO JOIN THE FOREIGN LEGION, and he was also menacing (though Russian) in CHARLIE CHAN CITY IN DARKNESS. I gues he could play just about everything, but it is really a stretch to make him the Islam insurgent who wants to capture two million rounds of ammo from the British to whom it \\\"properly\\\" belongs.\\n\\nNowhere in the movie is there any attempt to make sense out of the fact that the British are fish out of water in Afghanistan. None of the characters ever says to each other, \\\"Why are we here in the first place?\\\" They just act like it's their duty to save Asia from itself--the white man's burden. That said, Cooper and Tone have tremendous chemistry together, like Newman and Redford, only more or less the same age range. But as British soldiers? I don't think so!\\n\\nWhy didn't they just say they were Americans? Richard Cromwell makes a strong impression--he was the fellow who married Angela Lansbury without telling her he batted for the other team (they divorced after a year or so). Here he's fresh, vigorous, very much the tenderfoot to Coop's strawfoot. The casting works here, and he even sounds a bit more British than the others, even though he was born about two miles from the studio where they shot this super action adventure. Another who makes a strong impression is the one and only \\\"Panther Woman\\\" from ISLAND OF LOST SOULS--Kathleen Burke, whose mysterious and exotic beauty always got her cast as something \\\"special.\\\" She was the pride of Hammond, Indiana, a suburb of Chicago and at one time one of Indiana's largest industrial centers. The Doublemint Twins are from there, and also the famous Xmas movie A CHRISTMAS STORY is laid in Hammond.\\n\\nLIVES OF A BENGAL LANCER became a classic in its day, even though people were wondering, what about that plural \\\"lives\\\" in the title. Shouldn't it have been \\\"LIVES OF SOME BENGAL LANCERS\\\"? Others were sure it evoked the specter of reincarnation. It is one of director Henry Hathaway's perennial crowd pleasers and now, at last, it is available on DVD!\",\n \"Product: OUT OF PRINT\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: What a great cast!\\n\\nReview: Super cast can't save a disappointing erotic thriller. But everyone is in there giving it their best shot. Patricia Charbonneau, now why didn't she ever become a star? She's good at acting and she's beautiful too. Maybe mass audiences were put off by her coldness and the slightly nasal quality of her speaking voice. Wonder what she's doing today. As her best friend, Patti D'Arbanville is also very good in a thankless part. Watching CALL ME you can see why Patti never really hit it big, she's too plain, everything she has Teri Garr had twice as much of and did it ten times better, but still she's pretty good. As the plot unfolds we see Patricia Charbonneau getting an obscene phone call in New York, and she gets so turned on by the man's voice, that she follows his instructions to the letter. Sort of like an old fashioned version of the recent Meg Ryan flop by Jane Campion, IN THE CUT.\\n\\nThe men in CALL ME are great and they include David Straithairn who made all those John Sayles movies, and also Steve Buscemi, so you see they could have borrowed some of this footage for the last season of THE SOPRANOS and shown Buscemi and Straithairn in flashback as young men.\",\n \"Product: David Lean's beautiful adaptation of Noel Coward's play is an absorbing as well as charming look at an English family's struggle for stability between the two World Wars. Lean does a masterful job of gently penetrating human nature with truly imaginative camera direction. Robert Newton and Celia Johnson are brilliant, with an especially poignant performance by Johnson. One of David Lean's best cinematic accomplishments.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A Family Finds Entertainment\\n\\nReview: In a way this is nothing more than a Technicolor remake of CAVALCADE, and not as good, so save yourself the agony and see CAVALCADE instead; but on the other hand if you haven't seen the previous Noel Coward pageant play, this one is tasty indeed, not least because of the glorious color effects, so that every scene looks like it's being projected on the softest of apple blossoms. The stage set (a suburban London kitchen and family room) is lovingly installed in act one, and we never really leave it until the young couple at the beginning (Robert Newton and Celia Johnson) get old and gray by the end. It feels like a play, like David Lean hasn't even tried to open it up, but it may be that he was still under the iron rule of Noel Coward who hated having cinematic imagination applied to his masterworks.\\n\\nSome people can't stand Coward when he goes all lower class and shows us the little people nobler than their betters. For others, that's exactly the Coward we love! You;ll have to make up your own mind on this one. Is Celia Johnson remotely believable as a woman of the lower middleclass? Not for the first couple of hours, then when the plot kicks in where her errant daughter, Queenie (played ineptly by Kay Walsh) leaves the family to go off with a married rotter, Johnson suddenly springs to life and gets cold, withdrawn and bitter as all get out. The ending should have you in tears. I'm still crying, in some ways it's more affecting than BRIEF ENCOUNTER's repressed passions.\\n\\nRobert Newton is the heart and soul of the movie and you can see everything through his eyes--Celia Johnson's like a beautiful curiosity, but not really a \\\"subject\\\" the way Newton is. The calamities he incurs would test the patience of Job and yet he just keeps keeping on--the famous British stiff upper lip I guess. His sister, Sylvia, is crazily devilish with her complete and utter self-centeredness. She makes everyone around her, even the selfish, seem like they care about others. Question, how did they get those shots of the main actors payign respects to the coffin of King George V? And where did they get Technicolor footage of Neville Chamberlain waving a white handkerchief from the window of 10 Downing Street on the eve of his appeasement victory?\",\n \"Product: Cartouche [VHS] [VHS Tape] [1964]\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: RIP Philippe de Broca, Farewell, A Bientot\\n\\nReview: In CARTOUCHE you made the rest of the 60s filmmakers seem out of date, and in Belmondo and Cardinale you found the perfect actors who could add the bubbles to your brand of filmic champagne. Now that you are gone, we think back to all the pleasures you have given us over the years, from your little parts in BREATHLESS and 400 BLOWS, to your most recent work discovering the Welsh coalminer's daughter Catherine Zeta Jones, and we are grateful to you for your inspired interventions and pizzazz. Not since Ernst Lubitsch has flair been filmed so perfectly and gallantly, and not since Clouzot has action been so well blended with nail-biting suspense. Our hearts are sad today and we wish your extended family well in these difficult days. Belmondo and Cardinale are still with us and thanks to you, we will always have them in excelsis, as the perfect man and woman au cinema. Merci, De Broca!\",\n \"Product: In director Anatole Litvak's FIVE MILES TO MIDNIGHT, a sexy European woman, Lisa (Sophia Loren), marries a domineering, jealous American, Robert (Anthony Perkins), and becomes trapped in a violent marriage. Much to her relief, Robert leaves on business, only to plunge to his death in a plane crash. Even more shocking for Lisa, however, is learning her husband is, in fact, still alive and planning to collect insurance money by playing dead. The film leads the viewer down a road of deception and suspense, a journey further complicated by Lisa's friends, two journalists (Gig Young, Jean-Pierre Aumont), whom she confides in about her dastardly situation. While Loren plays her typically sensual self, Perkins is eerie and unnerving, and the film's surprise ending is supremely thrilling.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: The Tale Of The Airport Insurance\\n\\nReview: Don't you love Anthony Perkins? He's at his very best in FIVE MILES TO MIDNIGHT, a suspense thriller from the last days of JFK's administration. He's teamed with his perdurable co-star Sophia Loren, the tasty Italian import whom Tony first met as they played country bumpkins in a ludicrous adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS. Here Sophia is playing a European woman, which is all to the good, who somehow gets entangled with a mixed up American vet, sort of like Howard Hughes, played by Tony Perkins. What Sophia Loren doesn't realize is that her husband is crazy, abusive and violent!\\n\\nAnother 25 years later they re-did this movie with Julia Roberts playing the abused wife who fakes her own death to escape from a savage hubby. Here PERKINS fakes his own death to avoid financial ruin and also, it seems, to be in a better position to drive Sophia Loren insane! Poor Lisa, who happens to have two high placed pals, Jean Pierre Aumont and Gig Young, seasoned reporters, from whom she must conceal her tale of woe, a tale so bizarre nobody would believe it! Her cover story isn't very coherent, and no one can figure out why the plane crash that killed Robert might not have been kosher. Some lovely European vistas are glimpsed out the windows of the hotels and restaurants in the movie. You can make out Rousseau's grave in one such cutaway. When Sophia Loren starts falling for Gig Young, while trying to preserve the secret that her husband is still alive, it's another twist of the knife for all concerned!\\n\\nNowadays the theme of the battered wife is a cliche, but back then it was scandalous, simply scandalous. People theorized that Sophia Loren's own marriage wasn't too far removed from the union of Bob and Lisa, and other fans resented the way director Anatole Litwak seems to have directed Tony Perkins to act exactly like Norman Bates, except even more evil. It's a school of hard knocks for all of them, and only Gig Young seems 100 per cent innocent. I kept asking myself, if I were forced to make a choice between Tony Perkins and Gig Young, what would I do? It was this salubrious dilemma that kept me up five miles to midnight.\",\n \"Product: Item in picture is mine, and the one you will receive. Original VHS Pepe in good working condition.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: The Questions of Pepe\\n\\nReview: George Sidney, one of Hollywood's most underrated directors, never made an awful film, but this one comes close, mostly due to its insufferably cloying use of Cantinflas--one of Mexico's smartest, wittiest movie stars ever--but here you'd think he was a moron, a smiling bobblehead of Mexican folk wisdom and simplicity.\\n\\nIndeed Cantinflas, as \\\"Pepe,\\\" whom you might call the original \\\"horse whisperer,\\\" is incredibly good in the movie, which makes it a drag to have to give it a big two thumbs down for political reasons. He's not playing a Stepin Fetchit EXACTLY, and in fact he's always seen as wiser than the silly norteamericanos who try to patronize him, but the whole thing about he loves the horse so much he calls him \\\"my son\\\" (not just once but approximately forty or forty-five times) leaves you grating your teeth.\\n\\nAnd also it seems to emasculate Cantinflas who was, like Elvis, super sexy. Here the movie pokes fun of the way his pants slide low, low, low down his hips. Au contraire, such ease with undress is one reason why Cantinflas is sex appeal on two legs! And yet through the whole movie you don't even know if he's in love with Shirley Jones or is he just playing Sancho Panza hoping to get his master, the failed Hollywood director Ted Holt (Dan Dailey), into bed with la Jones--here playing a beat bohemian--and doing it rather well too -- of course she's always good no matter what she does, and George Sidney--who directed many glamor girls into performances of real depth and soul and originality, from Kim Novak to Ann-Margret--gives Shirley Jones what she never had elsewhere, a contemporary pizzazz, like street chic.\\n\\nWhen she (or her double) dances in the underground nightclub with Michael Mickey Callan, my pulses were on fire!\\n\\nBut basically the movie is a fantastic treasure trove of forgotten performances and curiosities; let me cite only the amazing dance trio of Dailey, Cantinflas, and Maurice Chevalier in a reprise of \\\"Mimi\\\" in a luxurious Mexican nightclub, and at the other end of the spectrum a buzarre, Dali Influenced number in which Pepe and Debbie Reynolds (as herself), dressed in identical \\\"Mexican\\\" costumes, tumble out of the mouth of a giant bottle of tequila and perform a drunken, Jack Cole style tumble dance to, yes, \\\"Tequila.\\\" PEPE was Eugene Loring's last film, and the dance director/choreographer, who had done everything from FUNNY FACE to YOLANDA AND THE THIEF in the past, here retires with some of his most inventive and convincing dances--in a movie nobody even knows about. The title number, with Shirley Jones in a dirndl, belting out the song while leading a donkey and three hundred Mexican extras, and Pepe, down a steep traffic filled hill on the narrowest street in the world, has got to be seen to be believed, and you'll still be scratching your head--why? How? What? Where? When?\\n\\nLet's bring back PEPE in a big way. If every man, woman and child in the US and Mexico would see it, I'm convinced that -- well, wait a second-- there might be race riots at the border-- and yet it is an unbelievable compendium of fun. With Bing Crosby, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon (in character in his role in SOME LIKE IT HOT), Ann B. Davis, Greer Garson, Bobby Darin, and Edward G. Robinson.\",\n \"Product: Emmanuelle In Space F\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Queen of Outer Space\\n\\nReview: Emmanuelle gets elected to become the captain of a group of strange, space men and women from a distant galazy, led by Haffron, a cute guy who knows next to nothing about sex. Haffron has a sort of Patrick Swayze looks and must come from some kingdom too poor to buy any underwear. Emmanuelle, ever playful, has had a showdown with her earth boyfriend, Philip, not a bad sort but a jealous fellow who won't let her explore her sense of adventure. With this in mind, she has sex with Haffron as they perform monitored with a hundred wires which allow the rest of the crew to monitor their bodily sensations.\\n\\nWhat can Emmanuelle, a lovely girl played by the incomparable Kirsta Allen, teach a bunch of overeducated, brainiac space creatures? Well, first off, none of them have ever had sex since in their nation, to procreate one must simply slough oneself in two, and that's how children are made, therefore there has n ever ben a need for sex. Bowever, Haffron so enjoys the earthly delights of Emmanuelle that he becomes a sex addict sort of, and poses as Emmanuelle's brother as she returns to earth to confront jealous Philip, who, as it happens, is giving his missing fiancee a taste of her own medicine by throwing a wild orgiastic party. She twitches her nose and changes out of Krista Allen's body into another (so that Phil won't recognize her) and attempts to seduce him to test her theory that he's a cheater, while Haffron tries to pick up different [...] at the party. They succeed and the two couples have sex in adjoining rooms. Dumb old Haffron picks up a \\\"professional\\\" who asks him for $200. \\\"What's 'money'?\\\" he asks in his inane royal hiccup. When he drops his pants her eyes widen and she rushes right over. \\\"Never mind, this is a freeby!\\\" she announces.\\n\\nIn space, Emmanuelle accepts the thanks of the space people for treating Haffron so well, but says that even becoming their queen won't satisfy her need for travelling to Egypt so they better let her abdicate. Instead, they accept all her conditions, and allow her to go on her planned barge down the Nile on a swinging singles cruise. Haffron accompanies her, telling her he loves her and to prove it, he says, that even if she changes her body for another female passenger, he will still know it's her, instantly. Farcically he fails to identify her and beds four other women, all of them charming and witty and nubile, but none of them really up to Krista Allen's gold standards.\\n\\nBadly shot on cheap video stock, but highly recommended nevertheless. FIRST CONTACT's a winner all the way through.\",\n \"Product: Wealthy widower Richard Keaton engages young widow Elizabeth 'Liz' Guinness as the 4th consecutive nanny for his pre-teen, equally science-devoted son Andrew, with instructions to disturb neither. She learns of mother Alycia's fatal fall, an official suicide but was probably murder. Dad keeps Andy at a distance, so he draws towards Liz. Real danger starts when Richard's brother, novelist Blain, arrives with his friend Jillian, to sell the ancestral estate against Richard's will.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Mary Poppins With Sex\\n\\nReview: Charles Jarrott, who helmed the nearly forgotten studio fiasco THE OTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT, followed up years later with another \\\"Midnight Movie,\\\" AT THE MIDNIGHT HOUR, this one a different kettle of fish entirely but one marked with the good taste and understatement that have long been a hallmark of Jarrott's films but which deserted him on THE OTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT. This movie was produced by Harlequin-the romance company, trying to break into the profitable Lifetime For Women oligarchy with some productions of their own. It's a shame the Harlequin movie studio didn't last longer than a year or two, but during that time they made some interesting productions, including the unforgettable CHANGE OF PLANS in which twin sisters tried to bamboozle the eternally sexy Rick Springfield of \\\"Jessie's Girl\\\" fame.\\n\\nAT THE MIDNIGHT HOUR goes way, way British. They couldn't get Hugh Grant so they went with aging matinee idol Simon MacCorkindale, whom I have never forgiven ever since DEATH ON THE NILE, and here he plays a sort of Rochester type character (from Jane Eyre) who hires Elizabeth Guinness as nanny for his young tots. It's not Mary Poppins, for instantly sparks strike between aristocratic Richard and slightly repressed Elizabeth, who spends much of the first twenty minutes pursing her lips tightly, as though she'd just swallowed a lemon whole, but then she softens up as love, and the children, bring them together. Poor Elizabeth has to suffer as she finds out that Richard had another woman in his life, though not half as seriously as she imagines, and a touch of jealousy haunts her dreams. This part is played by Patsy Kensit, who has made 65 movies and still looks younger than springtime. I don't know how she does it; such profligacy harkens back to the glory days of the 1930s when a star like Myrna Loy or John Wayne might make ten or eleven movies a year. I look forward to everything Kensit churns out, even when it's soapy dreck like this one, just because she's so beautiful and so set in her ways.\\n\\nIf you liked REBECCA you might like this one. It's corny, but well played by two attractive stars, no longer in their first youth, but with the skills born of long practice at make believe and falling in love in front of the cameras. And the mansion that it all takes place in is fetching indeed. You can just imagine the Plantagenets throwing people's heads off of its battlements into the moat.\",\n \"Product: Stagedoor Manor is a Catskills camp where Americas youngest aspiring Broadway stars--kids more interested in Auntie Mame than Britney Spears--gather to sing and dance their hearts out. In essence, life becomes a cabaret, and the kids in Alexandra Shivas enchanting documentary become its shining stars. Some see camp as a means of escaping the troubles of their home lives; others see it as a step towards becoming Stagedoors next star, like notable camp alums Natalie Portman (Stars Wars) and Zach Braff (Garden State).\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: Cinema Verite Portrait of Folly, Ego, and Cruelty\\n\\nReview: STAGEDOOR is a brutal documentary that exposes the bizarre methods of a theatrical summer camp for teens in the Catskills, and the awful people who staff it. Not to mention it makes the children look like monsters. Are there any agreeable characters in the movie? Maybe one or two, but the filmmakers seem to delight in revealing the worst aspects of the theatrical personality.\\n\\nI don't know who comes across worse. There's the one male teacher with the artfully haystacked-up hair, who takes the honors drama class and tells them on their first meeting that there are one too many students in the group, and before the end of the class they are going to have to kick one out, and he forces each student in turn to name one who should be evicted. Then at the end he tells them laughingly it was just an exercise. Then there's the large woman who's the director I guess, who has a hissy fit over some bad student behavior and rounds them up, asking them why didn't they just spit at her. Talk about a drama queen! The film focuses on five students, but not very successfully. None of them seem very talented, but is that just the luck of the draw, that sometimes doc-makers pick their subjects early and then they just peter out, or are they making a case against letting teens act? The one black boy who plays the Tim Curry role in Annie has confidence, and a role in Broadway's THE LION KING on his resume, but he's got very little stage presence, while the girl Nicole seems to think she can get by on her comic antics offstage, it's painful to watch adolescent awkwardness this close up.\\n\\nThe actual operations of Stagedoor Manor are awesome--it's hard to believe that the staff can cast, direct, produce, rehearse and open twelve musicals in three weeks. The weird thing is the built-in caste system. Not all campers are equal, the best ones wind up in their own cabaret which they bring to seniors at two neighboring hotels, old men and women who looks barely alive, while up on the stage, the kids are singing and dancing their hearts out. Non-cabaret kids are wildly jealous of the elite--it's just another layer of ugliness in a remarkably ugly film.\",\n \"Product: Emmy Award winner Tina Fey writes, executive produces, and stars as Liz Lemon, the head writer of a live variety program in New York City. Liz's life is turned upside down when brash new network executive Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin in his Golden Globe winning role) interferes with her show, bringing the wildly unpredictable Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) into the cast. Now it's up to Liz to manage the mayhem and still try and have a life.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Soars Then Falters, Still It's Great\\n\\nReview: We finished watching season two of 30 Rock feeling that the writers strike had put a damper on the quality of the final five episodes (pretty much all of disc two), and as Tina Fey explains, those episodes are missing out on the improvised dialogue that ordinarily spikes up every episode. Seems the actors didn't want to add even the slightest little thing, in solidarity with the striking scripters. So the last five episodes are a bit stiff and awkward, and on top of that the season arc had to be hastily erected and concluded in a much shorter number of episodes than it had been launched to last. Oh well, it's fine, but I'm just saying, the quality suffers a little because you're used to the Rolls Royce of shows, then suddenly it's just a tricked-out hummer. Shame because, in every other way, the season has seemed on the brink of topping season one with ease. The actors all seem much more comfortable with their roles, and Alec Baldwin is now in his own grand world of genius, in which he can say or do the craziest things and they all make sense. Tina herself as Liz Lemon must have rebelled against the way her stylists had gradually made her more and more chic during the finals episodes of season one, so she had become indistinguishable from the leading ladies of ordinary shows. Remember when that happened to Roseanne and all of a sudden Roseanne looked like Bruce Weber was photographing her for Vogue? When Liz was dating Lloyd it was the same sort of thing.\\n\\nNow all that's changed and she is the hapless mess we adore, and she sticks with it, though watching her on season three's opener last night (when she is trying to adopt a baby from gruff, sadistic Megan Mullally) she had put herself all together and I was thinking, uh-oh, she's all glamorous again, but by the end of the episode things had fallen apart.\\n\\nI don't know, but I'm sort of tired of Kenneth and would rather see more of Jonathan, but Jonathan himself is becoming much more like Lloyd--the other Lloyd, the one on Entourage. It's like writers in general think there's only two ways for male PA's to be, and neither of them are pretty. We didn't like it in the movies when Meryl Streep was so outrageously nasty to her assistants in The Devil Wears Prada, but on TV, and when it's a man who's doing it, it's all so super comical, but it sets my remaining teeth on edge.\",\n \"Product: PLAYROOM introduces us to Max, Jimmy, Norm, Nick and Jason at the age of eighteen. Friends since early childhood, they have bonded deeper than natural brothers. As eighteen-year-old men, we share with them their dreams, loves, and friendships as well as life s hopes and frustrations. We, once again, meet them at age forty and learn how their lives have unfolded as we experience their marriages, strengths and disappointments. Together they are capable of celebrating with each other their emotions in an open and honest fashion. The group is together now on their annual football weekend, this year in Philadelphia. While bonding and enjoying the vibrant nightlife, they become separated only to find a darkness they have never known. It becomes a struggle of life or death where everyone must pay the price.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Five Go Adventuring Again\\n\\nReview: Five teen boys from an Eastern suburb enjoy a kegger at Maximo's parents' place, inviting the hottest chicks in town sometime in the 1980s. Twenty years later, most of the clique has gotten married and settled down, but they still blow off steam once a year during a big city weekend getaway. This year it's Philadelphia, ostensibly for an Eagles game, but for a few of the now grown men it's their chance to cheat on their wives and live it up and do cocaine without worrying about the consequences. They're all still boys at heart and the movie makes that clear once every thirty-five or forty seconds.\\n\\nThey each have different personalities, though the movie is underwritten as to what the personalities are, and the actors apparently have a lot of room to ham it up in the best Cassavetes style (\\\"Husbands\\\" anyone?), so you get the impression one is secretly a coward, another a sex addict, a third one probably a closet case, while Max is really trying to grow up, and the last guy (Nick) is the one who was raised by alcoholics so his personality has been deformed in some unclear way, but he's a cheater.\\n\\nWhat they don't know (or most of them don't know) is that this year their group has been targeted by a David Lynch-like crew of pornographers who plan to kidnap and sexually molest the best looking of them. Led by a creepy old man (Robert Blake in LOST HIGHWAY, anyone?) this film crew locks up Nick and Jason in the eponymous \\\"playroom\\\" and proceed to make them into chemslaves, keeping them chained to their beds with only a single sheet between them and strap-on horrors they could not previously have imagined. The two actors do grand work looking like they've been put through hell, in a scene that goes back and forth with rapid cuts to a nightclub where the un-kidnapped members of the Five are watching a female stripper with rapt amusement. I get the impression the director is saying, porn is great while you're watching it, but when you're forced to bend over a jungle gym and be filmed with a electrified and sparking club inserted deep into your rectum, it's not that funny, is it, funny boy? These scenes are filmed in the most grim INLAND EMPIRE way, with the suspense being mostly about, will they be saved before they are snuffed out on video? How will we know?\\n\\nOne of the mad old man's lead actresses is a hooker to whom Max, the hero, had been inexplicably kind years ago, saving her from a beating at the hands of a john she had cheated. Years later, after the hardening of her human instincts and five years more on the street, has that spark of humanity been crushed in her, or will she risk her own life to give Max a helping hand when he needs it? The boys all have wives and kids back at home in suburbia. . who will return? Who will become addicted to the snuff lifestyle? This movie has two clever twists, and doesn't need them, how's that? Otherwise DELIVERANCE did it rather better, except these guys have the kind of body John Travolta had in the SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER sequel, STAYING ALIVE, directed by Sylvester Stallone.\",\n \"Product: Child bride Claudia Naughton has made life difficult for her husband David because she \\ncan't stand living so far away from her mother. She's also afraid her husband doesn't find \\nher desirable enough. To remedy both situations, she sells their farm to an opera singer so \\nthey'll have to move back to the city near her mother, and she tries to make her husband \\njealous by flirting with a neighbor. Eventually, Claudia has to learn to grow when she discovers that she's about to become a mother and that her own mother is gravely ill.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A Problem Like Claudia\\n\\nReview: A Broadway success for Dorothy McGuire, the movie version got her signed to a contract with Selznick and she became one of his stable of beloved, often quirky stars. He must have liked them that way, like Jennifer Jones and Ingrid Bergman.\\n\\nClaudia is a great role for an actress, but I don't suppose just ay talenbted actress could have carried it off, and McGuire is note perfect. Does she look twenty? Some of the time. And her scatterbrained comments on everything from kittens to ketchup will have you scratching your head in delight. Critic Molly Haskell in her classic From Reverence to Rape, while praising McGuire's sheer adorability and comic gifts, criticized the script for making McGuire into an artificial child who is afraid of full marital sex and plagued by the requirement to be a great housekeeper, but when you watch Claudia, at least today, she seems always eager for sex and she doesn't care a fig about housekeeping. And yet there is that weird energy about Claudia, she's too childlike and willful to be an actual adult; she lacks the reality principle that keeps most of us locked up tight emotionally. Robert Young plays off of this beautifully; you can see why he's drawn to her extreme sensuality, but a little bit afraid for her mental stability. The actresses of the sixties who pioneered mental anguish (Glenda Jackson, Liv Ullmann, Anne Bancroft) actually were taking a leaf from McGuire's book, for when Claudia is down, man, she is really really in a dark dark place.\\n\\nIna Claire playing Mrs. Brown, Claudia's mother, is also perfect in the part, although perhaps too beautiful and serene and witty. How old was she anyway? She should have kept up in the movies for decades more after this! And the other characters (like Ina Claire, sophisticated foils for McGuire's innocent if slightly deranged goodness) are put through their paces by \\\"women's director\\\" Edmund Goulding. I sometimes think Goulding is the actual George Cukor and Cukor a second or third rate Edmund Goulding: is that sacrilegious to say? I love his fussy, yet bold camera swoops and turns. Watch what happens when Bertha answers the phone inside the country cottage, calls out to David (Robert Young) to come and answer the phone; he's outside in the courtyard having a smoke, but he leaves way over to the far side of the screen and enters the house so you see him cross through a nest of silvery and gauze-festooned glass, finally picking up the phone--then reversing and bringing the whole apparatus out of the house again. We're watching all this movement, wondering why Goulding allows it so much time, and we don't realize until the very end of the scene that (spoiler ahead) McGuire has been listening in on the phone conversation that follows, and it devastates her. As Douglas Sirk lets the TV in All That Heaven Allows become a piece of furniture of symbolic dystopia, the windows, the walls, that Robert Young walks among reveal to us his confusion, his passion, his anxiety and his pride. He is among the greatest movie actors of all time, much greater than his successors, Robert Mitchum, Robert Redford, Robert DeNiro, Robert Pattinson; and yet, we can't see him \\\"acting\\\" so we think he's just Marcus Welby Knows Best.\",\n \"Product: Japan only cd with different back artwork and with exclusive bonus track - goodnight my love\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: You Give Love, You Get Love\\n\\nReview: When I was young and in a vulnerable place in my life, Paula Abdul's music meant a great deal to me and helped me to see thr bright spots in a dark cloud that was then passing over my life. Paula didn't have the greatest voice in the world, but engineering technology helped her over the hump. Her dancing style seemed so original, but she taught it to Janet Jackson first, and Janet did it better than she did, so that oddly enough Paula seemed like a clumsy imitator of Janet's moves, and her voice seemed even weaker than Janet's. The truth is that both of them are great, but for different reasons. And nothing will replace the masterpiece that is SPELLBOUND. I love the graphics on the cover that show Paula under attack by the kind of typeface that Prince used to use to show emotional distress. This is the period when she was experimenting not just with different techno beats, but with different photo looks too--partly caused by fluctuating weight gain and loss--remember the video which anamorphically stretched her out so she looked like she was eight feet tall?\\n\\n\\\"Rush Rush,\\\" the great hit single, had a romantic video of its own with Paula pursued by heartthrob Keanu Reeves; some cynics disputed whether Keanu, who looked so stoned in the video, even knew he was being photographed at the time. It is one of the key ballads of the 20th century, right up there with \\\"If Ever I Would Leave You\\\" by Lerner and Loewe, \\\"But Not For Me,\\\" by Gershwin, and Cole Porter's \\\"Night and Day.\\\" RUSH RUSH brings it all home, and it's not just about sensual longing, it's about philosophy and the pull of narrative and the way story-telling is the key to a long life:\\n\\n\\\"Here's my story, and the story goes: you give love, you get love, and more than Heaven knows.\\\" The music perfectly complements the words and imitates the adrenaline rush of that moment when you fall in love for the very first time. For me it represented the moment when someone I loved died, a miserable death of a tragic disease. I would sit in his room and play RUSH RUSH over and over again until he felt momentarily at peace. The lamp was set low so the shadows played over his face and his twitching hands. We had a joke that someday Paula Abdul would burst into the room eight feet tall and extremely thin. Or perhaps Keanu might just fall in.\",\n \"Product: I will ship by EMS or SAL items in stock in Japan. It is approximately 7-14days on delivery date. You wholeheartedly support customers as satisfactory. Thank you for you seeing it.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Sentimental? Maybe! But go-oo-oo-od!\\n\\nReview: She didn't have the jazzy pipes of Bing Crosby or Rosemary Clooney, but she had a clear, pleasant voice that had a lot of warmth to it, like bringing your cold hands up against a warm teapot. This box set has many of her greatest classics on it. \\\"The White Cliffs of Dover\\\" was inspired by England's privation during World War II, and although it was written by an American who had never been to Dover (and who didn't know that bluebirds are far and few between on those chalky cliffs), English people loved it too. Another popular song, \\\"We'll Meet Again,\\\" still speaks to people separated by war and other disasters, it's cheerful, but there's a tear behind the smile.\\n\\nVera Lynn is still alive, nearly ninety, though her days of public performance came to a gentle halt in the mid-1990s. We saw quite a bit of her then, for that was the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, and whole generations of her fans have been dying every day. Some youngsters however still admire her clarion call of a voice, and I hope that one day we will be seeing her three feature films on DVD, for she wasn't a bad little actress either. The films were \\\"We'll Meet Again,\\\" \\\"Rhythm Serenade,\\\" and \\\"One Exciting Night.\\\"\\n\\nIn the meantime, film fans who love Kubrick's \\\"Dr Strangelove\\\" are innately familiar with Vera Lynn's majesty, because she can be heard singing over the final scenes of the film.\",\n \"Product: Sophomore album for the former Spice Girl. 12 tracks including the first single & #1 hit 'It's Raining Men', 'Shake Your Bootie Cutie', 'Feels Like Sex', 'Don't Call Me Baby' & 'Heaven And Hell (Being Geri Hallowell)'. 2001 release.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: She's not Ginger Spice any more\\n\\nReview: Instead she's some kind of strange blend of American TV star and srpport act for the CARRY ON comedies. \\\"It'a Raining Men\\\" was never the world's most difficult song but it does call for a singer with a powerful voice like the original duo who sang it, the Weather Girls. Why give this to Geri to carry? Surely something more suitable could ave been found, like Lee Hazelwood's \\\"Some Velvet Morning,\\\" a tune written in such a tiny range that even Kate Moss does a reputable job with it in a duet with Primal Scream on their DIRTY HITS LP.\\n\\n Still it's a rousing album with plenty of assured vocals from Ms. Halliwell. I think she's finally found her groove, but her weight loss and gain will keep her from finding an identity in the US because no way, no how will she ever again look like the skinny rake she plays on the cover.\",\n \"Product: River Runs Red encompasses the energy and aggression that the band was known for in their live shows of the day, presented in a hardcore/thrash format, with shards of heavy metal cutting through at times. This album has been remastered for the first time since it's release over 15 years ago\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Keith Caputo, a Lou Reed for a New Generation\\n\\nReview: Caputo's voice just haunts you even when the CD is just sitting there in its case; the CD vibrates slightly with the insane emotion he manages to pour out of what is technically a very slight voice with little or no range. Some other singers have had this amazing luck--people like Leonard Cohen for example. But Caputo has it in spades and THE RIVER RUNS RED must be his masterpiece. It's just so crazy.\\n\\nThe little spoken word intermissions, named after the days of the week, should have tipped you off from the beginning that you were getting your head into some pretty deep water. So often our bands just deliver straight music and never bother to think about all the other things (just ambient noise for example, or taped conversations, or just background sounds) that might be recorded and listeners might find some meaning in. Take Lou Reed delivering the uber-odd METAL MACHINE MUSIC literally banging instruments through the studio viz fuzzy feedback and still managing to capture the soul of an era even without melody. Life Of Agony updates some of these ideas casually, as though they weren't revolutionary the way they come out on RIVER RUNS RED. Listening close you get the whole back story of our hero. He's not a bad kid, he's just misunderstood--by his family, by his girl, by his teachers and friends and people at work. Or then, as you start to suspect, maybe he IS a bad kid.\\n\\nAt any rate he thinks so. The incendiary lyrics of \\\"Bad Seed,\\\" to my mind the killer cut on the LP, make that very clear. Caputo sounds bemused by his own powers; it's as though a miracle had happened and he had finally traced his lineage back to some unnameable evil. Horrible, but at least you know where you are (ask Scott Evil in the Austin Powers movies, who's like the big screen equivalent of Life of Agony.)\",\n \"Product: River Runs Red encompasses the energy and aggression that the band was known for in their live shows of the day, presented in a hardcore/thrash format, with shards of heavy metal cutting through at times. This album has been remastered for the first time since it's release over 15 years ago\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Keith Caputo, a Lou Reed for a New Generation\\n\\nReview: Caputo's voice just haunts you even when the CD is just sitting there in its case; the CD vibrates slightly with the insane emotion he manages to pour out of what is technically a very slight voice with little or no range. Some other singers have had this amazing luck--people like Leonard Cohen for example. But Caputo has it in spades and THE RIVER RUNS RED must be his masterpiece. It's just so crazy.\\n\\nThe little spoken word intermissions, named after the days of the week, should have tipped you off from the beginning that you were getting your head into some pretty deep water. So often our bands just deliver straight music and never bother to think about all the other things (just ambient noise for example, or taped conversations, or just background sounds) that might be recorded and listeners might find some meaning in. Take Lou Reed delivering the uber-odd METAL MACHINE MUSIC literally banging instruments through the studio viz fuzzy feedback and still managing to capture the soul of an era even without melody. Life Of Agony updates some of these ideas casually, as though they weren't revolutionary the way they come out on RIVER RUNS RED. Listening close you get the whole back story of our hero. He's not a bad kid, he's just misunderstood--by his family, by his girl, by his teachers and friends and people at work. Or then, as you start to suspect, maybe he IS a bad kid.\\n\\nAt any rate he thinks so. The incendiary lyrics of \\\"Bad Seed,\\\" to my mind the killer cut on the LP, make that very clear. Caputo sounds bemused by his own powers; it's as though a miracle had happened and he had finally traced his lineage back to some unnameable evil. Horrible, but at least you know where you are (ask Scott Evil in the Austin Powers movies, who's like the big screen equivalent of Life of Agony.)\",\n \"Product: The year 1969 was a magical time for music. Nothing captured the change and excitement better than The Mama Cass Television Program, a unique and colorful special starring the beloved \\\"Mama\\\" Cass Elliot -- a \\\"flower-power\\\" hour that hasn't been seen since. Cass sings her big hit Dream A Little Dream Of Me and rare solo versions of The Mamas & The Papas' classics California Dreamin' and Monday, Monday -- plus Dancing In The Street, The River Of Life and I Can Dream, Can't I? John Sebastian, Joni Mitchell and Mary Travers join Cass for sing-a-longs that are pure '60s music utopia. John presents She's A Lady and teams with Cass on Darlin' Companion. Joni performs Both Sides Now and Mary offers And When I Die. All three women join together for a stirring version of Bob Dylan's I Shall Be Released. Comic Buddy Hackett as well as actors Martin Landau and Barbara Bain also appear in a pair of humorous sketches with Cass. Bonus footage includes Cass and Sammy Davis, Jr. singing I Dig Rock & Roll Music plus an interview with John Sebastian remembering Cass and The Mamas & The Papas.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Great outfits and costumes, but Cass seems nervous\\n\\nReview: Cass' TV variety pilot is great fun to watch, but in some ways also painful.\\n\\nWhen Cass and Buddy Hackett were together, the camera cuts in close on the hands in her lap, and she seems like she's pulling her fingers apart, out of nervousness I expect, though she keeps her eyes on Hackett's. She seems like she must have been a wonderful listener; when she listens to Mary Travers sing, or Joni Mitchell play the guitar, she looks as if she is in awe. (Well, she had displayed this lovely quality in the Monterey Pop movie, where the camera catches her mouthing the word \\\"Wow\\\" like a mantra.) I never liked Buddy Hackett, but he is excellent here, and don't fast forward through his scenes, he has that sort of broken down Chaplin appeal that people misguidedly ascribed to Jackie Gleason. Maybe it was a little gauche of him to boast to Cass about how much weight he's lost in recent years: does she look a little wounded, or fatigued, during this part of their interchange?\\n\\nBizarre also to see Cass, Mary Travers and John Sebastian all in the same show. Each had been a significant part of a great pop group, but going solo is always fraught with peril, and you might say that none of them were ever as good alone as they were when they were in their groups. But you can see they each had style! Joni seems too smart and eccentric for TV, doesn't she, though she still thought of herself at least in part as an entertainer. She and Cass share a sequined, hippie designer sense of style, while Mary Tarvers, with her long blonde processed hair and her minidress of blue zirconium, looks like Nico in the days of the Silver Factory. Mary Travers' bangs were also copied from Nico. Goodness knows Joni had bangs, but Mary's continue right past her eyelashes! When it's her turn to sing she rises up from her chair as though \\\"I just gotta dance while I sing.\\\" Well, it's not reallty dancding but it is really sixties and you got to love it.\\n\\nAnother unfortunate note, Mama Cass' backing band is brilliant and soul-inflected and all that, but it's weird that they were called \\\"Hamfat.\\\" You know why.\",\n \"Product: Gel Ink Ballpoint pen from Japanese stationary brand, Pilot. Total 15 colors available. HI-Tec-C ballpoint pen allows you to write Very Smooth writing with very fine line\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: A breath of 60s air\\n\\nReview: As an American boy growing up in France, I got used to the French way of doing things very quicklyso quickly that my Dad worried that French ways were taking away some essential kernel of \\\"American-ness\\\" from me. It wasn't overnight, of course, for French ways are so different than those my parents had taught us on Long Islandbut after awhile I began to think of every French product as better than the ones I had left behind in Smithtown. The game of Risk, for example, I preferred infinitely to the bourgeois American Monopoly with its sordid focus on Capital. The Risk we played at home, of course, was itself a bastardized version of Albert Lamorisse's French original. Luckily we could play both versions often on one bureau, sweeping our pieces madly in the French style and being more sedate and mannered when we went back to the American board. Anyhow Dad was glad that there was at least one American staple I found superior to its French avatar, and that was the simple ballpoint pen. Though many of my classmates a l'ecole had, of course, beautiful pens that were almost family heirlooms, and many carried the Montblanc pen like it was a badge of cultural superiority, I was always so glad when cousins and merchants back home airmailed me et ma soeur the latest round of Pilot pensthe beautiful Pilot with their jaunty caps and their slim, yet strong, plastic encasements. \\\"Encasements\\\"is that how you would say it in the US?\\n\\nThey had to be strong, for I was a rough and tumble athletic teen, always ready for s gang fight or a rigorous round of ptanque, and the pens in my back pocket sometimes brokeif they were Montblanc pensand a sharp collision with turf, or another garcon's foot, might leave mon cul a hideous mess of blue or blank ink. I ordered the 12 pack of Pilot Hu-Tec-C Maica pens recently through Amazon Prime, and as soon as I unwrapped the brown paper of the box, my years in De Gaulle's France came back to me like the madeline that made Marcel swoon back to an earlier, simpler time, in Proust's 7 volume novel Remembrance of Things Past. Of course with today's sleek Japanese influence the pebs themselves are rather different, and kind of clunky, wouldn't you say, their encasements encumbered with useless protrusionsthough the glittering jewel cameo laid into each pen top is charming, like a diamond almost in its brightness. Like other owners, I too am perplexed about the color range Pilot is giving us in the Hi-Tec-C 12 pack. There are something like three or four orangesfrom gold to apricot to a pale root beerwhy so many I wonder? It's not like many people of any age or gender do much writing in orange shades do they? Oh, maybe they do in Japan. I bought out some old French stationery that I kept, a stone blue, and when I tried writing a note to ma soeur with the \\\"Apricot Orange\\\" pen I couldn't even see any marks on it! Looked like invisible ink. Similarly there is a scarlet and two pinks, and I can't tell them apart,\\n\\nThe caps are constantly being mixed up, but maybe that's just me. Each 12 pack should be issued with a separate, extra assortment of tops, just in case they slip onto the carpet while writing. My wife said, why not use the orange and black pens you complain about everyday and every nuit, and make a pen and ink drawing of the San Francisco Giants stadiumour uniforms, you see, are orange and black. I think I will. She is toujours the one with the best ideas and knows her colors well, having had them \\\"done\\\" herself by a certified New Age color consultant. Boasting all those orange shadesthe Pilot 12 pack is what we in the New Age would call an \\\"Autumn\\\" set. \\\"They write beautifully,\\\" my wife says, \\\"and I love them.\\\" She keeps stealing them to grade student papers with. We are bringing this pen set to our four-year annual color palette review, and seeing if it makes the grade with our Franco American style. However I will never lose my memories, not so long as these pens stay on my desk like beautiful reminders of the land of my birth.\",\n \"Product: A middle-aged diplomat is accosted in an airport lounge and his identity stolen! Sir Stafford Nye's journey home from Malaya to London takes an unexpected twist in the passenger lounge at Frankfurt -- a young woman confides in him that someone is trying to kill her. Yet their paths are to cross again and again -- and each time the mystery woman is introduced as a different person. Equally at home in any guise in any society she draws Sir Stafford into a game of political intrigue more dangerous than he could possibly imagine. In an arena where no-one can be sure of anyone, Nye must do battle with a well-armed, well-financed, well-trained -- and invisible -- enemy!\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Backwards into the Past\\n\\nReview: I remnember when this book came out and I, a child at the time, knew something was sadly wrong with Agatha Christie. For years I couldn't look this book in the face. But after reading Laura Thompson's new biography of Christie, in which Thompson writes vigorously of PASSENGER as Christie's late, brilliant modernist masterpiece, I decided to give it another shot. This time I decided to read it backwards, hoping to be able to follow the action a little better if I knew what to look for.\\n\\nDo you know, it works very well this way!\\n\\nI remain sympathetic to the complaint of the reader from April 2003 who said that a large group of good guys (none of them the book's three main good characters) trap a pair of the bad guys. You would think that at least one of the main people (Stafford Nye, Matilda or Renata) would show up at the finale in the Scottish highlands but I guess not. I was still shocked out of my wits at the unmasking! And then, reading backwards, I discovered that I had many, many chapters still to go before the other unmasking, when you find out about the big Hitler cult of the golden Siegfried boy from South America! So for an ordinary reader this would come about halfway through the book the other way, and then you'd be treading water while Admiral Blunt met with Mr. Robinson and Mr. Horsham met with Edward Altamount, et cetera, et cetera, lots of conversations, most of them quite grave.\\n\\nI also realized that at heart PASSENGER is a sort of rewrite of Christie's 1958 play VERDICT, her famous flop play which still holds a special place in my heart. PASSENGER devolves, liek VERDICT, into the story of a refugee woman called Lisa, escaped from Hitler's terror, who becomes the assistant to a great scientist based in the British Isles, and who falls in love with him even though he is fairly distant to her. This sort of Celia Johnson passion must have meant a lot to Christie, and here she gives Lisa (in VERDICT her name was Lisa, too!) the happy ending she was otherwise denied. I had the satisfying sense of a door closing, that perfect click when something unsettled finds its own true way home.\",\n \"Product: Christie, Agatha, Postern of Fate\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: New light on Dame Agatha Christie's last days\\n\\nReview: Since its publication, POSTERN OF FATE has received largely execrable reviews, with some labelling it \\\"tedious\\\" and others finding themselvs unable to follow its byzantinely boring plot. Look at the reviews on Amazon for samples. Now comes new evidence that the version of POSTERN OF FATE which we have was severely edited and that Christie's original may be a very different (and more cogent) work than the one we all know and abhor.\\n\\nSotheby's was offering the \\\"complete Dictaphone recording of Agatha Christie dictating her last novel\\\" including the original dictaphone belts she used (sixty of them). This was evidently put up for sale by her secretary, Mrs. Jolly. Did you know that \\\"Postern of Fate\\\" was Christie's sub=title for the novel and that the real title is \\\"Doom's Caravan\\\"? Sotheby's catalogue, from which I quote here, reveals that \\\"the text incorporated here differs substantially in very many instances from the final, printed version . . . Among the most striking differences might be noted the following. [WARNING -- SPOILERS AHEAD.] The group responsible for Mary Jordan's murder is here more clearly identified as a Fascist cell amd many more details of, and clues about, them are given in a substantial section eventually cut. The motivation for the murder of old Isaac by a descendant of this group who is endeavouring to bring Fascism to England is, accordinly, more substantiated in the present version; moreover, in the way this material is here worked, clues are thrown out so as apparently to implicate a different murderer. The rearrangement of the final, printed version, in which some of these chapters are placed earlier, also leaves a few threads hanging loose, evidently because of poor editing, there remain in the printed version a few references to certain of these sections which had either by then been moved in such a way that the references are inappropriate or else cut alttogether . . .\\\"\\n\\nPerhaps it is the case that Christie's last novel isn't the sad, woolgathering, near-Alzheimers experience it presently seems to be, but instead it was the victim of \\\"poor editing\\\"? Wouldn't it be great if a critical edition of POSTERN OF FATE--or should we call it DOOM'S CARAVAN--could be prepared by the Christie estate which would clear up some of these inconsistencies and restore the blot from her reputation?\\n\\nI give this book only 4 stars because, well, it isn't all that good, and until her original version is restored, this is all we're going to have.\",\n \"Product: A newly reissued edition of Agatha Christie's 'Mary Westmacott' novel, a Crime of the Heart novel about a loyal wife's discovery of her husband's infidelity. 'The one book that has satisfied me completely - the book I always wanted to write.' Agatha Christie Returning from a visit to her daughter in Iraq, Joan Scudamore finds herself unexpectedly alone and stranded in an isolated rest house by flooding of the railway tracks. This sudden solitude compels Joan to assess her life for the first time ever and face up to many of the truths about herself. Looking back over the years, Joan painfully re-examines her attitudes, relationships and actions and becomes increasingly uneasy about the person who is revealed to her!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: \\\"Nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose . . .\\\"\\n\\nReview: One of the most beautiful love stories ever told, ABSENT IN THE SPRING takes Henry James' donnee about an unreliable narrator, and brings it to a peak of perfection even James might have envied. Joan Scudamore, the unlikeable, ultimately tragic figure at the heart of the novel, is delayed coming home to England and stuck in a \\\"rest house\\\" in the desert outside Baghdad for what amounts to days on end, with nothing to read after finishing the life of Lady Catherine Dysart, and John Buchan's THE POWER HOUSE. With no one who speaks English toi chat with, and not even a deck of cards, she finds herself thrown back on her own devices, which grow increasingly threadbare until she begins reflecting, at first smugly and then with more self-awareness, on her own life as a young bride, mother, and suburban wife to Rodney, a successful county solicitor.\\n\\nIt soon becomes apparent to the reader that, unbeknownst to Joan, everyone in her life either pities or despises her. Her grown children can't bear to see her around, and her husband feels sorry for her apparently sociopathic inability to care for anyone else but herself. And little by little we realize, as Joan does, that in fact Rodney once had an affair that was the kind of thing great songs are written for, an affair with a married woman in their little town, not an exotic beauty, in fact rather a dowdy, plain woman called Leslie Sherston. As Joan becomes more and more shocked at what the depths of the subconscious are telling her, her walks outside the rest house into the desert become more and more perilous, for so strong are her memories that she loses track of where she is and threatens to get lose in the desert sand, under the implacable, cruel sun.\\n\\nShe feels God has deserted her completely. In the words of one of Shakespeare's sonnets, \\\"From you have I been absent in the spring.\\\" Joan was absent in her marriage, absent from Rodney, because she only believed in a certain limited bourgeois way of knowledge. He in turn absented himself from her by falling in love with the charming, if doomed, Leslie Sherston. Rodney and Leslie are too \\\"fine\\\" as human beings to have actually slept together, but like Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson in BRIEF ENCOUNTER, an erotic and romantic tension animates their every interchange.\\n\\nAgatha Christie wrote six novels under the name of Mary Westmacott. At the end of this one, Joan's feverish memories begin to break down into sentence fragments.\\n\\nEach paragraph is only a sentence long.\\n\\nAn emotional sentence.\\n\\nA fragment, a piece of something.\\n\\nOh, God, Joan prays, make me a normal woman again!\\n\\nSome people can never get it straight and still, even in 2006, they doubt that Christie is one of the greatest Modernist writers in the English language.\\n\\nFools!\\n\\nThey're blind, unseeing, fools, do you hear me?\",\n \"Product: Charles Osbornes adapation of Agatha Christies classic play, Spiders Web, features Clarissa, the wife of a Foreign Office diplomat given to daydreaming. Supposing I were to come down one morning and find a dead body in the library, what should I do? she muses. Clarissa has her chance to fi\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Kiss of the Spider Woman\\n\\nReview: Is Charles Osborne still alive? If so he's got to be in his eighties surely. When he \\\"novelized\\\" Christie's 1954 play SPIDER'S WEB he was already pretty old. What a shame he stopped for, even if the novels that resulted weren't a patch on Christie's own writing, they were a welcome addition to the long line of Christie titles, and there were still more plays to be mined surely? It would have been cool to have a novel of VERDICT, for my money Christie's best play. But maybe VERDICT was too psychological for Osborne's method? He seems to have worked out a method in which he used every line of dialogue and acres of stage directions, but perhaps he was enjoined by the estate from entering into the consciousness of any of the characters, which makes the novel read stiffly and never allows us any entry into caring about them.\\n\\nA better bet might have been Christie's trio of one act plays RULE OF THREE. They could have been turned into a collection of short novels in the style of MURDER IN THE MEWS without losing much \\\"interiority.\\\"\\n\\nIn SPIDER'S WEB, I should add, much of Cjristie's superb characterization and drama does come through. Although a sophisticated comedy thriller on the outside, the core story is very dark and painfu. Clarissa is not only an amusing airhead in the Kay Kendall/Glynis Johns manner but she is also a woman attempting to heal a child broken by severe abuse, now her stepdaughter but threatened by a return of the original trauma in the person of her malevolent stepfather Oliver Costello. Little Pippa is terrified beyond reason of Oliver (and of her own mother, the drugridden addict Miranda, beautiful, selfish, utterly lost). Clarissa will go to any lengths to prevent Pippa, now 11 or 12, from being forced to go back into the house of horrors she'd gone mad in.\\n\\nEven in Osborne's \\\"novel by rote\\\" a lot of this comes through, and powerfully, because I guess Christie's dialogue is so good, and her imagination so terrifying.\",\n \"Product: BOOKS\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: In Praise of Marina\\n\\nReview: Out of Zhivago's loves I always liked Marina the best and, when the movie came out, I was puzzled to see that David Lean and Robert Bolt had left her out, excised her completely. It made me wonder why, why leave out the enchanting figure of Marina, the only one in Zhivago's world who was as faithful to him as a dog is to his master, one who was there at the beginning\\n\\nMaybe they thought that audiences were already being asked to swallow too much. Yurii Andreievich had married Tonia already, and had Sasha with her, and then the good doctor had found himself madly in love with Lara. That tragic romance ended badly and then Yuri finds himself completely without friends or family and he stumbles, like a bum, back into the life of Marina. I guess the filmmakers thought that they were painting Lara and Uri to have the greatest love of all time, so where did Marina fit in? Anyone who's read the book knows that Marina's love for Yuri was stronger by far than the crazy, tender, adulterous love of Lara. Zhivago is such a good poet that Tonia, Lara and Marina are all aquiver when he draws near them.\\n\\nMarina is more mature (when she re-encounters Yuri) and it's hard to imaghine what actress of the mid-60s would have best been able to essay her character--had Lean and Bolt been more faithful to the novel and included the Marina-Yuri story in it. She is a woman whom time has touched, but lightly, and she has seen the ravages of the Revolution first-hand, while still remaining touched and open to the possibilities of new love. If they could have gotten her, Audrey Hepburn would have been a good choice, sort of the Audrey Hepburn of ROBIN AND MARIAN and TWO FOR THE ROAD. Another performance that comes to mind is Claudia Cardinale in ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST--women who have lived and suffered and whose spirit still flames and seeks the higher ground. But perhaps Hepburn and Cardinale were too beautiful (or glamorous) and Pasternak wanted us to find the beauty in a plainer woman.\\n\\nThe book is a very different experience than the movie; structured as a poem, the novel moves laterally from time period to time period, while individual associations link disparate stories. We remember that Pasternak was writing about characters of another generation than his own, and that he had already seen the death of Stalin and the public demolition of the dictator's relationship, when he published his novel at last. As a boy he had dreamed of becoming a musician, and it is said that he aped Scriabin in his earliest works. Certainly some of Scriabin's theories of synaesthesia carry over into the marvelously sensual passages of ZHIVAGO, where everything--smells, tastes, the pressures of flesh and flesh--all blend into image.\",\n \"Product: Halloween Party\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: For Judith Butler Fans\\n\\nReview: Anyone who enjoys modern philosophy will get a kick out of the heroine of HALLOWEEN PARTY, the incredibly gorgeous \\\"Undine\\\"-esque blonde, Judith Butler, who shares a strange, prophetic resemblance to the present day theorist and author of GENDER TROUBLE--also called Judith Butler. I wonder if Ms. Butler has read this book but I imagine she has, she's an omnivorous reader with high levels of intellectual curiosity, and she would find so much about \\\"performing gender\\\" here she could write another sequel to her own famous work.\\n\\nOne of the better late Christie novels for sure, HALLOWEEN PARTY takes it time getting started but winds up genuinely involving. I wanted to find out who dun it and I didn't like being interrupted in my reading of the final chapters. But that's not to say it doesn't have its problems!\\n\\nThe central mysteries that Poirot must solve are, what if anything did little Joyce Reynolds see--she claimed to have witnessed a murder and someone shuts her up by drowning her in a tub bobbing with apples! And also what did Rowena Drake see when she dropped an entire glass vase of autumn perennials down a flight of stairs? I have read this book a few times now and always get caught up in figuring out these two mysteries. For Christie lovers, this plot has comforting echoes of previous books, for example the mysterious gaze on Marina Gregg's face in THE MIRROR CRACK'D FROM SIDE TO SIDE with Miss Marple. I found the central situation of the landscape architect, beautiful Michael Garfield, a little bit like ENDLESS NIGHT and strangely reminiscent of Christie's beautiful short story, \\\"In the Cool of the Evening\\\" published in STAR OVER BETHLEHEM.\\n\\nI also enjoyed having the two teenage boys of the novel step up in their hippie outfits, rose colored vests and fawn trousers, and turn into Poirot's two Baker Street Irregular boys. Wish we had seen more of them in other novels by Christie, for I was getting pretty tired of Ariadne Oliver by this juncture! What about that Halloween party with the \\\"snapdragon\\\" game and that strange one where the girls gather in a dark room and look into a mirror to see the faces of the men they will marry? Christie utterly fails to spell out the mechanics of this one in a way that anyone could understand, and what a shame, for I am having an upcoming party and would love to have a hand mirror in which my guests both male and female would gaze and instead of seeing their own faces, they'd see some spectral ghost faces of like, Brad Pitt or no, I know, the late Brad Renfro (RIP)!\",\n \"Product: The book is brand new and will be shipped from US.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Peter Heywood not so bad as Alexander says\\n\\nReview: My family is related to Peter Heywood's and I don't think, after reading over the evidence pro and con, that Heywood was the spoiled, rich man's son that Caroline Alexander makes him out to be. It has long been a \\\"fact\\\" in our family that Peter H. was sort of a Regency St. Francis, famous for giving away everything that he owned, even to the very shirt on his back and the money out of his pockets. That said, Ms. Alexander is a skilled writer, marvelous at painting atmospheres, and both the frigid English manners and the warm, riotous Tahitian \\\"adagios of islands\\\" are luminously evoked. She knows how to lay out a complicated story on several levels at one time, satisfying both the historian in all of us and also the child who likes to hear a romantic tale. The book is beautifully done and I'm not surprised it has been an international bestseller. Has it altered our appreciation of the famous movie with Gable and Laughton? I think not. All of the versions I've seen (including the one with Mel Gibson and the notorious Brando one) have some merit, and the story of conflict is one that keeps repeating itself over and over like a nightmare of civilization. Caroline Alexander sees it as a class fable, in which poor old William Bligh may have whipped a few men here and there, but no worse than the way he was treated as a boy and young man.\\n\\nSo continues the cycle of abuse, lo, even unto the next generation. All in all, a tiptop read.\",\n \"Product: The new-look series of Hercule Poirot books for the 21st Century. Sir Claud Amory has discovered the formula for a new powerful explosive, which is stolen by one of the large household of relatives and friends. Locking everyone in the library, Sir Claud switches off the lights to allow the thief to replace the formula on the table, no questions asked. When the lights come on, however, he is dead, and Hercule Poirot -- with assistance from Hastings and Inspector Japp -- has to unravel a tangle of family feuds, old flames and suspicious foreigners to find the killer and prevent a global catastophe.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Like I love my men . . .\\n\\nReview: BLACK COFFEE the novel suffers from Charles Osborne's timidity in adapting Agatha Christie stage dialogue into a prose fiction equivalent. Wearily the reader sits through every blessed thing that was said on stage (or so it seems) plus every stage direction, for most of which Osborne fails to achieve any sort of actual verbal equivalence, so that we never can figure out what exactly the characters are doing in that room at Abbot's Cleve. On the other hand, the one chapter where Osborne just went crazy and wrote the whole thing from scratch (chapter one, set in Poirot's tidy flat in London) doesn't work either, so it's not exactly a problem inherent in novelization, he's just not that good a writer perhaps.\\n\\nHowever he did get better, and the other two books he wrote are less painful than this one.\\n\\nIn BLACK COFFEE, for example, the whole plot turns on a vase filled with spills used to help the fire in the huge fireplace, and whereas we would have seen the vase instantly on stage, and watched characters playing with the spills throughout the entire play, here we have no idea that they are present, much less what they are, until Poirot points them out to his sidekick, Hastings, in the play's penultimate moments. Fair play? I think not. We're being toyed with by a man who doesn't care if we have all the information or not, he's just slugging it out doggedly till the play's last scene.\\n\\nStrange chronology too! We forget that Hastings wasn't in on every adventure of Poirot's, and that when she turned to BLACK COFFEE in 1930, she was bringing him back after an absence of several years. Osborne's odd interjections suggest that this story takes place sometime after the events of LORD EDGWARE DIES, which of course came later, in the mid-1930s... I wonder why, it's puzzling. I'll have to go to my copy of the actual play to see if Christie had that pervy scene of Hastings (a married man, of course, though Bella is off in the Argentine) spying on glamorous flapper Barbara Amory as she lies sunbathing on what she thinks is a private, enclosed garden spot.\",\n \"Product: The second novel in Lewis's science fiction trilogy tells of Dr Ransom's voyage to the planet of Perelandra (Venus). In the second novel in C.S. Lewis's classic science fiction trilogy, Dr Ransom is called to the paradise planet of Perelandra, or Venus, which turns out to be a beautiful Eden-like world. He is horrified to find that his old enemy, Dr Weston, has also arrived and is putting him in grave peril once more. As the mad Weston's body is taken over by the forces of evil, Ransom engages in a desperate struggle to save the innocence of Perelandra!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Should have been filmed instead of the Narnia books\\n\\nReview: It seems as though the success of the Lord of the Rings trilogy has inspired filmmakers to tackle another huge project, and they have settled on CS Lewis' Narnia books, taking a flyer with Andrew Adamson's production first of the LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE. If you ask me (of course no one did LOL), this space trilogy of Lewis' would have been a natural, for some of its virtues could be reproduced on film, and perhaps the scope of film could have salvaged some of its weaknesses.\\n\\nAs many have noticed, OUT OF THE SILENT PLANET, while giant in conception, is the tightest of the three, and each book becomes more of a baggy monster than the one before. Dr. Ransom is introduced, and kidnapped to an alien planet where overtones of Miltonic good and evil tickle the fancy of the reader while provoking a great deal of suspense as to his fate, and the fate of the whole universe.\\n\\nRansom is a fascinating character, scientist blended with he-man and activist--would have been perfect for Sean Connery, say, twenty years ago.\\n\\nIn the meantime I urge all readers to give OUT OF THE SILENT PLANET a try, even if you're not into science fiction per se. It has a great deal to tell us about the world we all still live in right now.\",\n \"Product: Throughout his trial Jack had maintained his innocence, claiming he was hitchhiking on the night of the murder and he had been picked up by a middle-aged man in a dark car. Unable to locate this mystery man the police viewed Jacks story as a lie. Dr Arthur Calgary was the stranger in question, but he arrives too late for Ja\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Christie's \\\"Waiting for Godot\\\"\\n\\nReview: ORDEAL BY INNOCENCE is one of the difficult Christies from her most controversial period, in which her novels grew longer and longer, while some argue her energies were primarily directed towards the stage where she was amazingly successful and the Queen of the West End for a few years. The novels of the same time grow ponderous, as though overswollen with social and moral anxiety, and this is one of the touchstones of the era, cited by Christie herself in her AUTOBIOGRAPHY as among her own personal favorites.\\n\\nIs it a plot she cooked up, then abandoned, for her contemporaneous drama THE UNEXPECTED GUEST? It seems like it, right down to the gloomy, Stygian opening in which a mystery man crashes into the closed society of a wealthy family grieving over a recent loss.\\n\\nAs usual, Christie studs the novel with references to all sorts of high and low culture. As many have noticed, the character of Jacko Argyle seems borrowed from the real life \\\"Let Him Have It\\\" case of Derek Bentley and Christopher Craig, while she makes much of the famous line from Racine's PHEDRE that goes, \\\"C'est Venus toute entiere a sa proie attache\\\" (She is Venus, now indistinguishable from her prey) and the beautiful Jean Ingelow ballad for which Arthur Sullivan wrote the music,\\n\\nAh, maid most dear, I am not here,\\n\\nI have no place, no part,\\n\\nNo dwelling more by sea or shore,\\n\\nBut only in thy heart!\\n\\nO fair dove! O fond dove!\\n\\nTill night rose over the bourne,\\n\\nThe dove on the mast as we sailed fast,\\n\\nDid mourn, and mourn, and mourn,\\n\\nDid mourn, and mourn.\\n\\nMost curious of all, from our point of view, is Christie's reference to WAITING FOR GODOT--Hester Argyle and Donald Craig are said to have attended an amateur production of the play in a tiny suburban town two years before the action of the novel proper begins. Indeed, seeing this play turns out to be Hester's alibi during the slaying of her mother! GODOT was then a very new play in English, though it had premiered in French three or four years before the writing of ORDEAL BY INNOCENCE. We don't expect to find Beckett in Agatha Christie, or vice versa, but a case might be made that the two playwrights and modernists had much more in common, and the bizarre comedy and overweening sadness of Vladimir and Estragon find weary analogues in the plight of the Argyle family, a collection of misfits who are all sitting around waiting for something to make their miserable lives meaningful. They don't know their salvation lies in the unlikely form of Arthur Calgary, a geophysicist whose temporary amnesia led to the crackup of the strange, totally convincing plot behind Rachel Argyle's murder.\\n\\nAll the characters speak of the \\\"calamity of the innocent,\\\" but Christie's theme here is really forgiveness. How do the children she adopted forgive Rachel Argyle for tearing them away from their blood kin? How does the polio-stricken air ace Philip Durrant forgive the fate that condemned him to a wheelchair? How does Calgary forgive himself for letting Jacko perish in prison? Though it has its longueurs and dead patches, ORDEAL BY INNOCENCE is amazingly beautiful, reflective, yes, and suspenseful. It's not easy to see who did it, and the ending is a classic surprise. Christie's plots are Apollonian and worked out with a clinician's perfection, but her storytelling is surprisingly intuitive, moving sideways, working by allusion and rhyme.\\n\\nThe three love stories in the book, too, are all gracefully done. One forgets how much Christie knew about love (and betrayal). And how about that child ruining Tina's alibi by reporting the landing of a sputnik! (That turns out to be Tina's much-bruited \\\"bubble car,\\\" a sensation of the 1956-57 period that were the closest contemporary design has come to sn actual spacecraft-inspired mass-produced car.)\",\n \"Product: Paperback. Pub Date :2008-02-04 Pages: 496 Language: English Publisher: HarperCollins UK Taut. menacing. sinister. gripping. intelligent. action-packed - everything you could want from a thriller.Jack Whalen was an LAPD patrol cop for twelve years.He left under a cloud and now hes not really sure what he is.One thing he does know is that he loves his wife. Amy.So when she goes missing on a routine business trip to Seattle his world is shaken.Jack sets out to search for her. only to discover that there is something far more mysterious going on than her disappearance.Then Jack is contacted by a childhood acquaintance. Gary Fisher.Fisher. now a lawyer. wants Jacks help in solving a puzzle thrown up by businessmans will.Its a puzzle that involves some unsolved slayings: could there be more to Garys sudden reappearance in Jacks life than hes letting onMeanwhile. a ten-year-old gi...\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: He Man Women Haters Club\\n\\nReview: I don't think I understood the whole thing, but it's not all my fault. Deliberately author Michael Marshall splits up his story between the first person narration of ex-cop/coffee table book captionist Jack Whelan, with a variety of third person accounts that are purposely confusing and disparate, so that you need a second reading to be able to piece it all together properly. I kept skimming and skimming, thinking with my fingers crossed that \\\"this will all make sense later, I'm sure,\\\" but eventually I got at least a glimmer of a storyline involving a young nine year old girl who at first seems like she's been kidnapped by an evil, foul smelling man, but within a few pages we find out that this \\\"abduction\\\" is not really what it seems and the the 9 year old, cute little Madison, exhibits the cold, maniacal soullessness of an adult, and an especially demented one at that.\\n\\nBut why? Why? Why? She's like Patty McCormack in THE BAD SEED, but why? Author Marshall has a new theory about why some kids hit the ground running, while others just go to the devil. He grabs your lapels and shakes this theory into you until you reach a point where you just want to slap his hands away, he's so insistent.\\n\\nOn the home front, Jack is married to a woman who, just like in all the best postwar noir stories, isn't what she seems. This part of the story would seem more original if it hadn't been done just last month in the techno thriller HOOKED. Searching for the truth about his wife, Jack turns more and more to an old high school friend, Gary Fisher, once an idolized athletic hero in school, later a top lawyer, but obviously a man with a burning mission. As Jack grows suspicious of Amy, he grows closer and closer to Gary (who in the conventional thriller would have been a woman I think), and their eventual friendship and bonding has a distinct homoerotic charge to it as they both learn that women (and little girls) can't be trusted. Marshall makes you read through to the end but you'll be scratching your head over many of his plot choices, and I can't make up my mind whether the story is actually crazy stupid, or maybe too smart for a moron like myself.\",\n \"Product: A fascinating exploration of the contents of Agatha Christie's 73 recently discovered notebooks, including illustrations, deleted extracts, and two unpublished Poirot stories. When Agatha Christie died in 1976, aged 85, she had become the world's most popular author. With sales of more than two billion copies worldwide in more than 100 countries, she had achieved the impossible - more than one book every year since the 1920s, every one a bestseller. So prolific was Agatha Christie's output - 66 crime novels, 20 plays, 6 romance books under a pseudonym and over 150 short stories - it was often claimed that she had a photographic memory. Was this true? Or did she resort over those 55 years to more mundane methods of working out her ingenious crimes? Following the death of Agatha's daughter, Rosalind, at the end of 2004, a remarkable secret was revealed. Unearthed among her affairs at the family home of Greenway were Agatha Christie's private notebooks, 73 handwritten volumes of notes, lists and drafts outlining all her plans for her many books, plays and stories. Buried in this treasure trove, all in her unmistakable handwriting, are revelations about her famous books that will fascinate anyone who has ever read or watched an Agatha Christie story. What is the 'deleted scene' in her first book, The Mysterious Affair at Styles? How did the infamous twist in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, really come about? Which very famous Poirot novel started life as an adventure for Miss Marple? Which books were designed to have completely different endings, and what were they? Full of details she was too modest to reveal in her own Autobiography, this remarkable new book includes a wealth of extracts and pages reproduced directly from the notebooks and her letters, plus for the first time two newly discovered complete Hercule Poirot short stories never before published.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A Virgil called Curran\\n\\nReview: The 73 notebooks were written the scrawl of a chicken, very different from the famous autograph signature we all know from countless reproductions. There must have been many times when Curran might have felt like giving up, but after months of practice, he says he was able to decipher the writing pretty quickly. Oddly, he says, Christie's handwriting improved with age, rather than the reverse.\\n\\nThis is not a variorum or facsimile edition of the notebooks by any means, but rather Curran's selection, with copious comments, of Christie's musings and reworkings over the years. His transcriptions look letter-perfect (a generous sampling of the handwritten entries allows us to peruse both the way she wrote something, and the way Curran took it down). I couldn't spot a flaw.\\n\\nChristie lovers will find much to marvel at here. My own hunger for more and more Christie, good or bad, started when I was a child. I had a recurring dream--one I still have, years later,--in which I'm in a bookstore, library, friend's house, looking at books, and I see an Agatha Christie novel I've never heard of before. I sit down and read through it, and even want to copy it down, but lack a pencil (ha ha, Freudian I guess), and think of filching it from the premises, but lack the balls. Sometimes I wake from the dream with a title and a few words still in my head. but always with a sense of loss and emptiness. Now Curran's edition has assuaged some of the ache. We hear of dozens of unrealized projects, and quite a few of them fully realized, but withdrawn from the marketplace for one reason or another. Two \\\"new\\\" stories are included here, both from the 1930s: one an adumbration of Dumb Witness, the other a bizarre alternate take to \\\"The Capture of Cerberus,\\\" the final adventure in \\\"The Labours of Hercules.\\\" But I want more, Mr. Curran! Please give us the goods.\\n\\nWith the approval of the estate, Curran shows that he is not necessarily beholden to some of the fictitious \\\"legends\\\" the estate has engendered. He pretty much proves, for example, that SLEEPING MURDER was written probably 10 years later than the story given out by the Christie people (and by Christie herself). Why the deception? It made for a better story, perhaps. One would like to see the original version of CURTAIN, too, which in its published state seemed oddly neutered and sort of de-WWII'ed, brought into a timeless sort of past with little or no referent to 1930s/1940s conditions (unlike the other novels she actually published at the time). In an amusing development, Christie seems to have settled on the title \\\"Cover Her Face\\\" for what we now know as Sleeping Murder, only to be unpleasantly surprised when, in the 1960s, PD James of all people published her first novel using Christie's title, so then it was back to the drawing board. Wonder if James ever found out.\\n\\nThe book is a generous gift, with something pleasing on every page. I don't think, on the other hand, that much is gained by Curran's insistence on using the original title of \\\"And Then There Were None\\\" at every turn, on the grounds that Christie preferred it. That's not good enough reason to throw it around as frequently as he does. Someone might have tried to talk him out of it.\\n\\nYes, he plunges us right into the thick of things, the moment when she thinks of a plot, and then changes it with a rub of the pen. Start with a setting--so many to choose from--too bad we never got the one behind the scenes at the department store with the models at the fashion store. Or the hospital setting (except insofar as it appears in the one act play \\\"The Patient.\\\") When she had accomplished a task, she crossed out the note for it, as one with a shopping list of grocery items might do when the item in question has been put into the cart. Curran's most counterintuitive, but ultimately reasonable editorial decision, has been to round up various Christie novels and plays, into various categories, and then discuss the notebook entries for that bunch alone. Thus there's a chapter on \\\"The Nursery Rhyme Murders,\\\" another on \\\"Murder Abroad\\\" (and on \\\"Murder Abroad\\\"). In a way it's reminiscent of the old Dodd, Mead omnibuses like Spies Among Us. But it works, in general. It is not a method Curran sticks to with much rigor, happily: there is always room in these pages for a sidebar article about how he finds the solution of, say, Murder in Mesopotamia utterly bogus. So he brings in his own readings too, he's not just a constant apologist for Christie.\\n\\nI had never heard of John Curran before the announcement that he was editing Agatha Christie's notebooks, but now I can see how and why he got to become the leading authority on Agatha Christie. I hope he will out his authority and expertise, not to mention his closeness to the Christie Estate, to the best of use, and bring to print the unpublished Christie manuscripts he has seen and evaluated.\",\n \"Product: Book by W. Somerset Maugham\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: \\\"Be happy, happy, happy\\\"\\n\\nReview: Life's too short, as we learn in Somerset Maugham, to live it compromised by ugly feeling or jealousy, and it's also too short to read all of his stories of the South Seas collected in this Volume 4 of his Collected Short Stories. (Apparently through some quirk of Amazon, reviews of any of the four volumes of his collected are given here under Volume 4, and probably under each volume too. Oh well, maybe it makes sense, but I notice that practically every other review here is for Volume 1 which must have all the anthology pieces in it.) Here I really liked two stories, The Book Bag and P & O. It's true what they say, his stories are told simply and seem like they're going to be bor-r-r-i-i-n-n-g, but by page two or three you're hooked.\\n\\n\\\"The Book-Bag\\\" is one of the most daring, since it brings up the topic of brother-sister incest. The narrator has little luggage but as if to make up for it carries around with him an enormous book-bag, like Santa's sack, and the native porters transporting it on his many island hops, curse him mightily. In Tenggarah, in Malaya, the Narrator gets out and engages a resident called Mark Featherstone and the two of them play cards at the club and drink and talk about Byron and his supposed affair with Augusta, his sister. One man leaves his cards spilled across the floor and stumbles out, and the narrator realizes, oops, I've put my foot in my mouth. He then gets to hear the story of a sister so far gone on her brother that, when he leaves her to return to England on a brief trip, goes a little nuts. I won't say what happens because it's too intense! But here Maugham approaches a Racinean intensity of sexual feeling that still leaves you seared.\\n\\nIn \\\"P & O\\\" the focus is on Mrs. Hamlyn, on her way home back to England from Yokohama, where her husband has abruptly abandoned her, not for a young flapper which might be excusable, but for a middle aged woman even older than she! Mrs. Hamlyn is hurt and bewildered, and her emotions shut down so she feels nothing. At Malaya the ship stops to pick up cargo and passengers, among them a simple Irishman called Gallagher, who soon becomes sick on the voyage--sick with hiccups. Maugham was a M.D. himself and could really work up a case of hiccups into something disastrous, and before long Gallagher is near death. The story is really all about (as I began writing) life being too short for regret. \\\"We live to be happy so short a time and we are so long dead.\\\" Mrs. Hamlyn's emotional journey is at the core of Maugham's story, but there are tremendous chills and thrills from following what apparently is a simple case of hiccuping but which soon turns into something far more sinister and chilling. Yes, this book is filled with so-called Orientalism, the mysterious ways of the East always painted as too arcane for white men to understand (or too primitive, exactly the opposite fault from the over-elaboration that Asians are elsewhere accused of). But in some stories, you really do feel the sense of culture shock when two worlds collide, each with its own set of learned responses, no world essentially any better than the other.\",\n \"Product: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof first heated up Broadway in 1955 with its gothic American story of brothers vying for their dying father's inheritance amid a whirlwind of sexuality, untethered in the person of Maggie the Cat. The play also daringly showcased the burden of sexuality repressed in the agony of her husband, Brick Pollitt. In spite of the public controversy Cat stirred up, it was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the Drama Critics Circle Award for that year. Williams, as he so often did with his plays, rewrote Cat on a Hot Tin Roof for many years-the present version was originally produced at the American Shakespeare Festival in 1974 with all the changes that made Williams finally declare the text to be definitive, and was most recently produced on Broadway in the 2003-04 season. This definitive edition also includes Williams' essay \\\"Person-to-Person,\\\" Williams' notes on the various endings, and a short chronology of the author's life. One of America's greatest living playwrights, as well as a friend and colleague of Williams, Edward Albee has written a concise introduction to the play from a playwright's perspective, examining the candor, sensuality, power, and impact of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof then and now.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: \\\"Skipper Is Dead But I'm Alive! Maggie The Cat Is Alive!\\\"\\n\\nReview: Only Williams could have gotten away with naming his hero \\\"Brick,\\\" as names were always his strong suit. He found comfort in names, and a wild exotic beauty, and even in his last faltering years was usually able to pull a final name out of his hat, something perfect. I remember seeing CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF on stage, with Elizabeth Ashley, some time before I read the play, so naturally my experience of the text is colored by Ashley's sizzling interpretation of Maggie the Cat, all hisses and feral screams. She was so strong I can barely remember who played Brick or Big Daddy in that production. I think it was Keir Dullea from DAVID AND LISA. Maybe Big Daddy was the man from the MUNSTERS TV show. What we, the audience, cared about was if Maggie was going to get her wway and triumph over all the mendacity and the \\\"no neck monsters\\\" that were swarming the plantation.\\n\\nMaggie gets angry, but mostly we value her for her tenderness. Even when she knows her husband has lost his heart over a long-gone teammate, and that he's probably gay, she never gives up the ship. She knows that without her in his corner 100 per cent, he'll give up, drown in his own sorrows. He needs her to kick his ass and bring him back to the land of the awake. She wasn't going to be an enabler, she would always discourage him from drinking from the time he got up in the morning till he passed out at night, his crutches tangled up in his boxer shorts. For Brick, drinking is a way out of his tortured memories of Skipper, the boy he loved in high school and college. Taking a drink is \\\"like a switch, clickin' off in my head. Turns the hot light off and the cool one on and all of a sudden, there's peace.\\\" Secretly the family has a plan to ship his butt off to Rainbow Hill, sort of a Betty Ford Clinic without the mercy.\\n\\nWe love Maggie trying to semaphor the truth into his thick skull by screaming, \\\"Skipper is dead but I'm alive! Maggie the Cat is alive!\\\"\",\n \"Product: Book by French, Nicci\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Scariest of All Her Books\\n\\nReview: Partly because Miranda, the decorating heroine of SECRET SMILE, is in some ways more vulnerable than this writing couple's previous heroines. She's a little bit rough and tumble and also feels loved less than her other siblings. She's vulnerable when Brendan meets her, and vulnerable when he next takes up with her sister. When Brendan does something terrible to her little brother, Troy, her anguish knows no bounds. You have to love her! Especially when she starts showing some gumption and begins, slowly at first, to fight back against the face of evil. It's always good when they start fighting back, especially when this involves putting one's clever hat on and going back to investigate the secret past of the enemy. In Brendan's case, there is no end to the horror of his being. But by this time Kerry is wise enough to deter the serpent . . .\\n\\nIt's amusing to see some of our Top 100 reviewers accidentally revealing themselves with this book. As anyone who has read the book knows, the name of one of the main characters is misspelled on the book jacket copy. Some of our reviewers, well, it doesn't look like they've read the book at all because guess what? They discuss the part of the plot that was on the book jacket using the wrong spelling of the name! Oh well, what do they say, \\\"marry in haste, repent in leisure.\\\"\",\n \"Product: Unusual book\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: A Crusader Against Racism\\n\\nReview: None of my students had ever read, or even heard of, Shirley Jackson nor her famous story \\\"The Lottery\\\" when I taught a fiction workshop in a prestigious MFA writing program eighteen months ago, so I have to believe that, with the proliferation of newer models, Shirley Jackson doesn't have the cachet she once had. Maybe Shelley Jackson has taken her place in the minds and hearts of young writers today. (Both writers grew up in the Bay Area and we are proud of them both!) Anyhow \\\"The Lottery\\\" was a big hit and many said that it reminded them of a film project that would be a good fit for disgraced movie director M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, The Village). \\\"Professor Killian, are there other Shirley Jackson stories as chilling as The Lottery?\\\" My brow furrowed. \\\"Not exactly,\\\" I admitted. \\\"She wrote some scary novels, but I can tell you're not interested in those.\\\"\\n\\nFinally one student slapped down a wellworn paperback copy of \\\"The Lottery and Other Stories\\\" onto the seminar table. \\\"Talk about a one hit wonder!\\\" he snorted. It was up to me to stand up for the other stories in the volume which, though none of them are exactly as perfect as the title piece, still carry a certain amount of resonance even sixty years later. We noticed that much of the work was written during World War II, with the consequence that men play small parts in general in these stories. It's mostly a women's world, and the women are really messed up. In \\\"The Tooth,\\\" a housewife from upstate takes the bus down to Manhattan to get a tooth seen to, and somewhere along the way she loses her mind and thinks that she has a demon lover. By the end of the tale a sordid amnesia has set in. In \\\"Pillar of Salt,\\\" another married woman goes to Manhattan and has a breakdown just from the noise and bustle of city life. You'd think an editor would have spoken to Miss Jackson pointing out the similarity between the two stories. But maybe it's a systemic failure she's pointing to--the way in which society has both denigrated women and put them up on a pedestal. And in many of the stories, it's another woman who's the enemy. Jackson attacks the casual racism and anti-Semitism of the period in that forthright 1947 fashion that we loved so much in Gentleman's Agreement and Intruder in the Dust, but on other issues, like that of identity, she seems curiously muted, perhaps convinced that human beings are constitutionally drawn towards evil and malice. So, it's not a cheerful book by any means.\\n\\nNeither is it a particularly compelling one. For some reason The New Yorker was encouraging vague markers of identification, for everyone in the book seems to have the same name and the same futile tags. This one wears a housedress, that one carries a pug dog, and that's about it, they're all pretty shadowy and prejudiced. And lost! Lost in the broken dreams of post-Fordist America.\",\n \"Product: book\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Where Angels Fear to Tread\\n\\nReview: Novelist Deacon Kane is haunted by the death of his son by drowning four years ago, and his reputation has slid in the college where he teaches creative writing and English lit, slid to a point where everyone's watching him to see if he makes it to class, which he rarely does any more. His boss, Dolan, really has it in for him. Just one thing seems to amuse Deacon Kane, his affair with a married woman, Meg, a painter with a huge house on top of Peconic Bay, who hustles him out of her bed whenever she thinks her husband might arrive, but otherwise she seems totally uncaring and absent. It isn't a good relationship, but hey, any port in a storm especially if you're a human wreck.\\n\\nMeanwhile someone is running around abducting male students (18, 19 years of age) and somehow managing to drown them in a way that leaves forensics baffled. Could these deaths be accidental?\\n\\nPossible Spoilers Ahead--Minor:\\n\\nThe police are beginning to believe that Dunk is behind them. Maybe he's gone right off the deep end. Maybe he's a serial killer with a sexual kink that forces him to re-play the tragedy of his son's drowning by casting older boys in his young son's role as victim. His frequent blackouts leave him without an alibi.\\n\\nDaniel Judson embodies this mystery within a David Lynch atmosphere of conspiracy, cover-up, immoral doings, and a mysterious giant black man who seems to be watching out for Dunk--or is he trying to kill him? Judson is great at atmosphere, and Eastern Long Island has never been portrayed more creepily.\\n\\nWhat I didn't like was the absurd plot, which depends on an extraordinary amount of coincidence. On the one hand there is a criminal mastermind with far too many helpers; on the other hand, there's a good bunch of people whose motivations are just as murky as the killers. I never cared once for Duncan Kane, and on top of everything else Judson really makes women look like monsters. That's his prerogative of course, and it does add to the noir-ish feel of his book, but by the end we all have a different idea of what he imagines the \\\"darkest place\\\" to actually be.\\n\\nFinally, when the mask is torn off the face of the killer, and the reader can't remember who he is, you're in trouble.\\n\\nOtherwise a grand read by one of the genre's best technicians.\",\n \"Product: Michael Connelly (born July 21, 1956, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American author of detective novels, notably those featuring Detective Hieronymus \\\"Harry\\\" Bosch. Bosch, named after the Dutch painter of the same name, is the protagonist of a series of Connelly's novels. The character is an LAPD detective. The Black Echo, the first book featuring Bosch, won the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Award for Best First Novel of 1992. Connelly has written other books outside the Bosch series, including Blood Work, which was made into a 2002 movie directed by and starring Clint Eastwood. In 2006, The Lincoln Lawyer was selected as one of ten books to feature in Richard and Judy's televised book club. Connelly is a graduate of the University of Florida, where he earned a bachelors degree in journalism. In addition to his books, Connelly has written for television.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Writing at a Crawl\\n\\nReview: THE CLOSERS plods, and the whole weight of the novel depends on Harry and Kiz making a choice to investigate a certain line of questioning, that takes them farther and farther away from the real killer, and in fact turns out to have absolutely nothing to do with the case. However fate is on their side. A fake newspaper story, planted to \\\"smoke out\\\" the individual they believe is their killer, instead \\\"smokes out\\\" the real killer who pretty much falls in their lap. Thus they solved the case but in an extremely slow-moving and ass-backward way.\\n\\nIn the meantime Harry keeps making mistakes, offending Kiz (who has gotten a lot more touchy for some reason) and then having to apologize to her. I used to like her, but Connelly has made her a one-woman disapproval board. All she does is sniff and look upset. Connelly has got to give her more of a story, for here all she does is first bolster, then deflate Harry's wavering confidence. Never anything helpful to the case, just her own hurt feelings. And she's no better than Harry when it comes to figuring out the cold cases.\\n\\nHarry Bosch has done this kind of work before, so I don't agree with the reviewers who accuse Connelly of jumping on the bandwagon of the current vogue for the cold case. One of the suspects in fact works as a producer for the popular CBS TV show, so Connelly might be poking fun at our sick obsession with crime. However this particular suspect gets lost in the shuffle and never actually appears in the flesh. It's as though the author forgot all about this red herring! What's going on there? It's not like the story ever goes anywhere. Harry and Kiz just try to fit Roland Mackey into their grand theory of racism and rage, and even though he doesn't fit, they still try to cram him in, like a chimp forcing a piece of a jigsaw into the rest of the puzzle by mashing it with his fists. For three hundred pages we see them do this, with poetry added, the lame poetry of \\\"We speak for the dead\\\" that strikes me as particularly unconvincing when we never see the victim up close, we're just told over and over again that her death is a tragedy.\\n\\nI love Connelly's work but I'm beginning to think that, for some reason probably connected to money, he's writing far too much. A book or more a year means, each book is getting worse and worse.\\n\\nI give this one three stars because, well, despite everything he manages to deliver a surprise at the end, and well, Harry still is one of the great creations of the roman policier.\",\n \"Product: The title of this book is a translation from the German of Das Narrenschiff, a moral allegory by Sebastian Brant. The author read it in Basel in the summer of 1932 when she had still vividly in mind the impressions of her fist voyage to Europe. She took for her own this simple almost universal image of the ship of this world on its voyage to eternity.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: \\\"Ship of Fools on a Cruel Sea\\\"\\n\\nReview: I got into SHIP OF FOOLS back in the day when I was a Deadhead and followed the band around from stadium to stadium. \\\"Ship of Fools\\\" as many know is one of their loveliest ballads and would never fail but put me in a trance. At one bookstore in the Bay Area I spotted lyricist Robert Hunter and I gathered together all my courage to approach him and to tell him how much his lyrics had meant to me and my kind. Somewhat to my surprise he asked me to name one of his songs that I loved. \\\"Ship of Fools,\\\" I said. In the years since I have sometimes wondered why I didn't ask about \\\"Row Jimmy\\\" since that is even more puzzling. But anyway Hunter couldn't have been more receptive and even charming. I asked him where he found the inspiration to write \\\"Ship of Fools\\\" and he mentioned the Renaissance or medieval tradition of the ship of fools journeying out into the main without a solid plan and how it's a metaphor for the religious voyage of life. He mentioned other works based on this legend including Lewis Carroll's \\\"The Hunting of the Snark\\\" and finally, Katherine Anne Porter's novel SHIP OF FOOLS, which he said he had read in the 1960s, close to when it came out originally.\\n\\nSHIP OF FOOLS tells the story of a group of German nationals on a boat from Bremen to the USA, and it is apparently based on a real life voyage. Jews by the boatload were attempting to escape from an atrocious abd repressive regime, and what they did not realize is that the shipboard lifestyle was a microcosm for the pains of the rest of the world. We meet dozens of characters, some more skillfully developed than others, including a young American couple through whose eyes we get to see the whole tragedy unfolding.\\n\\nThere is a tragic romance between a middle-aged countess and the ship's doctor, and a sense of foreboding about the whole voyage. The champagne and the crepe paper and the sparklers are out over the dark Atlantic, but we sense the lights going out all over the world.\\n\\nPorter worked over thirty years writing this, her only novel, and when it came out it was a commercial success and a Book of the Month Club selection, though in general the critics were disappointed that it did not hit the heights of the short stories that had made her name starting in the 1920s. Some have criticized this book as too slow and too portentous. To me it hits the right note over and over again. There is a movie version of this novel, directed by earnest, plodding Stanley Kramer, but I think if I saw it, it could not begin to compare to my experience of either the novel nor the song. \\\"Now I cannot share thy laughter, ship of fools.\\\"\",\n \"Product: Traces of blood were found in the bedroom twenty-four year-old Scott Dunn shared with his girlfriend Leisha--but there was no body, no weapon, no witnesses. Just the charmingly manipulative Leisha, and a case growing colder by the day. What no one counted on was the fierce determination of a father who was driven to find out what happened on that violent night, and why.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: The Vidocq Society Comes To The Rescue\\n\\nReview: Scott Dunn was a wiz at fixing up cars and installing stereos in them, and he took special pride in his own \\\"yellow submarine.\\\" Surely he wouldn't have left town without it? But his father, Jim, hadn't heard from him in some time. When he rang up the boy at home, a strange woman answered the phone. Thus begins the true-crime puzzler TRAIL OF BLOOD.\\n\\nPoor Scott was only 24 when he met Leisha, the sort of woman who pops up in noir movies in the late 1940s to destroy the men who loves her. Leisha was seeing a few other guys on the side, just to keep her hand in, but she hated being rejected.\\n\\nWhen Jim came to see the house she shared with Scott, he wondered why she had a big couch right over a patch of carpet and why an afghan was covering the spots the couch could not. Once you pulled up the afghan and moved the couch, you could see where a huge section of the wall-to-wall carpet had simply been hacked out. And Leisha pretended she had never noticed this before!\\n\\nLocal police and the DA said to Jim, \\\"Sorry about your son, but without a body there is no case.\\\" He was in despair until he turned on the TV and happened, just happened, to see a profile of the mysterious \\\"Vidocq Society,\\\" about which I will say no more.\\n\\nThe book tells a lot about fathers and sons and it's a sort of plea to sons to keep in better touch with their fathers, and also to fathers, it gives the wise advice that you should cherish your son while you can, he may not be with you forever.\",\n \"Product: Margaret Moos Pick is the executive producer and head writer for the Riverwalk Jazz radio series on Public Radio International, and was a founding producer of A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor. She has previously collaborated with National Pu\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory\\n\\nReview: Roald Dahl called his famous story Charlie and the Chocolate Factory after having encountered the legend of of Charles A. See, and now veteran penswoman Margaret Moos Pick tells the whole incredible story from a woman's point of view, in a book lavishly illustrated with sepia (and cocoa) colored photographs from the company archives. No Oompa Loompas here, but you will find many unusual tidbits that will amuse you and titillate your senses.\\n\\nLet Moos Pick take you into the secret factory itself, into the so-called \\\"enrobing room\\\" and right through the brain tank where Sees officials and chefs determine what the next flavor of candy shall be.\\n\\nWe've seen it all in WILLY WONKA, and to a lesser degree, remember when Dick Van Dyke drove up to the Scrumptious Candy Factory in CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG? Well, finally the inside guide to how you make candy and how you sell it, from a one room roadside stand in a lousy, Depression California, to a revolution in fine chocolate, offering everything from marzipan, mocha milk, creme de coconut, and champagne infusions that would have been illegal under Prohibition. Lucy and Ethel worked the assembly line in a Sees store, in one of the famous I LOVE LUCY episodes, find out more about it here.\\n\\nRemember, reading uses up calories! But don't spoil your weight loss program by absently stuffing handfuls of Sees candy into your mouth as you flip the pages of this diverting little truffle of a story. Add a star if you're into candy or California labor history.\",\n \"Product: Collects Batman #1, 4, 63, 73,-74, 110, 159, 163, 251, & 321, Detective Comics #168 & 475-476, World's Finest #61 & 88, Brave & the Bold #111, Joker #3, Batman Kellogg's Special, and Batman newspaper strips featuring the Joker. Introduction by Mike Gold. The 'Clown Prince of Crime' is featured in 19 classic tales by such comic book legends as Bob Kane, Carmine Infantino, Jim Aparo, Murphy Anderson, Neal Adams, Marshall Rogers, and Walt Simonson. Softcover, 288 pages, full color.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: The Clown Prince of Crime\\n\\nReview: Here the Joker in the Batman comics gets his own book, which would suit his enormous vanity down to a T. Fans are divided as to whether the \\\"Dark Knight\\\" noir side of the Batman is the only acceptable face to the comic, and in general the lighthearted camp approach of the 1960s TV show is mocked and derided today. Everyone's looking for angst, particularly in their cartoon super-heroes. And so the Joker, with his chalk-white face and his manic grin, is no longer in, though even the zaniest of the late 1950s strips portrayed him as a man mentally torn between madness and street smarts. Fans of the dark approach like the way in which, by the 1970s, the Joker was actually killing people, often in horrible ways, in place of the surprise \\\"laughing gas\\\" tricks and comic crimes he resorted to back in the day. Both tribes of fans will find plenty to like in this book.\\n\\nIt's interesting to note how literate they must have assumed their audience to be back in the 40s and 50s. One story has the Joker adopting disguises--the costumes of famous characters of comedy--to commit his crimes in. I'm not talking Lucy and Ricky here, but Mr. Micawber from David Copperfield, Pagliacci, Pickwick, and Falstaff (who invades a performance of HAMLET and makes a spectacle of himself with his lines from Henry V.) Try that one out on today's comic readers!\\n\\nThe most negligible story here is \\\"Crime-of-the-Month Club\\\" from 1957, in which The Joker tries to sell thugs his own \\\"brilliantly conceived\\\" caper plans for crimes, each one for some reason obviously tied in with particular months (April fools, June brides), in an auction pyramid scheme with some foreshadowing of the EBay of the present day. It's fluff, and it's not even good fluff. On the other end of the spectrum is the epic, Sergio Leone inspired \\\"The Joker's Five-Way Revenge\\\" from 1973, in which the Joker dispatches, one by one, five of his goons with terrifying power and real dementia, while the Batman runs always a step or two behind. It's grim, and some like them grim. I myself prefer the stories which pair the Joker with the blonde sex bomb \\\"Sparrow,\\\" and the spooky transformations of \\\"Clay-Face\\\" from earlier on in the Joker's long career. One story that didn't make it into the book, though the editors were tempted, is the one that paired Batman and the Joker with none other than Jerry Lewis. Seems to me he would have been a great movie Joker, probably better than Jack Nicholson. Nicholson has his famous \\\"killer smile,\\\" but Jerry had the real killer mind....\\n\\nMike Gold and Mark Wald supply notes that are pretty informative and the comics look good (except for their color registers). I dock the book a notch only because it's actually too much of a good thing, for after a while you get tired of the Joker, and maybe 18 or 19 stories in a row was pushing it.\",\n \"Product: A powerful human tale of turning tragedy to triumph. He offers rare insight to the emotional journey he personally experienced while being an inmate inside Alcatraz.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Prisoner: Cell Block H\\n\\nReview: I too met Darwin E. Coon during a recent trip to Alcatraz, which was brilliant. Coon sat in a shack on the pier with a young man who claimed to be his \\\"nephew.\\\" This nephew did all the talking and would occasionally nudge old Darwin, who sat beside looking stolid and bored, with his elbow, prompting him to answer some questions from a countless stream of fans who, right off the boat from the island prison, wanted to ask him a zillion questions. Apparently he found his way to the souvenir shack every Saturday so you can often meet him, shake his hand and get him to autograph a copy of ALCATRAZ THE TRUE END OF THE LINE. Otherwise he's sort of like Iron Eyes Cody, a man of few words. The nephew said to me, \\\"My uncle wants to know if you want him to sign your copy of the book with his prison number.\\\" \\\"Sure,\\\" I replied, after a glance at my companion the video artist Karla Milosevich. \\\"That number thing would be awesome.\\\" Darwin Coon took pen from nephew and scrawled his number on the front free endpaper of my book: \\\"#1422.\\\" We looked at it in awe. \\\"I had no idea the numbers were so short.\\\"\\n\\nDarwin Coon looked at me impassively as though to say, \\\"LIFE is short you little pipsqueak.\\\"\\n\\nHis book is great and tells you all about the different animals kept by the Alcatraz inmates. No other book I know goes into such detail about the different pets smuggled in by prisoners. There's a great story about Sam, the fellow who found a lizard and trained it to be his pet, and every day he would walk the lizard around the prison on a gold chain, rather like the French symbolist poet Gerald de Nerval who walked around the Luxemnbourg Gardens with a pet lobster on a leash. In Sam's case the ending was tragic, for a seagull swooped down and carried off the little lizard!\\n\\nAnother prisoner made a tiny tuxedo for his pet mouse, complete with top hat! They were like a bunch of male Beatrix Potters over there; their love of animals will warm any human hearts.\",\n \"Product: In the aftermath of the battle with Twilight's army, Buffy has developed a host of new powers, but when will the other shoe drop, and will it be a cute shoe, or an ugly one? Still reeling from the losses of war, Willow goes looking for missing allies, and discovers a horrifying truth about several of the Slayer army's recent ordeals. Adding to the mayhem is the unexpected return of Angel, in his Season Eight debut!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Never Did Figure This One Out\\n\\nReview: It took me until Volume 7, \\\"Twilight\\\" of Season Eight, to figure out which of George Jeanty's drawings was supposed to be which character. Either he got better at it, or I did, because this time around I had no problem whatsoever. Even Kennedy looks like Kennedy and I could barely remember her from the last hideous season of BTVS the TV show. And Angel really looks like Angel!\\n\\nI liked seeing them together, but yeah, why did he have to kill hundreds of her potentials and why was he rotten? Never did figure this one out, and the whole universe-reinventing-itself plot was so much like Promethea I began to appreciate Promethea in a new way.\\n\\nI did like the pure whimsy of it. So Amy, Warren, and the General show up--pure malice, right? But in an instant once their priorities have changed they're all pals again, cracking jokes and going on adventures again. I wish that somehow they had thought of a way to bring Joyce back. And also, a way for Buffy to recall that indeed, she and Angel did have their promised reunion (on the best episode of ANGEL) only Angel had to wipe out all Buffy's memories of the event otherwise, well, now I can't remember why, but it was probably to save the world on some level.\\n\\nOutside of that, TWILIGHT is great.... To me it doesn't really matter the haphazard logic of the plot, as long as they're together I'm like the fans that greeted Astaire's reunion with Ginger Rogers in the abysmal BARKLEYS OF BROADWAY, ugh.\",\n \"Product: Denice Stephenson is a special project archivist for the Peoples Temple Collection at the California Historical Society. Since 2000, she has provided assistance to researchers for family, scholarly, and media projects related to Jonestown and the Peoples Temple. She lives in San Francisco.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: The Bad and the Beautiful\\n\\nReview: This book has been lying around our place ever since we went to see a dramatization of the Peoples Temple story last year over at Berkeley Rep. The other day I picked it up and haven't stopped reading since.\\n\\nJim Jones could have been a figure of great historic importance, and the accounts in this book (and elsewhere of course) attest to an admirable, and early, anti-racism which manifested itself in many forms. The tragedy of what happened to him can never be fully explained. How did so many give up their lives to the control of one man, no matter how gifted? The testimonies of the survivors, and the voices of those who died at Guyana, are eloquent and really shine to the sharp editing skills of Denice Stephenson and the California Historical Society staff who assisted her in this project. And yet there's still no answer.\\n\\nSeems to me there are two types of person, and Jim Jones had them combined in his personality likje a hybrid. There was the man of empathy, the fellow who tries to make everyone feel at home. Marceline Jones tells the story of some poor folk, shabbily dressed, who apologized to Jones for coming into the Temple with patches. He just bowed and acknowledged them with a nod of his head, a kindly smile, and in a stage whisper he said, \\\"Just to make you feel better, I'll have you know there's a huge hole in the seat of my pants right now.\\\" And then the other man who loved the sound of his own voice even when it was ranting nonsense like over the squeaky loudspeakers of Jonestown. (Like, why name it \\\"Jonestown\\\" unless you're really looking to shore up your ego?) How did these two personalities wind up bound in the same brain?\",\n \"Product: Will be shipped from US. Used books may not include companion materials, may have some shelf wear, may contain highlighting/notes, may not include CDs or access codes. 100% money back guarantee.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: And Around And Around We Go\\n\\nReview: I'm always late to the party, but I want to give my two cents about TILT A WHIRL, which was one of the best thrillers I've read in ages. Unlike other reviewers, I didn't let the Pepto pink cover put me off, nor did its picture of a roller coaster get me down. I was hooked right away by the narrative voice of the enchanting deputy Danny Boyle, who works as everyman describing to us he breadths and lineaments of the impenetrable Officer Ceepak, truly a cop in a million. If ever there was a book made for the movies, it was this one, and I hope the author laughs all the way to the bank, he deserves it, for rarely have i been on such a wild ride. The metaphor of the \\\"tilt-a-whirl\\\" is a great one, and Grabenstein seems determined not to let us down, for every time you think you have the story in your eyesights, a violent twist in the plot will shoot you down and you have to start building up readers confidence all over again.\\n\\nFor newcomers to the book, just rest assured that everything you learn in the first fifty pages will be set absolutely upside down by page 100, and this reversal happens over and over again. There's not one but two amazing twist endings.\\n\\nThe only thing that smacked of Hollywood hokum was the remarkable and totally unbelievable scene where two of the chief villains spend twenty or so pages telling the good guys the entire plot, how they did it, right down to the smallest detail, whereas in real life they would have lawyered up right away. this always happens in the Bond movies, where one whole reel is spent with the villain bragging about his world domination plans, but in an otherwise realistic police thriller, there's no room for this kind of unreal scene.\\n\\nI can't make up my mind whether or not I think Danny and Ceepak should return. They were great in this one book, but I wonder if their strawfoot-tenderfoot act would get stale the second time around. Anyhow, this is the kind of novel that makes roller coasters redundant. Grabenstein has the kind of talent lesser writers would sell their right arms for.\",\n \"Product: Will be shipped from US. Used books may not include companion materials, may have some shelf wear, may contain highlighting/notes, may not include CDs or access codes. 100% money back guarantee.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: And Around And Around We Go\\n\\nReview: I'm always late to the party, but I want to give my two cents about TILT A WHIRL, which was one of the best thrillers I've read in ages. Unlike other reviewers, I didn't let the Pepto pink cover put me off, nor did its picture of a roller coaster get me down. I was hooked right away by the narrative voice of the enchanting deputy Danny Boyle, who works as everyman describing to us he breadths and lineaments of the impenetrable Officer Ceepak, truly a cop in a million. If ever there was a book made for the movies, it was this one, and I hope the author laughs all the way to the bank, he deserves it, for rarely have i been on such a wild ride. The metaphor of the \\\"tilt-a-whirl\\\" is a great one, and Grabenstein seems determined not to let us down, for every time you think you have the story in your eyesights, a violent twist in the plot will shoot you down and you have to start building up readers confidence all over again.\\n\\nFor newcomers to the book, just rest assured that everything you learn in the first fifty pages will be set absolutely upside down by page 100, and this reversal happens over and over again. There's not one but two amazing twist endings.\\n\\nThe only thing that smacked of Hollywood hokum was the remarkable and totally unbelievable scene where two of the chief villains spend twenty or so pages telling the good guys the entire plot, how they did it, right down to the smallest detail, whereas in real life they would have lawyered up right away. this always happens in the Bond movies, where one whole reel is spent with the villain bragging about his world domination plans, but in an otherwise realistic police thriller, there's no room for this kind of unreal scene.\\n\\nI can't make up my mind whether or not I think Danny and Ceepak should return. They were great in this one book, but I wonder if their strawfoot-tenderfoot act would get stale the second time around. Anyhow, this is the kind of novel that makes roller coasters redundant. Grabenstein has the kind of talent lesser writers would sell their right arms for.\",\n \"Product: Text: English, Norwegian (translation)\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Can I handle the seasons of my life? One woman's poignant reflections in snow covered hills.\\n\\nReview: In Liv Ullmanns memoir Changing, only a few colors stain the crystal radiance of the skies above Norway, gray, pink, white, black; someone holds the great Norwegian star for a few minutes, then lets her fall back to the rocks of Faro Island, and yet even though it hurts to be so deeply in love, and you're betraying your husband, you still feel like life is worth living. All your allegiances are to the theater, and then top the cinema of Ingmar Bergman. All the phones are rotary, yet she longs to work on stage because that is one place in which you don't hear the phone, she says. How different from today, where you can stay in touch with your daughter even if you are onstage playing one of your signature parts (in Liv Ullmanns case, she became famous as she tells us at nineteen, in a Scandinavian town beginning with a S, (I just looked it up, it was Stavanger), playing Anne Frank; and later there was her sensational success as Nora in Ibsens A Dolls House, which she takes on a long straw hat circuit trail in the Sweden of the 1960s, and Norway in the 1979s, entertaining farmers and forest rangers in run down dinner theaters that had not seen a single play for over thirty and in some cases over one hundred years.\\n\\nEverywhere the weather haunts her. The sun breaking through the snowcaps, the threat of the ground shifting beneath your feet, that moment between autumn and winter when you can see your refection in the snow covered hills. When this book came out during Americas bicentennial, it made an enormous impression on young California feminists and hedonists, who took the message of perpetual cosmic and personal shift to heart. The young Stevie Nicks took the emotional and wintry landscape of Ullmanns difficult Scandinavia and condensed this book into her signature song. Like Landslide, Ullmanns memoir is haunted by the puckish spirits of a girl child, her own child self, orphaned by a WWII accident and a beautiful, willful mother, and by her own daughter Linn, whom she gave birth to during her five year long affair with director Bergman. One or the other of the two little girls appears on nearly every page. As Stevie sings, Ive been afraid of changing, cause Ive built my life around you. Bergman was so jealous that he was the source of all of her fears and joys. He was like Lindsay Buckingham, the way Stevie writes about him in Silver Springs. Then little Linn broke the ice and made Liv see she was living in what had turned into an emotional nightmare.\\n\\nWhen she left, Liv fled to Southern California as Stevie did. Time makes us bolder, said the latter. Even children get older. Eternal changing, but one thing that did not change is Livs penchant for human depravity. She dated Henry Kissinger, and apparently thought this behavior sort of cute. She had the opportunity many times to poison the worlds most evil living man, and yet she stayed her hand. The only star who comes off looking bad in this Landslide of an autobiography is Vanessa Redgrave, like Liv a stranger in Hollywood, but otherwise an inhuman freak who is interested in Liv only if she will write her a huge check to support the cause of violent Trotskyite revolution. It was a strange era in Hollywood, one never to be repeated, a time in which these two weird, beautiful, Nordic powerhouses could each be asked to anchor a huge Hollywood musical: Redgrave the box office disappointment Camelot; Ullmann, the total disaster of the legendary Lost Horizon musical. I guess there was also Jean Seberg, weird like them, European sort of, sort of respected for her acting, and so perplexingly cast as the lead both men wanted in Paint Your Wagon. But she at any rate was from America, like our own songwriting virtuoso, the one and only Stevie Nicks. I can only say that Camelot, Lost Horizon and Paint Your Wagon would have all been improved with the casting of Nicks, who has never been given her due in American movies, nor those of any other country or planet!\",\n \"Product: Daniel Kane is currently a lecturer in American Literature at the University of East Anglia, England. He is the author of All Poets Welcome: The Lower East Side Poetry Scene in the 1960s (University of California Press), and his poems have appeared in Denver Quarterly, Exquisite Corpse, and The Hat. Born in New York City, Kane was educated at Marlboro College and has a Ph.D. from New York University.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: When poets talk together . . .\\n\\nReview: -it's not often they talk about poetry. More often than not you'll hear them gossiping about money, sex, jobs, politics, just like anybody else. It's refreshening indeed to have a whole book devoted to interviews in which the poets speak candidly about the thing only they have to share-how they wrote the poetry in the first place. Daniel Kane, the distinguished historian who wrote All Poets Welcome: The Lower East Side Poetry Scene in the 1960s, has done an admirable job first of selecting a representative group of avant-garde poets, then drawing them out, making them feel comfortable enough to speak freely about the sources and techniques of their writing. In addition, I can recommend this book to people who are curious about experimental poetry, but can't bring themselves to jump off into the deep end without a parachute. It's very user friendly, and yet at the same time, you don't get the feeling you're being talked down to. Some of the poets are quite well known (Creeley, Koch, Ashbery) while others are on the up and coming list. Even the most interviewed among them wind up saying things you've never heard before. That's the mark of a good interviewer.\",\n \"Product: Robert Buuck is a retired business executive now rekindling his long deferred interest in writing. In this his first novel, he draws on his thirty year history in the medical device industry as well as his extensive experience in the financing and staffing of early stage companies. Bob and his wife Gail are residents of Paradise Valley, Arizona and also retain a summer home in Minnesota.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Top-Notch Thriller Set in the Medical Device Industry\\n\\nReview: Robert Buucks new novel reveals him as the heir apparent of Louis Auchincloss and Jeffrey Deaver, a novelist of the business world who creates a serial killer like none other whom you have ever seen. Set largely in the USA, thought captivating sidetrips to Canada, Mexico, and Britain, The Second Profile takes us deep into the hidden world of Quanticos FBI, as well as in the strange, rarefied world of medical device companies, about which you will learn a good hundred thousand words worth, more than anyone knows except probably Stephen Hawking who by this stage, is living on them like Courtney Love lives on Nirvana residuals.\\n\\nOne manprofiler Jay Harris (I was thinking perhaps a tip of the hat to Thomas Harris creator of the worlds greatest profilers?)and two women, biblically called Martha and Marydominate the story, along with over two hundred supplementary characters, as Buuck creates a cat and mouse game you have not often seen played so well or so diplomatically. The time? It could have been yesterday, and the dates aren't always clear, but the present day of the company seems to have been in 1994 or 1995sometime before computers got to be on everyones desks. And the crimes of the serial killer stretch way back, a good fourteen years before anyone starts to notice. Buuck plays his hand slowly, like an expert croupier, but before long you are caught up in the story of a conspiracy so involved and complex only a genius could understand it all. A genius without even Google, in a book where everyone is obsessed with looking everything up. How did we ever survive? Well, crime ran rampant in an age without consistent surveillance.\\n\\nAbly edited by poet and healer Marianne Morris, The Second Profile tells the oldest story in the world, as evil attempts to overthrow good. We see innocent animals being used in experiments as mere guinea pigs. These scenes are not as graphic as I was afraid they were going to be (though they're effective all right!) We see a rowdy convention break down into a one-on-one appointment between a trained assassin and his innocent target. But who is innocent in the world of top medical device makers? Very few it seems, and the same goes for FBI hierarchy, still haunted by the spectre of J Edgar Hoover and his insane drive for personal publicity. Theres a vigilante among the suspects, dealing death to those who would violate the rights of coastal fisherman, and top scientists.\\n\\nMary Devlin is a British nurse from the lower classes whose father, Tommy, makes a heroic struggle to drag his whole family into the middle classand this in a country where posh means everything. After a happy alliance with an aristocrat, Mary loses both father and lover, comes to terms with their legacies, and secretly devotes her energies to saving animals from the death camps of medical device labs. Across the pond as you might say, beautiful Martha Landnauer similarly loses all who are dear to her in a tragic road accident, and learns how to use computers in an age so long ago that Keira Knightley was then the only other woman to know code. Martha uses her amazing tech skills to build up her late husbands firm of headhunters in the medical device field.\\n\\nAnother endearing character is the black junior reporter for the Washington Post who against all odds gets a great scoop into a FBI quest to identify a 14-year old crime wave. Young Michael Montgomery proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that a good journalism school can make even a medical device fraud scandal interesting and hire-worthy. By the end of the book he triumphs over seasoned reporters three and four times his age, and wins the affections of his crush, an FBI staffer whos gorgeous and sexy as well as Jodie Foster-esque smart.\\n\\nImpressed by this book, I hope he writes several more in which Jay Harris intuits whole profiles out of people with just a glance, or inquiring simple things like were you one of twins? I personally do not understand the art of the profiler and, to add to Harris mystique, Buuck never spells out exactly how Jay Harris does it. But we believe it, oh yes indeed. Buuck can take unlikely story elements and spin them over decades until they build a narrative trap made out of spiderweb but thick as barbed wire, into which the evil fly saunters, and then dies squirming. One of his best characters is a paid assassin who also has a grudge against the medical device industry. Im amazed so many people know about an industry about which I know nothing, particularly one that seems to do nothing but kill animals and disappoint those who implant their devices. Beside Jay, I would love to hear more adventures of Martha, Mary and Michael Montgomery, who all meet in a taut, exciting climax set around a steep railing in a Texas hotel during a wedding reception for I won't say who. Five stars for The Second Profile! A round of exotic cocktails for the man who put it all together in an unlikely combo of gore, scientific acumen, sex appeal, high fashion, hit men, J-school and suspense.\",\n \"Product: literary biography\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Entertaining, lightweight fun, especially for Anglophiles\\n\\nReview: Congratulations to Penelope Hughes-Hallett for coming up with a novel way to put together a book of historical subjects and reference--by narrowing her focus to one particular dinner, and the people who came to it, she can actually find more insight and give us a broader picture of her multiple subjects than if her canvas, like one of Haydon's, was big across as the River Thames. Haydon emerges as a provocative, vain, loveable and talented man with an incorrigbly high opinion of himself, a sort of rogue, but a heroic Englishman in the best sense. As other reviewers have noted, William Wordsworth--not usually a sparkplug of fun or dynamism--comes off terrifically well, perhaps he was a man at his best with a tableful of male peers and far away from the women who perplexed him so. I hope other cultural historians pick up on Hughes-Hallett's \\\"meal\\\" method and soon, perhaps, we will have an \\\"Immortal Lunch\\\" or \\\"Breakfast\\\" too.\",\n \"Product: Warm Bodies by Donald R. Morris\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Bring This Back To Print!\\n\\nReview: This warm-hearted comic novel about a Lieutenant (junior grade) in the peacetime US Navy of the 1950s should be back in print, it is a minor classic of its time and place. It was made into the kind of stupid Hollywood film ALL HANDS ON DECK (1961) but the book has a wonderful charm and it's filled with rueful stories about the Navy that will ring true with anyone who's ever been in the service--or been in love, because it is a pretty good love story too.\\n\\nDonald Morris went on to more sober literary chronicles, he became the author of the amazing THE WASHING OF THE SPEARS which attempted to tell the story of the Zulu's war against ther British from the Zulu point of view. It is said that Hemingway gave Morris the idea for his groundbreaking book.\\n\\nYou can see in WARM BODIES his sympathy for other races, as the most memorable character in the book is an enlisted man called S.E. (Shrieking Eagle) Garfield, a genius with hardware who refuses to speak anything but his native Chickasaw. (In the film this character was played by Buddy Hackett, who did a pretty good job but of course he wasn't Indian.)\\n\\nThe book details the plight of naval officers who aren't married, \\\"confirmed bachelors,\\\" and how they try to make themselves comfortable homes on board their ships. In one funny episode a girlfriend tries to teach Morris how to make \\\"something called beer balls.\\\" In another storyline he tries to goose the sailors into doing more chipping of rust off the hull of the ship. \\\"Chipping irons never wear out, and they never break. Sailors may surreptitiously drop them overboard, but the boatswain invariably has new ones ready. No one was ever been able to make a boatswain admit that he has run out of chipping irons. Rudolph Rush claimed that eighteen and one half per cent of the United States defense budget was spent on chipping irons.\\\"\\n\\nSince Morris wrote the book, the term \\\"Warm Bodies\\\" has passed from naval slang into the general population, but it's worth going back and seeing how he phrased it. \\\"A Warm Body is a man with at least one arm and two fingers who can pick something up when he is told to. Warm Bodies can carry boxes, count small objects, turn on lights, chip paint, and sweep.\\\" Sounds like zombies, don't they?\\n\\nPat Boone played Donald Morris in the long-ago film, and Barbara Eden played Sally Hobson, the Southern girl from Little Hominy (near Lye, Virginia) with whom he falls in love. What a book! What a great raconteur!\",\n \"Product: Collectible Back Issue Comic Boo\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Back to the Beat\\n\\nReview: The eighth season of Buffy begins with a drift across the sky, Buffy and three slayers seemingly floating through space, though Buffy is carrying what looks like a huge gun. Gun? What happened to the prohibition against slayers using firepower? Oh well she was always on her own trip anyway and answerable only to her late mother, sometimes. Whedon must have made a deal with actress Sarah Michelle Gellar, for it's her face, at least the best stab illustrator Georges Jeanty can give at it. Wonder if SMG is feeling a little, I don't know, overexposed right now? Maybe that's part of the joke about there being three doubles for Buffy, one in Rome dating the Immortal, one to come in \\\"The Chain\\\" I guess, and the other working as a decoy drawing vampire fire with her looks and general Buffy demeanor. And a fourth in Hollywood still trying for that acting career in such bombs as THE GRUDGE and SOUTHLAND TALES--the way Cordelia started out on ANGEL, a hasbeen before she really gets started!\\n\\nAnyway, Xander is directing operations and has a lovely, shy second in command, Renee, who's halfway in love with him and don't think he don't know it! What a switch from the old days when Xander still had two eyes and his virginity.\\n\\nThe main Big Bad this season is going to be some kind of military industrial thing trying to rally the American public around the concept of the Slayers as \\\"terrorists.\\\" Tall order but, to his credit, Joss is making this development more or less thinkable. They have that huge crater that used to be Sunnydale as evidence of nuclear-like power manifested by Buffy . . . And it looks like a familiar rival of Buffy and Willow's has been waiting for just this moment to resurface . . .\\n\\nBut which one? Here's a clue, the old mnemonic for remembering the spelling of \\\"arithmetic.\\\" A Rat In The House May Eat The Ice Cream!\"\n]","isConversational":false},"profile_size":{"kind":"number","value":172,"string":"172"},"task":{"kind":"string","value":"longlamp_3"},"split_kind":{"kind":"string","value":"user_based"},"id":{"kind":"number","value":1692,"string":"1,692"}}},{"rowIdx":1693,"cells":{"question_id":{"kind":"string","value":"A3QHDQK0S9JC2M"},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of \"3.0\" for a product with description \"Whisker City elastic cat pan liners prevent odors from being absorbed by your cat's Litter pan. 30 disposable pan liners.\". The summary of the review text is \"NOT my favorite pan liner so far\"."},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"not five stars because who, really, can \"love\" a llitter pan liner - just asking. however, installing ten at a time, depending how many cats you have or how messy they are, pulling up the top layer and letting the dry litter sift back down into the box is a great time and effort saver.\n\nUPDATE - I wrote the above review before opening the box and actually using this litter box liner, and IT IS NOT WHAT I WANTED. The SAME brand, with the same illustration on the box sells liners in packs of ten already nested together and, as referenced above (incorrectly for this specific liner), sifts the litter very easily until you get to the tenth one.\n\nIF I HAD paid better attention to the product description before ordering, I might have realized this was different from what I thought I was ordering - the first clue being that this box contains 30 liners, whereas the sifting ones are packaged in two groups of ten. I suppose I thought these were packaged as three groups of ten or even two groups of 15, which would be OK - but, no, it is 30 individual, single liners.\n\nOh well, live and learn - and buyer beware.\n\nI have already put a box of 20 SIFTING liners in my cart. They cost more but they're worth it."},"correct_answer":{"kind":"string","value":"not five stars because who, really, can \"love\" a llitter pan liner - just asking. however, installing ten at a time, depending how many cats you have or how messy they are, pulling up the top layer and letting the dry litter sift back down into the box is a great time and effort saver.\n\nUPDATE - I wrote the above review before opening the box and actually using this litter box liner, and IT IS NOT WHAT I WANTED. The SAME brand, with the same illustration on the box sells liners in packs of ten already nested together and, as referenced above (incorrectly for this specific liner), sifts the litter very easily until you get to the tenth one.\n\nIF I HAD paid better attention to the product description before ordering, I might have realized this was different from what I thought I was ordering - the first clue being that this box contains 30 liners, whereas the sifting ones are packaged in two groups of ten. I suppose I thought these were packaged as three groups of ten or even two groups of 15, which would be OK - but, no, it is 30 individual, single liners.\n\nOh well, live and learn - and buyer beware.\n\nI have already put a box of 20 SIFTING liners in my cart. They cost more but they're worth it."},"documents":{"kind":"list like","value":["Product: This item is Performix 11603-6 Synthetic Plasti-Dip Rubber Coating, 14.5 oz Can, Black . Used for Construction - Concrete & Metal Tools, Dyes & Sealants. The produt is manufactured in United States.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: I use a lot of this stuff\n\nReview: My hobby is making walking sticks out of pruned and fallen branches and post them for sale on Etsy. Often, a standard size cane will not fit on the end of the stick, so I solved the problem with this wonderful rubberized dip. I have been getting one can as needed at the hardware star whenever I got low, but somebody told me that the makers were going to DISCONTINUE BLACK!!! I was alarmed enough at this possibility that I ordered five cans from amazon. I do not want to put red, blue, or yellow tips on my walking sticks ... I want black, period. I will continue to buy new cans as I need them and swap out with my stash to keep it fresh, but if the worst ever happens, I am out of luck. Hence only four stars.","Product: Bias Tape Maker makes the task of making bias tapes easy with a great looking result. Create your own bias tapes in minutes. Perfect for Celtic Quilting; binding and more. Available in 5 different sizes (each sold separately).\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: I may get a larger one\n\nReview: I clicked four stars because it is better than \"OK\" but I would not say I love it. I never had one before, and have been folding my bias strips manually, which was time consuming and a bit cumbersome. IT HELPED me to use an inch-wide strip of heavy paper to get the folds straight and even. The first time I used this I was pleased, but because I make A LOT of bias tape, I've had opportunity to run into a few glitches - some of which were corrected by reverting to my inch-wide strip of heavy paper - not exactly progress.\n\nHere are two of the issues that I have with this device that can be problematic.\n\nONE is the seams. When you sew two-inch strips of fabric together end to end, to fold into half-inch bias tape, the first step is to fold in the edges, iron, then fold that strip in half. That's all there is to making bias tape. Before taking that first step, I like to iron open all of the seams in the strip, which makes the final tape less bulky around the seam areas. Since you insert the end of the strip into this device and pull it through, it does not like open seams; they tend to bunch up. It wants all the seams to be pressed away from the direction you are pulling the fabric. Hence, more bulk than necessary where two pieces of fabric meet. Maybe not a problem with long strips of the same color, but when the effect you are working for is a colorful patchwork with many short pieces, it can be an issue.\n\nIssue TWO is that this works best with a certain weight of smooth fabric. As I am using a variety of colors in my tape, not all the fabrics are the same weight. If it is too thick, it does not pull easily through the device. If it is too thin, the fabric can be too relaxed and may twist in on itself halfway through and come out in a gnarled mess. It may or may not be possible to correct the problem by backing up into a section that was already done (as long as you don't run into a seam, that is) and ironing out (with a little spray starch) the part that got messed up and trying it again very slowly. Sometimes you have to just get past the rough spot and straighten it out manually - using the old inch-wide strip of heavy paper comes in handy for that.\n\nA third issue is maybe not a problem, but you are constrained with this device to the specific measurements it was created for - so if you wanted your bias tape to be, say, five-eights instead of a half inch you'd still have to do that manually. They do make these in other sizes of course, but if you are designing something with nonstandard measurements, your creativity is restricted.","Product: Bias Tape Maker makes the task of making bias tapes easy with a great looking result. Create your own bias tapes in minutes. Perfect for Celtic Quilting; binding and more. Available in 5 different sizes (each sold separately).\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: I may get a larger one\n\nReview: I clicked four stars because it is better than \"OK\" but I would not say I love it. I never had one before, and have been folding my bias strips manually, which was time consuming and a bit cumbersome. IT HELPED me to use an inch-wide strip of heavy paper to get the folds straight and even. The first time I used this I was pleased, but because I make A LOT of bias tape, I've had opportunity to run into a few glitches - some of which were corrected by reverting to my inch-wide strip of heavy paper - not exactly progress.\n\nHere are two of the issues that I have with this device that can be problematic.\n\nONE is the seams. When you sew two-inch strips of fabric together end to end, to fold into half-inch bias tape, the first step is to fold in the edges, iron, then fold that strip in half. That's all there is to making bias tape. Before taking that first step, I like to iron open all of the seams in the strip, which makes the final tape less bulky around the seam areas. Since you insert the end of the strip into this device and pull it through, it does not like open seams; they tend to bunch up. It wants all the seams to be pressed away from the direction you are pulling the fabric. Hence, more bulk than necessary where two pieces of fabric meet. Maybe not a problem with long strips of the same color, but when the effect you are working for is a colorful patchwork with many short pieces, it can be an issue.\n\nIssue TWO is that this works best with a certain weight of smooth fabric. As I am using a variety of colors in my tape, not all the fabrics are the same weight. If it is too thick, it does not pull easily through the device. If it is too thin, the fabric can be too relaxed and may twist in on itself halfway through and come out in a gnarled mess. It may or may not be possible to correct the problem by backing up into a section that was already done (as long as you don't run into a seam, that is) and ironing out (with a little spray starch) the part that got messed up and trying it again very slowly. Sometimes you have to just get past the rough spot and straighten it out manually - using the old inch-wide strip of heavy paper comes in handy for that.\n\nA third issue is maybe not a problem, but you are constrained with this device to the specific measurements it was created for - so if you wanted your bias tape to be, say, five-eights instead of a half inch you'd still have to do that manually. They do make these in other sizes of course, but if you are designing something with nonstandard measurements, your creativity is restricted.","Product: TANDY LEATHER FACTORY-Waxed Metallic Cord. Add some color and extra fun to your leather craft projects with this high quality; heavy duty braided cord. This cord is also fantastic for making friendship bracelets. Spool contains 25 yds. Imported.\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: Appearances can be deceiving\n\nReview: oh my goodness, I certainly would NOT have shelled out almost twelve bucks (including S&H) for this itty-bitty spool of \"braided cord\" if I'd had any idea that the image shown above is slightly larger than the actual spool in my hand. I have been looking for and working with braided macrame cord of much larger dimensions and, so, was expecting something a bit more substantial than string or thread. I was shocked when I opened it. Am contemplating whether there is any use to which I can put this product but, what with various looming obligations, I don't really have the time or energy to consider it for a while. Hope I can make my mind up before it is too late to return it.","Product: Chartpak AD Marker, Tri-Nib, Blender (Colorless) is a professional, xylene-based marker for art and design. The Tri-Nib permanent marker blends and transfers on paper, acrylic, ceramic, egg shell and more. This colorless blender creates unique colors, transfers images and produces watercolor-like effects with colored pencil, graphite and charcoal. Use with AD Marker's The 130 rich, vibrant colors that perfect for blending and shading, and won't streak or feather. Non-toxic, conforms to ASTM D 4236. Made in USA.\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: It does not \"blend\" as I had hoped it would\n\nReview: I really thought there would be a softening of the pencil strokes into an actual blending effect, but it really did not do much more than just intensify the saturation of the colors. I will attach a picture I did as an example - where there were numerous colors overlaid into the upholstery fabric in the drawing of a chair; I applied the \"blender\" in hopes of actually seeing a blended effect but, as I said, it did not do that. Not that I am unhappy with my final result but, now that I know what this product won'd do, I will keep it in reserve for when I want to use it for color saturation, and I doubt that I will ever try it or any other so-called blending marker to achieve a blended effect.","Product: IRIS-Nylon Crochet Thread. This nylon crochet thread has a lustre and twist unlike any other product. It produces fantastic stitch definition as well as a hand with full but flexible body. Nylon's key attributes are shine; durability; and receptiveness to dyes producing vivid colors! This nylon is perfect for crochet and knitting purses; totes; placemats; home decor items; cell holders; flowers and more. Package contains 1 spool of 100% nylon thread; 197 yards; available in many colors. Care: machine wash (max temp is 104F/40C); tumble dry low or dry flat; do not bleach; do not iron; dry cleanable. Imported.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: This is my second experience with Iris\n\nReview: I have made two handbags now with this yarn and left a review for the first one that I made with the green color. It took two spools to complete and I did not even check the dye lot when they arrived because I ASSUMED (yes, I know) they would send me two skeins that matched. Well, they didn't, and I did not even realize until after the project was completed that parts of the bag were not quite the same shade - very close, mind you, and most people won't notice, but it is very obvious to me.\n\nBut I liked well enough how the product works to order another two skeins in a neutral color, AND I made sure when they arrived they were the same dye lot. My second bag did not use up all of both skeins, so I still have a little left - but I LOVE the bag I made with it and the color is something I can use every day.\n\nIt is hard to call this crochet \"thread\" because I am used to using fine, doily-appropriate thread with a 1 to 2 mm hook, and this is thick enough to use a size D or F hook, so I think of it as more of a 3-ply cord. Whatever you call it, it is silky smooth going through your fingers and works up very nicely. The cut ends tend to fray, so I tie 2 knots close together and cut between them. However, the fraying can actually be useful if you want to separate the three strands to use one to thread a large-eyed needle for sewing your crocheted pieces together\n\nIf I ever want to crochet another purse, I will probably order this product again - and if you order multiple spools, just be sure they are the same dye lot before removing the wrapper.","Product: Used in this video tutorial:. How to Use a Jump Ring Maker. . Creating your own jump rings is a matter of having a precisely measured mandrel and a method to quickly and easily wrap your wire around it. The Beadalon Jump Ring Maker features an acrylic base and interchangeable mandrels. Choose your size and screw the mandrel into the base. Insert one end of the wire into the small hole in base. Bend wire to secure it and then wrap it around the mandrel. Carefully remove coils and cut evenly with sharp flush cutters. Create jump rings with any wire you choose, including colored craft wire. Instructions are clearly printed on the back of each package. This kit will make jump rings in the following sizes: 10mm, 12mm, 14mm, and 16mm. 1 Complete kit.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Not quite three, maybe two and a half stars\n\nReview: The concept is OK, and it's easy enough to figure out how to use it but, seriously, you can find an endless supply of cylindrical things around the house in varying sizes that you can use much more easily to the same effect. The rods that are included come in four sizes, one almost too big to be practical for jump rings, but you can use larger diameter wire coils for other functions, so it's OK; however, there should be a size or two smaller than the smallest one here. I happen to have aluminum crochet hooks in a variety of sizes, which I find perfect for wrapping wire to use as jump rings. Even ball pens and round pencils will do just fine. If you like toys and gimmicks, order this - otherwise apply this money to something more useful.","Product: Iris-Nylon Crochet Thread has a luster and twist unlike any other product. It produces fantastic stitch definition as well as a hand with full but flexible body. Nylon's key attributes are shine, durability and receptiveness to dyes producing vivid colors. This nylon is perfect for crochet and kitting apparel, totes, purses, belts, jewelry, home decor items, placemats and much more. This package contains one #2 spool of 100% nylon, 300 yards. Available in parakeet color. Each sold separately. Care: machine wash (maximum temperature 104F/40C) tumble dry low or dry flat do not bleach do not iron dry cleanable. It is an imported product.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Wish I'd read the reviews\n\nReview: The gauge of this is way finer than I wanted for the project that I ordered it for, so I have to go elsewhere to find something suitable. That said, it is a lovely color with a great texture, and a hardness to the fiber that gives it a sheen. IF YOU ARE USED TO working with size 10 crochet thread, you might like this. I made myself a bracelet, using a 1 mm crochet hook (pic attached). There should have been no confusion as to the size of the thread - the photo presented for the product just shows a spool of thread, string, cord, yarn or whatever you want to call it, with nothing to compare it with size-wise. I took away one star becaus the color is not correctly represented - the actual thread is quite a bit darker than shown. TO BE FAIR, this is actually a difficult color to capture in pictures - I have tried very hard in the past with other teal/turquoise projects, and photographing it always washes it out to a still attractive but paler hue. I took away the second star because the shipping charge is PER SPOOL, effectively doubling the cost of the order... I would have ordered more but for that (and, considering it was the wrong size, they actually did me a favor). NOW I see that they have upped the price of the yarn and eliminated the shipping, so I may or may not try it again - in checking out this information I see that Red Heart now also has a nylon crochet thread on offer - the spool is only 100 yards, so will have to give the entire issue more thought.","Product: Word Slinger is packed with bonuses and power-ups! Take advantage of word and score multiplying power-ups as well as Discard and Hint Accumulators. You'll find them placed randomly on the game board, so carefully craft your web of words to earn extra points and pass levels with greater ease. Fit for puzzle game and word game lovers alike, Word Slinger will have you hooked!\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: I USED TO love this game - OK I still do\n\nReview: I played it on my Mac PowerBook - now I can't any more because it only likes windows. I agree with the reviewer that there ARE inappropriate words in it - that is to say things that are not really words, but other than that it was fun to play and quite addictive. I MISS IT. I really hate that something I liked so much has been taken away.\n\nUPDATE - I just left a long comment in lieu of amending my review - but decided to revise it anyway - upping the star rating to 4 because I was able to buy and to download the game - not on my own (mac) computer but onto a friend's PC that I have access to.\n\nI HAD asked whether it could play on an Android tablet - and many nice people respond, only to say they had no idea, as they play it on a pc ... so I still do not know if it will play on my non-Mac tablet which apparently is also not a pc - it's just a smart something, and I won't take a chance on trying to load a game that might make it crash. But as long as my BF will let me play on his pc, I am happy.\n\nThe reason I don't give this game a 5-star rating, as much as I love it, is because if it's dicey dictionary - as if it were developed for English speakers by non-English speakers who apparently just make up words for the game and reject many actual, real, and legitimate words that can be found in countless common sources. Once you give up getting frustrated over the nonsense made-up words and moaning over the exclusion of many real ones, and just accept that what you see is what you get, it is still a lot of fun to play. But I still cannot give top stars to the questionable source of playable words for this game.","Product: The Kuhn Rikon Slim Safety LidLifter safely and easily removes lids, leaving a smooth edge that is suitable for resealing with a plastic lid (dog and cat food cans, coffee cans). The can opener is made of 18/8 stainless steel with a polished finish and the turn knob is comfortable to hold and turns easily. It cuts from the side leaving the rim smooth, not sharp or jagged. The tiny jaws of the exclusive Lid Gripper clamp onto the lid rim and lifts off the top. The turn knob is of a durable soft rubber so it is comfortable to hold and turns easily. Slim design for convenient storage.\n\nRating: 1.0\n\nSummary: Still have not been able to open a can with it\n\nReview: My previous lid remover worked just fine from the get-go, and it eventually dulled from use so that I had to resort to a regular can opener to finish the job when it just could not get there. MIND YOU, I did not grab any old can just to test this out as soon as it arrived; I waited (logically, I thought) for an appropriate occasion, but on the first attempt, I was holding the thing wrong way around and, being hungry, just said oh the heck with it and used a can opener to get at my food. Some time later, another can presented itself, so I studied this product and discovered directions for its use stamped into the plastic inside the handles. Understanding my earlier mistake, I followed the directions and operated the device correctly; however, it failed to engage the rim of the can and I, again, had to resort to a can opener. I would like to return it if it is not too late, only I no longer have the paperwork or the packaging that it came with, so I guess I am stuck.","Product: Charming floral printscombined with paisleys create this intricate patchwork quilt set.Antique Chic features100% cotton and is finely quilted with a vintage rosebound edge and back.Reversable. Oversized for better coverage on todays deeper mattresses. Each set includes Quilt and two pillow shams (one sham per Twin set). King set includes two King-sized pillow shams. Dimensions: Twin Quilt: 68x88. Full/Queen Quilt: 90x90. King Quilt: 105x95. Standard Sham: 20x36. King Sham (included in King Quilt Set): 20x36.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: JUST what I wanted!\n\nReview: This arrived today, and the bed it is intended for won't even be delivered for another week, but I thought I should take the precaution of taking it out of its packaging to spread out for airing ... I am fairly sensitive to dyes and chemical smells, and almost anything new has to breathe a while before it is companionable, right? As far as the review that said the colors were not bright enough, well I had specifically noted the word \"antique\" in the title, so I think the tones are perfectly done ... very antique like. This is a total departure from what I have been using and I cannot wait for my new bed to arrive (tempurpedic cloud supreme, by the way) and dress it up with its new finery.","Product: Solar-powered decorating lights - no outlet needed. Now decorate anywhere without dangerous extension cords or need for an outlet. Sun charges string of 100 lights by day, turn on automatically at dusk and run for about eight hours. No energy cost. Great near road, around mailbox or lamp post - now you're not limited to near by outlets. 35' length.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: LOVE 'em - when they work\n\nReview: I have this string wrapped up and down on a trellis over my back gate. It is lovely when it is working. Problem is that the back-up AA battery is good for only a few days and the lights die again. I cannot afford an endless supply of AA batteries. I have another string of different lights along my fence, and they have been running fine on the same battery for almost a year. Must be something wrong with this string, but i have had them too long to return them.\n\nUpgraded from 3 stars to 5, cuz I really do love these lights. Another AA battery bit the dust after working for a day, and I put another one in today, and it did not work at all. SO I took a little soft 400-grit sandpaper (also bought here on amazon) and guess what ... IT WORKS! It will be interesting to see now how long it keeps up, but I'm happy.","Product: Stand It, Store It & Go This case sports a simple and classy design made from synthetic leather, and the interior is lined with non-scratch material so you don't need to worry about any damages. Simply insert your Kindle Fire in the open pocket and secure it in place with the velcro flap. There is also a magnetic strip built inside for a secure closure. Because the cover is uniquely designed to flip back and transform the case into a comfortable viewing stand, this capability allows the viewer to use the Kindle Fire hands-free whatever your position may be without strain. All features of the Kindle Fire are accessible even with the case on. Specifically designed for the Original Kindle Fire 1st Generation tablet 2011 release.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Well, I love purple.\n\nReview: Seems like reviews are lumped together here that were written for other than the product I bought - some stating that the writers loves green - which my cover is not. I bought \"FINTIE (Purple) Slim Fit Folio Stand Leather Case for Amazon Kindle Fire 7\" \" and what I got is just what I ordered. It seems well enough made and it will do the job. I am confused about the little hole in the frame (lower left when configured as a horizontal stand) - I can presume only that it is for a camera, which my 7\" LCD does not have - no problem, the hole will not bother me ... much. The elastic tab for a stylus is OK, too - though I don't have one of those either ... but if I ever get one, I'm ready for it. Other reviews mention a whole range of products that my cover did not come with, so I cannot address those. Bottom line is I like the cover. I might give it a fifth star if it came with a detachable neck or shoulder strap for hands-free listening when I am out and about.","Product: Novel Box Premium Glass Top Display boxes are designed to help showcase and portray items so they stand out. Made with real glass, all of our Black Leatherette boxes come with metal clasps in the front and metal hinges in the back. Their compact size makes them ideal for travel and the metal latch keeps your items in a secure atmosphere free from dust. Depending on the item you want to display, we offer our glass top display boxes in 2 different sizes. Large: 14.75\" X 8.25\" X 2.1\" and Half-Size: 8.25\" X 7.25\" X 2\" with ring inserts available in 7 colors - Black (Large and Half Size), White, Blue, Burgundy, Red, Pink and Gray. The ring foam pads are topped with plush felt and can hold small and large rings as well as cufflinks. These display boxes and ring inserts are great for personal use and showcasing jewelry. Trays can be easily removed and placed on a countertop for better display. The Glass Top Box can also be purchased separately or with gem/jar/specimen inserts. Please see our other Amazon listings to purchase these separately. The Glass Top Box can also be purchased separately or with gem/jar/specimen inserts. Please see our other Amazon listings to purchase these separately.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: just what i wanted\n\nReview: i have so many rings scattered about and really needed one nice storage case. the glass top allows me to see what's in the box without opening it. on the plus side, i can also place a couple bracelets or necklaces on top of the foam. on the minus side, and the reason i did not give this item five stars, is the bed is just one flat piece of black foam with slices in it which are hard to see when trying to find a slot to stick a ring into. i might consider finding a square of velvet fabric to tuck down into the slots to make rounded ridges - if the thing had come that way, it probably would have cost a lot more. in the meantime, however, it does its job more than adequately.","Product: Ahhhhh, Dansko. There you go again. Doing your all-day comfort thing. Making us feel so good on our feet. With excellent arch support and legendary comfort, you let us stand longer than ever. And with great styles in a range of heel heights, you have us feeling all tingly inside, just like the day we first met. When wife and husband team, Mandy Cabot and Peter Kjellerup discovered the world's most comfortable shoe in a tiny shop in Denmark in 1990, they just had to bring some home for their friends. When their friends tried them on, they told their friends. And just like that, a shoe company was born. Now Dansko not only sells their original clogs, but also heels, boots, sandals, wedges and flats too! Every style features the Dansko DNA - materials and construction carefully selected to promote good foot, leg and back health, so that you can stand better, for longer. Say goodbye to choosing between looking good and feeling good. And say hello to having it all.\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: 2 stars for style, minus 3 for fit\n\nReview: I have plantar fasciitis, and my podiatrist told me no more sandals, I must wear supportive shoes with an enclosed heel. Shoes that tie are easier to get my foot into than are slip-ons, and I have been wearing my bulky trainers, which are inelegant, but supportive and comfortable. I wanted a slightly more good looking shoe for dressier casual situations than my dirty old athletic shoes. These look so cute in the ad, and they were beautiful in the box. As soon as I put them on my feet, they felt very comfortable ... aside from being incredibly heavy. My foot loved being inside this shoe - until, that is, I stood up. Ouch. I wore them for about a half an hour, inside my carpeted house, hoping to get used to them - I figured fabric would give a bit, and conform to the shape of my foot. Perhaps a half hour was not a fair enough trial, but I could not stand having them on any longer. I have worn the European size 38, or equivalent, almost all my adult life, but the fit of these shoes is very awkward. The toe box is too narrow, the heal bed is too wide - and too shallow - and I perceived almost no arch support. The rubber-looking sole, which I had hoped would add a bit of a spring to my step, is solid as a rock, and as comfortable to walk on.\n\nI was supposed to get this item by Wednesday, Sept 19, and I had planned to wear the shoes with an outfit for an occasion on Thursday, Sept. 20: well, the package was delivered on schedule, but I had to wear other shoes with my outfit, because I dared not walk out my front door with these on my feet. I did SO want to love these shoes, as I wear a lot of light denim and chambray, and they would go with just about everything. Alas, I have already printed out the return shipping labels and repackaged them exactly as they were when received. Bye-bye, Dansko ... lesson learned.","Product: Skechers is an award-winning global leader in the lifestyle footwear industry that designs, develops, and markets lifestyle footwear that appeals to trend-savvy men, women and children. The company's success stems from it's high quality, diversified, and affordable product line that meets consumers' various lifestyle needs. Since it's inception in 1992, the Skechers diverse product offering has grown from utility style boots to include seven Skechers brands and five uniquely branded fashion lines for men and women.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Skechers is becoming my favorite shoe brand\n\nReview: I have plantar fasciitis, and my podiatrist told me no more going barefoot, no more sandals, flip flops, or clogs. He said I need to wear a supportive, closed shoe. That gave me an excuse to go shoe shopping on my way home. I of course had plenty of shoes, closed and open, but all my closed shoes have laces, and I am not going to be bothered stopping to tie my shoes every time I go out - or even walk around in the house - when I am in my easy chair, I kick my shoes off and put my feet up on the ottoman. SO. I needed to find a comfortable closed shoe that I can just slip in and out of. I must have tried on a dozen or more pair at a shoe store before narrowing the comfortable shoes down to two styles ... this one and one that required a shoe horn to get my foot into. Well, you can probably guess which one I chose (or I would not be writing this review now, would I.)\n\nThe pair I bought at the store was in the color called \"Natural,\" and, when I got home, I decided a second pair would be in order so that I may alternate and not have to wear the same shoe day after day. So I ordered these black ones from Amazon. With Prime, I was amazed at how quickly they arrived, and now am happily wearing the black ones - which, I was happy to find, are as comfortable as the pair I bought in the store after being able to try them on and walk around.\n\nI have a wide foot, and these are marked M for medium, but the fit me fine. I gave them four stars instead of five because I do not find them particularly attractive ... although the Rose pair is kind of cute; maybe I should put them in my shopping cart. Do I need three pairs of these?","Product: Plot\nAnne Bancroft stars as a restless, twice-married British woman with six children, whose third husband is a fledgling screenwriter (Peter Finch). When success spins Finch's head around, he begins to dally with women other than his wife. Meanwhile, Bancroft is forced to stay home and play \"domestic goddess\", a role for which she is utterly unsuited. After suffering a nervous breakdown, Bancroft wanders the streets of London in a vain search for a sympathetic ear. She eventually comes to grips with the situation at hand--but as in most of playwright Harold Pinter's works, the characters of The Pumpkin Eater are just as unfulfilled in the last scene as they were in the first. Anne Bancroft won a Cannes Film Festival award for her performance in this film.\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: Great actress in a horrid story\n\nReview: What I find most depressing about this 1964 film is that it would seem to be an accurate portrayal of a situation that was probably considered believable at the time, as far as the concept of \"family\" is concerned. I was 22 years old when the movie was made and, in my youth, the grown-ups did their thing, and their children were treated as something like a necessary evil, to be dealt with by nannies or shipped off to boarding school. Even for people who couldn't afford those niceties, most families were not of the \"Father Knows Best\" or \"Leave It to Beaver\" variety. \"Children should be seen and not heard\" was more the philosophy of the day. This movie emphasizes that, with a woman who was considered more than a little bit unbalanced because she wanted to keep having more children all the time. Obviously, there was not sufficient communication and cooperation between the wife and husband about family size, etc., but that, too, seems to have been accepted as the norm for the day.\n\nContrast the whole concept of the story with the present day, with children being treated as an integral part of the family unit, even to the point of being consulted in family decisions. This story is a bleak look back into time. This is not to say that people today aren't cruel to each other, but I would hope that the woman would grow a backbone, take her kids, and get a big divorce settlement from the philandering jackass.","Product: Can be used as:phone holder/Eco friendly 100%,safe,durable and easy to use Supper value, content1 pcs in a package\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: First, it's too short\n\nReview: I don't believe that my windshield slopes at a much greater angle than anyone else's, but affixing this to the glass far enough down so as to obstruct the least amount of view of the road still puts the item it is holding at a just barely reachable distance when I am driving. I am using it to hold my GPS but, as another reviewer mentiond, the clamp-style grip will hold just about anything, camera, gps, whatever. That said, I can deal with the distance - it's a bit awkward, and another inch or two would be better, but it is usable. Bigger problem is that the socket where the grip fits onto the ball joint at the end of the arm does not fit snugly enough for a secure hold. It might stay in place if my car stood still all the time, but it has a tendency to drift to one side or the other when I turn a corner. I think I can come up with a way to insert something in the loose space to make it more snug so, all in all, the product is OK - just not perfect, or even as good as it should be - so I don't love it or even like it all that much but, as the definition of three stars indicates, it is OK.","Product: This versatile pack of 150 printable cards is wonderful for designing and printing your own sales & marketing collateral, flash cards, recipes, coupons, RSVP cards, decorative post cards and more. These blank index cards are unlined, ready for whatever destiny you have planned for them. They are ideal for the classroom, homework, studying, filing and contact information cards. A micro-perforated design makes them quick and easy to separate, so you can maximize your productivity at your workplace, classroom or home. Choose from the thousands of free templates and designs at avery.com/templates to add attention-grabbing text and graphics to both sides of your blank index card, and then print them out on your laser or inkjet printer for exceptional smudge and jam-free results. Convenient, easy-to-use and endlessly customizable, these unruled index cards are an unbeatable choice for an all-purpose printable card.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Just what i wanted\n\nReview: I needed to print index cards to keep membership records for a club (of 120 members) and I went to a well-known chain office supply store to pick up a package, which probably would have bee available for the standard cost of $24.50. Of all the AVERY products on the shelves of this story, wouldn't you know - the only item they do not carry is this one. The sales clerk offered to order a package for me but I said NO THANK YOU VERY MUCH - I WILL ORDER MY OWN FROM AMAZON, which I did and saved myself about ten bucks in the process. With the Prime free shipping, I received them in no time, and they are all printed and ready for the membership chairperson to do her thing.\n\nThe printing went very smoothly. I used the avery label preset for the item number and created a 4-page document for printing, 3 labels per page, and made each page a different color - to conserve my ink supply of any particular color, as well as to keep working with the cards from being boring. I rear loaded my printer (though the cards would probably have fed through the bed just as well but why take chances) and they went through like a charm, no snags. Breaking off the edges and separating the cards was literally a snap. WILL order again.","Product: Here is a way to hang lightweight items in your store, studio or home. Just peel the backing paper from one side of this hang tab and apply it to your object. It will stick firmly and allow you to keep products visible and neat. The 1-1/4\" slot is triangular shape so that you can hang your object from a nail or a wide hook such as a double pegboard hook and it will always hang straight. Made of a semi-rigid, heavy-duty plastic it will not tear and will provide an almost invisible display hanger. It measures 1-3/4\" square and provides a generous adhesive surface for a positive grip. This offer is for a lot of 250 brand new hang tabs. For hundreds more craft, art and hobby products be sure to visit our Amazon Storefront. We have the creative component you need.\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: I was hoping for better\n\nReview: I loved these at first, and hung a number of light-weight items (specifically, 12- and 10-inch round pieces of wood that I had painted) all over my walls. They actually stayed up for several weeks, giving me hope that I could sell my art pieces ready to hang with this product - but all of a sudden they have all started dropping all over the place. The 12-inchers went first and then, once they were all down, the 10-inch pieces dropped so that there are now only two of them left on the wall - and one of them was the first to drop off, leaving the hangar on the nail, and I stuck it back on and hung it up again, and it is still there. ANYway, it is clear that these are not reliable for anything you care about.","Product: Uses proven ultraviolet light technology to attract & kill a wide range of flying insects. 15 watts of UV light excites insects and lures them into the electric grid where they are killed and fall to the ground. The innovative flat panel design has 50% more kill area & reduces clogging. It can also be used with Mosquito Octanol Lure to increase the attractant of mosquitoes & biting flies. It's safe, clean and easy to use - no tanks, bags or mess to manage. Outer enclosure prevents children, pets, birds & wildlife from contacting the electric grid. Effective coverage for up to 1/2 acre. Made from durable, weather-proof plastic for years of dependable service. For outdoor use only.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Well, it IS actually lethal - if anyone was wondering.\n\nReview: First off, I got mine at Walmart for $25. Had seen it on amazon and was not too keen on it because of the reviews but bought it anyway because it was $25 and it was the only one they had. The box brags \"New Design Is Quiet - No Loud Zapping\" which is a bummer because we've kinda been enjoying the zappy noises coming from my neighbor's backyard and were looking forward to some of the same, but it's true, and I have not heard the first sound out of it.\n\nNot even sure if it was working (so quiet, you know), I put something white underneath it and found a few bugs underneath it the next morning. But if anybody has doubts about the efficiency of the grid, I gotta tell ya, there is a poor dead lizard hanging out of my zapper whose tail got in thru the grill and touched the grid, and it fried his back half. I thought the little guy was just being cagey, waiting quietly for the bug lure to bring him some tasty treats but, when he had not moved a muscle after a few hours, I looked closer and thought \"awwww[...]\" I would not recommend sticking fingers or anything in to see if the juice is on. Now I have to go out and clean the darned thing ... or maybe after a while the corpse will attract more bugs: decisions, decisions.\n\nAnyway, at least I am satisfied now that the zapper works. How long it will work is another matter; I only got it a couple of weeks ago.","Product: Uses proven ultraviolet light technology to attract & kill a wide range of flying insects. 15 watts of UV light excites insects and lures them into the electric grid where they are killed and fall to the ground. The innovative flat panel design has 50% more kill area & reduces clogging. It can also be used with Mosquito Octanol Lure to increase the attractant of mosquitoes & biting flies. It's safe, clean and easy to use - no tanks, bags or mess to manage. Outer enclosure prevents children, pets, birds & wildlife from contacting the electric grid. Effective coverage for up to 1/2 acre. Made from durable, weather-proof plastic for years of dependable service. For outdoor use only.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Well, it IS actually lethal - if anyone was wondering.\n\nReview: First off, I got mine at Walmart for $25. Had seen it on amazon and was not too keen on it because of the reviews but bought it anyway because it was $25 and it was the only one they had. The box brags \"New Design Is Quiet - No Loud Zapping\" which is a bummer because we've kinda been enjoying the zappy noises coming from my neighbor's backyard and were looking forward to some of the same, but it's true, and I have not heard the first sound out of it.\n\nNot even sure if it was working (so quiet, you know), I put something white underneath it and found a few bugs underneath it the next morning. But if anybody has doubts about the efficiency of the grid, I gotta tell ya, there is a poor dead lizard hanging out of my zapper whose tail got in thru the grill and touched the grid, and it fried his back half. I thought the little guy was just being cagey, waiting quietly for the bug lure to bring him some tasty treats but, when he had not moved a muscle after a few hours, I looked closer and thought \"awwww[...]\" I would not recommend sticking fingers or anything in to see if the juice is on. Now I have to go out and clean the darned thing ... or maybe after a while the corpse will attract more bugs: decisions, decisions.\n\nAnyway, at least I am satisfied now that the zapper works. How long it will work is another matter; I only got it a couple of weeks ago.","Product: Pureness ebytra giant sifting cat pan liners. Made from 100-percent recycled plastic. 3 ply no tear technology. Fits pans up to 22 by 18-inch, 10-count.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: I've never seen anything like it\n\nReview: I HAVE USED sifting litter liners before - really expensive ones (see Whisker City - available at Amazon) which I liked but gave up for a while because of the expense. Decided to go back to using them and saw this brand also, so decided to order a box of each for comparison.\n\nWhen these first arrived, I was flabbergasted - expecting a litter pan liner ... no, expecting ten nested litter pan liners - with elastic edges to hold in place (a la Whisker City sifting liners) what do I find but absolutely flat sheets of plastic, ten with holes and the bottom without, and a giant rubber band to hold them in the box. Flabbergasted as well as flummoxed I was trying to figure out what to do with them.\n\nWell, I reasoned, I can tear off a sheet of aluminum foil and shape a liner for a baking pan so, though these do not hold shape like foil does, I loosely fashioned corners and stuffed the flat part into the bottom of the pan and folded the excess over the edges (it never occurred to me to \"trim\"\" them - maybe I will next time), and tried to hold everything in place while securing the rubber band ... and I hope to heck that will hold, as it looks a bit thin,\n\nSO - now I have sifted off the first two layers and must admit the product does its job surprisingly well. In fact I have established a monthly subscription - figuring ten siftable layers in a box and sifting every 3 days gives me a month of relatively pain free litter box care.\n\nAs for the box of Whixker City sifting liners I got in the same order, they were only Large, and I needed Extra Large, so I was able to use them in my second, smaller litter box. I may still actually prefer them because of the pre-formed, elasticized liners, but I must say I have not put THEM on subscription.","Product: Innoo Tech 20 LED Outdoor String Lights Solar Fairy Lights for Patio Garden Lawn Christmas Holiday Wedding Party Warm White Chuzzle Ball Shape\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Reserving opinion until they have lasted a while\n\nReview: I have been through five or six strings of two different kinds of indoor/outdoor solar lights in the past few years and, as much as I like them, they always fail me. Of course, it wasn't always the fault of the lights: a squirrel chewed though the wire of one, and the solar collector device of another was clobbered by a chucked chunk of lumber. But the rest of them just died and, after a while, a new battery didn't help. As far as this one is concerned, I cannot see where the opening is to change the battery ... what's up with that? I will say the lights are cute and fuzzy, and I like the warm glow of this string as opposed to the bluish light from the others I've tried.","Product: Patrick McMahon was born in Chicago at Illinois Masonic Hospital. Three days later he was handed over to a new set of parents just outside that hospital. He grew up in an adoptive family in the suburb of Downers Grove and lived high school years in Monett, Missouri. He has an engineering degree from the University of Missouri - Columbia, and a Bachelor of Music from San Francisco State University. His life-long passion for photography has resulted in portrait work and national fine art exhibition. His memoir, Becoming Patrick, about reconnecting with his original family, was a San Diego Book Awards Finalist. He currently resides in San Diego, where he writes, photographs, and plays clarinet and saxophone.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: How soon will it be available for Kindle?\n\nReview: Haven't read the book, so I gave it a middle star rating, but am sure it is deep and emotional and inspiring. However I do want to comment on the description that suggested that he was actually risking the love of the mother who raised him to look for the one who \"gave him away.\" When my son found me, shortly before he turned 40, I mentioned how much it had hurt to lose him ... his response was you did not lose me, you gave me away. I said I gave you a family, the only way it would happen. He has a great family, including a dad and a sister, which he would never have had with me. His adoptive mother is a wonderful woman, and there is no way he could have possibly risked her love by finding me. Any adoptive parent who cannot understand that there is no disloyalty to them involved in an adoptee's natural drive to want some kind of closure, to learn something about their genetic and family health background, and to explore every resource in learning more about themselves is, in my opinion, being small minded, insecure, and manipulative. Whether it turns out well or badly, every adopted person has the right to know where they came from, if they want to."],"string":"[\n \"Product: This item is Performix 11603-6 Synthetic Plasti-Dip Rubber Coating, 14.5 oz Can, Black . Used for Construction - Concrete & Metal Tools, Dyes & Sealants. The produt is manufactured in United States.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: I use a lot of this stuff\\n\\nReview: My hobby is making walking sticks out of pruned and fallen branches and post them for sale on Etsy. Often, a standard size cane will not fit on the end of the stick, so I solved the problem with this wonderful rubberized dip. I have been getting one can as needed at the hardware star whenever I got low, but somebody told me that the makers were going to DISCONTINUE BLACK!!! I was alarmed enough at this possibility that I ordered five cans from amazon. I do not want to put red, blue, or yellow tips on my walking sticks ... I want black, period. I will continue to buy new cans as I need them and swap out with my stash to keep it fresh, but if the worst ever happens, I am out of luck. Hence only four stars.\",\n \"Product: Bias Tape Maker makes the task of making bias tapes easy with a great looking result. Create your own bias tapes in minutes. Perfect for Celtic Quilting; binding and more. Available in 5 different sizes (each sold separately).\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: I may get a larger one\\n\\nReview: I clicked four stars because it is better than \\\"OK\\\" but I would not say I love it. I never had one before, and have been folding my bias strips manually, which was time consuming and a bit cumbersome. IT HELPED me to use an inch-wide strip of heavy paper to get the folds straight and even. The first time I used this I was pleased, but because I make A LOT of bias tape, I've had opportunity to run into a few glitches - some of which were corrected by reverting to my inch-wide strip of heavy paper - not exactly progress.\\n\\nHere are two of the issues that I have with this device that can be problematic.\\n\\nONE is the seams. When you sew two-inch strips of fabric together end to end, to fold into half-inch bias tape, the first step is to fold in the edges, iron, then fold that strip in half. That's all there is to making bias tape. Before taking that first step, I like to iron open all of the seams in the strip, which makes the final tape less bulky around the seam areas. Since you insert the end of the strip into this device and pull it through, it does not like open seams; they tend to bunch up. It wants all the seams to be pressed away from the direction you are pulling the fabric. Hence, more bulk than necessary where two pieces of fabric meet. Maybe not a problem with long strips of the same color, but when the effect you are working for is a colorful patchwork with many short pieces, it can be an issue.\\n\\nIssue TWO is that this works best with a certain weight of smooth fabric. As I am using a variety of colors in my tape, not all the fabrics are the same weight. If it is too thick, it does not pull easily through the device. If it is too thin, the fabric can be too relaxed and may twist in on itself halfway through and come out in a gnarled mess. It may or may not be possible to correct the problem by backing up into a section that was already done (as long as you don't run into a seam, that is) and ironing out (with a little spray starch) the part that got messed up and trying it again very slowly. Sometimes you have to just get past the rough spot and straighten it out manually - using the old inch-wide strip of heavy paper comes in handy for that.\\n\\nA third issue is maybe not a problem, but you are constrained with this device to the specific measurements it was created for - so if you wanted your bias tape to be, say, five-eights instead of a half inch you'd still have to do that manually. They do make these in other sizes of course, but if you are designing something with nonstandard measurements, your creativity is restricted.\",\n \"Product: Bias Tape Maker makes the task of making bias tapes easy with a great looking result. Create your own bias tapes in minutes. Perfect for Celtic Quilting; binding and more. Available in 5 different sizes (each sold separately).\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: I may get a larger one\\n\\nReview: I clicked four stars because it is better than \\\"OK\\\" but I would not say I love it. I never had one before, and have been folding my bias strips manually, which was time consuming and a bit cumbersome. IT HELPED me to use an inch-wide strip of heavy paper to get the folds straight and even. The first time I used this I was pleased, but because I make A LOT of bias tape, I've had opportunity to run into a few glitches - some of which were corrected by reverting to my inch-wide strip of heavy paper - not exactly progress.\\n\\nHere are two of the issues that I have with this device that can be problematic.\\n\\nONE is the seams. When you sew two-inch strips of fabric together end to end, to fold into half-inch bias tape, the first step is to fold in the edges, iron, then fold that strip in half. That's all there is to making bias tape. Before taking that first step, I like to iron open all of the seams in the strip, which makes the final tape less bulky around the seam areas. Since you insert the end of the strip into this device and pull it through, it does not like open seams; they tend to bunch up. It wants all the seams to be pressed away from the direction you are pulling the fabric. Hence, more bulk than necessary where two pieces of fabric meet. Maybe not a problem with long strips of the same color, but when the effect you are working for is a colorful patchwork with many short pieces, it can be an issue.\\n\\nIssue TWO is that this works best with a certain weight of smooth fabric. As I am using a variety of colors in my tape, not all the fabrics are the same weight. If it is too thick, it does not pull easily through the device. If it is too thin, the fabric can be too relaxed and may twist in on itself halfway through and come out in a gnarled mess. It may or may not be possible to correct the problem by backing up into a section that was already done (as long as you don't run into a seam, that is) and ironing out (with a little spray starch) the part that got messed up and trying it again very slowly. Sometimes you have to just get past the rough spot and straighten it out manually - using the old inch-wide strip of heavy paper comes in handy for that.\\n\\nA third issue is maybe not a problem, but you are constrained with this device to the specific measurements it was created for - so if you wanted your bias tape to be, say, five-eights instead of a half inch you'd still have to do that manually. They do make these in other sizes of course, but if you are designing something with nonstandard measurements, your creativity is restricted.\",\n \"Product: TANDY LEATHER FACTORY-Waxed Metallic Cord. Add some color and extra fun to your leather craft projects with this high quality; heavy duty braided cord. This cord is also fantastic for making friendship bracelets. Spool contains 25 yds. Imported.\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: Appearances can be deceiving\\n\\nReview: oh my goodness, I certainly would NOT have shelled out almost twelve bucks (including S&H) for this itty-bitty spool of \\\"braided cord\\\" if I'd had any idea that the image shown above is slightly larger than the actual spool in my hand. I have been looking for and working with braided macrame cord of much larger dimensions and, so, was expecting something a bit more substantial than string or thread. I was shocked when I opened it. Am contemplating whether there is any use to which I can put this product but, what with various looming obligations, I don't really have the time or energy to consider it for a while. Hope I can make my mind up before it is too late to return it.\",\n \"Product: Chartpak AD Marker, Tri-Nib, Blender (Colorless) is a professional, xylene-based marker for art and design. The Tri-Nib permanent marker blends and transfers on paper, acrylic, ceramic, egg shell and more. This colorless blender creates unique colors, transfers images and produces watercolor-like effects with colored pencil, graphite and charcoal. Use with AD Marker's The 130 rich, vibrant colors that perfect for blending and shading, and won't streak or feather. Non-toxic, conforms to ASTM D 4236. Made in USA.\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: It does not \\\"blend\\\" as I had hoped it would\\n\\nReview: I really thought there would be a softening of the pencil strokes into an actual blending effect, but it really did not do much more than just intensify the saturation of the colors. I will attach a picture I did as an example - where there were numerous colors overlaid into the upholstery fabric in the drawing of a chair; I applied the \\\"blender\\\" in hopes of actually seeing a blended effect but, as I said, it did not do that. Not that I am unhappy with my final result but, now that I know what this product won'd do, I will keep it in reserve for when I want to use it for color saturation, and I doubt that I will ever try it or any other so-called blending marker to achieve a blended effect.\",\n \"Product: IRIS-Nylon Crochet Thread. This nylon crochet thread has a lustre and twist unlike any other product. It produces fantastic stitch definition as well as a hand with full but flexible body. Nylon's key attributes are shine; durability; and receptiveness to dyes producing vivid colors! This nylon is perfect for crochet and knitting purses; totes; placemats; home decor items; cell holders; flowers and more. Package contains 1 spool of 100% nylon thread; 197 yards; available in many colors. Care: machine wash (max temp is 104F/40C); tumble dry low or dry flat; do not bleach; do not iron; dry cleanable. Imported.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: This is my second experience with Iris\\n\\nReview: I have made two handbags now with this yarn and left a review for the first one that I made with the green color. It took two spools to complete and I did not even check the dye lot when they arrived because I ASSUMED (yes, I know) they would send me two skeins that matched. Well, they didn't, and I did not even realize until after the project was completed that parts of the bag were not quite the same shade - very close, mind you, and most people won't notice, but it is very obvious to me.\\n\\nBut I liked well enough how the product works to order another two skeins in a neutral color, AND I made sure when they arrived they were the same dye lot. My second bag did not use up all of both skeins, so I still have a little left - but I LOVE the bag I made with it and the color is something I can use every day.\\n\\nIt is hard to call this crochet \\\"thread\\\" because I am used to using fine, doily-appropriate thread with a 1 to 2 mm hook, and this is thick enough to use a size D or F hook, so I think of it as more of a 3-ply cord. Whatever you call it, it is silky smooth going through your fingers and works up very nicely. The cut ends tend to fray, so I tie 2 knots close together and cut between them. However, the fraying can actually be useful if you want to separate the three strands to use one to thread a large-eyed needle for sewing your crocheted pieces together\\n\\nIf I ever want to crochet another purse, I will probably order this product again - and if you order multiple spools, just be sure they are the same dye lot before removing the wrapper.\",\n \"Product: Used in this video tutorial:. How to Use a Jump Ring Maker. . Creating your own jump rings is a matter of having a precisely measured mandrel and a method to quickly and easily wrap your wire around it. The Beadalon Jump Ring Maker features an acrylic base and interchangeable mandrels. Choose your size and screw the mandrel into the base. Insert one end of the wire into the small hole in base. Bend wire to secure it and then wrap it around the mandrel. Carefully remove coils and cut evenly with sharp flush cutters. Create jump rings with any wire you choose, including colored craft wire. Instructions are clearly printed on the back of each package. This kit will make jump rings in the following sizes: 10mm, 12mm, 14mm, and 16mm. 1 Complete kit.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Not quite three, maybe two and a half stars\\n\\nReview: The concept is OK, and it's easy enough to figure out how to use it but, seriously, you can find an endless supply of cylindrical things around the house in varying sizes that you can use much more easily to the same effect. The rods that are included come in four sizes, one almost too big to be practical for jump rings, but you can use larger diameter wire coils for other functions, so it's OK; however, there should be a size or two smaller than the smallest one here. I happen to have aluminum crochet hooks in a variety of sizes, which I find perfect for wrapping wire to use as jump rings. Even ball pens and round pencils will do just fine. If you like toys and gimmicks, order this - otherwise apply this money to something more useful.\",\n \"Product: Iris-Nylon Crochet Thread has a luster and twist unlike any other product. It produces fantastic stitch definition as well as a hand with full but flexible body. Nylon's key attributes are shine, durability and receptiveness to dyes producing vivid colors. This nylon is perfect for crochet and kitting apparel, totes, purses, belts, jewelry, home decor items, placemats and much more. This package contains one #2 spool of 100% nylon, 300 yards. Available in parakeet color. Each sold separately. Care: machine wash (maximum temperature 104F/40C) tumble dry low or dry flat do not bleach do not iron dry cleanable. It is an imported product.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Wish I'd read the reviews\\n\\nReview: The gauge of this is way finer than I wanted for the project that I ordered it for, so I have to go elsewhere to find something suitable. That said, it is a lovely color with a great texture, and a hardness to the fiber that gives it a sheen. IF YOU ARE USED TO working with size 10 crochet thread, you might like this. I made myself a bracelet, using a 1 mm crochet hook (pic attached). There should have been no confusion as to the size of the thread - the photo presented for the product just shows a spool of thread, string, cord, yarn or whatever you want to call it, with nothing to compare it with size-wise. I took away one star becaus the color is not correctly represented - the actual thread is quite a bit darker than shown. TO BE FAIR, this is actually a difficult color to capture in pictures - I have tried very hard in the past with other teal/turquoise projects, and photographing it always washes it out to a still attractive but paler hue. I took away the second star because the shipping charge is PER SPOOL, effectively doubling the cost of the order... I would have ordered more but for that (and, considering it was the wrong size, they actually did me a favor). NOW I see that they have upped the price of the yarn and eliminated the shipping, so I may or may not try it again - in checking out this information I see that Red Heart now also has a nylon crochet thread on offer - the spool is only 100 yards, so will have to give the entire issue more thought.\",\n \"Product: Word Slinger is packed with bonuses and power-ups! Take advantage of word and score multiplying power-ups as well as Discard and Hint Accumulators. You'll find them placed randomly on the game board, so carefully craft your web of words to earn extra points and pass levels with greater ease. Fit for puzzle game and word game lovers alike, Word Slinger will have you hooked!\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: I USED TO love this game - OK I still do\\n\\nReview: I played it on my Mac PowerBook - now I can't any more because it only likes windows. I agree with the reviewer that there ARE inappropriate words in it - that is to say things that are not really words, but other than that it was fun to play and quite addictive. I MISS IT. I really hate that something I liked so much has been taken away.\\n\\nUPDATE - I just left a long comment in lieu of amending my review - but decided to revise it anyway - upping the star rating to 4 because I was able to buy and to download the game - not on my own (mac) computer but onto a friend's PC that I have access to.\\n\\nI HAD asked whether it could play on an Android tablet - and many nice people respond, only to say they had no idea, as they play it on a pc ... so I still do not know if it will play on my non-Mac tablet which apparently is also not a pc - it's just a smart something, and I won't take a chance on trying to load a game that might make it crash. But as long as my BF will let me play on his pc, I am happy.\\n\\nThe reason I don't give this game a 5-star rating, as much as I love it, is because if it's dicey dictionary - as if it were developed for English speakers by non-English speakers who apparently just make up words for the game and reject many actual, real, and legitimate words that can be found in countless common sources. Once you give up getting frustrated over the nonsense made-up words and moaning over the exclusion of many real ones, and just accept that what you see is what you get, it is still a lot of fun to play. But I still cannot give top stars to the questionable source of playable words for this game.\",\n \"Product: The Kuhn Rikon Slim Safety LidLifter safely and easily removes lids, leaving a smooth edge that is suitable for resealing with a plastic lid (dog and cat food cans, coffee cans). The can opener is made of 18/8 stainless steel with a polished finish and the turn knob is comfortable to hold and turns easily. It cuts from the side leaving the rim smooth, not sharp or jagged. The tiny jaws of the exclusive Lid Gripper clamp onto the lid rim and lifts off the top. The turn knob is of a durable soft rubber so it is comfortable to hold and turns easily. Slim design for convenient storage.\\n\\nRating: 1.0\\n\\nSummary: Still have not been able to open a can with it\\n\\nReview: My previous lid remover worked just fine from the get-go, and it eventually dulled from use so that I had to resort to a regular can opener to finish the job when it just could not get there. MIND YOU, I did not grab any old can just to test this out as soon as it arrived; I waited (logically, I thought) for an appropriate occasion, but on the first attempt, I was holding the thing wrong way around and, being hungry, just said oh the heck with it and used a can opener to get at my food. Some time later, another can presented itself, so I studied this product and discovered directions for its use stamped into the plastic inside the handles. Understanding my earlier mistake, I followed the directions and operated the device correctly; however, it failed to engage the rim of the can and I, again, had to resort to a can opener. I would like to return it if it is not too late, only I no longer have the paperwork or the packaging that it came with, so I guess I am stuck.\",\n \"Product: Charming floral printscombined with paisleys create this intricate patchwork quilt set.Antique Chic features100% cotton and is finely quilted with a vintage rosebound edge and back.Reversable. Oversized for better coverage on todays deeper mattresses. Each set includes Quilt and two pillow shams (one sham per Twin set). King set includes two King-sized pillow shams. Dimensions: Twin Quilt: 68x88. Full/Queen Quilt: 90x90. King Quilt: 105x95. Standard Sham: 20x36. King Sham (included in King Quilt Set): 20x36.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: JUST what I wanted!\\n\\nReview: This arrived today, and the bed it is intended for won't even be delivered for another week, but I thought I should take the precaution of taking it out of its packaging to spread out for airing ... I am fairly sensitive to dyes and chemical smells, and almost anything new has to breathe a while before it is companionable, right? As far as the review that said the colors were not bright enough, well I had specifically noted the word \\\"antique\\\" in the title, so I think the tones are perfectly done ... very antique like. This is a total departure from what I have been using and I cannot wait for my new bed to arrive (tempurpedic cloud supreme, by the way) and dress it up with its new finery.\",\n \"Product: Solar-powered decorating lights - no outlet needed. Now decorate anywhere without dangerous extension cords or need for an outlet. Sun charges string of 100 lights by day, turn on automatically at dusk and run for about eight hours. No energy cost. Great near road, around mailbox or lamp post - now you're not limited to near by outlets. 35' length.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: LOVE 'em - when they work\\n\\nReview: I have this string wrapped up and down on a trellis over my back gate. It is lovely when it is working. Problem is that the back-up AA battery is good for only a few days and the lights die again. I cannot afford an endless supply of AA batteries. I have another string of different lights along my fence, and they have been running fine on the same battery for almost a year. Must be something wrong with this string, but i have had them too long to return them.\\n\\nUpgraded from 3 stars to 5, cuz I really do love these lights. Another AA battery bit the dust after working for a day, and I put another one in today, and it did not work at all. SO I took a little soft 400-grit sandpaper (also bought here on amazon) and guess what ... IT WORKS! It will be interesting to see now how long it keeps up, but I'm happy.\",\n \"Product: Stand It, Store It & Go This case sports a simple and classy design made from synthetic leather, and the interior is lined with non-scratch material so you don't need to worry about any damages. Simply insert your Kindle Fire in the open pocket and secure it in place with the velcro flap. There is also a magnetic strip built inside for a secure closure. Because the cover is uniquely designed to flip back and transform the case into a comfortable viewing stand, this capability allows the viewer to use the Kindle Fire hands-free whatever your position may be without strain. All features of the Kindle Fire are accessible even with the case on. Specifically designed for the Original Kindle Fire 1st Generation tablet 2011 release.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Well, I love purple.\\n\\nReview: Seems like reviews are lumped together here that were written for other than the product I bought - some stating that the writers loves green - which my cover is not. I bought \\\"FINTIE (Purple) Slim Fit Folio Stand Leather Case for Amazon Kindle Fire 7\\\" \\\" and what I got is just what I ordered. It seems well enough made and it will do the job. I am confused about the little hole in the frame (lower left when configured as a horizontal stand) - I can presume only that it is for a camera, which my 7\\\" LCD does not have - no problem, the hole will not bother me ... much. The elastic tab for a stylus is OK, too - though I don't have one of those either ... but if I ever get one, I'm ready for it. Other reviews mention a whole range of products that my cover did not come with, so I cannot address those. Bottom line is I like the cover. I might give it a fifth star if it came with a detachable neck or shoulder strap for hands-free listening when I am out and about.\",\n \"Product: Novel Box Premium Glass Top Display boxes are designed to help showcase and portray items so they stand out. Made with real glass, all of our Black Leatherette boxes come with metal clasps in the front and metal hinges in the back. Their compact size makes them ideal for travel and the metal latch keeps your items in a secure atmosphere free from dust. Depending on the item you want to display, we offer our glass top display boxes in 2 different sizes. Large: 14.75\\\" X 8.25\\\" X 2.1\\\" and Half-Size: 8.25\\\" X 7.25\\\" X 2\\\" with ring inserts available in 7 colors - Black (Large and Half Size), White, Blue, Burgundy, Red, Pink and Gray. The ring foam pads are topped with plush felt and can hold small and large rings as well as cufflinks. These display boxes and ring inserts are great for personal use and showcasing jewelry. Trays can be easily removed and placed on a countertop for better display. The Glass Top Box can also be purchased separately or with gem/jar/specimen inserts. Please see our other Amazon listings to purchase these separately. The Glass Top Box can also be purchased separately or with gem/jar/specimen inserts. Please see our other Amazon listings to purchase these separately.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: just what i wanted\\n\\nReview: i have so many rings scattered about and really needed one nice storage case. the glass top allows me to see what's in the box without opening it. on the plus side, i can also place a couple bracelets or necklaces on top of the foam. on the minus side, and the reason i did not give this item five stars, is the bed is just one flat piece of black foam with slices in it which are hard to see when trying to find a slot to stick a ring into. i might consider finding a square of velvet fabric to tuck down into the slots to make rounded ridges - if the thing had come that way, it probably would have cost a lot more. in the meantime, however, it does its job more than adequately.\",\n \"Product: Ahhhhh, Dansko. There you go again. Doing your all-day comfort thing. Making us feel so good on our feet. With excellent arch support and legendary comfort, you let us stand longer than ever. And with great styles in a range of heel heights, you have us feeling all tingly inside, just like the day we first met. When wife and husband team, Mandy Cabot and Peter Kjellerup discovered the world's most comfortable shoe in a tiny shop in Denmark in 1990, they just had to bring some home for their friends. When their friends tried them on, they told their friends. And just like that, a shoe company was born. Now Dansko not only sells their original clogs, but also heels, boots, sandals, wedges and flats too! Every style features the Dansko DNA - materials and construction carefully selected to promote good foot, leg and back health, so that you can stand better, for longer. Say goodbye to choosing between looking good and feeling good. And say hello to having it all.\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: 2 stars for style, minus 3 for fit\\n\\nReview: I have plantar fasciitis, and my podiatrist told me no more sandals, I must wear supportive shoes with an enclosed heel. Shoes that tie are easier to get my foot into than are slip-ons, and I have been wearing my bulky trainers, which are inelegant, but supportive and comfortable. I wanted a slightly more good looking shoe for dressier casual situations than my dirty old athletic shoes. These look so cute in the ad, and they were beautiful in the box. As soon as I put them on my feet, they felt very comfortable ... aside from being incredibly heavy. My foot loved being inside this shoe - until, that is, I stood up. Ouch. I wore them for about a half an hour, inside my carpeted house, hoping to get used to them - I figured fabric would give a bit, and conform to the shape of my foot. Perhaps a half hour was not a fair enough trial, but I could not stand having them on any longer. I have worn the European size 38, or equivalent, almost all my adult life, but the fit of these shoes is very awkward. The toe box is too narrow, the heal bed is too wide - and too shallow - and I perceived almost no arch support. The rubber-looking sole, which I had hoped would add a bit of a spring to my step, is solid as a rock, and as comfortable to walk on.\\n\\nI was supposed to get this item by Wednesday, Sept 19, and I had planned to wear the shoes with an outfit for an occasion on Thursday, Sept. 20: well, the package was delivered on schedule, but I had to wear other shoes with my outfit, because I dared not walk out my front door with these on my feet. I did SO want to love these shoes, as I wear a lot of light denim and chambray, and they would go with just about everything. Alas, I have already printed out the return shipping labels and repackaged them exactly as they were when received. Bye-bye, Dansko ... lesson learned.\",\n \"Product: Skechers is an award-winning global leader in the lifestyle footwear industry that designs, develops, and markets lifestyle footwear that appeals to trend-savvy men, women and children. The company's success stems from it's high quality, diversified, and affordable product line that meets consumers' various lifestyle needs. Since it's inception in 1992, the Skechers diverse product offering has grown from utility style boots to include seven Skechers brands and five uniquely branded fashion lines for men and women.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Skechers is becoming my favorite shoe brand\\n\\nReview: I have plantar fasciitis, and my podiatrist told me no more going barefoot, no more sandals, flip flops, or clogs. He said I need to wear a supportive, closed shoe. That gave me an excuse to go shoe shopping on my way home. I of course had plenty of shoes, closed and open, but all my closed shoes have laces, and I am not going to be bothered stopping to tie my shoes every time I go out - or even walk around in the house - when I am in my easy chair, I kick my shoes off and put my feet up on the ottoman. SO. I needed to find a comfortable closed shoe that I can just slip in and out of. I must have tried on a dozen or more pair at a shoe store before narrowing the comfortable shoes down to two styles ... this one and one that required a shoe horn to get my foot into. Well, you can probably guess which one I chose (or I would not be writing this review now, would I.)\\n\\nThe pair I bought at the store was in the color called \\\"Natural,\\\" and, when I got home, I decided a second pair would be in order so that I may alternate and not have to wear the same shoe day after day. So I ordered these black ones from Amazon. With Prime, I was amazed at how quickly they arrived, and now am happily wearing the black ones - which, I was happy to find, are as comfortable as the pair I bought in the store after being able to try them on and walk around.\\n\\nI have a wide foot, and these are marked M for medium, but the fit me fine. I gave them four stars instead of five because I do not find them particularly attractive ... although the Rose pair is kind of cute; maybe I should put them in my shopping cart. Do I need three pairs of these?\",\n \"Product: Plot\\nAnne Bancroft stars as a restless, twice-married British woman with six children, whose third husband is a fledgling screenwriter (Peter Finch). When success spins Finch's head around, he begins to dally with women other than his wife. Meanwhile, Bancroft is forced to stay home and play \\\"domestic goddess\\\", a role for which she is utterly unsuited. After suffering a nervous breakdown, Bancroft wanders the streets of London in a vain search for a sympathetic ear. She eventually comes to grips with the situation at hand--but as in most of playwright Harold Pinter's works, the characters of The Pumpkin Eater are just as unfulfilled in the last scene as they were in the first. Anne Bancroft won a Cannes Film Festival award for her performance in this film.\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: Great actress in a horrid story\\n\\nReview: What I find most depressing about this 1964 film is that it would seem to be an accurate portrayal of a situation that was probably considered believable at the time, as far as the concept of \\\"family\\\" is concerned. I was 22 years old when the movie was made and, in my youth, the grown-ups did their thing, and their children were treated as something like a necessary evil, to be dealt with by nannies or shipped off to boarding school. Even for people who couldn't afford those niceties, most families were not of the \\\"Father Knows Best\\\" or \\\"Leave It to Beaver\\\" variety. \\\"Children should be seen and not heard\\\" was more the philosophy of the day. This movie emphasizes that, with a woman who was considered more than a little bit unbalanced because she wanted to keep having more children all the time. Obviously, there was not sufficient communication and cooperation between the wife and husband about family size, etc., but that, too, seems to have been accepted as the norm for the day.\\n\\nContrast the whole concept of the story with the present day, with children being treated as an integral part of the family unit, even to the point of being consulted in family decisions. This story is a bleak look back into time. This is not to say that people today aren't cruel to each other, but I would hope that the woman would grow a backbone, take her kids, and get a big divorce settlement from the philandering jackass.\",\n \"Product: Can be used as:phone holder/Eco friendly 100%,safe,durable and easy to use Supper value, content1 pcs in a package\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: First, it's too short\\n\\nReview: I don't believe that my windshield slopes at a much greater angle than anyone else's, but affixing this to the glass far enough down so as to obstruct the least amount of view of the road still puts the item it is holding at a just barely reachable distance when I am driving. I am using it to hold my GPS but, as another reviewer mentiond, the clamp-style grip will hold just about anything, camera, gps, whatever. That said, I can deal with the distance - it's a bit awkward, and another inch or two would be better, but it is usable. Bigger problem is that the socket where the grip fits onto the ball joint at the end of the arm does not fit snugly enough for a secure hold. It might stay in place if my car stood still all the time, but it has a tendency to drift to one side or the other when I turn a corner. I think I can come up with a way to insert something in the loose space to make it more snug so, all in all, the product is OK - just not perfect, or even as good as it should be - so I don't love it or even like it all that much but, as the definition of three stars indicates, it is OK.\",\n \"Product: This versatile pack of 150 printable cards is wonderful for designing and printing your own sales & marketing collateral, flash cards, recipes, coupons, RSVP cards, decorative post cards and more. These blank index cards are unlined, ready for whatever destiny you have planned for them. They are ideal for the classroom, homework, studying, filing and contact information cards. A micro-perforated design makes them quick and easy to separate, so you can maximize your productivity at your workplace, classroom or home. Choose from the thousands of free templates and designs at avery.com/templates to add attention-grabbing text and graphics to both sides of your blank index card, and then print them out on your laser or inkjet printer for exceptional smudge and jam-free results. Convenient, easy-to-use and endlessly customizable, these unruled index cards are an unbeatable choice for an all-purpose printable card.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Just what i wanted\\n\\nReview: I needed to print index cards to keep membership records for a club (of 120 members) and I went to a well-known chain office supply store to pick up a package, which probably would have bee available for the standard cost of $24.50. Of all the AVERY products on the shelves of this story, wouldn't you know - the only item they do not carry is this one. The sales clerk offered to order a package for me but I said NO THANK YOU VERY MUCH - I WILL ORDER MY OWN FROM AMAZON, which I did and saved myself about ten bucks in the process. With the Prime free shipping, I received them in no time, and they are all printed and ready for the membership chairperson to do her thing.\\n\\nThe printing went very smoothly. I used the avery label preset for the item number and created a 4-page document for printing, 3 labels per page, and made each page a different color - to conserve my ink supply of any particular color, as well as to keep working with the cards from being boring. I rear loaded my printer (though the cards would probably have fed through the bed just as well but why take chances) and they went through like a charm, no snags. Breaking off the edges and separating the cards was literally a snap. WILL order again.\",\n \"Product: Here is a way to hang lightweight items in your store, studio or home. Just peel the backing paper from one side of this hang tab and apply it to your object. It will stick firmly and allow you to keep products visible and neat. The 1-1/4\\\" slot is triangular shape so that you can hang your object from a nail or a wide hook such as a double pegboard hook and it will always hang straight. Made of a semi-rigid, heavy-duty plastic it will not tear and will provide an almost invisible display hanger. It measures 1-3/4\\\" square and provides a generous adhesive surface for a positive grip. This offer is for a lot of 250 brand new hang tabs. For hundreds more craft, art and hobby products be sure to visit our Amazon Storefront. We have the creative component you need.\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: I was hoping for better\\n\\nReview: I loved these at first, and hung a number of light-weight items (specifically, 12- and 10-inch round pieces of wood that I had painted) all over my walls. They actually stayed up for several weeks, giving me hope that I could sell my art pieces ready to hang with this product - but all of a sudden they have all started dropping all over the place. The 12-inchers went first and then, once they were all down, the 10-inch pieces dropped so that there are now only two of them left on the wall - and one of them was the first to drop off, leaving the hangar on the nail, and I stuck it back on and hung it up again, and it is still there. ANYway, it is clear that these are not reliable for anything you care about.\",\n \"Product: Uses proven ultraviolet light technology to attract & kill a wide range of flying insects. 15 watts of UV light excites insects and lures them into the electric grid where they are killed and fall to the ground. The innovative flat panel design has 50% more kill area & reduces clogging. It can also be used with Mosquito Octanol Lure to increase the attractant of mosquitoes & biting flies. It's safe, clean and easy to use - no tanks, bags or mess to manage. Outer enclosure prevents children, pets, birds & wildlife from contacting the electric grid. Effective coverage for up to 1/2 acre. Made from durable, weather-proof plastic for years of dependable service. For outdoor use only.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Well, it IS actually lethal - if anyone was wondering.\\n\\nReview: First off, I got mine at Walmart for $25. Had seen it on amazon and was not too keen on it because of the reviews but bought it anyway because it was $25 and it was the only one they had. The box brags \\\"New Design Is Quiet - No Loud Zapping\\\" which is a bummer because we've kinda been enjoying the zappy noises coming from my neighbor's backyard and were looking forward to some of the same, but it's true, and I have not heard the first sound out of it.\\n\\nNot even sure if it was working (so quiet, you know), I put something white underneath it and found a few bugs underneath it the next morning. But if anybody has doubts about the efficiency of the grid, I gotta tell ya, there is a poor dead lizard hanging out of my zapper whose tail got in thru the grill and touched the grid, and it fried his back half. I thought the little guy was just being cagey, waiting quietly for the bug lure to bring him some tasty treats but, when he had not moved a muscle after a few hours, I looked closer and thought \\\"awwww[...]\\\" I would not recommend sticking fingers or anything in to see if the juice is on. Now I have to go out and clean the darned thing ... or maybe after a while the corpse will attract more bugs: decisions, decisions.\\n\\nAnyway, at least I am satisfied now that the zapper works. How long it will work is another matter; I only got it a couple of weeks ago.\",\n \"Product: Uses proven ultraviolet light technology to attract & kill a wide range of flying insects. 15 watts of UV light excites insects and lures them into the electric grid where they are killed and fall to the ground. The innovative flat panel design has 50% more kill area & reduces clogging. It can also be used with Mosquito Octanol Lure to increase the attractant of mosquitoes & biting flies. It's safe, clean and easy to use - no tanks, bags or mess to manage. Outer enclosure prevents children, pets, birds & wildlife from contacting the electric grid. Effective coverage for up to 1/2 acre. Made from durable, weather-proof plastic for years of dependable service. For outdoor use only.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Well, it IS actually lethal - if anyone was wondering.\\n\\nReview: First off, I got mine at Walmart for $25. Had seen it on amazon and was not too keen on it because of the reviews but bought it anyway because it was $25 and it was the only one they had. The box brags \\\"New Design Is Quiet - No Loud Zapping\\\" which is a bummer because we've kinda been enjoying the zappy noises coming from my neighbor's backyard and were looking forward to some of the same, but it's true, and I have not heard the first sound out of it.\\n\\nNot even sure if it was working (so quiet, you know), I put something white underneath it and found a few bugs underneath it the next morning. But if anybody has doubts about the efficiency of the grid, I gotta tell ya, there is a poor dead lizard hanging out of my zapper whose tail got in thru the grill and touched the grid, and it fried his back half. I thought the little guy was just being cagey, waiting quietly for the bug lure to bring him some tasty treats but, when he had not moved a muscle after a few hours, I looked closer and thought \\\"awwww[...]\\\" I would not recommend sticking fingers or anything in to see if the juice is on. Now I have to go out and clean the darned thing ... or maybe after a while the corpse will attract more bugs: decisions, decisions.\\n\\nAnyway, at least I am satisfied now that the zapper works. How long it will work is another matter; I only got it a couple of weeks ago.\",\n \"Product: Pureness ebytra giant sifting cat pan liners. Made from 100-percent recycled plastic. 3 ply no tear technology. Fits pans up to 22 by 18-inch, 10-count.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: I've never seen anything like it\\n\\nReview: I HAVE USED sifting litter liners before - really expensive ones (see Whisker City - available at Amazon) which I liked but gave up for a while because of the expense. Decided to go back to using them and saw this brand also, so decided to order a box of each for comparison.\\n\\nWhen these first arrived, I was flabbergasted - expecting a litter pan liner ... no, expecting ten nested litter pan liners - with elastic edges to hold in place (a la Whisker City sifting liners) what do I find but absolutely flat sheets of plastic, ten with holes and the bottom without, and a giant rubber band to hold them in the box. Flabbergasted as well as flummoxed I was trying to figure out what to do with them.\\n\\nWell, I reasoned, I can tear off a sheet of aluminum foil and shape a liner for a baking pan so, though these do not hold shape like foil does, I loosely fashioned corners and stuffed the flat part into the bottom of the pan and folded the excess over the edges (it never occurred to me to \\\"trim\\\"\\\" them - maybe I will next time), and tried to hold everything in place while securing the rubber band ... and I hope to heck that will hold, as it looks a bit thin,\\n\\nSO - now I have sifted off the first two layers and must admit the product does its job surprisingly well. In fact I have established a monthly subscription - figuring ten siftable layers in a box and sifting every 3 days gives me a month of relatively pain free litter box care.\\n\\nAs for the box of Whixker City sifting liners I got in the same order, they were only Large, and I needed Extra Large, so I was able to use them in my second, smaller litter box. I may still actually prefer them because of the pre-formed, elasticized liners, but I must say I have not put THEM on subscription.\",\n \"Product: Innoo Tech 20 LED Outdoor String Lights Solar Fairy Lights for Patio Garden Lawn Christmas Holiday Wedding Party Warm White Chuzzle Ball Shape\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Reserving opinion until they have lasted a while\\n\\nReview: I have been through five or six strings of two different kinds of indoor/outdoor solar lights in the past few years and, as much as I like them, they always fail me. Of course, it wasn't always the fault of the lights: a squirrel chewed though the wire of one, and the solar collector device of another was clobbered by a chucked chunk of lumber. But the rest of them just died and, after a while, a new battery didn't help. As far as this one is concerned, I cannot see where the opening is to change the battery ... what's up with that? I will say the lights are cute and fuzzy, and I like the warm glow of this string as opposed to the bluish light from the others I've tried.\",\n \"Product: Patrick McMahon was born in Chicago at Illinois Masonic Hospital. Three days later he was handed over to a new set of parents just outside that hospital. He grew up in an adoptive family in the suburb of Downers Grove and lived high school years in Monett, Missouri. He has an engineering degree from the University of Missouri - Columbia, and a Bachelor of Music from San Francisco State University. His life-long passion for photography has resulted in portrait work and national fine art exhibition. His memoir, Becoming Patrick, about reconnecting with his original family, was a San Diego Book Awards Finalist. He currently resides in San Diego, where he writes, photographs, and plays clarinet and saxophone.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: How soon will it be available for Kindle?\\n\\nReview: Haven't read the book, so I gave it a middle star rating, but am sure it is deep and emotional and inspiring. However I do want to comment on the description that suggested that he was actually risking the love of the mother who raised him to look for the one who \\\"gave him away.\\\" When my son found me, shortly before he turned 40, I mentioned how much it had hurt to lose him ... his response was you did not lose me, you gave me away. I said I gave you a family, the only way it would happen. He has a great family, including a dad and a sister, which he would never have had with me. His adoptive mother is a wonderful woman, and there is no way he could have possibly risked her love by finding me. Any adoptive parent who cannot understand that there is no disloyalty to them involved in an adoptee's natural drive to want some kind of closure, to learn something about their genetic and family health background, and to explore every resource in learning more about themselves is, in my opinion, being small minded, insecure, and manipulative. Whether it turns out well or badly, every adopted person has the right to know where they came from, if they want to.\"\n]","isConversational":false},"profile_size":{"kind":"number","value":25,"string":"25"},"task":{"kind":"string","value":"longlamp_3"},"split_kind":{"kind":"string","value":"user_based"},"id":{"kind":"number","value":1693,"string":"1,693"}}},{"rowIdx":1694,"cells":{"question_id":{"kind":"string","value":"A18MZSJ66764RL"},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of \"5.0\" for a product with description \"BLACKHAWK!'s Modernized Enhanced Military 2.25\" Web Belt is the top choice among the military. It offers side release buckles for quick-on, quick-off and no heavy metal hardware.\". The summary of the review text is \"BLACKHAWK! comes through again\"."},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"Looking for a belt big enough to fit me, normally - and big enough to wear over a coat or other belt with pants and thermals. Blackhawk! was the answer - and even though the \"enhanced\" buckle is, I feel, a bit hoakie, it works.\nFit, finish, quality & workmanship are 1st rte as always - just wish they'd make more stuff in the USA (and I know how tough\nthat can be). But others do it - so, come on BLACKHAWK!. I'd pay 50% more for a USA made product.\nIn the meantime, this one fills the bill - but only until I can find a similar one made in the USA.\n(And that goes for the Condor Kangaroo Triple Mag pouch too)."},"correct_answer":{"kind":"string","value":"Looking for a belt big enough to fit me, normally - and big enough to wear over a coat or other belt with pants and thermals. Blackhawk! was the answer - and even though the \"enhanced\" buckle is, I feel, a bit hoakie, it works.\nFit, finish, quality & workmanship are 1st rte as always - just wish they'd make more stuff in the USA (and I know how tough\nthat can be). But others do it - so, come on BLACKHAWK!. I'd pay 50% more for a USA made product.\nIn the meantime, this one fills the bill - but only until I can find a similar one made in the USA.\n(And that goes for the Condor Kangaroo Triple Mag pouch too)."},"documents":{"kind":"list like","value":["Product: Display your patches and other hook-and-loop-backed products with our patch panel. This is an all around awesome product. Measuring 30\" x 36\" The backing is black Cordura. The front is made using a single piece of soft loop. There are 4 1/2\" hole metal grommets so you can hang or attach this mat virtually anywhere you want to display your patch collection.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: My 2nd of Many Bastion Panels To Come.\n\nReview: My 2nd Bastion Patch Panel. Wont be my last. On recommendations from friends, I bought my 1st Bastion Patch Panel some months ago. It filled up quickly. This is my 2nd, slightly larger Bastion Patch Panel. Im certain it won't be my last.\n Ive found the Bastion Patch Panel to be very well made, the fit & finish extraordinary, and its durability beyond reproach. The front (loop) side is well made, crafted of medium-fine loop, which holds everything in place like glue. Yet not difficult to remove & rearrange when needed. The panel itself is flexible enough to roll up with ease, without damage, or loss, of patches. Yet stiff enough to hang from the grommets freely, straight & level.\n All in all, a very fine piece of equipment.","Product: This is the authentic military allice clip which can be used to attach most BLACKHAWK pouches to your belt or vest It works by sliding the back Gate up or to the open position, attaching it to your gear and then sliding it on the belt or vest in your designated spot You then close the Gate and your gear is secure until you decide to remove or relocate its position It is black anodized for the subdued look as well as corrosion resistant Four (4) to a pack\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: ... aging ones from 1970s web gear that had seen better days. While these clips aren't \"quite\" as heavy ...\n\nReview: These ALICE clips were purchased to replace aging ones from 1970s web gear that had seen better days. While these clips aren't \"quite\" as heavy as the originals, they seem to work just fine - and the difference gauge of steel is scarcely noticeable. It's just that, after carrying them for over forty years, you notice such things.\n As these are used to secure .45ACP mag carriers to my web belt, they are more than up to the task. Their fit and finish, and function are as expected - with a powder coating of semi-gloss black just like the originals. As I have nothing but the original issue models to compare them to, I can only say that if I didn't know better I'd think they came from the supply room at Parris Island. And that is high praise indeed.\n They're ALICE clips. They work. Buy them (if they're your thing). Nuff said.","Product: The BLACKHAWK! Omega Elite M16 Mag Pouch hold four M16/M4 30-round mags. The pouch offers dividers that prevent mag clatter and enhances noise discipline. Available in Black or Desert Tan.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: OMEGA ELITE NEVER LETS ME DOWN\n\nReview: This is my second BLACKHAWK! OMEGA ELITE M16 MAG POUCH. My first I've had for years, and it was in OD Green. As Ive changed and modified my kit over the years I saw the need for both an additional one (since the old one was showing \"some\" signs of wear), and one in another color.nSo I opted for the Desert Tan this time. This gives me a full load out in both colors. A bit of overkill perhaps, but since much of the OD kit I have is AT LEAST 25 years old - maybe not. Time to upgrade. And BLACKHAWK! has never let me down wit heir Omega Elite Series.\n Versatility is its strong point. I can wear it on my belt, just gelw my belt, or as a dropleg unit well below my belt. It's modularity, strong build characteristics, and my familiarity with it from before make it a no brainer.","Product: The Canteen with BLACKHAWK! Logo offers BPA-free, impact-resistant Tritan copolyester construction resists unwanted tastes and smells. It is a military standard 1-qt. capacity canteen with military thread configuration to accommodate issued (NBC) caps. It is offered in a translucent color that shows fluid levels and cleanliness. Features: Temperature range of -40F to 212F (freezer and microwave safe); dishwasher safe (when positioned away from heating element on top rack); looped top allows for easy carrying by hand or carabineer; and sized to military specifications to fit in issued canteen cups and pouches.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Great buy for the money\n\nReview: BLACHAWK!'s Coyote tan canteen was purchased to use for short hiking trips and overnight camping excursions. I purposely bought the model WITHOUT the logo as I'm not one to \"flash\" or care about such things. But I did want something a bit better than the standard GI surplus canteen. I've used them too many times while is Marine, and felt a step up was in order since I got to choose.\n The canteen's fit & finish is excellent with a tight seal and the ability to run a \"sip tube\" through the top. I bought the coyote tan model only because it was opaque, and seemed like a better choice than OD Green. I also purchased matching FDE canteen covers (I bought 2 canteens) to go with my remaining kit. To date I've only used them once when my wife & I went on a short daytime hike in a nearby national park, and both canteens functioned flawlessly. I expect they will continue to do so for years to come.\n All in all, I'm quite pleased with the purchase, though I still don't know why a simple canteen commands such a price. Yes, I did go for the \"name brand\" - but did so because the price difference on Amazon at the time was minimal. And for that minimal difference in price, I believe the BLACKHAWK! canteen to be well worth the money - which is why I gave it 5 stars. Would I have done so if I'd paid full retail? No! Four stars would have had to suffice, and that would have been stretching it. But ONLY if the price had been higher. Overall quality is excellent.","Product: Wayne Stinnett is a best selling American novelist and a Veteran of the Marine Corps. Between those careers, hes worked as a deckhand, commercial fisherman, dive master, taxi driver, construction manager, and long-haul truck driver. He lives on Lady's Island, in the South Carolina Low Country, with his wife and youngest daughter. They have three grown children, five grand children, three dogs and a whole flock of parakeets. He grew up in Melbourne, Florida and has also lived in the Florida Keys, the Bahamas, and Cozumel, Mexico.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: YET ANOTHER MARVELOUS YARN!\n\nReview: Wayne Stinnett has created one of the most endearing characters in all of modern fiction in former Recon Marine Jesse McDermitt. Jesse and his ever-expanding cast of friends, family & associates leave me with a sense of belonging unlike any other group of characters. And while I don't know much about the Florida Keys, I feel as if I've been there many times now - living vicariously through Jesse's many exploits there.\n In FALLEN ANGEL, Jesse is taken back to familiar territory. Territory all too familiar to me as well. As any Marine who's ever \"stepped on the yellow footprints\" at nearby Parris Island is all too familiar with Beaufort, SC and the surrounding area.\n While this tale was a bit less nail biting, and just a touch more light hearted, it was nonetheless good to see Jesse back in action once more. Doing what he does best. And making new friends along the way.\n Author Stinnett's 'FALLEN . . . ' series is an absolute joy to read. Providing action, intrigue, camaraderie, and the ever-present travel guide-like experience with each read. Certainly a series whose next installment I always look forward to."],"string":"[\n \"Product: Display your patches and other hook-and-loop-backed products with our patch panel. This is an all around awesome product. Measuring 30\\\" x 36\\\" The backing is black Cordura. The front is made using a single piece of soft loop. There are 4 1/2\\\" hole metal grommets so you can hang or attach this mat virtually anywhere you want to display your patch collection.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: My 2nd of Many Bastion Panels To Come.\\n\\nReview: My 2nd Bastion Patch Panel. Wont be my last. On recommendations from friends, I bought my 1st Bastion Patch Panel some months ago. It filled up quickly. This is my 2nd, slightly larger Bastion Patch Panel. Im certain it won't be my last.\\n Ive found the Bastion Patch Panel to be very well made, the fit & finish extraordinary, and its durability beyond reproach. The front (loop) side is well made, crafted of medium-fine loop, which holds everything in place like glue. Yet not difficult to remove & rearrange when needed. The panel itself is flexible enough to roll up with ease, without damage, or loss, of patches. Yet stiff enough to hang from the grommets freely, straight & level.\\n All in all, a very fine piece of equipment.\",\n \"Product: This is the authentic military allice clip which can be used to attach most BLACKHAWK pouches to your belt or vest It works by sliding the back Gate up or to the open position, attaching it to your gear and then sliding it on the belt or vest in your designated spot You then close the Gate and your gear is secure until you decide to remove or relocate its position It is black anodized for the subdued look as well as corrosion resistant Four (4) to a pack\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: ... aging ones from 1970s web gear that had seen better days. While these clips aren't \\\"quite\\\" as heavy ...\\n\\nReview: These ALICE clips were purchased to replace aging ones from 1970s web gear that had seen better days. While these clips aren't \\\"quite\\\" as heavy as the originals, they seem to work just fine - and the difference gauge of steel is scarcely noticeable. It's just that, after carrying them for over forty years, you notice such things.\\n As these are used to secure .45ACP mag carriers to my web belt, they are more than up to the task. Their fit and finish, and function are as expected - with a powder coating of semi-gloss black just like the originals. As I have nothing but the original issue models to compare them to, I can only say that if I didn't know better I'd think they came from the supply room at Parris Island. And that is high praise indeed.\\n They're ALICE clips. They work. Buy them (if they're your thing). Nuff said.\",\n \"Product: The BLACKHAWK! Omega Elite M16 Mag Pouch hold four M16/M4 30-round mags. The pouch offers dividers that prevent mag clatter and enhances noise discipline. Available in Black or Desert Tan.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: OMEGA ELITE NEVER LETS ME DOWN\\n\\nReview: This is my second BLACKHAWK! OMEGA ELITE M16 MAG POUCH. My first I've had for years, and it was in OD Green. As Ive changed and modified my kit over the years I saw the need for both an additional one (since the old one was showing \\\"some\\\" signs of wear), and one in another color.nSo I opted for the Desert Tan this time. This gives me a full load out in both colors. A bit of overkill perhaps, but since much of the OD kit I have is AT LEAST 25 years old - maybe not. Time to upgrade. And BLACKHAWK! has never let me down wit heir Omega Elite Series.\\n Versatility is its strong point. I can wear it on my belt, just gelw my belt, or as a dropleg unit well below my belt. It's modularity, strong build characteristics, and my familiarity with it from before make it a no brainer.\",\n \"Product: The Canteen with BLACKHAWK! Logo offers BPA-free, impact-resistant Tritan copolyester construction resists unwanted tastes and smells. It is a military standard 1-qt. capacity canteen with military thread configuration to accommodate issued (NBC) caps. It is offered in a translucent color that shows fluid levels and cleanliness. Features: Temperature range of -40F to 212F (freezer and microwave safe); dishwasher safe (when positioned away from heating element on top rack); looped top allows for easy carrying by hand or carabineer; and sized to military specifications to fit in issued canteen cups and pouches.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Great buy for the money\\n\\nReview: BLACHAWK!'s Coyote tan canteen was purchased to use for short hiking trips and overnight camping excursions. I purposely bought the model WITHOUT the logo as I'm not one to \\\"flash\\\" or care about such things. But I did want something a bit better than the standard GI surplus canteen. I've used them too many times while is Marine, and felt a step up was in order since I got to choose.\\n The canteen's fit & finish is excellent with a tight seal and the ability to run a \\\"sip tube\\\" through the top. I bought the coyote tan model only because it was opaque, and seemed like a better choice than OD Green. I also purchased matching FDE canteen covers (I bought 2 canteens) to go with my remaining kit. To date I've only used them once when my wife & I went on a short daytime hike in a nearby national park, and both canteens functioned flawlessly. I expect they will continue to do so for years to come.\\n All in all, I'm quite pleased with the purchase, though I still don't know why a simple canteen commands such a price. Yes, I did go for the \\\"name brand\\\" - but did so because the price difference on Amazon at the time was minimal. And for that minimal difference in price, I believe the BLACKHAWK! canteen to be well worth the money - which is why I gave it 5 stars. Would I have done so if I'd paid full retail? No! Four stars would have had to suffice, and that would have been stretching it. But ONLY if the price had been higher. Overall quality is excellent.\",\n \"Product: Wayne Stinnett is a best selling American novelist and a Veteran of the Marine Corps. Between those careers, hes worked as a deckhand, commercial fisherman, dive master, taxi driver, construction manager, and long-haul truck driver. He lives on Lady's Island, in the South Carolina Low Country, with his wife and youngest daughter. They have three grown children, five grand children, three dogs and a whole flock of parakeets. He grew up in Melbourne, Florida and has also lived in the Florida Keys, the Bahamas, and Cozumel, Mexico.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: YET ANOTHER MARVELOUS YARN!\\n\\nReview: Wayne Stinnett has created one of the most endearing characters in all of modern fiction in former Recon Marine Jesse McDermitt. Jesse and his ever-expanding cast of friends, family & associates leave me with a sense of belonging unlike any other group of characters. And while I don't know much about the Florida Keys, I feel as if I've been there many times now - living vicariously through Jesse's many exploits there.\\n In FALLEN ANGEL, Jesse is taken back to familiar territory. Territory all too familiar to me as well. As any Marine who's ever \\\"stepped on the yellow footprints\\\" at nearby Parris Island is all too familiar with Beaufort, SC and the surrounding area.\\n While this tale was a bit less nail biting, and just a touch more light hearted, it was nonetheless good to see Jesse back in action once more. Doing what he does best. And making new friends along the way.\\n Author Stinnett's 'FALLEN . . . ' series is an absolute joy to read. Providing action, intrigue, camaraderie, and the ever-present travel guide-like experience with each read. Certainly a series whose next installment I always look forward to.\"\n]","isConversational":false},"profile_size":{"kind":"number","value":5,"string":"5"},"task":{"kind":"string","value":"longlamp_3"},"split_kind":{"kind":"string","value":"user_based"},"id":{"kind":"number","value":1694,"string":"1,694"}}},{"rowIdx":1695,"cells":{"question_id":{"kind":"string","value":"A2EL5NSP3A1OV8"},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of \"5.0\" for a product with description \"Parliament ~ Osmium\". The summary of the review text is \"Parliament in the Beginning\"."},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"This is where it started after the success of \"I Just Want to Testify\" had hit the airwaves. Mr. Clinton had gotten the rights back to the Parliament name and the rest became history. This is Bluesy acid dripping rock from the band. You can tell that this band was going to go far if they hung together. Thankfully, for all of us Pfunk fans they did. This is the real start of it. My favorite cuts are still \"Moonshine Heather\" and \"My Automobile\", and the original \"Red Hot Mama\". This should be in your collection if you say you know all about uncut funk, and also if your in to rockabilly-blues. I must admit though this is not your average fifty yard dash of funk. So be careful, you just might learn something if your a musician, if not it's okay. You like me, can just sit back and listen , while your brain goes \"WOW this is good stuff\". I still have the original Lp sealed up along with the Chocolate City and Mothership Connection LP's cause it just that good to my earhole. Buy it you'll like it. Besides how else are you gonna know where \"The Funk\" really came from? You also will learn why the \"PFUNK\" is the most sampled music form over the last twenty-five years."},"correct_answer":{"kind":"string","value":"This is where it started after the success of \"I Just Want to Testify\" had hit the airwaves. Mr. Clinton had gotten the rights back to the Parliament name and the rest became history. This is Bluesy acid dripping rock from the band. You can tell that this band was going to go far if they hung together. Thankfully, for all of us Pfunk fans they did. This is the real start of it. My favorite cuts are still \"Moonshine Heather\" and \"My Automobile\", and the original \"Red Hot Mama\". This should be in your collection if you say you know all about uncut funk, and also if your in to rockabilly-blues. I must admit though this is not your average fifty yard dash of funk. So be careful, you just might learn something if your a musician, if not it's okay. You like me, can just sit back and listen , while your brain goes \"WOW this is good stuff\". I still have the original Lp sealed up along with the Chocolate City and Mothership Connection LP's cause it just that good to my earhole. Buy it you'll like it. Besides how else are you gonna know where \"The Funk\" really came from? You also will learn why the \"PFUNK\" is the most sampled music form over the last twenty-five years."},"documents":{"kind":"list like","value":["Product: Britt Reid (Seth Rogen) is a slacker by day, party animal by night... until he finds a serious career thats seriously cool: crime-fighting action hero. As the Green Hornet, he teams up with gadget wiz and martial arts master Kato (Jay Chou) to take down LA's underworld. Even Britts assistant Lenore (Cameron Diaz) doesn't suspect this mismatched pair is the masked duo busting the city's toughest thugs led by Chudnofsky (Christoph Waltz). With style, swagger and an arsenal of awesome gear, the Green Hornet and Kato are doing justice their way, making every mission a mix of over-the-top action and outrageous comedy.\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: Leave the icons alone\n\nReview: This movie totally sucks unless you know absolutely nothing about the television series. Of late the trend has been to take tv shows or older movies and make them funny. Big mistake, Green Hornet was never meant to be funny. I am not saying that there weren't funny moments in the tv show because there was. Like when Bruce got stuffed in to the garbage can by one of the crazier villians on the show. Al films have this in them, some than others but this was atrocious. The only good thing was the car and that was blown out of proportion as well. Yes, I know there is no Bruce Lee around to fill in the gaps in this movies but even he couldn't have saved it. I knew it was in trouble when they let Seth Rogen be the lead in it, it was down hill from that moment on. I would like to see a more serious or truer version than this. Follywood please leave the originals alone.","Product: The Jacksons ~ Triumph\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Jacksons Do It Again\n\nReview: This is an album that went under the radar for some reason, yet it is really good. This is pre Off the Wall and Thriller, the whole clan is in on it except for Janet. The album opens up with \"Can You Feel It\" My favorite is \"Lovely One\" these tracks rate high on my list of Jackson Five/The Jacksons list. It still amazes me the range of everyone in the group. Then there is \"Heartbreak Hotel\" Just good music all the way around. For fans it should be on their R&B \"A\" list of CDs. Then there is Rod Temperton of Heatwave fame writing lyrics, Michael even writes two of the songs. And, I know everybody will groove to \"Get on the Floor\", which is definitetly a pre Quincy Jones cut that will shake your body down. Get this CD, you won't regret it !!!","Product: CD debut of Slave's fifth and most popular album, originally released in 1980. Also includes the 12\" single disco mix of \"Feel My Love,\" along with the single versions of \"Sizzlin' Hot\" and \"Watching You\"!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Slave at it's Best\n\nReview: Let me start off by saying that Mrs. Alvarez is right. This snit is dope, you could call it gang related funk. Better than most gangs of musicians on the stage at the same time. This band had it all, and showcased it on every Lp. Nobody in the band got left hanging they were too, too talented. Out of Dayton, Ohio. The funk, these boys put down is still habit forming. Only Funkadelic/Parliament and \"The Bar-Kays\" could keep up with this funk.\n\nPut it in your trunk this summer and watch all the old school people start to gather round. Your momma remembers these songs if she was funky and knew it, daddy was in the corner by the speaker trying to cop an ounce of Steve Arrington's vocals, Drack had most of us laid out on the floor cause we couldn't dance anymore. Then they would hit hit with one of their slow songs and the lights would go out. And all you could hear was sighs, and moans. This band had it all, why they are not constantly played on all the airwaves talking about classic soul, and R&B is beyond me. This Cd is a STONE JAM, yeah Mon!!","Product: Prince, St. Paul\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: The Family - Best of the Spin-off bands\n\nReview: This is a gem of a spin-off, \"The Family\" did not get the due they were owed. Neither did Tamara and the Seen for that matter, but here are some classic gems for you Prince fans. This is a complete Lp. From the beginning to the end this LP is jazzy, funky, and hypnotic. Suzanna's Pajamas is so smooth, \"Nothing Compares to You\" is the best version anyone has done so far. There is also the \"Screeams of Passion\", and \"Desire\". These two jams alone are worth the price of the Disc. St. Paul, and Eric Leeds are in rare form here, and so is \"Jelly Beans\" Johnson, and the rest of the Family. So buy the LP, and someone hurry up and re-master this cd, and include their other unreleased music as well, there is more than this LP in the archives, haul it out get it on CD format Please!!!","Product: CD\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: The greatest ain't always the greatest, too bad.\n\nReview: Here's the sad story folks, like most of the pioneers the sos band gets jipped. Like a lot of R&B music artists do. Ie.... Bernie Worrell another example. Here we have the s.o.s. band and their fans getting ripped off. Not only does this miss some great tracks. The company responsible shortens the songs; And this industry complains about the lack of revenue it is not getting the last ten years. Maybe if they would stop trying so hard to make a buck and give the people back their music they would make some money. Anyway, I digress. I have always been a big fan of the s.o.s. band and saw a few of their live shows. Man talk about a tight group.. These cats were something else..We fans know all the members of the band so what can you say there except brilliant. Kind of like the band Pleasure which nobody seems to remember which I find really weird. I truly believe this Cd should be done over with all songs in their orignal compositions. this is why the \"greatest hits are not always the greatest hits\". Greatest hits CDs should be A triple pack with songs in their entire format and a few \"live\" version of shows of the band performing at their peak. That's just my opinion. Chat everyone up later. Check out all my reviews \"DJ Warlock\" Soul,R&B,Dance, and Funk Professor since 1965.","Product: Funkadelic's ground-breaking self-titled 1970 debut is laden with great songs, including \"I'll Bet You\" and \"I Got A Thing.\" This CD contains the original 7 track album (remastered) plus 7 bonus tracks from 1969 (alternate 45 versions and the associated non-album B-sides): \"Can't Shake It Lose,\" \"I'll Bet You,\" \"Music For My Mother,\" \"As Good As I Can Feel,\" \"Open Our Eyes,\" \"Qualify And Satisfy\" and \"Music For My Mother.\"\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Black Rock And Roll You say?\n\nReview: Black rock & roll? yes!! Long before Living colour. And, long before it was cool to be funky. I drove my neighborhood crazy with this LP. THe neighbors were calling my mom at work, talking about me playing some kind of devil rock music. But it was cool, it was cool cause I knew how to groove. I was walking around Oaktown asking people what is soul, and if they could get to that, long before it was a matter of fact. All of these jams are good to the earhole and lay down the rules for black rock and roll. Not the anglo-saxon's version of what black rock and roll should be. No offense Chuck Berry, or that other guy who will remain nameless in this review.\n\nThis is the ground breaking snit, of what was to be comming around the mountain when she comes. If you can get to that!! You've got Tiki Fullwood on here, that should be enough for anyone familiar with the funk that's spychedelic (yes, I spelled it that way on purpose).\n Funkadelic even had Michael Jackson talking about \"I Bet Cha\". yeah, he covered it, check your history, folks. I am funk-ologist. And funkadelic soul is the ring around my bath tub.","Product: When Eddie Hazel joined George Clinton's Parliament/Funkadelic mothership in the late '60s at the tender age of 17, he was a solid R&B guitar player.but in a very short time under the tutelage of Dr. Funkenstein, he was, well, a monster (check the title track to the 'Maggot Brain' album to see what we mean)! However, by the time the P-Funk mob hit its commercial stride in the mid-'70s, Eddie was busy battling substance abuse problems, and wasn't around for the ride on the charts. But Clinton and crew repaid their debt to Hazel on this 1977 solo release; not only does Clinton co-produce, but such P-Funk stalwarts as Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrell and the Brides of Funkenstein are on board to support Eddie's searing guitar work on 'California Dreamin'; 'Frantic Moment'; 'So Goes the Story'; 'I Want You (She's So Heavy)'; 'Physical Love'; 'What About It?', and 'California Dreamin' (Reprise)'. In fact, it's practically a P-Funk release with the mothership's very own homegrown guitar hero in the spotlight; no wonder it's a cult classic, and a Collectors' Choice Music exclusive!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: EDDIE, we miss you\n\nReview: For those that don't know much about this cat, let me just say this. He hung out with Jimi, had crazy mad talent, and even though like Jimi his musical career was cut way too short. Could still be on the all-time top hundred guitar players list. This is a sample of his genius. Think Bernie Worrell on guitar, and your getting close.\n\nGames, Dames and Guitar thangs was one of those Lp's I had to buy three or four times, because it kept coming up missing. Anyway, the tracks here, are amazing especially, when you consider when this \"Monster\" came out. Two versions of \"California Dreamin' are here, there is also, \"So goes the story\" my personal favorites are \"I Want You ( She's so Heavy)\" This version of the Beatle's cut is so different you just gotta own it to hear what the Beatles missed, yeah I said what they missed. And pulling the wagon hard is the short ditty called \"What about it?\" must have for fans collecting the individual pieces of what made Funkadelic funky and what gave them that unique rock sound that is often imitated but, never duplicated.","Product: 2008 album from the Jazz musician. Funk music has been a passion of Culbertson's since his youth and on this album, he is bringing the Funk back along with musical friends Bootsy Collins, Tom Scott, Sharon Jones, Ronnie Laws, Maceo Parker, Gerald Albright and many other musical allies.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: BRIAN Getting his groove back\n\nReview: I REMEMBER the first time I heard Mr. Culbertson I was at this mall in Walnut Creek,Ca. they were having a Jazz session in the mall, and it was cool he played some jams .that at that time I didn't know what they were .But, man the jams sounded good. So,the lady and I decided to stop and pay attention. It turned out that, that was a good thing to do too, He's got skills on the keyboards. This disc reminded us of that day. She loves his opening track with Bootsy ,that was a given. After we listened to the whole thing a couple of times I just had to write this review..Check out this disc folks, there are some groovy tracks here .Very slick Mr. Culbertson.","Product: 2008 album from the Jazz musician. Funk music has been a passion of Culbertson's since his youth and on this album, he is bringing the Funk back along with musical friends Bootsy Collins, Tom Scott, Sharon Jones, Ronnie Laws, Maceo Parker, Gerald Albright and many other musical allies.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: BRIAN Getting his groove back\n\nReview: I REMEMBER the first time I heard Mr. Culbertson I was at this mall in Walnut Creek,Ca. they were having a Jazz session in the mall, and it was cool he played some jams .that at that time I didn't know what they were .But, man the jams sounded good. So,the lady and I decided to stop and pay attention. It turned out that, that was a good thing to do too, He's got skills on the keyboards. This disc reminded us of that day. She loves his opening track with Bootsy ,that was a given. After we listened to the whole thing a couple of times I just had to write this review..Check out this disc folks, there are some groovy tracks here .Very slick Mr. Culbertson.","Product: British Jazz/ Funk supergroup Down the the Bone landed on our shores 11 years ago and changed the face of contemporary Jazz. 500,000 units and 5 #1 radio singles later, they are still tearing it up with their new release, FUTURE BOOGIE. Special guest stars Roy Ayers and Hil St. Soul join the DTTB regulars under the brilliant direction of producer and DTTB founder Stewart Wade. The result is the groups funkiest and freshest release in their illustrious career.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Are you Down with the Bone?\n\nReview: What can I say about this band that has not been said already. This is Down to the Bone striking home. Every track is smooth, after hearing the \"supercharge\" Cd I thought maybe this band was winding down, But, guess what? No, they not quite ready to fade off in to the sunset, just yet. Incredible production work, this snit right here bro, right here, this snit, is the bomb (Love yah, Katt)!! It's what I thought of when I first put this in to the player.\n\n When this was dropped, they knew what they were doing. \"Should've Been You\" is a smooth vocal track that features Hil St. Soul and it's so cool, then you have, \"Spiderlegs\", And cut with MR. Acid Jazz himself, ROY AYERS, jamming with the bone on \"Good to Me\", \"Gotcha\", \"Smash and Grab\" are dope on a rope!! Paul Mendelssohn is doing his thing, you know moving cooling like a trumpet machine. Now all we need is a \"Live album starting from the first Cd to this and the sky would be the limit.","Product: 1979 release.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: This should be a five star\n\nReview: The only reason it isn't is because of the drop off in sound quality. Especially where it concerns Marlon McClain's guitar works. They are just so tasty I don, t know how the remastering folks lost it unless, they were so busy grooving to the LP their fingers missed a few control switches. Jazz funk hitting it's stride yep that is what this disc represents. I used to try a teach folks why tracks like theirs was so important to the genre but in this case. Let me just put it like this R&B,DANCE MUSIC, Funk and or Jazz Never sounded so tasty without being categorized. This disc fits all these genres easily. You don't own this? REALLY? WOW !! Missing it you are.","Product: 2011 release, the first conceptually-based album from The Roots. Undun quickly reaffirms the creativity of the outfit that are notorious for pushing the envelope. The album's first single is \"Make My\" featuring Big K.I.R.T. Undun is an existential re-telling of the short life of one Redford Stephens (1974-1999). Through the use of emotives and Redford's internal dialogues the album seeks to illustrate the intersection of free will and prescribed destiny as it plays out `on the corner'. Utilizing a reverse narrative arc, the album begins as the listener finds Redford disoriented--postmortem--and attempting to make sense of his former life. As he moves through its pivotal moments he begins to deconstruct all that has led to his (and our own) coming undun.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: You don't Like this dsc?\n\nReview: If you don't like this disc, I gotta ask again \"Why not\"? Roots has set the table so others can feast. They did a great job of setting the table, here. Some may complain that are too many short songs on this disc. Okay I'll give you that in a sense but, only because I just can't get enough of this band/rap group. I listened to it for a few days and nothing else. The\"Redford Suite\" if added altogether they would equal one or two cool pieces of music. It was broken down in to parts but, I agree that it could have been consolidated in to one or two movements. Still, good stuff, though. What I got from the rest of this disc's collection of works, is that there is a lot or individual concepts being played out musically by the members who have formed a very cohesive unit. This collaboration of individual ideasism is good for them and us. That gives them weight with me. I know this is usual for them, though. Songs like \" One Time, \"Kool-On\" and \"The Otherside\", among a few others that are on hit to me. Are song songs that can stand on their own. I have to say that there is plenty of great listening here.\n\n \"Lighthouse\" is a hit, and watch out for the other cuts too. Because the same can be said for the cut \" Tip the Scale\". \"Tip the Scales,\" which is a \"gotta stay on the grind\", typical type of slow jam. Yep, it works for the group again. There will be many cuts for people to choose from on this disc. That's a good thing. So get your ears on full with this one. Your ears will love ya for it. Firgured, I'd help wet that appetite for the rest of the songs on this disc. For a group that keeps raising the bar on itself, this worked out really good for me \"The listener\".","Product: 2012 album from the R&B/Funk veterans. Although the band only includes one member from the original line-up dating back to the '60s, The Bar-Kays' sound has constantly evolved over the years and Grown Folks brings them right up to date.\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: Time to ride off into sunset\n\nReview: Don't let my title fool you, I love my Bar-kays but it's time for one of my favorite bands to step down and release a real greatest hits cd which should be a double disc set. And not include some many of the same songs as always. They have way too many songs that have not been released. Two of their best Lp's have never been re-released. The LP's \"We Are One\" and \"Light of the World\" have never been re-released or put out in Cd format very strange to me considering the influence of these two discs. This hodge podge of rap just doesn't work nothing stands out for me. maybe I'm jaded but I love this band too much to misled you. look elsewhere for the real Bar-Kays.","Product: Two classic late 70s Bar-Kays albums on CD for the very first time. LIGHT OF LIFE features the singles \"Shine\", \"Are You Being Real\" and \"Ill Dance\". INJOY, their most successful album, includes top 20 hits \"Move Your Boogie Body\" and \"Today Is the Day\".\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: One reason I love Old School Music\n\nReview: When I was growing up, there were bands you just knew could bring the funk. Funkadelics, of course. But before Roger & the Zapp band, there is the Bar-Kays. These men were laying down the funk grooves like no body's business. This 2CD package serves up some tasty music that for some reason in a lot of area's didn't hit the mark, unless you were deep in to the club scene of the late 60's or 70's. I digress, Light of Life is a disc I have been looking for for the last 15 years. This is one of their best efforts during that time period. Every cut lets you know the band is bringing it with the opening bell. Normally I don't go through the listing but these songs are hot, and smooth when they break it down. So let's see \"Get up and Do it\" = funky, \"Shine\" = Uplifting funk,\"I lean on You, You Lean on Me\" =Smooth funk, \"I'll Dance\" = Dance funky, it goes on from there. Then Injoy\" showcases the softer side of the Bar-Kays funk, jams like \"Running in and Out of My Life'. down right sexy smooth with fire underlining every phrase. the same with \"Today is the Day'= Funk Love Ballad. Yes, there is more. But, you should figure it out for yourself.","Product: Features the hit song \"Computer Love\". [Note: This product is an authorized CD-R and is manufactured on demand]\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Not a bad outing for the crew\n\nReview: Yes, it's got two of their most know jams on here, so I know I don't have to say anything about them, so moving past those two great cuts. The rest is cool enough. It made me curious to know if some of these were the ones they didn't want on the first three LP'S. Me personally, I could have done without the short mixes. More likely to have put the whole thing into one big mega mix but hey that's just me. This is the Expanded Edition and they didn't lie about that. I think a couple of the others songs merit expanding as well as the two, but I know you will figure that part out for yourself. Good Stuff especially, for die hard \"Zapp\" fans. That's why I bought it.","Product: After leaving the Ohio Players - upon signing to Mercury - and prior to joining Funkadelic for One Nation Under a Groove, Junie Morrison recorded a trilogy of albums for Westbound. This CD is compiled from the LPs When We Do, Freeze, and Suzie Super Groupie.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: \"JUNIE' Where are you Man?\n\nReview: Sometimes I feel like Jack Nicholson In the First Batman movie when he says, \" I was there I saw it with my own eyes\". In my case I saw and heard it, with my own ears.\n\nLet me let you in on a little secret. Back\"N\"the day there were two really two fantastically underrated artists they both did everything like any true great artists, and went under the radar until they were gone. One was Steve \"The Invade\" Arrington the other was Walter \"JUNIE\" Morrison. Both cats have unbelievable talent.\n\nMost know about \"The Invade\" he played and sang for Slave. Walter played for the Ohio Players if yah'll don't know this please write to milesdeadahead@yahoo.com for an education in what it means to be a Funk Master or Soul Master. To be a master you have to go beyond the veil of commercially cool and accepted. This includes writting, arranging, vocals, instrumental talent, and above all the ability to adlib \"Live\" whether it 10:00 Pm or 3:00 Am.\n\nJunie is so out there wonderfully talented, it is amazing. The fact that there is only one review for this cat and his creative \"Genius\" is ridiculous. In some circles it has been said that if \"Junie\" was not in the band \"The Ohio PLayers\", they would have been stuck in the blues category permanetly. Now, nothing is wrong with that but, There would have been no \"Funky Worm to inspire Kool and the Gangs \"Funky Granny\", No \"Johnny Carson Samba\" to inspire George Duke. Why do you think George Clinton Grabbed him after heariing'Freeze, and \"When we Do\"? Check out his guitar work on \"Spirit\" a tribute to Jimi Hendrix.\n\nI'm telling you, your ears are in for a treat if you like uncommercialized music. If You knew Junie like I know Junie this would have already been in your classic early funk catalog. \"Enough Said? Holla!!! If you feel me.","Product: George Clinton's Family Series is a collection of rare and unreleased recordings from the 70s and 80s selected by and featuring the man himself, as well as Funkadelic, Horny Horn, The Brides Of Funkenstien, The Four Tops, Parliament, Bernie Worell, Sly Stone, Bootsy Collins.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Not bad for unreleased music\n\nReview: While I am a big fan of George's, the family series is lacking in the Funk. There is hardly any funky bass lines worth mentioning, here. The vocals are weak and in some places very weak. Yet there is no doubt there is some funk to listen to Bubblegum Gangster and a couple of other songs are decent at the very least, for newcommers to the funk, there will be some interesting tracks. But for someone who has been a listener since the beginning, this is sorely lacking real P-funk juice. I could take this series and put a Family series of two discs that would rock the house, in retrospect. But that's just me, still a P-funk fan for life though.","Product: Cinderella Theory\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: George and Prince?! Really?\n\nReview: It was getting near the point where my favorite musical mentor was going to past the torch. But, who would the torch be passed to? Well, it wouldn't be Prince. But as an alumni member and a big fan of George's. The purple one helps out with studio time and this is what we get. The timing of this disc's production was crucial in George giving one of his final shout out's to the world at large. A world that was at this point totally strung out on rap. So these little gems fell by the way side. The title track,and \"Airbound\" are the stand out tracks here, while \"Why should I dog you Out\" is a tasty throwback to the \"Atomic Dog\" era. But the rest is harder to swallow unless you are a true fan and have seen the shows. For those new to the funk or any of you wanting intiate a new person to the funk . You could start here and take them down the rabbit hole to the treasure chest that awaits below, it definitely would not hurt. These cuts do bring the flavour.","Product: Reissue of 1979 Release.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Back in the day\n\nReview: This is sly as it used to be. doing what he likes to do . A very good way to remember. what was, what is ,and what should be. I want my funk uncut. This should be in all funk collections.it's really sad that the radio waves are so polluted wiht junk music. Like MUDBONE,no play without being the flavor of the day. I wish there was a station that would allow real music to be revealed ,without gimics and hooks. keep sly and the family stone close to the heart because the same things that made you laugh,can make you cry. cbmiles 4 4milesdeadahead. If there is a radio station that will play the real funk nothing but the funk I WANT TO WORK FOR YOU . ENJOY THE MUSIC, WE CAN USE.CIAO BABY","Product: VARIOS INTERPRETES VERVE UNMIXED 2\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Verve Remixes Classic Cuts !!\n\nReview: This disc has some really uptempo mixes on here. The spin begins with \"Manteca\" Funky Low lives Remix a piece with a big band feel to it made famous by Dizzy Gillespie. There is also, Nina Simone's famous \"Sinnerman\" on display for the ears. A cool rendition of \"Brother Where are You?\", One of my particular favorites on this disc is \"Slap that Bass\" an early Ella Fitzgearald song. They included another favorite of mine, Cal Tjader's \"Soul Sauce\". I love the longer version, here. Many songs do have that techno feel to them, but it can be extra cool at party time in the den and at the local hotspot. DJ Spinna's Remix of Betty Carters's, \"Naima's Love Song\" is saucey to say the least, just like the remix of \"Whatever Lola Wants,\" is. I'm gonna stop here with Ramsey Lewis's \"Do What Cha Wanna\" Remix By Mr. Lewis himself,hmmmmmm..... Because I want you get this disc it's that good. Not bad Verve, not bad at all. Yeah, it's good to the ear hole.","Product: Def Jazz is the brainchild of record producer Tony Joseph, a former radio and club DJ who has enjoyed breakthrough sales with Unwrapped, a series of largely instrumental CDs fusing smooth jazz and hip hop. In honor of the 20th anniversary of Def Jam Records, Joseph pays tribute to the label and its artists with 10 finely crafted tunes. 2005.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Def Jazz is a Hit\n\nReview: I don't know why people are not getting Wid this cd. All the tracks are smooth jazz the way you like it. From the opening track: All I need, which is a smooth cover of Marvin Gaye& Tamy Terrill if I got it right, is so smooth. Hey Young world is a clever jam that is well produced. \"Can I Get a\" is one of my favorite tracks along with \"Bring the Pain\", \"Ghetto Jam, and \"Back Seat\". The disc is smooth and hot at the same time. Oran \"Juice Jones\" is back on a track called \"the Rain\" a fresh little ditty from the old school sound. The artists on this disc include: Gerald albright, Dwight Sills, Roy Hardgrove,and Kevin Toney of the Blackbyrds just to drop some names on you. THIS IS A GREAT WINTER PIECE to listen to. I can't wait for the next disc to come out Buy it you'll like it !!!","Product: These cats were at the forefront of the fertile Ohio funk scene. They plowed their way onto the R&B charts with their classic Cotillion albums, of which these are two (from '77 and '78), featuring the hits The Party Song; Baby Sinister; Stellar Fungk , and Just Freak plus Coming Soon; We've Got Your Party , and more slammin' Slave!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: The Men from Dayton, Ohio\n\nReview: Slave, what can you say, they still should be on the airwaves!!! The Concept, should have showed everybody that they, are a force to be reckond with. Hitting the airwaves like a ton of funk, amazing bass lines with a horn section to rival \"Maceo\" and the boys. \"The Great American Funk Song\",\"Can't get enough of your Love\", and \"Baby Sinister\" Let the world know funk on the dance floor was going to happen.\n\nTim Dozier, Tom Lockett, Flyod Miller and Ray Turner holding down the core, allowing Steve washington, Mark adams,and Mark Hicks to get off. Their was dancing to be had when they were on the scene.\n\n\"The world on hard\", The Party Song and Volcano rupture just more good stuff from the band I could never get enough of.\n\nDrac is Back, and the whole concept LP is just crazy mad with funk.\nI'm still hooked on their sound. Sure wish they would get back together and do a reunion. And will somebody find Mr. Arrington and tell him we want him back on the set. I want to hear live versions of the band or at the very least a few videos of the band in their heydays, at home on stage or out here in California cause they did some great live shows out here. DJ Warlock","Product: Audio CD\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Music is the message/ Kool & the Gang / the snit !!!\n\nReview: It is amazing to me that all this Kool & the Gang music is available on CD Except, the Four best ones: 1) Music is the message, 2)Good Times, 3)Kool Jazz, 4)Open Sesame\nFor all those wanna be Acid Jazz Artists who can't keep up with a solid groove, don't mess with these four Lp's. You will be up all night trying to figure these out. Music is the Message is truly unique for many reasons. But you better not break out your vocoders and try out \"The Electric Frog\" (Parts 1 & 2), you'll be dizzy afterwards. The title track left a lot of bands during that time in the dust, then there is \"Soul Vibrations\", the title speaks for itself. \"Love the Life You Lead\" is a prime \"Kool & the Gang\" Vocal that would lay the foundations of the vocals before J.T showed up. The fun Song,\"Funky Granny\" is a statement of it's own.\n\nAnd anybody that knows anything about Acid Jazz but, doesn't have The LP \"Good Times\" really does not know a lot about Instrumental Funk. \"North South East West\", \"Rated X\", \"Father, Father\" just to name a name few of the cuts to set the stage for your ears. Are just amazing Acid Jazz Monuments from a band that would be recognized for their vocal talent. So what I am saying folks is that this lp's are the snit, get wid it or get left behind.\n\nThe same goes for the \"Kool Jazz\" collection. And the \"Open Sesame\" lp, is a stand alone triumph which crosses vocal funk and Acid Jazz. When you have these in your collection, then you can brag about the rest of your collection. This is Pre Roy Ayers Jazz. These four LP'S are simply the Bomb. Too bad the distributors didn\"t know what they had. I am glad I have my complete set. Better get yours, they are getting rarer by the minute.\n\nCheck out all my reviews. the name is DJ Warlock, and I can't stop !!!! I can do this all day.","Product: Digitally remastered two CD set containing a pair of collaboration albums from these Jazz luminaries: Step Into Your Life (1978) and Prime Time (1980). Step Into Our Life featured the club classic 'Heat of the Beat', which actually charted in the UK pop charts at #43, a rarity for back in the day. Roy Ayers and Wayne Henderson made a spectacular double act, both having a fantastic history in Jazz music over many decades, Roy Ayers with Ubiquity and Wayne Henderson with the Crusaders.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Stepping into good Disco Jazz\n\nReview: Considering this was produced so long ago, i am truly glad someone has gone back and picked out a collection of works that I thought would fade in to oblivion. The most hushed style of music ever sampled over and over again. This is what I have dubbed as \"Disco Jazz\". These cats are pioneers of the genre. This holds true for Acid Jazz as well, with Roy being considered as a major player of the Acid Jazz style. For fans of these two musicians this can definitely be considered as a special package of music. These were special times, everywhere new grooves were being explored, hectic music for hectic times. These gems however, let a person know it's okay to be mello when listening to jazz with lots of vocals. It's okay to stray from the norm. To slow down catch you breath, as just listen. I am in awe that it took so long to hear them again without the popping from the needle. I am very glad they have resurfaced now so I could purchase them. Now some of you get to hear where a lot of musicians in todays musical collage, actually get their sound from."],"string":"[\n \"Product: Britt Reid (Seth Rogen) is a slacker by day, party animal by night... until he finds a serious career thats seriously cool: crime-fighting action hero. As the Green Hornet, he teams up with gadget wiz and martial arts master Kato (Jay Chou) to take down LA's underworld. Even Britts assistant Lenore (Cameron Diaz) doesn't suspect this mismatched pair is the masked duo busting the city's toughest thugs led by Chudnofsky (Christoph Waltz). With style, swagger and an arsenal of awesome gear, the Green Hornet and Kato are doing justice their way, making every mission a mix of over-the-top action and outrageous comedy.\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: Leave the icons alone\\n\\nReview: This movie totally sucks unless you know absolutely nothing about the television series. Of late the trend has been to take tv shows or older movies and make them funny. Big mistake, Green Hornet was never meant to be funny. I am not saying that there weren't funny moments in the tv show because there was. Like when Bruce got stuffed in to the garbage can by one of the crazier villians on the show. Al films have this in them, some than others but this was atrocious. The only good thing was the car and that was blown out of proportion as well. Yes, I know there is no Bruce Lee around to fill in the gaps in this movies but even he couldn't have saved it. I knew it was in trouble when they let Seth Rogen be the lead in it, it was down hill from that moment on. I would like to see a more serious or truer version than this. Follywood please leave the originals alone.\",\n \"Product: The Jacksons ~ Triumph\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Jacksons Do It Again\\n\\nReview: This is an album that went under the radar for some reason, yet it is really good. This is pre Off the Wall and Thriller, the whole clan is in on it except for Janet. The album opens up with \\\"Can You Feel It\\\" My favorite is \\\"Lovely One\\\" these tracks rate high on my list of Jackson Five/The Jacksons list. It still amazes me the range of everyone in the group. Then there is \\\"Heartbreak Hotel\\\" Just good music all the way around. For fans it should be on their R&B \\\"A\\\" list of CDs. Then there is Rod Temperton of Heatwave fame writing lyrics, Michael even writes two of the songs. And, I know everybody will groove to \\\"Get on the Floor\\\", which is definitetly a pre Quincy Jones cut that will shake your body down. Get this CD, you won't regret it !!!\",\n \"Product: CD debut of Slave's fifth and most popular album, originally released in 1980. Also includes the 12\\\" single disco mix of \\\"Feel My Love,\\\" along with the single versions of \\\"Sizzlin' Hot\\\" and \\\"Watching You\\\"!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Slave at it's Best\\n\\nReview: Let me start off by saying that Mrs. Alvarez is right. This snit is dope, you could call it gang related funk. Better than most gangs of musicians on the stage at the same time. This band had it all, and showcased it on every Lp. Nobody in the band got left hanging they were too, too talented. Out of Dayton, Ohio. The funk, these boys put down is still habit forming. Only Funkadelic/Parliament and \\\"The Bar-Kays\\\" could keep up with this funk.\\n\\nPut it in your trunk this summer and watch all the old school people start to gather round. Your momma remembers these songs if she was funky and knew it, daddy was in the corner by the speaker trying to cop an ounce of Steve Arrington's vocals, Drack had most of us laid out on the floor cause we couldn't dance anymore. Then they would hit hit with one of their slow songs and the lights would go out. And all you could hear was sighs, and moans. This band had it all, why they are not constantly played on all the airwaves talking about classic soul, and R&B is beyond me. This Cd is a STONE JAM, yeah Mon!!\",\n \"Product: Prince, St. Paul\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: The Family - Best of the Spin-off bands\\n\\nReview: This is a gem of a spin-off, \\\"The Family\\\" did not get the due they were owed. Neither did Tamara and the Seen for that matter, but here are some classic gems for you Prince fans. This is a complete Lp. From the beginning to the end this LP is jazzy, funky, and hypnotic. Suzanna's Pajamas is so smooth, \\\"Nothing Compares to You\\\" is the best version anyone has done so far. There is also the \\\"Screeams of Passion\\\", and \\\"Desire\\\". These two jams alone are worth the price of the Disc. St. Paul, and Eric Leeds are in rare form here, and so is \\\"Jelly Beans\\\" Johnson, and the rest of the Family. So buy the LP, and someone hurry up and re-master this cd, and include their other unreleased music as well, there is more than this LP in the archives, haul it out get it on CD format Please!!!\",\n \"Product: CD\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: The greatest ain't always the greatest, too bad.\\n\\nReview: Here's the sad story folks, like most of the pioneers the sos band gets jipped. Like a lot of R&B music artists do. Ie.... Bernie Worrell another example. Here we have the s.o.s. band and their fans getting ripped off. Not only does this miss some great tracks. The company responsible shortens the songs; And this industry complains about the lack of revenue it is not getting the last ten years. Maybe if they would stop trying so hard to make a buck and give the people back their music they would make some money. Anyway, I digress. I have always been a big fan of the s.o.s. band and saw a few of their live shows. Man talk about a tight group.. These cats were something else..We fans know all the members of the band so what can you say there except brilliant. Kind of like the band Pleasure which nobody seems to remember which I find really weird. I truly believe this Cd should be done over with all songs in their orignal compositions. this is why the \\\"greatest hits are not always the greatest hits\\\". Greatest hits CDs should be A triple pack with songs in their entire format and a few \\\"live\\\" version of shows of the band performing at their peak. That's just my opinion. Chat everyone up later. Check out all my reviews \\\"DJ Warlock\\\" Soul,R&B,Dance, and Funk Professor since 1965.\",\n \"Product: Funkadelic's ground-breaking self-titled 1970 debut is laden with great songs, including \\\"I'll Bet You\\\" and \\\"I Got A Thing.\\\" This CD contains the original 7 track album (remastered) plus 7 bonus tracks from 1969 (alternate 45 versions and the associated non-album B-sides): \\\"Can't Shake It Lose,\\\" \\\"I'll Bet You,\\\" \\\"Music For My Mother,\\\" \\\"As Good As I Can Feel,\\\" \\\"Open Our Eyes,\\\" \\\"Qualify And Satisfy\\\" and \\\"Music For My Mother.\\\"\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Black Rock And Roll You say?\\n\\nReview: Black rock & roll? yes!! Long before Living colour. And, long before it was cool to be funky. I drove my neighborhood crazy with this LP. THe neighbors were calling my mom at work, talking about me playing some kind of devil rock music. But it was cool, it was cool cause I knew how to groove. I was walking around Oaktown asking people what is soul, and if they could get to that, long before it was a matter of fact. All of these jams are good to the earhole and lay down the rules for black rock and roll. Not the anglo-saxon's version of what black rock and roll should be. No offense Chuck Berry, or that other guy who will remain nameless in this review.\\n\\nThis is the ground breaking snit, of what was to be comming around the mountain when she comes. If you can get to that!! You've got Tiki Fullwood on here, that should be enough for anyone familiar with the funk that's spychedelic (yes, I spelled it that way on purpose).\\n Funkadelic even had Michael Jackson talking about \\\"I Bet Cha\\\". yeah, he covered it, check your history, folks. I am funk-ologist. And funkadelic soul is the ring around my bath tub.\",\n \"Product: When Eddie Hazel joined George Clinton's Parliament/Funkadelic mothership in the late '60s at the tender age of 17, he was a solid R&B guitar player.but in a very short time under the tutelage of Dr. Funkenstein, he was, well, a monster (check the title track to the 'Maggot Brain' album to see what we mean)! However, by the time the P-Funk mob hit its commercial stride in the mid-'70s, Eddie was busy battling substance abuse problems, and wasn't around for the ride on the charts. But Clinton and crew repaid their debt to Hazel on this 1977 solo release; not only does Clinton co-produce, but such P-Funk stalwarts as Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrell and the Brides of Funkenstein are on board to support Eddie's searing guitar work on 'California Dreamin'; 'Frantic Moment'; 'So Goes the Story'; 'I Want You (She's So Heavy)'; 'Physical Love'; 'What About It?', and 'California Dreamin' (Reprise)'. In fact, it's practically a P-Funk release with the mothership's very own homegrown guitar hero in the spotlight; no wonder it's a cult classic, and a Collectors' Choice Music exclusive!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: EDDIE, we miss you\\n\\nReview: For those that don't know much about this cat, let me just say this. He hung out with Jimi, had crazy mad talent, and even though like Jimi his musical career was cut way too short. Could still be on the all-time top hundred guitar players list. This is a sample of his genius. Think Bernie Worrell on guitar, and your getting close.\\n\\nGames, Dames and Guitar thangs was one of those Lp's I had to buy three or four times, because it kept coming up missing. Anyway, the tracks here, are amazing especially, when you consider when this \\\"Monster\\\" came out. Two versions of \\\"California Dreamin' are here, there is also, \\\"So goes the story\\\" my personal favorites are \\\"I Want You ( She's so Heavy)\\\" This version of the Beatle's cut is so different you just gotta own it to hear what the Beatles missed, yeah I said what they missed. And pulling the wagon hard is the short ditty called \\\"What about it?\\\" must have for fans collecting the individual pieces of what made Funkadelic funky and what gave them that unique rock sound that is often imitated but, never duplicated.\",\n \"Product: 2008 album from the Jazz musician. Funk music has been a passion of Culbertson's since his youth and on this album, he is bringing the Funk back along with musical friends Bootsy Collins, Tom Scott, Sharon Jones, Ronnie Laws, Maceo Parker, Gerald Albright and many other musical allies.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: BRIAN Getting his groove back\\n\\nReview: I REMEMBER the first time I heard Mr. Culbertson I was at this mall in Walnut Creek,Ca. they were having a Jazz session in the mall, and it was cool he played some jams .that at that time I didn't know what they were .But, man the jams sounded good. So,the lady and I decided to stop and pay attention. It turned out that, that was a good thing to do too, He's got skills on the keyboards. This disc reminded us of that day. She loves his opening track with Bootsy ,that was a given. After we listened to the whole thing a couple of times I just had to write this review..Check out this disc folks, there are some groovy tracks here .Very slick Mr. Culbertson.\",\n \"Product: 2008 album from the Jazz musician. Funk music has been a passion of Culbertson's since his youth and on this album, he is bringing the Funk back along with musical friends Bootsy Collins, Tom Scott, Sharon Jones, Ronnie Laws, Maceo Parker, Gerald Albright and many other musical allies.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: BRIAN Getting his groove back\\n\\nReview: I REMEMBER the first time I heard Mr. Culbertson I was at this mall in Walnut Creek,Ca. they were having a Jazz session in the mall, and it was cool he played some jams .that at that time I didn't know what they were .But, man the jams sounded good. So,the lady and I decided to stop and pay attention. It turned out that, that was a good thing to do too, He's got skills on the keyboards. This disc reminded us of that day. She loves his opening track with Bootsy ,that was a given. After we listened to the whole thing a couple of times I just had to write this review..Check out this disc folks, there are some groovy tracks here .Very slick Mr. Culbertson.\",\n \"Product: British Jazz/ Funk supergroup Down the the Bone landed on our shores 11 years ago and changed the face of contemporary Jazz. 500,000 units and 5 #1 radio singles later, they are still tearing it up with their new release, FUTURE BOOGIE. Special guest stars Roy Ayers and Hil St. Soul join the DTTB regulars under the brilliant direction of producer and DTTB founder Stewart Wade. The result is the groups funkiest and freshest release in their illustrious career.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Are you Down with the Bone?\\n\\nReview: What can I say about this band that has not been said already. This is Down to the Bone striking home. Every track is smooth, after hearing the \\\"supercharge\\\" Cd I thought maybe this band was winding down, But, guess what? No, they not quite ready to fade off in to the sunset, just yet. Incredible production work, this snit right here bro, right here, this snit, is the bomb (Love yah, Katt)!! It's what I thought of when I first put this in to the player.\\n\\n When this was dropped, they knew what they were doing. \\\"Should've Been You\\\" is a smooth vocal track that features Hil St. Soul and it's so cool, then you have, \\\"Spiderlegs\\\", And cut with MR. Acid Jazz himself, ROY AYERS, jamming with the bone on \\\"Good to Me\\\", \\\"Gotcha\\\", \\\"Smash and Grab\\\" are dope on a rope!! Paul Mendelssohn is doing his thing, you know moving cooling like a trumpet machine. Now all we need is a \\\"Live album starting from the first Cd to this and the sky would be the limit.\",\n \"Product: 1979 release.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: This should be a five star\\n\\nReview: The only reason it isn't is because of the drop off in sound quality. Especially where it concerns Marlon McClain's guitar works. They are just so tasty I don, t know how the remastering folks lost it unless, they were so busy grooving to the LP their fingers missed a few control switches. Jazz funk hitting it's stride yep that is what this disc represents. I used to try a teach folks why tracks like theirs was so important to the genre but in this case. Let me just put it like this R&B,DANCE MUSIC, Funk and or Jazz Never sounded so tasty without being categorized. This disc fits all these genres easily. You don't own this? REALLY? WOW !! Missing it you are.\",\n \"Product: 2011 release, the first conceptually-based album from The Roots. Undun quickly reaffirms the creativity of the outfit that are notorious for pushing the envelope. The album's first single is \\\"Make My\\\" featuring Big K.I.R.T. Undun is an existential re-telling of the short life of one Redford Stephens (1974-1999). Through the use of emotives and Redford's internal dialogues the album seeks to illustrate the intersection of free will and prescribed destiny as it plays out `on the corner'. Utilizing a reverse narrative arc, the album begins as the listener finds Redford disoriented--postmortem--and attempting to make sense of his former life. As he moves through its pivotal moments he begins to deconstruct all that has led to his (and our own) coming undun.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: You don't Like this dsc?\\n\\nReview: If you don't like this disc, I gotta ask again \\\"Why not\\\"? Roots has set the table so others can feast. They did a great job of setting the table, here. Some may complain that are too many short songs on this disc. Okay I'll give you that in a sense but, only because I just can't get enough of this band/rap group. I listened to it for a few days and nothing else. The\\\"Redford Suite\\\" if added altogether they would equal one or two cool pieces of music. It was broken down in to parts but, I agree that it could have been consolidated in to one or two movements. Still, good stuff, though. What I got from the rest of this disc's collection of works, is that there is a lot or individual concepts being played out musically by the members who have formed a very cohesive unit. This collaboration of individual ideasism is good for them and us. That gives them weight with me. I know this is usual for them, though. Songs like \\\" One Time, \\\"Kool-On\\\" and \\\"The Otherside\\\", among a few others that are on hit to me. Are song songs that can stand on their own. I have to say that there is plenty of great listening here.\\n\\n \\\"Lighthouse\\\" is a hit, and watch out for the other cuts too. Because the same can be said for the cut \\\" Tip the Scale\\\". \\\"Tip the Scales,\\\" which is a \\\"gotta stay on the grind\\\", typical type of slow jam. Yep, it works for the group again. There will be many cuts for people to choose from on this disc. That's a good thing. So get your ears on full with this one. Your ears will love ya for it. Firgured, I'd help wet that appetite for the rest of the songs on this disc. For a group that keeps raising the bar on itself, this worked out really good for me \\\"The listener\\\".\",\n \"Product: 2012 album from the R&B/Funk veterans. Although the band only includes one member from the original line-up dating back to the '60s, The Bar-Kays' sound has constantly evolved over the years and Grown Folks brings them right up to date.\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: Time to ride off into sunset\\n\\nReview: Don't let my title fool you, I love my Bar-kays but it's time for one of my favorite bands to step down and release a real greatest hits cd which should be a double disc set. And not include some many of the same songs as always. They have way too many songs that have not been released. Two of their best Lp's have never been re-released. The LP's \\\"We Are One\\\" and \\\"Light of the World\\\" have never been re-released or put out in Cd format very strange to me considering the influence of these two discs. This hodge podge of rap just doesn't work nothing stands out for me. maybe I'm jaded but I love this band too much to misled you. look elsewhere for the real Bar-Kays.\",\n \"Product: Two classic late 70s Bar-Kays albums on CD for the very first time. LIGHT OF LIFE features the singles \\\"Shine\\\", \\\"Are You Being Real\\\" and \\\"Ill Dance\\\". INJOY, their most successful album, includes top 20 hits \\\"Move Your Boogie Body\\\" and \\\"Today Is the Day\\\".\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: One reason I love Old School Music\\n\\nReview: When I was growing up, there were bands you just knew could bring the funk. Funkadelics, of course. But before Roger & the Zapp band, there is the Bar-Kays. These men were laying down the funk grooves like no body's business. This 2CD package serves up some tasty music that for some reason in a lot of area's didn't hit the mark, unless you were deep in to the club scene of the late 60's or 70's. I digress, Light of Life is a disc I have been looking for for the last 15 years. This is one of their best efforts during that time period. Every cut lets you know the band is bringing it with the opening bell. Normally I don't go through the listing but these songs are hot, and smooth when they break it down. So let's see \\\"Get up and Do it\\\" = funky, \\\"Shine\\\" = Uplifting funk,\\\"I lean on You, You Lean on Me\\\" =Smooth funk, \\\"I'll Dance\\\" = Dance funky, it goes on from there. Then Injoy\\\" showcases the softer side of the Bar-Kays funk, jams like \\\"Running in and Out of My Life'. down right sexy smooth with fire underlining every phrase. the same with \\\"Today is the Day'= Funk Love Ballad. Yes, there is more. But, you should figure it out for yourself.\",\n \"Product: Features the hit song \\\"Computer Love\\\". [Note: This product is an authorized CD-R and is manufactured on demand]\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Not a bad outing for the crew\\n\\nReview: Yes, it's got two of their most know jams on here, so I know I don't have to say anything about them, so moving past those two great cuts. The rest is cool enough. It made me curious to know if some of these were the ones they didn't want on the first three LP'S. Me personally, I could have done without the short mixes. More likely to have put the whole thing into one big mega mix but hey that's just me. This is the Expanded Edition and they didn't lie about that. I think a couple of the others songs merit expanding as well as the two, but I know you will figure that part out for yourself. Good Stuff especially, for die hard \\\"Zapp\\\" fans. That's why I bought it.\",\n \"Product: After leaving the Ohio Players - upon signing to Mercury - and prior to joining Funkadelic for One Nation Under a Groove, Junie Morrison recorded a trilogy of albums for Westbound. This CD is compiled from the LPs When We Do, Freeze, and Suzie Super Groupie.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: \\\"JUNIE' Where are you Man?\\n\\nReview: Sometimes I feel like Jack Nicholson In the First Batman movie when he says, \\\" I was there I saw it with my own eyes\\\". In my case I saw and heard it, with my own ears.\\n\\nLet me let you in on a little secret. Back\\\"N\\\"the day there were two really two fantastically underrated artists they both did everything like any true great artists, and went under the radar until they were gone. One was Steve \\\"The Invade\\\" Arrington the other was Walter \\\"JUNIE\\\" Morrison. Both cats have unbelievable talent.\\n\\nMost know about \\\"The Invade\\\" he played and sang for Slave. Walter played for the Ohio Players if yah'll don't know this please write to milesdeadahead@yahoo.com for an education in what it means to be a Funk Master or Soul Master. To be a master you have to go beyond the veil of commercially cool and accepted. This includes writting, arranging, vocals, instrumental talent, and above all the ability to adlib \\\"Live\\\" whether it 10:00 Pm or 3:00 Am.\\n\\nJunie is so out there wonderfully talented, it is amazing. The fact that there is only one review for this cat and his creative \\\"Genius\\\" is ridiculous. In some circles it has been said that if \\\"Junie\\\" was not in the band \\\"The Ohio PLayers\\\", they would have been stuck in the blues category permanetly. Now, nothing is wrong with that but, There would have been no \\\"Funky Worm to inspire Kool and the Gangs \\\"Funky Granny\\\", No \\\"Johnny Carson Samba\\\" to inspire George Duke. Why do you think George Clinton Grabbed him after heariing'Freeze, and \\\"When we Do\\\"? Check out his guitar work on \\\"Spirit\\\" a tribute to Jimi Hendrix.\\n\\nI'm telling you, your ears are in for a treat if you like uncommercialized music. If You knew Junie like I know Junie this would have already been in your classic early funk catalog. \\\"Enough Said? Holla!!! If you feel me.\",\n \"Product: George Clinton's Family Series is a collection of rare and unreleased recordings from the 70s and 80s selected by and featuring the man himself, as well as Funkadelic, Horny Horn, The Brides Of Funkenstien, The Four Tops, Parliament, Bernie Worell, Sly Stone, Bootsy Collins.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Not bad for unreleased music\\n\\nReview: While I am a big fan of George's, the family series is lacking in the Funk. There is hardly any funky bass lines worth mentioning, here. The vocals are weak and in some places very weak. Yet there is no doubt there is some funk to listen to Bubblegum Gangster and a couple of other songs are decent at the very least, for newcommers to the funk, there will be some interesting tracks. But for someone who has been a listener since the beginning, this is sorely lacking real P-funk juice. I could take this series and put a Family series of two discs that would rock the house, in retrospect. But that's just me, still a P-funk fan for life though.\",\n \"Product: Cinderella Theory\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: George and Prince?! Really?\\n\\nReview: It was getting near the point where my favorite musical mentor was going to past the torch. But, who would the torch be passed to? Well, it wouldn't be Prince. But as an alumni member and a big fan of George's. The purple one helps out with studio time and this is what we get. The timing of this disc's production was crucial in George giving one of his final shout out's to the world at large. A world that was at this point totally strung out on rap. So these little gems fell by the way side. The title track,and \\\"Airbound\\\" are the stand out tracks here, while \\\"Why should I dog you Out\\\" is a tasty throwback to the \\\"Atomic Dog\\\" era. But the rest is harder to swallow unless you are a true fan and have seen the shows. For those new to the funk or any of you wanting intiate a new person to the funk . You could start here and take them down the rabbit hole to the treasure chest that awaits below, it definitely would not hurt. These cuts do bring the flavour.\",\n \"Product: Reissue of 1979 Release.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Back in the day\\n\\nReview: This is sly as it used to be. doing what he likes to do . A very good way to remember. what was, what is ,and what should be. I want my funk uncut. This should be in all funk collections.it's really sad that the radio waves are so polluted wiht junk music. Like MUDBONE,no play without being the flavor of the day. I wish there was a station that would allow real music to be revealed ,without gimics and hooks. keep sly and the family stone close to the heart because the same things that made you laugh,can make you cry. cbmiles 4 4milesdeadahead. If there is a radio station that will play the real funk nothing but the funk I WANT TO WORK FOR YOU . ENJOY THE MUSIC, WE CAN USE.CIAO BABY\",\n \"Product: VARIOS INTERPRETES VERVE UNMIXED 2\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Verve Remixes Classic Cuts !!\\n\\nReview: This disc has some really uptempo mixes on here. The spin begins with \\\"Manteca\\\" Funky Low lives Remix a piece with a big band feel to it made famous by Dizzy Gillespie. There is also, Nina Simone's famous \\\"Sinnerman\\\" on display for the ears. A cool rendition of \\\"Brother Where are You?\\\", One of my particular favorites on this disc is \\\"Slap that Bass\\\" an early Ella Fitzgearald song. They included another favorite of mine, Cal Tjader's \\\"Soul Sauce\\\". I love the longer version, here. Many songs do have that techno feel to them, but it can be extra cool at party time in the den and at the local hotspot. DJ Spinna's Remix of Betty Carters's, \\\"Naima's Love Song\\\" is saucey to say the least, just like the remix of \\\"Whatever Lola Wants,\\\" is. I'm gonna stop here with Ramsey Lewis's \\\"Do What Cha Wanna\\\" Remix By Mr. Lewis himself,hmmmmmm..... Because I want you get this disc it's that good. Not bad Verve, not bad at all. Yeah, it's good to the ear hole.\",\n \"Product: Def Jazz is the brainchild of record producer Tony Joseph, a former radio and club DJ who has enjoyed breakthrough sales with Unwrapped, a series of largely instrumental CDs fusing smooth jazz and hip hop. In honor of the 20th anniversary of Def Jam Records, Joseph pays tribute to the label and its artists with 10 finely crafted tunes. 2005.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Def Jazz is a Hit\\n\\nReview: I don't know why people are not getting Wid this cd. All the tracks are smooth jazz the way you like it. From the opening track: All I need, which is a smooth cover of Marvin Gaye& Tamy Terrill if I got it right, is so smooth. Hey Young world is a clever jam that is well produced. \\\"Can I Get a\\\" is one of my favorite tracks along with \\\"Bring the Pain\\\", \\\"Ghetto Jam, and \\\"Back Seat\\\". The disc is smooth and hot at the same time. Oran \\\"Juice Jones\\\" is back on a track called \\\"the Rain\\\" a fresh little ditty from the old school sound. The artists on this disc include: Gerald albright, Dwight Sills, Roy Hardgrove,and Kevin Toney of the Blackbyrds just to drop some names on you. THIS IS A GREAT WINTER PIECE to listen to. I can't wait for the next disc to come out Buy it you'll like it !!!\",\n \"Product: These cats were at the forefront of the fertile Ohio funk scene. They plowed their way onto the R&B charts with their classic Cotillion albums, of which these are two (from '77 and '78), featuring the hits The Party Song; Baby Sinister; Stellar Fungk , and Just Freak plus Coming Soon; We've Got Your Party , and more slammin' Slave!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: The Men from Dayton, Ohio\\n\\nReview: Slave, what can you say, they still should be on the airwaves!!! The Concept, should have showed everybody that they, are a force to be reckond with. Hitting the airwaves like a ton of funk, amazing bass lines with a horn section to rival \\\"Maceo\\\" and the boys. \\\"The Great American Funk Song\\\",\\\"Can't get enough of your Love\\\", and \\\"Baby Sinister\\\" Let the world know funk on the dance floor was going to happen.\\n\\nTim Dozier, Tom Lockett, Flyod Miller and Ray Turner holding down the core, allowing Steve washington, Mark adams,and Mark Hicks to get off. Their was dancing to be had when they were on the scene.\\n\\n\\\"The world on hard\\\", The Party Song and Volcano rupture just more good stuff from the band I could never get enough of.\\n\\nDrac is Back, and the whole concept LP is just crazy mad with funk.\\nI'm still hooked on their sound. Sure wish they would get back together and do a reunion. And will somebody find Mr. Arrington and tell him we want him back on the set. I want to hear live versions of the band or at the very least a few videos of the band in their heydays, at home on stage or out here in California cause they did some great live shows out here. DJ Warlock\",\n \"Product: Audio CD\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Music is the message/ Kool & the Gang / the snit !!!\\n\\nReview: It is amazing to me that all this Kool & the Gang music is available on CD Except, the Four best ones: 1) Music is the message, 2)Good Times, 3)Kool Jazz, 4)Open Sesame\\nFor all those wanna be Acid Jazz Artists who can't keep up with a solid groove, don't mess with these four Lp's. You will be up all night trying to figure these out. Music is the Message is truly unique for many reasons. But you better not break out your vocoders and try out \\\"The Electric Frog\\\" (Parts 1 & 2), you'll be dizzy afterwards. The title track left a lot of bands during that time in the dust, then there is \\\"Soul Vibrations\\\", the title speaks for itself. \\\"Love the Life You Lead\\\" is a prime \\\"Kool & the Gang\\\" Vocal that would lay the foundations of the vocals before J.T showed up. The fun Song,\\\"Funky Granny\\\" is a statement of it's own.\\n\\nAnd anybody that knows anything about Acid Jazz but, doesn't have The LP \\\"Good Times\\\" really does not know a lot about Instrumental Funk. \\\"North South East West\\\", \\\"Rated X\\\", \\\"Father, Father\\\" just to name a name few of the cuts to set the stage for your ears. Are just amazing Acid Jazz Monuments from a band that would be recognized for their vocal talent. So what I am saying folks is that this lp's are the snit, get wid it or get left behind.\\n\\nThe same goes for the \\\"Kool Jazz\\\" collection. And the \\\"Open Sesame\\\" lp, is a stand alone triumph which crosses vocal funk and Acid Jazz. When you have these in your collection, then you can brag about the rest of your collection. This is Pre Roy Ayers Jazz. These four LP'S are simply the Bomb. Too bad the distributors didn\\\"t know what they had. I am glad I have my complete set. Better get yours, they are getting rarer by the minute.\\n\\nCheck out all my reviews. the name is DJ Warlock, and I can't stop !!!! I can do this all day.\",\n \"Product: Digitally remastered two CD set containing a pair of collaboration albums from these Jazz luminaries: Step Into Your Life (1978) and Prime Time (1980). Step Into Our Life featured the club classic 'Heat of the Beat', which actually charted in the UK pop charts at #43, a rarity for back in the day. Roy Ayers and Wayne Henderson made a spectacular double act, both having a fantastic history in Jazz music over many decades, Roy Ayers with Ubiquity and Wayne Henderson with the Crusaders.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Stepping into good Disco Jazz\\n\\nReview: Considering this was produced so long ago, i am truly glad someone has gone back and picked out a collection of works that I thought would fade in to oblivion. The most hushed style of music ever sampled over and over again. This is what I have dubbed as \\\"Disco Jazz\\\". These cats are pioneers of the genre. This holds true for Acid Jazz as well, with Roy being considered as a major player of the Acid Jazz style. For fans of these two musicians this can definitely be considered as a special package of music. These were special times, everywhere new grooves were being explored, hectic music for hectic times. These gems however, let a person know it's okay to be mello when listening to jazz with lots of vocals. It's okay to stray from the norm. To slow down catch you breath, as just listen. I am in awe that it took so long to hear them again without the popping from the needle. I am very glad they have resurfaced now so I could purchase them. Now some of you get to hear where a lot of musicians in todays musical collage, actually get their sound from.\"\n]","isConversational":false},"profile_size":{"kind":"number","value":24,"string":"24"},"task":{"kind":"string","value":"longlamp_3"},"split_kind":{"kind":"string","value":"user_based"},"id":{"kind":"number","value":1695,"string":"1,695"}}},{"rowIdx":1696,"cells":{"question_id":{"kind":"string","value":"A24M1D0P4DGZZT"},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of \"5.0\" for a product with description \"This RainStoppers 48\" arc Auto Open, Wind Buster, Sport umbrella is constructed of a durable fiberglass shaft and ribs, metal stretchers and finished with a foam rubber handle. Matching case included.\". The summary of the review text is \"Best umbrella I have ever owned!\"."},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"I did my research before making a mistake and buying a cheap umbrella. I read many reviews, and soon decided to give this one a try. I am so glad that I did! This is an Extremely nice, and well made umbrella! It is sturdy, and has a good spring which makes it open quickly. Also, it has a comfortable handle which fits into your fingers well because it is shaped to fit inside your hand, and is made of a strong but soft material. Nice touch.\nEspecially for the price, this umbrella is an excellent choice. I have bought a couple of these as gifts, and the recipients have told me that they like them, too. Also, the size is great! It is certainly large enough to keep majority of the rain off.\nI gladly recommend this item to others!"},"correct_answer":{"kind":"string","value":"I did my research before making a mistake and buying a cheap umbrella. I read many reviews, and soon decided to give this one a try. I am so glad that I did! This is an Extremely nice, and well made umbrella! It is sturdy, and has a good spring which makes it open quickly. Also, it has a comfortable handle which fits into your fingers well because it is shaped to fit inside your hand, and is made of a strong but soft material. Nice touch.\nEspecially for the price, this umbrella is an excellent choice. I have bought a couple of these as gifts, and the recipients have told me that they like them, too. Also, the size is great! It is certainly large enough to keep majority of the rain off.\nI gladly recommend this item to others!"},"documents":{"kind":"list like","value":["Product: Use our GOOD GRIPS Ice Cream Spade to serve up a dish of your favorite flavor ice cream. The flat, wide blade of our Ice Cream Spade scoops with ease, and the cushioned end on our non-slip handle makes this scoop as comfortable as it is easy to use.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: This is THE ONE for all ice cream lovers! :)\n\nReview: This is definitely THE Best ice cream scooper for home use. And, I've learned a couple things about all these scoopers on the market. First, you should know that I previously owned another one of this same scooper, but after 3 years of use, it started developing a dark coating on the silver part, which would transfer onto my ice cream. Obviously not very pleasant. So, I got back on Amazon and figured that I would try a different one. I bought one which was a lot more rounded (ie: shaped like a ball of ice cream), but when using it, I found that it required a Lot of extra time and effort, in order to get a decent serving.\nAlso, while reading many reviews, I learned MANY scoopers on the market eventually get that same dark tarnish on the silver part! It's just the nature of the beast.\nMy conclusion is: when it comes to home use, it's best to go with scooper which has a large, flat/slightly curved scooper on it, in order to get a decent serving without investing several minutes and physical labor. For these reasons, I'm now a dedicated fan of the Good Grips scooper, and recommend it to my fellow ice cream lovers. Don't waste your time and effort on others!","Product: Honeywell QuietSet 16\" Stand Fan w/LED Controls & Remote Control.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Quiet, effective, & remote controlled! Love it! :)\n\nReview: My son and I like this particular fan so much, I just bought a 2nd one to be used in another room. The remote control is user-friendly, and the fan is very quiet! In fact, I had gone to my local Target store, yesterday, and bought a stand fan (ie: Holmes brand). I came home and put that together, and immediately realized it was considerably louder than the Honeywell QuietSet fan - plus, the Holmes brand fan is taller and has a larger base, so it's bigger, overall. Why have a fan which takes up more space, when a smaller one is quieter and works equally as well (if not better)?!\nSo, I returned the Holmes fan to Target today, got my money back, and have already placed my order for a 2nd Honeywell QuietSet stand fan, from Amazon.\nEven better, the Honeywell fan cost less than the Holmes fan! At Target, I paid $39.99 + tax for the Holmes fan, but I just paid $33.29 on Amazon for the Honeywell fan! And, since I'm a Prime Member, it will arrive in 2 business days at no extra cost. ...Now that's hard to beat!","Product: Paper sleeves with window & flap. Sleeve size approx. 5\" X 5\" plastic window is 4\" in diameter. This product is manufactured in the China.\n\nRating: 1.0\n\nSummary: Not all CD sleeves are created equal.\n\nReview: I've quickly learning that it's difficult to find QUALITY sleelves because there are numerous sellers out there who are peddling the cheap stuff. ...So far, I can safely recommend that you avoid the sleeves sold by Americopy, and Maxtek Corp. I have already purchased (and returned!) the sleeves I had received from these 2 sellers because they are the thin flimsy ones with the weakly-creased flap.\n\nI'm sure that other buyers out there have had the same problem, so, in order to help each other, we need to post reviews which specifically name sellers! Tell us which ones you've already tried! And, if anyone receives GOOD-quality, heavy-weight sleeves which have a strong crease on the flap, please be sure to post your review here & let us know which seller you got em from! (and contact me directly as well). :)\n\n This can be a frustrating search for GOOD sleeves, but dammit, I'm going through these sellers one-by-one, and am determined to find the right one eventually! :) LOL!","Product: Inscribe Stylus - Black\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: A little costly but recommended!\n\nReview: I have been pleased using this stylus on my iPad, and will probably order another one of the same type when needed. I have read reviews about numerous other stylus, and it seems that most of them say things about the items being cheaply made and breaking down too soon. Although this stylus might seem a tad costly, I can say that it is made well and has not disappointed me during the 9 months I have been using it thus far. Granted, the tip has started to show a little wear, but since we are talking about a very thin layer of rubber (or similar soft material), it's no surprise that it would wear down a bit after so many months of use. The important thing is, it's still working perfectly, and probably has several more months of life in it before I'll toss it out & order a new one.\n Is there a better one out there?? Maybe there is, I don't know....however, I am able to tell you that this is not one of those cheapies that will leave you wanting your money back after a few weeks.","Product: This DVD is a documentary film about the build-up, making, release, and - crucially - music contained on this most revered of albums. With the aid of rare and classic performances, scarce interviews, seldom seen photographs and contributions from those i\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: This wealth of info makes you love the album even more!\n\nReview: A very well-done, informative production about the Physical Graffiti album!! The main guys who you will see speaking on this DVD are experts who I've seen on other, similar DVDs (for example, the Classic Album Under Review of Kath Bush's \"Hounds of Love\"). These guys have been in the biz many years, some of them know the musicians personally, and in the case of this DVD, we also have the engineer who recorded the sessions for this album (atleast, for majority of the tracks. Some of the songs were left-overs from previous sessions).\nThe interviews on this DVD, accompanied by pictures and actual recordings of the band, tell intimate details about the album which will make you appreciate it all the more! In fact, I thought this was kinda funny....\"Physical Graffiti\" has always been my presonal fav Zeppelin album, but it wasn't until I watched this documentary, that it made more sense to me WHY this is my fav album. I mean, the things these guys reveal about each track, and about the inspirations behind the lyrics, and inspirations for certain melodies ,& the places where the band recorded & why certain songs ended up on this album opposed to previous ones, etc....! As I was listening to all of this, I thought, \"No wonder this alum has always been my fav\"!, and now it seems even more amazing that I had realized!\n ....Highly recommended for any Zep fan who is interested in learning a bit more about the music.","Product: This DVD is a documentary film about the build-up, making, release, and - crucially - music contained on this most revered of albums. With the aid of rare and classic performances, scarce interviews, seldom seen photographs and contributions from those i\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: This wealth of info makes you love the album even more!\n\nReview: A very well-done, informative production about the Physical Graffiti album!! The main guys who you will see speaking on this DVD are experts who I've seen on other, similar DVDs (for example, the Classic Album Under Review of Kath Bush's \"Hounds of Love\"). These guys have been in the biz many years, some of them know the musicians personally, and in the case of this DVD, we also have the engineer who recorded the sessions for this album (atleast, for majority of the tracks. Some of the songs were left-overs from previous sessions).\nThe interviews on this DVD, accompanied by pictures and actual recordings of the band, tell intimate details about the album which will make you appreciate it all the more! In fact, I thought this was kinda funny....\"Physical Graffiti\" has always been my presonal fav Zeppelin album, but it wasn't until I watched this documentary, that it made more sense to me WHY this is my fav album. I mean, the things these guys reveal about each track, and about the inspirations behind the lyrics, and inspirations for certain melodies ,& the places where the band recorded & why certain songs ended up on this album opposed to previous ones, etc....! As I was listening to all of this, I thought, \"No wonder this alum has always been my fav\"!, and now it seems even more amazing that I had realized!\n ....Highly recommended for any Zep fan who is interested in learning a bit more about the music.","Product: 1\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Charging in style!! :)\n\nReview: I received this product in exchange for an honest review. The first thing I noticed about this charger, is that it's stylish look! It has more character than the average car charger (in my opinion). :)\nHowever, I then began my testing! I started gradually, first plugging in 2 devices (ie: an iPhone and an iPad). I saw that this charger handled both very well, and was charging them proficiently. I then added 2 more devices (ie: my son's droid phone, and my iPod). Again, I saw that this charger was doing its job well, and did not show any signs of over-heating.\nI have now tested this charger for approximately 2 weeks, and it has done well during each experience. I will post a follow-up if/when this charger fails to perform as expected, but for now, I would gladly recommend it to friends and other consumers. :)","Product: Hey daddy-o's. Hey Mommy-os too. Does your child need to be sedated? Should mama's boy or girl be too busy howling at the moon, let them pulsate to this backbeat. The Ramones sang about brats, babysittters and believing in miracles. Is there any doubt the band didn't want to grow up? If you want a happy family, this album will provide pleasant dreams.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Don't miss the point.\n\nReview: I had to laugh at the above review by someone who felt ripped off because these are lullaby versions! ...Ummm, that's the whole point!! It's a CD of LULLABYEEEE versions, just like the title says. [wink] As many people know, there's a whole series of these, including lullabye versions of Led Zeppelin The Cure, The Eagles, Bob Marley, Pink Floyd, The Beatles, U2, etc. And I think these CDs are esepcially cool for those of us who have children because, obviously, we want to expose our kids to all kinds of music. These lullaby variations are like MAGNETS for young ears, PLUS they're enjoyable for us adults who have loved these songs for many years. I mean, instrumental lullabye versions of Led Zeppelin classics...?! How can you NOT love that?! ;)","Product: 2013 release, the fifth album from the Dallas-based Metal band... and their first with vocalist Jasen Moreno. Features the radio singles 'In Memory Of...' and 'Saturday Night'.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Recently saw em live. New singer is AWESOME!!!\n\nReview: Some people just get stuck on NOT wanting any change. That's understandable...and yes, it does suck that DP have had to change singers a few times. BUT, keep in mind - most of the original line-up are still here, and they don't let the music you've come to love, get far from what you might expect. They know what they're doing. :)\nAnd, this is just my opinion here, but I think this new dude (Jasen) is probably the best singer since the original! I had the pleasure of seeing DP live in Cleveland, just a few months ago, and they rocked harder than I expected!! -AND, Jasen knows what's up!! I will DEFINITELY go see em again whenever they come to town!","Product: Trio ~ Da Da Da\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: One old fogie's favorite. :)\n\nReview: I guess I should start by saying that I'm a \"child of the 80's\", and was actually in jr.high school when this E.P. was originally released, and I quickly bought a vinyl copy. This was back BEFORE the song \"Da Da Da\" was associated with Volkswagen. The song was simply cool because it was fun and catchy.\nWell, then I had the pleasure of knowing that every song on the E.P. was equally as great. ....oh, and I keep using the term \"E.P.\" because this original vinyl (which featured the same cover image as this CD) had only 6 songs on it. All of these other songs weren't added until the release of the CD, many years later. The original E.P. (which I have loved since that time), only includes the following........\n\n1. Anna, Let Me In Let Me Out (2:41)\nNOTE: The version on the CD is longer, and has a more \"studio polished\" treatment, plus added sound effects. Unfortunately, the original (and, Better) version is only available on the vinyl E.P.\n2. Da Da Da [Long Version] (6:35) - Same version as on the CD.\n3. Broken Hearts For You And Me (3:34) - Same version as on the CD.\n4. Energie (3:32). The CD contains a longer, remixed version. The original version (which is better, IMO), is only on the vinyl E.P.\n5. Sunday You Need Love, Monday Be Alone (3:47) - Same version as on the CD.\n6. Ja Ja Ja (2:58). This song is exclusive to the original vinyl.\n\nTo summarize.... buying this newer CD release is not a bad deal, but you're missing out on a few very good songs! So, for those of you who want more, I would suggest that you locate & buy a copy of the original vinyl, or contact me in order to get the missing songs (free of charge within the U.S.).\n\nPeace. ....and \"JA JA JA\"! ;)","Product: 'Punk Goes 80's' features some of today's hottest alternative acts covering songs from the 80's. Highlights include Amber Pacific's 'Video Killed The Radio Star', Sugarcult's 'I Melt With You' and Rufio's 'Don't You Forget About Me'. Fearless. 2005.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: There's nothing \"Punk\" about this CD, but there are some decent covers.\n\nReview: I grew up in the 80's and love most of the songs on this CD, plus I'm a big fan of classic punk rock, so obviously, a merging of the two genres caught my interest. And, with a title like \"Punks Goes 80's\", I expected some good ol' thrashin' screamin' rocking-guitar PUNK music!! Come to find out, there isn't even one song on this CD which fits that description, and what we actually have here, is pop music. There's nothing \"punk\" about these cover versions. Worse yet, the majority of these covers are severely weak, and don't even come close to being as good as their originals. Most of them sound like a college band who were hired to play an 80's party. ...Not necessarily a \"bad\" thing, but these covers definitely fall short of the \"Punk Goes 80's\" concept.\nI will say, about half of the tracks are decent. ..not amazing, but decent.\nThe better tracks (IMO), include the covers of \"Don't You Forget About Me\", \"I Ran\", \"Just Like Heaven\", \"Wrapped Around Your Finger\", \"Forever Young\", \"Deadman's Party\", and \"Video Killed The Radio Star\". The remaining covers are forgettable and/or embarrassing!! So, if you can buy this CD for 50 cents or less (or borrow it from your local library), go for it! Do Not pay full price for it.","Product: 2011 solo album from the Rage Against The Machine guitarist. This self-produced effort is a change of pace from the usual acoustic offerings of past Nightwatchman albums, with the record featuring a full electric backing band called The Freedom Fighter Orchestra. In describing the record, Morello states, ''Troubled times call out for troubled songs. World Wide Rebel Songs is an album of rousing hopelessness and this time The Nightwatchman has brought along his electric guitar to tip the scales. I wanted to capture a vibe midway between Johnny Cash and Che Guevara, murder ballads and Molotov anthems.''\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: Tom's acoustic-strumming snore-fest. :/\n\nReview: Nah. Sorry, everyone. I know how it is when we hear an extremely talented individual who plays in an awesome band (for example, the guitarist in Rage Against The Machine). And, then we hope that the same artist will do something kinda/nearly-as-cool on his solo project. Right?! ..........Well, this is quite the opposite. Tom's solo album, \"World Wide Rebel Songs\" (as well as his debut solo album, \"One Man Revolution\"), are both acoustic snore-fests. I have had the displeasure of bying both of these albums too soon. -and was equally disappointed both times.\nI mean, OK, some of the lyrics are kinda cool, but hey - Tom Morello is (or, \"was\") that crazy-sweet guitarist who really made a mark while he was in RATM, and he blew us all away with his intensity, right?? Well, you wouldn't be able to guess it by listening to his solo work. Both albums reminded me of a shooting star, drifting down from the sky and burning out. ((Zzzzzzz)).\n Yeah, I feel like I should apologize to my fellow RATM fans, but really - even the raw, dangerous-looking album cover will look like a joke after you've heard the music. This is more like a baby's breath on a summer's eve. LOL. What a shame. :/","Product: For those with an interest in the early roots of the psychobilly genre, this 2CD set is a must have featuring music from the acts that influenced a host of later bands.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: A good snapshot of music, considering the used prices! :)\n\nReview: Definitely a lot of good ol' tunes from that genre & time. However, there are more instrumental tracks than I would have hoped. ...In other words, if you're expecting a collection of 'early punk', or even music which is as extreme as the title of this compilation suggests (ie: \"PSYCHO BILLY\", -which would suggest a direct influence to The Cramps), -well, ya might be a bit disappointed. There's a whole other 'chill factor' to this music, as well.\n On the other hand, this collection does offer a good representation of bands at that time, which were reaching for something different and rebellious. ..but, that doesn't mean they often sound like a pre-cursor to something more wild. Personally, I was a bit surprised at how much mellow instrumental tracks are on these CDs.\nStill, I've chosen to rate this collection 4 out of 5 stars. Ya know...it's cool, but - don't let the \"Psychobilly\" name make you think that it's more than it really is. ;)\n Oh,. and -by the way... I see that the used price is currently around $3-$4 bucks. Definitely worth it!!","Product: Quick-drying, water-resistant gel ink lays down smooth, skip-free lines. Contoured grip improves writing comfort. Transparent barrel is as attractive as it is practical. Special Ink Type: Gel; Pen Style: Retractable; Ink Color(s): Black; Pen Type: Roller Ball.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: We use these at the hospital. Love em!\n\nReview: First a word of warning -- I know from experience that when one of these pens are New & un-used, they each come with a tiny \"bulb\" of wax at the tip which must be peeled off before the pen can be used. If you receive these pens and they do Not have that bulb at the tip, then you'll know you've actually received a used product, and should contact your seller.\n\nNow, on to the review.... Prior to my current position at a hospital, I had never used these pens but have become impressed enough to buy a dozen for my personal use at home. They are consistently dependable and have a very good flow of ink, as well as a good quantity of ink so they last long! Also, I just think they're made well, for example, the retracting mechanisms have never failed or fallen apart like some poorly-made pens do. Highly recommended.","Product: Zebras Z-Grip brand of pens is where simple, effective style meets high performance writing. The Z-Grip Plus Retractable Ballpoint Pen features professional, stylish designs making it the new pen of choice for supreme communication. Its the smoothest pen out there, using low-viscosity ink that combines a quick ballpoint dry time and easy ink glide performance. With an elegant barrel that matches ink color, a latex-free rubberized grip for comfort and a convenient designer pocket clip for quick, easy access, the Z-Grip Plus Retractable Ballpoint Pen is the perfect choice for your everyday writing needs. Available ink colors: Black, Blue, Red, Green, Lime Green, Light Blue, Pink, Violet, Orange.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Great pens for work!\n\nReview: I bought these pens specifically to use at my job, and have been very pleased with them. I'm a social worker, so - yes, I do a lot of writing. My 4 basic needs for a good \"work pen\" are: (1) must be blue ink, because I often have people sign legal documents. (2) The ink must flow consistently while I'm writing, and not do that annoying 'stop-start-stop' action. (3) must have a clip, so it will stay on my shirt pocket for quick access. (4) must be retractable, so I can quickly put it away without getting ink on my clothing.\nThese Zebra pens have the above features, plus the rubber grip near the end makes them comfortable to handle. Also, the cost is reasonable, and I think the design looks cool.\nI will be glad to buy more of these when needed.","Product: Perfect Chews are colorful kabobs with wood and loofah textures to provide hours of chewing and play time for your pet. Each kabob has numerous colorful chews on a wood skewer that is topped with a clasp for easy attachment to your pets cage or habitat.\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: Well-made product, but my hamster just ignores it.\n\nReview: My hamster couldn't care less about this thing. It is obviously a well-made product (hence the reason I gave it 2 stars), and according to the 5-star reviews from other people, it appears that certain hamsters really like this item. However, when I first placed this item into my hamster's cage, he basically smelled it, gave it a brief gnaw, and walked away from it. This item has now remained in the cage for the past 7 days, and my hamster completely ignores it.\nI will probably just throw it away soon.\nSo, I cannot recommend this item to other hamster owners. It appears that some hamsters like this thing, but some don't. I suggest that you spend your money on something else which has a higher \"popularity rating\".","Product: From the makers of \"The Original Shower Massage,\" the Waterpik White PowerSpray+ Original Shower Massage SM-451 hand held shower head features 4 spray settings for a high-performance shower. The 4 spray settings include pulsating massage, slow massage, soothing full body, and full body + massage. Includes a flexible 5-foot hose and shower bracket. Installs in minutes on any standard shower pipe. Limited lifetime warranty.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Don't waste your $$ on more expensive models!!\n\nReview: I just moved into a new residence, and was looking on Amazon for a new handheld showerhead. I have owned a number of different handhelds in the past, and definitely prefer them. However, it's been atleast 8 years since I had to buy a new one so, I began reading reviews, and more reviews & more reviews....! What I found was, no matter HOW MANY HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS you're willing to spend on a handheld unit, the vast majority of them seem to have the same complaints (ie: low water pressure, leaks, length of hose, and varying difficulty of installation).\n With this mind, I decided to try this cheapo model by the same company from which I had purchased before. ...Glad I did!! :) It's Awesome!\n\n For one thing, I believe that the water pressure (which many people complain about with any number of handhelds), has a lot to do with how the water pressure was, already, in your home (or wherever you intend to install a handheld showerhead). I mean, the way people complain about water pressure, you would think they expect that a handheld will IMPROVE their already-weak pressure. If you have weak water pressure to begin with, don't expect the best, most-expensive handheld on the market to improve that.\n In my case, the water pressure was great to begin with, and continues to be so after I've installed this handheld.\n\nAs far as leaks go, this unit is tight-fitting & awesome! Many people think that if they remove those little black rubber rings from the ends of the hose, they will achieve better water flow, however, those are WASHERS, and are supposed to remain in place in order to get a good water-tight seal. ;)\n\nRegarding length of hose, this model comes with 4 1/2 feet, which is just fine for most standard home showers. Anymore length would simply be \"hanging around\" with nowhere to go, unless you own an unusually large shower and make habit of walking to the far end!\n\nInstallation....Surprsingly easy! I'm no \"handy-man\", but I was able to install this thing by myself within 8 minutes. The toughest part was taking off the pre-installed showerhead (which required a few turns of a wrench). However, no tools were needed to install this handheld.\n\nThe only \"downside\" that I can see from this particular showerhead, is that is only has 4 settings, one of which is like a regular shower, and the other 3 are variations of \"massage\" settings. ...Now, for me, this is just fine -- I just keep it on the regular shower setting. But, if you're someone who needs 12 or more different settings, well, you'll have to invest more money elsewhere.\n\nAfter receving, installing & enjoying this product, I really have to wonder why people spend $50-$200 or more on similar products!","Product: The Surf Rider Slip N Slide is a fun backyard water slide. The perfect activity for a hot summer day, the surf Rider has a wall of water down the side and on the bumper that keeps the slide continuously slippery ! Simply hook it to any standard garden hose. The water wall continuous spray keeps the slide filled with water and blasts you from head to toe!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Is holding up well, and is a Great value for the price!\n\nReview: Personally, I would definitely recommend this particular model.\nI bought this item for the 4th of July since friends were coming over (and bringing their kids along)! Including my son, there were 5 kids (between the ages of 4-11) sliding up & down this thing for hours, and we did not encounter any issues. This item performed as expected, and did not rip.\nKeep in mind, though, we have only used this item 1 time so far (which was definitely worth the price of purchase, alone). Perhaps these things don't last very long, but hey, they're 10 bucks each...and the kids love em while they last! :)\nPersonally, I would definitely recommend this particular model. Oh, and I'll pass along the suggestion about adding a little dishwashing soap to the slide....it works great for making the slide a lil' slippery & more fun for the kids! But you don't have to over-do it....just walk the length of the silde and drizzle a thin stream of dishwash soap back & forth on it. A very nice addition! :)","Product: This 4CH 2.4GHz mini RC helicopter with pioneering single propeller, built-in Gyro, extremely light weight, strong resistance of impact, steady and agile flying performance. What's more, it is the first RC helicopter that can still work even in windy weather.So,do not miss it!\n\nFeatures:\n\n4CH 2.4G RC helicopter with built-in Gyro\nThe first RC helicopter that can fly outdoor in wind weather (outdoor wind grade 3-4)\nPioneering single propeller design, it can greatly avoid the resistence of wind\nHigh quality ultrathin metal canopy with ultra light weight and strong resistance of impact\nHigh tenacity rotor wing\nBetter flying performance than ALIGN T-REX 100S: extremely steady and extremely agile\nThe remote control is designed with a LCD disply for easier and more precise operation\nFreely flying up, down, forward, backward, left to fly, right to fly, hover with rapid response\nIt is suitable for both indoor and outdoor flying (the wind grade should be no more than 4)\nLeft pole control it up and down and the left / right rotating,right pole control it side fly and forward or backward\n\nSpecifications:\n\nColor: White + Blue\nItem No.: WLtoys V911\nBattery for helicopter: 2 * 3.7V 120mAh/15C Li-Polymer\nFlying time: About 5 minutes\nCharging time: About 30 mimutes (USB charging)\nControlling distance: 50-80 meters\nBattery for controller: 6 * AA batteries (not included)\nModel whole length: Approx. 24 cm / 9.4 inch\nFuselage length: Approx. 22 cm / 8.7 inch\nHeight: Approx.8.5 cm / 3.3 inch\nRC distance: About 100 meters\nFly height: About 50 meters.\n\nRating: 1.0\n\nSummary: Reasons why you shouldn't buy this one.\n\nReview: These RC heli's (atleast, at this price range) are nothing but a money-making scheme for the manufacturers. Granted, I am a novice when it comes to piloting these things, in fact, this is my first remote-control heli. But, this particular model is so delicate, that after you accidentally bang it into a few walls (which, -trust me -is inevitable for any novice, and perhaps even for a more advanced user) - well, this thing has several tiny parts which become loose and/or depart, and can be difficult to replace. So, it will end up becoming inoperable.\nPlus, the parts are tiny, so if they go flying off into some corner of your room....good luck finding them!\n To be more specific, I have owned this heli less than 24 hours, and in this time, I was \"just\" getting decent at operating it's flight. Eventually, however, I accidentally hit a wall and, as a result, 2 of the tiny parts (which connect to the throttle), went flying off. So, I had to find them and carefully put them back into place. Then it worked OK again. However, the next time this heli crashed, those same pieces went scattering elsewhere. I found one of the them but, the other is still missing, and - without both of them, no more flight is possible.\nSo, now I have spent around $40 dollars in order to enjoy this \"toy\" for about 3 hours. And, you can bet that the manufacturers just shrug their shoulders & giggle, since this happens all the time! I mean, if you think that you're going to buy this thing and immediately be able to fly it all around without problems, (LOL!!), wake up. ;) There is definitely a learning curve to operating this thing.\n This toy does fly nice -while it works. But, by the time you've almost got the hang of it, well, then it has bounced off enough walls that it probably won't operate anymore.\n\n The thing which really bothers me, is - if the manufacturers truly wanted to make a better, stronger, and longer-lasting product, they certainly could do so, and still keep the cost below $45-50. But, it's saps like me who keep em in business. ;)\n Bottom line: Do not buy this one."],"string":"[\n \"Product: Use our GOOD GRIPS Ice Cream Spade to serve up a dish of your favorite flavor ice cream. The flat, wide blade of our Ice Cream Spade scoops with ease, and the cushioned end on our non-slip handle makes this scoop as comfortable as it is easy to use.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: This is THE ONE for all ice cream lovers! :)\\n\\nReview: This is definitely THE Best ice cream scooper for home use. And, I've learned a couple things about all these scoopers on the market. First, you should know that I previously owned another one of this same scooper, but after 3 years of use, it started developing a dark coating on the silver part, which would transfer onto my ice cream. Obviously not very pleasant. So, I got back on Amazon and figured that I would try a different one. I bought one which was a lot more rounded (ie: shaped like a ball of ice cream), but when using it, I found that it required a Lot of extra time and effort, in order to get a decent serving.\\nAlso, while reading many reviews, I learned MANY scoopers on the market eventually get that same dark tarnish on the silver part! It's just the nature of the beast.\\nMy conclusion is: when it comes to home use, it's best to go with scooper which has a large, flat/slightly curved scooper on it, in order to get a decent serving without investing several minutes and physical labor. For these reasons, I'm now a dedicated fan of the Good Grips scooper, and recommend it to my fellow ice cream lovers. Don't waste your time and effort on others!\",\n \"Product: Honeywell QuietSet 16\\\" Stand Fan w/LED Controls & Remote Control.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Quiet, effective, & remote controlled! Love it! :)\\n\\nReview: My son and I like this particular fan so much, I just bought a 2nd one to be used in another room. The remote control is user-friendly, and the fan is very quiet! In fact, I had gone to my local Target store, yesterday, and bought a stand fan (ie: Holmes brand). I came home and put that together, and immediately realized it was considerably louder than the Honeywell QuietSet fan - plus, the Holmes brand fan is taller and has a larger base, so it's bigger, overall. Why have a fan which takes up more space, when a smaller one is quieter and works equally as well (if not better)?!\\nSo, I returned the Holmes fan to Target today, got my money back, and have already placed my order for a 2nd Honeywell QuietSet stand fan, from Amazon.\\nEven better, the Honeywell fan cost less than the Holmes fan! At Target, I paid $39.99 + tax for the Holmes fan, but I just paid $33.29 on Amazon for the Honeywell fan! And, since I'm a Prime Member, it will arrive in 2 business days at no extra cost. ...Now that's hard to beat!\",\n \"Product: Paper sleeves with window & flap. Sleeve size approx. 5\\\" X 5\\\" plastic window is 4\\\" in diameter. This product is manufactured in the China.\\n\\nRating: 1.0\\n\\nSummary: Not all CD sleeves are created equal.\\n\\nReview: I've quickly learning that it's difficult to find QUALITY sleelves because there are numerous sellers out there who are peddling the cheap stuff. ...So far, I can safely recommend that you avoid the sleeves sold by Americopy, and Maxtek Corp. I have already purchased (and returned!) the sleeves I had received from these 2 sellers because they are the thin flimsy ones with the weakly-creased flap.\\n\\nI'm sure that other buyers out there have had the same problem, so, in order to help each other, we need to post reviews which specifically name sellers! Tell us which ones you've already tried! And, if anyone receives GOOD-quality, heavy-weight sleeves which have a strong crease on the flap, please be sure to post your review here & let us know which seller you got em from! (and contact me directly as well). :)\\n\\n This can be a frustrating search for GOOD sleeves, but dammit, I'm going through these sellers one-by-one, and am determined to find the right one eventually! :) LOL!\",\n \"Product: Inscribe Stylus - Black\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: A little costly but recommended!\\n\\nReview: I have been pleased using this stylus on my iPad, and will probably order another one of the same type when needed. I have read reviews about numerous other stylus, and it seems that most of them say things about the items being cheaply made and breaking down too soon. Although this stylus might seem a tad costly, I can say that it is made well and has not disappointed me during the 9 months I have been using it thus far. Granted, the tip has started to show a little wear, but since we are talking about a very thin layer of rubber (or similar soft material), it's no surprise that it would wear down a bit after so many months of use. The important thing is, it's still working perfectly, and probably has several more months of life in it before I'll toss it out & order a new one.\\n Is there a better one out there?? Maybe there is, I don't know....however, I am able to tell you that this is not one of those cheapies that will leave you wanting your money back after a few weeks.\",\n \"Product: This DVD is a documentary film about the build-up, making, release, and - crucially - music contained on this most revered of albums. With the aid of rare and classic performances, scarce interviews, seldom seen photographs and contributions from those i\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: This wealth of info makes you love the album even more!\\n\\nReview: A very well-done, informative production about the Physical Graffiti album!! The main guys who you will see speaking on this DVD are experts who I've seen on other, similar DVDs (for example, the Classic Album Under Review of Kath Bush's \\\"Hounds of Love\\\"). These guys have been in the biz many years, some of them know the musicians personally, and in the case of this DVD, we also have the engineer who recorded the sessions for this album (atleast, for majority of the tracks. Some of the songs were left-overs from previous sessions).\\nThe interviews on this DVD, accompanied by pictures and actual recordings of the band, tell intimate details about the album which will make you appreciate it all the more! In fact, I thought this was kinda funny....\\\"Physical Graffiti\\\" has always been my presonal fav Zeppelin album, but it wasn't until I watched this documentary, that it made more sense to me WHY this is my fav album. I mean, the things these guys reveal about each track, and about the inspirations behind the lyrics, and inspirations for certain melodies ,& the places where the band recorded & why certain songs ended up on this album opposed to previous ones, etc....! As I was listening to all of this, I thought, \\\"No wonder this alum has always been my fav\\\"!, and now it seems even more amazing that I had realized!\\n ....Highly recommended for any Zep fan who is interested in learning a bit more about the music.\",\n \"Product: This DVD is a documentary film about the build-up, making, release, and - crucially - music contained on this most revered of albums. With the aid of rare and classic performances, scarce interviews, seldom seen photographs and contributions from those i\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: This wealth of info makes you love the album even more!\\n\\nReview: A very well-done, informative production about the Physical Graffiti album!! The main guys who you will see speaking on this DVD are experts who I've seen on other, similar DVDs (for example, the Classic Album Under Review of Kath Bush's \\\"Hounds of Love\\\"). These guys have been in the biz many years, some of them know the musicians personally, and in the case of this DVD, we also have the engineer who recorded the sessions for this album (atleast, for majority of the tracks. Some of the songs were left-overs from previous sessions).\\nThe interviews on this DVD, accompanied by pictures and actual recordings of the band, tell intimate details about the album which will make you appreciate it all the more! In fact, I thought this was kinda funny....\\\"Physical Graffiti\\\" has always been my presonal fav Zeppelin album, but it wasn't until I watched this documentary, that it made more sense to me WHY this is my fav album. I mean, the things these guys reveal about each track, and about the inspirations behind the lyrics, and inspirations for certain melodies ,& the places where the band recorded & why certain songs ended up on this album opposed to previous ones, etc....! As I was listening to all of this, I thought, \\\"No wonder this alum has always been my fav\\\"!, and now it seems even more amazing that I had realized!\\n ....Highly recommended for any Zep fan who is interested in learning a bit more about the music.\",\n \"Product: 1\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Charging in style!! :)\\n\\nReview: I received this product in exchange for an honest review. The first thing I noticed about this charger, is that it's stylish look! It has more character than the average car charger (in my opinion). :)\\nHowever, I then began my testing! I started gradually, first plugging in 2 devices (ie: an iPhone and an iPad). I saw that this charger handled both very well, and was charging them proficiently. I then added 2 more devices (ie: my son's droid phone, and my iPod). Again, I saw that this charger was doing its job well, and did not show any signs of over-heating.\\nI have now tested this charger for approximately 2 weeks, and it has done well during each experience. I will post a follow-up if/when this charger fails to perform as expected, but for now, I would gladly recommend it to friends and other consumers. :)\",\n \"Product: Hey daddy-o's. Hey Mommy-os too. Does your child need to be sedated? Should mama's boy or girl be too busy howling at the moon, let them pulsate to this backbeat. The Ramones sang about brats, babysittters and believing in miracles. Is there any doubt the band didn't want to grow up? If you want a happy family, this album will provide pleasant dreams.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Don't miss the point.\\n\\nReview: I had to laugh at the above review by someone who felt ripped off because these are lullaby versions! ...Ummm, that's the whole point!! It's a CD of LULLABYEEEE versions, just like the title says. [wink] As many people know, there's a whole series of these, including lullabye versions of Led Zeppelin The Cure, The Eagles, Bob Marley, Pink Floyd, The Beatles, U2, etc. And I think these CDs are esepcially cool for those of us who have children because, obviously, we want to expose our kids to all kinds of music. These lullaby variations are like MAGNETS for young ears, PLUS they're enjoyable for us adults who have loved these songs for many years. I mean, instrumental lullabye versions of Led Zeppelin classics...?! How can you NOT love that?! ;)\",\n \"Product: 2013 release, the fifth album from the Dallas-based Metal band... and their first with vocalist Jasen Moreno. Features the radio singles 'In Memory Of...' and 'Saturday Night'.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Recently saw em live. New singer is AWESOME!!!\\n\\nReview: Some people just get stuck on NOT wanting any change. That's understandable...and yes, it does suck that DP have had to change singers a few times. BUT, keep in mind - most of the original line-up are still here, and they don't let the music you've come to love, get far from what you might expect. They know what they're doing. :)\\nAnd, this is just my opinion here, but I think this new dude (Jasen) is probably the best singer since the original! I had the pleasure of seeing DP live in Cleveland, just a few months ago, and they rocked harder than I expected!! -AND, Jasen knows what's up!! I will DEFINITELY go see em again whenever they come to town!\",\n \"Product: Trio ~ Da Da Da\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: One old fogie's favorite. :)\\n\\nReview: I guess I should start by saying that I'm a \\\"child of the 80's\\\", and was actually in jr.high school when this E.P. was originally released, and I quickly bought a vinyl copy. This was back BEFORE the song \\\"Da Da Da\\\" was associated with Volkswagen. The song was simply cool because it was fun and catchy.\\nWell, then I had the pleasure of knowing that every song on the E.P. was equally as great. ....oh, and I keep using the term \\\"E.P.\\\" because this original vinyl (which featured the same cover image as this CD) had only 6 songs on it. All of these other songs weren't added until the release of the CD, many years later. The original E.P. (which I have loved since that time), only includes the following........\\n\\n1. Anna, Let Me In Let Me Out (2:41)\\nNOTE: The version on the CD is longer, and has a more \\\"studio polished\\\" treatment, plus added sound effects. Unfortunately, the original (and, Better) version is only available on the vinyl E.P.\\n2. Da Da Da [Long Version] (6:35) - Same version as on the CD.\\n3. Broken Hearts For You And Me (3:34) - Same version as on the CD.\\n4. Energie (3:32). The CD contains a longer, remixed version. The original version (which is better, IMO), is only on the vinyl E.P.\\n5. Sunday You Need Love, Monday Be Alone (3:47) - Same version as on the CD.\\n6. Ja Ja Ja (2:58). This song is exclusive to the original vinyl.\\n\\nTo summarize.... buying this newer CD release is not a bad deal, but you're missing out on a few very good songs! So, for those of you who want more, I would suggest that you locate & buy a copy of the original vinyl, or contact me in order to get the missing songs (free of charge within the U.S.).\\n\\nPeace. ....and \\\"JA JA JA\\\"! ;)\",\n \"Product: 'Punk Goes 80's' features some of today's hottest alternative acts covering songs from the 80's. Highlights include Amber Pacific's 'Video Killed The Radio Star', Sugarcult's 'I Melt With You' and Rufio's 'Don't You Forget About Me'. Fearless. 2005.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: There's nothing \\\"Punk\\\" about this CD, but there are some decent covers.\\n\\nReview: I grew up in the 80's and love most of the songs on this CD, plus I'm a big fan of classic punk rock, so obviously, a merging of the two genres caught my interest. And, with a title like \\\"Punks Goes 80's\\\", I expected some good ol' thrashin' screamin' rocking-guitar PUNK music!! Come to find out, there isn't even one song on this CD which fits that description, and what we actually have here, is pop music. There's nothing \\\"punk\\\" about these cover versions. Worse yet, the majority of these covers are severely weak, and don't even come close to being as good as their originals. Most of them sound like a college band who were hired to play an 80's party. ...Not necessarily a \\\"bad\\\" thing, but these covers definitely fall short of the \\\"Punk Goes 80's\\\" concept.\\nI will say, about half of the tracks are decent. ..not amazing, but decent.\\nThe better tracks (IMO), include the covers of \\\"Don't You Forget About Me\\\", \\\"I Ran\\\", \\\"Just Like Heaven\\\", \\\"Wrapped Around Your Finger\\\", \\\"Forever Young\\\", \\\"Deadman's Party\\\", and \\\"Video Killed The Radio Star\\\". The remaining covers are forgettable and/or embarrassing!! So, if you can buy this CD for 50 cents or less (or borrow it from your local library), go for it! Do Not pay full price for it.\",\n \"Product: 2011 solo album from the Rage Against The Machine guitarist. This self-produced effort is a change of pace from the usual acoustic offerings of past Nightwatchman albums, with the record featuring a full electric backing band called The Freedom Fighter Orchestra. In describing the record, Morello states, ''Troubled times call out for troubled songs. World Wide Rebel Songs is an album of rousing hopelessness and this time The Nightwatchman has brought along his electric guitar to tip the scales. I wanted to capture a vibe midway between Johnny Cash and Che Guevara, murder ballads and Molotov anthems.''\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: Tom's acoustic-strumming snore-fest. :/\\n\\nReview: Nah. Sorry, everyone. I know how it is when we hear an extremely talented individual who plays in an awesome band (for example, the guitarist in Rage Against The Machine). And, then we hope that the same artist will do something kinda/nearly-as-cool on his solo project. Right?! ..........Well, this is quite the opposite. Tom's solo album, \\\"World Wide Rebel Songs\\\" (as well as his debut solo album, \\\"One Man Revolution\\\"), are both acoustic snore-fests. I have had the displeasure of bying both of these albums too soon. -and was equally disappointed both times.\\nI mean, OK, some of the lyrics are kinda cool, but hey - Tom Morello is (or, \\\"was\\\") that crazy-sweet guitarist who really made a mark while he was in RATM, and he blew us all away with his intensity, right?? Well, you wouldn't be able to guess it by listening to his solo work. Both albums reminded me of a shooting star, drifting down from the sky and burning out. ((Zzzzzzz)).\\n Yeah, I feel like I should apologize to my fellow RATM fans, but really - even the raw, dangerous-looking album cover will look like a joke after you've heard the music. This is more like a baby's breath on a summer's eve. LOL. What a shame. :/\",\n \"Product: For those with an interest in the early roots of the psychobilly genre, this 2CD set is a must have featuring music from the acts that influenced a host of later bands.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: A good snapshot of music, considering the used prices! :)\\n\\nReview: Definitely a lot of good ol' tunes from that genre & time. However, there are more instrumental tracks than I would have hoped. ...In other words, if you're expecting a collection of 'early punk', or even music which is as extreme as the title of this compilation suggests (ie: \\\"PSYCHO BILLY\\\", -which would suggest a direct influence to The Cramps), -well, ya might be a bit disappointed. There's a whole other 'chill factor' to this music, as well.\\n On the other hand, this collection does offer a good representation of bands at that time, which were reaching for something different and rebellious. ..but, that doesn't mean they often sound like a pre-cursor to something more wild. Personally, I was a bit surprised at how much mellow instrumental tracks are on these CDs.\\nStill, I've chosen to rate this collection 4 out of 5 stars. Ya know...it's cool, but - don't let the \\\"Psychobilly\\\" name make you think that it's more than it really is. ;)\\n Oh,. and -by the way... I see that the used price is currently around $3-$4 bucks. Definitely worth it!!\",\n \"Product: Quick-drying, water-resistant gel ink lays down smooth, skip-free lines. Contoured grip improves writing comfort. Transparent barrel is as attractive as it is practical. Special Ink Type: Gel; Pen Style: Retractable; Ink Color(s): Black; Pen Type: Roller Ball.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: We use these at the hospital. Love em!\\n\\nReview: First a word of warning -- I know from experience that when one of these pens are New & un-used, they each come with a tiny \\\"bulb\\\" of wax at the tip which must be peeled off before the pen can be used. If you receive these pens and they do Not have that bulb at the tip, then you'll know you've actually received a used product, and should contact your seller.\\n\\nNow, on to the review.... Prior to my current position at a hospital, I had never used these pens but have become impressed enough to buy a dozen for my personal use at home. They are consistently dependable and have a very good flow of ink, as well as a good quantity of ink so they last long! Also, I just think they're made well, for example, the retracting mechanisms have never failed or fallen apart like some poorly-made pens do. Highly recommended.\",\n \"Product: Zebras Z-Grip brand of pens is where simple, effective style meets high performance writing. The Z-Grip Plus Retractable Ballpoint Pen features professional, stylish designs making it the new pen of choice for supreme communication. Its the smoothest pen out there, using low-viscosity ink that combines a quick ballpoint dry time and easy ink glide performance. With an elegant barrel that matches ink color, a latex-free rubberized grip for comfort and a convenient designer pocket clip for quick, easy access, the Z-Grip Plus Retractable Ballpoint Pen is the perfect choice for your everyday writing needs. Available ink colors: Black, Blue, Red, Green, Lime Green, Light Blue, Pink, Violet, Orange.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Great pens for work!\\n\\nReview: I bought these pens specifically to use at my job, and have been very pleased with them. I'm a social worker, so - yes, I do a lot of writing. My 4 basic needs for a good \\\"work pen\\\" are: (1) must be blue ink, because I often have people sign legal documents. (2) The ink must flow consistently while I'm writing, and not do that annoying 'stop-start-stop' action. (3) must have a clip, so it will stay on my shirt pocket for quick access. (4) must be retractable, so I can quickly put it away without getting ink on my clothing.\\nThese Zebra pens have the above features, plus the rubber grip near the end makes them comfortable to handle. Also, the cost is reasonable, and I think the design looks cool.\\nI will be glad to buy more of these when needed.\",\n \"Product: Perfect Chews are colorful kabobs with wood and loofah textures to provide hours of chewing and play time for your pet. Each kabob has numerous colorful chews on a wood skewer that is topped with a clasp for easy attachment to your pets cage or habitat.\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: Well-made product, but my hamster just ignores it.\\n\\nReview: My hamster couldn't care less about this thing. It is obviously a well-made product (hence the reason I gave it 2 stars), and according to the 5-star reviews from other people, it appears that certain hamsters really like this item. However, when I first placed this item into my hamster's cage, he basically smelled it, gave it a brief gnaw, and walked away from it. This item has now remained in the cage for the past 7 days, and my hamster completely ignores it.\\nI will probably just throw it away soon.\\nSo, I cannot recommend this item to other hamster owners. It appears that some hamsters like this thing, but some don't. I suggest that you spend your money on something else which has a higher \\\"popularity rating\\\".\",\n \"Product: From the makers of \\\"The Original Shower Massage,\\\" the Waterpik White PowerSpray+ Original Shower Massage SM-451 hand held shower head features 4 spray settings for a high-performance shower. The 4 spray settings include pulsating massage, slow massage, soothing full body, and full body + massage. Includes a flexible 5-foot hose and shower bracket. Installs in minutes on any standard shower pipe. Limited lifetime warranty.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Don't waste your $$ on more expensive models!!\\n\\nReview: I just moved into a new residence, and was looking on Amazon for a new handheld showerhead. I have owned a number of different handhelds in the past, and definitely prefer them. However, it's been atleast 8 years since I had to buy a new one so, I began reading reviews, and more reviews & more reviews....! What I found was, no matter HOW MANY HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS you're willing to spend on a handheld unit, the vast majority of them seem to have the same complaints (ie: low water pressure, leaks, length of hose, and varying difficulty of installation).\\n With this mind, I decided to try this cheapo model by the same company from which I had purchased before. ...Glad I did!! :) It's Awesome!\\n\\n For one thing, I believe that the water pressure (which many people complain about with any number of handhelds), has a lot to do with how the water pressure was, already, in your home (or wherever you intend to install a handheld showerhead). I mean, the way people complain about water pressure, you would think they expect that a handheld will IMPROVE their already-weak pressure. If you have weak water pressure to begin with, don't expect the best, most-expensive handheld on the market to improve that.\\n In my case, the water pressure was great to begin with, and continues to be so after I've installed this handheld.\\n\\nAs far as leaks go, this unit is tight-fitting & awesome! Many people think that if they remove those little black rubber rings from the ends of the hose, they will achieve better water flow, however, those are WASHERS, and are supposed to remain in place in order to get a good water-tight seal. ;)\\n\\nRegarding length of hose, this model comes with 4 1/2 feet, which is just fine for most standard home showers. Anymore length would simply be \\\"hanging around\\\" with nowhere to go, unless you own an unusually large shower and make habit of walking to the far end!\\n\\nInstallation....Surprsingly easy! I'm no \\\"handy-man\\\", but I was able to install this thing by myself within 8 minutes. The toughest part was taking off the pre-installed showerhead (which required a few turns of a wrench). However, no tools were needed to install this handheld.\\n\\nThe only \\\"downside\\\" that I can see from this particular showerhead, is that is only has 4 settings, one of which is like a regular shower, and the other 3 are variations of \\\"massage\\\" settings. ...Now, for me, this is just fine -- I just keep it on the regular shower setting. But, if you're someone who needs 12 or more different settings, well, you'll have to invest more money elsewhere.\\n\\nAfter receving, installing & enjoying this product, I really have to wonder why people spend $50-$200 or more on similar products!\",\n \"Product: The Surf Rider Slip N Slide is a fun backyard water slide. The perfect activity for a hot summer day, the surf Rider has a wall of water down the side and on the bumper that keeps the slide continuously slippery ! Simply hook it to any standard garden hose. The water wall continuous spray keeps the slide filled with water and blasts you from head to toe!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Is holding up well, and is a Great value for the price!\\n\\nReview: Personally, I would definitely recommend this particular model.\\nI bought this item for the 4th of July since friends were coming over (and bringing their kids along)! Including my son, there were 5 kids (between the ages of 4-11) sliding up & down this thing for hours, and we did not encounter any issues. This item performed as expected, and did not rip.\\nKeep in mind, though, we have only used this item 1 time so far (which was definitely worth the price of purchase, alone). Perhaps these things don't last very long, but hey, they're 10 bucks each...and the kids love em while they last! :)\\nPersonally, I would definitely recommend this particular model. Oh, and I'll pass along the suggestion about adding a little dishwashing soap to the slide....it works great for making the slide a lil' slippery & more fun for the kids! But you don't have to over-do it....just walk the length of the silde and drizzle a thin stream of dishwash soap back & forth on it. A very nice addition! :)\",\n \"Product: This 4CH 2.4GHz mini RC helicopter with pioneering single propeller, built-in Gyro, extremely light weight, strong resistance of impact, steady and agile flying performance. What's more, it is the first RC helicopter that can still work even in windy weather.So,do not miss it!\\n\\nFeatures:\\n\\n4CH 2.4G RC helicopter with built-in Gyro\\nThe first RC helicopter that can fly outdoor in wind weather (outdoor wind grade 3-4)\\nPioneering single propeller design, it can greatly avoid the resistence of wind\\nHigh quality ultrathin metal canopy with ultra light weight and strong resistance of impact\\nHigh tenacity rotor wing\\nBetter flying performance than ALIGN T-REX 100S: extremely steady and extremely agile\\nThe remote control is designed with a LCD disply for easier and more precise operation\\nFreely flying up, down, forward, backward, left to fly, right to fly, hover with rapid response\\nIt is suitable for both indoor and outdoor flying (the wind grade should be no more than 4)\\nLeft pole control it up and down and the left / right rotating,right pole control it side fly and forward or backward\\n\\nSpecifications:\\n\\nColor: White + Blue\\nItem No.: WLtoys V911\\nBattery for helicopter: 2 * 3.7V 120mAh/15C Li-Polymer\\nFlying time: About 5 minutes\\nCharging time: About 30 mimutes (USB charging)\\nControlling distance: 50-80 meters\\nBattery for controller: 6 * AA batteries (not included)\\nModel whole length: Approx. 24 cm / 9.4 inch\\nFuselage length: Approx. 22 cm / 8.7 inch\\nHeight: Approx.8.5 cm / 3.3 inch\\nRC distance: About 100 meters\\nFly height: About 50 meters.\\n\\nRating: 1.0\\n\\nSummary: Reasons why you shouldn't buy this one.\\n\\nReview: These RC heli's (atleast, at this price range) are nothing but a money-making scheme for the manufacturers. Granted, I am a novice when it comes to piloting these things, in fact, this is my first remote-control heli. But, this particular model is so delicate, that after you accidentally bang it into a few walls (which, -trust me -is inevitable for any novice, and perhaps even for a more advanced user) - well, this thing has several tiny parts which become loose and/or depart, and can be difficult to replace. So, it will end up becoming inoperable.\\nPlus, the parts are tiny, so if they go flying off into some corner of your room....good luck finding them!\\n To be more specific, I have owned this heli less than 24 hours, and in this time, I was \\\"just\\\" getting decent at operating it's flight. Eventually, however, I accidentally hit a wall and, as a result, 2 of the tiny parts (which connect to the throttle), went flying off. So, I had to find them and carefully put them back into place. Then it worked OK again. However, the next time this heli crashed, those same pieces went scattering elsewhere. I found one of the them but, the other is still missing, and - without both of them, no more flight is possible.\\nSo, now I have spent around $40 dollars in order to enjoy this \\\"toy\\\" for about 3 hours. And, you can bet that the manufacturers just shrug their shoulders & giggle, since this happens all the time! I mean, if you think that you're going to buy this thing and immediately be able to fly it all around without problems, (LOL!!), wake up. ;) There is definitely a learning curve to operating this thing.\\n This toy does fly nice -while it works. But, by the time you've almost got the hang of it, well, then it has bounced off enough walls that it probably won't operate anymore.\\n\\n The thing which really bothers me, is - if the manufacturers truly wanted to make a better, stronger, and longer-lasting product, they certainly could do so, and still keep the cost below $45-50. But, it's saps like me who keep em in business. ;)\\n Bottom line: Do not buy this one.\"\n]","isConversational":false},"profile_size":{"kind":"number","value":19,"string":"19"},"task":{"kind":"string","value":"longlamp_3"},"split_kind":{"kind":"string","value":"user_based"},"id":{"kind":"number","value":1696,"string":"1,696"}}},{"rowIdx":1697,"cells":{"question_id":{"kind":"string","value":"A3EJYJC25OJVKK"},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of \"5.0\" for a product with description \"During the Gulf War, members of cut-off platoon are captured and brainwashed by a large corporation to return to the United States following the war as their pawns. When one of the soldiers becomes the likely next Vice-President of the United States, the full scope of Manchurian's plan is revealed. Now, the last remaining soldier from the platoon must battle the brainwash and the corporation to prevent them from controlling the largest country in the free world.\". The summary of the review text is \"Really creepy but very well done summer flick!\"."},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"This summer thriller entitled \"The Manchurian Candidate\" is a really scary but also really well executed update of the 1960s original version of the novel. Featuring a stellar cast of Meryl Streep, Denzel Washington, and Jon Voight.\n\n Denzel Washington is the center actor in this movie playing a horribly scarred Gulf War veteran who returned home from the war in Iraq in 1991 after liberating Kuwait from the Iraqi forces of Saddam Hussein. More than a decade later, he has been having recurring nightmares about the memories of what really happened during his time in Kuwait and he beleives that he was the subject of a medical experiment where a medical device is implanted in the brain to brainwash the subject and use them for sinister purposes. The devices are the products of a corporation called Manchuria Inc.\n\n However noone believes him except a friend who was also a veteran of the Gulf War. Now he must convince his friend not to run for president of the United States but his mother is a power-hungry individual who 'cares' deeply for her son but isn't exactly what she is thought to be.\n\n This movie is really chilling and really delivers the scares through it's suspenseful tone and the frightening portray of what it's like if criminal corporations actually brainwash their victims to cover-up lies, crimes, and other horrific deeds. The acting is superb by most and the directing is excellent. One of the scenes was very hard to stomach however but overall, \"The Manchurian Candidate\" is a thriller worth seeing on the big screen."},"correct_answer":{"kind":"string","value":"This summer thriller entitled \"The Manchurian Candidate\" is a really scary but also really well executed update of the 1960s original version of the novel. Featuring a stellar cast of Meryl Streep, Denzel Washington, and Jon Voight.\n\n Denzel Washington is the center actor in this movie playing a horribly scarred Gulf War veteran who returned home from the war in Iraq in 1991 after liberating Kuwait from the Iraqi forces of Saddam Hussein. More than a decade later, he has been having recurring nightmares about the memories of what really happened during his time in Kuwait and he beleives that he was the subject of a medical experiment where a medical device is implanted in the brain to brainwash the subject and use them for sinister purposes. The devices are the products of a corporation called Manchuria Inc.\n\n However noone believes him except a friend who was also a veteran of the Gulf War. Now he must convince his friend not to run for president of the United States but his mother is a power-hungry individual who 'cares' deeply for her son but isn't exactly what she is thought to be.\n\n This movie is really chilling and really delivers the scares through it's suspenseful tone and the frightening portray of what it's like if criminal corporations actually brainwash their victims to cover-up lies, crimes, and other horrific deeds. The acting is superb by most and the directing is excellent. One of the scenes was very hard to stomach however but overall, \"The Manchurian Candidate\" is a thriller worth seeing on the big screen."},"documents":{"kind":"list like","value":["Product: used in very good condition complrte case artwork manual booklet insert poster and video game cart collectible!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: An excellent video game classic!\n\nReview: This video game is an absolutely amazing video game that still is a great memory on my part.\n The graphics on this game were absolutely amazing for their time when this game came out somewhere around in 1994-ish. While it's definately a bit dated by today's standards the first X-Men game was the best Marvel COmic video game that I ever got to play.\n I loved the sound the game would make then an X-Men character would lose a life and some of the sound effects were just so cool especially the air bomb sound effects when Storm would come down and wipe out the bad guys in the picture. So funny.\n This game holds a special place in my memories and when I move on to heaven, I hope Jesus has my old Sega Genesis up there for me to play for a while before I take up form again in my next incarnation.\n If you can find it, buy it! It's worth the price. They should re-release this on computer or the next video game system.","Product: Sega's iconic hedgehog collects coins on many adventurous mazes.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: By far the best Video game series of all time.\n\nReview: If there are video games taht have truly stood up to the tests of time, it's the Sonic The Hedgehog video game series.\nBack in the days when video games for the most part were just plain clean fun and not the gorefests they are now, Sonic The Hedgehog was and still is the defining video game series of my lifetime.\n The controls are very good.\n While many would argue that the graphics are dated and while they may be very dated by 2004 standards, this game was many years ahead of it's time and I still love every moment of this game.\n One of the greatest things about this classic video game that I have enjoyed was the MUSIC! WOW! Looking back on it now, I have to say that the music was just amazing for video game music. I could very well say that I remember the music almost by heart. My favorite level music was on the \"Scrap Brain Zone\" levels 1 through 3 and let me tell you, I haven't loved video game music like I did on this level.\n Overall, the video game music was incredible! If only my Sega Genesis system were still working, I would still be playing this but since age finally took it's toll on both the cartrige and the system, I feel sad at seeing a great era in my life in video games come to a close. I still find myself humming to the music on the \"Scrap Brain Zone\" level even to this day, years after last playing this game.\n Sonic The Hedgehog is in my opinion the greatest video game series of all time. Mario and Crash Bandicoot may offer competition in this field but Sonic The Hedgehog came first for me.\n I find it to be one of the greatest entertainment tragedies seeing one of my childhood favorite activies, video games, decline from good clean fun and degerate into nightmare-inducing blood baths of gore, and violence.\n\nWhatever the case between Mario, Sonic, and Crash Bandicoot, let me just say that it is the sillier games like these three game series that have truly lasted as opposed to the countless gorefests that video games that are forced down our throats.\n I say, they should re-released the Sonic games that were on Sega Genesis onto an archives video game set for the computer or for the newest video game systems in the near future.\n If this game is put back in print, I will be first in line to regain this game so that my children can enjoy the fun I had iwth Sonic The Hedgehog.","Product: Cartridge only. Cartridge and/or label will show some wear, including discoloration, tearing, writing, or other cosmetic issues. Guaranteed functional or replacement.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Third times a charm!\n\nReview: The third installment in the legendary Sonic The Hedgehog video games series brilliantly follows up on the brilliance of the first two games and brings forth even more dangerous adventures for our beloved hedgehog as he battles the evil nemesis Dr. Robotnik.\n In a lot of ways, this game at first seems like a rehash of the first two games: Collect all of the emeralds to destroy Robotnik's plans.\n In this game, you also battle Sonic's similar counterpart named KNuckles.\n However the main thing that makes this a GREAT LEAP forward from any of the previous games is that if you have the \"Sonic and KNuckles\" game, you can actually JOIN that and \"Sonic 3\" and combine the two game universes to create the ultimate video game adventure. How about that for a change!\n In my opinion, it's the extremely innovative style of being able to join two video games togather to create one GRAND adventure that makes Sega Genesis the most memorable game system I've ever played. Being able to in fact join two games together is an example of video gamemaking that is beyond anything that ever came before then.\n It's a pity that Playstation never had the brilliance to learn the uniquness of Sega Genesis and create a game that could join up with another game the way this and \"Sonic and Knuckles\" did.\n If you still have Sega Genesis, I strongly recommend buying this game NOW! Get all three of the SOnic games, and get the \"Sonic Spinball\" and \"Sonic and Knuckles\" and BAM! You have the greatest video game series all in one household!","Product: great little game by sega!!!!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: The most awesome video game ever made!\n\nReview: Sonic The Hedgehog gets my nod as the greatest video game series ever created. The first second and third games along with \"Sonic and Knuckles\" are the greatest video games I've ever played in my life on Sega Genesis.\n However, Sega shattered new ground with a totally new twist on this franchise.\n In \"Sonic Spinball\", the geniuses behind Sonic, blend in the adventures of the three regular game and turn it into a huge pinball frenzy with a highly addictive atmosphere in the levels.\n Considering that I've been a pinball addict almost my whole life, \"SOnic Spinball\" was the game I played almost more than any other video game in my life. I can recall when I once played for over 12 hours straight one night! It's that addictive. I absolute love pinball and Sonic The Hedgehog and seeing them blend these two worlds together is phenomenal!\n Just like the three sonic games before then, I really dig the background music and still find myself humming ot the music especially the second and final levels and I love the boss villain music that plays when you battle the evil Dr. Robotnik in the end.\n \"Sonic Spinball\" is the greatest video game ever created and seeing this game die off (stopped functioning on my system due to age) was like a relative or friend dying. It was that good.\n They should re-release this on a computer CD-Rom or for the next video game system in the near future.","Product: Join Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and their new friend, Cream the Rabbit as they take off on a fast quest to dodge Dr. Eggman's gamplan. Zip through space age metal labyrinths and other new locales. Unfasten special features and stages by collecting Emeralds\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Great game but with frustrating problems.\n\nReview: While not necessarily raising the bar in my opinion the way \"Sonic Battle\" did for me, \"Sonic Advance 2\" is nonetheless another home run for the legendary Sonic video game franchise.\n\n The play pattern is virtually the same as it's classic Sega Genesis ancestors: Dr. Eggman (previously known as Robotnik) is once again causing havoc with his megalomaniac schemes of taking over the entire world by building another 'death egg' (God, everything he builds is named after eggs) spaceship by wielding the power of the legendary chaos emeralds. Even worse is that Sonic's friends have been captured by Eggman and held hostage.\n\n As a result, in the beginning, Sonic is the only available player but as one beats the boss machine at the end of the stages, more characters are unlocked and the game begins to branch into different versions of itself. My favorite is a tie between Tails and Cream.\n\n The problem with this game though is a frustrating part. Although not completely, I've found it almost downright impossible to find all seven special rings in order to access the special stages at the end of each regular stage. (I've managed to get to special stage one after \"Leaf Forest\" but that's it) The last six regular stages make it like looking for a needle in a haystack.\n\n Otehr than that, this is a very good Sonic Adventure game and is another good addition to the Sonic Legacy. With the frustrating Special Stage requirements, I guess they didn't call it \"Sonic Advance\" for nothing. :/ :)","Product: Dr. Eggman has used Chaos Control to break the world into 7 parts, and plans to rain confusion by turning each into a Dr. Eggman Empire. Sonic and Tails have to find all 7 Chaos Emeralds and use Chaos Control to return the world to its original statebefore Dr. Eggman perfects his ultimate fighting robot! You'll pick 1 of 5 playable sonic characters, and a second as a partner to help in the quest to bring down the evil Eggman. Gain new abilities based on your partner, and master them all for a variety of exciting adventures. Or, link up Game Boy Advance systems for awesome 2 on 2 team battles.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Excellent game but crashes at a dead end at Special Stage 7!\n\nReview: After the fun SOnic Advance 2, the beloved franchise goes to new heights with the third SA entry in the series and man oh man is it fun or what?! But then again I've always said that about each SOnic Game when it came out. Other than that, this game doesn't necessarily break much new ground from previous games except for a new technique called \"Tag action\" which when using the R (button on the top right corner of the Game Boy Advance) will result in a new move altogether ranging from a superhigh jump to using Cheese the Chao yourself (When you're not playing Cream the Rabbit).\n\n The story is almost the same as before. The world is once again in jeopardy when the evil nemesis Dr. Eggman splits the world by separate the chaos emeralds and plans to use them to create Eggmanland as well as work on a new contraption called Germil which was salvaged remains of Emeril from \"Sonic Battle\" and take over Mobius and create Eggmanland.\n\n The game's music is awesome and even better than that of most of SA 2. My favorite music would be the Cyber Track zone before you enter the acts as well as the Toy Kingdom zones. A really cool suprise though is the Green Hill zone with revamped music from the original Green Hill Zone from the original 1991 Sonic The Hedgehog game.\n\n The graphics are excellent and sharp. The colors of the Toy Kingdom act zones are beautiful and even the sometimes sickly sweet color scheme however is visually stimulating and lots of fun to play. The jack-in-the-box spring though is a major pain in the pullman though so be warned. I actually lost lives with them so be warned.\n\n Some things though do cut both ways. This game no longer emphasizes on score anymore and thus how many rings you have is irrelevent here. Instead of collecting special rings in the act zones, you now have to collect all of the Chaos from each Zone Act in order to gain access to the special stages. While it may depende on the individual, I've found it much easier to find them than the Special Rings from the Second Sonic Advance Games.\n\n Mind you though, the special stages which might be ridiculously easy at first can become almost impossible towards the end even for expert players but there is a major suprise at hand that you will not believe until you've managed to beat it. The seventh Special Stage is incredibly difficult and leaves no room for error so be warned. Prepared to be exasperated when playing it but you might be in for a major suprise when you manage to beat it.\n\n While expert veteran Sonic players might have similar situtations that I did with the last \"Special Stage\" of this game, newcomers will find loads of fun with this game. Mind you, it's enormously difficult with the last special stage so be mindful and collect as many keys for it so you can return a lot more frequently.","Product: Go head-to-head in furious fighting action and prove which one of Sonic and his friends is really the best fighter. Features 8 playable characters with unique abilities, fighting techniques, strengths and weaknesses. Link up to 4 systems together with a Game Boy Advance Link Cable (sold separately) for awesome multiplayer action!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: A much-needed breath of fresh air!\n\nReview: As a former video game zealot from my childhood and who became increasingly disillusioned at how grim, and violent that so many video games have become (Men of Honor? Give me a break! That's just something to turn our kids into possible soldiers) but 2003's \"Sonic Battle\" however is a major relief and gives me hope of more of the harmless fun that made video games so much fun and great escape entertainment!\n\n While the games I played were historically adventure games (which I generally prefer), this game combines the adventure genre with battle genre and this game almost combines the X vs. X styles of \"Mortal Kombat\" minus the blood with the light-hearted fun of the Sonic games of old and the results are absolutely amazing! The music is awesome as well and if I could hook it up to a stereo, one could possibly get better music than what radio stations can offer these days.\n\n There are many modes. The first is the story mode where the game starts in Emerald Town with Sonic and Tails finding a mysterious robot on Emerald Beach. Little do they know that this robot is actually a product of the evil Dr. Eggman (Dr. Robotnik from the old games but now known as Eggman) who threw it out believing that it was just a piece of junk. But this robot is powered by Chaos Emeralds. The game just gets more fun from here onwards. More characters eventually come in including some that I've never even seen or heard of before.\n\n Battle Mode is a different mode where you can select any character to play including 'evil' characters to battle against three competitors including 'clones'. \"Battle Mode\" can be played alone or against other players as well. This one is a lot fun.\n\n Challenge Mode involves making lots of points when taking into account how quickly the competitor is defeated, how much damage is done, rate of offensive attacks hitting it's target, etcetera.\n\n Mini-games is a totally separate area from the otehr modes in which miniature games are played. The only solitary player game in this area is the Mine-Dig starring Knuckles the Echidna and it is played in the same what that the computer game Minesweeper is played in which Knuckles must uncover the squares but not the ones containing mines.\n\n \"Sonic Battle\" is a welcome return for my favorite video game franchise ever. Go and buy it today! Even adults might enjoy this game as well.","Product: Set across three defining eras from 20 years of Sonic the Hedgehog video game history, the instantly recognizable environments of Sonic Generations have been re-built in stunning HD and are now playable in both classic side scrolling 2D from 1991, as well as modern 3D style found in Sonic's most recent adventures.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Just like old times! The best Sonic game since the Sega Genesis era!\n\nReview: I remember full-well the magic and feel of the original 1991 Second the Hedgehog Classic. Much of my leisure time was invested in that game and the music, bright colours, and adventurous levels, along with entertaining characters made for a game that more than 20 years later, remains among my all-time favorite video games. I would eventually go onto \"Sonic The Hedgehog 2\", \"3\", \"Knuckles\" and even \"Sonic Spinball\" all of which carved their own niche in my universe.\n\n \"Sonic 3D Blast\" though, while good, I thought was where to a greater or lesser degree the series began to show some cracks in consistancy.\n\n Eventually, as all consoles did, the Genesis Era came to an end around 1997 or early 1998 and I tuned out for years afterward. In 2003, I went on to the Gameboy Advance \"Sonic Advance\" games and the newer appearance for Sonic came about. It took me some time but those games were fun to play, although they fell a bit short of the originals.\n\n Then there were some duds like the 2006 game that for some reason was missing some magic, and that god-awful 'remake' of the original classic that was released on Gameboy Advance was virtually unplayable. I was become worried that the franchise was about to fade into the history book.\n\n Fast-forward to 2011 and low and behold! We have a game called \"Sonic Generations\" and WOW! This game is fantastic and pays a marvelous tribute to the original classic version of our beloved Blue Hedgehog, while also maintaining the current-day version of him.\n\n In this game, the 'classic' Sonic found his universe intermingling with the 'future' Sonic as they encounter mysterious 'time holes' caused by a mysterious force of evil that has the ability to travel between universes. As in previous games battle 'their' hated archnemesis Dr. Robotnik/Dr. Eggman who aims to utilize this mysterious evil force to establish domination across these universes after all colour is stripped from their respective 'realms' leaving them lifeless 'white spaces'. Now the two 'Sonics' must team up to stop Robotnik/Eggman and restore their 'realities' back to normal again.\n\n With the two Sonics, the very best of both worlds are brought together onto the Xbox 360 with the ability to alternate between the 2D Classic Sonic with 2D style platform gameplay, and the 3D 'Current' version of Sonic and utilizing 3D gameplay, both of which are required in order to beat Robotnik. The graphics are gorgeous and must I say it, the music is FANTASTIC! Not since \"Spinball\" or \"Sonic and Knuckles\" did I deliberate let Sonic lose lives just to dance to the background music. The music for some of the Bonus Challenges rank right up there with the best of the Sega Genesis-era music.\n\n Some of the levels are a bit ludicrious, especially some of the challenge stages but overall, the plot is great, the gameplay is also great, and the overall magic of Sonic The Hedgehog is back with a vengeance. Sega has definately created a lot of stinkers in the last few years of gaming but with \"Sonic Generations\", this is Sega's redemption and overall, I rank this game as my favorite Sonic game since \"Sonic & Knuckles\".\n\n My only major gripe is that Sonic, in his 2 and 3D versions is the only playable character. Perhaps a future sequel, if there ever is one, can utilize the other characters down the road. Anyway, for what it is, \"Sonic Generations\" is hands down the best Sonic game in the last decade, and is right up there with the Genesis-era games. Highly recommended!\n\n On a side note, I rank Dr. Eggman/Robotnik as the greatest archvillain ever created.","Product: Prepare for Titanfall. Crafted by one of the co-creators of Call of Duty and other key developers behind the Call of Duty franchise, Titanfall is an all-new universe juxtaposing small vs. giant, natural vs. industrial and man vs. machine. The visionaries at Respawn have drawn inspiration from their proven experiences in first-person action and with Titanfall are focused on bringing something exciting to the next generation of multiplayer gaming. KEY FEATURES Fast-Paced Future Warfare - In Titanfall the advanced warfare of tomorrow gives you the freedom to fight your way as both elite assault Pilot and agile, heavily armored 24' tall Titans. Titanfall rethinks fundamental combat and movement giving players the ability to change tactics on the fly, attacking or escaping depending on the situation. The Future of Online Multiplayer Action - The game is entirely multiplayer, in a new experience that combines fast-paced online action with the heroic set piece moments traditionally found in campaign mode. The intersection of the two is a big part of what gives Titanfall its iconic identity. The Visionaries that Defined Gaming for a Generation are back! - Founded in 2010, Respawn Entertainment was formed by Vince Zampella and Jason West, former co-founders of Infinity Ward and two of the co-creators of the multi-billion dollar franchise Call of Duty They are building on their pedigree and taking a new approach to game design and creating an all new universe with Titanfall\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Lots and lots of fun though irritating and overdone...\n\nReview: I was among many to get this game in the spring of 2014 around the time it came out. Two years on and though I did not come back to this game until December of 2015, I've found Titanfall to be an incredible amount of addicting fun and worth countless hours of leisure time playing.\n\n It is a game that takes place in the far future between the IMC and anti-government Militia forces who utilize giant robots for combat against each other through various maps.\n\n The primary game modes are \"Attrition\" which is kind of a 'team deathmatch' between the two sides. \"Last Titan Standing\" is a titan-centered game mode where titans must eliminate each other until all titans on one side are destroyed. \"Hardpoint\" which is a domination-centered game where several 'bases' must be captured and held until the top score is reached. \"Frontier Defense\" is a co-op mode where a team of titans must defend a reactor core from enemy AI titans, grunts, specters (combat robots). And there's also \"Pilot Hunter\" where pilots must hunt down and elminate enemy pilots until all pilots on one team are dead.\n\n All of these games are great fun.\n\n The controls can be kind of annoying and awkward to utilize especially with wallrunning. Because the game is online, any connection issues will interfere with game playing and connecting shots on enemy targets is really a pain in the neck especially against cloaked enemies.\n\n Otherwise, this is a fun game. Though I don't recommend this to young children, at least the blood is limited at best and nothing disturbingly graphic, unlike let's say \"Dead Space\".","Product: Cartridge only. Cartridge and/or label will show some wear, including discoloration, tearing, writing, or other cosmetic issues. Guaranteed functional or replacement.\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: I found this game to be dissapointing!\n\nReview: Let me start that I am a HHUUGGE fan of the Gargoyles TV show. The story was absolutely thought-provoking and the animation was stunning and the characters showed so much depth like nothing disney had done before.\n Unfortunately this game seemed more like a cash-in on the whole franchise becuase the whole game was just shoddily put together and the controls were lousy.\n The graphics were rather unimpressive even by 1995-1997 standards and Goliath the character you play looked rather awkward. The controls were rather awkward and made it hard, not to mention unenjoyable to play.\n A very dissapointing game considering how much of a HUGE fan I am of the cartoon series. Even radical Gargoyles zealots should pass this game by.","Product: Sony HIFI HEADPHONE part number MDRCD180 Compatible with:\n\nRating: 1.0\n\nSummary: This pair breaks too easily\n\nReview: I got this pair of headphones; less than 2 months later they broke. The sound was poor and muffled and bad cords were causing one speaker to stop working while the other kept working ok. Needless to say it was like aural agony.\nPlus the hinges broke too and I handled them gently. They are so fragile you can't seaming enjoy listening to music without feeling worried about a hinge breaking. Both hynges broke. I manage to tape one back together ok; the other popped back out even when I taped it and I couldn't have it fit right anymore because the area where it broke coused the headphone to tilt when I put it on.\nGot another pair later on. The same situation all over again.\nA horrible piece of junk and A gigantic waste of money.\nDon't buy this pair of headphones.","Product: Clip the handy 6-key remote control that comes with this Panasonic portable CD player to your belt or jacket for easy listening while you're on the move. This full-function portable CD player is compatible with MP3, CD-R and RW formats. Other features include a no-skip anti-skip system that virtually eliminates CD skipping, backup memory system (100 seconds for MP3; 45 seconds for CD-DA), dot matrix display, heat-resistant polycarbonate body, pop-up disk eject system and ID3 tagging to display titles, artist names and album names while MP3 music is being played. Headphones included. No. SLMP70. Imported. 1Hx5\" dia.\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: Panasonic really dropped the ball on this one! >:-(\n\nReview: I am incredibly dissapointed with this newest CD player from Panasonic.\n This discman I feel was a missed opportunity on Panosonic's case to really make a really excellent CD MP3 Player. This fails in many ways which I feel left me bitterly dissapointed with this device.\n This discman is really visually anesthetic and really nice looking, one of the redeeming features about this but not to where it's worth getting. The thing that really made me angry with this CD Player is that the buttons would crush inwards (Go in and not come back out) whenever I adjusted the volume and thus prevented me from being able to listen to the music to the full extent.\n This second one is questionable. The volume doesn't even go that high either. If this is due to concern about the hearing damage caused by excessively high volume being taken into account, then I can understand that they did this but the volume on here is very poor and it's nearly impossible to listen to my music when walking down busy streets or other places where there is a lot of ambient noises (I.E. Traffic, constuction, or even high wind).\n The worst thing about this is that the battery compartment is located inside, YES INSIDE, the CD compartment and if it breaks which hasn't happened with this one but on a previous CD-PLayer I owned, the edges of the broken compartment cover will scratch and really screw up your CDs!\n A total dissapointment! Don't buy this item!\n Panasonic had a chance to really make a great CD-Player but they totally blew it this time! Avoid this disc player at all costs.","Product: Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Who doesn't like Roger Rabbit? This movie is classic!\n\nReview: Amongst the numerous all-time favorite classics of mines, 1988's \"Who Framed Roger Rabbit\" stands out brightly against almost every other all-time favorite movie of mines. The reason \"Who Framed Roger Rabbit\" stands out in this case is not only is it fun, but brilliantly joins together two separate worlds, the real world, and the toon universe in such a brilliant way, there's no way one can resist loving every moment of this classic.\nThe plot revolves around a humorless and even cold-hearted ACME detective named Eddie Valiant (Played by Bob Hoskins) who is on a case to investigate the murder of toon president Marvin Acme and also the killing of his brother by a `toon' which has embittered Eddie against associating with the toon world. Unfortunately for him, much to Valiant's disgust, he is sought after for help by a toon who is one the run, being considered the prime suspect but the truth is, a criminal crime lord named Judge Doom (Played by Christopher Lloyd) is the one who is responsible for the murders of Marvin Acme and also of Eddie's brother and not only that, Doom is on a spree to take over toon town, destroy the `caf district' and replace it with a super freeway, jammed with smog-generating traffic, & lined with gas stations, billboards, and giant strip malls `as far as the eye can see'. Now with the help of the twitchy Roger Rabbit, Detective Valiant is now on the case to foil the evil Judge Dooms plans, and save both the `real' world, and the toon universe from his malicious ambitions.\nI just don't know where to begin to explain the high level of brilliant casting and great plot that propels this already great movie to unforgettable classic status. Each of the two separate worlds, the `real' world, and the toon world, are just in a chaotic state of fun as Roger Rabbit and his sidekick/nemesis team up in their fight against their common enemy Judge Doom and his `toon' thugs and to find out who is/was responsible for the murders of Marvin Acme and Eddie Valiant's brother. From here, it's an incredibly wild and often hilarious ride as they go on their mission to stop Doom from being able to take over the toon world and build his `superfreeway' and urban sprawl `as far as the eye can see' and turning the toon world into a giant, smog-ridden suburb.\nChristopher Lloyd's eccentric personality reaches it's peak with his awesome and chillingly funny role as the main villain Judge Doom.\nFrom what I'm guessing is that those who were involved in the making of this classic went through painstakingly hard work, drawing over 840, 000 animation cels to create the characters and then they were eventually incorporated into the live action shoots and voila! You have a brilliant yet laugh-inducing classic. I don't know about you but the crew must have had lots of fun making this movie. In the end, it all results in an amazing and extremely hilarious classic for the ages. \"Who Framed Roger Rabbit\" is one of the best movies that 1988 produced. Not only does it bring lots and lots of laughs but combines the humor with a mix of brainless but intelligent dialogue and outstanding storylines.","Product: VHS TAPE\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Really excellent action-thriller! 2 Thumbs up!\n\nReview: Austrian accented \"Terminator\" actor Arnold Schwarzenegger hits another home run in his career in the 1996 action thriller entitled \"Eraser\" and let me tell you, this movie is truly unsettling and not to mention will make you angry as such acts could in fact happen in real life as we know it although the items are a bit far-fetched with today's technologies.\n A special agent U.S. Marshall named John Kruger works for the Witness Protection Agency, an organization that takes witnesses of major crimes away, wipe out their identities, in order to shelter them from potential criminals who aim to kill those who witness their crimes. His latest mission is to protect a worker named Lee Cullen (Vanessa Williams) who works for a corporation named Cyrez that produces top secret weapons but a massive scandal is brewing and Lee discovers what's really going on and aims to expose the scam to the FBI. However, high level government marshals who are crooks themselves aim to kill Lee and Kruger to attempt to stop the truth from coming out. The Cyrez corporation, under the leadership of a corrupt CEO, is involved in an illegal arms deal with a Russian Mafia hitman who has had a history of murder and terrorist acts against civilians. The arms deal involves trading extremely advanced weapons that don't use any conventional ammunition and instead use magnetic pulses to fire rounds of aluminum at nearly the speed of light and if the arms trade succeed it will bring forth a horrific new era of high-tech terrorism worldwide and John Kruger must stop the arms shipment before it's too late while also protecting lee from corrupt high-ranking officials participating the scam.\n If Lee Cullen and John Kruger are killed, then the FBI will lose any leads and/or evidence to bring the Cyrez officials to trial and to expose the scandal to the public.\n This movie sometimes makes me angry not because it is bad because it is a really great movie but it's the whole concept of high-ranking government officials actually being a part of the problem than as the people trying to fight the criminals committing these crimes. I sometimes wonder how one can be able to fight such acts of capitalist greed even if they're totally fictional events.\n The special effects while limited are really well done especially with the way the bullets create those smoke trails when speed through the air at speeds nearly that of light plus the action sequences are really awesome especially towards the climax.\n The high-tech weapons are really terrifying with not only the light-speed ammunition but also how they seemingly can scan through buildings and make out movements all around the immediate vicinity. One can't help but feel really paranoid when viewing the scenes where they scan the area when seeking their targets.\n Once again Arnold Schwarzenegger hits another home run right out of the ballpart playing the U.S. Marshall John Kruger. Arnold's action sequences are once again in top form as he fights against the crooks aiming to eliminate both Kruger and Lee. If you loves his \"I'll Be Back\" and/or \"You've just been terminated\" lines from the \"Terminator\" movies, then he comes up with another brilliant line which is \"You've just been erased\". God I love it. Vanessa Williams is also very good playing Lee Cullen as she tries to escape the assassins pursuit of her while trying to deliver the evidence of the crime to the FBI. In all honesty, Vanessa is far better when she's acting in movies and singing and releasing albums as opposed to wasting her time on these numerous bland commercials and infomercials!!\nMy favorite though of the main characters was Star Trek actor James Caan. Man, his portrayal of the traitorous agent Degeurin is absolutely terrifying and truly vivid and brings the horrifically callous nature of the corrupt agent to `life' on the movie. I just can't help but feel really sometimes ticked off at Deguerin because of his horrific acts against the country!\n Other favorites are the late Joe Pastorelli as Johnny C. along with his mob crime family and some of the characters are really funny especially Johnny C. It's really sad that Pastorelli departed us so soon. :-(\n This movie is really very well done and delivers incredible action sequences, not to mention an original plot idea. The DVD as of this writing offers little of anything in the way of bonus material but is a grand improvement on the VHS.","Product: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom [VHS]\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: \"!Prepare to meet Kali in Hell!\"\n\nReview: The second and possible my favorite of the Indiana Jones trilogy \"Indiana Jones and The Temple Of Doom\" brings the archaeologist teacher and adventurer from the Nazi-controlled Germany to the tropical jungles of India to wage a battle against a secret underground cult. Quite possibly the darkest and most controversial of the three, \"Temple Of Doom\" is in fact, my favorite of them and is one of Spielberg's crowning achievements in his entire career. The only trilogy that tops this in my opinion is the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I sometimes like this more than Star Wars but then again, it's a toss-up between the two.\nIt all starts in 1935, four years after the Lost Ark decimated the bad guys and caused the spectacular demise of poor Belloq and his gang, in Shanghai where Jones meets an internationally renowned singer by the name of Willie and makes a deal with a Chinese gangster leader named Lou Che and then the deal goes sour and they flee from Mr. Che's thugs on a plane. Things don't go as planned though and the plane goes down and the threesome find themselves in the tropical jungles of India where they head to a village where all of its children were kidnapped and their religious stones called Shan Kara Stones by some unknown group. Eventually that unknown group they come face to face is a dark, secret underground society called the Thuggie Cult led by Mola Ram where they perform satanic rituals worshipping Kali and use child slavery to dig in the secret underground mines to mine for diamonds to make more Shan Kara stones in the rituals. It is just mind-boggling how they manage to film some scenes considering that some places in India are forbidden from being filmed or photographed. Some of the places though in the movie are breathtaking especially the underground caves and the stunts in some of the chambers are just enough to make one hold onto the edge of their seats. This movie broke ground with some of the best action sequences that I've ever seen in a movie even to this very day especially towards the last half hour of the movie.\nI think that \"Temple Of Doom\" is probably the best of the three with its suspenseful and malicious plot, and the stunning directing by none other than Steven Spielberg. Some of the background music is incredibly haunting, thus amplifying the dark undertones of the movie. I consider the second Indiana Jones movie to be Spielberg's crowning achievement and one of the best adventure films of all-time and even one of my all-time favorite movies. \"Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom\" would've been perfect had it not been for the excessive cowardice in Willie's character. Mary in \"Raiders of the Lost Ark\" was awesome and semi-rebellious and it made her such a classic, but Willie is just an annoying and helpless damsel always in need to be rescued and that keeps IJATTOD from being perfect. I think that Willie should've been more heroic but trying to put some positive things in my opinion, it's almost funny how she screams at petty things like bats, or snakes or mere lizards. Quite frankly the screaming can be annoying at times. It would've been so much better if Willie had a more 'tough', and 'tomboyish' charisma like Mary did in Raiders. Oh well. Then again, it's good to have a change in some of the characters and even Willie can be fun at times too. Mola Ram though is just awesome with his evil expression and laughing. Lou Che at the beginning of the movie was another classic one even though he wasn't a main character in the movie but his lines though and the rivalry with Jones was classic. The underground mine chase scene is one of the best action sequences that I've ever seen in my life. It boggles my mind how they managed to film that.\nThis film created controversy back in its release year and was greeted with mixed reviews from the critics and from fans because of its much darker subject. Many have said that it was too violent and more graphic but the makers of the film said that it was no more violent than Raiders was. Also, it got a lot of negative press from civil rights groups because of it portraying Indians (People of India) as poor, and bloodthirsty, and India as a desperately poor country, neither of which are true at all. India today is a blossoming democracy with lots of large thriving cities. Also it portrayed them as villainous killers with their Thuggee Cult with human sacrifice rituals and then the British as the saviors that come and save the day and even I cannot deny being somewhat taken aback by that. To the detractors, I say Boo Hoo! European colonists during the Colonial Era killed millions of Native Americans in North and South America by disease and forced population movements and also killed or enslaved Aboriginals in Australia and also of Blacks in Africa with the same or similar tactics so basically, every nationality on Earth has been either the savior or the villain! Get it?\nAnyway, despite the controversy and the negativity, it went on to become another blockbuster at the box office and it deserved the success it got. It's hard for me to say if this one or \"Raiders Of The Lost Ark\" is better but whatever weakness the two had are complemented though and I think it results in a draw between the two as my second favorite behind \"The Last Crusade\". Yes, some of the scenes can be too much for younger viewers, but hey, I loved this movie when I was just 6 years old, that's right, just 6 years old, and now at the age of 20, it's now one of my all-time favorite movies and is a highly recommend classic that must be included in every movie-watchers collection. I only wished that this trilogy would've continued into the 1990s or even to the present as the follow-up \"The Last Crusade\" was a dynamite follow-up to \"Temple of Doom\". Anyhow, fasten your seatbelts as you'll be in for a h.e.l.l. of a ride!","Product: PLEASE READ!!! THIS IS VHS VIDEO NOT DVD!!! New!!! (3-Tapes Box Set) VHS TAPE Sealed (as shown) \"Star Wars Trilogy (VHS Boxed Set)\" Fast shipping..(T6)\n\nRating: 1.0\n\nSummary: I'm sorry but BOOOOOO.........................\n\nReview: I was very excited about the original movies coming out on DVD but upon seeing them, I was utterly shocked at the tweaking that Lucas has done with his original Star Wars movies. They were absolutely perfect the way they were and the special effects were perfect for their time but whatever these 'special editions' were aiming for, they miss delivering by a mile. Now don't get me wrong, special edition or not, these are masterpieces without a doubt but after three or four versions of this trilogy being released on the soon-to-be out of print VHS editions, I am absolutely tired of waiting and waiting for the DVD editions of the originals to surface. There was nothing wrong with them and to see him do this to us is really saddening and has badly tarnished my respect for his lack of attention to his gargantuan fanbase to release these classics in their unedited versions on DVD. Why?? WHY?? WHY???!!!! I mean the revamped versions are really excellent but the new CGI effects are so out of place with the much older versions of the movies special effects of the late 1970s and early 1980s. This is ridiculous. Okay so maybe he wasn't one hundred percent pleased with the results of the originals but come on!!!\n\n Earth to Lucas, Earth to Lucas. You should have looked at the way they did the Alien Quadrilogy where they had both the original versions of the films along side the special editions of each plus tons of bonus features. The Star Wars trilogy DVD is deficient in every possible way having really lame bonus materials.\n\n I have had it with his act of denying us Star Wars fans our chance to see the untouched originals cleaned up and remastered in their original forms and now I simply give up on ever seeing the original versions of this trilogy on DVD. This was Lucas' chance to really come up with a grand spectacular DVD set but he totally blew it! Do not buy this DVD. Stick with your VHS editions. OUT!!!","Product: \"When a loveable London toymaker is kidnapped, his daughter turns to none other than legendary super-sleuth, Basil of Baker Street.\"\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Ten years later I still love this movie.\n\nReview: I got this movie for my 9th birthday in 1991 and I absolutely adored it. I watched this Disney movie so much at one point that I was ACTUALLY able to remember almost every line off this movie. That expresses how much I really loved. Now scroll ahead to now ten years later. At the age of 19 my opinion of this movie has not changed at all. I still absolutely love it to pieces.\nThis 1986 masterpiece from Disney is a story about a tough mouse detective called Basil who alongside with his sidekick battles the evil rat named Professor Ratigan(Great name too) who sends his henchman bat Fidget who ends up kidnapping Olivias Flamershams father and ultimately Olivia herself and it's up to Basil, his sidekick Dawson and a family pet dog by the name of Toby to rescue her and her father and stop Ratigan and his malevolent crime schemes before he takes over all of Englands mousedon(Mouse equivilent of kingdom).\nTo me The Great Mouse Detective contains incredible depth and wonderful charachters and it doesn't suffer from excessive cheesiness like some of Disneys more popular films such as Pocahontas.\nIn fact it's the more obscure movies like this and Robin Hood that I tend to enjoy more than lets say, The Little Mermaid(I like that movie too. Don't get be wrong) or Aladdin( I love that one too as well as it's two sequels). I say get this wonderful Disney video. It's bound to be an entertaining movie for all ages. I will still enjoy this movie if I live to be 120.","Product: Two Full-Length Episodes\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: FINALLY! My favorite animated series is on DVD!\n\nReview: I can't even do this justice with this review but I am absolutely thrilled that the long long wait for this to arrive on DVD is finally over! WOEICS is my favorite animated series of all time, occasionally even better than the X-Men animated series that was popular around the same time as this.\n\n ACME detectives Ivy and Zack work on cases where they are on a nearly perpetual mission to apprehend and catch the 'uncatchable' criminal thief Carmen Sandiego. Together they must decipher the clues that she leaves behind in order for them to solve and recover stolen items especially of historic landmarks.\n\n This series is very educational for younger TV goers especially kids and teenagers and yet even for adults like myself as I was just entering adolescence when this series premiered in early 1994.\n\n Although catering to younger audiences, I am suprised that grandparents have found this to be very entertaining as many older people I know have actually told me that they loved this show. It goes to show how diverse it's fans really are.\n\n As of writing this review, animated TV series have declined back into banal garbage lacking any good character development and no innovation. WOEICS pushed the limits in animation and stands as a landmark series of the 1990s.\n\n This DVD is of the first season of the series and is highly recommended for all CS fans out there, wherever they are!","Product: Two Full-Length Episodes\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Not the best episodes but still a must-have\n\nReview: This is a really fun and awesome animated series. The cahracters are absolutely brilliant and very three dimensional in personality.\n In this sadly out-of-print tape, this contains two episodes. One is \"Dinosaur Delerium\" and the other is \"By A Whisker\".\n In the episode \"Dinosaur Delerium\", Carmen gets a hold of a sample of possible dinosaur DNA and steals technology and ACME is called on the case to find out what she is up to. They have no idea of what she is actually planning on doing with the sample!! This episode isn't the best with me but it's still very good.\n In the second episode \"By A Whisker\", Carmen is on the loose once again when she steals two albino cats from a forest preserve and ACME agents Zack and Ivy are on the trail to find out what Carmen's up to next.\n This is another great VHS tape to own just for the fact that it's Carmen Sandieog. If you can find it, BUY IT ASAP!!! They should release this entire series on DVD because it is the best show on Earth!\n Enough said!","Product: Born into a world filled with prejudice are children who possess extraordinary and dangerous powers - the result of unique genetic mutations. Cyclops unleashes bolts of energy from his eyes. Storm can manipulate the weather at will. Rogue absorbs the life force of anyone she touches. But under the tutelage of Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart), these and other outcasts learn to harness their powers for the good of mankind. Now they must protect those who fear them as the nefarious Magneto (Ian McKellen), who believes humans and mutants can never co-exist, unveils his sinister plan for the future!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: A great film that has lots of room for improvement.\n\nReview: The first in a possibly long \"X-Men\" movie franchise is a great but flawed movie and it is one of the one of my favorite movies of 2000.\nIt starts with a young teenage boy by the name of Eric Lensherr who struggles against the Nazi during WWII and his powers manifest for the first time in his life when he manages to warp and damage a gate to a concentration camp before being knocked unconscious. It is not seen however but Lensherr escapes however and would eventually meet Charles Xavier. Their friendship would eventually continue sort of in a way but at the same time, it would turn into a bitter rivalry as prejudice against mutants worsens and worsens and Xavier seeks to mend the rift between normal humans and mutants while Lensherr on the other hand, believing that humans will never accept mutants into their society, seeks to wage an all-out war against them and rid the world of them. In this flick, Magneto has plotted a special machine that irradiates a force field that mutates normal human cells and the normal human body rejects the mutations and dissolves into water while mutants are completely unscathed. Also, Wolverine escapes a military testing compound with little or no memory of his time there.\nThe cast of the film is hit and miss, not by the actors themselves but simply how some of them act out their character roles.\nThe best ones for their characters are Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, Patrick Stewart as Professor Charles Xavier, and Sir Ian McKellan as Magneto. Hugh Jackman has the right kind of expressions that would remind one of Wolverine from the 1992-1996 cartoon series. Patrick Stewert does a wonderful job playing Xavier, I would even go far as to say that Stewert IS Charles Xavier. Sir Ian McKellan cannot be outdone playing the master of magnetism Magneto and has the right kind of sinister voice that would definitely scare young kids. All three of these actors give solid performances and they alone steal the show with their skillful performances in this movie. Rebecca Romijn Stamos' does a good job in her role as Mystique which will be forever remembered with the 'costume' merely being blue body paint and the bizarre stick-on scales to make Mystiques course skin and it's probably Stamos' most famous role in her entire career. Interesting camera angles I must admit.\nOthers though don't fare as well. While none of them are near horrible or fatally catastrophic, some characters should've been giving much larger roles and could've been much better both appearance wise and personality wise. Rogue, Storm, and Cyclops are among the best characters off all time but in the film, they are reduced to two-dimensional characters with Rogue and Storm being the particular ones as the comic books show them as beautiful, intelligent, and elegant, but on the film they hardly show any of the elegance nor intelligence that they have been in the comics for almost 40 years! Anna Paquin doesn't do a bad job playing Rogue but her character hardly shows Rogue's emotional trauma that the comics have showed time and time again and simply looks more like a helpless victim. Sabertooth while awesome looks more like the bearded lead singer in the rock band Metallica (No offense to the band). Jean Grey looks more romantically involved with Wolverine than with Cyclops. What's with that? Cyclops is almost as uninteresting as your average stranger and hardly shows the romantic relationship with Jean Grey. All of these characters in my opinion are in dire need of improvement on their part especially Storm and Rogue. However, all of these flaws in the characters I mentioned are forgivable in my opinion, considering how difficult it was to adapt a HUGE and rich comic book series to the big screen and it could've turned out disastrous, but instead they pulled it off quite well. There's lots of room for improvement though and hopefully the cast will do an even better job on X-Men 2.\nAlthough I'm not complaining about it, some characters don't even show up in the film at all. Gambit doesn't join the X-Men until much later, Henry McCoy aka Beast doesn't either, nor does Jubilee. That's OK though. Gradually the X-Men movies shall improve upon the previous as time goes on and hopefully it'll have a long theatre life as opposed to the Batman movie series that probably wound up being killed by the box-office bust, \"Batman & Robin\".\nAlthough I love this movie a lot, even I cannot deny that there were plenty of flaws to the film. Despite all of these things, this movie is a great one to own and has a strong message of the effects of bigotry, prejudice and racism and it's destructive effects on society as a whole. The fight scenes in some of them are awesome especially Wolverine battling Sabertooth atop The Statue Of Liberty and the incident at the train station. Overall, while this movie could've been better. This is just my perspective but I think that this first X-Men movie is more of a warm-up to the possible action-packed sequel X-Men or the ones after it. I just hope that this will become like a long lasting movie series that'll go for years and years. I think that they did a good job at adapting the X-Men to the big screen and is a good first start. Buy It Today!","Product: This film has outstanding special effects, excellent cinematography & a wonderful cast.\n\nRating: 1.0\n\nSummary: You've got to be kidding me!!\n\nReview: I can't even begin to explain how disappointed I am of the third installment in the Jurassic Park series. Everything about JP3 is so disappointing. This may sound like this is coming from someone who had high hopes for JP3 but actually NO, I had low expectations for it but to my shock & dismay, this movie missed meeting those by a mile. Bloody Hell, I had better expectations with Rocky & Bullwinkle back in 2000 and at least a few of them were met even though that was [...] can fodder.\nThe entire plot is so ridiculous. The thing begins with someone who gets lost on an island after a skydiving accident, one dies, and it all just simply goes downhill after that. Sam Niell who did such a great job on the playing Dr. Alan Grant in the 1993 original Jurassic Park movie, does such a clumsy job on playing the character, almost as if he were forced into the acting studio against his will. I couldn't have thought of a much worse acting crew either. I can't blame him for the hollow character acting. The others fell completely through the trampoline with absolutely absurd character playing, and absolutely pointless plots, no sense of chemistry, and little, if any sense of writing was put into the plot. Where there was chemistry in the characters in the first movie, there is none of that in the same ppl in this third installment, and instead are those that seem to have the brains of a raisin.\nThere are some occasional good moments with the plane crash scene being well filmed and a sense of intensity of them trying to get out in time but overall, even that doesn't put any merits into the film. Neither does the awesome, stunning views of the misty valleys, rainforests, and the mountains, even though they're great too look at. In fact, the landscape felt like the most interesting thing in the movie besides T. Rex.\nOverall in fact, Jurassic Park III feels more like a scrapped version of the first in the JP trilogy as at least in the Lost World, there was some ground being broken as T. Rex got onto the mainland, but here, it's all confined to the small island of Isle Sorna with the same old, same old, script that felt more like it was taken out of the recycle bin and made into a movie without depth put into it. There is nothing groundbreaking nor anything that got me into a state of excitement or thrills. The ending was just plain laughable with a sense of the lack a climax and unfinished filming. When I left the theatre in bitter disappointment, I felt like I had flushed [$$$], and 90 minutes of my life down the toilet!\n I have no idea of what they were thinking when they made this film but what I can say is if it was the same person who write the original one in 1993, Jurassic Park III is his first complete misfire. This addition to the trilogy was a total disappointment. I'm not pleased!","Product: This film has outstanding special effects, excellent cinematography & a wonderful cast.\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: Yawn....I fell asleep during this movie.\n\nReview: Would somebody tell me what one Gods Green Earth this was. This can't be the third installment in this series! Jurassic Park III is a dissapointment on many fronts.\nThere was nothing that broke any new grounds like the first two movies did. This movie is a poor follow-up to the the first J. Park movie and the Lost World. In fact I almost felt cheated when I spent eight dollars on a ticket to go see this movie. Everything that was on the second movie was here but this movie is so predictable. It's almost like watching a scrapped version of the original movie. As a fan of the first two Jurassic Park Movies this was a bitter pill to swallow. So cheap, so predictable, thrown together in like 20 minutes, is a few things I can say about this disaster sequel. Major dissapointment.\nOh Well. I guess I'll wait another four years for the fourth one.","Product: SHREK - SPECIAL EDITION VIDEOCASSETTE. The Party continues....MORE SHREK than ever before! All-New Extended Ending. - DVS Home Video Described movies for people who have trouble seeing the screen.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: A screaming Ogre of a classic!\n\nReview: I was totally blown away when I finished seeing this awesome animated movie at the big screen. I thought that the \"Toy Story\" movies could not be topped but \"Shrek\" proved me wrong. \"Shrek\" surpassed Pixar's previous movies and today, it is already a much-beloved classic. I don't know how they do but Pixar have managed to create a truly original story every time they make a movie. Not only that , their movies have had the fun and welcoming atmosphere to appeal to younger audiences yet also have enough sophistication and dialog to win over the adult audience and \"Shrek\" is one of the shining examples of such movies.\nOn this round of animated Disney fun, the typical fairy tale storyline is severely warped into a charmingly funny adventure starring a modestly unfriendly green Ogre named Shrek played by Mike Myers, a loquacious donkey played by none other than than the eccentric comedian actor Eddie Murphy, whose role in this rejuvenated his career which was going through a stagnant stage with turkey after turkey (\"I Spy\" anyone?), and a princess named Fione played by Cameron Diaz.\nThe story begins with a huge solitary Ogre named Shrek who has enjoyed most of his life in peace alone on his swamp/home. However, the harmony of isolation is completely destroyed when one night, all of the Disney characters such as Cinderella, Snow White and her Seven Dwarfs, Tinkerbelle, and Pinocchio, are banished from their homelands and to Shrek's utter horror and dismay, to his very own swamp, which he hates sharing with others thanks to a tyrannical royal kind names Lord Farquaad. Back at his dungeon-like castle, Farquaad seeks to become king but his ambitions have hit a brick wall time and time again because he has to marry a princess in order to do so. Back at the swamp, Shrek tries to drive the cartoon exiles off his swamp but eventually gives in, and decides to confront Farquaad to return the `cartoon exiles' back to their homes. Along the way, Shrek meets a loquacious, eccentric donkey along the way whose talkative ways get on Shrek's nerves but in the end a strong friendship forms between the two as they go up against numerous forces to return the exiles back to their homes.\nDuring that time, Shrek has to rescue a princess named Fione from a horrible dungeonlike castle that is guarded by an extremely `dangerous' dragon that breaths fire in order to `regain' his swamp back from the exiled beings. But from there, the so called fairytale is completely warped into a comedic adventure full of fun, laughs, and excellent storylines. But not only those make this movie great, it also has a highly important message about what true love really is about that personality is far more important than physical appearance and I tell you, it is for this reason taht \"Shrek\" is in fact, not only a great and fun movie, but also an important must-have for the ages. I tell you, even if it buts heads against \"Monsters Inc.\" or \"Finding Nemo\" as my favorite animated movie, there is no denying that \"Shrek\" ushered in a new golden age in animated moviemaking. Please buy this awesome movie. It's absolutely worth every rusted penny!","Product: Region 1 ENCODED\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: A strange and interesting little movie...\n\nReview: \"Suburbia\" is a rather interesting film that paints a much different perspective on the life of street punks who are often branded as `major undesirables' and how the central characters often are at major odds with the `normal' suburban establishments.\n\n The story begins with a very disturbing scene involving stray dogs but then cuts to the story of a highly disillusioned adolescent named Ethan whose life is utter hell with his unpleasant mother (who's become a very angry alcoholic) who runs away from home in search of a better life. Later he is taken in and becomes a part of a large gang of rowdy punk rockers. Later in the movie we see a whole barrage of scenes of the lifestyles of the punk rockers in their `alternate' lifestyle in a run down home.\n\n At first the movie seems to be directed at a more of a `trailer trash' society but at the same time, it is actually a much more socially-conscious insight into the broken home lifestyle and also questions the way that the authoritarian side of normal society (police, politicians, businessmen, and a large sector of the normal people) treats the youth and what causes the gang act the way they do but also the wild behavior of these individuals. The `normal' side of the movie showcases them as `dangerous to society' and need to be dealt with by any means necessary yet the `alternate' part of the movie showcases the `normal' society as repressive towards the different lifestyle of the gang and how that the cultures between them and the establishment can barely even coexist without major confrontations.\n\n My take on this I could not write in stone. I first saw this movie in a social problems class so I couldn't help but want to write my side on this. I sometimes think that both sides are victims as well as perpetrators of the problems of the community. The victims are the people whove been harmed or worse, lost their lives. The `normal' side of society seems more victimized by the vandalism by the gang who spray offensive graffiti on the store walls and on buildings yet the punk rockers themselves seem to be victims of the repressions of the authoritarian nature of the established society by being threatened with being evicted from their dilapidated home due to the increasing property value and while the neighborhood that they live in is rather tired, the increasing property value is viewed by them as an assault on their livelihood by the `rich folks'. That's my interpretation.\n\n This is a very interesting movie and am very glad to have stumbled upon it. It has a very unique kind of appeal to it in the way it shows the varying perspectives of the many characters. In ways, some of the `anti-punks' who are a pair of middle-aged trailer trash men commit worse acts than what the punks did. The ending is rather suprising and kind of depressing yet it is so sudden that it dilutes the emotional quality.\n\n The movie, as good as it is, was not very well made. Yes, the movie is very good for a cheap low-budget movie but the scenes are a bit blurry and the sound quality is also muffled. The acting is also quite campy but it's interesting how a lot of the actors and actresses never acting an any movies since this time.\n\n The DVD itself offers NO improvement on the old VHS release from the early 1980s. The biggest disappointment is that the picture and sound quality are utterly ATROCIOUS and makes the movie look much older than it really is. Sure movies from around 1984 may have a rather gritty appearance in their original look but \"Suburbia\" suffers immensely from the really gritty picture quality especially during nighttime scenes. The sound quality is also a bit muffled. Compared to some special editions of lets say \"Gone With The Wind\" or \"The Godfather DVD Collection\" which the new versions sounds like a heavy towel is lifted off the television speakers, this one sounds garbled and the combination results in a movie that looks and sounds dated as hell.\n\n Other than the ancient sound and look of the film, \"Suburbia\" is a really good but very obscure little treasure that may not be picked up by most people's radars. For those who do find it especially those who are strongly into the punk rock culture (which I'm not that much into) will find this to have a strange appeal but even I find this little movie to have its strange appeal in a strange way. A Mildly recommended movie.","Product: Celebration of The Human Spirit, Filled with Heart And Soul.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Disney scores a touchdown with a true story.\n\nReview: My interest in football comes and goes from time to time depending on the time of the year but \"Remember The Titans\" is one movie that I will remember for many years to come. This Disney movie starring Denzel Washington is a powerful, true story of a battle against the corrupt forced segregation at the high school in Virginia called T.C. Williams High School located in Alexandria, Virginia where a racial upheaval occurs when football coach Yoast played by Will Patton hires an African American coach named Herman Boone played by Denzel Washington to coach the T.C. Williams Titans and integrate T.C. Williams High School and is threatened with being fired if they lose a single game during their 13 game season. The players meet and hate each other at first but gradually learn to respect each other and use teamwork to overcome their petty differences.\nThis movie is a marvelous portrayal of the struggle of integration of all, I repeat, ALL colors and the continuing struggle against the corrupt racial segregation and the ugliness of it's outcomes. The story is true and probably the story could not be better told than from the actual former players who actually played the championship game during this turbulent period in1971. The two coaches Yoast and Boone worked together to bring the Titans to victory in the Championship game amidst the racial turmoil and strife that clouds the atmosphere. Disney definitely scores a touchdown with a riveting true story of a turbulent time in America's history. Amidst all of the turmoil and hatred, the spirit of the Titans during this historic year will forever be remembered around the nation as one of the greatest achievements in high school football history. While Alexandria might have been going through racial tough times during the late 60s and early 70s, today, it's now a very diverse city of many different peoples (I lived there once) but de facto segregation has been and continues to be a huge obstacle to integration today. \"Remember The Titans\" is indeed a movie to remember.","Product: The body of a young woman is found in a ditch in the woods of the small California coastal town of San Benito. SANDRA BULLOCK (\"Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood,\" \"Miss Congeniality\"), stars as Cassie Mayweather, the seasoned homicide detective and crime scene specialist assigned to the case along with her new partner San Kennedy (BEN CHAPLIN - \"Lost Souls,\" \"The Thin Red Line\"). The two dectectives make their way through microscopic hints of evidence, which seem to indicate a random act of violence, but Cassie has a gut feeling that there is more to this murder than meets the eye. Something about this case reminds her of her past exactly at a time when she is asked to appear at a parole hearing on an old police matter. These events force Cassie to revisit the past.\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: A potentially great movie murdered by weak story.\n\nReview: I am very dissapointed with this movie even when my expectations were modest.\n Two young men, likely around high school age, try to attempt to pull of what would likely be the 'perfect murder' and try to get away with it. Sandra Bullock plays a police detective with a psychologically painful and checkered past who is aiming to investigate and find out what happened when a women was found dead in a river recently.\n This movie is unbelievably predictable that there is little of anything that instantly grabs your attention. The acting is incredibly hammy and it almost feels like you can tell that Sandra really wanted to walk off the set of this film and for good reason: \"Murder by Numbers\" is absolutely boring and never gets off the ground. The characters are weak and without any personality and the dialogue is virtually nonexistant.\n A major dissapointment to say the least. Try out \"Blood Work\" instead because it is far superior even if it suffers too from some weaknesses.","Product: Clothes make the superspy in this high-energy action comedy. Jimmy Tong (Jackie Chan) is a well-meaning but clumsy New York City cab driver who is tapped by Steena (Debi Mazar), associate to multi-millionaire Clark Devlin (Jason Isaacs), for a new job as Devlin's personal limo driver. After a mysterious accident lands Devlin in the hospital, Tong learns that his new boss has a secret - when he's not wheeling and dealing in high finance, Devlin is also a secret agent for the CSA, a top-level security agency. The secret to Devlin's success as a spy is his trademark tuxedo, a suit which is loaded with special gadgets which turns him into a high-tech fighting machine. After Tong dons the tuxedo and is transformed into a martial arts master, he takes over for Devlin and discovers that the agent's injuries didn't happen by accident. As Tong tries to chase down a handful of international super-villains bent on world conquest, he has to deal with Devlin's new partner, Del Blaine (Jennifer Love Hewitt), a CSA rookie who is just as baffled by her new assignment as Tong. The Tuxedo marked the feature-film debut for director Kevin Donovan, who had previously won international acclaim for his work in television commercials.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Decent but one of Chan's weaker films.\n\nReview: One of my favorite actors of all time Jackie Chan brings forth another memorable movie entitled \"The Tuxedo\" which while not groundbreaking by any means, is still a lot of fun to watch and more of the eye-popping stunts that Chan pulls off with his movies. The movie itself movie can go off track in several places but the absolutely hilarious stunts that bring the laughs that Chan has brought forth for so many years are still as fun and hilarious as ever.\n Starring Jackie Chan and Jennifer Love Hewitt, the movie is of a lowly chauffeur named Jimmy Tong who is called to duty on a top secret mission. He is assigned because Devlin (Jason Isaacs), a secret agent who was going after a dangerous international criminal, suffers a serious head injury after an explosion caused by a failed assassination attempt and temporarily retires and Jimmy Tong takes his place. Tong dons on a tuxedo but he discovers that this very tuxedo he is wearing, is laced with state of the art gadgets that give the wearer special fighting abilities.\n Jimmy Tong is assigned on a mission to foil the plans of a corporate madman whose plans are to infect the world's water supplies in order to muster up a massive fortune by forcing the public to buy bottled spring water. Now teaming up with\n The movie is enjoyable to a degree and the laughs are there to keep one watching but there are areas where it really starts to veer off. The script is weak in several places and Jennifer Love Hewitt's character comes off as rude, and snobby, all the reason she's there is for her character is to just give Tong really bad blood and yell and yell at him, ARRGGHH! It's incredibly annoying!! I can't stand her!! I'm just referring to Hewitt's character in the movie, not Hewitt herself of course. This would've been a much better movie if Tong worked alone on the mission. It's not so much that the script or plot were bad but they both could really have used a lot more development and it all comes off as lukewarm at best.\n The Cameo appearance by the Godfather of Soul James Brown was a really cool idea and the typical action sequences that Jackie Chan has brought us for so many years are so funny to watch (Watch when Tong bashed out a light bulb and caused sparks to fly, SO incredibly funny) but this movie doesn't add much to his legacy.\n This is a halfway decent movie but I feel that they could've done a much better job at it and is one of Chan's weaker movies I've seen from what I can remember. \"The Tuxedo\" is worth a look and worthy of renting but don't expect a whole h.e.l.l. of a lot out of it compared with \"Rumble In The Bronx\", the \"Rush Hour\" movies, or \"Shanghai Knights\" or \"Shanghai Noon\".","Product: A former FBI profiler who has recently undergone a heart transplant comes out of retirement to track down the serial killer who has recently begun killing victims with the former agent's blood type.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Decent crime-thriller flick but awkward at times.\n\nReview: I happened to have had a fascination with the whole way that forensic investigators have used unusual evidence to track down and find who the real criminals behind crimes really are. 2002's Clint Eastwood directed \"Blood Work\" for the most part does succeed in being a really good and sometimes challenging movie for crime-drama thriller moviegoers.\n Terry McCaleb is a former FBI agent Miami who recently retired after a minor heart attack forced him to retire from the job of police investigator until after a string of killings, he comes out of retirement and goes back on the job when the sister of a murder victim is desperate to have her sister's killer brought to justice. Terry McCaleb has had a hard life because of the frustration of letting the killer slip through his hands due to the heart ailment that he suffered just as he was about to catch him. Even more daunting is that the victims' blood matches McCaleb's and he in fact got a heart transplant from one of the murder victims but defies the health effects of his heart transplant to bring down the killer before he strikes again.\n This movie is a really good thriller for the most part but the movie does have it's share of flaws like even a lot of positive reviews have emphasized. One of the is that the acting by the entire cast, while decent, does from time to time, drift off in all directions. However my favorite one was actor Paul Rodriguez. While he doesn't have a whole lot of acting time on this film, he is so funny as the hot-tempered chief who has had a long standing semi-rivalry with McCaleb. Seeing his character go ballistic all the time is so funny and to be honest, besides Clint Eastwood, Paul Rodriguez really is the shining star for me.\n \"Blood Work\" is also marred somewhat by a slow moving storyline and it drags on in places and as a result it's sometimes hard to watch the movie without sitting still or getting bored but it does pick back up before you would fall asleep. One lovemaking scene between Gracielle Rivers(Wanda De Jesus) and McCaleb was somewhat iffy in my opinion due to their age differences and it felt cold to me.\nHowever, The idea of the killer targeting individuals with the same blood type is in my opinion quite original and keeps this movie from being totally predictable. This is not an essential movie by any stretch of the imagination but for those who like shows like \"CSI\" as well as \"CSI: Miami\", then this film is worth a look or two. The DVD has offers no worthy extras in my opinion.","Product: HAPPILY EVER AFTER NEVER SEEMED SO FAR AWAY WHEN A TRIP TO MEET THE IN-LAWS TURNS INTO ANOTHER HILARIOUSLY TWISTED ADVENTURE FOR SHREK & FIONA. WITH THE HELP OF HIS FAITHFUL DONKEY, SHREK TAKES ON A POTION-BREWING FAIRY GODMOTHER, THE POMPOUS PRINCE CHARMING & THE FAMED OGRE-KILLER, PUSS IN BOOTS.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: The greatest sequel in many years! As great as the 1st!\n\nReview: I can remember almost laughing at the idea of a sequel to the first movie from the summer of 2001. The first \"Shrek\" movie was an absolutely hilarious work of genius by the animation studio crew and the storyline was absolutely brilliant and original. This sequel entitled \"Shrek 2\" is every bit as funny, witty and excellent as the original and perfectly continues the story of the legendary green Ogre. (CAUTION: Some spoilers may be present but hopefully not.)\n Picking right up where everything left off on the first, Shrek and Fiona as the newly wed ogres are happily married and live in the swamp where Shrek himself lived on his own before his previous adventure took him away to face off against Farquaad. Now he and Princess Fiona take a chance and head off to a place `Far Far Away' where they actually head to a large Parisian city with a sort of Hollywood like culture to see and visit Fiona's parents however, the parents have no idea of the fact that their own daughter is actually an ogre and when they do in fact meet her new husband, they vehemently disapprove of the marriage between them and things turn really bad between Shrek and his new in-laws. The King has had a long dislike for ogres and even the Queen is shocked but at least tries to tolerate Shrek and the fact that their daughter is in fact an ogre but just barely.\n Meanwhile a magical flying witch named The Fairy Godmother along with her son Prince Charming who hates ogres aim to break up Shrek and Fiona's marriage and have Fiona marry her `real' love. However all of them are unaware that the Fairy Godmother and Fiona's father have forged a secret deal to have Fiona and Prince Charming marry and for Shrek, the ogre to leave her life forever by using a special potion that brings `true love'. Shrek aims to use a special potion that brings `true happiness' when taken and Shrek and his donkey aim to repair the fallout from the disastrous confrontation with Fiona's father. Fiona on the other hand, is not turned on by Prince Charming but the manipulation of him and The Fairy Godmother may jeopardize she and Shrek's marriage. Now Shrek, along with Donkey along with a new sidekick cat called Puss In Boots are on an adventure to save Shrek and Fiona's marriage before it's too late.\n Just like the first one, I adore and laugh to the many ways that \"Shrek 2\" makes fun of the classic fairy tales. A lot of the jokes from the first one are present on this sequel and Shrek and the talking donkey are both a riot but one of the highlight characters however was the newcomer Puss In Boots! Man Puss In Boots is so hilarious and Antonio Banderas provides amazing voice work and really brings his character to life on the big screen. Once again Mike Myers is absolutely fantastic providing the voice work of Shrek and the characters personality is so rich and real. Cameron Diaz is once again awesome as the feisty Princess Fiona as she is stuck between choosing to remain with Shrek or go with Prince `Charming'. Eddie Murphy was absolutely hilarious providing the voice work for the quirky and excessively loquacious Talking Donkey. As a matter of fact, the entire cast was absolutely phenomenal and were made for this movie.\n Once again the animation is just amazing and the various sceneries are well filmed and the storyline is just as strong and entertaining as the first one. The first one will always remain the best for me due to the fact that it was really original but this sequel gets my nod as one of the best sequels in many years, up there with \"X-Men United\", and \"Terminator 2\". But on top of it all, while it is generally aimed to be funny, it is also brings out a very important message of how true love goes far beyond just physical appearances, and really relies on strong character and honesty and also with this message which would sometimes be told in a boring manner, instead is told through a really funny, intelligent and excellent animated movie. Almost anyone can find a lot of great things with both this and it's predecessor. The kids will love it for it's light-hearted humor and cartoony look and adults and older audiences will love it for it's excellent plot and incredible characters. Even my 86 year old grandmother loved it and wants to see it again. That should explain enough of how appealing this movie is for the various age groups. There are some scenes that may be a bit questionable for small kids but most will not notice.\n I also love the way that this movie spoofs almost every fairytale that you can imagine. In fact, this movie makes extremely hilarious spoofs of almost everything you can imagine and some of the silly behavior like Donkey when he pops his tongue during one scene made me laugh so hard that I felt like my eyeballs were going to pop right out of their sockets. There are a lot more hilarious scenes but I do not want to spoil it for the viewers. In almost every way, \"Shrek 2\" defies the trap that often ruins sequels by continuing the story in a reasonable way and retaining the styles of the first while expanding the storyline. I can never say how much I really enjoyed this movie other than saying that you should see this movie because it is already one of the best movies of 2004! Everybody clapped when it was done. That should be enough to recommend that you go and see it today! You will not be disappointed, not by any stretch of the imagination! I can never do this movie any justice with this review and I'm ending it here.","Product: As Harry Potter readies himself for his third year at Hogwarts, an incident in which he is unable to control his anger forces him on the lam. At the same time, a dangerous man named Sirius Black escapes from the Azkaban prison with one thought on his mind: to track down and kill Harry Potter. The third year at Hogwarts is full of excitement and danger for Harry and his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: This movie was worth the long wait!\n\nReview: After nearly two years and the tragic departure of the late Richard Harris, the third entry in the Harry Potter movie series \"Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban\" takes the life of Harry Potter to a whole new level and this movie beats the first two right out to sea. This movie is even darker than the previous two movies and in all honesty, this one fares a lot better in a lot of ways because the characters are a lot more mature and even adults have enjoyed this movie at the theatres.\n After his second year at Hogwarts, Harry Potter(Daniel Radcliffe) is back at Privet Drive for the summer break with his awful and dim-witted Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and Cousin Dudley Dursley but even worse news is that Vernon's sister Marjorie Dursley has been invited for a visit to the Privet Household. Marjorie is a breeder of pit bull dogs and Harry has had really unpleasant experiences with her when a young kid but when Marjorie makes disparaging remarks about Harry as well as his deceased parents, Harry finally loses and after a really major mishap (I'm not saying what happens), he runs away from the Dursley Household. After being picked up by the Knight Bus for stranded wizards. His trip to Hogwarts isn't smooth sailing either but meets back up with his friends Ronald Weasley(Rupert Grint) and Hermione Granger(Emma Watson) and all three are showing signs of adolescence. Even worse is that he learns the news of a notoriously dangerous prisoner named Sirius Black who is the first prisoner to escape from the previously inescapable Azkaban Prison and is believed to be roaming the streets of Hogsmeade but seemingly is trying to find Harry himself. It is also believed that Sirius Black who was Harry Potter's parents' secret-keeper betrayed Harry's parents by revealing their location to Voldemort and giving him the their location which resulted in them being murdered by him and also Sirius is believed to be responsible for the deaths of 12 muggles and one wizard that same night and without a trail, Black was sent to Azkaban. Also extremely dangerous creatures called the Dementors are assigned by the Ministry of Magic to guard the gates of Hogwarts to prevent Black from setting foot on the school grounds but the Dementors have been harder and harder to control and have been targeting Harry in particular. These creatures have the ability to drain all of the positive feelings out of the air around them and force the victim to relive his worst memories.\n This movie improves on the greatness of the first two and with this one, I can really relate to the characters a lot more because they are a lot more mature. The characters are far more developed and the trio cast show much greater confidence than in the first HP movie and even much more than even \"The Chamber the Secrets\". Alfonso Cuarino who takes the reins from Chris Columbus to brilliantly directed the first two does an extremely spectacular job of directing this third HP movie and while I was definitely expecting great directing from him, I never expected such great directing like this. The movie is a lot darker than the first two movies and the plot outline is a lot more sinister. The Dementors are also very creepy but at the same time, I'm so glad they don't look like rip-offs of the Nazgul from the LOTR trilogy. The special effects are absolutely amazing and add a lot to the visuals as opposed to overblowing it. At the same time, \"Prisoner of Azkagan\" is incredibly funny and has some of the funniest scenes and lines of any of the three movies but the humor adds a lot to the much more sinister feel of this movie.\n The movie does have it's peeves though. The biggest peeve of all is that they really do a great disservice to Harry's archrival Draco Malfoy. In the first two, we see that he is a really mean-spirited nasty boy who showed a lot of the characteristics of a blossoming evil but to my dismay, Draco is reduced to just a sniveling, whining coward. This to me is the one time where they drop the ball on this movie. The movie also cuts out some scenes which I liked in the novel counterpart but hey, it's impossible to film every detail of an entire novel and thus, I'm not that surprised. The other one isn't a peeve but it just took some time to get used to a whole new look for Albus Dumbledore but I must say, the late Richard Harris' replacement Michael Gambon was excellent filling in Harris' shoes portraying Hogwarts Headmaster Album Dumbledore and was a lot better than I expected even when I was surprised at the change in Dumbledore's look for the movie.\n\n After the year and a half wait after the excellent \"Chamber of Secrets\", \"Prisoner of Azkaban\" was worth every moment of the long wait and if you liked the first two, then I strongly recommend that you see this movie as soon as possible. The book version is superior to the movie version but for what it is, this movie is worth every penny and I cannot wait to own this on DVD. Go and see this movie pronto because it is brilliant, it's funny, it's sinister, and it's really entertaining and smart.","Product: When 28-year old wannabe animator Gord Brody (Green) leaves the safety of his parents' home to make it big in Hollywood, all hell breaks loose... in hospital rooms, with paraplegic nymphos, in a cheese factory, with farm animals... and much more! Just whe\n\nRating: 1.0\n\nSummary: THIS SHOULD BE BANNED OFF THE EARTH!\n\nReview: I don't know if I could ever muster up enough words at how angered and extremely offended I am at the extreme level of stupidity and high level of gross content that this movie is bloated with to a near-bursting level. I was appalled when\nI am absolutely baffled, not to mention appalled, at the large number of people who actually like this (edited for inappropriate language) and giving it favorable reviews. This is a testament to just how mentally arrested much of society seems to have become in recent years in terms of taste for entertainment. There are many extremely disturbing and horrifying scenes that just completely destroy all of the worthiness of this abominable film. To put it plain and simple, there isn't even an atom of redeeming value anywhere on here. All of us have plenty of freak in ourselves. \"FGF\" has none of that. This movie is just plain sick, perverted, and stupid to a dangerous level.\nHow is it funny when a stillborn is spun around in the air with an umbilical cord in a hospital room and then given back to the mother and laughing about it?! How is it supposed to be funny seeing animal (gratification) funny?! How is any of this funny? Anyone with even a small piece of brain tissue would be smart enough to not even find this remotely funny. I would've even go far enough as to say that this is racist and bigoted!\nThere are plenty of dumb movies out there that can still be plenty of fun and humorous without necessarily being intelligent. \"Freddy Got Fingered\" does not fall into either category. In fact, I am absolutely confused that this hasn't gotten an NC-17 rating as the content that is prevalent throughout warrants this being that rating and far more than an R rated flick. This should've even been categorized in the adult movie section at a run down video store. I would even go the distance to say that it almost seems to be more like illegal video material that would get one in major trouble with the law.\nDon't even bother to rent this cinematic garbage. There isn't anything shocking about it at all. It's just an embarrassing and ignominious piece of garbage that just simply should be taken off the market altogether. It will do nothing but indelibly leave negatively disturbing images in your mind and leave bad mental scars for many years to come. Thankfully though, I managed to psychologically recover from the scars of this wretched movie and rebound a strong person. It's a shame that Green hasn't done the same. He is like 25 years too old to be acting like a leprechaun with rabies. This is the bottom of the barrel in moviemaking and is nothing but complete (edited for inappropriate language) that should never have even been put into existence! Oh and please, someone get out a bullhorn and tell Mr. Tom Green that his garbage that is thrown at us is totally UNFUNNY!","Product: Austin Powers is called to action again when his father is kidnapped by his arch enemy Dr. Evil and the mysterious Goldmember.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Much better than I thought.\n\nReview: Considering how much I really despise Beyonces group Destinys Child I kept my expectations for this movie relatively low. I was so sick and tired of hearing that strongly annoying voice on the radio and people shoving that DC krap in my face.\nHowever my expectations were completely blown away and Goldmember turned out to be my favorite of the Austin Powers saga.\nThe jokes that dominated the first two flicks are continued in the third installment of the bunch. Austin Powers is one a mission to stop a crazed man from using a magnetic beam to cause an giant asteroid to collide with earth. Plus Austin has to rescue his long lost father by the name of Nigel Powers.\nMy favorite part was where Austin Powers met Britney Spears in the awful Boyz video when it turns out that the Britney in the movie was actually a fembot. I literally laughed when I saw the fembot blow up.\nWhile the female charachter Foxy Cleopatra did get on my nerves at the beginning I must say she turned out much better than I thought. While I don't have much respect for Beyonce Knowles in terms of music she could gain my respect in terms of being an actress.\nSo far one of the best theatrical releases of 2002! I'm looking forward to the fourth installment whenever that comes out.","Product: VHS TAPE\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Cuts extremes of both ways for me.\n\nReview: Okay, I wasn't too thrilled at the whole concept of the idea of a really dumb show actually being made into a full-length feature film and was literally put off by it until I stumbled upon this on cable recently and the result though for me, cut extreme ways for me being a mix of truly funny, genius stunts and disasters, to average ho-hum stunts to sickeningly stupid and vomit-inducing without being funny.\n Okay so this isn't actually a movie at all. No script, no plot, but just plain hodgepodge of stunts, \"Jackass: The Movie\" is designed to really offend some, yet really entertain others too. For me, this does both on an enormous scale.\n Starring Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Steve-O, and a bunch of other misfit punks, these guys are not just some drunk delinquents who are finding stunt ideas to entertain, these people are actually trained professional stuntmen who are highly trained and thus, kids out there who watch this should NEVER, EVER try to perform any of the stunts in this film.\n In any case, some of the pranks are absolutely a riot to watch. I find it amazing how someone could actually jump on a mini-trampoline and crash right through a ceiling fan going at high speed and crash onto a small wooden table that collapses under the velocity of him landing on it. I was laughing so incredibly hard at it that I hurt my lungs because it was so funny and also because I have a love for slapstick and this is the best slapstick crash I've ever watched on TV. Other numerous pranks pulled off by these Jackasses are also a riot to watch. The 'ceiling fan' stunt is a favorite but another one that also made me scream with laughter is the bowling alley one in the beginning that made me laugh so hard that I literally hurt my lungs.\n However, some of the antics pulled off are absolutely sickening to watch and two in particular were just extremely gross and enough to make you want to throw up after watching and want to take a bath with lots of cleaning substances........and this is without being funny by any stretch of the imagination. One of them risks spreading harmful bacteria and is very unsanitary.\n However, the last one in this movie combines the sickeningly gross qualities of the worst parts of the movie and the worst of what the entertainment industry has to offer. It's really quite sickeningly stupid and really tasteless in an unentertaining way and really damages a lot of what could have others been good about the latter part of this 'movie'. The ending however that takes place 60 years in the future is really funny and brings this mixed bag of a DVD to a glorious conclusion.\n This isn't a movie at all. It has NO script, no plot, just plain pranks played by professional stuntmen and while some are really stomach turning, most of them are really funny to watch, that is if you can bypass some of the obscene nature of some of them. We all have some 'jackass' in ourselves but this really brings out the 'jackass' in these guys and let me tell you, the title of this 'movie' is perfect. Be mindful though that not only is there some really disgusting content but also highly masochistic behavior and some of the stunts are really dangerous!!\n So take off your thinking cap, put the school/college books on the shelves and share a laugh or two and perhaps have a barf bag with you if you are a bit queasy plus have a DVD remote to bypass the more offensive stunts. It is certainly offensive to a high degree especially to the mature audiences but also has lots of entertaining slapstick stunts. The critics hit the nail on the head by saying that this may very well be 'the Decline of Western Civilization as We Know it'.","Product: Comic genius Jim Carrey stars with Jennifer Aniston and Morgan Freeman in the funniest, most outrageously entertaining comedy hit of the year that critics are applauding as \"a laugh a minute\" (Jim Ferguson, FOX-TV). Bruce Nolan (Carrey) is a discontented TV reporter who believes the entire universe is stacked against him. In a life-altering encounter, the Big Guy Upstairs (Freeman) endows Bruce with all of His divine powers and challenges Bruce to take on the big job to see if he can do it any better. Bruce Almighty is the wildly funny comedy featuring \"Jim Carrey at his best!\" (Leonard Maltin, Hot Ticket)\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Jim Carrey's best movie in many years!\n\nReview: While not necessarily putting down what he's done in recent years, 2003'S \"Bruce Almighty\" gets my nod as Carrey's best movie he's starred in in many years and to me his major comeback.\n\n Bruce Nolan is an eccentric news reporter whose life is just simply going down the tubes, first his marriage with his wife is going sour and he just got fired from his job as a news reporter and he blamed it all on God. However one day, after getting angry with God, God himself replies back and takes Nolan up to heaven with him and asks questions about his life and why he's badmouthing him. Nolan as a result, believing in asking God to make things better, is given the task of running the world with God's powers for a while but he realizes just how hard God works in order to make things better for the entire world.\n\n Now Nolan must answer every prayer, which there are like over 2 billion made veryday (2 Billion people total follow Christianity) and control all of the ways the world runs such as physical changes and events without becoming known to the public.","Product: Action superstar Jackie Chan (Rush Hour 2, Shanghai Knights) combines his high-flying style with state-of-the-art special effects as he unleashes the power of THE MEDALLION, the film Roger Ebert gives a big 'thumbs up! Chan plays Hong Kong detective Eddie Yang, who works with the beautiful Interpol agent Nicole (Claire Forlani from Meet Joe Black and The Rock) and the bumbling agent Watson (LeeEvans of Mouse Hunt) to try to rescue a boy from the clutches of the villainous Snakehead (Warlock's Julian Sands). But when a fatal accident ends his life, Eddie is brought back to this world with the help of THE MEDALLION and is supercharged! Now empowered with superhuman strength, Eddie sets out to thwart Snakehead's plan for world domination. Filmed on location in Hong Kong, Thailand, and Ireland. Jackie Chan has got the powerand kicks THE MEDALLION into high gear!\n\nRating: 1.0\n\nSummary: A near-total waste of time\n\nReview: Now don't get me wrong, Jackie Chan is one of my favorite actors of all time and I've loved watching his movies ever since first seeing \"Rumble In The Bronx\" in the spring of 2001, albeit five years late, and I've come to enjoy many of his other movies but his 2003 outing called \"The Medallion\" is without a doubt the weakest moive that he's ever starred in and is a major disappointment considering how great many of his others, or even his other subpar films at least had some funny moments. On here however, even the funny momemts are hardly enough to muster up a laugh at all.\n\nJackie Chan stars as a Hong Kong detective who is investigating a notorious international smuggler who is after a mysterious ancient artifact called The Medallion that resurrects and gives eternal life to those who wear it but a kid who bears it's power is kidnapped by the smugglers and now the Hong Kong detective must rescue him from them and retrieve the artifact before it is used by the ringleaders.\n\n Sadly, being a huge Jackie Chan fan, \"The Medallion\" is by far the most uninspiring movie that he has ever starred in. Even all of the slapstick stunts are nowhere near as funny as like those in classics like \"Rush Hour\" or his cult hit \"Rumble In The Bronx\". There is virtually nothing that inspires laughs like the truck full of childrens play balls falling off the fourth level parking garage in \"Rumble In The Bronx\" or even those from \"The Tuxedo\", his weakest movie before this travesty came along.\n\n The acting is absolutely ridiculous and even Jackie's eccentricity that has made him so much fun to watch isn't enough to save this garbage. The acting by almost everyone else doesn't help either. Everything about this movie gives a sense of this having ground already been traveled on countless times without giving it a different light.\n\n I am a major Jackie Chan fan and have been for many years but this is the first time that I have felt really let down by a movie of his. If this is a sign of artistic decay then \"The Medallion\" is perhaps a crossroad of where Jackie must try to come up with new ideas to bring new magic into his career because this movie has none of that. An outright disappointment.","Product: THE STORY UNFOLDS ON THE STUDIO BACK LOT & CAREENS ALL OVER THE MAP IN TIME HOMORED LOONEY TUNES STYLE. OUR CELLULOID HEROESEMBARK ON A HILARIOUS ADVENTURE THAT TAKES THEM FORM HOLLYWOODTO LAS VEGAS, PARIS TO THE JUNGLES OF AFRICA IN SEARCH OF FRASIERS CHARACTERS MISSING FATHER\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Not an essential movie but a lot of fun!\n\nReview: I find it really sad how cel artwork used in animated cartoons is becoming a dying art form in recent years. While computer animation is really amazing as \"Monsters Inc.\" and \"Finding Nemo\" demonstrates, I feel that they should never stop making straight-out cel animated movies. To me, cel art requiring hand painting and drawing is really creative and amazing.\n If you liked \"Space Jam\" from several years back, then you are likely to enjoy \"Looney Tunes: Back In Action\" and I would say that they really do return to action on this good, fun but somewhat disjointed flick. In a lot of ways, this film brings back memories of \"Who Framed Roger Rabbit\" from my childhood and this is a really good thing for me. If you're looking for anything thought-provoking or requiring intellectual challenge, then you will want to pop in something else for now but for everyone else who wants a good time and can withstand thin acting in parts then by all means go and give this movie a watch. There is plenty of entertainment to offer and will make you laugh.\n It all begins where Daffy Duck is jettisoned from his workplace because of competition from his cartoon rival, the witty and funny Bugs Bunny, but Daffy Duck runs into a recently fired stuntman named Bobby Delmont. Delmont is eager to find and rescue his father who was recently kidnapped by renegade ACME criminals and several of the antagonistic Looney Tunes characters like Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, and two really big cartoon criminals help in trying to retrieve a powerful artifact called the Blue Diamond and use it's power through an orbiting satellite and transform all of the Earth's human population into monkey's in order for them to buy his products and turn them back into humans in order to make a gigantic fortune out of it.\n Not all of the Looney Tunes characters show up in the movie but enough of them do to make the movie acceptable. My favorite of the Looney Tunes are Bugs Bunny and Tasmania. I really love how the former rivals Daffy and Bugs clash in the early part of this movie but then eventually work together to prevent the Diamond from being used for ACME Corporation's malevolent schemes. Tasmania's twisted and demented character is just incredibly hilarious even if he is only in a few scenes through this film.\n The acting by the cast playing the non-cartoon characters is a bit hammy in my opinion. Brendan Frasier does alright as the insecure Bobby Delmont whose trying to find his father and save him from ACME Corporation. While not necessarily bad or awful by any means, Jenna Elfman looked rather uncomfortable on this role and her character Kate came off as being dry and totally uninteresting at best nad it almost looked like she was just ready to leave the set altogether. To me, the Looney Tunes characters were who really carried this film. The acting is good during several clumsy disaster scenes and there is even a cameo appearance from Batman during a botched filmmaking scene but there's more there than I want to give out.\n While not a great movie by any stretch of the imagination, \"Looney Tunes: Back In Action\" succeeds in being a highly entertaining and fun flick even if the acting by Fraser and Elfman comes off being skiddish and even clumsy at times. Give this movie a try. While I'm not saying that this movie is really a must-have, it offers enough to warrant keeping it and younger audiences should see it just for the sake of keeping Looney Tunes alive for all the years to come and older audiences to continue to enjoy their childhood favorites. Even if this movie is forgotten in the future, The Looney Tunes and all of our beloved classic cartoons that we have enjoyed over the last 75 years since 1928's Mickey Mouse are immortal and will never die off from our memories.","Product: The Haunted Mansion [VHS]\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Occassional awkwardness but overall a lot of fun\n\nReview: \"The Haunted Mansion\" is a really funny, if somewhat awkward hybrid of horror and comedy all mashed up in one 90 minute adventure in one movie.\n It all starts with a real estate husband/wife partnership where they sell houses to various tenants and but the workaholic lifestyle is straining their marriage as Jim Evers is working longer and longer hours. Later on they hear about an old grand mansion in the remote parts of Louisiana they think/believe that they have brought upon themselves a grand opportunity but when the whole family gets there they however realize that this is no ordinary old grand mansion. A very old butler named Ramsley greets them as does his master Gracey who lost his dear beloved lover many years ago to an `accident' and has been tormented with grief ever since then. However, the only way to `move on' is to discover the truth behind the death of Master Gracey's beloved.\nThis place is haunted by tormented spirits `trapped' down on earth. Jim going through all of the mayhem meets a ghost that inhabits the mansion and discovers that the only way to save himself from the curse that enshrouds his family is to `break the curse' that has trapped all of them in the place of darkness and free them and this is told through a psychic crystal ball with immense psychological powers.\n This movie is really a lot of fun with a sort of watered-down Addams Family style visuals but I don't really find it to be all that scary. In fact, I find this movie to be a lot more funny and humorous slapstick fun than comedy horror but this movie offers lots of laughs. Adults may not find a lot to write home aobut with this movie but Eddie Murphy fans as well as younger audiences will find lots to enjoy on this movie. It's not an essential movie by any means but it is worth a look if you have too much time on your hands.","Product: This critically acclaimed epic trilogy follows the quest undertaken by the hobbit, Frodo Baggins, and his fellowship of companions to save Middle-earth by destroying the One Ring and defeating the evil forces of the Dark Lord Sauron.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: The Ultimate DVD set for all time!\n\nReview: I already reviewed the regular \"Motion Picture Trilogy\" containing the non-extended editions of the legendary Lord of The Rings masterpieces on one set. However, this newest edition is a grand improvement on the previous edition. This item is a much, MUCH better investment than the old theatrical counterparts and is perhaps the greatest DVD purchase one will likely ever make.\n\n A lot \"Director's Cut\" scenes are usually just added footage that doesn't do a whole lot to add onto the theatrical edition of movies with examples like Star Wars, Manhunter, or even most of the \"Aliens\" movies as well. The extra material is just that, extras, that wouldn't kill me to never see again.\n\n It's a totally different story altogether with the \"Lord Of The Rings\" movies altogether. While the regular theatrical editions were mind-blowing, the extended cuts of the same films do wonders in fleshing out the story and expanding the characters a lot more. Several characters that were not much more than background people are shown much more screen time, stories are greatly expanded, other scenes are much more meaningful, and the movies overall have a totally different feel altogether thanks to all of the extra footage that was not included on the theatrical editions. Now as I watch them, the old editions of them are rendered almost completely obsolete due to the chopped up nature of them. I sometimes wonder if Peter Jackson grimaced when he had to leave a lot of extra shots out of the movies to fit them onto the theatres when they were released.\n\n \"Fellowship\" has 30 minutes of extra footage included to a length of 3 and a half hours. \"The Two Towers\" was extended 43 minutes to a total of 3 hours and 42 minutes and finally \"The Return of The King\" is extended by a grand 50 minutes and the ultimate result is a whopping 4 hours and 11 minutes long! I don't know about you but I don't know how one can make a longer movie like this but Jackson did it! The grand total of all three extended editions is at least an astronomical 11 hours long! This is just the movies themselves.\n\n As for all of the extras on the \"Extended Editions\", there are over a days worth of extras for surf through on the latter two discs of each film set. The things on them are too great to explain in detail with this review.\n\nWhether you buy them individually or all at once on this massive gift set, \"The Lord of The Rings\" trilogy goes down as the greatest trilogy of all time. You could not make a better purchase. I swear it!","Product: This critically acclaimed epic trilogy follows the quest undertaken by the hobbit, Frodo Baggins, and his fellowship of companions to save Middle-earth by destroying the One Ring and defeating the evil forces of the Dark Lord Sauron.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Excellent item but wait for the Extended Editions\n\nReview: This trilogy is almost certainly among the greatest movie achievements in movie history. I could never imagine how anyone could actually successfully adapt Tolkien's three novels into movies after those horrible animated editions but with the help of director Peter Jackson and a stellar cast, they really did it! They have brought much of the richness of Tolkien's continent of Middle Earth to life on the big screen and almost everything that could succeed does so on not only the first and second but all three of these movies. (Minor spoilers may be present but hopefully nothing major).\n LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING: This is the first part of the three part movie trilogy and when first seeing it, \"The Fellowship of the Ring\" literally altered my world forever. I had never seen such a powerful and epic masterpiece ever before than when I first saw this on it's opening night. It all begins in the quiet isolated Hobbit community of The Shire. Hobbits have been very much into their own community and have been so for untold generations. However, a powerful and evil artifact called the One Ring of Power, is brought over by Bilbo Baggins who found it after a gaunt creature named Gollum lost it after carrying for over 500 years. The Ring was forged by a dark Lord Named Sauron who used it to pour his malice and will to dominate all life on Middle Earth and after more than 3000 years, it's power has awakened and gradually begins to corrupt all who carry it. Bilbo Baggins is told about the Ring's dangerous power by a powerful Istari wizard named Gandalf and after much persuasion, he gives up the Ring and his home to his nephew Frodo Baggins.\n LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS: This second part in the trilogy blew me away when I first saw it in the movie theatres when it opened in December of 2002. This part finds Frodo and Sam continuing on their quest to Mt. Doom when they in fact, are confronted by Gollum who had carried the Ring for 500 years before Bilbo found it. Now Frodo and Sam have no choice but to follow Gollum on their quest to Mordor and to destroy the Ring at Mt. Doom. Meanwhile Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli, the remaining fellowship are now trying to find Merry and Pippin after they've gone missing and find themselves in the kingdom of Rohan where it's king Theoden has been withered and aged because of Saruman's power having a strong hold over him. Saruman's armies have been unleashed against Rohan and have begun their acts of death and destruction on Rohan and will do the same on Gondor. Can they save Rohan from death? The epic scale grows much more intense and epic and the whole story gets darker and more dramatic. This second part builds on the greatness of the first.\n LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING: This final part of the legendary trilogy brings the epic Lord of The Rings to a glorious finish. This is arguably the darkest and more intense of the three and is very scary. The dark forces of Sauron have now expanded beyond Mordor and the last free kingdom of Middle Earth, Gondor is in grave danger when the armies of Mordor are unleashed but also the free kingdoms are also being invaded by evil men from the South and East and join with the orc armies to destroy the free kingdoms of Middle Earth. Meanwhile Frodo and Sam are on the edge of Mordor. The power of the Ring has gotten a lot stronger and is taking a hold of Frodo as they are every closer to the fiery chasms of Mount Doom. The odds are strongly against the free peoples of Middle Earth and the darkness of Mordor has grown powerful and the armies are massive. Only Frodo and Sam with the help of Gollum who Sam does not trust, can be able to save Middle Earth from doom and destruction. This finale made me cry like no other movie in my entire life. Not even \"Titanic\" made me weep like ROTK did because it feels so much like what's happening to our planet with corrupt forces running rampant and terrorist organizations going out of control.\n These three movies are the greatest fantasy films ever made but it goes outside just mere fantasy. It is a powerful tale of bravery, friendship, courage, and hope and these are emphasized more than on any other movie in history. The CGI effects on this trilogy are cataclysmically amazing and a lot of the special effects are so realistic that one would barely or not even notice that some of the scenes are computer generated. While I'm not brushing this edition of the movies, I would recommend the Extended Editions over the regular versions. There are so many extras on the extended editions of all three Lord of The Rings movies that you will find yourself missing out on so many amazing documentaries on the 4-DVD editions plus the extra scenes in both movies expand the scope of them so this 3-movie set containing just the theatrical editions of the three will leave a lot to be desired. I am not saying that I would ask to avoid this product necessarily but that the Extended Editions would be a far greater investment if you have the money.\nThen again this is a very awesome trilogy and this set is a must-have if you love this trilogy. In all honesty, I don't even consider it that because I view this as one long movie broken up into three separate films and they all must be watched in order to really experience them. I don't think any of us will ever experience movies like this ever again in our lifetimes but who knows. Movie making doesn't get any better than this!","Product: Legendary monster hunter Van Helsing (Hugh Jackman) is summoned to mysterious Transylvania on a mission that will thrust him into a sweeping battle against the forces of darkness! With non-stop action and electrifying special effects, Van Helsing is an adrenaline-powered motion picture event Roger Ebert calls \"Spectacular!\"\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Flawed but fun movie.\n\nReview: Ok I was rather skeptical about the whole concept of this movie but went anyway just to see Hugh Jackman after his phenomenal acting as Wolverine in the X-Men movies. The whole concept of Dracula and Frankenstein topics sounds extremely cheesy and almost laughable to me at first. However, I was surprised because \"Van Helsing\" turned out to be a surprisingly great movie and blew all of my expectations right out into the ocean.\n A special operative named Gabriel Van Helsing is a mysterious man who hunts demons and vampires in the streets of 1880s Paris and London but is assigned to hunt down a murderous vampire named Count Vladius Dracula who aims to spread evil and horrors all over humanity and Van Helsing travels to Transylvania where his world collides with a young woman, the last descendant of a family that has been dedicated to ridding the world of evil for centuries and now aims to destroy Dracula for good after the atrocities he's committed including murdering her father. Dracula has also been sending out a large swarm of smaller vampires hatched in his lair to exterminate the residents of a nearby town in the Transylvanian Mountains. Princess Anna's family has made it's vow that it will not enter heaven until Dracula is destroyed for good and Van Helsing is the only one who can really in fact can do just that.\n I actually found the movie to more fun than scary for the most part but some of the scenes were pretty intense to watch and some were a bit much for me. This movie isn't necessarily one for the thinking crowd but \"Van Helsing\" is nonetheless a really fun and action-packed flick that is a really great homage to the classic 1930s through 1950s horror movies and brings back a lot of the old-fashioned styles of the past. In some ways too it also breaks some of the predictable elements of vampire films of the past. It almost even sheds a totally new light on the classic Frankenstein monsters of old.\nThis movie has it's share of flaws such as some hammy acting in some spots and awkward storyline but a lot of them are bypassed because this movie is just plain fun and worth killing a couple of hours. It is no masterpiece or even an amazing film by any stretch of the imagination but it is certainly worth a look...that is if you aren't willing to watch a movie that requires intellectualization but instead is like mind popcorn to munch on and that's what matters here. If you loved \"The Mummy\" and \"The Mummy Returns\" then \"Van Helsing\" is worth the buck.","Product: In the year 2029, the ruling super-computer, Skynet, sends an indestructible cyborg (Arnold Schwarzenegger) back in time to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) before she can fulfill her destiny and save mankind.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: \"Judgement Day\" has come at last!\n\nReview: The first \"Terminator\" movie from 1984 became, from my point of view, one of the most unlikely sci-fi/ action hybrid classics of all-time. With such a low budget that was allotted into making that movie, the result was a surprisingly incredible experience thanks to James Cameron putting that limited amount of money into excellent use. Parts of that movie though, especially the futuristic scenes have dated rather badly over the years but it still remains a highly innovative movie. 1991's follow-up \"Terminator 2: Judgement Day\" takes what was great about the first one and builds upon it to create an even better sequel. This is no sequel slump by any stretch of the imagination. James Cameron with the benefits of a much higher budget and with the task of creating one of the most highly anticipated sequels ever in the history of movie-making, he pushes the envelopes of sci-fi action thriller making and revolutionized special effects by creating some of the most awesome special effects ever made in action movies even by todays standards. \"Judgement Day\" surpasses the first one by a good amount in many ways, even though the first one was awesome in it's own right. It showed a much improved technological breakthrough in movie-making with far more special effects and innovation that results in a movie that still looks fresh and as up to date and even ahead of it's time, much more so than many sci-fi movies that have come ever since then.\nIt all begins many years after the terrifying events of the year 1984 where Sarah Connor survived her ordeal with the emotionless human cyborg. She is now in a mental hospital after being arrested for attempting to blow up a computer factory. John Connor is a very rebellious teenager who's in the care of foster parents. However, John Connor, even if he 'survived' the ordeals of the original Terminator machine, his life is about to take a drastic change when two Terminator machines arrive out of the unknown realm, in the year 1992 in Los Angeles for opposite purposes. One is to kill John Connor, the other to protect him from the vicious machine. Skynet from the year 2029 send an extremely dangerous human cyborg called the T-1000 who can take the shape of any human being by means of liquid mercury metal, to kill John Connor to prevent him from being able to lead the human resistance against the machines. Just as the machines sent back a T-1000 back in time, the humans also send back another cyborg ironically called \"The Terminator\", with almost exactly the same design as the original version that was sent back to kill Sarah Connor many years back.\nWhile it may have improved upon the greatness of the 1984 original Terminator movie, \"Judgement Day\" carries all of the depth and darkness of that one and takes the storyline to even darker realms. For a relatively long movie of over 2 and a half hours, the darkness and the incredible suspense will keep you holding tight to your seats for the entire time. Few movies in my opinion have such ability to do this but Terminator 2 does just that. In some ways, I would also view this second outing as the opposite or counterpart to the original Terminator movie. The first one had Arnold Schwarzenegger playing the bad guy while this one has him playing the good guy. I kind have to say that Arnold did a better job at playing the evil Terminator machine from the first one but he still does such an excellent job playing the 'good' guy while Robert Patrick delivers a truly chilling role as the menacing liquid metal machine T-1000. While Arnold Scwarzenegger did some good movies since then, his roles went downhill in my opinion, and fell to rock bottom with the awful \"Batman & Robin\" movie and hit speed bump after speed bump before getting back on top with the awesome \"Terminator 3: Rise of The Machines\". To me, it's the Terminator movies that have forever made me a fan of many of his movies. Edward Furlong does such an excellent job playing the rebellious John Connor, must I saw even better than Nick Stahl did in the Terminator 3 movie, no offense to Stahl, he did good but Furlong did better. Linda Hamilton improves her character Sarah Connor, by turning her in a mean woman fighter, with massive attitude. In some ways, Sarah Connor rivals Ripley from \"Aliens\" as the best woman fighter character in any movie I've ever seen. With the help of the extraordinary directing of James Cameron, dark and powerful script, and from the excellent cast, \"Terminator 2: Judgment Day\" was one of the few movies that got all of the justice that it deserves. This is one of the best movies of 1991 and even now, it still has all of the punch it had when it was released. No other action movie, except for \"T3\" has toyed with darkness, fun, action, and depth the way that \"Judgement Day\" did.\nI don't know how they did it but they created what I would consider one of the best movie sequels ever in the history of movies. A good number of sequels fall flat on their faces against their original counterparts but not \"T2: Judgement Day\". This one surpasses the first one. Go and get this movie. I don't really feel like commenting on the presumably numerous editions released these past couple of years. I just would like to say that you should get this movie. I just wanted to comment on the movie itself. I went through the sad event of having to toss out the VHS edition because it got damaged from being worn out. This is definitely one of the best movies ever made and I must even go the distance to say that this movie trilogy is up there with Star Wars, Lord Of The Rings, and Indiana Jones as my favorite movie trilogy. I cannot explain enough of how much I love these three Terminator movies with this review. Just go and buy the dam movie.","Product: In the year 2029, the ruling super-computer, Skynet, sends an indestructible cyborg (Arnold Schwarzenegger) back in time to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) before she can fulfill her destiny and save mankind.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: One of the finest movies from 1984!\n\nReview: There are countless ways to describe how I think of this film; one of them is Spectacular! The first in the classic Terminator movie series is a ground-breaking cinematic work of art of absolutely stunning proportions and put Arnold Schwarzenegger on the map and made him one of the biggest movie stars of the 1980s and early 1990s before several commercial duds would temporarily dampen his success later on (Batman & Robin anyone?) until \"Terminator 3: Rise of The Machines\" came along. The groundbreaking movie is the story of an extremely bleak future where Los Angeles and much of the world's civilization is wiped out by nuclear Armageddon when a computer program/internet named Skynet, goes out of control, and the machines, under control of it, unleash a reign of nuclear terror and destruction, decimating much of the human (non-machine) population, and taking over much of the world, except for a few surviving humans who have gathered forces to fight against the machines thanks to a rebel leader named John Connor who leads what remains of the human race into ultimately smashing the machines into junk, ensuring victory against them. However, the machines send back a human cyborg 45 years back in time to the year 1984, to kill John Connor, by means of \"terminating\" a waitress woman named Sarah Connor, who is the future mother of the human rebel leader, which would result in John never even being born in the first place. In the year 1984, Sarah Connor's life seems like any ordinary life: living as a waitress at a slighltly seedy L.A. Restaurant, and barely balancing a checkbook. She has no idea that it will take a massive turn. A rebel soldier named Kyle Reeves is also sent back in time to protect Sarah Connor, and her 'unborn' son from the emotionless Terminator and thus fighting for the future of humanity. At that point, it is evident that Reeves would not only protect John Connor but in fact, turn out being his father later on. What makes The Terminator even more dangerous is that he is able to copy other peoples voices, and yes, even copy women's voices, making him even more likely to find where his target is. The human cyborg does not feel emotion; it does not feel pain; it cannot be reckoned with. He can blend in with the rest of society as he is part human, part machine, with flesh on the outside, but machine and robot on the inside and all these things make him so much more dangerous to be reckoned with.\nParents, be warned! There are truckloads of disturbing violence in this film and also some extremely bloody scenes that will scare young children and I can't blame them, even I have become unsettled when watching this when I was younger but sadly worse stuff has happened in real life. There is one scene which I'm not going to mention for fear of spoilers, that even I had a relatively tough time handling. Occasional profanity also makes this movie one for the more grown-up audiences. However, it also brings to mind, the possibility of what might happen if man and machine do in fact, start fighting each other especially with all of the computer viruses that plague the internet today. It also brings to mind that it is possible to actually build a machine that could do the same things that Terminator actually does in this movie. In top of it all, it is very chilling as the movie's story does brush very closely with reality at the possibility of all of the things happening in this movie actually occurring in real life especially with all of these computer virus attacks that have crippled businesses these past few years although time travel may not be possible because it would likely have messed up the timeline already.\n\nThis film, while it was a highly ground-breaking film back in 1984, has really begun to show it's age, especially the futuristic battle scenes where the floating spacecraft vehicle looks more like a toy suspended on a string than a realistic looking battle vehicle but this movie was made during a time before the special effects technology would skyrocket not too long afterwards, often to an excessive degree. Also it was filmed and The special effects also kind of look cheesy now due to the time of their creation, but only to a mild degree. The two latter Terminator movies benefited from superior production but while parts of the first Terminator movie have really dated badly, there is no denying that this is still a five star plus movie and I highly recommend buying this for those who want a highly brilliant movie, with violence and action that meshes along with the storyline, as opposed to the brainless, thug war violence of a lot of today's movies (\"2 Fast 2 Furious\" anyone?). While parts of this movie really show signs of being extremely dated, particularly the futuristic battle scenes in 2029, the low budget spent on making this incredible movie really went into good use thanks in part to a strong story and stunning directing thanks in part to the blossoming talent of James Cameron. \"Terminator\" is arguably one of the best movies from the 1980s and also one of the most fascinating and most innovative sci-fi action movies of all time.\n\"The Terminator\" is a highly essential film for the ages. From here through the next two movies, we hear that unforgettable line \"I'll Be Back!\". Whether to see cinematic innovation or just simply have fun, or just have some 1980s nostalgia, this movie delivers all of the above and is an essential film and the success of it resulted in two dynamite sequels. It's so unbelievable how James Cameron took the low budget spent on the movie's making and turned what could've been a long forgotten throwaway sci-fi flick into a timeless modern masterpiece. All three of the Terminator movies are masterpieces. Go and buy this today and get the Ultimate Edition of Terminator 2: \"Judgement Day\" as well!","Product: Academy Award(R) nominated stars Joaquin Phoenix (Best Supporting Actor, GLADIATOR, 2000) and John Travolta (Best Actor, PULP FICTION, 1994) ignite the intense action in this heroic tale of ordinary men with uncommon courage! As part of a tightly knit brotherhood of skilled firefighters, Jack Morrison (Phoenix) grows from inexperienced rookie to seasoned veteran as he faces a dangerous job that makes him a hero to strangers but often shortchanges his wife (Jacinda Barrett -- THE HUMAN STAIN) and kids. Then, when he becomes trapped in the worst blaze of his career, the things Jack holds most important -- family, duty, courage -- come sharply into focus.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: A truly wonderful and moving film!\n\nReview: While this may be having comparisons to 1991's \"Backdraft\", at the same time \"Ladder 49\" has it's own atmosphere to it. Be mindful that this is not a sequel or has anything to do with the universe of \"Backdraft\" at all.\n\n Starring Joaquin Phoenix and John Travolta as the leading cast, and set in the gritty neighborhoods of Baltimore, it's the story of a ten year veteran firefighter named Jack Morrison under the advice of his mentor who during the worst fire of his career at an industrial complex reflects on his lifetime leading up to the industrial fire as he tries to escape from the place. The complex that he's trapped in is partially collapsing and he's trapped in a space with debris all around him and the whole place threatens to collapse at any time with all of the chemical explosives around the place.\n\n This is a really marvelous movie that I thought was a lot better than I thought it would be.\n\n Many have criticize parts of \"Backdraft\" due to some unrealistic things about it and I've noticed flaws in it, while I'll always enjoy that one, \"Ladder 49\" in my opinion corrects some of those flaws and the result is a much more realistic looking movie.\n\n Joaquin Phoenix and John Travolta put on an excellent duo role as firefighter and mentor chief and Travolta especially in my opinion really gets back on his feet after the effects of that horrible 2000 atrocity that was \"Battlefield Earth\".\n\n This is a must-see film. Go and see it today! You will not be dissapointed. I guarantee it!","Product: Quick Shipping !!! New And Sealed !!! This Disc WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. A multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player is request to view it in USA/Canada. Please Review Description.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: The Ultimate DVD for all times!\n\nReview: I remember how much I laughed at the awful quality of the animated renderings of the novels done in the 1970s and the early 1980s. The animations were outright ludicrous and the hobbit characters looked almost like a cross between humans and oranges or grapefruits plus the wizards Gandalf and Saruman both looked like bad Santa Claus cartoon outtakes.\n\nIt's 180 degrees different on the Peter Jackson renditions of the movies. The theatrical edition of \"Return of The King\" is the apex of the most glorious cinematic era in modern history. The movie which concluded the epic Lord Of The Rings saga that spanned three films and nine hours long total made me cry like no other movie in my life. Not even \"Titanic\" made me shed tears at the end like ROTK did and \"Return of The King\" is arguably the greatest movie of the 21st century and all three films are absolutely timeless. Peter Jackson has without a doubt created the greatest movie saga of all time and successfully adapted what was the previously labeled `inadaptable' novel of J. R. R. Tolkien's \"Lord of The Rings\" novel trilogy. While I've only read parts of each book from the \"Fellowship\", to the \"Two Towers\", and finally the \"Return of The King\", I am absolutely stunned at how Peter Jackson who I previously never heard of before actually did it. As I watched all three movies together, I would say that Tolkien is smiling from heaven wherever he is. Please note though that this review may contain some spoilers so beware.\n\nPicking right up where the middle part \"The Two Towers\" left off, Frodo Baggins along with his lifelong friend and acquaintance Samwise Gamgee are moving ever closer to Mordor with the help of Gollum. The evil power of the Ring is taking even stronger hold on Frodo as he approaches the slopes of Mt. Doom in order to cast the Ring back to the place where it was forged to destroy it and Sauron forever. Meanwhile the kingdom of Gondor and it's capital of Minas Tirith once a great civilization has been falling into ruin and is falling even further into a desperate state under the leadership of the Steward Denethor whose madness has weakened the morale of the soldiers who defend it from enemy forces. Denethor, weakened and aged by the use of the palantir, has been falling further and further into madness and despair but things take a turn for the worse when Minas Tirith comes under assault from a massive army of over a quarter million orcs and enforced by large towers of orc armies moved by trolls and an army of Haradrim on Oliphaunts (Giant elephants). Can Aragorn, who is destined to be the new king of Gondor, save Gondor and return it to it's former glory? Can Frodo withstand the dangerous dark powers of the ring and trust Gollum? The stakes are extremely high and the odds are strongly against the forces of good. Its dark times for all of Middle Earth and it's fate lies by a thread in an increasingly weakened Frodo Baggins.\n\n The CGI, the costumes, the visual effects and the immense scope of this film are so incredible that I could never find the proper words to explain how great they are. My favorite CGI effects are the long distance shots of the Rohirrim as they charge through the 250,000+ strong Orc Army in front of Minas Tirith, the amazingly detailed CGI rendering of Smeagol/Gollum as well as the shot of the Beacons being lit amidst the cloud-shrouded mountains with the dramatic music as well accompanying it. Ironically enough while the whole movie is astronomically great, the scenes involving Frodo, Sam and Gollum are surprisingly my least favorite up until towards the last hour of the movie. My favorite scenes almost always involved the former members of the Fellowship that fought in Helm's Deep and Pelennor Fields. I don't know why but it is so for me. Shelob was amazingly done and looked almost real in the the way she moved and attacked Frodo and fought against Samwise Gamgee. Her movements almost looked like real life spider footage.\n\n The movie edition that was seen in theatres is the longest of the three at 3 hours and 20 minutes long! However that's not even close to how long the \"Extended Edition\" is. Although I thought that it would be over five hours long, the extended cut is a full 50 minutes longer than the theatrical cut and the ultimate length of \"Return of The King\" in it's full glory is a whopping 4 hours and 11 minutes long! This is perhaps the longest movie I know of. The only other movie that I think comes close to this long is \"Gone With The Wind\" another timeless classic. What's perhaps the most suprising of the extended edition of this is that unlike the previous two chapters in this saga which merely tacked on unreleased footage, some footage on ROTK is actually replaced with different sequences and some scenes have almost radically different dialog especially when Gandalf along with the main characters who arrive in the flooded Isengard after the Battle of Helm's Deep. The confrontation with the defeated Saruman is perhaps the most surprising part of this extended cut of this film. The \"Voice of Saruman\" scene is absolutely awesome and without a doubt my favorite extra footage on here. Why they did not include this on the regular edition I don't know because it would've been a grand experience to see this on the big screen in the first place when it opened on December 17, 2003. Cutting Christopher Lee's part in this movie to me was an abomination even if the movie was already over 200 minutes long without him involved.\n\n Unfortunately however, the \"Scouring of The Shire\" was never filmed for the movie editions and to me it is somewhat of a disappointment to me even though I was always doubtful of it ever being included in the film but then again the ending as a whole was among the most powerful endings ever. The biggest surprise and while not as angry as some feel was where Gandalf's staff was actually broken by the Witch-King of Agmar. I know little about how Tolkien wrote out the confrontation between the two but Gandalf is far more powerful than the Witch-King ever was. Gandalf was from a powerful race of wizards called the Maiar while the Witch-King was just a member of the race of men who while more powerful was once good but then was corrupted and brought under the control of Sauron's will and that's what transformed him into the evil being he became towards the end. One of my favorite new scenes while brief was the Mouth of Sauron. While I never had a very clear image of what he looked like, Peter Jackson and the crew created an awesome rendition of him and featured actor Bruce Spence (The guy who played the Trainman in \"Matrix Revolutions).\n\n The latter two discs are among my favorite bonus features of all three \"Extended Edition\" movies in their expanded sets. My favorite is the third disc in which one actually goes behind the scenes and seeing the mammoth tasks that were accomplished in building the many sets that many scenes were filmed on. Man Oh Man! The sets are absolutely eye-opening and I almost though that Jackson was almost completely nuts when it came to making the many models, miniatures, and sets for the many scenes throughout the movie. It's outright outrageous but great. In fact out of all of the three movies, the \"Appendices\" DVD is just about as great as the movie itself. I'm not putting down the previous two but the \"Appendices\" DVDs on the third LOTR movie are the best out of all of them.\n\n The \"Gift Set\" edition comes with a fifth DVD as well featuring footage of the orchestra and Howard Shore directing the musical score. While not necessarily a treasure, the \"Gift Set\" is a great buy for the amazingly detailed Statue of the city of Minas Tirith. I don't know about you but I think that it's awesome and far more appealing than the statues of Gollum or the pointing statues from the \"Fellowship\" gift set.\n\n \"The Lord Of The Rings\" set a high standard in filmmaking that I doubt will be surpassed in our lifetimes, if ever and to see Peter Jackson actually succeed in creating these movies is unbelievable. Thank you Peter for these amazing movies. How you did I may never know but I can safely say that you've changed the lives of so many in such great ways.\n\n Don't necessarily throw out the regular editions of \"Return of The King\" because it is great in it's own way but the \"Extended Edition\" is perhaps the best DVD set you might find your self ever purchasing. I guarantee it. And so an epic sage comes to a glorious end. I guess it's time to say farewell to an era in movie history. :( :)","Product: Lord of the Rings Return of the King DVD\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: The Ultimate DVD for all times!\n\nReview: I remember how much I laughed at the awful quality of the animated renderings of the novels done in the 1970s and the early 1980s. The animations were outright ludicrous and the hobbit characters looked almost like a cross between humans and oranges or grapefruits plus the wizards Gandalf and Saruman both looked like bad Santa Claus cartoon outtakes.\n\nIt's 180 degrees different on the Peter Jackson renditions of the movies. The theatrical edition of \"Return of The King\" is the apex of the most glorious cinematic era in modern history. The movie which concluded the epic Lord Of The Rings saga that spanned three films and nine hours long total made me cry like no other movie in my life. Not even \"Titanic\" made me shed tears at the end like ROTK did and \"Return of The King\" is arguably the greatest movie of the 21st century and all three films are absolutely timeless. Peter Jackson has without a doubt created the greatest movie saga of all time and successfully adapted what was the previously labeled `inadaptable' novel of J. R. R. Tolkien's \"Lord of The Rings\" novel trilogy. While I've only read parts of each book from the \"Fellowship\", to the \"Two Towers\", and finally the \"Return of The King\", I am absolutely stunned at how Peter Jackson who I previously never heard of before actually did it. As I watched all three movies together, I would say that Tolkien is smiling from heaven wherever he is. Please note though that this review may contain some spoilers so beware.\n\nPicking right up where the middle part \"The Two Towers\" left off, Frodo Baggins along with his lifelong friend and acquaintance Samwise Gamgee are moving ever closer to Mordor with the help of Gollum. The evil power of the Ring is taking even stronger hold on Frodo as he approaches the slopes of Mt. Doom in order to cast the Ring back to the place where it was forged to destroy it and Sauron forever. Meanwhile the kingdom of Gondor and it's capital of Minas Tirith once a great civilization has been falling into ruin and is falling even further into a desperate state under the leadership of the Steward Denethor whose madness has weakened the morale of the soldiers who defend it from enemy forces. Denethor, weakened and aged by the use of the palantir, has been falling further and further into madness and despair but things take a turn for the worse when Minas Tirith comes under assault from a massive army of over a quarter million orcs and enforced by large towers of orc armies moved by trolls and an army of Haradrim on Oliphaunts (Giant elephants). Can Aragorn, who is destined to be the new king of Gondor, save Gondor and return it to it's former glory? Can Frodo withstand the dangerous dark powers of the ring and trust Gollum? The stakes are extremely high and the odds are strongly against the forces of good. Its dark times for all of Middle Earth and it's fate lies by a thread in an increasingly weakened Frodo Baggins.\n\n The CGI, the costumes, the visual effects and the immense scope of this film are so incredible that I could never find the proper words to explain how great they are. My favorite CGI effects are the long distance shots of the Rohirrim as they charge through the 250,000+ strong Orc Army in front of Minas Tirith, the amazingly detailed CGI rendering of Smeagol/Gollum as well as the shot of the Beacons being lit amidst the cloud-shrouded mountains with the dramatic music as well accompanying it. Ironically enough while the whole movie is astronomically great, the scenes involving Frodo, Sam and Gollum are surprisingly my least favorite up until towards the last hour of the movie. My favorite scenes almost always involved the former members of the Fellowship that fought in Helm's Deep and Pelennor Fields. I don't know why but it is so for me. Shelob was amazingly done and looked almost real in the the way she moved and attacked Frodo and fought against Samwise Gamgee. Her movements almost looked like real life spider footage.\n\n The movie edition that was seen in theatres is the longest of the three at 3 hours and 20 minutes long! However that's not even close to how long the \"Extended Edition\" is. Although I thought that it would be over five hours long, the extended cut is a full 50 minutes longer than the theatrical cut and the ultimate length of \"Return of The King\" in it's full glory is a whopping 4 hours and 11 minutes long! This is perhaps the longest movie I know of. The only other movie that I think comes close to this long is \"Gone With The Wind\" another timeless classic. What's perhaps the most suprising of the extended edition of this is that unlike the previous two chapters in this saga which merely tacked on unreleased footage, some footage on ROTK is actually replaced with different sequences and some scenes have almost radically different dialog especially when Gandalf along with the main characters who arrive in the flooded Isengard after the Battle of Helm's Deep. The confrontation with the defeated Saruman is perhaps the most surprising part of this extended cut of this film. The \"Voice of Saruman\" scene is absolutely awesome and without a doubt my favorite extra footage on here. Why they did not include this on the regular edition I don't know because it would've been a grand experience to see this on the big screen in the first place when it opened on December 17, 2003. Cutting Christopher Lee's part in this movie to me was an abomination even if the movie was already over 200 minutes long without him involved.\n\n Unfortunately however, the \"Scouring of The Shire\" was never filmed for the movie editions and to me it is somewhat of a disappointment to me even though I was always doubtful of it ever being included in the film but then again the ending as a whole was among the most powerful endings ever. The biggest surprise and while not as angry as some feel was where Gandalf's staff was actually broken by the Witch-King of Agmar. I know little about how Tolkien wrote out the confrontation between the two but Gandalf is far more powerful than the Witch-King ever was. Gandalf was from a powerful race of wizards called the Maiar while the Witch-King was just a member of the race of men who while more powerful was once good but then was corrupted and brought under the control of Sauron's will and that's what transformed him into the evil being he became towards the end. One of my favorite new scenes while brief was the Mouth of Sauron. While I never had a very clear image of what he looked like, Peter Jackson and the crew created an awesome rendition of him and featured actor Bruce Spence (The guy who played the Trainman in \"Matrix Revolutions).\n\n The latter two discs are among my favorite bonus features of all three \"Extended Edition\" movies in their expanded sets. My favorite is the third disc in which one actually goes behind the scenes and seeing the mammoth tasks that were accomplished in building the many sets that many scenes were filmed on. Man Oh Man! The sets are absolutely eye-opening and I almost though that Jackson was almost completely nuts when it came to making the many models, miniatures, and sets for the many scenes throughout the movie. It's outright outrageous but great. In fact out of all of the three movies, the \"Appendices\" DVD is just about as great as the movie itself. I'm not putting down the previous two but the \"Appendices\" DVDs on the third LOTR movie are the best out of all of them.\n\n The \"Gift Set\" edition comes with a fifth DVD as well featuring footage of the orchestra and Howard Shore directing the musical score. While not necessarily a treasure, the \"Gift Set\" is a great buy for the amazingly detailed Statue of the city of Minas Tirith. I don't know about you but I think that it's awesome and far more appealing than the statues of Gollum or the pointing statues from the \"Fellowship\" gift set.\n\n \"The Lord Of The Rings\" set a high standard in filmmaking that I doubt will be surpassed in our lifetimes, if ever and to see Peter Jackson actually succeed in creating these movies is unbelievable. Thank you Peter for these amazing movies. How you did I may never know but I can safely say that you've changed the lives of so many in such great ways.\n\n Don't necessarily throw out the regular editions of \"Return of The King\" because it is great in it's own way but the \"Extended Edition\" is perhaps the best DVD set you might find your self ever purchasing. I guarantee it. And so an epic sage comes to a glorious end. I guess it's time to say farewell to an era in movie history. :( :)","Product: 1) Gargoyles: The Movie- The Heroes Awaken (be prepared for some VERY teary nostalgic 1994 previews), 2)Lion King, Lion King 1 1/2, & Lion King 2 Simba's Pride, 3) Aladdin, Aladdin: Arabian Adventures - Magic Makers, Return of Jafar, & King of Thieves, 4) Little Mermaid: Undersea Adventures - In Harmony, The Little Mermaid Movie (Special Edition w/Ariel V.A. footage and 1Sat Morning preview), & Little Mermaid 2: Return to the Sea\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Amazing show but the VHS edition is missing some scenes.\n\nReview: This video is actually the first three episodes of the first season in the \"Gargoyles\" saga and let me say that this was and still is a really breathtaking three part video of the greatest cartoon series that Disney has ever created.\nForget \"Rescue Rangers\", \"Darkwing Duck\" and even \"Goof Troop\", those are great cartoon series but \"Gargoyles\" to me throws all of those right into orbit around the earth in every category. This series took Disney by storm with a very deep and mystical storyline that blended the fantasy folklore of gargoyles and merged fantasy with real-life history in the series timeline.\nIn this episode entitled \"The Awakening\" the Gargoyles exist as a clan in Castle Wyvern in northern Scotland where they co-existed quite well, if a bit on the shakily, with humanity in the castle and protected the citizens from rule-breakers and/or enemy armies who would attack them. The Clan is lead by a young but extremely strong gargoyle named Goliath along with his second in command, his mate Demona. The clan however are attacked by a huge Viking army one night in the year A.D. 994 and most of the original clan are destroyed and only seven of them survive the horrible attack that night.\nDuring a botch spell attack, the clan are put into a stone sleep with a spell that won't be broken until the 'castle rises above the clouds' and only then would the gargoyles be reawakened from their stone sleep. A multi-billionaire businessman named David Xanatos retrieves the castle by disassembling it and transports the gargoyles in their stone forms to atop his headquarters which dwarves every other building in New York City. The spell is broken and the Gargoyles awaken to a totally different world from the one they remembered from a whole millenium before.\nThe Gargoyles clan are no safer in their new world than they were in their old world from a millenia before then. Humans are unaware of their existance and there's the danger of what humans may do if they encounter a gargoyle. Would they be met with caution or shunned with hate and hostility? The Gargoyles will be learning a lot that the modern world is full of enemies even more formidable than the ones from a millenium ago and some of them come from unlikely places too.\nThis show is to me the greatest achievement that Disney Studios has ever accomplished even today. The Animation is absolutely stunning and original like nothing I had ever seen up to this point in my life. The animation alone isn't the best thing about the series. As it is now as a grown up, the best thing about \"Gargoyles\" is it's absolutely powerful message of what prejudice and bigoty may lead to if not dealt with by the heros of the world. The \"X-Men\" cartoon series from the 1990s is another cartoon series that sheds light on this.\nIt's absolutely a tragedy that this show lasted only a little over two years before the show was cancelled because of the third season. Just about every other Disney Cartoon series after this one seem to revert back into forgettable generic pap with little memorability and predictable animation and bland figures.\nThis VHS edition of the gargoyles \"Awakening Parts I, II, and III\" is rather dissapointing in some ways. If you have seen the TV series counterpart, you will notice that the VHS edition leaves out several crucial scenes. The picture quality is also rather questionable but that may have to do with a degraded copy I got from a store a while back. The game at the ending is almost useless and almost nothing but clutter to me.\nIt's a great thing that at least some of the Gargoyles episodes are available on VHS but I feel that this whole series should be released onto two DVD Box Sets. One should containing all 78 episodes of \"Gargoyles\" three seasons including \"The Goliath Chronicles\" and the other should just have the first two seasons for those who disliked the third season. They should also release the three seasons separately on DVD because the picture quality of the VHS editions of the available videos is desperately calling for a picture remastering!\n]\nI give this video a five star any just because this is a great cartoon series. There will never be a cartoon series that impacted cartoon watching the way \"Gargoyles\" did and it's a shame that cartoon studios have never tried to create something as powerful and rich like \"Gargoyles\" or \"X-men\" from the 1990s and instead reverted back into predictable and forgettable animation and bland picture cartoon quality.","Product: In Part 1, Professor Xavier, disturbed by psychic cries for help broadcast from across the galaxy, dispatches his X-Men into the depths of outer spaced on a mission even he doesn't understand. Arriving aboard the space station Starecore, the X-Men encounter the villainous Erik the Red, an agent of the evil Sh'iar Empire who has conspired to tear a hole in the fabric of space itself! To save the universe, one of the X-Men must stand alone and make a brave sacrifice - one that will change their lives forever!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: A great episode combo!\n\nReview: This set includes two episodes entitled Captive Hearts & the other episode is Cold Vengence.\nCaptive Hearts takes places shortly after Wolverine is badly injured by sabertooth and the X-Men are on a mission to battle underground mutants that are called 'The Morlocks'. Storm battles their leader Callisto and encourage the Morlocks to return to the surface world when they become accepted by humanity. The episode ends with Wolverine not being present at the mansion and the \"To Be Continued\" line coming in.\nThe \"To Be Continued\" line ushers in the second episode in this set Cold Vengence. The story in this one is Wolverine takes a vacation in the Arctic when he is once again attacked by his archenemy Sabertooth. Wolverine retreats by means of an iceberg and is rescued by Inuit eskimos. Sabertooth blows up their village and has them captured and it's up to Wolverine to save the day.\nA great episode combo from my all-time favorite cartoon series! Buy it!","Product: Home Alone: When Kevin's family left for vacation, they forgot one minor detail: Kevin!\nEight-year-old Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) has become the man of the house, overnight! Accidentally left behind when his family rushes off on a Christmas vacation, Kevin gets busy decorating the house for the holidays. But he's not decking the halls with tinsel and holly. Two bumbling burglars are trying to break in, and Kevin's rigging a bewildering battery of booby traps to welcome them!\n\nHome Alone 2: Lost In New York: America's smallest hero takes a giant bite out of the Big Apple!\n\nKevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) is back! But this time he's in New York City - with enough cash and credit cards to turn the Big Apple into his own playground! But Kevin won't be alone for long. The notorious Wet Bandits, Harry and Marv (Joe Pesci and Daniel Stem), still smarting from their last encounter with Kevin, are bound for New York too, plotting a huge holiday heist. Kevin's ready to welcome them with a battery of booby traps the bumbling bandits will never forget!\n\nHome Alone 3: \"Big laughs. A real kid-pleaser!\" - Joel Siegel, Good Morning America\n\nThe U.S. Air Force has a new secret weapon - and he's only eight years old! From comedy legend John Hughes comes the hilarious, action-packed hit that's \"lots of fun for the entire family!\"\n\nA band of international crooks has hidden a military computer chip inside a toy car, but an airport mix-up lands it in the hands of whiz-kid Alex Pruitt (Alex D. Linz) who's home alone with the chicken pox in a quiet Chicago suburb. When the criminals zero in on Alex's house with their high-tech gadgetry, madness and mayhem kick into high gear as the pint-sized hero defends himself against the bumbling bad guys - armed with an outrageous array of ambushes and booby traps!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Very fun movie collection\n\nReview: The first home alone movie was absolutely original family fun where a kid is left alone at home by accident and is the target of two bumbling burglars and now he must foil the burglars' plans.\n\n The second one is even better with Kevin getting on the wrong plane and ends up in New York City but is the target of the same dodo criminals once again and now he must pull off more shenanigans to foil the thieves' attempt to get even with him.\n\n The third one felt completely detached from the first two. A totally different character this time is on his own at home but is unaware that his toy car has been planted with a special top secret device and international criminals want to get their hands on it before the law does and now he must prevent them from getting it.","Product: Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego? - Into the Mael\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: A great episode from the best series ever!\n\nReview: I could never even come up with the right words or even the number of words taht I could muster up to tell you all how great this 1994 cartoon series really is. A lot of cartoons I liked around this time fell out with me over time but \"Where On Earth Is Carmen Sandiego\" has held up immensely well over a full decade after first airing on Fox Kids back in early 1994.\n Based on the computer game franchise released in the 1980s and then several game shows that aired during the 1990s, this cartoon series is about using clues in order to catch the elusive worldly reknown thief named Carmen. In the 1994 animated series, two world reknown ACME detectives named Ivy and her younger brother Zack work for Chief at ACME and are sent on missions to find out what Carmen's plans are and to stop her from succeeding at them and even trying to catch Carmen herself.\n This episode trilogy however is very different and breaks the mold in the series. First aired towards the later part of the show, this episode is entitled \"Retribution\" and is broken up into three parts. A vicious and dangerous criminal from the 1980s named Gunner Maelstrom escapes from prison and is on the loose. It turns out that Carmen actually in fact helped put him away in prison when she was and ACME agent back in the 1980s.\nMaelstrom is plotting revenge against Carmen by stealing Noah's Ark and possibly causing a massive flood in doing so and ruining Carmen's reputation as the world's greatest thief. Carmen, however is no longer playing cat and mouse with the ACME detectives here. This time ACME must work with Carmen in order to stop Maelstrom from causing destruction and from destroying several landscapes with his evil plot before it's too late.\nThis cartoon series is the best type of cartoon that I've ever come to watch when a kid. Back then I loved it for it's adventurous fun and the overall tone of the show but today as an adult, there are so many more reasons to absolutely love this show. Now I love this show not only for it's fun and excellent character development but also the more education parts educate children through very cartoony (in a good way) fashion to make learning about world history, geography, and other science through very fun charicatures and this is a really smart move to do this because it seems like most shows just use dull methods to teach about history etc. and this likely makes it boring for kids. That's not the case with WOEICS.\n I could never come up with enough words or the right words to do this show any scrap of justice. DIC animations did such a stunning job on this series and it's a great tragedy that most networks, or any at all, don't even air this series anymore. Many may say \"That's so 1994\" but this is not something for the trends!! This series is not only fun but also highly educational for young kids to see and that they should re-air this onto the networks again.\n If they don't decide to do so, then the best option is to release this entire series on DVD. It can be done by releasing the individual seasons on their own set or releasing the entire cartoon series entitled \"Where On Earth is Carmen Sandiego: The Complete Series\" because this show is a timeless classic. Many may throw pies in my face for saying this but I would even go far enough to say that it is sometimes better than the \"X-Men\" cartoon series from around the same time.","Product: Majical, jazzy, New Age.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Sonically stunning on all fronts.\n\nReview: This is an essential new age album that you should not pass up. This was Patrick O'hearns best album before his new album surpassed it. This is probably Patricks most space oriented of his electronic albums to date. It's the dark electronic, rainy music that makes me love this album. Every song on here is a breakthrough for this extremely talented musician. Some songs I remember hearing when I was very young.\nRainmaker is a very haunting song with an intense misty atmosphere with some ceramic percussion. Sky Juice is a breathtaking song with very electronic synths and some jet sound effects with some thumping beats and a cool bass. However that is nothing like the next one. Cape Perpetual is beyond any word I can describe about this song. It's a very spooky track. It starts of with some strange breezy wind instruments and some thundering sounds in the distance. At about 30 seconds there are some synthesizer hums that fade in. The sound of the synth humming almost scared me at first listening. It then becomes a dark very space oriented song with ceramic percussion and thundering jet sound effects. I could close my eyes listening to this song and imagine myself traveling on the Orient Express through oriental space. This song alone makes this album a five star. Gentle Was The Night is a very beautiful song with just mostly synths. This is a great song. Fire Ritual is a very pop oriented song and some vocal doodling here and there. This is probably the brightest song on here. 87 Dreams Of A Lifetime lives up to the title. This is a very stunning and could rank as one of his best 80s tracks ever. It starts with just some ambient synths and the synths get louder and at about a minute into the song the real music begins. This is a haunting song with a catchy rhythm and a space jazzy stmosphere. This is my second favorite off this album. Dimension D is a very space oriented song with some haunting sound effects and a very dark ambient atmosphere. Forever The Optimistic is a pop oriented song with great electronic bass, a great hook and some synth tinklings throughout the song. I almost cryed when I first heard this song and today I consider this song a new age classic. Journey To Yoroba is another haunting song. It has lots of ceramic percussion and ambient synths. I love the drum loop to this song. The closing title track is great with more great synths and cool drums.\nAll in all I rank this album as one Mr. O'Hearns strongest masterpieces to date.\nIt's hard to really say how much I love this album because it really stimulates imagination in a way that none of his other albums can.\nIn fact this album for a time is almost like the soundtrack my high school years because it reflects lonely I feel sometimes. In fact I strongly recommend this album to all who love music to listen to while thinking. It's very intelligent music that should be enjoyed by all generations.\nWell that's all I can say.\nBye! Bye!","Product: Enigma burst on the scene in the early '90s with a pretty nifty schtick: dance beats and lush chord washes underpinning such exotica as muttered French sex talk and Gregorian chant, all unified by a bizarre theme somehow related to the Marquis de Sade. The concept was never as original as some people thought (Mark Stewart's \"Maffia\" had set plainchant to electro-funk as far back as 1984), but it worked nicely, and \"Sadeness\" (har har) was an international dance club hit. Two albums later, Michael Cretu (the individual who records under the Enigma moniker) doesn't seem to have done much to expand upon his original ideas. The monks are still there, floating in a murky club mix, though this time they're joined by a cool Mongolian ensemble as well. Cretu is singing more, which is unfortunate since his voice is mediocre and his lyrics silly, but the occasional high point does emerge, such as the darkly lovely \"The Child in Us.\" Most of the album, however, is twaddle. Song titles like \"Morphing Thru Time,\" \"Beyond the Invisible\" and (seriously) \"Odyssey of the Mind\" will give you a good idea of what to expect -- lots of atmosphere, lots of reverb, lots of sternly intoned lyrics about, er...something or other. What's missing is musical interest. Overall, the cool packaging is the only thing noteworthy about this disappointing effort - All Music\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: This CD is absolutely spellbinding :)\n\nReview: From my guess, Michael Cretu stated that Enigma's third album is like a combination of the dark and Gothic feel of MCMXC, and of the brighter feel of Enigma 2: The Cross Of Changes. While yes, I can see a point in his description of this album, it has the Gregorian chanting that was present on the first album and the brighter, earthier sounds of The Cross Of Changes, but from my perspective, this third album from Enigma has a more of an aquatic atmosphere and in my opinion, sounds totally different from the previous two albums. I especially love the album cover and it's transparent album jacket.\nThe first track entitled \"Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi\" starts off the album with the trademark chord structure that made the musical backbone of the intros of the previous two albums except unlike the eeriness of the first albums intro or the more Mayan sounds of the second albums intro, the third albums intro has a more of a futuristic and aquatic feel to it. The track gets more intense until a recording snippet of a NASA space shuttle launch blasts in the next track \"Morphing Through Time\". Morphing starts off with a voice effect of someone ranting about a biosphere and a life supporting system before it mellows down and a very mellow yet strange minor note melody begins and the Gregorian Chants come in(How we missed those so much on Cross Of Changes). Some bizarre Middle Eastern instruments and Cretus vocals are also present too. The song is a very ambient, slow-paced, daytime-Gothic sounding track with echoing \"ya-ya-ya-ya\" voices for a blissful aural experience. As the song fades out, the echoing voices continue into the third `track', \"Third Of It's Kind\" which is just an 18 second interlude with a narrating voice about the first as the father, the second as the mother, and the third is the child. After the 18 second break, we head into the fourth track, \"Beyond The Invisible\". This song is a bit more upbeat and more on the sensual side with the breathing effects combined with strange flutes and the sultry narrating voice plus the echoing voices make this one a steamy New Age classic. This one also has some of Cretu himself singing too and he has a great voice. The song ends with the echoing voices fading into the background and a new beat comes in ushering us into the bitterness of \"WHY!\". Cretu sings with incredible passion on this voice and the song is probably the coldest and most urgent song that Enigma has done at this point in their career. The beats are addictive, the melody is bitter, the lyrics are great and the mood is spellbinding, plus there are occasional Gregorian Chants too. The song ends with Cretu singing \"I'M ASKING WHY!\" and the vocal line of that echoes away into much calmer territory of the next track. The next track entitled \"Shadows In Silence\" is a much calmer track brings up images of swimming in a clear ocean with the rays of sunlight shining through. The guitars are beautiful. The song gradually winds down until bizarre bleeping sounds end the track with an ambient crescendo before the siren like sounds lower in pitch and begins what I consider one of the best songs that Enigma have ever recorded in their career, \"The Child In Us\". Similar in mood to \"Return To Innocence\", this track brings in Sanskrit vocals and a Sitar from India and combines Gregorian chanting with a very bright daytime mood which from my perspective, results what I consider the best song on Enigma 3. I would even call it the `bright daytime' equivalent of the dark \"Sadeness\". By far my favorite song on this CD. After the daytime major note of \"Child\", a darker minor note atmosphere returns with the steamy \"TNT For The Brain\". This track is more `erotic' in mood and more intense and has some cool pizzicato strings in the background and a cool Asian beat to it. There is a much superior version out there called \"The Midnight Man Mix\" which is darker and more ambient and far sexier. After the intensity of TNT comes the much mellower \"Almost Full Moon\". This song has a distant cry that was present on \"Callas Went Away\" and makes it appearance. The guitars from Shadows In Silence are heard on here too. The drum loop is borrowed from Peter Gabriel's \"Washing Of The Water\". A shooting star effect ushers in the next track \"The Roundabout\". Roundabout is a far more intense track with Cretu singing like he did in \"Why!\" . This almost became a single but was pulled back unfortunately. The last true song on the album \"Prism Of Life\" is a much more joyous track with low-pitched African chanting, Gregorian Chants, strange echoing beats and a joyous atmosphere. The echoing voice of Cretu ends the track and ties it into the last track \"Odyssey of The Mind\" which is the intro being played backwards giving a feel of the journey of Enigma 3 coming full circle.\nI just can't even say how amazing this CD really is. One thing though that I urge you to do before it's too late: Buy the clear jacket edition of this album while it's still available because I'm already starting to see regular paper sleeve editions being released to CD stores and it's harder and harder to find the clear jacket sleeve editions of Enigma 3. the transparency of the clear album jacket magnifies the albums appeal, far more so than the opaque paper jackets. And for those who hate Cretu singing, well, that's their problem as Cretu sounds great on vocals especially on \"Why!\". Even if you end up buying the regular paper sleeve version, you still have spent your money well. Buy this amazing CD now! Grade: A+","Product: Bryan Ferry Mamouna UK CD album\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: A grossly underrated masterpiece\n\nReview: Bete Noire & Boys & Girls are my favorites from Bryan. Mamouna in my opinion is Bryans third best work to date. Released in 1994, it unfortunately didn't recieve much notice when it was released. A shame it didn't because Mamouna is one of Ferrys strongest works in his catalog. What makes this CD great is that the music is rich and depth and it has a sort of warmth and punch that 1993s 5 star album Taxi lacks IMO. The only thing that dogs this record down is that Ferrys singing sounds a bit tired and even a bit sloppy especially the last track Chain Reaction. Other than that Mamouna still ranks as one of Bryans most consistent albums in his catalog. My favorites are Your Painted Smile with it's dreamy rhythms, The 39 Steps with it's driving rhythms and the ambient technoish Wildcat Days.\nDON'T WANT TO KNOW-8/10 This track kicks off Mamouna with a dark cloudlike atmosphere and funky guitars laced with ambient dreaminess. This track could fit on Boys & Girls.\nNYC-7/10 NYC is another good track with a bluesier sound. This track could've fit well on Taxi.\nYOUR PAINTED SMILE- 10/10 Beautiful! This track is one of the best songs Mamouna offers. It's an eerie track with a jazzy vibe. I love the part of the track that runs from 1:32 to the around the 2 minute mark.\nMAMOUNA-10/10 Another beautiful track. The title track is a haunting track with wobbly guitars. This track is one to hear to know how it sounds like.\nTHE ONLY FACE-6/10 This track needs time to grow on you. It's a mellow and eerie track with a slightly creepy feel to it and minor note melodies.\nTHE 39 STEPS-10/10 This is one of my favorite songs off Mamouna. It's a very upbeat yet moody track with driving rhythms and a Bete Noireish feel. This track to me kind of continues the punch that the masterpiece Bete Noire has. Definately one of the best songs on here.\nWHICH WAY TO TURN-8/10 This is a mellower track with electronic sound effects laced with slightly late 80s sounding keyboards and guitars. A gorgeous song.\nWILDCAT DAYS-11/10 YES! This is the winner on Mamouna. WD is an aggressive techno influenced number with ambient guitar aways and very stormy atmosphere sort of like severe thunderstorms. This song in my opinion is Ferrys strongest song since Bete Noire.\nGEMINI MOON-8/10 Did Ferry take All Tommorrows Parties and move it to Mamouna? No offense but this track is almost dead identical to ATP with very similar bass hooks, the same chords, and the right kind of feel except that this track has less ambience and more bluesier sounds. A great track though. Just sounds almost too much like All Tommorrows Parties and I like that song too. Don't get me wrong.\nCHAIN REACTION-9/10 Can we say SPOOKY! This final track from Mamouna is a hook laden track with strange percussion and a very eerie and haunting feel. The only thing that dogs down this track is that Ferrys singing on Chain Reaction often gets a bit sloppy and tired and it can be a bit grating(To me anyway). Brushing the cons aside though Chain Reaction closes Mamouna on a great note. The last 40 seconds are spooky especially with the echoing pianos at the last fifteen seconds.\nMamouna is highly recommended for the Bryan Ferry fanbase! :) Enjoy!","Product: Japan only cd with different back artwork and with exclusive bonus track - goodnight my love\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: This album leaves me \"Spellbound\" even now!\n\nReview: The title to Paula Abdul's 1991 sophomore couldn't have been better. This album in my opinion is a great artistic quantum leap forward from her excellent 1988 debut \"Forever Your Girl\" which while great, it has dated very quickly in its sound. \"Spellbound\" on the other hand has really held up surprisingly well over the years since its release and today it is a stunning classic. I got my first dose of her music when I was a young kid listening to Chicago's B96 and hearing all the barrage of awesome dance music from that period and recall hearing \"Opposites Attact\" and \"Promise Of A New Day\" on the radio around that time. I was forever hooked on her music afterwards even though it would be seemingly entire eons before I would discover that these were by Paula Abdul. After finding out who these songs were by, I had to go and get them on CD and \"Spellbound\" was the album I got containing the latter. For the greatest moments on this album, there's something about them that just really evokes a lot of emotion in me that few other albums do. \"Promise Of A New Day\" is by far the finest track not only off this album but also among Paula's greatest musical achievements. Just the spine-tingling keyboard chimes at the beginning combined with the electric bass gives this song a very electrifying and powerful feel to it. I've had strange dreams of hearing this song in my dreams for some strange reason. I don't know what it is about this track but WOW! This song has unbelievable power that I can never get enough of listening to it. Perhaps it's because it brings back a lot of excellent memories that I had around late 1991 through 1992 that this song just touches me like few others. It's also interesting to think about it as music radically changed almost overnight after this album came out going from the house techno pop of the previous two years to straight-out grunge rock by the year's end. I enjoyed both styles but techno-house has held up better in my opinion but let's not change the subject of this review.\nThis album isn't perfect though. There are some moments though on this album that it begins to hit some speed bumps so I'll get through them to get them out of the way. \"U\", \"For You\" and \"Alright Tonight\" don't really do much for me. With the song \"U\", the rock and techno elements clash instead of merging and the result is a less than great track. \"For You\" while occasionally interesting feels like a reject from the \"Forever Your Girl\" sessions and is too short in my opinion. \"Alright Tonight\" kind of stagnates in my opinion with its somewhat unappealing stab at a more tropical style. These three songs are not bad at all by any stretch of the imagination but they don't quite rank up with the others in my opinion.\nHowever that is made up though with the ballads on this album. The number one single on this album \"Rush Rush\" is the greatest ballad that she has ever done in, trashing any other slow song of hers. This has a very haunting and moving tone to it and haunting violins and while her voice isn't necessarily golden, it perfectly fits on this powerful and moving song. I also enjoy this song because it brings up great memories of my life around 1991-through early 1993. It's still amazing that this powerful ballad knocked Michael Jackson's \"Black or White\" out of the top spot on the charts. That's saying a lot. \"Vibeology\" is just sheer fun with its rumbling bass lines and heavy dance hooks but the track suffers from relatively insipid and utterly silly lyrics that can be a bit jarring at times. However, if you can bypass the vapid lyrics, this is an absolutely fabulous track and is just loads of fun. However Like a previous reviewer said, it was lyrics like this that would ultimately close her career. \"Blowing Kisses In The Wind\" is another good song with a slightly orchestral sound to it although not on the powerful level of \"Rush Rush\". The album comes to an excellent close with the final track \"Will You Marry Me\". This song is definite beauty with a jazz-piano vibe and a dramatic and dreamy melody. The song is about a girl proposing marriage as opposed to a boy usually proposing the same thing. Yeah it's corny but the musicianship and the unique melodic structure are just excellent and negate the corniness.\nI've read right and left that some have labeled her as the Britney Spears of the 1980s. Well you know what, I couldn't disagree more. Paula Abdul blows every post-1993 teen pop singer right out of the water and into the trash. Can you imagine Britney doing something as powerful as \"Rush Rush\" or intoxicating and powerful like \"Promise of a New Day\"? I didn't think so. Okay, maybe parts of her first album may have some girly-esque elements that bring Abdul close to Britney territory but even then, the slick pop and solid hooks of both FYG and \"Spellbound\" puts her entire oceans ahead of any of today's teen pop idols. On this album, she did a great job at sounding sexy without crossing the line into vulgarity, something that many of today's younger artists don't seem to know how to.\nMuch of Abdul's music has dated very quickly and has also been sadly been forgotten by many but if there is any album of hers that truly lasts through the ages, it's definitely this one. She has done a marvelous job and I highly recommend that you purchase this unbelievable classic. I haven't been more proud of purchasing an album in years and today, it's now an album that holds a special place in my life. It's just a shame that this underrated lady's career evaporated after this album's time wrapped up but I've heard that she may put out another album in the near future. I hope it's true and perhaps she could put out that album that could rival \"Spellbound\" with its power but it remains to be seen for now. This CD is one of the relatively uncommon occurrences when a truly excellent and creative album goes platinum and \"Spellbound\" is one of those instances. It's sad she went right down the toilet both commercially and artistically after this.\nUntil then, just put this CD on and have a swell time. Just be careful not to come down with big nostalgia attacks like I have listening to this marvelous treasure of a classic. Enough said, just go and buy this CD today!","Product: 1. Zoo Station\n2. Even Better Than The Real Thing\n3. One\n4. Until The End Of The World\n5. Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses\n6. So Cruel\n7. The Fly\n8. Mysterious Ways\n9. Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World\n10. Ultra Violet (Light My Way)\n11. Acrobat\n12. Love Is Blindness\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Achtung Baby: U2's crowning achievement!\n\nReview: This could very well be my favorite album of theirs. I got my first dose of U2's music during 1995 when I first heard \"New Year's Day\" and another song called \"One\" on the radio in Chicago around that time. I eventually discovered that these songs were by U2 and eventually discovered their other hit songs from their \"War\" album through \"Achtung Baby\" and I have been a fan ever since then. U2's 1991 magnum opus \"Achtung Baby\" is easily one of the greatest rock albums ever made. There are a lot of reasons why this album is so. The music on this album is like nothing that they've done before or since then and is one of the greatest examples of a band completely reinventing itself. It's so hard to believe that this album, being so far ahead of it's time, is actually 12 years old now. \"Achtung Baby\" is so innovative in such a manner that it does not sound the slightest bit dated. To tell you the truth, U2 never sounded better than on this album.\nThe politically charged anthems that defined their 1980s albums are laid to rest and are replaced with more introspective lyrical writing dealing with everyday life and relationships but from a rather gloomy point of view. Musically speaking, they went into a totally different arena, moving away from the atmospherics of their 80s works and incorporated some grunge rock combined with punching industrial techno dabbling on here and the result is phenomenal. Every song on here is absolute brilliance like nothing else on any rock album. \"Zooropa\" while great, sometimes lacked the humanity and warmth that this album has and focused more on simply the electronic techno elements. \"Pop\" fared better at this. \"All That You Can't Leave Behind\" kind of reminds me of this album to a degree but without a lot of the industrial electronica on here.\n\"One\" is easily one of the greatest ballads U2 ever wrote and it's evident that Bono reached his peak on this song. This is a highly dramatic and emotional song that gradually builds up and reaches a climatic end. This album and song in particular was one of several songs on this album that got me through a rough point in my life after a close friend of mines died in a car accident in early 1999. As a result, \"Achtung Baby\" not only is one of two favorite albums by them but this album means something special to me. \"Trying to Throw Your Arms around the World\" is another track that helped me get through that sad period in my life and thus that song is a highly moving track. It's a very bittersweet and passionate song that gives me goose bumps every time I listen to it. Even before all the turmoil set in, these two songs made me a forever a fan of U2. The hit singles on here are just marvelous. \"Even Better than the Real Thing\" is just straight out fun. \"Mysterious Ways\" gets my nod as one of the best `sex appeal' songs that I've ever heard by any rock band or artist. The guitar punch at the beginning alone is unforgettable and the song has a highly danceable hip-hop oriented beat combined with electrifying guitars.\nEven the non-singles on here merit a lot of attention. The opening track \"Zoo Station\" is the best opening song of any U2 album behind \"A Sort of Homecoming\". It starts with very odd guitar riffs and then electronic mechanical beats come in and the song becomes a very strange blend of rock, industrial and pop all mixed in one. Bono's distorted vocals on here are awesome to listen to and blend in perfectly with the songs mood instead of clashing with it. \"Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses\" is in my opinion one of U2's most underrated classics of all time being a highly dramatic yet fun song. I can't believe that this song didn't make it on their \"Best of 1990-2000\" collection. Some seem to not care much for \"So Cruel\" which is a shame as it's a chilling yet highly intelligent classic with an eerie and slightly creepy vibe to it. I'll admit, it took much longer for it to grow on me than the other songs but I now finally find it to be a marvelous song. The final track \"Love Is Blindness\" is a dark and mournful song with a very bitter and cold atmosphere to it. It starts with a haunting organ-like intro and becomes a mid-tempo rock oriented ballad with a dark and moody tone to it. Upon feeling that love and relationships seams to be becoming too media-oriented, I can really relate to the song title at times. This is an excellent closer to this album. The rest of the songs I didn't mention with this review also deserve a listen but the songs I mentioned are among the best on the album.\n While \"The Joshua Tree\" may be their commercial peak, \"Achtung Baby\" is by far their greatest and most ambitious artistic achievement in just about every way. Buy this album. If anything is anything, this album in my opinion, is where U2 came the closest to, if not reached perfection. I love both \"Zooropa\", \"Pop\" and even enjoy \"All That You Can't Leave Behind\" a lot too but from my point of view, there is something that \"Achtung Baby\" has that seems to be missing on their latter works.. For all of the great reviews that I read on here, this album is arguably one of the greatest achievements not only in their career but also one of the greatest achievements in rock history. Along with many on here, I can easily say that while \"The Joshua Tree\" is their highest selling album, \"Achtung Baby\" is easily their best album. U2 fan or not, this album is a pivotal recording and is a highly recommended masterpiece for the ages.","Product: Tracks: Discotheque 5:21 / Do You Feel Loved 5:09 / Mofo 5:49 / If God Will Send His Angels 5:25 / Staring At The Sun 4:39 / Last Night On Earth 4:48 / Gone 4:29 / Miami 4:55 / The Playboy Mansion 4:42 / If You Wear That Velvet Dress 5:18 / Please 5:05 / Wake Up Dead Man 4:52\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: It's U2 in your face!\n\nReview: I remember listening to this album not too long after it came out back in that cold morning in early 1997 and loved it. I was blown away by this CD. It's a shame that it sold poorly because this is one of their most consistent CDs ever. This album goes into a techno atmosphere like Zooropa but only better and more rock sounding this time. The landmark sound is present in some songs on here but this overall is an experimental record. The poor success of this and Zooropa persuaded them to return to their roots with ATYCLB which I,m not complaining at all about.\nIt was foolish for critics to say that U2 veered off path and flat out screwed up. Well that's their problem because this CD is one of their highlight CDs.\nDiscotheque is a techno\\rock\\dance number that will get your feet stomping with those phat beats. This is a bangin opener to this CD. Do You Feel Loved is a great song with synthesizer guitar licks and phat beats. This song would have been a great mainstream song. Mofo is my favorite song on this CD. This song may be too techno for casual fans but this is one of the best songs they,ve ever written. The sound effects at the beginning is a little harsh for my ears. It almost sounds like something from a Front 242 album. It has those familiar U2 guitar sounds. Things slow down with the mournful If God Will Send His Angels. This is the most beautiful song U2 have done since One from Achtung Baby from 1991. It's very mellow and joyous and sad at the same time. I played this one quite a bit during the next few days after the September 11 attacks. Staring At The Sun is a cool song with more of the synthesized electronic guitar licks. Last Night On Earth is rockin!!!!!! The sort of ambient intro is awesome. The song then becomes a hard rocking song that really gets my mental juices flowing. Gone is similar to Last Night On Earth but not quite as fast. It's another good song. It ends with the guitars still going for another 6 seconds. Miami is a song that I've heard a lot of bad talk about. I on the other hand love this song. Don't be fooled by the song title. This song is NOT a beach song. It's a strange dark trancey song with an awesome drum loop like nothing I've heard before. This song would be something to play when driving on the outskirts of a large city during the wee hours of the morning. The Playboy Mansion is another song that has been bad-mouthed. This song is a very blues-sounding song. This song is a good song. If You Wear That Velvet Dress is a quiet sensual song probably the most sensual song U2 have ever done. Please is a spooky track with an ambient sound that reminds me of looking out a window on a stormy evening. Great Song. Wake Up Dead is an average closer to this CD. The beats are average and the songs sounds thrown together. The sound effects at the beginning and ending are cool though. Probably the only thin spot on this CD.\nApart from one thin moment this is a very underrated CD. I suggest that you run to the music store and buy this CD! It's one that you'll regret passing up! I'd recommend this one ...","Product: Non Fiction\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: One of the best albums from 1983.\n\nReview: Tears For Fears were and still are an incredible band that few others can rival.\nThe edition I'm reviewing is the older edition without the bonus tracks.\nThe Hurting, released in 1983 is TFFs debut album that unfortunately is overshadowed by it's follow-up 1985s Songs From The Big Chair. The Hurting is lighter musically but lyrically it's probably the darkest album of all of their 80s releases. My favorite songs are Change, the title track & Start Of The Breakdown. The lyrical prowess is strong especially with Mad World & and the doomsday like Start Of The Breakdown. This track is my favorite song from this often underrated LP. Just the electric electrifying guitar at the beginning of the opening title track proves that TFFstood out well from other bands from the early 80s and now almost 20 years after it's release The Hurting still stands out well from most other LPs that were released the same year. The last track Start Of The Breakdown was pretty far ahead of it's time and coul almost fit on the Big Chair LP.\nThe remastered edition has four bonus tracks. Two are extended remixes, Mad World (world remix)is the original with an altered beat. and one is an extended version of the B-Side The Way You Are. The best of them is the extended version of the intimate Change which is extended to about 6 minutes.\n As I listened to Start Of The Breakdown I've noticed that two other songs share similar chord structures with this one. One is Always In The Past, a B-Side from the Seeds Of Love sessions and the other is Hypnoculture from Rolands solo album Tomcats Screaming Outside. No offense to any of these songs. I just simply noticed similar chord structures between these three songs, that's all.\nThe Hurting is a must own.","Product: U2 THE UNFORGETTABLE FIRE\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: One of the best remasters of all time and a marvelous archive of hidden treasures!\n\nReview: I reviewed this album many, many years ago considering that it was a favorite at the time, and still is as of this writing. I wanted to return here and review the expanded deluxe edition of my favorite U2 album \"Unforgettable Fire\". Originally released in late 1984, it marked a profound change in style from the austerity of \"War\" towards a mix of atmospheric ethereal sounds, thanks in part to the collaboration with Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, both of whom have produced marvelous works of art, both solo and with others.\n\n This particular edition that I'm reviewing not only remasters the original release but also included 16 extra tracks, some of them live recordings from the tour that promoted this album, and also a huge stash of B-sides and slightly altered versions of the original songs that made it on the regular album. Even better is the inclusion of B-Sides that didn't even make it on the much beloved \"Best of/B-Sides 1980-1998\" collection and some of the songs that actually were on that collection, appear on here, in slightly altered versions, some of which I'd say are actually the 'true' versions.\n\n The original album is in remastered form. For those familiar with the original album, theres little need to explain much other than to say that it is a marvelous blend of rock, atmospheric etherealism, and beautiful songwriting and an atmospheric sound that in my opinion, nobody else, not even U2 themselves ever came close to recapturing again, until Lanternas Desert Ocean album 22 years later but thats for a whole separate review. My favorite tracks are the four-track bundle starting the title track with its serious atmosphere of beautiful keyboard arrangements, excellent drumbeats, and overall dark but blissful atmosphere. Following that is the eerily beautiful track Promenade with Bonos vocals amidst a very subdued background melody. Following that is the haunting instrumental 4th of July with a haunting sound that conjures the feel of watching the fireworks from a very great distance away. And who can forget the ever-enduring classic Bad with its marvelous songwriting, craftsmanship, and atmospheric texture.\n\n It is however the second disc containing B-Sides, rarities, and remixes that highlight this review. Most of these songs are a mix of experimental noodlings, and tracks that would definitely sound out of place on the regular album but nevertheless have their own merit in the B-Side world.\n\n Starting at track one, is a live performance of the opening track \"A Sort of Homecoming\". A real treat is the a live version of their famous classic \"Bad\" which is one of my favorite songs on the parent album. If you loved the studio album version, this live performance does the album version proud and has a unique of it's own. The live version's climax gives way to a winding down phase and gradually fades down and comes to a beautiful conclusion. The next track \"Love Comes Tumbling\" is a B-Side that appeared on the \"Best of 1980-1998/B-sides\" compilation albeit in slightly edited form. The song has a very unusual sound with an obtuse sound that feels more like something from Roxy Music's \"Avalon\" or a mid to late 1980s Bryan Ferry recording. Especially with the drum loop. The guitar textures are very unusual and have the feel of a mix of spirits, and even angels actually performing with the band. Even Bono's vocals have the feel of echoing from a great distance. It feels very different from other songs that U2 did during this period and it is one of my favorite U2 B-sides from this era. The song was actually done in a few different versions. The version on here is almost identical to the one found on the \"Best of\" compilation but has a longer instrumental intro before the vocals start. The next song Three Sunrises is a very strange bird of a track in the sense of beginning with an ambient intro but then when the full song goes into full gear, it suddenly shifts in actual tuning and almost adopts a whole different pitch altogether. This kind of playing with musical tunings is very, very rare in pop music and those with perfect pitch or have a strong recognition of musical notes will notice this really odd trick. Overall, the song is a really great song. Even better is before ending, it changes back to the normal tuning in the closing seconds almost like going through dimensions before emerging back into this one. This version is the same as found on the Best of 1980-1990 collection. \"Yoshida Blossom\" is a B-Side that didn't appear on the compilation but finally makes its presence. Probably among the closest to feeling like the \"War\" era, this song begins with a discordant guitar intro and blends into a heavy keyboard intro before becoming a fast-paced instrumental, very much a cross between the feel and mood of \"New Year's Day\" with the rhythm patterns of \"Wire\" and utilizing the best of both songs. The shrieking guitar effects in many respects replace lyrics and conjure up the pain and terror that befell many survivors of the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. I can easily imagine the agonized faces when listening to the guitar effects. Mentioning that, an extended version of Wire follows Yoshida with a very different intro and different rhythm patterns before shifting instantly into the version heard on the parent album. The vocals feel much more echoing. Next up is an extended version of Pride Who can forget Bono singing about the scars of Memphis 1968 on that great classic? Because it was what put the parent album on the map, it is noteworthy because appears on here in an extended form with an extra vocal passage with Bono's famous \"In The Name of Love!\" lyric sung in extended form starting at 3:02 and in a much greater intensity. Overall, with this extra power, this already great song is made into an even better enduring classic. The next track is a reworking of the opening track \"A Sort of Homecoming\" with a very different reworking including a mix of acoustic passages in place of the original rock guitar sounds that dominate the original song. Even the pitch tuning sounds different giving this version a feel that is very different from the original yet maintaining the spirit at the same time. For some odd reason, the song \"11 O'clock Tick Tock\" finds its way here in extended form. Originally recorded and released before even their debut album \"Boy\", it has an unusual blend of wintery atmospherics and late 1970s/early 1980s New Wave. For those who have been critical of the band or record labels' decision not to include this on the 'Best of' collection, you're requests have now been answered. This song for many seemed to drift in the netherworld of 'bootlegs' or 'EPs' and there are two other versions out there but at least one of them is now available on the deluxe edition of \"Unforgettable Fire\". A second version of Wire called the Celtic Dub mix makes its appearance. Despite the title, I don't hear anything celtic in this version but the textures feel slightly altered from the original parent album version. A great song in slightly different form nonetheless. My favorite track on here is the atmospheric instrumental \"Bass Trap\". If there was ever a song that I felt captured a bit of heaven, this might be it for me. The song is a very quiet, moody instrumental with the guitars played with a heavy ethereal backdrop comprised of atmospheric keyboard arrangements and bluesy sounds. I often picture a mix of office buildings amidst a mostly cloudy evening sky during the spring, summer, and autumn and the mix of urban street lights and office window lights providing contrast with the blue evening skies. It is mostly repetitive with some slight variations but it is meant to be like a heavenly journey through the modern world. This version on here is much longer than the version found on the Best of/B-Sides with some added passages. I overall find this version on here to feel more complete. The haunting instrumental \"4th of July\" makes it's second appearance in a slightly longer form. It feels very much like the parent album version but with some tweaked sounds. Finally there is \"Sixty Seconds in Kingdom Come\" which is a great closer to this set of B-Sides. It has a very strong bass guitar as a backdrop and it provides the song a lot of punch as it develops some background vocals and U2's early 80s trademark guitar sound in the background. I get the impression that if the song \"Bad\" was recorded at the same time as the songs from the \"War\" era, it would've sounded a lot like this.\n\n As a long-time fan of U2 over many years, I've come to appreciate all of their albums starting with \"Boy\" and even all the way up through their \"Songs of Innocence\" and enjoy all of them to varying degrees. Yes, the following two albums \"Joshua Tree\" and \"Achtung Baby\" are far more famous, deservedly so, and sold countless millions, but to me, The Unforgettable Fire remains among my favorites, if not my actual favorite U2 record in their entire career. Having said that, it is a real delight that this marvelous album not only saw much-needed remastering but also a second CD with a huge treasure chest of B-Sides and some different versions of the original tracks, especially since some of these lost treasures were never available anywhere except maybe on rare bootlegs or long out-of-print vinyl released. Now they are given a new lease on life on the deluxe 2-CD version of this magnificent album. If there are yet more songs that still didn't make it on here, Im not aware of them but even so, this deluxe edition of Unforgettable Fire is one of the best ways to re-release an album in remastered form: The original version in remastered form, and a second disc of B-sides, and remixes of the original songs.\n\n Unless you are a casual fan of U2s music, if you just buy the one-CD version remastered, you are likely to miss out on a huge treasure chest of hidden gems. Highly recommended.","Product: In a career full of triumphs, this 1986 LP might have been the pinnacle for Winwood; it sold three million copies and gave him his first #1, the Grammy-winning Higher Love . It joins the infectious title tune; the hit Freedom Overspill; Split Decision , and more pop gems with guests Joe Walsh, James Taylor and others!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Without a doubt my favorite Winwood album!\n\nReview: There will never be anything that Steve's post-1986 will create that will top \"Back In The High Life\" as it's easily my favorite album that he's ever done and deservedly was and remains his highest selling album to date.\n\n Having much superior production quality than his previous outings, BITHL literally makes \"Arc of A Diver\" and \"Talking Back\" sound as ancient as the days of Queen Elizabeth the first and it's clear why. The volume quality is so much better and the music alone is more well-produced as well. \"Higher Love\" is a much deserved classic with a tropical color and a happy and fun groove. \"My Love's Leaving\" is a tribute to a friend of his that passed away during this albums making and even though it's more of a melancholy track, even this song has an optimistic glare to it. The beauty is stunning and is light years ahead of it's time.\n\n Although Back In The High Life may sound a bit dated in places by today's standards, it has withstood the tests of time and is highly recommended.","Product: Classic 1989 album features \"Sowing The Seeds Of Love\" and \"Woman In Chains\".\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Seeds Of Love: Tears For Fears artistic pinnacle\n\nReview: Sure the excellent Songs From The Big Chair got better sales & more commercial success but one will definately agree with me that 1989 epic masterpiece The Seeds Of Love is TFF most creative & most consistant and is their masterpiece. To me there hasn't been a better period in music than mid to late 1989 with the Seeds Of Love & Janet Jacksons Rhythm Nation 1814 being the best music the best year for music. Sadly this would be the album that would tear apart the dynamic Orzabal/Smith duo for the next ten years after this.\nThe edition I'm reviewing is the older version without the bonus tracks.\nWoman In Chains begins this CD with a heartbreaking melody and a more soulful sound with the then unknown Oleta Adams singing on backup vocals and what a singing duo! This is a song I think that is about the abuse of womens rights judging from reading the lyrics. Badmans Song brings us into more upbeat terrority with a far more upbeat track with lots of jazzy blues-rock influences which also features Oleta Adams on guest vocals. This track is 8 and a half minutes long. fans who are The Big Chair might find it difficult to enjoy this song but those who are open minded or more adventurous will definately love this song. The title track we've already heard before. It's a very beatle-esque song and is the most radio-friendly song on this CD and probably the only one that is. This is the only song that features Curt Smith on vocals. Advice For The Young At Heart is the winner on The Seeds Of Love. It's a very soulful song with deep lyrics and lots of organs and wash of guitar sways. The bridge in the middle of the song from 2:49 to 3:30 is my favorite part of the song with a much jazzier feel. Why this song failed to reach the top 40 is beyond me. Standing On The Corner Of The Third World starts off with Arab sounding flutes and strange sounding chimes and then becomes a mellow soul-oriented track. The song then blasts into a Gospel influenced track at the 2:48. The song mellows down but then speeds up again and kind of melts into a chaos of harmonicas and rock guitars before fading out. Swords & Knife starts off with wobbly keyboards and then becomes an upbeat track and finally morphs into an ambient rock track with awesome beats. The song ends with the wobbly keyboards and then ties us into the next track Year Of The Knife. Year Of The Knife is probably the closest the Seeds Of Love comes to sounding like The Big Chair but even then this is a far cry from that album. Year Of The Knife is similar to Sponges 1994 hit Plowed with an identical drum loop bur less grunge-influenced and has awesome chorus and incredible singing once again by Oleta Adams. After that we head into more melancholy territory with the eerie Famous Last Words. Famous Last Words starts off with a siren like intro and piano and then becomes a sort of classical oriented song. At the 2:24 mark the song blasts into a power ballad with incredible atmosphere. What awesome lyrics. Incredible emotions. Incredibly powerful song. The song calms down and with the siren like ambience returning and then the song ends with the air raid siren sounds fading out bringing this CD to a close.\nThis CD is absolutely stunning on all fronts.\nSeeds Of Love is recommended but I say get the remastered edition with the four bonus tracks. The bonus tracks flow quite well with the original eight tracks.\nHIGHLY RECOMMENDED!","Product: Winwood gained much respect amongst the rock crowd for his stints in the Spencer Davis Group, Traffic, Blind Faith and Go. However, he made the biggest impression as a solo artist with these 1980s chart-toppers including \"Higher Love.\"\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: A decent sampler but scratches the surface.\n\nReview: This is a wonderfully diverse sample of Winwoods 20 years of music making (at the time of this release) and all of the tracks are great. \"Higher Love\" was a well-deserved hit and \"My Loves Leavin\" is pure ecstacy. Yet there are far more lesser known songs on here that are also enjoyable like \"Vacant Chair\" and \"Wake Me Up ON Judgement Day\". The tracks from his 1982 \"Talking Back\" album are redone with a 1987 production and are great but I would've liked to hear them in their original versions. oVERALL this is a very good CD but there are a lot more great songs that are completely overlooked on this collection. It is however a great purchase to start off with or to introduce a newcomer to Steve's music!","Product: Move To This CD Polydor, 847 267-2, 1990, 10 Track\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Criminally overlooked treasure of a classic!\n\nReview: I just cannot understand how a record like this that spawned four smash hits on the radio back in 1990 and 1991 could go virtually unnoticed and ultimately just be in the category of cult hits. When four singles lifted from it in fact make it into the top ten and are still very popular to this day, yet the parent album is almost forgotten completely baffles me to this day. With four top ten hits, one would assume that this album would at least go platinum but it barely dented the charts despite the runaway popularity of the songs that were released as singles. I bought a copy of this album in the summer of 1999 and a whole bunch of memories came flooding back to me with songs like 1989's \"Come on And Get My Love\", \"Just Another Dream\" and \"Everybody Move\", and without a doubt the timeless classic \"Touch Me All Night Long\". \"Move To This\" remains a staple album of early 1990s Eurodance pop and remains one of the albums that while mostly centering the dance pop styles of that era has aged unbelievably gracefully and surprisingly doesn't sound dated at all even when placed against some newer music.\n\nThe cheese factor is evident in many areas of this album but the cheese factor instead just makes this album all the more fun to listen to and to escape from the negativity of today's world. The most blatant cheese factor is mostly centered on the suprisngly bland album cover with it's rather odd color scheme and the sometimes laughable Louise Brooks hairdo. The rather unappealing color scheme used on the album cover on both the front and back with it's texture, is virtually opposite to the immensely edgy and rich style that permeate the albums music altogether. It's definitely not the worst album cover even by a long shot but the sometimes plain look is deceiving because the music is far from plain.\n\nWhile \"Touch Me All Night Long\" is remembered with it's electrifying techno beat and Dennis' excellent vocals, the version on this parent album is VERY different from the remix that most dance fans are familiar with and is one of the great suprises that this album offers. The version that most people are familiar with has that unforgettable Europop techno beat and strong basslines along with those tinkling low-pitched keyboard effects but the version on here is very different but every bit as good albeit in a very different light. The version on the parent album is less techno-oriented, funkier and more jolly in sound and is slightly jazzier in sound as well. The techno version is the more popular version but the album version is a must-hear just to hear this classic in a totally different light.\n\nSome of the other tracks besides \"Come On and Get Your Love\" and \"All Night Long\" however warrant a great deal of attention. \"Too Many Walls\" is perhaps the most unique track on this album and was a well-deserved top ten hit in the fall of 1990. The song melody wise has the undertones that would make it a moody ballad but at the same time, the track has a danceable metallic beat that would make it a wonderful semi-ballad/semi-dance track. The song combines the elements of a ballad and the elements of a dance track. Quite something to hear. The moody melody of the track and the unique chord changes that permeate the track are just a delight to my ears and remains one of the highlight tracks. While it may have been out for many years, \"Too Many Walls\" doesn't sound dated at all and in fact defies a lot of late 1980s/early 1990s trends as well and that's quite an achievement. The saxophones and Flugel horns during the middle of the track from 2:56 until the track rises a whole step in melody is absolutely incredible and that along makes this track a timeless classic in my book.\n\nThe orchestral ending of \"Too Many Walls\" perfectly blends into the moodiest and most emotional song on this album \"Tell Me\". Blending Europop balladry and moody Quiet Storm atmosphere \"Tell Me\" is another highlight on this album. Cathy Dennis's vocals are absolutely incredible and are among the best singing she's ever done and is ironically hardly cheesy at all. The lyrics are very good as well and are in fact quite impressive even by dance-artists' standards. The beauty of the ambient keyboards and soft vocals are really amazing and \"Tell Me\" is another one of the best tracks on this album.\n\nThe only occasional drawback is that most of the dance tracks do sometimes suffer from sounding very similar to each other at times but that is offset by the different styles that are unique to them. \"Everybody Move\", the longest track on this short album (5:15) is a very Prince-influenced track with a mix of late 1980s Europop keyboard effects and rock drum beats to create a really unique and colorful track. I would even go far enough to say that it would almost perfectly fit on Prince's \"Grafitti Bridge\" soundtrack against \"Round and Round\", another wonderful classic but that's up for another review on the future. The title track is another excellent dance track with a really good rhythm and keyboard styles.\n\n\"My Beating Heart\" is the cheesiest song on this album and sounds the most dated of the tracks on this album. While it is certainly my least favorite track on this album, the cheese factor present is offset by the horn instruments and the moodiness of the melody. The beat though is really cool and while this was the track that took the longest to get into mainly because of the cheese factor, it is yet another great track even if I give it let's say a 4.7 versus a perfect 5 or more for every other track on this album.\n\n The remaining two tracks \"Got to Get Your Love\" and \"Taste My Love\" close this album on a glorious note. \"Got To Get Your Love\" is a high-energy dance pop track with pulsating beats, unique keyboards effects, and a fun big city party vibe to it. The tambourine effects towards the last minute of the track are really fun to listen to. The final track \"Taste My Love\" is on the border of being pure cheesy with it's outright cheesy lyrics but the song overall is a great dance track. The song ends this wonderful trip on a highly confident note.\n\n \"Move To This\" is without a doubt a staple in the history of dance pop music of the early 1990s and is one of the greatest albums of that era. While mostly centering on the styles of the era, the album has aged incredibly well and avoids ending up in the era of dated pop fluff. This is highly recommended","Product: AUDIO CASSETTE! PLAY TESTED. CASSETTE. NO SQUEALS OR HISS. COMPLETE WITH COVER AND ART WORK. COVER SHOWS SIGNS OF SHELF WEAR. ALL ORDERS OVER $25 FREE UPGRADE TO PRIORITY SHIPPING.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: The album to thrill the generations.\n\nReview: Thriller is absolutely a trmendously creative album in MJs catalog. No wonder it became the biggest selling album of all time selling 47 million copies worldwide!\nNoone will ever forget the incredible title track with the Vincent Price narration and the timeless video. The same goes for the tile glowing video 'Billie Jean' or the angsty 'Beat It'. MJ really expresses a \"don't mess with me\" attitude with class. Beat It will last forever.\nMost of the rest of Thriller to me is similar to Quincy Jones' 'The Dude' LP.\nIn fact I often enjoy the lesser known songs on Thriller a bit more. Human Nature is absolutely a lovely song and is almost opposite to Thriller. I consider this one of my favorite love songs of my lifetime. Lady In My Life is my other favorite song on Thriller. Sorry dudes but while the whole album is great, The Lady In My Life and Human Nature share the crown as my top favorite songs.\nThe remastered edition includes new liner notes, interviews about the albums making, and a few bonus songs. Someone In The Dark is a very beautiful song although the E.T. singing was a bit jarring. There is a demo version of the huge hit 'Billie Jean' that was recorded before the regular version was eventually made. The last bonus track Carasoul is a bit dissapointing. It's only one and a half minutes long. The song should have been at least three and a half minutes long. Oh Well.\nAt least there are great new liner notes, and great photo stills taken from the video and behind the scenes.\nAlthough the remastered edition could have been better this CD is absolutely incredible.\nIt's a shame that so many people my age completely missed this album during it's heyday although it's still immensely popular. I was only about 4 weeks old when it came out but it is one of the earliest memories I have of listening to music.\nThriller I bet will more than likely be still available in 2082, 100 years after it's release. It's that good. This CD is timeless.","Product: Deep Forest ~ Boheme\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Deep Forest's best album without a doubt!\n\nReview: I was absolutely amazed with Deep Forests debut album. It was and still is one of the most groundbreaking world music albums of all time and it's a huge crime that it isn't carried by retailers. It is still an amazing CD to this very day. It blended Pygmy voices with modern dance and the result was a masterpiece. This follow-up to that album entitled \"Boheme\" raises the bar even higher by having Deep Forest travel from the remoteness of Sub-Saharan Africa, to the forests of Bulgaria and Eastern Europe and the result is beyond what I could give out and \"Boheme\" is in my opinion, Deep Forest's best album to date although \"Music Detected\" may offer competition. The album has a much darker and more dramatic undertone than their debut album does but I love it.\n\"Anasthasia\" starts the album on a dark, eerie, and slightly ominous note with a very tribal sound with haunting flutes and a haunting ambience that gives the song a feel of like drifting through the forests of the Alps with nearby storms. Eventually the song gets more and more intense until it suddenly ends at just less than two minutes length. The echoes of \"Anashthasia\" perfect blend into the drama of my favorite track on this album \"Bohemian Ballet\". This is one of their best 'studio' album tracks that they've ever created. At first, the clanging dance sound effects would imply a Latin folk track but it becomes a very intense, dramatic, and dark song. Things get even better when it becomes a vibrant and energetic dance song with haunting and bizarrely amplified Eastern European voices backed by the intense melody. This song is my favorite song on this entire album. \"Marta's Song\" is sheer beauty. After the dramatic darkness of \"Bohemian Ballet\", we emerge into the sunniness of \"Marta's Song\" which is another one of the highlights of this album. The song has a really excellent and exotic rhythm and the same is said about the haunting Bulgarian chants as well. Add that to a really warm and energetic melody and you have a really uplifting classic for the coming ages. \"Gathering\" is a much darker and more ominous track with a very futuristic production yet it also blends in ancient chorus and a really dark but never forboding atmosphere to create another intriguing and amazing classic. \"Lament\" is a really heartbreaking yet joyous song with a very strange electronic voice effect and bizarrely amplified voice effects. The melody is really awesome as well and the result is another highlight on this album. \"Bulgarian Melody\" is the strangest track on this CD. Although it starts with a dark and very eerie note and growing more and more dramatic, it calms down and becomes a very odd piano ballad with Bulgarian vocals amidst sweet and beautiful background piano in the background which almost gives the song a slight 1940s tone to it. While I totally disagree with a reviewer saying that this song is god-awful, it does feel sort of out of place against the other songs on this album but nonetheless it is a really great song. As it reverts back to the eerie sound that was present at the beginning, it morphs into a sweeter melody which becomes the track \"Deep Folk Song\" which is just a one minute interlude track but has a really vibrant French accordion style to it. In a way it's more of like an interlude intro into the vibrant classic \"Freedom Cry\". This is a really fun and actually a very bright, sunny and really happy song without being cheesy and is actually a very sophisticated song with an edgy and funky beat and a French accordion sound to it that gives the idea of a dance in an open paved plaza in Paris right after a storm moves out. A really amazing song it is. The song gracefully transitions into the next song \"Twosome\" which is another highlight on this album. This song has a rather slightly ominous melody but also a very joyous and exotic dance club sound. The Eastern Indian chanting gives the song a really colorful sound. It's hard to really explain this track but it's a really awesome song that needs a listen. \"Caf Europa\" is a really strange track with a stormy vibe and Asian exotic instruments. The song becomes a very club-oriented dance song that surely would make for excellent dance club music. While it's a very good song, it doesn't stack up as high as the other songs on this album. Still, it's a great song. The live version is incredible! \"Kathrina\" is a very spooky track. It begins with a very misty sharp-sounding flute or other wind instrument and becomes a very dark and haunting track with African beats and strange ominous melody. This is the darkest track on this album and it's a good one at that! The album closes with what I can safely say is the best track on this album which is the title track to this CD. While much of the album is dark and somewhat stormy in nature, the closing title track has a very happy and absolutely uplifting vibe and has a funky and exotic rhythm and colorful vocal effects. To me, this is like the sun shining bright after a major storm moving away into the east. This song brings an already phenomenal album to a glorious finish.\nTheir debut album may have been what brought them into the spotlight but the way I look at it, \"Boheme\" was where they reached their peak although \"Music Detected\" may offer competition but these two albums have enormously different styles that it's impossible to compare them but they both showed that Deep Forest were unafraid to go into uncharted territory with their music. \"Boheme\" to me, built on the greatness of their debut and the result is what I consider to possibly be their best album that they've ever put out to date. I strongly suggest that you get a hold of a copy of this album. I don't know how much I can recommend it but I cannot do this album justice with this review. That's all I can say.","Product: Deep Forest ~ Boheme\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Deep Forest's Magnum Opus! I'm not kidding!\n\nReview: I was absolutely amazed with Deep Forests debut album. It was and still is one of the most groundbreaking world music albums of all time and it's a huge crime that it isn't carried by retailers. It is still an amazing CD to this very day. It blended Pygmy voices with modern dance and the result was a masterpiece. This follow-up to that album entitled \"Boheme\" raises the bar even higher by having Deep Forest travel from the remoteness of Sub-Saharan Africa, to the forests of Bulgaria and Eastern Europe and the result is beyond what I could give out and \"Boheme\" is in my opinion, Deep Forest's best album to date although \"Music Detected\" may offer competition. The album has a much darker and more dramatic undertone than their debut album does but I love it.\n \"Anasthasia\" starts the album on a dark, eerie, and slightly ominous note with a very tribal sound with haunting flutes and a haunting ambience that gives the song a feel of like drifting through the forests of the Alps with nearby storms. Eventually the song gets more and more intense until it suddenly ends at just less than two minutes length. The echoes of \"Anashthasia\" perfect blend into the drama of my favorite track on this album \"Bohemian Ballet\". This is one of their best `studio' album tracks that they've ever created. At first, the clanging dance sound effects would imply a Latin folk track but it becomes a very intense, dramatic, and dark song. Things get even better when it becomes a vibrant and energetic dance song with haunting and bizarrely amplified Eastern European voices backed by the intense melody. This song is my favorite song on this entire album. \"Marta's Song\" is sheer beauty. After the dramatic darkness of \"Bohemian Ballet\", we emerge into the sunniness of \"Marta's Song\" which is another one of the highlights of this album. The song has a really excellent and exotic rhythm and the same is said about the haunting Bulgarian chants as well. Add that to a really warm and energetic melody and you have a really uplifting classic for the coming ages. \"Gathering\" is a much darker and more ominous track with a very futuristic production yet it also blends in ancient chorus and a really dark but never forboding atmosphere to create another intriguing and amazing classic. \"Lament\" is a really heartbreaking yet joyous song with a very strange electronic voice effect and bizarrely amplified voice effects. The melody is really awesome as well and the result is another highlight on this album. \"Bulgarian Melody\" is the strangest track on this CD. Although it starts with a dark and very eerie note and growing more and more dramatic, it calms down and becomes a very odd piano ballad with Bulgarian vocals amidst sweet and beautiful background piano in the background which almost gives the song a slight 1940s tone to it. While I totally disagree with a reviewer saying that this song is god-awful, it does feel sort of out of place against the other songs on this album but nonetheless it is a really great song. As it reverts back to the eerie sound that was present at the beginning, it morphs into a sweeter melody which becomes the track \"Deep Folk Song\" which is just a one minute interlude track but has a really vibrant French accordion style to it. In a way it's more of like an interlude intro into the vibrant classic \"Freedom Cry\". This is a really fun and actually a very bright, sunny and really happy song without being cheesy and is actually a very sophisticated song with an edgy and funky beat and a French accordion sound to it that gives the idea of a dance in an open paved plaza in Paris right after a storm moves out. A really amazing song it is. The song gracefully transitions into the next song \"Twosome\" which is another highlight on this album. This song has a rather slightly ominous melody but also a very joyous and exotic dance club sound. The Eastern Indian chanting gives the song a really colorful sound. It's hard to really explain this track but it's a really awesome song that needs a listen. \"Café Europa\" is a really strange track with a stormy vibe and Asian exotic instruments. The song becomes a very club-oriented dance song that surely would make for excellent dance club music. While it's a very good song, it doesn't stack up as high as the other songs on this album. Still, it's a great song. The live version is incredible! \"Kathrina\" is a very spooky track. It begins with a very misty sharp-sounding flute or other wind instrument and becomes a very dark and haunting track with African beats and strange ominous melody. This is the darkest track on this album and it's a good one at that! The album closes with what I can safely say is the best track on this album which is the title track to this CD. While much of the album is dark and somewhat stormy in nature, the closing title track has a very happy and absolutely uplifting vibe and has a funky and exotic rhythm and colorful vocal effects. To me, this is like the sun shining bright after a major storm moving away into the east. This song brings an already phenomenal album to a glorious finish.\n Their debut album may have been what brought them into the spotlight but the way I look at it, \"Boheme\" was where they reached their peak although \"Music Detected\" may offer competition but these two albums have enormously different styles that it's impossible to compare them but they both showed that Deep Forest were unafraid to go into uncharted territory with their music. \"Boheme\" to me, built on the greatness of their debut and the result is what I consider to possibly be their best album that they've ever put out to date. I strongly suggest that you get a hold of a copy of this album. I don't know how much I can recommend it but I cannot do this album justice with this review. That's all I can say.","Product: 12 songs\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Janet Jackson at the apex.\n\nReview: This edition of Janets creative apex, Rhythm Nation 1814, now comes with her collection of videos entitled \"The Rhythm Nation\" on DVD. I tell you, Janet has never been better than during this era that stretched from August of 1989 to well into 1991 and it's a classic that must always be available for the generations. Unfortunately she would sadly go downhill with the creative slide Janet, rebounding a bit with The Velvet Rope, before collapsing into musical limbo with the sorry All For You. I consider this Janets \"Thriller\".\nThe music is top-notch with sonic punch, loud slamming beats, strong vocals, both solo and chorus, and amazing and powerful songwriting and her first song she wrote all by herself \"Black Cat\" is truly angry and powerful especially with the loud crunchy heavy-metal guitars and sledgehammer beats. The albums theme, like we all know, is about how to counteract the wrongs in the world as the title track says. Not all of it is like this as some tracks are on the fun side. Alright fits into this category with it's stunning New Jack Swing beats, and cheering voices. Listening to this song, it makes me yearn so much for the Janet of this era again. Alright is Janet at the apex. The last three tracks are haunting ballads and far surpass almost every ballad she's done since(Not that they're all boring or bad). The first one, Lonely, is a dark haunting song with beautiful Spanish guitars and powerful lyrics and ambient atmosphere. The next one, Come Back To Me, continues the feel of Lonely but adding a bit of a more orchestral sound. There were two version both of which I like. The version on Design Of A Decade has dingling keyboards at the beginning, the parent album version has the haunting multilayered chorus at the beginning. I happen to like both but I like the multi-layered chorus version a little better. The last one, Someday Is Tonight, is Janets first true ... song by Janet. Where as they would get worse with each CD afterwards, SIT works perfectly and benifits by having a ominous stormy atmosphere, eerie melody, multi-layered chorus, drippy trancy beats, and also by not having any ridiculously graphic lyrics like All For You has(Would You Mind & Love Scene made me sick!). I love the muted trumpet playing by trumpeteer Herb Alpert.\n....And now for the Rhythm Nation Compilation......\nThe DVD that comes with this edition of Rhythm Nation is a collection of Janets seven ground breaking videos and are absolutely amazing with the astounding choreography from Tina Landon and also I also loved her clad-in-black image too from this era in her career. In fact, while I might be recieving angry replies but I thought she looked alot prettier during this era than when she became a \"...-kitten\". My favorite videos are the dynamite Miss You Much with the classic chair routine, the dance army video of the title track, the carnival influenced Escapade, the 1920s Chicago style Alright, and Black Cat(Love those tight jeans and leather boots, Whew!). In fact, every video is classic. I watched the RN compilation in VHS and have worn out like two copies over the years and it's almost on the border of being an honor to have these amazing videos on DVD!\nThe next album, Janet, while good, was an artistic slide IMHO. The next one, The Velvet Rope, is a little better with some more creativity put into it. All For you on the other hand sounds like sorry excuse for record sales.\nHer latter works are good but compared to Rhythm Nation 1814, I'm not nearly as impressed them like I am with this amazing, and unbelievable album. The only other album by Janet that comes close to being this good is Control and I hope they can re-release that album with a DVD of her videos from that era. Overall, while it may cost more with this edition, this CD/DVD set is a great buy. Even if you have Rhythm Nation 1814 already on it's older edition, this CD/DVD set should be bought as a companion to the other version. Don't throw out the older version of Rhythm Nation. Janet, we need more music like this from you again! And also get rid of the hip-hop dreck of All For You and make some more guitar based music. RN 1814, Control, Design Of A Decade, and The Velvet Rope are all you need to hear Janets strongest material. :)","Product: 12 songs\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: A must have classic for all fans, not just Janet fans!\n\nReview: ...Janet has\nnever been better than the period from 1989-1991. Everything about Rhythm Nation is awesome. The interludes are great...the beats are loud, industrial, the videos are absolutely unforgettable and ground shattering, plus the lyrics are thought provoking and powerful. Musically speaking, it's her most mature (Control is a bit campy at times) and strongest work to date. The next two albums fail to surpass this album even Control can't top this one. I could puke at what's become of Janet in recent years and AFY Sounds like a sorry excuse for music.\nThe sound of a low-pitched church bell starts of the CD with a pledge that teaches us that we all are special human beings with no geographic boundaries, and are one through beliefs and are pushing toward a world rid of colorlines. A factory machine comes with the sound of amplified voices and then the countdown voice comes in ushing the title track which continues the message of the interlude beforehand and the black & white video of Janets dance army dressed in military outfits, is a message of how we are all the same regardless of our ethnicity. The song is an industrial sounding dance number. A T.V. interlude comes in with flipping channels of violent events in the news especially of the Tiananmen Square incident. After the chaos of the T.V. interlude we head into a disturbing track called State of The World. SOTW is about the problems of drugs & crime spreading on the streets. Lots of metallic, danceable beats make up the song and is one of the standouts. A 4 second interlude called Race mentions about being in a race between education and catastrophe. The next track The Knowledge starts off with the sound of videogame sound effects and then blasts into another industrial sounding dance tune. This track denounces bigotry and illitaracy especially with the \"Prejudice...NO!, Bigtory..NO!, Ignorance...NO! Illitaracy...NO! \" lyrical line in the middle of the song. A 3 second interlude transports us into another danceable track by the name of Miss You Much. This song has the video that is famous for the chair routine that numerous artists have and the song itself is a classic that'll stand the test of time. After the song ends a 20 second sample of the orchestral part of Come Back To Me plays before the next track begins. Love Will Never Do(Without You) is the one that brought in the more of the sex symbol Janet that we all know today. The song starts off with a stunning ambient keyboard intro and then blasts into a stunning song with awesome chorus, crisp vocals, strong melody, awesome beats and a video no one will ever forget. We then return to more chilling territory with the disturbing ballad Living In A World We Didn't Make which is a chilling tale of how young children are tought how to hate especially with the news snippet of a playground shooting that took place sometime around the late 1980s in California. Things get much more upbeat again with my favorite Janet song to date, Alright. The song is a New Jack Swing influenced track that is tons of fun and makes me yearn for the RN style Janet again. I especially loved the video with a 1920s oriented urban atmosphere and a guest appearance from the late Cab Calloway who sadly passed away a few years after the video was made. Alright is Janet at her very, best. I hope Janet can make music like this again. Another interlude comes in with the \"edit\" quote that Janet is famous for. The next track Escapade is yet another great, killer dance number with what I consider another highlight off RN 1814. A brief interlude has the sound of a shattering glass container and then the sound of a black panther growling that kicks in Black Cat. This song was written by Janet all by herself and she did great. Black Cat is a hard edged rock number that is almost on the border of heavy-metal with angry, rebellios lyrics, loud beats, and heavy almost metal guitars. I like this parent album with the metallic beats more than the version on DOAD 1986/1996. It's is the last upbeat song on RN 1814. The remaining three are ballads. The first one up is Lonely. this is a dark, atmospheric ballad with gorgeous pan flutes, light beats, ambient melody and stunning Spanish Guitars and it's one of the best songs that Janet has ever done. The next on is the somber Come Back To Me which also has some Spanish guitars but with a more classical influence and a stormier atmosphere. The version on here has that gorgeous multilayered chorus intro instead of the dingling keyboard intro on DOAD and the version on here is superior. The last one, Someday Is Tonight is the first true sex song by Janet. Unlike the ones on her more recent material, Someday Is Tonight a very dark, ominous song with a very sexy atmosphere especially with the strange dripping beats and the muted trumpet played by Herb Alpert. The song ends with quivering breathing that isn't ridiculous like on AFY. The last track on RN 1814 is the interlude Darkness which tells of how to not let your eyes decieve you and how knowledge and wisdom is what sets us all apart and not our appearance. The ringing church bell that started this album also ends it giving a feel of coming full circle.\nI recommend this album to all people but especially those like me who were too young to experience this ground breaking period from 1989-1991. Rhythm Nation is not only a great album but is a hallmark of a classic that must not be passed up. Janet, we need more material like this!","Product: CD\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Very good debut album.\n\nReview: Our beloved British genius Peter Gabriel was on his own for nearly two years after he declared his independence from his former band Genesis and almost thought of quitting music but that was not to be though. He got back into the studio in 1976 and recorded and delivered his first solo album in February of 1977 and what an awesome result. This isn't necessarily his strongest album of his career (Security and SO have that title) but for a debut, it's quite an accomplishment. This is a fantastic outing from the then blossoming talent of Mr. Gabriel. This CD is nothing like the darker and more bleak tones that defined the three albums that followed this debut. In fact, this is probably the happiest record that Gabriel ever made but that doesn't mean it's cheesy. Completely opposite, it's a great and unforgettable classic and with the remastering, the sound quality is vastly improved and the songs all sound so much sharper and clearer and there isn't any need to turn the volume up to deafening levels to hear the songs clearly. The album has a very fleshed out sound in each of the songs, something opposite to the second album that Gabriel released a year later which had a dry and very raw production to it, great CD as well. The album jumps in many styles and it sometimes makes the album have a sense that it'll lose it's cohesiveness. Overall, the album has an orchestral rock sound to it, thanks to the big fat production of Bob Ezrin who did a better job at this than Robert Fripp did with \"PG 2\". \"Excuse Me\" gets my nod as the funniest and most hilarious song that Gabriel has ever composed. It's a humorous song with a tuba and barbershop band and hilarious tuba playing and the song is a hilarious barbershop theme and the most charming song that he has ever done and is completely opposite to let's say \"Lead A Normal Life\" and \"Darkness\". I often listen to this great song to cheer myself up sometimes when I'm down or induced to tears when listening to \"Birdy\" soundtrack or \"The Drop\" from the UP album. The album is best known for Peter's first major solo hit single \"Solsbury Hill\" with it's acoustic guitar and then building up into an electrifying rocker towards the ending. The song is a personal tale of why he left his band Genesis two years before then. There are other great gems to hear on this album. \"Excuse Me\" and \"Solsbury Hill\" are just two of them. A highlight in my opinion is the mini-epic \"Humdrum\". It starts with haunting keyboards and excellent before becoming a energetic rocker and changing tones, all in less than 3:30! The winner on this CD though is the closing theme entitled \"Here Comes The Flood\" which paved the way for the dramatic direction that Gabriel would take after this album, being an awesome power ballad and unique chord structures. It makes an absolutely stunning closer to this album but only showcased what was to come later on in his career. There is a gorgeous piano version of this song available on the \"Shaking The Tree\" album that's just as good as this version too. I just wanted to say this classic album finally has gotten a much needed clean up job on it's recording quality. The remastered edition is an incredible improvement over the older CD and brings out much greater volume and better details in the music to where it's almost like a new Peter Gabriel CD.","Product: CD\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Came and ride in this \"Car\" with Gabriel!\n\nReview: Our beloved British genius Peter Gabriel was on his own for nearly two years after he declared his independence from his former band Genesis and almost thought of quitting music but that was not to be though. He got back into the studio in 1976 and recorded and delivered his first solo album in February of 1977 and what an awesome result. This isn't necessarily his strongest album of his career (Security and SO have that title) but for a debut, it's quite an accomplishment. This is a fantastic outing from the then blossoming talent of Mr. Gabriel. This CD is nothing like the darker and more bleak tones that defined the three albums that followed this debut. In fact, this is probably the happiest record that Gabriel ever made but that doesn't mean it's cheesy. Completely opposite, it's a great and unforgettable classic and with the remastering, the sound quality is vastly improved and the songs all sound so much sharper and clearer and there isn't any need to turn the volume up to deafening levels to hear the songs clearly. The album has a very fleshed out sound in each of the songs, something opposite to the second album that Gabriel released a year later which had a dry and very raw production to it, great CD as well. The album jumps in many styles and it sometimes makes the album have a sense that it'll lose it's cohesiveness. \"Excuse Me\" gets my nod as the funniest and most hilarious song that Gabriel has ever composed. It's a humorous song with a tuba and barbershop band and hilarious tuba playing and the song is a hilarious barbershop theme and the most charming song that he has ever done and is completely opposite to let's say \"Lead A Normal Life\" and \"Darkness\". I often listen to this great song to cheer myself up sometimes when I'm down or induced to tears when listening to \"Birdy\" soundtrack or \"The Drop\" from the UP album. The album is best known for Peter's first major solo hit single \"Solsbury Hill\" with it's acoustic guitar and then building up into an electrifying rocker towards the ending. The song is a personal tale of why he left his band Genesis two years before then. There are other great gems to hear on this album. \"Excuse Me\" and \"Solsbury Hill\" are just two of them. A highlight in my opinion is the mini-epic \"Humdrum\". It starts with haunting keyboards and excellent before becoming a energetic rocker and changing tones, all in less than 3:30! The winner on this CD though is the closing theme entitled \"Here Comes The Flood\" which paved the way for the dramatic direction that Gabriel would take after this album, being an awesome power ballad and unique chord structures. It makes an absolutely stunning closer to this album but only showcased what was to come later on in his career. There is a gorgeous piano version of this song available on the \"Shaking The Tree\" album that's just as good as this version too. I just wanted to say this classic album finally has gotten a much needed clean up job on it's recording quality. The remastered edition is an incredible improvement over the older CD and brings out much greater volume and better details in the music to where it's almost like a new Peter Gabriel CD.","Product: CD\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Gabriel's first solo outing is outstanding!\n\nReview: Our beloved British genius Peter Gabriel was on his own for nearly two years after he declared his independence from his former band Genesis and almost thought of quitting music but that was not to be though. He got back into the studio in 1976 and recorded and delivered his first solo album in February of 1977 and what an awesome result. This isn't necessarily his strongest album of his career (Security and SO have that title) but for a debut, it's quite an accomplishment. This is a fantastic outing from the then blossoming talent of Mr. Gabriel. This CD is nothing like the darker and more bleak tones that defined the three albums that followed this debut. In fact, this is probably the happiest record that Gabriel ever made but that doesn't mean it's cheesy. Completely opposite, it's a great and unforgettable classic and with the remastering, the sound quality is vastly improved and the songs all sound so much sharper and clearer and there isn't any need to turn the volume up to deafening levels to hear the songs clearly. The album has a very fleshed out sound in each of the songs, something opposite to the second album that Gabriel released a year later which had a dry and very raw production to it, great CD as well. The album jumps in many styles and it sometimes makes the album have a sense that it'll lose it's cohesiveness. Overall, the album has an orchestral rock sound to it, thanks to the big fat production of Bob Ezrin who did a better job at this than Robert Fripp did with \"PG 2\". \"Excuse Me\" gets my nod as the funniest and most hilarious song that Gabriel has ever composed. It's a humorous song with a tuba and barbershop band and hilarious tuba playing and the song is a hilarious barbershop theme and the most charming song that he has ever done and is completely opposite to let's say \"Lead A Normal Life\" and \"Darkness\". I often listen to this great song to cheer myself up sometimes when I'm down or induced to tears when listening to \"Birdy\" soundtrack or \"The Drop\" from the UP album. The album is best known for Peter's first major solo hit single \"Solsbury Hill\" with it's acoustic guitar and then building up into an electrifying rocker towards the ending. The song is a personal tale of why he left his band Genesis two years before then. There are other great gems to hear on this album. \"Excuse Me\" and \"Solsbury Hill\" are just two of them. A highlight in my opinion is the mini-epic \"Humdrum\". It starts with haunting keyboards and excellent before becoming a energetic rocker and changing tones, all in less than 3:30! The winner on this CD though is the closing theme entitled \"Here Comes The Flood\" which paved the way for the dramatic direction that Gabriel would take after this album, being an awesome power ballad and unique chord structures. It makes an absolutely stunning closer to this album but only showcased what was to come later on in his career. There is a gorgeous piano version of this song available on the \"Shaking The Tree\" album that's just as good as this version too. I just wanted to say this classic album finally has gotten a much needed clean up job on it's recording quality. The remastered edition is an incredible improvement over the older CD and brings out much greater volume and better details in the music to where it's almost like a new Peter Gabriel CD.","Product: [Note: This product is an authorized, licensed CD and is manufactured on demand]\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Flight Of The Snowbirds is SPELLBINDING\n\nReview: I discovered this CD in my moms CD collection and it had the St. Elmos Fire theme. That song is so captivating even after all these years.\nSt. Elmos Fire has that awesome orchestra sound and a sunny roimantic pop sound. It was a well deserved hit.\n I later discovered other great songs on this CD. The Best Of Me is a romantic power ballad with a brooding atmosphere and a vocal guest appearance by Olivia Newton John. Whos Gonna Love You tonight is a dramatic song with a very rockish sound. The song Elizabeth to me is like a darker more minor note version of St. Elmos Fire theme.\nThe song that made this album forever a treasure in my CD collection is Flight Of The Snowbirds. Snowbirds is so incredible that it makes all the other songs on this CD seem average compared to Flight Of The Snowbirds. This song is absolutely incredible, powerful and far more addictive than St. Elmos Fire. I just love how it builds up at the beginning and goes through that repetitive melodic pattern towards the ending. I was in bliss when listening to it when flying in a jetliner over the clouds. It gives that incredible feeling of flying. Flight of Snowbirds will never die.\nThis is one CD will become a gem. It's worth the hard search. I guarantee it.","Product: Both Sides Phil Collins CD\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Like US was to Peter Gabriel, Both Sides is to Phil Collins\n\nReview: Four years after the socially conscious But Seriously Phil Collins follows up that album with the introspective Both Sides. This incredible follow-up to the great But Seriously finds Phil Collins going deeply personal on this CD and in much darker territory. Both Sides is virtually opposite to the feel-good upbeat feel of Both Sides and much less socially conscious than But Seriously. Unfortunately this CD found one of my favorite artists commercial success slumping. Both Sides is a vastly underrated masterpiece from the meistro of the drums. The best songs on this CD are the mournfully nostalgic Can't Turn Back The Years, the heartwarming Everyday(My favorite track on this CD), the bitter I've Forgotten Everything, the saddening minor note Can't Find My Way the more upbeat Survivors, and the We Fly So Close(Very reminiscent of In The Air Tonight).\nThe lyrics are very deep and powerful and express strong feeling but it's mainly the dark melodies that express the majority of the mood of this album. Both Sides is so wonderfully crafted that I regret buy this album used because buying a new copy of Both Sides would've added to record sales. That's how good Both Sides really is. Plus another thing is that Phil played all of the instruments when recording this album and that really makes this album one of his most talented works to date. If you're looking for the poppish fun of Sussudio, Two Hearts or Don't Lost My Number steer clear of Both Sides because this powerful CD is almost completely opposite to the excellent No Jacket Required. The happier songs on Both Sides are more melancholy than even Long Way To Go off No Jacket Required. It's kind of odd that Phil suddenly took a 180 degree turn into much more upbeat territory with the incredibly underrated 1996 follow-up Dance Into The Light which probably is a close cousin to No Jacket Required.","Product: CD\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Genesis steers down a pop direction.\n\nReview: Genesis' third post-Gabriel outing with Phil Collins as lead singer of the group is a very transitional album where almost all of their progressive rock style is shed and the band reveals a much more accessible pop sound. Their biggest hit to date at this point was their 1978 charting single entitled \"Follow You Follow Me\" which is a really good pop single.\n This album at the same time still has a sort of wintery feel similar to their previous outing \"Wind and Wuthering\" but the sound of this album is much more accessible and easier to get into than their previous outings. In my perspective, this is their least progressive album they've ever made in their 30 year career. Even their more pop sounding 80s works had a more progressive style than \"Then There Were Three\". \"The Burning Rope\" is the closest this album comes to being progressive but it's only a little over 7 minutes long but it's still a really good song.\n Not their best by any stretch of the imagination but ATTWT is arguably their transitional album where they went from prog rock and went totally pop and this has likely angered a lot of their audiences at this point but I feel like I'm the only one who loves almost everything they've done from Nursery Cryme to Invisible Touch and all the way to Calling All Stations.","Product: Dance Into the Light [Audio CD] Collins, Phil\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: An underappreciated gem (UPDATED 6/30/2016 in order to review the Remastered Deluxe Edition)\n\nReview: I wrote an older review back in late 2001 and even now, I see this album as underrated. In light of the Deluxe Edition that was reissued, I wanted to update my old review in light of the bonus material on the reissued version.\n\n I originally wrote a review on Dance Into The Light back in late 2001. Back then I thought it was another great album albeit his weakest of his solo albums. I still really like Dance Into The Light and in hindsight see it as another distinct chapter of his career. It was overall the slowest of his albums to grow on me but ultimately became another great addition to his catalog.\n\n The album cover conveys the overall mood of the album as it marked a complete 180 from the previous album, \"Both Sides\" as it completely discarded the cold and gloomy beauty and brought back some of the trademark sounds of his first two albums. Some of the songs have a much more 'live' feel, as in having limited electronic or ambient sounds. \"That's What You Said\", and \"It's In Your Eyes\" are examples with an overall 'live' feel.\n\n One of the the unique things is that this album experimented with world music, particularly African drumbeats. While it has drawn some comparisons, even unfavorable ones, to his Genesis counterpart Peter Gabriel's use of African drums, it totally works great on this album. \"Lorenzo\" and \"River So Wide\" have heavy use of world rhythms. \"Lorenzo\" is among my favorite songs on this album as with African flutes as an intro before it develops into an epic theme with a marvelous combination of his trademark drum sounds and African drums. \"River So Wide\" is an intense theme song that begins with a somewhat suspenseful intro and develops into a high-energy theme with heavy African drums with heavy rock. It serves as a prelude to the \"Tarzan\" soundtrack he did just a few years later.\n\n My reason for returning is to write on the Deluxe Edition of this album and the bonus material. As a lifelong fan of Collins it is especially a treat to see a deluxe treatment of an underrated album. First off the remastering is incredible even though the sound quality of the original was still good to begin with. All of the songs sound so much clearer and with greatly improved sound.\n\n The second disc contains an odd mix of live recordings of songs from the subsequent tour, some B-Sides, and demo versions of some of the songs that made it onto the album. The disc begins with five live recordings of \"Dance Into The Light\", \"Just Another Story\", \"Wear My Hat\" and then the double-duo of \"River So Wide\" and \"Take Me Down\".\n\n The demo version of Lorenzo is the winner here. This song saw Phil delve into African drum rhythms for the second time in his career (1989s Colours had some African rhythms), a trend that his counterpart Peter Gabriel had already been doing for many years. The demo version of this song feels very different from the original and is absolutely incredible to listen to. Where as most of his demos feature Phil with wordless singing (A normal part of lyric-writing) but here, his lyrics were already clearly already written. The original version kind of feels similar to Find a Way To My Heart but with heavier African influences including the lyrical themes. The drums and Phils vocals are especially prominent and upfront and clearly heard. In the demo version, these things are far more subtle and the song in its demo version is far more ethereal and atmospheric and the overall feel of the song is completely different. The somewhat rock-like feel of the original version is replaced by heavier keyboard presence. In fact, had it not been labeled a demo version, I wouldve guessed this was an alternate version that Phil recorded but for some reason did not choose to include on the original album. The original version, Phils voice is up front and clear. On the demo, his vocals, while still clear, blend much more into the overall background texture and he sounds like hes singing from miles away. The Oh oh who! In East Africa!.... passage is far more surreal. And then the part where he sings about being far away from his friends and the dolphins is mesmerizing! Overall, the demo version is one of the few that I can actually say is superior to the so-called finished version on the regular album. Ive had my share of letdowns on some B-Sides or demos not being included on his deluxe editions of his albums but it is a real delight to have THIS demo version on here.\n\n The disc closes out with three B-Sides, all of which are truly wonderful to include on here. \"Another Time\" is a beautiful song that to be quite frank, beats out most of the songs that made it onto the album. I think this should've been included on the original album and it could've helped it enjoy greater chart success than it got but still, it's great to have this song included on the deluxe edition. \"It's Over\" is a very quiet and melancholy balled that harkens back to the the \"Both Sides\" era with a mournful and ethereal feel with a keyboard in the front and ambient production in the background that then bursts into a cry of Scottish bagpipes towards the end. This is another lovely track that should've made it onto the album. \"I Don't Want to Go\" utilizes the unusual 12-string guitar strings of \"That's What You Said\" and \"Love Police\" but with a faster rhythm. It serves as a great closer to the bonus disc.\n\n Overall, since I first reviewed this album, \"Dance Into The Light\" struggled for a while to hold it's own against it's predecessors but eventually became another gem on it's own merit. Today, with the deluxe expanded edition and the excellent bonus material, this album went from being recommended for the dedicated fans to highly recommended just for the 'Demo' version of \"Lorenzo\" and \"It's Over\". Those two alone warrant buying this expanded edition.\n\n His Deluxe Editions of his solo reissues have left a lot to be desired especially since far more demos are available out there and there are B-Sides that remain in the realm of bootlegs or rare vinyl singles but when it comes to this album, this is probably my favorite reissue of his catalog.\n\n(Archived Old Review Dated October 26, 2001)\n\n An underrapreciated gem\n\nPhil Collins took a daring new turn in his music with this excellent but sadly underrated masterpiece. The music on here is less ambient, more optimistic and generally more upbeat than the dark depressing masterpiece Both Sides. There is some African sound on a few songs here.\nDance Into The Light is a fun, upbeat, almost tropical song with lots of trumpets. It's like a backlash at I Cant Dance from several years before. It's a great song that you should give a listen to. That's What You Said is a cool with a more acoustic sound. Lorenzo is a beatiful song with some African drums combined with African flutes and phat beats. It's one of my favorites on this CD. Just Another Story is a laid back song with a light beat and a high pitched trumpet like the kind that Miles Davis played. It's kind of a song that I would play when walking down a city street approaching downtown. Love Police is a great simple song. It's a little hard to describe exaclty how it sounds like but it's a must hear. Wear My Hat is the fastest song on this CD. It's very tropical sounding with some Jamaican drums and some Big Band horns. It's In Your Eyes is an OK song. I'm not very moved by this one. Probably one of the most boring tracks Phil has ever written. It's not bad but average. Oughta Know by now brings back the Phil that we know from the But Seriously days with the thundering beats and the great guitar playing. It sounds kinda like I Wish It Would Rain Down but not quite as 'BIG' sounding. Take Me Down is a very groovy song with a strong big band sound. I play this one alot. It's one of my favorites on this CD. The Same is a haunting song with a dark sound kind of like Father To Son from But Seriously. I love how the last five seconds fades out into the next song. River So Wide is the winner on this CD. It a very intense song with thundering drums and heavy guitars that make the perfect song for a jungle action movie. No Matter is acoustic song similar to It's In Your Eyes but better. Not my favorite but good. The Times They Are A Changing is a great closer to this CD. Its a very well done cover version of the 1963 version done by Bob Dylan. The beats are phat.\nThis CD will have to grow on you but in the end you'll love it. I do. I listen to this one a lot. While it may be his weakest solo album to date that does not make this CD less than five stars. Go out and buy it. I recommend this one.","Product: MAKE OFFER ON THIS OR ANY OF MY OTHER STUFF IN ANY COMBINATION of anything I carry\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: I,m enjoying the silence.\n\nReview: Enjoy The Silence is one of my all-time favorite DM singles. It's very intense with a heavy beat and disturbing melody. There are five versions of Enjoy The Silence with two B-Sides, neither of which hit the spot for me. Sibeling is a kind of Gothic piano song. Memphisto is very similar to Pimpf. Those who like Pimpf might enjoy Memphisto. This song is more intense. The original version is the same as the parent album version only without the interlude at the end that ties it to Policy Of Truth. The Hands anf Feet Mix is almost like an extended version of the original version. The Bass Line Mix sounds more like a totally different song and far more clubby. The Ecstatic Dub is classic. It's like an extended instrumental version but more stretched out with little vocals. The keyboards echoing are killer. The Ricki Tick Tick Mix is another good mix but not up to the other remixes. The Harmonium version was originally supposed to go on Violator. It's a ballad version with churchlike organs and vocals and no beats.\nAs you can see there are some great remixes of this great single. I sure enjoy the silence all the time.","Product: BRAND NEW SEALED CD. 1st class shipping. H-6940\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Forget the negative reviews: This CD is great!\n\nReview: Depeche Mode's second outing entitled \"A Broken Frame\" is far away from being `a broken frame'. In fact, I have to say that this is an absolutely fabulous album. It's also likely to be their least known and least accessible album that they've ever put out.\nThis LP from the blossoming band is very different from their debut album from a year before but is still quite popish and lightweight in sound but the music on this album is darker than the debut \"Speak & Spell\" album but is a far cry from the nihilistic arena that Depeche Mode would step into a few years later after this album. It's also likely to be their least known or least popular album that they've ever put out. There are plenty of hints of the darker style that they would adapt on their following albums after the next album \"Construction Time Again\" but this album is far away from being like bleak & dark. Instead this album is dark more in a cloudy evening kind of sense.\nThe album still shows some of the Vince Clarke influences even though he was gone for a while when this album was released particularly on the popish songs \"The Meaning Of Love\" & \"See You\". Although these songs are rather popish and somewhat cheesy, they are a lot more mature than their counterparts like \"New Life\" and \"Dreaming Of Me\" (love these two songs as well) and show some dark undertones on their atmospheres. Just to make it more understandable, the album cover definitely fits the overall mood of this album, dark but not cold or bleak. In fact, the odd campiness that comprises this album makes this album so much fun to listen to. Add to that, the experimental nature of this and it's virtual twin \"Construction Time Again\" clashing with the leftover juvenile pop of their debut album gives this album a sense of appeal that I have to say is almost missing on their latter albums after 1983 although the incredible songwriting and production made up for it.\nMy favorite songs are the unforgettable classic \"Leave In Silence\", \"Monument\", \"See You\" and yes even \"Meaning Of Love\". \"Leave In Silence\" is an absolutely amazing yet almost forgotten classic with a somewhat dreamy and mysterious atmosphere and light drum machine beats and awesome New Wave keyboard playing. In fact, I think that this underrated classic ranks up there with their well-known singles from their MFTM through the ULTRA eras despite being much more adolescent than them. The vocals are excellent and go very well with the music itself. I don't know about a lot of others but I like this song almost as much as anything that they released since 1984. Perhaps its odd sense of campiness makes the song so much fun to listen to.\n\"Monument\" to me is kind a precursor to the darker direction that the band would take a few years later with \"Black Celebration\", being an odd little number with dripping watery effects for a beat and odd melody reminiscent of \"If You Want\" or \"Shake The Disease\" but with a much lighter tone than either one of those two songs.\n\"See You\" and \"Meaning Of Love\" lean more towards the happier synth-pop of their \"Speak & Spell\" album and are almost like virtual twins to \"Dreaming Of Me\" and \"New Life\" but unlike those songs, \"See You\" and \"Meaning Of Love\" are much more mature than those two but all four of these songs are absolutely fabulous classics.\nThe rest of the album is almost as great to listen to. Parts of this album kind of remind me of the Yaz album \"Upstairs At Erics\", probably due in fact that the same person who produced that album also produced this album as well. \"Situation\" from \"UAE\" almost could fit well on \"A Broken Frame\" but let's not change the subject of the review. ;-)\nThis CD is far from being their best album and I can't say that this is an essential recording. Those who know this unique band by \"Black Celebration\", \"Violator\" and SOFAD may not find this album to be of much worth but even then, I would still recommend this intriguing album to those people, just to show a different and now long gone side of the band's spectrum of music. Perhaps it's just the odd mix of the poppier legacy of \"Speak & Spell\" meeting the experimental dabblings of \"Construction Time Again\" and finally the darker spectrum of \"Some Great Reward\" and the albums afterwards that gives the album a relatively mysterious feel. Whatever the case is, it's this mysterious appeal that makes this album so enjoyable and even manages to survive the overshadowing that it suffers from against their post 1985 masterpieces. Some parts of the album almost remind me of \"Situation\" and \"Don't Go\" from the short lived 80s group Yazoo. Quite possibly it's because of the production from Daniel Miller and he produced Yazoo's debut album \"Upstairs At Eric's\" which is kind of similar to this album.\nI can't necessarily say that this album is an essential buy and those who know Depeche Mode for \"Enjoy The Silence\" or \"Personal Jesus\" may not warm up to this album very much however I highly recommend this album for those who want to hear a long bygone era in DM's career. To tell you the truth, this and 1983's \"Construction Time Again\" are truly amazing but unfortunately forgotten classics.\nThe album in a way gets my nod not for the music but for possibly the best album cover photo ever made. The picture of the storm clouds in the background showcase the darker style of the album yet the illuminated wheat shows the lighter side of the album as well. Like a previous reviewer said, this album is known more for it's beautiful album cover than it is for the music on it.","Product: Ferry,Bryan ~ Bete Noire\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: THE BEST ALBUM OF THE 20TH CENTURY!!!!!!\n\nReview: Let's see here what are my all time favorite CDs? Janet Jacksons Rhtyhm Nation 1814, Madonnas Erotica, U2s Achtung Baby, Enyas Watermark, or Phil Collins But Seriously CD? Nope! That honor goes to Bryan Ferry's Bete Noire record.\nI call this the album of my lifetime.\nThis CD gets more spins in my CD player than any other CD I own. I was too young to experience this album back when it came out in 1987 but I started first listening to it in 1992 when I asked my mom what song was playing and she said it was Bryan Ferry's \"Limbo\". Ever since then I could not take this CD out of my CD player.\nBryan Feryy mostly incorporates others sounds to create his own and here it worked perfectly. He even throws in some African drums in some songs for an even better musical treat. The music is a mix of jazz, pop, rock and some world music. Every song on here is polished to perfection. The haunting, enigmatic New Town, and the dynamite Day For Night are among some of the finest songs Ferry has ever recorded. Zamba is a very quiet, mournful song. The rest of this album is amazing as well. The title track brings up images of going out on a romantic evening in Paris France. In fact every song is like a story being told in melody. This album was new in 1987, was still fresh in the 1990s, and is an absolute classic in the 2000s. I love this album now more than ever. I put this record the best CD of the twentieth century. Let's hope it keeps it's reign as the best CD in the twenty-first century. Bryan Ferry unfortunately could not put out anything nearly this good afterwards. Even the five star follow-up Taxi comes nowhere close to Bete Noire. I,m not just recommending this CD, what I,m saying is that you must own this recording.","Product: Construction Time Again by Depeche Mode\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: A strong yet sadly forgotten gem\n\nReview: DM's previous two albums are quite poppy and somewhat sugary in sound. Nothing like this 1983 LP and the following albums that DM would become famous for, the previous two albums are both great in their own way. Released in 1983, \"Construction Time Again\" is from my perspective, where the foundation for Depeche Mode's darker, much gloomier music, was built.\nThis record, has a quirky industrial sound that ,while much darker than the glitzy-glamour pop of \"Speak & Spell\" may not greatly appeal to \"Some Great Reward\" forwards, but nonetheless, I think that this is a wonderful and unfortunately forgotten classic in Depeche Mode's early catalog. While there isn't anything that is very disturbing or frightening like \"Master & Servant\", \"If You Want\", or \"Strangelove\", \"Construction Time Again\" is a dark album and marks the doorway between the sugar-pop of pre-1983 Mode, and the industrial gloom rock of \"Some Great Reward\", \"Black Celebration\" and everything since then.\n\"Pipeline\" and \"Told You So\" to me, are the weakest tracks on the LP and among DM's most uninspired and the former being quite annoying with the sound effects which sound like a malfunctioning construction crane or tractor. However, occasionally when one is in the right mood, even these can be enjoyable songs.\nHowever, that is all made up for with strong and awesome songs like \"Everything Counts:, \"Love In Itself\", and \"The Landscape Is Changing\". \"Everything Counts\" to me is the best song on the entire album, both the original and the 7+ minute 12 inch version with the calliope and the dark yet joyous atmosphere all mixed in one to create one of what I consider, one of the best songs ever made in Depeche Mode's early days and ends their joy-pop with a bang. \"Shame\" while not sunny daylight in mood, is dark yet has a sense of joy buried within its dark atmosphere. The same holds true with \"Landscape Is Changing\" and most of the rest of the album. I love the hazy ending of \"Love In Itself\" with the bizarre breezy sounds and the synthesizer dabblings before blasting into the upbeat, quirky, yet eerie \"More Than A Party\".\nWhile there isn't anything that is very disturbing or frightening like \"Master & Servant\", \"Fly On The Windscreen\" or \"Judas\", \"Construction Time Again\" is a dark album and marks the doorway between the sugar-pop of pre-1983 Mode, and the industrial gloom rock of \"Some Great Reward\", \"Black Celebration\" and everything since then. \"And Then\" to me, is like the precursor to the much darker, and greyer feel of the next album \"Some Great Reward\" and would've fit well next to \"Nothing\" from the Music From The Masses LP although \"And Then\" is just plain fun in a campy way where as \"Nothing\" is nihilistic in mood. \"And Then\" is one of my favorite songs on the CD with it's odd style and acoustic guitars.\nI don't care what detractors say, I think \"Construction Time Again\" as a whole, is a great album and definitely worth checking out. After this, Depeche Mode would become a completely different band. There is a compilation called \"People Are People\" that was released as a promo album that contains the long version of \"Everything Counts\" but instead of getting that album, get this one instead as \"Everything Counts\" is available here but if you're a die-hard fan like I am, go for the compilation I mentioned as \"Now This Is Fun\" and \"Work Hard\" do warrant having that album too. I find it impossible to deny that I actually love this album, in my own campy sort of way and it makes a nice break occasionally from the darker grounds of post-1985 DM.\nAnd so begins a string of great albums that DM have created since then and continued with their most recent release \"Exciter\". Go and buy this CD. It's worth trying out. :-)","Product: CD\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Well-crafted and colorful masterpiece!\n\nReview: Without a doubt one of the most influencial musicians for the past 50 years as of this writing, Quincy Jones is one of the best musicians that on this planet and remains a great influence on music to this day.\n\n His 1989 magnum opus entitled \"Back on The Block\" is unrivalled by almost everything else. The sheer number of singers and other stars who came aboard for this project is impressive! Starring a huge cast of old-time singers some of whom have sadly since passed away, rappers, and then yet-to-be pop stars this incredible masterpiece is without a doubt a contender for being one of the smartest, most creative, and energetic albums anyone has ever put out. While I don't want to sound too biased with this review but \"Back On The Block\" is my favorite African-American music album of all time. .\n\n The party begins with a marvelous rap interlude entitled \"Prologue (20's rap scene/ Quincy's Rap) which is a fun and energetic warm-up track featuring a wonderful rap dialogue that is really a lot of fun and highly joyous to listen. The title begins with a industrial metallic drum intro similar to that of the title track of Janet Jackson's dynamite \"Rhythm Nation\" and becomes a marvelous and energetic blend of rap, hip-hop with a New Jack Swing Spice. \"I Don't Go For That\" is similar to the previous and with a stadium-like New Jack Swing anthem with a fun Manhattan nighttime city feel. \"I Don't Go For That\" is a wonderful New Jack Swing classic with a highly danceable beat, wonderful melody.\n\n \"The Verb To Be\" is a really humorous interlude with oddly amplified voice effects and really funny lines. The laughing voices merge into the track \"We Be Doing' It\". For all of the humor of \"Verb\" it perfect blends into the hip-hop rhythm and the song has a wonderful mix of R&B, blues, and dance all meshed together. If you're looking for great hip-hop music and for a testament for 1988-1991 being the Golden Era of this once-great genre, look no further. \"The Place You Find Love\" is one of my absolute favorite tracks on this album. It starts with a dramatic echoing Gospel voice and becomes a powerful Gospel anthem for the ages. The vocals by whoever is singing are absolutely incredible and do wonders for this track.\n\n The next two-some track combo \"Jazz Corner of the World\" and \"Birdland\" to me are the apex of this album. \"Jazz Corner\" has a really perky Brazilian percussion and has a really cool hip rap verse. The groove of \"Jazz Corner\" perfectly merges into my absolute favorite song on this album \"Birdland\". This is without a doubt the best song Quincy has ever recorded and quite likely a candidate for the best cover-song I've ever listened to. With amazing bass lines and energetic trumpet horns similar from what one would hear from Phil Collins, the beat is just amazing and the song has a really awesome groove unrivalled by few other songs from 1989. \"Septembro\" is a sultry soulful instrumental jazz song with really unique chord shift and wonderful wordless vocals.\n\n \"One Man Woman\" is a great and energetic dance song with a strong New Jack Swing style. \"Tomorrow\" is sheer and utter beauty featuring a barely teenaged then future-superstar Tevin Campbell singing on vocals and childrens choir. The song has a really positive, cheerful, and uplifting vibe to it.\n\n The final track Secret Garden is one of the sexiest soul ballads of all time with a very Quiet Storm mood and featuring guest vocals from the late R&B crooner Barry White (I cried at the news of his passing) the create a beautiful nighttime closer to this illustrious masterpiece of an album.\n\n This album is just about on the border of being utmost perfection. For all of the hard-work put into it's making this is without a doubt one of the greatest achievements in popular, rock, hip-hop, and rap music history. As of writing this review, I am absolutely horrified to see the term \"Out of Stock\" actually on this product! For such a stunning achievement that took so much work and was such a huge hit, I for one cannot believe that Warner Brothers don't even carry this album in their catalog anymore! What a terrible disgrace to music history, by denying many fans one of the most positive, smartest, most well-crafted albums that has ever been released.\n\n Wherever you go, I highly urge you to hunt for a copy of this album and buy it without hesitation. If not, then you have no idea of the party that you might find yourself missing out on. Quite simply there's no other album like this nor will there ever be.","Product: Certified at 4 million units by the RIAA. (2/01)\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: On the border of perfection!\n\nReview: There are quite a good number of fantastic debut albums that have always been the best album by a lot of artists but to me, Seal's self-titled debut album is arguably the best debut album by any artist in my opinion. Released in 1991, this album pushed the boundaries of dance/pop/soul and even some hip hop and resulted in what I consider the most innovative, sophisticated dance album ever made and this album is fighting head to head against it's 1994 follow-up oddly also entitled \"Seal\" as Seal's strongest collection of music. It's still impossible to believe that this album was actually released in 1991 as every song is so many years ahead of it's time and this album hasn't dated one bit even in 2003! Talent has become exceedingly rare these days but even back in 1991 when talent and music was far better, Seal's debut stood so many miles above all other albums around this time for many reasons: It's blend of dance, rock, and pop perfectly suits the mainstream crowd yet at the same time, it also has the maturity and brilliance that makes it last all the way to this very day. This album has defined a long period in my life from 1992 onwards. This album stands out in so many ways from any other album from this time and even from his other albums. One reason is its rich atmospheric mood; another is its urban dance vibe, and just the general mood of this album: Dark, moody, yet highly energetic and edgy.\n \"The Beginning\" is the most appropriate title for the opening track on this album. This is a fabulous blend of dance, techno, pop, and soul with a slightly orchestral sound to it and aggressive driving rhythm. \"Deep Water\" is like two songs in one. The first half is a mellow slightly country-oriented number but odd changes occur in the middle and the song morphs into an odd but highly danceable song. Many are familiar with it but who can ever forget the haunting ambience of the U.K. number one hit \"Crazy\" with its driving rhythm, aggressive bass, dark stormy mood, and edgy production? There are so many awesome things about this incredible single that I just can't put any words into how astounding this song really is to do it any justice. Seal reached an early peak in his music with this awesome single and it was what made me a fan of his since then. If you are driving along a freeway in Chicago approaching downtown at full speed (without going over the speed limit of course!), put this song on at full volume and prepare for the musical experience of the year! Few songs have so much power like \"Crazy\" does. Even though \"Crazy\" is likely one of the strongest tracks on the CD, the other tracks on this album should not be lost in that song's shadow as every one is worth noting but some especially deserve the utmost listening. The other major hit from this album is the Adamski produced \"Killer\" which brought Seal into the spotlight with his awesome voice and the songs electrifying mood. Both \"Crazy\" and \"Killer\" got all the recognition that they deserved and are still very popular on the radio today. \"Whirlpool\" is acoustic ambient ecstacy with it's cloudy evening and laid back atmospherics and it's urban nighttime mood. The soulful, jazzy vibe of the song is impossible to resist being pulled into. I don't know what it is about this song but it makes me cry with positivitsm and joy. \"Future Love Paradise\" is a scorching rock number with a very atmospheric tone with a dark cloudy dreaminess to it and the result is another excellent song.\"Wild\" is a wild classic with a very raw production to it and a very live sound to it. The chord changes are just awesome. \"Show Me\" is a very hauntingly beautiful ballad with a very dreamy atmosphere like the feel of the sun breaking through the clouds. The dark blue glowing magnum opus of this album is the final closer \"Violet\", the best song on the album besides \"Crazy\". This is a haunting, dark cloud ambient, and highly soulful mid-tempo ballad with small amounts of electronica and electronic beats and also if you haven't noticed, the ambient keyboards are courtesy of blossoming New Age Musician Mars Lasar who would go on to create some of the best New Age albums of all time such as \"The Eleventh Hour\" and \"11:02\" and the approaching atmospheres of those albums are quite noticeable on this track but let's not change the subject of this review. Play this song on a rainy evening when you're alone and just be prepared for a waterfall of tears. The beauty of \"Violet\" did just that for me. \"Violet\" is this good! The ending might sound like a sad ending with its mournful outro but it was just the ending of the first chapter and the beginning of the next one.\n Seal's albums have generally been few and far between since this album came out but every one of them including his latest are all excellent albums and the wait between them is worth it. While his second album definitely rivals this one as his best, Seal, or anyone else in that matter, has never toyed with dance, pop, soul, and atmospherics the way he and his crew did on this album and it makes \"Seal [1991]\" a special gem that must be acquired as soon as possible. This album changed my life forever with it's artistic brilliance and atmospheres. Dance music doesn't get any better than it does on here. Seal's music has always been innovative and Seal continues to put out some of the best music of the times and his music has a special place in my CD collection. This album is about as perfect as an album can possibly get. Support Seal. Support real talent. Go and buy it today and buy it new even if it means spending the extra dollar! Enough said!","Product: Audio Cassette\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Unfairly maligned and underrated masterpiece.\n\nReview: I was too young to remember much of the controversy that surrounded the release of this album. Upon learning more about this era in Madonna's history, I can totally understand how some large audiences were very turned off by the controversial picture book that came out around this time, now long, LONG, out of print, and the image that overtook her around this time frame.\n\n Yet that does not affect how great her sixth studio album \"Erotica\" actually is.\n\n Her rendition of the 1950s \"Fever\" ranks as among my favorite 1990s Madonna with its odd blend of early 1990s techno-pop beat, austere melodic atmosphere, and jazzy textures laced throughout. My favorite song though is \"Rain\" with it's beautiful mix of sunny melody and stormy atmosphere all mixed into one. Simply put, this is a marvelous album that although I can understand why some would avoid it, it is still among her best albums to date.","Product: Ferry,Bryan ~ Taxi\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: This CD will put a spell on you.\n\nReview: This CD is a marvelous collection of ten covers. There aren't any original songs on here but the way Ferry takes older classics and gives them an updated sound is amazing. Unlike As Time Goes By which has a very 40s sound, Taxi has a very modern sound and most of the songs are eerie and haunting. I consider this rainy night traveling music. The title track is spellbinding. My favorite song though is Rescue Me(No not Madonnas 1990 song). It's a very dark, haunting song with a very futuristic sound and almost technoish beats, kind of like Wildcat Days from Mamouna. This CD is a worthy album of checking out. It's surely doesn't do Bete Noire or Boys and Girls justice but Taxi is an album that might please most of Ferrys fanbase. Enjoy the ten well-crafted songs on Taxi. Don't let this Taxi go by.","Product: Reissue. The Best of Fourplay is a compilation album by Fourplay, released in 1997. Fourplay is a contemporary smooth jazz quartet. The members of the group are Bob James (keyboards), Lee Ritenour (guitars), Nathan East (bass), and Harvey Mason (drums). The group has enjoyed consistent artistic and commercial success by grafting elements of R&B and pop to jazz, appealing to a broad mainstream audience. Their debut album, Fourplay (1991), sold over a million copies and remained at the #1 position on the Billboard contemporary jazz chart for 33 weeks.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: A wonderful but somewhat rushed collection\n\nReview: This 1997 Best Of CD is a compilation of selected tracks from Fourplays first three albums, 1991's self-titled debut, 1993s Between The Sheets, & 1995s Elixir plus three 'new' tracks. I must say though that this CD in my opinion is a bit too early in Fourplays career to really have a best of CD. The group have thrown out three CDs since this collection came with 1998s '4' being a jazz masterpiece and it has lots of strong material that could've been put on this 'Best Of' CD had it been released later. Fourplay are a very talented jazz group and really stand out in my opinion in the smooth jazz field. The only better jazz band in that field is Dancing Fantasy although their music is more on the New Agey side. My favorites are the danceable Bali Run, the lovely rendition of The Isley Brothers 'Between The Sheets', the eclectic Max-O-Man, and 4Play & Pleasure. The one song though that beats everything else on this CD is the stunning version of Phil Collins Why Can't It Wait Till Morning which features Phil himself on vocals and it beats out the original version and ranks as the one of the best songs that Fourplay have ever performed. WCIWTM keeps this CD a five-star. A worthy collection that is worth it just for track 4 and track 12 alone.:)","Product: Features the bonus tracks \"Easy To Cry\", \"Taxi Dancin\" and \"Jessie's Girl\" (Demo Version).\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: This CD is good.\n\nReview: I am appalled at the negative reviews that I,ve been reading on all of the Kenny G pages. While I think Kenny shouldn't be compared to the legendary musicians like Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, or John Coltrane Kenny G deserves so much better praise than the garbage that he is being bembarded with on these pages.\nThere are several good songs on here. Such examples are the breathtaking title track, the awesome I'll Be Alright, the classy We,ve Saved The Best For Last, and the somber closing track Home.\nSilouette holds up well compared to his older albums and his post Breathless material.\nWhatever you do don't listen to the negative reviewers on here and get this CD. And get Breathless as well. This and the other I mentioned are all you need to hear the best Kenny has to offer.","Product: Eurythmics ~ Savage\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Mis-maligned and underrated masterpiece.\n\nReview: Unfortunately never really standing out commercially from the glare of their previous releases, I would arguably say that the Eurythmics sixth album entitled \"Savage\" is a contestant for my favorite album by this splendid duo. I just don't know what it is but this album was and still is one of the most spectacular recording of the 1980s and perhaps my favorite album that Lennox and Stewart ever made together. Our of many of their songs and albums during their ten year run from 1981 until 1991, \"Savage\" gets my nod as one of my favorites of theirs of all time. Strangely enough, this album also stands out by having few vocals on the songs and even having a near-instrumental track.\n\n Just the opening track \"Beethoven (I Love To)\" alone is evident of the massive change in style that the Eurythmics went through during their post-Revenge era of their career, returing to the obtuse, experimental nature of their early albums but also having a much more sophisticated and complex sound with both \"Beethoven\" as well as the eleven (sixteen if you include the bonus tracks) songs afterwards. Beethoven was a very unusual first-single that has a very uncommercial non-mainstream sound.","Product: Brian Culbertson's major label debut Long Night Out is a one-man band tour de force. All those years of sequestering himself away in his bedroom/recording studio have paid off. Except for a few other musicians, Culbertson writes and performs all the music himself. Instead of a vapid \"look ma, no band\" effort, the tracks sparkle with creativity. On the laid-back opener \"City Lights,\" Culbertson lays down a swaying groove punctuated by muted trumpet, elegant piano, and lazy, lower register electric guitar runs. It's great for a midnight drive. \"Heroes of the Dawn\" conveys optimism through it's use of syncopated percussion and interwoven horn lines. The lilting \"Beautiful Liar\" has solid acoustic piano and tasteful fuzz guitar by Harry Hmora. The double time-tempoed \"Double Exposure\" smoothly glides along atop a sinewy melody. [Note: This product is an authorized CD-R and is manufactured on demand].\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Excellent debut album from Culbie!\n\nReview: This 1994 debut is absolutely a treat for the ears. While Smooth Jazz has varied in quality ranging from just bland elevator dreck to sheer beauty, this album is the latter. \"Long Night Out\" is true to it's title. This is a wonderful album for those nights out on the town although it's also a wonderful daytime album as well. \"City Lights\" is a wonderful opener with really awesome keyboards and great beat and blues sounding guitars. My absolute favorite song however is track 9 \"Alone With You\". This is without a doubt hte song that made me a fan of Culbertson for there and ever since. The song is a hauntingly beautiful soulful song with beautiful keyboards and the song does some really unique chord changes throughout it's playing time. A wonderful album indeed. You can't really go too wrong with any of his albums! I guarantee it. This is a hidden gem that I highly recommend buying! Buy it today!","Product: Out of print on CD in the U.S., this is the CD maxi singlefor the top five & first hit from their 1994 album. Containsfour mixes of the smash: Radio Edit, Long & Alive Version,380 Midnight Mix and Short Radio Edit. Slimline jewelcase.1994 Virgin release.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: This Item is worth having for the Long and Alive mix.\n\nReview: Return To Innocence was a well deserved hit for Enigma. It kind of came as a surprise to me that such a relatively sunny song came from the same group who did the dark and ainy Sadeness.\nThere are two remixes that saound almost the same with the radio edit and the short radio edit. The radio edit sounds exactly like the parent album version except without the bridge tat ties it into I Love You Ill Kill You. The short radio is dead identical inly about 3 minutes.\nHowever the real gems on this single are the Long and Alive and the 380 Midnignt Man mix. The 380 Midnight mix is much darker and more stormy also making almost like it meeting Sadeness. The part with the strobe light chants is great. This version is a great reworking of the original. It gaive RTI a whole new feel almost opposite to the original.\nThe winner thoruhg is the Long and Alive version. It starts off as a cloudy minor note and then a discordant guitar away comes in and then morphs into inro the original sound with the usual chating. However the middle part of the song has a sort of Sitar at the bridge and a more minor note structure. The song then morphs back into a major note song and with a new shorus that the song to 7 minute and gives this remix far, Far more personality than the original version.\nGo and get this single. The reviews I wrote on the 380 Midnight Man and Long Alive aren't enough to really say how great they are. It's worth the money.","Product: Nothing short of a C&W album recorded in the heart of Nashville would seem as far removed from The Human League's early experimental art-noise roots as 1986's Crash following the commercial and critical disappointment of 1984's underrated Hysteria, singers Phil Oakey, Joanne Catherall and Susanne Sulley parted with the instrumental axis of The Human League's hit making heyday and traveled to Minneapolis to record with ex-Prince protg Terry Lewis and Jimmy Jam, then at the top of the charts as the masterminds of Janet Jackson's Control. Jam and Lewis wrote and performed the songs on Crash, with only occasional lyrical help from Oakey, and the results are fine mid-'80s pop-funk, even if they have almost nothing to do with The Human League's earlier records. The group was rewarded with the big American chart hit \"Human,\" but from here on, every new Human League album was treated as a comeback attempt. EMI Gold. 2003.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Am I the only one who loves this album?!\n\nReview: I feel like I'm the only person on the planet who actually finds this to be a great album. Released around the same time as \"Control\" and produced by the same people, Human League's \"Crash\" album ranks as one of my favorites by the group and forever made me a fan of theirs. Although I was too young to know who they were, I have fond memories of \"Human\" from when I was little and now at age 23, I find the song to be an amazing classic and light years ahead of it's time. That's not to say the rest of this album is inferior by any means but the song was a well-deserved hit and remains a major classic 20 years on. \"I Need Your Loving\" is silly in a sense sounding like they recycled the drum loop of \"What Have You Done For Me Lately\" and made a different melody and different lyrics. IN my opinion WHYDFML wins out but this is still a good song.","Product: Nothing short of a C&W album recorded in the heart of Nashville would seem as far removed from The Human League's early experimental art-noise roots as 1986's Crash following the commercial and critical disappointment of 1984's underrated Hysteria, singers Phil Oakey, Joanne Catherall and Susanne Sulley parted with the instrumental axis of The Human League's hit making heyday and traveled to Minneapolis to record with ex-Prince protg Terry Lewis and Jimmy Jam, then at the top of the charts as the masterminds of Janet Jackson's Control. Jam and Lewis wrote and performed the songs on Crash, with only occasional lyrical help from Oakey, and the results are fine mid-'80s pop-funk, even if they have almost nothing to do with The Human League's earlier records. The group was rewarded with the big American chart hit \"Human,\" but from here on, every new Human League album was treated as a comeback attempt. EMI Gold. 2003.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: \"Crash\" flies to new heights!\n\nReview: Am I the only one who actually loves this album! For me, this is my favorite record by these guys.\n\n \"Crash\" marked a radical departure and must I say \"sell-out\" in some fans minds, it is a whole new sound that saw them team up wtih Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, the guys who did \"Control\" around the same time as this and these albums are great but have their own character. Granted, \"Control\" overall to me, is more flamboyant and sophistaced but \"Crash\" at the same time ahs a beautiful atmospheric ambience throughout even on some of the more pop-sounding tracks.\n\n \"Human\" ranks as my favorite song by them with it's beautiful melody and keyboard arrangements. A highly underrated song however is \"Are You Every Coming Back\" which has an eerie atmosphere to it.\n\n Many might see this as Control-era rejects but I think it stands apart as one of my favorite albums from my favorite year in music, 1986.","Product: Brand New\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: A true gem but this version is unnecessary.\n\nReview: This self-titled release from Enya was recorded for a 1986 documentary called \"The Celts\" and was heard on the documentary. This album unfortunately was not noticed in public when first released which is a shame because this is a really beautiful and haunting album. The only problem I have is that it's very short. This original album runs at only 39 and a half minutes and leaves you wanting more.\n This album has been out of print for a long time but was re-issued as \"The Celts\" in 1992 with new artwork. The biggest difference between this and it's re-issued version is that the song \"Portrait(Out of The Blue)\" is very short and runs at less than one and a half minute where as the version on the 1992 re-issued \"The Celts\" has the song extended to over 3 minutes with a new melodic part inserted and it improves the song by a longshot. The album cover on here is black and white.\n This version of \"The Celts\" is more for the completists or to provide yourself with a back-up copy of \"The Celts\" but on a musical scale this is a really beautiful album.","Product: CD consists of the following songs: Woman of the World, I Know A Place, The Captain of Her Heart, Your Prayer Takes Me Off, Rangoon Moon, Urban Nomads, Love Is A Plane, Tomorrow\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Captain of many Hearts!\n\nReview: Double (Pronounced 'doo-blay') was a Swiss duo that existed during a brief time in the mid to late 1980s.\n\n Many are totally familiar with the classic \"Captain of Her Heart\" with it's innovative by 1985-standards production and blend of jazz and pop balladry. For me, the piano parts heard in the intro, and during the two bridges, combined with atmospherics and Kurt Maloos deep vocals, it is just sheer beauty that for something that came out so, so long ago, when I was only a toddler, it has stood the test of time and is among my favorite 1980s songs. \"Captain of Her Heart\" is a bittersweet ballad about a woman who is waiting in vain for an absent lover who never returns.\n\n Most of the 1980s major hit songs have since sounded extremely dated and while still great, now are more relics of their time. However \"Captain of Her Heart\" completely defies that weakness and to my ears remains modern and not a day out of date. Most of the rest of this album is enjoyable in my opinion too but has not aged as well and feels more like a relic of it's era.\n\n From what I know, as of this writing, Double never came close to matching the success of \"Captain of Her Heart\" and broke up shortly after a second album and sadly one of it's members has since died. Yet during their brief career, Double had a spark of magic that came at the right time and that moment of magic brought \"Captain of Her Heart\" and a sound that no other band, nor solo artist has ever come close to creating since. For a so-called one-hit wonder, Double is probably among the best of this category.\n\n Highly recommended.","Product: Includes Two Japanese Exclusive Bonus Tracks.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: The best live CD I've ever heard\n\nReview: I'm not too much into live albums. In general, I am more into the studio recorded albums than I am into live albums and I hate the redundant clapping and shouting but Made In Japan is a HUGE exception. They actually improved the songs!\nMany of the songs on here while they sound good on their parent albums sound greatly improved especially those from the Comparsa albums. Green & Blue in it's parent album sounds good but the live version on Made In Japan sounds absolutely incredible! I especially love the live versions of Deep Weather, The Hunter and their internation smash hit Sweet Lullaby. While the original version has a sort of danceable beat the live version on this CD to me is better. It's great to hear their older songs given different drum loops with Sweet Lullaby being the prime example. In fact I like the live version alot more with the beats sounding a bit more original. The more complex sound of Sweet Lullaby magnifies that tracks power.\nThe musicianship is absolutely incredible. Forest Power is just plain breathtaking with fusions of rock, world, pop, jazz, funk and New Age all melted together.\nWhile I don't really recommend live albums that much Made In Japan however I have to say is a must have.","Product: Digitally remastered reissue of the hit English new wave/ pop duo's 1983 debut album with four bonus tracks added, 'Pale Shelter' (Long Version), 'The Way You Are' (Extended), 'Mad World' (World Remix) and 'Change' (Extended Version). The album also features the original version of the top 75 hit 'Change'. 14 tracks total. 1999 release.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Great kickstart for the best band in the world\n\nReview: This is Tears For Fears debut album and what a debut. It primarily has that typical early 1980s New Wave to it except this album is far FAR above most of that ... 80s fluff and has far more poetic lyrics. The Hurting is dark and yet daytime sounding at the same time. Basically it has an apocolyptic feel lyrically as is shone on 'Start Of The Breakdown' and 'Mad World'.\nThe edition I'm reviewing is the remastered edition with four bonus tracks.\nIt's hard for me to explain the tracks in detail but I can say this CD is great and is a must have for any 80s lover like myself.\nThe term '... 80s fluff' I mentioned earlier does not necessarily mean I don't like 80s music. Contrarily I love 80s music. Just that I tend to enjoy some of the lesser known 80s hits.\nHurting is much lighter and less heavy than its successor 'Songs From The Big Chair' and is much more synth pop than 'The Seeds Of Love'. It seems strange that this album is from the same band who would eventually evolve from a synth-pop group into a more soul-rock sounding group with that 1989 masterpiece.\nThis Cd had little notice here in the US when it came out in 1983 but it did well in England. Tears For Fears would have two year to go before setting the charts on fire in 1984 with 'Shout' and again in 1985 with EWTRTW(The name is so long I sometimes don't feeling like typing out the whole name).\nUnlike the bonus tracks in The Big Chair and Seeds Of Love the bonuc tracks while good kind of dissapointed me a smidgey bit. The World Remix of Mad World is dead identical to the original version except with a more echoing beat. This version is still good.\nThe other three are good to excellent. The Way You Are on here is extended to almost 8 minutes long. I love the extended versions of Pale Shelter and Change. The extended verison of Mad World has a less metallic beat and the beat is more flat. The version of Change is extended to six minutes for more listening pleasure.\nMy favorite track besides the bonus tracks is 'Start Of The Breakdown'. This song is like the blueprint of what was to come on The Big Chair and this song could have fit well on that album.\nThis CD is worth having if you love Tears For Fears but I would start with The Big Chair and The Seeds Of Love. Then I would get this one. Oh what the hell get all of TFFs albums.","Product: Genesis ~ Turn It On Again: The Hits\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: PUT THIS CD ON AGAIN & AGAIN & AGAIN!\n\nReview: This 78 minute disc is a 18 track collection of most of Genesis biggest hits.\nUnfortunately a vast majority of the songs on here are from the period with Phil Collins on lead vocals. While I am a HUGE, HUGE fan of Collins this CD doesn't have enough of the music Genesis made during the 1969-1975 line-up with Peter Gabriel on lead vocals although it does have one track from Selling England By The Pound. This CD should've had less songs from the Phil Collins era so to make more space for some of the PG era songs. While this CD probably did a bad injustice to the Peter Gabriel era works this collection has the song Congo from the tragically underrated Calling All Stations. Including at least Congo from that almost forgotten gem at least does Ray Wilson some justice by at least having CAS not being cut out of the picture completely. For this reason I don't lop a star off the rating of this CD.\nAnother thing that keeps this CD a five is the rerecording of the Carpet Crawlers under the original line-up. You'll just have to hear it for yourself. I personally love it.\nFor a band that has had so many hits from the mid 70s through the early 90s this CD even with almost 79 minutes of music, doesn't represent enough of their best music. While I love just about every song on here this CD should've been entitled \"Greatest Hits: The Phil Collins years\". I do recommend this for the novice fanbase, the completists or die hard fans(I fall into this category). I completely disagree with those who said Genesis sold out when they suddenly became superstars. The way I view it, Genesis were an incredible band that got the notice and popularity they deserved. Unfortunately leaving so much of the Peter Gabriel era works off this disc is an injustice to the 30+ year career of this incredible chamaleon band.\nThe ultimate bet is to go out on a buying spree and buy all of Genesis albums.\nThese CDs I especially recommend: Invisible Touch, Selling England By The Pound, Trick Of The Tail, Calling All Station(BUY THIS ONE ESPECIALLY!) & We Can't Dance. All others I didn't mention are also must-haves too but the ones I mentioned I recommend the most.\nThis CD shouldn't be left alone either. It's worth having just because it's Genesis. :)\nLOVE LIVE GENESIS!","Product: Out of Print Cassette.\n\nRating: 1.0\n\nSummary: Oh God make it stop!\n\nReview: Crazy Town are the final accomplishment in the past three years of sh! t in music. Amelodic music mashed with idiotic, immature, moronic lyrics that make no sense and are downright degrading and offensive to women everywhere is what these clowns are making. It's sad that rock has sunk to the lowest state ever in 1999. I will forever remember 1999 and 2000 as the worst years in rock music because all that was popular was despicable profanity ridden drivelheads like Limp Bizkit, Eminem, Crazy Town, etc. that literrally are brainwashing the youth of America with mush like this. I'll bet I may be disliked by peers because of the negative reviews I wrote on many popular rock bands today but I don't bow to trends and I listen to whatever is real music and not moronic garbage like this.","Product: Vinyl LP pressing of the 1994 sophomore album from the British Trip Hop outfit. The follow-up to their innovative 1991 debut album, Blue Lines, Protection solidified the band's place in British Electronic music history. With guest vocals provided by diverse artists like Tracey Thorn (Everything But The Girl) and Tricky, Protection remains a benchmark in Trip Hop, Electronic, Chill and Dance music. For the second time in a row, Massive Attack raised the bar and their contemporaries could only hide their faces in shame. EMI.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Uneven album but plenty of good stuff saves it. 3.8 stars\n\nReview: This second album from the pioneer group Massive Attack entitled \"Protection\" is a very good but also a very uneven album in it's own right but compared to their other stuff, \"Protection\" is an unfortunate victim to their later two albums \"Mezzanine\" and \"100th Window\" in my opinion.\n One thing that really stands out though is that this album has a very hazy summer evening kind of mood, kind of like those hazy sunsets: that's what the music on this album evokes. Most of this album is very lightweight compared to \"Mezzanine\" but on it's own \"Protection\" has plenty to offer.\n My favorite tracks are the title track, \"Karmacoma\" and \"Weatherstorm\".\n The title track is easily the best track on this entire album. This track to me is one of the best mid 1990s chill-out tracks featuring a very nice hip-hop beat, and Tracey Thorn's absolutely crystal clear vocals which dominate this track. Wow! She sounds absolutely incredible on this track. This album is worth buying just for the title track alone. \"Karmacoma\" is another favorite track of mines with an excellent blend of chill-out dance and some reggae elements. The somewhat subdued rapping is actually quite good.\n ALthough no bad songs by any stretch of the imagination, this album starts to kind of go all over the place and somewhat meander aimlessly in places.\n\"Weather Storm\" is actually quite a fantastic and a great romantic relaxing song to listen to while basking in the sun on a summer evening but even though I really love this track, this one belongs on a smooth jazz Cd or on a smooth jazz station. I could actually recall hearing this on a smoothe jazz station one time a while back but had no idea that it was actually Massive Attack. But because I love smooth jazz, I actually enjoy this track but it feels way out of place on this album. Still \"Weather Storm\" is a great track and one of my favorites so it's completely forgiveable. It's just that \"Weather Storm\" felt like someone else's recording was accidentally put on this album. That's all.\n The album picks back up on \"Spying Glass\" which is a really cool trancy dance song with a slight reggae-ish edge to it and great, if somewhat, weird vocals by Andy.\n This CD starts to meander off from here forth. I actually found \"Better Things\" to be bland and unremarkable despite having the crystal clear vocals from Tracey Thorn. The beat is weak and the song feels unfinished almost like a demo tape. Still, not bad but nothing to write home about.\nAlthough the remaining tracks are enjoyable to an extent, they aren't a lot to write home about either. The live version of \"Light My Fire\" though is interesting.\nIt's really ironic how this album showcased almost nothing of the darkness and dark inner psyche that would ultimately culminate in what I consider the greatest trip hop album of all time \"Mezzanine\" three years later.\n\"Protection\" may be their weakest album but don't let the word \"weakest\" I typed here deter you from getting this album. Do not look for anything in the vein of \"Mezzanine\" nor \"100th Window\" but if you are willing to check it out on it's own merits, this album will be better than what most have made it out to be, perhaps even more than I have written it out to be.","Product: Now ~ Now That's What I Call Music! 5\n\nRating: 1.0\n\nSummary: Awful: One for the trash can!\n\nReview: This is more than likely the weakest entry in the \"Now\" compilation series, a series that was weak to begin with. Almost all of these songs are totally disposable teenybopper dittos for a disposable society and they were played to death all over the radio and showcased the low that music was in during this time. The worst songs on this CD are the unlistenable \"Shake It Fast\" by Mystikal, \"Aaron's Party\" by Aaron Carter, and \"Lucky\" by Britney. These three songs are just plain awful with faceless lack of style, and having no kick or any melodic punch to life them off the ground. Most of the rest of this album is also in the pits of mediocrity especially \"I Think I'm In Love With You\" which criminally steals John Mellencamps 1982 classic \"Jack & Diane\" and \"Doesn't Really Matter\" which is totally bland and lifeless. There are a couple tracks that IMO do manage to keep this from being a total piece of garbage. \"Faded\" by Souldecision is an enjoyable song that at least has some good rhythm and beat. \"It's My Life\" isn't too bad either. Overall though despite these two songs, this collection is a complete waste of time and money. The only reason to buy this is probably just for the neat album cover and neat CD artwork on the CD itself. Other than that, leave this CD in the gutter to collect cobwebs.","Product: Re-issue of the 2001 album from the ex-Tears for Fears frontman. Inspired by his experience producing Emiliani Torinni & artists such as Roni Size & Photek. Described by the artist as, 'the first record I've made in 20 years that's not obsessed with the past'. Includes the single 'Lowlife'. Eagle.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: What an extraordinary album!\n\nReview: I can't really describe how great this CD really is-ASTOUNDING!\nNot in years has rock sounded this good. I strongly despise so much of todays R&B rap rock. I lost interest in rock music pretty much altogether by the beginning of 2001.\nThat all changed when I got this CD by the former Tears For Fears frontman Roland Orzabal. This CD to me has saved rock music to me and not in years have I actually loved a new rock album. Tears For Fears by the way are my all-time favorite group with 1989s Seeds Of Love being their strongest work.\nThe truth is Roland has been a solo musician for a decade now and has issued two albums under the TFF name. 1993s Elemental was an incredible masterpiece that was a worthy successor to The Seeds Of Love. Raoul & The Kings Of Spain was also a great album too but it didn't quite match to it's predeccessor.\nTomcats however beats out both of those albums and to me this CD ranks as one of my all-time favorite rock albums of all time. Not since 1997s Callings All Stations by Genesis has a rock album awestruck me this much. This CD has a very early 90s sound on most of the tracks and also has some electronic influences giving the album a more organic sound. This CD almost seems like it was recorded in 1991 and released ten years later. I didn't celebrate it's release date because it came out on that infamous day 9-11. But anyway this CD to me has been a savior of rock to me because I had lost a lot of interest in new rock music. It all sounds so mundane.\nTicket To The World begins this CD with a kick with very early 90s grunge-esque sound, agressive guitar riffs and awesome drums and a very fun vibe that will make you feel good. Low Life is one of my favorites. Its a very heavy techno rockish with a heavy danceable techno beat and agressive guitar riffs, electronic keyboards. Hypnoculture is one of my favorites off this CD. It's a very upbeat dance number that has a very 1990ish sound and has some African influences. Hypnoculture could almost fit on The Seeds Of Love but then again maybe not. I only wish it were longer. I kind of notice it shares similar chord structures with Start Of The Breakdown and Always In The Past. Bullets For Brains is a darker more ominous electronic sounding rock song with an overall minor note feel giving the song a darker more brooding feel. For The Love Of Cain is less intense than Bullets and much brighter. I would consider this a power ballad although I find it too upbeat to be considered that. FTLOC reminds me alot of Woman In Chains because it shares a similar chord structure and the song has a similar atmosphere. Under Ether is much darker and probably the darkest song on the album. It's a very ominous brooding track with a bit of an Egyptian sound to it. I could play this when watching The Mummy and Mummy Returns because this song has a very dark theme to it like the movie. Day By Day By Day By Day By Day is to me springtime music. Day By Day is a very mellow simple little number with a warm sound and a sunny day melody. Dandelion is a very grunge-esqe song with angry guitar riffs and a very early to mid 90s sound. Hey Andy is absolute radiant. Its a very late 80s sounding piece with techno drum beats, ambient organ keyboards, and an eerie feel. I would say this song is like linking the style of 1989 with the style of 2000. Kill Love to me reminds me a bit of Mr. Pessimistic except this song is a bit faster and far less jazzy than Pessimistic and not as cold. This is another one of my favorites. Kill Love begins with an eerie airy sound and then builds up into a dark but upbeat tecno rockish number. Snowdrop is more like something that could have recorded in 1990. I happen to love music from that time and Snowdrop sounds like something that sounds like it was recorded in 1990, transported to 2001 and then released. Maybe Our Days Are Numbered is a very melancholy closer to this incredible masterpiece. While most of the album is sort of agressive this song is more on the passionate side of melancholy. The title suits the music well.\nThere isn't enough I can say about this incredible. Reading the good reviews that critics have given this album this album deserves every one it gets. I'm kind of surprised at the low rating of only 4.2 as of when writing this review. This CD to me deserves to be at least a 4.6. This CD is an asounting work of art. And I didn;t think that Roland would top Elemental but he did. Plus even better I've heard about TFF working on a new album project too. This should be an interesting time in music. Until that album comes out I have Tomcats Screaming Outside to listen to. This CD is worth the money.","Product: First single from Janet's 2001 'All for You' full length CD. As in the past, produced by Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis. Includes dance remixes from the ever present Thunderpuss boys and DJ Quick, plus the exclusive enhanced video as well. This track topped Billboard's Top 100 Singles chart on April 14th, 2001.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Give me Rhythm Nation anytime over this.\n\nReview: As an ex-fan of hers this is a very sad example of how a talented singer sells out. In fact I am almost crying in disbelief over this horrifying travesty. In fact my respect that I have had for Janet over the past 4 and a half years crumbled in a cloud of dust.\nJanet did a great job over the years changing her sound over the course of Control through The Velvet Rope. Well she changed once again and what a horrible one. Lame predictable R&B beats, terrible singing, and god-awful sound effects.\nAs for the music itself, many songs on here are just downright awful. Another thing is that they suffer greatly from the juvenile hip-hop, R&B sound that Destinys Child, P. Diddy, and Ja Rule would sing along with.\nThe biggest problem I have is her image. For the love of God Janet, put some clothes back on. You look like some prostitute. You looked far more attractive back in the late 80s to the velvet rope days.\nOn the positive side of this it's good that this version of All For You has a bonus DVD featuring videos from the Velvet Rope and Janet albums and that saves this editon from getting a one star. And thank God they removed Would You Mind off of this version. Removing that filth adds another star as a reward. As for the album there are about three good songs on here. They are the rockin Trust A Try, the honest Trust, and the excellent Better Days. So while I don't recommend this at least this version is a much better bet than the terrible original version. Long live Rhythm Nation 1814! Please Janet return to your more Rhythm Nation-esque sound. I beg U.\nwell that's all I can say for now.\nBye!","Product: Bj?rk Vespertine Japanese CD album\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: The Arctic has never sounded like so much fun.\n\nReview: This CD is absolutely aamazing. I never thought music seamingly from the Arctic has sounded like so much fun.\nHer last album Homogenic was extremely edgey, cold, and loud(well, kind of). Vespertine on the other hand is mellower, more romantic, and warmer yet just as cold at the same time. The songs are absolutely creative, effulgent, and passionate. The album as a whole has a more orchestrated sound with some classical influences.\nThe beauty in this recording is stunning. I agree with Kabir Ahamed this CD surpasses both of Radioheads Kid A and Amnesiac LPs. Those albums are excellent but Vespertine is so delicate and passionate it ranks superior to those.\nThe two track combo Frosti/Aurora is stunning. Frosti is a pleasant musicbox interlude. Aurora is what the title track says. I consider this one of Bjorks sexiest songs ever. Just the eerie melody is enough to grab your soul. Never has the dead of winter sounded like so much fun. When the next cold winter nightr come I'll put this song and walk through the snowy night.\nRemember the rage that Bjork expressed on Pluto from Homogenic? There is nothing like that on Vespertine. This is absolute warm, romantic, yet cold at the same time.\nThis album beats out Selmasongs by a pretty good margin.\nIf the same crowd who sold themselves to the awful gender-bashing R&B krap also got this album, my faith in Americas taste for music would be restored to a good degree. Vespertine is mature, intelligent music and a landmark work of art.\nDefinately one of the best CDs of 2001! I highly recommend geting this incredible recording.","Product: Mariah Carey Loverboy US CD single\n\nRating: 1.0\n\nSummary: The biggest sell-out joke in history\n\nReview: I heard this song recently and my God I felt so insulted by this tripe of a song. It's so sad that the her hip-hop-rap direction has been dragging her down ever since the Butterfly album which was amixed bag for me. But God this song is so idiotic. It sounds like some juvenile noise that some 8 year old could easily surpass in artistic quality. Mariah sold out big time. I can't believe that this tasteless, embarrassing garbage song came from the same woman who did Dream Lover, Hero, Someday, and Vision Of Love. It's really sad that her hip-hop direction has ruined her sound completely because she has a great voice and deserves to sing real music. She might be proud of such mature, sappy songs like Vision of Love, Love Takes Time, Can't Let Go, and Dream Lover but will she be proud of such juvenile, childish songs like Sweetheart, and Heartbreaker?","Product: Enya's single for the Lord of the Rings soundtrack.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: May It Be is a breathtaking single.\n\nReview: I was a bit dissapointed with Enyas A Day Without Rain release back when it came out. That album has since grown on me and today I find it to be a great CD even though the CD length was and still is a joke to me. May It Be is kind of like the darker sound that A Day Without Rain album lacked. I in no way am putting down the Rain album and I actually love that album today but May It Be, Isobella, and the First Of Autumn beat out just about every song on that album.\nMay It Be is a gorgeous, sad song that brings back memories if smaointe from a decade ago. It would have beat out almost every other track on her latest release. The real treat on this single is Isobella. I reviewed both the U.S. and the Japanese versions of Enyas latest album A Day Without Rain. I gave the U.S. version a four and the Japanese a five. Isobella is a haunting, gorgeous hymn sung in Gaelic, the language I love hearing Enya sing in. Isobella doesn't sound quite like Smaointe, or Na Leatha Geal M'Oige as Kabir Ahamed proclaims. It is more similar to Hope Has A Place or La Sonadora. Isobella does not top Smaointe or Na Leatha but Isobella is a song that stands out on it's own and had it been included on A Day Without Rain, it would have propelled it to a five star. The First Of Autumn is a beautiful instrumental that brings up images of a cloudy evening with the red, and orange leaves falling to the ground. Isobella and The First Of Autumn should have been included. They could have made the album much longer and possibly over 40 minutes long. But at least this set of three songs is a good purchase. I say go and get this CD. The three songs on here are great and are like the punch that most of Enyas latest album lacks.\nThis single is worth having just for Isobella.","Product: 2002 LP includes \"We Are All Made Of Stars\".\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Worth the 18 dollars\n\nReview: After the dynamite Play, Moby continues the sound of Play in some areas except that this follow-up is a bit lighter and has more Gospel samples giving the album somewhat a bit of a 60s or 70s feel to it. Play was great, 18 is just as great.\n1)We're All Made Of Stars_Excellent lead off single. Very similar to South Side. Excellent nighttime travel music.\n2) In This World- This song is a mix of jazz/pop with ol school hip hop beats and a Gospel vocal in the background. Kind of a bit 60s sounding.\n3)In My Heart- Anyone remember Rushing off Play? This song has a similar piano crescendo loop only this song is not quite as eerie and more upbeat.\n4)Great Escape- A very simple song with a cello and a female vocal. Not too bad but not that memorable\n5)Signs Of Love- A very beautiful song. Reminiscent of Porcelain.\n6)One OF These Mornings- This song also uses a Gospel sample voice. A very nice song.\n7)Another Woman- One of my favorites. AW has a kind of an early 90s old school R&B sound and a strange organ playing. Sort of like linking the sounds on 1990 and 2002 together.\n8)Fireworks- Music with atmosphere. This song is captivatingly beautiful. Makes me think of standing out on a field on a cloudy afternoon.\n9)Extreme Ways-An upbeat R&Bish song with a weird orchestra sound in the background. Kind of 70s sounding.\n10)Jam For The Ladies-Moby dives into the old school hip-hop realm. This song is absolutely great. Satisfies my desire for hip-hop is fun.\n11)Sunday- Another atmospheric track with a wierd vocal sample.\n12)18- An ambient slow track with echoing pianos. This song can be kind of depressing sometimes.\n13)Sleep Alone- One of the highlight songs on 18. It starts off as a mellow jazzy song and then builds up into an ambient almost New Agey song.\n14)At Least We Tried- A dreamy track that samples a drum loop from Marvin Gayes 1982 hit Sexual Healing. While nowhere near as great this song is kind of like a slowed down version but much simpler.\n15)Harbour-WOW! Most of the other songs are enjoyable but Harbour beats the rest of 18 and is one of the best songs I,ve ever heard from Moby. It's a mellow, dreamy song with a guest vocal appearance from Sinead O'Connor.\n16)Look Back In-This song has a weird echoing beat to it. While this song isn't bad it doesnt strike achord with me.\n17)Rafters- Well I'll be damned. I kind of feel like being taken back to the 70s. The vocals alone give this song a 70s feel. Definately one of the oddest tracks on this CD.\n18)I,m Not Worried At All-A nice closer to this CD. This song has a darker more atmospheric sound like the sun setting for the day.\nOn an overall scale I would say 18 is an excellent CD for the music lover. While not as groundbreaking as Play 18 is a worthy album of checking out.\nDefinately one of the best CDs of 2002!","Product: Their first album in five years! Earliest release from Japan. Virgin. 2003.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: A great album! Worth the long wait.\n\nReview: Feeling really put off by the outright negative reviews I've been seeing on this CD, I feel more than compelled to come here and do my part in counteracting the negativity directed at \"100th Window\", Massive Attack's fourth album and their first in five years. That said, this was absolutely worth the five year gap after the revolutionary masterpiece that was 1998's \"Mezzanine\" and showcases that MA have lost almost none of their edge.\n\n While it may not be the dark and outright blissfully disturbing adventure that was \"Mezzanine\", \"100th Window\" offers plenty of the good stuff that makes a new release from Massive Attack a virtual event. \"Future Proof\" opens the adventure an odd platter of robotic sound effects which merge into a red-light district guitar frenzy. \"When Your Soul Sings\" is yet another guest appearance from Everything But The Girl's frontwoman singer Tracey Thorn but this one I think is better and far more adventurous than their previous collaboration from their \"Protection\" album from eight years prior.\n\n\"Everywhen\" is my favorite song on this album and ranks among the greats of the band and could almost be as great as almost anything from their \"Mezzanine\" album. It starts with an electronic guitar layer and becomes a groovy trancelike track with a strange futuristic sound that is difficult to explain.","Product: USA \"Amended\" (No Rude Words) clean version of \"controversial\" 2003 release\n\nRating: 1.0\n\nSummary: Madonna really dropped the ball on this one!\n\nReview: Before you all start throwing balls of aluminum foil at me, I just want to start off by honestly saying that I've been a BIG fan of Madonna for over a decade but this newest release, 2003's \"American Life\" is just a pile of garbage. To make it more clear, this is Madonna's worst album and it just makes you wonder what on Earth happened that resulted in this mess. The album art is just tacky! The lyrics are incredibly childish, negative, and absolutely depressing to listen to especially in this day in age where the media just feeds us nothing but negative stuff. I admire that she wasn't afraid to express left-wing or blatant criticism of current political problems but her chance of generating a controversial but incredible album is thrown right out the window on here. The music itself is nothing to write home about either. The lyrics are just absurd but even on a musical perspective, this album fails so badly that it makes you wonder if she was forced into the studio against her will. This album is that bad. Seriously, I cannot believe that this is the same woman who altered my world with the incredible masterpiece that was 1998's \"Ray of Light\". 2000's \"Music\" was a step down, being uneven but it was saved by some good songs. \"American Life\" to me is the opposite of her 1992 masterpiece \"Erotica\". While \"Erotica\" was controversial because of its deviant nature, the album ultimately turned out to be her greatest artistic achievement of the early 1990s. \"American Life\" goes down as her most controversial album as well as being the biggest mistake of her career, where as \"Erotica\" is a classic. The title track is the messiest, most disjointed excuse for a radio dance single that I've heard in years, being nothing more than an unlistenable hodgepodge of electronic noise, electronic sputtering sound effects for a beat, and atrocious vocals and the results are disastrous. I simply don't understand all the favorable reviews that this album receives. This album is just awful on a biblical scale. I can really identify with the critics on most subjects when it comes to this album.\n There is nothing good on this album. NOTHING!! Every song on this album is incredibly absurd to a nauseating degree. The only song that I feel shows any remote signs of enjoyability would be \"Love Profusion\" with it's danceable sound as it's the most melodic song on this entire album but even then, it's ability to entertain is totally sunk with weak hooks and annoying voice effects. This to me is the only song that I feel even remotely shines through the cesspool that is \"American Life\". The rest of this album is atrocious to listen to. Hearing Madonna actually attempting to rap is so bad that you will end up crushing your lungs when laughing at it. To put it plain and simple, this album is just an \"American Lie\". This album could really have been a huge and really awesome controversial adventure but whatever was going on, Madonna really wrecked her opportunity to create a really dynamite album. Just listening to this album will make you nostalgic in a sad sense and want to turn the clock back like five years to go back to the time when we were spooked with the euphoric bliss of \"Ray of Light\" when it was on the charts. Everything about this album is just plain tacky on all fronts. The only I haven't thrown this album away is because I got it as a gift from a friend and I don't throw gifts away.\nThe \"Limited Edition\" is also a joke, aimed at milking more money out of the poor fanbase who have been fiercely loyal for many years. The limited edition comes in a larger, leather cardboard box container with promo stickers and a large poster with artwork that is contained in the booklet of this album and to tell you the truth, this is one of the worst \"Limited Edition\" albums that I've ever seen. Whichever way you look at it, there is nothing worthy on this album at all. Not even a \"Deluxe Edition\" full of tons of bonus could rescue this album from being thrown towards the junk pile. It's that bad! The enhanced stuff on the CD also interferes with album playing on the computer.\nAlthough I may have shredded this album to molecules with this review, that doesn't mean that I'll stop being a Madonna fan this time because it's really in fact, amazing that she has gone for 20 years without putting out a bad album. I've enjoyed all of her previous albums to varying degrees and there are enough of them to keep me a fan of hers for a while and thus I'm not giving up on Madonna this time for its not unusual for even great artists to put out a bad or below average album or two in their career. Unfortunately, the 20 year streak is interrupted with this album. Hopefully, Madonna has or will have learned her lesson with this misstep and should her next album be released I'm guessing in 2006, it will be a major improvement over this disaster and put her back on her feet. I mean, what's there to lose anyway? I wouldn't say it's time to hang up the mike but it's time for a major overhaul in her music.\n Unitl then, all I can say is that \"American Life\" is the most disappointing release and one of the worst albums of 2003. I really, really tried to like this album, and even forced myself to like it by listening to it over and over again but I've given up and put \"Ray of Light\" back into my CD player. My advice is to just leave this album to collect dust on the shelves and invest in any of her other albums. Even thought I may not have been a fan of some of her images during certain eras in her career, I never thought that she would tumble down this low musically speaking. Avoid this album at all costs.","Product: A 2-CD, 30-track love story by R&B's master storyteller! From funky dance tracks to sultry ballads, from his 1981 debut Never Too Much to his duets with Janet Jackson ( The Best Things in Life Are Free ) and Mariah Carey ( Endless Love ), all his best are here: Never Too Much; Superstar; Give Me the Reason; Any Love; So Amazing; Wait for Love; Here and Now; Creepin' , and more!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Holy Behezuss! How many useless compilations do we need?\n\nReview: I don't know whose music might have endured worse damaged from being constantly recycled onto useless compilations so many numerous times the way that Luther Vandross' songs have with these mostly lame collections. I find it saddening to see these powerful and uplifting songs being recycled to death on these numerous compilations. Is it like, they release a compilation of recycled material every time a new proper studio album is released?\nFrom what I'm guessing there are like eight or nine of them now:\nHere's the list that I can think of:\n1. Best of Luther Vandross\n2. Love Is On The Way\n3. Best of Love Volume 2: One Night With You\n4. Greatest Hits\n5. Always & Forever: The Classics\n6. Super Hits\n7. Ultimate Luther Vandross\n8. The Very Best of Love\n9. Essential Luther Vandross\nAs I can remember while writing this review, there are nine compilations, and these were all released in just the last 15 years, too short of a time for releasing so many compilations. Are Sony too clueless as to realizing how many compilations they have released are has the label become enshrouded in greed and egotism.\nAll of these songs on here are absolutely classic and are among the best R&B classics of all-time but come on!! Why don't Sony released a live album or even a Box Set of B-Sides and/or previously unreleased studio recordings from Vandross' extremely spectacular career? That's what Sony needs to do. Stop recycling these same songs over and over again and instead release two boxed sets, one being live recordings over the years, and the other being B-Sides/Rarities Boxed Set. Now that would be totally awesome! I would especially go for the \"B-Sides\" boxed set idea myself but that's just my opinion.\nIf you are a true Luther Vandross fan like I am and would go for any of the compilations I listed above, I would go for the 2-CD \"Best of Luther Vandross\", and \"Best of Love Volume 2, One Night With You\" (At least for those who liked the 'new' songs on that CD) and avoid the rest of the others like the plague. On top of it all, the best choice I can make is to invest one's time getting his regular studio albums as they offer truckloads more than any of the compilations can even come close to offering. I especially recommend \"Power of Love\", my favorite of his.\nI'm giving this collection a five anyways to show my gratitude to Mr. Vandross for all of the great music that he has put out over the past 20 years and wish him the absolute best in his recovery and also wish him the best that he makes a full recovery and continues to amaze us for many years to come. God only knows what kind of musical genius he could come up with next! :)","Product: CD\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Plenty of fun but begins to go into dangerous territory.\n\nReview: 2002's \"Fever\" is a classic and although Minogue had already had 15 years experience, I didn't get turned on to her music until when \"Fever\" rolled around and have enjoyed that album ever since. The highly anticipated follow-up entitled \"Body Language\" is very different altogether and that it is a mixed bag overall but on average is a very good album. This CD is a strange hybrid of 80s beats with 90s and 2000s beats, and electronic sound effects which work on some tracks but come off as awkward on other tracks. Songs that work in my opinion are \"Promises\" with it's Paula Abdulesque synthesizer riffs (Think \"State of Attraction\"), \"Chocolate\" although it kind of sounds like it was recorded and released 7 years late, \"Still Standing\" which almost sounds like something from around 1983. On the other hand while not bad necessarily, \"Slow\" sounds very awkward with it's electronic noodlings and weak rhythms. \"Cruise Control\" also doesn't do much for me either. Overall this is not a bad album but is no \"Fever\" in my book. But for the open minded, this is a decent choice. So just sit back, take off the thinking cap and enjoy it.","Product: Japanese Release featuring Two Bonus Tracks: \"i'm Here\", and \"Put Your Hands On\".\n\nRating: 1.0\n\nSummary: !!TOSS THIS INTO THE MAGNESIUM FIRE!!\n\nReview: Ms. Jackson no longer seems to know any of her own strenghts anymore. Not only has she fallen down to the bottom of the barrel with this release, with the decadence of songwriting and production, she has lost any resemblance of the classy talented Janet that I had loved and grown up to admire for almost my whole life. This latest release demonstrates the biggest sellout in the history of music. I was deeply afraid of a really bad album from one of my former favorites and even then, I was completely unprepared for the disaster that \"Damita Jo\" really is! This CD is the worst album I've heard in years!! \"All For You\" was disappointing enough for what it was but even then, that album sounds almost like a masterpiece compared to the total disaster that \"Damita Jo\" really is. This album is terrible!! At least AFY was saved by a few tracks like the title track despite it's vapid lyrics, \"Truth\" and the closing track \"Better Days\". \"Better Days\" seemed to have pointed towards a better direction but sadly a good closing track to that album only pointed into artistic void and \"Damita Jo\" is that total artistic void.\n Virtually everything that could've gone wrong with a Janet album goes completely wrong on \"Damita Jo\". The first single off this piece of garbage entitled \"Just A Little While\" faltered miserably on the charts not even cracking the top 40 and for good reason, this song absolutely stinks being nothing more than shoddy singing, disjointed production and absolutely no substance. It wasn't because of no promotion that this single failed, it was because almost nobody liked it and realized how stale her `music' has gotten. The second single \"I Want You\" fares no better being even lower than \"ho-hum\" and goes nowhere. I never could've imagined back in late 1997 when \"The Velvet Rope\" was riding high that Janet could ever rank at the bottom because that album was just beautiful and still is but now scrolling seven years and one misfire, now we have been abused with this despicable excuse for attention and I feel utmost betrayed by one of my former favorite singers of all time.\n To all the airheads who accuse me of `not being a fan', I have been a massive fan since I was a young kid (like back during the \"Control\") and all the way through \"The Velvet Rope\" era from 1997 through 1998 and even forgave the speed bump that was \"All For You\" but with this follow-up album, it has shown that Janet has reached a dead end and has musically hit a brick wall. Another thing to add is that this album is NOT GROWING UP OR MATURING!!! In fact it is garbage like this that is setting the status of women back into the Stone Age and I am just saddened beyond belief that Janet has declined from being a really powerful symbol of strength to just a wretch caricature of her former self. These lyrics are absolutely intellectually insulting to listen to and are among the dumbest I've ever listened to. Even the brainlessness of most teen pop artists have shown better styles than this krap! Is this from the very same artist who did \"Rhythm Nation\" or \"The Velvet Rope\"?! Or is this some clone? Many of these songs fall into the same category of the wretched commercial rap/hip-hop garbage that is disposed of in a short time and is of the kind of commercial junk that I despise with a morbid vengeance. This whole album is just joke after joke after joke with disasters like \"Country\", \"Strawberry Bounce\" and vomit inducing songs like \"Moist\" and \"Sexhibition\" which don't even deserved to have been recorded. Don't even get me started with the interludes.\n My expectations were very low for this album but even those expectations weren't even close to being met. This (edited for inappropriate language) is terrible! I can't believe that someone with such gifted talent would put out garbage like this! Even Britney Spears at times is better than this! I have no idea what will happen with this album in the coming years but one's things for sure. I have lost all of my respect for her and this album is so awful that it has turned me away from all of her albums, even from \"Rhythm Nation 1814\". This was Janet's chance to really grow out of this rut but she completely blew it! I simply give up on ever hearing anything good coming off a Janet record ever again and it's now time to move on. This album doesn't deserve to be thrown into the garbage can. It should be thrown into the magnesium fire or into a thermal depolymerization plant.\n Janet's music started off being primitive with her self-titled debut, then her sophomore effort \"Dream Street\", to blossomingly fresh and new with \"Control\", rising to dizzying heights with \"Rhythm Nation 1814\", to somewhat tired with \"Janet\", but rising again with \"The Velvet Rope\", and then declining to stale with \"All For You\" and with \"Damita Jo\", it has now decayed into total filth that should just be washed into the abyss where it belongs. A crushing ignominious blow to a great legacy.","Product: \"Essence Of The Forest\" is a beautiful collection of Deep Forest's greatest hits, collected on one album for the first time ever. True to their global influences, the album features an international roster of superb guest talent including Youssou N'Dour, Neneh Cherry, blues singer Beverly Jo Scott, vocalist Angela McCluskey (Telepopmusik), Japanese chanteuse Chitose Hajime, & Hungarian singer Marta Sebestyen (Muzsikas).\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Not quite essential but still a marvelous collection.\n\nReview: Deep Forest's \"Essence of the Forest\" is a very good retrospective of the material that Deep Forest has released from their 1992 self-titled debut to their 2002 album \"Music Detected\". Spanning 15 tracks, \"Essence\" is a very well-assembled collection for those who are seeking a strong introduction to Deep Forest's music. Veteran fans who already have their studio albums may not find much new material on here save for newer versions of the songs that were on their first album. For some reason, I wonder why they decided to re-do the original tracks. Did they hate the originals? Though collectively speaking, it had overall decent results, it kind of makes on miss out on the original versions. However my favorite remix is their 2004 rendition of the stunning \"Night Bird\". The original song is a stunning beauty but this updated version brings a lively updated sound that makes the original version proud. This version has a heavier and more pulsating beat and more intense ambient sound. The fundamental mood of the track is hardly altered. Of all the remakes, the \"Night Bird 2004\" is easily my favorite one. The remakes of \"Sweet Lullaby\", and \"Desert Walk\" are enjoyable without being spectacular updates. Also included are the live version of \"Green and Blue\" which I think is superior to the excellent original. The original is wonderful but the live version of the track improves it by light years. Also included is a track called \"Undecided\" which never saw any release on any of their U.S. releases. It is a very good track and brings the collection to a wonderful close. Also featured is Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour whose presence adds to this track. Overall, \"Essence\" is a marvelous collection. The bonuses are enough to render it a great purchase for completists. Newbies should definitely buy this CD and then expand their Deep Forest collection from there.","Product: This is the highly anticipated third record from the mystic-pop group known as Lesiem. After reaching the Billboard charts on their previous two records, Lesiem returns once again with a ground breaking record full of heavenly voices, operatic melodies and mystical grooves. \"Auracle\" seeks to enlighten these times with Lesiem's unique approach at combining Gregorian chants, diva inspired vocals and worldbeat influences creating a universal sound of majestic qualities. Listen to \"Auracle\" -- hear the language of the divine and let wisdom pass this way once again.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Radically different but very enchating new sound.\n\nReview: I was very intrigued at the radical change in music style that LEsiem went through between \"Illumination\" and this newest album of their's \"Auracle\". Much brighter, more pop-like, the Enigma-like atmosphere of their last album is replaced by a more natural, earthier and generally much brighter sound and a lot of the electronic drum machines are replaced by what sound like more actual drums as well as a more classical sound.\n\n The THIRD through fifth tracks \"Caritas\", \"Fides\" and \"Justitia\" begin similar manner, starting with classical strings ranging from pizzicato to Cello intros before becoming either pop-rock sounding tracks to slow relaxing songs. Overall, this album reminds me a lot of the music of Sarah Brightman.\n\n My favorite song is likely \"Times\" which begins with a beautiful intro and becomes a very energetic pop-like song with a beautiful echoing vocal. The song also goes through some very unique melodic changes.","Product: Hardcastle 4 continues the highly successful career of Paul Hardcastle/Jazzmasters, which has combined album sales of over 4 million units sold in the USA. Hardcastle 4 follows the highly successful Jazzmasters 4 album which saw the track 'Puerto Banus' go to #1 and stay there for 4 consecutive weeks on the R&R Smooth jazz chart. This new album has all the ingredients to become even more successful, and when you hear the amazing smooth vocals of Maxine Hardcastle, you are hooked. And yes, you can also get into the smooth groove with the amazing sax playing of Snake Davis. V2. 2005.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: The dawning of a new Paul Hardcastle!\n\nReview: The one who could arguably be the maestro of the Smooth Jazz genre these days is back and not only that but finally, Paul Hardcastle does a major turn and goes down a very experimental road with new sounds, new keyboard effects and new styles that almost completely leave his more New Age-like older albums behind. Could this perhaps be the beginning of a new Hardcastle? Perhaps or perhaps not but one things for certain, \"Hardcastle 4\" is a welcome new turn in Paul's music. I was very pleasantly surprised at the new sounds that dominate this new album of his.\n\n A major new surprise however is his daughter Maxine taking the vocal podium this time around on three tracks on this CD. While they do sometimes have a bit of a adolescent lyrical tone to them, the three tracks \"Smooth Jazz is Bumpin\", \"Was It Love\" and \"Where Are You Now\" are awesome with a Capital A! \"Smooth Jazz is Bumpin\" is a wonderful and awesome song with Maxine as vocalist and for a teenager, she can SING! I never thought I could say this for an under-20 year old singer but Maxine has finally done it! Britney, Janet, Christina, Take note of this! While it's too early to tell, I could say that \"Smooth Jazz Is Bumpin\" is one of the most innovative smooth jazz anthems that I've heard in years! \"Was It Love\" is another wonderful groovy song that is a future Hardcastle classic!\n\n Even on the non-vocal tracks, Paul Hardcastle 4 is a big departure from his 2002 \"Hardcastle 3\". \"Serene\" and \"Freefall\" are examples of a wonderful departure from his trademark sound and less of the New Age sounds of songs like \"Zen Warrior\" or \"First Light\" from the third Hardcastle outing. Some of the New Age sounds are occasionally heard on this album. If you're familiar with \"Jazzmasters 4\" you will notice that track 8, \"Eastern Winds\" is a reworking and perhaps a replacement of \"Voice of The Angels\". The songs begin with the familiar growling voices in the beginning. But \"Eastern Winds\" to me anyways is much superior and longer than the latter. \"Voice of The Angels\" sometimes suffers from being way too short at just over 3 minutes but \"Eastern Winds\" is longer and allows for more enjoyment of the track. Overall, this is arguably my favorite non-vocal track on this entire album. The song has a beautiful, twilight mood and a beautiful melody backed by the wonderful rhythm. The `final' track \"Journey Of The Lost Tribes\" is the most un-Hardcastle like song that Paul has ever composed and the greatest departure from his older music. The song has a strong tribal atmosphere and almost evokes images of going through a tropical jungle on a misty afternoon.\n\n That said this album, like a previous reviewer said, does get stymied by being a little on the short side. Sometimes the tracks fade out too soon just as I'm enjoying them and it gives a sense of a plateau but still overall, this album is just wonderful and makes me wonder of this is the dawning of a new Paul Hardcastle! If you were expecting more of the same New Age sound of his old stuff, THINK AGAIN! If you were looking for another \"First Light\", or another \"The Only One\", or even another \"Joker's Wild (Smooth Jazz Mix)\" THINK AGAIN! This is a new sound altogether! For those who were yearning for something new altogether and tired of his trademark sound, you are going to love this CD! I guarantee it! Highly recommended!","Product: 1982 album featuring \"More Than This\", \"The Main Thing\" & \"Avalon\". (Condition: EX/EX)\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Roxy goes out on top\n\nReview: This so far is the first Roxy Music album I have purchased so far and it's a great album. Avalon is a gem in my CD collection with awesome songs with a mix of Rock, Jazz, R&B and pop all fused in one.\nThis album is similar to Bryan Ferrys solo album Boys and Girls althouhg not as dark and is more mainstream.\nBy 1982 Roxy Music had transformed from a sort of rock band into a soul/rock band(TFF went through the same transformation from The Big Chair to The Seeds Of Love LP).\nMany of us have already heard the title track before. It's a truly great song that will make you feel good. The best song thouhg I would say is The Space Between. It reminds me of David Bowies 1983 hit Let's Dance with similar rhythms and guitars and beats. I love both songs alot.\nThis is an essential recording for both Roxy Music and Bryan Ferry fans. Ferry would take this sound and continue it on Boys and Girls and Bete Noire. It's an epic farewell.\nUnfortunately I have to give this CD a four because at only 37 and a half minutes it ends just as you're getting into the music and the remastered edition doesnt include any B-Sides, Rare Tracks or liner notes. Enjoy the epic farewll album from Roxy Music.","Product: Amethystium is a music project aiming to create and explore emotive imaginary worlds in sound. Primarily electronic-based, the compositions traverse a span of moods that includes both light and darkness, bliss and melancholy. They range from the purely relaxing to the subtly intense, creating dreamlike and evocative musical journeys. Formed by Norwegian composer/producer Oystein Ramfjord, Amethystium started out independently with a demo release in late 1999. After quickly becoming something of an underground phenomenon through word of mouth, the project was signed to then EMI/Capitol subsidiary Neurodisc Records and released a string of three Top 10 Billboard charting albums in the US.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Entrancing evolution of sonic paradise.\n\nReview: Nearly four years passed between Amethystium's last album \"Evermind\" and the release of Ramsfjord's latest release \"Isabliss\". Though it was certainly a while between including the release of a retrospective \"Emblem\", \"Isabliss\" is a marvelous evolution of sound from the past while maintaining much of the spirit of the old. \"Isabliss\" is comparison has a much more of a monochromic feel, like having a much grayer, more wintry atmosphere. Even some of the songs have a different melodic structure. The album cover artwork perfectly portrays the mood of the album in my opinion: Dark, gray, yet also entrancing and mesmerizing.\n\nSome of the songs like \"Treasure\", \"Anthemossa\", and \"Silken Twine\" are ideal tributes to the atmospherics of their debut album \"Odonata\". Other songs like \"A Small Adventure\", \"La Pluie\", and the Arctic \"Frosty Morning Bliss\" have a far chillier atmosphere. Even more tracks have distinctly creepy undertones such as \"Silken Twine\" with it's unique change in melody towards the end.\n\n Overall, \"Isabliss\" is a welcome and not overdue return for Amethystium. THough some may think \"what took you so long?\" after the long break after \"Evermind\", I enjoyed their first three albums and was totally content with Amethystium taking it's time and the end result is yet another fantastic addition to their musical catalog and a new chapter in their history. Highly recommended! :D","Product: SEAL SYSTEM\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Marvelous return to form! \"System\" is one to have.\n\nReview: A long four years since his previous album entitled \"Seal IV\", the British singer of modern soul returns with his fifth solo album entitled \"System\" and like he has explained in interviews, it marks a major return to the dance roots of his debut album. Be mindful, if you enjoyed tracks like \"Tinseltown\", \"Get it Together\" or \"Love's Divine\" then you might have to put those yearnings to the test as this album brings back the energy that was present on his 1991 debut self-titled classic with songs like \"If It's on My Mind\", \"Amazing\", and the atsmopheric disco of \"The Right Life\". Many have expressed negative views on \"Wedding Day\" which featured the suprise duet with his wife, Heidi Klum. Though I was somewhat like \"Huh?\" when I saw the note, WD turned out to be a suprisingly great song. Actually among my favorites. This could've easily been a disaster but Seal actually generates a future classic with it. \"Dumb\" is probably the only song that carries any elements of his previous album with the acoustic guitars that we've become familiar with. Those who yearn for some older sounds might find some solace in \"Dumb\". It took some time to digest but \"System\" has become another five-star work of art in my book and am glad it's very different from the previous. THat's what makes artists new albums exciting, knowing it will be very different from the old. Highly recommended. :)","Product: Japanese pressing of Madonna's 2008 full-length album includes one bonus track, 'Ring My Bell'. Hard Candy is a brilliant uptempo collection that adds a hip-hop beat to the cultural icon's club sensibilities, thanks to collaborations with Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, Pharrell Williams, and Nate \"Danja\" Hills. Hard Candy punctuates the first 25 years of the album career of the most successful female artist in history with a musical exclamation point. 12 tracks..\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Another good album but can get shaky and feels like too much peppermint candy at times.\n\nReview: Madonna's previous release, 2005's \"Confessions On a Dance Floor\" ranks as among the greatest improvements I've seen in almost any artist that I've listened to ever, considering how badly \"American Life\" turned out to be in my book. With such a high bar raised with COADF, it was very difficult to even come close to matching it. The follow-up \"Hard Candy\" certainly is a few steps down from that but overall still is a very enjoyable release, and another good Chapter in Madonna's legacy of music. Overall, I can even hear echoes of her debut album from 25 years earlier.\n \"Give It 2 Me\" is pure fun and picks right up where songs like \"Hung Up\", \"Sorry\" and others left off. It is arguably my favorite song on this album and was a well-deserved hit on the charts.","Product: Japanese pressing of Madonna's 2008 full-length album includes one bonus track, 'Ring My Bell'. Hard Candy is a brilliant uptempo collection that adds a hip-hop beat to the cultural icon's club sensibilities, thanks to collaborations with Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, Pharrell Williams, and Nate \"Danja\" Hills. Hard Candy punctuates the first 25 years of the album career of the most successful female artist in history with a musical exclamation point. 12 tracks..\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Another good album but can get shaky and feels like too much peppermint candy at times.\n\nReview: Madonna's previous release, 2005's \"Confessions On a Dance Floor\" ranks as among the greatest improvements I've seen in almost any artist that I've listened to ever, considering how badly \"American Life\" turned out to be in my book. With such a high bar raised with COADF, it was very difficult to even come close to matching it. The follow-up \"Hard Candy\" certainly is a few steps down from that but overall still is a very enjoyable release, and another good Chapter in Madonna's legacy of music. Overall, I can even hear echoes of her debut album from 25 years earlier.\n \"Give It 2 Me\" is pure fun and picks right up where songs like \"Hung Up\", \"Sorry\" and others left off. It is arguably my favorite song on this album and was a well-deserved hit on the charts.","Product: 2009 release from the veteran British Electronic rockers. Eclectic and energized, the band's new release is their most dazzling and diverse album in decades. Recorded in Santa Barbara and New York, Depeche Mode returned to using a lot of vintage gear, from analogue synthesizers to drum machines, in order to conjure up the retro-futuristic arrangements featured on the album. Lyrically the release contains many of the group's enduring obsessions plus more overt black humor than any of their previous collections. The release marks a reunion between the band and producer Ben Hillier, who worked with the band on Playing The Angel. Features the single 'Wrong'. Mute.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: The sounds of the Vintage Depeche Mode.\n\nReview: I have been a huge fan of Depeche Mode since I was around 12 or 13 years old when I heard their music on the radio station Q-101 back in Chicago. Many years since then including buying their CDs, I came to notice a profound change from the light, somewhat obtuse experimental pop of \"Broken Frame\" and \"Construction Time\" towards the darker and more austere industrial electronica of \"Violator\" through the harsh electronica of \"Playing The Angel\". All in all, I've always been willing to wait years between releases because of how DM evolved between releases.\n\nTheir newest album \"Sounds of the Universe\" proves this with a profound departure from it's immediate predecessors and marks a welcome return to the early days of 1982-84 DM. It almost seems like a long overdue sequel to \"Construction Time Again\" that took 26 years to release. :) The bell-chime sounds heard in \"In Chains\" reinforce my point with this review. While certainly having 21st century technology and polish, SOTU has the feeling of DM actually hopping into a time machine, travelling back to the New Wave era of 1982-84, taking the recording equipment from the studios that existed at that time, bringing it back to 2009-10 and into today's studio and using that recording technology in addition and \"Sounds of the Universe\".\n\n Some of the harder edged styles are maintained on \"Hole to Feed\" as well as the grating (not in a bad way) turbulence of \"Come Back\". Even then, they are a far distant cry from anything on \"Playing The Angel\" or \"Violator\".\n\n On the other side of the coin, \"Peace\", \"Perfect\" and \"Corrupt\" are easy fits for the 1983-ish era. \"Peace\" is an experimental trip back to the early 80s with 21st century polish in every way, including even the rhythm. \"Perfect\" is the same way too. \"Corrupt\" could almost have been recorded in 1982. All of them are great songs. Other favorites are \"In Sympathy\" and \"Fragile Tension\" which are a class of their own.\n\n Many fans of \"Violator\", \"Ultra\", or \"Playing The Angel\" will likely find this album to be a change of seasons or a disappointment but not me. I happen to be a much of a fan of their pre-1984 era as I am of post 1985 DM and on rare occasions enjoy \"Broken Frame\" even more than \"Violator\" or \"Ultra\". A lot of post 1989-DM fans are not going to like SOTU a whole lot or should expect a completely different sound but for me, as a fan of the lighter DM of early days, it is a real treat to hear this long forgotten side of Depeche Mode. It took a while for me to to sink in but \"Sounds of The Universe\" is once again another landmark chapter in Depeche Mode's history. Highly Recommended.","Product: Japanese only two disc (SACD Hybrid CD + NTSC/Region 0 DVD) pressing of this album housed in a mini LP sleeve. EMI.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: It would be a Cryme to pass up this musical box!\n\nReview: Released in 1971 with Genesis taking up it's beloved classic line-up, Nursery Cryme is the album where Phil Collins first showcased his talent both on the drums and is also where Collins took lead vocals for the first time, not on Selling England By The Pound. The production of this CD is absolutely atrocious but the remastering does help Nursery Cryme a lot and sounds vastly superior to the older version. I must say that the album front cover sleeve with the striped field and the nurse playing tee ball, showcases the schizophrenic and psychotic mood of the LP. 1971 was one of the years of the golden era of prog-rock and Genesis were among the top bands of that style of rock and there's plenty of it on Nursery Cryme. Genesis in fact, never abandoned their prog-rock roots, even with their heavily polished, squeaky clean production of their 1983 self-titled debut and Invisible Touch as well as We Can't Dance and even Calling All Stations. There is no radio-friendly material on here but what there is is 7 tracks of sheer beauty with bizarre production with some of the strangest lyrics that Peter Gabriel has ever written. I might come into confrontations with those purists who can't seem to like any of the LPs Phil Collins at lead vocals, however, even I sometimes think about where Genesis would've gone if Steve Hackett had stayed but nonetheless, Genesis were among the most consistent bands of all time. Return of The Giant Hogweeds is a standout cut. I just love the buzzing guitar chord changes in the beginning of it and its menacing musicianship and Gabriels fierce storytelling vocals and it truly showcases its theme. Its an epic tale of giant plants that escapes from captivity to wreak terrible revenge on the human race and the guitars and organs are amazing! The other standout cut is For Absent Friends as its where Phil Collins for the first time in his career, sings on lead vocals. While his voice was a bit mousey at that point, the song is a beautiful, simple, & acoustic ballad. The only thing that keeps this track from being great is that its less than two minutes long! As much as this CD is great, I must honestly admit that the muddy production as well as it's short playing time of only 39 minutes does keep this from being an essential recording like Genesis latter material compared with Foxtrot or Selling England By The Pound. For the fan base whose tastes are mostly confined to the Phil Collins-era LPs, Nursery Cryme may not be an easy album to get into easily, even for those who loved Wind & Wuthering or Trick Of The Tail but even for those ppl, I do recommend trying NC for something different as Genesis are like a chameleon band. Despite all the cons, Nursery Cryme is a wonderful record that is one worthy of checking out even if it turns out not being all that appreciating. Sure it may not have gotten noticed at the time of its release but guess what, its still in print after 31 years! An enduring classic that is not quite an essential but definitely one worthy of checking out. Foxtrot and the two after it though have more edge to them than this one does and all of Genesis albums should be in your collectionK..And Im not talking about just Peter Gabriels LPs with them eitherK..Pick up the Turn It On Again: The Hits CD too!","Product: Japanese only two disc (SACD Hybrid CD + NTSC/Region 0 DVD) pressing of this album housed in a mini LP sleeve. EMI.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: It would be a Cryme to pass up this Musical Box!\n\nReview: Released in 1971 with Genesis taking up it's beloved classic line-up, Nursery Cryme is the album where Phil Collins first showcased his talent both on the drums and is also where Collins took lead vocals for the first time, not on Selling England By The Pound. The production of this CD is absolutely atrocious but the remastering does help Nursery Cryme a lot and sounds vastly superior to the older version. I must say that the album front cover sleeve with the striped field and the nurse playing tee ball, showcases the schizophrenic and psychotic mood of the LP. 1971 was one of the years of the golden era of prog-rock and Genesis were among the top bands of that style of rock and there's plenty of it on Nursery Cryme. Genesis in fact, never abandoned their prog-rock roots, even with their heavily polished, squeaky clean production of their 1983 self-titled debut and Invisible Touch as well as We Can't Dance and even Calling All Stations. There is no radio-friendly material on here but what there is is 7 tracks of sheer beauty with bizarre production with some of the strangest lyrics that Peter Gabriel has ever written. I might come into confrontations with those purists who can't seem to like any of the LPs Phil Collins at lead vocals, however, even I sometimes think about where Genesis would've gone if Steve Hackett had stayed but nonetheless, Genesis were among the most consistent bands of all time. Return of The Giant Hogweeds is a standout cut. I just love the buzzing guitar chord changes in the beginning of it and its menacing musicianship and Gabriels fierce storytelling vocals and it truly showcases its theme. Its an epic tale of giant plants that escapes from captivity to wreak terrible revenge on the human race and the guitars and organs are amazing! The other standout cut is For Absent Friends as its where Phil Collins for the first time in his career, sings on lead vocals. While his voice was a bit mousey at that point, the song is a beautiful, simple, & acoustic ballad. The only thing that keeps this track from being great is that its less than two minutes long! As much as this CD is great, I must honestly admit that the muddy production as well as it's short playing time of only 39 minutes does keep this from being an essential recording like Genesis latter material compared with Foxtrot or Selling England By The Pound. For the fan base whose tastes are mostly confined to the Phil Collins-era LPs, Nursery Cryme may not be an easy album to get into easily, even for those who loved Wind & Wuthering or Trick Of The Tail but even for those ppl, I do recommend trying NC for something different as Genesis are like a chameleon band. Despite all the cons, Nursery Cryme is a wonderful record that is one worthy of checking out even if it turns out not being all that appreciating. Sure it may not have gotten noticed at the time of its release but guess what, its still in print after 31 years! An enduring classic that is not quite an essential but definitely one worthy of checking out. Foxtrot and the two after it though have more edge to them than this one does and all of Genesis albums should be in your collectionK..And Im not talking about just Peter Gabriels LPs with them eitherK..Pick up the Turn It On Again: The Hits CD too!","Product: BRYAN FERRY - AVONMORE - CD\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Ladies and Gentle, Boys and Girls, welcome to Avonmore!\n\nReview: It's been a very long time since Ferry's solo career took off both in the early 1970s and since Roxy Music's swan song \"Avalon\" LP. His \"Boys and Girls\" and \"Bete Noire\" are both some of the greatest albums that the pop/rock realm have had the honor of putting out. In many years since, Ferry's music has evolved through the mysterious beauty of \"Taxi\" and \"Mamauna\". Later on, he even went into the 1930s style with \"As Time Goes By\" which actually I disliked for a while but it has since grown on me.\n\n Flash forward to 2014 and his latest album \"Avonmore\" is a return to the mysterious style that defined \"Boys and Girls\" and \"Bete Noire\". \"Midnight Train\" is one of my favorite songs on this album.","Product: JANET JACKSON - UNBREAKABLE - CD\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Magnificent! What took you so long?!\n\nReview: As a long-time fan of both Janet, and the late Michael Jackson, it was especially saddening for a long time watching Janet plummet from the heights of \"Together Again\" and \"State of The World\" to the awfulness of the 2004-5 rut that was \"Damita Jo\". In fact, I was so angry that I literally stopped listening to RN 1814, Janet and Velvet Rope for over a year as I was so upset.\n\n Though far from returning to greatness, I felt that Janet finally turned the corner with \"20 Y.O.\" which despite having some of the dubious qualities that made Damita Jo nearly unlistenable, I felt it was a good enough improvement to restore much of the respect I lost for Ms. Jackson. The following album \"Discipline\" more or less continued some of the better aspects of it's predecessor but started to fall off the deep end in the latter half and came off as kind of a cheap knock-off of \"The Velvet Rope\" but still overall had enough good material to warrant it being a keeper in my book.\n\n Though I felt both 20YO and Discipline were huge improvements over the disaster of \"Damita Jo\", they still were missing a lot of the magic that made the Control, RN 1814, Janet, and Velvet Rope albums such eternal classics. Years though went by which saw Janet release a magnificent \"Number Ones\" double-CD set and saw a couple promising new recordings such as \"Make Me\" and the decent \"Nothing\" both of which showed great promise for her return to greatness.\n\n Now in 2015-16, Ms. Jackson has done the unthinkable and returned to her glory days with her newest album \"Unbreakable\", her first since \"Discipline\" and her fifth truly great album. I took a risk and bought this album and when the first song played, I knew that this would be a marvelous album and I was totally right. This album is FABULOUS! I haven't enjoyed a new Janet album since the Velvet Rope era from start to finish.\n\n \"Burn It Up\" is a high energy dance number with the now-veteran rapper Missy Elliot as a guest star. Yes it can get over the top with some of the production but overall, it is pure fun to dance to or turn up loud.","Product: A classic album for any collection.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: A beautiful find this was.\n\nReview: \"Windham Hill Sampler 1996\" was a wonderful find that I purchased in the opening days and weeks of 1998 during a trip to Fredericksburg, Virginia. The CD almost perfectly captured the beauty and adventure of that wonderful trip now forever etched in my memory.\n\n Onto the music itself, this is an astonishing collection of 14 tracks from selected artists on the Windham Hill label and focuses on the latest artists up to this point when it was released in 1996. Torcuato Mariano's \"Last Look\" I was familiar with for a long time when I got this and have it on his sophomore album of the same name. My favorite song however could very well be the mournful classic that is \"When The Snow Melts\" by Phil Cunningham. I was only 15 when I first listened to it but I almost was in tears when I was done listening to it. Even though it's a major note song, sometimes major note songs can have a far more somber feel than a minor note song and this song demonstrates that. My other favorite is the haunting \"The White Spirit\" by French brother/sister duo Uman with the sister's almost surreal vocals and the various exotic musical elements all weaved into one of the best New Age classics of the 1990s. What happened to this duo? I would've loved to have heard more albums after this. Other songs that stand out are \"Jenny's Room\" by Andy Narell.","Product: 1998 REAL MUSIC RECORDS CD\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Music to fall asleep to\n\nReview: I have been a fan of Lasar for almost a decade now. The Eleventh Hour is an intense powerful album. Sapphire Dreams is totally opposite to the Eleventh Hour. Where that album has very intense almost disturbing tracks this album is perfect music to fall asleep. The synthesizers all take a back seat for now and Mars pulls in a grand piano and creates a surprisingly dreamy album of perfect nighttime instrumentals. No Corroboree, Great Beast Of Wisdom, or Your Eyes here, just perfect bedtime music to fall asleep to. I often play this to counterract nightmares I sometimes have. This CD is one worthy of having. Fans of the Eleventh Hour might enjoy this one too. You can't go wrong with this one.","Product: The Eleventh Hour delivers powerful music and a powerful message from composer/keyboardist Mars Lasar: there is hope for a world in crisis. The 70 minutes of music addressing many social and environmental issues graces brilliantly synthesized melodies with the perfect balance of power and sensitivity. From the poignant violin strains of \"Children of the World\" to the native chantings in \"Geronimo\" to the soaring dramatic spaces of \"Corroboree,\" Lasar voices many distinctive styles, but the quality of each is consistently outstanding. ~ MusD, All Music Guide\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: New Age's finest hour\n\nReview: I have been a heavy-duty New Age lover since I was like 8 or 9 years old. It was Mars Lasar's 'The Eleventh Hour' that eventually made New Age one of my favorite genres of music.\nI at first thought New Age was just a kind of sleepy music kind of genre that seemed more like boring meditation music but The Eleventh Houre blew all that perception away. Many other albums since then have proven that New Age can be a very energetic genre, sometimes even more danceable than the antiquated, unlistenable R&B garbage of today.\nIn fact this CD sounds more like music from the future, like from 2093 instead of it's release year 1993.\nWhere most New Age CDs are mostly pleasant serene music, The Eleventh Hour is an album that is actually socially conscious. I might sound a bit odd but I often compare this to Janet Jacksons powerful 1989 masterpiece Rhythm Nation 1814 because this album is just as moving and awe-inspiring even though these two albums are from totally different genres. It shows that all genres can express messages.\nThe Eleventh Hour not only is energetic it is also a kaleidoscope of many sounds and the songs all have a distinctive sound ranging from the disturbing title track to jazzy like in Why Violate Every Law OF Nature to even fun like in Live at the Eleventh Hour to the tear-jerking yet joyous The Gift and Cathedral Waltz. No other album in my opinion stimulates so much imagination, not even the Eleventh Hours successor 11:02 even though that album comes close. Strangely the only other album that I compare this album to is Karma because while 11:02 was great, Karma has the kind of melodies that this album contains. 11:02 was more on the creepy space side where Karma had the peculiar melodies and the natural sounds of this album except Karma is far more ancient in sound.\n To go into a detailed review of the songs to me would not be enough to do this extraordinary album justice because this album is like nothing that any other New Age artist maybe except Patrick O'Hearn my other favorite New Age meistro, can even dream of creating. It's that good. In fact it has even been powerful enough to shape the way I look at the world.\nThis is an album of my lifetime. It's one of those album I would buy again and again as I wear out copies over my lifetime.\nAnd by the way this is a 19 year old who absolutely despises the horrofic gender-bashing R&B of today.\nGive me the frightening darkness of Hidden Crater or In The Den anytime over any of the sunny cheap R&B trash of Destinys Child or Ja Rule.\nBelieve me this is an album to live by.","Product: [Note: This product is an authorized CD-R and is manufactured on demand]\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: A marvelous take on the 1980s soundtrack hits.\n\nReview: I have been a lifelong fan of David Foster's music especially with shining classics like his \"Love them From St. Elmo's Fire\" and his epic magnum-opus \"Flight of The Snowbirds\". His second album \"River of Love\" while a great record, though at times felt more like simply a compilation of random pop hits by other artists. While \"Rechordings\" shares that basis, to me, it is a return to the style that made his debut album an eternal favorite of his. Many may disagree with me on this and that's fine but all of the cover versions that David Foster made in my opinion surpass their originals by leaps and bounds. Probably my favorite is his rendition of Earth, Wind and Fires \"After The Love Is Gone\" which has a very unique chord structure. I like the original version a lot but David Fosters version in my opinion improves on the original and replaces it with a lovely instrumental atmosphere especially with the echoing pianos throughout. I love his beautiful version of \"Glory of Love\". I also especially am mesmerized by his heavenly take on \"Voices That Care\". A bonus closing is a medley of movie themes that runs at nearly 16 minutes long which ends with \"Love ThemE From St. Elmo's Fire\" as a hidden track. Overall, this is a great album and one to have. Foster is known for producing music for others but in my opinion, he really shines when doing solo albums. :)","Product: Seal ~ Crazy\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Seal's best song to date.\n\nReview: This 1991 hit single from Seal is my favorite song by him to date. It is truly unique in a way that only seal could have done it. It is a very ominous dance classci with a mix of house dance beats but is meshed with a dark and cloudy day atmosphere to create one of the best dance singles of all time, at least to me anyway. The menacing rhythm and intense beats are the stuff of legend to me. 13 years after it's release it doesn't sound the slightest bit dated and is in fact far ahead of it's time and would sound more innovative than a lot of what we hear nowadays. It's that good! A highly recommended single.","Product: Audio Cd\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: This CD makes me cry with joy\n\nReview: I've owned this CD for around 9 years and what I can say is that Kicking Cans is by far one of the best CDs I've ever owned by any acoustic guitarist. The music is Brazilian flavored easy listening jazz music but is so many miles above alot of the elevator music that you hear in stores. Where as the 1988 self-titled album is more of a soundtrack to the winter seasons, Kicking Cans, in my opinion, is music for the spring and summer seasons as the title of track 7 shows. Doris voice is absolutely incredible and passionate. Where as the 1988 self titled album is a very low-key album with very simple compositions, Kicking Cans to me is a bit more elaborate with a lot more a jazz influenced tinge but in a way that it makes a great companion to the 1988 album. What's also great about Kicking Cans is that while it's almost a decade old it doesn't sound dated at all. It's very difficult for me to write a review for this CD because I don't think I could do it any justice. Maybe a future album that is in the vein of this one might overshadow it but because of me enjoying it for over 9 years, Kicking Cans is the soundtrack to my childhood and when I look back at it, this CD truly brings back great images of it. :)","Product: cd\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: A soulful, powerful and soaring smooth jazz classic!\n\nReview: I have enjoyed Richard Elliot's songs for as long as I can remember listening to music. Amidst the large number of smooth jazz saxophonists, most of which I enjoy, Richard Elliot is among the leaders of the pack because his music really stands out because he creates amazing jazz music that is not only pleasant but also positive and soul-driven and that's why a lot of his older songs are still very popular even after being out for over a decade. The reason is is that Elliot really puts a lot of soul and power into his songs and his 1993 outing entitled \"Soul Embrace\" is in my opinion, the best example of this. Other albums of his from before and since are also worth investing in especially 1999's \"Chill Factor\" CD.\n Many familiar classics of Elliot's appear on this stunningly beautiful album of his. The most familiar of the popular radio classics is more than likely \"Sweet Dream\". Just about every smooth jazz lover would be very familiar with this track. I've heard it many times on the radio when as a kid but buying this album made me love this song all over again. \"Sweat\" is another timeless smooth jazz classic that I have loved for many years. I love the somewhat tropical beginning of the song with the quirky piano riff and the eerie ambient intro in the background before it becomes a funky and eclectic groove with amazing saxophone playing and awesome keyboards. I don't know what it is about this song but God I love this song. I heard it many times before buying this album but I have come to love this already excellent classic all over again.\n Other notable radio hits are the eloquent classic \"By The Fire\" and \"Because I Love You\". The latter song I feel deserves a review all on it's own. I don't know what it is about this song but WOW! This is a really hauntingly beautiful song that is a hallmark of a classic. It is a very sweet song with a strong atmospheric sound and a crystal clear melody unrivalled by most peers. I love the soaring saxophone playing amidst the angelic keyboards and the positive natured melody. I really miss the beauty of this style in much of today's smooth jazz. I feel like I'm almost flying over green grasslands on a cool partly cloudy afternoon when listening to this track. It's that beautiful. Fabulous Job Richard! I feel that our entertainment needs more sweet-natured music nowadays. I've had enough of the so called `tough guy' stuff that is shoved in our faces.\n However, it's also a lot of the songs never heard on radio that are among the best on this album. My favorite song on this album is \"Deep Blue\". This classic has a very upbeat and warm sunny mood, and a highly danceable beat combined with very unique electronic beeping sound effects that perfectly blend with the songs rhythm. I especially love the song towards the last minute as it climaxes before it fades into the night. \"Calle De Soul\" has a really fun tropical Brazilian color to it with the caf-oriented groove tone to it. There are two songs on here that actually have lyrics to them, both of which are good. \"Never Gonna Break Your Heart\" is a really beautiful and soulful ballad. \"Lost In A Minute\" is a more New Jack Swing style song. Both of them are great but sometimes suffer from their lengths being a bit on the short side in my opinion. Otherwise, these are really excellent popular tracks that would've made a dent on the R&B or Adult Oriented charts.\n The last two tracks \"Up All Night\" and \"Alone At Sea\" close this album on a high note. \"Up All Night\" is a very energetic and joyous classic with a fast beat and amazing keyboards. The song rises to a great climax that will leave you happy. \"Alone At Sea\" closes this CD on a high scale with a slightly more dramatic and serious tone. While most of this album is very sunny in nature, \"Alone At Sea\" has a more twilight mood. I love the haunting sound to it and the serious melody as it gives the sense of a boat sailing away into the sunset as the song fades away towards the end. I love the melodic changes too, going from A minor down to G major, back to A minor and down to F major and repeating the same change all over again as it draws this masterpiece album to a sunset close.\n Smooth Jazz in general has been the genre of music that I've grown up on but Richard Elliot is among the standout artists over the years and \"Soul Embrace\" is in my opinion, the prime example of this fact. His music has a long lasting quality that has endured the passing of the years and the increasing lack of atmospherics in most modern smooth jazz but Elliot has mostly survived this. I strongly recommend buying his albums but make \"Soul Embrace\" the top choice for the album to start with and then I recommend getting \"Chill Factor\" and then go in any direction for there. These two albums are in my opinion, among his best albums of his career. \"Soul Embrace\" is one of the best modern jazz albums of the 20th century and I strongly recommend that you go and buy this album as soon as possible. It's worth every penny you might end up spending.","Product: Eurythmics ~ We Too Are One\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Spectacular close to the 1980s!\n\nReview: It has been two years since the experimental and innovative classic \"Savage\" was released and The Eurythmics duo were beginning to become increasingly fractured as Annie Lennox and Dave Stewert were increasingly at odds with each other to the point that they actually recorded their albums in separate studios. Yet amidst the acrimony, the duo managed to produce one last album entitled \"We Too Are One\" which is ironic since the duo were very distant from each other and would split the following year. This final release from them is a major shift away from the feminine rage of \"Savage\" in favor of a more soulful jazzier sound on the slower tracks but almost pure rock with the more energetic tracks. \"The King and Queen of America\" is arguably the fastest song the duo have recorded to date. But my favorite song is \"How Long\" which is about a fractuous relationship and waiting for it to reach the breaking point. The CD closes with the beautiful and haunting \"When The Day Goes Down\".","Product: Underworld Pearl's Girl US CD single\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Among the most highly recommended EPs/CD-Singles out there!\n\nReview: I doubt that any review could do any justice to the greatness that is \"Pearl's Girl\". Though it is often viewed as an EP rather than a full-length album, Underworld's 1997 release entitled \"Pearls Girl\" is a spectacular hidden gem that has had the misfortune of being sandwiched between \"Second Toughest in the Infants\" and \"Beaucoup Fish\", both of which are marvelous. Yet inspite of their greatness, \"Pearl's Girl\" is a standout all of its own. The EP is mostly a remix EP of the band's hit single \"Pearl's Girl\" but with the exception of the \"Radio Edit\" and \"Album Version\", many of the other remixes almost are like different tracks altogether.\n\n \"Puppies\" is a very pleasant track with a nice jazzy atmosphere with electronic keyboard effects like that of viewing the outside through a rainy windshield at night. \"Oich Oich\" is a dreamy track very much like that of \"Tongue\" with some haunting chime effects throughout the song giving it a haunting post-thunderstormy mood. The guitar parts could easily make this track fit onto \"Dubnobasswithmyhead\".\n\n However my absolute favorite track hands down is the fifth track entitled \"Cherry Pie\". Now for those who are familiar with \"Second Toughest\" you'll immediately realize that the bizarre electroshock ambience that introduced \"Rowla\" is present. However a minute into the track, a totally different DJ echoes build up generating a whole different track. The track eventually evolves into a high speed track that could easily make the adrenaline of the movie \"Speed\" pale before the warp-speed nature of \"Cherry Pie\". The track evolves into a haunting and intense track with an atmosphere like no other track by this group. In many ways, it reminds me of the haunting ambience of \"Dirty Epic\" from their 1993 masterpiece \"Dubnobasswithmyheadman\" with a much louder and faster tempo. Many may agree with me that \"Cherry Pie\" improves upon the original track that was \"Rowla\" but I disagree that it should've been on the album. I think this track feels too distinct to fit with the \"Second Toughest\" album. In many respects, I consider this to be a supplementary track rather than a replacement. By an large my favorite cut in this entire EP. Though Underworld would go on to make really good tracks in subsequent releases, they have yet to generate songs that rival \"Cherry Pie\". This track alone makes this album worth purchasing.\n\n The final track \"Deep Arch\" is another haunting track that starts with a trippy ambient intro and has a very slow build up into a beautiful yet trippy cut with an atmosphere like that of viewing traffic on a stormy night.\n\n Even if you already have \"Second Toughest\", you still need to acquire a copy of \"Pearl's Girl\" because while it is mostly a remix album of the single of the same name, many of the tracks that aren't remixes are astounding in their own way. I could even argue that much of the music that made it onto STITI pales before some of what's on PG.","Product: UPC: 075678273728\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Excellent CD with some rare treasures.\n\nReview: I reviewed their \"Rogha Best of Collection\" and while I like it a lot musically speaking, I found the album somewhat limited in scope. \"Themes\" in my opinion has a larger range of what Clannad released during their later career as of this writing.\n\n What really makes this CD a great sampler is that it has some songs that more than likely appear on soundtracks to TV shows that are long out-of-print such as \"The Dolphin Connection\", and others.\n\n Their cover of Joni Mitchell's \"Both Sides Now\" is among my favorite cover songs of all time with a gorgeous New Age ambience with a duet between lead singer Moya Brenna and former Mister Mister Paul Carrack at the helms. Other marvelous tracks are the heavenly ethereal \"Atlantic Realm\", the ominous \"I Will Find You\" to the marvelous closer \"Theme From The Dolphin Connection\". This entire album is marvelous from start to finish.\n\n I could rant about the astronomical number of useless \"Best of\" compilations that we've been bombarded with but \"Themes\" is a wonderful 13 track collection.","Product: Great collection of instrumental mood music released in 1998 on Virgin label.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Better than the \"Pure Moods\" CDs.\n\nReview: I've always thought the Pure Moods series was very hit and miss to my ears. I mean, I thought that it was very odd to hear Dave Koz's \"Emily\" (Which I do enjoy as a song on it's own right) on a CD like Pure Moods. I thought the quality of the songs were varied widely and/or other songs sounded completely out of place on the Pure Mood series. This particular spin-off entry though entitled \"Instrumental Moods\" to my ears doesn't have anywhere near as inconsistent of songs like Pure Moods does and even the 'out-of-place' songs at least fit on an album entitled \"Instrumental Moods\".\n\n Some of my favorite songs are \"Knocking on Heaven's Door\", \"Montezuma\", \"Sure-As-Not\" and \"Gathering of the Tribes\". The diversity of the album makes this a worthy purchase. Generally I enjoy this more than all except the third Pure Moods CD.","Product: New Age Collections ~ Elevation\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: The First from a stunning series.\n\nReview: I remember hearing something at a bookstore and loving the music. So I asked the clerk what it was and he showed me the cover of this album. So I bought this album even though I only heard one song off of it and what a buy. I was amazed at the aural beauty that was coming out of my boombox when I played the CD.\nMars Lasar by Mars Lasar is a very haunting track that 11th Hour fans will love. It has beautiful keyboards and some Jazz guitar playing and some breezing at the beginnings and endings. This was the song that I heard at the bookstore that made me want to buy this CD. Heaven by Emer Kenny is a breathtaking Celtic Groove with stunning whispering vocals and a danceable beat. Sure-As-Not is a stunning piece from the Celtic masterminds Afro-Celt Sound System. It's a dark, Celtic almost wintery track with some ambience and plenty. The sound blips and the breathing sound effects at the beginning and ending are a perfect backdrop to this amazing song. Port Na Bpucai by Norin Ni Riain is a stunning Celtic New-Age pop song with stunning vocals and a wintery evening mood. Massai Rain by Miriam Stockley is the winner on this album. It's a techno dance song that contains African chants and some Jazz instruments. Usually I don't like world music mixing with techno but it worked here and this is my favorite song on this CD. Nomads by Govinda is a strongly Middle Eastern track with some acoustic guitars. I hate to say it but this song is a two and a half minute assault on my ears. Librarsi by Marcome is a beautiful song with vocals that easily resemble that of Enyas. Trail Of Tears by David Arkenstone is a somber track with a Native American feel and Native American flutes and a groovy drum loop. Forever by Nicholas Gunn is a breathtaking song that is like Mars Lasar but much slower, less jazzy and with a more Celtic feel and a stormy atmosphere. Circle Of Friendship by Joanne Shenandoa is a beautiful jaz-pop sounding track with some chanting vocals and beautiful piano playing towards the ending. To All My Relations by Stonecoat is a very new-age pop sounding groove with Native American chanting and flutes to create a stunning track. Prisme by Annbjorg Lien is a more Norwegian folk track with some Celtic feel to it. The flutes and the chanting towards the ending are breathtaking. Silence Of The Eclipse by Christopher Franke is a very haunting track with a very ambient sound. Definately a must hear. World Of Wonders by F.R.E.U.D. is a very romantic pop sounding with amazing vocals and an atmosphere that brings up images of two lovers running in the distance through large gardens in the hills. Nikki D by Harold Budd is a great closer to this CD. It's a jazzy ambient track with some bass playing and beauriful piano playing.\nThis CD is wonderful and is a great first addition to this killer new age compilation series. Just this album alone has more power to grab your soul than all of the three Pure Moods CD put together. I strongly recommend getting this CD. It's worth buying just for Massai Rain. And get the the other Elevation CDs as well especially the fourth one. And get the Earthtone Collection CDs as well. They are absolutely brilliant.","Product: Single CD\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: \"One More Chance\" is MARVELOUS!\n\nReview: The song \"If\" is a great classic with a great, creative, if somewhat scandalous video that is among my favorites by Janet. All of the remixes of this song are very good and distinct, almost to the point that they could've been separate songs altogether, the only thing in common is the vocal patterns of the original version on the \"Janet\" album. Besides the \"Extended\" and \"7-inch\" versions which are basically the album versions that are extended and shortened, my favorite versions are the D&D 12' House Mix which almost stands in contrast to the original album version. While the original is notorious (to some) for it's semi-raunchy theme, the D&D 12\" House Mix has a much mellower, much jazzier, and much cooler, even autumn-like quality that is very different from the original. Had it not been for being a remix, I would've mistaken it for a totally different song altogether.\n\n However, the primary reason I'm posting this review is on the rare B-Side called \"One More Chance\" which is a rare B-Side that did not make it on the \"Janet\" album. Please note that this is actually a cover version of her brothers group, The Jacksons, song of the same title that dates to 1984 that appears on their \"Victory\" album which is a classic in it's own right. This particular song I'm review is NOT the 1970 Jackson 5 song at all, the only thing in common is the song title. That's it. I won't go there with this review. Onto the song......\n\n \"One More Chance\" is a beautiful, soulful song with a lovely, sunny, warm, and very joyous feel-good atmosphere with marvelous keyboard production, a very light but textured rhythm, a very nice mix of happy and somber mixed together to produce a bittersweet classic whose quality ranks among Janet's greatest songs to date even occasionally rivaling 1989's \"Lonely\", and \"Come Back To Me\", even surpassing 1986's \"Let's Wait Awhile\" and \"Again\". As much as I enjoy the \"Janet\" album, \"One More Chance\" actually beats just about every song that made it onto that album in my book. This song just has a maturity, sophistication, and a really deep blend of joy, sorrow, and bittersweet beauty that became increasingly rare after this and the Velvet Rope eras.\n\n The remixes of \"If\" are really good in their own way but her cover version of 1984's \"One More Chance\", Janet hit a grand slam out of the ballpark in terms of balladry with this song. I'm not the biggest fan of CD-Singles primarily how widely they can cut both ways IMO but if you ever stumble upon the \"If\" CD-Single, I strongly recommend purchasing it, renting it, or borrowing it from someone just for \"One More Chance\" alone. It is that wonderful. I would in addition, buy \"Victory\" for the original version as well.\n\n Many music critics often have been critical of what they see and/or hear as Janet having a thin limited vocal ability. While it may apply in many places, on \"One More Chance\", she puts that limited vocal range to marvelous effect on it.\n\n Fabulous job here Janet! :D","Product: This CD is an out of print collectible! It is the original Atlantic release. Catalog 81848. There is a drill hole on the spine of the case.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: The fox trots this album to classic status!\n\nReview: I'm mostly into the more pf the Phil Collins era works mainly because I've had little luck in getting the Peter Gabriel era LPs recently until recently when I got my hands on a copy of the album known as Foxtrot and I must say it is an amazing work of art. Unfortunately, Foxtrot is often overshadowed by it's two successors, Selling England By The Pound & The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. I haven't heard either one of them as when writing this review so I can't really comment on them at this time but as for Foxtrot I feel glad that I now got my hands on it. There is no radio-friendly material like there is on most of the 1975-1991 era albums. This music has very little polish and could be almost opposite to the squeaky clean polish of Invisible Touch which I must admit I love to pieces. The album cover art sets the general mood of the record.\nPeter Gabriels lyrics have a lot of British humor in the songs and every song on here is absolutely creative and beautiful. This album was well ahead of it's time when it came out in 1972.\nWatcher of The Skies is a bizarre 7 minute track with a very bizarre orchestra like intro before it morphs into a funky upbeat track with gorgeous organs, incredible guitar playing by Steve Hackett, and the storytelling lyrics of Peter Gabriels songwriting. Time Table is difficult to explain but it's a truly great song. Get 'Em Out By Friday is a great example of a prog rock track. It showcases a lot of a jazzier and extremely creative sound that the Phil Collin era works lacks. I love how the song quiets down around the 4 and a half minute mark and how it morphs into a quiet and lovely song with very quiet guitar bass and flutes coming in giving a feel of traveling through a town on a snowy afternoon. Can-Utility & The Coastliners is a more Trick Of A Tail-esque song that is somewhat similar to Squonk only not as polished and has less electric guitar and more of the 12 string guitars. Once again it's an amazing song that is one to listen to in order to know how it really is. Horizons is a gorgeous acoustic guitar instrumental that showcases Steve Hacketts guitar playing. It runs at only 1 minute & 41 seconds.\nThe last track of Foxtrot is the 22 minute and 52 second epic piece Supper's Ready. This song is seven songs in one. I'm not going to bother to write this one in detail because it's truly a creative song that I refuse to give anything away about it. It's truly an amazing track though. This song needs a listen! Suppers Ready is a postively hilarious track at times.\nPart I: Lovers Lane\nPart II: The Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man\nPart III: Ikhnaton and Itsacon and Their Band Of Merry Men\nPart IV: How Dare I Be So Beautiful\nPart V: Willow Farm\nPart VI: Apocolypse in 9/8\nPart VII: As Sure as Eggs Is Eggs\nFoxtrot is truly one masterpiece and is one of the most creative albums that Genesis have ever made. Fans of Invisible Touch might not easily get into Foxtrot too much because where as Invisible Touch is very polished, Foxtrot is much more raw and less polished than the Phil Collins works.\nPeter Gabriel truly was a genius when he was with the group. He still is now as a solo artist but he threw alot of creativity into Genesis with his witty songwriting and British Humor.\nAs I'd say sometimes \"Invisible Touch, We Can't Dance, 1983 self-titled album, and Calling All Stations, take a back seat for now!\" he! he!\nFoxtrot is a must own! Go and buy it NOW!","Product: Digitally Remastered. Contains the Pre Concert Music Atmosphere from the 1997 European Tour. Studio Tracks.\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: Just what on earth is this supposed to be about?\n\nReview: I'm not in the arena where the detractors of TD's more recent works reside in because I really love this group but this is the most bizarre releases I've ever purchased. That said, \"Ambient Monkeys\" on it's own is not a terrible release, I've heard worse but the circumstances behind it's making are perhaps one of the most clumsy I've ever heard.\n\n Spread out over just 45 and a half minutes, this CD contains 12 noodlings where ambient jungle sounds of the Amazon or some other rainforest sound are recorded as a backdrop with previous recordings laced into the background. But while I enjoy such natural sounding music with the sounds of Mother Nature, but among the seven TD CD's I own as of writing this review, this album is the most poorly produced work TD have ever done. The music is barely audible against the natural jungle sounds that it's nearly impossible to enjoy. I've heard so much better material from others who did similar things. Look at Ah-Kin's sadly out-of-print \"Ring of Gold\" CD or the Earthtone Collections one, two and three where they brilliantly incorporated the sounds of waterfalls, monkeys, and other sounds of animals and weather and incorporate the music brilliantly into them.\n\n None of that happens on \"Ambient Monkeys\". This is just a shoddy excuse for someone trying to slim down his/her wallet when it's too big to fit in one's pocket. I really don't like to write an unfavorable review on Tangerine Dream because they are an incredible band but \"Ambient Monkeys\" is an album that would not cause grief should it be taken out of print.\n\n If you want something from TD, I would strongly suggest \"Optical Race\" (Wonderful classic), \"Quinoa\", \"Rockoon\" (Criminally underrated), \"Tyranny of Beauty\", and their early recordings. \"Ambient Monkeys\" is the most tedious and dissapointing purchase I've made in years. End of review.","Product: Janet Jackson ~ Doesn's Really Matter\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: This is where I started tuning out.\n\nReview: After the amazing Velvet Rope record a few years before Janet returns with what I thought was her weakest song to date at the time of it's release. It's mundane, boring, commercial and uninventive. Is this the talented Janet that I once admired. To me Janet started going downhill after the Velvet Rope with the god-awful known as Girlfriend/Boyfriend and she lost it for good with the bowl of commercial vomit known as All For You. This single I find to be quite annoying and gets on my nerves. It showed the hip-hop direction that plagues Janet to this day. Why Janet? ...\nI did not necessarily expect another Velvet Rope-esque song from Janet shortly before this single but what a dissapointment! And Janet would get worse with the terrible All For You album the following year. Until janet can break the bondage of commercial hip-hop that has had her in shackles this is a fan either on hold or is jumping ship.\nSo on she goes selling by the truckload year after year but Janets music no longer means much to me anymore.","Product: Mtv Collections ~ Mtv: The Best Of Trl Pop\n\nRating: 1.0\n\nSummary: Is this supposed to be some kind of joke!\n\nReview: Could somebody tell me whose idea it was to put this useless collection together. This CD is nothing but disposable teenybopper pop-fluff that most of us have now grown out of long ago. The track selection is just laughable especially with insultingly immature krap like \"I Wanna Be Bad\" or \"Thong Song\", both of which are absolutely awful and completely faceless with as much emotion as an empty bowl. It's no wonder noone ever bought this useless CD when it came out as almost every song on here is on other compilations. This CD almost doesn't even deserve to exist. The most laughable cash-in joke I've ever heard of. >:(\nBuy some Fourplay, Peter Gabriel, Genesis, U2, or Underworld instead.","Product: Different artwork\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Craig Chaquico's best CD since \"Acoustic Highway\"!\n\nReview: Craig Chaquico is the former member of the 1980s supergroup Jefferson Starship. His 1993 solo debut album \"Acoustic Highway\" was and remains the best solo album of his career to date and blended the best of New Age, with rock and a stunningly beautiful 12 string guitar played in many different ways. The album was a powerhouse that has lost none of it's enjoyability in the years since it's release. However, following releases, while still enjoyable, saw his music drifting more and more towards predictable smooth jazz and less of the spark of AH even though \"Four Corners\" was his best in the Smooth Jazz era.\n\n However, his 2004 comeback album entitled \"Midnight Noon\" comes as his strongest set of songs since his debut and after waiting so long, brings back the incredible sound that made his early solo music so amazing to listen to. Listen to the incredible pop/jazz anthem \"Always With You\" with it's beautiful vocals as well as it's great sunny melody! Another incredible song is the opening track \"Her Boyfriends Wedding\" with it's fast high-speed drum rhythm as well as it's incredible keyboards and great guitar sounds. Even if you despised his 'smooth jazz' works from immediately before this, \"Midnight Noon\" is a must-have. I haven't heard Chaquico sound this great and energetic in so long. Welcome back Craig!","Product: Desert Ocean is Lanterna's 5th album and the first release on Badman's new instrumental label Jemez Mountain. Lanterna's previous releases were passionately supported by NPR, nationally syndicated radio program Echoes (rising to Artist of the Month and a slot on their compilation CD) and have received 4 star reviews worldwide. Badman. 2006.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Absolutely stunning and original!\n\nReview: I was recommended this CD by a previously unknown band called Lanterna. After giving it a good listen, I was absolutely floored at the beauty that came out of the headphone speakers. Lanterna's \"Desert Ocean\" gets my nomination as one of the best CDs of 2006 and perhaps one of the best and most original CDs that I've heard in years! A great thing that boosts it is that fact that it emphasizes on much more acoustic instruments and actually uses real drums and even brush snares as opposed to drum machines. The entire album has a very natural and organic quality throughout. I could describe this as being a combination of U2 at it's most atmospheric and romantic circa \"The Unforgettable Fire\" with the strange atmospheres of post-OK Computer Radiohead.\n\n The entire CD is among the most consistent post-rock albums that I've heard in this entire decade as of writing this review. The beauty about it is that it has almost no electronic sound effects and instead just beautiful guitar licks and acoustic drums. \"Desert Ocean\" is almost like a walk down a foggy neighborhood on an overcast evening. \"Fog\" has among the strangest electric guitar arrangements that I've heard in years with different styles actually being heard in a multilayered fasion.","Product: Remembering is about allowing our experiences to emerge into present awareness and it's about remembering the joyous and totally loved beings we truly are. Thirteen signature Koch compositions featuring piano, keyboards, flute and light percussion -- some reflective, most light and uplifting -- create a nurturing sanctuary in which the sometimes forgotten magic of Remembering can reappear.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Remembering the joy, and lament, of the past and future!\n\nReview: I first heard Bernward Koch's music when I won a free copy of \"Silent Star\" and was mesmerized at the nighttime mystery feel of that album and have especially loved it especially during the spring, summer, and autumn nights. The follow-up \"Day of Life\" continued the feel of \"Silent Star\" and felt like a near-twin album. 2015's \"Remembering\" though takes what was great about those and builds up them and adding a magical feeling of lament and surrealism, results in a truly awe-inspiring album. The opening title track at first seems like a rehash of the previous albums but in actuality is a preview of the leap forward in Koch's music as it goes from just pleasant to absolutely moving. There is an overall unusual mix of warmth, joy, nostalgia, ennui, and lament all wrapped up throughout the entire album. Just the gorgeous album cover along proves that Remembering is a step forward from his previous outings. The closing track \"Through The Universe\" is absolutely surreal and sublime. Fabulous album!","Product: CD\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Back Home at last!\n\nReview: It's been seamingly an eternity since Dancing Fantasy last released in album, that is \"Soundscapes\" WAY back in 2001. I've been a huge fan of them for as long as I remember hearing \"Midnight Blvd.\" back as a young child and eventually have gone on to buy all of their albums all the way up to Soundscapes.\n\n Years would go on and all of a sudden, DF stopped releasing albums. I wondered if they had broken up but eventually learned of the release of their newest album \"Back Home\" 14 years since \"Soundscapes\" and I tell you, it is a huge delight to see Dancing Fantasy back on the music scene again after so long. This album continues everything that made DF such a delight on the radio for so many years but also there are some experimental tracks such as the intense and heavy textured \"Deep Sea Diver\" which has a very suspensful and unusual sound that is probably among the most un-DF sounding songs they've ever made and yet it is among my favorite songs on this album. \"Take The Night Train\" may be the closest to sounding like the classic pre-1999 era artist we've known but otherwise \"Back Home\" is an entirely new chapter altogether.\n\n If you're looking for another \"Midnight Blvd.\", \"Moonlight Reflections\" or even a \"Love Letters II\", you'll want to readjust your expections as \"Back Home\" is nothing like those but an entirely distinct album of it's own. For the rest of us who are very open to totally different sounds from their earlier works, \"Back Home\" is absolutely worth purchasing.\n\n As a long time fan, I have to say it: It is so wonderful to have Dancing Fantasy BACK HOME on the music scene again!\n\n Highly recommended!"],"string":"[\n \"Product: used in very good condition complrte case artwork manual booklet insert poster and video game cart collectible!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: An excellent video game classic!\\n\\nReview: This video game is an absolutely amazing video game that still is a great memory on my part.\\n The graphics on this game were absolutely amazing for their time when this game came out somewhere around in 1994-ish. While it's definately a bit dated by today's standards the first X-Men game was the best Marvel COmic video game that I ever got to play.\\n I loved the sound the game would make then an X-Men character would lose a life and some of the sound effects were just so cool especially the air bomb sound effects when Storm would come down and wipe out the bad guys in the picture. So funny.\\n This game holds a special place in my memories and when I move on to heaven, I hope Jesus has my old Sega Genesis up there for me to play for a while before I take up form again in my next incarnation.\\n If you can find it, buy it! It's worth the price. They should re-release this on computer or the next video game system.\",\n \"Product: Sega's iconic hedgehog collects coins on many adventurous mazes.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: By far the best Video game series of all time.\\n\\nReview: If there are video games taht have truly stood up to the tests of time, it's the Sonic The Hedgehog video game series.\\nBack in the days when video games for the most part were just plain clean fun and not the gorefests they are now, Sonic The Hedgehog was and still is the defining video game series of my lifetime.\\n The controls are very good.\\n While many would argue that the graphics are dated and while they may be very dated by 2004 standards, this game was many years ahead of it's time and I still love every moment of this game.\\n One of the greatest things about this classic video game that I have enjoyed was the MUSIC! WOW! Looking back on it now, I have to say that the music was just amazing for video game music. I could very well say that I remember the music almost by heart. My favorite level music was on the \\\"Scrap Brain Zone\\\" levels 1 through 3 and let me tell you, I haven't loved video game music like I did on this level.\\n Overall, the video game music was incredible! If only my Sega Genesis system were still working, I would still be playing this but since age finally took it's toll on both the cartrige and the system, I feel sad at seeing a great era in my life in video games come to a close. I still find myself humming to the music on the \\\"Scrap Brain Zone\\\" level even to this day, years after last playing this game.\\n Sonic The Hedgehog is in my opinion the greatest video game series of all time. Mario and Crash Bandicoot may offer competition in this field but Sonic The Hedgehog came first for me.\\n I find it to be one of the greatest entertainment tragedies seeing one of my childhood favorite activies, video games, decline from good clean fun and degerate into nightmare-inducing blood baths of gore, and violence.\\n\\nWhatever the case between Mario, Sonic, and Crash Bandicoot, let me just say that it is the sillier games like these three game series that have truly lasted as opposed to the countless gorefests that video games that are forced down our throats.\\n I say, they should re-released the Sonic games that were on Sega Genesis onto an archives video game set for the computer or for the newest video game systems in the near future.\\n If this game is put back in print, I will be first in line to regain this game so that my children can enjoy the fun I had iwth Sonic The Hedgehog.\",\n \"Product: Cartridge only. Cartridge and/or label will show some wear, including discoloration, tearing, writing, or other cosmetic issues. Guaranteed functional or replacement.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Third times a charm!\\n\\nReview: The third installment in the legendary Sonic The Hedgehog video games series brilliantly follows up on the brilliance of the first two games and brings forth even more dangerous adventures for our beloved hedgehog as he battles the evil nemesis Dr. Robotnik.\\n In a lot of ways, this game at first seems like a rehash of the first two games: Collect all of the emeralds to destroy Robotnik's plans.\\n In this game, you also battle Sonic's similar counterpart named KNuckles.\\n However the main thing that makes this a GREAT LEAP forward from any of the previous games is that if you have the \\\"Sonic and KNuckles\\\" game, you can actually JOIN that and \\\"Sonic 3\\\" and combine the two game universes to create the ultimate video game adventure. How about that for a change!\\n In my opinion, it's the extremely innovative style of being able to join two video games togather to create one GRAND adventure that makes Sega Genesis the most memorable game system I've ever played. Being able to in fact join two games together is an example of video gamemaking that is beyond anything that ever came before then.\\n It's a pity that Playstation never had the brilliance to learn the uniquness of Sega Genesis and create a game that could join up with another game the way this and \\\"Sonic and Knuckles\\\" did.\\n If you still have Sega Genesis, I strongly recommend buying this game NOW! Get all three of the SOnic games, and get the \\\"Sonic Spinball\\\" and \\\"Sonic and Knuckles\\\" and BAM! You have the greatest video game series all in one household!\",\n \"Product: great little game by sega!!!!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: The most awesome video game ever made!\\n\\nReview: Sonic The Hedgehog gets my nod as the greatest video game series ever created. The first second and third games along with \\\"Sonic and Knuckles\\\" are the greatest video games I've ever played in my life on Sega Genesis.\\n However, Sega shattered new ground with a totally new twist on this franchise.\\n In \\\"Sonic Spinball\\\", the geniuses behind Sonic, blend in the adventures of the three regular game and turn it into a huge pinball frenzy with a highly addictive atmosphere in the levels.\\n Considering that I've been a pinball addict almost my whole life, \\\"SOnic Spinball\\\" was the game I played almost more than any other video game in my life. I can recall when I once played for over 12 hours straight one night! It's that addictive. I absolute love pinball and Sonic The Hedgehog and seeing them blend these two worlds together is phenomenal!\\n Just like the three sonic games before then, I really dig the background music and still find myself humming ot the music especially the second and final levels and I love the boss villain music that plays when you battle the evil Dr. Robotnik in the end.\\n \\\"Sonic Spinball\\\" is the greatest video game ever created and seeing this game die off (stopped functioning on my system due to age) was like a relative or friend dying. It was that good.\\n They should re-release this on a computer CD-Rom or for the next video game system in the near future.\",\n \"Product: Join Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and their new friend, Cream the Rabbit as they take off on a fast quest to dodge Dr. Eggman's gamplan. Zip through space age metal labyrinths and other new locales. Unfasten special features and stages by collecting Emeralds\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Great game but with frustrating problems.\\n\\nReview: While not necessarily raising the bar in my opinion the way \\\"Sonic Battle\\\" did for me, \\\"Sonic Advance 2\\\" is nonetheless another home run for the legendary Sonic video game franchise.\\n\\n The play pattern is virtually the same as it's classic Sega Genesis ancestors: Dr. Eggman (previously known as Robotnik) is once again causing havoc with his megalomaniac schemes of taking over the entire world by building another 'death egg' (God, everything he builds is named after eggs) spaceship by wielding the power of the legendary chaos emeralds. Even worse is that Sonic's friends have been captured by Eggman and held hostage.\\n\\n As a result, in the beginning, Sonic is the only available player but as one beats the boss machine at the end of the stages, more characters are unlocked and the game begins to branch into different versions of itself. My favorite is a tie between Tails and Cream.\\n\\n The problem with this game though is a frustrating part. Although not completely, I've found it almost downright impossible to find all seven special rings in order to access the special stages at the end of each regular stage. (I've managed to get to special stage one after \\\"Leaf Forest\\\" but that's it) The last six regular stages make it like looking for a needle in a haystack.\\n\\n Otehr than that, this is a very good Sonic Adventure game and is another good addition to the Sonic Legacy. With the frustrating Special Stage requirements, I guess they didn't call it \\\"Sonic Advance\\\" for nothing. :/ :)\",\n \"Product: Dr. Eggman has used Chaos Control to break the world into 7 parts, and plans to rain confusion by turning each into a Dr. Eggman Empire. Sonic and Tails have to find all 7 Chaos Emeralds and use Chaos Control to return the world to its original statebefore Dr. Eggman perfects his ultimate fighting robot! You'll pick 1 of 5 playable sonic characters, and a second as a partner to help in the quest to bring down the evil Eggman. Gain new abilities based on your partner, and master them all for a variety of exciting adventures. Or, link up Game Boy Advance systems for awesome 2 on 2 team battles.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Excellent game but crashes at a dead end at Special Stage 7!\\n\\nReview: After the fun SOnic Advance 2, the beloved franchise goes to new heights with the third SA entry in the series and man oh man is it fun or what?! But then again I've always said that about each SOnic Game when it came out. Other than that, this game doesn't necessarily break much new ground from previous games except for a new technique called \\\"Tag action\\\" which when using the R (button on the top right corner of the Game Boy Advance) will result in a new move altogether ranging from a superhigh jump to using Cheese the Chao yourself (When you're not playing Cream the Rabbit).\\n\\n The story is almost the same as before. The world is once again in jeopardy when the evil nemesis Dr. Eggman splits the world by separate the chaos emeralds and plans to use them to create Eggmanland as well as work on a new contraption called Germil which was salvaged remains of Emeril from \\\"Sonic Battle\\\" and take over Mobius and create Eggmanland.\\n\\n The game's music is awesome and even better than that of most of SA 2. My favorite music would be the Cyber Track zone before you enter the acts as well as the Toy Kingdom zones. A really cool suprise though is the Green Hill zone with revamped music from the original Green Hill Zone from the original 1991 Sonic The Hedgehog game.\\n\\n The graphics are excellent and sharp. The colors of the Toy Kingdom act zones are beautiful and even the sometimes sickly sweet color scheme however is visually stimulating and lots of fun to play. The jack-in-the-box spring though is a major pain in the pullman though so be warned. I actually lost lives with them so be warned.\\n\\n Some things though do cut both ways. This game no longer emphasizes on score anymore and thus how many rings you have is irrelevent here. Instead of collecting special rings in the act zones, you now have to collect all of the Chaos from each Zone Act in order to gain access to the special stages. While it may depende on the individual, I've found it much easier to find them than the Special Rings from the Second Sonic Advance Games.\\n\\n Mind you though, the special stages which might be ridiculously easy at first can become almost impossible towards the end even for expert players but there is a major suprise at hand that you will not believe until you've managed to beat it. The seventh Special Stage is incredibly difficult and leaves no room for error so be warned. Prepared to be exasperated when playing it but you might be in for a major suprise when you manage to beat it.\\n\\n While expert veteran Sonic players might have similar situtations that I did with the last \\\"Special Stage\\\" of this game, newcomers will find loads of fun with this game. Mind you, it's enormously difficult with the last special stage so be mindful and collect as many keys for it so you can return a lot more frequently.\",\n \"Product: Go head-to-head in furious fighting action and prove which one of Sonic and his friends is really the best fighter. Features 8 playable characters with unique abilities, fighting techniques, strengths and weaknesses. Link up to 4 systems together with a Game Boy Advance Link Cable (sold separately) for awesome multiplayer action!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A much-needed breath of fresh air!\\n\\nReview: As a former video game zealot from my childhood and who became increasingly disillusioned at how grim, and violent that so many video games have become (Men of Honor? Give me a break! That's just something to turn our kids into possible soldiers) but 2003's \\\"Sonic Battle\\\" however is a major relief and gives me hope of more of the harmless fun that made video games so much fun and great escape entertainment!\\n\\n While the games I played were historically adventure games (which I generally prefer), this game combines the adventure genre with battle genre and this game almost combines the X vs. X styles of \\\"Mortal Kombat\\\" minus the blood with the light-hearted fun of the Sonic games of old and the results are absolutely amazing! The music is awesome as well and if I could hook it up to a stereo, one could possibly get better music than what radio stations can offer these days.\\n\\n There are many modes. The first is the story mode where the game starts in Emerald Town with Sonic and Tails finding a mysterious robot on Emerald Beach. Little do they know that this robot is actually a product of the evil Dr. Eggman (Dr. Robotnik from the old games but now known as Eggman) who threw it out believing that it was just a piece of junk. But this robot is powered by Chaos Emeralds. The game just gets more fun from here onwards. More characters eventually come in including some that I've never even seen or heard of before.\\n\\n Battle Mode is a different mode where you can select any character to play including 'evil' characters to battle against three competitors including 'clones'. \\\"Battle Mode\\\" can be played alone or against other players as well. This one is a lot fun.\\n\\n Challenge Mode involves making lots of points when taking into account how quickly the competitor is defeated, how much damage is done, rate of offensive attacks hitting it's target, etcetera.\\n\\n Mini-games is a totally separate area from the otehr modes in which miniature games are played. The only solitary player game in this area is the Mine-Dig starring Knuckles the Echidna and it is played in the same what that the computer game Minesweeper is played in which Knuckles must uncover the squares but not the ones containing mines.\\n\\n \\\"Sonic Battle\\\" is a welcome return for my favorite video game franchise ever. Go and buy it today! Even adults might enjoy this game as well.\",\n \"Product: Set across three defining eras from 20 years of Sonic the Hedgehog video game history, the instantly recognizable environments of Sonic Generations have been re-built in stunning HD and are now playable in both classic side scrolling 2D from 1991, as well as modern 3D style found in Sonic's most recent adventures.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Just like old times! The best Sonic game since the Sega Genesis era!\\n\\nReview: I remember full-well the magic and feel of the original 1991 Second the Hedgehog Classic. Much of my leisure time was invested in that game and the music, bright colours, and adventurous levels, along with entertaining characters made for a game that more than 20 years later, remains among my all-time favorite video games. I would eventually go onto \\\"Sonic The Hedgehog 2\\\", \\\"3\\\", \\\"Knuckles\\\" and even \\\"Sonic Spinball\\\" all of which carved their own niche in my universe.\\n\\n \\\"Sonic 3D Blast\\\" though, while good, I thought was where to a greater or lesser degree the series began to show some cracks in consistancy.\\n\\n Eventually, as all consoles did, the Genesis Era came to an end around 1997 or early 1998 and I tuned out for years afterward. In 2003, I went on to the Gameboy Advance \\\"Sonic Advance\\\" games and the newer appearance for Sonic came about. It took me some time but those games were fun to play, although they fell a bit short of the originals.\\n\\n Then there were some duds like the 2006 game that for some reason was missing some magic, and that god-awful 'remake' of the original classic that was released on Gameboy Advance was virtually unplayable. I was become worried that the franchise was about to fade into the history book.\\n\\n Fast-forward to 2011 and low and behold! We have a game called \\\"Sonic Generations\\\" and WOW! This game is fantastic and pays a marvelous tribute to the original classic version of our beloved Blue Hedgehog, while also maintaining the current-day version of him.\\n\\n In this game, the 'classic' Sonic found his universe intermingling with the 'future' Sonic as they encounter mysterious 'time holes' caused by a mysterious force of evil that has the ability to travel between universes. As in previous games battle 'their' hated archnemesis Dr. Robotnik/Dr. Eggman who aims to utilize this mysterious evil force to establish domination across these universes after all colour is stripped from their respective 'realms' leaving them lifeless 'white spaces'. Now the two 'Sonics' must team up to stop Robotnik/Eggman and restore their 'realities' back to normal again.\\n\\n With the two Sonics, the very best of both worlds are brought together onto the Xbox 360 with the ability to alternate between the 2D Classic Sonic with 2D style platform gameplay, and the 3D 'Current' version of Sonic and utilizing 3D gameplay, both of which are required in order to beat Robotnik. The graphics are gorgeous and must I say it, the music is FANTASTIC! Not since \\\"Spinball\\\" or \\\"Sonic and Knuckles\\\" did I deliberate let Sonic lose lives just to dance to the background music. The music for some of the Bonus Challenges rank right up there with the best of the Sega Genesis-era music.\\n\\n Some of the levels are a bit ludicrious, especially some of the challenge stages but overall, the plot is great, the gameplay is also great, and the overall magic of Sonic The Hedgehog is back with a vengeance. Sega has definately created a lot of stinkers in the last few years of gaming but with \\\"Sonic Generations\\\", this is Sega's redemption and overall, I rank this game as my favorite Sonic game since \\\"Sonic & Knuckles\\\".\\n\\n My only major gripe is that Sonic, in his 2 and 3D versions is the only playable character. Perhaps a future sequel, if there ever is one, can utilize the other characters down the road. Anyway, for what it is, \\\"Sonic Generations\\\" is hands down the best Sonic game in the last decade, and is right up there with the Genesis-era games. Highly recommended!\\n\\n On a side note, I rank Dr. Eggman/Robotnik as the greatest archvillain ever created.\",\n \"Product: Prepare for Titanfall. Crafted by one of the co-creators of Call of Duty and other key developers behind the Call of Duty franchise, Titanfall is an all-new universe juxtaposing small vs. giant, natural vs. industrial and man vs. machine. The visionaries at Respawn have drawn inspiration from their proven experiences in first-person action and with Titanfall are focused on bringing something exciting to the next generation of multiplayer gaming. KEY FEATURES Fast-Paced Future Warfare - In Titanfall the advanced warfare of tomorrow gives you the freedom to fight your way as both elite assault Pilot and agile, heavily armored 24' tall Titans. Titanfall rethinks fundamental combat and movement giving players the ability to change tactics on the fly, attacking or escaping depending on the situation. The Future of Online Multiplayer Action - The game is entirely multiplayer, in a new experience that combines fast-paced online action with the heroic set piece moments traditionally found in campaign mode. The intersection of the two is a big part of what gives Titanfall its iconic identity. The Visionaries that Defined Gaming for a Generation are back! - Founded in 2010, Respawn Entertainment was formed by Vince Zampella and Jason West, former co-founders of Infinity Ward and two of the co-creators of the multi-billion dollar franchise Call of Duty They are building on their pedigree and taking a new approach to game design and creating an all new universe with Titanfall\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Lots and lots of fun though irritating and overdone...\\n\\nReview: I was among many to get this game in the spring of 2014 around the time it came out. Two years on and though I did not come back to this game until December of 2015, I've found Titanfall to be an incredible amount of addicting fun and worth countless hours of leisure time playing.\\n\\n It is a game that takes place in the far future between the IMC and anti-government Militia forces who utilize giant robots for combat against each other through various maps.\\n\\n The primary game modes are \\\"Attrition\\\" which is kind of a 'team deathmatch' between the two sides. \\\"Last Titan Standing\\\" is a titan-centered game mode where titans must eliminate each other until all titans on one side are destroyed. \\\"Hardpoint\\\" which is a domination-centered game where several 'bases' must be captured and held until the top score is reached. \\\"Frontier Defense\\\" is a co-op mode where a team of titans must defend a reactor core from enemy AI titans, grunts, specters (combat robots). And there's also \\\"Pilot Hunter\\\" where pilots must hunt down and elminate enemy pilots until all pilots on one team are dead.\\n\\n All of these games are great fun.\\n\\n The controls can be kind of annoying and awkward to utilize especially with wallrunning. Because the game is online, any connection issues will interfere with game playing and connecting shots on enemy targets is really a pain in the neck especially against cloaked enemies.\\n\\n Otherwise, this is a fun game. Though I don't recommend this to young children, at least the blood is limited at best and nothing disturbingly graphic, unlike let's say \\\"Dead Space\\\".\",\n \"Product: Cartridge only. Cartridge and/or label will show some wear, including discoloration, tearing, writing, or other cosmetic issues. Guaranteed functional or replacement.\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: I found this game to be dissapointing!\\n\\nReview: Let me start that I am a HHUUGGE fan of the Gargoyles TV show. The story was absolutely thought-provoking and the animation was stunning and the characters showed so much depth like nothing disney had done before.\\n Unfortunately this game seemed more like a cash-in on the whole franchise becuase the whole game was just shoddily put together and the controls were lousy.\\n The graphics were rather unimpressive even by 1995-1997 standards and Goliath the character you play looked rather awkward. The controls were rather awkward and made it hard, not to mention unenjoyable to play.\\n A very dissapointing game considering how much of a HUGE fan I am of the cartoon series. Even radical Gargoyles zealots should pass this game by.\",\n \"Product: Sony HIFI HEADPHONE part number MDRCD180 Compatible with:\\n\\nRating: 1.0\\n\\nSummary: This pair breaks too easily\\n\\nReview: I got this pair of headphones; less than 2 months later they broke. The sound was poor and muffled and bad cords were causing one speaker to stop working while the other kept working ok. Needless to say it was like aural agony.\\nPlus the hinges broke too and I handled them gently. They are so fragile you can't seaming enjoy listening to music without feeling worried about a hinge breaking. Both hynges broke. I manage to tape one back together ok; the other popped back out even when I taped it and I couldn't have it fit right anymore because the area where it broke coused the headphone to tilt when I put it on.\\nGot another pair later on. The same situation all over again.\\nA horrible piece of junk and A gigantic waste of money.\\nDon't buy this pair of headphones.\",\n \"Product: Clip the handy 6-key remote control that comes with this Panasonic portable CD player to your belt or jacket for easy listening while you're on the move. This full-function portable CD player is compatible with MP3, CD-R and RW formats. Other features include a no-skip anti-skip system that virtually eliminates CD skipping, backup memory system (100 seconds for MP3; 45 seconds for CD-DA), dot matrix display, heat-resistant polycarbonate body, pop-up disk eject system and ID3 tagging to display titles, artist names and album names while MP3 music is being played. Headphones included. No. SLMP70. Imported. 1Hx5\\\" dia.\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: Panasonic really dropped the ball on this one! >:-(\\n\\nReview: I am incredibly dissapointed with this newest CD player from Panasonic.\\n This discman I feel was a missed opportunity on Panosonic's case to really make a really excellent CD MP3 Player. This fails in many ways which I feel left me bitterly dissapointed with this device.\\n This discman is really visually anesthetic and really nice looking, one of the redeeming features about this but not to where it's worth getting. The thing that really made me angry with this CD Player is that the buttons would crush inwards (Go in and not come back out) whenever I adjusted the volume and thus prevented me from being able to listen to the music to the full extent.\\n This second one is questionable. The volume doesn't even go that high either. If this is due to concern about the hearing damage caused by excessively high volume being taken into account, then I can understand that they did this but the volume on here is very poor and it's nearly impossible to listen to my music when walking down busy streets or other places where there is a lot of ambient noises (I.E. Traffic, constuction, or even high wind).\\n The worst thing about this is that the battery compartment is located inside, YES INSIDE, the CD compartment and if it breaks which hasn't happened with this one but on a previous CD-PLayer I owned, the edges of the broken compartment cover will scratch and really screw up your CDs!\\n A total dissapointment! Don't buy this item!\\n Panasonic had a chance to really make a great CD-Player but they totally blew it this time! Avoid this disc player at all costs.\",\n \"Product: Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Who doesn't like Roger Rabbit? This movie is classic!\\n\\nReview: Amongst the numerous all-time favorite classics of mines, 1988's \\\"Who Framed Roger Rabbit\\\" stands out brightly against almost every other all-time favorite movie of mines. The reason \\\"Who Framed Roger Rabbit\\\" stands out in this case is not only is it fun, but brilliantly joins together two separate worlds, the real world, and the toon universe in such a brilliant way, there's no way one can resist loving every moment of this classic.\\nThe plot revolves around a humorless and even cold-hearted ACME detective named Eddie Valiant (Played by Bob Hoskins) who is on a case to investigate the murder of toon president Marvin Acme and also the killing of his brother by a `toon' which has embittered Eddie against associating with the toon world. Unfortunately for him, much to Valiant's disgust, he is sought after for help by a toon who is one the run, being considered the prime suspect but the truth is, a criminal crime lord named Judge Doom (Played by Christopher Lloyd) is the one who is responsible for the murders of Marvin Acme and also of Eddie's brother and not only that, Doom is on a spree to take over toon town, destroy the `caf district' and replace it with a super freeway, jammed with smog-generating traffic, & lined with gas stations, billboards, and giant strip malls `as far as the eye can see'. Now with the help of the twitchy Roger Rabbit, Detective Valiant is now on the case to foil the evil Judge Dooms plans, and save both the `real' world, and the toon universe from his malicious ambitions.\\nI just don't know where to begin to explain the high level of brilliant casting and great plot that propels this already great movie to unforgettable classic status. Each of the two separate worlds, the `real' world, and the toon world, are just in a chaotic state of fun as Roger Rabbit and his sidekick/nemesis team up in their fight against their common enemy Judge Doom and his `toon' thugs and to find out who is/was responsible for the murders of Marvin Acme and Eddie Valiant's brother. From here, it's an incredibly wild and often hilarious ride as they go on their mission to stop Doom from being able to take over the toon world and build his `superfreeway' and urban sprawl `as far as the eye can see' and turning the toon world into a giant, smog-ridden suburb.\\nChristopher Lloyd's eccentric personality reaches it's peak with his awesome and chillingly funny role as the main villain Judge Doom.\\nFrom what I'm guessing is that those who were involved in the making of this classic went through painstakingly hard work, drawing over 840, 000 animation cels to create the characters and then they were eventually incorporated into the live action shoots and voila! You have a brilliant yet laugh-inducing classic. I don't know about you but the crew must have had lots of fun making this movie. In the end, it all results in an amazing and extremely hilarious classic for the ages. \\\"Who Framed Roger Rabbit\\\" is one of the best movies that 1988 produced. Not only does it bring lots and lots of laughs but combines the humor with a mix of brainless but intelligent dialogue and outstanding storylines.\",\n \"Product: VHS TAPE\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Really excellent action-thriller! 2 Thumbs up!\\n\\nReview: Austrian accented \\\"Terminator\\\" actor Arnold Schwarzenegger hits another home run in his career in the 1996 action thriller entitled \\\"Eraser\\\" and let me tell you, this movie is truly unsettling and not to mention will make you angry as such acts could in fact happen in real life as we know it although the items are a bit far-fetched with today's technologies.\\n A special agent U.S. Marshall named John Kruger works for the Witness Protection Agency, an organization that takes witnesses of major crimes away, wipe out their identities, in order to shelter them from potential criminals who aim to kill those who witness their crimes. His latest mission is to protect a worker named Lee Cullen (Vanessa Williams) who works for a corporation named Cyrez that produces top secret weapons but a massive scandal is brewing and Lee discovers what's really going on and aims to expose the scam to the FBI. However, high level government marshals who are crooks themselves aim to kill Lee and Kruger to attempt to stop the truth from coming out. The Cyrez corporation, under the leadership of a corrupt CEO, is involved in an illegal arms deal with a Russian Mafia hitman who has had a history of murder and terrorist acts against civilians. The arms deal involves trading extremely advanced weapons that don't use any conventional ammunition and instead use magnetic pulses to fire rounds of aluminum at nearly the speed of light and if the arms trade succeed it will bring forth a horrific new era of high-tech terrorism worldwide and John Kruger must stop the arms shipment before it's too late while also protecting lee from corrupt high-ranking officials participating the scam.\\n If Lee Cullen and John Kruger are killed, then the FBI will lose any leads and/or evidence to bring the Cyrez officials to trial and to expose the scandal to the public.\\n This movie sometimes makes me angry not because it is bad because it is a really great movie but it's the whole concept of high-ranking government officials actually being a part of the problem than as the people trying to fight the criminals committing these crimes. I sometimes wonder how one can be able to fight such acts of capitalist greed even if they're totally fictional events.\\n The special effects while limited are really well done especially with the way the bullets create those smoke trails when speed through the air at speeds nearly that of light plus the action sequences are really awesome especially towards the climax.\\n The high-tech weapons are really terrifying with not only the light-speed ammunition but also how they seemingly can scan through buildings and make out movements all around the immediate vicinity. One can't help but feel really paranoid when viewing the scenes where they scan the area when seeking their targets.\\n Once again Arnold Schwarzenegger hits another home run right out of the ballpart playing the U.S. Marshall John Kruger. Arnold's action sequences are once again in top form as he fights against the crooks aiming to eliminate both Kruger and Lee. If you loves his \\\"I'll Be Back\\\" and/or \\\"You've just been terminated\\\" lines from the \\\"Terminator\\\" movies, then he comes up with another brilliant line which is \\\"You've just been erased\\\". God I love it. Vanessa Williams is also very good playing Lee Cullen as she tries to escape the assassins pursuit of her while trying to deliver the evidence of the crime to the FBI. In all honesty, Vanessa is far better when she's acting in movies and singing and releasing albums as opposed to wasting her time on these numerous bland commercials and infomercials!!\\nMy favorite though of the main characters was Star Trek actor James Caan. Man, his portrayal of the traitorous agent Degeurin is absolutely terrifying and truly vivid and brings the horrifically callous nature of the corrupt agent to `life' on the movie. I just can't help but feel really sometimes ticked off at Deguerin because of his horrific acts against the country!\\n Other favorites are the late Joe Pastorelli as Johnny C. along with his mob crime family and some of the characters are really funny especially Johnny C. It's really sad that Pastorelli departed us so soon. :-(\\n This movie is really very well done and delivers incredible action sequences, not to mention an original plot idea. The DVD as of this writing offers little of anything in the way of bonus material but is a grand improvement on the VHS.\",\n \"Product: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom [VHS]\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: \\\"!Prepare to meet Kali in Hell!\\\"\\n\\nReview: The second and possible my favorite of the Indiana Jones trilogy \\\"Indiana Jones and The Temple Of Doom\\\" brings the archaeologist teacher and adventurer from the Nazi-controlled Germany to the tropical jungles of India to wage a battle against a secret underground cult. Quite possibly the darkest and most controversial of the three, \\\"Temple Of Doom\\\" is in fact, my favorite of them and is one of Spielberg's crowning achievements in his entire career. The only trilogy that tops this in my opinion is the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I sometimes like this more than Star Wars but then again, it's a toss-up between the two.\\nIt all starts in 1935, four years after the Lost Ark decimated the bad guys and caused the spectacular demise of poor Belloq and his gang, in Shanghai where Jones meets an internationally renowned singer by the name of Willie and makes a deal with a Chinese gangster leader named Lou Che and then the deal goes sour and they flee from Mr. Che's thugs on a plane. Things don't go as planned though and the plane goes down and the threesome find themselves in the tropical jungles of India where they head to a village where all of its children were kidnapped and their religious stones called Shan Kara Stones by some unknown group. Eventually that unknown group they come face to face is a dark, secret underground society called the Thuggie Cult led by Mola Ram where they perform satanic rituals worshipping Kali and use child slavery to dig in the secret underground mines to mine for diamonds to make more Shan Kara stones in the rituals. It is just mind-boggling how they manage to film some scenes considering that some places in India are forbidden from being filmed or photographed. Some of the places though in the movie are breathtaking especially the underground caves and the stunts in some of the chambers are just enough to make one hold onto the edge of their seats. This movie broke ground with some of the best action sequences that I've ever seen in a movie even to this very day especially towards the last half hour of the movie.\\nI think that \\\"Temple Of Doom\\\" is probably the best of the three with its suspenseful and malicious plot, and the stunning directing by none other than Steven Spielberg. Some of the background music is incredibly haunting, thus amplifying the dark undertones of the movie. I consider the second Indiana Jones movie to be Spielberg's crowning achievement and one of the best adventure films of all-time and even one of my all-time favorite movies. \\\"Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom\\\" would've been perfect had it not been for the excessive cowardice in Willie's character. Mary in \\\"Raiders of the Lost Ark\\\" was awesome and semi-rebellious and it made her such a classic, but Willie is just an annoying and helpless damsel always in need to be rescued and that keeps IJATTOD from being perfect. I think that Willie should've been more heroic but trying to put some positive things in my opinion, it's almost funny how she screams at petty things like bats, or snakes or mere lizards. Quite frankly the screaming can be annoying at times. It would've been so much better if Willie had a more 'tough', and 'tomboyish' charisma like Mary did in Raiders. Oh well. Then again, it's good to have a change in some of the characters and even Willie can be fun at times too. Mola Ram though is just awesome with his evil expression and laughing. Lou Che at the beginning of the movie was another classic one even though he wasn't a main character in the movie but his lines though and the rivalry with Jones was classic. The underground mine chase scene is one of the best action sequences that I've ever seen in my life. It boggles my mind how they managed to film that.\\nThis film created controversy back in its release year and was greeted with mixed reviews from the critics and from fans because of its much darker subject. Many have said that it was too violent and more graphic but the makers of the film said that it was no more violent than Raiders was. Also, it got a lot of negative press from civil rights groups because of it portraying Indians (People of India) as poor, and bloodthirsty, and India as a desperately poor country, neither of which are true at all. India today is a blossoming democracy with lots of large thriving cities. Also it portrayed them as villainous killers with their Thuggee Cult with human sacrifice rituals and then the British as the saviors that come and save the day and even I cannot deny being somewhat taken aback by that. To the detractors, I say Boo Hoo! European colonists during the Colonial Era killed millions of Native Americans in North and South America by disease and forced population movements and also killed or enslaved Aboriginals in Australia and also of Blacks in Africa with the same or similar tactics so basically, every nationality on Earth has been either the savior or the villain! Get it?\\nAnyway, despite the controversy and the negativity, it went on to become another blockbuster at the box office and it deserved the success it got. It's hard for me to say if this one or \\\"Raiders Of The Lost Ark\\\" is better but whatever weakness the two had are complemented though and I think it results in a draw between the two as my second favorite behind \\\"The Last Crusade\\\". Yes, some of the scenes can be too much for younger viewers, but hey, I loved this movie when I was just 6 years old, that's right, just 6 years old, and now at the age of 20, it's now one of my all-time favorite movies and is a highly recommend classic that must be included in every movie-watchers collection. I only wished that this trilogy would've continued into the 1990s or even to the present as the follow-up \\\"The Last Crusade\\\" was a dynamite follow-up to \\\"Temple of Doom\\\". Anyhow, fasten your seatbelts as you'll be in for a h.e.l.l. of a ride!\",\n \"Product: PLEASE READ!!! THIS IS VHS VIDEO NOT DVD!!! New!!! (3-Tapes Box Set) VHS TAPE Sealed (as shown) \\\"Star Wars Trilogy (VHS Boxed Set)\\\" Fast shipping..(T6)\\n\\nRating: 1.0\\n\\nSummary: I'm sorry but BOOOOOO.........................\\n\\nReview: I was very excited about the original movies coming out on DVD but upon seeing them, I was utterly shocked at the tweaking that Lucas has done with his original Star Wars movies. They were absolutely perfect the way they were and the special effects were perfect for their time but whatever these 'special editions' were aiming for, they miss delivering by a mile. Now don't get me wrong, special edition or not, these are masterpieces without a doubt but after three or four versions of this trilogy being released on the soon-to-be out of print VHS editions, I am absolutely tired of waiting and waiting for the DVD editions of the originals to surface. There was nothing wrong with them and to see him do this to us is really saddening and has badly tarnished my respect for his lack of attention to his gargantuan fanbase to release these classics in their unedited versions on DVD. Why?? WHY?? WHY???!!!! I mean the revamped versions are really excellent but the new CGI effects are so out of place with the much older versions of the movies special effects of the late 1970s and early 1980s. This is ridiculous. Okay so maybe he wasn't one hundred percent pleased with the results of the originals but come on!!!\\n\\n Earth to Lucas, Earth to Lucas. You should have looked at the way they did the Alien Quadrilogy where they had both the original versions of the films along side the special editions of each plus tons of bonus features. The Star Wars trilogy DVD is deficient in every possible way having really lame bonus materials.\\n\\n I have had it with his act of denying us Star Wars fans our chance to see the untouched originals cleaned up and remastered in their original forms and now I simply give up on ever seeing the original versions of this trilogy on DVD. This was Lucas' chance to really come up with a grand spectacular DVD set but he totally blew it! Do not buy this DVD. Stick with your VHS editions. OUT!!!\",\n \"Product: \\\"When a loveable London toymaker is kidnapped, his daughter turns to none other than legendary super-sleuth, Basil of Baker Street.\\\"\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Ten years later I still love this movie.\\n\\nReview: I got this movie for my 9th birthday in 1991 and I absolutely adored it. I watched this Disney movie so much at one point that I was ACTUALLY able to remember almost every line off this movie. That expresses how much I really loved. Now scroll ahead to now ten years later. At the age of 19 my opinion of this movie has not changed at all. I still absolutely love it to pieces.\\nThis 1986 masterpiece from Disney is a story about a tough mouse detective called Basil who alongside with his sidekick battles the evil rat named Professor Ratigan(Great name too) who sends his henchman bat Fidget who ends up kidnapping Olivias Flamershams father and ultimately Olivia herself and it's up to Basil, his sidekick Dawson and a family pet dog by the name of Toby to rescue her and her father and stop Ratigan and his malevolent crime schemes before he takes over all of Englands mousedon(Mouse equivilent of kingdom).\\nTo me The Great Mouse Detective contains incredible depth and wonderful charachters and it doesn't suffer from excessive cheesiness like some of Disneys more popular films such as Pocahontas.\\nIn fact it's the more obscure movies like this and Robin Hood that I tend to enjoy more than lets say, The Little Mermaid(I like that movie too. Don't get be wrong) or Aladdin( I love that one too as well as it's two sequels). I say get this wonderful Disney video. It's bound to be an entertaining movie for all ages. I will still enjoy this movie if I live to be 120.\",\n \"Product: Two Full-Length Episodes\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: FINALLY! My favorite animated series is on DVD!\\n\\nReview: I can't even do this justice with this review but I am absolutely thrilled that the long long wait for this to arrive on DVD is finally over! WOEICS is my favorite animated series of all time, occasionally even better than the X-Men animated series that was popular around the same time as this.\\n\\n ACME detectives Ivy and Zack work on cases where they are on a nearly perpetual mission to apprehend and catch the 'uncatchable' criminal thief Carmen Sandiego. Together they must decipher the clues that she leaves behind in order for them to solve and recover stolen items especially of historic landmarks.\\n\\n This series is very educational for younger TV goers especially kids and teenagers and yet even for adults like myself as I was just entering adolescence when this series premiered in early 1994.\\n\\n Although catering to younger audiences, I am suprised that grandparents have found this to be very entertaining as many older people I know have actually told me that they loved this show. It goes to show how diverse it's fans really are.\\n\\n As of writing this review, animated TV series have declined back into banal garbage lacking any good character development and no innovation. WOEICS pushed the limits in animation and stands as a landmark series of the 1990s.\\n\\n This DVD is of the first season of the series and is highly recommended for all CS fans out there, wherever they are!\",\n \"Product: Two Full-Length Episodes\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Not the best episodes but still a must-have\\n\\nReview: This is a really fun and awesome animated series. The cahracters are absolutely brilliant and very three dimensional in personality.\\n In this sadly out-of-print tape, this contains two episodes. One is \\\"Dinosaur Delerium\\\" and the other is \\\"By A Whisker\\\".\\n In the episode \\\"Dinosaur Delerium\\\", Carmen gets a hold of a sample of possible dinosaur DNA and steals technology and ACME is called on the case to find out what she is up to. They have no idea of what she is actually planning on doing with the sample!! This episode isn't the best with me but it's still very good.\\n In the second episode \\\"By A Whisker\\\", Carmen is on the loose once again when she steals two albino cats from a forest preserve and ACME agents Zack and Ivy are on the trail to find out what Carmen's up to next.\\n This is another great VHS tape to own just for the fact that it's Carmen Sandieog. If you can find it, BUY IT ASAP!!! They should release this entire series on DVD because it is the best show on Earth!\\n Enough said!\",\n \"Product: Born into a world filled with prejudice are children who possess extraordinary and dangerous powers - the result of unique genetic mutations. Cyclops unleashes bolts of energy from his eyes. Storm can manipulate the weather at will. Rogue absorbs the life force of anyone she touches. But under the tutelage of Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart), these and other outcasts learn to harness their powers for the good of mankind. Now they must protect those who fear them as the nefarious Magneto (Ian McKellen), who believes humans and mutants can never co-exist, unveils his sinister plan for the future!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A great film that has lots of room for improvement.\\n\\nReview: The first in a possibly long \\\"X-Men\\\" movie franchise is a great but flawed movie and it is one of the one of my favorite movies of 2000.\\nIt starts with a young teenage boy by the name of Eric Lensherr who struggles against the Nazi during WWII and his powers manifest for the first time in his life when he manages to warp and damage a gate to a concentration camp before being knocked unconscious. It is not seen however but Lensherr escapes however and would eventually meet Charles Xavier. Their friendship would eventually continue sort of in a way but at the same time, it would turn into a bitter rivalry as prejudice against mutants worsens and worsens and Xavier seeks to mend the rift between normal humans and mutants while Lensherr on the other hand, believing that humans will never accept mutants into their society, seeks to wage an all-out war against them and rid the world of them. In this flick, Magneto has plotted a special machine that irradiates a force field that mutates normal human cells and the normal human body rejects the mutations and dissolves into water while mutants are completely unscathed. Also, Wolverine escapes a military testing compound with little or no memory of his time there.\\nThe cast of the film is hit and miss, not by the actors themselves but simply how some of them act out their character roles.\\nThe best ones for their characters are Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, Patrick Stewart as Professor Charles Xavier, and Sir Ian McKellan as Magneto. Hugh Jackman has the right kind of expressions that would remind one of Wolverine from the 1992-1996 cartoon series. Patrick Stewert does a wonderful job playing Xavier, I would even go far as to say that Stewert IS Charles Xavier. Sir Ian McKellan cannot be outdone playing the master of magnetism Magneto and has the right kind of sinister voice that would definitely scare young kids. All three of these actors give solid performances and they alone steal the show with their skillful performances in this movie. Rebecca Romijn Stamos' does a good job in her role as Mystique which will be forever remembered with the 'costume' merely being blue body paint and the bizarre stick-on scales to make Mystiques course skin and it's probably Stamos' most famous role in her entire career. Interesting camera angles I must admit.\\nOthers though don't fare as well. While none of them are near horrible or fatally catastrophic, some characters should've been giving much larger roles and could've been much better both appearance wise and personality wise. Rogue, Storm, and Cyclops are among the best characters off all time but in the film, they are reduced to two-dimensional characters with Rogue and Storm being the particular ones as the comic books show them as beautiful, intelligent, and elegant, but on the film they hardly show any of the elegance nor intelligence that they have been in the comics for almost 40 years! Anna Paquin doesn't do a bad job playing Rogue but her character hardly shows Rogue's emotional trauma that the comics have showed time and time again and simply looks more like a helpless victim. Sabertooth while awesome looks more like the bearded lead singer in the rock band Metallica (No offense to the band). Jean Grey looks more romantically involved with Wolverine than with Cyclops. What's with that? Cyclops is almost as uninteresting as your average stranger and hardly shows the romantic relationship with Jean Grey. All of these characters in my opinion are in dire need of improvement on their part especially Storm and Rogue. However, all of these flaws in the characters I mentioned are forgivable in my opinion, considering how difficult it was to adapt a HUGE and rich comic book series to the big screen and it could've turned out disastrous, but instead they pulled it off quite well. There's lots of room for improvement though and hopefully the cast will do an even better job on X-Men 2.\\nAlthough I'm not complaining about it, some characters don't even show up in the film at all. Gambit doesn't join the X-Men until much later, Henry McCoy aka Beast doesn't either, nor does Jubilee. That's OK though. Gradually the X-Men movies shall improve upon the previous as time goes on and hopefully it'll have a long theatre life as opposed to the Batman movie series that probably wound up being killed by the box-office bust, \\\"Batman & Robin\\\".\\nAlthough I love this movie a lot, even I cannot deny that there were plenty of flaws to the film. Despite all of these things, this movie is a great one to own and has a strong message of the effects of bigotry, prejudice and racism and it's destructive effects on society as a whole. The fight scenes in some of them are awesome especially Wolverine battling Sabertooth atop The Statue Of Liberty and the incident at the train station. Overall, while this movie could've been better. This is just my perspective but I think that this first X-Men movie is more of a warm-up to the possible action-packed sequel X-Men or the ones after it. I just hope that this will become like a long lasting movie series that'll go for years and years. I think that they did a good job at adapting the X-Men to the big screen and is a good first start. Buy It Today!\",\n \"Product: This film has outstanding special effects, excellent cinematography & a wonderful cast.\\n\\nRating: 1.0\\n\\nSummary: You've got to be kidding me!!\\n\\nReview: I can't even begin to explain how disappointed I am of the third installment in the Jurassic Park series. Everything about JP3 is so disappointing. This may sound like this is coming from someone who had high hopes for JP3 but actually NO, I had low expectations for it but to my shock & dismay, this movie missed meeting those by a mile. Bloody Hell, I had better expectations with Rocky & Bullwinkle back in 2000 and at least a few of them were met even though that was [...] can fodder.\\nThe entire plot is so ridiculous. The thing begins with someone who gets lost on an island after a skydiving accident, one dies, and it all just simply goes downhill after that. Sam Niell who did such a great job on the playing Dr. Alan Grant in the 1993 original Jurassic Park movie, does such a clumsy job on playing the character, almost as if he were forced into the acting studio against his will. I couldn't have thought of a much worse acting crew either. I can't blame him for the hollow character acting. The others fell completely through the trampoline with absolutely absurd character playing, and absolutely pointless plots, no sense of chemistry, and little, if any sense of writing was put into the plot. Where there was chemistry in the characters in the first movie, there is none of that in the same ppl in this third installment, and instead are those that seem to have the brains of a raisin.\\nThere are some occasional good moments with the plane crash scene being well filmed and a sense of intensity of them trying to get out in time but overall, even that doesn't put any merits into the film. Neither does the awesome, stunning views of the misty valleys, rainforests, and the mountains, even though they're great too look at. In fact, the landscape felt like the most interesting thing in the movie besides T. Rex.\\nOverall in fact, Jurassic Park III feels more like a scrapped version of the first in the JP trilogy as at least in the Lost World, there was some ground being broken as T. Rex got onto the mainland, but here, it's all confined to the small island of Isle Sorna with the same old, same old, script that felt more like it was taken out of the recycle bin and made into a movie without depth put into it. There is nothing groundbreaking nor anything that got me into a state of excitement or thrills. The ending was just plain laughable with a sense of the lack a climax and unfinished filming. When I left the theatre in bitter disappointment, I felt like I had flushed [$$$], and 90 minutes of my life down the toilet!\\n I have no idea of what they were thinking when they made this film but what I can say is if it was the same person who write the original one in 1993, Jurassic Park III is his first complete misfire. This addition to the trilogy was a total disappointment. I'm not pleased!\",\n \"Product: This film has outstanding special effects, excellent cinematography & a wonderful cast.\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: Yawn....I fell asleep during this movie.\\n\\nReview: Would somebody tell me what one Gods Green Earth this was. This can't be the third installment in this series! Jurassic Park III is a dissapointment on many fronts.\\nThere was nothing that broke any new grounds like the first two movies did. This movie is a poor follow-up to the the first J. Park movie and the Lost World. In fact I almost felt cheated when I spent eight dollars on a ticket to go see this movie. Everything that was on the second movie was here but this movie is so predictable. It's almost like watching a scrapped version of the original movie. As a fan of the first two Jurassic Park Movies this was a bitter pill to swallow. So cheap, so predictable, thrown together in like 20 minutes, is a few things I can say about this disaster sequel. Major dissapointment.\\nOh Well. I guess I'll wait another four years for the fourth one.\",\n \"Product: SHREK - SPECIAL EDITION VIDEOCASSETTE. The Party continues....MORE SHREK than ever before! All-New Extended Ending. - DVS Home Video Described movies for people who have trouble seeing the screen.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A screaming Ogre of a classic!\\n\\nReview: I was totally blown away when I finished seeing this awesome animated movie at the big screen. I thought that the \\\"Toy Story\\\" movies could not be topped but \\\"Shrek\\\" proved me wrong. \\\"Shrek\\\" surpassed Pixar's previous movies and today, it is already a much-beloved classic. I don't know how they do but Pixar have managed to create a truly original story every time they make a movie. Not only that , their movies have had the fun and welcoming atmosphere to appeal to younger audiences yet also have enough sophistication and dialog to win over the adult audience and \\\"Shrek\\\" is one of the shining examples of such movies.\\nOn this round of animated Disney fun, the typical fairy tale storyline is severely warped into a charmingly funny adventure starring a modestly unfriendly green Ogre named Shrek played by Mike Myers, a loquacious donkey played by none other than than the eccentric comedian actor Eddie Murphy, whose role in this rejuvenated his career which was going through a stagnant stage with turkey after turkey (\\\"I Spy\\\" anyone?), and a princess named Fione played by Cameron Diaz.\\nThe story begins with a huge solitary Ogre named Shrek who has enjoyed most of his life in peace alone on his swamp/home. However, the harmony of isolation is completely destroyed when one night, all of the Disney characters such as Cinderella, Snow White and her Seven Dwarfs, Tinkerbelle, and Pinocchio, are banished from their homelands and to Shrek's utter horror and dismay, to his very own swamp, which he hates sharing with others thanks to a tyrannical royal kind names Lord Farquaad. Back at his dungeon-like castle, Farquaad seeks to become king but his ambitions have hit a brick wall time and time again because he has to marry a princess in order to do so. Back at the swamp, Shrek tries to drive the cartoon exiles off his swamp but eventually gives in, and decides to confront Farquaad to return the `cartoon exiles' back to their homes. Along the way, Shrek meets a loquacious, eccentric donkey along the way whose talkative ways get on Shrek's nerves but in the end a strong friendship forms between the two as they go up against numerous forces to return the exiles back to their homes.\\nDuring that time, Shrek has to rescue a princess named Fione from a horrible dungeonlike castle that is guarded by an extremely `dangerous' dragon that breaths fire in order to `regain' his swamp back from the exiled beings. But from there, the so called fairytale is completely warped into a comedic adventure full of fun, laughs, and excellent storylines. But not only those make this movie great, it also has a highly important message about what true love really is about that personality is far more important than physical appearance and I tell you, it is for this reason taht \\\"Shrek\\\" is in fact, not only a great and fun movie, but also an important must-have for the ages. I tell you, even if it buts heads against \\\"Monsters Inc.\\\" or \\\"Finding Nemo\\\" as my favorite animated movie, there is no denying that \\\"Shrek\\\" ushered in a new golden age in animated moviemaking. Please buy this awesome movie. It's absolutely worth every rusted penny!\",\n \"Product: Region 1 ENCODED\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A strange and interesting little movie...\\n\\nReview: \\\"Suburbia\\\" is a rather interesting film that paints a much different perspective on the life of street punks who are often branded as `major undesirables' and how the central characters often are at major odds with the `normal' suburban establishments.\\n\\n The story begins with a very disturbing scene involving stray dogs but then cuts to the story of a highly disillusioned adolescent named Ethan whose life is utter hell with his unpleasant mother (who's become a very angry alcoholic) who runs away from home in search of a better life. Later he is taken in and becomes a part of a large gang of rowdy punk rockers. Later in the movie we see a whole barrage of scenes of the lifestyles of the punk rockers in their `alternate' lifestyle in a run down home.\\n\\n At first the movie seems to be directed at a more of a `trailer trash' society but at the same time, it is actually a much more socially-conscious insight into the broken home lifestyle and also questions the way that the authoritarian side of normal society (police, politicians, businessmen, and a large sector of the normal people) treats the youth and what causes the gang act the way they do but also the wild behavior of these individuals. The `normal' side of the movie showcases them as `dangerous to society' and need to be dealt with by any means necessary yet the `alternate' part of the movie showcases the `normal' society as repressive towards the different lifestyle of the gang and how that the cultures between them and the establishment can barely even coexist without major confrontations.\\n\\n My take on this I could not write in stone. I first saw this movie in a social problems class so I couldn't help but want to write my side on this. I sometimes think that both sides are victims as well as perpetrators of the problems of the community. The victims are the people whove been harmed or worse, lost their lives. The `normal' side of society seems more victimized by the vandalism by the gang who spray offensive graffiti on the store walls and on buildings yet the punk rockers themselves seem to be victims of the repressions of the authoritarian nature of the established society by being threatened with being evicted from their dilapidated home due to the increasing property value and while the neighborhood that they live in is rather tired, the increasing property value is viewed by them as an assault on their livelihood by the `rich folks'. That's my interpretation.\\n\\n This is a very interesting movie and am very glad to have stumbled upon it. It has a very unique kind of appeal to it in the way it shows the varying perspectives of the many characters. In ways, some of the `anti-punks' who are a pair of middle-aged trailer trash men commit worse acts than what the punks did. The ending is rather suprising and kind of depressing yet it is so sudden that it dilutes the emotional quality.\\n\\n The movie, as good as it is, was not very well made. Yes, the movie is very good for a cheap low-budget movie but the scenes are a bit blurry and the sound quality is also muffled. The acting is also quite campy but it's interesting how a lot of the actors and actresses never acting an any movies since this time.\\n\\n The DVD itself offers NO improvement on the old VHS release from the early 1980s. The biggest disappointment is that the picture and sound quality are utterly ATROCIOUS and makes the movie look much older than it really is. Sure movies from around 1984 may have a rather gritty appearance in their original look but \\\"Suburbia\\\" suffers immensely from the really gritty picture quality especially during nighttime scenes. The sound quality is also a bit muffled. Compared to some special editions of lets say \\\"Gone With The Wind\\\" or \\\"The Godfather DVD Collection\\\" which the new versions sounds like a heavy towel is lifted off the television speakers, this one sounds garbled and the combination results in a movie that looks and sounds dated as hell.\\n\\n Other than the ancient sound and look of the film, \\\"Suburbia\\\" is a really good but very obscure little treasure that may not be picked up by most people's radars. For those who do find it especially those who are strongly into the punk rock culture (which I'm not that much into) will find this to have a strange appeal but even I find this little movie to have its strange appeal in a strange way. A Mildly recommended movie.\",\n \"Product: Celebration of The Human Spirit, Filled with Heart And Soul.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Disney scores a touchdown with a true story.\\n\\nReview: My interest in football comes and goes from time to time depending on the time of the year but \\\"Remember The Titans\\\" is one movie that I will remember for many years to come. This Disney movie starring Denzel Washington is a powerful, true story of a battle against the corrupt forced segregation at the high school in Virginia called T.C. Williams High School located in Alexandria, Virginia where a racial upheaval occurs when football coach Yoast played by Will Patton hires an African American coach named Herman Boone played by Denzel Washington to coach the T.C. Williams Titans and integrate T.C. Williams High School and is threatened with being fired if they lose a single game during their 13 game season. The players meet and hate each other at first but gradually learn to respect each other and use teamwork to overcome their petty differences.\\nThis movie is a marvelous portrayal of the struggle of integration of all, I repeat, ALL colors and the continuing struggle against the corrupt racial segregation and the ugliness of it's outcomes. The story is true and probably the story could not be better told than from the actual former players who actually played the championship game during this turbulent period in1971. The two coaches Yoast and Boone worked together to bring the Titans to victory in the Championship game amidst the racial turmoil and strife that clouds the atmosphere. Disney definitely scores a touchdown with a riveting true story of a turbulent time in America's history. Amidst all of the turmoil and hatred, the spirit of the Titans during this historic year will forever be remembered around the nation as one of the greatest achievements in high school football history. While Alexandria might have been going through racial tough times during the late 60s and early 70s, today, it's now a very diverse city of many different peoples (I lived there once) but de facto segregation has been and continues to be a huge obstacle to integration today. \\\"Remember The Titans\\\" is indeed a movie to remember.\",\n \"Product: The body of a young woman is found in a ditch in the woods of the small California coastal town of San Benito. SANDRA BULLOCK (\\\"Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood,\\\" \\\"Miss Congeniality\\\"), stars as Cassie Mayweather, the seasoned homicide detective and crime scene specialist assigned to the case along with her new partner San Kennedy (BEN CHAPLIN - \\\"Lost Souls,\\\" \\\"The Thin Red Line\\\"). The two dectectives make their way through microscopic hints of evidence, which seem to indicate a random act of violence, but Cassie has a gut feeling that there is more to this murder than meets the eye. Something about this case reminds her of her past exactly at a time when she is asked to appear at a parole hearing on an old police matter. These events force Cassie to revisit the past.\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: A potentially great movie murdered by weak story.\\n\\nReview: I am very dissapointed with this movie even when my expectations were modest.\\n Two young men, likely around high school age, try to attempt to pull of what would likely be the 'perfect murder' and try to get away with it. Sandra Bullock plays a police detective with a psychologically painful and checkered past who is aiming to investigate and find out what happened when a women was found dead in a river recently.\\n This movie is unbelievably predictable that there is little of anything that instantly grabs your attention. The acting is incredibly hammy and it almost feels like you can tell that Sandra really wanted to walk off the set of this film and for good reason: \\\"Murder by Numbers\\\" is absolutely boring and never gets off the ground. The characters are weak and without any personality and the dialogue is virtually nonexistant.\\n A major dissapointment to say the least. Try out \\\"Blood Work\\\" instead because it is far superior even if it suffers too from some weaknesses.\",\n \"Product: Clothes make the superspy in this high-energy action comedy. Jimmy Tong (Jackie Chan) is a well-meaning but clumsy New York City cab driver who is tapped by Steena (Debi Mazar), associate to multi-millionaire Clark Devlin (Jason Isaacs), for a new job as Devlin's personal limo driver. After a mysterious accident lands Devlin in the hospital, Tong learns that his new boss has a secret - when he's not wheeling and dealing in high finance, Devlin is also a secret agent for the CSA, a top-level security agency. The secret to Devlin's success as a spy is his trademark tuxedo, a suit which is loaded with special gadgets which turns him into a high-tech fighting machine. After Tong dons the tuxedo and is transformed into a martial arts master, he takes over for Devlin and discovers that the agent's injuries didn't happen by accident. As Tong tries to chase down a handful of international super-villains bent on world conquest, he has to deal with Devlin's new partner, Del Blaine (Jennifer Love Hewitt), a CSA rookie who is just as baffled by her new assignment as Tong. The Tuxedo marked the feature-film debut for director Kevin Donovan, who had previously won international acclaim for his work in television commercials.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Decent but one of Chan's weaker films.\\n\\nReview: One of my favorite actors of all time Jackie Chan brings forth another memorable movie entitled \\\"The Tuxedo\\\" which while not groundbreaking by any means, is still a lot of fun to watch and more of the eye-popping stunts that Chan pulls off with his movies. The movie itself movie can go off track in several places but the absolutely hilarious stunts that bring the laughs that Chan has brought forth for so many years are still as fun and hilarious as ever.\\n Starring Jackie Chan and Jennifer Love Hewitt, the movie is of a lowly chauffeur named Jimmy Tong who is called to duty on a top secret mission. He is assigned because Devlin (Jason Isaacs), a secret agent who was going after a dangerous international criminal, suffers a serious head injury after an explosion caused by a failed assassination attempt and temporarily retires and Jimmy Tong takes his place. Tong dons on a tuxedo but he discovers that this very tuxedo he is wearing, is laced with state of the art gadgets that give the wearer special fighting abilities.\\n Jimmy Tong is assigned on a mission to foil the plans of a corporate madman whose plans are to infect the world's water supplies in order to muster up a massive fortune by forcing the public to buy bottled spring water. Now teaming up with\\n The movie is enjoyable to a degree and the laughs are there to keep one watching but there are areas where it really starts to veer off. The script is weak in several places and Jennifer Love Hewitt's character comes off as rude, and snobby, all the reason she's there is for her character is to just give Tong really bad blood and yell and yell at him, ARRGGHH! It's incredibly annoying!! I can't stand her!! I'm just referring to Hewitt's character in the movie, not Hewitt herself of course. This would've been a much better movie if Tong worked alone on the mission. It's not so much that the script or plot were bad but they both could really have used a lot more development and it all comes off as lukewarm at best.\\n The Cameo appearance by the Godfather of Soul James Brown was a really cool idea and the typical action sequences that Jackie Chan has brought us for so many years are so funny to watch (Watch when Tong bashed out a light bulb and caused sparks to fly, SO incredibly funny) but this movie doesn't add much to his legacy.\\n This is a halfway decent movie but I feel that they could've done a much better job at it and is one of Chan's weaker movies I've seen from what I can remember. \\\"The Tuxedo\\\" is worth a look and worthy of renting but don't expect a whole h.e.l.l. of a lot out of it compared with \\\"Rumble In The Bronx\\\", the \\\"Rush Hour\\\" movies, or \\\"Shanghai Knights\\\" or \\\"Shanghai Noon\\\".\",\n \"Product: A former FBI profiler who has recently undergone a heart transplant comes out of retirement to track down the serial killer who has recently begun killing victims with the former agent's blood type.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Decent crime-thriller flick but awkward at times.\\n\\nReview: I happened to have had a fascination with the whole way that forensic investigators have used unusual evidence to track down and find who the real criminals behind crimes really are. 2002's Clint Eastwood directed \\\"Blood Work\\\" for the most part does succeed in being a really good and sometimes challenging movie for crime-drama thriller moviegoers.\\n Terry McCaleb is a former FBI agent Miami who recently retired after a minor heart attack forced him to retire from the job of police investigator until after a string of killings, he comes out of retirement and goes back on the job when the sister of a murder victim is desperate to have her sister's killer brought to justice. Terry McCaleb has had a hard life because of the frustration of letting the killer slip through his hands due to the heart ailment that he suffered just as he was about to catch him. Even more daunting is that the victims' blood matches McCaleb's and he in fact got a heart transplant from one of the murder victims but defies the health effects of his heart transplant to bring down the killer before he strikes again.\\n This movie is a really good thriller for the most part but the movie does have it's share of flaws like even a lot of positive reviews have emphasized. One of the is that the acting by the entire cast, while decent, does from time to time, drift off in all directions. However my favorite one was actor Paul Rodriguez. While he doesn't have a whole lot of acting time on this film, he is so funny as the hot-tempered chief who has had a long standing semi-rivalry with McCaleb. Seeing his character go ballistic all the time is so funny and to be honest, besides Clint Eastwood, Paul Rodriguez really is the shining star for me.\\n \\\"Blood Work\\\" is also marred somewhat by a slow moving storyline and it drags on in places and as a result it's sometimes hard to watch the movie without sitting still or getting bored but it does pick back up before you would fall asleep. One lovemaking scene between Gracielle Rivers(Wanda De Jesus) and McCaleb was somewhat iffy in my opinion due to their age differences and it felt cold to me.\\nHowever, The idea of the killer targeting individuals with the same blood type is in my opinion quite original and keeps this movie from being totally predictable. This is not an essential movie by any stretch of the imagination but for those who like shows like \\\"CSI\\\" as well as \\\"CSI: Miami\\\", then this film is worth a look or two. The DVD has offers no worthy extras in my opinion.\",\n \"Product: HAPPILY EVER AFTER NEVER SEEMED SO FAR AWAY WHEN A TRIP TO MEET THE IN-LAWS TURNS INTO ANOTHER HILARIOUSLY TWISTED ADVENTURE FOR SHREK & FIONA. WITH THE HELP OF HIS FAITHFUL DONKEY, SHREK TAKES ON A POTION-BREWING FAIRY GODMOTHER, THE POMPOUS PRINCE CHARMING & THE FAMED OGRE-KILLER, PUSS IN BOOTS.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: The greatest sequel in many years! As great as the 1st!\\n\\nReview: I can remember almost laughing at the idea of a sequel to the first movie from the summer of 2001. The first \\\"Shrek\\\" movie was an absolutely hilarious work of genius by the animation studio crew and the storyline was absolutely brilliant and original. This sequel entitled \\\"Shrek 2\\\" is every bit as funny, witty and excellent as the original and perfectly continues the story of the legendary green Ogre. (CAUTION: Some spoilers may be present but hopefully not.)\\n Picking right up where everything left off on the first, Shrek and Fiona as the newly wed ogres are happily married and live in the swamp where Shrek himself lived on his own before his previous adventure took him away to face off against Farquaad. Now he and Princess Fiona take a chance and head off to a place `Far Far Away' where they actually head to a large Parisian city with a sort of Hollywood like culture to see and visit Fiona's parents however, the parents have no idea of the fact that their own daughter is actually an ogre and when they do in fact meet her new husband, they vehemently disapprove of the marriage between them and things turn really bad between Shrek and his new in-laws. The King has had a long dislike for ogres and even the Queen is shocked but at least tries to tolerate Shrek and the fact that their daughter is in fact an ogre but just barely.\\n Meanwhile a magical flying witch named The Fairy Godmother along with her son Prince Charming who hates ogres aim to break up Shrek and Fiona's marriage and have Fiona marry her `real' love. However all of them are unaware that the Fairy Godmother and Fiona's father have forged a secret deal to have Fiona and Prince Charming marry and for Shrek, the ogre to leave her life forever by using a special potion that brings `true love'. Shrek aims to use a special potion that brings `true happiness' when taken and Shrek and his donkey aim to repair the fallout from the disastrous confrontation with Fiona's father. Fiona on the other hand, is not turned on by Prince Charming but the manipulation of him and The Fairy Godmother may jeopardize she and Shrek's marriage. Now Shrek, along with Donkey along with a new sidekick cat called Puss In Boots are on an adventure to save Shrek and Fiona's marriage before it's too late.\\n Just like the first one, I adore and laugh to the many ways that \\\"Shrek 2\\\" makes fun of the classic fairy tales. A lot of the jokes from the first one are present on this sequel and Shrek and the talking donkey are both a riot but one of the highlight characters however was the newcomer Puss In Boots! Man Puss In Boots is so hilarious and Antonio Banderas provides amazing voice work and really brings his character to life on the big screen. Once again Mike Myers is absolutely fantastic providing the voice work of Shrek and the characters personality is so rich and real. Cameron Diaz is once again awesome as the feisty Princess Fiona as she is stuck between choosing to remain with Shrek or go with Prince `Charming'. Eddie Murphy was absolutely hilarious providing the voice work for the quirky and excessively loquacious Talking Donkey. As a matter of fact, the entire cast was absolutely phenomenal and were made for this movie.\\n Once again the animation is just amazing and the various sceneries are well filmed and the storyline is just as strong and entertaining as the first one. The first one will always remain the best for me due to the fact that it was really original but this sequel gets my nod as one of the best sequels in many years, up there with \\\"X-Men United\\\", and \\\"Terminator 2\\\". But on top of it all, while it is generally aimed to be funny, it is also brings out a very important message of how true love goes far beyond just physical appearances, and really relies on strong character and honesty and also with this message which would sometimes be told in a boring manner, instead is told through a really funny, intelligent and excellent animated movie. Almost anyone can find a lot of great things with both this and it's predecessor. The kids will love it for it's light-hearted humor and cartoony look and adults and older audiences will love it for it's excellent plot and incredible characters. Even my 86 year old grandmother loved it and wants to see it again. That should explain enough of how appealing this movie is for the various age groups. There are some scenes that may be a bit questionable for small kids but most will not notice.\\n I also love the way that this movie spoofs almost every fairytale that you can imagine. In fact, this movie makes extremely hilarious spoofs of almost everything you can imagine and some of the silly behavior like Donkey when he pops his tongue during one scene made me laugh so hard that I felt like my eyeballs were going to pop right out of their sockets. There are a lot more hilarious scenes but I do not want to spoil it for the viewers. In almost every way, \\\"Shrek 2\\\" defies the trap that often ruins sequels by continuing the story in a reasonable way and retaining the styles of the first while expanding the storyline. I can never say how much I really enjoyed this movie other than saying that you should see this movie because it is already one of the best movies of 2004! Everybody clapped when it was done. That should be enough to recommend that you go and see it today! You will not be disappointed, not by any stretch of the imagination! I can never do this movie any justice with this review and I'm ending it here.\",\n \"Product: As Harry Potter readies himself for his third year at Hogwarts, an incident in which he is unable to control his anger forces him on the lam. At the same time, a dangerous man named Sirius Black escapes from the Azkaban prison with one thought on his mind: to track down and kill Harry Potter. The third year at Hogwarts is full of excitement and danger for Harry and his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: This movie was worth the long wait!\\n\\nReview: After nearly two years and the tragic departure of the late Richard Harris, the third entry in the Harry Potter movie series \\\"Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban\\\" takes the life of Harry Potter to a whole new level and this movie beats the first two right out to sea. This movie is even darker than the previous two movies and in all honesty, this one fares a lot better in a lot of ways because the characters are a lot more mature and even adults have enjoyed this movie at the theatres.\\n After his second year at Hogwarts, Harry Potter(Daniel Radcliffe) is back at Privet Drive for the summer break with his awful and dim-witted Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and Cousin Dudley Dursley but even worse news is that Vernon's sister Marjorie Dursley has been invited for a visit to the Privet Household. Marjorie is a breeder of pit bull dogs and Harry has had really unpleasant experiences with her when a young kid but when Marjorie makes disparaging remarks about Harry as well as his deceased parents, Harry finally loses and after a really major mishap (I'm not saying what happens), he runs away from the Dursley Household. After being picked up by the Knight Bus for stranded wizards. His trip to Hogwarts isn't smooth sailing either but meets back up with his friends Ronald Weasley(Rupert Grint) and Hermione Granger(Emma Watson) and all three are showing signs of adolescence. Even worse is that he learns the news of a notoriously dangerous prisoner named Sirius Black who is the first prisoner to escape from the previously inescapable Azkaban Prison and is believed to be roaming the streets of Hogsmeade but seemingly is trying to find Harry himself. It is also believed that Sirius Black who was Harry Potter's parents' secret-keeper betrayed Harry's parents by revealing their location to Voldemort and giving him the their location which resulted in them being murdered by him and also Sirius is believed to be responsible for the deaths of 12 muggles and one wizard that same night and without a trail, Black was sent to Azkaban. Also extremely dangerous creatures called the Dementors are assigned by the Ministry of Magic to guard the gates of Hogwarts to prevent Black from setting foot on the school grounds but the Dementors have been harder and harder to control and have been targeting Harry in particular. These creatures have the ability to drain all of the positive feelings out of the air around them and force the victim to relive his worst memories.\\n This movie improves on the greatness of the first two and with this one, I can really relate to the characters a lot more because they are a lot more mature. The characters are far more developed and the trio cast show much greater confidence than in the first HP movie and even much more than even \\\"The Chamber the Secrets\\\". Alfonso Cuarino who takes the reins from Chris Columbus to brilliantly directed the first two does an extremely spectacular job of directing this third HP movie and while I was definitely expecting great directing from him, I never expected such great directing like this. The movie is a lot darker than the first two movies and the plot outline is a lot more sinister. The Dementors are also very creepy but at the same time, I'm so glad they don't look like rip-offs of the Nazgul from the LOTR trilogy. The special effects are absolutely amazing and add a lot to the visuals as opposed to overblowing it. At the same time, \\\"Prisoner of Azkagan\\\" is incredibly funny and has some of the funniest scenes and lines of any of the three movies but the humor adds a lot to the much more sinister feel of this movie.\\n The movie does have it's peeves though. The biggest peeve of all is that they really do a great disservice to Harry's archrival Draco Malfoy. In the first two, we see that he is a really mean-spirited nasty boy who showed a lot of the characteristics of a blossoming evil but to my dismay, Draco is reduced to just a sniveling, whining coward. This to me is the one time where they drop the ball on this movie. The movie also cuts out some scenes which I liked in the novel counterpart but hey, it's impossible to film every detail of an entire novel and thus, I'm not that surprised. The other one isn't a peeve but it just took some time to get used to a whole new look for Albus Dumbledore but I must say, the late Richard Harris' replacement Michael Gambon was excellent filling in Harris' shoes portraying Hogwarts Headmaster Album Dumbledore and was a lot better than I expected even when I was surprised at the change in Dumbledore's look for the movie.\\n\\n After the year and a half wait after the excellent \\\"Chamber of Secrets\\\", \\\"Prisoner of Azkaban\\\" was worth every moment of the long wait and if you liked the first two, then I strongly recommend that you see this movie as soon as possible. The book version is superior to the movie version but for what it is, this movie is worth every penny and I cannot wait to own this on DVD. Go and see this movie pronto because it is brilliant, it's funny, it's sinister, and it's really entertaining and smart.\",\n \"Product: When 28-year old wannabe animator Gord Brody (Green) leaves the safety of his parents' home to make it big in Hollywood, all hell breaks loose... in hospital rooms, with paraplegic nymphos, in a cheese factory, with farm animals... and much more! Just whe\\n\\nRating: 1.0\\n\\nSummary: THIS SHOULD BE BANNED OFF THE EARTH!\\n\\nReview: I don't know if I could ever muster up enough words at how angered and extremely offended I am at the extreme level of stupidity and high level of gross content that this movie is bloated with to a near-bursting level. I was appalled when\\nI am absolutely baffled, not to mention appalled, at the large number of people who actually like this (edited for inappropriate language) and giving it favorable reviews. This is a testament to just how mentally arrested much of society seems to have become in recent years in terms of taste for entertainment. There are many extremely disturbing and horrifying scenes that just completely destroy all of the worthiness of this abominable film. To put it plain and simple, there isn't even an atom of redeeming value anywhere on here. All of us have plenty of freak in ourselves. \\\"FGF\\\" has none of that. This movie is just plain sick, perverted, and stupid to a dangerous level.\\nHow is it funny when a stillborn is spun around in the air with an umbilical cord in a hospital room and then given back to the mother and laughing about it?! How is it supposed to be funny seeing animal (gratification) funny?! How is any of this funny? Anyone with even a small piece of brain tissue would be smart enough to not even find this remotely funny. I would've even go far enough as to say that this is racist and bigoted!\\nThere are plenty of dumb movies out there that can still be plenty of fun and humorous without necessarily being intelligent. \\\"Freddy Got Fingered\\\" does not fall into either category. In fact, I am absolutely confused that this hasn't gotten an NC-17 rating as the content that is prevalent throughout warrants this being that rating and far more than an R rated flick. This should've even been categorized in the adult movie section at a run down video store. I would even go the distance to say that it almost seems to be more like illegal video material that would get one in major trouble with the law.\\nDon't even bother to rent this cinematic garbage. There isn't anything shocking about it at all. It's just an embarrassing and ignominious piece of garbage that just simply should be taken off the market altogether. It will do nothing but indelibly leave negatively disturbing images in your mind and leave bad mental scars for many years to come. Thankfully though, I managed to psychologically recover from the scars of this wretched movie and rebound a strong person. It's a shame that Green hasn't done the same. He is like 25 years too old to be acting like a leprechaun with rabies. This is the bottom of the barrel in moviemaking and is nothing but complete (edited for inappropriate language) that should never have even been put into existence! Oh and please, someone get out a bullhorn and tell Mr. Tom Green that his garbage that is thrown at us is totally UNFUNNY!\",\n \"Product: Austin Powers is called to action again when his father is kidnapped by his arch enemy Dr. Evil and the mysterious Goldmember.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Much better than I thought.\\n\\nReview: Considering how much I really despise Beyonces group Destinys Child I kept my expectations for this movie relatively low. I was so sick and tired of hearing that strongly annoying voice on the radio and people shoving that DC krap in my face.\\nHowever my expectations were completely blown away and Goldmember turned out to be my favorite of the Austin Powers saga.\\nThe jokes that dominated the first two flicks are continued in the third installment of the bunch. Austin Powers is one a mission to stop a crazed man from using a magnetic beam to cause an giant asteroid to collide with earth. Plus Austin has to rescue his long lost father by the name of Nigel Powers.\\nMy favorite part was where Austin Powers met Britney Spears in the awful Boyz video when it turns out that the Britney in the movie was actually a fembot. I literally laughed when I saw the fembot blow up.\\nWhile the female charachter Foxy Cleopatra did get on my nerves at the beginning I must say she turned out much better than I thought. While I don't have much respect for Beyonce Knowles in terms of music she could gain my respect in terms of being an actress.\\nSo far one of the best theatrical releases of 2002! I'm looking forward to the fourth installment whenever that comes out.\",\n \"Product: VHS TAPE\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Cuts extremes of both ways for me.\\n\\nReview: Okay, I wasn't too thrilled at the whole concept of the idea of a really dumb show actually being made into a full-length feature film and was literally put off by it until I stumbled upon this on cable recently and the result though for me, cut extreme ways for me being a mix of truly funny, genius stunts and disasters, to average ho-hum stunts to sickeningly stupid and vomit-inducing without being funny.\\n Okay so this isn't actually a movie at all. No script, no plot, but just plain hodgepodge of stunts, \\\"Jackass: The Movie\\\" is designed to really offend some, yet really entertain others too. For me, this does both on an enormous scale.\\n Starring Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Steve-O, and a bunch of other misfit punks, these guys are not just some drunk delinquents who are finding stunt ideas to entertain, these people are actually trained professional stuntmen who are highly trained and thus, kids out there who watch this should NEVER, EVER try to perform any of the stunts in this film.\\n In any case, some of the pranks are absolutely a riot to watch. I find it amazing how someone could actually jump on a mini-trampoline and crash right through a ceiling fan going at high speed and crash onto a small wooden table that collapses under the velocity of him landing on it. I was laughing so incredibly hard at it that I hurt my lungs because it was so funny and also because I have a love for slapstick and this is the best slapstick crash I've ever watched on TV. Other numerous pranks pulled off by these Jackasses are also a riot to watch. The 'ceiling fan' stunt is a favorite but another one that also made me scream with laughter is the bowling alley one in the beginning that made me laugh so hard that I literally hurt my lungs.\\n However, some of the antics pulled off are absolutely sickening to watch and two in particular were just extremely gross and enough to make you want to throw up after watching and want to take a bath with lots of cleaning substances........and this is without being funny by any stretch of the imagination. One of them risks spreading harmful bacteria and is very unsanitary.\\n However, the last one in this movie combines the sickeningly gross qualities of the worst parts of the movie and the worst of what the entertainment industry has to offer. It's really quite sickeningly stupid and really tasteless in an unentertaining way and really damages a lot of what could have others been good about the latter part of this 'movie'. The ending however that takes place 60 years in the future is really funny and brings this mixed bag of a DVD to a glorious conclusion.\\n This isn't a movie at all. It has NO script, no plot, just plain pranks played by professional stuntmen and while some are really stomach turning, most of them are really funny to watch, that is if you can bypass some of the obscene nature of some of them. We all have some 'jackass' in ourselves but this really brings out the 'jackass' in these guys and let me tell you, the title of this 'movie' is perfect. Be mindful though that not only is there some really disgusting content but also highly masochistic behavior and some of the stunts are really dangerous!!\\n So take off your thinking cap, put the school/college books on the shelves and share a laugh or two and perhaps have a barf bag with you if you are a bit queasy plus have a DVD remote to bypass the more offensive stunts. It is certainly offensive to a high degree especially to the mature audiences but also has lots of entertaining slapstick stunts. The critics hit the nail on the head by saying that this may very well be 'the Decline of Western Civilization as We Know it'.\",\n \"Product: Comic genius Jim Carrey stars with Jennifer Aniston and Morgan Freeman in the funniest, most outrageously entertaining comedy hit of the year that critics are applauding as \\\"a laugh a minute\\\" (Jim Ferguson, FOX-TV). Bruce Nolan (Carrey) is a discontented TV reporter who believes the entire universe is stacked against him. In a life-altering encounter, the Big Guy Upstairs (Freeman) endows Bruce with all of His divine powers and challenges Bruce to take on the big job to see if he can do it any better. Bruce Almighty is the wildly funny comedy featuring \\\"Jim Carrey at his best!\\\" (Leonard Maltin, Hot Ticket)\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Jim Carrey's best movie in many years!\\n\\nReview: While not necessarily putting down what he's done in recent years, 2003'S \\\"Bruce Almighty\\\" gets my nod as Carrey's best movie he's starred in in many years and to me his major comeback.\\n\\n Bruce Nolan is an eccentric news reporter whose life is just simply going down the tubes, first his marriage with his wife is going sour and he just got fired from his job as a news reporter and he blamed it all on God. However one day, after getting angry with God, God himself replies back and takes Nolan up to heaven with him and asks questions about his life and why he's badmouthing him. Nolan as a result, believing in asking God to make things better, is given the task of running the world with God's powers for a while but he realizes just how hard God works in order to make things better for the entire world.\\n\\n Now Nolan must answer every prayer, which there are like over 2 billion made veryday (2 Billion people total follow Christianity) and control all of the ways the world runs such as physical changes and events without becoming known to the public.\",\n \"Product: Action superstar Jackie Chan (Rush Hour 2, Shanghai Knights) combines his high-flying style with state-of-the-art special effects as he unleashes the power of THE MEDALLION, the film Roger Ebert gives a big 'thumbs up! Chan plays Hong Kong detective Eddie Yang, who works with the beautiful Interpol agent Nicole (Claire Forlani from Meet Joe Black and The Rock) and the bumbling agent Watson (LeeEvans of Mouse Hunt) to try to rescue a boy from the clutches of the villainous Snakehead (Warlock's Julian Sands). But when a fatal accident ends his life, Eddie is brought back to this world with the help of THE MEDALLION and is supercharged! Now empowered with superhuman strength, Eddie sets out to thwart Snakehead's plan for world domination. Filmed on location in Hong Kong, Thailand, and Ireland. Jackie Chan has got the powerand kicks THE MEDALLION into high gear!\\n\\nRating: 1.0\\n\\nSummary: A near-total waste of time\\n\\nReview: Now don't get me wrong, Jackie Chan is one of my favorite actors of all time and I've loved watching his movies ever since first seeing \\\"Rumble In The Bronx\\\" in the spring of 2001, albeit five years late, and I've come to enjoy many of his other movies but his 2003 outing called \\\"The Medallion\\\" is without a doubt the weakest moive that he's ever starred in and is a major disappointment considering how great many of his others, or even his other subpar films at least had some funny moments. On here however, even the funny momemts are hardly enough to muster up a laugh at all.\\n\\nJackie Chan stars as a Hong Kong detective who is investigating a notorious international smuggler who is after a mysterious ancient artifact called The Medallion that resurrects and gives eternal life to those who wear it but a kid who bears it's power is kidnapped by the smugglers and now the Hong Kong detective must rescue him from them and retrieve the artifact before it is used by the ringleaders.\\n\\n Sadly, being a huge Jackie Chan fan, \\\"The Medallion\\\" is by far the most uninspiring movie that he has ever starred in. Even all of the slapstick stunts are nowhere near as funny as like those in classics like \\\"Rush Hour\\\" or his cult hit \\\"Rumble In The Bronx\\\". There is virtually nothing that inspires laughs like the truck full of childrens play balls falling off the fourth level parking garage in \\\"Rumble In The Bronx\\\" or even those from \\\"The Tuxedo\\\", his weakest movie before this travesty came along.\\n\\n The acting is absolutely ridiculous and even Jackie's eccentricity that has made him so much fun to watch isn't enough to save this garbage. The acting by almost everyone else doesn't help either. Everything about this movie gives a sense of this having ground already been traveled on countless times without giving it a different light.\\n\\n I am a major Jackie Chan fan and have been for many years but this is the first time that I have felt really let down by a movie of his. If this is a sign of artistic decay then \\\"The Medallion\\\" is perhaps a crossroad of where Jackie must try to come up with new ideas to bring new magic into his career because this movie has none of that. An outright disappointment.\",\n \"Product: THE STORY UNFOLDS ON THE STUDIO BACK LOT & CAREENS ALL OVER THE MAP IN TIME HOMORED LOONEY TUNES STYLE. OUR CELLULOID HEROESEMBARK ON A HILARIOUS ADVENTURE THAT TAKES THEM FORM HOLLYWOODTO LAS VEGAS, PARIS TO THE JUNGLES OF AFRICA IN SEARCH OF FRASIERS CHARACTERS MISSING FATHER\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Not an essential movie but a lot of fun!\\n\\nReview: I find it really sad how cel artwork used in animated cartoons is becoming a dying art form in recent years. While computer animation is really amazing as \\\"Monsters Inc.\\\" and \\\"Finding Nemo\\\" demonstrates, I feel that they should never stop making straight-out cel animated movies. To me, cel art requiring hand painting and drawing is really creative and amazing.\\n If you liked \\\"Space Jam\\\" from several years back, then you are likely to enjoy \\\"Looney Tunes: Back In Action\\\" and I would say that they really do return to action on this good, fun but somewhat disjointed flick. In a lot of ways, this film brings back memories of \\\"Who Framed Roger Rabbit\\\" from my childhood and this is a really good thing for me. If you're looking for anything thought-provoking or requiring intellectual challenge, then you will want to pop in something else for now but for everyone else who wants a good time and can withstand thin acting in parts then by all means go and give this movie a watch. There is plenty of entertainment to offer and will make you laugh.\\n It all begins where Daffy Duck is jettisoned from his workplace because of competition from his cartoon rival, the witty and funny Bugs Bunny, but Daffy Duck runs into a recently fired stuntman named Bobby Delmont. Delmont is eager to find and rescue his father who was recently kidnapped by renegade ACME criminals and several of the antagonistic Looney Tunes characters like Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, and two really big cartoon criminals help in trying to retrieve a powerful artifact called the Blue Diamond and use it's power through an orbiting satellite and transform all of the Earth's human population into monkey's in order for them to buy his products and turn them back into humans in order to make a gigantic fortune out of it.\\n Not all of the Looney Tunes characters show up in the movie but enough of them do to make the movie acceptable. My favorite of the Looney Tunes are Bugs Bunny and Tasmania. I really love how the former rivals Daffy and Bugs clash in the early part of this movie but then eventually work together to prevent the Diamond from being used for ACME Corporation's malevolent schemes. Tasmania's twisted and demented character is just incredibly hilarious even if he is only in a few scenes through this film.\\n The acting by the cast playing the non-cartoon characters is a bit hammy in my opinion. Brendan Frasier does alright as the insecure Bobby Delmont whose trying to find his father and save him from ACME Corporation. While not necessarily bad or awful by any means, Jenna Elfman looked rather uncomfortable on this role and her character Kate came off as being dry and totally uninteresting at best nad it almost looked like she was just ready to leave the set altogether. To me, the Looney Tunes characters were who really carried this film. The acting is good during several clumsy disaster scenes and there is even a cameo appearance from Batman during a botched filmmaking scene but there's more there than I want to give out.\\n While not a great movie by any stretch of the imagination, \\\"Looney Tunes: Back In Action\\\" succeeds in being a highly entertaining and fun flick even if the acting by Fraser and Elfman comes off being skiddish and even clumsy at times. Give this movie a try. While I'm not saying that this movie is really a must-have, it offers enough to warrant keeping it and younger audiences should see it just for the sake of keeping Looney Tunes alive for all the years to come and older audiences to continue to enjoy their childhood favorites. Even if this movie is forgotten in the future, The Looney Tunes and all of our beloved classic cartoons that we have enjoyed over the last 75 years since 1928's Mickey Mouse are immortal and will never die off from our memories.\",\n \"Product: The Haunted Mansion [VHS]\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Occassional awkwardness but overall a lot of fun\\n\\nReview: \\\"The Haunted Mansion\\\" is a really funny, if somewhat awkward hybrid of horror and comedy all mashed up in one 90 minute adventure in one movie.\\n It all starts with a real estate husband/wife partnership where they sell houses to various tenants and but the workaholic lifestyle is straining their marriage as Jim Evers is working longer and longer hours. Later on they hear about an old grand mansion in the remote parts of Louisiana they think/believe that they have brought upon themselves a grand opportunity but when the whole family gets there they however realize that this is no ordinary old grand mansion. A very old butler named Ramsley greets them as does his master Gracey who lost his dear beloved lover many years ago to an `accident' and has been tormented with grief ever since then. However, the only way to `move on' is to discover the truth behind the death of Master Gracey's beloved.\\nThis place is haunted by tormented spirits `trapped' down on earth. Jim going through all of the mayhem meets a ghost that inhabits the mansion and discovers that the only way to save himself from the curse that enshrouds his family is to `break the curse' that has trapped all of them in the place of darkness and free them and this is told through a psychic crystal ball with immense psychological powers.\\n This movie is really a lot of fun with a sort of watered-down Addams Family style visuals but I don't really find it to be all that scary. In fact, I find this movie to be a lot more funny and humorous slapstick fun than comedy horror but this movie offers lots of laughs. Adults may not find a lot to write home aobut with this movie but Eddie Murphy fans as well as younger audiences will find lots to enjoy on this movie. It's not an essential movie by any means but it is worth a look if you have too much time on your hands.\",\n \"Product: This critically acclaimed epic trilogy follows the quest undertaken by the hobbit, Frodo Baggins, and his fellowship of companions to save Middle-earth by destroying the One Ring and defeating the evil forces of the Dark Lord Sauron.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: The Ultimate DVD set for all time!\\n\\nReview: I already reviewed the regular \\\"Motion Picture Trilogy\\\" containing the non-extended editions of the legendary Lord of The Rings masterpieces on one set. However, this newest edition is a grand improvement on the previous edition. This item is a much, MUCH better investment than the old theatrical counterparts and is perhaps the greatest DVD purchase one will likely ever make.\\n\\n A lot \\\"Director's Cut\\\" scenes are usually just added footage that doesn't do a whole lot to add onto the theatrical edition of movies with examples like Star Wars, Manhunter, or even most of the \\\"Aliens\\\" movies as well. The extra material is just that, extras, that wouldn't kill me to never see again.\\n\\n It's a totally different story altogether with the \\\"Lord Of The Rings\\\" movies altogether. While the regular theatrical editions were mind-blowing, the extended cuts of the same films do wonders in fleshing out the story and expanding the characters a lot more. Several characters that were not much more than background people are shown much more screen time, stories are greatly expanded, other scenes are much more meaningful, and the movies overall have a totally different feel altogether thanks to all of the extra footage that was not included on the theatrical editions. Now as I watch them, the old editions of them are rendered almost completely obsolete due to the chopped up nature of them. I sometimes wonder if Peter Jackson grimaced when he had to leave a lot of extra shots out of the movies to fit them onto the theatres when they were released.\\n\\n \\\"Fellowship\\\" has 30 minutes of extra footage included to a length of 3 and a half hours. \\\"The Two Towers\\\" was extended 43 minutes to a total of 3 hours and 42 minutes and finally \\\"The Return of The King\\\" is extended by a grand 50 minutes and the ultimate result is a whopping 4 hours and 11 minutes long! I don't know about you but I don't know how one can make a longer movie like this but Jackson did it! The grand total of all three extended editions is at least an astronomical 11 hours long! This is just the movies themselves.\\n\\n As for all of the extras on the \\\"Extended Editions\\\", there are over a days worth of extras for surf through on the latter two discs of each film set. The things on them are too great to explain in detail with this review.\\n\\nWhether you buy them individually or all at once on this massive gift set, \\\"The Lord of The Rings\\\" trilogy goes down as the greatest trilogy of all time. You could not make a better purchase. I swear it!\",\n \"Product: This critically acclaimed epic trilogy follows the quest undertaken by the hobbit, Frodo Baggins, and his fellowship of companions to save Middle-earth by destroying the One Ring and defeating the evil forces of the Dark Lord Sauron.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Excellent item but wait for the Extended Editions\\n\\nReview: This trilogy is almost certainly among the greatest movie achievements in movie history. I could never imagine how anyone could actually successfully adapt Tolkien's three novels into movies after those horrible animated editions but with the help of director Peter Jackson and a stellar cast, they really did it! They have brought much of the richness of Tolkien's continent of Middle Earth to life on the big screen and almost everything that could succeed does so on not only the first and second but all three of these movies. (Minor spoilers may be present but hopefully nothing major).\\n LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING: This is the first part of the three part movie trilogy and when first seeing it, \\\"The Fellowship of the Ring\\\" literally altered my world forever. I had never seen such a powerful and epic masterpiece ever before than when I first saw this on it's opening night. It all begins in the quiet isolated Hobbit community of The Shire. Hobbits have been very much into their own community and have been so for untold generations. However, a powerful and evil artifact called the One Ring of Power, is brought over by Bilbo Baggins who found it after a gaunt creature named Gollum lost it after carrying for over 500 years. The Ring was forged by a dark Lord Named Sauron who used it to pour his malice and will to dominate all life on Middle Earth and after more than 3000 years, it's power has awakened and gradually begins to corrupt all who carry it. Bilbo Baggins is told about the Ring's dangerous power by a powerful Istari wizard named Gandalf and after much persuasion, he gives up the Ring and his home to his nephew Frodo Baggins.\\n LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS: This second part in the trilogy blew me away when I first saw it in the movie theatres when it opened in December of 2002. This part finds Frodo and Sam continuing on their quest to Mt. Doom when they in fact, are confronted by Gollum who had carried the Ring for 500 years before Bilbo found it. Now Frodo and Sam have no choice but to follow Gollum on their quest to Mordor and to destroy the Ring at Mt. Doom. Meanwhile Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli, the remaining fellowship are now trying to find Merry and Pippin after they've gone missing and find themselves in the kingdom of Rohan where it's king Theoden has been withered and aged because of Saruman's power having a strong hold over him. Saruman's armies have been unleashed against Rohan and have begun their acts of death and destruction on Rohan and will do the same on Gondor. Can they save Rohan from death? The epic scale grows much more intense and epic and the whole story gets darker and more dramatic. This second part builds on the greatness of the first.\\n LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING: This final part of the legendary trilogy brings the epic Lord of The Rings to a glorious finish. This is arguably the darkest and more intense of the three and is very scary. The dark forces of Sauron have now expanded beyond Mordor and the last free kingdom of Middle Earth, Gondor is in grave danger when the armies of Mordor are unleashed but also the free kingdoms are also being invaded by evil men from the South and East and join with the orc armies to destroy the free kingdoms of Middle Earth. Meanwhile Frodo and Sam are on the edge of Mordor. The power of the Ring has gotten a lot stronger and is taking a hold of Frodo as they are every closer to the fiery chasms of Mount Doom. The odds are strongly against the free peoples of Middle Earth and the darkness of Mordor has grown powerful and the armies are massive. Only Frodo and Sam with the help of Gollum who Sam does not trust, can be able to save Middle Earth from doom and destruction. This finale made me cry like no other movie in my entire life. Not even \\\"Titanic\\\" made me weep like ROTK did because it feels so much like what's happening to our planet with corrupt forces running rampant and terrorist organizations going out of control.\\n These three movies are the greatest fantasy films ever made but it goes outside just mere fantasy. It is a powerful tale of bravery, friendship, courage, and hope and these are emphasized more than on any other movie in history. The CGI effects on this trilogy are cataclysmically amazing and a lot of the special effects are so realistic that one would barely or not even notice that some of the scenes are computer generated. While I'm not brushing this edition of the movies, I would recommend the Extended Editions over the regular versions. There are so many extras on the extended editions of all three Lord of The Rings movies that you will find yourself missing out on so many amazing documentaries on the 4-DVD editions plus the extra scenes in both movies expand the scope of them so this 3-movie set containing just the theatrical editions of the three will leave a lot to be desired. I am not saying that I would ask to avoid this product necessarily but that the Extended Editions would be a far greater investment if you have the money.\\nThen again this is a very awesome trilogy and this set is a must-have if you love this trilogy. In all honesty, I don't even consider it that because I view this as one long movie broken up into three separate films and they all must be watched in order to really experience them. I don't think any of us will ever experience movies like this ever again in our lifetimes but who knows. Movie making doesn't get any better than this!\",\n \"Product: Legendary monster hunter Van Helsing (Hugh Jackman) is summoned to mysterious Transylvania on a mission that will thrust him into a sweeping battle against the forces of darkness! With non-stop action and electrifying special effects, Van Helsing is an adrenaline-powered motion picture event Roger Ebert calls \\\"Spectacular!\\\"\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Flawed but fun movie.\\n\\nReview: Ok I was rather skeptical about the whole concept of this movie but went anyway just to see Hugh Jackman after his phenomenal acting as Wolverine in the X-Men movies. The whole concept of Dracula and Frankenstein topics sounds extremely cheesy and almost laughable to me at first. However, I was surprised because \\\"Van Helsing\\\" turned out to be a surprisingly great movie and blew all of my expectations right out into the ocean.\\n A special operative named Gabriel Van Helsing is a mysterious man who hunts demons and vampires in the streets of 1880s Paris and London but is assigned to hunt down a murderous vampire named Count Vladius Dracula who aims to spread evil and horrors all over humanity and Van Helsing travels to Transylvania where his world collides with a young woman, the last descendant of a family that has been dedicated to ridding the world of evil for centuries and now aims to destroy Dracula for good after the atrocities he's committed including murdering her father. Dracula has also been sending out a large swarm of smaller vampires hatched in his lair to exterminate the residents of a nearby town in the Transylvanian Mountains. Princess Anna's family has made it's vow that it will not enter heaven until Dracula is destroyed for good and Van Helsing is the only one who can really in fact can do just that.\\n I actually found the movie to more fun than scary for the most part but some of the scenes were pretty intense to watch and some were a bit much for me. This movie isn't necessarily one for the thinking crowd but \\\"Van Helsing\\\" is nonetheless a really fun and action-packed flick that is a really great homage to the classic 1930s through 1950s horror movies and brings back a lot of the old-fashioned styles of the past. In some ways too it also breaks some of the predictable elements of vampire films of the past. It almost even sheds a totally new light on the classic Frankenstein monsters of old.\\nThis movie has it's share of flaws such as some hammy acting in some spots and awkward storyline but a lot of them are bypassed because this movie is just plain fun and worth killing a couple of hours. It is no masterpiece or even an amazing film by any stretch of the imagination but it is certainly worth a look...that is if you aren't willing to watch a movie that requires intellectualization but instead is like mind popcorn to munch on and that's what matters here. If you loved \\\"The Mummy\\\" and \\\"The Mummy Returns\\\" then \\\"Van Helsing\\\" is worth the buck.\",\n \"Product: In the year 2029, the ruling super-computer, Skynet, sends an indestructible cyborg (Arnold Schwarzenegger) back in time to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) before she can fulfill her destiny and save mankind.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: \\\"Judgement Day\\\" has come at last!\\n\\nReview: The first \\\"Terminator\\\" movie from 1984 became, from my point of view, one of the most unlikely sci-fi/ action hybrid classics of all-time. With such a low budget that was allotted into making that movie, the result was a surprisingly incredible experience thanks to James Cameron putting that limited amount of money into excellent use. Parts of that movie though, especially the futuristic scenes have dated rather badly over the years but it still remains a highly innovative movie. 1991's follow-up \\\"Terminator 2: Judgement Day\\\" takes what was great about the first one and builds upon it to create an even better sequel. This is no sequel slump by any stretch of the imagination. James Cameron with the benefits of a much higher budget and with the task of creating one of the most highly anticipated sequels ever in the history of movie-making, he pushes the envelopes of sci-fi action thriller making and revolutionized special effects by creating some of the most awesome special effects ever made in action movies even by todays standards. \\\"Judgement Day\\\" surpasses the first one by a good amount in many ways, even though the first one was awesome in it's own right. It showed a much improved technological breakthrough in movie-making with far more special effects and innovation that results in a movie that still looks fresh and as up to date and even ahead of it's time, much more so than many sci-fi movies that have come ever since then.\\nIt all begins many years after the terrifying events of the year 1984 where Sarah Connor survived her ordeal with the emotionless human cyborg. She is now in a mental hospital after being arrested for attempting to blow up a computer factory. John Connor is a very rebellious teenager who's in the care of foster parents. However, John Connor, even if he 'survived' the ordeals of the original Terminator machine, his life is about to take a drastic change when two Terminator machines arrive out of the unknown realm, in the year 1992 in Los Angeles for opposite purposes. One is to kill John Connor, the other to protect him from the vicious machine. Skynet from the year 2029 send an extremely dangerous human cyborg called the T-1000 who can take the shape of any human being by means of liquid mercury metal, to kill John Connor to prevent him from being able to lead the human resistance against the machines. Just as the machines sent back a T-1000 back in time, the humans also send back another cyborg ironically called \\\"The Terminator\\\", with almost exactly the same design as the original version that was sent back to kill Sarah Connor many years back.\\nWhile it may have improved upon the greatness of the 1984 original Terminator movie, \\\"Judgement Day\\\" carries all of the depth and darkness of that one and takes the storyline to even darker realms. For a relatively long movie of over 2 and a half hours, the darkness and the incredible suspense will keep you holding tight to your seats for the entire time. Few movies in my opinion have such ability to do this but Terminator 2 does just that. In some ways, I would also view this second outing as the opposite or counterpart to the original Terminator movie. The first one had Arnold Schwarzenegger playing the bad guy while this one has him playing the good guy. I kind have to say that Arnold did a better job at playing the evil Terminator machine from the first one but he still does such an excellent job playing the 'good' guy while Robert Patrick delivers a truly chilling role as the menacing liquid metal machine T-1000. While Arnold Scwarzenegger did some good movies since then, his roles went downhill in my opinion, and fell to rock bottom with the awful \\\"Batman & Robin\\\" movie and hit speed bump after speed bump before getting back on top with the awesome \\\"Terminator 3: Rise of The Machines\\\". To me, it's the Terminator movies that have forever made me a fan of many of his movies. Edward Furlong does such an excellent job playing the rebellious John Connor, must I saw even better than Nick Stahl did in the Terminator 3 movie, no offense to Stahl, he did good but Furlong did better. Linda Hamilton improves her character Sarah Connor, by turning her in a mean woman fighter, with massive attitude. In some ways, Sarah Connor rivals Ripley from \\\"Aliens\\\" as the best woman fighter character in any movie I've ever seen. With the help of the extraordinary directing of James Cameron, dark and powerful script, and from the excellent cast, \\\"Terminator 2: Judgment Day\\\" was one of the few movies that got all of the justice that it deserves. This is one of the best movies of 1991 and even now, it still has all of the punch it had when it was released. No other action movie, except for \\\"T3\\\" has toyed with darkness, fun, action, and depth the way that \\\"Judgement Day\\\" did.\\nI don't know how they did it but they created what I would consider one of the best movie sequels ever in the history of movies. A good number of sequels fall flat on their faces against their original counterparts but not \\\"T2: Judgement Day\\\". This one surpasses the first one. Go and get this movie. I don't really feel like commenting on the presumably numerous editions released these past couple of years. I just would like to say that you should get this movie. I just wanted to comment on the movie itself. I went through the sad event of having to toss out the VHS edition because it got damaged from being worn out. This is definitely one of the best movies ever made and I must even go the distance to say that this movie trilogy is up there with Star Wars, Lord Of The Rings, and Indiana Jones as my favorite movie trilogy. I cannot explain enough of how much I love these three Terminator movies with this review. Just go and buy the dam movie.\",\n \"Product: In the year 2029, the ruling super-computer, Skynet, sends an indestructible cyborg (Arnold Schwarzenegger) back in time to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) before she can fulfill her destiny and save mankind.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: One of the finest movies from 1984!\\n\\nReview: There are countless ways to describe how I think of this film; one of them is Spectacular! The first in the classic Terminator movie series is a ground-breaking cinematic work of art of absolutely stunning proportions and put Arnold Schwarzenegger on the map and made him one of the biggest movie stars of the 1980s and early 1990s before several commercial duds would temporarily dampen his success later on (Batman & Robin anyone?) until \\\"Terminator 3: Rise of The Machines\\\" came along. The groundbreaking movie is the story of an extremely bleak future where Los Angeles and much of the world's civilization is wiped out by nuclear Armageddon when a computer program/internet named Skynet, goes out of control, and the machines, under control of it, unleash a reign of nuclear terror and destruction, decimating much of the human (non-machine) population, and taking over much of the world, except for a few surviving humans who have gathered forces to fight against the machines thanks to a rebel leader named John Connor who leads what remains of the human race into ultimately smashing the machines into junk, ensuring victory against them. However, the machines send back a human cyborg 45 years back in time to the year 1984, to kill John Connor, by means of \\\"terminating\\\" a waitress woman named Sarah Connor, who is the future mother of the human rebel leader, which would result in John never even being born in the first place. In the year 1984, Sarah Connor's life seems like any ordinary life: living as a waitress at a slighltly seedy L.A. Restaurant, and barely balancing a checkbook. She has no idea that it will take a massive turn. A rebel soldier named Kyle Reeves is also sent back in time to protect Sarah Connor, and her 'unborn' son from the emotionless Terminator and thus fighting for the future of humanity. At that point, it is evident that Reeves would not only protect John Connor but in fact, turn out being his father later on. What makes The Terminator even more dangerous is that he is able to copy other peoples voices, and yes, even copy women's voices, making him even more likely to find where his target is. The human cyborg does not feel emotion; it does not feel pain; it cannot be reckoned with. He can blend in with the rest of society as he is part human, part machine, with flesh on the outside, but machine and robot on the inside and all these things make him so much more dangerous to be reckoned with.\\nParents, be warned! There are truckloads of disturbing violence in this film and also some extremely bloody scenes that will scare young children and I can't blame them, even I have become unsettled when watching this when I was younger but sadly worse stuff has happened in real life. There is one scene which I'm not going to mention for fear of spoilers, that even I had a relatively tough time handling. Occasional profanity also makes this movie one for the more grown-up audiences. However, it also brings to mind, the possibility of what might happen if man and machine do in fact, start fighting each other especially with all of the computer viruses that plague the internet today. It also brings to mind that it is possible to actually build a machine that could do the same things that Terminator actually does in this movie. In top of it all, it is very chilling as the movie's story does brush very closely with reality at the possibility of all of the things happening in this movie actually occurring in real life especially with all of these computer virus attacks that have crippled businesses these past few years although time travel may not be possible because it would likely have messed up the timeline already.\\n\\nThis film, while it was a highly ground-breaking film back in 1984, has really begun to show it's age, especially the futuristic battle scenes where the floating spacecraft vehicle looks more like a toy suspended on a string than a realistic looking battle vehicle but this movie was made during a time before the special effects technology would skyrocket not too long afterwards, often to an excessive degree. Also it was filmed and The special effects also kind of look cheesy now due to the time of their creation, but only to a mild degree. The two latter Terminator movies benefited from superior production but while parts of the first Terminator movie have really dated badly, there is no denying that this is still a five star plus movie and I highly recommend buying this for those who want a highly brilliant movie, with violence and action that meshes along with the storyline, as opposed to the brainless, thug war violence of a lot of today's movies (\\\"2 Fast 2 Furious\\\" anyone?). While parts of this movie really show signs of being extremely dated, particularly the futuristic battle scenes in 2029, the low budget spent on making this incredible movie really went into good use thanks in part to a strong story and stunning directing thanks in part to the blossoming talent of James Cameron. \\\"Terminator\\\" is arguably one of the best movies from the 1980s and also one of the most fascinating and most innovative sci-fi action movies of all time.\\n\\\"The Terminator\\\" is a highly essential film for the ages. From here through the next two movies, we hear that unforgettable line \\\"I'll Be Back!\\\". Whether to see cinematic innovation or just simply have fun, or just have some 1980s nostalgia, this movie delivers all of the above and is an essential film and the success of it resulted in two dynamite sequels. It's so unbelievable how James Cameron took the low budget spent on the movie's making and turned what could've been a long forgotten throwaway sci-fi flick into a timeless modern masterpiece. All three of the Terminator movies are masterpieces. Go and buy this today and get the Ultimate Edition of Terminator 2: \\\"Judgement Day\\\" as well!\",\n \"Product: Academy Award(R) nominated stars Joaquin Phoenix (Best Supporting Actor, GLADIATOR, 2000) and John Travolta (Best Actor, PULP FICTION, 1994) ignite the intense action in this heroic tale of ordinary men with uncommon courage! As part of a tightly knit brotherhood of skilled firefighters, Jack Morrison (Phoenix) grows from inexperienced rookie to seasoned veteran as he faces a dangerous job that makes him a hero to strangers but often shortchanges his wife (Jacinda Barrett -- THE HUMAN STAIN) and kids. Then, when he becomes trapped in the worst blaze of his career, the things Jack holds most important -- family, duty, courage -- come sharply into focus.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A truly wonderful and moving film!\\n\\nReview: While this may be having comparisons to 1991's \\\"Backdraft\\\", at the same time \\\"Ladder 49\\\" has it's own atmosphere to it. Be mindful that this is not a sequel or has anything to do with the universe of \\\"Backdraft\\\" at all.\\n\\n Starring Joaquin Phoenix and John Travolta as the leading cast, and set in the gritty neighborhoods of Baltimore, it's the story of a ten year veteran firefighter named Jack Morrison under the advice of his mentor who during the worst fire of his career at an industrial complex reflects on his lifetime leading up to the industrial fire as he tries to escape from the place. The complex that he's trapped in is partially collapsing and he's trapped in a space with debris all around him and the whole place threatens to collapse at any time with all of the chemical explosives around the place.\\n\\n This is a really marvelous movie that I thought was a lot better than I thought it would be.\\n\\n Many have criticize parts of \\\"Backdraft\\\" due to some unrealistic things about it and I've noticed flaws in it, while I'll always enjoy that one, \\\"Ladder 49\\\" in my opinion corrects some of those flaws and the result is a much more realistic looking movie.\\n\\n Joaquin Phoenix and John Travolta put on an excellent duo role as firefighter and mentor chief and Travolta especially in my opinion really gets back on his feet after the effects of that horrible 2000 atrocity that was \\\"Battlefield Earth\\\".\\n\\n This is a must-see film. Go and see it today! You will not be dissapointed. I guarantee it!\",\n \"Product: Quick Shipping !!! New And Sealed !!! This Disc WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. A multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player is request to view it in USA/Canada. Please Review Description.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: The Ultimate DVD for all times!\\n\\nReview: I remember how much I laughed at the awful quality of the animated renderings of the novels done in the 1970s and the early 1980s. The animations were outright ludicrous and the hobbit characters looked almost like a cross between humans and oranges or grapefruits plus the wizards Gandalf and Saruman both looked like bad Santa Claus cartoon outtakes.\\n\\nIt's 180 degrees different on the Peter Jackson renditions of the movies. The theatrical edition of \\\"Return of The King\\\" is the apex of the most glorious cinematic era in modern history. The movie which concluded the epic Lord Of The Rings saga that spanned three films and nine hours long total made me cry like no other movie in my life. Not even \\\"Titanic\\\" made me shed tears at the end like ROTK did and \\\"Return of The King\\\" is arguably the greatest movie of the 21st century and all three films are absolutely timeless. Peter Jackson has without a doubt created the greatest movie saga of all time and successfully adapted what was the previously labeled `inadaptable' novel of J. R. R. Tolkien's \\\"Lord of The Rings\\\" novel trilogy. While I've only read parts of each book from the \\\"Fellowship\\\", to the \\\"Two Towers\\\", and finally the \\\"Return of The King\\\", I am absolutely stunned at how Peter Jackson who I previously never heard of before actually did it. As I watched all three movies together, I would say that Tolkien is smiling from heaven wherever he is. Please note though that this review may contain some spoilers so beware.\\n\\nPicking right up where the middle part \\\"The Two Towers\\\" left off, Frodo Baggins along with his lifelong friend and acquaintance Samwise Gamgee are moving ever closer to Mordor with the help of Gollum. The evil power of the Ring is taking even stronger hold on Frodo as he approaches the slopes of Mt. Doom in order to cast the Ring back to the place where it was forged to destroy it and Sauron forever. Meanwhile the kingdom of Gondor and it's capital of Minas Tirith once a great civilization has been falling into ruin and is falling even further into a desperate state under the leadership of the Steward Denethor whose madness has weakened the morale of the soldiers who defend it from enemy forces. Denethor, weakened and aged by the use of the palantir, has been falling further and further into madness and despair but things take a turn for the worse when Minas Tirith comes under assault from a massive army of over a quarter million orcs and enforced by large towers of orc armies moved by trolls and an army of Haradrim on Oliphaunts (Giant elephants). Can Aragorn, who is destined to be the new king of Gondor, save Gondor and return it to it's former glory? Can Frodo withstand the dangerous dark powers of the ring and trust Gollum? The stakes are extremely high and the odds are strongly against the forces of good. Its dark times for all of Middle Earth and it's fate lies by a thread in an increasingly weakened Frodo Baggins.\\n\\n The CGI, the costumes, the visual effects and the immense scope of this film are so incredible that I could never find the proper words to explain how great they are. My favorite CGI effects are the long distance shots of the Rohirrim as they charge through the 250,000+ strong Orc Army in front of Minas Tirith, the amazingly detailed CGI rendering of Smeagol/Gollum as well as the shot of the Beacons being lit amidst the cloud-shrouded mountains with the dramatic music as well accompanying it. Ironically enough while the whole movie is astronomically great, the scenes involving Frodo, Sam and Gollum are surprisingly my least favorite up until towards the last hour of the movie. My favorite scenes almost always involved the former members of the Fellowship that fought in Helm's Deep and Pelennor Fields. I don't know why but it is so for me. Shelob was amazingly done and looked almost real in the the way she moved and attacked Frodo and fought against Samwise Gamgee. Her movements almost looked like real life spider footage.\\n\\n The movie edition that was seen in theatres is the longest of the three at 3 hours and 20 minutes long! However that's not even close to how long the \\\"Extended Edition\\\" is. Although I thought that it would be over five hours long, the extended cut is a full 50 minutes longer than the theatrical cut and the ultimate length of \\\"Return of The King\\\" in it's full glory is a whopping 4 hours and 11 minutes long! This is perhaps the longest movie I know of. The only other movie that I think comes close to this long is \\\"Gone With The Wind\\\" another timeless classic. What's perhaps the most suprising of the extended edition of this is that unlike the previous two chapters in this saga which merely tacked on unreleased footage, some footage on ROTK is actually replaced with different sequences and some scenes have almost radically different dialog especially when Gandalf along with the main characters who arrive in the flooded Isengard after the Battle of Helm's Deep. The confrontation with the defeated Saruman is perhaps the most surprising part of this extended cut of this film. The \\\"Voice of Saruman\\\" scene is absolutely awesome and without a doubt my favorite extra footage on here. Why they did not include this on the regular edition I don't know because it would've been a grand experience to see this on the big screen in the first place when it opened on December 17, 2003. Cutting Christopher Lee's part in this movie to me was an abomination even if the movie was already over 200 minutes long without him involved.\\n\\n Unfortunately however, the \\\"Scouring of The Shire\\\" was never filmed for the movie editions and to me it is somewhat of a disappointment to me even though I was always doubtful of it ever being included in the film but then again the ending as a whole was among the most powerful endings ever. The biggest surprise and while not as angry as some feel was where Gandalf's staff was actually broken by the Witch-King of Agmar. I know little about how Tolkien wrote out the confrontation between the two but Gandalf is far more powerful than the Witch-King ever was. Gandalf was from a powerful race of wizards called the Maiar while the Witch-King was just a member of the race of men who while more powerful was once good but then was corrupted and brought under the control of Sauron's will and that's what transformed him into the evil being he became towards the end. One of my favorite new scenes while brief was the Mouth of Sauron. While I never had a very clear image of what he looked like, Peter Jackson and the crew created an awesome rendition of him and featured actor Bruce Spence (The guy who played the Trainman in \\\"Matrix Revolutions).\\n\\n The latter two discs are among my favorite bonus features of all three \\\"Extended Edition\\\" movies in their expanded sets. My favorite is the third disc in which one actually goes behind the scenes and seeing the mammoth tasks that were accomplished in building the many sets that many scenes were filmed on. Man Oh Man! The sets are absolutely eye-opening and I almost though that Jackson was almost completely nuts when it came to making the many models, miniatures, and sets for the many scenes throughout the movie. It's outright outrageous but great. In fact out of all of the three movies, the \\\"Appendices\\\" DVD is just about as great as the movie itself. I'm not putting down the previous two but the \\\"Appendices\\\" DVDs on the third LOTR movie are the best out of all of them.\\n\\n The \\\"Gift Set\\\" edition comes with a fifth DVD as well featuring footage of the orchestra and Howard Shore directing the musical score. While not necessarily a treasure, the \\\"Gift Set\\\" is a great buy for the amazingly detailed Statue of the city of Minas Tirith. I don't know about you but I think that it's awesome and far more appealing than the statues of Gollum or the pointing statues from the \\\"Fellowship\\\" gift set.\\n\\n \\\"The Lord Of The Rings\\\" set a high standard in filmmaking that I doubt will be surpassed in our lifetimes, if ever and to see Peter Jackson actually succeed in creating these movies is unbelievable. Thank you Peter for these amazing movies. How you did I may never know but I can safely say that you've changed the lives of so many in such great ways.\\n\\n Don't necessarily throw out the regular editions of \\\"Return of The King\\\" because it is great in it's own way but the \\\"Extended Edition\\\" is perhaps the best DVD set you might find your self ever purchasing. I guarantee it. And so an epic sage comes to a glorious end. I guess it's time to say farewell to an era in movie history. :( :)\",\n \"Product: Lord of the Rings Return of the King DVD\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: The Ultimate DVD for all times!\\n\\nReview: I remember how much I laughed at the awful quality of the animated renderings of the novels done in the 1970s and the early 1980s. The animations were outright ludicrous and the hobbit characters looked almost like a cross between humans and oranges or grapefruits plus the wizards Gandalf and Saruman both looked like bad Santa Claus cartoon outtakes.\\n\\nIt's 180 degrees different on the Peter Jackson renditions of the movies. The theatrical edition of \\\"Return of The King\\\" is the apex of the most glorious cinematic era in modern history. The movie which concluded the epic Lord Of The Rings saga that spanned three films and nine hours long total made me cry like no other movie in my life. Not even \\\"Titanic\\\" made me shed tears at the end like ROTK did and \\\"Return of The King\\\" is arguably the greatest movie of the 21st century and all three films are absolutely timeless. Peter Jackson has without a doubt created the greatest movie saga of all time and successfully adapted what was the previously labeled `inadaptable' novel of J. R. R. Tolkien's \\\"Lord of The Rings\\\" novel trilogy. While I've only read parts of each book from the \\\"Fellowship\\\", to the \\\"Two Towers\\\", and finally the \\\"Return of The King\\\", I am absolutely stunned at how Peter Jackson who I previously never heard of before actually did it. As I watched all three movies together, I would say that Tolkien is smiling from heaven wherever he is. Please note though that this review may contain some spoilers so beware.\\n\\nPicking right up where the middle part \\\"The Two Towers\\\" left off, Frodo Baggins along with his lifelong friend and acquaintance Samwise Gamgee are moving ever closer to Mordor with the help of Gollum. The evil power of the Ring is taking even stronger hold on Frodo as he approaches the slopes of Mt. Doom in order to cast the Ring back to the place where it was forged to destroy it and Sauron forever. Meanwhile the kingdom of Gondor and it's capital of Minas Tirith once a great civilization has been falling into ruin and is falling even further into a desperate state under the leadership of the Steward Denethor whose madness has weakened the morale of the soldiers who defend it from enemy forces. Denethor, weakened and aged by the use of the palantir, has been falling further and further into madness and despair but things take a turn for the worse when Minas Tirith comes under assault from a massive army of over a quarter million orcs and enforced by large towers of orc armies moved by trolls and an army of Haradrim on Oliphaunts (Giant elephants). Can Aragorn, who is destined to be the new king of Gondor, save Gondor and return it to it's former glory? Can Frodo withstand the dangerous dark powers of the ring and trust Gollum? The stakes are extremely high and the odds are strongly against the forces of good. Its dark times for all of Middle Earth and it's fate lies by a thread in an increasingly weakened Frodo Baggins.\\n\\n The CGI, the costumes, the visual effects and the immense scope of this film are so incredible that I could never find the proper words to explain how great they are. My favorite CGI effects are the long distance shots of the Rohirrim as they charge through the 250,000+ strong Orc Army in front of Minas Tirith, the amazingly detailed CGI rendering of Smeagol/Gollum as well as the shot of the Beacons being lit amidst the cloud-shrouded mountains with the dramatic music as well accompanying it. Ironically enough while the whole movie is astronomically great, the scenes involving Frodo, Sam and Gollum are surprisingly my least favorite up until towards the last hour of the movie. My favorite scenes almost always involved the former members of the Fellowship that fought in Helm's Deep and Pelennor Fields. I don't know why but it is so for me. Shelob was amazingly done and looked almost real in the the way she moved and attacked Frodo and fought against Samwise Gamgee. Her movements almost looked like real life spider footage.\\n\\n The movie edition that was seen in theatres is the longest of the three at 3 hours and 20 minutes long! However that's not even close to how long the \\\"Extended Edition\\\" is. Although I thought that it would be over five hours long, the extended cut is a full 50 minutes longer than the theatrical cut and the ultimate length of \\\"Return of The King\\\" in it's full glory is a whopping 4 hours and 11 minutes long! This is perhaps the longest movie I know of. The only other movie that I think comes close to this long is \\\"Gone With The Wind\\\" another timeless classic. What's perhaps the most suprising of the extended edition of this is that unlike the previous two chapters in this saga which merely tacked on unreleased footage, some footage on ROTK is actually replaced with different sequences and some scenes have almost radically different dialog especially when Gandalf along with the main characters who arrive in the flooded Isengard after the Battle of Helm's Deep. The confrontation with the defeated Saruman is perhaps the most surprising part of this extended cut of this film. The \\\"Voice of Saruman\\\" scene is absolutely awesome and without a doubt my favorite extra footage on here. Why they did not include this on the regular edition I don't know because it would've been a grand experience to see this on the big screen in the first place when it opened on December 17, 2003. Cutting Christopher Lee's part in this movie to me was an abomination even if the movie was already over 200 minutes long without him involved.\\n\\n Unfortunately however, the \\\"Scouring of The Shire\\\" was never filmed for the movie editions and to me it is somewhat of a disappointment to me even though I was always doubtful of it ever being included in the film but then again the ending as a whole was among the most powerful endings ever. The biggest surprise and while not as angry as some feel was where Gandalf's staff was actually broken by the Witch-King of Agmar. I know little about how Tolkien wrote out the confrontation between the two but Gandalf is far more powerful than the Witch-King ever was. Gandalf was from a powerful race of wizards called the Maiar while the Witch-King was just a member of the race of men who while more powerful was once good but then was corrupted and brought under the control of Sauron's will and that's what transformed him into the evil being he became towards the end. One of my favorite new scenes while brief was the Mouth of Sauron. While I never had a very clear image of what he looked like, Peter Jackson and the crew created an awesome rendition of him and featured actor Bruce Spence (The guy who played the Trainman in \\\"Matrix Revolutions).\\n\\n The latter two discs are among my favorite bonus features of all three \\\"Extended Edition\\\" movies in their expanded sets. My favorite is the third disc in which one actually goes behind the scenes and seeing the mammoth tasks that were accomplished in building the many sets that many scenes were filmed on. Man Oh Man! The sets are absolutely eye-opening and I almost though that Jackson was almost completely nuts when it came to making the many models, miniatures, and sets for the many scenes throughout the movie. It's outright outrageous but great. In fact out of all of the three movies, the \\\"Appendices\\\" DVD is just about as great as the movie itself. I'm not putting down the previous two but the \\\"Appendices\\\" DVDs on the third LOTR movie are the best out of all of them.\\n\\n The \\\"Gift Set\\\" edition comes with a fifth DVD as well featuring footage of the orchestra and Howard Shore directing the musical score. While not necessarily a treasure, the \\\"Gift Set\\\" is a great buy for the amazingly detailed Statue of the city of Minas Tirith. I don't know about you but I think that it's awesome and far more appealing than the statues of Gollum or the pointing statues from the \\\"Fellowship\\\" gift set.\\n\\n \\\"The Lord Of The Rings\\\" set a high standard in filmmaking that I doubt will be surpassed in our lifetimes, if ever and to see Peter Jackson actually succeed in creating these movies is unbelievable. Thank you Peter for these amazing movies. How you did I may never know but I can safely say that you've changed the lives of so many in such great ways.\\n\\n Don't necessarily throw out the regular editions of \\\"Return of The King\\\" because it is great in it's own way but the \\\"Extended Edition\\\" is perhaps the best DVD set you might find your self ever purchasing. I guarantee it. And so an epic sage comes to a glorious end. I guess it's time to say farewell to an era in movie history. :( :)\",\n \"Product: 1) Gargoyles: The Movie- The Heroes Awaken (be prepared for some VERY teary nostalgic 1994 previews), 2)Lion King, Lion King 1 1/2, & Lion King 2 Simba's Pride, 3) Aladdin, Aladdin: Arabian Adventures - Magic Makers, Return of Jafar, & King of Thieves, 4) Little Mermaid: Undersea Adventures - In Harmony, The Little Mermaid Movie (Special Edition w/Ariel V.A. footage and 1Sat Morning preview), & Little Mermaid 2: Return to the Sea\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Amazing show but the VHS edition is missing some scenes.\\n\\nReview: This video is actually the first three episodes of the first season in the \\\"Gargoyles\\\" saga and let me say that this was and still is a really breathtaking three part video of the greatest cartoon series that Disney has ever created.\\nForget \\\"Rescue Rangers\\\", \\\"Darkwing Duck\\\" and even \\\"Goof Troop\\\", those are great cartoon series but \\\"Gargoyles\\\" to me throws all of those right into orbit around the earth in every category. This series took Disney by storm with a very deep and mystical storyline that blended the fantasy folklore of gargoyles and merged fantasy with real-life history in the series timeline.\\nIn this episode entitled \\\"The Awakening\\\" the Gargoyles exist as a clan in Castle Wyvern in northern Scotland where they co-existed quite well, if a bit on the shakily, with humanity in the castle and protected the citizens from rule-breakers and/or enemy armies who would attack them. The Clan is lead by a young but extremely strong gargoyle named Goliath along with his second in command, his mate Demona. The clan however are attacked by a huge Viking army one night in the year A.D. 994 and most of the original clan are destroyed and only seven of them survive the horrible attack that night.\\nDuring a botch spell attack, the clan are put into a stone sleep with a spell that won't be broken until the 'castle rises above the clouds' and only then would the gargoyles be reawakened from their stone sleep. A multi-billionaire businessman named David Xanatos retrieves the castle by disassembling it and transports the gargoyles in their stone forms to atop his headquarters which dwarves every other building in New York City. The spell is broken and the Gargoyles awaken to a totally different world from the one they remembered from a whole millenium before.\\nThe Gargoyles clan are no safer in their new world than they were in their old world from a millenia before then. Humans are unaware of their existance and there's the danger of what humans may do if they encounter a gargoyle. Would they be met with caution or shunned with hate and hostility? The Gargoyles will be learning a lot that the modern world is full of enemies even more formidable than the ones from a millenium ago and some of them come from unlikely places too.\\nThis show is to me the greatest achievement that Disney Studios has ever accomplished even today. The Animation is absolutely stunning and original like nothing I had ever seen up to this point in my life. The animation alone isn't the best thing about the series. As it is now as a grown up, the best thing about \\\"Gargoyles\\\" is it's absolutely powerful message of what prejudice and bigoty may lead to if not dealt with by the heros of the world. The \\\"X-Men\\\" cartoon series from the 1990s is another cartoon series that sheds light on this.\\nIt's absolutely a tragedy that this show lasted only a little over two years before the show was cancelled because of the third season. Just about every other Disney Cartoon series after this one seem to revert back into forgettable generic pap with little memorability and predictable animation and bland figures.\\nThis VHS edition of the gargoyles \\\"Awakening Parts I, II, and III\\\" is rather dissapointing in some ways. If you have seen the TV series counterpart, you will notice that the VHS edition leaves out several crucial scenes. The picture quality is also rather questionable but that may have to do with a degraded copy I got from a store a while back. The game at the ending is almost useless and almost nothing but clutter to me.\\nIt's a great thing that at least some of the Gargoyles episodes are available on VHS but I feel that this whole series should be released onto two DVD Box Sets. One should containing all 78 episodes of \\\"Gargoyles\\\" three seasons including \\\"The Goliath Chronicles\\\" and the other should just have the first two seasons for those who disliked the third season. They should also release the three seasons separately on DVD because the picture quality of the VHS editions of the available videos is desperately calling for a picture remastering!\\n]\\nI give this video a five star any just because this is a great cartoon series. There will never be a cartoon series that impacted cartoon watching the way \\\"Gargoyles\\\" did and it's a shame that cartoon studios have never tried to create something as powerful and rich like \\\"Gargoyles\\\" or \\\"X-men\\\" from the 1990s and instead reverted back into predictable and forgettable animation and bland picture cartoon quality.\",\n \"Product: In Part 1, Professor Xavier, disturbed by psychic cries for help broadcast from across the galaxy, dispatches his X-Men into the depths of outer spaced on a mission even he doesn't understand. Arriving aboard the space station Starecore, the X-Men encounter the villainous Erik the Red, an agent of the evil Sh'iar Empire who has conspired to tear a hole in the fabric of space itself! To save the universe, one of the X-Men must stand alone and make a brave sacrifice - one that will change their lives forever!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A great episode combo!\\n\\nReview: This set includes two episodes entitled Captive Hearts & the other episode is Cold Vengence.\\nCaptive Hearts takes places shortly after Wolverine is badly injured by sabertooth and the X-Men are on a mission to battle underground mutants that are called 'The Morlocks'. Storm battles their leader Callisto and encourage the Morlocks to return to the surface world when they become accepted by humanity. The episode ends with Wolverine not being present at the mansion and the \\\"To Be Continued\\\" line coming in.\\nThe \\\"To Be Continued\\\" line ushers in the second episode in this set Cold Vengence. The story in this one is Wolverine takes a vacation in the Arctic when he is once again attacked by his archenemy Sabertooth. Wolverine retreats by means of an iceberg and is rescued by Inuit eskimos. Sabertooth blows up their village and has them captured and it's up to Wolverine to save the day.\\nA great episode combo from my all-time favorite cartoon series! Buy it!\",\n \"Product: Home Alone: When Kevin's family left for vacation, they forgot one minor detail: Kevin!\\nEight-year-old Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) has become the man of the house, overnight! Accidentally left behind when his family rushes off on a Christmas vacation, Kevin gets busy decorating the house for the holidays. But he's not decking the halls with tinsel and holly. Two bumbling burglars are trying to break in, and Kevin's rigging a bewildering battery of booby traps to welcome them!\\n\\nHome Alone 2: Lost In New York: America's smallest hero takes a giant bite out of the Big Apple!\\n\\nKevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) is back! But this time he's in New York City - with enough cash and credit cards to turn the Big Apple into his own playground! But Kevin won't be alone for long. The notorious Wet Bandits, Harry and Marv (Joe Pesci and Daniel Stem), still smarting from their last encounter with Kevin, are bound for New York too, plotting a huge holiday heist. Kevin's ready to welcome them with a battery of booby traps the bumbling bandits will never forget!\\n\\nHome Alone 3: \\\"Big laughs. A real kid-pleaser!\\\" - Joel Siegel, Good Morning America\\n\\nThe U.S. Air Force has a new secret weapon - and he's only eight years old! From comedy legend John Hughes comes the hilarious, action-packed hit that's \\\"lots of fun for the entire family!\\\"\\n\\nA band of international crooks has hidden a military computer chip inside a toy car, but an airport mix-up lands it in the hands of whiz-kid Alex Pruitt (Alex D. Linz) who's home alone with the chicken pox in a quiet Chicago suburb. When the criminals zero in on Alex's house with their high-tech gadgetry, madness and mayhem kick into high gear as the pint-sized hero defends himself against the bumbling bad guys - armed with an outrageous array of ambushes and booby traps!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Very fun movie collection\\n\\nReview: The first home alone movie was absolutely original family fun where a kid is left alone at home by accident and is the target of two bumbling burglars and now he must foil the burglars' plans.\\n\\n The second one is even better with Kevin getting on the wrong plane and ends up in New York City but is the target of the same dodo criminals once again and now he must pull off more shenanigans to foil the thieves' attempt to get even with him.\\n\\n The third one felt completely detached from the first two. A totally different character this time is on his own at home but is unaware that his toy car has been planted with a special top secret device and international criminals want to get their hands on it before the law does and now he must prevent them from getting it.\",\n \"Product: Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego? - Into the Mael\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A great episode from the best series ever!\\n\\nReview: I could never even come up with the right words or even the number of words taht I could muster up to tell you all how great this 1994 cartoon series really is. A lot of cartoons I liked around this time fell out with me over time but \\\"Where On Earth Is Carmen Sandiego\\\" has held up immensely well over a full decade after first airing on Fox Kids back in early 1994.\\n Based on the computer game franchise released in the 1980s and then several game shows that aired during the 1990s, this cartoon series is about using clues in order to catch the elusive worldly reknown thief named Carmen. In the 1994 animated series, two world reknown ACME detectives named Ivy and her younger brother Zack work for Chief at ACME and are sent on missions to find out what Carmen's plans are and to stop her from succeeding at them and even trying to catch Carmen herself.\\n This episode trilogy however is very different and breaks the mold in the series. First aired towards the later part of the show, this episode is entitled \\\"Retribution\\\" and is broken up into three parts. A vicious and dangerous criminal from the 1980s named Gunner Maelstrom escapes from prison and is on the loose. It turns out that Carmen actually in fact helped put him away in prison when she was and ACME agent back in the 1980s.\\nMaelstrom is plotting revenge against Carmen by stealing Noah's Ark and possibly causing a massive flood in doing so and ruining Carmen's reputation as the world's greatest thief. Carmen, however is no longer playing cat and mouse with the ACME detectives here. This time ACME must work with Carmen in order to stop Maelstrom from causing destruction and from destroying several landscapes with his evil plot before it's too late.\\nThis cartoon series is the best type of cartoon that I've ever come to watch when a kid. Back then I loved it for it's adventurous fun and the overall tone of the show but today as an adult, there are so many more reasons to absolutely love this show. Now I love this show not only for it's fun and excellent character development but also the more education parts educate children through very cartoony (in a good way) fashion to make learning about world history, geography, and other science through very fun charicatures and this is a really smart move to do this because it seems like most shows just use dull methods to teach about history etc. and this likely makes it boring for kids. That's not the case with WOEICS.\\n I could never come up with enough words or the right words to do this show any scrap of justice. DIC animations did such a stunning job on this series and it's a great tragedy that most networks, or any at all, don't even air this series anymore. Many may say \\\"That's so 1994\\\" but this is not something for the trends!! This series is not only fun but also highly educational for young kids to see and that they should re-air this onto the networks again.\\n If they don't decide to do so, then the best option is to release this entire series on DVD. It can be done by releasing the individual seasons on their own set or releasing the entire cartoon series entitled \\\"Where On Earth is Carmen Sandiego: The Complete Series\\\" because this show is a timeless classic. Many may throw pies in my face for saying this but I would even go far enough to say that it is sometimes better than the \\\"X-Men\\\" cartoon series from around the same time.\",\n \"Product: Majical, jazzy, New Age.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Sonically stunning on all fronts.\\n\\nReview: This is an essential new age album that you should not pass up. This was Patrick O'hearns best album before his new album surpassed it. This is probably Patricks most space oriented of his electronic albums to date. It's the dark electronic, rainy music that makes me love this album. Every song on here is a breakthrough for this extremely talented musician. Some songs I remember hearing when I was very young.\\nRainmaker is a very haunting song with an intense misty atmosphere with some ceramic percussion. Sky Juice is a breathtaking song with very electronic synths and some jet sound effects with some thumping beats and a cool bass. However that is nothing like the next one. Cape Perpetual is beyond any word I can describe about this song. It's a very spooky track. It starts of with some strange breezy wind instruments and some thundering sounds in the distance. At about 30 seconds there are some synthesizer hums that fade in. The sound of the synth humming almost scared me at first listening. It then becomes a dark very space oriented song with ceramic percussion and thundering jet sound effects. I could close my eyes listening to this song and imagine myself traveling on the Orient Express through oriental space. This song alone makes this album a five star. Gentle Was The Night is a very beautiful song with just mostly synths. This is a great song. Fire Ritual is a very pop oriented song and some vocal doodling here and there. This is probably the brightest song on here. 87 Dreams Of A Lifetime lives up to the title. This is a very stunning and could rank as one of his best 80s tracks ever. It starts with just some ambient synths and the synths get louder and at about a minute into the song the real music begins. This is a haunting song with a catchy rhythm and a space jazzy stmosphere. This is my second favorite off this album. Dimension D is a very space oriented song with some haunting sound effects and a very dark ambient atmosphere. Forever The Optimistic is a pop oriented song with great electronic bass, a great hook and some synth tinklings throughout the song. I almost cryed when I first heard this song and today I consider this song a new age classic. Journey To Yoroba is another haunting song. It has lots of ceramic percussion and ambient synths. I love the drum loop to this song. The closing title track is great with more great synths and cool drums.\\nAll in all I rank this album as one Mr. O'Hearns strongest masterpieces to date.\\nIt's hard to really say how much I love this album because it really stimulates imagination in a way that none of his other albums can.\\nIn fact this album for a time is almost like the soundtrack my high school years because it reflects lonely I feel sometimes. In fact I strongly recommend this album to all who love music to listen to while thinking. It's very intelligent music that should be enjoyed by all generations.\\nWell that's all I can say.\\nBye! Bye!\",\n \"Product: Enigma burst on the scene in the early '90s with a pretty nifty schtick: dance beats and lush chord washes underpinning such exotica as muttered French sex talk and Gregorian chant, all unified by a bizarre theme somehow related to the Marquis de Sade. The concept was never as original as some people thought (Mark Stewart's \\\"Maffia\\\" had set plainchant to electro-funk as far back as 1984), but it worked nicely, and \\\"Sadeness\\\" (har har) was an international dance club hit. Two albums later, Michael Cretu (the individual who records under the Enigma moniker) doesn't seem to have done much to expand upon his original ideas. The monks are still there, floating in a murky club mix, though this time they're joined by a cool Mongolian ensemble as well. Cretu is singing more, which is unfortunate since his voice is mediocre and his lyrics silly, but the occasional high point does emerge, such as the darkly lovely \\\"The Child in Us.\\\" Most of the album, however, is twaddle. Song titles like \\\"Morphing Thru Time,\\\" \\\"Beyond the Invisible\\\" and (seriously) \\\"Odyssey of the Mind\\\" will give you a good idea of what to expect -- lots of atmosphere, lots of reverb, lots of sternly intoned lyrics about, er...something or other. What's missing is musical interest. Overall, the cool packaging is the only thing noteworthy about this disappointing effort - All Music\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: This CD is absolutely spellbinding :)\\n\\nReview: From my guess, Michael Cretu stated that Enigma's third album is like a combination of the dark and Gothic feel of MCMXC, and of the brighter feel of Enigma 2: The Cross Of Changes. While yes, I can see a point in his description of this album, it has the Gregorian chanting that was present on the first album and the brighter, earthier sounds of The Cross Of Changes, but from my perspective, this third album from Enigma has a more of an aquatic atmosphere and in my opinion, sounds totally different from the previous two albums. I especially love the album cover and it's transparent album jacket.\\nThe first track entitled \\\"Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi\\\" starts off the album with the trademark chord structure that made the musical backbone of the intros of the previous two albums except unlike the eeriness of the first albums intro or the more Mayan sounds of the second albums intro, the third albums intro has a more of a futuristic and aquatic feel to it. The track gets more intense until a recording snippet of a NASA space shuttle launch blasts in the next track \\\"Morphing Through Time\\\". Morphing starts off with a voice effect of someone ranting about a biosphere and a life supporting system before it mellows down and a very mellow yet strange minor note melody begins and the Gregorian Chants come in(How we missed those so much on Cross Of Changes). Some bizarre Middle Eastern instruments and Cretus vocals are also present too. The song is a very ambient, slow-paced, daytime-Gothic sounding track with echoing \\\"ya-ya-ya-ya\\\" voices for a blissful aural experience. As the song fades out, the echoing voices continue into the third `track', \\\"Third Of It's Kind\\\" which is just an 18 second interlude with a narrating voice about the first as the father, the second as the mother, and the third is the child. After the 18 second break, we head into the fourth track, \\\"Beyond The Invisible\\\". This song is a bit more upbeat and more on the sensual side with the breathing effects combined with strange flutes and the sultry narrating voice plus the echoing voices make this one a steamy New Age classic. This one also has some of Cretu himself singing too and he has a great voice. The song ends with the echoing voices fading into the background and a new beat comes in ushering us into the bitterness of \\\"WHY!\\\". Cretu sings with incredible passion on this voice and the song is probably the coldest and most urgent song that Enigma has done at this point in their career. The beats are addictive, the melody is bitter, the lyrics are great and the mood is spellbinding, plus there are occasional Gregorian Chants too. The song ends with Cretu singing \\\"I'M ASKING WHY!\\\" and the vocal line of that echoes away into much calmer territory of the next track. The next track entitled \\\"Shadows In Silence\\\" is a much calmer track brings up images of swimming in a clear ocean with the rays of sunlight shining through. The guitars are beautiful. The song gradually winds down until bizarre bleeping sounds end the track with an ambient crescendo before the siren like sounds lower in pitch and begins what I consider one of the best songs that Enigma have ever recorded in their career, \\\"The Child In Us\\\". Similar in mood to \\\"Return To Innocence\\\", this track brings in Sanskrit vocals and a Sitar from India and combines Gregorian chanting with a very bright daytime mood which from my perspective, results what I consider the best song on Enigma 3. I would even call it the `bright daytime' equivalent of the dark \\\"Sadeness\\\". By far my favorite song on this CD. After the daytime major note of \\\"Child\\\", a darker minor note atmosphere returns with the steamy \\\"TNT For The Brain\\\". This track is more `erotic' in mood and more intense and has some cool pizzicato strings in the background and a cool Asian beat to it. There is a much superior version out there called \\\"The Midnight Man Mix\\\" which is darker and more ambient and far sexier. After the intensity of TNT comes the much mellower \\\"Almost Full Moon\\\". This song has a distant cry that was present on \\\"Callas Went Away\\\" and makes it appearance. The guitars from Shadows In Silence are heard on here too. The drum loop is borrowed from Peter Gabriel's \\\"Washing Of The Water\\\". A shooting star effect ushers in the next track \\\"The Roundabout\\\". Roundabout is a far more intense track with Cretu singing like he did in \\\"Why!\\\" . This almost became a single but was pulled back unfortunately. The last true song on the album \\\"Prism Of Life\\\" is a much more joyous track with low-pitched African chanting, Gregorian Chants, strange echoing beats and a joyous atmosphere. The echoing voice of Cretu ends the track and ties it into the last track \\\"Odyssey of The Mind\\\" which is the intro being played backwards giving a feel of the journey of Enigma 3 coming full circle.\\nI just can't even say how amazing this CD really is. One thing though that I urge you to do before it's too late: Buy the clear jacket edition of this album while it's still available because I'm already starting to see regular paper sleeve editions being released to CD stores and it's harder and harder to find the clear jacket sleeve editions of Enigma 3. the transparency of the clear album jacket magnifies the albums appeal, far more so than the opaque paper jackets. And for those who hate Cretu singing, well, that's their problem as Cretu sounds great on vocals especially on \\\"Why!\\\". Even if you end up buying the regular paper sleeve version, you still have spent your money well. Buy this amazing CD now! Grade: A+\",\n \"Product: Bryan Ferry Mamouna UK CD album\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A grossly underrated masterpiece\\n\\nReview: Bete Noire & Boys & Girls are my favorites from Bryan. Mamouna in my opinion is Bryans third best work to date. Released in 1994, it unfortunately didn't recieve much notice when it was released. A shame it didn't because Mamouna is one of Ferrys strongest works in his catalog. What makes this CD great is that the music is rich and depth and it has a sort of warmth and punch that 1993s 5 star album Taxi lacks IMO. The only thing that dogs this record down is that Ferrys singing sounds a bit tired and even a bit sloppy especially the last track Chain Reaction. Other than that Mamouna still ranks as one of Bryans most consistent albums in his catalog. My favorites are Your Painted Smile with it's dreamy rhythms, The 39 Steps with it's driving rhythms and the ambient technoish Wildcat Days.\\nDON'T WANT TO KNOW-8/10 This track kicks off Mamouna with a dark cloudlike atmosphere and funky guitars laced with ambient dreaminess. This track could fit on Boys & Girls.\\nNYC-7/10 NYC is another good track with a bluesier sound. This track could've fit well on Taxi.\\nYOUR PAINTED SMILE- 10/10 Beautiful! This track is one of the best songs Mamouna offers. It's an eerie track with a jazzy vibe. I love the part of the track that runs from 1:32 to the around the 2 minute mark.\\nMAMOUNA-10/10 Another beautiful track. The title track is a haunting track with wobbly guitars. This track is one to hear to know how it sounds like.\\nTHE ONLY FACE-6/10 This track needs time to grow on you. It's a mellow and eerie track with a slightly creepy feel to it and minor note melodies.\\nTHE 39 STEPS-10/10 This is one of my favorite songs off Mamouna. It's a very upbeat yet moody track with driving rhythms and a Bete Noireish feel. This track to me kind of continues the punch that the masterpiece Bete Noire has. Definately one of the best songs on here.\\nWHICH WAY TO TURN-8/10 This is a mellower track with electronic sound effects laced with slightly late 80s sounding keyboards and guitars. A gorgeous song.\\nWILDCAT DAYS-11/10 YES! This is the winner on Mamouna. WD is an aggressive techno influenced number with ambient guitar aways and very stormy atmosphere sort of like severe thunderstorms. This song in my opinion is Ferrys strongest song since Bete Noire.\\nGEMINI MOON-8/10 Did Ferry take All Tommorrows Parties and move it to Mamouna? No offense but this track is almost dead identical to ATP with very similar bass hooks, the same chords, and the right kind of feel except that this track has less ambience and more bluesier sounds. A great track though. Just sounds almost too much like All Tommorrows Parties and I like that song too. Don't get me wrong.\\nCHAIN REACTION-9/10 Can we say SPOOKY! This final track from Mamouna is a hook laden track with strange percussion and a very eerie and haunting feel. The only thing that dogs down this track is that Ferrys singing on Chain Reaction often gets a bit sloppy and tired and it can be a bit grating(To me anyway). Brushing the cons aside though Chain Reaction closes Mamouna on a great note. The last 40 seconds are spooky especially with the echoing pianos at the last fifteen seconds.\\nMamouna is highly recommended for the Bryan Ferry fanbase! :) Enjoy!\",\n \"Product: Japan only cd with different back artwork and with exclusive bonus track - goodnight my love\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: This album leaves me \\\"Spellbound\\\" even now!\\n\\nReview: The title to Paula Abdul's 1991 sophomore couldn't have been better. This album in my opinion is a great artistic quantum leap forward from her excellent 1988 debut \\\"Forever Your Girl\\\" which while great, it has dated very quickly in its sound. \\\"Spellbound\\\" on the other hand has really held up surprisingly well over the years since its release and today it is a stunning classic. I got my first dose of her music when I was a young kid listening to Chicago's B96 and hearing all the barrage of awesome dance music from that period and recall hearing \\\"Opposites Attact\\\" and \\\"Promise Of A New Day\\\" on the radio around that time. I was forever hooked on her music afterwards even though it would be seemingly entire eons before I would discover that these were by Paula Abdul. After finding out who these songs were by, I had to go and get them on CD and \\\"Spellbound\\\" was the album I got containing the latter. For the greatest moments on this album, there's something about them that just really evokes a lot of emotion in me that few other albums do. \\\"Promise Of A New Day\\\" is by far the finest track not only off this album but also among Paula's greatest musical achievements. Just the spine-tingling keyboard chimes at the beginning combined with the electric bass gives this song a very electrifying and powerful feel to it. I've had strange dreams of hearing this song in my dreams for some strange reason. I don't know what it is about this track but WOW! This song has unbelievable power that I can never get enough of listening to it. Perhaps it's because it brings back a lot of excellent memories that I had around late 1991 through 1992 that this song just touches me like few others. It's also interesting to think about it as music radically changed almost overnight after this album came out going from the house techno pop of the previous two years to straight-out grunge rock by the year's end. I enjoyed both styles but techno-house has held up better in my opinion but let's not change the subject of this review.\\nThis album isn't perfect though. There are some moments though on this album that it begins to hit some speed bumps so I'll get through them to get them out of the way. \\\"U\\\", \\\"For You\\\" and \\\"Alright Tonight\\\" don't really do much for me. With the song \\\"U\\\", the rock and techno elements clash instead of merging and the result is a less than great track. \\\"For You\\\" while occasionally interesting feels like a reject from the \\\"Forever Your Girl\\\" sessions and is too short in my opinion. \\\"Alright Tonight\\\" kind of stagnates in my opinion with its somewhat unappealing stab at a more tropical style. These three songs are not bad at all by any stretch of the imagination but they don't quite rank up with the others in my opinion.\\nHowever that is made up though with the ballads on this album. The number one single on this album \\\"Rush Rush\\\" is the greatest ballad that she has ever done in, trashing any other slow song of hers. This has a very haunting and moving tone to it and haunting violins and while her voice isn't necessarily golden, it perfectly fits on this powerful and moving song. I also enjoy this song because it brings up great memories of my life around 1991-through early 1993. It's still amazing that this powerful ballad knocked Michael Jackson's \\\"Black or White\\\" out of the top spot on the charts. That's saying a lot. \\\"Vibeology\\\" is just sheer fun with its rumbling bass lines and heavy dance hooks but the track suffers from relatively insipid and utterly silly lyrics that can be a bit jarring at times. However, if you can bypass the vapid lyrics, this is an absolutely fabulous track and is just loads of fun. However Like a previous reviewer said, it was lyrics like this that would ultimately close her career. \\\"Blowing Kisses In The Wind\\\" is another good song with a slightly orchestral sound to it although not on the powerful level of \\\"Rush Rush\\\". The album comes to an excellent close with the final track \\\"Will You Marry Me\\\". This song is definite beauty with a jazz-piano vibe and a dramatic and dreamy melody. The song is about a girl proposing marriage as opposed to a boy usually proposing the same thing. Yeah it's corny but the musicianship and the unique melodic structure are just excellent and negate the corniness.\\nI've read right and left that some have labeled her as the Britney Spears of the 1980s. Well you know what, I couldn't disagree more. Paula Abdul blows every post-1993 teen pop singer right out of the water and into the trash. Can you imagine Britney doing something as powerful as \\\"Rush Rush\\\" or intoxicating and powerful like \\\"Promise of a New Day\\\"? I didn't think so. Okay, maybe parts of her first album may have some girly-esque elements that bring Abdul close to Britney territory but even then, the slick pop and solid hooks of both FYG and \\\"Spellbound\\\" puts her entire oceans ahead of any of today's teen pop idols. On this album, she did a great job at sounding sexy without crossing the line into vulgarity, something that many of today's younger artists don't seem to know how to.\\nMuch of Abdul's music has dated very quickly and has also been sadly been forgotten by many but if there is any album of hers that truly lasts through the ages, it's definitely this one. She has done a marvelous job and I highly recommend that you purchase this unbelievable classic. I haven't been more proud of purchasing an album in years and today, it's now an album that holds a special place in my life. It's just a shame that this underrated lady's career evaporated after this album's time wrapped up but I've heard that she may put out another album in the near future. I hope it's true and perhaps she could put out that album that could rival \\\"Spellbound\\\" with its power but it remains to be seen for now. This CD is one of the relatively uncommon occurrences when a truly excellent and creative album goes platinum and \\\"Spellbound\\\" is one of those instances. It's sad she went right down the toilet both commercially and artistically after this.\\nUntil then, just put this CD on and have a swell time. Just be careful not to come down with big nostalgia attacks like I have listening to this marvelous treasure of a classic. Enough said, just go and buy this CD today!\",\n \"Product: 1. Zoo Station\\n2. Even Better Than The Real Thing\\n3. One\\n4. Until The End Of The World\\n5. Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses\\n6. So Cruel\\n7. The Fly\\n8. Mysterious Ways\\n9. Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World\\n10. Ultra Violet (Light My Way)\\n11. Acrobat\\n12. Love Is Blindness\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Achtung Baby: U2's crowning achievement!\\n\\nReview: This could very well be my favorite album of theirs. I got my first dose of U2's music during 1995 when I first heard \\\"New Year's Day\\\" and another song called \\\"One\\\" on the radio in Chicago around that time. I eventually discovered that these songs were by U2 and eventually discovered their other hit songs from their \\\"War\\\" album through \\\"Achtung Baby\\\" and I have been a fan ever since then. U2's 1991 magnum opus \\\"Achtung Baby\\\" is easily one of the greatest rock albums ever made. There are a lot of reasons why this album is so. The music on this album is like nothing that they've done before or since then and is one of the greatest examples of a band completely reinventing itself. It's so hard to believe that this album, being so far ahead of it's time, is actually 12 years old now. \\\"Achtung Baby\\\" is so innovative in such a manner that it does not sound the slightest bit dated. To tell you the truth, U2 never sounded better than on this album.\\nThe politically charged anthems that defined their 1980s albums are laid to rest and are replaced with more introspective lyrical writing dealing with everyday life and relationships but from a rather gloomy point of view. Musically speaking, they went into a totally different arena, moving away from the atmospherics of their 80s works and incorporated some grunge rock combined with punching industrial techno dabbling on here and the result is phenomenal. Every song on here is absolute brilliance like nothing else on any rock album. \\\"Zooropa\\\" while great, sometimes lacked the humanity and warmth that this album has and focused more on simply the electronic techno elements. \\\"Pop\\\" fared better at this. \\\"All That You Can't Leave Behind\\\" kind of reminds me of this album to a degree but without a lot of the industrial electronica on here.\\n\\\"One\\\" is easily one of the greatest ballads U2 ever wrote and it's evident that Bono reached his peak on this song. This is a highly dramatic and emotional song that gradually builds up and reaches a climatic end. This album and song in particular was one of several songs on this album that got me through a rough point in my life after a close friend of mines died in a car accident in early 1999. As a result, \\\"Achtung Baby\\\" not only is one of two favorite albums by them but this album means something special to me. \\\"Trying to Throw Your Arms around the World\\\" is another track that helped me get through that sad period in my life and thus that song is a highly moving track. It's a very bittersweet and passionate song that gives me goose bumps every time I listen to it. Even before all the turmoil set in, these two songs made me a forever a fan of U2. The hit singles on here are just marvelous. \\\"Even Better than the Real Thing\\\" is just straight out fun. \\\"Mysterious Ways\\\" gets my nod as one of the best `sex appeal' songs that I've ever heard by any rock band or artist. The guitar punch at the beginning alone is unforgettable and the song has a highly danceable hip-hop oriented beat combined with electrifying guitars.\\nEven the non-singles on here merit a lot of attention. The opening track \\\"Zoo Station\\\" is the best opening song of any U2 album behind \\\"A Sort of Homecoming\\\". It starts with very odd guitar riffs and then electronic mechanical beats come in and the song becomes a very strange blend of rock, industrial and pop all mixed in one. Bono's distorted vocals on here are awesome to listen to and blend in perfectly with the songs mood instead of clashing with it. \\\"Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses\\\" is in my opinion one of U2's most underrated classics of all time being a highly dramatic yet fun song. I can't believe that this song didn't make it on their \\\"Best of 1990-2000\\\" collection. Some seem to not care much for \\\"So Cruel\\\" which is a shame as it's a chilling yet highly intelligent classic with an eerie and slightly creepy vibe to it. I'll admit, it took much longer for it to grow on me than the other songs but I now finally find it to be a marvelous song. The final track \\\"Love Is Blindness\\\" is a dark and mournful song with a very bitter and cold atmosphere to it. It starts with a haunting organ-like intro and becomes a mid-tempo rock oriented ballad with a dark and moody tone to it. Upon feeling that love and relationships seams to be becoming too media-oriented, I can really relate to the song title at times. This is an excellent closer to this album. The rest of the songs I didn't mention with this review also deserve a listen but the songs I mentioned are among the best on the album.\\n While \\\"The Joshua Tree\\\" may be their commercial peak, \\\"Achtung Baby\\\" is by far their greatest and most ambitious artistic achievement in just about every way. Buy this album. If anything is anything, this album in my opinion, is where U2 came the closest to, if not reached perfection. I love both \\\"Zooropa\\\", \\\"Pop\\\" and even enjoy \\\"All That You Can't Leave Behind\\\" a lot too but from my point of view, there is something that \\\"Achtung Baby\\\" has that seems to be missing on their latter works.. For all of the great reviews that I read on here, this album is arguably one of the greatest achievements not only in their career but also one of the greatest achievements in rock history. Along with many on here, I can easily say that while \\\"The Joshua Tree\\\" is their highest selling album, \\\"Achtung Baby\\\" is easily their best album. U2 fan or not, this album is a pivotal recording and is a highly recommended masterpiece for the ages.\",\n \"Product: Tracks: Discotheque 5:21 / Do You Feel Loved 5:09 / Mofo 5:49 / If God Will Send His Angels 5:25 / Staring At The Sun 4:39 / Last Night On Earth 4:48 / Gone 4:29 / Miami 4:55 / The Playboy Mansion 4:42 / If You Wear That Velvet Dress 5:18 / Please 5:05 / Wake Up Dead Man 4:52\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: It's U2 in your face!\\n\\nReview: I remember listening to this album not too long after it came out back in that cold morning in early 1997 and loved it. I was blown away by this CD. It's a shame that it sold poorly because this is one of their most consistent CDs ever. This album goes into a techno atmosphere like Zooropa but only better and more rock sounding this time. The landmark sound is present in some songs on here but this overall is an experimental record. The poor success of this and Zooropa persuaded them to return to their roots with ATYCLB which I,m not complaining at all about.\\nIt was foolish for critics to say that U2 veered off path and flat out screwed up. Well that's their problem because this CD is one of their highlight CDs.\\nDiscotheque is a techno\\\\rock\\\\dance number that will get your feet stomping with those phat beats. This is a bangin opener to this CD. Do You Feel Loved is a great song with synthesizer guitar licks and phat beats. This song would have been a great mainstream song. Mofo is my favorite song on this CD. This song may be too techno for casual fans but this is one of the best songs they,ve ever written. The sound effects at the beginning is a little harsh for my ears. It almost sounds like something from a Front 242 album. It has those familiar U2 guitar sounds. Things slow down with the mournful If God Will Send His Angels. This is the most beautiful song U2 have done since One from Achtung Baby from 1991. It's very mellow and joyous and sad at the same time. I played this one quite a bit during the next few days after the September 11 attacks. Staring At The Sun is a cool song with more of the synthesized electronic guitar licks. Last Night On Earth is rockin!!!!!! The sort of ambient intro is awesome. The song then becomes a hard rocking song that really gets my mental juices flowing. Gone is similar to Last Night On Earth but not quite as fast. It's another good song. It ends with the guitars still going for another 6 seconds. Miami is a song that I've heard a lot of bad talk about. I on the other hand love this song. Don't be fooled by the song title. This song is NOT a beach song. It's a strange dark trancey song with an awesome drum loop like nothing I've heard before. This song would be something to play when driving on the outskirts of a large city during the wee hours of the morning. The Playboy Mansion is another song that has been bad-mouthed. This song is a very blues-sounding song. This song is a good song. If You Wear That Velvet Dress is a quiet sensual song probably the most sensual song U2 have ever done. Please is a spooky track with an ambient sound that reminds me of looking out a window on a stormy evening. Great Song. Wake Up Dead is an average closer to this CD. The beats are average and the songs sounds thrown together. The sound effects at the beginning and ending are cool though. Probably the only thin spot on this CD.\\nApart from one thin moment this is a very underrated CD. I suggest that you run to the music store and buy this CD! It's one that you'll regret passing up! I'd recommend this one ...\",\n \"Product: Non Fiction\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: One of the best albums from 1983.\\n\\nReview: Tears For Fears were and still are an incredible band that few others can rival.\\nThe edition I'm reviewing is the older edition without the bonus tracks.\\nThe Hurting, released in 1983 is TFFs debut album that unfortunately is overshadowed by it's follow-up 1985s Songs From The Big Chair. The Hurting is lighter musically but lyrically it's probably the darkest album of all of their 80s releases. My favorite songs are Change, the title track & Start Of The Breakdown. The lyrical prowess is strong especially with Mad World & and the doomsday like Start Of The Breakdown. This track is my favorite song from this often underrated LP. Just the electric electrifying guitar at the beginning of the opening title track proves that TFFstood out well from other bands from the early 80s and now almost 20 years after it's release The Hurting still stands out well from most other LPs that were released the same year. The last track Start Of The Breakdown was pretty far ahead of it's time and coul almost fit on the Big Chair LP.\\nThe remastered edition has four bonus tracks. Two are extended remixes, Mad World (world remix)is the original with an altered beat. and one is an extended version of the B-Side The Way You Are. The best of them is the extended version of the intimate Change which is extended to about 6 minutes.\\n As I listened to Start Of The Breakdown I've noticed that two other songs share similar chord structures with this one. One is Always In The Past, a B-Side from the Seeds Of Love sessions and the other is Hypnoculture from Rolands solo album Tomcats Screaming Outside. No offense to any of these songs. I just simply noticed similar chord structures between these three songs, that's all.\\nThe Hurting is a must own.\",\n \"Product: U2 THE UNFORGETTABLE FIRE\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: One of the best remasters of all time and a marvelous archive of hidden treasures!\\n\\nReview: I reviewed this album many, many years ago considering that it was a favorite at the time, and still is as of this writing. I wanted to return here and review the expanded deluxe edition of my favorite U2 album \\\"Unforgettable Fire\\\". Originally released in late 1984, it marked a profound change in style from the austerity of \\\"War\\\" towards a mix of atmospheric ethereal sounds, thanks in part to the collaboration with Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, both of whom have produced marvelous works of art, both solo and with others.\\n\\n This particular edition that I'm reviewing not only remasters the original release but also included 16 extra tracks, some of them live recordings from the tour that promoted this album, and also a huge stash of B-sides and slightly altered versions of the original songs that made it on the regular album. Even better is the inclusion of B-Sides that didn't even make it on the much beloved \\\"Best of/B-Sides 1980-1998\\\" collection and some of the songs that actually were on that collection, appear on here, in slightly altered versions, some of which I'd say are actually the 'true' versions.\\n\\n The original album is in remastered form. For those familiar with the original album, theres little need to explain much other than to say that it is a marvelous blend of rock, atmospheric etherealism, and beautiful songwriting and an atmospheric sound that in my opinion, nobody else, not even U2 themselves ever came close to recapturing again, until Lanternas Desert Ocean album 22 years later but thats for a whole separate review. My favorite tracks are the four-track bundle starting the title track with its serious atmosphere of beautiful keyboard arrangements, excellent drumbeats, and overall dark but blissful atmosphere. Following that is the eerily beautiful track Promenade with Bonos vocals amidst a very subdued background melody. Following that is the haunting instrumental 4th of July with a haunting sound that conjures the feel of watching the fireworks from a very great distance away. And who can forget the ever-enduring classic Bad with its marvelous songwriting, craftsmanship, and atmospheric texture.\\n\\n It is however the second disc containing B-Sides, rarities, and remixes that highlight this review. Most of these songs are a mix of experimental noodlings, and tracks that would definitely sound out of place on the regular album but nevertheless have their own merit in the B-Side world.\\n\\n Starting at track one, is a live performance of the opening track \\\"A Sort of Homecoming\\\". A real treat is the a live version of their famous classic \\\"Bad\\\" which is one of my favorite songs on the parent album. If you loved the studio album version, this live performance does the album version proud and has a unique of it's own. The live version's climax gives way to a winding down phase and gradually fades down and comes to a beautiful conclusion. The next track \\\"Love Comes Tumbling\\\" is a B-Side that appeared on the \\\"Best of 1980-1998/B-sides\\\" compilation albeit in slightly edited form. The song has a very unusual sound with an obtuse sound that feels more like something from Roxy Music's \\\"Avalon\\\" or a mid to late 1980s Bryan Ferry recording. Especially with the drum loop. The guitar textures are very unusual and have the feel of a mix of spirits, and even angels actually performing with the band. Even Bono's vocals have the feel of echoing from a great distance. It feels very different from other songs that U2 did during this period and it is one of my favorite U2 B-sides from this era. The song was actually done in a few different versions. The version on here is almost identical to the one found on the \\\"Best of\\\" compilation but has a longer instrumental intro before the vocals start. The next song Three Sunrises is a very strange bird of a track in the sense of beginning with an ambient intro but then when the full song goes into full gear, it suddenly shifts in actual tuning and almost adopts a whole different pitch altogether. This kind of playing with musical tunings is very, very rare in pop music and those with perfect pitch or have a strong recognition of musical notes will notice this really odd trick. Overall, the song is a really great song. Even better is before ending, it changes back to the normal tuning in the closing seconds almost like going through dimensions before emerging back into this one. This version is the same as found on the Best of 1980-1990 collection. \\\"Yoshida Blossom\\\" is a B-Side that didn't appear on the compilation but finally makes its presence. Probably among the closest to feeling like the \\\"War\\\" era, this song begins with a discordant guitar intro and blends into a heavy keyboard intro before becoming a fast-paced instrumental, very much a cross between the feel and mood of \\\"New Year's Day\\\" with the rhythm patterns of \\\"Wire\\\" and utilizing the best of both songs. The shrieking guitar effects in many respects replace lyrics and conjure up the pain and terror that befell many survivors of the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. I can easily imagine the agonized faces when listening to the guitar effects. Mentioning that, an extended version of Wire follows Yoshida with a very different intro and different rhythm patterns before shifting instantly into the version heard on the parent album. The vocals feel much more echoing. Next up is an extended version of Pride Who can forget Bono singing about the scars of Memphis 1968 on that great classic? Because it was what put the parent album on the map, it is noteworthy because appears on here in an extended form with an extra vocal passage with Bono's famous \\\"In The Name of Love!\\\" lyric sung in extended form starting at 3:02 and in a much greater intensity. Overall, with this extra power, this already great song is made into an even better enduring classic. The next track is a reworking of the opening track \\\"A Sort of Homecoming\\\" with a very different reworking including a mix of acoustic passages in place of the original rock guitar sounds that dominate the original song. Even the pitch tuning sounds different giving this version a feel that is very different from the original yet maintaining the spirit at the same time. For some odd reason, the song \\\"11 O'clock Tick Tock\\\" finds its way here in extended form. Originally recorded and released before even their debut album \\\"Boy\\\", it has an unusual blend of wintery atmospherics and late 1970s/early 1980s New Wave. For those who have been critical of the band or record labels' decision not to include this on the 'Best of' collection, you're requests have now been answered. This song for many seemed to drift in the netherworld of 'bootlegs' or 'EPs' and there are two other versions out there but at least one of them is now available on the deluxe edition of \\\"Unforgettable Fire\\\". A second version of Wire called the Celtic Dub mix makes its appearance. Despite the title, I don't hear anything celtic in this version but the textures feel slightly altered from the original parent album version. A great song in slightly different form nonetheless. My favorite track on here is the atmospheric instrumental \\\"Bass Trap\\\". If there was ever a song that I felt captured a bit of heaven, this might be it for me. The song is a very quiet, moody instrumental with the guitars played with a heavy ethereal backdrop comprised of atmospheric keyboard arrangements and bluesy sounds. I often picture a mix of office buildings amidst a mostly cloudy evening sky during the spring, summer, and autumn and the mix of urban street lights and office window lights providing contrast with the blue evening skies. It is mostly repetitive with some slight variations but it is meant to be like a heavenly journey through the modern world. This version on here is much longer than the version found on the Best of/B-Sides with some added passages. I overall find this version on here to feel more complete. The haunting instrumental \\\"4th of July\\\" makes it's second appearance in a slightly longer form. It feels very much like the parent album version but with some tweaked sounds. Finally there is \\\"Sixty Seconds in Kingdom Come\\\" which is a great closer to this set of B-Sides. It has a very strong bass guitar as a backdrop and it provides the song a lot of punch as it develops some background vocals and U2's early 80s trademark guitar sound in the background. I get the impression that if the song \\\"Bad\\\" was recorded at the same time as the songs from the \\\"War\\\" era, it would've sounded a lot like this.\\n\\n As a long-time fan of U2 over many years, I've come to appreciate all of their albums starting with \\\"Boy\\\" and even all the way up through their \\\"Songs of Innocence\\\" and enjoy all of them to varying degrees. Yes, the following two albums \\\"Joshua Tree\\\" and \\\"Achtung Baby\\\" are far more famous, deservedly so, and sold countless millions, but to me, The Unforgettable Fire remains among my favorites, if not my actual favorite U2 record in their entire career. Having said that, it is a real delight that this marvelous album not only saw much-needed remastering but also a second CD with a huge treasure chest of B-Sides and some different versions of the original tracks, especially since some of these lost treasures were never available anywhere except maybe on rare bootlegs or long out-of-print vinyl released. Now they are given a new lease on life on the deluxe 2-CD version of this magnificent album. If there are yet more songs that still didn't make it on here, Im not aware of them but even so, this deluxe edition of Unforgettable Fire is one of the best ways to re-release an album in remastered form: The original version in remastered form, and a second disc of B-sides, and remixes of the original songs.\\n\\n Unless you are a casual fan of U2s music, if you just buy the one-CD version remastered, you are likely to miss out on a huge treasure chest of hidden gems. Highly recommended.\",\n \"Product: In a career full of triumphs, this 1986 LP might have been the pinnacle for Winwood; it sold three million copies and gave him his first #1, the Grammy-winning Higher Love . It joins the infectious title tune; the hit Freedom Overspill; Split Decision , and more pop gems with guests Joe Walsh, James Taylor and others!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Without a doubt my favorite Winwood album!\\n\\nReview: There will never be anything that Steve's post-1986 will create that will top \\\"Back In The High Life\\\" as it's easily my favorite album that he's ever done and deservedly was and remains his highest selling album to date.\\n\\n Having much superior production quality than his previous outings, BITHL literally makes \\\"Arc of A Diver\\\" and \\\"Talking Back\\\" sound as ancient as the days of Queen Elizabeth the first and it's clear why. The volume quality is so much better and the music alone is more well-produced as well. \\\"Higher Love\\\" is a much deserved classic with a tropical color and a happy and fun groove. \\\"My Love's Leaving\\\" is a tribute to a friend of his that passed away during this albums making and even though it's more of a melancholy track, even this song has an optimistic glare to it. The beauty is stunning and is light years ahead of it's time.\\n\\n Although Back In The High Life may sound a bit dated in places by today's standards, it has withstood the tests of time and is highly recommended.\",\n \"Product: Classic 1989 album features \\\"Sowing The Seeds Of Love\\\" and \\\"Woman In Chains\\\".\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Seeds Of Love: Tears For Fears artistic pinnacle\\n\\nReview: Sure the excellent Songs From The Big Chair got better sales & more commercial success but one will definately agree with me that 1989 epic masterpiece The Seeds Of Love is TFF most creative & most consistant and is their masterpiece. To me there hasn't been a better period in music than mid to late 1989 with the Seeds Of Love & Janet Jacksons Rhythm Nation 1814 being the best music the best year for music. Sadly this would be the album that would tear apart the dynamic Orzabal/Smith duo for the next ten years after this.\\nThe edition I'm reviewing is the older version without the bonus tracks.\\nWoman In Chains begins this CD with a heartbreaking melody and a more soulful sound with the then unknown Oleta Adams singing on backup vocals and what a singing duo! This is a song I think that is about the abuse of womens rights judging from reading the lyrics. Badmans Song brings us into more upbeat terrority with a far more upbeat track with lots of jazzy blues-rock influences which also features Oleta Adams on guest vocals. This track is 8 and a half minutes long. fans who are The Big Chair might find it difficult to enjoy this song but those who are open minded or more adventurous will definately love this song. The title track we've already heard before. It's a very beatle-esque song and is the most radio-friendly song on this CD and probably the only one that is. This is the only song that features Curt Smith on vocals. Advice For The Young At Heart is the winner on The Seeds Of Love. It's a very soulful song with deep lyrics and lots of organs and wash of guitar sways. The bridge in the middle of the song from 2:49 to 3:30 is my favorite part of the song with a much jazzier feel. Why this song failed to reach the top 40 is beyond me. Standing On The Corner Of The Third World starts off with Arab sounding flutes and strange sounding chimes and then becomes a mellow soul-oriented track. The song then blasts into a Gospel influenced track at the 2:48. The song mellows down but then speeds up again and kind of melts into a chaos of harmonicas and rock guitars before fading out. Swords & Knife starts off with wobbly keyboards and then becomes an upbeat track and finally morphs into an ambient rock track with awesome beats. The song ends with the wobbly keyboards and then ties us into the next track Year Of The Knife. Year Of The Knife is probably the closest the Seeds Of Love comes to sounding like The Big Chair but even then this is a far cry from that album. Year Of The Knife is similar to Sponges 1994 hit Plowed with an identical drum loop bur less grunge-influenced and has awesome chorus and incredible singing once again by Oleta Adams. After that we head into more melancholy territory with the eerie Famous Last Words. Famous Last Words starts off with a siren like intro and piano and then becomes a sort of classical oriented song. At the 2:24 mark the song blasts into a power ballad with incredible atmosphere. What awesome lyrics. Incredible emotions. Incredibly powerful song. The song calms down and with the siren like ambience returning and then the song ends with the air raid siren sounds fading out bringing this CD to a close.\\nThis CD is absolutely stunning on all fronts.\\nSeeds Of Love is recommended but I say get the remastered edition with the four bonus tracks. The bonus tracks flow quite well with the original eight tracks.\\nHIGHLY RECOMMENDED!\",\n \"Product: Winwood gained much respect amongst the rock crowd for his stints in the Spencer Davis Group, Traffic, Blind Faith and Go. However, he made the biggest impression as a solo artist with these 1980s chart-toppers including \\\"Higher Love.\\\"\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: A decent sampler but scratches the surface.\\n\\nReview: This is a wonderfully diverse sample of Winwoods 20 years of music making (at the time of this release) and all of the tracks are great. \\\"Higher Love\\\" was a well-deserved hit and \\\"My Loves Leavin\\\" is pure ecstacy. Yet there are far more lesser known songs on here that are also enjoyable like \\\"Vacant Chair\\\" and \\\"Wake Me Up ON Judgement Day\\\". The tracks from his 1982 \\\"Talking Back\\\" album are redone with a 1987 production and are great but I would've liked to hear them in their original versions. oVERALL this is a very good CD but there are a lot more great songs that are completely overlooked on this collection. It is however a great purchase to start off with or to introduce a newcomer to Steve's music!\",\n \"Product: Move To This CD Polydor, 847 267-2, 1990, 10 Track\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Criminally overlooked treasure of a classic!\\n\\nReview: I just cannot understand how a record like this that spawned four smash hits on the radio back in 1990 and 1991 could go virtually unnoticed and ultimately just be in the category of cult hits. When four singles lifted from it in fact make it into the top ten and are still very popular to this day, yet the parent album is almost forgotten completely baffles me to this day. With four top ten hits, one would assume that this album would at least go platinum but it barely dented the charts despite the runaway popularity of the songs that were released as singles. I bought a copy of this album in the summer of 1999 and a whole bunch of memories came flooding back to me with songs like 1989's \\\"Come on And Get My Love\\\", \\\"Just Another Dream\\\" and \\\"Everybody Move\\\", and without a doubt the timeless classic \\\"Touch Me All Night Long\\\". \\\"Move To This\\\" remains a staple album of early 1990s Eurodance pop and remains one of the albums that while mostly centering the dance pop styles of that era has aged unbelievably gracefully and surprisingly doesn't sound dated at all even when placed against some newer music.\\n\\nThe cheese factor is evident in many areas of this album but the cheese factor instead just makes this album all the more fun to listen to and to escape from the negativity of today's world. The most blatant cheese factor is mostly centered on the suprisngly bland album cover with it's rather odd color scheme and the sometimes laughable Louise Brooks hairdo. The rather unappealing color scheme used on the album cover on both the front and back with it's texture, is virtually opposite to the immensely edgy and rich style that permeate the albums music altogether. It's definitely not the worst album cover even by a long shot but the sometimes plain look is deceiving because the music is far from plain.\\n\\nWhile \\\"Touch Me All Night Long\\\" is remembered with it's electrifying techno beat and Dennis' excellent vocals, the version on this parent album is VERY different from the remix that most dance fans are familiar with and is one of the great suprises that this album offers. The version that most people are familiar with has that unforgettable Europop techno beat and strong basslines along with those tinkling low-pitched keyboard effects but the version on here is very different but every bit as good albeit in a very different light. The version on the parent album is less techno-oriented, funkier and more jolly in sound and is slightly jazzier in sound as well. The techno version is the more popular version but the album version is a must-hear just to hear this classic in a totally different light.\\n\\nSome of the other tracks besides \\\"Come On and Get Your Love\\\" and \\\"All Night Long\\\" however warrant a great deal of attention. \\\"Too Many Walls\\\" is perhaps the most unique track on this album and was a well-deserved top ten hit in the fall of 1990. The song melody wise has the undertones that would make it a moody ballad but at the same time, the track has a danceable metallic beat that would make it a wonderful semi-ballad/semi-dance track. The song combines the elements of a ballad and the elements of a dance track. Quite something to hear. The moody melody of the track and the unique chord changes that permeate the track are just a delight to my ears and remains one of the highlight tracks. While it may have been out for many years, \\\"Too Many Walls\\\" doesn't sound dated at all and in fact defies a lot of late 1980s/early 1990s trends as well and that's quite an achievement. The saxophones and Flugel horns during the middle of the track from 2:56 until the track rises a whole step in melody is absolutely incredible and that along makes this track a timeless classic in my book.\\n\\nThe orchestral ending of \\\"Too Many Walls\\\" perfectly blends into the moodiest and most emotional song on this album \\\"Tell Me\\\". Blending Europop balladry and moody Quiet Storm atmosphere \\\"Tell Me\\\" is another highlight on this album. Cathy Dennis's vocals are absolutely incredible and are among the best singing she's ever done and is ironically hardly cheesy at all. The lyrics are very good as well and are in fact quite impressive even by dance-artists' standards. The beauty of the ambient keyboards and soft vocals are really amazing and \\\"Tell Me\\\" is another one of the best tracks on this album.\\n\\nThe only occasional drawback is that most of the dance tracks do sometimes suffer from sounding very similar to each other at times but that is offset by the different styles that are unique to them. \\\"Everybody Move\\\", the longest track on this short album (5:15) is a very Prince-influenced track with a mix of late 1980s Europop keyboard effects and rock drum beats to create a really unique and colorful track. I would even go far enough to say that it would almost perfectly fit on Prince's \\\"Grafitti Bridge\\\" soundtrack against \\\"Round and Round\\\", another wonderful classic but that's up for another review on the future. The title track is another excellent dance track with a really good rhythm and keyboard styles.\\n\\n\\\"My Beating Heart\\\" is the cheesiest song on this album and sounds the most dated of the tracks on this album. While it is certainly my least favorite track on this album, the cheese factor present is offset by the horn instruments and the moodiness of the melody. The beat though is really cool and while this was the track that took the longest to get into mainly because of the cheese factor, it is yet another great track even if I give it let's say a 4.7 versus a perfect 5 or more for every other track on this album.\\n\\n The remaining two tracks \\\"Got to Get Your Love\\\" and \\\"Taste My Love\\\" close this album on a glorious note. \\\"Got To Get Your Love\\\" is a high-energy dance pop track with pulsating beats, unique keyboards effects, and a fun big city party vibe to it. The tambourine effects towards the last minute of the track are really fun to listen to. The final track \\\"Taste My Love\\\" is on the border of being pure cheesy with it's outright cheesy lyrics but the song overall is a great dance track. The song ends this wonderful trip on a highly confident note.\\n\\n \\\"Move To This\\\" is without a doubt a staple in the history of dance pop music of the early 1990s and is one of the greatest albums of that era. While mostly centering on the styles of the era, the album has aged incredibly well and avoids ending up in the era of dated pop fluff. This is highly recommended\",\n \"Product: AUDIO CASSETTE! PLAY TESTED. CASSETTE. NO SQUEALS OR HISS. COMPLETE WITH COVER AND ART WORK. COVER SHOWS SIGNS OF SHELF WEAR. ALL ORDERS OVER $25 FREE UPGRADE TO PRIORITY SHIPPING.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: The album to thrill the generations.\\n\\nReview: Thriller is absolutely a trmendously creative album in MJs catalog. No wonder it became the biggest selling album of all time selling 47 million copies worldwide!\\nNoone will ever forget the incredible title track with the Vincent Price narration and the timeless video. The same goes for the tile glowing video 'Billie Jean' or the angsty 'Beat It'. MJ really expresses a \\\"don't mess with me\\\" attitude with class. Beat It will last forever.\\nMost of the rest of Thriller to me is similar to Quincy Jones' 'The Dude' LP.\\nIn fact I often enjoy the lesser known songs on Thriller a bit more. Human Nature is absolutely a lovely song and is almost opposite to Thriller. I consider this one of my favorite love songs of my lifetime. Lady In My Life is my other favorite song on Thriller. Sorry dudes but while the whole album is great, The Lady In My Life and Human Nature share the crown as my top favorite songs.\\nThe remastered edition includes new liner notes, interviews about the albums making, and a few bonus songs. Someone In The Dark is a very beautiful song although the E.T. singing was a bit jarring. There is a demo version of the huge hit 'Billie Jean' that was recorded before the regular version was eventually made. The last bonus track Carasoul is a bit dissapointing. It's only one and a half minutes long. The song should have been at least three and a half minutes long. Oh Well.\\nAt least there are great new liner notes, and great photo stills taken from the video and behind the scenes.\\nAlthough the remastered edition could have been better this CD is absolutely incredible.\\nIt's a shame that so many people my age completely missed this album during it's heyday although it's still immensely popular. I was only about 4 weeks old when it came out but it is one of the earliest memories I have of listening to music.\\nThriller I bet will more than likely be still available in 2082, 100 years after it's release. It's that good. This CD is timeless.\",\n \"Product: Deep Forest ~ Boheme\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Deep Forest's best album without a doubt!\\n\\nReview: I was absolutely amazed with Deep Forests debut album. It was and still is one of the most groundbreaking world music albums of all time and it's a huge crime that it isn't carried by retailers. It is still an amazing CD to this very day. It blended Pygmy voices with modern dance and the result was a masterpiece. This follow-up to that album entitled \\\"Boheme\\\" raises the bar even higher by having Deep Forest travel from the remoteness of Sub-Saharan Africa, to the forests of Bulgaria and Eastern Europe and the result is beyond what I could give out and \\\"Boheme\\\" is in my opinion, Deep Forest's best album to date although \\\"Music Detected\\\" may offer competition. The album has a much darker and more dramatic undertone than their debut album does but I love it.\\n\\\"Anasthasia\\\" starts the album on a dark, eerie, and slightly ominous note with a very tribal sound with haunting flutes and a haunting ambience that gives the song a feel of like drifting through the forests of the Alps with nearby storms. Eventually the song gets more and more intense until it suddenly ends at just less than two minutes length. The echoes of \\\"Anashthasia\\\" perfect blend into the drama of my favorite track on this album \\\"Bohemian Ballet\\\". This is one of their best 'studio' album tracks that they've ever created. At first, the clanging dance sound effects would imply a Latin folk track but it becomes a very intense, dramatic, and dark song. Things get even better when it becomes a vibrant and energetic dance song with haunting and bizarrely amplified Eastern European voices backed by the intense melody. This song is my favorite song on this entire album. \\\"Marta's Song\\\" is sheer beauty. After the dramatic darkness of \\\"Bohemian Ballet\\\", we emerge into the sunniness of \\\"Marta's Song\\\" which is another one of the highlights of this album. The song has a really excellent and exotic rhythm and the same is said about the haunting Bulgarian chants as well. Add that to a really warm and energetic melody and you have a really uplifting classic for the coming ages. \\\"Gathering\\\" is a much darker and more ominous track with a very futuristic production yet it also blends in ancient chorus and a really dark but never forboding atmosphere to create another intriguing and amazing classic. \\\"Lament\\\" is a really heartbreaking yet joyous song with a very strange electronic voice effect and bizarrely amplified voice effects. The melody is really awesome as well and the result is another highlight on this album. \\\"Bulgarian Melody\\\" is the strangest track on this CD. Although it starts with a dark and very eerie note and growing more and more dramatic, it calms down and becomes a very odd piano ballad with Bulgarian vocals amidst sweet and beautiful background piano in the background which almost gives the song a slight 1940s tone to it. While I totally disagree with a reviewer saying that this song is god-awful, it does feel sort of out of place against the other songs on this album but nonetheless it is a really great song. As it reverts back to the eerie sound that was present at the beginning, it morphs into a sweeter melody which becomes the track \\\"Deep Folk Song\\\" which is just a one minute interlude track but has a really vibrant French accordion style to it. In a way it's more of like an interlude intro into the vibrant classic \\\"Freedom Cry\\\". This is a really fun and actually a very bright, sunny and really happy song without being cheesy and is actually a very sophisticated song with an edgy and funky beat and a French accordion sound to it that gives the idea of a dance in an open paved plaza in Paris right after a storm moves out. A really amazing song it is. The song gracefully transitions into the next song \\\"Twosome\\\" which is another highlight on this album. This song has a rather slightly ominous melody but also a very joyous and exotic dance club sound. The Eastern Indian chanting gives the song a really colorful sound. It's hard to really explain this track but it's a really awesome song that needs a listen. \\\"Caf Europa\\\" is a really strange track with a stormy vibe and Asian exotic instruments. The song becomes a very club-oriented dance song that surely would make for excellent dance club music. While it's a very good song, it doesn't stack up as high as the other songs on this album. Still, it's a great song. The live version is incredible! \\\"Kathrina\\\" is a very spooky track. It begins with a very misty sharp-sounding flute or other wind instrument and becomes a very dark and haunting track with African beats and strange ominous melody. This is the darkest track on this album and it's a good one at that! The album closes with what I can safely say is the best track on this album which is the title track to this CD. While much of the album is dark and somewhat stormy in nature, the closing title track has a very happy and absolutely uplifting vibe and has a funky and exotic rhythm and colorful vocal effects. To me, this is like the sun shining bright after a major storm moving away into the east. This song brings an already phenomenal album to a glorious finish.\\nTheir debut album may have been what brought them into the spotlight but the way I look at it, \\\"Boheme\\\" was where they reached their peak although \\\"Music Detected\\\" may offer competition but these two albums have enormously different styles that it's impossible to compare them but they both showed that Deep Forest were unafraid to go into uncharted territory with their music. \\\"Boheme\\\" to me, built on the greatness of their debut and the result is what I consider to possibly be their best album that they've ever put out to date. I strongly suggest that you get a hold of a copy of this album. I don't know how much I can recommend it but I cannot do this album justice with this review. That's all I can say.\",\n \"Product: Deep Forest ~ Boheme\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Deep Forest's Magnum Opus! I'm not kidding!\\n\\nReview: I was absolutely amazed with Deep Forests debut album. It was and still is one of the most groundbreaking world music albums of all time and it's a huge crime that it isn't carried by retailers. It is still an amazing CD to this very day. It blended Pygmy voices with modern dance and the result was a masterpiece. This follow-up to that album entitled \\\"Boheme\\\" raises the bar even higher by having Deep Forest travel from the remoteness of Sub-Saharan Africa, to the forests of Bulgaria and Eastern Europe and the result is beyond what I could give out and \\\"Boheme\\\" is in my opinion, Deep Forest's best album to date although \\\"Music Detected\\\" may offer competition. The album has a much darker and more dramatic undertone than their debut album does but I love it.\\n \\\"Anasthasia\\\" starts the album on a dark, eerie, and slightly ominous note with a very tribal sound with haunting flutes and a haunting ambience that gives the song a feel of like drifting through the forests of the Alps with nearby storms. Eventually the song gets more and more intense until it suddenly ends at just less than two minutes length. The echoes of \\\"Anashthasia\\\" perfect blend into the drama of my favorite track on this album \\\"Bohemian Ballet\\\". This is one of their best `studio' album tracks that they've ever created. At first, the clanging dance sound effects would imply a Latin folk track but it becomes a very intense, dramatic, and dark song. Things get even better when it becomes a vibrant and energetic dance song with haunting and bizarrely amplified Eastern European voices backed by the intense melody. This song is my favorite song on this entire album. \\\"Marta's Song\\\" is sheer beauty. After the dramatic darkness of \\\"Bohemian Ballet\\\", we emerge into the sunniness of \\\"Marta's Song\\\" which is another one of the highlights of this album. The song has a really excellent and exotic rhythm and the same is said about the haunting Bulgarian chants as well. Add that to a really warm and energetic melody and you have a really uplifting classic for the coming ages. \\\"Gathering\\\" is a much darker and more ominous track with a very futuristic production yet it also blends in ancient chorus and a really dark but never forboding atmosphere to create another intriguing and amazing classic. \\\"Lament\\\" is a really heartbreaking yet joyous song with a very strange electronic voice effect and bizarrely amplified voice effects. The melody is really awesome as well and the result is another highlight on this album. \\\"Bulgarian Melody\\\" is the strangest track on this CD. Although it starts with a dark and very eerie note and growing more and more dramatic, it calms down and becomes a very odd piano ballad with Bulgarian vocals amidst sweet and beautiful background piano in the background which almost gives the song a slight 1940s tone to it. While I totally disagree with a reviewer saying that this song is god-awful, it does feel sort of out of place against the other songs on this album but nonetheless it is a really great song. As it reverts back to the eerie sound that was present at the beginning, it morphs into a sweeter melody which becomes the track \\\"Deep Folk Song\\\" which is just a one minute interlude track but has a really vibrant French accordion style to it. In a way it's more of like an interlude intro into the vibrant classic \\\"Freedom Cry\\\". This is a really fun and actually a very bright, sunny and really happy song without being cheesy and is actually a very sophisticated song with an edgy and funky beat and a French accordion sound to it that gives the idea of a dance in an open paved plaza in Paris right after a storm moves out. A really amazing song it is. The song gracefully transitions into the next song \\\"Twosome\\\" which is another highlight on this album. This song has a rather slightly ominous melody but also a very joyous and exotic dance club sound. The Eastern Indian chanting gives the song a really colorful sound. It's hard to really explain this track but it's a really awesome song that needs a listen. \\\"Café Europa\\\" is a really strange track with a stormy vibe and Asian exotic instruments. The song becomes a very club-oriented dance song that surely would make for excellent dance club music. While it's a very good song, it doesn't stack up as high as the other songs on this album. Still, it's a great song. The live version is incredible! \\\"Kathrina\\\" is a very spooky track. It begins with a very misty sharp-sounding flute or other wind instrument and becomes a very dark and haunting track with African beats and strange ominous melody. This is the darkest track on this album and it's a good one at that! The album closes with what I can safely say is the best track on this album which is the title track to this CD. While much of the album is dark and somewhat stormy in nature, the closing title track has a very happy and absolutely uplifting vibe and has a funky and exotic rhythm and colorful vocal effects. To me, this is like the sun shining bright after a major storm moving away into the east. This song brings an already phenomenal album to a glorious finish.\\n Their debut album may have been what brought them into the spotlight but the way I look at it, \\\"Boheme\\\" was where they reached their peak although \\\"Music Detected\\\" may offer competition but these two albums have enormously different styles that it's impossible to compare them but they both showed that Deep Forest were unafraid to go into uncharted territory with their music. \\\"Boheme\\\" to me, built on the greatness of their debut and the result is what I consider to possibly be their best album that they've ever put out to date. I strongly suggest that you get a hold of a copy of this album. I don't know how much I can recommend it but I cannot do this album justice with this review. That's all I can say.\",\n \"Product: 12 songs\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Janet Jackson at the apex.\\n\\nReview: This edition of Janets creative apex, Rhythm Nation 1814, now comes with her collection of videos entitled \\\"The Rhythm Nation\\\" on DVD. I tell you, Janet has never been better than during this era that stretched from August of 1989 to well into 1991 and it's a classic that must always be available for the generations. Unfortunately she would sadly go downhill with the creative slide Janet, rebounding a bit with The Velvet Rope, before collapsing into musical limbo with the sorry All For You. I consider this Janets \\\"Thriller\\\".\\nThe music is top-notch with sonic punch, loud slamming beats, strong vocals, both solo and chorus, and amazing and powerful songwriting and her first song she wrote all by herself \\\"Black Cat\\\" is truly angry and powerful especially with the loud crunchy heavy-metal guitars and sledgehammer beats. The albums theme, like we all know, is about how to counteract the wrongs in the world as the title track says. Not all of it is like this as some tracks are on the fun side. Alright fits into this category with it's stunning New Jack Swing beats, and cheering voices. Listening to this song, it makes me yearn so much for the Janet of this era again. Alright is Janet at the apex. The last three tracks are haunting ballads and far surpass almost every ballad she's done since(Not that they're all boring or bad). The first one, Lonely, is a dark haunting song with beautiful Spanish guitars and powerful lyrics and ambient atmosphere. The next one, Come Back To Me, continues the feel of Lonely but adding a bit of a more orchestral sound. There were two version both of which I like. The version on Design Of A Decade has dingling keyboards at the beginning, the parent album version has the haunting multilayered chorus at the beginning. I happen to like both but I like the multi-layered chorus version a little better. The last one, Someday Is Tonight, is Janets first true ... song by Janet. Where as they would get worse with each CD afterwards, SIT works perfectly and benifits by having a ominous stormy atmosphere, eerie melody, multi-layered chorus, drippy trancy beats, and also by not having any ridiculously graphic lyrics like All For You has(Would You Mind & Love Scene made me sick!). I love the muted trumpet playing by trumpeteer Herb Alpert.\\n....And now for the Rhythm Nation Compilation......\\nThe DVD that comes with this edition of Rhythm Nation is a collection of Janets seven ground breaking videos and are absolutely amazing with the astounding choreography from Tina Landon and also I also loved her clad-in-black image too from this era in her career. In fact, while I might be recieving angry replies but I thought she looked alot prettier during this era than when she became a \\\"...-kitten\\\". My favorite videos are the dynamite Miss You Much with the classic chair routine, the dance army video of the title track, the carnival influenced Escapade, the 1920s Chicago style Alright, and Black Cat(Love those tight jeans and leather boots, Whew!). In fact, every video is classic. I watched the RN compilation in VHS and have worn out like two copies over the years and it's almost on the border of being an honor to have these amazing videos on DVD!\\nThe next album, Janet, while good, was an artistic slide IMHO. The next one, The Velvet Rope, is a little better with some more creativity put into it. All For you on the other hand sounds like sorry excuse for record sales.\\nHer latter works are good but compared to Rhythm Nation 1814, I'm not nearly as impressed them like I am with this amazing, and unbelievable album. The only other album by Janet that comes close to being this good is Control and I hope they can re-release that album with a DVD of her videos from that era. Overall, while it may cost more with this edition, this CD/DVD set is a great buy. Even if you have Rhythm Nation 1814 already on it's older edition, this CD/DVD set should be bought as a companion to the other version. Don't throw out the older version of Rhythm Nation. Janet, we need more music like this from you again! And also get rid of the hip-hop dreck of All For You and make some more guitar based music. RN 1814, Control, Design Of A Decade, and The Velvet Rope are all you need to hear Janets strongest material. :)\",\n \"Product: 12 songs\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A must have classic for all fans, not just Janet fans!\\n\\nReview: ...Janet has\\nnever been better than the period from 1989-1991. Everything about Rhythm Nation is awesome. The interludes are great...the beats are loud, industrial, the videos are absolutely unforgettable and ground shattering, plus the lyrics are thought provoking and powerful. Musically speaking, it's her most mature (Control is a bit campy at times) and strongest work to date. The next two albums fail to surpass this album even Control can't top this one. I could puke at what's become of Janet in recent years and AFY Sounds like a sorry excuse for music.\\nThe sound of a low-pitched church bell starts of the CD with a pledge that teaches us that we all are special human beings with no geographic boundaries, and are one through beliefs and are pushing toward a world rid of colorlines. A factory machine comes with the sound of amplified voices and then the countdown voice comes in ushing the title track which continues the message of the interlude beforehand and the black & white video of Janets dance army dressed in military outfits, is a message of how we are all the same regardless of our ethnicity. The song is an industrial sounding dance number. A T.V. interlude comes in with flipping channels of violent events in the news especially of the Tiananmen Square incident. After the chaos of the T.V. interlude we head into a disturbing track called State of The World. SOTW is about the problems of drugs & crime spreading on the streets. Lots of metallic, danceable beats make up the song and is one of the standouts. A 4 second interlude called Race mentions about being in a race between education and catastrophe. The next track The Knowledge starts off with the sound of videogame sound effects and then blasts into another industrial sounding dance tune. This track denounces bigotry and illitaracy especially with the \\\"Prejudice...NO!, Bigtory..NO!, Ignorance...NO! Illitaracy...NO! \\\" lyrical line in the middle of the song. A 3 second interlude transports us into another danceable track by the name of Miss You Much. This song has the video that is famous for the chair routine that numerous artists have and the song itself is a classic that'll stand the test of time. After the song ends a 20 second sample of the orchestral part of Come Back To Me plays before the next track begins. Love Will Never Do(Without You) is the one that brought in the more of the sex symbol Janet that we all know today. The song starts off with a stunning ambient keyboard intro and then blasts into a stunning song with awesome chorus, crisp vocals, strong melody, awesome beats and a video no one will ever forget. We then return to more chilling territory with the disturbing ballad Living In A World We Didn't Make which is a chilling tale of how young children are tought how to hate especially with the news snippet of a playground shooting that took place sometime around the late 1980s in California. Things get much more upbeat again with my favorite Janet song to date, Alright. The song is a New Jack Swing influenced track that is tons of fun and makes me yearn for the RN style Janet again. I especially loved the video with a 1920s oriented urban atmosphere and a guest appearance from the late Cab Calloway who sadly passed away a few years after the video was made. Alright is Janet at her very, best. I hope Janet can make music like this again. Another interlude comes in with the \\\"edit\\\" quote that Janet is famous for. The next track Escapade is yet another great, killer dance number with what I consider another highlight off RN 1814. A brief interlude has the sound of a shattering glass container and then the sound of a black panther growling that kicks in Black Cat. This song was written by Janet all by herself and she did great. Black Cat is a hard edged rock number that is almost on the border of heavy-metal with angry, rebellios lyrics, loud beats, and heavy almost metal guitars. I like this parent album with the metallic beats more than the version on DOAD 1986/1996. It's is the last upbeat song on RN 1814. The remaining three are ballads. The first one up is Lonely. this is a dark, atmospheric ballad with gorgeous pan flutes, light beats, ambient melody and stunning Spanish Guitars and it's one of the best songs that Janet has ever done. The next on is the somber Come Back To Me which also has some Spanish guitars but with a more classical influence and a stormier atmosphere. The version on here has that gorgeous multilayered chorus intro instead of the dingling keyboard intro on DOAD and the version on here is superior. The last one, Someday Is Tonight is the first true sex song by Janet. Unlike the ones on her more recent material, Someday Is Tonight a very dark, ominous song with a very sexy atmosphere especially with the strange dripping beats and the muted trumpet played by Herb Alpert. The song ends with quivering breathing that isn't ridiculous like on AFY. The last track on RN 1814 is the interlude Darkness which tells of how to not let your eyes decieve you and how knowledge and wisdom is what sets us all apart and not our appearance. The ringing church bell that started this album also ends it giving a feel of coming full circle.\\nI recommend this album to all people but especially those like me who were too young to experience this ground breaking period from 1989-1991. Rhythm Nation is not only a great album but is a hallmark of a classic that must not be passed up. Janet, we need more material like this!\",\n \"Product: CD\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Very good debut album.\\n\\nReview: Our beloved British genius Peter Gabriel was on his own for nearly two years after he declared his independence from his former band Genesis and almost thought of quitting music but that was not to be though. He got back into the studio in 1976 and recorded and delivered his first solo album in February of 1977 and what an awesome result. This isn't necessarily his strongest album of his career (Security and SO have that title) but for a debut, it's quite an accomplishment. This is a fantastic outing from the then blossoming talent of Mr. Gabriel. This CD is nothing like the darker and more bleak tones that defined the three albums that followed this debut. In fact, this is probably the happiest record that Gabriel ever made but that doesn't mean it's cheesy. Completely opposite, it's a great and unforgettable classic and with the remastering, the sound quality is vastly improved and the songs all sound so much sharper and clearer and there isn't any need to turn the volume up to deafening levels to hear the songs clearly. The album has a very fleshed out sound in each of the songs, something opposite to the second album that Gabriel released a year later which had a dry and very raw production to it, great CD as well. The album jumps in many styles and it sometimes makes the album have a sense that it'll lose it's cohesiveness. Overall, the album has an orchestral rock sound to it, thanks to the big fat production of Bob Ezrin who did a better job at this than Robert Fripp did with \\\"PG 2\\\". \\\"Excuse Me\\\" gets my nod as the funniest and most hilarious song that Gabriel has ever composed. It's a humorous song with a tuba and barbershop band and hilarious tuba playing and the song is a hilarious barbershop theme and the most charming song that he has ever done and is completely opposite to let's say \\\"Lead A Normal Life\\\" and \\\"Darkness\\\". I often listen to this great song to cheer myself up sometimes when I'm down or induced to tears when listening to \\\"Birdy\\\" soundtrack or \\\"The Drop\\\" from the UP album. The album is best known for Peter's first major solo hit single \\\"Solsbury Hill\\\" with it's acoustic guitar and then building up into an electrifying rocker towards the ending. The song is a personal tale of why he left his band Genesis two years before then. There are other great gems to hear on this album. \\\"Excuse Me\\\" and \\\"Solsbury Hill\\\" are just two of them. A highlight in my opinion is the mini-epic \\\"Humdrum\\\". It starts with haunting keyboards and excellent before becoming a energetic rocker and changing tones, all in less than 3:30! The winner on this CD though is the closing theme entitled \\\"Here Comes The Flood\\\" which paved the way for the dramatic direction that Gabriel would take after this album, being an awesome power ballad and unique chord structures. It makes an absolutely stunning closer to this album but only showcased what was to come later on in his career. There is a gorgeous piano version of this song available on the \\\"Shaking The Tree\\\" album that's just as good as this version too. I just wanted to say this classic album finally has gotten a much needed clean up job on it's recording quality. The remastered edition is an incredible improvement over the older CD and brings out much greater volume and better details in the music to where it's almost like a new Peter Gabriel CD.\",\n \"Product: CD\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Came and ride in this \\\"Car\\\" with Gabriel!\\n\\nReview: Our beloved British genius Peter Gabriel was on his own for nearly two years after he declared his independence from his former band Genesis and almost thought of quitting music but that was not to be though. He got back into the studio in 1976 and recorded and delivered his first solo album in February of 1977 and what an awesome result. This isn't necessarily his strongest album of his career (Security and SO have that title) but for a debut, it's quite an accomplishment. This is a fantastic outing from the then blossoming talent of Mr. Gabriel. This CD is nothing like the darker and more bleak tones that defined the three albums that followed this debut. In fact, this is probably the happiest record that Gabriel ever made but that doesn't mean it's cheesy. Completely opposite, it's a great and unforgettable classic and with the remastering, the sound quality is vastly improved and the songs all sound so much sharper and clearer and there isn't any need to turn the volume up to deafening levels to hear the songs clearly. The album has a very fleshed out sound in each of the songs, something opposite to the second album that Gabriel released a year later which had a dry and very raw production to it, great CD as well. The album jumps in many styles and it sometimes makes the album have a sense that it'll lose it's cohesiveness. \\\"Excuse Me\\\" gets my nod as the funniest and most hilarious song that Gabriel has ever composed. It's a humorous song with a tuba and barbershop band and hilarious tuba playing and the song is a hilarious barbershop theme and the most charming song that he has ever done and is completely opposite to let's say \\\"Lead A Normal Life\\\" and \\\"Darkness\\\". I often listen to this great song to cheer myself up sometimes when I'm down or induced to tears when listening to \\\"Birdy\\\" soundtrack or \\\"The Drop\\\" from the UP album. The album is best known for Peter's first major solo hit single \\\"Solsbury Hill\\\" with it's acoustic guitar and then building up into an electrifying rocker towards the ending. The song is a personal tale of why he left his band Genesis two years before then. There are other great gems to hear on this album. \\\"Excuse Me\\\" and \\\"Solsbury Hill\\\" are just two of them. A highlight in my opinion is the mini-epic \\\"Humdrum\\\". It starts with haunting keyboards and excellent before becoming a energetic rocker and changing tones, all in less than 3:30! The winner on this CD though is the closing theme entitled \\\"Here Comes The Flood\\\" which paved the way for the dramatic direction that Gabriel would take after this album, being an awesome power ballad and unique chord structures. It makes an absolutely stunning closer to this album but only showcased what was to come later on in his career. There is a gorgeous piano version of this song available on the \\\"Shaking The Tree\\\" album that's just as good as this version too. I just wanted to say this classic album finally has gotten a much needed clean up job on it's recording quality. The remastered edition is an incredible improvement over the older CD and brings out much greater volume and better details in the music to where it's almost like a new Peter Gabriel CD.\",\n \"Product: CD\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Gabriel's first solo outing is outstanding!\\n\\nReview: Our beloved British genius Peter Gabriel was on his own for nearly two years after he declared his independence from his former band Genesis and almost thought of quitting music but that was not to be though. He got back into the studio in 1976 and recorded and delivered his first solo album in February of 1977 and what an awesome result. This isn't necessarily his strongest album of his career (Security and SO have that title) but for a debut, it's quite an accomplishment. This is a fantastic outing from the then blossoming talent of Mr. Gabriel. This CD is nothing like the darker and more bleak tones that defined the three albums that followed this debut. In fact, this is probably the happiest record that Gabriel ever made but that doesn't mean it's cheesy. Completely opposite, it's a great and unforgettable classic and with the remastering, the sound quality is vastly improved and the songs all sound so much sharper and clearer and there isn't any need to turn the volume up to deafening levels to hear the songs clearly. The album has a very fleshed out sound in each of the songs, something opposite to the second album that Gabriel released a year later which had a dry and very raw production to it, great CD as well. The album jumps in many styles and it sometimes makes the album have a sense that it'll lose it's cohesiveness. Overall, the album has an orchestral rock sound to it, thanks to the big fat production of Bob Ezrin who did a better job at this than Robert Fripp did with \\\"PG 2\\\". \\\"Excuse Me\\\" gets my nod as the funniest and most hilarious song that Gabriel has ever composed. It's a humorous song with a tuba and barbershop band and hilarious tuba playing and the song is a hilarious barbershop theme and the most charming song that he has ever done and is completely opposite to let's say \\\"Lead A Normal Life\\\" and \\\"Darkness\\\". I often listen to this great song to cheer myself up sometimes when I'm down or induced to tears when listening to \\\"Birdy\\\" soundtrack or \\\"The Drop\\\" from the UP album. The album is best known for Peter's first major solo hit single \\\"Solsbury Hill\\\" with it's acoustic guitar and then building up into an electrifying rocker towards the ending. The song is a personal tale of why he left his band Genesis two years before then. There are other great gems to hear on this album. \\\"Excuse Me\\\" and \\\"Solsbury Hill\\\" are just two of them. A highlight in my opinion is the mini-epic \\\"Humdrum\\\". It starts with haunting keyboards and excellent before becoming a energetic rocker and changing tones, all in less than 3:30! The winner on this CD though is the closing theme entitled \\\"Here Comes The Flood\\\" which paved the way for the dramatic direction that Gabriel would take after this album, being an awesome power ballad and unique chord structures. It makes an absolutely stunning closer to this album but only showcased what was to come later on in his career. There is a gorgeous piano version of this song available on the \\\"Shaking The Tree\\\" album that's just as good as this version too. I just wanted to say this classic album finally has gotten a much needed clean up job on it's recording quality. The remastered edition is an incredible improvement over the older CD and brings out much greater volume and better details in the music to where it's almost like a new Peter Gabriel CD.\",\n \"Product: [Note: This product is an authorized, licensed CD and is manufactured on demand]\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Flight Of The Snowbirds is SPELLBINDING\\n\\nReview: I discovered this CD in my moms CD collection and it had the St. Elmos Fire theme. That song is so captivating even after all these years.\\nSt. Elmos Fire has that awesome orchestra sound and a sunny roimantic pop sound. It was a well deserved hit.\\n I later discovered other great songs on this CD. The Best Of Me is a romantic power ballad with a brooding atmosphere and a vocal guest appearance by Olivia Newton John. Whos Gonna Love You tonight is a dramatic song with a very rockish sound. The song Elizabeth to me is like a darker more minor note version of St. Elmos Fire theme.\\nThe song that made this album forever a treasure in my CD collection is Flight Of The Snowbirds. Snowbirds is so incredible that it makes all the other songs on this CD seem average compared to Flight Of The Snowbirds. This song is absolutely incredible, powerful and far more addictive than St. Elmos Fire. I just love how it builds up at the beginning and goes through that repetitive melodic pattern towards the ending. I was in bliss when listening to it when flying in a jetliner over the clouds. It gives that incredible feeling of flying. Flight of Snowbirds will never die.\\nThis is one CD will become a gem. It's worth the hard search. I guarantee it.\",\n \"Product: Both Sides Phil Collins CD\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Like US was to Peter Gabriel, Both Sides is to Phil Collins\\n\\nReview: Four years after the socially conscious But Seriously Phil Collins follows up that album with the introspective Both Sides. This incredible follow-up to the great But Seriously finds Phil Collins going deeply personal on this CD and in much darker territory. Both Sides is virtually opposite to the feel-good upbeat feel of Both Sides and much less socially conscious than But Seriously. Unfortunately this CD found one of my favorite artists commercial success slumping. Both Sides is a vastly underrated masterpiece from the meistro of the drums. The best songs on this CD are the mournfully nostalgic Can't Turn Back The Years, the heartwarming Everyday(My favorite track on this CD), the bitter I've Forgotten Everything, the saddening minor note Can't Find My Way the more upbeat Survivors, and the We Fly So Close(Very reminiscent of In The Air Tonight).\\nThe lyrics are very deep and powerful and express strong feeling but it's mainly the dark melodies that express the majority of the mood of this album. Both Sides is so wonderfully crafted that I regret buy this album used because buying a new copy of Both Sides would've added to record sales. That's how good Both Sides really is. Plus another thing is that Phil played all of the instruments when recording this album and that really makes this album one of his most talented works to date. If you're looking for the poppish fun of Sussudio, Two Hearts or Don't Lost My Number steer clear of Both Sides because this powerful CD is almost completely opposite to the excellent No Jacket Required. The happier songs on Both Sides are more melancholy than even Long Way To Go off No Jacket Required. It's kind of odd that Phil suddenly took a 180 degree turn into much more upbeat territory with the incredibly underrated 1996 follow-up Dance Into The Light which probably is a close cousin to No Jacket Required.\",\n \"Product: CD\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Genesis steers down a pop direction.\\n\\nReview: Genesis' third post-Gabriel outing with Phil Collins as lead singer of the group is a very transitional album where almost all of their progressive rock style is shed and the band reveals a much more accessible pop sound. Their biggest hit to date at this point was their 1978 charting single entitled \\\"Follow You Follow Me\\\" which is a really good pop single.\\n This album at the same time still has a sort of wintery feel similar to their previous outing \\\"Wind and Wuthering\\\" but the sound of this album is much more accessible and easier to get into than their previous outings. In my perspective, this is their least progressive album they've ever made in their 30 year career. Even their more pop sounding 80s works had a more progressive style than \\\"Then There Were Three\\\". \\\"The Burning Rope\\\" is the closest this album comes to being progressive but it's only a little over 7 minutes long but it's still a really good song.\\n Not their best by any stretch of the imagination but ATTWT is arguably their transitional album where they went from prog rock and went totally pop and this has likely angered a lot of their audiences at this point but I feel like I'm the only one who loves almost everything they've done from Nursery Cryme to Invisible Touch and all the way to Calling All Stations.\",\n \"Product: Dance Into the Light [Audio CD] Collins, Phil\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: An underappreciated gem (UPDATED 6/30/2016 in order to review the Remastered Deluxe Edition)\\n\\nReview: I wrote an older review back in late 2001 and even now, I see this album as underrated. In light of the Deluxe Edition that was reissued, I wanted to update my old review in light of the bonus material on the reissued version.\\n\\n I originally wrote a review on Dance Into The Light back in late 2001. Back then I thought it was another great album albeit his weakest of his solo albums. I still really like Dance Into The Light and in hindsight see it as another distinct chapter of his career. It was overall the slowest of his albums to grow on me but ultimately became another great addition to his catalog.\\n\\n The album cover conveys the overall mood of the album as it marked a complete 180 from the previous album, \\\"Both Sides\\\" as it completely discarded the cold and gloomy beauty and brought back some of the trademark sounds of his first two albums. Some of the songs have a much more 'live' feel, as in having limited electronic or ambient sounds. \\\"That's What You Said\\\", and \\\"It's In Your Eyes\\\" are examples with an overall 'live' feel.\\n\\n One of the the unique things is that this album experimented with world music, particularly African drumbeats. While it has drawn some comparisons, even unfavorable ones, to his Genesis counterpart Peter Gabriel's use of African drums, it totally works great on this album. \\\"Lorenzo\\\" and \\\"River So Wide\\\" have heavy use of world rhythms. \\\"Lorenzo\\\" is among my favorite songs on this album as with African flutes as an intro before it develops into an epic theme with a marvelous combination of his trademark drum sounds and African drums. \\\"River So Wide\\\" is an intense theme song that begins with a somewhat suspenseful intro and develops into a high-energy theme with heavy African drums with heavy rock. It serves as a prelude to the \\\"Tarzan\\\" soundtrack he did just a few years later.\\n\\n My reason for returning is to write on the Deluxe Edition of this album and the bonus material. As a lifelong fan of Collins it is especially a treat to see a deluxe treatment of an underrated album. First off the remastering is incredible even though the sound quality of the original was still good to begin with. All of the songs sound so much clearer and with greatly improved sound.\\n\\n The second disc contains an odd mix of live recordings of songs from the subsequent tour, some B-Sides, and demo versions of some of the songs that made it onto the album. The disc begins with five live recordings of \\\"Dance Into The Light\\\", \\\"Just Another Story\\\", \\\"Wear My Hat\\\" and then the double-duo of \\\"River So Wide\\\" and \\\"Take Me Down\\\".\\n\\n The demo version of Lorenzo is the winner here. This song saw Phil delve into African drum rhythms for the second time in his career (1989s Colours had some African rhythms), a trend that his counterpart Peter Gabriel had already been doing for many years. The demo version of this song feels very different from the original and is absolutely incredible to listen to. Where as most of his demos feature Phil with wordless singing (A normal part of lyric-writing) but here, his lyrics were already clearly already written. The original version kind of feels similar to Find a Way To My Heart but with heavier African influences including the lyrical themes. The drums and Phils vocals are especially prominent and upfront and clearly heard. In the demo version, these things are far more subtle and the song in its demo version is far more ethereal and atmospheric and the overall feel of the song is completely different. The somewhat rock-like feel of the original version is replaced by heavier keyboard presence. In fact, had it not been labeled a demo version, I wouldve guessed this was an alternate version that Phil recorded but for some reason did not choose to include on the original album. The original version, Phils voice is up front and clear. On the demo, his vocals, while still clear, blend much more into the overall background texture and he sounds like hes singing from miles away. The Oh oh who! In East Africa!.... passage is far more surreal. And then the part where he sings about being far away from his friends and the dolphins is mesmerizing! Overall, the demo version is one of the few that I can actually say is superior to the so-called finished version on the regular album. Ive had my share of letdowns on some B-Sides or demos not being included on his deluxe editions of his albums but it is a real delight to have THIS demo version on here.\\n\\n The disc closes out with three B-Sides, all of which are truly wonderful to include on here. \\\"Another Time\\\" is a beautiful song that to be quite frank, beats out most of the songs that made it onto the album. I think this should've been included on the original album and it could've helped it enjoy greater chart success than it got but still, it's great to have this song included on the deluxe edition. \\\"It's Over\\\" is a very quiet and melancholy balled that harkens back to the the \\\"Both Sides\\\" era with a mournful and ethereal feel with a keyboard in the front and ambient production in the background that then bursts into a cry of Scottish bagpipes towards the end. This is another lovely track that should've made it onto the album. \\\"I Don't Want to Go\\\" utilizes the unusual 12-string guitar strings of \\\"That's What You Said\\\" and \\\"Love Police\\\" but with a faster rhythm. It serves as a great closer to the bonus disc.\\n\\n Overall, since I first reviewed this album, \\\"Dance Into The Light\\\" struggled for a while to hold it's own against it's predecessors but eventually became another gem on it's own merit. Today, with the deluxe expanded edition and the excellent bonus material, this album went from being recommended for the dedicated fans to highly recommended just for the 'Demo' version of \\\"Lorenzo\\\" and \\\"It's Over\\\". Those two alone warrant buying this expanded edition.\\n\\n His Deluxe Editions of his solo reissues have left a lot to be desired especially since far more demos are available out there and there are B-Sides that remain in the realm of bootlegs or rare vinyl singles but when it comes to this album, this is probably my favorite reissue of his catalog.\\n\\n(Archived Old Review Dated October 26, 2001)\\n\\n An underrapreciated gem\\n\\nPhil Collins took a daring new turn in his music with this excellent but sadly underrated masterpiece. The music on here is less ambient, more optimistic and generally more upbeat than the dark depressing masterpiece Both Sides. There is some African sound on a few songs here.\\nDance Into The Light is a fun, upbeat, almost tropical song with lots of trumpets. It's like a backlash at I Cant Dance from several years before. It's a great song that you should give a listen to. That's What You Said is a cool with a more acoustic sound. Lorenzo is a beatiful song with some African drums combined with African flutes and phat beats. It's one of my favorites on this CD. Just Another Story is a laid back song with a light beat and a high pitched trumpet like the kind that Miles Davis played. It's kind of a song that I would play when walking down a city street approaching downtown. Love Police is a great simple song. It's a little hard to describe exaclty how it sounds like but it's a must hear. Wear My Hat is the fastest song on this CD. It's very tropical sounding with some Jamaican drums and some Big Band horns. It's In Your Eyes is an OK song. I'm not very moved by this one. Probably one of the most boring tracks Phil has ever written. It's not bad but average. Oughta Know by now brings back the Phil that we know from the But Seriously days with the thundering beats and the great guitar playing. It sounds kinda like I Wish It Would Rain Down but not quite as 'BIG' sounding. Take Me Down is a very groovy song with a strong big band sound. I play this one alot. It's one of my favorites on this CD. The Same is a haunting song with a dark sound kind of like Father To Son from But Seriously. I love how the last five seconds fades out into the next song. River So Wide is the winner on this CD. It a very intense song with thundering drums and heavy guitars that make the perfect song for a jungle action movie. No Matter is acoustic song similar to It's In Your Eyes but better. Not my favorite but good. The Times They Are A Changing is a great closer to this CD. Its a very well done cover version of the 1963 version done by Bob Dylan. The beats are phat.\\nThis CD will have to grow on you but in the end you'll love it. I do. I listen to this one a lot. While it may be his weakest solo album to date that does not make this CD less than five stars. Go out and buy it. I recommend this one.\",\n \"Product: MAKE OFFER ON THIS OR ANY OF MY OTHER STUFF IN ANY COMBINATION of anything I carry\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: I,m enjoying the silence.\\n\\nReview: Enjoy The Silence is one of my all-time favorite DM singles. It's very intense with a heavy beat and disturbing melody. There are five versions of Enjoy The Silence with two B-Sides, neither of which hit the spot for me. Sibeling is a kind of Gothic piano song. Memphisto is very similar to Pimpf. Those who like Pimpf might enjoy Memphisto. This song is more intense. The original version is the same as the parent album version only without the interlude at the end that ties it to Policy Of Truth. The Hands anf Feet Mix is almost like an extended version of the original version. The Bass Line Mix sounds more like a totally different song and far more clubby. The Ecstatic Dub is classic. It's like an extended instrumental version but more stretched out with little vocals. The keyboards echoing are killer. The Ricki Tick Tick Mix is another good mix but not up to the other remixes. The Harmonium version was originally supposed to go on Violator. It's a ballad version with churchlike organs and vocals and no beats.\\nAs you can see there are some great remixes of this great single. I sure enjoy the silence all the time.\",\n \"Product: BRAND NEW SEALED CD. 1st class shipping. H-6940\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Forget the negative reviews: This CD is great!\\n\\nReview: Depeche Mode's second outing entitled \\\"A Broken Frame\\\" is far away from being `a broken frame'. In fact, I have to say that this is an absolutely fabulous album. It's also likely to be their least known and least accessible album that they've ever put out.\\nThis LP from the blossoming band is very different from their debut album from a year before but is still quite popish and lightweight in sound but the music on this album is darker than the debut \\\"Speak & Spell\\\" album but is a far cry from the nihilistic arena that Depeche Mode would step into a few years later after this album. It's also likely to be their least known or least popular album that they've ever put out. There are plenty of hints of the darker style that they would adapt on their following albums after the next album \\\"Construction Time Again\\\" but this album is far away from being like bleak & dark. Instead this album is dark more in a cloudy evening kind of sense.\\nThe album still shows some of the Vince Clarke influences even though he was gone for a while when this album was released particularly on the popish songs \\\"The Meaning Of Love\\\" & \\\"See You\\\". Although these songs are rather popish and somewhat cheesy, they are a lot more mature than their counterparts like \\\"New Life\\\" and \\\"Dreaming Of Me\\\" (love these two songs as well) and show some dark undertones on their atmospheres. Just to make it more understandable, the album cover definitely fits the overall mood of this album, dark but not cold or bleak. In fact, the odd campiness that comprises this album makes this album so much fun to listen to. Add to that, the experimental nature of this and it's virtual twin \\\"Construction Time Again\\\" clashing with the leftover juvenile pop of their debut album gives this album a sense of appeal that I have to say is almost missing on their latter albums after 1983 although the incredible songwriting and production made up for it.\\nMy favorite songs are the unforgettable classic \\\"Leave In Silence\\\", \\\"Monument\\\", \\\"See You\\\" and yes even \\\"Meaning Of Love\\\". \\\"Leave In Silence\\\" is an absolutely amazing yet almost forgotten classic with a somewhat dreamy and mysterious atmosphere and light drum machine beats and awesome New Wave keyboard playing. In fact, I think that this underrated classic ranks up there with their well-known singles from their MFTM through the ULTRA eras despite being much more adolescent than them. The vocals are excellent and go very well with the music itself. I don't know about a lot of others but I like this song almost as much as anything that they released since 1984. Perhaps its odd sense of campiness makes the song so much fun to listen to.\\n\\\"Monument\\\" to me is kind a precursor to the darker direction that the band would take a few years later with \\\"Black Celebration\\\", being an odd little number with dripping watery effects for a beat and odd melody reminiscent of \\\"If You Want\\\" or \\\"Shake The Disease\\\" but with a much lighter tone than either one of those two songs.\\n\\\"See You\\\" and \\\"Meaning Of Love\\\" lean more towards the happier synth-pop of their \\\"Speak & Spell\\\" album and are almost like virtual twins to \\\"Dreaming Of Me\\\" and \\\"New Life\\\" but unlike those songs, \\\"See You\\\" and \\\"Meaning Of Love\\\" are much more mature than those two but all four of these songs are absolutely fabulous classics.\\nThe rest of the album is almost as great to listen to. Parts of this album kind of remind me of the Yaz album \\\"Upstairs At Erics\\\", probably due in fact that the same person who produced that album also produced this album as well. \\\"Situation\\\" from \\\"UAE\\\" almost could fit well on \\\"A Broken Frame\\\" but let's not change the subject of the review. ;-)\\nThis CD is far from being their best album and I can't say that this is an essential recording. Those who know this unique band by \\\"Black Celebration\\\", \\\"Violator\\\" and SOFAD may not find this album to be of much worth but even then, I would still recommend this intriguing album to those people, just to show a different and now long gone side of the band's spectrum of music. Perhaps it's just the odd mix of the poppier legacy of \\\"Speak & Spell\\\" meeting the experimental dabblings of \\\"Construction Time Again\\\" and finally the darker spectrum of \\\"Some Great Reward\\\" and the albums afterwards that gives the album a relatively mysterious feel. Whatever the case is, it's this mysterious appeal that makes this album so enjoyable and even manages to survive the overshadowing that it suffers from against their post 1985 masterpieces. Some parts of the album almost remind me of \\\"Situation\\\" and \\\"Don't Go\\\" from the short lived 80s group Yazoo. Quite possibly it's because of the production from Daniel Miller and he produced Yazoo's debut album \\\"Upstairs At Eric's\\\" which is kind of similar to this album.\\nI can't necessarily say that this album is an essential buy and those who know Depeche Mode for \\\"Enjoy The Silence\\\" or \\\"Personal Jesus\\\" may not warm up to this album very much however I highly recommend this album for those who want to hear a long bygone era in DM's career. To tell you the truth, this and 1983's \\\"Construction Time Again\\\" are truly amazing but unfortunately forgotten classics.\\nThe album in a way gets my nod not for the music but for possibly the best album cover photo ever made. The picture of the storm clouds in the background showcase the darker style of the album yet the illuminated wheat shows the lighter side of the album as well. Like a previous reviewer said, this album is known more for it's beautiful album cover than it is for the music on it.\",\n \"Product: Ferry,Bryan ~ Bete Noire\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: THE BEST ALBUM OF THE 20TH CENTURY!!!!!!\\n\\nReview: Let's see here what are my all time favorite CDs? Janet Jacksons Rhtyhm Nation 1814, Madonnas Erotica, U2s Achtung Baby, Enyas Watermark, or Phil Collins But Seriously CD? Nope! That honor goes to Bryan Ferry's Bete Noire record.\\nI call this the album of my lifetime.\\nThis CD gets more spins in my CD player than any other CD I own. I was too young to experience this album back when it came out in 1987 but I started first listening to it in 1992 when I asked my mom what song was playing and she said it was Bryan Ferry's \\\"Limbo\\\". Ever since then I could not take this CD out of my CD player.\\nBryan Feryy mostly incorporates others sounds to create his own and here it worked perfectly. He even throws in some African drums in some songs for an even better musical treat. The music is a mix of jazz, pop, rock and some world music. Every song on here is polished to perfection. The haunting, enigmatic New Town, and the dynamite Day For Night are among some of the finest songs Ferry has ever recorded. Zamba is a very quiet, mournful song. The rest of this album is amazing as well. The title track brings up images of going out on a romantic evening in Paris France. In fact every song is like a story being told in melody. This album was new in 1987, was still fresh in the 1990s, and is an absolute classic in the 2000s. I love this album now more than ever. I put this record the best CD of the twentieth century. Let's hope it keeps it's reign as the best CD in the twenty-first century. Bryan Ferry unfortunately could not put out anything nearly this good afterwards. Even the five star follow-up Taxi comes nowhere close to Bete Noire. I,m not just recommending this CD, what I,m saying is that you must own this recording.\",\n \"Product: Construction Time Again by Depeche Mode\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A strong yet sadly forgotten gem\\n\\nReview: DM's previous two albums are quite poppy and somewhat sugary in sound. Nothing like this 1983 LP and the following albums that DM would become famous for, the previous two albums are both great in their own way. Released in 1983, \\\"Construction Time Again\\\" is from my perspective, where the foundation for Depeche Mode's darker, much gloomier music, was built.\\nThis record, has a quirky industrial sound that ,while much darker than the glitzy-glamour pop of \\\"Speak & Spell\\\" may not greatly appeal to \\\"Some Great Reward\\\" forwards, but nonetheless, I think that this is a wonderful and unfortunately forgotten classic in Depeche Mode's early catalog. While there isn't anything that is very disturbing or frightening like \\\"Master & Servant\\\", \\\"If You Want\\\", or \\\"Strangelove\\\", \\\"Construction Time Again\\\" is a dark album and marks the doorway between the sugar-pop of pre-1983 Mode, and the industrial gloom rock of \\\"Some Great Reward\\\", \\\"Black Celebration\\\" and everything since then.\\n\\\"Pipeline\\\" and \\\"Told You So\\\" to me, are the weakest tracks on the LP and among DM's most uninspired and the former being quite annoying with the sound effects which sound like a malfunctioning construction crane or tractor. However, occasionally when one is in the right mood, even these can be enjoyable songs.\\nHowever, that is all made up for with strong and awesome songs like \\\"Everything Counts:, \\\"Love In Itself\\\", and \\\"The Landscape Is Changing\\\". \\\"Everything Counts\\\" to me is the best song on the entire album, both the original and the 7+ minute 12 inch version with the calliope and the dark yet joyous atmosphere all mixed in one to create one of what I consider, one of the best songs ever made in Depeche Mode's early days and ends their joy-pop with a bang. \\\"Shame\\\" while not sunny daylight in mood, is dark yet has a sense of joy buried within its dark atmosphere. The same holds true with \\\"Landscape Is Changing\\\" and most of the rest of the album. I love the hazy ending of \\\"Love In Itself\\\" with the bizarre breezy sounds and the synthesizer dabblings before blasting into the upbeat, quirky, yet eerie \\\"More Than A Party\\\".\\nWhile there isn't anything that is very disturbing or frightening like \\\"Master & Servant\\\", \\\"Fly On The Windscreen\\\" or \\\"Judas\\\", \\\"Construction Time Again\\\" is a dark album and marks the doorway between the sugar-pop of pre-1983 Mode, and the industrial gloom rock of \\\"Some Great Reward\\\", \\\"Black Celebration\\\" and everything since then. \\\"And Then\\\" to me, is like the precursor to the much darker, and greyer feel of the next album \\\"Some Great Reward\\\" and would've fit well next to \\\"Nothing\\\" from the Music From The Masses LP although \\\"And Then\\\" is just plain fun in a campy way where as \\\"Nothing\\\" is nihilistic in mood. \\\"And Then\\\" is one of my favorite songs on the CD with it's odd style and acoustic guitars.\\nI don't care what detractors say, I think \\\"Construction Time Again\\\" as a whole, is a great album and definitely worth checking out. After this, Depeche Mode would become a completely different band. There is a compilation called \\\"People Are People\\\" that was released as a promo album that contains the long version of \\\"Everything Counts\\\" but instead of getting that album, get this one instead as \\\"Everything Counts\\\" is available here but if you're a die-hard fan like I am, go for the compilation I mentioned as \\\"Now This Is Fun\\\" and \\\"Work Hard\\\" do warrant having that album too. I find it impossible to deny that I actually love this album, in my own campy sort of way and it makes a nice break occasionally from the darker grounds of post-1985 DM.\\nAnd so begins a string of great albums that DM have created since then and continued with their most recent release \\\"Exciter\\\". Go and buy this CD. It's worth trying out. :-)\",\n \"Product: CD\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Well-crafted and colorful masterpiece!\\n\\nReview: Without a doubt one of the most influencial musicians for the past 50 years as of this writing, Quincy Jones is one of the best musicians that on this planet and remains a great influence on music to this day.\\n\\n His 1989 magnum opus entitled \\\"Back on The Block\\\" is unrivalled by almost everything else. The sheer number of singers and other stars who came aboard for this project is impressive! Starring a huge cast of old-time singers some of whom have sadly since passed away, rappers, and then yet-to-be pop stars this incredible masterpiece is without a doubt a contender for being one of the smartest, most creative, and energetic albums anyone has ever put out. While I don't want to sound too biased with this review but \\\"Back On The Block\\\" is my favorite African-American music album of all time. .\\n\\n The party begins with a marvelous rap interlude entitled \\\"Prologue (20's rap scene/ Quincy's Rap) which is a fun and energetic warm-up track featuring a wonderful rap dialogue that is really a lot of fun and highly joyous to listen. The title begins with a industrial metallic drum intro similar to that of the title track of Janet Jackson's dynamite \\\"Rhythm Nation\\\" and becomes a marvelous and energetic blend of rap, hip-hop with a New Jack Swing Spice. \\\"I Don't Go For That\\\" is similar to the previous and with a stadium-like New Jack Swing anthem with a fun Manhattan nighttime city feel. \\\"I Don't Go For That\\\" is a wonderful New Jack Swing classic with a highly danceable beat, wonderful melody.\\n\\n \\\"The Verb To Be\\\" is a really humorous interlude with oddly amplified voice effects and really funny lines. The laughing voices merge into the track \\\"We Be Doing' It\\\". For all of the humor of \\\"Verb\\\" it perfect blends into the hip-hop rhythm and the song has a wonderful mix of R&B, blues, and dance all meshed together. If you're looking for great hip-hop music and for a testament for 1988-1991 being the Golden Era of this once-great genre, look no further. \\\"The Place You Find Love\\\" is one of my absolute favorite tracks on this album. It starts with a dramatic echoing Gospel voice and becomes a powerful Gospel anthem for the ages. The vocals by whoever is singing are absolutely incredible and do wonders for this track.\\n\\n The next two-some track combo \\\"Jazz Corner of the World\\\" and \\\"Birdland\\\" to me are the apex of this album. \\\"Jazz Corner\\\" has a really perky Brazilian percussion and has a really cool hip rap verse. The groove of \\\"Jazz Corner\\\" perfectly merges into my absolute favorite song on this album \\\"Birdland\\\". This is without a doubt the best song Quincy has ever recorded and quite likely a candidate for the best cover-song I've ever listened to. With amazing bass lines and energetic trumpet horns similar from what one would hear from Phil Collins, the beat is just amazing and the song has a really awesome groove unrivalled by few other songs from 1989. \\\"Septembro\\\" is a sultry soulful instrumental jazz song with really unique chord shift and wonderful wordless vocals.\\n\\n \\\"One Man Woman\\\" is a great and energetic dance song with a strong New Jack Swing style. \\\"Tomorrow\\\" is sheer and utter beauty featuring a barely teenaged then future-superstar Tevin Campbell singing on vocals and childrens choir. The song has a really positive, cheerful, and uplifting vibe to it.\\n\\n The final track Secret Garden is one of the sexiest soul ballads of all time with a very Quiet Storm mood and featuring guest vocals from the late R&B crooner Barry White (I cried at the news of his passing) the create a beautiful nighttime closer to this illustrious masterpiece of an album.\\n\\n This album is just about on the border of being utmost perfection. For all of the hard-work put into it's making this is without a doubt one of the greatest achievements in popular, rock, hip-hop, and rap music history. As of writing this review, I am absolutely horrified to see the term \\\"Out of Stock\\\" actually on this product! For such a stunning achievement that took so much work and was such a huge hit, I for one cannot believe that Warner Brothers don't even carry this album in their catalog anymore! What a terrible disgrace to music history, by denying many fans one of the most positive, smartest, most well-crafted albums that has ever been released.\\n\\n Wherever you go, I highly urge you to hunt for a copy of this album and buy it without hesitation. If not, then you have no idea of the party that you might find yourself missing out on. Quite simply there's no other album like this nor will there ever be.\",\n \"Product: Certified at 4 million units by the RIAA. (2/01)\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: On the border of perfection!\\n\\nReview: There are quite a good number of fantastic debut albums that have always been the best album by a lot of artists but to me, Seal's self-titled debut album is arguably the best debut album by any artist in my opinion. Released in 1991, this album pushed the boundaries of dance/pop/soul and even some hip hop and resulted in what I consider the most innovative, sophisticated dance album ever made and this album is fighting head to head against it's 1994 follow-up oddly also entitled \\\"Seal\\\" as Seal's strongest collection of music. It's still impossible to believe that this album was actually released in 1991 as every song is so many years ahead of it's time and this album hasn't dated one bit even in 2003! Talent has become exceedingly rare these days but even back in 1991 when talent and music was far better, Seal's debut stood so many miles above all other albums around this time for many reasons: It's blend of dance, rock, and pop perfectly suits the mainstream crowd yet at the same time, it also has the maturity and brilliance that makes it last all the way to this very day. This album has defined a long period in my life from 1992 onwards. This album stands out in so many ways from any other album from this time and even from his other albums. One reason is its rich atmospheric mood; another is its urban dance vibe, and just the general mood of this album: Dark, moody, yet highly energetic and edgy.\\n \\\"The Beginning\\\" is the most appropriate title for the opening track on this album. This is a fabulous blend of dance, techno, pop, and soul with a slightly orchestral sound to it and aggressive driving rhythm. \\\"Deep Water\\\" is like two songs in one. The first half is a mellow slightly country-oriented number but odd changes occur in the middle and the song morphs into an odd but highly danceable song. Many are familiar with it but who can ever forget the haunting ambience of the U.K. number one hit \\\"Crazy\\\" with its driving rhythm, aggressive bass, dark stormy mood, and edgy production? There are so many awesome things about this incredible single that I just can't put any words into how astounding this song really is to do it any justice. Seal reached an early peak in his music with this awesome single and it was what made me a fan of his since then. If you are driving along a freeway in Chicago approaching downtown at full speed (without going over the speed limit of course!), put this song on at full volume and prepare for the musical experience of the year! Few songs have so much power like \\\"Crazy\\\" does. Even though \\\"Crazy\\\" is likely one of the strongest tracks on the CD, the other tracks on this album should not be lost in that song's shadow as every one is worth noting but some especially deserve the utmost listening. The other major hit from this album is the Adamski produced \\\"Killer\\\" which brought Seal into the spotlight with his awesome voice and the songs electrifying mood. Both \\\"Crazy\\\" and \\\"Killer\\\" got all the recognition that they deserved and are still very popular on the radio today. \\\"Whirlpool\\\" is acoustic ambient ecstacy with it's cloudy evening and laid back atmospherics and it's urban nighttime mood. The soulful, jazzy vibe of the song is impossible to resist being pulled into. I don't know what it is about this song but it makes me cry with positivitsm and joy. \\\"Future Love Paradise\\\" is a scorching rock number with a very atmospheric tone with a dark cloudy dreaminess to it and the result is another excellent song.\\\"Wild\\\" is a wild classic with a very raw production to it and a very live sound to it. The chord changes are just awesome. \\\"Show Me\\\" is a very hauntingly beautiful ballad with a very dreamy atmosphere like the feel of the sun breaking through the clouds. The dark blue glowing magnum opus of this album is the final closer \\\"Violet\\\", the best song on the album besides \\\"Crazy\\\". This is a haunting, dark cloud ambient, and highly soulful mid-tempo ballad with small amounts of electronica and electronic beats and also if you haven't noticed, the ambient keyboards are courtesy of blossoming New Age Musician Mars Lasar who would go on to create some of the best New Age albums of all time such as \\\"The Eleventh Hour\\\" and \\\"11:02\\\" and the approaching atmospheres of those albums are quite noticeable on this track but let's not change the subject of this review. Play this song on a rainy evening when you're alone and just be prepared for a waterfall of tears. The beauty of \\\"Violet\\\" did just that for me. \\\"Violet\\\" is this good! The ending might sound like a sad ending with its mournful outro but it was just the ending of the first chapter and the beginning of the next one.\\n Seal's albums have generally been few and far between since this album came out but every one of them including his latest are all excellent albums and the wait between them is worth it. While his second album definitely rivals this one as his best, Seal, or anyone else in that matter, has never toyed with dance, pop, soul, and atmospherics the way he and his crew did on this album and it makes \\\"Seal [1991]\\\" a special gem that must be acquired as soon as possible. This album changed my life forever with it's artistic brilliance and atmospheres. Dance music doesn't get any better than it does on here. Seal's music has always been innovative and Seal continues to put out some of the best music of the times and his music has a special place in my CD collection. This album is about as perfect as an album can possibly get. Support Seal. Support real talent. Go and buy it today and buy it new even if it means spending the extra dollar! Enough said!\",\n \"Product: Audio Cassette\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Unfairly maligned and underrated masterpiece.\\n\\nReview: I was too young to remember much of the controversy that surrounded the release of this album. Upon learning more about this era in Madonna's history, I can totally understand how some large audiences were very turned off by the controversial picture book that came out around this time, now long, LONG, out of print, and the image that overtook her around this time frame.\\n\\n Yet that does not affect how great her sixth studio album \\\"Erotica\\\" actually is.\\n\\n Her rendition of the 1950s \\\"Fever\\\" ranks as among my favorite 1990s Madonna with its odd blend of early 1990s techno-pop beat, austere melodic atmosphere, and jazzy textures laced throughout. My favorite song though is \\\"Rain\\\" with it's beautiful mix of sunny melody and stormy atmosphere all mixed into one. Simply put, this is a marvelous album that although I can understand why some would avoid it, it is still among her best albums to date.\",\n \"Product: Ferry,Bryan ~ Taxi\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: This CD will put a spell on you.\\n\\nReview: This CD is a marvelous collection of ten covers. There aren't any original songs on here but the way Ferry takes older classics and gives them an updated sound is amazing. Unlike As Time Goes By which has a very 40s sound, Taxi has a very modern sound and most of the songs are eerie and haunting. I consider this rainy night traveling music. The title track is spellbinding. My favorite song though is Rescue Me(No not Madonnas 1990 song). It's a very dark, haunting song with a very futuristic sound and almost technoish beats, kind of like Wildcat Days from Mamouna. This CD is a worthy album of checking out. It's surely doesn't do Bete Noire or Boys and Girls justice but Taxi is an album that might please most of Ferrys fanbase. Enjoy the ten well-crafted songs on Taxi. Don't let this Taxi go by.\",\n \"Product: Reissue. The Best of Fourplay is a compilation album by Fourplay, released in 1997. Fourplay is a contemporary smooth jazz quartet. The members of the group are Bob James (keyboards), Lee Ritenour (guitars), Nathan East (bass), and Harvey Mason (drums). The group has enjoyed consistent artistic and commercial success by grafting elements of R&B and pop to jazz, appealing to a broad mainstream audience. Their debut album, Fourplay (1991), sold over a million copies and remained at the #1 position on the Billboard contemporary jazz chart for 33 weeks.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A wonderful but somewhat rushed collection\\n\\nReview: This 1997 Best Of CD is a compilation of selected tracks from Fourplays first three albums, 1991's self-titled debut, 1993s Between The Sheets, & 1995s Elixir plus three 'new' tracks. I must say though that this CD in my opinion is a bit too early in Fourplays career to really have a best of CD. The group have thrown out three CDs since this collection came with 1998s '4' being a jazz masterpiece and it has lots of strong material that could've been put on this 'Best Of' CD had it been released later. Fourplay are a very talented jazz group and really stand out in my opinion in the smooth jazz field. The only better jazz band in that field is Dancing Fantasy although their music is more on the New Agey side. My favorites are the danceable Bali Run, the lovely rendition of The Isley Brothers 'Between The Sheets', the eclectic Max-O-Man, and 4Play & Pleasure. The one song though that beats everything else on this CD is the stunning version of Phil Collins Why Can't It Wait Till Morning which features Phil himself on vocals and it beats out the original version and ranks as the one of the best songs that Fourplay have ever performed. WCIWTM keeps this CD a five-star. A worthy collection that is worth it just for track 4 and track 12 alone.:)\",\n \"Product: Features the bonus tracks \\\"Easy To Cry\\\", \\\"Taxi Dancin\\\" and \\\"Jessie's Girl\\\" (Demo Version).\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: This CD is good.\\n\\nReview: I am appalled at the negative reviews that I,ve been reading on all of the Kenny G pages. While I think Kenny shouldn't be compared to the legendary musicians like Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, or John Coltrane Kenny G deserves so much better praise than the garbage that he is being bembarded with on these pages.\\nThere are several good songs on here. Such examples are the breathtaking title track, the awesome I'll Be Alright, the classy We,ve Saved The Best For Last, and the somber closing track Home.\\nSilouette holds up well compared to his older albums and his post Breathless material.\\nWhatever you do don't listen to the negative reviewers on here and get this CD. And get Breathless as well. This and the other I mentioned are all you need to hear the best Kenny has to offer.\",\n \"Product: Eurythmics ~ Savage\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Mis-maligned and underrated masterpiece.\\n\\nReview: Unfortunately never really standing out commercially from the glare of their previous releases, I would arguably say that the Eurythmics sixth album entitled \\\"Savage\\\" is a contestant for my favorite album by this splendid duo. I just don't know what it is but this album was and still is one of the most spectacular recording of the 1980s and perhaps my favorite album that Lennox and Stewart ever made together. Our of many of their songs and albums during their ten year run from 1981 until 1991, \\\"Savage\\\" gets my nod as one of my favorites of theirs of all time. Strangely enough, this album also stands out by having few vocals on the songs and even having a near-instrumental track.\\n\\n Just the opening track \\\"Beethoven (I Love To)\\\" alone is evident of the massive change in style that the Eurythmics went through during their post-Revenge era of their career, returing to the obtuse, experimental nature of their early albums but also having a much more sophisticated and complex sound with both \\\"Beethoven\\\" as well as the eleven (sixteen if you include the bonus tracks) songs afterwards. Beethoven was a very unusual first-single that has a very uncommercial non-mainstream sound.\",\n \"Product: Brian Culbertson's major label debut Long Night Out is a one-man band tour de force. All those years of sequestering himself away in his bedroom/recording studio have paid off. Except for a few other musicians, Culbertson writes and performs all the music himself. Instead of a vapid \\\"look ma, no band\\\" effort, the tracks sparkle with creativity. On the laid-back opener \\\"City Lights,\\\" Culbertson lays down a swaying groove punctuated by muted trumpet, elegant piano, and lazy, lower register electric guitar runs. It's great for a midnight drive. \\\"Heroes of the Dawn\\\" conveys optimism through it's use of syncopated percussion and interwoven horn lines. The lilting \\\"Beautiful Liar\\\" has solid acoustic piano and tasteful fuzz guitar by Harry Hmora. The double time-tempoed \\\"Double Exposure\\\" smoothly glides along atop a sinewy melody. [Note: This product is an authorized CD-R and is manufactured on demand].\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Excellent debut album from Culbie!\\n\\nReview: This 1994 debut is absolutely a treat for the ears. While Smooth Jazz has varied in quality ranging from just bland elevator dreck to sheer beauty, this album is the latter. \\\"Long Night Out\\\" is true to it's title. This is a wonderful album for those nights out on the town although it's also a wonderful daytime album as well. \\\"City Lights\\\" is a wonderful opener with really awesome keyboards and great beat and blues sounding guitars. My absolute favorite song however is track 9 \\\"Alone With You\\\". This is without a doubt hte song that made me a fan of Culbertson for there and ever since. The song is a hauntingly beautiful soulful song with beautiful keyboards and the song does some really unique chord changes throughout it's playing time. A wonderful album indeed. You can't really go too wrong with any of his albums! I guarantee it. This is a hidden gem that I highly recommend buying! Buy it today!\",\n \"Product: Out of print on CD in the U.S., this is the CD maxi singlefor the top five & first hit from their 1994 album. Containsfour mixes of the smash: Radio Edit, Long & Alive Version,380 Midnight Mix and Short Radio Edit. Slimline jewelcase.1994 Virgin release.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: This Item is worth having for the Long and Alive mix.\\n\\nReview: Return To Innocence was a well deserved hit for Enigma. It kind of came as a surprise to me that such a relatively sunny song came from the same group who did the dark and ainy Sadeness.\\nThere are two remixes that saound almost the same with the radio edit and the short radio edit. The radio edit sounds exactly like the parent album version except without the bridge tat ties it into I Love You Ill Kill You. The short radio is dead identical inly about 3 minutes.\\nHowever the real gems on this single are the Long and Alive and the 380 Midnignt Man mix. The 380 Midnight mix is much darker and more stormy also making almost like it meeting Sadeness. The part with the strobe light chants is great. This version is a great reworking of the original. It gaive RTI a whole new feel almost opposite to the original.\\nThe winner thoruhg is the Long and Alive version. It starts off as a cloudy minor note and then a discordant guitar away comes in and then morphs into inro the original sound with the usual chating. However the middle part of the song has a sort of Sitar at the bridge and a more minor note structure. The song then morphs back into a major note song and with a new shorus that the song to 7 minute and gives this remix far, Far more personality than the original version.\\nGo and get this single. The reviews I wrote on the 380 Midnight Man and Long Alive aren't enough to really say how great they are. It's worth the money.\",\n \"Product: Nothing short of a C&W album recorded in the heart of Nashville would seem as far removed from The Human League's early experimental art-noise roots as 1986's Crash following the commercial and critical disappointment of 1984's underrated Hysteria, singers Phil Oakey, Joanne Catherall and Susanne Sulley parted with the instrumental axis of The Human League's hit making heyday and traveled to Minneapolis to record with ex-Prince protg Terry Lewis and Jimmy Jam, then at the top of the charts as the masterminds of Janet Jackson's Control. Jam and Lewis wrote and performed the songs on Crash, with only occasional lyrical help from Oakey, and the results are fine mid-'80s pop-funk, even if they have almost nothing to do with The Human League's earlier records. The group was rewarded with the big American chart hit \\\"Human,\\\" but from here on, every new Human League album was treated as a comeback attempt. EMI Gold. 2003.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Am I the only one who loves this album?!\\n\\nReview: I feel like I'm the only person on the planet who actually finds this to be a great album. Released around the same time as \\\"Control\\\" and produced by the same people, Human League's \\\"Crash\\\" album ranks as one of my favorites by the group and forever made me a fan of theirs. Although I was too young to know who they were, I have fond memories of \\\"Human\\\" from when I was little and now at age 23, I find the song to be an amazing classic and light years ahead of it's time. That's not to say the rest of this album is inferior by any means but the song was a well-deserved hit and remains a major classic 20 years on. \\\"I Need Your Loving\\\" is silly in a sense sounding like they recycled the drum loop of \\\"What Have You Done For Me Lately\\\" and made a different melody and different lyrics. IN my opinion WHYDFML wins out but this is still a good song.\",\n \"Product: Nothing short of a C&W album recorded in the heart of Nashville would seem as far removed from The Human League's early experimental art-noise roots as 1986's Crash following the commercial and critical disappointment of 1984's underrated Hysteria, singers Phil Oakey, Joanne Catherall and Susanne Sulley parted with the instrumental axis of The Human League's hit making heyday and traveled to Minneapolis to record with ex-Prince protg Terry Lewis and Jimmy Jam, then at the top of the charts as the masterminds of Janet Jackson's Control. Jam and Lewis wrote and performed the songs on Crash, with only occasional lyrical help from Oakey, and the results are fine mid-'80s pop-funk, even if they have almost nothing to do with The Human League's earlier records. The group was rewarded with the big American chart hit \\\"Human,\\\" but from here on, every new Human League album was treated as a comeback attempt. EMI Gold. 2003.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: \\\"Crash\\\" flies to new heights!\\n\\nReview: Am I the only one who actually loves this album! For me, this is my favorite record by these guys.\\n\\n \\\"Crash\\\" marked a radical departure and must I say \\\"sell-out\\\" in some fans minds, it is a whole new sound that saw them team up wtih Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, the guys who did \\\"Control\\\" around the same time as this and these albums are great but have their own character. Granted, \\\"Control\\\" overall to me, is more flamboyant and sophistaced but \\\"Crash\\\" at the same time ahs a beautiful atmospheric ambience throughout even on some of the more pop-sounding tracks.\\n\\n \\\"Human\\\" ranks as my favorite song by them with it's beautiful melody and keyboard arrangements. A highly underrated song however is \\\"Are You Every Coming Back\\\" which has an eerie atmosphere to it.\\n\\n Many might see this as Control-era rejects but I think it stands apart as one of my favorite albums from my favorite year in music, 1986.\",\n \"Product: Brand New\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A true gem but this version is unnecessary.\\n\\nReview: This self-titled release from Enya was recorded for a 1986 documentary called \\\"The Celts\\\" and was heard on the documentary. This album unfortunately was not noticed in public when first released which is a shame because this is a really beautiful and haunting album. The only problem I have is that it's very short. This original album runs at only 39 and a half minutes and leaves you wanting more.\\n This album has been out of print for a long time but was re-issued as \\\"The Celts\\\" in 1992 with new artwork. The biggest difference between this and it's re-issued version is that the song \\\"Portrait(Out of The Blue)\\\" is very short and runs at less than one and a half minute where as the version on the 1992 re-issued \\\"The Celts\\\" has the song extended to over 3 minutes with a new melodic part inserted and it improves the song by a longshot. The album cover on here is black and white.\\n This version of \\\"The Celts\\\" is more for the completists or to provide yourself with a back-up copy of \\\"The Celts\\\" but on a musical scale this is a really beautiful album.\",\n \"Product: CD consists of the following songs: Woman of the World, I Know A Place, The Captain of Her Heart, Your Prayer Takes Me Off, Rangoon Moon, Urban Nomads, Love Is A Plane, Tomorrow\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Captain of many Hearts!\\n\\nReview: Double (Pronounced 'doo-blay') was a Swiss duo that existed during a brief time in the mid to late 1980s.\\n\\n Many are totally familiar with the classic \\\"Captain of Her Heart\\\" with it's innovative by 1985-standards production and blend of jazz and pop balladry. For me, the piano parts heard in the intro, and during the two bridges, combined with atmospherics and Kurt Maloos deep vocals, it is just sheer beauty that for something that came out so, so long ago, when I was only a toddler, it has stood the test of time and is among my favorite 1980s songs. \\\"Captain of Her Heart\\\" is a bittersweet ballad about a woman who is waiting in vain for an absent lover who never returns.\\n\\n Most of the 1980s major hit songs have since sounded extremely dated and while still great, now are more relics of their time. However \\\"Captain of Her Heart\\\" completely defies that weakness and to my ears remains modern and not a day out of date. Most of the rest of this album is enjoyable in my opinion too but has not aged as well and feels more like a relic of it's era.\\n\\n From what I know, as of this writing, Double never came close to matching the success of \\\"Captain of Her Heart\\\" and broke up shortly after a second album and sadly one of it's members has since died. Yet during their brief career, Double had a spark of magic that came at the right time and that moment of magic brought \\\"Captain of Her Heart\\\" and a sound that no other band, nor solo artist has ever come close to creating since. For a so-called one-hit wonder, Double is probably among the best of this category.\\n\\n Highly recommended.\",\n \"Product: Includes Two Japanese Exclusive Bonus Tracks.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: The best live CD I've ever heard\\n\\nReview: I'm not too much into live albums. In general, I am more into the studio recorded albums than I am into live albums and I hate the redundant clapping and shouting but Made In Japan is a HUGE exception. They actually improved the songs!\\nMany of the songs on here while they sound good on their parent albums sound greatly improved especially those from the Comparsa albums. Green & Blue in it's parent album sounds good but the live version on Made In Japan sounds absolutely incredible! I especially love the live versions of Deep Weather, The Hunter and their internation smash hit Sweet Lullaby. While the original version has a sort of danceable beat the live version on this CD to me is better. It's great to hear their older songs given different drum loops with Sweet Lullaby being the prime example. In fact I like the live version alot more with the beats sounding a bit more original. The more complex sound of Sweet Lullaby magnifies that tracks power.\\nThe musicianship is absolutely incredible. Forest Power is just plain breathtaking with fusions of rock, world, pop, jazz, funk and New Age all melted together.\\nWhile I don't really recommend live albums that much Made In Japan however I have to say is a must have.\",\n \"Product: Digitally remastered reissue of the hit English new wave/ pop duo's 1983 debut album with four bonus tracks added, 'Pale Shelter' (Long Version), 'The Way You Are' (Extended), 'Mad World' (World Remix) and 'Change' (Extended Version). The album also features the original version of the top 75 hit 'Change'. 14 tracks total. 1999 release.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Great kickstart for the best band in the world\\n\\nReview: This is Tears For Fears debut album and what a debut. It primarily has that typical early 1980s New Wave to it except this album is far FAR above most of that ... 80s fluff and has far more poetic lyrics. The Hurting is dark and yet daytime sounding at the same time. Basically it has an apocolyptic feel lyrically as is shone on 'Start Of The Breakdown' and 'Mad World'.\\nThe edition I'm reviewing is the remastered edition with four bonus tracks.\\nIt's hard for me to explain the tracks in detail but I can say this CD is great and is a must have for any 80s lover like myself.\\nThe term '... 80s fluff' I mentioned earlier does not necessarily mean I don't like 80s music. Contrarily I love 80s music. Just that I tend to enjoy some of the lesser known 80s hits.\\nHurting is much lighter and less heavy than its successor 'Songs From The Big Chair' and is much more synth pop than 'The Seeds Of Love'. It seems strange that this album is from the same band who would eventually evolve from a synth-pop group into a more soul-rock sounding group with that 1989 masterpiece.\\nThis Cd had little notice here in the US when it came out in 1983 but it did well in England. Tears For Fears would have two year to go before setting the charts on fire in 1984 with 'Shout' and again in 1985 with EWTRTW(The name is so long I sometimes don't feeling like typing out the whole name).\\nUnlike the bonus tracks in The Big Chair and Seeds Of Love the bonuc tracks while good kind of dissapointed me a smidgey bit. The World Remix of Mad World is dead identical to the original version except with a more echoing beat. This version is still good.\\nThe other three are good to excellent. The Way You Are on here is extended to almost 8 minutes long. I love the extended versions of Pale Shelter and Change. The extended verison of Mad World has a less metallic beat and the beat is more flat. The version of Change is extended to six minutes for more listening pleasure.\\nMy favorite track besides the bonus tracks is 'Start Of The Breakdown'. This song is like the blueprint of what was to come on The Big Chair and this song could have fit well on that album.\\nThis CD is worth having if you love Tears For Fears but I would start with The Big Chair and The Seeds Of Love. Then I would get this one. Oh what the hell get all of TFFs albums.\",\n \"Product: Genesis ~ Turn It On Again: The Hits\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: PUT THIS CD ON AGAIN & AGAIN & AGAIN!\\n\\nReview: This 78 minute disc is a 18 track collection of most of Genesis biggest hits.\\nUnfortunately a vast majority of the songs on here are from the period with Phil Collins on lead vocals. While I am a HUGE, HUGE fan of Collins this CD doesn't have enough of the music Genesis made during the 1969-1975 line-up with Peter Gabriel on lead vocals although it does have one track from Selling England By The Pound. This CD should've had less songs from the Phil Collins era so to make more space for some of the PG era songs. While this CD probably did a bad injustice to the Peter Gabriel era works this collection has the song Congo from the tragically underrated Calling All Stations. Including at least Congo from that almost forgotten gem at least does Ray Wilson some justice by at least having CAS not being cut out of the picture completely. For this reason I don't lop a star off the rating of this CD.\\nAnother thing that keeps this CD a five is the rerecording of the Carpet Crawlers under the original line-up. You'll just have to hear it for yourself. I personally love it.\\nFor a band that has had so many hits from the mid 70s through the early 90s this CD even with almost 79 minutes of music, doesn't represent enough of their best music. While I love just about every song on here this CD should've been entitled \\\"Greatest Hits: The Phil Collins years\\\". I do recommend this for the novice fanbase, the completists or die hard fans(I fall into this category). I completely disagree with those who said Genesis sold out when they suddenly became superstars. The way I view it, Genesis were an incredible band that got the notice and popularity they deserved. Unfortunately leaving so much of the Peter Gabriel era works off this disc is an injustice to the 30+ year career of this incredible chamaleon band.\\nThe ultimate bet is to go out on a buying spree and buy all of Genesis albums.\\nThese CDs I especially recommend: Invisible Touch, Selling England By The Pound, Trick Of The Tail, Calling All Station(BUY THIS ONE ESPECIALLY!) & We Can't Dance. All others I didn't mention are also must-haves too but the ones I mentioned I recommend the most.\\nThis CD shouldn't be left alone either. It's worth having just because it's Genesis. :)\\nLOVE LIVE GENESIS!\",\n \"Product: Out of Print Cassette.\\n\\nRating: 1.0\\n\\nSummary: Oh God make it stop!\\n\\nReview: Crazy Town are the final accomplishment in the past three years of sh! t in music. Amelodic music mashed with idiotic, immature, moronic lyrics that make no sense and are downright degrading and offensive to women everywhere is what these clowns are making. It's sad that rock has sunk to the lowest state ever in 1999. I will forever remember 1999 and 2000 as the worst years in rock music because all that was popular was despicable profanity ridden drivelheads like Limp Bizkit, Eminem, Crazy Town, etc. that literrally are brainwashing the youth of America with mush like this. I'll bet I may be disliked by peers because of the negative reviews I wrote on many popular rock bands today but I don't bow to trends and I listen to whatever is real music and not moronic garbage like this.\",\n \"Product: Vinyl LP pressing of the 1994 sophomore album from the British Trip Hop outfit. The follow-up to their innovative 1991 debut album, Blue Lines, Protection solidified the band's place in British Electronic music history. With guest vocals provided by diverse artists like Tracey Thorn (Everything But The Girl) and Tricky, Protection remains a benchmark in Trip Hop, Electronic, Chill and Dance music. For the second time in a row, Massive Attack raised the bar and their contemporaries could only hide their faces in shame. EMI.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Uneven album but plenty of good stuff saves it. 3.8 stars\\n\\nReview: This second album from the pioneer group Massive Attack entitled \\\"Protection\\\" is a very good but also a very uneven album in it's own right but compared to their other stuff, \\\"Protection\\\" is an unfortunate victim to their later two albums \\\"Mezzanine\\\" and \\\"100th Window\\\" in my opinion.\\n One thing that really stands out though is that this album has a very hazy summer evening kind of mood, kind of like those hazy sunsets: that's what the music on this album evokes. Most of this album is very lightweight compared to \\\"Mezzanine\\\" but on it's own \\\"Protection\\\" has plenty to offer.\\n My favorite tracks are the title track, \\\"Karmacoma\\\" and \\\"Weatherstorm\\\".\\n The title track is easily the best track on this entire album. This track to me is one of the best mid 1990s chill-out tracks featuring a very nice hip-hop beat, and Tracey Thorn's absolutely crystal clear vocals which dominate this track. Wow! She sounds absolutely incredible on this track. This album is worth buying just for the title track alone. \\\"Karmacoma\\\" is another favorite track of mines with an excellent blend of chill-out dance and some reggae elements. The somewhat subdued rapping is actually quite good.\\n ALthough no bad songs by any stretch of the imagination, this album starts to kind of go all over the place and somewhat meander aimlessly in places.\\n\\\"Weather Storm\\\" is actually quite a fantastic and a great romantic relaxing song to listen to while basking in the sun on a summer evening but even though I really love this track, this one belongs on a smooth jazz Cd or on a smooth jazz station. I could actually recall hearing this on a smoothe jazz station one time a while back but had no idea that it was actually Massive Attack. But because I love smooth jazz, I actually enjoy this track but it feels way out of place on this album. Still \\\"Weather Storm\\\" is a great track and one of my favorites so it's completely forgiveable. It's just that \\\"Weather Storm\\\" felt like someone else's recording was accidentally put on this album. That's all.\\n The album picks back up on \\\"Spying Glass\\\" which is a really cool trancy dance song with a slight reggae-ish edge to it and great, if somewhat, weird vocals by Andy.\\n This CD starts to meander off from here forth. I actually found \\\"Better Things\\\" to be bland and unremarkable despite having the crystal clear vocals from Tracey Thorn. The beat is weak and the song feels unfinished almost like a demo tape. Still, not bad but nothing to write home about.\\nAlthough the remaining tracks are enjoyable to an extent, they aren't a lot to write home about either. The live version of \\\"Light My Fire\\\" though is interesting.\\nIt's really ironic how this album showcased almost nothing of the darkness and dark inner psyche that would ultimately culminate in what I consider the greatest trip hop album of all time \\\"Mezzanine\\\" three years later.\\n\\\"Protection\\\" may be their weakest album but don't let the word \\\"weakest\\\" I typed here deter you from getting this album. Do not look for anything in the vein of \\\"Mezzanine\\\" nor \\\"100th Window\\\" but if you are willing to check it out on it's own merits, this album will be better than what most have made it out to be, perhaps even more than I have written it out to be.\",\n \"Product: Now ~ Now That's What I Call Music! 5\\n\\nRating: 1.0\\n\\nSummary: Awful: One for the trash can!\\n\\nReview: This is more than likely the weakest entry in the \\\"Now\\\" compilation series, a series that was weak to begin with. Almost all of these songs are totally disposable teenybopper dittos for a disposable society and they were played to death all over the radio and showcased the low that music was in during this time. The worst songs on this CD are the unlistenable \\\"Shake It Fast\\\" by Mystikal, \\\"Aaron's Party\\\" by Aaron Carter, and \\\"Lucky\\\" by Britney. These three songs are just plain awful with faceless lack of style, and having no kick or any melodic punch to life them off the ground. Most of the rest of this album is also in the pits of mediocrity especially \\\"I Think I'm In Love With You\\\" which criminally steals John Mellencamps 1982 classic \\\"Jack & Diane\\\" and \\\"Doesn't Really Matter\\\" which is totally bland and lifeless. There are a couple tracks that IMO do manage to keep this from being a total piece of garbage. \\\"Faded\\\" by Souldecision is an enjoyable song that at least has some good rhythm and beat. \\\"It's My Life\\\" isn't too bad either. Overall though despite these two songs, this collection is a complete waste of time and money. The only reason to buy this is probably just for the neat album cover and neat CD artwork on the CD itself. Other than that, leave this CD in the gutter to collect cobwebs.\",\n \"Product: Re-issue of the 2001 album from the ex-Tears for Fears frontman. Inspired by his experience producing Emiliani Torinni & artists such as Roni Size & Photek. Described by the artist as, 'the first record I've made in 20 years that's not obsessed with the past'. Includes the single 'Lowlife'. Eagle.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: What an extraordinary album!\\n\\nReview: I can't really describe how great this CD really is-ASTOUNDING!\\nNot in years has rock sounded this good. I strongly despise so much of todays R&B rap rock. I lost interest in rock music pretty much altogether by the beginning of 2001.\\nThat all changed when I got this CD by the former Tears For Fears frontman Roland Orzabal. This CD to me has saved rock music to me and not in years have I actually loved a new rock album. Tears For Fears by the way are my all-time favorite group with 1989s Seeds Of Love being their strongest work.\\nThe truth is Roland has been a solo musician for a decade now and has issued two albums under the TFF name. 1993s Elemental was an incredible masterpiece that was a worthy successor to The Seeds Of Love. Raoul & The Kings Of Spain was also a great album too but it didn't quite match to it's predeccessor.\\nTomcats however beats out both of those albums and to me this CD ranks as one of my all-time favorite rock albums of all time. Not since 1997s Callings All Stations by Genesis has a rock album awestruck me this much. This CD has a very early 90s sound on most of the tracks and also has some electronic influences giving the album a more organic sound. This CD almost seems like it was recorded in 1991 and released ten years later. I didn't celebrate it's release date because it came out on that infamous day 9-11. But anyway this CD to me has been a savior of rock to me because I had lost a lot of interest in new rock music. It all sounds so mundane.\\nTicket To The World begins this CD with a kick with very early 90s grunge-esque sound, agressive guitar riffs and awesome drums and a very fun vibe that will make you feel good. Low Life is one of my favorites. Its a very heavy techno rockish with a heavy danceable techno beat and agressive guitar riffs, electronic keyboards. Hypnoculture is one of my favorites off this CD. It's a very upbeat dance number that has a very 1990ish sound and has some African influences. Hypnoculture could almost fit on The Seeds Of Love but then again maybe not. I only wish it were longer. I kind of notice it shares similar chord structures with Start Of The Breakdown and Always In The Past. Bullets For Brains is a darker more ominous electronic sounding rock song with an overall minor note feel giving the song a darker more brooding feel. For The Love Of Cain is less intense than Bullets and much brighter. I would consider this a power ballad although I find it too upbeat to be considered that. FTLOC reminds me alot of Woman In Chains because it shares a similar chord structure and the song has a similar atmosphere. Under Ether is much darker and probably the darkest song on the album. It's a very ominous brooding track with a bit of an Egyptian sound to it. I could play this when watching The Mummy and Mummy Returns because this song has a very dark theme to it like the movie. Day By Day By Day By Day By Day is to me springtime music. Day By Day is a very mellow simple little number with a warm sound and a sunny day melody. Dandelion is a very grunge-esqe song with angry guitar riffs and a very early to mid 90s sound. Hey Andy is absolute radiant. Its a very late 80s sounding piece with techno drum beats, ambient organ keyboards, and an eerie feel. I would say this song is like linking the style of 1989 with the style of 2000. Kill Love to me reminds me a bit of Mr. Pessimistic except this song is a bit faster and far less jazzy than Pessimistic and not as cold. This is another one of my favorites. Kill Love begins with an eerie airy sound and then builds up into a dark but upbeat tecno rockish number. Snowdrop is more like something that could have recorded in 1990. I happen to love music from that time and Snowdrop sounds like something that sounds like it was recorded in 1990, transported to 2001 and then released. Maybe Our Days Are Numbered is a very melancholy closer to this incredible masterpiece. While most of the album is sort of agressive this song is more on the passionate side of melancholy. The title suits the music well.\\nThere isn't enough I can say about this incredible. Reading the good reviews that critics have given this album this album deserves every one it gets. I'm kind of surprised at the low rating of only 4.2 as of when writing this review. This CD to me deserves to be at least a 4.6. This CD is an asounting work of art. And I didn;t think that Roland would top Elemental but he did. Plus even better I've heard about TFF working on a new album project too. This should be an interesting time in music. Until that album comes out I have Tomcats Screaming Outside to listen to. This CD is worth the money.\",\n \"Product: First single from Janet's 2001 'All for You' full length CD. As in the past, produced by Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis. Includes dance remixes from the ever present Thunderpuss boys and DJ Quick, plus the exclusive enhanced video as well. This track topped Billboard's Top 100 Singles chart on April 14th, 2001.\\n\\nRating: 3.0\\n\\nSummary: Give me Rhythm Nation anytime over this.\\n\\nReview: As an ex-fan of hers this is a very sad example of how a talented singer sells out. In fact I am almost crying in disbelief over this horrifying travesty. In fact my respect that I have had for Janet over the past 4 and a half years crumbled in a cloud of dust.\\nJanet did a great job over the years changing her sound over the course of Control through The Velvet Rope. Well she changed once again and what a horrible one. Lame predictable R&B beats, terrible singing, and god-awful sound effects.\\nAs for the music itself, many songs on here are just downright awful. Another thing is that they suffer greatly from the juvenile hip-hop, R&B sound that Destinys Child, P. Diddy, and Ja Rule would sing along with.\\nThe biggest problem I have is her image. For the love of God Janet, put some clothes back on. You look like some prostitute. You looked far more attractive back in the late 80s to the velvet rope days.\\nOn the positive side of this it's good that this version of All For You has a bonus DVD featuring videos from the Velvet Rope and Janet albums and that saves this editon from getting a one star. And thank God they removed Would You Mind off of this version. Removing that filth adds another star as a reward. As for the album there are about three good songs on here. They are the rockin Trust A Try, the honest Trust, and the excellent Better Days. So while I don't recommend this at least this version is a much better bet than the terrible original version. Long live Rhythm Nation 1814! Please Janet return to your more Rhythm Nation-esque sound. I beg U.\\nwell that's all I can say for now.\\nBye!\",\n \"Product: Bj?rk Vespertine Japanese CD album\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: The Arctic has never sounded like so much fun.\\n\\nReview: This CD is absolutely aamazing. I never thought music seamingly from the Arctic has sounded like so much fun.\\nHer last album Homogenic was extremely edgey, cold, and loud(well, kind of). Vespertine on the other hand is mellower, more romantic, and warmer yet just as cold at the same time. The songs are absolutely creative, effulgent, and passionate. The album as a whole has a more orchestrated sound with some classical influences.\\nThe beauty in this recording is stunning. I agree with Kabir Ahamed this CD surpasses both of Radioheads Kid A and Amnesiac LPs. Those albums are excellent but Vespertine is so delicate and passionate it ranks superior to those.\\nThe two track combo Frosti/Aurora is stunning. Frosti is a pleasant musicbox interlude. Aurora is what the title track says. I consider this one of Bjorks sexiest songs ever. Just the eerie melody is enough to grab your soul. Never has the dead of winter sounded like so much fun. When the next cold winter nightr come I'll put this song and walk through the snowy night.\\nRemember the rage that Bjork expressed on Pluto from Homogenic? There is nothing like that on Vespertine. This is absolute warm, romantic, yet cold at the same time.\\nThis album beats out Selmasongs by a pretty good margin.\\nIf the same crowd who sold themselves to the awful gender-bashing R&B krap also got this album, my faith in Americas taste for music would be restored to a good degree. Vespertine is mature, intelligent music and a landmark work of art.\\nDefinately one of the best CDs of 2001! I highly recommend geting this incredible recording.\",\n \"Product: Mariah Carey Loverboy US CD single\\n\\nRating: 1.0\\n\\nSummary: The biggest sell-out joke in history\\n\\nReview: I heard this song recently and my God I felt so insulted by this tripe of a song. It's so sad that the her hip-hop-rap direction has been dragging her down ever since the Butterfly album which was amixed bag for me. But God this song is so idiotic. It sounds like some juvenile noise that some 8 year old could easily surpass in artistic quality. Mariah sold out big time. I can't believe that this tasteless, embarrassing garbage song came from the same woman who did Dream Lover, Hero, Someday, and Vision Of Love. It's really sad that her hip-hop direction has ruined her sound completely because she has a great voice and deserves to sing real music. She might be proud of such mature, sappy songs like Vision of Love, Love Takes Time, Can't Let Go, and Dream Lover but will she be proud of such juvenile, childish songs like Sweetheart, and Heartbreaker?\",\n \"Product: Enya's single for the Lord of the Rings soundtrack.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: May It Be is a breathtaking single.\\n\\nReview: I was a bit dissapointed with Enyas A Day Without Rain release back when it came out. That album has since grown on me and today I find it to be a great CD even though the CD length was and still is a joke to me. May It Be is kind of like the darker sound that A Day Without Rain album lacked. I in no way am putting down the Rain album and I actually love that album today but May It Be, Isobella, and the First Of Autumn beat out just about every song on that album.\\nMay It Be is a gorgeous, sad song that brings back memories if smaointe from a decade ago. It would have beat out almost every other track on her latest release. The real treat on this single is Isobella. I reviewed both the U.S. and the Japanese versions of Enyas latest album A Day Without Rain. I gave the U.S. version a four and the Japanese a five. Isobella is a haunting, gorgeous hymn sung in Gaelic, the language I love hearing Enya sing in. Isobella doesn't sound quite like Smaointe, or Na Leatha Geal M'Oige as Kabir Ahamed proclaims. It is more similar to Hope Has A Place or La Sonadora. Isobella does not top Smaointe or Na Leatha but Isobella is a song that stands out on it's own and had it been included on A Day Without Rain, it would have propelled it to a five star. The First Of Autumn is a beautiful instrumental that brings up images of a cloudy evening with the red, and orange leaves falling to the ground. Isobella and The First Of Autumn should have been included. They could have made the album much longer and possibly over 40 minutes long. But at least this set of three songs is a good purchase. I say go and get this CD. The three songs on here are great and are like the punch that most of Enyas latest album lacks.\\nThis single is worth having just for Isobella.\",\n \"Product: 2002 LP includes \\\"We Are All Made Of Stars\\\".\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Worth the 18 dollars\\n\\nReview: After the dynamite Play, Moby continues the sound of Play in some areas except that this follow-up is a bit lighter and has more Gospel samples giving the album somewhat a bit of a 60s or 70s feel to it. Play was great, 18 is just as great.\\n1)We're All Made Of Stars_Excellent lead off single. Very similar to South Side. Excellent nighttime travel music.\\n2) In This World- This song is a mix of jazz/pop with ol school hip hop beats and a Gospel vocal in the background. Kind of a bit 60s sounding.\\n3)In My Heart- Anyone remember Rushing off Play? This song has a similar piano crescendo loop only this song is not quite as eerie and more upbeat.\\n4)Great Escape- A very simple song with a cello and a female vocal. Not too bad but not that memorable\\n5)Signs Of Love- A very beautiful song. Reminiscent of Porcelain.\\n6)One OF These Mornings- This song also uses a Gospel sample voice. A very nice song.\\n7)Another Woman- One of my favorites. AW has a kind of an early 90s old school R&B sound and a strange organ playing. Sort of like linking the sounds on 1990 and 2002 together.\\n8)Fireworks- Music with atmosphere. This song is captivatingly beautiful. Makes me think of standing out on a field on a cloudy afternoon.\\n9)Extreme Ways-An upbeat R&Bish song with a weird orchestra sound in the background. Kind of 70s sounding.\\n10)Jam For The Ladies-Moby dives into the old school hip-hop realm. This song is absolutely great. Satisfies my desire for hip-hop is fun.\\n11)Sunday- Another atmospheric track with a wierd vocal sample.\\n12)18- An ambient slow track with echoing pianos. This song can be kind of depressing sometimes.\\n13)Sleep Alone- One of the highlight songs on 18. It starts off as a mellow jazzy song and then builds up into an ambient almost New Agey song.\\n14)At Least We Tried- A dreamy track that samples a drum loop from Marvin Gayes 1982 hit Sexual Healing. While nowhere near as great this song is kind of like a slowed down version but much simpler.\\n15)Harbour-WOW! Most of the other songs are enjoyable but Harbour beats the rest of 18 and is one of the best songs I,ve ever heard from Moby. It's a mellow, dreamy song with a guest vocal appearance from Sinead O'Connor.\\n16)Look Back In-This song has a weird echoing beat to it. While this song isn't bad it doesnt strike achord with me.\\n17)Rafters- Well I'll be damned. I kind of feel like being taken back to the 70s. The vocals alone give this song a 70s feel. Definately one of the oddest tracks on this CD.\\n18)I,m Not Worried At All-A nice closer to this CD. This song has a darker more atmospheric sound like the sun setting for the day.\\nOn an overall scale I would say 18 is an excellent CD for the music lover. While not as groundbreaking as Play 18 is a worthy album of checking out.\\nDefinately one of the best CDs of 2002!\",\n \"Product: Their first album in five years! Earliest release from Japan. Virgin. 2003.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A great album! Worth the long wait.\\n\\nReview: Feeling really put off by the outright negative reviews I've been seeing on this CD, I feel more than compelled to come here and do my part in counteracting the negativity directed at \\\"100th Window\\\", Massive Attack's fourth album and their first in five years. That said, this was absolutely worth the five year gap after the revolutionary masterpiece that was 1998's \\\"Mezzanine\\\" and showcases that MA have lost almost none of their edge.\\n\\n While it may not be the dark and outright blissfully disturbing adventure that was \\\"Mezzanine\\\", \\\"100th Window\\\" offers plenty of the good stuff that makes a new release from Massive Attack a virtual event. \\\"Future Proof\\\" opens the adventure an odd platter of robotic sound effects which merge into a red-light district guitar frenzy. \\\"When Your Soul Sings\\\" is yet another guest appearance from Everything But The Girl's frontwoman singer Tracey Thorn but this one I think is better and far more adventurous than their previous collaboration from their \\\"Protection\\\" album from eight years prior.\\n\\n\\\"Everywhen\\\" is my favorite song on this album and ranks among the greats of the band and could almost be as great as almost anything from their \\\"Mezzanine\\\" album. It starts with an electronic guitar layer and becomes a groovy trancelike track with a strange futuristic sound that is difficult to explain.\",\n \"Product: USA \\\"Amended\\\" (No Rude Words) clean version of \\\"controversial\\\" 2003 release\\n\\nRating: 1.0\\n\\nSummary: Madonna really dropped the ball on this one!\\n\\nReview: Before you all start throwing balls of aluminum foil at me, I just want to start off by honestly saying that I've been a BIG fan of Madonna for over a decade but this newest release, 2003's \\\"American Life\\\" is just a pile of garbage. To make it more clear, this is Madonna's worst album and it just makes you wonder what on Earth happened that resulted in this mess. The album art is just tacky! The lyrics are incredibly childish, negative, and absolutely depressing to listen to especially in this day in age where the media just feeds us nothing but negative stuff. I admire that she wasn't afraid to express left-wing or blatant criticism of current political problems but her chance of generating a controversial but incredible album is thrown right out the window on here. The music itself is nothing to write home about either. The lyrics are just absurd but even on a musical perspective, this album fails so badly that it makes you wonder if she was forced into the studio against her will. This album is that bad. Seriously, I cannot believe that this is the same woman who altered my world with the incredible masterpiece that was 1998's \\\"Ray of Light\\\". 2000's \\\"Music\\\" was a step down, being uneven but it was saved by some good songs. \\\"American Life\\\" to me is the opposite of her 1992 masterpiece \\\"Erotica\\\". While \\\"Erotica\\\" was controversial because of its deviant nature, the album ultimately turned out to be her greatest artistic achievement of the early 1990s. \\\"American Life\\\" goes down as her most controversial album as well as being the biggest mistake of her career, where as \\\"Erotica\\\" is a classic. The title track is the messiest, most disjointed excuse for a radio dance single that I've heard in years, being nothing more than an unlistenable hodgepodge of electronic noise, electronic sputtering sound effects for a beat, and atrocious vocals and the results are disastrous. I simply don't understand all the favorable reviews that this album receives. This album is just awful on a biblical scale. I can really identify with the critics on most subjects when it comes to this album.\\n There is nothing good on this album. NOTHING!! Every song on this album is incredibly absurd to a nauseating degree. The only song that I feel shows any remote signs of enjoyability would be \\\"Love Profusion\\\" with it's danceable sound as it's the most melodic song on this entire album but even then, it's ability to entertain is totally sunk with weak hooks and annoying voice effects. This to me is the only song that I feel even remotely shines through the cesspool that is \\\"American Life\\\". The rest of this album is atrocious to listen to. Hearing Madonna actually attempting to rap is so bad that you will end up crushing your lungs when laughing at it. To put it plain and simple, this album is just an \\\"American Lie\\\". This album could really have been a huge and really awesome controversial adventure but whatever was going on, Madonna really wrecked her opportunity to create a really dynamite album. Just listening to this album will make you nostalgic in a sad sense and want to turn the clock back like five years to go back to the time when we were spooked with the euphoric bliss of \\\"Ray of Light\\\" when it was on the charts. Everything about this album is just plain tacky on all fronts. The only I haven't thrown this album away is because I got it as a gift from a friend and I don't throw gifts away.\\nThe \\\"Limited Edition\\\" is also a joke, aimed at milking more money out of the poor fanbase who have been fiercely loyal for many years. The limited edition comes in a larger, leather cardboard box container with promo stickers and a large poster with artwork that is contained in the booklet of this album and to tell you the truth, this is one of the worst \\\"Limited Edition\\\" albums that I've ever seen. Whichever way you look at it, there is nothing worthy on this album at all. Not even a \\\"Deluxe Edition\\\" full of tons of bonus could rescue this album from being thrown towards the junk pile. It's that bad! The enhanced stuff on the CD also interferes with album playing on the computer.\\nAlthough I may have shredded this album to molecules with this review, that doesn't mean that I'll stop being a Madonna fan this time because it's really in fact, amazing that she has gone for 20 years without putting out a bad album. I've enjoyed all of her previous albums to varying degrees and there are enough of them to keep me a fan of hers for a while and thus I'm not giving up on Madonna this time for its not unusual for even great artists to put out a bad or below average album or two in their career. Unfortunately, the 20 year streak is interrupted with this album. Hopefully, Madonna has or will have learned her lesson with this misstep and should her next album be released I'm guessing in 2006, it will be a major improvement over this disaster and put her back on her feet. I mean, what's there to lose anyway? I wouldn't say it's time to hang up the mike but it's time for a major overhaul in her music.\\n Unitl then, all I can say is that \\\"American Life\\\" is the most disappointing release and one of the worst albums of 2003. I really, really tried to like this album, and even forced myself to like it by listening to it over and over again but I've given up and put \\\"Ray of Light\\\" back into my CD player. My advice is to just leave this album to collect dust on the shelves and invest in any of her other albums. Even thought I may not have been a fan of some of her images during certain eras in her career, I never thought that she would tumble down this low musically speaking. Avoid this album at all costs.\",\n \"Product: A 2-CD, 30-track love story by R&B's master storyteller! From funky dance tracks to sultry ballads, from his 1981 debut Never Too Much to his duets with Janet Jackson ( The Best Things in Life Are Free ) and Mariah Carey ( Endless Love ), all his best are here: Never Too Much; Superstar; Give Me the Reason; Any Love; So Amazing; Wait for Love; Here and Now; Creepin' , and more!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Holy Behezuss! How many useless compilations do we need?\\n\\nReview: I don't know whose music might have endured worse damaged from being constantly recycled onto useless compilations so many numerous times the way that Luther Vandross' songs have with these mostly lame collections. I find it saddening to see these powerful and uplifting songs being recycled to death on these numerous compilations. Is it like, they release a compilation of recycled material every time a new proper studio album is released?\\nFrom what I'm guessing there are like eight or nine of them now:\\nHere's the list that I can think of:\\n1. Best of Luther Vandross\\n2. Love Is On The Way\\n3. Best of Love Volume 2: One Night With You\\n4. Greatest Hits\\n5. Always & Forever: The Classics\\n6. Super Hits\\n7. Ultimate Luther Vandross\\n8. The Very Best of Love\\n9. Essential Luther Vandross\\nAs I can remember while writing this review, there are nine compilations, and these were all released in just the last 15 years, too short of a time for releasing so many compilations. Are Sony too clueless as to realizing how many compilations they have released are has the label become enshrouded in greed and egotism.\\nAll of these songs on here are absolutely classic and are among the best R&B classics of all-time but come on!! Why don't Sony released a live album or even a Box Set of B-Sides and/or previously unreleased studio recordings from Vandross' extremely spectacular career? That's what Sony needs to do. Stop recycling these same songs over and over again and instead release two boxed sets, one being live recordings over the years, and the other being B-Sides/Rarities Boxed Set. Now that would be totally awesome! I would especially go for the \\\"B-Sides\\\" boxed set idea myself but that's just my opinion.\\nIf you are a true Luther Vandross fan like I am and would go for any of the compilations I listed above, I would go for the 2-CD \\\"Best of Luther Vandross\\\", and \\\"Best of Love Volume 2, One Night With You\\\" (At least for those who liked the 'new' songs on that CD) and avoid the rest of the others like the plague. On top of it all, the best choice I can make is to invest one's time getting his regular studio albums as they offer truckloads more than any of the compilations can even come close to offering. I especially recommend \\\"Power of Love\\\", my favorite of his.\\nI'm giving this collection a five anyways to show my gratitude to Mr. Vandross for all of the great music that he has put out over the past 20 years and wish him the absolute best in his recovery and also wish him the best that he makes a full recovery and continues to amaze us for many years to come. God only knows what kind of musical genius he could come up with next! :)\",\n \"Product: CD\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Plenty of fun but begins to go into dangerous territory.\\n\\nReview: 2002's \\\"Fever\\\" is a classic and although Minogue had already had 15 years experience, I didn't get turned on to her music until when \\\"Fever\\\" rolled around and have enjoyed that album ever since. The highly anticipated follow-up entitled \\\"Body Language\\\" is very different altogether and that it is a mixed bag overall but on average is a very good album. This CD is a strange hybrid of 80s beats with 90s and 2000s beats, and electronic sound effects which work on some tracks but come off as awkward on other tracks. Songs that work in my opinion are \\\"Promises\\\" with it's Paula Abdulesque synthesizer riffs (Think \\\"State of Attraction\\\"), \\\"Chocolate\\\" although it kind of sounds like it was recorded and released 7 years late, \\\"Still Standing\\\" which almost sounds like something from around 1983. On the other hand while not bad necessarily, \\\"Slow\\\" sounds very awkward with it's electronic noodlings and weak rhythms. \\\"Cruise Control\\\" also doesn't do much for me either. Overall this is not a bad album but is no \\\"Fever\\\" in my book. But for the open minded, this is a decent choice. So just sit back, take off the thinking cap and enjoy it.\",\n \"Product: Japanese Release featuring Two Bonus Tracks: \\\"i'm Here\\\", and \\\"Put Your Hands On\\\".\\n\\nRating: 1.0\\n\\nSummary: !!TOSS THIS INTO THE MAGNESIUM FIRE!!\\n\\nReview: Ms. Jackson no longer seems to know any of her own strenghts anymore. Not only has she fallen down to the bottom of the barrel with this release, with the decadence of songwriting and production, she has lost any resemblance of the classy talented Janet that I had loved and grown up to admire for almost my whole life. This latest release demonstrates the biggest sellout in the history of music. I was deeply afraid of a really bad album from one of my former favorites and even then, I was completely unprepared for the disaster that \\\"Damita Jo\\\" really is! This CD is the worst album I've heard in years!! \\\"All For You\\\" was disappointing enough for what it was but even then, that album sounds almost like a masterpiece compared to the total disaster that \\\"Damita Jo\\\" really is. This album is terrible!! At least AFY was saved by a few tracks like the title track despite it's vapid lyrics, \\\"Truth\\\" and the closing track \\\"Better Days\\\". \\\"Better Days\\\" seemed to have pointed towards a better direction but sadly a good closing track to that album only pointed into artistic void and \\\"Damita Jo\\\" is that total artistic void.\\n Virtually everything that could've gone wrong with a Janet album goes completely wrong on \\\"Damita Jo\\\". The first single off this piece of garbage entitled \\\"Just A Little While\\\" faltered miserably on the charts not even cracking the top 40 and for good reason, this song absolutely stinks being nothing more than shoddy singing, disjointed production and absolutely no substance. It wasn't because of no promotion that this single failed, it was because almost nobody liked it and realized how stale her `music' has gotten. The second single \\\"I Want You\\\" fares no better being even lower than \\\"ho-hum\\\" and goes nowhere. I never could've imagined back in late 1997 when \\\"The Velvet Rope\\\" was riding high that Janet could ever rank at the bottom because that album was just beautiful and still is but now scrolling seven years and one misfire, now we have been abused with this despicable excuse for attention and I feel utmost betrayed by one of my former favorite singers of all time.\\n To all the airheads who accuse me of `not being a fan', I have been a massive fan since I was a young kid (like back during the \\\"Control\\\") and all the way through \\\"The Velvet Rope\\\" era from 1997 through 1998 and even forgave the speed bump that was \\\"All For You\\\" but with this follow-up album, it has shown that Janet has reached a dead end and has musically hit a brick wall. Another thing to add is that this album is NOT GROWING UP OR MATURING!!! In fact it is garbage like this that is setting the status of women back into the Stone Age and I am just saddened beyond belief that Janet has declined from being a really powerful symbol of strength to just a wretch caricature of her former self. These lyrics are absolutely intellectually insulting to listen to and are among the dumbest I've ever listened to. Even the brainlessness of most teen pop artists have shown better styles than this krap! Is this from the very same artist who did \\\"Rhythm Nation\\\" or \\\"The Velvet Rope\\\"?! Or is this some clone? Many of these songs fall into the same category of the wretched commercial rap/hip-hop garbage that is disposed of in a short time and is of the kind of commercial junk that I despise with a morbid vengeance. This whole album is just joke after joke after joke with disasters like \\\"Country\\\", \\\"Strawberry Bounce\\\" and vomit inducing songs like \\\"Moist\\\" and \\\"Sexhibition\\\" which don't even deserved to have been recorded. Don't even get me started with the interludes.\\n My expectations were very low for this album but even those expectations weren't even close to being met. This (edited for inappropriate language) is terrible! I can't believe that someone with such gifted talent would put out garbage like this! Even Britney Spears at times is better than this! I have no idea what will happen with this album in the coming years but one's things for sure. I have lost all of my respect for her and this album is so awful that it has turned me away from all of her albums, even from \\\"Rhythm Nation 1814\\\". This was Janet's chance to really grow out of this rut but she completely blew it! I simply give up on ever hearing anything good coming off a Janet record ever again and it's now time to move on. This album doesn't deserve to be thrown into the garbage can. It should be thrown into the magnesium fire or into a thermal depolymerization plant.\\n Janet's music started off being primitive with her self-titled debut, then her sophomore effort \\\"Dream Street\\\", to blossomingly fresh and new with \\\"Control\\\", rising to dizzying heights with \\\"Rhythm Nation 1814\\\", to somewhat tired with \\\"Janet\\\", but rising again with \\\"The Velvet Rope\\\", and then declining to stale with \\\"All For You\\\" and with \\\"Damita Jo\\\", it has now decayed into total filth that should just be washed into the abyss where it belongs. A crushing ignominious blow to a great legacy.\",\n \"Product: \\\"Essence Of The Forest\\\" is a beautiful collection of Deep Forest's greatest hits, collected on one album for the first time ever. True to their global influences, the album features an international roster of superb guest talent including Youssou N'Dour, Neneh Cherry, blues singer Beverly Jo Scott, vocalist Angela McCluskey (Telepopmusik), Japanese chanteuse Chitose Hajime, & Hungarian singer Marta Sebestyen (Muzsikas).\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Not quite essential but still a marvelous collection.\\n\\nReview: Deep Forest's \\\"Essence of the Forest\\\" is a very good retrospective of the material that Deep Forest has released from their 1992 self-titled debut to their 2002 album \\\"Music Detected\\\". Spanning 15 tracks, \\\"Essence\\\" is a very well-assembled collection for those who are seeking a strong introduction to Deep Forest's music. Veteran fans who already have their studio albums may not find much new material on here save for newer versions of the songs that were on their first album. For some reason, I wonder why they decided to re-do the original tracks. Did they hate the originals? Though collectively speaking, it had overall decent results, it kind of makes on miss out on the original versions. However my favorite remix is their 2004 rendition of the stunning \\\"Night Bird\\\". The original song is a stunning beauty but this updated version brings a lively updated sound that makes the original version proud. This version has a heavier and more pulsating beat and more intense ambient sound. The fundamental mood of the track is hardly altered. Of all the remakes, the \\\"Night Bird 2004\\\" is easily my favorite one. The remakes of \\\"Sweet Lullaby\\\", and \\\"Desert Walk\\\" are enjoyable without being spectacular updates. Also included are the live version of \\\"Green and Blue\\\" which I think is superior to the excellent original. The original is wonderful but the live version of the track improves it by light years. Also included is a track called \\\"Undecided\\\" which never saw any release on any of their U.S. releases. It is a very good track and brings the collection to a wonderful close. Also featured is Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour whose presence adds to this track. Overall, \\\"Essence\\\" is a marvelous collection. The bonuses are enough to render it a great purchase for completists. Newbies should definitely buy this CD and then expand their Deep Forest collection from there.\",\n \"Product: This is the highly anticipated third record from the mystic-pop group known as Lesiem. After reaching the Billboard charts on their previous two records, Lesiem returns once again with a ground breaking record full of heavenly voices, operatic melodies and mystical grooves. \\\"Auracle\\\" seeks to enlighten these times with Lesiem's unique approach at combining Gregorian chants, diva inspired vocals and worldbeat influences creating a universal sound of majestic qualities. Listen to \\\"Auracle\\\" -- hear the language of the divine and let wisdom pass this way once again.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Radically different but very enchating new sound.\\n\\nReview: I was very intrigued at the radical change in music style that LEsiem went through between \\\"Illumination\\\" and this newest album of their's \\\"Auracle\\\". Much brighter, more pop-like, the Enigma-like atmosphere of their last album is replaced by a more natural, earthier and generally much brighter sound and a lot of the electronic drum machines are replaced by what sound like more actual drums as well as a more classical sound.\\n\\n The THIRD through fifth tracks \\\"Caritas\\\", \\\"Fides\\\" and \\\"Justitia\\\" begin similar manner, starting with classical strings ranging from pizzicato to Cello intros before becoming either pop-rock sounding tracks to slow relaxing songs. Overall, this album reminds me a lot of the music of Sarah Brightman.\\n\\n My favorite song is likely \\\"Times\\\" which begins with a beautiful intro and becomes a very energetic pop-like song with a beautiful echoing vocal. The song also goes through some very unique melodic changes.\",\n \"Product: Hardcastle 4 continues the highly successful career of Paul Hardcastle/Jazzmasters, which has combined album sales of over 4 million units sold in the USA. Hardcastle 4 follows the highly successful Jazzmasters 4 album which saw the track 'Puerto Banus' go to #1 and stay there for 4 consecutive weeks on the R&R Smooth jazz chart. This new album has all the ingredients to become even more successful, and when you hear the amazing smooth vocals of Maxine Hardcastle, you are hooked. And yes, you can also get into the smooth groove with the amazing sax playing of Snake Davis. V2. 2005.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: The dawning of a new Paul Hardcastle!\\n\\nReview: The one who could arguably be the maestro of the Smooth Jazz genre these days is back and not only that but finally, Paul Hardcastle does a major turn and goes down a very experimental road with new sounds, new keyboard effects and new styles that almost completely leave his more New Age-like older albums behind. Could this perhaps be the beginning of a new Hardcastle? Perhaps or perhaps not but one things for certain, \\\"Hardcastle 4\\\" is a welcome new turn in Paul's music. I was very pleasantly surprised at the new sounds that dominate this new album of his.\\n\\n A major new surprise however is his daughter Maxine taking the vocal podium this time around on three tracks on this CD. While they do sometimes have a bit of a adolescent lyrical tone to them, the three tracks \\\"Smooth Jazz is Bumpin\\\", \\\"Was It Love\\\" and \\\"Where Are You Now\\\" are awesome with a Capital A! \\\"Smooth Jazz is Bumpin\\\" is a wonderful and awesome song with Maxine as vocalist and for a teenager, she can SING! I never thought I could say this for an under-20 year old singer but Maxine has finally done it! Britney, Janet, Christina, Take note of this! While it's too early to tell, I could say that \\\"Smooth Jazz Is Bumpin\\\" is one of the most innovative smooth jazz anthems that I've heard in years! \\\"Was It Love\\\" is another wonderful groovy song that is a future Hardcastle classic!\\n\\n Even on the non-vocal tracks, Paul Hardcastle 4 is a big departure from his 2002 \\\"Hardcastle 3\\\". \\\"Serene\\\" and \\\"Freefall\\\" are examples of a wonderful departure from his trademark sound and less of the New Age sounds of songs like \\\"Zen Warrior\\\" or \\\"First Light\\\" from the third Hardcastle outing. Some of the New Age sounds are occasionally heard on this album. If you're familiar with \\\"Jazzmasters 4\\\" you will notice that track 8, \\\"Eastern Winds\\\" is a reworking and perhaps a replacement of \\\"Voice of The Angels\\\". The songs begin with the familiar growling voices in the beginning. But \\\"Eastern Winds\\\" to me anyways is much superior and longer than the latter. \\\"Voice of The Angels\\\" sometimes suffers from being way too short at just over 3 minutes but \\\"Eastern Winds\\\" is longer and allows for more enjoyment of the track. Overall, this is arguably my favorite non-vocal track on this entire album. The song has a beautiful, twilight mood and a beautiful melody backed by the wonderful rhythm. The `final' track \\\"Journey Of The Lost Tribes\\\" is the most un-Hardcastle like song that Paul has ever composed and the greatest departure from his older music. The song has a strong tribal atmosphere and almost evokes images of going through a tropical jungle on a misty afternoon.\\n\\n That said this album, like a previous reviewer said, does get stymied by being a little on the short side. Sometimes the tracks fade out too soon just as I'm enjoying them and it gives a sense of a plateau but still overall, this album is just wonderful and makes me wonder of this is the dawning of a new Paul Hardcastle! If you were expecting more of the same New Age sound of his old stuff, THINK AGAIN! If you were looking for another \\\"First Light\\\", or another \\\"The Only One\\\", or even another \\\"Joker's Wild (Smooth Jazz Mix)\\\" THINK AGAIN! This is a new sound altogether! For those who were yearning for something new altogether and tired of his trademark sound, you are going to love this CD! I guarantee it! Highly recommended!\",\n \"Product: 1982 album featuring \\\"More Than This\\\", \\\"The Main Thing\\\" & \\\"Avalon\\\". (Condition: EX/EX)\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Roxy goes out on top\\n\\nReview: This so far is the first Roxy Music album I have purchased so far and it's a great album. Avalon is a gem in my CD collection with awesome songs with a mix of Rock, Jazz, R&B and pop all fused in one.\\nThis album is similar to Bryan Ferrys solo album Boys and Girls althouhg not as dark and is more mainstream.\\nBy 1982 Roxy Music had transformed from a sort of rock band into a soul/rock band(TFF went through the same transformation from The Big Chair to The Seeds Of Love LP).\\nMany of us have already heard the title track before. It's a truly great song that will make you feel good. The best song thouhg I would say is The Space Between. It reminds me of David Bowies 1983 hit Let's Dance with similar rhythms and guitars and beats. I love both songs alot.\\nThis is an essential recording for both Roxy Music and Bryan Ferry fans. Ferry would take this sound and continue it on Boys and Girls and Bete Noire. It's an epic farewell.\\nUnfortunately I have to give this CD a four because at only 37 and a half minutes it ends just as you're getting into the music and the remastered edition doesnt include any B-Sides, Rare Tracks or liner notes. Enjoy the epic farewll album from Roxy Music.\",\n \"Product: Amethystium is a music project aiming to create and explore emotive imaginary worlds in sound. Primarily electronic-based, the compositions traverse a span of moods that includes both light and darkness, bliss and melancholy. They range from the purely relaxing to the subtly intense, creating dreamlike and evocative musical journeys. Formed by Norwegian composer/producer Oystein Ramfjord, Amethystium started out independently with a demo release in late 1999. After quickly becoming something of an underground phenomenon through word of mouth, the project was signed to then EMI/Capitol subsidiary Neurodisc Records and released a string of three Top 10 Billboard charting albums in the US.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Entrancing evolution of sonic paradise.\\n\\nReview: Nearly four years passed between Amethystium's last album \\\"Evermind\\\" and the release of Ramsfjord's latest release \\\"Isabliss\\\". Though it was certainly a while between including the release of a retrospective \\\"Emblem\\\", \\\"Isabliss\\\" is a marvelous evolution of sound from the past while maintaining much of the spirit of the old. \\\"Isabliss\\\" is comparison has a much more of a monochromic feel, like having a much grayer, more wintry atmosphere. Even some of the songs have a different melodic structure. The album cover artwork perfectly portrays the mood of the album in my opinion: Dark, gray, yet also entrancing and mesmerizing.\\n\\nSome of the songs like \\\"Treasure\\\", \\\"Anthemossa\\\", and \\\"Silken Twine\\\" are ideal tributes to the atmospherics of their debut album \\\"Odonata\\\". Other songs like \\\"A Small Adventure\\\", \\\"La Pluie\\\", and the Arctic \\\"Frosty Morning Bliss\\\" have a far chillier atmosphere. Even more tracks have distinctly creepy undertones such as \\\"Silken Twine\\\" with it's unique change in melody towards the end.\\n\\n Overall, \\\"Isabliss\\\" is a welcome and not overdue return for Amethystium. THough some may think \\\"what took you so long?\\\" after the long break after \\\"Evermind\\\", I enjoyed their first three albums and was totally content with Amethystium taking it's time and the end result is yet another fantastic addition to their musical catalog and a new chapter in their history. Highly recommended! :D\",\n \"Product: SEAL SYSTEM\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Marvelous return to form! \\\"System\\\" is one to have.\\n\\nReview: A long four years since his previous album entitled \\\"Seal IV\\\", the British singer of modern soul returns with his fifth solo album entitled \\\"System\\\" and like he has explained in interviews, it marks a major return to the dance roots of his debut album. Be mindful, if you enjoyed tracks like \\\"Tinseltown\\\", \\\"Get it Together\\\" or \\\"Love's Divine\\\" then you might have to put those yearnings to the test as this album brings back the energy that was present on his 1991 debut self-titled classic with songs like \\\"If It's on My Mind\\\", \\\"Amazing\\\", and the atsmopheric disco of \\\"The Right Life\\\". Many have expressed negative views on \\\"Wedding Day\\\" which featured the suprise duet with his wife, Heidi Klum. Though I was somewhat like \\\"Huh?\\\" when I saw the note, WD turned out to be a suprisingly great song. Actually among my favorites. This could've easily been a disaster but Seal actually generates a future classic with it. \\\"Dumb\\\" is probably the only song that carries any elements of his previous album with the acoustic guitars that we've become familiar with. Those who yearn for some older sounds might find some solace in \\\"Dumb\\\". It took some time to digest but \\\"System\\\" has become another five-star work of art in my book and am glad it's very different from the previous. THat's what makes artists new albums exciting, knowing it will be very different from the old. Highly recommended. :)\",\n \"Product: Japanese pressing of Madonna's 2008 full-length album includes one bonus track, 'Ring My Bell'. Hard Candy is a brilliant uptempo collection that adds a hip-hop beat to the cultural icon's club sensibilities, thanks to collaborations with Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, Pharrell Williams, and Nate \\\"Danja\\\" Hills. Hard Candy punctuates the first 25 years of the album career of the most successful female artist in history with a musical exclamation point. 12 tracks..\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Another good album but can get shaky and feels like too much peppermint candy at times.\\n\\nReview: Madonna's previous release, 2005's \\\"Confessions On a Dance Floor\\\" ranks as among the greatest improvements I've seen in almost any artist that I've listened to ever, considering how badly \\\"American Life\\\" turned out to be in my book. With such a high bar raised with COADF, it was very difficult to even come close to matching it. The follow-up \\\"Hard Candy\\\" certainly is a few steps down from that but overall still is a very enjoyable release, and another good Chapter in Madonna's legacy of music. Overall, I can even hear echoes of her debut album from 25 years earlier.\\n \\\"Give It 2 Me\\\" is pure fun and picks right up where songs like \\\"Hung Up\\\", \\\"Sorry\\\" and others left off. It is arguably my favorite song on this album and was a well-deserved hit on the charts.\",\n \"Product: Japanese pressing of Madonna's 2008 full-length album includes one bonus track, 'Ring My Bell'. Hard Candy is a brilliant uptempo collection that adds a hip-hop beat to the cultural icon's club sensibilities, thanks to collaborations with Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, Pharrell Williams, and Nate \\\"Danja\\\" Hills. Hard Candy punctuates the first 25 years of the album career of the most successful female artist in history with a musical exclamation point. 12 tracks..\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Another good album but can get shaky and feels like too much peppermint candy at times.\\n\\nReview: Madonna's previous release, 2005's \\\"Confessions On a Dance Floor\\\" ranks as among the greatest improvements I've seen in almost any artist that I've listened to ever, considering how badly \\\"American Life\\\" turned out to be in my book. With such a high bar raised with COADF, it was very difficult to even come close to matching it. The follow-up \\\"Hard Candy\\\" certainly is a few steps down from that but overall still is a very enjoyable release, and another good Chapter in Madonna's legacy of music. Overall, I can even hear echoes of her debut album from 25 years earlier.\\n \\\"Give It 2 Me\\\" is pure fun and picks right up where songs like \\\"Hung Up\\\", \\\"Sorry\\\" and others left off. It is arguably my favorite song on this album and was a well-deserved hit on the charts.\",\n \"Product: 2009 release from the veteran British Electronic rockers. Eclectic and energized, the band's new release is their most dazzling and diverse album in decades. Recorded in Santa Barbara and New York, Depeche Mode returned to using a lot of vintage gear, from analogue synthesizers to drum machines, in order to conjure up the retro-futuristic arrangements featured on the album. Lyrically the release contains many of the group's enduring obsessions plus more overt black humor than any of their previous collections. The release marks a reunion between the band and producer Ben Hillier, who worked with the band on Playing The Angel. Features the single 'Wrong'. Mute.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: The sounds of the Vintage Depeche Mode.\\n\\nReview: I have been a huge fan of Depeche Mode since I was around 12 or 13 years old when I heard their music on the radio station Q-101 back in Chicago. Many years since then including buying their CDs, I came to notice a profound change from the light, somewhat obtuse experimental pop of \\\"Broken Frame\\\" and \\\"Construction Time\\\" towards the darker and more austere industrial electronica of \\\"Violator\\\" through the harsh electronica of \\\"Playing The Angel\\\". All in all, I've always been willing to wait years between releases because of how DM evolved between releases.\\n\\nTheir newest album \\\"Sounds of the Universe\\\" proves this with a profound departure from it's immediate predecessors and marks a welcome return to the early days of 1982-84 DM. It almost seems like a long overdue sequel to \\\"Construction Time Again\\\" that took 26 years to release. :) The bell-chime sounds heard in \\\"In Chains\\\" reinforce my point with this review. While certainly having 21st century technology and polish, SOTU has the feeling of DM actually hopping into a time machine, travelling back to the New Wave era of 1982-84, taking the recording equipment from the studios that existed at that time, bringing it back to 2009-10 and into today's studio and using that recording technology in addition and \\\"Sounds of the Universe\\\".\\n\\n Some of the harder edged styles are maintained on \\\"Hole to Feed\\\" as well as the grating (not in a bad way) turbulence of \\\"Come Back\\\". Even then, they are a far distant cry from anything on \\\"Playing The Angel\\\" or \\\"Violator\\\".\\n\\n On the other side of the coin, \\\"Peace\\\", \\\"Perfect\\\" and \\\"Corrupt\\\" are easy fits for the 1983-ish era. \\\"Peace\\\" is an experimental trip back to the early 80s with 21st century polish in every way, including even the rhythm. \\\"Perfect\\\" is the same way too. \\\"Corrupt\\\" could almost have been recorded in 1982. All of them are great songs. Other favorites are \\\"In Sympathy\\\" and \\\"Fragile Tension\\\" which are a class of their own.\\n\\n Many fans of \\\"Violator\\\", \\\"Ultra\\\", or \\\"Playing The Angel\\\" will likely find this album to be a change of seasons or a disappointment but not me. I happen to be a much of a fan of their pre-1984 era as I am of post 1985 DM and on rare occasions enjoy \\\"Broken Frame\\\" even more than \\\"Violator\\\" or \\\"Ultra\\\". A lot of post 1989-DM fans are not going to like SOTU a whole lot or should expect a completely different sound but for me, as a fan of the lighter DM of early days, it is a real treat to hear this long forgotten side of Depeche Mode. It took a while for me to to sink in but \\\"Sounds of The Universe\\\" is once again another landmark chapter in Depeche Mode's history. Highly Recommended.\",\n \"Product: Japanese only two disc (SACD Hybrid CD + NTSC/Region 0 DVD) pressing of this album housed in a mini LP sleeve. EMI.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: It would be a Cryme to pass up this musical box!\\n\\nReview: Released in 1971 with Genesis taking up it's beloved classic line-up, Nursery Cryme is the album where Phil Collins first showcased his talent both on the drums and is also where Collins took lead vocals for the first time, not on Selling England By The Pound. The production of this CD is absolutely atrocious but the remastering does help Nursery Cryme a lot and sounds vastly superior to the older version. I must say that the album front cover sleeve with the striped field and the nurse playing tee ball, showcases the schizophrenic and psychotic mood of the LP. 1971 was one of the years of the golden era of prog-rock and Genesis were among the top bands of that style of rock and there's plenty of it on Nursery Cryme. Genesis in fact, never abandoned their prog-rock roots, even with their heavily polished, squeaky clean production of their 1983 self-titled debut and Invisible Touch as well as We Can't Dance and even Calling All Stations. There is no radio-friendly material on here but what there is is 7 tracks of sheer beauty with bizarre production with some of the strangest lyrics that Peter Gabriel has ever written. I might come into confrontations with those purists who can't seem to like any of the LPs Phil Collins at lead vocals, however, even I sometimes think about where Genesis would've gone if Steve Hackett had stayed but nonetheless, Genesis were among the most consistent bands of all time. Return of The Giant Hogweeds is a standout cut. I just love the buzzing guitar chord changes in the beginning of it and its menacing musicianship and Gabriels fierce storytelling vocals and it truly showcases its theme. Its an epic tale of giant plants that escapes from captivity to wreak terrible revenge on the human race and the guitars and organs are amazing! The other standout cut is For Absent Friends as its where Phil Collins for the first time in his career, sings on lead vocals. While his voice was a bit mousey at that point, the song is a beautiful, simple, & acoustic ballad. The only thing that keeps this track from being great is that its less than two minutes long! As much as this CD is great, I must honestly admit that the muddy production as well as it's short playing time of only 39 minutes does keep this from being an essential recording like Genesis latter material compared with Foxtrot or Selling England By The Pound. For the fan base whose tastes are mostly confined to the Phil Collins-era LPs, Nursery Cryme may not be an easy album to get into easily, even for those who loved Wind & Wuthering or Trick Of The Tail but even for those ppl, I do recommend trying NC for something different as Genesis are like a chameleon band. Despite all the cons, Nursery Cryme is a wonderful record that is one worthy of checking out even if it turns out not being all that appreciating. Sure it may not have gotten noticed at the time of its release but guess what, its still in print after 31 years! An enduring classic that is not quite an essential but definitely one worthy of checking out. Foxtrot and the two after it though have more edge to them than this one does and all of Genesis albums should be in your collectionK..And Im not talking about just Peter Gabriels LPs with them eitherK..Pick up the Turn It On Again: The Hits CD too!\",\n \"Product: Japanese only two disc (SACD Hybrid CD + NTSC/Region 0 DVD) pressing of this album housed in a mini LP sleeve. EMI.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: It would be a Cryme to pass up this Musical Box!\\n\\nReview: Released in 1971 with Genesis taking up it's beloved classic line-up, Nursery Cryme is the album where Phil Collins first showcased his talent both on the drums and is also where Collins took lead vocals for the first time, not on Selling England By The Pound. The production of this CD is absolutely atrocious but the remastering does help Nursery Cryme a lot and sounds vastly superior to the older version. I must say that the album front cover sleeve with the striped field and the nurse playing tee ball, showcases the schizophrenic and psychotic mood of the LP. 1971 was one of the years of the golden era of prog-rock and Genesis were among the top bands of that style of rock and there's plenty of it on Nursery Cryme. Genesis in fact, never abandoned their prog-rock roots, even with their heavily polished, squeaky clean production of their 1983 self-titled debut and Invisible Touch as well as We Can't Dance and even Calling All Stations. There is no radio-friendly material on here but what there is is 7 tracks of sheer beauty with bizarre production with some of the strangest lyrics that Peter Gabriel has ever written. I might come into confrontations with those purists who can't seem to like any of the LPs Phil Collins at lead vocals, however, even I sometimes think about where Genesis would've gone if Steve Hackett had stayed but nonetheless, Genesis were among the most consistent bands of all time. Return of The Giant Hogweeds is a standout cut. I just love the buzzing guitar chord changes in the beginning of it and its menacing musicianship and Gabriels fierce storytelling vocals and it truly showcases its theme. Its an epic tale of giant plants that escapes from captivity to wreak terrible revenge on the human race and the guitars and organs are amazing! The other standout cut is For Absent Friends as its where Phil Collins for the first time in his career, sings on lead vocals. While his voice was a bit mousey at that point, the song is a beautiful, simple, & acoustic ballad. The only thing that keeps this track from being great is that its less than two minutes long! As much as this CD is great, I must honestly admit that the muddy production as well as it's short playing time of only 39 minutes does keep this from being an essential recording like Genesis latter material compared with Foxtrot or Selling England By The Pound. For the fan base whose tastes are mostly confined to the Phil Collins-era LPs, Nursery Cryme may not be an easy album to get into easily, even for those who loved Wind & Wuthering or Trick Of The Tail but even for those ppl, I do recommend trying NC for something different as Genesis are like a chameleon band. Despite all the cons, Nursery Cryme is a wonderful record that is one worthy of checking out even if it turns out not being all that appreciating. Sure it may not have gotten noticed at the time of its release but guess what, its still in print after 31 years! An enduring classic that is not quite an essential but definitely one worthy of checking out. Foxtrot and the two after it though have more edge to them than this one does and all of Genesis albums should be in your collectionK..And Im not talking about just Peter Gabriels LPs with them eitherK..Pick up the Turn It On Again: The Hits CD too!\",\n \"Product: BRYAN FERRY - AVONMORE - CD\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Ladies and Gentle, Boys and Girls, welcome to Avonmore!\\n\\nReview: It's been a very long time since Ferry's solo career took off both in the early 1970s and since Roxy Music's swan song \\\"Avalon\\\" LP. His \\\"Boys and Girls\\\" and \\\"Bete Noire\\\" are both some of the greatest albums that the pop/rock realm have had the honor of putting out. In many years since, Ferry's music has evolved through the mysterious beauty of \\\"Taxi\\\" and \\\"Mamauna\\\". Later on, he even went into the 1930s style with \\\"As Time Goes By\\\" which actually I disliked for a while but it has since grown on me.\\n\\n Flash forward to 2014 and his latest album \\\"Avonmore\\\" is a return to the mysterious style that defined \\\"Boys and Girls\\\" and \\\"Bete Noire\\\". \\\"Midnight Train\\\" is one of my favorite songs on this album.\",\n \"Product: JANET JACKSON - UNBREAKABLE - CD\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Magnificent! What took you so long?!\\n\\nReview: As a long-time fan of both Janet, and the late Michael Jackson, it was especially saddening for a long time watching Janet plummet from the heights of \\\"Together Again\\\" and \\\"State of The World\\\" to the awfulness of the 2004-5 rut that was \\\"Damita Jo\\\". In fact, I was so angry that I literally stopped listening to RN 1814, Janet and Velvet Rope for over a year as I was so upset.\\n\\n Though far from returning to greatness, I felt that Janet finally turned the corner with \\\"20 Y.O.\\\" which despite having some of the dubious qualities that made Damita Jo nearly unlistenable, I felt it was a good enough improvement to restore much of the respect I lost for Ms. Jackson. The following album \\\"Discipline\\\" more or less continued some of the better aspects of it's predecessor but started to fall off the deep end in the latter half and came off as kind of a cheap knock-off of \\\"The Velvet Rope\\\" but still overall had enough good material to warrant it being a keeper in my book.\\n\\n Though I felt both 20YO and Discipline were huge improvements over the disaster of \\\"Damita Jo\\\", they still were missing a lot of the magic that made the Control, RN 1814, Janet, and Velvet Rope albums such eternal classics. Years though went by which saw Janet release a magnificent \\\"Number Ones\\\" double-CD set and saw a couple promising new recordings such as \\\"Make Me\\\" and the decent \\\"Nothing\\\" both of which showed great promise for her return to greatness.\\n\\n Now in 2015-16, Ms. Jackson has done the unthinkable and returned to her glory days with her newest album \\\"Unbreakable\\\", her first since \\\"Discipline\\\" and her fifth truly great album. I took a risk and bought this album and when the first song played, I knew that this would be a marvelous album and I was totally right. This album is FABULOUS! I haven't enjoyed a new Janet album since the Velvet Rope era from start to finish.\\n\\n \\\"Burn It Up\\\" is a high energy dance number with the now-veteran rapper Missy Elliot as a guest star. Yes it can get over the top with some of the production but overall, it is pure fun to dance to or turn up loud.\",\n \"Product: A classic album for any collection.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A beautiful find this was.\\n\\nReview: \\\"Windham Hill Sampler 1996\\\" was a wonderful find that I purchased in the opening days and weeks of 1998 during a trip to Fredericksburg, Virginia. The CD almost perfectly captured the beauty and adventure of that wonderful trip now forever etched in my memory.\\n\\n Onto the music itself, this is an astonishing collection of 14 tracks from selected artists on the Windham Hill label and focuses on the latest artists up to this point when it was released in 1996. Torcuato Mariano's \\\"Last Look\\\" I was familiar with for a long time when I got this and have it on his sophomore album of the same name. My favorite song however could very well be the mournful classic that is \\\"When The Snow Melts\\\" by Phil Cunningham. I was only 15 when I first listened to it but I almost was in tears when I was done listening to it. Even though it's a major note song, sometimes major note songs can have a far more somber feel than a minor note song and this song demonstrates that. My other favorite is the haunting \\\"The White Spirit\\\" by French brother/sister duo Uman with the sister's almost surreal vocals and the various exotic musical elements all weaved into one of the best New Age classics of the 1990s. What happened to this duo? I would've loved to have heard more albums after this. Other songs that stand out are \\\"Jenny's Room\\\" by Andy Narell.\",\n \"Product: 1998 REAL MUSIC RECORDS CD\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Music to fall asleep to\\n\\nReview: I have been a fan of Lasar for almost a decade now. The Eleventh Hour is an intense powerful album. Sapphire Dreams is totally opposite to the Eleventh Hour. Where that album has very intense almost disturbing tracks this album is perfect music to fall asleep. The synthesizers all take a back seat for now and Mars pulls in a grand piano and creates a surprisingly dreamy album of perfect nighttime instrumentals. No Corroboree, Great Beast Of Wisdom, or Your Eyes here, just perfect bedtime music to fall asleep to. I often play this to counterract nightmares I sometimes have. This CD is one worthy of having. Fans of the Eleventh Hour might enjoy this one too. You can't go wrong with this one.\",\n \"Product: The Eleventh Hour delivers powerful music and a powerful message from composer/keyboardist Mars Lasar: there is hope for a world in crisis. The 70 minutes of music addressing many social and environmental issues graces brilliantly synthesized melodies with the perfect balance of power and sensitivity. From the poignant violin strains of \\\"Children of the World\\\" to the native chantings in \\\"Geronimo\\\" to the soaring dramatic spaces of \\\"Corroboree,\\\" Lasar voices many distinctive styles, but the quality of each is consistently outstanding. ~ MusD, All Music Guide\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: New Age's finest hour\\n\\nReview: I have been a heavy-duty New Age lover since I was like 8 or 9 years old. It was Mars Lasar's 'The Eleventh Hour' that eventually made New Age one of my favorite genres of music.\\nI at first thought New Age was just a kind of sleepy music kind of genre that seemed more like boring meditation music but The Eleventh Houre blew all that perception away. Many other albums since then have proven that New Age can be a very energetic genre, sometimes even more danceable than the antiquated, unlistenable R&B garbage of today.\\nIn fact this CD sounds more like music from the future, like from 2093 instead of it's release year 1993.\\nWhere most New Age CDs are mostly pleasant serene music, The Eleventh Hour is an album that is actually socially conscious. I might sound a bit odd but I often compare this to Janet Jacksons powerful 1989 masterpiece Rhythm Nation 1814 because this album is just as moving and awe-inspiring even though these two albums are from totally different genres. It shows that all genres can express messages.\\nThe Eleventh Hour not only is energetic it is also a kaleidoscope of many sounds and the songs all have a distinctive sound ranging from the disturbing title track to jazzy like in Why Violate Every Law OF Nature to even fun like in Live at the Eleventh Hour to the tear-jerking yet joyous The Gift and Cathedral Waltz. No other album in my opinion stimulates so much imagination, not even the Eleventh Hours successor 11:02 even though that album comes close. Strangely the only other album that I compare this album to is Karma because while 11:02 was great, Karma has the kind of melodies that this album contains. 11:02 was more on the creepy space side where Karma had the peculiar melodies and the natural sounds of this album except Karma is far more ancient in sound.\\n To go into a detailed review of the songs to me would not be enough to do this extraordinary album justice because this album is like nothing that any other New Age artist maybe except Patrick O'Hearn my other favorite New Age meistro, can even dream of creating. It's that good. In fact it has even been powerful enough to shape the way I look at the world.\\nThis is an album of my lifetime. It's one of those album I would buy again and again as I wear out copies over my lifetime.\\nAnd by the way this is a 19 year old who absolutely despises the horrofic gender-bashing R&B of today.\\nGive me the frightening darkness of Hidden Crater or In The Den anytime over any of the sunny cheap R&B trash of Destinys Child or Ja Rule.\\nBelieve me this is an album to live by.\",\n \"Product: [Note: This product is an authorized CD-R and is manufactured on demand]\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A marvelous take on the 1980s soundtrack hits.\\n\\nReview: I have been a lifelong fan of David Foster's music especially with shining classics like his \\\"Love them From St. Elmo's Fire\\\" and his epic magnum-opus \\\"Flight of The Snowbirds\\\". His second album \\\"River of Love\\\" while a great record, though at times felt more like simply a compilation of random pop hits by other artists. While \\\"Rechordings\\\" shares that basis, to me, it is a return to the style that made his debut album an eternal favorite of his. Many may disagree with me on this and that's fine but all of the cover versions that David Foster made in my opinion surpass their originals by leaps and bounds. Probably my favorite is his rendition of Earth, Wind and Fires \\\"After The Love Is Gone\\\" which has a very unique chord structure. I like the original version a lot but David Fosters version in my opinion improves on the original and replaces it with a lovely instrumental atmosphere especially with the echoing pianos throughout. I love his beautiful version of \\\"Glory of Love\\\". I also especially am mesmerized by his heavenly take on \\\"Voices That Care\\\". A bonus closing is a medley of movie themes that runs at nearly 16 minutes long which ends with \\\"Love ThemE From St. Elmo's Fire\\\" as a hidden track. Overall, this is a great album and one to have. Foster is known for producing music for others but in my opinion, he really shines when doing solo albums. :)\",\n \"Product: Seal ~ Crazy\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Seal's best song to date.\\n\\nReview: This 1991 hit single from Seal is my favorite song by him to date. It is truly unique in a way that only seal could have done it. It is a very ominous dance classci with a mix of house dance beats but is meshed with a dark and cloudy day atmosphere to create one of the best dance singles of all time, at least to me anyway. The menacing rhythm and intense beats are the stuff of legend to me. 13 years after it's release it doesn't sound the slightest bit dated and is in fact far ahead of it's time and would sound more innovative than a lot of what we hear nowadays. It's that good! A highly recommended single.\",\n \"Product: Audio Cd\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: This CD makes me cry with joy\\n\\nReview: I've owned this CD for around 9 years and what I can say is that Kicking Cans is by far one of the best CDs I've ever owned by any acoustic guitarist. The music is Brazilian flavored easy listening jazz music but is so many miles above alot of the elevator music that you hear in stores. Where as the 1988 self-titled album is more of a soundtrack to the winter seasons, Kicking Cans, in my opinion, is music for the spring and summer seasons as the title of track 7 shows. Doris voice is absolutely incredible and passionate. Where as the 1988 self titled album is a very low-key album with very simple compositions, Kicking Cans to me is a bit more elaborate with a lot more a jazz influenced tinge but in a way that it makes a great companion to the 1988 album. What's also great about Kicking Cans is that while it's almost a decade old it doesn't sound dated at all. It's very difficult for me to write a review for this CD because I don't think I could do it any justice. Maybe a future album that is in the vein of this one might overshadow it but because of me enjoying it for over 9 years, Kicking Cans is the soundtrack to my childhood and when I look back at it, this CD truly brings back great images of it. :)\",\n \"Product: cd\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A soulful, powerful and soaring smooth jazz classic!\\n\\nReview: I have enjoyed Richard Elliot's songs for as long as I can remember listening to music. Amidst the large number of smooth jazz saxophonists, most of which I enjoy, Richard Elliot is among the leaders of the pack because his music really stands out because he creates amazing jazz music that is not only pleasant but also positive and soul-driven and that's why a lot of his older songs are still very popular even after being out for over a decade. The reason is is that Elliot really puts a lot of soul and power into his songs and his 1993 outing entitled \\\"Soul Embrace\\\" is in my opinion, the best example of this. Other albums of his from before and since are also worth investing in especially 1999's \\\"Chill Factor\\\" CD.\\n Many familiar classics of Elliot's appear on this stunningly beautiful album of his. The most familiar of the popular radio classics is more than likely \\\"Sweet Dream\\\". Just about every smooth jazz lover would be very familiar with this track. I've heard it many times on the radio when as a kid but buying this album made me love this song all over again. \\\"Sweat\\\" is another timeless smooth jazz classic that I have loved for many years. I love the somewhat tropical beginning of the song with the quirky piano riff and the eerie ambient intro in the background before it becomes a funky and eclectic groove with amazing saxophone playing and awesome keyboards. I don't know what it is about this song but God I love this song. I heard it many times before buying this album but I have come to love this already excellent classic all over again.\\n Other notable radio hits are the eloquent classic \\\"By The Fire\\\" and \\\"Because I Love You\\\". The latter song I feel deserves a review all on it's own. I don't know what it is about this song but WOW! This is a really hauntingly beautiful song that is a hallmark of a classic. It is a very sweet song with a strong atmospheric sound and a crystal clear melody unrivalled by most peers. I love the soaring saxophone playing amidst the angelic keyboards and the positive natured melody. I really miss the beauty of this style in much of today's smooth jazz. I feel like I'm almost flying over green grasslands on a cool partly cloudy afternoon when listening to this track. It's that beautiful. Fabulous Job Richard! I feel that our entertainment needs more sweet-natured music nowadays. I've had enough of the so called `tough guy' stuff that is shoved in our faces.\\n However, it's also a lot of the songs never heard on radio that are among the best on this album. My favorite song on this album is \\\"Deep Blue\\\". This classic has a very upbeat and warm sunny mood, and a highly danceable beat combined with very unique electronic beeping sound effects that perfectly blend with the songs rhythm. I especially love the song towards the last minute as it climaxes before it fades into the night. \\\"Calle De Soul\\\" has a really fun tropical Brazilian color to it with the caf-oriented groove tone to it. There are two songs on here that actually have lyrics to them, both of which are good. \\\"Never Gonna Break Your Heart\\\" is a really beautiful and soulful ballad. \\\"Lost In A Minute\\\" is a more New Jack Swing style song. Both of them are great but sometimes suffer from their lengths being a bit on the short side in my opinion. Otherwise, these are really excellent popular tracks that would've made a dent on the R&B or Adult Oriented charts.\\n The last two tracks \\\"Up All Night\\\" and \\\"Alone At Sea\\\" close this album on a high note. \\\"Up All Night\\\" is a very energetic and joyous classic with a fast beat and amazing keyboards. The song rises to a great climax that will leave you happy. \\\"Alone At Sea\\\" closes this CD on a high scale with a slightly more dramatic and serious tone. While most of this album is very sunny in nature, \\\"Alone At Sea\\\" has a more twilight mood. I love the haunting sound to it and the serious melody as it gives the sense of a boat sailing away into the sunset as the song fades away towards the end. I love the melodic changes too, going from A minor down to G major, back to A minor and down to F major and repeating the same change all over again as it draws this masterpiece album to a sunset close.\\n Smooth Jazz in general has been the genre of music that I've grown up on but Richard Elliot is among the standout artists over the years and \\\"Soul Embrace\\\" is in my opinion, the prime example of this fact. His music has a long lasting quality that has endured the passing of the years and the increasing lack of atmospherics in most modern smooth jazz but Elliot has mostly survived this. I strongly recommend buying his albums but make \\\"Soul Embrace\\\" the top choice for the album to start with and then I recommend getting \\\"Chill Factor\\\" and then go in any direction for there. These two albums are in my opinion, among his best albums of his career. \\\"Soul Embrace\\\" is one of the best modern jazz albums of the 20th century and I strongly recommend that you go and buy this album as soon as possible. It's worth every penny you might end up spending.\",\n \"Product: Eurythmics ~ We Too Are One\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Spectacular close to the 1980s!\\n\\nReview: It has been two years since the experimental and innovative classic \\\"Savage\\\" was released and The Eurythmics duo were beginning to become increasingly fractured as Annie Lennox and Dave Stewert were increasingly at odds with each other to the point that they actually recorded their albums in separate studios. Yet amidst the acrimony, the duo managed to produce one last album entitled \\\"We Too Are One\\\" which is ironic since the duo were very distant from each other and would split the following year. This final release from them is a major shift away from the feminine rage of \\\"Savage\\\" in favor of a more soulful jazzier sound on the slower tracks but almost pure rock with the more energetic tracks. \\\"The King and Queen of America\\\" is arguably the fastest song the duo have recorded to date. But my favorite song is \\\"How Long\\\" which is about a fractuous relationship and waiting for it to reach the breaking point. The CD closes with the beautiful and haunting \\\"When The Day Goes Down\\\".\",\n \"Product: Underworld Pearl's Girl US CD single\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Among the most highly recommended EPs/CD-Singles out there!\\n\\nReview: I doubt that any review could do any justice to the greatness that is \\\"Pearl's Girl\\\". Though it is often viewed as an EP rather than a full-length album, Underworld's 1997 release entitled \\\"Pearls Girl\\\" is a spectacular hidden gem that has had the misfortune of being sandwiched between \\\"Second Toughest in the Infants\\\" and \\\"Beaucoup Fish\\\", both of which are marvelous. Yet inspite of their greatness, \\\"Pearl's Girl\\\" is a standout all of its own. The EP is mostly a remix EP of the band's hit single \\\"Pearl's Girl\\\" but with the exception of the \\\"Radio Edit\\\" and \\\"Album Version\\\", many of the other remixes almost are like different tracks altogether.\\n\\n \\\"Puppies\\\" is a very pleasant track with a nice jazzy atmosphere with electronic keyboard effects like that of viewing the outside through a rainy windshield at night. \\\"Oich Oich\\\" is a dreamy track very much like that of \\\"Tongue\\\" with some haunting chime effects throughout the song giving it a haunting post-thunderstormy mood. The guitar parts could easily make this track fit onto \\\"Dubnobasswithmyhead\\\".\\n\\n However my absolute favorite track hands down is the fifth track entitled \\\"Cherry Pie\\\". Now for those who are familiar with \\\"Second Toughest\\\" you'll immediately realize that the bizarre electroshock ambience that introduced \\\"Rowla\\\" is present. However a minute into the track, a totally different DJ echoes build up generating a whole different track. The track eventually evolves into a high speed track that could easily make the adrenaline of the movie \\\"Speed\\\" pale before the warp-speed nature of \\\"Cherry Pie\\\". The track evolves into a haunting and intense track with an atmosphere like no other track by this group. In many ways, it reminds me of the haunting ambience of \\\"Dirty Epic\\\" from their 1993 masterpiece \\\"Dubnobasswithmyheadman\\\" with a much louder and faster tempo. Many may agree with me that \\\"Cherry Pie\\\" improves upon the original track that was \\\"Rowla\\\" but I disagree that it should've been on the album. I think this track feels too distinct to fit with the \\\"Second Toughest\\\" album. In many respects, I consider this to be a supplementary track rather than a replacement. By an large my favorite cut in this entire EP. Though Underworld would go on to make really good tracks in subsequent releases, they have yet to generate songs that rival \\\"Cherry Pie\\\". This track alone makes this album worth purchasing.\\n\\n The final track \\\"Deep Arch\\\" is another haunting track that starts with a trippy ambient intro and has a very slow build up into a beautiful yet trippy cut with an atmosphere like that of viewing traffic on a stormy night.\\n\\n Even if you already have \\\"Second Toughest\\\", you still need to acquire a copy of \\\"Pearl's Girl\\\" because while it is mostly a remix album of the single of the same name, many of the tracks that aren't remixes are astounding in their own way. I could even argue that much of the music that made it onto STITI pales before some of what's on PG.\",\n \"Product: UPC: 075678273728\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Excellent CD with some rare treasures.\\n\\nReview: I reviewed their \\\"Rogha Best of Collection\\\" and while I like it a lot musically speaking, I found the album somewhat limited in scope. \\\"Themes\\\" in my opinion has a larger range of what Clannad released during their later career as of this writing.\\n\\n What really makes this CD a great sampler is that it has some songs that more than likely appear on soundtracks to TV shows that are long out-of-print such as \\\"The Dolphin Connection\\\", and others.\\n\\n Their cover of Joni Mitchell's \\\"Both Sides Now\\\" is among my favorite cover songs of all time with a gorgeous New Age ambience with a duet between lead singer Moya Brenna and former Mister Mister Paul Carrack at the helms. Other marvelous tracks are the heavenly ethereal \\\"Atlantic Realm\\\", the ominous \\\"I Will Find You\\\" to the marvelous closer \\\"Theme From The Dolphin Connection\\\". This entire album is marvelous from start to finish.\\n\\n I could rant about the astronomical number of useless \\\"Best of\\\" compilations that we've been bombarded with but \\\"Themes\\\" is a wonderful 13 track collection.\",\n \"Product: Great collection of instrumental mood music released in 1998 on Virgin label.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Better than the \\\"Pure Moods\\\" CDs.\\n\\nReview: I've always thought the Pure Moods series was very hit and miss to my ears. I mean, I thought that it was very odd to hear Dave Koz's \\\"Emily\\\" (Which I do enjoy as a song on it's own right) on a CD like Pure Moods. I thought the quality of the songs were varied widely and/or other songs sounded completely out of place on the Pure Mood series. This particular spin-off entry though entitled \\\"Instrumental Moods\\\" to my ears doesn't have anywhere near as inconsistent of songs like Pure Moods does and even the 'out-of-place' songs at least fit on an album entitled \\\"Instrumental Moods\\\".\\n\\n Some of my favorite songs are \\\"Knocking on Heaven's Door\\\", \\\"Montezuma\\\", \\\"Sure-As-Not\\\" and \\\"Gathering of the Tribes\\\". The diversity of the album makes this a worthy purchase. Generally I enjoy this more than all except the third Pure Moods CD.\",\n \"Product: New Age Collections ~ Elevation\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: The First from a stunning series.\\n\\nReview: I remember hearing something at a bookstore and loving the music. So I asked the clerk what it was and he showed me the cover of this album. So I bought this album even though I only heard one song off of it and what a buy. I was amazed at the aural beauty that was coming out of my boombox when I played the CD.\\nMars Lasar by Mars Lasar is a very haunting track that 11th Hour fans will love. It has beautiful keyboards and some Jazz guitar playing and some breezing at the beginnings and endings. This was the song that I heard at the bookstore that made me want to buy this CD. Heaven by Emer Kenny is a breathtaking Celtic Groove with stunning whispering vocals and a danceable beat. Sure-As-Not is a stunning piece from the Celtic masterminds Afro-Celt Sound System. It's a dark, Celtic almost wintery track with some ambience and plenty. The sound blips and the breathing sound effects at the beginning and ending are a perfect backdrop to this amazing song. Port Na Bpucai by Norin Ni Riain is a stunning Celtic New-Age pop song with stunning vocals and a wintery evening mood. Massai Rain by Miriam Stockley is the winner on this album. It's a techno dance song that contains African chants and some Jazz instruments. Usually I don't like world music mixing with techno but it worked here and this is my favorite song on this CD. Nomads by Govinda is a strongly Middle Eastern track with some acoustic guitars. I hate to say it but this song is a two and a half minute assault on my ears. Librarsi by Marcome is a beautiful song with vocals that easily resemble that of Enyas. Trail Of Tears by David Arkenstone is a somber track with a Native American feel and Native American flutes and a groovy drum loop. Forever by Nicholas Gunn is a breathtaking song that is like Mars Lasar but much slower, less jazzy and with a more Celtic feel and a stormy atmosphere. Circle Of Friendship by Joanne Shenandoa is a beautiful jaz-pop sounding track with some chanting vocals and beautiful piano playing towards the ending. To All My Relations by Stonecoat is a very new-age pop sounding groove with Native American chanting and flutes to create a stunning track. Prisme by Annbjorg Lien is a more Norwegian folk track with some Celtic feel to it. The flutes and the chanting towards the ending are breathtaking. Silence Of The Eclipse by Christopher Franke is a very haunting track with a very ambient sound. Definately a must hear. World Of Wonders by F.R.E.U.D. is a very romantic pop sounding with amazing vocals and an atmosphere that brings up images of two lovers running in the distance through large gardens in the hills. Nikki D by Harold Budd is a great closer to this CD. It's a jazzy ambient track with some bass playing and beauriful piano playing.\\nThis CD is wonderful and is a great first addition to this killer new age compilation series. Just this album alone has more power to grab your soul than all of the three Pure Moods CD put together. I strongly recommend getting this CD. It's worth buying just for Massai Rain. And get the the other Elevation CDs as well especially the fourth one. And get the Earthtone Collection CDs as well. They are absolutely brilliant.\",\n \"Product: Single CD\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: \\\"One More Chance\\\" is MARVELOUS!\\n\\nReview: The song \\\"If\\\" is a great classic with a great, creative, if somewhat scandalous video that is among my favorites by Janet. All of the remixes of this song are very good and distinct, almost to the point that they could've been separate songs altogether, the only thing in common is the vocal patterns of the original version on the \\\"Janet\\\" album. Besides the \\\"Extended\\\" and \\\"7-inch\\\" versions which are basically the album versions that are extended and shortened, my favorite versions are the D&D 12' House Mix which almost stands in contrast to the original album version. While the original is notorious (to some) for it's semi-raunchy theme, the D&D 12\\\" House Mix has a much mellower, much jazzier, and much cooler, even autumn-like quality that is very different from the original. Had it not been for being a remix, I would've mistaken it for a totally different song altogether.\\n\\n However, the primary reason I'm posting this review is on the rare B-Side called \\\"One More Chance\\\" which is a rare B-Side that did not make it on the \\\"Janet\\\" album. Please note that this is actually a cover version of her brothers group, The Jacksons, song of the same title that dates to 1984 that appears on their \\\"Victory\\\" album which is a classic in it's own right. This particular song I'm review is NOT the 1970 Jackson 5 song at all, the only thing in common is the song title. That's it. I won't go there with this review. Onto the song......\\n\\n \\\"One More Chance\\\" is a beautiful, soulful song with a lovely, sunny, warm, and very joyous feel-good atmosphere with marvelous keyboard production, a very light but textured rhythm, a very nice mix of happy and somber mixed together to produce a bittersweet classic whose quality ranks among Janet's greatest songs to date even occasionally rivaling 1989's \\\"Lonely\\\", and \\\"Come Back To Me\\\", even surpassing 1986's \\\"Let's Wait Awhile\\\" and \\\"Again\\\". As much as I enjoy the \\\"Janet\\\" album, \\\"One More Chance\\\" actually beats just about every song that made it onto that album in my book. This song just has a maturity, sophistication, and a really deep blend of joy, sorrow, and bittersweet beauty that became increasingly rare after this and the Velvet Rope eras.\\n\\n The remixes of \\\"If\\\" are really good in their own way but her cover version of 1984's \\\"One More Chance\\\", Janet hit a grand slam out of the ballpark in terms of balladry with this song. I'm not the biggest fan of CD-Singles primarily how widely they can cut both ways IMO but if you ever stumble upon the \\\"If\\\" CD-Single, I strongly recommend purchasing it, renting it, or borrowing it from someone just for \\\"One More Chance\\\" alone. It is that wonderful. I would in addition, buy \\\"Victory\\\" for the original version as well.\\n\\n Many music critics often have been critical of what they see and/or hear as Janet having a thin limited vocal ability. While it may apply in many places, on \\\"One More Chance\\\", she puts that limited vocal range to marvelous effect on it.\\n\\n Fabulous job here Janet! :D\",\n \"Product: This CD is an out of print collectible! It is the original Atlantic release. Catalog 81848. There is a drill hole on the spine of the case.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: The fox trots this album to classic status!\\n\\nReview: I'm mostly into the more pf the Phil Collins era works mainly because I've had little luck in getting the Peter Gabriel era LPs recently until recently when I got my hands on a copy of the album known as Foxtrot and I must say it is an amazing work of art. Unfortunately, Foxtrot is often overshadowed by it's two successors, Selling England By The Pound & The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. I haven't heard either one of them as when writing this review so I can't really comment on them at this time but as for Foxtrot I feel glad that I now got my hands on it. There is no radio-friendly material like there is on most of the 1975-1991 era albums. This music has very little polish and could be almost opposite to the squeaky clean polish of Invisible Touch which I must admit I love to pieces. The album cover art sets the general mood of the record.\\nPeter Gabriels lyrics have a lot of British humor in the songs and every song on here is absolutely creative and beautiful. This album was well ahead of it's time when it came out in 1972.\\nWatcher of The Skies is a bizarre 7 minute track with a very bizarre orchestra like intro before it morphs into a funky upbeat track with gorgeous organs, incredible guitar playing by Steve Hackett, and the storytelling lyrics of Peter Gabriels songwriting. Time Table is difficult to explain but it's a truly great song. Get 'Em Out By Friday is a great example of a prog rock track. It showcases a lot of a jazzier and extremely creative sound that the Phil Collin era works lacks. I love how the song quiets down around the 4 and a half minute mark and how it morphs into a quiet and lovely song with very quiet guitar bass and flutes coming in giving a feel of traveling through a town on a snowy afternoon. Can-Utility & The Coastliners is a more Trick Of A Tail-esque song that is somewhat similar to Squonk only not as polished and has less electric guitar and more of the 12 string guitars. Once again it's an amazing song that is one to listen to in order to know how it really is. Horizons is a gorgeous acoustic guitar instrumental that showcases Steve Hacketts guitar playing. It runs at only 1 minute & 41 seconds.\\nThe last track of Foxtrot is the 22 minute and 52 second epic piece Supper's Ready. This song is seven songs in one. I'm not going to bother to write this one in detail because it's truly a creative song that I refuse to give anything away about it. It's truly an amazing track though. This song needs a listen! Suppers Ready is a postively hilarious track at times.\\nPart I: Lovers Lane\\nPart II: The Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man\\nPart III: Ikhnaton and Itsacon and Their Band Of Merry Men\\nPart IV: How Dare I Be So Beautiful\\nPart V: Willow Farm\\nPart VI: Apocolypse in 9/8\\nPart VII: As Sure as Eggs Is Eggs\\nFoxtrot is truly one masterpiece and is one of the most creative albums that Genesis have ever made. Fans of Invisible Touch might not easily get into Foxtrot too much because where as Invisible Touch is very polished, Foxtrot is much more raw and less polished than the Phil Collins works.\\nPeter Gabriel truly was a genius when he was with the group. He still is now as a solo artist but he threw alot of creativity into Genesis with his witty songwriting and British Humor.\\nAs I'd say sometimes \\\"Invisible Touch, We Can't Dance, 1983 self-titled album, and Calling All Stations, take a back seat for now!\\\" he! he!\\nFoxtrot is a must own! Go and buy it NOW!\",\n \"Product: Digitally Remastered. Contains the Pre Concert Music Atmosphere from the 1997 European Tour. Studio Tracks.\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: Just what on earth is this supposed to be about?\\n\\nReview: I'm not in the arena where the detractors of TD's more recent works reside in because I really love this group but this is the most bizarre releases I've ever purchased. That said, \\\"Ambient Monkeys\\\" on it's own is not a terrible release, I've heard worse but the circumstances behind it's making are perhaps one of the most clumsy I've ever heard.\\n\\n Spread out over just 45 and a half minutes, this CD contains 12 noodlings where ambient jungle sounds of the Amazon or some other rainforest sound are recorded as a backdrop with previous recordings laced into the background. But while I enjoy such natural sounding music with the sounds of Mother Nature, but among the seven TD CD's I own as of writing this review, this album is the most poorly produced work TD have ever done. The music is barely audible against the natural jungle sounds that it's nearly impossible to enjoy. I've heard so much better material from others who did similar things. Look at Ah-Kin's sadly out-of-print \\\"Ring of Gold\\\" CD or the Earthtone Collections one, two and three where they brilliantly incorporated the sounds of waterfalls, monkeys, and other sounds of animals and weather and incorporate the music brilliantly into them.\\n\\n None of that happens on \\\"Ambient Monkeys\\\". This is just a shoddy excuse for someone trying to slim down his/her wallet when it's too big to fit in one's pocket. I really don't like to write an unfavorable review on Tangerine Dream because they are an incredible band but \\\"Ambient Monkeys\\\" is an album that would not cause grief should it be taken out of print.\\n\\n If you want something from TD, I would strongly suggest \\\"Optical Race\\\" (Wonderful classic), \\\"Quinoa\\\", \\\"Rockoon\\\" (Criminally underrated), \\\"Tyranny of Beauty\\\", and their early recordings. \\\"Ambient Monkeys\\\" is the most tedious and dissapointing purchase I've made in years. End of review.\",\n \"Product: Janet Jackson ~ Doesn's Really Matter\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: This is where I started tuning out.\\n\\nReview: After the amazing Velvet Rope record a few years before Janet returns with what I thought was her weakest song to date at the time of it's release. It's mundane, boring, commercial and uninventive. Is this the talented Janet that I once admired. To me Janet started going downhill after the Velvet Rope with the god-awful known as Girlfriend/Boyfriend and she lost it for good with the bowl of commercial vomit known as All For You. This single I find to be quite annoying and gets on my nerves. It showed the hip-hop direction that plagues Janet to this day. Why Janet? ...\\nI did not necessarily expect another Velvet Rope-esque song from Janet shortly before this single but what a dissapointment! And Janet would get worse with the terrible All For You album the following year. Until janet can break the bondage of commercial hip-hop that has had her in shackles this is a fan either on hold or is jumping ship.\\nSo on she goes selling by the truckload year after year but Janets music no longer means much to me anymore.\",\n \"Product: Mtv Collections ~ Mtv: The Best Of Trl Pop\\n\\nRating: 1.0\\n\\nSummary: Is this supposed to be some kind of joke!\\n\\nReview: Could somebody tell me whose idea it was to put this useless collection together. This CD is nothing but disposable teenybopper pop-fluff that most of us have now grown out of long ago. The track selection is just laughable especially with insultingly immature krap like \\\"I Wanna Be Bad\\\" or \\\"Thong Song\\\", both of which are absolutely awful and completely faceless with as much emotion as an empty bowl. It's no wonder noone ever bought this useless CD when it came out as almost every song on here is on other compilations. This CD almost doesn't even deserve to exist. The most laughable cash-in joke I've ever heard of. >:(\\nBuy some Fourplay, Peter Gabriel, Genesis, U2, or Underworld instead.\",\n \"Product: Different artwork\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Craig Chaquico's best CD since \\\"Acoustic Highway\\\"!\\n\\nReview: Craig Chaquico is the former member of the 1980s supergroup Jefferson Starship. His 1993 solo debut album \\\"Acoustic Highway\\\" was and remains the best solo album of his career to date and blended the best of New Age, with rock and a stunningly beautiful 12 string guitar played in many different ways. The album was a powerhouse that has lost none of it's enjoyability in the years since it's release. However, following releases, while still enjoyable, saw his music drifting more and more towards predictable smooth jazz and less of the spark of AH even though \\\"Four Corners\\\" was his best in the Smooth Jazz era.\\n\\n However, his 2004 comeback album entitled \\\"Midnight Noon\\\" comes as his strongest set of songs since his debut and after waiting so long, brings back the incredible sound that made his early solo music so amazing to listen to. Listen to the incredible pop/jazz anthem \\\"Always With You\\\" with it's beautiful vocals as well as it's great sunny melody! Another incredible song is the opening track \\\"Her Boyfriends Wedding\\\" with it's fast high-speed drum rhythm as well as it's incredible keyboards and great guitar sounds. Even if you despised his 'smooth jazz' works from immediately before this, \\\"Midnight Noon\\\" is a must-have. I haven't heard Chaquico sound this great and energetic in so long. Welcome back Craig!\",\n \"Product: Desert Ocean is Lanterna's 5th album and the first release on Badman's new instrumental label Jemez Mountain. Lanterna's previous releases were passionately supported by NPR, nationally syndicated radio program Echoes (rising to Artist of the Month and a slot on their compilation CD) and have received 4 star reviews worldwide. Badman. 2006.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Absolutely stunning and original!\\n\\nReview: I was recommended this CD by a previously unknown band called Lanterna. After giving it a good listen, I was absolutely floored at the beauty that came out of the headphone speakers. Lanterna's \\\"Desert Ocean\\\" gets my nomination as one of the best CDs of 2006 and perhaps one of the best and most original CDs that I've heard in years! A great thing that boosts it is that fact that it emphasizes on much more acoustic instruments and actually uses real drums and even brush snares as opposed to drum machines. The entire album has a very natural and organic quality throughout. I could describe this as being a combination of U2 at it's most atmospheric and romantic circa \\\"The Unforgettable Fire\\\" with the strange atmospheres of post-OK Computer Radiohead.\\n\\n The entire CD is among the most consistent post-rock albums that I've heard in this entire decade as of writing this review. The beauty about it is that it has almost no electronic sound effects and instead just beautiful guitar licks and acoustic drums. \\\"Desert Ocean\\\" is almost like a walk down a foggy neighborhood on an overcast evening. \\\"Fog\\\" has among the strangest electric guitar arrangements that I've heard in years with different styles actually being heard in a multilayered fasion.\",\n \"Product: Remembering is about allowing our experiences to emerge into present awareness and it's about remembering the joyous and totally loved beings we truly are. Thirteen signature Koch compositions featuring piano, keyboards, flute and light percussion -- some reflective, most light and uplifting -- create a nurturing sanctuary in which the sometimes forgotten magic of Remembering can reappear.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Remembering the joy, and lament, of the past and future!\\n\\nReview: I first heard Bernward Koch's music when I won a free copy of \\\"Silent Star\\\" and was mesmerized at the nighttime mystery feel of that album and have especially loved it especially during the spring, summer, and autumn nights. The follow-up \\\"Day of Life\\\" continued the feel of \\\"Silent Star\\\" and felt like a near-twin album. 2015's \\\"Remembering\\\" though takes what was great about those and builds up them and adding a magical feeling of lament and surrealism, results in a truly awe-inspiring album. The opening title track at first seems like a rehash of the previous albums but in actuality is a preview of the leap forward in Koch's music as it goes from just pleasant to absolutely moving. There is an overall unusual mix of warmth, joy, nostalgia, ennui, and lament all wrapped up throughout the entire album. Just the gorgeous album cover along proves that Remembering is a step forward from his previous outings. The closing track \\\"Through The Universe\\\" is absolutely surreal and sublime. Fabulous album!\",\n \"Product: CD\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Back Home at last!\\n\\nReview: It's been seamingly an eternity since Dancing Fantasy last released in album, that is \\\"Soundscapes\\\" WAY back in 2001. I've been a huge fan of them for as long as I remember hearing \\\"Midnight Blvd.\\\" back as a young child and eventually have gone on to buy all of their albums all the way up to Soundscapes.\\n\\n Years would go on and all of a sudden, DF stopped releasing albums. I wondered if they had broken up but eventually learned of the release of their newest album \\\"Back Home\\\" 14 years since \\\"Soundscapes\\\" and I tell you, it is a huge delight to see Dancing Fantasy back on the music scene again after so long. This album continues everything that made DF such a delight on the radio for so many years but also there are some experimental tracks such as the intense and heavy textured \\\"Deep Sea Diver\\\" which has a very suspensful and unusual sound that is probably among the most un-DF sounding songs they've ever made and yet it is among my favorite songs on this album. \\\"Take The Night Train\\\" may be the closest to sounding like the classic pre-1999 era artist we've known but otherwise \\\"Back Home\\\" is an entirely new chapter altogether.\\n\\n If you're looking for another \\\"Midnight Blvd.\\\", \\\"Moonlight Reflections\\\" or even a \\\"Love Letters II\\\", you'll want to readjust your expections as \\\"Back Home\\\" is nothing like those but an entirely distinct album of it's own. For the rest of us who are very open to totally different sounds from their earlier works, \\\"Back Home\\\" is absolutely worth purchasing.\\n\\n As a long time fan, I have to say it: It is so wonderful to have Dancing Fantasy BACK HOME on the music scene again!\\n\\n Highly recommended!\"\n]","isConversational":false},"profile_size":{"kind":"number","value":141,"string":"141"},"task":{"kind":"string","value":"longlamp_3"},"split_kind":{"kind":"string","value":"user_based"},"id":{"kind":"number","value":1697,"string":"1,697"}}},{"rowIdx":1698,"cells":{"question_id":{"kind":"string","value":"A1P44NVM4FOSMC"},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of \"4.0\" for a product with description \"Ann Simas lives in Oregon, but she is a Colorado girl at heart, having grown up in the Rocky Mountains. She is the author of The Sugar Cup (Harlequin Worldwide) written under the pseudonym Annie Sims. In addition to Chloes Spirit, she has written two other novels that were Romance Writers of America Golden Heart Finalists: First Star and An Eagle Toward Heaven (formerly titled Blessed are the Eagles); both will be available in 2013. An award-winning watercolorist and a budding photographer, Ann enjoys reading, needlework, and gardening in her spare time. She is her familys genealogist and has enjoyed the opportunity to do first-hand research in Italy for both her writing and her family tree.\". The summary of the review text is \"I would like to thank Ann Simas for providing me with this ...\"."},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"First, I would like to thank Ann Simas for providing me with this book so I may bring you this review.\n\nI really enjoyed reading Chloes Spirit by Ann Simas. It was a little bit of Mystery, Romance and a little Paranormal thrown into the mix. I am a big fan of mysteries so this definitely captured my attention and held it throughout the book. Plus, Ann Simas is a great author.\n\nI was hooked at the first paragraph in the prologue of the book. The description of the crime that was being committed sucked me into the book. Ann had amazing details as well in the scene. I felt as if I was in the room watching it all unfold.\n\nI totally loved all the characters in the book and how they were all relatable. Chloe and Marsh Fielding were my ultimate two fave characters in the whole book. Their chemistry was amazing and out of this world."},"correct_answer":{"kind":"string","value":"First, I would like to thank Ann Simas for providing me with this book so I may bring you this review.\n\nI really enjoyed reading Chloes Spirit by Ann Simas. It was a little bit of Mystery, Romance and a little Paranormal thrown into the mix. I am a big fan of mysteries so this definitely captured my attention and held it throughout the book. Plus, Ann Simas is a great author.\n\nI was hooked at the first paragraph in the prologue of the book. The description of the crime that was being committed sucked me into the book. Ann had amazing details as well in the scene. I felt as if I was in the room watching it all unfold.\n\nI totally loved all the characters in the book and how they were all relatable. Chloe and Marsh Fielding were my ultimate two fave characters in the whole book. Their chemistry was amazing and out of this world."},"documents":{"kind":"list like","value":["Product: Kelly Elliott is a contemporary romance writer and the author of the Wanted series. She lives in Texas with her husband and daughter. Visit Kelly at authorkellyelliott.blogspot.com.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: I Wanted to Smack Ellie's Mom!!!\n\nReview: I was pleasantly surprised to see Kelly Elliotts book Wanted in my local library. I am a follower of hers and many authors on Facebook. I was surprised because most Indie authors are not carried by public libraries.\n\nKelly Elliotts book Wanted is the first book in the Wanted series. Saved, Faithful, Believe, and Cherished finish out the series. I was lucky to find Wanted, Saved, and Faithful in my library. They should be read in order and not as stand alones.\n\nHow dare Ellies Mom tell her daughter she won't be wanted by anyone!! No Mother should EVER call her daughter a whore!! What kind of mother puts those words into a childs head?! Being a drunken mother is no excuse. Those words echoed throughout her head throughout her life. Everytime something went wrong with a guy she remembered what her Mom said. Ellies Mom totally pissed me off so much so that I wanted to smack her upside the head. No child should ever be verbally abusive to their child!!\n\nKelly Elliott wrote a love story unlike I have every read before. This was Ellies and Gunners love story and how they became to be. Jefferson (Ellies over protective brother) introduced Gunner (Jeffersons best friend) to Ellie. They both felt an instant connection. However, Ellie still had that wall built up from the verbal abusiveness of her mother and how her ex boyfriends betrayed her.\n\nI loved the bond that Ellie and her brother Jefferson had. Jefferson knew about her horrid childhood growing up with their alcoholic mother. He hated what she did to Ellie with a passion. He never wanted to see Ellie hurt again by anyone. He would do anything he could for his sister. Jefferson never introduced his friends to her because he didn't want anyone to hurt her. However, Gunner was different. He trusted his best friend around his sister. Gunner was a good match for Ellie too. Makes me wish I had an older brother looking out for me like that.\n\nEllies BFF Ari was a trip. She was always there for Ari too no matter what. She predicted that Gunner was into Ellie as she was into him. Gunner was the only man to make Ellie go week in the knees. Ari was always fighting with Jefferson about everything. The more they fought the more that Gunner and Ellie thought Jefferson may like Ari. Ari was like the forbidden fruit that Jefferson could not eat because she was his sisters BFF.\n\nI enjoyed how Kelly Elliott writing style including multiple views from the characters. This way you got a sense how each character was feeling or thinking throughout the story.\n\nI will definitely be reading Saved next!","Product: Tawdra Kandle writes romance, in just about all its forms. She loves unlikely pairings, strong women, sexy guys, hot love scenes and just enough conflict to make it interesting. Her books run from YA paranormal romance (THE KING SERIES), through NA paranormal and contemporary romance (THE SERENDIPITY DUET, PERFECT DISH DUO, THE ONE TRILOGY) to adult contemporary and paramystery romance (CRYSTAL COVE BOOKS and RECIPE FOR DEATH SERIES). She lives in central Florida with a husband, kids, sweet pup and too many cats. And yeah, she rocks purple hair.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Pulled on my Heart Strings!!\n\nReview: First, I would like to thank Ari Stone and Tawndra Kandle for providing me with this book so I may bring you this review.\n\nTawdra immediately started to pull on my heart strings in the prologue and didn't let go until the beautiful ending when tears were shed. The Posse was full of life long friends, love, loss, mistakes, learning to love again, marriages, pregnancies, and passion.\n\nI loved how all of Daniels best friends stuck by Jude and her kids to make sure she was always taken care of no matter what. That is what he would have wanted.\n\nThe dynamic between Jeremy just loosing his father and becoming one himself was well played. I liked how Tawndra worked that into the story.\n\nLogans romantic dinner date with Jude on the beach was breathtakingly beautiful! Not only that but the food that was prepared sounded delicious.\n\nI really enjoyed this book and would read more from this author.\n\n.","Product: Ines Vieira was born in Lisbon, Portugal, but has grown up all over. Having spent her childhood on the island of Bermuda, her first go to language is English, rather than her mother tongue. She then lived again abroad in the UK in her twenties, where she taught English as a second language. She is an avid reader and needs either a book or her beloved Kindle to travel with her everywhere at all times. She currently lives in sunny Portugal, with her husband and son and her one-click addiction.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: characters were interesting and never a dull moment with them\n\nReview: First, I want to thank Ines Vieira for providing me with this book so I may bring you this review.\nWhen Life Gets in the Way was the first book I read by Ines Vieira. Her storyline was fresh, characters were interesting and never a dull moment with them, many different topics and issues addressed. Definitely, something for everyone in this book.\nI loved her sweet dedication to her mother in the beginning of this book. Thank you for showing me what a womans true strength looks like, how a loving mother acts like, and how to be a decent human being. I am who I am because of you.\nFor the reader I loved the dedication as it held a special place in my heart. For what its worth: Its never too late to be whoever you want to be I hope you live a life you're proud of and if you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength to start over.\nMy heart went out to Cassandra, Nicky but most of all for their Mom who had not seen their Dad who was stationed in Alaska for being a Mud Man. He was working all the time and never came home to be with his family. That caused pain for his kids but especially for his wife whom suffered from what looked like depression over this.\nAt first I didn't like Issac. However, he grew on me after a while. He too pulled on my heart strings when I found out he was being abused. Nobody should be hurt like that.\nI loved the bond that was forming between Cassandra and Issac.","Product: Tanya Vought is a hopeless romantic. She loves reading, writing, singing and doing crafts with her children. What started as a lifelong dream became reality. Shes overjoyed that readers will get to read her debut, Granted Wishes. She loves her characters sexy and sassy. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and two amazing and imaginative children.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: A Very Refreshing Read!!!\n\nReview: Thank you to Tanya Vought for gifting me this book so I may bring you this review.\n\nGracelyn and Giovanni story was so beautifully written that it captured my heart. This story has everything fate, faith, love, loss, grief, letting go, finding yourself, second chances, miracles, and soul mates. Get your Kleenex box handy as there are some tear jerking moments.\n\nEach character touched a place in my heart. However, Gracelyn, Giovanni, and Angelo were my favorites. Gracelyn and Giovanni both broken souls that both suffered love and loss. Fate brought them both together in more ways than one. The letters Giovanni wrote, the gifts he gave to Gracelyn, the places he took her, how supportive he was, all made me fall in love with Giovanni's character.\n\nThe scenic backdrop to the story sounded so picturesque. A small town where everyone was so warm and friendly. You could really visualize the characters spending time there. Even I would love to visit.\n\nSome of my favorite passages were:\n\n1) She shows him a tattoo of angel wings on her shoulder, similar to the ones he has on his own chest. \"This angel represents everyone we've lost. It also represents the peace and love I've experienced here and when I leave...I want a part of me to have each of you with me.\"\n\n2) \"Oh my god, I'm just teasing.\" Kat says. \"I like my men tall, dark, and handsome, maybe with a tattoo and a bit of bad boy dominance, but hiding a teddy bear heart. I don't have a boyfriend yet though, but I can always home and dream about them in the wonderful fabulous books I read.\" \"Oh not you too! I love my sexy book boyfriends. I can't wait until we can chat over them. What about Gabriel, Christian or....\" Gracelyn starts rambling off names of characters from the books she's read.","Product: Robyn Roze lives among the cornfields of the Midwest and telecommutes as an accountant. Writing was a childhood dream of Robyn's. She won creative writing awards as a girl and teachers encouraged her to pursue it as a career. But pragmatism won out, and she boxed the dream away on the maybe-someday shelf. Maybe-someday came for Robyn in 2013 when she published the Keeper Series, a new adult romantic suspense story. Then she shifted gears and decided to pen a novel with a much more mature cast--Chain of Title was born, her bestselling title. Readers have been loud in their demand for a sequel, and Robyn is currently working on the next chapter of Shayna and Sean's love story. Her latest bestseller, HellKat, released in June 2015, with another older, feisty female lead--Kat James. HellKat has ranked in the top 20 on Amazon in the Romance/Mystery category and in the top 100 in the Romance/Suspense category. With the success of Chain of Title and HellKat, Robyn plans to continue writing stories with mature casts led by strong-willed, independent heroines. When she's not spending time with her fictional families, she loves to spend time with her real one: her high school sweetheart, their two moody teenagers, and a pampered rescue mutt. Receive excerpts, release news, freebies, and more by signing up for my mailing list: eepurl.com/bbaeEn Visit my website at: www.robynroze.com\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: I always enjoy reading the acknowledgments in the book when the authors ...\n\nReview: First, I want to thank Robyn Roze for providing me with this book so I may bring you this review.\nHellKat is the first book I have read by Robyn Roze and boy it blew me away!! I instantly became a fan of her writing style! I would gladly read from her again.\nI always enjoy reading the acknowledgments in the book when the authors are appreciative of whom have helped them along the way. It is nice that she gave a shout out to her beta readers and her CHAIN GANG Street Team.\nKat was my ultimate favorite character!! She was strong woman, knew what she wanted, and went after it and didn't back down for anything or anyone! She reminded me of me at many times in the book.\nThe dynamic between Tucker and Kat was amazing that had its ups and downs. But you couldn't deny the spark between them."],"string":"[\n \"Product: Kelly Elliott is a contemporary romance writer and the author of the Wanted series. She lives in Texas with her husband and daughter. Visit Kelly at authorkellyelliott.blogspot.com.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: I Wanted to Smack Ellie's Mom!!!\\n\\nReview: I was pleasantly surprised to see Kelly Elliotts book Wanted in my local library. I am a follower of hers and many authors on Facebook. I was surprised because most Indie authors are not carried by public libraries.\\n\\nKelly Elliotts book Wanted is the first book in the Wanted series. Saved, Faithful, Believe, and Cherished finish out the series. I was lucky to find Wanted, Saved, and Faithful in my library. They should be read in order and not as stand alones.\\n\\nHow dare Ellies Mom tell her daughter she won't be wanted by anyone!! No Mother should EVER call her daughter a whore!! What kind of mother puts those words into a childs head?! Being a drunken mother is no excuse. Those words echoed throughout her head throughout her life. Everytime something went wrong with a guy she remembered what her Mom said. Ellies Mom totally pissed me off so much so that I wanted to smack her upside the head. No child should ever be verbally abusive to their child!!\\n\\nKelly Elliott wrote a love story unlike I have every read before. This was Ellies and Gunners love story and how they became to be. Jefferson (Ellies over protective brother) introduced Gunner (Jeffersons best friend) to Ellie. They both felt an instant connection. However, Ellie still had that wall built up from the verbal abusiveness of her mother and how her ex boyfriends betrayed her.\\n\\nI loved the bond that Ellie and her brother Jefferson had. Jefferson knew about her horrid childhood growing up with their alcoholic mother. He hated what she did to Ellie with a passion. He never wanted to see Ellie hurt again by anyone. He would do anything he could for his sister. Jefferson never introduced his friends to her because he didn't want anyone to hurt her. However, Gunner was different. He trusted his best friend around his sister. Gunner was a good match for Ellie too. Makes me wish I had an older brother looking out for me like that.\\n\\nEllies BFF Ari was a trip. She was always there for Ari too no matter what. She predicted that Gunner was into Ellie as she was into him. Gunner was the only man to make Ellie go week in the knees. Ari was always fighting with Jefferson about everything. The more they fought the more that Gunner and Ellie thought Jefferson may like Ari. Ari was like the forbidden fruit that Jefferson could not eat because she was his sisters BFF.\\n\\nI enjoyed how Kelly Elliott writing style including multiple views from the characters. This way you got a sense how each character was feeling or thinking throughout the story.\\n\\nI will definitely be reading Saved next!\",\n \"Product: Tawdra Kandle writes romance, in just about all its forms. She loves unlikely pairings, strong women, sexy guys, hot love scenes and just enough conflict to make it interesting. Her books run from YA paranormal romance (THE KING SERIES), through NA paranormal and contemporary romance (THE SERENDIPITY DUET, PERFECT DISH DUO, THE ONE TRILOGY) to adult contemporary and paramystery romance (CRYSTAL COVE BOOKS and RECIPE FOR DEATH SERIES). She lives in central Florida with a husband, kids, sweet pup and too many cats. And yeah, she rocks purple hair.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: Pulled on my Heart Strings!!\\n\\nReview: First, I would like to thank Ari Stone and Tawndra Kandle for providing me with this book so I may bring you this review.\\n\\nTawdra immediately started to pull on my heart strings in the prologue and didn't let go until the beautiful ending when tears were shed. The Posse was full of life long friends, love, loss, mistakes, learning to love again, marriages, pregnancies, and passion.\\n\\nI loved how all of Daniels best friends stuck by Jude and her kids to make sure she was always taken care of no matter what. That is what he would have wanted.\\n\\nThe dynamic between Jeremy just loosing his father and becoming one himself was well played. I liked how Tawndra worked that into the story.\\n\\nLogans romantic dinner date with Jude on the beach was breathtakingly beautiful! Not only that but the food that was prepared sounded delicious.\\n\\nI really enjoyed this book and would read more from this author.\\n\\n.\",\n \"Product: Ines Vieira was born in Lisbon, Portugal, but has grown up all over. Having spent her childhood on the island of Bermuda, her first go to language is English, rather than her mother tongue. She then lived again abroad in the UK in her twenties, where she taught English as a second language. She is an avid reader and needs either a book or her beloved Kindle to travel with her everywhere at all times. She currently lives in sunny Portugal, with her husband and son and her one-click addiction.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: characters were interesting and never a dull moment with them\\n\\nReview: First, I want to thank Ines Vieira for providing me with this book so I may bring you this review.\\nWhen Life Gets in the Way was the first book I read by Ines Vieira. Her storyline was fresh, characters were interesting and never a dull moment with them, many different topics and issues addressed. Definitely, something for everyone in this book.\\nI loved her sweet dedication to her mother in the beginning of this book. Thank you for showing me what a womans true strength looks like, how a loving mother acts like, and how to be a decent human being. I am who I am because of you.\\nFor the reader I loved the dedication as it held a special place in my heart. For what its worth: Its never too late to be whoever you want to be I hope you live a life you're proud of and if you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength to start over.\\nMy heart went out to Cassandra, Nicky but most of all for their Mom who had not seen their Dad who was stationed in Alaska for being a Mud Man. He was working all the time and never came home to be with his family. That caused pain for his kids but especially for his wife whom suffered from what looked like depression over this.\\nAt first I didn't like Issac. However, he grew on me after a while. He too pulled on my heart strings when I found out he was being abused. Nobody should be hurt like that.\\nI loved the bond that was forming between Cassandra and Issac.\",\n \"Product: Tanya Vought is a hopeless romantic. She loves reading, writing, singing and doing crafts with her children. What started as a lifelong dream became reality. Shes overjoyed that readers will get to read her debut, Granted Wishes. She loves her characters sexy and sassy. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and two amazing and imaginative children.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: A Very Refreshing Read!!!\\n\\nReview: Thank you to Tanya Vought for gifting me this book so I may bring you this review.\\n\\nGracelyn and Giovanni story was so beautifully written that it captured my heart. This story has everything fate, faith, love, loss, grief, letting go, finding yourself, second chances, miracles, and soul mates. Get your Kleenex box handy as there are some tear jerking moments.\\n\\nEach character touched a place in my heart. However, Gracelyn, Giovanni, and Angelo were my favorites. Gracelyn and Giovanni both broken souls that both suffered love and loss. Fate brought them both together in more ways than one. The letters Giovanni wrote, the gifts he gave to Gracelyn, the places he took her, how supportive he was, all made me fall in love with Giovanni's character.\\n\\nThe scenic backdrop to the story sounded so picturesque. A small town where everyone was so warm and friendly. You could really visualize the characters spending time there. Even I would love to visit.\\n\\nSome of my favorite passages were:\\n\\n1) She shows him a tattoo of angel wings on her shoulder, similar to the ones he has on his own chest. \\\"This angel represents everyone we've lost. It also represents the peace and love I've experienced here and when I leave...I want a part of me to have each of you with me.\\\"\\n\\n2) \\\"Oh my god, I'm just teasing.\\\" Kat says. \\\"I like my men tall, dark, and handsome, maybe with a tattoo and a bit of bad boy dominance, but hiding a teddy bear heart. I don't have a boyfriend yet though, but I can always home and dream about them in the wonderful fabulous books I read.\\\" \\\"Oh not you too! I love my sexy book boyfriends. I can't wait until we can chat over them. What about Gabriel, Christian or....\\\" Gracelyn starts rambling off names of characters from the books she's read.\",\n \"Product: Robyn Roze lives among the cornfields of the Midwest and telecommutes as an accountant. Writing was a childhood dream of Robyn's. She won creative writing awards as a girl and teachers encouraged her to pursue it as a career. But pragmatism won out, and she boxed the dream away on the maybe-someday shelf. Maybe-someday came for Robyn in 2013 when she published the Keeper Series, a new adult romantic suspense story. Then she shifted gears and decided to pen a novel with a much more mature cast--Chain of Title was born, her bestselling title. Readers have been loud in their demand for a sequel, and Robyn is currently working on the next chapter of Shayna and Sean's love story. Her latest bestseller, HellKat, released in June 2015, with another older, feisty female lead--Kat James. HellKat has ranked in the top 20 on Amazon in the Romance/Mystery category and in the top 100 in the Romance/Suspense category. With the success of Chain of Title and HellKat, Robyn plans to continue writing stories with mature casts led by strong-willed, independent heroines. When she's not spending time with her fictional families, she loves to spend time with her real one: her high school sweetheart, their two moody teenagers, and a pampered rescue mutt. Receive excerpts, release news, freebies, and more by signing up for my mailing list: eepurl.com/bbaeEn Visit my website at: www.robynroze.com\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: I always enjoy reading the acknowledgments in the book when the authors ...\\n\\nReview: First, I want to thank Robyn Roze for providing me with this book so I may bring you this review.\\nHellKat is the first book I have read by Robyn Roze and boy it blew me away!! I instantly became a fan of her writing style! I would gladly read from her again.\\nI always enjoy reading the acknowledgments in the book when the authors are appreciative of whom have helped them along the way. It is nice that she gave a shout out to her beta readers and her CHAIN GANG Street Team.\\nKat was my ultimate favorite character!! She was strong woman, knew what she wanted, and went after it and didn't back down for anything or anyone! She reminded me of me at many times in the book.\\nThe dynamic between Tucker and Kat was amazing that had its ups and downs. But you couldn't deny the spark between them.\"\n]","isConversational":false},"profile_size":{"kind":"number","value":5,"string":"5"},"task":{"kind":"string","value":"longlamp_3"},"split_kind":{"kind":"string","value":"user_based"},"id":{"kind":"number","value":1698,"string":"1,698"}}},{"rowIdx":1699,"cells":{"question_id":{"kind":"string","value":"A17OE0VPF9FO97"},"question":{"kind":"string","value":"Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of \"4.0\" for a product with description \"Sophistication for both men and women : A stylish, well-designed headset is more than a tool that helps you handle your busy life. It is part of your outfit. Servicing as a necklace when not in use, the HBH-PV720 rests elegantly around your neck in a discreet yet stylish black chain. When the phone rings you simply unclip the headset and answer the call. The discreet yet poignant design of the HBH-PV720 will match your outfit perfectly, offering a sophisticated way of handling phone calls.\". The summary of the review text is \"A great bluetooth earpiece!\"."},"answer":{"kind":"string","value":"I have used this device for about 2 days so far, as an all-day wearer. I'm using it with my iPhone 3GS, and it works wonderfully. I keep my phone in my front pant pocket, and with a couple of other bluetooth headsets I've had lots of drops. With this device, it's not a problem at all.\nIt sets in my ear nicely since it doesn't intrude on the inner ear. It has a flat aluminum surface with slits that lays right on your ear opening. For myself, it only takes 2-3 minutes before it virtually becomes \"invisible\" to me.\nThe battery charge takes about 1 1/2-2 hours, but that's not bad for the amount of time it takes to wear out. I have yet to wear it out, as I take it home and plug it in at the end of the day. My day consists of maybe 1 hour maximum talk time. (if even that)\n\nThe ONLY downside I've had is that it goes into standby mode and \"disconnects\" from the phone. When I answer a call, I tap the earpiece button and it re-activates and answers. If I'm making a call, I have to tap the button then cancel the voice control that pops up, then it's awake to do the call. Maybe I can turn off voice control since I've never cared to use it.\nIt also has no outwardly visible lights! yay! The only light it has is on the face-side and does not stay on constantly. It's like an adult bluetooth hah\n\nIt's not for music through the ipod app, or anything other than phone. That requires A2DP functionality on the bluetooth headset, and this does not have it.\n\nThe reason for the 4 stars is because of the last two paragraphs. I would have given it three if it was cleaner in it's sleeping/reawaking, along with it not having A2DP. I don't listen to music through my bluetooth, but it does mean I can't hear alert sounds from my phone through the earpiece. My older Samsung was able to, but the battery died much quicker and it lasted only 6 months before not keeping a charge very long."},"correct_answer":{"kind":"string","value":"I have used this device for about 2 days so far, as an all-day wearer. I'm using it with my iPhone 3GS, and it works wonderfully. I keep my phone in my front pant pocket, and with a couple of other bluetooth headsets I've had lots of drops. With this device, it's not a problem at all.\nIt sets in my ear nicely since it doesn't intrude on the inner ear. It has a flat aluminum surface with slits that lays right on your ear opening. For myself, it only takes 2-3 minutes before it virtually becomes \"invisible\" to me.\nThe battery charge takes about 1 1/2-2 hours, but that's not bad for the amount of time it takes to wear out. I have yet to wear it out, as I take it home and plug it in at the end of the day. My day consists of maybe 1 hour maximum talk time. (if even that)\n\nThe ONLY downside I've had is that it goes into standby mode and \"disconnects\" from the phone. When I answer a call, I tap the earpiece button and it re-activates and answers. If I'm making a call, I have to tap the button then cancel the voice control that pops up, then it's awake to do the call. Maybe I can turn off voice control since I've never cared to use it.\nIt also has no outwardly visible lights! yay! The only light it has is on the face-side and does not stay on constantly. It's like an adult bluetooth hah\n\nIt's not for music through the ipod app, or anything other than phone. That requires A2DP functionality on the bluetooth headset, and this does not have it.\n\nThe reason for the 4 stars is because of the last two paragraphs. I would have given it three if it was cleaner in it's sleeping/reawaking, along with it not having A2DP. I don't listen to music through my bluetooth, but it does mean I can't hear alert sounds from my phone through the earpiece. My older Samsung was able to, but the battery died much quicker and it lasted only 6 months before not keeping a charge very long."},"documents":{"kind":"list like","value":["Product: Crumbs fall neatly into removable catcher so no messy bread crumbs all over the table or counter.  The bread slicer is approximately 6.25" wide and large enough to handle all sorts of loaf sizes.  Each slice will be uniform .5" wide.  The non adjustable slots ensure that all the bread slices are perfect.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Is an inexpensive knife guide... there ya go.\n\nReview: I got this for the same reason most here got it - To put an uncut loaf of bread onto it (be it homemade, or store bought) and cut it into evenly spaced slices.\nIt's no-frills, nothing fancy. In fact, for anything longer than a 1.5 lb homemade loaf, you'd need to take the cut slices out of the way to finish the rest of the loaf... on my 1.5 lb homemade loaf I was able to cut the entire loaf without moving any of them.\nI read a few people.. well, more than a few, stating that the guides are too far away for the knife to go between each side. I bought a 10 inch bread knife from Amazon at the same time as buying this, and it worked without a problem at all. The only thing I did notice was I had to angle the blade to start the cut, then as the cut started I'd drop the blade down to reach the guide on the opposite side to make sure the alignment was fine. Took me all of 1-2 seconds per slice to do that.\n\nIs it good quality? Not really, the plastic sides are flimsy since it's plastic. Other than that, what more can you really ask for at this price? Honestly, the light colored wood looks pretty decent sitting on my counter. Would I buy it again? sure... I'm only using it to quickly slice a loaf then go my merry way. It's a minor fraction of my life.","Product: The Platinum Brewing System is Keurig's best single-cup brewing system for your home. This premium model offers discerning coffee drinkers the widest range of five cup size options for brewing. The Platinum offers the full spectrum of features including Auto On/Off, Digital Clock, Adjustable Temperature Control and the \"Set Your Favorite Cup Size\" option. The largest available 60 oz. removable water reservoir holds up to ten cups before refilling and the removable drip tray allows for easy cleaning and the use of travel mugs. The sleek, award-winning design is a unique footprint among Keurig's line of home brewing systems and includes both a blue lit water reservoir and blue lit LCD display. At initial set up, once the machine is filled with water, it will take approximately 4-minutes for the water will be heated. During the heating period the red light next to ‘HEATING’ on the LED Control Center will become illuminated. Once the water is heated, the red light will turn off and the Small Mug Button will flash. Press the Small Mug Button to start a cleansing brew. Pour the hot water into the sink. The Brewer may take 15 seconds to reheat water between brews during which time the red light next to ‘HEATING’ on the LED Control Center may be illuminated. When the water has heated, the red light will turn off. The one-time set-up process is now complete and you are ready to brew!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Easy to use, clean, and gives you lots of options\n\nReview: I've had lots of coffee makers in my time, but never had one that could make a cup of coffee in less than a minute, with every cup being the same quality.\nIt looks great on my counter (with the chrome body), and the blue light adds to the decor. All that aside, I have it set to start up just before I wake so I can pop in a k-cup and have a cup for the road. I found myself never having coffee at home before i got this, because it took so much effort to get it going and brew a pot, etc. Now, I can simply pop one in, put the cup under, and pull it out in 30 or so seconds.\n\nI have cappuccino, donut shop coffee, decaf columbian, millhouse coffee's foglifter, and a couple of others. I absolutely love it.","Product: Two cup mix and mixture measuring cup. Mix and measure glass cup with 5 types of dimensions. 16 ounce glass cup.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: it has black letters instead of red like the preview picture shows\n\nReview: First off, it has black letters instead of red like the preview picture shows. I know once your viewing it shows black but I wanted to make sure it was known.\nThis is like a beer glass with measurement markings on it, quite nice. I got this to use while measuring heavy cream and MCT oil when making my Keto Chow and it works very nicely. It allows me to quickly measure 225 ml of heavy cream.\nI'm going to use this for basically everything liquid related. I have 2 pyrex measuring cups (2 cup and 4 cup) but this has more styles of measurement on it which makes it easy when working with recipes. Just feeling it, I can tell if you put this in super hot water for a while the measurement markings would peel off, so I'll never do that. I'm glad I bought this, it was worth it for my needs.","Product: Relaxation from Start to Finish The Breville Tea Maker is a revolutionary tea experience. The fully automated tea basket moves down, then up, gently agitating the leaves to precisely infuse your tea. Push the basket button and watch the basket cycle in and out of immersion. Seeing is believing. Different tea varietals such as black, green, white and oolong require exact water temperatures and controlled brew times to allow their unique flavors and aromas to develop during brewing. The Tea Maker eliminates the guesswork so you can enjoy a perfect cup of tea, every time. Breville One-Touch Tea Maker: Tea Basket Cycle auto lowers and lifts tea to brewAuto Start begins brew at pre-selected timeVariable Tea Strength controls steeping timeVariable Temperature for all tea varietalsAccurate Temperature Sensor with real-time displayDimensions: The dimensions are 10.7 x 6 x 11 inches.A Closer Look: Fully programmable for all types of tea, water temperatures and steep times. The moving tea basket allows water to circulate freely around the individual tea leaves for maximum infusion. Set the timer and wake up to the aroma of your favorite brew. The German-made Schott glass kettle is durable and stain resistant.Take Care: Clean with a water and vinegar solution on the Hot Water setting.Made in the USA or Imported\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Everything I ever wanted for tea....\n\nReview: This is everything I ever wanted for tea. I was originally going to go for an electric carafe that would bring the water to a a temperature and hold it there, but this takes that idea and wraps perfection around it. The programmability of it is my favorite part of it all. I have various types of tea... from oolong to white tea, all of which require a different temperature. Add that to the fact that I'm kind of distracted by doing various things as I'm home so I can't sit and monitor tea steeping and all related activities. I can now put water in there, put the basket in place, select custom and choose the temperature of the water and time for steeping. This lets me do everything else I'm doing, and I can just come back to grab a cup of tea. Of course, I can reprogram the buttons for the tea types that are there already as well. It brings the water to the temp very fast (I believe 195 F was reached from 60 degree water in 2-3 minutes), lowers the basket in silently, and raises it out silently as well. Basically, the only thing I hear is boiling of the water on the bottom as it's heating up, and the beep at the end.\n\nIt's very well constructed, and actually looks very nice at the base of my table. For those that want to know, you can heat up 1200 ml (4 cups) of tea, or 1500 ml (5 cups) of water only. This is because when your making tea, the brewing basket needs to be able to clear the water and when it's above 1200 ml it can't clear the water. The \"keep warm\" button is an awesome feature as well, so you can enjoy the tea at the same temperature instead of the steadily declining temperature as it cools.\n\nIt's solid, I love it.\n\nEDIT After 10 years of use (!):\nI bought this in 2011 and it still goes strong. I still am glad I purchased this... it's so nice to be able to heat a container of water to a certain degree without a thought (for tea, medicine use, cooking, etc), or just tea as it's made for. I've ran so many types of tea through this, and I've never been disappointed. I will have to say though that the bottom and metal pillar the tea basket rides on does get blackened. I imagine with some work that can be taken care of, however with the amount of time I have off of work versus the amount of time I want to use this tea maker for making tea and relaxing, I think I'm okay with the darkened metal as long as it's clean.\nIf it broke tomorrow, I'd definitely buy another in a heartbeat. It's not the only thing I use for making tea since I have tumblers and gourds, however it's usually the center of the water heating because of the temperature precision. It doesn't do a good job of keeping the temperature exact after it's finished heating it up, however. When I heat water for my yerba mate to 165 and have the \"keep warm\" button selected, within 15-20 minutes the water is down to 140. When that happens, I usually hit the \"hot water\" button again twice (turns it off, turns it back on) then wait a 30 seconds to a minute to bring it back to temp. No biggie.","Product: This is a half pint soft ice cream maker. Great for kids and adults. Two freezer bowls are included. You can have fresh, homemade ice cream in minutes. For effective usage kindly store the bowl in the freezer at a maximum temperature of 0 Fahrenheit (-18 Degree Celsius). Kindly use 6 - 12 Ounce of mixture and make sure that the ingredients are stored in refrigerator before use. In case if the parts do not fit well, kindly press down the lid lightly for few minutes to ensure that the lid assembly is seated.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: I cute little personal ice cream mixer for a treat\n\nReview: (I didn't buy this though Amazon, I found it at Target on sale. Same exact model though.)\n\nPros:\nThe 2 bases are solid feeling\nMade the ice cream for me pretty well\n\nCons:\nThe beater is plastic (but it makes soft serve, so metal isn't necessary and only increases the price)\nKind of a loud motor when it's on.\n\nI picked this up not knowing what to expect. I opened the box and read the instructions, and thought.. hmm, sounds easy enough. It really was. I picked up a couple of quarts of half & half, a quart of heavy whipping cream, and since I have sugar at home I'm set! (I tried it out with sugar, but you can use stevia/sweet & low/etc) I whipped together the vanilla base as the instructions say, then in a separate measuring cup I did the cappuccino ice cream individual recipe, mixed 6 ounces of the base & 6 ounces of the individual recipe into the frozen ice cream base and slapped the lid on. I didn't have to do anything more than that, and I waited. It did a good job, actually. I froze the base for a day before using it, and the heavy cream/half & half were both refrigerated beforehand. I didn't have a chance to refrigerate the finished base any further after putting it together. I mixed it all together with the individual recipe 6 oz'er and slapped it into the frozen base. I just tossed on the motorized top, clicked the button, and went about my merry way for 5 minutes. It wasn't ready at 5 minutes, it took 10 or so minutes total to get to the consistency I wanted. The plus side was that I could hold it and not melt the ice cream, like so many other plates seem to do hehe\n\nI enjoy it... is it worth it? It's a non-necessity, a treat, something you buy for yourself whimsically. Only you can answer that, really.","Product: Sometimes less is more, which is why we designed this electric kettle to be simply ideal for preparing pour-over coffee or the perfect cup of tea. This kettle from Bonavita quickly heats water to precisely the temperature you need with a powerful 1000-watt heater. It's everything you need for creating all kinds of hot beverages - and nothing you don't.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: It's very light weight which means it is easy to knock off the table\n\nReview: It's very light weight which means it is easy to knock off the table, as well. Today it took about 1.5-2 minutes to heat up a full container of water. The cord is kind of short, about 2.5-3 foot long at least that's how I see it by eye. (I haven't had a chance to measure it)\nThe gooseneck has a habit of having some water tension when tilting only a little bit, meaning the water tends to roll down the bottom of the arm and onto the table or whatever else is below it. I'm going to try and find a way around that since I'm using this for pour-over coffee and I only need a little stream, but that's what happened today when I used it.\nIt's nice to have a small container to heat water for pour-over coffee or a tea tumbler, just be sure not to touch the metal after heated up since it's not insulated.\nEDIT:\nThere is a small piece of plastic above the max water level inside, which acts as an overflow valve. If you tilt the kettle backwards, water will leak out from the bottom of the handle at the base.\nEDIT AGAIN:\nI got this on May 6th, and it's now May 31st. I've had water in this almost every day, and I leave the remaining water to use during the second half of the day... so effectively it's in there all the time. There is no rust, discoloration, and the only markings are on the bottom where the heating element contacts the metal and it's from the water minerals since I have hard water. (Phoenix, AZ)\nThis is a great kettle, and I'd buy it again.","Product: Taste the difference with TAKEYA's Cold Brew Coffee Maker. The traditional hot brewing process releases undesirable acids and oils, resulting in bitter flavor and acidity that is intolerable to many. With cold brewing, only the naturally delicious coffee flavors are extracted, leaving behind the bitter oils and fatty acids, creating a perfectly balanced, smooth extraction of concentrated coffee. Once brewed, concentrated coffee can be kept fresh in the TAKEYA airtight Cold Brew Coffee Maker for up to 2 weeks and used for both hot and iced coffees. Do not freeze or microwave\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: I like the size of this for a single person\n\nReview: I like the size of this for a single person. I unscrewed the filter from the lid, threw in 1 cup of coursely ground coffee, screwed the filter back on, put in a little more than 3/4 container of distilled water, put the lid on, and put it into the fridge for 24 hours.\nI did do a pour-over the first time to bloom the coffee, but it wasn't easy to manage the water pouring and all after and didn't do much beyond just doing it the way I did in the above line.\nI really enjoy it, nice and compact, and looks nice. The filter material is thin, but I haven't ripped it.. just feels thin and possibly fragile. It washes out without issues and didn't fall apart when doing it, so that might just be my imagination.\nThe lid seals it tight, and it looks presentable when I take the filter out and go to work with the container full of cold brew coffee.\nA very small amount of residue was at the bottom, but it was almost invisible unless I really looked. I didn't taste any residue while drinking, so it was very small amounts of powder/dust.","Product: The Anova Precision Cooker makes it easy to achieve professional-level cooking results at home. To use, simply attach the cooker to any water-filled pot, put your food in a sealable bag, and set the time and temperature. The Precision Cooker heats and circulates the water to a precise temperature, cooking food to an exact temperature which creates maximum tenderness and moisture retention (without worry of overcooking). The Anova Precision Cooker connects to your phone, so you can cook amazing meals by the touch of a button - spend less time tied to the kitchen by relying on the app to notify you when your food is ready to Eat.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: This buddy is rockin\n\nReview: I'm just starting to use this, but from my experience so far it's everything it is sold to be. I'm actually quite impressed by it, as the material is sold and easy to clean as well. The interface on the top does leave a bit to be desired, but once you get used to it you're okay. I've ended up using the app on my iphone to control it mainly, but that's just because I'm lazy and don't want to get up and check it out. ( :-) )\nThe circulator is able to be repositioned so it's not blowing right on what you're cooking also, which seems nice if you're cooking eggs.\nI have a couple of containers in different sizes to use with this since I only have a pot to use this with now.\nThis does take a little bit of time to get the water up to temp, but that's to be expected since it's the cheaper of most models. It took my 115 degree Fahrenheit gallon pot about 5-7 minutes to get up to 150 degrees. It beeps once it preheats, which is nice.... though the app only pops up a window saying it's preheated and you can go ahead and put your stuff in.\n\nI'm using ziploc slider quart and gallon bags, but I'll soon use vacuum packing for larger things like ribs, chickens, turkey, etc. It's neat to know that I can put a full chicken in and have it done in a day without me being around. Come home and pow! Pull it out and prepare.\n\nLook around on the net, there are lots of sites for recipes and prepping you for using it in general. I've absorbed more info in the last day or two then ever in my life it seems.\n\nI highly recommend this to start. Just after a day or two of using this, I know I'll probably end up getting another so i can cook two types of foods at a time at different temps and timings.\n\nUPDATE:\nAfter using this for the last week as my primary cooking device, I enjoy it. The downsides which aren't worth dinging it for are that I tried it on a 13-gallon tub and it took 1-2 hours to get up to temp. It does great for 5 gallon, however. The interface does need a bit of improvement since the switching of timer & temperature can reset one or both. It's a tiny thing however since once you get used to how it operates you can work around it. I've cooked eggs, fish, chicken breast, and potatoes with this so far, and each time the food came out better than I could have done without it. I'm ADHD when it comes to cooking when I have other things going on, and with sous vide I'm able to have the quality without worrying about keeping my attention on the food as it cooks.","Product: Kefir Fermenter consists of jar, straw, lid and plastic chamber with numerous holes. Kefir grains have free access to milk through holes during fermentation and reliable separated from ready kefir during drinking through straw. Just fill jar with milk and drink after solidifying. Drink fresh kefir, refill and replenish as desired with our patented Kefir Fermenter. Kefir named \"Yogurt for the XXI Century\" for it great health benefits and sophisticated taste. Kefir grains does not included.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Works great as a single person fermenting cup\n\nReview: Works great as a single person fermenting cup. If your kefir is small enough to slip through the holes in the holder on the end of the straw, it's time to TLC them big time. It's a neat little invention, and even if it's pretty much a straight forward idea I haven't seen anyone else selling these. Glad I bought it, since it's simple to pull out the kefir.\nEDIT:\nAfter using this to feed my kefir grains after being in storage for a while, I find it very nice when the kefir is overfermented. (after a day of work and getting to it in the evening after a day or two) All I have to do is spin the straw back and forth to centrifically spin the curd out of the grain container inside. Makes for easy removal of the grains, and saves any headache of needing to get your hands in there as well.","Product: Designed by the French designer David Turpin the POP handset combines classic style with a contemporary edge and is finished with a luxurious soft-touch texture. The handset has been manufactured with a high quality speaker and microphone. Can be used for VOIP computer telephone calls (Skype, Google Talk). This product is fitted with a 3.5mm jack (compatible with the iPhone). Improved call comfort Allows access to phone functions when making calls Eliminates over 99% of absorbed phone radiation Turns your tablet computer into a telephone via Skype or VOIP applications Supplied with a 3.5mm plug\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: just like talking into a handset many years ago...\n\nReview: I grew up using handsets like this, and there's something comforting about holding it on your shoulder and propping it against your ear. The sound is distinct, and.. I don't know, it just feels nice. I looked around, and this was great for my application. I use google voice for a lot of things, so I figured why not?\nThe thing that disturbed me quite a bit is the pictures of fake phones and the idea that the sender is using fake phones as the merchandise. Honestly, I was holding back from ordering because of that. I finally figured, with the price I could just report it to amazon and let them fix it for me and not worry a whole lot. No worries there though, it came with a moshi moshi box, the right phone, and all. I popped it onto my ipad, called a friend via google voice (Talkatone app) and it worked great. It actually was just like a normal phone... which brought back memories from years ago lol\nOne downside for me is that the button in the handle really isn't of much use for me. I'm using iOS 5.0.1 on iPad and all it does is turn on/off the music. No biggie though, that's trivial. The cord could be longer, as it's about 2x the length of the phone. An extension 3.5mm headphone cord can be put onto it for times when length is needed, though. Again, trivial.\n\nSo yeah... I'm thinking about buying another to keep at home on the computer and keeping this one with me while I'm on the road.","Product: WD My Cloud 4TB Personal Cloud Storage - NAS (WDBCTL0040HWT-NESN)\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: I'm not going to talk bad about this in detail\n\nReview: I'm honestly not a fan of this due to it's latency. It had the same latency as my old 486 computers did with disk shares... except at least they didn't bog down during the data copying to below 1mb/s.\nI'm not going to talk bad about this in detail, I'm just going to say that I tried using this as a NAS but the latency made it only good for archiving and that's about it. I tried with RAID1, RAID0, JBOD, and all were about the same speed. That tells me it's a processing or bus issue.\nI tried using my macbook pro with it as a Time Machine backup, but the speed of archival was ridiculously slow at between 1 - 1.5mb/s.\nI'm returning mine since it's only good as an archival device for me. I can buy disks and toss it in my old computer to get better speeds.","Product: 1800R curved monitor with 3000:1 contrast ratio provides a truly immersive viewing experience on a beautiful 32 screen. Featuring a glossy white design, the monitor boasts Game Mode technology which allows users to enjoy smooth images, even during the fastest moving scenes. With HDMI and Display Port inputs, you can easily connect any of your peripherals to enjoy on this Samsung monitor.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: (for two monitor setup) I really like this monitor\n\nReview: I had one of these already, and bought this one as a second monitor.\nI use this with my 2017 Macbook Pro, using two USB-C to HDMI adapters. (for two monitor setup)\nI really like this monitor, it works great for what I want it for. I'm not a gamer, but I do play games. \"Cities: Skylines\" looks amazing on it, and so does Kerbal Space Program. As you can see, I'm not into massive multiplayer online 1-week old shoot-em-ups so I can't speak for them.\nTheres no latency that I can see, and being 1080p you can see pixels if you're very close. I use HDMI but it does have displayport.\nThe display does have a semi-glossy surface, which usually isn't a problem for me unless there's lots of sun coming through the windows.","Product: Monitor Desk Mount,Computer Monitor Stand\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: just like 8-12 or so turns before the right amount of ...\n\nReview: Before going too far I'll just throw my biggest gripe out there: The instructions are entirely in vague picture style. Just know there are two packs of screws for the monitors, each pack has two sets of screws. (A and B) You will need to pick one and find out which fits in your monitors vesa screw holes. I have samsung 32 inch monitors, and A worked. The next thing to know is for the arms, using the included hex wrench (allen) to screw towards the plus side to create more upward pressure. It does not require much energy, just like 8-12 or so turns before the right amount of pressure is there.\nThe bottom table mount will require following the picture instructions. Basically screwing the 90 degree L shaped mount to the base, then screwing the bottom brace to the L shaped mount. Make sure you get the bottom brace screwed on SUPER tight to avoid pivoting when you rock the arms back and forth/around.\nThis works great for my Samsung 32 inch (curved) monitors. I have like 8-12 inches of space between the monitors right now at fully height and stretch.\nThe image I have uploaded is right after installing, so don't mind the odd crap everywhere that I kicked off of the table for the installation.\n\nEDIT January 7th 2018:\nThe mount arms have been holding up very nicely. There has been no issues, and the monitors haven't been slipping/moving/dropping. My cat even gets underneath and bumps into it with all of his weight as he tries jumping to the ground (he's clumsy...), and it doesn't leave the position. I'm glad I picked it up.","Product: For the runner who wants a comfortable and versatile product. UPPER: Mesh combined with a molded midfoot saddle delivers an excellent lightweight, supportive fit. MIDSOLE: Full-length Reslon midsole foam gives great cushioning and responsive ride. OUTSOLE: Combination outsole pattern for great cushioning, traction and durability.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: I ordered the 10 (this order) and it's still a pretty snug fit\n\nReview: It's been ages since I've purchased Nike. I normally go with Sketcher or other brands, but I figured I would go with Nike since I'm doing more workouts and sprints. I normally wear 9.5 wide, and amazons size guide said to go with 9.5, so I did. I had to send it back since it was far too tight and short. I ordered the 10 (this order) and it's still a pretty snug fit... like so snug that everytime I'm putting on my shoe I'm guiding it around my foot and pressing my foto into it. Once it's in there its snug and not tearing at it, and is great at supporting lateral side to side motion. I'm still debating on whether I should just buy a set of sketchers and keep these for those times I need the lateral support. I'm going to wear them for the week and break them in, see how things pan out. I'd say just go a full size larger than your normal size if you're like I am, but that's just from my experience.","Product: Hydro Flask's insulated water bottles are made of high quality food grade 18/8 stainless steel. The bottles have no liner (like most aluminum bottles) and are BPA free. Unlike plastic water bottles or single wall stainless bottles, Hydro Flask will keep your beverage of choice at your preferred temperature for hours, whether you choose hot, cold or room temperature liquids. All Hydro Flask products feature a lifetime warranty and are double wall vacuum insulated. They are designed to be lightweight, making them great for long hikes, days on the beach, hot yoga classes, golf, long road trips or everyday office use. Even when filled with ice, the exterior of your Hydro Flask will never leave a puddle on your desk, drip on your shirt, or sweat in your bag.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: They hold up pretty well, and the lid is nice and securely ...\n\nReview: I got these to hold my keto chow. Well, this time around at least, since I know I'll use them for many things.\nI used them for the first time today, filling them up and putting them in the fridge until morning. They hold up pretty well, and the lid is nice and securely tight/sealed. I shook the water/heavy cream/powder solution in it without any issues, and had them every direction while in my backpack without any issues.\nThe only thing I can see bad is the surface looks like it'll scratch the coloring off if they impact so I put them into pockets inside my backpack.\nThis morning while drinking from it while driving, I noticed it controls the amount of liquid pouring out very consistently.\nAnyway, I'm enjoying them","Product: The Half Twist Light features the revolutionary new Half Twist cap. One can drink from either of the two openings in the contoured mouthpiece, while the other allows air to flow into the bottle, providing a smooth, even outflow of liquid. The cap requires just a half turn to the left to open and a half twist to the right seals the bottle, watertight. Theres no need to ever remove the cap to drink. The cap is fitted with a medical-grade silicone gasket, which prevents leaks, spills, or drips. The gaket is easily removed to facilitate thorough cleaning of both the cap and gasket. The bottle is made from high-density polyethylene, a durable and recyclable plastic which is BPA- and Phthalate-free. All components of the cap and bottle are dishwasher safe. Not freezer safe.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: This works great for what it's supposed to do\n\nReview: This works great for what it's supposed to do. I used it today to hold my soylent meal replacement beverage and it worked good for that. It takes a little bit to get the inner seal liner into place when you pull it out and wash it, but it's very simplistic in it's operation and that's what I like. Pretty much I tighten it down and tilt it upside down to get the silicon seal a little moist so it can hold onto the bottom instead of floating along with the top. Then, I can rotate the top 1/4-1/2 way and it raises the top away from the silicon seal so the liquid can pass through. The finger holder piece does become annoying to me, but it's easy to remove. I am glad I bought this for an inexpensive 24 oz beverage container.","Product: Enjoy a cup of hot chocolate as the sunrises on the campsite or serve hot apple cider at the next thanksgiving celebration. This 20 quart Hot Pot will serve up to 80 servings of these delicious hot drinks making it perfect for any activity. The spigot style valve is quick and easy to use which also makes it great for washing dishes, food prep and hygiene needs in the outdoors.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: (the reason I got it) I like how quickly the water was able to absorb the ...\n\nReview: I used this for the first time last night to make tea for my kombucha. (the reason I got it)\nI like how quickly the water was able to absorb the energy instead of needing to heat up lots of metal on the bottom first. I have a conical style metal filter that I normally use in a large mason jar to hold coffee grounds in for cold brew, and I added the tea into that then sat it down in the center to brew the tea. When the time came (after cooling to room temp), the spigot made it simple to sit the pot on the edge of where I wanted the tea to go and empty it out enough to lighten the container before pouring. All together a great pot, I'll definitely be using it again.","Product: Many people are shocked to discover that diatomaceous earth can be used in 100 different ways. This naturally occurring substance is composed of diatoms that have fossilized over millennia in fresh water lakes. As time passed, these fossilized diatoms accumulated into huge deposits. When mined and ground into powder it becomes diatomaceous earth. Not all diatomaceous earth is created equal. DiatomaceousEarth specializes in providing clean, pure and effective food grade DE. Most diatomaceous earth suppliers simply hand scoop DE into zip lock baggies, but we are committed to providing you with diatomaceous earth you can trust. Everything at DiatomaceousEarth is professionally packaged using state of the art stainless steel equipment so you can be confident there arent any contaminants in your diatomaceous earth.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Excellent quality. I love not needing to worry about ...\n\nReview: Excellent quality. I love not needing to worry about how much I use! I bought this to fight off the roach and bed bugs in my house. It seems my neighborhood has gotten very ghetto-esque in that respect and suddenly I have roaches and bedbugs. I laid down a fine mist of this in my laundry room, kitchen corners, all along the bedroom floor, all over the metal bed frame, and let nature take it's course. After a day or two, I saw roaches laying in random places of the laundry room and kitchen area all dried up. Now, yes... it's not the cleanest way to handle it since it's a light dust and sticks to things. It's cleaner than the alternative of chemicals all over, however. Especially since I have 3 kittens/cats in the house. I was impressed in that respect since it's food grade and the worst it can do is make them drink more water if they eat any. It's also a good silica based dietary supplement. I've had 2 glasses so far, and I'm starting to make it into a regimen since it helps.\n\nJust know that this bag doesn't do a good job of holding it in once it's opened. It comes with a plastic bag around it, and I kept that on which helps. What I did is filled the container that came with it and closed the bag, then from there I fill the duster i purchased, along with sprinkling the carpets from the container directly.","Product: The Measure Master Garden Syringes are great for measuring nutrients, supplements and pesticides. These syringes are a clean and accurate alternative to pouring liquids into a measuring cup or spoon. Using the Measure Master Garden Syringes eliminates splashing or spilling of liquids. Made of heavy duty plastic with easy to read measurements. Graduation measurements in milliliters and cc's. For gardening use only.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: and it worked wonderfully. The ONLY thing I'd change is adding a ...\n\nReview: I used this to add gear oil to my final drive on my motorcycle, and it worked wonderfully. The ONLY thing I'd change is adding a tiny hose to the end, but I knew that this did not have that from the beginning and I'm okay with that. (I just injected it fast to shoot it to the back of the drive case)\nThis came with a tip piece to make the injector hole smaller, as well.\nI filled this by removing the piston, capping the tip with my thumb, and filling to the desired amount minus 5 ml to compensate for the tip. I then slipped the piston back in with only the first seal entering at first, turned it 180 degrees to put the tip upwards, then pushed the piston up to seal completely and to remove any excess air. It's as simple as that, I don't see this not working in the near future, it's pretty solid plastic.\nI know I won't use it too terribly often since I have one motorcycle and final drive oil is changed only once every 20,000-30,000 miles. Either way, it was well worth the money and I'd buy it again in a heartbeat.","Product: Hertzko Self Cleaning Slicker Brush\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Not much to say about this other than it works great\n\nReview: Not much to say about this other than it works great. I picked this up to use on my white cat who plays around outside through the winter (in Phoenix AZ) and grew some undercoat. I picked this up, pulled him onto my lap and just slid it across his fur without any pressure. it worked great, catching all hair that was getting on everything. He didn't seem to care either.\nI used it on my other cat who wasn't as fluffy but needed to be cared for, and he even rolled over for his belly to be brushed. The bristles didn't seem to bother either one of them which was a great thing.\nAfter, I walked to the trash can, pressed the button and the fur was in a matt on the surface of the brush after the bristles retracted into the head. Very easy to brush off into the trash, and done.","Product: Keep your cupboards stocked with this Purina Friskies Shreds wet cat food variety pack, and let your cat select from all her favorite recipes at mealtime. Real beef, poultry or seafood in every serving gives her the tastes she loves along with the high-quality ingredients you expect from a trusted brand. The tender shredded textures tempt her to her dish, while the delectable gravies add a mouthwatering finishing touch to each recipe. Open a can to let the rich aroma lure your cat to her dish, and watch as she delights in the meow-worthy flavor combinations. With 100% complete and balanced nutrition for adult cats and kittens in every serving, this variety pack lets you feel good about the foods you put in her dish. Offer up a different variety at every feeding to let your cat companion know just how much you pay attention to her cravings. Try Purina Friskies Shreds wet food for cats today, and show your feline you care about her happiness and health.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: and they both love it. Great to buy in bulk\n\nReview: I put down a container of this cat food per day for my 2 cats, and they both love it. Great to buy in bulk.\n\nEDIT 7/26/2017:\nAfter a couple of weeks of feeding this to my cats, I have to say it was a great pick. My two cats have only eaten solid foods such as Iams or Blue Buffalo. I'm thinking this hits a carnal desire of my 2 cat, though. No matter the flavor I pick out, as soon as my hands go near the box to pull out a container both of them are meowing with wide eyes and circling my legs. If I didn't know any better, I'd swear they were coming in for the kill lol\nThis week I'm running an experiment of removing any dry food from their diet and feeding them a can in the morning and a can in the evening, since they are communal eaters from one big glass container. So far they've been loving it, and the evening can has ended up being kind of a 'hello' between us. After they come and rest next to me as I'm sitting at my computer doing some things, which they didn't do much before.\nEither way, it's a great price compared to what I've seen so far. The 32-can box makes it easy to calculate how many boxes I'll need per month, as well.\n\nEDIT December 1st 2017:\nI've been ordering this to feed my 2 cats for 5 or so boxes so far, and they still love it. I like how inexpensive it is without being trash like some other brands."],"string":"[\n \"Product: Crumbs fall neatly into removable catcher so no messy bread crumbs all over the table or counter.  The bread slicer is approximately 6.25" wide and large enough to handle all sorts of loaf sizes.  Each slice will be uniform .5" wide.  The non adjustable slots ensure that all the bread slices are perfect.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Is an inexpensive knife guide... there ya go.\\n\\nReview: I got this for the same reason most here got it - To put an uncut loaf of bread onto it (be it homemade, or store bought) and cut it into evenly spaced slices.\\nIt's no-frills, nothing fancy. In fact, for anything longer than a 1.5 lb homemade loaf, you'd need to take the cut slices out of the way to finish the rest of the loaf... on my 1.5 lb homemade loaf I was able to cut the entire loaf without moving any of them.\\nI read a few people.. well, more than a few, stating that the guides are too far away for the knife to go between each side. I bought a 10 inch bread knife from Amazon at the same time as buying this, and it worked without a problem at all. The only thing I did notice was I had to angle the blade to start the cut, then as the cut started I'd drop the blade down to reach the guide on the opposite side to make sure the alignment was fine. Took me all of 1-2 seconds per slice to do that.\\n\\nIs it good quality? Not really, the plastic sides are flimsy since it's plastic. Other than that, what more can you really ask for at this price? Honestly, the light colored wood looks pretty decent sitting on my counter. Would I buy it again? sure... I'm only using it to quickly slice a loaf then go my merry way. It's a minor fraction of my life.\",\n \"Product: The Platinum Brewing System is Keurig's best single-cup brewing system for your home. This premium model offers discerning coffee drinkers the widest range of five cup size options for brewing. The Platinum offers the full spectrum of features including Auto On/Off, Digital Clock, Adjustable Temperature Control and the \\\"Set Your Favorite Cup Size\\\" option. The largest available 60 oz. removable water reservoir holds up to ten cups before refilling and the removable drip tray allows for easy cleaning and the use of travel mugs. The sleek, award-winning design is a unique footprint among Keurig's line of home brewing systems and includes both a blue lit water reservoir and blue lit LCD display. At initial set up, once the machine is filled with water, it will take approximately 4-minutes for the water will be heated. During the heating period the red light next to ‘HEATING’ on the LED Control Center will become illuminated. Once the water is heated, the red light will turn off and the Small Mug Button will flash. Press the Small Mug Button to start a cleansing brew. Pour the hot water into the sink. The Brewer may take 15 seconds to reheat water between brews during which time the red light next to ‘HEATING’ on the LED Control Center may be illuminated. When the water has heated, the red light will turn off. The one-time set-up process is now complete and you are ready to brew!\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Easy to use, clean, and gives you lots of options\\n\\nReview: I've had lots of coffee makers in my time, but never had one that could make a cup of coffee in less than a minute, with every cup being the same quality.\\nIt looks great on my counter (with the chrome body), and the blue light adds to the decor. All that aside, I have it set to start up just before I wake so I can pop in a k-cup and have a cup for the road. I found myself never having coffee at home before i got this, because it took so much effort to get it going and brew a pot, etc. Now, I can simply pop one in, put the cup under, and pull it out in 30 or so seconds.\\n\\nI have cappuccino, donut shop coffee, decaf columbian, millhouse coffee's foglifter, and a couple of others. I absolutely love it.\",\n \"Product: Two cup mix and mixture measuring cup. Mix and measure glass cup with 5 types of dimensions. 16 ounce glass cup.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: it has black letters instead of red like the preview picture shows\\n\\nReview: First off, it has black letters instead of red like the preview picture shows. I know once your viewing it shows black but I wanted to make sure it was known.\\nThis is like a beer glass with measurement markings on it, quite nice. I got this to use while measuring heavy cream and MCT oil when making my Keto Chow and it works very nicely. It allows me to quickly measure 225 ml of heavy cream.\\nI'm going to use this for basically everything liquid related. I have 2 pyrex measuring cups (2 cup and 4 cup) but this has more styles of measurement on it which makes it easy when working with recipes. Just feeling it, I can tell if you put this in super hot water for a while the measurement markings would peel off, so I'll never do that. I'm glad I bought this, it was worth it for my needs.\",\n \"Product: Relaxation from Start to Finish The Breville Tea Maker is a revolutionary tea experience. The fully automated tea basket moves down, then up, gently agitating the leaves to precisely infuse your tea. Push the basket button and watch the basket cycle in and out of immersion. Seeing is believing. Different tea varietals such as black, green, white and oolong require exact water temperatures and controlled brew times to allow their unique flavors and aromas to develop during brewing. The Tea Maker eliminates the guesswork so you can enjoy a perfect cup of tea, every time. Breville One-Touch Tea Maker: Tea Basket Cycle auto lowers and lifts tea to brewAuto Start begins brew at pre-selected timeVariable Tea Strength controls steeping timeVariable Temperature for all tea varietalsAccurate Temperature Sensor with real-time displayDimensions: The dimensions are 10.7 x 6 x 11 inches.A Closer Look: Fully programmable for all types of tea, water temperatures and steep times. The moving tea basket allows water to circulate freely around the individual tea leaves for maximum infusion. Set the timer and wake up to the aroma of your favorite brew. The German-made Schott glass kettle is durable and stain resistant.Take Care: Clean with a water and vinegar solution on the Hot Water setting.Made in the USA or Imported\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Everything I ever wanted for tea....\\n\\nReview: This is everything I ever wanted for tea. I was originally going to go for an electric carafe that would bring the water to a a temperature and hold it there, but this takes that idea and wraps perfection around it. The programmability of it is my favorite part of it all. I have various types of tea... from oolong to white tea, all of which require a different temperature. Add that to the fact that I'm kind of distracted by doing various things as I'm home so I can't sit and monitor tea steeping and all related activities. I can now put water in there, put the basket in place, select custom and choose the temperature of the water and time for steeping. This lets me do everything else I'm doing, and I can just come back to grab a cup of tea. Of course, I can reprogram the buttons for the tea types that are there already as well. It brings the water to the temp very fast (I believe 195 F was reached from 60 degree water in 2-3 minutes), lowers the basket in silently, and raises it out silently as well. Basically, the only thing I hear is boiling of the water on the bottom as it's heating up, and the beep at the end.\\n\\nIt's very well constructed, and actually looks very nice at the base of my table. For those that want to know, you can heat up 1200 ml (4 cups) of tea, or 1500 ml (5 cups) of water only. This is because when your making tea, the brewing basket needs to be able to clear the water and when it's above 1200 ml it can't clear the water. The \\\"keep warm\\\" button is an awesome feature as well, so you can enjoy the tea at the same temperature instead of the steadily declining temperature as it cools.\\n\\nIt's solid, I love it.\\n\\nEDIT After 10 years of use (!):\\nI bought this in 2011 and it still goes strong. I still am glad I purchased this... it's so nice to be able to heat a container of water to a certain degree without a thought (for tea, medicine use, cooking, etc), or just tea as it's made for. I've ran so many types of tea through this, and I've never been disappointed. I will have to say though that the bottom and metal pillar the tea basket rides on does get blackened. I imagine with some work that can be taken care of, however with the amount of time I have off of work versus the amount of time I want to use this tea maker for making tea and relaxing, I think I'm okay with the darkened metal as long as it's clean.\\nIf it broke tomorrow, I'd definitely buy another in a heartbeat. It's not the only thing I use for making tea since I have tumblers and gourds, however it's usually the center of the water heating because of the temperature precision. It doesn't do a good job of keeping the temperature exact after it's finished heating it up, however. When I heat water for my yerba mate to 165 and have the \\\"keep warm\\\" button selected, within 15-20 minutes the water is down to 140. When that happens, I usually hit the \\\"hot water\\\" button again twice (turns it off, turns it back on) then wait a 30 seconds to a minute to bring it back to temp. No biggie.\",\n \"Product: This is a half pint soft ice cream maker. Great for kids and adults. Two freezer bowls are included. You can have fresh, homemade ice cream in minutes. For effective usage kindly store the bowl in the freezer at a maximum temperature of 0 Fahrenheit (-18 Degree Celsius). Kindly use 6 - 12 Ounce of mixture and make sure that the ingredients are stored in refrigerator before use. In case if the parts do not fit well, kindly press down the lid lightly for few minutes to ensure that the lid assembly is seated.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: I cute little personal ice cream mixer for a treat\\n\\nReview: (I didn't buy this though Amazon, I found it at Target on sale. Same exact model though.)\\n\\nPros:\\nThe 2 bases are solid feeling\\nMade the ice cream for me pretty well\\n\\nCons:\\nThe beater is plastic (but it makes soft serve, so metal isn't necessary and only increases the price)\\nKind of a loud motor when it's on.\\n\\nI picked this up not knowing what to expect. I opened the box and read the instructions, and thought.. hmm, sounds easy enough. It really was. I picked up a couple of quarts of half & half, a quart of heavy whipping cream, and since I have sugar at home I'm set! (I tried it out with sugar, but you can use stevia/sweet & low/etc) I whipped together the vanilla base as the instructions say, then in a separate measuring cup I did the cappuccino ice cream individual recipe, mixed 6 ounces of the base & 6 ounces of the individual recipe into the frozen ice cream base and slapped the lid on. I didn't have to do anything more than that, and I waited. It did a good job, actually. I froze the base for a day before using it, and the heavy cream/half & half were both refrigerated beforehand. I didn't have a chance to refrigerate the finished base any further after putting it together. I mixed it all together with the individual recipe 6 oz'er and slapped it into the frozen base. I just tossed on the motorized top, clicked the button, and went about my merry way for 5 minutes. It wasn't ready at 5 minutes, it took 10 or so minutes total to get to the consistency I wanted. The plus side was that I could hold it and not melt the ice cream, like so many other plates seem to do hehe\\n\\nI enjoy it... is it worth it? It's a non-necessity, a treat, something you buy for yourself whimsically. Only you can answer that, really.\",\n \"Product: Sometimes less is more, which is why we designed this electric kettle to be simply ideal for preparing pour-over coffee or the perfect cup of tea. This kettle from Bonavita quickly heats water to precisely the temperature you need with a powerful 1000-watt heater. It's everything you need for creating all kinds of hot beverages - and nothing you don't.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: It's very light weight which means it is easy to knock off the table\\n\\nReview: It's very light weight which means it is easy to knock off the table, as well. Today it took about 1.5-2 minutes to heat up a full container of water. The cord is kind of short, about 2.5-3 foot long at least that's how I see it by eye. (I haven't had a chance to measure it)\\nThe gooseneck has a habit of having some water tension when tilting only a little bit, meaning the water tends to roll down the bottom of the arm and onto the table or whatever else is below it. I'm going to try and find a way around that since I'm using this for pour-over coffee and I only need a little stream, but that's what happened today when I used it.\\nIt's nice to have a small container to heat water for pour-over coffee or a tea tumbler, just be sure not to touch the metal after heated up since it's not insulated.\\nEDIT:\\nThere is a small piece of plastic above the max water level inside, which acts as an overflow valve. If you tilt the kettle backwards, water will leak out from the bottom of the handle at the base.\\nEDIT AGAIN:\\nI got this on May 6th, and it's now May 31st. I've had water in this almost every day, and I leave the remaining water to use during the second half of the day... so effectively it's in there all the time. There is no rust, discoloration, and the only markings are on the bottom where the heating element contacts the metal and it's from the water minerals since I have hard water. (Phoenix, AZ)\\nThis is a great kettle, and I'd buy it again.\",\n \"Product: Taste the difference with TAKEYA's Cold Brew Coffee Maker. The traditional hot brewing process releases undesirable acids and oils, resulting in bitter flavor and acidity that is intolerable to many. With cold brewing, only the naturally delicious coffee flavors are extracted, leaving behind the bitter oils and fatty acids, creating a perfectly balanced, smooth extraction of concentrated coffee. Once brewed, concentrated coffee can be kept fresh in the TAKEYA airtight Cold Brew Coffee Maker for up to 2 weeks and used for both hot and iced coffees. Do not freeze or microwave\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: I like the size of this for a single person\\n\\nReview: I like the size of this for a single person. I unscrewed the filter from the lid, threw in 1 cup of coursely ground coffee, screwed the filter back on, put in a little more than 3/4 container of distilled water, put the lid on, and put it into the fridge for 24 hours.\\nI did do a pour-over the first time to bloom the coffee, but it wasn't easy to manage the water pouring and all after and didn't do much beyond just doing it the way I did in the above line.\\nI really enjoy it, nice and compact, and looks nice. The filter material is thin, but I haven't ripped it.. just feels thin and possibly fragile. It washes out without issues and didn't fall apart when doing it, so that might just be my imagination.\\nThe lid seals it tight, and it looks presentable when I take the filter out and go to work with the container full of cold brew coffee.\\nA very small amount of residue was at the bottom, but it was almost invisible unless I really looked. I didn't taste any residue while drinking, so it was very small amounts of powder/dust.\",\n \"Product: The Anova Precision Cooker makes it easy to achieve professional-level cooking results at home. To use, simply attach the cooker to any water-filled pot, put your food in a sealable bag, and set the time and temperature. The Precision Cooker heats and circulates the water to a precise temperature, cooking food to an exact temperature which creates maximum tenderness and moisture retention (without worry of overcooking). The Anova Precision Cooker connects to your phone, so you can cook amazing meals by the touch of a button - spend less time tied to the kitchen by relying on the app to notify you when your food is ready to Eat.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: This buddy is rockin\\n\\nReview: I'm just starting to use this, but from my experience so far it's everything it is sold to be. I'm actually quite impressed by it, as the material is sold and easy to clean as well. The interface on the top does leave a bit to be desired, but once you get used to it you're okay. I've ended up using the app on my iphone to control it mainly, but that's just because I'm lazy and don't want to get up and check it out. ( :-) )\\nThe circulator is able to be repositioned so it's not blowing right on what you're cooking also, which seems nice if you're cooking eggs.\\nI have a couple of containers in different sizes to use with this since I only have a pot to use this with now.\\nThis does take a little bit of time to get the water up to temp, but that's to be expected since it's the cheaper of most models. It took my 115 degree Fahrenheit gallon pot about 5-7 minutes to get up to 150 degrees. It beeps once it preheats, which is nice.... though the app only pops up a window saying it's preheated and you can go ahead and put your stuff in.\\n\\nI'm using ziploc slider quart and gallon bags, but I'll soon use vacuum packing for larger things like ribs, chickens, turkey, etc. It's neat to know that I can put a full chicken in and have it done in a day without me being around. Come home and pow! Pull it out and prepare.\\n\\nLook around on the net, there are lots of sites for recipes and prepping you for using it in general. I've absorbed more info in the last day or two then ever in my life it seems.\\n\\nI highly recommend this to start. Just after a day or two of using this, I know I'll probably end up getting another so i can cook two types of foods at a time at different temps and timings.\\n\\nUPDATE:\\nAfter using this for the last week as my primary cooking device, I enjoy it. The downsides which aren't worth dinging it for are that I tried it on a 13-gallon tub and it took 1-2 hours to get up to temp. It does great for 5 gallon, however. The interface does need a bit of improvement since the switching of timer & temperature can reset one or both. It's a tiny thing however since once you get used to how it operates you can work around it. I've cooked eggs, fish, chicken breast, and potatoes with this so far, and each time the food came out better than I could have done without it. I'm ADHD when it comes to cooking when I have other things going on, and with sous vide I'm able to have the quality without worrying about keeping my attention on the food as it cooks.\",\n \"Product: Kefir Fermenter consists of jar, straw, lid and plastic chamber with numerous holes. Kefir grains have free access to milk through holes during fermentation and reliable separated from ready kefir during drinking through straw. Just fill jar with milk and drink after solidifying. Drink fresh kefir, refill and replenish as desired with our patented Kefir Fermenter. Kefir named \\\"Yogurt for the XXI Century\\\" for it great health benefits and sophisticated taste. Kefir grains does not included.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Works great as a single person fermenting cup\\n\\nReview: Works great as a single person fermenting cup. If your kefir is small enough to slip through the holes in the holder on the end of the straw, it's time to TLC them big time. It's a neat little invention, and even if it's pretty much a straight forward idea I haven't seen anyone else selling these. Glad I bought it, since it's simple to pull out the kefir.\\nEDIT:\\nAfter using this to feed my kefir grains after being in storage for a while, I find it very nice when the kefir is overfermented. (after a day of work and getting to it in the evening after a day or two) All I have to do is spin the straw back and forth to centrifically spin the curd out of the grain container inside. Makes for easy removal of the grains, and saves any headache of needing to get your hands in there as well.\",\n \"Product: Designed by the French designer David Turpin the POP handset combines classic style with a contemporary edge and is finished with a luxurious soft-touch texture. The handset has been manufactured with a high quality speaker and microphone. Can be used for VOIP computer telephone calls (Skype, Google Talk). This product is fitted with a 3.5mm jack (compatible with the iPhone). Improved call comfort Allows access to phone functions when making calls Eliminates over 99% of absorbed phone radiation Turns your tablet computer into a telephone via Skype or VOIP applications Supplied with a 3.5mm plug\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: just like talking into a handset many years ago...\\n\\nReview: I grew up using handsets like this, and there's something comforting about holding it on your shoulder and propping it against your ear. The sound is distinct, and.. I don't know, it just feels nice. I looked around, and this was great for my application. I use google voice for a lot of things, so I figured why not?\\nThe thing that disturbed me quite a bit is the pictures of fake phones and the idea that the sender is using fake phones as the merchandise. Honestly, I was holding back from ordering because of that. I finally figured, with the price I could just report it to amazon and let them fix it for me and not worry a whole lot. No worries there though, it came with a moshi moshi box, the right phone, and all. I popped it onto my ipad, called a friend via google voice (Talkatone app) and it worked great. It actually was just like a normal phone... which brought back memories from years ago lol\\nOne downside for me is that the button in the handle really isn't of much use for me. I'm using iOS 5.0.1 on iPad and all it does is turn on/off the music. No biggie though, that's trivial. The cord could be longer, as it's about 2x the length of the phone. An extension 3.5mm headphone cord can be put onto it for times when length is needed, though. Again, trivial.\\n\\nSo yeah... I'm thinking about buying another to keep at home on the computer and keeping this one with me while I'm on the road.\",\n \"Product: WD My Cloud 4TB Personal Cloud Storage - NAS (WDBCTL0040HWT-NESN)\\n\\nRating: 2.0\\n\\nSummary: I'm not going to talk bad about this in detail\\n\\nReview: I'm honestly not a fan of this due to it's latency. It had the same latency as my old 486 computers did with disk shares... except at least they didn't bog down during the data copying to below 1mb/s.\\nI'm not going to talk bad about this in detail, I'm just going to say that I tried using this as a NAS but the latency made it only good for archiving and that's about it. I tried with RAID1, RAID0, JBOD, and all were about the same speed. That tells me it's a processing or bus issue.\\nI tried using my macbook pro with it as a Time Machine backup, but the speed of archival was ridiculously slow at between 1 - 1.5mb/s.\\nI'm returning mine since it's only good as an archival device for me. I can buy disks and toss it in my old computer to get better speeds.\",\n \"Product: 1800R curved monitor with 3000:1 contrast ratio provides a truly immersive viewing experience on a beautiful 32 screen. Featuring a glossy white design, the monitor boasts Game Mode technology which allows users to enjoy smooth images, even during the fastest moving scenes. With HDMI and Display Port inputs, you can easily connect any of your peripherals to enjoy on this Samsung monitor.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: (for two monitor setup) I really like this monitor\\n\\nReview: I had one of these already, and bought this one as a second monitor.\\nI use this with my 2017 Macbook Pro, using two USB-C to HDMI adapters. (for two monitor setup)\\nI really like this monitor, it works great for what I want it for. I'm not a gamer, but I do play games. \\\"Cities: Skylines\\\" looks amazing on it, and so does Kerbal Space Program. As you can see, I'm not into massive multiplayer online 1-week old shoot-em-ups so I can't speak for them.\\nTheres no latency that I can see, and being 1080p you can see pixels if you're very close. I use HDMI but it does have displayport.\\nThe display does have a semi-glossy surface, which usually isn't a problem for me unless there's lots of sun coming through the windows.\",\n \"Product: Monitor Desk Mount,Computer Monitor Stand\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: just like 8-12 or so turns before the right amount of ...\\n\\nReview: Before going too far I'll just throw my biggest gripe out there: The instructions are entirely in vague picture style. Just know there are two packs of screws for the monitors, each pack has two sets of screws. (A and B) You will need to pick one and find out which fits in your monitors vesa screw holes. I have samsung 32 inch monitors, and A worked. The next thing to know is for the arms, using the included hex wrench (allen) to screw towards the plus side to create more upward pressure. It does not require much energy, just like 8-12 or so turns before the right amount of pressure is there.\\nThe bottom table mount will require following the picture instructions. Basically screwing the 90 degree L shaped mount to the base, then screwing the bottom brace to the L shaped mount. Make sure you get the bottom brace screwed on SUPER tight to avoid pivoting when you rock the arms back and forth/around.\\nThis works great for my Samsung 32 inch (curved) monitors. I have like 8-12 inches of space between the monitors right now at fully height and stretch.\\nThe image I have uploaded is right after installing, so don't mind the odd crap everywhere that I kicked off of the table for the installation.\\n\\nEDIT January 7th 2018:\\nThe mount arms have been holding up very nicely. There has been no issues, and the monitors haven't been slipping/moving/dropping. My cat even gets underneath and bumps into it with all of his weight as he tries jumping to the ground (he's clumsy...), and it doesn't leave the position. I'm glad I picked it up.\",\n \"Product: For the runner who wants a comfortable and versatile product. UPPER: Mesh combined with a molded midfoot saddle delivers an excellent lightweight, supportive fit. MIDSOLE: Full-length Reslon midsole foam gives great cushioning and responsive ride. OUTSOLE: Combination outsole pattern for great cushioning, traction and durability.\\n\\nRating: 4.0\\n\\nSummary: I ordered the 10 (this order) and it's still a pretty snug fit\\n\\nReview: It's been ages since I've purchased Nike. I normally go with Sketcher or other brands, but I figured I would go with Nike since I'm doing more workouts and sprints. I normally wear 9.5 wide, and amazons size guide said to go with 9.5, so I did. I had to send it back since it was far too tight and short. I ordered the 10 (this order) and it's still a pretty snug fit... like so snug that everytime I'm putting on my shoe I'm guiding it around my foot and pressing my foto into it. Once it's in there its snug and not tearing at it, and is great at supporting lateral side to side motion. I'm still debating on whether I should just buy a set of sketchers and keep these for those times I need the lateral support. I'm going to wear them for the week and break them in, see how things pan out. I'd say just go a full size larger than your normal size if you're like I am, but that's just from my experience.\",\n \"Product: Hydro Flask's insulated water bottles are made of high quality food grade 18/8 stainless steel. The bottles have no liner (like most aluminum bottles) and are BPA free. Unlike plastic water bottles or single wall stainless bottles, Hydro Flask will keep your beverage of choice at your preferred temperature for hours, whether you choose hot, cold or room temperature liquids. All Hydro Flask products feature a lifetime warranty and are double wall vacuum insulated. They are designed to be lightweight, making them great for long hikes, days on the beach, hot yoga classes, golf, long road trips or everyday office use. Even when filled with ice, the exterior of your Hydro Flask will never leave a puddle on your desk, drip on your shirt, or sweat in your bag.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: They hold up pretty well, and the lid is nice and securely ...\\n\\nReview: I got these to hold my keto chow. Well, this time around at least, since I know I'll use them for many things.\\nI used them for the first time today, filling them up and putting them in the fridge until morning. They hold up pretty well, and the lid is nice and securely tight/sealed. I shook the water/heavy cream/powder solution in it without any issues, and had them every direction while in my backpack without any issues.\\nThe only thing I can see bad is the surface looks like it'll scratch the coloring off if they impact so I put them into pockets inside my backpack.\\nThis morning while drinking from it while driving, I noticed it controls the amount of liquid pouring out very consistently.\\nAnyway, I'm enjoying them\",\n \"Product: The Half Twist Light features the revolutionary new Half Twist cap. One can drink from either of the two openings in the contoured mouthpiece, while the other allows air to flow into the bottle, providing a smooth, even outflow of liquid. The cap requires just a half turn to the left to open and a half twist to the right seals the bottle, watertight. Theres no need to ever remove the cap to drink. The cap is fitted with a medical-grade silicone gasket, which prevents leaks, spills, or drips. The gaket is easily removed to facilitate thorough cleaning of both the cap and gasket. The bottle is made from high-density polyethylene, a durable and recyclable plastic which is BPA- and Phthalate-free. All components of the cap and bottle are dishwasher safe. Not freezer safe.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: This works great for what it's supposed to do\\n\\nReview: This works great for what it's supposed to do. I used it today to hold my soylent meal replacement beverage and it worked good for that. It takes a little bit to get the inner seal liner into place when you pull it out and wash it, but it's very simplistic in it's operation and that's what I like. Pretty much I tighten it down and tilt it upside down to get the silicon seal a little moist so it can hold onto the bottom instead of floating along with the top. Then, I can rotate the top 1/4-1/2 way and it raises the top away from the silicon seal so the liquid can pass through. The finger holder piece does become annoying to me, but it's easy to remove. I am glad I bought this for an inexpensive 24 oz beverage container.\",\n \"Product: Enjoy a cup of hot chocolate as the sunrises on the campsite or serve hot apple cider at the next thanksgiving celebration. This 20 quart Hot Pot will serve up to 80 servings of these delicious hot drinks making it perfect for any activity. The spigot style valve is quick and easy to use which also makes it great for washing dishes, food prep and hygiene needs in the outdoors.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: (the reason I got it) I like how quickly the water was able to absorb the ...\\n\\nReview: I used this for the first time last night to make tea for my kombucha. (the reason I got it)\\nI like how quickly the water was able to absorb the energy instead of needing to heat up lots of metal on the bottom first. I have a conical style metal filter that I normally use in a large mason jar to hold coffee grounds in for cold brew, and I added the tea into that then sat it down in the center to brew the tea. When the time came (after cooling to room temp), the spigot made it simple to sit the pot on the edge of where I wanted the tea to go and empty it out enough to lighten the container before pouring. All together a great pot, I'll definitely be using it again.\",\n \"Product: Many people are shocked to discover that diatomaceous earth can be used in 100 different ways. This naturally occurring substance is composed of diatoms that have fossilized over millennia in fresh water lakes. As time passed, these fossilized diatoms accumulated into huge deposits. When mined and ground into powder it becomes diatomaceous earth. Not all diatomaceous earth is created equal. DiatomaceousEarth specializes in providing clean, pure and effective food grade DE. Most diatomaceous earth suppliers simply hand scoop DE into zip lock baggies, but we are committed to providing you with diatomaceous earth you can trust. Everything at DiatomaceousEarth is professionally packaged using state of the art stainless steel equipment so you can be confident there arent any contaminants in your diatomaceous earth.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Excellent quality. I love not needing to worry about ...\\n\\nReview: Excellent quality. I love not needing to worry about how much I use! I bought this to fight off the roach and bed bugs in my house. It seems my neighborhood has gotten very ghetto-esque in that respect and suddenly I have roaches and bedbugs. I laid down a fine mist of this in my laundry room, kitchen corners, all along the bedroom floor, all over the metal bed frame, and let nature take it's course. After a day or two, I saw roaches laying in random places of the laundry room and kitchen area all dried up. Now, yes... it's not the cleanest way to handle it since it's a light dust and sticks to things. It's cleaner than the alternative of chemicals all over, however. Especially since I have 3 kittens/cats in the house. I was impressed in that respect since it's food grade and the worst it can do is make them drink more water if they eat any. It's also a good silica based dietary supplement. I've had 2 glasses so far, and I'm starting to make it into a regimen since it helps.\\n\\nJust know that this bag doesn't do a good job of holding it in once it's opened. It comes with a plastic bag around it, and I kept that on which helps. What I did is filled the container that came with it and closed the bag, then from there I fill the duster i purchased, along with sprinkling the carpets from the container directly.\",\n \"Product: The Measure Master Garden Syringes are great for measuring nutrients, supplements and pesticides. These syringes are a clean and accurate alternative to pouring liquids into a measuring cup or spoon. Using the Measure Master Garden Syringes eliminates splashing or spilling of liquids. Made of heavy duty plastic with easy to read measurements. Graduation measurements in milliliters and cc's. For gardening use only.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: and it worked wonderfully. The ONLY thing I'd change is adding a ...\\n\\nReview: I used this to add gear oil to my final drive on my motorcycle, and it worked wonderfully. The ONLY thing I'd change is adding a tiny hose to the end, but I knew that this did not have that from the beginning and I'm okay with that. (I just injected it fast to shoot it to the back of the drive case)\\nThis came with a tip piece to make the injector hole smaller, as well.\\nI filled this by removing the piston, capping the tip with my thumb, and filling to the desired amount minus 5 ml to compensate for the tip. I then slipped the piston back in with only the first seal entering at first, turned it 180 degrees to put the tip upwards, then pushed the piston up to seal completely and to remove any excess air. It's as simple as that, I don't see this not working in the near future, it's pretty solid plastic.\\nI know I won't use it too terribly often since I have one motorcycle and final drive oil is changed only once every 20,000-30,000 miles. Either way, it was well worth the money and I'd buy it again in a heartbeat.\",\n \"Product: Hertzko Self Cleaning Slicker Brush\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: Not much to say about this other than it works great\\n\\nReview: Not much to say about this other than it works great. I picked this up to use on my white cat who plays around outside through the winter (in Phoenix AZ) and grew some undercoat. I picked this up, pulled him onto my lap and just slid it across his fur without any pressure. it worked great, catching all hair that was getting on everything. He didn't seem to care either.\\nI used it on my other cat who wasn't as fluffy but needed to be cared for, and he even rolled over for his belly to be brushed. The bristles didn't seem to bother either one of them which was a great thing.\\nAfter, I walked to the trash can, pressed the button and the fur was in a matt on the surface of the brush after the bristles retracted into the head. Very easy to brush off into the trash, and done.\",\n \"Product: Keep your cupboards stocked with this Purina Friskies Shreds wet cat food variety pack, and let your cat select from all her favorite recipes at mealtime. Real beef, poultry or seafood in every serving gives her the tastes she loves along with the high-quality ingredients you expect from a trusted brand. The tender shredded textures tempt her to her dish, while the delectable gravies add a mouthwatering finishing touch to each recipe. Open a can to let the rich aroma lure your cat to her dish, and watch as she delights in the meow-worthy flavor combinations. With 100% complete and balanced nutrition for adult cats and kittens in every serving, this variety pack lets you feel good about the foods you put in her dish. Offer up a different variety at every feeding to let your cat companion know just how much you pay attention to her cravings. Try Purina Friskies Shreds wet food for cats today, and show your feline you care about her happiness and health.\\n\\nRating: 5.0\\n\\nSummary: and they both love it. Great to buy in bulk\\n\\nReview: I put down a container of this cat food per day for my 2 cats, and they both love it. Great to buy in bulk.\\n\\nEDIT 7/26/2017:\\nAfter a couple of weeks of feeding this to my cats, I have to say it was a great pick. My two cats have only eaten solid foods such as Iams or Blue Buffalo. I'm thinking this hits a carnal desire of my 2 cat, though. No matter the flavor I pick out, as soon as my hands go near the box to pull out a container both of them are meowing with wide eyes and circling my legs. If I didn't know any better, I'd swear they were coming in for the kill lol\\nThis week I'm running an experiment of removing any dry food from their diet and feeding them a can in the morning and a can in the evening, since they are communal eaters from one big glass container. So far they've been loving it, and the evening can has ended up being kind of a 'hello' between us. After they come and rest next to me as I'm sitting at my computer doing some things, which they didn't do much before.\\nEither way, it's a great price compared to what I've seen so far. The 32-can box makes it easy to calculate how many boxes I'll need per month, as well.\\n\\nEDIT December 1st 2017:\\nI've been ordering this to feed my 2 cats for 5 or so boxes so far, and they still love it. I like how inexpensive it is without being trash like some other brands.\"\n]","isConversational":false},"profile_size":{"kind":"number","value":21,"string":"21"},"task":{"kind":"string","value":"longlamp_3"},"split_kind":{"kind":"string","value":"user_based"},"id":{"kind":"number","value":1699,"string":"1,699"}}}],"truncated":false,"partial":false},"paginationData":{"pageIndex":16,"numItemsPerPage":100,"numTotalItems":14745,"offset":1600,"length":100}},"jwt":"eyJhbGciOiJFZERTQSIsImtpZCI6IjVHZDBvd0g5MTM2eDZjc1FvbE1zcktNWUZoRVFoUm5PVVVybEpjOUhaUEEifQ.eyJyZWFkIjp0cnVlLCJwZXJtaXNzaW9ucyI6eyJyZXBvLmNvbnRlbnQucmVhZCI6dHJ1ZX0sImlhdCI6MTc4NjMzNTg5NCwianRpIjoiYzE1MTA5YzMtMmNkYi00ZjkyLTk0ZmQtNjJjYmNiZDY0NWU2Iiwic3ViIjoiL2RhdGFzZXRzL01lbW9yeUFzTW9kYWxpdHkvTG9uZ0xhTVAtMyIsImV4cCI6MTc4NjMzOTQ5NCwiaXNzIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9odWdnaW5nZmFjZS5jbyJ9.gWpeIm9JtIn7KlO5cTKq-K7FhgkZrKJ4DM93a7reObjoylH3hJyLFX69CUJptrHkVjbPfIAy6Yuvfb3gogemAg","displayUrls":true,"splitSizeSummaries":[{"config":"default","split":"train","numRows":14745,"numBytesParquet":685612512},{"config":"default","split":"validation","numRows":1826,"numBytesParquet":81282560},{"config":"default","split":"test","numRows":1822,"numBytesParquet":90474619}]},"discussionsStats":{"closed":0,"open":1,"total":1},"fullWidth":true,"hasGatedAccess":true,"hasFullAccess":true,"isEmbedded":false,"savedQueries":{"community":[],"user":[]}}">
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A2JZE14RJAITQ8 | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "Strong quality pet waste bags. Very easy to open, each bag is marked at perforation for easy separation, no fumbling for where to tear the next bag. Guaranteed to be Leak-proof. Bags are Long and wi... | I love these bags. When we first got a dog I figured we could just use shopping bags to clean up after her. Apparently I didn't know how much dogs pooped or how little I shopped.
But these bags are the perfect solution. They are such a great value. 960 bags will last us well over a year. It's nice not to have to keep ... | I love these bags. When we first got a dog I figured we could just use shopping bags to clean up after her. Apparently I didn't know how much dogs pooped or how little I shopped.
But these bags are the perfect solution. They are such a great value. 960 bags will last us well over a year. It's nice not to have to keep ... | [
"Product: Package Sealing Tape, 3Core, 1-7/8x164, 6/PK, Clear\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Quality tape for a LONG time\n\nReview: My wife bought this when I said we needed tape. I was just planning on getting a medium sized roll and tape dispenser combo that I usually get. But then this came. At first I wasn't too t... | 24 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,600 |
A2FTAUIK8OPUEY | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "Susan Wise Bauer is a writer, educator, and historian. Her previous books include the Writing With Ease, Writing With Skill, and Story of the World series from Well-Trained Mind Press, as well as Th... | I have used the entire four year curriculum with 3 of my children and will use it with my fourth when she is old enough. Consequently I thought I should write a review of the program and why I love it.
Many famous authors began their writing by first copying down lines from accomplished authors before embarking on th... | I have used the entire four year curriculum with 3 of my children and will use it with my fourth when she is old enough. Consequently I thought I should write a review of the program and why I love it.
Many famous authors began their writing by first copying down lines from accomplished authors before embarking on th... | [
"Product: The Korg TM-50 allows the use of the tuner and metronome simultaneously. The TM-50 is features a two-level backlight that enhances the visibility of the LCD display. It uses a newly designed needle-style LCD for excellent response, and even greater tuning accuracy. The Sound Back function allows the speak... | 18 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,601 |
A2MI5PQBEII7O3 | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "1.0" for a product with description "The DEWALT DWFP12658 Coil Roofing Nailer has a compact body design for better balance and control with capabilities of: 70-120psi, 3/4" - 1-3/4" nails, capacity of 120. It has a tool-free, adjustabl... | As a retired contractor I've reviewed several De Walt products--all favorably. But this one's in a category all its own. It jammed 3 times in the first two shingles (8 nails!) and by the time I'd nailed two bundles (66.7 s/f) I'd cleared 22 jams. And that doesn't count the nearly comparable number of double fire nai... | As a retired contractor I've reviewed several De Walt products--all favorably. But this one's in a category all its own. It jammed 3 times in the first two shingles (8 nails!) and by the time I'd nailed two bundles (66.7 s/f) I'd cleared 22 jams. And that doesn't count the nearly comparable number of double fire nai... | [
"Product: Broan NuTone QP230BC 30\" Under Cabinet Range Hood - Bisque 350 CFM\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Some installation problem solutions...\n\nReview: A great 5-star range hood, but a 3-star challenge to install. It's heavier, deeper and taller than most hoods.\n\nIf you have to install it with duct fittings a... | 14 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,602 |
A1F93NA8HQ47IU | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "Quick Shipping !!! New And Sealed !!! This Disc WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. A multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player is request to view it in USA/Canada. Please Review Description.". The summ... | Well this film is that level of fun. After kicking into gear they quickly take an old and familiar setting and bring it into the modern day (figuratively that is, since this is actually set in the late 19th century). They manage to do this without making it too youth oriented. The true fun in this film will be in rewat... | Well this film is that level of fun. After kicking into gear they quickly take an old and familiar setting and bring it into the modern day (figuratively that is, since this is actually set in the late 19th century). They manage to do this without making it too youth oriented. The true fun in this film will be in rewat... | [
"Product: Hi, everybody! Fans of 90s sitcoms know those words mean Steve Urkel has come to call, bringing lots of geeky, goofy fun with him. A spinoff of Perfect Strangers, Family Matters began as the at-home adventures of elevator operator Harriette Winslow and her multigenerational family. But midway through the ... | 27 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,603 |
A3F390E40GBSW9 | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "4.0" for a product with description "LIKE NEW, LIMITED EDITION FRANKLIN LIBRARY LEATHER BOUND, 22 CARAT GILDED PAGES. In like new, unread condition, not price clipped, not library edition, not remainder marked.
Seller is a lifelong boo... | Having seen the Muppet's movie version of this book countless times over the years, I decided it was high time I read the original. While it would surprise my high school English teacher to learn I've developed a taste for the classics as an adult, I've never been able to warm to Dickens. I found his writing confusing ... | Having seen the Muppet's movie version of this book countless times over the years, I decided it was high time I read the original. While it would surprise my high school English teacher to learn I've developed a taste for the classics as an adult, I've never been able to warm to Dickens. I found his writing confusing ... | [
"Product: This set of six Fresh Orchard Apples scented wax cubes all fill your home with the scents and smells of an Apple Orchard. Simply place one wax cube in a designated wax melter and enjoy the scent for the next few hours.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Dupe for Yankee Candle Macintosh\n\nReview: This is the type... | 4 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,604 |
A3QVW8NFY4C4I1 | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "This is the first in a saga of books about Emma Harte and the business empire she created and ruled.". The summary of the review text is "Rags to riches story told over many years". | This book is the rags to riches story of Emma who goes from being a maid to eventually the president over her own empire. The story starts in the present when she is disheartened to learn of a plot against her and her company by her kids. The story then goes back in time to when it all began as a maid and the friends... | This book is the rags to riches story of Emma who goes from being a maid to eventually the president over her own empire. The story starts in the present when she is disheartened to learn of a plot against her and her company by her kids. The story then goes back in time to when it all began as a maid and the friends... | [
"Product: New technology lets you bypass cable and satellite companies and receive hundreds or crystal clear digital and HD shows for FREE. * Enjoy hundreds of the top-rated network shows, sporting events, sitcoms, local news & weather, kids programming, and more! * No contracts, no monthly fees. No unexpected pric... | 18 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,605 |
A2F3K3FCRVM1OQ | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "CABIN AIR FILTER, SUBARU FORESTER, FOR 2003-2008, OEM#G3010SA100. All TYC cabin air filters are manufactured with superior material and processes, with workmanship and performance backed by a compre... | It was easy to do. There are 9 screws you need to remove to get at the cabin air filter on the 2006 Subaru Forester. The instructions says 7 screws on top and 2 on the bottom. Though for the 2006 Forester, the instructions in the YTC box showing the screw location is off. Its actually on this 2006 Forester to be 5 Scr... | It was easy to do. There are 9 screws you need to remove to get at the cabin air filter on the 2006 Subaru Forester. The instructions says 7 screws on top and 2 on the bottom. Though for the 2006 Forester, the instructions in the YTC box showing the screw location is off. Its actually on this 2006 Forester to be 5 Scr... | [
"Product: At under 8 pounds, this ultra-lightweight upright vacuum easily converts into a handvacfor versatile floor-to-ceiling cleaning. It's equipped with swivel steering for excellent control when maneuvering around furniture, and offers two storage options: attach the hand vac to the bottom of the wand or secur... | 19 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,606 |
A1EZLLHWJULK2K | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "Michael Levine, called "Americas top undercover agent for 25 years," by 60 Minutes, is the New York Times bestselling author of Deep Cover, The Big White Lie and Triangle of Death, and one of the mo... | Levine wrote this book several years ago, but it has just recently come out in eBook form.
It's an extremely important, very well written book. He exposes the falseness of our so called, but phoney, "War on Drugs." He speaks first person, as a 25 year high level DEA undercover agent, of the undercutting of his and o... | Levine wrote this book several years ago, but it has just recently come out in eBook form.
It's an extremely important, very well written book. He exposes the falseness of our so called, but phoney, "War on Drugs." He speaks first person, as a 25 year high level DEA undercover agent, of the undercutting of his and o... | [
"Product: Apricorns SATA Wire is the ideal tool to upgrade your 2.5-Inch SATA or SSD drive in a Notebook or Netbook computer.Bundled with Apricorns EZ Gig II Cloning Software for PC and Shirt Pocket Cloning Software for Macs; this kit makes upgrading the main drive in your notebook straight forward and painless.If ... | 24 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,607 |
A3OW12V8O7G5LD | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "4.0" for a product with description "The Rubbermaid Commercial ProServe Full-Size Food Pan Insulated Carrier features four layers of insulation to keep foods hot or cold for up to four hours. Perfect for transporting food to catered ev... | I was pleasantly surprised to see how well made this is. The handles are not only comfortable to carry because they are round, but the positioning of the straps make it well balanced. The insulation system is so well appointed that you will get the full 4 hours , PLUS of keeping your things at the temp you want, even ... | I was pleasantly surprised to see how well made this is. The handles are not only comfortable to carry because they are round, but the positioning of the straps make it well balanced. The insulation system is so well appointed that you will get the full 4 hours , PLUS of keeping your things at the temp you want, even ... | [
"Product: The AcuRite 00613 Indoor Humidity Monitor provides all the home comfort information you need, at a glance. Featuring a precision indoor thermometer and hygrometer, and an easy-to-read LCD display, it shows current indoor humidity and temperature, plus daily high and low records. A handy home comfort icon ... | 37 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,608 |
AS6HL0VD7H8PA | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "2.0" for a product with description "During John Locke's career journey from rock and roll singer-to door-to-door salesman-to the creation of several multi-million dollar companies, he has encountered a wellspring of bizarre people fro... | This starts out with Sam Case on top of the world, having just had sex with an extremely beautiful woman. He brags obnoxiously about how he did it just by telling her he loved her.
Then his life goes downhill fast in a long series of events that are dramatic and confusing.
The trouble is, after they're explained in o... | This starts out with Sam Case on top of the world, having just had sex with an extremely beautiful woman. He brags obnoxiously about how he did it just by telling her he loved her.
Then his life goes downhill fast in a long series of events that are dramatic and confusing.
The trouble is, after they're explained in o... | [
"Product: A book by probably the most respected, an collected, stock market guru, Benjamin Graham.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: A must to understand how others invest\n\nReview: This classic work is practically the Bible of value of investing.\n\nI advise reading it to understand how the minds of value investors work... | 4 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,609 |
A3TRUWR1HWTCY2 | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "My name is Trinity Roberts, and I am a new author. I grew up in Washington State with a love for writing. When I was young I wrote short stories, fan fiction, and poetry. I thought about being a wri... | *I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*
And The Stars Fell Silent was a unique and brilliant debut for Trinity Roberts. The story takes place way into the future. We follow Skyler and her perfect life. Everything changes after the announcement. After that day, life on Earth will never be the ... | *I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*
And The Stars Fell Silent was a unique and brilliant debut for Trinity Roberts. The story takes place way into the future. We follow Skyler and her perfect life. Everything changes after the announcement. After that day, life on Earth will never be the ... | [
"Product: Lauren Runow is a lover of music and songs that speak to her or make her dance. She is a graduate from the Academy of Art in San Francisco and lives in Northern California with her husband and two wild and crazy boys. If shes not at her local CrossFit or working on the community magazine her husband and h... | 4 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,610 |
A2SDRCBPIAXVDW | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "Protect your favorite electronics with ease and convenience with the Acoustic Research Swivel Surge Protector. It has 6 AC outlets with a 90-degree swivel for quick and easy access to the outlets no... | This surge protector has worked very well so far. No lightning strikes as far as I know so I can only guess that that function should work. This surge protector is small and plugs directly into the wall which is what I needed since I am using this in a location in my house where I did not want a standard corded surge p... | This surge protector has worked very well so far. No lightning strikes as far as I know so I can only guess that that function should work. This surge protector is small and plugs directly into the wall which is what I needed since I am using this in a location in my house where I did not want a standard corded surge p... | [
"Product: The 50-767 includes motor and blower, support frame, 1 Micron Filtration Bag with Sewn-In Bag Ring, 6 mil plastic chip collection bag, (1) snap-in filter bag ring, (2) 4\" intake ports, (2) swivel caster assemblies, two large 8\" wheels, cord and plug.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: ... little work but for th... | 28 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,611 |
A7XO1DM6W3DOS | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "Greaseproof papers are perfect for a wide variety of baking and cooking needs. UPC: 770009010200 - If You Care Parchment Baking Paper, Unbleached Totally Chlorine-Free - 70 Ft - Greaseproof papers a... | I originally bought this just because it was cheaper than the regular parchment paper in the grocery store. I was therefore very pleasantly surprised to find out that it's actually much more useful than regular parchment paper.
The silicone non-stick coating is no joke. Before I got this, I would often line pans with ... | I originally bought this just because it was cheaper than the regular parchment paper in the grocery store. I was therefore very pleasantly surprised to find out that it's actually much more useful than regular parchment paper.
The silicone non-stick coating is no joke. Before I got this, I would often line pans with ... | [
"Product: Anthony's quest for the Golden Sunflower! Set out upon an adventure with Anthony the Ant on his quest for the Golden Sunflower. Help guide Anthonys marble around the Ant World to gather essential items along the way in the ultimate goal to reach the Golden Sunflower and save his colony. Face treacherous m... | 9 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,612 |
AGU2ZGUBFCJTJ | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "3.0" for a product with description "Adventure rules! As the spectacular Mummy series explodes into a new realm of breathtaking, non-stop action in The Scorpion King! Unleashing WWE superstar The Rock as the most feared warrior of the ... | Here's a real brain teaser for you: The Scorpion King is the prequel to the sequel to the remake of The Mummy. Confused yet? Let's hope not but if so then let's break it down for you. The Scorpion King is the new star vehicle for former WWE star Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. The Rock played a small role in The Mummy Retur... | Here's a real brain teaser for you: The Scorpion King is the prequel to the sequel to the remake of The Mummy. Confused yet? Let's hope not but if so then let's break it down for you. The Scorpion King is the new star vehicle for former WWE star Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. The Rock played a small role in The Mummy Retur... | [
"Product: DVD\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: The Moose Hole - Nothing but 'Burning Love' for this Film\n\nReview: Traditional animation has taken quite a few hits in recent years and some from the studio you would least suspect, Disney. Disney's last traditional animated effort, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, only managed ... | 42 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,613 |
AMZ2YFTY35CWV | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "Why choose TIDOO Jewellery? TIDOO is a well-known brand in the jewellery field.Its mission is to provide the most fashionable and beautiful and healthy accessories for fashion people.Each item under... | These starfish earrings are super adorable (and classy looking, always a plus :) Very nice gift for anyone who likes yellow gold and star fish! These are beautiful earrings! They are a nice size and very tasteful. These earrings are well made, shiny, sparkly and easy to put on and take off. Love that they are laced wit... | These starfish earrings are super adorable (and classy looking, always a plus :) Very nice gift for anyone who likes yellow gold and star fish! These are beautiful earrings! They are a nice size and very tasteful. These earrings are well made, shiny, sparkly and easy to put on and take off. Love that they are laced wit... | [
"Product: All Blades can store in the container after clean and dry. Super Compact, Lightweight and Versatile for your Healthy Meals\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: There is nothing better to slice or grate your own fresh veggies\n\nReview: My life just got a lot easier in the kitchen for me, I grate, chop and slice a l... | 15 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,614 |
A1VZLLDNLURGJB | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "For the first time ever, the original Frankenstein film comes to DVD in this extraordinary Legacy Collection. Included in the collection is the original classic, starring the renowned Boris Karloff,... | I couldn't possibly add to the well thought out and informed material that has already been sent in by prior writers. However, this is the film that started an avalanche of what we now refer to as classic horror. We all owe a debt of thanks to Universal for their pioneering and profitable efforts which many studios cop... | I couldn't possibly add to the well thought out and informed material that has already been sent in by prior writers. However, this is the film that started an avalanche of what we now refer to as classic horror. We all owe a debt of thanks to Universal for their pioneering and profitable efforts which many studios cop... | [
"Product: A comic reinvention of the Bela Lugosi classic about a Transylvanian vampire who works his evil spell on a perplexed group of Londoners.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Dracula - Dead and Loving It- Great!\n\nReview: Dracula - Dead and Loving It was a full five star comedy horror film by Mel Brooks. This movi... | 48 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,615 |
A1Y2R2TOJJEOE3 | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "3.0" for a product with description "THORIN OAKENSHIELD AND THE DWARVES OF EREBOR have reclaimed the vast wealth of their homeland, but now face the consequences of having unleashed the terrifying Dragon Smaug upon Lake-town. Meanwhile... | As someone who really enjoyed the first two Hobbit movies, this was the first time I felt like I was watching something that was incomplete. I know that Peter Jackson saves a lot of material for the extended edition, but usually the theatrical versions can stand on their own. This one didn't seem to do it. Many majo... | As someone who really enjoyed the first two Hobbit movies, this was the first time I felt like I was watching something that was incomplete. I know that Peter Jackson saves a lot of material for the extended edition, but usually the theatrical versions can stand on their own. This one didn't seem to do it. Many majo... | [
"Product: PINK FLOYD The Endless River CD\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: A different, but very good Pink Floyd album\n\nReview: Like others have said, if you go into this album with an open mind, and not try to compare it with the Pink Floyd classics of the 70's, you will probably like it. If you liked \"The Division ... | 22 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,616 |
A15HMVAJ0NTDKV | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "Diophy brings you an exclusive collection of fashion handbags. This handbag is definitely a trend setter with will stand out wherever you go. Made of PU Leather with high-qualified hardware parts ma... | <div id="video-block-R2OEJCBWZU6EPV" class="a-section a-spacing-small a-spacing-top-mini video-block"></div><input type="hidden" name="" value="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/D1hBd7KeTTS.mp4" class="video-url"><input type="hidden" name="" value="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/A12WD4R... | <div id="video-block-R2OEJCBWZU6EPV" class="a-section a-spacing-small a-spacing-top-mini video-block"></div><input type="hidden" name="" value="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/D1hBd7KeTTS.mp4" class="video-url"><input type="hidden" name="" value="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/A12WD4R... | [
"Product: Bulk of SIZE of this Tunisian Sets - 2mm, 2.5mm, 3mm, 3.5mm, 4mm, 4.5mm, 5.0mm, 5.5mm, 6.0mm, 7mm, 8mm, 9mm (2mm, 2.5mm, 3mm, US4, US6, US7, US8, US9, 7mm, US11, US13 ) LENGTH - 10.5\" and MATERAIL - Aluminium STURDY AND SMOOTH - The hooks of this afghans kits hooks and shafts are smooth, with no snagging... | 18 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,617 |
A3O536E2YOKK4Y | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "Tom Deese (Charles Shaughnessy) never could have imagined betraying his only, beloved daughter Patty (Kerrie Keane) by falling in love with her college roommate Amanda (Charlotte Ross).". The summar... | RELEASED TO TV IN 1996 and directed by Chuck Bowman, "A Kiss So Deadly" is a drama with elements of romance & crime starring Charles Shaughnessy as Tom Deese, a concerned father whos concerned about his daughter who moved out to live on her own (Dedee Pfeiffer). Living with two roommates on the North Carolina coast (C... | RELEASED TO TV IN 1996 and directed by Chuck Bowman, "A Kiss So Deadly" is a drama with elements of romance & crime starring Charles Shaughnessy as Tom Deese, a concerned father whos concerned about his daughter who moved out to live on her own (Dedee Pfeiffer). Living with two roommates on the North Carolina coast (C... | [
"Product: During World War 2 a squad of Czech expatriates are parachuted into Czechoslovakia in order to assassinate the German governor Reinhard Heydrich. Operation Daybreak, based on a true story, details the preparations, execution, and aftermath of this operation.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Riveting, sad real-l... | 200 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,618 |
AVQPY4RTQT93I | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "Unabridged CD Audiobook 8 CDs / 10 Hours long". The summary of the review text is "Vampires in St. Louis, where the nightlife is - unusual...". | The start of a great vampire series! Those who already know that they like vampire novels, anything at all that features a vampire, can skip this review, and likewise, those who hate the whole idea of vampires can skip it. But for those trying to decide whether or not to read more of this genre, or whether the one vamp... | The start of a great vampire series! Those who already know that they like vampire novels, anything at all that features a vampire, can skip this review, and likewise, those who hate the whole idea of vampires can skip it. But for those trying to decide whether or not to read more of this genre, or whether the one vamp... | [
"Product: Package Included:Set of 6 piece spoons\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Good value, decent quality\n\nReview: If you are a family of 2 and you hate to run the dishwasher after one meal because it's still mostly empty, then you need enough tableware for 3 or 4 meals in a row, until the dishwasher is full. These ... | 6 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,619 |
AM66MDMCMTQZ3 | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "The Corrections is a 2001 novel by American author Jonathan Franzen. It revolves around the troubles of an elderly Midwestern couple and their three adult children, tracing their lives from the mid-... | What more can be said about one of the most talked about Oprah choices (even if it didn't remain such for long)? The bare bones of this story sound very boring - retired Alfred and his wife Enid live in the American Mid-West - he is fading into Parkinson's disease, she is trying to ignore this fact. Their three grown c... | What more can be said about one of the most talked about Oprah choices (even if it didn't remain such for long)? The bare bones of this story sound very boring - retired Alfred and his wife Enid live in the American Mid-West - he is fading into Parkinson's disease, she is trying to ignore this fact. Their three grown c... | [
"Product: Michael Cunningham was raised in Los Angeles and now lives in New York. His first novel 'A Home at the End of the World' was published in 1990, and his second 'Flesh and Blood' in 1995. 'The Hours' was awarded both the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the 1999 PEN/Faulkner Award.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSumm... | 9 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,620 |
A19FAQLQEKN54F | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "3.0" for a product with description "The Japanese edition includes a bonus track: 'Girl from Yesterday'". The summary of the review text is "I'm sorry, but I've got 'hateration' on this cd...". | I LOVE Mary J. Blige. I think that her raspy, powerful at times Tina Turneresque voice is one of the best around, but 'No More Drama' is missing something...good music and lyrics. For the life of me I couldn't figure out the meaning of 'dancery' 'holleration' and other Mary J. jargon with which this album is peppered. ... | I LOVE Mary J. Blige. I think that her raspy, powerful at times Tina Turneresque voice is one of the best around, but 'No More Drama' is missing something...good music and lyrics. For the life of me I couldn't figure out the meaning of 'dancery' 'holleration' and other Mary J. jargon with which this album is peppered. ... | [
"Product: VHS Tape\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: She IS the 'Queen of the Night'!!!\n\nReview: I can't believe I have waited so long to purchase this DVD. As i child of the '80s, I grew up on Whitney's music, and I am glad that I now have the opportunity to revisit these classics! She has an AMAZING voice.\n The vid... | 11 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,621 |
A1H3S4KTB6QJ8H | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "mental and physical strengthing book". The summary of the review text is "Excellent book...easy to digest and gets you RESULTS!". | I found this to be a very helpful and inspirational book. Bill Phillips sits you down and gives you a step-by-step system for achieving RESULTS. I like his easy-going style and the way he relays his knowledge to readers without overwhelming them. I actually read the book through twice, took meticulous notes, and then c... | I found this to be a very helpful and inspirational book. Bill Phillips sits you down and gives you a step-by-step system for achieving RESULTS. I like his easy-going style and the way he relays his knowledge to readers without overwhelming them. I actually read the book through twice, took meticulous notes, and then c... | [
"Product: run time 2 hour 12 mins.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: A GREAT lesson on how to motivate people!\n\nReview: Okay, language issues aside, Julia Roberts SHINES as the real-life Erin Brockovich, a dogged, unabashed crusader for justice.\nErin accidentally finds out that several hundred unsuspecting residents of... | 8 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,622 |
A1BJJVV2B5VLUQ | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "Kamelot inked their recording contract in 1994 and released their debut, Eternity, the following August. The press praised the album as one of the most promising first offerings ever. 1996 saw the a... | THE BAND: Roy S. Khan (vocals), Thomas Youngblood (guitar), Glenn Barry (bass), Casey Grillo (drums & percussion).
THE DISC: Released in 2005. Recorded at Gate Studios in Wolfsburg, Germany. 14 tracks clocking in at approximately 54 minutes. An 18-page booklet with band photos and lyrics are included.
COMMENTS: How d... | THE BAND: Roy S. Khan (vocals), Thomas Youngblood (guitar), Glenn Barry (bass), Casey Grillo (drums & percussion).
THE DISC: Released in 2005. Recorded at Gate Studios in Wolfsburg, Germany. 14 tracks clocking in at approximately 54 minutes. An 18-page booklet with band photos and lyrics are included.
COMMENTS: How d... | [
"Product: Second studio album release, twelve tracks.\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: Is this a BROADWAY soundtrack or a ROCK album?\n\nReview: THE BAND: Brandon Flowers (vocals, synthesizer, piano, bass), Dave Keuning (guitar), Mark Stoermer (bass), Ronnie Vannucci (drums & percussion). Hailing from Las Vegas, NV.\n\nT... | 163 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,623 |
A2VYA302TO2K1C | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "Manhasset M48 Symphony Stand Perfect for orchestras, school bands, and individual musicians that demand high quality and durability. This is Manhasset's most popular music stand. The Manhasset Symph... | I will now unfairly compare this to an identical Manhasset music stand I procured 40+ year ago. This stand has only been changed very slightly in all these years. The table is made out of slightly thinner aluminum and the joint that now holds the table to the stand is now made out of some type of plastic. There is also... | I will now unfairly compare this to an identical Manhasset music stand I procured 40+ year ago. This stand has only been changed very slightly in all these years. The table is made out of slightly thinner aluminum and the joint that now holds the table to the stand is now made out of some type of plastic. There is also... | [
"Product: This four slice model features extra wide slots, adjustable electronic controls with blue backlit displays, integrated warming racks, and independent controls for cancel/eject, defrost, and reheat. This feature packed unit is complimented by a stainless steel brushed housing.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Do... | 17 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,624 |
A3D7L0R1281COX | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "1st Edition Perennial by Harper. Age-toned pages. Scuffs to covers. Tidy owners name written to inside of cover - otherwise clean interior with no stamps etc.". The summary of the review text is "Ut... | Brave New World describes a paradigm for a new stable world, where arts are surpressed, faith and God are abolished, a caste system is created into which people are trained to think and work right from their births, sexual pleasures are promoted and "soma" present a ready refuge from every sorrow, every burst of adreli... | Brave New World describes a paradigm for a new stable world, where arts are surpressed, faith and God are abolished, a caste system is created into which people are trained to think and work right from their births, sexual pleasures are promoted and "soma" present a ready refuge from every sorrow, every burst of adreli... | [
"Product: Live-action language learning video series of traveler's essentials designed for your iPod, iPhone, or other portable media player. See and hear the words and phrases spoken as well as real conversations -- all with English and target language subtitles to enhance learning wherever you are. Includes gramm... | 17 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,625 |
A1ZETZ6220D898 | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "Award-winning author Jean Lowe Carlson writes adventurous epic fantasy fiction with a dark twist. Exciting, challenging, and passionate, her novels take the reader upon dire adventures while explori... | So this 2nd book in the Kingsmen Chronicles is read, and its breathtaking till the last page, full of twists and turns, political intrigue and traitors galore! The magic element in this 2nd book is even stronger than the first book and the alranstones and the seers are all coming into their own too! There is great sadn... | So this 2nd book in the Kingsmen Chronicles is read, and its breathtaking till the last page, full of twists and turns, political intrigue and traitors galore! The magic element in this 2nd book is even stronger than the first book and the alranstones and the seers are all coming into their own too! There is great sadn... | [
"Product: Michael Robertson is a writer of dark post-apocalyptic fiction, horror, and science fiction. He's been writing for over fifteen years and has been published in several anthologies and magazines, as well as being published by HarperCollins. As a father of two young children, he writes when he can, which is... | 7 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,626 |
ADGTWXUG0IM37 | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "3.0" for a product with description "A seismologist and a miner must stop a massive earthquake that threatens to tear the world in half.". The summary of the review text is "It ok, but nothing great". | We start in the hills of West Virginia where Charley "Boomer" Baxter (Eriq LaSalle) is blasting a mountain. By accident, Baxter set off a masssive earthquake that is felt as away as Washington D.C. were Dr. Amy Lane (Brittany Mruhpyy)is with her fmaily. Within a giant Megafault is created that is racing across the coun... | We start in the hills of West Virginia where Charley "Boomer" Baxter (Eriq LaSalle) is blasting a mountain. By accident, Baxter set off a masssive earthquake that is felt as away as Washington D.C. were Dr. Amy Lane (Brittany Mruhpyy)is with her fmaily. Within a giant Megafault is created that is racing across the coun... | [
"Product: dvd\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: Not really that good\n\nReview: Let me say first that I never read \"The Hunger Games\" by Suzanne Collins and maybe if I had I would life the movie more. But since I have not I can only just \"The Hunger Games\" the movie. After watching it, I can safety say that I will no... | 7 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,627 |
A1XQMQMF07QZQS | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "This 100% waterproof, breathable hat is made from Frogg Toggs Classic Fabric and is totally crushable and packable for easy traveling. The bucket hat features a short, round brim; 1 inch internal ba... | This is my first Frogg Toggs product - and I am very impressed. I wanted a lightweight sun/rain hat for travel which also looked decent, and this one wins on all counts. I have a Sun Precautions wide brim cotton hat, but it doesn't look nearly as nice as this one, it is heavier, and it isn't water proof - and I wish I ... | This is my first Frogg Toggs product - and I am very impressed. I wanted a lightweight sun/rain hat for travel which also looked decent, and this one wins on all counts. I have a Sun Precautions wide brim cotton hat, but it doesn't look nearly as nice as this one, it is heavier, and it isn't water proof - and I wish I ... | [
"Product: Quickly and safely cut fruits, vegetables, nuts and more with the OXO Good Grips Chopper. Use the Chopper directly on your favorite cutting board or with the included easy-measure cup. Simply place your ingredients inside the cup and press down on the non-slip knob to chop. A tab rotates inside the contai... | 28 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,628 |
A1AAYBKPTL97JE | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "4.0" for a product with description "Stephen Crane (1871-1900), American novelist, poet, and short-story writer, best known for his novels Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893) and The Red Badge of Courage (1895) and the short stories &... | Because the novel _The Red Badge of Courage_ is in so many editions, I'm not going to write a review of the novel per se. There are plenty of opinions out there. Instead, I'll talk about why makes this a uniquely difficult (and yet rewarding) reading experience and what stands out about this particular edition.
Crane'... | Because the novel _The Red Badge of Courage_ is in so many editions, I'm not going to write a review of the novel per se. There are plenty of opinions out there. Instead, I'll talk about why makes this a uniquely difficult (and yet rewarding) reading experience and what stands out about this particular edition.
Crane'... | [
"Product: Victory at Sea - 2 DVD Set! The Emmy Award-winning series Victory at Sea brings you the epic story of the greatest sea battles of World War II, in 26 thrilling half-hour episodes, over 11 hours in all. Edited from over 13,000 hours of combat footage captured by Allied, German and Japanese cameramen, Victo... | 8 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,629 |
A3PLI8V9LTC6MF | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "The Logitech Wireless Keyboard K360 is beautifully convenient and conveniently compact thanks to its space-saving design, familiar layout, 3-year battery life, and Internet and media hot keys.". The... | I really like the feel and reliability of this, and how easily it was to install.
Two FYI's per my experience customers should be aware of:
1). In my experience with a 7 year old desktop HP PC, the bios would NOT detect the keyboard. So serious users will definitely need another keyboard to have access to their BIO... | I really like the feel and reliability of this, and how easily it was to install.
Two FYI's per my experience customers should be aware of:
1). In my experience with a 7 year old desktop HP PC, the bios would NOT detect the keyboard. So serious users will definitely need another keyboard to have access to their BIO... | [
"Product: The game has won a handful of awards, including Best Strategy Software in November 1995 by PC Gamer magazine, and the Codie Award for Best Strategy Software in 1996.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Great classic turn based DOS game\n\nReview: This is a great classic DOS game. I'm crowding 60 and been playing ... | 17 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,630 |
AU1VEF29CUKX | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "3.0" for a product with description ""In celebration of 10 years in print comes an updated collector's edition of Bill Granger's bestselling first cookbook Bills Sydney Food. With new iconic Sydney photography and a fresh design in a n... | Bill Granger's "Sydney Food" contains recipes featured at Bill Granger's Sydney, Australia restaurants. Granger's belief that taste is more important than appearance is refreshingly healthy; he stresses freshness and flavour, not looks. His recipes have been thoroughly tested and his instructions are easy for the home ... | Bill Granger's "Sydney Food" contains recipes featured at Bill Granger's Sydney, Australia restaurants. Granger's belief that taste is more important than appearance is refreshingly healthy; he stresses freshness and flavour, not looks. His recipes have been thoroughly tested and his instructions are easy for the home ... | [
"Product: Strength, simplicity and safety inspired the design of our Professional Mandoline. From delicious gratins to delicate julienned carrots, our Professional Mandoline is a necessity in the kitchen. This mandoline features a blade adjustment knob for a seamless change between the built-in slicing and waffle b... | 4 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,631 |
A2L5R1F9WALW7W | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "4.0" for a product with description "Sunlite LED lamps are extremely energy efficient and will greatly reduce your energy costs. These lamps can last up to 25,000 hours making them virtually maintenance free. They contain no mercury el... | These seem like a good LED floodlight bulb. If you look at some of the standard charts for converting lumens to typical incandescent bulb wattage, the manufacturer's claim that this 600 lumen bulb can replace a 60 watt incandescent bulb might seem exaggerated, since typical incandescent 60W bulbs put out around 800 lum... | These seem like a good LED floodlight bulb. If you look at some of the standard charts for converting lumens to typical incandescent bulb wattage, the manufacturer's claim that this 600 lumen bulb can replace a 60 watt incandescent bulb might seem exaggerated, since typical incandescent 60W bulbs put out around 800 lum... | [
"Product: Highlights: Roll Width: 1-7/8\" Roll Length: 12 yard UV Resistant Color: Gray Packaging Type: Roll Material: Polyethylene Coated Cloth Pattern Type: Solid Color Usage: Multipurpose Thickness: 17 mm Ferociously strong tape Built with UV resistant materials allowing its thick skin to block out the suns hars... | 41 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,632 |
AK12P9I5UPRZW | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "Polar A360 :: This waterproof fitness tracker is the first to have both a wrist-based heart rate monitor and Polar personalized training guidance, as well 24/7 activity tracking. It even has smart w... | I have owned and worn the Polar A360 for 3 months and I absolutely love it! I wear it day and night. The reason that I picked the A360 was because I wanted to do heart rate zone training on my indoor bike and I really didn't want to use a chest strap.
The watch has a blank screen most of the time, which really extends... | I have owned and worn the Polar A360 for 3 months and I absolutely love it! I wear it day and night. The reason that I picked the A360 was because I wanted to do heart rate zone training on my indoor bike and I really didn't want to use a chest strap.
The watch has a blank screen most of the time, which really extends... | [
"Product: An inclined sleeper and playtime seat in one-now with calming vibrations. The inclined seat helps baby sleep all night long A gentle push from mom rocks the sleeper back and forth Additional features include a light-weight design for portability and storage, three-point restraint and linkable tether Inser... | 5 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,633 |
A3U1WPDQLP9CQ | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "4.0" for a product with description ""New! Spark imaginations with the LeapPad Glo learning tablet from LeapFrog, makers of the #1 kids' learning tablets. LeapPad Glo is a 5" tablet for ages 3 to 9 with 9 included apps.LeapPad Glo has ... | The LeapPad 2 is a sturdy tablet that is both fun and educational, and well suited for the younger demographic (ages 3 and up). The buttons are easy to use and the graphics are kid friendly and easy to navigate. The stylus is attached to the device already which is nice as they are easy to lose otherwise.
Set-up was m... | The LeapPad 2 is a sturdy tablet that is both fun and educational, and well suited for the younger demographic (ages 3 and up). The buttons are easy to use and the graphics are kid friendly and easy to navigate. The stylus is attached to the device already which is nice as they are easy to lose otherwise.
Set-up was m... | [
"Product: EN520R Color: Red Features: -Welcome kit with Nespresso capsules included. -Easy-to-use coffee capsule system - simply load the capsule into the machine and push the button. -Capsules are automatically ejected into a holding tank after the brew is completed (holds up to 10 at a time). -Illuminated control... | 17 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,634 |
A1TQUIXZP5HVNH | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "100% Cotton Wick is of superior quality even when compared to more popular brands such as Dietz and Lamplight. Weve worked hard in finding the highest quality replacement wick available. This cotton... | This should last for a REALLY long time! It does a good job of wicking oil and it started okay. Once it got going, it acted as I'd expect any wick to, steadily burning until all the oil available was gone. Works as expected - not sure what more I could want. Don't know that I'll ever need to buy more wick - this is ... | This should last for a REALLY long time! It does a good job of wicking oil and it started okay. Once it got going, it acted as I'd expect any wick to, steadily burning until all the oil available was gone. Works as expected - not sure what more I could want. Don't know that I'll ever need to buy more wick - this is ... | [
"Product: Fiber One Protein Caramel Nut Chewy Bars 5-1.17 oz. Wrappers\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: The caramel is NOT creamy like the picture would have you believe\n\nReview: So, I'm a little disappointed by the picture on the box. It gives the illusion of creamy caramel that'll string out when you break the bar o... | 48 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,635 |
A2QNJARWTF9H89 | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "Quick Shipping !!! New And Sealed !!! This Disc WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. A multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player is request to view it in USA/Canada. Please Review Description.". The summ... | I'm prompted to write this review because it appears to me that many other reviewers didn't grasp the whole plot. If you haven't
seen this movie already PLEASE DO NOT READ MY REVIEW! Go watch the movie first, and then come back for my opinion on what this movie is about.
As other people have stated, Audition is a mov... | I'm prompted to write this review because it appears to me that many other reviewers didn't grasp the whole plot. If you haven't
seen this movie already PLEASE DO NOT READ MY REVIEW! Go watch the movie first, and then come back for my opinion on what this movie is about.
As other people have stated, Audition is a mov... | [
"Product: Cento Peeled Plum Tomatoes, Italian Style with Basil Leaf, 28 Oz\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: False and misleading product data, but they do taste good\n\nReview: The Amazon product info claims they are a certified organic product. The picture claims DOP certified. Neither appears to be true. The cans I ... | 25 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,636 |
A1S7YQQGJPPFLG | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "4.0" for a product with description "Mario Party 10 has tons of fun new ways to play, challenge, and triumph over your friends, with new modes and a wealth of other exciting goodies. Strategize your way around a variety of unique board... | My family and I are big fans of Mario Party 8. We enjoy playing Mario Party 9, but 8 has always been the game we play the most. We were very exicted for Mario Party 10 to come out.
10 is a lot like 9 in the fact that everyone travels in the same vehicle ( something we really don't like) Its nice to have some new mini g... | My family and I are big fans of Mario Party 8. We enjoy playing Mario Party 9, but 8 has always been the game we play the most. We were very exicted for Mario Party 10 to come out.
10 is a lot like 9 in the fact that everyone travels in the same vehicle ( something we really don't like) Its nice to have some new mini g... | [
"Product: Includes: Curio, 8.5 in x 6 in base, cutting mat, & embossing mat, embossing tips (fine & wide), AC adapter, USB cord, Software CD.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Stippling Metal on the Curio\n\nReview: Lots of the reviews on here give you great info on the machine and the embossing feature, so I am just goin... | 23 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,637 |
ABO2ZI2Y5DQ9T | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "3.0" for a product with description "A family is held hostage for harboring the target of a murderous syndicate during the Purge, a 12-hour period in which any and all crime is legalized.". The summary of the review text is "Not Bad as... | The Purge is a kind of movie Ethan Hawke has been doing these days when not working for Richard Linklater. It is a low-budget thriller with a few nice ideas that could have been executed in a better way. It is not that the film is a terrible mess. It is rather that the film failed to fully exploit its potential as a th... | The Purge is a kind of movie Ethan Hawke has been doing these days when not working for Richard Linklater. It is a low-budget thriller with a few nice ideas that could have been executed in a better way. It is not that the film is a terrible mess. It is rather that the film failed to fully exploit its potential as a th... | [
"Product: When his daughter and her friend go missing, Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) decides he must take matters into his own hands as Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) and the police pursue multiple leads but come no closer to finding the missing girls. However, as the pressure mounts Keller s desperation increases ... | 200 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,638 |
A1WOUY5L8GWN39 | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "4.0" for a product with description "Sarah Wendell is author of the book Everything I Know About Love, I Learned from Romance Novels, and co-author of Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches Guide to Romance Novels. Sarah is also the ... | This was a slow start for me. I wasn't quite sure what I was getting. The hero and heroine, Jeremy and Genevieve both seemed very young with their back chat and enthusiasm for camp activities. Camp Meira is a Jewish camp, hosting a Hannukah overnight holiday in December for the first time. Jeremy and Gen are long term ... | This was a slow start for me. I wasn't quite sure what I was getting. The hero and heroine, Jeremy and Genevieve both seemed very young with their back chat and enthusiasm for camp activities. Camp Meira is a Jewish camp, hosting a Hannukah overnight holiday in December for the first time. Jeremy and Gen are long term ... | [
"Product: USA Today bestselling author Sarah Morgan writes contemporary romance and women's fiction. Her trademark humour and warmth have gained her fans across the globe and three RITA® Awards from the Romance Writers of America. Sarah lives with her family near London, England, where the rain frequently k... | 10 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,639 |
A1ABGTGJTCD6S9 | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "4.0" for a product with description "Controls 4 devices with 1 remote Easy to setup with pre-programmed codes". The summary of the review text is "It works with TCL TV's. It's not listed but it works.". | A very cheap remote that will operate the TCL's basic features is the ONN ONA12AV058. They are under five dollars at Wally Mart. It's not the greatest as far as button size but it fits in your hand nicely and places your thumb right over the Volume, Mute, and Channel buttons.
I don't know what code it is using becaus... | A very cheap remote that will operate the TCL's basic features is the ONN ONA12AV058. They are under five dollars at Wally Mart. It's not the greatest as far as button size but it fits in your hand nicely and places your thumb right over the Volume, Mute, and Channel buttons.
I don't know what code it is using becaus... | [
"Product: 4/4 Beginner's Violin Set with Carrying Case and Accessories\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: Looks nice but they didn't bother to notch the bridge. Unuseable.\n\nReview: Talk about being disappointed. Nothing worse than looking forward to setting this up and finding that I really can't do anything because the ... | 20 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,640 |
A3MDRYQC8ZSUJQ | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "PAL/Region 0. Double-disc German edition of the film known as 'Downfall' in the US. It's the last days of Adolf Hitler, April 1945, and Hitler's personal secretary Traudl Junge finds herself in the ... | You want a real treat? Watch this marvelous movie in German, with English subtitles. You'll then get the true essence of Bruno Ganz incredible rendition of Hitler. I was truly amazed by Ganz's work in the theater, and even more so when watching Downfall at home in German.
The life in the bunker, when all was lost, was... | You want a real treat? Watch this marvelous movie in German, with English subtitles. You'll then get the true essence of Bruno Ganz incredible rendition of Hitler. I was truly amazed by Ganz's work in the theater, and even more so when watching Downfall at home in German.
The life in the bunker, when all was lost, was... | [
"Product: The true story of the remarkable John Rae - Arctic traveller and Hudson's Bay Company doctor - a tale of imperial ambition and high adventure. In 1854 Rae solved the two great Arctic mysteries: the fate of the doomed Franklin expedition and the location of the last navigable link in the Northwest Passage.... | 5 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,641 |
A1QA2NTJYW5W0C | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "4.0" for a product with description "NOTICE: Polish Release, cover may contain Polish text/markings. The disk has English audio. Retired C.I.A. agent Frank Moses reunites his unlikely team of elite operatives for a global quest to trac... | The ensemble cast include some of my favorite players and they are all funny in their turns. Bruce Willis playing his usual Die Hard Persona for laughs is taking care of his would be homicidal love interest Mary-Louise Parker. It should be noted that she loses her new shiny Walther the first time she uses it. Helen ... | The ensemble cast include some of my favorite players and they are all funny in their turns. Bruce Willis playing his usual Die Hard Persona for laughs is taking care of his would be homicidal love interest Mary-Louise Parker. It should be noted that she loses her new shiny Walther the first time she uses it. Helen ... | [
"Product: This Stainless Steel Seasoning Injector has a 2-oz. Capacity and comes with 2 Stainless Steel Needles: 1 for Liquid Marinaide & 1 for Minced Marinaide.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Makes You Feel Like a Mad Doctor\n\nReview: This is a solidly built Marinade injector. The parts are well made. I would assum... | 15 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,642 |
A2KFFE8V9FUKN3 | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "Soothe your mind and nourish your soul while listening to your favorite music or meditation with Omphones Positive Energy Mala Headphones. Conceptually innovative and acoustically superior to tradit... | This is the most unique and innovative idea I have seen in a long time. I am a medium and intuitive reader. I love anything that brings a touch of spirituality into daily life. The merging of something spiritual like meditation, with something technical like headphones, is so interesting. It is a great way to remind yo... | This is the most unique and innovative idea I have seen in a long time. I am a medium and intuitive reader. I love anything that brings a touch of spirituality into daily life. The merging of something spiritual like meditation, with something technical like headphones, is so interesting. It is a great way to remind yo... | [
"Product: These FAPF02 Filtrete Air Purifier replacement filters 15 x 9 x 1 by Tier1 are designed to fit 3M Filtrete air purifiers. They provide better than HEPA performance by capturing up to 99.9% of all airborne dirt, dust and dander particles. Sized at 15x9x1, these filters are an economically priced way to ens... | 10 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,643 |
A1HF8PDY0M27Q3 | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "Control the flow of water with the turn of the knob. Have the water flowing from full on (6.5gpm @ 50psi) or down to a trickle or any flow in between (not 100% shut-off.)". The summary of the review... | Bought this because a low-flow showerhead wasn't working for me and my wife. It took more water to rinse off with the low-flow showerhead. I decided to try a shutoff valve. I had one once before but it wouldn't shutoff enough of the water flow to make it comfortable to use.
Saw this one and liked it due to it being al... | Bought this because a low-flow showerhead wasn't working for me and my wife. It took more water to rinse off with the low-flow showerhead. I decided to try a shutoff valve. I had one once before but it wouldn't shutoff enough of the water flow to make it comfortable to use.
Saw this one and liked it due to it being al... | [
"Product: Espoma bm4 4-pound bone meal 4-12-0\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Works really well but keep your dogs away from it!\n\nReview: I applied this to some flowers/roses, some tomato plants and some peppers. My roses and all the flowers I put it on are doing really well. Our rose flowers are huge and there are a ... | 27 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,644 |
AOXMWBNDZDJ9L | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "For anyone who changes positions during the night, this pillow is curved for comfort and shaped for support. The softly curved shape ensures gentle, therapeutic support for the shoulders of side sle... | I love this pillow. It is actually really heavy and sturdy, but not in the sense that your head cannot sink into it at all. The curved shaped is so comfortable because you can really snuggle into it and your head and neck are well-supported, but not being held up in an uncomfortable position. I cannot stand pillows tha... | I love this pillow. It is actually really heavy and sturdy, but not in the sense that your head cannot sink into it at all. The curved shaped is so comfortable because you can really snuggle into it and your head and neck are well-supported, but not being held up in an uncomfortable position. I cannot stand pillows tha... | [
"Product: ONE WARRIOR TWO SOULS\nRETURN TO HOME EXPECTING PEACE INSTEAD I FOUND MY KINGDOM RAVAGED BY WAR NOW I AM AFUGITIVEI WANT TO RESTORE PEACE TO MY LAND MY PEOPLE AND MY SOUL\n\nRating: 3.0\n\nSummary: It froze on me twice!\n\nReview: This one is definitely an extension of the other two POP games, so if you l... | 20 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,645 |
A1Q4DJKNW73AIZ | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "ATTENTION: Touch Screen Sensitivity *Touch Sensitivity Adjustment: Go to your phone Settings menu - Advanced Features - Turn On Touch Sensitivity *Sensitivity of the Home Button: Go to your phone Se... | These fit and feel amazing. I was waiting for these to arrive before playing with my new nexus 5.
They are the same cost as other protectors but you get a 3 pack in case you mess up! You also get a dust removal sticker, microfiber cloth and bubble card.
It's a great deal for 3 layer PET film and the matte finish feels ... | These fit and feel amazing. I was waiting for these to arrive before playing with my new nexus 5.
They are the same cost as other protectors but you get a 3 pack in case you mess up! You also get a dust removal sticker, microfiber cloth and bubble card.
It's a great deal for 3 layer PET film and the matte finish feels ... | [
"Product: The new Logitech S-220 Speaker System contains several upgrades to its predecessor, the S-200 Speaker System. Unlike the S-200, the new S-220 encompasses increased usability with a newly styled control base to manage improved acoustics, volume and VoIP connectivity. Bass tuning by the end user is often pe... | 20 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,646 |
A3JQ58CZBV3FOZ | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "4.0" for a product with description "Here's a great way to get that unmistakable "tube sound," without dropping your whole budget on an expensive preamp. The ART Tube MP Project Series USB is really popular with musicians and home reco... | I got this preamp from B&H at a decent price. It came with USB connectivity for easy link-up to PC. I have not tried this yet, but it only adds a few dollars in price to the base ART Tube MP Project Series Preamp and should be worthwhile.
The tube circuit is quite good, adding noticeable warmth to the sound. The built... | I got this preamp from B&H at a decent price. It came with USB connectivity for easy link-up to PC. I have not tried this yet, but it only adds a few dollars in price to the base ART Tube MP Project Series Preamp and should be worthwhile.
The tube circuit is quite good, adding noticeable warmth to the sound. The built... | [
"Product: GE PHP900DMBB 30\" Induction Cooktop with 4 Induction Elements, Electronic Touch Controls, 19 Control Settings, Pan Presence/Size Sensors and ADA Compliant: Black\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Pretty good, but not perfect.\n\nReview: We chose this cooktop for the higher efficiency induction cooking provides ... | 49 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,647 |
A38VI9M6QIDPI3 | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "The best way to protect your phone is to make sure it never gets dropped in the first place, and the DropSuits side bumpers give your hand a firm grip to hold onto. And if protecting your cell phone... | At the time of review there were very few cases for the Ativ S Neo on Amazon and very few doing a Google search. The ones that I found were the very cheap, plastic with a thin rubber coating one that run around 5 bucks. I wanted something a bit more substantial and knew that 'most' Body Glove cases were good quality. S... | At the time of review there were very few cases for the Ativ S Neo on Amazon and very few doing a Google search. The ones that I found were the very cheap, plastic with a thin rubber coating one that run around 5 bucks. I wanted something a bit more substantial and knew that 'most' Body Glove cases were good quality. S... | [
"Product: Make deliciously refreshing great tasting Iced Tea in minutes. You can brew Iced Tea the easy way! Simply place water in the reservoir, add your favorite tea (either loose or bags) in the brew basket. Lastly, add ice in the pitcher. You will have fresh iced tea in minutes.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Great... | 34 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,648 |
A2L2IAUBQMQXQ4 | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "women's mid calf combat boots on oxford structureRefresh Oxford toeRefresh Combat boot upperRefresh One inch heel". The summary of the review text is "Adorable, cozy, and simple". | I'm a 10.5, I buy size 10 shoes because I like them to fit snugly with tights and rarely wear socks. These boots are super cute, run fairly true to size, and are surprisingly comfy.
I have wide calves but these boots are still flattering, and once tied, you can easily leave them laced and tied and just use the zippers... | I'm a 10.5, I buy size 10 shoes because I like them to fit snugly with tights and rarely wear socks. These boots are super cute, run fairly true to size, and are surprisingly comfy.
I have wide calves but these boots are still flattering, and once tied, you can easily leave them laced and tied and just use the zippers... | [
"Product: Fitness magazine is the authority for women who want to lead an active, healthy lifestyle. Fitness inspires women with personalized workout guides, timely health & nutrition advice, and beauty & style tips to achieve balance in mind, body and spirit.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Half the \"fat\" of a regula... | 13 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,649 |
A1E3OB6QMBKRYZ | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "Bialetti's 12-Cup French Press gives a fresh, bold look to the classic design. The New French Press still provides the simplest method of making rich, traditional coffee. The press is also perfect f... | Presses are for coffee drinkers who prefer a more full-bodied brew than the usual drip coffeemaker can provide. This is evident by the fact that its more labor and time intensive than drip versions and, if you play your cards right, it results in a cup of joe you that is substantially different than anything else youv... | Presses are for coffee drinkers who prefer a more full-bodied brew than the usual drip coffeemaker can provide. This is evident by the fact that its more labor and time intensive than drip versions and, if you play your cards right, it results in a cup of joe you that is substantially different than anything else youv... | [
"Product: Ubuntu is an operating system consisting of free and open source software. With Ubuntu you can surf the web, read email, create documents, spreadsheets and more! Ubuntu gives you the power and flexibility for business, education and home use. Ubuntu is easy to install, free of viruses and perfect for lapt... | 25 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,650 |
A1WB5NZYY5XR8A | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "4.0" for a product with description "Sing, dance, and play along with your favorite Disney songs! Learning the words is fun and easy as you sing along to the on-screen lyrics and join your favorite characters in their most memorable mu... | Oh how I wanted to give this film five stars. It had me entertained from beginning to end. It has everything a great movie should have: great acting performances, superb dialog, masterful directing, good screenplay with a strong plot, and it's downright entertaining (the most important part). Unfortunately the ending d... | Oh how I wanted to give this film five stars. It had me entertained from beginning to end. It has everything a great movie should have: great acting performances, superb dialog, masterful directing, good screenplay with a strong plot, and it's downright entertaining (the most important part). Unfortunately the ending d... | [
"Product: Forge an empire to span a universe. Colonize unknown planets and trade with other races for their knowledge. Conquer alien star systems by war or diplomacy to secure their resources. Only then can you guarantee your galactic supremacy. Multiple game settings let you select such factors as your adversaries... | 17 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,651 |
AWEBHNEYH0ZCH | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "Lori has a degree in Anthropology and worked as a museum curator. Deciding the people in her imagination were slightly more exciting than the dead things in a museum basement, she set out to become ... | Moving. They were always moving around. Cameron and her grandmother never stayed in one place very long. They had a particular gift that could not be made known to the world. There were those who would exploit and use that gift for their own purposes, or worse, they would experiment on them. They were mind readers... | Moving. They were always moving around. Cameron and her grandmother never stayed in one place very long. They had a particular gift that could not be made known to the world. There were those who would exploit and use that gift for their own purposes, or worse, they would experiment on them. They were mind readers... | [
"Product: Norah Wilson lives in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada with her husband and two adult children, a Rotti-Lab mix dog and numerous rats (the pet kind). She has been writing romance a long while, and has finalled multiple times in the Romance Writers of America's Golden Heart contest. She also won Dorchest... | 6 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,652 |
ALT3134PJHY4 | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "Harmony Kent is famous for her laughter, and has made quite the name for herself shes also, um, a writer and fairly well known for that too. She lives in rural Cornwall with her ever-present sense... | This is a well-deserved five star book, the story of one girl's struggle for survival and to overcome the traumas of her childhood. We start our journey as Kate wakes up in the hospital, is admitted into a mental ward and subsequently learns her parents don't want her anymore. Seventeen-year-old Kate now abandoned and ... | This is a well-deserved five star book, the story of one girl's struggle for survival and to overcome the traumas of her childhood. We start our journey as Kate wakes up in the hospital, is admitted into a mental ward and subsequently learns her parents don't want her anymore. Seventeen-year-old Kate now abandoned and ... | [
"Product: HardCover. Pub Date :2004-10-18 Pages: 400 Language: English Publisher: HarperCollins UK This deluxe slipcased edition of The Hobbit. printed and bound using superior materials including a silk ribbon marker. features the definitive text. plus Tolkien's paintings and drawings in full colour. and a special... | 5 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,653 |
A2UHFCWT2641Y1 | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "4.0" for a product with description "The foundation of the UGG collection. These are the original, authentic boots for ultimate comfort and warmth. Upper: Twin-faced sheepskin with suede heel guards. Insole: Genuine sheepskin sockliner... | My son wears sheepskin boots all winter long, we live in a snowy area and he goes to college in an even more snowy area. It's often a challenge finding footwear because of the size of his feet. We were very happy to find that these boots come in a size 15, and they do accommodate a wide foot, he usually wears 15-wide o... | My son wears sheepskin boots all winter long, we live in a snowy area and he goes to college in an even more snowy area. It's often a challenge finding footwear because of the size of his feet. We were very happy to find that these boots come in a size 15, and they do accommodate a wide foot, he usually wears 15-wide o... | [
"Product: Tran student series portfolios. Made in the USA portfolio is great for students and artists on the go. High quality, water resistant, lightweight material double stitched with folding zipper.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Good value, seems sturdy\n\nReview: Nice portfolio for just over twenty dollars, seems ... | 32 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,654 |
A55K4I86WCJFB | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "Carhartt's long sleeve work wear henley is an all-purpose work shirt that is perfect for cooler days or as a layering piece Made of 675-ounce, 100-percent cotton jersey, it features a rib-knit colla... | Bought one of these in a size Large as an alternative to a standard t-shirt, and ideally one that would provide a bit more warmth. The shirt has noticeable heft, which I appreciate. It also has a longer body (even in the regular size) which I also appreciate. Having the back of a shirt untuck when you reach for things ... | Bought one of these in a size Large as an alternative to a standard t-shirt, and ideally one that would provide a bit more warmth. The shirt has noticeable heft, which I appreciate. It also has a longer body (even in the regular size) which I also appreciate. Having the back of a shirt untuck when you reach for things ... | [
"Product: This handsome, all-stainless steel garlic press is simple the best. It's so efficient that it can press unpeeled cloves and even presses ginger. Designed to fit comfortable into the palm of the hand, it has been engineered to require far less effort to use than other presses. The sieve hinges out to flush... | 28 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,655 |
A29QA79VLQGHY6 | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "3.0" for a product with description "Collateral Damage VHS". The summary of the review text is "Better than you'd think". | The gale-force winds of 9/11 buffeted Andrew Davis' "Collateral Damage," turning what might have been the routine release of an Arnold Schwarzenneger action film into a Hollywood sidebar to the young century's biggest news event. "Damage" had obvious, ironic links to the Sept. 11 attacks: The story opens with the heroi... | The gale-force winds of 9/11 buffeted Andrew Davis' "Collateral Damage," turning what might have been the routine release of an Arnold Schwarzenneger action film into a Hollywood sidebar to the young century's biggest news event. "Damage" had obvious, ironic links to the Sept. 11 attacks: The story opens with the heroi... | [
"Product: The Entertain 365 Shape Individual Pasta Bowl is perfect for any occasion. Versatile shapes in beautiful textures take you from breakfast in bed to a grand gala evening and everything in between.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Going bowling with pasta\n\nReview: Love the octagon shape -- unusual, but not of a... | 23 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,656 |
A2GZCS5DRN26VD | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "4.0" for a product with description "Linda grew up on a dairy farm in the Midwest as the youngest of eight children. Now she lives in Kansas with her husband, daughter, and their nine cuckoo clocks. Her life's been blessed with lots of... | I'm no stranger to Linda Kage's work and I have to say with each book that I read from her, they just seem to get better and better, and Price of a Kiss was definitely my favourite so far.
Price of a Kiss follows the life of Reese Randall, a girl who has had a difficult past. So when Mason Lowe enters her life, she re... | I'm no stranger to Linda Kage's work and I have to say with each book that I read from her, they just seem to get better and better, and Price of a Kiss was definitely my favourite so far.
Price of a Kiss follows the life of Reese Randall, a girl who has had a difficult past. So when Mason Lowe enters her life, she re... | [
"Product: Rebecca Rogers expressed her creative side at an early age and hasnt stopped since. She wont hesitate to tell you that she lives inside her imagination, and its better than reality.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Minds Eye = 4.5 Stars!\n\nReview: Minds Eye is the first book in the Minds Eye series in which we... | 4 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,657 |
A1KBT3D1O0LA7L | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "4.0" for a product with description "When Bishop, a Mutant from a future controlled by the Mutant-hating Sentinels, travels back through time to stop an assassination attempt on Senator Kelly, he crosses paths with the Uncanny X-Men. A... | DoFP is easily my favorite X-Men movie at the moment. I've read the comic, and watched the 90s animated series version of it, so I'm well aware of the changes made to the movie, but they didn't detract from the well-written story and good follow-up with First Class that it is. Everyone on the cast does their absolute b... | DoFP is easily my favorite X-Men movie at the moment. I've read the comic, and watched the 90s animated series version of it, so I'm well aware of the changes made to the movie, but they didn't detract from the well-written story and good follow-up with First Class that it is. Everyone on the cast does their absolute b... | [
"Product: Voices of Dan Castelleneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Hank Azaria, Harry Shearer. D'oh! Homer, Marge, Bart and Lisa are back for their 10th season in the misfit city of Springfield. Includes Lard of the Dance\" (8/23/98), Sunday, Cruddy Sunday\" (1/31/99), Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo\" (5/16/99), and ... | 6 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,658 |
A26WHR1IP0A250 | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "4.0" for a product with description "A nightgown made for twirling! a playful, elegant take on bedtime, this fun sleeveless nightgown features sweet ruffled lettuce edged trim. She'll want to wear this comfy-chic style night and day. M... | My daughter wears a 3T right now, but I purchased this nightgown in a 4T thinking she could wear it longer, and for now it will be a bit loose. I planned to put a tank top or tee shirt underneath during the winter to add more warmth, since it's sleeveless. We don't have cold winters where I love, so a tee shirt underne... | My daughter wears a 3T right now, but I purchased this nightgown in a 4T thinking she could wear it longer, and for now it will be a bit loose. I planned to put a tank top or tee shirt underneath during the winter to add more warmth, since it's sleeveless. We don't have cold winters where I love, so a tee shirt underne... | [
"Product: Harper's BAZAAR, the fashion authority, brings you the latest new looks from the hottest designers. You'll get 12 beautiful issues a year full of best dressed secrets, must-haves and great finds. Experience the best in style and beauty with Harper's BAZAAR.\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: Used to Love It\n\nRe... | 38 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,659 |
A36UPTY3491XUJ | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "Gorilla tape has taken duct tape to a new level. This double thick adhesive tape surpasses ordinary duct tapes, making the list of uses virtually endless. Made with double thick adhesive, strong rei... | This is serious product. No, it's not more expensive. Well, okay, if you look at price vs. performance, there's no comparison. Zero. Zip. Nada. Nuttin', honey. You got a project that screams out: "Two-hundred-mile-an-hour-tape" buy this one. It'll grab better, last longer that just about anything. The only tape I haven... | This is serious product. No, it's not more expensive. Well, okay, if you look at price vs. performance, there's no comparison. Zero. Zip. Nada. Nuttin', honey. You got a project that screams out: "Two-hundred-mile-an-hour-tape" buy this one. It'll grab better, last longer that just about anything. The only tape I haven... | [
"Product: Its high strength and quick set time make Gorilla Super Glue the go-to adhesive for a variety of household projects. Developed for long-lasting repairs in an instant, the clear glue dries in 10-45 seconds. Our Super Glue is reinforced with rubber for increased impact resistance to handle bumps and drops. ... | 24 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,660 |
A1YKSFKMRZHVOU | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "Looking for a pair of socks that are just as stylish as they are good for you? Then you'll love these Sockwell Men's Digital Ditty 15-20 mmHg Compression Socks! Designed for all day wear, these ther... | Who says compression socks have to be boring? These moderate graduated compression (15-22 mmHg) socks have a classy digital pattern, as well as a soft luxurious feel. This particular pattern comes in black, charcoal, khaki, and navy, but Sockwell has many other nice patterns available for you.
As we get older, our cir... | Who says compression socks have to be boring? These moderate graduated compression (15-22 mmHg) socks have a classy digital pattern, as well as a soft luxurious feel. This particular pattern comes in black, charcoal, khaki, and navy, but Sockwell has many other nice patterns available for you.
As we get older, our cir... | [
"Product: Enjoy a cool and comfortable night's sleep with exceptionally thin breathable Pillow Cases that have a silky soft feel and a lustrous finish. These Pillowcases provide a lasting vibrancy of color no matter how often they are washed and are made of high strength micro fiber yarns that will stay soft silky ... | 9 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,661 |
A2VP7BXPBQGP8K | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "Disposable. Screw top. Regulate water flow by simply lifting cap and turning. Plastic.". The summary of the review text is "Holds up, but limitation in size and design mean hard to get stream to whe... | It has been THREE years now and this bottle has held up! The plastic did not degrade. The threads on the bottle and in the cap are as good as new and do not leak. By sheer quality this thing has gone through the years from a 3 star, to a 4 star, and now to a 5 star review. I felt compelled to update and upgrade my rev... | It has been THREE years now and this bottle has held up! The plastic did not degrade. The threads on the bottle and in the cap are as good as new and do not leak. By sheer quality this thing has gone through the years from a 3 star, to a 4 star, and now to a 5 star review. I felt compelled to update and upgrade my rev... | [
"Product: Bragg Organic Apple Cider Vinegar, 16 Oz\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: May help muscle cramps, lower blood sugar, alkalinize the body chemistry decreasing risk for cancer...\n\nReview: This works for my muscle cramps! I was surprised. I had never read that alkalizing the body would help with muscle cramps. ... | 37 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,662 |
AWXMKD9XEVAEW | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "4.0" for a product with description "Excellent Book". The summary of the review text is "Beginning to slow down, but still good". | This is a difficult book to rate. How to rate something that's really good, but also really too long? I guess four stars is the best one for it, since it doesn't really stretch its values or imply that there aren't any flaws.
The high points: Excellent characterization, great and detailed worldbuilding, awesomely funn... | This is a difficult book to rate. How to rate something that's really good, but also really too long? I guess four stars is the best one for it, since it doesn't really stretch its values or imply that there aren't any flaws.
The high points: Excellent characterization, great and detailed worldbuilding, awesomely funn... | [
"Product: The second volume in Robin Hobb's internationally bestselling Farseer series, now reissued in gorgeous new livery. Fitz dreams of Red-Ship Raiders sacking a coastal village, leaving not a single man, woman or child alive. Tortured by this terrible vision he returns to the Six Duchies court where all is fa... | 4 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,663 |
A28ISUIFUMLQD6 | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "Airing on CBS from 59-63, Dennis the Menace is a TV series based on the popular and iconic Hank Ketcham comic strip of the same name. The show follows the lives of the Mitchell family Henry, Alice,... | Well, I recently purchased Dennis the Menace season 3 on DVD and as I watched this series when I was much younger, it's still a wonderful show to watch, even as a adult. It's good clean show and back when times were simplier and much more "family oriented" as I wish it still was today. Dennis seems to get in all sorts ... | Well, I recently purchased Dennis the Menace season 3 on DVD and as I watched this series when I was much younger, it's still a wonderful show to watch, even as a adult. It's good clean show and back when times were simplier and much more "family oriented" as I wish it still was today. Dennis seems to get in all sorts ... | [
"Product: THIS 9761345 WHIRLPOOL OVEN SURFACE ELEMENT IS DESIGNED TO FIT MANY WHIRLPOOL, NORGE, ROPER, CROSLEY, ESTATE, MAGIC CHEF AND MAYTAG OVENS. THE COOK-TOP USUALLY HAS FOUR TO SIX ELECTRIC BURNERS (AKA SURFACE ELEMENTS). EACH IS A COILED SHEATH WITH A WIRE IN THE CENTER AND NO MOVING PARTS. WHEN THE WIRE RECE... | 71 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,664 |
A27Q1X75QCWTID | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "1.0" for a product with description "The Extreme Power Wet/Dry hand vac puts convenient wet and dry power in the palm of your hand. This rechargeable hand vac combines powerful 15.6 volt suction with cordless convenience. Combined abil... | After being pleased with the Dirt Devil Air Power Stick Vac I was excited to try out the Wet/Dry Cordless Hand Cleaner. That excitement was short-lived.
This thing has the poorest suction. I know handhelds in general have a poor reputation but I find it a bit arrogant for Dirt Devil to have dubbed this "Extreme Powe... | After being pleased with the Dirt Devil Air Power Stick Vac I was excited to try out the Wet/Dry Cordless Hand Cleaner. That excitement was short-lived.
This thing has the poorest suction. I know handhelds in general have a poor reputation but I find it a bit arrogant for Dirt Devil to have dubbed this "Extreme Powe... | [
"Product: Big Mop with H2O Tank View larger Monaural RYDIS H68 Pro Overview The RYDIS H68 Pro next-generation hybrid robot pushes the boundaries of automation. It vacuums, mops and tracks its own performance. Featuring the industrys largest Big Mop and H20 tank, this powerful machine is capable of mopping and vacuu... | 47 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,665 |
A39L46WM6GBO4Q | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "USA Today bestseller Stacy Kestwick is a Southern girl who firmly believes mornings should be outlawed. Her perfect day would include lounging on a hammock with a good book, carbohydrates, and the p... | ***** REVIEWED ON BEHALF OF GIVE ME BOOKS *****
My heart is racing right now. What just happened? Here I am, dangling out on a ledge trying to trust like H-ll that Stacy Kestwick is going to fix this. FIX IT. FIX MY HEART!
*Deep breaths*
Okay, so before I became a deranged lunatic on a cliff I was fully sucked ... | ***** REVIEWED ON BEHALF OF GIVE ME BOOKS *****
My heart is racing right now. What just happened? Here I am, dangling out on a ledge trying to trust like H-ll that Stacy Kestwick is going to fix this. FIX IT. FIX MY HEART!
*Deep breaths*
Okay, so before I became a deranged lunatic on a cliff I was fully sucked ... | [
"Product: New York Times/USA Today bestselling author Melanie Moreland, lives a happy and content life in a quiet area of Ontario with her beloved husband of twenty-seven-plus years and their rescue cat Amber. Nothing means more to her than her friends and family, and she cherishes every moment spent with them. Whi... | 6 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,666 |
A36WTXJBYS3DB6 | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "Which team will eat the dust in this desert Grand Prix? The X-treme Daredevils and Backyard Blasters will stop at nothing to win the hottest leg of the the World Race! The Backyard Blasters desert r... | I thought that turning 12, my son would be just about finished with Lego sets. Not so! He was so excited about this set that he couldn't wait to get home from school and get started on it. It's a challenging build -- the truck especially -- so it's taking him longer than usual to complete it, which is fine by me. With ... | I thought that turning 12, my son would be just about finished with Lego sets. Not so! He was so excited about this set that he couldn't wait to get home from school and get started on it. It's a challenging build -- the truck especially -- so it's taking him longer than usual to complete it, which is fine by me. With ... | [
"Product: For centuries, the luxury of French-milled soaps has remained the gold standard of excellence. Each time you begin to lather a French made soap, you enter a time and place where quality and craftsmanship have stood still. Traditional French soap is triple-milled to produce a completely uniform and smooth ... | 101 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,667 |
A38NELQT98S4H8 | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "3.0" for a product with description "A fresh spin on citrus! The Juice man Citrus Juicer features spinning cones that extract maximum juice and flavor from lemons, oranges, and all your favorite citrus. Create delicious homemade orange... | This is a capable mid-tier juicer. As others have commented, it's rather large and loud. The size issue is due to the integrated juice and pulp containers. Other centrifugal juicers that just have the central motor assembly (and exit chutes) are smaller only until you add-on the extra containers for the juice and pul... | This is a capable mid-tier juicer. As others have commented, it's rather large and loud. The size issue is due to the integrated juice and pulp containers. Other centrifugal juicers that just have the central motor assembly (and exit chutes) are smaller only until you add-on the extra containers for the juice and pul... | [
"Product: The GTV-DD-2-AA GefenTV Digital Audio Decoder from Gefen accepts audio encoded in Dolby Digital (at up to 5.1 channels) from your multi-channel S/PDIF or TOSLINK digital audio source and converts it to L/R analog audio.\n\nRating: 2.0\n\nSummary: So far, so good.... (update...not...)\n\nReview: Compared ... | 105 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,668 |
A2SKSS5GW8NGY0 | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "Attractive and built to last, Blue Q's reusable shopping totes are ideal for groceries, picnics, going to the beach and so much morewhile leaving disposable waste behind! These large reusable bags s... | The city I live in recently instituted a tax on plastic shopping bags at stores, so I've gotten a little better about carrying my own bags. It's not that I'm really concerned about 5-10 cents or whatever the fee is, but a lot of stores have stopped offering bags, period.
Anyway, I recently bought several Blue Q bags, ... | The city I live in recently instituted a tax on plastic shopping bags at stores, so I've gotten a little better about carrying my own bags. It's not that I'm really concerned about 5-10 cents or whatever the fee is, but a lot of stores have stopped offering bags, period.
Anyway, I recently bought several Blue Q bags, ... | [
"Product: Equipped with 30 piano-style treble keys and 32 bass buttons, the Barcelona30-Key Piano-StyleAccordion is ideal for the beginning or intermediate musician in search of a great value. The entry-level accordion comes in a variety of colors -- black, white, blue, gray, red, green, and tricolor (red, white, g... | 68 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,669 |
A2HSZ8MKIJ6K6M | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "Title: Dune, Frank Herbert (Hardcover)
Binding: Hardcover
Classics of Modern Literature". The summary of the review text is "Read it slowly and savour it. You only get to read Dune the first time on... | I am showing you the superhero syndrome and your own participation in it.
Frank Herbert
It is difficult to review Dune by Frank Herbert because it is such a cornerstone of our contemporary SF literature. For me I read it young, and it is very much a part of my SF DNA, and images from the book and the film have stayed... | I am showing you the superhero syndrome and your own participation in it.
Frank Herbert
It is difficult to review Dune by Frank Herbert because it is such a cornerstone of our contemporary SF literature. For me I read it young, and it is very much a part of my SF DNA, and images from the book and the film have stayed... | [
"Product: Dance with the Dragons book\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Strictly speaking Game of Thrones is not Science Fiction, but I dare you to find one Sci Fi fan who does not love this series.\n\nReview: LOTS OF SPOILERS - warning!!!\n\nBest Sci-Fi TV\n\nI am currently dipping in and out of this book as I watch the ... | 7 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,670 |
A31V1QWRV8PTU0 | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "LOUD, FAST, RAMONES: THEIR TOUGHEST HITS stuffs a single CD with the band's 30 loudest punk hits spanning 1976-1995. Most comprehensive single-disc Greatest Hits collection available.". The summary ... | The first time I saw the Ramones was at a rehearsal studio in NYC, opening for the Fast. Nobody had ever heard of them. They stepped on stage and started playing. Faster than any band I'd ever heard. Johnny was ripping at his guitar so viciously he sliced his thumb and sprayed everyone in the first row with blood. He n... | The first time I saw the Ramones was at a rehearsal studio in NYC, opening for the Fast. Nobody had ever heard of them. They stepped on stage and started playing. Faster than any band I'd ever heard. Johnny was ripping at his guitar so viciously he sliced his thumb and sprayed everyone in the first row with blood. He n... | [
"Product: Ceramic non-stick 10 inch frying pan that allows you to broil, bake, braise, fry, steam or saute\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Read the Instructions First\n\nReview: Disclaimer: I did not buy this pan. I was given it as a birthday gift from a friend who bought hers, and mine, at WalMart. She told me to seaso... | 19 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,671 |
A264UDLWWRJ7X4 | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "1.0" for a product with description "10 pcs SD / MMC / SDHC / PRO DUO Memory Card Plastic Storage Jewel Case (memory card not included)
( dimension : 1 3/8" x 1 3/8" x 1/4" )". The summary of the review text is "Flimsy, cheaply-made an... | Very thin plastic. But also very thin as to what these cases can hold. These are NOT what used to come with the memory cards. Not only is the plastic thinner and the hinges weaker, but the entire compartment is not as thick. You cannot carry a microflash stick in this as you could with the old memory card holder. Yo... | Very thin plastic. But also very thin as to what these cases can hold. These are NOT what used to come with the memory cards. Not only is the plastic thinner and the hinges weaker, but the entire compartment is not as thick. You cannot carry a microflash stick in this as you could with the old memory card holder. Yo... | [
"Product: Die 7Real kids vacation westie william kids dog\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Sturdy, attractive, easily assembled shelf\n\nReview: Sturdy, easily-assembled shelf for counter or floor. I especially like that the shelves may be attached at different heights -- that's what it means by \"adjustable\". For ins... | 30 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,672 |
A13KNCFLH0IH2G | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "3.0" for a product with description "The Voice Tracer 1500 lets you record documents and notes on the move. Back at your desk, simply connect the recorder to your PC, transfer your files and let the included software automatically turn... | I've got to confess that I haven't had the time to invest in calibrating the Naturally Speaking software to my voice, and honestly not much use for it if I did. I wanted something that could transcribe interviews and lectures, with other people doing the lion's share of the talking. From the documentation, it seems tha... | I've got to confess that I haven't had the time to invest in calibrating the Naturally Speaking software to my voice, and honestly not much use for it if I did. I wanted something that could transcribe interviews and lectures, with other people doing the lion's share of the talking. From the documentation, it seems tha... | [
"Product: Display Stand measures 4-3/4\" (12.07 cm) 3-3/4\" (9.53 cm) 1-3/4\" (4.45 cm) Sturdy acrylic base, machine riveted to a heavy vinyl coated, steel wire back brace Ideal for displaying serving trays, plates, tiles, artwork, framed photos, ad much more Lightweight and compact for easy storage and mobility Pr... | 10 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,673 |
A3DFQFWR8Q8KPM | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "4.0" for a product with description "SUPCASE LG G4 Case - Unicorn Beetle Hybrid Protective Case - Clear Red". The summary of the review text is "Definitely a Bargain, But Remember You Get What You Pay For!". | Bought this about 3 weeks ago for my new G4 because I found the prices of other cases to be absolutely ridiculous. This is an awesome case for the price, you seriously cannot beat it.
Pros: Price, sturdy, kickstand, easy installation.
Cons: cheap material, not all rubber (I'm not entirely convinced it's going to do mu... | Bought this about 3 weeks ago for my new G4 because I found the prices of other cases to be absolutely ridiculous. This is an awesome case for the price, you seriously cannot beat it.
Pros: Price, sturdy, kickstand, easy installation.
Cons: cheap material, not all rubber (I'm not entirely convinced it's going to do mu... | [
"Product: Rachel Aukes is the bestselling author of 100 Days in Deadland, which made Suspense Magazines Best of the Year list. She is also a Wattpad Star, her stories having over three million reads. When not writing, she can be found flying old airplanes across the Midwest countryside.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: A... | 5 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,674 |
A337FU1WFZDS55 | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "4.0" for a product with description "MJ Fields is the USA Today bestselling author of numerous books, including the Love series, the Wrapped series, and the Men of Steel novels. She lives in central New York, surrounded by family and f... | No I didn't read the first book in this series but Im on my way right now to one click it. Once I started Morrisons story I couldn't put it down. Morrison is one of three strong men raised by their now deceased Momma. Their beloved Momma led a hard life but raised her boys to bring good to the world, not bad.
Morris... | No I didn't read the first book in this series but Im on my way right now to one click it. Once I started Morrisons story I couldn't put it down. Morrison is one of three strong men raised by their now deceased Momma. Their beloved Momma led a hard life but raised her boys to bring good to the world, not bad.
Morris... | [
"Product: Maytag MVWX600XW 27\" Top-Load Washer with 3.6 cu. ft. Capacity, 10 Wash Cycles, 5 Temperature Settings, 800 RPM Spin Speed, CEE Tier III Energy Star Qualified and QuietSeries 200 Sound Package: White\n\nRating: 1.0\n\nSummary: Used to love Maytag - Hate this washer\n\nReview: This is my third Maytag wash... | 5 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,675 |
A24D4ND2K1TEOA | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "4.0" for a product with description "Certified gold by the RIAA. (11/93)". The summary of the review text is "VIVA HATE : a good place to start". | Morrissey's career thus far has been full of incredible highs and some rather confusing lows, but overall, he's proven himself to be a songwriter and lyricist of unique talent and an undefineable charm. this was his first album after The Smiths disbanded and it shows him in fine form. classic songs such as "Everyday Is... | Morrissey's career thus far has been full of incredible highs and some rather confusing lows, but overall, he's proven himself to be a songwriter and lyricist of unique talent and an undefineable charm. this was his first album after The Smiths disbanded and it shows him in fine form. classic songs such as "Everyday Is... | [
"Product: box 103 - 24\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: the great escape is a great album\n\nReview: more great songs from Blur. great packaging, superb musicianship and brilliant lyrics. with 15 songs, there is *almost* too much good music here to fully digest in one sitting. and sometimes these songs seem to be jagged... | 20 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,676 |
A2JAEZ0FMAMJVW | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "4.0" for a product with description "For anyone serious about singing, but unfamiliar with how to get a professional vocal sound, TC-Helicon is releasing Perform-V - its most intuitive and straightforward vocal processor to date. Desig... | My daughter does a lot of singing. She has a Boss VE-20 vocal processor as a mainstay when she does home recording, and she loves it. This TC-Helicon product offers some similar vocal processing but does so in a package that is much easier to manage on the fly, making it better for live vocals.
The interface compris... | My daughter does a lot of singing. She has a Boss VE-20 vocal processor as a mainstay when she does home recording, and she loves it. This TC-Helicon product offers some similar vocal processing but does so in a package that is much easier to manage on the fly, making it better for live vocals.
The interface compris... | [
"Product: This latest generation of iTrack Solo is the easiest way to record instruments and vocals on your Lightning-compatible iPad. Simply plug into the legendary Focusrite preamp and dedicated instrument input to start capturing your sound in pristine quality, using the very best in digital audio technology. Co... | 97 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,677 |
A17QT2FP635F2M | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "Dr Ho's Pads with replacement gel pad". The summary of the review text is "Massages well and is for those looking for a super hard roller". | This is my first ever foam roller which I purchased to massage my sore muscles after working out and to increase circulation. I have tried a few at the gym which seemed way too soft, so I purchased this extra firm roller. The roller is made from a blue hard rubber on the outer layer with hard rubber massaging knubs and... | This is my first ever foam roller which I purchased to massage my sore muscles after working out and to increase circulation. I have tried a few at the gym which seemed way too soft, so I purchased this extra firm roller. The roller is made from a blue hard rubber on the outer layer with hard rubber massaging knubs and... | [
"Product: Easy glide precision retractable rotary cutter. Ideal to use for quilting and knitting projects, papers, scrapbooks.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Perfect for my quilting!\n\nReview: Just used my new 'Yazy-Craft' Rotary Fabric Cutter with it's retractable blade, and I was impressed with the sharpness of the ... | 7 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,678 |
A18AW14NE61NOT | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "Sergeant's good behavior pheromone collar helps cats in fearful or stressful situations (separation anxiety, visitors, other household cats, Loud Noises, new baby, vet Visits, traveling). good behav... | I had some doubts but got collars for all cats in the house - the two former ferals have been with me almost 18 months and are still skittish. After 10 days with the collars, I am noticing a big difference. The animaniacs don't immediately jump off the sofa and hide under it when I enter the room, and the most headst... | I had some doubts but got collars for all cats in the house - the two former ferals have been with me almost 18 months and are still skittish. After 10 days with the collars, I am noticing a big difference. The animaniacs don't immediately jump off the sofa and hide under it when I enter the room, and the most headst... | [
"Product: Non-scratch formula gently and quickly dissolves tarnish from silver, chrome and other shiny surfaces. Anti-tarnish ingredient keeps silver beautiful longer.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Twinkle shines & protects!\n\nReview: I have a set of silverplate that was a wedding gift to my parents in 1967 - my moth... | 12 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,679 |
ADFOJ2MNIUTEQ | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "The ultimate stealth flask. Cocktail Caddy flasks for cruises are made so you can get your own alcohol safely on board of the cruise ship. So you can save money on your drinks on your next vacation.... | Normally the first thing I do is post pictures of an item that I review so that everyone can see how nice it is....and this is VERY authentic looking...but I can't post it because then the authorities would know what to look for when searching my bag when boarding a cruise! These are VERY genuine looking, down to the ... | Normally the first thing I do is post pictures of an item that I review so that everyone can see how nice it is....and this is VERY authentic looking...but I can't post it because then the authorities would know what to look for when searching my bag when boarding a cruise! These are VERY genuine looking, down to the ... | [
"Product: 8 openings wood wall hanging picture photo frame;\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: Very large & nicely made\n\nReview: This comes in a very large box (26.8 x 13.4 x 0.8 inches) and has a good weight to it (6.1 pounds). It is safely packaged in styrofoam and protected with a thin foam sheet that is wrapped arou... | 45 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,680 |
A328547P5BGZC | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "A massive drug operation changes the lives of three conflicted New York cops. Burned-out vet Eddie Dugan (Richard Gere) is close to retirement; narcotics cop Sal Procida (Ethan Hawke) faces the diff... | WATCH THIS MOVIE!
One of the most popular subjects for movies is police drama, let that drama happen in New York and you have yourself a fine movie, thus "Brooklyn's Finest".
An all star cast makes this story happen, Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke and Wesley Snipes!
The story is three seperate stories that a... | WATCH THIS MOVIE!
One of the most popular subjects for movies is police drama, let that drama happen in New York and you have yourself a fine movie, thus "Brooklyn's Finest".
An all star cast makes this story happen, Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke and Wesley Snipes!
The story is three seperate stories that a... | [
"Product: MANAGEMENT is a romantic comedy that chronicles a chance meeting between Mike Cranshaw (Steve Zahn) and Sue Claussen (Jennifer Aniston). When Sue checks into the roadside motel owned by Mike's parents in Arizona, what starts with a bottle of wine \"compliments of MANAGEMENT\" soon evolves into a multi-lay... | 4 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,681 |
A24WUY5ENO7S0O | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "Keep your valuable items close. Great for travel, outdoor activities, or shopping at the mall. Fastens securely to the waist with a 38 inch adjustable strap. Plenty of room to store valuables in 5 s... | Decided to go after this because I needed a great way to carry my DSLR when hiking and biking. The center pocket is roomy for my Fuji9800. Side pockets hold memory cards and spare batteries.
Not really a fashion bug but this looks really good on me!
Keeps all my photo gear within quick reach!
`Great for long walks a... | Decided to go after this because I needed a great way to carry my DSLR when hiking and biking. The center pocket is roomy for my Fuji9800. Side pockets hold memory cards and spare batteries.
Not really a fashion bug but this looks really good on me!
Keeps all my photo gear within quick reach!
`Great for long walks a... | [
"Product: Sprouts Cold Remedy is a blend of herbs containing properties that help the body resist and kill unwanted foreign substances, preventing the virus from attacking cells. It boosts the immune system and keeps the virus from multiplying. It also helps the body expel mucus from the respiratory tract.\n\nThe ... | 11 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,682 |
AAVR3MHZJSTSU | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "4.0" for a product with description "T.K. Leigh, otherwise known as Tracy Leigh Kellam, is a USA Today Bestselling author of the Beautiful Mess series, in addition to several other works. Originally from New England, she now resides in... | The Other Side Of Someday is a romantic comedy, its not an intense off the records hot romance but it has a sweet vibe to it with a flare of comedy. I would give this book a 4 stars and highly recommend to others. I have read most books by this author and she has a brilliant mind and can give us some great book boyfr... | The Other Side Of Someday is a romantic comedy, its not an intense off the records hot romance but it has a sweet vibe to it with a flare of comedy. I would give this book a 4 stars and highly recommend to others. I have read most books by this author and she has a brilliant mind and can give us some great book boyfr... | [
"Product: ASA\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: What bitter sweet book\n\nReview: ASA was the sixth and final book in The Marked Men Series and it was a sad and bitter sweet to see this series come to and end. I absolutely loved this book and this series and would recommend to others. Even though these books can most li... | 10 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,683 |
AF1AFYMONI8DY | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "Libby has a good life with a gorgeous husband and a home by the sea. But over time she is becoming more unsure if Jack has ever loved her - and if he is over the death of Eve, his first wife. When f... | Another stunning story from the wonderful Ms Koomson. If you have not read anything by this British writer, then get started. Libby is a smart, lovely woman, nuts about her just as perfect husband Jack. She knows Jack was married previously to the beautiful and mysterious Eve, who died accidentally and who Libby feels ... | Another stunning story from the wonderful Ms Koomson. If you have not read anything by this British writer, then get started. Libby is a smart, lovely woman, nuts about her just as perfect husband Jack. She knows Jack was married previously to the beautiful and mysterious Eve, who died accidentally and who Libby feels ... | [
"Product: This is NOT a signature edition. It's a paperback called \"Remembered Death\" by Agatha Christie. The original British Title: \"Sparkling Cyanide\". From inside the front cover: Your Wife Rosemary Didn't Kill Herself. She Was Murdered! George Barton received this strange anonymous note almost a year after... | 7 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,684 |
A8KPP7GP7VJ18 | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "Kathy Reichs is forensic anthropologist for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, State of North Carolina, and for the Laboratorie de Sciences Judiciaires et de Medecine Legale for the province ... | Tempe is in Guatemala, helping to unearth the bodies of 28 villagers disappeared (killed by the govt.) during the civil war there. Two of her colleagues are attacked, one dies. Tempe has to be careful, as there could still be people in the government that were involved in the massacre.
Then she gets involved with the ... | Tempe is in Guatemala, helping to unearth the bodies of 28 villagers disappeared (killed by the govt.) during the civil war there. Two of her colleagues are attacked, one dies. Tempe has to be careful, as there could still be people in the government that were involved in the massacre.
Then she gets involved with the ... | [
"Product: 'This is my central philosophy: one starts off with something as an academic study but from it stems a series of important things to say which must be got over to a greater audience in a variety of forms. So to some extent one foxes everyone by simultaneously being scholar and academic, populariser and co... | 5 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,685 |
A202FGBQHO5638 | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "4.0" for a product with description ""Two Thumbs Up!" rave Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper and the Movies. Billy Elliot is the heartwarming story of a young boy from a working-class family who discovers a passion that wi... | 'Billy Elliot', a small UK film released in 2000, has taken on a life of its' own & become a Broadway production, almost in spite of itself. But it's a heartwarming story of a miner's son determined to dance ballet.
We meet motherless Billy (Jamie Bell) during the 1984 miner's strike in County Durham. His grandmother ... | 'Billy Elliot', a small UK film released in 2000, has taken on a life of its' own & become a Broadway production, almost in spite of itself. But it's a heartwarming story of a miner's son determined to dance ballet.
We meet motherless Billy (Jamie Bell) during the 1984 miner's strike in County Durham. His grandmother ... | [
"Product: It's 1985 and Stevo is that rare animal, a punk rocker in the Mormon stronghold of Salt Lake City, Utah. He just graduated from college with honors and now his life is a nutty roller coaster ride of rock shows, stealing cars, beating up rednecks and non-stop partying with his buddy, Heroin Bob, andhis gir... | 16 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,686 |
A34BRH9R7DHXWU | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "Jay McLean is the author of the More Series, including More Than This, More Than Her, More Than Him and soon to be released, More Than Forever. She also has two standalones coming soon titled The Ro... | I don't know why I had doubts about this book. This books was just as beautiful as every other book in this series! Oh my god, Lucy and Cam's story just broke my heart! Seriously, I think I cried throughout the whole book. I just couldn't stop! Every little thing had me ready to bawl. It's just so emotional. I was so e... | I don't know why I had doubts about this book. This books was just as beautiful as every other book in this series! Oh my god, Lucy and Cam's story just broke my heart! Seriously, I think I cried throughout the whole book. I just couldn't stop! Every little thing had me ready to bawl. It's just so emotional. I was so e... | [
"Product: Together Patch and Nora have overcome the secrets riddled in Patch's dark past, bridged two irreconcilable worlds and faced heart-wrenching tests of betrayal, loyalty and trust...and all for a love that will transcend the boundary between heaven and earth. Armed with nothing but their absolute faith in on... | 7 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,687 |
ADKZOXAOV8EXD | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "4.0" for a product with description "When you want to leave as little as possible on the camera once the strap is removed, the ADAPT-ITS are the solution. The rugged, flexible ADAPT-ITS System Connector is the low-profile way to transf... | This review applies to the Swivel Hook Connector, Classic Strap, and Adapt-its combination. If you are like me and use many cameras but don't want to maintain many permanently attached straps, and sometimes wish to use a camera with no strap, then OP/TECH has a solution for you. The tiny plastic Adapt-it loops are the ... | This review applies to the Swivel Hook Connector, Classic Strap, and Adapt-its combination. If you are like me and use many cameras but don't want to maintain many permanently attached straps, and sometimes wish to use a camera with no strap, then OP/TECH has a solution for you. The tiny plastic Adapt-it loops are the ... | [
"Product: Since 1845, Scientific American has been educating and delighting readers with in-depth coverage on a broad range of scientific topics. Every month government leaders, c-suite executives, investors, students and informed citizens from all professions depend on Scientific American for reporting on advances... | 73 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,688 |
A3E60W2GO0PAXP | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "4.0" for a product with description "Let Freedom Ring! Add this iconic Colonial tri-corner hat as an American Revolutionary War hero. This 18th Century piece of Americana is perfect for any distinguished Colonial gentleman.". The summa... | This is a really cute hat and actually very attractive. It's a solid black with gold decorative trim. There are also three gold buttons that you can fasten to give it that colonial style shape. If you don't button it, it's more of a round shape. The inside of the hat provides a comfortable fit. It's been kind of hit or... | This is a really cute hat and actually very attractive. It's a solid black with gold decorative trim. There are also three gold buttons that you can fasten to give it that colonial style shape. If you don't button it, it's more of a round shape. The inside of the hat provides a comfortable fit. It's been kind of hit or... | [
"Product: The Rachael Ray Lasagna Lugger holds most 9 inch X 13 inch baking dishes. This stylish and durable, insulated meal carrier is great for transporting your favorite lasagna, signature dish, casserole or dessert to parties, potlucks, picnics and BBQ's. Use it at home to keep food hot or cold until the guests... | 17 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,689 |
A1JNDXTL02R9WG | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "4.0" for a product with description "Easily keep your garden supplies and a variety of other tools neatly organized with the Velcro USA Clip Strip Ties. Featuring a lightweight construction the low profile adjustable design straps are ... | I have a make shift server rack in a closet upstairs that has about 16 cat5 cables running to it 2 large computers, 4 external hard drives, monitor and tons of other stuff. I did not want a rats nest of wires I wanted it to look clean and be easy to add to. Using zip ties is great, but cutting them all off and riskin... | I have a make shift server rack in a closet upstairs that has about 16 cat5 cables running to it 2 large computers, 4 external hard drives, monitor and tons of other stuff. I did not want a rats nest of wires I wanted it to look clean and be easy to add to. Using zip ties is great, but cutting them all off and riskin... | [
"Product: Computer Grafix films can be run through Inkjet or Laser printers/copiers to create unique designs right from your own computer. Print vibrant images, crisp text, custom overlays, journaling, window effects, stickers and photos on Computer Grafix blank transparencies. Try rubber stamping and embossing to ... | 35 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,690 |
A34XPZS5DXA6HA | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "176-pages". The summary of the review text is "Ramona is not average even when she is average....". | Ramona is a fun loving young one, who does nothing but pester her sister. It is never her goal to do so, it just happens. Although she is now in first grade this still hasn't changed too much.
Ramona now attends the same school as her sister Beezus, and now that shes there she is let down. It isn't what she expected... | Ramona is a fun loving young one, who does nothing but pester her sister. It is never her goal to do so, it just happens. Although she is now in first grade this still hasn't changed too much.
Ramona now attends the same school as her sister Beezus, and now that shes there she is let down. It isn't what she expected... | [
"Product: Los Angeles is enduring a heat wave and a crime wave, so the pressure on police officer Michael Harrigan (Danny Glover) to solve a strange string of murders is mounting. Harrigan thinks the culprit can be found among the warring gangs and drug cartels, but FBI Special Agent Peter Keyes (Gary Busey) knows ... | 4 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,691 |
A30TK6U7DNS82R | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "It is a memorable film...blessed with an honest script, good direction, and sound performance.". The summary of the review text is "Brilliantly directed and acted". | Stanwyck's lawyer describing to the jury, in ultra-dramatic terms, how the jewelry hypnotized her into stealing it, and hypnotized her into returning it--but first she had to get to Long Island and you need money to do that--so she stopped in at the "hock shop"--is just the first of the priceless setpieces of Mitchell ... | Stanwyck's lawyer describing to the jury, in ultra-dramatic terms, how the jewelry hypnotized her into stealing it, and hypnotized her into returning it--but first she had to get to Long Island and you need money to do that--so she stopped in at the "hock shop"--is just the first of the priceless setpieces of Mitchell ... | [
"Product: CRAZY SEXY CANCER - WELLNESS VERSION\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: Her Metier Is Helping Others Overcome Fear\n\nReview: She never really does reveal what makes cancer sexy, but surely part of it is her developing romance with the man behind the camera, Brian Fassett. Brian makes himself indispensable to Kr... | 172 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,692 |
A3QHDQK0S9JC2M | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "3.0" for a product with description "Whisker City elastic cat pan liners prevent odors from being absorbed by your cat's Litter pan. 30 disposable pan liners.". The summary of the review text is "NOT my favorite pan liner so far". | not five stars because who, really, can "love" a llitter pan liner - just asking. however, installing ten at a time, depending how many cats you have or how messy they are, pulling up the top layer and letting the dry litter sift back down into the box is a great time and effort saver.
UPDATE - I wrote the above revie... | not five stars because who, really, can "love" a llitter pan liner - just asking. however, installing ten at a time, depending how many cats you have or how messy they are, pulling up the top layer and letting the dry litter sift back down into the box is a great time and effort saver.
UPDATE - I wrote the above revie... | [
"Product: This item is Performix 11603-6 Synthetic Plasti-Dip Rubber Coating, 14.5 oz Can, Black . Used for Construction - Concrete & Metal Tools, Dyes & Sealants. The produt is manufactured in United States.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: I use a lot of this stuff\n\nReview: My hobby is making walking sticks out of pr... | 25 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,693 |
A18MZSJ66764RL | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "BLACKHAWK!'s Modernized Enhanced Military 2.25" Web Belt is the top choice among the military. It offers side release buckles for quick-on, quick-off and no heavy metal hardware.". The summary of th... | Looking for a belt big enough to fit me, normally - and big enough to wear over a coat or other belt with pants and thermals. Blackhawk! was the answer - and even though the "enhanced" buckle is, I feel, a bit hoakie, it works.
Fit, finish, quality & workmanship are 1st rte as always - just wish they'd make more stuff ... | Looking for a belt big enough to fit me, normally - and big enough to wear over a coat or other belt with pants and thermals. Blackhawk! was the answer - and even though the "enhanced" buckle is, I feel, a bit hoakie, it works.
Fit, finish, quality & workmanship are 1st rte as always - just wish they'd make more stuff ... | [
"Product: Display your patches and other hook-and-loop-backed products with our patch panel. This is an all around awesome product. Measuring 30\" x 36\" The backing is black Cordura. The front is made using a single piece of soft loop. There are 4 1/2\" hole metal grommets so you can hang or attach this mat virtua... | 5 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,694 |
A2EL5NSP3A1OV8 | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "Parliament ~ Osmium". The summary of the review text is "Parliament in the Beginning". | This is where it started after the success of "I Just Want to Testify" had hit the airwaves. Mr. Clinton had gotten the rights back to the Parliament name and the rest became history. This is Bluesy acid dripping rock from the band. You can tell that this band was going to go far if they hung together. Thankfully, for ... | This is where it started after the success of "I Just Want to Testify" had hit the airwaves. Mr. Clinton had gotten the rights back to the Parliament name and the rest became history. This is Bluesy acid dripping rock from the band. You can tell that this band was going to go far if they hung together. Thankfully, for ... | [
"Product: Britt Reid (Seth Rogen) is a slacker by day, party animal by night... until he finds a serious career thats seriously cool: crime-fighting action hero. As the Green Hornet, he teams up with gadget wiz and martial arts master Kato (Jay Chou) to take down LA's underworld. Even Britts assistant Lenore (Camer... | 24 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,695 |
A24M1D0P4DGZZT | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "This RainStoppers 48" arc Auto Open, Wind Buster, Sport umbrella is constructed of a durable fiberglass shaft and ribs, metal stretchers and finished with a foam rubber handle. Matching case include... | I did my research before making a mistake and buying a cheap umbrella. I read many reviews, and soon decided to give this one a try. I am so glad that I did! This is an Extremely nice, and well made umbrella! It is sturdy, and has a good spring which makes it open quickly. Also, it has a comfortable handle which f... | I did my research before making a mistake and buying a cheap umbrella. I read many reviews, and soon decided to give this one a try. I am so glad that I did! This is an Extremely nice, and well made umbrella! It is sturdy, and has a good spring which makes it open quickly. Also, it has a comfortable handle which f... | [
"Product: Use our GOOD GRIPS Ice Cream Spade to serve up a dish of your favorite flavor ice cream. The flat, wide blade of our Ice Cream Spade scoops with ease, and the cushioned end on our non-slip handle makes this scoop as comfortable as it is easy to use.\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: This is THE ONE for all ice c... | 19 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,696 |
A3EJYJC25OJVKK | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "5.0" for a product with description "During the Gulf War, members of cut-off platoon are captured and brainwashed by a large corporation to return to the United States following the war as their pawns. When one of the soldiers becomes ... | This summer thriller entitled "The Manchurian Candidate" is a really scary but also really well executed update of the 1960s original version of the novel. Featuring a stellar cast of Meryl Streep, Denzel Washington, and Jon Voight.
Denzel Washington is the center actor in this movie playing a horribly scarred Gulf W... | This summer thriller entitled "The Manchurian Candidate" is a really scary but also really well executed update of the 1960s original version of the novel. Featuring a stellar cast of Meryl Streep, Denzel Washington, and Jon Voight.
Denzel Washington is the center actor in this movie playing a horribly scarred Gulf W... | [
"Product: used in very good condition complrte case artwork manual booklet insert poster and video game cart collectible!\n\nRating: 5.0\n\nSummary: An excellent video game classic!\n\nReview: This video game is an absolutely amazing video game that still is a great memory on my part.\n The graphics on this game we... | 141 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,697 |
A1P44NVM4FOSMC | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "4.0" for a product with description "Ann Simas lives in Oregon, but she is a Colorado girl at heart, having grown up in the Rocky Mountains. She is the author of The Sugar Cup (Harlequin Worldwide) written under the pseudonym Annie Sim... | First, I would like to thank Ann Simas for providing me with this book so I may bring you this review.
I really enjoyed reading Chloes Spirit by Ann Simas. It was a little bit of Mystery, Romance and a little Paranormal thrown into the mix. I am a big fan of mysteries so this definitely captured my attention and held ... | First, I would like to thank Ann Simas for providing me with this book so I may bring you this review.
I really enjoyed reading Chloes Spirit by Ann Simas. It was a little bit of Mystery, Romance and a little Paranormal thrown into the mix. I am a big fan of mysteries so this definitely captured my attention and held ... | [
"Product: Kelly Elliott is a contemporary romance writer and the author of the Wanted series. She lives in Texas with her husband and daughter. Visit Kelly at authorkellyelliott.blogspot.com.\n\nRating: 4.0\n\nSummary: I Wanted to Smack Ellie's Mom!!!\n\nReview: I was pleasantly surprised to see Kelly Elliotts book... | 5 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,698 |
A17OE0VPF9FO97 | Generate the review text written by a reviewer who has a given an overall rating of "4.0" for a product with description "Sophistication for both men and women : A stylish, well-designed headset is more than a tool that helps you handle your busy life. It is part of your outfit. Servicing as a necklace when not in use,... | I have used this device for about 2 days so far, as an all-day wearer. I'm using it with my iPhone 3GS, and it works wonderfully. I keep my phone in my front pant pocket, and with a couple of other bluetooth headsets I've had lots of drops. With this device, it's not a problem at all.
It sets in my ear nicely since ... | I have used this device for about 2 days so far, as an all-day wearer. I'm using it with my iPhone 3GS, and it works wonderfully. I keep my phone in my front pant pocket, and with a couple of other bluetooth headsets I've had lots of drops. With this device, it's not a problem at all.
It sets in my ear nicely since ... | [
"Product: Crumbs fall neatly into removable catcher so no messy bread crumbs all over the table or counter.  The bread slicer is approximately 6.25" wide and large enough to handle all sorts of loaf sizes.  Each slice will be uniform .5" wide.  The non adjustable slots ensure that all the bre... | 21 | longlamp_3 | user_based | 1,699 |
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