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DVDs | Homepage

New Giveaway: Set of Three Hot New DVDs

Photo of new DVD Giveaways Win a Set of Three Hot New DVDs from our sister site, ShoppingBlog.com: Dan in Real Life, Enchanted and No Country for Old Men.

Dan in Real Life is a funny and heartwarming story which stars Steve Carell and Juliette Binoche. Enchanted is one of our new favorite movies: Amy Adams is hilarious as an animated Disney princess who lands in the real world and must convince stick in the mud lawyer (Patrick Dempsey) that true love really will conquer all. The music is fabulous and the dialogue is a scream.

No Country for Old Men won the Oscar for Best Picture: it's a compelling, gritty and violent post-modern Western that's a must-see for Javier Bardem's Oscar-winning performance as a sociopathic serial killer.

To enter, please fill out the online form here. There is no entry fee or purchase obligation of any kind to enter. You must be a U.S. resident and be eighteen or over in order to enter. Winners will be selected in a random drawing, which will be announced on ShoppingBlog.com and in the Writers Write Update email newsletter. There's also an optional comment form where you can give your opinion about topics in the news. The comment section is optional, but we'd love to hear your opinion!

As with all Writers Write, Inc. giveaways, email addresses and mailing addresses will remain strictly confidential and will not be revealed to any third parties. You must enter before 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time/12:00 p.m. Central Time, Friday, April 11, 2008.

Good luck!

Posted on April 2, 2008
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DVD Pick: No Country For Old Men

Photo of DVD of No Country for Old MenThe Coen Brothers swept the Oscars, winning Best Picture and Best Director for their post-modern noir Western, No Country for Old Men. The Coens also won Best Adapted Screenplay. The Best Supporting Actor trophy for Javier Bardem for his chilling turn as as the sociopathic serial killer Anton Chigurh.

Based on the bestselling novel by Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men shares the nihilistic worldview of many of McCarthy's books. McCarthy's is a bleak landscape, in which subtle truths and shards of hope can sometimes be found. When Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) finds a suitcase containing $2 million dollars at the scene of a failed drug deal that ended in a bloodbath he should have walked away. He doesn't, of course: he takes the money. On his trail is the utterly ruthless and evil killer Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), who has been hired to get the money back. Chigurh dispatches anyone who gets in his way, leaving a trail of bodies behind him. Small-town sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) is determined to stop Chigurh's reign of terror and sets off in pursuit.

It is a violent and yet somehow thoughtful film, which is essentially a character study of the three men. Tommy Lee Jones is brilliant as Sheriff Bell who, although he has seen it all in his career, cannot quite fathom the pure evil that is Chigurh. Javier Bardem is effectively terrifying as the psychopathic Chigurh, and Josh Brolin turns in a surprisingly shaded performance as Moss. The cinematography is stunning, providing the perfect backdrop for a story that is so raw, so tightly-paced that you really can't stop watching -- even though you may want to during some of the intensely violent scenes. Rated R for graphic violence and harsh language, the film is definitely for adults only.

The DVD also includes some great extras, including reflections of the cast and crew, a "making of" feature and "Diary of a Country Sheriff", which explores the relationship between the compassion of Sheriff Bell and the brutality of Anton Chigurh. The DVD is available now wherever DVDs are sold, and at a nice discount at Amazon.com.

Posted on March 24, 2008
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New Giveaway: Platinum Edition 101 Dalmatians DVD

New Giveaway on our sister site, Shoppingblog.com: Win a Platinum Edition DVD of the Digitally Remastered
Disney Classic, 101 Dalmatians


  • 101 Dalmatians Platinum Edition (Available now everywhere DVDs are sold and online at Amazon.com)
    Photo of 101 Dalmatians DVD

    101 Dalmatians has charmed audiences for generations with its irresistible tail-wagging stars, memorable music, and a wonderful blend of fantasy, humor, and adventure. Now, with spectacular new bonus features and brilliantly restored, Walt Disney's beloved animated classic shines like never before in an all-new 2-disc Platinum Edition.

    Cruella De Vil, Disney's most outrageous villain, sets the fur-raising adventure in motion when she dognaps all of Pongo and Perdita's puppies. Through the power of the Twilight Bark, Pongo leads a heroic cast of animal characters on a quest across London to rescue them. The 2-disc Platinum Edition has something for everyone, including the all-new virtual Dalmatians game, over 101 pop-up trivia facts, an all-new music video and much more!

    To enter, please fill out the online form here. There is no entry fee or purchase obligation of any kind to enter. You must be a U.S. resident and be eighteen or over in order to enter. Winners will be selected in a random drawing, which will be announced on ShoppingBlog.com and our our network's email newsletter, The Writers Write Update. There's also an optional comment form where you can give your opinion about topics in the news. The comment section is optional, but we'd love to hear your opinion!

    As with all Writers Write, Inc. giveaways, email addresses and mailing addresses will remain strictly confidential and will not be revealed to any third parties. You must enter before 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time/12:00 p.m. Central Time, Friday, March 28, 2008.

    Good luck!

    Posted on March 13, 2008
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    Reviewers Hate September Dawn

    September DawnBlack Diamond Pictures has released a controversial film called September Dawn on DVD. The film starring Jon Voight and Terence Stamp has stirred controversy over the Mormons' role in an 1857 massacre in Utah. September Dawn potrays the Mountain Meadows Massacre, in which a wagon train of 120 men, women and children from Arkansas and Missouri were killed in cold blood. The fim blames a Mormon militia group. In the past blame for the massacre fell on the Paiute Indians.

    The Salt Lake Tribune calls the film "stridently anti-Mormon."
    Massacred movie: The biggest LDS-themed movie of 2007 was stridently anti-Mormon: "September Dawn," an idiotically campy and one-sided telling of the events leading up to the Mountain Meadows Massacre, when a Mormon militia killed 120 Arkansas wagon-train members coming through southern Utah. The movie, which cost around $11 million to make and featured hammy acting by Jon Voight and Terence Stamp (as Brigham Young), made just over $1 million at the box office (according to BoxOfficeMojo.com).
    Film Roger Critic absolutely hated the movie and gave it zero stars. Ebert also mentioned a couple theories surrounding the movie - that it could be an attempt to derail Mitt Romney's presidential bid or that it might be some sort of 9-11 allegory.
    What a strange, confused, unpleasant movie this is. Two theories have clustered around it: (1) It is anti-Mormon propaganda to muddy the waters around the presidential campaign of Mitt Romney, or (2) it is not about Mormons at all, but an allegory about the 9/11/01 terrorists. Take your choice. The problem with allegories is that you can plug them in anywhere. No doubt the film would have great impact in Darfur.
    Whatever the filmmakers were trying to do it hasn't been very successful. Rotten Tomatoes listing has the film at just 13% fresh with a 0% fresh rating from top critics.

    Posted on January 16, 2008
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    Netflix On Your TV

    Netflix is looking beyond its basic mailorder DVD rental business. It has teamed up with South Korean electronics maker LG to stream movies and other programming straight to LG's hi-def tvs. Netflix hopes to sign up more electronics makers in the near future.
    Reed Hastings, chief executive of Netflix, said he hoped to strike other such deals and that Netflix would soon be viewed as a movie channel that might appear on myriad devices. "We want to be integrated on every Internet-connected device, game system, high-definition DVD player and dedicated Internet set-top box," he said. "Eventually, as TVs have wireless connectivity built into them, we'll integrate right into the television."

    The move could help transform Netflix from a successful company with a cumbersome dependence on physical media and the Postal Service into an important player in a rapidly emerging digital media landscape. That landscape has recently been characterized by a frenzy of experimentation, as technology and media companies try to figure out how to bring the unlimited media choices of the Internet to the traditionally restricted confines of the television.

    The players include cable, satellite and telephone companies. Newer entrants include Amazon.com, which lets customers buy movies over its Unbox service and download them to their TiVo boxes. Wal-Mart, which experimented with movie downloads on its Web site, pulled the plug on the service last month when Hewlett-Packard, its partner in the project, stopped supporting the technology. Then there is the digital media heavyweight Apple. At the annual Macworld expo opening on Jan. 15, the company plans to announce a deal to allow users of its iTunes service to rent films from some Hollywood studios and watch them on their computers and iPods.

    Richard Doherty, research director of the Envisioneering Group, a market research firm, said Netflix's model had the virtue of being free to existing subscribers and relatively easy for consumers to understand. "You're already a subscriber and you don't pay anything extra. That’s called a slam dunk in most businesses we follow," Mr. Doherty said. The companies said LG products with Netflix's movie service would begin shipping in the second half of this year. They did not say which devices would have it. Mr. Doherty, who was briefed on the Netflix announcement and LG's other plans to be unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week, said LG could integrate the Netflix service into a future version of its dual-mode HD DVD/Blu-ray DVD player, which now sells for $799, and a new line of high-definition TVs with wireless connections to the Internet, among other products.
    Netflix will be competing with a number of companies to be consumers' number one choice for downloadable movies. The company has a decided advantage in the upcoming downloadable movies war: it has 7 million customers who are already happy with Netflix and already have an account set up.

    Posted on January 3, 2008
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    Holiday DVD Gift Ideas

    We helped our sister site ShoppingBlog.com come up with a list of great DVD gifts for the holidays. Be sure to choose your DVD gifts wisely this year. You don't want a boring DVD gift to "reflect poorly on you and your taste." You can see the list of DVD gift ideas with descriptions here.

    Posted on December 9, 2006
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