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Shadowlands comes highly recommended in this post at Rhesa’s blog. I saw it a few months ago on DVD. The 1993 movie stars Anthony Hopkins as C.S. Lewis, the Oxford don and writer, and Debra Winger as Joy Gresham, an American fan of his whom he weds in a marriage of convenience. He realizes his deep love for her when she becomes terminally ill. The film got a 100% Tomato Meter Rating. Do check it out.

On a related note, I regret missing the PBS special The Question of God which aired last September. It compares C.S. Lewis’s deep religious convictions to Sigmund Freud’s scientific skepticism. I wonder where I can rent the DVD?

Maritess vs. the Superfriends is now out on DVD. It’s available for $20 $15 at the website of its creator Dino Ignacio. The DVD also contains some of Dino’s other animated shorts. Oh and yeah, here’s Maritess in 3D.

I went in knowing I was a little wet behind the ears but I didn’t know I was coming out a sucker. I guess I was too eager to scoop up the “rare find” DVDs. Maybe it was the rush of winning my very first bid. In any case, my first few purchases at eBay a couple of weeks ago did not go down smoothly.

I first bid on the Light Years DVD. What a great find, I thought. This animated sci-fi movie was previously only available on VHS. I outbidded everyone else on the item. Final price: $8.02. Cool.

Then I checked out what other DVD gems I could find on eBay. The DVD version of Time Masters, a 1982 French animated feature directed by Rene Laloux (the same guy who did Light Years) and designed by my favorite artist Moebius, was too good to pass up — especially since Amazon was selling it used for $174.95. eBay had it for $19.95. I didn’t even bid for it. I just hit the “Buy it Now” button.

The seller’s credentials looked good. He had a Positive Feedback rating of 99.7%. I checked out the other items he sells. Oooh, he had Fire and Ice on DVD. That’s the animated fantasy adventure that Frank Frazetta and Ralph Bakshi collaborated on. I had seen it previously on VHS but I didn’t know it was on DVD. I bought that too.

Next, I hunted down some classic cartoons I remember fondly from my childhood. I looked for The Happy Prince and The Selfish Giant. Someone was selling a compilation of these Oscar Wilde classics (along with the Little Mermaid) by Reader’s Digest on one DVD! I scooped that one up too.

But soon after purchasing the DVD I get a notification from eBay stating that the item was removed for violating eBay policy. I contacted the seller and he said that eBay cancelled the item for being an “unauthorized copy” but he was still fighting it. He offered me a refund but said that he’ll send it to me if I still wanted it. I declined.

That was an omen of things to come. I finally received the Fire and Ice and Time Masters DVDs in the mail. They arrived pretty quickly. The first thing I noticed upon opening the package was that the sleeve covers were ink-jet printed. The same goes for the disc labels. I popped in the Fire and Ice DVD. It looked like crap. The guy basically just burned a bad VHS reproduction of the movie onto a DVD disc. I checked out Time Masters. It was a pretty decent copy. But it was a copy nonetheless. They’re both on their way back to the seller as we speak (to a place called Burnsville!).

There was a delay on the arrival of the Light Years DVD. I contacted the seller. It’s on its way over she says. Let’s see how that turns out. If it turns out as badly as the other purchases, my decision to avoid eBay forever will be absolutely final.

My kids and I have already watched the Finding Nemo DVD several times since we got it on Wednesday. While watching the ‘bonus features’ part of the DVD, I counted three Pinoy-American Pixar employees who were featured in the Making Of segment. There’s art director Ricky Nierva whose previous work appears in Monsters, Inc.. There’s also production artist Nelson Bohol who, along with Nierva, had his likeness permanently etched onto the Tiki dolls found in the dentist’s aquarium. Then there’s story supervisor Ronnie del Carmen who, as far as I can tell (by his intonation), is Philippine-born. Oh yeah, he’s got a blog as well! Gini Cruz is a Pinay artist from Pasay City who animated the Ellen DeGeneres character, Dory, but who didn’t appear in the DVD.

Now onto Matrix Revolutions. I saw it yesterday with the crew from work. I don’t have much to say about the film. Like Robert, I lowered my expectations before seeing it (Mark here has some right-on observations about the movie). Revolutions delivered as an action film. In that regard, I’m satisfied. Beyond that, I don’t care about the schizoid philosophical mess the trilogy has become. The Wachowskis did their best to tie the loose ends together, albeit unsatisfactorily.

(spoilers next)

I share with my brother-in-law a Blockbuster DVD Subscription Pass account, which put simply is a way for us to rent as many DVDs as we like in a month for a set price. My DVD viewing has increased considerably in the past month because of this. The first two movies I rented deal with the Holocaust: Academy Award winning The Pianist and the lesser known The Grey Zone.

You could say The Grey Zone starts off where The Pianist’s boxcar scene ends. The Grey Zone has an unusual cast of indie movie mainstays such as Steve Buscemi and Harvey Keitel (who is also the producer). It also features actors not normally seen in movies of this subject matter, Mira Sorvino and David Arquette. The ensemble speaks in unabashed American colloquial English, which is a departure from forced British accents normally found in historical movies like this. The Nazi characters, however, speak English with a German accent. Being that the movie’s setting is in the Auschwitz death camps, the film is bleak and depressing. I came away from it drained.

I also saw Nicholas Nickleby, a pretty good adaptation of the Dickens novel. It has a colorful cast of characters. Veteran actor Christopher Plummer is in it, as are Nathan Lane, Dame Edna and Alan Cumming. Nickleby’s love interest, Madeline Bray, is played by Anne Hathaway, who appeared in Princess Diaries with Julie Andrews. This makes Nicholas Nickleby the second time she’s worked with a principal of The Sound of Music (which, by the way, has a Nazi occupation subtext as well). Hathaway to me exudes rare beauty found in such women as Natalie Portman and Audrey Tautou.

This evening I watched Equilibrium, a movie about a dystopian world in the not-so-distant future. I would say this movie is a well-made B-movie. It’s been criticized for being derivative with its themes borrowed from The Brave New World, 1984 and Farenheit 451. A comparison to The Matrix is unavoidable as well. But I thoroughly enjoyed it. It takes the John Woo-style of gun battle to a new level. It stars Batman-to-be Christian Bale.