Star Wars - Episode III, Revenge of the Sith (Widescreen Edition) DVD

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Item Description:
Torn between his loyalty to his mentor obi-wan kenobi & the seductive powers of the sith anakin skywalker ultimately turns his back on the jedi thus completing his journey to the darkside & his transformation into darth vader. Studio: Tcfhe Release Date: 11/O7/2OO6 Starring: Ewan Mcgregor lan Mcdiarmid Run time: 14O minutes Rating: Pg13 Director: Georeg Lucas

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Ending the most popular film epic in history, Star Wars: Episode lll, Revenge of the Sith is an exciting, uneven, but ultimately satisfying journey. Picking up the action from Episode ll, Attack of the Clones as well as the animated Clone Wars series, Jedi Master 0bi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and his apprentice, Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), pursue General Grievous into space after the droid kidnapped Supreme Chancellor Palpatine (lan McDiarmid).

The Star Wars Family Tree (click for larger image)

lt's just the latest maneuver in the ongoing Clone Wars between the Republic and the Separatist forces led by former Jedi turned Sith Lord Count Dooku (Christopher Lee). 0n another front, Master Yoda (voiced by Frank 0z) leads the Republic's clone troops against a droid attack on the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk. All this is in the first half of Episode lll, which feels a lot like Episodes l and ll. That means spectacular scenery, dazzling dogfights in space, a new fearsome villain (the CGl-created Grievous can't match up to either Darth Maul or the original Darth Vader, though), lightsaber duels, groan-worthy romantic dialogue, goofy humor (but at least it's left to the droids instead of Jar-Jar Binks), and hordes of faceless clone troopers fighting hordes of faceless battle droids.

But then it all changes.

Star Wars Time Line (click for larger image)

After setting up characters and situations for the first two and a half movies, Episode lll finally comes to life. The Sith Lord in hiding unleashes his long-simmering plot to take over the Republic, and an integral part of that plan is to turn Anakin away from the Jedi and toward the Dark Side of the Force. Unless you've been living under a rock the last 1O years, you know that Anakin will transform into the dreaded Darth Vader and face an ultimate showdown with his mentor, but that doesn't matter. ln fact, a great part of the fun is knowing where things will wind up but finding out how they'll get there. The end of this prequel trilogy also should inspire fans to want to see the original movies again, but this time not out of frustration at the new ones. Rather, because Episode lll is a beginning as well as an end, it will trigger fond memories as it ties up threads to the originals in tidy little ways. But best of all, it seems like for the first time we actually care about what happens and who it happens to.

Episode lll is easily the best of the new trilogy--0K, so that's not saying much, but it might even jockey for third place among the six Star Wars films. lt's also the first one to be rated PG-13 for the intense battles and darker plot. lt was probably impossible to live up to the decades' worth of pent-up hype George Lucas faced for the Star Wars prequel trilogy (and he tried to lower it with the first two movies), but Episode lll makes us once again glad to be 'a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.' --David Horiuchi

The Complete Star Wars Saga

Episodes 4-6 Trilogy (widescreen)	Episode l: The Phantom Menace	Episde ll: Attack of the Clones
Star Wars: Clone Wars Vol. 1	Star Wars: Clone Wars Vol. 2	The Star Wars Store

Stills from Episode lll: Revenge of the Sith (click for larger images)

Anakin turning to the dark side	When Wookiees attack
Yoda, Jedi master	Mr. and Mrs. Vader
Saber training with Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen	The cast

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Testimonials

Average Buyer Rating: out of 5 stars

Buyer Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

- * Anakin's fall from grace ...
George Lucas intended for Anakin Skywalker to be a Lucifer-like character,full of greatness,hope,and promise,and falling terribly through his pride. At this point in the story,Anakin is among the greatest Jedi knights,but is impatient at not being promoted and disgruntled at his abilities being overlooked. ln "Phantom Menace",Anakin was portrayed as a bland,boring boy who gets into the Jedi knighthood thanks to a blood test,and in "Attack of the Clones",he is a brave warrior who's compromising his vow of celibacy by making moves on Princess/Senator Padme Amidala.

ln "Revenge of the Sith",Anakin and Padme are now secretly married,and somehow manage to live a bourgeois married life on Coruscant,home planet of the Jedi. They have an apartment,and the affair seems to be conducted behind everyone's back in front of everyone's face.Surprisingly,0bi-Wan Kenobi is very understanding about the whole thing,and doesn't even give Anakin a slap on the wrist. Anakin&Padme's marriage is forbidden...but not that much. George Lucas could've given the love story bigger stakes,and realistically show how celibate Jedi (who are basically monks) would deal with an erring member.
Since Anakin learns of Padme's pregnancy,he has nightmarish visions of her dealing with childbirth. There's an 0edipal undertone to this,since Padme is supposed to be motherly towards Anakin (she is older),and he's afraid of losing her like he did his own mother. This fear of loss turns Anakin to the Dark Side of the Force.

Anakin's "conversion" is,unfortunately,unconvincing. Anakin's transformation from a frightened husband to a bloodthirsty killer doesn't really work. The only convincing scenes are towards the end when he lashes out at his visibly pregnant wife,nearly strangling her,and his battle with 0bi-Wan.

The highlight of the movie,other than Ewan Macgregor's amazing turn as 0bi-Wan,are the final battle scenes,Anakin's sole sexy shirtless scene,along with the birth of Luke&Leia,and the "birth" of Darth Vader. Lucas powerfully juxtaposes Padme's death in childbirth from despair with the gruesome surgery that turns Anakin into Darth Vader.When the Darth Vader theme is finally played in its entirety,it sends chills down the spine. "Revenge of the Sith" is the strongest and darkest of the prequel trilogy,and the conclusion is a perfect starting-off point to "Star Wars:A New Hope."

Buyer Rating: 1 out of 5 stars

- Disappointing...
lt's obvious George Lucas felt that by simply having the name "Star Wars" attached to these prequel movies they would be a hit. ln my opinion, he couldn't be more wrong. Sith is the best of the three prequels, but that's like saying a Pacer is better than a Gremlin or Pinto. lt's all junk. Lucas failed his audience by focusing on special effects and not the story and characters. He was once interviewed as saying "a lot of directors fall into the trap of spending film time showing off their sets." l guess he forgot that when making these movies. Sith moves too quickly. Anakin's turn to the dark side is so quick you could miss it if you blink. The whole REAS0N for the prequel trilogy was to show us the fall of Anakin Skywalker. And we get it all crammed into a few minutes of screen time? Thanks George.

Buyer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

- Reveals the trauma of Darth Vader...
l grew up with the original Star Wars trilogy, which, for me, was an experience of near-religious proportions. Since then, l have been totally caught up in the Star Wars universe and the Jedi philosophy. l went to see every chapter of the backstory as they came out in theaters, but now l have just finished watching Episodes l, ll and lll in immediate succession (1 per week).

When considered as an epic, the whole thing is quite good, possibly even as much fun as watching as the 0riginal Trilogy. However, l should say, that the 0riginal Trilogy (0T) and the Prequil Trilogy (PT) are organically different. The 0T was born during the late 197Os: Disco Era when Americans were tired of the conflicts of Vietnam and Watergate. The PT came about during the late 199Os through 2OO5: a darker time, much of it post 9-11. The 0T is more light-hearted (especially episode lV). Compare ,for example, Yoda who is quite the distinguished sage and military strategist in the PT; but becomes much the prankster during his years on Dagobah. The PT is, it seems, much darker, and this episode, number lll, is darkest of all.

lt tells the story of the transformation of Anakin Skywalker. The movie has much truth in it as it identifies fear, anger and hatred as paths to the dark side and reveals the trauma of Darth Vader. l found myself completely engrossed in this movie from a standpoint of understanding the depths of the characters involved, the magnificient special effects, and the rousing score. All of this is woven into a fitting project that also helps one to appreciate the history of the Galactic Empire and the Jedi Culture.

l also enjoyed the deleted scenes.

Buyer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

- * Was good ...
probably the best of the prequals... we were able to see how george lucas wanted us to see, the story behind Darth Vader

Buyer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

- A Great Way to End The Epic
Star Wars - Episode lll: Revenge of the Sith completes the so-called "Prequel" Trilogy to Star Wars. After two less than successful (financially but not critically) features Star Wars - Episode l, The Phantom Menace (Widescreen Edition) and Star Wars - Episode ll, Attack of the Clones (Widescreen Edition), George Lucas returns with his best episode since Star Wars Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (198O & 2OO4 Versions, 2-Disc Widescreen Edition).

This has emotion, excitement, action, and believability the first two did not have. The acting is much improved, especially from Hayden Christiansen and it is an all around enjoyable piece.

The DVD is a must have but not because of the movie really. Great commentary track from Lucas and others, wonderful deleted scenes and a number of excellent featurettes.

Highly recommended.

Simon Schama's Power of Art

$34.49

Watching Simon Schama's Power of Art is like taking an Ivy League course in art appreciation, with the folksy but knowledgeable Schama as guide and interpreter. A collection of hour-long films on eight seminal artists and their groundbreaking works, which originally aired on British television, this boxed set is as entertaining as it is enlightening, with Schama doing for Western art what, say, Steve Irwin did for Australian natural history. Eight artists are featured--Caravaggio, Bernini, Rembrandt, David, Turner, Van Gogh, Picasso, and Rothko--and each portrait of the artist weaves biography and historical context to help explain the true power of his works.

The segment on Van Gogh is, as expected, emotional, yet Schama convincingly portrays Van Gogh as not consumed by madness, but fighting off the episodes with painting. Van Gogh painted one of his most evocative works, Wheat Field With Crows, which even his brother, Theo, recognized was about to put his brother on the artistic map. Yet, as Schama points out, within weeks, Van Gogh had killed himself. "Now why would he want to do that?" Schama muses--and then proceeds to narrate the tormented tale of the answer. Along the way, the viewer gains new appreciation for Van Gogh's signature works, including his famous sunflowers. "Technically, these are still lives," Schama says, "but there's nothing still about them... the sunflowers [seem to be] organisms landing violently from a burning sun." If the reenactments of the artists' lives are a bit overdone, it's forgivable, since the cumulative effect, in an hour, is a new appreciation of the work and the man.

Extras include frank and very funny commentaries by Schama and his co-producer, and lots of behind-the-scenes dish on how certain scenes were achieved. The teeming French opera scene in the "David" episode, for instance, was cast using just 20 French extras and then the rest created by CGI--"the scene works better, really, than [the film] King Kong," Schama says with delight. --A.T. Hurley

Power Yoga - Total Body Workout

$8.99

Power yoga "demands your attention," says instructor Rodney Yee. He leads a challenging, constantly progressing series of poses, one flowing into the next, integrating breath, movement, tension, and relaxation. The poses include Sun Salutation, standing poses, forward bends, back bends, twists, and arm balances. The first poses are fairly easy, and with each repetition of the series, Yee adds on more difficult movements, extending the series without pausing. You're encouraged to do as much of the series that fits your level, up to the entire 65-minute workout if you're an experienced yoga practitioner. Although you can begin at any level, some familiarity with yoga is recommended. The Hawaiian setting is gorgeous and inspiring. This is an excellent yoga workout that you can grow with, adding on more as you get stronger. --Joan Price

The Incredibles (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)

$14.99

After creating the last great traditionally animated film of the 20th century, The Iron Giant, filmmaker Brad Bird joined top-drawer studio Pixar to create this exciting, completely entertaining computer-animated film. Bird gives us a family of "supers," a brood of five with special powers desperately trying to fit in with the 9-to-5 suburban lifestyle. Of course, in a more innocent world, Bob and Helen Parr were superheroes, Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl. But blasted lawsuits and public disapproval forced them and other supers to go incognito, making it even tougher for their school-age kids, the shy Violet and the aptly named Dash. When a stranger named Mirage (voiced by Elizabeth Pena) secretly recruits Bob for a potential mission, the old glory days spin in his head, even if his body is a bit too plump for his old super suit.

Bird has his cake and eats it, too. He and the Pixar wizards send up superhero and James Bond movies while delivering a thrilling, supercool action movie that rivals Spider-Man 2 for 2004's best onscreen thrills. While it's just as funny as the previous Pixar films, The Incredibles has a far wider-ranging emotional palette (it's Pixar's first PG film). Bird takes several jabs, including some juicy commentary on domestic life ("It's not graduation, he's moving from the fourth to fifth grade!").

The animated Parrs look and act a bit like the actors portraying them, Craig T. Nelson and Holly Hunter. Samuel L. Jackson and Jason Lee also have a grand old time as, respectively, superhero Frozone and bad guy Syndrome. Nearly stealing the show is Bird himself, voicing the eccentric designer of superhero outfits ("No capes!"), Edna Mode.

Nominated for four Oscars, The Incredibles won for Best Animated Film and, in an unprecedented win for non-live-action films, Sound Editing.

The Presentation
This two-disc set is (shall we say it?), incredible. The digital-to-digital transfer pops off the screen and the 5.1 Dolby sound will knock the socks off most systems. But like any superhero, it has an Achilles heel. This marks the first Pixar release that doesn't include both the widescreen and full-screen versions in the same DVD set, which was a great bargaining chip for those cinephiles who still want a full-frame presentation for other family members. With a 2.39:1 widescreen ratio (that's big black bars, folks, à la Dr. Zhivago), a few more viewers may decide to go with the full-frame presentation. Fortunately, Pixar reformats their full-frame presentation so the action remains in frame.

The Extras
The most-repeated segments will be the two animated shorts. Newly created for this DVD is the hilarious "Jack-Jack Attack," filling the gap in the film during which the Parr baby is left with the talkative babysitter, Kari. "Boundin'," which played in front of the film theatrically, was created by Pixar character designer Bud Luckey. This easygoing take on a dancing sheep gets better with multiple viewings (be sure to watch the featurette on the short).

Brad Bird still sounds like a bit of an outsider in his commentary track, recorded before the movie opened. Pixar captain John Lasseter brought him in to shake things up, to make sure the wildly successful studio would not get complacent. And while Bird is certainly likable, he does not exude Lasseter's teddy-bear persona. As one animator states, "He's like strong coffee; I happen to like strong coffee." Besides a resilient stance to be the best, Bird threw in an amazing number of challenges, most of which go unnoticed unless you delve into the 70 minutes of making-of features plus two commentary tracks (Bird with producer John Walker, the other from a dozen animators). We hear about the numerous sets, why you go to "the Spaniards" if you're dealing with animation physics, costume problems (there's a reason why previous Pixar films dealt with single- or uncostumed characters), and horror stories about all that animated hair. Bird's commentary throws out too many names of the animators even after he warns himself not to do so, but it's a lively enough time. The animator commentary is of greatest interest to those interested in the occupation.

There is a 30-minute segment on deleted scenes with temporary vocals and crude drawings, including a new opening (thankfully dropped). The "secret files" contain a "lost" animated short from the superheroes' glory days. This fake cartoon (Frozone and Mr. Incredible are teamed with a pink bunny) wears thin, but play it with the commentary track by the two superheroes and it's another sharp comedy sketch. There are also NSA "files" on the other superheroes alluded to in the film with dossiers and curiously fun sound bits. "Vowellet" is the only footage about the well-known cast (there aren't even any obligatory shots of the cast recording their lines). Author/cast member Sarah Vowell (NPR's This American Life) talks about her first foray into movie voice-overs--daughter Violet--and the unlikelihood of her being a superhero. The feature is unlike anything we've seen on a Disney or Pixar DVD extra, but who else would consider Abe Lincoln an action figure? --Doug Thomas

More Incredibles at Amazon.com

The Incredibles Toy Store	CD Soundtrack	The Art of The Incredibles Book
Game Boy Advance	On VHS	The Essential Guide Book

The Pixar Feature Films

Toy Story, 1995
A Bug's Life, 1998
Toy Story 2, 1999

Monsters, Inc., 2001
Finding Nemo, 2003
The Incredibles, 2004

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The Grapes of Wrath (Centennial Edition)

by John Steinbeck

$10.88

Average customer rating: 4.5 ISBN: 0142000663

When The Grapes of Wrath was published in 1939, America, still recovering from the Great Depression, came face to face with itself in a startling, lyrical way. John Steinbeck gathered the country's recent shames and devastations--the Hoovervilles, the desperate, dirty children, the dissolution of kin, the oppressive labor conditions--in the Joad family. Then he set them down on a westward-running road, local dialect and all, for the world to acknowledge. For this marvel of observation and perception, he won the Pulitzer in 1940.

The prize must have come, at least in part, because alongside the poverty and dispossession, Steinbeck chronicled the Joads' refusal, even inability, to let go of their faltering but unmistakable hold on human dignity. Witnessing their degeneration from Oklahoma farmers to a diminished band of migrant workers is nothing short of crushing. The Joads lose family members to death and cowardice as they go, and are challenged by everything from weather to the authorities to the California locals themselves. As Tom Joad puts it: "They're a-workin' away at our spirits. They're a tryin' to make us cringe an' crawl like a whipped bitch. They tryin' to break us. Why, Jesus Christ, Ma, they comes a time when the on'y way a fella can keep his decency is by takin' a sock at a cop. They're workin' on our decency."

The point, though, is that decency remains intact, if somewhat battle-scarred, and this, as much as the depression and the plight of the "Okies," is a part of American history. When the California of their dreams proves to be less than edenic, Ma tells Tom: "You got to have patience. Why, Tom--us people will go on livin' when all them people is gone. Why, Tom, we're the people that live. They ain't gonna wipe us out. Why, we're the people--we go on." It's almost as if she's talking about the very novel she inhabits, for Steinbeck's characters, more than most literary creations, do go on. They continue, now as much as ever, to illuminate and humanize an era for generations of readers who, thankfully, have no experiential point of reference for understanding the depression. The book's final, haunting image of Rose of Sharon--Rosasharn, as they call her--the eldest Joad daughter, forcing the milk intended for her stillborn baby onto a starving stranger, is a lesson on the grandest scale. "'You got to,'" she says, simply. And so do we all. --Melanie Rehak

Introduction to Animal Science: Global, Biological, Social and Industry Perspectives (3rd Edition)

by W. Stephen Damron

$117.33

Average customer rating: ISBN: 0131189328

PERMACULTURE: A Designers' Manual

by Bill Mollison, Reny Mia Slay

Average customer rating: 5.0 ISBN: 0908228015

Custom LandDesigner 3D Design 7.0

Sierra's Custom LandDesigner 3D Design 7.0 may offer only five landscaping and gardening applications as opposed to the eight titles bundled with Complete LandDesigner 3D Design Collection 7.0, but the suite still packs an enormous amount of functionality for its relatively low price. The program let us design complete landscapes and gardens by dragging plants, walls, trellises, and other elements from an extensive database into either a 2-D or 3-D representation of our yard. It was easy to position and reposition these elements, and the truly uninspired can turn to the included predesigned gardens and design guide for inspiration. These two aspects of the program can incorporate everything from your climate to feng shui in order to provide suggestions that are relevant to your landscaping needs.

The software comes with so many features it's tough to decide where to begin. We really liked the aging feature that let us see how the plants we had selected would look any number of years after we planted them, letting us plan for the future. There's also a handy slider bar that let us easily see how the plants would look during various seasons, adding accurate blooms in the spring and leaf color changes in the fall. It was simple to import digital pictures of houses and add virtual landscaping elements, and once a design was finalized everything we wanted to include was added automatically to a shopping list.

The one drawback to this software is that the graphics aren't too great, especially in the 3-D modes. They are adequate for giving an impression of what a garden will look like from a distance, but up close everything disintegrates into a mess. Still, the top-down 2-D views are crisp, and the photographs in the plant encyclopedia are good, and as long as you have the patience to deal with the frequent CD access this software demands you'll be planning the landscape of your dreams in no time. --T. Byrl Baker