2 comments about Standard Deviants: Enormous English Pack [VHS].

1. I don't really know how many stars to give here because I couldn't view three of the DVDs. I had a replacement set sent from AMAZON and the same discs had the exact same errors in the replacement set. I called the customer service number for Standard Deviants (800) 238-9669, and they said they had had compatibility problems but didn't indicate that my player--the Sharp DV-740--ought to have them.
   Therefore I think it likely that a good number of you will have the frustrations I had. Maybe it is best to go for the VHS--I have a VHS set on the way; both DVD sets will soon be on the way back to AMAZON. If you order these DVDs, good luck to you; you may need it--but AMAZON's customer service is excellent...



2. Like the reviewer whose comments I just read, I also don't know how to rate this item because it will not play on my or anybody else's DVD player. I bought the thing new & planned on using it in class tomorrow. Opened the shrink wrap and factory seal & all I get on my machines and my neighbors' is the main menu and then an error message no matter what I select from the menu. Scary. How do these people stay in business?

5 comments about Brainy Baby - French [VHS].

1. My one year old daughter is currently learning French with a french teacher who comes to play for an hour a week. This DVD is proving to be very helpful in reinforcing the language during the rest of the week. Yes, it is true that the articles are not given with many of the words, but this should not be the only tool used for teaching your child another language. The images are beautiful and completely capture my daughter's attention. I am very happy with it!



2. I really like it and my son found it very benificial
   The only comments i have are:
   1- It is the same DVD as the english one (it has the same content), i could have run it from the previous DVD, using the Frensh language.
   2- I wish to be able to scroll through the DVD to see the content of each chapters
   3- My Son loves the extras that are provided in the menu



3. I was very disappointed in this product. The whole quality of this DVD is very much bellow all its similar competitive DVDs.
   The picture quality is bad. The whole layout for the scenes is very poorly done. As if someone had done the whole thing on a home video over night. The narrator's french has a very heavy accent (which I do not recognize the origin).
   I do not recommend this product. I would however recommend the Baby Einsteins series. They have a multitude language selection and their french audio is good.



4. Yes I do agree with other reviewers that this program has 2 major flows, for a good part of the words introduced there is now article (very important in French) and why didn't they pick a French narrator? (her French is pretty good and her foreign accent only shows in some words and sentences, still when you make a language video pleeaaase take a native with a standard accent). Same for the script, some awkwardness to it (for instance homme de neige instead of bonhomme de neige) shows that it was not made by a native. Another problem with this program is that they mostly introduce words, some times with articles and adjectives but not really sentences. I think it is very important for children to get the music of the language early and also to be able to recognize a word once it is in a sentence. For this reason I would really recommended the Little Pim 3 DVDs series over this one. In that program (which has the articles and is narrated by a French native) after being introduced alone with their articles, the words are used in simple every day sentences. When I see Little Pim French program I always think it is like someone was reading in my mind when I was thinking all the flaws of Brainy Baby and what should be done to improve it and made this perfect program that kids love.
   So as a conclusion I would say when Little Pim was not here, parents who do not speak (well) French could certainly show it to there kids, but now I would say without hesitation get LITTLE PIM first:Little Pim: 3-Disc Gift Set (French)



5. I gave this to my best friends little boy who is 3. He takes French lessons at his school and loves it so I decided to get him this video. When he opened it, his mom put the video in for him to watch and he didn't move. He loved it so much. He was mesmorized from beginning to end.

5 comments about Don't Make Waves [VHS].

1. After the rotund success of "Someone like it hot", this is perhaps, the most provocative satire about then lives and times of South California around a beautiful house that will become a particular hell. The cast is incredibly good.
   
   Don't miss it!



2. I recorded this off TCM last week, mostly because I saw it had an appearance by Sharon Tate from the same year she did "The Fearless Vampire Killers." Which is, of course, a perfectly good reason to see any movie.
   
   And while there's a fair amount here to satisfy people who just want to see Tate -- specifically some long, strange shots of her in a bikini bouncing endlessly on a beachside trampoline -- there's a lot more going on here.
   
   "Waves" is basically a rake's progress tale as stammering, backstory-free Tony Curtis arrives in California and charms/scams his way to the top of a Malibu swimming pool empire.
   
   Along the way he meets the aforementioned Tate (as a vacant but intrepid skydiver named ... Malibu); an accident-prone, broken-English-spouting Claudia Cardinale who destroys Curtis' little VW and then helps him stage his comeback; her sugar daddy (Robert Webber); his angry, voluptuous wife (a criminally underutilized Joanna Barnes); a queeny, crooked astrologer; future Mr. Universe David Draper; and, oddly enough, Jim Backus who, in an almost Charlie Kaufman-esque scene, plays himself and offers to do Mr. Magoo voice readings for Curtis at the promise of a free pool.
   
   It even has an animated opening sequence (depicting Curtis' VW on an antic world tour) with music by The Byrds.
   
   Basically, this is one of those glossy, widescreen, Metrocolor sexless sex farce confections from the waning days of the studio system -- Benjamin Braddock had to live somewhere nearby, but had he wandered into the story, the universe probably would've collapsed into itself.
   
   What's odd, though, is that this was made by director Alexander Mackendrick exactly 10 years after he and Curtis made "The Sweet Smell of Success" together. Mackendrick doesn't have material by Lehman and Odets this time; the script is by one writer (Maurice Richlin) responsible for Inspector Clouseau and "Operating Petticoat," another (George Kirgo) who'd just penned the Elvis Presley epic "Spinout," and -- should it even be a surprise -- an uncredited Terry Southern.
   
   Obviously, "Success" is the classic acid indictment of fame and corruptive ambition and the sting of betrayal. That film had its stark black-and-white photography, its potent and bustling New York aesthetic, its whip-cracking dialogue and a genuine taste of bile in its mouth. Which makes it not so much the *opposite* of the sunny, West Coast "Waves," but a reversed or negative image of it. It's Bizarre-O "Success."
   
   And one of the reasons "Waves" is interesting is because you can tell there's some kind of force behind it, you can smell a whiff of satire beyond its heavy seabreeze, perfume and cigar smoke. But those aromas never quite waft to the forefront. The movie is intelligent and somewhat literate without ever actually being smart; witty without ever really being funny; and fairly sexy without ever attempting to even acknowledge the ramifications of its own weird carnality.
   
   But it's also strangely paced and rambling without ever really being boring. As a result, I think it's a fascinating movie, even though the awkward slapstick grows tiresome and leads to a conclusion in which all the characters wind up in the same valley bachelor pad together and find themselves swept up in a SoCal landslide. But even then, it's hard not to admire the strange elaborate detail of ... the film's disaster effects (!). Yep, this is a bedroom farce in which Cardinale at one point literally has to leap for her life while a lavish patio crumbles under her feet. You can't tell me that doesn't have something to do with something besides the general plot.
   
   By the way: I'm reviewing the VHS version of this only because there's no DVD. Don't buy the tape, though, the compositions will of course get killed by the pan-and-scan.



3. very enjoyable, fast-paced feel-good flick from the mid sixties. The Mort Sahl scene is priceless! I don't understand why it's not out on dvd. Looking at the exorbitant amounts being asked for VHS versions, you'd think there would be a market for a dvd release with perhaps some extras like a Tony Curtis commentary.



4. One of Sharon's best films, she never looked better. They need to release this and Eye of the Devil on DVD.



5. This is one movie that everyone can enjoy. It's very funny and well-acted. Tony Curtis is so over-looked, and this movie is just another example of what a talented performer he is. Comedy was always Curtis' greatest strength and he plays it well here. But the movie is an excellent vehicle for Sharon Tate. Cast in the perfect role as a stunning bikini-clad beach goddess, Tate shows she has a talent for comedy as she plays the foil to Curtis' well-honed chops. All and all, this one is a delightful romp and worthy of an audience.

No comments about French Braiding Made Easy with Jamie Rines Jones.

No comments about Muzzy BBC Language Course for Children French 1.

5 comments about Major League [VHS].

1. The new owner (played by Margaret Whitton) of the Cleveland Indians has come up with a great idea - fill the team with misfits and losers, and when the team totally tanks, move it to Florida! But, she didn't figure on Jake Taylor (Tom Berenger). Taylor leads the team on a last chance drive to win the pennant, and become stars. But, can this unlikely group of heroes pull it together and actually win? Just watch their smoke!
   
   This is a really fun movie. The characters are very interesting - Tom Berenger playing the washed-up catcher who wants to go out in victory, Charlie Sheen playing the wild young pitcher who needs help to actuate his potential, Corbin Bernsen playing the prima donna old hand who needs a wakeup call, Wesley Snipes playing the cocky base-stealer who is sure he can be a star, Dennis Haysbert playing the fatally flawed but stoic voodoo worshipper, and so many more. Yeah, this is a great movie, a lot of fun to watch. If you like baseball, then you will enjoy this off-beat, losers-to-winners movie. I know I do!



2. I bought the dvd thinking it was the original version. Nope. It has been cleaned up & is no fun to watch. All the good Bob Uecker scenes are gone. I have found a vhs released in '93 if this one is also cleaned up I'm going to be most displeased.



3. The team owner wants to bring in ball playrs from all around the league as well as starting with a new staff of coaches tries to bring her team in last place. With the support of the coaches and vetern players the team started to gel quicker than expected. There are lots of laughs throughout the game. The announcer for the game keeps the laughs coming over and over. This movie is really a great for the sports fan in you.



4. I liked the movie as well as it's sequels but there is a difference. The sequels are family fair. The original film is superior but it is filled with profanity. There are over 150 uses of profane language in the film. I do not disagree with the use of profanity completely, but when it is used just to fill the air and not for effect, I do not agree with it. The finest films ever made CITIZEN KANE, CASABLANCA and GONE WITH THE WIND, do not have profanity, unless you consider the word DAMN. I do not think it has damaged their appeal. I imagine if they did a remake of GWTW, the famous line would be "Scarlett, you B...h, I don't give a mother F.....k. I guess there are those who would assert that the film would be superior with a few Fs filling the air. I like the Major League movies and I do not think the absence of vulgarity hurt the quality of the sequels. I would have like to see less in the original. Major League is certainly not the worse film for this, it is so common place that soon the F...word with be heard regularly in prime time.



5. Sometimes people don't think much of you but you end up winning at the end. Stories like that happen. It is always encouraging to see. The movie itself is more of a comedy than an inspirational movie but I never get tired of watching it.

No comments about The Standard Deviants - Huge Humanities Pack (Spanish, French, English Composition, Psychology, Sociology) [VHS].

5 comments about Jancis Robinson's Wine Course (Introduction and Chardonnay; Cabernet Sauvignon; Syrah/Shiraz and Riesling; Pinot Noir; Fizz and Grape Invaders) [VHS].

1. Good content. Explained nicely about 5 wine varieties. It's a good course for a beginner. It will increase the vocabulary and knowledge for sure!
   
   However, the DVD quality is terrible. It looks as if the producers ran an old VHS tape and captured it on a DVD.



2. I really enjoyed the dvds, and it was a good education on the kinds of grapes out there, basics of wine production, and the wine industry world wide. This will give you a little something when you are wondering what wines to buy or try. But it does not tell you about wine tasting (the method or the description words ie. spicy, fruity, etc) which was a large part of why I got the dvds. She just tells you "everyone has a different palate" and moves on. Oh, also, the thing is quite old (circa 1994-5 I'm guessing) Otherwise it was a great primer on the world of wine.



3. I ordered a video titled Jancis Robinson's wine course and this was on
   2-27-09 and still have not received it. based on this i will not ever
   order a product on line like this again....
   bummer when you place trust on these online purchases.
   
   LD



4. Excellent DVD to learn on wine. Clear views, and nice videos on locations, that makes this DVD worth buying.



5. I recently starting studying for my WSET wine courses and have found these DVD's so useful. Packed with really useful information they are a great accompaniment to the book of the same name.
   
   I'd recommend them to anyone with an interest in wine.
   
   It would be nice if she brought out some more.

5 comments about Lyric Language I (French/English) [VHS].

1. My 2-1/2 and 3-1/2 year old girls really enjoy this video series. We do not speak French but would like to expose them to the language as much as possible. I am not a video advocate, but when trying to expose my children to a second language it's the best I can do. The video is not cartoonish or puppets, rather video clips of real children playing, dancing, jump roping, and doing various other activities. They do activities to music sung by children too, which is a plus to keep a child's attention. I liked the ABC's and 1-2-3's done in both English and French. The entire video is done in alternating echo format, meaning, one line is sung in English (with an English subtitle) then sung in French (with a French subtitle). It's really worth the money. Since it has subtitles in both French and English, reading opportunities are present for the older children. I expect my children will watch this video up to age 11, if it does not break before then.



2. I purchased this for my 5 year old in the hopes that she might enjoy the songs and become familiar with some of the sounds of the French language. This is the first movie that she has refused to watch! (and she has watched a number of movies in French) It is very poorly made. The songs are terrible and the children singing them are tone deaf.

   The MUZZY tapes have worked much better.




3. I am the mom of a nineteen month old to whom I speak my mother tongue - French - everyday. He is learning so fast that I just can't keep up with him. I have been looking for so long for more French videos. I am just so happy I came accross this one at the library, now I have to have it! The songs are great and in tune. The pronunciation is perfect, and the topics are varied. We learn the vocabulary of animals at the zoo, the beach, the alphabet, the weather, the seasons, the days of the week... etc. In addition, it couples French and English which also makes daddy happy!!! Love it!!!



4. This is the only decent French video I have found for my daughter. We bought it when she was about 1 but it's only since she was two that she really started watching it regularly and loving it. Now, at 3, she knows all the songs, sings them and requests the video over and over again. Last week we were visiting the Santa Monica Pier and my daughter pointed to the beach and said "J'aime la Plage" (one of the songs) and then started singing the entire song in French. The others we have bought were awful (see my other reviews) but this one has really taught my daughter some French. Adults, however, will find it cheesy and somewhat annoying but no worse than putting up with Barney and Caillou : ) I highly recommend this video.



5. My daughter and I enjoy this cassette in the car. The songs are up beat and fun. They are sung by children and the lines alternate between French and English so that you always know what they are singing about. We haven't watched the movie much because we have Muzzy for that. The movie doesn't have the family Circus cartoons but instead has live action shots. For the price I don't mind just using the audio tape although I did appreciate the English translation shown at the bottom of the screen. The cassettes also come with a booklet that has the lyrics.
   I would recommend this to someone who wants to increase exposure to the language but not as the primary tool for teaching.

5 comments about Nine to Five [VHS].

1. I have always enjoyed this film.
   Even like the famous song. And, it is still catchy all these years later.
   
   I think the cast were perfect in their roles.
   
   Course, in this day in age, a lot of the thing the Franklin Hart character & the company did would NOT be stood for now.
   
   Good but normal extras with it.
   
   Did NOT like when putting the disc in you do NOT go automatically to the menu but to LOUD ADVERTISING MUSIC. NOT GOOD ON ANY DISC & GOES AGAINST WHAT THE THEME OF THE FILM.
   
   The picture quality needs some work. For a "special edition" release the picture quality was dull.



2. Could watch it every year if there weren't so many movies to watch. Great comedy!! Classic Actresses/Actors



3. Some really good campy films came out in the early 80's---Fast Times at Ridgemount High, Repo Man, Airplane and 9 to 5...9 to 5 had a great cast of the very funny Lily Tomlin, a great performance by Country Singer Dolly Parton and a surprising portayal of character "Judy Bernley" by Jane Fonda.
   
   This movie, made 20 years ago, shows what goes on in a large corporate company when it is managed by IDIOTS---computers may have replaced typewriters, but butt kissing jerks still find their way up the food chain to make workplaces miserable. There's also Roz--the company spy, and the gossip mill with poeple of the office thinking Dolly--the boss' secretary--is sleeping with him.
   
   After a "great" day at the office, 3 women get ticked off, leave early and head to the local bar (sounds like where I work, except heaven forbid you leave the office early without being docked and given a warning for leaving early unexpectedly.) From there, they go back to Dolly's house and dream up ways to off the boss. The next day, the roller coaster begins with the funny lady trio thinking they posioned the boss, mistakenly stealing a stiff from the hospital thinking their boss died, then kidnapping the boss, and in the meantime, making changes in the office for the best and improving efficienty--and of course the boss gets the credit!
   
   This movie is funny from start to finish and is definately a classic!! I recomend it for anyone to watch!



4. It's fun to watch now especially in light of technological advances in the office - how cumbersome the technology of the day seemed, from handling multi-line phones to the monster of a copy machine. Have work place policies improved women's experiences at work? I believe so to a point, at least in protection from sexual harassment, but to me the glass ceiling seems very much in place still, with it's inequities and pay and promotions, etc. This is a fun-to-watch, get-even fantasy.



5. The price was very good. The product was verified as being sold to me very quickly. Delivery was made to my U.S. address very quickly (within about 4 days). Excellent service!