Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey

Posted on June 9, 2014 at 8:00 am

A-
Lowest Recommended Age: 4th - 6th Grades
MPAA Rating: Not rated
Profanity: None
Alcohol/ Drugs: None
Violence/ Scariness: Some mildly scary images
Diversity Issues: Diverse characters
Date Released to Theaters: 2014
Date Released to DVD: June 9, 2014
Amazon.com ASIN: B00IWULSTC

Neil deGrasse Tyson’s marvelous “Cosmos” reboot comes out on DVD and Blu-Ray this week and it is well worth adding to every family and classroom library.  It is a very worthy successor to Carl Sagan’s classic PBS series of the 80’s, updated to make use of the latest technology and to present the most exciting discoveries about our world and the worlds beyond.

http://vimeo.com/85772236

Dazzling graphics, mind-blowing outer space images, and clear, frank presentation of core principles of the scientific method not only cover what we know but why we know it.  We also learn about the fearless men and women who made these discoveries, with nothing but passionate curiosity and fierce intellectual integrity to guide them.  We learn that answers are important but that it is questions that drive knowledge forward.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpQgfR6H5Yo
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Documentary DVD/Blu-Ray Pick of the Week Elementary School For the Whole Family Television

Bobby Van Hopping in “Small Town Girl” — the Number that Inspired Hugh Jackman’s Tony Awards Opening Number

Posted on June 8, 2014 at 11:01 pm

Did you see Hugh Jackman hopping through the opening number on the Tony Awards?  Top that next year NPH!  You might have caught a glimpse of the movie dance Jackman paid tribute to as he hopped by, the wonderful Bobby Van hopping through “Small Town Girl” and singing about going to Broadway.  Here’s the glorious number in full.  (Van said he didn’t feel right for a year after filming this, and you can see why.)

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Shorts

What Were The Best Films of the 60’s?

Posted on June 8, 2014 at 8:00 am

Many thanks to Sam Fragoso and his colleagues at Movie Mezzanine for including me in their round-up of the best films of the 1960’s.  I really enjoyed reading through all the different selections.  Check it out and add your own favorites to the list.

Oh, and while you’re at it, be sure to check out CNN’s excellent series on the 60’s, from Tom Hanks’ Play-Tone production company.  You can hear a snippet of my dad’s famous “vast wasteland” speech in the introduction to the first episode, about television in the 60’s.

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Critics For Your Netflix Queue Media Appearances

Trailer: Spooky “The Congress” With Robin Wright

Posted on June 7, 2014 at 8:00 am

Robin Wright stars as..Robin Wright, well, a version of herself anyway, in this futuristic thriller about an actress who agrees to turn over her cyber-persona to a movie studio so she can get the money she needs to care for her son.  It looks like a sci-fi “Alice in Wonderland” after that.  I’m very intrigued.

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Trailers, Previews, and Clips

List: Sarah Lawrence College and Movies

Posted on June 7, 2014 at 5:59 am

This weekend my husband and I are attending a reunion at our alma mater, Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. Our son also graduated from Sarah Lawrence, and our niece will enroll in the MFA program in writing there in the fall.

Characters in movies like “Diary of a Mad Housewife,” “Baby, It’s You,” “The Notebook,” and “10 Things I Hate About You” and in the television series “Will and Grace” and “Entourage” attend or have attended Sarah Lawrence.  By the way, any alum immediately spotted that “Notebook” scene set in a Sarah Lawrence classroom as a fraud.  But Brian De Palma’s “Home Movies” had scenes actually shot on campus.  Some very talented people in the entertainment industry are fellow alums, including:

1. Brian De Palma, director of films like “Blow Out” and “Scarface”

2. Oscar-winner Jane Alexander (“All the President’s Men”)

3. Cary Elwes of “The Princess Bride,” “Twister,” and “Robin Hood: Men in Tights”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pmfl2NXkVg

4. Julianna Margulies of “The Good Wife,” “What’s Cooking,” and “City Island”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_3SxeR6d6s

5. Jill Clayburgh of “An Unmarried Woman,” “Rich in Love,” and “Bridesmaids”

6. J.J. Abrams, director of the two most recent “Star Trek” films and the creator of the television series “Alias,” “Lost,” and “Fringe”

7. Joan Micklin Silver, director of “Hester Street”

8. Holly Robinson Peete of “For Your Love” and “Celebrity Apprentice”

9. Writer David Lindsay-Abaire of the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Rabbit Hole”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxl39czBhsQ

10. Téa Leoni of “Spanglish”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvu1EorWGgQ

Other alums include Barbara Walters, who just donated her archive to the school.

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