Reviews

I never liked violin music until I heard Joshua Bell at the Hollywood Bowl in California. Since he doesn't play there every day and his playing evokes such emotion, I bought this album. It's terrific. I would see him or hear him in a heart beat so if you really LOVE violin classical music, you will love this CD.

I first discovered this whilst listening in the car in England to classic FM when they played SARASATE, Carmen Fantasy. We had arrived at our destination and we sat there for another l0 minutes while we heard the whole track. What can you say? Joshua Bell is brilliant. We bought the double CD mainly for this track, but it is all fantastic.

Joshua Bell's playing is simply enchanting. This recording is wonderful and I needed it as a reward after I fought the plastic case to release the two discs. The packaging - hard plastic case with a non-release hard plastic wheel in the center of the CDs - was so frustrating that I was considering breaking the case just to get the discs loose, but was worried I'd break the CDs instead, so I puzzled on with it. Luckily I figured out a way to use my scissors to pinch one of the three "teeth" that holds the disc in the case and was able to get the disc out without breaking anything. I have *never* seen a disc packaged like this before; requiring a tool to release the disc... Do I need to get out more?

This CD truly shows what a master Joshua Bell is, as he beautifully interprets and plays music from a wide range of composers!

Dealing with pain is hard work, and slower, gentle music is very healthy for those of us dealing with disease. Consequently I'm always on the lookout for soothing sounds. Joshua's violin music is breathtaking; I forget my pain while his violin sings.

Reviews

I bought this CD because I was going to be teaching a preschool ballet class. There were very few usable songs on the disc. They sounded too, well, classical - not "kid" enough for me. Maybe I just had the wrong idea when I bought it, I don't know!

This is wonderful classical music. If the kids like it, great! But, make no mistake about it, this is good for anyone. This is wonderful study music, reading music, or just plain relaxing music. Highlights include "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers"; "March of the Toys" (from BABES IN TOYLAND -- the reason I bought this CD); "The Sorcerer's Apprentice"; "The Little Train of Caipira" (no longer little when the music is over); and the audience favorite "Hoedown" (i.e. "Beef, it's what's for dinner!"). If you're into that whole thing of classical music sharpening a youngster's intellect, then this won't disappoint. If you're just into good old fashioned classical music in general, it won't disappoint you either. Also, I highly recommend to both groups the classical CD BUILD YOUR BABY'S BRAIN.

This is a wonderful album. Very high quality, and every selection is beautiful. My daughter (who usually asks me to turn my classical music off) loves to pretend to gallop like a horse during "Rodeo" and march like a soldier during "Parade of the wooden soldiers". This is a pleasure for the whole family!

I use this CD with my preschool music group. The kids love it! This CD enables children learn about classical music without over extending their attention spans.

Reviews

Last summer I had several nights of terrible insomnia. I turned on the FM classical music station; something I don't do very often. They played several selections from this CD. Both the compositions and the performances were unforgettable. After receiving and listening to the cd, all of these are excellent compositions well performed. This is a collection of Fritz Kreisler recordings going as far back as 1910. 1910! You might call those recordings Lucky to Have Any Fidelity. Yet you can hear performances that almost certainly don't exist in any other form. So these do indeed sound like 78 rpm records played on a 78 record player. The transfer engineers disclaim any attempt to use "Radical methods to eliminate all surface noise...." My own experience with using equalizers is that it is usually better to "leave it flat" or as is. Some of the comments indicate that people are bothered by it; I suppose young people who have only listened to digital recordings. If you only listen to perfect recordings, you will miss 90 per cent of the best music performances ever recorded, no matter the category. Just imagine people in the 1920's buying their first record player and hearing Kreisler's Liebesfreud while sitting on their sofa and thinking: could life be any better than this?

Probably the most definitive collection of Kreisler's music put on cd. Remarkably good sound quality considering the era in which these recordings were made (early 20th Century). Kreisler (in my mind) was the greatest violinist since Nicolo Paganini. The power of Kreisler's fiddle even pacified the sinister Ty Cobb (the most feared baseball player during that period, who sharpened his spikes before games to run down and shred the flesh of opposing players). Yes Cobb hauled around a phonograph on road trips, and spent endless hours alone being entertained by Fritz Kreisler in hotel rooms. A small but marvelous treasure for anyone who appreciates the majestic energy of music. All is well.

Besides the bacground hiss, I found I had to turn the volume up to max just to hear it. So when you play more than one CD the others will be normal volume but when Kreisler starts you hear nothing and have to turn the volume all the way up to have it at low normal levels. So I recommend passing on this one.

Sometimes the author isn`t the best performer of his own works. That`s not the case. I completely agree with the previous reviewer: yes, only Kreisler can play Kreisler. While listening to this music you so wounderfully feel the spirit of the old Vienna, that most technically perfect record couldn`t compare with this impressions. Treat surface noise of the records made in 1912-1946 as the scent of that distant time (by the way, nearly the age gone) - and you would be completely satisfied, because the playing by Kreisler is so scincere and soulful. So if you like Kreisler - don`t think twice. This is CD for you.

What can I say? Only Kreisler can play Kreisler. Get a discography of Fritz Kreisler and start hunting down everything you can find by this man. You can compare violinists; Heifetz has astounding technique, Milstein's always wonderful, Oistrakh is a favorite of many, Kogan can play anything, etc., etc., etc.. But Kreisler... is a unique personality of the violin. Yehudi Menuhin said of him in his autobiography, there are many great violinists with perhaps greater technique in this area or that; but "Kreisler mystifies me." Bruno Walter, the great conductor, said of Kreisler, "He did not play the violin; he BECAME the violin." and this is true. There is something special about Kreisler that transcends violin playing itself. Something heavenly is communicated by him with his instrument. Transfers from old disks are always of varying quality. Kreisler lived a long time ago and recording techniques were very primitive; but Kreisler even seems to rise above the pops and the clicks. Other artists are drowned out by them but Kreisler soars above them and makes one forget they are there. You're focused on the beauty and the background noise seems to disappear entirely. Other violinists have tried to play Kreisler and perhaps get the notes right, most notably among them, Zino Francescatti (who plays Kreisler better than any other man except Kreisler), but only Kreisler can play Kreisler. If you want to hear it best, put up with the background hiss. It's worth it. If you want a modern recording, see if you can find Francescatti's tribute album to Fritz Kreisler. it's OOP, but an LP in mint condition sometimes appears on an online auction service. Why the Francescatti album ever went OOP I do not know. He is the only modern violinist that ever really tapped into the soul of 'Fritz' when he plays Kreisler. If the disk is ever again released, snap it up before it goes OOP again. In the final analysis, modern violinists, at most, will give you a representative selection of only about 16 tracks and usually you get the worn chestnuts over and over again. Enough of Kreislers own recordings are still available that you can still get the whole gamut of his discography if you just look. Do so!

Reviews

this movie has been a favorite of mine for years. glad to find it on amazon.com and for a reasonable price.

I loved this movie when it came out... Sean Astin is a great actor (not SUPERB, but enjoyable)... Love him in Rudy, and love him in this movie... brings back great memories of when I was young when it came out...

Toy Soldiers is a great movie of a young kid who later plays Samwise on Lord of the Rings series and the great actor Louis Gossett Jr. A school for boys who consider themselves rejects, hard to control teenage boys, are taken over by terrorists and their brilliant actions subdue the terrorists. I like it.

"Toy Soliders" is my all time favorite video. It moves very fast,and you'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll definately enjoy. My comment is that you must be able to watch it from the very start and you must pay very close attention to the 1st 4-5 mins. It starts off with something you don't think you'd ever finish watching, but there is a reason, and it all fits together very quickly. Louis Gosset Jr. is totally fabulous. The real profound story is that, this is something that could happen today to the U.S. or anywhere in the world for that matter. Enjoy, MaryAnn

This movie is a great one. There is suspense like you rarely see. The twists and turns this movie has will keep you on the edge. I recommend this movie to anybody who loves adventure.

Reviews

I did like some things about this movie. The special effects were spectacular. Tommy Lee Jones as a toy soldier was particularly amusing. Jay Mohr, David Cross, and the late Phil Hartman really steal the show. And best of all, it wasn't very PC throughout the movie. But everything else was really bad. The characters Alan and Christy were very annoying, Archer wasn't very interesting (I was actually rooting more for the human action figures), the script was pretty bad, and the Gorgonites were very very very VERY goofy and horrible to look at. It would have been a better family film if the script had some improvements going for it. But overall, I was entertained, and I find it to be a very average film. Grade: C+

Cripes, I forgot just how very neat and subversive this movie is. SMALL SOLDIERS is rated PG-13 and, indeedy, the surprising level of violence doesn't really lend itself to viewing from kids under, say, eight or nine years. Released a few years after Toy Story (10th Anniversary Edition), SMALL SOLDIERS' accomplishments in the f/x department, in comparison, probably don't come off as so jaw-dropping impressive. But Stan Winston and his crew did scrounge up some fairly awesome animatronic designs which, when meshed with the seamless CG work, pay off huge dividends. It's a really fun film, although, again, PG-13. Some of the things the bad guy toys get up to aren't really age appropriate for the younger ones. The premise is irresistible, about a not-yet-released line of action figures - sorted out in two different groups, the Gorgonites and the Commando Elite - which ends up in the hands of troubled teen Alan Abernathy, whose dad runs a modest toy shop called The Inner Child. The toys, created by a subsidiary of a defense contracting conglomerate, happen to be powered by experimental super microchips which allow them not only to interact, but to also learn and adapt. Sentient toys. To make it even more fun, SMALL SOLDIERS then skewers that sense of good ol' American jingoism and our infatuation with G.I. Joe, and it achieves this by introducing a twist. The murderous Commando Elite, ramrodded by gung-ho, buzz cut sporting Major Chip Hazard (voiced by Tommy Lee Jones, great again), are clearly the villains here and they promptly begin hunting down the Gorgonites (they call them "Gorgonite Scum"). And, as we learn, they're only too eager to frag the Gorgonites' human friends ("Civilian, declare your allegiance!"). The rag-tag bunch of Gorgonites are monstrous looking but are gentle and only long to seek their way home. They're led by the thoughtful Archer who, as voiced sympathetically by Frank Langella, quickly got me on his side. The Commando Elite is the featured line of toys, with the Gorgonites heaped along to serve as enemy fodder. As such, the Gorgonites are programmed to lose and, so, when the kid Alan goes looking for them after his dad's toy shop gets vandalized, Archer gravely declares: "My Gorgonite brothers are doing what the Gorgonites do best. They are hiding." That's the only way they believe they can survive. As kind of an encore to Gremlins (Special Edition), director Joe Dante ends up supremely trashing a suburban neighborhood in somewhere, Middle America. He's always had a knack for cartoon anarchy, and he serves up ridiculous mayhem in this one. He even gets around to spoofing scenes from PATTON and APOCALYPSE NOW. I loved the action, and there are times when you'll actually believe that the demented Commando Elite can do grievous bodily harm to humans. Particularly cool and a little creepy are the awesomely grotesque Gwendy dolls, having received the Frankenstein treatment from Major Chip Hazard and deployed to ambush the dolls' owner, a girl who happens to be Alan's next door neighbor and current crush. But since that girl is feisty Kirsten Dunst, she's soon back on her feet. There's the obvious humor which kids all over should get a kick out of. And then there's the funny stuff which may go over their heads: the broadsides against the military, the pop culture references, the juxtaposing of play versus violence. When the Commando Elite engage in suburban warfare, they even go so far as to blast Alan Abernathy's home with torture music, which turns out to be the Spice Girls. But, hopefully (as I get my preach on), the kids can pick up on one theme that never really gets old: the one about not judging a book by its cover and about beauty being only skin deep and is in the eye of the beholder, and other similar maxims. Of the live action performances, the one standout for me is Kirsten Dunst, her talent friggin' immense even back then. She plays her character as so sunny and irrepressible that she overwhelms whatshisname, the kid who plays the central character Alan. Jay Mohr, David Cross, and Denis Leary are okay, but their best stuff is in the DVD's Bloopers reel. The real draw are the action figures. Stan Winston and his animatronics crew did a job and a half with the designs, with ILM then integrating the CG to arrive at this place where intelligent toys are set realistically in place and believably, fluidly interact with live actors. Visually, my favorite is probably Ocula, a Gorgonite who in essence is a huge eyeball on three legs. Big names in the voice casting. To liven up that military spoofing even further, some of the surviving cast from The Dirty Dozen (Two-Disc Special Edition) are employed as voices of the Commando Elite (but for Major Chip Hazard). Meanwhile, Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest, and Michael McKean have a This Is Spinal Tap (Special Edition) reunion and handle the voices of the Gorgonites (except Archer, of course). Another cool bit of casting has Christina Ricci and Sarah Michelle Gellar as the Gwendy dolls ("Watch out, girls! Hissy fit!"). This DVD includes these special features: the movie trailer; the 11-minute Behind the Scenes featurette which goes into good detail about the film's CG/animatronics special effects; 5 minutes of funny Bloopers; 10 Deleted Scenes (totaling around 6 minutes), the last 3 of which feature special effects (the fourth scene is worth watching for the Gorgonites' reaction when they do an Internet search on "Gorgon"); Cast & Crew film bios; 8 pages of Production Notes; and a 2-minute sneak peek at the PlayStation video game. SMALL SOLDIERS happens to be Phil Hartman's final film role, and he goes out doing his trademark unctuous shtick. He lands one of the best lines in the film, I thought, except that we only get to hear it in one of the deleted scenes: Trying to placate the attacking Commando Elite, his smarmy character informs them: "We're not so different, you and I. I've been accused of being plastic all my life."

Admittedly, many kid's films are simply a ploy to sell toys and I'm pretty sure there were plenty of Colonel Chip Hazard action figures running around after this Disney film. Still, the mark of a really good kid's film is remembering those characters years later and wanting to see the film again. Tommy Lee Jones did such a good job creating the gung-ho Chip Hazard that it's hard to forget him even after ten years of kiddie films. The premise, a toy company's taken over by a company which also supplies the US military. When two enterprising toy designers create a set of action figures with advanced military functions, the war's on. Colonel Chip Hazard (Jones) leads his forces again the Gorgons led by Archer (Frank Langella). The only thing stopping these forces is one kid who's trying to stop his dad's toy store from closing. Honestly, while this film's billed as a children's movie, it's got a lot of deeper meanings from take-offs on a lot of the military films to thoughts on stereotyping sexual roles for toys. The one-liners still had me laughing. Well worth seeing again and owning for moments when you need a good laugh. Rebecca Kyle, June 2009

This was a very clever animated-live action computer animated film (at least for 1998) in which the toys come to life and look real. Once the action starts, it's a very interesting story with fun special-effects, some good, funny dialog and some neat references to past films. Sometimes it's tough to catch them all. On the bad side, it features typical Hollywood portrayal of a family in that the film has stupid parents. Also, there are the usual anti-military messages and anti- Republican cheap shots. The story has The Commandos (military, which means bad guys, of course) against the Gorgonites (peaceful, different-looking creatures.) Overall, an entertaining film with a good mix of genres.

My grandsons and my Husband just love this movie. I am so glad that I found it on the internet.

Reviews

this movie has been a favorite of mine for years. glad to find it on amazon.com and for a reasonable price.

I loved this movie when it came out... Sean Astin is a great actor (not SUPERB, but enjoyable)... Love him in Rudy, and love him in this movie... brings back great memories of when I was young when it came out...

Toy Soldiers is a great movie of a young kid who later plays Samwise on Lord of the Rings series and the great actor Louis Gossett Jr. A school for boys who consider themselves rejects, hard to control teenage boys, are taken over by terrorists and their brilliant actions subdue the terrorists. I like it.

"Toy Soliders" is my all time favorite video. It moves very fast,and you'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll definately enjoy. My comment is that you must be able to watch it from the very start and you must pay very close attention to the 1st 4-5 mins. It starts off with something you don't think you'd ever finish watching, but there is a reason, and it all fits together very quickly. Louis Gosset Jr. is totally fabulous. The real profound story is that, this is something that could happen today to the U.S. or anywhere in the world for that matter. Enjoy, MaryAnn

This movie is a great one. There is suspense like you rarely see. The twists and turns this movie has will keep you on the edge. I recommend this movie to anybody who loves adventure.

Reviews

This is a great DVD. I always loved this movie and now my kids got to see it and they loved it. This DVD even looks great in color too.

this is the original, there are several copies with similiar titles, but this is the real deal that I watch as a kid. my son in law loved it.vd

March of the wooden soldiers has been a Christmas season favorite since my children were toddlers. I have always been a fan of Laurel and Hardy. I was delighted to find that it had been released to DVD and that I could purchase it. I like the black and white version best, although the colorization isn't bad. I liked that both versions were included. It is a simple story of good vs bad and my grandchildren were amply entertained while learning a lesson.

They didn't air this movie on Thanksgiving in 2009, as they usually do, so I bought it to kick off my Christmas season with. This DVD has both the colorized version and the black and white version for purists like my dad. Great value and great buy!

Loved The Bishops Wife and Pocketfull fo Miracles. Did not care much for March of the Wooden Soldiers.

Reviews

When I was a full-time performer at the Rio Hotel & Casino Show in the Sky in Las Vegas, I used these bubbles in my performances daily. After trying all those cheap bottles you find, and even some others, I would never use anything else.

These REALLY are the best bubbles on the market. Definitely worth the money - don't waste your money on ANY other brand.

It's ok. It's bubble solution. It's twice as expensive as the other options at Target and it's not twice the bubbles. In this particular size bottle, the wand doesn't work so great when you get half empty. This wand also drips a lot so you waste a lot of solution before you get to the half empty point.

The name of the product says it all. These bubble really do produce a gazillion bubbles! My daughter loves them and so do I!

If you have a toddler, you know how much they love soap bubbles. This product definitely delivers the fun time and lots of laughter

Reviews

I purchased this for my two 7 year old nephews who love army stuff and they love it. Easy to understand and funny, according to one mom who was playing it also. lol