Free Glide

The film that propelled Tom Hanks to superstar status, Big is one of the funniest and most family-friendly films ever to hit the big screen. Harboring its own unique charm, the movie wraps a compelling storyline around a cast of likeable characters to create a film audiences will never forget. And, to top it off, Director Penny Marshall became the first woman to direct a film grossing over one-hundred million dollars when Big was first released in 1988 (that’s an actual Trivial Pursuit question I ran across that might come in handy someday)…

When a young suburban boy named Josh (David Moscow) attends a local carnival with his family, his young life is turned upside down when the girl he has a crush on is allowed on a rollercoaster while he learns that he is still too young. Distraught, the boy makes a wish on an antique arcade machine. He wishes to be big, and the machine spits out its answer on a small piece of cardboard, “Wish granted.” Josh thinks nothing of the reply until he wakes up the next morning as an adult version of himself (Tom Hanks).

Run out of the house by his own mother, Josh turns to his best friend Billy (Jared Rushton) for help. But after convincing his friend, who’s only ten-years-old himself, Billy can’t provide much help except a small bit of cash and advice on getting a job. When Josh rents an apartment in New York City, Billy comes to visit him periodically. While playing guns in the toy store FAO Schwartz, the two run into MacMillan (Robert Loggia) founder of a toy manufacturer. MacMillan hits it off with Josh (the two step dance a Chopin tune on a giant foot-operated piano in an extremely memorable and famous scene), and the toy titan immediately hires Josh to work for his company in the area of toy-related research.

Climbing the corporate totem pole at MacMillan due to his vast insight into the toy preferences of kids, Josh befriends Susan (Elizabeth Perkins), a top-level executive hoping to learn what makes Josh such a master of the boardroom. But Susan’s pursuit of Josh is not looked upon favorably by her colleague Paul (John Heard) who’s spent his entire career kissing up to MacMillan only to have the inexperienced Josh appear out of nowhere and become the boss’s favorite. This conflict, coupled with the breakdown of Josh and Billy’s relationship, causes the adult kid to wish he could be his young self once again…

One of the best scenes in the film is when Susan reveals to Josh that she can’t believe she’s considering sleeping over at his place. Josh replies by saying he does it all the time and gives her the option of the top or the bottom bunk! Hanks really comes off as a kid trapped in an adult’s body, and that’s why Big works so well. So well, in fact, that it became an instant comedy classic…

Prior to Sleepless In Seattle, Forrest Gump, and Saving Private Ryan, Tom Hanks took Hollywood by storm with his charming performance in this larger than life movie. Big is a feel-good comedy without any foul language, gratuitous violence, or endless explosions. It simply retells the timeless tale of a young boy who wishes to be grown and doing grown up things, only in this instance, the kid gets his wish. As one of the biggest blockbusters of the 1980s, Big is a definite must-see film. I wouldn’t hesitate to see it…

About the Author

Britt Gillette is author of The DVD Report, a blog where you can find more reviews like this one of the Big (DVD).

With a slew of movies coming out that have been modeled after popular books, it seems to be a prevalent theme that the book is almost always better than the movie. Perfect case in point is the latest release “The DaVinci Code”, an adaptation of the wildly popular and controversial work of fiction by author Dan Brown. I loved the book, couldn’t put it down. But the movie was average.

If I would have only seen the movie and not read the book, I would have walked out of the theater with the conclusion that I would not have wanted to read such a mediocre book. Of course for every status quo, there are always exceptions to the rule. The movies “Angela’s Ashes” based on Irish novelist Frank McCourt’s story of a poor Irish family ended up being an excellent film, well acted with a perfect cast and authentic feel.

Another example of a good movie based on a book is the autobiography about an embittered Vietnam veteran, Ron Kovic, played in the big screen adaptation by Tom Cruise (before he was annoying). The film ended up being a heart breaking protrayal of a man who served his country in good faith, and then lost his legs and seemed to be cast off and forgotten by the very government he fought to protect.

Let’s not also forget an excellent silver screen adaptation of the novel Dr. Zhivago, played by Omar Sharif, and the story of his unrequited love for Lara Antipova, played by the beautiful Julie Christie. This masterpiece of a film was directed by David Lean with a true authenticity and loyalty to the story. It seems that if the director and actors really know the story, this is when the best results occur.

The trouble is when a movie is just thrown together, without the time being taken to maintain the integrity of the written story, and the money to make the sets as realistic as possible, or sometimes it’s just plain old misdirection.

Take for example the adaptation of the science fiction novel Battlefield Earth by L. Ron Hubbard. The movie, featuring John Travolta dressed in alien garb, ended up being a gross misinterpretation of the story, as well as the brunt of several jokes around Oscar time, due to its poor reception from audiences and critics.

Or how about the unforgettable Ishtar starring Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty? This atrocity was the brunt of jokes for years after its dismal release as the most boring movie ever made. And what about this list of bombs that originated as well spun novels and novellas, only to be poorly translated to the big screen?

- Dangerous Minds
- Dune
- The First Wive’s Club
- Freaky Friday
- Girl Interrupted (this may just be my opinion though)
- The Ghost and the Darkness
- Little Women

And the list goes on. Just goes to show, the majority of the time, one’s imagination can produce far more vivid and emotionally moving images than that of a Hollywood director, or any amount of special effects.

The 65 year-old BBC Only Fools and Horses actor arrived at Buckingham Palace this morning to receive his honour with new wife Gill. Gill Hinchcliffe has been his long time partner and at 45 became not just Mrs White, but Lady White too.

The Queen Mother is said to have been one of the members of the Royal Family who received advance copies of Only Fools and Horses. In recent years, the special Christmas edition of the perennial BBC favourite has been broadcast as reliably as the Queen’s Speech.

When interviewed, David Jason fell into his Del boy roll while being interviewed. Sir David, 65, acknowledged his debt to the character of Derek “Del Boy” Trotter, saying modestly: “Being a fool is probably the only gift I possess.” He said the Queen was “not necessarily a fan”, but certainly recognised his long-standing career, which has included roles in Open All Hours and the Darling Buds of May and A Touch of Frost.

The smiling couple, accompanied by their four year old daughter Sophie May, then ignored further questions as they dashed off for a series of television interviews.

Sir David met Hinchcliffe on the set of “A Bit Of A Do” in 1989. They remained friends and their relationship did not start until David’s previous partner of 18 years, Myfanwy Talog, died tragically of cancer in 1995.

Gill gave birth to the couple’s first child, Sophie Mae, in 2001 at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Aylesbury.

Zane Clements
Source : http://www.ofah.net

As soon as Fran Fine came into Sheffield’s house to sell cosmetics, she never thought that her life as well as Sheffield’s life will be changed starting from that day. Fran, a Jewish girl who is from Queens became the official nanny for Maxwell Sheffield; a Broadway producer, with three children namely: Maggie, Brighton, and Grace. Little did they knew that having Fran as their nanny brings more to their home. It was also known to the show the presence of the compulsive eater of Fran, which is Sylvia, her very noisy mother, Fran’s best friend, Val, which has a low I.Q, and of course, Fran’s grandmother; Yetta. She never failed to bring joy and laughter to the family that has been sad and depressed since Mrs. Sheffield died. Fran became also friends with the butler, Niles, who knew everything that happens in the house. Mr. Sheffield and Fran’s feelings for each other became visible to others as the time went by. This became a torture to C.C (Maxwell’s business partner, which has feelings for him too).

Mostly, people say that The Nanny is the 90’s version of “I Love Lucy”. This show started on November 1993 as a late addition to CBS’s Wednesday fall line-up. It became a hit when it was moved every Monday nights and stayed there until the third week, but was returned ever Wednesday night to improve its ratings. Because of this, CBS never moved its timeslot for the first time in 25 years. Still, its ratings went down not until the fifth season. The producer decided to bring an end to the story. Sixth season was shown until March. The series finale was publicized before the remaining episodes were shown to the public later during June.

While on its 6-year run, The Nanny received eleven nominations from Emmys. They won last 1995 the title best in costume designs. Fran Descher was nominated last 1996 and 1997 as best actress. Renee Taylor also obtained nomination as best supporting actress last 1996. A Fran Descher doll, which was one of their trademarks, was also released while the show is still being played on televisions.

The comedy show illustrates how a family survives without a mother but has a nanny who does all the housework for the family. But the nanny that we saw in this show was very much different from the nanny that we meet everyday. Fran is fun, loving, adorable, and caring to the Sheffield family. She didn’t only stand up as a nanny; she also portrayed the role of being a mother to the three Sheffield children since their mother already passed away.

There’s a lot of twist in every episode but you will still understand the whole story. Whether if you’re a teen, a parent, or young at heart you can still relate to this comedy show. Viewers can pick up lessons and share it to other people. Everyone loved and will love this show. It will not bring you to a blurry conclusion. All were clear, precise, and concise. That’s how wonderful The Nanny is.

Actors and actresses in this show played their role very powerful. Its like they’re doing it naturally and you can’t even tell if they are really acting. All was done so ordinary yet the story became special to their viewers and fans. It is a comedy show but can learn something from every episode that they play on air. That’s what I find very amusing in this show. They didn’t fail to illustrate the presence of entertainment and lesson in one show.

It’s very fun to recall shows such as this. But it’s hard to get a good copy since the final episode was last played in the year 1999. We can watch many comedy shows that are being played on our televisions every single night whenever we want to. But the thing is, shows that has a story like this is only one of its kind and is very hard to reproduce. You can’t really find another comedy show that will make you laugh as same as with The Nanny.

http://www.TVDVDPlanet.com was recently established as a premiere dvd store selling all the best shows from the past. We will continue to expand our show line up and service to meet the growing needs of our customers. We are an independently owned and operated company.

FILE FORMATS

There are several audio file formats in common use. There are fewer video file formats, but audio video file extensions can be confusing. This is just a brief description of what the more commonly used audio and video file formats and systems are.

AAC:Advanced Audio Coding This is the audio file format used by Apple for the iTunes Music Store, and it may appear with the M4A filename extension. It is better than MP3 for sound quality. It was developed as part of the MPEG4 group owned by Dolby (see below).

AU: This audio file format is the standard used by Java, Sun and Unix.

MPEG: Moving Pictures Expert Group There are a number of MPEG types now, described below.

MPEG-1: This is used in digital cameras and camcorders for small video clips. VHS quality playback can be expected from MPEG-1.

MPEG-2: Used for digital satellite TV, professional movie recording and recording of home DVD recordings. Provides provision for multi-channel surround sound recordings.

MPEG-3: MPEG-3 was propose as an entity, but eventually merged into MPEG-2.

MPEG-4: This is the newest MPEG system and is used for streaming internet content. It is also used in portable video recorders and for internet downloads. Required for DivX. It improves digital broadcasting and interactive graphics and multimedia.

MP3: Digital audio files, most commonly used to store and playback music. It compresses the files to about 10% of a normal audio file, and a normal music track will be about 5 -6 MB in size. MP3 stands for MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3, not MPEG-3 as many people think. A typical MP3 audio file is near CD quality.

OGG: An audio file format supporting a variety of codecs, the most popular of which is the audio codec Vorbis. However, MP3 files are much more broadly supported than Vorbis.

RA: Real Audio This format is designed for streaming audio over the Internet. It is a self-contained file format with all the audio information stored within the file itself.

WAV: The simplest of the audio file formats, developed by Microsoft and IBM, and built into Windows 95. It is an uncompressed audio file format with large file sizes (10 x MP3), and does not need further processing to play. The WAV file consists of three blocks of information: The RIFF block which identifies the file as a WAV file, The FORMAT block which identifies parameters such as sample rate and the DATA block which contains the actual data, or music sample.

WMA: Windows Media Audio A digital system invented by Microsoft, and is used in portable digital audio players. Using WMA, a file can be programmed so that it cannot be copied, and can be used to protect copyright.

WMF: Windows Media Format These are audio-video files comprising WMA and video codecs. They provide high quality and media security for streaming and download and play applications on computers.

WMV: Windows Media Video Used in the Windows media Player, this is used to stream and download and play audio and video content.

When dealing with audio and video file formats, you will sometimes notice the term ‘codec’. A codec is simply short for encoder-decoder (or compressor - decompressor). A main function of a codec is to compress audio or video data streams so that transmission of digital audio samples and video frames can be speeded up and storage space reduced.

The objective of all codecs is to reduce the file size to a minimum while maintaining audio and video quality. A quick indication of the codec’s place in the path of transmission and reception is:

Video device (e.g. camcorder) - video capture card - video digitized - codec (compresses digital info) - result (MPEG2, AVI, WMV etc) - codec (decompress) - video frames - display device.

Between the two codecs the compressed result is transferred to the display device transmitted, stored on file, etc). So to condense the flow even further, we could basically describe it as:

raw data - codec - transmit - codec - play

This is simplistic, but it shows where the codecs are used. Therefore, in order to play a movie, video or piece of music of a certain format, you need a codec in your computer to allow you to decompress the file and play it.

Here is some free software which checks what codec a video system uses, and what codec your system needs to play it:

Codec Tool.

The different video file formats are required to meet the requirements of various video devices. Similarly, audio file formats are designed to meet the needs of the specific delivery methods and storage and playback devices introduced by large corporations such as Microsoft, Sony and Apple. Thus, Sony invented the UMD (Universal Media Disk) for the PSP (Playstation Portable), and Apple introduced AAC (M4A) for its iPod.

Peter Nisbet is the author of many articles on audio and video file systems, their transmission, playback and conversion. More information is available on his websites http://www.legalandfree.com and http://www.online-free-movies.com