New DVD Releases - Movie DVD Review

Because Christmas season is a special time for families and friends to be together, after a long time of hard work and study, this holiday, treat your family by giving a DVD Home Theater System. Families just love to watch movies and surely, they cannot resist this awesome treat. Instead of continuously going out to the movie houses and spending a lot of money on tickets and foods, with just the right amount of salty and buttery popcorn and soda, you can indulge yourselves to a non-stop movie marathon this season.

Here is the Top 10 DVD Home Theater Systems Christmas Gifts for 2008:

1. Sony HT-SS2300 Blu-ray Disc™ Matching Component. Recommended for a family of 5 plus 3-4 friends, this Theater System truly defines what a home theater system should be. With its optimized blu-ray disc with 8 Ch LPCM and 1080p HDMI active intelligence (3 in 1 out), this will give you the comfort and satisfaction you never wish you can have in movie houses. It also accepts 1080p signal and linear PCM via HDMI and a digital cinema auto calibration.

2. Panasonic SC-PT960 Deluxe 5 DVD Home Theater System. You can surely not take your eyes off this 5-disc system with its 2 huge tower front speakers, 1 center speaker, 2 tallboy surround speakers, and a Kelton subwoofer. With its Dolby digital surround speakers, you just can't help but to shed tears of joy because of this incredible treat.

3. Panasonic SC-PT760 Deluxe 5 DVD Home Theater System. Small but terrible, this can cater the cravings of a family of 8. With all its astounding speakers and subwoofer, this theater system also gives you an integrated universal dock for your iPod.

4. Samsung HT-AS720ST Blu-Ray-Matching 5.1 Channel System(Set of Seven, Black). One of the most powerful and massive system ever made, this 5.1 channel home theater with Blu-ray technology also comes with 4 satellite speakers, 1 center-channel speaker, 1 subwoofer, and 1 A/V receiver. So call on all your friends and enjoy watching with this 650 watts home theater.

5. Panasonic SC-BT1005.1 Blu-Ray Home Theater System (Black). Defined as one of the state-of-the-arts system, this is so unique with its magnetically shielded speakers. It also has a built-in universal dock for your favorite iPod and VIERA link display too.

6. Philips HTS3151D/37 300 Watt DVD 5.1Surround Sound Home Theatre System with Ipod Dock. If music and video are what you are up to, this system lets you directly play your photos and music from your USB flash drives. It also has an MP3 Line in for music playback and a DivX Ultra Certified for video playback.

7. Panasonic SC-PT660 5 DVD System. With 2 front speakers, 2 surround speakers, 1 center speaker, and a Kelton subwoofer, this is the best buy for a family of up to 15. It also has Dolby Pro Logic. The SC-PT660 5 also includes DTS decoders, at the same time it is Dolby Digital.

8. Coby DVD-755 5.1 Channel DVD Player with Home Theater Speaker System. Five full-range 2.5" satellite speakers, this is simply unbelievable because of its long-throw 4" subwoofer with tuned port. On top of this, it also has a progressive scan DVD player with Dolby Digital decoder for free.

9. Sony HT-SF2300 Blu-ray Disc Matching Component Home Theater System (Black). For those who do not have much space but want only the best, this 1000W component system is the one for you! It has 1080P HDMI Active Intelligence that gives you not just one but three HDMI Inputs and 1 Output. It also offers an exclusive Blu Ray matching design that matches the latest BD.

10. Philips HTS3565D/37 1000 Watt DVD 1080P HDMI Upconversion Dolby Home Theater with iPod Dock. For those who take pride in minimalism, this 1000 Watt system is the one you should not miss out. With its 1080P Upconversion for spectacular high definition pictures, it also has 12 bit/108 superior digital analogue converters.

This is the Top 10 DVD Home Theater Systems Christmas Gifts for 2008 that will surely create a happy feeling especially if it is shared with your friends and loved ones this Christmas season.

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army [Blu-ray] [2008]
Directed by Guillermo del Toro

Editorial Reviews

The Dark Knight (2 Discs) [2008]
Directed by Christopher Nolan

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-12-08
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Arabic, English, Italian, Hebrew, Icelandic, Greek
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 152 minutes

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
The Dark Knight arrives with tremendous hype (best superhero movie ever? posthumous Oscar for Heath Ledger?), and incredibly, it lives up to all of it. But calling it the best superhero movie ever seems like faint praise, since part of what makes the movie great--in addition to pitch-perfect casting, outstanding writing, and a compelling vision--is that it bypasses the normal fantasy element of the superhero genre and makes it all terrifyingly real. Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) is Gotham City's new district attorney, charged with cleaning up the crime rings that have paralysed the city. He enters an uneasy alliance with the young police lieutenant, Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman), and Batman (Christian Bale), the caped vigilante who seems to trust only Gordon--and whom only Gordon seems to trust. They make progress until a psychotic and deadly new player enters the game: the Joker (Heath Ledger), who offers the crime bosses a solution--kill the Batman. Further complicating matters is that Dent is now dating Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal, after Katie Holmes turned down the chance to reprise her role), the longtime love of Batman's alter ego, Bruce Wayne.

In his last completed role before his tragic death, Ledger is fantastic as the Joker, a volcanic, truly frightening force of evil. And he sets the tone of the movie: the world is a dark, dangerous place where there are no easy choices. Eckhart and Oldman also shine, but as good as Bale is, his character turns out rather bland in comparison (not uncommon for heroes facing more colorful villains). Director/co-writer Christopher Nolan (Memento) follows his critically acclaimed Batman Begins with an even better sequel that sets itself apart from notable superhero movies like Spider-Man 2 and Iron Man because of its sheer emotional impact and striking sense of realism--there are no suspension-of-disbelief superpowers here. At 152 minutes, it's a shade too long, and it's much too intense for kids. But for most movie fans--and not just superhero fans--The Dark Knight is a film for the ages. --David Horiuchi

Special Features

• Gotham Uncovered – how Christopher Nolan and his team developed the new Bat-suit and Bat-pod and composer Hans Zimmer musically characterized The Joker’s reign of chaos.
• The Dark Knight IMAX® scenes: view these 6 action-packed sequences
• Gotham Tonight - 6 episodes of Gotham Cable’s premier news programme
• The Galleries: poster art and production stills

Synopsis
Director Christopher Nolan (The Prestige) returns to Gotham City with this sequel to the critically-acclaimed fan favourite, Batman Begins. In The Dark Knight, Batman (Christian Bale, – American Psycho) squares off against a new, completely psychotic foe: the Joker (Heath Ledger, Brokeback Mountain). However, the Dark Knight finds himself fighting a battle on two fronts when he learns that a prominent political figure named Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart, Thank You For Smoking) is concealing a dastardly alter-ego known as Two Face.

Stills from The Dark Knight