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People have loved the Beverly Cleary books for so long for so many years. These books have been enjoyed by several generations. Well this summer movie fans had a big treat with the motion picture Ramona and Beezus. Joey King and Selena Gomez (of The Witches of Waverly Place) star in this sumer upbeat comedy as the real life Ramona and her little sister Beezus. This film is so pleasant. The films website is http://www.ramonaandbeezus.com/. It has been years since television or film attempted to bring audiences a real life Ramona for the fans of the Beverly Clearly books to fall in love with. Selena Gomez is the perfect Ramona and kids just love this movie. It’s perfect and its a real happy film. The films website is very inviting with many pictures and links to Youtube, Facebook, Twitter and Myspace links for the film. The movie is very upbeat and kids will love it. The real life adventures of Ramona Quimby are sure to be loved by many tweens and younger teens who accompany smaller kids to the movie. The film is best for ages 6 to 11. Its a great film and the kids sure will be happy when the DVD is released surely later this year.

Dorrie

Fans of the “Sex and the City” franchise will be so pleased with the new movie “Sex and the City 2.” This movie is absolutely beautiful and breaktaking. The people behind the film have given the cast a wonderful film to brag and boast about for decades. The movie “Sex and the City 2,” reunites the entire original cast of Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis, Kim Cattrall, and Cynthia Nixon. The cast members get to live in the exciting, sexy and always passionate marriage of Carrie and Mr. Big, it seems like they are still doing strong. The color editing is gorgeous and the furniture in the various scenes is gorgeous, just breaktaking views. For this film, the girls also go on one of their exotic vacations as they head on over to ABU DHABI and film in the exotic location. The movie has a real feel good feeling as we get to see Miranda’s family is really growing up. The movie is so good and fans of the television show will really feel like they are back in the fold of “Sex and the City.” Of course there is new eye candy for Charlotte and Samantha to peak at there is this cute guy in the film but fans will have to watch the movie to get a chance to see the cute guy. The airel shots over New York City are breathtaking as well. Fans of “Sex and the City,” will love “Sex and the City 2″ and hopefully there will be more of the girls in the future. It’s a great movie and its better than the first one. This movie is like the best treat of the Memorial Day Weekend.

http://www.sexandthecitymovie.com/

The Madonna DVD “Celebration” is in stores now and available from on-line resellers. The two disc DVD features over 40 classic Madonna videos. Long time Madonna fans will notice that some videos are missing. Not here are music videos for “Everybody,” “Dress You Up,” “Bad Girl,” “Nothing Really Matters,” and “You Must Love Me.” Now what fans can enjoy are two discs filled with restored classic Madonna music videos.

Disc #1 opens with the music video “Burning Up.” This 1983 video introduced Madonna to the masses as it was played on MTV. Other classic music videos featured on the first DVD are “Like a Virgin,” “Material Girl,” “Papa Don’t Preach,” and “Like a Prayer” among others. Disc two should please fans as well as it features the music videos for “Secret,” which was the first single released from the 1995 Madonna album “Bedtime Stories.” Other modern classics featured on the second disc are “Frozen,” “Ray of Light,” “Die Another Day,” and “Music,” among others. The second disc features the majority of the post 2000 Madonna music videos all the way up to the video for “Celebration.”

The Madonna DVD “Celebration” is in stores now.

The Facts of Life the Complete Fourth season DVD once again proves that Shout! Factory is among the leader in restoring and releasing classic television shows to the home dvd purchasing community. The effort that was put into this DVD release was “monumental” and well worth the wait. As previous releases were released by another company, the first Shout! release gives fans hope that they will be able to complete their “Facts of Life” DVD collection. This is the first “Facts of Life” DVD release in several years and fans were worried that they might not be able to complete their DVD collection.

Talk about hard work and an effort well done, the “Facts of Life” the Complete Fourth Season DVD opens up with a bonus that television fans probably thought they would never own on DVD. The DVD opens up with the feature length film “The Facts of Life-Goes To Paris.” The nearly two hour movie is a 1980s classic. The movie originally aired on NBC on September 25th 1982. In the movie, the girls from Eastland, Blair, Tootie, Natalie and Jo arrive in Paris for a fun vacation filled with romance. When this movie originally aired, so many young girls were excited about the prospect of pen pals and foreign romance. It is so great the television fans will be able to own this hard to find classic on DVD. The VHS/BETA version of “The Facts of Life-Goes To Paris” was available for rental and purchase until about 1989, so fans of the movie will be so pleased to own this classic on television. The movie is featured on the first DVD in the four disc set.

On to season four. The fourth season of “The Facts of Life” was in bright sparkling sharp color, when looking at the DVD you can see this high intensity NBC camera color as if they were not yet using the softer filters that they used for shows like “Empty Nest” and “The Golden Girls,” the sharpness is very noticable and the restoration for the high definition DVD release is spectacular. The theme for the fourth season appears to be independence as each girl has her own set of issues and circumstances to deal with. The fourth season of “The Facts of Life” aired between September of 1982 and May of 1983. The season starts with a financial debacle known as Jo is made to consider accepting money from the family of Blair Warner when she faces losing portions of her scholarship to Eastland School. Jo is full of pride and doesn’t want any handouts from the Warner Foundation. This is not the only time during the season Jo has to deal with the theme of money, in the episode “Help From Home,” Jo is having a hard time dealing with graduating from Eastland when she realizes her family may not be able to afford college. During the 1980s, there was some controversy about the stereotyped image of the character of “Jo” because of her always being made to “act” so tough. Other cool episodes include the fan favorite episode of when a royal enrolls at Eastland and the popular episode of the Sadie Hawkins Dance when Natalie is afraid she can’t find a date.

The large theme of the season is “disability” and “accidents” the episodes are unforgettable. This season features the episode when Tootie has to address hearing loss. Blair once again has to display the ultimate compassion and understanding when she has to counsel a student who is handicapped. Mrs. Garrett has to deal with a medical issue-high blood pressure and the girls learn a hard lesson about drinking and driving.

The season is a catalyst that may leave fans near tears–how did it happen so fast? Where did the time go? As the season ends, Blair and Jo graduate from Eastland School. So many fans from the 1980s remember the heartfelt episode episode when tough kid Jo graduates from rich preppy Eastland with school sister friend Blair, and the pain that Tootie and Natalie have to deal with knowing they will have to continue the Eastland tradition without Blair and Jo by their side. To remember that anticipation the summer of 1983, just wondering what would “Facts of Life” be without Blair and Jo there. To imagine Shout! Factory has bestowed such a treasure to television fans.

Bonus features include “Know The Facts: Trivia Game.” “The Facts of Life: The Complete Fourth Season” is now available on DVD.

The movie “A Nightmare On Elm Street” a 2010 release by New Line Cinema is a great film. Fans of the horror franchise will love this film. It brings back Freddy Krueger and the world of Freddy to fans all over the world–not to mention the film brings Freddy back for a new breed of young people who just don’t remember Freddy so well. The “Nightmare On Elm Street,” film series got started back in 1984 with the original film “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” which featured actor Johnny Depp and actress Heather Langencamp. The orignal series of films went on to make it to more than 6 films in the series with titles such as “A Nightmare on Elm Street-The Dream Warrior,” “A Nightmare on Elm Street-Dream Child,” and the cool movie “Freddy’s Dead.” The best thing was that in 2003 the movie “Freddy vs. Jason” was released, this film united Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhies. The best thing is that the new film is high paced and very exciting. It is really scary. The cast are relatively fresh faced unknowns but that doesn’t mean that audiences won’t want to watch them fight for their lives every second of the film. The movie is so exciting and fans of “A Nightmare on Elm Street’ should be pleased–however, the “new Freddy,” looks different, moves different and truly sounds different than he used to at one time. Freddy looks different but it doesn’t take too much away from the film as he is still wearing his trademark red and green sweater and yes–yes fans he still has his glove with the sharp knives. The film was produced by Michael Bay. “A Nightmare On Elm Street” hits theaters on April 30th.

Visit the official Nightmare on Elm Street website

The third season of the television show “Instant Star” is now available on DVD. The third season of “Instant Star” features 13 episodes of the popular television season. In the third season, Jude Harrison has to deal with Karma and Patsy Jude has to spend a lot of time with both Karma and Patsy while Jamie, Darius and Tommy work on new music for them. Its a challenge and then a scandal threatens the “clean” image of Jude Harrison. The entire season is a challenge when Jamie and Jude have to “go there” with Patsy when she decides to let her world spiral out of control. One of the cast members has to deal with tragedy and Jude has to decide if she is going to let Tommy continue to be that strong guiding force in her music career. The running time is 299 minutes.

The video game “Tropico 3″ is now out an fans of the island dictator series will enjoy this new game. The best thing is that the game has awesome graphics, truly awesome grapics. Similar to the previous versions of the game there are freeform play options as well as scenarios that can be played. The original Tropico, released by game maker God Games in the year 2000, was a big hit on the home computer scene. Shortly after the release of Tropic was, Tropico 2-Paradise Island. The latin music score is really nice but the rich graphics do really require a computer running Windows Vista. If you like the simplicity of the old game, hold on because this one has more story line depth. There are still the control options to build property and to build housing. Visiting the people and actually seeing what the people are thinking is a lot easier. The game is equipped with a timeline editor where the game player can create historical events. You as the game player can even breakout and play as the dictator himself. “Tropico 3″ is a big game meaning you need time to explore this game, many afternoons can be dedicated to this game. The latest version is so well designed and worth the wait.

“Small Change” by Sheila Roberts is one of the best books I have ever read. It’s wonderful. Friendship is so important in life. In the book “Small Change” Sheila Roberts explores what it is like when friends have to accept the fact that finances aren’t that great. They have to cut back and the friends in the book lean on each other during financially hard times and that is so wonderful as so many people shy away from their friends in trying times. In the book “Small Change,” these friends start a club to not only save money but to develop better financial habits. The friends sharing checking account tips and learn to be frugal together. The book is set in the town of Heart Lake. The book is really good and it will make a wonderful summer 2010 read.

You can visit Sheila on the web at www.sheilasplace.com