The Spike Lee Joint Collection Vol. 2
(Summer Of Sam / Miracle at St. Anna)
Director: Spike Lee
Starring: John Leguizamo, John Leguizamo, Adrien Brody, Mira Sorvino, Jennifer Esposito, Anthony LaPaglia, Derek Luke, Michael Ealy, Laz Alonso, Omar Benson Miller, Pierfrancesco Favino,Valentina Cervi
Studio: Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Release Date: June 10, 2014
Retail: $20.00
ASIN: B00J2VUJ6S
Running Time:142 minutes (Summer Of Sam), 160 minutes (Miracle at St. Anna)
Rating: R

Review:

Arriving on Blu-ray this Tuesday, June 10, 2014, is The Spike Lee Joint Collection Vol. 2, featuring the 1999 crime-drama, Summer Of Sam, and the 2008 WWII drama, Miracle at St. Anna. Special Features for Miracle at St. Anna includes a new audio commentary by director Spike Lee and actor John Leguizamo. Deeds Not Words, The Buffalo Solider Experience and deleted scenes. Summer Of Sam features a new audio commentary by director Spike Lee and screenwriter James McBride.

Summer Of Sam takes place in the New York City during the summer of 1977, where every New Yorker is in fear of the serial killer, Son of Sam. The film centers on the Italian-American neighborhoods with a handful of unique characters - a hairdresser, Vinny (played by John Leguizamo), his wife Dionna (played by Mira Sorvino), his punk-rocker friend Ritchie (played by Adrien Brody) and many others. The film chronicles Vinny's affairs with other women and the neighbors reaction to Ritchie's new lifestyle, as well as small bits of the Son of Sam (played by Michael Badalucco) murders.

The film received mixed reviews from critics and wasn't much of a box-office draw with moviegoers.

The Spike Lee Joint Collection Vol. 1
(25th Hour & He Got Game)
Director: Spike Lee
Starring: Edward Norton, Denzel Washington, Ray Allen, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Barry Pepper, Brain Cox, Milla Jovovich
Studio: Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Release Date: June 10, 2014
Retail: $20.99
ASIN: B00J2VUJ86
Running Time: 135 minutes (25th Hour), 136 minutes (He Got Game)
Rating: R

Review:

Arrving on Blu-ray this Tuesday, June 10, 2014 is the The Spike Lee Joint Collection Vol. 1, featuring 2002's 25th Hour starring Edward Norton and 1998's He Got Game starring Denzel Washington and the NBA player, Ray Allen. Special features for 25th Hour include a new audio commentary by director Spike Lee and Actor Edward Norton, deleted scenes, audio commentary with director Spike Lee, audio commentary with writer David Benioff, "The Evolution Of An American Filmmaker" featurette, and "Ground Zero" - A Tribute. He Got Game features a brand new audio commentary by director Spike Lee and actor Ray Allen.

Released in December 2002, 25th Hour stars Edward Norton as Monty Morton, who has only 24 hours before he goes to prison for selling drugs. He drags his two best friends, Frank Slaughtery (played by Barry Pepper) and Jacob Elinsky (played by the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman), along with his younger girlfriend, Naturelle (played by Rosario Dawson), to a bar for last drink.

The film did moderately well bringing in nearly $24 million on a $6 million budget. It received mostly positive reviews from critics.

Arriving on DVD this week from ACORN MEDIA is Shiva Rea Meditations, featuring over 100 minutes of medications to mix & match with Shiva Rea's Matrix. These practices are a great way to rejuvenate the mind and body.

Shiva Rea is considered "one of the world's greatest yoga masters" according to Vanity Fair. Her newest DVD release, Shiva Rea: Meditations, is a collection of meditations from several of her award-winning DVDs. From the Greek Island to the New Mexico's White Sands National Park, Shiva instructs you on how to have a calm oasis, where you can leave all the stress and worries in your life behind, so your body can restore itself.

The practices on the DVD can be viewed separately or you can select as many of the practices as you want, creating your own Matrix. You can also choose the pre-set practices.

The practices on this single disc are:

If you want schedule next week's post, click here to find the next prompt question. To submit a question, fill out this form.

What to do:

1. Post on your blog answering this question:

  This week's question is submitted by Elizabeth!

When you view someone's profile, what information do you like to see?

2. Enter the link to your post in the linky list below (enter your Blog Name and the direct link to your post answering this week’s question. Failure to do so will result in removal of your link).


3. Visit other blogs in the list and comment on their posts. Try to spend some time on the blogs reading other posts and possible become a new follower.  The purpose of the hop is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, befriend other bloggers, and receive new followers to your own blog.

  

My Answer: 

It depends if it is a blogger profile or a G+ profile. I don't like it when your blog or website isn't listed on your blogger profile and all you have is a list of blogs you follow. This makes it difficult for me to locate your blog so I can either leave a comment or become a follower. For G+ profiles, I like it when all of your blog posts are available to the public, as it gives more exposure for your posts/reviews.

Resurrection: The Complete First Season
Starring: Omar Epps, Frances Fisher, Matt Craven, Devin Kelly, Mark Hildreth, Samaire Armstrong, Sam Hazeldine, Landon Gimenez, Kurtwood Smith
Release Date: June 10, 2014
Retail: $29.99
ASIN: B00IYMSMTM
Running Time: 344 minutes
Rating: TV-PG
Buy Link: Amazon

Review:

Arriving on DVD for the first time on Tuesday, June 10, 2014 is Resurrection: The Complete First Season, the recent hit ABC series based on the book The Returned by Jason Mott and stars an all-star cast of Omar Epps, Frances Fisher, Matt Craven, Devin Kelly, Mark Hildreth, Samaire Armstrong, Sam Hazeldine, Landon Gimenez and Kurtwood Smith. Bonus Features include Resurrection: Building A Mystery, On Location In Georgia, bloopers and deleted scenes.

Though the series received a mixed reaction from critics, the first season averaged 12.96 million and is the highest rating series for the Sunday 9:00 pm Eastern/8:00 pm Central timeslot for ABC ever since Desperate Housewives ended its run.

Resurrection centers on J. Martin Bellamy (played by Omar Epps), an immigration agent who is in charge of returning eight-year-old Jacob Langston (played by Landon Gimenez) back to his family. For some mysterious reason, the boy had traveled to China, where he was found with no memory. The only thing he remembers is the town Arcadia, Missouri.

Defying his orders, Bellmays takes the child to Arcadia to reunite the boy with his parents, Henry and Lucille Langston (played by Kurtwood Smith and Frances Fisher), but there is a small problem - Jacob Langston drowned in 1982.

I'm Nobody: The Lost Pages
by Alex Marestaing
Publisher: Mymilou Press
Pub. Date: December 10, 2013
ISBN: 978-0615931630
Pages: 218
Buy Link: http://ow.ly/wSAPZ
Blog Tour: http://litfusegroup.com/author/amarestaing

Review:

Many of you probably think I only read Amish fiction or historical romances, but I have a huge collection of middle-grade books, from The Boxcar Children to Goosebumps, so it was no-brainier that I wanted to review I'm Nobody: The Lost Pages by Alex Marestaing.

The book centers on thirteen-year-old Caleb Reed, who has sheltered himself; never leaving his home for the last seven years, ever since his older sister, Anneliese, was killed in an accident. He is home schooled and has a fear of everything, along with a obsessive-compulsive disorder. He likes having the same daily routine, including watching the VHS recording of the last AFV episode that hw had watched his late sister, though she never got to see who the winner of the episode was. His latest fear or obsession is with the abandon house across the street, as he believes someone or something removed the boards from one of the windows.

Iris Elliot was in the second grade the last time she saw Caleb Reed, but she is well aware of the rumors and myths about the boy who never leaves his home. She is an aspiring filmmaker and wants to make a documentary about Caleb, so she can enter it into a YouTube contest.

Fearless Hope
by Serena B. Miller
Publisher: Howard Books
Pub. Date: April 8, 2014
ISBN: 978-1451660371
Pages: 384
Buy Link: Paperback

Review:

Sometimes bloggers can make mistakes and I definitely made a mistake with Fearless Hope by Serena B. Miller, as for some reason I put the book in the wrong TBR pile. I thought the book was for a blog tour for sometime in June, but actually there was no blog tour for the book and I was suppose to have my review posted by April 8th.

Fearless Hope centers on Hope Yoder, who had recently lost her husband. To support her children, including one that is on the way, she must take a job as a part-time housekeeper for an Englisch man, Logan Parker, whom happens to be a bestselling crime fiction writer.

Logan is use to the big city life in New York, but his life changes when he accompanies his fiancée, on a trip to Ohio, where he falls in love with an Amish farmhouse that is for sale, as he thinks it would make the perfect writing retreat. The peaceful Amish country may be the perfect solution to relieve him of the dreadful writer's block.

Liam Neeson reunites with director Jaume Collet-Serra (Orphan) and powerhouse producer Joel Silver (The Matrix series, Die Hard) for the first time since their collaboration on the hit 2011 thriller Unknown. The all-star cast includes four-time Academy Award® nominee Julianne Moore, Michelle Dockery (“Downton Abbey”) and 2013’s Academy Award® winner Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave) as well as Scoot McNairy (Argo), Linus Roache (“Vikings”) and Corey Stoll (“House of Cards,” The Bourne Legacy).

Free Writing

Character Interviews

Writing Blind

Write Without Me

Character Portraits

Describe the Abstract

Get Quiet

15 Minute Writing

The Cover of Darkness

Group Writing

Son of God
Director: Christopher Spencer
Starring: Diogo Morgado, Roma Downey, Darwin Shaw
Studio: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Release Date: June 3, 2014
Retail: $29.98
ASIN: B00ICWO144
Running Time: 138 minutes
Rating: PG-13

Review:

Arriving on Blu-ray and DVD today, Tuesday, June 3, 2014, is the Son of God, which was adapted from the 2013 History Channel's mini-series, The Bible. The feature film is a blend of selective scenes from the last 5-parts of The Bible and footage not shown during the mini-series. Christopher Spencer directs the film while the husband and wife duo, Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, return as producers. Special Features on the Blu-ray include Son of God: Reborn, From the Set: The Passion, Son of God: Un Reino sin Fronteras and Faith Into Practice: Introduce Children to a Relationship with Jesus Christ.

The Son Of God chronicles the life of Jesus Christ from his birth to his resurrection. The film was critically panned by critics, mostly because of its scripture inaccuracies and bad CGI shots of Jerusalem, but it managed to take in over 60 million dollars at the box-office and received an "A" Cinemascore opening weekend.

Though I was well aware of The Bible mini-series, I had chosen not to watch it, as most biblical themed mini-series are low-budget with bad acting and are just difficult to watch. Nevertheless, my grandmother loved the mini-series and she even purchased the DVD.