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Category:    Home > Reviews > Documentary > Biography > Special Interest > History > Origins > Ethnicity > Comedy > Politics > Voting > Fr > Being Canadian (2015/Candy Factory DVD)/The Best Democracy Money Can Buy (2016/Cinema Libre DVD)/Brain Games: Season 7 (2016 aka The Final Season/National Geographic/Fox DVD Set)/Living In The Age Of

Being Canadian (2015/Candy Factory DVD)/The Best Democracy Money Can Buy (2016/Cinema Libre DVD)/Brain Games: Season 7 (2016 aka The Final Season/National Geographic/Fox DVD Set)/Living In The Age Of Airplanes (2016/National Geographic/Terwilliger Blu-ray)



Picture: C/C/C+/B- Sound: C+/C+/C+/B- Extras: D/C/C-/C+ Main Programs: B-/C+/B-/B-



Here are the latest special interest releases for your consideration....



Robert Cohen's Being Canadian (2015) has the hit TV sitcom writer, et al, going back to his home country to try to define what exactly separates it and distinguishes it from the rest of the country. Touring in a road trip, he interviews people along the way and we get extensive inserts of both important figures from within the country and interviews with many Canadians from the entertainment industry (quite a few of them) that you may or may not know are from there.


This includes Michael J. Fox, The Barenaked Ladies, William Shatner, Paul Shaffer, Mike Myers, Seth Rogen, Alanis Morrisette, Howie Mandel, Alex Trebek and many others, plus the mention of others who were not interviewed. Running 89 minutes, this actually takes a while to pick up, but eventually pays off and is a great tribute to the underrated territory people worldwide (especially in the USA) need to know more about. This one is worth a good look.


There are no extras.



David Ambrose and Greg Palast's The Best Democracy Money Can Buy (2016) has Palast gone wild by going after corrupt money behind the scenes of voting, gerrymandering, related rip-offs and more important news we should know about. However, the main program is sometimes overdone and over the top in its 111 minutes, which backfires a little bit. That is why though I've heard of Palast, I can see why I have not seen him enough. Despite this, he makes some great points, exposes some awful schemes and comes up with an important new way to look at voter suppression just in time for the 2016 Election.


Too bad not enough people will see this in time, but some of what he exposes in detail we fortunately know generally, but proving it by showing it in said detail is a plus. When he does not try so hard, like many of the segments in the extras, he does better. Hope we see more of him soon either way.


Extended interviews and bonus featurettes that are well done are the extras.



Our final two entries are produced by National Geographic. Brain Games: Season 7 (2016) is also its Final Season as host Jason Silva wraps up his interesting series of challenges, experiments and exposes on how the brain works in ways that are always unexpected. We get sic episodes this time and though this might sound like a silly show to some at first, it is sincere and effective as you watch, though I would only be able to take so much of this, it is very worthwhile and it is on o those moderate hits that will likely be more appreciated later moe than it is now.


Behind The Scenes on all 6 episodes are the only extras.



Finally we have Brian J. Terwilliger's Living In The Age Of Airplanes (2016) that is hosted by no less than Harrison Ford, runs only 47 minutes, but shows how human flight is the most important innovation and development of all time... or pretty close to it. It does this by showing the mobility (or lack thereof) by human for millions of years, then comes flight and it changes everything, maybe even moe than the Internet for the same reasons.


Maybe this could have been longer, but for what it has to show and say, it gets to the point and quits while its ahead. The footage is often impressive and this was more engaging at its best than even I expected. Definitely worth a look and for its length, you cannot go wrong.


Extras include a paper pullout on the film including informative text, while the Bu-ray adds 12 bonus featurettes.




All three DVDs are here in anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image presentations, but Canadian and Money have soft, roughness to them including video noise, video banding, cross color, faded color, staircasing and digititis that Brain never runs into. The 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Airplanes also has some minor flaws, but is the most consistent, has some great shots and is easily the playback champ.


As for sound, the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on Canadian and Money fare better than their image and tie with the slightly more refined lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on Brain sounding just fine throughout. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 7.1 lossless mix on Airplane is well mixed and presented, but rarely are those tracks engaged, though Harrison Ford is always clear-sounding.



- Nicholas Sheffo


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