Kitchen & Housewares : Bissell 1867-7 Steam Mop Hard-Floor Cleaner, Green Tea |
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Rating:  - * Cleans great ... Started using from day 1 and it seems like the kitchen ceramic tile is brand new. It does NOT leave puddle of water on the floor like some other reviews state (they must not know how to use this properly). I plug it in while I am doing the dishes to allow it to heat. Than it's ready to make all the steam required. If you push the trigger on the handle steam comes out. I usually let go of it for a few seconds (to avoid over steaming - which will eventually turn into water (duh)). Great product and avoids the need to scrub the floor weekly on my hands and knees. Will do this on a monthly basis from now on. Rating: - * Just right for what we wanted it for (maybe not for everyone though) ... I bought this along with the Ergorapido cordless vacuum as a one-two punch to get the darn place cleaner looking with less effort. The kitchen floor was looking messy routinely because of grass/mud that was brought in from the back yard and from dog food spills from the doggy bowls. Our big problem was dirt that was dried on and required me scrubbing at it with a mop with a bristle end on it. It was a royal pain, and so I wound up just not having the time to do it enough. This steam mop works great for this specific purpose. It makes it SO effortless to get the dried on bits off - just leave the head on top of the stain, hold down the steaming button on the handle for a few seconds and wipe away, repeat if necessary (pleasantly, this isn't often the case). I can clean all those darn messes in a few minutes with very little muscle power or having to carry buckets of dirty water back and forth. Not even any chemicals! It's really great!! The limits to using this, though, are: 1) You really do need a sealed floor. From the first time you use it, you'll know why - it would be like soaking the surface in really, really hot water, even if it's for a brief time. If it's unsealed wood and you do this regularly, you can see how the wood could start to warp over time, possibly even get water-logged and rotting. 2) Most of our house is unsealed wood floors, so I limit using this to the bathrooms and kitchen. None of those rooms is particularly big, so I don't have any problems whatsoever with how long the cord is. Besides, if I had wanted to cover the entire house and had sealed floors, I'd have probably opted for the Monster steam mop since it looks much more sturdy (lots of metal parts instead of plastic). Since I don't need it to be that heavy-duty, I decided to save the money. I had also considered the Shark, but figured that the price difference wasn't that much, and there were lots of concerns about how sturdy that one was. 3) It's not exactly like mopping because you don't wring out the dirty water, you instead replace the sponge pad. So, to save having to keep replacing pads, I'd clean the less messy areas first, then tackle the really messy ones. Definitely don't plan on using this to clean a smelly area (like if there was dog pee) and then clean the rest of the room - you'll just spread the smell everywhere. If you have to pull this out a LOT, get extra pads so that you'll have time to launder a set while still being able to clean. Rating: - * Bissell 1867-7 ... If you want CLEAN floors, this floor cleaner works really well. I did my standard "mop test". After mopping, I get a paper towel to see what dirt is still on the floor. Regular mops and swiffer products always leave dirt on the floor. The Bissell steam mop did not! It did leave the floor a little wet in some places, but part of that is probably user error. Yes, I'll admit, I probably just need practice, because the clean floor is certainly worth the learning curve. I really love the Bissell Steam Mop and the CLEAN floors it leaves in its wake! Rating: - * Would recommend. ... I don't have hard wood floors but it works well on tile. I had a spot that I scrubbed and it did not come off. Kept the mop on there for a few extra second and it lifted it. Rating: - * Best mop -- EVER !!!! ... I use this mop on my tile and it is clearly the best mop ever! The steam powers out all of the dust and dirt in the porous tile leaving it absolutely sparkling clean. Couldn't be more pleased with this mop. I highly recommend it. |
The segment on Van Gogh is, as expected, emotional, yet Schama convincingly portrays Van Gogh as not consumed by madness, but fighting off the episodes with painting. Van Gogh painted one of his most evocative works, Wheat Field With Crows, which even his brother, Theo, recognized was about to put his brother on the artistic map. Yet, as Schama points out, within weeks, Van Gogh had killed himself. "Now why would he want to do that?" Schama muses--and then proceeds to narrate the tormented tale of the answer. Along the way, the viewer gains new appreciation for Van Gogh's signature works, including his famous sunflowers. "Technically, these are still lives," Schama says, "but there's nothing still about them... the sunflowers [seem to be] organisms landing violently from a burning sun." If the reenactments of the artists' lives are a bit overdone, it's forgivable, since the cumulative effect, in an hour, is a new appreciation of the work and the man.
Extras include frank and very funny commentaries by Schama and his co-producer, and lots of behind-the-scenes dish on how certain scenes were achieved. The teeming French opera scene in the "David" episode, for instance, was cast using just 20 French extras and then the rest created by CGI--"the scene works better, really, than [the film] King Kong," Schama says with delight. --A.T. Hurley
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Bird has his cake and eats it, too. He and the Pixar wizards send up superhero and James Bond movies while delivering a thrilling, supercool action movie that rivals Spider-Man 2 for 2004's best onscreen thrills. While it's just as funny as the previous Pixar films, The Incredibles has a far wider-ranging emotional palette (it's Pixar's first PG film). Bird takes several jabs, including some juicy commentary on domestic life ("It's not graduation, he's moving from the fourth to fifth grade!").
The animated Parrs look and act a bit like the actors portraying them, Craig T. Nelson and Holly Hunter. Samuel L. Jackson and Jason Lee also have a grand old time as, respectively, superhero Frozone and bad guy Syndrome. Nearly stealing the show is Bird himself, voicing the eccentric designer of superhero outfits ("No capes!"), Edna Mode.
Nominated for four Oscars, The Incredibles won for Best Animated Film and, in an unprecedented win for non-live-action films, Sound Editing.
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The Presentation
This two-disc set is (shall we say it?), incredible. The digital-to-digital transfer pops off the screen and the 5.1 Dolby sound will knock the socks off most systems. But like any superhero, it has an Achilles heel. This marks the first Pixar release that doesn't include both the widescreen and full-screen versions in the same DVD set, which was a great bargaining chip for those cinephiles who still want a full-frame presentation for other family members. With a 2.39:1 widescreen ratio (that's big black bars, folks, à la Dr. Zhivago), a few more viewers may decide to go with the full-frame presentation. Fortunately, Pixar reformats their full-frame presentation so the action remains in frame.
The Extras
The most-repeated segments will be the two animated shorts. Newly created for this DVD is the hilarious "Jack-Jack Attack," filling the gap in the film during which the Parr baby is left with the talkative babysitter, Kari. "Boundin'," which played in front of the film theatrically, was created by Pixar character designer Bud Luckey. This easygoing take on a dancing sheep gets better with multiple viewings (be sure to watch the featurette on the short).
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Brad Bird still sounds like a bit of an outsider in his commentary track, recorded before the movie opened. Pixar captain John Lasseter brought him in to shake things up, to make sure the wildly successful studio would not get complacent. And while Bird is certainly likable, he does not exude Lasseter's teddy-bear persona. As one animator states, "He's like strong coffee; I happen to like strong coffee." Besides a resilient stance to be the best, Bird threw in an amazing number of challenges, most of which go unnoticed unless you delve into the 70 minutes of making-of features plus two commentary tracks (Bird with producer John Walker, the other from a dozen animators). We hear about the numerous sets, why you go to "the Spaniards" if you're dealing with animation physics, costume problems (there's a reason why previous Pixar films dealt with single- or uncostumed characters), and horror stories about all that animated hair. Bird's commentary throws out too many names of the animators even after he warns himself not to do so, but it's a lively enough time. The animator commentary is of greatest interest to those interested in the occupation.
There is a 30-minute segment on deleted scenes with temporary vocals and crude drawings, including a new opening (thankfully dropped). The "secret files" contain a "lost" animated short from the superheroes' glory days. This fake cartoon (Frozone and Mr. Incredible are teamed with a pink bunny) wears thin, but play it with the commentary track by the two superheroes and it's another sharp comedy sketch. There are also NSA "files" on the other superheroes alluded to in the film with dossiers and curiously fun sound bits. "Vowellet" is the only footage about the well-known cast (there aren't even any obligatory shots of the cast recording their lines). Author/cast member Sarah Vowell (NPR's This American Life) talks about her first foray into movie voice-overs--daughter Violet--and the unlikelihood of her being a superhero. The feature is unlike anything we've seen on a Disney or Pixar DVD extra, but who else would consider Abe Lincoln an action figure? --Doug Thomas
More Incredibles at Amazon.com
 The Incredibles Toy Store |  CD Soundtrack |  The Art of The Incredibles Book |
 Game Boy Advance |  On VHS |  The Essential Guide Book |
The Pixar Feature Films
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More Animation DVDs
 Favorite Animated Performances |  Previous Animated Oscar Nominees |  If You Like The Incredibles... |
 Our Disney DVD Store |  Looney Tunes Golden Collection |  Walt Disney Treasures |
More Superheroes on DVD
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Also from Filmmaker Brad Bird
 The Iron Giant (Writer/Director) |  "Family Dog" on Amazing Stories (Writer/Director) |  Batteries Not Included (Cowriter) |
 The Simpsons (Director/Consultant) |  King of the Hill (Consultant) |  The Critic (Consultant) |
