Lifetime: Moms to the Rescue - DVD Review

***SYNOPSIS***


Pop the corn, call your girlfriends, and settle in for some good drama. Honeymoon With Mom tells the story of Shannon (Virginia Williams), a young woman who’s abandoned at the altar and retreats to a gorgeous remote resort with her mother (Shelley Long). Thinking she’ll get the nurturing she needs, Shannon has no idea that her mom has an agenda all her own. The Emmy®-nominated Taken From Me: The Tiffany Rubin Story stars Taraji P. Henson and is based on a dramatic true story of a woman’s fight to get her kidnapped 7-year-old-son back from Korea. Mom, Dad and Her tells the story of Sydney (Brittney Wilson), a volatile teenage girl sent to live with her father and his new wife and baby. To her surprise, it’s Sydney’s relationship with her stepmother and the baby that reunites both families. And when 16-year-old model student and athlete Jacey Jeffries (Danielle Panabaker) reveals she’s pregnant in Mom at Sixteen, her mother (Mercedes Ruehl) decides the baby must be kept secret. But after moving to a new town where her mother raises the baby as her own, it takes an attentive teacher (Jane Krakowski) to help Jacey come to terms with living a lie.


DISC ONE - Honeymoon with Mom / Taken From Me: The Tiffany Rubin Story
DISC TWO - Mom, Dad and Her / Mom at Sixteen


***VIDEO QUALITY***


Moms to the Rescue arrives on DVD with a 480i transfer in the original aspect ratios of 1.33:1 and 1.78:1. The presentations exhibit much better detail and colors were more natural with no bleeding due to these being more recent movies. Colors leaned towards a more natural hue. Black levels as a whole were good. 6.5/10


***AUDIO QUALITY***


Audio is provided by a Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0 track. Okay overall, as expected these are talk heavy tracks and the dialogue was crisp and clean. Music was played too good effect, stereo separation was somewhat flat. 6.5/10

Lifetime Gold Collection - DVD Review

***SYNOPSIS***


This collection of Lifetime® Original Movies features four inspiring films about people overcoming great odds – and the first three are based on true stories. The three-time Emmy®-nominated Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story stars Thora Birch as a homeless 15-year-old girl who doesn’t let her circumstances prevent her from attending Harvard University. In Why I Wore Lipstick to My Mastectomy, Sarah Chalke plays Geralyn Lucas, a 27-year-old woman with a breast cancer diagnosis whose story is an empowering reminder that attitude is everything. Ambulance Girl, directed by and starring Academy Award®-winner Kathy Bates, tells the stirring – and hilarious – story of a woman who overcomes depression by becoming a volunteer EMT. And three-time Emmy®-nominated We Were The Mulvaneys (Beau Bridges, Blythe Danner), based on a novel by Joyce Carol Oates, follows a “perfect” family that struggles to keep their only daughter’s rape a shameful secret. Prepare to laugh, cry, and think again about what is possible in the face of adversity.


DISC ONE - Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story / Why I Wore Lipstick to My Mastectomy
DISC TWO - Ambulance Girl / We Were the Mulvaneys


***VIDEO QUALITY***


Lifetime Gold Collection arrives on DVD with a 480i transfer in the original aspect ratios of 1.33:1 and 1.78:1. The presentation is a mixed bag of soft images and smeared colors sometimes. The more more recent movies exhibit much better detail and colors were more natural with no bleeding. Black levels as a whole were good. 6.5/10


***AUDIO QUALITY***


Audio is provided by a Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0 track. Okay overall, as expected these are talk heavy tracks and the dialogue was crisp and clean. Music was played too good effect, stereo separation was somewhat flat. 6.5/10

American Restoration: Volume 2 - DVD Review

***SYNOPSIS***


AMERICAN RESTORATION features Rick Dale and his crew of loose screws at Rick’s Restorations in Las Vegas, Nevada, as they take rusty, beat-up items and restore them to their original glory. Whether it’s a giant gas pump from the 1940s or a Hopalong Cassidy bicycle from the 1950s, every restoration is a high-stakes business project where worthless rust is transformed into a valuable collectible. However, these restorations aren’t easy. Every project presents unique challenges for Rick and his team, who develop inventive processes to finish each job flawlessly and on time. From old gas carts to timeless slot machines, the items Rick restores are part of the fabric that makes up American culture. Things just aren’t made like they used to be, but at Rick’s Restorations, old becomes new again.

AMERICAN RESTORATION: VOLUME TWO features 17 electrifying episodes never-before-released on DVD!


DISC 1: - Grippin’ Mad / Anchors Away / Special Delivery / Rusted and Busted / Batter Up / Suds and Duds / American Hero / Close Shave


DISC 2: - Missile Impossible / Wheel & Deal / Cold War Cruisin’ / Tractors & Trucks / Surfing the Strip / Smoking Hot / Milking It / Keep On Trucking / Bikes & Barbecues


***VIDEO QUALITY***


American Restoration arrives on DVD with a 480p transfer in the original aspect ratio of 1.78:1. The show is filmed in HD and the downgrade to standard definition doesn't suffer any glaring problems. Colors were warm and friendly. Black levels were strong and contrast was just right. There were instances of noise in the image but nothing to wash over the fine details of the interesting items that are brought to Rick Dale and his crew. 7.5/10


***AUDIO QUALITY***


Audio is provided by a Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0 track. Dialogue is crisp and clean. The music that is used in between segments was a little thin but this is a "reality show" so I wasn't expecting an aural knockout. 7/10