Reviews and More

It’s time for another fantastic giveaway here at Reviews and More! We’re just a few days away from the highly anticipated Season 2 premiere of USA Network’s surprise hit show Burn Notice, so to help celebrate that fact and perhaps convert a few new fans, I’m giving away a very cool prize pack featuring BN branded merchandise.

USA NETWORK’s hit series BURN NOTICE returns Thursday, July 10th at 10pm/9c. Why was Michael Westen burned? And what’s he gonna do about it? The answers every Burn Notice fan wants begin to take shape with the Season Two premiere. The new season also welcomes Battlestar Galatica’s Tricia Helfer as well as existing cast Bruce Campbell and Sharon Gless. Join other fans on the official Facebook Fan Page or visit the official site at burnnotice.usanetwork.com.

One winner will receive a USA Network Burn Notice Beach Bag filled with:

• Burn Notice Season 1 DVD
• Burn Notice Book
• Branded Towel
• Branded T-Shirt
• Branded Frisbee

To enter all you have to do is send an email to contest[at]reviewsandmore[dot]net with “Burn Notice Giveaway” in the subject line between now and 5pm central on Thursday July 31, 2008. After the deadline, I will use an online randomizer to select a winner from all eligible entries, and the prize pack will be sent directly to the winner from the giveaway sponsor.

The winner will have 48 hours after the announcement to get back to me with an address. If I do not hear back from the first winner within this time frame, an alternate winner will be drawn.

The giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.

Get your entries in now for your chance to win all of this cool Burn Notice swag, and be sure to tune in this Thursday night to see what happens to Michael and the gang in Season 2!

As promised, I’ve collected all the email entries received during my In Plain Sight promotion period and have put the info into an online randomizer to come up with a winner. The name selected was Jennifer T. of Katy, TX! Congratulations, Jennifer! I’ll get that prize pack out to you very soon.

Thank you to everyone who entered, and be sure to keep checking Reviews and More for additional contests, giveaways, and prizes in the future!

I was never much of a fan of summer TV programs until last year when I got hooked on USA Netowrk’s Burn Notice. That show turned out to be so popular with fans that it got renewed for a second season, and will be airing all-new episodes in a couple of months.

Another new show I’m excited about seeing is In Plain Sight, which is also going to air on USA. Here’s a quick description of the show from a press release I received:

Catch the new series premiere on Sunday, June 1st on USA NETWORK, 10pm/9c.

USA Network’s newest original series stars Mary McCormack (Private Parts and The West Wing) as Mary Shannon. Her friends and family think she’s just a glorified courier, but she’s actually a U.S. Marshal, working for the highly secretive Witness Protection Program. Her job is to help relocate federal witnesses.

Whether they’re career criminals, or just people who had the misfortune to witness a crime, they all share one thing in common — somebody wants them dead. Co-starring Frederick Weller and Lesley Ann Warren.

I think that sounds pretty cool, and I’ll definitely be tuning in on June 1!

In the meantime, I’ve got a sweet In Plain Sight gift bag to give away to a lucky reader. Check it out:

Enter to Win an IN PLAIN SIGHT GIFT BAG filled with

-In Plain Sight t-shirt
-In Plain Sight tank top
-TSA Approved Travel Kit (with 4 plastic toiletry bottles)
-In Plain Sight Luggage Tag

If you’d like your name entered into the drawing for this gift pack, simply send an email to contest[at]reviewsandmore[dot]net with “In Plain Sight Giveaway” in the subject line. This contest is open to U.S. residents only.

Entries will be accepted between now and June 9, so start getting those emails in! Oh, and be sure to tune in to USA on June 1 to catch the premiere of In Plain Sight starring Mary McCormack!

As promised, I’ve used an online randomizer to select a winner for the Alien Nation: Ultimate Movie Collection DVD box set that I’m giving away.

The randomizer put Webster’s name at the top, so he’s the lucky winner! Webster now has 48 hrs in which to email me back with his mailing address or I’ll go through the selection process one more time and come up with a different winner.

Congratulations to Webster for scoring this brand-new Alien Nation: Ultimate Movie Collection box set, and thank you all for participating in the giveaway and reading Reviews and More (or ram, as I always refer to it). I’m sure I’ll be having more contests and giveaways in the near future, so keep checking back!

It’s time to announce the winner of my Justice League DVD giveaway! I took all the entries, tossed them in my favorite Notre Dame hat, and pulled out Kat’s name!!! Kat is from Sarasota, FL and I’m sure she’ll enjoy the prize.

Thanks to everyone who entered. I hope to have some more giveaways in the near future!

It’s been a long time since I’ve done a giveaway on this blog, so I’ve decided to hold a quick contest for you. The rules are going to be a bit different than my past giveaways, so please read through this entire post before sending in your entries.

The prize up for grabs is a brand-new Justice League: The New Frontier DVD, which isn’t even available in stores yet! This DVD is based on the wildly popular graphic novels from Darwyn Cooke, and chronicles the adventures of the most powerful superhero team in the world. The New Frontier takes viewers back in time to show how Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, Green Lantern, and Martian Manhunter first decided to join forces to combat evil.

The New Frontier has a running time of 75 minutes, and features the voices of some pretty big stars, including David Boreanaz as the Green Lantern, Lucy Lawless as Wonder Woman, Neil Patrick Harris as the Flash, Kyle MacLachlan as Superman, and Jeremy Sisto as Batman. Plus, the DVD has some cool extras that you won’t find anywhere else!

My son loves the Justice League, so he’s very excited about this DVD. It’s perfect for those of you who have kids, who are fans of DC comic superheroes, or who enjoy the work of the talented actors involved in this project.

As I said, Justice League: The New Frontier isn’t available in stores yet, as it won’t be released until February 26. But I’m giving you a chance to win your very own copy here between now and Monday, February 18.

There are two different ways you can enter this contest.

First, you can simply send an email to contest@reviewsandmore.net with the phrase “Justice League DVD” in the subject line. That will get you a single entry in the drawing. Or, if you have a blog, you can write a short post (100 words will do) about the upcoming release of this new Justice League DVD, and email the URL to contest@reviewsandmore.net with “Justice League DVD Link” in the subject line. Doing this will get you three entries in the drawing.

Note: your post about the Justice League DVD release does NOT have to contain a link back to my site!

One week from today (on Monday, Feb. 18) at 5:00 p.m. ET, I will put the names of all eligible entrants into a randomizer and pick a winner. I will then contact that winner for a mailing address, which I will pass along to the contest sponsor who will actually mail out the DVD. If I don’t hear back from the winner within 48hrs, I will draw another winner.

Good luck with the contest, and be sure to check out the DVD even if you don’t win!

Last week I posted about my latest contest, which was a Danny Roane: First-Time Director DVD giveaway. The contest is now closed, and the DVD will be going to Holly P. of Ohio. Holly has a blog called JustSimplyHolly, so be sure to check out her site and pass on your congratulations!

Look for more cool giveaways in the near future!!

I held the drawing for my Run Athletics shoe giveaway earlier today, and the lucky winner is Carol E. of Portland, OR. Congratulations to Carol, and thanks to everyone else who sent in their entries.

Keep checking back for more great prize giveaways in the future!!

***EDITED on 10/24*** Entry Deadline Now Changed to 10/30!!

A couple weeks ago, I told you about the upcoming release of Veronica Mars: The Complete Third Season on DVD. Well, the wait is officially over, as the DVD box set goes on sale today!

To celebrate the release, the marketing team at M80 has generously agreed to give away one of these box sets to a lucky reader! How cool is that? As I wrote in my previous post, this is a 6-disc set containing all 20 episodes from Season 3, along with some exclusive bonus features that you won’t find anywhere else.

So what do you have to do to enter the giveaway? It’s simple: drop me an email at contest@reviewsandmore.net with the phrase “Veronica Mars DVD Giveaway” in the subject line, and I’ll put your name in a hat with the rest of the entries (limit one entry per person). Edit: I’ve been asked to shorten the time frame a bit, so the contest will end in one week not two. Then, on October 30 (7 days from today), I’ll draw a winner from all the entries. Simple!

If you don’t want to wait that long or don’t want to test your luck, you can go ahead and buy the DVD set today from various online or bricks and mortar retailers.

*Please note that your prize will ship directly from M80, so if you’re not comfortable with a third party getting your home address, don’t enter the contest. I will NOT ship the prize myself, so don’t even ask! **Only U.S. residents are eligible.

I received a press release from M80 about the following promotion a few days ago, and thought it was definitely worth posting about here. As many of you know, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which means that some socially conscious companies out there go out of their way to promote special products or make donations to cancer-related charities.

This year, Fox and MGM are getting in on the action by running a promotion called “DVDs for the Cure.” As part of the promotion, the studios are re-releasing several popular titles in special pink packaging, and will donate 50 cents from each DVD sold to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure organization. Moreover, Fox and MGM have pledged a minimum donation of $250,000, so the Susan G. Komen organization will benefit significantly no matter what.

Some of the titles available in the pink packaging include, Legally Blonde, Thelma & Louise, Say Anything, In Her Shoes, There’s Something About Mary, Moulin Rouge, and a bunch more.

Check out dvdsforthecure.com today to support this very worthy cause. I’m going to be purchasing Legally Blonde and Thelma & Louise (two of my favorite movies), and I hope you get involved too!

With the fall TV season in full swing, I haven’t had much time to publish movie reviews on here. I am still watching several DVDs per week, however, so I have a bunch of things to write about. At this point, it’s just a matter of finding the time to be able to sit down and do so.

Anyway, here are five movie reviews that you can expect to see from me sometime in the next week or so:

1. Freedomland, about a carjacking/kidnapping and the subsequent investigation.
2. The Children’s Hour, about two young teachers accused of being lesbians in the early ’60s.
3. 28 Days, about a reporter who has to go through an alcohol and drug rehabilitation program.
4. Bad Girls, about four prostitutes in the Old West.
5. Eye For an Eye, about a mother exacting vigilante justice on her daughter’s killer.

I’ve already finished watching several of these; like I said, it’s just a matter of sitting down to write out the reviews at this point.

I was just looking through my archives when I noticed that my very first post here at ReviewsandMore.net was on September 15, 2006 — exactly one year ago today! I can’t believe that I’ve been maintaining this site for a year already… the time certainly has flown by.

I think I’ve come a long way in the past year. My reviews are more detailed and polished than they were in the beginning, my readership has grown, and I’m having a lot more fun with this blog than I ever expected. I’m very excited to see what the next year has in store for this site!

Thanks for reading, commenting, and giving me valuable feedback along the way!

Now that it’s September, I’m getting pretty anxious to see all of my favorite TV shows return to the airwaves with brand-new episodes! Here are the premiere dates that I’m currently looking forward to:

Desperate Housewives — Sunday, September 30. Remember how the season finale ended, with Edie attempting to hang herself? I say “attempting” because I haven’t heard anything about Nicolette Sheridan leaving the show, so I assume Edie survives. All I know is she better not be completely fine two weeks into the season. I’m not saying she should be stuck in adult diapers the entire time, but there should be some lingering effects from her ordeal.

Grey’s Anatomy — Thursday, September 27. Burke is gone for good, so I wonder who Cristina is going to hook up with next. I’m not looking forward to the sibling rivalry stuff that we’re getting set up for between Meredith and Alexis (or whatever the sister’s name is), nor am I excited to see anything involving George and Izzie’s adulterous relationship. I basically just want to see what direction they choose to go in from here.

House — Tuesday, September 25. House lost all of his underlings in last season’s finale. How will he get them back? How will newcomers like Olivia Wilde fit into the scheme of things?

How I Met Your Mother — Monday, September 24. Will married life change Marshall and Lily? Who will Ted date now that he finally broke up with Robin? What crazy situations will Barney find himself in this year?

24 — The only date I could find for 24 was January 13, 2008, but I’m not sure how accurate that is. All I know is that the first episode won’t air until sometime in January, so there’s still a long, long wait for this one. I heard that Season 7 is going to move out of CTU and Los Angeles, and that the writers aren’t going to rely on their old bag of tricks like moles, double-agents, and shady political operatives this time around. Can’t wait to see what they come up with!

The fall primetime television lineups are more or less in place at all the networks, so now I’ve got to decide which shows I’m going to recap here at Reviews and More. Last year was the first time I did recaps, and I think I learned a lot during the course of the season. For instance, I’m probably not going to recap shows that air on the same night because I simply don’t have time to get two write-ups done by the next morning. I remember last year I really struggled with Mondays (Prison Break, 24) and Thursdays (Grey’s Anatomy, CSI), and I don’t really want to go through that again. I think I can handle an hour-long drama and a 30-minute sitcom on the same night, but not two one-hour programs.

Here’s my tentative schedule for Fall 2007:

Sunday: Desperate Housewives
Monday: How I Met Your Mother, 24 (from Jan. 2008)
Tuesday: House
Wednesday: Private Practice
Thursday: Grey’s Anatomy
Friday: N/A
Saturday: N/A

Prison Break and CSI are officially on the bubble with me. I think these shows had more bad episodes than good last year, so I’m not going to continue wasting my time with them if they start off with utter crap. I’ll give each series one month (four episodes) to prove that the upcoming season will be worth watching. After that, I’m dumping them for good (or at least until summer reruns). Private Practice, as a new show, will be on probationary status as well. I’ll give that one five eps to win me over before I write it off.

I’m also going to continue watching Cold Case on Sunday nights, but I won’t be recapping it. That’s a show that I love to just sit back and enjoy, without worrying about taking notes or remembering every single detail.

In addition, I was planning on continuing with The New Adventures of Old Christine this year, but I haven’t been able to find any info on it. It’s not listed in the preliminary CBS schedule, so I don’t know what’s going on there. Has it been canceled?

The Promote My New Blog Contest ended last night, and I have already drawn the names of the six lucky winners. I originally wanted to post a clip of the drawing here, but after trying for over an hour to get it to work, I gave up. Sorry!

Anyway, here are the winners (they were drawn in reverse order, as I mentioned in the contest rules). I’ll also send the winners an email in order to get their PayPal addresses so I can give them their prizes. Thanks to everyone who participated, and look for more contests like this in the future!

$10 Runner-Up Prize #1: Chris from Kazakhstan Blog

$10 Runner-Up Prize #2: Cheryl from BasenjiMom

$10 Runner-Up Prize #3: Sabriena from Infected Loser

$20 Third Prize: Julie from Just Julie

$30 Second Prize: Justin from Justin Stanley’s Weblog

$50 Grand Prize: Emily from Contests & Freebies Around the World

Congrats to all of you!!

I have a new shopping blog that I want to promote, so I thought I’d hold a contest to help generate incoming links. This is the first time I’ve ever held a contest on my own and I’m going to try to keep it as simple as possible. I’ll be giving away a total of $130 in cash to six winners, so I hope you’ll find it worth your while to enter!

Here are the guidelines:

Entries

1. Write a unique post on your blog mentioning both this website (Reviews and More) and my new shopping blog called The Chronic Consumer. The post should be a minimum of 100 words, and can really focus on anything as long as you give me the two required links. Edit: Please mention the contest in your post so your readers can enter if they’re interested!!
2. Please use my blog names as anchor text. So I’m looking for a link to http://www.reviewsandmore.net/ (anchor text “Reviews and More”) and a link to http://www.chronicconsumer.com/ (anchor text “The Chronic Consumer”) — without the quotes, of course.
3. Once you’ve completed your entry, please send an email to contest[at]chronicconsumer[dot]com with your permalink and your name. I’ll verify that your post meets the requirements and I’ll send you a confirmation email.
4. You may enter only once per blog. If you have multiple blogs, you may enter multiple times — so long as you create a unique post on each blog.
5. I have no minimum requirements as far as PR, Alexa, and domains go (free sites like Blogger, Xanga, etc. are okay), but ask that your blog be at least 60 days old and active (as in, you’ve been posting on it at least once a week for the last 60 days).
6. Entries must be received by 11:59pm EDT on June 30, 2007 in order to be included in the drawing.

Prizes/Drawing:

1. There will be six available cash prizes for this contest: 1 (one) grand prize of $50; 1 (one) second prize of $30; 1 (one) third prize of $20; and 3 (three) runner-up prizes of $10 each.
2. The same person may win more than one prize, so if you have multiple entries, you could win multiple times.
3. I will print or write out the names of all eligible entrants on separate slips of paper, toss everything into a bucket, and draw out six names at random.
4. Prizes will be awarded in reverse order!! In other words, the first name I draw will win a runner-up prize of $10 and the sixth name I draw will win the grand prize of $50.
5. I will try to record the drawing on video and upload the clip here, but if there are technical difficulties, I will just post a list of winners.
6. The drawing will take place on July 1 or July 2, with winners to be announced the same day.

Payment:

1. Payment will be made via PayPal only. If you do not have a PayPal account or do not wish to reveal your PayPal email address to me, please do not enter the contest!!
2. I will make payments in US dollars only. Winners are responsible for any PayPal fees or currency conversion fees taken out of the transaction.
3. Once the winners have been selected, I will contact them in order to get their PayPal addresses. Payment will be made within 8 hours of receiving a valid PayPal address.

Miscellaneous

1. I reserve the right to extend the contest deadline at my discretion.

Well, I hope this covers everything! I know I got a little long-winded here, but a couple of my blogging buddies have had some problems with contests and I wanted to be sure to be as clear as possible right from the start in order to avoid any confusion. Have fun and good luck!

I just wanted to make a quick post here to thank the sponsors that have purchased advertising space here at Reviews and More. Your support helps keep this website going, so I really do appreciate your business!

To my readers: please consider clicking the links over at the top of the right-hand sidebar if you’re interested in any of the following products or services:

• Watch Straps
• Software Reviews
• ColorBlends Contact Lenses
• Mara Pets Flash Games (a free virtual gaming site)

I’ve created this blog in order to share my personal reviews of books, movies, television shows, websites, and other products and services. I might even throw a restaurant review in from time to time. I love being entertained and I love sharing my opinion about things, so a review blog seemed perfect for me. Please keep checking back in the coming weeks as I add more content and get this blog off the ground!

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