By Peter Covino

Entertainment Editor

I think I inherited the electronic gizmo gene from my dad.

My dad was always seemingly the first on the block to have the latest electronic wonder “as seen in Popular Science.”
His “firsts” included an in-dash tape deck for the car and a CB player.  I still hate that CB player.
But the best memories revolve around him building a really large stereophonic (as it was called then) system.

Made almost from scratch (cutting pieces of plywood, buying various sized speakers, painting the finished product with a black latex paint) these monstrous-sized speaker cabinets took weeks to build from what I can dimly remember.

The end product was a system that played things really loud. I can't recall the sound quality, just that it was loud enough to make the china cabinet rattle.

To celebrate the accomplishment, he bought a few stereo “demonstration” records. Every time a relative or neighbor came to the house they were treated to the amazing world of stereophonic sound. Jets would take off and land seemingly in our living room; elevators would take you up to the top floor of the Empire State Building; a marching band would boom louder than those famous 76 trombones  and the sofa was the next stop for the Santa Fe Super Chief as it pulled into the station.

My dad has been in a nursing home for the past few years, his days of keeping up with the latest in gadgetry long behind him.

But he would have really liked Blu-ray technology.

And to show it off, he would have really liked this week’s Blu-ray DVD reviews, two new releases from Image Entertainment that were originally made for the IMAX  giant screen market — Dinosaurs Alive! and Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs.

Both titles are also available in standard DVD format, but the list price for the superior Blu-ray look is only about $5 more.

Dinosaurs Alive! is sort of like look what dinosaurs are up to now (and how far technology has gone), after you have seen Jurassic Park.

While Jurassic Park was all about the awe of seeing “real life” dinosaurs in an adventure-packed film, Dinosaurs Alive! takes you on a paleontologist dig, but along the way there are lots of dinosaurs to view in this 40-minute film.
Narrated by Michael Douglas, Dinosaurs Alive! features a back story of the behaviors of the long extinct thunder lizards using computer generated imagery and 1920s documentary archaeological expedition footage at the same time.
 

Plus, there are scenes of current ongoing expeditions as experts try to dig up more information and fossils buried under ground.

Throughout the film, the real-life scientific adventure looks at the field of paleontology and the crucial finds that have been made through the years.

Giant dinosaurs on the screen include tarbosaurus (a close relative to T. Rex), velociraptors, seismosaurus, protoceratops and others. The animated dinosaurs are shown in herds, the ones that scientists believe were herd-oriented, nesting and the predators are shown in combat with their prey.

The film also travels to Mongolia for a modern day exhibition, where paleontologists have been returning to the desert every year since 1990. There is also documentary film from the 1920s by an Indiana Jones-type character Chapman Andrews, who discovered some of the greatest dinosaur repositories ever.

Dinosaurs Alive! is presented in widescreen with an aspect ratio of 16-by-9 (1.78:1) and 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound.  Special features include full-length “Making Of” featurette shot in HD; and  a closer look at some of the dinosaurs in the “Meet the Creatures” educational series.

They haven't been extinct for anywhere near as long as the dinosaurs, but mummies have had a starring role in as many movies.

It's the truth and nothing but the truth about mummies in Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs.
The film takes a look at mummies from several aspects, including their place in society and the uproar the discovery of the great king Rameses caused when his mummified body was discovered in a tomb in the late 19th century.

But maybe even more importantly, the film takes a look at the possibilities of what the DNA in bodies that have been preserved for 3,000 years can mean to modern health and science.

Using recreations with life actors and digital effects to show what some of these Egyptian tombs looked like in all of their ancient splendor, the tale begins with how scholars of the 1870s were first able to piece together  and decipher the hieroglyphs. It was through those ancient markings that some of the embalming secrets of the past were revealed, as well as what the purpose was in preserving the bodies of ancient royalty.

The Egyptians eventually became so good at embalming, that the practice spread beyond royalty and most middle class subjects were also embalmed, meaning thousands and thousands of average citizens also were preserved at the height of Egyptian civilization.

The film is given a nice bit of “mummie” authenticity with a narration by Christopher Lee.
Special features include a full-length “Making Of” featurette shot in HD; “Meet the Mummies” educational section; and a mummies quiz.
 The Blu-ray and standard DVD is available in stores Tuesday.

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I am not a Sandra Bullock fan and The Proposal (Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment) is really not going to change that much.
But Bullock is at her best here in this new DVD release with Ryan Reynolds in a film that has a lot of the old-fashioned charm of a Rock Hudson/Doris Day movie.
Bullock plays Margaret Chase, the  first-class witch and executive editor at a New York publishing firm. Reynolds is her flunky assistant, anticipating her every need. The whole office hates her and has an early warning messaging system on their computers when “the witch is on her broom.” Reynolds hates her too and is a frequent user of the message system.
They would continue in these roles forever if this were not a Hollywood film where Bullock needs a proposal. Margaret is Canadian born and she is about to be deported back to Canada. To save her job and lifestyle, she blackmails her flunky into marrying her.
And for show (to fool immigration authorities) she goes off with him to a family weekend to meet his relatives in Alaska.
They fight, bicker and, of course, eventually fall in love, but not without the usual complications in this sort of story. It's Rock and Doris, all over again, but Rock and Doris never got a PG-13 rating.
The Proposal is available in both Blu-ray and standard DVD and either version includes a digital copy for your home computer or other portable devices such as an iPhone.  The Blu-ray also includes an alternative ending.
Other bonuses include commentaries by cast and crew and deleted scenes.