The Blood of Fu Manchu , a review by samuelrichardscott

The Blood of Fu Manchu (1968) R0 USA DVD

Overview
From his secret lair deep within the South American jungle, international super-villain Fu Manchu (Christopher Lee) and his sadistic daughter Lin Tang (Tsai Chin of THE CASTLE OF FU MANCHU and YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE) reveal their latest diabolical plot for world domination: ten beautiful women are infected with an ancient poison so deadly that one kiss from their lips will bring instant death and lead to a global plague. Now the Asian madman's nemesis, Nayland Smith (Richard Greene of TALES FROM THE CRYPT), must desperately hunt an antidote in a savage land where rape and torture reign and the ultimate evil lies in THE BLOOD OF FU MANCHU.

Maria Rohm (THE BLOODY JUDGE) and Shirley Eaton (GOLDFINGER) co-star in this wild Fu Manchu feature written and produced by Harry Alan Towers (VENUS IN FURS) and directed by the one and only Jess Franco (VAMPYROS LESBOS, EUGENIE). Released in America as KISS AND KILL, Blue Underground has fully restored THE BLOOD OF FU MANCHU from its original European negative complete with additional scenes of nudity and violence!

Thoughts
I bought this for several reasons: I'm generally very happy with Blue Underground's output, I'm a fan of Christopher Lee and I'm a fan of Jess Franco. Unfortunately, this film, based on the character of Fu Manchu (whom until this film I was not familiar with) disappoints slightly. Lee overacts (not a problem), and Franco's direction is his standard nudity/violence affair (again, not a problem) but I felt that whilst the idea of Fu Manchu giving ten woman poison so that when they kiss the world's most powerful men, the men die, was a good one it was put together in a rather unconventional way without enough thought to structure. Fans of Franco and Lee might enjoy, but I would recommended a rental first. 2.5/5

(From Never Ending Movie Marathon (short reviews) on July 6th, 2011)

Driving Miss Daisy, a review by Tom

Title: Driving Miss Daisy
Year: 1989
Director: Bruce Beresford
Rating: U
Length: 95 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78
Audio: English: Dolby Digital Stereo, Commentary: Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles:

Stars:
Morgan Freeman
Jessica Tandy
Dan Aykroyd
Patti LuPone
Esther Rolle

Plot:
After stubborn, aging Southern widow, Miss Daisy (Jessica Tandy), crashes her car into the neighbour's fence, her son insists on hiring her a driver. At first, the self-sufficient Miss Daisy is reluctant to accept the services of her chauffeur, Hoke (Morgan Freeman), but his quiet, wise and tolerant nature slowly wins her over. As the years pass the unlikely friends develop a deep mutual respect and admiration, and slowly build a relationship that transcends their differences.

This bittersweet and funny film won 4 Oscars®, including Best Picture and Best Actress.

Extras:
Commentary
Featurettes
Scene Access

A very enjoyable movie. It is great how the friendship between the characters deepens through the years.
I like they don't show all the development but only hint at them. For example we do not see how Miss Daisy teaches Hoke to read. We only see how she learns that he cannot read and then, in a scene which is years later, she gives him a book about how to write properly as gift and he obviously can read fairly good now.
And the ending is great, too. Really touching.

Rating:

(From Tom's Random Reviews on May 21st, 2009)

Tom's Buffy and Angel Marathon, a review by Tom

21. Graduation Day, Part 1 (1999-05-18)
Writer: Joss Whedon (Created By), Joss Whedon (Writer)
Director: Joss Whedon
Cast: Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy Summers), Nicholas Brendon (Xander Harris), Alyson Hannigan (Willow Rosenberg), Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia Chase), David Boreanaz (Angel), Seth Green (Oz), Anthony Stewart Head (Giles), Kristine Sutherland (Joyce Summers), Harry Groener (Mayor Richard Wilkins), Alexis Denisof (Wesley Wyndam-Pryce), Mercedes McNab (Harmony Kendall), Ethan Erickson (Percy), Emma Caulfield (Anya/Anyanka), Eliza Dushku (Faith), Armin Shimerman (Principal Snyder), James Lurie (Mr. Miller), Hal Robinson (Lester), Adrian Neil (Vamp Lackey #1), John Rosenfeld (Vamp Lackey #2)

I always liked the fight between Buffy and Faith at the end of this episode. I also like the romance building between Anya and Xander, which began in the previous episode and will be explored further in the upcoming seasons. And Willow's distaste for Anya is always fun, which has begun in Doppelgangland when she proposed (under the guise of Vampire Willow) to start killing by beginning with her (Anya).
Nice touch with the hangman playing. Interesting to see, that also in the US it seems to be common to play games in class at the end of a school year.

Rating:

(From Tom's Buffy and Angel Marathon on March 6th, 2009)