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Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, a review by GSyren

Title	Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (5-051895-219577)
Director	Brad Peyton
Actors	Dwayne Johnson, Michael Caine, Josh Hutcherson, Luis Guzman, Vanessa Hudgens
Produced	2012 in United States
Runtime	94 minutes
Audio	English DTS 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1, German Dolby Digital 5.1, Italian Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles	Danish, French, Finnish, Norwegian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish
Overview	The new family adventure Journey 2: The Mysterious Island begins when seventeen-year-old Sean Anderson (Josh Hutcherson) receives a coded distress signal from a mysterious island where no island should exist. Unable to stop him from tracking the signal to its source, Sean's new stepfather, Hank (Dwayne Johnson), joins the quest that will take them first to the South Pacific, and then to a place few people have ever seen. Or lived to tell about. It's a place of stunning beauty, strange and threatening life forms, volcanoes, mountains of gold and more than one astonishing secret. Together with Gabato (Luis Guzmán), the only helicopter pilot willing to risk the trip, and Gabato's beautiful, strong-willed daughter Kailani (Vanessa Hudgens), they set out to find the island, rescue its lone human inhabitant and escape before seismic shockwaves force the island underwater and bury its treasures forever, in this follow-up to the 2008 worldwide hit Journey to the Center of the Earth.
My thoughts	This is another of those movies that I wasn’t sure about, so I waited until I could get it relatively cheap. This is also a case of setting my expectations low. I like Jules Verne. I have read The Mysterious Island, although it was long ago. I also read the Illustrated Classic when I was a kid, and I have seen the 1961 Harryhausen film, the 2005 Hallmark TV version and the 1995 TV series. None of them follow Verne’s book very closely, and this one certainly doesn’t either. Being quite recent, it’s no big surprise that this movie has the better special effects. But good special effects does not equal a good movie. We have seen this over and over. Is Josh Hutcherson a good actor? If he is, he certainly doesn’t show it in this movie. Dwayne Johnson can be good in action movies, but isn’t good here. And Michael Caine is pretty much wasted. The less said about Luis Guzmán, the better. And you know something must be wrong in a movie when Vanessa Hudgens comes off as the least irritating character... The script varies between silly and ludicrous, but at least it seldom gets boring. So, if you can put your brain in neutral for an hour and a half (at least it’s not overly long), then it can be an acceptable time killer. But hardly anything more than that. If you want a good Mysterious Island, go with Harryhausen. It’s not Verne’s Mysterious Island, but in spite of Harryhausen’s creatures it’s probably the closest you get. The TV series is also quite entertaining, but it certainly isn’t Verne. Still, either of them is better than this mess. Definitely avoid the Hallmark version, though!
My rating	2.5 out of 5

(From Reviews and ramblings by Gunnar on September 26th, 2013)

Change of Heart, a review by addicted2dvd

Change of Heart (1998/United States) IMDb | Fisher Klingenstein Films, TGG Direct Director: Arvin Brown Writing: Aaron Mendelsohn (Writer) Length: 91 min. Rating: NR Video: Full Frame 1.33:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital: 2-Channel Stereo Subtitles: None

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Stars:
Jean Smart as Elaine Marshall
John Terry as Dr. Jim Marshall
Gretchen Corbett as Gail Stern
Phillip Geoffrey Hough as Jesse Marshall
Shawna Waldron as Sarah Marshall
Dorian Harewood as Dr. Lewis Franklin

Plot:
Beneath Jim Marshall's (John Terry) veneer as the all-American father and husband lies a long suppressed desire that is about to ruin his idyllic family. When Elaine Marshall (Jean Smart) catches her husband and his lover in a hotel room, her anger quickly turns to shock as she discovers that Jim's paramour is a young man. What ensues is painful soul-searching for Jim, Elaine, and their family.

Extras:

• No Extras What So Ever

This is the final move out of the 3 movie set I had to watch. Unfortunately it is also my least favorite out of the three. Not that it was a bad movie. I did still enjoy it. Just that I liked the other two a little more. But this one is still worth the time put in to watch it. Another TV movie (all in this set are)... so keep that in mind if you don't normally like TV Movies. There was no cast members in this one that I was all that familiar with. So that could be part of the reason I didn't enjoy it quite as much as the others in this set. Having familiar faces from series I watch has always been a plus for me with TV Movies.

Of the three movies in this set I liked from favorite to least favorite... The Truth About Jane (Favorite)... Her Desperate Choice...and then Change of Heart (Least Favorite).



(From What Movies I Been Watching on September 15th, 2013)

Tom's Random Star Trek Reviews, a review by Tom

TOS 3.09 The Tholian Web
Writer: Judy Burns (Writer), Chet Richards (Writer), Gene Roddenberry (Original Characters By)
Director: Herb Wallerstein
Cast: William Shatner (Kirk), Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock), DeForest Kelley (Dr. McCoy), James Doohan (Scott), George Takei (Sulu), Walter Koenig (Chekov), Nichelle Nichols (Uhura), Majel Barrett (Nurse Chapel), Sean Morgan (Lt. O'Neil)

Originally not a mirror universe episode. It was just mentioned that the Defiant (a ship that went missing and the Enterprise was searching for) is phasing in and out between alternated universes.
It is revealed in an episode of the prequel series "Enterprise", that the other universe was the mirror universe.
No matter what, this is still a great episode. Captain Kirk is presumed dead and McCoy and Spock have to learn to work together without Kirk being there to balance them out.

Rating:

(From Tom's Random Star Trek Reviews on September 26th, 2009)