DVD Collectors Online

Black Book, a review by Rich

A pleasant jaunt through the Netherlands...



September 1944 - Nazi Occupied Holland'. When her temporary safe house is destroyed by a bomb, the beautiful young Jewish chanteuse Rachel Steinn joins fellow refugees in an attempt to reach safe Allied territory by boat.
Tragedy strikes when a Nazi patrol intercepts their escape, ruthlessly killing everybody onboard including Rachel's family; only Rachel escapes the massacre. Embittered and desperate for revenge, she joins the Resistance where, assigned a new identity as the blond Ellies de Vries, she is charged with infiltrating the German Security Service by seducing senior officer Muntze (Sebastian Koch).
Twenty years in the making, this stunning, sexy war film from the internationally acclaimed blockbuster director Paul Verhoeven ('Basic Instinct', 'Total Recall', 'Starship Troopers') is an epic and moving tale of great courage and fierce emotion - played out against the dying explosive months of WWII.

Now this what makes marathons so appealing, a film that has sat on the unwatched backburner for ages is finally watched, and it's a real masterpiece. Paul Verhoeven's return to his homeland is marked by this excellent movie, and a reason to forgive him for Showgirls. Brutal,sexy,bold and revealing, these stories should be told, and viewed from a Dutch perspective, culminates in a wonderful viewing experience.  Highly recommended. 8/10

(From Around the World in 80 DVD's on January 5th, 2008)

The Fly (1958), a review by addicted2dvd

The Fly: 20th Century Fox Studio Classics (1958/United States) Trailer | Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment (United States) Director: Kurt Neumann Writing: James Clavell (Screenwriter), George Langelaan (Original Material By) Length: 94 min. Video: Widescreen 2.35:1 Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio: 4.0, Spanish: Dolby Digital: Mono, French: Dolby Digital: Mono, German: DTS: 4.0, Commentary: Dolby Digital: 2-Channel Stereo Subtitles: English, German, Spanish, Commentary

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Stars:Plot:
When a scientist (David [Al] Hedison) attempts to transfer matter through space, things go horrifically wrong and two grotesque man-fly hybrids are created. Now, with the head of a fly and a wing in place of one of his arms, the scientist desperately hopes that he, his wife (Patricia Owens) and his brother (Vincent Price) can capture the other mutant and reverse the experiment.

Extras:

• Scene Access
• Audio Commentary
• Feature Trailers
• Featurettes

As many of times I have watched this oneI keep forgetting it is in color, I could have sworn this film was in black and white. One of my favorite Vincent Price movies. I always liked the story and the way it was told. Vincent Price actually had a limited role on this movie... but he did an awesome job while he was on. This film was later remade. In this case I definitely much prefer this version (even though I did like the remake as well).



(From That Time of Year Again: Halloween/Horror Reviews 2018! on October 7th, 2018)

My PILOT Marathon, a review by Rich

Criminal Minds: The First Season

Extreme Aggressor
After a fourth woman goes missing in Seattle in a period of four months, the BAU is brought in to track down the abductor before he kidnaps again. Meanwhile, SSA Aaron Hotchner is asked to evaluate SSA Jason Gideon secretly to determine if he is really ready to work full-time again after returning from a six-month leave of absence.




Criminal Minds revolves around an elite team of FBI profilers who analyze the country's most twisted criminal minds, anticipating their next moves before they strike again.

Disappointing pilot episode, the coincidentalness of the plot and its solving was just too much to swallow, if it were really that easy the FBI would be catching serial killers every 5 minutes.
Similar in an inferior way to CSI, the 1st episode lacks the disturbing punch I have read follows in later episodes, where of course a different story is told each time. I didn't warm to the actor who plays the lead Gideon, and the remainder of the cast I felt were banal and wooden.
Will persevere with the series in due course based on so many highly praising reviews, but if based solely on the pilot it would have gathered dust.
If you want a more credible series in this vain, definately invest in my previously reviewed Cracker.
 

(From My PILOT Marathon on September 13th, 2009)