DVD Collectors Online

Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers, a review by Rogmeister

Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers (1956)  B&W  83m
Special Effects by Ray Harryhausen
Directed by Fred F. Sears
Cast: Hugh Marlowe, Joan Taylor, Donald Curtis, Morris Ankrum

Dr. Russell Marvin heads up Operation Skyhook, which is tasked with sending rockets into the upper atmosphere to probe for future space flights. Unfortunately, all the rockets are somehow disappearing. While investigating this strange occurrence, Russell and his new assistant/wife Carol Marvin are abducted by a flying saucer, where the aliens demand to meet with certain people in order to negotiate. But it was a trick; the aliens only wanted to kill them. The invasion has begun and if Russell and Carol can't find a way to get past their defenses and stop these creatures, it may be the end of the human race.

Science fiction movies seemed pretty rare prior to 1950...you got a few here and there (like Metropolis in the silent era) but they didn't really come into their own until the 1950s.  In fact Sci-Fi films of the fifties seem to be a genre all their own.  Some were excellent, some less so, but most of them seem at least interesting to check out, if for nothing but to see how we might react to aliens from outer space and other such things.  This is definitely one of the better ones with first rate special effects by Ray Harryhausen, a stop-motion artist normally known to work with mythological beasts such as might appear in the Sinbad movies but who nonetheless gave us some first rate flying saucer effects here.  Not only that, but we get to see most of Washington D.C. get destroyed...the Washington Monument, the Capitol building, even the Lincoln Memorial all reduced to rubble at the hands of these mysterious aliens.  Interestingly enough we do get to see the interior of a saucer but it's all rather bare and we do get one look at an alien but all in all it's quite a good action film.  Check it out.  

I got this DVD as part of a set...The Fantastic Films of Ray Harryhausen: Legendary Science Fiction Series which includes four other movies.  The movie was also released by itself.  The disc has a few extras but it was re-released early last year in a 2-disc special edition.

(From DCO third annual November Alphabet Marathon - discussion/review/banter thread on November 28th, 2009)

The Tin Star, a review by Rogmeister

The Tin Star (1957)  92 minutes
Cast: Henry Fonda, Anthony Perkins, Betsy Palmer, Neville Brand
Music: Elmer Bernstein
Directed by Anthony Mann

As this movie begins, bounty hunter Morg Hickman (Henry Fonda) comes to town with a dead man draped over one of his horses. When he gets there, he finds a new tenderfoot of a sheriff (Anthony Perkins) who's not had his badge long and he winds up getting versed by Morg in lessons on being a successful lawman. Morg also becomes involved with a local widow (Betsy Palmer) and her son.

Though this film did get an Oscar nomination for it's story and screenplay, I've always considered this an overlooked little gem of a western. I like it's spare look with it's fine black & white photography and the character-driven story peopled with fine actors, even if Anthony Perkins is the last person you'd expect to find in the genre. I try to watch this film at least once a year...it's a film I never seem to tire of. The print on this DVD is sharp and clear but there are no extras, not even the ever-popular trailer.

(From Roger's Ongoing Westerns Marathon on June 29th, 2009)

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

Synopsis: Starfleet is fighting the battles and has to retreat all the time. But Sisko has developed a plan to re-take DS9 and thus re-taking control of the wormhole. He assembles huge parts of three fleets to hit the bajoran system in a decisive strike. But he's also running out of time, Damar will take down the minefield within a week and Dukat has a fleet to intercept Sisko.

My Opinion: Finally they strike back! And they use an appropiate number of ships. 650 Starfleet ships versus 1254 Dominion ships! That's how fleets are supposed to look like in space. Let's get ready to rumble!

Synopsis: The battle has begun and Sisko tries to punch holes in the Dominion line to get through to DS9 but both the Jem'Hadar as well as the Cardassians hold their line. Sisko needs a miracle to save the Alpha Quadrant and he even gets two of them. Finally the Klingons show up and they show why they call their spaceships "Bird of Prey". But against the 28,000 ships on the other side of the wormhole only divine intervention will help.

My Opinion: As much as I liked this entire arc since the end of season 5 and as much as I liked these last two episodes I felt that the conclusion was very dissatisfactory. "Deus ex machina" means literally "god from the machine" and that's exactly what they did. They invented a fleet of 28,000 Dominion ships and suddenly had no clue how to resolve that problem so they used the Prophets/wormhole beings to get rid of them.
But I liked the twist that Dukat went insane after he was so sure to already be the master of the AQ and after losing his daughter. This will give the character yet again a new direction and is the basis for a number of good episodes.

A while back I found this fan-made trailer about Favor the Bold and Sacrifice of Angels and I think it's very well done:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cVCjutQ8b4

Synopsis: Worf and Dax decide not to marry after the war but within a week. For this Worf invites Martok, Alexander, Sisko, O'Brien and Bashir to his "klingon bachelor party" while Dax must get the approval of Martok's wife to get invited into the House of Martok. And of course she has her own kind of bachelor party...

My Opinion: After all these fighting that was a nice change of pace. I found it so funny how everyone imagined a "klingon bachelor party" and how it really was. Especially O'Brien should have known better because he had been to some of Worf's rituals and they were never fun. And I really liked the wedding ceremony and the legend about the two klingon hearts - it sounded like real klingon mythology.

Synopsis: Mirror-Barail beams onto the station and Kira is quite shocked to see him. But that Barail is nothing like her Barail - and he is a thief. Kira tries to help him find his way on this side of the "mirror" and she can't resist being attracted to him. He is seemingly willing to change but even though Kira might be blinded by his appearance, Quark can see right through him and suddenly Kira finds herself in front of ... Kira.

My Opinion: This episode was not so interesting even with the appearance of Mirror-Kira.

(From Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Marathon on February 21st, 2009)