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La passion de Jeanne d'Arc , a review by goodguy

La passion de Jeanne d'Arc (FR 1928)IMDb Director:  Carl Theodor Dreyer Writer: Carl Theodor Dreyer, Joseph Delteil Cast: DVD: Criterion (US 1999) My rating:

I think I made two mistakes when watching the film. First, I watched it immediately after Bresson's version, which I found far superior. Second, I watched it with Eichhorn's Voices of Light  as score, which is quite wonderful, but more than a little overbearing. Anyway. Especially the early grotesque caricatures of the judges and clerics during the trial were very distracting and severely diminished the experience for me. That includes Falconetti's performance as Joan, which in its juxtaposition becomes equally over the top. The film redeems itself somewhat in the second half and I can admire the sparse and stylized set design and some of the editing choices on a technical level, but overall I was nonplussed.


(From goodguy's Watch Log on June 20th, 2011)

The Calcium Kid, a review by Rich

The Calcium Kid





It is difficult not to like this quirky easy-going film. It isn't tremendous by any stretch of the imagination, but it is engaging and good fun, and a pleasant storyline that rambles on in good humour. Bloom is clearly uncomfortable in the role, but does make efforts to convince, and the South London settings make a good backdrop.
A very short film, so a good watch after the pub.
 



(From Riches Random Reviews on April 14th, 2009)

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: The Complete First Season marathon, a review by DJ Doena

Synopsis: After he found the hand of the Terminator Special Agent Ellison begins to dig real deep into Sarah Connor's file. He watches her video tapes from the mental institution and he tries to get in contact with Dr. Silberman, her psychiatrist during her stay there. Meanwhile Cameron tries to retrieve the Turk.

My Opinion: I liked this episode for two reasons. The first one is the nice wrap-up of the second movie. And even though it's on "another timeline" I thought that this Dr. Silberman was very close to the one we saw in Terminator 3 shortly before he encountered the Arnie-Terminator for the third time.
But my favourite scene of this episode was when Cameron left the apartment after she got the information. This scene screamed at me "Never forget that she's a machine, not a feeling, living being, no matter how she looks like.". She protected them as long as she needed them and then they were of no more concern to her. To save them would have been an act of humanity and that's not on her program.

Synopsis: Derek finds the CPU of the previously destroyed Terminator and accuses Cameron of lying and she admits to it. After the argument is over, John tries to load the data from the memory chips to see what the Terminator was doing before he was destroyed. And there they find a connection to a project which can control the entire traffic infrastructure of Los Angeles.

My Opinion: This is one thing that has always bugged me on Science-Fiction series: That somehow all computer hardware and software is compatible and that they can communicate with one another. OK, Skynet and the Terminators are an invention of the human race but where did John even get a compatible interface port to plug the CPU in?
But that aside I liked the fact that both Cameron and Derek became a bit more grey (ok, we already knew he killed that Turk guy, but still).

Synopsis: Sarah tries to purchase the Turk but the seller tries to blackmail her with her past and he's watching John to make sure Sarah pays. But his plan doesn't turn out as expected. Meanwhile Ellison discovers that Kester is a fake FBI agent and he tries to take him down.

My Opinion: Taking into account that it wasn't planned as cliffhanger it was a decent one. It leaves quite a number of questions open that demand an answer and thus the viewer will most likely tune in "next year". I especially wonder why Ellison is still alive. Is he important to Skynet or is it just because he was unarmed and no threat to Cromartie? But then again Terminators are not the Borg, why should he let someone live who can identify him? As I said, enough reason to continue watching.

Disc 3 - My Opinion: I like the show better with every episode I'm watching and the less time travel is involved the less mistakes with the timeline happen.

The Season - My Opinion: It's not the best show in the world, but very enjoyable, especially due to the two female leads. I'll continue watching it even though it's likely to get cancelled after the second season.

(From Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: The Complete First Season marathon on January 29th, 2009)