DVD Collectors Online

Centurion, a review by Achim

Centurion (2010)

I watched Centurion at the cinema today. It tells the story of a Legion of Roman Soldiers (they mention that that's about 3000) pushing north in England and being decimated by a group of Picts (early Scots...?). A small group of survivors (7) will have to find a way back south before the scouts of the Picts find and kill them. Before that, however, they want to go rescue their captured general.

Based on a true legend (my words, not theirs) the film is much slower than I had expected from a Neil Marshall film. There is a couple of scenes where he used buckets of blood and gore, some of it is concealed with fast cutting though. Somehow the film failed to properly get me emotionally close to the main character(s), which made the final "battle" less involving than it should have been. A story worth telling for sure, not sure if it will grant repeated viewings though.



(From DCO fourth Alphabet Marathon - discussion/review/banter thread on July 2nd, 2010)

Star Trek: Nemesis, a review by DJ Doena

Star Trek: Nemesis



Patrick Stewart ... Captain Jean-Luc Picard
Jonathan Frakes ... Commander / Captain William T. Riker
Brent Spiner ... Lt. Commander Data / B-4
LeVar Burton ... Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge
Michael Dorn ... Lt. Commander Worf
Marina Sirtis ... Counselor Deanna Troi-Riker
Gates McFadden ... Dr. Beverly Crusher
Tom Hardy ... Praetor Shinzon
Ron Perlman ... The Reman Viceroy
Shannon Cochran ... Senator Tal'aura
Dina Meyer ... Commander Donatra

The Enterprise is on its way to Betazed, to the wedding of Commander Riker and Counselor Troi. Suddenly they receive a rare positronic signature, a signature that is only emitted by androids like Data. On a lonely planet near the Neutral Zone they find B-4 a prototype of Data's architecture. After that they get invited to Romulus by the new leader of the Romulan Empire. But this new Praetor is a surprise.

My opinion:
This entire movie is bullshit. If you count back, Picard wasn't even Captain of the Enterprise when this clone was produced. And even if, according to the movie it would have taken at least 20 years before Shinzon could have become ready for use. In this time anything could have happend to Picard. But even if: The Romulans are one of the if not even the most paranoid races in this galaxy. And they get  duped by a bunch of Remans (a race we hear of for the first time), they are able to build the greatest battle cruiser of all times and they manage to wipe out the entire romulan senate (that BTW had the size of the editorial staff of a student magazine)? And then this Shinzon accidentally finds another prototype of Dr. Soong's.
I won't even start with the ramming maneuvre or Admiral(!) Janeway.

(From Weekend Star Trek Marathon on February 10th, 2008)

My PILOT Marathon, a review by Rich

Game On

Big Wednesday:
The course of true love doesn’t run smooth, especially with Matthew, Martin and Mandy running their own courses.



Join Matthew (the agoraphobic, self obsessed, macho man); Martin (the wimpish, sex-starved underdog) and Mandy (the gorgeous blonde, who always seems to end up dating the wrong men), in this outrageously funny flat-share comedy that is anything but politically correct!

Pretty tacky, unoriginal mush served up for the masses.
The characters are ordinary, the acting atrocious, specifically in terms of their comedy timing, and the storyline of this pilot boring.
Designed for 14-16 years olds I expect, this has been vastly surpassed by more recent series.
 

(From My PILOT Marathon on September 28th, 2009)