DVD Collectors Online

Open Season, a review by Dragonfire

Boog (Martin Lawrence), a domesticated grizzly bear with no survival skills, has his perfect world turned upside down when he meets Elliot (Ashton Kutcher), a scrawny, fast-talking mule deer. They join forces to unite the woodland creatures and take the forest back into nature's control! It's a film for the whole family that Shawn Edwards ('Fox-TV') calls, "a fun story loaded with lovable characters!"

My Thoughts

This is a cute entertaining movie, though it wasn't as good as the Pixar movies.  Boog on a sugar high after having chocolate for the first time was very funny. Some of the humor was a bit silly and there were a few gross jokes, but the movie was entertaining overall.  Boog had been raised basically as a pet and he had no survival skills, so it didn't make the most sense for him to taken out in the wild and left like he was though.  But if that hadn't happened, there wouldn't have been much of a movie.  The voice cast fit their characters very well and there were several cute characters.  The DVD has a cute little animated short with Boog and Elliot too that is funny.

 

I posted a review on Epinions after I first saw the movie if anyone would like to take a look.

Open Season

(From Dragonfire: What I've Been Watching on March 1st, 2009)

Millennium, a review by Danae Cassandra

Millennium
Year of Release: 1989
Directed By: Michael Anderson
Starring: Kris Kristofferson, Cheryl Ladd, Daniel J. Travanti, Robert Joy, Brent Carver
Genre: Science-Fiction

Overview:
Time travel, the fate of air disaster victims and the future of mankind provide the thrilling ingredients for MILLENNIUM.  In this on-the-edge-of-your-seat sci-fi thriller, Bill Smith (Kris Kristofferson), chief investigator for the NTSB, is sifting through wreckage of two jumbo jets invoved in a midair collision when he uncovers a strange alien device amid the rubble.  What is it?  Where did it come from?

His questions are answered when he meets Louise (Cheryl Ladd), a woman from the future whose do-or-die mission is to travel back in time and recover the lost "stunner."  Is she running out of time?  Will Bill Smith's knowledge of the future jeopardize the course of history?  Is the future of mankind now a thing of the past?  One thing's for sure...the suspense never lets up.

My Thoughts:
I've always enjoyed this movie. Sure, the effects are dated now, and it's a bit slow, and a bit campy. But I enjoyed it when it came out, and twenty six years later I still enjoy it. I think it deals very well with the questions surrounding time-travel and paradox. It's very much a concept film, relying on premise and imagination, rather than action. If this doesn't appeal, or if you're turned off by the obvious low budget, this isn't a film for you. The acting is solid, in my opinion, but nothing spectacular.

It's never going to appear on any list of the 'greatest sci-fi movies of all time,' but this film still holds a special place in my heart. The one part I didn't remember from the last time I saw this (gad, at least a decade ago), is also the worst part - the ending. On the DVD is an alternate ending which all three of us agreed would have been the better choice. Recommended for the hardcore sci-fi fan.

Bechdel Test: Pass

Overall: 3/5

(From Within My (Mom's) Lifetime Marathon on February 17th, 2015)

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

Star Trek: Voyager
7.10 Shattered
Writer: Michael Taylor (Screenwriter), Mike Sussman (Original Material By), Michael Taylor (Original Material By)
Director: Terry Windell
Cast: Kate Mulgrew (Captain Kathryn Janeway), Robert Beltran (Chakotay), Roxann Dawson (B'Elanna Torres), Robert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris), Ethan Phillips (Neelix), Robert Picardo (The Doctor), Tim Russ (Tuvok), Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine), Garrett Wang (Harry Kim), Martin Rayner (Dr. Chaotica), Manu Intiraymi (Icheb), Scarlett Pomers (Naomi Wildman), Nicholas Worth (Lonzak), Martha Hackett (Seska), Mark Bennington (Adult Icheb), Vanessa Branch (Adult Naomi), Anthony Holiday (Rulat), Terrell Clayton (Andrews), Majel Barrett (Computer Voice (voice))

Voyager gets split into different time areas and only Chakotay can travel between those areas. It's fun to revisit instances of Voyager's past this way and get some climpses of a possible future.
Though it's stupid how Chakotay refuses to tell Janeway at the end about his experience, citing the Temporal Prime Directive. But he had no problems telling Janeway of the past a lot of stuff about the future (even though as they later find out she will forget it anyway). Telling Janeway about his experience wouldn't pollute the time line as she already knows everything which there is to know about. So he could just as easily have explained to her his actions.

Rating:

(From Tom's Random Star Trek Reviews on November 29th, 2011)