DVD Collectors Online

Man of Steel, a review by GSyren

Title	Man of Steel (5-051892-140324)
Director	Zack Snyder
Actors	Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane
Produced	2013 in United States
Runtime	143 minutes
Audio	English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1, Italian Dolby Digital 5.1, Audio Descriptive Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles	Danish, English, French, Finnish, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Icelandic
Overview	A young boy learns that he has extraordinary powers and is not of this Earth. As a young man, he journeys to discover where he came from and what he was sent here to do. But the hero in him must emerge if he is to save the world from annihilation and become the symbol of hope for all mankind.
My thoughts	Man of SteelBatman vs. Superman. So, while it had some quite good parts, I found the movie not very satisfying. Cavill rocks, though.
My rating

(From Reviews and ramblings by Gunnar on January 5th, 2014)

Black River, a review by Antares

Black River (1957) 3.5/5 - This is the film that Masaki Kobayashi made just before The Human Condition trilogy. He still hadn't risen to prominence yet, but after watching this film, you get a sense that he was about to break through. The story involves a love triangle between a waitress, a student and a yakuza boss, and Kobayashi weaves a gritty, no holds barred approach to telling it. I was shocked at times by the level of realism in the dialog, with characters talking about abortions, prostitution and things of that ilk. I couldn't imagine hearing these things in a noir made in Hollywood at the same time. And that is what made this film click for me, it was refreshing to watch characters acting like real gangsters, with out all the Hays white washing. Tatsuya Nakadai, who would go on to star in many of the successive films by Kobayashi, plays the yakuza with a sly, coolness that plays against the atypical roles he was playing up until that time and in the following years. It showed me a depth I wasn't aware of in him. But it was Ineko Arima who stole the film for me. Looking a little like Setsuko Hara, she plays the love interest with not only the frailty of an innocent Japanese youth, but when her mind is made up to get away from the yakuza, a fatalistic femme fatal type vengeance.

If you're interested in watching this, I found a playlist on YouTube for it...

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=D9AAB9B22DCE0C60

(From Antares' Short Summations on February 17th, 2012)

The One Where It All Began: The Pilot Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

What's the show about?
Based upon the "Sookie Stackhouse" book series by Charlaine Harris. Sookie is a waitress in Bon Temps, Louisiana and she can read minds. She's fallen in love with a Vampire who has been around since the Civil War. The Vampires have come out of the coffin since the Japanese have invented artificial blood and Vampires need no longer feed off of Humans. The new stuff is called Tru:Blood.

"Strange Love"
Sookie Stackhouse is totally excited when her first Vampire walks into the bar where she works. And the best part of it: She can't read his mind. The thoughts of all the people around her are constantly raining upon her but he is totally quiet. But she's not the only one who has identified him as Vampire. So have the Rattrays and they pin him down and try to drain him dry for his "V" - Vampire blood, an aphrodisiac for Humans.

My Opinion
A bit lengthy at times but otherwise very interesting and sometimes disturbing. The show is very open about a lot of topics and also very (very, very!) visual. And except for having Vampires living openly amongst Humans the show also shows other mystical abilities like Sookie's mind-reading and someone else's shape-shifting. The interesting part about this show is the fact that Vampires aren't a secret and how both sides try to deal with that fact (Vampire rights, racism, ...).

(From The One Where It All Began: The Pilot Marathon on September 18th, 2009)