DVD Collectors Online

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, a review by DJ Doena

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan



William Shatner ... Admiral James T. Kirk
Leonard Nimoy ... Captain Spock
DeForest Kelley ... Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy
James Doohan ... Cmdr. Montgomery "Scotty" Scott
Walter Koenig ... Pavel Chekov
George Takei ... Hikaru Sulu
Nichelle Nichols ... Cmdr. Uhura
Bibi Besch ... Dr. Carol Marcus
Merritt Butrick ... Dr. David Marcus
Paul Winfield ... Capt. Clark Terrell
Kirstie Alley ... Lt. Saavik
Ricardo Montalban ... Khan Noonien Singh

The Enterprise has become a training ship under the command of Spock. And Kirk can't handle the fact that he getting old. But suddenly Kirk gets an emergency call from an old girlfriend because someone's out there who wants to even the score.

My opinion:
Khan is the best advisary a Starfleet captain could wish for. Only General Chang can level with him and both happen to have an interest in english literature. As to Spock: As much as I hate it when they kill good characters I have the utmost respect for someone who can apply the third principle of sentient life*.
In my opinion there is a logic hole in the movie (although only a Trekkie would think of it) when it comes to Genesis: I can't imagine that the Federation would really be willing to let the Genesis experiment go so far. The arguments McCoy used must have come up earlier and they had to see how dangerous such a thing could be.

*The third principle of sentient life is the capacity for self-sacrifice, the conscious ability to override evolution and self-preservation for a cause, a friend, a loved one.

(From Weekend Star Trek Marathon on February 9th, 2008)

Alice in Wonderland, a review by RossRoy

WHAT THEY SAY

19-year-old Alice returns to the whimsical world she first encountered as a young girl, reuniting with her childhood friends: the White Rabbit, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Dormouse, the Caterpillar, the Cheshire Cat, and of course, the Mad Hatter. Alice embarks on a fantastical journey to find her true destiny and end the Red Queen's reign of terror.

MY THOUGHTS

No, it's not out on DVD yet. No, I didn't pirate it either. Yes, I did go to the Cinema! Believe it or not.. So, what did I think of Burton's Alice? I'm not so sure. Visually, I found it stunning (except for the 3D - more on that later). I liked the darker palette, the stylized set and all, yet it is all the familiar Alice we're all accustomed to. That should be no surprise for anyone here - I've always said I love Tim Burton's visual style, and Alice delivers in that aspect. Also, I love Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen. She gives her an air of superiority, yet a craziness that I loved. The other actors are good too (well, I'm not too sure about Anne Hathaway's protayal of the White Queen - but the rest of the cast is good enough to compensate). Where I find the movie lacks, is with the actual script. Granted, I haven't seen the original Alice for a while, so I'm not entirely sure what I'm about to say is actually true - but in any case, that's how I felt. As you most probably all know by now, this version takes place about 10 years after the "original" Alice. Well, they didn't have to do it. I'm guessing there are details here and there to make it actually take place 10 years later, yet the fact Alice has all but forgotten it all makes so it's basically the exact same story, told with the same characters just a tad older. I still liked the movie, I was just expecting... more. A different story, more like a reunion movie with Alice who's come back to save the day. Instead, it's Alice comes back to save the day - yet does all the same things she did before, because anyway, she doesn't remember anything. It's really odd. ---- Now the 3D..... ugh! What an absolutely useless piece of crap gimmick! I don't know if it is the fact that Alice was filmed in 2D and the 3D was made after the fact in post production (as opposed to Avatar which was actually filmed in 3D) but I found the 3D totally useless and actually detrimental to the movie. People look like cardboard cutout in most scenes. There's a scene at the beginning of the movie where you have two people talking in front of a big house. When it's a side shot, you see the house is 100 or more feet away from them. When it's a front shot, on top of having them look like cardboard cutout, it look like the house is just a few inches behind them. Also, part of the 3D process involves separating elements into depth levels or panes. Let's say they default to the main actors being at level 0. Well, everything behind them will look ok, it lacks depth, but it is bearable. But everything in front ends up almost flickering being hard to make out actually almost gave me headaches! And the main offense of the 3D on a movie like Alice is that Burton charges the screen with little details all over. But in 3D, I found it very hard to focus on anything other than the "main action". I don't know if they blurred it in post as part of the 3D process or if it's out of focus to begin with, but I hated the effect it gave. I like to look for those little details in Tim Burton's movies, but I could here because of the 3D effect. To think they want to do this with classics.... ugh! No thank! Star Wars in 3D? hahahaha NEVER!!

RATING In 3D: In 2D:

(From RossRoy's Random Viewings on March 28th, 2010)

"Stargate SG-1" Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

Synopsis: Sam is accidentally catapulted into an alternate universe. There Atlantis has never been found, Landry is president and has declared martial law and the Ori are going to attack soon. Sam agrees to help them if she's allowed to return home after that.

My Opinion: The very first alternate reality we've ever encountered (There But For the Grace of God was overrun by enemies. Yet almost always the people in these alternate realities were as noble as the ones in our world or they've been extremely desperate (Ripple Effect). This time we've actually seen a world where the people had to make hard choices but these choices changed them dramatically. That we aren't immune to this was proven in Absolute Power, still I am glad that Sam's back.

Synopsis: SG-1 captures a Prior - it's Daniel. With the help of Merlin he was able to deceive Adria and could present to her a plan in which another plan is hidden. But for this to work SG-1 has to disable the Supergate - it all depends on whether Daniel is telling the truth.

My Opinion: This episode was well written, until the very end the question of Daniel's allegiance had remained open. The Prior make-up did look cool on Daniel and I had fun seeing Jack again. I believe Daniel is in the lead again when it comes to the "race" against Jack on whose body had to endure more (implanted symbiote, ascended, knowledge of the Ancients loaded into the brain, rewritten DNA, ...).

Synopsis: After SG-1 has sabotaged another crop transport, Netan of the Lucian Alliance puts a price on their heads. Although they are scattered all over the USA, they all have the same problem suddenly: bounty hunters.

My Opinion: I liked this episode very much, too. Especially Vala who spiced up the class reunion considerably. And who could be surprised by the fact that she knew the bounty hunter.
What I find interesting regarding series and movies is the fact that trains and busses either don't stop at all after they've ran something or someone over or they start to brake only after they've hit it. That leaves the question if they drive only by hearing. The bounty hunter was standing there for quite some time. I am of course aware that it is a stylistic device, but: A train that approaches a car standing on the tracks, blows a horn, runs the car over and drives away as if nothing had happened (Back to the Future III)?!

Synopsis: SG-1 is arriving directly in a museum that is visited by members of the administration. They are immediately mistaken for rebels. After the shootings have stopped they find themselves in the roles of hostage-takers.

My Opinion: Daniel shouldn't switch to taking hostages as a primary occupation that would be a very short career. Really cool was that Teal'c understood the cultural reference ("We've got ourselves a John McClane here.") better than Daniel. Such kind of knowledge doesn't find one in ancient egyptian scrolls. But I noticed that some of the team members aren't appearing for complete episodes. First Daniel has been gone for two episodes, then Teal'c and Vala haven't been seen in an episode and now Sam is away. On the other hand they have to create screen time for five people now.

(From "Stargate SG-1" Marathon on May 3rd, 2008)