DVD Collectors Online

Spirited Away, a review by dfmorgan

Title: Spirited Away
Original Title: Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi
Year: 2001
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Rating: PG
Length: 124 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.00:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital: 5.1, Japanese: Dolby Digital: 5.1, French:

Dolby Digital: Dolby Surround
Subtitles: English

Stars:
Rumi Hiiragi
Mari Natsuki
Miyu Irino
Yumi Tamai
Bunta Sugawara

Plot:
From one of the most celebrated filmmakers in the history of animated cinema comes the most acclaimed film of 2002. Hayao Miyazaki's latest triumph, filled with astonishing animation and epic adventure, is a dazzling masterpiece for the ages. It's a "wonderfully welcoming work of art that's as funny and entertaining as it is brilliant, beautiful and deep" (Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal).

Spirited Away is a wondrous fantasy about a young girl, Chihiro, trapped in a strange new world of spirits. When her parents undergo a mysterious transformation, she must call upon the courage she never knew she had to free herself and return her family to the outside world.

This deluxe 2-disc set overflows with outstanding bonus features, including the Japanese television special about the making of the film, an inside view into the artistry of Miyazaki, and a storyboard-to-scene comparison. Spirited Away is a spectacular DVD the whole family will want to experience over and over again.

Extras:
Scene Access
Feature Trailers
Bonus Trailers
Featurettes
Production Notes
Storyboard Comparisons
Closed Captioned
Introduction by John Lasseter



The one that won the Oscar.

Chihiro and her family are moving but her father takes a wrong turning and finishes up trying to reach the new house over a dirt track but instead this track leads to a tunnel. The family take time out to walk through the tunnel, as you do when moving house, and come out on the other side in a field with some abandoned buildings. The father surmises that this must be an abandoned theme park. They explore further and end up in what appears to be a deserted town but the parents can smell fresh food and upon finding the restaurant start to eat the food. Chihiro though doesn't want any and leaves her parents busy scoffing. During her excursion Chihiro meets a young man who warns her to escape with her parents but when she goes back to them they have been turned into pigs. Thus begins this mystical adventure from Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli.

All the usual trademarks from Miyazaki are here plus to a minor extent, compared to his earlier films, we also have the environmental and ecological themes.

Whilst I do like this film it is not one of my favourites but it is enjoyable so a 4

(From dfmorgan's Studio Ghibli Marathon on August 4th, 2010)

Star Trek: Insurrection, a review by Tom

Title: Star Trek: Insurrection
Year: 1998
Director: Jonathan Frakes
Rating: FSK-12
Length: 99 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1, German: Dolby Digital 5.1, Hungarian: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: Danish, Dutch, English, German, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish

Stars:
Patrick Stewart
Jonathan Frakes
Brent Spiner
LeVar Burton
Michael Dorn


Extras:
Featurettes
Scene Access
Trailers

After the action-ladded Star Trek First Contact, this movie seems to let down. But if seen not as a follow up to that movie, but to the series, this movie is quite alright. We see the character act more like in a standard episode of TNG.
I thought it was great how they solved the explanation why Worf was on the Enterprise yet again. The screenwriters just didn't let him finish explaining
I think it was a good choice to resolve some open issues from the series, like the whole Riker-Troi thing. Or Geordi's wish to experience real eye-sight. And we get to the first season's baby-face Riker again.
Really unnecessary was the joke of data being able to inflate himself. It wasn't needed for the plot and was just ridiculous. Another ridiculous thing was the joystick for manual control of the ship.
But overall this movie was more fun than I was remembering it.

Rating:

(From Tom's Star Trek Movies Marathon on February 9th, 2009)

Tom's TV Pilots marathon, a review by Tom

Corner Gas: Season One (2003/Canada) IMDb | Wikipedia (Canada) Length: 290 min. Video: Full Frame 1.33:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1, English: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles:

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Plot:
Consider this your deed to the laughter-rich plains of Dog River, Saskatchewan. Thanks to a cast of way less than thousands you'll find more hilarity in this little box than a pick-up truck full of jerry cans.

Dreamt up by prairie son Brent Butt, he stars as Brent Leroy, the town's number one and only gas jockey. He and the rest of the Dog River locals get up to a whole lot of nothing in the middle of nowehre actually. And that's where it all happens. At Corner Gas, Canada's number one roadside attraction.

Corner Gas
1.01 Ruby Reborn
Writer: Brent Butt (Created By), Brent Butt (Writer), Mark Farrell (Writer)
Director: David Storey
Cast: Brent Butt (Brent Leroy), Gabrielle Miller (Lacey Burrows), Fred Ewanuick (Hank Yarbo), Eric Peterson (Oscar Leroy), Janet Wright (Emma Leroy), Lorne Cardinal (Davis Quinton), Tara Spencer-Nairn (Karen Pelly), Nancy Robertson (Wanda Dollard), Mark Farrell (Man), Andrea Runge (Waitress)

This is a series I enjoyed throughout. The first episode has already the characters established very well. They already have found their stride here.

Rating:

(From Tom's TV Pilots marathon on April 1st, 2011)