DVD Collectors Online

Batman Begins, a review by DJ Doena

April, 28th


Christian Bale    ...    Bruce Wayne / Batman
Michael Caine   ...    Alfred
Liam Neeson   ...    Henri Ducard
Katie Holmes   ...    Rachel Dawes
Gary Oldman   ...    Jim Gordon
Cillian Murphy   ...    Dr. Jonathan Crane
Tom Wilkinson   ...    Carmine Falcone
Rutger Hauer   ...    Earle
Ken Watanabe   ...    Ra's Al Ghul
Morgan Freeman    ...    Lucius Fox

Synopsis: When he was a kid, his parents were shot by a mugger. When he had the chance to take revenge he missed it. For seven years he wandered around the globe to study crime. But it's only when he meets Ra's Al Ghul that his life gets a purpose again. Back in Gotham City at day he is a (drunken) billionaire who parties too much while at night he becomes the greatest fear the underworld ever had: Batman.

My Opinion: Great restart of the franchise. I always liked the first Batman movie and since I've never read any Batman comic I imagined that was the way Batman was supposed to be: noir and serious. Oh, I liked the 60's show with Adam West, but one couldn't take it seriously ("anti-shark repellent" anyone?). And I like comics in general - I don't have that many, but I can certainly see their charm. But when it comes to a comic-to-movie adaptation I expect a bit more seriousness. I can accept super-powers of any kind and have no problems with their origin but the characters have to be "well drawn". They have to feel like real people and not behave like a Saturday morning cartoon show. And it that regard the old Superman movies (except maybe part 2) and also Batman 3 & 4 failed.
Batman Begins then was great. The background of Bruce Wayne hasn't really changed but the way it was told was great. I also liked that Gordon had become a three-dimensional character (no surprise when played by Gary Oldman). This is certainly a movie that doesn't try to make puns for puns's sake. I love it.
Let's just hope that the third movie (that is hopefully coming) isn't a letdown like the third parts of the recent X-Men and Spider-Man trilogies.

(From DJ Doena's movie watchings 2009 on April 29th, 2009)

Bats: Human Harvest, a review by addicted2dvd

Bats: Human Harvest (2007/United States) Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Director: Jamie Dixon Writing: Brett Merryman (Writer), Chris Denk (Writer) Length: 87 min. Rating: Rated R : Violence and Disturbing Images Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital: 5.1, Portuguese: Dolby Digital: 5.1, Thai: Dolby Digital: 5.1, French: Dolby Digital: Dolby Surround Subtitles: Chinese, English, French, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Thai

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Stars:
David Chokachi as Russo
Michael Jace as Martinez
Pollyanna McIntosh as Katya
Martin Papazian as Downey
Melissa De Sousa as O'Neal
Tomas Arana as Doctor

Plot:
Time: Present Day. The Place: Russia. The mission: To track down and capture fanatical weapons specialist Dr. Walsh hiding in a research facility deep in the notorious Belzan forest of Chechnya. Specially trained and armed, an elite unit of soldiers is combing through the endless forest looking to bring their target to justice. But what they're about to find is an enemy they're not prepared to fight - genetically altered vampire bats programmed to feast on human flesh and blood - in this horrifying action thriller.

Extras:

• Scene Access
• Bonus Trailers
• Deleted Scenes
• Closed Captioned

I enjoyed the first one... so thought I would give this sequel a chance. I picked up this DVD at Big Lots for $3.00 back in October of 2010 and am just now getting around to watching it. After watching the trailer my hopes wasn't up that high that it would be as good as the first one. And it wasn't as good as the first. But I was still able to enjoy it. It was definitely worth the money I paid.  Though still not what I would call a great horror movie. I don't really care for the direction it went using the military as a main storyline. It felt like they wanted to do something similar to Dog Soldiers... but they weren't able to pull it off.




(From What Movies I Been Watching on January 20th, 2012)

Firefly Marathon, a review by Tom

11. Trash
Writer: Ben Edlund (Writer), Jose Molina (Writer)
Director: Vern Gillum
Cast: Nathan Fillion (Mal), Gina Torres (Zoe), Alan Tudyk (Wash), Morena Baccarin (Inara), Adam Baldwin (Jayne), Jewel Staite (Kaylee), Sean Maher (Simon), Summer Glau (River), Ron Glass (Shepherd Book), Christina Hendricks (Saffron/Bridget/Yolanda), Franc Ross (Monty Reynolds), Dwier Brown (Durran Haymer), John Eric Bentley (Police Sergeant)

The story itself is nothing special, but enjoyable. The best parts are when Simon and River are confronting Jayne about Ariel and when Mal acts like it was part of the plan that he lost his clothes.

Rating:

(From Firefly Marathon on March 8th, 2010)