DVD Collectors Online

Skeleton Man, a review by addicted2dvd

Title: Skeleton Man
Movie Count: 21
TV Ep Count: 4
Other Count: 0
Time Started: 11:15am
Plot:
In the wilderness of the Pacific Northwest, four top soldiers in the Army Special Forces disappear on a routine training mission. 'Michael Rooker' and 'Casper Van Dien' lead a crew of eight top-notch soldiers to track down the inexplicable demise of their comrades.

Though the soldiers have no idea what they are looking for, their search leads them to an old, blind Indian who tells them the tale of Cotton Mouth Joe -- the bravest and most ferocious warrior in an Indian tribe that, four hundred years previously, slaughtered his entire tribe in a fit of rage. Only one young girl was spared -- the Morningstar. According to legend, she alone has the power to send Cotton Mouth to his mortal grave.

The soldiers believe the old Indian is crazy and that the story is nothing more than a myth...until the terrifying spirit of Cotton Mouth ominously materializes upon a black stallion, wielding a lethal spear. 'The Skeleton Man' has returned from the depths of hell to rain death and destruction upon any mortal who dares cross his path...this time it is the soldiers who are locked dead in his sights.

My Thoughts:
I bought this movie never seeing it before. I mainly got it because it was really cheap and sounded like it could be good. Going into it I figured it would definitely be low budget... but I have seen good low budget movies before. Unfortunately I didn't see a good one this time. I mean it did have it's moments... and a few half way decent effects... but at the same time some bad effects and a mixture of stupid and boring storyline. The look of "Skeleton Man" was basically a man in a (fairly cheap looking) skeleton mask... even though he was not meant to be. Was supposed to be a curse come to life. Not very impressive at all.



(From My Month Long Horror/Halloween Marathon: 2008 on October 5th, 2008)

Black Hawk Down, a review by KinkyCyborg

Black Hawk Down



Title:Black Hawk Down
Year: 2001
Director: Ridley Scott
Rating: R
Length: 144 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.40:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital: 5.1, French: Dolby Digital: Dolby Surround
Subtitles: Chinese, English, French, Thai

Stars:
Josh Hartnett
Ewan McGregor
Tom Sizemore
Eric Bana
William Fichtner

Plot:
From acclaimed director Ridley Scott (GLADIATOR, HANNIBAL) and renowned producer Jerry Bruckheimer (PEARL HARBOR, ARMAGEDDON) comes a gripping true story about bravery, camaraderie and the complex reality of war. BLACK HAWK DOWN stars an exceptional cast including Josh Hartnett (PEARL HARBOR), Eric Bana (CHOPPER), Ewan McGregor (MOULIN ROUGE), Tom Sizemore (SAVING PRIVATE RYAN), William Fichtner (THE PERFECT STORM), Ewen Bremmer (SNATCH) and Sam Shepard (ALL THE PRETTY HORSES).

In 1993, an elite group of American Rangers and Delta Force soldiers are sent to Somalia on a critical mission to capture a violent warlord whose corrupt regime has lead to starvation of hundreds of thousands of Somalis. When the mission goes quickly and terribly wrong, the men find themselves outnumbered and literally fighting for their lives.

Extras:
Scene Access
Feature Trailers
Featurettes
Production Notes
Closed Captioned


Bluray #4.

Black Hawk Down

Gawd I sure do love my war movies! 

When I first watched this movie most of it's relatively young cast were unknowns to me. I had heard of Josh Hartnett and recognized him but lost among all the copycat, jarhead brush cuts were Eric Bana, Ewan McGregor, Ioan Gruffudd & Orlando Bloom who are all household names now. It's easy to spot them during this second viewing and I marveled how I could not have known they were in this great movie! Complimenting them were familiars Sam Shepard, William Fichtner, Zeljko Ivanek (from OZ!), Jeremy Piven and Tom Sizemore who was seemingly born to be in these epic war movies... re: Saving Private Ryan, Pearl Harbor, etc...

Awesome cast!!

This is such an incredible true story of how what was supposed to be a simple in and out mission turns into a horrific fight for survival after one stroke of bad luck triggers a domino effect of deadly events. The credo 'No man gets left behind' is often mentioned in this film and it's that pledge that ultimately leads to an eventual 17 KIAs before it was all said and done as the ticking time bomb, known as the city of Mogadishu, Somalia rains downs on these Rangers and Delta Force units with unchecked hatred... wave after wave.

After about the first 25 minutes this has about the most sustained battles sequences of any war movie I have ever watched, all very intense and often very graphic. I very much like the part where the two snipers drop down to defend the pilot of one of the downed Black Hawks, fending off hundreds of swarming 'skinnies' as they were called, eventually paying the ultimate price. These two soldiers were posthumously given the Medal Of Honor for their bravery... the first that has happened since the Vietnam War.

The output in Bluray was phenomenal. Details are so precisely vivid that you could see the individual grains of sand as shell casings hit the ground in slow mo... and perhaps it's just me but it seems that the motion blur that I noticed when watching my first few blurays seems to have disappeared! I don't know if there is such a thing as 'breaking in' your bluray/HD TV but I'm just not seeing it anymore.

Hooyah!! 

KC

Rating:

(From KinkyCyborg's Random Reviews 2011 on April 19th, 2011)

"Due South" marathon, a review by Tom

4.12 Call of the Wild - Part 1 (1999-03-14)
Writer: Paul Haggis (Created By), Paul Gross (Writer), R.B. Carney (Writer)
Director: Steve DiMarco
Cast

(From "Due South" marathon on January 5th, 2011)