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Star Trek: First Contact, a review by Tom

Title: Star Trek: First Contact
Year: 1996
Director: Jonathan Frakes
Rating: FSK-12
Length: 106 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1, Czech: Dolby Digital Stereo, German: Dolby Digital 5.1, Hungarian: Dolby Digital Stereo, Polish: Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles: Bulgarian, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, German, Norwegian, Swedish, Turkish

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

Extras:
Scene Access
Trailers

My favorite Star Trek movie. This is a good example how you can bring beloved TV characters to the big screen. And obviously it was made by people who know their Star Trek stuff. A lot of little thinks to please the hard core fans. A cameo by the EMH and by Barclay, for example. Then of course it has time-travel, which is always a plus in my book
Again the first officer of the Enterprise has shown, that he is capable on the director's chair.

I really like the soundtrack to this movie. Especially the opening and closing theme. I also think it is a great choice to play "Magic Carpet Ride" during the warp ship launch.

Sadly this has been the high point of the Next Generation movies. From here it goes downhill to almost killing the franchise. Even going so far, that everybody is excited now to have new actors as a young original crew. Fans would have had a fit, if they would have tried it ten years ago. Actually they almost did try it for a sixth Star Trek movie. Only with the 25th anniversary coming up, they changed their mind and made another movie with the original crew.

Rating:

(From Tom's Star Trek Movies Marathon on February 6th, 2009)

Caramel, a review by Danae Cassandra

Caramel
Year of Release: 2007
Directed By: Nadine Labaki
Starring: Nadine Labaki, Yasmine al Masri, Joanna Moukarzel, Gisele Aouad
Genre: Drama

Overview:
A Beirut beauty salon becomes a treasured meeting place for several generations of women, from various walks of life, to talk, seek advice and confide in one another.

My Thoughts:
This is a warm, romantic tale of love - love attained, love lost, love forbidden, mutual love, one-sided love, the hope of new love, the bitterness of dying love. It's also, and perhaps even more primarily, a tale of female friendship, a tale of women who stick by one another and support each other through the good times and the bad. The film starts quite slow and takes a while to get going. But if you give it a chance, about half way through you really start to connect with these women and really care about their lives. It's very much an ensemble, slice-of-life film, and recommended if you like that sort of film.

Bechdel Test: Pass

Overall: 3.5/5

(From March Around the World 2016 on March 23rd, 2016)

Tom's TV Pilots marathon, a review by Tom

Sam & Max: Freelance Police: The Complete Animated Series (1997/United States) IMDb | Wikipedia Shout! Factory (United States) Length: 300 min. Video: Full Frame 1.33:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles:

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Plot:
The adventures of 'SAM & MAX: FREELANCE POLICE!!!' is an edgy and often irreverent, impudent, insolent, impious and silly series about a pair of likeable law enforcement types who don't take crap (oops! we mean guff) from anybody. It's about the timeless struggle between good, evil and snacktime; the weekly mishaps of a six-foot dog-Sam and a three-foot rabbity-thing (though he prefers the term 'lagomorph')-Max-who have a mirthful time trying to resolve only the weirdest criminal cases of the day. Really.

For your own good, and the good of mankind, enjoy 'SAM & MAX: FREELANCE POLICE!!!'

Based on Steve Purcell's enormously popular underground comic. Original package illustrations by Steve Purcell.


Sam & Max: Freelance Police
1.01 The Thing That Wouldn't Stop It (1997-10-04)
Writer: Steve Purcell (Created By), J. D. Smith (Writer)
Director: Steve Whitehouse
Cast: Harvey Atkin (Sam (voice)), Robert Tinkler (Max (voice)), Tracey Moore (Geek (voice))

The 1993 "Sam'n'Max: Hit the Road" PC game is one of my all-time favorite games. I played it through countless of times, just because of the characters and the humor.
This TV series has partly the charm of the game. It is worth a watch. The first episode I didn't enjoy as much as some of the others though.

Rating:

(From Tom's TV Pilots marathon on July 1st, 2012)