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X The Unknown, a review by GSyren

Title	X The Unknown (5-019322-061632)
Director	Leslie Norman
Actors	Dean Jagger, Edward Chapman, Leo McKern, Anthony Newley, Jameson Clark
Produced	1956 in United Kingdom
Runtime	77 minutes
Audio	English Dolby Digital Mono, Commentary Dolby Digital 2-Channel Stereo
Subtitles	None
Overview	Mysterious events surround the sudden appearance of a gaping fissure in Scotland: soldiers on manoeuvres nearby develop a debilitating sickness and a small boy is later engulfed by an eerie presence. The child subsequently dies of first-degree radiation burns, similar to those that killed one of the soldiers. Mankind is at the mercy of a seemingly unstoppable organism that melts the flesh of those in its path. Atomic energy specialist Dr Adam Royston (Dean Jagger) and his colleague McGill (Leo McKern) investigate the deadly phenomenon, which they trace to the depths of the fissure. As the death toll rises, Royston devises a daring plan to snare the creature in a lethal radioactive trap... X the Unknown was only the second of Hammer's horror productions, but contained some of the most grisly and disturbing special effects seen in any of the company's films. This DVD features the original uncut British theatrical print of X the Unknown and bonus material featuring the film's screenwriter Jimmy Sangster.
My thoughts	I was reading in my Hammer books about X The UnknownDracula or FrankensteinThe Night My Number Came Up (1955). Apparently Norman was not well liked by the cast and crew, and the shoot was not a happy one. But in spite of that, the film is quite good. Hammer had had a success the year before with The Quatermass Xperiment
My rating	3.5 out of 5

(From Reviews and ramblings by Gunnar on September 21st, 2013)

The Driver, a review by Jon

THE DRIVER (1971)
3 out of 5



Ryan O'Neal is a getaway driver for hire. Bruce Dern is the cop willing to bend the rules to catch this "cowboy" red-handed.

No existential soul-searching here, just bruising action served ice-cool. O'Neal's driver (no names again) is the best money can buy and he covers his tracks very carefully. But Dern's detective is hot on his tail and even sets up a job for the driver to take. There are several car chases, usually featuring several police cars. They're good fun and plenty of vehicles are involved. Walter Hill's set-ups are solid no nonsense action, which he is known for. One fantastic scene features him driving a Merc around a garage, smashing the bodywork to pieces to prove a point to the criminals who dared question whether he was good enough. He refused the job after leaving them with no doors.

The story is straightforward too. Bruce Dern is great fun as the cop working both sides to his own end. It has something of a western feel with the outlaw driver (Dern calls him "cowboy" a couple of times) and perhaps continues the genres idea of the last free hero, or last frontier. It's only let down by being a bit too cool and a bit too laidback in the lead couple of O'Neal and Isabelle Adjani. O'Neal is trying to channel Steve McQueen but often has an expression like he's just farted and hopes no-one noticed! I'm being a bit unfair; it's more a case he didn't do anything wrong and the script gave him nothing to say. It's just actors like McQueen sets the rules with Bullitt amongst others for this kind of thing, while Ryan was in Love Story. It just proves there is more to acting the cool anti-hero than standing still and not saying anything.

I thoroughly recommend the film overall. The inspiration for the classic game of the same title, it's an old fashioned noir played out in fast cars. I read in another review that people have drawn comparisons with Le Samourai and although it's hero shares the empty room and he seems only to exist when working, I wouldn't push it any further.

The Car's not really the star...
There are various cars; he starts in a Cadillac, then moves to a Ford, wrecks the before mentioned Merc and finishes the movie in a pick-up. Really, this isn't a film about the cars, just The Driver. The idea being, put him in a Flintstones car he'll still pull off the job. This goes someway to demonstrating Hill's direction as he doesn't waste time on too many bodywork angles, just the stunts.

Can't find a decent trailer, so here is the "Job Interview"...
Trailer

(From Car Movie Marathon on August 26th, 2008)

Pete's Pilots, a review by addicted2dvd

The Jeff Foxworthy Show
At last, a family comedy fit for the whole trailer park! Jeff Foxworthy, popular stand-up comic, stars as a hardworking husband and father. With his loving wife Karen (Anita Barone), precocious son Matt (Haley Joel Osment) and trouble-making kid brother Wayne (fellow comedian Jay Mohr), Foxworthy has a single-family house full of double-wide laughs! Together, the Foxworthy clan is giving the Midwest a taste of Southern hilarity. As the owner of a heating and air company, Jeff takes his signature brand of humor and turns the American dream on its ear. Between paying his mortgage, running his business and raising his son, he learns what every self-respecting redneck knows: tractor pulls come and go, but family is forever!

Jeff's Life, 101
As soon as Jeff repays half of a loan from his Father-in-law, he gets hit with a series of unexpected expenses and has to figure out how to get the check back.

My Thoughts:
I actually forgot how funny this show is. Of course I have always been a fan of Jeff Foxworthy.  I had to laugh at the opening of this episode. Jeff's son asked what a redneck is... that he was called a redneck at school. So of course we get a good little string of redneck jokes to open the series with. This is a series that didn't last long. Only 2 seasons... but it is one full of laughs. Especially for someone like me that was raised around rednecks.

My Rating:

(From Pete's Pilots on February 22nd, 2010)