DVD Collectors Online

Killing Machine, a review by Jimmy

Title: Killing Machine
Original Title Daehakno-yeseo maechoon-hadaka tomaksalhae danghan yeogosaeng ajik Daehakno-ye Issda
Country South Korea
Year: 2000
Director: Nam Ki-Woong
Rating: Unrated
Length: 1h00
Video:  Widescreen 2.00:1
Audio:  Korean Dolby 2.0
Subtitles: English

Stars:
Lee So-Woon - Teenage Student
Kim Dae-tong - Teacher
Bae Soo-Baek
Kim Ho-Kyum
Yang Hyuk-Joon
Plot:
A sadistic teacher discovers one of his teenage students is a prostitute and blackmails her into becoming his sex slave. When she becomes pregnant, he arranges her demise. His henchmen brutally murder her, slicing and dicing the corpse. At this point a mysterious, twisted Dr. Frankenstein-like character intervenes and rebuilds the remains into unstoppable cyborg whose body parts have a memory. Now robotically revived and ready for revenge, the "Killing Machine" sets out to settle the score with her newly built "hardware."
Extras:
Kangshul (Short movie by the same director)
Photo gallery

I have no idea what's make me buy this movie, but it's probably just the cover and the fact that it's an unknown Asian movie. This movie is an art film and because of this the plot explain more the movie than the movie itself (honestly I think that the synopsis is just a way to sell the movie to a mainstream audience). The visual is good and the music serve the movie greatly (the soundtrack is mostly made of opera song). The movie is hard to follow sometimes and it doesn't always make sense (it's an artistic movie it doesn't have to).

Not the kind of movie that I listen usually, but I was pleasantly surprise. This is a good way to spend one hour, even if the movie is hard to follow. The general ambiance make the viewing a good visual and auditory experience. I recommand to see it if you think that the Asian cinema is just about grey ghost and martial art.

The short is interesting too, because of the musical choice (piano composition) but I can't say nothing about the story since it's only in Korean with no subtitle.

Rating : 4/5

(From My review - unseen and unwatched january marathon on January 13th, 2008)

Weekend at Bernies 2, a review by Rich

Untouched in the Virgin Islands...



Corporate peons Larry (Andrew McCarthy) and Richard (Jonathan Silverman) discover the key to the safety deposit box of Bernie (Terry Kiser), their dead former boss. The box, located in the Virgin Islands, reportedly contains 2 million dollars. Unfortunately, company security guard Hummel (Barry Bostwick) also wants the money, as do a gang of criminals who try to get the location out of Bernie through the use of voodoo! Larry and Richard take a working vacation to the tropical local and find that, once again, Bernie may not be as dead as anybody thinks!

Possibly the worst sequel ever, this is an absolute stinker and the worst of the marathon so far. Shoving slivers of steel up my toenails would have been more entertaining, avoid like the plague. 0/10

(From Around the World in 80 DVD's on March 17th, 2008)

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

Synopsis: Buffy and her mom have just moved to Sunnydale, California. She was thrown out of her old school in Los Angeles because she burned down the gym (it was full of Vampires). But she hopes that this part of her life lays behind her - how wrong she was. A very old Vampire - the Master - tries to free himself from the Hellmouth that is directly under the town. And she can't even keep it a secret that she is the Slayer. Everyone seems to know: The librarian Giles, her classmate Xander and even some mysterious guy in the dark alleys.

My Opinion: I've seen this pilot for the first time on DVD on November 22th, 2007. And I have watched it 10 times in the past 16 months. I know all the lines by heart by now. "It's dated?" - "It's carbon-dated!" I have to say I liked it that the whole gang knew from the beginning. It separates it from other superhero shows (*cough* Smallville *cough*). That makes for a great foundation of their friendship even though each and every one will have secrets of their own over the years.

Shortly before Buffy killed her first Vampire on the show she made a remark that rang a bell - I had heard a similar remark spoken in a similar tone elsewhere.

Buffy: Now, we can do this the hard way, or ... well, actually, there's just the hard way.
Darla: That's fine with me.
Buffy: Are you sure? Now this is not gonna be pretty. We're talking violence, strong language, adult content ...

Jack O'Neill: Assuming - of course - you are the Tok'ra.
Cordesh: And if we're not?
Jack O'Neill: Well, I guess we all start shooting. There's blood, death, hard feelings. It'd suck.


Synopsis: She may have saved Willow and Xander, but she has lost trace of Jesse. But she won't give up that easily and she has help: Giles is her new Watcher and Willow is a computer nerd who can find anything as long as it's on the net. And she will need that help because the time of the Harvest is close and then the Master will rise if she can't prevent it. Unfortunately there's nothing they can do for Jesse: He's already worse than dead: A Vampire.

My Opinion: I know that life had to go on, but I found the end a little bit cheap. All these victims at the Bronze should have been in terror and should be screaming instead of simply getting slaughtered one by one. And then the aftermath where everyone chose to ignore what had happened. But I don't know a better solution either. And I loved how she outwitted Luke / the Vessel and then dusted him.

Synopsis: Buffy decides to try out for the cheerleading team. She has been a cheerleader back in LA and she wants to live a normal life here, too - as far as this is possible. But mysterious accidents seem to happen to the cheerleaders of this school and soon there's no doubt that witchcraft is behind it.

My Opinion: The story of that episode wasn't that interesting, but I liked certain aspects of it. For example Buffy singing "Macho Man" or her cheerleading tryouts. I also liked that they made their first magic potion with bio and chem class equipment (scalpel, test tube, ...).

Synopsis: After their biology teacher had been found dead in a refrigerator, Buffy, Xander and Willow get a new substitute teacher - and she's hot. Xander and all other guys totally fall for her and she obviously likes it. But what kind of woman is she really when even a Vampire is scared by her?

My Opinion: This is one of these episodes with the obvious storylines. There's a new teacher when the old one was killed onscreen. You automatically know that she's somehow involved. She's insulted when someone calls an insect "ugly". You automatically know she's one, too. All the guys instantly fall for her? You automatically know pheromones or some other stuff is involved. Didn't like it very much.

(From "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" Marathon on March 14th, 2009)