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Valkyrie, a review by KinkyCyborg

Valkyrie



Title:Valkyrie
Year: 2008
Director: Bryan Singer
Rating: PG-13
Length: 120 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital: 5.1, Spanish: Dolby Digital: 5.1, French: Dolby Digital: Dolby Surround
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Stars:
Tom Cruise
Kenneth Branagh
Bill Nighy
Tom Wilkinson
Carice van Houten

Plot:
"Tom Cruise gives one of the best performances of his career" (Jeffrey Lyons, NBC/Reel Talk) in this action-packed film from the director of the Usual Suspects and X-Men . Based on the incredible true story of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (Cruise) and his ingenious assassination plot targeting Adolph Hitler, this engrossing thriller reenacts the daring operation to eliminate one of the most evil tyrans th world has ever known. Co-staring Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, Terence Stamp and Eddie Izzard, Valkyrie delivers gripping suspense and pulse-pounding excitement from start to finish!

Extras:
Scene Access
Feature Trailers
Closed Captioned


Enjoyed this as I do with most movies of historical significance. Cruise's performance was a bit stiff, but overall I thought he did a decent job. Bill Nighy was exceptionally good in his role!

The resistance to Hitler's manifesto by many in the German hierarchy and military is well documented and despite some 15 odd assassination attempts by Germans on his life he managed to stay alive to watch his nation fall to allied troops, taking his own life in the hours leading up to the taking of Berlin. Had the near miss portrayed in this movie had been successful it would likely have dramatically rewritten many of the horrific events that took place during that war, and saved countless lives but in one way I'm glad he survived the attempts on his life for no other reason than so that he could witness the demise of his life's work... knowing his failure.

According to Amazon there is a documentary about the Valkyrie attempt that I would love to get my hands on.

KC


Rating:

(From KinkyCyborg's Random Reviews 2010 on October 28th, 2010)

Dracula (1931), a review by RossRoy

Original Title: Dracula Year: 1931 Country: United States Director: Tod Browning Rating: NR Length: 398 Min. Video: Full Frame 1.33:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital Mono, English: Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono, Commentary: Dolby Digital Stereo Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

What they say
For the first time ever, the original ‘Dracula’ film comes to DVD in this extraordinary Legacy Collection. Included in the collection is the original classic, starring the renowned Béla Lugosi, and three timeless sequels, featuring such legendary actors as Lon Chaney Jr, John Carradine and others. These are the landmark films that inspired an entire genre of movies and continue to be major influences on motion pictures to this day.

My Thoughts
Well, after Monster Squad, I felt the urge to revisit the classic monster movies. So I started with Dracula. Bela Lugosi in his classic performance. What more can be said? The set pieces, the lighting, the creepy atmosphere, even the silences without dialog or music all work together to form a great movie going experience. Oh sure, by today's standards it might be considered rather crude, but, personally, I marvel in its simplicity, suggesting instead of showing.

I made one mistake though: I watched it with the new Philip Glass score. It's not that the score by Glass is bad, it's actually good music (if a little repetitive), but, it's painfully obvious that it has been done years after the movie. For one thing, the music is nice and clean, I'd even say rich, which makes the sound effects and voice sound that much more thin and makes it show their age. Also, while Glass is obviously careful with his score to not overpower key dialog and sound effects, it actually makes it that much more obvious that the score isn't an integral part of the movie. The best example of that is when Renfield first arrives at Castle Dracula. When the door opens, there's a very distinct creaking sound. Well, at the very point, the Glass score becomes completely silent to emphasize the sound. Now that shows Glass wanted to preserve the sound and not affect its power in the context of the film, yet he only achieves making his score separate from the movie, because this would actually be a key moment for the music to change to convey an emotion. Same thing when Renfield cuts his finger with the letter opener. He cuts his finger and the music goes into a crescendo moments after, and it felt odd and out of place. I actually found the score to be detrimental to the movie, instead of supporting it.

I'll give this a , because of Glass' score, otherwise, it would've been a heartfelt

Rating:


(From RossRoy's Random Viewings on October 12th, 2008)

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: The Complete First Season marathon, a review by DJ Doena

Synopsis: After he found the hand of the Terminator Special Agent Ellison begins to dig real deep into Sarah Connor's file. He watches her video tapes from the mental institution and he tries to get in contact with Dr. Silberman, her psychiatrist during her stay there. Meanwhile Cameron tries to retrieve the Turk.

My Opinion: I liked this episode for two reasons. The first one is the nice wrap-up of the second movie. And even though it's on "another timeline" I thought that this Dr. Silberman was very close to the one we saw in Terminator 3 shortly before he encountered the Arnie-Terminator for the third time.
But my favourite scene of this episode was when Cameron left the apartment after she got the information. This scene screamed at me "Never forget that she's a machine, not a feeling, living being, no matter how she looks like.". She protected them as long as she needed them and then they were of no more concern to her. To save them would have been an act of humanity and that's not on her program.

Synopsis: Derek finds the CPU of the previously destroyed Terminator and accuses Cameron of lying and she admits to it. After the argument is over, John tries to load the data from the memory chips to see what the Terminator was doing before he was destroyed. And there they find a connection to a project which can control the entire traffic infrastructure of Los Angeles.

My Opinion: This is one thing that has always bugged me on Science-Fiction series: That somehow all computer hardware and software is compatible and that they can communicate with one another. OK, Skynet and the Terminators are an invention of the human race but where did John even get a compatible interface port to plug the CPU in?
But that aside I liked the fact that both Cameron and Derek became a bit more grey (ok, we already knew he killed that Turk guy, but still).

Synopsis: Sarah tries to purchase the Turk but the seller tries to blackmail her with her past and he's watching John to make sure Sarah pays. But his plan doesn't turn out as expected. Meanwhile Ellison discovers that Kester is a fake FBI agent and he tries to take him down.

My Opinion: Taking into account that it wasn't planned as cliffhanger it was a decent one. It leaves quite a number of questions open that demand an answer and thus the viewer will most likely tune in "next year". I especially wonder why Ellison is still alive. Is he important to Skynet or is it just because he was unarmed and no threat to Cromartie? But then again Terminators are not the Borg, why should he let someone live who can identify him? As I said, enough reason to continue watching.

Disc 3 - My Opinion: I like the show better with every episode I'm watching and the less time travel is involved the less mistakes with the timeline happen.

The Season - My Opinion: It's not the best show in the world, but very enjoyable, especially due to the two female leads. I'll continue watching it even though it's likely to get cancelled after the second season.

(From Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: The Complete First Season marathon on January 29th, 2009)