DVD Collectors Online

Still Small Voices, a review by addicted2dvd

Title: Still Small Voices
Year: 2006
Director: Mario Azzopardi
Rating: NR
Length: 87 Min.
Video: Full Frame 1.33:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital: 2-Channel Stereo
Subtitles: N/A

Stars:
Catherine Bell
Mark Humphrey
Damir Andrei
Deborah Grover
George Buza
Eugene Clark

Plot:
When 911 operator Michael Summer (Catherine Bell, Army Wives) returns to work after suffering a personal tragedy, she receives a mysterious call from a frightened child begging for help. She soon begins having visions of a young girl believed to have been a drowning victim. The visions lead Michael to the town of Starlight, Pennsylvania, where she uncovers the story of a girl who went missing years before. Though the girl was written off as a drowning victim, Michael believes she was kidnapped. Threatening her own health and sanity, Michael launches her own investigation, uncovering a startling secret that shatters everything she knows to be true about herself.

Extras:
Scene Access
Closed Captioned

My Thoughts:
I felt like watching this movie again and see if it would hold up... even after knowing how it ends. And I must admit... I enjoyed it this time just as much as I did the first time. So I will just repeat here what I said the first time I watched it...

This is a made for TV movie that originally aired on Lifetime. This came up as a recommendation at Amazon when I ordered The Good Witch... and when I watched the TV Spot on Youtube I knew I had to see it as it dealt with the supernatural as Michael (Catherine Bell), the 911 operator got ghostly calls from a little girl. I have been a big fan of Catherine Bell every since I first saw her on the TV series JAG. And I absolutely loved her in this movie. As much as I recently enjoyed her in the movie The Good Witch... I enjoyed her even more in this one. This one had me glued to the TV from the very beginning to the very ending. And without saying much to give it away... I will just say I loved how they ended this one. A thrilling movie from the start.... with a touching ending. I can easily see myself watching this movie again.



(From The Movies From Within My Lifetime on May 21st, 2011)

Excalibur, a review by Eric

Excalibur




Summary:My Thoughts: To my defense for what I'm about to write I must remind everyone that I am not a fan of fantasy movies.  I do enjoy true masterpieces like LOTR but it's not a genre I am particularly fond of.  I totally hated the first 20 minutes of that movie, to me it was preposterous and I actually laughed a few times at what I thought was gonna be 2.5 hours of complete ridicule.

The first battle scene however caught my interest.  There you see men fighting with swords in their armors but unlike what we're used to in movies they're not all gracious and impressive in their movements.  On the contrary they are slow to move and react, they are always out of balance and falling after hitting an adversary because the weight of their armors and weapons pull them forward.  I really liked that because it look real, in the 13th century these armors were probably extremely heavy and knights must have had limited movements because of them.  From that point on I stopped lauging at it and decided to give it a chance.

Although I would probably not watch this again I have to say that I liked it, I found some parts of it pretty annoying and long but other parts totally kept my attention.  Especially when Helen Mirren comes into the picture.  The movie is made in a style that resembles a theater piece but I found most (if not all) the other actors and actresses to be poor at it.  Mirren however does a great performance and her character is credible, most of her scenes made me feel like I was watching a play.  She does exactly as it's supposed to be done, with this "lyrical" way of saying things that you would expect from a Shakespeare play.

As I have never read any writings about Arthur I cannot say whether this movie is close to the actual legend or not but it covers all I know of it including the sword in the stone, the query for the grail, Merlin and Morgana (Mirren) and the final battle with his own son.

I must however question the choice of some of the scores.  It it mostly well suited but in most of the scenes where you see Arthur and the Knights riding their horses on their way to battle they chose Carl Orf's Carmina Burana.  That really bothered me as I find it totally out of place both geographically and in its significance.

Carmina Burana are mostly drinking and dancing songs written in German, French, Latin and some English by the Goliards, a group of clergy, in protest to the growing contradictions in the church like the failures of the crusades and the financial abuses.  In my mind there is absolutely no relation whatsoever between those songs and an army of Knights riding to battle to defend their King which they believe was made such by God.

My score: , I'm sure most people who like the Fantasy genre would give it a

(From Eric's DVD watching. on June 1st, 2008)

Tom's Random Star Trek Reviews, a review by Tom

Star Trek: The Next Generation
6.25 Timescape
Writer: Brannon Braga (Writer)
Director: Adam Nimoy
Cast: Patrick Stewart (Capt. Jean-Luc Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Cmdr. William Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Cmdr. Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Lieutenant Worf), Gates McFadden (Dr. Beverly Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Deanna Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Michael Bofshever (Romulan / Alien), John DeMita (Romulan), Joel Fredericks (Engineer)

The Enterprise is frozen in time together with a Romulan Bird of Prey. At first glance it looks like those two where in battle. But is this really the case? Picard and company, arriving from a seminar, have to investigate. I like this episode. You have to suspend disbelieve dealing with this premise, but if you do, it is an enjoyful episode.

Rating:

(From Tom's Random Star Trek Reviews on November 1st, 2011)