DVD Collectors Online

The Karate Kid: Part III, a review by addicted2dvd

Title: The Karate Kid: Part III
Year: 1989
Director: John G. Avildsen
Rating: PG
Length: 112 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital: Dolby Surround, French: Dolby Digital: Dolby Surround, Spanish: Dolby Digital: 2-Channel Stereo, Portuguese: Dolby Digital: 2-Channel Stereo
Subtitles: Chinese, English, French, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Thai

Stars:
Ralph Macchio as Daniel
Noriyuki "Pat" Morita as Miyagi
Robyn Lively as Jessica
Thomas Ian Griffith as Terry
Martin Kove as Kreese

Plot:
When Miyagi (Pat Morita) refuses to help him prepare for an upcoming tournament, an angry Daniel (Ralph Macchio) finds a new mentor, unaware that a revenge-obsessed old enemy is setting him up.

Extras:
Scene Access
Bonus Trailers
Production Notes
Closed Captioned

My Thoughts:
First a little rant. When I first ordered this set I read about how Disc 3 is a double sided disc with The Karate Kid III and The Next Karate Kid... which I am fine with. But I went on to read that the 3rd disc was mis-labeled... so Part 3's label actually said The Next Karate Kid and The Next Karate Kid was labeled Karate Kid II. Well I thought this set was released back in February of '05... surely they fixed this problem since then. But to my surprise... no! The set I received still has the misprinted labels. Which kind of sucks... but is easy enough to handle. I just find it odd that they didn't get this corrected after 5 years of it being released.

I also read where a lot of people said this is where the franchise starts going downhill. And from what I have read a lot of people stopped collecting after the first two movies. While I agree it does go downhill a bit here. I still find this to be an entertaining movie. Though I do hate seeing Daniel and Mr. Miyagi on the outs. The main reason I had a problem with this is that when Daniel signed the entrance form it was because he had no choice. It seems like that would have been enough any other time. but this time he waited toll he found out that the entire thing was a set up by Kreese and his friend. I got to say... Daniel just does not have any luck with the ladies. In part one he falls for Ali which we later find out she falls for someone else and we never see her again. Then he finds... I forget her name... the girl in Okinawa and we later find out she joined a dance group in Tokyo. And now in this one we have Jessica who it is let known early in the movie that she has a boyfriend and they can only be friends. And she don't even stay to see him fight in the tournament. But over all it is still a good movie that I enjoyed watching.



(From The Karate Kid Marathon on April 6th, 2010)

Batman Begins, a review by Tom

Title: Batman Begins
Year: 2005
Director: Christopher Nolan
Rating: FSK-12
Length: 134 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.40
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1, German: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: Arabic, English, German, Hebrew, Icelandic

Stars:
Christian Bale
Michael Caine
Liam Neeson
Katie Holmes
Gary Oldman

Plot:
In 'BATMAN BEGINS', acclaimed director Christopher Nolan explores the origins of the legendary DARK KNIGHT. In the wake of his parents' murders, disillusioned heir BRUCE WAYNE (CHRISTIAN BALE) travels the world seeking the means to fight injustice and turn fear against those who prey on the fearful. With the help of his trusted butler ALFRED (MICHAEL CAINE), detective JIM GORDON (GARY OLDMAN) and his ally LUCIUS FOX (MORGAN FREEMAN), Wayne returns to GOTHAM CITY and unleashes his alter ego: BATMAN, a masked crusader who uses strength, intellect and an array of high-tech weaponry to fight the sinister forces that threaten the city.

Awards:

Academy Award	2005	Nominated	Best Cinematography	Wally Pfister
American Society of Cinematographers Awards	2006	Nominated	Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases	Wally Pfister
Art Directors Guild Production Design Awards	2006	Nominated
ASCAP Awards	2006	Won	Top Box Office Films	James Newton-Howard, Hans Zimmer, Ramin Djawadi (additional music)
BAFTA	2005	Nominated	Achievement In Special Visual Effects	Janek Sirrs, Dan Glass, Chris Corbould, Paul Franklin
BAFTA	2005	Nominated	Production Design	Nathan Crowley
BAFTA	2005	Nominated	Sound	David Evans, Stefan Henrix, Peter Lindsay
British Society of Cinematographers Awards	2005	Nominated	Best Cinematography Award	Wally Pfister
Costume Designers Guild Awards	2006	Nominated		Lindy Hemming
Empire Magazine Awards	2006	Nominated	Best Actor	Christian Bale
Empire Magazine Awards	2006	Nominated	Best Director	Christopher Nolan
Empire Magazine Awards	2006	Nominated	Best Thriller
Golden Raspberry Awards	2005	Nominated	Worst Supporting Actress	Katie Holmes
Hugo Award	2006	Nominated	Dramatic Presentation, Long Form
MTV Movie Awards	2006	Won	Best Hero	Christian Bale
MTV Movie Awards	2006	Nominated	Best Movie
MTV Movie Awards	2006	Nominated	Best Villain	Cillian Murphy
Online Film Critics Society Awards	2006	Nominated	Best Original Score	James Newton-Howard, Hans Zimmer
Saturn	2005	Won	Best Actor	Christian Bale
Saturn	2005	Nominated	Best Costume	Lindy Hemming
Saturn	2005	Nominated	Best Director	Christopher Nolan
Saturn	2005	Won	Best Fantasy Film
Saturn	2005	Nominated	Best Music	James Newton-Howard, Hans Zimmer
Saturn	2005	Nominated	Best Special Effects	Janek Sirrs, Dan Glass, Chris Corbould, Paul J. Franklin
Saturn	2005	Nominated	Best Supporting Actor	Liam Neeson
Saturn	2005	Nominated	Best Supporting Actress	Katie Holmes
Saturn	2005	Won	Best Writing	Christopher Nolan, David Goyer
Scream Awards	2006	Nominated	Best Comic-to-Screen Adaption
Scream Awards	2006	Won	Best Director	Christopher Nolan
Scream Awards	2006	Nominated	Best Fantasy Movie
Scream Awards	2006	Won	Best Scream-Play	David S. Goyer, Christopher Nolan
Scream Awards	2006	Nominated	Best Sequel
Scream Awards	2006	Nominated	Best Superhero	Christian Bale
Scream Awards	2006	Nominated	Most Heroic Performance	Christian Bale
Scream Awards	2006	Nominated	Most Vile Villian	Cillian Murphy
Scream Awards	2006	Nominated	The "Holy Sh%t!" / "Jump-from-your-Seat" Award	"The Train Sequence"-Scene
Scream Awards	2006	Won	The Ultimate Scream
Teen Choice Awards	2005	Nominated	Choice Summer Movie
Teen Choice Awards	2006	Nominated	Movies - Choice Sleazebag	Cillian Murphy
Visual Effects Society Awards	2006	Nominated	Outstanding Created Environment in a Live Action Motion Picture	Alex Wuttke, Pete Bebb, Dayne Cowan, Imery Watson (For the Gotham City monorail chase)
World Soundtrack Awards	2005	Nominated	Best Original Soundtrack of the Year	James Newton-Howard, Hans Zimmer

Extras:
DVD-ROM Content
Featurettes
Photo Gallery
Production Notes
Scene Access
Trailers
US-Comic-Buch mit 3 Batman-Stories

This movie moved the franchise in the right direction. I like the "realistic" approach this movie takes with Batman. Though I never warmed up to the villains in this movie. I don't like Scaregrow, and I really didn't like Liam Neeson's character. He is the cause that the movie slowed down too much in some places. Especially in the beginning. Also his masterplan to destroy Gotham City is ridiculous.
High points in this movie are for me all scenes with Morgan Freeman's Fox or Gary Oldman's Gordon.

Rating:

(From Tom's Random Reviews on April 25th, 2010)

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

1. Pilot (2008-01-13)
Writer: Josh Friedman (Created By), Josh Friedman (Writer), James Cameron (Original Characters By), Gale Anne Hurd (Original Characters By)
Director: David Nutter
Cast: Lena Headey (Sarah Connor), Thomas Dekker (John Connor), Summer Glau (Cameron), Richard T. Jones (Agent James Ellison), Owain Yeoman (Cromartie), Sonya Walger (Michelle Dixon), Nick Wechsler (Deputy Ridge), Charlayne Woodard (Terissa Dyson), Dean Winters (Charley Dixon), Aurora Antonio (Wiseass), Chad Brummett (F.B.I. Agent), Aaron Cash (Terminator), Jason Grutter (Police Officer), Gary Houston (Mr. Ferguson), Deborah Martinez (News Anchor), Genia Michaela (Bank Teller), Kenneth Miller (Boy), Brandon Molale (Big Cop), Shawn Prince (Danny Dyson)

An almost perfect introduction to a great series. Nice way to solve the problem, to have the characters hardly older than in the second movie, but having the series set in present time.
Nice to see Nick Wechsler following his father's footsteps (he played Kyle Valenti on Roswell, the son of Sheriff Valenti who's played by William Sadler. And now he plays the deputy sheriff here).
For the "Heroes" fans among us: Thomas Dekker played Claire's friend in the first half of season 1, but dropped out of "Heroes" to star here.
I forgot that Summer Glau already said her signature remark "Thank you for explaining" in this pilot before it is revealed that she is a Terminator. Nice

Rating:

(From Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: The Complete First Season marathon on January 12th, 2009)