DVD Collectors Online

Kestrel's Eye, a review by Danae Cassandra

Falkens oga (Kestrel's Eye)
Year of Release:
Directed By: Mikael Kristersson
Starring: A family of kestrels
Genre: Documentary

Overview:
"Kestrel's Eye" is unlike any nature film you've ever seen. Filmed over several years, it is a wonder-filled portrait of a family of kestrels (European falcons) who live in a church tower above a small Swedish town. The amazing cinematography, nominated for a Swedish Oscar, captures the intimacy of the birds' lives and creates an "utterly mesmerizing and startlingly original film."

My Thoughts:
Two kestrels meet, mate, set up their home in a church steeple and raise their young.  They watch the humans go about their activities below.  Yes, that's absolutely it as far as the story goes.  There's no narration, nothing giving either information or creating a story around the birds.  Truly, documentary in its purest form - simply documenting the lives of these birds, inviting the viewer to share them and draw their own conclusions.  The cinematography is amazing, especially the views inside the nest that the filmmakers were able to capture. 

If watching birds go about their lives for an hour and half sounds dull, this is not the film for you.  If this sounds like the fascinating portrait of these kestrels lives that I found it to be (or you think baby birds are adorable!) then I can recommend it. 

Bechdel Test: Not Applicable

Overall: 3.5/5

(From Within My (Mom's) Lifetime Marathon on March 20th, 2015)

The Good German, a review by Eric

The Good German


What they say:Who knows what American journalist Jake Geismer (George Clooney) expected to find in postwar Berlin? Peace, maybe. Or at least a story. But certainly not Lena (Cate Blanchett), his beautiful, embittered one-time love. And not the trail of secrecy and deception that leads from Lena to the scheming young corporal (Tobey Maguire) who's her new lover... and to a murder no one seems interested in solving. Except Jake. Steven Soderbergh directs three of today's top talents in this zigzag thriller that's both an atmospheric homage to 1940s filmmaking and a deft modern film noir. 'The Good German' is "haunting and hypnotic, it's pure moviegoing bliss" (Peter Travers, 'Rolling Stone').

What I think: So you take a few good actors, a good director and a good story, you throw in a few million dollars and that gives you a good movie right ?   Well......not always, making a good movie also requires that little something that is missing here.  "The Good German" is an attempt at making a film noir as in the 1940's and at that it is very successful.  The atmosphere is there, the actors performances are right on the spot.  Unfortunately the good stuff ends there and the story is told in a boring way.  My feeling at the end of the movie was that they've put too much effort into the style and not enough on the story.



(From Eric's DVD watching. on December 27th, 2009)

Charmed Marathon, a review by addicted2dvd

5. Sight Unseen
An invisible demon is sent by the Triad to destroy the sisters, as Prue obsesses over a human stalker who seeks to kill her.

My Thoughts:
This episode is a fairly standard episode. This episode focuses both on the Cole plot as well as a weekly story that surprising has nothing to do with demons. Made for a nice change of pace... and evenly leveled.

6. Primrose Empath
Piper and Phoebe race against time to save a cursed Prue, who has been tricked by Cole (Julian MrcMahon) into helping a demon.

My Thoughts:
A decent... but standard episode. Shannen Doherty does a fine job in the scenes where she is being tortured by Empathy.

7. Power Outage
Cole/Belthazor invokes an Anger Demon to pit the sisters against each other, rendering them powerless and vulnerable to attack.

My Thoughts:
Yet again we get another good, but standard episode. I think it is all the Cole story lines that puts me off some. I have never been a fan of that character. Not for any real reason... as I do see him as adding a lot to the series... but something about him I just personally do not like. This episode does however show just how deeply their sisterhood bond means to them. They loose that and they loose much more then just a family member.

8. Sleuthing With The Enemy
Prue and Piper team up with a bounty-hunter demon to destroy Belthazor, but Phoebe has other plans for the man she loves.

My Thoughts:
Once again we get another good but standard episode... just an episode devoted to the Cole storyline.  I will admit... being such a huge Cole episode... my mind wandered a bit while watching this one.

(From Charmed Marathon on June 24th, 2008)