DVD Collectors Online

The Mummy's Tomb, a review by Danae Cassandra

The Mummy's Tomb
Year of Release: 1942
Directed By: Harold Young
Starring: Dick Foran, John Hubbard, Elyse Knox, George Zucco, Wallace Ford, Turhan Bey, Lon Chaney Jr.
Genre: Horror

Overview:
Screen legend Lon Chaney Jr. stars in a compassionate portrayal of the ancient Egyptian mummy Kharis in this timeless tale of lost love. The high priest Mehemet (Turhan Bey) transports Kharis from Egypt to the United States to wreak vengeance on the family who defiled the sacred tomb of his beloved princess. One by one, members of the expedition die. But Mehemet has fallen in love with the beautiful fiancee (Elyse Knox) of the group's leader (Dick Foran). Now he must convince Kharis to help him acheive his ultimate goal -  before a furious mob destroys them both.

My Thoughts:
This is a fairly standard sequel to The Mummy's Hand. The horror is better here, though the actual film is weaker. I think that puts the two films on about even footing. I like the fact that this is an actual sequel, picking up directly from Hand with a lot of the same characters. There's a thread of decent continuity through the whole rest of the series. The film flounders a bit for a focal point after the first few deaths, and the ending is out-of-place in its quick wrap to happily-ever-after. Still this is worth watching as a classic 40's piece of Universal Horror, even if it's not one of the the best.

Watched For:  Hoop-tober 3.0, Horror/Halloween Challenge 2016

Bechdel Test: Fail
Mako Mori Test: Fail

Overall: 2.5/5

Horror/Halloween Challenge Films: 14/52

(From Horror/Halloween 2016 Challenge on October 8th, 2016)

The Insatiable, a review by RossRoy

What they say

Harry Balbo (Flanery), a shy salesman, is on his way home one night when he witnesses Tatiana, a female vampire (Ayanna) violently rip the head off her victim. When no one believes his story, Harry decides to build a large cage in his cellar to trap the bloodthirsty killer. Using himself as bait, Harry tricks Tatiana into the cage and imprisons her. But with no source of fresh blood, the strikingly beautiful vampire faces sure death. Not wanting to kill such a remarkable creature, but unable to release a ravenous vampire onto the city streets, Harry is faced with an impossible choice -- give in to her seductive powers or save innocent lives from a gruesome fate.

My Thoughts

I must admit, I bought this movie solely for Charlotte Ayanna. I completely fell under her charms when I first watched Training Day (she plays Ethan Hawke's companion). Those eyes.. So basically, when I stumbled upon this while browsing some DVD shop inventory, I couldn't resist. I didn't read anything about the movie, just the cover blurb you see above. So I knew it involved Vampires and that's about it. But, I didn't expect this. Turns out, it does involve a vampire. It does have killings. It does have blood and gore. But, it's basically a love story, for better or worse. I like the somewhat of a twist of a normal guy falling in love with a vampire, but it's a bit much. And the whole movie holds together on too many impossibilities. One of the most glaring one being that a run-of-the-mill, white collar, office worker can learn how to weld from a book in a single day, and that very same night build a steel cage strong enough to hold a vampire that can easily jump 3-stories high? Yeah... But somehow, I still liked the movie. In no small part thanks to Charlotte Ayanna. I think she played the seducteress vampire perfectly. The guy playing the run-of-the-mill white collar worker is pretty good too. And they happen to have decent chemistry, which helps. I would say The Insatiable is an entertaining little movie. Just be prepared to take some leaps of logic at times, and do not expect a lot of action.

Rating:

(From RossRoy's Random Viewings on October 10th, 2009)

Grey's Anatomy Marathon, a review by addicted2dvd

13. Piece Of My Heart
Addison makes her return to Seattle Grace in order to perform an operation. As she does so, she is preoccupied by all of the changes in her former co-workers' lives. Meanwhile, Meredith and Derek's clinical trial has its first patient, and Rebecca returns to deliver Alex some shocking news.

My Thoughts:
Another really good episode... though not quite as good as the previous disc. I enjoyed seeing Addison back on the show. I also liked seeing Izzie getting back to her old self some.

My Rating:

14. The Becoming
The nurses' outcry over McSteamy's frequent trysts leads the hospital to enact a new "date and tell" policy. Meanwhile, news about Burke's career force Cristina to cope with her feelings about the past; Meredith and Derek take in a veteran soldier to participate in their clinical trial; and Callie finds comfort in Sloane when she needs it the most.

My Thoughts:
This one I didn't care much for at all. Not much really happened. And I found it slightly on the boring side.

My Rating:

15. Losing My Mind
As Dr. Wyatt refuses to let Meredith give up on her therapy sessons, Alex learns the truth about Rebecca's condition. Chief Webber has Dr. Hahn perform a high-risk surgery on his mentor. Meanwhile, after hearing about Burke, Cristina continues to act unusually, going as far as to clean her ever-messy apartment.

My Thoughts:
A pretty good episode... but I must admit that I am getting a bit tired of the whole case study thing. A bit tired of seeing the same operation for each episode for the past 3 or 4 episodes. And I just couldn't care about the big shot heart surgeon that needed heart surgery.

My Rating:

(From Grey's Anatomy Marathon on February 8th, 2010)