DVD Collectors Online

Alice in Wonderland, a review by Danae Cassandra

Alice in Wonderland
Year of Release: 1951
Directed By: Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske, Wilfred Jackson
Starring: Kathryn Beaumont, Ed Wynn, Richard Haydn, Sterling Holloway
Genre: Fantasy, Animation, Musical

Overview:
Experience the magic and majesty of this ultimate collector's dream. For the first time, Walt Disney's timeless classic bursts into brilliance in Blu-ray High Definition! Featuring Disney Enhanced Home Theater Mix, this remarkable digital restoration boasts pristine sound and unparalleled picture quality. Plus, bonus features including "Through The Keyhole: A Companion's Guide To Wonderland" and an exciting interactive game, "Painting The Roses Red," have been designed for this landmark release.

Join Alice as she chases the White Rabbit and journeys into a topsy-turvy world that gets "curiouser and curiouser" as her fantastical adventures unfold. Meet the Mad Hatter, March Hare, Tweedledee & Tweedledum, the Cheshire Cat, the Queen of Hearts and more unforgettable characters, all set against a backdrop of awe-inspiring splendor.

My Thoughts:
Aptly captures a lot of the nonsense of Carroll's work while ultimately ignoring the true whimsy of it. Still, Disney's film is a lot of fun - colorful, silly and creative. I do wish the film struck more of a balance between the world of logic and rules and the world of imagination and nonsense. That's the one thing that the newer Alice films do better than this one, IMO.

Bechdel Test: Pass
Mako Mori Test: Pass

Overall: 3/5

(From July Movie Marathon: Musicals (Yes... You read right!) on July 27th, 2016)

Support Your Local Gunfighter, a review by Rogmeister

Support Your Local Gunfighter (1971)
Director: Burt Kennedy
Cast: James Garner, Suzanne Pleshette, Jack Elam, Harry Morgan, John Dehner, Chuck Connors, Joan Blondell, Dub Taylor, Marie Windsor

A few years after the success of Support Your Local Sheriff, this follow-up was produced and released.  Despite the similar title, same director and much of the same cast (but with Suzanne Pleshette as the leading lady instead of Joan Hackett), the film is not a sequel to the earlier film...but it's done in the same humorous bent.  In this film, Latigo Smith (James Garner) has escaped the clutches of a woman with matrimony on her mind and finds himself in the town of Purgatory where two mining factions are in a race for the mother lode.  Latigo winds up with a comical sidekick of a cowboy (Jack Elam) who he gets to pretend to be gunslinger Swifty Morgan and his scheme seems to be working...until the real swifty (Chuck Connors) comes to town.  While I enjoy this movie, for some reason I didn't find it quite as funny as Support Your Local Sheriff but it's still better than a lot of the so-called comedy-westerns out there.  And there's lots of familiar faces in this which always makes such films fun to watch.

(From Roger's Ongoing Westerns Marathon on August 16th, 2009)

"Stargate SG-1" Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

Synopsis: SG-11 mines an ore called Trinium. This ore is especially hard and SGC wants to use it for armor plates and other things. One week SG-11 doesn't call in as planned and SG-1 goes to the planet. There they meet a tribe that descends from native americans and their "spirits" who protect the tribe.

My Opinion: What I like most about Jack are his high moral standards. He has no problem with confronting his superiors when he thinks that something is morally wrong. In this episode he draws parallels to the colonization of the american continent, especially the dealings with the indians.

Synopsis: SG-1 returns to a planet where they wish to examine a wheather control system. But it was stolen and thiefs seem to have come from the SGC (Stargate Command). As it soon turns out, these people didn't come through the gate in Cheyenne Mountain.

My Opinion: This was an indirect continuation of the previous episode. Was the device stolen by someone under the order of SGC? The peek into Area 51 was also very interesting. But in general this episode was an average one.

Synopsis: Sg-10 didn't make it back through the Stargate. When a connection from Earth is opened it can't be closed anymore. One of the two suns of that system has recently collapsed and was transformed into a black hole. Through the open wormhole SGC and Earth are also effected by it.

My Opinion: Whether or not this episode made sense from an astronomical POV doesn't matter to me. It was very exciting, especially with the several lapses of time within the base and beyond. I liked it a lot.

Synopsis: On a remote planet the Stargate seems to be enclosed in a room with no exit. But there is a ring of text written in the same language that was found on Ernest's planet (The Torment of Tantalus). Jack accidentally activates a machine that downloads all the knowledge of the Ancients - one of the four old races - into Jack's brain. And that has unexpected side effects.

My Opinion: I love episodes where the actors are condemned to silence because their character has lost the ability express himself/herself. It's funny to see the desperation on their faces.
The scene at the end where the Asgard and O'Neill shake hands strongly reminded me of E.T. with Jack obviously being Elliot.

(From "Stargate SG-1" Marathon on March 7th, 2008)