DVD Collectors Online

The New World, a review by Rick

The New World

Hollywood Legend:
Colin Farrell
Christian Bale
  Sorry - I couldn't even type them as 'Hollywood Legends' without cracking myself up, especially compared to those I have included 

I haven't even entered this into DVDP yet, and I may not! I got the Blu-ray cheap a while ago. It was a movie I hadn't seen so decided to watch with my nephew yesterday. My son had warned my not to, but I did.

The movie is about John Smith and Pocahontas, and the native Americans, and settling in a strange land, and communicating with people you don't understand, and apparently trees... lot's of them. Oh yea, and streams. 

This thing was so disjointed from the beginning I regretted watching it from about 20 minutes in. It is hard to follow because there is too much stuff thrown in there. It's 172 minutes long with about 40 of them just showing trees and streams. I'm guessing it was supposed to be the director's masterpiece (didn't even look to see who it is but will - so I know NOT to watch his movies). It just had that feel. To me it just came accross as  Even at the end, I knew it was the end and was waiting for the credits to roll. Tyhe show a ship sailing away... then starts the zoom in. V E R Y  S L O W. The ship is a few hundred yards off when the scene starts. What seems like 10 minutes later (probably only a minute or two) the are finally zoomed all the way in on a set of rigging for one of the sails  It was this sort of filming throughout. Something would be happening, the scene would end, then we would get to watch a stream for 30 seconds. And did I mention the trees? This guy was fascinated with trees. It looked like he has a crew just sitting in the woods with the instructions of "every time the wind blows make sure you capture it!". The scenes weren't even that good. You would think being in high def it would look OK but the views were too tight to appreciate. No big landscape shots (or very few I should say) If I want to watch all that nature footage I'll put on a Sunrise Earth DVD. At least I won't have to watch the camera man go from a view of a tree, then the s l o w  z o o m all the way to a leaf blowing in the wind. 

The Native Americans were shown as savages that hardly spoke and mostly used hoots and yells to communicate. The little bit of dialog there was had no subtitles, so you had no idea what was going on. There were a few scenes with the subtitles but most of them you had to just make up what you thought they were saying. Perhaps again this was for each audience member to find their own message in the film. If it was the only message I got was the film was crap! Add to the mix Colin Farrell, who's dialog I couldn't understand at all most of the time. HE could have used subtitles too!

There were battles, which I would usually like. They made no sense half the time though. What was there was done OK. Not too gory and not too fake. I guess there was something positive about the movie.

With it being Thanksgiving weekend I thought I might enjoy a movie about some of the first settlers and their experiences in settling a new land. Unfortunately what I got was close to 3 hours of some directors wet dream of fantastic cinema. I can appreciate movies on many levels and have a varried collection.  Very few films I have ever watched get the  rating. There is usually something good in them. Not this one. In fact I think I'll give it a 

(From DCO third annual November Alphabet Marathon - discussion/review/banter thread on November 28th, 2009)

The Heartbreak Kid, a review by DJ Doena

 
(The Heartbreak Kid)

I own quite a few (comedy) romance movies and I like most of them, the cheerful ones as well as the ones with the more blunt humor. I own Mary and Polly with Ben Stiller and I like them, too.

But I've been rarely as bored as I was with this movie. I never laughed once and rarely had the urge to at least smile - and if I did smile I can't remember and the credits are still rolling.

 

PS: It was a blind buy and one of the worst of that.

PPS: If it weren't nearly midnight, I would watch a movie were something gets blown into pieces just to cheer me up.

(From The "What I watch when I don't watch TV shows" thread on September 13th, 2008)

Emma's Sonic Underground Marathon, a review by Emma (snowcat)

So it seems the episodes are not in order, which I have to admit has cheered me up, I thought id missed something dramatic out.

Disc 1

Episode 30 - Wedding Bell Blues.

When Dr Robotnik announces he is going to marry Queen Aleena (the Hedgehogs mother) Sonic, Manic and Sonya race to the rescue only to discover its a trap.

As I said, I put the disc in and though I had missed something dramatic out, I was criticising the series for not explaining the origins of the characters, although its fairly easy to pick up what's happening, and I guess it proves you can pretty much watch the series in any order. although I can see inconsistencies with the animation, I understand the series was rushed for a release in time with the Dreamcast, to some that would be unforgivable, and whilst I think they should have waited and created a better story, I understand why they rushed it.


Episode 4 - To Catch a Queen

A former captain of Queen Aleena's guard (Argus) is on his way to a secret meeting, he is soon intercepted by Robotnik's bounty hunters Sleet and Dingo, he is captured and roboticised, but will the Siblings be able to get the information they need about there mother from him before he is completely changed?

This episode felt a little more real, the siblings discover that Argus had been around alot during there early years after discovering a picture of them with him, sadly after becoming roboticised Argus doesn't seem to remember them until there medallions, which release a musical instruments (Sonic - guitar, Manic - drums Sonya - keyboard) were able to zap him and bring him to his senses briefly, sadly they don't learn anything new and have to leave Argus as he is a danger to them.


Episode 5 - Mobodoon

The siblings try to discover a town called Mobodoon which only appears every so many years, they know it was the place they were born but that is all. on the way they are ambushed by Sleet and Dingo who end up in the Robonik free Mobodoon. Here the hedgehogs battle with the prospect of loosing Manic as he discovers he has never felt at home until he got to Mobodoon.

the Mobodoon episode has stuck in my head, maybe its because I found it quite sad, Manic the hedgehog talks of how (the hedgehogs who were split up at birth and adopted) his siblings had homes where they felt the belonged, upon finding his birth place Manic finally feels as though he has found his home and toys with the idea of staying there, each episode features a song sang by the Sonic Underground, this episode the song was sung by Manic, it was sad that even though Manic had his family he still felt alone because of his upbringing (each sibling was bought up differently as to attain different skills)


Episode 6 - The Price of Freedom

After getting dirty on a mission and angry Sonya, who feels her brothers don't understand, runs away to an old friend, at the same time Sonic and Manic here of a sighting of there mother near the castle Sonya is staying in. Sonya's old friend Mindy gives Sonya a watch created by her father, unbeknownst to Sonya the watch is a spying device created for Dr Robotnik.

It was around this points (just 4 episodes in) that I actually started to enjoy the series, was one of the "moral ones" as was the previous. this episode dealt with how Mindy's father was working for Dr Robonik to save her even though it meant creating devices to spy on people. Although Mindy was angry to start with she grew to understand why her father did what he did and they managed to escape together. as with the other episode I really enjoyed it, the story was heart felt and I guess that what I like about the series, sometimes Moral stuff can be annoying and preachy, but this feels right, like the hedgehogs are learning, not the viewer.






(From Emma's Sonic Underground Marathon on December 20th, 2009)