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The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, a review by Rick

Finally completed my 1st review:

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford 


Overview:
Everyone in 1880s America knows Jesse James. He's the nation's most notorious criminal, hunted by the law in 10 states. He's also the land's greatest hero, lauded as a Robin Hood by the public. Robert Ford? No one knows him. Not yet. But the ambitious 19-year-old aims to change that. He'll befriend Jesse, ride with his gang. And if that doesn't bring Ford fame, he'll find a deadlier way.

Friendship becomes rivalry and the quest for fame becomes obsession in this virile epic produced in part by RIDLEY SCOTT and featuring gripping portrayals by BRAD PITT (winner of the Venice Film Festival Best Actor Award) as Jesse and CASEY AFFLECK as the youth drawn closer to his goal...and farther from his own humanity.

My Thoughts:
Holy cow... This one cracks my top 5 most boring movies I've ever seen. The others are (in no order) The Pledge, The Cell, Solaris (Clooney version) and Lost in Translation. Please note I did say boring, not necessarily bad, although I honestly have a hard time saying this was good.

The story is completely predictable. No surprises whatsoever. There was little to no action, no suspense, no mystery and very little comedy (none really but some of Pitts performance was funny). Fact is if it were not for Pitt's performance I would have felt like I completely wasted  2 1/2 hours of my life. I only kept watching to see what he would do next. Some of his scenes reminded me of his Twelve Monkeys role, which is a good thing.

The Cinematography was different. That too was a plus. It's almost lack of colors was quite striking in the HD transfer. Very cool at first but unfortunately it lost some appeal as the movie went on and eventually became a bit of a distraction I thought. Even the soundtrack wasn't that great. One notable exception was a song near the end sung by the always charming Zooey Deschanel. Didn't know she was in the movie but recognized the voice immediately. It's too bad she was only in it at the end.

Sorry Jon, I read your review but we certainly disagree on this one. Unlike Eric I did manage to stay awake through the entire movie. Too bad for me. 

My Rating:


(From Rick's "Vowels Only" Marathon Reviews on July 10th, 2010)

Gunbuster: The Movie, a review by dfmorgan

Gunbuster: The Movie

Year: 2006
Director: Hideaki Anno
Cast:
OverviewWatched: 28th Feb 2010
My Thoughts: After "The Girl who Leapt Through Time" I decided to watch a classic anime with time as one of its major themes.

Some background notes: I have previously seen Gubuster, in its original 6 episode series, on both VHS and the poor DVD produced by Kiseki in the UK and toyed with the idea of getting the remastered DVDs but eventually put that idea on the back-burner and it propmtly went out. My taste for anime has recently been reactivated so I have been looking around for titles, even though I have missed many original releases and now have to look on amazon marketplace or play traders for them. When I saw that there was a limited edition BD box-set of Gunbuster: The Movie, its sequel Diebuster: The Movie and a bonus disc I decided that I would get it, amazingly at what I consider a reaonable price on amazon marketplace.

Now to the film itself: This feature length film is an abridgement of the original series using the original animations but with an improved Dobly Digital 5.1 sound. The use of original animations does show in places with dust and grain apparent in many areas but somehow, probably because the subject is so good, it doesn't detract from the film and the 5.1 sound adds to the overall effect. My memory didn't let me down this was as good as I remembered and still managed to bring a tear to the eye. In reducing the 180mins of the series down to a 95mins film the producers have managed to cut out much of one of the items this series became famous for The Gainax Bounce although they couldn't do much with the leotards that the girls were wearing.

My Rating: 

Dave

(From Dave's DVD/Blu-ray Reviews on February 28th, 2010)

Tom's TV Pilots marathon, a review by Tom

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1981/United Kingdom) IMDb | Wikipedia BBC Worldwide (United Kingdom) Length: 200 min. Video: Full Frame 1.33:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital 1, English: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles: English, Trivia

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Plot:
It is the most remarkable, certainly the most successful, book ever to come out of the great publishing corporations of Ursa Minor. More popular than the Celestial Home Care Omnibus, better selling than Fifty Three Things to Do in Zero Gravity, and more controversial than Oolon Colluphid's trilogy of philosophical blockbusters - Where God Went Wrong, Some More of God's Greatest Mistakes and Who is this God Person Anyway? So that whingeing Earthling Arthur Dent should be very grateful he had a copy!

For after Earth is destroyed to make way for a hyperspace bypass, Arthur Dent is let loose in the furthest recesses of the Galaxy armed only with the aforementioned mysterious but indispensable Guide. Follow Dent's cosmic adventures as he is joined by his pretty weird companions: Zaphod Beeblebrox, Ford Prefect, Trillian-the-Astrophysicist-he-met-at-a-party-in-Islington and Marvin the maniacally depressed Android. You never know, they may even find the answer to Life, The Universe and Everything!


The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
1.01 Episode 1
Writer: Douglas Adams (Original Material By), Douglas Adams (Screenwriter)
Director: Alan J. W. Bell
Cast: Peter Jones (The Book (voice)), Simon Jones (Arthur Dent), David Dixon (Ford Prefect), Joe Melia (Mr. Prosser), Steve Conway (Barman), Cleo Rocos (Alien), Andrew Mussell (Alien), Douglas Adams (Man in Pub (uncredited)), Steve Trainer (Man in Pub (uncredited)), Bill Barnsley (Man Listening to Radio (uncredited)), David Grahame (Sandwich-Board Man (uncredited))

I always loved the first 2-3 episodes of this 6-episode series. The rest is also good but I never liked them as much as the beginning of the series.
How the entries of the book are displayed is really great. And unlike one would think, they were not done in a computer but are all hand-drawn.
This series introduced the word babelfish to the world and "42" being the answer (but what is the question?).

Rating:

(From Tom's TV Pilots marathon on January 27th, 2012)