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Exorcist: The Beginning, a review by Hal

Title: Exorcist: The Beginning
Year: 2004
Director: Renny Harlin
Rating: R
Length: 113 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital: 5.1, English: DTS: 5.1, French: Dolby Digital: 5.1, Commentary: Dolby Digital: 2-Channel Stereo
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Stars:Plot:Extras:
Scene Access
Audio Commentary
Feature Trailers
Featurettes
Closed Captioned

A good prequel to the original Exorcist, this story ties in nicely as we learn of Father Merrin's history and his previous encounter with evil as referred to in the original story.  A lot less time is spent on the actual exorcism and more to character development and diversions to keep you off guard, including a love interest.  I like the way they even tie the infamous theme music into the closing credits.

Rating:

(From Hal's 2010 Horror Marathon Reviews on October 7th, 2010)

Late Night Shopping, a review by Jon

Late Night Shopping
3 out of 5



An upbeat, oddball, after-hours comedy about the ups and downs of sex and shelf-stacking in the 21st century. Four friends, Sean, Vincent, Jody and Lenny find themselves at something of a dead-end. Trapped in a twilight world of permanent night shift work they hang out together in the local all night cafe, where their only escape from drudgery is observing Vincent's unwavering success in pulling women. There seems little prospect of change. But then events conspire otherwise.

This confident debut from Saul Metzstein is a little known gem. It's an unassuming comedy about four otherwise unconnected people trapped in a limbo with each other because of the strange hours they work. It's inoffensive, but often hilarious, sharp and strangely moving. Really not much to it at under 90 minutes, but this must be the third time I've watched it now. I keep coming back to it because while they aren't amazing actors, they are very easy people to identify with.

We have Lenny (Enzo Cilenti), the socially inept call centre operator, obsessed by one of his colleagues; Vincent (James Lance), the womanizing supermarket shelf-stacker, who we shouldn't like, but can't help ourselves; Jody (Shaun of the Dead's Kate Ashfield), the insecure factory girl of the bunch; and Sean (Luke De Woolfson), the hospital porter. If there's a lead in this film, it's Sean. He lives with his girlfriend, who he hasn't seen for several weeks because she works days! He's getting the "fear", a boy thing according to Jody, and panicking that she's already left him. He's resorted to even checking the soap to see if it's getting used!

It doesn't hold up to much scrutiny, I know, but it's the premise and it is very funny. The story has a couple of other contrivances, but it never feels compromised. It's refreshing that it is never flashy, sarcastic or smug. All of which a lot of these sort of films can be, especially from first-timers showing-off. Metzstein trusts his characters and I suppose himself, so this just comes across as honest and fun. There's not much to it visually, but the narrative isn't lazy and there's a lot to like in Jack Lothian's lively writing.

I really recommend looking this up. Go into it not expecting much and it'll surprise you. I was trying to use this marathon for unwatched stuff, but when this popped up, I just fancied seeing it again. Can't say better than that.

(From DCO third annual November Alphabet Marathon - discussion/review/banter thread on November 11th, 2009)

"Battlestar Galactica" Marathon (1978-2009), a review by DJ Doena

Synopsis: Troy and Dillon are called back to the Galactica for an important mission. But it's a trick of Xaviar's and now they are sitting in a disabled Viper somewhere between Earth and the fleet. Meanwhile Jamie has to care for the scouts and to protect them both from the US military as well as Xaviar who wants to use them as bargaining chip. Jamie hides them in a baseball camp.

My Opinion: Don't win! Win! Don't win! Win! Jamie's constant change of minds were a bit annoying, especially since the point of this episode was totally lost on me. There was nothing in it but to show some special effects of super-kids playing baseball.

Synopsis: A Galactica patrol has encountered a new and improved Cylon Raider and engaged it. Both ships were damaged but the Raider is drifting towards Earth and will crash north of New York City. Troy and Dillon travel by plane there but they assume their patrol ship will crash there. Only two Cylons survive the crash but one of them is an advanced model who looks like a Human. And it's Halloween...

My Opinion: Together with the first part of this series, Galactica Discovers Earth, this and the following episode were re-cut to form the movie Galactica III: Conquest of the Earth. And I have to say that I like them. I thought it was an ingenious idea to hide two Cylons in plain sight, but since it's Halloween no one questions their appearance. And although these human Cylons are fully mechanical they are obviously the template for the human Cylons in the next series.
And it seems to have become a running gag that no matter where Troy and Dillon go, they get in some kind of trouble with the local law enforcement and that they steal a police car.

Synopsis: The Cylons were invited to a Halloween party and the famous radio moderator Wolfman Jack will be there. They want to capture him in order to get to the "communication center". From there they will send a distress signal and reveal Earth's position. Dillon and Troy have to prevent that at any cost. But they are not only the chaser, they are also the chased.

My Opinion: It was only years later that I learned that Wolfman Jack was a real person but I liked the character from the start. What I didn't like about this episode (and what wasn't in the movie) were Troy's and Dillon's "super jumps". But I really liked how the (seriously damaged) Centurion tried to protect the Cylon Andromus and jumped from that skyscraper and landed in the dumpster.

Synopsis: The Cylons have destroyed the agricultural ships and the fleet needs new crops. The Cylons hope that it will finally lead them to Earth. Dillon and Troy buy a piece of land from a farmer and try to grow plants there. But the farmer (and now they) are harassed by their neighbour who owns pretty much all land there and he controls the water reservoirs. But people who can fly through space can also make it rain.

My Opinion: I can't remember ever seeing this episode before. And to be honest: When they were harassed by their neighbour (played by MacGyver's Dana Elcar) I expected to see a certain black van with a red bar on it: "If you have a problem. If no one else can help. Maybe you can hire - The A-Team."
Since the scout kids were back, they used "super jumps" to spread the seeds and used the "flying saucer" to make it rain. ship I didn't like this episode very much.

Synopsis: Doctor Zee tells Commander Adama about a dream he had. It includes a great battle and a great warrior called Starbuck who had to be left behind on a lonely planet. There he repairs on of the Cylons who crashed there with him in order to have some company. But soon they are not only 2, but 3.5: Cy has found a pregnant woman and Starbuck has to get her off the planet because soon other Cylons will come looking for their patrol.

My Opinion: That was a great episode. It was well told and had great characters in it. I loved to see the developing friendship between Starbuck and Cy. It was a bit like Enemy Mine and I was really sad when Cy "died" because he protected Starbuck from these other Cylons. And it's pretty ironic that this episode worked very well and didn't need many FX shots (except for the re-used battle scenes in the beginning where Boomer has to say goodbye to his friend).

The Series - My Opinion: Let's face it: The series isn't that good. The special effects were basically reduced to "super jumps", to cloak each and everything and to make their motorcycles fly. And while it maybe OK to destroy the same Raider in the upper right corner over and over again, it looks odd when your motorcycles always fly over the same skyline no matter in which countryside you had been before - especially when you do it in nearly every episode.
It was a good idea to bring the fleet to Earth - they had told many space stories in the original series - but they didn't make anything out of it. Instead four out of ten episodes revolved around a bunch of kids and the main characters were reduced to kindergarten teachers.

(From "Battlestar Galactica" Marathon (1978-2009) on April 19th, 2009)