DVD Collectors Online

Trog, a review by GSyren

Title	Trog (883316-397206)
Director	Freddie Francis
Actors	Joan Crawford, Michael Gough, Bernard Kay, Kim Braden, David Griffin
Produced	1969 in United States
Runtime	91 minutes
Audio	English Dolby Digital Mono
Subtitles	English, French
Overview
My thoughts	Well, what can I say about Trog? For a long time I hesitated to buy it. I knew it was bad. But in the end I couldn't resist. It's Joan Crawford's last feature film. I must say she was a trooper. There is no indication that she gave it any less than all she could. I can't say the same about Michael Gough. He can be a great character actor, but when he hams it up, he really hams it up. Freddie Francis had his ups and downs as a director, but this is one of his lesser accomplishments, to put it kindly. The only one that I can think of that might be worse is The Deadly Bees2001: A Space Odyssey
My rating

(From Reviews and ramblings by Gunnar on July 1st, 2014)

Odds Against Tomorrow, a review by Antares

Odds Against Tomorrow (1959) 75/100 - After finishing the film and submitting my rating on Criticker, I noticed that I've seen a lot of films by Robert Wise. He made films in almost every genre and was pretty successful in most of them. This is another finely crafted drama that looks and sounds great, but, at times, it seems as if there's just a tad too much on the plate. You've got the post-war angst alongside racial tension, with a huge helping of noir as the main course. But for a 96 minute film, it kind of dragged at times, and had a character whom I could not understand why she was there, Gloria Grahame. She sleepwalks though her short role and it appeared to me, was there just to pad out the film length. Robert Ryan, as always, is great and I was very impressed with Harry Belafonte's performance, who could have rivaled Sidney Poitier, if he did choose to do so. In essence, this film should have worked for me, but it only held me for brief moments, then it would just meander along. I doubt I'd re-visit it in the future.

Teal = Masterpiece
Dark Green = Classic or someday will be
Lime Green = A good, entertaining film
Orange = Average
Red = Cinemuck
Brown = The color of crap, which this film is


(From Antares' Short Summations on July 28th, 2020)

Smallville Marathon #2, a review by DJ Doena

Synopsis: Clark saves a man who was about to be hit by a car. Soon after this man - Graham - kills a key witness in an important trial. Then he tries to thank Clark for saving his life by giving him expensive gifts. Clark - who has now idea what Graham has done - can't accept these gift but Graham wants to repay his debt and he believes that killing Lex would achieve exactly that.

My Opinion: This was a good episode to set Clark's moral compass straight. Ok, there was nothing wrong about it, but it ensured the viewer about the things Clark would or wouldn't do. And I liked the comparison to medical personnel or firefighters. Clark wouldn't be Clark if he let someone die just because he might turn out to be a bad person. That's reassuring.

Synopsis: Jonathan appears to Clark and demands of him to kill Lionel because Lionel puts the entire planet at risk. Meanwhile Lex has managed to create the most powerful vaccine in the world. With it the human body can withstand practically everything. But he has underestimated Milton Fine, who has double-crossed him. Lex created the vaccine without the knowledge of Fine - or at least he thought so. He did exactly what Milton wanted.

My Opinion: Great opening to the season finale. Lex was played perfectly by Fine just as Clark was earlier this season. Fine is truly worthy of the name Brainiac (=Brain InterActive Construct).

Synopsis: "Zod is coming!" When Fine was impersonating Jonathan he demanded that Clark would kill Lionel. But now Jor-El (the real one) is demanding that Clark would have to kill the "Vessel of Zod" and that vessel is Lex. But does Clark really have the guts to kill anyone? If not, the world as we know it will come to an end.

My Opinion: Great finale. Lionel said that sometimes a price has to be paid to achieve a greater good, but I say it again, then it wouldn't be Clark if he would pay that price. But one also has to admit, that everytime he defies his father, a lot of people get hurt in the process. One day it has to boil down to a choice of idealism versus pragmatism. Of course I have to continue watching at once.

The Season - My Opinion: For the characters this might have been a bad season, with Jonathan's death, Lana's and Clark's break-up and so on. From a story-telling POV I liked it much better than the previous one. The preparation for Zod's arrival over the course of the season was much more believable than that entire witch arc and Brainiac was an interesting opponent. And while I might not like the road Lana is going down, I still like it that her character has finally left the "helpless girl phase". Of course there will always be opportunities for Clark to save her, but he saves everybody once in a while.

(From Smallville Marathon #2 on June 15th, 2008)