DVD Collectors Online

Armageddon, a review by Tom

Title: Armageddon
Year: 1998
Director: Michael Bay
Rating: FSK-12
Length: 145 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1 , German: Dolby Digital 5.1 , Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: Croatian, Danish, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish

Stars:
Bruce Willis
Billy Bob Thornton
Ben Affleck
Liv Tyler
Will Patton

Extras:
Scene Access

Even though it is full of scientific inaccuracies (too many even for a Hollywood movie), it is still great fun to watch.
I am surprised, that Steve Buscemi's character survived. Probably because it isn't a Coen movie

Rating:


I am doing really poor on the christmas theme marathon so far

(From Tom's Random Reviews on December 15th, 2008)

Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid, a review by GSyren

Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid (Disc ID: 7B45-8677-3645-979F)

United States 2004 | Released 2009-12-09 on DVD from Columbia TriStar Home Video

93 minutes | Aspect ratio Anamorphic 2.40:1 | Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1, Czech Dolby Digital 5.1, Hungarian Dolby Digital 5.1

Directed by Dwight Little and starring Johnny Messner, Kadee Strickland, Matthew Marsden, Nicholas Gonzalez, Eugene Byrd

The blood orchid is a rare flower that holds the secret of eternal life. A scientific expedition is sent deep into the jungles of Borneo to locate the legendary plant. Battling their way upriver, the explorers are unaware they're being stalked by a nest of giant anacondas, fifty-foot-long flesh-eaters who'll stop at nothing to protect their breeding ground.

My thoughts about Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid:

I came to this movie with very low expectations. After watching Anaconda, I expected the sequel to be even worse. To my surprise I liked it about as much as I liked the first one. I really don't know why. One thing that I liked about it was that it actually had an explanation for why the anacondas had grown so big. Unfortunately it was a totally bogus explanation. As before, the quest is one for money. But the target is not the anacondas, they are just an obstacle on the route. The target is the Blood Orchid, which is said to have properties that prolong life. So obviously they would be of immense worth in medicinal applications. And the reason why the anacondas grow so big is that they keep growing throughout their whole life, and they live where the orchids grow, they eat the orchids and thus get very old (and big). Farfetched much? Never mind that anacondas aren't even herbivores. The movie also has a couple of really annoying characters. The worst is Burris (Eugene Byrd). He is so damned whiny that you wish one of the anacondas would come and finish him off. But no. The whole thing is a jungle (mis)adventure, where one thing after another goes wrong, mostly not due to the snakes. And for the most part the snakes actually look pretty good. Until the end, that is, when they become just too much. Still, not entirely unenjoyable if your in the right mood.

I rate this title

(From Reviews and ramblings by Gunnar on February 21st, 2015)

Tom's Random Reviews, a review by Tom

Title: Gokusen I
Year: 2002
Director:
Rating: U
Length: 660 Min.
Video: Full Frame 1.33:1
Audio: Japanese: Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles: Chinese, English, Other

Stars:
Nakama Yukie
Matsumoto Jun
Itoh Misaki
Namase Katsuhisa
Kaneko Ken

Plot:
Newly graduated Kumiko Yamaguchi wants to make her mark on the Japanese educational system as a teacher. All well and good until she finds out that the school she'll be teaching at has its fair share of troublemakers and rabble-rousers. The ruffians at the school don't frighten her though for she has a secret of her own-she's a fourth generation crime syndicate member and next in line to head it up. She's gone straight and wants to be a teacher though, but she's one person in whose class you don't want to be caught fooling around!

Extras:
Featurettes

What can I say: I love it!!!
Great Japanese comedy series I can highly recommend. If you remember, I recently watched the anime series of this after a lucky blind buy.
This series is even better than the anime.
The actress who plays the main character is simply perfect in the role. What makes the series so great is the combination of the line delivery by main stars, editing and camera work. I had to laugh out a lot in most scenes thanks to the great direction on these (and that even though I am watching the series for the second time).
This show does not only offer comedy but also a little drama. Which is often on the cheesy side but it really works here.
The only minor critique I have is, that the grandfather of the main character is too much of a nice guy to be the head of a Yakuza clan.

Sadly I did not find any YouTube material which does the show justice.
But I will provide some links nevertheless:
Here is a best of montage, but of which I think that the shown scenes are hardly best of material of this series. There would have so much better stuff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkvZ7NAuH_Y

Here is a montage of a running gag, but will probably be lost on people who haven't seen this series yet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVdMbP3ojuY

If I have even remotely sparked your interest, I recommend that you follow the link provided in the description in both of the above YouTube videos. It will lead you to a site which offers fansubbed versions of the episodes. This is how I come to know this series the first time around.

Rating:

(From Tom's Random Reviews on August 28th, 2008)