DVD Collectors Online

Band of Outsiders, a review by Antares

Band of Outsiders (1964) 3/5 - This was my first Godard film and after it was finished, the first thought that ran through my mind was a scene from the movie Amadeus. After Mozart's first royal commissioned opera, is finished, Emperor Joseph II comes on stage to praise Mozart for the work. He is at a loss for words, but manages to blurt out that it was 'quite new', but with slight trepidation in his delivery. Mozart retorts It is new...isn't it your Majesty? as if being new instantly makes it praise worthy. But sometimes, being new doesn't make something a masterpiece, and I felt that Godard was more interested in being fashionably different as opposed to making an interesting film. Sure, it does have it's share of crafted shots, but as a whole the story was lacking in creativity. I will admit that just looking at Anna Karina was worth the effort of watching this film, but aside from her, the rest was pretty shallow and a bit self exalting on the part of the director. It won't stop me from seeking out his other films, but now at least, I know what I can expect and hopefully, this was just an aberration, and not the norm.

(From Antares' Short Summations on July 13th, 2012)

Clue, a review by Dragonfire

My Thoughts

This is a really fun, entertaining movie.  I remember seeing the trailers when it came out and I thought it was really interesting that there were different endings..though I thought there were more than 3 at that time. With the DVD, you can choose to see all three endings or a random ending..it seems like whenever I pick a random ending, the same one always comes up.  The endings are all very different, yet they all work for the movie and what was going on.  I loved Tim Curry in this.

 

(From Dragonfire: What I've Been Watching on January 2nd, 2009)

"Stargate SG-1" Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

Synopsis: Doctor Felger is afraid that he is about to be thrown out of the SGC. Thus he presents the (not yet fully developed) plan to infest the Stargate DHDs with a computer virus that would effectively render them useless. But this plan backfires on a grand scale and Ba'al takes advantage of the situation.

My Opinion: Unfortunately Coombs wasn't present in this episode but Felger was fun to watch again. I find it interesting that they still have new ideas regarding the abilities of the Stargate and the DHD. But they always keep it simple and don't start technobabbling. Still it gives them a means to tell interesting stories.

Synopsis: SG-1 encounters a group of "Amazon" Jaffas who live in a secret place. From there they have to gather Goa'uld larvae on a regular basis to give it to their younger sisters. But SG-1 has a better idea.

My Opinion: Granted, I watched only half a season of Star Trek: Enterprise but I immediately liked Jolene Blalock (T'Pol in ENT) better in the role of the Jaffa leader than in her role as Vulcan. But that is also based on the fact that she could be wilder/more emotional. I also liked the conflict of whether they should use the Tretonin.

Synopsis: A single super soldier slaughters the Jaffa of two minor Goa'ulds and kills one of the Goa'ulds. Bra'tac and Teal'c are able to stop him just to find out that it wasn't them who stopped him. Anubis has built these warriors with technology of the Ancients. The same technology was used to build the very first sarcophagus aeons ago. Daniel tries to find this device now: The mythological "Fountain of Youth".

My Opinion: It's quite fascinating how single characters can defy the laws of inertia - no matter how big/fast the moving object or the explosion, they stand their ground if they want to. The introduction of the Kull warriors was nearly inevitable because even huge armies of Jaffa are no opposition to SG-1 anymore. But they didn't make the mistake to portray the Kull warriors as invincible. Sooner or later that would lead to the need of finding a way to defeat them (keyword: the Borg). But instead they showed that there is a way to defeat them - in principle.

Synopsis: Through the captured Kull warrior the Tok'ra are able to find the home planet of these new super warriors. Jacob/Selmak, Teal'c and Sam travel there to stop the production of any more of these. While they're off-world, Jack tries to free Daniel, who's being held captive by rebels in the border region of Honduras and Nicaragua.

My Opinion: Jack didn't have to have much luck with his comrades except for Kawalsky. That was before SG-1, of course. Back in A Matter of Time they also mentioned that he was left behind on a special op. Here they managed to portray his buddy very ambivalently. It wasn't clear what happend back then until they revealed it.
I also liked the flight from Tartarus and the innovative way to use a ring transporter.

(From "Stargate SG-1" Marathon on April 18th, 2008)