DVD Collectors Online

Embrace of the Vampire, a review by addicted2dvd

Title: Embrace of the Vampire
Movie Count: 2
TV Ep Count: 1
Other Count: 0
Time Started: 3:40am
Plot:My Thoughts:
This one was a blind buy. I never even heard of the movie until recently. I bought it for 2 reasons. #1 it is a vampire movie... and I love vampire movies.. and #2 it has Alysa Milano in it... and I been a fan of hers for a while now. I liked her in both Charmed and Who's the Boss... but seldomly seen her in anything else. As a vampire movie this one leaves a lot to be desired. The vampire story is fair at best. But Alysa Milano was definitely hot in it... but this is after all a more... uhhhh adult oriented movie. Seemed like the whole purpose of the movie was to show nude women. Not that I mind of course. But I was hoping for a better horror movie then what I got.



(From My Month Long Horror/Halloween Marathon: 2008 on October 1st, 2008)

5 Centimeters Per Second, a review by Danae Cassandra

Byosoku Go Senchimetoru  (5 Centimeters Per Second)
Year of Release: 2007
Starring:  Kenji Mizuhashi, Yoshimi Kondou, Satomi Hanamura
Directed By: Makoto Shinkai
Genre:  Romance, Drama

Overview:
The modern-day anime classic and brainchild of rising star Makoto Shinkai, 5 Centimeters Per Second, presented to you as never before. Witness the story of Takaki, a young man on a journey from Tokyo to reunite with his childhood best friend, Akari. Feel his emotions superimposed on the gorgeous, heavily researched and impressively animated backdrops of Japan, as he travels by train to see her. Join Takaki on a voyage into three interconnected tales of love and lost innocence that span the minutes and months of their lives. 5 Centimeters Per Second, the speed at which cherry blossoms fall from the trees, reminiscent of the pace of life as our lives intermingle.

My Thoughts:
I picked this up because I had enjoyed two other films from Makoto Shinkai, The Place Promised in Our Early Days and Voices of a Distant Star, and this is a very worthy companion to those two.  It's a great little film.

This is a beautiful, romantic film that reminded me why I love anime. It's a wistful, nostalgic memory of first love and the bittersweet joy it can bring in hanging on to it. It's warm and melancholy, as only the best memories are, the ones that matter, that mean something.

The story is very simple - it's about young love and the memory of that love and the distance that time creates between people. What the film is really about is the emotions of the characters, and in that it excels. You feel these people. You understand them. They are real.

It's also a film with exquisitely drawn animation. This is a grade-A+ beautiful film, perhaps one of the most beautiful I've ever seen. Even if nostalgic romance doesn't appeal, if you like animation you should give this film a look just for the art, it's that good. Good? Wrong word. Great. Stupendous. Flawless.

Highly recommended.

Bechdel Test:  Fail

Overall:  4/5

(From 5 Centimeters Per Second on July 28th, 2013)

Smallville Marathon #2, a review by DJ Doena

Synopsis: After she's called out to him, Clark uses Kara's crystal to create a copy of his mother. But he also unknowingly creates a copy of Zor-El. Zor-El wants to create a new Krypton and for that he has to purge mankind from the face of the Earth. And he tricks Clark into accepting blue Kryptonite and suddenly he is mortal again.

My Opinion:Synopsis: Clark is back from the Fortress where his father held him since the struggle against Zor-El. He joins forces with Lana to bring Lex to justice. Meanwhile someone threatens to blow up Chloe if Lois doesn't write an article about a man who is somehow connected to both Lex and the "Daily Planet"'s editor.

My Opinion: Lex must be a really desperate man to pull a stunt like this. And once again he managed to alienate the person he cares about. But I loved to see Chloe and Jimmy back together, yet I am worried about the look in his eyes when he learned the truth about her being a meteor freak.

Synopsis: Clark has never returned from the Fortress but instead Bizarro has taken his place and he tries to find a means of protection from the yellow sun. For this he seeks out Brainiac who is still very weak but its mental capabilities are completely unaffected. He points him to a Kryptonian who's been living on Earth for more than a hundred years and who might be able to help Bizarro. But when "Jor-El" learns of Bizarro's return he releases his son.

My Opinion: I have to admit, I didn't see that coming. Clark has had so many changes of heart that I didn't see through it when he teamed up with Lana in the previous episode. And I think it was a great idea not to reveal in the previous episode that Clark wasn't Clark. I also liked to see Brainiac again.
Now I am waiting for Gene Hackman to make a "Special Guest Star" appearance. I mean, everyone else has had a guest appearance, with Helen Slater (Kara/Supergirl in Supergirl) as Lara in two episodes of this season and now even Marc McClure as Dax-Ur, who played Jimmy Olsen in the Superman/Supergirl movies.

(From Smallville Marathon #2 on June 22nd, 2008)