DVD Collectors Online

Dances with Wolves, a review by Rich

Title: Dances with Wolves (BLURAY)

Runtime:181
Certificate:15
Year:1990
Genres:Western, Drama

Plot:My Review:
An old favourite watched for the first time on bluray.
Firstly the film. It is a superb, deep, moving and memorable epic, directed and starring Costner, in a role that suited his acting persona perfectly. It is passionately produced, with dreamy landscapes and backdrops depicting the old frontier, cinematography at its best. It's portrayal of the Union officer living life on a lonely outpost and his befriending of the native Sioux, culminating in his marriage to Stands with a Fist, is mesmeric and with the moving ongoing narration from his journal draws you into the movie. The use of native languages, Dunbars passionate character, the great performances from so many actors, makes you forget this film is 3 hours long and creates great empathy from the viewer. Whether this picture atones in any way for the treatment by the white man of the Native American Sioux is unlikely, but it does give a truer vision of a caring, compassionate and spiritual people that Hollywood portrayed unjustly for so many years.
As for the bluray itself, I was disappointed as this is the 3 hour cut, not the extended or directors editions. The visuals are superb, but of course they were also on dvd, its just that bit better now. The colours are lush and sharper, fully exploiting those spectacular sweeping vistas of wide open plains. There seems to be more on the screen also, with little or no cropping, adding that feeling of vastness. The sound is rich and wholesome, and bar a few grainy scenes this is a good advert for a 1080 transfer.


(From Riches Random Reviews on January 24th, 2010)

Gorgo, a review by Rogmeister

Gorgo (1961)  Directed by Eugene Lourie
Cast: Bill Travers, William Sylvester, Vincent Winter, Bruce Seton, Joseph O'Connor, Martin Benson
DVD Extras: Behind-the-scenes mini-documentary, photo gallery, theatrical trailer

A volcanic eruption in the North Atlantic brings to the surface a 65-foot prehistor monster.  Two treasure divers capture the creature and take him to London where he is put on display in a circus.  Little do they realize that the creature is merely an infant and that the creature's mother (all 200-feet of her) will soon be on the way to reclaim its young.

To me, this is a kind of American (or British, to be more accurate) take on the Japanese rubber suit monster movies (such as Godzilla) and they even go so far as to have a youngster who has a special feeling for the destructive creatures.  This is a pretty decent film in that context with lots of destruction.  This DVD came from VCI and the quality is okay but not pristine.  It's a decent print though some night scenes are occasionally a bit hard to make out but overall a pleasant experience.  Interestingly, there is no leading lady in this movie but apart from that I had a good time and the movie, at 76 minutes, moves quickly.   

(From Roger's Random Reviews on July 18th, 2009)

Tom's Random Star Trek Reviews, a review by Tom

Star Trek: The Animated Series
Season 2.06 The Counter-Clock Incident
Writer: Gene Roddenberry (Original Characters By), John Wise (Writer)
Director: Bill Reed, Hal Sutherland
Cast: William Shatner (Capt. Kirk), Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock), DeForest Kelley (Dr. McCoy), George Takei (Mr. Sulu), Nichelle Nichols (Uhura), Majel Barrett (Nurse Chapel), James Doohan (Scotty)

The Enterprise enters a universe where the time moves backwards and the crew is getting younger and younger. It is an enjoyable episode, but it is full of scientific nonsense.

Rating:

(From Tom's Random Star Trek Reviews on December 1st, 2012)