DVD Collectors Online

Secret Window, a review by addicted2dvd

TITLE: Secret Window YEAR: 2004 DIRECTOR: David Koepp LENGTH: 96min. PLOT:

My Thoughts:
This movie is very good. I enjoyed every second of it. I have seen this movie before... and I was actually as entranced by the movie this time as I was the first time I watched it. There is just something about this story that really sucks you in. They did a good job with the dvd as well... no audio/video problems.... and there is plenty of extras to keep you busy. Especially for a standard DVD Release. If you have not seen this movie yet... I highly recommend it.

(From Weekend Movie Marathon: Stephen King on July 27th, 2008)

The Golden Compass, a review by RossRoy

Original Title: The Golden Compass Year: 2007 Country: United Kingdom Director: Chris Weitz Rating: PG Length: 113 Min. Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital Surround EX, English: Dolby Digital Stereo, French: Dolby Digital 5.1 Subtitles: English, French

What they say
In a marvelous parallel world where witches soar the skies and Ice Bears rule teh frozen North, one special girl is destined to hold the fate of the universe in her hands.When Lyra Belacqua (Dakota Blue Richards) becomes the keeper of the Golden Compass, only she has the ability to read its portent messages and prevent her world - and all others - from slipping into an evil darkness.

My Thoughts
That was an underwhelming experience if there ever was one. Underused stars, overused child actor who obviously can't carry a movie alone, overused CGI, bland and routine direction, etc.

My main gripe about the movie though, is the lead child actress. Not that she's a bad actress or anything, but who the hell decided to greenlight a project where a child actor has to carry a whole movie with only 2 CGI animals as support? I've yet to see a single child actor who could pull that off.

And the animals.. Well, they are well animated and very well done. But the thing is, it is at times painfully obvious that there's nothing there. You'll see someone petting the animal, but not even touching it. Or, holding it in their arms, and it just becomes way too obvious.

The stars? Oh sure, you can put Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Ian McKellen, Christopher Lee, even Kathy Bates on the promo material and posters! But, each one of them is on screen for about, oh, 5 minutes each? And two of them are only doing voices anyway (Ian and Kathy)!

But it's a shame really. Because the story itself could have been so much more. It really feels like an introduction of this world, with little regards to an actual coherent story, in the hopes it'll prove "good enough" to warrant sequels that will actually tell the story. Thing is, they leave so much open, and so little actually happens here, I'm not even sure people would want to see a sequel.

Rating:

(From RossRoy's Random Viewings on July 24th, 2008)

Psych: The Complete Third Season, a review by addicted2dvd

Psych: The Complete Third Season (2008/United States)

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Stars:Extras:

• Audio Commentary
• Bonus Trailers
• Deleted Scenes
• Featurettes
• Outtakes/Bloopers

Last night I finished season 3 (and started Season 4)... I am still enjoying the series quite a bit... though I have found I am not laughing quite as much as I did over the first couple of seasons. There has been a gradual decline in the laugh out loud moments. But find it still well worth watching. There is a lot of good episodes this season... so had a hard time picking out a favorite episode of the season. But when it came down to it I had to pick An Evening wtih Mr. Yang which was the season finale. Not so much for any comedy in the episode... as there was very little. But because he went up against a serial killer. It especially got good once the serial killer got a hold of his mother.




(From Addicted2dvd's Random TV Series Watched on January 2nd, 2012)