DVD Collectors Online

Hot Shots!, a review by DJ Doena

August, 14th


Charlie Sheen    ...    Lt. Topper Harley
Cary Elwes   ...    Lt. Kent Gregory
Valeria Golino   ...    Ramada Thompson
Lloyd Bridges   ...    Adm. Thomas 'Tug' Benson
Kevin Dunn   ...    Lt. Cmdr. James Block
Jon Cryer   ...    Jim 'Wash Out' Pfaffenbach
William O'Leary   ...    Pete 'Dead Meat' Thompson
Kristy Swanson   ...    Kowalski
Efrem Zimbalist Jr.   ...    Wilson

Synopsis: In this parody of Top Gun (amongst many others) Topper Harley is a Navy fighter pilot who has mental issues - especially when someone compares him to his father. He and his wing serves on the carrier S.S. Essess and it's their task to destroy a nuclear plant of Saddam Hussein's. But there are also saboteurs who want to prove the ineffectiveness of the current Navy planes in order to sell them new ones.

My Opinion: While I still enjoyed this movie very much, I had very few laugh-out-loud moments. There were more sentimental smiles every time I recognized the movie that was spoofed in this scene. But what I found very amusing was to see "Alan Harper" (Two and a Half Men) as 'Wash Out'. I hadn't seen this movie since before I started to watch TaaHM. This was also the first time I watched this movie in English and have to say that there were some good puns in the German dubbing that weren't in the original and I was a bit disappointed. I was like "I wonder what the original version of 'Mach 1, Mach 2, Mach 3, Mach Feierabend!' or 'Heb nicht ab vom Acker ohne deinen Tacker!' will be." and then there was ... nothing.

(From DJ Doena's movie watchings 2009 on August 19th, 2009)

THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: Rescue at Sea, a review by Antares

THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: Rescue at Sea (1999) 95/100 - This was an utterly fascinating episode of this fantastic program. I had never heard of the Republic/Florida disaster of 1909 and when one juxtaposes this incredible rescue with what would transpire three years later to the Titanic, it makes that calamity all the more tragic. Guglielmo Marconi's wireless transmitter would forever change the way ships communicated to land. Prior to Marconi, the only way to get a message ashore was to use either semaphore, or carrier pigeons. Once a ship was over a hundred miles from shore, the pigeon's limit, they were unable to communicate with land. When the RMS Republic and the Lloyd Italiano liner SS Florida collided in the pre-dawn hours of January 23rd, 1909, the fate of the passengers on both ships would be decided by the new invention, just coming to the forefront of day to day life. Marconi operator Jack Binns, would man his station at the wireless for close to 20 hours, communicating and guiding the RMS Baltic to the scene of the accident. In the cold, foggy air of his wireless cabin, he refused to take rest and stayed at his post until the Baltic arrived. All the while that the Baltic was looking for the Republic, the crew ferried all of its passengers to the Florida, which although damaged, was in better shape than the Republic. Mid-ocean transfers were extremely dangerous and after enduring this perilous trip, they would be once more ferried from the Florida to the Baltic. Throughout the ordeal, only 6 people were killed, and they met their demise when the two ships collided. It has to be considered one of the most amazing rescues in the annuls of maritime history. Sadly, for the passengers of the RMS Titanic, the rescue was so successful that a false sense of security blanketed the maritime world, as it was now thought that great loss of life in ship disasters were a thing of the past.

But the story doesn't end there. After arriving in New York City, Binns would be thrust upon the stage of notoriety. He was given a ticker tape parade, plays and songs were written about him and a film by Biograph would force Binns to sue them for defamation. When he told newspaper reporters how he slowly sipped scotch whiskey during his 20 hours of transmitting, to keep warm, the recreated character in the Biograph film looked drunk. Binns would win a sizable award and went back to his job at Marconi. Fate would once more shine brightly upon Binns, when in 1912, he was scheduled to be the wireless operator on the RMS Titanic, but turned down the assignment to get married.

Teal = Masterpiece
Dark Green = Classic or someday will be
Lime Green = A good, entertaining film
Orange = Average
Red = Cinemuck
Brown = The color of crap, which this film is

(From Antares' Short Summations on December 5th, 2014)

My PILOT Marathon, a review by Rich

RED DWARF - SERIES 1 - PILOT - THE END



First aired: 2/15/1988   
Aboard the Jupiter Mining Corporation vessel Red Dwarf, Dave Lister, a lowly 3rd Technician, smuggles aboard a cat and is consequently confined to suspended animation for a severe violation of ship's regulations.
During his time in stasis his bunkmate Arnold Rimmer, an equally, if not more lowly 2nd Technician, is forced to perform the maintenance duties alone and inefficiently repairs a drive plate, causing it to fail and subjecting the entire crew to deadly radiation that kills them all almost instantly. 3 million years pass until Holly (the ship's computer) decides the radiation levels have lowered sufficiently and releases Lister from stasis and tells him of the accident and also resurrects Rimmer as a hologram to be a companion for Lister. After the initial shock, Lister realizes that he has the run of the ship, allowing him to be, basically, himself: a lazy, easygoing slob without a care in the world. In addition, Rimmer and Lister discover that his cat was pregnant, and had been sealed in the ship's hold during the accident and her descendants have bred there for the last 3 million years and have evolved into a humanoid, only one of whom is still on the ship. When he discovers his new friend, Lister decides to complete his dream of owning a farm on Fiji and orders Holly to set a course for Earth. THE BEGINNING!

I knew I would hate this, purchased the set for a friend but have never enjoyed the few episodes I've seen over the years. The humour is written for adolescents and students, and just wasn't funny (to me). Craig Charles is such a fake and a tosser this pilot never had a fighting chance with me. The best part was when everyone died, shame they didn't stay that way.
I'm sure this series gets better hence the volume produced, but it will be a long time before I sit down to view more of it.





(From My PILOT Marathon on May 19th, 2008)