DVD Collectors Online

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, a review by dfmorgan

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

Year: 2001
Director: Hironobu Sakaguchi
Cast: Ming-Na, Alec Baldwin, Ving Rhames
Overview: The year is 2065. A meteor has crashed into Earth unleashing millions of alien creatures who roam the earth, decimating field and city alike, threatening to extinguish life itself. Prepare to be spellbound by an amazing woman, the brave individuals at her side and an astouning mission to save the Earth - all in cutting-edge CGI!

Watched: 4th. Sep 2010
My Thoughts: Upon release this film set the benchmark for CGI animation and when I watched the DVD in late 2001 I was blown away. Now rewatching on Blu-ray Disc I find that it is still an enjoyable film with the Blu generally adding to the picture but some bits seem flat. The hair flicking around and other such effects still stood the test but the facial expressions and much of the background seemed to me to be flat in comparison. The dream sequences though appeared a tad sharper especially with the shot from beneath Dr. Aki standing in the puddle.

My Rating: An enjoyable 3

Dave

(From Dave's DVD/Blu-ray Reviews on September 5th, 2010)

Mimi wo Sumaseba , a review by dfmorgan

Mimi wo Sumaseba (1995/Japan) (Japan) Director: Yoshifumi Kondo Writing: Aoi Hiiragi (Original Material By), Hayao Miyazaki (Screenwriter) Length: 111 min. Video: Widescreen 1.85:1 Audio: Japanese: PCM: 2-Channel Stereo, Japanese: DTS-HD Master Audio: 5.1, English: DTS: 5.1, German: DTS: 5.1, Cantonese: DTS: 5.1, Mandarin: Dolby Digital: Dolby Surround, Korean: Dolby Digital: 2-Channel Stereo Subtitles: Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean

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Stars:
Youko Honna as Shizuku Tsukishima (Voice)
Kazuo Takahashi as Seiji Amasawa (Voice)
Takashi Tachibana as Yasunari Tsukishima, Shizuku's father (Voice)
Shigeru Muroi as Asako Tsukishima, Shizuku's mother (Voice)
Yorie Yamashita as Shiho Tsukishima, Shizuku's older sister (Voice)

Plot:Extras:

Sorry to repeat but another wonderful upgrade. I hadn't noticed it before but there was a framing error with the end titles on the R1 DVD in which a little bit of follow up action on a bridge wasn't clearly shown. That problem does not exist in this copy. I quite like the case that these Japanese Studio Ghibli Collection Blu-rays come in and if it wasn't for the price I would be sorely tempted to replace my existing UK Optimum Blu-rays.

Original DVD review is here

(From Ghibli Blu's on July 31st, 2011)

Tom's TV Pilots marathon, a review by Tom

Tru Calling: The Complete Series (2003/United States) IMDb | Wikipedia Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment (United Kingdom) Length: 1093 min. Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78 Audio: English: Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround, Commentary: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles: English, Commentary, Swedish

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Plot:
What if you had the power to change the future by reliving the past? For Tru Davies, that's the question she faces after her internship to medical school falls through and she takes a job working the graveyard shift at the city morgue. Left alone her first night on the job, she's shocked when a dead woman opens her eyes and asks for help. Tru then awakens to find herself reliving the same day all over again, except now she possesses the power to change the fate of the people wheeled into the morgue the night before-if she can find them before tragedy strikes.

Tru Calling
Season 1.01 Pilot
Writer: Jon Harmon Feldman (Original Characters By), Jon Harmon Feldman (Writer)
Director: Phillip Noyce
Cast: Eliza Dushku (Tru Davies), Shawn Reaves (Harrison Davies), Zach Galifianakis (Davis), A. J. Cook (Lindsay Walker), Jessica Collins (Meredith Davies), Kristoffer Polaha (Mark Evans), Hudson Leick (Rebecca Morgan), Heath Freeman (Cameron), John Haymes Newton (Aaron McCann), Vincent Laresca (Marco), Callum Keith Rennie (Elliott Winter), Brenda Campbell (Allison Evans), Ingrid Tesch (Carol Winter), Sherry Thorson (Mother), Victoria Anderson (Meredith (Age 15)), Victoria Tennant (Tru (Age 12)), Rick Tae (Card Player #1), Phoenix Ly (Mr. Chiang), Jacqueline Ann Steuart (Nurse), Kurt Evans (Priest), Chaka White (Lotto Woman), Woody Jeffreys (Gary), Robert Wisden (Dr. Green)

I still would have preferred if Eliza Dushku had done a Faith spin-off series of Buffy. But she chose to do this series instead. My guess is that she wanted to avoid being type-cast as a "bad girl".
The pilot is okay but not really exciting. Like the rest of the series. Though I haven't seen it completely yet. I stopped watching during the first season when it originally aired. I recently bought the complete series cheap and couldn't resist buying it anyway.

Rating:


(From Tom's TV Pilots marathon on November 12th, 2012)