DVD Collectors Online

The Creature From the Black Lagoon, a review by Danae Cassandra

The Creature From the Black Lagoon
Year of Release: 1954
Directed By: Jack Arnold
Starring: Richard Carlson, Julia Adams, Richard Denning
Genre: Horror, Science-Fiction

Overview:
Who knows what undiscovered life forms inhabit the bodies of water on our planet? When scientists exploring the Amazon River stumble on a "missing link" connecting humans and fish, they plan to capture it for later study. But the creature has plans of its own, inspired by the lead scientist's (Richard Carlson) beautiful fianceé, Kay (Julie Adams). This classic thriller is a genuine tribute to imaginative storytelling and an exceptional showcase for the legendary makeup artistry of Bud Westmore.

My Thoughts:
If the hallmark of a great creature feature is when you root for the creature, than this is surely one of the greatest.  Here we have the gill-man, a survivor of an ancient race, whose home is invaded by scientists who wish to capture, or kill him, in the name of furthering human knowledge.  Yet he recognizes that they are more like himself than the other creatures around him, and have a female with them - perhaps the only female that he has encountered close to himself.  It's easy to root for him - especially when the scientists are mostly so arrogant. 

The makeup and prosthetics work is impressive.  The Creature is perhaps the most impressive looking of Universal's classic monsters.  There is so much detail and work that went into him, that the film gets a star simply for the design of The Creature.  Add in the good script, good cinematography, great location shooting, and well done acting, even if the only female character is incredibly one note (the absolute classic damsel in distress), this is a film I would heartily recommend to any lover of monster movies. 

Bechdel Test: Fail

Overall: 3.75/5

(From Danae's 2013 Horror Marathon on October 25th, 2013)

Ex Machina, a review by addicted2dvd

Ex Machina (2015/United States) IMDb |Wikipedia |Trailer | Lionsgate (United States) Director: Alex Garland Writing: Alex Garland (Writer) Length: 108 min. Video: Widescreen 2.40:1 Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio: 7.1, English: DTS: 5.1, English: DTS: 2-Channel Stereo Subtitles: English, Spanish

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Stars:
Domhnall Gleeson as Caleb
Corey Johnson as Jay
Oscar Isaac as Nathan
Alicia Vikander as Ava
Sonoya Mizuno as Kyoko

Plot:Extras:

• Scene Access
• Featurettes
• Digital Copy

This film is definitely a must see. It is a fascinating film that keeps your attention with ease. The visual effects are just amazingly gorgeous. I feel the cast and crew did a wonderful job... and without giving too much away... I really liked the way they decided to end the film. I highly recommend this one.



(From August Movie Marathon: Radical Robotics on August 13th, 2017)

Tom's Random Reviews, a review by Tom

Title: Full Metal Panic!: The Second Raid
Year: 2005
Rating: NR
Length: 325 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78
Audio: English: Dolby Digital Stereo , English: Dolby Digital 5.1 , Japanese: Dolby Digital Stereo , Japanese: Dolby Digital 5.1 , Commentary: Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles: Commentary, English

Plot:
It's tough to keep your grades up without having to take off at a moment's notice to save the world. But for Sousuke Sagara, undercover high school student and member of the mercenary group Mithril, life in Tokyo seemed the same as always. But underneath the promising exterior spin the wheels of a conspiracy that threaten to destroy the peace. A new threat has arisen: Amalgam.

An unknown element with advanced mech technology, this mysterious organization has been running things from behind the scenes. As dissension spreads throughout the ranks of Mithril, Sousuke faces his own internal struggle. Spread thin between schoolwork and war, the powers that be have decided to lighten his load... beginning with Kaname!

Life and death hang in the balance as the clash between good and evil scale new heights. When the smoke clears, Sousuke's path will be the one that he forges for himself.

Extras:
Bonus Episode 000; Bonus OVA; Textless Songs
Commentary
Featurettes
Scene Access
Trailers

The third installment in the Full Metal Panic series. And what an emotional roller coaster ride!
Whereas the first series mixes a serious story-arc with light fun episodes, this series is mostly drama. Essentially a 180 to the previous (second) series FUMOFFU which was fun-only.

Also the extras on this DVD set a quite fun. A 7-part featurette where the original author and the series director are going location scouting in Hong Kong. Although it gets rather boring with the video footage, the two provide fun commentary to it, which seldomly has anything to do with the video footage.
Then we have audio commentaries for all episodes with the Japanese voice cast. Again, there are mostly talking about everything except about the episodes . But I enjoyed them nonetheless.

The best extra feature of course is the bonus episode centering around the Tessa character. Originally it was released in Japan on DVD-only one year after The Second Raid series. This episode is comedy pure!

Rating:


Here is something rather fun: The audio of the Spider-Man 2 trailer put to video footage from Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid
http://youtube.com/watch?v=mbFngmMz15o

(From Tom's Random Reviews on June 7th, 2008)