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Alphaville, a review by GSyren

Title	Alphaville (5-060034-578826)
Director	Jean-Luc Godard
Actors
Produced	1965 in France
Runtime	95 minutes
Audio	French Dolby Digital Mono
Subtitles	English
Overview	Written and directed by Godard, Alphaville is the strangely beautiful futuristic tale of Lemmy caution, an American private eye sent to a planet ruled by Von Braun, a malevolent scientist who has outlawed human emotions in favour of logic. The film deals with the fight between individualism in the face of inhumanity and blind conformity, and won the Golden Bear award at the Berlin Film Festival in 1965.
My thoughts	I didn't appreciate Godard when I was young back in the sixties. I have been avoiding Alphaville for almost 50 years. I thought that perhaps I had matured enough to appreciate it. I was wrong. To me, watching Alphaville is like watching an surrealistic painting. I may understand the general meaning of the work, but I don't understand the details, and the whole just doesn't resonate with me. Maybe I'm just too stuck in logic. Maybe the details overshadow the whole. I don't know. Alphaville is, as far as I can understand, supposed to take place in the near future. From 1965, when it was made. And yet pretty much everything in it just screams 1960's; the technology, the cars, the designs, everything. Possibly there is a point to that which escapes me. It would be utterly foolish of me to say that Alphaville is a bad movie. Its reputation speaks for itself. I just have to say that it's not a movie that appealed to me at all.
My rating

(From Reviews and ramblings by Gunnar on April 24th, 2014)

The Killing of America, a review by Jimmy

Title: The Killing of America (1982)

Genre: Documentary
Director: Sheldon Renan           
Rating: Unrated
Length: 1h31
Video: Full Frame
Audio: English
Subtitles: No Subtitles

Stars:
Chuck Riley - Narrator   

Before I start my review I will be honest with you, I've not wrote a review for so long and my last one was so bad that I feel a lot of pressure this time. But I'm not here for that so here we go with the review.

I've decided for this one to go with one genre that I don't think that I've reviewed here : the documentary. I have some of them in my collection, but not that much (many mondo movie, the faces of death serie, the first 3 of Michael Moore, ...) and one that I can't really name as a documentary that show footage of people death (this is the only movie in my collection that I'm not able to watch. I've bought it to shock my relatives, but finally this one is too much for me). The movie that I review here was made for the Japanese market after the success of the first Faces of Death (a rites of passage for all the teenagers when I was young). But there are no real comparison between the two : much of FOD is fake. So what we see in the movie is real, I'm sure that some find that it will be a bad taste documentary. Surprise, this is a very well done movie about the culture of violence in the United States. The film start with the assasination of John Kennedy that are the end of the innocence for the country (I tend to agree with that). That continue with the mention of many others political murder : Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy, Georges Wallace, Ronald Reagan (I know he was not murdered). After they continue with an analysis of many others tendancy : the sniper (Charles Whitman), the serial killer (Ted Bundy), the cult murder (Jim Jones) and the random killer (Brenda Spencer). Most of the footage came from the tv station or the police, except for 2 interviews : Thomas Noguchi (a well known LA coroner) and, a particulary good one, with Ed Kemper (a serial killer). Some of the footage can be hard to watch for some viewers (we talk of dead person here), but like I've said most of the image came from the news.

The documentary is more neutral than Bowling for Colombine that covers the same subject. The director didn't manipulate the image or the editing to convince the viewer, he present the facts and let the archives do the talking.

Sure, he mentions that the guns culture are a part of the problem (even the most gun crazy guy can agree with that) but not the only one. Another part of the problem is the media themselves (the more they talk about those murders the more they happen). Just to quote one of the killer (Robert Smith) that have killed many women in a beauty school when he was caught : I want to be somebody, I want to be known.

The film end with the John Lennon memorial at Central Park when we learn that 2 person were killed. To leave us on a positive note at the end the narrator told us that five people were killed while we were watching the documentary. This movie was made more than 20 years ago and sadly this is worst than ever. Even in a little town like where I live we don't feel secure, not that a murder happen everyday but more and more crime happen.       

The bad thing is that this movie is not available at all in America, my copy is a bootleg but it was released in Europe many years ago on dvd. Since I don't want to end my review with a bad news : the movie is available on youtube (can't understand since they have closed my account for a couple of trailer ).

Rating :

Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9FtOlVp5wo

(From The little known movie review depot on September 3rd, 2008)

Charmed Marathon, a review by addicted2dvd

"Animal Pragmatisrn"
Original Airdate: February 10, 2000
When Phoebe's friends use a book of spells to turn animals into men, Phoebe's attempt to reverse the spell goes horribly wrong.

My Thoughts:
This episode is nothing more then a done for fun Valentines Day episode. And yes it is a fun episode. I did like how they got around normal people pulling off a spell that only a witch could do.

"Pardon My Past"
Original Airdate: February 17, 2000
Phoebe risks her life by travelling back in time in order to reverse the past in which she was seduced by an immortal warlock to give into the dark side of her power.

My Thoughts:
This was a good episode... another one where we are reminded that Phoebe could turn either good or evil.

"Give Me A Sign"
Original Airdate: February 24, 2000
When criminal mastermind Bane Jessup (Antonio Sabato, Jr.) narrowly escapes an attack by a powerful demon, he kidnaps Prue and forces her to use her powers to save him.

My Thoughts:
Nothing really special about this episode. Bane is back... no big deal to me... I didn't care for him the first time. Piper stress over if she should be with Dan or Leo.

"Murphy's Luck"
Original Airdate: March 30, 2000
When Prue rescues a woman who has been driven to attempt suicide by a Darklighter, she finds herself his next tormented victim.

My thoughts:
This is a good episode... but not great. Prue goes hunting for a job as a photographer. Saves girl being tormented by a Darklighter... Darklighter turns his wrath on Prue.  The only really big thing for this episode is not only does Piper make up her mind who she wants to be with... but Leo becomes a whitelighter once again.

(From Charmed Marathon on March 2nd, 2008)