DVD Collectors Online

Isle of the Dead, a review by Jon

Isle of the Dead
3 out of 5

Greece, 1912. A general (Boris Karloff) and a war correspondent (Marc Cramer) are on an island primarily used as a cemetery. They are trapped with a typically mixed group of people by a plague. Worse, an old woman is convinced a girl in their party is a vorvolaka, a type of vampire.

Isle of the Dead? Vampires? I thought I'd be in for a treat with this one. Sadly it's quite pedestrian, directed by Mark Robson, who seems responsible for all the weaker entries. Even then, like Seventh Victim and Ghost Ship, it does have it's good points and they are very good indeed. For the most part it's rather bogged down in a predictable group of characters trapped in quarantine. The old lady who owns the house is convinced one of them, a girl, is a vampiric creature, feeding on her sickly mistress. Most of the others think she is just superstitious, especially Karloff's no nonsense general. He's a great character, appearing cruel, nostalgic or sensibly efficient at any given moment.

The point of the story is watching the general cave in to madness and plague, leading him to believe the old woman. Therefore he becomes the danger, yet still the faithful "Watchdog", being cruel to the few to protect the many. It's very clever, but because we can see he's being misled, there is little for us to be scared of really. That is until the last act when one of the number is buried alive! The lead up to this is wonderful and worthy of a Hitchcock twist. Then there is tense scene in a crypt which ends with a cracking shot that sends a shiver down your spine. 1945! Who needs cgi? Just very clever photography.

Overall it's about faith versus science and how both can blind or enlighten, given the right situation. It's just a shame there wasn't more tension for the first 40 minutes or so.

(From Val Lewton Horror Marathon on October 7th, 2008)

Shoot First, Die Later, a review by GSyren

Title	Shoot First Die Later (816018-010531)
Director	Fernando Di Leo
Actors	Luc Merenda, Richard Conte, Delia Boccardo, Raymond Pellegrin, Gianni Santuccio
Produced	1974 in Italy
Runtime	94 minutes
Audio	Italian PCM Mono, English PCM Mono
Subtitles	English
Overview	Desperately sought after and never before released worldwide Rarovideo is proud to be releasing the tough, exciting, dramatically potent, well acted and action packed film, Shoot first, Die Later which is known as one of the most impressive Italian crime/police movies ever made. Luc Merenda gives the performance of his career as a highly regarded police detective who is taking syndicate money in exchange for departmental favors. His father, a simple man, also works for the department but on a lower rung; he isn't jealous of his son, but rather proud of him, little knowing that he's a crooked cop. A series of events leads the young detective to ask his father for a favor (he wants a certain police report that is desired by the syndicate) and it doesn't take long for the detective's father to realize his son is on the take... which leads to numerous complications.
My thoughts	I'm glad they didn't translate the original title of this film literally into English, because it contains a spoiler. But since the overview already let the cat out of the bag, so to speak, I guess I can reveal it. translates into The cop is rotten. The film starts out looking like a standard Italian crime movie, with a robbery and a pretty exciting car chase. But eventually it turns into more of a drama when we realize that the good cop isn't so good, and things start to get ugly. It's quite a bit more bleak than the usual spaghetti crime thriller, but despite that - or perhaps because of that - it's a pretty good movie. Ideally you should watch this in Italian (with English subtitles, if needed), but the English dubbing is for the most part quite good. The subtitles seem to be transcribed from the English dialog rather than a translation of the Italian dialog. Since I don't speak Italian I can't tell how much they differ. This is my only movie directed by Fernando Di Leo, but it makes me want to check out what else he has done.
My rating	3,5 out of 5

(From Reviews and ramblings by Gunnar on November 2nd, 2013)

Tom's TV Finales marathon, a review by Tom

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The Critic: The Complete Series (1994/United States) IMDb | Wikipedia Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment (United States) Length: 520 min. Video: Full Frame 1.33:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround, Commentary: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles:

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Plot:
From the producers of "The Simpsons" comes this hilarious animated sitcom about Jay, a New York movie critic and cable television host.

Pudgy and balding, Jay is not a well-liked man. His unsympathetic boss makes his life miserable, his ex-wife hates him, his adoptive parents barely tolerate him, and even the makeup lady treats him with disgust.

Fortunately for Jay, he has his 11-year-old son Marty and one very unlikely friend, Jeremy Hawke, the Australian film hunk.

Jon Lovitz provides Jay's distinctive voice as a single father who searches for happiness while satirizing life and the movies in this irreverent comedy.


The Critic
Season 1.23 I Can't Believe It's A Clip Show
Writer: Al Jean (Created By), Mike Reiss (Created By), Tom Brady (Writer), Richard Doctorow (Writer), Al Jean (Writer), Ken Keeler (Writer), Mike Reiss (Writer), Joshua Sternin (Writer), Steve Tompkins (Writer), Jeffrey Ventimilia (Writer), Patric Verrone (Writer), Jon Vitti (Writer)
Director: D.R.L. MacMoortler
Cast: Jon Lovitz (Jay Sherman), Nancy Cartwright (Margo Sherman), Christine Cavanaugh (Marty Sherman), Gerrit Graham (Franklin Sherman), Doris Grau (Doris Grossman), Judith Ivey (Eleanor Sherman), Nick Jameson (Vlada Villamiravitch), Maurice LaMarche (Jeremy Hawke), Charles Napier (Duke Phillips), Park Overall (Alice Tompkins), Kath Soucie, Russi Taylor (Penny Tompkins), Milton Berle, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

A good episode with some fun movie parodies.

Rating:

(From Tom's TV Finales marathon on April 16th, 2013)