DVD Collectors Online

The Reaping, a review by addicted2dvd

I didn't feel like waiting for the weekend so....


The Reaping


My Thoughts:
When I bought this movie yesterday (Wednesday) it was a complete blind buy. I never even seen the trailer to it. But it was cheap... and the back of the case sounds like a good movie. One that reminded me of the short lived TV Series Miracles... which I enjoyed quite a bit. So I bought it before doing any research on it what so ever. Absolutely no more then an impulse buy. Once I got home with it the first thing I did was watch the trailer online. This was very promising... looked like something I would enjoy... and my expectations started to grow. Then I went to read some online reviews of the movie. It seemed most all reviewers was disappointed with this movie. And with that my expectations went done somewhat.

So I finally decide to watch it and see for myself just how good or bad this movie is. For me... This is a decent movie. Maybe slightly above average. But it is not even as good as I was actually expecting from the back cover blurb and trailer. The movie has a good story which I do believe could have been better. And it has some great visual effects. The movie did look pretty amazing. I think Hilary Swank did a pretty good job in this movie... but she has definitely done better in previous movies... so is not her best work. I also think the story over-did it with the flashbacks. OK... some was necessary... like explaining what happen to Katherine's daughter years before. But why the need to show flashbacks of what we actually did see previously in the movie? Do they think we would forget what happen? I won't say I am sorry I bought this movie... as it definitely wasn't terrible... and it was cheap. But I don't think it is one I will watch often. Though who knows... I may enjoy it a bit more on a second viewing... that has happened before.


Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJmoEPwudN0

(From Movie Marathon on March 12th, 2009)

The Hourglass Sanatorium, a review by goodguy

The Hourglass Sanatorium (PL 1973) Written & Directed by: Wojciech J. Has, based on short stories by Bruno Schulz Starring: Jan Nowicki DVD: R0-UK Mr. Bongo Films (2008) My rating:

Cover Blurb: Adapted from the 1937 collection of stories by Polish author Bruno Schulz; Sanitorium Under The Sign Of The Hourglass, Wojciech Has's 1973 film version follows the journey of a young man, Joseph (Jan Nowicki), as he visits his dying father in a mysterious sanatorium. Joseph comes to realise that time itself behaves very strangely inside the walls of the asylum, and he soon finds himself immersed in a web of memories, fantasies and visions - which express the longings and frustrations of his childhood.
The film contains crazed scenes of Jews dancing together and many of the residents appear dressed as giant birds. For his part, Schulz was widely seen as Poland's answer to Kafka, he was eventually murdered by Hitler's SS army during the Nazi occupation of Poland.
A surrealist headspin, this film has been compared to the best works of Terry Gilliam, Peter Greenaway, and Luis Bunuel...

I'm glad I bought both of Has' movies together, because, while I liked "The Saragossa Manuscript" well enough, I might not have given another of his movies a try afterwards. But with this one we truly are in the realm of the surreal and the weird. While the transitions between stories in "The Saragossa Manuscript" were clearly marked, this is not the case here. The protagonist moves as seamlessly between fragments of his memories as he moves between places that cannot possibly be connected. The structure is dreamlike, but never feels arbitrary, even if one has difficulties making heads or tails of what the hell is going on. I greatly enjoyed this, but a second viewing is definitely required to make more sense of it.


(From goodguy's Watch Log on July 7th, 2010)

Xena: Warrior Princess Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

Synopsis: Xena intervenes in an old feud between two kingdoms that is fuelled by the weapons dealer profiting from it. He kidnapped the princess and blamed it on the other kingdom. Within his ranks Xena finds Marcus, an old friend of hers who still travels the road she's left.

My Opinion: It was an OK episode, but Marcus's sacrifice at the end was a bit unconvincing. Granted they prepared for it in that conversation between him and Xena, but he was just fighting her because he did not want to change his way of living.

Synopsis: Ares, God of War, slaughters some innocent villagers and blames it on Xena. The surviving villagers want to bring her to trial and then execute her. Ares could help her - if she comes back to him. Gabrielle tries to defend her and prove her innocence but is being sabotaged in her efforts.

My Opinion: Even though the episode introduced the cool Kevin Smith (they are both cool, but this is not the fat one! ) as Ares, the episode didn't work for me. Even though she was innocent she surrendered to this trial just because she has a dark past. And it looked like as if she might have let them kill her. That's BS in my eyes.

Synopsis: Gabrielle inadvertently releases three of the Titans when she recites and old chant in a huge cave hall. Amongst them is Hyperion, the Sun Titan, who is not very fond of Humans. At first they follow Gabrielle's command since they believe that only a powerful god could have released them. But Hyperion is impatient...

My Opinion: This episode I liked. It was cool to see Crius (one of the Titans) to follow Gabrielle's every wish and constantly calling her "the virgin goddess" and her getting annoyed by it (especially the "virgin" part ). I also thought they did the handling of the height difference pretty decently. The special effects in the show aren't the best but here they managed it to look pretty convincingly.

Synopsis: Hera, wife of Zeus and mother of the gods, has put Prometheus in chains. This means that mankind will slowly lose all gifts Prometheus has given them. Starting with the ability to heal and the ability to utilize fire. Both Xena & Gabrielle and Hercules & Iolaus try to free him again.

My Opinion: This was a cool episode, seeing the four of them together (I think it's the only time it ever happens). And while it was unlikely (due to the time frame) that Hercules told Xena about Prometheus and his chains I didn't care. I liked how they found "a solution" to free him without the need to sacrifice one of them and I liked how Iolaus and Gabrielle came closer.

(From Xena: Warrior Princess Marathon on December 2nd, 2009)