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Carrie, a review by Dragonfire

Carrie

My Thoughts

I've seen this one a few times over the years, usually when it has turned up on television.  This was the first time I had watched it in years.  This one isn't as gory or as scary overall as most other horror movies, though I do think this one has a scene that is one of the scariest ever.  It still makes me jump a bit, and I freak when it is recreated in other movies too.  The plot is interesting and Carrie being tormented in school is perfectly believable.  Some of the scenes start off a bit sweet and then something shocking happens that changes the mood completely.  There is a really sweet scene with Carrie and Tommy later in the movie..then just minutes later all hell is breaking loose.  That brief moment of sweetness makes what happens even more tragic.  There isn't any mystery to the movie and really not much suspense, but it is still very entertaining.

The characters work very well.  Carrie really isn't a bad or evil character.  She is just pushed too far and she snaps and ends up using her new ability in a not so good way.  Sissy Spacek is wonderful in the part, especially later in the movie when Carrie has snapped.  She gets this look on her face that still freaks me out a bit.  It fits perfectly for what is going on with the character at that point.  Carrie's mother Margaret is an overly religious woman who sees sin lurking everywhere.  The woman is clearly missing most of her marbles and the way she treats her daughter is horrible.  Piper Laurie is great in the part.  The other characters don't stand out as much to me, but the cast is all good in the parts. 

Some of the shots and effects look a bit dated now, but overall the movie has held up very well.  The majority of the movie deals with how horrible groups of kids can treat others in high school, which is very believable.  The stuff with Carrie having powers is a smaller aspect even though it does end up playing a large part in what is going on.



I did get a review posted on Epinions if anyone wants to take a look.

Carrie

(From Dragonfire's Halloween/Horror Marathon 2009 on October 4th, 2009)

Circus World, a review by GSyren

Title	Circus World (5-709165-114021)
Director	Henry Hathaway
Actors	John Wayne, Claudia Cardinale, Rita Hayworth, Lloyd Nolan, Richard Conte
Produced	1964 in United States
Runtime	135 minutes
Audio	English Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles	Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish
Overview	Matt Masters (John Wayne) is a circus owner who has to start from scratch when his ship sinks in the Barcelona harbour. Starting up a Wild West act, he takes under his wing Toni Alfredo (Claudio Cardinale), a trapeze artist whose mother Lili (Rita Hayworth) has abandoned her. Seeking Lili out in a Hamburg bar, Masters obtains her a job in the circus anonymously, so that she can get to know her daughter.
My thoughts	Samuel Bronston + Henry Hathaway + John Wayne = A great film, right? Well, that's what I thought when I went to see it the opening week in London in July 1964. Unfortunately it's not a great film. It's hardly even a good film. I wouldn't go so far as to say that it's a bad film, though. The main problem with this film is the script. Plus it's too long. It takes a good script to sustain a movie for 2 hours and 15 minutes. And with the exception of the fire sequence, this film is not very exciting. The capsizing of the circus ship is nicely done, but unfortunately comes off as rather unrealistic, I think. Several plot point are just left unfinished or unexplained. Who put up the poster and the article in Cardinale's wagon? How did the fire start? What happened with the lion tamer was talked into switching to tigers by his wife? Most of the actors are OK, but John Wayne doesn't get much to do. No fights, no shooting (except show shooting). Rita Hayworth doesn't appear until an hour into the film. Claudia Cardinale looks gorgeous, but it's a bit hard to understand why her character would sport a French accent if she had grown up with Wayne in the US. Seeing it again 50 years later with lower expectations I find it moderately entertaining. Three stars is probably more than it deserves, but I'll give it that because I liked Claudia Cardinale so much.
My rating

(From Reviews and ramblings by Gunnar on April 9th, 2014)

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

Synopsis: Sisko has been on the hunt for Eddington for over eight months now and he has always escaped. Now Starfleet is assigning another starship to the case. But then Eddington and the Maquis start to poison the atmosphere of cardassian-inhabited planets within the demilitarized zone and he disables the other ship and that brings Sisko back on the playing field.

My Opinion: This episode has been widely discussed due to Sisko's decision to use the same methods as Eddington did (he poisened a Maquis planet). I am not really comfortable with his choice but on the other hand he knew exactly that he would get Eddington and the bio weapons this way and it was predictable for him that chances of casualties were slim.
Sadly in a few episodes nothing of this will have any meaning anymore, when the Dominion crushes the Maquis and the great war starts.

Synopsis: Garak receives a signal from the missing Enabran Tain (former head of the Obsidian Order and missing since he tried to wipe out the Founders) and Sisko sends him and Worf to investigate the source of the signal. But in their attempt to avoid any contact with the Dominion they run directly into a fleet hidden in a nebula near the wormhole. They can warn the station but become prisoners.

My Opinion: If I had to name an episode where the Dominion War starts, I'd name this two-parter. I really liked the scenes between Worf and Garak in the shuttle and I liked to see Martok again who will play a much larger role from now on.

Synopsis: In the internment camp they find Tain and General Martok - and Dr. Bashir. Martok has been here for over two years, Bashir for a month. And the Bashir on the station is a changeling who sabotages any attempt to prevent the Dominion fleet from coming through the wormhole. But the fleet doesn't attack, it takes course to Cardassia, the newest member in the Dominion. And Bashir, Worf, Garak and Martok try to escape their prison.

My Opinion: When I saw that episode for the first time, it came as a surprise to me that Dukat had switched sides again. But then again, it has been in his character since the first episode. Always trying to be on the winning side. I also liked that the Khitomer Accords have been revived - the Klingons and the Federation are allies again. And even the Romulans helped defend the station.
To quote Gandalf: "The board is set. The pieces are moving. We come to it at last, the great battle of our time."

Synopsis: The inventor of the Emergency Medical Hologram "EMH" (the most famous instance of that program is running on the USS Voyager in the Delta Quadrant) Dr. Zimmerman comes to DS9. He wants to create a longterm version of that hologram and Dr. Bashir was selected to be the human template. But when Dr. Zimmerman interviews the people in Bashirs life it comes out that Bashir has been genetically enhanced by his parents and that is forbidden under Federation law since the days of Khan Noonien Singh.

My Opinion: Although I doubt that they had the idea of Bashir being genetically enhanced before they wrote this script, it doesn't contradict what we know about Bashir. Later he even explains that he choose to become only Salutatorian in his class instead of Valedictorian. He wanted to be good but not that good to get too much attention. But except for a few selected episodes his changed history has basically no impact on his further character developement.
But the episode itself was good, I liked Zimmerman's appearance and the whole interview and creating the LMH part. I also liked the reference to Khan and the Eugenics Wars.

(From Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Marathon on January 31st, 2009)