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The American Astronaut, a review by goodguy

The American Astronaut (2001) Written & Directed by: Cory McAbee Starring: Cory McAbee, Rocco Sisto, Greg Russell Cook, Annie Golden, James Ransone DVD: R0-US Facets (2005) My rating:

Cover Blurb: SPACE TRAVEL HAS BECOME A DIRTY WAY OF LIFE dominated by derelicts, grease monkeys, and hard-boiled interplanetary traders such as Samuel Curtis. Written, directed, and starring Cory McAbee of the legendary cult band The Billy Nayer Show, this sci-fi, musical western uses flinty black and white photography, rugged Lo-Fi sets and the spirit of the final frontier. We follow Curtis on his Homeric journey to provide the all-female planet of Venus with a suitable male, while pursued by an enigmatic killer, Professor Hess. The film features music by The Billy Nayer Show and some of the most original rock 'n' roll scenes ever committed to film.

When I said Star Trek it is not in the What'ya-got-thread, I didn't know the half of it. Described as a black & white sci-fi/western musical, I guess I expected something like "Firefly: The Musical", but even if you can picture that, it would still be way too conventional. And just to make note of it, the movie premiered in early 2001, nearly two years before Firefly.

Anyway. Words like eccentric, absurd, eclectic don't even begin to describe this oddity. The plot has Sam Curtis (played by Cory McAbee), a smuggler and the titular hero, do a complicated series of tradings in the hope to get rich. A black cat, a real-life-girl in a music box, and the-boy-who-saw-a-woman's-breast are the goods that are exchanged on a journey from Ceres to Jupiter to Venus, with a side-stop in an actual barn floating in space.

Still with me? The villain of the piece is Professor Hess (Rocco Sisto), who is also the narrator and has an unexplained history with our hero. Hess is a guy who kills without reason, which means, he can't kill you if he has one. Oh, and it's his birthday, as he likes to tell everyone.

The black & white visuals are as simple as they are stunning, with a strong expressionist touch. The special effects are decidedly lo-tech (a disintegrator pistol turns bodies into heaps of sand that are thrown from off-screen) and the space travel transitions are done via series of static paintings. The music numbers are probably best described as country-punk, mostly with nonsensical lyrics. It is absolutely exhilarating - if you are in that sort of thing. The performances are bold with a slightly amateurish feel, and I mean that in a good way.

The movie is an unbelievable and insane ride almost from beginning to end. It only fails to get full marks due to some really bad patches after the first hour, but it soon finds its footing again.

Trailer and Clip

Below are the trailer and a clip of the first song that happens in the movie (to give you an idea of the music numbers).






(From goodguy's Watch Log on January 6th, 2010)

Spider-Man 2, a review by addicted2dvd

Title: Spider-Man 2: Widescreen Special Edition
Year: 2004
Director: Sam Raimi
Rating: PG-13
Length: 127 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.40:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital: 5.1, English: Dolby Digital: Dolby Surround, French: Dolby Digital: 5.1, Spanish: Dolby Digital: Dolby Surround, Commentary: Dolby Digital: Dolby Surround, Commentary: Dolby Digital: Dolby Surround
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish, Trivia

Stars:
Tobey Maguire
Kirsten Dunst
James Franco
Alfred Molina
Rosemary Harris
J. K. Simmons

Plot:
Two years have passed since the mild-mannered Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) walked away from his longtime love Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) and decided to take the road to responsibility as Spider-Man. Peter must face new challenges as he struggles to cope with "the gift and the curse" of his powers while balancing his dual identities as the elusive superhero Spider-Man and life as a college student. The relationships Peter holds most dear are now in danger of unraveling as he clashes with the powerful, multi-tentacled villain Doctor Octopus aka "Doc Ock" (Alfred Molina).

Peter's life-long yearning for M.J. becomes even stronger as he fights the impulse to abandon his secret life and declare his love. In the meantime, M.J. has moved on with her life. She has embarked on an acting career and has a new man in her life. Peter's relationship with his best friend Harry Osborn (James Franco) has been overshadowed by Harry's growing vendetta against Spider-Man, whom he holds responsible for his father's death.

Peter's life becomes even more complicated when he is pitted against the powerful new nemesis, "Doc Ock." Peter must now learn to accept his fate and harness all his superhero talents in order to stop this diabolical madman in his octagonal tracks.

Extras:
Scene Access
Audio Commentary
Feature Trailers
Bonus Trailers
Featurettes
Gallery
Multi-angle
Music Videos
Outtakes/Bloopers
Closed Captioned
Trivia Track

My Thoughts:
Even though I still enjoyed this movie very much... I never cared for it as much as the first one.... almost... but not as much. I don't like the whole storyline of Peter Parker loosing his ability for a while. I don't like that so many people got to see Spider-Man without his mask on... which is something that I hate about all the Spider-Man movies. The only person that I can accept seeing him without his mask is Mary Jane. To me that felt right. But Doc Ock, Harry and the train full of people shouldn't have happened. Well maybe Harry as it was really needed for the storyline. But that is it. Even though they never said it in the movie... you also get the feeling that Aunt May also knows about Peter being Spider-Man. I did however really enjoy seeing him go up against Doc Ock. I thought they did a good job with him. I also like that we see Professor Connor. It is a shame they didn't let The Lizard be one of the supervillians in any of the Spider-Man movies... I always liked him.



(From Marvel Movie Marathon on June 25th, 2010)

Death Note anime/manga/movies comparison, a review by Tom

03. Dealings

This episode catches up with the missing scenes from the previous chapters and continues with the fifth chapter of the manga.

- we learn that the head of investigation of the Kira case is in fact Light's father (chapter 3)
- L and police find out, that the times, people are killed probably fits the non-school time of a student. Also that Kira needs to know the face of the victim (chapter 3)
- Light logs into the police computer with his father's password and finds out the status of the investigation (in the manga, Light learns the fact, that the police suspects a student doing the killing from his father during dinner, chapter 3)
- Light kills the next criminals at full hour intervals (when writing down the cause of death, he can specify a time) (chapter 3)
- L sees this as a proof, that Kira can manipulate time and is in fact aware of the police investigation. L sees this as challenge by Kira. (chapter 4)
- Light did this, to make L suspicious of the police and vice versa. He wants L to start investigating the police and expects the police to react negativelly to be investigated by someone, who doesn't even show his face. (chapter 4)
- investigation team members quitting because they fear to be killed by Kira (chapter 4)
- L has FBI agents following the family members of the police investigation team (chapter 5)
- Light finds out, that he is being followed (chapter 5)
- Light learns from Ryuk (the death god), that death gods write down the names of people in their death notes, to get the remaining years of the victim's life span added to their own. But this does not work for a human writing down the names. He also learns, that death gods can see the names and remaining life span of the people they are looking at. He offers light a deal. A death god's eyes in exchange of half of his remaining years. (chapter 5)


Movies: Everything happening in this episode also happens in the movie.


(From Death Note anime/manga/movies comparison on February 1st, 2009)