DVD Collectors Online

Excalibur, a review by Eric

Excalibur




Summary:My Thoughts: To my defense for what I'm about to write I must remind everyone that I am not a fan of fantasy movies.  I do enjoy true masterpieces like LOTR but it's not a genre I am particularly fond of.  I totally hated the first 20 minutes of that movie, to me it was preposterous and I actually laughed a few times at what I thought was gonna be 2.5 hours of complete ridicule.

The first battle scene however caught my interest.  There you see men fighting with swords in their armors but unlike what we're used to in movies they're not all gracious and impressive in their movements.  On the contrary they are slow to move and react, they are always out of balance and falling after hitting an adversary because the weight of their armors and weapons pull them forward.  I really liked that because it look real, in the 13th century these armors were probably extremely heavy and knights must have had limited movements because of them.  From that point on I stopped lauging at it and decided to give it a chance.

Although I would probably not watch this again I have to say that I liked it, I found some parts of it pretty annoying and long but other parts totally kept my attention.  Especially when Helen Mirren comes into the picture.  The movie is made in a style that resembles a theater piece but I found most (if not all) the other actors and actresses to be poor at it.  Mirren however does a great performance and her character is credible, most of her scenes made me feel like I was watching a play.  She does exactly as it's supposed to be done, with this "lyrical" way of saying things that you would expect from a Shakespeare play.

As I have never read any writings about Arthur I cannot say whether this movie is close to the actual legend or not but it covers all I know of it including the sword in the stone, the query for the grail, Merlin and Morgana (Mirren) and the final battle with his own son.

I must however question the choice of some of the scores.  It it mostly well suited but in most of the scenes where you see Arthur and the Knights riding their horses on their way to battle they chose Carl Orf's Carmina Burana.  That really bothered me as I find it totally out of place both geographically and in its significance.

Carmina Burana are mostly drinking and dancing songs written in German, French, Latin and some English by the Goliards, a group of clergy, in protest to the growing contradictions in the church like the failures of the crusades and the financial abuses.  In my mind there is absolutely no relation whatsoever between those songs and an army of Knights riding to battle to defend their King which they believe was made such by God.

My score: , I'm sure most people who like the Fantasy genre would give it a

(From Eric's DVD watching. on June 1st, 2008)

The Hangover, a review by Critter

The Hangover



Year: 2009

Director: Todd Phillips

Cast: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Justin Bartha, Heather Graham, Jeffrey Tambor, Sasha Barrese. Mike Epps

Plot: A Las Vegas-set comedy centered around three groomsmen who lose their about-to-be-wed buddy during their drunken misadventures, then must retrace their steps in order to find him.

My Thoughts:My Rating:


(From Critter's Random DVD Watchings on March 6th, 2010)

Tom's TV Pilots marathon, a review by Tom

R.O.D: Read Or Die (2001/Japan) IMDb | Wikipedia Manga Entertainment (United Kingdom) Length: 99 min. Video: Full Frame 1.33:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, English: Dolby Digital 5.1, Japanese: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, Japanese: Dolby Digital 5.1 Subtitles: English

---

Plot:
The Library of Congress Never Planned for This!

A sinister plot is afoot and only one schoolteacher, a special agent with an affinity for literature, can stop it. She is Ms. Yomiko Readman - better known to her colleagues in Section A of Library Special Operations as "Agent Paper". Someone is bent upon procuring several rare lost Beethoven manuscripts and has somehow enlisted a few of history's most extraordinary personalities, through stolen DNA, to aid in the endeavour. Readman and her fellow super-powered operatives must tangle with the likes of Tokugawa-era scientist Gennai Hiraga, aviation pioneer Otto Lilienthal and 19th century entomologist Jean-Henri Fabre in a desperate race to find the books and save the World! Action and adventure abound in this thrilling anime series created by top-rate animation director Kouji Masunari. Contains the complete R.O.D series - three stunning 30-minute episodes!


R.O.D. - Read or Die
.01 Episode 1
Writer: Hideyuki Kurata (Created By), Taraku Uon (Original Characters By), Hideyuki Kurata (Screenwriter)
Director: Kouji Masunari
Cast: Japanese Cast), Rieko Miura (Yomiko Readman (The Paper) (voice)), Michiko Neya (Nancy Makuhari (Miss Deep) (voice)), Hozumi Gouda (Joker (voice)), Masami Iwasaki (Drake (voice)), Bunmei Tobayama (Gentleman (voice)), Mika Sakenobe (Wendy (voice)), Ryosuke Otani (Gennai Hiraga (voice)), Harii Kaneko (Otto Lilienthal (voice)), Kunihiko Takani (Fabre (voice)), Naoki Izumi (President (voice)), Hidefumi Takemoto (Paul (voice)), Yoshikazu Nagano (Malone (voice)), Koushi Shitazaki (SP (voice)), English Cast), Dave Herbelin (President (voice)), Dean Haglund (Gennai Hiraga (voice)), Kimberly Yates (Yomiko Readman (The Paper) (voice)), Amanda Winn Lee (Nancy Mukuhari (Miss Deep) (voice)), Douglas Rye (Jean-Henri Fabre (voice)), Crispin Freeman (Joker (voice)), Douglas Rye (Mr. Gentleman (voice)), Jaxon Lee (Drake Anderson (voice)), Scott MacDonnell (Recovery agent (voice)), Hal Lublin (Otto Lilienthal (voice)), Tricia Dickson (Wendy (voice)), Ryan Abraham (Additional Voices (voice)), Brooke Cadorette (Additional Voices (voice)), Sue Cremin (Additional Voices (voice)), Adam Harrington (Additional Voices (voice)), Hal Lublin (Additional Voices (voice)), Jason Miller (Additional Voices (voice)), Robert Peterson (Additional Voices (voice)), Douglas Rye (Additional Voices (voice)), Scott MacDonald (Additional Voices (voice))

A short three-episodes series which I enjoyed. It was followed by another series, but I haven't seen that one.

Rating:

(From Tom's TV Pilots marathon on June 26th, 2012)