DVD Collectors Online

Love Actually, a review by Danae Cassandra

Love Actually

Multiple different stories about love intersect around the Christmas season: people discovering love, sacrificing for love, holding love in, letting love out, being thrilled by love, being devastated by love. 

First off, thanks to Sam for recommending this one, I enjoyed it a lot.  I thought it was mostly very well done, with an appropriate mixture of realism and fantasy, as well as joy and pain.  I enjoyed all of the characters and their stories - except the farce that was Colin's story.  Those sequences could have been cut and there would have been no loss. 

However, the rest of the film more than makes up for those parts.  I love Alan Rickman, and he makes his character somewhat sympathetic even when you don't want to sympathize with him.  I loved Bill Nighy's parody of an aging rock star, and the relationship between Daniel (Liam Neeson) and his stepson. 

Yes, some of the stories are stronger than others, and it doesn't delve into any real depth (but if you expect that in a rom-com, I don't know what to tell you), but I thought it was a decent, enjoyable film

Overall: 3/5

(From Yuletide 2011 on December 27th, 2011)

Vanishing of the Bees, a review by Antares

Vanishing of the Bees (2009) 4/5 - A first rate documentary dealing with an issue that could have cataclysmic ramifications for our species. Back in the mid-nineties in France, hundreds of commercial apiarists started to notice that whole colonies of bees suddenly disappeared overnight. Fast forward ten years and now the epidemic has become apparent around the world. So what does it mean, well, in a nutshell, if something is killing off vast quantities of honeybees, then vast amounts of vegetables and fruits aren't going to be pollenized, and in the long run will create massive food shortages around the globe. At first, scientists are completely baffled as to what is causing what has become known globally as Colony Collapse Disorder. In the beginning it was felt that mites or disease was causing the epidemic, but this turned out to be false. All the while, beekeepers were losing over 30% of their bee populations each year. After a global summit was held in Paris a few years ago, it was deemed that the use of systemic pesticides was the culprit behind the epidemic. Systemic pesticides are not sprayed upon the plant, they are coated on the seed and grow into the plant's botanical structure. Therefore, it doesn't rinse off and becomes part of the plant's genetic makeup. Honeybees who gather the pollen from these plants, become disoriented and if they find their way back to the colony, inadvertently infest the rest of the colony when doing their "waggle dance", the method bees use to tell other bees in the colony as to the whereabouts of a potential food source.

The Europeans are making headway against this problem by banning the use of these systemic pesticides, but here in our country, commercial apiarists are butting heads against the agricultural industry and their deep lobbying pockets. If systemic pesticides are banned, it makes their monoculture super farms less profitable. If you care for your children or grand children's future, you may want to check this documentary out. At the rate that this epidemic is reducing the pollinating bee business, in less than a decade we could be paying over $10 for an apple or $25 for a small can of smokehouse almonds. We can't live without bees. That my friends is a FACT.

(From Antares' Short Summations on March 16th, 2012)

Angel Marathon, a review by addicted2dvd

10. Dad
Original Air Date: 12/10/2001
Angel quickly realizes that he has to come up with a plan to keep Connor safe from the growing number of demons, vampires and humans who want his son dead.

Guest Stars:
Stephanie Romanov
Daniel Dae Kim
Laurel Holloman
Keith Szarabajka

My Thoughts:
I enjoyed this one as well.  Lorne now in the hotel with Angel and the gang... and already proves useful.

My Rating:

(From Angel Marathon on March 13th, 2010)