DVD Collectors Online

Seven Men From Now, a review by Rogmeister

Seven Men From Now (1956   76m   Director: Budd Boetticher   Screenplay: Burt Kennedy
Cast: Randolph Scott, Gail Russell, Lee Marvin.

The basic plot: A former sheriff (Randolph Scott), haunted by the loss of his wife in a Wells Fargo robbery, hunts for the seven men responsible for her death. Along the way, he assists a couple travelling west from Kansas City to California, and is forced to deal with another former outlaw (Lee Marvin) he had once sent to prison.

This was an excellent film. The excellent cast included Gail Russell as the wife of the man driving the covered wagon that he meets up with. The director, Budd Boetticher, is one often associated with Randolph Scott and they made several superior westerns together. Burt Kennedy wrote it and Andrew V. McLaglen, who directed many John Wayne movies, served as one of the producers. The film was made by Wayne's own Batjac company. The DVD has an excellent crisp print that shows off it's fine color photography (the film being shot by another Wayne veteran, William Clothier). It moves along crisply though still has time for a few quiet moments. I'm mainly familiar with Miss Russell from her films with John Wayne (including the underrated Angel and the Badman) but she is quite excellent here as well. Lee Marvin is menacing in an early role without being over the top. And of course, Randolph Scott is properly heroic and shows an inner fire of a man bent not only on justice, but on revenge.

DVD extras include an audio commentary, documentary on Budd Boetticher, profile of Gail Russell and the original theatrical trailer.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film.  Perhaps it's not quite the classic that Hondo or Rio Bravo is, but it's mighty fine viewing all the same.  I would heartily recommend Seven Men From Now.  (Oh yes, the cover of the DVD calls this film "7 Men From Now" but in the actual screen titles, it's "Seven Men From Now", spelled out instead of using the numeral method they did on the cover.)

(From Roger's Ongoing Westerns Marathon on June 24th, 2009)

The Pink Panther, a review by RossRoy

Original Title: The Pink Panther Year: 2006 Country: United States Director: Shawn Levy Rating: PG Length: 93 Min. Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1, French: Dolby Digital 5.1, Commentary: Dolby Digital Surround Subtitles: English, French

What they say
When a star soccer coach is murdered and his priceless Pink Panther diamond stolen, France is in an uproar. Fortunately, Inspector Jacques Clouseau (Steve Martin, 'Bowfinger', 'Cheaper by the Dozen') is on the case. He doesn't have a clue, but for Clouseau, that's just a minor detail. With his partner, Gilbert Ponton (Jean Reno, 'The Da Vinci Code', 'The Professional'), he careens from one misadventure to the next, leaving mayhem in his wake from the boulevards of Paris to the streets of New York. Will he seduce the pop diva, Xania (Beyoncé Knowles, 'Austin Powers: Goldmember')? Will he push Chief Inspector Dreyfus (Oscar® Winner Kevin Kline, 1988 Best Supporting Actor, 'A Fish Called Wanda') over the edge? Will he catch the killer and recover the diamond? With Inspector Clouseau, anything is possible.

My Thoughts
I was surprised by that. I didn't realise how slapstick it is. Not that I was expecting intelligent humour, but I didn't realise it was this much over the top. And I must say, this was not my cup of tea, so to speak. To me, one of the biggest problem here is that most, if not all, of the comedy is based around Clouseau's clumsiness. Now, I like scenes where a characters clumsiness creates comedy, but for a whole 90 minutes? It gets really irritating. And what makes it worse, if they reuse gags all over the movie. It's like had ideas to do a short, but had to stretch it to feature length by contract, and decided to rotate the few jokes they had, and redo them in different context over and over again.

So while I didn't hate it, it was a very forgettable 90 minutes. It is a disappointment.

Rating:

(From RossRoy's Random Viewings on May 31st, 2008)

Birds of Prey Marathon, a review by addicted2dvd

8. Lady Shiva
Still a lot of fight in her. Oracle dons the 'Batgirl' outfit to confront a criminal reminiscent of an old foe.

My Thoughts:
This is an excellent episode. One of my favorites of the whole series. It was cool to see Barbara in the Batgirl outfit. The story and everything was really well done on this one.

9. Nature of the Beast
Divided loyalties. Reese asks Helena to protect the crimelord who killed Dinah's mother, Black Canary.

My Thoughts:
Another really good episode. Dinah has no choice but to deal with the anger she is feeling after the death of her mother.

10. Gladiatrix
A fight club operator forces metahuman women to battle each other. On tonight's card: Helena vs. Dinah.

My Thoughts:
Another episode that I really liked a lot. It was fun seeing Huntress and Dinah in the ring against each other. And this is yet another episode that it would seem Smallville took the idea of. I remember a Smallville episode a season or 2 ago that had something to do with underground fighting.

11. Reunion
The girl most likely. Helena thinks attending her school reunion is lame until someone starts murdering ex-classmates.

My Thoughts:
This was a pretty good... but standard episode. Nothing really all that note-worthy about it in my opinion.

(From Birds of Prey Marathon on July 18th, 2008)