DVD Collectors Online

North, a review by Antares

North (1994) 1/5 - I always wondered what it must have been like for Rob Reiner in the 70's to be walking down a street or eating in a restaurant and having some stranger waltz up and yell Hey Meathead. It had to be excruciatingly annoying. After finishing North, I now realize that he must have really hated the general public so much, that he delivered a two hour shit burger just to get even. I finally got the chance to watch this today, courtesy of HDNet movies, and I'm glad that I didn't grab this at Blockbuster oh so many years ago. For a gifted director, who gave us The Princess Bride, This is Spinal Tap, Misery, When Harry Met Sally and the seminal Stand By Me, to unleash this stinking pile of excrement on the public, should be grounds for banishment from Hollywood. The other part of the equation that baffles me is that Alan Zweibel, long one of the better comedy writers at Saturday Night Live in the 70's and 80's, would pen such an unfunny, cliche ridden mess of a screenplay. To say that it is painful to watch is being kind. I'd rather watch Madonna do Shakespeare than have to ever sit through this film again. There isn't one joke in this film that even raises a mere chuckle, and Elijah Wood, with those evil blue eyes of his, is absolutely loathsome in the title role.

(From Antares' Short Summations on January 15th, 2012)

Cars, a review by Dragonfire

Cars My Thoughts After getting the Blu-ray on Monday, I decided it was time to watch this one again.  I don't like any type of racing, though I have seen some at times.  I just don't care to watch cars driving around in a huge circle for hours, but I loved this movie. When I first saw the movie, I thought the animation was gorgeous, especially the landscapes.  Well, it looks even better on Blu.  The level of detail visible is freaking awesome, and I uttered more than one holy shit while watching this one.  The landscapes are so beautiful and detailed, showing the dust and rocks and the cracks in the road.  Dust, smoke, and mist looks amazing throughout the movie.  The cars, while clearing being cartoon characters since they have the giant eyes for windshields and mouths on the front bumpers, look wonderful.  The colors on them are gorgeous, especially in scenes when light hits them.  Reflections are visible in many scenes, especially on the chrome of many cars.  During the scene when the neon signs are on, the way those lights is reflected on the different cars is stunning.  I noticed all sorts of details that I didn't notice before, like some of the logos and stickers on the race cars.  The lighting in various scenes looks so realistic, like when Sally and Lightning go on their drive and the sun is filtered through the leaves of the trees along the side of the road.  Everything just looks so awesome..there are not enough words to describe how good everything looks.  The sounds of the cars, especially during the races is so realistic. The base story isn't the most original since it is a bit like Doc Hollywood ..and probably some other movies that I can't remember at the moment as well - but it ends up working so well.  Having all the living things be cars or some form of vehicle is really cool and I really liked it.  It could be too different for some people, but I think it makes for a fun movie.  The humor works really well.  There are silly moments - like just about everything with Mater...the tractor tipping - but it all works.  The movie also touches on more serious things as well in a way that works perfectly for the movie.  I do like the characters.  Every car has their own personality.  Mater is goofy and a bit of a hick, and sometimes he does act a bit like a puppy...he bounces around at times like a playing puppy and wags his tow cable like a tail.  Lightning has problems, but he ends up being likable overall.  There isn't exactly a villain in the movie...though Chick comes really close.  He is a huge jerk of character and Michael Keaton did a great job with the voice. During the credits, they do little scenes from some of the other movies with cars as characters..and they even got the original cast back to do the voices.  I loved those.  There is a nice dedication to Joe Ranft as well, showing the different characters he did voices for. The extras on the Blu-ray are wonderful.  There is footage from when Lasseter, Ranft, and some of the other animators working on the movie took a trip along Route 66 for research.  They found a truck that looks like Mater.  The different little short segments on the making of the movie show all the care and dedication that went into the making of the movie.  They made researched different car styles and made sure that the colors for the cars fit for the paint available for those models - like the color of Doc.   I think all the research helps to make the movie stronger overall. I love this movie and am very glad that I picked up the Blu-ray. I did post a review on Epinions after I first saw the movie. Cars

(From Cars on June 24th, 2010)

Tom's TV Pilots marathon, a review by Tom

No Heroics: Series One (2008/United Kingdom) IMDb | Wikipedia 2 entertain Video (United Kingdom) Length: 132 min. Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78 Audio: English: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles: English

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Plot:
No Heroics is a six-part comedy series about four old friends who just happen to be off-duty superheroes.

The show focuses on their day-to-day lives, which turn out to be pretty much the same as everyone else's. In fact, superheroics seem far from their minds behind relationships, sex lives, and a constant desperation for success and fame.

Instead, this group of B-listers would rather get drunk and commiserate their lack of superiority in their local superheroes-only pub, The Fortress...

No Heroics is an ground-breaking comedy featuring stellar Britcom talent. The show has garnered much critical praise and a nomination for Best New Comedy at the British Comedy Awards 2008.


No Heroics
1.01 Episode 1
Writer: Drew Pearce (Created By), Drew Pearce (Writer)
Director: Ben Gregor
Cast: Patrick Baladi (Excelsor), Nicholas Burns (The Hotness), Claire Keelan (Electroclash), James Lance (Timebomb), Rebekah Staton (She-Force), Steve Speirs (Norse Dave), Jim Howick (Thundermonkey), Josef Altin (Robber), Delroy Atkinson (Newspaper Vendor), Allun Corduner (Shopkeeper), Joe Cornish (The Voice of Power Hour (voice)), Ginny Holder (TV Reporter), Andrea Lowe (Vicci), Oliver Maltman (Doomball)

A good episode, but sadly overall this series wasn't as fun as I hoped it to be. The concept is similar to the movie "The Specials". I preferred the movie though.

Rating:

(From Tom's TV Pilots marathon on June 13th, 2012)