DVD Collectors Online

Chariots of Fire, a review by Antares

Chariots of Fire (1981) 3.5/5 - I love British films and this one, while not riveting, kept my attention throughout. The performances are all top notch and while there is very little to the story, it is done with the right tempo to make it compelling. To me, the mark of a good biopic, is whether or not it sends me to my computer after I finish watching it, to research the people involved. And this film piqued my curiosity enough to do that. Finally, I remember that a big deal was made about the soundtrack back when this was released, but as with all synthetic scores, it now sounds horribly dated. Synthesizer scores were a great gimmick back in the day, but I have yet to hear one that has stood the test of time.

(From Antares' Short Summations on March 11th, 2014)

Back to the Future, a review by Tom

Title: Back to the Future
Year: 1985
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Rating: FSK-12
Length: 111 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1, German: Dolby Digital 5.1, German: DTS 5.1, Commentary: Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles: Commentary, English, German, Hebrew, Trivia

Stars:
Michael J. Fox
Christopher Lloyd
Lea Thompson
Crispin Glover
Thomas F. Wilson


Extras:
Commentary
Deleted Scenes
Featurettes
Outtakes
Photo Gallery
Scene Access
Screen Tests
Storyboard Comparisons
Trailers

When I began this marathon, I said, that I was not reviewing BTTF because I had recently watched it. But now over a year has passed and it's time to watch one of my favourite movie trilogies again. These movies are my favorite time-travel movies, followed by "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time" (which I watched for the sixth time in two years yesterday ).
I just love all the details which went into making of these three movie. Such things like "Twin Pine Mall" is changing to "Lone Pine Mall". Or changes to the city, like the park in the city center changing to a parking lot.

Rating:

(From Tom's Time-Travel Movie Reviews on May 3rd, 2009)

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

Synopsis: Jakes observes the new arrivals on the station to get ideas for his stories when his sight falls upon a very interesting woman who also notices him. Later she approaches him and somehow she can help him to write the best story of his life. But there's a price tag attached. Meanwhile Lwaxana comes to DS9 again - and she's pregnant. She's hiding from her husband who wants to take their son when he's born as it is custom in his culture.

My Opinion: The part about Jake was ok, I really liked to see Meg Foster again, she has so fascinating eyes. But what I really liked was Lwaxanas part. This was unfortunately the last appearance of both Majel Barrett-Roddenberry as well as Lwaxana Troi on any Star Trek series (except for her role as "Federation computer voice"). Once again Lwaxana managed to get Odo out of his brooding skin, they had much fun together. And I liked how Odo pledged his love to her in the fake wedding ceremony when it was clear that his pledge wasn't at all fake.

Synopsis: The klingon attacks on the Cardassian Union had devastating effects on its economy and the Federation agrees to deliver industry-size replicators to the Cardassians. But Cmdr. Eddington and Starfleet Security fears that the Maquis could intercept them and Sisko and his crew try to prevent that. But there's another problem: Captain Kasidy Yates, Sisko's girlfriend, may be a smuggler for the Maquis.

My Opinion: It was the ideal plot to get Sisko distracted, especially because it was true. And I must say, when I watched it for the first time, I was surprised that Eddington was the traitor. Until the revelation he behaved in this episode as he has always done since his introduction in the third season and thus his mask was perfect. But I am also glad that we are going to see Penny Johnson again, it's good to see that at least some officers can have a releationship beside their duty.

Synopsis: When the Defiant returns they find that the station has been attacked and one of the upper pylons has been destroyed. It was an attack by Jem'Hadar but they didn't bother to destroy the station because they were searching for some technical equipment. The Defiant pursuits them and encounters yet another Dominion vessel under the command of the Vorta Weyoun. The other Jem'Hadar have gone rogue and try to activate an iconian gateway. The iconian star empire was destroyed over 200,000 years ago. But they had a means of traveling across the galaxy without the use of spaceships. Such a gateway mustn't fall into the hands of renegade Jem'Hadar or every planet within the Federation would be in danger and even the Dominion could come crashing down. So Weyoun and Sisko forge an alliance to destroy the gateway.

My Opinion: This episode was good to show the contrast between the philosophy of Jem'Hadar warriors and Starfleet personnel. And of course I liked the introduction of Weyoun even though they killed him in the end and then had to find a way to bring him back in future episodes. Luckily other producers aren't as quick with killing people. Imagine Joss Whedon would have actually killed Spike on his first appearance in School Hard!
What bothered me a bit was that the writers outnumbered the heros by quite a number (10:1 was it?) and then neither showed that many enemies nor presented a solution how they did actually win against such a force. 2:1 or 3:1 would have been more realistic without compromising the plot.

Unfortunatley this episode was cut in Europe because the british BBFC demanded a cut when the Jem'Hadar First broke the neck of the Second as punishment because he disobeyed an order.

Synopsis: Bashir and Dax beam down on a planet where the entire population is infected by a disease that has been there for over two centuries. The Dominion engineered this virus as a punishment, it marks its victoms with lesions and it's always deadly when the Quickening comes. Bashir tries to help and to find a cure.

My Opinion: This episode was without any action or any fights in it and I thought it was a good change of pace. It's obviously very Bashir-centered but I really like his dedication, his unwillingness to give up even if the task seems impossible. But I also thought that it was a good decision that he didn't find a cure, just a vaccine for unborn children. It becomes unrealistic when doctor X in series Y goes to planet Z and always finds a cure where others have failed for ages. This way it was half a happy end and the perfect closing scene was that he still hasn't given up.

(From Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Marathon on January 11th, 2009)