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Eastern Promises, a review by dfmorgan

Eastern Promises

Year: 2007
Director: David Cronenberg
Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts, Armin Mueller-Stahl
Overview: After a young teenage mother dies during childbirth, midwife Anna resolves to try to trace the baby's relatives. Guided by the girl's personal diary she meets Semyon, the charming proprietor of a plush Trans-Siberian restaurant who impeccably masks his cold and brutal acts as the head of one of London's most notorious Eastern European crime families. Semyon's volatile son Kirill, who is also part of the Vory V Zakone criminal brotherhood, and the family's mysterious driver, Nikolai, soon cross her path as Anna accidentally unleashes the full fury of the Vory...

Eastern Promises reteams acclaimed director David Cronenberg with his A History of Violence leading man Viggo Mortensen.

Watched: 6th Jul. 2010
My Thoughts: An OK film. Some convenient links between the midwife Anna, Naomi Watts, and the young Eastern European girl. A neatish twist.

My Rating: An OK 3

Dave

(From Dave's DVD/Blu-ray Reviews on July 6th, 2010)

To Be Fat Like Me, a review by addicted2dvd

To Be Fat Like Me (2006/Canada) IMDb |Wikipedia |Trailer | Newvideo (United States) Director: Douglas Barr Writing: Michelle Lovretta (Writer) Length: 89 min. Video: Full Frame 1.33:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital: 2-Channel Stereo Subtitles:

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Stars:
Kaley Cuoco as Aly
Melissa Halstrom
Michael Phenicie
Rachel Cairns
Adrienne Carter

Plot:Extras:

• Scene Access
• Closed Captioned

I originally added this one to my collection because I am a fan of Kaley Cuoco. This is a TV movie that originally aired on Lifetime. And is one I really did enjoy a lot. It does have a good message it is trying to get across though I think by the end they lost that message a little. And I think the handling should have ended differently. I never had to deal with being fat in school... I was skinny as a rail... couldn't gain a pound no matter how much I ate. Though I have been fighting obesity as an adult. So I do know how some of this feels. Even though the film seems to loose focus, I still enjoyed it quite a lot... and can see myself watching this one again. Definitely worth the time put in to watch it.



(From What Movies I Been Watching on September 16th, 2016)

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

Synopsis: A Trill host candidate comes to the station. Jadzia has to evaluate whether he is suited to be blended with a symbiont. The candidate isn't very thrilled since it is widely known that Dax has declared 57 candidates as "unsuited" over the last 200 years and the worst of them all was Curzon Dax. But Jadzia is not Curzon.

My Opinion: The candidate had no real plans for the future and I have already forgotten most things about the character. The only interesting thing were some insights into Jadzia's training who ironically also was evaluated by Curzon - and failed.

Synopsis: A cardassian professor and two of her 'students' come to the station. They are well aware that they aren't overly welcome on a bajoran space station but it gets worse when they learn that there's still a Cardassian aboard: Garak. They are fugitives, the cardassian Central Command has declared them as 'terrorists'. But the Cardassian Union hasn't anticipated the involvement of a certain bartender.

My Opinion: This episode on the other hand was very interesting. Quark has broken out of his usual deceiving scheme plotting and has shown real affection towards a person/a woman. Strangely though, Quark always seems to be most interested in non-Ferengi and clothed(!) women, most of them being stronger than him, too. I wonder what he would think about Buffy - ah, yes, I remember, he expelled her from Sunnydale High.

Synopsis: Kang, Koloth and Kor have come to the station. They are all klingon Dahar Masters and they look for Curzon Dax. Eight decades ago the four of them have sworn a Blood Oath to kill the murderer of the first borns of the Klingons. Kang wants to release Jadzia from that oath but she has no intentions of bailing out.

My Opinion: This is one episode I've been waiting for. I always thought that it was a great idea to bring the three klingon commanders Kirk faced in the original series once again on screen. While I didn't care much for the Klingons - or any other alien race except the Vulcans - in the original series, the Klingons have grown on me during TNG and especially DS9. Ironically Jadzia now had the very same problem Worf always had when he took off to do something very klingon-y and very un-Starfleet-y. But at least Kor survived and we will see him again.

Synopsis: Soon after a cardassian freighter has left DS9, it explodes. Shortly after that cardassian fighters try attack a merchant ship, but get shot down by another ship. And all that in the demilitarized zone between the Federation and the Cardassian Union. The peace treaty had moved the border an now some formerly Federation colonies are within cardassian space and vice versa. And especially the former Federation colonies feel abandoned and try to arm themselves.

My Opinion: As always when borders are moved some people are waking up on the wrong side of the fence. But to start a shooting war against a vastly superior enemy is stupid at best. And they aren't risking just their lives and those of their families. If they manage to start another full blown war, then billions of other lives get endangered, too. Do I sound like someone who hasn't much sympathy for the Maquis? Then you heard right.

(From Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Marathon on October 11th, 2008)