DVD Collectors Online

Beowulf, a review by Rich

Beowulf





Truly amazing feat of ingenuity and animated visual bliss, sadly let down by a fairly average storyline and a pointlessly high volume of gore and bloodletting. I wish I had seen it in its original 3d, but even in 2d it was still stunning, somewhat like a pc game in extreme.
The film felt padded out, the last half an hour was pointlessly long and the tale had been told way before. The characters in general were rather shallow, and I would have liked to learn more of the original story of Beowulf and Grendel. Perhaps too much emphasis was paid to the technology as opposed to the storyline of a movie.
Did anyone else think Beowulf looked like Sean Bean, and not Ray Winstone??
 


**Angelina Jolie mini-marathon


(From Riches Random Reviews on August 10th, 2009)

Tarantula!, a review by GSyren

Title	Tarantula! (5-050582-409741)
Director	Jack Arnold
Actors	John Agar, Mara Corday, Leo G. Carroll, Nestor Paiva, Ross Elliott
Produced	1955 in United States
Runtime	77 minutes
Audio	English Dolby Digital Mono, German Dolby Digital Mono
Subtitles	Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Norwegian, Polish, Swedish
Overview	When a tarantula, which has been injected with a special nutrient formula, escapes from a scientist's laboratory, it grows into a 100-foot beast that menaces the Arizona countryside. Professor Gerald Deemer (Leo G. Carroll) has been working on a special nutrient to help ease a predicted food shortage that is expected to come with the increase in human population. His experiments have been moderately successful but there have been some failures as a result. One day while he is gone, two of his colleagues inject themselves with the nutrient with disastrous results and die a few days later. One however goes mad and injects Deemer with the formula. During a struggle, a giant tarantula injected with the formula escapes its cage and grows even larger and starts to attack cattle as well as human beings.
My thoughts	Having recently watched Bert I. Gordons [Earth vs.] The Spider, I felt it was time to re-watch the other 50's spider movie, TarantulaTarantula is a better film than The Spider. In The Spider there is no explanation for the appearance of the big spider. In Tarantula it's a genetic experiment gone wrong. In both films the spider is very hard to kill, but in Tarantula the weapon that finally kills it  is at least believable. Tarantula has better actors than The SpiderTarantula is not really that scary. As a film monster, that is. If I had actually met it in real life I would certainly have felt differently. No chance of that, fortunately. How about the victims? How scary are they? Well, in Tarantula we don't see much of its victims. They are all just bones. Not that scary to see. The scares in Tarantula comes from the effect that the growth hormone has on people. Why it affects people so differently from how it affects animals is never really explained. What The Spider does to people looks scary, though: Tarantula has one of Clint Eastwood's first film appearances in a bit part as an air force pilot. Interesting, but certainly not memorable. John Agar is... well, he is John Agar. He had a few good roles under his belt, but he never became a star. Leo G. Carroll was always dependable is supporting roles, and this is no exception. Another fine character actor, Nestor Paiva, plays the sheriff. But a fine cast can't really save a somewhat lackluster script. Still, enjoyable if you like these old B-movie type films. I do. See this blog entry for more on The Spider vs. Tarantula.
My rating

(From Reviews and ramblings by Gunnar on March 13th, 2014)

Tom's Random Star Trek Reviews, a review by Tom

TNG 3.15 Yesterday's Enterprise
Writer: Ira Steven Behr (Screenwriter), Richard Manning (Screenwriter), Hans Beimler (Screenwriter), Ronald D. Moore (Screenwriter), Trent Christopher Ganino (Original Material By), Eric A. Stillwell (Original Material By)
Director: David Carson
Cast: Patrick Stewart (Capt. Jean-Luc Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Cmdr. William Riker), LeVar Burton (Lt. Cmdr. Geordi La Forge), Michael Dorn (Lieutenant Worf), Gates McFadden (Dr. Beverly Crusher), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Deanna Troi), Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data), Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher), Denise Crosby (Tasha Yar), Christopher McDonald (Richard Castillo), Tricia O'Neil (Rachel Garrett), Whoopi Goldberg (Guinan)

I always have loved this episode. This is the only instance we get to see the Enterprise-C. It is thrown 22 years from the past into the present time, which leads to an alternate timeline where the Federation is at war with the Klingons. This was also a great way to bring back Tasha Yar. Both Enterprise crews had to make the decision, to send the Enterprise-C back in time to a certain death because they had reason to believe, that this will prevent the war before it started.

Rating:

(From Tom's Random Star Trek Reviews on September 5th, 2009)