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Windtalkers, a review by KinkyCyborgWindtalkers ![]() Title:Windtalkers ![]() ![]() Year: 2002 Director: John Woo Rating: R Length: 134 Min. Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.40:1, Pan & Scan 1.33:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital: 5.1, French: Dolby Digital: 2-Channel Stereo, Spanish: Dolby Digital: 5.1 Subtitles: English, French, Spanish Stars: Nicolas Cage (1964) Adam Beach Peter Stormare Noah Emmerich Mark Ruffalo Plot:Extras: Scene Access Feature Trailers Bonus Trailers Closed Captioned My Thoughts: Bluray #2 : Windtalkers Here's a question... Isn't Blu-ray supposed to be the superior format? I bought this bluray brand new and was stunned to find out there are absolutely ZERO special features on this disc. Nothing... not even the theatrical trailer. The only thing it does have is the Smart Menu Technology that allows you to access menu features without even leaving the movie. Great! Except the menu features lead you to no where. ![]() ![]() Onto the movie. True story about the Navajo Indians who were used as code talkers during the Pacific campaign in WWII. I like this war movie as it has more sustained battle sequences throughout than most war movies and yet still manages to tell a story along the way. It's intense, graphic and thrilling. This was one of Nicolas Cage's better performances which recently seem to be on the decline. He embraces war as he has little or nothing else except the haunting memories of men and friends lost, in his mind because of his perceived failures. He later wins redemption though at the ultimate cost while protecting his Windtalker and friend despite his orders to protect the Code at all costs. The last couple of Adam Beach movies I've watched (Flags Of Our Fathers and Nemesis Game) presented performances by him that left a lot to be desired. I was starting to lose faith in his ability but watching this again reminded me of how good he can really be. As much as I despise the lack of content on this bluray the visual presentation itself was top notch whether I was watching the rocky deserts of Arizona or the lush tropics of Saipan. It could only look better if I were in those places for real. ![]() I'm enjoying watching movies again in bluray as I likely would never get to review some of these movies otherwise given my eccentric movie watching practices. ![]() KC Rating: ![]() (From KinkyCyborg's Random Reviews 2010 on December 15th, 2010) The Proud Valley, a review by AntaresThe Proud Valley (1940) 83/100 - I only had the Paul Robeson Criterion Collection set from the library for a week and was only going to watch The Emperor Jones. But on the same disc as that film, was a documentary about Robeson and his career and life. They kept showing clips from this film and after finishing the film that I wanted to see, I decided to give that film a shot too. And I'm glad I did, because it was much better than The Emperor Jones. Robeson plays a merchant seaman named David Goliath, stranded in Wales, looking for work. Passing through a small coal mining town, he overhears a choir practicing for a festival to be held in a few days. The choir consists of coal miners who always seem to come up short in winning the festival's grand prize for best choir, because of a weakness in the baritone section. Out on the street, David starts to sing an old gospel tune and the choir, quietly joins in. When the song finishes, they rush to window to see who it is with that magnificently beautiful baritone voice. The miners ask David to join their choir and one man, Dick Parry, promises to help him find a job in the mines. On the day of the festival, a tragedy occurs in the mine and the festival is postponed for a month. A month later, the choir, minus those killed in the tragedy appear at the festival. And rather than compete, the choir, with David as the lead vocalist, sing an old gospel spiritual which has to be one of the most beautifully sorrowful hymns I've ever heard. The rest of the film deals with the aftermath of the accident, and the hopes of the town to get the mining company to reopen the mine. Another tragedy will take place as one miner will sacrifice himself for the communal good of the town. This film was released the same year as John Ford's How Green Was My Valley and deals with the same issues as that film does. And while Ford's film won the Oscar that year, this film is pretty much unknown by most film lovers. It's a much shorter film than Ford's, and aside from a bit of wooden or over the top acting by the British actors, it's every bit as engaging and entertaining. It's a film that could never have been made in Hollywood, because Robeson would never have been put on an equal footing with the white actors. It must have been refreshing for Robeson to make films outside of the United States where he was respected for his talent and looked upon as a talented equal. I highly recommend this film solely for Robeson's performance and even with the shortcomings I mentioned. What the color coding means... Teal = Masterpiece Dark Green = Classic or someday will be Lime Green = A good, entertaining film Orange = Average Red = Cinemuck Brown = The color of crap, which this film is (From Antares' Short Summations on February 23rd, 2013) Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Marathon, a review by DJ DoenaDisc 4 Field of Fire ![]() My Opinion: Actually, this was an interesting episode. I liked it how Joran pushed her to solve the case but I also liked how she resisted him in the end. To use a Vulcan as killer was a surprising choice, but because of that it was a good one. It seemed logical ( ![]() Chimera ![]() My Opinion: While I found the special effects and the idea that a shapeshifter could turn into fire or fog interesting, the rest of the episode was rather boring. Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang ![]() My Opinion: The last fun and also the last holodeck episode of the show. I enjoyed it very much. It's a bit like Ocean's Eleven (the original one, the one without all the computer stuff). And I liked the general idea that they were unwilling to reset the program and lose Vic as they know him. Basically Vic is to them what fictional characters are to us and I love my fictional characters the way they are. Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges ![]() My Opinion: "Inter arma enim silent leges." - "In times of war, the law falls silent." The theme of this episode was similar to the one in In the Pale Moonlight. What is allowed in times of war to win that war? Garak did the dirty work in the former episode and now Section 31 has done it. But this time it happened with the approval of a Starfleet admiral and not just a station captain. When does the price become to high to pay? What good are principles if you lose and become enslaved? But what good are principles if you only life by them when it's an easy choice? (From Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Marathon on March 1st, 2009) |