DVD Collectors Online

Coach Carter , a review by Silence_of_Lambs

Summary:
Ken Carter (Samuel L. Jackson), a successful sporting goods store owner, accepts the job of basketball coach for his old high school in a poor area of Richmond, CA, where he was a champion athlete. As much dismayed by the poor attitudes of his players as well as their dismal play performance, Carter sets about to change both. He immediately imposes a strict regime typified in written contracts that include stipulations for respectful behavior, a dress code and good grades as requisites to being allowed to participate. The initial resistance from the boys is soon dispelled as the team under Carter's tutelage becomes a undefeated competitor in the games. However, when the overconfident team's behavior begins to stray and Carter learns that too many players are doing poorly in class, he takes immediate action. To the outrage of the team, the school and the community, Carter cancels all team activities and locks the gym until the team shows acceptable academic improvement...

My Thoughts:
Yet another movie on how discipline and a positive role-model (in combination with a replacement father) can solve all problems. I guess there has to be one for every sport.

This is a quite entertaining sports movie on Highschool-Basketball, not more, not less.
The story as such is well known and highly predictable, nevertheless it has some twitches that keep you interested.
The few occasions on which this flick begins to shine is when Coach Carter is meeting the disaffected faculty and tries to motivate them again.

A nice movie for a lazy Sunday afternoon.

My Rating: (out of possible 5)

(From Michael's random reviews on January 2nd, 2011)

Nefertiti Resurrected, a review by KinkyCyborg

Nefertiti Resurrected



Title:Nefertiti Resurrected
Year: 2003
Director: Matthew Wortman
Rating: NR
Length: 98 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital: 2-Channel Stereo
Subtitles:

Stars:
Dr. Joann Fletcher

Plot:Extras:
Scene Access
Feature Trailers
Closed Captioned
Interactive Galleries


I've been buying up a number of documentaries lately because a few that I have watched recently on TV were very good and I find they provide a nice change of pace from the steady diet of movies that I watch.

Randomly picking this one, I was eager to start watching it as I love docs about history, especially ancient Egypt and given this was a Discovery Channel production I had high expectations.

I hope this show is not indicative of other Discovery Channel releases of which I have a few more kicking around. 

There was nothing at all wrong with the subject matter in this. They were attempting to identify a discovered mummy, the belief being that she was Nefertiti, King Tut's stepmother and probably the only woman in Egypt's history to rule as Pharaoh. Again I find all history fascinating... but this was presented in such a scattershot manner that there was no flow whatsoever. Constant, repetitive footage showed over and over again made it obvious that they were lacking material to stretch this out over 90 minutes.

What made it even worse was the Egyptologist they selected to follow, a Dr. Joann Fletcher. Someone needed to remind her that this was a documentary and that acting was not necessary. She was forever posturing for the camera and her constant WOWs and THIS IS SO NEAT! made it nearly impossible to take her serious or give her any credibility in her field.

In the end, nothing was confirmed beyond refute. As it turns out the Egyptian body that governs ancient culture and relics would not permit deep DNA testing of any mummies so the doddering relic hunter, despite her own firm convictions and beliefs, proved nothing and was left to conjecture and speculation.

Shockingly poor presentation from a well revered entity like the Discovery Channel. 

I'll give this a one... but only because the topic was of interest.
KC

Rating:

(From KinkyCyborg's Random Reviews 2010 on October 26th, 2010)

The One Where It All Began: The Pilot Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

Farscape



What's the show about?
John Chrichton is the only human being in a strange part of the universe. There he meets the strangest of aliens and tries to find a way back home. The show never seemed to have a road map but instead seemed to base on the concept "what hilarious idea do put in writing for next week"?

"Premiere"
John Chrichton is an IASA astronaut and he tries to prove a theory. For that he conducts a low orbit experiment that goes wrong. He accidentally opens a wormhole that brings John Chrichton in a totally unkown part of the universe. He lands on a prison transport that has just been taken over by the prisoners.

My Opinion
That show is freaking hilarious. Loved every bit of it. I was really grateful that they made the fifth season, even if it was an abridged version.

(From The One Where It All Began: The Pilot Marathon on January 2nd, 2008)