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City Slickers 2: The Legend of Curly's Gold, a review by addicted2dvd

City Slickers II: "The Legend of Curly's Gold" (1994/United States) IMDb |Wikipedia |Trailer | Warner Home Video (United States) Director: Paul Weiland Writing: Billy Crystal (Writer), Lowell Ganz (Writer), Babaloo Mandel (Writer), Lowell Ganz (Original Characters By), Babaloo Mandel (Original Characters By) Length: 116 min. Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital: 5.1, French: Dolby Digital: Dolby Surround, Commentary: Dolby Digital: 2-Channel Stereo Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

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Stars:
Billy Crystal as Mitch Robbins
Daniel Stern as Phil Berquist
Jon Lovitz as Glen Robbins
Jack Palance as Duke/Curly Washburn
Patricia Wettig as Barbara Robbins

Plot:
There's gold in them thar hills and laughter everywhere as Billy Crystal saddles up with Daniel Stern, Jon Lovitz and Jack Palance for the sequel to the smash hit City Slickers.

Life is good for Mitch (Crystal), yet something troubles him: the ghost of leathery trail boss Curly. And when he finds a hidden treasure map in Curly's old hat, Mitch is sure he's being told "Go West!" So it's westward ho-ho for urban cowboys Mitch, good buddy Phil (Stern) and Mitch's goof-off brother (Lovitz). Teaming with Curly's snake-eyed twin sibling (Palance), they search for a fortune in gold while kicking up dust, stirring up laughs and hitting more obstacles than a cactus has needles. You've found comedy gold.

Extras:

• Scene Access
• Audio Commentary
• Feature Trailers
• Featurettes
• Production Notes
• Closed Captioned

While it is not nearly as good as the first one... I still found this one enjoyable. One problem I had with this one is they added Jon Lovitz to the cast. I never liked him. I did like how they brought back Jack Palance. And it did have some good laughs in it. Over all worth the watch... but definitely prefer the first one.



(From April Fool-A-Thon on April 6th, 2016)

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, a review by Danae Cassandra

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Year of Release: 2012
Directed By: Peter Jackson
Starring: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Ken Stott, Graham McTavish
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Action

Overview:
The first in a trilogy of films based on the enduring masterpiece The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey follows title character Bilbo Baggins, who - along with the Wizard Gandalf and 13 Dwarves, led by Thorin Oakenshield - is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the fearsome Dragon Smaug. Their journey will take them into the Wild, through treacherous lands inhabited by Goblins, Orcs and deadly Wargs, as well as a mysterious and sinister figure known only as the Necromancer. Along the path, the unassuming Bilbo Baggins not only discovers depths of ingenuity and courage that surprise even himself, he also gains possession of a "precious" ring tied to the fate of all Middle-Earth in ways he cannot begin to imagine.

My Thoughts:
Am I the right person to review this film?  That may be a question that may puzzle us for some time.  I say that because I love Middle-Earth.  No, I LOVE Middle-Earth.  LOVE LOVE LOVE it.  A year hasn't gone by since I first read the books that I haven't re-read them.  My professor at UofL in a class on fantasy literature said I knew more about the books than he did.  My fellow geek co-workers turn to me when ephemera questions about something in Middle-Earth comes up (we got into Silmarillion happenings a few weeks back).  I'm such a Middle-Earth fan girl, I knew going in that I would enjoy this trilogy.

But neither this one, nor the second one, are as good as Jackson's The Lord of the Rings. 

Unexpected Journey is a fun movie.  It's full of action, adventure, humor, and if LotR wasn't there would probably be considered a better film.  But LotR is there, and it was a masterpiece.  It was spectacular.  And Unexpected Journey isn't, for all of Jackson's trying to live up to LotR. 

This is my third time seeing this film, however, and I'll watch it again when 5 Armies comes out for extended blu.

Let's enumerate the good first.  Martin Freeman does a really great Bilbo.  Richard Armitage is a great Thorin, even if his Thorin is very, very different from book-Thorin.  I think I could watch Ian McKellen do anything.  The scenery is spectacular, and you get a real feel for travelling through Middle-Earth.  The riddle sequence with Gollum was really well done, and might be my favorite scene in the film.

Still, especially this third time around, you get a feel for what is wrong with the film.  They should have kept the way they showed Bilbo find the ring in LotR.  It's a glaring change, and one that not only really wasn't needed, but jars.  In seeing the extended film for the first time this viewing, I really, really think they should have kept the sequence in Rivendell where Gandalf and Elrond are talking about a streak of madness in Thorin's family.  It's so obviously foreshadowing what's going to happen that leaving it out in the theatrical was a pretty obvious mistake.  The extra lines in the White Council scene I'd have kept too. On the other hand, some of it really did need to be cut - especially some other parts of the dwarves in Rivendell, like the bathing sequence, that make them seem extremely uncouth.  Yes, we get that dwarves and elves are different, and it's supposed to be funny, but all that bit did was make them the butt of a joke that wasn't funny but kinda cruel, IMO.  It also looks a lot more artificial than LotR sometimes, almost like a video game rather than a movie. 

Still, if this is the only way we get the explore more of Middle-Earth and spend more time there, then I'll take it.  I love Middle-Earth too much not to.  It's still a fun movie, a great ride, and vastly entertaining.  It's just not a masterpiece the way the original trilogy was, and that's a shame.

Bechdel Test: Fail

Overall: 4/5

(From Within My (Mom's) Lifetime Marathon on January 29th, 2015)

Tom's TV Finales marathon, a review by Tom

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Misfits: Series Three (2011/United Kingdom) IMDb | Wikipedia Channel 4 DVD (United Kingdom) Length: 368 min. Video: Widescreen 1.78 Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Subtitles: English

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Plot:Misfits
Season 3.08 Episode 8
Writer: Howard Overman (Writer), Howard Overman (Created By)
Director: Jonathan van Tulleken
Cast: Joseph Gilgun (Rudy), Iwan Rheon (Simon), Lauren Socha (Kelly), Nathan Stewart-Jarrett (Curtis), Antonia Thomas (Alisha), Robert Sheehan (Nathan), Matthew McNulty (Seth), Alex Reid (Sally), Jessica Brown Findlay (Rachel), Danny Sapani (Tony), Mark Heap (Jonas), Charlotte McDougall (Woman), Matthew Steer (James)

Not really the final episode of the series, but the last episode of the set I have. I plan to buy the rest also, but I feel that this episode works well for as a finale for the series. Especially as it is the last episode of most of the original main cast.
Thankfully we got some closure for these characters and I am happy that the storyline with Simon and Alisha came full circle.
So far, my favorite series is the second one, closely followed by the third.

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(From Tom's TV Finales marathon on November 22nd, 2013)