Stars: Samuel L. Jackson (1948) Patrick Wilson Kerry Washington Ron Glass Justin Chambers
Plot: A young couple (Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington) has just moved into their California dream home when they become the target of their next-door neighbor, who disapproves of their relationship. A stern, single father, this tightly wound LAPD officer (Samuel L. Jackson) has appointed himself the watchdog of the neighborhood. His nightly foot patrols and overly watchful eyes bring comfort to some, but he becomes increasingly aggressive to the newlyweds. These persistent intrusions into their lives cause the couple to fight back.
Extras: Scene Access Audio Commentary Deleted Scenes Featurettes
My Thoughts:
Young interracial couple moves into a house next door to a psycho, black cop who is still pissed at his wife who was fooling around with a white man at the time of her death. Bad timing or what?
Samuel L. Jackson certainly had me convinced as a hard ass cop and father who is losing his grip as he systematically terrorizes his new neighbors.
Said neighbors, played by Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington, scared shitless at first, soon get fed up and try to get back at the cop in subtle ways so as not to bring down his wrath and that of his LAPD buddies.
An interesting backdrop to the neighbor from hell scenario was the raging wildfires bearing down on their homes which is quite common for California. The cop was so determined to drive them from their home, I was curious to see if the fire would make the whole skirmish moot.
Kerry Washington was ok but would have been better without the distracting Uber Geek glasses she kept sporting throughout the movie.
Returning to the original rushes the concert is restored to its full length and presented, for the first time, in its entirety. This amounts to an additional 47 minutes of previously unseen material! Not released on Video, this is the first time this 1982 concert will be available for the public to buy. The pictures are restored and colour graded. The sound will be offered in both a brand new PCM stereo mix, and a fabulous DTS 5.1 surround sound mix.
Being as this features the best band in the world, ever, in the history of music, ever, fronted by the most talented front-man to pick up a microphone (...ever), you can rely on me to give you an objective review. These upstarts are going to have to earn their five stars, dammit.
Seriously, ratings are moot in this case. If you like Queen, buy the DVD. If you don’t like Queen, buy therapy. But assuming you are one of the intelligent majority, yet inexplicably haven’t bought this, I’ll try and put it in context.
Queen made two soundtrack albums: Flash Gordon and A Kind of Magic (for Highlander). Flash was a bit silly really and is difficult to listen to stand-alone. It’s their most famous work though from a lean period that saw them experimenting with euro-pop (or “funk black” as Freddie calls it) in the Hot Space album. A Kind of Magic is entirely opposite and features some of their best work. That return to form starting with The Works, coincided with their performance at Live Aid, where they blasted everyone else off stage. They then followed that with the Magic tour and much live material comes from that.
So Live at the Bowl is quite unique, especially as there are no releases of their early years, certainly not to this video quality anyway. Filmed in 1982, just after the release of Hot Space, it finds the band almost in limbo, though it hasn’t dulled their confidence. It’s mainly old classics peppered with Hot Space stuff, but nothing from their second phase (Radio Ga Ga, etc). So this is a fairly rare opportunity to see Action This Day, Dragon Attack, Back Chat and even Get Down Make Love performed live. But they really perform the shit out of both new and old! They were always unpredictable on stage and willing to mess a little with the music, so you got something worth seeing and not just video versions of the records. No-one else got audience interaction of this level either, so you get a real sense of being there, enhanced by the amazing DTS audio.
It starts properly with Hero, a filler track from Flash expanded to a brief rip-roaring rocker. They follow with the rare “fast” version of We Will Rock You. An amazing start! Other stand-outs (difficult to find when they are all fucking superb) include a gorgeous alternative intro to Somebody To Love which also gives Roger Taylor a drum solo. May gets his first show-off point in Now I’m Here, as you’d expect. Soon it settles into the much loved classics, with other rarely seen live versions, like Sheer Heart Attack.
Freddie shows off constantly of course! Playful and full of attitude throughout and in great form from the off, typical of the born performer, and changing occasional lyrics here and there. A week after Hot Space’s release and they’re all ready getting flak, so he has a screw you, nothing to prove demeanour. Stage was home and he is sorely missed. Their range as a band is unsurpassed.
Sorry if this isn’t balanced enough for you. If you wish to complain, please sod off and watch Westlife or Celine Dion instead.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: The Complete Second Season marathon, a review by Achim
2. Automatic for the PeopleMy opinion: After the first episode opened with a bang the second pulls back a bit and goes in to explore some emotional issues. On the one hand there is mistrust, which obviously is a problematic thing for our little group. Then there is John's desire to be "normal", not having to have the burden of being the hope for humankind's future, which in turn causes conflict with Sarah. Sarah also has to deal with her knowledge of her future death by cancer, or does she...? All this is surrounded by a "problem of the week", which eventually provides some action towards the end.
Quite a solid episode which does some good character progression. Somehow I found Summer Glau's performance a little bit phoned in in this one
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May 17, 2024, 10:32:39 PM
