DVD Collectors Online

Gamera vs. Barugon, a review by Danae Cassandra

Gamera vs. Barugon  (Daikaiju ketto: Gamera tai Barugon)
Year of Release: 1966
Directed By: Tanaka Shigeo
Starring: Hongou Koujirou, Enami Kyouko, Hayakawa Yuuzou, Fujioka Takuya
Genre: Science-Fiction, Disaster, Tokusatsu, Kaiju

Overview:
Once the fear of Tokyo, Gamera returns to Earth to save it from the malevolent monster Barugon who is able to freeze anything its path. This unholy battle between fire and ice challenges the survival of mankind while bringing them an incredible slam-bang, knock-down monster slug-fest!

My Thoughts:
Witness the birth of Barugon! See him shoot his freeze ray! Cower before his magnificent and terrible rainbow!

If you think that a rainbow-shooting monster is absurd, Barugon isn't the silliest of Gamera's foes. He's actually a kinda cool monster, especially the contrast of his cold powers to Gamera's fire. We again have the theme of unstoppable forces of nature awakened by mankind's greed/stupidity. Gamera is still very much a force of nature here - he's not so much fighting on the side of humanity as he is against Barugon. There's also a lack of any annoying child characters. Not the best of the Showa films, but not the worst either.

Bechdel Test: Fail
 
Overall: 2.75/5

(From Gamera! on February 27th, 2016)

Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant, a review by dfmorgan

Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant

Year: 2009
Director: Paul Weitz
Cast: John C. Reilly, Josh Hutcherson, Chris Massoglia, Jessica Carlson

Overview: From the best-selling book comes this unstoppable fantasy adventure. Visiting a travelling freak show, 16-year-old Darren is bitten by a vampire (John C. Reilly). Newly undead, he joins the Cirque Du Freak and descends into a fantastic life with a sideshow of fabulous freaks, including Salma Hayek and Willem Dafoe. As war looms between the vampires and their evil counterparts, one boy's bravery will become humanity's last hope.

Watched: 31st Mar 2010
My Thoughts: Yet another vampire film,  have to change my diet. I enjoyed this film which seemed to move along at a decent pace. The main cast and secondary characters, in general, came over well. I would have personally liked to have more of the back story but maybe that was too much to cover in this film, maybe I need to sort out the book(s) to find out. Although the film came to a conclusion it was also very nicely left open for sequels.

My Rating: An enjoyable 3

Dave

(From Dave's DVD/Blu-ray Reviews on March 31st, 2010)

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

Synopsis: When Keiko O'Brien returns from an expedition to the Fire Caves on Bajor she's changed. She claims that she's possessed by a Pah-wraith and it will kill her if O'Brien doesn't do what she says. In the next days O'Brien is forced to modify the quipment of the station but he has no idea to what end, he just knows it's harmless for biological lifeforms. But luckily there is someone who discovers the plan of the Pah-wraith.

My Opinion: I liked this episode because it's one of the rare episodes where Rom has a major role and where he could show that he isn't dumb at all and that he's loyal if asked to. And he subsequently earned his promotion to the day shift.

Synopsis: Lucsly and Dulmer from Temporal Investigations arrive on DS9 to investigate a time travel that the Defiant and its crew has done. Caused by the Orb of Time the Defiant was moved back in time to the year 2268 and they appear directly in front of the space station K-7 and the Enterprise - NCC-1701, Kirk's Enterprise. As it turns out they had an old enemy of Kirk's on board and he tries to rewrite history. Sisko and his crew have to find him and to prevent any change in the timeline.

My Opinion: This was Star Trek's 30th anniversary episode and it was great. They used the original footage of the original series and inserted the DS9 characters digitally into it.

(Sisko & Dax)

(O'Brien & Bashir)

And they had a lot of fun with it, from the agents, which are anagrams of Mulder and Scully, to the classical uniform and equipment. And of course the question why the Klingons looked different back then and of course the Tribbles. 

Synopsis: Jadzia and Worf are going on vacation, to Risa, THE vacation planet within the Federation. As it so happens they are accompanied by Julian and Leeta - and Quark. Only Worf doesn't seem to be able to relax - but despite being fearsome warriors, Klingons are also well known for their celebrations where a lot of Blood Wine is consumed. Soon after their arrival Worf joins a radical group of New Essentialists who are convinced that the Federation and its people have become to soft.

My Opinion: This was an OK episode but if I had to argue with Worf, I'd say that most people like peace and quit but the Federation has proven more than once that it's willing to defend their way of living with the force of arms and that the people stand up for what they believe in. But I liked the explanation of why Worf is mostly so self-possessed, so rigid with himself. It must be a traumatizing event to accidentally kill someone because you hadn't control over your klingon nature.

Synopsis: The runabout arrives on the station on auto-pilot. The four occupants - Sisko, Odo, Garak and Dax - are in some kind of coma. When they wake up they are on DS9, but it's Terok Nor and it's nine years ago. And nobody recognizes them for who they are but they seem to be bajoran workers. Odo's predecessor is in charge of security but something doesn't add up - the unfolding events had taken place only seven years ago when Odo was already in charge.

My Opinion: I liked this episode because it became very quickly evident that the entire time shift was somehow connected to Odo but it wasn't clear why and how and they managed to lay down false trails like the assumption that the Founders could have somehow created this. I also liked the conversation between Kira and Odo at the end, it reminded me of another flashback episode (Necessary Evil) only this time Kira and Odo had switched roles.

(From Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Marathon on January 25th, 2009)