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A Matter of Life and Death, a review by Antares

A Matter of Life and Death (1946) 3.5/5 - I was going to start out this review by telling verbALs to stop scratching his head, because I finally watched the film, but I think that after he reads the score I rated this film, he may just keep on scratching away. I liked the film, but when Raymond Massey's character comes forward, I thought it threw a money wrench into the flow of the screenplay. Bringing an anti-British rant from an American just seemed to me, a little disengenous. This was only one year removed from the end of the Second World War and it just came across as a rather condescending way to take a swipe at the Americans who were still over in England awaiting their return to the States. I saw it as a brave move by Pressburger to do it, but also it appeared as he was left-handedly saying... These Americans, what petulant little children. I could be reading it wrong, but that's how it came across to me.

It reminded me of something I read in a New York Times archived newspaper one day when I was perusing the microfilm collection at a library. I had been reading war reports from France from the D-Day invasion until the Battle of the Bulge. I was surprised to read a small piece about French citizens complaining about the American soldiers in the aftermath of the liberation of Paris. They were actually complaining about the soldiers who had just liberated them from over 4 years of Nazi occupational tyranny.

(From Antares' Short Summations on March 11th, 2014)

The Adventures of Robin Hood, a review by Dragonfire

The Adventures of Robin Hood My Thoughts Since I have enjoyed the other Robin Hood movies that I've seen, and I read some good things about this one, I decided to go ahead and pick it up when I saw the Blu-ray for $10.  I'm really glad I decided to get it. The basic story is the same some of the other Robin Hood movies I've seen, though there are differences.  There is no mention of Robin going off to fight in the Crusades.  He decides to stand up for the people that Prince John is attempting to oppress.  Maid Marian travels to Nottingham with Prince John and it seems like she is supporting him at least for a while.  She clearly doesn't approve of Robin and seems to look down on the people that Prince John is treating so badly.  The Sheriff of Nottingham is around, though he doesn't do as much in this version.  A bigger villain is Sir Guy Gisbourne, a nobleman living in Nottingham who supports Prince John.  I don't remember that character being in the other versions I've seen, but I could be remembering wrong. There is a good amount of action to the movie with Robin using his bow and arrow several times and getting into sword fights.  The fight scenes are done well and look good.  Some of the action looks speeding up a little bit, which makes those scenes look a little odd, but they are still very entertaining.  The look of the movie makes it clear it is an older movie, but it has held up well.  The costumes for Robin and his men are kind of silly, especially with the bright colors.  It seems like those bright colors - especially the red that Will Scarlett wears - would make it harder for them to hide in Sherwood Forest.  Some aspects of the plot are a bit serious and other things are more silly, like how Robin and the men who follow him interact with each other.  They have a tendency to start laughing at stuff that really isn't that funny at times.  The relationship is there between Maid Marian and Robin, though there isn't a lot of attention given to it.  He seems more interested at first while she clearly looks down on him.  After she spends a short amount of time with him, she changes her mind about him and it isn't long after that before she decides she is in love with him.  The two of them are shown kissing once or twice and that is it.  The characters are fine, though some of them are under developed.  Most of Robin's men are just sort of there without anything specific being shared about them.  Robin is pretty much the same as he is in other versions, though a bit more light hearted.  That makes sense since the movie is more light hearted overall.  The cast all does well with their parts. The picture quality is wonderful and the colors look amazing.  The Blu-ray has a lot of extras on it, including a Bugs Bunny and a Daffy Duck cartoon tied to Robin Hood.  I still haven't watched all of them.  The extras I did watch are interesting. Overall I really enjoyed this movie and am glad that I decided to add this version to my movie collection. I did post a review on Epinions a few days ago. The Adventures of Robin Hood

(From The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) on June 29th, 2010)

"Battlestar Galactica" Marathon (1978-2009), a review by DJ Doena

Synopsis: Baltar and his Basestar is driving the Galactica and the fleet forward. And of course he is driving them into a trap. Starbuck and his patrol detect a Cylon-occupied planet on which a huge pulsar cannon is positioned. This gun could destroy a Battlestar with a single shot. Starbuck, Boomer, Apollo and a group of demolition experts (read: criminals who like to blow things up) try to destroy it, but they get shot down and have to fight for their survival on an ice planet.

My Opinion: Except for the cold it must be paradise for Starbuck: Countless nice women and they are all equally beautiful (because they all look the same ). I didn't remember that the old fleet also had a prison ship. But it bothered me that Boxey could sneak in on the shuttle - that boy seems to be everywhere. And crash-landing (instead of just landing) also seems to be a recurring theme on the show. But I didn't care much for this or the following episode.


Synopsis: Having found help in the form of a group of Human clones the colonial fighters are still trying to destroy the pulsar cannon. But they are running out of time because the fleet is closing in on the shooting range of the cannon. If they fail the fleet will most likely not survive.

My Opinion: An OK conclusion to the story (of course they destroyed the gun). But I liked how Baltar toyed with the fleet and made them do what he wanted.

Synopsis: The Cylons have attacked the fleet and destroyed two of the agricultural ships and damaged another. The fleet needs new seeds and they hope they can trade for it on a nearby planet. Even Adama is coming along on this landing mission. But Boomer and Starbuck get robbed and have now nothing to trade. Fortunately for Starbuck the people there play cards, too. Unfortunately that brings him in even deeper trouble and in the middle of a fight between the local Humans and another alien race.

My Opinion: A rather ridiculous story. The entire story about Adama and his "stalker" was absurd and the way Starbuck became the Constable was ludicrous. And on top of that all were these "pig aliens".

Synopsis: Starbuck gets shot down by a Cylon patrol and has to crash-land while Boomer returns to the fleet. Shortly after he got apprehended by a patrol of the local Cylon garrison he gets freed by local Human resistance fighter. But they are merely children, not warriors.

My Opinion: "Starbuck crash-lands" I should put this on a shortcut key. I really liked the banter between Lucifer and Specter (same production line as Lucifer), the commander of the local garrison. I also liked that he was able to lie and to deceive but I didn't like that Baltar fell for it the whole time. But the story on the planet was again over the top. Starbuck attacks a garrison with a bunch of kids (some of them not older than ten) who ride on unicorns(!) and they win.
Interestingly the female lead was a young woman called Miri who had a crush on Starbuck. In Star Trek there was also an episode called Miri where the female lead was a young woman called Miri who had a crush on Kirk.

(From "Battlestar Galactica" Marathon (1978-2009) on March 21st, 2009)