DVD Collectors Online

Strangeland, a review by Jimmy

Title: Strangeland (1998)

Genre: Horror
Director: John Pieplow
Rating: NR
Length: 1h31
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1:85.1
Audio: English
Subtitles: English

Stars:
Kevin Gage   
Brett Harrelson
Dee Snider
Linda Cardellini
Robert Englund

Plot:This one isn't as known as it should be if you ask me. At first it looks like your regular serial killer movie, but it isn't. In fact this is a more a story about how as a society we create killer, not that this Capt. Howdy guy isn't a sick fuck to begin with but... The story take a different turn at the second act when he is liberated from the psychiatric hospital where he was treated after three years completly cure and ready to start a new life. The guy isn't the same anymore in fact he is some kind of frail wimp who wouldn't even scare my eighty four years old grandmother. Not long after his liberation he is attacked and left for dead by a crowd, this is why I say that we as society we create the monsters. Sure his bad side came back but is he really the one to blame? You got a surprising good performance in a dual role from Dee Snyder who also wrote the script for this film, I can't say the same for most of the others since the performance are not really nuanced (you are bad or you are good, no middle point) but Kevin Gage overact less than usual. The effects are really well done and you feel the suffering (see you don't need CGI to look good, a good effects guy can works miracle).

Anyway enough talking (or writing) we have here an underated gem who deserves to be seen.

Rating :

(From Jimmy's - 2013 Ooctober Horror Marathon on October 9th, 2013)

The Lonely Man, a review by KinkyCyborg

Title:The Lonely Man
Year: 1957
Director:
Rating: NR
Length: 87 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital: Mono, French: Dolby Digital: Mono
Subtitles: English

Stars:
Jack Palance
Anthony Perkins
Neville Brand
Robert Middleton
Elisha Cook Jr.

Plot:
The past-and the future-close in on a reformed gunslinger. Like Alan Ladd's Shane, Gregory Peck's The Gunfighter and Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven, The Lonely Man belongs to that saddlebag full of Westerns bout a gunslinger coming to terms with his infamous past and uncertain future. Jack Palance stars as Jacob Wade, a notorious outlaw trying to ride the trail of respectability. But where Wade goes, his reputation follows. And so does trouble. Fearful citizens are quick to turn him out of their town. Vengeful killers have vowed to stalk him to his grave. And Wade's son (Anthony Perkins), embittered over his father's long absence, cannot quell the pain and hate in his heart. Neville Brand, Lee Van Cleef, Claude Adkins and Elisha Cook co-star in this spare, ruggedly entertaining sagebrush saga.

Extras:
Scene Access


Lackluster western that had potential but just couldn't deliver.

Jack Palance was solid as a gunfighter trying to live a peaceful life but his past won't leave him be. This story has been told before... much better told in Unforgiven actually. A great cast alongside Palance including Anthony Perkins, Neville Brand, Lee Van Cleef, Claude Aikens and even Denver Pyle in a small role. Aikens, who always made a statement no matter what role he had, doesn't disappoint in his small part here either. That man always had great presence on screen.

Perkins, playing Palance's hateful son, portrays a teenage boy who is just too pathetic for words. Whiny, weak, slovenly... you keep waiting for the moment that he finally grows a spine and becomes a man and it just never happens. Even after the predictable finish I was still expecting for him to finally begin to resemble even a smidgen of the man his father was and instead the movie just abruptly ends. Booooo! 

KC



Rating:

(From KinkyCyborg's Random Reviews 2010 on October 17th, 2010)

Babylon 5: Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

Synopsis: With the arrival of the aides to the Minbari ambassador Delenn, Lennier and to the Narn ambassador G'Kar, Na'Toth the main cast for the first season and - by and large - the entire show is complete. The Earth administration has planned that each of the alien cultures and Earth show in a festival the ceremonies of their largest believe system. Meanwhile G'Kar gets a death threat against him from an enemy who has currently died.

My opinion: It's an interesting fact to notice that alien cultures in TV shows - especially the alien of the week in most shows - seem to be somewhat uniform. Look at the Klingons or the Romulans of Star Trek for example. Except of course the story is about two rivaling parties on the same planet. But more than two? Seldom. But Earth is always depicted as a diversed culture. And coming back to my point, I simply adored the scene when Sinclair presented all these people with their different believe systems, it was a great ending of that show.


Synopsis: For over a hundred years there have been telepaths ("teep") among the human population. Every teep who whishes to use his/her abilities has to join the Psi Corps. And the Psi Corps has its own police: The Psi Cops. And two of them arrive at the station to look for a renegade and former lover of the stations teep Talia Winters. But that renegade has developed abilities even the Psi Corps couldn't have imagined. Meanwhile, Sinclairs lover tries to examine a planet for its minerals and nearly gets killed.

My option: A Bester show is always a good one. Bester is a Psi Cop portrayed by Walter Koenig (ST: Chekov) and the mutual loathing between the stations personell and Bester is build up and continues throughout the show. We see for the first time that Psi Corps is experimenting on their own people to enhance them beyond their given abilities.

Quote of the episode:
G'Kar: "Let me pass on to you the one thing I've learned about this place. No one here is exactly what he appears. Not Mollari. Not Delenn. Not Sinclair. And not me."


Synopsis: Enmity and hatred is shown from humans to any form of alien. A good friend of Delenn's is struck down and branded. There is an organisation that tries to bring Earth back to its "rightful place in the universe". And meanwhile Londo has to deal with a young Centauri couple who fell in love but both are promised to other people.

My opinion: We see the first glimpse of hatred between humans and aliens based on simple racism and the fear of "alien influence". It's a sad episode because of that story but a good one.


Synopsis: Two men arrive at the station and capture Sinclair to find out what happend in the 24 hours he can't remember when the war ended.

My opinion: They shed some light onto the events happened at the Battle of the Line. But when I say some I mean some. It's more a form of grey than really white light. We don't get all the facts at once and that's what makes the show so interesting. From now on we can wonder what exactly Delenn had to do with the ending of the war.


(From Babylon 5: Marathon on August 4th, 2007)