DVD Collectors Online

The Unborn, a review by addicted2dvd

Title: The Unborn: Unrated
Year: 2009
Director: David S. Goyer
Rating: NR
Length: 89 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.4:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1, French: Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Stars:
Odette Yustman as Casey Beldon
Gary Oldman as Rabbi Sendak
Cam Gigandet as Mark
Meagan Good as Romy
Idris Elba as Arthur Wyndham

Plot:Extras:
Scene Access
BonusTrailers
Deleted Scenes

My Thoughts:
This is one I been waiting to watch this weekend. I blind bought this movie when I saw the trailer which looked good. I enjoyed the movie... though it is a bit on the predictable side. It has some cool effects in it... and utilizes that jump scene scare a little more then I would have liked. Every review I read for this movie was bad... so I didn't go into it expecting too much... and maybe that helped me some. This is a good (but not great) movie. But that is ok. I feel I got more then my money worth with this one. (though I did only pay $1 for it).

The little boy in this movie looked very familiar. I wasn't sure from where at first... then it hit me. The TV sitcom The Middle starring Patricia Heaton (An average sitcom) The little boy in this movie plays her youngest son Brick in the sitcom. The little boy that is always whispering to himself.



(From Weekend Movie Marathon: Unwatched DVDs on March 12th, 2010)

ParaNorman, a review by Danae Cassandra

ParaNorman
Year of Release:  2012
Starring:  Kodi Smit-McPhee, Tucker Albrizzi, Anna Kendrick, Casey Affleck
Directed By:  Sam Fell, Chris Butler
Genre:  Adventure, Comedy, Horror

Overview:
From the makers of Coraline comes the story of Norman, a boy who must use his ability to see and speak with the dead to save his town from a centuries-old curse.

In addition to spooky zombies, he'll also have to take on mysterious ghosts, wily witches and, worst of all, clueless grown-ups. But this young ghoul whisperer will soon find his paranormal abilities pushed to their otherworldly limits. Featuring the voice talents of Kodi Smit-McPhee, Anna Kendrick, Casey Affleck, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Leslie Mann, Jeff Garlin and John Goodman, it's a frightfully funny and magically thrilling adventure for the whole family in eye-popping stop-motion.

My Thoughts:
This was a fun film to watch over at our friend Katrina's house.  I must say one of the things Hollywood is doing right these days is animated films.  There have really been a lot of great ones in recent years.  ParaNorman is no exception.  It as very well-done on every level:  good animation, clever dialogue, plenty of humor  and scares, a genuinely creepy atmosphere, a couple of twists in the plot that you don't see coming, and great underlying message.

Lots and lots of fun - recommended for everyone except very small children.  Might be a bit dark for them.  Safe for a movie night for a group where people have drastically different tastes in films.

Bechdel Test:  Fail

Overall:  3.75/5

(From ParaNorman on June 3rd, 2013)

Tom's Random Reviews, a review by Tom

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya: Season Two (2009/Japan) IMDb | Wikipedia Bandai Entertainment (United States) Director: Writing: Length: 350 min. Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78 Audio: English: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, Japanese: Dolby Digital 1 Subtitles: English

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Stars:


Plot:
Haruhi continues her search for exciting ways to keep her world from being boring. Unfortunately, for Kyon and the rest of the SOS Brigade, they are forced to go along for the ride. On the night of the Tanabata Star Festival, Kyon is transported back in time by Mikuru Asahina to what may be the source of what led Haruhi to search for aliens, time travelers, and espers.

In the last two weeks of summer vacation, Haruhi leads the brigade on a dizzying list of summer time activities, eventually culminating in the brigade experiencing what they think is deja vu but they're actually re-living the same two weeks of summer over and over again. It's up to Kyon to figure out what's missing to get them out of their endless loop.

As fall rolls around, everyone prepares for the school arts festival, but Haruhi isn't content with their class's survey project. Instead, she hatches her own plan for the SOS Brigade to film and screen their own movie. Step behind the camera to see what went on to create the cinematic "masterpiece" that is The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina Episode 00.

Extras:

• Audio CD
• Featurettes
• Photo Gallery
• Scene Access
• Textless Opening

I finally came around to buying and watching the second season of this series. I already knew all the storylines covered here from the original novels and the manga adaption. This is still a fun series and a good adaption.
They made a strange experiment here though. In the novel and the manga, the story "Endless Eight" is only a few chapters in each. But they made eight anime episodes out of it. This storyline is about a time-loop covering the same two weeks of summer vacation. The characters mostly aren't aware of this. Here in the anime each episode covers one of the loops (in total there were over 15000!). These episodes show the same thing happening with only slight variations. Though no camera angle and some of the outfits stay the same in each episode. This is a risky move which I cannot imagine another series but this immensly popular series doing it. Added to that, the second season was initially shown in Japan alternating with season one episodes. So people had to wait for two weeks to see a new episode and every time they got an episode which seemed like the one they already had seen. I had the luxury to see all episodes in a row and notice all the variations. But I am guessing if you had to wait weeks in-between episodes, they wouldn't have been that noticable. It's even more evil: in the episodes themselves the episode title is not counted. They always only read "Endless Eight".
The last five episodes cover the novel "The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya". Here we get to see how the characters were shooting the movie we got to see in season one.

#	Episode	Rating
01	Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody
02	Endless Eight I
03	Endless Eight II
04	Endless Eight III
05	Endless Eight IV
06	Endless Eight V
07	Endless Eight VI
08	Endless Eight VII
09	Endless Eight VIII
10	The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya I
11	The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya II
12	The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya III
13	The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya IV
14	The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya V

(From Tom's Random Reviews on April 25th, 2011)