DVD Collectors Online

Rescue Dawn, a review by KinkyCyborg

Title:Rescue Dawn
Year: 2007
Director: Werner Herzog
Rating: PG-13
Length: 125 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital: 5.1, Spanish: Dolby Digital: Dolby Surround, French: Dolby Digital: Dolby Surround, Commentary: Dolby Digital: 2-Channel Stereo
Subtitles: English, Spanish

Stars:
Zach Grenier
Marshall Bell (1945)
Christian Bale
Toby Huss
Pat Healy

Plot:
In 1965, an American pilot on a top-secret bombing mission was shot down over Laos and taken to a hellish prison camp deep in the impenetrable jungle of Vietnam. What followed was one of the most remarkable and harrowing experiences of the entire Vietnam War. Inspired by the true story of Dieter Dengler (Christian Bale) and written and directed by internationally acclaimed filmmaker Werner Herzog, Rescue Dawn is an uncanny tale of camaraderie and betrayal, courage in the face of despair, and triumph over tragedy. It stands as a true testament to the impossible boundaries of the human condition and the invincibility of the American spirit.

Extras:
Scene Access
Audio Commentary
Feature Trailers
Deleted Scenes
Featurettes
Gallery
Closed Captioned


This one was my pick and it has been one I've been waiting to see for some time as I am always drawn to the military movies.

Well done true story of Dieter Dengler, bomber pilot who was shot down during a Black Op run before the Vietnam conflict officially became a war.

I was a bit surprised at the lack of torture and degradation so common in P.O.W. movies... in fact I thought the prisoners were treated not too badly as compared to other similar stories, although there was no question they were starving and suffering from severe mental trauma. Dengler, if he was depicted correctly, seemed to have a few screws loose even before he was captured which in a way I believe made his escape possible.

An interesting turn for Steven Zahn who usually plays the likable clown in comedies... he was quite good in this, playing well a man grasping at the last strands of his sanity.

Christian Bale is a bit of an enigma for me. I gain more respect for him as an actor with every movie of his I watch and yet for some in explicable reason I find him creepy.  Can't quite put my finger on why... but I've felt that way about him since the first movie of his I watched right up to Rescue Dawn.

KC

Rating:

(From KinkyCyborg's Random Reviews 2010 on July 30th, 2010)

Halloween II, a review by addicted2dvd

Title: Halloween II
Movie Count: 61
TV Ep Count: 17
Time Started: 9am
Plot:
Halloween was a breakthrough independant boxoffice hit for writer-director-composer John Carpenter('Escape From New York', 'Starman') and star Jamie Lee Curtis('Trading Places', 'A Fish Called Wanda'). It also introduced one of the most memorable modern-day movie monsters in the shape of escaped psychopath Michael Myers, who is relentlessly pursued by Dr. Sam Loomis( Donald Pleasence).

Presented in it's original widescreen format to preserve all the terror, director Rick Rosenthal's sequal picks up right where the original left off, reuniting Curtis, Pleasence, and writer- producer Carpenter. Find out what happened next on "the night he came home," as Michael pursues Laurie Strode(Curtis) into a new bloodbath at the hospital, while Dr. Loomis frantically tries to understand --and destroy--him.

My Thoughts:
Since I watched the first "Halloween" movie early in the marathon... I thought I would watch some more. Usually I save the Halloween movies for Halloween day... but decided against that this year. I only own 4 of the Halloween movies... the first 2 and the last 2. Not sure how many I will watch today. This one I like... as it takes over where the first one left off. So it is definitely a good continuation into the series.

(From Month-Long Horror/Halloween Marathon on October 20th, 2007)

Smallville Marathon #2, a review by DJ Doena

Synopsis: By destroying Brainiac with the kryptonian knife, Clark opened the portal for Zod. Zod has taken over Lex's body and is now trying to conquer the world by removing its technology. And there's no one who can stop him, because Clark was banished to the Phantom Zone.

My Opinion: This was a great conclusion to the cliffhanger, although once again it could have lasted longer. I see the problem that if Clark would have remained longer in the Phantom Zone, Zod would have caused more havoc and probably more people would have seen him, which would be devastating for Lex. But still, two or three episodes would have been cool.
I find it funny that Aaron Ashmore is playing Jimmy Olsen, while his identical twin brother Shawn has been a recurring FotW in the early seasons, yet no one seems to see the resemblance.

Synopsis: Clark vigorously tries to repair the damage that has been caused by Zod. But even he gets exhausted at one point and his immune system was weakened due to his stay in the Phantom Zone. Clark has catched the "common" cold and now sneezes barn doors halfway across the county.
Meanhwile Lex gets abducted because some people want to find out how he has done the things he has done while he was being possessed by Zod.

My Opinion: They skipped that episode in the last season, probably because there aren't many abilities left and also probably because he has been human during a few episodes. When I first watched this episode I thought Oliver Queen would just be another adversary of Lex's, just as Victoria Hardwick or Jason Teague. How wrong I was.

BTW: When Justin Hartley (Oliver) smiles, don't you think that he has a striking resemblance to the young Ben Affleck?

Synopsis: Someone - or something - is killing a young woman near a make-out-zone and her friend has mysteriously vanished.  But then is found, but he dies at the hospital because a plant is growing out of his stomach. And this plant can hurt even Clark.

My Opinion: Instead of FotWs we will see beings from the Phantom Zone in this season. While I found this episode to be entertaining, I still think that Pa'u Zotoh Zhaan was the more interesting plant.

(From Smallville Marathon #2 on June 15th, 2008)