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Village of the Damned, a review by KinkyCyborg

Title:Village of the Damned
Year: 1995
Director: John Carpenter (1948)
Rating: R
Length: 98 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital: 5.1, French: Dolby Digital: Dolby Surround
Subtitles: English, Spanish

Stars:Plot:
From the master of suspense, John Carpenter, comes a chilling new version of the sci-fi classic. Something is terribly wrong in the tiny village of Midwich. After an unseen force invades a quiet coastal town, ten women mysteriously find themselves pregnant. Local physician Dr. Alan Chaffee and government scientist Dr. Susan Verner join forces when the women simultaneously give birth...and the reign of terror begins. In what the New York Times calls "one scarifying trip," the people of Midwich must try and find a way to stop the children in the "Village of the Damned".

Extras:
Scene Access
Feature Trailers
Production Notes
DVD-ROM Content


I've never seen the original but I would have to imagine it is better than this. 

Christopher Reeve, in his last role before the accident that paralyzed him, gives a standup performance... (pardon the pun) but his was the only decent effort put into this movie. Mark Hamill overacts so much I was actually embarrassed for him and Kirstie Alley, 15 years younger and half the size, begins her evolution from Bad Actress to Fat Actress.

The premise of the movie was good and the kids were spooky enough but overall it was a bit of a yawner. Looking forward to watching the original.

KC


Rating:

(From KinkyCyborg's Random Reviews 2010 on June 4th, 2010)

Stargate, a review by DJ Doena

First I thought about a re-run of Smallville but I have watched this in the middle of last year and it's been a while since I've watched Stargate SG-1.

In order to watch Stargate SG-1, one has to watch Stargate first.



Kurt Russell ... Col. Jonathan 'Jack' O'Neil
James Spader ... Dr. Daniel Jackson
Alexis Cruz ... Skaara
Viveca Lindfors ... Catherine
Mili Avital ... Sha'uri
John Diehl ... Lieutenant Kawalsky
Leon Rippy ... General W.O. West
Erick Avari ... Kasuf
French Stewart ... Lieutenant Ferretti
Jaye Davidson ... Ra

Synopsis: Dr. Jackson is not very renowned in the scientific community. But he is convinced that the great pyramids weren't build during the fourth dynasty 5,000 years ago. He believes that they are much older. A digging back in 1928 confirms his suspicions: buried in the sands of Egypt under a great cover stone with unknown symbols - not hieroglyphs - the Door to Heaven Stargate was found. The Stargate is an ancient device to open an intergalactic connection to the planet Abydos. Dr. Jackson and Colonel Jack O'Neill (and a group of soldiers) go there. O'Neill's job is to evaluate the danger of the situation they are facing.

My Opinion: Unfortunately I haven't seen this movie in the theatres (I went to Star Trek: Generations instead). The idea that alien cultures have been to Earth and have had an influence isn't new, but it was interestingly presented. I also liked that the Abydosians really spoke abydosian (a variant of ancient egyptian) and not just english. The fights were very well choreographed, too, I didn't have the feeling that the weapons of the humans were a match to the ones of Ra's.

To adopt the story for the series they had to make some adjustments (this contains spoilers in regard to the pilot of the series):

• In the movie, Ra is portrayed as the last of his kind, in the series he is one System Lord amongst many - although the most powerful one
• In the movie, Ra is no Goa'uld, his alien body looks totally different
• In the movie, Abydos is in another galaxy, in the series it's the planet closest to Earth
• In the movie, the Stargate is a point-to-point connection to Abydos, in the series it's one in a great network of Stargates
• Ra's Jaffa (who aren't called Jaffa in the movie) don't have an abdomen pouch in which they carry a Goa'uld larva (the term Goa'uld is also an invention of the series)

Additionally one has to activate one's "suspension of disbelief" even more than in the movie, because:

• On most planets the people speak english, no explanation is given (Universal Translator in Star Trek, Translator Microbes in Farscape)
• Most planets look like canadian forrests
• On some planets are earth-like cultures that developed only after the gate was buried
• We never see normal Goa'ulds, they are either rulers or at least scientists, but the huge number of Gua'uld larvae in the Jaffa have to result in a much larger Goa'uld population

Now we can get started ...



(From "Stargate SG-1" Marathon on February 29th, 2008)

Tom's Random Reviews, a review by Tom

Moonlight: Season One (2007/United States) IMDb | Wikipedia Warner Home Video (United Kingdom) Length: 664 min. Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78 Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1, German: Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround Subtitles: English, German

---

Plot:
Any private eye knows a lot about other people's secrets. L.A. private eye Mick St. John (Alex O'Loughlin) has a secret of his own. He's a vampire, dwelling in a covert netherworld complicated by friendship with an undead finance honcho (Jason Dohring), memories of the alluring ex-wife (Shannyn Sossamon) who turned him into a vampire, and a relationship with a human (Sophia Myles) he feels drawn to protect - and maybe to love. But no matter how tempting, Mick knows a vampire-human romance is eternally dangerous.

This 16-episode, 4-disc set of the series voted the 2008 People's Choice Award for Favorite New TV Drama is a sure entertainment bet for all who like their vampire stories sleek, intense and passionate.

When going in I thought this would be just another vampire doing redemption by helping people series. But this series surprised me. I really enjoyed it. Also some ideas to the vampire mythos were refreshing (though some were more like going back to Bram Stoker, like stake through the heart only paralyzes the vampire).
The ongoing romance storyline was good, as where the cases they were working on. Also nice to see a vampire series, where vampires stay the only supernatural thing. And not introduce magic, werewolves etc.
This is a thing which bothers me with such series or superhero movies and series: First the hero is the only thing different to the "real" world. But then they introduce more and more "super" and extraordinary stuff. This is probably the reason why I never got into superhero comics.
Too bad this series was cancelled so soon. It really would have had the stuff to continue.
The only thing I didn't like about this series was the need for vampires to sleep in freezers. These are a fairly recent invention. What did the vampires do in the past then?

#	Episode	Rating
01	No Such Thing as Vampires
02	Out of the Past
03	Dr. Feelgood
04	Fever
05	Arrested Development
06	B.C.
07	The Ringer
08	12:04 AM
09	Fleur de Lis
10	Sleeping Beauty
11	Love Lasts Forever
12	The Mortal Cure
13	Fated to Pretend
14	Click
15	What's Left Behind
16	Sonata

(From Tom's Random Reviews on February 17th, 2011)