DVD Collectors Online

The Lost Boys, a review by Dragonfire

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The Lost Boys Sam and his older brother Michael are all-American teens with all-American interests. But after they move with their mother to peaceful Santa Carla, California, things mysteriously begin to change. Michael's not himself lately.  And Mom's not going to like what he's turning into. The Lost Boys reshapes vampire tradition, deftly mixing heart-pounding terror, rib-tickling laughs and a body-gyrating rock soundtrack. Under Joel Schumacher's direction, a marvelous cast - Jason Patric, Jami Gertz, Kiefer Sutherland, Corey Feldman, Corey Haim, Barnard Hughes and Edward Herrmann - stakes you to gleefully ghoulish entertainment.

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I had heard about this one for many years before I finally watched it and it is one of my favorite vampire movies...about proper, creepy, scary, will rip your throat out vampires...not sparkly, wimpy, whiney vampires.  The plot works well without being too simple or too complicated.  Some of the dialogue is a little cheesy at times, but that doesn't bother me too much.  When I first saw the movie, it was probably one of the first things I saw with younger vampires and had teenagers in danger of becoming vampires.  Things develop a little slower, which works for the movie.  It isn't clear at first what is going on or that David and his gang are vampires.  The story works very well.  The movie isn't too violent overall, though there are a few scenes that are bloodier than others.  The effects are fine and while some things might look a little dated now, I think they and the movie has held up well overall.  The movie is definitely still worth watching.  People that like good vampire movies should check it out.



I did post a longer review at Epinions several years ago.

The Lost Boys


(From Marie's 2013 Halloween/Horror Marathon on October 15th, 2013)

Young Master, a review by Jon

Young Master (Shi di chu ma)
2 out of 5



When two rival martial arts schools square off in an annual lion dance competition, the favourite, betrayed by their star pupil, Tiger (Wei Pei), exits in disgrace. When Tiger is expelled and joins with a notorious gang of criminals, led by feared kicking expert Master Kim (Wong In-sik), Dragon (Jackie Chan) embarks on a dangerous mission to bring his 'brother' back to the school. Unfortunately, the situation is further complicated when he is mistaken for his criminal brother, and must fight to clear his name, while continually on the run from both the local police and the criminal gang. Unknown to Dragon, the ultimate challenge awaits him: a deadly one-on-one encounter with the formidable Master Kim. Filled with intricate, masterfully choreographed action sequences, clever sight-gags and fluid camerawork, this timeless classic broke all Hong Kong box-office records on its original theatrical release, and is still, today, one of the top-grossing Jackie Chan movies of all time!

I've always enjoyed classic martial arts movies, especially those with the two masters, Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. The plots of their films are usually similar, especially the earliest ones, but their styles very different. Chan is an acrobatic circus performer, so his films usually have a huge dose of slapstick comedy (he is definitely China's Chaplin) including the fights. You should watch his movies for fun and astonishing stunts.

Young Master, incorrectly thought of as Chan's debut as a director, is not a good place to start. It's worth seeing, but it is tedious. The comedy is just too silly, the dialogue horrendous (although that could be down to poor subtitling) and the fights just go on too long. And in these early films the emphasis was on a very structured style often using props that might be clever, but becomes annoying. Chan is amazing with a fan, long-time collaborator Yuen Baio equally so with a bench, but every one of them needs a kick up the arse, so to speak!

What especially annoyed me was the sequence in the middle where Master Kim (Wong In-Sik) is freed from custody. It is superb! Exciting and brutal. It's all Chan's work though and he does a couple of the harder stunts, so he proves he could have injected the rest of the film with a bit more vigour. The final one-on-one with In-Sik could have been a really good brawler. It was known for being one of the longest fight sequences filmed so far at about 15 minutes. That's 10 too long, sadly.

Ah, well. I'll have to have a marathon of proper Chan movies, like Project A or Dragon's Forever.

(From DCO third annual November Alphabet Marathon - discussion/review/banter thread on November 23rd, 2009)

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: The Complete First Season marathon, a review by Tom

09. What He Beheld (2008-03-03)
Writer: Josh Friedman (Created By), Ian Goldberg (Writer), James Cameron (Original Characters By), Gale Anne Hurd (Original Characters By)
Director: Mike Rohl
Cast

(From Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: The Complete First Season marathon on January 28th, 2009)