DVD Collectors Online

Easy Living, a review by Antares

Easy Living (1937) 72/100 - This is one of those films that's been getting a lot of discussion lately as a lost gem of the screwball comedy era. But to be honest, you would think that a screenplay written by Preston Sturges, the Shakespeare of screwball, would be a gut busting ride, but for a few glitches, never finds it's course to classic comedy. It's as if someone at Paramount was given a set of blueprints for how to make a screwball comedy and everyone except Jean Arthur and Luis Alberni was manufacturing their roles to specification. Edward Arnold and Ray Milland spend the first 45 minutes of the film yelling their lines as if high volume made the lines funnier...well... it doesn't. It just makes the proceedings seem a bit amateurish. The film only really gets its footing once Jean Arthur takes up residence at Mr. Louis Louis' swanky hotel. The scenes with her and Alberni are priceless and for my money, Alberni steals almost every scene he's in. That isn't to say that Jean Arthur doesn't carry her weight, quite the contrary, she just radiates in this role. I've never seen her look more beautiful in a film and her performance proves that she was the queen of screwball comedy. It's too bad the first 45 minutes aren't as funny as the last 45 minutes, because this could have been a contender for top screwball comedy of all time. But alas, it's really only worth watching for the reasons I stated.

What the color coding means...

Teal = Masterpiece
Dark Green = Classic or someday will be
Lime Green = A good, entertaining film
Orange = Average
Red = Cinemuck
Brown = The color of crap, which this film is

(From Antares' Short Summations on October 18th, 2012)

Stargate: The Director's Cut, a review by Jon

Stargate: The Director's Cut
3 out of 5

In 1928, an ancient Egyptian artefact covered in strange symbols is excavated at the foot of the Great Pyramids. Decades later the American Government recruits the help of Egyptologist Dr Daniel Jackson (James Spader) to decode the secret of these symbols. He reveals the key to a "stargate", an intergalactic portal to the far side of the known universe. Jackson is joined by a crack military unit led by Colonel O'Neill (Kurt Russel) on a voyage of discovery.

A typical Devlin/Emmerich movie, all waffle and no substance, but also lacks the epic scale and sheer awesome audacity of their later Independence Day or Day After Tomorrow. Everything is bombastic and overdone. It could have been vastly improved by cutting out most of the cliched crap involving the natives and letting Kurt Russell be Kurt Russell instead of hamstringing his character with baggage. James Spader's good though, Mili Avital is gorgeous*, and the Ra God-squad are impressive. The whole thing bats along being inoffensively fun. It just wouldn't hurt to skip a couple of middle chapters.

This is the "Director's Cut". Not a whole lot of difference and the quality of the additional footage is frequently terrible. A half-arsed release of a half-arsed film. Shame because the story is a cracker and sets-up a great TV series. Haven't seen many myself but they seemed to learn from the mistakes. That said the canon becomes very confusing across several mediums, all of which Devlin seems to ignore, going so far as to announce a sequel in 2006 that would pick up at the end of this film and ignore everything else. Russell and Spader were to return in a planned trilogy.

Devlin, your film's shit. Leave it alone and let the telly boys have their fun because they know what they're doing and actually understand things called "plot" and "character".


*-Along with Natalie Portman, proving that Israel is thus far a seemingly untapped world of totty possibilities!

(From Jon's Random Reviews on January 29th, 2009)

Pete's Pilots, a review by addicted2dvd

Dungeons and Dragons: The Animated Series
An enchanted roller coaster delivers six youths into the magical realm of Dungeons and Dragons. There, each of them gains magical talents and abilities, all the better to survive their time in the Realm. The bow-shooting ranger, the acrobat, the thief, the cavalier, the boy wizard, and the barbarian are soon joined by a baby unicorn and tutored by the mysterious and inscrutable Dungeon Master. Opposing them is the evil Sorcerer Venger, as well as various ogres, demons, bounty hunters, dragons, lizard men, skeleton warriors and more, all intent on keeping the kids from getting back home!

The Night of No Tomorrow
The group finds Merlin, looking for a magic spell to get home Presto casts a spell only to release a horde of dragons attacking the nearby village.

My Thoughts:
This is a cartoon I used to watch back when I was a teen. I bought the DVD set for pure nostalgic reasons alone. When I saw the set so cheap I just couldn't help myself. The show is not as good as I remember it.. but it is entertaining enough and gives enough nostalgic value that it is worth the $9.86 I paid for the set. I never realized it when I was a kid... but it is now so obvious that the actor supplying the voice for Eric is none other then Donny Most (Ralph Mouth on Happy Days).

My Rating:

(From Pete's Pilots on December 29th, 2009)