DVD Collectors Online

The Lady Vanishes, a review by Achim

Title: The Lady Vanishes
Year: 1938
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Rating: NR
Length: 95 Min.
Video: Full Frame 1.33:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital Mono, Commentary: Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles:

Stars:
Margaret Lockwood
Michael Redgrave
Paul Lukas
Dame May Whitty
Cecil Parker

Plot:
In this best-loved of Hitchcock's British-made thrillers, a young woman on a train meets a charming old lady (Dame May Whitty), who promptly disappears. The other passengers deny ever having seen her, leading the young woman to suspect a conspiracy. When she begins investigating, she is drawn into a complex web of mystery and high adventure.

Extras:
Scene Access
Audio Commentary
Featurettes
Production Notes


This must have been the first Hitchcock film I ever saw. It used to play on German TV often I possibly saw it each and every time. It has, however, been at least 20 years since I saw it last.

It is a great little film. It has lots of Hitchcock's typical ingredients: MacGuffin, suspense, witty dialogue and plays out with a rather high pace that the 90min pass by very quickly. The first 30min we are slowly and ingeniously (because of the way the focus is passed on from one to the other) introduced to all main characters. This bit plays mostly like a comedy with light hearted humor and only a hint (well, a murder) that this is not a comedy at all. The second 30min are the mysery section, where "The Lady Vanishes" (I don't think I need a spoiler tag here ) and the conspiracy plays out. The last third is the suspense section, where we finally gain more knowledge than the characters in the film and Hitchcock has us worried about how it will end!

I was rather surprised how well put together this film was. Considering its age the "special effects" (some matte painting mixed with miniature work) looked quite convincing and appropriate. The dialogue, I keep finding in all the Hitchcock films I rediscover (I used to watch these as a teenager and in a dubbed version!) is quite sharp and the sarcasm(?) is great fun for modern audiences and feels fresh. I especially enjoyed the bits with the two English gentlemen. The only cringe worthy moment was when some piece of evidence "flew by" rather conveniently...

Hitchcock does appear, but near the end of the film, so I missed him.



(From Alfred Hitchcock Marathon on May 8th, 2009)

Black Lightning, a review by Tom

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Title: Black Lightning
Links: IMDb | Wikipedia

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Year:	2009 / Russia
Director:	Dmitriy Kiselev, Aleksandr Voytinskiy
Writing:	Dmitriy Aleynikov (Writer), Aleksandr Talal (Writer)
Rating:	FSK-12
Length:	106 Min.
Video:	Widescreen 2.35
Audio:	German: DTS 5.1, English: DTS 5.1, French: DTS 5.1, Italian: DTS 5.1, Spanish: DTS 5.1, Russian: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Subtitles:	Arabic, Danish, English, Finnish, German, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish, Turkish

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Stars:
Grigoriy Dobrygin as Dima
Ekaterina Vilkova as Nastya
Viktor Verzhbitskiy as Kuptsov
Valeriy Zolotukhin as Perepelkin
Ekaterina Vasileva as Romantseva

Plot:
A student's life turns upside down when he discovers the battered old car his father gave him can fly...

After his entire world falls apart he makes a choice and shoots from zero to hero as a crime fighter known as 'Black Lightning'. Little does he know that evil forces are watching, they want the incredible car, and will stop at nothing to get it, even if it means killing him and destroying the city.

Produced by Timur Bekmambetov (Director of Wanted and Night Watch), this fast-paced action-adventure features the Special Effects Teaam behind Wanted and stuntmen from The Bourne Identity & Quantum of Solace.

Extras:
Deleted Scenes
Featurettes
Scene Access

A russian superhero movie. The title translates to "Black Lightning". I had fun watching it. A guy finds a flying car. It has many similarities with the first Spider-Man movie. His relationship with his father is directly lifted from that film (Uncle Ben). It is almost exactly the same motivation for that guy to use the flying car for good, as it was the motivation for Peter Parker to use his new powers for helping people. Even though it is not a high budget film, I enjoyed the action sequences with the car. It wasn't nearly as ridiculous as the premise would suggest.



Rating:

(From Tom's Random Reviews on September 12th, 2010)

Tom's Buffy and Angel Marathon, a review by Tom

6.14 Older and Far Away
Writer: Joss Whedon (Created By), Drew Z. Greenberg (Writer), Joss Whedon (Writer)
Director: Michael Gershman
Cast: Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy Summers), Nicholas Brendon (Xander Harris), Emma Caulfield (Anya), Michelle Trachtenberg (Dawn Summers), James Marsters (Spike), Alyson Hannigan (Willow Rosenberg), Kali Rocha (Halfrek), Ryan Browning (Richard), Amber Benson (Tara Maclay), Elizabeth Cazenave (Teacher), James C. Leary (Clem), Laura Roth (Sophie)

An average episode. Dawn behaves too childishly though.

Rating:



6.15 As You Were
Writer: Joss Whedon (Created By), Douglas Petrie (Writer), Joss Whedon (Writer)
Director: Douglas Petrie
Cast: Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy Summers), Nicholas Brendon (Xander Harris), Emma Caulfield (Anya), Michelle Trachtenberg (Dawn Summers), James Marsters (Spike), Alyson Hannigan (Willow Rosenberg), Marc Blucas (Riley Finn), Ivana Milicevic (Sam Finn), Marilyn Brett (Lady), Alice Dinnean Vernon (Baby Demon Puppeteer), Adam Paul (Skanky Vamp), Ryan Raddatz (Todd)

This episode is fanservice to the one Riley fan. Nothing special, but also nothing bad.

Rating:

(From Tom's Buffy and Angel Marathon on December 19th, 2010)