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The Exorcist: The Version You Never Seen, a review by addicted2dvd

Title: The Exorcist: The Version You've Never Seen
Year: 1973
Director: William Friedkin
Rating: R
Length: 132 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital Surround EX, English: Dolby Digital Surround, Commentary: Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles: English, French

Stars:
Ellen Burstyn as Chris MacNeil
Max von Sydow as Father Merrin
Lee J. Cobb as Lt. Kinderman
Kitty Winn as Sharon
Jack MacGowran as Burke Dennings

Plot:Extras:
Scene Access
Audio Commentary
Theatrical Trailers
Production Notes
Closed Captioned

My Thoughts:
Let me start out this review by letting you all know that this film holds a special place in my heart. This was Dawn's (my late wife) all time favorite movie. We watched this together countless times. And it never failed to scare her every time. Scared her to the point that after watching it she made me follow her around the house as she didn't want to be anywhere alone. I always felt it was unfortunate she never saw this version of the movie. While the movie never scared me. I could see how it would scare people.

The above reminds me of something else. Several years later my niece spent the night with us. And she came to me saying... "Uncle Pete, Show me a movie that will scare me!" So I instantly thought of The Exorcist... and can you believe she sat there and laughed through the entire movie!?!? Kids now a day! Which bring us to the point that it was Brittany chose this movie to watch next. (So you can expect a review from Brittany soon) But I already told her.... if she laughs at this movie... I am calling a psychiatrist!

To me this is a great movie. Sure it is a bit slow in parts. But the story is of such interest to me that it didn't "feel" slow. I of course love the head spin scene... and then there is the whole spider walk down the stairs scene... very cool. I am afraid that my problem reviewing this movie is determining how much of my fondness is for the quality of the movie and how much of it is how it just holds a special place in my heart. So how true is the rating I am giving it? I am questioning myself on this matter. But one thing I would never question myself on is the fact that I would definitely recommend this movie!



(From Movies of the '70s Marathon on March 19th, 2010)

The Golden Compass, a review by RossRoy

Original Title: The Golden Compass Year: 2007 Country: United Kingdom Director: Chris Weitz Rating: PG Length: 113 Min. Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital Surround EX, English: Dolby Digital Stereo, French: Dolby Digital 5.1 Subtitles: English, French

What they say
In a marvelous parallel world where witches soar the skies and Ice Bears rule teh frozen North, one special girl is destined to hold the fate of the universe in her hands.When Lyra Belacqua (Dakota Blue Richards) becomes the keeper of the Golden Compass, only she has the ability to read its portent messages and prevent her world - and all others - from slipping into an evil darkness.

My Thoughts
That was an underwhelming experience if there ever was one. Underused stars, overused child actor who obviously can't carry a movie alone, overused CGI, bland and routine direction, etc.

My main gripe about the movie though, is the lead child actress. Not that she's a bad actress or anything, but who the hell decided to greenlight a project where a child actor has to carry a whole movie with only 2 CGI animals as support? I've yet to see a single child actor who could pull that off.

And the animals.. Well, they are well animated and very well done. But the thing is, it is at times painfully obvious that there's nothing there. You'll see someone petting the animal, but not even touching it. Or, holding it in their arms, and it just becomes way too obvious.

The stars? Oh sure, you can put Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Ian McKellen, Christopher Lee, even Kathy Bates on the promo material and posters! But, each one of them is on screen for about, oh, 5 minutes each? And two of them are only doing voices anyway (Ian and Kathy)!

But it's a shame really. Because the story itself could have been so much more. It really feels like an introduction of this world, with little regards to an actual coherent story, in the hopes it'll prove "good enough" to warrant sequels that will actually tell the story. Thing is, they leave so much open, and so little actually happens here, I'm not even sure people would want to see a sequel.

Rating:

(From RossRoy's Random Viewings on July 24th, 2008)

Tom's Random Star Trek Reviews, a review by Tom

DS9 1.07 Q-Less
Writer: Gene Roddenberry (Original Characters By), Rick Berman (Original Characters By), Michael Piller (Original Characters By), Robert Hewitt Wolfe (Screenwriter), Hannah Louise Shearer (Original Material By)
Director: Paul Lynch
Cast: Avery Brooks (Commander Sisko), Rene Auberjonois (Odo), Siddig El Fadil (Doctor Bashir), Terry Farrell (Lieutenant Dax), Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko), Colm Meaney (Chief O'Brien), Armin Shimerman (Quark), Nana Visitor (Major Kira), Jennifer Hetrick (Vash), John de Lancie (Q), Van Epperson (Bajoran Clerk), Tom McCleister (Kolos), Laura Cameron (Bajoran Woman)

This episode was obviously made to bring in viewers from TNG. Too bad that Q hardly interacts with the DS9 crew. It would have been great to have more scenes between Sisko and Q.
It was a good way to introduce Q to DS9 and at the same time bring the Q/Vash story to a conclusion. Sadly there weren't any other Q episodes in DS9 after this one.

Rating:

(From Tom's Random Star Trek Reviews on October 16th, 2009)