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X-Men 2, a review by Tom

Title: X2
Year: 2003
Director: Bryan Singer
Rating: FSK-12
Length: 128 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.40
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1, German: Dolby Digital 5.1, German: DTS 5.1, Commentary: Dolby Digital Surround, Commentary: Dolby Digital Surround
Subtitles: Commentary, English, German

Stars:
Patrick Stewart
Hugh Jackman
Ian McKellen
Halle Berry
Famke Janssen

Plot:
Mutant continue their struggle against a society that fears and distrusts them. Their cause becomes even more desperate following an incredible attack by an as yet undetermined assailment possessing extraordinary abilities. The shocking attack renews the political and public outcry for a Mutant Registration Act and an anti-mutant movement now led by William Stryker, a wealthy former Army Commander who is rumored to have experimented on mutants. Stryker's 'mutant' work is somehow tied to Logan's mysterious and forgotten past. As Wolverine searches for clues to his origin, Stryker puts into motion his anti-mutant program - launching an attack on Xavier's mansion. Magneto, newly escaped combat their common and formidable enemy: Stryker. With the fates of Xavier, mankind - and mutant kind - in their hands, the X-Men face their most dangerous mission ever.

Awards:

BMI Film & TV Music Awards	2004	Won	BMI Film Music Award	John Ottman
Hugo Award	2004	Nominated	Dramatic Presentation, Long Form
MTV Movie Awards	2004	Nominated	Best Fight	Hugh Jackman vs. Kelly Hu
MTV Movie Awards	2004	Nominated	Best Kiss	Shawn Ashmore, Anna Paquin
MTV Movie Awards	2004	Nominated	Best Movie
MTV Movie Awards	2004	Won	Breakthrough Male	Shawn Ashmore
Online Film Critics Society Awards	2004	Nominated	Best Visual Effects
Saturn	2003	Nominated	Best Costumes	Louise Mingenbach
Saturn	2003	Nominated	Best Director	Bryan Singer
Saturn	2003	Nominated	Best Makeup	Gordon Smith
Saturn	2003	Nominated	Best Music	John Ottman
Saturn	2003	Won	Best Science Fiction Film
Saturn	2003	Nominated	Best Special Effects	Mike Fink, Richard Hollander, Stephen Rosenbaum, Mike Verzina
Saturn	2003	Nominated	Best Writing	Daniel Harris, Michael Dougherty
Saturn	2002	Nominated	Cinescape Genre Face of the Future - Male	Shawn Ashmore
Teen Choice Awards	2003	Nominated	Choice Movie - Drama/Action Adventure
Teen Choice Awards	2003	Nominated	Choice Movie Actor - Drama/Action Adventure	Hugh Jackman
Teen Choice Awards	2003	Nominated	Choice Movie Actress - Drama/Action Adventure	Halle Berry, Rebecca Romijn
Teen Choice Awards	2003	Nominated	Choice Movie Chemistry	Anna Paquin, Shawn Ashmore
Teen Choice Awards	2003	Nominated	Choice Movie Fight/Action Sequence
Teen Choice Awards	2003	Nominated	Choice Movie Liar	Rebecca Romijn
Teen Choice Awards	2003	Nominated	Choice Movie Villain	Brian Cox, Ian McKellen

Extras:
Commentary
Deleted Scenes
Featurettes
Multi Angle
Photo Gallery
Scene Access
Trailers

I haven't watched this movie since I first got it on DVD, even though I think it is the best of the X-Men movies. The first one was too much of a Wolverine show. This one also focus a lot on him, but not as much. This movie has some great action and never drags for a minute. I really enjoyed this movie, even though I am not big on the X-Men in general (though I must admit, I only know them from the movies).

Rating:

(From Tom's Random Reviews on December 30th, 2009)

Leopard Man, a review by Jon

LEOPARD MAN
4 out of 5

I've seen some reviewers dismiss this as another take on Cat People, but I think that is unfair. Ok, there are some base similarities, but Leopard Man abandons some of the complex morals in favour of a more regular random attack story. Not that it skimps on the emotional side I've come to respect from a Val Lewton production.

Also Cat People was supernatural and the story was mainly concerned with characters trying to find a more tangible explanation. Here, a tame leopard escapes and kills a girl. It is then blamed for more deaths, but some insist it is a human murderer. We the audience are perhaps the only ones considering a cross between the two, maybe because we just watched Cat People(!), but it is definitely inferred anyway.

It's possibly the most genuinely scary film of the set so far, because it shares Cat People's use of shadow and suggestion, but also adds a huge amount of build-up for the victims. Despite the short running time it shares with the other films (just over an hour!), much effort is made to draw you into their lives so it's all the more nerve-shredding when they finally face the terror. The blood running under a locked door as a family desperately try to get it open is very memorable (that it was locked in a petty squabble just adds to the moral tension that Lewton does so well). These are Hitchcockian levels of detail and audience manipulation, working with the barest of tools. If only Val and Al could have met! Actually, no, they'd have probably worn each other out. I should wish instead that filmmakers of today would watch films like theirs and actually understand how to construct a proper, scary, character driven slasher instead of trotting out another cheerleader or three.

Not that I have the slightest thing against cheerleaders, trotting or otherwise.

(From Val Lewton Horror Marathon on October 4th, 2008)

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

Synopsis: Worf is missing in action after his ship was destroyed near the Badlands. The Defiant searches for him but has to abort when the Jem'Hadar are closing in on her. Ezri takes matters into her own hand and continues the search in a runabout. Meanwhile Benjamin proposes to Kasidy and she accepts. And on Cardassia the Founder gets more and more ill due to the plague that has infected the Great Link a few months ago. And Dukat reappears and asks Damar for a favour.

My Opinion: Now the story is marching toward the end and these ten episodes form one continuous arc. There are now multiple parallel storylines and some of them are more interesting than others.
Even though it puts Ezri in the center agin, I mostly enjoyed this episode. It was a good start to this conclusion of the series.

Synopsis: Sisko takes the warning of the Prophets seriously and isn't sure anymore that he really should marry Kasidy. He beasically un-proposes to her and she doesn't take it lightly. Worf and Ezri - who had crashed on a planet and were captured by the Breen - are on a Breen ship and are being brought to an unknown destination. And Dukat - now surgically altered to look like a Bajoran - meets with Kai Winn who got a vision from the Prophets in which they instructed her to work with him (although she doesn't know who he really is).

My Opinion: These Prophets and their prophecy. They are a bit of a PITA. But I am glad that Ben made up his own mind and married Kasidy. They are a nice couple and they deserved it. I didn't care much about Worf's and Ezri's argument though. But it didn't bother me either. What did bother me was the Winn/Dukat storyline. Dukat was a brilliant villain character before they made up this religious storyline. I guess it's a bit like with The Lord of the Rings. In order to watch the great battles and the interesting characters around Aragorn you have to endure Frodo's march to Mount Doom.

Synopsis: The Dominion and the Breen have signed a treaty that makes the latter part of the Dominion. Ezri and Worf are now prisoners on Cardassia. Damar becomes more and more uneasy and when Weyoun sacrifices half a million cardassian soldiers in a pointless battle he finally comes around and decides to do something about it. Meanwhile Kai Winn learns that the vision was not sent by the Prophets but by the Pah-Wraiths but when she seeks forgiveness the Prophets don't answer her.

My Opinion: I really liked it that Worf and Ezri talked things out. They couldn't behave awkwardly around each other forever. And I liked it how Worf snapped Weyoun 7's neck and how Damar enjoyed seeing this even though he knew that there would be a Weyoun 8. And I loved it when Martok and Sisko dicussed marriage and Martok compared it to wars and battles. He's a typical Klingon.

Synopsis: Ezri and Worf are back on DS9 and they bring the news about the Breen with them. But they didn't have to. The Breen have just launched an orbital attack on the Starfleet Headquarters in San Francisco. And now they try to re-take the Chin'toka system. A combined fleet tries to prevent that but it ends in disaster. Meanwhile Winn and Dukat (still disguised as Anjohl Tennan) study the old books about the Pah-Wraiths in order to find a way to release them in order to bring restauration to Bajor.

My Opinion: Damar's troops destroyed the cloning facilities of the Dominion. It seems that Weyoun is going to be OOP. What I liked about this episode was that they didn't show only fighting and war but also that all these people still have a private life, that life goes on despite the war. And I loved that huge "The Alamo" model of Miles's. Too bad they had to give up the Defiant. She was a fine ship.

(From Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Marathon on March 6th, 2009)