DVD Collectors Online

The Descendents, a review by Antares

The Descendents (2011) 60/100 - Is it me, or are films of the last few years sorely lacking in creativity and re-watchability? One of the criteria in my reviews is whether or not I would ever want to watch a film again down the road. Sadly, many films I've watched from the last five years or so, fail miserably in this aspect. This was a film that my wife really wanted to see, and after seeing George Clooney in his last couple of roles, seemed like a good choice for me too. But this film's screenplay is so weak and flimsy, that it had me looking at the clock more times than I wanted. It just kind of meanders along without any concern on the part of the director, to make it either interesting or entertaining. And one final note...George Clooney should have it written into future contracts that his character will never run at full speed as part of his role. I thought it was bad watching Steven Seagal run like a girl in his films, but Clooney looks like he's about to keel over when he's on a sprint. That being said, if you decide to give this a whirl, at least the cinematography is first rate, but then again, it would take a complete hack to make Hawaii look bad.

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 12th, 2013)

Near Dark, a review by addicted2dvd

Title: Near Dark Year: 1987 Director: Kathryn Bigelow Rating: R Length: 94 Min. Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital: 5.1, English: DTS: 5.1, English: Dolby Digital: Dolby Surround, Commentary: Dolby Digital: 2-Channel Stereo Subtitles: English

Stars:
Adrian Pasdar
Jenny Wright
Lance Henriksen
Bill Paxton
Jenette Goldstein
Tim Thomerson

Plot:
In the dusty heart of the American southwest, innocent country boy Caleb Colton (Adrian Pasdar of MYSTERIOUS WAYS) is seduced by a beautiful girl (Jenny Wright) into joining a roving pack of vicious drifters led by the enigmatic Jesse (Lance Henriksen of THE TERMINATOR and ALIENS). But this is no ordinary band of outlaws; Caleb is now trapped in a nightmare of soulless evil that waits in the shadows, hellish mayhem that thrives on blood and absolute horror that begins NEAR DARK.

Bill Paxton (TWISTER) and Jenette Goldstein (ALIENS) co-star in this extraordinary shocker co-written and directed by Kathryn Bigelow (STRANGE DAYS) that Entertainment Weekly calls "ultrastylish, ultraviolent and altogether brilliant." This is more than simply the most ferociously original vampire movie of our generation; NEAR DARK is one of the best horror movies of all time.

Extras:
Scene Access
Audio Commentary
Feature Trailers
Deleted Scenes
Featurettes
Gallery
Production Notes
DVD-ROM Content
Closed Captioned
THX

My Thoughts:
This is a movie that has seemed to fly in under the radar for most people. I discovered it while I was working as a manager of the local video store.... and everyone I ever suggested it to never even heard of it. But yet of the MANY people that took a chance on this movie because of my recommendation... I don't remember ever hearing bad feedback. As far as I remember everyone enjoyed it!

One of the things I like about this movie is that even though while watching it there is no doubt in your mind this is a vampire movie... they never once use the word vampire in the movie... and you never once see a set of fangs.  Another thing I like in this movie is the awesome bar fight scene. I have seen a few bar fight scenes in horror movies... and this is one of the best. Then you have the added bonus that one of the stars of this movie is Lance Henrikson.... a great genre actor.

Needless to say I was thrilled when I first heard this movie was coming out on DVD. I pre-ordered the title as soon as I was able to. And even better was the fact that the release is a 2-disc edition with a nice selection of extras. If you never seen this under-rated movie... I urge you to give it a chance... I really don't think you will be sorry.




Count:
Movie Count: 100
TV Ep. Count: 50 I Made It! (10/20)
Other Count: 8 I Made It! (10/15)

(From Month Long Horror/Halloween Marathon: 2010 on October 28th, 2010)

The Flash Marathon, a review by addicted2dvd

Guest Stars:
Paul Koslo as Johnny Ray Hix
Priscilla Pointer as Nora Allen
M. Emmet Walsh as Henry Allen
Mike Genovese as Lt. Warren Garfield
Richard Kuss as Pete Donello

My Thoughts:
This is a great episode... definitely one of my favorites. Barry's father finally shows some respect for what Barry does.

My Rating:

(From The Flash Marathon on April 11th, 2010)