DVD Collectors Online

Shooter, a review by DJ Doena

June, 7th

Synopsis: Bob Lee Swagger was an Army Rangers sharpshooter but during a mission in Ethiopia his spotter gets killed and he has to escape without any backup since this mission was an illegal operation. Three years later he has retired and lives in the Rocky Mountains until his government needs his help again. Someone wants to shoot the president from over a mile away and they need his expertise to find the killer. But suddenly Bob Lee finds himself being the suspected killer and is hunted by every law enforcement department the US has to offer.

My Opinion: It's a very interesting thriller with nice references to the JFK murder. Mark Wahlberg might not be the best actor but I think he plays roles where his character is of a simple nature (like his role here or in Four Brothers) very well and believable. I also liked how they managed to show many different landscapes in which a sniper has to work in (steppe, a city, forest, snow, ...) without making it unrealistic.

(From DJ Doena's movie watchings 2009 on June 18th, 2009)

Idaho Transfer, a review by Jimmy

Title: Idaho Transfer
Year: 1973
Director: Peter Fonda
Rating: PG
Length: 1h30
Video:  Full Frame 1.33:1
Audio:  English mono
Subtitles: None

Stars:
Kelly Bohanon - Karen
Kevin Hearst - Ronald
Caroline Hildebrand - Isa
Keith Carradine - Arthur
Dale Hopkins - Leslie
Plot:
A secret scientific project sends a group of young Idaho college students 56 years into the future... to the year 2044. Their mission is unknown, but the pieces of the puzzle slowly fall into place when they find out that all of humanity has been wiped out by an environmental holocaust. In order to save the human race, a handful of youths from the past must permanently settle in the ecological nightmare of this future world. As a few of the students travel even further ahead in time, they are relieved to learn that humankind has recovered from the edge of extinction... or has it?
Extras:
Biographies
Filmographies
Photo Gallery

This movie is not really know and it was shown only one week at theatre (the distributing company had made a bankruptcy). So the movie dissapear completly untill 1988 when it reappear on video. This is one of the three movies directed by Peter Fonda (he is the producer, writter and one of the protagonist in "Easy Rider") and it's the least known of them. Now, the question is : So how is this movie? Is it a good thing that it was saved or not?

This is a science fiction movie with a limited budget and it's a time travel movie too (Tom maybe this will interest you). The only experience actor in the cast is Carradine, the others are no acting experience (they were science students from different university) but surprisingly this is a good thing : they sound natural and nothing look forced. The strong points of the movie is the place where it was film, this is a perfect place for setting a movie about the end of the world (we can feel that everything is gone). This is hard to explain but we feel the emptiness that the world will become. At times the movie is hard to understand (one watching is not enough) and the end is surprising (the sixth sense have not invented the twisted ending).

One last thing : I agree completly with the concept of the time travel in this movie. The only way to travel is forward and return, so no past time travel. This is more realist (if we can say it) scientifically they are too much paradox and impossibility for travelling back in time. But this is not the place to discuss about this.

I really recommand it. A good Sci-fi movie who don't involve alien and big special effect, only a good story with a good cast (even if they are not actors). This is the best one that I've reviewed on this thread. 

Rating : 4/5


(From My review - unseen and unwatched january marathon on January 19th, 2008)

24: Season 7, a review by DJ Doena

Last weekend I watched the extended version of 24: Redemption and then the seventh season of 24.

The movie while still in "real time" was a nice change of pace with that african location and not having to save the world but just a group of orphans. That was a good idea and well done if you ask me.

The seventh season is a different matter. Don't get me wrong, I did really like it. It was way better than the fourth and fifth season and I'd say the show has turned upwards again since the beginning of the sixth season.

Let me first describe what I didn't like and then go to the good parts.

The season had many elements every previous season also had and that makes it somewhat predictable.
First and foremost, nobody trusts Jack and they only get in his way - everybody should know by now that Jack is always right.
Then there's this huge threat by "the man" that is resolved precisely after 12 hours and is replaced by the threat of "the man behind the man". So once the big bad is identified you know that he will be dead by half-time and the true evil will appear.
Then there's Jack's superior who makes always the wrong or the slow decision and is either killed this season or the next. The only exception to this rule was James Morrison's character Bill Buchanan who was introduced in the fourth season as Jack's new boss.
And then there are two conspiracies within the government, one on a political level and one on the personal level in close proximity to the president.

All the above applies also to the seventh season.

But they also made some changes. The two most important are the decommissioning of CTU and to give Jack a new (female) partner.
No one really knows why they did it - after all, CTU saved the day at least six times before, but they did. Bill was retired, Chloe a stay-at-home mom and Jack was on the run. Now he's back and he has to testify about his actions in front of a Senate hearing - which of course lasts only until the next crisis arises.
Jack only works in an advising capacity with FBI agent Renee Walker who is totally against methods such as torturing that have been used by the CTU and Jack. But this wouldn't be 24 if that resolution would survive the first contact with the enemy. Still she tries to restrain Jack and is actually getting through to him.
And we have a new president, a woman this time. And I really like her. She reminds me a lot of the late President David Palmer and that's a good thing in my book.
I also think that this was the first time I liked Kim Bauer and her behaviour. She's certainly grown as a person.
Another moment that I thought was impressive was when Jack changed his shirt and Renee could see all the scars that he has "collected" over the years and when it dawned to her what he himself endured (the scars the Chinese gave to his hands at the beginning of the sixth season were gone though - I assume it was a make-up decision to "forget" them or he would have to wear them all the time).
And the last thing I'd like to add is the topic of this year's longest day: That they questioned the reasonability of private army companies like BlackStarckwater and pointed out the danger that they represent.

The seventh season had an end that could have served as series finale but since there will be an eighth sure I am sure that I will tune in.

(From 24: Season 7 on September 16th, 2009)