DVD Collectors Online

David Bowie: Finding Fame, a review by Antares

David Bowie: Finding Fame (2019) 50/100 - Surprisingly disappointing documentary on the early career of one of the most iconic performers in Rock & Roll. In fact, if Bowie were still alive, he'd probably have quashed the efforts to bring it to light. My takeaway from this was that Bowie was godawful during his formative musical years. Between 1962 and 1969 Bowie had been in or fronted at least 8 different bands, none of which had even a smattering of success. And it's easy to see why, the songs have no melodic hooks, the lyrics seem to meander without much meaning and his voice isn't really that engaging or captivating. What struck me as amazing was the fact that anyone kept giving him the opportunities to record more stuff. There's a moment in the doc when the director is showing Bowie in 1968 as part of a trio with his then girlfriend Hermione Farthingale and suddenly he jumps ahead two years to 1970 and he plays snippets of Bowie's first hit Space Oddity. It was as if the director wanted to keep his viewers happy by throwing them at least a bit of the talented Bowie, because after those snippets, he goes back to the bad stuff. Unless you are a Bowie completest, I can't recommend this documentary, it's not flattering to his legacy at all.

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 July 11th, 2020)

New Moon, a review by Dragonfire

The Twilight Saga: New Moon The Next Chapter Begins In the second chapter of Stephanie Meyer's best-selling Twilight series, the romance between mortal Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) and Vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) grows more intense as ancient secrets threaten to destroy them.  When Edward leaves in an effort to keep Bella safe, she tests fate in increasingly reckless ways in order to glimpse her love once more.  But when she is saved from the brink by her friend Jacob Black (Taylor Loutner), Bella will uncover mysteries of the supernatural world that will put her in more peril than ever before. My Thoughts I have read all four of the Twilight books and I've seen the first movie.  All of them are somewhat entertaining and I mostly enjoyed them, though they are nowhere near as great some people claim.  New Moon is my least favorite of the books, but still for some reason, I decided to watch this movie.  Insanity perhaps. The movie is an all right adaptation of the book, though it still drags on too long.  The main ideas from the book are here, though a few things - like Bella's stupidity and depression - are toned down thankfully.  Even in the book, the plot for this one is weaker with so  much emphasis on Bella's feelings while she wallows in her despair after Edward leaves.  Despite how long the movie is, not that much actually happens.  It is basically Bella whiney, and moping between doing stupid, dumbass things.  She is very annoying, though she is much better than she was in the book.  At least her obsession with Romeo and Juliet is pretty much left out. Victoria is tossed in again as a threat to Bella, but that really goes nowhere.  The werewolves show up, but they aren't really werewolves.  They just change whenever they want, usually if they are mad and they can transform instantly while running.  The moon has nothing to do with their changes.  I think they are shape shifters who change in a large - very large - wolves.  The fur looks ok on the wolves the few seconds they stand still, but most of the time they are moving too much to tell how good they really look.  Having them be that big is just odd.  Some things do look better in this movie.  The sparkle effect may be slightly better, but it still looks stupid.  Sparkling vampires.  Please.  Edward looks like he rolled around in a vat of glitter powder.  The makeup does look a bit better and no one looks as extremely pale as happened in the first movie.  None of the vampires are around much, so they don't add much of anything.  The red eye look for the Volturi - especially Jane - does work as a creepy look.  Jane is very creepy looking with the way she smiles.  The "werewolves" really don't do much of anything either other than transform a few times and run around snarling.  The action is practically nonexistent.  Jacob is around a bit more. Sometimes he is ok, and other times he acts like more of a jerk.  He does look good without his shirt though. Bella is horrible.  She mopes and wallows in her depression and misery.  Then she thinks up one stupid danger thing after another to do just so she can see a hallucination of Edward.  She still has no confidence in Edward's feelings for her, so she never even thinks that Edward may be attempting to protect her.  She evidently has already forgotten how over protective he can be.  None of the acting is anything special, though part of that may be the material they have to work with. There are a few slightly entertaining things that happen, but that's it.  This movie isn't anything special and most people can safely skip it.  Only fans of the books may find something to like. I did get a review posted on Epinions. New Moon

(From New Moon on June 10th, 2010)

The One Where It All Began: The Pilot Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

What's the show about?
Black King? White Knight? Nate is a former insurance investigator but now he works with a thief (Parker), a hacker (Hardison), a hitter (Eliot) and a grifter (Sophie) to help people the normal law can't or won't help. Nate is a master at Xanatos Speed Chess and he uses this ability to outmanoeuvre his opponents and get what he wants.

"The Nigerian Job"
The CEO of an airplane manufacturer hires Nate to be the boss of a gang of thieves to steal back blueprints that were stolen from him. But he has played them all and tries to get them killed. Now Nate is turning the tables. He hires a new face and old "friend" of his, Sophie, and together they are getting the prints back and the CEO in trouble.

My Opinion
It's a worthy successor of the 80's A-Team and basically as unrealistic - which didn't matter then and doesn't matter now. Back then B.A. welded some steel together and built some form of tank, today Hardison is manipulating any electronic device to get hoodwink the bad guy. The characters are funny to watch and two of them (Nate and Sophie) have an even more personal connection.

(From The One Where It All Began: The Pilot Marathon on September 11th, 2009)