DVD Collectors Online

From Dusk Till Dawn, a review by Jon

From Dusk Till Dawn
4 out of 5



I love this movie. One of my favourite horrors. And after the last few days of the elegant brilliance of Val lewton, I felt I needed to cut loose with some balls-out action vampire killing!

I wish I could have seen it without knowing what it actually was, because the shock of the switch from thriller to horror would have been great fun. It's great that Rodriguez put full effort into that first half to give us well rounded characters, because a problem with a lot of horror films is the thin characters. What's also lacking is a sense of humour, but last section is full of laughs, especially Tom Savini trying to hide his new teeth! Or the vamp that disintegrates on a pool table and his eyes roll into the pockets!

Speaking of which, the gore never gets boring. So many gags, you could watch this several times and still see something new and disgusting. The script is fantastic, full of quotable lines, some of which I've been able to get into everyday conversation... like "I might be a bastard, but I'm not a f***ing bastard!" or the speech about pussy. Actually, I wish I'd not tried that last one. I'm still not welcome in Asda...

It's alright having a good script, but you need a good cast to deliver it and this lot are perfect. Even Tarantino, working to his, erm, strengths. Juliette Lewis I thought would be wrong, but she strikes a good tone between schoolgirl and temptress to Richie's nightmare. Harvey Kietel is as dependable as ever and Clooney is obviously having a riot. Well, I say "obviously", but the outtakes show him frequently pissed off and without his usual humour, so maybe it just proves what a good actor he actually is. And it does no harm to have room for cult favourites like the afore mentioned Tom Savini and Fred Williamson.

Everything oozes confidences in this movie. All the scenes have that little extra they didn't actually need, but looks cool anyway. It will possibly always stand as Rodriguez' best film because it's the most perfect fit for his seat of the pants directing style and there aren't many stories that can stand such a change in tone and still work fully committed to both styles.

"And I don't want to hear anything about "I don't believe in vampires" because I don't believe in vampires, but I believe in my own two eyes, and what I saw is fucking vampires!"

(From October Marathon: Horror! on October 8th, 2008)

Black Lightning, a review by dfmorgan

Black Lightning

Year: 2009
Director: Dmitriy Kiselev, Aleksandr Voytinskiy
Cast: Grigoriy Dobrygin, Ekaterina Vilkova, Viktor Verzhbitskiy
Overview: A student's life turns upside down when he discovers the battered old car his father gave him can fly...

After his entire world falls apart he makes a choice and shoots from zero to hero as a crime fighter known as "Black Lightning". Little does he know that evil forces are watching, they want the incredible car, and will stop at nothing to get it, even if it means killing him and destroying the city.

Produced by Timur Bekmambetov (Director of Wanted and Night Watch), this fast-paced action-adventure features the Special Effects Teaam behind Wanted and stuntmen from The Bourne Identity & Quantum of Solace.

Watched: 18th Sep 2010
My Thoughts: A superhero film from Russia which I found to be quite a fun little film. There are similarities with Spiderman with the reason behind the boys decision to become a hero and with a girlfriend in a love triangle. It took a while for Black Lightning to appear but when he did it seemed to me to be displayed well.

My Rating: Overall a good and very enjoyable 4

Dave

(From Dave's DVD/Blu-ray Reviews on September 19th, 2010)

Tom's TV Pilots marathon, a review by Tom

Das Amt: Staffel 1 & 2 (1997/Germany) IMDb Koch Media, RTL Television, Spirit Media (Germany) Length: 479 min. Video: Full Frame 1.33:1 Audio: German: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles:

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Das Amt
1.01 Die Neue
Writer: Dietmar Jacobs (Writer)
Director: Micha Terjung
Cast


(From Tom's TV Pilots marathon on February 23rd, 2012)