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Queen of the damned, a review by Rich

23/11

Queen of the damned




A deep, dark, stylistic adaptation of the book by Anne Rice from her hugely popular series of vampire novels, THE QUEEN OF THE DAMNED is like a Nine Inch Nails rock video. Undernourished goth club kids are the focus of the film and they all look great with piercings, net t-shirts, tattoos, dyed hair, and dour facial expressions. The film follows the celebrity rock star Vampire Lestat (Stuart Townsend), who has emerged from 200 years of solitude to show his face--and his vampire powers--to the world. He has assembled a goth band, makes regular media appearances, and has enchanted the world with his otherworldly mystique. In addition, he has planned one of the most controversial publicity stunts of all eternity: he is holding a one-night rock concert in California's Death Valley, inviting all vampires young and old (along with his extensive fan-base of mortals) to join him. As a side bar to this activity, the mortal Jesse, a young woman who works for the Talamasca society studying paranormal occurrences, has found a secret portal to the vampire world: a London pub where vamps hang out. There she meets Lestat and is instantly smitten with him, insisting on travelling to Death Valley to see his concert. Also en route to the show is the sleek and sexy Egyptian mother of all vampires Queen Akasha (Aaliyah), who has recently arisen from a 2,000-year nap in order to unleash hell on earth. From a distance, a wise band of vampires watch telepathically as Akasha, Lestat, and Jesse converge in Death Valley. But what nobody knows is that the headstrong Lestat, who is the most impulsive and irresponsible of immortal beings but practically a god in the eyes of mortals, is the only one who can defeat Akasha and save the world.


Back to the plainly ordinary again unfortunately, despite some great effects, with a heavy metal score which was dreadful and totally drowned certain scenes, this was a real non-hitter as either a horror or fantasy film. If you are a fan of Anne Rice's books avoid this film like garlic. Aaliyah may be missed in the pop world, but on this effort not as an actress. 


(From November Alphabet Marathon - Discussion/Review Thread on November 24th, 2008)

The Island of Dr. Moreau, a review by GSyren

Title	The Island of Dr. Moreau (5-037899-056325)
Director	Don Taylor
Actors	Burt Lancaster, Michael York, Nigel Davenport, Barbara Carrera, Richard Basehart
Produced	1977 in United States
Runtime	99 minutes
Audio	English PCM 2-Channel Stereo
Subtitles	None
Overview	Crewman Andrew Braddock (York) survives the wreck of the sailing ship The Lady Vain. After several days at sea in a lifeboat, he reaches the shores of an island governed by the mysterious scientist "Dr. Moreau" (Lancaster). Though welcomed as an honored guest by Moreau, Braddock finds his contact with the natives increasingly disturbing, for they are not like any men he has ever seen before. Eventually, it becomes apparent that these men are, in fact, the hybrid products of Moreau s experiments upon various species of wild animals. Braddock becomes so shocked and curious that Moreau explains to him that he has invented a serum with a genetic human gene that can transform many wild animals into human beings giving them human characteristics. Braddock finds himself threatened by both the 'manimals' and the sinister Moreau, who he suspects has plans to experiment on him.
My thoughts	Although this version of The Island of Dr. Moreau is technically very good, I really prefer the 1932 version (Island of Lost Souls). The makeups in this version look too much like Planet of the Apes
My rating

(From Reviews and ramblings by Gunnar on December 4th, 2014)

Babylon 5: Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

Synopsis: A ships enters the Babylon 5 area which comes from a different time. Sent from earth before jump gates were known it contains two passengers in stasis chambers. On the station is a confused man who announces the return of a dark being,

My opinion: Murdock is back and he is as mad as ever. ;-). Again we are warned that a dark force is gathering its allies and that they have awoken not long ago. While the "ship from the past" is no new concept to sci-fi shows I liked the combination with the main arc.


Synopsis: A business man from earth tries to make a great contract with the Mars provisional government and gets killed by a man who is presumed to be dead.

My opinion: It was ok, not great though. Interesting about it was seing nuclear wastelands on Earth and again the meddling of Psi Corps with humans (even though in this case not with teeps).


Synopsis: The three wives of Mollari - he described them as pestilence, famine and death in an earlier episode - arrive at the station. Also a man who has done the impossible - he left Psi Corps.

My opinion: And yet again we see a walking Psi Corps experiment. It seems they try everything to enhance teeps beyound their natural borders. But the more interesting part of this episode is the Londo arc. As I said, Londo described his wives as pestilence, famine and death - three of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. And that would make Londo the fourth - war. Not even a seer could have described it better. It was one of the last happy episodes for Londo even if there was an attempt for his life.
Although the funniest moment was the struggle between Delenn and her hair.


Synopsis: Bester's back. Renegade teeps are hiding or are being hidden on Babylon 5. And he wants them back - badly. And Talia is re-evaluating her loyalty towards the Psi Corps.

My opninion: Although I said I loved Bester episodes, this is not one of my favourites. It was a simple catch-me-if-yo-can episode. Nothin special.


(From Babylon 5: Marathon on August 7th, 2007)