DVD Collectors Online

The Dark Knight, a review by RossRoy

Original Title: The Dark Knight: Steelbook Edition Year: 2008 Country: Canada Director: Christopher Nolan Rating: PG Length: 152 Min. Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1, French: Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

What they say
The follow-up to Batman Begins, The Dark Knight reunites director Christopher Nolan and star Christian Bale, who reprises the role of Batman/Bruce Wayne in his continuing war on crime. With the help of Lt. Jim Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman set out to destroy organized crime in Gotham for good. The triumvirate proves effective. But soon the three find themselves prey to a rising criminal mastermind known as The Joker, who thrusts Gotham into anarchy and forces Batman closer to crossing the fine line between hero and vigilante. Heath Ledger stars as archvillain The Joker, and Aaron Eckhart plays Dent. Maggie Gyllenhaal joins the cast as Rachel Dawes. Returning From Batman Begins are Gary Oldman as Gordon, Michael Caine as Alfred and Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox.

My Thoughts
I'll be very original with my review of this movie.

It definitely deserves all the praise it gets. Heath Ledger as the Joker is M-A-R-V-E-L-O-U-S! Completely deserving of his Oscar. He completely steals the show for me, and that's saying something, because he's against Bale, Freeman, Oldman and Caine - which all give good performances in their respective role. But Ledger brings this little something extra to the Joker character.

I really like the the whole Batman reboot that started with Batman Begins. I like that real, gritty, almost real life feel there is to the new Batman. It's not all shiny and heroic. Even the heroes show some flaws, but will still make the right choice in the end.

Great movie, from beginning to end. Great actor performances. Great mood and atmosphere. Loved it!



(From RossRoy's Random Viewings on March 9th, 2009)

Abe's Tomb, a review by addicted2dvd

Title: Abe's Tomb
Year: 2006
Director: Carl R. Merritt
Rating: NR
Length: 90 Min.
Video: Full Frame 1.33:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles: N/A

Stars:
Lisa Adore
Ray Basham
Sherri Foxx
Amanda Fire
Carl R. Merritt

Plot:
Humanity's only hope for continued existence rests solely upon the courage of a small group of police officers and an all-powerfull entity that has long ago, vowed vengeance upon the town.

Extras:
Scene Access

My Thoughts:
Well... what can I say... I felt like a vampire movie. So I thought I would see if I could find another good on in the Mortuary of Madness boxset. Unfortunately I wasn't too impressed with Abe's Tomb. While the video quality wasn't bad... the audio had a constant hissing. The writing, while had potential, really needs some help. The acting is only fair at best.  Even with that said... it is a vampire movie... and for that reason alone I did get some enjoyment from it.



(From Weekend Movie Marathon: Unwatched DVDs on November 13th, 2009)

"Stargate SG-1" Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

Synopsis: On a planet whose one side is always away from the sun, SG-1 and SG-2 are attacked by a group of humanoids. But these people seem to be from an earlier stage of evolution than the homo sapiens. On the day side do the "Untouched" live, but sometimes one of them is "cursed" and becomes one of the "Touched" and is banished to the dark side. After the return to Earth, members of both teams also devolve.

My Opinion: I liked this episode because it was an out-of-character episode, finally Sam could seduce Jack. But I have to say this won't be the last episode of this kind. From all Science-Fiction characters, no one had to endure as much as any of the SG-1 characters.

Synopsis: The leader of SG-9 declared himself God on the planet his team has been for over five weeks. Why? Because the people there believed that he was a god. Now they have to work in the deadly sun to build him a temple and SG-1 has to stop him.

My Opinion: This episode was ok, but not exceptional. No matter how they tried to explain it, I can't believe that an unstable captain like this would have ever been assigned to such an important project like the Stargate missions.

Synopsis: In a crater on a lifeless planet SG-1 finds a number of destroyed crystals. They take some of them back to Earth. But they leave Jack behind - unknowingly.

My Opinion: I liked this episode because we see the past of one character for the first time - especially the past from before Stargate. Even though it wasn't Jack himself, he (the real Jack) confirmed that he has a "fairly good idea" of what Jack-Copy said to Sara. We therefore can assume that he feels in a similar way.

Synopsis: Some people begin to having doubts about the usefulness of the Stargate programme. None of the SG teams has brought back any superior technology which could be used against the Goa'uld. To change this, Teal'c leads the team to a planet where animals live that can cloake themselves completely.

My Opinion: This was actually the very first episode I've ever seen of Stargate SG-1. Back in 1998 I was on vacation in the Algarve (Portugal) and one evening I zapped through the channels until I saw this episode and thought "Hey, that's MacGyver!" and "I know this guy from somewhere, too.". Unfortunately my English wasn't good enough to really understand what was going on, but it looked interesting.

Synopsis: The Goa'uld Pelops reduced the lifespan of the inhabitants of Argos down to a hundred days. They grow and age accordingly. They praise Pelops until they find out what he has done to them. But Jack gets infected by the virus and he has to die within a fortnight.

My Opinion: They try and try but aging masks never look really real. This was more a filler episode, there will be better and longer moments for Jack to reflect his life.

(From "Stargate SG-1" Marathon on March 1st, 2008)