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Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles, a review by Tom

Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994/United States) IMDb | Wikipedia Warner Home Video (Germany) Director: Neil Jordan Writing: Anne Rice (Screenwriter), Anne Rice (Original Material By) Length: 117 min. Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85 Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1, German: Dolby Digital 5.1, Commentary: Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround Subtitles: Bulgarian, Croatian, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Norwegian, Romanian, Swedish, Turkish

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Stars:
Brad Pitt as Louis
Christian Slater as Malloy
Virginia McCollam as Whore on Waterfront
John McConnell as Gambler
Tom Cruise as Lestat

Plot:
It hadn't even been a year since a plantation owner named Louis had lost his wife in childbirth. Both his wife and the infant died, and now he has lost his will to live. A vampire named Lestat takes a liking to Louis and offers him the chance to become a creature of the night: a vampire. Louis accepts, and Lestat drains Louis' mortal blood and then replaces it with his own, turning Louis into a vampire. Louis must learn from Lestat the ways of the vampire.

Awards:
Won:

ASCAP Awards (1995)		Top Box Office Films (Elliot Goldenthal)
BAFTA (1994)		Cinematography (Philippe Rousselot)
BAFTA (1994)		Production Design (Dante Ferretti)
British Society of Cinematographers Awards (1994)		Best Cinematography Award (Philippe Rousselot)
YoungStar Awards (1995)		Best Performance by a Young Actress in a Drama Film (Kirsten Dunst)

Nominated:

BAFTA (1994)		Costume Design (Sandy Powell)
BAFTA (1994)		Make Up/Hair (Stan Winston, Michele Burke, Jan Archibald)

Extras:

• Commentary
• Featurettes
• Scene Access
• Trailers
• Vorwort

A good movie. I always enjoyed it. Though it has been ten years since I last watched it. I like the first half much more than the second half. It always looses my interest from the moment they move to Europe and meet Antionio Banderas.
A proper sequel to this movie's ending would have been interesting.

Rating:

(From Tom's Horror Marathon 2012 on October 1st, 2012)

Hostel: Part II, a review by Jon

HOSTEL: PART II

3 out of 5

The first Hostel came in for a lot of criticism for perpetuating "torture porn". Whereas I feel the Saw films fit this description in full, I thought Hostel had more substance. That said it was certainly a guilty pleasure for sick little gorehounds! 

Hostel: Part II also came in for the same complaints, if not more. I must admit, I was put off seeing it for a while because I was given the impression it was more of the same, with less structure; a classic sequel mistake. Also the idea that it uses girls where before it was boys seemed so damn obvious I assumed that was probably the limit of its ambition.

Well I was wrong! Thanks to Empire magazine and a balanced DVD review I was tempted to give it a chance. Overall I liked it. First of all it opens with a simple scene I found very disturbing, then it finishes off the arc of the first film and smoothly demonstrates the depth of the organisation running the show. Then we get two threads running in parallel; the girls being lured into the trap via similar methods that befell the boys, and two business men travelling to Slovakia to take part.

By giving more time to demonstrating the mechanics of the "Hunters Club", the film isn't as immediate and potent as Hostel. It lacks the focus and therefore the punch. The gore seems scaled back, or at least less gratuitous. That's right! It isn't as shocking. This has to be by design though, showing a confidence in the back story. I think I'll appreciate it more on a second viewing when my "I MUST SEE BLOOD!" thoughts have calmed down. Trust me, I really am quite, quite sane. Honest. Really I am...    It'll work really well in a double-bill because it doesn't just repeat, it tries to add something new.

By the way, gorehounds, the blood is still there. There's some really nasty inventive shit to make you squirm! But mainly it's from the point of view of the killer and there's less shock value in seeing the cutter cut than the cuttee be cut. Erm... you know what I mean... 

I found the whole film to have a more slow burn disgust. Hostel was brutal, presenting the killers as relatively faceless monsters with weird fetishes, but here it is more explicit in showing them as normal business men just looking for kicks. I found that quite powerful, probably because it's closer to the truth. In one of the featurettes Eli Roth mentions business men he has met that travel the world just to try different prostitutes. Not so far away really. Those interviews also show how much he is trying to give his film relevance.

This film is worth seeing because it doesn't treat the viewer like a prat. It gives us something new and both parts compliment each other. The first is all round a better film because it has that basic premise of a lonely traveller in a hopeless situation, but two films of that wouldn't have worked (Saw, anyone?). By the end there's been a couple of dafter plot points and cliches, but a nice twist or two. However it's the stories broader targets that are more interesting and give this film real value.

(From Hostel: Part II on November 1st, 2007)

Tom's TV Pilots marathon, a review by Tom

Mork & Mindy: Season One (1978/United States) IMDb | Wikipedia Paramount Home Entertainment (United States) Length: 587 min. Video: Full Frame 1.33:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital 1 Subtitles:

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Plot:
Wild, wacky and operating at warp speed, meet Mork from planet Ork - the maniacal alien of Mork & Mindy, the riotous television sitcom presented in this complete "Season One" DVD collection. Actor-comedian Robin Williams zoomed to stardom with co-star Pam Dawber in this laugh-filled comedy series spawned from a 9178 episode of Happy Days.

Dispatched from Ork in his egg-shaped spacecraft, the lovable Orkan hurtles to Earth near the town of Boulder Colorado, where he is befriended by pretty college student Mindy McConnell (Dawber). Mork's mission is to observe the bizarre customs of the earthlings and then report back to his great Orkan leader, Orson. He tries his best to adapt to his new environment - not an easy task when you innocently wear your clothes backwards, sit in a chair upside down, or blurt out "Shazbot!" when things go awry. It's an out-of-this-world series of laughs and escapades when human being meets humanoid hurricane in Mork & Mindy.


Mork & Mindy
1.01 The Mork & Mindy Special
Writer: Dale McRaven (Writer)
Director: Howard Storm
Cast: Robin Williams (Mork), Pam Dawber (Mindy McConnell), Elizabeth Kerr (Cora Hudson), Conrad Janis (Fred McConnell), Jeffrey Jacquet (Eugene), Geoffrey Lewis (Deputy Tilwick), Dick Yarmy (Dr. Litney), Michael Prince ("The Judge"), Jeff Harlan (Bill), Woody Eney (Prosecuting Attorney), Hank Jones (Defense Attorney), Leslie Vallen (Court Reporter), Henry Winkler (Fonzie), Penny Marshall (Laverne DeFazio)

I bought the first season set because I always saw this series referenced in other stuff but never saw it before. I enjoyed the first season (and this first episode), but I never bothered picking up additional seasons.
This pilot episode also has flashbacks to Happy Days, from which this series spun off.

Rating:

(From Tom's TV Pilots marathon on June 10th, 2012)