DVD Collectors Online

Corpse Bride, a review by Danae Cassandra

Corpse Bride

Year of Release:  2005
Directed By:  Tim Burton
Starring:  Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Emily Watson
Rating:  PG

Overview:Tim Burton's Corpse Bride carries on in the dark, romantic tradition of his classic Edward Scissorhands and Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before ChristmasMy Thoughts:
I love this film and I try to watch it every October.  I love the dark, Gothic atmosphere, the colorful view of the afterlife, the wonderful stop-motion animation, and all of the homages and references to other films that one catches on repeated viewing.  While the story is pretty simple and straightforward, the great character designs and their exquisite animation, good voice acting, and all the little details really make this an inventive, fun movie to watch.  Recommended for anyone except very small children and people who hate Tim Burton.

Bechdel Test:  Fail

Overall:  4/5

(From Danae's 2012 Horror on October 20th, 2012)

Django, Prepare A Coffin, a review by GSyren

Title	Django, Prepare A Coffin (5-027035-010229)
Director	Ferdinando Baldi
Actors
Produced	1968 in Italy
Runtime	92 minutes
Audio	English PCM 2-Channel Stereo, Italian PCM 2-Channel Stereo
Subtitles	English
Overview	Django the drifter returns in this classic Sixties Spaghetti Western from Ferdinando Baldi (Texas Addio, Comin At Ya!), starring Terence Hill (They Call Me Trinity) as the wandering gunslinger, hired as executioner to a corrupt local politician who is framing innocent men, sending them to hang in an evil scheme to take hold of their land. But Django has other ideas...
My thoughts	Django, Prepare a Coffin (aka Viva Django) was the sequel to the original Django. Franco Nero couldn't play Django this time, because he was busy in Hollywood doing Camelot. Instead the producers chose a relatively unknown young actor named Mario Girotti, who had just taken the stage name Terence Hill. Two years later Hill would become famous in "My Name is Trinity" (aka "They Call Me Trinity"). In this film, Django works as a hangman, but he saves the lives of innocently convicted men (and a woman) by staging fake hangings. The films doesn't make it clear if he actually hangs any guilty villains. He organizes a gang with these men in order to avenge the killing of his wife, who was shot during the robbery of a gold transport. This is not a comedy western like the many he did together with Bud Spencer. This is quite violent. In fact, when this was first shown in Sweden in 1969, it was with 11 cuts totaling over 7 minutes. Now we can see it uncut, though. And in the aspect ratio in which it was shot, 1.66:1. IMDb claims it was 2.35:1, but that is wrong. It seems, though, that it was shown in several countries matted to 1.85:1. The picture quality of this Blu-Ray disc is good, but not stellar. At times it shows its age. The disc comes with Italian and English audio. As with most spaghetti westerns of this era, both language tracks are dubbed, since they used actors of many different nationalities all speaking their own language. As far as I can determine, the Italian track uses Hill's own voice. The English dub doesn't quite sound like the voice I remember from the Hill/Spencer films, so it seemed a little off to me. The extras consist of a Viva Django trailer and an eight minute interview with Kevin Grant, author of Django Explained. I haven't seen Tarantino's Django Unchained yet. I guess it's time to get that on and see how it compares to this and to the original Django.
My rating	3.5 out of 5

(From Reviews and ramblings by Gunnar on July 1st, 2013)

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

Synopsis: For three months Jonas Quinn has been on Earth and in the SGC. Now he is allowed to leave for the first time, SG-1 takes him with them to Area 51, where the X-302 has been completed. After the X-301 disaster the X-302 is completely man-made and with the help of the Naqahdriah it even has an hyperlight drive - the Death Gliders don't have one.
But then Teal'c has to return to Chulak because his wife is dying and his son blames him for that. While he's there someone opens the Stargate to Earth but it doesn't close again.

My Opinion: As predicted, Anubis now turns his attention to Earth but obviously he doesn't dare to trike openly - yet. The X-302 has its charme because she really looks like a mixture of stealth bomber and Death Glider. I also like Jack's question if it has Phasers when Sam enumerated all the features.

Synopsis: A little more than 50 hours until the Stargate overloads and will blow up the state of Colorado and poison the atmosphere. The Stargate can't be disabled and ths SGC has no way to contact the Asgard. But then Jonas has an idea and Bra'tac, Teal'c and Rya'c do their best to save Earth.

My Opinion: A good conclusion to this two-parter, especially because they didn't find a technobabble solution to close the Gate but really had to dispose it. And the second Gate didn't come out of nowhere thus it was no miracle solution. Ironically the now installed Gate is the original one and the blown up one is the Antarctica Gate.
BTW: This was the fourth time a Battlestar Galactica cast member made an appearance: Aaron Douglas (Chief Tyrol in BSG) played of of Anubis's Jaffa.

Synopsis: A Ha'tak has entered orbit around Earth but it doesn't attack. SG-1 - whose most recent addition has been Jonas Quinn - and Jacob/Selmak fly to the ship in a Tel'tak. The ship has been abandoned and it is the same ship in which Thor was held prisoner.

My Opinion: I like Jonas. He has an innocent, curious nature. He hasn't yet seen what SG-1 has seen and one really believes that he wants to become a part of it.
A really good effect was when the ring transporter "beamed" Jonas and the water pillar.

Synopsis: Four years after the Antarctica Gate has been discovered a young woman is found - but she is not Jaffa but instead several million years old. She is one of the Ancients but she looks like a human. That means today's humans are only the second evolution of this form on this planet and that can't be a coincedence.

My Opinion: I don't know why but Ayiana always reminded me of Leeloo from The Fifth Element. We also see that Jonas has the same talent Daniel had when it comes to connecting with other beings. Apart from that the episode wasn't that interesting.

(From "Stargate SG-1" Marathon on April 7th, 2008)