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Apocalypse Now, a review by dfmorgan

Apocalypse Now

Year: 1979
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Cast: Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen
Overview: Francis Ford Coppola's stunning vision of man's heart of darkness revealed through the madness of the Vietnam War. Lieutenant Willard receives orders to seek out a renegade military outpost led by the mysterious Colonel Kurtz. Willard's mission: "Terminate with extreme prejudice." One of the most powerful films of all time, Apocalypse Now was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won two for Best Sound and Best Cinematography.

Watched: 12th Jun 2011
My Thoughts: I have seen this film before in both theatrical and Redux versions and decided that for this Blu-ray edition I would watch the theatrical cut. The cut used in this edition has a fade to black with no credits ending and is supposed to be the original 70mm theatrical cut, apparently it is also the first time that a home video release of this film has been in the correct aspect ratio of 2.35:1. The enhanced definition given by the HD presentation adds to the film.

My Rating: Still thought provoking for a 5



(From Dave's DVD/Blu-ray Reviews on June 18th, 2011)

Dark Water, a review by Danae Cassandra

Dark Water (Honogurai mizu no soko kara)
Year of Release: 2002
Directed By: Hideo Nakata
Starring: Hitomi Kuroki, Rio Kanno, Mirei Oguchi, Asami Mizukawa, Fumiya Kohinata
Genre: Horror

Overview:My Thoughts:
This was a really well-crafted film. Everything works together so well. We find our story centers around an increasingly desperate and unsettled mother, who fears the loss of the only thing that gives her life meaning - her young daughter. Hitomi Kuroki plays her beautifully, showing the deep love she has for her child and the lengths she is willing to go to for her. Rio Kanno, the little girl who plays her daughter, is also really great.

The film also has great atmosphere. Yoshimi works hard to make the apartment a home for them, but the oppression of the building and the menace of it will not be denied. So many details contribute to this - lighting, cinematography, sound - everything comes together so well to create this palpable aura. This is the same director as Ringu, which I watched earlier in the month. That is by far the more famous film, but I think this one is better.

Watched For: Hoop-tober 3.0, Horror/Halloween Challenge 2016

Bechdel Test: Pass
Mako Mori Test: Pass

Overall: 4/5

Horror/Halloween Challenge Films: 30/52

(From Horror/Halloween 2016 Challenge on October 19th, 2016)

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

Synopsis: Kor believes to have learned where the sword of the first klingon emperor Kahless has disappeared to. It was stolen by the Hur'q over a thousand years ago and now it seems to be in the GQ. He wants Dax to join him and he also invites Worf to come with them. And destiny wanted them to find it. But they have an argument about what they should do with it because the sword is a symbol of power and can be used as such.

My Opinion:Synopsis: Garak has broken into the Holosuite where Bashir was just playing a spy of the british government during the cold war. But then a transporter accident happens and the neurological patterns can be stored into the station's computers the only place to save their body patterns is the running Holosuite program. And suddenly it's important not only to win the game but also not to kill any of the characters.

My Opinion: Having watched Casino Royale this tuesday and going to watch Quantum Of Solace coming tuesday I enjoyed this episode very much. Sisko/Dr. Noah was a much better adversary to Bashir than Le Chiffre was to Bond. And O'Brien was great as Falcon The fun episodes of DS9 are always worth watching.

Synopsis: Sisko and Odo are called back to Earth after an explosion has killed 27 conference members including some Romulans. And the wormhole is opening at random intervals, too. On Earth Sisko gets promoted to acting Chief of Starfleet Security and he implements some security measures to ensure the safety of Federation President Jaresh-Inyo and all Starfleet facilities. But it doesn't help. The Founders attack Earth's power grid and disable it. An attack by a cloaked fleet seems imminent.

My Opinion: And now to rather serious business. Benjamin Franklin once said "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." Yet, since 9/11 we've seem to have forgotten those words and basically every western country is taking away civil rights and enforces a harder security policy. In the EU every phone call ever made, every connection to the internet is to be logged and stored. In the UK the Interception Modernisation Programme even wants to store every e-Mail ever sent (including spam). In Germany our Minister of the Interior wants the right to secretly go into our houses and install trojan horses on our computers and he wants to use the Bundeswehr within our country (which is strictly forbidden by our constitution). Al-Qaeda despises our way of living and what do we do? We destroy our way of living. It's like committing suicide because we fear death.

Synopsis: The President has declared martial law and the streets are guarded by armed Starfleet troops. But things don't add up. Earth's security has tightened yet no Dominion fleet is attacking. The attack on the power grid wasn't the doing of any Founder - Admiral Leyton did it "for the greater good".

My Opinion: That episode proves the point I made above. Only four changelings on Earth caused all the havocs and they didn't even had to do it themselves. I am just glad that Sisko has seen the error in his way. But would he have seen it if it hadn't been the coup of a Starfleet admiral?

(From Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Marathon on November 8th, 2008)