DVD Collectors Online

Enigma, a review by Silence_of_Lambs

Summary:
During the heart of World War II, in March of 1943, cryptoanalysts at Britain's code-breaking center have discovered that the Germans have changed their Enigma Code. Authorities enlist the help of a brilliant young man named Tom Jericho (Dougray Scott) to help them break the code again. The possibility of a spy within the British code-breakers' ranks looms and Tom's love, Claire (Saffron Burrows), has disappeared. To solve the mysteries, Tom joins Claire's best friend, Hester Wallace (Kate Winslet).

My Thoughts:
Nice one.
This movie has everything a good spy-thriller needs, a broken (anti)-hero, a mysterious beautiful woman, a conspiracy that was built to cover-up another (even greater) conspiracy ... all packed into enthralling 2 hours.
The plot turns and twists so that until the very end you never know where exactly it may want to take you. It's never actually misleading though, you just follow the traces with the main characters until the whole thing is lying spread out before you.

Nice to watch, mediate paced thriller that actually makes you want to know the end.

My Rating: (out of possible 5)

(From Michael's random reviews on November 25th, 2010)

Top Gun, a review by DJ Doena

August, 12th


Tom Cruise    ...    Maverick
Kelly McGillis   ...    Charlie
Val Kilmer   ...    Ice
Anthony Edwards   ...    Goose
Tom Skerritt   ...    Viper
Michael Ironside   ...    Jester
Tim Robbins   ...    Merlin
Clarence Gilyard Jr.   ...    Sundown
James Tolkan   ...    Stinger
Meg Ryan   ...    Carole
Adrian Pasdar   ...    Chipper

Synopsis: Lt. "Maverick" Mitchell - a slightly maniac F-14 pilot - and his RIO Lt. "Goose" Bradshaw have been accepted into the United States Navy Fighter Weapons School - more commonly known as "Top Gun". There they will learn the finer arts of aerial dogfighting. That is, if they don't get thrown out due to Maverick's behaviour. And the competition is hard, Top Gun accepts only the best pilots to begin with.

My Opinion: This movie has incredible flying scenes even after all these years. No crappy CGI but real planes flying in real air. And a great soundtrack, too. Ironically I haven't seen that movie that often but I seem to know it by heart due to the many parodies on many scenes of that movie.
And while I recognized Adrian Pasdar (Nathan Petrelli in Heroes) at once, it took me a while to recognize Goose as Dr. Greene from ER.
Too bad, that there aren't more good airplane combat movies out there.



(From DJ Doena's movie watchings 2009 on August 14th, 2009)

Tom's TV Pilots marathon, a review by Tom

The Vampire Diaries: Season One (2009/United States) IMDb | Wikipedia Warner Home Video (United Kingdom) Length: 889 min. Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78 Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1, Commentary: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles: Dutch, English, Swedish

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Plot:
Dark, brooding, pulsing with bloodlust and transcendent with romance, The Vampire Diaries - which started as a series of must-read novels by L.J. Smith - has become a must-watch television hit. Season One offers unforgettable characters, living and undead. They are vampire brothers Stefan and Damon, one good and one evil; Elena, a double for the beauty both brothers loved some 150 years earlier; plus Jeremy, Bonnie, Matt and more denizens of Mystic Falls, VA. All are caught up in a spellbinding web of secrets, passion and terror.


The Vampire Diaries
Season 1.01 Pilot
Writer: L. J. Smith (Original Material By), Kevin Williamson (Writer), Julie Plec (Writer)
Director: Marcos Siega
Cast: Nina Dobrev (Elena Gilbert), Paul Wesley (Stefan Salvatore), Ian Somerhalder (Damon Salvatore), Steven R. McQueen (Jeremy Gilbert), Sara Canning (Jenna Sommers), Katerina Graham (Bonnie Bennett), Candice Accola (Caroline Forbes), Zach Roerig (Matt Donovan), Kayla Ewell (Vicky Donovan), Michael Trevino (Tyler Lockwood), Chris William Martin (Zach Salvatore), Steve Belford (Darren), Cindy Busby (Brooke), Ben Ayres (Mr. Tanner), Marci T. House (Secretary), Wesley R. MacInnes (Peeing Guy), Curtis Lum (Peeing Guy #2)

I quite enjoy this series and the pilot is a good introduction to it. What I appreciated with the beginning of this series is, that they take some time until the female lead finds out about her love interest being a vampire. Usually in a series like this it happens in the pilot that the guy his to reveal his origins to the female lead after having to save her.

Rating:

(From Tom's TV Pilots marathon on November 13th, 2012)