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Double Impact , a review by samuelrichardscott

Double Impact (1991) R2 UK DVD (Second Sight)

Shortened Review:
From the late seventies through to the early nineties, action films became extremely popular. Starring the likes of Chuck Norris, Steven Seagal, Dolph Lundgren and Jean-Claude Van Damme, these movies were made with one thing in mind. Out and out violence. Studios and filmmakers threw out the importance of a good script and the importance of acting skills, instead opting to concentrate on the actual action/fight scenes, a move welcomed by a young male crowd who knew exactly what they wanted when they went to the cinema and knew what they were going to get if they recognised particular actors on the posters, or in the trailers. Although not as popular as they once were, these actors are still churning out several films a year (even if they are direct to video) and the likes of Wesley Snipes and (bizarrely) Cuba Gooding Jr have joined their ranks. The late eighties and early nineties were the heyday of these guilty pleasures with the likes of Under Siege, Kickboxer, Bloodsport, Nico and Universal Soldier among the best of the bunch. Double Impact came in 1991, and this time, we got two Van Dammes.

In the film, Jean Claude Van Damme plays two main characters, Chad and Alex. They were twins seperated at birth when their parents were brutally murdered by members of a feared Hong Kong criminal gang. The pair are re-united by their family bodyguard (Geoffrey Lewis - The Devil's Rejects) twenty five years later so that they can avenge their parents death. Although Chad and Alex are completely opposite personality wise, they must team up against Kara (Cory Everson - Natural Born Killers) and assassin Moon (Bolo Yeung - Enter the Dragon) to reclaim what is rightfully theirs.

The story is your typical revenge one and everything about the movie shouts cheese but, as with most Van Damme movies, there is something wholly enjoyable about the whole experience. Bolo Yeung is excellent as Moon, the assassin, and seemingly it was Van Damme who demanded Yeung play the bad guy after the rapore they had built up together on the set of Bloodsport. This does show and Yeung is the perfect bad guy with a look alone that would turn the toughest of men into stone (let alone his martial arts skills). The dialogue is hilariously hammy with such classics as "I hear all sorts of bullshit everyday, pal. You want some advice? Take your fancy clothes and your black silk underwear and go back to Disneyland" and "Why, because he looks like me? I'm going to change that" but it all adds to to the charm. The action is rather standard for Van Damme with some enjoyable fight scenes that show his skills. At the end of the day, Double Impact didn't set out to win any awards or become a piece of socially relevant, thought provoking cinema. The film is what it is: cheesy fun. If you're a fan of Van Damme, you'll dig it. If you aren't, you won't.

Full review:
http://www.dvdcompare.net/review.php?rid=2497

Released 19th September 2011.

(From Never Ending Movie Marathon (short reviews) on August 17th, 2011)

300, a review by Hal

Title: 300
Year: 2007
Director: Zack Snyder
Rating: R
Length: 117 Min.
Video: Widescreen 2.4:1
Audio: English: Dolby TrueHD: 5.1, English: PCM: 5.1, English: Dolby Digital: 5.1, French: Dolby Digital: 5.1, Spanish: Dolby Digital: 5.1, Commentary: Dolby Digital: 2-Channel Stereo
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Stars:
Gerard Butler
Lena Headey
Dominic West
David Wenham
Vincent Regan

Plot:
The epic graphic novel by Frank Miller (Sin City) assaults the screen with the blood, thunder and awe of its ferocious visual style faithfully recreated in an intense blend of live-action and CGI animation. Retelling the ancient Battle of Thermopylae, it depicts the titanic clash in which King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) and 300 Spartans fought to the death against Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) and his massive Persian army. Experience history at swordpoint. And moviemaking with a cutting edge.

Extras:
Scene Access
Audio Commentary
Deleted Scenes
Featurettes
Gallery

The Lord of the Rings.  I understand that the writers were doing this in an allegorical way and that "mythical" creatures were a strong belief for these people, but I just felt it was overdone and gave the film too much of a sci-fi/fantasy feel for what is in reality a historical event.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this and recommend it highly.

Rating:

(From 300 on August 21st, 2010)

Tom's TV Pilots marathon, a review by Tom

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1981/United Kingdom) IMDb | Wikipedia BBC Worldwide (United Kingdom) Length: 200 min. Video: Full Frame 1.33:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital 1, English: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles: English, Trivia

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Plot:
It is the most remarkable, certainly the most successful, book ever to come out of the great publishing corporations of Ursa Minor. More popular than the Celestial Home Care Omnibus, better selling than Fifty Three Things to Do in Zero Gravity, and more controversial than Oolon Colluphid's trilogy of philosophical blockbusters - Where God Went Wrong, Some More of God's Greatest Mistakes and Who is this God Person Anyway? So that whingeing Earthling Arthur Dent should be very grateful he had a copy!

For after Earth is destroyed to make way for a hyperspace bypass, Arthur Dent is let loose in the furthest recesses of the Galaxy armed only with the aforementioned mysterious but indispensable Guide. Follow Dent's cosmic adventures as he is joined by his pretty weird companions: Zaphod Beeblebrox, Ford Prefect, Trillian-the-Astrophysicist-he-met-at-a-party-in-Islington and Marvin the maniacally depressed Android. You never know, they may even find the answer to Life, The Universe and Everything!


The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
1.01 Episode 1
Writer: Douglas Adams (Original Material By), Douglas Adams (Screenwriter)
Director: Alan J. W. Bell
Cast: Peter Jones (The Book (voice)), Simon Jones (Arthur Dent), David Dixon (Ford Prefect), Joe Melia (Mr. Prosser), Steve Conway (Barman), Cleo Rocos (Alien), Andrew Mussell (Alien), Douglas Adams (Man in Pub (uncredited)), Steve Trainer (Man in Pub (uncredited)), Bill Barnsley (Man Listening to Radio (uncredited)), David Grahame (Sandwich-Board Man (uncredited))

I always loved the first 2-3 episodes of this 6-episode series. The rest is also good but I never liked them as much as the beginning of the series.
How the entries of the book are displayed is really great. And unlike one would think, they were not done in a computer but are all hand-drawn.
This series introduced the word babelfish to the world and "42" being the answer (but what is the question?).

Rating:

(From Tom's TV Pilots marathon on January 27th, 2012)