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Shadow Zone: The Undead Express, a review by addicted2dvd

Title: Shadow Zone: The Undead Express Year: 1996 Director: Stephen Williams Rating: PG-13 Length: 98 Min. Video: Full Frame 1.33:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital: 2-Channel Stereo Subtitles: N/A

Stars:
Ron Silver
Chauncey Leopardi
Natanya Ross
Tony T. Johnson
Sherry Miller
Ron Lea

Plot:
Out of the darkness, the grim reaper appears in a graveyard among headstones and gargoyles. Elegantly cloaked, but masked by shadows, his eyes burn yellow as he tells us we all have a little evil inside us. Take Zach Kincaid...

A lonely and intense 14-year-old horror movie hunkie, Zach (Chauncey Leopardi) is a good kid but a little confused as a result of his parents' recent break-up. Perhaps for this reason, he often tends to stretch the truth. His friends, J.T. Heffernan, a computer geek, and Gabrielle "Gabe" Lattanzi, a lovely, intelligent athlete, humor Zach, but know just how much to believe.

On the way home one weekend, Zach becomes lost on a deserted subway platform. When he stops for directions he is attacked, but rescued in the nick of time by Valentine (Ron Silver), a self-styled vegetarian vampire from the turn of the century. Finding cold comfort in Valentine's assurance of protection, Zach runs for the first available train. Unfortunately he steps onto the Undead Express, which is full of vampires who are not, apparently, vegetarian...

Extras:
Scene Access

My Thoughts:
This one is actually a TV Movie that originally aired on Showtime. From what I read it was actually supposed to be the first movie in a series (think Masters of Horror) called Shadow Zone. I remember seeing this movie on Showtime when it first aired. And I remembered always liking it...and I still enjoy every minute of it. I was kinda surprise that for a vampire movie you only get to see one single person get bit. But that is probably because this movie was made with younger teens and families in mind. It was kinda in the same vein (sorry for the bad pun!) as goosebumps... but maybe a little more spooky then that.

As for the DVD itself... it is put out by a lower-budget company... so unfortunately there is no extras what so ever on this release. Not even the trailer. Which as most of you know is a pet peeve of mine. The video and audio quality was good... not great but more then watchable.Over-all was definitely worth the time I put in to watch this one.




Count:
Movie Count: 79
TV Ep. Count: 47 I Made It! (10/20)
Other Count: 8 I Made It! (10/15)

(From Month Long Horror/Halloween Marathon: 2010 on October 23rd, 2010)

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, a review by dfmorgan

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Year: 2009
Director: Terry Gilliam
Cast: Christopher Plummer, Lily Cole, Tom Waits, Heath Ledger
Overview: Directed by visionary genius Terry Gilliam, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus features Heath Ledger in his last role, plus a stellar cast including Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell. Dr. Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) is an immortal who leads a travelling theatre troupe. Their props include the 'Imaginarium' - a mirror doubling as a magic doorway into a world that makes your wildest dreams a reality.

Parnassus's immortality has come at a price however - he will lose his daughter Valentina (Lily Cole) to the Devil himself (Tom Waits) unless he persuades five more souls to lose themselves in the Imaginarium. "A wild and wonderful fantasy" - Alan Frank, Daily Star

Watched: 27th Mar 2010
My Thoughts: Ok a strange film but then again not. Terry Gilliam in a weird phase, been there before and will be again, but making an excellent film which in places was very Pythonesque, not too sure if that is good or bad. There will be nuances and depths that I have missed in this first viewing, one thing you can't do with a Terry Gilliam film is to remove your brain and let it rest on the side, but hopefully they will appear and clear when I rewatch this in future. The basic premise is the usual fight between Good and Evil represented here by Doctor Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) as the Good and Mr. Nick (Tom Waits) as the Devil. Both these came over well and with good support from Verne Troyer, Andrew Garfield and Lily Cole as Doctor Parnassus's troupers.

One of the main talking points about this film, also heavily touched upon by Terry Gilliam in his introduction to the film, was the fact that Heath Ledger died before his role had been completed. Three other actors, Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell, stepped in to save the film by taking on the uncompleted parts which luckily were those that involved Heath Ledger stepping into the Imaginarium. Did that work? I have to say that to me it appeared that yes it did work, I presume though that Terry Gilliam and his co-writer had to amend their original scripts to cater for this but it came over well.

My Rating: Overall a 4

Dave

(From Dave's DVD/Blu-ray Reviews on March 28th, 2010)

Tom's TV Pilots marathon, a review by Tom

Planetes: Complete Collection (2003/Japan) IMDb | Wikipedia (United States) Length: 650 min. Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78 Audio: English: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, Japanese: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, Commentary: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles: Commentary, English

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Plot:
In 2075 AD, regular commercials flights can take you to cities on the moon or space stations orbiting the Earth but there exists a threat that may seem trivial but left unchecked can prove fatal: space debris.

This is the story of the Debris Section of the space station ISPV-7 who diligently collects orbital debris to keep space travel safe. Hachirota "Hachimaki" Hoshino, an Experienced EVA (extra-vehicular activity) worker, toils away at his thankless job, hoping to one day own his own spaceship.


Planetes
1.01 Outside the Atmosphere
Writer: Makoto Yukimura (Created By), Ichiro Ohkouchi (Screenwriter)
Director: Goro Taniguchi
Cast: Original Japanese Main Cast), Kazunari Tanaka (Hachirota "Hachimaki" Hoshino (voice)), Satsuki Yukino (Ai Tanabe (voice)), Ai Orikasa (Fee Carmichael (voice)), Takehito Koyasu (Yuri Mihairokoh (voice)), Aikou Ogata (Philippe Myers (voice)), Tetsuo Goto (Arvind Lavie (voice)), Ryou Kamon (Dolf Azaria (voice)), Kumiko Watanabe (Claire Rondo (voice)), Maiko Ito (Edelgard Rivera (voice)), Masayo Kurata (Lucie Ascham (voice)), Nobuyuki Hiyama (Kho Cheng-Shin (voice)), Norio Wakamoto (Gigalt Gangaragash (voice)), Kyoji Kobayashi (Narrator (voice)), Original Japanese Guest Cast), Nana Yamaguchi (Fadlan's Daughter (voice)), Atsushi Kisaichi (Colin (voice)), Mika Kanai (Sia (voice)), Hiroyuki Shibamoto (Father (voice)), Megumi Urawa (Mother (voice)), Takeshi Kusao (Pickpocket (voice)), English Voice Cast), Kirk Thornton (Hachirota "Hachimaki" Hoshino (voice)), Julie Ann Taylor (Ai Tanabe (voice)), Wendee Lee (Fee Carmichael (voice)), Jamieson Price (Yuri Mihairokoh (voice)), Doug Stone (Philippe Myers (voice)), Steve Schatzberg (Arvind Lavie (voice)), Michael McConnohie (Dolf Azaria (voice)), Lia Sargent (Claire Rondo (voice)), Kate Higgins (Edelgard Rivera (voice)), Michelle Ruff (Lucie Ascham/Sia (voice)), Steve Jay Blum (Kho Cheng-Shin (voice)), Dave Mallow (Narrator (voice)), Dorothy Fahn (Noppo (voice)), Jessica Gee (Kone (voice)), Tony Oliver (Yankees (voice)), Barbara Goodson (Fadlan's Daughter (voice)), Crispin Freeman (Colin (voice)), Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (Female Solicitor (voice)), Lex Lang (Father (voice)), Karen Strassman (Mother (voice)), Christopher Smith (Pickpocket (voice)), Bob Papenbrook (Director (voice)), Steve Kramer (Additional Voices (voice)), Dave Wittenberg (Additional Voices (voice)), Mari Devon (Additional Voices (voice))

A series I enjoyed but not necessarily something I will revisit. This episode has good animation and is a good introduction, but nothing really special.

Rating:

(From Tom's TV Pilots marathon on June 24th, 2012)