DVD Collectors Online

Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai, a review by Antares

Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai (2011) 60/100 - How does one go into a remake of one of their top ten films? With trepidation, I assure you. I don't think there's ever been a better samurai film than Kobayashi's original Seppuku, and this is coming from a film fan who worships at the altar of Akira Kurosawa. At first I wondered what direction Miike would take. Would he make it more flashy, with a lot more swordplay or would he play it safe and follow the original frame by frame. For the most part, he chose the latter. And though it does reflect some of the feeling of the original, Miike stays with the parts of the screenplay that show case the misery the family endures after their clan has fallen from the grace of the Shogun. By dwelling a bit too long on this aspect, the film feels much lengthier than the 2 hour and 8 minute running time. Kobayashi's film clocked in at 2 hours, 14 minutes, but for me, it breezed by. Finally, a couple of choices made in the last act were misfires. Would I recommend it, lukewarmly if it's a person's first foray into samurai cinema. But if you've seen a few, then I say skip it.

Teal = Masterpiece
Dark Green = Classic or someday will be
Lime Green = A good, entertaining film
Orange = Average
Red = Cinemuck
Brown = The color of crap, which this film is

(From Antares' Short Summations on July 11th, 2020)

A Very Brady Christmas, a review by addicted2dvd

A Very Brady Christmas
Mike and Carol Brady decide to spend their savings on bringing their kids and relatives in for the holidays, but the kids are having their own problems: Greg (now a doctor) has to make the trip alone since his wife Nora is spending the holidays with her family; Peter is embarrassed to bring his girlfriend home since she is his boss; Bobby is hiding the fact that he dropped out of business grad school to race cars; Marcia's husband, Wally, has been laid off from his job at Tyler Toys; Jan and stuffy husband Phillip are separating; and Cindy is tired of the fact that mom and dad can't respect her as a grown woman. Just another day in the life of the Bradys.

My Thoughts:
I figured since I watched the Christmas episode... I may as well watch the reunion movie as well. And I enjoyed this movie much more then I did the Christmas episode I watched before it. It was fun to see most of the cast back after all the years that past. This reunion movie is one of the reasons I bought the complete series set... instead of the individual seasons. Since that is the only way to get it.



(From 25 Days of Christmas on December 1st, 2008)

The Flash Marathon, a review by addicted2dvd

Guest Stars:
Richard Belzer as Joe Klein
Vito D'Ambrosio as Bellows
Biff Manard as Murphy
Mike Genovese as Lt. Warren Garfield
Charley Hayward as Trachmann

My Thoughts:
A good episode... but not really a favorite. I didn't really care much for the main bad guy... and some of the story was done a bit silly.

My Rating:

(From The Flash Marathon on April 11th, 2010)