DVD Collectors Online

5 Against the House, a review by Antares

5 Against the House (1955) 59/100 - Has there ever been an actress more vacuous than Kim Novak? To me, when she's on screen, she has the appearance of a deer in the headlights. Yeah, she's beautiful, but man, she has no screen presence whatsoever. The film itself is rather lackluster until the last twenty minutes or so. I found the whole pre-heist build up to be grating, especially the bits with the college freshman. I'm only giving this a passing grade for those last twenty minutes, when the actual heist is taking place. It's a shame that the intensity of that time frame couldn't be spread out a bit more across the whole breadth of the film. But I will say that it was fun to see a pre-Hank Kimball, Alvy Moore. He has some of the best lines in the early part of the movie.

What the color coding means...

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 November 15th, 2012)

The Butterfly Effect, a review by Tom

Title: The Butterfly Effect
Year: 2004
Director: Eric Bress, J. Mackye Gruber
Rating: 14A
Length: 120 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1, English: DTS ES 5.1 (Matrixed 6.1), French: Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround, Commentary: Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Subtitles: English, Spanish

Stars:
Ashton Kutcher
Melora Walters
Amy Smart
Elden Henson
William Lee Scott

Plot:
A young man struggling to get over disturbing memories from his childhood discovers that he is able to travel back in time and alter events in his past. However, every change he makes transforms his life and that of those around him, often to unexpected and disastrous consequences.

Awards:

Saturn	2004	Nominated	Best Science Fiction Film
Teen Choice Awards	2004	Nominated	Choice Movie - Thriller

Extras:
Closed Captioned
Commentary
Deleted Scenes
DVD-ROM Content
Featurettes
Photo Gallery
Production Notes
Scene Access
Theatrical Cut and Director's Cut with alternate ending.

I haven't watched this one for years. It was not as good as I remembered it being, but I still enjoyed it. I watched the "The Director's Cut" because this is the only true version
The weak point in this movie is Ashton Kutcher. He can't act. He drags the pacing down.
I almost didn't recognize him with all the makeup, but Ethan Suplee (Randy from My Name is Earl) played Evan's fat roommate in college.

Rating:

(From Tom's Time-Travel Movie Reviews on May 15th, 2010)

Tom's TV Finales marathon, a review by Tom

Wings
Season 8.23 Final Approach (Parts 1 & 2)
Writer: David Angell (Created By), Peter Casey (Created By), David Lee (Created By), Michael Sardo (Writer), Ian Gurvitz (Writer)
Director: Leonard R. Garner, Jr., Jeff Melman
Cast: Tim Daly (Joe Hackett), Steven Weber (Brian Hackett), Crystal Bernard (Helen Chappel Hackett), David Schramm (Roy Biggins), Rebecca Schull (Fay Cochran), Tony Shalhoub (Antonio Scarpacci), Amy Yasbeck (Casey)

This was my second attempt at watching the complete series. At first try, I stalled after Season 3. Now I have finally have seen the complete series. I bought it initially, because I am a fan of Cheers and this is created by the same persons. Also there are a few guest appearances by Cheers characters. Norn, Cliff, Frasier, Lillith and Rebecca each appeared once. I had hoped for more appearances. The one from Frasier worked for me. The others felt forced.
Overall I only enjoyed the series a little. I didn't buy the main romance in this series. The got together early on, then broke up a few seasons and seem to have been valid and they didn*t really seem to miss each other really. But then suddenly they are soulmates again. But even when they were back together, they couldn't agree on much.
The finale was okay but I expected more. It was a good conclusion but not a bigger spectacle that I was expecting.



(From Tom's TV Finales marathon on January 28th, 2022)