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The Shoes of the Fisherman, a review by James

Available individually or as part of:
Title: The Shoes of the Fisherman
Year: 1968
Director: Michael Anderson
Rating: G
Length: 162 Min.
Media Type: DVD
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1, French: Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Stars:
Anthony Quinn
Laurence Olivier [Sir Laurence Olivier]
Oskar Werner
David Janssen
Vittorio De Sica

Plot:Extras:
Scene Access
Trailers
Featurettes
Closed Captioned


I purchased this DVD as part of the Films of Faith box set. I'm an Audrey Hepburn fan (The Nun's Story) whereas my wife and father-in-law have fond memories of seeing The Shoes of the Fisherman in its original release. So I decided to check it out.

There was a lot I didn't understand since I'm not Catholic, but I did enjoy the pomp and circumstance of how a pope is chosen. It's interesting that the fictional story of this former Russian prisoner who becomes pope somewhat foreshadows the circumstances that elevated Pope John Paul II less than 10 years after this film was made.

Anthony Quinn is superb as Kiril Lakota, who becomes Pope Kiril. The Oskar Werner storyline about the cosmic Christ escaped me as a non-Catholic, and I had to read up a bit about that after I watched the film. David Janssen has a thankless role as a TV reporter. I question whether his part could have just been removed from the film altogether.

The transfer is good for its age and there's one featurette of interest. This is one of those roadshow-type films with an overture, entr'acte, and exit music. No matter the film, I'm always a sucker for a roadshow epic!

The best part of the story for me was seeing how a man's faith informs his decision making and reveals his character. If you can watch it on that level, you'll find it enjoyable.

6 on the cellophane scale.



(From The Viewage of James aka m.cellophane on January 7th, 2008)

Above the Law, a review by addicted2dvd

Title: Above the Law
Year: 1988
Director: Andrew Davis
Rating: R
Length: 99 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1, Pan & Scan 1.33:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Stars:
Steven Seagal
Pam Grier
Henry Silva
Ron Dean
Daniel Faraldo

Plot:Extras:
Scene Access
Trailers
Production Notes
Closed Captioned

My Thoughts:
This is one of the movies I got out of my mother's DVD collection. She was a huge fan of Martial Arts movies. She never understood technology at all.. and she was terrible with names. So whenever she wanted to watch a Steven Seagal movie she would ask me to put in a movie for her... that she wanted to watch "the guy with the pony tail". 

While not bad... this movie isn't as good as I remembered it to be. I found this one to be a bit predictable. Not to mention Seagal wasn't the best actor in the world. Sure he could kick some ass... but it seems at least from this movie he could do little else.



(From Weekend Movie Marathon: Anything Goes on January 1st, 2010)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Marathon, a review by addicted2dvd

EPISODE 9: LISTENING TO FEAR
A spider-like Queller demon arrives in Sunnydale and begins killing mental patients at the hospital just as Joyce is admitted for her surgery.

My Thoughts:
This was a decent episode... though I do not know where whoever wrote the above overview for the episode got that it was a spider-like demon. Other then the fact that it could crawl on walls/ceilings... it looked more like a giant beetle then a spider. And it's head kinda reminded me of the X-Files episode The Host... the leech creature they discovered.

EPISODE 10: INTO THE WOODS
Certain that Buffy doesn't love him the same way he loves her, Riley finally decides to confront her and offer her one last opportunity to give their relationship a chance.

My Thoughts:
And this is the last we see of Riley for a while. If I remember right he does come back for 1 single episode. This one... to me... was not a bad episode... but really wasn't anything special either.

EPISODE 11: TRIANGLE
While Giles is in England trying to uncover information about Glory, Willow and Tara accidentally summon up an angry troll who used to go out with Anya.

My Thoughts:
This one is another of those fun episodes... played more for laughs then anything else... or just as much for laughs at least. It is a pretty cool episode... I liked how Anya and Willow kept at it throughout the episode... trying to pull Xander in the middle of it all.

(From Buffy the Vampire Slayer Marathon on November 24th, 2007)