DVD Collectors Online

From Up On Poppy Hill, a review by GSyren

Title	From Up On Poppy Hill (5-055201-823700)
Director	Goro Miyazaki
Actors	Masami Nagasawa, Junichi Okada, Keiko Takeshita, Rumi Hiiragi, Yuriko Ishida
Produced	2011 in Japan
Runtime	91 minutes
Audio	English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.0, Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 5.0
Subtitles	English
Overview	In 1963 in Yokohama, Umi is a 16 year old high school girl and lives in a house located on a hill overlooking the harbour. Every morning she raises a signal flag which is "a pray for everybody to get a safe trip" as her father died on his ship during the Korean war. Meanwhile the entire nation is going through a transformation to ready itself for the approaching Tokyo Olympic Games, and old buildings are being destroyed for new ones. The old crumbling Culture Club "Quartier Latin" building inside Umi's high school is also about to be swept over by the transformation. Shun is one of student leaders trying to protect the beloved building and they garner enthusiastic support from students. Then as Umi suggests, they begin their opposition by cleaning up the place. But this "clean up" will go further than they think...
My thoughts	is done with style. Admittedly I did not know this in advance, so selecting to watch it with the English dub was a bit of a gamble. The animation is... Ghibli. Well, if you've seen other Ghibli films you know that they have a special look. It's anime, but it's Ghibli anime. You like it or you don't. I like it. I'm not a huge anime fan in general, but I do like Ghibli's films. Not all anime fans will like this film as much as I did. I liked it a lot. Give it a chance.
My rating

(From Reviews and ramblings by Gunnar on April 2nd, 2014)

The Gate, a review by Achim

Title: The Gate
Year: 1987
Director: Tibor Takacs
Rating: PG-13
Length: 86 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital Stereo, Commentary: Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles: English, Spanish

Stars:
Stephen Dorff
Christa Denton
Louis Tripp
Kelly Rowan
Jennifer Irwin

Plot:
After an old tree is removed from the ground, three young children accidentally release a horde of nasty, pint-sized demons from the hole in a suburban backyard. What follows is a classic battle between good and evil as the three kids struggle to overcome a nightmarish hell that is literally taking over the Earth.

Extras:
Scene Access
Audio Commentary
Trailers
Gallery
Interviews
Closed Captioned

This film came recommended by a few here on the forum and I must say the film exceeded my expectations. A little Canadian effort into the teen horror genre of the 80s (e.g. Monster Squad of the same year, which this film owns easily) it has excellent special effects (especially the minions kept amazing me) and decent acting from the child actors who after all have to carry the film. Stephen Dorff, who is not yet recognizable comapred to how we know him now, is at a very early career stage here and obviously still had to learn a lot.

The film takes its time to set up the characters and explore their relationships. Nothing feels overly contrived when each plot point is made to move the story towards the inevitable opening of The Gate. It almost feels like a teen comedy for a while, but a good one at that. Good writing, with some hood jokes, keeps our attention up. We are about half way into the movie when all hell breaks loose and the kids have to go against the demon and his minions. The ending is ultimately rather typical for its time and would be considered lazy screen writing today.

I thought that the PG-13 was well stretched in a few spots

Best insult: "Suck my face until my head caves in!"



(From DCO third annual November Alphabet Marathon - discussion/review/banter thread on November 2nd, 2009)

HawthoRNe: Season 1 Ep. 2: Healing Time, a review by addicted2dvd

HEALING TIME
A patient with a potentially fatal aneurysm believes Christina is his wife and confesses to having an affair.

Notable Guest Stars:
Malcolm-Jamal Warner (The Cosby Show) as Fred
Cloris Leachman (The Mary Tyler Moore Show) as Mrs. Lachman

My Thoughts:
I enjoyed this one quite a bit as well. Good medical cases... good side storylines. I liked the character Cloris Leachman played. It is a shame they weren't able to get her for more then one episode.

My Rating:

(From HawthoRNe Episode Reviews on June 21st, 2013)