DVD Collectors Online

Sabotage, a review by Tom

Title: Sabotage
Year: 1936
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Rating:
Length: 76 Min.
Video: Full Frame 1.33:1
Audio: German: MPEG-2 Mono, English: MPEG-2 Mono
Subtitles:

Stars:
Slyvia Sydney
Oscar Homolka
Desmond Tester
John Loder
Joyce Barbour

Sadly, the video and audio quality of my DVD release again put a damper on my enjoyment of another Hitchcock movie.
The scene, of which Hitchcock thinks, it was a mistake, is the best bit of the movie. I like how this scene ends and I am glad, Hitchcock couldn't pull a George Lucas on it and change it to the way he thinks would be better.

Here an interview with Hitchcock about the famous scene:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dhbSUP9mhk

Rating:

(From Alfred Hitchcock Marathon on April 21st, 2009)

Immortals, a review by dfmorgan

Immortals: 3D (2011/United States) Universal Home Entertainment (United Kingdom) Director: Tarsem Singh Writing: Charley Parlapanides (Writer), Vlas Parlapanides (Writer) Length: 110 min. Video: Widescreen 1.85:1 Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio: 5.1 Subtitles: English

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Stars:
Henry Cavill as Theseus
Mickey Rourke as King Hyperion
Stephen Dorff as Stavros
Freida Pinto as Phaedra
Luke Evans as Zeus

Plot:
Eons after the Gods won their mythic struggle against the Titans, a new evil threatens the land. Mad with power, King Hyperion has declared war against humanity. Amassing a bloodthirsty army of soldiers disfigured by his own hand, Hyperion has scorched Greece in search of the legendary Epirus Bow, a weapon of unimaginable power forged in the heavens by Ares. Only he who possesses this bow can unleash the Titans, who have been imprisoned deep within the walls of Mount Tartaros since the dawn of time and thirst for revenge. In the king's hands, the bow would rain destruction upon mankind and annihilate the Gods. But ancient law dictates the Gods must not intervene in man's conflict. They remain powerless to stop Hyperion... until a peasant named Theseus comes forth as their only hope.

Extras:

• Scene Access
• Feature Trailers
• Deleted Scenes
• Featurettes
• Digital Copy

I quite enjoyed this film. I watched the ordinary 2D version as I don't have a 3D TV. I have got and watched "The Fall" by Tarsem (Singh) and although I enjoyed that film more I felt that there were some similarities between them with the way in that both films seemed, to me, to have a touch of style over substance. This I feel was confirmed in one of the featurettes where Tarsem said, something along the lines of, that he preferred to let the colours tell some of the story rather than words or action.

Rating:

(From Dave's DVD/Blu-ray Reviews on March 18th, 2012)

The One Where It All Began: The Pilot Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

Every story has a beginning and for a TV show it's (often) the Pilot. I simply love pilots. It's the one episode that I watch more than any other episode of the show.

I'll watch them in the order in which they stand on my shelves, so there's no secret master plan why one show comes before or after the next.

As Kosh would say: And so it begins.

Xena: Warrior Princess



What's the show about?
The former warlord Xena has reformed and fights now for the good. She and her sidekick Gabrielle travel through the ancient world of Greece, North Africa and Asia. They fight with and against other warlords, demons and gods.

What happend before?
"Xena" is a spin-off of "Hercules" where Xena was introduced. Back then she was still a warlord until she lost her army due to a mutiny. After that she helped Hercules defeat a vicious monster.

"Sins of the Past"
Xena cannot escape her past even when she tries to. On the way to her hometown Amphipolis she saves a group of people - including a young girl called Gabrielle - from being captured and sold into slavery. The attackers are under the command of Draco. When she denies him a real fight he decides to destroy Amphipolis and kill everyone. Now Xena has to protect a town that does not want her to be there...

My Opinion
Since the character was already introduced in "Hercules" one doesn't learn much new about Xena in the pilot. Even if she had an affair with Draco remains unclear.
I always favoured "Xena" over "Hercules" because it was a bit darker and her enemies (Callisto, Ares, ...) were more interesting

But there is one thing that bugs me while I'm watching the show. While I grew up I read a lot of greek mythology. I've read the Iliad, the Odyssey, I watched every Hercules/Heracles movie there was. And I am still used to the german names of everything: Herkules, Achilles, Zeus, ... . While the spelling is only slightly different, the pronunciation is completely different. Everytime I watch Xena or Hercules and they pronounce greek names it sounds totally wrong. Period.

(From The One Where It All Began: The Pilot Marathon on January 2nd, 2008)