DVD Collectors Online

Howl's Moving Castle, a review by dfmorgan

Title: Howl's Moving Castle
Original Title: Hauru no Ugoku Shiro
Year: 2004
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Rating: PG
Length: 119 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital: 5.1, Japanese: Dolby Digital: 5.1, French: Dolby Digital: 5.1
Subtitles: English

Stars:
Chieko Baisho
Takuya Kimura
Akihiro Miwa
Haruko Kato
Ryunosuke Kamiki

Plot:
In Hayao Miyazaki's latest animated masterpiece, journey beyond imagination and enter a "breathtaking fantasy world" (Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times) filled with adventure, humor, and heart.

Sophie, a quiet girl working in a hat shop, finds her life thrown into turmoil when she is literally swept off her feet by a handsome but mysterious wizard named Howl. The vain and vengeful Witch of the Waste, jealous of their friendship, puts a spell on Sophie. In a life-changing adventure, Sophie climbs aboard Howl's magnificent flying castle and enters a magical world on a quest to break the spell.

Featuring the voice talents of Jean Simmons, Christian Bale, Lauren Bacall, Blythe Danner, and Billy Crystal, Miyazaki's artistry comes to life on DVD with inventive characters, unique storytelling, and richly detailed animation.

Extras:
Scene Access
Feature Trailers
Bonus Trailers
Featurettes
Interviews
Storyboard Comparisons
Closed Captioned



Another wonderfully gorgeous film from Hayao Miyazaki. Hayao Miyazaki has inverted one of his trademarks in this film in that the strong female lead, although technically a young woman, is portrayed by a 90 year old woman after the young girl is cursed by a witch. Sophie leaves home after being cursed and eventually finds herself in Howl's castle with the help of a scarecrow, a pity he is referred to as Turniphead as that has connotations for England football followers. Within Howl's castle Sophie finds out that Howl the magician himself is cursed along with the fire demon and the scarecrow who helped her earlier and that she must solve the riddle for all of them to remove the curses on them.

Another of my favourites and a surefire


(From dfmorgan's Studio Ghibli Marathon on August 15th, 2010)

Hamlet (1948), a review by Danae Cassandra

Hamlet
Year of Release: 1948
Directed By: Lawrence Olivier
Starring: Lawrence Olivier, Norman Wooland, Eileen Herlie, Basil Sydney, Jean Simmons
Genre: Drama

Overview:My Thoughts:
Probably the best film version of Hamlet you're going to see.  It's a very dark version of the story.  What humor there was in the play has been cut, leaving you with a bleak, somber tragedy.  Olivier is absolutely superb in the title role.  He really embodies Hamlet as I have always thought of him from reading the play.  Olivier also directs, and does a pretty fine job of that too.  His supporting cast are excellent too, especially Norman Wooland as Horatio and Jean Simmons as Ophelia.  The gorgeous cinematography, with its noir-influenced shadows and interesting use of camera angles, deserves high praise as well.  Between the cinematography and the score, it creates a moody atmosphere that serves the film well, especially in the scenes with the ghost. 

All in all, an outstanding film, a splendid rendition of Hamlet, and highly recommended for lovers of the Bard's work.

Bechdel Test: Fail

Overall: 5/5

(From Within My (Mom's) Lifetime Marathon on July 6th, 2015)

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

What's the show about?
Dr. House leads a team of diagnosticians who have specialized in rare and/or extraordinary cases. House himself is a misanthropic cripple who doesn't like to handle the patients personally, basically because "everybody lies". He bounces ideas off his team and together they find the disease but not always fast enough to actually save the patient.

"Pilot"
A young kindergarten teacher is brought to the hospital because she has lost the ability to speak and five different doctors have made five different diagnoses based on the same evidence. House's friend Dr. Wilson tricks House into accepting this patient and he and his team try to diagnose her illness. And the hospital boss Dr. Cuddy forces House to do clinic hours, too.

My Opinion
It's not lupus. Whatever it is, it's never lupus. The case of the week follows a fairly regular pattern. Patient comes in, something makes it interesting for House, they treat, they mistreat, they treat again, they nearly kill the patient and then something totally unrelated to the case gives House the solution. Case closed, patient (maybe still) alive. For me that's not the reason to watch this show. For me it's about House himself and his friend Wilson and Cuddy and his three doctors and how they interact and what they do besides treating the patient. And even though the case always follows the same pattern, the position of the players (even House's) is constantly changing and will change again when the show goes into its sixth season this fall.

(From The One Where It All Began: The Pilot Marathon on September 1st, 2009)