DVD Collectors Online

The Bourne Ultimatum, a review by DJ Doena

You are making me want to watch the Bourne Trilogy - again!!

 

Synopsis: Six weeks after the events in Berlin and Moscow Jason tries again to find out who he really is and where he came from. But there are still high-ranking CIA officers who can't let that happen, because it would endanger a number of secret and illegal operations. So once again they send out killers to stop him and everyone he comes in contact with, even other CIA personnel. Luckily for him, he's not the only one who wants to find out the truth.

My Opinion: This time they overdid it with the shaky cam. The fight between Desh and Bourne was nearly unfollowable, and even in the quiet scenes when Jason was talking to Marie's brother or to Nicky it appeared as if the cameraman had Parkinson's.
But I still thought that it was a good conclusion to the story, especially with Bourne choosing not to kill one of his assassins when he was helpless and getting rewarded for it in the end. I also like the final scene which made the imagery becoming full circle with the first scene in Identity.
If it were for me, I'd like to see another Bourne movie.

(From DJ Doena's movie watchings 2009 on September 28th, 2009)

Tales From Earthsea, a review by dfmorgan

Tales From Earthsea (2006/Japan) Studio Canal (United Kingdom) Director: Goro Miyazaki Writing: Ursula K. Le Guin (Original Material By), Hayao Miyazaki (Screenwriter), Goro Miyazaki (Screenwriter), Keiko Niwa (Screenwriter) Length: 115 min. Video: Widescreen 1.85:1 Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio: 5.1, Japanese: DTS-HD Master Audio: 6.1 (Discrete) Subtitles: English

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Stars:
Junichi Okada as Arren
Aoi Teshima as Therru
Yuko Tanaka as Cob
Teruyuki Kagawa as Hare
Jun Fubuki as Tenar

Plot:
Goro Miyazaki's debut feature as director, TALES FROM EARTHSEA is an epic adventure, adapted from the much-loved series of novels by Ursula K. Le Guin.

It tells the story of Ged (voiced in English by Timothy Dalton), the most powerful wizard in Earthsea, and his attempts to protect Prince Arren (Matt Levin) from the evil machinations of rival wizard Cob (Willem Dafoe). Together with Therru, a young girl he rescued from slave takers,Arren must unite with Ged to defeat Cob and return balance to their world.

Beautifully animated, TALES FROM EARTHSEA will enchant viewers of all ages and once again shows Studio Ghibli at the height of its powers.

Extras:

• Scene Access
• Feature Trailers
• Bonus Trailers
• Featurettes
• Interviews
• Storyboard Comparisons

My original review of the R2 DVD is here

Another worthy transfer but a little less of a pop with this but the upgrade to Blu-ray doesn't warrent a change to my rating.

Rating: Still a

(From Ghibli Blu's on July 8th, 2012)

"Stargate SG-1" Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

First I thought about a re-run of Smallville but I have watched this in the middle of last year and it's been a while since I've watched Stargate SG-1.

In order to watch Stargate SG-1, one has to watch Stargate first.



Kurt Russell ... Col. Jonathan 'Jack' O'Neil
James Spader ... Dr. Daniel Jackson
Alexis Cruz ... Skaara
Viveca Lindfors ... Catherine
Mili Avital ... Sha'uri
John Diehl ... Lieutenant Kawalsky
Leon Rippy ... General W.O. West
Erick Avari ... Kasuf
French Stewart ... Lieutenant Ferretti
Jaye Davidson ... Ra

Synopsis: Dr. Jackson is not very renowned in the scientific community. But he is convinced that the great pyramids weren't build during the fourth dynasty 5,000 years ago. He believes that they are much older. A digging back in 1928 confirms his suspicions: buried in the sands of Egypt under a great cover stone with unknown symbols - not hieroglyphs - the Door to Heaven Stargate was found. The Stargate is an ancient device to open an intergalactic connection to the planet Abydos. Dr. Jackson and Colonel Jack O'Neill (and a group of soldiers) go there. O'Neill's job is to evaluate the danger of the situation they are facing.

My Opinion: Unfortunately I haven't seen this movie in the theatres (I went to Star Trek: Generations instead). The idea that alien cultures have been to Earth and have had an influence isn't new, but it was interestingly presented. I also liked that the Abydosians really spoke abydosian (a variant of ancient egyptian) and not just english. The fights were very well choreographed, too, I didn't have the feeling that the weapons of the humans were a match to the ones of Ra's.

To adopt the story for the series they had to make some adjustments (this contains spoilers in regard to the pilot of the series):

• In the movie, Ra is portrayed as the last of his kind, in the series he is one System Lord amongst many - although the most powerful one
• In the movie, Ra is no Goa'uld, his alien body looks totally different
• In the movie, Abydos is in another galaxy, in the series it's the planet closest to Earth
• In the movie, the Stargate is a point-to-point connection to Abydos, in the series it's one in a great network of Stargates
• Ra's Jaffa (who aren't called Jaffa in the movie) don't have an abdomen pouch in which they carry a Goa'uld larva (the term Goa'uld is also an invention of the series)

Additionally one has to activate one's "suspension of disbelief" even more than in the movie, because:

• On most planets the people speak english, no explanation is given (Universal Translator in Star Trek, Translator Microbes in Farscape)
• Most planets look like canadian forrests
• On some planets are earth-like cultures that developed only after the gate was buried
• We never see normal Goa'ulds, they are either rulers or at least scientists, but the huge number of Gua'uld larvae in the Jaffa have to result in a much larger Goa'uld population

Now we can get started ...



(From "Stargate SG-1" Marathon on February 29th, 2008)