DVD Collectors Online

Seven Samurai, a review by Antares

Shichinin no samurai





Year: 1954
Film Studio: Toho Company
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama
Length: 207 Min.

Director
Akira Kurosawa (1910)

Writing
Akira Kurosawa (1910)...Screenwriter
Shinobu Hashimoto (1918)...Screenwriter
Hideo Oguni (1904)...Screenwriter

ProducerCinematographer
Asakazu Nakai (1901)

Music
Fumio Hayasaka (1914)...Composer

StarsReview
       Throughout the course of mankind's history, certain artistic endeavors have met with such critical acclaim that they stand as crowning achievements in their respected fields of culture. Michelangelo's Pieta, DaVinci's Mona Lisa, Beethoven's 9th Symphony and Tolstoy's War and PeaceCitizen KaneShichinin no samuraiCitizen KaneSeven SamuraiAmadeus. When he recounts the genius of Mozart's composing, Antonio Salieri states; "Displace one note and there would be diminishment, displace one phrase, and the structure would fall". Devoid of the sub-plots and character development, the film becomes just an action picture that begins to take on the resemblance of the American remake, The Magnificent SevenShichinin no samurai, Mifune's star would rise to a level in Japan, equivalent to that of John Wayne in the United States. In that same year he would be cast in Hiroshi Inagaki's Miyamoto Musashi, the first part of a trilogy based upon the popular novel that has been described as the Japanese Gone with the WindKagemusha in 1980. He would pass away in 1982 leaving behind a trio of memorable performances in the early Kurosawa masterpieces. His versatility as an actor would forever be immortalized on screen as the woodchopper in , Watanabe in Ikiru, and as Kambei (the samurai leader) in Shichinin no samuraiRatings Criterion
5 Stars - The pinnacle of film perfection and excellence.

(From Shichinin no samurai (Seven Samurai) (1954) on March 15th, 2010)

Encounter with the Unknown, a review by Jimmy

Title: Encounter with the Unknown (1973)

Genre: Horror
Director: Harry Thomason
Rating: PG
Length: 1h32
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1:78.1
Audio: English
Subtitles: None

Stars:
Rod Serling
Robert Ginnaven
Rosie Holotik
Michael Harvey
Gene Ross

Plot:
Rod Serling (TV's Twillight Zone) phones in a shocking trilogy of UHF television level thrills. A curse hits three frat kids when a homicidal mother decides they are resonsible for her son's death, and this prophetic mother won't stop untill she gains her twisted vengeance. Each frat boy meets with the most painfull death that you will encounter in a familly film. An inbred boy's dog falls into the pit of hell, and it's up his uncle/dag (standout performance by Robert Holton) to go down to investigate. Watch out when he returns! Third, an unsuspecting driver picks up lost girls, Rosie Holotik (Don't Look in the Basement, Horror High), only to learn that she died years before. Featuring box office champ Bill Thurman (Gator Bait), outrageous funnyman Gene Ross (the groovy judge in Here Comes the Judge), comedian Charlie Dell and Robert Ginnaven as the business-class-riding priest.

An uneven anthology with one excellent story (The Girl on the Bridge), one so-so (The Hole) and one awfully bad. It's a regional movie (Arkansas) with many regulars from the S.F. Brownrigg and Larry Buchanan pool of actors. As I said the first story is an awfull mess with a story repeated over and over. The midle one is about a hole in the ground that can be evil or not depending of what you believe (with a better writting and details this could had been a good story). The last one is about a dead spirit who is lost and wants to return home, ok this isn't a new theme but it's well written and well acted (certainly better than anything else in that). This is the first movie of Rosie Holotik (she played the Lady on the Bridge) and she do a great jobs.
   
Rating :

(From Jimmy's - 2013 Ooctober Horror Marathon on October 17th, 2013)

Tom's TV Pilots marathon, a review by Tom

GTO: 1st Semester (1999/Japan) IMDb | Wikipedia (United States) Length: 0 min. Video: Full Frame 1.33:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, Japanese: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles: English

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Plot:
Meet Eikichi Onizuka, a 22-year-old virgin and ex-biker. He's crude, foul-mouthed, and has a hair-trigger temper. His goal: to be the Greatest High School Teacher in the World! Wait, what?!? GTO is the fan-favorite story of Onizuka, a former motorcycle gang member whose goal is to become a teacher to make a difference. Once he's got his foot in the school door...can he squeeze his big head through it?

Watch in awe as Onizuka pummels through his teacher training only to be faced with the mammoth task of actually landing a teaching position. With unusual circumstances on his side, he just might pull it off. Using his street smarts to deal with colleagues, students, and troublemakers, Onizuka finds that he has too many lessons to learn!


Great Teacher Onizuka
1.01 GTO - The Legend Begins
Writer: Tohru Fujisawa (Original Material By), Masashi Sogo (Writer)
Director: Noriyuki Abe, Naoyasu Hanyu
Cast: Japanese Voice Cast), Wataru Takagi (Eikichi Onizuka (voice)), Isshin Chiba (Ryuji Danma (voice)), Yuko Miyamura (Nanako Mizuki (voice)), Shinichiro Miki (Hidero Ohsawa (voice)), Kiyoyuki Yanada (Nanako's Father (voice)), Astuko Tanaka (Nanako's Mother (voice)), Emi Kobayashi (Takahama (voice)), Haruhi Terada (Momoi (voice)), Tomiko Orikasa (Mikan (voice)), Satohiko Nakajima (Homeroom Teacher (voice)), Kazuhiro Oguro (Punk in Class O (voice)), Kosuke Okano (Punk in Class O (voice)), Hisao Egawa (Punk in Class O (voice)), Kenji Hamada (Street Punk (voice)), Tomoki Yanagi (Student (voice)), Ayako Kawasumi (Young Wife (voice)), English Voice Cast), David Lucas (Eikichi Onizuka (voice)), Ron Allen (Ryuji Danma (voice)), Cindy Robinson (Nanako Mizuki (voice)), Ron Allen (Hidero Ohsawa (voice)), John Smallberries (Nanako's Father (voice)), Wendee Lee (Nanako's Mother (voice)), Wendee Lee (Takahama (voice)), Cindy Robinson (Momoi (voice)), Midge Mayes (Mikan (voice)), David Lucas (Homeroom Teacher (voice)), John Smallberries (Punk in Class O (voice)), David Lucas (Punk in Class O (voice)), Ron Allen (Punk in Class O (voice)), John Smallberries (Street Punk (voice)), Ron Allen (Student (voice)), Cindy Robinson (Young Wife (voice))

This anime is good. Though I prefer the live-action series. The anime follows the manga more closely though. Funnily it incoporates a few ideas the live-action series came up with.
The pilot episode is a double-length episode. It covers about the same story as the first live-action episode. Only here Onizuka starts out as a student teacher at another school which he finishes successfully in this episode. This means that the student that he helps here will not be part of the series after this episode. In the live-action version she was. She was his biggest supporter there.

Rating:

(From Tom's TV Pilots marathon on June 28th, 2011)