DVD Collectors Online

Flesh and the Devil, a review by Antares

Flesh and the Devil (1926) 4.5/5 - One gaping hole in my film watching is most definitely Silent film dramas. I've seen plenty of silent comedy, but due to lack of material available or time constraints, I've never been able to really sink my teeth into what is my favorite time frame in Hollywood history. A few years back, I got the TCM collection The Garbo Silents Collection and it has been gathering dust ever since. But I'm in the midst of watching Kevin Brownlow & David Gill's mammoth documentary on the silent era, Hollywood, and decided to shake the dust off some of my silent film DVDs and this was first on the list. I've only seen Greta Garbo in one of her sound films, Grand Hotel, and glimpses of a few others such as Ninotchka and Queen Christina. Aside from being a radiantly beautiful woman, I find the performances I've watched either overly melodramatic or somewhat wooden and her voice to be a bit too deep and masculine to fit her image. I've never been able to understand why she survived the transition to sound, when so many other gifted, beautiful actors and actresses were left behind. I really wanted to watch this mainly because it starred John Gilbert, one of the most tragic figures in Hollywood history. And just as I expected, he was magnificent in the role of the love struck Prussian aristocrat who almost forsakes a life long friendship for the love of a woman who's not worth his efforts. After finishing the film, I started to ponder if Gilbert was the first actor to have true screen presence, because every moment he is on screen, he dominates. I couldn't think of one actor before him, where the camera just made them come alive so much. When the film was finished, I cursed Louis B. Mayer for what he did to his career. I've listened to a few of Gilbert's sound films and there was absolutely nothing wrong with his voice. I really hope Mayer is rotting in Hell for not only what he did to Gilbert, but to Judy Garland and Buster Keaton also. That being said, if you're into silent films, you need to definitely check this one out.

(From Antares' Short Summations on April 27th, 2012)

The International, a review by Rich

The International



Interpol agent Louis Salinger (Clive Owen) is determined to expose an arms dealing ring responsible for facilitating acts of terrorism around the globe. But as his investigation leads Salinger and his partner, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts), deeper into the secret world of greed, corruption and murder, they become targets of a deadly conspiracy so vast, they soon find the only people left to trust are each other. This pulse-pounding thriller plays a high-stakes game of suspense, intrigue and explosive action.

Despite reading bad reviews on this movie, personally I found it an above average adventure thriller, reasonably cast, and generally well plotted through the film. Pretty good escapist stuff for adults, with the storyline centering around high finance, arms dealing and dodgy banks.
The locations are variously spread around Europe and the US, and were interesting in there originality and architectural impact.
A particular high point in the action was the shoot-out at the Guggenheim which was spectacular, very well directed and tensely shot.
This is no show stopper, but well worth the money.
 


(From Riches Random Reviews on July 30th, 2009)

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

Synopsis: Kor believes to have learned where the sword of the first klingon emperor Kahless has disappeared to. It was stolen by the Hur'q over a thousand years ago and now it seems to be in the GQ. He wants Dax to join him and he also invites Worf to come with them. And destiny wanted them to find it. But they have an argument about what they should do with it because the sword is a symbol of power and can be used as such.

My Opinion:Synopsis: Garak has broken into the Holosuite where Bashir was just playing a spy of the british government during the cold war. But then a transporter accident happens and the neurological patterns can be stored into the station's computers the only place to save their body patterns is the running Holosuite program. And suddenly it's important not only to win the game but also not to kill any of the characters.

My Opinion: Having watched Casino Royale this tuesday and going to watch Quantum Of Solace coming tuesday I enjoyed this episode very much. Sisko/Dr. Noah was a much better adversary to Bashir than Le Chiffre was to Bond. And O'Brien was great as Falcon The fun episodes of DS9 are always worth watching.

Synopsis: Sisko and Odo are called back to Earth after an explosion has killed 27 conference members including some Romulans. And the wormhole is opening at random intervals, too. On Earth Sisko gets promoted to acting Chief of Starfleet Security and he implements some security measures to ensure the safety of Federation President Jaresh-Inyo and all Starfleet facilities. But it doesn't help. The Founders attack Earth's power grid and disable it. An attack by a cloaked fleet seems imminent.

My Opinion: And now to rather serious business. Benjamin Franklin once said "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." Yet, since 9/11 we've seem to have forgotten those words and basically every western country is taking away civil rights and enforces a harder security policy. In the EU every phone call ever made, every connection to the internet is to be logged and stored. In the UK the Interception Modernisation Programme even wants to store every e-Mail ever sent (including spam). In Germany our Minister of the Interior wants the right to secretly go into our houses and install trojan horses on our computers and he wants to use the Bundeswehr within our country (which is strictly forbidden by our constitution). Al-Qaeda despises our way of living and what do we do? We destroy our way of living. It's like committing suicide because we fear death.

Synopsis: The President has declared martial law and the streets are guarded by armed Starfleet troops. But things don't add up. Earth's security has tightened yet no Dominion fleet is attacking. The attack on the power grid wasn't the doing of any Founder - Admiral Leyton did it "for the greater good".

My Opinion: That episode proves the point I made above. Only four changelings on Earth caused all the havocs and they didn't even had to do it themselves. I am just glad that Sisko has seen the error in his way. But would he have seen it if it hadn't been the coup of a Starfleet admiral?

(From Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Marathon on November 8th, 2008)