DVD Collectors Online

Arachnophobia, a review by addicted2dvd

Title: Arachnophobia
Year: 1990
Director: Frank Marshall
Rating: PG-13
Length: 109 Min.
Video: Widescreen 1.85:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital: 5.1
Subtitles: English

Stars:
Jeff Daniels
Harley Jane Kozak
John Goodman
Julian Sands
Stuart Pankin
Brian McNamara

Plot:Extras:
Scene Access
Feature Trailers
Featurettes
Closed Captioned

My Thoughts:
This is an enjoyable movie... but one I can only watch but so often... because of my own bad case of arachnophobia. Watching this movie (or any involving spiders) makes my skin crawl.  This movie has a couple faces I am familiar with. First we see Julian Sands... who I know from the first couple Warlock movies. Then for comic relief we have John Goodman who was Dan on Roseanne. I wouldn't say this is the best horror movie I ever seen... probably not even the best movie about spiders. But I do enjoy it... I would say it is an above average movie.



(From The Movies From Within My Lifetime on April 4th, 2011)

The Final Countdown, a review by Rich

The Final Countdown



The time is now. The place is aboard the U.S.S. Nimitz, America's mightiest nuclear-powered aircraft carrier on maneuvers in the Pacific Ocean. Suddenly, a freak electrical storm engulfs the ship and triggers the impossible: The Nimitz is hurtled back in time to December 6, 1941, mere hours before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. As the enemy fleet speeds towards Hawaii, the warship's Captain (Kirk Douglas), a Defense Department expert (Martin Sheen), a maverick Air Wing Commander (James Farentino) and a desperate Senator in the Roosevelt administration (Charles Durning) must choose between the unthinkable. Do they allow the Japanese to complete their murderous invasion or launch a massive counter-strike that will forever change the course of history?

Once described as the 'Twilight Zone on steroids' with it's larger budget, I couldn't have put it better myself.
I am much more interested in the concept than the delivery, it is a great what-if scenario and one would of hoped the film matched the potential of the idea. Sadly it was disappointing in many areas, the transition scenes are comicaly bad, I never warmed to many of the cast including Douglas, the ending is telegraphed, it has dated poorly, there are no battle scenes, and very little suspense. I would love to see this rewritten and made with todays technology and financial clout.
The outcome leaves you feeling cheated, and the film overall never met it's potential.
 

(From Riches Random Reviews on May 11th, 2009)

My PILOT Marathon, a review by Rich

Monarch Of The Glen

Episode 1
Young restaurant owner Archie MacDonald is called urgently from London back to his ailing fathers bedside in the ancestral home in Scotland, Glenbogle. He soon discovers that Hector has nothing worse than a cold and his sweet but dotty mother Molly has called him home on a pretext and has worked events so he can't easily escape back to London.



Inspired by the highland novels of Compton Mackenzie, this show follows Archie MacDonald as he finds himself thrown into the role of the new Laird of Glenbogle, his family's financially failing Scottish estate. With the help, and sometimes hinderance, of his family and faithful retainers he works to get the noble estate back on its feet.

Dull, charmless and twee melodrama/comedy that sparked no interest through it's pilot episode.
Clearly not every great series is preceded by a wonderful 1st/pilot offering, but there was nothing here in terms of characters, storyline, actors or direction that generated any level of enthusiasm to rush back and watch further offerings. I am sure it must improve as it had such a long run, but for me it is a dead duck from the get-go.
 

(From My PILOT Marathon on September 5th, 2009)