DVD Collectors Online

House of Dracula, a review by addicted2dvd

Title: House of Dracula: The Legacy Collection Year: 1945 Director: Erle C. Kenton Rating: NR Length: 67 Min. Video: Full Frame 1.33:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital: Mono Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Stars:
Lon Chaney, Jr.
John Carradine
Martha O'Driscoll
Lionel Atwill
Onslow Stevens

Plot:Extras:
Scene Access

My Thoughts:
Even though not a bad sequel... there is nothing really special about it... other then I did of course enjoy the fact that all 3 of my favorite classic movie monsters is in this movie. One thing I did see in this one that struck me as unusual (at least from any other classics I have seen so far)... is that in this movie the Hunchback is a woman instead of a man. I personally don't remember ever seeing that in any of the other movies before this one. Quality wise.. this movie looks/sounds great... just like the rest of the set.




Count:
Movie Count: 11
TV Ep. Count: 5
Other Count: 0
Time Started: 2:30pm

(From Month Long Horror/Halloween Marathon: 2010 on October 3rd, 2010)

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, a review by Danae Cassandra

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Year of Release: 2014
Directed By: Peter Jackson
Starring: Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Ian McKellen, all those guys from the first two films
Genre: Fantasy, Action, Adventure

My Thoughts:
Everyone was saying that this was a step down from the previous two Hobbit films.  I don't agree with that.  All three are an enormous step down from Lord of the Rings, but The Hobbit trilogy holds together itself.  If you've enjoyed the first two, and like me, simply enjoy spending time in Middle Earth, you'll enjoy this one.  If you didn't like the first two, don't bother seeing this one. 

What was good in the other films is also good here - Freeman's Bilbo is wonderful.  He really does a great job with the character, and I really wish we'd seen more of him.  Armitage's Thorin is also great, and I liked his descent into madness, I thought he did it really well with what he was given to work with.  In fact, I felt all of the actors did well with what they were given.

The problems of the other films are present here too.  There's too much action, too much emphasis on the set-pieces, and not enough character moments.  We needed to see more of Thorin's descent into madness (and we needed the foreshadowing that got left out of the theatrical cuts of the previous two films).  A lot of the green screen work was really atrociously obvious for being green screen work. 

The character moments that were there worked so very well, though, and the deaths definitely brought a tear to the eye.  The journey is over, now, though despite my criticisms and the flaws of his second trilogy, if Jackson did anything else in Middle Earth I'd watch it in a heartbeat.  So take from all this as you will.

Bechdel Test: Fail

Overall: 4/5

(From Within My (Mom's) Lifetime Marathon on January 31st, 2015)

The Flash Marathon, a review by addicted2dvd

Guest Stars:
Vito D'Ambrosio as Bellows
Biff Manard as Murphy
George Dickerson as Quinn
Mike Genovese as Lt. Warren Garfield
Deborah May as Ruth Werneke

My Thoughts:
A good episode. I did enjoy it... but I have to say I thought the antidote for the toxin that was released in Star Labs was a bit on the convenient side.

My Rating:

(From The Flash Marathon on April 13th, 2010)