DVD Collectors Online

Rabid Dogs, a review by Jimmy

Title: Rabid Dogs (1974)

Genre: Suspense/Thriller
Director: Mario Bava
Rating: Unrated
Length: 1h36
Video: Widescreen
Audio: Italian
Subtitles: English

Stars:
Riccardo Cucciolla
Lea Lander
Maurice Poli
Don Backy
George Eastman

Plot:
It was to be the most startling film of Bava's entire career: After a botched payroll heist, a trio of vicious criminals take hostages in a desperate getaway that explodes with cruelty, degradation and shocking violence. But when the film's financier was killed during the last stages of production, his entire estate -- including the sole unfinished work print of RABID DOGS -- was seized and impounded by an Italian court. Mario Bava's final masterpiece -- one of the most intense EuroCrime thrillers of all time -- would remain locked away for nearly 23 years.

One of the last movie directed by Mario Bava and very different than his precedents one. This is a pretty good crime film that follow the escape of the three criminals and not really the crime himself that happen fast in the beginning (by the way I don't like the speed up frame when it's happen, but since it's a working print it's understandable). So we have a "psychological" study of the characters. The viewer can easilly feel the tension through all the course of the film, the fact that 90% of it happen in the car interior sure help to create the claustrophobic mood. The acting is particullary good and this is certainly the best career performance of George Eastman (he had used his real name for this film, but you are certainly familliar with his works in many Italian horror films). The actors do a real good job to act obnoxious (Backy and Eastman characters looked completly crazy and dysfonctional) and even Dottore (the gang leader) who sounds so calm is a cold blood killer. Lea Lander plays the hostage perfectly also, you feel her desperation and her breakdown completly. The movie had also a real surprise ending that had completly took me off guard the first time I've watched the film (at least in its original version).

In fact what we have here is the best Bava's film after Four Time That Night (at least for me).     

Rating :

(From Mario Bava marathon on July 28th, 2009)

Gone With the Wind, a review by addicted2dvd

Title: Gone With the Wind
Year: 1939
Director: Victor Fleming
Rating: G
Length: 233 Min.
Video: Full Frame 1.33:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital: 5.1, English: Dolby Digital: Mono
Subtitles: English, French

Stars:
Clark Gable
Vivien Leigh
Leslie Howard
Olivia de Havilland
Thomas Mitchell
Barbara O'Neil

Plot:
Cinematic masterpiece. Hollywood legend. National treasure. Gone With the WindLos Angeles Examiner) and "the peak milestone in motion picture achievement" (The Hollywood Reporter).

Adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, this dazzling epic stars Vivien Leigh as the tempestuous Scarlett O'Hara and Clark Gable as the dashing Rhett Butler. Forever linked by passion and separated by pride and self-delusion, these unforgettable screen lovers bring Mitchell's immortal saga vividly to life, set against the stunning backdrop of a time and place forever Gone With the Wind.

Extras:
Scene Access
Feature Trailers
Closed Captioned
Booklet includes: Trivia/Production Notes/Making of the film

My Thoughts:
OK... don't get me wrong with this review. I respect the accomplishments of this film. I mean we are talking of a film that won 9 Academy Awards here. But this is just not my thing. It just really bored me. And to our good friend Roger... I hope you don't feel disappointed. I still very much appreciate you sending me this movie. As I said... it is just not my type of thing. When I first put the movie in I was afraid I would never get through the entire thing to give it a proper chance for my review. But I was able to get into the movie just slightly. But that was enough to make it till the end. Though it is one I started last night and had to take a break half way through it... and watch the second half this morning. But I did make it! So I am proud of myself for that much. Sure this is an important part of the history of film... but it is not one that I am planning on watching again.



(From Weekend Movie Marathon: Unwatched DVDs on June 5th, 2010)

Tom's Buffy and Angel Marathon, a review by Tom

03. Witch (1997-03-17)
Writer: Joss Whedon (Created By), Dana Reston (Writer)
Director: Stephen Cragg
Cast: Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy Summers), Nicholas Brendon (Xander Harris), Alyson Hannigan (Willow Rosenberg), Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia Chase), Anthony Stewart Head (Giles), Kristine Sutherland (Joyce Summers), Elizabeth Anne Allen (Amy), Robin Riker (Catherine), Jim Doughan (Mr. Pole), Nicole Prescott (Lishanne), Amanda Wilmshurst (Senior Cheerleader), William Monaghan (Dr. Gregory)

This belongs to my least favorite episodes of the first season. Though I liked the resolution to the story.
Also I would have liked to see Amy more often. Sadly she came not back often and when she did, she was there to be a bad influence on Willow in later seasons.


04. Teacher's Pet (1997-03-24)
Writer: Joss Whedon (Created By), David Greenwalt (Writer)
Director: Bruce Seth Green
Cast: Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy Summers), Nicholas Brendon (Xander Harris), Alyson Hannigan (Willow Rosenberg), Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia Chase), Anthony Stewart Head (Giles), David Boreanaz (Angel), Ken Lerner (Principal Flutie), Musetta Vander (Miss Natalie French), Jackson Price (Blaine), Jean Speegle Howard (Real Miss French), William Monaghan (Dr. Gregory), Jack Knight (Homeless Guy), Michael Ross Verona (Teacher), Karim Oliver (Bud #1)

Probably my least favorite episode of all. Stupid story with no real coherence. No funny jokes which could save the episode.

How did Buffy come to the conclusion that Ms. French is an insect? "Oh, I saw her turning her head 180 degrees. She must be an insect!", "I looked a little into insect books. Of what I have read, she must be a Praying Mantis! Those clothes she's wearing is the final proof for this!"
How convenient that there is a strange vampire around who can sense Ms. French from outside her house. But why did he run up to her the first time around and only when she looked at him, he went running?

The final shot they're hinting that a She-Mantis could be back for another time. Boy am I glad that they never followed up on this!

(From Tom's Buffy and Angel Marathon on November 23rd, 2008)