DVD Collectors Online

Goldfinger, a review by Tom

Title: Goldfinger
Year: 1964
Director: Guy Hamilton
Rating: FSK-16
Length: 105 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78
Audio: German: Dolby Digital Mono, Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono, English: Dolby Digital Mono, Commentary: Dolby Digital Mono, Commentary: Dolby Digital Mono
Subtitles: Danish, English, Finnish, German, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish

Stars:
Sean Connery
Honor Blackman
Gert Frobe
Shirley Eaton
Tania Mallet

Extras:
Commentary
Featurettes
Photo Gallery
Scene Access
Trailers

A great Bond. Probably one of the finest. "No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die" is one of my favorite lines in the Bond franchise.
Q is becoming the gadget master that we know and love.
But I must admit, that the movie dragged a little towards the end for me.

Rating:

(From James Bond Marathon on February 14th, 2009)

Night of the Hunted, a review by Danae Cassandra

Overview:
A man driving home late one night nearly hits a beautiful, scantily-clad woman who is running wild in the streets; he takes her back to his apartment, they make love, and he discovers that she has already forgotten where they met. She is rapidly losing her memory, a woman without a past. The amnesiac woman is traced back to scientific fortress melodramatically known as "The Black Tower," where people suffering memory and identity loss due to accidental nuclear contamination are being held and treated.

Although Rollin made the film with absolute freedom within his budget, he was forced to race through with absurd time restraints. As a result, NIGHT OF THE HUNTED (La Nuit des Traquees) is a compromised film, to be sure, but it is a unique and exceptional chapter in Rollin's filmography. It has a distinctly Cronenbergain feel, that reaches back to Cronenberg's early experimental short films Stereo (1969) and Crimes of the Future (1970).

The film's powerfully moving finale is, for my money, the single greatest sequence in Rollin's entire body of work.

My Thoughts:
This is another interesting, atmospheric film from Rollin. It's a very different film from the others of his I've watched, in that there is nothing supernatural here. That makes this all the more frightening, all the more horrific, as this is something you can actually imagine happening.

This is very much a Rollin film, so there's plenty of nudity and sex. Rollin definitely has an eye for erotic atmosphere, and that is still evident here. There's also his trademark dreamy visuals here, especially in the opening scene and the closing scene.

This is a definite recommendation for fans of Rollin's films, and wouldn't necessarily be a bad place to start with his films. It has more of a plot than some of them, though things are never fully explained, and the viewer is still left with questions at the end.

Watched For: Hoop-tober 3.0, Horror/Halloween Challenge 2016, Scavenger Hunt 19

Bechdel Test: Pass
Mako Mori Test: Fail

Overall: 3.5/5

Horror/Halloween Challenge Films: 35/52

(From Horror/Halloween 2016 Challenge on October 25th, 2016)

"Stargate SG-1" Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

Synopsis: Jack is still in stasis and SG-1 has no means of contacting the Asgard because the Stargate project is still undergoing an "evaluation process". But Sam can convince Dr. Weir to borrow the Tel'tak that Jack had refitted. As soon as Sam and Teal'c arrive in Asgard space they meet Thor and together they encounter escape Replicators. In the meantime Dr. Weir and Daniel meet representatives of the System Lords. Ba'al has "obtained" the Kull warriors and a great many of Anubis's Jaffa. This poses a potential threat to both the System Lords and Earth.

My Opinion: This two-parter was also presented as feature-length film on the DVD. But this episode showed one of the problems of the series: The 30 Ha'taks that attacked Earth were only a small part of Anubis's fleet. Considering the size of our galaxy that sounds logical. But it doesn't explain why Apophis's position amongst the System Lords was weakened a few years ago, just because he had lost 2 ships in the attack on Earth. This is getting out of proportion and it's getting worse in the next season and I will come back to this topic then.
(On the other hand only 39 Federation ships engaged the Borg cube at Wolf 359, but later 650 ships tried to re-take DS9 [the Klingons not included].)
After this episode the spin-off Stargate Atlantis starts and Dr. Weir becomes the project's leader. The newly promoted Brigadier General Jack O'Neill becomes the CO of the SGC and the newly promoted Lt. Colonel Samantha Carter becomes the leader of SG-1. One also sees Replicator-Carter for the first time who is called RepliCarter by the fans.

Synopsis: The newly arrived russian Colonel Vaselov would like to become the fourth member of SG-1. At least he wants to go off-world as soon as possible. But then he collapses and has to be brought to the infirmary. After Daniel has shot two soldiers, Jack seals off the mountain to prevent Anubis (who is responsible for all this) from escaping.

My Opinion: A nice hide-and-seek episode but nothing more.

Synopsis: In five days the president will visit the SGC but Jack's problems are mounting: An alien plant overgrows the entire base and is hard to defeat. And Ba'al is holding SG-1 hostage and wants the System Lord Camulus who has sought asylum in the SGC.

My Opinion: I am quite sure that this was supposed to be an homage to M*A*S*H because Sgt. Walter Harriman always answered before Jack had asked his question and he had always everything prepared. That makes him similar to his namesake Cpl. Walter "Radar" O'Reilly. I thought that they matched it very well. And Jack actually reminded me of Lt. Colonel Henry Blake.
I also liked the rest of this Jack episode. Jack hasn't changed much after all.

(From "Stargate SG-1" Marathon on April 20th, 2008)