Crusade: A March Through Time (2008) Review

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(More customer reviews)From http://celsiusentertainment.wordpress.com/current-projects/crusade-march-through-time/
"About the new U.S. Release Version:
The film is currently 30 minutes shorter than the previous Dutch version and the story has been streamlined and sharpened bringing the characters and the conflict into greater relief. This new version has a new ending, some new scoring and a couple of new original songs written for the film."
Let me tell you, they really chopped up that ending.
Imagine taking 30 minutes worth of awesome storyline wrap up and squeezing it into 2 minutes. All that information and character wrap up and explanations for why these new characters are in the story and why they are doing what they are doing....gone. Replaced by some haphazard BS. Almost like it had been written by someone completely new who'd never written more than a junior high story for mediated english class.
Aside from the ending, the rest of the story line is totally awesome. Great character development, actions of the characters made sense and fit with the story line and character motivations. Had me, my bf, and my daughter laughing, in tears, tense, and relief. Led up to the climax smoothly, had us wondering if the main character was going to succeed, etc....and then fell flat, worse than flat, with the chopped up ending that made no sense and didn't fit in.
The dutch version seems to have gotten awards, but I don't see how the USA version can even be considered for one with that ending.
I would have given the movie 5 stars, except for that ending (can you tell I hated it??). I give it 2 stars because the movie was actually awesome, but in the end..the USA ending ruined it all.

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Young soccer player Dolf fails to score in the European junior championships, causing his team to be eliminated. Returning home, he visits his mother's lab as she tests a revolutionary time-travel machine. Dolf decides to travel back 12 hours to replay the match, but accidently ends up in the year 1212. Saved from bandits by the beautiful Jenne, his first attempt to transport home fails. Dolf joins Jenne and thousands of children on a pilgrimage known as the childrens crusade, led by a young religous visionary, Nicolas. Finding his modern perspectives both a help and a hidrance to his thirteenth century counterparts, Dolf is alternaely viewed as a miracle worker and the Devils disciple. Back in the present his mother frantically studies historical documents to arrange a rendezvous to bring Dolf home. While the journey is fraught with hardships, battles, treachary, and sacrifice, it is also a place where friendships are forged and a romance is born. His last chance to return home, Dolf rushes to make the rendezvous with Jenne in hand. Will Dolf return home safely with Jenne by his side?

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Last Call (2002) Review

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(More customer reviews)Another great movie that I stumbled upon. I cannot believe that there was not more written about this one. The beautiful Neve Campbell delivers a remarkable performance and Jeremy Irons along with Cissy Spacek ensure that you will be taken on a highly interesting ride.
Jeremy Irons - arguably the best living actor - truly becomes "Scott" in this harrowing display of creative downward spirals with momentary glimpses of genius.
Instead of glorifying or overly romanticizing the subject, the director paints a picture of the subtle and not-so-subtle relationship dynamics among the characters; particularly the struggles of Fitzgerald and his lovely, devoted and talented assistant.
This is one of those rare finds in the world of movies that falls under the radar but once discovered, becomes a treasure to the viewer.
Very nicely done.

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F. Scott Fitzgerald spent a lifetime battling demons - alcohol and aschizophrenic wife - and yet, wrote some of the greatest novels in American Literature.Despite a tumultuous relationship with his mistress, his ailing wife, declining health, andhis daily drinking binges, Fitzgerald secretly wrote a scathing novel about the filmindustry which some call his best novel.It was his final triumph. Last Call is based on atrue story about this troubled genius, starring Oscar, Emmy, and golden globe winnerJeremy Irons, Neve Campbell, and Academy Award winner Sissy Spacek.

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A Very Brady Sequel (1996) Review

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(More customer reviews)Pretty funny film, I must admit. One of the best scenes is on the plane to Hawaii when Greg (Johnny Bravo)Brady picks up his guitar & breaks out into a song. In another five seconds, the passengers would have handed him a parachute & shown him to the emergency exit.
True, the critics trashed this film, but hey..this IS a Brady Bunch movie, not 'Citizen Kane.' It's not something you watch for social commentary.

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The Bradys are planning a surprise wedding aniversary for Carol, when her long-lost first husband shows up and upsets the whole idea.No Track Information AvailableMedia Type: DVDArtist: LONG/COLE/MATHESONTitle: VERY BRADY SEQUELStreet Release Date: 06/10/2003

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Amazing Panda Adventure (1995) Review

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(More customer reviews)This movie is better than I expected. I thought it would be really corny and dumb. But it was really good actually.
The Chinese actors in this movie really are speaking Mandarin. A good friend of mine who is Chinese was watching this movie with me, and translated the Chinese dialogue for me. It was authentic and fit with the movie. For instance, when the girl Ling and her grandfather are arguing in the back of the tractor at the beginning of the movie, the girl is complaining about this spoiled brat white kid. The grandfather is telling her to be quiet. Then when the cart crashes, the grandfather starts complaining that they've got no respect for old people.
That nice little authentic touch, which was never translated on-screen, added a lot to the movie in my opinion. The only part my friend couldn't understand was when they went to the Tibetan village, because the people there were speaking Tibet dialect, not Mandarin. That just makes it more authentic.
The scenery for the movie is quite beautiful. They must have had to travel far from the cities of China to find such an unpopulated, beautiful place. Shots of the city were authentic also, but it is good that the movie didn't spend much time there.
Usually I like to take a movie and rip it to shreds, nitpicking each and every flaw I can find and criticizing it mercilessly. With this movie, I would rather not do that. Seeing a cute little baby panda happily running and stumbling along is a sight rarely seen, and is so cute that it makes me want to ignore anything that might be wrong with this movie otherwise.
When the mama panda gets trapped in the bear-trap, man that really makes you feel bad. To me it was an even worse feeling than when Bambi's mother died. Fortunately, it all turns out good in the end.
If only the same could be said for pandas in real life. Now I see why it is such a shame that there are so few of them left. Only 1,000 left? I hope the population has grown since this movie was made. It's been 10 years since then.
You know, cuteness rarely does it for me. Too much cute usually makes me gag. But the cuteness in this movie just won me over. Mainly because it is so authentic. A baby panda rolling off of a log and landing on its head just can't be faked, and it is extremely cute to say the least.
You can't watch the baby panda in this movie and feel nothing, unless you are just cold and dead inside.
In conclusion, this is a very good family movie. As another reviewer put it, it's a movie you can watch with your kids and actually not feel bored. Recommmended.

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Item Name: The Amazing Panda Adventure; Studio:Warner Home Video

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Guinea Pig Flower of Flesh and Blood/Making of Guinea Pig Double Feature Review

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(More customer reviews)I think nearly every horror movie fan is aware of the notorious "Guinea Pig" series by now. If you like horror films or gory curiosities and aren't aware of this explosive series of Japanese movies, you ought to rush out right now and see a few of them. Made throughout the 1980s and 1990s, "Guinea Pig" pushes envelopes few people in this country would ever conceive possible. After viewing one of these repugnant films, a natural impulse is one of extreme revulsion. Why would anyone create such soul shattering images? It's important to remember that Japanese audiences possess a different attitude about horror films. As far as I can tell, in Japanese cinema anything and everything is fair game. A typical jaunt through the wilderness of Asian horror cinema (in which Japan plays a significant role) typically reveals graphic scenes of dismemberment, torture, and other no-no nasty behavior that rarely, if ever, appears in American films. Some films containing such stomach churning themes do occasionally rear their heads on this side of the pond, but these films rarely play to a wide audience. In Japan, the "Guinea Pig" franchise was a spectacular hit.
I haven't seen all of the films in this series, but out of the two installments I have watched, "The Flower of Flesh and Blood" easily wins the prize for outright sleaze and nastiness. It's difficult to imagine any film approaching (or descending to) the levels seen in this mind blasting forty-minute movie. Even Pier Paolo Pasolini's sickening homage to the evils of fascism, "Salo," fails to invoke the visceral sensations that "The Flower of Flesh and Blood" wallows in. This movie is a sledgehammer blow to the head and stomach with its unrelenting scenes of carnage and depravity. They ought to sell copies of this wrapped in a barf bag.
Manga artist Hideshi Hino directed this nightmarish look into the activities of a sadistic serial killer. That we know this guy is a serial killer and that he likes to stalk his prey before committing a brutal murder constitutes the plot in its entirety. There simply isn't much more here than a short stalking scene at the beginning of the story followed by a thirty-minute dismemberment filmed in nauseatingly sadistic detail. That's right, folks: "The Flower of Flesh and Blood" exists to show the viewer what it might be like to watch a snuff film.
Forget about character development. Two characters exist in this movie: the poor young woman picked up by the killer, and the killer himself. At least they made the murderer look like a complete psycho, as the guy wears a samurai helmet, a full body leather apron, and some sort of black caps on several of his teeth. This gentleman does not fit the bill of a role model in any way, shape, or form. He's a degenerate who likes to wax philosophic between removing arms and legs, blurting out weird lines about how his next activity will imitate blooming flowers and the like. At the end of the movie, he sings a melancholy song about sending people to the underworld. He also shines a different colored light on his victim at various times, although why he does this makes little sense. The majority of the film takes place in some seedy basement splashed with blood and filled with numerous tools of pain. Then you watch this guy commit his atrocities and that's it. There is nothing more to "The Flower of Flesh and Blood" than close up shots of bloody mayhem.
The DVD contains many interesting extras. There are several trailers from the other installments in the "Guinea Pig" series, one for the zombie film "Junk," several text interviews with director Hideshi Hino, an overview of the controversy involving Charlie Sheen (who supposedly saw this film and believed it was a real snuff film), a behind the scenes look at the special effects involved in the series, and a reproduction of a manga comic book with loose ties to the film written and illustrated by Hino. The documentary on the special effects provides some comfort after watching the gruesome movie, showing that it is all nothing more than a well made horror film. Still, I'm uncomfortable with the knowledge that "The Flower of Flesh and Blood" made such a big splash with Japanese audiences. Remember, this is the same country that committed the atrocities in Manchuria during the late 1930s, and there are still people living in Japan today who were intimately involved in mass murder and mass torture throughout Asia during World War II.
I think this entry in the "Guinea Pig" series ultimately fails to deliver the goods. As a gorehound, I appreciated the awesome special effects displayed in the movie, but the movie never rises to the occasion in terms of character development and plot. I watched the other Hino directed entry in the series, "Mermaid in a Manhole," a few years ago and I thought it well developed and interesting. In that film, which contained numerous graphic scenes, Hino developed a plot heavy on human suffering that showed emotional pain as a real tragedy. In "The Flower of Flesh and Blood," he indulges in sadism for the mere sake of sensationalism. If you really want to see this movie, just steel yourself for the depths of degradation. If you have kids in the house, don't even think about buying this film if there is any chance your children might find it. This is not acceptable viewing for youngsters, and it probably isn't acceptable viewing for most people. Beware, oh beware! "The Flower of Flesh and Blood" is upon you!

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Tennessee Williams Film Collection (A Streetcar Named Desire 1951 Two-Disc Special Edition / Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 1958 Deluxe Edition / Sweet Bird of Youth / The Night of the Iguana / Baby Doll / The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone) (1958) Review

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(More customer reviews)This review isn't of the great movies contained but the DVD set and their respective presentations.
first..let me say the bonus DVD "Tennesse Williams South"...is exceptional..its a film made about and with him in 1974 and besides his own readings of his work , which are illuminating, it features legends like Burl Ives and Jessica Tandy re-creating his dialog..simply timeless!
now..onto the Discs/Movies
the bonus featurettes are all very well done however, seemingly shorter than they should/could be. By that I mean...they have current interviews with Karl Malden and Eli Wallach for BABYDOLL and Rip Torn for Sweet Bird of Youth and the ever beautiful Jill St John for The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, and yet the amount of face time these actual stars of the films in question get is barely a line here or there? Not that the featurettes aren't good...they are..it just seems they could be a could 10minutes longer each...
now...the opposite problem is in the second disc of Streetcar Named Desire....the feature length (90min) Elia Kazan: A directors Journey is wonderful..its a decade or so old but was done while he was still with us and his participation raised it above the level of talking heads documentaries of the day. The strange thing is that the new featurettes on this disc feature way too much culled from the aforementioned feature. I don't understand....WB has wonderful featurettes on all the movies that seem truncated and then BLOATS out the Streetcar featurettes with duplicate material from itself? Only the current footage of Karl Malden saves the Streetcar featurettes from their own plagerism.
Now..the films themselves are all in very good shape considering they go back half a century. I wasn't a particular fan of Tennesse Williams..but after viewing all these films and the bonus film...i most certainly put him in the genius category and am looking for more.
Also, the press is making a big deal about Marlon Brando's screen test which is being included in the Streetcar DVD bonus features...its only a curiosity , not amazing by any stretch. What is far more interesting is Karl Malden's lovely memories of his friendship and admiration for Mr Brando....truly touching and mezmorizing. Malden is a treasure of an actor who starred in more fine films than any but the most ardent fan would know as he was usually second billed...but he IS the star of this set.
Great American films and unlike Universals shameless packaging..WB continues to present these types of films lovingly with extras..oh yeah..and the commentaries aren't bad either...much to enjoy in this set.

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Streetcar Named Desire 2 Disc SE Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Deluxe Edition Sweet Bird of Youth Night of the Iguana Baby Doll Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone

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2 DVD SET (How to Make Serious Money with Your Own Mobile Food Business) Cooking for Cash+ Money Making Marketing) Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a well made program that is presented in an organized manner with some nice inspirational ideas as an added bonus. Is this the only program that you should watch to succeed as a food vendor? No, but it's going to get you a whole lot closer than you have ever been!
I have a good size library of money making information and I consider this one to be on top of many others. Mostly because it does not overwhelm me with trivial stuff and it keeps the momentum going with interesting examples. Way to many business books tend to be somewhat dry so I can't even understand half of the stuff in them or I get bored out of my mind... But these dvd's stand out as being different.
I suggest that beginners read and watch all they can get their hands on! This strategy has helped me more than a few times to make the right business decisions. After all, in the field you will have to make 99% of all decisions by yourself and can't always ask someone for advice! A single mistake you make might be a lesson for you, but will cost you a lot of money to learn! Building a food concession business takes a lot of steps that should all be done in the right order. I know that it is always better to build a solid, steady income over time and have a good foundation to work from in the future.


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