Manu: Q
Manu P/N: Q-2763
Disc Marking: D-9A / D-9B, plus some chinese characters
DVD Copy? Yes
Audio: W/ English 5.1 channel audio
Screen Aspect: Anamorphic Widescreen (AWS)
Comments:
- Another outstanding technical copy
- I had a lot of expectation before watching this film, but came away a little bit unimpressed. Anyway, the good news first: Some incredibly gorgeous shots of the desert plains of Texas, truly wonderful eye-candy. Superb acting by all of the Actors, but definitely the movie belonged to Javier Bardem as “Anton Chiburgh”, a psychotic killer. A break out film for him, his intelligence & cold bloodedness makes him the type of person you would regret meeting & talking to, because it’ll probably be the last thing you’ll ever do. Sort of like a “Hannibal Lecter w/ guns”.
- The movie is basically about a Texan hunter (Brolin) who was able to recover money from a botched drug transaction in the desert. A psychopatic assassin (Bardem) was sent to track him down & recover the money. Lots of great action & suspense, definitely the movie’s strongest points.
- But just somehow didn’t work for me. Maybe it was the lack of musical score all throughout the film, or perhaps the way they made Bardem look like some sort of a super-villain who can kill anybody all by his lonesome & keep getting away w/ it easily. Or maybe it was because the bad guy won, or even because of the fact that Tommy Lee Jones didn’t seem to do much in the movie except being a Narrator. It’s a “good enough” movie, but not necessarily something worth an Oscar Best Picture award.
- Still, it has enough merit to be rated as, “Recommended”.
Manu: DVD-9
Manu P/N: NBA-657
Disc Marking: D-9A, plus some chinese markings
DVD Copy? Yes
Audio:
- W/ English 5.1 Channel audio.
Screen Aspect: Anamorphic Wide Screen (AWS)
Comments:
- An outstanding technical copy
- Lots of elements from the previous Predator films reshown in the movie (i.e., the skinning, the alien medical kit, etc.), in a new setting: A town invaded by Aliens.
- The body count slowly but surely starts counting down from the beginning of the movie, at least one every 5 minutes, building up faster & faster until the movie’s climax.
- The human characters were mostly cliched.
- I surprisingly still found it to entertaining, mainly because of all the action. But not likely to be for everyone out there. Still, “Recommended”.
Manu: DVD-0
Manu P/N: NBA-663
Disc Marking: D9-A”, plus some chinese markings
DVD Copy? Yes
Audio:
- W/ English 5.1 Channel audio.
Screen Aspect: Anamorphic Widescreen (AWS)
Comments:
- Outstanding technical copy
- The movie starts out very well, slowly but surely building up the suspense that ultimately led to the “invasion” by the vampires during the start of the 30 days of night in a settlement in Alaska. However, I felt it sort of slowed down in the middle, w/ the writers running out of innovation when it came to how the survivors will last thru the remaining days of night, often resorting to having the main characters survive each situation thru sheer luck (i.e., the normally numerous vampires suddenly thin out to 1 or 2 in critical showdowns)
- Still, a good enough movie to watch. Some of the scenes are absolutely gorgeous, like the sunsets, & shots of the settlement. I felt overall the people behind the movie did a good job of transporting a Graphic Novel into the big screen
- Lots of suspense & action, some incredibly gory scenes, though, like the decapitation of a vampire towards the end of the movie.
- Highly recommended, but only for those who are not too squemish.
Manu: DVD Video
Manu P/N: N/A
Disc Marking: D-9A, plus some chinese markings
DVD Copy? Yes
Audio:
- W/ English 5.1 Channel audio.
Screen Aspect: Anamorphic Wide Screen (AWS)
Comments:
- An outstanding technical copy
- You can’t go wrong when you have guys like Russell Crowe, Ridley Scott & Denzell Washington in one movie. The movie is about the life of a black gangster (Denzell) & of a cop (Crowe) during a critical time in the late 60s to the early 70s. The Vietnam War allowed Denzell’s character to import Heroin thru the US military, thus allowing him to rise up thru the ranks of the criminal underworld. Crowe is the extraordinarily honest cop who eventually brought Denzell down.
- The movie is also quite long, more than 2 hours, but you hardly notice it because there is just too many good things going on in the screen. Denzell & Crowe’s stories are told in parallel, & the 2 don’t meet up face to face up until the last 10 or so minutes in the movie. Lots to drama, suspense, some twists & action here & there.
- Another MUST-HAVE movie, & again, among the best movies of recent times.
Note: Complete movie title is The Assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford
Manu: DVD-9
Manu P/N: NBA-640
Disc Marking: Some chinese markings plus D-9A
DVD Copy? Yes
Audio: W/ English 5.1 Channel Audio
Screen Aspect: Anamorphic Wide Screen
Comments:
- An outstanding technical copy
- Great story, terrific portrayal by the actors. Pitt was his usual, terrific self, but Casey Affleck as Jesse James’ assassin was I feel a breakout role for him. He went in there, & slugged in out toe to toe w/ Pitt, coming out at least at par w/ him acting wise w/ his portrayal Robert Ford. You could really go out & see deeply what kind of a person he was at that age: A young, relatively ignorant farm boy who was obssessed w/ Jesse James, but w/ delusions or ambitions of his own.
- What I liked best about the movie, is that it was basically I think an accurate, historical account, fictionalized by the author (the movie was based on a book) here & there based on documented accounts. So not only are you watching a movie, you are also looking at history itself.
- The movie gives us a detailed but objective view of the Jesse James’ assassination: Although many see Robert Ford’s act of shooting Jesse behind the back as an act of cowardice, the movie reminds us that Jesse also was a charismatic, calculating criminal. Perhaps Ford’s mistake was not shooting Jesse, but his boasting of it afterwards, & using his fame to gain money out of it.
- There’s not much action, though, so some people might find it a bit boring. Kinda long, too, at around 2 1/2 hours. But if you are history buff, then this movie is a must-have.
- For everybody else, overall, though, I’d rate it as Highly Recommended.
Manu: Q
Manu P/N: Q-2772
Disc Marking: D9A / D9B plus some chinese markings
DVD Copy? Yes
Audio:
- W/ English 5.1 Audio.
Screen Aspect: Anamorphic Widescreen (AWS)
Comments:
- An outstanding technical copy.
- Great sci-fi movie, everything I expected it to be. The closest I can description I can give this movie, is “CASTAWAY W/ TEETH”. The effects were spectacular, as usual nowadays, from the vampires, to New York after people. The opening scene where Smith was hunting using Moose with a Mustang car was simply awesome.
- So many good elements about this movie: Smith’s isolation, w/ only his dog to keep him company; The history of the virus was told in short flashbacks that flowed naturally w/ the movie; Smith’s character’s quest to find a cure for the virus; The short but intense action scenes, just a terrific movie for the summer.
- MUST-HAVE, one of the year’s best movies.
Manu: DVD Video
Manu P/N: None
Disc Marking: TY-1001A / TY-1001B
DVD Copy? Yes
Audio:
- W/ English 5.1 Channel audio
Screen Aspect: Full Screen (FS)
Comments:
- 2 DVDs, 3 episodes per DVD, 6 episodes total
- Hosted by Sam Neil
- An excellent documentary that tackles issues like (among others):
> The beginning of the Universe
> How the stars & planets were formed
> How the oceans were formed
> The constant dangers that the planet faces
> How the Earth will end
> The future of mankind
> What space travel will likely be like
> The possible existence of life on other planets & moons
- Mcneil is an excellent host, & the use of CGIs to illustrate some of the places in the Universe more often than not breathtaking
- They also use the latest available knowledge about the Universe
- I feel History Channel’s “The Universe” series is better since it delves deeper into each subject in detail, but this documentary on its own is quite excellent in presenting or summarizing some of those subjects
- Am rating this as “Highly Recommended”
Manu: DVD-9
Manu P/N: NBA-588
Disc Marking: Some chinese markings plus D-9A
DVD Copy? Yes
Audio: W/ English 5.1 Channel Audio
Screen Aspect: Anamorphic Wide Screen
Comments:
- An outstanding technical copy
- The plot twists is decent enough to make this movie an effective thriller, but its best parts are definitely the action scenes. The hand to hand combat, gunfights, etc. are fast & exciting, guaranteed to keep you in the thick of the movie.
- However, there are times when the movie seems like some adolescent’s fantasy about espionage. Bourne single-handedly all the other spies on his own, travels from one country to another with impunity despite being wanted by Interpol. Its almost as if things “happen” just because he’s Jason Bourne.
- Anyway, overall, the movie is still pretty decent enough to watch, am rating this one as “Recommended”.
Manu: DVD-9
Manu P/N: NBA-634
Disc Marking: None
DVD Copy? Yes
Audio:
- W/ English 5.1 Channel audio.
Screen Aspect: Anamorphic Widescreen (AWS)
Comments:
- Terrific technical copy.
- The plot is basically ….. nonsense. Something about Serpents turning into dragons, Yu Yi Joo (Yu-Gi-Oh?), blah-blah-blah, you get the impression that the Director/Scriptwriter was shooting for something like Star Wars, combined w/ Lord of the Rings, combined w/ Godzilla. Some of the creatures even look suspiciously like taken from The Phantom Menace.
- The movies’ saving grace, though, is the spectacular effects. The creatures, choppers, tanks, etc., looked very realistic.
- The battle scenes also between the creatures, the Apache helicopters, the Abrams tanks, & between the serpents then the serpent vs. dragon looked very realistic, very intense. Really gets you into the action.
- If you like great special effects & battle scenes, then this movie is barely recommendable.
Manu: DVD-9
Manu P/N: NBA-639
Disc Marking: Some chinese markings
DVD Copy? Yes
Audio: W/ English 5.1 Channel Audio
Screen Aspect: Anamorphic Wide Screen
Comments:
- An outstanding technical copy
- The movie combines various genres, like Alien invasion, virus epidemic & zombies, but does it very well. Nicole Kidman is her usual, great self. Aside from being an eye-candy, Nicole is also one of this generation’s best actresses. She is intense, & has that gift of enabling people to easily emphatize w/ whatever character she is playing.
- Lots of thrills, twists, just an excellent movie to watch.
- I didn’t like the ending, I sort of felt should’ve ended on a darker note. That would’ve made the movie a bit more realistic.
- Despite that, still an excellent movie to watch, am rating it as MUST-HAVE.
