Reviews

When i first heard about new show called Supernatural years ago, couldn't care less was my first impression. C'mon, two pretty boys cruising around America slaying monsters and saving hot babes was something that smelled little too much like Buffy/Angel, X-Files, Smallville thingy for teenagers. Nevertheless i decided to watch first season from DVD-box that i borrowed from a friend. Must say that i wasn't sold even then, it was not half as bad as i had thought, but no way great either. Okay, first season cliffhanger was good and in to the second season i went. Then funny thing happened when i watched werewolf-episode "Heart", Sam and Dean had surprisingly evolved in to fully rounded characters, and series really got...heart. After that road so far has been intriguing.

Yeah, Padalecki and Ackles may still be mainly "hot guys" for younger crowd, but both play their characters to the hilt. Supporting cast has also been solid, with kudos to Bobby, and mythology episodes are really something else. Supernatural is one rare beast in television with ability to mix humor and tragedy in the same episodes, and Eric Kripke and writers make it look so natural that it's downright scary.

However this fifth and last season will end, in triumph or tragedy (or both), Supernatural has been great ride and lesson to me that sometimes good things in television still happen with little patience.

30's pulp heroes are great...and Shadow is possibly coolest of the whole gang. That said this movie just leaves you little bit disappointed even if cinematography is awesome and production design is top notch, there sure is Art in this Deco. Alec Baldwin is also spot on as Shadow/Lamont Cranston and even Penelope Ann Miller manages to look glamorous as hell. So what is amiss, maybe it's a total lack of mystery and adventure that this kind of romp needs. When you have an exotic villains and world shattering threats you have to crank it to the max and Russell Mulcahy just don't get the engine rolling. I do realize that Shadow ain't Indy but this still is supposed to be Pulp adventure and as such it should suck you in and offer one hell of a ride. Sadly it doesn't happen, also Peter Boyle and Ian Mckellen are wasted in their parts and usually dependable John Lone just don't project enough menace as wannabe world conqueror. If you are retrominded check it out, Cobalt Club itself is worth it, but if you are just seeking thrilling adventure this may not deliver.

Contemporary Star Trek fandom seems to treat TOS very much like that old granddaddy whose tales and demeanour are totally embarrassing, but whose existence just can't be completely ignored. Well, let the geeks rejoice of the technobabble and bland drama of the U.S.S Politically Correct, cause gramps still has enough stamina to put a flying dropkick for every pretender to the throne. Original Star Trek was groundbreaking in many ways, but it always maintained the sheer joy of it's serial predecessors. Fortunately Roddenberry had not yet started to believe in his own hype as a great bird of the galaxy, saving people from pontifications about our mysterious ascension to tea drinking aquarium owners. The casting of TOS is also something that can never be duplicated, triumvirate Kirk, Spock and McCoy was one of those lucky instances when actors truly transformed to the people they were portraying, and that's not as common as you like to think. So, if you like your space romp with slick pace minus endless conference meetings, mostly human crew with terrific sense of humour minus bunch of New Age philosophers with technobabble, occasional sip of saurian brandy and some terrific looking gals in William Ware Theiss made exotic costumes mixed with some real issues, this is the show for you. This show certainly is the best of both worlds. Ahead Warp factor one, Mr. Sulu.

Worst movie ever made? You guys haven't seen lots of movies then and comparing this one to Tora Tora Tora! is just one example of apples vs oranges argument which rarely is very productive. T3 is DOCUdrama and if you really take a good look at that one the acting is truly abysmal, especially on American side. One of my personal pet peeves against war movies of 60's and 70's is that they don't much care about costuming, 70's fashions in second world war really rubs in the eye and that throws the good IL' suspension of belief out of the window quicker than you can say terylene. Pearl Harbor is a throwback from the earlier time, war flicks of 40's and 50's, and if you really want to compare it to something, do it with those. >From here to eternity is probably the first contender, and surely it is superior to Pearl, but Bay didn't have the kind of stellar cast as Zinneman did so what can you do. Affleck ain't Burt and Hartnett sure ain't even in the same hemisphere with Clift or Sinatra. Of course us nonamericans find Bays excuse to put American flag to every fifth scene quite hilarious and dialogue is beyond corny in some instances, however PH is entertaining spectacle in it's own right AND it's not supposed to be taken as fact. Lighten up people!

Heh! Masterpiece it ain't, but it's got Mitch and Jane and in my book that's a plenty. Josef Von Sternberg was no stranger creating mysterious dreamscapes of his own making, Shanghai Express and Morocco comes to mind first and in this movie it also shows very much. Fishing nets, artfully bobbing sampans, black cats, exotic bit parts and beautiful Chinese "high-low" gamblers in slit skirts. Ahh... mysterious east it is. Unfortunately sum is not as high as parts would suggest and so this particular film leaves you wanting. Mitchum is in his usual mysterious tough guy mode and like a man said nobody does it better, Russell is little bland in the movie but very pleasing to the eye. Bendix is in fine form and it's a shame he doesn't have more screen time and Grahame is completely written down. Shameful thing it is when gals best scene is when she is blowing to the dice. Macao is not a bad movie in any way, but with better script it could have been so much more. If you want to check worthier Mitch & Jane collaboration take a look at His Kind of Woman, that film really rocks! Missed opportunity!

I'ts been ten years since Homefront aired here in the backside of Scandinavia, and coincidentally i've been kicking myself that same amount of time for not taping it when i had a chance. Fortunately someone in our notorious channel 3 got a brainstorm and now i have a second chance to appreciate one of the very best dramasoaps ever made. Period dramas are quite tricky and i'm still baffled that ABC ever showed green light to this one, and two seasons ain't bad in that context. If somebody would try to launch Homefront nowadays i wouldn't bet a nickel for it lasting even one full season, the times surely have changed that much since early 90's. Anyway, if you haven't visited River Run Ohio circa 1946, please do, you don't regret it! This series offered best production values, damn good drama and ensemble cast that was just amazing. Being male i must give special commendation for Kelly Rutherford portraying babelicious Judy Owens, that girl could compete with the original femme fatales any day. Let's hope that somebody somewhere will get another brainstorm and get this series in DVD format, like the man says in the song, gotta ac-cen-tu-ate the positive. Fore Daddy-O!

One of the most underrated comedies...ever! Followers of the mighty bearded one and critics alike have bashed this everything but the kitchen sink spectacle with fervor for quarter a century now, and in my small mind it's just coming better and better. Sure it's chaotic...that's the whole point, like always cool Robert Stack comments in the movie: This isn't state of California, this is state of insanity. What i love in this movie is the fact that it manages to salute AND take a p*** to old Hollywood with equal relish. Like a wise man said, you gotta learn to laugh to the things you love or you end up being just another fundamentalist. Of course nowadays our modern day movie mogul is much less zany being busy replacing guns to walkie-talkies that totters don't lose their sleep, must be bad influence from his infernal majesty mr. Jar-Jar Lucas. Okay, acquired taste it is but my humble opinion is that this particular bonanza will gather supporters long after "worthier" Spielvehicles are out of gas. In my money the USO dance/barroom Brawl is more exciting piece of film than dozen Hooks combined. Gotta go now! Japs are bombing San Francisco!

Hail to the DVD! And of course those chaps and chapettes who made such a bang-on job putting together this delightful package of movie history. It's not everyday that 65 years ago seems really like yesterday and that alone is worth a price of this set, but thankfully everything else is still as magnificent. Glorious technicolour, Korngold score, Curtiz making legend come alive and acting talents of Rathbone, Rains, De Havilland, Hale, Pallette...and of course mr. derring-do himself...Flynn! In these days of leatherclad Matrix wannabies sporting big guns and foul mood, the sheer joy of swash and bucklin Flynnster in green tights is proverbial breath of fresh air. This guy really was natural and i would be hard pressed to think any contemporary action man putting THAT costume with THAT attitude and not make a comedy of lowest common denominator. Whatever you may think of Errol as a person or his...extracurricular activities, the sheer presence of the man was simply awesome.

Thank you Warner for bringing the legend to the new millennium!