Twilight Saga: New Moon (2010) (2010)

WARNING: This edition DOES NOT contain all the special features available with the New Moon release. Summit did an evil, evil, manipulative thing with this DVD release and divided up the special features among multiple retailers.

On Amazon you have just the standard discs with a limited number of extras.

If you buy your version at Target, you get an extra disc with Deleted Scenes, Interview with the Volturi, Fandimonium, The Beat Goes On: The Music of Twilight, and Frame by Frame: Storyboards to Screen.

If you buy at Borders, you get extras including Extended Scenes.

And if you buy at Walmart, you get a Sneak Peek at Eclipse (which includes an Eclipse scene), Team Edward v. Team Jacob, Becoming Jacob, Introducing the Wolfpack, Jacob Fast Forward, Edward Fast Forward, and Shooting in Italy.

Summit's hoping you buy THREE copies so that you can get to see all the special features they divided up. Don't give them the satisfaction! Buy one and call it a day!

Amazon only sells the Blu-Ray 1-disc "Special Edition," with very limited special features if you want deleted scenes and more, you must buy the 2-disc "Deluxe Edition" from Target! If you're just a casual movie watcher (and this review isn't for the movie, but rather the Blu-Ray disc package) and are just interested in seeing the film, with some "making of" and music video-type extras, this edition is just fine. However, if you are (or are buying for) a more devoted Twilight fan, you will definitely want to purchase the "Deluxe Edition" with the second disc that is (to the best of my knowledge) only available at Target stores. It includes all the bonus stuff found on the Amazon version, along with these 2nd disc extras: Deleted Scenes; Introducing the Volturi Featurette; Frame by Frame: From Storyboard to Screen Featurette; Fandamonium: A Look at the Die Hard Fans; and The Beat Goes On: The Music of New Moon Featurette. The Amazon Special Edition has none of those, but costs $5 less. The "Deluxe Edition" also has a collectible film cell. I made the mistake of pre-ordering from Amazon without knowing that there would be two versions, so am forced to return mine to get the better version for the Twilight fan in my family.

Buy Twilight Saga: New Moon (2010) (2010) Now

Let me say, I LOVE the "Twilight" books. Like, REALLY LOVE them. I love to read, and I usually read the classics. I'm a Jane Austen, Elizabeth Gaskell, Bronte Sisters kind of girl. My friend insisted for two years that I should read "Twilight", but I kept thinking, "Teen vampire romance? Not my kind of book." Finally, this 29-year-old mother of three was on a flight by myself with some time to read, so I bought "Twilight". I absolutely DEVOURED it--I read one book a day until I had finished the entire saga in four days. Luckily, "Breaking Dawn" had just been released, so I didn't have to wait. The "Twilight" books are my absolute FAVORITE guilty pleasure--I love the fluff, the cheesy dialogue, the LOVE--all of it.

For me, "New Moon" really needed to redeem all that was wrong with the "Twilight" movie. After watching "Twilight" last year, I was SO disappointed. Catherine Hardwicke had just taken our beloved series and turned it into a made-for-TV movie. I laughed at all of the wrong places. How Bella and Edward fell in love was completely rushed. I could go on. Melissa Rosenberg butchered the book and everything that made me obsessed with it. Sure, "Twilight" was fun to watch because it was "Twilight", but the portrayal was so, so, so wrong on so many levels. My favorite book had been reduced to lines like "spider monkey."

WELL, "NEW MOON" JUST MADE UP FOR EVERY CATHERINE-HARDWICKE WRONG! FANS OF THE BOOK WILL ADORE THIS MOVIE. Edward actually smiles! The acting was SO much better, the visuals were stunning, and the dialogue was much, much improved over "Twilight". I honestly didn't want it to end. It stayed so true to the book we all love, and the little additions were perfect. I really felt like I was watching Bella on screen--Kristen Stewart was spot on. Every expression, every sad word was perfect. AND THEY SAID, "I LOVE YOU," something that was blaringly absent in "Twilight". Chris Weitz has made a stunning, gorgeous film that lovers of the book will adore! **I secretly wish he could remake "Twilight". This is what "Twilight" should have been!** This closet Twilighter was pleased beyond belief.

It seems like most of the critics' negative reviews have problems with the plot, the story, etc. Well, if you like the book and, therefore, like the plot and the story, you will love the film because Chris Weitz is true to the book beyond what I could have imagined or hoped for. This movie felt like it was made for the fans, so I can understand that if you're not a fan of the series how it may feel like a laboured effort to watch "New Moon". But if you love Bella and Edward **and even Jacob--Taylor Lautner was FANTASTIC in this!**, you will leave wanting more!

Chris Weitz for "Breaking Dawn"!

Read Best Reviews of Twilight Saga: New Moon (2010) (2010) Here

I wasn't expecting to like it very much but I found New Moon to be very nearly perfect, however I cannot speak to how the movie comes off to those who did not read the books. This movie is a gigantic improvement on Twilight. Thank you Chris Weitz! Can we re-do Twilight now?

This assessment includes, of course, accepting that the movie was 2 only hours long. We can argue around in circles whether the movie should have been longer, but in the standard 2 hours that it had, the movie covered everything that had to be covered. If you found yourself wanting more of a scene or an extra scene, what would you have cut to include it? I would have liked to see Edward smile more, see his sense of humor, and to have been reminded of how happy he and Bella were together up until the fateful birthday party, but alas there was no time. I will be very irritated though if we don't get a longer director's cut on the DVD.

My assessment also includes an acceptance of the source material as it is. The plot is the plot and if it's boring on screen to those who haven't read the books, I understand, but as a visual representation book, the movie was terrific. Also, as intriguing as Stephanie Meyer's characters are, there is sometimes a lack of depth to their thoughts and motivations which readers fill in for themselves. I thought that the actors did a great job filling in the details with the scenes that they were given which, in part, goes back again to the time restriction issue. Bella in the books is, to some degree, a blank canvas. While Bella describes Edward's every facial expression and tone of voice, she does not delve too deeply into herself as far as how others might see her. This is a choice that the author made and we are left with only what thoughts Bella chooses to share with us as readers (And I don't think that she shares everything with us). Kristin Stewart manages to give Bella three-dimensional life in this movie just as she did in Twilight. Kristin's Bella might not be the Bella that you have in your head but she creates a viable version of the character.

I, for one, did like the minor changes to the plot that were made. Most of them were done as necessity to summarize the plot, and I thought that they were well executed. One change in particular, however (the secret twist at the end) was a departure from the book, but I thought that it fit exactly with the direction that the story is going in. I actually thought (yes, this is blasphemy) that the end was an improvement on the book and a better set up for what is to follow in Eclipse.

Overall, the acting was much improved. Bella was still Bella, Edward was no longer shy and creepy, and our little Jacob was all grown up. Taylor L. was wonderful and captured Jacob's transition from a happy boy to an intense werewolf very convincingly. I was looking carefully for over acting from the three main leads but I didn't find any. At least nothing that was outside of the over sappiness of the books themselves. I actually found the blush worthy things that Edward says more palatable coming out of Rob's lips than I had when I had read them to myself. Here again is an actor breathing life in to a character and making those corny lines sound believable.

The supporting high school cast was still a bit silly but I think that the movie was playing to the younger crowd with them. There were things to laugh at but most were intentional and the book had it funny moments as well. However, the little house on the prairie scene (Alice's vision) should have been re-thought. That was painful and it didn't convey what it was supposed to convey anyway unless you happened to notice Bella's newly golden eyes.

Aro and Jane were great and Felix gets a bit more action than in the book, but overall the Volturi were not well-developed. The Cullens were barely seen and I didn't like Jasper's new hairdo but the story's not about them anyway.

I didn't like how the soundtrack was used in the movie except for a few songs that were well placed, like Possibility. Most of the others were fuzzy background pieces. And as a HUGE fan of DCFC and was very unhappy that their wonderful song was relegated to the second song over the credits. In my mind this song needs to be played dramatically as Bella runs wildly through the woods after Edward: EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING ENDS (Sing it with me folks).

The visual effects were great, not revolutionary but believable and that's fine by me. My only requirement was that the effects did not distract from the movie as they did in Twilight. This is not an action film.

So, in my opinion, the movie was well worth seeing.

Want Twilight Saga: New Moon (2010) (2010) Discount?

So personally I'm a fan of the Twilight books, and while this film is much better than Twilight (not that this is saying much), it still waters the novel down to the point where it's rendered a shadow of its "paper and ink self." I actually feel kind of sorry for Bella-the-book-character because her depression is portrayed as solely the result of getting dumped and, as several reviewers have already noted, is doused with all these teen angst themes when in the novel it's much more complex. She's a young girl who's always related poorly to most people, and Edward and his family are among the very few whom she feels on the same wavelength with; they've essentially become her family and she's already made the choice to become one of their kind one day, and when he leaves her she loses all of that and to her mind, it really is "like she had died." To me that makes her emotional state understandable within the context of her one-track mind and marked lack of cynicism, but of course all that gets glossed over in the film and it's just this blank character with no ambition other than to be with Edward in some way. What's more, Kristen Stewart's empty expressions through it all made me gag, but at least they were somewhat better there than in Twilight.

Still, I thought Taylor Lautner did very well in both films, especially for his age, and all of the actors playing the Quileutes more than made up for Bella's lack of acting skills. However Michael Sheen took the cake with Aro: he portrays the creepily manic, greedy, utter-know-it-all of the books to a "T" and for me his hysterical laugh when Jane failed to torture Bella with her mind was the best part of the whole movie. It has its good bits and its decent bits, but the script is crap and sounds even crappier to viewers unfamiliar with the novel, since for most of the cast the most clumsily delivered lines come straight out of it.

All in all, the film is an okay rendition of the book, but far too manipulated to suit the commercial preferences of ninth-grade girls to appeal to much of an adult audience outside the Twilight fanbase.

Harry Potter Double Feature: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban/Harry Potter and the Goblet o

I did not intend to upgrade my Harry Potter collection from DVD to Blu-ray until this "Double Header" collection came along. This is such a great bargain; why do they even still offer the films separately? These editions contain all the special features found on the two DVD editions.

I'm sure you're familiar with the films themselves, but if not: Prisoner of Azkaban is my personal favorite. Werewolves, time-travel, shape-shifters, wrongfully imprisoned convict escapes ... what else could you ask for? This duo of films marks the transition within the Harry Potter series from children's stories to something more sinister.

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In Too Deep (2012)

Great performance by LL Cool J and Omar Epps. Epps is a undercover trying to bring down a notorious gangster LL who find's himself getting in too deep he forget's who he is. You have some good actor's in this film Nina Long ,Pam Grier ,and apperiences by ,Nas ,Shyhiem ,and Jermanie Dupri. This film is worth getting and for LL fans you get to see a thug side of him.

I am an 18 year old white male from a high-class family.. I loved this movie.. The performance of Omar and ll cool j is just amazing.. i would recommend this movie to anyone who likes suspense movies and doesnt mind a movie about black suburbia

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This is a great movie with a cast of great actors. Omar Epps plays Jeff Cole a rookie detective that goes undercover as J.Reid to capture the infamous drug pusher 'God' played by LL Cool J. As Jeff plays the role he starts to really become J. Reid, his boss notices that he is in too deep and pulls him from the case and sends him away until things cools out. Thats where he meets and falls in love with Myra played by Nia Long. He eventually get put back on the case and proceeds to become J.Reid. Because god's main man crossed him J.Reid becomes his main man and god trust him with everything which brings about his down fall. Omar Epps was so convensing in this movie that I thought he wasn't going to turn him over, but in the end he remember who he is and does. Just all around great

Read Best Reviews of In Too Deep (2012) Here

This film was DEEP. I have not seen it in a while, but plan to see it again. This movie is when I realized LL Cool J would not be a rapper turned actor that would end up in actors oblivion. This man had me HATING him, and I love me some Cool J. Omar Epps plays a cop who goes undercover, and has to gain the trust of a big drug lord (LL Cool J). The movie kind of reminded me of Deep Cover a little. It had that element of is he still a cop or is he a thug now element. The film is not great, but good enough to keep you interested.

Want In Too Deep (2012) Discount?

In Too Deep is a movie about a police officer who goes under cover to bust a Drug Lord. What you get in this movie are 2 strong performances by Omar Epps and LL Cool J (who is quickly showing that his greater talent lies in acting). I would recommend renting this before a purchase but this is a good movie.

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Kon-Tiki (2012)

A Norwegian-filmed dramatization of Thor Heyerdahl's legendary expedition across the Pacific Ocean on a flimsy wooden raft. Lovingly constructed and beautifully filmed with a sharp eye for the grandiose, it's eye candy on the same level as Planet Earth, if to a slightly more reasonable scale. The plot is a gentle balance between nature-watching and temper-managing, as the crew of six men and a parrot get to know a bit too much about one another over the course of their hundred-day adventure. Several of the journey's more dramatic moments feel manufactured (and, upon review, actually are) but I'd hardly call that unexpected and it may have been necessary to give the story a bit of punch. After all, where's the excitement in watching two hours of smooth sailing against a tropical horizon? It's an uplifting tale, if not an especially challenging one, and excellent fuel for escapist daydreams. Definitely worth catching on Blu-Ray if you're as big on our planet's sights and sounds as I am.

I just saw the latest Kon Tiki film that debuted in 2012

at the Nashville Film Festival. It was an inspiring film

that brought out raw emotion for the six men that made the

101 day journey together. Thor was a calm leader that kept

his wits about him even under the toughest of conditions.

And it was incredible that he could not swim! I am not sure

if all of the facts are true in this film, but it was

extremely well done. The actors are fantastic and engaging.

Truly one of our modern day adventurers, Thor Heyedahl had

a vision that he shared with the world. This is a must see

movie. Even if you doubt his theory that South Americans

crossed the Pacific to land in Polynesia, the story is one

that you will enjoy and keep you on the edge of your seat!

Buy Kon-Tiki (2012) Now

Neither the book, nor the amateur first film mentions it much, and this new film only briefly touches on it, but several of the Kon-Tiki crew were heroes of the first order, not even counting this marvelous expedition. Knut Haugland (the "radio operator") was one of Norway's greatest WWII heroes, leading the fight against the Nazi's and also sabotaging their early work with Atomic energy. Knut was given a number of Knighthoods and orders. They don;t make men liek this anymore. Torstein Raaby (the other radio guy) helped sink the Tirpitz and was a noted arctic explorer.

Now, the original film is a fantastic feat and won the Academy Award for best Documentary in 1951. Well deserved. But it's all in hand-held B&W, rather grainy.

However, this new film is in glorious color, and the blue of the sea has to be seen and appreciated. This new film has fantastic cinematography , and the actors are (more or less) dead ringers for the real crew members. Using all local actors the Norwegians left a great deal of verisimilitude to this breathtakingly beautiful film. It was also nominated for a Oscar.

Even tho the dangers here are mostly staged, rather than real, the film was shot on the open ocean, and it shows.

Just beautiful.

Read Best Reviews of Kon-Tiki (2012) Here

Just got back from seeing this movie at the movie house. It's showing hardly anywhere; only two theaters in the New York area, presumably because although I saw the English version of the movie, it still counts as a 'foreign film'. So I'm glad it's also available on DVD for those of you who are interested and unable to find a showing. I went with my dad, and we both LOVED (loved, loved, LOVED) it. Although we all know the outcome, it nevertheless kept us on the edge of our seats. The performances were terrific (esp. from the guy with the weird name who plays Thor Heyerdahl), the cinematography was sumptuous, and it is hard not to feel terribly emotional at the end when Thor falls to his knees in the sand of a Polynesian island and realized that he has proven his theory (and that's not a 'spoiler', surely??? I mean, EVERYONE knows what Thor Heyerdahl did!)

I highly recommend this movie to anyone who is a secret adventurer at heart.

Want Kon-Tiki (2012) Discount?

The Andean story of how the world was created by a tall white, blue eyed man with long blond-reddish hair and beard who arose from Lake Titicaca in Bolivia has been passed down by word of mouth through generations of South American Indians. Known to the Aymaras as Viracocha (he was also called Kon-Tiki), Quetzalcoatl (by Aztecs), and Kukulkan (by Mayans), the story is similar to Biblical accounts of the creation of a race of giants who ruled the Earth but who displeased God and were destroyed by a flood. Unlike the God of Israel, however, Viracocha is said to have disappeared across the Pacific Ocean by walking on the water.

Norwegian Zoologist and explorer Thor Heyerdahl believed that Viracocha, rather than walking on the water, left Peru on a raft and floated with the current to Polynesia, a feat he wished to duplicate. (He did not consider the possibility of Viracocha's connection with the very ancient, advanced technological cultures of Tiahuanaco, Puma Punka, and Chavin de Huantar). Heyerdahl's accounts of how he and five other men built a balsa-wood raft which he named "Kon-Tiki" and sailed to the Tuamotu Archipelago in the South Seas is dramatized in Norwegian directors, Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg's Kon-Tiki, one of five nominated films in the Best Foreign Language Film category at this years' Oscars.

The film was shot in two versions, one in Norwegian and the other in English (the one I saw), presumably to appeal to a broader audience. Engagingly portrayed by Pal Sverre Hagen, Heyerdahl is first seen living with his wife Liv (Agnes Kittelsen) on the Polynesian island of Fatu Huku, where he resided for a year. After listening to native accounts, Heyerdahl began to develop the idea that Polynesians originally arrived from the Americas, not from Asia. Opting for adventure rather than character development, the film shows the courage (some call it being foolhardy, or even a death-wish) of the crew that consisted of three fellow Norwegians, as well as Swedish cameraman (Gustaf Skarsgard) and refrigerator salesman Herman Watzinger (Anders Baasmo Christiansen) as his engineer as they traveled 4,300 nautical miles across the Paciifc, isolated and alone for 101 days.

The film pays little attention to the day-to-day routine aboard the raft but concentrates on the thrill of the struggle against sharks, the fierce storms, conflict among the crew (contrary to Heyerdahl's own account), and the immediate danger of their raft collapsing. The photography, done without CGI effects such as in Life of Pi, is striking and beautiful, yet Kon-Tiki is mostly a formulaic adventure story that mimics the superficial triumphalism of Hollywood without capturing the deeper spirit of the journey. Heyerdahl's character is hardly explored and, while his subsequent travel to Easter Island is noted, there is no mention of his later advocacy of environmental issues and world peace.

While most scientists still oppose Heyerdahl's ideas and can show strong DNA evidence linking Polynesians to Asians, there are also anomalies that point in a different direction. For example, researcher David Pratt tells us that there are various genetic and cultural similarities between the Polynesians and the Tlingit, Kwakuitl and Haida Indians of Alaska and Canada something not readily explained by any mainstream theories. In addition, there is the famous Kon-Tiki statue in the sunken Gardens in Tiahuanaco showing a man with a thick beard and mustache (South American Indians are beardless and do not shave).

One of the features of this and other statues in the area is the positioning of the hands, one over the heart and the other over the stomach, the same feature seen on Polynesian statues and gold medallions. Whatever the truth, there is no doubt that Thor Heyerdahl, through his willingness to take risks, brought the topic of seafaring, communication, and migration in the ancient world to people's attention, and deserves the appreciation he receives in the film. If Kon-Tiki can renew interest in man's pre-history, it will have served a very valuable purpose.

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Attack Of La Nina Blu-Ray Version (2012)

Great footage and excellent sound track. A real crowd pleaser, I show it over and over. Top shelf in my collection.

it's entertaining, has good music and great stunts. It's a natural ski cabin movie for the entire group to enjoy!!

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This dvd blew me away! The pillows were just insane. This is my favorite ski dvd in my colection now.

Read Best Reviews of Attack Of La Nina Blu-Ray Version (2012) Here

Really good segments. Soundtrack was okay. Venues were great. Good humor. Great hucks. Classic ski porn. Sean Petit is awesome. Hoji my favorite. Would like to see Ingrid naked:-)

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It is am amazing movie!!! If you like skiing, you will enjoy it!!! Outstanding skiers and outstanding movie-makers! I love it!

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Friday (Director's Cut) (2009)

this movie had what the sequels missed out on, smokey. he pretty much made the first movie. such memorable lines in this movie at such quantities, it's hard not to like it. "how do you get fired on your day off?" "what you stealin boxes for, you tryin to build a clubhouse?" i have seen this movie at least 100 times and still never grow tired of it. whenever i can't think of anything else to watch, friday creeps up and inserts itself into the dvd player. great great movie.

of course deebo was a great villian. there is allways that big @ss thug that wants to prove that noone can step up to him. what a better person to play that role then tom 'tiny' lister jr. maybe that guy from the green mile. chris tucker was absolutely amazing as a pothead. i don't think anyone could have pulled that role off better then him. ice cube did a great job as craig and i don't know who played as mrs. parker, but she did a good job too. then you have the corrupt preacher played by bernie mac. hillarious movie from beginning to end especially when they did the flashback scenes with smokey taking a hit of angel dust and finding himself in deebos chicken coop.

this movie had one of the best soundtracks ever put together. everything from ice cube and cypress hill to rick james and 2 live crew. best placement in the movie for the soundtrack had to be when craigs girlfriend got out of the car all pissed off and hoochie mamma was playing in the background. the best hood classic ever.

This is THE funniest comedy I have ever seen. I agree with another reviewer: I can watch this movie a million times and never tire of it. It gets funnier and funnier each time.

Tucker stole the show as Smokey, who sells pot but who also smokes it and it's that love that causes him trouble in the middle of the film. But it's his lines and his mannerisms as Smokey that make him hilarious.

One of my favorite parts is where Rita pulls up to meet Smokey for a blind date. Rita, who said she looked like Janet Jackson but weighed a good 250 pounds says lustfully, "Ooo, what's up?" The expression on Tucker's face made me cry, I was laughing so hard: It immediately dropped as he gets an eyeful of her and says, "Not a damn thing!"

The movie is chock full of goodies. The delivery of the script is what makes this movie and everyone was cast perfectly for their parts.

Sequels were unnecessary because this stands out by itself.

Buy Friday (Director's Cut) (2009) Now

Needless to say this movie is a classic!!! I saw the movie was released on Bluray and bought it spontaneously. The transfer isn't as good as I hoped and I barely consider it an upgrade from the DVD. If you already own the DVD, then I'd recommend just saving your money.

Read Best Reviews of Friday (Director's Cut) (2009) Here

This is an amazing movie but the director's cut on blu-ray sucks!! they just ad some lines that kill the jokes! i remember this movie word for word! but the director EFFED UP!!!! WITH THIS VERSION!!!! DEFINITELY BUYING REGULAR DVD VERSION AND THROWING THIS BLU RAY AWAY!!!!

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The original Friday is a classic. The extra footage and material still bring new laughs to this viewer. Wish they would have added a copy of the original theatre release as well.

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The Pirates! Band of Misfits (Three-Disc Combo: Blu-ray 3D / Blu-ray / DVD) (2012)

The book is great. The movie is great. That doesn't usually happen. I guess it is because Gideon Defoe, the author of the book, also wrote the screenplay for the movie, intending one not to be a "spoiler" for the other. The movie was definitely more of a kids' movie, where the pirates were the ragtag underdogs struggling to keep up in the increasingly competitive pirate world (you are judged for your "booty"--double entendre?). The book has different characters and a completely different villain! That is how much the stories differed. The book also contains more grown-up humour more people being run-through by swords, more blood, more walking the plank, more steely pirate bad-assedness. Queen Victoria is one crazy woman in this movie, enough to get PETA up-in-arms for ages. The other pirates the Pirate Captain competes against for the Pirate of the Year Award (Salma Hayek, Jeremy Piven) are swashbuckling good fun, even if they are more than a little rude toward the beloved Hugh Grant's character. Also, Hugh Grant gives a surprisingly different performance than the one he's known for in his rom-coms; his pitch is deep and fierce and his performance is touchingly funny without any over-saturated fluff. Gideon Defoe is spot on for creating a movie that is appropriate for the kiddies and a book that has humour for the older kids. See the movie because Aardman's stuff is always funny, but definitely read the book to get the original story.

After years of disappointment the Pirate Captain (Hugh Grant) resolves to finally win the Pirate of the Year competition and so embarks on a series of raids on passing ships in the hope of earning sufficient booty to compete with the his rivals Cutlass Liz (Salma Hayek) and Black Belamy (Jeremy Piven). However he is still plagued by bad luck with the best produced by a succession of raids being the capture of Charles Darwin (David Tennant). Still at least Darwin is able to identify that Pirate Captain's beloved parrot Polly is in fact a dodo, supposedly extinct for over a hundred years. This gives them both an idea...!

Pirates! is a gloriously hilarious, exquisitely produced movie. Its very much a children's movie but with plenty of sly asides to keep adults on their toes as well. The sets are stupendous and almost beg a second viewing in themselves to allow the viewer to try to aborb all the teeming detail. Both the voice performances of the cast, and the painstaking detail of the stop-motion animation are flawless.

I thought it as close to perfect a piece of film-making as I have seen in many years and I hope for more adventures of the Pirate Captain and his crew in the not to distant future.

Buy The Pirates! Band of Misfits (Three-Disc Combo: Blu-ray 3D / Blu-ray / DVD) (2012) Now

The Pirate Captain yearns to win the Pirate of the Year award. Not if Peg-Leg Hastings, Cutlass Liz, or Black Bellamy can help it. The Captain's adventures cross paths with a geeky Charles Darwin, who observes that his parrot Polly is actually a dodo. So it's on to London for a science competition, only it turns out that Darwin isn't the only one after Polly. I love stop animation, and it's beautifully done here. The movie is ok enough, but it's not exactly Pixar magic. Cool soundtrack, with the notable exception of Supergrass. Screw them.

Read Best Reviews of The Pirates! Band of Misfits (Three-Disc Combo: Blu-ray 3D / Blu-ray / DVD) (2012) Here

I'm really picky about kids' movies. If my daughter enjoys it, fine, but she isn't what you might call discerning. This is one of the few that I actually enjoyed watching with her. Sharp humor, clever writing and fantastic to look at. It even has David Tennant! What else could you want?

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Pirates have become cool again with the trilogy of films made by Johnny Depp but those films might be just a tad too intense for the youngest of children. With that in mind the folks at Aardman studios, the stop motion group responsible for Wallace and Gromitt among other things, have come up with some pirates of their own. They've just been unleashed with this film.

The story follows a group of pirates that aren't quite up to snuff in the pirate hierarchy. Sure they have the peg legs and eye patches, but this ragtag group just doesn't seem to pillage near as much as most. They're led by the Pirate Captain who does his best to keep his crew happy and content (hey, don't forget ham night!). But Pirate Captain has dreams of his own, of becoming the Pirate of the Year.

The only problem is the amount of pirating he and his crew does. With Cutlass Liz and Black Bellamy always bringing in more booty they win the competition every year. Rather than allow him the chance to do better, the group always ridicules him as well.

That could all change when Captain Pirate and his crew board a boat stocked with all sorts of stuffed animals and body parts. The boat belongs to Charles Darwin who's been seeking a special scientific discovery so that he can become the Scientist of the Year award back in London. He too has had a tuff time but when he sees Captain Pirate's parrot he recognizes it is not a parrot at all but the extinct dodo bird. Darwin convinces Captain Pirate to take him to London along with the bird where they will win all sorts of treasures for their discovery.

Even though the queen has placed a bounty on the heads of every pirate to sail the seven seas the group heads for London. Once there Darwin attempts to steal the bird from Captain Pirate to claim the award for himself. He fails and Captain Pirate wins the award, stunned to find that it isn't booty at all but an award along with the chance for time with, of all people, the Queen! Darwin failed to mention the reward would be time spent with the woman of his dreams.

The Queen also wants possession of the dodo bird for her private zoo but Captain Pirate doesn't give in easily. After discovering he is a pirate and nearly decapitating him, she stops and pardons him in the hopes he will turn over the bird. When she offers treasure as well, Captain Pirate sees the chance to return to Blood Island with more booty than anyone has ever claimed and win the prized Pirate of the Year award. But all doesn't go as planned, something that always seems the case with this group.

The story may seem pretty well straight forward but in truth there is more beneath the obvious here. It's not just about Captain Pirate winning the award and gaining some self esteem. Instead the story is more about discovering who you really are and what is really important in life. For Captain Pirate that boils down to winning the award he's cherished for so long or remaining true to both Polly (the dodo bird) and his crew.

As with all Aardman Studio films this one is chock full of sight gags that run from beginning to end. Each one may be a small portion of the film seen but they all will garner laughs from adults as well as children. They do a nice combination of jokes that older viewers will get but won't offend the young crowd.

The stop motion animation is as always amazing. In a world where computer animation seems to have taken over, it's nice to see someone using this technique and not allowing it to fade away. Somehow just watching it makes you realize how creative and artistic it is in comparison.

The final word about this film though is that it is truly entertaining. It's a movie that both young and old will enjoy and have fun with. Topping that off is the fact that it offers something that youngsters will not realize they are getting and that is a set of morals to accompany the tale. They'll learn that wanting something and doing anything for it at the sake of losing everything that is truly important isn't quite worth it. And for a movie to entertain and get that point across is truly an amazing feat. So hoist the rigging and set sale for the high seas with this film that the whole family can enjoy.

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Brothers (2008)

This ensemble cast delivered the goods and nailed each of their performances.

Tobey and Jake are very believable as brothers and Natalie was the true heart of this story as her beloved husband played by Tobey goes to a very dark place as a result of his experience in the war. All of the cast members were strong and made you really care about what happened to them.

I felt their happiness,pain and sadness.

Jim Sheridan the director is true to his style and storytelling theme about war and its effects on a marriage,family and forgiveness.

There was one scene with he and Natalie that reduced me to tears and that is not an easy thing to do, thus the five star rating which is well earned and deserved!

I am currently deployed in Iraq, first duty and hopefully my last. My significant other came back home from Iraq and totally cam back as a different person. This movie is as real as it gets. Highly recommanded. A truly magificant movie. Oscar winners in my book especially Toby. Left me speechless, he was right on the money.

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I loved this movie. It instantly became one of my top 5 ever. Some of the films most intense moments are some of the most intense I've ever seen. Tobey Maguire deserves an oscar for this. Some critics have been saying that this movie is more of a melodrama than the original, but I would greatly disagreee. Great acting from all involved (including the dad) and terrific writing. After I saw it, I couldn't stop thinking about it the rest of the week. Highly recommended.

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This is one of those times that I wish Amazon let us use half stars as I think this is more 3.5 stars than 4 full ones. I have not seen the Danish film and now I wish I had. This is because I just read here that in the Danish movie, the wife does start an affair with her brother-in-law. This film lost a lot of its punch when the director shied away from letting that happen in the American remake. As a result, it's as if someone punctured the air out of the movie past the halfway point. This should be a very taut, sharp drama throughout , which I suspect he Danish one is. The American one simply cannot sustain the same tension when the guts were removed from the script. The actors are very good, both the brothers and the wife. I think they make the best of what they've got. So the problem must be that director Jim Sheridan was worried about losing audience if he kept the film as stark as the Danish version (that a film is Scandinavian and stark borders on redundancy). This almost always happens in American remakes. We seem to do better when we use our own original source material.

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BROTHERS

STARRING: Tobey Maguire, Natalie Portman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Sam Shepard, Bailee Madison, Taylor Geare, Patrick Flueger, Clifton Collins Jr., Ethan Suplee and Mare Winningham

WRITTEN BY: David Benioff; based on the screenplay Bodre by Susanne Bier and Anders Thomas Jensen

DIRECTED BY: Jim Sheridan

Rated: R

Genre: Drama

Release Date: 04 December 2009

I have always wondered if maybe Tobey Maguire had a dark side to him, buried away, deep behind that charming Peter Parker smile. Now that I have seen his disturbing performance in Brothers; I know that he does.

He plays Capt. Sam Hill of the U.S. Marine Corps and he does it miraculously. At first everything seems to be ok with Sam. He has a wonderful wife and two beautiful kids; a strong relationship with his father and he loves and defends his brother. However, all of that is about to change.

We learn early on in the film that he is to be shipped off to Afghanistan. He is proud to be a Marine and is equally proud to go.

Just days before he leaves, his brother Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal) is released from prison. We don't know why, but Sam's wife Grace (Natalie Portman) isn't very fond of him.

Their father Hank (Sam Shepard) agrees with Grace entirely. In his eyes, the two brothers are worlds apart. Sam is the saint and Tommy is the family screw-up. Having been a Marine himself, Hank respects Sam and constantly puts Tommy down for not being more like his brother. There are some very well acted scenes between the three of these Hollywood greats; particularly the first dinner scene when Tommy is released from prison.

It's not a hard sell at all to buy Gyllenhaal and Maguire as brothers. Several people over the years have commented on their similar looks; they have been mistaken for one-another; and at one point Gyllenhaal was rumored to be relieving Maguire in the Spider-Man franchise. Their on-screen chemistry is more than believable, so fans will enjoy their scenes together, as did I.

The plot thickens when Sam's chopper goes down and he and his crew are believed to be dead. We know from the trailers, the opening credits saying Tobey Maguire's name first and just common movie-goer knowledge, that he is not dead. If you haven't seen the trailers, relax; it's revealed to us right away that he is alive.

Himself and another soldier have in fact been captured by the Taliban and are brought to a secret hideout in the Afghan Mountains. Having done a tour of duty there myself, I can tell you that wherever they filmed this sequence is very close to the real deal.

Sam is an officer and his counterpart is an enlisted Private. He constantly reminds him of their differences in rank throughout all of their scenes together.

I found this annoying as I don't think that nine out of 10 soldiers would be that over-zealous about their rank in a situation like this, but there is always that one guy. And it does serve a purpose as Sam is very good at reading people and can see that this particular soldier is weak and will most likely not be able to handle whatever sadistic torture their captors have in store for them.

I found the scenes in Afghanistan to be the most entertaining portion of the film and there are several of them. Tobey Maguire does an amazing job in these scenes and will show you dimensions of himself that you have never seen before. He is driven to do things that a lot of people may say they would never do in that situation; but I don't think any of us ever really know what we are or aren't capable of until we are put into a certain situation. This film will really make you ask yourself what you would do if you were in Sam's shoes.

I'm displeased to report that the rest of the film was a letdown. The only positive thing I really took from the rest of it, were the amazing performances of all the actors. There wasn't a single person in this film that didn't bring every bit of what they had to offer to each and every scene. Even small characters were casted well and delivered excellent performances. I don't know how they got Clifton Collins Jr. to do the two or three tiny scenes that he was in; but they did and he brought an impressive performance with him.

Natalie Portman is as amazing as ever. She plays Grace so effortlessly and has great chemistry with the actors playing her family. In the scene where she receives the news of her husband's death, she goes from smiling to an absolute wreck without so much as a second going by.

I feel Jake Gyllenhaal was cheated out of some screen time in the film. You never really got to know his character as well as you should have. Regardless of this, he still does a knock-out job with it anyway.

The same goes for Sam Shepard. I felt like this character should have had either a bigger part in the story or a smaller one. With an actor like Sam Shepard, the answer better be bigger. We get absolutely no closure from his character's issues in the film.

Scenes seem poorly edited and at times, too glamorized for this film. I feel like a lot of them were too bright and didn't fit well with the dark tones of the film as a whole.

The most disappointing piece of the film was the romance between Tommy and Grace. I kept waiting for there to be this moment where they fall in love for each other and have a secret affair; but it never happens. They have one intimate moment where they share a kiss and both of them seem to regret it instantly and it is never brought up again; because right after it they discover Sam is still alive.

I was expecting this huge love triangle to unfold. I think that based on the trailer and the poster alone, most would agree with me in thinking this is what was going to happen. There was opportunity after opportunity for there to be moments between them. Then when the romance never comes you are left wondering `what was the point of those scenes then?' Take the scene where she leaves in the middle of the night to go and pick Tommy up from the bar; or the idea of him offering to rebuild her kitchen for her. These are classic set-up scenes for a romance to ensue, and there is nothing!

I get the feeling that the filmmakers' intentions were not to have the over-done love triangle, and instead let it all be in Sam's head. For some, this may be a pleasant aspect of the film. I can even appreciate the originality in that; it's just that I kept expecting these other things to happen and when they didn't, I was disappointed.

I thought there would be hot and forbidden sex scenes; followed by the heart-throbbing suspense of them trying to cover it up, as they realize they are still in love even after Sam is back in the picture.

What we get instead is Sam returning and being wacked out of his frigging mind from the trauma he experienced over there. He is deathly thin and this adds a great deal to him being creepy. His children are afraid of him and his wife looks at him as if he is another man altogether.

Rather than the suspense, we just get what I would call annoying drama. Sam flat out confronts Tommy about sleeping with his wife, and Tommy never once denies having done so. Well no wonder the poor guy continues to think that something is going on!

As if that wasn't bad enough, one of Sam's daughters is so distraught that her daddy isn't the same anymore, she screams at him and tells him that her mother and Tommy have sex all the time. She yells this in front of everyone at the dinner table, and neither Grace nor Tommy says anything to comfort Sam by assuring him, this is untrue. Had it happened, this would have been a little bit more tolerable; but it didn't! Nothing happened! So why wouldn't either of them say something to deny it?

As far as I'm concerned, there was no justification for the daughter to act that way in the first place. There wasn't enough suspense of her daddy being frightening and different that would have caused her to do this. It seemed like two or three scenes between the two of them had been deleted and made it play-out wrong.

It's not a bad movie; just not what I had anticipated and looked forward to it being, nor is it what it could have easily been. I'm sure a lot of people will still enjoy it. In the meantime, to hold me over until another film delivers hot steamy romance mixed with suspense and a classic love triangle; I suppose I can watch Pearl Harbor again.

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Beautiful Boy (2010)

I must admit that the premise of this film did not excite me terribly at first glance, since I've seen too many made-for-TV movies filled with overly sentimental music and tear-jerking dramatics. Viewing the film, however, was both refreshing and dramatically satisfying.

Bill and Kate are the middle-class parents of college junior Sammy, a young man who has always been quiet and something of a loner. There is a tension beneath their marriage which is not readily apparent to anyone, not even to them. One night their son calls and sounds unusually quiet. The viewer is easily able to spot the sadness and confusion in his face, but Bill and Kate notice nothing over the phone, chatting only about planning the family vacation.

The next morning brings the news that a student has shot dozens of fellow students at Sammy's college. There is a lockdown and no information is coming out of the school. Worried as they are, Bill and Kate convince themselves that Sammy is fine he rarely answers his cell phone anyway, Kate muses until the moment when two detectives appear at their door. Kate screams, "He's dead, isn't he?" and their worst fears are confirmed. But then comes the unthinkable, "There's more" says the Detective, as he informs them that Sammy is the perpetrator who shot himself in the head after murdering so many of his fellow students. "LIAR!" shrieks Kate, "LIAR!" she repeats, as she collapses in disbelief.

They both take to bed, Bill in their room and Kate sprawled across Sammy's in his attic bedroom. After a short while, the reporters appear at their door and the television is endlessly showing Sammy's photo and a seemingly psychopathic video he made shortly before his rampage. Bill and Kate flee to Kate's brother's home, while they try to come to terms with Sammy's inexplicable killing spree.

The first thing that impressed me about this film was the superb acting. Michael Sheen ("David Frost" in FROST NIXON; "Tony Blair" in THE QUEEN) is nothing short of brilliant as the confused and grieving Bill. He's a good man, a good husband and a good father, but the events that unfold make him question if the tragedy could somehow be their fault. Maria Bello (THANK YOU FOR SMOKING) is extremely effective as Kate, believably and quietly wringing all the emotion one could expect out of the situation. But even more than their amazing performances, the tight script, effectively dramatic without any pathos or phony emotion, is as believable as one could want and plunges the viewer directly into the experience of the two shocked parents, as they deal with horribly cruel and judgmental comments on Sammy's Facebook page, childish, sadistic graffiti spray-painted on his tombstone, endless talk-show hosts who condemn them as parents without ever meeting them, and thrill-seeking teens who break into their home to "investigate" all they can about the "Psycho murderer." How many times have we seen headlines like this and thought, "It's the parents fault" without giving any real consideration to who the parents really are and how confused and saddened they must be to lose a child?

Equally impressive is the first-rate direction by Shawn Ku, who restrains the dramatics to the point of sheer plausibility and whose indulgence in hand-held cameras is neither excessive nor obtrusive. The best thing about it, it bears repeating, is the absence of maudlin emotions and tear-wrenching, sappy speeches or music. The scenes are all well thought out, extremely credible and ultimately satisfying. For a while, I thought they had stopped making films like this. The pedestrian premise initially prompted me to give it just four stars, but in the end I was so satisfied by this marvelously well-done, old-fashioned drama that I can't see how it deserves less than five.

Highly recommended.

I'll get this out of the way.

Brilliant acting.

Amazing direction.

Pacing, score, pretty much everything was brilliant.

Definitely worth a watch.

Here's why...

The movie is about your average married couple who's college age kid snaps and goes on a school shooting rampage before taking his own life.

My memories of Columbine and the other various school shootings over the years are still very fresh in my mind.

The one thing that I always wondered was how the families related to the shooters dealt with what had happened.

I think this movie does an excellent job of showing what these families go through.

When Columbine happened, I like many was the first to point my finger at the parents.

But what I've noticed about a lot of these shooters is that they're almost always late teens to early twenties. That's usually right when schizophrenia symptoms start to manifest in young men.

So no, in a lot of cases I think the parents raise the kids just fine and are just as baffled by what happened as everyone else.

I know it's of little comfort to the victims families but all too often the warning signs of mental illness go unnoticed.

The only thing we can really learn from tragedies like this are to better recognize the symptoms as well as finding better ways to treat people who are mentally ill before things escalate to such violence.

This was a very difficult movie for me to make it through.

If you cry easily, you better have tissue near by.

I did.

A powerful and disturbing movie that I'm glad I saw.

I probably won't ever watch it again it was too depressing.

It definitely left a mark on me.

Very sad.

As I said before I, like many pointed my finger of judgement at the parents.

That wasn't fair of me or anyone else to do.

Sometimes there are answers.

Sometimes there aren't.

Sometimes the answers, like mental illness only become apparent after the fact.

This movie made me think.

It made me cry.

It makes me hope that we find better ways of helping people around us who are in need of it.

An amazing and powerful movie.

Recommended.

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The struggling married couple at the heart of "Beautiful Boy" have their lives altered by the most horrific nightmare imaginable involving their son. It is timely and excruciatingly unpleasant, the central tragedy should resonate with anyone concerned about alienation and random violence in the world today. To the movie's advantage, the DVD cover and promotional material has the common sense to NOT reveal the specifics of this incident. For the movie to achieve its maximum power, it is best to allow the content to be unveiled to the viewer as it unfolds to the parents. However, this subtle tactic is undermined by almost every review available on Amazon (including Amazon's own editorial DVD description). It's an unfortunate miscalculation, in my estimation, as it eliminates much tension from the film's earlier scenes and detracts from one of the year's most harrowing moments. Writer/director Shawn Ku takes universal tragedy and shifts the focus in an unexpected and very personal way. By doing so, he has given Michael Sheen and Maria Bello two of the most underrated roles (and performances) of the year.

Sheen and Bello play an affluent, yet struggling, couple on the brink of divorce. As they are making important decisions about their lives together, some crushing news about their college-age son smashes their existence. Suddenly, they are at the center of a public maelstrom. Everything they thought they knew has been stripped away and they are left with nothing but each other. Trying to make sense of what happened and simultaneously trying to move past it, the couple attempt to navigate a powder keg of emotions. And the story is very much about Bello and Sheen and how they cope. Will this incident pull them back together or destroy them forever. Part of the nuance of Ku's screenplay is that it allows that they are each their own person, and their reaction to the event and its aftermath is very separate (even as they are forever intertwined). Filled with regret, recriminations, and humiliation--is it possible to move on? And where does ultimate responsibility lay when unimaginable things occur?

"Beautiful Boy" is a smart and sophisticated piece of work. Despite the opportunity for emotional grandstanding, Bello and Sheen remain remarkably grounded and utterly real. At times, you might wish the movie offered more insight into just who their son is. He is never developed (as a conscious decision), but the enigma of his character lingers all over the movie. I mean if his parents, who by all accounts had a close enough relationship with the boy, are clueless--it's hard for the viewer to contextualize what happens. Still, the movie is sensitively wrought and offers two compelling performances. Sheen, as always, executes in one of his most emotional roles. But it is Bello that has the chance to surprise. I've always liked Bello, but her resume veers all over the place from top tier work to grade-B schlock. This time, she's chosen right and her brittleness has rarely been used to such affect. This is definitely a movie for adults who appreciate serious minded filmmaking. An easy recommendation--its power comes from its understatement. About 4 1/2 stars. KGHarris, 11/11.

Read Best Reviews of Beautiful Boy (2010) Here

The struggling married couple at the heart of "Beautiful Boy" have their lives altered by the most horrific nightmare imaginable involving their son. It is timely and excruciatingly unpleasant, the central tragedy should resonate with anyone concerned about alienation and random violence in the world today. To the movie's advantage, the DVD cover and promotional material has the common sense to NOT reveal the specifics of this incident. For the movie to achieve its maximum power, it is best to allow the content to be unveiled to the viewer as it unfolds to the parents. However, this subtle tactic is undermined by almost every review available on Amazon (including Amazon's own editorial description). It's an unfortunate miscalculation, in my estimation, as it eliminates much tension from the film's earlier scenes and detracts from one of the year's most harrowing moments. Writer/director Shawn Ku takes universal tragedy and shifts the focus in an unexpected and very personal way. By doing so, he has given Michael Sheen and Maria Bello two of the most underrated roles (and performances) of the year.

Sheen and Bello play an affluent, yet struggling, couple on the brink of divorce. As they are making important decisions about their lives together, some crushing news about their college-age son smashes their existence. Suddenly, they are at the center of a public maelstrom. Everything they thought they knew has been stripped away and they are left with nothing but each other. Trying to make sense of what happened and simultaneously trying to move past it, the couple attempt to navigate a powder keg of emotions. And the story is very much about Bello and Sheen and how they cope. Will this incident pull them back together or destroy them forever. Part of the nuance of Ku's screenplay is that it allows that they are each their own person, and their reaction to the event and its aftermath is very separate (even as they are forever intertwined). Filled with regret, recriminations, and humiliation--is it possible to move on? And where does ultimate responsibility lay when unimaginable things occur?

"Beautiful Boy" is a smart and sophisticated piece of work. Despite the opportunity for emotional grandstanding, Bello and Sheen remain remarkably grounded and utterly real. At times, you might wish the movie offered more insight into just who their son is. He is never developed (as a conscious decision), but the enigma of his character lingers all over the movie. I mean if his parents, who by all accounts had a close enough relationship with the boy, are clueless--it's hard for the viewer to contextualize what happens. Still, the movie is sensitively wrought and offers two compelling performances. Sheen, as always, executes in one of his most emotional roles. But it is Bello that has the chance to surprise. I've always liked Bello, but her resume veers all over the place from top tier work to grade-B schlock. This time, she's chosen right and her brittleness has rarely been used to such affect. This is definitely a movie for adults who appreciate serious minded filmmaking. An easy recommendation--its power comes from its understatement. About 4 1/2 stars. KGHarris, 11/11.

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There are movies that entertain and then there are movies that make you think. When a movie can do both at the same time it's an amazing feat. Unfortunately this is a rare occurrence and these movies usually fail. Such is the case with BEAUTIFUL BOY.

The story revolves around a couple on the verge of divorce. Married for some time Bill (Michael Sheen) is in the process of finding a new apartment. Wife Kate (Maria Bello) is planning a family vacation, one last time to go somewhere together with their son Sam (Kyle Gallner). Away at school, Sam seems bothered when he calls his folks one night. Why is apparent the next day.

While at work, Bill's co-workers are watching the news and concerned about him. Someone has opened fire at the college where Sam goes and massacred a number of students there. Kate is told the same by her friend and neighbor whose daughter also attends the same college. Bill comes home to be with Kate and eventually the police show. It's not just to notify the couple that Sam is dead, but to tell them he was the shooter and took his own life.

The rest of the film follows the parents dealing with the guilt and frustration they feel about the event their son has placed them in. Was there something they did wrong? Could they have foreseen what would happen? Why would he do such a thing? Couple this with the press hounding them and they begin to wonder if this all could have been their fault.

Leaving their home where reporters camp out daily, they spend time with Kate's brother and his family. Each deals with the problem in their own way. Bill looks at things from an orderly point of view, making sure they issue a press release and keeping up a strong face while he mourns in private.

Kate is the emotional one, first denying that any of this could have taken place. She insists that their son did nothing, that he couldn't have done something so heinous. When video of him ranting in a recorded message he left behind surfaces she must face the truth. But she still retreats into herself, attempting to subtly take the mother's position in her brother's home.

Eventually the couple leave and hole up in a motel where their various means of dealing with the problem shoots them up and down the emotional scale, one moment arguing with one another and the next falling into each other's arms in love once more only to fight again the next morning. Neither one is prepared for what happened or for what is going on now. They just deal with it themselves in their own way, never completely offering each other the support that each needs at this time. Only time will tell if they come out of this nightmare stronger or defeated.

The film focuses not on the son and his deed but on the aftermath he leaves behind. While the characters are faced with questions about themselves and their family, for the most part they seem more concerned with themselves than with their son, they seem selfish to an extent. How one would deal with this sort of thing is hard to imagine but this couple seems intent on their own feelings and nothing more.

And this makes for a movie that offers two roles where critics and awards type shows will respond with praise but that viewers will watch with a certain amount of boredom. Running just over 2 hours it's hard to sit and watch the pain and the self flagellation that goes on for nearly that entire time. Over and over again we watch them fight and seek someone to blame, more often than not taking the brunt of it all. And that's a weight that anyone would find hard to handle. But that's all the movie focuses on. It never offers any relief or solutions.

The subject matter is topical and something few of us would ever even consider thinking about and yet with the number of mass killings perhaps it's something we should. One would hope that placed in the same circumstances each of us would be able to find some way of dealing with the problem and hopefully better than this couple does.

Watching the film is like placing yourself in the same situation. You feel nothing but sad and depressed. With each passing moment as they fail to find a solution you just keep begging that it will end. Some may think of this as art but for me it's just a way to encourage depression. I'd rather spend my money on something else.

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Cutthroat Island (1995)

Pure joy for fans of old fashioned sea adventure and entertaining, if stereotypical, peg-legged, eye-patched pirates shouting "Arr!", this movie does not pretend to be anything else than it is great fun based on popular legends and beliefs rather than the facts on pirate lives. And so much the better! Non-stop action, fantastic score, breathtaking sceneries and props, adequately fun script, and, yes, even good acting (to my surprise, Geena Davis actually managed to deliver a good performance!). Frank Langella is almost as good a pirate as Walter Matthau was in Roman Polanski's equally underrated pirate classic. Hearing various bad comments about the movie, I had low expectations, but was pleasantly surprised to find out that the bad reviews and comments were simply unfair. Apparently, critics these days follow one another in "their" opinions rather than actually watching the movies, and people are looking for violence and blood of "Dobermann" kind rather than simply entertaining if unrealistic movies like "Cutthroat Island" (actually, the movie seems to have been researched quite nicely it's the first time I've seen Hollywood use actual "squad" wine bottles in a pirate movie instead of modern-shaped ones!)

This film features everything a good pirate flick should: stormy seas, a spectacular naval battle, a sexy pirate captain (Geena Davis) and buried treasure complete with a treasure map written in latin (the preferred language of pirates).

This is one of the few times I've seen Davis in a leading role; normally, she is a supporting actress. She pulls it off quite well, although in a couple of scenes her acting is a bit wooden. Frank Langella stands out as an old-salt, ruthless pirate while Matthew Modine is great as the movie's comic relief.

What really makes this movie worth buying, tho, is just how well done it is. The 17th century sets are lavish you feel as tho you are back in the period in which the movie takes place. The soundtrack is riveting, and I found the sound of the DVD quite excellent. Not sure if they did anything different than they do with other DVDs, but it sure seemed like the audio was a notch above most DVDs esp in the storm sequence.

This is the kind of movie that critics make a living off of by slamming. What does this mean for the rest of us? Why, it means that it's a fun time to be had by all! And may the movie critics goto Davy Jones locker...

Buy Cutthroat Island (1995) Now

Cutthroat Island is not a great movie by any means. But it is a lot of fun if you enjoy pirate treasure, sea battles, sword fighting, a great soundtrack, and wonderful period costumes. The script is pretty weak and much of the acting is wooden. Worse yet, it seems that no one learned anything from Errol Flynn's The Sea Hawk because they once again include a rather annoying monkey as comedy relief. But what they do right is what makes this movie worth watching. The film wonderfully recreates the 17th century Caribbean world of the pirates and is probably the most realistic looking realization of this time and place to date. The actual portrayal of the pirates themselves owes more to "Treasure Island" and "Peter Pan" than "The American Sea Rovers", but there is definately something compelling in the romantic myth of the golden age of piracy. The pirate movie has suffered in recent years and Cutthroat will probably do nothing to revive it, which is really a shame as they, like the western and sci-fi adventure, are the best incarnations of modern myth to be found today.

The story revolves around the quest of Captain Morgan Adams, the sexy yet honorable pirate queen, to avenge her father's murder and outwit her evil pirate nemesis and fratricidal uncle, Captain "Dawg" (who makes these names up?). Taking command of her late father's ship and now in possession of part of a map to locate her father's lost treasure, Morgan sets out to win the vast riches for her and her hardy crew. On the way she engages the services of the roguish "Doctor" Shaw, manages to obtain the remaining pieces of the map, then goes on to brave mutinies, betrayals, storms at sea, exploding cannonballs, bad dialogue, and cliched bad guys in a worthwhle romp through an era gone by, when men and women sailed tall wooden ships, killed many people for profit, and drank themselves into oblivion on the high seas.

I gave Cutthroat Island one more star than it probably really deserves simply for being a really guilty pleasure. So grab your bottle of rum and cold steel cutlass and check it out!

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...but widely ignored. Some have said that The Passion of the Christ established John Debney as a force to reckon with in the drama score category. What about action? The guy is only hired to do comedy and very few action films. CutThroat Island is an epic score, the only one I know John Debney has done. The film was a disaster at the box office. Had it been a success, maybe John Debney would have two oscar nominations counts instead of one.

In the single disc version, one gets about 71 minutes of music. From "Main Titles" to "end credits" John Debney keeps your ears happy and your room shaking depending on your speakers' volume level.

The main title of the score is one that will stay in your mind for a long time. Its repeated in most of the tracks on the album and it never gets tiring. It starts off with low brass before the strings swell the music into a loud fanfare.

There are a few other themes in the album. Track 3: The Language of Romance introduces the beautiful love theme played by the flute. Another theme used three times in this album is a cue for a victorious moment. The militaristic cue is introduced at the end of track 6 and given steriods for the triumphant finale in track 18. The last track is basically a suite of the main themes of the album as it should be. Overall, great soundtrack.

[COMPLETE SCORE REVIEW]

If 71 minutes isn't enough, not to worry. The COMPLETE SCORE was released on 2 CD late March . This version contains over 2 hours of music!

The second CD contains Track 17 and 18 of the single disc version. I have never seen the movie so I didn't know how long the action sequence lasted. Tracks 17 and 18 of the single disc version are added to one very long track over 17 minutes! to make probably the greatest single action, epic piece ever written! Track 8 of CD 2: "The Battle/To Dawg's Ship/Morgan Battles Dawg/Dawg's Demise/The Triumph." You have to listen to this track to truly understand why I won't be able to shut up about it. The second disc also includes 5 bonus tracks, some of them are alternate versions of some of the original cues (e.g. without choir).

This is an incredible score and a must have for anyone that truly appreciates musical art. (Oscar, how did you ignore this one?) Buy it. Buy both versions. They will undoubtly be worth more in the future. You won't be disappointed! CutThroat Island is truly a masterpiece!

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When the piratess Morgan Adams (Geena Davis) loses her father, she becomes captain of his ship and crew. As her first act as captain, she decides to search for the treasure on Cutthroat Island. But the actual map for Cutthroat Island is in three pieces, one of which she got from her father. The other two are with her uncles, the cowardly Mordachai (George Murcell) and the evil Dawg Brown (Frank Langella). So Morgan, with the help of her crew and the somewhat untrustworthy thief, William Shaw (Matthew Modine), she sets off to take all the maps and find the treasure of Cutthroat Island.

A very entertaining movie filled with action, adventure, and piracy on the high seas, "Cutthroat Island" is a pure adventure movie. The plot is pretty mediocre, allowing as much action and suspense to be put in the story. It's your typical pirate story though, pirates must find, understand, and figure out the map leading to a mysterious island with hidden treasure of unthinkable riches. But throwing in a tough, hard-bitten, and beautiful piratess was a pretty nice touch, including a thief to provide some comic relief.

Geena Davis surprises me again with her talent in being able to play many different roles from a ghost in "Beetlejuice", a baseball player in "A League of Their Own", a mother full of heart in the Stuart Little movies, and now a piratess in "Cutthroat Island". She gets to give plenty of punches plus handle the cutlass with ease as she fights pirates, the military, and her uncle. She's definitely very cool! As for Matthew Modine, I had never seen him in any movies before but I found him astoundingly funny though he gets plenty of action. He in a way reminds me of Cary Elwes as Wesley in "The Princess Bride" with his sarcastic humor and boundless enthusiasm. Oh, it was also a special treat to see the young and sweet Christopher Masterson as Bowen. Though his role was small, he was excellent as a cabin boy with his obvious admiration and loyalty to his captain. He's probably more known as Chris Masterson, starring in "Dragonheart: A New Beginning" and also starring in the series, "Malcom in the Middle".

So if you're in the mood for a movie with giving off lots of action, energy, suspense, and swashbuckling, make time to watch "Cutthroat Island". Rated PG-13 for the action and fighting and also for some innuendo.

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Swingers (2011)

Swingers could be a hip movie, a Guys movie, great-sagacious-advice movie, a warm-amusing movie, this-is-what-friendship-is-about movie, or simply one of the most facetious for-a-lark flicks of the 90s. But whatever tag you wish to stick on it, this honest, low-budget humdinger from Liman is very very "money"!

Top 10 reasons to get your hands on this movie now:

(1) It's fast-paced, well edited (not one wasted scene) and frequently laugh-out-loud funny. If you hear people dismiss this as an inconsequential narrative about a "bunch of losers trying to get laid", I'm afraid they just have not watched the entire movie. I am not into the "Spy who shagged me" genre of humor, but this movie will truly grow on you.

(2) It'll ring a bell with almost anyone, particularly guys. Mike -a crestfallen loverboy (Jon Favreau) is in the throes of a breakup, and his confidence has hit rock bottom. (Sidenote: Favreau is a very ordinary looking guy, which in fact imho is the power of his character.) Under the aegis of his friend Trent (Vince Vaughn, in top form, a lot better than his controlled acting in, gulp, The Psycho) Mike re-learns how to get back up on his feet and take reins of his life/emotions again. While this happens, we are treated to a bunch of every-day faux pas that we all can identify with in a blink. Interested yet?

(3) The boys' camaraderie is infectious. If you watch this movie with friends -and this indeed is the best way to watch it! -you'll know what I mean. This has to be one of the most honest portrayals of relationships between friends -both the lover and the platonic variety.

(4) Call me weird but I loved the sound track, a delectable blend of underground jazz and triphop.

(5) Some of the "get back on your feet" dialogue for Mike is truly marvellous, and makes for better, more down-to-earth, more inspiring advice about life and relationships than Dr. Ruth and Oprah put together.

(6) An interesting look at the Los Angeles we never see in films, the underground life of the struggling actors and writers and less glamorous people, not living in Malibu opulence as seen in other weaker films.

(7) Some great Sega Genesis NHL ice-hockey "footage" (to use a dignified term) and an unusual preview of seeing Gretzky's head knocked.

(8) This is to men what "Sex and the City" is to women. (Ok, SATC has had a lot more time than Swingers to entice us with the workings of the Modern Woman, but you get the idea)

(9) A wide assortment of one-liners for you to conveniently plagiarize from. Not seen in a single movie since Roxanne with Steve Martin.

(10) Oh, and it's so laid back, its horizontal. No spiffy visual FX, no crash boom bang, no cheap frills. But still a high handsome homerun.

Required Viewing.

It's shocking to see, here on Amazon, that this movie only grossed $5 million in the theaters. Swingers has gone on to become an incredibly popular movie. It made Vince Vaughn's career as an actor and defined Jon Favreau's career both as an actor and as a writer.

This is the kind of movie that every man can relate to on at least one level. Most men can probably relate to both of the main characters: each representing one side of us in our dealings with women. On the one hand, the sensitive man who isn't afraid to reveal himself and on the other hand, the player, who doesn't have any pretentions and makes no apologies for his brash behavior. Both are real and both have their pros and cons. They are both well-represented in Swingers.

I first saw this movie when I was about 17 years old. I loved the characters and I loved the flow of the movie, but I find that when I watch it now (in my mid-20s), I appreciate it on a whole different level. For those of us who are shy and reserved, this movie almost makes you want to come out of your shell. It can almost be called "inspirational" in how it will goad you to get the hell out there are let it all hang out. Great lines are delivered throughout the script. Mike and Trent compliment each other very well and they have some great scenes together.

This is an indie-film classic. The kind of movie that you never get tired of.

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"Your Money, your so Money, you don't even know your Money!"

Classic, great everyday, anyday movie. If your in a rainy day mood its "Money", break-up with your girlfriend mood, its "Money", and last but not least ... Showing allllll the "Pretty Babies" you have this movie in your collection ... "MONEY" !!!!!

Read Best Reviews of Swingers (2011) Here

One day I saw a glimpse of a scene from the movie Swingers. It was the "is she looking at me now? No. She hasn't looked at you all night..." scene. That was the only scene I saw and I thought, "That looks kinda funny. I should see it one day." When I finally saw it, "That looks kinda funny" was a definite understatement. That movie kept my friends and I in stitches all night. It wasn't for sale on video yet, so I spent a small fortune renting it about three times a month. All my friends and I could see ourselves in that movie. I was the Mikey of my group because my girlfriend had broken up with me six months before I saw this masterpiece and I was still broken up about her. If you can't get over your break up with a girl, and are looking for a replacement, but with no luck, you MUST see this movie. It spoke to me and now I use it as my guide for life. Whenever you feel depressed about beautiful babies not going for you, flip this movie on and check it out. You'll feel better, guaranteed.

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"Swingers" really reminded me of "Good Will Hunting" in that it was written by and stars struggling actors who decided to go out and create their own success. It is a low-budget gabfest type movie, with no real action taking place; but it is a fun, highly entertaining film nonetheless. The plot revolves around five struggling actors in L.A., who go from party to party looking for "beautiful babies" and career opportunities. They are sort of a modern "rat pack", led by the fast-talking and charismatic Trent (Vince Vaughn, who carries the movie with a star-making performance). "Swingers" features hilarious, witty writing and some enjoyable performances from its up-and-coming stars. We are so entertained by their antics that we forget that nothing really signifficant is happening. Credit is due for spawning some great catch phrases too. The DVD doesn't come with any great special features. It comes in widescreen format with a theatrical trailer. The soundtrack is worth owning for lovers of great swing-jazz music. Overall a great movie and a good investment.

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Dead Alive (1992)

As you likely know, if you're reading this, Dead Alive is fairly widely regarded as the goriest movie ever made. Having not seen every movie ever made I'm not prepared to declare it as such, but it's certainly the goriest movie I've ever seen. By far. To give you a bit of perspective, I would say Day of the Dead and Riki-Oh probably come closest of the films I've seen, and Dead Alive has got to be at least 5 times gorier than either of those films.(And that's probably a conservative estimate) This fact alone should make it mandatory viewing for anyone interested in Horror films.(Of course, this isn't actually a horror film; I don't think it genuinely tries to be scary even once. But, the gore-comedy is primarily of interest to horror fans, naturally)

As one would expect, this film has it's roots in Re-Animator and the Evil Dead films, but it manages to find it's own style and tone. Evil Dead II was wildly over-the-top and energetic while Re-Animator was pretty subdued and deadpan much of the time. Dead Alive, directed by the now highly famed and lauded Peter Jackson, is somewhere in between, certainly not as controlled as Re-Animator, but nowhere near as flat out weird and kinetic as Evil Dead II.(at least not from beginning to end.) And yeah it's pretty funny, though perhaps the majority of the non-gore related humor tends to fall flat. It's also more purely good-natured and fun-loving than any of those films.(Perhaps this is related to their New Zealand accents) I don't know if it's necessarily better than any of those films, it's a tough call, but they're all in the same league, and fans of one ought to like the others.

Inspiration is frequently in short supply in the non-zombie related scenes, but their are enough zombie scenes that it doesn't matter too much. The characters are extremely broad caricatures, including the cute, naive love interest, the dorky, buttoned down hero, the evil controlling mother and the conniving, greedy and chauvinistic uncle. Naturally characters don't matter a whole helluva lot in this film, but, for what it's worth, both Paquita and Lionel are reasonably likable as the protagonist. The film ain't much on plot either, as it's pretty much just a series of comic scenes involving Lionel's attempts to keep the zombie outbreak a secret, and then their collective attempts to simply destroy them. Personally, I find this structural format to be perfectly fine. The less plot the better, when it comes to this sort of film.

The gore is so ridiculous and over-the-top that it's hard to imagine how anyone could be offended by it, though it is quite gross at times. The gore itself particularly reminds of the original Evil Dead, as it emphasizes goo and moistness, and the zombies look fairly reminiscent of the demon-possessed individuals from that film. Although the gore isn't nor is it trying to be realistic, the execution is often more professional and well done than I would've anticipated. Going into too many specifics would be terribly time consuming, but their are a few things that demand pointing out. The single best gore effect would have to be towards the beginning of the film, when the nurse gets her head ripped off. (most of the way, anyway) And, the much famed lawnmower massacre towards the end of the film is classic, and has some surprisingly nicely done effects to go along with the sheer over-the-top insanity of the scene.(The effects I'm referring, in specific, to some of the shots of the limbs getting shredded into nothingness) And, the stop-motion animated sumatran rat monkey is quite fun as well.

Yeah, this movie is pretty great. Not quite the all time highpoint in gore, in my mind, however. I think that Riki-Oh is funnier on the gore front, and am more impressed by some more serious films that display more realistic gore. But Dead Alive still does what it does very well.

You might come in with the wrong expectations for this movie, it's primarily reputation is for it's gore. Which is deserved, even in the more widely available slightly-tamed down version that's more commonly available in the US, by the end of the film nearly every inch of the screen is covered in blood and guts. But don't neccesarily expect something frightening because of this, the movie is overall more funny than scary, from the ridiculous premise for the zombies' origin (a cursed Samarian rat-monkey imported to New Zealand) to the myriad bizarre and quirky characters and of course a lot of gross-out humor. At times it almost resembles what would happen if Monty Python made a zombie movie and ran as far with the blood and gore as they possibly could.

You'll enjoy this movie if the following apply to you:

1) the phrases "karate priest", "baby zombie", and "rat-monkey" piqued your interest.

2) You liked Evil Dead II and Army Of Darkness, and are definitely not in the camp that the series went downhill once Sam Raimi started adding in comic elements

3) You're not at all squeamish about blood and relish completely over-the-top bordering on implausible gory death scenes.

4) You have a general taste for cheesy b-movies.

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When you think of blood and gore, movies such as, Hellraiser, From Beyond, Evil Dead and Re-Animator may come to mind. These movies, however, are merely kindergarden class to this blood drenched classic. All the reviews I've read say this is probably the goriest movie in history. I'd have to agree with that sentiment.

The story about a young, shy man named Lionel(Timothy Balme) who takes care of his domineering mother. Lionel meets up with a young woman in a little store named Pakita. She persues Lionel and gets him to accompany her to the zoo. While spying on the couple Lionel's mother is bitten by the Sumatran Rat Monkey. After being infected with the bite she becomes a hideous undead creature. Lionel, however still takes the time to care for her and all of the others that will become infected with this disease.

If your looking for a frightful movie then this movie would not be for you. The storyline is weak but when you have so much blood, gore and guts on the screen do you really care about a story? This is definitely the goriest movie ever made. Scenes include a rib cage being pulled out, plenty of body dismemberment and the best scene, chopping up dozens of zombies with a lawnmower plus much more. This movie splills more blood than the elevator scene in Stephen King's The Shining. Just describing these scenes and talking about the movie gives it no justice in just how gorey it is. You gotta see this movie for yourself. The dazzling special effects are courtesy of Richard Taylor.

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When I first rented "Dead Alive," I got it from a Blockbuster store. A critic on the front of the box was quoted as saying "This is the goriest and funniest film I've ever seen!" I watched the movie, and wondered how anyone could have found the film "gory" OR "funny." To me, it just didn't make sense, and it seemed just plain stupid and boring. Of course, what I didn't know then was that the movie had been cut, and almost 10 minutes of additional gore was missing. If you think about that, that's a LOT of gore (a death scene takes what, 5 seconds?). SO, since I couldn't find the unrated version anywhere, I ordered it and watched it last night. NOW I see what the critic was talking about. Ironically, by taking out all the gore, Blockbuster simply made the movie more disturbing and strange. WITH all the gore, it's nothing short of hysterical. Here's a small comparison between the R and unrated versions:

1) right away, the first man to be bitten is practically mutilated in the unrated version. He right hand and left arm are seen chopped off. In the R version, neither scene is shown, just him screaming.

2) the "lunch" scene is MUCH funnier in the unrated version. Lionel's mother squirts blood into the guests pudding. We watch him eat the pudding. Then her ear falls off into her own pudding, and she eats that, too, sending another guest running to the bathroom. In the R version, we have to imply that she has squirted blood into the pudding, and the ear never falls off (which makes for much confusion later when it's quite apparently missing).

3) when the nurse comes to check on Lionel's mother in the unrated version, the zombie grabs her face. Mother's fingers meld into the nurse's face, and eventually put it backward at a 90 degree angle. This makes for some hysterically disturbing scenes later where she just can't seem to keep her head on straight. In the R version, we see the Mother pop up behind the nurse, but see nothing of the gore. By cutting that violence, though, any future reference to the nurse's head problem is therefore not funny--just confusing.

4) The Party at the end: Where to start? In the R version I saw, the party is a totally confusing, strange, and illogical event. Zombies suddenly pop to life, people run, people fall, and then suddenly Lionel shows up with a lawnmower and everyone dies. In the UNRATED version, I watched in horror and amusement at some of the most grisly, but way over-the-top death scenes I've ever seen. People are beheaded, disembowled, and mutilated. One man's ribs are pulled out while he watches. Another woman is punched so hard from behind that the hand comes through the back of her head and out of her mouth. It's powerful stuff--but much funnier when shown.

Bottom line: UNRATED VERSION: 5 stars R Version: 1 star Stay away from the Rated R version!

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First, let's get one thing straight: This is not a horror movie, and it's not intended to be a horror movie. It's a comedy, ok? Yes, it is probably the goriest movie ever made, but it's use of blood and violence is so completely over the top, it crosses into the realm of hilarious by fifty Sumarian rat monkeys' heads.

I generally try to avoid overly gorey movies myself (I'm not particularly sensitive or anything, it's just that 99.9% of 'em [... stink]), but "Dead Alive" sort of goes beyond that. If monsters in the basement, kung-fu priests, zombie-babies and alternative uses of lawnmowers seem like your kind of thing, you could do far worse than watching this.

On the other hand, those of you looking for high drama and a thought-provoking plot would be best adviced to search elsewhere. The original title, "Braindead", is a bit more appropriate I think.

Speaking of original, the American unrated version on sale here is not uncut. My copy, subtiteled "Red Edition" (wich speaks for itself, I guess) runs about 10 minutes longer than this version. Probably nothing vital to the plot, but you gore-hounds out there might want to check it out. It was released by a German company called Laser Paradise, and it's plagued by the cheesiest (unskippable) CGI intros I have ever had the misfortune of viewing. Apart from that, it comes highly recommended.