3Deep Movie Reviews


Behind The Sticks

yes!Lord, Ian Gillan, Joe Lynn Turner, Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Paice.
It also includes some live performances like Smoke on the water,
Speed king, Black night, Burn, Strange kind of woman, Child in time and more. If you like Deep Purple, buy this.


From the future comes a new savior
Dorothy (a 10-year-old Fairuza Balk in her debut) is back in Kansas, where Aunt Em (Piper Laurie) is at the end of her rope: her niece is not sleeping and going on about a place called Oz. Therapy may be the answer, but luckily the scary clinic goes dark before Dorothy can be, er, cured (but the lead-up will scare the munchkins out of most kids). She wakes up in the land of Oz, now in tatters, and searches for its king, the Scarecrow. A new set of friends, including a tin soldier, a talking chicken, and a pumpkin man, help her against new villains, including Princess Mombi (Jean Marsh)--complete with a set of detachable heads--and the evil Nome King (Nicol Williamson with a great assist from Will Vinton's Claymation). The sole directorial effort of Oscar-winning editor Walter Murch is stuffed with marvelous effects that foreshadow later works by Tim Burton and the Henson non-Muppet films. --Doug Thomas

Definitely PASS OVER THIS ONE! TERRIBLE!
An Unappreciated Classic That Must Be Seen
Baum's True Vision
Dorothy (a 10-year-old Fairuza Balk in her debut) is back in Kansas, where Aunt Em (Piper Laurie) is at the end of her rope: her niece is not sleeping and going on about a place called Oz. Therapy may be the answer, but luckily the scary clinic goes dark before Dorothy can be, er, cured (but the lead-up will scare the munchkins out of most kids). She wakes up in the land of Oz, now in tatters, and searches for its king, the Scarecrow. A new set of friends, including a tin soldier, a talking chicken, and a pumpkin man, help her against new villains, including Princess Mombi (Jean Marsh)--complete with a set of detachable heads--and the evil Nome King (Nicol Williamson with a great assist from Will Vinton's Claymation). The sole directorial effort of Oscar-winning editor Walter Murch is stuffed with marvelous effects that foreshadow later works by Tim Burton and the Henson non-Muppet films. --Doug Thomas

Definitely PASS OVER THIS ONE! TERRIBLE!
An Unappreciated Classic That Must Be Seen
Baum's True Vision
In the casting, there was a clear intent to differentiate the show from its predecessors. Genre stalwarts Tony Todd and James Earl Jones were considered for Commander Sisko before Avery Brooks. The one letdown at the time was that Michelle Forbes did not carry Ensign Ro across from The Next Generation, but when the explosive Nana Visitor defiantly slapped her hand on a console in the pilot episode, viewers knew they were in for a different crew dynamic. In fact, the two-part pilot show ("The Emissary") is largely responsible for DS9's early success. Mysterious, spiritual, claustrophobic, funny, and feisty, it remains the most attention-grabbing series opener (apart from the original series') the franchise has had. The first year may have relied on a few too many familiar faces--like Picard, Q, and Lwaxana Troi--but these were more than outweighed by refreshingly detailed explorations of cultures old and new (Trill, Bajoran, Cardassian, Ferengi). As it turned out, Deep Space Nine was the boldest venture into Roddenberry's galaxy that had been (or ever would be) seen. --Paul Tonks

First Season of Trek isn't dreckThe first season was wildly uneven with politically charged, intelligent science fiction alternating with lame brain routine adventures that could have been written for any show. Duet stands as the most stunning individual episode although the pilot is equally as good (although a bit scattered as befits an episode setting up the characters). What's most interesting is the look at religion, politics and science on the show. Given Roddenberry's beliefs, I was surprised that DS9 eventually made it to the air as it tackles each subject but doesn't judge the value systems or beliefs of others.
No doubt, it made it to the air because 1) Roddenberry wasn't around to object; 2)Berman was in command along with co-creator Michael Pillar; 3) It kept the franchise viable as NextGen began winding down.
Avery Brooks gives a frequently firey performance as Sisko and Nana Visitor is every bit his equal. All the actors do a great job.
DS9 - Star Trek's Best Kept SecretIf you're looking for great acting and great drama, tune into the episode "DUET". It's a two character story between Major Kira (the amazing and painfully underrated Nana Visitor) and a former Cardassian overlord. Clearly, an early sign of great things to come from this series.
I'd much rather watch reruns of DS9 than new episodes of the ghastly "Enterprise" any day.
The best trek ever... volume 1!We meet all of the players early on. A disillusioned Starfleet commander and his son. A former freedom fighter who sees the Federation as no better than the Cardassian occupation force that was just driven out. A geeky doctor. A shape-shifting Security Chief. A nefarious Ferengi bar owner. An ill-tempered station engineer. A Trill that has lived seven lives. And, the former leader of the Cardassian forces, determined to return to his old office. Unlike in previous Treks, not all of the protagonists got along very well.
The station seems like the last stop for all of them until a major discovery puts it and them on the map.
All of the elements for a great story arc were in place here. Unfortunately, they didn't make full use of these elements until they hit the third and fourth seasons.

In one of his best and final roles (he appeared in only four films after this), Clark Gable plays a submarine captain without a command, having been saddled with a desk job after his previous ship was destroyed due to his overzealous pursuit of the enemy in dangerous Japanese waters. He finally gets another boat--this time with a vigilant first officer (Burt Lancaster), who stands poised to assume command if Gable puts his crew in unnecessary danger. The tension and mutual respect between these two principled men is superbly written and directed (Robert Wise was just two years away from his triumph with West Side Story), and the crucial inclusion of a strong supporting cast (including Jack Warden and Don Rickles) enhances the movie's compelling authenticity. Based on a novel by former submarine commander Edward L. Beach, Run Silent, Run Deep is rousing entertainment with the added benefit of paying honorable tribute to the men who navigated through the most frightening and claustrophobic channels of the Pacific theater. --Jeff Shannon

Excellent submarine movieClark Gable and Burt Lancaster are both excellent as the battling officers aboard the sub. The movie boasts an excellent supporting cast that includes Jack Warden, Brad Dexter, Nick Cravat, and Don Rickles, all who do very good jobs with their roles. However, Gable, in a later role, and Lancaster steal many of the scenes they are in together. The DVD is well worth it with a booklet included and also widescreen and full screen options for viewing. This is a great movie for fans of WWII action flicks! It is often obvious how this movie influenced later submarine movies in the genre. Go and check out this movie!
One of the greatest movies ever made... IMHO ;-)
The greatest submarine war filmGable and Lancaster are great as captain and commander and the supporting efforts from Jack Ward and Don Rickles also deserve mention. Don looks like he's only 25 here (although he's probably more like 30) and he still has no hair! (That's okay, Don, we still luv ya.) The movie builds the tension up to an almost unbearable climax as Gable proceeds to train his crew to perform the risky bow shot maneuver to take out the Akekazi destroyer, despite the scepticism of both Lancaster and the crew. The tension is made all the more palpable when their first attempt at destroying the Akekazi fails and the Akekazi drops depth charge after depth charge on Gable's ship. But Gable manages to just barely slip away. Then finally, in a suspenseful climactic scene, Gable successfully torpedoes the deadly sub-hunter with the infamous bow shot.
They don't make 'em like this anymore. Big Steve says go rent it and don't Bogart the popcorn.


A terribly uneven fableThe NeverEnding Story, while a unique creation, is little more than a thin and flimsy canvas stretched upon a tired rack. The basic story should be familiar - lonely withdrawn youth finds refuge from worldly troubles in a fantasy book, and through the adventures of the main character grows more confident and whole. All the necessities are there, including a central internal conflict that must be reconciled (the death of his mother), a handful of bullies that in the end get their comeuppence, a wide array of superficially unique creatures, obscure magic forces, a quest to save the world. The problem is that everything is so poorly thought out that the movie becomes an inscrutable connection of disjoint and unsatisfying moments.
a key element to any fantasy is the degree to which its conceiver has thoroughly thought out his/her conception. the grand daddy of them all, tolkein, did an unbelievable amount of behind the scenes 'research' for middle earth, so much so that readers can bore themselves to death pouring through obscure appendicies on the origin of hobbit pipe weed and other trivial and irrelevent details. the upshot of this is that everything is tied together and every creature and race draws upon a complex history, which gives the story itself a tremendous amount of death. nothing in the the middle earth books is simply there; everything is there for a reason, and everything was somewhere else and did other things before it came to be there.
In the NeverEnding Story (NES from now on) nothing has a reason beyond its surface, and the writing to connect the dots of the plot is terrible. our hero, atreus, is summoned before a motley and completely arbitrary collection of 30 or 40 strange individuals who appear to form some sort of world congress. the language of the scene and the acting of the characters is tremendously unconvincing, and it reminded me of the initial meeting between flash gordon and his crew and ming the merciless. flash was a terrible movie, but it was supposed to be terrible and campy, while NES seems to be someone's best efforts at a child's tale. after some verbal sparring atreus is given one inexplicable piece of advice ("you must go alone, and you must go without weapons")and heads off on his quest. He travels from short, absurd vignette to short absurd vignette, buoyed by an enormous amount of deux ex machina, the greatest portion of which is supplied by the funny looking flying dog (a 'luck' dragon) from the movie trailers. to give you a sense of the inanity of the plot devices, the dragon saves the boy from a wolf and carries him while he sleeps 9,900 miles towards the next plot point. when the boy wakes up, for some reason he has to walk the last 100 miles, but at least it only takes him a couple minutes.
On the bright side, The NeverEnding Story is a unique creation, full of vast lanscapes and strange creatures, and it does have a good message. i was disappointed with the creatures. while most are unusual, they are generally either the wrong size of present some sort of contradiction. for example, we see an enormous giant (the presentation of scale is effective) and later on an enormous turtle. we see an enourmous snail that (surprise!) travels very quickly, an enormous flying dog, and some very small people who are helpful. nothing has any depth, and (sorry if i sound like a broken record) the lack of substance leaves one hollow. whoever was in charge of the musical score goes way overboard by way of compensation; the excruciating orchestral backdrops (with the exception of the title song is appropriately simple and joyful) ooze so much heavy feeling that you'll be smearing the emotive goo out of your ears with an oar.
an outstanding alternative to this movie is "the dark crystal", created by jim henson of moppet fame. it is extremely well thought out, well acted and well written. all the characters have a history and all interact with the world as if they really belong within it, as opposed to the pasted on characters of NES. this grounding gives the story a strong foundation on which to build, enabling the culmination of the dark crystal to resonate with meaning.
Never give upThe Never Ending Story has two heroes and two villains. The first hero and villain are outside the book, high above the fantasy.
Bastian is a young kid that is blessed with a great imagination (He gets in trouble for drawing unicorns in his math book.) He lacks courage and is always being beaten up by bullies and stuffed into dumpsters. While running away from these bullies, he hides in a bookstore. When in there, he makes off with a book that has the snake-twisted orrin on the cover...you guessed it...the neverending story.
"The Nothing", is the first ultra-villain. It's reason for existence is a secret that I don't want to spoil. It is destroying fantasia for its own means(Brought to life by the guys that invisioned The Empire Strikes Back!) The Nothing is becoming rampant, and the ruler, the Empress is dying. The people of fantasia, the world in which all fantasy resides, seek help from a great warrior Atreau. The ultimate second villain, A massive wolf with Glowing green eyes, takes flight through the forests to stop Atreau on his quest.
There is so much to the story! It is the type of movie you'll want to watch over and over until your player starts steaming.
It will soon be on DVD in September, so wait until then if your a crazed dvd loony like me. I have a feeling its gonna be awesome! Hope this review helped!
One of the classic 80s fantasy films...Released in 1984, this movie is perhaps the best of the classic 80s fantasy resurgence. Along with The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth and Ridley Scott's Legend, The Neverending Story lets us all escape from reality for a while.
This film, however, rises above others in its genre by offering a somewhat postmodern examination of the desires and needs for escape from everyday life. Drawing comparisons between Bastian's storybook readings and our own cinema-going, the film ultimately condones such escapist daydreaming - disapproved of by Bastian's father early in the movie - and offers us hope that if we follow those dreams with all our heart, we will achieve them.
Visually stunning with Ul de Rico's inimitable production design, and directed with a beautifully non-Hollywood flare by German director Wolfgang Petersen, The Neverending Story is a film to be not only enjoyed but cherished. On the surface it's an exhiliarating fantasy ride, below it's an examination of the childhood daydreams most of us have given up on or forgotten. Relive them.
All the leads are strong, with some brilliant supporting performances from actors and creatures alike. Followed by George 'Mad Max' Miller's sequel in 1990, which was watchable but suffered from the lead-cast changes (unavoidable as the original actors were hitting twenty), and an abysmal third installment in 1994, which should be avoided at all costs.
NOTE: This review was written just prior to the release of the DVD version. I hope Warners give the film the treatment it deserves - no film with $27m of production design in it goes without supplementary material. There are two versions of the film, the German version containing Klaus Doldinger's complete score and lacking Giorgio Moroder's memorable theme song. The musci video at least should be included.


An Underrated Comedy
One of the BestNow on to the review of this movie. To this day, this is one of my favorite movies even though I've only seen it 3 times (I'm purchasing the DVD today). Yes, the condom scene is one of the funniest scenes in movie history -- but I prefer another funny scene. John's character follows a woman into a upscale "physical therapy" office and is then tortured with muscle stimulators by a scorned former lover. When Zack comes out of the office he is twitching so badly he can hardly walk. This is classic John Ritter physicality. I laffed so hard the last time I watched that I almost couldn't breathe any more.
Also, while very funny, this movie follows a man who is trying desparately to repair his life and at every turn keeps failing. At one point, in his physcharist's office, his cry for help is so real-looking that it made me cry.
So, again, John, thanks for the many years of laughter. You will be missed!
The drama-comedy that glows in the dark!
Bonus footage includes an "aerial war" between Japanese and Mexican wrestlers that provides some diversion from the usual hardcore brutality, and in what's billed as the "Original Catfight," bad girls Beulah McGillicuddy and Francine drive the crowd wild by shedding all civility along with most of their clothing. While the production of this DVD is reasonably professional, that doesn't detract from the decidedly gnarly and low-rent feel ECW fans adore. Fans of more tame and cartoonish wrestling should be warned that the blood does flow freely in some of these matches. --Robert J. McNamara

Really Good DVD
It is EXTREME.Slow match but there is some technical wrestling mostly from Austin. Austin eliminates Mikey with the Stun Gun. Sandman pins Austin after Woman puts Brass Knucks on the Sandman's hand and he knocks out Austin but Austin gets his foot on the bottom rope yet the ref misses. An ok match.
Sabu v. Terry Funk in a Barb wire match
If you saw the Sandman/Raven Barb wire Death Match from ECW Extreme Evolution
then this match makes that match look like a WCW Hardcore match.
You won't believe what happens to Bill Alfonzo.
The Sandman and Terry Funk vs. Cactus Jack and "The Franchise" Shane Douglas. not a bad tornado match.
Taz v. Bam Bam Bigelow
Both these guys put up a hell of a fight. A great brawl and one hell of an ending.
Masato Tanaka and Jerry Lynn v. Mike Awesome and Justin Credible
One of the better ECW tag team matches. Good match. Tanaka gets Awesome Bombed through a table.
BONUS:Yoshihiro Tajiri v. Psicosis
A great high flying, high impact match. A lot of counters and reversals. I cringe every time I see and hear one of Tajiri's kicks. He has some of the most effective kicks in wrestling today. A 5 Star match Bar none.
BONUS: CATFIGHT Francine v. Beulah McGuillicuty
[Female] Show with Stevie Richards as the referee. He acts like an idiot, as expected and lets Raven interfere more than once. ...P>This is a good dvd over all. There are some really hardcore matches. The Psicosis/Tajiri match and the Terry Funk/Sabu match are my two favorites as far as the action goes. The Taz/Bam Bam Bigelow match was not short on action either. I recomend this for any ECW fan. ECW Deep Impact gets a 9 out-of-10 Four and a Half stars.
Best ECW DVD yet