Aging Movie Reviews

I wondered why this Amicus production was rated so poorly by Maltin and others. It was directed by Freddie Francis of Hammer renown, and featured known names in the cast, such as Michael Gough as the alien leader. Then I picked it up and watched it. It is not that bad, for 98% of its runtime. It's the 2% at the end that I'm sure has soured people's tastes for this movie.

It has to do with rocks from outer space landing in a British field and taking over the minds of all those who study them. One scientist is immune to their attacks, however, because of a metal plate in his head. Sound goofy? Well, it might be. But the whole thing is so solemn that one can overlook the funny-looking headgear the scientist fashions to protect his friends. And there is a lot of activity- not gripping action or suspense per se, but activity: gun battles, sneaking around, etc. You are sure it is all leading to... something.

Then after all the buildup, the ending is such a letdown as to enrage. I don't know if the filmmakers were trying for irony and failed, or were trying to make a statement on Southeast Asia, or just ran out of time and money. Imagine if The Longest Day had ended with Bob Mitchum and the Nazis playing pinochle while they talked out their differences; that will give you a feel for the bland ending of They Came From Beyond Space.

It is low budget and almost completely humorless- except for one scene where the scientist's friend has to melt down his silver cricket trophies to make a helmet to protect himself. Even that was really only a chuckle. But I'm not sorry I watched it. It's not that long, and I just would've thought about my job otherwise.

See also: Quatermass 2.

OK. So there's nothing (and I mean nothing) on the tv to watch, the Plan 9 video has been worn out, and you need something to distract you from the humming coming from the metal plate in your head... yeah, why not watch this..... It's cheap and with such stars as Robert Hutton (The Vulture, and The Slime People) how could it possibly be anything other than a classic....

the best sci-fi film ever made, the special effects blow away all the new stuff and the plot is cleverly writen

Let me preface this by saying that I LOVE anything with Ekin Cheng in it (see my other reviews) however this video was just plain tedious!

This is the story of Nam (Ekin Cheng)and his best friend Chicken (Jordan Chan), Nam and Chicken are members of a gang, when Nam gets promotion to chief "Boss," his life becomes even MORE complicated. The plot mostly revolves mostly around some nonsense about a wedding and a rival gang Taiwanese San Luen gang, however most of this is quite difficult to follow - and there is a reason for this. This video is part of the Young and Dangerous series, and viewers are expected to be familiar with the material and the characters from previous episodes.

If you are interested in following or even understanding the events in "Born to be King," I would recommend viewing the rest of the Young and Dangerous series first. The Triad series is one of the most popular and longest running gangster series in HK.

I havn't seen any of the other Young and Dangerous movies, but Born to be King is successful as a standalone film (apparently this is the 6th, in addition to there being two prequels), though it probably would be more enjoyable to have greater familiarity with the background stories.

**Plot Summary**
Born to be King has a number of sub-plots, but is centered around a Taiwanese/Chinese/Hong Kong gang's dischord after its leader retires, leaving Lui, who has just returned from a stateside education, to be the new leader. Lui is uninterested in being leader, so he and the top gang memebers and sect leaders set out to decide who amongst themselves ought to be. The protagonists are Chicken, recently married into a Yakuza family and a Hong Kong sect leader considered one of the primary candidates, and his best friend, Nam, who, while presently having troubles in his love life, manages to help out Chicken whenever he's needed. Various assasinations, ambushes, and plots are exposed, leading the gang members to question each others ambitions, and from here the rest of the movie branches.
**

Despite featuring a mostly terrible soundtrack and some stylistic excess (which really ruins the action scenes, but seems to serve the rest of the movie), Born to be King is an enterntaining gangster flic depicting events that are never too blind to reality, posh, serendipitous, or depraved and featuring relatively human characters (at least compared to most other gangster movies).

Certainly worth a viewing... more of a rental (I don't see myself watching this more than once, although it has inspired me to plan to pick up the rest of the Young and Dangerous movies.)

I am a fan of Marco Ruas and this DVD had his style of fighting and also Ken Shamrocks name on the cover. This title sucks!!! none of the actual people featured on the cover were highlighted in the video. The closest thing was the literally 2 secs of showing Ken shamrocks face because he was behind a student! As a mixed martial arts fan, I was extremely disappointed with this DVD. Overall I would not recommend it because it is misleading.

It was the first time I saw a King of the Cage event, but I had seen many great comments about it. So when it arrived, I expected a lot... and I wasn't disappointed! This event is full of young names, not very well known (yet) but really promising fighters! And what can I say, I love a good finish, and this one has plenty of great endings: submissions (may I just mention Stepp's armbar), KO's, ref stoppages. There are some judges decisions, but they are inevitable, and even then the figths are action-packed, with not much stalling and good technique. I sincerely recommend you to buy this DVD, it's a must for any mixed martial arts fan! Ohh, and don't miss Medina head-butting (an accident?) Wallid Ismael...

Recently someone said in a spanish "Twilight" TV review that film noir fanatics don't only love cliches, they also demand them. This B movie is a good example. There is absolutely nothing in this movie we haven't seen a thousand times before: the story of a man with misterious past that comes to a small village and changes the lives of its inhabitants. Meanwhile, a subplot set in a bigger city explains a story of police corruption and the reason why the man escaped.

Ok, you just can stare at it hating it and guessing what's the next plot twist, but if you are a film noir fanatic you will just know this is not the way to enjoy this kind of movies. You just have to relax, enjoy the simplicity of the plot, the effectiveness of character descriptions, the good acting and the occasional outbursts of violence.

This films provides all the above, and I really enjoyed acting (Dennis Hopper's portrait of a coward sheriff is antologic) and the occasional violence (there are a few shootings very well coreographed and quite believable). The pace is apropiately slow, caring more about details and building an atmosphere of danger and mistery than anything else, and the only reason I did not enjoy the movie completely it is that the police investigation subplot is given too much footage, and it is poorly acted: Peter Coyote is, this time, giving a dull performance.

The director King brought in three ''top of the hill'' actors ,and made a very predictable movie about a former undercover infiltrator Maceda(chris sarandon),who is chased by the feds and the mobs.He enters a small town where The naive Sherrif Gilchrist(hopper)runs the place. Maceda seems to be a gunspecialist,but never troughout the movie makes it clear where his skills are coming from.The shootouts are in quality the same as in most televisionactionseries. Peter coyote as one of the arms of the law brings in some intelligence and emotion.

I just recently bought this DVD mainly for Rose Red and Storm of the Century. Two of King's newer Made for TV mini-series. These are definately two of his best and most watched series.

I only gave this product a 2 because the Dead Zone and Tommyknockers just don't deliver. Don't get me wrong, I love USA's Dead Zone series but this is only the pilot epsiode. I'd rather buy the complete first season. The glimpse of 2nd season special feature was only about 3 minutes long and didn't give any good details.

Then the Tommyknocker fiasco. I don't know about anyone else but I had problems with my copy. The sound and audio does not match on screen. You see the actors talking but you have to wait a half second to a full second before their lips move. Pretty bad. And of course I couldn't exchange it for another copy since I had already taken it out of the plastic. What a bummer.

Other than that, Rose Red and Storm of the Century are worth buying this. Give me what I want and I'll go away. hahaha. LEGION

This collection of Stephen King videos has kept me hooked for hours in front of the TV.

OF the four series that this collection contains, "Storm of the century"( 2 DVDs) and "Red Rose" ( 2 DVDs) somehow overshadows the other 2. With these 4 in the collection along with "Shinning", you can have a great collection of scarry and out of the world videos. Moreover buying these 4 together in this collection is cheaper for my wallet too :-)

I thank the last reviewer for mentioning the Shakespearean influence. I kept wondering why the protagonist kept making such unrealistic soliloquies. Anyway, this movie had a terrible plot. The way in which a brother was killing his own brothers was very disheartening. It shifted the border from US-Mexico to Northern Cal-Southern Cal for some unexplained reason. Still, this movie was worth it for one reason: THE GUYS IN IT ARE KILLER HOT!!!! Que guapos! Almost every male character wears sleeveless undershirts to displaying their perfect torsos and sculptured arms. Simply beautiful!

Good prformances. It's an art gang picture that uses Shakespeare's Richard III. Low budget. Thoughtfuly photographed. Splendid art direction. Story is hard to fallow at times. But it's hubris in performances and directing make up for it. Cult Film. Fun!

I thank the last reviewer for mentioning the Shakespearean influence. I kept wondering why the protagonist kept making such unrealistic soliloquies. Anyway, this movie had a terrible plot. The way in which a brother was killing his own brothers was very disheartening. It shifted the border from US-Mexico to Northern Cal-Southern Cal for some unexplained reason. Still, this movie was worth it for one reason: THE GUYS IN IT ARE KILLER HOT!!!! Que guapos! Almost every male character wears sleeveless undershirts to displaying their perfect torsos and sculptured arms. Simply beautiful!

Good prformances. It's an art gang picture that uses Shakespeare's Richard III. Low budget. Thoughtfuly photographed. Splendid art direction. Story is hard to fallow at times. But it's hubris in performances and directing make up for it. Cult Film. Fun!

Somebody needs to say that all three of these star Tex Ritter and one is directed by serial expert John English.

I met a man who told me he had a large collection of westerns I asked him if he had any of Tex Ritters. His reply was he did`nt rate him as a western star or Roy Rogers, Lash Larue or any of the old Saturday cinema hero`s . I found it difficult to control myself. These were my boyhood hero`s. He only had the major stars James Stewart, Audie Murphy, John Wayne ect. Not that there is anything wrong with these people as they also rate highly in my own collection. But imagine my delight to find this on DVD and to be the first to review it..Don`t expect it to be first class quality as it is not it has scratches, it jumps and in one of the three movies a large piece is missing. But this is how I remember it from those bygone years when I was the front row kid in our local theatre now sadly gone and it is wonderful to see my great hero once again.Any of you who are the right age to remember those days I urge you to buy this DVD and to the people who produced it how about some more. Johnny Mack Brown, Charles Starret, Rocky Lane,Buck Jones and Tim McCOY are names that come to mind.

B.B. seemed tried or something but this is not one of his best efforts. It's always a pleasure to listen and watch Mr. King sing and play, but I prefer "The Jazz Channel Presents B.B. King (BET on Jazz)" for a recent effort.

And would someone please unplug Jeff Beck and tell him to go home - everyone else was playing the Blues - what in the world was that noise that he was making???

B.B. seemed tried or something but this is not one of his best efforts. It's always a pleasure to listen and watch Mr. King sing and play, but I prefer "The Jazz Channel Presents B.B. King (BET on Jazz)" for a recent effort.

And would someone please unplug Jeff Beck and tell him to go home - everyone else was playing the Blues - what in the world was that noise that he was making???