Collecting Movie Reviews

The performance of Grant as Bagnel, the schizophrenic advertising executive, is a masterpiece. Rachel Ward's performance is a little wooden but the rest of the cast are able to carry her along with them convincingly enough.

Let me warn you. Don't watch this if you're not prepared for it to make a lasting and life changing impact on your psyche. You'll never view an advertisement the same after seeing this picture. You may even find yourself with your head in a cardboard box making a video on global warming and carbon sinks -just like Bagnel. Get the local school to do a amateur production or even a rock eisteddfod on 'How to Get Ahead..'.

Considering this was made in 1989 the messages are brilliantly insightful and more relevant given recent global events. A modern classic.

I was so excited when this DVD came out. My feelings about it now are mixed. I love the stories themselves, and I'm willing to make allowances for graphics - it was only the eighties. It was sad to see so little in the way of extra features - make that nothing by the way of extra features, which was a severe letdown. The picture is often fuzzy and I get the impression it was put down in the mindset of "Let's just get this done".

Now, if you're buying it just for the stories (and as I said, you can look beyond skeptical graphics) - you shouldn't be disappointed. Take it in the spirit that it is meant. And I still think the thought lion from "The True Bride" is my favorite character, and Death from "A Soldier and Death" still gives me the creeps. So, set aside the adult, and watch "The Storyteller" for it's fundamental beauties - which are honest, good stories.

Henson's 'The Storyteller Collection' is a class act; a wonderful time capsule of when magic still existed in Fantasy, before digital effects completely suffocated the life out of the genre.

Our tale is set at an American military base in Canada (interesting to see a British film play about American-Canadian tensions like this). The locals start dropping dead, screaming in horror, and the thinking is that it has to have something to do with the base, maybe that "atomic radar" thing they are working on, but probably just some sort of psychotic American G.I. (and this years before Vietnam, please note). But Major Jeff Cummings (Marshall Thompson), second in command at the base, has his suspicions about Professor Walgate (Kynaston Reeves), a retired expert in psychic phenomenon. But a visit to the Professor's house reveals one of those great experiments gone horribly wrong that we so often find at the heart of films like this one.

The title "Fiend Without a Face" comes because for most of the movie the monsters are invisible (Steven Spielberg used this same approach with more success in "Jaws" and in both cases the rationale was more special effects problems that artistic sensibilities). I am not arguing this is a great horror film, but for a B-movie it does try to deliver for the final act. Yes, the killer mutant brains being invisible is problematic (a polite way of saying stupid, boys and girls), but there is something inherently appealing about the little killers once they pop up and starting hopping around in their cute little feeding frenzy. You can also have fun trying to figure out what there are more of in this film: horror movie clichés or killer brains (okay, clichés is the correct answer, but have fun counting both anyhow).

The songs on the Australian DVD that are missing on the American DVD are:

- New York State Of Mind
- The River Of Dreams
- We Didn't Start The Fire
- I Go To Extremes
- Leningrad
- The Downeaster 'Alexa'
- All About Soul

The songs on the American DVD that are missing on the Australian DVD are:

- Sometimes a Fantasy
- The Night Is Still Young
- Pressure
- Keeping the Faith
- Big Shot
- Los Angelenos

It depends on which Billy Joel songs you like, but for me I would rather have the American tracks because they capture an era when Billy was at his very best. Some American reviewers wish their DVD version had "River of Dreams", so the answer is to import it from Australia.

I'm tempted to buy the American DVD as well but seems like a bit of overlapping just to get 6 videos not available on the Australian DVD. The real solution is for DVD producers to release one definitive DVD version including ALL tracks!

And I agree with many consumers, we want music clip videos on music DVD's not concert videos (leave concert videos for full concert DVD's). I refer to videos like "Piano Man" which has been replaced with concert footage. Urgh!

Given all that, here are a few minor complaints:

1) Why couldn't they have put the "Video Album Vol. 1" video of "Piano Man" on this instead of a mediocre live version that we can already get on VHS or DVD? I mean, it's not like they're going to ever re-release the "Video Album" volumes on DVD.

2) Couldn't they have changed the sequence of the videos in some way (my preference would have been chronological) instead of just splicing together the two "Video Album" volumes and then tacking on the extra videos at the end.

3) I guess I can understand why they didn't include most of the videos found on the "Greatest Hits Vol. 3" video since that was released not too long ago but if you're gonna call it "The Essential Video Collection" then shouldn't it include ALL of his essential videos.

4) Would have been nice if they could have dug up a live clip or two of performing any of his hits from "The Stranger".

Overall this an excellent video collection and I would have rated it 5 stars but the complaints I listed above were enough for me to deduct 1 star.

Now, the complaints:
"Piano Man" should have just had the video instead of the Yankee Stadium footage.

I could have sworn Billy did a TV special in the mid-70s called "Tonight". This would have made a nice addition to the DVD. The promos to "Songs in the Attic" had to have some more footage so they could have at least put "Captain Jack" on there.
Other songs that should have had videos exclusive to the DVD (possibly interspersing the college lecture tours with the performances, similar to the CD box set of GH I-III): "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant", "Travellin Prayer","NY State of Mind", "Prelude/Angry Young Man", "Just the way You Are", "Only the Good Die Young", "Movin Out", "Vienna", "She's Always A Woman", "Root Beer Rag" (Which had a promo short cartoon ), "Summer Highland Falls", and "Miami 2017" (this would have been fine using the Yankee Stadium footage).

The Nylon Curtain tour was also released on home video as "Live From Long Island", and should be rereleased for DVD, as should the Russian concert. "Greatest Hits III" should have been repackaged and sold with this DVD to make it a more definitive collection.

The DVD of the film features an excellent video transfer with a so-so mono audio mix. Because this is an early effort from Criterion, the only extra you'll find here is a rather shabby theatrical trailer. Nowadays this would be disgraceful, but in 1998 (when the disc was first produced), it was about par for the course.

Unless you really, really like this film, consider a rental, not a purchase. Perhaps Criterion could re-issue _Shock Corridor_ with more extensive special features, as they've already done for Truffaut's _The 400 Blows_ and Cocteau's _Beauty and the Beast_.

This isn't to say that there is nothing redeeming in Try: many of the villians are quite well done, and the first half of the series, though not as good as the previous enstallments, still contained a healthy dose of Slayers goodness. The last 13 or so episodes, however, were a huge let down, and I haven't watched them again since my first time through.

SLAYERS TRY follows the same formula as the previous
season. The crew still includes hotheaded sorceress
Lina Inverse, drifty-blonde swordsman Gourry, justice
fanatic Princess Amelia, and cynical part-golem warrior
Zelgadis. The demonic smart-aleck priest Xellos
from the second season also is retained as an important
character.

SLAYERS TRY introduces a new character, Filia, a
dragon priestess in human form. Filia is pretty and
endearing, if sometimes overly feminine while having
major strength and destructive capabilities. However,
Filia is about the only thing that's really new
about SLAYERS TRY.

While SLAYERS TRY maintains the fair-to-competent
production qualities of earlier SLAYERS series, it
basically repeats the same general theme of its
predecessors: the gang is confronted and must
resolve an apocalyptic threat. SLAYERS TRY is nothing
particularly new, and if it is moderately entertaining
to watch it is not particularly memorable.

What is particularly disappointing about SLAYERS
TRY is that it does very little to advance the
relationships of the characters. The previous
SLAYERS NEXT series did seem to hint that there
were some changes in store, but the scriptwriters
were clearly unwilling to take the plunge and
change the scenario in any significant way.

Obviously this was done on the expectation that
there might be follow-on seasons for SLAYERS,
meaning the scriptwriters didn't want to paint
themselves into a corner by, say, marrying off
the characters or bringing out Xellos' barely
latent malevolent personality. With the final
result being too indifferent to support a fourth
season, it seems like they tried to dodge the bullet
and simply walked into it instead. (I would be
astounded if they *knew* they weren't going to
have a fourth season and *still* didn't bother
to stick their necks out.)

I suppose this does leave open the possibility
of tying up some loose ends with SLAYERS movies
in the future, but it is somewhat disappointing.
If you liked the earlier SLAYERS series, SLAYERS
NEXT is still worthwhile to complete the
collection, but if you weren't that impressed
by the earlier seasons, you won't get excited
over SLAYERS TRY.

Try enters the stage knowing how it seems an overdone battle between good and evil--of the great flairs of Slayers has always been the self-deprecating commentary--but Try is not about a battle between good and evil; it is a battle between hope and despair. The creators seem to have attempted to blur the lines between good and evil--and they succeeded. What we find are not immaculate heroes squaring off against debased villains, as was the case before, when it was readily apparent that Gaav and Phibrizzo were well rooted in the side of evil. Instead we find characters that are flawed, fallen, but not inherently good or evil. We find a struggle in Almayce and his Overworld companions over the risks of destroying one world to save another; we find the Golden Dragons that serve the Fire Dragon King acting for what they believe is good, but willing to accomplish that goal through horrible means. Finally we have Valgaav, who is drowning in despair and hatred and yet still possesses a compassion that, while twisted, is still admirable.

What we see in Try is not the forces of good confronting the tides of evil, but people--be they dragon, human, monster, or god--each with their own often conflicting agendas, struggling to save the world they live in the best way they know how.

And yet, Try still preserves the natural Slayers flair, the comedy and slapstick, the evergoing quest for more food. I challenge any Slayers fan to examine this series in the light of the others, to trace the maturation of the characters from the onset of the first series to the conclusion of Try, to find the depth that yet exists in a story that is not inherently complex yet carries a beauty all its own.

the film is an exploration of (1)madness and (2)the shadow, under hypnosis a police detective reverts back to a case 13yrs back involving the lotto murders in an unnamed post-apocalyptic european ciy, where he uses a technique drawn out in a book called the element of crime, involving the investigator coming to assume the mindset of the killer, a man by the name of harry gray, suspected of subversive activities. it gets thicker.

there is meaning behind the malice, truly.