Collecting Movie Reviews

The DVD includes some of Flair's most famous feuds and matches with Harley Race, Dusty Rhodes, Barry Windham, Ricky Steamboat, Terry Funk, and Sting plus all the important promos & controversies surrounding some of his greatest feuds.

The Matches Include:
Ric Flair vs. ... (shown in their entirety)

1. Harley Race in a Cage at Starrcade '83 (11.24.83)
-->Five Bonus Features, Pre-Match & Post-Match Interviews
2. Dusty Rhodes Starrcade (11.28.85)
-->Six Bonus Features
3. Barry Windham World Wide Wrestling (01.20.87)
-->Five Bonus Features including Flair v. Windham (1.13.87)
4. Ricky Steamboat Clash of the Champions VI (04.2.89)
5. Ricky Steamboat "The Greatest Match" WrestleWar (5.7.89)
-->Three Bonus Features including Flair & Windham v. Steamboat & Gilbert (1.21.89) and "Flair Calls Out Steamboat from Clash of the Champions V (2.15.89), Controversy Recap with Five Features including Pre-Match Interviews.
6. Terry Funk I Quit Match Clash of the Champions IX (11.15.89)
-->Six Bonus Features, Pre-Match Interviews
7. Royal Rumble (01.19.92)
-->Six Bonus Features including Royal Rumble Post-Match Interview
8. Sting Undisputed World Title Unification Clash of the Champions XXVII (06.23.94)
-->Three Bonus Features including Sting gets kicked out of the Four Horsemen and Pre-Match Interview.
9. Triple H on RAW (5.19.03)
-->Plus all the footage from the RAW post-show tribute that has never-been-seen on television.
*This is worth the price of the DVD all by itself.

Bonus Features Include:
1. Debut match with the WWWF vs. Pete Sanchez (3.1.76)
2. History of the Four Horseman
3. A day in the life of the Four Horsemen from WWE Confidential
4. The Plane Crash
5. Flair's WWE TV Debut on Prime Time Wrestling (9.9.91)
6. PWI Wrestler of the Decade Presentation (11.15.89)
7. A Workout with Rowdy Roddy Piper in the NWA (1.24.82)
8. The Final Nitro Speech

BONUS: 6 Hidden Easter Eggs:

Easter Egg #1
Disc 1: To the the "Chapters" menu and then highlight "Barry Windham: Keeping up with the champ" and press right on your remote. You will then see a promo with Flair talking about Tully Blanchard, Dusty Rhodes, Magnam TA, and Nikita Koloff and ribs Buddy Landell while he is in the ring.

EASTER EGG #2
Disc 1: Go to the "Chapters" menu and then into the Dusty Rhodes menu. Highlight Flair cuts a promo and press left, you see Flair cutting a promo about being the Champ.

EASTER EGG #3
Disc 2: Go to the "Chapters" menu again, highlight "A Day in the Life of the Horsemen", press left on your remote. Now you will see a promo with Flair talking about being the best and also talking about Jimmy Garvin and the Freebirds.

EASTER EGG #4
Disc 3: On the main menu highlight "Play" press left on your remote and it will highlight the WWE logo in the top left corner of the screen. Hit enter and there is a promo of Flair's talking about the Greatness of the Horsemen and also talks about the Freebirds, and the Road Warriors.

EASTER EGG #5
Disc 3: Go into the "Chapters" menu Highlight "The Final Nitro" in the "Special night in Greenville" menuand press left and you see Flair talking about coming up with the WOOOOO! and you see stars such as Lance Storm, Al Snow, Golddust, Coach, Josh Matthews, Ivory, and many many more stars and staff members doing the famous "WOOOO!"

EASTER EGG #6
Disc 3: In the "Special night in Greenville" section.... Highlight the word "MAIN"..... Press right and it will highlight the Beer can in Flairs hand press enter and you will see Flair's Full Titan Tron video

This is the best wrestling DVD (three DVD's to be correct) ever produced. If you own one wrestling DVD make it this one. I cannot say enough about the unbelieveable matches, history, pre & post-match interviews, behind the scenes information, and easter eggs that are contained on these three discs. This is definitely a step in the right direction for WWE Home Video.

Overall, it's fun stuff! Some of these films are so over the top and absurd that one cannot help but laugh. My personal favorite is "Fingered," specifically the scene where Lydia Lunch fires the gun into the air while laying across the hood of the car.

Not a DVD the whole family can enjoy, but if you're open minded and intelligent you're in for a treat.

But just in case we needed it, it's here. But who put this collection together? It's got the greats like 'JFK' 'Born On the Forth of July' and 'Wallstreet' but it also has Stone's follies such as 'U Turn' 'Heaven and Earth' 'Talk Radio' 'The Doors' and 'Any Given Sunday.' I believe Roger Ebert explained that when a man puts out gold five days a week he's entitled to put out lead on the weekend.

Why are we reliving the horrors that even the most hardened Stone fan (like me) couldn't stand? This is clearly an attempt to get fools to spend [this much] by mixing classic films in with bad ones.

Stone began his career as a sci-fi screen writer (remember 'Conan the Barbarian') who did some part time directing (remember 'The Hand') His first hit came with 'Scareface' in 1983. By 1986 he had two Oscars under his belt and was the hottest director in Hollywood. Just when you thought things couldn't get any better, they did. Unlike most directors his films just got better and better.

But with his last film in 1999 and his last good film in 1995 Stone is not exactly a big name today.

Stone was the defining director of the late 80s and early 90s. Not only was his directing great but his films gave us a hard look at modern America. No one can take that away from him.

Here's the real lowdown.
Platoon
Wallstreet
Born on the Forth of July
JFK
Natural Born Killers
Nixon

My first impression (an all female group?) scremed, "cheesy!", but the animation is good, the story is fun to follow, and the characters very human. After a few episodes my view went from over-all negative to actually looking forward to catching the next show.

Parents may be pleased to know that the women are not scantily clad. In fact, you could describe a few as professional / business like. There are some nifty monsters, some creepy scenes, and technobabble so I wouldn't suggest it for very young viewers.

~Mysk

The villians are creatures called Lucifer Hawks which are demons. In a bizzare twist of fate they become connected to our world and start screwing things up royally by eatting people and such (we're their food source, oh joy). That's where our heros come in. While it may sound like it reduces to a Power Rangers or Sailer Moon type of ordeal, each battle has its own unique twist that makes it interesting and makes use of each characters powers. There's also half human/lucifer hawks that cause Katsumi and pals much grief later on as well. In fact, I liked every villian as well. They were intelligent, and had their own unique motive for why they do what they do. It's rare to see a bad guy not being bad just for the sake of it now days.

The music is also welcome, from the excellent beginning theme to the in show tracks which play. After hearing it I bought the sound track just to get Forbidden Pause. If you know me personally, you'd know that I'm very picky about my music. But this sound track just clicks just right and you'll be humming it while walking around work and such.

All in all this is one of the few rare animes which has no glaring flaws, just 1 annoying character. The stories are well thought out, the animation is excellent, the music is soothing, the characters act like actual people and not sex objects, the voice acting is good, and the villians are great. I will admit that some battles did get kinda cheesy when the monsters shout "It's the AMP!" like it was Mr T and the A-Team busting onto the scene or something, but on a whole this is 1 anime that you should not miss. Why it's not popular I'll never know, but if you can spread the good word after watching it, that will hopefully change.

This is no rip-off ladies and gentlemen, this is Silent Mobius, the 1980's pop-culture manga phenomemnon remastered for this century. It's EXCELLENT.

Silent Mobius follows the adventures of Katsumi Liquer, a young woman who is indeed a mage in 21st century Tokyo, post apocolypse style. It turns out her father, archmage Gigelf had secrets, inlcluding unlocking the gate to NEMESIS, and relesing the flesh-eatting Lucifer Hawk upon the unsuspecting planet. In this wild and original blend of technology and magic, the all-female AMP (Attack Mystification Police) battles the Lucifer Hawk. With romance, plot twists, secrets untold and pleanty of beautiful women, this anime is sure to please both men and women alike. The animation is beautiful, as is Kia Asayama's art style. The dubbing was fairly good actually.

The opening theme 'Kindan no Pense' or 'Forbiden Thoughts' is excellent, as is the opening animation. The background music was also excellent, bordering classical.

All of the characters are PEOPLE, adding to the show. Katsumi in particular is constantly plagued by her own inner demons, especially later in the series. We also see Kiddy Phenil, who has a dirty secret all her own.

All in all, this is definetely something ANY anime fan should get. It's a classic, and a stunning one at that.

A viewer, you have obviously just recently been introduced to anime. I've seen 150+ titles, and this is in my top 10.

Buy this, pat yourself on the back, watch it, and then watch it again.

Overall grade: 9/10

**Because Lum Cheng annoys me!

The collection is fun on many levels. It works almost as a “Before They Were Stars”, as many future superstars like Shawn Michaels, Randy Savage, Rick Rude, Bobby Heenan, Tully Blanchard, and others can be seen in their formative years, before they achieved stardom in major promotions like the WWF or WCW. You also get to see many classic pre-1985 matches, such as Rock `n’ Roll Express vs. Lanny Poffo and Randy Savage, Harley Race vs. Terry Funk for the NWA World Title, Jerry Lawler vs. Nick Bockwinkle for the AWA World title, and others. I personally enjoyed the chance to see many legendary wrestlers that I’ve heard much about, but never really got much of a chance to see perform, such as Dick the Bruiser, The Sheik, Bobo Brazil, Ray Stevens, and Pepper Gomez (although the matches featuring these performers tend to be at the end of their careers as opposed to in their prime).

The best feature of the collection is the “Insiders Commentary” provided by Wrestling Observer Newsletter editor Dave Meltzer, and legendary manager/promoter Jim Cornette. This commentary provides expert insight, personal recollections, and historical context to the matches featured in this series. Both Meltzer and Cornette are true wrestling historians. Listening to their insiders commentary is almost like taking a class in the history and evolution of the wrestling business.

But w/ this collection on DVD, just the quality alone makes it worth watching, but for me, the greatest part is the additional commentary from Wrestling Observer frontman Dave Meltzer and Jim Cornette. If you are a wrestling insider "junkie" as I am, and love to learn about the history of the SPORT of pro wrestling, the commentary from these 2 will certainly give you your fix. The biographies I could have done without, but the whole set is great. A completely different world from today's "sports entertainment" wrestling. I hope they are planning a 2nd edition.

Miss Marple is a noticing kind of elderly woman who lives in the Village of Saint Mary Mead. Occasionally she travels hither and thither to visit friends or take advantage of a lovely trip planned by a nephew. She always has her knitting needles in hand, working on a baby blanket or a sweater for a nephew. Jane Marple--Godmother and Aunt to several young people--I wish I had known her personally--but this is the next best thing after the books. "There she goes, tail up and head down" on the trail of another murderer--and she will get her man or woman as the case may be.

I agree with the reviewer who said one doesn't buy these DVDs with the expectation of Criterion remastering. Even so, the quality of the films on these DVDs is pretty darn good. I collect Criterion DVDs and expect them to be the fully restored works of art they are. However, some of the films Criterion has restored were so badly damaged they are NOT better than the Miss Marple films even when Criterion has done it's best. Also, many of the Criterion films are Black and White films from the 1930s and 1940s and of interest because of their filmography and/or the innovative techniques their directors employed. Some of these films were shot on a shoestring budget and it shows. Technology has improved dramatically since the 40s. The reason I buy the older Criterion films is to see how clever directors worked around technological constraints.

Call me blind, but I think the quality of the Miss Marple tv films is pretty good. Although some outdoor scenes are faded in spots (the films were shot in color) the director had access to camerawork not available in the 40s. Also, these scripts are excellent and filled with interesting detail. Most Criterion films average 1-2 hours of playing time (not counting the "perks" which you may or may not be interested in) whereas Series 2 of the Miss Marple films offers the viewer 500 wonderful minutes.

I am grateful that I have access to DVD copies of the Miss Marple stories, and I can watch them any time I want to. When I am watching them, I am reminded of life in the days when I was a young girl. Plus, today's tv entertainment is pretty much directed to the younger set whereas the Miss Marple films are probably better appreciated by older folks like me who lived through the forties and fifties--or younger folks who wish they had.

The British actors in the BBC productions are consumate professionals. Joan Hickson was told by Agatha Chistie that she thought Hickson was the BEST Miss Marple ever! Incidentally, I believe Ms. Hickson appears in the Criterion version of THE LADY VANISHES and I know she is in one of the Margaret Rutherford films. If you've read Christie's novels, you know Hickson fits the description of Miss Marple far better than Margaret Rutherford. Christie described Miss Marple as tall and thin with fine white hair and twinkly blue eyes--a gentle person in a cardigan sweater carrying a bag with her knitting needles and latest project--not an agressive broad in a tweed suit. Many other fine British actors are featured in these films--Joss Ackland, Claire Bloom, Rosemary Crutchly all favorites of mine who can out perform the "mega" stars any day of the week.

I love the vintage settings, costumes, clothing, china, knick-knacks and bric-a-brac, jewelry, shoes, hats, handbags, luggage, handkerchiefs--nothing is missing. I still own a handkerchief sachet with hand embroidered handkerchiefs my grandmother made --and one makes a very important appearance in a Miss Marple tale. The BBC maintains a museum in Stratford on Avon where one can view the costumes and other props used in various productions. The Miss Marple films give me a vicarious thrill and a trip down memory lane. Tea anyone??

The basic plot of this experimental fantasy is simple: Queen Elizabeth I has the historical alchemist John Dee summon the spirit Ariel and transport all of them 400 years into the future, where they find London a post-apocalyptic wasteland. The talented Jenny Runacre plays both Queen Elizabeth and the anarchic latter-day "queen" Bod, who leads an all-female biker gang.

Made in 1977, at the height of the Punk movement, Jubilee has misleadingly been called a "Punk movie." Despite its trappings (from clothing to casting several well-known singers), ultimately it seems more about Punk than of it. How Jarman uses then-rising star Adam Ant is revealing. With his sweetly boyish persona - made just a bit wild by the black leather and painted-on lower sideburns - Adam Ant as "Kid" is undeniably appealing. But throughout he is as passive offstage as he is frenzied onstage. And Kid, unable to connect with anyone, will do anything for his career. He signs with the grotesque Borgia Ginz, the multinational mogul who controls the entire planet's media - hence political, even religious - power structure. Ginz immediately rechristens Kid as "Scum. That's commercial. It's all [the audience] deserves." One of the film's most haunting images is of Kid lasciviously kissing his own image on a TV. How's that for a postmodern twist on the myth of Narcissus?

Beyond the Punk movement, Jarman turned to many diverse sources to flesh out his vision for Jubilee. It's powerful on its own terms, without any need for "footnoting," but the wide-ranging references create a fascinating texture. He uses film (notably Cocteau's Blood of a Poet, Godard's La Chinoise, Pasolini's Oedipus Rex, and Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange), literature (Huxley's Brave New World, Orwell's 1984; also his pastiche Elizabethan dialogue is beautiful: "I cast for Ariel, pearl of fire, my only star...."), history and myth (suggested by character names, from the historical female ruler of ancient Britain, Bodicea - i.e., "Bod" - and the Borgias to mythical figures like Sphinx and Angel), and even dance club culture (characters named Amyl Nitrate and Crabs). He is also one of the most creatively playful of modern filmmakers, and that schoolboyish "let's put on a show" energy keeps his films, even with their density of themes, buoyant and wonderfully entertaining.

Jarman also brings great emotional resonance through his characters (most of whom he cast from friends and lovers). I was often surprised by how much I cared about these eccentric, and sometimes lethal, allegorical people. Although each viewer will bond with different characters, I was most moved by the "triangle" between the two teasingly incestuous brothers, Sphinx and Angel (who utters the classic line, "I didn't know I was dead till I was 15"), and the artist Viv (whom Jarman described, affectionately, as a "butch dyke"). Their tangled connections, although genuinely caring, never reach true equality: The two men, on one level, can be seen as using the woman as a way of enhancing their own (masculine, even incestuous) relationship. Still, they become all the more affecting at the film's climax (which I will not divulge).

There is so much more to Jubilee than I can suggest in the brief space here: It is visually gorgeous (Jarman is a master of composition and lighting; he began as a painter, and stage and film designer), makes fascinating use of music (from Punk to classical) and sound effects, offers a provocative series of ideas about history (as Amyl says, "History still fascinates me. It's so intangible. You can weave facts anywhere you like. Good guys can swap places with bad guys"), media manipulation and artistic narcissism and audience passivity, and, ultimately, the duality of beauty and anarchy, which are perhaps two sides of the same double mirror.

It's wild and beautiful, and some scenes (Jordan's interpretation of "Rule Britannia", the club-scene in Westminster-cathedral etc.etc. !!!) are simply miraculous.

See it, and you will find one of the important sources where the imagery of so many films of the 80's and 90's derive from, even if such a bizarre, tasteful punk-poetry like in "Jubilee" rarely has been attained since.

It's a highly elegic and even moral movie, Jarman sadly glances at our time, and one has to admit that many things have gone quite accurately in the direction Jarman predicted in 1978.

After having seen so many un-modern movies (i.e. neo-monumental, neo-melodramatic, neo-hyperrealistic films) in the last decade, watching "Jubilee" is like diving in fresh, cool water after a long walk in the desert.

By the way, Criterion did, as usual, a fine job; don't miss the excellent documentary!!!