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Reviews
Miracle Landing (1990)
The Best Aircraft Disaster Movie I Ever Saw
As an ex cabin crew member or flight attendant in US terms, I have to say this film is one of the most accurate and well filmed movies I have ever seen regarding an aircraft disaster.
Many times in the past, I have watched these movies where the aircraft takes off as a B727 then in flight is a DC10 and lands as a MD87. Through out this movie, accuracy was excellent! I flew for a leading UK airline in the 1980's and remember reports of this disaster coming through. It was all the more relevant since I actually flew on the B737-200, which is exactly the type shown in this movie.
I found little if anything wrong with the movie, in fact am astonished at how it was so well put together considering it was probably a TV movie with a lower budget than big Hollywood blockbusters.
The aerial shots of the B737 in "cabriolet" mode were excellent. Cabriolet is what we called them after we heard what happened to the B737's fuselage. All out B737s were immediately grounded and checked, and then went on to have major refits and strengthening was undertaken.
My last flight on a B737-200 was in December 1992 and shortly after, they were withdrawn.
This film was excellent viewing and I recommend it to all people who take a blasé view of the role pilots AND cabin crew on board. Without well trained staff, passengers would die in such an incident.
2012 (2009)
2012-overhyped, under researched & total waste of space
So...I saw the 5 min 21 sec trailer on You Tube in HD, I watched that and thought, wow, from the maker of Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow, this is gonna be good. HOW WRONG WAS I! I drove down the coast to Miramar Cinemas, Malaga, Spain in anticipation. 3 of us had bought our tickets on-line to see the "V.O" version, ("Version Original") so, no subtitles in Spanish, just the film as it came from the distributor. There are versions called "V.O.S" (Version Original Subtitulado) - Subtitled in Spanish. As there are many English speaking people living in these parts, the theatre was quite full, all ages settled down and then the experience began. The opening scene includes an opening caption which is in the original film, placing us at present day, HOWEVER, the film had Spanish subtitles under that caption - IRRITATING, which will be very obvious later. My friend sat next to me asked what it was about, and I told him the film was based on prophecies and the Mayan Calendar, and we settled back to watch. My first issue, as is with most of these films, is why STILL after all that happened on September 11th, do American Studios STILL put the main film build up or explanations of things from a very biased US stand point. After 911 I would have thought the US would have "got it" as to why they were attacked - FOR ARROGANCE, yet here we get a portrayal of a 2009 where the US ONCE again is the policeman of the world, the wise older brother to the rest of the world, made out to look like morons. IRRITATED me intensely. The US President (a black one which I liked) of course is in charge and Europe as minions listen to instruction and do as they are told, as do Japan and China - IRRITATING. I was sitting waiting for some sort of scientific accuracy as to what happens in Tectonic movements, but they came up with some ridiculous "Nuclear" or "Neutrino" ray activity to penetrate the Earth, this weakening its core - RUBBISH. We move on swiftly to 2010 and now things have moved on way too fast with some kind of special vessels being built in a secret location, kept secret from the world. A world which is 2010 has such things as Twitter and MySpace as good communication tools, yet we are supposed to think that 8 massive structures being built somewhere secret will remain that way in this day and age when Iran's near revolution was broken on Twitter - IRRITATING. All the scientists are scurrying around building their humanity saving transport, with no regard to cost, that is just explained away as a "rich Russian" and a couple of caricature "Arabs" paid for the construction of these vessels - IRRITATING. The way this film just explains things so simply was MADDENING! John Cusack is a divorced man working as a chauffeur for rich, yes, you got it, Russians", how convenient. He slowly begins to see strange uttering between the privileged few who have "bought" their way onto these vessels for Salvation and wants to find out more. So, naturally he goes with his 2 kids to Yellowstone Park in his truck for a camping overnighter, he strays into a previously free to the public area, now fenced off, he jumps over the fence with absolutely no security there to stop him and wander into what was once a lake area. Here he is apprehended and meets the main Scientist who conveniently has read one of his books - IRRELEVANT - now is apparent to the plot is completely awash with errors and forgotten loose ends that aren't tied up in any way later on in the "film". Why bring things in if they had no intention of developing the fact that John Cusack's character was a rather under rated author, after this mention, the matter of him being an author and actually a chauffeur as a supplementary job, goes out the window - PLOT IRRITATION.
UK Beef Bangers (2008)
The Best Gay Sex Movie Probably Ever Made
Stunning performances, not over acted, natural.
Fun loving guys doing what they like to do best.
Excellent performance by Cristian Torrent in his debut film.
Shot in London October 2007, using many well known London locations.
This movie moves swiftly through its scenes, giving the viewer exactly what he wishes to see.
Excellent, recommended, 2 DVD set.
Approximately 3 hours of full on sex.
Not recommended for under 18's! If you have to get a porno movie, get this one first in your collection, it will never be out of your DVD player! Cannot wait for the BlueRay version!
Meteor (1979)
Typical 1970's clap trap on a worldwide level
Every stereo type is here. Russians are evil, Americans are wonderful, the rest of the world does not exist except as onlookers.
Were we all really stupid enough to get on a bus, wait in line and go into a cinema to watch this? I noticed the special effects were made by people out of the Blue Peter school of special effects. A Boeing 707 lands with the Russians on board...The USSR at that time would NOT own Boeing aircraft, especially to transport their people around internationally.
Awful film, skip it. A real shame so many BIG stars made this, I suppose the money was good.
The Mothman Prophecies (2002)
Very good, I was not sure of facts about this town and it's unusual occurrances
Just finished watching this movie, Richard Gere was very good.
Apparently from having read some reviews now, some weird things happened in this town and this film puts a different slant on what may have been the causes.
I will go and google the town and see what comes up as now I am intrigued. I will not give anything away, it is worth watching, this film certainly starts out as a standard, they have some trouble in the car type story.
What happens afterwards I have never seen tackled in a film, so hats off to those who made this film! Recommended watching!
House of Sand and Fog (2003)
Excellent film, no twists but very good
We did not catch this movie right at the start but got straight into the movie where the girl who had lost the house had hurt her foot. We hope to find out after writing the review how that happened, but we guessed she's lost the house, wanted it back from the Iranian family who had bought it at auction.
She befriends a police officer who tries to scare the family into selling back the house that originally was the girl's parents's house but as the Iranian family honourably had bought it, saw no reason to sell it back to her. The policeman took it further, the girl through circumstances decided to recoil and withdraw, circumstances take over and tragedy ensues.
A gripping film, full of misunderstanding.
With the recent spate of US high school shootings, this was a timely reminder to US citizens to think again about gun law.
The ridiculous way one can get a gun easier than a bottle of whisky in the US makes Europe seem a sanctity of security.
Had a gun not been available as easily, the outcome of this film would have been different.
As a film, passed over by critics, a shame as the two hours passed so fast, with excellent performances by all through.
D
ABBA in Concert (1980)
Pure Brilliance
ABBA were never known as a live act. In fact in their hey day, they were accused of being a hit machine. This nowadays is rejected, the ins and outs of each ABBA song is now well documented to have been a very complicated derivation of a song from its early stages to its completed form.
ABBA In Concert is ABBA at their best, recently released on DVD the show flows through their gruelling US tour. A small insight into the group's day to day lives is included, but mainly the music is concentrated on.
I recently watched Madonna's Confessions on the Dancefloor Show on TV, now also out on DVD, this show by Madonna had undertaken many hours of editing, overdubbing and to be frank was a fraud. She did not sound anything like this in reality, she was taken into the studio and redid many of the vocals.
This in ABBA's In Concert DVD is evidently not done, the group is shown performing live as live was intended, with absolutely no overdubs and a true live sound. The difference between a Madonna "live" concert and an ABBA Live concert is massive, Madonna defrauded the viewer, ABBA played it live as true professionals, and I respect ABBA for having shown the world that they were TRUE artists and not frauds like many of the stars of today with all their fake voice enhancements.
Long live ABBA, they will be remembered for far longer than a Madonna or anything produced in today's throw away music world.
Ghosts of Mars (2001)
Rubbish
Mars does not have any oxygen, a tiny little overlooked fact, and I do not believe that by "Terraforming" another planet to suit human preferences washes at all with anyone with half a brain.
Dump this movie in the bin, utter rubbish, violence for violence's sake, no respect for human life, shoot shoot and shoot your way out of trouble, still that is what US is doing in Iraq, so we'd expect it on Mars wouldn't we.
The audacity of a nation to assume they will be the sole colonisors of a planet that is not even theirs, the arrogance of assuming US will go to Mars, put up their pirate flag and claim it for the good ole US of A makes my blood boil. This film simply propagates US imperialist aspirations, as they are more or less done with ruining planet Earrth, they now set their sights on another planet to decimate and ruin.
Dump this movie, wake up and get real! D
54 (1998)
Fun times, lewd times, fun all the way!
Loved this film, I was just a little late coming into the "disco" scene as it was called in 78, I was more into ABBA, but by the 80's ABBA was over and HI NRG music was my thing.
This film is brilliant! Although I never attended Studio 54, there were equivalents in London, Heaven, The Roof Garden on a Sunday night, and The Hippodrome on a Monday night. This reminds me of those times.
Decadence, drinking, excess, I never partook in drugs but I certainly drank champagne like it was water. I spent hundreds of pounds on a Sat, Sun and Mon night, I danced, and I had sex, sex, sex, anywhere and everywhere! Then AIDS rearer its head and it pretty much was over.
AIDS is mentioned in "54", as are drugs and booze, it was all an excess in every extreme, a wonderful era, that had its casualties, me included, who went on to be an alcoholic.
Now cured of alcohol, self restraint and will power got me through, I returned to London's club scene and the equivalents are here now today too, HardOn, an overt and open minded sex club in London, a monthly affair, where there is free love, gay sex in every corner, live sex shows, scary live acts where I saw one man "branded" with a scalpel, another man had his genitalia burned with a Bunsen burner while the crowd looked on unimpressed! Decandence returned to London, whether this level of debauchery will ever return to the newly cleaned up New York is another matter.
Studio 54 brings back fond memories, great music tracks and a joie de vivre that now can still be found if you know where to look.
Enjoyed immensely, I recommend this film to all open minded people out there! I so wish I was 20 again! Still, at 43 I am back out and doing much the same, just with the brakes on a little, so I can make it to 65! :-)
2010 (1984)
Disappointing sequel, obviously not made in the spirit of the original!
Having watched 2001 and was impressed, this sequel falls down in so many places.
Whereas 2001 was art, this is a simple "semi" action movie. 2001 used classical music where space is silent and a vacuum, 2010 uses 80 electro rubbish as music.
All references to the cold war should have been left on the cutting room floor, it is presumptuous to have believed that the Soviet Union would still be in existence in 1999/2001, as it is presumptuous that the USA will still exist as a unified country in say 2025 or before.
(I predict the USA will also unravel much like the USSR did in 1991). The sooner the better, once the USA's arrogance is gone from this planet the better chances this planet has to survive into the future.
This arrogance is apparent in this US made non internationalist movie, too much is made of the evil Soviets and the "Hot dog" loving Americans who of course are humans and the Soviets are something less than human - utter American 1980's paranoia. Had the USA done its espionage correctly during the 80's they will have seen from high above in their spy satellites that the Soviet Union was in fact a flawed and buckled society which outwardly tried to give an image to the world of integrity and strength, and in 1991 that inner falsehood came to the fore and the Soviet Union disappeared overnight.
Yet again, Americans are the only level headed people in movie land, this arrogant film with not so much as a mention of any other world powers or even a reference to their roots - Europe in this film, makes this attempt at resolving the 2001 film a truly sad, arrogant, self obsessed, paranoid film with absolutely no forward thinking attributes like its predecessor 2001 - A Space Oddysey.
Stanley Kubrik although an American, had an internationalist outlook of the world, must have taken one look at the script and idea in this sequel, screamed with fright and run out of the door.
If ever you have this film on TCM to view, skip it, it's utter rubbish.
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)
What awful and totally inaccurate drivel!
So the 1980's spawned lots of big movies about famous but legendary characters from Medieval times.
Did the people, especially the men in Robin Hood's time have "Mullet" haircuts? Kevin Costner has a "mullet" haircut, the Sheriff of Nottingham has one, what rubbish! Maybe Duran Duran influenced Robin Hood's hair stylist? Did American accents exist in Medieval times? Seems like Kevin Costner just couldn't shake off his American twang for this heap of dung of a film.
Another example of America re-writing the history books such as the submarine film where it was a British capture of a German U boat, only to be rewriiten as US forced who captured the submarine and to boot they also take the credit for finding the Enigma machine, which was actually captured by the British and taken to England's Bletchley Park where British code breakers cracked the code. NOT America! ARROGANCE!
A black man as a friend of Robin? Surely the slave trade and the following freedom of black people came 100's of years later! Politically correct I assume to put a black character in, but all I felt is that it was a token gesture. I am all for black characters in films, but if a film is to be taken seriously as an account of a mythical legend, then more attention to detail should be followed.
I died laughing this evening, thank God I didn't go to the movies to watch this rubbish. D
Commander in Chief (2005)
Best Programme On TV!
I have to say, I am absolutely hooked on this programme! What a fantastic President! Oh boy the USA needs a woman president! Geena Davis is absolutely perfect and the cast are excellent! The West Wing sometimes was a bit too complex and the dialogue was made at a 100 miles an hour it was hard to keep up. This show is far better, is more realistic, has all ethnic minorities in respected places, gay men, nice people and all the make up of the USA. She is seen as a little gem by her staff, her staff are all there because of their strengths not by being a friend of a friend who has a military corporation like this current president has. This current US president simply looks after his friends, causes conflicts and war to keep his friends paid.
A woman president would think twice about sending sons and daughters into illegal wars like the current US president has done.
Roll on Hillary Clinton, I hope she watches this programme, she could learn a lot from this excellent show! Diego
Raise the Titanic (1980)
Utter Rubbish
I remember this film coming out in 1980, I think I even went to see it at the cinema.
I remember then that I thought it was utter rubbish.
America the good in another excuse for a confrontation of good against evil, in this case Russia. I do seem to recall that at the time of The Titanic going down, there was no cold war. So to make a film where America the good is in a battle against time to beat Russia to the "Byzantium" is a country purely self obsessed and blinkered to think it has any right to go down and get the Titanic up, which I recall was a British ship.
This is a terrible film, made by an arrogant and self obsessed USA, yet again, an example of that country's arrogance and why it is so hated today by many.
I urge, delete this film from your thoughts, it has been proved the ship is in pieces any small amount of research would have come up with a probability of such a big ship hitting the sea bed and remaining in tact is pure darn right stupidity, as is this film.
D
Dynasty: The Making of a Guilty Pleasure (2005)
What a hoot! The series was tacky and so is this!
Well well, I loved Dynasty in the 80's, watched it religiously for the ridiculous plot, terrible acting and the fabulous clothes and situations.
It is only fitting that a show about Dynasty should share the campiness of the original!
They certainly made fun of Dynasty, surely this is NOT a serious chronicle as it is so entertaining I am loving every minute!
The actors picked to play the originals are great! And there actually is some really good acting. It must be hard for a real actor to "pretend" to act badly!
Roll on the Dallas remake, and hopefully Dynasty will return to our screen in a film too!
Love it!
Diego UK
Dark Skies (1996)
I discovered this show in the UK on ITV 4
Have to say I was a little surprised it was shown here on ITV 4, a channel known for rubbish game shows and late night gaming.
A pleasant series, often very corny, and of course only the United States can be trusted to save the world.
That is when I lost all interest. It is the United States that is the most dangerous at the moment, perhaps a series of that country's blunders throughout history would be of more interest.
But about the show, enough of this "aliens" in human bodies, it has been done before and is not original. It is obviously that the TV channel cannot be bothered to make convincing aliens that we have to endure the "aliens in human form" rubbish yet again.
Get some imagination and be adventurous!
D
ABBA: The Movie (1977)
Brilliant
Pure brilliance This group were genius This film shows them at their most professional
I am a fan and I have to say this is one of the most realistic movies about a pop group ever
I recommend it totally, no bad language, no sex, pure entertainment.
All the hits are here from their early to mid career.
Agnetha Benny Bjorn and Frida certainly knew how to put on a show.
Many rare insights into the working of a pop tour.
Take your children to see, get it on DVD and be rest assures the children and your grandparents will all love this movie.
Rough Air: Danger on Flight 534 (2001)
21st century airline rubbish
Just watched yet another airline disaster.
2 flight attendants on a long haul flight, rubbish.
A pilot pulled off passenger list and made to fly in place of an out of hours pilot, rubbish.
Aircraft shown takes off as one aircraft, looks totally different in air, again looks different on landing. Special effects rubbish, looked like a school project.
Decompression: No masks appear automatically for ages, no automatic announcement made due to decompression.
No landing emergency drill followed, no brace positions called out for emergency landing by either Captain or flight attendants.
Why do the film studios not get an airline adviser in and ask what the drills are for such occurrences. Utter rubbish, corny lines and unknown actors who will no doubt never work again.