George-Miller Movie Reviews

It dawned a rainy day here in Pennsylvania. My five year old woke up with the flu, feeling positively miserable. I reached into my secret stash of Christmas gifts and pulled out the Eloise movie (recently purchased).

Let me tell you, this sweet, funny movie made my daughter giggle, even through her body aches and upset tummy.

This movie is a brilliant, absolutely fabulous. The casting was wonderful. Julie Andrews as a totally different kind of Nanny is funny and warm. Sophia V, the girl who plays Eloise, is hilarious and extremely talented. The Plaza in the 50s comes to life through the colorful, elegant sets.

Get this movie. It is adorable and fun.

I know this sounds silly but after watching "Eloise at the Plaza" I really wished Disney could finish the making of ALL four Eloise movies in just ONE year, so that Sofia Vassilieva would stay the same all along -- I mean, this fun-loving six-year-old girl hopping around New York City for all kinds of adventures... Of course they can always have Julie Andrews come back as the "rawther" wonderful Nanny, and Jeffrey Tambor as the "definitely glass half-empty type" Mr. Salamone, even Weenie the dog and Skipperdee the turtle -- these characters would still look the same. But Sofia is growing up (she was nine when this one was filmed, and by the time the next sequel -- Eloise at Christmastime -- is released she would be eleven already.) Oh well.... why don't I just settle for the joy of the present and savour every delightful minute this movie has to offer. If "The Little Prince" is an all-time beloved story for children and grown-ups alike, I believe "Eloise at the Plaza" will become a classic family movie that never ceases to bring a lot of laughters (and tears) to people who cherish life and each other.

This is such a cute movie! The details are exactly like the book. Sofia plays Eloise quite well. Sometimes, I have to get my way! Ms. Andrews plays nanny perfect! DON'T be confused to her other NANNY roles. NANNY is Eloise is THE OPPOSITE then MARY Poppins! All in all, ELOISE AT PLAZA in cute, well written, and just like the books, just with added characters. I recommend the DVD with all the bonus Making of Eloise at the Plaza and How to draw Eloise, plus previews for ELOISE AT CHRISTMASTIME and all the Eloise books. It's great! Eloise, you hate but gotta love her! :-)

"Aftermath" follows up from the cliffhanger ending to "Star One." Dayna is introduced as one of the new regular cast members. This episode is critical for understanding the state of the Federation in future episodes. The plotline focusing on Dayna is interesting, but the most value from this episode comes from finding out what has happened to the crew of the Liberator and Servalan. "Powerplay" is a superior story to "Aftermath" and lays the foundation for the new crew. These episodes start the show in a new direction and are critical for any serious fan of "Blake's 7."

The next vol of Blake's 7 enetitled AFTERMATH and POWERPLAY

In the epsidoe entitled AFTERMATH
Star one has been destroyed and an unknown alien armada has come to wage war on Federation space. The Liberator escapes but not without taking heavy damage. Blake and the others escape from the Liberator and are hurled into the cosmos. Avon along with Orac land on the planet Sarran. A primative planet with war like people. They regard Avon as target and begin to hunt him down. Avon is soon befreinded by a young woman named Dayna. She is not from the planet Sarran she came from Earth along with here father a famous engineer and weapons maker to this planet to get away from the control of the Federation. What Avon doesn't know is that Servalan has also come to the planet Sarran as well but not by choice. Servalan taking the chance of Star One destuction has made herself president of the Federation but before she could take office the Federation fleet was attacked by the alien armada and her own ship shoot down. Now Avon must find a way back to the Liberator find the rest of the crew and take advantage of the Federation dissaray. This signals the end of Blake role as a rebel leader and the beginning of Avon time as a much darker and far more dangerous leader then Blake ever was.
In the next episode entitled POWERPLAY
Avon along with Dayna have gotten back to the Liberator but not without finding some new passengers Federation soliders lead by Captain Del Tarrant. Avon and Dayna are taken captive. Zen has found where Villa is and is homing in on his signal. None of the Federation soldiers can take control of the ship. Captain Tarrant thinks Avon might be the key. Before any of that could be done federation soldiers begin to die off one by one. Avon thinks something else maybe on board, Dayna thinks its one of the people on baord. Captain Tarrant thinks its them loose on the ship and the section leader under Captain Tarrant thinks its him. Will Avon figure out what is killing them? Will the Liberator get to Villa before the Federation takes total control of Zen? This marks the next thrilling episode in which a new player in the Blake's 7 universe is shown

Volume 14 of the "Blake's 7" video series contains two more episodes of this classic British science fiction television series. These episodes, "Aftermath" and "Powerplay," constitute the first two episodes of the 3rd season, and continue the story of an interplanetary band of rebels who wage a campaign against the tyrannical Federation.

"Aftermath" is the conclusion to the cliffhanger episode "Star One," in which humanity faces an invasion of an armada from another galaxy. The crew of the rebel ship Liberator flees in escape pods when the ship takes on heavy damage. Most of this episode follows the adventures of Avon after he is stranded on a primitive planet. This episode also introduces a new regular character: weapons expert Dayna Mellanby, who has lived in exile from the Federation with her father. The tough, but somewhat innocent Dayna is a compelling character who has some great chemistry with Avon in this episode.

"Powerplay" is essentially the third part of a three-part episode that began with "Star One." This episode is the substantial introduction of Tarrant (briefly seen in "Aftermath"), who will also become a regular character in the series. This is a violent and suspenseful episode in which Avon struggles to regain control of the Liberator while Cally and Vila remain separated from the ship. Vila has some fun comic sequences that complement the dark elements of the story. Great line: "It sounds big and bad-tempered. I just hope it's vegetarian" (Vila, stranded on a planet, upon hearing growls coming from the woods).

These episodes exemplify some of the best characteristics of B7: memorable characters, sharp dialogue, and suspenseful plotting. If you're a fan of other sci-fi sagas like "Babylon 5" and "Farscape" but have not yet discovered "Blake's 7," check out this video series.

"Bounty" is classic first-year Blake. Blake spends the episode trying to convice a planet's leader to return to lead his people, but finds that the leader has basically given up on life, on himself and on leading. A trap is set for the rest of the crew and we are reminded that the members of Blake's crew are people who may or may not be loyal nor trustworthy. "Deliverance" is part one of a two-part tale leading up to the search for a supercomputer called Orac. Once again there are two storylines and the part with Avon and others on the planet's surface is intriguing. The other storyline is interesting, but features some of the most extreme over-acting I've ever seen by the actor who portrays the young Ensor.

The next thrilling volume of Blake 7 with titles Bounty and Deliverance
In the epsidoe called Bounty. Blake got a tip that the federation is holding a well known president until the right moment happens on his home world for the federation to use him as a tool for the federation in its ever gorwing conquest of other planets. Only a small detail of guards watch the grounds of the presidents home. Blake has high hopes to free him. Once they got him free they have to deal with a new threat. One that has found its way inside the Liberator and none of the crew can be found at all.
In Deliverance the Liberator watches a ship crash land on a planet that was torn apart by nuclear war. Blake decides to go down and see if thier are any suriviors. They only find two people one is the pilot badly hurt so they send him upto the Liberator to get medical help. The other was a doctor but the strange thing is he has a classified acess code and some strange battries in his medical kit. The pilot awakens to find himself on the Liberator he holds Blake and Cally hostage and force them to send him to a planet with the battries they find on the dead doctor. Meanwhile Avon, Gan, Villa and Jenna are stranded on this planet. Jenna captured by what reamins of the people on the planet after the war. Avon, Gan and Villa find a strange door once opened Avon is considered the chosen one by a woman who thinks he has come to save her people.

Volume 6 of the "Blake's 7" videos contains 2 more episodes of this classic British sci-fi TV series. In the first episode, "Bounty," Blake and Cally engage in a mission to rescue the exiled president of a non-Federation planet, while the rest of the crew of the "Liberator" investigates a suspicious distress call. In the second episode, "Deliverance," Blake and his crew get entangled in Supreme Commander Servalan's plot to acquire Orac, the valuable invention of a brilliant scientist.

"Bounty" offers a fascinating glimpse into the politics of the B7 universe--we learn more about the ruthlessness of the totalitarian Federation, and about the difficulties faced by those worlds that resist it. "Bounty" also features a memorable guest performance by the actor playing the exiled leader. "Deliverance" is an intriguing tale of greed and conspiracy. In this episode, Servalan emerges as a forceful character in her own right--she is clearly more than just the icy master holding Travis' leash. These are definitely two memorable episodes in this engrossing sci-fi saga.

Alan Hale plays the owner of the largest movie theatre in Budapest. He persuades the head of the city's orphanage to allow one the her girls to become an usherette. Hale selects the naive, gregarious Luisa (Sullavan) - who has just crashed to the floor from a chandelier after acting out the story of THE GOOD FAIRY for the younger girls. Hale warns Luisa of the evils of men and the importance of good deeds.....A thoroughly charming excursion into a Hollywood long gone, this little movie still pleases and endears those who like whimsy. Helen Hayes starred in the Broadway version of the play. Sullavan and director William Wyler were in all actuality married when this was filmed: they bickered and clashed throughout production. Originally, the scene with Hale and Sullavan mentioned above was to imply Hale teaching Sullavan the "facts of life". Naturally, 1934 censors deemed this as gravely objectionable, so his advice to Luisa was concerned about her general unworldliness - rather than being sexually green.

Very few people know of this delightful gem from 1935, starring the sublime Margaret Sullavan in one of her very best parts. She plays Luisa, a completely unworldly orphan hired from her orphanage to work in a movie theatre as an usherette by Alan Hale. Hale is the first of a series of "good fairies" who come to Luisa and try to transform her life: the other is Herbert Marshall (as a grouchy waiter), Frank Morgan (as an amorous millionaire) and Reginald Owen (as a poor lawyer)--but all the while it's Luisa who thinks she's acting the role of Good Fairy to them. The script (Preston Sturges's re-write of a Molnar play) here is so superb (and constantly surprising) that you would have thought it was exactly tailored to the various actors' talents: none of them have ever been funnier. But even when none of them are onscreen (in the hilarious movie-within-amovie sequence) it's still funny. Sullavan took this role (she acted only infrequently onscreen, much preferring the stage) to improve her comedy skills, but she's absolutely peerless: her delight over her "genuine foxine" tippet near the movie's end, and her subsequent bickering over its beauty with Morgan, are indescribably charming.

Marvelous comedy starring the great Margaret Sullavan, who is excellent as a naive girl who goes out of the orphanage where she has lived all of her life (in Budapest), to work as an usherette in a lavish cinema owned by Mr. Schlapkohl (Alan Hale), eventually becoming "the good fairy" to an arrogant and very moralistic lawyer, expertly played by Herbert Marshall, in an un-typical role.

Frank Morgan is excellent too as the millionaire who's after Sullavan and, unknowingly, gives her the chance to be a "good fairy". Also, there's an hilarious performance by the great character actor Reginald Owen, as the waiter of a luxurious hotel, who befriends Sullavan and tries to save her from Morgan's clutches.

This is the type of movie they do not make anymore, flawless, charming, enchanting, with lovable characters, thanks to Preston Sturges' wonderful script and William Wyler's deft direction..... Morgan and Sullavan "visited" together Budapest once more, but this time as a store owner and salesgirl in that other masterpiece from 1940, Lubitsch's "The Shop Around the Corner", which also featured Jimmy Stewart.

Don't miss buying this one, because it's scarcely shown on television and has long been unavailable. The DVD is of very good quality.

Every so often heat becomes more than just a stifling rise in temperature designed to raise both a sweat and the tempers of the cast. Sometimes, heat acts as a metaphor to suggest the turmoil that often accompanies that heat rise. In STREET SCENE, director King Vidor took the Pulitzer Prize play by Elmer Rice and used Rice's own adaption to present a steamy day in a New York City tenement. A youthful Sylvia Sidney in one of her first starring roles shows the sloe-eyed sadness that came to mark her future screen persona. Sidney is Rose, a young girl who faces the double trauma of knowing that her mother has been carrying on an affair because her brute of a father radiates all the familial and paternal warmth of a vicious rat. Further complicating her life is her growing attraction for Sam (William Collier), a neighboring boy who suffers ostracism because of his Jewishness. The affair, the prejudice, the heat interact to produce an explosive climax that even today is remarkable in its jarring intensity. The technology of sound was in its infancy in 1931. Much of the dialogue and background auditory effects grate joltingly on the senses, which considering the frayed tempers exacerbated by the heat, is not necessarily a bad thing. STREET SCENE is the kind of unsettling film that makes you forget that film and sound technology need not be advanced for a superior script, fine acting, and first-rate directing to make you realize that you have just seen a gem of a film.

I bought this DVD as I'm a big fan of Sylvia Sidney and King Vidor. She looks wonderful, with a slightly different look from her more familiar late thirties incarnations. Vidor, on the other hand, is somewhat hampered by the constraints that were necessary in the early talkie period. When there is movement in the film it appears to have been shot silent (with added sound), otherwise the film is often rather static. Thus, although this film is similar in some respects to The Crowd, focussing on the lives of ordinary city dwellers, it cannot be said to be an advance in directoral terms. The story of the film is mature and adult, dealing with issues such as infidelity, prejudice and the damage of interfering gossip. There is not much glamour in this film and this makes it unusual for the period and certainly more serious. As with most early talkies, one of the problems with this film is the sound. At times one has to strain to hear the dialogue. The picture quality on the whole is fine, there are however some occassional jumps where a few frames have been lost. On the whole, this is a good example of an early talkie film and is well worth seeing. For Sylvia Sydney fans it is a must, even if she doesn't show up for nearly half an hour. Also for those obsessed with It's a Wonderful Life, it is worth noting the appearance of Belula Bondi (Jimmy Stewart's mother) in Street Scene. She looks much the same.

In a New York slum street on a hot, sweltering summer night, an adulterous woman is shot by her husband. Based upon Edgar Rice's Pulitzer-Prize-winning play about the lives of people who live on one West Side Manhattan street proved to have national appeal to movie audiences back in 1931. King Vidor wisely kept eight members of the original cast to insure realism. As Rose, Sylvia Sidney is outstanding. Originally, Nancy Carroll was to have played her (Erin O'Brien-Moore did the part on Broadway), but she was committed to Paramount. Vidor, never afraid of realism, insisted on the magnificently steamy, gritty street scene sets. Alfred Newman's evocative score is timeless piece of motion picture compositon: it's esteemed to this day. Beulah Bondi made her film debut here, and went on to become one of the finest and most respected character actresses in films. In her eighties, she won an Emmy for her performance in an episode of THE WALTONS.

Every so often heat becomes more than just a stifling rise in temperature designed to raise both a sweat and the tempers of the cast. Sometimes, heat acts as a metaphor to suggest the turmoil that often accompanies that heat rise. In STREET SCENE, director King Vidor took the Pulitzer Prize play by Elmer Rice and used Rice's own adaption to present a steamy day in a New York City tenement. A youthful Sylvia Sidney in one of her first starring roles shows the sloe-eyed sadness that came to mark her future screen persona. Sidney is Rose, a young girl who faces the double trauma of knowing that her mother has been carrying on an affair because her brute of a father radiates all the familial and paternal warmth of a vicious rat. Further complicating her life is her growing attraction for Sam (William Collier), a neighboring boy who suffers ostracism because of his Jewishness. The affair, the prejudice, the heat interact to produce an explosive climax that even today is remarkable in its jarring intensity. The technology of sound was in its infancy in 1931. Much of the dialogue and background auditory effects grate joltingly on the senses, which considering the frayed tempers exacerbated by the heat, is not necessarily a bad thing. STREET SCENE is the kind of unsettling film that makes you forget that film and sound technology need not be advanced for a superior script, fine acting, and first-rate directing to make you realize that you have just seen a gem of a film.

I bought this DVD as I'm a big fan of Sylvia Sidney and King Vidor. She looks wonderful, with a slightly different look from her more familiar late thirties incarnations. Vidor, on the other hand, is somewhat hampered by the constraints that were necessary in the early talkie period. When there is movement in the film it appears to have been shot silent (with added sound), otherwise the film is often rather static. Thus, although this film is similar in some respects to The Crowd, focussing on the lives of ordinary city dwellers, it cannot be said to be an advance in directoral terms. The story of the film is mature and adult, dealing with issues such as infidelity, prejudice and the damage of interfering gossip. There is not much glamour in this film and this makes it unusual for the period and certainly more serious. As with most early talkies, one of the problems with this film is the sound. At times one has to strain to hear the dialogue. The picture quality on the whole is fine, there are however some occassional jumps where a few frames have been lost. On the whole, this is a good example of an early talkie film and is well worth seeing. For Sylvia Sydney fans it is a must, even if she doesn't show up for nearly half an hour. Also for those obsessed with It's a Wonderful Life, it is worth noting the appearance of Belula Bondi (Jimmy Stewart's mother) in Street Scene. She looks much the same.

In a New York slum street on a hot, sweltering summer night, an adulterous woman is shot by her husband. Based upon Edgar Rice's Pulitzer-Prize-winning play about the lives of people who live on one West Side Manhattan street proved to have national appeal to movie audiences back in 1931. King Vidor wisely kept eight members of the original cast to insure realism. As Rose, Sylvia Sidney is outstanding. Originally, Nancy Carroll was to have played her (Erin O'Brien-Moore did the part on Broadway), but she was committed to Paramount. Vidor, never afraid of realism, insisted on the magnificently steamy, gritty street scene sets. Alfred Newman's evocative score is timeless piece of motion picture compositon: it's esteemed to this day. Beulah Bondi made her film debut here, and went on to become one of the finest and most respected character actresses in films. In her eighties, she won an Emmy for her performance in an episode of THE WALTONS.

Although a brilliant show, Blake's 7 is also a very derivative one, taking inspiration and ideas from a collection of genres, both inside and outside of science fiction. This tape consists of two such stories; one of them is realised quite successfully, the other not so. "Mission to Destiny" is the show's obligatory whodunnit (all TV shows of this type seem to have one). It is a very skilful adaptation of the murder mystery, confining the action to a ship adrift in space (the equivalent of the mansion cut off by a storm, or on a lonely island). There are moments of claustrophobia and intrigue, and the supporting characters come across well. At this stage of Blake's 7, with the crew and enemies introduced, the ongoing characters are now explored with more depth, usually on an individual or "partnered up" basis. The episode allows Avon and Cally to develop an already obvious rapport, by leaving the two on board the ship while the Liberator crew departs for the planet Destiny. Their interaction is very good, if a bit stilted; it's almost as if they suppress their relationship while investigating the mystery - time to act professionally with each other as the situation commands. Avon playing detective is also nice to see, although he is doing it out of self interest, not any desire to see justice done. (But the audience knows Avon well enough now, so this is hardly a surprise.) The denouement, in which Avon gathers everyone together is another nice tip of the hat to Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot, if the solution is a little obvious (and implausible). In all, there is not much to fault "Mission to Destiny", except perhaps the fashions. They were always fairly bad in "Blake's 7", but the outfits of the Ortega crew are ghastly to the extreme! But a minor criticism doesn't detract from calling this a fine episode of "Blake's 7". Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the next one which uses as its source of inspiration the science fiction chestnut of the duel, in which the hero is pitted against an enemy/monster, with primitive weapons, for the benefit of an alien audience. The first (and most obvious) example of this in TV sci-fi is the Star Trek episode, "Arena". The Blake's 7 equivalent, unimaginatively titled "Duel", is very slow moving at times, with the short bursts of action very unengaging. There is some unnecessary sermonising, with Blake and Travis required to learn the lessons of "the death of an enemy" and "the death of a friend". There is a clear message about the horrors of nuclear war - the visuals of the graveyard are chilling, as is the tale of how Sinofar's civilisation destroyed itself, but the didacticism of the episode detracts from the impact it should have. However there are moments that save "Duel" from sinking entirely - the visuals, the performance of the beautiful Isla Blair as Sinofar, and the genuine sense of siege as Travis's pursuit ships surround the powerless Liberator. Mutoids are also first seen in this episode, showing another horrible side to the Federation. "Duel" is, overall, flat and boring, with a few saving graces that lift it from being totally bad.

The next volume of Blake 7 entitled Mission to Destiny and Duel
blake and the crew find a ship out in space drifitng. The board it and find a crew asleep thanks to someone druging the air supply. They also find a dead body. The people on the drugged ship first blame Blake and the others. But realzing that thier special cargo hasn't been stolen they ask Blake for help. Blake and the other minus Avon and Cally, as a sign of trust stay on board the ship. Blake goes speeding off, Avon has to figure who killed the poor person who knew the killer. Before the killer strikes again. Unlike some of my other reviews this is more of a who done it so I won't give to much away in this epsidoe. Besides it would spoil it for all who like watching Blake's 7
The next episode entitled Duel
Travis has finally caught up with Blake. Federation pursuit ships trap the Liberator near a dead planet. Blake and the others realizing that the only way to get away from Travis is to teleport down to the planet. There they find a dead world and a million graves but all are the same a person standing with thier arms streched out holding two knives. A strange old woman and a young woman watch Blake and Travis fight in the sky. They then send Blake, Jenna to a strange forest that wasn't on the planet to begin with. Travis and a solider are also sent to this forest where both Blake and Travis duel to the death. Rather reminds me of star trek in this episode but then where would we all be if someone hadn't taken an idea from someone else? All in all good clean fun for fans of Blake 7

Volume 4 of the "Blake's 7" videos contains two more episodes of this classic British sci-fi TV series. In "Mission to Destiny," the B7 crew encounters a murder mystery onboard a spaceship from the planet Destiny. In "Duel," Blake and his rival, Federation Space Commander Travis, are forced to engage in personal combat on an alien world.

Together, these episodes offer interesting insights into the characters and politics of the B7 universe. The mystery angle of "Mission" gives us a chance to see an interesting side of series regular Avon.

"Duel" is reminiscent of the classic "Star Trek" episode "Arena," in which Kirk battles a Gorn captain; the big difference in the B7 story is that the hero battles a recurring character, and not just an alien-of-the-week. So "Duel" has ramifications that extend beyond this episode. "Duel" also offers some fascinating insights into the Mutoids, the vampire-like altered humans who are used in the Federation space service.

If you like sci-fi television with witty dialogue and an intelligent political edge, check out these, and other episodes of "Blake's 7."

I know you Love the Pink Panther, But Do Not Buy This Tape or any Pink Panther tape from Amazon!!! Somebody at MGM thought it would be cute to glue a toy Pink Panther action figure to the VHS tape case. But the MOLTEN GLUE SMEARS ALL OVER THE TAPE! What you get is SYRUP-LIKE GLUE all over the cassette!!!DO NOT BUY THIS TAPE!!!

The female Pink Panther figure included as a bonus is glued to the OUTSIDE of the clamshell CASE. There was just a very small bit of glue involved which cleaned up with the wipe of a paper towel. So theres no need to be worried about any glue being on the actual VHS cassette.

This and, most other pink panther tapes cases are sticky (they put glue to hold the figures, and the ones without figures are sticky too for some reason, very strange). But even though the cases are sticky, all the tapes play just fine, and the tapes themselves aren't sticky at all! And the stickiness on the tape cases can easily be washed off with soap and water. The figure they give with this tape is a female pink panther and it is SO adorable! And the tape itself is very funny! Even though it's case is sticky it is still a 5 star tape!

The first thing one needs to know about this tape is that it is not a Best of Eddie Murphy collection by any means. This video contains the bulk of two SNL episodes hosted by Eddie Murphy: one when he, still a cast member, filled in for an ailing Nick Nolte, and one marking his return as host to the show he had recently left (oddly, they are shown in reverse chronological order). SNL just wasn't a very good show in those years; Eddie Murphy had basically been carrying the show on his own shoulders. Since all of the skits on this tape don't actually include Eddie Murphy, you get some pretty bad segments to go along with the good ones. Murphy even warned the audience in his first monologue that some things on the show would not be very funny, and he wasn't lying.

There are a few memorable skits on this tape, however. Buckwheat lives again to have an odd reunion with Alfalfa, Eddie delivers one of his vintage Stevie Wonder impressions, Mr. Robinson returns to the neighborhood, and Murphy goes undercover as a white man in his memorable documentary White Like Me. Throwaway skits such as Milestones (with Eddie as Desmond Tutu) and Hairem Skarem (with Eddie as an effeminate hair care professional) manage to dreg a few laughs out of the indifferent material. Gumby gets his own Christmas special, but the bad moments outweigh the good in this particular skit. The real highlight here, in my opinion, is Black History Moment. Eddie fudges his lines a couple of times and compensates with some very funny ad libs.

With the good comes the bad. Harry Anderson's eight minutes of comical magic seems to bring the video to a crashing halt. Lifestyles of the Relatives of the Rich and Famous, with Martin Short playing Jerry Lewis' niece, is bad; The Stairs, with Martin Short as a soldier who has no clue as to how to climb stairs, is even worse; Julia Louis-Dreyfus' A Christmas Message is simply atrocious. Eddie Murphy fans will certainly find some good material on this tape, but it comes with some pretty unfunny baggage. Don't let the title fool you: this is a far cry from a Best of Eddie Murphy video.

This video is probably the funniest compilation of SNL skits with Eddie Murphy. A college friend of mine had a copy and we spent many a night watching it over and over. Then we'd hit the bars and perform skits in our drunken stupor. I have been looking to purchase this video for the past couple of years, and would like to find it!!!

If yuo want an insane laugh, go for this tape anyday. It is blatantly offensive and very 80's, but that is what makes it so much fun- and neat, that he was great then and is great now as well!

The next vol of Blake's 7 entitled Trial and Killer

In the epsidoe entitled Trial
The time has come Travis has failed Servalan time and time again. So this time he is put on trial for his cirminal activites. Many people want to see Travis in prison while others want to use this as an chance to get rid of Servalan for good. The judge is a fleet adimiral called Star Killer two of the Federation Senate are watching and waiting for the chance to give Traivs a chance to get back at Servalan. Servalan is watching in secret waiting for the moment to stirke herself. While Blake has beamed down to a planet to questin why he fights the Federation and what the death of Gan means to him. This epsiode sees new twists and turns for all the players in the Blake 7 universe some good,some bad.
The next epsidoe entitled Killer
Blake has gotten word that the Federation has a new code system. Blake heads to the planet Fosforon where the code is being developed, along the way he spots an ancinet space ship. Zen detects nothing but Cally sense a great evil on board. The planet Fosforon collects the ship and finds a man dead for centuries. Avon and Villa sneak into the base while Blake beams down to investiagte the old ship and what evil Cally senses. Can Avon be trusted to get the new code? Can Villa stop being a coward? Will Blake find out what that evil is on board that ship?

"Trial" covers Blake's guilt and self-destructive recriminations following the events in "Pressure Point" and the Liberator's disasterous raid on Earth's Central Control, while arch-enemy Travis is going through a trial of his own. In "Killer" we meet an old friend of Avon's..."I knew you had to have a friend somewhere!"-Vila

Volume 10 of the "Blake's 7" videos contains 2 more episodes of this marvelous British sci-fi TV series. These installments continue the saga of rebel leader Blake, who, with his crew, wages an interplanetary war against the tyrannical Federation.

The first episode, "Trial," contains two engrossing, interconnected storylines. One involves Blake: guilt-ridden over the death of a crewman (in the previous episode), he goes on a private quest. The other story finds Blake's arch-enemy Travis being put on trial for allegedly directing a savage massacre. "Trial" offers more tantalizing glimpses into the tortured tangle of Federation plots and politics. And as a bonus, we learn more about the Mutoids. This is a suspenseful episode that delivers some memorable action.

In "Killer," Avon and Vila seek to obtain a piece of Federation technology from a base, while Blake gets involved in a deadly mystery. Great line: "When Avon holds out the hand of friendship, watch the other hand. That's the one with the hammer" (Vila). It's particularly fun to see Vila and Avon on a mission together in this one.

"Killer" is a good enough episode, but the superb "Trial" is certainly one of the best, and most pivotal, episodes of the series' first two seasons. Essential viewing for B7 fans.