Michael-Douglas Movie Reviews

It should have been really easy for them to find two better episodes from the first season that this pair to include in the boxed set. "Witch" is the better of the two, introducing the character of Amy Madison who pops up from time to time (although right now she's stuck as a rat). It also offers Buffy and Cordelia as cheerleaders, a direction too reminiscent of the original Buffy movie that Joss Whedon wisely abandons. "Never Kill a Boy on the First Date" is a below average Buffy episode with a pretty good title. Four stars for "Witch" and three for "Never Kill..." rounded up to a four overall. They really made a big mistake not including "Prophecy Girl" in this set.

With the DVD of Season 1 out, this is a true collector's item.
Treasure it, it's going to be worth a lot.

Looking back at the earliest 'Buffy' episodes, it's always hard not to get at least a little bit nostalgic. These two episodes are stand-alone ones, not really anything to do with the main story arc. That doesn't mean to say that they're not wonderful fun though. In a way, it's these episodes just as much as the big ones that make it. In these earlier years, the show was new and exciting. It's blend of action with drama and comedy made it a slow but undeniable hit with British and American audiences.

'Witch' sees the introduction of Amy Madison, who was later to feature prominently in episodes such as 'Bewitched, Bewildered and Beautiful' and 'Gingerbread'. The supernatural intrigue story may seem old but it's the way it's told which makes 'Buffy' such a winner. There's pop culture references which punctuate the punchy dialogue and some hilarious comedy made from Buffy's formidable strength as she throws one cheerleader across the room whilst trying out a new routine.

In 'Never Kill A Boy On The First Date', the audience gets to meet shy quiet Owen who has a penchant for Emily Dickinson and Buffy. Here a nightmare date brings a whole new quality to it, with the night ending at the Sunnydale Funeral Home.

It's strange looking back because we know what's to come for the characters that we have grown to love. We know the fates of Angel, Joyce and Buffy. We know that shy retiring Willow becomes something else entirely. In this the show has really broken all expectations. It's managed to give its characters dimension without it appearing ludicrous. Looking back only goes to show how much they've changed in not only a realistic but also a touching way.

Blake 7 is a wonderful BBC t.v. production. Many Doctor Who fans should note that Terry Nation was head writer for many of the epsiodes. Anyway on to the first installment of Blake 7 entitled "The Way Back". We are given the setting of earth in the distant future where most of the human population live inside of domes due to the severe radiation outside of the domes. The domes are run by the federation a world goverment whose hand has reached to the stars themselves and has much influence. We are intoduced to a man called Roj Blake who from watching the first few minutes is a rather normal person. However when he meets a few of his freinds his life takes on a new twist. He finds that the earth has never had radation and that the human population insdie of the dome is a lie. He then finds out that he was once the leader of a rebel band bent on stopping the true agenda of the Fedeartion total domiantion of the universe. Soon freinds turn into false memories his future uncertain his life is without meaning and then the Federation find him with the new rebels. He is soon brought on false charges and a mockery of a trail sends Blake to the penal planet to live out the rest of his life. This is the first installment of the Blake 7 story. Although this is by no means the first epsiode. In the next epsiodes to come Blake has his fighters and a reason to stop the Federation.
In the Epsiode entilted "Space Fall" Blake is being shipped to the penal planet Cygnus Alpha. Along with Blake he meets Avon the egocentric computer genuis, Jan the tough as nails female piolt, Villa the cowardly safe cracker and Gan the brutal yet computer controled chipped prisoner. Blake trying to find a way to take over the ship and start his plans of stopping the Federation. The captain of the prisoner ship finds a large ship dirfiting unkonwing it would be the doom of most aboard. He sends men over to try and take over the ship. They end up mad or dead. The captain sends Blake over along with Jan and Avon. Soon Blake is confronted by the ships computer called Zen who tries and kill those with false images. Blake overcomes and takes over the newly dubbed ship the Liberator. Now with a ship and gathering a crew is easy. But the captain has written off Blake and the others dead and heads on to the penal planet to drop off the remaining prionsers. Blake speeds off to try and save those others and begin his plans to stop the Fedeartion. ...

Blake 7 is the tale of a man who was once a rebel leader who was trying to stop a goverment called the Federation whose grip on earth has gone to the stars and beyond. In this first epsiode we are given a bit of back history of a simple man called Blake. He is unaware that the events to follow would lead him back to where he was five years ago. Blake has found out that his life or what was manufactred by the federation on his capture is a lie. His family is dead thinking they were still alive living in the forinter of space. Old freinds turn out to be false memories. His true freinds turn out to be rebels trying to stop the Federation. Before Blake can do anything the rebels on earth are killed. Only Blkae is alive. The Federation decide to frame Blake and send him to a penal colony for the rest of his life. Once the mockery of a trial is over he along with many other prisoners are sent into space. This epsiode while not action packed is the start of a long story about Blake his decsion to stop the Federation and the crew of prionsers that would follow him into the fight.
The second epsiode on this tape brings us to a ship floating in space with no crew and no reason why its out thier. The ship carrying Blake and the other prisoners to the penal planet stop and tries to take the other ship. Countless crew members from the ship go missing and found dead. The captain wanting this strange ship sends Blake and two others who would form his crew. Avon a egocentric computer genius and Jan a pilot who takes [nothing] from others. They get aboard the ship later to be called the Liberator and be the key tool used by blake and the others. Once agin like the first episode this is being used as a ground to intorduce the charaters and give the viewers a good look into thise that would fight the Federation.

For any fans of 60's B-type science fiction, this stuff is classic!

Despite the significance of Halloween in the story of magician Harry Houdini, the film that bears his name is overlooked by the holiday's movie broadcasters. Perhaps it is because HOUDINI too successfully bridges the gap between fantasy and reality, divulging a great secret in the process. HOUDINI exposes the reality of personal destruction when the passion for fantasy becomes obsession. As the greatest escape artist of all time learned -- from that there is no escape.

It's lack of a happy ending makes HOUDINI unsuitable for children but the intelligent mind will find it an entertaining and ultimately provocative film.

HOUDINI is not meant as a movie that is true to life. If it were, then the finished product might have been more factual but less entertaining. Tony Curtis plays Houdini as a young Jewish man who seeks more than the dullish life that as Erich Weiss he was born into. Early on, the audience learns that the solid, conservative life that his family thought to place him is simply not in his plans. He makes a rational analysis as to how he can make the leap from the ordinary to the extraordinary. It is in showmanship that he will excel. With no small amount of humor, Curtis gives Houdini a patina of technical virtuosity with escapes combined with razzle-dazzle country fair sideshow barking. This reaching out for the seemingly unobtainable for one of his humble class extends even to his choice of a wife. He marries a woman whom he feel sure that his mother will reject. For one of the few times in his life,he is wrong. Mama Weiss eagerly embraces her new daughter-in-law.
The force of this film lies not in the continuity of the Houdini character from scene to scene. Rather, the intensity lies in a series of vignettes, each roughly pointing Houdini in the same direction: to ever newer and more dangerous escapes. Most people who discuss this movie point to the grand finale, the Chinese Water Torture Chamber scene, where Houdini is very nearly killed in attempting an impossible escape. This scene is dramatic certainly, but I see it as only the culmination of a long series of lesser escapes, with paradoxically the most interesting one occurring at the midpoint. Shortly after his marriage, Houdini and his wife attend a dinner in which the MC dares volunteers from the audience to wriggle out of a straight jacket. Houdini leaps at the chance and along with several others attempts to escape. What distinguishes this escape from the climatic Chinese Water Torture escape is the focus on the man, rather than on the gimmick. As the stalwart young man leap and crash off the stage, attempting to break out of their bonds, Houdini stands motionless. He stares at a twirling chandelier, almost as if he were summoning up his inner chi for the strength and flexibility to escape. Ever so slowly, he maneuvers his fingers which appear behind his back. The audience in the ballroom and the audience in the theater collectively let out a gasp of surprise. Sweat drenched, Houdini tosses off the jacket to win first prize. It is this scene, and others like it that lend this biopic its emotional wallop. The tragedy of the movie is not unlike the tragedy of the man. Had Houdini retained a bit more of the Erich Weiss latent within him, his life might not have ended prematurely either on film or in real life.

This is a wonderful film and tribute to the life and legacy of Harry Houdin. A must see. Tony Curtis and Janet leigh are wonderful and romantic in it as Harry and Bess. It is entertaiining amzing and great for the entire family.

As someone who worked as a puppeteer on this film, I can tell y'all it was made on a shoestring, but with lots of heart by a bunch of horror fans who were just doing it for love of the craft. Many of these folks are now professionals, and many of us ... well, aren't :). But we all have affection for our time spent on this project - even if it was spent getting Karo blood dripped on me out of a honey bear while lying under a false floor in John Dodd's basement.

DVD is coming soon.

Although the low budget occasionally shows, this is a really fun film. The people who made it obviously love monster movies. The aliens arrive and they are hungry! Beheadings, dismemberments, and lots and lots of teeth. This movie may also feature the only cool "kid" character ever to appear in a horror film.
In my opinion this film should be shown in a double feature with the original Evil Dead. Can't wait for the DVD!

When I first watched this film after I rented it back in 85' I fell in love with it. The characters are so convincing, and the whole movie has a definitive feel of homegrown horror. I can't ever remember an entire picture being filmed in the rain, or one that explores the fanatical mind of a 12 year old on a horror movie high. This film has everything you want from a decent monster movie like the feeling that you're there, and you already know all the actors in the film because they are like real-life people who you already know. There's the typical high school kids who become victims,but before they do, they transmit the delicious feeling of blowing off class and hanging with friends on a grey rainy day. The alien invasion isn't as important as having a good time indoors with yourself or your friends, and I think people who put this movie down neglect to absorb this essence that pulses from this terrific monster film.

As someone who worked as a puppeteer on this film, I can tell y'all it was made on a shoestring, but with lots of heart by a bunch of horror fans who were just doing it for love of the craft. Many of these folks are now professionals, and many of us ... well, aren't :). But we all have affection for our time spent on this project - even if it was spent getting Karo blood dripped on me out of a honey bear while lying under a false floor in John Dodd's basement.

DVD is coming soon.

Although the low budget occasionally shows, this is a really fun film. The people who made it obviously love monster movies. The aliens arrive and they are hungry! Beheadings, dismemberments, and lots and lots of teeth. This movie may also feature the only cool "kid" character ever to appear in a horror film.
In my opinion this film should be shown in a double feature with the original Evil Dead. Can't wait for the DVD!

When I first watched this film after I rented it back in 85' I fell in love with it. The characters are so convincing, and the whole movie has a definitive feel of homegrown horror. I can't ever remember an entire picture being filmed in the rain, or one that explores the fanatical mind of a 12 year old on a horror movie high. This film has everything you want from a decent monster movie like the feeling that you're there, and you already know all the actors in the film because they are like real-life people who you already know. There's the typical high school kids who become victims,but before they do, they transmit the delicious feeling of blowing off class and hanging with friends on a grey rainy day. The alien invasion isn't as important as having a good time indoors with yourself or your friends, and I think people who put this movie down neglect to absorb this essence that pulses from this terrific monster film.

Could this be the first ever women's lib film? Spaceship crashes in the outskirts of town, and "radiation" causes Allison Hayes to grow, and grow, and grow...until she reaches the size big enough to destroy the town and all the men in it, including her philandering husband. Great campy, popcorn-on-a-Saturday-night flick for its ineptitude and very bad special effects.Fun stuff.

"Attack of the 50 Foot Woman," the 1958 cult classic, is everything that the 1957 science fiction film "The Incredible Shrinking Man" is not. It is about a woman instead of a man, growing bigger instead of shrinking, vengeance instead of philosophy, and bad instead of good. However, I come down on the side of those that think this film is gloriously bad and therefore an enjoyable camp romp.

Heiress Nancy Archer (Allison Hayes) is driving around in the California desert on Route 66 when a satellite crashes to earth and she has an encounter with a giant. Nancy heads back to town and tells everyone what happened, but the police just think she has been off on one of her drinking binges again (Nancy has been institutionalized in the past, you see). As for her husband, Harry (William Hudson), he is too busy paying attention to that cheap tramp Honey Parker (Yvette Vickers). Only now Harry sees his big chance to have Nancy declared mentally incompetent so he can get her $50 million inheritance and that big diamond she wears on the cheap chain around her neck. Fortunately, Nancy is again abducted by the giant alien and when she comes back to town she is 50-feet tall and ready to go on the attack with Harry her prime target.

The sequence as Nancy slowly but surely trashes the town as she tracks down Harry redeems the rest of the film, even if the same shot shows up repeatedly (albeit sometimes backwards). The sight of Allison Hayes in her cloth bikini is as memorable an image as you will find in science fiction films from the Fifties, right up there with Gort's appearance in "The Day the Earth Stood Still." Up to that point the film belongs to Yvette Vickers, who attains a level of performance as a bad girl usually reserved for your more traditional exploitation films from this period.

"Attack of the 50 Foot Woman" can be read as a proto-feminist film, with Nancy's crashing through the roof of her house being viewed as a metaphor for breaking the boundaries of repression which limited the growth of women in the real world. But where is the fun in that? Harry done Nancy wrong and fate has given Nancy the opportunity to engage in payback. This movie was made in 1993 with Darryl Hannah and while the special effects were vastly improved, the net gain was just not as enjoyable as the original romp in the desert, which remains a touchstone for fans of bad science fiction films.

This movie was great fun, terrific acting, amusingly poor special effects but a camp 1950s scary movie classic that would definitely would be worth the purchase if it had been restored and presented in widescreen. I've seen this film many times but now I'd like to see the complete film.

This movie is one of the best second parts of a movie that i have seen. All four parts of the Iron Eagle series were good. The last one was the worst, but it was still very good. I recommend watching all four movies back to back to really enjoy it.

I've seeon only the first two, so I'm not yet fluent with all of the plot, but the 2nd movie is a little distracting. The Soviet "BMP-5's" are nothing of the sort. Actually, they're ex-Israeli M113 APC's equipped with twin 40mm guns and rather pathetic rockets on the sides. The MIG 29's (if thats what they were supposed to be) didn't look realistic enough. About the only thing that I was impresed with was the BTR-162 6x6 carrier that was featured.

This movie has an interesting starting it gives you alot to puzzel out in the end, it like gives you an insight on what will happen later= = like when they meet all over again in a much different way (reffering to Cooper and the Russian guy he fought with). The thing I like about this movie is that these people have attitude, real attitude for about everything they do from the mad fighting to romance and most of all they put in a girl as a Pilot which I think spices up things even more, because not only is she the only female but she is also on the oppisite side. But other than that the plane shots were total hot-shot flying which is excellent, the Russian accent was fabulous, the plot was very good and so was the story. Bottom line is that this Movie was a "Hot Shot " hope that I was that Hot Shot "gal" but = = =Sharon you were a total hot shot= = = wouldnt mind flying with you. For "Cooper" he was a total hunk. And as for the crew, well they were one hell of a Mad Rat pack. Apart from that it was Awesome!

This movie is one of the best second parts of a movie that i have seen. All four parts of the Iron Eagle series were good. The last one was the worst, but it was still very good. I recommend watching all four movies back to back to really enjoy it.

I've seeon only the first two, so I'm not yet fluent with all of the plot, but the 2nd movie is a little distracting. The Soviet "BMP-5's" are nothing of the sort. Actually, they're ex-Israeli M113 APC's equipped with twin 40mm guns and rather pathetic rockets on the sides. The MIG 29's (if thats what they were supposed to be) didn't look realistic enough. About the only thing that I was impresed with was the BTR-162 6x6 carrier that was featured.

This movie has an interesting starting it gives you alot to puzzel out in the end, it like gives you an insight on what will happen later= = like when they meet all over again in a much different way (reffering to Cooper and the Russian guy he fought with). The thing I like about this movie is that these people have attitude, real attitude for about everything they do from the mad fighting to romance and most of all they put in a girl as a Pilot which I think spices up things even more, because not only is she the only female but she is also on the oppisite side. But other than that the plane shots were total hot-shot flying which is excellent, the Russian accent was fabulous, the plot was very good and so was the story. Bottom line is that this Movie was a "Hot Shot " hope that I was that Hot Shot "gal" but = = =Sharon you were a total hot shot= = = wouldnt mind flying with you. For "Cooper" he was a total hunk. And as for the crew, well they were one hell of a Mad Rat pack. Apart from that it was Awesome!

I really enjoyed "Evil Under the Sun" and "Death on the Nile". However, this one was a very big disappointment. Not much of a story, not a good cast, poorly written with a horrible sound track. There was no suspense and no characters I really care about (except the doctor and Gielgud who would be interesting if he just stood there). It was hard to stay with it but I did. Ustinov looks tired and the rest look bored. Sorry to say, unless you are a collector who wants all of the film Ustinov endeavors (as I did), you will not be missing anything if you dont buy it.

Ustinov doesn't look remotely like Christie's Poirot, but never mind that. It is the ensemble cast that trashes this film, a group of summer actors who read their lines like they are reading graffiti on the rocks. The figure that should provide the menace of the book -- the evil Mrs. Boynton -- is laughable.

Skip it. Wait for a more modern adaptation or just reread one of the classic Christies.

The matriarch of a brood of ineffectual children lords it over them and bullies them almost beyond enduring. They put up with their stepmother because their father's will left everything to her (or did it?) and the children are such wimps they cannot support themselves. Did I mention that the matriarch was once a matron in a women's prison? By the time ...gets bumped off, the viewer will be ready to cheer. But every child has a motive (the money), the means (access to mom's medicine for the overdose), and the opportunity (nobody has an alibi). There are even a few bystanders with ample motive. Not to fear, the redoubtable Hercule Poirot is on the scene to untie this whodunnit's Gordian Knot. He eavesdrops on everyone's conversations, rakes everyone over the coals with his scathing interrogations, and handily exposes the killer.

This all happens in the Middle East, as Poirot vacations in the Holy Land. The environs of Jerusalem provide some beautiful background, and the viewer visits the dusty digs at Qumran, the site of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The movie follows the book pretty well, but I was disappointed that the producer moved the scene of the murder from Petra to Qumran. The beautiful architecture of Petra would have made for more satisfying visuals than the excavation holes of Qumran. Remember the fabulous building in the side of the mountain from "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade?" That's Petra.

Peter Ustinov serves as a passable Poirot, but he's too big and too unkempt to capture the charm of Christie's Poirot. David Suchet, star of the A&E Poirot series, sets the standard against which all other video Poirots must suffer. Lauren Bacall almost stole the show with her rendition of an American-born M.P. who tried to out-English the native born English.

There is something wrong with this DVD at chapter 5 where Sonny takes a hit of weed from 2 pimps at first I thought the echos I was hearing was part of the scene but as soon as the scene continued into the high school scene with his confrontation with the hawks the echoing continued. It ends as soon as chapter 6 starts up with the 1st gang battle between the lords and the hawks. I decided to check the old tape I had of TEO Sonny Carson and the guess what, the echos were not present anywhere in the movie. That means somwhere between the master print and the DVD master somebody forgot to check for audio sync in the transfer. To top it all off all throughout the movie there is video noise on moving edges; I though only amateur/hobbyist of VCD/SVCD/DVD did this. This is a great movie about the tough times that young black Sonny Carson faced in Brooklyn and rose up from. But the production that went into this DVD practically destroys any enjoyable experience one can get from this movie. So my suggestion is to wait for a re-release (not likely) or buy the tape; then you yourself can make a better DVD version of the movie than the guy jonfilms@aol.com did. (jonfilms@aol.com is in the credits for digitizing this movies and I think he is responsible for the error in transfer from master to DVD print). Great movie gone to waste because of carelessnes in the video transposing process.

I must admit that I was disappointed with this film. It suffers from some common mistakes made in many blaxploitation films of this time. I feel that given the man's life, the same budget and actors, I could come up with a better film. Why...?

I never saw this movie before I purchased it. I was expecting something like Cooley High. I did not, and still, do not know much about Sonny Carson. The film ends right at the turning point of his life!

If you sat down in the theater in 1973/4 and watched this film, knowing nothing about him, after the film you would have walked out wondering why they made this film at all.

He gets out of prison and finds that all of his friends have either been killed, succumbed to drug addiction, or are incarcerated. The movie ends here.

We see nothing of the positive changes that he made. We don't know why he joined a gain in the first place. What motivated him? His parents seemed loving and he supposedly got good grades in school. It didn't appear that everyone in his school was in a gang either. Another enigma is his girlfriend, who appears to be clean-cut when we first meet her. When he gets out of jail, she's strung out on heroine. How did this happen? No explanations given in this film.

Instead the movie wastes valuable time showing long scenes of people dancing and other scenes of people singing gospel. This appears often in blaxploitation films... why? I don't like watching people dance and sing, it wastes time, and hurts the flow of the movie. If there was some purpose for the gospel singing i.e. Sonny had an apparent interest in church, that would be ok... but he didn't. And have you ever seen a parade where they allow street gangs to march in them?!?!?! Well you'll see it here!

As for the DVD: the video quality is good but the sound is a real joke! As noted by an earlier review. The synchronization is off by a fraction of a second and it is quite noticable. Think of a bad dubbing on a low budget kung-fu movie.

Buy this only if you are a die-hard collector of blaxploitation films, like me... otherwise steer clear of this one!

I finally got to see this Film recently&couldn't stop feeling the depth&Realness of the film.this Film is straight up in your face&doesn't hide from what went down back in the day.it touches on so many levels.Films like this truly Kept it real&also are a front runner to much of what we see&hear today.