DVD Collectors Online

Evil Under the Sun, a review by Danae Cassandra

Evil Under the Sun
Year of Release: 1982
Directed By: Guy Hamilton
Starring: Peter Ustinov, Colin Blakely, Jane Birkin, Nicholas Clay, Maggie Smith
Genre: Suspense/Thriller

Overview:
When a shrewish stage star is found strangled at a posh island resort, detective Hercule Poirot (Peter Ustinov) is called in to investigate. But as the brilliant Belgian learns, it isn't a matter of who would want the diva dead, but who wouldn't? As he follows the twists and turns of clues and motives, Poirot soon dicovers that even among the rich and famous, murder never takes a holiday.

Maggie Smith, Roddy McDowall, Diana Rigg, James Mason, Jane Birkin, Colin Blakely, and Sylvia Miles co-star is this Christie favorite filmed on location in stunning Majorca, Spain, directed by Guy Hamilton (The Mirror Crack'd, Goldfinger), adapted by Anthony Shaffer (Sleuth) and filled with classic songs by Cole Porter.

My Thoughts:
This was a fun little murder mystery.  They spent a good amount of time setting things up, letting us get to know all the characters and their motives for the murder.  I thought it set all of them up quite well as suspects.  I had no sympathy for the murdered woman, her character was so obnoxious as to have me hoping for her to get murdered already.  Everyone else was much more pleasant company.  I really enjoyed Peter Ustinov's portrayal of Poirot.  It's a pretty film, showing off it's beautiful Spanish location quite well.  Recommended.  

Bechdel Test: Pass

Overall: 3.5/5

(From Off Day Alphabet Marathon on August 17th, 2014)

An American Haunting, a review by addicted2dvd

An American Haunting
Based on the true story of The Bell Witch of Tennessee, 'An American Haunting' is the story of a spirit who brutally attacked the Bell family causing the death of one of its members. Years later, we are taken back to the most horrific of nights to find out the truth of the spirit's nature and origin...the night it was born.

My Thoughts:
Second time I watched this movie... first time on DVD. The last time I watched it was several months back on On-Demand. I enjoyed it so much then that I knew I wanted to add it to my collection. This month I found it at Walmart for only $7.50... so I just had to grab it. I enjoyed it just as much this time around. As usual... Donald Sutherland did an outstanding job. As did everyone else... but I have been more and more impressed as I watch more of Donald Sutherland's work. I am becoming a fan of his. There is a nice selection of extras on this disc... but I didn't check them out this time around... decided to save them for the next viewing. Unfortunately there was no Theatrical Trailer on this disc. (a pet peeve of mine) as I like to get in the mood of a movie by watching the trailer first.

(From Weekend Movie Marathon: 3/8 - 3/9 on March 8th, 2008)

Tom's TV Pilots marathon, a review by Tom

GTO: 1st Semester (1999/Japan) IMDb | Wikipedia (United States) Length: 0 min. Video: Full Frame 1.33:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, Japanese: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles: English

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Plot:
Meet Eikichi Onizuka, a 22-year-old virgin and ex-biker. He's crude, foul-mouthed, and has a hair-trigger temper. His goal: to be the Greatest High School Teacher in the World! Wait, what?!? GTO is the fan-favorite story of Onizuka, a former motorcycle gang member whose goal is to become a teacher to make a difference. Once he's got his foot in the school door...can he squeeze his big head through it?

Watch in awe as Onizuka pummels through his teacher training only to be faced with the mammoth task of actually landing a teaching position. With unusual circumstances on his side, he just might pull it off. Using his street smarts to deal with colleagues, students, and troublemakers, Onizuka finds that he has too many lessons to learn!


Great Teacher Onizuka
1.01 GTO - The Legend Begins
Writer: Tohru Fujisawa (Original Material By), Masashi Sogo (Writer)
Director: Noriyuki Abe, Naoyasu Hanyu
Cast: Japanese Voice Cast), Wataru Takagi (Eikichi Onizuka (voice)), Isshin Chiba (Ryuji Danma (voice)), Yuko Miyamura (Nanako Mizuki (voice)), Shinichiro Miki (Hidero Ohsawa (voice)), Kiyoyuki Yanada (Nanako's Father (voice)), Astuko Tanaka (Nanako's Mother (voice)), Emi Kobayashi (Takahama (voice)), Haruhi Terada (Momoi (voice)), Tomiko Orikasa (Mikan (voice)), Satohiko Nakajima (Homeroom Teacher (voice)), Kazuhiro Oguro (Punk in Class O (voice)), Kosuke Okano (Punk in Class O (voice)), Hisao Egawa (Punk in Class O (voice)), Kenji Hamada (Street Punk (voice)), Tomoki Yanagi (Student (voice)), Ayako Kawasumi (Young Wife (voice)), English Voice Cast), David Lucas (Eikichi Onizuka (voice)), Ron Allen (Ryuji Danma (voice)), Cindy Robinson (Nanako Mizuki (voice)), Ron Allen (Hidero Ohsawa (voice)), John Smallberries (Nanako's Father (voice)), Wendee Lee (Nanako's Mother (voice)), Wendee Lee (Takahama (voice)), Cindy Robinson (Momoi (voice)), Midge Mayes (Mikan (voice)), David Lucas (Homeroom Teacher (voice)), John Smallberries (Punk in Class O (voice)), David Lucas (Punk in Class O (voice)), Ron Allen (Punk in Class O (voice)), John Smallberries (Street Punk (voice)), Ron Allen (Student (voice)), Cindy Robinson (Young Wife (voice))

This anime is good. Though I prefer the live-action series. The anime follows the manga more closely though. Funnily it incoporates a few ideas the live-action series came up with.
The pilot episode is a double-length episode. It covers about the same story as the first live-action episode. Only here Onizuka starts out as a student teacher at another school which he finishes successfully in this episode. This means that the student that he helps here will not be part of the series after this episode. In the live-action version she was. She was his biggest supporter there.

Rating:

(From Tom's TV Pilots marathon on June 28th, 2011)