The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

Apr 18th – €9.99 @ Amazon.de

Collection no. 1034

That’s My Boy (2012)

Apr 25th – €7.90 @ Media Markt

Collection no. 1035

When Harry Met Sally… (1989)

Apr 25th – €4.90 @ Media Markt

Collection no. 1036

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)

Apr 25th – €12.99 @ Media Markt

Collection no. 1037

Total Recall (2012)

Apr 25th – €9.90 @ Media Markt

Collection no. 1038

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Categories: DVD / Blu-ray, Purchase Diary 2013
Tags: Battleship · Spider-Man · That's My Boy · The Lord of the Rings · Total Recall · What to Expect When You're Expecting · When Harry Met Sally...
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Synopsis: The United States of America have long been gone. In its place, between the Appalachians and the Rockies, is now the country of Panem, consisting of 12 districts and the Capitol.

Many years ago the 13 districts rose against the Capitol and paid a high price for it. The riot-leading district was completely annihilated. And the 12 other districts have to endure a humiliation every year which proves the total superiority of the Capitol.
Every year each district has to send a girl and a boy between the ages 12 and 18 to the Capitol – where these 24 kids will fight each other until only one survives: The Hunger Games.

My Opinion: Originally I had planned to read the book completely before I watch the movie. Didn’t turn out that way. I just made it to the point where Katniss has her fiery ride into the Arena.
My problem with the movie was that there was no real suspense building up. Sure I didn’t know if Peeta was going to survive, but still. The book on the other hand was very interesting to the point where I read it.
And even the end left me hanging because there was no scene that hinted at what was coming next. Let me make the comparison to The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring here: At the end of the movie it was clear that Frodo and Samwise would be travelling towards Mordor and Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli would try to rescue Merry and Pippin from the Orcs. The question “What now?” didn’t come up. The Hunger Games on the other hand simply ended. Some viewers who are not aware that this is a trilogy will probably scratch their heads even more.
I don’t want to assume anything yet since it’s well known that movie sometimes interpret their original material rather freely but I wasn’t pleased with the actual ending of the movie either.
Spoiler (mark to read):
I would have wished that – when there were only three left and were standing on the transporter – they simply had refused to continue this farce. Now it’s more of a cliché ending where everyone from District 1 is simply a mindless killer. Also the closing interview would have been a good place to stir things up a little. Instead she played nice and did what her mentor told her to do. I hope her motivation is better explained in the book.

Categories: Cinema, Short Review
Tags: The Hunger Games · The Lord of the Rings
Comments: 2 Comments

The Lord of the Rings 1 – 3

18 Aug – €50.58 (£41.65) @ Amazon.co.uk

Kokowääh

19 Aug – €8.99 @ Drogerie Müller

The IT Crowd: Season 4

22 Aug – €8.33 (£6.44) @ Amazon.co.uk

Machete

22 Aug – €10.01 (£7.87) @ Amazon.co.uk

Red

22 Aug – €9.83 (£7.72) @ Amazon.co.uk

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Categories: DVD / Blu-ray, Purchase Diary 2011
Tags: Cougar Town · Kokowääh · Machete · Red · Scream · The IT Crowd · The Lord of the Rings · True Blood · Unstoppable
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Deutsche Version | September | November

October, 4th

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Sean Astin   …    Samwise ‘Sam’ Gamgee
Sean Bean   …    Boromir
Cate Blanchett   …    Galadriel
Orlando Bloom   …    Legolas Greenleaf
Billy Boyd   …    Peregrin ‘Pippin’ Took
Ian Holm   …    Bilbo Baggins
Christopher Lee   …    Saruman
Andy Serkis   …    Gollum / Voice of The Witchking
Ian McKellen   …    Gandalf the Grey
Dominic Monaghan   …    Meriadoc ‘Merry’ Brandybuck
Viggo Mortensen   …    Aragorn
Craig Parker   …    Haldir
John Rhys-Davies   …    Gimli
Liv Tyler   …    Arwen
Hugo Weaving   …    Elrond
Elijah Wood   …    Frodo Baggins

Synopsis: 3000 years ago an army of Men and Elves defeated the dark lord Sauron. But his power was embedded in the One Ring, and that was not destroyed. The Ring found its way into the hands of Frodo Baggins, a Hobbit. And now the task of destroying it became his. But the Ring can only be destroyed where it was made: In Mount Doom in the heart of Mordor and there Sauron and his armies are rising again. His journey begins in the Shire, the homeland of the Hobbits and leads from there over Bree, Rivendell (the home of Elrond), Moria (a dwarf mine deep in the mountains) and Lothlórien. But Frodo is not alone on this journey; he’s accompanied by friends and allies of all races who stand against the dark forces: Hobbits, Elves, Dwarves, Wizards and Men.

My Opinion: I love this trilogy, maybe even a bit more than Star Wars but I am still undecided on that. I’ve read the books both in German and English but I have to say I like the films better. Most of the actors are really great, especially when they deliver speeches. The only somewhat problematic actor is Elijah Wood, especially in the later movies when Frodo becomes more and more influenced by the Ring. One gets the feeling he has only one facial expression left.
But still: Great story, awesome New Zealand Middle-Earth nature shots and superb special effects (even when they sometimes forgot to put a CGI arrow in Legolas’s bow ).
I also don’t mind the deviation from the books, e.g. no Tom Bombadil. It doesn’t really have an effect on the story at all; the only thing I really noticed was that they didn’t explain the origin of Merry’s sword which is important in the Battle on the Pelennor Fields. (In the books they find the weapons in old grave hills, they were forged to be used against the Witch-King of Angmar (leader of the Nazgûl) when he was still a man. That’s why Merry could stab and wound him and then he could be killed by Éowyn in Return of the King.)

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Categories: DVD / Blu-ray, DVD Marathon, Movie Watchings 2009
Tags: The Lord of the Rings · The Matrix
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Deutsche Version | Season 6

Disc 1

Image in the Sand

Synopsis: The Siskos have gone back to Earth where Ben works in his father’s restaurant. He’s still hoping to get an inspiration on how to re-open the wormhole. And then he finally gets a vision about a human female that’s somehow linked to his father. In the meantime Kira (who has been promotoed to Colonel) has to deal with the Romulans who want to open a hospital on one of Bajor’s uninhabited moons. And Worfs seeks a way to ensure that his wife passes the gates of Sto’Vo’Kor (the klingon heaven).

My Opinion: So Sisko’s mother wasn’t Sisko’s mother? This is a bit of a last-minute revelation, isn’t it? Apart from that this was basically just a prelude to the next episode.

Shadows and Symbols

Synopsis: Just as he was about to embark to Tyree where he hopes to find an answer to his vision, Sisko finds himself in front of Dax – Ezri Dax. Ezri never intended to get joined but the Dax symbiont was dying and she was its only hope. So she joins Ben, Jake and Joseph Sisko on their journey to Tyree. And Miles, Julian and Quark have joined a dangerous mission to honour their memory of Jadzia Dax. Worf and Martok plan to take the Rotarran deep into enemy territory where they intend to destroy a ship yard.

My Opinion: So Dax is back. Why? Why did they feel the need to introduce a new character (and that’s basically what she is) in the last season? She’s a babbling irritant and it will barely get better. And Sisko was conceived by a woman that was inhabited by a Prophet at that time? And he re-opened the wormhole. Hallelujah! Praise the Emissary!
But I liked how Kira took a stand with her wing of impulse fighters agains a group of romulan Warbirds after they deceived her. And I liked the destruction of the ship yard – that should ensure Jadzia’s entrance into Sto’Vo’Kor.

But it was nice to see that they took the chance to show Casey Biggs (Damar) without a mask:

Afterimage

Synopsis: Ezri, who is a counsellor in training, has a hard time. She has to deal with all the memories of her previous hosts (especially Jadzia’s). But she also has to deal with all her – or Jadzia’s – friends aboard DS9 and of course with Worf. But she gets distracted when Garak’s claustrophobia panic attacks worsen and he nearly jumps out of an airlock “to get some fresh air”.

My Opinion: I liked Garak’s inner conflict about “betraying” his own people at the same time as I disliked the entire Ezri plot. And Garaks plot was basically written as a story device for her. If this would have been an exception I could live with it but we will see quite a number of Ezri episodes this season. They wanted to give her a proper profile and background but it feels forced. Ezri here. Ezri there.

Take Me Out to the Holosuite

Synopsis: The USS T’Kumbra (an all-Vulcan ship) comes to DS9 and its captain and Sisko have a history. He challenges Sisko on Sisko’s very own playing field – baseball. Sisko accepts of course and builds his very own baseball team and two weeks later the holo crowd is looking forward to a game of “Logicians” versus “Niners”.

My Opinion: I never cared for baseball but just as Major League this was fun to watch. The huge baseball cap to fit on a Ferengi head or Odo as the umpire or O’Brien’s scotch-flavoured bubble gum: great. But I would have expected more of Worf. He’s a skilled klingon warrior and he can’t even hit the ball once?
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Categories: DS9 Marathon, DVD / Blu-ray, DVD Marathon
Tags: Battlestar Galactica · Braveheart · Star Trek · Star Trek DS9 · The Lord of the Rings
Comments: No comments

A few weekends back I took the time and inserted the One Ring again. Saturday evening I watched The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers and sunday I finished with The Return of the King.

Awesome, simply awesome.

I watched the first two movies as double feature in the cinema as “blind buy”. I’ve never read LOTR before. I was very impressed. I liked the story from the beginning and was eager to know how it ended. Thus, I bought the books (german translation). After 80-or-so pages I gave up. A few months later I started again and after the first 100 pages it was something like readable. But I never really enjoyed it.

Then I watched the third movie (I knew how it was going to end and also knew which parts would be missing but I didn’t mind). After that I thought I gave it a shot and read it in the original language – klingon. Just kidding. But to be honest, it wasn’t much better. I was really impressed by the fact that there were countless english words describing the landscape I’ve had never heard before. It was hard work for me. Before LOTR I read only the Potter books and some Babylon 5 novels. But overall, I don’t think that JRR was a good storyteller. The story itself is great but he couldn’t tell it very good. IMHO! Please don’t crucify me.

But Peter Jackson could and he did. I bought the theatrical version, knowing there would be a SEE. After I got the SEE I gave the theatricals to my mother because I knew I wouldn’t watch them again. Last year Amazon.com sold the CE for $22 each and I took the offer. Thus I owned every version at one time and still own the SEE and CE.

This weekend I watched it again and was again very impressed and very moved. I confess: I sobbed when Galadriel, Elrond, Gandalf & Frodo departed from the Grey Heavens.

11 out of 10 points for all three movies.

A bit disappointing for me was that – although I am usually not a bonus feature watcher – that none of the SEE/CE (the discs are the same) contains a movie trailer. Sad is also that the short movie of Sean Astin (“Sam”) The Long and the Short of It and the Making-Of of TLATSOI are only contained on the TTT theatrical DVD. I really liked that one!

Categories: DVD / Blu-ray, DVD Marathon
Tags: Babylon 5 · The Lord of the Rings
Comments: No comments