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As a hungarian and a fan of animation, I knew it was a matter of time before I checked this out. Scriptwriter Géza Bereményi is a big name in Hungary, he has written many importan movies here, like Eldorado and Bridge-Man. The director is less known, but overall the movie is well written and directed. The animation is very unique, fluid yet with a sort of angular look to many character, especially the humans, while the animals are more fluid and life-like, except for the titular Coyote - who looks more like a cartoon character from an 90ies Nickelodeon show, on purpose.

The story is mostly about creation, and the negative effect people have on their environment and nature. That'd be all right and good, after all many movies from Ferngully to Avatar had an environmentalist message. But those were original stories written for that purpose. Unfortunately this one tries to squeeze this heavy forced message about the evils of humans (but especially men) and the repercussions of greed, lust and selfishness into a native american creation myth. As a result, the titular Coyote, who in those legends is more of a trickster figure who either educates people or helps them (such as by stealing fire) or does a foolhardy venture that fails and helps people learn from his mistake (and laugh at his folly) rather turns into a Satan-like figure, the source of literally all evil in the world. I have read my fair share of creation myths, and Coyote was never the source of evil, or did he create humans just to spite the Old Man (the wise creator figure who follows dreams sent by the Manitou). During the course of the movie, he commits the first murder just to sate his appetite, tricks other animals to deadly accidents so he can eat them, frames his own creation, the humans, for his own sins, causes animals to want to reproduce, wants to rape his own creation, and so on. He is less Loki and more Mephistopheles here, always looking for a way to replace the Old Man or ruin his creations, even if he has nothing to gain.

The movie even portrays the first creation the same way as an idealized Garden of Eden where all animals lived in peace and ate plants before Coyote introduced killing to the world, causing everything immortal to be finite. He created the first native american man and woman from clay stolen from the Old Man, while his first discarded creation ends up thrown in the sea and becoming the white, african and asian man's ancestor, apparently.

The titular "four souls" refer to Coyote's quasi-immortality, as he can come back from the dead 4 times - unlike the real mythology, where he is permanently immortal. Unfortunately you will care little about his plight because he causes his own deaths himself with his petty lechery, greed and evil. But the humans fare little better, as they themselves are easily led astray (though the woman less so than the man, another modern view) and cause harm to the environment. The Old Man is shown as an irresponsible creator god, who gives little forethought to his actions and more often just goes with the flow and tries to mitigate disaster instead of having any foresight into what he does.

Overall I wish the writer would have made the story more similar to the real creation myths, and had not forced this hard to fit message into the movie. It is not a bad movie, but with few people to actually root for, not really that interesting. Also due to the gore, murders, female nudity, and a rather graphic depiction of childbirth, not really recommended for children.

This movie could have been better if it had A: a budget, or B: better writers. The concept is sadly so bafflingly dumb, it just takes me out of the thing altogether.

So in this alternate universe, people with powers have existed worldwide at least as far back as the 1950s. Y'd think that there would be HUGE demand for people who are super strong, invulnerable, can create fire, ice and lightning out of their fingertips, move things with their minds and read thoughts, in just about every market, but ESPECIALLY in the military. Instead the movie wants us to believe these people with powers were only ever used for menial labor, and once automatization hit the USA they were just... fired and relegated to second class citizens, forced to register like in Marvel's Civil War. Like... could you imagine any US government, left or right, allowing people with such powers to openly exist in the world, and not just either eradicating them or using power blockers?

Instead, the government pushes these people to poverty - when I'd imagine the FBI and CIA would be full of telepaths - and then are surprised when they turn to super powered crime. The cops are supported by dime store Sentinels, except this movie's versions are just people in Chappie-style robot suits (I am convinced they just loaned them from Blomkampf, they are so similar).

X-Men used mutants as an allegory for people being afraid of those who are different. But the government very much used and employed them, and in general was not so dumb as to persecute them to the levels shown here. It is honestly, surprising this movie does not have a Magneto equivalent, because you'd think people with powers would have long ago rebelled. X-Men managed to make them the underdogs by having them try to work within the system and fight against the more malevolent of their own kind. Here, we follow a criminal who - while being motivated by selfless ideals to cure his mother -gets mixed up with criminal elements and commits tons of crimes, engages in multiple doublecrosses against both the authorities and the mutant criminals he works with, and we are still supposed to root for him when he long ago lost any pity we feel for him. At the end, he even accomplishes nothing at all. No great goal of freeing or uniting the not-mutants, no proper plot other than a heist gone wrong and gangster cliches.

This is the sixth time Peter Cushing returns to the role of Baron Victor Frankenstein, and he does it with the ease of a professional. This is perhaps the least action packed of these movies, mostly taking place in one location - an insane asylum - and yet I was captivated throughout the whole movie. There is just such an allure to the way Cushing plays the role - Victor is indeed a cold, clinical, emotionally detached man, brilliant yet without any ethical scruples. Cushing plays him with such a charisma that you cannot help but root for him to succeed, even when you realize the chilling truth that all the evil things you suspected of him are true.

In this story, we start with a young and ethically similarly unrestrained doctor, Simon Helder, who is arrested for trying to resurrect the dead similar to his idol, Victor Frankenstein. Sentenced to 5 years in an insane asylum, he is surprised when his vicious waterhosing by the attendants is interrupted by none other than his idol. It turns out that while incarcerated here, Victor Frankenstein dug up enough ethical and monetary blackmail material about the sleazy evil warden to give him unrestricted access to research. Using the dead patients as raw materials, he continues his work. While originally only freeing Simon from his cell to take over his work as the asylum doctor, he eventually takes the young man as his apprentice, and as his "hands" for surgery. In a nice bit of continuity to the previous movie, due to being burned by his previous experiment, his hands lack the feeling for delicate work. Assisting them is the beautiful but mute "Angel", Sarah, played by the gorgeous Madelaine Smith.

With a talented surgeon to work with, they soon embark on the latest brain transplant experiment - putting the brain of a professor and the hands of an artist into the body of a super strong, almost neanderthal-like demented killer. It is slowly revealed to Simon that while Victor did not kill the professor, he did deliberately drove him to suicide, reasoning he was uncureable.

The experiment seems a success, at first - the creature can talk and recognizes himself. However, with time, the body starts to regress the brain and its baser murderous instincts (connected to killing with glass shards) raises to the surface. Complicating matters is the professor-creature's feelings for Angel, who as we learn, is the warden's daughter, her lack of speech a cause of psychic shock when her father tried to rape her. Simon finally cannot assist Frankenstein anymore when he proposes to jolt back the brain by letting the creature mate with Sarah. However, his attempt to kill the thing results in it escaping, digging out its old body, and then taking revenge on the warden before being destroyed.

In quite a big change from the previous movies, it ends with this having just been a minor setback for the Baron, who excitedly thinks about using a different method next time, and starts to clean up the laboratory looking forward to the next experiment.

I liked how Simon seems to be almost as cold and ethically ambiguous as Frankenstein, but still has shreds of a normal conscience that the good doctor lost long ago. Frankenstein is still the hard to define figure - what he does is horrifying and yet he can reason everything as being done in the name of evolving science. He acts callous towards those he considers his lessers, but once Simon proves his talent and sharp mind, Victor clearly shows respect and even thanks to him. And while he is ready to use Sarah in a callous experiment, he otherwise treats her with kindness. As it was often said, it is due to the inner warmth of the actor that shines through the performance - Cushing is such a nice person, you cannot hate Frankenstein.

The monster is also quite the curious design, the makeup is not amazing but gives the actor - a well disguised David Prowse - many ways to express himself. He looks like a hairy ape or Sasquatch, with bulging muscles, but a bald head full of scars and a face almost sorrowful.

I recommend this movie, it is more of a slow drama than horror. The operation scenes are ghastly indeed, and you can see a lot of effort went into making it realistic, even surgically accurate to the 1800s era.

So, I came into watching this when a friend recommended it to me. He was less selective than me in what he watched, anything that was fantasy was great in his book... So after learning the (indeed talented) Richard Wilson whom we both knew from the equally flawed Legend of the Seeker was in this, he watched a few episodes and told me it is great. (I only learned later he rarely if ever finishes shows, so his recommendation came from only 2 episodes...) I endured a whole season of Merlin, hoping against hope it gets better. It didn't, and so I quit. My comparison to Smallville is quite apt when it comes to this show, because it has all the same beats. Take established famous character, turn them into a teenager, have them engage in a never-ending game of hiding their powers from their friends, and run a "will-they-won't-they" love triangle for ages. Also, throw in every major villain, event and legend this famous person was supposed to do in his whole life in just the start of his career!

Gotham was a show that knew how to do the adventures of a young Bruce Wayne right, by using other less famous villains, or precursors to them, and did not turn Bruce into Batman while a teenager and have him fight with adults twice his size every episode. Merlin, well.. doesn't know how to do this properly, like Smallville.

As a result, we are stuck with our hero perpetually being subservient to a bratty, spoiled Arthur, having to safeguard the future king of the Brits from danger due to a prophecy, while at the same time hiding his powers from him. As you guessed, hijinks ensues. The show is incredibly anachronistic - we have buildings and technology that never existed in this time period, people talk with modern speech and lingo (Guinevere is literally nicknamed Gwen), the Church seems non-existent, and ethnicities who would not be established in Britain for centuries abound everywhere, same as they do in modern Doctor Who (even if Arthur was a legend, pretty sure no legend every mentions Guinevere being african...) That's not counting the inconsistencies with the arthurian myths - Merlin was older than Arthur and was his mentor, not peer, Arthur grew up as a peasant not knowing he was of royal blood, and Uther did not hate sorcery, he actually employed it.

That all could still mean the show is good, if we pretend this has nothing to do with the real Merlin and arthurian legends. Unfortunately, our main character is basically a sad, pathetic loner who hates himself and his own kind. As per the setting of the show, King Uther somehow killed all Dragons (no idea how as even one seems more powerful than all of his knights) and imprisoned the last one, and set a ban on magic. This is a problem for young wizard Merlin, apprenticed to Gaius, a wizard who pretends to be a simple advisor in the court, especially after an encounter with the imprisoned Great Dragon tasks him with safeguarding the arrogant bratty son of Uther, Arthur, without revealing to him his powers. This starts with the recurring theme of Merlin consistently, and without any hint of regret, literally MURDERING every sort of magical creature, fellow wizard or witch who comes and tries to take very justified vengeance on Uther, or his son. While it is OK for him to save the innocent Arthur, he should at least try to use non-lethal means to stop his fellow mages, many of whom are clearly not evil, but Merlin never once shows any regret at having killed them - often by attacking them when their backs were turned, as they considered him an ally and fellow mage.

Y'll never believe who the first season recurring villain is - Nimueh! Yes, the Lady of the Lake. Why would we have her present Exalibur to Arthur, nah, she wants to sacrifice him to take revenge on Uther, but of course, Merlin kills her instead of allying with her, killing Uther and just imprisoning Arthur for his own safety?

Throughout the show we see what a monster Uther is, yet we have to see him saved time and again, and never once acknowledging Merlin, or lifting his stance on magical beings despite being saved by one again and again. This gets worse in later seasons, as I read, when Morgana and Mordred enter the picture. Merlin, after hearing the prophecy that Mordred will kill Arthur, instead of trying to befriend them and change their mind, alienates them, and then tries to murder them several times, ensuring they indeed become the villains the prophecy said so. Our wise wizard, ladies and gentlemen!

Eventually, I stopped watching for the same reason I never liked the main "heroes" of The Shield - because I was rooting for whom the show portrayed as the villains to actually win, kill the hypocrite kin-slaying betrayer wizard, his even more hypocritical mentor, the genocidal xenophobic king and his bratty arrogant son, and bring in a better age for Camelot. And knowing the stuck in a rut writers, I knew this would never happen.

I find myself bored with a lot of the modern shows American gives us with the forced badass Mary Sue heroines and anachronistic diversity in historical eras where none of that was present... Plus often shows have very little plot and drag things out for a lot of episodes with little content.

Gogol is quite the opposite. I wish there was MORE of it! To make it easier to understand for western viewers, imagine Sleepy Hollow - the Tim Burton movie, not the terrible TV show that went nowhere, as usual - but set in 1800s tsarist Russia and what is now Ukraine, with grimy tough cossacks, charming rural villages, rickety wooden orthodox churches, unkempt local clerks and police officials, prim and proper aristocrats from St. Petersburg... It is all so authentic, you know?

For those who don't know, Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol was a russian novelist known for his bizarre, almost Kafka-esque writings, that often had an esotheric theme and incorporate a lot of local slavic legends and folklore. The Gogol of this show is quite similar to the real writer, but here working as a scribe and assistant to the police. He is pale and prone to fainting, and often sees strange visions that can, sometimes, reveal details about cases he should not know. He has a dark secret he is unaware of - he was stillborn and was given life through a dark deal his father struck with a noseless stranger (implied to be the Devil itself).

Gogol piques the interest of famous and eccentric investigator Guro, working for the Tsar's secret police. He takes Gogol to the ukranian cossack village of Dikanka, where strange murders of young women have been committed by a supernaturally strong dark Horseman. The investigations start to reveal more and more supernatural beings and happenings about Dikanka, as well as the village's past. Witches, rusalkas (water nymphs), warlocks, demons, curses... And for those familiar with the real Gogol's writings, they will recognize how each chapter actually cleverly uses one or more short stories of his as the basis for the plot, while continuing the ongoing story of the Horseman's murders.

We are introduced to many memorable and well acted characters in Dikanka - Binkh, the honest local policeman, suspicious of Gogol's strange connections to the events, Yakim, Gogol's faithful servant, the religious and loyal Vakula and his young daughter who has strange mystical insights into cases, and Lisa, the local noblewoman who lives with her reclusive husband, and with whom Gogol hopelessly falls in love with. But she is not the only woman in his life, as the stunningly beautiful Oksana, a daughter of a local miller who was drowned decades ago and came back as a rusalka/mavka, follows Gogol around invisibly, spying from mirrors, as he is the only one who can see her.

The story has a lot of surprises and twists, and as befitting a gothic dark tale that could almost be considered to be made by Hammer pictures, has a lot of blood and nudity too, but all done tastefully - not in the manner of say, Saw or HBO shows. It is done to set the gothic mood, no more or less than necessary.

I learned of this show - or rather, a set of 3 movies, as it is also aired - thanks to knowing about another adaptation of Gogol's short story, Viy, from 2014 (a movie I can also recommend). While Viy is also a used as a plot point in this show, I think the 2014 and 1967 movies portrayed that story better, since here the novice clergyman is just a guest character instead of being the focal point of the story. However, the church haunting scene is done extremely well in this show too, with the clever use of some glass.

Honestly, given the way this show ends, I could see them making further episodes later down the line, perhaps taking place in other locales in 19th century Russia. I for one, would welcome it!

So, yeah, even going in I knew this will be a hard episode to watch, but , maaan I was unprepared for the cringe. The utter, terrible cringe that was this musical nonsense of an episode.

Because yes, after aboute 5 or so minutes in the opening, everyone breaks out into song. Now, Star Trek is no stranger to weird scenarios, I mean Q once transported everyone into Sherwood Forest, and the many godlike entities encountered in TOS could have also snapped their fingers and created a situation like this. But instead, we just have a simple "anomaly of the week" resonating to a song Uhura plays be the source of this, something about impropability fields and whatnot coming from... a universe where everyone sings? And that is not a good enough explanation. See, because it isn't that everyone has to convey what they want to communicate in song. They also follow the unwritten rules of a musical, repeating answers, joining into a chorus, needlessly saying the same thing again and again. Now unless this anomaly has some super precise control over human and alien nervous systems...HOW? And did it also link everyone's mind, so they all hear the same music and know when to join the chorus? It even makes them do choreography, start dancing, and force them to express all their feelings openly? This is more like mind control. That's why I feel we should have stuck to this being done by a trickster god, like Q... I mean, the same thing was done on Lucifer, where it worked because A: it is a supernatural show where literal God himself appears, so nothing is impossible, B: because the show is by nature, a comedy-drama series, and C: because our main character is played by a talented singer. Sadly, none of the above hold true to this show.

What could have been a mildly annoying phenomenon for maybe 10 minutes of the episode, after which any sensible captain would have asked everyone that when they notice they start singing, maybe just communicate in text on PADDs, we have to endure several more duets and musical scenes throughout the episode, which uses this quirk to just continue doing romance - Pike and his captain lady friend (whom I still find hard to tell apart from Una), Spock and Chapel in a romance we all know is doomed due to continuity, and yes, once again, La'an and James T. Kirk. At this point they might as well just make him a cast member. What's with this weird insistence to push characters from other, better shows into this one? Can't Pike have his 5 years - aka 5 seasons - in peace before Kirk takes over? Or is Paramount-CBS already building their TOS reboot show spinoff to start after this one ends?

The singing nonsense really has no rules. For example, Pike's captain girlfriend (Batel) calls him and as they both start singing and sharing deep personal feelings, and it takes a good 5 minutes before La'an thinks to maybe terminate the call? I imagined, if this was the Enterprise-D Worf would just slam his fist into the terminal, and Picard would nod and say "Thank you lieutenant, not a moment too soon." :D So what was stopping everyone else from acting? Including Pike and Batel themselves? Mind control? Later Una and La'an have a duet and Una even disables artificial gravity because... rule of cool, I guess?

Oddly, everyone sings in the same style of musical. Y'd think they would at least use this opportunity to do many styles of singing from say, rowdy sailor songs, heavy metal solos and opera, but nope, it is all that sappy american forgettable musical style, like the many "Spider-Man the Musical" style shows they have there. Even when we have some Klingons join in at the end, they also sing like this and not in glorious Klingon opera. That'd have somewhat mitigated this disaster.

We also have Chapel essentially break up with Spock, which just does not work with how the Majel Barrett played TOS future of her was always hopelessly pining for him. But then again, this show already threw continuity out the window with the Xenomorph Gorn, Spock exploring his Human emotions yet always being confounded by them during TOS, and so on...

Same goes for "Gul Darhe'el" or rather, Aamin Marritza who was so traumatized by being present at the atrocities his commander committed but being powerless to stop him, he masqueraded as him to atone for his and his people's crimes.

I mean, imagine this same story on DS9. Gul Dukat has done a lot worse, and for far longer, than this Dak'Rah guy, and has shown not an ounce of regret. If these writers were in charge, Dukat would have never survived Season 1. Major Kira would have probably stabbed him to death repeatedly in some alley, and Sisko would have shrugged his shoulders and filed a false report.

If you want a good Star Trek episode about the horrors and pointlessness of war, watch DS9's "Nor the Battle to the Strong" or "The Siege of AR-558". If you want good episodes about PTSD or having to resolve lingering trauma from war, remember Nog's long and arduous recuperation from said siege, or the interactions between O'Brien and the Cardassians in TNG's "The Wounded" where he remains civil but tells them hates the person he has become due to their actions in the war.

This episode, is just absolutely terrible. Basically one of our main character murders an unarmed man in cold blood, without provocation. Yes, said person was a war criminal, he more than deserved it - even though the episode never reveales whether he was truly a spy or just a coward defector, he nonetheless actually did some good for Federation-Klingon relations. Now, his death may be possibly grounds for new hostilities, who knows, and our dutiful captain and first officer just brush it off as if nothing happened?

I am still giving it a 3 because the field hospital triage scenes were well shot, and while both M'Benga and Chapel were bland and Ortegaz really overacted her scenes, the actor playing Dak'Rah was actually trying to convey a real sense of tranquility and guilt (even if false guilt). And the CGI was nice, as always, as were the make-up, pity we only ever see Andorians as minor characters - I still miss Hemmer, they should have more aliens on the crew.

Everyone was hyping this show up to be the next big thing, and well, puppet shows are not very common, so I thought I'd give this a chance.

Well, this is probably the bleakest show I have seen in a while, and if it has a message, it is not a good one. I'd especially NOT recommend it to be shown to kids, ever. If you thought the junkyard conveyor belt scene in Toy Story 3 was dread-inducing, you ain't seen nothing yet.

The plot is, Ollie, an enthusiastic rabbit doll suffering from memory problems, tries to find his owner, Billy. Unlike Toy Story (which this show rips off a lot from), in this world, toys cannot interact with humans - Ollie might try to move and talk, but the toy shop owner cannot see or feel it. How and why Ollie can get up and escape then... is never explained. Anyway, after an encounter with the shop owner's dog, Ollie is saved by the southern accented clown doll Zozo, who walks with a cane and is gentlemanly despite his imposing size. Now, if you have seen Toy Story 3 and 4 the parallels run deep now - the shop is like the old toy's store in 4 and Zozo is essentially Lotso all over again, just with a different backstory.

After Ollie starts to remember snippets of memories from his home, Zozo offers to help him find his owner. They set off and are joined by Rosy, an abrasive patchwork teddy bear, who has a history with Zozo.

All this is intercut with flashbacks to Billy and his mom suffering from cancer, and how he feels he has to grow up to be helpful to his dad, which is why he threw Ollie away, as we learn at the end. There, I saved you all that pointless drama. We have seen way too many cancer plots in movies for me to care about this one, not helped by how corny the dialogue between the mom and kid is. They are poor, she decides not to pay for chemotherapy so her son can go to college, etc... After 3 episodes the toys get to an abandoned amusement park, where we learn to nobody's surprise that Zozo is evil and selfish - a southern character who is also a clown? That was a given. We get a way too long backstory for him and how he was a punching bag figure at this amusement park, his only friend a dancing marionette, Nina. When the place was shut down and she was sold, Zozo began his long search for her, but ultimately it made him vengeful and he resigned to solitude. Rosy was saved by him, but when his soul darkened he left her behind, wanting the best for her. Turns out one of Nina's bells is inside Ollie, and he knew a song she played, which is the only reason Zozo helped him. After he tortures Ollie to remember, and more drama with Rosy, she helps him escape and in the chase everyone gets mortally wounded (which ... I dunno how, seeing as they are toys who can survive losing their limbs, but I guess cocktail swords are deadly to them). We learn in flashbacks that Billy's mother had Nina as a toy from childhood and she fell apart from being played with, so she sew her bell inside Ollie. At the end, all three of the toys die, and Billy goes back with his father. Great "happy" ending. Also a waste of my time. Really grim story where there is no resolution, just pointless drama.

This movie has been hyped to the high heavens by every movie critic I have read, and I just could not understand why. All the comparisons were to the Secret Life of Amelie, a cute french movie I have seen once and liked (though not enough to rewatch) so I thought, what the heck, will give it a try.

Liza the Fox-Fairy (why not call it Kitsune? Hungarians know what that is) takes place in a weird alternate 1970s Budapest where communism never happened, we have MekkBurger (a funny wordplay on McDonalds and the sound a goat makes), Cosmopolitan, but the city is the same old and run-down place as it was in the real 70ies. This and the fantasy elements are the best part of the movie... and I wish there were more of them. But they are not delved into and the movie instead focuses on the main characters... which is a problem.

Because booooy our main characters are BORING. Liza, a nurse looking after the wife of a japanese ex-ambassador, is impossibly naive and shut-in. At the age of 30, it feels like she has never been to a party, had sex, or even talked to a member of the opposite sex. Not helped by how unemotive the actress is, who mumbles all her lines so much I need subtitles to get it. The detective who moves in as her tenant is characterized by being a stoic man of few words. So few, he maybe has 2 longer monologues in the whole movie. Since the movie should be about their epic love, you can see why this is a problem.

The main plot is, Liza keeps seeing a long dead japanese pop star's ghost who only appears (visible only to Liza) to goof around and sing (fake) japanese songs. This entity is however, more of a Grim Reaper - like malign being, and has his sights set on getting Liza for herself. Every man who Liza even takes a passing interest in dies due to various accidents. Now, this would be a funny idea for a 20 minute sketch, but a one and a half hour movie makes this extremely long and boring, as we meet various suitors and learn of their weird fetishes (one loves unusual mix-matched dishes, the other locks himself in cabinets...) before they meet their demise. The scenes with the clueless police do nothing to drive the plot along. Neither does the detour with the local Casanova whom Liza mistakenly assumes to be in love with her.

The big finale also makes little sense. Despite the title and the allusions, we as the viewers know it was only Death who made Liza believe she is a Kitsune, she isn't really one... So the long drawn out scene of the detective running to save her while battling accidents that are caused by a ghost he cannot see... all the while Liza also has to confess her love? Why, when she was not a Kitsune, and there was no curse to break? And are we to assume Tomy Tani will haunt the detective to the end of his days, trying to kill him via accidents? Not sure if this relationship was worth it, dude...

All in all, the magical stuff - visions and dreams - and the alternate 70ies reality are the best parts of the movie, and they are directed well. The actors are rather lackluster though, and the plot of the movie is paper thin and not enough for such a long movie.

Despite the movie being almost a full reboot of the Hammer Frankenstein stories, I quite liked this. The sets were great and atmospheric, and Peter Cushing is awesome as always!

I always found his portrayal of Victor Frankenstein fascinating - because I believe he plays him as if he was the hero of this story, not the villain. And due to that, he is a more nuanced character than the Universal movie's maniac jabbering mad scientist was. Here, Frankenstein is a cold and clinical scientist who is in pursuit of knowledge, and he will work hard and disregard amenities for his goals. He crosses boundaries that are unethical, such as stealing corpses, but at the same time, he is loyal and kind to those few friends and helpers he has. He is genuinely hurt and outraged by the Karlstadt people running him out, stealing his properties and ruining his experiments - in his mind he has done nothing heinous.

And well, really, he hasn't - a lengthy flashback shows his story being quite different from that told in the Curse of Frankenstein. Here, he did not murder his old professor for the brain, nor did the monster kill anyone, except a few sheep.

And yes, that means the movie is pretty much a reboot. Hans from Revenge of Frankenstein is still around, and rather unchanged, being an ardent follower who wants to learn from the best, but the events of the previous movie, with Frankenstein's brain being transferred to a new body, have not happened.

Instead, upon being ran out of his new home by a priest, Victor and Hans return to Karlstadt where he plans to sell his assets and hope no-one recognizes him. Unfortunately, all he finds is an empty castle. The corrupt burgomeister and chief of police confiscated his property, and are living the high life. An outraged Victor bursts into the burgomeister's home demanding his stuff back, then escapes through the window to the amusement of the burgomeister's busty wife. After hiding in visiting circus, and witnessing the captain unjustly harassing the hypnotist Zoltan and running him out of town too, they try to leave town and take shelter in the cave where the deaf-mute beggar woman, Rena lives. To his surprise, Victor finds his old creation there too, frozen in ice, and decides to try and revive him.

He succeeds, but the monster's brain lacks stimulus. Frankenstein hires Zoltan who succeeds in hypnotizing the creature. However the greedy hypnotist abuses his power as the monster will only obey him now. While Victor would like to run experiments, he would showcase the creature as a freak in a sideshow... and for the time being, sends him down to the village to rob houses, and to "punish" the burgomeister and police captain in revenge for harassing him. Zoltan is the true villain of this movie - Frankenstein would have been content, as he often says, to be left alone to experiment in peace. Not just abusing the monster, Zoltan also tries to rape Rena as well and drinks constantly. He does show brief remorse when the monster returns after having brutally killed the burgomeister (and a policeman whom he mistook for the captain), but when an enraged Frankenstein throws him out, he swears revenge and uses the monster again to try and kill his creator.

Cushing is great in this, in fact all the actors are great. Katy Wild plays the "wild woman" Rena great, Peter Woodthorpe is disheveled and always temperamental as Zoltan, giving evil looks to everyone. Even bit roles like the Burgomeister and his wife are well acted.

The monster and Frankenstein's lab itself borrows a lot from the Universal movies. No great wheels and electric generators, instead we have coils and the monster is given life by lightning. The contraptions look weird yet functional, and Cushing works them as if they really did something. The monster is sadly, less good looking - the makeup looks more like a badly worked clay mask, with some stitches and a rectangular block-like brow, with small metal electrodes in the neck. It does not look believable and makes the monster look more like he is the android from Red Dwarf.

All that said, a strong movie with some good acting, recommended.

I admit, when I first saw the show during university, I did not think much of it. I caught only the Season 3 episodes and I thought "rabbits at war? That's silly!" It was not until the early 2000s that I revisited the show, after I have read the books for the first time, and that made me realize how deep this show is.

At its core the story is really about friendship, community and togetherness. The rabbits of Watership Down endure and survive because they stick together, help out other forest creatures, and care about each other - contrasted with Woundworth's oppresive gulag of a warren ruled through fear. But the show is deeper than a cliche good vs evil story. Many Efrafans and Darkhaven rabbits who start out as enemies turn into allies and friends, and even those who remain antagonists are not black and white. Even Woundworth himself - voiced in the first two seasons by the awesome John Hurt - has a tragic past and at one point, he seems to understand how his way to protect rabbits is misguided.

The core cast is all great and memorable - Hazel the crafty and charismatic leader, Bigwig the rough and brave warrior, Fiver the often misunderstood runt with prophetic powers, clever Blackberry, kind and stalwart Primrose, grumpy Hawkbit, cheerful Dandelion, friendly and naive Pipkin. They are joined by the boisterous and loud Keehar and the plucky mouse Hannah on Watership Down, where they meet challenges big and small and get into all sorts of adventures. The voice cast is adorably british, with especially Bigwig's cockney accent and Hannah's cheeky voice being super memorable. In smaller roles we have Sandleford survivor Captain Holly and formerly pampered Shining Wire escapee Strawberry and freed farm rabbit Clover - they are largely relegated to background roles except for a few episodes, and only become more prominent in Season 3. Captain Broom, the forgetful yet still spry classic old british soldier type, joins later from Redstone Warren.

The main opposition to Watership Down comes from the militaristic nation of Efrafa, run by the tyrannical General Woundwort. In order to protect rabbits from man and predators, the General imposed tyrannical laws that his Owsla officers enforce. He considers it a fair exchange that his subjects survive even if living in captivity and only allowed to eat and move when ordered. In Season 3, after the destruction of Efrafa in a freak storm during Hazel's attack, Woundwort goes mad and believes he is an agent of destruction sent by the Black Rabbit of Inlé, tasked to destroy Hazel's warren. He is merciless and strict, but does reward loyalty and is not without his own code of honor, and as Fiver and Pipkin both find out, motivated by a tragic past. While only a guest star in Seasons 1-2, Woundwort appears in every episode in Season 3 and becomes more focused in his goal, although sadly this means we lose the awesome John Hurt as his voice, although his replacement is quite good too.

Campion is perhaps the most captivating character of the show, and there is a reason a lot of Season 3 focuses on him. A courageous and loyal officer with a good heart, Campion is a tragic character - torn between his loyalty for Woundwort and knowing in his heart that what his chief does is not right. Despite being honest, Campion is forced ever deeper into a conspiracy to save Primrose and others from Efrafa and becomes a double agent, something that causes him great pain. In a final decisive stroke, he at the same time betrays Woundwort to Watership Down, but also saves his life, sacrificing his own. His story does not end here though, as he survives, albeit horribly scarred - looking like a rabbit version of Two-Face - and tasked by the Black Rabbit to find Woundwort. Thankfully, his resolve to survive after finding love with Blackberry makes him endure to get his much-deserved reward of a happy life with her.

Vervain is another enduring antagonist, who also becomes a main character in Season 3. While on the surface your typical groveling toady with treacherous ambitions, Vervain is not yet another "Starscream" stereotype sneaky second in command. He is cowardly and lives for intrigue, yet he at the same time fears and respects Woundwort and understands he is nothing without his chief. For brief periods we do see that he yearns for a better life, but also that even he knows he has done too much evil to have a second chance at life.

Spartina only appears in Season 3, but is a very memorable character. She is crafty and strong, taught to survive in Darkhaven where only the strong flourish - thus she learned to play all sides and side with the winner, and gather information and use it to her advantage. In her heart though she yearns for something better and is caught off guard by the kindness and help she finds at Watership Down, particularly the affections of Bigwig.

One minor antagonist also worth mentioning is Cowslip, voiced by the awesome Stephen Fry. Not a fighter by nature, he is a crafty and perhaps insane rabbit who lives in the warren of the Shining Wire, well aware of the snares put out by men, but confident that he can endure by sacrificing his own flock to them.

The show gets a major art style change in Season 3 with characters getting redesigned and recolored - I would liken it to the difference between Batman TAS and TNBA. The writing remains as strong as before though, even as the stories become more linear and action-packed.

I own the show on DVD, and have rewatched it several times. It's a really well crafted series and I can only recommend it. While it takes a different direction from the book and the movie, it also has time to develop points and characters that got the shaft in the movie (like Campion), and I'd say the changes are actually sometimes better than in the book. You can consider it an alternate version of the story, basically. At any rate, I definitely much, much prefer the show over the CGI Netflix one, both in writing and especially in art style. Here, you won't confuse one rabbit with another for sure. ;)

I learned about the Krays from a rather unlikely source - Monty Python! Their Piranha Brothers / Ethel the Frog sketch still cracks me up, and I only learned recently that it was based on some real criminals.

While I heard of Legend, I never connected that movie with the Piranhas. Upon reading up on the subject, I watched both the 1990 The Krays, and the 2015 Legend movie... And I found both lacking when it came to explaining how the Krays operated and what their crimes actually were. The 1990 movie almost glorifies them, never even showing their arrest and trial, and focusing too much on Reggie's and Frances marriage and personal life, as well as their mother and how she affected their lives. It also makes the other criminals they kill be even worse than the Krays, so they come off looking better.

Legend on the other hand, adds more details from the of their crimes and Nipper Read has some presence, at least, but it too makes it seem like Reggie was a generally OK guy who was undone by his violent brother. Hardy's performance was awesome, but the movie was slow and lacking in action and meat.

The Rise of the Krays and its follow-up, Fall of the Krays, on the other hand, does not try to glorify the brothers at all and tries to be clinical and precise. It omits their childhood and brief army service, but otherwise faithfully shows their violent rise to power, and does not sugarcoat that Reggie was just as violent as Ron. It also does not make Ron as much of an idiot as Tom Hardy played him at - he was a psychotic schizophrenic, not dumb. He has some occasional good ideas, but is prone to ruin their plans with his violent outbursts. The movie does not ommit the rather important bit about Ronnie having both a Labour and Tory MP under his thumb due to their gay night life exploits, and explores how they crushed other gangs, and shows why they went to prison, or court, and what horrifying methods they used to make sure people do not testify against them.

The Frances love story is still there, but is not the focus of the movie.

One rather big downside of this otherwise really tight and precise movie is the casting. I mean, I am sure talented twin actors are hard to find (see the Olsen twins) but unfortunately the actors playing Reggie and Ron have little resemblance - in fact the actor playing Dick looks a lot more like Reggie, I originally thought he was his brother.

I especially liked the bigger focus on Nipper Read, and his efforts to catch these gangsters, stymied often by his own superiors for political reasons.

Congrats, if you made it this far. Let's summarize this nonsense.

-So as everyone and their aunt guessed, Halbrand is Sauron of course. No big surprise, the one character who is not from any official material. Except, his plan makes zero sense. Did he pretend to be a Human, have Adar kill his fake family (because Adar clearly did not recognize him 2 episodes ago), escape to raft with other southlanders and just... HOPE that Galadriel will jump off the ship and somehow, get to that specific raft???

And yes, we get the whole "Join me and we shall rule Middle Earth as father and son... I mean, king and queen!" speech alongside the other evergreen classic, "We are not so different, you and I..." because yes, sure, the person who hunted you for centuries will believe you just want peace and redemption. Pull the other one. And apparently he can just enter people's minds and make them see anything? Seems like an useful power that he should have used before to get Miriel to do what he wanted... instead of relying on Galadriel to convince her with words. Though, again, why did he even need all this charade? The writers probably thought the whole Annatar thing would be too simple (where, as in the original books, he shows up as an Elf from faraway lands bringing the gifts of the ring-creation), so instead he does this roundabout nonsense to get to Celebrimbor, instead of showing up as an Elf who'd be instantly trusted.

The worst part? Now, we will have the Dark Lord, the main antagonist of Lord of the Rings, be played by this super mediocre and boring actor for who knows how many seasons. Great. The showrunners also said Sauron will be "Like Joker, an antihero" and that just fills me with dread.

-Galadriel remains insufferable. Upon returning to Eldriador, she all but tells Elrond "yes, you were wrong" and never says "I effed up by staying behind". Then when she finds out Halbrand is Sauron and awakens to be greeted by Elrond she does the classic "how to identify a shapeshifter" trick by asking him something only the two of them know. Except... did she just forget that Sauron a minute ago was in HER MIND showing her a memory of her brother Finrod, that ONLY SHE KNEW? Dumb, dumb, dumb... Then, inexplicably, she does not tell the others that the idea for how to save the Elves comes from their sworn enemy, no, she lets them proceed. I half expected the show to pull another trick that this Galadriel is Sauron, and we will cut to the real one waking up, but no, I gave this show more credit than it deserves. It really is THAT badly written. So everything is Galadriel's fault and she does not even have the courage to admit Sauron is back?

-For some reason, the rings need silver and gold from Valinor and somehow the only such item they have is Finrod's shortsword/dagger? For reals???I get it, OMG Symbolism!!! But still felt forced. The Elves probably brought a LOT of that stuff from Valinor with them.

-Despite the show trying to fool us before the opening, of course the Stranger was Gandalf. Not called by name, maybe Amazon does not have the rights, or they wanna milk the reveal, but clearly it is him. "Follow your nose", "Return to the shadow from whence you came!" - direct lines from Gandalf from Lord of the Rings... the whole adventure speech, it all adds up to that. Again, I gave the show more credit than they deserve, I assumed the Morgoth/Sauron cult are trying to trick him and bring him to the real Sauron to be killed or corrupted, but no, these idiots really did not recognize an Istari and really thought he was Sauron. Why would Sauron even lose his memory and need to learn his powers? Why would he fall from the sky as a meteor, when we has been on Middle-Earth? The last war ended centuries ago, he did not just arrive back, he has been around for a long time.

I am not even surprised that the three ladies have ridiculously powerful abilities. Not even Gandalf or Saruman had such powers - shapeshifting, immunity to fire and the ability to create and control fire at will? The Dweller (who oddly never talks, maybe was not paid for it?) can even do the whole force-push thing Saruman and Gandalf did in Fellowship. I mean, why be surprised, these people care nothing about the lore, but magic is not something regular Humans and Elves can do... And then, after grabbing the staff, Gandalf banishes them because... they are RINGWRAITHS??? BEFORE the rings have even been forged? WTF is this shit...?

-At least Sadoc died. I expected him to say at the end "nah, I cannot go on so leave without me, same way we left you and your family behind because of a twisted ankle." Then inexplicably, despite Gandalf having re-grown the whole apple orchard, the others just continue their wanderings instead of staying at this lush and plentiful place? And despite Nori telling Gandalf that one adventure has been enough, and clearly having learned his lesson and wanting to settle back to normalcy, her family pushes her away to follow her heart and leave. I guess the writers thought it was poignant, I saw it as more proof that everyone hates Nori and wants her to leave.

-Not much happens in Númenor except Elendil and Míriel talking a bit using sentences no real human would ever use. And the king dies, so sad, pity we never knew anything about him. I am reminded of how Viserys died just the same week on House of the Dragon, and how touching and sad that moment has been, because I truly liked and cared about him.

I literally laughed at the screen when they started the really badly sung Legend of the Rings at the end, because -- this makes no sense this way anymore. If Sauron wanted all other rings bound to the One, he needed to forge it already, and he doesn't even have mithril. Whoopsy-doodle! The song even says "the Dark Lord in Mordor" and I was like, Sauron does not even know it is called Mordor - Adar never told anyone but his Orcs!

Maaan I am morbidly curious how much worse this thing can get in season 2? Maybe a civil war between Adar and Sauron... though given his powers, it would be over quick. And we completely skipped the forging of the rings - nor do we even have human and dwarf kings they could be given to, only Durin III. Where will the Witch-King of Angmar come in? Surely these writers cannot resist to give him a tragic origin, where for one whole season we will believe he is a good guy. Or maybe they will just turn him into the Witch-Queen of Angmar? Apparently, Círdan is coming in season 2 too, can't wait to see how they mess him up. Maybe Celeborn will be revealed to be alive, waiting centuries for his wife to come for him... in vain.

Remember Avatar? I liked it more for the amazing, living world they created than for the (really basic) story. And Pandora was not just an unique and memorable biosphere, it was also well explained to us through dialogue and exposition by many characters.

Vesper also presents a truly unique world of an Earth overgrown with alien strange vegetation, where humans use strange biotechnology (or at least some of them do). However, it never explains anything, how this world came to be, why the rich living in the Citadels segregate the rest of the population to a medieval existence, why they give them genetically engineered seeds to grow in return for their blood, etc. This is all just dumped on us. Nor is it ever explained how our main character, Vesper, despite living in seclusion among medieval circumstances, caring for a crippled father unable to move, somehow is a child prodigy who can genetically engineer plants and discover secrets in someone's genome in seconds via some strange touchscreen-bio-computer... I wished fervently the movie explained more, but it never does. There are other weird things that exist for weirdness' sake, such as the "pilgrims" who are weird hooded silent people who collect junk and build a giant tower from which the Citadel can be seen, no explanation as to why.

Our story stars Vesper, a 12-something girl who lives alone with her crippled father. Unable to move and connected to life support, Darius aka "Pops" keeps in contact with Vesper via a hovering ball-shaped bio-drone. (Weirdly, the directors forgot that he'd need to see through the thing and yet, it always faces Vesper with the painted on smiley face, where no cameras are located). Vesper engineers various useful plants that heal wounds and glow in the dark, again, unexplained how (these people are never shown to have books or be able to read, or use technology). However she is disliked - probably for her knowledge - and ostracized by the other children. Jonas, her uncle, and the de facto leader of this village, sometimes visit to subtly threaten her and take her blood. The humans also use "jugs", genetically engineered sub-human clone workers who are unintelligent.

All this changes when a pod from one of these floating Citadels crash lands nearby. Vesper finds a young woman in the woods and takes her home to help her despite her father's protests. Camellia promises to help Vesper and her dad enter a Citadel if they can take her home. However, Jonas finds the other passenger of the Citadel escapees and kills him. Camellia is distraught when Vesper tells her, revealing she was genetically engineered by him to be an intelligent jug, a crime for which they escaped from the Citadel, to flee to another one. Jonas suspects Vesper is hiding the other escapee and after messing with the bio-drone, his sons brand Vesper's arm. Vesper studies Camellia's DNA and realizes she has all the seed's genetic codes in her genetic material, meaning she can be used to unlock them and make the people free from the Citadel's grasp.

Jonas finds and attacks them, but they subdue him (in a ridiculous fight, but then again we have seen before that somehow, a 12 year old is able to wrestle a full grown woman to the ground and restrain her). While he promises to work with them to unlock the seeds, he instead betrays them to the Citadel (no idea why, considering he hates those people). Really silly looking guys in hazmat suits with skull faces under the suit show up and kill Darius, however Vesper hides from them and lures them into bushes that release deadly bullet-wasps that kill them. At no point do these people speak, or use their guns, so one has to wonder what they were trying to do, considering Camellia was to be destroyed? Instead, despite winning, Camellia decides to give herself up and goes back to the Citadel (and I guess these scary skullface people don't care about 2 of them being killed and leave Vesper alive). Vesper then goes to the junkers' tower and revealing she already reverse engineered the seeds, lets them spread on the wind, promising a future where the people will be free from the Citadel... Except for their murder squad armed with high tech weapons, of course. LOL...

So yeah, the movie tries to be poignant and silent and moody, and I guess it achieves this, but it is only to hide that there is woefully little story underneath all this visually great cover. If this was a novel, it would be a 25-30 page long short story, there is so little to tell. We never find out why Jonas and the others really hate Vesper so much, and why would they not want seeds that would make them independent from the Citadel... when they hate them apparently? We also never see what life in the Citadels is like. Nor how this world even came to be.

I saw this movie in the early 90ies for sure - Hungary just came out of the yoke of communism and we got western movies with several years of delay.

I will never forget watching it for the first time, luckily we had a VHS player by then and could record it.

It is a surreal experience that is still extremely gripping and you feel for all the characters. At its core, it is a movie about faith and belief, the power of imagination and how your faith can change reality - if you are ready to make the sacrifices needed.

Our main character, Griffin, is a young boy in the middle ages, living and working in a miner town in England. The people live in fear of the Black Death, which has ravaged the countryside. Griffin, prone to having visions most of his folk do not believe in, sees the idea that they need to use a tunneling machine to go to the other side of the world and forge a cross from the copper they mine, and put it at the top of a church, to save their village from the plague. He also sees though that one of them - his face covered and identity unknown - will fall from the ladder and die in the process.

After convincing his returning older brother, Connor, several other colorful characters join their journey, which hits an early snag but Griffin's storytelling ability makes them make it to the other side anyway - and into color. Much like Oz, the scenes set in the "real world" are black and white and the "fantasy" is in color. Because the wanderers suddenly find themselves in then-present day New Zealand. They have to face 'horseless carriages' and 'sea monsters' and 'iron bulls', and also the general indifference of the people living in the city assuming them to be bums, to accomplish their mission. While the french comedy with Jean Reno covered a similar time travel, this movie is far less comedic, and the humor is used to underline the seriousness of the quest.

I won't reveal the ending or more of the story, just that this is a movie that is so gripping and you get so attached to the characters, it is something you will remember for a long time.

This movie isn't terrible per se, it just takes established characters and takes them through the ringer until they are unrecognizable. For starters, it expects the watchers to know stuff like Hal and Ollie's friendship from the comic, but it is never shown here, we are just meant to know they were good friends. Same with Sinestro teaching Hal, again, just a throwaway line in the Oa museum.

What the movie really does is similar to Thor Ragnarok - take some storylines from some of the worst of the comics, and mash them together into a completely unrecognizable new whole. Without the out of place humor that that movie had, at least. In this case, it takes the Parallax storyline I never liked - it turned Hal into a murdering monster who killed his bosses and some of his friends and enemies, and then wanted to destroy the world - and the equally dumb Rann-Thanagar war from later 52-era comics that also was just edgelord nonsense in order to make comics more bloody and went nowhere.

And yeah, this movie has a lot of that too, death, blood, murder and destruction on a planetary scale. Not much of it makes sense once you consider things. Ollie just says "Well Sinestro is insane!" when in the comics that was never the case and here it does not seem to be either, but there ain't much sense in his plans either.

It's not a stellar start when you realize the main villain's plot was taken from a Star Trek: Enterprise episode... So, basically, Sinestro repeats the plot from that show where the Romulans used a holo-ship to try and make the other Alpha quadrant races go to war. Here, they succeeded and Rann and Thanagar fought for years, until they came to a peace agreement, and THEN Sinestro struck again, just to get a weaponized Zeta Beam technology from Sardath... but he botched that up when Rann itself was teleported and millions of Thanagarians died. Hal was caught in the crossfire too, and thought to have perished... But, of course, here comes the completely expected end villain twist that everyone will see coming, they drop the signs with a heavy hand.

Apparently, Sinestro just happened to have the Parallax entity and for some reason, wanted the control the now ringless (and naked, thanks for that mental image) Hal... Except, somehow this made Hal realize all the endless wars were pointless and that he should just become a god and destroy the universe. Somehow, Sinestro is completely on board with becoming second banana to his former nemesis... So Hal and Sinestro easily kill all the Green Lanterns and Guardians, and he takes the other rings. Then he plays pretend when Sinestro captures the other heroes so they can get him to Sardath... despite having ridiculously extreme powers that could make this possible more easily if he just attacked directly... And they show this by having Hal brutally murder several of Sinestro's team - his own team - so it is clear he turned evil.

Our heroes are: John, who basically got Kyle's origin here, and at first wants nothing do with all this. His I guess recurring trait is that he takes no **** from anybody and is easily angered, but he does not want to kill and is against war - quite a far cry from the DCAU John. He struggles with the ring - which gets somehow easily taken from him a lot - and I guess his growth through the movie is that he finds willpower? Because, yes, what in the comics needed every hero ever to try and stop Parallax, here it just comes by John punching him really hard and then taking his extra rings from him. And then resists to kill him, but of course Hal decides to get himself "suicided by cop", or rather, arrow. John also only gets into uniform in literally the last minute.

Ollie aka Green Arrow is our other main character, who is probably the most close to how he is portrayed in comics or the DCAU. He is pretty laid back and has good advice for John, but I never felt that they bonded at all, which is especially true after they find Hal.

Shayera (yeah, she is not called Hawkgirl) is the alien police officer version, but if you thought DCAU Shayera had anger management issues, booooy you should see this one. Her role is mostly just to always suggest the most aggressive option, attack people head-first without thinking, and of course call Adam a traitor a lot. She becomes a bit more balanced as she learns the plot, but her presence feels completely mandated just by the DCAU version and John's relationship... which is absent in this one. I think giving him a lift back to Earth at the end was the most she did with him.

Adam Strange seems to have been lifted from that DC animated short a year ago, as in he is a scarred, bearded grizzled veteran who got transported over the galaxy by zeta beams at random. He also sacrifices himself at the end to stop the Zeta beam weapon, pointlessly since John could have done the same with all those rings he got off of Hal.

Martian Manhunter and Vixen appear shortly in the beginning when John visits the Watchtower - again I feel the latter just got added as a cameo because "hey people remember John dated her on JLU".

Sinestro's crew is weird - he has the yellow ring and the Sinestro Corps uniform, and some of his henchmen use yellow powers, but they do not have the uniform nor the rings. Also, for some reason we get people like Despero and Kanjar Ro among his henchmen, neither of whom ever say a word. I half expected them to throw in Mongul or the Anti-Monitor too with this much disregard for how these guys are usually masterminds on their own.

Checking the credits, hooo boy, lots of unknown names. The director was a character designer on the Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers Assemble shows. One of the writers once worked on Spider-Man TAS but that was in the 90ies, and he has barely done anything since then other than... Pink Panther and Pals and The Adventures of Chuck and Friends? (And 3 episodes of Static Shock). The other writer we have has written for Injustice, Batman: Hush, Apokolips War, JL Dark, Judas Contract.... yeah no wonder I did not like his style there nor here. Surprisingly, he did work on Green Lantern TAS, a show I loved, but as a "staff writer"... not sure what that is.

The voice actors are even less known. Though, John is voiced, ironically by the same guy who will play Hawkman on the new Black Adam movie. And Sinestro was a guy who mostly does video game voices, only one I knew was Imperius from Diablo III. Oh and Ollie was the young William from Westworld? Yeah, not exactly big names here.

I'd say watch it if you want some not badly animated action (producers include Butch Lukic and Sam Register, they know their stuff) - and sure, Lyssa Drak is sexy as always, but the story isn't riveting and the big twists you can see coming from a mile away, and this version of John is not very interesting. And of course, not a big fan of a Green Lantern movie that not only massacres ALL of the GL Corps, but turns Hal into an irredeemable villain with rather flimsy reasonings.

Just check a few of the reviewers links and you'll quickly see, these people are pumping up each other's works by adding 10 star reviews for each other. It's a "you scratch my back, I scratch yours" world for them. And I guess it worked, this utterly terrible, incredibly shoddily produced movie is now in IMDB's most recommended despite the 3.7 rating, because there are so many good reviews of it...

What this really is, is a by the numbers boring post-apocalypse movie. You have seen one of these, you have seen them all. Woman who is surprisingly well off living alone in the apocalypse - and even has a cute little dog - takes in a lone kid and helps him survive, then they face some evil warlord who is basically Fagin from Oliver Twist and enslaves children for work. Oh and all this is topped by nanobot clouds which look like the transforming effects of the KSI robots from Transformers - Age of Extinction, but done with technology from 2000. I was reminded of morphing effects I have seen on Cleopatra 2525.

The acting is incredibly bad, both the woman and the kid are wooden planks who put Neil Breen to shame. This thing should be reviewed by Red Letter Media, not recommended as high art. I give it 2 stars for being entertainingly bad.

1/10 is too high of a score for this... movie? I don't think we can even call it that. I have seen joke videos made by some of my friends that had better production qualities. Note to the (long defunct) studio - if you have no lighting, maybe do NOT shoot at night?

The movie is incomprehensible. We can barely see black blobs moving at a black background, sometimes the camera auto-zooms on faces though so we can at least see who was that blob. Audio is no better, much of the dialogue is inaudible mumbling.

The plot is nothing to write home about, maniac who laughs a lot murders random people.

Well, any movie that starts off by saying it was inspired by the synopsis on the back cover of the Man in the Iron Mask has my undivided attention. :D If Killer Tomatoes Strike Back was more like the animated series, well this movie can almost be called a live action episode of that show. Gangreen escapes from prison with the help of Igor as well as the named tomatoes from the cartoon - Zoltan, Ketchuck and Viper - and puts his latest plan into action, enacting an obscure prophecy of Nostradamus that would make Igor into the king of France! ... Because apparently the french now think the revolution was a bad idea. :D The movie is unabashedly silly and embraces it from the first moment. Our main character is an american tourist whose real name we never learn, as he pretends to be Michael J. Fox so he can pick up chicks. And he does so, as the air-headed french peasant Marie (apparently, ALL french womentare called Marie), a girl who has a terrible self-image, attaches herself to him. The unlikely team has to stop Gangreen from taking over France, joined by FT (Fuzzy Tomato), now an international superstar campaigning for vegetable-human relations, and Loius the XVIIth, the actual true king of France (Steven Lundquist in a dual role).

The movie does not just embrace silly french stereotypes, it revels in them, and likewise makes fun of american cliches (like their terrible geographical knowledge). Loved how the end of the movie disclaimer tells us that no, Guatemala and Hong Kong are not in Europe like that map shows. :D There are also a lot of fourth wall breakings, like when the main character finds out he is about to be killed off, so he simply burns that page of the script.

And luckily, the original intro song returns too!

This is a super fun movie, it is bad, but on purpose and unlike Sharknado, it has enough tongue in cheek comedy to make it work. And Angela Visser is a pretty sight to watch (she was Miss Holland and Miss Universe, after all). John Astin steals the movie though, he knows the role he plays and he hams it up to 200%!

I am really reminded of Naked Gun and Zucker-style comedies at some scenes. The scene where Kennedi Johnson (LOL that name) undresses for the shower and an actual food stuffing box falls out with her bra... :D... Like before in Returns the movie is not trying to be serious at all, it is all just good fun. Similar to Ghostbusters II, it seems everyone forgot the Tomato Wars, and our hero Rick questions killer tomatoes even exist - despite the obvious signs, and even after meeting some.

Angry (not mad!) scientist Dr. Gangreen and his faithful Igor are at it again to conquer the world, this time by brainwashing everyone through vapid talk shows. The police asks the help of beautiful 'tomatologist' Kennedi Johnson, while Gangreen's vicious tomato ninjas and Igor kidnap TV announcers and random people to boost their brainwashed audience.

The gags are great, from a woman thinking she is chased by Jason being happy it was a guy in a hockey mask and not killer tomatoes, to one-liners like "It's just not like Reed to be kidnapped and held hostage. Something is wrong..." :D Or the hilarious "Media appreciation day". There is even a 4th wall breaking during credits scene where the characters talk to the press, and the actress expresses her regret she could not get naked in this movie.

The tomatoes got a much needed redesign to look more like in the animated series, having creepy eyes and mouths, and can manipulate objects with their vines. There are no giant tomatoes this time around, though.

Overall, a really fun movie, wish it was released on BluRay.

I wish we got more shows and movies from DC like this. The story wasn't super heavy or complex, with huge twists and mysteries, but after the convoluted nonsense of Batman: Hush or the grimdark, way too brutal Apokolips War, this is what we needed.

A reminder that DC is not all grimdark and edgy. And just because this is a more fun title, doesn't mean there are no stakes, or there is no violence. This movie has plenty, and turns a villain you would not consider scary to be basically terrifying. Also, it is a movie that does not worry about making female characters actually look sexy, and to use their charms to get what they want - a surprising, but welcome trend in this era.

The story, in short, is that Catwoman is infiltrating a ball held by the crime organization Leviathan to steal a gemstone from Black Mask, but Batwoman throws a wrench in her plans, making Selina the target of all the villains. Captured by Batwoman and the FBI, she is forced to make a deal with them - help them flush out and take down whoever is behind Leviathan and get all charges dropped for her thieving past.

From there on, the movie is a series of comedic scenes and ever escalating fights, as Catwoman and Batwoman fight off assassins and try to take down Leviathan, whose enigmatic leader, Barbara Ann Minerva, wows to kill Selina for interfering.

The animation is amazing - clearly anime inspired yet done by a western studio. Fluid and fast, with little motion blurring and many frames used, and very expressive faces and eyes.

As expected from veteran writer Greg Weisman, the dialogue is witty and smart, with memorable and funny lines. The voice actors are delivering a top notch job, especially Elizabeth Gillies as Catwoman. Weisman staple Keith David (they first met in Gargoyles where he voiced Goliath) returns as Tobias Whale, and Jonathan Frakes voices King Faraday. The only stinker is Stephanie Beatrize as Batwoman, who sounds... wooden, but perhaps intentionally so?

The movie is chock full of not just well know DC characters but also lesser known (Chesire, Solomon Grundy) to extremely obscure ones like Nosferata, Dr. Tzin, Mr. Yakuza or La Dama. It will come as no surprise to anyone who reads DC or watches their shows that Leviathan's leader Barbara-Ann Minerva is the Wonder Woman nemesis, Cheetah, and this version manages to be incredibly bloodthirsty, scary and menacing and also attractive at the same time, something I have to give props to the animators for.

Despite the blood and violence, the movie is never excessively gory, or gross, and often uses puns and comedic scenes to offset the action.

Also alone among comic book movies, it does not use a post-credit scene to set up any sequels - which I wish it did, since I would like to watch more adventures set in this universe.

This show might be well shot and well acted, and it has some nice atmosphere... But all that cannot save the plot that should be clear to anyone from day 1.

I could excuse it if this took place in maybe 1850 or so, but today? A priest who was "saved" by an 'angel' who fed him his own blood which de-ages him and makes him crave blood and get burned by the light? And neither him, nor any of the congregation seems to immediately know that oh yeah, this is vampirism? Man if a town ever needed Van Helsing to visit and hold a lecture about "10 easy ways to recognize a vampire", it was this one.

Further compounded by the rather forced anti-religious message (yeah, sure, kick catholics, they will turn the other cheek) and how the main character we have been following suddenly dies 5 episodes in, I cannot really recommend this. It did not need to be a miniseries, this could have been a 1.5 hour movie... in fact this same story I could see existing as a vampire horror from the 90ies.

So, when this came out in 2006, 6 years after Superman TAS has ended, I was excited by the trailer. The classic character designs all over again, well animated! Tim Daly and Dana Delaney reprising their roles and others too! Unlike Batman TAS which got 3 movies, Superman TAS never had one, so I was excited. I was young, and did not check who the director and writer was. Boy, was I in for a surprise.

So for those who are as unaware as I was in 2006 -this movie LOOKS like Superman TAS, uses the same character models, even some of the same voice actors... but is NOT in continuity, and it is an abysmally written boring story that feels like it was lifted from some Golden Age comic.

You learn this quickly when the movie starts with Brainiac landing on Earth and starting to absorb knowledge from computers, then confronting Superman for the first time. Wait a minute, I said, but they already met several times in the show! Well... these may look like the same characters, but aren't. In general, they feel like alternate universe versions of characters you love, who look the same, but are far, far more dumb.

Take Superman - throughout the movie, he keeps thinking that he needs to retire the Clark Kent personality and just tell Lois who he is. Anyone who seen "The Late Mr. Kent" knows that Clark IS the real personality of Kal-El, he doesn't want to be Superman all the time. He is a mild mannered reporter from Smallville at heart. But here, he wants to retire because he thinks he gets Lois Lane into trouble... not realizing this Lois is simply, too stupid to live. Several times in the movie, Lois almost tries to get herself killed in incredibly convoluted ways.

But that's not the worst part, wait until you see Lex Luthor. Remember how threatening and powerful Lex felt, despite not having superpowers? Well, not only his voice changed -Powers Boothe instead of Clancy Brown - but he degraded back to some comical small minded villain from the Golden Age. When he muses that he doesn't know whether to feel sad that Brainiac is destroying his base, or happy that Superman is trashed, I wanted to slap him. He is also incredibly stupid (see a pattern there?), thinking he can partner with Brainiac to have him kill Superman for him, then take a fall and pretend that Lex beat him. To nobody's surprise, Brainiac betrays him.

Speaking of Brainy, Lance Henrikssen replaces Corey Burton, but he cannot save the character from turning into a boring, generic megalomaniac. Gone is the inhuman, cold logic that made Brainiac so scary. Unfortunately he also spends half the movie in a new body made out of a satellite that looks like a badly mistransformed Transformer.

The worst part though, was reserved for poor Jimmy Olsen. His plot for the movie? Well, for some inexplicable reason, he has a huge crush on Mercy. To the point of creepiness, where he takes photos of her and has a shrine. Needless to say, people's warnings to Jimmy that a woman who would rather kill him than look at him and who does Luthor's dirty work is not someone you would date, fall on deaf ears.

The movie has some OK action scenes, and is well animated - same studio who did Superman TAS. The voice actors all do their work well. But the writing and asinine dialogue just ruins it all. It is still, something I recommend to DCAU fans - it is an eerie, strange experience, seeing these beloved characters in identical animation to the show's, yet acting in strange and silly ways. It almost feels like this movie is from a parallel universe, where Paul Dini was never born, and Superman TAS was based on dumb Golden Age comics.

Dracula gets funky in this upgrade of the Hammer horror movies, which lifts both the Count (Christopher Lee) and Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) to then-present times. Needless to say, what seemed like too modern in 1970, seems like a blast from the past for us today, and this movie with its funky soundtrack and eccentric dressed hippies is a period piece of the 70ies today.

The story goes, after Van Helsing finally kills Dracula in 1872 and dies of his wounds, a follower of the Count buries his ashes near Helsing's grave. A 100 years later, the same-looking descendant of this follower uses some hippie friends - which includes the daughter of a descendant of Van Helsing - to resurrect Dracula, and a new crime wave hits Chelsea with the cops unsure how to handle it.

Cushing is amazing in this, and the true star, his serious but relatable character was sorely missed. Dracula gets little to do, but has far more dialogue than in prior movies. Alucard is a ridiculous minion who is way over his head but thinks he can handle the power - instead, he hilariously kills himself with sunlight and running water. World's dumbest vampire.

There are some great looking ladies in this too, including the (later more famous) Caroline Munro, and Stephanie Beacham. Most of the entertainment comes from seeing genuine 70ies hippie culture at its "finest" and the funky soundtrack, as well as Cushing's dead serious delivery. Recommended!

I did not expect to like this show based on the first impression, but was I surprised by it!

It's french made, and I find it often today that maybe France is the last bastion of quality cartoons that are fun and also do not push an agenda or talk down to kids, like Wakfu or Vermin, both great shows.

The show has the same setting as the old Chip'n Dale shorts - and similar to those, the characters do not talk. I am surprised by how many people seem to only know these two from Rescue Rangers and are raging against this show, when they would know with 5 seconds googling that a separate Rescue Rangers show (sadly helmed by Seth Rogen) is also coming, so they should save their fake outrage... Our titular characters live in a small park in a big city, and get into all sort of shenanigans. They are good friends with very different personalities, Chip being a neat freak and Dale a wacky goofball, but they love each other and the show really conveys this friendship really well. A lot of other characters recur as well, some well known from other Disney shows like Donald, Pluto, Beagle Boys, Butch, while others are new creations like the "Godsquirrel", the female squirrel running the park mafia. Clarice, a one-appearance-only female chipmunk from the old shorts, was redesigned as a tomboy mechanic and occasional foil to the two boys.

Each 23 minute episode is composed of 3 parts, and they are the perfect length. The humor is balls to the walls fun, often hysterical, despite no dialogue. And they often have some dark humor that is still child-friendly. The scenes where Chip eats raspberries and various misunderstandings make Dale think Chip is turning into a cannibal made me roar with laughter. Similarly, one episode deals with Dale getting ran over by the streetlane stripe painter, and being painted white, everyone thinks he is a ghost... which ends up in his revenge on Butch actually scaring the dog to death. Another episode has Chip and Dale save the Godsquirrel's life, who fires his thugs and hires the two, who are blissfully unaware of what they are actually doing and cheerfully assist her in extorting the park animals at gunpoint (or rather, spider-point).

Donald sadly only appears in one episode, but he is funny as ever. Pluto is a quite often appearing character, though!

Overall the animation is vivid, the scenery is often breath-takingly done in painted backgrounds, while the characters are flash animated. The show has a warm and fun tone, and even the scary episodes I would not feel are too dark for kids - after all, we grew up on old Disney and Tom and Jerry episodes that often had actual character deaths!