Kevin's DVD Info Page

Page last updated: 2000 August 14

DVD is a great movie format that I've started to collect instead of laserdiscs. The following are a list of what I have bought and what I have seen and comments about them

What is DVD?

Kingston DVD Retailers/Rentals

On the To-Buy List: Lawrence of Arabia, Dave, 2001, the rest of James Bond, the rest of Star Trek, A Fish Called Wanda, From the Earth to Moon(4), The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, Apollo 13, Indiana Jones Trilogy, Saving Private Ryan, Always, Star Wars Trilogy, Tin Cup,

Movies Bought

Total: 32
  • k Aliens (1986) Sigourney Weaver, Paul Reiser, Bill Paxton This second installment in the Alien series evolves the original movie's horror/sci-fi genre into action-adventure/sci-fi, setting a standard which has not yet been matched. I like this movie because it paints a picture of the future which is realistic enough to suck you in during the beginning of the film and then quickly introduces you to interesting characters who you become concerned with; some you love and others you hate.....but none of them bore you. By the time the action starts it's possible to forget you're watching a movie (at least the first couple of times). The plot is filled with tension that is occasionally broken by some of the most memorable one-liners in history (especially by Private Hudson). The special effects are remarkable, considering the fact that they were accomplished the "old fashioned way" prior to digital manipulation.
  • k The World Is Not Enough (1999) Pierce Brosnan, Sophie Marceau, Denise Richards Feeling responsbile for the death of a British oil tycoon and a friend, who died in an explosion in MI6 headquarters, James Bond takes position as bodyguard to the tycoon's daughter, Elektra.
  • k The Three Kings (1999) George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube In the aftermath of the Gulf War, 4 soldiers set out to steal gold that was stolen from Kuwait, but they discover people who need their help.
  • k Alien (1979) Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Yaphet Kotto, John Hurt When commercial towing vehicle Nostromo, heading back to Earth, intercepts an SoS signal from a nearby planet, the crew are under obligation to investigate. After a bad landing on the planet, some crew members leave the ship to explore the area. At the same time as they discover a hive colony of some unknown creature, the ship's computer deciphers the message to be a warning, not a call for help. When one of the eggs is disturbed, the crew do not know the danger they are in until it is too late.
  • k Alien Resurrection Sigourney Weaver, Winona Ryder, Ron Perlman 200 years after the conclusion of Alien 3, the company is able to resurrect Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) through the process of cloning and the scientists successfully take the Queen Alien out of her. But, Ripley's DNA gets mixed up with the Queen's and she begins to develop certain alien characteristics. The scientists begin breeding the aliens, but they later escape. Soon the Xeno-morphs are running amok on the ship, which is on course to earth. The Queen then gives birth to a deadly new breed of alien, which could spell disaster for the entire human race. It's up to Ripley and a band of space pirates to stop the ship before it reaches earth.
  • k Star Trek Insurrection (1998) Patrick Stewart, Marina Sirtis, Gates McFadden, Joanthan Frakes, Brent Spiner, Michael Dorn, LeVar Burton, F. Murray Abraham Donna Murphy When an alien race--and forces within Starfleet--attempt to take over a planet that has "magical" properties, it falls upon Captain. Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-E to defend the planet's people as well as the very ideals upon which the Federation itself was founded.
  • k XFiles: Fight the Future (1998) (Gillian Anderson, David Duchovny)
    widescreen surround sound 30 minute documentary subtitles
    After five years of chasing paranormal activity, the X-Files are closed by the government. FBI Agent Fox "Spooky" Mulder and his skeptical partner, Dana Scully, are reassigned to more mundane duties...such as bomb detail. Even so, Mulder gets more and more information confirming his suspicions about alien activity on Earth and a secret, international cabal of men protecting that confidential information. An outbreak of metamorphic alien activity in Texas provides the clues for the agents.
  • k Die Hard With a Vengeance (1995) (Bruce Willis, Graham Greene, Samuel L Jackson)
    widescreen surround sound subtitles
    Things aren't going well for John McClane: his marriage is breaking up, he's been suspended from the force and now the brother of Hans Gruber, the German terrorist he threw off a building a few years back, is threatening to blow up a school if McClane doesn't run around the city solving his demeaning and dangerous puzzles. With the help of Zeus, a Harlem electrician, McClane discovers Gruber's plot to distract the NYPD while he clears the federal bank of billions of dollars of gold.
  • k Final Analysis (1992) (Richard Gere, Kim Basinger, Uma Thurman)
    Standard Pan & Scan ONLY , 1.33:1, Dolby, no subtitles.
     "Final Analysis" is a dedicated example of one of my favorite genres, the overwrought psychological thriller. It's the kind of movie where, if it doesn't end in a fight to the death high up in a lighthouse lashed with lightning, it should. This one does, with the hero hanging by his fingernails high above the cruel rocks below.
    Hitchcock would have liked the screenplay, which involves at least two love triangles, maybe three, among a handsome psychiatrist, two sexy but neurotic sisters, and a sadistic husband. He might have also gone for a key plot device, the newly discovered condition named "pathological intoxication," which causes the sufferer to go berserk after even the teensiest drop of alcohol.
  • k The Avengers (1998) (Ralph Fiennes, Uma Thurman, Sean Connery
    1.85:1 widescreen pan & scan, english subtitles, dolby
    British Ministry agent John Steed (Ralph Fiennes), under direction from "Mother", investigates a diabolical plot by arch-villain Sir August de Wynter (Sean Connery) to rule the world with his weather control machine. Steed investigates the beautiful Doctor Mrs. Emma Peel (Uma Thurman), the only suspect, but simultaneously falls for her and joins forces with her to combat Sir August.
    Uma Thurman's catsuits aside, "The Avengers" is one of the flattest movies to come down the pike in a long time. The failing Sean Connery isn't really the villain in this movie, the true villains are a director who thought he could "improve" on the original, and an editor who really shouldn't have been let out of film school. Fiennes and Thurman do an adquate job with what they were given, which wasn't much, and then the editor took half of that away. Connery got one half-choked off rant, (all of which you see in the trailer) and then hid in the leftover set for the power supply from the floating city in "The Empire Strikes Out" (Er -- "Back"). A pathetic effort from a formerly stellar actor. Eileen Atkins was rather fun as Alice, Steed's minder, and the guest appearance by Patrick Macnee was somewhat amusing. As for the writing, well.... I think (despite the credits) they actually gave the job to a couple of public school lads who rather thought that they were being clever. Overall, not worth the money spent to make it, nor the $6 I paid to see it. One star, mostly for some rather nice, if somewhat generic, cinematography.
  • k Tango & Cash (1989) (Sylvester Stallone, Kurt Russel, Teri Hatcher, Jack Palance) Ray Tango and Gabriel Cash are narcotics detectives who, while both being extremely successful, can't stand each other. Crime Lord Yves Perret, furious at the loss of income that Tango and Cash have caused him, frames the two for murder. Caught with the murder weapon on the scene of the crime, the two have alibi. Thrown into prison with most of the criminals they helped convict, it appears that they are going to have to trust each other if they are to clear their names and catch the evil Perret.
    Cheap Warner Bros DVD, no wide screen, no captioning, no languages!
  • k Frantic (1988) (Harrison Ford, Betty Buckley, Emmanuelle Seigner)
    1.33:1 pan & scan, no subtitles, dolby.
    A doctor and his wife go to Paris for a medical conference. While napping, his wife disappears. His lack of language, and the odd way she disappeared makes it nearly impossible for him to find any official help in his search as he enters the punk/drug culture to find out what has happened to her.
  • k The Long Kiss Goodnight (Geena Davis, Samuel L Jackson)
    2.35:1 widescreen, dolby, subtitles, supplements.
    Eight years ago she lost her memory. Now, a detective must help her remember the past before it buries them both. What's forgotten is not always gone.
  • k Predator (Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Jesse Ventura)
    1.85:1 letterbox, dolby, subtitles.
    Dutch and his group of commandos are hired by the CIA to rescue downed airmen from guerillas in a South American jungle. The mission goes well but as they return they find that something is hunting them. Nearly invisible, it blends in with the forest, taking trophies from the bodies of it's victims as it goes along. Occasionally seeing through it's eyes, the audience sees it is an intelligent alien hunter, hunting them for sport, killing them off one at a time.
  • k Palmetto (Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Shue, Gina Gershon)
    Warner 1.85:1 widescreen, dolby, subtitles, supplements.
    This movie builds an unoriginal, but exciting plot. This is one of those movies where the ending determines whether it is worth recommending or not. In this case, the end is a really let down. Still, it's pretty good for just something to watch if you got nothing better to do.
  • k Metropolis It is the future, and humans are divided into two groups: the thinkers, who make plans (but don't know how anything works), and the workers, who achieve goals (but don't have the vision). Completely separate, neither group is complete, but together they make a whole. One man from the "thinkers" dares visit the underground where the workers toil, and is astonished by what he sees...
  • k Lethal Weapon 4 (Mel Gibson, Rene Russo, Joe Pesci, Danny Glover)
    Warner 2.35:1 widescreen, dolby, subtitles, supplements.
    Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh, after escaping death from the previous movies are put on a hit list by The Triads. When blood thirsty mercenaries are on their tail they team up again with Leo Getz and Lorna Cole, a newcomer (Chris Rock) to finally put an end to the Triads for good.
  • k Lethal Weapon 3 (Mel Gibson, Rene Russo, Joe Pesci, Danny Glover)
    Warner 2.35:1 widescreen, dolby, subtitles, supplements.
    Martin Riggs finally meets his match in the form of Lorna Cole, a beautiful but tough policewoman. Together with Roger Murtaugh, his partner, the three attempt to expose a crooked formed policeman and his huge arms racket. The crooked cop (Jack Travis) thwarts them at every turn, mainly by killing anyone who is about to talk, but Murtaugh has personal problems of his own as his family are brought into the equation.
  • k From Russia With Love (Sean Connery, Daniela Bianchi, Robert Shaw)
    MGM 1.78:1 widescreen, THX, dolby, subtitles, supplement.
    James Bond, 007, is sent on a mission to Istanbul to try and acquire a Russian cypher machine known as Lektor from a defecting Russian agent. However, the Russians have no knowledge of this as it is a S.P.E.C.T.R.E. ploy to lure James Bond into a trap - a fitting tribute to their now- dead agent Dr. No.
  • k Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) (Pierce Brosnan, Teri Hatcher)
    MGM 2.35:1 widescreen, dolby, subtitles, supplements.
    James Bond Excellent! Megalomaniac media mogul, Elliot Carver (Jonathan Pryce), only needs broadcasting rights in China to complete his global communications empire. The Chinese, however, are proving stubborn so he hatches a diabolical plan to thwart the Chinese by the simple means of starting a war between them and the British. When a British war ship is sunk in Chinese waters and its deadly payload stolen, James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) embarks on a dangerous mission against the clock to discover the truth. The Chinese also want to know what is happening and dispatch their own agent, Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh), who proves to be a match for James Bond!
  • k Outbreak (1995) (Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey, Cuba Gooding Jr)
    Warner 1.85:1 dolby, subtitles.
    Excellent! For an early Warner DVD this disc is quite good. The resolution is most of the time very good, but occasionally some scenes lack a bit of detail. Only in a few scenes the picture looks a bit grainy. The 5.1 channel mix is great and all the helicopters constantly flying make some really nice directional surround effects."
  • k Get Shorty (1995) (John Travolta, Rene Russo, Gene Hackman, Danny Devito)
    MGM 1.85:1 widescreen, dolby, subtitles, supplements.
    Excellent! Chili Palmer, a Miami mobster, loan-sharks for Ray Bones, a violent thug with a big chip on his shoulder. Ray sends Chili to Vegas after a bad debt, and a casino boss enlists Chili to find an even bigger deadbeat: Harry Zimm, Hollywood player and producer of low-budget horror films. In Tinseltown, Chili meets Harry, as well as his scream- queen leading lady, Karen Flores; Harry's drug-dealing financier, Bo Catlett; and Karen's ex, Martin Weir (aka "Shorty"), a big star with an ego to match. Chili finds his Mafioso skills lend themselves quite nicely to what he's always really wanted to do: producing movies.
  • k Goldeneye (1995) (Pierce Brosnan, Femke Janssen, Joe Don Baker, Izabella Scorupco, Robbie Coltrane)
    MGM 2.35:1 widescreen, dolby, subtitles
    James Bond Excellent! One little glitch (1 line blurry) in subtitles/captioning. The Pan & Scan version on this DVD looks really bad. It has an average bitrate of about 2.5 MBit/s. The widescreen version is much better. Supplements: Original theatrical trailer; Cast & crew information; Production notes.
  • k The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966) (Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Eli Wallach)
    MGM 2.35:1 widescreen, dolby, subtitles, supplements
    Relatively good transfer, considering the age of the print, with high resolution and no apparent compression artifacts. The supplements are not anamorphic widescreen. Supplements: Theatrical trailer; Never before seen Italian footage; Behind-the-scenes footage and "Spaghetti Westerns".
  • k Hercules - Xena Triology (Kevin Sorbo, Lucy Lawless)
  • k 9 1/2 weeks (1986) (Kim Basinger, Mickey Rourke)
    MGM 1.66:1 letterbox, dolby, subtitles, supplement
    An erotic story about a woman, the assistant of an art gallery, who gets into an impersonal affaire with a man. She barely knows about his life, only about the sex games they play, so the relationship begins to complicate.
  • k NASA 25 Years Vol 1
  • k NASA 25 Years Vol 2
  • k NASA 25 Years Vol 3
  • k NASA 25 Years Vol 4
  • k NASA 25 Years Vol 5

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