Week of Friday December 7 through Thursday December 13, 2007

Friday, December 7, 2007
Icons of Horror Collection box set - Sam Katzman, continued
Creature With the Atom Brain - 1955

This is kinda dark for 1955. Not often you see good guys die in such numbers. And there's good ol' Richard Denning .

There was an extra on Disc 1. Episode 2 of the Serial Mysterious Island (which I've never heard of before). Pretty standard fare for old serials.

Disc 2
Zombies of Zora Tau - 1957

Hey, here's Morris Ankrum again, and Marjorie Eaton. (what a great character actress she was!). Zombie sailors protecting cursed diamonds in Africa. It's an interesting mixture of old 50's thriller and an oldstyle zombie flick. Not too shabby.

The Werewolf - 1956

This may be the best of the bunch. Lots of pathos for the guy (of course, all the old werewolf movies tried to invoke sympathy for the victim of lyncanthropy). What's novel here is that the guy isn't made a werewolf by another werewolf, but by a pair of mad scientists.

Extras on this disc as Midnight Blunders - 1964, bumbling comics as cops short. Why is this here? And Terror Faces Magoo, a Mr Magoo cartoon. I have NO idea why that's included.

Pirates of the Caribbean Marathon
I've decided that since I never got around to watching Pirates 2 after it came out, that now that 3 is out, I'll watch all three in order.

Saturday, December 8 through Sunday, December 9, 2007
Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl - 2003

I've said before, this may be as close as we can come to the perfect action movie. Excellent direction, beautiful cinematography, awesome pacing. Perfect characters that you like and care about. And a perfectly acceptable ending. If you've never seen this, go out and buy it right now. If you already have it, go watch it again. And it's only 143 minutes long. You will understand that statement later.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - 2006

Not as good as the first, but not too bad. At two and a half hours, its too long. Many scenes could be a little shorter, and that would have shrunk it to just a little over two hours, which a much more reasonable length. As beautiful and well shot as the first, but that only carries it so far.

Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World's End - 2007

Two hours and 45 minutes? Are you F'ing kidding me? Boy am I glad I didn't go to the theater to see this. This is easily the weakest of the three. Plot is strained at this point, at points it's almost nonsensical. Characters have changed (and not for the better), and that's irritating. And it's one hundred and fifty minutes long. If you're gonna make something this long, just make a miniseries out of it.

Monday December 10 through Thursday December 13, 2007
Dr Who, Series Three - 2006

Odd that there's an episode zero. And I was *SO* afraid that bitch was gonna be the new companion. You would have to go back to Penny to find another companion so unlikeable.

But I like Martha Jones.

I'm not gonna comment on each episode separately, and this will be spoiler free. I'll just say that this is every bit as good as the first two seasons, and the big three part season finale brings back the best returning villain yet. Russell T. Davies is a god!

The episode called Blink is VERY creepy.

Each one of the six discs has extras. Disc six is nothing but extras (the entire season of Dr Who Confidential, which are very nice little behind the scenes shows). Most of the rest have David Tennant's Video Diary. The first disc has this big musical extravagance. Very nice.

Overall, I just can't imagine how they are gonna top this next season. But I'm sure up for Torchwood in January.