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gogadget
Reviews
Apocalypto (2006)
Apocalypto not all that it was reported to be
Well ... after much fanfare about this movie what a let down.
First, it could have been about an hour shorter and there would have been no loss to the story line.
Next, the final 3 minutes at the end were just like an old style western as the "family" disappear into the forest, just like the cowboys rode off into the sunset - how cliché.
And the actors were all supposed to be unknowns according to the TV promos but IMDb shows many have acted before.
Would I recommend it to friends? No, but I'd suggest they take a look when it is released on DVD
The Ring Two (2005)
Ring 2 had all the horror of the original
I saw Ring 1 on DVD and thought it was very scarier and it takes a lot to scare me.
An excellent script and riveting the whole way through. There story line was very solid and there was not much to pick at. So having just seen the sequel on the big screen, I was throughly scared.
As the story twists from one pinnacle to another, the drama builds and builds. The background music is very subtle but is more effective in building the tension.
It is not often a sequel can carry the same theme and stand alone but Ring 2 does and I thoroughly recommend Ring 1 enthusiasts to see it.
The Back of Beyond (1954)
Real life in the Australian Outback
This is a movie that shows what half a century ago, life was in the outback of Australia's desert.
A hostile location at anytime but back then an old Leyland truck, a flying doctors radio (antique design) was the way those hardy soles lived their lives. It's about life on the Birdsville Track as it was then. Tom Kruse and his 1936 Leyland Badgermail truck feature along with many of the people living along the track at that time.
Later in 1999 another movie "Last Trip from Birdsville" was made to commemorate Tom Kruse the truck driver in the 1954 movie, his last mail run, a re-enactment in 1999.
The Back of Beyond (1954), directed by John Heyer, was made by the Shell Film Unit. 3 The Shell Unit was set up in 1948 with Heyer in charge. Earlier Heyer had been a senior producer with the Federal Government's Film Division (later called the Commonwealth Film Unit, now Film Australia) - and indeed had been instrumental in its setting up in the last months of the second world war. Heyer was given a brief by Shell to make a "prestige" documentary that would capture the essence of Australia. He chose as his subject a weekly Birdsville Track mail run.
Hell Drivers (1957)
Bought this on DVD as not in video libraries
I have watched Hell Drivers twice on television and unfortunately the VCR was not going.
It is a fantastic movie with heaps of action and drama and that very 50's UK feel. The actors then were not well known as they are today or even in the 80's and 90's.
All the time I was wandering "what if someone was driving in the opposite direction and they met head on"??
And, where were the Police? Oh well, when you want a cop they are never around!
Not finding this film at video libraries I purchased a DVD from the UK and have watched it another two times already, well worth a look.