The Pyramid Code (2009) Review

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(More customer reviews)Each of the five episodes of this series raises questions that I never thought to ask and provides answers that are mind blowing and yet, because of the way they are presented, quite conceivable. The case is made that a very long time ago, human beings were much more peaceful, spiritual, healthy, and technologically advanced - in a sustainable way- than we are today. What if the function of the pyramids was never to be "tombs" for ancient pharaohs? What if they were built for a very different purpose, not by slaves, but by citizens who valued their function so much that they willingly participated in their construction?
Watching this series has provided me with a perspective of how today's world (war, poverty, fear) fits into a much larger picture, and explains why the end of the Mayan calendar (December 21st, 2012) points us all toward a different, and much better, future.
The cinematography is beautiful. I could watch these episodes again and again. Bravo!

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The Pyramid Code is a fascinating new five-part series that explores the pyramid fields and temples in Egypt and megalithic sites around the world, looking for clues to sophisticated technology in the ancient world. The series is based on the extensive research done in Egypt and around the world by Dr. Carmen Boulter of the University of Calgary. The Pyramid Code features interviews with geologists, physicists, archaeologists, engineers, and authors and asks the questions: Who were the ancients and what did they know? Could the pyramids be much older than traditional Egyptology would have us believe? Could it be that the ancients were more technologically advanced than we are today? Why do we have so little understanding of the ancient Egyptians?The Pyramid Code episodes1. The Band of Peace This episode raises questions about the purpose of the pyramids, challenging the story traditional Egyptology tells. See rare footage of six distinct pyramid sites near the Great Pyramid, with evidence of superior technology and sophisticated knowledge of science and the cosmos.2. High Level Technology In this episode, evidence that the Ancient Egyptians used high level technology to construct pyramids and temples is shown. Scientists discuss the source of this power and its application in the ancient world. Our science is just beginning to grasp what the ancients clearly understood.3. Sacred Cosmology Deciphering the meaning of strange symbols in Egyptian art gives insight into ancient knowledge of sacred cosmology. A new way of interpreting hieroglyphics is presented, indicating that the ancients had sophisticated understanding of physics, biology and celestial mechanics. The team goes on an expedition into the open desert in search of a remote site of extreme antiquity called nabta playa. Here, Neolithic stone circles were found marking the motion of the same stars as were tracked in pharonic civilization. The possible connection is discussed. 4. The Empowered Human The empowered human proposes that the pyramid builders were living in a Golden Age. They had more refined senses, and experienced higher levels of consciousness, which gave them superior abilities to those we have today. The sacred feminine was honored and existed in balance with the masculine.5. A New ChronologyAfter examining the evidence presented in the series, it seems clear the dates given by traditional Egyptology don t fit. Carefully considering cycles of time through gold, silver, bronze and iron ages of Plato's Great Year, a new chronology emerges that illuminates Ancient Egypt.

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Criss Angel - Mindfreak - The Complete Season Two (2005) Review

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(More customer reviews)Criss Angel is one of the most mind-boggingly interesting magicians that has ever been. His show is definitely worth watching. The vast majority of his illusions are simply amazing and inexplicable.
With that said, however, I do have some pros and cons to list.
Pros:
1. Amazing illusions that defy explanation.
2. No stuffy, old-school, big-production-number-on-a-stage magic acts of the David Copperfield variety. Criss does nearly everything as street magic.
3. He has more personality and warmth than David Blaine. (Of course, that's not saying a whole lot.)
Cons:
1. The show has an annoying tendency to show you clips of the finales of the best stunts of the show, before the show even gets going. I don't want to see that. I want to be surprised. Don't give me a detailed run-down of what you're going to do and even show me short clips of what you're going to do. It ruins part of the mystery. Just get the show started and do it.
2. Criss talks in a monotone drone, like he's perpetually on quaaludes.
3. I could do without his family members. They each have their own (obviously fake) "jobs" to do on the show.
His brother JD's job is to pace around and act all nervous about everything Criss attempts, and to say things afterward like, "I'm telling YOU, that he will NOT be doing something like THAT again. No way."
His other brother Costa's job is to give vague praise every step of the way. "Lookin' good; don't look down; you got it!"
His Mom's job is to freak out and scream in horror at everything Criss attempts. I always think it is interesting, in an annoying sort of way, to watch her thrashing around in horror, and then see that all of the people standing around her have decidedly different expressions on their faces. Of course they do...because they know it's just a show. And Criss's mom obviously does too. But her job is to freak out and act like Criss is in mortal danger.
4. During the large illusions, there are too many cut-scenes away from the illusion and onto some member of his entourage spewing some vague banalities about the stunt, or about how "deep" Criss is, or some other blather. Example: Banachek saying things like, "I think people would be very surprised to find that what they think is illusion, is not illusion -- and what they think is not illusion, is illusion." Or the big-eared dude (forgot his name) saying equally vapid things that have no real substance. Or even to Criss himself saying, "With me, what you see is what you get." OK, OK, yes, we know that already, you've told us a bunch of times. So on with the illusion, OK? One continuous shot, OK? Also, most of the illusions are shown with different camera angles. Every cut away from the action or even to a different camera angle means an edit of the show, in which ANYTHING could have happened between one cut and the next. It's the equivalent of saying, "OK, turn your back for a second...OK now you can look again." It serves to cast doubt on EVERY trick that Criss does.
5. A lot of the people that Criss picks to perform in front of are idiots. David Blaine suffers from this more than Criss does -- "Hey, here's a tattooed low-life with an IQ of 70. He'd be a good subject to perform for!" -- but Criss also tends to have people that are no brain surgeons, or even reasonably intelligent professional types. Instead, he gets people that either (a) say Oh My God a million times, (b) say four-letter words a million times, which results in a ton of bleep-outs, or (c) run away. I can never understand the last reaction, running away. I mean, Huh?!? I'd be examining that as closely as possible, asking questions along the way and looking at it with an analytical eye. But instead, you get people that, when presented with an amazing illusion, RUN AWAY. Some of the mental midgets that David Blaine performed for also showed much the same reaction. (See Deion Sanders' reaction after Blaine levitated in front of him.) What the heck is up with that?
6. There are obviously "plants" in the audience. One of the most obvious examples was in one of the later Mindfreak shows, where he finds a couple in the Aladdin hotel hallway and asks them if they've ever experienced Deja Vu. Then another couple (a too-plastic-looking couple) steps in from behind and acts like they're just another couple at the Aladdin also. Criss says he wants to show these people something, and starts walking down the hallway a bit. The first couple follows him, but the second couple stays put, perfectly posed in the center of the hallway, even before Criss tells them to stay there. Then he tells them that they will experience Deja Vu, and he blocks the camera for a split second. Freeze-frame that split second. You will see the girl in the second couple move a little bit too soon. Obviously these people both have twins, and while the couple quickly darts into hotel rooms on either side of the hallway, their "twin" couple comes out of rooms at the far end of the hall, to make it look like Criss has just "reversed time" and thrown the couple down to the end of the hallway.
It's the kind of thing that makes me skeptical of EVERY so-called "audience" member in any of Criss's stunts. I suspect that Criss has TONS of plants in the audience -- at least one with just about every illusion he does -- and that really lessens the impact of his tricks for me. For another example: Take the girl that he "just happens to meet" in a parking lot in one episode. He asks her to draw "any animal" on a piece of paper, and then fold it up. She draws a butterfly. Criss unfolds the paper, and a real butterfly flies out and the drawing is now blank. Well, great...but what if the girl had drawn an elephant, or a rhino, or an armadillo, or cassowary or something? But nope, she conveniently draws a butterfly, and Criss just happens to have a live butterfly under his sleeve to produce. The girl was obviously a plant.
7. A bunch of the random people that "just happen to be there" when Criss shows up to perform something for them, curiously also just happen to have Mindfreak shirts or logos on their clothing. Like random people just go around wearing Mindfreak gear all the time. Right.
8. The Mindfreak theme song. Annoying noise.
Seems like a lot more cons than pros, right? But still, I watch the show because the pros carry a lot more weight than the cons. It is simply a very entertaining show to watch. Worth the purchase if you can put up with some of the cons.

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Superstar illusionist and TV sensation Criss Angel returns with his spectacular post-modern magic in MINDFREAK: THE COMPLETE SEASON TWO, featuring new adrenaline-pumping, death-defying stunts and a bevy of celebrity guest stars. SEASON TWO explodes with unbelievable exhibitions, aerobatics, and drama as Criss moves far beyond "traditional" magic and draws viewers into an uncharted world of modern mysticism--live, un-staged, and without camera tricks. Join the master of illusion as he floats from one towering building to another, conducts an eerie séance in Death Valley with celebrity guests, and attempts escape from the depths of the ocean while in a straight jacket, and much more. On DVD for the first time, experience 21 mind-stumping episodes of CRISS ANGEL MINDFREAK: THE COMPLETE SEASON TWO in a nonstop adventure full of shock and disbelief, starring the world’s only 3-time "Magician of the year" and celebrity guests Ice Cube, Deborah Gibson, Mark McGrath, and more.

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Super Comet (2007) Review

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(More customer reviews)Super Comet - After the Impact is a Discovery Channel special that basically takes the comet that wiped out the dinosaurs and puts into modern times. They used the same type of cometary body assumed to have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, the same size, same impact location, and utilized all the computer modeling they have done on this past event to try to show what might happen (and to show what they think happened then). Not terribly creative and suggests that they really don't know all the effects of such an impact and are just putting things together from what little they have been able to figure out about that one impact, some (or much) of which may be just speculation, though I'm sure that there is some good science going on there.
The cheesiest part of this "docu-drama" was, of course, the depicted foibles of the humans experiencing the event. The show included some cheesy drama, following the struggles of several individuals or groups, before, during, and after the impact, to show how people would react to such a global cataclysm. Even though cheesy, maybe those depictions were useful. The one guy who simply couldn't grasp the nature of the event, kept traveling "home" (which happened to be the site of the impact) even when it was clear that there was no home left. His emotions and his ignorance basically drove him to his own death.
Other people continued to act as if the world was still the same place and suffered thereby, though they learned to cope. There's the typical dumb teenager whose inability to grasp the nature of what is happening (not to mention that her parents weren't very forthcoming with information), who goes running off after a dog. Her parents go after her, eventually find a car, and then the father and teen run off and leave the mother sitting in a running car like it was double parked at the bank! Like desperate people weren't going to steal it immediately with the sleeping mother inside?! Sheesh. Mainly, the characters all acted like they fell out of the stupid tree and hit every branch on the way down! What was clearly evident was that it was lack of knowledge about such events that was the chief problem for all of them.
There were a number of experts trotted out for the "docu" part of the docu-drama. I think I would rather have seen a show that was just about the science with the experts and special effects than the silly way this thing was put together.
One interesting item: at one point, one of the experts made the remark "WHEN it happens," as though he - and the rest of them - knew for a fact that this was on the agenda for our near future. The very fact that so many scientists are working on these problems, including a large number of them studying the possible human reactions and behaviors and how to deal with masses of people, should warn us that there IS something they aren't telling the masses in the headlines of our daily newspapers, though certainly they are "testing" public reactions with shows such as Super Comet - After the Impact.
If you want to know what is really in the future, read Victor Clube's The Cosmic Winter and Comet/Asteroid Impacts and Human Society: An Interdisciplinary Approach.
I had to make myself continue watching this one since I wanted to get up and leave several times. I kept thinking "I could be reading a good book..." But I stuck with it just to see if they had anything new to say. They didn't. It was weak and unsatisfying... cheese with no bread.

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Imagine a world cloaked in complete darkness. Food and water supplies disappear, tsunamis and fires rage, and scorching temperatures plummet to an Ice Age cold within months. Many scientists believe these cataclysmic environmental changes wiped out the dinosaurs after a gigantic asteroid struck the planet millions of years ago...and some say humans could be the next species to face extinction. SUPER COMET: AFTER THE IMPACT dares to bring the unthinkable to life in a fascinating look at how humans could adapt to a new world plagued by devastation on a global scale. You'll be riveted as you watch this unfolding of ultimate destruction that also celebrates the will of our species to survive despite incredible odds.

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Masters of Horror: Joe Dante - Homecoming (2005) Review

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(More customer reviews)I'm amused by the reviews here--from either political side--that take this as anything more than what it is. IT IS A HIGHLY ENTERTAINING SATIRE! I do not ascribe to the political beliefs put forth by this piece, that has never been a prerequisite to good entertainment. But is it funny?--oh, YES! Highly recommended as one of the finest Masters of Horror segments. Whether your Republican, Democrat, or completely uninterested in politics--this is an amusing poke at the political process taken to absurd proportions. I swear it won't corrupt or subvert you.

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It’s a few weeks before the Presidential election and an unpopular war still rages overseas. But when the Republican administration wishes that our dead troops could return to tell America how proud they were to serve their country, veterans begin to rise from their flag-draped coffins for the most horrific reason of all: to vote.Are they gloriously resurrected heroes or braindead zombie dissidents? And even if the administration can devise the proper spin in time to steal their re-election, will an army of men and women killed for a lie finally show our nation the true face of hell? Jon Tenney (THE CLOSER), Thea Gill (QUEER AS FOLK) and Robert Picardo (STAR TREK:VOYAGER) star in this provocative stunner from director Joe Dante (GREMLINS,THE HOWLING, PIRANHA) that The Village Voice calls "jaw-dropping…easily one of the most important political films of the era!"

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