The Snow Queen (2002) Review

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(More customer reviews)I recently took this off the shelf at my local video rental store because the picture on the box showed a white haired Bridget Fonda dressed in a beautiful sparkly white dress and a snow white cloak made of feathers. It looked to me like Hallmark Entertainment was going to at least try to do this film up right.
As it turned out, a lavish budget did provide many beautiful costumes, sets, and location scenery, but the simplicity and innocence of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale got lost in three hours of so-so acting, a poor screen play, dreadful dialog, bad film editing and lousy direction from David Wu.
In the original fairy tale the protagonists are two children named Kay and Gerda. In this film Kay has been changed to Kai and both Kai and Gerda are young adults who are in love.
One day Kai gets beguiled by the Snow Queen who rules the season of Winter and he is kidnapped and taken to her Ice Palace. Gerda begins a long (and in this film I do mean LONG) quest to discover his whereabouts and to rescue him. In order to do this she must travel through the lands of the other Seasons. She meets with the eccentric denizens of Spring, Summer and Autumn and each of them attempts to kidnap her. The idiosyncratic Andersen's take on the seasons was odd enough in the original story, but in this film is all the more exaggerated.
Kai has a talking Polar Bear (crafted with skill by Jim Henson's Creature Works) for a prison guard. His involvment with the polar bear is one of the many reasons this movie drags. Several ridiculous minutes are spent with Kai teaching the bear to ice-skate, for example.
The actors portraying Wolfgang, the father, Gerda, and Kai are tolerable if not note-worthy. Bridget Fonda, in my opinion, was not right for the part of the Snow Queen. Her performance is lackluster and she delivers her lines as though she's LaFemme Nikita rather than a character in a fairy tale. She looks the part but she doesn't seem particularly frosty or seductive as the script calls for her to be. Her lines are delivered in a flat emotionless way that I suppose is meant to be icy, but comes off as dull. You really wonder how in the world Kai could have been beguiled by such a person.
The interior sets, the costumes, the lighting...all the cosmetic trim of this film are beautiful and they are what made me so want to love this movie, but the magic is missing and I was never able to get swept away by the story.
At three hours in length and with a plot that focuses on mature themes of love lost, grief and seduction, even suicide, this film is most decidedly NOT for children of any age. Yet, with the corny talking bear and a talking reindeer and some really silly robber characters, I can't say it is a film for adults, either.
There is some really cheesy dialog that is too much like modern slang for example when the Summer Princess comments on Gerda's dress by saying, "That peasant look is so last year," or later when she asks Gerda, "Do I look a porker in this dress?"
There is a whole lot of trite symbolism featuring red roses that further takes up time for no real benefit. In the original story Andersen has a "demon" creating havok with a magical mirror but in the film the minor league demon has been changed to Satan himself and they actually say the mirror is crafted in Hell. They make the devil look really cliche in this film and I feel it was too heavy-handed and out of sync with the rest of the picture. Sadly, this production just doesn't work. Even with a big budget, lavish decorations and costumes, talented actors, and a story that has enchanted people for over a century and a half, it still falls flat. I'd say skip this one...and for sure, do not try to make your kids sit through it. It's no fun.

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Arabian Nights (Edited Version) (2000) Review

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(More customer reviews)It's very amazing that this was originally presented as a cable mini-series - as I eventually happened to watch it in its entirety and found it to be, in fact, quite extraordinary! I never thought, in all these years of watching movies, that such a film could be made from such a classic and intricate collection of stories - Ah - and how it has come to enthrall me! I truly am undone!
Scheherazade (Mili Avital) marries the Sultan Schahriar (Dougray Scott) even though she knows that his mad mind has contrived a plan to execute his new wife the morning after their wedding. After they are married, she proceeds to spend every wakeful night with him, feeding his imagination with wondrous tales!
This is based on the classic work of writing - A THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS, by Sir Richard Burton. It includes ancient tales that had been passed down for hundreds and even thousands of years! Five of these stories, including the tale of Ali Baba (Rufus Sewell) and Aladdin (Jason Scott Lee) are woven and portrayed upon the screen here in brilliant fashion! The special effects are far beyond what one would ever expect - even from a big-screen movie. I am sure, in fact, that this was only made for cable because it is a captivating 4-hours long!
The performances herein are as excellent as ever one can come by - Mili Avital and Dougray Scott are both so lovely and possess a wonderful chemistry - And the settings are nothing less than exquisite! If you have four or so hours of easy leisure - I recommend this for both its insight and its beauty~~

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Primeval, Vol. 2 (Series 3) (2009) Review

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I watched Primeval Series Three, hoping that it would be as great as the first two series. And it turned out to be just as good as the other two series! We get some great new human characters and cool creatures, in this third series. Sadly, the last episode of series three, leaves us with a cliffhanger ending!
Hopefully, when the movie version of Primeval hits theaters, we will get to find out what happens to Abby, Connor, and Danny. But, for now, we'll just have to wait and see. The DVD set contains all ten episodes of Series Three. The episodes are listed below and contain spoilers.
PRIMEVAL SERIES THREE
Episode One- An exhibition of ancient Egyptian relics comes to the British Museum and an anomaly opens in a mysterious monument called the `Sun Cage'. A Pristichampsus, believed in Ancient Egypt to be the demon Ammut, emerges and proceeds to wreak havoc in London. Cutter, Abby, and new head of security Captain Becker pursue it through the city while Connor and new recruit, the Egyptologist, Sarah Page try to block off the anomaly and prevent more Pristichampsus from coming through. Meanwhile, Lester encounters a new adversary: the ambitious Christine Johnson.
Episode Two- Three teenage boys break into a house and a Future Gremlin attacks them. Only one boy manages to escape. With the anomaly closed, the Gremlin remains stuck in the house for the next 14 years, by which time Cutter's model has led him to predict that another anomaly will appear in that very house. He sends Connor, Abby and Jenny to investigate but the three have a run-in with the creature and PC Danny Quinn, who is trying to find out who murdered his brother.
Episode Three- An anomaly opens in a London hospital, causing several Diictodon to emerge. They promptly chew through the power cables cutting the power to the building. Cutter, Abby, Connor and Becker arrive to investigate as does journalist Mick Harper, who wants to get evidence of the creatures to expose to the public. Meanwhile, Helen, "The Cleaner" and their clone of Cutter infiltrate the ARC so that they can ask the real Cutter about the mysterious artifact. When the real Cutter returns Helen confronts him, informing him that she has to stop the ARC's research from destroying the world at any cost...even if it means killing her husband.
Episode Four- Mick Harper steals an anomaly detector from Jenny's car and uses it to track down an anomaly at an airport, bringing Nigel Marven with him to identify the creature, yet when a Giganotosaurus comes through the anomaly, the team has to not only stop the dinosaur destroying an airport and a Boeing 747, but also stop the journalists from broadcasting its existence to the world. Luckily for the team, they have unexpected assistance from Danny Quinn, who manages to lure the creature back to its own time.
Guest appearance by Nigel Marven
Episode Five- Danny Quinn is drafted in to help the team when a fast-growing flesh-eating fungus from the future is transferred to the present by a businessman's assistant, who in turn passes the spores onto his employer, Sir Richard Bently. Bently slowly turns into a Fungus Creature as a result. The team manages to bring the creature back to the ARC, where Jenny is trapped in the main control room with it and forced to fight for her life. After her recent discovery of Cutter's picture of Claudia Brown and her near-death experience, Jenny decides that she's had enough: she resigns from her job at the ARC, leaving the team in Danny's hands.
Episode Six- When the ARC is taken over by Christine Johnson and the military in search of the artifact, Danny and the team flee to a safehouse in the woods: in truth, an old cabin that has been abandoned since the 1930s. With no technology or weapons but their own resourcefulness, the team not only have to defend themselves from Johnson's soldiers, but also a pack of carnivorous Terror Birds that emerge from a nearby anomaly.
Episode Seven- A Dracorex comes through an anomaly, trying to escape from a 14th century knight who believes he is hunting a dragon. The team are forced to find and save the life of the Dracorex, and return the confused knight to his own world before he kills anyone, out of belief they are demons.
Episode Eight- An anomaly opens at a race car test track and a Megopteran, a insect from the future, comes through. It is carnivorous and lethal, and the team must draw on all their resources to get it back to its home. However, things get complicated when Jack decides to find out what his sister Abby really does for a living, and inadvertently drives through an anomaly into a future world inhabited by future predators. The team must now make a dangerous search mission to the future to rescue Jack, then escape with their lives.
Episode Nine- The team have to deal with a herd of Embolotherium from the Eocene. Danny arrives with a mysterious woman called Eve who he first saw in the Future; having rescued her from Christine Johnson, they endeavour to save everyone from the stampede. Upon their return to the ARC, the team are shocked to discover that Eve is Helen Cutter in disguise, who takes Johnson hostage. Holding her at gunpoint, Helen steals the artifact and vows once again to stop the ARC's research destroying the world. Helen then leaves Johnson in the future, where she is torn apart by a future predator, and makes her escape. The team decide they must find and stop Helen before more people die as a result of her actions.
Episode Ten- Danny, Abby and Connor travel to the future in pursuit of Helen while Sarah and Captain Becker try to evade Megopterans rampaging through Johnson's old headquarters. Meanwhile, the trio discover Helen plans to prevent the evolution of humanity in order to save the world, resulting in a chase across Cretaceous North America and into Pliocene Africa. Danny confronts Helen at the location of the human ancestor, Australopithecus, only to find she has poisoned a small number already. A Deinonychus that followed Danny through the anomaly charges at Helen and knocks her off a cliff, killing them both. Danny then makes his way back to the anomaly, only to have it close in front of him. Trapped in the past and separated from each other, will Danny, Abby and Connor ever get home?
This set is worth the price range of around $26.00-$29.00. The episodes are great and the action and drama blends well with one another. If you liked the first two series of Primeval, then you will also enjoy this set! Primeval is a great series, and I can't wait for the movie adaptation!
So, my advice, buy this set! It's worth every penny!

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