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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Virtuality (2009) Review

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(More customer reviews)This was actually supposed to be the pilot episode of a TV show produced for FOX. The show wasn't picked up as a series, but FOX still aired it as a TV movie.
As a TV show, this would have been spectacular. The quality of production, the exceptional performances, the character development, and the many layers of theme and story make merely watching this lone episode a telling experience about the nature of television and creativity today. If nothing else, it makes for a good case study on the problem of TV today, especially in the sci-fi arena, and a telling demonstration of what TV could be like, if TV executives were to risk making their show choices based on quality, rather than on the safety of lowest-common-denominator marketability. By the end of this movie/episode, whether you're generally a sci-fi fan or not, you'll wonder how in the hell a show like "V" got on the air, while this was passed on.
This is a quality, imaginative, original production that really sucks you in. As a stand-alone, the only problem is the untidy ending (as it was written in anticipation of more installments to come). There has been talk among fans and the actors that sufficient interest could still get the series picked up, if not by FOX then perhaps by SyFy, and a web page was even set up by the spouse of one actor to organize a letter-writing campaign to that end. I pray that it's not too late for this to happen. The wasted potential here is criminal.

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Nothing is what it seems in this daring, futuristic movie event from legendary Director Peter Berg (Hancock) and Executive Producers Michael Taylor and Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica). Twelve extremely talented men and women have been chosen to be part of the Phaeton mission, a 10-year trek to explore a distant planetary system. In order to endure the stress of being confined to their high-tech vessel, the crew passes the time using advanced virtual realitymodules that allow them to take on various identities. But as the ship approaches a critical phase of their journey, a deadly flaw is discovered in the virtual system, forcing them to question if someone onboard might be akiller. Starring Clea DuVall (Carnivále), Joy Bryant (Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins), Sienna Guillory (Eragon), Ritchie Coster (The Dark Knight) and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Firewall), it\'s a dazzling trip to unexplored reaches of outer space and the inner imagination that Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune calls a \'complex and intriguing film."

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Ghouls (2008) Review

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(More customer reviews)Ghouls (Gary Jones, 2008)
Oh, William Atherton. Long ago was the time when your name on a production meant quality. Nowadays, it seems to do exactly the opposite. (Hmm, maybe The Last Samurai WASN'T Tom Cruise's fault?
...naah.) So when your name popped up in the opening credits of Ghouls, I pretty much knew what I was in for. I just didn't expect it to be this awful.
In any case, the painfully thin synopsis is that Atherton plays Stefan. Stefan's mom dies in the old country, and he rounds up his college-aged daughter Jen (the eye-popping Kristen Renton) and girlfriend Liz (Erin Gray-- yes, that Erin Gray) and they all head for some small, nameless country in Eastern Europe where the entire country shuns the village, and the entire village shuns them. Except, of course, for the family members-- and they're none too friendly, either. Things get a bit less dull when Jen runs into Thomas (James DeBello), a druid who's fighting the ghouls that haunt the town. (No, this isn't a spoiler, we find this out in the film's opening minutes, long before Jen does-- which was probably a bad idea on the part of the scriptwriter.)
Let me start by saying that the only possible reasons to watch this are to stare at Kristen Renton and if you're using it as the basis for a drinking game. Otherwise, give it the widest berth possible. Painful plot holes, inconsistent (and incompetent) characters, truly awful dialogue, the works. And, if I may be allowed a moment of sheer geekery, one should not call one's wraiths "ghouls", though these particular CGI monstrosities seem to be able to take either form at will. DeBello, who I thoroughly enjoyed in Cabin Fever, comes off here as a sort of low-rent Ray Liotta or Liev Schreiber (both of whom, I'm sure, turned this down and ran screaming, if it was offered to them), while Renton seesaws between disbelief and amusement (not at the events onscreen, at the script and the direction).
While in the annals of Sci-Fi Channel Original Films, this will not go down in history as the worst movie they've ever bankrolled (you'd have to sink a lot lower than this to get to the level of The Bone Eater), but it's in the bottom ten somewhere. Entirely awful. (half)


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A young American girl goes on a journey to Eastern Europe to visit her family. While there, she meets a strange and mysterious ghost hunter who speaks of terrifying mystical creatures who roam the surrounding forests, preying on the town s innocent victims. Together, they discover her supernatural heritage and connection to the evil spirits who plague the town. The creatures once ruled the earth and are planning to rule again with her help, willing or not!

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