2 comments about China to the Max.

1. A clear look at Shanghai and Hong Kong so you know what to expect when you visit.



2. Quality is the usual Rudy Maxxa as is the target. When Globe Trekker targets the backpacker Rudy targets the people with more money wanting more luxery. Different strokes for different folks.
   
   My biggest problem with this video is it only covers two cities and one I have no interest in. Considering it's called China to the Max you'd think it would get more than 30 feet off the coast.
   
   What I'd like to see is Beijing to the Max, Sichuan to the Max, Guangxi to the Max etc...
   
   Overall one of the better China travel Videos

No comments about Cruise Greece.

No comments about The Great Gardens of England.

1 comments about Pressure Cook.

1. Maybe it's because I am an Italian who's roots are from NY, but Ralph Pagano and his humor keep me(and my 12 year old son) coming back to watch all of the episodes. He gets dropped off in all sorts of remote lomocations around the world and has to earn money to get back home. If he doesn't earn enough money he has to eat some local "delicacy" as punishment(rodents, HOT peppers, ants, maggots, etc.).

4 comments about Austen Country.

1. This is a great Jane Austen documentary, that delves deeper into Austen's life; Informative and educational, as well as interesting, narrarated by a man with a fun British accent!

   This DVD tours the countryside, showing places and things having to do with Jane and her life. It offers some insight into Jane's views on things, what society and life was like for her at that time, and where she would have vacationed, what she would have done, etc.

   I enjoyed this very much, and I'm sure you will too! Highly recommended to any fan of Jane Austen!!




2. While there is a wealth of facts and items of interest presented here they are given in such a dry manner as to cause one's mind to wander. In particular, the narrator has all the charm and charisma of Miss Austen's least desirable male characters -- I would prefer a Mr. Collins sermon to this dull and droning creature!
   
   Perhaps A&E, the BBC or another organization will take the content of this well intentioned but compromised shoestring production and do something that engages and entertains while it educates.
   
   Jane Austen deserves better.



3. The video was fairly informative but the narrator had a tendancy to stray. There were a few too many shots of flowers as well.



4. It is an hour long tour of all that is Austen. Where she was born, various places that she lived and then where she died. The in-between places consist of her life with her family, and all about her family.

No comments about Globe Trekker: Europe 5-Pack.

5 comments about Moon 44.

1. I first saw this film in 1991, after exhausting the sci-fi section at my local Blockbuster. A straight-to-video release (as I recall) I thought it a decent outer-space adventure. Grim, gritty, raw, it tries to be a combination of several genres: space opera, hardboiled detective novel, war movie. It succeeds at none of these, but taken as a whole is enjoyable weekend popcorn fare. Pare does a good job as our disaffected intellectual tough-guy hero, while other B and C list names show up for decent turns. Leon Rippy especially is fun as the failed, proud, bull-dogged Sergeant Sykes, while Malcom McDowell appears as the military commander whom you just know in your heart is up to no good, right from the start. Because, hey, it's Malcolm McDowell! Roscoe Lee Browne is also worth mentioning as the slick, coniving corporate boss. The special effects are of the limited-budget variety, and it's a shame Emmerich didn't have access to either CGI, or more money, as he has in later, better-known movies. But I think this movie is worth watching, and even owning, if you want to see solid early work from a director who has since tackled some of the highest-profile and biggest profit-reaping films in the industry.



2. THIS IS MOVIE IS A MUST SEE FOR ANY SCI-FICTION FAN,THE STORY IS GOOD,THE SPECIAL EFFECTS ARE GREAT,THEY DID IT THE OLD FASHIONED WAY, WITH MODELS, REAL EXPLOSIONS,HAND BLUIT MINIATURE LANDSCAPES,AND IT ALL LOOKS GREAT!. THE CAST IS ALSO PRETTY GOOD, YOU HAVE MALCOLM MCDOWELL AND MICHAEL PARE, THEY BOTH GIVE A DECENT PREFORMANCE IN THIS MOVIE,BUT?, ANYONE WHO WENT TOO THIS MOVIE WAS THERE TO SEE THE VERY NEET ATTACK HELICOPTERS. THIS IS AN EXCELLENT LITTLE MOVIE,WHICH DID SHOW IN A LOT OF MAJOR THEATRES IN (1989),AT THE VERY LEAST, THIS MOVIE IS WAY,WAY BETTER THAN ROLAND EMMERICH'S "GODAWFUL GODZILLA " MOVIE ,WHICH WAS A VERY, VERY ,BAD MOVIE!,INDEED.



3. I've seen hundreds of Sci Fi movies over the years. This is one of those you'll wonder whether you've watched it or not a few years down the road. You just can't remember.
   
   All in all, I figure it's still better to watch a so-so Sci Fi movie than "Dances With Wolves" or "Evita". This movie will end up being non-memorable, but it's preferable to being in a coma.



4. We have a very mixed bag here. On the one end you have a poorly executed plot rife with clichés and stereotypes. On the other hand you get an excellent back-story that far outshines the main one. Moon 44 is not your average B-movie fare. You get an interesting mix of good and bad that ultimately makes the movie worth watching… if you keep in mind certain things.
   
   The first thing you need to keep in mind is the main plot can almost be completely discarded. It’s way too stereotypical and ultimately does nothing but give the good guys a reason to chase the bad guys and the bad guys a reason to be bad. This, more than anything else, makes Moon 44 no better than any other B-movie. Now that you have this in mind you can pave the way to see the excellent background story developing here. There are a couple of little sub-plots that really make the script shine. For instance there is a conflict between the pilot/convicts and their youthful navigators. This kind of storytelling makes for great drama and this is what’s pulled off perfectly. Other little things are going on in the back-story as well like the rivalry that turns into respect between Stone (Michael Pare) and one of the pilots Jake O’Neal (Brian Thompson) as well as several other tidbits. The great background characters and storylines are what save this movie from being just another clichéd B-Film.
   
   The acting is also a mixed bag. Michael Pare doesn’t bring anything different to the table here with his tough-guy special operative role and Malcolm McDowell’s performance didn’t really give anything fresh to the movie either. I can’t really blame Pare and McDowell too much as their roles are a victim of a canned script. Dean Devlin however gives a brilliant performance as Tyler, the good-natured navigator who comes to terms with hard realities. I always enjoy seeing Brian Thompson in a film and I believe he is often an underrated talent. Other notable performances come from Leon Rippy and a quirky yet heartfelt performance by Stephen Geoffreys. As far as the rest of the supporting cast you do get some great performances. Overall the acting is quite good, save for a few standard performances
   
   The sets look like this movie comes out of the Alien universe, which means they look cool and functional. You don’t get many dark and eerie Sci-Fi sets like that those anymore. The design for the gun ships is pretty cool even though they are still just helicopters. The robot attackers look cool, but you would think they would have had robot ships and not robots flying ships. I guess you can explain that away for various reasons, but it still sits odd with me. The special effects are serviceable considering this is a low budget movie. Probably the model work will be the thing that is most evident of a limited budget. Still I prefer to take all things into account and can easily forgive the limitations as the model work still looks reasonably realistic, and compared to other B-movies it’s downright excellent.
   
   Moon 44 is a B-Movie. No doubt about it. However it’s one of the better B-Movies out there. If it wasn’t for the weak main plot and script that followed it you would have a truly great movie. As it stands the film is saved by very strong character development, great acting, well executed sub-plots, and better than average special effects. You will get a good movie if you can get past the main storyline, which isn’t too hard, as it seems to only be there to move events forward. If you’re just out for flashy effects and lots of action then I suppose you won’t find this movie as interesting as I did. For those of you driven by story and character development I say with Moon 44 you will find a diamond in the rough.



5. What were they thinking? I like Michael Pare, but I haven't seen him in awhile. Is this movie the reason? Okay I'm a big fan of SciFi, but something is missing here. The effects are pretty good in parts, and pretty bad in others. Some of the stuff looks like it could have been used in "Alien", and others look like plastic diorama models hung in a kids bedroom on a string. The acting is a bit disappointing but passable, but the dialogue is what hurts this movie the most. I think with a decent screenwriter this movie would have made a good showing despite the special effects and any other flaws in my humble opinion.
   
   When Pare is sent to Moon 44 as an undercover agent, he is unaware the corporation he is working for doesn't care about the humans dying on the other moons that have been attacked and destroyed. They only care about their shuttles used for mining. They are so hard up for pilots they use convicts to pilot helicopter fighters to protect the moon. They are teamed with kids at the base in order to be guided through foggy ravines with rock columns. Kids are brutalized by convicts, shuttles are stolen by internal management, robot fighters kill all moons in their path, but Pare is there to save the day. Can he save this movie? No, but it isn't his fault.

No comments about Globe Trekker: Venice City Guide.

No comments about Over California.

3 comments about Space Mutiny.

1. Wow! What a cast of characters first theres commander Santa Claus, his middle aged daughter (we are expected to disregard our eyes and believe that she's young & hot), A thick as a pot roast hero that screams like a little girl and a villain (we know this by his patented evil laugh and his fondness for ancient dentistry) named Kalgon.
   Mystery Science Theater skewered this cinematic offal to uproarious effect. There's so many elements that leave you speechless; The space ship interior that looks suspiciously like a commercial warehouse and the exterior shots ripped off from the 70's Battlestar Galactica series. The crewmember that is killed and magically appears in the very next scene unharmed. There is so much cheese in this movie, you'll be visually constipated for several days.



2. In the same context that Plan 9 from Outer Space is bad and should be watched, Space Mutiny is a lesson of things NOT to do.
   
   Rule Number 1
   Do NOT cast your grandmother as the female romantic lead. It's just plain creepy.
   
   Rule Number 2
   Continuity is important. Do NOT show dead crew members on the bridge after you kill them off.
   
   Rule Number 3
   Should you feel that your man brute leading character has a need to yell, do NOT let him scream like a little girl. It just ruins the image.
   
   Rule Number 4
   If you want to show dance clubs in outer space. Do NOT use hula hoops and do NOT let your grandmother use one. She could dislocate her hip.
   
   Rule Number 5
   When people get shot, it is NOT necessary that they jump to their deaths over a railing. After the first 60 times, people start to expect it.
   
   This movie is just awful. My guess is that they filmed half of it in an empty warehouse and the other half in a brewery. This film should not be viewed without chemical supplements. Should you find yourself lost in the plot of this flop, you could lose your mind.
   
   This is best viewed with the commentary of the MST3k crew. You can watch it without it, but, like running with scissors, I recommend you don't.



3. "Space Mutiny" is a classic of bad cinema. This movie gained fame as the basis of one of the best episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000, and you would think someone would have released the movie on its own long before now. Well, Echo Bridge Home Entertainment has rushed out this DVD and it is nothing more than the VHS version burned onto a DVD. The audio quality is poor: there are no audio options and I actually had a hard time getting the sound chanelled through my set! The video quality is awful: grainy and washed out...it looks like what it is: a cheap bootleg. In short, don't be seduced by the small pricetag and buy this garbage. I have many bootleg DVDs that are of much better quality than this. "Space Mutiny" deserves to finally be released in a Widescreen format, hopefully with the deleted scenes that are present on the cover of the VHS version. Until then, there is the VHS version and, of course, the MST3K version for you to purchase. Stay away from this poor quality DVD. It is just junk and Amazon should be ashamed of itself for continuing to stock it.