Review of "Planet of Dinosaurs" Rifftrax version DVD

Review of

Planet of Dinosaurs Rifftrax version DVD

Two out of five stars

 Up front, this is a very bad science fiction movie. The marooned premise is old and very poorly carried out and the acting and special effects are at their best mediocre. It opens with a spaceship suffering a catastrophic failure and a few of the crew manage to get into a survival pod before it explodes. They crash land on a conveniently Earth-like planet and manage to swim to shore before their ship sinks under the water.

 There are of course dinosaurs on the planet and they must find shelter, food and some way to fight the much larger carnivorous lizards. The cast contains the shirtless hunk guy with significant muscles and the attractive woman in a very short skirt that conveniently rises up her legs in critical moments. It is a hard movie to watch to the end, at times even the actors appear to be bored with what they are doing.

 This disc contains two versions of the movie, the second contains a running commentary by Michael J. Nelson. The case claims that they are hilarious, but for me, they were anything but extremely annoying. I simply could not watch the Rifftrax version for more than a few minutes before I had to quit. While I know that there are people that will enjoy hearing a running commentary on a very bad movie, I am not one of them. This fact is the only reason that I gave this two rather than one star.

Review of "Windtalkers," DVD version

Review of

Windtalkers, DVD version

Five out of five stars

 One of the best stories to come out of World War II in the Pacific theater is that of the code talkers. Native American Navahos that were fluent in their language communicated over open radios, the only modification needed was that references to the tools of modern warfare had to be created. When the code talkers spoke over the radios, the Japanese language experts could hear what was being said, but were baffled, as none of them had ever encountered the language. The code was never broken, as none of the code talkers were ever captured and interrogated by the Japanese.

 Each code talker was assigned a minder, a fellow soldier whose mission was to protect the code at all costs. That meant that in the event of certain capture, the lives of the code talker and his minder were considered expendable. Nicolas Cage plays a U. S. Marine (Enders) deep in the throes of combat fatigue, yet still a superb fighting man. He is the minder assigned to code talker Yahzee played by Adam Beach and both play their roles very well. They develop the type of friendship that likely could only arise in a combat situation where they are heavily dependent on each other.

 The makers of the movie did not gloss over the overt racism of some members of the Marine unit had for the Native Americans, even after they successfully call in a naval bombardment that silences strong Japanese defensive positions. While there is a lot of graphic war violence in this movie, there are deep undercurrents of Native American culture as well as how a minority group that was almost exterminated played a critical role in the American victory over Japan. It is hard to have racist bias against a person that just saved your life.

Review of "Iron Man 2" DVD version

Review of

Iron Man 2 DVD version

Five out of five stars

 This sequel to the original is just as powerful and entertaining as the first. The technical genius Tony Stark is slowly dying, being poisoned by the energy device in his chest that keeps him alive. Believing that he only has a short time to live, he engages in some bizarre and self-destructive behaviors, made even more serious by the fact that he is the powerful Iron Man.

 Robert Downey Jr. plays the role of Tony Stark/Iron Man very well, the supporting cast around Tony simultaneously prop him up as well as try to level him out. Given a powerful hero, it is necessary to have an equally powerful villain and Mickey Rourke is superb as the fellow genius Ivan Vanko. Like Stark, Vanko is capable of creating super weapons under primitive conditions with few resources.

  A second villain is provided by a fellow industrialist that was humiliated by Stark, but now wants revenge along with billions in defense dollars. There is a climactic battle where Tony is on the verge of defeat and is aided by a soldier in another armored suit. The super-secret agency of S. H. I. E. L. D. headed by Nick Fury is also introduced and quickly becomes a potential major player.

 Like the comics from which the characters were taken, the story reaches a conclusion, yet it is clear that a great deal of ground work has been established for future adventures of the man in the armored suit.