It’s a wonderfully amusing, entertaining and timeless holiday story. For all the nostalgia that It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown evokes, it still remains an exceptional tale about the mystery and expectations of Halloween night – for the kid in every one of us. The fact that this brief cartoon still finds legions of new fans every year speaks to its almost universal story of bad luck, costumes, and never giving up on your dreams. Without making too much out of Linus and his quest to see The Great Pumpkin, it’s easy to recognize that his travails strike a chord in every one of us – we’ve all desperately wanted something, no matter how unrealistically everyone else though our dreams to be.

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Topics: Holiday, TV Reviews
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Overview

Sleepy Hollow, very loosely based on the novel by Washington Irving, is an almost perfect film – from a purely visual standpoint. The settings, the characters, the lighting, the garish splashes of blood … everything is perfectly placed to create a visual style that is uniquely spooky, gothic, memorable and enjoyable. The rest of the film is a fairly standard supernatural murder-mystery plot, wherein the supernatural is being controlled by a person who wants to gain power and wealth in this world. But the film does add some interesting commentary on the ongoing tension between faith and science, and between mysticism and reason. And with a cast of fairly colorful characters, portrayed by some very talented actors, Sleepy Hollow has a lot more positives than negatives.

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Topics: Fantasy, Film Review, Horror
Filed under: Film | 1 Comment »

“As Thanatos draws near, Anna comes face to face with Amasso. “

Location: Brandenberg Forest, Germany

“Savior” could likely refer to Anna’s soul.  This episode is heavy on buildup and backstory.  And there’s finally some hints given about “Thanatos” the SIM’s secret operation.  And of course, the episode leaves on one helluva cliffhanger.

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Topics: Mystery, Sci-Fi, Web Reviews
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Van Helsing is an amusing film. There is certainly enough happening for the movie to keep its audience entertained from start to finish. Its visuals are worthy of praise and the soundtrack nicely compliments the on-screen action. But the problem with this film has to do with plausibility and believability. The template for this film, by Stephen Sommers, was Sommers’ 1999 The Mummy – a film that went to great lengths to portray its events as possible, if not probable. The problem for Van Helsing, however, is that its characters – and its characterizations – are just far too cartoonish to make it a have any teeth. And a monster movie without any bite is unfortunate indeed.

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Topics: Adventure, Fantasy, Film Review
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As adventure soundtracks go, Alan Silvestri’s Van Helsing, while not a landmark score, is pretty good. What I look for in a good adventure soundtrack are some unique sounding themes to accompany the blood-pumping bombast. Van Helsing is sufficiently unique with a gothic chanting chorus, and classical guitar, for this score to meet any adventure standard.

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Topics: Film Music
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“Anna learns the history behind the development of the Sims courtesy of Hans Dresner, the leader of the Sim underground.”

Location: Brandenberg Forest, Germany

“Anna’s Got A Gun” is a fascinating episode in terms of its thematic and moral explorations.  True, there are a number of plot twists, but the strength of the episode rests on the implications of torture, murder, salvation and redemption — and whether or not the ends justify the means.

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Topics: Sci-Fi, Web Reviews
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Overview

The Nightmare Before Christmas is a wonderfully amusing film. There is a kind of magical quality to it, considering the story itself is fairly simple, straightforward and, for the most part, average. Indeed, the film’s best qualities are more in terms of its style, rather than its substance. That isn’t to say that the movie is shallow, either. Instead, The Nightmare Before Christmas manages to hypnotically weave its story through indelible imagery and musical numbers which manage to convey the spirit of the film – even if general moviegoers don’t fall in love with them.

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Topics: Film Review, Holiday
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“Infiltrating the Sim underground on behalf of Gemini Division, Anna tries to play both sides in order to find Nick’s Sim core. But, is she the one getting played?”

Location: Berlin

“9-1-1″ throws a fascinating twist into the narrative.  Anna’s undercover role brings her to a very, very interesting gambit — one which might determine her future in Gemini Division.

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Topics: Mystery, Sci-Fi, Web Reviews
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“Meet Kevin Johnson” is an episode whose story is told almost entirely by way of a flashback. And even so, it manages to expand the mystery surrounding the Island and the seemingly perpetual interconnectedness of everyone associated with it. On those levels, as well as the deep internal conflict of the episode’s main character, the episode succeeds in telling a dramatic story. But once again, the series has to rely on the worst aspects of its characters in order to construct the plot, and to move it forward.

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Topics: Sci-Fi, TV Reviews
Filed under: Lost | 1 Comment »

“And The Children Shall Lead” starts off promisingly enough but quickly devolves into the worst, most horrid, most painful sci-fi I think I may have ever witnessed. I’m not even sure this episode even deserves a proper post-mortem. It’s dead. Let’s leave it that way.

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Topics: Sci-Fi, TV Reviews
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“Anna goes undercover to learn more about the SIM underground.”

Location: Berlin

“Underground” begins the process of Anna confronting, for the first time, the SIM underground network — and, presumably, their sensibilities.  There’s a bit of setup work being done here, introducing a new location and several new characters.  The episode isn’t so much a standout as it is a link in the chain, moving the narrative forward, and setting things up for the next big events.

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Topics: Mystery, Sci-Fi, Web Reviews
Filed under: Gemini Division | No Comments »

At its heart, “Ji Yeon” has a touching story to tell. It’s unfortunate, then, that it gets sidetracked by narrative gimmicks. It’s indicative of where the series is headed, though. Unable to fully rely on the strength of its stories and characters, it’s had to increasingly turn to shock-value twists simply to generate the kind of very natural and plausible drama it once so effortlessly created. Such is the case with this installment.

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Topics: Sci-Fi, TV Reviews
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“The Paradise Syndrome” is a moving, personal, and compelling story. In many ways, it is the precursor to TNG’s “The Inner Light.” And in every way that this episode mirrors its eventual progeny it succeeds masterfully, weaving a bittersweet tale about how elusive, intense, and fleeting true happiness can be. It’s a story of living lifetime within a finite period of time, and then returning to the world of reality – wiser and sadder for the experience. If only the overall production had been able to live up to the story itself …

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Topics: Sci-Fi, TV Reviews
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ubject to change, the following is DauntlessMedia.net’s release schedule, which contains completed reviews and articles, as well as their anticipated release dates for the week of October 27 – November 2, 2008:

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“The Other Woman” is a marginal episode in terms of execution. Lost seems to have hit a plateau in terms of its ability to construct a compelling episode from start to finish. That doesn’t mean that the story isn’t interesting – it certainly is – but at the end of the day, this feels a bit like moving around the pieces on the chessboard without much of a plan of attack (or defense). And the muddling of loyalties and motivations only dilute the impact of the real heart of the series: its characters.

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Topics: Sci-Fi, TV Reviews
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