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Don-170
Reviews
Threads (1984)
"I hoped we were not capable of this. But..."
Warning!!!! Possible spoilers ahead!!!
The above is the summary from a friend whom I let borrow my copy of Threads, which I just received 3 weeks ago. All I can say is oh my goodness... I saw part of this about 10-12 years ago during late night network TV here in the US. However, my VCR stopped right at the point Ruth gives birth. For the past 12 years, I never knew the ending. Now I do... And the film is even more shocking since I have grown up and am now making a living for myself.
What really makes this film a kick in the pants is the visual impact the scenes provide to the viewers. The Day After (1983 ABC) is like a cartoon compared to this. The overall shock value is quite high and some of the scenes are just beyond imaginations. Still living people buried beneath the rubble during the firestorm, confused animals walking the post-attack streets, people vomiting from radiation sickness, eating raw animal flesh to survive. That is rather grotesque, but it is the harsh reality of what would come to pass if the unthinkable happened and there was a nuclear conflict. Oh, and the hospital scenes! A man has to have his leg amputated with a hand saw because there is no electricity!! There is not even a way to heat anything to cauterize his amputation! This film is NOT meant for the faint of heart! Unlike The Day After which ends a few months after the attack, Threads continues 13 years past the attack. This truly gives the viewer a more realistic look into a post-nuclear society. Anybody care to go back to the days of steam engines? You will in this movie. Living conditions do not improve at all even 13 years after the attack.
One aspect The Day After never bothered to deal with is Nuclear Winter. How would society adjust if the sunlight was blocked out by dust clouds so great that temperatures fell to near freezing year round? Threads is the only film to portray that. The crop losses alone would kill millions of the remaining people due to lack of food. And with a vastly diminished harvest, where will people get seeds to replant for next year? Also of note is the post nuclear winter conditions where the ozone layer is nearly depleted and the sunlight is heavy with ultraviolet radiation? You see the survivors wearing handmade cloaks to protect themselves. Nothing of the sort was covered in The Day After.
In conclusion, Threads has to be the most accurate depiction of life after a global nuclear war. The BBC does not tell Barry Hines to tone down the material as ABC did to the producers of The Day After. The whole point of such graphically intense scenes is to point out WHY NUCLEAR WAR MUST BE AVOIDED!!! For fans of the nuke genre, watch this for a no-holds-barred look into the consequences of nuclear war. You will be left saying "Oh my goodness" at the end. Just remember that while there will be those that said that Hiroshima and Nagasaki rebuilt themselves, they forget those were only two cities in a single country. Who, or what, will be left to rebuild the cities if all of them in the world are destroyed?
Rupan sansei (1978)
Fun, but not as good as Castle Of Cagliostro
I have just recently began to discover the Lupin III series. I purchased Castle Of Cagliostro(CoC) a few weeks ago. This film, while a fun adventure, lacks the fluidity of CoC. CoC builds up the excitement with subtle events as well as action filled moments. The Mystery Of Mamo seems to be rather disjointed at times. There are some high points followed by low points and back again, much like a rollercoaster.
One thing that I did not like was the animation style. I found the way Lupin was drawn and how he walked to be a bit...odd. CoC has better animation as well as more natural character movements.
Now, It may sound as if I did not like Mystery Of Mamo. That is not the case. The storyline is very enjoyable. More of a Sci-Fi theme compared to CoC. Watching Lupin constantly hit on Fujiko is quite humorous! As in CoC, Lupin shows some excellent ingenuity in how he deals with Mamo. Jigen and Goemon add their charisma to this film, more so than CoC. And the action is not missing from this film.
All in all, I would definitely recommend this film to any Lupin III fan. While not the fun-filled ride that Castle Of Cagliostro is, Mystery Of Mamo is still enjoyable to watch and does belong on the shelves of Lupin III fans.
One closing note. The car chase through the sewer with the helicopter, the hanging scene, as well as major amounts of footage from CoC, were used in a 1983 Laserdisc Arcade game titled Cliff Hanger.
Rupan sansei: Kariosutoro no shiro (1979)
The DVD is P E R F E C T!!!
Today, I just got the DVD of Castle of Cagliostro and I was simply blown away by the quality! Manga really did what they set out to do with the remastered footage! The dubbing was simply first rate! Forget those haxor jobs of previous dubbed video tapes! This is studio quality! Also, if you are still a fan of the subtitled version, the DVD offers the options of Japanese voices, as well as Japanese with English subtitles. For fans of Lupin III, this DVD is simply a MUST HAVE!! I honestly feel it is that good! Seeing this film again in the superior resolution of the DVD format was like seeing it for the very first time...again.
Volcano (1997)
Too Outrageous...
This movie seemed very interesting when the previews for it appeared in theatres back in 1997. However, after viewing it, I thought it was just too outrageous. First off, the situations were just not believable. While it is somewhat possible that a volcano could appear in LA, I just cannot believe the US Geological Survey would not know about it. The characters have no depth to them. Anne Heche and Don Cheadle were more like news anchors reading from a teleprompter. Tommy Lee Jones really had his talents wasted here. Only John Carrol Lynch was the best actor here. His reactions to the closure of the subway line was quite typical of real life transit authority personnel.
Special effects were pretty good in the movie. However, I found it VERY unrealistic that a human would "melt" if one would fall into lava. Any volcanologist will disagree with that scene. People HAVE fallen into lava and survived. They do get BADLY burned, but they survive.
All in all, the movie was OK. I would say 6 out of 10. The real sense of climax appears not at the end, rather with the lava dam scene. This movie is OK for a rental, but it is nothing really worth owning. The other volcano movie, Dante's Peak, while a bit exaggerated in areas, is MUCH more believable.