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Review of Westworld

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Westworld from 1973 (not to be confused with the HBO series of the same name) holds a special place in cinema history. It was the first feature film to use digital imagery of any kind. However, Westworld is more famous for being the directorial debut of writer Michael Crichton who is most famous for writing the novels Jurassic Park and The Lost World two decades later. Westworld may not be the spitting image of perfect cinema, but it is enjoyable and, for fans of Crichton’s science fiction works, definitely worth a look. Continue reading “Review of Westworld”

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Review of Duel

Duel is a really special movie. It was made for a tiny budget in an incredibly short period of time and directed by none other than, then unknown, Steven Spielberg. It’s also one of the only made for TV films to hold high acclaim. But what is it exactly that makes Duel so special? The concept? The filming and story telling? The acting? Its history? Short answer; all of the above.

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Review of Dragonslayer

Dragonslayer is an impressive film. During the 1980s, there was a bit of a renaissance of Fantasy Films. Though few of them were ever financially successful, films like The Never Ending Story, The Dark Crystal and Willow set the stage for the fantasy boom we’ve been experiencing since Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Sadly, many of these films have faded over the years into obscurity. For films like Dragonslayer, that’s a special shame.

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Review of Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack (GMK)

Godzilla movies often having a hard time standing out from the rest of the series, but Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack has something special going for it. None other than the great Shusuke Kaneko, director of the fantastic 90s Gamera Trilogy, took the director’s chair for this one. The result is a fantastically entertaining and engaging entry in the series. However, much like with Gamera, there were some major changes to the Godzilla lore along the way.

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Review of Godzilla vs Hedorah

Godzilla vs Hedorah is a special one. Over the long course of Godzilla’s career, there have been great movies, and terrible ones. Granted, many of the worst movies have their fans (sometimes including myself) but even they will admit that they are little more than guilty pleasures. Godzilla vs Hedorah, however, is different. Those who hate it regard it as one of the worst in the series while those who love it consider it one of the best. However, there’s one thing we can all agree on. Godzilla vs Hedorah is really really really strange.

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Review of Godzilla vs SpaceGodzilla

Longtime Godzilla fans may be surprised to learn that I consider Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla to be one of my favorites of the entire series. The reason for this is that, ever since the film’s original release back in 1994, it has not only been viewed as a below average film in the long running franchise, but is often ranked as one of the worst. While I admit that the film is far from perfect, I simply don’t understand anyone putting this film in the same boat as, say, Godzilla’s Revenge or Godzilla vs Megalon even though it often is. For me, however, Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla is incredibly entertaining with many strengths that many fans seem to overlook.

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Review of Zeiram

In all honesty, I stumbled across Zeiram by accident. At the time, I was looking into buying a used DVD of Gunhed, another Japanese science fiction film, when both this film and it’s sequel came out as recommended on Amazon. Unlike the aforementioned Gunhed (which is currently out of print) Zeiram was pretty affordable, so I took a chance and ordered the Tokyo Shock DVD for $10. A few days later, when I finally sat down to watch it, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect but came away not only satisfied but quite entertained. Continue reading “Review of Zeiram”

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Review of DungeonQuest (3rd Edition)

 

At first glance, a review of Fantasy Flight’s DungeonQuest seems a little out of place. However, even though The Dusty Reel’s main content is composed of movie reviews, games, both table-top and on a TV screen, are a big part of my life. For that reason, I decided to add The Gaming Corner to the site. Along with that, I told myself, “what better way to start than with the third edition of DungeonQuest, the first board game I ever purchased for myself?”

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