Advantages: Shatner is fun, story is effective, directed with an edge
Disadvantages: The bad ending, not for those who hate spiders

...****************************************************************** TITLE : Kingdom of the Spiders (1977) RATING: ***½ CAST: William Shatner, Tiffany Bolling, Woody Strode, Lieux Dressler, Altovise Davis, David McLean, Natasha Ryan, Joe Ross, Marcy Lafferty, Adele Malis-Morey, Roy Engel, Hoke Howell, Bill Coontz, Whitney Hughes, Jay Lawrence. DIRECTOR: John "Bud" Cardos SCREENWRITER: Alan Caillou & Richard Robinson; Stephen Lodge & Jeffrey M. Sneller (story) STUDIO: Dimension Pictures / Arachnid Productions, Ltd. RUNNING TIME: 95 min RATED: PG (US & UK); for some bloody scenes and brief nudity. DVD AVAILABILITY: 2.50 GBP from Amazon; ASIN #B00006I042 ************************************************************ ****** INTRODUCTION: ARACHNAPHOBES BEWARE... Read review

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Advantages: None
Disadvantages: Extremely boring

...Directed by: Sam Raimi Screenplay by: Sam Raimi & Ivan Raimi Genre: Action - Adventure - Sci-Fi Country: USA Certification: 12+ Language: English Released: 15th October, 2007 (DVD) MAIN CAST: Tobey Maguire (Spider-Man/Peter Parker) Kirsten Dunst (Mary Jane Watson) James Franco (New Goblin/Harry Osborn) Thomas Haden Church (Sandman/Flint Marko) Topher Grace (Venom/Edward 'Eddie' Brock) Bryce Dallas Howard (Gwen Stacy) Rosemary Harris (May Parker) While contemplating marriage to MJ, Spider-Man's newfound popularity goes to his head, and he inevitably turns into an arrogant and obnoxious superhero. Obviously, arrogance and marriage don't equate for lovely MJ, and as their relationship begins to sour, Spider-Man goes from confrontation to confrontation with the new Goblin, the Sandman and Venom, the latter being... Read review

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Advantages: Many features, with original animations
Disadvantages: Finishes so soon

...! Because of this I decided to glimpse at the others, the second feature is called "King Pinned: 1966 Classic!" it starts off with Stan Lee talking about spider man, and the whole creation of King Pin (the arch enemy in this entire DVD!), and then there is an original episode of Spiderman! BRILLIANT The third feature is Stan Lee introducing the four episodes on this DVD, and the episodes themselves. The final feature is Stan Lee's soap box, which is him talking about his creations and their history (I dont want to ruin this for you, you will have to see them yourselves!) The Episodes: There are four episodes on the DVD, but they all merge into one really, as one continues after the other. When we watch this we tend to sit down for an hour and watch it all the way through! It starts off by Peter Parker being taken to Prison... Read review

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Advantages: Great start to the SpiderMan franchise
Disadvantages: None

...picks a fight with Peter. Peter dodges all of Flashes's punches and throws him across the floor. Peter runs out into an alley, he knows that the spider has altered something in his body and starts to realise he can climb a wall and spin webs !! That is just the beginning of the film and I won't spoil it by telling you anymore of the plotline. The DVD I am reviewing is the region 1 two disk set which is basically the same as the region 2 version. This 2 disk set has the following : Disk 1 SpiderMan the film English and French dolby digital 5.1 English, French, and Spanish subtitles. This has commentaries by Sam Raimi the director, Kirsten Dunst, Laura Ziskin (producer), and Grant Curtis (co producer) All of these give a wonderful job of telling you all of their experiences of the making of the film in good detailed depth... Read review

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Advantages: Great special effects, villainous acting
Disadvantages: the overall story, is too long

...Spider-Man, the web-crawling wonder, your friendly neighbourhood hero, first appeared way back in 1962. He was a new kind of hero, different from al those that had gone before not only because he was a teenager himself, like most comic readers, but that he also was beset by the everyday trials and tribulations that most normal people struggled with to. He was an immediate success and sealed the fortunes of the Marvel Comics company and the future of superhero comics in general, leading to the collapse of pretty much every other genre of comics until very recently. Spider-man became the only hero that comes close to matching the iconic stature of DC’s Batman and Superman and is as much a recognised figure to comic readers and non-readers alike. Ever since 1967 Spider-Man has been regularly on TV, mainly in animated series... Read review

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Advantages: Great humour, Just very funny
Disadvantages: This will hardly make you think

...scene across the desert  Most of the scenes involving the crazy Harlan Griffiths  The scenes involving the old boys at the barbers  The trap door spiders contributions especially the sequences in the middle of the town high street! ---Who should watch this movie?--- Well it is a 12 and I did sit down and watch it with my 7-year-old lad. He did enjoy although he did find the final scenes a bit much preferring to cuddle up to my good lady rather than sit with me. My 10-year-old daughter refused point blank to watch it. On the whole, this movie is aimed at older children and adults looking for a special effects laden laughter fest. I certainly enjoyed it with something of a severe aversion to the creepy crawlies meself. I'd have to give this 4-stars and say give it a go. The Video/DVD is available... Read review

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Advantages: Setting, performances, fascinating psychological study.
Disadvantages: Some dialog difficult to hear, pacing may annoy some.

..., and Spider is no different. It may be a more simplistic tale than the others, but it still has the ability to get under the skin and bother the viewer. The man we saw getting off the train was Spider Cleg (Ralph Fiennes), a man released to a halfway house from the asylum where he has spent most of his life. While there though, his mind begins to fall back into thoughts of his childhood, and the events that led to his original internment. He recalls an incident involving his mother (Miranda Richardson) and father (Gabriel Byrne) that changed his entire life and shaped him into the disturbed man that he is today. From that, the story may sound like nothing particularly special, but in reality, the story itself is not the important part here. Of course it's necessary, but the whole film is an exercise in psychological study more than... Read review

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Advantages: A Surprisingly Good Film
Disadvantages: None

...? Final Comments: The film has some great scenes in it, in particular the jumping spider chase of the guys on the motorbikes and the trap-door spiders. The spiders are as real looking as I think you’d get in a film and the acting is good from all parties. The music couldn’t be more appropriate for the film and is really distinctive in the way it matches each scene. Outstanding performances are given by Doug E. Doug and Scott Terra, with David Arquette not far behind. All in all I was pleasantly surprised by the DVD and am glad I picked it out of my collection for review. I can but recommend it to you with thanks for reading this review.... Read review

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Advantages: Exciting, Adventurous, Thrilling, Cool.
Disadvantages: Continuity errors (apparently)

...-Man, the movie was a slight casualty of September 11th, as the first trailer included a shot of a helicopter caught in a giant web slung between the twin towers of the World Trade Centre. This was subsequently recalled as to not seem insensitive. I'm sure it will probably appear on the DVD when it comes out. As we were in San Francisco, they were filming the next big comic book franchise, The Hulk, directed by Ang Lee. Ang Lee? The man who gave us Emma Thompson's Sense and Sensibility and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I can't wait. Oh and one last thing. There was one wicked looking trailer that was very apt for showing before Spider-Man, Eight Legged Freaks. Loads of giant mutant Spiders terrorise a town. The trailer got a huge round of applause and some great laughs. So, in conclusion, I will probably be off to see Spider-Man again... Read review

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Advantages: Superb Special features, fantastic comic to screen translation
Disadvantages: --

...Forget the Spider-man cartoons and the awful series in the late 70's, spider-man is back better than ever. To start off for those who don't know the story of spider-man, young nerdy high school student Peter Parker is bitten by a genetically improved spider whilst on a school trip, his body starts to change as he developes the powers and strengths of the spider. Peter first starts using his powers to make money to win the heart of Mary Jane Watson, his childhood sweet heart, but then with the tragic killing of his uncle Ben, Peter starts his journey for truth and justice. His arch enemy at this time is the Green Goblin, who has vast strength and a bad case of insanity on his side. Telling you much more about the storyline will spoil it for you, if you haven't seen the film, so I'll stop there and get to the DVD itself... Read review

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