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The Neverending Story [1984]

starring: Barret Oliver, Noah Hathaway
directed by: Wolfgang Petersen

August 18, 2008
On this occasion I found myself liking the movie more than the book. What stood out for me as a child was the wolf figure who stated at the end of the film this startling notion that people who forgot their dreams and lost their hopes were easy to control and who ever has the control has the power ... I wondered how that could come about. Now I see that behind the film was possibly a critique on our modern standard of living and the world of Fantasia, a world of the spirit, imagination and dreams does not want to allow it's self to be usurped by mans casual disregard for those qualities. The film asserts that real freedom is the freedom of the mind and to have self belief in the face of astonishing obstacles is the only way to move forward. ... Read More:

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Air Force One [1997]

starring: Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman, Glenn Close, Wendy Crewson, Liesel Matthews
directed by: Wolfgang Petersen

June 11, 2001
President James Marshall (Ford) is in danger when a group of Russian terrorists take control of Air Force One.

Wolfgang Peterson (In the line of fire) delivers a fast and tense action thriller in which Harrison Ford (Star Wars) gives a good performance as President Marshall alongside a terrific act by Gary Oldman (Dracula) as the lead terrorist Ivan Korshunov.

Ford and Oldman give good performances but the star of the show is Peterson whose action style of direction maintains the tension and delivers excitement and claustrophobia on all the right levels, as does the writing by Andrew Marlowe.

The film gets off to the right start with a group of agents parachuting into General Radek's mansion and kidnapping ... Read More:

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Troy (Director's Cut) [2004]

starring: Brad Pitt, Orlando Bloom, Sean Bean, Brian Cox, Brendan Gleeson
directed by: Wolfgang Petersen

October 01, 2007
I never really got the nack of 3 hour films, 'Lord of the rings' etc. but Troy is a powerful action packed film with plenty of hard fighting.
Troy is an 'Epic' you may find the term when you look at Kingdom of heaven, Gladiator or Master and Commander. I can clearly see Troy up with films like that. As for the film iself, it has an amazing cast and i was surprised to see Sean Bean as well since i didnt read the small print lol bu yeah and it featured Peter O'toole who ive seen in many other films. As for the special effects, what can i say it looked real from the start,the fighting was was gorey from what you might of seen in Gladiator like Stab, Chopped heads of etc.
A long time ago i saw the orignal cut of Troy and i was not impressed but with the ... Read More:

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Poseidon [HD DVD] [2006]

starring: Emmy Rossum, Mia Maestro, Mike Vogel, Jimmy Bennett, Kevin Dillon
directed by: Wolfgang Petersen

January 15, 2007
I watched this film on my new Toshiba HD-E1 HD DVD player through a Toshiba 37X3030DB 1080p HD TV last night and couldn't believe how stupid the film is. I received the film at no cost along with another HD title of my choice thanks to Toshiba's offer with the aforementioned HD DVD player.

First of all, it's just a tacky remake of The Perfect Storm (good film) which is a remake of Titanic (excellent film in my view). The plot is so lame it makes one treat it like a comedy - i was laughing most of the way through because there were flaws just about everywhere. For example, how can a drowning passenger (who's practically dead) manage to understand the engine controls of a gigantic cruise ship and then press a myriad of buttons within 5 seconds of ... Read More:

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Das Boot - The Mini Series (2 Disc Uncut Version) [1985]

starring: Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, Klaus Wennemann, Hubertus Bengsch, Martin Semmelrogge
directed by: Wolfgang Petersen

May 17, 2004
Sorry if this is an 'anorak' review. If you never seen it before then read the rest of the reviews and go and buy it.

I bought this because I had the original BBC broadcast on VHS,but with half of one episode missing! I also have the Director's cut on DVD and whilst this is still good, it doesn't create the tension as well as the full series (as several others have said). I really hoped it was going to be exactly the same as the BBC broadcast but I don't think it is. I think a few scenes have been shifted around (the party after escaping from the destroyer) and I'm sure some of the scenes of the aftermath of the attemped Gibralter breakthrough have been shuffled and some cut. I think this spoils some of the relief you feel as they start to control ... Read More:

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Enemy Mine [1985]

starring: Dennis Quaid, Louis Gossett Jr., Brion James, Richard Marcus, Carolyn McCormick
directed by: Wolfgang Petersen

July 11, 2002
Being in a mood for science fiction, I settled in to watch Enemy Mine as it opened with a good old-fashioned space battle, never imagining I would be moved to tears more than once before this most unexpectedly heart-touching film came to an end. I don't think I've shed a science-fiction related tear since E.T., but Enemy Mine is just an indescribably beautiful and moving film. Heck, I think I even like Dennis Quaid now, but Lou Gossett, Jr., turned in an even more remarkable performance than Quaid. The man should have been nominated for an Oscar, in my opinion.

As I alluded to already, this futuristic film opens in a time of war. Humans may have achieved peace on earth by 2092, but their competition with the reptilian Drac race over colonization of a certain ... Read More:

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The Perfect Storm [2000]

starring: George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Diane Lane, John C. Reilly, William Fichtner
directed by: Wolfgang Petersen

November 27, 2000
This film is absolutely abysmal. They know i giant storm is out there but those fish just have to be caught. The moments of sentiment between the fishermen and their wives are utterly unconvincing and when the storm finally arrives its a complete disappointment. I love extreme weather conditions (in particular large waves) and was hopeful of at least some good effects and late drama in an otherwise hopeless film but even the perfect storm itself was a disappointment. The camera flicks from a computer generated wave to a boat where it looks like stage hands are just throwing buckets of water over the cast the back to the CGI rubbish and so on with occasional corny lines and cast member dying to mix it up. The idea for this film is great and it could have been so good but then came the script ... Read More:

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Das Boot (Directors Cut) [1981]

starring: Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, Klaus Wennemann, Hubertus Bengsch, Martin Semmelrogge
directed by: Wolfgang Petersen

December 21, 1998
Spread over two discs with no extras and no space wasted, this is an outstanding DVD of an outstanding series, shown here as one long "movie" cut. The optional dubbed English audio track might offend the purists (me included), but bear in mind two things: one, the whole thing was dubbed anyway (in German), because the set was so noisy and two, the entire cast spoke English and dubbed themselves, so it's a LOT better than you might expect, should you find yourself using the English track as a means to get someone to see it! Hopefully it won't come to that...

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Troy (2-Disc Edition) [2004]

starring: Julian Glover, Brian Cox, Nathan Jones, Adoni Maropis, Jacob Smith
directed by: Wolfgang Petersen

October 25, 2004
It's not a five-star film, but this stout navy-blue R1 box is a veritable treasure chest. You get two DVDs, postcards and a cute little hardback book of production designs, notes and a letter from Brad Pitt complaining about his costume. It's a beautifully put-together package, and the film itself is a longer, better cut, too. You see Odysseus trying to "dodge the draft" by pretending to be a goatherd and several other little character touches taken straight from the myths, filmed and then foolishly cut to make way for more fighting.

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Outbreak [1995]

starring: Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey, Cuba Gooding Jr.
directed by: Wolfgang Petersen

May 11, 1998
When I first saw this movie, I didn't know what to expect. I was very happy that I saw this but it had a lot of thematic and freaky elements. Dustin Hoffman and everybody else in the cast is really good and their performances were cool. A bunch of big named stars in this made this disease movie work. It showed how good the army would do if they had a disease that had an outbreak and it shows what risks they would take.

Overall the whole movie is really cool. The acting was great and the direction is good, too.