DRUIDS is an enjoyable movie about Gallic chieftain Vercingetorix (Christopher Lambert) who fights Julius Caeser when he declare war in 60 B.C.. The movie is quite enjoyable and features some strange performances from an-over-top hammy Caeser and some people acting like they've had a few beers. The movie has druids in it, but that isn't what the movie is about.

BALLISTIC: ECKS VS. SEVER basically amounts to lots of running, bang-bang, and boom-boom. Other than that, it suffers from a badly written script that doesn't serve its stars that well. No wonder this movie bombed at the box office.

The new AMC continues the downfall of American Movie Classics which used to be a really great movie channel years ago. Now it is becoming too commercialized and showing too many modern movies from the last 20 years (and many of those have been shown too many times on other channels in recent years). I don't like the new version of AMC. The new logo is great, but I hate the spots of regular people talking about movies. Give me back some hosts to talk about the movies at the start of the movie!!! Where are more older movies?! This is another channel among many who now make bad decisions. Will no one ever listen to the viewers instead of thinking they always know best over the viewers?!

ADVENTURES INC. is a generic action/adventure show and that is its main problem from the first episode that aired. The script isnt that exciting, the dialogue isn't that great, and the humor isnt that fun. ADVENTURES INC. makes RELIC HUNTER look like Shakespeare. I will check out a few more episodes, but I'm not encouraged by the show because the first episode was too much needless action and shooting.

THE LOST WORLD mini-series on A&E is actually pretty good. I wouldn't mind seeing it again. The two part mini-series was a co-production between the BBC and A&E. It aired last December on the BBC, now it finally aired here in the US. It is based on the same novel by Arthur Conan Doyle that the TV series draws from, but I suspect the mini-series is much closer to the book than the TV series is. Catch it and watch this mini-series based on the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle novel (Yes, the same guy who created Sherlock Holmes). Expect to see ape-men, Indians, and dinosaurs.

The fourth season opener of ANGEL brings the show back to fine form after the disaster that was the third season finale. For half of the episode, Angel (the good vampire with a soul) is in a coffin at the bottom of the ocean going mad and hallucinating. Fred and Gunn look for him along with Connor (Angels son who put Angel in the coffin in the first place). Things change as the episode goes along as the first pieces are put into place for what hopefully will be a great season and expect Faith (Eliza Dushku) to pop for three episodes this upcoming February.

FIREFLY has to be the best series from Joss Whedon so far, but I hope FOX will give it time to grow and not cancel it (and JOHN DOE) too quickly. FIREFLY is A sci-fi series that blends sci-fi with the Western genre and takes nods from the days after the American Civil War.

JOHN WOO'S ONCE A THIEF is like THE AVENGERS on speed. I'm amazed it took this show five years to reach US syndication. I 'm shocked. Its full of action, humor, and its silly, but it is an entertaining show!!!

OK, I taped the aired pilot of BIRDS OF PREY and watched it on Thursday morning. Since I watched the unaired one, I have to say the unaired pilot kicks the aired pilot's butt. Let's compare:

1. The opening in the unaired is better. You don't have the Alfred narration. You have a news report. You see Barbara see the report of Selina Kyle's death on TV. She rushes out of the shower, hears a knock, and thinks it's Helena, but it's the Joker.

2. The re-shot scenes between Barbara and Helena fall flat. I love the bitchy Helena in the unaired.

3. Mia Sara does good as a psychiatrist, but she falls flat in other areas as some old broad who wants to play bad guy. She has no acting chemistry with Ashley Scott. Those re-shot scenes fall flat too. Sherilyn Fenn was 10 times the Harley Quinn that Mia Sara is. Sherilyn plays it like the woman who can be a dangerous psychotic bitch. Note to the writers and producers- Have a Mia Sara grow her hair and go to brown- lose the blond do.

All in all. Here are my ratings.

UNAIRED PILOT- 9 (OF 10)

AIRED PILOT 6 (OF 10)



Next, I watched the movie DOPPLEGANGER: THE EVIL WITHIN. It has some interesting ideas and concepts going for it, but the last half hour kills the film in the same way that the ending of DONNIE DARKO killed the movie. And yes, Drew Barrymore is in both movies!!! The problem with DOPPLEGANGERs last few minutes is it turns into the shrink is disguising himself as other people to get Drew's character committed (so he can have her). Then Drew's body turns into some HELLRAISER moment and her body splits into two skinless bodies. One goes after the shrink and kills the guy. Then the ending has one of those shocking dream moments. It is utterly disappointing. I rather have had Drew split into two Drews or the doppleganger switch places with her. And it got me thinking the movie would have been better if we got someone more attractive than Drew. Of course, it does go to show I think Drew is only a good actress when she plays the victim or someone evil.

Finally, I ask all who liked PUSH, NEVADA to give a few moments of silence for this wonderful show on ABC. ABC has canceled it! The sixth episode airs on Oct 17th, then the seventh (and final) episode airs on Oct 24th before PUSH goes into permanent cancellation. I think the show got doomed due to a bad time slot on a bad night. The show follows an IRS agent who goes to a weird Nevada town called Push to investigate accounting errors at a casino after he gets a mysterious fact (showing said accounting errors). There is million dollars (and change) stolen from the casino by the person who runs it (Silas Bodnick) who gets killed. It goes on and on. Perforce (our IRS agent) gets in over his head and gets framed for the murder of the guy who killed Slias. The kicker of the show is there are clues that can be found so one lucky person can win the missing money. Another good show bites the dust. I hope FIREFLY (my favorite new show) doesn't bite the dust soon.

P.S. Stay tuned because there are some great columns coming up in the next few weeks. Now I wander off and see how I can come up with some great material for November and December. Have a better one.

this article is (c)10-2002 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission. send all comments to lord_pragmagtic@hotmail.com