Customer Reviews

The Curse of King Tut's Tomb/Blackbeard [Blu-ray]

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I expect some unifying theme in a double feature but when I ordered this none was apparent. Now I see that these are a pair HallMark mini-series. Each is a two part minseries with both parts included here. They were made by the same production company. As I wateched them I noticed the points intended as commercial breaks. This often is the case with movies intended for TV but these films actually suffered fromthe lack of the commercials. The continuty shifted so very abruptly that an intervening commercial might have softened the blow. There are different editors and directors listed so the production company seemed to lend a heavy hand in the overall look of the films. Another unifying theme is that both films deal with actual historic events and neither film valued historic accuracy. There are two blu-ray discs in this set, one for each film in case this is important to someone.

Blackbeard was very predictable. Viewing the first 10 minutes I knew what the last 10 minutes would bring. This really dragged on in places. The ships looked vey authentic but I'm no expert. The sea-going photography was actually quite good. Angus MacFadyen was hamming it up a bit, but not to the point of comedy. I would object to his performance in a great movie but here he providing something fun to watch. Stacy Keach was sleep walking through his minor role. I forgive him... he probably fell asleep reading the script. Richard Chamberlain was trying but he didn't have much to work with. Still I like both of these actors and it was good to see them again. This movie really should have been edited down into a shorter DVD movie.

The Curse of King Tut's Tomb was certainly not so predictable. In fact, it was a little bizarre. Casper Van Dien plays a archaeologist. I will be very charitable and say that this character was influenced by Indiana Jones. He has to save the world from the Hell Fire Club and their CGI demons. He enlists the aid of King Tut who is trapped in another dimension. Or something like that.

Both movies seem to have had adequate budgets... these are not quick and dirty TV movies. They do not fit together very well. I find this double feature to be an odd couple. I think that two costume dramas or two horror fantasies might find a larger audience. But I think these double features are a good deal. My blu-ray collection is a little top heavy with the horror genre. So I didn't mind getting one movie in this set that lies outside my usual area of interest. If your blu-ray collection could stand a little more diversity, maybe you should consider getting this set.

Ok well to be honest it was the price that made me get it and being Blu Ray. Content is generally crappy, make no mistake about that but if you want some cheap nonsensical entertainment for a few bucks well then its a maybe. King Tut was the better quality blu ray from memory. otherwise hardly worth remembering anything about them.