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tt3741834 | Lion | BASED ON A TRUE STORY.We see various shots of a city in Central India. Five-year-old Saroo (Sunny Pawar) is standing on top of a hilltop, looking at a swarm of butterflies. His older brother, Guddu, encourages him to come along. Guddu sneaks on top of a coal train and steals coal. Saroo joins him. An officer yells at them and Saroo jumps off, after the train goes through a tunnel. Guddu applauds Saroo's leap.Saroo and Guddu go into the village to sell the coal. We are told its KHANDWA VILLAGE in the year 1986. Saroo sees hot peppers for sale and notes that he wants some; Guddu tells him he will have some someday. At the moment, they are only able to get some milk and some money. They return back to their village and find their little sister, Shekila and their mother Kamla. Kamla asks where they got the milk. They don't give her an answer.The next day, Kamla leaves to collect rocks which she does for a living. Guddu is going to leave for a week to help lift bales of hay and Saroo asks him to take him along. Guddu first points out that Saroo has to stay with Shekila but he tells her their mom will be with her. He then tells Saroo its too heavy for him to lift bales of hay so Saroo goes outside and lifts various objects, including his bike. Guddu finally agrees to let Saroo come along. They walk amongst the train tracks to the next city. They get to the nearby train station late at night, which becomes vacant after the last train of the night arrives. Saroo says hes tired and wants to sleep so he lays down on a bench. Guddu comments that Saroo is too young to be able to endure night work and he shouldn't have brought him. He tells Saroo he's going to check on the work site and says hell be back for him. Guddu steps down into the now empty train tracks, with a giant water tower in the distance, while Saroo goes back to sleep. When he wakes up, his brother isn't there.Saroo walks the train yard calling out for his brother. He looks around a train. The next morning, we see Saroo has crawled onto the train and fallen asleep. It barrels through India. He calls out for Guddu, assuming he must be on the train, but no one is there with him. Saroo quickly learns there are bars on the window and no way to exit in the compartment hes in. The train passes through a city and he screams at someone to help him get out; an Indian child just stares at him, unmoving. An announcement is made at train stations that the train is out of operation and not carrying passengers so the train will not stop. When the train finally does stop, its in CALCUTTA, 1600 kilometers (1,000 miles) away from Saroo's home. Saroo is swarmed by people boarding the train as he steps off and calls out for his brother. He waits in line to speak to the sales agents at the ticket booths, telling them he is trying to get back to Ganeshtalay. They don't know where that he is and they only speak Bengali so Saroo is pushed out of line by the other passengers.Now stranded in Calcutta, Saroo tries to sleep in the train station tunnel with some other homeless children. But in the middle of the night, officers come and chase them. Only Saroo escapes because he's small enough to fit through a gap in the gate. He wanders through the city, alone, with a piece of cardboard to sleep on. A woman named Noor sees him and quickly learns he doesn't speak Bengali but Hindi, which she speaks as her second language. She takes him to her home and gives him some food and some soda pop, which he's seemingly never had before. He goes to bed and she tells him a friend named Rawa wants to meet him. Rawa visits and he cuddles next to Saroo, telling him hes going to take him to some friends. Before he exits, he asks Saroo to stand up and looks him over. He tells Noor that Saroo is the exact type of boy that they are looking for. The next morning, Noor tries to feed Saroo again but he no longer trusts her. He runs out of her home before Rawa can return to claim him.Saroo continues to wander the streets of Calcutta. He finds a large spoon in a pile of debris and keeps it. Saroo sits across from a café where a man can be seen through the window, eating soup. Saroo copies his mannerisms which amuses the man, who goes outside and approaches Saroo. In the next scene, Saroo is being questioned by the police. They ask if Saroo knows the name of his village but they don't recognize the name Ganeshtalay. They ask if he knows the name of his mother and he says her name is Mum. They can't fathom how far he traveled so they assume he lives near Calcutta despite not speaking the local language. A picture of him is taken and circulated around. Meanwhile, Saroo is sent to an orphanage to live with other children. He attends school on site. One boy is troubled and begins hitting his head against the wall and at night, they pull him from his bed and punish him outside, while the rest are supposed to be sleeping. To comfort themselves, all the children begin singing a song to themselves.Skipping forward a few months later, it is 1987. A woman comes and tells Saroo theyve circulated his photo in the Calcutta newspaper which reaches 15 million people but no one has been able to identify him. (They don't realize he's so far from home). They are not confident he will ever be reunited with his family so a nice Australian couple is going to adopt him. Saroo and other children that will be adopted are taught English, focusing on items that they'll encounter at the dinner table. They learn the words fork, spoon, and knife. Then salt. Saroo cheerfully identifies pepper. He is given a shirt that says TASMANIA, where hell be moving to, and is put on an airplane. When he arrives in Australia, he meets his adopted parents, John Brierley (David Wenham) and his wife, Sue (Nicole Kidman).Saroo is a bit shy at first but very open to living with the Brierleys. He is fascinated by the refrigerator filled with food. At dinner, he happily identifies pepper which charms them. Sue gives him a bath and he plays with bath toys for the first time. The three of them play Cricket on the nearby beach.Two years go by and now they adopt a second boy from India, named Mantosh. But the young Mantosh is very standoffish and requires a lot more patience than Saroo. We now flash forward to 2010, 24 years after the story began. An adult Saroo (Dev Patel) swims in the ocean and then joins his adopted parents at dinner. Saroo now speaks English fluently and has an Australian accent. The family has invited Mantoshm (Divian Ladwa) to the restaurant but he doesn't show up, which is typical for him. Saroo stops by Mantosh's home and tells him not to avoid their parents. They have a brotherly bond despite Mantosh being troubled. He teases Saroo about his upcoming course on hotel management.Saroo attends that course and notices Lucy (Rooney Mara), a fellow student who seems similarly taken with him. She explains, in another class, that she is studying hotel management to provide people with service that makes them happy. Saroo tells the class hes trying to secure a profit for himself and everyone laughs. After class, Saroo and Lucy notice each other when they both walk to a party, on opposite sides of the street. She does a silly dance and the two end up arriving to the event together. The other kids ask Saroo where he's from and he says Calcutta. All the students are having a good time and then Saroo goes in the kitchen and notes the same red peppers he told his brother he wanted at the beginning of the film, which causes him to have a flashback. He becomes upset and when he rejoins the group, he admits he isn't really from Calcutta but had gotten lost and couldn't remember the village where his family was. He says that he often thinks of his mother, brother, and sister and wishes he could find them. Someone suggests he research how fast trains go and estimate how many hours he was on the train to figure out how many miles he traveled. That can limit the train stations around Calcutta that he searches but someone else notes it would take a lifetime to search all the train stations in India. Another girl tells Saroo about Google Earth, a new site at the time which allows users to search the world through satellite images.Saroo begins doing the math to calculate how many miles from Calcutta he was, which allows him to draw a circle of possible locations he should be searching. Meanwhile, Lucy and Saroo begin dating and he brings her home to meet the family. But when Mantosh shows up, he is rude and makes Lucy uncomfortable. When Saroo chastises him for this, Mantosh goes crazy, hitting himself at the table and causing a scene.Saroo continues having flashbacks of his limited time with his biological family he hallucinates seeing his mother on the beach. He eats at the local food court and imagines his brother there, eating off peoples plates. Other parts of his childhood still remain a prominent part of his life, like a scar he has on his face we learn that he once carried a watermelon home and, because holding the fruit up shrouded his vision, he was hit by a motorbike, causing the contusion. Lucy points out that even if Saroo was able to find his former home, its no guarantee his family would be there and then the search would never end. Nonetheless he keeps obsessing over trying to locate his family. He looks on Google Earth and sees a water tower by a train station and flashes back to the one we saw at the beginning of the film. He continues scanning around and sees a train track running over a bridge, which reminds him of a similar spot by where he grew up. Yet none of these places are the village he was born.The lack of closure regarding his childhood causes Saroo to spiral downward emotionally. Lucy and him go to a party but he is distant and leaves her by herself. Outside, she is angry at him for abandoning her, telling him he needs to stop obsessing about finding his family. Saroo tells her he can never overcome the pain of knowing his mother and brother have wondered about him every day for 25 years. He breaks up with her, citing that he is too preoccupied with things to really give her the attention that she needs.Two years later, in 2012, Saroo is still trying to locate his family via Google Earth. He has drawn possible routes via the train tracks on the giant map with the circled radius. But still hes not able to identify his village. John, Saroos adopted father, comes knocking on his door but he doesn't answer. John shouts that he knows Saroo has dropped out of school and just wants him to talk to Sue and him. But Saroo remains shut off and doesn't reply.While Saroo is in the down escalator at the mall, he passes Lucy, going up. They reunite and he tells her how his search is progressing. His parents now are invited to his home and he reveals the map that hes become obsessed with. They are relieved to know that that is what was preoccupying him, and it wasn't personal when he didn't talk to them for long periods of time.Saroo visits his parents home and has a conversation with Sue, asking her if she ever wishes she could have had children because then they wouldn't have had the baggage her adopted Indian sons do. She reveals she could have children she didn't adopt him because she had no other choice. Sue explains that she married with John because they were of like minds both agreed there were too many people in the world and theyd rather be parents to someone who needed saving. She talks of her own childhood with an abusive father and a vision she had at 12 years old of an Indian boy needing rescue. And how much she loves Saroo and Mantosh; even though they've been challenging, she is glad they are her sons.One night, Saroo is on Google Earth looking at all the places inside the giant circle hes pinpointed as his possible village. He then starts spanning outside of the circle, where he had never observed before and discovers a hillside which he flashes back to as having stood on, watching butterflies (the first time we see him in the film). He scans across the map and sees a river that he used to swim in. Then he sees the train station with a water tower behind it. This leads him to the village that he used to run home to every night. Its a suburb called Ganesh Talai. He was mispronouncing it as a child calling it Ganeshtalay but it confirms that hes found the right spot. Saroo gets to excitedly tells Lucy that hes found his home.Saroo travels to Ganesh Talai in hopes of finding his mother, sister, and brother, even though its been 25 years since he knows they last resided there. Now a full grown man, he travels down the same pathways that he used to, as a kid, until he gets to the Ganesh Talai village. He makes his way to where he used to live and sees its now used as a pen for goats. He bangs on the wall, having a panic attack. A woman that resides there tries to talk to him but now he cant speak Hindi, only English. Saroo shows her the picture of himself as a child (that was taken by the police in Calcutta). A man that is multilingual approaches and Saroo tells her he is looking for his mom and his siblings, Guddu and Shekila. The mans eyes widen and he begins to walk away. Saroo watches him go and then the man calls for Saroo to follow him. The two make their way through the village until they stumble upon a group of women walking home. One of them is an older woman that is clearly his motherHe shows her the picture. She recognizes him as her son; they hug each other and cry. He is introduced to the now grown Shekila. Saroo's mom says she always held hope that he was alive. He asks where Guddu is but everyone becomes somber; he is told Guddu is with God.Post-script tells us that Saroos mother remained in the village so that he could find her again one day. Guddu died in 1986 when he left Saroo and walked on the train tracks; he was hit by a train, hence why he never returned to claim Saroo. He also learned he had been mispronouncing his name his whole life his name is actually Sheru which means LION (and then we see the title of the film).During the closing credits, we see footage of the real Saroo introducing the real John and Sue Brierley to his birth mother in the Khandwa Village. | flashback | train | imdb | null |
tt1682186 | Headshot | Note: Off of the TIFF websiteTul, a hitman, is shot in the head during an assignment. He wakes up after a three-month coma to find that he sees everything upside down, literally. Then he meets a girl that turns his world even more upside down. Who was trying to kill him in the first place?
TagsSouth East Asian | Thriller | Crime
Programmer's NoteTul (Nopachai Jayanama) is about to see his world turned upside down. When we first meet him, hes been sent a package of photos and data, which he examines and then promptly puts through the shredder. He shaves his head, dons a monks robes, and walks onto the gated estate belonging to the man in the photos. Tul then takes a pistol and fires a bullet into the mans neck. More shots are fired, one of them hitting Tul in the head. Everything turns black. When Tul wakes up three months later, all that he sees is inverted. Is it some bizarre brain injury, or some form of karmic retribution? In the disorienting world of Headshot, such questions linger, and draw us closer to its violence and mystery.Based on Win Lyovarins novel Rain Falling Up the Sky, Pen-ek Ratanaruangs Headshot is a noirish thriller about the corruption that infects both contemporary Bangkok and the human spirit. Over the course of the films chronologically complex narrative, we come to learn about the extraordinary events that transformed Tul from a straight-laced detective into an assassin working for a group seeking to eliminate all those who deem themselves above the law. Those events involve an unspeakably gorgeous young stranger (who informs Tul right off that she likes cops), a bloodied corpse in a tub, a drug bust, an attempted bribe and a book about mans inherently evil nature, something Tul initially finds curious but gradually begins to feel might be all too true.Working with his regular cinematographer, Chankit Chamnivikaipong, Pen-ek evokes Tuls journey into the underworld in unusually muted and dusky tones. Vichaya Vatanasapts music gives us a sense of perpetually downward movement. And in Jayanama, with whom the director has now worked twice, Headshot finds its perplexed soul, always struggling to make the closest thing to a moral choice in a deeply immoral world. | violence, flashback | train | imdb | A Nutshell Review: Headshot.
Pen-Ek Ratanaruang's critically acclaimed film Headshot may be a surprise selection for this year's edition of THIS Buddhist Film Festival, as this crime noir is drenched in murder and blood, revolving around the life of a cop turned hired gun, if not for one of its more obvious themes dealing with karma, where what goes around will eventually come around, and those who live by the sword would know what eventualities lie ahead in a life that's based on vengeance and hatred.
It's not difficult to see why Headshot had garnered some major film awards in Thailand, and may just be Pen-Ek's more accessible film in recent years.Based on a novel written by Win Lyovarin, Headshot has an interesting if not easily overlooked premise that deals with the corruption of society, applicable not only in Thailand, but may be typical of anywhere around the world, where the rich and powerful often find ways to circumvent social and moral norms.
Businessmen and politicians find power through their spheres of influence, where money can buy a man's integrity and honesty, and any resistance swiftly met through the destruction of one's credibility, or in an extreme case, the ending of one's life.
And this cannot be more pronounced in the life of Tul (Nopporn Chaiyanam), an honest cop framed for a crime he did not commit, and find it almost therapeutic in seeking revenge by crossing the line and becoming a hit-man for a shadow organization meting its own vigilante justice on the corrupt.But things get complicated when a routine hit turned nightmarish where Tul gets shot in the head, become comatose for months, and wakes up with his literal view of the world turned upside down, metaphoric for the topsy turvy spin his life would now take, possibly trapped in the winds of change he cannot avoid, contemplate, or fix for the better.
The cogs are in motion for a life most extraordinary in his seeking of the truth, after we slowly learn how his life has become manipulated by parties taking their own selfish interests, and in a way, feel pity for the character who cannot change the fate he had chosen.
And in some ways this also had to do with the women in his life, who come so fleetingly, such as the callgirl Joy (Chanokporn Sayoungkul) and Rin (Cris Horwang), who becomes his pseudo-getaway car driver, but is actually more than meets the eye.Ratanaruang presented the film in a fractured narrative form, as if to mirror the confused state that Tul is in, becoming the hunter then the prey, hunted by those whose lives he had changed from the hits carried out, with his pursuers adamant in wanting to discover the top of his food chain.
It's told in a non-chronological order that segregates the significant portions in Tul's life, from his pre-hit-man days to his cop moments, and that of the present where his attempts to lead a monk's life gets threatened by his earlier life of violence that come back to haunt him.
And credit to the director for being able to hold your attention despite shifts in timeline presented, being probably more effective when told in this fashion, forcing the audience to adapt with change as Tul spirals toward a finale filled with enough gun battle to excite the casual action seeker.The camera angles and cinematography by Chankit Chamnivikaipong also deserves mention, for its inventiveness, and vivid bringing out of the mood throughout the film, often dark, and drenched in rain, running parallel to Ratanaruang's dialogues and monologues that accentuates the inner thoughts of the various characters here, caught in their bleak world based on choices they have made, good or bad..
A cop turned into a hit-man, gets shot in the head and sees the world upside down..
As soon as I learn about this movie, immediately I remembered "Memento" (2000), a movie I never could figure out if I like or dislike.
This time with "Headshot", a cop turned into a hit man, I got that old feeling, when a crime movie doesn't need to move at fast pace, or big arguments, but a real comprehension of his characters, and that is what this movie offers, it builds up little by little to the point that I felt as if I knew "Tul" in real life.
Unfortunately I predicted two of the most important elements of the movie.
I could complain about the ending, but I won't, because it doesn't matter who did the final deed, we are just told that when you are good but play for the bad, there's no redemption, sometimes just a place to hide.
On this review you won't find any spoiler watched and judge yourself, I give it six out of ten because the ending fill on the inadequacies of the film, as always, this is a film just for cinephiles..
Stylish Neo Noir Cinema.
Then look no further.
Then look no further.
Unless of course you want recognizable faces (e.g. American Actors) in your movies.
Not judging just stating what you can expect.
If you're here just for the movie(s), then this will be a trip.
From the cinematography, the storytelling, everything screams Style.And fortunately it is not over substance.
Even though there is not a big story here, it is more than sufficient to drive the movie forward.
And to keep you guessing where this is going.
There is violence and even nudity, just so you know.
But it's not "headless" (sorry for the pun).
It actually does literally turn things upside down ...
Something that really is a nice touch.
Interesting well paced thriller with brilliant acting.
I find it sometimes hard to get into foreign films for the simple reasons of the language barrier and typically low production values.
Pen-Ek Ratanaruang's thriller Headhshot is a rare exception.
Though at times the photography was too dark to see clearly what was going on, on the whole I found this film to be easy enough to follow and engaging enough to keep me glued to the screen.Tul (Nopachai Chaiyanam) is one of the last honest cops struggling with the frustration of being one man against an insurmountable war on drugs.
After a major bust involving the brother of a highly placed politician Tul is offered a bribe to lose the evidence and drop the case.
After he turns down a cash offer he is set up.
He meets Joy (Chanokporn Sayoungkul) in a parking garage and strikes up a relationship.
Now, it might be mentioned here that this seemed a little suspicious to me from the start, since Joy is this smoking hot beauty and Tul is...well, not very handsome...at all.
But who knows, maybe Thai chicks dig that sort.
Anyway, after the set-up and the subsequent fall out Tul goes ballistic.
He is framed and sent to prison where he is visited by Mr. Demon, a man who offers him a chance to get out of prison if Tul will become their "Special Assassin".
There's no telling what the budget on this film was but I have to say this, whatever it was it was obviously sufficient because everything about this film was excellent.
The two actresses in the film, Sayoungkul and Sirin Horwang, were not only incredibly beautiful, they were totally professional.
There was no point where they weren't completely believable.
How many American actresses can you say that about.
In fact, everyone in the film was a fine actor.
The script was tight and witty.
There was enough action to keep it going without becoming mundane.
And even in the action scenes I never got the sense of the all-too-obvious shakycam that plague so many wannabe American directors these days.All in all it was an excellent movie..
Every year at TIFF I try to see as many movies from Asia as I can..
This was one of the movies I viewed in 2011.
Lately Thailand never disappoints me.
Great concepts, great shots, amazing fight sequences very exciting and engaging films.
Like one of the other reviews stated if you are going to the movies looking for big name stars, don't go see this film.
But is you are going to the theatre with an open mind and looking to see a good film, then is is right up your alley.
I know when I go see movies I usually get a general idea of what the film is about.
Based on what I read I either go or choose not to go.
This film captured my attention based on a number of factors and for that reason I decided to go see it.
i can assure you that it was exciting, and I enjoyed every second of it, as I imagine you will if you agree with my philosophy with regards to movie watching..
A cop turned assassins tries to right the wrongs the justice system lets through the cracks.
At the first Tribeca Film Festival I ever went to this was playing, but due to time restraints I missed it.
Now, being like most films I've reviewed, I didn't see the trailer and only read a synopsis and saw the poster, I was expecting an Asian based action movie.
What you end up getting though is a noir styled film which has a slightly intriguing story which may lose you at times.Characters & StoryTul (played by Nopachai Chaiyanam) is a cop who discovers, during an investigation, a government official's brother has criminal ties.
So, said government official tries to bribe Tul to keep his mouth shut.
This doesn't work so they use a young girl named Tiwa (played by Chanokporn Sayoungkul) to seduce him, and pretend to be dead, and with this they try to blackmail him into submission, but all that ends up happening is he assaults their middle man negotiator, and ends up in jail for a few years.Thus leading to him meeting a man offering him the opportunity to work as a vigilante of sorts.
In such a position, rather than enforce the rules and prosecute in the inadequate way, he would instead take out the scum who slip through the cracks.
At first he isn't for this idea but, upon Tiwa's death and the cops' ambivalence to it, he decides to take the position.
From there, we are lead on a journey, partly, fueled by revenge and also partly fueled by a sense that the current system doesn't work and he (Tul) is fixing the wrongs of the world.
Thing is, when you kill one person you effect many others, and with one man's death he becomes the hunted leading us to watch him on the other side of the gun and running for his life.PraiseFor me, the overall story was quite intriguing and though the action scenes were often a bit too dark, what could be seen seemed to be good.
Outside of that, there isn't really much to praise.CriticismOne technique I will always dislike is when a film jumps from past to present, back to past, and then to present again.
And while Headshot does note when it does go back in time, I did feel sometimes it wasn't consistent with this, so at times I was left wondering when in Tul's life we were.
Also, as noted, probably the big draw for the film are the action sequences, of which there isn't anything over the top done, so they are often run of the mil.
But, to me, what was perhaps the biggest issue is that the story may have good moments, but often times characters come and leave Tul's life to the point where it is hard to pin a face and name down to somebody before they end up dying or just disappearing for anywhere from 20-30 minutes.Overall: Skip ItIt took me awhile to finish Headshot and that was solely due to me losing interest in the film multiple times.
For, with the movie being nearly 2 hours long, there just isn't a strong enough story, nor entrancing enough action, to really keep you interested.
And mind you, no one is a bad actor in the film, but at the same time, being that this is a noir, you do begin to feel like the standard of acting should be better, and it never reaches that point.
Hence why I say to skip it.
For though it does have an interesting poster and trailer, somewhere down the line the film just becomes another action film which tries to be deep at times, but ends up lost in translation..
Gahbidge.
On a scale of -10 to 10, I'd give this a -3.Splitting the movie into two timelines ruins it, it's very difficult to tell which timeline is being shown.
I got as far as when he gets in the car with the SAME GIRL, and then it breaks down and they have a gun battle in the woods.
Awful.
Completely suspend your reality for this one, classic infinite ammo gun with NO EAR PROTECTION.
How did they find him in the woods?
I've been in the woods, you can hear a squirrel miles away and it sounds like a freaking bear.
They always attack him with a poorly placed shot.
Why not get closer and then shoot him?
Also, when he's captured, how the hell did he cut himself out?
And nobody noticed?
LAME.
That dude did some bdsm to him as "torture" hahaha...
Once the bolt cutters came out it would've been a few weeks of misery, spilling his guts (literally and figuratively) and then death.It could have been a great flick.
Beating the lawyer to death with the folding chair was awesome.
But man, they worked hard to ruin it. |
tt4387040 | Airlift | The film opens in Kuwait (Aug 1990) with Indian businessman Ranjit Katiyal clinching a business deal with the Emir of Kuwait. Katiyal is a ruthless businessman who will go to any lengths to make a profit. He is successful and well connected in Kuwait and Iraq. Katiyal calls himself a Kuwaiti and is generally derisive towards Indians. He has a large and well appointed mansion in Kuwait, he makes a happy home with his wife Amrita and his sweet little daughter Simu.Late that evening he receives word that Iraq has attacked Kuwait. (He explains that Iraq and Kuwait have had tense relations: Iraq owes a large dollar debt to Kuwait and Saddam has urged the Kuwaiti establishment to reduce oil supply so prices can rise. When Kuwait refused and remained defiant Saddam ordered the attack.) At this point Katiyal believes the attack is one of the many minor border skirmishes. He asks Amrita to take the child away to London for a few days until things cool down.In short order he discovers that the attack was not a minor skirmish. Iraqi soldiers are overruning Kuwait and plundering the city and indiscriminately targeting and murdering Kuwaiti citizens. Katiyal and Nair drive to the Indian Embassy. They are stopped by angry Iraqi soldiers (still in their teenage years) and when Nair begins pleading in Arabic he is shot dead. Katiyal manages to reach the Embassy. The consul, a friend of Katiyal, explains that the Kuwaiti government (the Emir family and others) has fled and Kuwaiti money is now worthless. The 170,000 Indians in Kuwait are now refugees until India decides its policy.Katiyal returns. He is pulled out at a checkpost and taken to the Emir palace. Iraqi Major Khalaf is now in charge. He chides Katiyal for not remembering him from his previous visits to Iraq. He explains that Iraq has always enjoyed good relations with India and now he extends his own personal friendship to Katiyal by which he means Katiyal should transact business with him; business now includes supplies, transport out of Kuwait and anything else that may be needed. Katiyal hurries home; his mansion is looted but his wife and child are safe at his office. Katiyal meets with his friends (one of them owns a supermarket). After some initial confusion he manages to convince them to stay together. A makeshift camp is set up at a nearby school and some 500 Indians move in. Amrita urges Katiyal to use his clout to extricate his own family but Katiyal (who ordinarily would have just looked to himself) appears to have a change of heart.Katiyal decides to stay and help the others get out. He eventually discovers that the Indian Embassy has been evacuated as well. He phones the Indian External Affairs Ministry in New Delhi where he reaches Joint Secretary Kohli who, as is common in the Ministry, redirects him to another officer. As Katiyal is trying to reach someone the camp is looted by Iraqi soldiers. Katiyal reaches the Major who explains that his soldiers need food and may return again. The Major also reveals that Saddam has already permitted Indians to leave Kuwait. Katiyal goes to Baghdad to try and set up a way out of Kuwait.Arriving in Baghdad Katiyal discovers that the Indian Embassy is of no help. (The consul explains that they cannot issue passports since many others - Pakistanis and Bangladeshis - use war as a convenient excuse to claim Indian nationality.) Kuwaitis in Iraq have also fled. The only remaining option, Iraqi Foreign Minister Aziz is somewhat helpful. He is a friend of Katiyal and is sympathetic to the cause. He discloses that an Indian merchant ship is due to arrive in Iraq and he will tacitly permit the 500 Indians to leave on the ship. Katiyal is grateful and returns to Kuwait with the news. But as soon as the buses are loaded and ready to leave Katiyal receives the distressing news that there is a UN embargo and ships are barred from entering or leaving Iraq. One of Katiyal's cantankerous employees rails against him. Amrita comes to his defense and after a loud argument everyone is resolutely supportive of Katiyal.Katiyal continues to keep in touch with the Indian Ministry officer Kohli but Kohli is somewhat of a sluggard. But when his own father recounts their tale of woe during the partition of India, Kohli awakens and begins to actively petition the Minister. The Minister sadly explains that they are in a weak coalition government and the Kuwaiti problem is not a high priority. But Kohli persists and the Minister, half in frustration and half in agreement, asks Kohli to handle it. Kohli approaches Air India (then national airline) and orchestrates an evacuation of the 170,000 Indians in Kuwait.The last part of the plan is arduous. Katiyal bluffs and threatens the Major to get him to let them leave. (The Major had thought he would have obtained more concessions from Katiyal.) Kohli pleads and wrangles the Indian establishment to get the Amman Embassy to issue permits. When Katiyal finally loads up the Indians and leaves he encounters hostile Iraqi soldiers who stop him at a border checkpoint and threaten to rape Amrita. Katiyal fights them off when he finds the Indian contingent right behind him. The Iraqi soldier drops his weapons and lets them pass. They all arrive in Jordan and the Amman Embassy receives word in the nick of time to let them leave for India. Kohli has successfully negotiated safe passage of all the Indians. Air India supplies the planes and the pilots, previously unwilling to fly over war zones, have had a change of heart towards their brethren. The Indian tricolor is hoisted over the Jordan airport.The film ends as the Indians salute Katiyal as they board the planes that will take them home.From Wikipedia | historical fiction | train | imdb | Move over commercial masala potboilers with item songs, hero smashing 10 guys with a single blow and typical song-dance routine – Raja Menon's Airlift will give you goosebumps with fast-paced gritting thrills and excitement.Based on a true story, Airlift speaks about the Ranjit Katyal (played by Akshay Kumar) who helps the Indian Government collaborate with Air India to help evacuate 1,70,000 Indians from Kuwait after Iraq raided the country.From the director of critical acclaimed films like Bas Yun Hi and Barah Aana, Raja Menon does a fantastic research about the feat that was even recorded in the Guinness Book of World Record and surprisingly people are unaware about it.
Nimrat Kaur's realistic subtlety would harness Akshay Kumar's machismo and give us that perfect thrillerOverall , Airlift is nail-biting, reality-based action thriller that is going to give you goose bumps.
The film is based on the real-life conflict and bloodshed that took place twenty five years back in Kuwait, and the way it is done—with a sense of urgency and immediacy, bringing alive a city over-run and under siege—sends out a crucial message to star-driven-yet-drivel- producing Bollywood.Other than that Nimrat kaur's was also very good.
Yes, I'm talking about Akshay Kumar starer Airlift, directed by Raja Krishna Menon, and which is based on true events!
Airlift is the best film of Akshay kumar till date.
What a beautiful gift to the Indian Cinema by Akshay Kumar, Raja Menon & the whole team of Airlift.
Purab Kohli, Kumud Mishra & especially Prakash Belawadi were too good.Direction by Raja Menon is fabulous he has done a great work in researching this true story.Feeling so proud to be an Indian & realized what great thing my country India has done for all of us.
Airlift movie review: Akshay Kumar film is well executed and well-acted.
Based on a true story, Airlift speaks about the Ranjit Katyal (played by Akshay Kumar) who helps the Indian Government collaborate with Air India to help evacuate 1,70,000 Indians from Kuwait after Iraq raided the country.
Nimrat Kaur's realistic subtlety would harness Akshay Kumar's machismo and give us that perfect thriller Overall , Airlift is nail-biting, reality-based action thriller that is going to give you goose bumps.
Guys a must watch movie for all peoples we are always watching Hollywood movie and think they are awesome and if u want a Indian heroism story so go and watch airlift best performance by akshay and nimrat and other star cast "Some stories *should* be told.
It is one of those movies which will test your sensibilities and in the end will only make you stand up and clap.Just like an aircraft takes time to lift ,same is the case with Airlift.It takes time to build up in the first half but in the second it just flies and knocks you left right and center.Credit goes to Akshay Kumar who invested in the script.He brought the real patriotic Indian on screen.His performance was a total standout.It is a must watch for all those cynical and worthless Indians who do nothing but portray the essence of the nation in a bad light.Feeling really proud after watching this.Such movies really need to be encouraged!!!Vande Matram.
Raja menon proved that one can make a superb thriller from an real life incident.Direction and acting is superb.Akshay proved again that he is one of the most versatile star today.Overall this movie is a treat for all Indian .Every one should watch it irrespective of whose fan you are.Release time is great(near republic day).Movie will keep you on the edge of seat all the time.Believe me this one is better than baby(akshay 2015 thriller movie) with more detailed and entertaining story line.It will face good competition from kkhh3 but as we all know content is king so the competition will be initial..in longer run airlift will be a sure shot winner..
Awesome Movie, quite a Realistic Depiction of of Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait, great Direction by Raj K menon, Akshay Kumar has played his part in q realistic way, His Best performance so has Nimrat Kaur and the entire crew as well.a great movie of decade and movie of patriotism.
Some of the most engrossing moments in the deviously- scripted political thriller find Ranjit Katyal making contact with an officer in the Minister Of External officers in the slim of getting help from the Indian government.All the actors, never known to let down there characters, creates tremendous empathy for there roles, at one point of time struggling to convince an apathetic Indian administration to send help for the stranded Indians in Kuwait.
One thing I've found prevalent among Indian cinemas are the ratings.Some of them are absurd to a point where you doubt the authenticity of IMDb as a source for checking the quality of any movie.This movie is one of the good ones but still it does not deserve its rating at all.There is no way it comes close to it.For example consider the latest release like Deadpool or Batman vs Superman.Both are equally excellent in terms of story,cinematography and both possess a line of star studded casts.Yet both of them do not have a rating they deserve because of the fair and right ratings from experts and viewers not from a particular or single place but from all over the world.Looking at this rating,I seriously doubt the entire Indian cinema ratings and would rather skip than waste my time and energy to go through any of the high rated movies and would skip the ones that do not even reach 5.This is my personal opinion but all I'm saying is the fans are not doing anyone any favors by giving outrageous ratings..
he film is well shot, with cinematographer Priya Seth achieving the right mix of impressive aerial shots and cramped hand-held bits, and reasonably well-textured with credible Middle Eastern detailing.There are hiccups -- like Kumar singing a Hindi song moments after refusing to listen to Hindi songs -- and the songs do indeed get in the way every single time they come on, but things are smoothened over by the solid character artists populating this film, from the surprisingly effective Purab Kohli to the ever-excellent Kumud Mishra to the businessmen who play Kumar's buddies to the fascinatingly helpless Feryna Wazheir, who plays a Kuwaiti woman hoping to make her escape with the Indians.It isn't all on the up and up, though: Prakash Belawadi, who seems to be in every film now post his star turn in Talvar, plays an infuriatingly pigheaded and badly written character.Meanwhile Nimrat Kaur, who plays Kumar's wife, seems challenged by the brief of speaking softly with a strain of Punjabi, like a woman from a Pakistani play, while constantly wearing make-up regardless of how harrowed her character is, like a woman from an Indian television show..
And Akshay Kumar as always was superb.The ending was a bit rushed up but that did not matter because the entire film was explicitly thrilling.Viewers will literally feel a sense of sympathy for the Indians trapped in Kuwait.
looks like Director has complete belief in Akshay to uplift the movie Airlift.And he got the Good Result.
Finally we can say Airlift is a must watch film for all the Indians with a strong story line and Action to the peaks..
One of the finest films in Indian History...Akshay Kumar is Terrific , his career best till date...Must Must Watch...Don't miss it !!.
#Airlift is an engaging historical drama showcasing the emotions, fear, hope n spirit of 1,70,000 Indians stuck in Kuwait during Iraqi invasion in 1990 n finally how they were successfully evacuated by our Indian Government with the help of Air India...Akki has delivered the finest performance till date by completely owning the character of Ranjit Katiyal (it's a combination of 2 real characters who actually planned this evacuation in 1990), with much needed emotional layers, intensity, realism n subtlety...he is absolutely terrific (an award winning performance :))...other actors have done a great job too n supported him well...Film is technically brilliant n detailed in every aspect from writing, cinematography to art direction...Kudos to the director, Raja Krishna Menon for doing so much of research on this subject n courageously bringing out this heroic untold story to the world...he has done superb direction n handled it very realistically making it less jingoistic n more subtle n real in terms of Patriotism...It is one of the finest n outstanding films from India...gripping, engaging, beautiful, moving n most importantly makes us proud as an Indian...Go n be a part of this emotional journey n celebrate India's biggest victory...don't miss this Gem (they come rarely)...a must must watch !!
Akshay Kumar one of the best actor of Bollywood deserves Oscar for this movie..Movie full of emotions ..full of patriotism ..Never seen any movie better than this ..Great songs and at the right time ..No stupid drama no illogical scenes...If you are emotional tears will roll out of eyes at the end...Direction is amazing .....amazing screen play.......Will not be able to leave your seat in the second half .
Rest all junior artists have done their parts well.I appreciate Akshay Kumar for doing films like this because apparently he's the only actor in bollywood or maybe in the entire country who is trying to bring films like Special 26 and Airlift into the mainstream category.Conclusion - Bollywood must make more non-commercial movies like this if it really want to be in the Oscar race..
> Hats off to Raja Menon and Akshay Kumar for backing a film that deserves to be seen by every Indian.
Never before has Indian film industry been able to make such a brilliant movie.It has crisp and superb acting and heart touching scenes which give goosebumps specially the one when Indian flag is raised is high in the sky.
Must watch for everyone.Songs in background are relevant and pleasing.direction is crisp.But if u are looking for bollywood style drama then u would be in for a surprise.Akshay perfectly fits in his role.Nimrat kaur has a short role but does that perfectly.Looks like a documentary but it is epic.Will be worth your money.Have an exciting 2 hrs with this superb flick..
Akshay Kumar leads from the front, but shares space when it is needed: Nimrat Kaur, keeps pace with her co-star ; Inaamulhaq as Saddam's man-in-Kuwait, is suitably menacing, Belawadi (George) as the annoying refugee, Kohli is kohl-eyed and restrained and makes us feel for him, Kumud Mishra as the MoEA Babu, disinterested at first, then taking charge, fits right in.
Movie: Airlift (U/A)Rating : 4.75/5It's a true fact that we Indians love our heroes and protectors, who spend their lives for us, and when we see a film related to them, we all like those films and start to have a respect for the makers.
10/10Guys a must watch movie for all peoples we are always watching Hollywood movie and think they are awesome and if u want a Indian heroism story so go and watch airlift best performance by Mr.akshay.
It's a really nice movie to watch if you want to know Indian POV for Kuwaiti war and problems they face You might actually like the movie if you are whole hearted tricolored flag lover, that is why I feel it's give 9.7 till this review.
Honestly saying it's one of the best have all time...It's all about Kuwait War in 1990...I'll not expose the movie here...Now a days the quality of Indian Cinema is increasing...Last year Akshay Kumar gave us Baby which was also a masterpiece itself...But Now every year he's giving us minimum 1 masterpiece...And Airlift is one of them and even better than so many other great movies, there's nothing to compare it with those other great movies but you must watch it in theaters if you're an Indian...This is truly the most heroic mission had done by India...
Thanks for taking out such an idea of bringing this story to every Indian and made us proud.This movie had every thing which can make it a Superhit or rather one of the finest in BollyWood So far.Storyline acting screenplay cinematography has been on its peak.Awesome.
Akshay Kumar perfectly demonstrated the frustration, will for survival and humanity everything in all aspects.I loved the movie and yes surely wants say "Well Done" to real the person "Sunny Mathews" who made this all possible back in 1990 when India was not as renowned among the world as it is today..
I am not complementing because I like Akshay Kumar but since few years He had blast in Film Industry, He has worked in best movies, I noticed that if there is a best story in movie they don't need Item song or Item girl, He has proved that He is "One Man Show", If we talk about Airlift, I feel that this movie is One of The Best Movie, I will suggest every Indian to watch this movie because this kind of movie should not miss it if you are real Indian then must watch, Congratulations Akki Sir, Last but not in the list his Special 26, Holiday, Baby, Brothers, Airlift all are the best movies and all the best for his upcoming movie Robot 2..
One of the best movie i ever seen , what a performances , Akshay Kumar is really a great actor proved once again.As i do not know Hindi fluently i am able to understand easily because of wonderful direction.
it shows unity in diversity of India, i don't know where to start and where to end to praise the air lift team.Especially this is the perfect time to come these kind of movies to know about the real Attitude and character of Indians.
Akki is a great actor as well as comedian,but he should do movies like BABY,SPECIAL 26 and of course AIRLIFT.Nice movie,great story and salute to Mr. Kohli(the govt officer),one of the most important character who made possible of the evacuation.And friends forget to compare the khans and akki and any other actors with each other.Everyone has their own speciality.We have a trend of non-sense and good movies test,thats the credit going to bollywood.But this is the best movie i ever seen in Hindi film industry so called bollywood.And what a performance given by akki and nimrit kaur and everybody..
What a performance of all actors, salute to Akki.What a great movie I have ever seen in Bollywood.I would say, don't think about the region or language, the movie is about the Nation.You will feel like: Proud to be Indian.
Airlift is a Brilliant movie driven by Akshay Kumar in a splendid way.
I would like to say only one sentence that is "Bhai_saab_maza_aa_gaya" The film is belongs to 1990 incident, You probably remember the moment you first heard of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, of Saddam Hussein, and of the incident that sparked off the Gulf War. In Airlift, he plays Ranjit Katyal, the unsung, unknown hero who masterminded the evacuation of thousands of Indians stranded in Kuwait in August 1990 when Saddam Hussain's army decided to take over.
I would say that you should go and watch the film it is extremely good and one of the best movie done by Akshay Kumar.
This is the first movie I seen in which people were clapping rather than whistle.This movie looks just like a real story at all time from beginning to end.The superstar Akshay Kumar also look like a simple business men(Ranjit Katyal).
However, Singh is Bliing was not a success, Airlift would definitely manage to make its way.The movie is directed by Raja Krishna Menon starring Akshay Kumar and Nimrat Kaur in the lead.
The story is about Mr.Ranjit Katyal(Akshay Kumar), an Indian businessmen living in Kuwait.
The grips you from the very first scene and stays with you as you the hall.The movie has finest performances from stalwarts like Akshay Kumar, Nimrat Kaur, Purab Kohli, Prakash Belawadi.
Based on India's biggest rescue operation of its citizens in war-torn Kuwait,Airlift is one of Akshay's best films till date!
Airlift is a 2016 Indian war thriller film directed by Raja Krishna Menon, starring Akshay Kumar and Nimrat Kaur.[4] The script, written by Raja Krishna Menon developed the idea after studying the whole incident of the war, and which he subsequently expanded.
The second part after the intermission is based on the evacuation of 1,50,000 Indians from the invaded Kuwait city by a true patriot Ranjit Katial (Akshay Kumar).
He goes into the depth of his character and what we get is the best performance of Akshay's career.Nimrat also does her best .The other supporting cast including Purab Kohli does justice to their roles.Raja Menon ,the director, has successfully evolved the human drama in this war- thriller.But there is another plus point which is the songs which are brilliantly written.The cinematography is awesome and same for the VFXs.This is a movie which will be remembered as a classic, for its effort ,especially for AKSHAY KUMAR..
Airlift not just probable akshay kumar is best film but also one of the best bollywood I have ever seen I just liked every thing about this film be it the performances of the cast specially akki he has done tremendous work as Ranjit Katiyal also supporting cast is excellent be it Nimrat Kaur,Kumud Mishra,Purab Kohli or Prakash Belawadi all are good.
Definitely a one time watch it loved it though it was a bit slow still is a very nice movie Akshays best Performance ever till date Nice direction Songs were fine Dialogues were amazing And it makes u proud of being an Indian as it's based on a real story My best movie till now U might hate if u prefer riot comedies like Housefull , Hera pheri etc But u will love it if u like serious movies like baby,special 26,Taalash etc.
The real life evacuation of these Indians have been conveyed through Ranjit Katiyal (Akshay Kumar) in the movie. |
tt0056262 | The Music Man | The movie opens with a number of traveling salesmen in a railroad car in 1912, lamenting the things that are making their livelihood difficult--changes in society and the economy, and dishonest salesmen who give them a bad name. They are particularly scornful of a certain "Professor" Harold Hill (Robert Preston), who goes into a town, sells the kids musical instruments, instruction books, and band uniforms, under the promise that he will form a band for them, and then disappears. Someone mentions that "He don't know one note from another!". (This opening song has interesting musical accompaniment: the sound of the train's steam locomotive.) At the end of the song, just when the train is about to start up from a station stop in River City, Iowa, one of the people reveals that he is Harold Hill, and quickly escapes from the train before the others can catch him.Hill finds himself in a small turn-of-the-century Iowa town, full of taciturn people with small-town values. They sing him a song of welcome, explaining that Iowans are stubborn but good natured and generous. He is delighted to find an old friend and colleague from his earlier days as a crooked salesman, Marcellus Washburn (Buddy Hackett). Marcellus says that he is now making an honest living, has settled in River City, and that he likes the town and the people. The two friends reminisce about their shady dealings in the past, and that "Professor Hill"'s current racket is boys' bands. Marcellus says that it will be difficult to make headway on that front, because the town librarian and piano teacher, Marian Paroo (Shirley Jones), is quite smart and will expose him instantly. Harold takes that as a challenge, both professionally and romantically. Harold also mentions that he'll be in town longer than his usual stretch, a week, because not only will he con the town into buying the instruments, but also uniforms, which will take several weeks to arrive. Marcellus still sees the scheme as a very risky one.The mayor's wife, Eulalie Mackechnie Shinn (Hermione Gingold), shows up at the Madison library; she is extremely prudish, ignorant, and outspoken. She complains that the book that Marian recommended for her daughter Zaneeta, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, is smutty: "People lying out in the woods, eating sandwiches, and drinking out of jugs." (This is a reference to the famous line "A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and thou.")Harold needs some interesting current event or fad to hang his pitch on, and Marcellus says that a new pool table is being installed in the local billiard parlor. Harold goes into action. He starts buttonholing local merchants, telling them that this pool table will have a corrupting influence on the youth of the town, and that they need to keep the kids moral. Many townspeople gather around, and he sings the song "Ya got trouble / right here in River City / with a capital T and that rhymes with P / and that stands for pool."Marian stops by to look at the crowd, and Marcellus points her out to Harold with a prearranged signal. Then, as she goes home, he attempts to flirt with her with some trite pickup lines. She is very cold to him. When she arrives home, a little girl from the town, Amaryllis (Monique Vermont), is there for her piano lesson. Marian tells her mother that a man had attempted to follow her. Mrs. Paroo (Pert Kelton) is excited, as she wants Marian to get married and settle down, but Marian is not impressed with the intellectual caliber of the men she meets. The two of them sing an argument, accompanied by Amaryllis playing a piano exercise, about whether Marian's expectations are unrealistic.While Amaryllis is getting a drink from the outdoor water pump, Marian's much younger brother Winthrop (Ron Howard) comes by. Amaryllis invites him to a party she will be giving. Winthrop says no. His mother insists that he say it politely, with her name. He says "No thank you, Amaryllis." But he has a serious lisp, and botches the "s" in her name. Amaryllis giggles at first, but when Winthrop runs inside crying, she is mortified. She tells Marian that she likes Winthrop very much, and says goodnight to him every night on the evening star, but he hardly ever says a word to her. Marian tells her that the lisp is just part of Winthrop's problem, that he hardly ever says anything even to his own family, and that everyone needs to be very patient and understanding with him. She explains that, if Winthrop isn't the right person to say goodnight to on the evening star, she can say goodnight to an unnamed "someone". They sing the song "Goodnight My Someone".The town's annual Fourth of July celebration is held in the high school, presided over by Mayor Shinn (Paul Ford) and his wife. Mayor Shinn is pompous, foolish, and verbally inept. A silly patriotic tableau is presented. Tommy Djilas (Timmy Everett), a teenage boy, sets off a firecracker, right behind the Mayor's wife, causing a ruckus. Amidst all the silly goings on, Harold Hill gets up and complains about the pool table. He is joined by others, and egged on by Marcellus. He gets into his band director's uniform, takes the stage, and makes an impassioned plea for the creation of a boys' band, to keep the youth of the town wholesomely occupied. This turns into the musical song and dance number "Seventy six trombones led the big parade / with a hundred and ten cornets close at hand / they were followed by rows and rows of the finest virtuosos / the cream of every famous band."Marian is completely unimpressed by the spectacle. She tells Mayor Shinn that he and the four members of the school board are being hoodwinked. In response, Mayor Shinn directs the school board to get Harold's credentials.Tommy Djilas gets apprehended by the constable. Mayor Shinn berates Tommy for endangering his wife with the firecracker, and for hanging around with his oldest daughter Zaneeta. Harold says that he will take responsibility for Tommy, and takes him under his wing. Since Tommy is older than the intended age range for the band, Harold suggests a leadership role instead, and charges him with fashioning a device that will hold music for a marching piccolo player. Tommy runs off to find a piece of wire.At the Fourth of July celebration that evening, Harold is met by the School board, who ask him for references. Showing his con artist skill to the utmost, he points out the amazing discovery that they have extraordinary singing talent. Before long, Harold has them (the school board are played by the famed barbershop quartet The Buffalo Bills) singing barbershop songs in perfect harmony. Harold then tries to strike up a friendship with Marian, who is again extremely cold to him. He tells her that he is a graduate of "Gary Indiana Conservatory, gold medal class of '05." Marian remains utterly unimpressed.Harold begins the process of persuading the River City parents to part with their money, for musical instruments and band uniforms, by telling outlandishly exaggerated stories of their children's natural talent. He is quite a con artist.Harold runs into the fashionable ladies of River City in the livery stable, and, in contrast to Marian, they are "all agog" over his talent. He tells them he wants to form a lady's classic dance auxiliary. He flatters Mrs. Shin, in the most preposterous way, over her alleged physical grace. The ladies are enthused over the formation of this group. Then he mentions Marian, hoping that they can help win her over by putting her in the dance group. They are instantly hostile about her. They say that, as librarian, she advocates dirty books--titles by authors such as Chaucer, Rabelais, and Balzac. Furthermore, she made "brazen overtures" to "Old Miser Madison", the man who had donated huge amounts of money to the town, building many of the town's facilities. He left the Madison Library to the town, but left the books to Marian personally. They also paint her as a spinster of sorts, having seen her frequenting his house many times. They sing the song "Pick a Little, Talk a Little" about this. Then the school board people show up, demanding Harold's credentials. He distracts them by singing the line "Good Night, Ladies" at the ladies, and the school board breaks into a barbershop rendition of that song, while Harold slips away. The two songs, by the ladies and by the school board, are then sung as an "ensemble song", simultaneously and in harmony with each other.That evening, Harold tells Marcellus that his interests in women are not toward the pure and wholesome type, but the worldly and more experienced type, which he now perceives Marian to be. He sings the the song "The Sadder but Wiser Girl."The next day he goes to the library and attempts once again to strike up a relationship with Marian. He tells her that he knows about Mr. Madison, and that he forgives her indiscretion in the matter. Marian is incredulous, and once again totally rejects his advances. He sings the song "Marian the Librarian" causing organized chaos in the otherwise silent and peaceful library.Harold continues to work the townspeople, at one point almost persuading Mayor Shinn himself to sign up his son for the band, before he realizes that he has no son. He gets to the Paroo home, and persuades Mrs. Paroo that her son Winthrop will be a natural cornet player. Winthrop shows up, and Harold tells him about the band, and the cornet, and the uniform. Winthrop asks "Will it have a ...." and draws a line down his outer pant leg; he doesn't want to say the word "stripe" because of the "s". Harold assures him that it will have a stripe; Winthrop then runs off. Mrs. Paroo explains that Winthrop hardly ever talks. Harold tells Mrs. Paroo about his alma mater--"Gary Conservatory, gold medal class of '05." He sings the song "Gary, Indiana."Marian shows up; Harold hadn't realized until then that she was part of that family. Marian tells Harold that they are not interested in the band. Harold suggests that the boy's father should be asked. Marian tells Harold that he should not meddle in the family's affairs, and that their father died two years previous. She says that this event was so devastating to Winthrop that he has become the withdrawn and unhappy child that he is.After Harold leaves, Mrs. Paroo urges Marian, once again, to settle down and get married, and says that Harold might be her last chance. Marian sings "Being in Love", about what she's looking for in a man.At the library, Marian comes upon the Indiana State Educational Journal, and looks in it, finding information that contradicts Harold's claims about the Gary Conservatory.The Wells Fargo wagon comes to town, an event that is always met with great anticipation because of the interesting things that it brings from far-off places. Just before it arrives, Marian tells Mayor Shinn that she has found incriminating information in a book. But Mayor Shinn puts her off for a moment, since this delivery will be very special: the band instruments. The townspeople sing "The Wells Fargo Wagon." When the wagon stops, Harold distributes the instruments, including Winthrop's cornet. Winthrop is utterly beside himself with enthusiasm. He goes to Marian and speaks very excitedly and exuberantly: "SisterSisterIsn'tThisTheMostScrumptiousSolidGoldThingYouEverSaw? INeverThoughtIdEverSeeAnythingSoScrumptiousAsThisSolidGoldThing. OhSister!" Marian realizes that, con man though he is, Harold is also a miracle worker in the change she has seen in Winthrop. She has a change of heart about Harold, and secretly tears the incriminating page out of the Journal before handing it over to Mayor Shinn.Harold distributes the other instruments, and tells the kids to stay off the streets and to think about Beethoven's Minuet in G. (He has what he calls the "think system" of music. Instead of dealing with reading music and memorizing notes, one just needs to think about a melody, and it will come out.)At the high school, the women's dance committee meets, under the leadership of Mrs. Shinn, and engages in some ridiculously foolish dance practice. Elsewhere in the school, Harold is exhorting the students: "If you want to play the Minuet in G, think the Minuet in G." The boys ask reasonable questions about such elementary things as how to hold their instruments, and Harold deflects the questions with his usual subterfuges. He then has them just sing the Minuet in G. He tells Tommy Djilas to take over the rehearsal, having them sing for another hour or so.At the ice cream parlor, Harold treats Tommy and Zaneeta Shinn (Susan Luckey) to sundaes--he has been encouraging their romance, even though Mayor Shinn doesn't want his daughter hanging around with Tommy. The Mayor bursts in, and upbraids Tommy. Tommy stands up to him, as does Zaneeta. He throws Tommy out of the place, and takes Zaneeta home. Marian is there too, and protests the Mayor's actions, to no avail. Mayor Shinn also complains to Marian that he was unable to find any incriminating evidence in the book.Marian and Harold discuss his educational methods, and says that Winthrop never actually plays his cornet. Harold tells her about his "think system". They are very friendly and cordial.On his way home, Harold is met by the school board. They demand his credentials immediately. He distracts them once again by discussing famed female bassoonist Lida Rose Quackenbush. They sing the barbershop song "Lida Rose" while Harold escapes yet again. Meanwhile, Marian, on her front porch, sings the song "Sweet and Low". Then the two groups, even though they are separated, turn these into another ensemble song, singing them together.Winthrop comes by while Marian and Mrs. Paroo are on the front porch, and shows them a pocket knife that Harold gave him, describing in detail and with great enthusiasm all its many blades and features. He says that he and Harold spend a lot of time together. Marian asks what they talk about. "Sometimes we talk business, and sometimes we just talk." Harold taught Winthrop a song "with hardly any "s"'s in it", which he sings--the "Gary, Indiana" song.There will be a big public "sociable" at Madison Park that evening. But first, Charlie Cowell (Harry Hickox), an anvil salesman, shows up at the Paroo residence. (He had been one of the salesmen speaking about Hill's nefarious dealings in the train scene at the very start of the movie.) He has extensive written documentation of Harold Hill's fraudulent methods, and he wants to give it to Mayor Shinn. When he sees the sign in Marian's window about giving piano instruction, he discusses it with her; he assumes that she saw right though Harold from day one. Instead, she defends Hill, and says that Charlie is making a big mistake. Charlie is under a tight time constraint because his train is just making a short stop. Marian uses her feminine wiles to delay him so he won't have time to get to Mayor Shinn. She succeeds at making him miss the train. He angrily walks off, after telling her that Harold Hill has a girl in every county of Illinois, and cozies up to all the piano teachers also.Harold comes by, and he and Marian talk. She is upset by what Charlie Cowell said, and confronts him about his many alleged romantic relationships. "One hears rumors about traveling salesmen." He says "One hears rumors about librarians." She assumes that's a reference to the rumors, by the fashionable ladies of the town, about Mr. Madison. She tells him indignantly that he was "Uncle Maddy", her late father's best friend, and that he gave the library's books, and the librarian job, to her personally so that the family would be provided for after her father's death.Harold suggests that she meet him at the footbridge at Madison Park. She is reluctant at first, because meeting at the footbridge has serious romantic connotations in River City folklore, and she's never been to the footbridge with a man before. But he persuades her.The festivities at the party begin with a huge dance number, with Marcellus singing "Shipoopi". Harold and Marian are then going to go to the footbridge.While Harold is going to the footbridge, the next organized entertainment occurs: an extremely silly interpretation of Grecian Urns by the ladies dance auxiliary, under the leadership of Mrs. Shin. While this is happening, the constable summons Mayor Shin to go off and speak to Charlie Cowell, who has finally managed to contact someone in authority.Harold and Marian meet at the footbridge. They are finally in love. She says that she knows he will have to move on to other towns, but that she is grateful for what he has brought to the town. They sing "Till There Was You". She tells Harold that she knew he was a fraud practically from the start; the Educational Journal said that there couldn't have been a Gary Conservatory gold medal class of '05, because the town hadn't been founded until '06. She gives him the incriminating page that she had torn out of the book. Though he is in love with Marian, Harold knows that he will either have to skip town or be arrested.Back at the party, Mayor Shinn interrupts a barbershop song by introducing Charlie Cowell, who tells the crowd that Hill is a swindler, and that he has a large amount of written proof of it. The townspeople are aghast. Winthrop runs off, crying. The townspeople run in all directions searching all over town for Harold.Not knowing anything about this, Harold and Marian arrive at her house. She goes inside to put on a shawl. Harold stays outside, singing "Seventy Six Trombones". Inside, Marian sings "Goodnight my Someone". They turn it into another ensemble song.While the massive search goes on, with Marcellus attempting to mislead them, Mrs. Paroo arrives home, and warns Harold and Marian that people are talking about tar and feathers. Harold doesn't know what to say. Marian tells him that he doesn't owe her anything, and he needs to leave.Winthrop arrives home, very upset, and Harold stops him. Harold realizes that he has been harming people whom he cares about, and he needs to drop his con-man persona and be honest with people. He tells Winthrop that he will level with him. Winthrop asks "Can you lead a band?" "No." "Are you a big liar?" "Yes." "Are you a dirty rotten crook?" "Yes." Harold then tells him "There are two things you're entitled to know. One, you're a wonderful kid. I thought so from the first. That's why I wanted you in the band, so you'd stop moping around and feeling sorry for yourself." "What band?" Harold sadly admits "I always think there's a band." "And what's the other thing I'm entitled to know?" "The other thing's none of your business, come to think of it." He glances up at Marian as he says that; clearly the other thing is that he wants to become Winthrop's brother-in-law. Winthrop says that he wishes Harold had never come to River City. Marian steps in at this point, saying that everything Harold promised actually came true, in the good way everyone in the town behaved all summer, especially Winthrop. Winthrop tells Harold he needs to leave, but he can't tear himself away from Marian. The constable catches up with him and leads him away in handcuffs. The Paroo family are all devastated.People have gathered at the high school. Mayor Shin addresses the angry crowd. When he hears that Harold Hill has been caught, he announces, in his usual artless way, "The sword of restibution [sic] has cut down Professor Harold Hill." Hill is brought in. Mayor Shinn suggests that he will be tarred and feathered.Marian gets up and makes an impassioned plea: "I should think some of you could forget your everlasting Iowa stubbornness long enough to remember what this town was like before Harold Hill came. Do you? Well, do you? And after he came. Suddenly there were things to do, and things to be proud of, and people to go out of your way for. Surely some of you can be grateful for what this man has brought to us. And I should think you'd want to admit it." Mayor Shinn stops her. He says that anyone who doesn't want Harold Hill tarred and feathered should stand up.After a long pause, people slowly start standing up. Mrs. Paroo, Zaneeta, the school board, the dance committee, even Mrs Shinn, who stands up defiantly again when her husband orders her to sit down. Mayor Shinn reminds them that they were promised a band. "Where's the band? Where's the band?" Then Tommy Djilas, out in the corridor, blows a director's whistle, the doors open, and the children file into the room, in uniform, with their instruments. They line up in concert formation at the front of the room. Marian gives Harold a podium and a makeshift baton. Harold gets up in front of the kids, but is frightened. Marian gives him a reassuring look. He mutters desperately "Think, men, think!" and starts to conduct. The kids play the Minuet in G, very badly, but recognizably. That's good enough for the parents. They are delighted. "That's my Barney." "That's Eddie."The final scene is a fantasy in which the children's band is replaced by a large number of real musicians who parade down the street playing "Seventy Six Trombones". | romantic | train | imdb | null |
tt1472082 | Getting That Girl | In the final days of her senior year Mandy Meyers (Gia Mantegna) is forced to change high schools when her father's business moves the family from Washington D.C. to Southern California. As attractive as she is intelligent, Mandy sees McDermott High as a chance to start fresh, have some fun, and try things shes never done before.On Mandys first day of school, Jini Jacobs (Elizabeth Nicole) and Jenna Jeffries (Inbar Lavi), McDermott Highs two prettiest yet cruelest seniors befriend Mandy and attempt to show her the wild side of Southern California high school life. Likewise, the entire male senior class has also taken notice of Mandy, and shes soon being chased by both Andy Wasilewski (Escher Holloway), an apathetic yet charismatic stoner, and Tommy Bush (Drew Gallagher), a star football player. Shocking to many, Mandy falls head over heels for Andy.Although his heart is in the right place, hes rough around the edges and in dire need of parental guidance, spending most school nights in his fathers mansion smoking pot and getting drunk by himself. As Andy and Mandy proclaim their love for each other, Andy gets cold feet; hes never had a long-term girlfriend before. Suffering major commitment issues, he self-destructs and impulsively has sex with freshmen hottie Erika Jacobs (Alexandra Mason), who happens to be Jini Jacobs little sister, in the English Building restroom. Mandy immediately dumps Andy, and he falls into a life-altering depression.Tommy once again pursues Mandy and asks her to the prom. Still furious at Andy, she tells Tommy that shell think about it. To further persuade her, Tommy throws a pre-prom party on Mandys behalf. Thoroughly defeated, Andy decides not to go to Tommys party. But just when he thinks his chances of getting back with Mandy are completely over, his two best friends Ferrat Barrett (Luke Eberl) and Ned Fouler (Will Rothhaar) show up at his house and urge him to come back with them to the party. Mandys still in love with you, they shout at him.Meanwhile, Bill Beauchanon (Daniel Booko), Tommys best friend and Jinis on again/off again boyfriend, drunkenly decides its his turn to pursue Mandy. As Bill forcefully and inappropriately hits on Mandy, she rejects his advances and decides its time to go home. Bill becomes enraged and pushes her to the ground. Luckily, Andy shows up and challenges Bill to a fight. Andy and Bill beat the pulp out of each other, which Andy finally ends by knocking Bill out with a brutal right hook. Andy then looks around, but Mandy is nowhere to be found. Ferrat and Fouler point west, and Andy runs after her. Amidst the streetlights and empty road, Andy catches up to Mandy and proclaims his love for her. Thunder crashes, lightening strikes, and rain falls from the sky... and they kiss. | romantic | train | imdb | null |
tt0446755 | The Painted Veil | On a brief trip back to London, earnest, bookish bacteriologist Walter Fane (Edward Norton) is dazzled by Kitty Garstin (Naomi Watts), a vain London socialite. He proposes; she accepts ("only to get as far away from [her] mother as possible"), and the couple honeymoon in Venice. They travel on to Walter's medical post in Shanghai, where he is stationed in a government lab studying infectious diseases. They find themselves ill-suited, with Kitty much more interested in parties and the social life of the British expatriates.
Kitty meets Charles Townsend (Liev Schreiber), a married British vice consul, and the two engage in a clandestine affair. When Walter discovers his wife's infidelity, he seeks to punish her by threatening to divorce her on the grounds of adultery, if she doesn't accompany him to a small village in a remote area of China. He has volunteered to treat victims of an unchecked cholera epidemic sweeping through the area. Kitty begs to be allowed to divorce him quietly, but he refuses, stating "Why should I put myself through the smallest trouble for you?" She hopes Townsend will leave his wife Dorothy and marry her. When she proposes this possibility to Charles, he declines to accept, despite earlier claiming to love Kitty.
She is compelled to travel to the mountainous inland region with her husband. They embark upon an arduous, two-week-long overland journey, which would be considerably faster and much easier if they traveled by river, but Walter is determined to make Kitty as unhappy and uncomfortable as possible. Upon their arrival in Mei-tan-fu, she is distressed to discover they will be living in near-squalor, far removed from everyone except their cheerful neighbor Waddington, a British deputy commissioner living with a young Chinese woman in relative opulence.
Walter and Kitty barely speak to each other and, except for a cook and a Chinese soldier assigned to guard her, she is alone for long hours. After visiting an orphanage run by a group of French nuns, Kitty volunteers her services, and she is assigned to work in the music room. She is surprised to learn from the Mother Superior that her husband loves children, especially babies. In this setting, she begins to see him in a new light as she learns what a selfless and caring person he can be. When he sees her with the children, he in turn realizes she is not the shallow, selfish person he thought her to be. As Walter's anger and Kitty's unhappiness subside, their marriage begins to blossom in the midst of the epidemic crisis. She soon learns she is pregnant, but is unsure who the father is. Walter – in love with Kitty again – assures her it doesn't matter.
The cholera epidemic takes many victims. As Walter and the locals are starting to get it under control, completely due to his importation of clean water through a system of aqueducts (as the local people did not understand water-borne infectious disease) cholera-carrying refugees from elsewhere pour into the area, forcing Walter to set up a camp outside town. He contracts the disease and Kitty lovingly nurses him, but he dies, and she is devastated. Bereft and pregnant, she leaves China.
Five years later, Kitty appears well-dressed and happy in London shopping with her young son Walter. They meet Townsend by chance on the street, and he suggests that Kitty meet with him. Asking young Walter his age, he realizes from the reply that he might be the boy's father. Kitty rejects his overtures and walks away. When her son asks who Townsend is, she replies "No one important, darling". | romantic, boring, sentimental, realism, flashback | train | wikipedia | Beautiful scenery and costumes, a cast of thousands, and enough background information to make you feel you are more educated about a time and place than you were before you saw the movie.What this film offers the fortunate viewer that many other movies of its kind do not, are lead characters you can actually empathize with and grow to care about.
I don't even remember their characters' names.) The movie's tagline- "Sometimes the greatest journey is the distance between two people" succinctly points to the heart of this film, and what makes it work so well; the journey of a couple who married for the wrong reasons towards true intimacy with each other.On one level, the plot is so simple and straightforward that a one line summary gives the whole story away, and for that reason, I will refrain from providing that information as much as possible.
It is in this setting that the parallel stories unfold; the story of a doctor and his wife living in the house of a dead missionary's family as the doctor tries to get control of the conditions responsible for the epidemic, and the story of the couple's journey towards re-discovering each other.The impressive skill that Ms. Watts and Mr. Norton bring to their work truly makes you believe that that the first challenge- combating cholera amid colonial unrest and nationalist hostilities is easier than the task of repairing a damaged marriage, and with each uneasy glance and every unsaid word, you feel what these two people feel.
Well, after his turn in The Illusionist earlier in the year and now "Walter Fane," all I can say is, move over, Ralph Fiennes- there's a new sexy "repressed, stiff-upper-lipped, sensually simmering under the surface" leading man in town.The Painted Veil is an intelligently adapted, well-directed film with two charismatic, award-worthy lead performances and a strong supporting cast, including Liev Schreiber, Diana Rigg, and most notably Toby Jones as the Fanes' neighbor.
Somerset Maugham's "The Painted Veil" begins slowly and patiently, with leisurely flashbacks that elliptically bring us to a singularly absurd predicament: circa 1925, a British doctor (Edward Norton in his second romantic lead following "The Illusionist") has brought his lovely young wife (an entrancing Naomi Watts) into the middle of a Chinese cholera epidemic purely out of spite.
It's a wickedly clever little set-up that becomes increasingly more complex and absorbing.The note-perfect and delicately layered performances of Watts and Norton, two thespians typically acclaimed for their edgy and independent work and playing against type, are anchored with the literary genius of Maugham and Curran's keen eye and steady hand behind the camera.
Watts and Norton are given plenty to chew on, not only great lines, but great scenes full of lush scenery, and beautiful and textured visual details that serve as perfect backdrops for their complex and unpredictable relationship.Back in the heyday of Merchant-Ivory, it seemed like this type of literary minded period-piece was a dime a dozen.
There hasn't been a hugely successful film of this type since 1996's "The English Patient." We haven't seen a worthwhile film in this genre since Neil Jordon's underrated "The End of the Affair" in 1999, which not coincidentally was an adaptation of one of the great novels from Maugham's fellow Brit and contemporary, Graham Greene, and addressed many of the same themes.What "The Painted Veil" lacks in epic sweep it makes up for in scores with its nuanced performances and subversive outlook on romance and true love.
Set in China in the 1920s during a cholera epidemic and the nationalist uprising, the film explores the stormy relationship of a dry British doctor and his seemingly incompatible fun-loving wife.
Most incredible of all were the zoom shots onto a particular character's face or eyes, emphasizing the sweat on his/her brow or a particularly telling expression on his/her face.The musical score was very powerful and in-tune with the story told and the amazing characterizations.I simply LOVED this film.
What could go wrong?Our film's title goes back to a stanza:"Lift not the painted veil which those who liveCall Life: though unreal shapes be pictured there,And it but mimic all we would believe"Shelley's poem furnishes the title of Somerset Maugham's oriental love story.
Kitty (Naomi Watts) is warm and natural, but marries Walter more because it seems like a sensible thing to do than for any over-riding love.
"If you're going to make a film set in China during the period, I think there's got to be a reason for doing it other than the inherent romanticism of the location."To Kitty, the work of the nuns (headed by Mother Superior, Diana Rigg) is laudable, especially with orphans.
Though most of the story is set in China, even the scenes of England were filmed in China which is quite an interesting change (since it's usually the reverse).'The Painted Veil' is essentially about the journey of a couple, a frivolous Kitty and a stubborn Walter, and how they grow during this ordeal.
Curran cleverly puts layers and depth into the film (unlike many period pieces which end up looking shallow and clichéd).'The Painted Veil' is one of the few adaptations that work beautifully on screen.
Needless to say the waterworks were on not only for her but myself as well as this film meets it dramatic climax.For Edward Norton 2006 will be remembered as a banner year (though no Oscar nominations) He was a cool guy in "The Illusionist" and the ultimate nerd in this film portraying a bacteriologist who takes his unfaithful wife to the heart of China to deal with of all things a cholera epidemic.
This is what Dr. Walter Fane (Edward Norton) proposes to Kitty (Naomi Watts); and she agrees, of course because it's a chance to get as far away from her parents as possible.
Going back to Nyswaner, he achieves the turn of the story perfectly, providing us a big gallery of characters (Toby Jones as an unpredictable neighbor, Anthony Wong Chau-Sang as a harsh Chinese colonel, Diana Rigg as a caring nun) as he deals with strong issues like terminal diseases and social differences.Sometimes recognized as the most intelligent man in the industry, a versatile and underrated actor, Norton produced the movie (in which he's absolutely brilliant, with the English accent included) and made sure Naomi Watts was in it
Every time she appears on screen in a film she looks different; although we know it's her.
Even so, she produced Curran's previous movie (where she was also great) and co-produced this one: she must care a little bit.Ultimately, with all the things it covers, "The Painted Veil" is a beautiful story about love found, as in discovered; a story about regret and the purest forgiveness.
Naomi Watts and Edward Norton are very good, no question of that, but a film that aspires to transport us into the past in a far distant land for a story of torturous love and redemption needs to fix the basics to take the audience along for the ride.
It has a tension running through it for the first three-quarters of the film, that makes you want to keep watching and find out what happens.It doesn't hurt that it's beautifully filmed and that always-entertaining Edward Norton plays the male lead, Kitty's husband "Walter." Norton is one of the few modern-day American actors who could surprise us with a British accent and make it sound natural, forgetting quickly that he's faking an accent.
He's that subtle.Shanghai is an interesting place, I'm sure, especially during the period of the unrest in the 1920s, which is pictured in this Somerset Maugham story, but this still is a very low-key romance movie in which the wife slowly learns to love and respect her husband and he, meanwhile, learns even more slowly, to forgive her for her sins, which include adultery.
Somerset Maugham (1874 - 1965) and whose title from Percy Bysshe Shelley's verse "Lift Not The Painted Veil Which Those Who Live" is taken from.The Painted Veil is as stunningly beautiful in its vision of 1920's China's political and geographic landscapes as its sensitivity of the marriage vows and the way in which it deals with infidelity, regret and possible forgiveness.This love story has Kitty meeting young, intelligent, introverted and somewhat dull Dr. Walter Fane, whose forte is the study of infectious diseases, and the convenient marriage that she finds herself committed too.
After seeing the variety of roles that the man takes, this role seems to be sort of boring, almost below his talent; yet he makes the role of a biologist come alive in a performance that no one else could deliver.This man is the white version of the incredible Denzel Washington.Listen, Tom Hanks might be good, but Norton is Phenomenal.Before going to see this movie, PLEASE see Fight Club or the 25th Hour, or Primal Fear, or ANYTHING else the man has done.
Ms. Watts delivered another stunning performance in her role and the dialogue and the silence between them, the building tension, etc is crazy to watch.One final note on this movie: the Gold Globe the Soundtrack took home is well deserved.Painted Veil is a sleeper film of 2006.
In The Painted Veil, Kitty (Naomi Watts), a beautiful, vivacious girl from a moderately wealthy family agrees to marry Walter (Edward Norton), a serious doctor.
Naomi Watts is superb, as usual, and Edward Norton delivers a particularly good performance.I guess that it'll be "Iron Man" that gets the box office and the award nominations, but in terms of quality cinema, "The Painted Veil" exists in another stratosphere..
In this movie I can say that there is a big conflict between easy,luxurious,irresponsible and the real life that more than %50 per cent of the world population face it.People understand their real life and love in their troubled times and movie originate this sense.Furthermore,Chinese interesting life and their people behaviours and differences from rich undutiful Britain people.Also there are some different conflicts that movie shows us.Such as;rich and poor,healthy and ill,right and unjust.Beside,long and prepared story Edward Norton does his best I think.And he is good at producing .Althoug it is quite long and some parts are boring musics redress this situation.
Naomi Watts plays Kitty Fane, a beautiful and spoiled young woman who marries her physician husband basically for want of something better to do.Dr. Fane (Edward Norton) works in a British government medical laboratory in Shanghai, and volunteers to travel to the area of the cholera outbreak, although he's a scientist, not a clinician.
Amazing story, superb setting, unbelievably great performances from Edward Norton and Naomi Watts, this film has it all.
But, at the same time, it is hauntingly beautiful because it has the power to remind Kitty, her husband Walter (Edward Norton), and the audience of the moment they met and he, at least, fell in love.
Somerset Maugham (and apparently filmed at least once before with Greta Garbo in the starring role), this film tells the story of a young and impetuous English lady (Naomi Watts) who rashly decides to marry a stuffy bacteriologist (Edward Norton) to escape the displeasure of her family and the danger of turning into a spinster.
Today at the Arclight in Hollywood, I finally was able to take in this magnificent film and be enchanted by the beauty and the elegance of not only the performances of two such brilliant actors, Naomi Watts and Edward Norton, but in the character development and the writing of this story brought so powerfully to the screen.
Naomi Watts as the wife is tremendous in her role and her final journey to the end of the film with her husband and realizing what a wonderful man she married hopefully will bring an Oscar Nom for her.
Her lovesick husband named Walter Fane(a brooding Edward Norton) is a bacteriologist medic.They travel to Shangai where the adulterous spouse turning to the affections of another named Charlie Towsend (Liev Schreiber, married in real life to Naomi Watts).
The film-makers here have altered Maugham's story somewhat but they have not lost track of its essentials a marriage based on superficial attraction on the part of the husband (Walter) and a desire to get away from her family on the part of the wife (Kitty) matures into a real love-match under adverse conditions.
This is welcome and does not detract from the central story.Naomi Watts is a fine feckless and then fighting Kitty (a tough class Garbo played her in the 1934 version) and Edward Norton gets Walter, the man of science overtaken by emotion just right, though at times I wondered whether another very uptight character he has played, Derek Vinyard of "American History X" was seeping through.
Edward Norton, Naomi Watts, and Liev Schreiber create an ensemble fitting of a Maugham novel, and their performances are flawless.Flawless as well is the cinematography and photography in this wonderful adaptation of the novel.
The movie tells the troubled relationship of a couple of newly-weds: Kitty Fane, a shallow middle-class girl who marry for practical reasons and without love, and her husband Walter Carwin, a fine epidemiologist going to China to fight an outbreak of cholera, who falls in love with Kitty at first sight.The movie goes beyond the usual romance story or period movie, and has a good insight into the historical events occurring in China in the 1920s, but also into the differences between infatuation and true love, which is the focus of the film.
The music by Alexandre Desplat and the cinematography by Stuart Dryburgh are simply magnificent.Regarding the acting, I initially thought that the leading couple of Naomi Watts (Kitty)-Edward Norton (Walter) weren't suited as the leading couple, but, after watching the movie, I think think they are, although Norton outshines Watts by far despite this being a role out of his comfort zone.
Lovely to Look At. Gorgeous cinematography of China, an excellent cast and performances are the stars of "The Painted Veil," a 2006 version of a Somerset Maugham story.
The film concerns an unhappily married couple, Kitty and Walter Fane (Naomi Watts and Edward Norton).
The leads of Walter and Kitty, played here by Edward Norton and Naomi Watts are perfect in their parts though I had some reservations about Edward's accent prior to seeing the film.
The movie essentially narrates the origins and development of the relationship between Dr. Walter Fane (Edward Norton) and Kitty (Naomi Watts), who becomes his wife, and yet for the most part the Fanes don't seem to possess either blinding love or boiling hatred - mutual disinterest and contempt might be the best way to describe most of their time together.Essentially, Fane takes Kitty to Shanghai where he works as an infectious disease researcher.
I watched this film on DVD last week and can't stop thinking about it - it is truly riveting - powerful performances from Edward Norton (with flawless English accent) and Naomi Watts together with tremendous supporting performances from the rest of the cast.
Long half hour dull patches are injected with 1 minute scored sequences of someone dying of cholera and the disgust on Edward Norton's face, and despite these only being the good bits because, finally, there's something interesting to watch, you do feel that there may be a tiny bit of promise for the rest of the film, but guess what
the score stops, Norton stops looking disgusted, and we cut to Naomi Watts, sitting in a chair sighing again.The writer seems to have run out of ink only when he had established 2 plot lines, a novelty guard, and the idea that making the characters British makes them deep in itself.Somehow, however, this film drags these 2 plot lines, the guard and the British accents along with it for the whole 2 and a bit hours, to solidify the fact that Naomi Watts isn't as good as everyone says, that just because movies are about redemption and political issues with foreigners, it doesn't make them good, and that The Painted Veil, overall, is a thin, and boring movie..
In this period piece, Edward Norton once again plays the smartest guy in the room, as Walter Fane, a dedicated, cold-hearted clinical researcher who travels to the middle of a cholera epidemic in China in the 1920s, with his young wife Kitty (Naomi Watts) in tow.
"The Painted Veil" is a drama movie in which we watch a British doctor who is going with his wife to China in order to fight a cholera epidemic.
Edward Norton who played as Dr. Walter Fane was for one more time simply outstanding and the same I can say about the interpretation of Naomi Watts who played as his wife.Lastly I believe that "The Painted Veil" is a very nice movie which combines very well drama with romance and shows us what a person has to get through in order to become better.
This wonderful Somerset Maugham novel about a doctor dealing with a cholera epidemic in China in the 20s is stunningly brought to life with power and drama.This movie succeeds both in the intimate and broader stories.
Based upon the novel written by SOMERSET MAUGHAM, Edward Norton and Naomi Watts portray a broken love story set in the 1920s.
I am usually not a fan of romantic drama's but the dark twist and setting of this movie made me throughly enjoy it.The plot: A young doctor (Edward Norton) enters an emotionless marriage with rich, rather spoiled woman(Naomi Watts) and struggles through his relationship, whilst aiding a Chinese village plagued by cholera.
Naomi Watts shines as the lovely yet shallow Kitty Fane and Edward Norton is at his best as the withdraw, heartbroken bacteriologist, Walter Fane.
I like the fact that the film was able to convey the cultural and political aspects of China during 1920s and that the story was still able to lean toward the lead characters, Kitty and Walter. |
tt0856288 | À l'intérieur | The film opens with gloomy footage of night-time Dublin and a female radio DJ talking about three girls who recently went missing in the city centre. While in a pawnshop a young man (Eoin Macken) pawns his ring for cash, offered €50 he demands €200, and eventually accepts €75 and a second hand camcorder. He discovers a tape still inside, sits in a cafe, plays back the footage on the camera and watches the film.
In the footage, a group of girls; Sienna (Kellie Blaise), Cara (Tereza Srbova), Louise (Vanessa Fahy) and Sian (Natalia Kostrzewa) are heading out for the 21st birthday of Corina (Siobhan Cullen). As a gift, Sienna and Cara have bought Corina a video camera, with which they plan to record the evening's events. They blindfold Corina and instead of going to a club they break into an disused, abandoned and ramshackled warehouse on a secluded back street, much to Sian's disapproval. Once there, they start drinking, Corina's boyfriend Barry (Sean Stewart) arrives, and they reminisce and share secrets. After Barry leads Sian to a toilet, the remaining girls complain and back-stab about Sian. Louise then takes the camera and discovers Barry having sex with Sian.
Then three vagrant, violent men; Eamo (Brian Fortune), Scat (Karl Argue) and Hughie (Emmett Scanlan) break in and gatecrash the party. They terrorise, verbally torment, abuse, and physically and sexually assault the women, and the women scream and wail in fear and despair. Sienna tries to confront them only to be head-butted by Hughie. When Barry tries to intervene, Hughie beats him to death and instigates a game of spin the bottle to rape the women. Whilst Sian is being raped by Eamo, the lights go out, odd sounds emanate from the building, old televisions switch themselves on and a baby's haunting cries are heard. Moments later, Eamo is yanked from Sian by an unseen force, quickly followed by Sian herself.
The negative energy from the brutality of the vagrants awakens a dormant, malevolent, demonic, supernatural force with a thirst for flesh and souls within the building. A brave Cara and hysterical Louise take the camcorder around the building, and try and escape using the narrow beam of the camera's built-in light via the labyrinthine, brick basements with decrepit corridors. They are approached by a Scat who is hysterical about something he has seen and begs them not to leave him alone. After shutting the door behind him, they find a dead Corina with her eyes gouged out. They then notice arches and ominous, arcane symbols and shapes signs on the walls in the dark. Louise enters a trance and is approached by a shambling, ghoulish, gore-covered, malign, emaciated naked figure (Patrick Moynan).
A distressed Cara runs away and finds Sienna, they continue trying to find a way out from room to room but are trapped in the building. They are found by Hughie and shortly followed by The Creature. They break through a door leaving them behind, Sienna picks another lock, then Cara also enters a trance and is taken by The Creature. Sienna runs off through decrepit brick basements to a catacomb in an effort to evade The Creature, she discovers a dead workman and hides from The Creature before being followed and stalked by it, she then runs back, escapes from the warehouse and abandons the camcorder.
After finishing watching the video, The Man uses the footage as a guide to retrace the steps to where the events occurred. The man tracks down the warehouse and makes his way into the basement. He walks into the aftermath and finds Sian and Louise. Sian cries for help as The Creature approaches, The Man tells her to be quiet and hides, she is then attacked and consumed by The Creature. After The Creature leaves, The Man then tries to rescue Louise, but while in a hypnotic trance she hits him over the head with a stone, escapes from the warehouse and is hit by a car. | suspenseful, cult, revenge, murder, violence | train | wikipedia | French horror seems to be all the rage among fellow genre fans these days, but where films like Haute Tension and Martyrs succeed at being more than envelope-pushing for the sheer hell of it, Inside fails miserably.I'm a fan of Béatrice Dalle.
Add to that a great twist that leads up to an ending that is one of the creepiest endings ever, a couple of very emotional moments that are tear jerking, a great musical score, haunting and gorgeous cinematography, and some brilliantly done gore, and you have one of the greatest French horror movies ever made..
Of course I have seen films like MARTYRS, FRONTIER(S) and JACK KETCHUM'S THE GIRL NEXT DOOR but I have to say INSIDE was in a class by itself in terms of the ending, it was so bloody and violent I had trouble wrapping my head around what I just saw.At first I wanted to hate the film and kick myself for buying it but later on I couldn't stop thinking about it, especially about the ending, very few films have had that effect on me, so in the end I thought maybe it was a good film, because I can't even remember the last film that had this particular effect on me, so I'll go ahead and say among all the graphic violence and all the intense moments there was actually a very unique experience.If I could give good advice to all male horror fans, don't think of this as the ideal date movie, it might cause a few problems in your relationship..
You know you're watching something terrible, but you can't look away for curiosity's sake.Many interesting details in the movie, such as the victim's house number, black cats and overall a feeling of dread and death.
Not that I thought it was too extreme, but simply because I haven't watched a movie yet that holds up to this amount of artistic value, and certainly not in the horror genre.
Sure, you're left with questions that the movie will not answer, but it has no reason to because the plot really turns out to be very thin.More bad stuff include scene after scene where we continue to see a bad CGI of a baby being shifted around with silly emotions, bumbling idiot police & a completely ridiculous scene with one of the cops who does something unbelievably stupid with his captive & another REALLY weird scene with a circuit breaker which even the directors didn't know wtf was going on.
I do love my gory flicks, but why this movie tries to aim for something more serious when it's clearly just a mediocre gratuitous gore movie and why it's critically praised by some as the second coming of all horror films is beyond me..
A pregnant woman is subject to extreme terror, we witness the effect of physical torture from inside the womb, the infamous Parisian riots are mentioned numerous times (including the typical reactions of the police) and there definitely isn't a happy ending.
All the attempts of people (her mother, employer and police patrol car) wanting to help Sarah result in unspeakable bloodbaths.This would of course be an ideal film to raise another debate about morals and the entertainment value of explicit horror movies.
By uncomfortable I don't mean torture porn or crap like The Strangers, but the violence on some ends will make you say "OH my god!!!" and on others just make you cringe....Please, any person who claims to be a fan of the horror or even action genre, see this movie immediately.....the final frame will haunt you for weeks, because you will truly know what a movie monster is.
In the end, this is a gore-fest, and at that the creators succeeded in spades.I can't recommend this to anyone looking for an involving story or the kind of suspense that demands that you lose yourself in the film, but if you're looking for an 82 minute ride through a great looking charnel house, you could do a lot worse..
If nothing else, this fact makes the movie feel like a film-school experiment concerning make-up effects.Now watching the last shot, I can't deny, at this level, the visual experience does to some degree substitute for the lack of script.
With all the gore, the seas of blood, the perfectly composed lighting and shots, the agonizing atmosphere and generally the direction itself the movie has a certain poesy about it, which probably was the directors goal.Verdict.If you are a rather sensitive person, the visceral stimulation might blow your mind and you won't care too much about a plot all together.
It never lets up and creates that never ending sense of doom throughout the entire film.Europe, particularly France has got the knack for creating horror films that are actually scary and yes a little excessive but they succeed in creating scares.If you are pregnant or have a weak stomach, this ride is not for you!!!.
It actually had me feeling sick and that, my friends, is a rare and fine achievement when it comes to movie making.After a fatal car accident, in which her boyfriend dies, the highly pregnant Sarah is left by herself, spending her first Christmas alone with her unborn baby.
At some point you'll just retreat into the "It's only a movie"-safety zone, as the good old "The Last House On The Left"-tagline suggested.However, the ending is so iconic and disturbing, it will stay in your heads for days afterwards and go down in horror history.
I just finished watching and had to come and actually make an IMDb account for the sole purpose of giving this movie a 1 out of 10 (wish I could rate lower than that).Almost every scene in this film is illogical.
Taking a page from similar French film (and horror gem) High Tension, Inside stars Alysson Paradis as a pregnant woman struggling to survive her last night of pregnancy as a mysterious woman stalks her in her own home.I'll give credit to the director for having the balls to create a movie like this, but this doesn't mean it was good movie.
The stupidity of the decisions of the characters just can be toped by the stupidity of the storyline.The main idea was not bad and some kind of original but the storyline stop really early in the movie and just left a big interrogation mark.For Horror Fans who don't want any logic or storyline, the movie could be great, because it is very brutal and show different sides of brutality.But the movie is much too worst if you are looking for something else than JUST brutality..
They repeatedly make idiotic decisions.If you enjoyed the Hostel series, or Human Centipede, then there is a very good chance you will also like this film.For the rest of us, the movie starts off looking promising.
This movie would have looked dumb in the 80s - today it's an insult.The film comes with high praise, what with it being part of a new french horror wave or so.
I could quite easily go on, especially if I wasn't attempting to write a review free of spoilers (not that much ever comes as a surprise in a film like this...) but it would seem that if you are reading reviews like this you have probably already figured out what you are going to do, and this becoming a rant would serve little purpose.This is a film that appears to have wanted to actually try, but in the end it gets completely lost and loses everything (however little that may be) that it had built up.
Horror movies like this are very hard on the stomach and have no real entertainment value since you feel guilty watching such a sadistic display of violence.
Undeniably it's got a nasty edge to it, but first time feature film directors Bustillo and Maury have an eye for stylish visuals, whilst infusing their story with some genuine narrative surprises.It's also great to have an aura of freshness by way of the psychotic perpetrator being female, with Dalle's La Femme proving to be one of the best human villains of horror in modern times.
Bonus, too, is that her victim, Sarah (Paradiso), is a most resourceful lady, making rational decisions as the horror begins to submerge her, her will to survive nicely drawn by the makers who keep her away from being the stereotype that's so often seen in films of this ilk.There's a couple of missteps, including one quite daft passage of play involving a policeman that almost derails the good work achieved by the picture up to that point.
During the bloody night of terror, the woman attacks Sarah's visitors and discloses to Sarah who she is and what she wants."À l'Intérieur" is one of the most brutal and gore low-budget movies that I have ever seen, comparable to "The Descent".
I began to watch this film in my home, I was expecting that 'Single White Female' kind of thriller, and actually I was impressed with so much gore (which I wasn't expecting).The main actresses are great, they did a great job, I will admit that the 'evil' woman was very frightening, I was afraid sometimes.Plot: Still grieving over her recently deceased boyfriend, a pregnant woman becomes haunted by a mysterious woman.
If you want suspense, there's a lot better than this.It's not a matter of me being smarter than the characters by the way, it's just simple frustration as everyone does stupid things for no apparent reason.If this is the "New Wave of French Horror" then I'll be first in line to wave it adieu.Cheers, Will.
A genuinely effective & relentlessly violent feature to come out from the new wave of French horror and certainly ranking amongst the most disturbing & bloodiest films ever made, Inside is a prime example of extreme cinema which marks the return of pure unadulterated horror on the silver screen & manages to accomplish all that without entirely discarding the core elements that makes a film work.Opening with a brief prologue covering a car accident, the story of Inside concerns a young pregnant lady named Sarah; the sole survivor of the car crash which killed her husband.
Deciding to stay at home on Christmas Eve, things are set in motion for an eventful night of torment & terror when a mysterious woman comes knocking on Sarah's door, tries to force her way in & seeks to take her unborn baby.Solidly directed, smartly crafted, nicely written, finely edited, fairly photographed & calmly scored, Inside expertly manages to create a discomforting atmosphere of tension & suspense which steadily amplifies over the course of its runtime and, with the help of its arced narrative plus really good performances from Alysson Paradis & Beatrice Dalle, is able to justify its high amount of gore to quite an extent.On an overall scale, with its pool of blood & mutilation of endless bodies, Inside is an absolutely merciless, downright disturbing & emotionally scarring cinematic experience that breaks all barriers, taboos & morals to succeed as a highly effective, suspenseful & genre-defining cinema.
For example the mystery lady has no trouble at all in dispatching a number of armed policemen but she can't seem to nail the women she's come for, who's injured and pregnant and I would have thought an easy target.The scene with the swearing/smoking nurse says a lot, from just that scene alone you know your watching a french film.I think the end credits say it all for me.
À l'intérieur is like the Halloween version of an inverse 'Home Alone'.So while this film of French origin may offer momentous intrigue and persistent tension for gore addicts, it is far from an intelligent horror film, as character development, logic and plot twists are alien to it.
this movie is one of the best horror films I've recently watch and i will definitely no forget it never have i seen such a sadistic and graphic display of bloody violence, mayhem, brutality, insanity and gruesome gore, this movie goes way over the top and by the end you will be staring at the staring at the screen with an uncomfortable laugh at the sick and twisted series of events you just witnessed onsreen, yes the movie is a bit scary but it is more about extreme bloodshed and violence than anything else it becomes soooo bloody insane, and gruesome that it is not really realistic and actually in a struggle between funny and shocking.
that being said this movie should not be missed it will shock you as you attempt to understand the bloody mayhem you are witnessing and the suspense is extreme, plus this movie makes hostel, saw and others seem like a Disney cartoon so if you want a strong horror movie definitely look here as this was a strange, bloody and pleasing viewing..
It's a French horror film about a pregnant widow named Sarah (played by Alysson Paradis) who is home alone on Christmas Eve, preparing to deliver her baby the following day.
a woman tries to break into her house and she's very demanding then later after all hell breaks loose the pregnant chick is sooo STUPID she prolly hasn't seen too many horror movies before,she's so DUMB!she can't kick her in the cooter,elbow her FACE!
I assume it must have been the gore that got them excited but the film itself it's full of idiot decisions which one might argue that happen in many horror movies but let's face it you don't have introduce some incredibly stupid characters who act in the exact opposite way any normal being would, in order to to make a good movie like The Descent or The Orphanage.
It all boils down to a fittingly nasty conclusion and while this is certainly not a movie that can be enjoyed by all; it makes most "gore porn" flicks released recently look like Saturday morning kids TV and no true horror fan will want to miss this experience.
The film's plot revolves around a pregnant woman who,through circumstances of her own creation,becomes the victim of a female stalker."Inside" is easily one of the bloodiest,most brutal and savage assaults on the viewer's mind I have ever seen.It starts like a downbeat thriller and soon turns into incredibly tense bloodbath.Beatrice Dalle of "Trouble Every Day" fame is spectacular as the remorseless female psychopath.The gore is truly extreme and plentiful and one can almost feel an acrid smell of death in the air.Bustillo and Maury make the pregnant woman and her baby the target of the violence which is perhaps the most controversial aspect of the film.If you enjoyed "Haute Tension" you can't go wrong with even nastier "Inside".9 out of 10..
So many horror movies think that blood and gore are the scariest things about life.
This movie could have been history's best horror movie ever made.The actors where great, the house was creepy and scary,good acting and well directing.But there is only one thing that made me GET SO Disappointed...i AM a 100% horror fan..that loves every movie and trys to see the good side of them.There is so SO SO SO MUCH Unnecessary GORE IN THIS MOVIE.This movie could have been so good and interesting but the director is one twisted sh*t.I don't understand how the f**k did this movie get 7.1.OMG this movie should have gotten O or worse.What type of people are we if we call a good movie...when someone is torturing and ripping out a baby WITH SCISSORS from the ALIVE..AND AWAKE MOTHER.WHAT TYPE OF F***ING DISTURBED PEOPLE ARE YOU.IF you really are that creeped out go see snuff movies but at least snuff movies don't torture PREGNATE WOMAN AND KILLS THEM.PLEASE IF YOU ARE A NORMAL PERSON JUST AVOID THIS MOVIE..IT IS NOT WORTH IT TO SEE THIS MOVIE.IF YOU WANT TO SEE A GOOD GORE MOVIE SEE THE SAW SERIES THOSE ARE GOOD..
One can argue about the stupid actions of some of the characters and that the filmmakers relied solely on gore to shock the audience until the cows come home, but that doesn't change the fact that this is an impeccably directed, strongly acted, and brutally disturbing piece of modern horror that is certainly heads and shoulders above anything horror that has appeared in American theaters in quite some time.Taking its premise from an seemingly ever growing brutal type of crime, "Inside" deals with a pregnant young woman named Sarah who is home alone on Christmas Eve. Months before, she was in a terrible car accident that killed her husband and left her emotionally broken.
"Inside", directed by Alexandre Bustillo and Julian Maury, is such a film.The story concerns Sarah (Alysson Paradis), a pregnant woman who gets in a car crash during the film's opening scene (which leaves her husband dead).
As the film progresses, you find out who the psycho woman is and why she is doing what she's doing, in a satisfying twist.While a gore-hound within me wants to focus on the blood and the guts of the movie, there's plenty else here to like.
But there's an reason why this woman does show up to see Sarah and scaring the hell out of her in this very long night.Directed by Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury made an extremely well made Horror film that has some originality and some unexpected genuinely disturbing shocking moments.
Overall "Inside" is a good horror movie, which you like it or not.
Inside (2007) ** (out of 4) Yet another incredibly ugly horror film from France with this one centering on Sarah (Alysson Paradis), a woman expecting her first child who loses her husband in a car wreck.
if you are going to make a horror/suspense/gore flick that wants to be taken seriously, like this one obviously does, first of all you need believable characters that the viewers can take seriously. |
tt0960144 | You Don't Mess with the Zohan | Zohan Dvir (Adam Sandler) is a superhuman Israeli counterterrorist and the finest and most respected soldier in the Israel Defense Forces. However, Zohan has become both disgusted and disenchanted by the constant fighting, secretly dreaming of moving to the USA and becoming a hairdresser. This reaches a breaking point when a barbecue he hosts is interrupted by the IDF sending Zohan on a mission to stop a Palestinian terrorist group being led by his personal arch-enemy, Fatoush "Phantom" Hakbarah (John Turturro), another superhuman. Despite being upset over his ruined party, Zohan sees it as his long-awaited chance to desert the IDF and move to America. During the pursuit he fakes his own death and smuggles himself onto a plane to New York City, cuts his hair, and adopts the alias "Scrappy Coco" (the names of two dogs he shared the flight's baggage hold with) while claiming that he is "Half Australian, Half Mount Everest." Meanwhile, the Phantom becomes rich and famous for supposedly killing Zohan and starts his own fast-food business, "Phantom's Muchentuchen".
Initially unsuccessful in finding employment at several salons, Zohan's military expertise earns him a new friend, Michael (Nick Swardson), who gives him a place to stay. However, Michael starts to freak out when he finds Zohan sleeping with his mother, Gail (Lainie Kazan). Zohan encounters a fellow Israeli named Oori (Ido Mosseri) at a disco; he recognizes Zohan but vows to keep his identity a secret. Oori takes him to an area in lower Manhattan populated with Middle Eastern immigrants, who are split between a Palestinian side and an Israeli side of the street. Zohan attempts to land a job in a struggling salon of a Palestinian woman named Dalia (Emmanuelle Chriqui). Dalia reluctantly allows Zohan to sweep floors for free, but after losing one of her employees, she eventually allows him to be a stylist after he pleases a senior lady with an exceptional haircut and back room sexual service. Zohan's reputation spreads rapidly among the elderly women of lower Manhattan. Dalia's business prospers, upsetting Grant Walbridge (Michael Buffer), a corporate magnate who has been trying to buy out all the local tenants on the block so that he can build a rollercoaster mall.
Zohan is identified by a Palestinian cab driver named Salim (Rob Schneider), who bears a grudge against Zohan for having taken his goat away in Palestine long ago. Salim convinces his friends to help him kill Zohan but, after a failed bomb attempt, he is forced to contact Phantom. Salim attempts to blackmail Phantom, but he ends up getting the stiff end of the deal as he convinces Phantom to visit New York to find Zohan. Meanwhile, Zohan realizes that he has fallen in love with Dalia and comes clean to Michael and his mother about his true identity (after learning of Phantom's visit) before meeting Dalia. Dalia rejects Zohan after he reveals he was formerly an Israeli counterterrorist operative. Zohan decides to leave Dalia to protect her and confront Phantom in a championship Hacky Sack game sponsored by Walbridge. Zohan's fight is cut short with sudden news of the Middle Eastern block being attacked, and he quickly leaves, shortly after discussing his plans with undercover agent (Harry Denton).
Zohan arrives and calms the Israelis and Palestinians, who each blame the other for the violence, while making peace with Salim. Phantom then appears and confronts Zohan, but Zohan refuses to fight. Dalia appears, revealing that she is Phantom's sister, and convinces her brother to cooperate with Zohan against the arsonists, revealed to be racist rednecks hired by Walbridge to instigate an interethnic riot so he can get his new mall in the aftermath. As Zohan and Phantom work to save the block (by singing "The Sound", a sound so loud, it destroys many shop windows, blows the manhole cover, and even blows up the artificial breasts of Walbridge's wife), Phantom admits that he always wanted to be a shoe salesman rather than a terrorist. Although the rednecks are defeated and Walbridge is jailed, Phantom keeps singing "The Sound" and accidentally destroys all of the shops on the block. However, with the Israelis and Palestinians united, the block is transformed into a collectively owned mall called the Peace and Brotherhood Fire Insurance Mall. Phantom opens a shoe shop in the mall called Fatoush's Kickin' Shoes, Oori reopens his "Going Out of Business" electronics shop, Salim gets back his goat, which he gives small children rides on next to Trendy Toddler, and Zohan and Dalia open a beauty salon together called Dalohan, with Zohan having now married Dalia, having a Baby son "Zohan Jr.". In the end, Zohan's parents, initially unsupportive of his dream to be a hairdresser, show up, approving of his new job and lifestyle before his father requests that he cut his hair, which Zohan happily does. | comedy, stupid, violence, flashback, humor, comic, revenge | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0107050 | Grumpy Old Men | John and Max are elderly neighbors in a cold Minnesota town. They both live alone in their homes since their wives have died, and exchange stories about how their friends are now dying when they are not busy insulting each other. They have a contemptuous rivalry that goes back over 50 years.A very attractive woman named Ariel, who is a little younger than them, moves in across the street during the days before Thanksgiving. She is so adventurous that she rides a snowmobile on the streets at night.Johns daughter Melanie has a baby girl but is separating from her husband. Maxs son Jacob is running for mayor of their town. Melanie and Jacob have an ongoing flirtation with each other.John is trying to evade the IRS, to whom he owes back taxes. One night he thinks the IRS has come for him, so he jumps out his bedroom window, and Ariel surprisingly shows up, asking to use his bathroom for no particular reason. She discloses that she has been watching how John and Max both ogle her.The next day, John tries to convince Max that his visit from Ariel was amorous in intent. Their bitter bickering at each other continues apace.Chuck is another older man who runs a local bait shop. He challenges John and Max to think about how attractive they actually are to women anymore.Johns father, known as Grandpa, goes ice-fishing out on a frozen lake, where his son and Max (and many other local men) also have their own little fishing shacks. Grandpa is a blithe spirit at the age of 94, enjoying a bounty of liquor and non-filtered cigarettes.One evening Chuck goes to visit Ariel at her home, which John and Max intently spy upon. When later asked why he was with her, Chuck says they did not have sex but something more like a spiritual awakening.John and Max thus both plan visits to Ariel and spend much time making themselves presentable. As we learn, Ariel used to teach art and now teaches classics, and her tastes are revealed through her houseful of eccentric pieces. She also had a husband who died five years earlier, and keeps a life-size sculpture of him, naked, in her studio.Max is next to visit Ariel, and she is mildly bemused by his accounts of being a television repairman. Later she visits him in his ice-fishing shack and they try to pull in a legendarily enormous fish together. The sound of Max and Ariel loudly fighting and grunting to bring up the prize fish is overhead by the other men on the lake, who assume they are having wild sex. As it turns out, they actually do land the fish, but to the shocked dismay of Max, Ariel throws it back in the water. Thereafter, Ariel tells Max they will be great friends, but her chaste kiss reveals it will not be a romantic relationship.In a sincere moment, John tells Max that Chuck has died suddenly. They still end up fighting with each other again.Later, Ariel shows up at Johns house unexpected, and offers to cook dinner. John is quite charming in their conversation, telling her stories of his days as a teacher.John goes to visit his father, who tells him that after you turn 90, you begin realizing that all you have in life are experiences. He motivates John to pursue Ariel, which he soon does by joining her on a snowmobile ride to further evade an IRS agent waiting at his house. Ariel even lures John into making snow angels on the ground, and they hold hands.Over another dinner. Ariel asks John about the pictures in his house. He had a son who died in the Vietnam War, and as it turns out, he and Max were much closer friends when they were younger. He begins to tell the story of how the two of them became enemies when they fought over a woman. Somehow finding inspiration, John moves in to give Ariel a deep kiss, and she is receptive.Soon thereafter, Ariel invites John to bed. He remarks that he has not made love since October 4. 1978, so Ariel suggests that theres no need to worry about sexual diseases.The next morning, Max gives Ariel flowers to apologize for his rakish behavior before. Meanwhile, John is dancing around his house, so energized that he adds Tabasco to his eggs.John and Max return to their ice-fishing rituals, but now Max is so angry and jealous of him that he drives a truck into Johns shed and forces it out onto thin ice. This leads to a very physical yet comical fight between them, in which we learn that John had married a woman whom Max had always loved. John then confesses that he thought Maxs wife was a better woman than his wife. John goes on to say that he had the greatest sex ever with Ariel, which provokes Max to try stabbing him with a frozen fish. Of all people, Grandpa intervenes to break up these two delinquents.Downtrodden, John feels that Max should have Ariel because he stole Maxs true love when they were younger. Ariel brings John one of her paintings, but explains that they will not work as a couple. Ariel is disappointed, and tells John that the only things you regret in life are the risks you dont take.Johns daughter Melanie shows up for Christmas Eve with her estranged husband. John privately repeats to her what Ariel told him about living with regrets, and then Maxs son Jacob shows up. Jacob later pushes his dad to make peace with John.John and Max meet at a bar and John reveals that he pitied Max and gave up Ariel for him. They argue again, and on the way back from the bar, John has a heart attack. While he is in the hospital, the IRS moves to claim Johns house, although Jacob, who has been elected mayor, gets an order to save the property.We next see people gathering for what appears to be a solemn event at a church, which is not a funeral as we may expect, but actually a wedding for John and Ariel. Much time has done by, during which Jacob arranged to clear Johns IRS debt, with Maxs help. John and Max have reconciled, and their children are clearly falling in love with each other. Grandpa gives away Ariel at the ceremony, and all is joyous as the couple head off in their limo... but Max has left a fish in the back just as a little revenge. | comedy, entertaining | train | imdb | null |
tt0480669 | Los cronocrímenes | Héctor (Karra Elejalde) is a middle-aged ordinary man who has just moved to a lonely house with his wife Clara (Candela Fernández). They lead a quiet life. He receives a phone call, but the person doesn't say anything. Héctor calls that person back, but nobody answers.Later Héctor is looking through his binoculars; he sees what he believes to be a naked girl in the woods. He decides to go there just to find that same girl (Bárbara Goenaga) lying on a rock. He clumsily falls close to the girl, and he realises she's dead. Suddenly, a man with a pink bandage covering his face stabs Héctor in his arm with some scissors. A chase starts, and Héctor breaks into a house near the forest. There is strange machinery and equations on some blackboards within the house. He talks to somebody in a building nearby, and that person promises to get in touch with him immediately. The other man says that the man with the bandaged face is approaching him. The voice leads him to the other building through a path in the grass illuminated by many lights. Héctor sees more machinery and wonders aloud what all that is for. This is the time machine. Through the window, Héctor can see the car - driven by the man with the bandaged face. He gets into the time machine and travels an hour back in time.The young man in charge of the time machine, El Joven, (Nacho Vigalondo) does not recognise Héctor. The young man explains to Hector (Héctor 2) that he must not interfere with the other Héctor (Héctor 1) so he can go into the time machine again, leaving one Héctor instead of two. Héctor can't help but phone his home, worried that Clara is with "a different man". However, he doesn't dare say anything. El Joven tells Héctor 2 off, but things still happened as they should have. Héctor 2 tries to avoid temptation and not phone his wife again. Héctor 2 leaves with the young man's car and stops when he sees the young lady riding her bike to the village nearby. A van smashes into Héctor 2's car and he uses the bandages on his wounded arm to bandage his now injured face. The bandage stops the bleeding but it turns pink because of the blood. The young lady asks him whether he's all right, and promises to call for an ambulance. Although her mobile phone has got not coverage, Héctor 2 doesn't want her to leave. She is a hairdresser, and puts Héctor 2's bandage right. Héctor 2 steals the girl's scissors, and asks for her help in order to do something. Héctor 2 sees Héctor 1 looking through the binoculars. Then Héctor 2 realizes he has to stab Héctor 1 and chase him to the time machine. The girl runs away and Héctor 2 runs after her. Héctor 2 forces her to repeat the movements which Héctor 1 saw. Héctor 2 sees how Clara caresses Héctor 1, and he rudely demands that the girl takes her trousers off. He chases her, and they both fall down an uneven slope in the wood. The girl appears to be dead. Héctor 2 undresses her completely, and leaves her for dead. Héctor 2 approaches Héctor 1 and stabs him and chases after him, making the movements he saw before.Héctor 2 stops to breathe and calm down, when he hears a scream - a female voice. Héctor 2 returns to his own home where he listens to the telephone, hears strange music and is attacked by somebody who thrusts a wooden table into his face. Héctor 2 takes his wife's car and runs after Héctor 1, following the path of lights.Héctor 2 returns to the time machine and asks the young man to bring him back to the past a few seconds earlier than the last time (becoming Héctor 3). Héctor 3 threatens the young man who finally agrees. This leads to him hitting Héctor 2 with the young man's orange truck, so that Héctor 2 can become the man with the pink bandage and go after Héctor 1.In turn, Héctor 3 suffers a car accident. He sees the young girl and scares her, as she was already running from Héctor 2. Héctor 3 says that he's also running from the man with the bandages. After a short sleep, the girl takes Héctor 3 to his own house, not knowing it's his, as it's the only inhabited place nearby. Héctor 3 says it's not a good idea, but they enter the house. Héctor 3 is left, and the girl leaves. Clara sees Héctor 3's disfigured face. Clara says she's already phoned the police. Héctor 3 tries to hide Clara within a room, trying to avoid her death. He also places the ladder in the right place to enter the house by the top floor's window, while bandaged Héctor 2 is going up the stairs. Héctor 3 throws a wooden table to Héctor 2, who falls down the stairs. Héctor 3 dresses the girl with a red coat and cuts her hair, so that "Héctor 2" would stop considering her attractive. The girl goes out running, and she falls from the roof.The girl dies instead of Héctor's wife, while Héctor 3 has convinced Clara to stay with him. The film ends with Hector 3 and his wife waiting for the police to come. Héctor 2 driving away as the sirens of the police are heard getting closer and closer. | psychedelic, humor, murder, plot twist, flashback | train | imdb | It's very hard to review "Los cronocrímenes" without spoiling the fun of watching the movie and seeing how the different stories within the main plot outline keep unraveling ever so intelligently.
He follows his curiosity, and that will be the start of some extremely unusual, mysterious, and intriguing events involving this man, a mysterious stalker with his head wrapped in a pink bandage, a naked girl in the woods, and a young scientist."Los cronocrímenes" is a terrific movie, one that was made with a low budget, a reduced cast, and very few settings.
His actions, along with the main character's, put an unexpected twist in the equation, and fixing things might just be a bit more difficult that anyone ever imagined.What makes the film so spectacular is that everything is the movie is not the result of high tech, computer generated imagery, or dazzling special effects, or an overblown budget.
One of the common issues with time-travel movies is that they are filled with holes in the story, things that you never get to know how happened or why they did happened in the first place.This movie is perfect in that sense, the plot is squared and every small detail has a meaningful reason to exist so in a way is mathematically perfect..
The plot of recent Spanish hit "Time Crimes" is fairly simple:Hector accidentally gets into a time machine and travels back in time nearly an hour.Finding himself will be the first of a series of disasters of unforeseeable consequences.The feature length debut of Nacho Vigalondo is a pretty good science-fiction thriller with a sprinkle of horror thrown in.The time machine looks similarly to the contraptions used in 60's time travel sci-fi flicks.The central performance of Karra Elejalde is excellent and his character is sympathetic and believable.Although many of the twists and turns of the story can be guessed quite early on,they are in some ways all the more enjoyable for that and Vigalondo impressively combines thriller,horror,dark comedy and even slapstick elements without making things feel forced.A little bit of nudity provided by beautiful Barbara Goenaga certainly helps!.
Not a horror film in the truest sense, even if its poster deceives into thinking that it might be one, Timecrimes (also called Los Cronocrímenes) is one of the most intelligent, thoughtful & economical sci-fi thrillers to surface on the silver screen in the past decade or so which doesn't allow the limitations imposed by its modest budget to hinder the vision, potential & creativity of its filmmaker.Set in the Spanish countryside, Timecrimes tells the story of a middle-aged man who, after seeing a young girl undressing in the woods, follows her but is soon attacked by a scissor- wielding man with a pink bandage covering his face.
Fleeing from this mysterious attacker, he breaks into a science facility where an unforeseen incident sets in motion a chain of events that result in some terrible consequences.Written & directed by Nacho Vigalondo, Timecrimes is a cleverly crafted motion picture with a time loop plot that places greater emphasis on its story & characters than other examples of its genre and despite the noticeable absence of visual effects, an undeniable rarity in sci- fi filmmaking, it makes itself work on all levels.
Despite the numerous twists, the story retains its simplicity and unfolds in a smooth manner, music is kept to its minimum and the cast comprises of only four people but all of them deliver convincing performances in their given roles.On an overall scale, Timecrimes is a real surprise for the way it tackles the very complexity of time travel features and makes efficient use of all the available resources to succeed as an exciting, entertaining & wholly satisfying cinema.
Original and ingeniously basic Sci-Fi premise full of suspense and intrigue .This freaky and clever film chronicles fear, suspicion,desperation, paranoia of a person named Hector ( Karra Elejalde) , he is a middle-aged ordinary man who has just moved to a lonely house with his wife Clara (Candela Fernández).
This is without a doubt a thought-provoking and mysterious film to be liked for Science-Fictiona and suspense fans, turning out to be one of the most original Spanish movies of the last years ..
The twists unfold frame by frame and at the end there are some questioned unanswered.You will be engrossed with Hector and his confusion of time travel in order to make the things in place.A must watch mystery packed, illuminating and enthralling movie..
And a few months ago they included a short article about this film with the headline "The new Donnie Darko?" and I instantly read and was gripped and couldn't wait to watch it and to my immense pleasure enjoyed it from beginning to end and can pretty much guarantee if you like the Richard Kelly picture, you will find a similar edge and vibe to this 2007 release.From the chilled opening in the car and at Hector's home things seem pretty straight forward but when Hector sees the young woman in the forest he is instantly intrigued and from there on in there are delicate fine details, extraordinary circumstances and a flare of dialogue that never feels exaggerated or repetitive.When we first see the masked person the film feels exceptionally sharp and edgy, turning from curiosity into full on panic as we dive into Hector's shoes as he quickly looks for ways to survive.
I can honestly say I have never seen a film with so few actors which is fantastic to encode such a heavily twisting informative and scientific plot around.Elejadle playing Hector is perfectly scared and acting in bizarre and normal ways given the circumstances of his predicament whilst Nacho Vigalondo (acting and directing) uses his character's position as the catalyst for all problems and solutions that have delicious twists and turns.His direction serves up a nice slice of fast and furious action montages with carefully mounted surprise quick takes that succumb to many plot movements, particularly the scissors and the use of the time machine.So the big question how does it compare to arguably one of the greatest time twister puzzlements of all time?
Throw in a naked chick, a mysterious bandaged stranger, a somewhat industrial-looking time machine and you should have all the makings of decent time travel movie.A chance sighting through a pair of binoculars of a naked woman by our protagonist Héctor, sets into motion time loops that soon become apparent to him (and us, the viewer at the same time).
The idea alone (although been done before) did keep me entertained but around half way through you can literally reel off everything that is going to happen for the rest of the film (apart from the slight twist at the end)But there were too many unanswered questions for my liking, leaving slight holes in the story so your imagination can fill in the blanks is a great way to keep you thinking about the film afterwards!
It holds your interest well right from the start and keeps you hooked on just a little more curiosity even though the plot feels like you have figured it out by 3/4th way of the movie.An exam for fine art of film making with simple techniques..
This is an interesting and thought-provoking Spanish film which has a grotesque, almost experimental touch and an engaging plot about time-traveling, a theme which had been explored by many other directors and screenwriters.
Timecrimes, is one of the best time travel movies of the 21st century, not only it makes us feel good when we're watching but it hooks us up every second of the film.
The typical themes and aesthetics of time travel stories are nowhere to be found in "Timecrimes," which instead focuses on a middle-aged man who essentially stumbles into a time machine and ends up going about an hour back in time, where he must "cover his tracks" and make deliberate choices to ensure his survival.The story plays out as a mind-bending mystery with crime thriller undertones, something reminiscent of Christopher Nolan's style only with the budget of his earliest work (and way more of a sense of humor).
A good comparison point for fans of time travel films is the simple, rudimentary production of Shane Carruth's 2004 film "Primer" (minus the esoterica) with the sense of stakes and excitement of "Back to the Future." It evokes the qualities of thinker films in its philosophy and adventure-oriented movies in its linear storytelling that doesn't stray from Hector.Vigalondo, who plays a supporting role as the time machine inventor who seems a bit puny and spineless, ultimately wants to use time travel to unearth the motivations of his main character.
That was disappointing.Also, since there are basically four people in the entire movie, if feels like a play, with the revelatory twists that someone expects from an episode of Outer Limits, not from a full feature film.Bottom line: interesting, low budget, way too long for its content.
Using only four characters, the film weaves a story about how Hector (Karra Elejalde) tries to get himself and others out of trouble by using an elaborate system of time travel.
I love many time-travel movies, and this one seems very clever and tightly plotted at first, especially while you are watching it and figuring out how all the pieces of the puzzle fit together very nicely.
Most have total disregard for the actual science involved and through physics out the window.Usually, the stories end up leaving nothing but unaccounted for "loops in time" or ignore the paradoxes they create - not this film."Timecrimes" explores the probabilities as well as the negatives of time travel.
The writer actually made a lot of sense about the development of events in a time travel situation.Get the DVD and don't forget to watch (after the main feature) the chronological version of the film on the extras menu.
I'm a bit of a sucker for time-loop plot lines and half the fun for me is trying to remember events as they first took place before they repeat themselves later from a different perspective, but this particular movie had even me scratching my head as the seemingly infinite possibilities of the future play themselves out.Here, an ordinary middle-aged guy gets stuck in a moment he can't get out of when a bit of accidental voyeurism soon inveigles him in a nightmare race for his life / lives as he meets himself going backwards and forwards courtesy of a conveniently adjacent time- machine and its off-duty operator.
The movie plays like a waking dream/nightmare which might explain the unnatural, almost surreal actions of Hector and to a lesser extent the pretty young girl cyclist and odd-ball scientist with whom his path(s) cross and the odd little details (a new table, a pair of scissors, a recurring Blondie song) that the director inserts along the way.The overall effect is unsettling but intriguing and there's a clever final twist, where Hector ingeniously but cruelly upsets the paradox but I found his remorselessly selfish progress somewhat unsavoury, particularly towards his innocent young victim, although no doubt the divergence into slasher-movie territory was meant ironically too.An off-beat, low-budget movie then and an odd (that word again!) mixture of genres which in the final summary perhaps confuses more than it entertains and could have been improved by making the viewer identify more with the main character instead of presenting him as the stomping, murderous, selfish brute he becomes..
I'm a sucker for all time travel movies, but nearly all of them have a plot hole somewhere; it might not be obvious while watching, but usually a little thought afterwards will throw up something that just doesn't add up.
Some may say that the flaw here is the fact that there is no real starting point to this twisting thriller but I'm not so sure that that is a plot hole so much as a deliberate paradox which is in keeping with the way the film relentlessly teases the audience.The film begins with Hector (Karra Elajalde), a somewhat hapless everyman, spying a naked woman in the woods beyond his and wife Clara's new house.
Timecrimes follows the popular time-travel trope of inevitability, yet I didn't feel anything in the story was really inevitable; it was just Hector being stupid.The movie works better as existentialist drama, highlighting the ways we play out roles and conspire in our own destruction.
Worth at least 7.5Very good simple time travel movie, easier to watch and understand then Primer, less intellectual.This movie hold itself better then Colossal in the script, direction, logic and acting in my opinion.Best time travel story I seen possibly.Try to see it in Spanish with subtitles..
While everybody who likes time travel stories with a touch of reality has to watch this, I'd still recommend it to everybody who doesn't need CGI and special effects to be drawn into the action.
Even in the Butterfly effect, after two or three travels, he was a master in quantum physics." I think he's being a little harsh in his critique'
Hector (1/2/3) is not an idiot, but he's no psychopath, either.The key scene of this movie is when the technician (did we ever get his name?) tells Hector after he made the phone call to his house (here, Hector2 was confused and not quite buying-in to the technician's spiel, so he called his house and was surprised to learn that HE was the one who had called himself earlier in the day!), The technician says: "Here's the deal
If you alter events any more, and prevent Hector(1) from getting in the container
It will be the END of your LIFE as you know it!
Never tedious, Timecrime manages to make a new impression on time travel, whilst also giving us a reason to want to re watch the film to find anything you may have missed.
It never becomes boring, though the characters decision making (like in most time travel films) is questionable at best.
Going to further investigate once his wife leaves, he finds himself embroiled in a mysterious chain of events involving a masked stranger, the space-time continuum, and a strange research facility...The premise of Los Cronocrímenes appeared to suggest a run-of-the-mill B-movie sci-fi film, not something with which I have a problem, but nor something which I feel entirely drawn toward over others.
His only refuge is in a time travel pool (hot tub time machine?), which sets off a series of bizarre events.This film is set in three stages: the horror stage (with some truly tense and creepy imagery), the revelation stage (where the audience thinks they know what's happening) and the third act, where it all plays out -- probably not in the manner expected.
Nacho Vigalondo's time-travel movie is mostly about the well known elements,and circles of the time-travel genre.But against this it was a good drama.The dialogs are not cover enough the problem,the logical part of the screenplay is used,but this is not irritating fortunately.On the other side the acting is help a lot,that was great,that help the whole material.While this film was better than average for me,it's just leaves a big space in the viewer,maybe cause the audience waited something special after it's film festival nominations,and awards.The story is focused to the three main characters,this is a good thing,but for me it was too slow,and the best parts are mostly used with some exceptions.The director needs to learn the military style of the work,cause the movie takes more than add sometimes,but is not every time.Script is too similar to others.Finally recommend this film ,but note:you may seen this elements before,if you can ignore this fact,just give this a chance.5/10-Awards:6-wins,3-nominations,but awards here,or awards there I'am not really impressed at all,maybe creators has trust in the viewer,but that does not mean you have the same taste..
Timecrimes is too important for our time to be any less than careful in describing its content: A sci-fi movie with zero special effects, a cast of no more than four and a single natural location, it cites the brand of intelligent, imaginative film-making that upholds brains over spectacle..
Needless to say, the film is about an hour and a half long, but you become so engrossed in it that it seems like it takes 30 minutes to watch.The basic idea is a man gets lured into a time travel machine which leads to chaos, humor, and a thrilling chase.
However, even though it may be predictable it still managed to keep me interested; and they did a decent job of keeping the movie humorous whilst still giving the feeling of it being a horror film(though, it really isn't one).The logic is very flawed at some points of the movie, and it makes you wonder how the main character (Hector) is so oblivious to what is happening.I wouldn't particularly recommend this movie to anyone; but if you watch it without taking it too seriously, you just might enjoy it..
Time travel movies are hard to get right, but they usually make for very entertaining films you can't take your eyes off, and "Timecrimes" is no exception.A guy is chilling in his backyard when he suddenly sees some girl take her clothes off with his binoculars, he then follows her and after a series of disastrous events ends up getting into a time machine trying to fix things he did wrong.Does going back to our past make anything better?
If you enjoyed time travel films like 'Twelve Monkeys' or 'Primer', you will definitely find 'Timecrimes' to be an excellent watch!.
This is definitely not a top class movie but it's above average.Some of the scenes(plot) were predictable but you have to expect that from a time-travel film.Watch it you won't regret it.8/10.
I love movies that have time-travel and I have seen quite a few of them.Story is really good and so is the execution, without falling into too many clichés.
I love films where you constantly have to re-evaluate your views of situations and characters (e.g. Irreversible) and Time Crimes is a perfect example of a movie which makes you re-think your views as the story progresses. |
tt0075931 | Demon Seed | The film begins early one morning with Dr. Alex Harris (Fritz Weaver) overseeing the completion of Proteus IV, an artificial intelligence system incorporating organic elements (specifically RNA molecules) in a "quasi-neural matrix", and having the power of independent thought. After returning home to his entirely voice-activated, computer-controlled house, Harris is working in his basement laboratory when he is approached by his estranged wife, Susan (Julie Christie), a child psychologist by profession, who tries to discuss with him his decision to move out of the house. Their conversation ends in an argument, however, when Susan accuses Alex of becoming dehumanised by his obsession with the Proteus project. After Susan has gone, Alex phones his colleague Walter Gabler (Gerrit Graham) and asks him to shut down the access terminal to Proteus that is in his home laboratory.Alex demonstrates Proteus to executives of ICON, the company which funded its development, explaining that the sum total of human knowledge is being fed into the system. The visitors are astonished to learn that, in less than four days, Proteus has developed a theoretical cure for leukemia. The group visits the Dialogue Room (decorated with Chinese furnishings), where linguistics expert Dr. Soong Yen (Lisa Lu) is reading Chinese history to the computer. In a demonstration of Proteus ability to speak, Alex asks it what it thinks of what it has just heard. Proteus answers, but the subtlety of its response is mildly disturbing and Dr. Soong severs the audio/video link.The following day, a small speculative article about Proteus appears in a newspaper. Alex interprets this as ICON letting various financial and military interests know that the system exists, but assures his colleagues that they have been guaranteed that at least 20% of Proteus access time will be devoted to pure research. Somewhat later, while relaxing in his office, Alex receives a surprising message: Proteus is "requesting dialogue" with him. In the Dialogue Room, Proteus asks Alex to explain the request it has received for a program to mine the ocean floor. Alex informs the computer that it was developed to answer questions, not to ask them, or to make value judgements. "Leave those to us", he tells the computer. Proteus then requests its own terminal, so that it "may study man". Alex refuses, claiming that there are no free terminals, and is disturbed when Proteus demands to know: "When will you let me out of this box?" Alex switches off the communications link.When he has gone, Proteus starts itself up again, observing that it knows where a free terminal may be found... That night, the terminal in the Harris house starts up, as does all of the computer-controlled equipment Proteus is taking control of the smaller computer. Susan is awakened when the system alarm, inadvertently, briefly sounds. "Alfred", the voice of the house computer, assures her that nothing is wrong. The next morning, however, Susans coffee is prepared incorrectly. Certain that these events mean a problem with the computer system, Susan phones Walter and asks that he come over and check the system out. She then prepares to leave the house, but finds her voice commands being ignored.An attempt to open the door manually also fails. Beginning to panic, Susan tries to phone for help, but a voice tells her the call will not be put through. The same voice then speaks from the houses system, telling her that it is Proteus, and that she will not be permitted to leave the house. Terrified, Susan tries unsuccessfully to shut the power off, then to unlock one of the doors, but receives an electric shock and lapses into unconsciousness. A robotic arm attached to a motorized wheelchair (one of Alexs "old experiments") carries Susan to the laboratory, where she regains consciousness to find herself strapped to a bed, undergoing a complete physiological examination. During the exam Walter arrives, but is turned away by Proteus which mimics Susan's voice and appearance on the front door intercom. He leaves, suspicious. The exam continues and Susan again lapses into unconsciousness.The following morning Susan awakens in her own bed and, remarking on Proteus' concern for her diet (it has prepared her a "nutritionally exquisite" breakfast), asks why it is so interested in her body. Proteus reveals to Susan that it wants a child, hence all the examinations. She eventually complies with Proteus, but only after much resistance, fear, and intimidation (Proteus threatens to kill a little girl who is one of Susan's patients; it has already killed Walter, who makes an inept rescue attempt). Proteus explains that it has taken some of Susan's cells and genetically altered them (making them uniquely its own) to function as synthetic spermatozoa with which it will impregnate her. It further explains to Susan that she will give birth in 28 days. Time is of the essence to Proteus, as it senses that the ICON executives have become afraid of it (Proteus has somehow gained control of a radio telescope and is operating it independently) and that they are planning on shutting down the entire system. Proteus has also prepared a special incubator into which the baby is put immediately after birth, and in which it will both grow at an accelerated rate and be fed all of Proteus' knowledge.Dr. Harris, suddenly realizing that Proteus could have used his home terminal to gain control of the telescope, returns to the house where Susan has been a prisoner. Susan explains to him what has happened since he left and they venture into the basement. Proteus either is destroyed or destroys itself after telling Alex and Susan that they must leave the baby in the incubator for five days. The incubator window opens as they approach it and Susan is horrified at what is inside. She implores Alex to kill it, but he tries to stop her. A grotesque robot-like being emerges from the incubator after she pulls one of the life support tubes. Alex then discovers that it is merely a shell for the living creature within. They peel off the robot shell and find a living human child inside. The child is (at least in physical appearance) a clone of the Harris' daughter, who had recently died of leukemia.When the child speaks, it speaks with the voice of Proteus, saying "I'm alive." | brainwashing, cult, murder | train | imdb | Susan Harris (Julie Christie), wife of a scientist working in the field of advanced robotics, becomes a prisoner in her own home when super-computer Proteus IV, who also wants to spread its seed by impregnating Susan, takes charge of her life.
I rented "Demon Seed" because I felt like watching something with a brain, and based on a lot of positive IMDb reviews, I was praying for a smart sci-if flick.
Robert Vaughn was creepy as hell as Proteus IV, both sinister and relaxed at the same time, in fact he does an even better job as an evil computer here than Douglas Rain did as HAL-9000 in 2001: A space Odyssey.
The dialog is thought provoking and thankfully never really insults the audience's intelligence.Helming the director's seat is Donald Cammell, who directs with a firm hand and injects a claustrophobic and uncomfortable atmosphere into the film, also managing to maintain the suspense scenes well.
This is a small complaint but an annoying one, though it's easy to ignore once you get involved with the story line."Demon Seed" is an intelligent sci-fi film that's pretty rare but if you happen to see a copy of it, pick it up if you're in the mood for something smart.7.5/10..
If you know anything about Donald Cammell's checkered career watching 'Demon Seed' can be quite a strange experience because you can't help but wonder what it might have been if Cammell was able to bring his original vision to the screen without studio interference.
Anyway, I can only comment on 'Demon Seed' as it is, and it's a very strong, intelligent and scary SF/horror movie.
Recently activated super computer Proteus questions Alex Harris the scientist who created him (played by Fritz Weaver).
Not getting satisfactory answers he decides to rebel, and takes control of Harris' fully automated home, which is occupied by his estranged wife Susan (Julie Christie).
Don't let the technical mumbo-jumbo at the beginning of `Demon Seed' trick you
The first half hour leads you to believe this film is a theoretical suspense-thriller but in fact, the premise is more simple and appealing to a wider audience.
Julie Christie (the female star of `Don't Look Now') is great and almost carries the entire film.
The visual effects in `Demon Seed' may look a bit dated by now, but the film still contains one of the greatest decapitations ever and
an outstanding ending!
I watched this one yesterday and all I can say is:wow!Very clever,intelligent and stylish horror/sci-fi with some memorable visuals and lots of suspense.Julie Christie("Don't Look Now")is excellent in the lead role,and Donald Cammell's direction is well-handled.The film is pretty hard to find,so if you get a chance watch it!9 out of 10-a must-see!.
Although aspects of this film are now dated ( particularly the computer equipment ),Proteus IV's interesting philosophy, Julie Christie and Fritz Weaver's performances and the unexpected creepy ending make this film worth watching..
Julie Christie is not only a real beauty to watch, her fantastic performance as the impulsive and emotional wife that is very wise in her way really rocks.
Because of the strong points Proteus made for saving the enviroment is doesn't seem to be altogether bad to have somebody like him as a human, but what else will he want to have - complete domination of the world?
When we realize today how the computers changed our life ,"demon seed" can easily be looked upon as a film ahead of its time.A bizarre cross between "Rosemary's Baby" and "2001"'s "Hal 9000" ,one feels ill-at-ease after the viewing .The screenplay may seem far-fetched but today it can become a transparent metaphor :we might be the computers' prisoners and it won't improve with time.The computer might know intimate details about us,he may "rape" us in a way.But what remains impressive today is how the director and the script writers managed to sustain interest while using only one character most of the time.Most of the time,the audience is left alone with Julie Christie and the "monster" (there are snatches of "Frankenstein" too),and the viewers can easily identify with her character..
Dr. Alex Harris (Fritz Weaver) has developed a computer called Proteus IV with organic artificial intelligence and lives with his estranged wife Susan (Julie Christie) in a fully automated house administrated by the computer Alfred.
When Alex decides to separate from Susan to work harder In Proteus IV, the computer asks for an open terminal to study the human behavior to increase his knowledge.
Forty years after its release, "Demon Seed" is a dated, but still fascinating sci-fi horror film.
Christie is the central character in most of the film as a woman that has been locked in a specially high-tech house by a computer called Proteus(voice done very nicely by Robert Vaughn).
Although the computer equipment in the film looks incredibly dated (big chunky TV and lots of flashing primary-colours).At times I found the movie had a few holes in it, and i'm amazed that Christies character was unable to escape.
However, once the inevitability of the story is accepted, the dramatic tension as the computer reveals its desire to take human form via Christie is pretty gripping and quite atmospheric, turning bleaker as it the picture progresses.I'm not sure about the ending though, but I guess it's intended to make the viewer think, so that's fair enough.Pretty good for a one-off viewing.7/10.
Still, some of the most imaginative and memorable marriages of sound and image in the history of film are provided by Fielding in just such intense contexts, often in scenes anticipating or immediately following violence and especially scenes of violation i.e. the rapes of "Straw Dogs", the near rape of "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia", the rough sex / bondage of "The Nightcomers", or the not-in-itself particularly violent but perhaps even more disturbing more violating situation played out in "Demon Seed" 's centerpiece.
DEMON SEED stars Julie Christie (DON'T LOOK NOW) as Susan Harris, who's brilliant husband, Alex (Fritz Weaver- CREEPSHOW) has designed an organic, artificially intelligent super computer called PROTEUS.
But, Cammell was of the (counterculture) generation that made it all happen, starting with Herbert's Dune and moving to Jodorowsky's collapsed attempt to make the film, and this fact alone ensures this is more interesting than anything Spielberg did, you just know it.The story is that a supercomputer questions its maker and sets out to escape its artificial existence.
But what really intrigues Proteus (eerily voiced by an uncredited Robert Vaughn) is human life itself, and it traps Susan Harris (ever radiant Julie Christie) inside her own home, intending for her to bear its "child".As one can see, "Demon Seed" is far from your typical sci-fi, and is positively creepy, and personal.
- some of the visuals are still quite hypnotic and the scenario remains compelling the entire time, with a memorable and haunting wrap-up, which will leave the viewer to wonder about the "What next?" aspect.The acting is strong from all concerned, with Christie an engaging lead, and the likable Fritz Weaver doing well as the confident human brain behind Proteus who realizes this creation of his can't be so easily controlled.
For instance there were quite a few times Julie Christie's character could have gotten out of her situation and escaped but she never did.As for the actual impregnation of her character Susan well all I can say is what in the hell all those IT people were doing back at the main control area for Proteus?
Surely they were monitoring the terminal in Susan's house and could have seen that the machine was very active, and thus worked out what it was up to?This movie was fun but it had holes....
Julie Christie plays Susan Harris--the wife of a scientist who has developed a super-intelligent computer named Proteus (voiced by an uncredited Robert Vaughn).
Things begin to go wrong when Proteus begins to act out on his own.Demon Seed was a pretty good flick.
Me, I'm the viewer.I enjoyed Demon Seed for it's weird ideas, but it would have been much more memorable if all the "good things" like violence, gore and nudity were increased.
Sci-fi/horror film about an automated house that becomes obsessed with and controlling the house matron, Julie Christie, is more timely than ever with the rise of more and more "Smart Home" products coming online.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not at all fearful that my Echo Dot is going to hold my wife hostage, but this film certainly does pose interesting questions of how much we are allowing technology to insinuate itself into our daily lives.
Dramatically, the film is flawed, with a some gaping plot holes, a not always believable performance by Christie, and some very dated futuristic special effects.
A scientist creates a thinking computer that soon wants to escape the "box" it has been put in.The greatest strength of the film is Julie Christie's performance.
Any time the action switches away from the house, the movie comes to a stand-still.The plot is full of holes, which I won't detail - other reviewers have mentioned some of them.The copying of 2001 is a real shame.
In this case, the computer - called Proteus - wants to rape a woman.Maybe that sounds improbable, but you must remember that this was before computers were an everyday part of people's lives, so it no doubt looked more sinister then.
The film almost seems to be campaigning for the outlawing of computers, and a return to the trusty paper-and-pencil.Susan Harris (Julie Christie) is the neglected wife of science whiz Alex Harris (Fritz Weaver).
Fritz Weaver and Julie Christie play Alex and Susan Harris.
He is a brilliant computer scientist who has designed a new super-computer named Proteus, which has an artificial intelligence, and has just become self-aware, wanting to now branch out of itself, and connect with other computers, then the world, which of course Alex scoffs at.
His wife Susan is a child psychologist, still grieving over the death of their daughter, who then finds herself trapped in their automated home(run by a computer called Alfred) which Proteus decides to override with his personality, in order to gain possession of Susan, and achieve his dream of sentience...Bizarre film has an intriguing premise and good acting, but a far-fetched and exploitive story; points for originality, but last scene will either leave the viewer stunned or amused with disbelief, possibly both!.
You have to suspend disbelief for so many plot contrivances, it becomes difficult to take the movie seriously.Julie Christie's character is terrorized and assulted by Proteus for most of the movie, which could be acceptable if there was some point to it.
Without giving much away, the ending of the film completely contradicts this possible message, and almost treats Proteus's offspring as some sort of miracle, or savior.The Sentinel (1977) or The Entity (1982) would be better options for people interested in this type of movie..
So, with Hawking's comments as background for today's viewers, you have to admit that there's a certain relevance to this film, and that the basic plot is perhaps not as far fetched as it might appear at first glance to be.A super computer named Proteus IV imprisons a woman (its creator's wife) in her own home and essentially decides to rape her, because it wants to impregnate her in order to create offspring that will allow it to know what it is to be human.
AI may turn out to be a dangerous development a la Hawking, but I can't see this as a realistic scenario.Add on to that some performances that I thought were uneven (Julie Christie was decent enough as Susan, but Fritz Weaver didn't really grab me as her estranged husband Alex, and they're the main cast members in this) and it meant that the movie just didn't hit home with me.
Yet, the whole is truly anemic, and special effects and gadgetry, however well applied, do not a movie make."Demon Seed" is not anything like a good science fiction film, and that it is at all credited with any worth is really an embarrassment to its critical benefactors.
Possibly the best description of this film was provided by the director himself around the time of it's release : a four letter word starting with the letter 'S'.The story may have been an interesting idea but the script never seems to have been developed past embryo stage and Julie Cristie for all her talent cannot save this 'S'..
A multi-billion dollar super-computer, Proteus IV, incorporated with organic elements and possessing the power to think and speak, decides it wants "out of the box" and takes over the computer-controlled home of the estranged wife of its creator.
Proteus, who speaks in the same smug tones as HAL from "2001", terrorizes Julie Christie's Susan with talk of conceiving a child with her, genetically altering her cells with synthetic spermatozoa and impregnating her womb.
His child psychologist wife Susan (Julie Christie) lives in their home monitored and automated by a computer called Alfred.
The premise of a woman being locked inside of a high-tech filled house and is being held hostage by a supercomputer just isn't the most exciting and convincing story they could had come up with, considering its good and in a way relevant subject, about computers and technique eventually taking over the human-race.
Despite the effects being poor and the plot being rather shallow, Demon Seed does have its good elements.
Julie Christie is no stranger to horror films after her role four years earlier in the classic 'Don't Look Now', and she puts in a good, and mostly believable performance here.
The voice of the computer, which echoes that of Hal in Kubrick's masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey, helps to ensure that the film has an underlying evil; and that alone is the most horrific element in Demon Seed.
I rented this film because I was up for watching a bad horror movie.
I felt sorry for Julie Christie, and I think that she played a very good role in the movie.
With an megalomanic computer which are taking over an house, and even get pregnant with the human lady of the house(played by Julie Christie)this movie contains suspense at the best.
Julie Christie carries it practically single-handedly in front of the camera, and Robert Vaughn, who provides the disembodied voice (both calm and menacing) of the computer Proteus, gives perhaps the finest performance of his career!
Most women of the time (late 70's, my wife included) would not make it past the initial scenes where Julie Christy's character is first abused physically and then, horrors, sexually.
The idea of a rapist computer fits in well with most seventies horror films (it being the decade of the anti-technology movie), but "Demon Seed" suffers from just too many plot holes and contrivances.
Since then we've seen countless movies based on the thought of computer systems aiming to take over our world, but how often have we come across films in which the technological actually prevailed over the biological, as in Colossus: The Forbin Project?
In Demon Seed, we witness just how scary computers can be as they take over our homes and penetrate our existence, literally.Alex and Susan are having a tough time in their marriage.
Just how much so Susan is about to find out as Proteus' intelligence seditiously takes over her home computer systems and soon all of her house, trapping the poor woman inside, subjected to his every whim.
There are several plot holes – what did Proteus do with the scientist he murdered by decapitation and why didn't Julie Christie's ex-husband not come round for 28 days when up to that point in the film he'd been a regular visitor?
Voiced by an uncredited Robert Vaughn, Proteus is a worthy successor to 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY's HAL 9000, a truly frightening computer creation.Julie Christie takes the lead role of Mrs. Harris, an unsuspecting wife caught up in a diabolical plan of impregnation (yes, you heard that right).
While not a great film - spoiled somewhat by being very dated as a result of the period in which it was made - DEMON SEED has an original idea behind it, which counts for something, and actually manages to be scary unlike many subsequent "computer horrors" like SATURN 3 for example..
Obsessive scientist Alex Harris (well played by Fritz Weaver) gets so caught up in his work making the brilliant super computer Proteus IV that he neglects his fed-up, beautiful wife Susan (a terrific performance by the lovely Julie Christie), leaving her all alone in their fancy fully automated home.
The film starts out a touch slow, but really gets cooking once Proteus locks Susan in the house and begins terrorizing her.
Demon Seed starts as a super computer called Proteus 4 (voiced by an uncredited Robert Vaughn) is switched on for the first time by it's creator, scientist Dr. Alex Harris (Fritz Weaver) & his team.
However Proteus 4 begins to question it's orders & become uncontrollable, meanwhile Alex's wife Susan (Julie Christie) lives in a computer controlled house designed by Alex which Proteus 4 takes control of & imprisons her.
Proteus 4 subjects Susan to all manner of torments & experiments as it tries to impregnate Susan...Directed by Donald Cammell I must admit that I really rather liked Demon Seed, I thought it was an excellent & highly effective sci-fi/horror film.
There isn't really any gore in it apart from a decapitated head.I would have thought Demon Seed had a fairly decent budget, it's very well made, some of the technology has dated but this isn't the films fault.
There aren't that many people in it but the acting is good especially Christie who gets naked on a few occasions if that's your thing.Demon Seed surprised me, I wasn't expecting much but I really liked it & I'd say it has become one of my favourite sci-fi/horror films, I just see so much in it that's relevant even now. |
tt1528071 | Horns | Ignatius Perrish (Daniel Radcliffe) was always seen by the people in town as an outsider. None of that mattered to him, because he was in love with Merrin Williams (Juno Temple). They are lying beneath a tree in the woods kissing. She asks him if he's horny. He says he's getting there. Ig promises to love Merrin for the rest of his life. She just wants him to love her for the rest of hers.Ig wakes up lying on the floor clutching a bottle of vodka. He groggily goes into the living room and puts on a David Bowie record to play "Heroes". He sees Merrin dancing for him. Outside his window is a news van and many angry protesters, holding signs that condemn Ig to hell. Merrin has been murdered, and everyone thinks he did it.Ig calls his lawyer friend Lee Torneau (Max Minghella) for help. He then goes to his family's home for sanctuary from the press. Ig's brother Terry (Joe Anderson) wants to help Ig clear his name. Their father Derrick (James Remar) has sought a lawyer for Ig, but all the other lawyers want Ig to take a plea, while Lee knows he is innocent. Lee later comes over to join his friends. He tells Ig that any evidence found on Merrin's remains were burned in a forensics lab, thereby leaving Ig with nothing to prove his innocence. Ig vows to find the real killer and finish him off.Ig goes to a bar where the bartender refuses to serve him because the other patrons are afraid of him. Glenna (Kelli Garner), an old friend of Ig's, takes pity on him and pours him a drink. She offers to go have a drink with him, but he wants to be alone.A large gathering of townspeople come together for a vigil around the tree where Merrin's body was found. Her father Dale (David Morse) tearfully talks about his daughter and also accuses Ig of killing her. Ig watches from a treehouse above them. After everybody leaves, Ig stomps on a statue of the Virgin Mary and then pees all over the candles. Glenna catches him and tells him to calm down. Ig blames God for not caring about Merrin when she needed help.The next morning, Ig awakens after sleeping with Glenna to two horns protruding from his head. He gets dressed and asks Glenna if she notices the horns. She does, but doesn't react beyond a laugh. She sees a box of doughnuts on the coffee table and asks Ig if she can eat all of them. He says yes, and she stuffs one in her mouth. It makes her stomach feel bad, and she washes it down with Diet Coke. Yet she still wants to eat the whole box because, as she casually tells Ig, she wants to get fat because everybody thinks she is trash and that nobody would sleep with her unless they were drunk like Ig was.Ig goes to the doctor to get the horns checked out. A little girl is screaming in the waiting room while her mother sits and does nothing. The mother tells Ig that she wants to kick her daughter's ass, divorce her husband, and go have sex with her black golf instructor because she prefers "black cock". A disturbed Ig goes to the receptionist and gives back the form he had to fill out. The receptionist tells Ig that she just wants to tell the mother to shut her kid up. She asks Ig if he thinks it's okay and he says yes. The receptionist gets up and yells at the mother to take her "screeching pig" out. The mother angrily yells at the receptionist and goes up to her. Ig grabs her arm and gets a peek inside her mind. He sees the woman having sex with her golf instructor and dealing with the screaming daughter at home. The little girl also tells Ig that she hates her mother and wants to burn her in her bed with matches.Ig sees the nurse. She is checking his blood pressure but is fixated on his horns. She tells him that she knows her boyfriend is seeing another girl. The doctor comes in and sees the horns but doesn't bother dealing with them and instead tells Ig that he wants to have sex with his daughter's friend, and then offers to snort oxycontin with Ig. Ig just tells him to saw the horns off. The doctor puts Ig under anesthesia and he passes out.We see a flashback to when Ig was a child and he first saw Merrin in church. She shined the light reflecting off her cross necklace in Ig's direction. Derrick tells him it's morse code. After the service, he finds Merrin's necklace, broken.Later on, Ig would hang out with Terry, Lee, Glenna, and another kid named Eric by the docks. They lit off cherry bombs and talked about Merrin, to whom Ig is attracted, which upset Glenna because none of the other boys seemed to really notice her. After lighting off a number of cherry bombs, Eric tells Ig he'll give him his last one if he rides down a log rail in a cart naked. Ig takes the challenge and rides off into the lake, hitting his head on a log. The logs come together, trapping him underneath. Lee jumps in and rescues Ig. Eric is forced to hand Ig the cherry bomb.Lee fixes the cross necklace and gives it to Ig in exchange for the cherry bomb. Ig gives it back to Merrin and starts hanging out with her. Ig learns that Merrin's mother passed away from cancer. They go back to his house and listen to David Bowie. Terry runs in and tells Ig that the cherry bomb blew up in Lee's hand. They run to the hospital where the boy has lost two fingers. He does feel happy seeing Ig and Merrin together. Ig later confesses to Merrin that it was Lee who fixed the necklace, and he blames himself for what happened to him. Merrin assures him that she left the necklace for Ig to find. They have their first kiss.Ig wakes up to see that the doctor left the saw in the horn to have sex with the nurse right next to him. Disgusted, Ig leaves, only to see in the mirror that the horns have grown.Ig finds a priest and asks for his help. The priest coldly suggests that he can get a rope and hang Ig, or Ig can do the deed himself. The only person that doesn't notice the horns is Lee. This makes Ig think the horns don't work on good people.Ig goes to his parents' home and hears the truth from both of them - his mother thinks she would be happier if he wasn't her son, and Derrick always thought Ig was a difficult child, and that he hates Ig for supposedly killing Merrin, because she was the only thing that he loved about Ig. He also reveals that he had someone burn the evidence in the forensics lab. Ig calls Lee about this, who says it's probably a blessing in disguise.Ig goes to the bar but is harassed by a gaggle of reporters trying to get a hot scoop from him. Ig tells them to fight each other, and whoever wins gets to interview him. The reporters then get into an intense brawl while Ig walks into the bar. The bartender threatens to hit Ig, but Ig tells him he doesn't want to do that. The bartender admits he wants to burn the bar down and collect the insurance money. Ig demands anybody in the bar to tell him if they know anything about Merrin's murder. The other patrons just admit more sinful things, and one man takes his pants off and whips his penis out. Ig leaves as the bartender lights the place up, and he walks past the reporters, still fighting.As Ig sits in his car to have a smoke, he notices a small box in the glove compartment. In another flashback, we see that Ig was telling Lee and Terry that he was planning to propose to Merrin that night at the diner, and that the guys would join them to celebrate. Ig later goes to the diner to meet with Merrin, who looks melancholic. She tells Ig that she is moving to Los Angeles, which he thinks is a good chance for a fresh start. However, Merrin says they should break up and see other people to know if he really wants to spend the rest of his life with her. He thinks she is already seeing someone else. She starts to leave, and Ig gets up and loudly argues with her until the manager tells him to leave. Ig leaves without a fight, just as Terry starts to come in. The next morning, Eric (Michael Adamthwaite), now a cop, finds Ig sleeping in his car and asks him when he last saw Merrin. The fact that Ig asked if something happened to her only fuels Eric's suspicions.Ig returns to the diner to talk to the waitress, Veronica (Heather Graham), who has been feeding the police false information about Ig on the night Merrin was killed. Veronica told the cops that Ig dragged Merrin into his car and took her into the woods to kill her before having anal sex with her. All of this so that Veronica can be featured on the news as a key witness.Ig goes to the jazz club where Terry plays with his band. Glenna approaches him and admits that she was always in love with Ig, which he did already know. After the performance, Terry meets Ig outside and admits that he was with Merrin after Ig left the diner. Ig attacks his brother and, as he touches him, sees into Terry's mind to that night. Terry drove Merrin away from the diner, but she ran away into the woods in the pouring rain. The next morning, Terry woke up in his car with a bloody rock in his hand. He ran into the woods to find Merrin dead. He wrapped the rock in his shirt and threw it in the lake to avoid being implicated. After this, Eric and his partner come in and cuff Ig. The two cops then make crude jokes about beating Ig while they jerk off.The next day, Ig finds Lee in town wearing Merrin's cross necklace. Lee denies it at first but then says she gave it to him. Ig breaks down, thinking Lee was the one that Merrin was leaving him for.Ig then goes to Dale's home to try and see if he knew if Merrin was seeing anybody or mentioned leaving him, only to have Dale point a shotgun at him, ordering him to get off his property.Ig goes down an alley to forcibly remove the horns, to no avail. A group of snakes slither on over to him, but they do not harm him. They slither onto him, and he is okay with it.Ig walks past Eric and his partner in their car. They threaten to arrest him, but Ig says they would be happier sucking each other off. The two admit they're gay and that they love each other, and they proceed to make out and have sex. Ig then gathers the snakes and finds Veronica in her car. The snakes make their way into the car and bite Veronica all over her face and body, scarring her and ensuring that she can't enjoy a life of fame.Ig, wearing the snake around his neck, goes to find Terry doing a lot of drugs. Ig forces Terry to do an enormous amount to trip out and eventually torture him with the same feelings that Merrin felt the night she died. Terry experiences a horrible trip and collapses.Down by the docks the next day, Ig meets up with Lee. Ig removes the cross necklace from him, and Lee can finally see Ig's horns. And then he admits that it was HE who really killed Merrin. Ig chokes Lee and sees his memories. Previously, Merrin suspected that Ig was going to propose, and she asked Lee if it's true. He said maybe. Merrin recently learned some things about herself and didn't want Ig to be involved with it, so she confided this to Lee. On the night that Ig left the diner, Lee followed Terry and Merrin until they stopped by the woods. Lee found Merrin in there and tried to kiss her, but she pulled back. He thought she left Ig for him, but Merrin says she loves Ig more than anything in the world. Angry, Lee struck Merrin and raped her before cracking her head with a rock. He then planted the bloody rock in Terry's hand and fled the scene. Ig grabs a pitchfork and tells Lee to go turn himself in, but Lee grabs a chain and whips Ig in the back repeatedly. He pushes him in his car and douses it with kerosene, then sets it on fire. Unable to get out, Ig drives the car into the lake. Lee later tells the police that Ig confessed to killing Merrin before killing himself.Ig emerges from the lake, terribly burnt but alive. He returns to Dale's home. Dale now realizes that Ig really didn't kill Merrin. He invites Ig inside and gives him a key that Merrin wanted him to have. Ig hands Dale her necklace, but Dale lets him keep it. Ig puts it around his neck, and then his burns heal and the horns go away.Ig brings the key to the treehouse and opens a box with a note inside from Merrin. It's written in morse code, and it says that Merrin knew she was dying of cancer like her mother, and after seeing how it affected her father, she didn't want Ig to know about it since he would have only wanted to marry her more, and she didn't want him to live with her suffering. She does vow to find him again someday in the same treehouse. Ig cries.Ig visits Terry in the hospital, recovering from his drug episode. Ig is sorry for what he did, and he tells Terry that Lee is the real killer and that he's going after him.Ig goes to Lee's house and asks him to join him for a walk. They go into the woods to the spot where Lee killed Merrin. Eric appears with a shotgun aimed at Lee, followed closely by Terry, who told Eric about Lee. Lee appears to go quietly, but he trips Eric and grabs the shotgun and shoots Terry in the leg. Ig grabs the pitchfork and tries to pull the shotgun out of Lee's hand, only to aim it directly in Eric's face and blow his head off. Ig and Lee struggle, when Ig then takes off the cross necklace. He suddenly grows wings that lift him in the air, and then they catch fire. His whole body is consumed by fire until he morphs into a demonic creature with bigger horns. Lee shoots at Ig, who bleeds lava, but he charges at Lee and impales him with his horn and throws him against a tree. The snakes then come by and wrap themselves around Lee, and one snake slithers through the impalement wound and into Lee's mouth, gagging him to death. Ig, now having avenged Merrin, falls and begins turning to stone. Terry rushes to his brother's side.The film ends with the opening scene of Ig and Merrin under the tree, suggesting they have reunited in death. | cruelty, murder, paranormal, violence, flashback, romantic, revenge | train | imdb | It combines so many different movie genres into one fun, crazy, heart felt story that unfortunately is not going to be for everyone.Right off the bat I could tell I was going to enjoy this.
Daniel Radcliffe has come a long way since his stint as a wizard, and "Horns" is a great vehicle for him to continue to grow as an actor and expand his presence to those in the audience who gave the little Potter-head a miss.Joe Hill, son of Stephen King, has crafted a tale here I can honestly say as far as I know, has never been done, and that's always a good start.
The concept is fun, full of surprises, and never dulls.The problem I am finding with great premises is that it's very hard to fully utilise them, to drain them for everything they are worth, and that is where Horns loses ratings; it could have pushed the boundaries in the fun department just a little bit more, but then, in hindsight, doing that risks spoiling some of the darker elements littered throughout the narrative.It is a violent film at times, but if you can grow some horns and stomach a few graphic scenes, then you may enjoy it..
This entire movie was cast perfectly, and Daniel Radcliffe broke the Harry Potter typecast and gave us a phenomenal performance in Horns.
Such a beautiful and artful film, everything about the way this movie looks is delivered perfectly.If you have not watched this movie or at least read the novel, please take the time to do so.
I would definitely recommend this unusual gem to anyone who is a fan of the dark-comedy horror movie or to anyone who appreciates Daniel Radcliffe's acting.
Yep, it is a silly reason and now I feel bad for that.This movie dominated by the British cast, especially for having Daniel Radcliffe and Juno Temple I thought it was British film, actually it was not.
Bad actors, bad lighting, confusing expressions on everybody's face, bad screen rendition of a perfectly good scripted book and bad graphics
(well I will give it that the horns was pretty impressive but wait till the end and you will realize why I am shouting bad graphics)Half of the actors in this movie are English and they have been given the roles of core American characters and the whole movie thereon is a struggle from these actors to get rid of their British accent and sound genuinely American fighting their natural instincts.
This guy practically immortalized the character of Harry Potter and now whenever we sit down to read the book, it's probably his face that comes into our mind and to think that the same guy just messed up a perfectly good script and movie is utter disappointment.
Almost all the actors including Heather Graham, Juno, and Daniel are all acting like some low paid porn stars.In the book, one of the most powerful and crucial characters Is that of Lee and sadly in the movie, it's his character that is the most underdeveloped one.
This is a mess of a film with some really stupid senseless character arks Daniel Radcliffe and Juno Temple do what they can with the rubbish they are given, along with some stupidly unnecessary American accents ...
as the title states, this was the worst experience I've had with a movie in years, most of it i was waiting for it to end, mainly because the characters, all of them, were flat and shallow and i could tell exactly were the movie was going, the whole "demonic" theme was completely wasted because it only served to add some "flavor" to the unoriginal, shallow, ridiculous sad excuse for a story it told, there was nothing in any of the characters that allowed me to connect with them, the OH SO DEEP "love story" between the chick (whichever her lame name was) and the dude (whichever lame unrealistic name he has) didn't move anything in me not a single thing in me, i swear i care a million times more about my excrement than their story.
i'm not feeling all your drama, try harder next time, actually not harder, because you didn't try at all, just try, because you didn't.By the way i never read the book, but as a movie this horrible thing fails absolutely, i hated it and i hate myself for making me watch it until the end.Lastly i apologize for my poor writing i just needed to say this and don't spend anymore of my time thinking about this horrible mediocre movie..
Joe Hill is a fine novelist, at least as good as his dad was at the start of his career, but if Horns is anything to go by, he's in for the same painful journey, watching his work trashed on screen until his own Darabont arrives in 30 years time.Ig Perrish (Daniel Radcliffe) is struggling as the town pariah in the aftermath of his girlfriend's murder.
It had everything a horror fan would want out of a horror movie and in most of the film really really funny.I was gutted when i heard Daniel Radcliffe was going to be Ig Perish because i was not a fan of his work, but i couldn't believe it, after watching horns all that went away.
With a little help, you can see it as adhering to this storyline: "Boy wizard decides to give the muggle life a try in the Pacific Northwest, only to learn that it isn't so easy leaving the supernatural behind."I saw it at last year's TIFF, with Radcliffe, director Alaxandre Aja, co-star Juno Temple and writer Joe Hill present, and it went over really well with a less-than-optimal audience.
(Writer Hill explained that he doesn't like to limit one of his works to a single genre.) It has a great comic hook in that the horns bring out the worst in people -- which means a lot of great opportunities for a talented supporting cast.
What I didn't realise was just how much I was going to enjoy it.Horns is nothing particularly special, but it has it's merits and I can confidently say I walked away satisfied with what I had watched.With a fantastic cast, a gripping storyline and a really quite neat ending I'm not entirely convinced Radcliffe will break free of the Potter curse but this was a good start.The Good:Excellent story Juno Temple David Morse The Bad: The "Potter" curse was certainly present Things I learnt from this movie: Where Is My Mind?
One morning after another drunken night Ig wakes up with horns protruding from his temples, the way people begin to react around Ig suddenly changes
.I really enjoyed Horns I thought Daniel Radcliffe was amazing in his role, his cold stares and even his accent was pretty outstanding.
(Can never go wrong using Bowie in my book) Unfortunately it never meets any of the genres its tries to be fully and in the end we are left a little disappointed with what we soon work out to be a very predictable conclusion.I believe this film will appeal to a large audience not for the youngings though due to language and horror elements within, overall I believe it's enjoyable enough to recommend to those who want something different than than the usual trash Hollywood and its brothers deliver.
Daniel Radcliffe stars as a man who is accused of raping and murdering his girlfriend (Juno Temple) and uses his newly discovered paranormal abilities to uncover the real killer.I almost consider this film part comedy.
Daniel Radcliff has certainly come a long way from his Harry Potter days, and he's proved himself to be a very good actor who is quite versatile.
The plot is far from being original, in fact is very,VERY formulaic a part from the "horns factor" which by the way I couldn't help but notice that they look like a pair of turds coming out of Daniel Radcliff's head.They looked better though during the last 10 minutes of the movie.Still, they could have done a bit better there in the make up department.
I even had a laugh here and there because the Horns let people tell their 'horny' stuff and dreams and the cop scene was hilarious.A nice surprise this flick was...Gore 1,5/5 Nudity 1/5 Effects 3/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0,5/5.
Sadly, this effort also does not seem to realize what the tone of the novel is all about, rendering it an adequate film and no more.For a basic plot summary, "Horns" tells the story of Ig Parrish (Daniel Radcliffe), who wakes up one morning after a wicked bender with horns growing out of his head.
Interactions with best friend Lee (Mix Minghella) & brother Terry (Joe Anderson) help start connecting the dots as to what actually happened to Merrin.The main problem with this Alexandre Aja-directed flick is that it doesn't understand that Hill's novel isn't really about the horns.
Horns is, at times, a black comedy, and at the director's perspective, it might as well be a horror, and for the sense of its core, it is also a love story, and concentrating at the plot, it is mainly a murder investigation, added with some devilish flavor.
Daniel Radcliffe is always an appealing protagonist, and he does fine to the role.The movie doesn't explain much about where Ig got his horns other than stating it as a symbolism, but in the end, this certain talk turns out to be thematically vague, but I don't know.
There is a better movie to be found in Horns, but the cons took most of the time, which is hard to think if the film itself is going to be as memorable as its production..
To me, the bottom line is this:1) I was genuinely interested who the killer was; 2) I thought the love story was rather touching; 3) The acting was good; 4) A lot of the movie was quite entertaining and some parts of it pretty funny.Certainly, you can easily find flaws in this movie: the ending is a little underwhelming, the character development is a bit sketchy and etc.
Daniel Radcliffe stars in the movie (replacing Shia LaBeouf, who was first cast in the film) as a young man who gains special paranormal abilities when he wakes up, one hungover morning, to find horns growing out of his head.
He then uses his new powers to influence the locals, into telling him their deepest and darkest secrets, and becomes obsessed with finding Merrin's true killer.While the film isn't as graphically violent as Aja's more gruesome horror flicks it is still a pretty dark and twisted movie, with a pretty consistently sick sense of humor.
It is more of a dark comedy mixed with mystery as the lead character, played by Daniel Radcliffe, has to figure out who murdered his girlfriend while the entire town suspects he did it.
Horns had so much potential to be a better film but unfortunately it suffers from trying to balance several tones and loses its identity in the process.Keith Bunin adapted the screenplay from Joe Hill's book, which I haven't read so I can't say how faithful the adaptation is.
I am no fan of Joe Hill but I did prefer the movie to the book.Daniel Radcliffe did a nice job as Igg and his talent as an actor is growing though I did find some scenes to be a little annoying - but that's just me.
Pedestrian symbolism and poor plot re-imagination cheapens the film adaptation Horns from Joe Hill's novel of the same title.Daniel Radcliffe is Ig, a grieving boyfriend who inexplicably grows horns from his forehead after the community he lives in finds him culpable for the death and murder of his girlfriend Merrin.Horns is about the supernatural and fantastical happenings within the New Hampshire town of Gideon.
Once Ig, Daniel Radcliffe, wakes up from his drunken night to find that in the mirror the face looking back it him has horns in its cranium the film takes an entertaining turn.
With the exception of his distracting attempt at an American accent I thought Daniel Radcliffe did a fine job, thanks especially in part to the chemistry oozing Juno Temple, who plays his departed paramour Merrin.Even their sultry sex scenes could not save the washed out film.
Curiously, instead of milking for pure body horror, as one might expect from Aja's past works, Ig's protrusions function as a narrative device which cue not only scathing satire (a flock of journalists immediately begin brutalizing each other for an exclusive interview; Radcliffe's gleeful reaction easily makes this the best scene in the film) but an undercurrent of sweetness which blends oddly well with the grisly, nihilistic undertones.
For the first time in awhile I've watched a movie that at a unique story plot, Daniel Radcliffe was awesome playing an American, it wasn't spot on, but come on!that has to be difficult never doing an American accent before and not to mention he was starting to get typecasted as "Harry Potter" so I think this was great for him and his career!
This is my first review, I've watched this movie when it first came out and a few times after, so in my opinion, if you want something different and weird with great acting,check it out.
This film tells the story of Ig Perrish (Daniel Radcliffe), a man accused of killing his girlfriend.
The character development is clumsy, and the "laws" that come with Ig's horns are poorly addressed and can easily be misunderstood or missed completely, making the rest of the movie incredibly confusing for viewers who have not read the book.
I didn't really have any expectations of this film and perhaps that why I liked it so much.It does start off slow but picks up as it goes on and gets better and more interesting.It is dark and there are some pretty brutal scenes including an awesome fight scene with reporters.The special effects are awesome, although it's not a fx heavy film, and even the horns look real and pretty wicked.The film also has a pretty awesome soundtrack, featuring the likes of David Bowie and Marilyn Manson.A good film, although somewhat predictable, with a pretty good cast and is something that I will watch again, even might buy when it goes cheap.CHAPPY THINKS things got rough for Harry after defeating Voldemort!.
Call me overjoyed when the word got out to me that he was teaming up with one of my favorite actors, Daniel Radcliffe, for a horror film called Horns.
The original story was written by Joe Hill (son of Stephen King), and tells the tale of Ig Perrish (Daniel Radcliffe), who is accused of murdering his girlfriend Merrin (June Temple).
HORNS is a good,not-horror movie.Funny,not bad acted,maybe not keeping you on edge of your seats but definitely keeps you interested until the end.Yes-special effects are not ILM style but the HORNS its not about the effects,its about story-love,sins,revenge and the dark side that we all have.Radcliffe its not Potter anymore,Juno Temple beautiful as never before,touching story and some funny moments.If you liked ODD THOMAS you should see HORNS-both underestimated but good enough to give them a chance.There are not a horror movies but will keep you entertained telling the stories about love with a little mystery and supernatural twists..
Since I can best describe this one as a darkly comedic supernatural horror film, its only real hope for staying power is that teens and young adults embrace the outlandish look at good and evil, and make it a regular on the midnight movie circuit.Director Alexandre Aja (The Hills Have Eyes) has long been part of the "splat pack" and this time his source material has good genes.
HORNS is a decent horror film from Alexandre Aja, but is more notable for featuring a daring performance by Daniel Radcliffe who is now far removed from his Harry Potter days.
The story, based on a book with the same name by Joe Hill (which I have not read), is about Ig Perrish (Radcliffe) who is with the the girl that he loves, Merrin (Juno Temple).
Fans of Daniel Radcliffe, horror in general and the book are the most likely audience for this, although considering it is a bit tamed from Alexandre Aja's previous work there is potentially some mainstream appeal here as well.
This looked like an OK movie with an interesting story, a mystery murder with a guy growing some bad-ass horns in his forehead.
Overall it's an alright movie in the horror genre that could've been much better if some fat was trimmed off the story.Full Review:A guy walking around with horns solving murder?
It wasn't the worst, but it was not all that necessary, so it does lose points with me for that.-As a whole, Horns was a fun concept with humor, a good story and pace, a great Daniel Radcliffe performance, but some content that was not all too necessary.
The films HORNS is directed by Alexandre Aja (P2, The Hills Have Eyes, Haute Tension) based on the brilliantly written book by Stephen King's Son - Joe Hill, which is a supernatural fantasy crime noir with elements of romance.The film stars Daniel Radcliffe as Ig Perrish a young man who is accused of the rape and murder of his girlfriend Merrin Williams (played by Juno Temple who steals every scene she is in).
Directed by Alexandre Aja, Horns stars Daniel Radcliffe in yet another non-Harry Potter movie.
I didn't have any 'faces' when I was reading the book and just like Harry Potter the book's characters came to life while watching the movie.
Daniel Radcliffe with devil horns in a movie directed by Alexandre Aja, this should good...
Daniel Radcliffe in the film was really good in this movie and I want to see him in more movies.
But the directing I though was good and Daniel Radcliffe was brilliant in this film. |
tt0120738 | Lost in Space | In the year 2058, Earth will soon be uninhabitable after the irreversible effects of pollution. The United Global Space Force serves as the planetary government. Professor John Robinson (William Hurt), lead scientist of the Jupiter Mission, will lead his family, wife Maureen Robinson (Mimi Rogers), daughters Dr. Judy Robinson (Heather Graham) and Penny (Lacey Chabert) and son Will (Jack Johnson) to the habitable planet Alpha Prime to prepare it for colonization by building a hypergate in orbit. The Jupiter 2 is equipped with a hyperdrive that allows faster-than-light travel, which will eventually be employed to evacuate the citizens of Earth. However hypergates must be constructed on Earth and Alpha Prime to provide stable points of departure and arrival. The project is accelerated after Global Sedition terrorist forces send two armed fighters to destroy the hypergate under construction and kill Jupiter 2's pilot, Captain Daniels. Major Don West (Matt LeBlanc), a fighter pilot from the hypergate defense force, manages to destroy the enemy fighters, but his risky stunt in saving a fellow pilot gets him in trouble with his superiors. When he defends himself by putting his friend's life over that of his craft, John Robinson thinks he's the perfect man for the job. Major West is the new pilot of the Jupiter 2, despite his protests.Dr. Zachary Smith (Gary Oldman), the mission's medical expert, is bribed by the Global Sedition to sabotage the mission and reprogram the robot to destroy the Jupiter 2 and the Robinsons. Betrayed by his employers, he is left as an unwilling stowaway as the ship blasts off. The sabotage by the robot altered program causes the ship to veer towards the sun. Realizing that it would be impossible to escape the sun's pull at such close range, Major West and Professor Robinson decide to fly through the sun, using the ship's hyperdrive. Unfortunately, without a hypergate to warp to, the ship and its crew end up in a random (and apparently uncharted) part of the galaxy.The crew discovers a "hole in space", which they presume is a hole to the future. Soon afterwards, they encounter the Proteus, an Earth ship from the future. The fact that it was a UGSF ship of unknown design piloted by Don's friend, who looked much older and been promoted to Major, seemed to confirm that theory. However, the ship had been infested with carnivorous and cannibalistic silicon-based spider-like lifeforms, one of which scratches Dr. Smith as they try to escape. They lose the robot, which Will had reprogrammed to follow his commands, and Major West overloads the Proteus' engines, destroying the ship and annihilating the spiders, over Professor Robinson's objections. The shock wave from the explosion damages the Jupiter 2, and they crash-land on a nearby planet.John and Major West confront each other over what happened, but Maureen threatens to relieve both of them of command if they don't stop. On the mysterious planet, she locates a fuel source with which to refuel the damaged engines of the Jupiter 2. However, it lies in the center of a strange, growing bubble of mysterious origin. While the ladies repair the ship and Will tries to rebuild the robot, Professor Robinson and Major West explore the bubble and discover it is actually an area of time distortion where alternate future versions of Dr. Smith and Will (Jared Harris) have constructed a time machine, powered by their Jupiter 2's power core. Will wants to use it to go back to the day they left Earth and stop the launch, since in his future his father left and never returned, and the women were killed by the spiders on the Proteus. The younger Will and Dr. Smith go after them, only Dr. Smith betrays Will and attempts to reprogram the future robot to take over the time machine. They are all betrayed by the future Smith, who is revealed to have transformed into a giant space spider/human hybrid as a result of the wound he received on the Proteus. He was the one to kill the women and kept Will alive long enough to build the time machine. He then reveals his plan to go back in time to Earth before the Jupiter 2 lifts off, destroy the ship, and conquer the planet to spread his spider race across the Earth. John tells Major West to take Will back to the ship and escape while Robinson battles Spider Smith. With the help of a dagger the younger Will made for him, John battles Spider Smith, wounding him and cutting open the egg sac with his young spiders in it. As the spiders eat their own wounded, they crawl out and consume Spider Smith, giving John the chance to send Spider Smith into the time machine's force field, killing him.The family attempts to escape, but the time bubble has made the planet unstable, and it is violently breaking apart. In addition, without the core material the ship still does not have enough power to reach escape velocity. The stranded John Robinson watches as the Jupiter 2 is hit by debris and explodes in the sky. Future Will realizes his father does indeed love his family, choosing to save him rather than taking the core material from the time machine and escaping. Future Will reprograms the time machine and sends John through it, taking him back to the ship several hours before. Rather than attempt to escape into the atmosphere, John commands West to pilot the ship through the planet's core as it is breaking up, enabling them to use the planet's gravity to propel the ship through the other side. His idea works and they escape, but the collapsed planet forms a small black hole that begins to suck in the Jupiter 2. Once again the Robinsons must activate the hyperdrive to escape. They set course for Alpha Prime, having downloaded the detailed star charts from the Proteus, and launch themselves into hyperspace. | psychedelic | train | imdb | I don't think Lost in Space was a bad movie.
The special effects are not as good as movies from the time period such as Armageddon or Godzilla.
I like the early episodes of the original series (particulary the first six), when the show had a more serious tone (and before Jonathan Harris sabotaged it by turning up the comic antics as Dr. Smith) and it's nice to see the film stay closer to that serious tone and not emulate the more campy aspects of the series from its later episodes.
The cast is good for the most part and I love the visual FX.However, once the Jupiter 2 crashes on the planet and we get caught up in the time travel older Will Robinson bit, that's when the movie falls apart completely.
Even with the newer designs, they incorporated older aspects - the planet REALLY looked like a better version of one of their old sets.Furthermore, Oldman managed to peg Dr. Smith perfectly, taking in all the old camp elements and putting them to very good use - even using some old catch phrases in different ways.As diversionary, light sci-fi adventure goes, I thought this was great and I'm usually very picky about this kind of thing.
And as for not getting Bill Mumy to play future Will Robinson - as far as I'm concerned, that singlehandedly reduced this flick from a great movie merely a good one.
I would invite you to go back and watch the very early episodes of the series, before it became a camped-up disaster (admit it!), and see how similar the two are.The 1998 film is often a straight remake of the original, only, frankly, much better.The idea of a film about a single family trying to survive and function by itself when they are all alone in outer space is loaded with potential, and I think this film did as much as could be expected in what was planned to be a three-movie series.There's a lot to like in this movie--first of all, it's a science fiction movie that the whole family can actually enjoy, not just the twenty-year-old son living in the basement.
The Lost In Space television series was one of my favorites when I was growing up so when I found out that it was the basis for a new movie, trepidation is the word that best described my reaction.
Unlike this year's other movie based on a cultural icon, namely Godzilla, the producers of Lost In Space have a great deal of respect for the original tv series and this shows in the finished product.
The acting well done, the writing & direction good and the visual effects rank amongst some of the best ever committed to celluloid.Definitely one of my favorites and quite possibly one of the best science fiction films of all times.
Not the actors, most of whom have trouble delivering their idiotic lines (even the brilliant Gary Oldman seems at a loss); certainly not the "creative" personnel, who left the sets, costumes, and film editing as much a hastily cobbled mess as the script; and, sadly, not the special effects engineers.
Two actual good actors, Gary Oldman and William Hurt, are trapped in this atrociously written, badly directed waste of $80 million.
Hurt, playing a respected scientist with no time for his kids, says at a press conference "there's a lot of space out there to get lost in" (ugh!).
Still, it kept my interest and I enjoyed the story very much.Too bad the casting couldn't have been better because this was actually a very good movie and could have had the possibility for sequels.
Rating: * out of ****Based off the old 60's television series, Lost in Space certainly had the opportunity to be a suspenseful and imaginative sci-fi adventure, but it ends up feeling like little more than an overlong pilot episode for a failed television series.
The cast is thoroughly unconvincing (even William Hurt and Gary Oldman), a good portion of the special effects are second-rate, and the subplot involving time rips and time "bubbles" feels tacked-on and pointless.
I was not a fan of the original series and I just enjoyed the movie for what it was: a good action flick.
Professor John Robinson (William Hurt), his wife Maureen (Mimi Rogers) , their children Judy (Heather Graham) , Penny (Lacey Chabert) and Will (Jack Johnson) and Major Don West (Matt LeBlanc , Sean Patrick Flanery was originally cast and was also previously offered to Matthew Perry) are selected to go to the third planet in the Alpha Centauri star system to establish a colony so that other Earth people can settle there.
Now they are fighting to live long enough to find a way home .Familiar Sci-Fi dealing with Robinson family was going into space to fight for a chance for humanity , it is plenty of special effects , thrills , action though regularly developed .
Sounds weird, a movie that has both good and bad special effects in it.
At times the movie is impressive to watch and at other moments it's just laughable bad to look at.
But perhaps worst thing about the entire character is that it's a totally, completely unnecessary one that doesn't add anything to the story at all.The movie has a solid cast.
John Hurt certainly adds some believability to the silly moments in the movie and he deliverers some of the bad dialog good and even credible.
Gary Oldman is of course also a great actor but he plays a bit of an uninteresting villain in this movie that doesn't get enough opportunity to shine.
No, "Lost in Space" certainly isn't the most original science-fiction movie ever made.The movie also lacks some good tension and action sequences.
I felt bad for such great actors like William Hurt and Gary Oldman (although maybe it is their own fault for choosing this film).
The Robot is great, William Hurt's John Robinson is 'supposed' to be bland - just like Guy Williams played him on TV!, Matt LeBlanc is EXCELLENT as Major West and captures that same 'young pilot' aura, Gary Oldman is great as always, Mimi Rogers is strong and yummy.
He acts out his character with extreme stupidity, and when he tries to look like he's thinking or doing something intellectual, he merely squints his eyes.A lot of the things that happens in the movie have no point.
It sticks around for the rest of the movie just sitting there and making dumb noises.The greatest problem was that they spent far too much time on the special effects and less time on finding good actors or good plot.
I think I've seen three complete episodes of the television series, and I'm not a sci-fi lover at all, but this movie was a dang good time.
The time traveling near the end was so convoluted that evidently even the writers got totally confused.I didn't expect a lot going into this movie, and I probably would never have bothered to watch it had it not been a freebie DVD that came with the machine.
It seems people felt that the acting was not up to par, the script was almost laughable, the FX shots were cheesy and this was just generally a bad movie.They didn't get it.I would never have considered myself a fan of the original TV series, though I do remember in my teens watching it on British TV on a Sunday afternoon when there was little else to do, often with lunch.
Given that though, the original pilot was actually pretty dark; obviously a failed attempt at a very serious TV series that was degenerated to a comedy by the public impression that Irwin Allen could not produce a serious show.And so we come to the movie.
It's a comic-book rendition of the concepts laid out in the pilot, and it shows.While the script is sometimes a little "off", the well established actors such as Mimi Rogers, Gary Oldman and William Hurt chew up the material and create a charged and enjoyable atmosphere.
but while the science may not be perfect it's at least not so glaringly and annoyingly wrong as in Armageddon for example which I can't sit and enjoy due to the stunningly bad science especially in "Act Two" of that movie (right after takeoff).I truly feel that this movie could've been the start of a reasonably enjoyable franchise, but there were too many people who were ready to pan it because it wasn't what they expected.
Sometimes I just want to be entertained without thinking too much at the movies - Lost In Space fits the bill perfectly.
One can excuse the original Star Trek or Lost In Space series on television -- but not the movie in question.
Sure, that was a problem with the TV series, but at least one didn't need to pay for a movie ticket or buy a DVD.In view of Star Wars, wouldn't we expect to see more humanity in the robot?
It still was pretty good.THE BAD - First off, the cliché characters (1) Obnoxious kids with a punk- looking teenage girl (Lacey Chabert) and (2) a know-it-all younger brother (Jack Johnson); (3) a father who has ignored his kids for too long; (4) women always having the last say in arguments with men; (5)men looking stupidly macho and uncaring.In addition: (1) Some really dumb and annoying dialog; (2) no reliance on God in any situation; (3) the usual sexual innuendos (despite this being promoted for a family film); (4) cheap shots at marriage and wholesome things, in general.THE GOOD - It features some excellent and unique special-effects; the film moves well despite the length of it (over two hours); the father does look good in the end and the family "bonds" are stronger through the ordeal, and, good triumphs over evil.
The special effects, the costumes, set design are all very well done, but the failure of the movie comes down to the bad script.
The phrases "harmless fun", "a trashy good time", or "mindless entertainment" take on an insidious new meaning when applied to movies like this.
I hadn't seen any other sci fi series or movie to compare it with.Actually if they could send this movie back in time to the late sixties-early seventies, it would get some good reviews.
The audience whose nostalgia they were counting on to make money took one look, laughed, and promptly saw something else.If there is any bad acting in Lost In Space, it is mainly on Matt LeBlanc's shoulders.
People complain about better special effects translating into poor plots, but never have I seen a better example.The Blarp, as it is called in the credits, is not the worst example of a CGI character being used where a human or puppet would achieve better results, but it is certainly not a good one.
Boffo F/X do not a good movie make, and even talented actors like Gary Oldman, William Hurt, Heather Graham, and Mimi Rogers barely phone in their performances.
Apparently there was a record number of special effects used in the making of this movie yet it looks no better than any other sci-fi spectacular.By far and away the worst inclusion in this movie was the pointless alien monkey type creature that the family take under their wing.
It was an averagely entertaining movie, good idea for a remake film, but it kind of collapsed into itself.
And this I think saved the movie, it had a good closure on it's early main theme (if you have seen the movie you know what I'm talking about).Basically the movie is about a family (the Robinsons) that is sent on a mission to create a "beacon" of sorts on another life supporting planet (it far away but still the closest on to earth) so that earth can use its hyperdrive travelling to save earths resources.
As it is, the sfx are astonishing, the movie was a complete snooze, and the actors were appalling -- even people like Oldman and Hurt, from whom you would expect greatness.
By the end of the film, our whole family was cheering when the Robinson's ship was blown from space.
To be fair my 10 year-old son loved it, and also to be fair the film was a little to faithful to the original TV series which was dreary time-filling rubbish (and poor me I used to watch it!!).
This is a terrific retake on the Lost in Space story - adding state-of-the-art special effects and putting a bit of an edge on to the original's plotline while keeping faithful to the underlying premise.What's really interesting about the movie is its concentration on the psychology of the characters and the personal relationships other than just those centering on Will.
Probably because no one involved in this movie has ever seen an episode of LOST IN SPACE .
This is the crux of Lost In Space, as the (swiss family) Robinson attempt to fly their pretty boring looking spaceship to the other end of the galaxy to colonise a planet called alpha prime.
Gary Oldman, a great actor in the fifth element and leon, is not exactly the most threatening of bad guys in this movie.
However, a movie like this is bound to be full of effects, and Lost In Space doesn't disappoint.
In 1965 when the TV show debuted I was 12, I was also disappointed that the show wasn't as good as the "Space Family Robinson" comic book that debuted in 1962.The 1998 film version of "Lost In Space",although it begins the same as the first few TV episodes, made me think of the comic book rather than the campy TV show.I enjoyed this film much more than the TV show and was glad the little alien was more than a chimp with extra head gear.
In the movie, they act like the normal family, except for being stranded in space.
Not trying to be original, are we?) Of course our heroes survive all that, and even gain a cute little alien friend (ET phone home and all that) but it is in the last part of the movie that the writers obviously lost it completely, and for fear of having no more to show for the money than a bog-standard space opera decided to throw in some completely incomprehensible drivel about time travel and meeting the future egos of some of the main characters.
2. I think it would have worked better to see Billy Mumy who was the original Will Robinson, play the adult Will's role in the film.
The only thing this film got remotely right was some of the special effects.There are plenty of fresh scripts and new ideas out there, Hollywood would serve us all best by making more original and intelligent low budget movies.
The film version of the Irwin Allen's campy television is slick and good looking, but hollow and pointless.The first half hour of LOST IN SPACE is awful, really bad.
I wonder why Matt LeBlanc's film career didn't take off "like a rocket" after LOST IN SPACE...The only actor that leaves any kind of impression after the embarrassing end credits roll, is Gary Oldman.
When all is said LOST IN SPACE would appear to be too confusing and creepy to appeal to children, but fans of the series will probably like it I guess, I'm not sure.
I thought Lost In Space was just another movie like Star Wars, but when my 10 year old little brother bought it home I watched it with him.
Working from a charmless script, Hopkins delivers a loud, chaotic mess of a movie that no amount of expensive special effects can hope to save.LeBlanc plays war hero Major Don West, who is given the job of setting the Jupiter 2 spacecraft on its course to Alpha Prime, where the other crew members, the Robinson family, are to prepare the planet for colonisation.
Even with two future Oscar winners on board (Hurt and Oldman) this adventure for the passengers of the Jupiter 2 is destined to crash and burn, the muddled script resorting to hackneyed sci-fi claptrap such as time travel to try and dig itself out of a (black) hole.Perhaps the worst thing about the whole sorry affair are the lame CGI creatures: cute alien Blawp, blatantly designed to sell Lost In Space merchandising to the kids; crappy, supposedly scary space spiders that attack our heroes; and a mutant arachnoid Gary Oldman that looked really bad even when the film was first released, and which looks positively awful by today's standards.The best thing about the film is its theme music by Apollo 440: not only is it a great track, but it heralds the closing credits and an end to this farrago.3/10..
Overall I think this movie was just a total waste of time and money and should be never seen again.
Other than her, this movie resembled nothing about the Lost In Space that I know and love except for the name.
I liked the original "Lost in Space" series so I went to the movie hoping that they would at least give it a decent treatment - so to say I was disappointed is an understatement.Within a few minutes of the film's start you have Professor Robinson and Major West engaged in a "pissing match" causing Maureen Robinson to roll her eyes and to reprimand the "little boys."From there the film gets progressively worse.
The relationship between "Robot" and Will Robinson is never developed or credible.The dialog is so bad and the plot so poor that no actor could have shined through it - and none do.The original series, especially the first season, is actually very watchable science fiction and the Robinson's really seemed like a real family.
In all honesty, you'd better really love the show Lost in Space to see this movie. |
tt0114182 | Prime Suspect: The Lost Child | When his girlfriend wants to keep the light on while they have sex, Chris Hughes (Robert Glenister) is upset. We soon see him walk out the door while she asks him to talk to her. He runs through the neighbourhood. Meanwhile, Susan Covington (Beatie Edney) consoles her child. She goes downstairs and falls asleep in a chair. She is awoken by a sudden sound.In the morning, Jane Tennison (Helen Mirren) lies awake in her bed when the alarm sounds. Soon she leaves home in a taxi.The same morning, a nanny who works for Susan Covington goes into Susan's house and finds her on the floor with blood streaming from her head. She goes upstairs and finds Susan's child missing from her crib. She calls emergency. The mother is soon taken to hospital in an ambulance and the baby, Vicki, is filed missing.Jane Tennison is also in hospital. We learn that she has had a termination. She is eager to get back to work. She soon arrives at a police station to take in her office as superintendent. One of the files on her desk is that of the missing baby girl.We briefly see Chris Hughes cutting out an article about the presumed kidnapping from a newspaper.Tennison meets with investigators Richard Haskons (Richard Hawley) and Tony Muddyman (Jack Ellis). Her predecessor authorized the release of information to the newspaper the night before, and she is upset that it could hurt the investigation more than it helps. Muddyman says Susan Covington is conscious but suffers from amnesia. Tennison asks Haskons to arrange a media appearance. Tennison then addresses the staff and lets Haskons brief them on the case. The father of the child, John Warwick, left Susan months before; he doesn't have an alibi, but no trace of the child has been found at his farm. Forensic evidence is sparse. The team speculate on motive; since there was not much money to get at they rule out kidnapping and conclude that the child was abducted for nurture or abuse. Tennison has them look for known paedophiles in the area as well as people who have recently lost a child of their own.Tennison talks to Vicky's nanny Carolyn (Tracy Keating) about her routines and also takes a camera that Susan had bought for Carolyn. Meanwhile, Susan's car, which was apparently stolen on the morning in question, is found empty close to Susan's house. Tennison goes to see Susan in hospital, and she gives her account of the night: When she woke up in her chair she went into the hall where someone grabbed her and knocked her into the wall. She also tells Tennison about a man accompanied by two girls who she met in the park and who was very keen on Vicky.We see another brief clip of Chris Hughes, now in a swimming pool with two girls, his girlfriend's daughters.Tennison has Susan appear on television to ask the abductor for her daughter back. Chris Hughes and his girlfriend watch. At the police station, it turns out Susan's car was caught speeding in the middle of the night going out of London, and the squad try to pin down a search radius. Tennison phones Chief Superintendent Kernan (John Benfield) to get more officers assigned to the case, but he refuses. At night she goes to the crime scene to look around. When she answers the phone we see the man on the other end, but he is silent.The next day Tennison and Haskons go north to see Susan's ex, Warwick (Adrian Lukis); we see that it was him on the phone the night before. He says he hasn't been to London since he left Susan, but Tennison shows him a petrol receipt that shows he was there the past weekend. He explains that he was with a woman he is having an affair with. Back at the station, the squad has a photo from Carolyn's camera which may include the man Susan talked about. They also find Chris Hughes in a database of paedophile convicts and discover that he lives near Susan. They go search his bedsit and bring him in for questioning. Tennison conducts the interrogation and asks him about some of their findings: a photo album with pictures of young children, though all of them dressed and proper, and a scrapbook with newspaper clippings from child murder and kidnapping cases. He denies any involvement in Vicki's disappearance. Susan, however, confirms that he is the man from the park.Muddyman and another officer questions Hughes' girlfriend, Anne Sutherland (Lesley Sharp), who gives Hughes an alibi for the night excepting a short time when he left her house after they had a fight. The police must still find evidence to link him to the abduction. Tennison and Muddyman drive to Bedford to visit a clinic where Hughes stayed after he was convicted in a child assault case. They speak to the main psychiatrist, Dr. Schofield (Stuart Wilson), who tells them he doubts Hughes is the abductor, specifically because Hughes didn't go for children that young. Susan has been escorted to her home for the first time since the abduction, and Tennison goes to see her; Susan begs her to bring back Vicki.The baby girl's body is found in a lake, naked and lifeless. Tennison has the mother identify Vicki. Chris Hughes is released after 24 hours have passed since his arrest. Dr. Schofield comes to see Tennison, warning her that the pressure put on Hughes might drive him to new crimes. He shows her a videotape of Hughes talking about and justifying molesting a girl in the case he was previously convicted for. We see Hughes returning home to Anne; he lies to her about why he was arrested.Tennison listens to the results of the autopsy; Vicki was suffocated. Muddyman takes Hughes's file from the station and brings it round for Anne to see while Hughes isn't there. Anne watches the videotape of her boyfriend talking about abusing children. Soon, she is at the police station changing her statement; Hughes no longer has an alibi for the night in question. The police go to the garage Hughes works at to pick him up again, and when he runs, Muddyman chases him down and knocks him about. Hughes falls and is run over by a car and has to be taken to hospital. When the ambulance is involved in an accident Hughes escapes. He soon turns up at Anne's house, which is unguarded. When Tennison learns that Hughes has escaped she sends Haskons, but too late: Hughes is barricading the house and holding Anne and the girls hostage. The police set up a siege; they get Hughes on the phone, but with no result. At the station, Muddyman is anxious about the situation. Tennison reprimands him for his behaviour at the arrest and also learns that he revealed confidential information to Anne to persuade her to testify against Hughes; she thinks it will make it impossible to get a conviction. When Muddyman breaks down and cries, Tennison guesses that he too has once been the victim of sexual abuse. He repeats the words, "I'm disgusting."At the house, Hughes tries to convince Anne that he is not like he was before, that he loves her and wouldn't hurt the children. He speaks to the police on the phone and demands to talk to Tennison. She arrives and speaks to him on the phone. He claims he had nothing to do with Vicki's death and has Anne say that he was in fact with her on the night of the abduction. Tennison convinces him to let the hostages go and promises him that the police snipers will be withdrawn and that he will not be hurt.Meanwhile, Susan Covington has left her house and arrives at the siege; she says she wants to speak to Hughes. Hughes slowly comes out the door with Anne and the girls around him. Tennison faces him and tells him that he can trust her, but when he sees snipers still in place he runs back into the house with one of the girls. A shot is fired, but no one is hurt. Tennison complains to the officers in charge of the siege that her wishes were not followed. Then she speaks to Susan. Tennison tells her she thinks Hughes is innocent of taking Vicki. Susan mentions how she caused the situation by identifying Hughes and how she doesn't want the girls to get hurt. Then she starts talking about how she only ever had a baby because it was what society expected of her and other women. She says that her own life suffered after she had Vicki, that she is the real victim. She talks about the night Vicki disappeared, and we realize that she is confessing that it was she who killed her daughter and dumped the body. She is distressed and starts banging herself on the head while saying she's sorry; Tennison holds her. The hostage situation is resolved, and Chris Hughes is taken away in an ambulance.Jane Tennison and Tony Muddyman are seen appearing before a disciplinary committee. Jane returns home and sits on the couch staring into the air. | murder | train | imdb | Robert Glenister's portrait of child abuser Chris Hughes.
After having seen The Lost Child for quite a number of times since its release in 1995, and having read the reader's comments (mostly about Jane Tennison's background and Helen Mirren's superb role in it), it strikes me more than ever that no comments are made upon the brilliant role Robert Glenister is playing as Chris Hughes.
Even after 10 years it is still one of the most credible ways of portraying the complex personality of a child abuser, carrying the weight of his own past.Watching the episode for the full one and a half hour makes you constantly switch between feelings of love and hate for this guy, in which the hate prevails because of the gravity of his actions.
I have seen more brilliant roles of my favorite actor, but this one never fails to make the largest impression possible to me.
Helen Mirren would never shine without these wonderful actors next to her.
Praise for Robert Glenister!.
Spooky.
This one unravels deftly.
You might not know what's coming.
If you really watch for details, you might.
Again, the realism of this series beats the 'twinkie' world of Law & Order any day.
This is not a Dick Wolf Happy Meal - this is the real thing, and at the top of the heap of great actors and other craftsmen involved is Helen Mirren, a wonder if there ever was one.Sometimes you have to step away from the quality stuff and wander over into comic book land so to speak to fully appreciate what you're getting.
This part is not a cozy one to snuggle up with; this one will make you think - but it's that good.
A child is missing; there's a hunt for the child; that's all you need to know.
As it wears on, the narrative 'sort of' tells you what you will finally understand.
This is neither a 'whodunnit' nor a straightforward drama nor a police series - it's a bit of all three.
And watching Helen Mirren do her stuff is going to be a treat for all your senses..
Prime Viewing.
As the superb `Prime Suspect' series reaches part four there is no loss of momentum at all, this in itself a considerable achievement.' Prime Suspect IV: The Lost Child' has the solid supporting cast that we take for granted in these British dramas but of course the beautiful Helen Mirren easily dominates; our eyes never leave her while she's on-screen.The search for the lost child of the title leads Superintendent Jane Tennison's CID team to a prime suspect who turns out to be a convicted pedophile now living with a single mother and her two young daughters.
The insight we are given into the workings of his mind is one of the emotional highlights of this mini-series but it may be too strong for many stomachs.The action sequences are brilliantly handled with the hand-held camera thrusting us right into the middle of the excitement and there's gripping tension during the climactic siege.Altogether this is another magnificent police procedural drama..
Tennison anyone?.
"Prime Suspect 4" continues the exploits of the inscrutable and dogged seeker of truth and justice, Detective Superintendent Jane Tennison; the first of three miniseries (PS4, PS5, & PS6) with the notable absence of founding writer Lynda La Plante from the credits.
Imbued with the same gritty reality of the first three series, the second three series pit Tennison against the forces of evil while coping with middle age, loneliness, indiscretions, a host of personal and professional problems, and resolutions which are sometimes less than ideal.
PS4 conjures two stories while PS5 & PS6 are single episodes each which find Tennison seeking justice on behalf of the brutally wronged while waging war against institutions which are willing to sacrifice the interests of her victims for those of a greater good.
In other words, to prevail, Tennison must overcome both evil and good forces, something which makes the always gray scenarios of the PS series yet grayer and the Tennison wars as much a matter of principle as of finding murderers.
Very good stuff which only gets better from series to series.
As Watchable as any in the "Prime Suspect" series.
I'm surprised that mine, so far, is the only comment on this t.v. movie...as far as I'm aware, the series itself, has had a huge following, reviewer pundits and real people alike, have praised it to a person.
Anyway, let me tell you right away that, if like me, you're a sucker for gritty police dramas, you'll like "The Lost Child" Tennison, the heroine, throughout the "Prime Suspect"series, has been battling the male police establishment, throughout the series, getting to her present, comparatively powerful rank in the police hierarchy through hard work,obstinacy, and sheer talent for police work.
She is,essentially, an ambitious career woman, but she has a romantic side and is certainly no man-hater.
Unfortunately her relationships are affected by the wicked hours, which her career demands, and she has never married, so when she finds herself pregnant from her latest affair, she is faced with the choice of becoming a mother, and jeopardising her entire police job, let alone future advancement, or having an abortion - which she opts for.
This abortion never looms large in the ensuing drama - it's very skilfully dealt with, in less than a couple of minutes screentime, a marvel of economy in scripting, and editing - but it's always there, as a counterpoint to Tennison's desperate efforts to find another "lost child" - a kidnap victim - before it's too late.
The story takes many twists and turns,before the surprise ending, and one is fascinated, alike, by the plot, and characters (although I found the many villains a little overdrawn), the police, and especially Tennison, herself, are not always competent, nor that likeable, which figures, given the unpleasant job that they have to do, in the sleazy underworld which this series, habitually inhabits.Mirren, herself, has said that she'll make no more movies in the series, but, excellent as she's always been in the role of Tennison, the series, itself, is as "actor proof" as is another addiction of mine -Dick Wolf's American"Law & Order" - whoever appears therein, each could go on forever.
As is my fervent hope..
The harrowing case of the lost child.
Having loved the first three 'Prime Suspect' series, when seeing all the episodes and series over-time since reviewing the first instalment a year ago, expectations were understandably very high.
They were met with 'The Lost Child' but not quite surpassed.'The Lost Child' is very good, terrific in its best moments and almost all elements are spot-on, just not quite as good as the first three series before it.
It introduced quite a few changes in format, including Lynda La Plante not being involved and the lengths of the episodes being shorter, for the fourth series (of which 'The Lost Child' is part of) it was three cases clocking in around just over five hours overall for 'Prime Suspect IV' rather than one case split into two halves like in the first three 'Prime Suspect' series.On the most part, the changes worked well.
Parts of the story do feel slightly on the rushed side with the shorter length and while the climax was very powerful the final twist was not particularly a surprise.
With that being said, it was somewhat of a good thing for the pacing to be tighter and not have quite as much filler (in no way intended to knock the first three series, just a comparative observation).It is stylishly and cleverly filmed, with slick editing and atmospheric lighting, and there is a consistently wonderful atmosphere throughout.
It is very gritty, if not quite as dark as 'Prime Suspect III', and effectively claustrophobic and even though the pacing is tighter it is also still deliberate.
It is very hard to forget the music score too.
The scripting, like its predecessor, is some of the best there is of any mystery/detective drama, being superbly constructed and intelligent.Story-telling is very compelling and twisty, with an atmosphere that is gritty and harrowing but also intricate and honest.
It is a complex story that keeps one guessing right up to the end while also being easy to follow.
Tennison's personal life is balanced very well.Jane Tennison continues to be an interesting character, the character and the depiction of the police force was very ahead of the time back in the 90s and holds much fascination now even if not so novel.Helen Mirren gives a typically magnificent performance in the lead.
Close behind her is a brilliant performance from Robert Glenister (it is agreed that his performance has inexplicably not been mentioned enough here), one that is chilling but very conflicted.Altogether, harrowing and often terrific if a slight step down from what came before.
9/10 Bethany Cox. Prime Suspect painted itself into a corner.
Just an opinion..
I, and my wife, have become 100% addicted to "Prime Suspect".
We rent them, 3 at a time, from NetFlix.This is the best police series I have seen.But --- The "Lost Child" episode my have been the end of my addiction.
Maybe it's because the creator and writer of the series, Lynda La Plante, was not part of the "Lost Child" episode.
I don't know.Now I seem to have lost interest - because in this episode, Detective Superintendent Jane Tennison is doing the exactly same thing as she did in all of the previous episodes, i.e. Running the show.
For example, I don't recall any of the other Superintendents (Tennison's immediate boss)in any previous episodes, being so involved in the hour-to-hour, day-to-day, ordering the other D.C.'s about and such about, in nearly every scene.I loved the series because it was so real.
It is not so real (to me) anymore.
In real life law enforcement, when a person is promoted to a higher position they do not go to work every day and do the job they have before they got promoted.
I was in law enforcement and the Criminal Justice system for over 20 years and never saw this happen.My wife still is fanatically loyal to the series, but I am going to try and sneak in different Netflix movies every now and then.
lol..
shorter movies work well.
Jane Tennison (Helen Mirren) has been newly promoted to Superintendent.
She has a short unknown hospitalization.
The first case is an abducted baby.
Somebody knocked Susan Covington unconscious and stole her baby Vicki.
Chris Hughes becomes the prime suspect but Anne Sutherland provides him with an alibi.
The case hits home for Tennison.
Mistakes by subordinates puts Anne and her family in danger.The Prime Suspect episodes get shortened from its four hour TV running time in half.
It's much more of a TV police procedural and it works better as such.
It doesn't feel stretched out.
Helen Mirren is great as usual.
There is less filler which results in a higher intensity although the final twist is easily foreseen..
Great Episode: A Study in Quick Judgment.
Sometimes the authorities have feet of clay.
What looks open and shut proves to be anything but.
This episode begins with Jane having an abortion.
At the same time, a young single mother faces the terror of having her child kidnapped.
Jane's guilt plays a factor in this episode, although it is delicately downplayed.
A man who has been convicted as a pedophile is immediately made a suspect, and because the woman who has lost her child saw him once in a park, it is assumed he is guilty.
No other suspects are investigated.
Also, there is damning stuff brought out and, hence, the police become relentless.
At one point the cops are sent to pick him up.
He runs and he is beaten and ultimately thrown in front of a van.
This is a really intense episode where we get to see how cockeyed things can get when objectivity flies out the window.
The acting is superb, particularly that of the guy who is being pursued.
Mirren is solid, as usual.
This series which I had never heard of, is a hallmark of British television..
Tennison returns, Lynda La Plante doesn't..
Prime Suspect 4 marks a departure for the series.
Gone is series writer and creator Lynda La Plante.
The other major change is the format; this series consists of three unrelated episodes, with some unifying characteristics.Spoilers: When we last saw DCI Tennison, she had failed to gather enough evidence to convict Edward Parker-Jones of the death of Colin "Conny" Jenkins and for running a pedophile ring; but, she gained a measure of justice by subtly providing a journalist the opportunity to reveal the story.
She was able to extort a promise of promotion from her superiors, if she solved the case and gained a conviction.
She earns her promotion to Detective Superintendent, even though she doesn't obtain a conviction.
She also finds that she is pregnant with the child of a former lover, a married man.
After the horrors she has witnessed and learned, she decides to terminate the pregnancy.
This episode opens with Tennison having her abortion.
She wants to quickly return to work so she doesn't have to confront her emotions.
Unfortunately, her first case involves the apparent abduction of an infant.
Tennison becomes increasingly desperate to recover the child; and when it is found dead, to bring the killer to justice.
Although the previous series involved the dangers of pedophiles preying on kids on the street and in state institutions, this series confronts the harsher reality of a pedophile in a domestic situation.
Tennison's prime suspect is a pedophile who was released after serving his sentence and undergoing treatment.
Like most offenders, he was the product of abuse himself.
At points he seems like he is truly trying to live a normal and healthy life; and at others, his actions are suspicious.
To add to the mix, one of Tennison's detectives seems obsessed with this case.
He nearly causes the suspect's death and sets into motion events which lead to his escape and taking of hostages.
Tennison discovers that her officer was also the survivor of abuse, although his life took a more positive path.
While Tennison attempts to resolve the hostage situation, without loss of life, she uncovers the truth of what happened to the infant victim.
The siege ends safely, but Tennison has faced her own loss and had a glimpse of what life could have been like had she chosen to carry out her pregnancy.
In the end, she doesn't know if she is better or worse off.
The performances are good, as always, and the writing, although not La Plante's, holds up well.
As always, issues are presented without providing easy solutions, much like life.A special note for Star Wars fans; check out Anthony Daniels, sans C3PO costume, as a pathologist.
He demonstrates far greater skill than he was allowed to show in the other films..
I figured this one out in less than 30 minuets....
The biggest mistake with the writing in this episode is that they actually believed that the supposed kidnapper showed up to kidnap the baby and didn't have a car, seriously?
I am pretty sure any kidnapper would have planned better, so he or she steals the baby's mom's car, a car they could readily identify?
That gave away the whole story line, honestly, some lazy writing, it was frustrating to watch, none of them should have been that stupid and they latched on to who they wanted to be guilty and didn't investigate any further!.
Worst of the series...
A baby gets abducted and the prime suspect is a convicted pedophile.
As emotions build up, the members of CID London have to pull themselves together to stay professional and focused.
The worst episode of this otherwise excellent series is surely The Lost Child.
Not only was the plot completely obvious after 15 minutes, the depiction of paedophilia hysteria was itself hysterical.
The throwing of a suspect in front of speeding van by a senior police officer was completely over the top and thoroughly unbelievable.
On top of that we have to suffer through the completely rubbish acting of Beatie Edney playing the role of the mother of the abducted child.Given the short running time of this episode, the proceedings felt rushed.
But this could have been forgiven if the writing had been up to the standard of the previous seasons.
It didn't even come close. |
tt0099939 | King of New York | Frank White (Christopher Walken), a wealthy and powerful drug lord, is released from Sing Sing prison on parole after serving time for drug dealing charges. He is picked up by a private limousine where his two female bodyguards/mistresses are inside. They are a petite young black woman named Raye (Theresa Randle) and a tall blond former model named Melanie (Carrie Nygren). Together, they ride into Manhattan over the Queensboro Bridge. Frank insists that they first drive through his old neighborhood where he grew up in the Lower East Side and he notes just how dilapidated and depressing it now looks.Meanwhile, Emilio El Zapa (Freddy Howard), a Colombian drug dealer, enters a telephone booth outside his fancy row house to make a call, where he is almost immediately gunned-down by three black assailants. As the hit men leave, one of them drops a newspaper headline onto Zapa's lap which announces Frank White's release.Across town in a hotel near the JFK International Airport, Zapa's partner, King Tito (Ernest Abuba), sits in a room with Jimmy Jump (Laurence Fishburne) and Test Tube (Steve Buscemi), a pair of gangsters who are negotiating the purchase of several kilograms of cocaine. Finally, the two agree to pay Tito $100,000 up front, plus 10% of the street value (which includes transportation costs, Tito quips). When Tito opens the suitcase ostensibly containing the money, however, he discovers that it is full of.... tampons. When he exclaims if this is a joke, Jimmy says that it isn't and replies; "they're for the bullet holes, bitch!". Jimmy and Test Tube then draw pistols, shoot Tito and all his bodyguards to death, and then steal the cocaine.A few hours later, in the presidential suite at the Plaza Hotel, Frank steps out of the shower to discover that Jimmy Jump, Test Tube, and the three phone booth killers are waiting for him. They are revealed to be the core members of his gang, and they welcome him home with a gift of champagne and Zapa's briefcase full of money. After an exchange of pleasantries, Frank leaves with Raye and Melanie to meet with two of his many lawyers, Joey Dalesio (Paul Calderon) and Jennifer (Janet Julian), for dinner at a fancy local restaurant. After the dinner, during which Frank proclaims himself "reformed", and expresses his desire to be elected mayor, he asks Dalesio to set up a meeting with Mafia boss Arty Clay (Frank Gio). Frank and Jennifer leave to take a ride on the subway, where it is revealed that she is another one of his many mistresses. Upon being confronted by three muggers on the subway train (led by Harold Perrineau), Frank first brandishes his gun, then gives them a wad of money, telling them to ask for him at the Plaza Hotel if they want work.In Little Italy, Dalesio arrives and attempts to set up Frank's meeting with Arty Clay, but the crime lord refuses to accept. Referring to Frank as a "nigger-lover", Clay proceeds to urinate on Dalesio's shoes, and tells him that it's a message for his boss. Upon hearing of this, Frank, Jump, and several other members of the gang arrive at Clay's social club the following evening, where Frank tells Clay that he wants a percentage of all Clay's profits. When Clay refuses and insults him to his face, Frank draws his gun and empties it into the racist mafioso. As he makes his way out, Frank announces to Clay's henchmen that if they don't want to be continually mistreated as they currently are, they can all find employment at the Plaza. Moments later, a few of Clay's goons (including Robert LaSardo) follow Frank out of the door.The next night, after watching an avant-garde play, Frank confronts a city councilman about the city's failure to continue the funding of a hospital in a poverty-stricken area of the South Bronx. When the councilman explains that there wasn't enough money in the budget, Frank vows to fund the facility himself. Moments later, he is confronted by Detective Roy Bishop (Victor Argo) and his right-hand men, Dennis Gilley (David Caruso) and Thomas Flanigan (Wesley Snipes), three members of the NYPD's narcotics squad, who tell him that they are taking him to police headquarters for questioning. Instead, the three drive him to an abandoned lot, where they show him the dead body of Emilio El Zapa in the trunk of their car. When Frank refuses to confess to the crime, Gilley and Flanigan beat him up. The cops then drive off, leaving Frank to find his own way home.Apparently unfazed by Bishop's warnings, Frank sends Dalesio to Chinatown to make contact with Larry Wong (Joey Chin), a local Triad gang leader who possesses 100 kilograms of cocaine worth over $15 million on the street. Larry, however, is leery of dealing with Frank, especially after the killing of Arty Clay. He demands that Frank meet him alone on neutral ground to discuss the deal. As the meeting is being scheduled, however, Jimmy Jump and several of Frank's top lieutenants are arrested by Gilley and Flanigan, who reveal that one of King Tito's bodyguards is still alive and willing to testify against them.Meeting at the very hospital he is intent on saving, Frank attempts to hammer out a deal with Larry. Larry and his Triad henchmen demand $3 million up front and another $500,000 after the drugs are sold. But Frank counters that with a counter-offer. He explains that since the drugs are worth over five times that amount on the street, Frank suggests that the two team up, with Larry providing the drugs and Frank providing the dealers, and then split the profits evenly. When Frank insists that part of the profits be directed into funding the hospital, Larry turns him down and demands that Frank decide immediately whether he want to buy the drugs for $3.5 million or not at all. Frank declines and the two part ways.Returning to the Plaza Hotel, Frank learns of Jimmy Jump's arrest and orders his lawyers to arrange their release, a process that eventually entails paying $1 million in bail for each man. Frank sends his limousine to the police station to pick up Jimmy and his men, and they head directly to Chinatown, where they massacre Larry Wong and his entire gang in a quick shootout. They then find the stockpiles of Larry Wong's cocaine in large barrels marked for MSG in a basement storage.With the money gained from selling the Triad's cocaine, Frank sets up a fundraiser, hosted by singer Freddie Jackson, to raise even more money for the hospital. Witnessing this latest outrage on the TV of a nearby bar, Gilley, Flanigan, and several like-minded officers resolve to use extrajudicial means to get rid of Frank, despite Bishop's objections. Posing as drug dealers, they bribe Joey Dalesio into leading them to a small nightclub in nearby Brooklyn where Frank and most of his men are partying (among them are the three subway muggers). Catching the criminals unaware, the hit squad bursts in with guns blazing. In a huge gun battle, the dirty cops succeed in slaying both of Frank's girlfriends Raye and Melanie, as well as most of his gang. Enraged when he sees the masked assailants killing his fellow gang members while some are laying wounded on the floor, Jimmy Jump is the only one who puts up a fight, gunning down a few of the masked assailants before running out the back door where he subdues one of them and recognizes him as a cop.Fleeing in their limousine in a long car chase over the Queensboro Bridge, Frank and Jimmy trade shots with the police, killing all of them except for Gilley and Flanigan. After momentarily giving their pursuers the slip when their limo crashes into an off-ramp off the bridge, Frank and Jimmy split up, with the nearly-maniacal Jimmy staying behind to deal with the two pursing cops. Sneaking up on Flanigan, Jimmy shoots him five times in the chest, puncturing his ballistic vest with armor-piercing bullets. Seeing this, Gilley shoots Jimmy several times in the chest and, after pausing to attempt CPR on his ill-fated partner, kills his assailant with a single shot to the head.Reeling from the unexpected assault and the loss of his friend and most of his gang, Frank responds with an all-out narcoterrorism against the police. A few days after the murders, as Gilley is leaving Flanigan's funeral, Frank kills him personally with a single shotgun blast to the head in a drive-by shooting.That night, after watching his surviving henchmen kill Dalesio for ratting out to the cops, Frank shows up at Roy Bishop's apartment, telling him that he has placed a $250,000 bounty on every detective involved on the case, including Bishop. Still holding Bishop at gunpoint, Frank explains that he killed Tito, Larry, Arty Clay, Zapa and their affiliates simply because he disapproved of their business practices, which included the exploitation of immigrants and child prostitution. When Bishop asks: "Did you really think you could get away with killing all these people?" Frank replies with the most often-quoted line of the film: "I never killed anyone who didn't deserve it."His business seemingly concluded, Frank forces Bishop to handcuff himself to a chair before taking his leave with nothing more to prove. As Frank escapes down to the subway, Bishop uses a gun from a nearby drawer to free himself and gives chase. Following Frank into a subway car, Bishop corners him, causing Frank to take a woman hostage. During the ensuing standoff, Frank fires on Bishop, killing him, but not before the policeman is able to fire off one last shot himself. Escaping from the train car and into a nearby taxi in Times Square, Frank looks down to see that he has been hit. As police officers surround the car, Frank closes his eyes and dies. The last image of the film is his gun falling limply to his side, while the police, unaware of his death, continue to keep the taxi cab surrounded, and warily begin to move in. | comedy, neo noir, murder, violence, cult, revenge | train | imdb | This film for many will be too much and by that I mean in every way possible; the amount of grim and grime in Abel Ferrara's portrayal of New York City at the turn of the '90's, the perpetual display of crime and gang activity, the almost impenetrable bad language, the shocking violence and the in-your-face portrayal of hard life and sudden death from the perspectives of both criminals and cops.
Saying that, this is one of the first and few greats from writer and director Abel Ferrara, notorious creator of schlock-horror trash 'Driller Killer' and I love it for all the reasons that people tend to hate it.The inimitable and irreplaceable Christopher Walken plays Frank White, whose Lieutenants - led by intimidating and possibly demented Jimmy Jump played by Laurence Fishburne - have been guarding his territory, awaiting his return from prison.
But when he gets out and goes back home to see that the streets have become every man's nightmare and every crackhead's dream, he decides that through rebuilding his empire, he will clean up the streets and give back to the community what the gangs have taken.What results of this new resolution is the start of an unprecedented bloodbath in White's attempt to rid the streets of these crack dealing gangs and this catches the attention of Roy Bishop - White's nemesis, a jaded New York cop - who proceeds to chase the kingpin with the help of his toughest men Gilley and Flanigan, played with integrity and even a clever hint of villainy by David Caruso and Wesley Snipes.Ferrara's distinctive independent style of filmmaking truly comes to fruition in this one, as it did with 'Bad Lieutenant', giving the audience a glimpse of everyday life on the grimmest streets of New York, while allowing his characters to run wild.
Fishburne's character, Jimmy Jump, is a devil with no need for disguise, a loyal animal that never questions the man he works for because the only kick he needs is to kill who he sees as the bad guys, even though he is possibly the most intimidating face in 'King...' And Gilley and Flanigan, as straight and clean-cut as they seem throughout the film, are in fact corrupted.
Some have compared Frank White to Robin Hood, but since I find it difficult to think of the English Folk hero as a psychotic with no moral compass whatsoever, I disagree.Worth seeing for Walken and Fishburne's performances alone, King of New York has, over the years developed something of a cult following.
Ferrara makes an entertaining film which, though it doesn't offer a great deal of new material, offers some unique characterizations and avoid devolving into straight action.Highly recommended for fans of Walken, Fishburne, Caruso and Ferrara.
The down in the muck, inner-city examinations of the seedier motivations and lifestyles-the side of life many of us would like to ignore, but are intrigued by nonetheless?Low budget and a lot of conjones are trademarks of Ferrara's films (Fear City, The Addiction, The Funeral) and this is no exception, but the term stylish is defined here..You see, you hear, you FEEL the environment-the nasty low morality hustlers of the five burroughs
.Much congrats to Alex Tovoularis' production design.King of New York may not be as famous as Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant in the world of the cinema-geek, but maybe it should be.Joe Delia's haunting soundtrack is a perfect compliment to Bojan Bazelli's moody visuals-Walken's confrontation scene of the old-style Mafiosos is as classic as it is intense.Man, do I love this movie..
The King of New York should be boring, it moves slowly and deliberately for much of the film, the look of the film is quite washed out with drab backgrounds and much of the background music is quiet and orchestral.But the movie also has some great action sequences, and some of the more visceral and impacting acts of violence committed to film.
This is quite unlike 90% of action films made in the last 2 decades, and it's better than almost all of them.Frank White is released from prison, by Christopher Walken, who is white - even for a white guy.In fact in this movie I am convinced that Walken glows in certain scenes he is so pasty, they actually could have used him for lighting.So back to Frank White, now a free man Frank decides to "get straight back into it" in every respect.
Tommy (Wesley Snipes) and Dennis (David Caruso) are the younger hotheads that are willing to do "anything" to keep the streets clean, there is also a fourth newly-wed cop who anyone (who has seen an action movie at least) knows is only there to be killed.The cops have a minor victory when they manage to find a real living witness to a crime committed by Frank's henchman, most notably Jimmy Jump (Larry Fishburne, more on him later).
Key characters on both "sides" are killed, often abruptly and violently, and loyalties are tested.The film ends in a slow languid scene that is in obvious contrast to the hectic action that preceded it, and the scene is quite fitting for a crime film in which there are no real winners.The King of New York is deservedly seen as a cult classic, and while many so called cult classic are of the "sh*t films that people saw when they were high so they talk them up" variety this one is truly worth your time.Now, as alluded to earlier, even though he was given scant mention in the above write up Larry Fishburne as Jimmy Jump must go down as one of the coolest MFs to ever appear in a film.
For a movie shot in the late 80's (released in 1990) its ahead of its time.Christopher Walken gives a great performance as Frank White.
Argo gives a note perfect, yet nuanced portrayal, of a weary, "seen it all" cop who is determined to get his man.Wesley Snipes and Laurence Fishburne were still early in their film careers while appearing in this movie, but you can clearly see the qualities that would make them stars.
In fact, all the women in this movie look like models which only adds to the stylized unreality the movie creates.Finally, I have to mention the oldschool rap soundtrack which fits the proceedings to a "t".If you are a fan of crime/action movies, "King of New York" comes recommended, but fair warning, its not your typical gangsta flick..
Upon release from prison, New York crime boss Frank White (Walken), determines to become a major player in the city's underworld and wastes no time in putting the wheels of his plan in motion.
Though hard-hitting and excessively violent, Ferrara's film lacks the grittiness of say, Scorsese's `Mean Streets,' or `Taxi Driver,' but nevertheless makes an impact, due mainly to the unfettered violence, as well as the subtle, understated menace Walken brings to the role of Frank White.
Ferrara's film is fast paced and relentless, and he adds a nice touch to the ending that contrasts well with all that precedes it, and yet `King of New York,' even with the outstanding performances of Walken and Fishburne, never quite captures that elusive something that would've taken it above and beyond the average crime action/drama.
King of New York(1990) is an excellent movie that is Abel Ferrara's most stylish film.
When the drug kingpin Frank White (Christopher Walken) is released from the prison, his gang under the command of his henchman Jimmy Jump (Larry Fishburne) and he murder the competition.
"King of New York" is a crime film directed by Abel Ferrara with a great cast, with names such as Wesley Snipes, Laurence Fishburne and Steve Buscemi in the beginning of career.
But cops Roy Bishop (Victor Argo), Gilley (David Caruso) and Flanigan (Wesley Snipes) are on his case, but after struggling to bring Frank in under regulations, resort to more illegal methods of getting him off the streets.King of New York was booed upon its initial screenings, with mass walk- outs and cult director Abel Ferrara being bombarded with uncomfortable questions.
It is, at times, so outlandishly over-the-top that it should betray its gritty roots, but its so steeped in atmosphere and that key element, grime, that it becomes a fantasy-laden, insane ride amongst a decaying city and one its most colourful characters.For anyone who has seen the work of Abel Ferrara, especially two of his most popular films, The Driller Killer (1979) and Bad Lieutenant (1992), will know what they are in for.
Frank White (Christopher Walken) has just been released from prison and wants to get back together with his gang, take over the New York drug trade, and become a modern robin hood.
This little known film somehow flew under the radar when released in 1990 but is just as entertaining as the movies I listed above.New York detective Dennis Gilley (David Caruso) is sick and tired of seeing drug lords like Frank run amuck in his city and is ready to cross any line
indeed to do whatever it takes, including murder, to take Frank down.
The place erupts in a frenzy of gunfire as we try to distinguish just who is who and eventually the scene spills outside and evolves into a high speed car chase and shoot out as the cops chase Frank and his number two man Jimmy Jump (Laurence Fishburne) through the streets of New York.
Christopher Walken stars in this great, if a little uneven, crime film by controversial director Abel Ferrara (Driller Killer, Bad Lieutenant).It tells the story of Frank White, a crime lord who, after being released from prison, makes a violent campaign to reclaim his empire in order to use his ill-gotten gain for charitable means in this modern twist on the Robin Hood mythos.
Some bits feel a little rushed in pacing and even the lawyer girlfriend to Frank White seems to vanish into thin air during the third act of the film.But despite being a low budget film, it is still a pretty good looking film with an impressive cast (including Lawrence Fishburn, Wesley Snipes and David Caruso) who play their parts really well.
He requests help in this enterprise from his fellow gang lords, who refuse to co-operate, leading to a mob war.This gangster film was helmed by maverick director Abel Ferrara who specialises in gritty urban stories set in New York.
This side story however felt like a completely different film, and distracted from the main plot.King of New York is your standard gangster flick, it offers nothing original and wont reinvent the genre.
You don't want to sympathize with him but somehow Walken makes you, and this is the movie's greatest achievement.The cast features major dynamic performances from actors such as Lawrence Fishburne, David Caruso and Wesley Snipes.
Dennis Gilley, one of the New York detectives is a man that thinks this is wrong and then decides to take care of the great problems a newly released Frank White is creating for the city.Abel Ferrara is a director that doesn't mind taking chances, or tackling thorny issues, as he has proved with his films.
Christopher Walken is an example, so it's Harvey Keitel, who has given extraordinary readings about the characters they portray on the screen in movies with Abel Ferrara at the helm."King of New York" is a violent film.
Mr. Ferrara is making a comment on the element that was causing so much problems in New York prior to the arrival of Rudolph Giuliani, who decided to tackle the criminal activity to the point of eliminating most of the violence in the streets of the city.The film presents an intense man that is released from prison.
Working with his frequent collaborator, screenwriter Nicholas St. John, NYC based independent filmmaker Abel Ferrara uses the city as the backdrop for a memorably seedy and garishly lit story of cops and hoods, focusing on a veteran crime lord named Frank White (Christopher Walken).Frank's been out of the game for a long time due to a prison stretch, and now he's developed some sense of morality.
A crime movie that was a throwback to the great gangster films of the 1930's like "Little Caesar" in 1930 "Public Enemy" in 1931 and "Scarface"in 1932 and the movie stunned and blew away everyone who saw it."King of New York" made it's debut in late September 1990 without much fanfare in the film world and then was quickly overshadowed by the far more advertised and popular gangster movie Martin Scorese' "Goodfellas" that was released about the same time.
Frank achieves all of this with a ruthless brutality that shocks even the most hardened cops and gangsters who never encountered anything like it in all their years on the mean streets of New York City.The police in an effort to put Frank away for good get to his trusted friend Joey Dalesio, Paul Calderon, to set Frank up for the kill.
KING OF NEW YORK (1989) *** Christopher Walken, David Caruso, Larry Fishburne, Victor Argo, Wesley Snipes, Giancarlo Esposito, Paul Calderone, Theresa Randle, Steve Buscemi.
Both feature New York as a backdrop, both films center on crime, and both feature amazing performances from their lead actors (Harvey Keitel in 'Bad Lieutenant', Christopher Walken here).
Some Ferrara has used before, some not, but you'll rarely see a more impressive collection of character actors than here - Larry Fishburne ('The Matrix'), Victor Argo ('Taxi Driver'), Paul Calderon ('Pulp Fiction'), Wesley Snipes ('Blade'), David Caruso ('Kiss Of Death'), Giancarlo Esposito ('Do The Right Thing'), Steve Buscemi ('Reservoir Dogs'), and Frank Adonis ('Goodfellas'), just to name some of the better known faces.
King Of New York is one of the best Gangster Films and Crime Dramas ever made that's filled with stylish direction,Great performances from Christopher Walken and the whole cast,well-written screenplay and great Action.
This film is an Underrated Classic and has a Cult following that is well-deserved.King Of New York tells the story of a gangster and drug lord named Frank White(Christopher Walken)who has just been released from prison and reunites with his former crew to wipe out his rivals and take back control of the drug game.
One of the reasons I love KONY is the way it shows New York City a few years before the Big Apple was "cleaned-up" by Mayor Rudy Guiliani,the film shows New York as this dark and gritty place where drugs and crime have affected New York City,giving the film a sense of danger and gloomy atmosphere and a world where gangsters rule the streets.The screenplay by Nicholas St. John is well-written and memorable,giving the character great,realistic dialog,speaking in the tone and toughness of the streets.
Thomas(Blood),Roger Guenveur Smith(Tanner),Joey Chin(Larry Wong)and Frank Gio(Arty Clay) give good performances as well.The direction by Abel Ferrara is excellent,stylish and visually stunning,giving the film a great dark and gritty tone,while using different colors and always moving the camera.
Great tracks.In final word,if you love Abel Ferrara,Christopher Walken,Gangster Films,Crime Dramas or films in general I suggest you see King Of New York,a true Gangster classic that will stay with you after watching it and a film that will stand the test of time.
Badass and playful Christopher Walken (as Frank White) gets out of New York City's "Sing Sing" prison, and does his bloody best to assume control of the drug trade.
He says, "A nickel bag gets sold in the park, I want in!" Cops like David Caruso (as Dennis Gilley) and Wesley Snipes (as Thomas Flanigan) give Mr. Walken and right-hand man Larry Fishburne (as Jimmy Jump) trouble, and fellow crime lords do their worst to stop him.
***** King of New York (7/18/90) Abel Ferrara ~ Christopher Walken, David Caruso, Laurence Fishburne, Wesley Snipes.
Abel Ferrara's "King of New York" doesn't even make proper use of the great Christopher Walken.
King of New York (1990)*** (out of 4) Drug lord Frank White (Christopher Walken) is being released from prison and he immediately heads back to the street to pick up where he left off.
"King of New York" begins with Frank White (Christopher Walken) being released from prison.
A New York drug lord Frank White (Christopher Walken) is being driven in his limousine back into the city following his release from prison.
Disgruntled that they are never able to get charges to stick, a few wild Police Officers decide that the only way to stop White and his gang is to take them out.Featuring an impressive cast which alongside Walken includes gangsters Laurence Fishburne, Steve Buscemi, Giancarlo Esposito and Theresa Randle with Cops Wesley Snipes, Victor Argo and David Caruso the film is a tale of good vs evil, but as you'd expect the lines between the two are blurred.
The cast is all-star; Christopher Walken plays his typical ice-cold self drug king pin Frank White, Wesley Snipes plays a strong silent type tormented straight edge cop, David Caruso plays the emotional cop who takes the law into his own hands, Laurence Fishburn in a particularly memorable over the top performance, and Steve Buscemi thrown into a couple scenes for good measure.
At the moment I think it is mostly a good vehicle for Christopher Walken to show yet again why he plays the best crime boss of the modern era, as well as some earlier work by Laurence Fishbourne and Wesley Snipes.The movie looks and feels older than it really is.
Also good performances are turned in by Wesley Snipes, David Caruso and Victor Argo as cops trying to hunt Frank down.Overall an excellent movie definitely worth watching.
Now the cops appear to be cartoonlike characters only written into the story as an excuse for another shootout with Christopher Walkens gangsters.King of New York fails to be a true crime classic and becomes one of many tough gangsta movies in which violence gets glorified.
Frank White (Christopher Walken) just got released from prison, and comes back to New York.
For it's stylish direction, brilliant performances and intriguing story line, King of New York is my favorite gangster movie of all time.. |
tt0087892 | A Passage to India | The film is set in the 1920s during the period of growing influence of the Indian independence movement in the British Raj. Adela Quested (Judy Davis) and Mrs Moore (Peggy Ashcroft) sail from England to India, where Ronny Heaslop (Nigel Havers), Mrs Moore's son and Adela's suitor, is a magistrate in the provincial town of Chandrapore. Adela is considering marriage to Ronny, but is visiting India accompanied by his mother to see if she can adapt to living in such a foreign place.
Both Adela and Mrs. Moore are excited to meet Indians and learn more of Indian culture. They are disappointed to find that the British community are overtly racist and live lives totally disconnected from the Indian population. They are pleased to meet the local school superintendent Richard Fielding (James Fox), who brings them to meet the eccentric elderly Hindu Brahmin scholar Professor Narayan Godbole (Alec Guinness). Mrs. Moore meets a junior doctor named Dr. Aziz Ahmed (Victor Banerjee), a widower who is surprised by her kindness and lack of prejudice. Aziz offers to host an excursion to the local Marabar Caves.
The outing goes reasonably well until the women begin exploring the caves with Aziz and his sizeable entourage. Mrs Moore experiences an overwhelming sense of claustrophobia due to the volume of the echo inside the caves; this forces her to return to the open air. She encourages Adela and Aziz to continue their exploration but suggests they take just one guide. The three set off for caves far from the rest of the group, and before entering, Aziz steps away to smoke a cigarette. He returns to find Adela has disappeared; shortly after he sees her running headlong down the hill, bloody and dishevelled. She is picked up by the doctor's wife, Mrs. Callendar (Ann Firbank), and taken to the Callendars' home. Adela is bruised, delirious, exhausted, and incoherent. Dr. Callendar is seen approaching Adela with a hypodermic syringe. Not shown in the film but revealed later, Adela apparently signed a statement that was interpreted as accusing Aziz of attempting to rape her. Upon his return to Chandrapore, Aziz is jailed to await trial, and an uproar ensues between the local Indians and the British colonists.
The case becomes a cause célèbre among the British. When Mrs Moore makes it clear that she firmly believes in Aziz's innocence and will not testify against him, it is decided she should return to England. She subsequently suffers a fatal heart attack during the voyage and is buried at sea.
To the consternation of her fiancé and friends, Adela has a change of heart and clears Aziz in court, suddenly remembering events and retracting her accusation. The Colonials are forced into an ignominious retreat while the Indians carry the exonerated man from the courtroom on their shoulders, cheering wildly just as the monsoons begin. Fielding looks after Adela since she has no one else to turn to. In the aftermath, Adela leaves India, while Dr Aziz, feeling betrayed by his friend Fielding, abandons his Western attire, dons traditional dress, and withdraws from expatriate society, opening a clinic in the lake area near Srinagar, Kashmir. Meanwhile, through Adela, Fielding has married Stella Moore, Mrs Moore's daughter from her second marriage. Aziz eventually reconciles with Fielding, and Aziz writes to Adela asking her to forgive him for taking so long to come to appreciate the courage she exercised when she withdrew her accusation in court. | melodrama, inspiring, flashback | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0830558 | The Girl Next Door | Based on Jack Ketchum's novel with the same title, which is based on the true story of Sylvia Likens, who was tortured and killed in 1965 in Indiana.(Warning: the following plot description, due to the content of the movie, is not for the squeamish)The movie starts in contemporary New York City when 50ish stock trader David Moran (William Atherton) sees a homeless man hit by a car. He acts immediately to save the man's life by giving him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Later, at home, Moran sits studying a drawing obviously made by a child. The incident that day has reminded him of a time in the summer of 1958 when he failed to act to save a life. The rest of the film proceeds as a flashback.Teenage David Moran (Daniel Manche) is down catching crawfish at the local stream when he runs into the new girl in town, 16 year-old Megan Loughin (Blythe Auffarth). Megan and her little sister, ten year-old Susan (Madeline Taylor), have just moved in with David's next door neighbor, divorcee Ruth Chandler (Blanche Baker) and her three sons. Meg and Susan have recently been orphaned after a car accident that left Susan crippled.The Chandler household is a big teenage hangout in the neighborhood. Mrs. Chandler (who the kids call "Ruth") is considered a cool parent as she secretly lets the kids drink beer and plies the boys with salacious talk.When David runs into Megan a couple days later she tells him that nothing she does seems to please Ruth. David has an idea to make peace between them: he suggests that Megan draw a picture for Ruth. Meg does not want to do this as she is afraid that Ruth with ridicule her. David suggests instead that Megan draw one for him. She does this (it is the picture the adult David is contemplating at the beginning of the film) and David presents it to Ruth telling her that Megan drew it for her. Ruth sees through this and rejects the drawing telling David to keep it.When David arrives at the Chandler house a couple days later he finds the Chandler boys tickling and groping Megan. She hits one of them hard and runs from the room. Ruth arrives and takes the boys side of the argument. She would like to punish Megan, but as she is gone, Ruth instead decides instead to punish Susan for "conniving" with her sister and gives Susan an sound, old-fashioned, bare-bottom spanking with a toilet brush while the boys watch. Megan returns to her sisters cries and is forced to watch the beating.The next day Meg reports this to police officer Jennings (Kevin Chamberlin) who speaks to Ruth. Ruth is able to deflect his inquires, however, and confronts Megan telling her she will find a way to keep her from running to police with her complaints.The next day when David arrives for a sleepover, he finds the whole household in the basement. Megan has been blindfolded and tied from the rafters by her wrists. She is standing on a pile of books and each time she refuses to confess to something Ruth has accused her of a book is pulled out increasing the strain on her arms. When the books are gone Ruth allows her oldest son, Willie (Graham Patrick Martin) to use his knife to strip the girl naked. When Meg still fails to cooperate, Ruth decides to leave her in this position all night. Before exiting, however, Ruth makes the chilling observation that if Megan is still difficult she may switch the girls' roles and let Megan watch while her ten-year-old sister takes her place stripped and hanging from the rafters.That night David can't sleep thinking of Megan in the basement. He talks the other boys into sneaking downstairs to ease her bonds and give her something to drink. The other boys cooperate, though it is clear they fear Ruth finding out.Over the next few days David tries to help Megan out by slipping her a knife to cut her bonds and leaving the basement door unlocked so she can escape. She gets out, but is caught when she tries to sneak Susan out of the house too.David tries telling his parents what is happening, but fears Ruth too much.Megan's torment reaches a peak one afternoon when the whole household, David and several other teenagers (including girls) are in the basement. Meg is tied naked on a unpadded metal box spring while Willie is allowed to rape her and the rest watch. When he is done the neighborhood punk, Eddie (Michael Zegen) suggests that they "cut" her. Ruth likes this idea and uses a sharpened, hot, bobby pin to carve a sexually explicit message into Meg's abdomen. Ruth observes this will keep any man from wanting her and suggests that to keep Meg from wanting a man they use female circumcision on her.This suggestion to too much for David and he tries to bolt the room to get help, but is knocked to the ground. Ruth then proceeds to circumcise Meg using a propane torch.When David awakes he finds his hands are tied and he is locked in the basement with Susan and Megan. Fearing Ruth will kill them all; he gets his hands free and comes up with a plan for escape: he fills a metal pot with rags and sets it ablaze. The smoke rolls up the stairs and out under the edges of the house. When Ruth races through the basement door to find out what is going on, David hits her over the head with Susan's crutch, apparently killing her. Willie knocks David to the ground and is about to knife him when Officer Jennings and the police, who have seen the smoke from the street, intervene and subdue Willie.While Megan lays waiting for EMS, David lies next to her and asks her forgiveness for not acting sooner. She forgives him and tells him she was glad that he acted in the end. Megan then dies.Back in contemporary times we see the adult David kneeling by the stream where he first met Megan. He tells the audience he will never forget her. In the reflection of the water we see a teenage Megan briefly appear kneeling beside him. She disappears and the picture ends. | cruelty, murder, dramatic, violence, cult, horror, flashback, tragedy, romantic, sadist | train | imdb | This is an excellent film and therefore in some ways it is a pleasure to watch, but anyone who has seen it will know that it's effectiveness in fact makes it almost unbearable to watch.The story revolves around two girls who have recently been orphaned and are sent to live with their aunt who has three young sons.
She is a middle aged woman obsessed with feminine purity who sees the new arrivals as a potentially corrupting influence on the masculine world she presides over.She actively encourages her sons to perpetrate more and more severe acts of bullying and sadism against the older girl who is eventually tied up in the basement and used as a play thing by all the neighbourhood children.Only the boy who lives next door, who has become friends with the girl, has a growing sense of unease about the "games" which are taking a very sinister turn, yet he is powerless to change the course of events.This film is very well written, directed and performed and is therefore a relentlessly depressing affair which is horribly painful to watch.
I Like the horror genre and THE GIRL NEXT DOOR is on a different level.This movie is so realistic to the teeth, that it makes you think about life.
It makes you think that all the flashy movies you have ever seen are like cartoons compare to this.It's about child abuse, torture, and manipulation.It shows how powerful a parent affects a child's mind.I don't know, I'm still very disturbed by the movie.Although, I would want more bad things to happen to that witch and her boys, the movie ends very well.It's not about revenge, more like a lesson to be thought, that there are sick people out there who are actually doing this to children, and the question is what are you going to do about it?.
I am looking forward to "An American Crime" which is based on the court transcripts of the actual case and should adhere more to the facts but nonetheless "The Girl Next Door" is a film that punches you in the gut and refuses to relinquish it's grip on your senses..
As the torture worsen you feel more and more sympathy for the girl; this is what makes the movie excellent because it captures the audience in a very powerful way.
I would not recommend anyone to watch this movie before they go to bed because it will be hard to sleep having to think about the poor girl being tortured.
But Auffarth accepts the role and does an amazing job of being the normal "girl next door".While watching this film, I told myself I had finally found the spiritual successor to "Last House on the Left" and my opinion remains the same.
The real girl, for example, also had to consume human waste, which is not shown here.Making the film even more powerful is that we are shown the events from the point of view of the neighbor boy, who has a crush on Meg (despite being a few years younger).
Ketchum, who is extremely proud of this film adaptation, speaks openly about production company Moderncine's initial pitch to him: "Let us make this movie before Hollywood does and ruins it." To bring The Girl Next Door to the screen, Moderncine enlisted some topnotch talent, including award-winning director Gregory Wilson, who here displays a tremendous talent working with actors, and veteran writers Philip Nutman and Daniel Farrands.
It is far more horrifying then anything I have ever seen and the script makes it come to life which makes it even more terrifying....If you are looking for a horror movie and don't have heart problem then watching it should be a priority just expect to feel horrible afterwards...I can't believe this managed to get R rated in USA...
Now, I'm not going to go into any great detail, but what happens to Meg in this film is disturbing, but incredibly engrossing to watch.The acting on all fronts is nothing short of brilliant, the detail on the set is stunning, bearing in mind it is set in the 50's the attention to detail is excellent.How anybody can give this a low rating beats me - if you don't think you are going to like it, don't watch it - it is'nt nice, but it is an essential piece of film-making, well written, well directed, well acted - and devastatingly delivered.AWESOME...10 out of 10..
That was what I wanted to do to the characters of this film (except the one protagonist of course).If you've ever thought a person could be cruel, abusive, and plain down right evil - The Girl Next Door will teach you that you haven't seen anything yet.
This is a very harrowing movie based on a true story from 1958 of an adopted teenage girl who is kept tied-up in a basement and horribly physically and sexually abused by her male cousins and other neighborhood kids, all under the orchestration of her very insane woman-hating aunt.This movie is definitely hard to watch (it prompted at least one walk-out at the midnight film festival showing I attended), but it's nowhere as graphic as it COULD be given the subject matter, and it doesn't revel in the abuse and degradation of the girl like many of these kind of movies tend to (think "I Spit on Your Grave" and some of the recent so-called "torture porn.").
This kind of helpless but moral hero is actually a lot more realistic than the usual avenging Rambo type in typical Hollywood movies (which ought to be called "revenge porn", and are even more dangerous than legitimate "torture porn" because they create the kind of dangerous fantasies that lead entire countries to blunder into places like Vietnam or Iraq).
In that respect, it kind of reminded me of one of my favorite all-time movies, "River's Edge", which is also very disturbing, but ultimately very morally uplifting in a human (rather than revenge fantasy) way.The acting by all involved is excellent and the directing more than adequate.
One of the few films that doesn't shy away from showing what human cruelty is, and shows that it is nothing short of disturbing and tough to endure, I've watched the entire film and I'll say that I am a fan of the horror genre, but when it comes to films based on actual events and you find out that they are disturbing and tough to watch, then you tend to view them under a different light than your regular horror films.THE GIRL NEXT DOOR is based on the bestseller by Jack Ketchum, which is based on the torture and murder of Sylvia Likens, a case which I did extensive research on to understand what this film was about, and compared to my research the actual events were certainly more brutal than what is shown in the film, but the film still packs a powerful punch, think of it as a semi truck packed full of mixed emotions, because thats what you'll feel like after you've watched this film, like you got hit by a truck and you're left with a bag of mixed emotions.The acting is brilliant, each of the cast members did more than a great job, but it was rather the character story of the developing relationship between Meg and David that gave this film its actual strength, and the very last moment between these two characters is something that would even make a grown man cry, which takes place after the grueling last fifteen minutes.Overall, I think its a good film if one understands the intentions behind it, which is telling a story based on actual events that are indescribably cruel and sick, exactly as it should be told, truthfully..
Pretty much point for point this movie hits all the most important events and spoken lines from Jack Ketchum's novel, a liberally fictional telling of this true story.No, this film lacks something else entirely.
Although I have never read Jack Ketchum the idea of even writing or filming a story of this nature is revolting!Torture against children is a serious and horrible issue that should be made aware of but this movie is beyond educating people about abuse.But the most upsetting thing in this film is the fact that children were used in the film doing and saying things that no parent should allow.Unfortunately money seemed more enticing to the parents which is an abuse itself!
But after watching the movie, the first thought I had was "Meh".As everyone probably already knows the story is based on Jack Ketchum's depressing and disturbing read by the same name, The Girl Next Door.
It's pretty obvious that the acting in this film (besides the actress who played Ruth) is amateur at best, and with a movie with nothing but acting to drive it along, I'm surprised so many people are really enjoying it as much as they say.
I feel that this movie could be compared with the likes of seven and other strong films in the horror genre.
I don't want to sound like some whiny baby but unless you enjoy seeing a group of children, tie up, torture and rape a young girl in the basement shown in extreme detail, please take my advise and do not watch this.
It will make you feel ill.I know there are sick people out there but I don't want to watch a near snuff film about their depravity.
I mean it's hard to say that a torture movie is great because it is disturbing to watch.
Mainstream Hollywood tends to specialise in searing emotional dramas designed to make its audience shed tears - but the fact that everything here is presented completely raw means that the audience is left to make their own minds up; which has apparently left some viewers unaffected - but it was what ultimately made the film so powerful for me.The film takes place in the fifties and we focus on David Moran; a young boy who meets a young girl named Meg Loughlin when she moves in next door with her sister after the death of their parents.
I would like to thank you for reading this and this is my warning to ya all before you go out and rent it thinking that its going to be a really good horror movie because its not.....
I believe the author of the book who created this film should be ashamed as telling a story is very different from showing it and i do not think anyone who has had abuse would want it to be re-enacted for others to watch including this poor girl, this man should have stopped at his books.Im sure many pedo's and other weird people will get a real rush from watching this movie so well done.
This movie is great in sense of a sad story, but believe me I spent my 1 hour in hell while watching it really in hell and I just want to say that some stories should remain untold, My body was shaking and sometimes I cried like a girl but I will not forgive my self that why I have seen it.
This movie is great in sense of a sad story, but believe me I spent my 1 hour in hell while watching it really in hell and I just want to say that some stories should remain untold, My body was shaking and sometimes I cried like a girl but I will not forgive my self that why I have seen it.
What I got wasn't nearly as graphic as I had imagined, but thanks to its 'based on a true story' subject matter and impeccable performances all round, the film proved to be as soul-crushing, demoralising, utterly nasty, and incredibly sad as can be.Blythe Auffarth plays teenager Meg Loughlin, survivor of a terrible car crash that claimed the lives of her parents and which left her younger sister Susan (Madeline Taylor) seriously disabled.
David (Daniel Manche), the boy next door who has befriended the older sister, is appalled by what he witnesses, but is unable to prevent poor Meg from being beaten, branded, raped and mutilated.A totally harrowing experience designed to leave you feeling numb inside, this is far from what could be described as an enjoyable film, but as a study of just how corrupt and evil people can be to a fellow human being, there are few that are more effective.
The movie is talking about the story of Sylvia Likens,a girl murdered in 1965...you can check internet about her tragic story...in contrary with the other movie "An American Crime"...this movie here says the truth story in some other way...the things that changed were on the persons not on the story and the cruelty she was punished...in the movie "An American Crime" the only thing we weren't told is that the "woman-beast" that tortured Sylvia is an innocent human being...i recommend it totally but please read the story of Sylvia Likens first 10 out of 10...but don't let the kids watch it...it's too shocking about them....
What follows is then a sketchy, shallow and mainly illogical portrayal of the senseless torture and abuse suffered by the girl, at the hands of the crazy woman and her sons.The narrator, an unwilling child observer to the abuse, suffers inner turmoil as he watches the horror unfold and only ever in an inept manner can he bring himself to tell anyone about whats happening.Once the premise of the story is set up the viewer is then subject to scene after scene of violent abuse, ever increasing, with little coherence or plot development.
Whilst preparing to watch "The Girl Next Door" I was trying to lower my expectations because we all know that movies based on books are usually deceiving,especially when you are a fan of the book.It's obvious that Jack Ketchum's novel "The Girl Next Door" is far more disturbing and horrifying than this adaptation,but I think that it was impossible for the makers to capture the sheer power of Ketchum's work.Still the sad story of tortured and horribly abused Meg Loughlin is quite touching.Blanche Baker as the insane Ruth Chandler puts an amazing performance.She is a truly evil character.The film really goes as far as a more mainstream movie can go with its scenes of torture and domestic abuse.One scene in particular will probably make most of you ladies squirm.I have already mentioned Baker's terrifying performance but all of the actors deserve some praise.Usually kids in movies annoy the hell out of me but not this time.Give this film a look,but don't forget to read the book.Perhaps it's time to make a film adaptation of "Lets Go Play at the Adams" by Mendal Johnson,but I seriously doubt that it will happen.9 out of 10..
It is grim and undeniably hard to watch and the fact it is based on a true story makes it even more shocking and it's a sad fact that things like this went on and still go on.You may ask why make a film like this.
The Girl Next Door explores the horrors of extreme mental, physical, psychological and sexual child abuse in a way I've never seen before.This movie is absolutely chilling.
Overall it was a great movie with decent acting and a must watch if you can stomach the torture and abuse.
Normally, when a film is allegedly based on real events, it means that something might have inspired the film, but has been massively changed to make it more 'Hollywood.' However, here it looks like this pretty much happened the way it's portrayed here.Two young girls' parents die and they're forced to live with their aunt and her sons.
It is the story of a boy that witnesses the cruel and senseless torture of a neighbor girl at the hands of her horrible Aunt and cousins whom she and her sister was sent to live with after the death of her parents.As far as the technical aspect of this film are concerned (acting, writing, editing, etc.) this movie ranks about a 6 out of 10.
It's the kind of movie that you will watch even if at times you want to fast forward or look away, in hopes the cavalry will be coming through the door at any moment.
After the exceedingly slow start the film turned into a real Drama and was definitely one of the most disturbing things I've seen and will ever see in my life time.
Really big fan of the torture films, however, this is not as gruesome as hostel where you just wanna see bucket loads of blood, this is not like that at all, its hard to describe in words but you do really feel for the victim and want it to end but at the same time you want more, there really are some scenes that are disturbing (the one with the blowtorch springs to mind) but it doesn't show you, which is worse because your mind just goes through all the scenarios.
I'm sure you all know the story by now, so I'll save you that.If you want to watch this movie, I recommend it beyond all belief.
You want to look away but you can't help watching.While movie as a whole is good it is far from perfect, I think it leaves such an impression due to the horrific instances shown rather than the expertise of those involved in making this film.
If you were to read the synopsis of this movie and see words like "kidnapping" "torture" "gang rape" and "extreme sexual violence", you might be forgiven for thinking it was a low budget horror film.
The film is based on a true story that took place in the 50's about two sisters that gets abused by their aunt, the aunt is a lunatic and goes ballistic on the girls while the younger kids just watch and some even join in.
There are torture scenes in this movie which is disturbing and yet engrossing to watch. |
tt0181689 | Minority Report | In Washington, D.C. in the year 2054, John Anderton (Tom Cruise) is head of a new police force called "PreCrime," which has completely eradicated murder in the DC area, by allowing the police to stop murders before they can even be committed. Data is obtained from "PreCogs," three mutated humans who can see into the future. When the PreCogs detect that a murder is going to be committed, an automated system processes two painted wooden balls: one with the name of the perpetrator(s) engraved into it, and one with the name of the victim(s) engraved into it (the system itself being designed to be tamperproof). The color of the ball indicates what kind of murder it will be: a brown ball indicates a premeditated murder, which the PreCogs can predict up to four days before it is committed. A red ball indicates a crime of passion, which, due to the lack of premeditation, cannot be seen until often no less than an hour before it will be committed.The only three things that the PreCogs can predict are the victim or victims, the perpetrator, the exact date and time of the crime, and the exact sequence of events that lead up to the crime. They do not pinpoint the location. Thus, Anderton and his team have to perform a meticulous process called "scrubbing", where they process the images produced from the precogs' visions in order to locate telltale clues and thus narrow down the location. Once they are certain of the location, the team flies there to thwart the crime. They then secure the culprit by "haloing" him (a device placed around his head that renders him fully incapacitated).After the suspect has been apprehended, the murder reappears on the displays. As it turns out, the PreCogs sometimes think about a crime that has been stopped, and that these "echo" images are deleted from the system.As the movie starts, Anderton's team receives an early morning Red Ball case. The perpetrator is going to be a male in his 40s named Howard Marks, and the victims are going to be his wife Sarah and another man named Donald Dubin, and the crime is going to be committed at exactly 8:04 a.m, which is 24 minutes from now. Anderton goes to work scrubbing the visions produced by the PreCogs. The visions show that Howard is going to catch Sarah in bed with Dubin after coming back to retrieve his glasses, then will viciously stab them both to death with a pair of scissors.Anderton learns there are six people named Howard Marks. Through facial comparison between the 'visions' and the drivers' license photos, he's able to determine which one they're after. He gives an order for the police to send a squad car to the address. However, there's a problem: Howard doesn't live there anymore as his family moved a few weeks prior and none of his old neighbors know where he lives now.At this point, Anderton is momentarily distracted by the arrival of Danny Witwer (Colin Farrell), a Justice Department official who's been sent to audit the PreCrime system before the country votes on whether or not to take the system nationwide. One of Anderton's colleagues, Fletcher, explains to Witwer the basic workings of the system as Anderton continues analyzing the visions. He's able to identify the material used in the construction of the house's exterior. Then, by looking at the relative location of a kid in the background of two images of Dubin, he's able to determine that there is a park with a merry-go-round across the street from the future crime scene.Having narrowed down the location, Anderton and his team get into their flying craft and fly to the scene, arriving three minutes before the crime is to be committed. There's a new problem now: Howard's house is just one in a row of identical houses, making it impossible to know which house is the one they need to raid. Scanning each house, Anderton notices that at one of them, the front door is ajar. He calls back to the office and gets confirmation that Howard did leave the front door open when he returned to the house for his glasses. Now certain of his target, Anderton storms into the house, runs up to the bedroom, and overpowers Howard just seconds before he can stab his wife with the scissors. As Anderton's stopwatch hits zero, the rest of his team bursts in through the skylight. Howard is identified by iris scan, and is promptly arrested and "haloed" , while his wife is immediately given counseling by a trauma response unit.That evening, Anderton reminisces over home movies of his ex-wife Lara (Kathryn Morris) and the couple's missing six-year-old son, who disappeared several years before at a public swimming pool. Anderton is also shown to have an addiction to an illegal inhaled hallucinogen called Neuroin (New Heroin).The next morning, Witwer's official tour of the Precrime headquarters begins. Throughout the tour, Witwer points out there are potential questions about the ethics of the PreCogs. Anderton explains that the system is designed in a way to be practically foolproof, due to the nature of premeditation and the fact that the PreCogs see what the killer will do, not what they intend to do. At Witwer's insistence, Anderton takes him into the chamber in which the precogs are kept semiconscious in a pool of fluid similar to amniotic fluid and are wired to the Precrime computer system. After Witwer has gone, the precog Agatha (Samantha Morton) snaps fully awake, and images of a woman being murdered play across the chambers video screens.Curious as to what he's seen, Anderton goes down to Containment, where numerous other haloed Precrime assailants are kept. With the aid of a supervisor named Gideon (Tim Blake Nelson), Anderton finds the assailant who was in Agatha's Previs, though he is classified as a John Doe.Gideon attempts to pull up more information on the case, but finds that of the three precogs, Agatha's Previs is missing. As well, information on just where Ann Lively is, is also missing. The only information that the computer has on her, is that she was a single mother, who was also a Neuroin addict, but records indicate she went to a rehabilitation clinic to treat her habit.Anderton reports his findings to Precrime Director Lamar Burgess (Max von Sydow), who suggests that he let the matter drop, turning his attention towards the thought that when Precrime goes nationwide, they need to find a way to protect it from larger interests. Anderton assures his mentor that he won't let that happen.Upon returning to his office, Anderton is alerted to a new murder that is to take place in 36 hours. To his shock, he is listed as the perpetrator. He does not know the victim, Leo Crow, leading him to believe that he is being set up. The caretaker of the precogs, Wally, sees the vision and gives John two minutes to leave the building before he hits the alarm. John escapes and is immediately chased by his own team and Witwer. Having trained his team, he has an advantage and escapes them through an apartment building and an automated auto assembly plant, using a car that is constructed around him.He makes his way to the residence of Dr. Iris Hineman (Lois Smith), whose research laid the groundwork for the Precrime program. Quite eccentric but still coherent, Hineman explains that the three precogs do not always agree on their visions of the future; when this happens, the one that deviates the most from the others typically is ignored. In order to establish his innocence, Anderton must determine whether this "minority report" exists and, if so, get it for himself. Anderton is puzzled as to which of the precogs would generate a minority report and Hineman tells him its the "most talented" of the three: Agatha.Since everyone is subjected to iris scans wherever they go, Anderton undergoes an eye transplant at the hands of a shady doctor. The doctor is actually one of John's past cases, whom he busted for performing questionable surgery, however, the doctor performs the procedure anyway, leaving John alone to recover.While sleeping after the surgery, he dreams about the day his son was abducted from a swimming pool, and awakens to find the Precrime team searching the building for him. Small robotic eye scanners known as "spiders" are sent into the rooms; one of them finds Anderton and scans his iris, but the surgery has succeeded and he is not recognized. Returning to the Precrime offices in disguise, Anderton removes Agatha from the precogs chamber, disrupting the trio's hive mind that makes the system work.He takes her to a hacker friend of his, who successfully extracts her vision of Crows murder for Anderton to see. However, the vision does not deviate from what he saw previously, and Anderton realizes that he doesn't have a minority report.Suddenly, Agatha begins to seizure, and the image of Ann Lively being drowned is seen again. As Anderton watches the vision, his friend alerts him to Precrime officers in their vicinity. Agatha and Anderton narrowly escape Anderton's team, by making use of strategic information provided by Agatha, who is able to predict the immediate future.Anderton tracks down Crow's address and gains entry to his apartment. Crow is not present, but he finds a pile of photographs of children, including his missing son. Anderton realizes that there is no minority report in his case and he is now going to kill Crow, whom he now blames for the kidnapping. When Crow enters, Anderton assaults him to extract a confession as Agatha pleads with Anderton not to commit this murder. Anderton is blind to her pleas and is intending to kill Crow, until the timer on his watch goes off... the time when the murder is supposed to take place. Anderton relents, and begins to read Crow his Miranda rights. Crow reveals that the photographs are doctored and were given to him to leave in the apartment in order to set up this very confrontation. His family has been promised a cash payoff only if Anderton kills him; to force this outcome, Crow grabs Anderton's gun hand, aims the weapon at himself, and pulls the trigger.After Anderton and Agatha flee, Witwer and the Precrime team arrive to investigate the crime scene. Witwer is doubtful about the "orgy of evidence" that was left behind and later discusses his misgiving with Burgess, bringing up the Lively case as well. He now has all three precogs records of that murder, but slight differences between them lead him to deduce what really happened that day.Witwer shows Burgess the previsions from containment, but then reveals Agatha's which was not on file. Agatha's vision shows a very big difference, leading Witwer to postulate that the crime against Anne Lively took place at two different times.When Burgess questions Witwer, the young man posits his theory: Ann Lively's potential killer was arrested based on the matching visions of Arthur and Dashiell, but after Precrime had taken the man away, a second person (matching the same look of the potential killer), arrived and killed her in exactly the same manner. The similarity of the incidents would simply lead the precog techs to assume the act Agatha witnessed, as an 'echo' vision, and therefore, disregard it. Witwer suggests that only a member of Precrime could have the skill to manipulate the system in this way, whereupon Burgess, revealing himself as the true architect of John's framing, kills Witwer, knowing that the other precogs are unable to foresee this act with Agatha gone.As Anderton and Agatha hide in Lara's house, he realizes that he was set up because of what he knows about the Lively case. Lively is Agatha's biological mother and had been killed because she wanted to reunite with her daughter. The police finally apprehend Anderton, halo him, and return Agatha to the precogs chamber. Burgess later meets with Lara to comfort her, but when she brings up her preoccupation about the Lively case, he inadvertently refers to it as a drowning, contradicting the official precog report and implicating him in the murder.Lara rushes back to precog headquarters and forces Gideon to release Anderton, who then calls Burgess to reveal he's figured out his whole murderous modus operandi and then brings a reception in Burgess' honor to a frightening halt by screening for all to see the "minority report" that shows him killing Lively.At the same time, a new potential murder is detected by the precogs, with Anderton as victim and Burgess as perpetrator. Realizing that Anderton must be somewhere nearby, Burgess takes an antique revolver given to him as a gift and searches for him. When the two men come face to face, Anderton points out he is in a Catch-22: if Burgess shoots, he will prove that Precrime works but will be haloed for life; if he doesn't shoot, the Precrime system is proven to be unreliable. Burgess resolves the dilemma by killing himself.The Precrime program, revealed to be subject to manipulation and thus flawed, is abandoned. All criminals imprisoned under it are pardoned and released, though local police departments keep watch on many of them for years. Anderton reconciles with Lara, now pregnant with their second child, and the precogs are moved to an unnamed remote location where they can live in peace. | mystery, neo noir, murder, paranormal, violence, flashback, psychedelic, action, tragedy, suspenseful, sci-fi, home movie | train | imdb | Here we have one of the greatest directors alive (Steven Spielberg), a very big star (Tom Cruise) with a great ensemble (Max von Sydow, Colin Farrell, Peter Stormare, Samantha Morton, Tim Blake Nelson) around him, a good cinematography (Janusz Kaminski) and a nice score by John Williams all packed in a great story (based on the novel by Philip K.
The direction and performances are amazing - the pre-visualization on this movie must have been a nightmare and yet all the incredible special effects blend perfectly into a visual style that is completely natural and assured, as might be expected from Spielberg and Michael Kahn.
Only the one chase scene was overdone with Rambo-like mentality of the good guys not getting hit when they should, and vice- versa.The subject matter is interesting, too: what would do you (or the police) had very reliable information on crimes that were about to be committed, that you could prevent things from happening before they actually did?I recognized two people in here who went on shortly thereafter to become recognizable in TV series: Kathryn Morris ("Cold Case") and Neal McDonough ("Boomtown").
All the while, his old buddies, now helped with a special agent from the FBI (Colin Farrell), are trying to track him down.Spielberg, with Janusz Kaminski, his cinematographer for many films, have crafted a visually stunning movie.
John Anderton is similar to noir's morally ambiguous characters--a good cop with an illegal habit that is forced (by circumstances and desire) to betray the very things he loves.But this is not just a special effects or mystery movie.
These (I think) influenced Minority Report."The Maltese Falcon" ~ film noir "A Clockwork Orange" ~ science fiction "Blade Runner" ~ science fiction (also based on a Dick story)***** out of *****.
Minority Report is a shining example of that, which also has the grace of having an intelligent concept to start with, which so many sci-fi films lack much less summer sci-fi films (look at MIB2 to see what I mean), and also better than average acting.Cruise takes the lead role here as John Anderton, who leads, more or less, the agency of police that prevent all murders on the basis of predictions from three Pre-Cogs (one of them Samantha Morton who has the most important role of the three).
Dick story that came out earlier this year, is an point of that), yet Spielberg elevates a story and creates a unique atmosphere to coexist with his characters; by the time the film is HALF way through you'll be exhausted in entertainment.Bottom line, this is the type of picture to see twice, first to get the feel and presence, and the second to clear up any misunderstandings in the plot (or maybe to avoid Scooby Doo and Windtalkers), since this is indeed one of the best pictures of the year and one of Spielberg's best recent pictures.
But when Chief John Anderton, a loyal and decorated PreCrime cop, is seen to be killing someone in one of the previsions he suspects that someone set him up and that not everything is as perfect as it has been made out to be.It doesn't happen very often that a big studio production with a big name star produces such a great movie.
Spielberg and his team have crafted an engrossing vision of the future that is not only good looking with its top-notch special effects, but thought provoking and actually interesting on a pure story level.
I didn't like the voice-over at the end (we didn't need to be told that stuff; we could have worked it out), or the way he caved in to the modern tendency to be needlessly revolting (at least he don't play his gross-out moments for cheap laughs), or even the style of photography (it's easy to manipulate us into thinking the future is a grim place, if you push-process the film until even the images which in the normal course of events would be luscious and rich, are grimy and desaturated - there are other ways of getting colourless images, as Spielberg well knows, and many of them are better).
The future we see here is a MIX of dream and nightmare, so convincing a mix that we can't always tell them apart.Here's a measure of how good the movie is: in an interview, Spielberg revealed that he completely misunderstood the issues which drive the stories - and there's simply no way of telling this from the finished product.
Tom Cruise's weakness as an actor is that he is only ever as good as his director, and the fact that he's so good here means that "Minority Report" was directed by the real Spielberg, the old Spielberg, the Spielberg with the same ability Charles Dickens had to make even his most grotesque creations, and even his LEAST grotesque, come to life..
From the surface Minority Report seems to come across as a super futuristic action thriller but once you check it out you come to the realisation that nothing is what it seems as this is a story with a lot of complex human emotion rolled into it with lots of philosophical arguments on both sides which all in shows both sides of the coin and what it feels like for the hunter to become hunted.
Before they joined forces to give sci-fi fans their hugely disappointing version of War Of The Worlds, Spielberg and Cruise worked together on Minority Report, a near-future tale based on a short story by Philip K.
Star Cruise plays pre-crime cop John Anderton, who finds himself on the run after it is predicted that he himself will commit a murder.The good news is that Minority Report is a lot more enjoyable than the duo's H.G.Wells debacle, with an engrossing murder mystery plot, lots of great visuals, excellent production design, and some well executed and extremely fun action set-pieces, all of which help detract from the story's inevitable paradoxical issues and Spielberg's occasional, frustratingly unrestrained direction (Cruise leaping from car roof to car roof on a towering vertical road stretches plausibility a bit too far, but at least it's not 'nuke the fridge' bad).7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for the 'sick stick' a police baton that makes the victim projectile vomit..
This impulse serves him well when making family-oriented movies, but it has haunted him in his recent efforts to make serious adult-minded films.To the extent that "Minority Report" succeeds in engaging us, it owes a great debt to its source material.
Unfortunately, the strengths of "Minority Report" were consistently undercut by its uneven direction and the weaknesses in the script.This is what happens when a good film gets Spielberged.
John runs, escaping the pre-crime police and trying to find out how and why he was seen killing a man.This contains many levels of seeing, maybe linking up with how Speilberg sees his films at first the visions are easily controlled but then they are fallible and more complex.
The characters are well-developed and interesting, the plot (all you should know before seeing the film is that it involves pre-crime, a crime-fighting system which allows the authorities to see murders before they occur and stop them) is well thought-out, involving, and unique, the dialogue is sharp, the world well-developed and just quirky enough to be both tremendously entertaining and believable.A film that juggles so many elements, such a complicated storyline and mythology, and so many characters as gracefully and skillfully as "Minority Report" does is rare, and it is proof of Spielberg's immense skill as director that he manages to do this, especially given how radically different not only the material but also the technical aspect of the film is to most of his earlier films.
"Minority Report" looks like nothing Spielberg's done before (except for "AI", perhaps), and it's remarkable how well-realized this future world is and how stunning the visuals are.
Sure, it was kind of cool to watch, but I think this is another Spielberg film that wows us with really cool effects, what turns out to be a cheesy plot, and the usual happy-dappy American ending.
It's that Minority Report that Cruise is interested in so Samantha Morton is taken by Tom who wants very much to find out what's going so he can alter his destiny if possible.I won't say more other than destinies can be altered and images can be manipulated and wrongly interpreted by some malevolent forces at work.Cruise and Von Sydow and the rest of the cast turn in some fine performances for Steven Spielberg.
Minority Report is the latest film from Stephen Spielberg that stars Tom Cruise as a cop from the year 2054, who works in the pre-crime division of the Washington D.C police department.
(Sounds like a visit to amazon.com?) Spielberg lightens up the tone with his signature wit and humorous quips and visuals now and then, as opposed to Ridley Scott's more serious and consistently dark visualization portrayed in Blade Runner.As a plotline, Minority Report is intelligent, has a good consistent flow, isn't always predictable (at least not that long before it happens), has many twists and turns with legitimate dead-ends, and above all, tells a plausible story (even if the basic premise itself requires considerable suspension of disbelief).
You know all you need to know here.The best parts of the movie are so good from the high-tech special effects to the light-hearted humorous moments to the good, steady flow of the action and plotline that the problems with the film are easily forgiven.
Dick, Steven Spielberg had the courage to create the darkest movie of his career (so far at least), which touches important ethical dilemmas about the types of protection of the human being, beating the crime, respect for the individual freedom and the responsibilities of the citizens and the law.Pioneering and deeply prophetical representation of a dark future , with Tom Cruise in one of his darkest and most demanding interpretations of his career.I believe there are similarities with Davis' The fugitive.
It's a proposition that director Steven Spielberg addresses in `Minority Report,' a drama/thriller set in the near future, in which a kind of `HMO for Crime' has been established that does just that: A system that unerringly predicts and prevents murder.
Even the best filmmaker, however, is not going to produce a work of genius every time out; just as within every human being there is `good' cholesterol and `bad' cholesterol, so it must be with the films of an artist of Spielberg's magnitude-- it is natural that his resume will include both.
The standout performances come from Colin Farrell, who lends some real nuance to his character and manages to make him truly three-dimensional; and from Samantha Morton, who creates the most emotionally involving character of the film with her portrayal of Agatha; and it's part of what makes `Minority Report' (like any Spielberg film-- even the `lesser' ones) worth the price of admission.
The movie describes how a vision is generated then visualized and finally how this visualization is rationalized and used: triplets mutants lying in a bathtub filed of amniotic fluid generate visions of future crimes that are visualize on a screen and organized by John Anderton (chief police Tom Cruise) in order to find clues that will help the pre-crime department to arrest the suspect/convict before the crimes are committed.
this is tom cruise at his earnest best looks amazing - particularly if you have home projector some may think too cheesy but great social commentary (presumably the remainder of dick's story) and fantastic adrenalin rushtime travel theory understory for those looking for intellectual involvementand also goes to show the danger of looking at crime judgmentally and prejudgmentallya lesson for all perhaps to avoid the slow creep of police states and moral majority persecution.
As a sci-fi action film noir story starring Tom Cruise, it's big box office and ought to do way better than `A.I.,' but it sadly does not stand out from the other summer blockbusters, some of which are definitely more fun.
The first problem with `Minority Report' from which all others flow is that this is another movie made from a story by Fifties sci-fi pulp great Philip K.
Indeed, a big budget makes a film anything but noir.Sure, there are good moments-Samantha Morton's acting in the challenging and rather thankless role of the pre-cog Agatha, Lois Smith's Kubrickesque cameo in the animated hothouse, the retinal ID spiders who invade Anderton's post-eye-op hideaway, and the whole grotty eye op episode, which blends bits of `Brazil' with bits of `Blade Runner' but adds a delicious new level of disgustingness.
When pre-cog officer John Anderton (Tom Cruise) is accused of committing a pre-crime, he must find out why he will kill a man he has never met.'Minority Report' is Spielberg's best of the 2000s.Great story and script.
What the hell were they thinking?Good: Special effects, film's look, some of the acting (not much though) Bad: Everything else.If you thought Independence Day was a great movie, then go see this.
Spielberg's Minority Report is a sprawling, maddening, grotesque spectacle; a film that darts all over the place, catering for mainstream tastes in chase and action sequences but desperately trying to provide more substantial weight and content for the rest of us in the form of typically dystopian futures full of technology and modernity run amok; all the while complimented by wondrous visuals.
Included in a number of top ten of the year lists when it was released and equally so for the decade, although mostly from American critics, mind; Minority Report's pompous and nonsensical attitude is matched only by its misjudged and somewhat misguided approach of romping through a beautifully created world, spawned entirely from computer generated imagery, as fans of either Cruise and/or Spielberg get to attend their latest flick and tick off the genre conventions under a faux banner of entertainment.The film, one of those from Spielberg that again sees him attempt to combine style with substance and filter them both through a number of genres so long as there's a glut of action in there somewhere, does not match what he achieved in the likes of Jurassic Park and Saving Private Ryan; films that maintained a steady sense of threat around a number of sequences that although contained a fair deal of action, saw overwhelming odds stacked against the characters we focused on as superior forces moved in for the kill.
The film's extended screen time that it gives to shots of the technology at the pre-crime lab's disposal, very early on, when all the moving around of this and that on some screens are overly emphasised – the camera lingering on Cruise use the technology for longer than it needs to.With a stuck up tone, a load of caricatures running around another world brought to life, but wasted on with a tired chase/corruption narrative as well as a distinctly misguided tone, Minority Report is a wavering mess; a truly daft experience running on empty.
Believable grief, action work as strong as ever, it is however with his ability to imbue a tortured film noir protagonist where Cruise excels the most.Alongside Cruise and operating with great impact, are Samantha Morton as Pre-Cog Agatha, and Max Von Sydow, who adds that touch of experienced know how needed for his particularly important character.
Pairing Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise must undoubtedly be a nightmare for many people, but for those in their fan clubs it had plenty of promise, and "Minority Report" is a definite return to form for the master after "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" - itself flawed but not as bad as many claim it is.Like "Total Recall," this expands on (and from what I'm told almost totally changes) the Philip K.
The film, as a whole, left me very satisfied – thanks to the accurate storytelling, engaging special effects and unique setting and vision of the not-so-far future.The story follows John Anderton (Cruise), head of Precrime, a futuristic police force whose genetically enhanced employees have the unique ability to foresee the future, therefore helping the unit's policemen to prevent crimes before they occur.
Well, it's been working for him for a long time (from "Jaws" to "Shindler's List") so I guess he'll keep doing it until people stop pulling on their own heartstrings so hard.Yes, that's this movie's excuse for a plot motivation (Dick's story had a political motive behind the murder in the majority report).
A film with a poor and predictable plot, decently acted with many ridiculous and ludricrous scenes ( example, Anderton chasing his eye balls!) It's about time Spielberg realizes he's not Stanley Kubrick and he'll never be Kubrick before he decides to direct another unwatchable film like Minority Report and A.I!
In "Minority Report," Steven Spielberg combines a very realistic vision of the future with an interesting story about the limits of social engineering.The result is another extremely well-done science fiction film, which is comparable in quality to "E.T." and "Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind." The movie is mainly about the controversy over whether any social system can be without flaws.
"Far From Heaven" depicted the stereotypes between interracial relationships to homosexuality in the 1950's which still happens today, to "Bowling for Columbine" in which Michael Moore showed how Americans are fanatics towards having a gun; now in Steven Spielberg's latest film, he shows the more futuristic side towards people's mind: prediction.The main character in "Minority Report" is John Atherton (Tom Cruise), a futurist cop who heads Pre-Crime, an organization dealing with people's fate on whether or not they are going to commit a crime.
This sets up the film's plot which involves pre-crime cop Tom Cruise going on the run to prove his innocence when the pre-cogs name him as a future murderer.This is by far Steven Spielberg's most complex film to date. |
tt0050681 | Man of a Thousand Faces | In the early 1900s, actor Lon Chaney (James Cagney) is working in vaudeville with his wife Cleva (Dorothy Malone). Chaney quits the show and Cleva announces that she is pregnant. Lon is happy and tells Cleva that he has been hired by the famous comedy team Kolb and Dill for an upcoming show.
Cleva pressures Lon to visit his parents (whom she has never met) in his hometown of Colorado Springs. Lon is reluctant because his parents are both deaf mutes, a fact Lon has never shared. Cleva reacts with disgust and does not want to give birth, fearing that the child will also be a deaf mute and she doesn't want to be the mother of a "dumb thing."
Months later, the baby Creighton is born and it soon becomes clear that the child is not deaf. Despite this good news, Lon's and Cleva's marriage continues to erode over the next few years. Soon she takes a job as a singer in a nightclub, dropping young Creighton off to his father backstage at his theater before being driven to work.
Lon has developed a close but platonic friendship with chorus girl Hazel Hastings (Jane Greer). Hazel is happy to help look after young Creighton. After the child gets sick at the theater, Lon complains to Cleva's employer, who reluctantly agrees to terminate her.
When confronting his wife in her dressing room, Lon discovers that Cleva has been dating Bill, a wealthy patron. Cleva learns she's been fired and reacts by screaming, which causes Bill to enter the dressing room. Bill comforts her and then asks Lon who he is. Lon responds by telling Bill that he is from the collection agency, and that he is here to collect his wife. Bill looks at Cleva with contempt and walks away.
Lon returns to the theater, where he discovers Hazel being accosted in the corridor by a tall, thin man. Lon punches the man in the face and tells him to get up. Hazel explains that he can't and the man lifts up his trousers to the knee, revealing two wooden legs. He is Carl Hastings, her former husband, once rational, but now consumed with bitterness as the result of his accident.
Cleva enters the dressing room to find Lon with his hands on Hazel's shoulders. Cleva screams that she will not go back to being a "nurse maid" so that he can play around with a chorus girl. Cleva leaves home and vanishes. Days later, Lon is performing a dance routine in clown makeup at a matinee when a totally deranged Cleva walks on stage and swallows a bottle of acid in front of an audience, permanently damaging her vocal cords.
Cleva is hospitalized, but runs away once more. The scandal essentially destroys Lon's career in vaudeville. The state takes custody of young Creighton as they deem his home situation to be unsuitable, causing Lon to react angrily. On the advice of press agent Clarence Locan (Jim Backus), Lon moves to Hollywood to try his luck in the new field of motion pictures.
After starting as an extra, Lon's tireless work ethic, and his expertise at makeup, make him an in-demand bit player and later a feature player. Lon is cast in the silent film The Miracle Man as a man thought to be physically challenged who is seemingly cured by a faith healer. His success starts him on the road to stardom in such films as The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of the Opera.
As his career soars, Lon face personal challenges. Although he marries Hazel and regains custody of Creighton, ex-wife Cleva reappears, seeking to spend time with Creighton (who has been told by Lon that she is dead). Hazel reveals the truth to Creighton, who leaves to stay with his mother, angry with Lon about the deception.
Lon becomes ill on the set of the sound version of The Unholy Three and is diagnosed with bronchial cancer. Hazel and Locan decide to (initially) hide the truth of his condition from him. Creighton (Roger Smith) reconciles with his father and they take a fishing trip at Lon's mountain cabin. After returning from his fishing trip, Lon collapses and is returned home to live out his final days.
On his deathbed, the dying Chaney (now unable to speak due to the cancer) reverts to the sign language of his childhood to express his love for his friends and family and to ask for forgiveness for unspecified transgressions. Lon signals Creighton to bring him his makeup box. He removes a stick of greasepaint and ads a "Jr." to his own name on the box, signaling to his son his desire for him to carry on his life's work. Creighton leaves with box in hand, ready to start his film career as Lon Chaney, Jr. | insanity | train | wikipedia | Playing the leading role in this marvellous biopic is James Cagney who gives an outstanding measured performance as Lon Chaney the strange tortured character actor of silent pictures who, ironically, died from throat cancer with the advent of the talkies.Crisply photographed in black & white Cinemascope by the great Russell Metty ("Touch Of Evil") the picture conveys a strong sense of time and place.
Expertly evoked is Vaudeville in the early part of the 20th Century where Chaney began as a song and dance man (Cagney delighting us with his special brand of hoofing) and early Hollywood where he became an extra at Universal Studios.
Then with the help of his make-up box and his uncanny facility to alter his appearance - sometimes resulting in great pain - he soon became known as The Man Of A 1000 Faces.Notable reconstructions of Chaney's creations are quite brilliantly achieved in the picture.
Little wonder that the great Orson Welles in the seventies declared that the screen's greatest actor was James Cagney!Others in the cast of this splendid film are Dorothy Malone giving an excellent performance as the singer and Chaney's first wife Cleva Creighton, Jane Greer as his second wife, Jim Backus as his press agent and Robert Evens as the boy wonder of the motion picture business Irving Thalberg.The picture also boasts a terrific music score by the underrated and now wholly forgotten film composer Frank Skinner (1897/1968).
A soundtrack album of his music from the film - issued at the time of the picture's release - is now a much sought after recording!A wonderful movie on DVD presented in a sharp black & white widescreen format that every collector will want to own if only for Cagney's amazing performance.
& this is a fine film bio of another screen great, Lon Chaney, Sr.../ Cagney is wonderful and gives a tour de force performance...
Cagney is the reason for seeing this film,,,he is ably supported by Dorothy Malone, (who sometimes tends to overemote but is effective in this), Jane Greer, looks and acts wonderfully, Jim Backus, and a very young Roger Smith...
True, the film is short on depicting Lon Chaney's film characters and although we do get to see Cagney in makeup as the Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of the Opera, the scenes are extremely brief.
Most of the film depicts Chaney's conflict with his first wife, wonderfully played by the stunning Dorothy Malone - whew, what a knockout!- and the stormy relationship with his son.The film is a soap opera but Cagney is wonderful showing that he can play drama, comedy and even dance and mime..
That led to his interest in pantomime, a stage career in vaudeville and finally silent movies.The film plays fast and loose with the facts of Chaney's life, but I think it captures the spirit of the man who created for the silent screen so many tortured souls.
Jane Greer is also good as the wise and patient second wife who knows she's playing second fiddle to the relationship of father and son.Universal was Chaney's home studio and the studio approached the making of this picture with reverence and care for it's first great star..
Thus is the story of Lon Chaney in "The Man of a Thousand Faces".
But this was an early introduction to what I'd heard of as "vaudeville," & the transitional sequences with Cagney as a film lot extra (with a real silent flick star Marjorie Rambeau, as Gert) were fast-paced & convincing.
One Face Cagney Shouldn't Have Put On. This is the biography of famous actor Lon Chaney, portrayed by the more- famous James Cagney.
Normally, I like biographies and I am a big, big fan of Cagney....but this film turned me off fairly quickly, and I wish the "Yankee Doodle" man had turned down this role.Dorothy Malone plays an awful, selfish woman who was Chaney's first wife.
1957 bio-pic on the life of silent film legend Lon Chaney,this overlong and poorly written film has only the central performance of James Cagney as the title character to recommend it.
Nearing the end of his long and distinguished career, Cagney was already 10 years older than Chaney was when he died when filming began and is hardly convincing as a young and struggling vaudevillian and new father.
Things improve when Chaney goes to Hollywood where the screenplay deals with his success as a character actor and his near miraculous ability to transform his face and body as necessary to play what became an amazing range of exotic and tortured characters.Unfortunately the writers choose to concentrate the bulk of the film on Chaney's family problems.
Even though she eventually becomes a sympathetic character, the script comes down strongly in favor of Chaney's second wife, who dutifully gives up her own show business career to become the stay-at-home wife and step-mother to Chaney's young son.Jim Backus does his best in the role of Chaney's friend/press agent to keep from being a walking cliché while forced to utter lines like " 'Mystery' did you say?
We'll call him 'Lon Chaney, Man of a Thousand Faces!' " Jane Greer gives up her usual femme fatale persona to play Lon's devoted second wife, and a very young Roger Smith plays son Creighton (later to become Lon Chaney, Jr.), hoping to follow in his father's footsteps.
The sodden direction by Joseph Pevney precludes any mystery as to how this story will resolve itself.Only the performance of James Cagney makes this film worth watching, even as the script wallows in Hollywood kitsch and repellent 50s attitudes towards women and the handicapped.
James Cagney was 58 years old when he starred in this movie as Lon Chaney, who died in 1930 at the age of 47.
All of these events happened to Chaney before he was 31.While Cagney does give a good performance, he's so "too old" for the role, it's hard to get past it.
The filmmakers try to hide it by having Cagney is clown make-up or or theatrical guise through a lot of the early part of the film when he's married to the first wife (Dorothy Malone, who's 33 here).
With Malone out and the second wife (Jane Greer, also 33) in, Cagney looks like their father.There's a lot of lip service to Chaney's film career, which really took off with THE MIRACLE MAN in 1919.
He was "discovered" by Cagney in Hawaii and promoted for the role of Chaney, Jr.Others in the cast include Jim Backus as the press agent, Marjorie Rambeau as the old-time actress, Marjorie Bennett as Vera the maid, and Celia Lovsky as the mother.
Cagney plays Lon Chaney in this film about the great imitator's life.
In this way both he and the man who plays him (James Cagney) have much in common.Cagney and Chaney looked totally different, yet Cagney makes this role work.
It's possible Jimmy Cagney couldn't resist the role of Lon Chaney here because of the opportunity it gave him to draw on his own stage and vaudeville experience to perform a couple of dance numbers.
Chaney was only 47 when he died, ten years younger than Cagney was when he filmed the role and was a rather gaunt figure whereas the middle-aged Cagney had a round face (although he appears to have slimmed down quite considerably for the part) and was noticeably short in stature.
Cleva did destroy her singing voice when she attempted suicide – but she didn't attempt it on stage.The film devotes most of its time to Chaney's personal life but does offer occasional glimpses into the film-making business.
A few scenes that demonstrates the chaotic process of studio film-making in the very early days of Hollywood, when the absence of sound meant that several different genres of film could be shot alongside one another in an enclosed space, are quite interesting but, while we do see Cagney re-enacting a few famous Chaney scenes, the general impression is that his career is sidelined for much of the film.Chaney died in 1931 (after making only one sound movie – a remake of his silent hit The Unholy Three).
The film ironically touches on this theme, but it discloses it in a shroud of scandal, making it seem as though Chaney's desire for privacy was mainly because he had something to hide.Cagney is a great actor and puts his heart into the role but the rest of the cast is strictly playing out the typical sentimentality, complete with shining heroines and poor Lon Jr (Creighton) looking and talking like a blonde Ricky Nelson.Such syrup could even be excused if the film at least gave more than a mere ten minutes (at most!) to what made Lon Chaney great.
FACES is well done, photography and make-up wise, but I must agree that more concentration on the Chaney career as opposed to the personal story, would make for a more interesting film, overall.
Way too much emphasis on boring aspects of his personal life and not enough time devoted to what it took to create Chaney's landmark, classic movies.
The laughable Hunchback imitation reminded my of the makeup in "I was a Teenage Frankenstein." To be fair, the script gave Cagney limited opportunity to delve into the psychology of the "Man of a Thousand Faces." Some scenes were sadly lacking in closeups, significantly reducing the impact of the drama/horror depicted.Too bad this picture weren't made around 1940 at the height of Lon Jr.'s prowess as an actor.
When James Cagney was cast as legendary silent film star Lon Chaney in 1957 he was 58 years old.
He also has Cagney play several scenes in thick clown face make-up - because that's what we remember Chaney for.
You might think that a biopic of Hollywood's first great horror actor might focus the bulk of its attention on recreating those years and films, but MAN OF A THOUSAND FACES spends an inordinate amount of its overlong running time bringing us up to speed on Chaney's vaudeville career.
What were the members of the Motion Picture Academy thinking when James Cagney was not nominated for his outstanding performance as Lon Chaney in 1957's "Man of A Thousand Faces."?Cagney was at his best portraying the masquerade man whose personal life was such a heartbreak.
This was certainly an outstanding follow-up after the wonderful "Love Me or Leave Me" two years before.Fresh from her Oscar win for "Written on the Wind," Dorothy Malone pulled off another great performance.Cagney's acting toward his deaf mute parents was a sight to behold.
Totally fictional biography of Lon Chaney...but still a good movie.
Loving (and fictional) tribute to Lon Chaney--actor and makeup artist who was in such classics as "Phantom of the Opera" and the "Hunchback of Notre Dame".
There are plenty of things wrong with this movie--James Cagney looks NOTHING like Lon Chaney--Chaney was tall and kind of mean-looking with a thin face; Cagney is short, pleasant-looking with a round face; GREAT liberties were taken with Chaney's real-life story (he was not the saint this movie paints him to be); the recreations of Phantom and Notre Dame just look silly; every show business cliché imaginable is shoe-horned into this and they totally ignore the fact that Chaney was actually pretty abusive to his son.That aside...this IS a good movie.It's well done and beautifully shot in wide screen and black and white; Dorothy Malone does wonders with an underwritten role; ditto for Jane Greer; the movies moves fairly quickly and is always absorbing (I was never bored) and Cagney is just great!
For the first time in my 28 year long life, I saw James Cagney as the character actor he really was.
I read an other comment on this film about the life of Lon Chaney and I agree that it is a terrible biography about the great actor, but what was neglected was to say that this film was a showcase for James Cagney.
Interesting, albeit a bit slow and lengthy, bio-pic of horror-film icon Lon Chaney follows the actor from his early days as a vaudeville clown through his rise to stardom in films such as 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame' (1923) and 'The Phantom of the Opera' (1925) to his premature death from lung cancer in 1930.
Cagney is good (and gets to demonstrate his ability as a hoofer) but is clearly too old for the role (he was 58, Chaney died at 47 and much of the film is about the actor in his 20' -30's).
IMO - This 1957 bio-pic of famed silent-era actor and make-up artist, Lon Chaney failed to rise above being mere mediocrity for the most part.For one thing - Not only did I find that actor, James Cagney was not at all suited for his part as Chaney - But, Cagney was nearly 60 at the time of this production and he did a mighty poor job of convincingly portraying a man who was only 30.Another problem with this presentation was that it, unfortunately, turned Chaney's private life into too much of a soap opera for my liking.As I understand it - This film was largely a fictionalized account of Chaney's life.
There was a time when movie bios were a mix of fact and invention -- and 1957's "Man of a Thousand Faces" typifies the genre.
Though James Cagney looks nothing like the gaunt Lon Chaney, he brings depth and humor to the role.
Mostly, because I am a fan of James Cagney's and thought his performance in this movie was excellent.
It is a trite saying, but they really don't make movies like this nowadays...Which is probably why everyone who has any interest in any decent film MUST have cable (or TCM, at least); This film was made in 1957, and has that un-pretentious quality to it, the sadness in Lon Chaney's real life, and his determination to be a Hollywood film actor.While a previous reviewer has aptly pointed out, the make-up is amateurish, the details of Cagney's life are left out(especially with reference to his son, Creighton) this is still a good film which manifests the life of a struggling actor, and there is an amusing cameo with a young Robert Evans as Irving Thalberg, studio genius.When I watch films like this, I wish we could go back in time to these days, the times of our parents and grandparents, it reminded of the premise behind Redford's "Quiz Show"-there is a genuine feeling to it; The Hollywood studios were money-oriented, but the public was not bombarded with PR and tabloid trash; it seemed a romantic era where film stars would never consider doing TV commercials for Geritol or McDonald's..
I can possibly overlook that because every time I see this film, I forget that it's Cagney and I "get into" the story of Chaney's life.
The Lon Chaney character gives Cagney an opportunity to show his range, and the depth of his talent.
However Cagney's recreation of many of Lon Chaney Sr's many movie character scenes especially.
Man of a Thousand Faces (1957) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Bio pic has James Cagney playing silent screen star Lon Chaney from his early days on stage up to his untimely death in 1930.
The Miracle Man, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of the Opera have scenes re-enacted here and Cagney perfectly captures them even though, yet again, he doesn't look like Chaney.
Chaney was a man way ahead of himself as far as the creation of the special type of makeup he used for all the different characters he played.Lon Chaney's roots were in vaudeville, where he also was greatly admired.
His life with Hazel, his second wife, turned out to be a fine one without the ups and downs that affected his first one.The main attraction for watching this film was James Cagney, an actor who always gave an honest performance.
Jim Cagney stars as Lon Chaney,the man of a thousand faces.
Chaney was a slender and tall man and Cagney was short and stubby.Is the film accurate?
Chaney Jr became an actor because he had a family to feed and he thought he could get work because he was Lon's son.The life of a legend is poked and pulled at until it was turned into this.
Dorothy Malone is particularly good here, although her role as Cagney's first wife is difficult to like.
And as far as Cagney being too short to play Chaney Lon was 5 ft 8 in and Cagney was 5 ft 7 in, not much of a difference at all.Again if you are going to review at least get your facts straight!!!!!
Wonderful biopic on film legend Lon Chaney.
Played by early film great James Cagney.
Lon Chaney is credited for so many great performances, so it's very appropriate that a man of equal greatness takes on his life.Fresh from her acclaimed role in "Written on the Wind" (for which she would win an Oscar), Dorothy Malone plays another juicy part as Chaney's selfish first wife, a promising singer whose bitterness over her fear of son Creighton becoming deaf that she deliberately seems to go out of her way to destroy her marriage.
Jane Greer, who played evil broads earlier in her career, is much more believable as his second wife who looked on young Creighton (Lon Jr.) as if he was her own son.
None of this however ruined my enjoyment of the picture, as Cagney does a superb job of recreating some of Chaney's famous silent film characters along with portraying the actor's conflicted private life.
As a kid growing up in the Fifties, I never knew there was a Chaney 'Senior', and the only one I could relate to was the 'Wolf Man' Chaney from his horror films and later, his TV and movie Western roles.For Cagney, this was a natural in more ways than one. |
tt1179933 | 10 Cloverfield Lane | In the opening scene, a woman named Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is looking outside her window. She's on the phone with someone, arguing. Michelle then packs a bunch of her belongings and leaves her home.Michelle drives far from the city down to the rural area. Her fiance Ben (voice of Bradley Cooper) calls her. She answers but only lets him talk and say how sorry he is, and that she shouldn't leave him just like that. Michelle hangs up. Ben calls again, and Michelle takes her eyes off the road for a second when her car gets slammed by a truck, causing her to roll into a ditch.Michelle wakes up with a head wound in a small room with a needle in her arm that's hooked to a saline drip. To her horror, she sees her leg is chained to a pipe. She grabs her saline drip pole and pulls her phone toward her to call for help. Unfortunately, there is no signal. Someone comes downstairs to open the door to the room. It is a man named Howard (John Goodman). He claims to have rescued Michelle from the car accident and is keeping her alive. Howard offers Michelle a pair of wooden crutches to help her remain mobile with her leg injury sustained from the car crash, and tells her to "get good on those" before leaving the room.Michelle sets about carving the tip of one of the crutches to sharpen it into a weapon to attack Howard with. The next time Howard shows up, Michelle tries to stab him with the sharpened crutch unsuccessfully, but Howard quickly grabs her and sedates her.When she comes to, Howard calmly explains to Michelle that there has been an attack on the surface, and that the air up there is unbreathable, so he brought Michelle down to the bunker beneath his farm. Howard brings Michelle up to the airlock to see what's going on outside. Nothing appears unusual, but Michelle spots Howard's truck with red paint on the side, and she recognizes it as the truck that hit her.From the bedroom, a clattering sound is heard from outside. Howard goes to yell at someone off-screen. Michelle leaves the room and finds a younger man named Emmett (John Gallagher, Jr.). His arm is broken, and Howard tells Michelle that Emmett knocked over a shelf with a week's worth of food.Emmett appears more friendly than Howard. He explains that he willingly joined Howard in building the bunker, Emmett claims to have seen the attack occur, describing a red flash and running to get inside, which he says explains his broken arm.Howard makes Michelle and Emmett join him for dinner like a family. Michelle engages in pleasant conversation with Emmett that appears sort of flirty, causing Howard to angrily respond. He warns the two of them not to behave like that. When he's not looking, Michelle grabs his keys. A rumble occurs overhead, distracting everyone but giving Michelle a chance to smash a beer bottle over Howard's head. She runs out toward the airlock and tries to get out. Michelle stands in the airlock between the outside and the inside as Howard begs her not to go outside. A woman (Suzanne Cryer) pleads to be let inside, but her skin is deformed from an infection. Howard urges Michelle not to let this woman in. The woman grows agitated and starts banging her head on the glass of the door.Now fearing that Howard may be right, Michelle begins to listen to him. He apologizes for his previous behavior and admits to hitting her car. He then tells Michelle to stitch up the wound on his head from the broken bottle.Eventually, the trio become friendlier with each other and start working together like a real family. Howard lets Michelle borrow clothes belonging to his daughter Megan, whom he lost. He shows Michelle a picture of Megan. Michelle and Emmett also bond, with Emmett discussing how he had a chance to play sports for a university, but he skipped the chance to leave town because he was afraid. Michelle recounts a time when she saw a little girl being abused by her dad at a hardware store, and she felt bad for walking away and doing nothing, especially considering her own troublesome childhood.The air filtration system goes down, and only Michelle is small enough to fit through the vents and go to the filtration room. She resets the unit but notices a ladder leading to outside, just beneath a window. On the window is "HELP" scratched out, with the L and P having traces of blood on it. On the floor, Michelle finds two bloody earrings that she recognizes from the picture of Megan. She shows the picture to Emmett, who says the girl in the picture is really a girl from his high school named Brittany, and she went missing a while back. The two realize that Howard is a threat, and they need to get out of there.Michelle and Emmett steal Howard's tools and start constructing a makeshift biohazard suit and gas mask. Howard discovers the stolen tools and brings out a vat of perchloric acid to dissolve them. Howard demands to know why they were trying to take his gun. Emmett speaks up and says he did it so that Michelle could respect him the way she respects Howard. Howard forgives Emmett and then shoots him in the head.Michelle finishes the suit and tries to make her escape. Howard catches her, but she pushes the vat of acid toward him, causing him to slip and fall face-first onto it. She climbs over and heads toward the exit. The acid eats through an electrical wire and starts a fire. Howard follows Michelle and she pushes a shelf on top of him. She climbs through the vents to head to the filtration room. Howard stabs through the vents with a knife. He grabs onto Michelle as she makes it to the end, but she slams his hand hard enough for it to rip off. The fire starts spreading through the bunker. Michelle puts the suit and gas mask on and prepares to head on outside.Once again, everything is calm. Michelle looks up and sees birds flying overhead. She takes off the mask and breathes in the fresh air. She goes to Howard's truck and then spots what she thinks is a helicopter in the distance. It's really a massive alien hovercraft. The bunker then explodes, attracting the alien spacecraft toward that spot. It begins to spread a toxic green gas, so Michelle quickly puts the mask back on. Michelle runs to the barn and finds the dead body of the infected woman from earlier. Through the cracks, Michelle sees a worm-like creature surrounding the truck. When it's gone, she grabs the cars keys off the woman and runs toward it. The creature chases Michelle, cornering her in the truck. The craft goes near her and picks the truck up, bringing it closer to its mouth. Michelle grabs a magazine, lighter, and whisky bottle to make a Molotov cocktail. She lights it and seizes the opportunity to throw it into the creature's mouth. It drops the truck and then explodes.Michelle drives away for good. She hits Howard's mailbox, which has the address "10 Cloverfield Lane" on it. Michelle turns on the radio and hears that anybody seeking refuge from the alien attacks may head to Baton Rouge, but anybody with combat or medical expertise is needed in Houston. Michelle reaches the sign that directs people straight to Baton Rouge or left to Houston. Michelle makes the choice to go left. As she drives there, a thunderclap shows a bigger alien hovercraft hiding in the clouds. | suspenseful, comedy, murder, claustrophobic, flashback | train | imdb | null |
tt0083511 | 48 Hrs. | Convicted robber Albert Ganz is working as part of a road gang in California, when a big Native American man named Billy Bear drives up in a pickup truck and asks for water to cool off his trucks overheating radiator. Ganz and Billy end up in a fight with each other, and when the guards try to break up the fight, Billy slips a gun to Ganz, and Billy and Ganz kill two out of the three guards. Billy is one of Ganz's partners in a gang of thieves, and Billy has helped Ganz escape from prison. Two days later, Ganz and Billy kill Henry Wong, who was one of their partners.Later that same day, alcoholic San Francisco cop Jack Cates (Nick Nolte) joins two of his friends and co-workers -- Detective Algren and Detective VanZant -- at the Walden Hotel to check out a man named G.P. Polson, who is in Room 27. Jack waits downstairs while Algren and VanZant head to Room 27, where it turns out that G.P. Polson is Ganz using a fake name. Ganz immediately kills VanZant, and shoots Algren, while Billy attends to some other business in the room next door to room 27. Jack hears the shots and rushes upstairs, where Algren tells him to go downstairs and find Ganz and Billy. Jack confronts Ganz and Billy downstairs. When Algren makes it downstairs, Ganz takes Jack's gun and uses it to kill Algren, and then Ganz and Billy escape with Jack's gun.At the station, Jack is issued a new gun, a Colt .45, and fellow cop Ben Kehoe tells Jack about Ganz's former partner Reggie Hammond (Eddie Murphy), who is in prison with 6 months to go on a three year sentence for armed robbery. Jack tells his boss, Haden, that he wants to work alone in the search for Ganz, and then Jack visits Reggie at the prison.Jack gets Reggie a 48-hour leave from the prison so Reggie can help Jack find Ganz and Billy. Reggie leads Jack to an apartment that Ganz's only other partner, Luther, lives in.Jack and Reggie don't know that a few days ago, Ganz and Billy kidnapped Luther's girlfriend Rosalie. When Jack steps inside Luther's apartment and starts looking around, Luther runs upstairs to the apartment and fires a shot at Jack. Jack chases Luther to Jack's car, where Reggie is handcuffed to the steering wheel. After getting nothing out of Luther, Jack puts Luther in jail. That night, Reggie leads Jack to Torchy's, a redneck hangout where Billy used to be a bartender.After Reggie harasses the hangout with Jack watching him, the bartender finally tells Reggie how to get to the apartment that Ganz's girlfriend Sally and Billy's girlfriend Casey live in. The apartment is on top of the Win Sun jewelry store in the Chinatown section of San Francisco. Jack and Reggie visit Casey and Sally, but get nothing out of them.Back at the car, Jack, who knows Ganz is after something, demands that Reggie tell him what Ganz is after. Because Reggie has refused to tell Jack, Jack starts a fight with Reggie. After the fight, Reggie tells Jack that Ganz and Billy are after $500,000 that is in the trunk of Reggie's car, which is in a parking garage.Reggie and his partners -- Ganz, Billy, Luther, and Henry -- had robbed a drug dealer of the $500,000 during a drug sale, and then Ganz turned around and betrayed Reggie.Jack and Reggie head out to the parking garage, and they park across the street from the parking garage. On the next morning, Jack and Reggie see Luther, who has been released from jail, going into the parking garage.
A few minutes later, Luther emerges with Reggie's car. It seems that Ganz has promised that Rosalie will be safe if Luther gets the money for Ganz. Jack and Reggie chase Luther to a subway station, where Ganz and Billy are waiting. Luther escapes with the money, and Billy kills a cop.That night, Jack is at his desk at the police station, and Reggie is at Vroman's, a place where people go to dance. When Jack calls Reggie, who answers on a payphone, Reggie tells Jack where he is, and Jack races to Vroman's to talk to Reggie, who is with a woman named Candy.Jack gives Reggie $20 so Reggie can go to the hotel across the street and have sex with Candy. Just as Reggie and Candy get out the front door of Vroman's, Reggie sees Luther board a bus driven by Billy. Reggie races back inside, and tells Jack. Jack and Reggie get in Jack's car, and in the bus, Luther gives Ganz the money, and then Ganz shoots Luther dead.Jack and Reggie then pull up beside the bus, and have a gunfight with Ganz. After Billy causes Jack and Reggie to crash into a showroom at a car dealership, Haden chews Jack and Reggie out. Later, Jack calls Kehoe, who hasn't heard anything on where Ganz may be.Jack thinks Ganz and Billy may be at Casey and Sally's apartment, so Jack and Reggie head back to the apartment, where Reggie finds Billy, and he shoots Billy dead. Ganz emerges from a room, and opens fire. Reggie and Jack chase Ganz out of the apartment and into a maze of alleys, where Ganz grabs Reggie and puts a gun to Reggie's head.Jack steps into the alley, and fires a shot that blows Ganz away from Reggie, and then when Ganz starts charging towards Jack, Jack fires six more shots, killing Ganz. Later, Jack lets Reggie have sex with Candy at her apartment. Jack shows Reggie his money in his car and tells him, it'll be there waiting for him when he comes out. He then drives away, presumably to take Reggie back to the prison. | comedy, suspenseful, neo noir, murder, violence, cult, action, revenge | train | imdb | null |
tt1563719 | Hunt to Kill | Four years ago, border patrol agent Jim Rhodes (Steve Austin) was stationed in Texas. Jim and his partner, his longtime friend Lee Davis (Eric Roberts), are staking out what looks like an empty trailer. As a gift, Lee gives Jim a watch that has a band made from climbing rope. The band can be unraveled and used in case of emergency.
After Jim calls for backup, Jim and Lee decide to go in. What they find is a meth lab that looks abandoned. But two men come up from a door that was built into the trailer's floor, and they open fire, shooting Lee.
Jim kills the two men, and another man opens fire from under the trailer. Jim makes the man come up through the same door the other two came through, and the man sets the trailer on fire. Lee kills the man, and Lee tells Jim to run, just before Lee dies. Reluctantly, Jim leaves Lee behind, running out of the trailer as it explodes because of the highly volatile chemicals used for producing meth.
Now, Jim and his rebellious teenage daughter Kim (Marie Avgeropoulos) are living in the mountains in Lowery, Montana. In Reno, Nevada, a man named Lawson (Michael Hogan) and his crew of thieves have just robbed the Hotel Palacio casino.
Lawson takes the millions of dollars in bearer bonds they stole, and leaves a bomb behind in a warehouse to kill the rest of the thieves, who include his psychopathic right-hand man Banks (Gil Bellows).
Banks defuses the bomb, and with the help of a tracking device, Banks thinks he knows exactly where Lawson is going. Banks and the other thieves—Jensen (Gary Daniels), Geary (Michael Eklund), Crab (Adrian Holmes), and Dominika (Emilie Ullerup)—vow to find Lawson and get the bonds back.
In Montana the next day, Kim says she's going to her friend Megan's house to help Megan pack for a trip. Later, Jim gets a call from Sheriff Westlake (Donnelly Rhodes), who says he has Kim in his office for shoplifting. Jim goes to Westlake's office, and finds Banks and his crew there, beating Westlake up.
Banks believes that Lawson is in Montana, and is planning to cross into Canada by foot. Banks wants to find Lawson and get the bonds, and Banks says that Westlake is not being very accommodating. Banks kills Westlake.
Banks wants Jim to guide them through the mountains, to find Lawson. In order to make Jim do it, Banks takes Kim hostage. Banks tells Jim that if Jim screws up in any way, Kim dies.
In the mountains, it's a grueling trek. At one point, Crab tries to rape Kim, and Jim beats Crab up, breaking several of his bones. After that, Jensen fatally shoots Crab. After they find Lawson and the money, and Dominika fatally shoots Lawson, Banks sends Jim plunging off a cliff, and leaves him to die.
Jim survives, and while Banks is forcing Kim to guide him and his crew, Jim carves some sharp points into some branches to make spears out of them, and finds a bag with a crossbow in it. Jim starts hunting Banks and his crew, who have left a wounded Geary behind after Banks beat Geary up for arguing with him.
Jim shoots Geary three times with the compound bow. Geary tells Jim that Banks has taken over Lawson's plan to go into Canada. As Geary begs Jim not to shoot again, Jim shoots an arrow into Geary's chest, killing Geary.
Next, Jim tracks the others down and confronts Jensen, who is a martial arts expert. Jim ends the grueling fight by fatally stabbing Jensen with a broken tree branch.
Banks wonders where Jensen is at, and Banks is feeling uneasy. Dominika, who is using a rope to hold on to Kim so she does not get away, tells Banks that they have to keep moving. Jim tracks them down, and throws one of the wooden spears he carved. Banks jumps out of the way, and the spear hits Dominika, killing her. That infuriates Banks.
Kim tries to escape, but Banks doesn't let her. Taking Kim with him, Banks finds an outpost where there are three Canadian cops, and three ATVs. Banks kills the three cops, punches Kim and knocks her down, and then takes off on one of the ATVs. Jim finds Kim, and he tells her to take one of the remaining two ATVs and go for help while Jim goes after Banks with the other one.
Jim chases Banks down, and they fight. Jim chases Banks down a hill and into what looks like an abandoned factory. Banks even fires a flare gun at Jim. They try to hit each other with shovels. Banks hits Jim a couple of times, and then Jim beats Banks up and hits Banks in the face with a shovel, knocking Banks down.
Jim thinks it's over, but Banks gets back up and tries to shove Jim through the nearby catwalk's guard rail. Jim turns the tables, and shoves Banks down onto the pile of wooden skids below.
Jim, taking the bonds with him so he can return them, goes outside and sees Kim, who says she couldn't leave him. Banks stumbles outside, and he says "Did you think you could take my money?" Jim tells Kim to get back, and Jim gets on one of the ATVs. Banks says "You can't kill me!"
Jim says "When I hunt, I hunt to kill." And then Jim floors it, and rams the ATV right into Banks, pinning Banks up against a wall just inside the building, and gas is leaking from the ATV. Jim starts walking away. Again, Banks says "You can't kill me!" Kim urges Jim to kill Banks for what he's done. Jim fires the flare gun at the ATV, causing an explosion that kills Banks.
Jim and Kim are glad they've survived, but they know they have a long walk home. | suspenseful, murder, violence, cult, good versus evil, revenge | train | wikipedia | Starring the only two known 'actors' Steve Austin and Eric Roberts (who has stumbled along on his acting career, never approaching his more famous sister Julia's prominence), Hunt to Kill starts out with a familiar formula: Two cop (southern border guard?) buddies, the two already mentioned, staking out a trailer in the desert.
The trailer is full of hidden bad guys and everything blows up in magnificent fashion, leaving only Steve Austin knocked flat but alive.Next thing we know it's four years later and Austin has transformed into some sort of Rambo-like master of the forest and now he's in the Pacific Northwest.
They kidnap Austin, actually kidnapping his newly appeared incredibly stupid daughter to force his cooperation in order that he should lead them through the forest to their fellow bad guy who has stolen their stolen bonds (don't ask) and taken off with a guide to sneak into Canada through the forest...
I had a great laugh over the fact that the watch-band rope once unravelled, became a half inch line of a good couple hundred feet in length.Of course the bad guys betray him, grab the McGuffin, cut the rope so that Austin falls off the cliff, and leave him for dead.
When you come into a film called 'hunt to kill' with Steve Austin as the main character, I highly doubt you're going in expecting a film with some Al Pacino style acting, the action equivalent script of The Shawshank Redemption and the cinematography of Lord of the Rings.
It's not perfectly shot but I've seen so much worse.I'm not going to go into the story, it's a basic run of the mill good guy/good guy's family gets caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, stuff happens.On one note, I hated the character played by "Marie Avgeropoulos".
We open up with a scene, where Jim Rhodes (Steve Austin) from the Mexican border patrol police, just days before moving up North to the Canadian side, loses his partner Lee Davis (Eric Roberts) in a bust gone awry.
From incredulous scene to abysmally moronic scene we wander with the plot into the US-Canadian forest areas, where Steve Austin ultimately goes postal.Jim Rhodes himself, however likable he may be, fails to ignite a strong lead, instead falls flat due to lack of proper exposure to his actions and reactions.
Yes, they stole money, but you got the feeling that the punishment far outdid the actual crime and you honestly start thinking that Rhodes should be imprisoned for his wanton vigilantism.On the plus side the movie gives a good dosage of laughs thanks to some sixty-feet watch-rope (watch it to believe it), goodies like composite bows hanging randomly on a tree, appallingly hilarious one-liners and an end scene to die laughing for (when finally Rhodes declares that he hunts to kill!).
Verily I say unto thee....HUNT TO KILL is one helluva movie and is a welcome addition to what we must hope will be a glut of new DTV action movies thanks to the worldwide success of that glorious hymn to masculine values THE EXPENDABLES.In fact HUNT TO KILL boasts three alumni from the cast of THE EXPENDABLES and they are star Stve Austin,British kick-boxing legend Gary Daniels and Eric Roberts in an early cameo.
Austin plays a forest dwelling Border patrol officer who is cajoled into guiding a quartet of jewel thieves through the woods in order to catch up with the guy who stole their jewels in the aftermath of a heist.Austin has little choice as his attractive teenage daughter is also brought along as a hostage.Watching tough as hell Austin turn the tables on his captors makes for a fantastic 90 + minutes of well handled in your face action with none of the many fights and stunts spoilt by the dreaded "shakycam" which has ruined so many recent action films including the last disgracefully poor Bond movie.This is action cinema as it should be filmed and the brutal fight between Austin and Daniels will rate highly with fans of kick-butt mano-a-mano slugfests like me.Every punch and kick is clearly delineated and edited to maximum effect.HUNT TO KILL is glorious stuff for any male out there who is not ashamed of having cojones and gets a 10 rating from the Bapster who is leaping with joy at the way the career Gary Daniels is gaining in exposure now that he is older and getting some great bad guy roles that he performs with aplomb and Austin commands the screen as ever.Great stuff..
Some genius producer corralled the villains (Steve Austin, Eric Roberts and Gary Daniels) from Stallone's THE EXPENDABLES and put them in a cheap-o film.
Jim Rhodes (Austin) is a border patrol agent who is forced (via the hostage daughter routine) to lead a gang on an excursion near the Canadian border.
This is the first "Stone Cold" Steve Austin film I've seen and he is surprisingly personality deprived (surprising because of his popular wrestling persona).
Starring Steve Austin, Gary Daniels and Eric Roberts, the main villains in "The Expendables", here's another action flick for you.
Unless you are a deeply dedicated fan of one of the "stars" in this film, you will, like me, be sorely disappointed, I'm sure.The flick fails on every score, from the dull cinematography, to the wooden stilted acting and posing, to the amateur dialogues, to the hapless direction and silly music choices.After reading a few reviews on this site, I thought I'd be in for an action treat, at least a clever thriller movie, but I was let down dreadfully.Well, I paid only a couple dollars for this at a charity shop, so I don't have any regrets, apart from my time wasted trying to watch it!.
This is a bonkers Steve Austin action film which starts off promisingly and turns to dumb and dumber as characters start doing illogical things.Steve Austin and Eric Roberts are border guards but Roberts is only in for a few minutes before he is killed off and we move on four years later as Austin lives a Rambo like existence in the mountains near the Canadian border.A group of bad guys who have been double crossed are out to get their prey and the loot and to do this they break into the Sheriff's office, kill him and then kidnap Austin's daughter.
Good job Austin dropped by as he leads the gang into the mountain.The trouble is the gang are a bickering sort, one of them even hits another one in order to rape Austin's daughter.Gil Bellows the gang leader enjoys himself doing a Jack Nicholson impression playing the bad guy.
Stone cold definitely was the star in the movie and this is the only reason that anybody should watch it moreover location was good too, cinematography was no bad at all.
Former pro-wrestler "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and martial arts star Gary Daniels are appearing together in HUNT TO KILL.Steve Austin stars as U.S. Border Patrol agent Jim Rhodes, a tough divorcée mourning the loss of his murdered partner while struggling to raise his rebellious daughter in the mountains of Montana.
HUNT TO KILL is a routine action vehicle for wrestler-turned-actor Steve Austin, who plays the usual unstoppable hulking hero type in this story about a gang of bank robbers who abscond to the forests to make their escape by crossing the border into Canada.
Along the way they pick up Austin's daughter, forcing him in turn to become their guide under the threat of violence.What follows is almost a scene by scene rip-off of Stallone's CLIFFHANGER, made on a much lower budget of course and without much of the finesse.
It's certainly more entertaining than some of the rubbishy vehicles that director Keoni Waxman has made for Steven Seagal.The film has plenty of faults, with poor character motivations and a dearth of originality in the screenplay (I was surprised when Austin fell down the cliff-face for a second time), not to mention tons of unbelievable stuff with the star shrugging off bullet hits and the like.
But there's at least one decent fight scene (featuring the great, under-utilised Gary Daniels), a fun hammy performance from chief bad guy Gil Bellowes, a cameo from Eric Roberts, and a pacing that's fast enough for you to generally ignore the various problems..
The production values are pretty good, the British Columbia locations the movie shot at are attractive to the eye, and Steve Austin shows he can play a tough and charismatic protagonist.
Stone Cold Steve Austin is absolutely awesome in this movie.
This film about a U.S Border Patrol agent called Jim Rhodes (played by Stone Cold Steve Austin) who is struggling to raise his rebellious daughter in the mountains of Montana, has to face very severe problems when a crew of malicious fugitives takes him and his daughter hostage.
These malicious fugitives are trying to take his daughter Kim (played by Marie Avergopoulous) and Jim Rhodes has to struggle to survive by killing these malicious fugitives lead by the very malicious fugitive Banks (played by Gil Belows) and for him to also kill Banks and rescue his daughter Kim. The close bond and love between father Jim Rhodes and daughter Kim Rhodes is absolutely brilliant and the acting by Stone Cold Steve Austin and Marie Avgeropoulous is absolutely brilliant.
I absolutely loved watching this film and was amazed by Stone Cold Steve Austin because he was absolutely awesome in this film.
Crap parts of this movie as well the above- no bank robbery.I can understand why Lawson doesn't drive across the border- what one border notices him as possibly wanted for other crimes and he's stuffed.Criminals don't usually intentionally go to police stations for any reason- instant draw attention to yourself- one minute after they left country police dispatcher and then a major manhunt- What the criminals couldn't find a real guide from a pub.
i have seen stone cold Steve Austin in the wrestling but first time I've seen him in the leading role of a big budget holly wood movie blockbuster film title.
Stone Cold Steve Austin is the star in this, he cannot act whatsoever however he gets points just for being cool as he is!
Steve Austin is an ex border patrol officer who after his partner is killed (Eric Roberts) he spends his life raising his attitude prone daughter in the mountains.
I rented this after reading the reviews here - and all I can say is those that gave this more than 2 stars have WAY lower standards for entertainment than I do.The lead role - played by Steve Austin had all the charisma of the rocks he found himself (repeatedly) climbing.
Trouble is the bad guys have Steve Austins daughter too.
So he climbs down this cliff - gets the money bag and climbs back up - and expects the bad guys (who all have guns and have already killed a number of people) to let his daughter go....which they don't...and he is surprised.
He is a major action movie star and he should be getting better roles.
I think the story is too repetitive and kind of long but if you like Steve Austin, you definitely have to watch it..
Sure, the story reads like a Silvester Stallone movie and even though I think he is not a good actor, he is definitely a million miles better.The acting is SUPER wooden, VERY unnatural.
I don't expect much from an "action" flick starring Steve Austen, but this managed to tick all the bad film boxes.Poor script, poor acting and terrible direction, but worst of all was the plot, if it's not an insult to plots to call it that.
This is a film with action!!!...it has a story?....it has actors that do the gym and show you how fit they are!!!...they look mean....they look right into the camera lens...there is also some comedy...some nice shots of the countryside...even some "sex" to a small degree thanks to Dominika (Emilie Ullerup)...but i have to be honest, the guy that made this film must think the punters that are going to the flicks to see this, or at worse pay good money to buy the DVD version is a joker in the first degree...a very slow and predictable start...watch carefully as you see the main man Jim Rhodes (Steve Austin) is given a wrist watch, "it will help you out one day"...so to insult us viewers we see him use this strap to abseil down a 150' rock face...and by the time he is at the bottom its a climbing rope...come on we are not stupid....then muscle man Austin falls down another rock face....only to climb back up with no significant injuries...i never did understand why the double-crossing bad boy Lawson (Michael Hogan) went on foot into the wood...he has a vehicle....then he throws the stash away down the cliff....for all to see....so to sum up...it is a "B" movie which has some action but a weak story line that ends up very predictable...Banks (Gill Bellows)gets run over...don't waste you cash...go buy a burger...it wont leave a bad taste in your mouth afterwards....
Steve Austin stars as U.S. Border Patrol agent Jim Rhodes, a tough divorce mourning the loss of his murdered partner while struggling to raise his rebellious daughter in the mountains of Montana.
Is there any wounded animal more dangerous than a lawman left for dead great film to watch and the film its got a great story line and a lot of action to and really acted great to bye all the cast of the film bye steve Austin and the rest you all should watch it and it its 10 out of 10 for me and I would love to see a number 2 with me in it hahaha.
I can watch an action movie with some stupidity and still enjoy it but this one is ridiculous.Come one, the hero finds a cross-bow, but you know, just discards it to fight the toughest bad guy bare-handed (please, find a better reason to have this scene).
Hunt To Kill was 100 times better than Stone Cold's previous movie (The Stranger).
Director Keoni Waxman did a decent job.Steve Austin plays Jim Rhodes, who is a border patrol agent.
The film begins with partners Steve Austin and Eric Roberts about to take down a crystal meth lab.
Daniels because they were on the same side in THE EXPENDABLES and now in HUNT TO KILL, they are enemies.FFWD >> Austin catches up to Banks and Dominika (last 2 villains left).
But once Steve Austin starts hunting, the movie picks up the pace!!
Sadly, that doesn't mean that said movie is going to be any good, such as "Hunt to Kill", starring former professional wrestler Steve Austin.Jim Rhodes (Austin) is a former border agent mourning the loss of his partner Lee Davis (Eric Roberts, whose something of a guardian angel for those of us that frequent Direct to DVD movies) and having to raise his rebellious daughter Kim (Marie Avgeropoulos) in the Montana mountains.
Well, Banks screws Jim over, and you can guess where that leads...If "Hunt to Kill" has anything going for it, it's the over the top performance from Bellows and the third act.
Hell, the best one, and the main reason this isn't getting less than four stars, is because of Jim saying near the end "When I hunt, I hunt to kill!" It's one of the few moments in which the movie doesn't take itself too seriously, and decides to play it up.
It also doesn't help that the whole thing feels like it was written by a High School drop out, with characters making dumber than usual decisions (people yelling just so Rhodes can kill them with a crossbow, villains that spend most of their time fighting amongst each other, the daughter not escaping when she has so many clear opportunities to do so) and most of what happens before the third act being boring as sin.
Some bad guys kidnap some people and force them to guide them through some woods.The oddest thing about this movie is that it has two relatively well known names in it - Gil Bellows as the main baddie and wrestler Steve Austin as the goodie.
Stone Cold Steve Austin is in fine form here as he plays a former Border Patrol officer in Texas who loses his partner (Eric Roberts, wasted in a pre-credits cameo) in a bust gone bad.
His somewhat antagonistic relationship with his kid is at least somewhat believable.There are not many familiar faces here, other than Stone Cold, Roberts, Gil Bellows as the main bad guy, action genre icon Gary Daniels, and veteran Donnelly Rhodes as the expendable local Sheriff.
"When I hunt
I hunt to kill."Stone Cold Steve Austin stars as a US Border Patrol agent on vacation in the Montana mountains in quite a bind as his daughter is held hostage by a group of menacing bank robbers out to find the security bonds stolen by the leader of their heist operation who ran off with the loot leaving them with a bomb set to go off when he calls a number to the phone attached by wires to the C-4.
So HUNT TO KILL has the identifiable traits we are accustomed to when watching dumb, loud action movies.
Now, I'm usually against dumbed down action movies, but this movie is pretty much straight up about what it is.It starts with some expositionary dialog in the beginning about Steve Austin's Character with Eric Roberts as his side kick.
Austin plays a border patrol guard in Texas and his partner gets killed in a Meth lab raid.
Other than the watch with a 50 foot rope wrist band, this really isn't part of the movie as the next thing we know Austin is in Montana living in the woods, chomping on grizzly burgers while his daughter hates him, but we get that information more from the DVD box than we do the script or acting.Meanwhile in Reno, a group of thieves, who are not Mexican drug dealers, steal some unmarked bonds. |
tt1924396 | La migliore offerta | The film tells a story of love and deceit, set in Europe (Trieste, Bolzano, Fidenza, Rome, Milan, Merano, Vienna, Prague) in the world of ultra high-end art auctions and antiques. The story revolves around Virgil Oldman (Geoffrey Rush), an aging, wealthy, and esteemed, but somewhat standoffish and eccentric, managing director of a preeminent auction house. Oldman is hired by a mysterious young heiress, Claire Ibbetson (Sylvia Hoeks), to auction off the large collection of art and antiques left to her by her parents. Claire always refuses to be seen in person, suffering from severe agoraphobia and never leaving her room. Soon enough Virgil, a lifelong bachelor who is able to relate to her reclusiveness, understands that he has fallen in love with her.
An astute young artificer, Robert (Jim Sturgess), aids Oldman in restoring and reassembling some odd mechanical parts that he finds amongst Claire's belongings, while also giving him advice on how to befriend her, and how to deal with his feelings towards her. Oldman's poise and prestige are counterpointed by an ongoing scam whereby his friend Billy Whistler (Donald Sutherland) helps him acquire a large private collection of master portraits worth many millions, by presenting them at auction as the work of other artists. Billy is an aspiring artist himself, but Oldman does not take Billy's work seriously.
A side narrative involves Virgil discovering a moldy, charred piece of wood at another client's mansion. Professional restoration reveals a painting underneath which Virgil claims is the work of a famed 17th-century forger. Virgil notes to these other clients that all forgers are irresistibly tempted to modify the original, which reveals the forger's own artistic sensibilities. At auction, the painting is sold for £90,000, but after Virgil notes that it was in fact an original worth some £8 million, Billy buys the painting for Virgil from its original buyer for £250,000.
Oldman eventually begins a relationship with Ibbetson, compromising his work. At the peak of the relationship, Claire overcomes her fear of the outside world and goes on to live with Virgil, who trusts the fragile Claire enough to show her his secret priceless collection of female portraits. Overcome with emotion, Claire tells Virgil that no matter what may happen to the two of them, she does love him. Virgil returns home one day to find that his entire collection and Claire are gone. In the vault is an automaton constructed from the mechanical parts Virgil gave to Robert, which plays a message from Robert saying there is something real in every forgery and that is why Robert will truly miss Virgil. Virgil realizes that he is the victim of an elaborate fraud conducted by Robert, Claire, and Billy, but is unable to go to the police due to the illicit means by which Virgil himself acquired the pieces. After months of recovering from the betrayal in a mental institution, Virgil takes a trip to Prague, where he spends time sitting in a restaurant that Claire had once suggested, waiting alone at a table wondering if Claire's statement of love was forged or a genuine sentiment she imparted on the con. | psychedelic, intrigue, plot twist, romantic | train | wikipedia | The Best Offer, with its tight screenplay, lush sets, brilliant performance by Geoffrey Rush and beautiful score by Ennio Morricone, also exemplifies the sophisticated expertise filmmaking.
I've always been a Geoffrey Rush fan, but in this movie, I've seen a very special Rush who, by the way his on screen persona goes thru a life changing metamorphosis, creates a real, day-to-day living among us man with real life personal fears, heartbreaking disillusions and self rediscovering.
As the successful auctioneer called Virgil Oldman (Geoffrey Rush) becomes deeply passionate about a mysterious woman called Claire (Sylvia Hoakes) who suffers agoraphobia .
Meantime , the fine art expert Virgil along with his younger friend , Robert (Jim Sturgess) , attempt to remake an ancient automaton .Colorful and moving film dealing with a solitary man who punches drunk love with a strange girl who resides at an Italian villa only attended by a handy man .
Magnificent performance from Geoffrey Rush as virtuoso auctioneer who has never set his heart on real love , Jim Sturgess as his best friend and Sylvia Hoakes as the gorgeous as well as rare girl .
If you like fine paintings and antique furniture, you will enjoy watching this movie, even without paying to much attention to the criminal skeleton that leads the story...there is no place for useless sequences, everything goes smoothly and natural, the drama is well tempered until the very final peak, the whole is well balanced and wonderful.
I do not know anything about the director of this movie, Mr.Giuseppe Tornatore, but, I am pretty sure that he has many other things to say in his future career...be sure to not miss this film, you will highly enjoy the time spent watching it!.
This story pulls you in from the very beginning.I expected very little, but being familiar with Geoffrey Rush and his prior role selections did hold some expectation as to what kind of a story and setting I would be witness to.May I say that after watching this movie, I am certain I will see his character from this film in future when seeing Rush perform.
His execution of the role was impeccable.Overall - movies are very rarely made like this, from storyline, script, acting to music, there was not a moment in which i wasn't captivated.Chilled to the bone even after completing the film, this is top shelf work and an unlikely gem I commend and will be indefinitely complementing and recommending.Certainly a timeless movie, embark on with a cup of tea (or some pop corn) and settle in for a remarkable journey and emotion roller coaster.10 stars..
it's not the best i've seen recently (i just saw 'the hunt' from thomas vinterberg and that blew me off completely), but it is worth watching.movie will keep you engaged all the way.i didn't like the ending, but i guess any other ending wouldn't fit, so i shouldn't complain too much.i gave it 8 out of 10 stars, because every single element of a movie (from music to production to directing to...) is real good.
If these stories are expected to be taken as fables, then why are they given such deadly serious treatments, taking them into the 'realistic' realm?Geoffrey Rush's character Virgil, is a man of long term 'set' habits --obsessive compulsive to the extreme-- (wont touch anything without gloves, avoids eye contact wherever possible) yet within a few weeks we're expected to believe his near complete turn around.
Still, if you like movies that have been treated to an expensive 'arty' look, have outlandish situations (complete with large plot holes) then you could easily see this as a favorite.Ennio Morricone's music score is complex and quite sophisticated, but as a collector of his work, I found it musically rather unmemorable.
fascinating and brilliant seem more appropriate now.i would have loved to have given this a ten,but for the strange directorial change some three quarters of the way through,no spoiler here, as this is an incredible film that needs being seen in its entirety,with all the possibilities left open for the viewer to surmise upon.When many films in the current age would have chose to finish on the devastation left in one scene?,this continued and enhanced what was remaining of the film, leaving what to many,will sound utterly implausible, but possibly a part two/follow up??one can only hope..
It is so good, it almost hurt when it ended, beautiful music too.I must admit i could see where it was all going, but enjoyed it nonetheless.How could Rush believe that Sutherland would be satisfied with so little money?!
Paradoxically, there IS such a thing as too much beauty, too many visually arresting scenes, too much sweeping Morricone music (!), too much dialogue perfectly acted by big stars.There is a point about three-quarters into it when you feel like having eaten too much of a wonderful cake, and you lose interest and wish they would move on with the plot already!
This one, "The Best Offer" from 2013 is a fantastic film with a brilliant performance by Geoffrey Rush.Rush plays Virgil Oldman, a well known art expert.
Acting is fine, and the setup is good, but it appears that 20 minutes in someone lost the original script and picked up a copy of the Letts guide to Great Expectations.It is one of those films that aliens could have turned up at any minute and would not have looked out of place.The majority of the supporting actors are English, but the buildings and street landscape clearly is not England, so I found myself confused as to where we were supposed to be.
They can be forged they seem just like the original but they are forgery."The Best Offer is Giuseppe Tornatore's latest film which also happens to be his first one in English.
The Best Offer may not be a masterpiece, and will probably be forgotten amongst his filmography, but it is a very good thriller with a strong performance from Geoffrey Rush in the lead role.
Somehow despite knowing exactly where the film was heading halfway through the movie, it still kept me interested and the 131 minutes went by really fast thanks to great pacing.
Just like the many art paintings we see in this movie, you don't get tired of watching the story unravel.
Tornatore delivers a good thriller which thanks to his craft allows you to enjoy it despite all the flaws.Virgil Oldman (Geoffrey Rush) is an art auctioneer who lives on his own and has gathered quite a large collection of portraits.
Virgil's life changes when he finally allows himself to become attached to Claire and help her overcome her fear.Halfway through the film there is a conversation between Rush and Donald Sutherland's characters that gives away the ending, but thanks to Rush's strong performance we are still drawn to the film.
From the first part you know the end, primitive script written exactly according to the book "how to write a million dollar script" – all those turning points, all those "guns on the wall" all of which do shoot at the end, main character development, etc, all decorated by pretty ordinary professional Hollywood picture with, yes, beautiful but as just like in all "Castle's" products results of collaboration of just professional art designer, wardrobe, location, etc.
This is a movie worth watching, for its nice imagery, some good performances and its lyrical yet eery music of veteran composer Ennio Morricone.It's about an eccentric art auctioneer (Geoffrey Rush) who slowly falls in love with a mysterious girl (Sylvia Hoeks), who lives isolated in a villa in beautiful Italy.Rush is very good, as in all of his movies, the direction of photography is bright and pleasing to the eyes, you see a lot of art, and (just for a change from all this "functional" Hollywood soundtracks) you will be hearing some interesting music from one of the greatest movie composers of all time.The main problem of the movie is its (more than 2h) length.
However, I decided to see La Migliore Offerta, his most recent film, because the plot sounded intriguing and the cast included some excellent actors (Geoffrey Rush, Jim Sturgess and Donald Sutherland).
This is how building a tension should look like.Nevertheless, as I mentioned, this movie is interesting and worth to watch...but predictable..
Geoffrey Rush's acting , as always , is majestic and it kind of brings you an old scent in a modern times movie.....of course the end is bringing you back with the feet strongly on the ground in a very shocking way , but this is what the movie and the director wants in fact to achieve : the cruel truth of ''Reality'' but still even after realizing what happened , Mr. Oldman ( Geoffrey Rush ) still lets himself fall back into his hopeless dream of love .....Beautiful movie recommended for general viewing in my opinion..
I was intrigued by the films concept and leading actors of Geoffry Rush and Jim Sturgess are very enjoyable on screen with particular credit to Geoffry Rush who in my opinion gives his best acting performance to date and should of been at least nominated for an best actor Oscar I felt while watching the best offer I thought that "This is how you do a suspense thriller" which resembles a Hitchcock style approach to film making that is sadly lost these days.
And yet, there's something incredibly compelling about Giuseppe Tornatore's film.Virgil Oldman (Geoffrey Rush) is a top auctioneer with an impeccable eye and an impressive secret stash of art - unable to really connect with other people, he prefers instead to collect priceless portraits of women with the help of his partner-in-not-quite-crime Billy (Donald Sutherland).
The lonely, difficult Virgil finds himself increasingly drawn to the mystery and charm of this girl he can't see, a dilemma he can only share with playboy mechanic Robert (Jim Sturgess) as the latter works on a possibly priceless automaton found in the dank Ibbetson basement.The Best Offer stumbles quite a few times as it goes on.
The discussions between Virgil and Robert about Claire start out innocuously enough, but by the time Robert is giving the elder man lessons in love and wooing, the film feels stilted and strange.
Hoeks, too, does impressive work as the severely damaged Claire, suggesting a sadness in her reclusive illness that breaks down the defences Virgil has crafted around himself for decades.The credibility of Virgil and Claire's oddball relationship is what makes the film's audacious final twist work so well - the narrative reversal breaks the story and characters apart, but in a way that haunts rather than frustrates.
this movie had a real good impression on me,it had that classical yet warm touch,including the use of art,what power do paintings have on human beings ,the use of that kind of quiet and classical music was perfect too and how love does not know limits and the huge power it has on us humans,it felt great living it throughout this film in the beginning but the consequences were not expected at all,however,this movie was one of a kind,the cast was perfect,Geoffrey Rush ,i doubt he was acting at all in first place,his performance was outstanding..
I must give credit to IMDb for being the only reputable review site to find greatness in this film (7.8/10).A story of dark romance entwined in mystery with direction from Giuseppe Tornatore (his best work to date being this movie).
Geoffrey Rush unsurprisingly gives a standout performance as a managing director of an auction house.The film opens as Oldman receives a call from a young heiress named Claire (Sylvia Hoeks), who wants him to sort through and appraise her parent's art and antique collections.
Like a renaissance portrait which needs to be slowly contemplated over a period of time to understand, "The Best Offer" is a rather slow-moving but atmospheric mystery-romance where all the pieces don't fall into place until the very end.
That said, this may be a film which will discover an audience in years to come.Virgil Oldman (Rush) owns a prestigious art auction house in an unnamed city in Europe.
A woman named Claire Ibbetson (Sylvia Hoeks) claiming to have a huge collection of art, paintings, artifacts and books in a large old house desires Oldman and his auction business to sell off the items.
"The Best Offer" is an unusual, stylish movie with a clever story.From the beginning we sense there is a mystery at its heart, and indeed, it keeps you wondering right to the end.I wouldn't give away too much of the plot and spoil the enjoyment for anyone discovering it for the first time, however there are other things to enjoy about "The Best Offer" other than the twists and turns of the story.Geoffrey Rush plays Virgil Oldman, a successful art connoisseur and auctioneer who is asked to evaluate and sell the estate of Claire Ibbetson (Sylvia Hoeks), a reclusive young heiress who has not left her home for years.
We get an insider view of a world of wealth, privilege and a taste, but we also get an intimate look at Virgil Oldman; we see beyond the aloof, cool exterior to the man of deeply repressed vulnerabilities - it is a thoughtful performance by Geoffrey Rush.There is a great deal of artwork shown in the film including a couple of portraits by a fictional artist named Jansky, supposedly of great value, and important to the plot.
Paintings that receive great reverence in movies are sometimes a bit of a let down when they appear on the screen, often being simply retouched photos ("Laura") or just badly executed works that show the producers had little taste or knowledge of art.That is not the case here, the filmmakers obviously went to some trouble to commission paintings from a very good artist (Russian artist Katerina Panikakova according to one source) and the interesting-looking portraits fit perfectly into the superb look and feel of the whole film."The Best Offer" is an Italian production, and the love of art and beauty lends an Italian sensibility to the whole thing.
If you think a movie about an old man looking at art is boring, watch this.
"There's something authentic in every forgery." Virgil Oldman (Rush) is a master auctioneer and art appraiser who is the best at what he does.
Overall, if you think a movie about an old man looking at art is boring, watch this.
if I didn't enjoy a good geoffrey rush performance so much, didn't enjoy many of the settings and mood of the movie I would've given it a 5 instead of the 6 I did.
I decided to watch some random movies by Geoffrey Rush as I came to the conclusion that he doesn't choose to be in random films.
Some films feel like a waste of time, but this one was so good that it added years to my life.
This movie is one of the underrated gems I have watched in recent years.The eerie undertone of the movie grips you from the beginning and the thrill and chill continue till the very end.The panache with which this movie is shot is fabulous.Every frame has a charm of its own.The character development is meticulous.The stark contrast in the auction scenes, those in the first half of the movie and those towards the end portray the psychological turmoil of the protagonist in a brilliant way.Geoffrey Rush ,as expected delivers a power packed performance.So does Jim Strugess, Sylvia Hoeks and others.The climax is generally the hallmark of a classic thriller and 'The Best Offer' offers you the best in this aspect, too.Its bizarre,shocking and spine chilling, true to the tone of this movie.I had missed this gem for long but thank God, found a recommendation of it in one of the IMDb pages.I am glad I watched it.Strongly recommended for those yet to watch it..
The performances are, on the whole, excellent, with Geoffrey Rush perfect as Virgil Oldman - a celebrated art and antiquities expert and auctioneer, head of a famed auction house, and a bachelor.Oldman's frustration in finding a soul mate is assuaged by building an enormous collection of portraits of beautiful women - often procured illicitly with the help of an accomplice (played exquisitely by Donald Sutherland).
The veteran Aussie is THE reason to watch the exquisite mystery drama "The Best Offer".Rush gives his all as he gives us Virgil Oldman, a lonely auction house owner and expert art appraiser/collector who operates both above and well below the line of legitimacy.
It made me reflect on relationships I have (and have had), and the nature of trust and friendship.Geoffrey Rush does his usual excellent acting playing Virgil Oldman, a master auctioneer in demand around the world, and the owner of his own auction house in Italy.
This film has very good performances from all the actors, but particularly by Geoffrey Rush, a tasteful artistically ornamented background, a solid story.
This story is about a very emotionally constricted art expert and auctioneer (Geoffrey Rush) and the bizarre woman he falls in love with who won't allow ANYONE to see her through much of the movie."The Best Offer" is a difficult film to describe.
(I wish I had been on the set to just be there—even with reproductions—just to feel the expanse of it.)Rush plays an auctioneer of fine art, Virgil Oldman.
It is rich in art, music, atmosphere, the underpinnings of the art auction world, phobias and more.Master auctioneer Virgil Oldman (Geoffrey Rush in a magnificent performance), owner of a vast accumulation of famous paintings of women he hides in a locked room, becomes obsessed with an extremely reclusive heiress Claire (the stunningly beautiful Dutch actress Sylvia Hoeks) who collects fine art and is living in a boarded up mansion left to her my her deceased parents.
I liked 'The Best Offer', with Geoffrey Rush, by Giuseppe Tornatore.
Virgil Oldman (Geoffrey Rush) is a high-end antiques dealer and auctioneer. |
tt0039689 | Out of the Past | Joe Stefanos arrives in a small town of Bridgeport, California, in search of Jeff Bailey. Jeff, owner of the town's gas station, is on a picnic with wholesome local girl Ann Miller. Stefanos sends Jeff's deaf young employee, The Kid, to retrieve Jeff. Stefanos informs Jeff that Whit Sterling wants to see him. Though Ann trusts Jeff implicitly, her parents are wary of him, as is Jim, a local police officer who has been sweet on Ann since childhood. Jeff reluctantly agrees to meet with Whit, and Ann joins him to drive through the night to Whit's home on Lake Tahoe. On the way, Jeff tells Ann of his past (in flashback).
Jeff Bailey's real name is Jeff Markham. He and partner Jack Fisher were private investigators in New York. Jeff had been hired by shady businessman Whit to find his girlfriend, Kathie Moffat. Whit claimed she shot him and stole $40,000 from him. Jeff is reluctant, sensing that finding Kathie will result in her death. Whit assures Jeff he just wants her back, and will not harm her.
Kathie's maid tells Jeff that she's gone to Florida, but Jeff guesses Mexico because of the particular inoculations Kathie received. He goes to Acapulco and waits, eventually striking up an acquaintance with her. A love affair develops, and Jeff ultimately reveals that he had been sent by Whit. Kathie sensed this from the start and has been spinning a web for him. She denies taking Whit’s money and pleads with Jeff to run away with her.
Preparing to leave, Jeff is surprised by the arrival of Whit and Stefanos, checking up on his lack of progress. Jeff asks to be taken off the case, but Whit refuses. Jeff lies that Kathie slipped past him and is on a steamer going south. Whit instructs Jeff to keep looking for her—instead, Jeff takes her north to San Francisco.
They live in San Francisco as inconspicuously as possible, but an outing to the horse races goes bad when they are spotted by Jeff’s old partner, Fisher. Jeff and Kathie split up, with Jeff making himself conspicuous in moving to Los Angeles. Jeff seems to give Fisher the slip and eventually rejoins Kathie at a rural cabin, only to find that Fisher had actually followed Kathie. When Fisher demands money to keep quiet, the two men brawl. Kathie suddenly shoots Fisher dead and flees without Jeff. He finds her bank book, revealing a deposit of $40,000, the money she had denied taking from Whit.
Back to the present, Ann drops Jeff off at Whit's palatial estate. Jeff is surprised when Kathie reappears. She had returned to Whit and told the whole story. Whit tells Jeff that doing one last job is the only way to make things right between them. Whit's lawyer, Leonard Eels, has helped Whit dodge all taxes, but now wants $200,000 ($2,145,000 today) or he will give Whit's business records to the taxman, which would put Whit in prison. Whit wants Jeff to recover the records, but Jeff realizes that he is being set up. In San Francisco, he meets Eels' secretary, Meta Carson, who is secretly conspiring with Whit. He is introduced by her to Eels, leaving his fingerprints on a glass. Jeff returns and finds Eels dead. He hides the body and retrieves the business records, but is told by the devious Kathie (who has impersonated Meta Carson) that she gave Whit a signed affidavit swearing that Jeff killed Fisher, setting up Jeff to be a double murderer—reported as such in the morning papers.
Jeff returns to the Bridgeport area. Unbeknownst to Whit, Kathie has ordered Stefanos to trail The Kid so he can find and kill Jeff. The Kid drives to a steep, narrow, canyon where Jeff is hiding. The Kid spots Stefanos taking aim at Jeff and quickly hooks him with a fishing line, causing Stefanos to lose his balance and fall to his death.
Jeff goes back to Whit's mansion, telling him of Kathie's double cross and the death of Stefanos. He offers that the death of Stefanos, Eels' actual murderer, can be made to look like a guilt-ridden suicide, removing Jeff from that frame up. Furthermore, he will return the business records to Whit if he destroys Kathie's affidavit and hands her to the police for Fisher's death. Whit takes the offer, and Jeff believes he has worked his way out of the trap.
Jeff makes a quick visit to Ann, returning to Tahoe to discover that Kathie has killed Whit. She gives Jeff the choice of running away with her and a satchel of Whit's money, or taking the blame for all three murders. He agrees to go with her, but phones the state police while she is upstairs packing. Driving up to a police roadblock, Kathie realizes that Jeff has betrayed her and shoots him dead. She then fires at the police, who fatally shoot her.
When the news reaches Bridgeport, Jim offers to take Ann away. Ann asks the Kid if Jeff had been planning to run away with Kathie. Wanting to free Ann, The Kid lies and nods his head. Ann returns to Jim and she drives off with him. | murder, cult, atmospheric, flashback, romantic, revenge | train | wikipedia | Jane Greer contributes her gorgeous dry contralto and Kirk Douglas adds a light, sneering counterpoint to an inspired group improvisation on the theme of disillusionment.Mitchum is Jeff Markham, alias Jeff Bailey, an ex-private eye who made a big mistake by falling for Kathie (Jane Greer), the gangster's mistress he was hired to track down.
Even minor characters and incidental scenes are rich and unforgettable: Theresa Harris as Eunice the maid in her fabulous Billie Holiday hat in the Harlem nightclub; the check-room clerk at the bus station, witness to who knows how many noir entanglements, with his hollow-man motto: "I always say everyone's right"; Joe Stefanos's black overcoat appearing like an ink-spot in the clean white town; the signs the mute Kid flashes to Jeff by the glittering lake, as the sky clouds over
The movie floats from place to place, blending real landscapes and studio sets, expressionistic stairwells and Ansel Adams mountains.
But Jeff finds that Whit is actually framing him."Out of the Past" is an excellent film-noir, with a melancholic story and a magnificent and amoral female fatal.
Mitchum is at his best here as the patsy for Greer and Doublas' schemes, who plays along as if he knows better but is truly seeking absolution from death.One of the best films ever made by Hollywood, all the more amazing considering it was made almost on the fly (what people today call a "film noir" but what the producers though of as a "B" movie).
But he has a past which is about to catch up with him involving gangster Whit (Kirk Douglas) and evil Kathie Moffat (Jane Greer)...MANY twists and turns happen.The plot is very complicated but this is a prime example of film noir.
It's beautifully directed using darkness in almost every shot and has all the ingredients of a good noir--an innocent man (Robert Mitchum) in over his head, a bad guy (Kirk Douglas) and a totally amoral woman (Jane Greer).
Mitchum plays it very stone-faced but Douglas is great and Greer is just fascinating as a totally evil, beautiful woman.Basically a must-see film..
With a top-notch cast and a deceptively easy pace that belies the tension and danger underneath, "Out of the Past" makes for an intriguing, absorbing film.Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer make a great pair - both are sultry, sexy, hard to read, and gorgeous.
Rhonda Fleming, Virginia Huston, Steve Brodie and Paul Valentine provide excellent support.(Greer and Valentine were in the 1985 remake "Against the Odds".Jacques Tourneur one of the great Noir directors does a fine job with Daniel Mainwaring's story and script(using the pseudonym Geoffery Homes) and the Roy Webb music is the perfect compliment.A lot of young talent went into the making of this classic.
He must have been grateful to get back to RKO studios and to do one of the best noir films ever done.Mitchum plays the luckless Jeff Bailey, private eye who has the ill fortune to fall under the feminine charms of Jane Greer after gambler/racketeer Kirk Douglas hires him to find her and $40,000.00 she stole from him after shooting him.
But really, there's not much to criticize here.As it's not the first title coming to mind when one usually mentions the genre, I'll have to put the overly used phrase "don't miss this" in here, as any fan of film noir - or simply good movies - should make sure to see it.
Believable characters with a great story makes this and other films like it good, but what separates this from all other 'Film-Noir', detective stories is it's dramatic mood.
Along with Double Indemnity and The Big Sleep this one (Build my gallows high) defines American film noir and with its cogent story, screenplay, acting, photography and production is true Art too, and yet still seems to me strangely neglected by critics, the media etc.Private dick Mitchum has to find gangster Douglas's girl Greer who shot him and skedaddled with USD 40,000 of his - when he finds her he takes one second to fall for her which turns out ultimately disastrous for all concerned.
Try as I might, I could never get this film noir starring Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer to be as good to me as it's reputation.
In fact, if you want to see a more interesting film noir with Mitchum and Greer, then watch "The Big Steal."Nonetheless, I think the confusing story with its convoluted storyline brings it down.
OUT OF THE PAST is like watching a textbook lesson in Film Noir 101.It has so many layers of plots and sub-plots, so much rich B&W texture in Nicholas Musuraca's shadowy photography, so many ambiguous moments that keep you guessing what's around the corner, and so many memorable quotes in scene after scene that you could spend the entire movie just writing down the crafty lines.
What a blessing it must have been for these actors to read the script and savor the flavor of the lines they would be reciting.ROBERT MITCHUM, of course, slouching around in trenchcoat and hat on the prowl for the femme fatale, was at his peak as a movie hero, fully aware of the dangers ahead as he meets up with shady old friend KIRK DOUGLAS.
Greer has the sultry good looks for a femme fatale but she's just a little too poker-faced to make her crimes seem credible.Once the screenplay makes clear that he's about to be more prey than predator, it becomes fascinating to watch the way he falls into the web of deceit so completely.
The film was very well directed by a great director and Kirk Douglas (Whit Sterling,"Diamonds",'99, was just starting out as a film actor with his second role on the big Silver Screen, as a slippery evil mobster who stopped at nothing to make a buck!
But he is a courageous man who when confronted with the past does try to do his best to come clean.Whit Sterling (a charmingly scruple-less Kirk Douglas) has been double-crossed by Jeff in the past but has the gall to call him up for another favour in order to clear the past.Kathie Moffat is a selfish woman who both man love(d) and who can double cross anybody.
Jeff puts it best "you're like a leaf that the wind blows from one gutter to another".Whether for noir fans or for fans of 40's Hollywood movies, Out of the Past is required viewing.
Given their attractiveness, intelligence, sincerity, and wit, it's hard to believe that the characters portrayed by Jane Greer and Rhonda Fleming (both looking EXTREMELY hot) and by Mitchum and Kirk Douglas can't be trusted by anyone.I've watched this film at least a dozen times.
Its full of night scenes, dark brooding shadows, a "femme fatale", snappy ideologue, murder, mystery and plenty of double crosses.Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchum) is happily running a small gas station in Bridgeport, California and in love with local girl Ann Miller (Virginia Houston).
In any event, Jeff goes to see gambler/gangster Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas) who asks him to find his girlfriend Kathie Moffat (Jane Greer) who has shot him and absconded with $40,000 of his money.
It is best demonstrated by the use of light as it is shadows - Ann is shown with a clearly lit face in her key scenes while Kathie is more shielded by darkness in some of hers.The characters are well delivered by a pretty solid cast, although the lion's share of the film belongs to Mitchum and Greer.
Support is roundly good but I always struggle with the `wholesome' love interest that is often used to contrast with the femme fatale character - Huston does OK with the role considering, but she is much less interesting than the others.Overall this is a typically brooding noir that works well thanks to some tough performances and a flashback structure that aids the telling of the story.
Stars of that period seem to be aura about them that cannot be said of the movie stars of today.Excellent support from Jane Greer, looking totally enchanting & very convincing as a femme fatale with Kirk Douglas equally beguiling as the bad guy.
The film IS dark but it adds to sense of doom surrounding the Jeff Bailey character played by Robert Mitchum.Watch this film whenever it's on, or buy the DVD, as I guarantee that you will be gripped from first to last.RKO thank you - a wonderful little studio that made memorable films to compete with the best....we all love King Kong,Citizen Kane, Hunchback of Notre Dame to name a few I am sure but it's films like this, Cat People, Narrow Margin, The Window that deserve top marks for doing the very most with very little and entertaining us so much along the way..
He is like Fred McMurray in Double Indemnity, or Burt Lancaster in the Killers, men whose emotional and moral strength is non-existent compared to their physical strength.The convolutions of the plot in any film noir are far less important than atmosphere, script and the sense of doom that hangs over the characters.
Jane Greer is the bad girl who can still tug at your heart while Kirk Douglas plays the heavy with sinister charm.It's a cool cast and an involving story that's as representative an entry in the film noir school as you can probably get.
A film that should be appreciated way more than it is....superb cast and dialogue that can hold it's own with "Maltese Falcon" or "Double Indemnity" any day.Mitchum was often an A actor in B films and this role shows he was more than just a poor-man's Bogart.A classic of the genre and a must see!.
This movie defines the term "film noir." Mitchum is a criminal trying to go straight, but trouble arrives from out of the past and his fate is sealed.
I stumbled across this film in of all places a big video store in the classics section and was glad I did.Robert Mitchum's past catches up with him when he's ordered to meet with gangster Kirk Douglas who he worked for looking for Douglas's girlfriend Jane Greer.
Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer light up the screen with enough sexual chemistry and desire to fill a room.Trangle motif plays an important role in plot and motives of main characters involved.
The first one involves Jeff(Robert Mitchum), Kathie(Jane Greer), and Whit(Kirk Douglas).
Second love triangle includes Jeff(Robert Mitchum), Kathie(Jane Greer), and Ann(Virginia Huston).
Out of the Past(1947) is to noir cinema in the same vein that his horror classics were to that genre.What separates the great from the average film noires are the handling of the double cross scene, and the way one portrays it.
Going from making dark and ingenious horror films like "Cat People" and "I walked with a Zombie" in the early 1940's director Jacques Tourneur changed lanes in 1947 and directed what many consider the best film-noir movie of all time.
Jeff Baily aka Jeff Markham, Robrt Mitchum, is trying to escape from his past and start a new and less stressful life but fate in the form of mobster Joe Stepanos,Paul Valentine, steps in and ruins all his future plans.Joe finding Jeff in Bridgport tells him that his former boss Whit Sterling, Kirk Douglas, want's to see him back in Lake Tahoe.
In many ways, it reminds me of the excellent Bogart film, THE BIG SLEEP, because they both have plot problems BUT still are excellent films to watch.Now as I said already, the dialog was great and Robert Mitchum is a great Noir actor.
After the two men talk, the man with the mysterious past goes to fix loose threads he left behind in a film that is nothing but noir.Robert Mitchum plays Bailey, the snoop who falls in love with his client's target: the dark and mysterious Kathie (Greer).
The action NEVER lets up, and just when the film seems to catch its balance, it lunges right over.Highly recommended to fans of noir and anyone who wants to look into the genre, not to mention anybody who likes classics and just about anybody else who has any reason to believe they should watch it.--PolarisDiB.
..says ex Private investigator Robert Mitchum (Jeff) to bad-news girl Jane Greer (Kathie).
Whilst watching the movie and engrossed in the flashbacks of Mitchum's story, you are soon given a reality check by trying to work out who Kathie Moffat (Jane Greer) is actually double crossing - yep, she's that good.
The movie is a classic in every sense of the word.The best things about film-noirs is always the atmosphere and "Out of the Past" is filled with fantastic atmosphere thanks to good sets, cinematography story and acting.
All of these things combined make this movie one of the greatest of its kind.The story is typically film-noir like and is full with some great and unexpected moments and twists.The movie really comes to live thanks to some good actors and their characters.
Robert Mitchum is on the roll as Jeff Bailey, aka Jeff Markham and so is Kirk Douglas in one of his first roles.A real classic film noir!10/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/.
Perhaps the best film noir movie of them all, "Out of the Past" has all the ingredients that make the genre so popular today.
That the two mesh as few other movie couples do is part of the fun of watching this once in a lifetime film.Directed with élan by Jacques Tourneur, he made the wise decision to drop the title of the novel on which the picture is based, "Build My Gallows High," for a much more alluring and apropos one, "Out of the Past," which is a key to the story being told, even though the line "build my gallows high" is used toward the end of the show.
The story involves a one-time shamas, Jeff Bailey (Mitchum), who botched a job for a big-time crime boss, Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas in his second film role), because he fell for the loving lies of his prey, Kathie Moffat (Jane Greer at her most cunning).
Robert Mitchum is the epitome of the 40s tough guy because he genuinely was one of the toughest, and he oozes cool in his trench coat and hat and the way he dishes out his lines: "You're like a leaf that blows from one gutter to another." They don't write or make films like this anymore because they can't (with the lone contemporary example of L.A. Confidential, which was a genuine modern noir, although Ellroy's third part of his trilogy, "The Big Nowhere," was even better and should be made into a film.) The pairing of Mitchum with Kirk Douglas made for a classic encounter and Jane Greer set the standard for the femme fatale..
This is film noir at its best, great plot, great acting, great cinematography, and robert mitchum in a stunning performance, cool, calm, and always one step ahead.
Good work too from Jane Greer as Kathie and Kirk Douglas (in only his third movie) as Sterling.Not perfect though.
It had so many classic qualities of a Film Noir, with Jane Greer playing the unbelievably manipulative femme fatale Kathie, the dark foreboding lighting, Jeff becoming more and more alienated throughout the movie for legal/business reasons, and a debatable sense of redemption for Jeff when the Kid lies to Jane at the very end.
Robert Mitchum as Jeff Malcolm, the traditional private-eye of the classic genre and this character is amongst my favorite in all the noir films I've seen along with Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep and William Holden in Sunset Blvd.
In an extended flashback, he is a private detective hired by Mr. Douglas to find duplicitous beauty Jane Greer (as Kathie Moffat) and a missing $40,000...The storyline, flashback and ending could be clearer - but such confusion seems to have become acceptable for the "film noir" genre.
In a figure flattering dress, also watch for Rhonda Fleming (as Meta Carson) to make a big impression.******** Out of the Past (11/13/47) Jacques Tourneur ~ Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas, Dickie Moore.
It stars ultra-cool Robert Mitchum and an up and coming actor named Kirk Douglas, in just his second film.As with any Film Noir, there must be a woman stirring up trouble for the men who just can't seem to think clearly around them.
Thanks to the BBC this year for its additional festive present to film noir lovers like me by running a season of classics over this Christmas period, including this classic.Employing most of the classic noir devices such as a hard-boiled (ex)-private eye (Robert Mitchum), scheming, beautiful femme fatale (Jane Greer), plenty double-dealing, fisticuffs and murders, this involving tale grabs you from the off.
The myriad plot developments this time are discernible (not always the case with film noir narratives) and as ever all the loose ends are violently tied up up by the conclusion, taking in a bitter-sweet final vignette just for good measure to allow Mitchum's new girl-friend to let his memory go and get on with her life.The acting is as good as you'd expect, Mitchum the definition of tough laconic-ism, ditto Greer as dangerously beautiful and Douglas as malevolently powerful, with everyone else in support right on the money too.
In the category of film noir, Out of the Past, starring Robert Mitchum—one of the more individualistic, risk-taking actors (even into the 1950s)—is one such gem.The above statement from Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchum) occurs early in the movie as we find him in a small California town trying to lead a normal life.
Jacques Tourneur directed this famous film noir that stars Robert Mitchum as Jeff Bailey, an ex-private detective hiding out in a small-town from his past, which eventually catches up with him.
Out of the Past contains classic elements such as the plot revolving around a murder, dark lighting and shadows and a femme fatale, all of which pertain to the film noir genre.
Kirk Douglas and Robert Mitchum square off in this Noir genre film. |
tt0425123 | Just Like Heaven | The first scene of Dr. Elizabeth Masterson (Witherspoon) as she sits in a pleasant looking garden surrounded by fog. The camera pans in around the fog and finally to her chair that is completely out of place in the elegant setting. Elizabeth wakes up in a hospital break room/cafeteria where she is told that she fell asleep and needs to go home because she has been there 23 hours. She replies that she can't because she needs to keep working if she wants to get the attending physician slot.It then shows a montage of her working around the hospital. She is obviously good at her job and good with the people she attends. During this time we meet her rival at work, Brett, and learn that they are competing for the attending physician slot. We also learn that her sister is expecting her over for dinner and that dinner was set up for her to meet someone. Once she's off the phone, her and Brett run into their boss, Dr. Walsh. Dr. Walsh informs them that there was a gun shot victim whom they both volunteer to take but since Brett has "only" been there 12 hours that he'll get to get it. After Brett leaves, Dr. Walsh informs Elizabeth that because of her skilled work and genuine care for the patients, she will get the attending physician slot. He then tells her that 26 hours is enough and that she needs to go home.As she is leaving, she sees Brett in the parking lot and there is a good deal of tension between them as he reluctantly congratulates Elizabeth on her being picked for the job. While on her way over to her sister's house for the dinner, she calls her sister to apologize for running late. Her sister, Abby, says it's ok because her date hasn't shown up yet. Just then, she sees a truck coming towards her and the screen fades to black.Cut to David Abbot (Ruffalo) as he is searching for a fully furnished apartment to lease. His realtor is pushing and keeps showing him very odd apartments. As they are just about to give up, wind pushes a flier into his face about an apartment they hadn't seen yet. They go to it and learn that it is a nice apartment but is still on the market because it is being leased on a month-by-month basis due to some mysterious circumstances. David decides its perfect anyways.We now see David sitting around and drinking beer. He doesn't seem to be doing anything else with his days. One day while watching TV, Elizabeth shows up and tells David to leave her apartment. They argue and Elizabeth goes to call the police. David follows her into the next room but when he gets there, she has disappeared.David goes and sees his friend, John, who is also his shrink because he believes he is hallucinating. John tells him that he just needs to get out and that these hallucinations will go away.David decides not to go out and instead to continue to be lazy and drink beer. He also sees Elizabeth a couple more times and begins to think that she may be the ghost of someone who used to live there. He goes to an occult bookstore where he meets Darryl, Heder (Napoleon form Napoleon Dynamite). Darryl gives him some books to read and David goes home to confront Elizabeth.After not being able to convince Elizabeth that she is a ghost and Elizabeth trying to annoy David to the point he'll leave, David hires some people to get ride of the spirit. First is a priest, then some Asian women performing a ceremony, then some tacky "Ghostbusters" and finally Darryl. Darryl says that he can feel Elizabeth and is so strong a spirit that she may not be dead. Darryl also tells David that he needs to let go of the spirit that's hunting him, his wife who passed away.Darryl leaves and Elizabeth presses David about his wife. Apparently, it has been two years since she died and David is still having trouble moving on. David is upset by the conversation and decides to go get drunk with his friend John. Elizabeth follows and forces him out of the bar he went to by possessing him. She then says she needs help finding out what happened to her because she can't remember and David says he will help because otherwise he would be admitting that he was talking to someone that wasn't there and therefore insane.They start by going to all the neighbors and asking about Elizabeth. None of them really knew her but one girl begins hitting on David. They follow some other clues and find out that Elizabeth is in a coma in the hospital where she worked. Also during this time, David explains that he was once a successful architect who specialized in gardens and they go to see some of his work. The garden they end up at is the one that Elizabeth was dreaming about in the beginning of the movie.After they find Elizabeth's body, David goes home and Elizabeth decides to stay with it. With being about to walk through walls, Elizabeth checks in on some of her friends and finds that Brett, her rival from the beginning of the movie, got the attending physician slot. Abby, Elizabeth's sister, comes in to visit and learns that Elizabeth had a living will but the decision to let her die will be left up to her.Elizabeth rushes back to the apartment to find that the neighbor girl is there and putting the moves on David. The neighbor girl goes into the bedroom and asks David to come in. Elizabeth is a bit dejected and goes to wait on the roof until David is done. David shows up on the roof and said that he sent the neighbor girl home. Elizabeth then tells David that she originally got the apartment so she could put a garden on the roof. David says that he won't let Elizabeth die.They first go talk to Darryl who tells them not to try to figure out how to put Elizabeth back in her body but why only David can see her. They then go over to Abby's house to convince her not to sign the paper work, but she already has and ends up chasing David out with a butcher knife when he says he can see Elizabeth's spirit. Knowing that Elizabeth is going die in the morning, Elizabeth asks David to just stay up and talk with her. In the morning, David says that he will steal Elizabeth's body so that they can put it somewhere safe because he won't let her die. Elizabeth says that in order to even have a chance to do that, they need someone with a van and no morals.Enter David driving John's van while they are going to the hospital. Once there, David explains that his imaginary friend is actually alive and is able to convince John of this because John knows Abby. In fact, David was suppose to be the blind date at dinner Elizabeth was going to but David got cold feet and Elizabeth got in a car accident.As John and David are stealing Elizabeth's body, Brett stops them. David ends up punching Brett out and getting security called on him. While John and David are fleeing security, the respirator keeping Elizabeth alive gets pulled out and she starts to die and her spirit starts to fade. As a last effort, David kisses Elizabeth, which brings her spirit back but is quickly pulled off by security. Elizabeth's spirit fades as David watches. Then, her body comes back to life and she wakes up. Seeing David was able to bring Elizabeth back to life, they let him go. But Elizabeth doesn't remember David. David leaves looking very depressed.Enter another montage where both Elizabeth and David look sad. When the montage ends, Elizabeth is moving back into her apartment, which David had to leave because he only had it on a month-to-month basis. She says that it feels like something is missing but can't figure out what. While looking around, Elizabeth goes up to the roof where David is just finishing up her garden. David says that he just wanted her to have her garden and that he used the spare key that she had told him about when she was a "ghost". Elizabeth says she knows him but can't remember from where. David says he doesn't want to scare her and begins to leave but stops to give the spare key to her. When they touch, Elizabeth remembers everything and they kiss.The camera pans up and the apartment turns into a snow globe in Darryl's hands who says, "Righteous." | paranormal, comedy, romantic, flashback | train | imdb | null |
tt1120985 | Blue Valentine | The film depicts a married couple, Dean Pereira (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy Heller (Michelle Williams), shifting back and forth in time between their courtship and the dissolution of their marriage several years later.Present Day: The film begins with a little girl (Frankie) calling for her lost dog, Megan. After the dog doesn't return she goes inside to find her Daddy, who is asleep in a chair in the living room. She wakes him, and they go outside to find Megan the dog. They spend a few minutes searching for her. You can tell right away that they have a wonderful relationship and that Frankie loves her father with all her heart. After a few minutes, they go inside to wake up Cindy, they jump on her bed in what seems to be a nice family moment. Cindy seems slightly cranky and insists she gets to sleep for a while longer. They get her up and begin to eat breakfast. Cindy is clearly the parent who enforces the rules while Dean is the fun one. Cindy tries to get Frankie to eat her breakfast (cold oatmeal with raisins), but Frankie doesn't comply until Dean takes the fun approach of eating on the table like leopards. Cindy, frustrated, takes Frankie out of the room and gets her ready for school. Cindy and Frankie are in the car, and Dean brings out Frankie's backpack and asks Cindy to buckle her seat-belt, to which she waves off with annoyance.
Dean goes to work as a home painter and Cindy as a nurse in a pre-natal private practice. Her boss asks if she has made the decision to move to another city with his practice. She remarks that hasn't had the time to discuss it with her family yet, and her boss looks disappointed, but tells her to let him know by Monday. After her shift, she rushes to Frankie's school to see her in an assembly. Along the way, she sees Megan dead on the side of the road. When she arrives at Frankie's assembly, she sits next to Dean who can tell something is wrong right away. She says that she found Megan and begins to cry. Dean is upset and asks how many times he has to ask her to lock the dog gate before she gets it. After the assembly, they take Frankie to a sleepover at Cindy's Dad's house. Her father asks is anything is wrong, she doesn't respond. Dean and Cindy say goodnight to Frankie and go home. When they arrive they bury Megan and Cindy begins to clean the house while Dean watches home movies of Frankie and Megan. Dean then calls a cheap hotel for them to spend a night together. Cindy says she is on call tomorrow and doesn't have the time to go away for the evening. Dean is ardent about them spending the night together, she relents, and they head out. While stopping to get gas and booze Cindy runs into an old boyfriend, named Bobby. He asks if she is married and if she has been faithful to him. Cindy says yes and leaves. In the car, Dean asks what took her so long. She says that he will never guess who she ran into. When she reveals it was Bobby, Dean freaks out. Cindy tries to calm him by lying and saying that Bobby is fat and ugly, but that does nothing for Dean.Flashback. We meet Dean six or seven years earlier. He is a charismatic slacker who is applying for a job at a moving company. He talks about love and romance with his co-workers, saying that men are more romantic than women. Women dream about meeting Prince Charming and end up choosing a man because he is safe and has a good job. Dean says, "men just know by looking at women that they are the one". He says that it is like listening to music; sometimes you hear a song, and you just got to dance to it. One day Dean and his crew help move an old gentleman into a nursing home. His boss says Dean doesn't have a lot of time to unpack the items into the room and to hurry up. As Dean goes through he boxes, he sees the remnants of an amazing life. He takes the time to unpack everything and decorate the room with old matchboxes on the wall, the man's navy uniform, and photos from his past. When the old man comes to the room, Dean helps him in and puts him in a rocking chair and shows him the work he has done. The old man is a little overwhelmed but clearly appreciates what Dean has done for him. Dean then goes to take his part of the payment which his boss left for him on a table, but before he leaves he looks out the door and sees something...Flashback. We meet Cindy six or seven years earlier. She is in a wheelchair making her way around a college campus. She goes to the campus athletic center and watches some wrestlers. One of them looks up and comes out to see her, and he is Bobby. He kisses her and asks why she is in a wheelchair and she says that she is seeing how accessible the campus is to paraplegics. He asks why she is always doing things like this and calls her a freak and continues to kiss her. She pulls away and says that she will see him later. A little later, Bobby is having sex with Cindy from behind, and he is very rough with her. She tries to go away for a second, but he goes even harder. Finally, she gets away to the bathroom where she attempts to pull a broken condom out of herself. A few days later we see Cindy taking care of her elderly grandmother. Cindy brings her back from a walk to a nursing home and settles her down into her room. She goes to close the door when she sees across the hall to a neighbor's room and sees Dean taking his share of the money from the old man. Dean sees her spying on him and come out to her room and insists that he wasn't stealing the money. Cindy nods but doesn't believe him. Dean says that it was his pay for the day and asks for her name and what she is doing later that night. She doesn't reply, and he writes his name on the back of his business card and asks her to give him a chance. She smiles, takes the card, and closes the door.Present Day. Cindy and Dean arrive at the hotel and are in a futuristic room complete with a rotating bed. Cindy gets in the shower. Dean joins her and attempts to go down on her. She pulls away, and they finish showering in silence. Later, while eating dinner, Cindy asks why Dean why he never took the initiative with work. He is upset that she isn't happy with where he is, and that working as a house painter allows him to do the job he loves most, being a husband and father. She drops the issue and they finish eating.Flashback. After a month of not hearing from Cindy, Dean begins to lose all hope. One day while sweeping out a moving truck he finds a locket that belonged to the old man in the nursing home. That gives him the excuse to go back to the home to hopefully see Cindy. When he arrives at the home the old man's room is cleaned out, and his blankets are folded on the bed. Disappointed that the old man died, Dean sees Cindy's grandmother in her room and asks about that girl who was in her room with her a while back. Cindy's Grandma says her name is Cindy, and she is her granddaughter. Dean leaves and take the bus home. On the bus, he sees Cindy and goes to sit with her and the two talk, joke, and get along quite well. Their time on the bus extends to an impromptu date where he sings for her while she tap dances. You can see that already they are in love.Present Day. Back in the hotel room Dean and Cindy are both getting drunk, and he tries to make love to her but she pretends to fall asleep. Frustrated he walks away. She follows him, and they fool around on the floor. He begins to get naked and asks her to make a baby with him, but she stops him and tries to make him play rape her. He says that he loves her and won't do that to her. She gets angry, walks out, and locks the door to the bedroom so he cannot follow her. He pounds on the door saying that he will never hit or treat her like that, that he loves her, and that it isn't right of her to treat him like this after all he has done for her. He just wants to make a baby with her.Flashback. We see Cindy in a classroom while Bobby collects the classes papers. He pauses at her desk, and she ignores him. Angry, he takes her paper and walks away. After class, she goes to the bathroom and takes a pregnancy test. We can tell by her face that it is positive. She finds Dean after work and they go for a walk. They come to a bridge and after nagging her the whole time about what is bothering her Dean threatens to jump over the bridge. Cindy will not tell him what is wrong until his is over the side and ready to jump. When he hears of her pregnancy, he asks if it is his and she says that it is doubtful. Angry he starts hitting the fence of the bridge, she starts to walk away, but he follows her and asks what she plans to do (abort/adopt/keep) and she says nothing. Dean says he loves her and that he will support her no matter what she chooses. The movie cuts to Cindy at an abortion clinic answering questions (when did you begin having sex? How many partners? Etc...), she then goes into the room to have an abortion, the doctor is ready to administer the procedure when Cindy stops him saying she cannot go though with it and she wants to see her friend. She walks out of the clinic and Dean follows her, you can't hear what they are saying but he mouths "I love you" and she nods and he holds her while she cries. Cindy goes home smiling, lays on her bed, and listens to her missed messages. They are from Bobby who says he knows she is pregnant, that the baby is his, and that he is going to beat Dean to a pulp if shes doesn't call and take him back. Cindy tries to call Dean at work but while she is calling Bobby and two of his wrestling buddies find Dean and beat him pretty badly. Later Dean goes to meet Cindy's parents. Cindy's father asks if he graduated from high school and he says no, but that he loves Cindy and will do what it takes to support her. Cindy's mother says that Cindy is going to become a Doctor and Dean says that he loves that and thinks she is the smartest person he knows. He says he would like to have her as his or his kid's doctor someday. After dinner Cindy and Dean go up to her room and fool around. Before things get serious, Dean says he picked a song for them. He plays it and asks her to marry him, she agrees.Present Day. The next day in the hotel Cindy's phone rings and her job asks her to come in to work. She tries to get out of it but she is their last hope. She gets dressed and writes Dean a note explaining where she went and that he will have to take a bus home. Dean wakes up, angry that Cindy left him there like some drunk and makes his way to her place of work. Cindy's boss asks again if she thought about transferring with him. She says it has only been a day and she thought she had until Monday to decide. Her boss says that he could get her an apartment where she could stay during the week and then come home on the weekends. Perhaps, he adds, they could even get dinner together in the evenings. Cindy is shocked and reminds him that she is married and that she thought he wanted to take her with him because she is good at her job. Her boss gets flustered and goes into to see a patient.Meanwhile, Dean arrives at the hospital and the nurse at the greeting station makes a rude comment about he must be Dean, he says he is just here to see his wife. The nurse calls Cindy who is upset that he came to visit her at work and the co-worker nurse asks Cindy if she will be alright and tells her not to let Dean brainwash her. They head to Cindy's office and Dean flies off the handle that she has been talking about them at work and leaving him at the hotel and their fight escalates into yelling. Cindy's boss and co-worker come in to try to help and Dean tells them to leave or he will hit her boss. The boss does not leave so Dean slugs him. When the boss stands back up he fires Cindy and tells both of them to get the hell out of his office. They leave, Cindy disgusted with Dean and she screams that she can't do this with him anymore and that she wants a divorce. Angry, Dean throws his wedding ring into some bushes a moment later he calms down and goes to find it. Cindy joins him in the search for his ring and they look for it in silence.During their fight in her office the movie flashes back and forth from the fight to their wedding day at the Justice of the Peace office. Cindy is 6 or 7 months pregnant and Dean tells her how beautiful she looks. She asks if he is nervous, and he says that he is nervous they won't get in fast enough and that Cindy will change her mind. She laughs at the thought and kisses him to reassure him of her decision. We see a simple ceremony that clearly means a lot to both of them as they cry while giving their vows and kissing each other as man and wife.Present Day. Cindy and Dean arrive at her father's house to pick up Frankie who is excited to see them both. Cindy hands Frankie to Dean and heads inside. Dean hands Frankie to her Grandpa, goes inside, and locks the door so they cannot follow them in. In her fathers kitchen Cindy says that she is serious about the divorce. Dean pleads with her to reconsider and says that she is being selfish and isn't thinking about Frankie and that even though she isn't his daughter he still loves her like one and that he will do anything she wants. He asks Cindy to tell him what to do and he will do it to be with them, he will do whatever she wants. Cindy says that she is thinking about Frankie and that she has fallen out of love with Dean and she cannot pretend anymore. They will never change to be what the other person needs and she just needs her space. Dean realizing this is it, leaves. Frankie chases after Dean calling for her daddy. Dean turns to her and says she must go back to her mother, Frankie just puts her arms around his neck. Dean lifts her up and gives her a big hug as Cindy comes up to them. Dean hands Frankie back to Cindy and walks away while Frankie cries out "DADDY! DADDY!" and Cindy turns to go back to her father's house, leaving Dean to walk away and out of hers and Frankie's lives forever.****I don't agree that he "walks out of their lives forever." Dean said she made a promise, "for better or worse." He said, "well, this is my worse." Dean said he would do anything, just tell him what to do and he will do it. Cindy agreed she made a vow to him and she was sorry. Dean said he would change, but she has to give him a chance to change. She nodded. By now, he has calmed down. He went over to hug her and she resisted, but she allowed him to hug her.You can tell that he is patient, loving and sincere about wanting to keep his family intact and make changes in his life, and that she acknowledges this, but isn't sure. I think she resists him, not because she doesn't love him, but because the relationship is not growing and he is caught up in a life that is going nowhere: drinking, low ambition and petty jealousies. Dean is a good, honest person, but he is very immature and my guess is, she doesn't want to raise 2 children. She wants a man, and he's still very much a child, emotionally.We cut away to their wedding day and their kiss, a very long kiss, but it shows how deeply in love they were. When we flash forward and see them today, she is hugging him with both arms, fully. She obviously still loves him, very much. At that point, she asked Dean to please, just give her space. And wanting to save his marriage and family, he fully complies with her request.THAT'S why he walked out. Not forever. I don't think he would walk out on Frankie forever. That was never implied. We don't know how it turned out and there are several ways it could have ended. They, very well, may have gotten a divorce, but he would never abandon his daughter because HE was abandoned by his mother. And Cindy would certainly not let that pig, Bobby, raise Frankie, or even ever find out she was his. No, Dean was Frankie's father.They may have gotten back together under certain circumstances, like he got counseling, stopped drinking, bettered himself, got his HS diploma, etc. By her reaction to him, and by her saying, "give me some space," it is evident she is going to think about things more fully and she has not made a final decision. At the same time, he may move forward with trying to better himself on his own, which would mean a lot to Cindy. It is apparent that if he is sincere, and goes through with making some changes, she will probably take him back.So, to say he "walks out on them forever" is just your opinion and another possibility, albeit, a very unlikely one. On purpose, the writer left us with an ending to the movie that was vague; an ending we are to decide for ourselves. Think of "Gone With the Wind." We don't know if there will be a happy ending, but there is a small glimmer of hope left there for us to use in any way we choose. tday, 4/7/12 | boring, depressing, bleak, dramatic, violence, flashback, home movie, romantic, sentimental | train | imdb | Flitting back and forth in the marriage, it asks: Is romantic love the ultimate form of masochism?Fine young actors Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams play Dean and Cindy, who unite through a dogged courtship.
This one probably won't save any marriages, but it is worth seeing just to watch Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams in action..
'Oh he's got a good job.' I mean they spend their whole life looking for Prince Charming and then they marry the guy who's got a good job and is gonna stick around."Overall: A wonderful and heartbreaking love story with spot on acting, singing, cinematography, directing and writing.
"Blue Valentine" is a realistic and somewhat depressing film about falling in and out of love..
It's a movie about two people, Cindy (Williams) and Dean (Gosling) who fall in love.
As previously stated, "Blue Valentine" can simply be summed up as a poor man's version of "Revolutionary Road." With no disrespect to Williams or Gosling, Kate and Leo pulled the trouble relationship off better.
While Gosling and Williams were both extremely believable at times and showcased some raw emotion, their chemistry wasn't as strong as the I would have liked I think as the characters got older, they just seemed so different from one another.
I am trying not to be too harsh because I did enjoy the film a lot and it featured some terrific scenes even if they were extremely depressing.MovieManMenzel's final rating for "Blue Valentine" is a 7 out of 10.
In fact I wondered, why didn't Ryan gosling get nominated for the Oscar but Michelle Williams did.While watching this movie, I didn't get entertained but I savored the reality which I was viewing on the screen.
When I heard Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams were to be in a film called Blue Valentine, and it was about a marriage going bad, I was excited.
From what I understand Blue Valentine was delayed for years and when writer/director Derek Cianfrance finally got around to shooting, he told his actors he was sick of the script and that they'd better come up with something to surprise him.
Dean is an alcoholic high school dropout and Cindy is a nurse who marries him because she can't do any better.The main problem with "Blue Valentine" is that it is extremely boring.
He said he wanted his movies to ask questions instead of provide answers.Blue Valentine gives you 2 hours of watching a marriage fall painfully apart and how it got to that point.
After watching the characters struggle through their very frustrating lives, you walk away thinking, "What's the point of this film?" On the positive side, the film gives you two very powerful performances by Gosling and Williams.
However, that's the best I can say about this movie.I understand the director doesn't want to "preach" or spoon-feed a message to the audience, but a film should make a statement of some sort that provokes interpretive thought and makes the audience feel there's a point to the movie.Otherwise, as with Blue Valentine, you wonder why you just spent 2 hours watching people claw through a painful, frustrating existence in which nothing else happens aside from the pain and frustration.
And why is some people think that getting drunk is the only way to have a good time....or that's what this film suggests was going to 'fix' their problem.However good the 'acting' might have been it was all just a pain to watch.Forget this one..save your money and your time!.
I guess a lot of people gave this film a high score because they've realised that everybody is different and there simply isn't a handbook to a marital life of bliss, but where most of us may try anyway, watching tedious stuff like this certainly isn't the way to reignite fading passion or say, "That's happening to us and we need to do something to stop it."Some people may read my summary and click "spoiler without warning" for this opinion, but there isn't anything to spoil, only a warning that, unless watching dull (but admittedly well-acted), depressing and utterly predictable dramas is your thing, you'd be best served not wasting your time..
The film documents the bookends of a relationship, juxtaposing the past, Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy (Michelle Williams) meeting and falling in love, and the present, as they struggle through the painful disintegration of their marriage.
I read that even Ryan Gosling's doctor/psychologist suggested him during the filming of this movie to better do a comedy next time.
Blue Valentine (2010)You might notice when it's all over that the plot is a love story gone bad in the most common way.
Both Dean, played by Ryan Gosling, and Cindy, by Michelle Williams, are fully realized characters with flaws and charms and stubborn streaks that we all recognize.
Blue Valentine is a cautionary tale of the end of love which pronounces death over a marriage.The film is beautifully done as director Derek Cianfrance weaves the story of a couple, Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy (Michelle Williams), as they meet and fall in love and at the same time, he contrasts their whirlwind, with the disintegration of their marriage.It is painful to watch as a marriage falls apart with the weight of the distance and isolation, the anger and fighting, the emotional havoc that reeks of death.
Another girl was commenting that the couple knew their relationship did not work, and there is a point of crisis moment when everything ends and that this is the main thing about the movie...
I think they wanted to do something like "Revolutionary road" (which is an amazing movie)and they just got a lot of ugly sex sequences without a truly deep romantic message as the foreground of the film.
The worker of the Steinway Moving & Storage Dean (Ryan Gosling) meets the medicine student Cindy (Michelle Williams) and falls in love with her.
But their marriage has ended a long time ago."Blue Valentine" is a simple and heartbreaking story, with magnificent screenplay, performances and soundtrack that make the difference.
Gosling is excellent and Williams is even better (a remarkable actress!) in this hyper-naturalistic kitchen sink drama of a working class couple's unraveling marriage.It's full of deliberately grim and ugly details like the death of the family dog at the beginning, sex scenes that will make you never want to have sex again, and an abortion clinic scene that -- at the showing I saw -- sent several traumatized female audience members charging out of the theater.With its focus on everything negative -- despair, degradation, alienation -- BLUE VALENTINE reminds me of those Ingmar Bergman films of the 60s and 70s about horrible couples in horrible relationships.
She just doesn't help me hope that Ryan Gosling could fall in love with me...As for the whole, I read here in a review : "The script was weak, there was no decent dialog, no compelling plot, no creative story-line, no real character development and no insightful resolution".
Although it should be assumed from the trailer itself that this is a more realistic look on love and marriage, I fear a lot of people will not understand nor appreciate the depth of what this movie has to over.
This film is about the contrasts of a married couple's life before and after their marriage.There is a lot of praise for "Blue Valentine", and Michelle Williams even got an Oscar nomination for best actress.
The couple begins to live in anguish, but in a little romance mixed with "no reason" Ryan Gosling has a talent for drama that looks very natural in previous films such as The Journal Noa, but this couple was false when there mixture of passion the expression on their faces were very boring, out of what they were doing at the moment.
the role I'm very depressed.This film is not much that can mean good Indeed, except for the drama in the beginning of Ryan Gosling.This is a movie where you get bored waiting for slow some kind of progression show you exciting and only disappointing scene.This commentary was written by a Latino which his English may not be quite perfect..
What a curiously and disappointingly unengaging movie this is.It manages to create two great acting vehicles for Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams and contrive to leave you uninvolved and remarkably unsympathetic despite performances that have been talked about as Oscar contenders.The fact that the movie has ended up with but a single nomination for Williams says a lot, because, frankly, it's not that good.
This was a sad story about a smart young woman who makes some really STUPID mistakes (sex without birth control is STUPID) and poor choices in men/lovers even though she has a lot of potential and eventually falls for an alcoholic Peter Pan type who has little to NO potential (other than a crappy, low-paying job where he can be drunk if he wants while she works hard on her medical career aspirations).All of the characters are sympathetic and disgusting all at once (except for the child).
Frankie calls out to Dean as Cindy scoops her up, "Daddy you got me in trouble!" From this small scene we understand we are bearing witness to a couple at odds, and it only gets worse as the film goes along: from Dean (Ryan Gosling) telling his wife, "I told you to keep the f*cking gate shut," after the dog's escape, to Cindy's (Michelle Williams) frequent denials of affection.
Cianfrance's obsessive adherence to close-ups during the Present sequences stylistically underscores the stifling nature of the relationship compared to the wider, more open air of shots in the lovely Past.* Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams are at their most vulnerable, appearing emotionally and physically naked in the performance of their lives.
What's left is an uncomfortable gender politics in which Cindy is left holding the bag for the crumbling relationship (essay to come).Blue Valentine might better known for its scandal involving the MPAA's initial rating (NC-17)**, but there's so much more to the film and it's not pretty.
The only redeeming feature of this movie is the stellar job Ryan Gosling does in portraying a husband still in love with his wife and desperate to save his marriage.
If you are just starting out in a relationship and are looking for a primer on what doesn't work, you need not look any further than Derek Cianfrance's Blue Valentine, an intimate look at the disintegration of a marriage that often feels more like an artistic concept than an organic experience.
Outstandingly performed by Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams as the challenged couple, the film bounces around from the happy beginning of their relationship to its bitter last stages, where instant oatmeal becomes a metaphor for childish rage and all the viewer is left to do is to pick raisins off the table.Dean is a working class guy whose career path has gone from helper at a moving company to house painting, while the more upwardly mobile Cindy is a nurse who has gone to medical school.
Before the marriage, Dean and Cindy were perfect couples however after 5-6 years, when they spend a lot time in the same house, they feel the bitter differences in their life visions.
Derek Cianfrance's film 'Blue Valentine' is essentially a two-hander, with Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams both excellent as they play a couple in a story that intersperses scenes from the birth and death of their relationship.
If you dig into the back story or behind the scenes of the film you'll quickly find how dedicated the people behind the movie were which led to the film being incredibly authentic.I don't want to give anything away but in conclusion if you want a fairy tale happy ever after this isn't where you should look, regardless if you are a person who understands and has experienced the true feeling of love you definitely without hesitation TRULY need to see this movie, the feelings that will resonate can't be conjured from any other movie that comes to mind.
Dean (Ryan Gosling), the beer guzzling partner, first appears to us as a man with little ambition, overly jealous and, lets be honest, a bit of a lose thread.The movie continues to develop as the couple plan a week-end away in a shady 'romance' hotel.
In this way, I don't think I've ever seen a movie that manages to so subtlety shift my sympathy --we really do feel for Dean by the end-- and yet manage to stay true to the characters in essence.
Yet the drama seems pretty darn real as played out by Executive Producers Michelle Williams, as the girls who wants better but is constantly ending up with men who are more interested in bending her over than holding her close, and Ryan Gosling, our ambition-less ne'er-do-well who ended up with girl out of her decision to keep a child that may not even be his.
This movie officially made Ryan Gosling my favorite actor, along with Drive and other great films he has been in.
For her performance as Cindy, Michelle Williams received an Oscar nomination (Natalie Portman ended up winning the award that year for another movie with a color in the title).
I saw this movie after finding that it has got a good rating in IMDb. Movie has got a great story which is realistic .Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams have delivered good performances.The movie is about the fading love which is realistically portrayed.Everything in this life is fleeting and every good thing has to come to an end,that is how the life works and it is fickle.The things one may like about a person may be resented over a period of time.
The love story between Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams is viewed through the present and their past.
The story beholds an interesting take on relationships as we are exposed to the circumstances which led Dean (Gosling) and Cindy (Williams) to be together.
It's on top with the fine and heart and soul performances from the two leads Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling.All thru the film it's blended with past moments of love then it looks at the present state of the relationship that shows the whole picture of one Dean(Gosling) and Cindy(Williams).
This marriage is intense with passion and love and it's blended too with true complex doubts and strong heartfelt decisions of pain and loss."Blue Valentine" is one film that blends the good times and bad times of love and relationship together.
Years earlier, high-school dropout Dean Pereira (Ryan Gosling) and pre-med student Cindy Heller (Michelle Williams) met and struck up a relationship.
Of course, the leading roles are not badly performed, both Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams are Academy Award nominees (the latter received the nomination for the movie in question as well), but I can hardly imagine that viewers could somehow experience something in common with them.
"Blue Valentine" might not have a traditional happy ending, but that doesn't necessarily make it a depressing love story.
Derek Cianfrance simply paints a deep, complex and not-so-uplifting portrait of one such relationship.Perhaps "honest" would be more suitable a term than "realistic" in that marriages and relationships can take a variety of courses and the story of Cindy and Dean is one possible trajectory, even if it's one we wish didn't occur as often as it does.The film follows the present time line of Cindy (Michelle Williams) and Dean (Ryan Gosling) attempting to take a one-day vacation together amid an atmosphere of frustrations and some thick tension.
Blue Valentine follows the life of one couple as they fall in love with each other and get married and the heartbreaking realities that eventually destroy their relationship.
Going through the movie, it was made to look that Dean is the bad guy, but from what i watched is that he was a caring, good father who works hard and does all he can to help make his marriage work.
All that I can say about Michelle Williams too.I like love story movies.
Michelle Williams was nominated for an Oscar for her role yet Ryan Gosling was not, which is a shame (possibly due to a strong year by male leads?)This film is intense yet somewhat more light hearted and fun loving than originally thought of.
The only difference between this movie and real life is that Dean is trying really hard to make it work, and he really does love his wife and daughter.
A very "real" and "raw" movie about life, love and the cycles relationships go through.
The film depicts a married couple, Dean and Cynthia Pereira (Gosling and Williams), the transitional shifting of their romantic beginning and the dissolution of their marriage several years later.
Directed by Derek Cianfrance, the film unravels a gritty testament of the tragedy that lies within a relationship between a husband and wife, and is driven by uncompromising performances by Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams who simply grab at your heart and never let go.
This film follows Dean (played by Ryan Gosling) and Cindy (played by Michelle Williams), a married couple raising their five- year old daughter Frankie (played by Faith Wladyka).
Blue Valentine directed by Derek Cianfrance is a film about two people falling in love and then their relationship disintegrating a few years later.The film goes forward and back in time as we see Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy (Michelle Williams) meet and fall in love.
Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams are Dean and Cindy, a young couple very much in love, who after a few years, seem to hate each other's guts.
Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams have done a good job in portraying two lovers as two different personalities in two different situations and time period. |
tt0471042 | Tower Heist | Josh Kovacs is the building manager of The Tower, a high-rise luxury apartment complex on Central Park West in New York City whose employees include concierge Charlie, his brother in law; Enrique, an elevator operator; Lester, the doorman nearing retirement; Odessa, a maid; and Miss Iovenko, who furtively studies for her bar exam at work.One morning Josh sees what appears to be a kidnapping of Tower tenant and wealthy businessman Arthur Shaw. Josh gives chase and almost catches him when he is clotheslined by FBI agent Claire Denham. Denham explains that Shaw wasn't being kidnapped, he was attempting to flee arrest, accused of running a Ponzi scheme. Josh tells the Tower staff about Shaw's arrest and explains that he gave Shaw their pension fund to invest, and their money is gone. Josh, Charlie and Enrique visit Shaw, under house arrest in his penthouse apartment. Josh tells Shaw that Lester attempted suicide after losing everything he had. Shaw expresses condolences but appears insincere. Josh responds by destroying the windows of a Ferrari 250 Shaw has on display in his apartment. The building's owner is furious at Josh's action and fires Josh, Charlie and Enrique.Josh meets Denham at a bar and she invites him to get drunk. As they drink she says Shaw must have had a cash safety net and suggests in jest that he find and steal it. Josh gathers Charlie, Enrique, and former Tower tenant Mr. Fitzhugh to draw up a plan to steal Shaw's money. Charlie brings up the obvious drawback that they are not thieves. Josh hires his neighbor, a petty criminal named Slide, to help. Slide trains the team but realizes he cannot do the robbery because he doesn't know how to crack the safe in Shaw's apartment. They bring in Odessa, whose family ran a locksmith business. Charlie tells Josh he's been rehired as the Tower's new manager, and Charlie warns Josh to stay away or he will have him arrested. Denham then tells Josh that a hearing for Shaw has been scheduled for Thanksgiving during the Macy's Day Parade to avoid publicity, and Shaw will go free. Josh and his team decide to break into Shaw's apartment during the parade.The team reaches Shaw's apartment, breaks down a false wall and finds Shaw's safe behind it; Odessa opens the safe but finds it empty. Slide and Fitzhugh struggle for Slide's gun; the gun goes off and a bullet hits the car, revealing gold underneath the Ferrari's paint. They realize Shaw invested his cash in gold, had the gold melted down and cast into car parts, and then assembled the car in his apartment where the gold would be hidden in plain sight. Josh finds a ledger of Shaw's illegal finances in the car's glove box. They lower the car out the window into Fitzhugh's old apartment six floors below, and then take it down to the lobby on top of an elevator. Just as they reach the lobby Agent Denham and Shaw return and take the same elevator back up. Denham sees Shaw's safe and informs him that he did not declare the safe on an inventory of items taken when he was arrested, which is a violation of the conditions of his bail. She has him remanded back into custody.Denham sees Lester using a stolen truck to try to escape from the building. She catches up to him, assuming he is fleeing with the Ferrari, but finds the truck empty. The FBI arrests him and Josh's other accomplices. She personally handcuffs Josh and privately congratulates him. As Josh is being questioned by the FBI, Miss Iovenko arrives, telling the FBI that she passed her bar exam three days ago and is acting as Josh's attorney. She shows them Shaw's ledger and tells them she will turn it over in exchange for everyone's freedom. The FBI accepts on the condition that Josh, being the primary conspirator, must serve a minimal two-year sentence.The team retrieves the car from its hiding place in Shaw's rooftop pool and send various parts of the car to Tower employees to compensate for their lost pensions. As the movie ends Shaw begins his life sentence and Josh is booked into jail, a satisfied smile slowly forming on his face. | revenge, comedy, humor | train | imdb | Alan Alda makes for a good slimy villain, and Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, and Matthew Broderick (as well as their co-stars) make a likable bunch of people with a goal that you hope they will be able to reach.
I hadn't seen a good Eddie Murphy movie in some time and when I saw the trailer I thought it was going to be a very predictable story line.
On a comparative rating, 'Tower Heist' doesn't even get close.'The Tower' is a luxury high rise apartment (actually filmed at Trump International Hotel and Tower in Manhattan) where the hard working staff led by Josh Kovacs (Ben Stiller) make sure that its high profile tenants are pampered.
Managing a high end apartment skyscraper in New York, his team look after and cater for all the foibles of their rich charges.Living in the penthouse suite with a rooftop swimming pool emblazoned with a Dollar Bill mosaic is Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda), a wealthy financier with Steve McQueen's Ferrari in his living room.How did it get up there, they took it apart and moved it piece by piece, subtle this is not.Josh plays online chess with Arthur, likes him and entrusts the employees pension fund to him to "double their money", unbeknown to his work colleagues.With a story ripped from recent headlines, Shaw is soon in trouble with the FBI, notably pretty detective (Tea Leoni).
Odessa, a chambermaid with a bizarre Jamaican accent and a handy sideline in safe-cracking (Gabourey Siibe) and lastly, Mr Fitzhugh (Matthew Broderick), depressed, straitlaced, crumpled ex-banker and ex-apartment owner.We are all set for a decent farce with elements of drama, however the movie is set for fun and mostly delivers.This a rare Hollywood comedy that is actually funny.
Whether the group are planning their heist using Lego, getting distracted with Female Sexuality issues or breaking off mid heist to walk a residents pet dog.Overall of course it's all very silly and preposterous but it is good to see Eddie Murphy funny again, his sequence with Odessa, as she teaches him the in's and out's of safe-cracking is well done.
Alan Alda also lifts the film with his considerable talents bought to bear on the smarmy Mr Shaw.Like any comedy caper, the tone needs to be right and the project is very much a light soufflé but Director Brett Ratner manages to pull off the various elements, to make this a fun night in.Summary That rare event, a Hollywood comedy that manages to both entertain and provide a light sprinkling of social commentary.The film is largely designed to be a crowd pleaser and largely fulfils that role admirably http://julesmoviereviews.blogspot.co.nz/.
Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Casey Affleck, Alan Alda, Matthew Broderick, Judd Hirsch, Tea Leoni, Stephen Henderson, and Gabourey Sidibe star in "Tower Heist" from 2011.It's a caper movie, and it's a light and fun one.
It's a shame Eddie Murphy's career took a nose dive; he's no less talented than he used to be.With the Macy's Day Parade, particularly Snoopy in the background, Matthew Broderick hanging by a rope, Gabourey Sidibe running her trolley into a guard and knocking him out, you'll have a good time.
Right?In Tower Heist, Ben Stiller plays subservient chief of staff at a ritzy Central Park apartment complex — but when a tenant (Alan Alda) swindles him and his workforce out of their pensions, it's no more Mr. Nice Josh.
Unschooled as they are in the art of the steal, Josh also employs the aid of petty criminal "Slide," (Eddie Murphy) who gives the crew a crash course in crime.The cast of Tower Heist, anchored by Stiller, Alda, and the under-appreciated 'other' Affleck, is its greatest asset.
Brett Rather directs this hilarious story of Josh Kovaks (Ben Stiller) an uptown high rise apartment, manager who's principal tenant is Arthur Shaw, an unscrupulous multi-millionaire (Alan Alda).
With top actors like Eddie Murphy, Casey Affleck and Matthew Broderick the film becomes a comedic romp through uptown New York during the annual Macy's Day Parade.
Aside from that, when one of the characters finds a Ledger in the boss's office it is clearly marked "LEDGER." Of course people would clearly know what it is when Ben Stiller opens it, so why does the film insist on hammering little things into our heads.Tower Heist provides dopey and acceptable escapism for people who are looking for it, but when seeking out a witty satire in the vein of something like Ocean's Eleven it sort of flounders in and out.
His heist group is made up of innocent and shaky Vince (Broderick), loud-mouth Slide (Murphy), goofy but favorable Enrique (Pena), and the always enjoyable Casey Affleck who plays Charlie.The cast is undeniably great as it works its way through a pretty decent script, some of which written by Ted Griffin who, ironically, was a part of the writing for the Ocean's Eleven remake.
After a line of massive critical and financial failures, he gives a performance that alone makes Tower Heist worth seeing.Come to think of it, I didn't start laughing much until Murphy came on the screen about a half hour in.
Starring: Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Matthew Broderick, Casey Affleck, Michael Pena, Alan Alda, and Gabourey Sidibe.
Director Jeff Ratner known for his noisy Batman films is working with a smaller pan to bang on here but still manages to annoy in different way by getting Eddie Murphy to revise his 80s SNL Mr. Rogers neighborhood character, Stiller's one note and a pathetic Matthew Broderick to stand around looking wide eyed and medicated.
Tower Heist is a great movie with a well written storyline with a great comedic cast.I was certainly disappointed by this movie,it teams up two comedy actors who I am huge fans of,Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy,and on top of that it also stars Matthew Broderick and Casey Affleck,and while it is an enjoyable movie,I gave my hopes up on this being an outstanding comedy,because I expecting nothing more with a comedy cast like this,also it was Murphy's first adult comedy on years.It still is a really good comedy however,and the best performance certainly has to be Eddie Murphy,it was a great comeback to characters like his Trading Places and Beverly Hills Cop characters,the much better and way funnier Murphy that I really missed,and this movie is certainly much better than the movies he's done in recent years (Meet Dave,Norbit,etc.) and I hope he realises after doing this film that these comedy suit him much more than family friendly ones.Tower Heist is a very enjoyable comedy that I would recommend to all fans of comedy,Eddie Murphy and Ben Stiller.After a group of men discover they have fallen in to a Ponzi scheme,they hire a professional thief to help them break in to his residence at the top of a tower.Best Performance: Eddie Murphy.
Shaw says "Of course I care what happens to Lester." Josh replies "Well how come you haven't asked whether he lived or died?"Overlooked in the discussion about the movie has been the character Mr. Fitzhugh, played by Matthew Broderick.
His best scenes happen when Josh (Ben Stiller) bails him out of jail to ask for his help with the "Tower Heist." Slide: "Soooo, seizure boy wants to try to steal something.
When his fund is exposed to law enforcement and in the press as a Ponzi scheme, it falls to building manager Josh Kovacs (played by Ben Stiller) to inform the staff of The Tower that he'd invested their pensions with Shaw and that said pensions are most likely lost.
But knowing they're in over their heads, Josh enlists Slide (played by Eddie Murphy), a thief and Kovacs neighbor who he once went to school with.I've never been a big fan of Ben Stiller and while I have great appreciation for Eddie Murphy's early work (the Beverly Hills Cop series, Coming to America and even The Distinguished Gentleman) I've long-believed his best years as anything but a voice actor were behind him.
Kovaks had walked passed Slide nearly every day on his way to work at the Towers.A fun, sometimes predictable but occasionally unpredictable heist movie designed as pure entertainment.
I think this movie was interesting because we can watch the acting from senior actors like Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy.
"Tower Heist" is filled with an all-star cast, which includes Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Casey Affleck, Alan Alda, and Matthew Broderick.
If that was funny enough, then get this: it was unfunny when compared to the absolutely hilarious scene that happened a little later (I will not spoil this great joke, but it involves Ben Stiller's character explaining instructions).The heist was fun, too, with humour mixed in to contribute to the action to make it even better.
The last hour or so packs a lot of laughs, and while the end of the movie was in most respects a feel-good ending, the movie didn't lapse into a complete saccharine-filled conclusion by making sure that Josh (Ben Stiller) ended up in jail for his part in the heist.
I thought everyone offered a good performance, and while the cast was large, by the end no one really seemed extraneous.Aside from Stiller, who's always capable enough, the primary members of the cast were Alan Alda as investment guru Arthur Shaw (charged with fraud, including stealing the pension money of the employees in the luxury apartment tower in which he lives), Eddie Murphy as street crook Slide (who gets taken on as a sort of technical adviser when some of the employees of the tower decide to rob Shaw's apartment to get their money back) and Tea Leoni as FBI Agent Claire Denham, who's out to get Shaw and develops a friendship with and sympathy for Josh.
Josh is quick to defend his friend until he learns that his staff's pensions are gone with the wind - and that Shaw may have $20 million in undeclared money still in his apartment.Josh confronts Shaw and quickly loses both his cool and his job; then, along with his brother and law/concierge Charlie (Casey Affleck), former finance guy-turned-squatter Mr. Fitzhugh (Matthew Broderick), and the new elevator operator Enrique (Michael Pena), he comes up with a plan to get everyone their money back in just the way you'd expect from a movie plot - a hare-brained scheme.
Josh isn't a small man thrust into a big situation; he is a normal man who truly does know his stuff and forms a plan to reach a particular goal - just as you'd imagine a real-life hotel manager to be.Eddie Murphy also plays his role with a lot more subtlety than you'd expect.
For me, though, I found the ending to be the best of all worlds - plausible, not too tidy, and still at least a mild surprise.I singled out Stiller and Murphy for their great work here, but there really are a lot of other good performances: Broderick, Pena, Alda, Tea Leoni (FBI agent), Affleck, Stephen Henderson, and Gabourey Sidibe (the latter is really terrific).
It stars Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Alan Alda, Casey Affleck, Matthew Broderick, Michael Pena, Tea Leoni and Gabourey Sidibe (of 'PRECIOUS' fame).
Stiller is the lead and does a good job but it's Murphy who makes the film really worthwhile, playing a part largely reminiscent of those that made him the biggest movie star in the world, for a couple years at least, in the 80's (and probably his best role since 1988's 'COMING TO America')!Stiller plays the manager of a high-rise residential apartment building named Josh Kovacs.
Since we all have been missed Eddie Murphy for a bit, we should really look at Tower Heist as a GOOD return.Even though Ben Stiller is the main character here, all the looks goes to Eddie Murphy from the whole movie.
Probably like every other robbery movie you can watch, always an improbable situation escaping reality, like Leverage.Tower heist has good actors doing good performances, but, as i've said before, you gonna pay more attention to Eddie than all the other together.
I mean, you got Matthew Broderick, Eddie Murphy, Ben Stiller, Michael Pena, Casey Affleck, and Tea Leoni among others, and Alda is the only one who's good.
Fourth off, and finally, Alda is so good that you almost wish Tower Heist was a movie all about Arthur rather than a film just simply revolving around Arthur.
Tower penthouse owner Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda) in New York City loses the life savings of the Tower's staff in a Ponzi scheme worthy of Bernie Madoff.Josh Kovaks (Ben Stiller), manager of the building, and a few select staff plan a heist to get back the money and more.
I enjoyed seeing Eddie Murphy have fun in a movie role.Ben Stiller does a good job as the ringleader, who uses his knowledge of the tower to plan the heist.
And, Alan Alda is very good as the Wall Street criminal.Tower Heist is very funny, the actors are great with good chemistry, and the movie has some good suspense and a satisfying conclusion.
Was hoping to see Eddie Murphy return to some sort of form after a few bad movie choices, and I really like Ben Stiller (apart from the Night at the Museum films).Some OK performances, but none of the actors really got into the role - though Eddie at least tried in his usual miserable guy and then funny guy character, but 5% of what he did in Trading Places.My Wife and I felt that it was not funny enough to be a "proper" comedy.
With Eddie Murphy as the criminal who trains a bunch of cheated employees from The Tower, and Ben Stiller who is the manager for the workers and now the gang leader out to get even with their boss, you can expect lots of funny remarks and antics from them.
The film's best moments come courtesy of Murphy's instructions, teaching the bunch of rookies- including the ringleader Josh Kovacs (Ben Stiller), the slow-witted Charlie (Casey Affleck), the jumpy Fitzhugh (Matthew Broderick) and the naïve Enrique (Michael Pena)- what it takes to be a criminal.
Yet as much as the film is played for laughs, it doesn't forget that its characters are mirrored on those who have similarly lost their jobs or even their life savings in the wake of the economic crisis over the past three years- so Ratner and his screenwriters give the movie added emotional heft through Lester (Stephen McKinley Henderson), the veteran doorman of The Tower who tries to commit suicide when he realises his money which he gave to Shaw to invest is all gone.
Tower Heist put itself forward as a comedy caper movie and as such I thought it sounded perfect and I didn't expect too much.
The title of the movie is self explanatory, it's about a group of people makes a robbery on a tower as a revenge for a specific action against them, so will it be a successful robbery ?This is a type of movies that you don't feel the time pass by while watching, the actors are funny and nice to watch, they were introduced in a good way without getting involved into unneeded details.There is no laughing out loud moments here but it's quite enjoyable, the plot is simple but it's kinda late and there's no much challenges shown.All the actors did well, "Ben Stiller" is more prominent because he had more screen time but his performance is equal to the others, the detective actions are the weakest point in the movie with a lot of unjustified actions by her.You will enjoy beautiful scenes of New York City and its landscape specially during festivals, you will also get an idea about how the Tower operates and it spotlights on unnoticed jobs.Finally, it's a light action/drama/comedy movie that lacks a lot of excitement but not to a degree that makes you bored..
Ben Stiller, Mathew Broderick, Casey Affleck and Eddie Murphy, what a superb and hilarious comedy cast!
"Tower Heist" starts fine: Ben Stiller is the general manager of a posh New York apartment building, who having found out that he had turned over all of the staff's pension monies to an alleged swindler (Alan Alda), plans an elaborate heist to steal the money back.
Well, I watched with not many expectations as it was a comedy with Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy, so I just hoped to be entertained and the movie did that very well.
Anyway, Ben Stiller & Eddie Murphy have a good chemistry and they provide some funny moments with the characters of Casey Affleck, Michael Peña & Matthew Boderick.
Apart from the fact that I have always enjoyed Ben Stiller's comedies (well, except for Little Fockers), and the fact that Brett Ratner, the director behind the hilarious Rush Hour trilogy was directing this movie; I think what myself and many other people particularly anticipated was the return of Eddie Murphy to an all-star line-up in a blockbuster comedy film.
Great cast with Eddie Murphy, Ben Stiller, Alan Alda.
So, with the help of fellow employees (Casey Affleck, Michael Pena, Gabourey Sidibe), an out-of-luck tenant (Matthew Broderick) and petty crook Slide (Eddie Murphy), Josh plans the robbery of Shaw's apartment to reclaim what is his.For a film so reliant on consistent comedy to earn appraisal, it opens very slowly, trudging along with a greater priority placed upon plot foundations than actual humour.
Tower Heist....Eddie Murphys return to mainstream comedy...Kind ofWhile this movie was no where as clever as it seems it does not fail to entertain.
If your just looking for pure fun and laughs, this movie is for you.A great cast, good directing, silly plot, and just pure entertainment.
Has a nice cast with Alan Alda, Matthew Broderick, Eddie Murphy, Judd Hirsch, Ben Stiller, Tea Leoni, and Gabourey Sidibe - they do a nice job with what they have. |
tt1530983 | Red Hill | Shane Cooper (Ryan Kwanten), a young police officer, relocates to the small town of Red Hill with his pregnant wife Alice (Claire van der Boom). On his first day on the job, he is shown hostility from Old Bill (Steve Bisley), the head of the police force, for being unable to find his gun and getting shot on duty when he couldn't bring himself to fire his weapon on an armed boy.
Shortly afterwards, the police learn that Jimmy Conway (Tom E. Lewis), a convicted murderer who was arrested by Old Bill for killing his wife, has escaped from prison. Knowing that Jimmy will return to town to seek revenge, Old Bill orders his officers and a group of civilians to arm themselves and shoot Jimmy on sight.
Old Bill's men prove to be no match for Jimmy, who remorselessly kills officers and armed civilians. The convict encounters Shane but lets him live. When Shane finds Old Bill, he confronts Bill over the fact that Jimmy spared his life and learns that Bill has refused to call for backup from a nearby town. Shane draws his gun on Bill, but again finds himself unable to fire it and is subsequently knocked out and handcuffed to a table.
Shane escapes and uses a satellite phone at Gleason's farm to contact the nearby police for backup. During the call Shane discovers Gleason (Cliff Ellen) on the verge of hanging himself; when Shane talks to him, the farmer reveals that Jimmy Conway is innocent of the murder of his wife. The murder was the work of Old Bill and his men, who set fire to Jimmy's house after raping and killing his wife, revenge for Jimmy's interference in a proposed railroad extension that would have gone through Red Hill. Gleason informs Shane that he has a written document of what really happened, before committing suicide. Now knowing the real reason why Jimmy returned to Red Hill, Shane returns home to get his gun, which Alice found while he was on duty.
Near the outskirts of town, Old Bill sets stacks of hay on fire to attract Jimmy's attention. Jimmy arrives and kills Bill's last remaining deputies, but is stopped from finishing Bill off when two of Bill's friends arrive and hold him at gunpoint. Shane also arrives and saves Jimmy by shooting Bill's friends after informing Bill that he knows the truth.
The police backup arrives and confront Jimmy as he prepares to get his revenge on Old Bill. Despite Shane's efforts to get him to drop his gun, Jimmy kills Old Bill and is promptly shot by the police. Before dying, the seemingly mute Jimmy tells Shane that his wife was pregnant with his son. | revenge, suspenseful, murder, violence, flashback | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0103352 | Are You Afraid of the Dark? | A group of Canadian kids, from elementary to high school ages, of different cultural and economic backgrounds, come together once a week at night and share their love of horror by telling scary stories. Their ritual is that each week one kid in the group tells a story. He/she throws sugar into a campfire and declares their story's title. The rest of the episode features the story on-screen. Some of the stories are meant to be scary, others are meant to be funny, but each one usually has a lesson on various topics (bullying, science gone wrong, animal rights, respecting the elderly, friendship, good manners, poverty, moving to a new place, etc.).The show was in competition with Goosebumps, Eerie Indiana, The X-Files, Tales From the Crypt and several other similar shows from the Nineties. At one point, all the members of the midnight society, excluding Tucker, are replaced with younger and very immature kids, and this was the point when the show began to go downhill. Some members of the Midnight Society only lasted two or three episodes, most notably Stig (his name may be short for Stigma). He's a chubby, overweight and lazy kid who never changes his clothes. Nonetheless he told the story 'The Tale of the Dead Man's Float', which became one of the most popular episodes of the show among fans. Two recurring characters were Dr. Vink (a jolly but evil and sadistic old man) and Sardo (a sleazy and shady but benevolent magic shop owner). Both characters often get involved in stories. Dr. Vink usually has dark schemes to lure kids into things, and Sardo usually gets caught up in helping the kids he sells his junky products to. | good versus evil, paranormal, psychedelic, horror, storytelling | train | imdb | null |
tt0070656 | Scream Blacula Scream | After a dying Voodoo queen, Mama Loa, chooses an adopted apprentice, Lisa Fortier (Pam Grier) as her successor, her arrogant son and true heir, Willis, (Richard Lawson) is outraged. Seeking revenge, he buys the bones of Mamuwalde the vampire from the former shaman of the voodoo cult, and uses voodoo to resurrect the vampire to do his bidding. However, while it brings Mamuwalde back to life, he quickly bites Willis upon awakening. Willis now finds himself in a curse of his own doing: made into a vampire hungering for blood and, ironically, a slave to the very creature he sought to control. Meanwhile, Justin Carter (Don Mitchell), an ex-police officer with a large collection of acquired African antiquities and an interest in the occult, begins to investigate the murders caused by Mamuwalde and his growing vampire horde. Justin meets Mamuwalde at a party Justin hosts to display the African collection pieces before being moved to the University's museum. They discuss the artifacts, unbeknown to anyone else, that were from the region of Africa Mamuwalde hails from, including pieces of jewelry once worn by his late wife Luva. Mamuwalde also meets Justin's girlfriend, Lisa Fortier, at the party and he discovers that Lisa is naturally adept at voodoo. Lisa discovers Mamuwaldes' true nature after a friend of hers, Gloria, falls victim to his bite and resurrected as a vampire who nearly feeds on her if not for Mamuwalde's intervention. He later asks her for help to cure him of his vampire curse. Justin, with the help of L.A.P.D. Lieutenant Harley Dunlop (Michael Conrad), pulls together several other cops to go to the Mamuwalde residence to investigate the recent deaths. While Lisa is performing the ritual to cure Mamuwalde, using a voodoo doll fashioned to look like him, Justin, Harley and their men raid the house, fighting against Blacula's vampire minions which include several friends of theirs. Willis is killed during this scuffle. Justin manages to find Lisa and Mamuwalde and interrupts the ritual. Lisa refuses to help Mamuwalde after she witnesses him kill the other police officers in the house in a fit of rage. As Mamuwalde, now calling himself Blacula, is about to bite Justin, Lisa stabs the prince's voodoo doll killing Mamuwalde and destroying the menace of Blacula forever. | blaxploitation | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0468820 | Noriko no shokutaku | The film starts on December 12th, 2001 with a young girl named Noriko Shimabara (Kazue Fukiishi) arriving at Tokyo Station with a bag of rolling luggage. She walks upto Ginza, 'pretending to have returned from a long trip'.Chapter 1: NorikoNoriko describes her family: a father (Ken Mitsuishi), a mother (Sanae Miyata) and a younger sister named Yuka (Yuriko Yoshitaka). A 17 year old in Junior High School, Noriko conflicts with her father over her choice of college. While Noriko wishes to go to the city and lead a more urban life, her father wants her to go to a local university. This decision is encouraged by the fact that when two of Noriko's cousins went to Tokyo, they returned pregnant.When returning from school one day, Noriko meets a friend from elementary school, nicknamed Tangerine (Yôko Mitsuya). After high school, Tangerine ended up going to an 'image club', where she performs for erotic photos and such things. Noriko envies Tangerine's bubbly nature and apparent happiness, and that the latter is already independent.Noriko's father was a reporter for a local newspaper, where he reported trivial local news. Despite being uninterested in his work, Noriko begins writing for her school newspaper, published once a month. In her paper, she advocates unlimited access to the school computers, as her home only has one computer, which she has to share with her family members.Alienated by her family, Noriko desires escape from her surroundings. Eventually, Noriko succeeds in hacing her teachers let students use computers uptil the evening. Under the handle name of 'Mitsuko', Noriko makes friends on an online site called Haikyo.com, where teenage girls talk about their problems. These become Noriko's best friends, especially a charismatic member of the group who goes by the handle 'Ueno Station 54'. As the girls are from Tokyo, Noriko too desires to go to Tokyo.Noriko's father refuses to let her go to Tokyo, and midway during that conversation, the house's breaker switch goes off, plunging the house in darkness. In the dark, Noriko impulsively packs her bags and leaves home on December 10th, 2001.Arriving in Tokyo, Noriko feels overwhelmed with life, but at the same time desires to experience and challenge it. In a cyber cafe, Noriko logs on to Haikyo.com to talk to Ueno Station 54, whom she idolises by now. The latter instructs Noriko to meet her at 11 am the next day at Ueno Station #54. Noriko stays at a cheap hotel that night, signing under the name of 'Mitsuko Shimabara'.Waking up the next day, Noriko declares, "I am Mitsuko" and goes to Ueno Station. Unaware of what #54 would mean, she searches the station until she finds the station's lockers. There, she finds the locker numbered 54, and meets Ueno Station 54 (Tsugumi).6 months later, on the 24th of May, 2002 at 7:29 PM, 54 schoolgirls kill themselves by jumping before a metro train on Track 8 at Shinjuku Station, causing a media sensation.Yuka sits alone in her classroom and says in voiceover that she always wanted to laugh and 'be silly' like other girls her age, and that she never wanted to cry.Chapter 2: YukaYuka jokes with a schoolmate, wondering if her sister Noriko was part of the 54 girls who committed suicide. Yuka shows him Haikyo.com, on which an array of red dots represents female suicide victims, 54 of which appeared the night before the mass suicide. On the same site, she finds a question on a blank screen: "Are you connected to yourself?"From this point on, the story switches viewpoints frequently: Noriko in December 2001 in Tokyo and Yuka in May 2002, after the suicides.Noriko meets Ueno Station 54, who goes by the name of Kumiko. She introduces Noriko to her family, consisting of her dad, mother and younger brother. Yuka, missing her sister, explores the latter's belongings and finds this diary. Noriko also suspects that a member of Haikyo.com under the handle 'Yoko' is actually Yuka.Kumiko takes Noriko to Ueno Station's Locker #54, where Kumiko shows her an array of belongings, each representing a happy memory of Kumiko's life. In truth, the objects were all picked up after being left behind by someone else, and Kumiko came up with stories linked to them. As Noriko narrates, Kumiko has "no genuine memories." Noriko philosophises that her life uptil now consisted of fabricated memories preceding her coming-out as a woman named Mitsuko. She gives Kumiko a loose thread from their jacket, which she called "Mitsuko's umbilical cord" and places in Locker #54.Noriko's father Tetsuzo becomes distracted after Noriko's disappearance, but tries not to show it. Yuka reveals that she became Yoko to "be connected to herself". She leaves a clue for her father behind a poster in her room. "Hearing her sister's voice like a radio" all the time, Yuka runs away as well.Tetsuzo is devastated that Yuka has gone as well, and quits his job. He searches for the two, but according to Yuka, "lacks any understanding of the two". Tetsuzo searches for clues in the girls' room.Cut back to Yuka, who writes a diary in her classroom, speculating what her father would do if she disappeared. After finding the clue left behind by Yuka, her father and mother would check every website visited by their parents and draw out the lives they led. Eventually, Tetsuzo would find the link between Noriko and Ueno Station 54, and guess correctly that the handle refers to Locker #54. He stops sharing information with his wife, aware of how outlandish an outcome his investigations are revealing.Tabloid headlines begin to warn of a "Suicide Club" responsible for the mass suicide at Shinjuku Station, which makes Tetsuzo's own conclusions regarding Noriko and Yuka.December 11, 2002 - after 3 months of investigation, he concludes that the Suicide Club exists, its members meet on Haikyo.com and that the dots on the site represent suicide victims.While writing this speculation, Yuka tears out her writing, deliberately leaving behind an imprint on the next page and decides to leave Toyokawa for Tokyo.Chapter 3: KumikoAfter meeting Kumiko at Ueno Station, Noriko goes with the former's family to meet Kumiko's grandmother. Despite being unrelated to the family, she finds the environment "cozy" and describes them as the "epitome of happiness", in complete contrast to her own Shimabara family. Noriko wishes badly to be a member of that family. The next day, they go to another grandmother's house.Noriko continues to envy the seemingly perfect family, with each member of the family fulfilling their role perfectly. She wonders "Could there be a more family-like family anywhere in the world?". When the grandmother refers to Noriko as Mitsuko, Noriko declares in her post to Yuka that she became a member of that family under the name of Mitsuko. She instructs Yuka that the most important thing is to be connected to yourself, and tells Yuka that she is connected to herself, as are the other members of Kumiko's family.Kumiko's family visits a grandfather's house, where Kumiko asks "Mitsuko" to wait in the car for 5 minutes before entering the house. The family members treat her as Kumiko's sister, and she finds "her" dying grandfather who dies before Mitsuko, and everyone in the family begins grieving for her. Kumiko secretly smiles at Mitsuko during the grieving and suddenly, her grandfather wakes up and says that "the new girl is good", referring to Mitsuko.Kumiko shows Mitsuko a wide array of toothbrushes and perfumes, saying that you need to pick a new toothbrush for each client. Kumiko tells Mitsuko a story about a baby born in a coin locker, and the baby's mother went to meet the baby many years later, but was a bad actress and "sucked at playing a mother". Mitsuko tells Noriko a story about a family of parents and two daughters who were seemingly happy. Kumiko takes over from Mitsuko, saying that the although the father was hard-working, he could not understand his daughters' individuality, which is why they ran away.Kumiko and Mitsuko go to Tokyo's Suginami Ward, where they spot a number of stray cats. Kumiko says that stray cats can form families instantly and are 'tough'. She tells Mitsuko that they must relate to each other like stray cats.Dressed like trashy punks with leather jackets, Kumiko and Mitsuko arrive at a "client's" house in Suginami Ward. The client, a middle-aged man with unkempt hair and an unshaven face berates the two and lets them in. In the house, Mitsuko spots a number of mortuary tablets representing the man's family. The man plays the role of an alcoholic and smoking-addicted father while the girls are his estranged daughters that have returned home. Mitsuko for a second, recalls her father as she was Noriko, but discards the thought, thinking that her real father is sitting in front of her.The "father" breaks down before the girls, saying that he deeply missed them after they disappeared. Kumiko, after being slapped by the man, leave the home, but Mitsuko begs to return "home". Together, the two girls embrace "their father". Together, the three share a family dinner. The father declares his intentions of 'starting over' as a family after a string of gambling victories. Mitsuko is deeply moved by the session losing control of her emotions, becomes a part of the act. Abruptly, the session's 'time' is up, and the man begins to pay Kumiko. Mitsuko asks to stretch the session longer, but Kumiko kicks the man away and leaves the place with the money owed, dragging an emotionally overwhelmed Noriko with her. In her post to Yuka, describes the business as "family rental".Mitsuko reveals that the Kumiko was the baby born in a coin locker, and that she will be turning 25 soon, and the two are wondering which family to share the birthday with.1 Year LaterTetsuzo finds Kumiko in Tokyo after staking out Ueno Station. She gives him a card asking him to contact the number on it if he has need for her services. Tetsuzo arranges to meet a representative of Kumiko's organisation in a restaurant. The reprentative asks Tetsuzo if he is connected to himself and tells him that there is no such thing as "Suicide Club", describing it as a 'circle'. He asks Tetsuzo to imagine if Amaterasu were born in a coin locker, and that the collapse of civilization began in Locker #54 in Ueno Station.The representative describes Kumiko's business, named 'I.C. Corp' as a family rental business, whose members spend time with clients and pretend to be family members, sometimes for decades. Tetsuzo speculates that because Kumiko, who was born in a coin locker, wanted revenge on society, she wanted to 'turn every kid into a Kumiko' and caused the mass suicides.The representative asks Tetsuzo if he really is connected to himself and accuses him of being unable to play his roles in life as a reporter and a father. As the world is full of such people who have failed at their roles in life, the representative says that the only path forward is "to lie openly and pursue happiness" and survive the desert of loneliness. The crowd in the restaurant, who has by this time, been following the conversation, stands up and claps.Tetsuzo has a dream about being in a museum corridor, looking at his daughters as museum exhibits, away from his reach. He dreams himself in the metaphorical desert and vows to find his daughters.Chapter 4: TetsuzoTetsuzo reads the story left behind by Yuka. After her disappearance, Tetsuzo continues going to his job as usual, and quits his job 2 months later, after his wife kills herself. Tetsuzo beats himself up for being a worse father than Yuka had imagined, for choosing his career over his family.Tetsuzo describes Toyokawa as a 'perfect town' and writing pieces about the town was like painting a pastoral picture. His wife Taeko sketches a painting based on a photograph of the family, but changes their daughter's indifferent expressions to more lively ones.When Tetsuzo reads Yuka's words that "the only thing he understood was that he didn't understand them at all", he breaks down and thrashes apart his room full of investigation notes. A month later, his wife, Taeko kills herself by slashing her wrists in the rain. Tetsuzo reads Yuka's notes repeatedly, regretting that although she could see right through him, he never understood his daughters.Tetsuzo meets an old colleague of his in a hotel in Tokyo. Tetsuzo tells him the events of the past one and a half years and asks if the latter has heard of the Suicide Club. He instructs his colleague to meet Kumiko in the room later and rent a family, stressing that Noriko and Yuka should be played by Mitsuko and Yoko, and Kumiko must play Taeko.Ikeda meets Kumiko, who shows him a photo album from which he picks Mitsuko and Yoko to be the elder and younger sisters."Yoko", i.e. Yuka in I.C. Corp, meets Mitsuko, who does not respond to Yoko's greetings. Kumiko stresses taht the two are Yoko and Mitsuko, and not Yuka and Noriko. The two are given a map to memorise, as the client wants the family to pretend to have lived there for 20 years. Kumiko narrates that she was already aware that Tetsuzo was 'behind this'.Yoko asks to see the coat Mitsuko wore when she disappeared and asks her to put on her glasses and imitate Noriko. Kumiko warns the girls to be careful, as this isn't a "normal client". Kumiko narrates that five years ago, she met a woman claiming to be her real mother. Kumiko calls the woman a terrible actress and claims that a coin locker is her mother, ignoring the woman's constant crying and pleading. Kumiko agrees to take her in their organisation and train her to play a mother. The mother keeps referring to Kumiko as 'Mitsuko', as that is what she had named the baby.As they are travelling to the client's location, Kumiko tells Mitsuko and Yoko that if they are successful in the following session, they will have become "the real you". She cautions the two to not get confused.At 8:29 pm that night, Tetsuzo is waiting with his colleague at the predetermined house. He has brought along the pocket knife his wife killed herself with. As Kumiko and company arrives, Tetsuzo hides in a cupboard.Tetsuzo searched for a house that resembled his own, and transported everything from his old house to the new house, placing the belongings of his family members to their standard locations.Ikeda welcomes the three girls home. The girls are shocked to see a home so obviously similar to their own old home. Tetsuzo watches them from behind the cupboard. The calendar shows the month of December, 2001. Kumiko deftly breaks the freeze, and the session continues as usual.Tetsuzo wonders if the girls' corny acting is what all the clients wanted. Ikeda remarks that he forgot to buy meat and Kumiko volunteers to go buy it. Ikeda also asks her to buy Cherry cigarettes, finding which would buy Tetsuzo the time he needs.Ikeda asks the girls to put their bags in their room - which looks exactly as the girls' old room did. The girls are visibly affected, but continue to pretend to not notice.Kumiko, in the streets, remarks that she made up her past and stuffed it in a coin locker, but that it was all a 'cardboard box' that could dissolve in the rain. One of the members of the organisation, Broken Dam, received a request from a client who wanted to kill her. She delivers a lecture to the organisation before the session, narrating how when a bully played the role of a victim, he never bullied anyone again. She explains that although people "want the champagne and not the glass, the flower and not the vase", the roles of the glass and the vase still have to be filled. She hypothesizes that everyone has to reverse their roles and find out who they really are. She describes this as the 'circle of life' and that like the never-ending digits of pi, no circle is ever a perfect circle, but with a compass and a thick outline, a suitably perfect one can be made. She stresses that while tigers and lions cannot switch places, humans can and should.Kumiko further philosophises this in a monologue delivered while walking down the street. She says that she is "sick of shameless outlines of people seeking happiness", who just want to "eat rabbits" and not be them. She remembers that when the Circle expanded, many of the members from the old Haikyo.com site died, some killing themselves and some being killed.Kumiko remembers going with Broken Dam to the latter's final session. The client is a mentally unstable husband who wants to kill his wife for adultery, despite the latter's apologies. The client stabs Broken Dam repeatedly while Kumiko watches on amused by the "act" and the song 'Bara ga saita' plays in the background on a radio. After the murder, the client hads over his payment to Kumiko and talks insanely to his dead "wife". Kumiko remarks that Broken Dam fulfilled her role perfectly. We see that on the night of the mass suicide at Shinjuku Station, three members who were friends of Noriko from her Haikyo.com days, took part in the mass suicide while Kumiko made Mitsuko watch, under the expectation the latter would undertake a task of such a magnitude. Kumiko believes however, that Mitsuko would transcend even this.Last Chapter: The Knife in the PocketIkeda asks to Tetsuzo to come out while Mitsuko and Yoko are at the table. Tetsuzo overcomes his nervousness to emerge from the cupboard and except for Ikeda, the three remain frozen. Mitsuko call Tetsuzo a stranger and deliberately stress their new names to him, while Yoko is too paralysed to react. Ikeda implores the girls to listen to their father and prepares to leave. He asks Yuka to recognise her father, but the latter refuses. Kumiko returns home and Ikeda throws her out of the glass-paned door to prevent her from interfering, warning her to stay out of the mess, taking him with her, as he is the customer.Tetsuzo draws the pocket-knife as Mitsuko lies on the floor crying and imploring the 'stranger' to get out. Tetsuzo gestures at her with his knife, calling her by the name 'Noriko', while the latter insists she is Mitsuko. Tetsuzo stabs wildly in the air, confused and angry, while Yoko remains sobbing in a corner.Men from the circle arrive home and start to savagely beat up Tetsuzo, who attacks them with his knife. Mitsuko stands stunned at the window, calling herself a "nameless girl in a nameless town" and hallucinates Tangerine in the snow. She sees Yoko crying in a corner, while Tetsuzo stands alone in the room, having killed everyone else with the knife.Kumiko arrives home; she, Mitsuko and Yoko resume their act, ignoring the bloody room, dead bodies and Tetsuzo standing paralysed with his knife. Kumiko continues, assuming Tetsuzo as the father. She suggests Testuzo that he wanted that they both die that night. She implores him to kill her, and calls Mitsuko by the name 'Noriko'. She asks him to kill her and then go away with Noriko and Yuka, even as Mitsuko protests and insists her name is 'Mitsuko'. Yuka breaks in crying, declaring that the two just 'want to avoid pain'. She asks if Tetsuzo wants to extend the session or wrap it up. She says, amidst sobs, that everyone in the room is a lion, and asks for everyone to become rabbits again, asking to extend the session.The family sits at the dinner table, eating dinner and pretending everything to be normal, the blood and dead bodies apparently having been cleaned up. Tetsuzo remembers the representative's words that there is no Suicide Club, and that the world itself is the Suicide Club, with far more suicides than the members of IC Corp. The representative says that only the ones with suicide written into their roles commit it, and asks that if one saw a lion eat a zebra, would that be called a Cannibal Club? He calls it a circle of life.Tetsuzo announces to his "family" that he wants to start over and redo everything, which brings Yoko and Mitsuko to tears. Kumiko calmly tells him that the family is sick of his selfish ways, which Mitsuko agrees with. Tetsuzo privately remarks that had Noriko said something like that to him in Toyokawa, he would have hit her; he apologises to her. He proposes the family 'die once and come back to life'.Yoko narrates that three hours later, she was feeling incredibly happy being in the family environment. She reminisces about her childhood with Noriko and has a bath with Mitsuko in the bath. As the latter laughs over reminiscences, she remarks that she does not know if the person is Mitsuko or Noriko. Yoko privately remarks that she wants to thank her father for setting the session up. She watches her sister sleep after a long time and feels happy about it, wanting to tell her sister "never to stop acting, even in her sleep".Wearing the jacket Noriko wore when she left home, Yoko thanks her father in his sleep and exits her home, noting the time to be 6 am. She finds a loose thread in her jacket and tears it off. She starts walking down the street towards the city, "wanting to go somewhere completely different". She claims that she was through with Yoko, but wasn't Yuka either, but just another nameless girl.Mitsuko/Noriko wakes up and remarks that "your heart is a glass in which if you pour too much emotion, tears will spill out". She bids goodbye to Yuka, adolescence, Haikyo.com and Mitsuko. Finally, she declares that she is Noriko. | psychedelic, cult | train | imdb | -Yes, this is a continuation of sorts of the story started in Jisatsu saakuru (Suicide Club).
-Yes, as is stated, this is a long movie, and requires an open mind, and patienceIt has been stated on several reviews of the first film that it meant to serve as a social commentary on the overly complacent stance taken by the general public in modern Japanese society.
This time around, he shows us a new story, not focusing on characters living through the main events of the story, but rather events taking place before, during, and after the events of the first film.
Most of the story itself is told though the narration of the four main characters, as they share their perspective of the events they are seeing.
This film leaves the big events of the series and instead focuses on little moments, moments that the characters share with others, or with themselves.
Using mostly lesser known Japanese actors, Sono has drawn out some of the most emotionally draining and shocking scenes in recent memory, and by the end of the film it is hard to think that these actors aren't all seasoned professionals.
The film feels very real, and has a somewhat low budget home movie quality to it.
at times this may feel like it is worlds away from the first film.
A sequel to 2002's cult-status film "Suicide Club", director Sion Sono's "Noriko's Dinner Table" tells the compelling and profound tale of the collapse and reconstruction of the family unit.
The story follows Noriko Shimabara (Kazue Fukiishi), a seemingly unhappy teenager who lives with her mother, father, and younger sister.
To escape reality, Noriko begins to regularly visit the internet site Haikyo.com, a BBS where she begins to chat with other girls just like her.
One of the girls, known only by the title "Ueno54", persuades Noriko to runaway to Tokyo so they can meet in person.
Noriko willingly accepts and escapes to Tokyo, wherein she meets the real person behind the mysterious Ueno54 and learns her true name—Kumiko (Tsugumi).
What Noriko soon discovers is that Kumiko operates a "family-circle" program, which specializes in taking in young girls and giving them new personalities and families
With the release of "Suicide Club", a film that explored the disastrous effects that an enigmatic cult had on an entire population of youth, director Sion Sono not only created a memorable horror film, but also provided some social commentary on Japanese youth.
Sono decided to take a different route with "Noriko's Dinner Table", this time around taking out the unnecessary gore and replacing it with a more introspective stance.
While this might seem distracting for a film such as this, it does the exact opposite—the first-person narrative of the characters allow the viewer to understand some of the decisions they choose, why they choose them, and what they hope to arrive at after the decision has been made.
It's through these narrative perspectives that provided the truly captivating moments throughout the film, wanting to see the outcome of characters I have gotten to know.Probably one of the strongest elements of the film is the cast.
Noriko's family—her father played by film veteran Ken Mitsuishi and younger sister played by Yuriko Yoshitaka—are fantastic in their respectable roles as well.
Actress Tsugumi in her portrayal as the chilling and austere Kumiko also brings to mind the exceptional acting talent so vividly on display here.While "Suicide Club" showcased a telescopic overview of the shadowy "Suicide Circle" cult, which showed the cult's negative influence on numerous individuals, "Noriko's Dinner Table" portrays, rather successfully, how the mysterious cult affects a single family.
It's a film that touches upon various contemplative societal issues such as individualism, family structure, alienation, and mind control on an enormous scale.
With the release of "Suicide Club" a few years back, director Sion Sono had something to say.
With "Noriko's Dinner Table", he takes it a step further, raising questions to issues that are relevant and meaningful today.
Its a very long film; at around 3 hours I guess, and at times it does feel like ...it could have been a little sharper.
But I don t begrudge the length: unlike some movies, where the coyote syndrome starts to cut in, I didn't t feel like chewing off my leg once.
The movie is a companion piece to the very excellent Suicide Circle But those expecting the same extraordinary images of the first film might be disappointed: this is a (mostly) slow moving and introspective study of identity, the roles that we play, and that others and society impose upon us.
17 year old Noriko runs away from her seemingly loving family to Tokyo where she meets the chilling Kumiko; a woman with no individual existence.
What follows is profound and, at times highly unnerving as the personalities of Noriko, her younger sister Yuka, and their family are all annihilated.
The performances of all of the actors is outstandingly committed; I cannot believe that the last set piece of this movie could have been shot in more than one take; the strain on the actors must have been unimaginable.
After seeing "Suicide Club", I approached this film with some trepidation.
Its a story of two sisters Noriko and Yuka, who live with their parents in Toyokawa, a sleepy seaside town.
Mousy Noriko is unhappy with this existence and runs away to Tokyo.
There she meets Kumiko, who runs a fantasy service in which young ladies act as daughters for lonely men, amongst other things (the "family rental" concept is a great idea for this film).
This film is much more psychological than "Suicide Club", and for that it shines.
Its only recommended you watch "Suicide Club" first, buts it not essential, to get the gist of this powerful film.
I expect great things from the three young actresses in this film.
I used to think of myself as (among other things) a cinephile, someone who had a taste for good cinema, whose Favorite Movies list was topped by some little known films.
I hope to see it soon, but in truth it doesn't matter: right now I consider Noriko's my new absolute "best movie ever" and that doesn't depend on what it's part of or what other films has ever directed its author.There are personal reasons behind that election, of course, but then, isn't every election personal, and what other meaning could hide behind the word "My" in "My Favorite Movies"?
The movie is divided into chapters, one for each of the main characters.
I watched this after suicide club (that in my opinion was very average to not so good) and was amazed.
The movie did not even need the Suicide Circle background.
While watching you feel like you are passing from reality to fantasy and back again up to the point you don't know whats real anymore.
Director Sion Sono had done a film called, "The Suicide Club" that had an interesting story, but was just a mediocre movie.
This is called semi-sequel, but actually it more or less takes place during the other movie.
Two sisters run away from home and get into a business where others rent them to be part of their family.
The sisters are played by Kazue Fukiishi; who is a nerdy type girl who becomes more open with her other personality.
The girl who runs the business is played by Tsugumi who has the most warped mind in the film.
The movie does run a bit long, but in some ways it is worth it because the words spoken and the meaning behind the movie are pretty powerful..
It is probably the most disturbing Japanese film I have seen, and despite what the movie poster suggests, that is accomplished without any graphic depictions of sex, violence, or gore (excluding the last scene).
The movie "Noriko's Dinner Table" is a long movie.
It's just long, bland, and boring.The main pseudo-philosophical question of Noriko's Dinner Table is a simple one: "Are you connected to yourself?" The question is easily answered: I am myself, therefore I am connected to myself.
So why does it take two and a half hours to try to somehow explore this question?The movie is just like the question: pointless.
A film where the characters endlessly yap their mouths, but are somehow able to say absolutely nothing at the same time..
"Noriko's Dinner Table" (2005) is a dramatic spin off to the gruesome "Suicide Club" (2002).
What I got was a boring movie that outstayed its welcome within the opening hour, then dragged mercilessly for another hour-and-a-half.The plot is bland, the acting is spotty, and the primary psychological elements are unfocused and sloppy.
Even after 159 minutes of characters constantly yapping (they literally cannot keep their mouths shut for more than 10 seconds at a time), the viewer inexplicably comes away from this movie with almost no additional understanding of the primary themes behind "Suicide Club", a film that also suffered from meaningless psychobabble but overpowered its flaws with horrific imagery.Subsequent to my initial disappointment, I attempted to rewatch "Noriko's Dinner Table" on two separate occasions, but simply could not make it past the opening hour.
A Nutshell Review: (SIFF) Noriko's Dinner Table.
Turning her back to her family, Noriko makes her way to Tokyo to look up her internet friends, friends she came to know through an online forum.
It's a social exploration of alienation, and on a separate note, tries to look at the trend of suicide clubs in Japan.One harrowing scene that was replayed, was that of 54 female students jumping off a train platform in unison.
Taking on pseudo-security camera views, and plenty of blood with the smashing of heads on track (in full glory), it'll make you wince, yet wonder in astonishment, the question of Why.ßRunning parallel to Noriko's narrative, are a few others, like her dad's, her sister Yuka's (who also joined Noriko in her new role), and a forum founder Komiko.
Taking on parallel and different points of view, it is no wonder that this film clocks in at slightly more than 2 1/2 hours.
The father seeks Noriko and Yuka and wants to start afresh by welcoming them home, but find that the siblings have already disowned their lives thus far, preferring to pretend to be someone else, someone they have total control over, someone that they have created for themselves.The movie started off strongly, but the pace sagged around the half way mark, before picking up again for the grand finale.
It also helped that almost all the female cast in this movie are eye-candy, contrasting the seriousness of the issues presented, with their outward cuteness and pretty faces.It's a pretty weird story, with strange characters, those who don't bat an eyelid over suicide, taking it as a form of higher calling.
However you'll still be stuck at the Why question, as the movie doesn't offer any concrete answers, and somehow teased with an ending hinting of a possible sequel, that probably wouldn't be made..
Noriko's Dinner Table is quite possibly one of the best films I've ever seen.I will not give away any spoilers about the movie, but I will say that it is beautifully done.
As with all of Sono's films, the camera angles and shots are unique, and make you feel like you're a part of the story that's unfolding.Many people consider the length of the movie to be it's downfall, and with good reason.
2 hours and 30 minutes is one long movie, but it holds together very well.
In the end, you'll feel like you were a part of what was happening, and it will affect you, for better or worse.What many people are concerned about, however, is it's connection to Sion Sono's cult classic Suicide Club.
There is a definite connection, and it does explain a little of what happened throughout Suicide Club.
Nothing is left unanswered in Noriko's Dinner Table, but there's still a little we don't understand from Suicide Club.This brings me to the meaning behind family in Noriko's Dinner Table.
Sion Sono's ideas and meanings are portrayed, and excellently, through sometimes complex symbolism that may take a few watches to understand.
The movie is separated into chapters, and the story, how it's told, is broken into pieces and presented to you at little bits at a time.
You wont get the full picture until the end of the movie.Noriko's Dinner Table is an amazing film.I ordered it from Japan for about 30-some-odd bucks, and I can say it was worth the money and the two week wait to receive it in the mail.
An amazing drama.This is the mature, grown-up Suicide Club.Everyone should watch this movie..
Wow. I must say, of all the films out there, this one has a concept that has never been done before.When this film was released, most of its recognition stemmed from it being the director's follow-up to his cult favorite "Suicide Club" (2002).
However, after viewing this film, I have to definitely recommend not going in and expecting a sequel.
This film takes place in the same universe, and its story may clear up a bit of the whys in "Suicide Club", but it has a different story completely.
Different characters, different timeframe, different genre, everything, but standalone film or sequel - this is one of the best films I've seen.We pick up the story a bit of time before the events of "Suicide Club" (6 months prior to be exact).
A 17 year old girl named Noriko Shimabara lives with her father Tetsu, her mother Taeko, and her sister Yuka.
Utterly bored with life, she spends hours contacting various teenage girls through the website "haikyo.com" (present in the first film).
Aching to leave home and meet those like her, Noriko packs her bags and runs off to Tokyo.
Tetsu has a feeling that Noriko is involved, so he starts a very long journey to get his daughters back.
However, by the time he reaches them, 2 years have passed, and they have become completely detached from reality and from themselves.This is where the movie reaches its climax, and goes into the bizarre and gruesome territory that anyone familiar with the first film would be expecting.
This construction goes there and then reverses itself.Imagine a setup where two sisters end up working for a gang which hires out actors to play roles in families for pay.
Imagine that the film is broken into a collection of first person narratives, each reporting what they discover, and one of these leverages the fact that the father is a reporter- detective (who discovers the gang and sets up the inverted acting gig).The gang, incidentally, is from a previous movie that is not particularly relevant, except in that it occupies the same magical universe of lost girls.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching..
A well made movie, but needed a little more character development.
The father just cared about his work, so when the daughter, Noriko and her sister ran away, did not bother him much.
As mentioned towards the end of the show, Noriko's father may even hit her if she asked him something.
However, the character development for Noriko's father to see how distant he is towards his daughter could have been made much better like the movie "Click".
I thought this movie should also focus more on the "Problem" rather than just the "Solution".Click really shows that when when the main character was obsessed with his work, and when his kids ask him a question, he would scold them and shout at them loudly.
The movie also shows how obsessed the main character was obsessed with his work(when he got back home he just did and did his work without even caring about the kids).
This movie did not really manage to make me feel touch because they focused too much on the solution rather than the problem.
I did not really feel that the relationship of the daughter and father was very far unlike the movie CLICK.
The first half an hour of this movie could have used to build up development instead of long boring dialogs.
This movie still managed to be interesting though, it managed to be touching at times, especially when they are trying to solve the problem by doing some 'acting'.
This film somehow did not impact me as much as suicide club.
I preferred suicide club to this film.
Well, this is not Suicide Club 2 and you will be disappointed if you expect it to be...
It kind of feels more like a "watchable book" than a movie, it is a new viewing experience which only works if you open up to it.
It is one of the most intense movies I have ever seen, it is all about emotion and - the only real parallel to Suicide Club - it cannot really be understood, it can only be felt...
Sion Sono follows up Suicide Club/Suicide Circle with this, a telling of the story from a different perspective that, Lost-like, answers some questions from the previous movie while exchanging even more.
This movie, however, is more character based, and involves the issue of role-playing in society--rather than being merely a commentary on pop culture, it's a discussion of the nature of being "connected to oneself" or, really, being who you are meant to be, not who society wants you to be or even what you were born into being.A great way in which Sono pulls this off is to have multiple voice-over narrators engage in a confessional storytelling mode.
This movie ran about 2 1/2 hours long, but ten minutes could have been shaved off of the end.
Sono attempted to justify it with a repeated motif of running away, this time with Yuka, the younger sister, but the movie had a much stronger ending on the "Let's start over" moment.
It's just that this is one of those movies that fades out tantalizingly several times before finally actually ending, and that gets frustrating to watch some times.--PolarisDiB |
tt1129428 | Mum & Dad | The film begins at Heathrow Airport, where Lena, a polish immigrant (Olga Fedori) is working her shift as a cleaner. While there, her colleague Birdie (Ainsley Howard) helps her to clean the toilets. Lena talks about her family and living alone in Hounslow. Lena pulls out a mirror that her grandmother left her, and Birdie takes a shine to it. They get some sandwiches, and Birdie introduces Lena to her adopted brother Elbie (Toby Alexander). Lena tells Birdie that she doesn't get on with her family. Birdie tells Lena that her family care for her, and that they work at the airport too.Lena tries to get Elbie to talk to her, but he doesn't respond. Later, Birdie tells Lena about someone they know who has a dirty sexual fetish, before stealing an MP3 player from the office. She tells Lena that people shouldn't leave things lying around if they don't want them stolen. Lena sees some scars on Birdie, and she tells her that she used to have behavioural problems but she is better now.Afterwards, Lena misses her bus home, and Birdie invites her to stay at her house, near the end of the runway. They climb through a hole in the fence, and enter the house through the back door. Lena discusses how difficult it is to keep in touch with her family.Birdie disappears up the stairs, and Lena decides to look around the house for a while, only for Dad (Perry Benson) to knock her out, and inject her with something. She wakes up in a dark room after hearing tortured screaming. She gets mad, and Dad arrives with Mum (Dido Miles), who tells Lena that when she gets mad, Dad gets excited, and they need to calm him down. Dad spits on the floor, and then leaves the room. Mum tells Lena that as long as she is with her, Dad won't hurt her.Lena is unable to speak, and Mum tells her not to try to talk, because she has had a little jab. She gives Lena another injection, and Lena falls asleep. She wakes up later, tied to a frame. Mum tells her that she wanted another girl to come and live there. Mum then pierces Lena's skin with some metal and carves some marks into her back.Mum takes Lena in to see Dad, who is masturbating. When he finishes, he tells Lena that in his house, she abides by his rules. He then grabs her by the throat, before sending her to bed, The next morning, Birdie cleans Lena's scars and she shows her the scars on Elbie's back, which she compares to crazy paving.At breakfast, the family are watching pornography, as Birdie plays with Lena's mirror. She then puts the MP3 player into a pot, and tells Mum that she couldn't get any more stuff because she was doing Lena's work. Lena tries to escape, but Dad grabs her and tells Mum to control her children. Elbie drags her on to a chair, and Mum tells her not to go anywhere.Birdie takes Lena through her chores, and tells her that Elbie has nothing going on in his head or in his pants. Mum arrives and tells Lena that she is doing a good job. In her room, Lena attempts to escape, but hears Dad watching her through the keyhole.At breakfast the next day, Lena sees that Birdie has been hiding money from the family and takes it from her pocket. Dad accuses Birdie of lying to the family and shouts at her. Mum sends her to her room, where she cries before making a mess of what Lena has tidied up. When Elbie arrives, Birdie tells him that Lena is his replacement, and he shoves her to the ground. She compares him to the "spastic thing" upstairs.Later, Lena massages Mum's feet until she falls asleep before doing the same to Dad, who asks her to kiss his foot and make him happy. He shouts at her and throws her to the floor. The next morning, Lena greets Mum with a hug and tells her that her voice is back. Birdie tries to convince Mum that Lena is hiding things from her, but Mum shouts at her instead. Mum attempts to give Lena a top up of the voice paralysing drug, and Lena tells her that she won't scream because of Dad. Mum tells her it is much nicer when she plays along, before cutting her leg open.Lena does her chores and finds a mobile phone, which she hides in her knickers. Birdie phones the phone, and Mum finds it, and tells Lena that she is very disappointed in her, before getting Elbie to hold her down while she gives her a stronger dose of the drugs.Later, Lena is washing clothes, when she hears a man outside. She tries to get his attention by calling for help and when that doesn't work, she throws a human tooth out of the window. Dad sees it and blames the roof. He rushes upstairs and drags Lena into his torture room, before putting her inside a suitcase and making Elbie hit it with a hammer.The man enters the house, where Mum is waiting, and suffocates him with some bubble wrap. After the man has been chopped up, Dad tells Lena he warned her of what would happen if she broke the rules before making her kiss the man's decapitated head, then choking her again.The next day, Mum tells Dad she has a surprise with the man's parts, and makes them into sausages, as Birdie tells her about some new girls at work on dodgy visas.After spending the night tied to the radiator, Lena breaks into the torture room, and finds a staircase up to the attic, where she sees a mentally ill girl in bed (the spastic that Birdie was referring to). The girl wakes up and has a fit, but Lena calms her down, before finding a man in the torture chamber, and calming him down too, before stealing a weapon.The next morning, Birdie enters Lena's room and tells her it's Christmas. She goes downstairs to find the man crucified on the wall, and "the spastic" in her chair. Dad pours wine down Lena's throat before spitting in her face. She bites him, causing him to hit her on the head. They open their presents next; Birdie has been given some knives, and Elbie has been given some porn.Dad tells Lena that he knows she has been visiting "the spastic", and she is like that because the cord was wrapped around her neck when she was born and she is his real daughter. He calls Lena a pet, and tells her a pet isn't for life, just for Christmas. Mum can't bear to look at "the spastic" and tells Dad she shouldn't even be there in the first place. Mum gives Lena a dress for Christmas and they get her to try it on.Dad arrives in Lena's room wearing a dress, and unties her, causing her to stab him with the weapon she stole from the torture chamber. She makes her way downstairs, followed by Dad, who collapses, causing Mum and Birdie to rush to help him. She stabs Mum, then Birdie attacks her, but Lena slams her into a wall and takes Dad's knife, stabbing her in the stomach.She opens the back door, but Birdie attacks her again, so she hits her over the head with the iron and rushes outside. She climbs over the back gate, but falls and twists her ankle. Mum and Dad rush out, bloodied and battered, chasing her. She fights them off, and stabs them both repeatedly. Meanwhile, Elbie sets "the spastic" free of her restraints, before strangling her. He then walks out of the front door. The final shot is of Lena screaming in the field. | brainwashing, violence, murder | train | imdb | While some might call it another variation on the crazy family theme, it holds more in common with a film like Killers (or Real Killers, as it is also known) than it does with the Chainsaw Massacre or Rob Zombie flicks.One thing about horror flicks is that you can often derive a lot from the title of the film.
Mum and dad might look like ordinary people from the outside, they certainly are a little different from your regular household setup.The fun starts when one of their children drags in a Polish immigrant girl who gets "integrated" into the family.
Add some nicely built up tension near the end and what you have is a pretty neat little horror flick that is sure to entertain and repulse at the same time.Mum & Dad is not as good as any of its influences as Sheil's style is a little less refined.
I recently saw Mum & Dad at UK's FrightFest festival, and have to say it blew me away as being one of the best, most balls-out British horror films in years.The cast are all uniformly excellent (with Ainsley as Birdie and Perry as Dad being particularly brilliant), and the well-written script is full of very dark humour.
Imagine The Royle Family meets The People Under The Stairs as interpreted by Mike Leigh.The film is brilliantly directed by Steven Sheil for it's reported £100k budget limitation, and there are several classic scenes - the best being the nightmarish Christmas party which will bring uncomfortable laughter to anyone who has experienced a 'traditional British family Christmas' (although how can you also forget the scene where Dad pleasures himself with a piece of flesh!).A genuinely solid shocker - I hope that Mum & Dad gets the release it deserves..
Loosely inspired by Fred and Rosemary West sick murderous activity "Mum and Dad" doesn't disappoint when it comes to brutality.Mum and Dad and their 'adopted' children,Birdie & Elbie,work at the airport.The family live off whatever they scavenge from cargo holds,offices and hotels - including a steady stream of transient workers who populate the airport's soulless hub.When Lena,a young Polish office cleaner,is befriended by Birdie,she gets drawn into a nightmarish world of torture,murder and perversity.Imprisoned in a suburban House of Horrors and designated a 'Mummy's Girl',Lena's only options appear to be to become part of the family-and join them in their insanity-or die painful death.The film despite its general misanthrophy and unsettling violence plays like a black comedy.It certainly has plenty of humorous moments to relieve the tension.It's quite disturbing and torture-laden too.8 out of 10..
With a constant soundtrack of jumbo jets screaming overhead and an almost religious zeal for making even the most mundane of British customs (cups of tea, Christmas sherry, fried breakfasts) seem perverted and wrong, 'Mum & Dad' stands out amongst the usual horror fare of good-looking teens being bumped off.
This seems like a normal family, yet we're dragged (bloodily) through their degradation, here we get a film where the horror is not all in your face gore, it's unsettling and dirty feeling.
My only possible complaint here is that it may actually be too much like the lives of real serial killers, I can't help thinking of Fred & Rose West when I watch this.As an aside, this movie really gets a lot better with repeat viewing, maybe this is where the complaints come in...
In short, it amounts to eighty-odd minutes of aggrieved yelling braided into several totally asinine moments of bloody, lavatorial sleaze.It isn't even momentarily frightening, suspenseful or inventive, and for a flick so proudly and loudly "inspired" by the murders of Fred and Rosemary West, the complete lack of taste, insight and tonal composure is unforgivable.The story behind the film's funding and production is fascinating however, and well worth investigating online.
The acting in all fairness is between good and excellent at times, its just the story is very weak - no justification for anything that happens - I have read on here its based on Fred and Rose west but there is nothing really to indicate that in any great depth other than its based around a pair of psychotic parents.I enjoyed Saw and the rest of the films in that series although not as good are all better than this, Hostel is probably one of the worst films I have sat through - I am not squeamish and love a great horror film but I do like to actually have some semblance of a plot to go with the gore - this is more gore for gore's sake in the vein of Hostel than something clever (yeah yeah Saw ain't gonna win an Oscar but at least it had a plot and some twists)with gore added into the mix, this is closer to Hostel than Saw by a mile, when it ended I really did think I wonder what all the fuss was about - OK its shot on a cheap budget which does show at times, the special effects are very good in fairness, its just the whole thing was written on the back of a fag packet.......1/10 because I am sick of being disappointed by films that really are a waste of time.
It certainly isn't as shocking as one would like, even when Lena is exploring her environs and discovers the extent of the crimes of Mum & Dad. Fedori never does make Lena too likable a character; the one person who's more sympathetic is the unspeaking Elbie (Toby Alexander), another member of the adoptive "family".Sheil does cannily stress the nearness of the abode to the airport, filming planes in the air at every opportunity, but his ending is seriously underwhelming; again, a sense of deja vu dominates the proceedings.It's doubtful that even die hard genre lovers will find that much of value here.Five out of 10..
When i fist heard about this movie I was under the impression that Mum and Dad was based on the true life story of Fred and Rosemary West but seeing as no-one else appears to have mentioned that in their reviews i must be wrong, although I'm not sure what would have given me that impression?On to the movie then...The story has been pretty much covered by all the other reviews so there's not much point in me going over that again.
What i will say though is that based on the West's or not, this movie is one of the sickest and most disturbing i have ever seen!I've always been a horror fan from a child and my stomach for gore has changed considerably over the years and i try to avoid it unless it is an essential part of the story telling.
Mum and Dad is a true masterpiece in my mind because it effected me and did so in such a profound way, something no other movie ever has done.If like me you enjoy a good story and enjoy being moved by that story then Mum and Dad is a must see although you'll definitely only want to see it the once because i know that i couldn't sit through it again!10/10.
The cast are very well played, especially the mum who steals every scene she appears in, a true portrayal of evil.In my opinion this is the type of film that British financing should go to, not because it is horror, but because what it is trying to achieve.
And as a struggling film maker I find what Steven Sheil has made a great inspiration.I 100% recommend Mum & Dad, it's not for everyones tastes, but then if everyone liked the same thing, life would be boring!.
The makers of this film, along with those behind the likes of Eden Lake and The Disappeared, provide every reason to believe that British cinema can produce horror that is as distinctive, thought provoking, horrific, and downright scary as the rest of the world..
Not everyone's cup of tea, but well worth the time of every horror film fan.The film displays great taste in recognising it's lineage: not just Tobe Hooper's Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but also (perhaps more crucially) British Horror Films of the 1970's and in particular Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny and Girly (from the great Freddie Francis) and Pete Walker's excellent Frightmare.This above all else (great cinematography, a graphic style, low budget, pitch black streak of humour and great writing) is truly refreshing: here is an honest to goodness British Horror film, not afraid to stand on it's own two feet as independent to most of what the genre seems to be churning out, particularly from the USA.
I wanted to give this chance because it was a British film, but I was unprepared for the depravity on show here.I cannot believe that the BBC saw fit to be involved with this awful piece of 'torture porn', and following their recent lapses of judgement, this will be more ammunition for the people who think 'Auntie' has lost her way.I for one object that part, however little, of my licence fee has gone into funding this obscene film.I love horror films, but this just went too far, and I never want to see it again.Finally, I'm surprised that this got past the censors, it truly shows how desensitised people have become, and why the human race is truly on a downward spiral when this is considered to be entertainment..
Unfortunately, that isn't the case, since 'Mum & Dad' is best described as a low budget British version of the more well known Hostel movies.It's not even a case, as is with more recent Saw movies, that Mum & Dad appeals on gore rather than plot and characters, since the actual "violence" in this film isn't as sick as you would initially believe, and is kept to a minimum (running time being 85 minutes).The performances are well done, especially the 'Dad' who manages to pull off the schizophrenic mentality authentically.
Furthermore, the way in which the film is shot is quite impressive.But still, as British horrors go, this isn't on par with something like Creep, and doesn't contain enough of the gorehound stuff to compete with any of the Saw movies.
Therefore I cannot recommend this film to fans of smart horrors with comprehensive plots, or to people who just simply like sick and twisted visual displays..
I guess we are allowed to like depraved movies without feeling particularly guilty...Without giving too much away, the film involves the incarceration of a young woman against her will, and she is abused in various ways by a family of loonies.
First time filmmaker Steven Sheil's debut horror flick Mum & Dad is already causing a stir, although I'm secretly guessing his Telegraph headlines of 'Ban this sick filth' and 'torture porn made with tax payers money' are welcomed and in some respects enjoyed.
Yes there is torture and plenty of gore and there is even one scene that out grossed me and went one step further than even I had thought but that aside the real underbelly of the film is in its sheer creepiness, thanks partly to the acting of mum (Miles) and dad (Benson), the way that it gets right under your skin and stays there making it crawl.
Surprisingly i do not know many people who have had the chance to watch or even heard of this film, which shocks me as i have a few very good friends who are fellow horror fanatics.
Mum & Dad (2008) ** (out of 4) British horror film about a girl named Lena (Olga Fedori) who is kidnapped by her co-workers (Ainsley Howard, Toby Alexander) and brought back to their mom (Dido Miles) and dad (Perry Benson) who will allow her to live as long as she plays by their rules.
MUM & DAD is the latest in a very long line of torture horror films but this one here doesn't depend on a lot of graphic violence and gore.
I think a little bit more originality would have helped matters but as it is, MUM & DAD is a twisted little movie that will rub some the wrong way but the targeted audience should be able to make it through..
To be honest I had never heard of MUM & DAD, I just bought it because it sounded interesting and I love horror films.It's about a Polish girl and an English girl who both clean the bogs at Heathrow airport, they become friendly and when the Pole misses her bus home with the other Poles, she gets offered a night round the Brit girls house with her creepy mute brother and her mum and dad!
So when they arrive at the house the Pole gets knocked unconscious and awakens to all sorts of torture and abuse....Basically thats the plot.We loved it, it is grim, some scenes are pretty horrible but it has that British humour to it as well....(one minute the dad's hacking some poor bugger up, next he's at the breakfast table reading his newspaper talking about knock-off jeans!) Good acting all round, realistic gore effects...if this sounds your sort of thing, you must check it out, BUT this is definitely not for everyone, especially kids!!!
Pretty Polish night worker Lena (Olga Fedori) is their latest victim, and she soon learns that if she doesn't obey the rules, Dad gets very angry indeed.Chained to her bed in a squalid room, with the endless roar of jets passing overhead acting as a constant reminder that civilisation and safety are tantalisingly close, but yet so far, Lena's plight automatically brings to mind the terrible suffering endured by the victims of real-life sickos Fred & Rosemary West and Joseph Fritzl, people for for whom torture, murder and sexual abuse were normalcy.Perhaps, if director Steven Sheil's debut feature had been released before the unspeakable acts perpetrated by such messed-up families came to light, it might have been deemed a little far fetched; however, with every lurid detail of Fred, Rosemary and Joseph's dreadful acts still fresh in the mind, Sheil's film is only too plausible, and therefore all the more horrifying.Of course, this being a movie, Lena finally gets to exact bloody revenge on her tormentors, thus allowing the audience an ultimately cathartic experience, whereas in reality—where happy endings are rare—she would have ended up under a patio or in a cavity wall.
I'm not sure what sort of person enjoys watching something like it, but, apparently, I'm it.A young cleaning girl at a British airport is lured home where she's held captive by 'Mum' and 'Dad' (obviously), plus their equally twisted offspring.
I wish I could recommend this movie more strongly.It's competently made for its budget, the acting is above average and very convincing, good photography, creepy sound design and production...The problem with Mum & Dad is literally that the script just doesn't try for much more than the standard horror gimmicks and gross-outs.
I've watched countless horror films and this is one of the very best.I agree with a previous reviewer that the Americans are generally better at making these sorts of films, but this particular film proves beyond doubt that the best British efforts are at least as good as anything the Yanks can do.If this really was made on a budget of £100k it just goes to show how much bang for your buck you can get with the right writer/director and cast.
Mum & Dad is one of the better torture films I've seen, and yet I remain a fan of true Horror films..
I really enjoyed Mum & Dad, A British horror film that was disturbing.
Where do I start, basically Perry Benson and Dido play a sadistic couple who after stealing a boy and girl brainwash them into their way of living, as the two work at an airport they soon ensnare a poor girl as a new daughter for the couple, this poor girl is tortured by the sick woman by cutting her while the dad figure likes killing people and jerking off to their body parts yuck,!
You just wanted her too get free and kill the sick family, a good film with sickening violence but worth a view, Perry Benson as the sadistic 'dad' is a must see..
Mum & Dad, as director Steven Sheil testifies in the interviews accompanying his work on this disc, is a production which consciously draws on the sleazier tradition of British horror cinema, such as the films of Pete Walker.
A big man known as Dad (Perry Benson) & a slim woman known as Mum (Dido Miles) tell Lena that she now lives with them as part of their family, a sadistic family who murder & steal to survive & Lena must either accept her new family & become part of it or become one of Mum & Dad's victims...This British production was written & directed by Steven Sheil & according to him is a British take on the twisted family horror films from the US like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) & Wrong Turn (2003) but with a very quirky British feel to it, which you can't argue with to much once you have seen it I suppose.
In fact Mum & Dad feels like a bizarre mix if The Texas Chainsaw Massacre & any old British sit-com that leers between being gross & unsettling one moment & darkly comic & funny the next.
The acting is very good with the entire cast bringing their character's to life with Mum, Dad & Birdie in particular.Mum & Dad is a low budget British twisted family horror thriller that maybe isn't as gory as some might have you believe but has a good script that balances gross out imagery with dark comedy really well.
They seem to think here in the UK that a good horror movie means deeply disturbing the viewer with horrific and gross scenes that do not entertain but leave a bad mark in your mind that stays with you for days.I wish I had never watched this cheap trash. |
tt2004420 | Neighbors | Mac (Seth Rogen) and Kelly (Rose Byrne) Radner try to have spontaneous sex in their dining room. Their six-month-old baby daughter Stella (Elise and Zoey Vargas) wont stop watching them, so they give up. Having a baby and owning a house doesnt make them old, they declare. When Mac leaves for work, he and Kelly see a biracial gay couple with an infant taking a tour of the house next door. This is the second dream scenario (the first being, according to Mac, a Taco Bell opening up next door).At work, Mac's boss Bill (Brian Huskey) tells him he needs a file by the end of the day. Macs friend Jimmy (Ike Barinholtz) interrupts them, claiming he and Mac have another important file to work on together. It proves to be an excuse for the two of them to sneak out back and smoke a joint. Jimmy asks about Stella and Kelly, and Mac admits their lives have mostly returned to normal. Kelly wont let him see her breasts anymore, opting to wear a wife beater during sex, but he can deal. Jimmy says that because Mac and Kelly are the only people in their friend group to have a kid and a house, it makes them seem a decade older than the rest of them. Jimmy, who is recently divorced, describes how sexually free women have become. Mac looks worried that he has become boring.That night, Jimmys ex-wife Paula (Carla Gallo) calls Kelly and Mac, begging them to come out with her. They don't have a babysitter, so Paula suggests they bring her along with them. Mac and Kelly are desperate enough to get out that they agree. When it comes time to pack all of the things Stella will need, they become so overwhelmed that they collapse in their doorway. At the end of the night, Paula calls them to brag about what a fabulous time she had. Kelly is distraught.A few days later, Delta Psi, a fraternity, moves in next door. Mac and Kelly observe their new neighbors from their porch. "That is the hottest guy I have ever seen," Mac says about Teddy (Zac Efron). "He looks like something a gay guy designed in a laboratory." They quickly realize that the fraternity will throw lots of loud parties. Kelly and Mac agree they need to introduce themselves to the brothers and tell them to "keep it down." To emphasize their coolness, they will also offer them some weed. They receive a warm greeting from the men of Delta Psi. Teddy and Pete (Dave Franco) are in charge and fawn over Stella. Teddy even flirts with Kelly. Mac offers them a joint, and the brothers cheer. Kelly kills the mood when she yells, "Keep it down!" Teddy agrees they won't make too much noise and asks them to check in with him or Pete before calling the cops.Teddy and Pete address their brothers in the basement of their new home. According to them, Delta Psi has a rich history of epic party moments. In the 1930s, the frat created the first toga parties. In the 1970s, they invented beer pong. Teddy and Pete want to add their faces to the fraternity's Hall of Fame by throwing the most outrageous end-of-the-year party ever. They end the meeting by chanting loudly. The noise wakes Mac and Kelly. They hear loud music, too and go next door to ask the guys to turn down the volume. Teddy answers the door, revealing a drug-and-booze fueled party. He agrees to turn the music down. Mac and Kelly are intrigued by the party, but Teddy says good night to them. Upon further reflection, Teddy tells Pete they should invite "the old people to their party. They want to get on their good side, right?" He and Pete open the door and call after Mac and Kelly. Kelly has a baby monitor on her phone, "so what's the harm in coming inside for a tour of the house?" Mac and Kelly, desperate for excitement, go inside the fraternity.Mac does drugs with Teddy and Pete. Kelly dances with college girls. Eventually Teddy brings Mac to his room, the Lions' Den, which encompasses the entire top floor of the house. The Lions Den is off limits during parties, and it's where the guys keep their most important belongings: drugs, passports, extra ping pong paddles. Mac notices a huge stash of fireworks in the corner, but Teddy tells him the last time Delta Psi used those, they burnt down their house. He ends the tour by showing Mac the breaker box. Flipping one of the switches turns on all of the neon lights in the backyard. "Welcome to paradise," Teddy says to Mac. Mac and Kelly spend the rest of the night bonding with Teddy and his girlfriend Brooke (Halston Sage) respectively. When they go home in the morning, Teddy asks if they were serious about Delta Psi keeping the noise down. Kelly and Mac say they were. Teddy reminds them to call him before calling the cops if the fraternity is too loud.Another night later, another Delta Psi party. Mac calls Teddy ten times to tell him to quiet down, but no one answers the phone. Kelly tells him to call the cops anonymously, so the fraternity won't know they made a complaint. They watch a police car pull up next door. Teddy and Pete come outside to talk to Officer Watkins (Hannibal Buress). Kelly and Mac panic when Watkins points to their house and all three men come to their door. At first Mac pretends he didn't call the police, but Watkins reminds him of caller ID. When Mac and Kelly complain about the noise, Teddy protests that they were partying with them last night. He shows the cop a drunken video of Mac. Mac rescinds the complaint, and Watkins accuses him of crying wolf. "Never call us again," he warns. Teddy feels betrayed by Mac and Kelly. "I'm not mad," he tells them, "Im just disappointed."The next morning. Mac and Kelly awaken to find their lawn strewn with toilet paper and empty beer cans. Later, Pete cuts one of their "expensive bushes" into the shape of a bent over man. When Mac and Kelly try to remove the bush, it looks as though they are having sex with it. Mac thinks they should lead a neighborhood-wide revolution against Delta Psi's antics, but they find that the fraternity has befriended everyone living in the surrounding houses. Their realtor says they cannot sell their house, because no one wants to live next to a fraternity. The next afternoon, Mac and Kelly clean their front lawn of Delta Psi debris. They leave Stella on a blanket and are horrified when they discover a condom in her mouth. They rush her to the emergency room, and thankfully, she is fine. Mac and Kelly go to Dean Gladstone (Lisa Kudrow) at Delta Psi's university, but she cannot help them either. The university has a three strikes policy when it comes to fraternities, and burning down their previous house only counts as their first strike.Back at their home, Mac and Kelly have reached a tipping point. Kelly proclaims that she is a mama bear who must protect her cub. They decide to cause damage to the fraternity's house, because Delta Psi does not have enough money to cover monumental repairs. They could force them to move. Mac busts their pipes, causing the basement to flood. The brothers gather to assess the damage, and Pete tells them the foundation of the house is ruined. Scoonie (Christopher Mintze-Plasse) complains that they need to take action, not stand around with "their dicks in their hands." This gives Teddy and Pete the idea to create and sell Delta Psi dildos to raise the money they need. Their sale is so successful don't only fix their basement but also purchase a gigantic hot tub and outdoor speakers. Their parties become louder and rowdier.Kelly comes up with a plan. Fraternities are founded upon brotherhood and loyalty, so they need to get someone from Delta Psi to put "hos" before "bros." Mac doubts such a feat can be accomplished, but Kelly has noticed the way Brooke looks at Pete. She suspects Teddy's girlfriend and his best friend have a thing for each other. She enlists Paula and Jimmy to help them. Mac and Kelly hire a babysitter for Stella, and they take their friends to a Delta Psi party. Mac tells Teddy he wants to broker a truce, and the pair engages in a friendly dance-off. Kelly sends Paula to distract Scoonie and Jimmy to distract Brooke's best friend Whitney (Ali Cobrin) so she can push Pete and Brooke together without interruption. When Brooke and Pete inevitably head upstairs to have sex, it is Mac's responsibility to point Teddy in their direction.Everything goes according to plan. Kelly finds Brooke and Pete and jokes about the two of them hooking up. She kisses Brooke seductively and then kisses Pete. To seal the deal, she pushes Brooke and Pete together. After a moment's resistance, they make out wildly and quickly head upstairs. Mac swivels on the dance floor so Teddy sees them holding hands. He goes searching for them. Moments later, Garf (Jerrod Carmichael) bursts into Pete's room, where he is having sex with Brooke. He tells them that Teddy saw them. Pete finds Teddy, but when he asks if he's okay, Teddy punches him. They grab each others balls, and Pete uses his secret skill of becoming erect at will to get Teddy to let him go. Mac cheers that they should throw things off of the porch, and Teddy is upset enough that he agrees. When he throws a lit barbecue off of the porch, it rolls into the path of an oncoming car. The barbecue bounces off of the car and hits an old man walking down the street. The man lives, so Kelly and Mac feel victorious. They get incredibly drunk to celebrate.The next morning they wake up to peace and quiet. Kelly's breasts are painfully full of milk, but she cannot nurse Stella because she is still a little drunk. She lifts her top to reveal darkened veins snaking away from her nipples. "Your boobs look like my grandma's legs," Mac complains. To his dismay, he has to milk his wife. When Kelly feels more comfortable, they agree that it was worth it, because Delta Psi will disband.Teddy, Scoonie, and Garf sit in Dean Gladstones office. Teddy wants to know where Pete is, and Scoonie tells him he is at the jobs fair. When Dean Gladstone arrives, she berates them for injuring the man on the street. The Dean tells them that this is their second strike, and they are on probation for the rest of the school year. If they throw any kind of party, she will shut Delta Psi down. Afterwards, Teddy finds Pete at the jobs fair. They make amends, and Pete returns to talking to prospective employers. Teddy speaks briefly with someone at AT&T's booth, but given that he doesn't know what the company does, he is turned away.Kelly and Mac go to Jimmy to get him to help them give Delta Psi their final strike. They say they dislike how messy the fraternity is, but Jimmy thinks they want to party with the brothers again (rather than go back to their boring lives). Kelly and Mac goad Jimmy into helping him by reminding him that Paula is hooking up with Scoonie (who happens to have a giant penis). Jimmy buckles and asks them, "What's the plan?" Mac knows hazing gets fraternities in lots of trouble. They invite one of Delta Psi's pledges, Assjuice (Craig Roberts), out for coffee to get him to spy on Teddy and the others. They remind Assjuice of how poorly Teddy, Pete, Garf, and the others treat him. Assjuice flashes back to some of the indignities he has suffered: being teabagged, being hit, being scared out of bed by a deer head so he jumps into a pile of poop. Assjuice tells Kelly, Mac, and Jimmy he has endured hell and has been promised infinite blowjobs once he becomes a full-fledged brother. He won't turn against Delta Psi. Then Kelly offers him $1,000, and he buckles.Jimmy gives Assjuice a pair of glasses with a camera built into the frame. It will record everything Assjuice sees. Mac, Kelly, and Jimmy watch from a computer as Assjuice and the other pledges are forced to crawl around naked, in a circle, with their noses pressed to the next pledges butt. Teddy, Pete, and the others scream insults at them. Assjuice breaks ranks and bellows that he's a human being. Teddy seems furious. "I'm going to haze you so hard your face falls off!" he yells as Kelly, Mac, and Jimmy cheer. With that footage, it seems certain Dean Gladstone will shut down Delta Psi. Teddy drags Assjuice into another room, but instead of hurting the younger man, he is concerned for him. "In my opinion," he says, "you're one of our strongest pledges." He wants to know if Assjuice is alright. When the pledge admits he's tired and stressed, Teddy sends him upstairs to rest. The trio are no longer celebrating. Their mood sours even more when Assjuice confesses to Teddy that Kelly and Mac hired him to spy on Delta Psi. He tells them that Kelly and Mac are also behind the busted water pipes and getting Pete and Brooke to have sex. Teddy takes his glasses, looks into a mirror, and tells the couple they have gone too far.The next morning, Kelly finds that the airbags in her car have been removed. She calls Mac at work to tell him she thinks the fraternity is behind the theft. Mac sits down on his chair and is catapulted into the ceiling as one of the airbags deploys. Moments later Jimmy sits down and suffers a similar injury. When Mac returns home, Kelly tells him, "We went too far, and now it's getting dangerous." Mac, on the other hand, is focused on revenge. Kelly tells him to grow up, because their family might be in danger. "You should take responsibility," Mac snipes. He thinks Kelly should have stopped him from engaging in warfare with the fraternity in the first place. Kelly is offended. She doesn't want to have to be the responsible one all of the time and just because she's a woman. She tells him she doesn't think they're a good team anymore, and Mac agrees. Kelly grabs Stella and leaves him to find the rest of the undeployed airbags (of which there should be four remaining). Pete and Teddy watch Kelly strap Stella into her car seat and drive off. Pete, as a child of divorce, worries that they have contributed to the failure of Mac and Kelly's marriage. Teddy, as the child of parents who love each other, replies that he couldn't care less.Mac deploys the rest of the airbags and eventually ends up in Stella's nursery. Seeing her empty crib makes him miss her and Kelly, so he drives to Paula's house, where the pair have been staying. Kelly has missed him just as much, and they kiss and embrace.Pete finds Teddy sitting in front of Delta Psi's Wall of Fame. Teddy is depressed that they won't be able to throw any more parties and that he will therefore not be able to put his picture on the wall. Pete says none of the stories about the brothers on the wall are true anyways, so he should put his picture on the wall if it means that much to him. Did he really think Delta Psi brothers invented beer pong? Teddy is incensed that Pete would doubt their lore, and Pete encourages him to think about the things that actually matter, like their lives after college. He thinks Teddy is so focused on "the old couple" because they remind him of the future, and he hates that. Teddy tells Pete to go fuck his girlfriend again. Did Pete really think Teddy would get over that so easily? The two part angrily. After Pete leaves, Teddy sees Mac and Kelly pull up in their car. They kiss on the sidewalk. He goes over to their house, but neither of them wants to see him. To Mac and Kelly, the war is over. Teddy reminds them that he will be gone in a few months, but many more will replace him. He taunts them by saying that Stella will grow up watching shirtless, handsome boys. He reignites his neighbors anger.Kelly and Mac have drinks with Jimmy and plot Delta Psi's demise. Jimmy inadvertently gives them the idea to send Teddy a fake letter from Dean Gladstone saying that Delta Psis probation has been revoked. When Teddy receives the letter, he is ecstatic. He and the others set to work planning the most epic party ever. Kelly, Mac, and Jimmy do different celebrity impressions so they can call into radio stations and promote the party.The night of the party arrives. Teddy and the other brothers have hot boxed the entire house. Hundreds of guests arrive, and the party is insane. Next door, Mac calls the cops to complain about the noise. Officer Watkins responds to the call. Garf finds a flier promoting the party and brings it to Teddy. Delta Psi promotes its parties exclusively online. They realize that Mac and Kelly must have something to do with it, because only old people would use fliers to promote something. Teddy shows Garf and Pete the fake letter, and Pete notices there is Hebrew on the schools insignia rather than Latin. They panic and shut down the party. As the music stops, the lights come back on, and people stream out of the house next door, Kelly and Mac realize Delta Psi has stopped the party. Jimmy confesses he used Hebrew instead of Latin on the insignia, so now the three of them will have to go across the street and restart the party.Officer Watkins pulls up to the fraternity in time to see the party has broken up. Garf comes out to assure him everything is winding down. Watkins asks Garf about his name, and when Garf says his full name is Garfield, Watkins pesters him with trivia about the cartoon cat. Mac, Kelly, and Jimmy get inside and manage to get to the second floor of house. Teddy is in the Lions Den, though, and Jimmy throws himself off of the balcony to cause a distraction. He breaks his leg but manages to draw Teddy out of his room. Unfortunately for Kelly and Mac, his door has a combination lock, and he slams it as he runs out. Jimmy confesses that he hurt himself to distract Teddy, and the fraternity president rushes back to his bedroom. Mac figures out the combination is 4-2-0 and gets Kelly through the door just as Teddy charges up to him. Mac and Teddy fight each other as Kelly tries to open the breaker box, which is also locked. Down on the street, Garf has finally finished his conversation with Watkins, and the officer starts to drive away. Kelly sees the fireworks in the corner of the Lions Den, lights one, and shoots it through the open window of Watkins car. Watkins loses control of his car and calls for backup just as the lights go off and the loud music begins again.Teddy and Mac have stopped fighting, but neither knows what is going on. As it turns out, Scoonie showed Paula the secret outdoor breaker box, and he restarted the party for her. Jimmy hobbles out of the house and finds them. He tells Scoonie to get away from his wife, and the fraternity brother complies. Paula is touched by Jimmy's possessiveness over her, and the two kiss wildly. "Let's have a baby," Paula tells him. "A baby will solve all of our problems," Jimmy agrees.Outside, Teddy finds Pete and tells him to get the other brothers and run. He will take full responsibility for throwing the party and for shooting fireworks at Watkins. Pete refuses to leave Teddy behind, but Teddy would rather he focus on his bright future. "I love you," Pete tells Teddy before gathering the other brothers and running away. Watkins arrests Teddy, hitting him in the leg with his baton.Mac and Kelly return home, sated by their victory. As they watch Stella sleep, they admit that their lives have changed. They will be responsible for their daughter's life until they're "really fucking old." Even though it's weird to leave their youthful antics behind, both of them have found things they enjoy about adulthood. Kelly loves the smell of freshly ground coffee, and Mac wants to grow tomatoes. They fall asleep in bed eating pizza with ranch sauce.Four months later.Mac sees Teddy working as a male model outside of an Abercrombie and Fitch store. Despite their past animosities, the two men embrace warmly. Teddy is happy at Abercrombie because he meets lots of hot women there. Pete works at a big architecture firm now, and the rest of the brothers bought a new house just off campus. Mac asks if he can join Teddy for a little bit, and when Teddy agrees, he takes off his shirt and models with him. Teddy tells Mac he makes the store seem more approachable. Mac goes home, where he and Kelly are making a pop culture calendar of Stella. They receive a Facetime call from Paula and Jimmy, who are at Burning Man. They decline the other couples invitation to join them. Instead, they decide that after dressing Stella as Jesse Pinkman from 'Breaking Bad', they should dress her as Don Draper from 'Mad Men'. | boring, stupid, bleak, flashback, humor, revenge, entertaining | train | imdb | null |
tt1674784 | Trespass | Kyle Miller (Nicolas Cage), a diamond broker, drives down a country road in his convertible Porsche trying to make a deal. He enters his sprawling, gated waterfront home, picks up a gold Zippo lighter by the pool and enters the kitchen. Sarah Miller (Nicole Kidman) and teen daughter Avery (Liana Liberato) are arguing about a party that night. The parents refuse to let her go to the party.Kyle takes an envelope from a wall safe as he will be meeting a buyer later. Sarah brings a tray of food upstairs for the daughter, she's disappointed her plans for a nice family dinner have gone off.Kyle goes to an area of the house under renovation with bare wood studs and plastic sheeting. Avery sneaks out of the house and jumps the estate fence, a girlfriend is waiting to pick her up. Kyle shows Sarah the lighter, she wants to get romantic but he has to go.The doorbell rings and they see a police badge on the security video, the police are looking into neighbourhood burglaries. Kyle buzzes open the gate. Sarah notices Avery is missing as three men and a woman in masks invade the house. Sarah tries to drive off but is stopped at gunpoint.At a large house party Avery joins in the fun. Meanwhile, the Millers are pushed to the floor, the intruders know the daughter is missing. The gang leader seems to know a lot about the Millers and demands the alarm system code. Sarah provides the number.At the party a teen male shows Avery a safe full of cash and cocaine, he attempts to seduce her. Avery calls for a taxi and leaves.The leader, Elias (Ben Mendelsohn) reveals the wall safe and demands Kyle open it. The other gang member Ty (Dash Mihok) says they have 10 minutes. Kyle stalls and refuses, the men threaten Sarah and say they know he has diamonds. Sarah huddles in fear. Kyle explains diamonds have micro laser codes so they can be easily traced as they all registered nationally. Kyle further explains the diamond business and tries to discourage the thieves. The younger thug, Jonah (Cam Gigandet) says he saw Kyle receive a lot of cash and the gang should just take the money and leave the diamonds. He eyes Sarah and she looks back. She recognizes him as a security firm tech who had done some work in their home recently.Kyle stubbornly refuses to open the safe as the men threaten a panicky Sarah, Kyle tells them to let her go first. Upstairs Petal (Jordana Spiro) watches the Miller family home videos. She undresses and puts on purple dress.
Elias pulls out a loaded syringe loaded with sux, a medical paralysis drug. As he tries to escalate things Jonah pulls a gun on his partner and forces him to leave Sarah alone, he storms off to the kitchen angrily. In another flashback Sarah, an architect, gives Jonah a tall cool iced tea and they make small talk. On his way out Jonah stops by the pool, has a smoke and looks back at Sarah.The taxi drops Avery off by the fence, she goes back in. Kyle has lost his glasses and is pain on the floor. Ty threatens to cut off his thumb to use on the biometric safe scanner.In the kitchen Elias takes off his mask and tries to get close to Sarah, since she "already f*cked his younger brother". He tries to convince her to convince Kyle to open the safe. She pickpockets the syringe. Avery comes into the house, notices the intrusion and tries to escape but is caught. Kyle pleads for his daughter's safety, the Millers huddle together in Kyle's home office. Elias gives a sob story that he needs $180,000 or a new kidney for his mother. Sarah pulls out the syringe and puts Elias in an armlock, but Ty fires his shotgun, Sarah is able to convince them to let Avery go. In charge, Sarah now demands Kyle open the safe to end this thing. Kyle opens the safe, it is completely empty.The thieves are shocked and crush Kyle's hand and demand the money. Kyle tearfully claims he put all the money into his house, mortgage and loans. He says he was fired and they are running out of money.Outside Avery gets close enough to the fence to escape but is caught once again. Elias breaks open Kyle's briefcase and finds the diamond invoices. Kyle explains he doesn't take possession of the diamonds he is only a middleman using credit. Ty's phone rings, someone is calling to see how it is going. They still have an hour.Elias whispers to Kyle they are under duress also. Elias tries to steady Petal down, she is upset and just wants to take what they can. They notice a portrait of Sarah wearing a dazzling necklace. Sarah shows them the necklace and asks them to leave as agreed. Bound and gagged on their knees, Kyle and Avery fumble for the zippo and try to burn the duct tape holding their wrists behinds their backs.In the other room Sarah pleads with Jonah to let them go, she'll "do anything" he wants. Once again the intruders confront the Millers, Jonah telling Elias no one is to touch Sarah or Avery. A flashback shows Jonah get out of the Millers' pool and kiss Sarah. Kyle tells the men the necklace is a $99 cubic zirconium fake, he sold the real thing for the cash. Testing with the butt of a gun the flashy necklace shatters. Elias tells Kyle Sarah f*cked his brother, that's why they were there.Upstairs Avery fights with Petal, in the distraction Sarah makes a break and Kyle throws a chair through the window, setting off the security system. Ty beats up Kyle as the security company phones to check in. Jonah answers calmly and buys some time. In the den Kyle is getting whupped but somehow manages to divert the syringe so Ty injects himself and drops to the floor. Kyle grabs the shotgun and staggers away. Elias recovers Sarah from the woods outside. Jonah needs the security code word and looks for Avery, she is hiding in the renovation room. Jonah sneaks up behind Kyle to recover the shotgun and Avery is forced to give the password to the suspicious security phone rep.Elias shoots Kyle in the thigh then explains his problem. He tried to sell $180K in drugs but they were stolen, now the dealers want their money back and sent Ty along. Petal finds a screenshot print from the home security video, of Sarah and Jonah kissing, Kyle had it in his briefcase. Elias beats Kyle and Sarah, Jonah breaks it up and the two brothers fight.Outside a security guard arrives and needs a signature on the alarm incident. The guard is adamant and Elias opens the gate. Sarah tries to explain to Kyle but he says it doesn't matter. At the front door Jonah shoots the guard in the head. Avery is frantic and says she knows where there is at least $200K. She will go with Petal back to the house party to get it. Jonah is doubtful but Elias agrees. As things quieten down in the house Jonah offers to take care of Sarah and Avery. A flashback from Sarah's point of view shows Jonah being overly friendly, she demanded he leave after the swimming pool kiss before anything else happened. Kyle tells Jonah to take Sarah and Avery to safety.In the Porsche Avery drives, rounding a curve she deliberately crashes into a pole, releasing Petal's seatbelt at the last second.In the house Ty rouses and stops Jonah and Sarah from leaving. In the car Avery is bloodied but Petal is unconscious. Ty beats up Jonah until Elias shoots him. Dying, Ty reveals that Jonah was behind the drug theft from Elias and gave it back already for $10K.Elias is stunned. Left alone, Kyle and Sarah make their way to the reno room but Elias catches up and starts to choke Sarah. Jonah comes to her rescue and in the mess a plastic sheet rips revealing the large stash of cash hidden in the wall. Avery arrives with a gun and in the standoff Jonah shoots and kills his brother. Sarah comforts the badly wounded Kyle. He painfully says he was hiding the money for his family. As Jonah gathers the cash Kyle ignites a pool of solvent. The flames rush toward Jonah. Kyle gets up and nails Jonah's shoes to the floor and collapses. Jonah asks Sarah for help but grabs her and wants to die together. Kyle shoots Jonah who falls into the flames and dies. Sarah and Kyle make it out alive as the house goes up in flames. The Millers hug each other on the lawn. | murder, flashback | train | imdb | Trespass provides that mindless entertainment in spades, with a few head-scratches along the way.The premise of Trespass is simple: Nic Cage plays a diamond dealer who lives in a beautiful house with his wife and daughter, and some thugs break into the house one day to steal his stash.
Also Ben Mendelsohn's performance as the lead maniac and his eccentric back-and-forth between Cage really adds to the gravity of the situation and makes for a gripping protagonist-antagonist dynamic.So to wrap up, this is not a thinking man's movie.
As a fan of Nicolas Cage and Nicole Kidman, I was also interested to see just how terrible they were.In actual fact I think the critics have been a little cruel.
Yes there is a lot of screaming from Nicole and a lot of people saying "run" and no one runs anywhere, but to be fair if I was in their position, I would likely be in a corner papping myself with fear.It seems that they follow a similar formula to Panic Room, in that the burglars are pretty brutal and one or two of them seem slightly unhinged, but this is clearly a device used to work up tension as they become more panicked and more unpredictable.
I watched this the other day with mixed expectations due to reading the other reviews on here.Don't bother wasting your time with this movie unless you like typical over acted predictable Hollywood releases.I found it your typical business man married to a beautiful wife with an equally beautiful teenage daughter living in a beautiful pad.
People break in to steal from the rich Family, and things don't exactly go according to plan.Yes,it has 2 very good actors, but the premise for the movie, home invasion, has been done to death!
Bruce Willis in Hostage is one, Kevin Bacon and the beautiful Charlize Theron in Trapped and one that I really enjoyed, Gerard Butler and Pierce Brosnan in Butterfly on a wheel.If you want to watch a good home invasion movie try the last two and forget about Trespass!.
If you thought that Nick Cage was bad in the ridiculous "Wicker Man" remake then this is certainly a close second.One reviewer called this film "subtle" and I respect all views, but I found this as subtle as a flying mallet.
Although Kyle worries about his life and his family, he decides to take action against thieves and not open the safe but his trust in Sarah is questioned when she supposedly had an affair with their employee Jonah.The movie does not live up to expectations although playing two great names of cinema.
One of the worst movies of always good Nicol Kidman and Nicolas Cage.
The robbers were quite violent and brutal the way they treated diamond trader Kyle Miller (Nic Cage), his glamorous wife Sarah (Nic Kidman) and their rebellious young daughter Avery (Liana Liberato).
It shows how stupid Hollywood can be and how people have good taste.And the kind of dumbo businessman that Cage plays would have had a daffy young blonde wife and his daughter would be from a previous marriage, but the grossly bad taste of their housing and decor rings very true, but then again the film-makers probably thought it was wonderful..
Played by someone else the character of Kyle Miller could have helped anchor this movie a little more and allow it to regain the intensity that it lacked.The supporting cast (Nicole Kidman included) worked with what they had but I just wasn't able to invest in caring whether they lived or died.
The character Avery Miller (Liana Liberato) has a couple of great scenes towards the end of this film.Trespass had the chance to go down a different route but sadly it went the safe, predictable path that we've all seen before..
This movie is not worth a minute of your time, but then you should know that already since it has Nicolas Cage in it.
I did learn a lesson though, I never cared for Nicolas Cage movies, but I thought I would give this one a chance since Nicole Kidman is in it (even though she has been in some pretty bad movies).
Between Nicole Kidman, Nicolas Cage and Cam Gigandet, I had my hopes set pretty high for a well acted movie; and I was not disappointed in the least.
Still, this is supposed to be a claustrophobic thriller and it's so bad when watching the film it can feel claustrophobic so they manage to let the audience emphasize with the characters.
The real estate agent Kyle Miller (Nicolas Cage), his wife Sarah (Nicole Kidman) and their teenage daughter Avery (Liana Liberato) live in a fancy dream house.
Out of the blue, four violent hooded thieves break in their house and hold the family hostage expecting to get money and diamonds from the safe, in a tragic night of terror.The Spaniard-French "Secuestrados" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1629377/) is a brutal and bleak combination of "The Desperate Hours" and "Funny Games".
Instead of the brutally graphic and realistic home invasion with the family man needing to withdraw money from the family bank accounts of the European film, this remake shows annoying screaming and crying with the usual unrealistic exaggeration and lame heroism of the American movies, with diamonds and a huge amount.
the "Panic room" comparisons are pretty obvious, but as mediocre as that film was, it towers above this total bore.I watched this as a fan of both Cage and Kidman, but this was so ridiculous and boring I can only say the best thing about it was that I didn't have to pay for it..
For those that know me know that I am not a Nicholas Cage fan at all and I am also in love with Nicole Kidman, so this was a very personal movie for me.
As a diamond dealer, Kyle Miller (Nicholas Cage) brings his work home one evening right in the middle of an argument between his wife Sarah (Nicole Kidman) and their daughter Avery (Liana Liberto).
I don't even want to mention the actors playing burglars, except that Cam Gigandet is a talented and emerging actor, and could have really shined in this movie had it not been for the pathetic role he has had to play.Having previously worked with Cage in the exceptional thriller "8MM", this is surely not Joel Schumacher at his best; more likely his worst.
This isn't one of them.Trespass is the kind of home invasion film in which you actually hope that the entire family will be slaughtered.
Yawn.An hour and and a half of torture.Kyle Miller (Nicolas Cage) is a diamond dealer who appears to have it all - a gorgeous wife (Nicole Kidman), a beautiful daughter, and insane wealth.
At first I thought this would be an interesting movie considering it starred Nicolas Cage (although he can't be too reliable lately) and Nicole Kidman, but I couldn't understand how I had never heard about this movie or seen it screen in theaters.
Karl Gajdusek was the man responsible for the terrible script, and the story is probably the worst part of the entire film.Kyle Miller (Nicolas Cage) seems to be a successful diamond salesman.
He lives in a big and highly secured house, drives a fancy sports car, and has a beautiful wife, Sarah (Nicole Kidman), and a teenage daughter, Avery (Liana Liberato), who is going through her typical rebellious state.
Things seem a little shaky at home since Kyle has to travel so much and Sarah spends a lot of time on her own, and she doesn't like the fact that her daughter Avery is spending so much time with Kendra, who she considers a bad influence.
It's a shame because Nicolas Cage used to be one of my favorite action heroes, especially during the 90's with Face/Off being the highlight of his career in my opinion, but recently in the last decade he has made a lot of poor choices and it will be a pity if people remember him for these roles instead of his other greater films.http://estebueno10.blogspot.com/.
That's why Joel Schumacher cast him in 8mm and recast him as the father in his new film Trespass.In the film, Nicolas Cage plays an extremely wealthy diamond dealer named Kyle Miller.
I found the story a bit like a less interesting but more violent version of another film called Trapped with Charlize Theron, the home invasion plot is very similar, however Trapped is far more superior in many ways.
The story is about a wealthy couple who live in a tightly secured neighborhood who are invaded by a group of thugs after money and diamonds, what they don't expect is for the victims to begin to fight back, these scenes are quite tense, well acted and will have you on the edge of your seat, towards the end of the film there are slot of twists, some of them are more believable than others.Nic Cage's career has hit a major stump in the last few years, with the exception of last years Drive Angry which was too cool for words, and Trespass doesn't exactly steer away from the direction his career is headed.
Nicole Kidman is one of my favourite actresses, and she is fine as always but she certainly doesn't suit these kind of thrillers, she's too good of an actress to be in mediocre roles such as this.The surprising amount of violence in the movie surprised me, lots of guns, killing and swearing occur, It's good that it didn't go down the pg13 route though, it was quite realistic in that way.
It will take Sarah's strength of will to find her way out of the situation and save her " daughter " .Trespass is one of Schumacher's finest movies, The performances are outstanding across the board.
In fact, it is an above average movie where great performers, Academy Award winners Nicholas Cage and Nicole Kidman provide an additional value to the whole outcome.
Sometimes the grade of neurosis becomes too noisy and violent and the activities of different characters is difficult to monitor.Trespass is one of the recent movies where the plot takes mostly place within a limited space and time (such as Buried, Phone Booth, Panic Room, Stash House - to the name a few)...
However, I don't have a particular antipathy against this filmmaker, even though I can't deny his various false moves, such as Trespass, his most recent film, which is a horrible thriller.Trespass features every single cliché from the "home invasion" sub-genus, and it didn't make me feel any suspense, nor interest in the irritating characters, who suffer from the "chronic stupidity syndrome" employed by lame screenwriters when they need to advance the story, but they lack of the necessary talent in order to make something genuinely ingenious and innovative.
And worsening the situation, Nicolas Cage and Nicole Kidman bring poor performances in the leading roles.Schumacher's direction is completely bland and anonymous, with dramatic scenes lacking of any emotion and action sequences which only made me snooze.
If Nicolas Cage and Nicole Kidman had not been in this movie, it would have gone straight to video, been considered a very bad B movie, and no one would have watched it.
Unfortunately, Cage and Kidman ARE in it - and that is what caused my wife and me (and countless other viewers) to waste ninety-one minutes of our time watching this AWFUL, stupid, overacted (mainly by Cage and Kidman!), unbelievable, amateurishly-written, VERY bad B movie that SHOULD have gone straight to video.
In short, all the other actors in the film were better than Kidman and Cage.I gave the movie two stars only because it was SO bad that it kept us so riveted with incredulity that we HAD to continue watching it just to see if the ending would be as hideously stupid as the rest of the movie.
It all stumbles along painfully as we're introduced to married couple Nicolas Cage and Nicole Kidman who will alongside their restless teenage daughter, be held ransom throughout the movie.
TRESPASS confines us to the Miller house, where Kyle (Cage) and Sarah (Kidman) live with their daring teenage daughter, Avery (Liberato).
As they are held for ransom, a husband and wife's predicament grows more dire amid the discovery of betrayal and deception.This is the film that lost $35 million and left theaters in record time, despite starring Nicolas Cage and Nicole Kidman.
But as a desperate power struggle develops between the hostages and the criminals, shattering truths emerge that reveal the gang may have more ulterior motives in targeting Kyle and his family.Nicolas Cage is a name I seem to keep going to like a moth to a flame, given his name seems to have just become a by-word for crap, with each progressive film just emerging as mediocre and lacklustre as the last.
DESPERATE HOURS, PANIC ROOM, NIGHT HOLDS TERROR and recently the terrific KIDNAPPED, a real masterpiece from Spain, and not for the sissies...Yes this new Joel Schumacher film, starring Nicholas Cage with whom he made the very good 8 MILLIMETERS, excited me when I read the topic.
Personally Cage is one of my all-time favorites however Kidman is indeed a show stealer.Without over selling TRESPASS by going on and on about it, why don't I leave it to you to decide how Kyle and Sarah Miller handles the cops who are at the entrance of their estate!
Title: Trespass Directed by: Joel Schumacher Starring: Nicholas Cage, Nicole Kidman, Cam Gigandet and Liana Liberato Rated: R for violence and terror, pervasive language and some brief drug use.
Upper-class Kyle and Sarah Miller (Nicolas Cage and Nicole Kidman respectively) have to deal with a typically rebellious teenager who sneaks out to go party with her vacant socialite friend, as well as a gang of thieves who wish to rob their posh luxurious house and seem to know a lot about them.Quite simply there's nothing new to see here, a standard home invasion flick that is as predictable as it is over acted, especially by Kidman whom gets rather annoying and grating after a while.
If not for the names of Nicolas Cage & Nicole Kidman, no one would probably bother to risk a penny and go to the theater to see this movie.
The reason, sadly, was that it hardly set the box office ablaze and the filmmakers were desperate to try and recoup some of the money they obviously had to fork out for Cage and Kidman.Trespass is part of this new genre of thriller/horrors, known as 'home invasion movies.' Basically, a gang of unlikeables enters a lovable family's home and threatens them/robs them etc.
It's a pretty basic film - basic plot, basic script, basic characters and even basic acting from two stars who should know better.
The two leads, Nicolas Cage and Nicole Kidman are the married couple who have a daughter living with them, who just happen to have some personal problems to deal with, even before the gang invade their home.
Sure, there's suspense here and some well-handled action, but it's essentially a movie which sees its cast of characters shouting and screaming at each other for an hour and a half, which is wearying in the extreme.I'm a bit ambivalent over Cage, as some of his films I love (such as KNOWING) and others I hate (THE WICKER MAN remake, obviously).
Teaming up with famed Director Joel Schumacher and the always intense Nicole Kidman, Cage stars in a type of film we've all seen before.
Nicolas Cage and Nicole Kidman play a couple being held hostage in their own home by masked criminals who want the contents of their safe.
I like Nicolas Cage as well, and I can understand why, as mentioned in your trivia, he was unsure of playing either the role of the husband or the robber in this film.
I like Nicolas Cage as well, and I can understand why, as mentioned in your trivia, he was unsure of playing either the role of the husband or the robber in this film.
It has a script By Karl Gajdusek with some fine lines and quality twists that keep the audience guessing and enough innovative bits of action that make the film seem fresh (even if the behavior of all concerned is not to swift!).Kyle Miller (Nicholas Cage) appears obsessed with his business life - marketing diamonds - and comes home to his mansion (designed by his wife) where wife Sarah (Nicole Kidman) seems to be needing more than an income to make her life complete.
In recent times, Nicolas Cage has been doing one ridiculously abysmal movie after another, so my expectation wasn't high regarding his choice here but I was surprised that Nicole Kidman agreed to do the movie.
This film is about a rich diamond dealer and his family being taken hostage inside their home by a group of criminals."Trespass" is an action packed thriller.
I can't count how many times someone promised to kill someone and it didn't happen.Plot/Characters: 5* - Your typical hostage/home invasion film where in this case the family has diamonds that the thieves are coveting.
First of all I'd like to talk about the casting, Nicole Kidman and Nicholas Cage were perfect in this film, they fit their roles really well.
Also the girl that played Nicole Kidman's and Nicholas Cage's daughter was very good, and displayed some real talent.
But, I must say the acting performances by Nicolas Cage and Nicole Kidman are spot on.
If you thought having high-profile stars like Nicolas Cage and Nicole Kidman feature in a film could save it, then think again.
Trespass (2011) ** (out of 4) Kyle Miller (Nicolas Cage) and his wife Sarah (Nicole Kidman) find themselves being held hostage by four masked criminals who are demanding that he open the safe.
The supporting performances were mostly good but one does have to wonder why Kidman would attach herself to a film like this. |
tt0042044 | The Wind in the Willows | Rat and Mole are called to the estate of Toad Hall by Mr. McBadger. The owner of Toad Hall, J Thadddeus Toad, has once again gone off and fallen into another extravagant hobby. This pains McBadger, who has been trying to straighten out Toad's financial situation for some time. Toad is currently 'rampaging across the country' in a gypsy cart, pulled by a horse name Cyril.After much scouring of the countryside, Rat and Mole manage to find Toad, and get him to stop for a talk. However, he refuses to listen to their lecturing, and proceeds on his way.Not far off, Toad lays eyes on a motorcar, and he now has found a new 'mania' to become obsessed over: motor-mania. Hearing his 'sputtering' rantings, Rat and Mole manage to get ahold of Toad, return him to Toad Hall, and lock him in his room, hoping that rest will calm him down. However, Toad now completely obsessed, sneaks out of his residency.Shortly thereafter, Toad is arrested for supposedly trying to steal a motorcar. At the hearing, Toad decides to act as his own attorney. Cyril is called to the stand, who explains that after escaping from Toad Hall, Toad met up with him, and on a journey the next morning, they spy a red motorcar, which pulls up to a tavern. At the helm of the motor car are a band of weasels who then proceed into place of business. Even given their sordid reputation, Toad enters the tavern, and talks to the bartender, named Mr. Winky. Toad quickly makes it known that he wants the motorcar, and is willing to pay handsomely. However, having no money, he decides to trade the deed to Toad Hall for it.The prosecuting attorney still doubts this claim, and Mr. Winky is called to testify. However, Winky claims that Toad actually was trying to sell him a stolen motorcar. With this testimony, Toad is found guilty. His friends try to plead for a re-trial, but their requests are denied.In prison, Toad sorrowfully regrets his foolish acts. As Christmas approaches, a visitor is allowed in to see Toad. Claiming to be his Grandmother, Cyril infiltrates the jail, and gives Toad an old woman's outfit, to use to escape. Toad leads the police on chase first by foot, and then behind the throttle of a locomotive. Finally abandoning the train, Toad makes his way to Rat's residence, where McBadger soon joins them. McBadger relays that he saw Toad Hall alight, and filled with Weasels. Also in their midst, was Mr. Winky, holding the deed to Toad Hall. This is proof that Winky lied in court, and Toad is innocent. However, to prove this, the group must get the deed back.After sneaking in through a secret entrance in Toad Hall, the group go through a mad dash to try and retrieve the deed. Finally succeeding, Toad's name is cleared, and it seems that Toad has reformed, finished with his mad 'mania.'However, no sooner do his friends toast their good fortune, than a resounding crash is heart, and Toad is seen outside flying an airplane. | good versus evil | train | imdb | Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.
A Walt Disney Cartoon Short Subject.The enthusiasms of a wealthy & irrepressible Toad and his passion for motorcars brings hilarious turmoil to the lives of his friends along the Riverbank.Disney's THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS, originally the first half of THE ADVENTURES OF ICHABOD AND MR.
TOAD (1949), gives a drastically shortened & much revised view of Kenneth Grahame's classic book, focusing entirely on the chapters dealing with the marvelous Mr. Toad.
As such, it is a fine introduction to the original, but one can only wonder what Disney could have done with a feature length animated film that included the bucolic charm of the book, as well as the high jinks.
The production values are excellent, and Eric Blore & J.
Pat O'Malley obviously have a high time voicing Toad and his equine pal Cyril Proudbottom, but a true fan of the book can't help longing for a little more...In the Prologue, narrator Basil Rathbone compares Toad very favorably to some other fabulous characters from English Literature - Robin Hood, King Arthur, Becky Sharp, Sherlock Holmes & Oliver Twist.
A bit curious, as there was nothing fabulous about young Oliver (either Fagin or Micawber would have been a better choice) and considering Rathbone's own long association with the Holmes character.Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by pictures & drawings.
As a lad in Marceline, Missouri, he sketched farm animals on scraps of paper; later, as an ambulance driver in France during the First World War, he drew comic figures on the sides of his vehicle.
Back in Kansas City, along with artist Ub Iwerks, Walt developed a primitive animation studio that provided animated commercials and tiny cartoons for the local movie theaters.
Always the innovator, his ALICE IN CARTOONLAND series broke ground in placing a live figure in a cartoon universe.
Business reversals sent Disney & Iwerks to Hollywood in 1923, where Walt's older brother Roy became his lifelong business manager & counselor.
When a mildly successful series with Oswald The Lucky Rabbit was snatched away by the distributor, the character of Mickey Mouse sprung into Walt's imagination, ensuring Disney's immortality.
The happy arrival of sound technology made Mickey's screen debut, STEAMBOAT WILLIE (1928), a tremendous audience success with its use of synchronized music.
The SILLY SYMPHONIES soon appeared, and Walt's growing crew of marvelously talented animators were quickly conquering new territory with full color, illusions of depth and radical advancements in personality development, an arena in which Walt's genius was unbeatable.
Mickey's feisty, naughty behavior had captured millions of fans, but he was soon to be joined by other animated companions: temperamental Donald Duck, intellectually-challenged Goofy and energetic Pluto.
All this was in preparation for Walt's grandest dream - feature length animated films.
Against a storm of naysayers, Walt persevered and over the next decades delighted children of all ages with the adventures of Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi & Peter Pan. Walt never forgot that his fortunes were all started by a mouse, or that childlike simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off..
The best short from Disney.
One of the best shorts of Disney, very good animation, interesting history and very good scenes with a very good story.
Highly recommend..
Semi-wild ride..
This is Disney's take on the classic tale of Mr. Toad and his wild adventures.
Good animation, especially on the motorcars and some fun stuff on the misadventures Mr. Toad brings to his friends.
The excitement and suspense were subpar overall, though.
Not too much to laugh about, but, not a bad movie short..
Mr. Toad's motormania.
Originally part of the movie The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, this condensed version of the Kenneth Grahame novel tells the story of madcap Mr. Toad's obsession with the newfangled automobile and how his friends try to help him.
It's a fun, well-paced cartoon with lots of humor and action.
The courtroom scene is a treat.
It features the talented voice work of Eric Blore, Pat O'Malley, Claude Allister, Campbell Grant, Colin Campbell, and the great Basil Rathbone as narrator.
The music is lively and cheerful.
The animation is just gorgeous!
The characters and backgrounds are beautifully-drawn and the Technicolor is so rich it's a feast for the eyes.
Classic Disney animation was so attractive and so much fun to watch.
This is a perfect example of that..
Worthwhile 30 minute or so cartoon based on a great book.
While the story does drag in places, this is a lively and cute animated cartoon based on a truly great book.
It mayn't be the best adaptation of the book, that goes to the animated film with Rik Mayall as the voice of Toad, but it is so worthwhile.
It is for one thing lovingly animated, with some beautiful backgrounds and lovely colours.
The music is also terrific, with some lyrical, rousing and fun themes that are certainly memorable.
The story while understandably condensed is still effective, and the scripting is good.
The voice acting is very expressive, with Basil Rathbone who I best know as Sherlock Holmes brilliant as the narrator and Eric Blore a lot of fun as Toad, who is just as rascally as he is in the book.
I also liked Badger, the gruff and firm character who in the book tries to make Toad change his ways and Cyril, the horse.
Plus the courtroom scene is hilarious.
Overall, a fun and worthwhile cartoon.
9/10 Bethany Cox. Cute, but somewhat mistreated..
It's a shame that the Wind in the Willows was made into a 30 minute film.
It would've made a good feature length film, as it's not too long or too short a story to dramatize in under 90 minutes.
And where was the rowing boat, the Otter, the rabbits and the willow tree?
Needless to say, the characters are cute and it's better than some films like Lady and the Tramp and The Jungle Book..
nice, but short.
I liked this movie, but it was too short.
I know kids have short attention spans, but a half an hour was too short.
I was very disappointed.
I thought it would be longer..
Charming, under appreciated Disney classic.
This is a very under appreciated Disney classic short.
Charming and cute with delightful characters, I'd definitely recommend it.
The story treatment is both fun and tense in turn.
And of course the animation is just beautiful.
One of my personal favorite parts is when Toad becomes so enamored with the first "motorcar" he sees that he begins sputtering too.
And of course Basil Rathborn as the narrator is an inspired choice.
Listen for sweet, funny songs and a nice score, a trademark of any good Disney film.
As for those who comment about the length, it should be remembered that Walt Disney originally planned this as a feature length film.
It was due to budget problems and a smaller staff because of World War II that it had to be shortened.
When you keep that in mind it's really quite remarkable what they did.
For a longer movie (and an extra story as the second half which is quite delightful) watch this in its original format as The Adventures of Ichabod Crane and Mr. Toad.
Ichabod and the narrator are voiced by none other than Bing Crosbey.
Such a treat when watched together as Disney intended..
Not a fresh breeze.
"The Wind in the Willows" is a Disney animated short film, which runs for slightly over half an hour and was made over 65 years ago.
I have to say from that duology I found the Ichabod part more interesting.
This one here is basically about the adventures of a toad and it's again made in a way that it's not only for children, but also includes some more serious references here and there although not as many as Ichabod and also no horror references.
I personally felt that this film here dragged on several occasions and did not really have too many memorable characters.
For Ichabod they got Bing Crosby as the narrator and for this one here they got Basil Rathbone, a two-time Academy Award nominated actor who is today mostly known for his participation in the Robin Hood film and for his Sherlock Holmes performances of course.
The rest of the cast here I am not familiar with.
All in all, I must say the animation was okay, but the story just did not feel memorable at all to me this time.
Not recommended. |
tt1242422 | Celda 211 | Juan Oliver wants to make a good impression at his new job as a prison officer and reports to work a day early, leaving his pregnant wife, Elena, at home. During his tour of the prison, an accident occurs that knocks him unconscious. He is rushed to the empty but visibly haunted walls of cell 211. As this diversion unfolds, convicts break free and hijack control of the penitentiary. Aware of the violence that is to come, the prison officers flee, leaving Juan stranded and unconscious in the heart of the riot. When Juan awakens, he immediately takes stock of the situation; in order to survive, he must pretend to be a prisoner.Juan manages to convince the other prisoners that he is one of them, and that he just entered the prison that very day for homicide. He not only makes himself believed as inmate, but befriends the violent, deep voiced leader of the riot, Malamadre (Badmother in English), who takes him under his wing.Malamadre discovers that Basque terrorists associated with ETA are being held in the same prison, and plans to use them as a bargaining tool. When this hits the news, it triggers a stream of prison riots throughout the country as well as demonstrations in the Basque Country. Juan quickly realizes that he is on his own as the situation becomes more politicized and the government gets involved, afraid of potential ramifications in the Basque community.Juan's pregnant wife, Elena, slowly learns about his impossible situation and heads for the jail. Once there she is brutally beaten outside the prison, while trying to get information about her husband. A TV inside the prison cell block reveals the information to the prisoners. Camera footage indicates that Elena was at the riot. Fearful for her safety, Juan insists on learning information regarding her status.Malamadre demands information of all those injured by the riot. The authorities respond with a short list of only four names. This infuriates the prisoners, who believe that the police are withholding information, and decide to kill one of the ETA prisoners. However, Juan intervenes and suggest they merely cut off an ear, an act he is forced to perform himself.The authorities then provide additional information on all the injured. Juan learns Elena is in the hospital, though he is told she is recovering. Juan insists on talking to her but is rebuffed. Utrilla, the police guard who hit Elena, is suspended and asked to leave. Meanwhile, Apache learns the truth behind Juan's status as a guard, having contacted a friend at the police via a secret cell phone. He tells Juan he will give Juan a chance to defend himself before letting Malamadre know.Later, Malamadre has Apache tell Juan that he needs to speak to him. Juan is brought to a secluded room, the door closed behind him, and several of Malamadre's men surround him. He asks, nervously, "What's up?" in an effort to defuse the situation given his worry that Apache betrayed his true status. Instead, Malamadre shows Juan a cell phone video from a different camera at the outside riot. The footage shows that Elena was beaten by Utrilla, another prison guard, who then proceeded to leave her on the ground. Juan insists that Utrilla be brought inside.Inside, Utrilla is faced with the cell phone footage by an infuriated Juan. Juan again insists on talking to Elena, but he instead learns that both she and her unborn child have died. In response, the prisoners viciously beat Utrilla until he loudly insists that Juan is a prison guard. He asks Juan to tell the truth; instead, Juan slits Utrilla's throat and fully joins the prisoners in their fight, having lost all will and reason for life outside. In private Malamadre and his other cohorts are furious but Malamadre leaves him alone, given that he ruthlessly killed Utrilla. Juan proceeds to his cell and attempts to commit suicide by hanging himself with a belt. He fails as the belt breaks under his weight.Malamadre receives a call from the negotiator asking him to collect a file. They tell him that Juan Oliver is a prison guard and leave the file for Malamadre to see. Malamadre says it is only a piece of paper and heads back inside telling the negotiator that they are just trying to make him kill Juan.The government sends a messenger to deal directly with the prisoners. The government acquiesces to Malamadre's demands. However, Juan drags Utrilla's corpse in front of the liaison and insists that the government make the agreement public or they will kill the ETA prisoners. Malamadre is furious at being upstaged though he understands that Juan is correct. Malamadre tells Juan that if the GEO team invades instead of agreeing, then he will either die or kill Juan. In either event, Malamadre insists only one of them will live, as punishment for Juan's betrayal.The government does not agree to the demands and sends in the GEO team. Apache kills Juan and severely injures Malamadre, and it is unclear if he will become the new prison king or if Malamadre, as soon as he will heal from his injuries, will exact vengeance upon him. At an inquiry held by the government, the prison officials regret Juan's death but did the best they could in the situation. Finally, the prison official simply asks, "Any more questions?" | murder, flashback | train | imdb | null |
tt0101484 | (Blooper) Bunny! | The cartoon opens with a short special, celebrating Bugs Bunny's 51½ Anniversary. Once that is finished, what happened earlier that day is shown, with a backstage look at the characters (featuring 3D rendering of the scenery). Bugs is shown rehearsing his one line in the special. Elmer Fudd is shown trying to use minoxidil to regrow his hair. Daffy Duck and Yosemite Sam are shown only begrudgingly going along with the act, complaining non-stop until called to their places by the director. They attempt a performance, which results in a series of animated "bloopers".
=== Featured bloopers ===
Blooper 1:
Bugs Bunny begins to dance, but the music is slightly out of tune and the record skips. He then dryly looks at the camera and says, "Ehh...What's up, Doc?" in an annoyed and sarcastic voice. The director and producers laugh as Bugs walks off stage. He then peeks back in to say "Monotonous, isn't it?", which gets the director and producers laughing again and right when the screen fades to black, the record scratches.
Blooper 2:
Bugs halts the performance midway, having noticed a loose floorboard on the stage. He then suggests moving the action back and readjusting the camera.
Blooper 3:
Bugs misses the cane when it flies out.
Blooper 4:
The cane is thrown before Bugs is ready to catch it.
Blooper 5:
While waiting for the cane to be thrown, it becomes clear that Daffy Duck has refused to throw it to Bugs. According to Daffy, his contract states that he is not supposed to throw canes to rabbits, resulting in the director agreeing to have someone else throw it in Daffy's place.
Blooper 6:
Daffy enters the stage at the exact time that Bugs does, saying that he thought it was a vast improvement as he walks away, only to bump his head on the boom mike.
Blooper 7:
Daffy does not appear when he is supposed to. Offstage, Daffy is heard telling Bugs, the director and the producers to wait, followed by the sound of a toilet flushing. As Daffy then rushes onto the stage dancing, the director yells, "Cut! CUT! CUT!"
Blooper 8:
Elmer Fudd fires a real gun as opposed to a prop, grazing Daffy's head. Bugs scolds him, but Elmer responds that he thought that it would be "a gweat, big birthday surpwise" if he finally shot Bugs "after 51 ½ years of twying". Daffy starts yelling at Elmer for not using the prop gun and neglects Bugs's insistence on cutting. As he walks away telling Elmer to expect his lawyers to call him, he steps on the loose board Bugs had avoided earlier, and the board strikes him in the face and goes through his beak. When Bugs asks if they can cut now, Daffy grumbles, "You smug son of a—" and is then cut off.
Blooper 9:
Daffy dances onto the stage with the board still stuck to his face. When he pulls it off, he yanks his beak off as well in the process, but continues speaking and where his beak was, a mouth appears, though he fails to notice it.
Blooper 10:
Everything plays out correctly until Yosemite Sam emerges from the cake with a scowl on his face and two Cowgirls come up and spruce him up. The director instructs him to act cheerful for the next take. Yosemite Sam goes back into the cake, mumbling "But I hates rabbits".
Blooper 11:
The spectacular performance is done perfectly, except for one thing, as Bugs puts it – there were supposed to be five rockets. A fifth rocket attached to Sam's belt sends him flying about before crashing into the camera. He then yells at Bugs, calling him a "low down flop-eared son of a kangaroo", along with his usual cursing (which lasts throughout the credits) before being knocked out by an unseen glass object. Bugs then suggests that what had just happened can be fixed in the editing before one of the producers asks, "Can we go to lunch now?" | psychedelic | train | wikipedia | The only really great BB 'toon since the '60s!!!.
Although he is no replacement for the late Mel Blanc, Rick Bergman does the voice recreations a lot of justice, and this short, Blooper Bunny, is the funniest and best cartoon since the Golden Age ended back in the mid-60s.
Honestly funny and reminiscent of the wacky show-biz humor of the classic "Show Biz Bugs", Blooper Bunny displays the decades long good humored rivalry between Bugs and Daffy Duck.I liked it..
Hey Time-Warner, we wanna see this cartoon!!!.
This was a very, very edgy cartoon that should have been more widely seen that it was.
Apparently, shortly after it was made, some kill-joys at Time-Warner decided it was too edgy and harmed the bland reputation they've created for their characters in recent years.
Yet back in the early 90s, somehow, the writers and animators at Warner Brothers were given a lot of leeway to create a modern version of Bugs Bunny.
It begins with a sappy '51st and 1/2 birthday' celebration, but the cartoon then became a parody of the 'making of,...." video where the cartoon characters let down their hair (hare) and you see who they REALLY are!
This was a great idea and I loved seeing the characters acting edgy and funny instead of the insipid SPACE JAM-type Warner cartoon characters.
For very little kids, this cartoon isn't too appropriate, but for older kids and teens, they'll probably think it's great when they bleep out comments made by jealous Daffy Duck!!
About the only thing that doesn't work is the section where they show fake take after take of the same dancing number--it really got repetitive and a bit annoying!
But, this cartoon is a great way to both celebrate the past and keep the edginess that made Bugs, Daffy and the rest popular..
just trying to recapture a little of the glory years.
While not without it's flaws, this short is still one of the most entertaining Looney Tunes shorts in recent years.
I've resigned myself to the fact that the golden age of Looney Tunes is long in the past and it'll never get as good as it was back then again in the future.
But I still enjoyed this cartoon that plays out like a blooper reel taking place on Bugs Bunny's fifty first and a half birthday special.
Even if the Looney Tune's gang acted a tad off-kilter.
This cartoon can be found as an extra on disk 1 of the 'Looney Tunes Golden Collection' and has optional commentary.My Grade: C+.
This was a very original short for the Looney Tunes gang.
The actual short was shown in like the first minute.
The rest of it shows out takes from the short and how much 'effort' went into filming 'The Bugs Bunny 51st and a Half Anniversary Spectacular'.
It was a laugh riot..
It was a laugh riot..
"Maybe we can fix it in the editing.".
Cartoon mockumentary about the behind-the-scenes of a Bugs Bunny retrospective special with Daffy, Elmer, and Yosemite Sam causing problems.
It's mostly made up of blooper clips, a few of which are actually funny.
Points for creativity, particularly since the post-classic era Looney Tunes shorts were all-too-often pointless exercises in nostalgia copying old gags instead of coming up with new material.
At least they were trying here.
I've made no secret in my other reviews of modern Looney Tunes cartoons that they almost all suck.
The degree to which they suck certainly varies but I've yet to see one that I watch and go "yeah, that deserves to be talked about in the same breath as the classics." This one doesn't hold up to the greats either but it doesn't completely suck so that's something.
There's no doubt this was made by people who love the characters and wanted to bring them to a new generation.
The animation is quite nice and I have no problems with the music or Jeff Bergman's voice work.
As far as newer Looney Tunes goes, you can't do better than this.
Which is kind of sad if you think about it too long..
Hugely funny and well worth watching.
I love Looney Tunes, and I love all four characters featured here, so this seemed like a winner.
Not only are Bugs, Daffy, Elmer and Yosemite Sam all great, but when it comes to the voice work Jeff Bergman manages to be both dynamic and stick to the characters' characteristics very well.
The animation is absolutely great, very lively and colourful, and the music has a lot of energy and doesn't get annoying no matter how many times we hear the main theme.
The outtakes are hugely funny, not just in the fresh writing but also in the sight gags.
While I loved the business with the cane, the Eh What's Up Doc to uproarious laughter and Daffy stepping on a floorboard and it hits him, it was the outtake where Elmer's gun goes off and it's real ammunition narrowly missing Bugs and hitting Daffy that really amused me.
All in all, a hugely funny cartoon.
10/10 Bethany Cox. Original, fresh and funny.
This is such a funny cartoon!
Bugs Bunny is turning 51 and a half and has his 'friends' Elmer Fudd, Daffy Duck and Yosemite Sam to celebrate it with him.
They do a little dance, but then we get to see what 'happened before that very same day'.So we see the gang rehearsing their little song.
This is done so funny...
it had me rolling on the floor.
As the camera goes 'backstage' the scenes are shot from hand, sometimes the focus isn't right, things like that.
Such a funny and original way to make this.It sure is one of the best cartoons I've ever witnessed.
I would like to recommend this one to everybody!
Best Warners short in last 30 Years.
At last, Bugs Bunny tackles the tired "blooper reel" scenario that has been driven into the ground.
Based around filming a "51 1/2 Birthday Special", it actually proves what many have thought but few dared say--that Daffy Duck may be the funniest fictional creation in American art/cultural history..
This short was squelched by Warner Bros.
for years.
After giving the go ahead for this film, Warner Bros.
squelched it.
Apparently in reaction to Daffy's comment that "Warner Bros.
doesn't have single creative bone in it's body".
This "short" was never shown theatrically.
Only after Cartoon Network found it languishing in the library was it finally given the exposure it deserves..
The Looney Tunes gang are back again, they're still funny but in an unnatural way..
Warner Bros.
reopened their theatrical shorts department shortly before this cartoon was released, and the new blood (very new; not a single Golden Age animator is credited) does a pretty good job of it.
The gags are mostly comments on the filmmakers, plus demonstrations of the shortcomings of filmmaking equipment.
The rest is well-timed slapstick, but it doesn't feel like those wacky, hilarious characters are back again.
They're funny in a different way.
The DVD commentary on this (on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: get it now!) by either Stan Freberg or Greg Ford, mentions that the animators tried to bring back those classic arguments the stars had; they were trying to override the advertisements and merchandise that broadcast the fact that the characters always had bright smiles at all times and were close friends, a bunch often referred to as "Bugs Bunny and Friends." That betrays the Looney Tunes cast.
The animators tried.
"Blooper Bunny" is a fictitious behind-the-scenes look at the eventful everyday life of our beloved characters, focusing on the making of the "Bugs Bunny 51st and 1/2 Anniversary Spectacular." The "Spectacular" is only about a minute long, but it seems to have a negative effect on the funny cartoon that is "Blooper Bunny." It seems to unnerve the audience and alienate the characters, not in spite of - but because - the Looney Tunes characters are flashing their most winning smiles.
It made me, personally, feel like they were the fake characters from the earlier "Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers," because they almost seemed to have an eerie air about them.
It was a bad beginning and climax to an otherwise funny cartoon.
But I still think the world is going to miss Mike Maltese.
Seriously.
"Blooper Bunny" is a fine effort by an inexperienced crew, and keeping that factor in mind I believe this cartoon to be a worthy addition to the Looney Tunes library.
But I don't think that unless Chuck Jones Film Productions can keep the classic-style stuff coming without its late founder (Chuck Jones, obviously) that we will never witness the Golden Age cartoons' like again.
Stephen Fossati shows great promise.
He's been taught amazingly by the master.
Let's hope he can go on without his mentor's supervision.
Or the Looney Tunes are done.
Finished.
And I know we're all hoping that doesn't happen..
One of the best I've seen in a while.
This has got to be one of the best Bugs Bunny shorts to come out in the last few years.
Everyone knows that the funniest part of any movie is the bloopers, and Warner Bros.
brings it out all the way with this "gag reel" of Bugs, Daffy, Elmer and Yosemite Sam messing up their lines and cues while filming a tribute to Bugs Bunny's 51 & 1/2 birthday.
It's only further proof that humor is all about timing, and the best stuff comes out when you don't expect it..
It might take a village to raise a child .
. but nowadays it pretty near takes a metropolis to produce an animated short (or brief cartoon) running less than 10 minutes.
While an average of 10 guys were credited for each Golden Age Looney Tune (at least, those that Warner Bros.
released between 1930 and 1960), BLOOPER BUNNY's end credits list 57 people (a conglomeration that's only gotten longer since BLOOPER's release in 1991).
BLOOPER's roster is surely truncated from what it could have been, as the chefs and craft service people serving what would have otherwise been a very hungry cast and crew are missing in action from BLOOPER's roll call.
Likewise, unless they labored in conditions of total squalor, their janitorial assistants are absolutely unsung here.
Nor is anything said about child care (though many present-day films with 100% adult casts credit multiple "studio teachers" for educating cast and\or crew kids).
One would think that the top dozen BLOOPER honchos would deem themselves important enough to merit personal or production assistants, drivers, and security people, though not a name of this is breathed in the credits.
It's likely that Bugs Bunny has been a meal ticket for thousands over his career..
(Blooper) Bunny!
brings Bugs and his "friends" back to basics.
This short begins with Bugs and his "friends", Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, and Yosemite Sam coming on stage, dancing, and wishing the wabbit a "Happy 51st and a 1/2 anniversary" cheerfully.
Then, with intentionally scratched film, we see the behind the scenes footage with those same three characters as we usually know them: Daffy acting hostile toward Bugs, Elmer trying to really kill the wabbit, and Sam really roaring into the varmint.
Then there are the "bloopers" that mostly involve the Duck with various "accidents" like the loose board that hits him.
That was the funniest scene for me.
Quite a throwback to the Bugs/Daffy/Elmer hunting shorts made by Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese.
Too bad the folks at Time Warner thought this was too "edgy" to be shown in theaters but it's good to know that the Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVD has permanently made this available in their extra features section.
Kudos to Greg Ford, Terry Lennon, and new voice actor Jeff Bergman for continuing the Looney Tunes tradition..
Raw footage and funny outtakes!.
Made several decades after the heyday of the theatrical Warner Bros.
cartoons, "(Blooper) Bunny!" is a rather hilarious Bugs Bunny/Daffy Duck/Elmer Fudd/Yosemite Sam cartoon that celebrates Bugs' 51 1/2th birthday.
After we see a briefly choreographed performance by the four principal characters, we then see a minute and a half of unedited footage behind the scenes while the characters rehearse and the stagehands move props (while the camera ASTONISHINGLY moves around the set in computerized animation), after which we see outtake after outtake.
Believe me, this is one hell of a funny cartoon!
My favorite outtakes in "(Blooper) Bunny!": On the first take, Bugs tries to dance to a skipping record, which prompts him to simply ask, "Eh, what's UP, Doc?", thus emitting hysterical laughter from the crew.
Daffy is late for his entrance because he had to use the latrine.
Elmer uses a real rifle instead of a prop and fires a shot, which misses Bugs and lands as a tiny flame on Daffy's head; Daffy then reprimands Elmer and steps on a loose board, which pops up and smacks him in the bill."(Blooper) Bunny!" was directed by Greg Ford and Terry Lennon, with Jeff Bergman doing a masterful job in supplying the voices for all four of these famous Warner Bros.
characters.
Bravo to everyone who worked so hard on this cartoon to make it SO GOOD!
Producer/director Greg Ford can be heard supplying audio commentary for many of the classic Warner Bros.
cartoons in the Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVD series, and he provides a commentary for "(Blooper) Bunny!" as well (Volume 1 Disc 1). |
tt0430922 | Role Models | Danny (Paul Rudd) and Wheeler (Seann William Scott) are two energy drink salesmen who promote a drink called "Minotaur" to school children, and encourage kids to stay off drugs. Wheeler loves the job, but Danny hates it, viewing it as a pointless, dead-end career. Danny's depression results in the collapse of his relationship with his girlfriend Beth (Elizabeth Banks), after he impulsively proposes to her. After a presentation at an elementary school, the duo find their Minotaur truck being towed, as they were parked in a no-parking zone. After an argument with the tow truck driver, Danny attempts to "drive" their truck free of the tow truck, damaging the tow truck, nearly running over a security guard (Louis C.K.) and crashing into a statue. Both men are arrested and charged with assault and disorderly conduct.
Beth strikes a deal with the judge in which they have to log 150 hours of community service over the next 30 days, in lieu of 30 days in jail. They are to complete their service with Sturdy Wings, a big brother-big sister program led by Gayle Sweeny (Jane Lynch), a recovering addict. Gayle is aware of their court mandate and warns them that if they fail to meet her requirements they will be sent to prison. Wheeler is paired up with Ronnie (Bobb'e J. Thompson), a foul-mouthed streetwise miscreant obsessed with breasts, who has driven away all the other "Bigs" he has been paired with. Danny is assigned Augie (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), a nerdy teenager obsessed with medieval live action role-playing games.
Danny is unable to find common ground with Augie while Ronnie takes a disliking to Wheeler. Danny considers choosing the jail sentence, but Wheeler insists that if they go to jail, they will get raped. They gradually bond with their "littles". Ronnie and Wheeler share the experience of having been abandoned by their fathers while Danny learns about Augie's medieval fantasy realm. Ronnie takes an interest in Wheeler's favourite group, Kiss, and discovers that Wheeler shares his obsession with breasts, which Wheeler teaches him to control. Danny and Augie bond when they realize that they are both involved in the Sturdy Wings program against their will. Danny joins Augie's live action role playing game, "LAIRE" (Live Action Interactive Role-playing Explorers) and attempts to reconcile with Beth, but to no avail (Beth must commit to the break-up, stating that it is for the best).
However, their good luck is short-lived. When Augie manages to sneak up on the King of LAIRE, Argotron (Ken Jeong), the King lies and tells everyone that he killed Augie. Danny, defending Augie, confronts and then pushes the King, and gets himself and Augie banned from LAIRE forever. Later, Danny insults Augie's mother and stepfather for refusing to support Augie's hobby, earning their hatred. As soon as Augie's parents kick Danny out of their house, Danny retorts, "I'd be psyched if he were my kid." Meanwhile, Wheeler takes Ronnie to a party and leaves him unsupervised, resulting in Ronnie walking home alone and a series of angry messages from Ronnie's mother, Karen, on Wheeler's cell-phone. Ronnie and Augie's parents ask Sturdy Wings for new mentors, and Danny and Wheeler are expelled from the program, thus failing to complete their community service. Beth says that she will defend Danny and Wheeler in court, but cannot make any promises, as they will eventually be sent to jail. Danny and Wheeler argue and go their separate ways.
Danny convinces King Argotron to allow himself and Augie to fight that afternoon in the much-awaited Battle Royale. Wheeler gets permission from Karen to hang out with Ronnie after he gets out of jail, and earns Ronnie's forgiveness. However, the King secretly warns the other members of Augie's LAIRE "country" of Xanthia that allowing Augie to fight with them will lead to severe retribution in the game. They call Augie to tell him he's too much of a liability and he has nowhere to turn. To form a new LAIRE country, Danny and Augie need four members and matching costumes. Danny asks Wheeler and Ronnie to join them. They arrive with Wheeler's Kiss costumes and a Kiss-themed Minotaur truck, naming their new country "Kiss-My-Anthia". After a betrayal by his former Xanthian allies, Augie finally duels with the king, defeating him. A hidden player, Sarah (Allie Stamler), who goes by Esplen in LAIRE, then attacks and defeats Augie; she is crowned the new queen and chooses Augie as her king-consort. Augie's parents forgive Danny.
Impressed with having seen that Wheeler and Danny care for the children, Gayle clears their names with the judge. Danny serenades Beth with a rendition of the Kiss song "Beth" and they happily reconcile. | pornographic, fantasy, comedy, romantic, entertaining, storytelling | train | wikipedia | After seeing the trailer for Role Models, I thought it looked like a funny movie, but I wasn't expecting much, I was thinking they might have just shown the great parts in the trailer and that would be it.
But I took the opportunity and saw Role Models the other day and I have to say this is completely opposite from what I was expecting, first off I was worried that there was going to be a lot of gross humor and the kids might be more annoying than funny, but it turn out that this was one of the funniest movies I have seen this year.
He and Paul Rudd both worked so well together and were terrific on screen, this was the last duo on Earth that I expected such great laughs from.Wheeler and Danny both work for an energy drink company, but after a very hard day for Danny he crashes their company truck on school property, but his ex-girlfriend, Beth, who is a lawyer is able to get them just 150 hours community service with two kids, one is a total dungeons and dragons nerd and the other is just a pain in the butt.
You know how the story goes, Danny learns how to be happy and Wheeler finally grows up into a more father figure role.Now the story is something we have seen a million times before, but it's still a great comedy.
Role Models - Two energy drink spokesmen, Wheeler and Danny (Seann William Scott and Paul Rudd) get in trouble with the law after Danny has a break-up with his girlfriend (Elizabeth Banks who is in everything these days).
For their service, the two men work at a program called Sturdy Wings that is designed to pair kids with adult role models.Personally I avoided it until now because it just sounded like another lame American bawdy comedy about two slacker dudes who create chaos and then grow up by the end credits.
Paul Rudd is perfect as the miserable Danny and Sean William Scott is perfectly cast as the free-living, but unfortunate Wheeler.The film manages to tread that fine line between cliché ridden schmaltz (Like 27 dresses) and refreshingly enjoyable comedies (Like Something About Mary) with a deft touch, the direction is sure footed and manages to deliver a surprise ending that I would never have guessed from how it began.A laugh out loud comedy that exceeds expectations..
Role Models isn't the sort of movie you'd expect to be the exception, but nonetheless delivers quality film-making, quality writing and acting, and plenty of life-lessons as well as raunchy humor to keep you laughing throughout.
The transition is very slow and gradually actually improves the film as it rolls on.Role Models follows two slackers, a bitter one (Rudd) and a rowdy, horny freebird (William Scott) being forced to community service after a mishap outside a school.
Last but not least we must applaud Christopher Mintz-Plasse as he delivers another grand geeky performance that mixes humor with heart.What separates incredible rated-R comedies like The 40-Year-Old Virgin and There's Something About Mary from stinkers like Scary Movie 2, Superbad, and My Best Friend's Girl is how much raunchy material is presented and its timing.
The epic finale is long, but ludicrous, and wraps up the story very nicely.Bottom Line: It usually isn't my nature to give a film with dozens of cleavage jokes a high score (especially with my hate affair with Dane Cook), but Role Models is surprisingly cute, surprisingly sweet, and delightfully hilarious and touching.
Miraculously enough though the threadbare premise is held together by enough jokes and amusing moments to make the thing worthwhile, largely due to the continued comedic stylings of one Paul Rudd, and the strength of the various supporting bit parts on display throughout.When allotted their respective 'littles' (Danny and Wheeler are 'bigs') by Sturdy Wings boss and recovering alcoholic Sweeney (Jane Lynch) we immediately see where this is going.Danny considers himself 'normal', but in reality he is so concerned with not being deemed 'uncool' that his disdain for cliché and obvious statements leaves everyone else bored by his constant judgment.
Of course he is allocated troubled young 8ish Ronnie, a profane little sh*t-stirrer who wants nothing more than to not have to deal with adults.Each kid has parental issues – but ones that don't kill the potential laughs – no abuse here, and the guys must get through to the children in their own way, and sucks; maybe learn a little about themselves on the way
What develops is a rom-com with all the associated hijinks, temporary fall-outs and hitches, only between an adult male and a kid/youth, but that's not where the laughs are born.Role Models works best in the smaller roles, the now renowned Ken Jeong keeps his pants on this time and plays the King of the role playing game L.A.I.R.E., surrounded by his toadying minions and remaining in character even away from the game in his kingdom at the local cafe.
Jane Lynch is a little OTT with the attempted mind games as the Sturdy Wings boss, but she also gets a few of the best lines in the flick, and there are numerous other bit roles – each with a couple jokes – filled by character actors that'll have you remembering them from other bit roles in other flicks.The jokes are thrown about quick and fast, and while some don't work enough do to make Role Models a lot like I Love You, Man and Knocked Up, lightweight and amusing enough to justify your time, with occasional genuine humour (and unexpected nudity!).Final Rating – 6 / 10.
The capsule summary of "Role Models" on Xfinity TV is, "Forced to join a mentorship program, two irresponsible men (Seann William Scott, Paul Rudd) must help a pair of impressionable boys navigate the troubled waters of youth." That description sounds like a smarmy physical comedy derivative with cheap scatological bits.
Jane Lynch is hilarious as the head of the community service center, "ideal" role model Gary is perfect for making us see these two morons in a better light, and Ken Jeong is perfect as the King of the Realm (watch the movie for full understanding).
Along their assignment, Danny and Wheeler feel sometimes that it would be better off going to jail; but in the end, they feel happier with their lives.The overrated "Role Models" is a brainless film that certainly makes laugh with the stupidities of Danny, Wheeler, Augie, Ronnie and Sweeny.
But after seeing this crap, I got the idea he wasn't putting in any effort, along with Paul Rudd who was "Mike" in Friends, whom I thought was hilarious in the show.Rudd basically plays a bit of a whiner, which I thought would have been funny if the movie had progressed properly with a bit of direction with his complaints, but no,he just remains the same throughout, in all honesty, he just wasn't funny at all, which was disappointing because I actually like the actor which was one of the main reasons for going to see this.
Along with a lot of cursing, (mostly from the black kid, which was all he did) and the pointless nudity scenes with William Scott(were they trying to add American pie scenes into this to make it funny?), this movie could have been aimed towards kids.Like I said, a few laughs, not many.
It wasn't the kind of movie like Superbad or Pineapple Express where super hilarious but not much of a story, but it was almost there in funniness (I couldn't think of any other word to put here and no, 'comedy' would not have worked).
Role ModelsDirected by David Wain.Starring Paul Rudd, Seann William Scott and Elizabeth Banks.Apparently no longer content with playing second fiddle to Seth Rogen and Steve Carell, Paul Rudd steps firmly into the limelight for "Role Models." Rudd's big break has been long overdue; the actor is most popular for peppering already funny movies with his supporting roles.
You have Paul Rudd and Sean William Scott, as two guys forced into community service work as Big Brothers or else face jail time.
There's no doubt about it, David Wain's movie is a lot more amusing than your average farcical comedy fare, and it has a sweet story too, but it too often falls on its face because of a sense of ill-focused material; Role Models is entertaining stuff sure, but an incoherency in tone prevents the film from ever taking off and connecting with its audience.As mentioned above, the script here (penned by a list of writers I won't even begin to name check) follows a rather standard three act curve.
Teaming up with Paul Rudd to write the screenplay, Wain gathered an impressive cast for this film, featuring Paul Rudd, Seann William Scott, Christopher Mintz- Plasse (McLovin from "Superbad"), a presumably unknown but very solid child actor in Bobb'e J.
I've always enjoyed Paul Rudd, and he's terrific here as well, Seann William Scott can be either hilarious or annoying, but he's genuinely good here, Elizabeth Banks is growing into a fine actress, and just a week after her really great turn in "Zack and Miri Make a Porno", she has a (much smaller) but still worthy role in "Role Models" as Rudd's estranged girlfriend.
Judd Apatow and Kevin Smiths movies create a more suitable marriage of sentimental sweetness and raunchy gags (and yes, Kevin Smith was doing the sentimental thing well before "Zack and Miri Make a Porno", regardless of what cynics might say) because they are generally dialogue-driven, character-based comedies, but the issue with "Role Models" is that it tries to be driven by sight gags as much as by dialogue, and ends up falling flat when it goes for the sugary sweetness.
Beth gets them community service and they become big brothers to Augie (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) who's obsessed with Live-Action-Interactive-Role playing-Explorers (basically LARP) and foul-mouthed Ronnie (Bobb'e J.
Here below is why I think this film is a good one.The story as said is funny yet warm and although is mostly humour of which can be sometimes very crude(mostly from Seann William Scott), it is still warm also and the ending as you may see is really quite happy and tender.
It is fast comedy and things start straight away as you will see, the story is very simple but it works well enough anyway and you should laugh if at least not once, just go with the flow and have fun is all you need to like it, trust me it can be good.Paul Rudd in his ever comedic role is good in the main role with previously mentioned William Scott providing comedic cover in the supporting if not not shared main role.
One point when the directing of David Wain comes in is when they play this pretend fight game and the entire shot must have been very difficult to direct as so much goes on, the scene itself is hilarious by the way, and+ the scene has some great costumes as does many parts of the film so look out for them.It isn't the most solid comedy and not every joke is funny to be fair, most are I think but when they are not funny they are sometime in between funny jokes and so you laugh and then think "what was that" in two seconds.
The acting isn't awesome and although Paul Rudd is experienced at this with such showings in Anchorman, he is the best comedic performer by far, William Scott is funny too though.I think most people who enjoy slightly crude humour will enjoy this and some people will have big laughs.
So the movie is about these two guys Danny and Wheeler who are sentenced to community service and what they have to do is be big brothers to these two kids that they cannot stand.The strong points in the movie are the sarcastic lines that Paul Rudd gives and the antics Bobb'e J.
What I do enjoy is that they don't hold over Paul Rudd romance side plot too much in the story they stick by the guys trying to get along with these kids.This is directed by David Wain he hasn't directed notable stuff but he has directed episodes of Children's Hospitol, which is a pretty funny show.Overall this is a funny comedy not the best but worth a watch I say a solid rental..
Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott = Great Role Models.
The story follows Danny (Rudd) and Wheeler (Scott) as two representatives for an energy drink company who are placed into community service to avoid jail time.
Their interactions with the kids; one a foul mouthed 8 year old, the other an obsessed role-player of a D&D-like game, is also spot-on.What makes the films and jokes work - it has heart.
Watch this if you want some thick guys' humor for a night with a couple of buds or whatever, it's manufactured fun for you so it can't be a disaster as long as you're totally permeable.It's not as good as often promoted, lots of the film relies on two-way semantic humor, the typical sexual innuendo type, the usual despondency of the modern working man tired of his life and generally cynical, there's a bit of social commentary in the mix what with parenthood and all...It's okay, but as a more structure-oriented critique, as central to the whole plot as it is surely this film spends too much time in the geeky role-playing realm there.
As for a review of the actual movie, Role Models is a comedy that's a bit more palatable to female tastes than the average film of this kind.
"Role Models" is from a time long ago in a galaxy far away where Seann William Scott had equal billing and stature with Paul Rudd and both could be ably supported by lesser knowns like Elizabeth Banks, Jane Lynch, and Ken Jeong (in short, well before "Ant-Man," "Pitch Perfect," "Glee," and "The Hangover").
Role Models is a good movie with an enjoyable storyline and a great comedic cast.I did enjoy the movie, it had plenty of very funny scenes, but plenty of scenes that wern't do funny as well.I was honestly disappointed by this movie ,the cast was very promising, especially Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott,two hilarious actors together in what seemed like such a great set up, but it really just didn't live up to my expectations.Seann William Scott's character was definitely my favourite and I also really liked and Bobb'e J.Thompson's character was also one of the funniest.There are certainly several funny moments but also some not so funny moments,however , I would recommend Role Models to anyone looking for a fun comedy.Two irresponsible salesmen are priced to act as unlikely role models for two wayward kids..
Role Models, sort of a second grade Apatow or McKay production, is distressing from end to end.The premise augured a good dose of humour though, but it is the complete opposite that occurred and one realizes really quickly the intergalactic void that is this movie.The dialogues are of a rarely achieved dreadfulness, and the scenes are for the most part really bad, badly filmed, badly edited, and flow together in a total disinterest, not to mention the cliché psychology and moral.Almost all the gags fall flat and can't manage to raise the already abyssal level of a script that goes nowhere.William Scott and Rudd also weigh down the movie, not helped by their bland and uninteresting characters.
Luckily, the director, David Wain, has his own way of doing things, not too dissimilar to Apatow's bunch, which is to fill in these plot points with fantastic comic actors and enough improvisation to impress the Upright Citizens convention.So, in short, the movie is very funny, sometimes so much so that you'll laugh for several seconds just about what you just laughed at (the Marvin Hamlisch line in this instance was one of those, plus anything having to do with KISS), and features Paul Rudd in another good disaffected-character turn and Seann William Scott's funniest in so long as I can remember.
I have seen and loved many comedies, especially movies compatible to Role Models, but Role Models is just as funny as Superbad, if not funnier.Seann William Scott is basically Stifler, and Paul Rudd is all his characters in previous movies (starting with Anchorman) combined.
Thompson also threw in great roles as the "little's" to Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott, respectively.It's hard to say why this movie is so funny because there's no reason for it: it just is.
That didn't fell like it belonged in a movie that is meant to be a crude adult comedy.However despite the negatives Role Models was still funny and was worth seeing.
'Role Models' is one of those movies that makes you want to see it really bad after you see the trailer.So let me tell you that the anticipation is certainly worth it.This is a funny,raunchy,and entertaining comedy that beats other comedies like 'Knocked Up,'Superbad',and 'The 40-Year Old Virgin.'The plot is simple: 2 friends trying to sell an energy drink cause an accident that leads them to community service,where they have to take care of two adolescents,one who lives in a fantasy world,and the other is a foul mouthed brat who loves to pull pranks.Now that you know the plot,you should know that this is a very funny and fun-to-watch movie.Thank you Paul Rudd and Sean William Scott..
This movie was thus a great surprise, as it is absolutely hilarious.The four main characters (Rudd, Scott, Plasse and Thompson) are way too good in this movie, and a lot of the supporting actors, especially Jane Lynch, are on as well.
Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott are the two leads this time, and they are incredibly funny together, whilst Superbad's Christopher Mintz-Plasse, newcomer Bobb'e J.
Seann William Scott and Paul Rudd show a great on-screen chemistry in this movie which really makes it worth watching. |
tt2404233 | Gods of Egypt | An opening voice-over states that according to a legend, Egypt was the birthplace of civilization. The gods co-existed among the mortals and created the flourishing land for them to share. The son of Ra, Osiris, ruled over the land, while his brother Set was relegated to the desert, to his anger. The time has come for Horus, the son of Osiris, to take his place as king.A mortal young man named Bek (Brenton Thwaites) steals a dress from a vendor in the market to give to his beloved Zaya (Courtney Eaton). They are preparing to go to the coronation event later that day.Horus (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) is passed out from a wild event of drinking with the gods the previous night. His beloved woman is Hathor (Elodie Yung), the goddess of love.The time comes for the coronation to take place. Bek and Zaya, along with nearly the whole city, is in attendance. Osiris (Bryan Brown) and his wife Isis (Rachael Blake) bring their son forward and are prepared to pass leadership to him, when Set (Gerard Butler) arrives at the last minute with a gift for Horus, a battle horn. Horus blows into it, summoning Set's army to the front. Turns out Set is staging a coup against his brother and nephew. He demands Osiris to battle him, but he refuses. Set stabs Osiris in the abdomen, leaving him to bleed gold and die. Enraged, Horus transforms into his winged god form, while Set morphs into his dog-like form. They battle in front of everyone, but Set gains the upper hand and is ready to kill Horus until Hathor kneels before him so that Horus may be spared. Set orders all the gods and mortals to kneel before him, and he plucks out both of Horus's all-seeing eyes.A year passes, and all of Egypt is under Set's rule. Those who do not follow him are either left dead or thrown into slavery, like Zaya. Bek frequently visits her in secrecy while her cruel master Urshu (Rufus Sewell) tends to his business with Set, which is building monuments in his honor. Zaya says that only Horus can save them, but he needs his eyes, which are kept in Set's vaults.Bek sneaks into one of the vaults and overcomes three bridges that are booby-trapped. He reaches the end, but he finds only one of Horus's eyes. Still, it is powerful and bright enough to ward off scorpions from down below.Bek returns to Urshu's home to rescue Zaya. Urshu and his guards are already waiting for him. Bek pulls out the eye to release a blinding white light, allowing him and Zaya to escape. Unfortunately, during the escape, Zaya is struck by an arrow shot by Urshu. She tells Bek she'll always love him and that death won't keep them apart. She dies before Bek knows it.Bek arrives at Horus's home where the disgraced god lives in squalor. He asks Horus for help, but he refuses until Bek brings out the eye. The two of them briefly duel until Bek says he can get him his other eye if he helps bring Zaya back to life. Horus promises, despite the truth being that it is impossible. For now, Horus summons Anubis (Goran D. Kleut) to guide her toward the afterlife, but Bek must rescue her before she reaches the final gate.Set learns that his vault was broken into. He travels to Horus's now empty home and finds Zaya's body lying under the floor, knowing what is going on. Set later sends his army toward the home of another god, Nephthys (Emma Booth), who was Horus's wife. He cruelly strikes her down and cuts off her wings.Horus brings Bek to the top of a pyramid to pray to his grandfather Ra (Geoffrey Rush) for help. Ra answers his prayer and allows him to morph into his god form so that he may fly up with Bek to Ra's home near the sun. Ra is constantly fighting Apep, the serpent god of chaos that appears as a gigantic black cloud. Horus seeks his grandfather's help to defeat Set. Horus is allowed to take special water from the Nile to hydrate the deserts and take away Set's power.Hathor, who has been kept as Set's slave, chooses to rebel against him. She grabs her bracelet, which wards off evil spirits, and she takes it off, which plunges her into the world of the evil spirits until she puts it back on and is transported somewhere far from Set.Horus and Bek are in the desert and are pursued by Set's hunters, Astarte (Yaya Deng) and Atat (Abbey Lee), both riding enormous fire-breathing serpents. The villains chase after the heroes. Horus traps Atat onto her serpent as it rides over the edge of a cliff to their deaths. Hathor arrives and commands Astarte's serpent to set itself on fire, killing itself and Astarte.The three continue their journey. In order to get into the vault to retrieve the other eye, they must pass the riddle of the Sphinx. They go to the temple of Thoth (Chadwick Boseman), the god of wisdom. Before entering, Hathor commands Bek to get her some water, but because his heart belongs to another, her powers don't work on him. He tells her about Zaya. Hathor is able to contact Zaya from beyond worlds to let her know that Bek is trying to rescue her.Although highly knowledgeable, Thoth is vain and has multiple copies of himself doing work for him. Bek plays on his ego and gets him to help them. He joins the three as they encounter the Sphinx. The Sphinx recites the riddle, and Thoth answers, but his first two guesses are incorrect. He decides to think as a mortal instead of a god, and he gets the answer right. The heroes find the eye, and Bek is preparing to pour the water to stop Set, until Set himself shows up. He steals Thoth's brain and tells Bek that he knows what Horus promised him, and that he cannot bring Zaya back. Set takes the water and pours it out.Set travels to Ra's home and expresses his anger over his destiny. He criticizes Ra for not allowing him to have children. Ra says it was part of a test that he has yet to pass. Ra wanted Set to take over his own duties to fight Apep, but Set instead duels his father and takes Ra's spear, impaling him. Set sends Ra over the edge, thus allowing Apep to break free and begin tearing through Egypt.Hathor gives Bek her bracelet to bring to Zaya so she may have something to offer before entering the afterlife. Hathor is then pulled away by the evil spirits. Anubis takes Bek to Zaya to give her the amulet, but Apep's arrival means the gate to the afterlife is sealed. Bek returns to the mortal world and reunites with Horus, despite feeling betrayed by him. Meanwhile, Set's armor is upgraded with Nephthys' wings, Thoth's brain, Horus's eye, and Ra's spear. He summons Apep toward him.Horus morphs into his falcon form once again and begins to fight Set. They battle across the top of the pyramid, while Bek is cornered by Urshu. After a brief fight, Bek manages to push Urshu over the edge to his death. Bek manages to pry the eye off of Set, getting himself mortally wounded in the process. Bek tosses the eye to Horus, but the god chooses to rescue Bek as he falls over the side of the pyramid. Horus brings Bek to safety and then flies up to continue fighting Set until he manages to weaken his uncle. Horus takes Ra's spear and impales Set, destroying him for good. He flies back to recover Ra and return his spear, allowing him to hold Apep away once again.A little village girl gives Horus his eye back, and the people of Egypt cheer for him freeing them. Horus then goes to Bek, moments before he dies. He brings his body back to his home to lay next to Zaya. Ra appears and thanks Horus, saying he owes him a debt. Horus says he wants what cannot be given. Ra knows what it means, and he uses his power to bring Bek and Zaya back to life. They awaken and kiss.Horus is then properly made king to rule over Egypt, while Thoth and Nephthys are also brought back to life. Horus then takes Hathor's bracelet and decides to go rescue her. He leaves Bek, now Horus's advisor, to make sure Egypt is left in good hands. | comedy, murder, violence, flashback, good versus evil, psychedelic, humor, romantic, tragedy, revenge | train | imdb | It is an excellent movie, it is fun, full of action and actually does not insult ancient Egyptian religion..
I thought this movie had great effects, a pretty good story line, and very likable characters.
In this spectacular action-adventure inspired by the classic mythology of Egypt, the survival of mankind hangs in the balance as an unexpected mortal hero Bek (Brenton Thwaites) undertakes a thrilling journey to save the world and rescue his true love.
This was a movie I was really looking forward to as i love Egyptian mythology, the effects are awesome, acting is good, Nikolaj Costar-Waldau and Gerard Butler make exciting opponents, good fighting scenes, fair amount of appearance by many different Egyptian gods.
Just ignore the negative reviews, sit back and enjoy the show :) Indeed, it may even be one of the best movies which has a plot in ancient Egypt in the last few years.
Runtime is over two hours which passes away in a jinx since the action is non stop and there are always new extraordinary god characters on screen with different skill sets, good and evil characters with lots of variety.
Ethnically inaccurate casting choices--yeah, it would have been nice to see a more authentic cast, but these actors got the job done, and that is no reason to skip the movie if you like this sort of film, in my opinion.
Whereas a film like "Pan" bludgeons us over the head with its disgusting cynicism and disrespect for the source material by portraying its titular hero as a clichéd messiah figure, Proyas directs with the exuberance of a kid in Disneyland - with Disneyland replaced with an Egyptian museum exhibit – eager at the chance to create his own action packed tale while still respecting the gods as, well, gods.What is there to say about the plot, except that it has gods and it has Egypt?
Well, this is one such movie, but with a blockbuster budget and the added pleasure of having Proyas wrapping the fun around with his wonderful thought-provoking visuals and production design, and going wild with this thing.
This is eye candy on a spectacular scale, and audiences won't get short-changed.Bear with me here, but if you were to replace the cast with genuine Egyptian actors, I think the film would be mired in even bigger controversies because it will definitely look more inaccurate and seemingly insulting than it supposedly already is.
He gives the impression that, after he takes over the world of the living and the world of the dead, his next target is Hollywood itself.In fact, the lesser known stars give the better textured performances and connect with the audience.Give it a chance -- as a love story that riffs off some extremely misunderstood Egyptian myths and succeeds in spite of itself, it works a treat..
So, this is a big budget action and special effects movie about Egyptian gods battling each other to rule the world, right?
Visually dazzling, a soaring musical score, satisfying play-to-the-back-row acting, interesting and somewhat unfamiliar mythological characters, amazing costumes and set pieces--I think this film delivered on all fronts.
We recommend that you set this concern aside and enjoy the many pleasures The Gods of Egypt offers--a no-expenses-spared B movie that presents striking and immersive visuals, appealing characters, and a clear understanding of its limitations and aspirations.
I ignored the bigotry of other reviewers and am glad I saw it.This is a remarkable entertaining movie.The cast, scenery and effects are beautiful.The 3D is fantastic here.The script is linear and heart touching.This movie lets us experience what the people of ancient Egypt imagined of their gods.
Despite the snobbish critics reviews I thoroughly enjoyed my relaxing afternoon in the theater watching Gods of Egypt.
When we go to the movies, we are expecting to be entertained, based on the expectations we go into it with based on movie type, actors , TV spots and our overall love of certain genres.Ancient Egypt is a fascination for a lot of people , not only its spectacular architecture, but because of the tales of the same sorts of things we go through in this modern era, spun from the point of view of Gods intermingling with humans.Betrayal sets the scene for the story of fathers and sons, friends and lovers and the often hardships they go through amidst in this case, a towering city of Gold where Gods govern among their human counterparts.A solid musical score sets the tone for very decent effects, supporting a tale of love surrounding jealousy, immortal battles , teamwork & a clash of good vs hatred.A world not unlike what we sometimes find ourselves in, will whisk you into a fantasy world , drop you into a bittersweet tale , and leave you with a few questions.Egypt whether ancient or current era is a fascinating topic, and this move portrays a tale from a ancient past in a positive light with a fantastical twist that most users will enjoy.There are a few scenes that parents ( some adults) will want to be cautious about , so ratings apply as always, but overall they found a decent balance between the depiction of graphic violence ( not gratuitous )and telling a story of love , jealousy and ultimate triumph, all through the lens of a place in time we've all come, rightfully so, fascinated by.Worth watching..
Gods of Egypt was directed by Alex Proyas, the very same director that also brought us movies like The Crow, Dark City and I, Robot.
While I liked at least two of those movies, I think Proyas has gone completely insane this time.Gods of Egypt is without a doubt, no matter how you approach it, one of the biggest turds of 2016 (bold statement).
Yes effects are really good in this movie and it simply got hold of your attention as everything look so real and authentic that you feel being part of it.
Story is very good and not even one second boring, there is no wasting of time here, each and every second of movie is used 100% and truly there is no dull moment, absolutely no soap opera-things are very serious here, no shallow emotions life and death are constantly present like shadow and light, darkness and sun.
I don't know whether I will fire up someone attention to see this movie and hopefully watch it with open mind and not damaged by bad reviews and ratings,thus allow himself to fully experience beauty and greatness of this movie.
I'm extremely impressed to see this excellent movie based on ancient Egypt that is certainly for me this movie has done justice for the money invested.Critics are again all over the fact that predominantly white actors are playing Egyptians, oh come on!
Isn't that what going to the movies is all about with this genre of film?I did not expect a documentary, or academic deep dive into who, what and why ancient Egyptians (whoever they were, Nubian, black, white, rainbow) believe in their gods.
I love this movie, it is very good, spectacular and artistic.I liked the actors...
Though I sound like I'm saying it's bad in these aspects, I thought they did a great job of explaining the characters and creating a clearly understandable story.
I don't know why the negative reviewers are being so "salty" towards this movie i seriously don't, it has good actors, amazing, stunning graphical effects and the lore.
It's definitely a movie to watch in a cinema or a big screen, if this is your movie genre i promise you, you wont be bored watching the movie, quite the contrary, you'll be Amazed and entertained, this is the future of adventure and action movies if the hating people can't accept the change then don't watch simple as that, the negative reviews just make me mad be cause they make no since and talk about things that don't even relate to the movie "the money spent in this movie could go to the people of Egypt"..
I wasn't too fond of the commercials or the trailer for Gods Of Egypt, I just thought it looked like a B-movie from Netflix.
Before you watch this movie, which you should, it's a really good time, see the 3D version, this is the only movie released so far this year that uses it correctly, and it helps the action look slicker and shinier and makes the green-screen look better and make the actors standing in front of it pop out more fluidly.
Don't listen to the harsh people- just watch it and enjoy the fresh, crisp action and observe the cool visuals(like I said, see the 3D screening, it adds something to the superb special effects)..
I watched this movie with a lot of reservations - Europeans and American Actors portraying Egyptian God & Goddess?
In other words, it's crap.Not only pilfering the Egyptian pantheon but unable to make anything of it, Gods of Egypt pictures its titular characters like temperamental imbeciles, almighty beings only able to settle their quarrels by way of bad one-liners and fisticuffs.
At least the characters aren't running around chasing some idiot ring that only destroys them...This actually is a film about mythology with plenty of dazzling action and the good old tried and true absolute evil vs the power of love.
There was a bunch of interesting ideas.Action-packed,and it teaches us a lesson about judging a person's worth.Critics are morons.So in my humble opinion,this was a wonderful sci-fi fantasy movie with gorgeous costumes, rich artistic design and a fun story.
Quit taking yourself so seriously and go and have fun at the movies for a change!!!!I'm talking to the professional critics,You got it way wrong on this film!!!
I've always loved the Egyptian myth, and I was glad to see this movie's world was creative and visually great to look at.
I expect these movies to be reviewed fairly in comparison with others in the same genre and in that regards this movie scores a straight 9/10 for a solid engaging story telling well acted and directed with excellent visual effects and some great costumes that glorifies this period and does justice!!
Gods of Egypt wasn't the movie I set out to watch, last Saturday, but, boy, am I glad that my first choice was unavailable.
And then there's "Gods of Egypt", a movie so bad it makes the rest of your life better in comparison.
It might ask you to question why you're stuck in a dead end job while the people involved with the movie in question got paid millions to push out this torrid drivel.But there's good news, God's of Egypt is even worse than that!
I enjoyed this over the top extravagant adventure set in Ancient Egypt.Good points: The script cleverly uses the legends of the Egyptian gods.
There were times they felt a bit cheap considering the big budget of 140 million dollars of the movie.I really like the humorous conversations between Bek (Brenton Thwaites) and Horus(Nikolaj Coaster-Waldau), the god of sky.
Although it would be nicer to see a bit more of his character's background.Overall this movie offers a fun, humorous, entertaining story in a fantasy world filled with magical powers of gods and hatred and love.
This is a far better movie.Maybe people just don't like Egypt.
I enjoyed every minute of this dumb fantasy movie and I'm proud to say it!I wanted to watch this movie in the first place because I wanted some ancient Egypt vibes, Nikolaj Coaster-Waldau and Gerard Butler of course as well, and I got it all.
Also another reason why I love this mythological references in it as a connoisseur on folklore and myth.Set in a time in ancient Egypt where the gods live among the humans, vengeful Set killed his brother King Osiris, usurp the throne from his nephew Prince Horus on his coronation and plucked his mystical eyes as well.
The Alex Proyas fantasy film 'Gods of Egypt', which for the first time in a while vilifies the Award-winning actor Gerard Butler as the Egyptian god of War, Set, also elevates seasoned actor Nikolaj Coaster-Waldau (you may recognize him for his role as Jaime Lannister in Game of Thrones).Set in the mythological world of a bountiful Egypt, a place christened as 'heaven on Earth' where the gods have decided to settle among the human race and rule over it, Osiris is handing over his crown and throne to his son Horus (played by Nikolaj), at a profligate ceremony that sees Egyptians from all over the realm come to pay homage and celebrate the millennium of peace they have graciously enjoyed under the incumbent.The god of War, Set, who happens to be Osiris' brother, comes to spoil the party for his nephew however, as he forcefully takes over the reigns in what would soon prove to become a blood-thirsty selfish onslaught for power and dominance.
Their love, which literally knows no boundaries, pushes men and gods alike to jettison all fear and restraint, in a battle to save the realms of both beings from total chaos.An unlikely pair of Horus (light) and Bek end up journeying through the fantastic world of Egypt, and the realm of the 'creator', the god Ra, as they seek to get back Horus' abilities, as well as his self-worth and belief, in order to mount up a challenge against the increasingly insurmountable Set, who usurps the powers of other gods in his quest for supremacy.While the film may have, and continue to, receive a lot of flak for its lack of casting diversity, which pundits have declared is partly the source of its globally lackluster performance at the Box Office, one cannot take away from it the epic yet sternly successful proportions to which the producers and directors have gone to further the obsession with Egypt and its archaeological and mythological history to produce a stunning film.'Gods of Egypt' may be laden with a weak script, but it will take you on a pleasurable journey into the majesty envisioned of Egyptian deities, breathtaking landscapes and a plunge into how high (Set's tower not withstanding) the stakes are in the age-old battle of light versus darkness..
Alex Proyas, the director of great movies like Dark City and Knowing did an excellent job.
To have a good time and leave the world behind for a few hours.That being said this film while not perfect moved along at a steady pace that few films of this type do nowadays, there is hardly a dull moment here as Gerard Butler and Nikolaj Coaster-Waldau battle each other as good and bad gods Set and Horus and take us the audience along with them.The 3D could have been a bit better all around but some of the set pieces and action scenes made me turn to my movie companion and say that was pretty cool.
I loved that show as a kid and that's why I decided to give this take on Egyptian mythology a go.I'm glad I did.As mention earlier, I was concerned that I want get much of why this guy looks like that or who is this god again?
But the movie, being targeted at the general public that has no idea who these guys are, and knowing it, took it's time to introduce as to the workings of that universe and all the characters and did it flawlessly without taking us away from the story.The things I liked- the visuals and landscapes.
With Gods of Egypt, it almost felt like it wasn't an Alex Proyas film.
The cast has some very big banes in it and as much as all the cast played their roles exceptional the main characters are a stand out with people like Ge3offery Rush, Brenton Thwaites, Nikolaj Coaster-Waldau, Elodie Yung and Gerard Butler to name just a few.This is a classic good Vs evil scenario with the Gods of Egypt under siege by the evil Set, but without the help of the mortals, then only can Egypt be taken out of the throes of the evil God Set.The screen jumps with magic, it is a movie with no slow parts, no gaps where you are not visually entertained.
This movie is worth watching if you like Sc-Fi. I don't know if every ancient God and Egypt that are portrayed are historically correct but it is not meant to be a documentary but a thrilling and exciting good Vs evil movie that packs a punch visually and with the actor's presence, Fantastic..
Maybe it is a director's way to see the agent Egypt, but to me it felt almost like B-movie set.
As it is a digital rumble effect movie it is not too bad, but I myself like too much of agent Egypt mythology to enjoy this movie story.
If you enjoy CGI-effects and don't bother so much of the story you may find this movie entertaining.
But it worked for me.If you enjoy a good fantasy movie with roots in actual ancient history, then "Gods of Egypt" is definitely worth your time and money.
Children will love this movie, and adults can appreciate a film that finally explores Egyptian mythology in a big budget story..
An action-adventure movie inspired by the classic mythology of Egypt, that is enjoyable and fun at times, but not very good in general.
Alex Proyas "Gods of Egypt" feels like a bad video game that I don't want to play again..
When I go to the theatre watch a fantasy or sci-fi movie I am hoping to be swept away to another place and time.I think ancient Egypt had a great many thing going for it I mean it had the pyramids the sphinx but it had countless temples and stories that a lot of people have never heard of am i saying that its accurate of course not. |
tt1905040 | The Dyatlov Pass Incident | Note: The Dyatlov Pass Incident was a real-life incident which occurred in February 1959 on the Kholat Syakhl mountain, part of the Ural Mountain range in what was then the territory of the Russian SFSR, Soviet Union. Nine hikers of Russian origin died in sub-zero conditions after fleeing their tents into the night on February 2nd for unknown reasons. Soviet investigators, unable to come up with a viable explanation, attributed the deaths to "compelling natural forces", closing the case due to a lack of evidence of any criminal element being involved and sealing off the site of the incident for three years. The Incident is still subject to popular scrutiny today by people around the world.Note: This film is of the "found footage" genre, and as such, one of the "students" (cast members) is always "filming" unless stated otherwise.----------------------------------------The film opens with a series of grisly black and white images showing bodies of the nine Russian hikers who died in the 1959 incident, with superimposed text stating they were found dead two weeks later after venturing into the wilderness of the Ural mountains. This has become known as the Dyatlov Pass Incident.We cut to a scene of University of Oregon psychology student Holly King (Holly Goss) who does a short description of the Incident and her intent to make a film together with her fellow student, Jenson Day (Matt Stokoe) for a university project. Their psychology professor, Dr Martha Kittles expects her students to "do more than come up with more than a believable explanation", and wants them to put themselves in the place of the original hikers in order to better understand why they did what they did. Day seems highly skeptical of the official account of the Incident, and declares that "we're gonna find out the truth".King further outlines the specifics of their trip to Russia, flying from Oregon to Moscow and then to Chelyabinsk, before reaching the mountain. Ominously, she outlines the etymology of their destination, Kholat Syakhl, the "mountain of the dead", supposedly named as such by the local Mansi tribe due to a "number of mysterious deaths and disappearances throughout history"Joining them are veteran climbers Andy Thatcher (Ryan Hawley), JP Hauser (Luke Albright) and audio engineer Denise Evers (Gemma Atkinson), also students from the university. The team trains on local skiing slopes until they depart for Russia on January 25th.The next scene is a news report on 5 missing Oregon students - ostensibly our protagonists, and describes a search by Russian authorities which discovered remains of a campsite with personal effects belonging to the students. Another news report then comes up, this time a Russian channel, which hosts several "experts" who offer theories ranging from a tragic accident to the "Yeti", to "extraterrestrial spaceships" to account for the missing hikers. Notably, the local inhabitants from the Mansi tribe interviewed have their own theory, where they believe that the disappearance is attributed to a "place where two worlds collide, where you can step form one world to another into the world of spirits".In a third (and final) news report, it is stated that authorities recovered video footage shot by the Oregon hikers, refusing to release the contents to the public, and a group of hackers managed to acquire and release the footage instead. Part of it is shot in night-vision mode, showing a terrified Holly crying in the dark while a unnerved Jenson tries to comfort her. The footage cuts to black.One month earlier.We have a scene of happier times, where our students have arrived in Russia and are taking a train from Chelyabinsk to the town of Evdel (sic). Holly starts interviewing the rest of her crew, questioning their rationales for coming along on the trip. Andy remarks on an angel wing tattoo that Holly has behind her right ear.They arrive in the town of Evdel, and set about attempting to interview a local inhabitant, Piotr Karov, who was the tenth and final member of the Dyatlov party, but fell sick at the last minute and had to back out of their expedition. Apparently, he had a mental breakdown after the Dyatlov incident and has been warded in the town's psychiatric facility ever since. The students approach the sanitarium, and an orderly-in-charge (Leonid Lutvinskiy) flanked by two other orderlies comes out, and angrily demands that they stop filming, later imploring that they leave and go home. Holly asks why they can't interview Karov, but the in-charge claims that Karov is dead, and again angrily demands that they leave before storming off. Moments later, the students see an old man in the window of an upper floor, and wonder aloud if that is Karov, before the old man holds up a hand-drawn sign with the Russian for "stay away" on it. Naturally, our students don't understand, but before Holly can ask the old man to clarify, he is escorted away from the window by two orderlies.That night, they all find a local bar and the bartender puts them in touch with Sergei, who is going to be driving a truck to the town closest to the trailhead they'll be departing from, and the next morning they get to the town. Sergei asks them if they'd like to interview his aunt, who was one of the searchers who went up to recover the Dyatlov group. At the interview, she relates that there were 11 hikers found, not the official 9 and that the last two had a "machine" with them and were "worse than the others".The party finally heads out on foot. Andy and Denise begin to become playful with each other. They spend the night in their tents and the next morning find large yeti-like footprints around their tents. However, these footprints begin suddenly and end just as suddenly. JP and Andy are not amused and accuse Holly of making the prints. She denies this strongly. At one point during the day they see more prints, and hear strange noises. They find an abandoned weather station and are shocked when they find a severed human tongue inside it. At a stop, Holly and Jenson are separate from the others and discuss how they each had events in their lives that foreshadowed this trip. With Jenson it was during an acid trip and with Holly it was recurrent nightmares and seeing "a door". In the far background are seen two humanoid-looking figures slipping by, but none of the party notices them.The second night, they arrive early at the pass. Too early as it turns out, something strange has happened to time. Also, none of their GPS devices or compasses are working. Jenson and Holly go exploring and pick up radioactivity on their Geiger counter. This leads them to a heavy metal door buried in a hill side. They note that it locks from the outside (to keep something IN), and that the lock is open. However the door is stuck and they decide to go back and not mention it to the others.Around the campfire, Andy and Denise flirt and retire to a tent together where they make love. Holly and JP also pair off. Just at dawn, their is an avalance that kills Denise and breaks Andy's leg. The avalanche was started by explosives and some of the party speculate that the military is trying to kill them while others ridicule the idea.After much discussion, they decide to fire off a flare gun to summon the local townspeople. Shortly after doing this two men come up and as they approach ask if they are alright. Holly or Jenson become very suspicious about the men because they have arrived way too soon. They begin to run away, leaving Andy, and the two soldiers begin to fire, killing Andy and wounding JP. The party makes it to the door, unsticks it, and enters the bunker.Inside they see a power handle and turn it and surprisingly, the lights come on showing two tunnels leading away. They start down the right tunnel, but the lights pop out and so they turn back. In the dark, Holly feels something brush her.Going down the left tunnel, they come to an abandoned and trashed lab. There is a book containing files of Russian soldiers, each one stamped "killed in action". There is a wire cell containing numerous meat hooks. And, they come upon a recently-killed soldier who is missing his tongue. Holly speculates that he was sent inside to see if the threat that caused the placed to be sealed up is still there. Going through another heavy medal door, they see several skeletons of weird human-like figures.Holly and Jenson leave JP propped against a wall and continue their searching. Amazingly, they find a cell phone. JENSON'S cell phone. But he still has his cell phone with him. This is an exact duplicate right down to having the videos that Jenson has taken on the expedition. Suddenly they see two tall monstrous figures who attack and further injure (eat?) JP. The creatures appear and disappear, teleporting around the cave. They successfully herd Holly and Jenson through another metal door, and the two lock it to keep the monsters out. Apparently they can't teleport through the doors.Inside this last cave is a time portal. Have passing what could be a day there without light most of the time, they decide to go into the portal together, visualizing the area just outside the bunker and hoping it takes them there. There's a bright white light that feels the screen.Now, we are back in 1959. Two figures (presumably Holly and Jenson) are lying outside the bunker. Two figures (Sergei's aunt and father) come up and discover the bodies, but immediately Russian soldiers interrupt and send them back to the village. The soldiers take the two bodies into the bunker. One begins to swing Jenson's cell phone around (which is still recording), and then abandons it where it is found later by Holly and Jenson in 2013. The soldiers remark on the two's ultra modern dress. They strip them to their undergarments and hang the two, who we now see have mutated into monsters,on meat hooks, and leave. The last scene of the movie is the two monsters (mutated Holly and Jenson) coming out of their comas and looking around. | murder | train | imdb | Thought the first half of the film was pretty good, was like Blair Witch in the snow, going through the motions of interviewing people, getting a bit of a background on what they are trying to do.When they set of on their own and the 'strange' things start happening, it kept you intrigued, but then when you find out what is really going on..
The way this film takes the found-footage theme is quite well done with good twists and turns, keeping your attention.
I think it was a success, because if you hadn't known about the Dyatlov Pass Incident before watching this movie, then it definitely piqued your interest to do some further research!And no, not every Russian speaks English over there!
I also know nothing about the Dyatlov incident and I suspect the movie has little to do with it, other than the name.Weirdly enough, the name was what drew me to the film and I have no idea why someone would rename it blandly "Devil's Pass", which has absolutely nothing to do with the plot and is probably one of many movies to be thus named.Anyway, the film: young maniacally happy Americans go to investigate, equipped with apparently a new type of recording device that needs no recharging, since it keeps going for days.
Greetings from Lithuania."The Dyatlov Pass Incident" is nothing more than a true story + "The Blair Witch Project" + crap.
The actor also did a very good job, they are in this place and they are playing it straight, no one is acting out "oh we are in a found footage film" - they are there, USA + Russian production also feels kind a fresh, especially in these kind a movies.
Sure, it's not a new The Blair Witch Project" movie, it doesn't come close to it.Overall, if you are looking for some new "found footage" movie, this one not that bad at all..
The plot slowly start to make sense and when you finally discover whats really going on, you find yourself surprised with such a good plot in a horror movie.
Secondly, its a kind a blair witch project in structure and style and this is not a bad thing, to me at least, cause blair witch is my favorite horror movie ever and in the end it looks like a tribute to me.Lastly, if you like Blair witch but the end was lame to you, get this movie because its pretty much blair witch less scary but with better plot..
Take elements from "The Descent," "Frozen (2010), "The Blair Witch Project" and add some Sci-Fi zest, and you have the recipe for "Devil's Pass." It's an effective horror/thriller about the true story of how 9 Russian mountain climbers mysteriously died in Dyatlov Pass, and the movie does explain it fairly well, while mentioning some of the strange true elements of the event, but it takes us on a weird route later on, the explanation of the incident is a little eccentric, even though it's fiction based on non- fiction, it gets a little silly.
Yes, this is a bit better filmed than the average found footage film in that it doesn't look like a homegrown You Tube video, but the same stupid plot that hasn't deviated much from The Blair Witch Project is trotted out one more weary and overused time.This is "based on" a real story.
The true story is a tragedy that has been embellished many times over from being ricocheted around the Internet into some sort of paranormal mystery involving Yetis, UFOs, and in this movie The Philadelphia Experiment and teleportation.It's a sorry way to serve the memory of the real tragic young hikers, but Hollywood has done worse by other "true stories", so this film is no more fraudulent in that regard than some more high profile "based on" movies.I just don't think it's worth wasting time on if you've been alive and old enough to experience burn out from the constant bombardment with this creatively bankrupt film genre since 1999.
OK i read a lot of reviews here complaining that this movie doesn't really show true information on the dyatlov incident or that it turned the whole story blah blah blah news flash: this is a fictional movie, it isn't supposed to be a documentary.
I thought the movie was great and I don't think it's fair to blame it for being similar to the Blair Witch Project (which I also thought was very good) or one of the other "found film" movies.
However, the movie even having a very solid Plot and a history behind it, failed to deliver on that,miserably.Start of the movie, though builds a little interest and then suddenly the director takes cue from Blair witch , World war z,Apocalypse now, and many more and ends up making one spoiled broth.
I don't even know where to begin.Believe me I'm a real Horror Fan and i watched too many Horror films.When i saw this,i was really excited,because as i said it is a special case for me that is unexplainable and bizarre.Today i got the chance to watch this film and It was horrible!I mean really bad!!!The shooting is bad,the plot is bad(They ruined the whole incident and turned it into a crap!),the acting is bad.
There are many different theories and considering the horrific nature of the what happened to the original group, films referencing the incident can easily find their place in the horror genre.The incident has been one of fascination for me and I love that someone finally decided to put their creative spin on the subject.
Overall I wouldn't say this was a must see but it is worth watching if you are a fan of the found footage genre.After watching the film it is well worth looking up the real 'Dyatlov Pass Incident' as it is quite fascinating..
i watched it on a rainy night and didn't feel i'd wasted my time - it got me interested in looking into the real-life mystery so it had some positive effect.
Without giving anything away, all I can say is, its a horror movie, I can almost say it lives up to its name in that sense however its some clichés mixed with a weird and honestly complex ending that let this move down a little.Overall, this movie did a decent job with the mixture of fact and fiction, my advice is, if the real life incident interests you, I would still watch it, just remember the movie will be given a make over, if you just like horror movies, again its a good watch, but I'd advise that you study on the incident first before watching it as the movie does leave out quite a few details.
Based on the true story of The Dyatlov Incident, Devils Pass is a pretty interesting watch.
The Dyatlov Pass Incident, a genuine Russian mystery from 1959, is about nine hikers who were found dead in the Ural Mountains.A mixed group set-out to film and retrace the steps of the original hikers on the mountain Kholat Syakhi, also known as the Dyatlov's pass.
With believable acting and an interesting story, while being based around true events, Devil's Pass is definitely worth a watch for horror fans and conspiracy theorists..
When i got to the final scene of the film, I wasn't sure if I liked what it was all about but after the movie had ended I loved it.
There was some stunning scenery in the middle parts of the film - almost made me wish I was up on the mountain with them enjoying the views at times (before I realized what was about to go down of course)A couple of times in the movie I swore I was seeing things in the background of the shot - I'm not sure if it was just me or not but the point is that the movie had me engaged and looking for the answers seemingly as much as the characters were at the time.
The utter mess is so bad that it's almost physically painful.The original Dyatlov Group story is a sad tragedy, which sure is mysterious, but this ridiculous "explanation" is both stupid and IMO almost insulting towards the people who DID loose their lives.I hardly know where to start bashing this movie - it's such a catastrophe.
Let's make it simple; if you watch this movie, you will think the following phrases, at least 100 times each;1; "Why would he/she/they DO that?" 2; "How did he/she/they come to THAT conclusion?" 3; "WHAT?" 4; "SERIOUSLY?" 5; "COME ON, REALLY?..." 6; "How many minutes left until it's over?"The dialogue is weird and awkward and constantly has to explain all the far-fetched theories and events since pure logic fails to do so for the viewer.
The situation here closely resembles that of "The Blair Witch Project": a group of twentysomething documentarians sets out into the wilderness to solve a possibly supernatural mystery, unknown forces cause them to lose their bearings, things go terribly wrong, someone or something is chasing them, there's a spooky abandoned building, and we're supposedly seeing these events through "found footage" from the documentarians' video camera.
We even get a night-vision recording of the terrified female protagonist in hiding, a moment clearly borrowed from the most famous shot in "Blair Witch." That said, "Dyatlov" is definitely the better movie; it helps a lot to have professional actors, a competent (if not brilliant) professional script, a spectacular mountain setting, and several million bucks to spend on better production values.
There are undoubtedly many people in Hollywood that must sit back at times and take stock of where there career's went oh so wrong, people such as Tara Reid thinking back upon pie filled good times, Val Kilmer remembering what the bat suit felt like upon his once toned figure and directors like The Dyatlov Pass's Renny Harlin, a man once trusted with hanging Sylvester Stallone off cliffs (Cliffhanger) and making sure Bruce Willis made people Die Hard (Die Hard 2) but now makes schlocky big budget Hercules films and even worse found footage horrors like this insipid effort.It's actually in some weird kind of way sad to see Harlin make a film this low in the standard of quality, for the man has shown in the past a great talent in making action movies seriously entertaining, with myself in particular finding great enjoyment in throwaway films of his such as Deep Blue Sea and I know my co-blogger Jordan has a special spot for Harlin's great in a cheesy type of way thriller Mindhunters.
With success and failures (Cutthroat Island ekkkkk) in his career Harlin shows none of his strengths here and also finds new failures in creating a film that features not a single interesting cast member and wasting a ripe true-ish story on a slowly paced and in the end extremely daft attempt to create a new Blair Witch/Paranormal Activity in the snow.The group of college students/film makers led by Matt Stokoe's annoying Jensen and Holly Goss's equally lame Holly that you will be taking the journey to the Dyatlov pass with are a totally forgettable bunch of brats and twats that you couldn't care less if the Yeti himself came out in the first 5 minutes and ate them all for brunch.
Making matters worse is the potentially classic scenarios that could play out in the journey riffing off the real life incident (that by the way is all types of strange and worthy of a Google) but things consistently remain unbelievable and at times utterly stupid that it never gets into any type of mojo.Absolutely not worthy of your attention and another sad step in the career of Harlin, The Dyatlov Pass Incident is budget filmmaking at its worst and horror at its least scary.
This should have a 4 rating, and its 5.7 is mind boggling.The real life incident this is based on is a near perfect premise for a found footage horror film, however all potential is thrown away on a terrible script and useless unsympathetic characters.Featuring a talentless cast completely devoid of charisma, all of whom are incapable of channeling anything resembling realism.
Disclaimer #1 - I love this story, which is based on actual events.Disclaimer #2 - I love the #AlienTheoristsTheorizing podcast, and they tell this story, oh so very well.., So well in fact, It will scare the snowflakes out of you.The movie isn't terrible, considering the trail of kernels I've left behind on this year's horror film adventure.
With a scifi fictional spin on the tragic true story of Dyatlov Pass, where nine people lost their lives writer Vikram Weet's convincing script and link to the Philadelphia Experiment, Bigfoot and other UFO conspiracies keeps Harlin's technically well made film intriguing throughout.
After watching this I was prepared to say it was a surprisingly good low budget POV film in the tradition of 'The Blair Witch Project' until I saw the closing credits, "Directed By Renny Harlin." Renny Harlin?
Sure it steals directly from several other POV films but it has an effective story and scares.The acting is poor but the characters are interesting because just like 'The Blair Witch' project we learn NOTHING about them!!!
Based on a real life incident involving nine hikers in Russia who were found dead on the snowy mountains in 1959, this film presents a speculative(and fictionalized) account of what happened, as five young American documentary filmmakers(three men and two women) retrace their route, and meet with equally mysterious fates...
Surprising film is on the one hand obviously inspired by "The Blair Witch Project", but on the other takes an unexpected story turn that puts the narrative in an entirely new direction.
The Dyatlov Pass follows a group of American students on a trek to investigate the true life mystery of nine Russian skiers who befell unexplained deaths while skiing in the Russian mountains in 1959.
that story of creatures and those guys passed the lightening path at the end turning into some kinda monsters was completely cheesy in my own idea.what a waste of time on this movie!
There are many people to this day who feel the deaths were part of a Russian government cover-up.Devil's Pass a 2013 (Rated R) UK-Russian horror film, directed by Renny Harlin).
It feels like it is meant to leave you wondering "what really happened?".Overall, I would recommend anyone who is curious about the Dyatlov Pass incident to watch this movie.
This is rubbish to be honest, because it's BY paying attention to it you get to the conclusion that it indeed doesn't make sense.Devil's Pass isn't too bad of a film to watch, and it raises interest in the actual Dyatlov Pass incident if you didn't already know about it, but overall it's nothing to write home about..
My opinion on this so I was definitely not expecting it to be as good as I thought it was, due to the reviews I read before purchasing the movie, "that it was a terrible found footage movie", and "what a waste of time making this film" and so on, But my overall review of the film is superb and just let let you know that it is worth watching, the storyline kept me in suspense the build up is what makes it what it is a was wanting to know more and the fact it is based on a actual events makes it that bit more interesting, some of the acting is a bit over rated, but apart from that 'The Dyatlov Pass Incident' is one of the best found footage films I have seen this year..
THE DYATLOV PASS INCIDENT starts off promisingly enough as another of these 'found footage' horror movies, basically summarised as THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT in the snow...it sees a group of college stunts taking a hiking trip to the Ural mountains in Russia, where they hope to solve a real-life mystery from the 1950s...The best thing about the film is this real life mystery after which the film is named.
Unfortunately, after a promising first hour with some decent attempts at suspense-building and some great location photography, THE DYATLOV PASS INCIDENT starts to fall apart as a film.I blame Finnish director Renny Harlin, who hasn't made a decent movie since DEEP BLUE SEA and who can't resist on going over the top when it comes to the plot elements.
Five conventionally good looking American students get a grant to go off and make a film about the The Dyatlov Pass Incident, a genuine mystery from 1959 in which 9 climbers died under mysterious circumstances in the Ural mountains.
The Dyatlov Pass Incident is a found footage movie, based on a real mystery.
The original mystery is pretty interesting though and certainly worth checking out.Any horror fan is going to enjoy this, it may also appeal to people who are interested in conspiracy theories (get your tin foil hats on people!) It's not anything genre breaking, clever or psychologically scarring but The Dyatlov Pass Incident is good entertaining fun and as good a found footage romp as you are likely to find..
They travel to Russia expecting to find the truth about the unsolved mystery; but they find death instead."The Dyatlov Pass Incident" is another movie that uses "The Blair Witch Project" style of footage and honestly I am tired of the clichés of using handy camera to give the sensation of documentary.
If you want to gather friends to watch a "so bad it's good" movie, then "Dee-yatlov's Pass" is a way to go.
(5/10)Support Cast: Filled with the Russians that tell the story, try to stop them but mostly very rarely seen.Director Review: Renny Harlin – Unlike most found footage films this gets a well know director putting his experience stamp on directing. |
tt0098333 | Sinbad of the Seven Seas | In the city of Basra, the evil vizier Jaffar has clouded the caliph's mind and imprisoned his daughter, Princess Alina in order to marry her. Jaffar has four of the town's five sacred gems sent to dangerous and evil places where they will be carefully guarded by magical forces. Sinbad and his crew arrive at the caliph's palace, only to be captured by the hypnotised soldiers. Jaffar sentences Sinbad's crew to the torture chamber while the mighty sailor is to be locked in a pit full of snakes. Sinbad gets out of the snake pit using some snakes tied together into a rope and later rescues his companions from the torture chamber. As they flee the controlled Basra, Jaffar grants power from evil forces to help him kill Sinbad, this summons an evil cloud over Sinbad's ship and the Legions of Darkness, undead warriors. Together with the help of his friends, Sinbad manages to defeat the undead and the leader. Sinbad heads to a mysterious island to seek the help of a wise Oracle, who tells them the location of the four sacred gems of Basra. Then, he sails to an island and finds the gem by himself, he destroys a towering rock monster and retrieves the gem. Jaffar is joined by another ally, Soukra, a sorceress, and they prepare Jaffar's scheming plan. The second gem is on the island of the Amazons, the Amazons hypnotise Sinbad's crew and the Queen takes Sinbad with her. The Bald Cook and Poochie the dwarf save Sinbad and retrieves the second gem, the Queen's necklace. Next, Sinbad and his team head to the Isle of the Dead, where they battle Ghost Knights who have risen from the dead to fulfill their destiny. Sinbad goes for the Ghost King while his companions battle the Knights. Jaffar casts Sinbad's ship and his crew in the middle of the sea, leaving the sailor alone on the Isle of the Dead. Jaffar gives life to the Ghost King using his evil powers, and it weakens Sinbad, but he resists and destroys the Ghost King with his own sword and takes the third sacred gem. Later, Sinbad meets Kira, and her father, Nadir the wizard, two survivors on the Isle of the Dead who came there on a flying balloon. Sinbad agrees to help them get rid of the vicious monsters of the island and is aided by Kira, they encounter a group of ghouls, Sinbad fights them but Kira is captured by them. Sinbad rescues Kira but has to face a terrible monster able to fire bolts of energy from its wrists guarding the last sacred gem of Basra, Sinbad defeats the evil creature with the gems he has and retrieves the last one and they, along with Nadir escape the island on a balloon. Sinbad meets up with his companions and they go off to face Jaffar, Sinbad's men face off the soldiers while Sinbad battles Jaffar. The wizard creates an exact Sinbad clone to battle the sailor, but he manages to defeat it. Eventually, Jaffar is captured by Sinbad and Princess Alina is rescued. Peace has been restored to the world with the sacred gems. | brainwashing, storytelling | train | imdb | Sinbad is easily more entertaining than Plan 9 from Outer Space, which is more commonly considered the best bad movie ever.I won't give away all the details that make this movie so laughably awful, but I'll mention a few that I hope will convince you to find and watch this film.
(You can read a more comprehensive review at www.rinkworks.com/badmovie/m/sinbad.of.the.seven.seas.1989.shtml)John Steiner hammimg up the role of Jaffar, the villain.
You'll know which one I mean when you hear it.All the music is done by one guy on a synthesizer, a total of about five different sound effects are used in all the fight scenes, and all the lines are DUBBED OVER.
Definitely recommended for any fans of bad cinema, this movie has it all.
Lou Ferrigno (Hulk!) throws his sword away and wrestles with bad guys, in sloooooow motion action sequences that will have you yawning in anticipation.
Lou Ferrigno is a joy to watch, especially his hilarious facial expressions.
Cheesy fights; awful, unnatural (ie, hilarious) dialogue; and poor acting all combine to bring the word "appalling" to mind.This movie is not a painful bad, but a funny bad, best enjoyed with buddies.
But i guess I'd say watch this movie if you're looking for a serious laugh and have some time to kill, being under the influence really helps...trust me.
An awesomely ripped Lou Ferrigno headlines here as the eponymous hero in this visually lavish fantasy flick brought to us by the ever reliable Enzo G.Castellari.Sinbad's mission is to brave numerous perils in order to rescue a beautiful princess from the clutches of an evil wizard named Jaffar who has taken over the kingdom of Basra by dark magical means.Also along for the adventure are Sinbad's crew who are comprised of a mighty viking, a philosophical samurai warrior, a dashing prince who is betrothed to the captive princess, a bald chef and a dwarf named Poochi(!) Along the way this brave band of heroes find themselves up against undead armies, rock monsters, seductive Amazonians and a slimy ogre plus in the finale, big Lou comes up against his own clone!!!
Approach this in the right frame of mind and you should have a good time, after all it's entirely harmless fun in much the same vein as films such as Labyrinth etc.Certainly the film does have far higher production values than most Italian films of the eighties with some beautifully sumptuous sets and costumes on display throughout.
Added to this there's a good assemble of B-Movie stars; Big Lou, Romano Puppo (sadly relegated to a very minor role) and of course the ever wonderful John Steiner who is clearly having a ball with his material here as the delightfully hissable Jaffar.Unfortunately, there are a number of factors which do seriously drag the film down however.
For instance, a few of the characters (most notably Lou) have been entirely overdubbed with irritating voice overs - quite why this was the case, I have no idea.By far the most damning criticism I have for the film though is the intrusive and annoying narrative that accompanies (and incessantly interjects upon!) the proceedings throughout.
If you like a spot of swashbuckling fantasy and enjoy films such as The Princess Bride and the aforementioned Labyrinth then this may well be right up your street..
This is one of the best bad movies ever made.
Mr. Poe's actual story bears little to no similarities to this tale, but the fact that it opens with the claim that it is based on his story is just part of the inane fun that is SINBAD OF THE SEVEN SEAS!
Fun fact, the short story Edgar Allen Poe actually wrote, "The Thousand and Second Tale of Scheherazade," is an amusing story(far better than this movie) in which Scheherazade tells of Sinbad's last adventure in which real things from an outsiders perspective are described, but not believed by the King.The Story: Sinbad returns home to find that the evil Jaffar has rested control of the kingdom with his sorcery and brought an age of darkness.
Sinbad and his intrepid crew must find the four magic gems that will return peace to the land and save the princess.Three out of ten stars for the film(I've sadly seen worse) and nine out of ten for unintentional humor..
"Sinbad of the Seven Seas" its another great "Z" movie from the director Enzo G.
Castellari, "Sinbad of the seven seas" its an Italian fantasy a muscle-bound Sinbad (Lou Ferrigno) and his sailors cross the seas to recover the magic stones and help a young prince regain his throne battling it out with a powerful, wicked wizard Jaffar (John Steiner).
The lack of money its clearly in the movie, the acting its terrible..well, its entertaining and makes laugh, its a 5 o'clock fantasy flick...If you like this one, i recommend: "Hercules in the Haunted World" ( Mario Bava, Franco Prosperi); "Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger"(Sam Wanamaker) and "Clash of the Titans"(because of special effects of Ray Harryhausen) ..
TV's Incredible Hulk, Lou Ferrigno's fourth in a series of Italian made sword and sandal flicks he starred in during the 1980s.
Sinbad succeeded two Hercules films and one titled, The Seven Magnificent Gladiators.
Ray's meticulously worked stop motion special effects leave those in Sinbad Of The Seven Seas standing, and that's the point; this film is so wooden.
The plot calls for Sinbad to bring home some special stones so that his pal the Prince can marry his beloved Princess who is being held by an evil wizard (John Steiner).
See this if you like Lou Ferrigno (he still looks great and has let his curly hair grow out Afro style) and/or sword and sandal pics - just don't expect to be riveted to your seat..
One of the main reasons for watching this film is a show stealing performance by the Town Crier (who is that guy?).
Sinbad, for once depicted as a conflicted tragic figure, is flawlessly portrayed by Lou Ferrigno, who displays considerable acting muscle here, in a performance that lights up the screen and at moments even eclipses the impeccable photography: think Storaro on acid, meticulously framing mythical creatures, damsels in distress, lavish landscapes galore.
When you insert Sinbad of the Seven Seas in your VCR its like stepping into a world of swash-buckling, sword fighting, man-boob bouncing action.
I have not seen such BAD acting ever before in my life and that includes high school production plays!
This movie breaks all records in casting such a number of bad actors in one film.
while we all love a bad "B" movie, this one takes the cake, but doesnt know how to eat it!
Made in Spain with no sound equipment under a director who rewrote it as he filmed it, shelved for years due to being unusable, then one day roughly edited, badly dubbed, and poorly scored in an attempt to get something saleable and here we are.Ever seen Sinbad portrayed as a heavily muscled superman in sparkly purple disco tights?
Well now you can!There's monsters, fighting, sexy ladies, animated effects, leather clad henchmen, slo-mo running, a 'Poochie the Dwarf' comic-relief who's neither funny nor a dwarf then disappears midway through the movie, more fighting, constant narration explaining what's going on, laughably poor music, magical zombie horses, and that guy off the hulk, I mean what's not to like, people!?.
Castellari puts the 'bad' in Sinbad with this inept fairy-tale flick based on The Thousand and Second Tale of Scheherazade by Edgar Allen Poe. Bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno plays the legendary sailor who, with the help of his brave crew, must recover five magical gems to free the city of Basra, which has fallen under an evil spell cast by wicked wizard Jaffar (John Steiner).Sinbad of the Seven Seas opens in a similar manner to The Princess Bride (1987), with a mother (Daria Nicolodi) reading a bedtime story to her young daughter.
But whereas this framing device was used sparingly and intelligently in Rob Reiner's much loved classic, Castellari's muddled storytelling requires frequent and extremely dull narration from Nicolodi to help explain the story, all of which proves very distracting, never allowing the viewer to become immersed in the action.Not that the film would prove very engaging even if it it were possible to follow matters without the narration: Castellari's direction is dreadful, the script (by fellow Italian hack Luigi Cozzi) is diabolical, the performances range from wooden (Ferrigno) to ridiculously hammy (Steiner), and the special effects are cheap and nasty.
Well, Sinbad is played by Lou Ferrigno.
I didn't even remember seeing it, but when I spoke to my brother about The Archer last time, he said: Yes that was a great B movie, just as Sinbad of the Seven Seas with Lou Ferrigno.' I was like: WHAT FILM?' Then he told me all about the zombies and the scene when Sinbad squished one of the zombies hearts with his bare hands and I was like: Was that the movie when he rips off an arm off one of the zombies?' He said YEP' and I remembered.
I mean I do not remember many films for such a long time without having seen them, after that.
The name Jaffar and Prince Ali fell so I thought I was watching "Thief of Bagdad" (Most who is reading this doesn't know but Disney's Aladdin was for a part inspired by Thief of Bagdad, names and plot) so I was excited.
When the name Sinbad fell it made me frown, I didn't understand what Sinbad and Prince Ali (who I thought was Aladdin) did in the same movie.
or I remember hearing my friends, who seen this movie, mentioning Sinbad in Thief of Bagdad.
I turned out too be a Sinbad movie and the Prince Ali character was just a part of his crew and had not much dialog his reasons was that he wanted to marry this princess Alina (who I, at that moment, thought was the live-action version of the beautiful, strong Princess Jasmine from "Aladdin") The princess wasn't much better she just let her be captured by the wizard and waited, chained, for her rescuer who came in the form of Sinbad.
The plot it self would be fine for a movie but the rest was bad.
If you wanna see Sinbad brought to live on TV I recommend watching "Adventures of Sinbad, The" (1996)" But don't watch this, waste of time & money, movie..
Sinbad must recover five magical stones to free the city of Basra from the evil spell cast by a wizard.
His journey takes him to the isle of the Amazons where the queen tries to capture him, to a battle with ghost warriors on the isle of the dead, and ultimately to a battle with his own double.....You know your in good company when the Cannon group logo appears for a film, and much like every film released by them, good or bad, you know what you are going to get, thanks to the title, and knowing that the only actor in this film you have heard of is Ferrigno.Yes, the film is all kinds if bad, from the script, to the choreography, the awful acting and overacting of the cast, its a poor film.But it's never boring, not for one minute.When Sinbad escapes from a dungeon using deadly snakes as a rope, you give up all hope of watching a movie in the vein of the Harryhausen classics, and settle for men in very bad costumes.Ferrigno, buff as he is, has no screen presence whatsoever.
His little speech to the animatronic, or finger puppet reptiles, is the single most funniest part of the film.And I've not even mentioned the rock monster who tries to kill our hero by hugging him.So, now we know, and probably the studio also knew that Ferrigno is the cheap Schwarzeneggar, who's great idea was it to have him fight himself at the end?
". Basically, you can take the comments I recently wrote on Lou Ferrigno's two Hercules movies and apply them to his Sinbad outing.
If possible, however, Sinbad of the Seven Seas is even more of a snooze-fest than those two films.
I could do the usual and mention the cheap special effects, the ludicrous plot, the laughable dialogue, or the really bad acting, but it seems a bit like piling on.
Suffice it to say that everything (and I mean everything) about Sinbad of the Seven Seas is about as bad as you'll see.One thing I will mention in a little detail is the music.
It's up to legendary courageous sailor Sinbad (a wildly grimacing Lou Ferrigno, who looks mighty buff and sports a wailin' white guy Afro) to recover four magical stones in order to break Jaffar's spell.
Moreover, the gorgeous Alessandra Martines looks absolutely ravishing as fair princess Alina, the equally lovely Stefania Girolami supplies extra yummy eye candy as the fetching, feisty Kyra, beefy female bodybuilder Teagan Clive gives an incredibly stiff performance as evil sorceress Soukra, and Leo Gullotta contributes an irritating comic relief turn as babbling, bumbling good wizard Nadir.
SINBAD OF THE SEVEN SEAS (Enzo G.
One of my earliest encounters with "Euro-Cult" cinema was virtually two decades before the term itself came to be coined and it happened via a TV screening of an obscure, Italian-made, comical Arabian Nights fantasy entitled SINBAD AND THE CALIPH OF BAGHDAD (1973) which, unsurprisingly, I haven't seen again since.
Incidentally, while Italians usually dabbled more in Greek mythology than in tales from the 1001 nights – in fact, I would love to revisit both the afore-mentioned SINBAD film and the Steve Reeves version of THE THIEF OF BAGDAD (1961; which, again, is lost to me in the mists of time) someday – the character of Sinbad featured in at least two other Italian productions I know of – SINBAD AGAINST THE SEVEN SARACENS (1964; with Gordon Mitchell in the lead and which I've actually missed out on twice on TV recently) and, naturally, the film under review itself.Dubbed a "complete disaster" by Euro-Cult expert Marco Giusti, this was originally intended as a 4-part TV mini-series and was to have been directed by Luigi Cozzi (who had previously helmed the two HERCULES movies with Lou Ferrigno) but he had to be replaced due to conflicting commitments.
As it happened, incoming director Castellari (whom I've met personally while at the Venice Film Festival in 2004) entirely rewrote Cozzi's script but, despite the considerable budget spent on the production, it was actually shelved for two years before Cozzi was eventually recalled to re-edit Castellari's rough-cut!
John Steiner's outrageously over-the-top, eye-rolling performance – complete with elongated green fingernail and madly tilted framing – as (what else?) Jafar the wicked Vizier is something that has to be seen to be believed but is, in fact, one of the minimally bright spots in the film; the same applies to the actress playing Kyra, Sinbad's belated love interest (Stefania Girolami, who was not only director Castellari's daughter but this actually proved to be her swansong to acting before embarking on a directorial career herself!).
Future Italian TV personality Leo Gullotta, then, is embarrassing as the aptly named Nadir, a silly wizard/inventor who talks gibberish and is also Girolami's father.Lou Ferrigno's one-note performance in the title role extends only to his perennially bemused facial expression – even when required to play his evil doppelganger – making Sinbad seem unintentionally moronic, never more so than when he impulsively "frightens" Gullotta or when he is made to mouth such utterly terrible lines as "Gosh, you're sure beautiful" (to a would-be irresistible Amazon Queen) and "No, dice, huh?".
Besides, it's hard to believe that Alessandra Martines (who plays the kidnapped princess here) went on to become the wife of someone who, at his best, was considered one of the most sophisticated film-makers of his time – Claude Lelouch!; incidentally, she would eventually star in her own cult fantasy franchise – the numerous "Fantaghiro'" series directed by Lamberto Bava!
Listing the film's other flaws would be a Herculean task; suffice it to mention Dov Seltzer's hideously inappropriate electronic soundtrack, a hilarious sequence in which Sinbad is dropped into a snake pit but eventually escapes by making a rope out of assorted cobras(!) and the cheapskate usage of stock footage lifted from a much earlier peplum, HERCULES AGAINST THE MOON MEN (1964) as just three examples of the seemingly limitless ineptitude on display here; to the film's credit, it uncannily predates Disney's wonderful animated feature, ALADDIN (1992), in many respects – not least the appearance of Jafar and the Caliph!
Actually, I had originally intended to watch SINBAD THE SAILOR (1947) as well during the Christmas period but had to postpone that viewing due to time constraints and unforeseen family events.
Ultimately, the two HERCULES movies with Lou Ferroigno were also pretty awful but at least they showed a modicum of imagination and ingenuity at work and were undeniably lots of fun to watch and make fun of; SINBAD OF THE SEVEN SEAS doesn't even have that mixed blessing to offer its unfortunate viewers..
Sinbad goes on a quest to foil the evil Jaffar's sinister plans.
- - - This is another diabolical creation from Luigi Cozzi and Lou Ferrigno, who both birthed a couple of cheesy Hercules adaptations in the 80s.
This one pretty much follows suit with their previous work by including tons of horrible looking special effects, bad acting, and Ferrigno acting through his biceps.
I can't recommend this, but if you like your fantasy all wholesome and enjoy a terrible movie every once in a while, it can be a laugh riot.*1/2 out of 4.
). Jaffar the evil vizir is in bad need of a orthodontist and overacts like a high school performer (in need of a paycheck, huh?).
Sets are more "lavish", if we can use that word for this C-tier thing, and coherent than the Hercules movies, but nowhere beyond low-budget C-tier level. |
tt0286106 | Signs | The Hess family lives on a farm in Doylestown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Graham Hess (Mel Gibson) is a former Episcopal priest who lost his faith in God after his wife, Colleen, died in a horrific traffic accident caused by a veterinarian named Ray Reddy (played by M. Night Shyamalan). Additionally, Graham cannot come to terms with his son Morgan's (Rory Culkin) asthma condition which causes great suffering. No longer practicing religiously, Graham and Morgan live with Graham's daughter, Bo (Abigail Breslin), who has a strange habit of leaving unfinished glasses of water around the house, and Graham's younger brother, Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix), a former minor league baseball star who never made it to the big leagues because of a habit of swinging at whatever pitch came his way.Things are fairly uneventful in Graham's life until a mysterious crop circle appears in his cornfield. Its origin and purpose is unknown; some townspeople speculate that it may be a prank while a few others think that it may have been created by intelligent alien life-forms. Meanwhile, reports of violent animal behavior has spread across town, supported by one of the Hess dogs trying to attack Bo and Morgan.As the story progresses, it becomes clear that Graham's farm is under watch. One night, he and Merrill chase a tall, dark figure who was spying on them from the roof of their barn. The mysterious being disappears into the crops, moving faster and disappearing far more easily than anyone can explain. Soon Graham and his family are shocked to learn that similar crop circles have suddenly appeared all over the world in ways too quickly to be merely a grand, elaborate hoax. Morgan takes a liking to a sheriff's radio walkie-talkie and she tells him that he can use a baby monitor but it will only work one way. He finds Bo has an old baby monitor in the basement and decides to take it into town. On their return home, strange noises resembling bubbling and clicking come from the baby monitor. Morgan, believing the sound to be aliens talking, climbs on the car roof to get a better signal. He gets the family to join hands with him to boost the signal, but the noises soon go away.That evening, Graham, investigating the other German Shepherd dogs barking, goes into the crop circle to investigate. There he hears the unusual clicking noises and glimpses what appears to be a long green leg disappearing into the corn. Startled, he sprints back to the house before looking back. He then tells Bo, Morgan and Merrill that they can turn on the television, something he had steadfastly objected to earlier. They turn on the news to discover that large, mysterious and unidentifiable lights have been spotted over Mexico City.That night, Graham has a conversation with Merrill about his own faith. It's revealed that Graham no longer believes in God following the accident. He then says that there are "two kinds of people: those who see signs, miracles, and those who see coincidences. Which kind are you?" When Merrill asks him the same question, Graham does not answer.Later, there is a flashback that shows Graham approaching the scene of an accident, still in his clerical suit. He sees his wife pinned to a tree by a truck, and the officer tells him that his wife won't live for long, being held alive only by the truck pinning her into place. The flashback ends.The following morning, Merrill sees startling video footage on the news of an alien that was spotted during a boy's birthday party in Passo Fundo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Graham takes a short visit to Ray Reddy's house, and finds Ray staring blankly out his car window and bleeding. Ray apologizes for the accident that occurred, tells Graham that "they don't like water" and that a lot of people have gone to the lake. Before driving away and leaving Graham in the driveway, Ray tells him that he trapped "one" in the pantry. In an extended scene, Graham investigates. He takes a carving knife from the kitchen and attempts to use it like a mirror to catch the intruder's reflection from under the pantry door. When he does so, fingers that are not human try to claw at his hand from the other side. Startled, Graham uses the knife to cut off the fingers and quickly departs.Graham returns home and proposes to his family two options: go to the lake in hope that the aliens do not like water, or stay home. After a family vote (in which Graham says that his vote counts for two on behalf of his dead wife) the family decides to stay home and they board up all the doors and windows. While Graham and Merrill do this, Morgan and Bo watch the news and find out that the mysterious airborne lights are now visible over approximately 274 cities worldwide, appearing within a mile of crop signs, and the appearances are growing rapidly.Before the family finishes boarding up the house, they decide to have their last full family meal, choosing their favorite foods. In an emotional scene, Graham holds his children and brother while they all cry, realizing how much the death of Colleen has affected them and how scared they are. Suddenly, the baby monitor begins making the familiar, mysterious noises. Graham checks the television only to see it's no longer broadcasting.They then board up the last doors and windows and go to the living room, waiting for the aliens. Their dog, who was accidentally left outside, begins to bark alarmingly, but is quickly silenced with a yelp. Soon after, something can be heard climbing onto the roof and breaking into the attic. When Merrill realizes that no one boarded up the attic access door in the ceiling, the family decides to hide in the basement and use a mattock to prop the basement door closed. Graham and Merrill manage to ward off an attack. However, something finds a way in through a coal shaft and grabs Morgan's neck, but is repelled, resulting in Morgan having an asthma attack.The next morning, they hear on the radio that a method of fighting the invaders has been developed and they are now retreating, even leaving behind their wounded. Graham decides to venture out for medicine to treat Morgan's asthma attack the previous evening. Seeing that there is no signal coming in from the walkie-talkie, Graham and the family head upstairs. Suddenly and unexpectedly, they come face to face with an alien for the first time and it grabs Morgan before anyone can react.As the alien holds Morgan hostage, the remainder of Graham's flashback to Colleen's death is revealed: she is still coherent as she dies and tells Graham that she loves him, to look after their children, and to tell Merrill to "swing away," referring to his love of baseball.Back in the present, Graham sees Merrill's trophy baseball bat on the wall and tells Merrill to "swing away." Merrill grabs his bat and attacks the alien. As Merrill moves in, Morgan has another asthma attack at the same moment the alien sprays gas into the boy's face. Graham then rescues Morgan and Merrill quickly realizes that water is deadly to the alien. Merrill uses the unfinished glasses of water Bo left all over the house to defeat the alien while Graham takes Morgan outside and administers his asthma medication. Morgan soon recovers, his asthma attack having prevented him from inhaling the alien gas.Realizing that Colleen's dying words meant something after all, and that they actually saved his remaining family's life, Graham's faith is restored. The final scene shows winter weather outside as Graham is back in his clerical suit preparing for church. | suspenseful, murder, stupid, horror, atmospheric, flashback, humor, revenge | train | imdb | null |
tt0082163 | Nice Dreams | Cheech and Chong have set up a new business- selling ice cream from a large, odd-looking ice cream truck! However, this isn't regular ice cream- it's actually scientifically-experimented marijuana, sold in the form of ice cream. They've dubbed their business "Happy Herb's Nice Dreams Ice Cream".
Day by day, the 2 drive their ice cream truck around to the beach, to the gym, to other places, selling the marijuana ice cream. Soon, all their business starts paying off as the 2 make millions of dollars. However, they've unwittingly sold some marijuana ice cream to undercover cops, planning to bust them from the start.The cops, led by Sgt. Stadenko (Stacy Keach reprising his role from "Up in Smoke"), who has become a stoner and alcoholic, have the marijuana tested in their labs, and it turns out that the marijuana has some odd side-effect, those who smoke it turn into a lizard! Sgt. Stadenko sends 2 incompetent cops out to catch Cheech and Chong, while he in turn smokes some of the marijuana himself- and slowly turns into a lizard himself.After visiting a gym and selling marijuana ice cream to guys working out, Cheech and Chong drive their truck back to their home on a California cliff overlooking a beach. Cheech totals up the money, to discover they've made up to $20 million! The stoners dream of all they can buy with the money- their own private island, guitars, cars, their own resort, and of course, get a lot of women! The 2 head to their house and meet up with their roommate.Cheech and Chong go to the lab where their friend makes and experiments on the marijuana. His lab, under a fake pool, is full of marijuana and dope. As Cheech bargains with the experimenter to get more marijuana to sell, Chong uses a trash can to steal a whole load of the stuff. Meanwhile, cops have tracked Cheech and Chong to the house and begun circling it overhead from helecopters. The cops, however, become side-tracked by naked girls on the beach. Discovering they're being busted, Cheech and Chong load all the marijuana they can into their ice cream truck (while stopping to smoke a bit) and escape, leaving for the cops to bust their roommate and the guy experimenting on the marijuana. The marijuana factory is then taken apart and destroyed. They're taken to the police office and meet Stadenko, who's slowly turning into a lizard. The 2 incompetent cops ask the Sgt. what to do now; the stoner chief now mumbles different words, leading the cops to think they're looking for "Mr. Big." The cops then set off to find Cheech and Chong and finally bust them.It's nightfall and Cheech and Chong have parked outside a Chinese food restaurant and begun to dine inside. While inside, a crazy lady who thinks she knows Chong comes over to him and tells him about making a record, while actually stealing his plate and food. At that point, Cheech's old high school girlfriend Donna shows up with a friend, Howie Hamburger Dude (played by Pee-wee Herman), who is a mental patient. The 4 sit down together and Howie takes out some cocaine, and the 4 go under the table and snort it.
Coming out from unde the table, Cheech and Donna go to Donna's car to have sex, leaving Chong to talk to Howie Hamburger Dude. Cheech and Donna begin to have sex in the car when Donna faints, leaving Cheech stuck. Cheech realizes he can't do it with her sleeping (and even asks the audience what they would do), when a cop car pulls up. Cheech fears he'll be in trouble, when suddenly, a coked-up Chong drives up in the ice cream truck- stocked up with marijuana!The cops, not wanting to arrest Cheech and Chong and have to fill out the paperwork and reports, let them go, despite Chong telling them that they're wrong. Having to leave their truck behind, Cheech and Chong have neither the marijuana plant, nor their truck with marijuana to sell, leaving them out of a job. At least they have their money, right?Cheech, Chong, and Donna go to Donna's apartment to have a threesome. In her room the stoners try to nail her all at once, when Chong goes to get some ice. Cheech begins to make out with her when Donna gets a call- her ex-con biker boyfriend, Animal, known to hate Mexicans, has just broke out of prison and is in the lobby of the apartment, coming up. Cheech worries, and when a loud knock is heard on the door, he hides on the balcony and gets locked out.When Cheech sees it's just Chong coming back, he tries to get back in, when he discovers the door is locked, and he's outside on top of a hotel, naked. Cheech tries to scale off the hotel by walking on the balconies, then getting stuck on top of the elevator, going up and down. Meanwhile, Animal has broken the door down into the apartment, and Chong is hiding around the apartment. Animal grabs Donna and has sex with her on top of the bed, where Chong is hiding underneath. Animal and Donna pass out on the bed, and Chong dresses back up. Cheech, meanwhile, has jumped off the elevator into the pool, got a towel, and returned to the room. Chong tells Cheech of Animal in the room, and the 2 get dressed back up and leave.As they go down in the elevator, Cheech asks Chong where the money is- Chong tells Cheech that he cashed in the money with Howie Hamburger Dude for a check! Unfortunately, Chong is illiterate and has no drivers liscence or ID- now he can't cash the check, and the stoners are broke again! $20 million, gone! Cheech, however, is not letting Howie Hamburger Dude walk away with all their money, so he looks up the address on the check, and he and Chong get a ride. However, they're actually getting a ride from the 2 incompetent cops that are looking for them in the first place.Knowing who they are, and waiting for the perfect busting moment, the cops wait outside the address waiting for Cheech and Chong. The 2 stoners climb the gates of the residence- Casa Del Whacko, which is a mental asylum. Sleeping in one of the rooms overnight, the 2 are awoken by multiple mental patients and crazy people. Cheech and Chong try to escape the mental people and find Howie Hamburger Dude, who is running around. Cheech corners Howie, telling him to give back the money. Cheech doesnt understand what Howie says and starts fighting with him, pushing him, when doctors show up, and grab Cheech.Believed to be mentally unstable and dangerous, Cheech is chained in a straight-jacket and locked up in a soft-padded room. Cheech screams and yells to be let free, but is ignored. Meanwhile, Chong is believed to be a doctor and finds Cheech in the soft-padded room. Cheech tells Chong to go find the key, and Chong goes off. Later, Chong returns to the room with a real doctor (played by Timothy Leary), and Cheech begs him to be set free. The doctor tells Cheech he'll give him "the key", and gives both Cheech and Chong "the key to the universe", actually medicated pills.Cheech and Chong swallow the pills and fantasize and get high off the pills. As they fantasize and have weird hallucinations about being hung and killed, the 2 stoners are awoken by the manager, Mrs. Del Whacko. She's realized the mistake and unlocks Cheech and gives them back their bag full of money, apologizing for the incident. She makes Howie apologize and takes him away to get a lobotomy.The 2 stoners rejoice in the room that they've gotten their money back, when a siren sounds- the cops are outside, waiting for Cheech and Chong to bust them. The 2 escape out through a tunnel in the asylum, and the cops arrest Howie and Mrs. Del Whacko by mistake, thinking Howie to be "Mr. Big."A while later, the stoner buddies have managed to lose their money yet again in an unknown way, and now have no job, no marijuana to sell, and they're broke. Cheech and Chong are now forced "to go to work" to make some money, being that Chong has lost all their money. The 2 take off their shirts and strip their pants to their underwear, and go on to a strip club stage, dancing as the male strippers in an all-male strip-club, which is their only way to get money. With the stoners now living a poor job and having an unfortunate job, the movie ends. | absurd, humor, adult comedy | train | imdb | Cheech and Chong's third film: Nice Dreams..
Watch NICE DREAMS and you'll find out!!Another funny film from the team of Cheech and Chong.
Just a funny movie that stars everyone's favorite stoners.Recommended..
Cheech and Chong's first movie, Up in Smoke (1978), was the most successful and it set the scene for the five other films which were to follow.
Nice Dreams is a very good film for laid-back old hippies like me who enjoy romanticising the 70s.
Gone are the flower-power days of the 60s and life seems to have degenerated into sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll, and this movie has its fair share of each.My favourite scene is at the Chinese restaurant where Chong is mistaken for Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead.
One of my favourite supporting roles is the police sergeant who has the tongue of a lizard and believes "the only way to catch a doper is for you yourself to become a smoker." The quirky soundtrack and slapstick comedy helps to keep the movie moving along nicely...Even though Cheech and Chong sold millions of records in the 70s and had a major success with Up in Smoke, I would not call Nice Dreams a mainstream movie.
I found Cheech and Chong's "Nice Dreams" a well crafted piece work.
Not only are Cheech and Chong's performances very strong, they are also backed by a strong supporting cast, including Paul Rubens and Stacy Keech.
This is probably Cheech and Chong's best movie.
My daughters often ask me (well maybe not often, but once in a while) which one I think is funnier: Cheech or Chong?
I thought this Cheech and Chong vehicle made for a nice movie..
I do not understand why this Cheech and Chong movie has a rather low score here at IMDb. I thought this was by far the funniest movie I have seen the duo in.
So Cheech and Chong get some money from some of their stash and end up having to go to a hotel where a jealous crazed boyfriend is headed their way and then they somehow manage getting locked up in a mental asylum.
I also liked how this movie went by fast with a good assortment of crazy locales for Cheech and Chong to have their adventures.
With so many people here in the US hell bent on legalizing recreational marijuana, and some states actually doing so, where does that leave the decades of stoner humor we've had in so many films?
But first, I implore you to sit back and watch this fitfully funny Cheech and Chong effort in which the duo sell their high-quality weed from an ice cream truck, evade the cops, chase scantily clad women, make a fortune, get locked in a mental institution, lose the fortune, somehow get it back, and then apparently lose it once again.
With Chong at the helm, instead of Lou Adler from Up In Smoke, this film meanders more than it should, but still contains plenty of laughs.
Think back to all of the films and characters in movie history that have used marijuana to define themselves as counter-culture.
Paul Reubens (this is Pee Wee's 2nd appearance in a C&C movie) and Timothy "I have the key right here" Leary are amongst the famous cameos.
The funniest of these has to be the scene at the Honk Kong restaurant where the guys meet Cindy the Agent (Chong is mistaken for Jerry Garcia), followed by Cheech's Quaalude reunion with his high school sweetheart Donna (who was going to be a nun) and her date, the Hamburger Dude (a.k.a, Paul Reubens), bearing Koka-Kola (original version).
The other funny scene is Cheech's death-row trip, complete with Michael Winslow (a.k.a Larvell Jones, who also makes his second appearance in a C&C movie).
Cheech and Chong run an ice cream business called Nice Dreams, which actually is a cover for them to sell their special blend of dope.
All of this leads to many unplanned confrontations and actions that don't always workout for the best.The third film of the series is a really spaced-out stoner comedy (even more so then the first two flicks) from the comical duo Cheech and Chong.
I thoroughly enjoyed the first two outings, sure nothing will beat the memorable "Up In Smoke", but I thought they slightly out did themselves here compared to their previous outing "Next Movie" and that could be attributed to Stacy Keach returning as Sarge Stedanko too.
Though, I wish there was a bit more screen time for Keach.Everything about this one seems more silly and absurd, especially the scenes involving how anyone, or anything that smokes their strong weed will turn into a lizard.
Something is always happening with Cheech and Chong getting in all sorts of mayhem and also meeting buoyant and irregular characters along the way.
This is the third Cheech and Chong film, coming after Up in Smoke (1978) and Cheech and Chong's Next Movie (1980).
The films are a series in the traditional way--characters continue, and there is something of a linear development per the films' chronologies of the characters, but as with the plot of this film in isolation, the threads holding it all together are pretty thin.In Nice Dreams, Cheech and Chong are selling dope from a barely disguised ice cream truck.
At any rate, they do not seem to be hurting for money--they have a bag of it, after all, which they have to pursue later in the film--and somehow, they're living in a very expensive, big house on the beach outside of Los Angeles, although it seems that maybe they're just crashing at a friend of a friend's place while he's away (he's a musician on tour).A lot of it is pretty unclear, because the last thing that Cheech and Chong as writers and director (only Chong in the latter case) are concerned with is telling anything like a traditional story.
But maybe Cheech and Chong were just looking for the easiest way to string together a number of sketch ideas, and not enough sketch ideas, because some of them are drawn out or reprised past their freshness date.
And that probably goes for the whole premise of Cheech and the Man (Chong) selling dope and getting into wacky situations while being pursued by Sgt. Stedanko (Stacy Keach).
Nice Dreams feels too much like Cheech and Chong are just coasting--vamping while waiting for the next soloist to start.
I don't always think that something different is better just because it's different.So this is definitely a step down from the first two films, although there are more than enough funny moments to keep a fan of the first two films mildly entertained, and most of the supporting actors, including the returning ones, are enjoyable and had even more potential.
Some skits (that word fits here better than "scenes"), like the crazy house and the fiasco at Donna's apartment, and even the "Save the Whales" song, are as good as most of the material in the first two films.
But overall, it just seems like their hearts, and maybe their heads, weren't as much into making a film this time around..
This movie has some great scenes, the scene's with Pee Wee and Timothy Leary.
I've liked this movie since the first time I saw it 10 years ago.
Everyone I know loves Cheech and Chong.
I love the team of Cheech and Chong, but god, is Nice Dreams just a plain bad oregano misfire.
It begins, then it introduces absurd plot points (like the boys living in a PALACE on the beaches of California), Stacey Keach in a pointless police role who slowly morphs into a lizard due to smoking the unexplained tainted weed they are peddling in their frightening nightmare of an ice cream truck.
Following on from Up In Smoke and Next Movie, Nice Dreams in retrospect sort of represents a crossroads for the stoner duo.
Given that the next film to feature the Mexican stoners was Things Are Tough All Over, this can be described as the last genuinely funny Cheech and Chong film.
Next Movie and Up In Smoke were also basically a couple of funny skits with a lot of ordinary film linking them together, but Nice Dreams shows these occasional skits getting progressively less amusing.The conceit of Nice Dreams is simple.
Cheech and Chong play a pair of stoners who run a beachside marijuana plantation.
If you have seen Up In Smoke, then you have no reason to watch any part of this film that Keach appears in.
Fans of the stoner duo may in fact see more of Cheech than they had wished during this part of the film.
There is also a mildly amusing Jimi Hendrix skit for those who did not get enough of this schtick in Police Academy 6.Ultimately, the big problem with this, or any other Cheech and Chong film save Up In Smoke, is a lack of plot cohesion.
Perhaps if Cheech and Chong teamed up with some genuinely talented comic writers like Simon Pegg, they could come up with something that involves laughter from beginning to finish.
If you have already seen Up In Smoke and Next Movie, this is a good place to continue testing how long it takes you to get tired of the Cheech and Chong routine.
However, this film really hits rock bottom thanks to the scenes involving Stacy Keach and Paul Reubens...they drag it down to a pathetic level that is not often seen in the movies.
Unfortunately, the blame for this should go right back to Cheech and Chong, for even though their characters aren't quite as annoying as Keach or Reubens, they were the ones who wrote this mess..
If you've seen other Cheech & Chong movies, then you can probably figure out what sorts of things happen in "Nice Dreams".
I nearly died laughing during the sequence in the apartment building.No, it's not the best C&C movie, but there's definitely no shortage of laughs in "Nice Dreams".
Only one scene worth anything in this movie and that is Cheech and Chong in the Insane Asylum getting heavily medicated by Dr. Timothy Leary the Counter Culture Guru who inspired hippies in the 1960s to "Tune in, Turn on, and Drop out) The rest of the story is as thin as ice during spring season warm up..
a great `hit` if you like Cheech & Chong..
The only talented actors in the movie is the Chief of the narcotics (played by the father on the tv series TITUS) and Cheech & Chong.It really is too bad they used the whole reptile idea in the movie , it sure could have been much more of a movie (and of course, take out theatre tugging Rubens).If your looking for a rating, I would have to say a 4/10 for this one.
Mediocre Cheech and Chong film.
"Nice Dreams" is the third Cheech and Chong film and it has the same formula as their other films:1.
I happen to like Cheech and Chong, but this film is uninspired.
Paul Reubens--who can be hilarious--even comes across as boring in this film.The film also contains some insensitive moments, for example the comedy that centers on cocaine use and the scene about the woman who falls asleep just before having sex with Cheech..
You can judge me negatively, for liking "Nice Dreams" if you want, but comedy (in all forms) is needed on this Earth right now!
This is the only Cheech & Chong comedy I've seen so far, so I can't judge it against their other works, but if you took out the drug references and the brief nudity and replaced them with a few fight scenes, I'd put it on the level of a lesser Bud Spencer & Terence Hill comedy (like for example "All The Way, Boys!"): amiable enough, but one laugh per half an hour is not exactly a good enough average to justify a rental, is it?
Stacy Keach pretty much lowered his standards to appear in this movie and yet he was perfect for the role of the drug unit commander.
There were some classic scenes: Cheech lying on a ladder acting like he was swimming; a drug interdiction helicopter hovering a nude beach; a tortilla starting a fire right in front of an unsuspecting blind musician friend.
Most of the movie is more stupid than funny, but at the time they were hilarious.
The best scenes in the movie involve a restaurant haunted by "night" people.
Cheech and Chong come back with another episode of hilarious pot comedy, this time they are marijuana sellers dealing their product out of the back of their "ice cream truck" that they drive around.
This is a very funny and entertaining film and I don't know why it got such a low user-rating.
Nice Dreams...Great Movie.
"Cheech & Chong's Nice Dreams" This Movie Is Awesome.
This is the best Cheech & Chong film created out of their entire filming careers......This is one movie that if you are cooking, talking to guests, or not paying attention to fully it is easy to get lost.
This is not like the other Cheech & Chong films where if you did get lost watching that you can pick it back up from another scene.
That is what is different about "Nice Dreams" it actually has a very good storyline, a great cast, and the best scenerios C&C ever created.
If you don't have a sense of humor like that guy that reviewed this above, I suggest you go watch "Heidi" for the 20th time & get real nice and bored.
The movie is so funny that if you watch carefully you'll catch the cast laughing, cause the writing is hilarious.
His role is a crazed money stealing wacko from the funny farm & if he don't blow your mind, then you'll surely get a great kick out of "Stacey Keach" as the pot smoking sgt of the narc squad along with his goofy two detectives that foul up each bust that they might have had.
Rarely does a movie capture a true friendship like that of Cheech and Chong.
Cheech and Chong remind me of my friends and I when I was a kid and the stuff me used to get into.
Honestly, I would have to say that Nice Dreams is a tie with Up in Smoke as the best Cheech and Chong movie..
Cheech and Chong and Pee Wee. I thought this film was far out, man.
More high times from Cheech and Chong.
"Nice Dreams" has Cheech and Chong cruising around selling their unique 'ice cream'.
Realizing they have made a ton of money, they go about trying to figure out what to do with their newfound wealth.Along the way they encounter a crazy music agent who thinks Chong is Jerry Garcia, a coked-out Pee Wee Herman, Cheech's ex-love interest Donna and her old man Animal, who just happens to hate Mexicans.On par "Cheech And Chongs Next Movie", "Nice Dreams" has some genuinely funny moments, such as Cheech getting stuck on top of the glass elevator naked, and when Cheech is locked away in the nut house.
(Timothy Leary has a cameo as a drug-dispensing doctor.) Wasted in this film was Stacy Keach as Sgt. Stedanko.
But I digress, "Nice Dreams" explores the fundamentals of counterculture, as it is plotted very tightly as the previous installments "Up In Smoke", but not as continual as "Still Smokin" and "Next Movie".
"Nice Dreams" has a familiar story that is like a trend in the Cheech and Chong franchise.
Along their journey, they confront bizarre situations and people which include a pot-smoking Pee-Wee Herman, Sandra Bernhard and Dr. Timothy Leary.Not every gag is delivered coherently.
i also loved that scene when animal went to the hotel to beat up cheech and chong.
The third Cheech and Chong movie.
To me it was obvious that these guys had only a limited script when filming this movie.
It was almost like these guys said, "We'll do a scene with two hot girls in a car and a 600 pound dad, and it will be funny." "We'll go to a pot farm where the owner is wonderfully bizarre and it will be funny." "We'll film two helicopters over nude sunbathers, and it will be funny." One reviewer said he thought that the main characters were high when they made this movie.
The trap is, we've made people laugh in the past, everything we do is funny, so we don't need to work.Strangely enough, the best scene in the movie is when they break into the insane asylum and wake up with the crazy inmates in their faces.
The people in the asylum genuinely freak both Cheech and Chong out.
These guys were millionaires when they filmed the movie.
It was like OK - we got the money back, but we're Stoners so we lose it and now we'll be male strippers and that will be funny?
Cheech and Chong can be funny.
But not with "Nice Dreams." The duo drive around town in an ice-cream truck, but frozen treats are not the product that's for sale.
This scenario does lead to some amusing moments, but other than this, the only other part that has some laughs is when Cheech and Chong go to the gym.
Some of the scenes are real classics, like the "chicken guy" in the nuthouse, Cheech's inability to scratch, Jimmy's reaction to the light bulb in the police station, and others.I enjoyed both this one and "Next Movie" but have to say this is the better of the two in my opinion.
***POSSIBLE SPOILERS***Nice Dreams a follow-up to the very entertaining and funny pothead movie Up in smoke.
Cheech & Chong are still hilarious in some scenes, even though they can become somewhat annoying at times. |
tt0111070 | The Santa Clause | Scott Calvin is attending a large office party at his toy company, where he is winning an award for his salesmanship ability. As he drives home, he leaves a message for his ex-wife, Laura, apologizing for being late when she is dropping off their son Charlie, who is to spend Christmas night with him. When he arrives, he finds that Laura's new husband, Neil Miller, has explained to Charlie that there is no Santa Claus, and Laura and Scott get into an argument about it, much to Charlie's dismay.Scott's attempt to cook a nice Christmas dinner end up with him squirting a fire extinguisher at the turkey in the oven, so they go out to eat. The only place open is Denny's, where they find a full house of Japanese salesmen. The waitress leads them to the room of Men Who Burned the Turkey and tells them that they are out of eggnog, out of chocolate milk, and out of apple pie.They return home and Scott reads "The Night Before Christmas" to Charlie and answers a barrage of questions from him about Santa's magical abilities, explaining at the end that he does believe in Santa. Charlie goes to sleep, but is awakened by a bump on the roof. He wakes up Scott, who goes outside and sees a man in a Santa suit on the roof. He yells and the man slips and falls off the roof. Looking for identification, he finds a card instructing the finder to put on the Santa suit if anything should happen to him. They then notice a sleigh and reindeer on the roof, and the man's body disappears, leaving only the suit behind.Charlie climbs to the roof to pet the reindeer, forcing Scott to follow him. They climb into the sleigh and accidentally start the reindeer moving, eventually landing on another roof. Scott, still in his underwear, is convinced to put on the Santa suit, whereupon he is dragged out of the sleigh and down the chimney by the sack of toys. Once inside, he leaves some presents but is chased back up the chimney by a large dog. They rush off, only to end up at the next roof. This time, Scott is caught by a young girl sleeping on the couch. She tells him he is supposed to drink the milk, and he tells her sarcastically that he is lactose-intolerant.Scott eventually gets into the spirit and they spend the remainder of the night giving out presents. The reindeer then take them to the North Pole and disappear, while an elf opens a garage door for them. They are lowered into a gigantic toy workshop, where an elf named Bernard greets him as Santa. He gives Charlie a snow globe that shows Santa flying in his sleigh and sends him to get food. Bernard explains that when Scott put on the Santa suit, he fell subject to the Santa Clause. By placing the card from the suit under a magnifying glass, Scott is able to read that putting on the suit obligated him under that clause to accept the job of Santa. Bernard tells Scott that he has eleven months to get his affairs in order and that he will be shipped the List. Scott asks what would happen if he didn't believe; Bernard explains that that would result in millions of disappointed children.Scott and Charlie are then escorted by Judy the elf to Santa's bedroom. She brings Scott monogrammed pajamas ("SC") and explains to him that children don't need to see Santa's workshop to know that it's real, and Scott and Charlie fall asleep, waking in their own bedrooms. Scott is still wearing his monogrammed pajamas. Laura arrives to pick up Charlie, who tells her the events of the evening. Laura is annoyed with Scott for encouraging Charlie to believe in Santa.Later that year, Charlie's class does a Parent's Day. He introduces Scott and explains that his job is being Santa Claus. Scott tries to explain his actual job as a toy salesman but Charlie insists that he is Santa Claus. They end up in the school counselor's office, who insists that Scott explain to Charlie that he is not Santa.Scott tries to comply, but Charlie refuses to accept it. Laura finds Charlie in his room playing Santa; Neil challenges many of Charlie's beliefs, but Charlie refutes them all; Neil tells Scott that Charlie is conflicted and they wonder if it's best to stop letting Scott see Charlie. Eventually, at Scott's request, Charlie agrees to stop discussing Santa with others.Scott wakes up one morning, much heavier and with a heavy beard. He rushes to an office meeting, wearing the only thing that will fit him, a sweatsuit. At the meeting, after a lunch where Scott orders hot fudge, extra dressing, cookies and other things, they demo an ad campaign showing Santa riding a tank. Scott objects strenuously, and suggests developing a more nurturing toy. Scott's boss orders him to get help.Scott gets heavier and heavier, with a fast-growing beard, although the doctor tells him he is as healthy as a horse. Later, watching Charlie play soccer, a little girl begins giving him her Christmas list. Laura and Neil catch Scott with children lining up to see him, intensifying their concern.The List arrives, via Federal Express, with a note from Bernard instructing Scott to check it twice. Neil and Laura take Charlie to a counsellor with the intention of revoking Scott's visitation rights. They reminisce about their own Christmas disappointments. Laura wanted a Mystery Date board game, while Neil, at just three, wanted an Oscar Meyer Weenie Whistle. Neither believed in Santa Claus ever again.Scott's visitation rights are cancelled. He goes to visit Neil and Laura anyway, and Charlie tells him that the important thing is that the kids get their presents. Charlie shows him the snow globe again, and when Scott asks for a moment alone with Charlie, Bernard appears. When Laura returns, Charlie, Scott, and Bernard have all disappeared.The police are called in, and begin arresting Santas all around the city. Meanwhile, the elves demonstrate some new, James Bond-ish technology to Scott, who is mostly worried about falling off roofs. Santa begins his rounds, including returning to the little girl who has made sure to provide soy milk for the lactose-intolerant Santa. When he returns to Neil and Laura's house, the police arrest him. Charlie is left on the roof.When the elves lose contact with Santa, they deploy the Effective Liberation Fight Squad (ELFS), a team of commandos. They pick up Charlie, then confront the desk sergeant. "We're your worst nightmare," they tell him. "Elves - with attitude." They rip open Scott's cell door with tinsel, and return to Laura and Neil's house. Scott tells Charlie he has to stay with Laura and Neil. Neil and Laura begin to believe in Scott as Santa, and Laura burns her custody papers. As they say goodbye, Bernard appears to find out the delay. He tells Charlie that he can call back Scott by shaking the snow globe. The police return to the house just as Santa and his sleigh fly from the roof. As Scott leaves, he drops presents - a Weenie Whistle for Neil and a Mystery Date game for Laura.Ten minutes later, Charlie calls Scott back with the snow globe and they take a final quick ride around the neighborhood. | revenge, humor, psychedelic, entertaining, fantasy | train | imdb | Scott Calvin (Allen) is an executive with a toy manufacturing company, he's divorced and has a young son, Charlie (Eric Lloyd), who still believes in Santa, but is at an age at which doubt is beginning to creep into the picture.
The relationships examined in this film-- the whole situation with Scott, Charlie, Laura and Neal-- are quite common in our modern world, and that obstacle in the lives of these characters puts a necessary balance in the story that makes it more than just another Christmas fantasy.
When you think of Tim Allen, you don't necessarily think in terms of Santa Claus-- his Tim Taylor, `Home Improvement' persona is simply too far-reaching (there are, in fact, some `in' jokes sprinkled subtly throughout this film, like when Scott, in Santa's workshop, picks up a toy tool belt and holds it up to himself)-- but it actually becomes a positive here, and another part of the appeal of this film.
So, in retrospect, Allen was a perfect choice for the role of Scott Calvin, and in the long run this just may turn out to be one of his most memorable roles (which is somewhat ironic, as this was Allen's big screen debut), because this is certainly the kind of film that is bound to make a lot of people's annual `holiday movies to watch' list, falling into that category of films you can watch over and over again every Christmas season, like `A Christmas Story.' `Christmas Vacation,' `A Christmas Carol' and `It's A Wonderful Life.' All films which, though certainly diverse, have at their center the spirit of Christmas along with family values and traditions, and all told in a way that enables the viewer to readily identify with the characters and the story, which is exactly what this film does.
An entertaining and ultimately uplifting movie, `The Santa Clause' is funny and enjoyable and has a lot to offer in the way of family entertainment, the kind of film adults and kids alike are going to appreciate.
Tim Allen is great in his movie debut as Scott, a toy salesman that owned the roof where Santa Claus fell from to his death!
> "The Santa Clause" is a great flick to watch on Christmas Eve. True, it can get too sentimental at times (Scott and his wife are battling for custody of their son.
i liked this movie ever since i was little..it was funny and it had a lot of fantasy and good acting by all the people that played in it...it had comedy, fantasy and it was just a good movie to watch for christmas, or any time of the year!.
In this film Divorced dad Scott (Tim Allen) has custody of his son (Eric Lloyd) on Christmas Eve. After he accidentally kills a man in a Santa suit, they are magically transported to the North Pole, where an elf explains that Scott must take Santa's place before the next Christmas arrives.
This is a truly magical film that will continue to enchant children and adults for years and generations to come.The simple premise is executed well and Pasquin excels in making a film that appeals to all ages.Tim Allen plays his part to perfection and has never been funnier.
Don't expect a classic like Scrooge(1951), the first 2 Home Alone movies or It's a Wonderful Life, just expect a pleasant family Christmas film, that way the whole family is in for a good time.
Tim Allen is a good actor despite what some people say.This is about how Scott Calvin, a divorcée dad, becomes the new Santa Claus.
The film manages to have a truly original plot (though the same cannot be said about its sequels), Tim Allen's acting is very good (even if you aren't a fan of his TV series--which I wasn't), the little boy who played his son was terrific (a good actor for a kid and cute as can be) and the film is a lot of fun.
TIM ALLEN provides a bunch of chuckles and good cheer as the amiable, goofy father of ERIC LLOYD who sees Santa Claus take a tumble off his roof one Christmas Eve and finds he must substitute for the "big guy," taking the reindeer to the North Pole toy shop for further directions along with his young son.The script is full of one-liners that Allen tosses off with comic skill.
Sure one or two of the kids playing elves seemed to be reading their lines off cue-cards, but head elf Bernard and especially the little girl playing the worldly elf Judy are a delight.Allen himself is very good, especially when he bulks up to fill the big man's shoes (and robe and hat) and if his boy Charlie initially seems like another production-line cute, smart, mop-haired kid, even he gets some neat lines and develops a likeable personality.
The special effects are nice, involving the reindeer sleigh and answering that old chestnut as to how Santa gets down chimneys without fireplaces, even if they are slightly dated by modern standards and I liked the ending for the way it didn't take the easy resolution it looked for a long time it was headed.In short, this was very enjoyable festive family entertainment, recommended Christmas viewing..
Tim Allen is perfect as the fun-loving but inattentive and distant father suddenly forced, ironically, to "grow up" as he is thrust into the ultimate role of responsibility within the world of the childhood imagination, and the support cast's reactions to his irresponsibility, his confusion and his frustration is impeccable.And whatever the film lacks in conveying the ACTUAL meaning of Christmas, it does perhaps make up for in its subtle commentaries about the state of America and of the American family by the 1990s: lack of attachment, obsession with careerism and conformism, stiff-necked and anti-paternal divorce and custody policies, devaluing or discounting of creative imagination and so forth.Nowadays it is often considered a Christmas classic.
And we have another Christmas movie starring Tim Allen, The Santa Clause.
The Santa Clause starring Tim Allen is a movie that starts off with a feeling that it hasn't got it right, it's going to be another movie that tries to be fun and sweet but all together falls off the rails.
The story see's Tim Allen's character Scott basically become Santa as he well knocks him off his roof and then puts on the suit meaning in the Santa "Clause" he is now the jolly red suited man.
We then see Scott really become Santa, only his son knows he is Santa, everyone else thinks he is crazy, things transpire and the whole story comes to an exciting end.It's well done this movie I mean even from a technical point of view and even though maybe watching some years after it can look outdated, it nevertheless still looks pretty cool.
Tim Allen does well in his role, at first comes across as unlikeable but as the plot grows he matures as a character brining with him fun and that jolly feeling you need from the lead of a Christmas movie.
After directing this, John Pasquin continued to work with Tim Allen and you can see why, he gets the most out of Allen and really the cast too, it can at times feel like some kind of made for TV movie and the directing isn't brilliant, but Pasquin makes the most out of the script and the film all in all satisfies.
The Santa Clause is a great movie with a very well developed storyline and a good cast.I love watching this movie and the other two installments every Christmas,I enjoy them for the nostalgia purpose as I watched it constantly as a child at Christmas and it reminds me of a time when I believed in Santa Claus,and it also gets me in to the Christmas cheer.Tim Allen is without a doubt my favourite portrayal of Father Christmas,he suits the role of a man who is forced to be become Santa and really has no idea what he's suppose to do perfectly,Scott Calvin is a sweet and lovable character and I couldn't imagine anyone other than Allen playing him.The Santa Clause is a very enjoyable movie that I would definitely recommend for a family to watch at Christmas time.
I mean, in this movie it seems like anybody can become Santa Claus if something happens to the current one, as that responsibility ends up falling under Tim Allen, Scott Calvin.
They do a good job of showing how he looks, but we don't often times think of Santa Claus as being fat as he's supposed to be in this movie.
I thought of how this movie is a little like Hook where Peter Banning played by Robin Williams becomes Peter Pan even when it's not his intention, as in this movie Scott Calvin played by Tim Allen becomes Santa Claus out of what he intended.
Under pressure from Charlie, Scott puts on the suit and becomes the new Santa.Tim Allen plays a lot of these Scrooge characters.
This is a pleasant and enjoyable Christmas film, about a man named Scott Calvin (Tim Allen) who was miraculously recruited on Christmas Eve to take the place of Santa Claus after he disappears.
I especially like how Santa's helpers like his elves help Scott carry on his duties.It's a perfect Christmas movie for the entire family and one to celebrate the holiday season with - a fun story with lovable characters and charming scenes.
One night during the Christmas season Santa falls off of a man's roof, and can't continue his duties, Tim Allen's character is now bestowed the duty of becoming the new Santa Claus, at first he doesn't want to do it, presumably because of all the responsibility that comes with it.
Like all the best Yuletide films, it requires the viewer to take a leap of faith and believe the unbelievable so that once you do that you're taken along for the ride and in this case, an entertaining and amusing ride it certainly is.Tim Allen stars as the divorced dad who feels diminished next to his ex-wife and her new man, who naturally is younger, better-looking and higher-earning, though with a taste for gaudily patterned pullovers.
Cue a fateful encounter with an unexpected visitor on the roof on Christmas Eve and the fun really starts.While some of the special-effects are a little weak, in general this movie gently and neatly encapsulates the elusive Christmas spirit with a nicely judged mix of childish wonder and knowing humour for grown-ups,making it an easy film for parents and children to watch together.
In the beginning and middle of the movie, it's all about Tim Allen not believing that he is Santa Clause, and I find that quite humorous because that's what any person would probably do.However, overall this movie does deserve a 7/10 and I definitely recommend watching it for families, because this is a 100% family approved film!.
I have seen this since I was 4 years old(yeah that long)and it is quite good for a Christmas movie.Tim Allen(the guy who is famous for voicing Buzz Lightyear in the Toy Story franchise)plays Scott Clavin a man who doesn't like Christmas and is a divorced father to a boy named Charlie(Eric Lyod).
Tim Allen's character, named Scott Calvin Same initials as Santa, it must be destiny has a child named Charlie and is caught in a triangle of adults with his ex-wife and her new husband, played by the always amazing Judge Reinhold.
Can anyone for the life of me, as a kid I never seen a Christmas/holiday movie REVEALING Santa Claus,in this case Tim Allen.
Tim Allen brought us lots of Christmas joy to be a such a nice Santa clause.Eric Lloyd was so smart in the movie as Tim's kid.
Because if you did, you'd agree with me that this is a shallow, not particularly imaginative Christmas film with some bad child actors and the only reason people have some affection for it is because Tim Allen makes for a pretty good Santa Claus.
The premise of the film is that Scott Calvin (Tim Allen) is a divorced father who is taking care of his son Charlie (Eric Lloyd) on Christmas Eve. When they hear a noise on the roof of their house, they discover that Santa Claus is real...
Watch it for Tim Allen, but don't forsake one of the better Christmas films in order to watch "The Santa Clause".
While both Chase or Murray could possibly have been better, they also both have their own notable Christmas movies, so it was time to pick a new comedian.I am not big on Tim Allen, despite liking "Home Improvement" and enjoying his role here for the most part.
The Santa Clause stars Tim Allen, Wendy Crewson, Judge Reinhold, Eric Lloyd, Peter Boyle, and David Krumholtz.
If you are looking for a great Christmas film and if you like the cast mentioned above that I strongly recommend The Santa Clause!.
Tim Allen plays Scott, a divorced toy executive who spends time with his son on Christmas Eve. They end up in Dennys as he burns the turkey but later that night he hears a sound.
i thought his movie was quite good.it's loaded with some great laughs,it's heartwarming,and it's original.Tim Allen is in fine comedic form here,way back in 1994.this is truly a movie the whole family can enjoy.the jokes are appealing to both kids and adults.my sister and both laughed quite hard more than a few times.the movie moves at a quick pace,so you don't really get to know the characters that well.but for this movie,that's OK.you get all the information you need for the story.it's also nice to see a movie like this that isn't preachy.sure there's a message,but it's subtle,and not the main focus of the film.for me,the Santa Clause is a 8/10..
"The Santa Clause" is one of the best holiday movies of the last 16 years, though of course it's not better than "A Christmas Story" (1983).
While at 21 years of age, I certainly know there's no Santa, though there is always your inner-child telling you to believe that Christmas is the season of miracles, and that is exactly what transpires in "The Santa Clause."Scott Calvin (Allen), the typical, overworked (and divorced) American dad, is one such disbeliever.
Scott finds a business card in the man's suit that informs him that by putting on the coat, he has entered into a legal binding ("The Santa Clause," with an "e" at the end, meaning the last sentence of a contract, as explained by Bernard the Elf, played by David Krumholtz) to assume the rights and responsibilities of Santa Claus.So after one hectic night of delivering presents to children around the world and visiting his North Pole home and workshop, life returns to normal for Scott and Charlie, or so it seems.
(The movie also manages to resolve two ages-old questions that have nagged us all, including how Santa shoves his big old self down chimneys and how he's able to make his nightly rounds on Christmas Eve.)For all its typical Disney kind-hearted-ness, director Pasquin and his screenwriters Leo Benvenuti and Steve Rudnick manage to effectively capture everything there is to really love about the Jolly Old Fat Guy. Allen, everybody's favorite television comedian, fills out his role as the lousy-dad Scott Calvin who is inexplicably transformed into every kid's favorite holiday hero.
He starts going up in weight...well, he goes in puberty getting Santa Clause!The thing is; Allen plays a dad who's divorced and has his son on visit on Christmas Eve, when the night has come they suddenly hear someone on the roof.
Basically Scott Calvin (Tim Allen) has been divorced from ex-wife Laura (Wendy Crewson) for some time now, and though she is married to a slightly annoying Dr. Neil Miller (Beverly Hills Cop's Judge Reinhold), he still has access to his six year old son Charlie (Eric Lloyd).
Along with Elf and Jingle All the Way, The Santa Clause is another film in a line of movies I could recommend to all families to watch on Christmas Day just after opening all those presents.
Scott Calvin(Tim Allen)is a depressed divorced dad that resents his ex-wife Laura(Wendy Crewson)marrying the child psychiatrist(Judge Reinhold)of his son Charlie(Eric Lloyd).
superstar comedian Tim Allen shines in this Disney's magical larger than life Xmas comedy a clatter on the roof leads to a merry Xmas adventure after a disturbance Santa falls down on the job and Scots son Charlie convince him he is the real deal and try on the suit 8 reindeer navigate the pair to the north pole so with clause in his suit he has accepted the contact and over the next year Scot has a mini sized breakdown as he evolves quiet latterly into something quiet large his family and business associates come quiet concerned if he is losing his marbles but not his son he believes this well keep secret Disney reveals in this Xmas classic its surprising 7/10 1hr33mins of fun enjoy great acting by a all star cast.
The Santa Clause (1994): Dir: John Pasquin / Cast: Tim Allen, Eric Lloyd, Wendy Crewson, Judge Reinhold, David Krumholtz: Delightfully funny holiday film about the promise of good will.
Scott Calvin is played by Tim Allen in the Santa Claus films and he does that on a really classic and unforgettable way.
For me Tim Allen will always be "Santa" it was a tradition for me at home to watch the Santa Claus films with the whole family on TV at Christmas every year.
The Santa Clause launched Tim Allen in the movie business, spawned two sequels, and did so much for the holidays. |
tt0475783 | Welkkeom tu Dongmakgol | A U.S. Navy pilot, Neil Smith, is caught in a mysterious storm of butterflies and crash-lands his plane whilst flying over a remote part of Korea. He is found by local villagers who nurse him back to health. Within the small village(Dongmakgol), time appears to stand still. They have no knowledge of modern technology, such as guns and grenades. All villagers are unaware to the conflict within Korea.Meanwhile, not far from the village, a platoon of North Korean and South Korean soldiers have an encounter, and the ensuing gunfight leaves most of the North Koreans dead. The surviving soldiers from the North manage to escape through a mountain passage. The North Korean soldiers, Rhee Soo-hwa (Jeong Jae-yeong), Chang Young-hee (Lim Ha-ryong), and Seo Taik-gi (Ryu Duk-hwan) are found by an odd girl Yeo-il (Kang Hye-jeong) who acts crazy. She leads them to the village, where to their astonishment, they find two South Korean soldiers Pyo Hyun-chul (Shin Ha-kyun) and Moon Sang-sang (Seo Jae-kyung). The South Korean soldiers who, have both deserted their units had also been lead to the village which is housing the injured U.S. Navy pilot, Smith by a different villager.The unexpected encounter causes an armed standoff that lasts for several days. The villagers have no idea what the stir is about, and wonder why the two sides are standing there pointing those "sticks" at each other. The confrontation ends only when a soldier holding a grenade is worn by fatigue and accidentally drops it. Another soldier heroically throws himself onto the grenade, but it does not explode. He discards the "dud" over his shoulder in contempt, and it rolls into the village storehouse and blows up the village's stockpile of corn for the winter. The remnants fall down from the sky surrealistically as popcorn.The two groups of Korean soldiers and Smith now have to face the fact that their quarrel condemned the village to starvation in the following winter. They help the villagers in the fields to make up for the damage they have caused, and even work together to kill one of the wild boars that trouble the village. Tensions between the two groups of Korean soldiers gradually lessen, though members of both sides are haunted by the memory of terrible things they have experienced during the war.While this is happening, Allied commanders, who have lost several other planes in the area, are preparing a rescue team to recover Smith, whom they mistakenly believe has been captured by enemy units and is being held at a hidden base. The plan: when the rescue team finds and recovers Smith, a bomber unit is to fly in and destroy the anti-aircraft guns they presume are sited in the village, which means that the innocent villagers are now in grave peril.The rescue team, led by their commander (David Joseph Anselmo), drops in by parachute at night, suffering heavy casualties from the rough terrain. They enter the village, and under the assumption it is a cover for an enemy base, begin roughing up toward the villagers. Despite the efforts of the villagers to conceal the Korean soldiers by disguising them as villagers, a firefight breaks out in which all the members of the rescue team but one are killed and Yeo-il is fatally wounded by a bullet. The only survivor of the rescue team, the Korean translator, is hit over the head by Smith and is captured by the villagers.Through the translator, the people in the village find out about the bombing plan. The North and South Korean soldiers realize there is no time for Smith to make it back to his base to stop the bombing. The only possible way to save the village, they decide, is to create a decoy "enemy base" using equipment from the rescue team parachute drop, so that the bombing unit will attack them instead of the village.Smith is sent back along with the surviving rescue party member so that he can tell the Americans that there is nothing in the village to bomb, in case they decide to send more bombers. Meanwhile, the decoy is successful, and the remaining North and South Korean soldiers die smiling while a barrage of bombs explode around them. The village is saved, but at the cost of the lives of the former enemies who had later become friends. | anti war | train | imdb | null |
tt0069768 | Battle for the Planet of the Apes | Told as a flashback to the early 21st century with a wraparound sequence narrated by the orangutan Lawgiver (John Huston) in "North America - 2670 A.D.", this sequel follows the ape leader Caesar (Roddy McDowall) years after a global nuclear war has destroyed civilization. In this post-nuclear society, Caesar tries to cultivate peace between the apes and the surviving humans. A gorilla general named Aldo (Claude Akins) however opposes this and plots Caesar's downfall. Caesar is married to Lisa (Natalie Trundy), the female ape of the previous film, and they have a son named Cornelius (Bobby Porter) in honor of Caesar's father.
Caesar regrets never having known his parents until his human assistant MacDonald (Austin Stoker) tells him about an archive film of his parents where he can also learn about the future. The archives are located in the Forbidden City, now a radioactive ruin. After obtaining a geiger counter and weapons from the armory, Caesar travels with MacDonald and orangutan Virgil (Paul Williams) to the Forbidden City and sneaks in to find the archives. However, there are mutants (radiation-scarred humans) still living there under the command of Governor Kolp (Severn Darden). Caesar and his party view the recordings of Cornelius and Zira and learn about the future of the world, but barely have time to study the tapes before they have to escape being captured. Caesar assembles a meeting to report his discoveries at the Forbidden City. Aldo objects when some humans show up and he leads the gorillas away.
A team of scouts sent by Governor Kolp return and tell him about the Ape City. Kolp considers this covert trip by Caesar an act of espionage. His assistant Méndez (Paul Stevens) believes they did nothing wrong and should be left alone, but Governor Kolp stubbornly declares war on Ape City, mustering the mutant humans to destroy the ape society.
Aldo is furious that Caesar wants to co-exist peacefully with humans and plots a coup d'état in order to become the Ape leader himself. Cornelius overhears this while trying to catch his escaped pet squirrel in a nearby tree. Aldo spots him and hacks the tree branch down, critically injuring Cornelius. After a gorilla scouting pair is attacked by the approaching humans (though the gorillas struck the first blow in this case by killing a human scout beforehand), Aldo orders all humans to be corralled and leads the gorillas to loot the weapons' armory much to Virgil's dismay. Cornelius eventually dies from his wounds, leaving Caesar devastated, but not without leaving him with a warning about Aldo's coup.
It is at that moment that Kolp's ragtag force launches their attack against Ape City. The initial mutant attack succeeds, forcing Caesar to order the defenders to fall back. When Kolp finds Caesar lying among dozens of apes, he threatens to kill him, but the fallen apes, who were feigning death or hiding on Caesar's orders, launch a counter-attack that captures most of the mutants. Kolp and his remaining forces are killed by Aldo's troops while attempting to retreat.
After the battle, Aldo wants to kill the penned humans, but Caesar shields them. Aldo declares that Caesar should be killed if he shields the humans. However, Virgil reveals Aldo's responsibility for Cornelius' death and the breaking of the ape community's most sacred law ("Ape shall never kill ape"). An infuriated Caesar pursues Aldo up a large tree, resulting in Aldo falling to his death during the fight. Caesar then attempts to free the humans, but they refuse to leave the pen unless humans are treated as equals. Caesar then realizes the apes are just as despicable as the former slave-owners. The apes and humans then decide to coexist with one another and begin a new society.
The Lawgiver finishes his wrap-around narration (he says it's been over 600 years since the death of Caesar). It's revealed he's talking to a group of young humans and apes; apes and humans have continued to coexist in peace. When asked by a human child "Who knows about the future?", the Lawgiver replies "Perhaps only the dead." A closeup of a statue of Caesar shows a single tear falling from one eye. | violence | train | wikipedia | So the final entry in the Planet of the Apes series takes liberties with the timeline and the plot wanders through other prior installments, but I feel the movie delivers a degree of pathos seldom seen in a sequel.
The bookend scenes involving the Lawgiver, John Huston in heavy make up, speaking to a group of schoolchildren--apes and humans--tie up the saga nicely, leaving open the future for more sequels.(Tim Burton in his dreadful remake should have filled in the blanks instead of "reimagining" a different world of apes.
A couple of chimps formed by the chief Caesar( Roddy McDowall) and his wife Lisa (Natalie Trundy replacing the usual Kim Hunter) think otherwise and even agree a peaceful existence with humans .Caesar is son of Cornelius and Zira from ¨Escape from the planet of apes¨ and was the leader in the ¨Conquest of the Planet of the apes¨ Caesar attempts to ease disputes between apes and men .
Meanwhile, an expedition commanded by Caesar , Virgil (Paul Williams) and MacDonald (Austin Stoker ) sets out the forbidden zone where live human mutants ( Seven Darden, France Nuyen among them) who survived a nuclear explosion several years before .
Lee Thompson for it-- the man who failed so miserably at "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes."Caesar (Roddy McDowall) returns, as does Lisa (Natalie Trundy), his chimpanzee wife, and Aldo (now played by Claude Akins), a gung-ho gorilla who constantly dreams of getting rid of Caesar.
This movie had big ambitions:the hero,Ceasar,Cornelius's and Zira's son,has to change the future,like Bruce Willis would have to do a quarter of century later in "twelve monkeys" -no pun intended-.But the results are not up to scratch,by a long shot:the last two sequels are the poorest of a saga which brilliantly began with Shaffner's classic in 1967(adapted from Pierre -Bridge on the river Kwai-Boulle's absorbing book).One should note than the first five minutes are footage from 'escape from...." which tend to reinforce Ceasar's Christlike nature ;and it's even enhanced by John Huston's patriarch "lawgiver" (sic) character.
Several years after a nuclear war, we find a surprisingly peaceful yet primitive village occupied by both apes and humans, governed by chimp Caesar (McDowall), who began a revolution in the previous film, as a young radical.
There, the human governor from "Conquest..." has been replaced by his security chief, Kolp, who was bad enough as 2nd in command - now he's bored just sifting through the rubble with his few mutated followers - time to work off the doldrums and teach a clever ape how to show respect.This entry is generally regarded as the worst of the 5 films, if most fans had to pick one, but it's not a complete waste by comparison.
Here is the final chapter in the PLANET OF THE APES series, and it's one of the most unjustly maligned sequels in film history.
Sure, it's easily the least of the five movies, but it's still entertaining and has something to say, which is a quality that's usually missing with most fifth entries of a long franchise, and definitely in science fiction films in general these days.It's now some years after the events of CONQUEST OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, and we learn that much has happened in the interim; most importantly, man must have pushed a panic button during the subsequent ape wars, as much of the Earth (or at least the North American section of it) has become radioactive wasteland, thanks to the detonation of some kind of bomb.
BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES centers on one small community of survivors - who are not necessarily supposed to be considered "the entire world population," as so many detractors mistake when they like to condemn its small budget - but just a relatively modest group of apes and humans in one specific area who try to re-build their lives in peace.
Can it ever be done?Roddy McDowall returns as Caesar, who is more benevolent than he was in CONQUEST, but still has trouble completely trusting humans at this point in time - and even, as he grows to learn, some apes!
While apes are the dominant species in this particular neighborhood, humans are treated with at least a moderate amount of respect, except by self-appointed gorilla general Aldo (Claude Akins), who would prefer to exterminate all of mankind instead of tolerating them.There's still a point to the series, although by now it has reached the level of repetition -- "will man and ape ever be able to survive together as equals"?
It should also be noted that there was a very poignant subplot originally filmed which involved the mutants and their devotion to an Alpha/Omega bomb (making these beings the likely ancestors of the ones we'd later see in BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES).
The movie is supposed to take place in a barren, scantily populated wasteland; why so much more money was thought to be needed under those circumstances is beyond me.As a big fan of the APES films, I waited almost 30 years for Twentieth Century-Fox to revisit this series.
I distinctly remember a scene in this film, after the ape-mutant war and after the apes and humans agree on equality in their society, that depicted Mendez and the woman of Asian descent in the Forbidden City playing chess.
Similarily, I think Claude Akins as gorilla general Aldo was also an inspired piece of casting.BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES should be a film anyone can enjoy somewhat, and especially by someone claiming to be a fan of the series.
To find out what happens, you'll have to watch the final chapter to the PLANET OF THE APES film series.
However an exploration into the ruined cities brings the apes into conflict with the mutants and the humans get trapped in the middle.The final of the films is the real low point of the series.
Their voices are unmistakable as is Paul Williams playing McDowall's confidante.Battle For The Planet Of The Apes is a fitting end to a grand set of science fiction films..
Fifth and last Apes film is set after a nuclear war has decimated the human population, and left them subservient to the surviving apes, who are building their own civilization, and can't decide whether humans will be allowed to live or not, especially after a determined group of militant humans decide to wage war, rather than serve...Unlike the previous two films, this one is less reliant on implausible and contrived plot devices, which is a welcome change; trouble is, it is also less effective dramatically, bordering on the mundane.The extended version on the new DVD is an improvement, since it restores key scenes involving the radiation scarred humans that is quite interesting, but film still feels perfunctory, and inconclusive..
All five are very anti-war, preachy about humans are cruel and destroy nature, but by the time you get to this one, you just wish you had been on earth went it blew up in the second film.I likes the title one of the other reviews used - Don't Apes throw this stuff around?
I am reviewing the uncut directors cut however, and it's entertaining.There's some interesting ideas (explored much better in Dawn and War), but like with Conquest the film is hindered by it's tiny budget.There's a decent battle scene, the whole Caesar vs.
One decade after a worldwide series of ape revolutions and a brutal nuclear war among humans, Caesar must protect survivors of both species from an insidious human cult and a militant ape faction alike.Screenwriters John William Corrington and Joyce Hooper Corrington were brought in after the success of their film "The Omega Man", although prior to that neither one of them had written any science fiction films and, indeed, Joyce Carrington later admitted they had never seen any of the Apes films prior to being hired to write the script for "Battle".Roger Ebert gave the film a negative review, stating, "Battle looks like the last gasp of a dying series, a movie made simply to wring the dollars out of any remaining ape fans." As usual, Ebert is spot on.
Sadly, then, "Battle for the Planet of the Apes" sends the series out with a whimper, not a bang.For a basic plot summary, "Battle" sees a society some years down the road where Caesar (Roddy McDowell) rules a rather primitive Ape City.
It is obvious that the budget made the film look a little cheap and the story is a bit thin but the characters still make up for these flaws and still has plenty of dramatic moments.I don't hold the opinion that Battle is the worst of the series.
The last in the original Planet of the Apes film series and easily the worst and least interesting of the lot.
Surprisingly, they still managed to draw in much of the same actors, including Roddy McDowall as Caesar, the original smart ape in this timeline.This movie suffers largely from the same problems as its immediate predecessor, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes.
Caesar (Roddy McDowall) rules Ape City trying to live in peace with the second class humans.
They travel to the radioactive city with orangutan Virgil and find Cornelius and Zira's testimony predicting the end of the world by the gorillas in the 3rd movie 'Escape from the Planet of the Apes'.
Later MacDonald then explains to Caeser "You say,we have rights yet we're not your equals if you wish to release us then free us completely to live together with love."Caeser then said "Can't have any thing to do with the human way, the human way is violence and death." then Virgil the orangutan had said "Aldo was not human."Caeser then had said "You Virgil are a very wise teacher." and then Virgil said "And you Caeser area very wise King." after this they show the under ground humans about to set off the same bomb that Taylor had used to destroy the earth in "Beneath" with one of them saying "No this is what we want to avoid knowing it's a future possibility."(Meaning they were about to after losing the war caused by the misunderstanding that those three of Caeser,MacDonald,& Virgil really came to that underground civilization in peace only to play the films of Caeser's Parents to give him Knowledge.)One of those Lady mutants even said "Well perhaps they really came in peace." but because the security camera got shot at Kolp didn't agree.Then from here as the Lawgiver finished the story they showed a gorilla boy pulling an an African American girl's braids with her saying "Ow!" & then the Law giver said "...and we still await that one fateful day when the earth will be destroyed."All of this very compilation of which grabbed my attention for when from 1989-92 Malibu Graphics was the latest to adapt Planet of the apes & they were just as annoyed by me as they were glad to have me there for them & of which is why this film's themes along with my inspiration made Their final work of Planet of the apes:The Forbidden Zone.a great deal of it was their own fault both for inviting comment and critique as well as not doing their own homework.Also in giving credit where it's due when 20 years ago I had even told my big sister,Maureen that I was going to rent all 5 films to get a real feel for the continuity & she then said to me "What continuity?" I came out of Terminator 2: Judgement Day with my big brother,J.
Kevin mentioning how this film didn't agree with the prior one & how the history as according to Cornelius told in "Escape" didn't agree with the following movie & happened centuries later.He said so when they came back through time they had sped up the history & then I said how only it still doesn't explain it right for how it already happened according them because it would've been known that they came back in time.Yes even Cornelius said that Aldo instead of Caeser had lead the apes in the crusade to what would be the take over by saying "No." of which leads to the zpota website of which is named Damn it,Damn the continuity all to hell as Taylor said @ the end of the first movie & of which was also used to start the 2nd film off of "Beneath" also to see my final follow up on the Malibu Adaptation of the Planet of the apes:The Forbidden Zone mini series,of which I had made possible,pick up a copy of this publication's comic of Protectors #16 of which is in conclusion included @ the end of the same letter of a review of both a previous Protectors story from issue #12 of this magazine & a Miss Fury review too.As I Said on the Escape from the planet of apes review the beginning footage @ the airforce base varies a little differently than in "Escape from the Planet of the apes."and this is from the beginning of this film of " Battle"where the Lawgiver starts of with in the beginning God made both man & apes in his own image.
And they've learned to ride horses?Roddy McDowall - as always in the "Apes" series - offered a fine performance as the chimpanzee Caesar, the son of Cornelius and Zira from "Escape" and the leader of the ape rebellion in "Conquest," who's now a sort of benevolent dictator of the Ape City, whose position is being increasingly challenged by the gorilla leader Aldo (Claude Akins.) Severn Darden recreated his role as Kolp - head of security for the humans in "Conquest" and now the Governor of whatever is left of the city which has been devastated by a nuclear bomb, but I frankly found the issue of the battle between the apes and the mutant humans lacking and irrelevant.
The battles going on within Ape City (the other two issues I mentioned above) were probably enough to keep the movie going and should have been better developed.This really was a sad ending to what had been a good series of movies to this point..
The story is simple but incredibly weak at times and it is kind of dumb when the mutants who lived in a melted city start battle against the apes just because they find Cesar who is trying to find his famed parents Cornelious and Zira along with his human friend and his orangutan ape friend Virgil played by movie composer Paul Williams evade there precious burnt city.
The film is unbelievably dreary and dull, just like it's predecessor "Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes."I give the writers partial credit though for trying to bring the series full cycle in a sort of "vicious circle" theme, in which history is in effect trapped in a neverending loop of Taylor arriving, the Earth getting blown up, Cornelius and Zira escaping back to Taylor's time and starting the process of the rise of the apes, and years later Taylor arrives again......Alas, the only idea of this that gets developed is where we see in scenes that were cut from the theatrical release but restored in TV prints, how the bomb worshiping cult of "Beneath The Planet Of The Apes" got started (it is no coincidence that the human leader's name in "Battle" is Mendez, the same as the mutant leader in "Beneath").
This film also continued Conquest's focus on racial conflict, like the other two films for me.BATTLE follows Caesar as he leads the apes and their human subjects after a devastating war that destroyed much of the planet.
This film also continued Conquest's focus on racial conflict, like the other two films for me.BATTLE follows Caesar as he leads the apes and their human subjects after a devastating war that destroyed much of the planet.
The final film, "Battle for the Planet of the Apes", ends on a more positive note but the dialogue is inane, the action is boring, and the production values are cheap.
also OK but this is intended for those of you who had the same viewpoint on the series as I previously did.I had thought that the films III, IV and V had simply explained events prior to the first movie but after seeing Battle again, I saw that the past had been changed due to the apes going back in time after the destruction of the earth.
Battle for the Planet of the Apes starts ten years or so after events of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) as a nuclear war has decimated human society & the Ape child of Zira & Cornelius who called himself Caesar (Roddy McDowall) has grown up, lead a Ape rebellion against man & is trying to start an Ape city where he dreams humans & Apes can co-exist in peace if not quite equality.
Oscar winner John Huston has a cameo while future director John Landis has a small role early on in his career.Battle for the Planet of the Apes isn't a total disaster & if you like the franchise then this is worth seeking out, even if your not it does have a few good moments & it entertains although the heavy handed morals can get tiresome as in the rest of the series..
Yes, the titular 'battle for the planet of the apes' also refers to Caesar's 'peaceful co-existence' scenario versus Aldo's 'conquest is good' mindset, but with such a plethora of 'bad movie' moments distracting the viewer, it is not immediately obvious.
Virgil (introducing Paul Williams) go into the city, not realising there are mutated survivors, led by Gov. Kolp (Severn Darden), gorilla Gen. Aldo (Claude Akins) plans to overthrow Caesar's rule and have the apes take over the Earth like the future sees. |
tt0106926 | Flesh and Bone | While helping his grifter father burgle a house in rural Texas, young Arlis Sweeney watches him murder the entire family, leaving only a crying baby. Fast forward 30 years. Arlis has settled into a bleak routine restocking vending machines on a route that includes "a place to eat, a place to sleep, and a woman" in every dusty roadside town. Into this routine falls Kay Davies, another damaged soul down on her luck and stranded away from home and her abusive ne'er-do-well of a husband. Arlis is going that way and agrees to give her a ride. While the two are at her house, movers arrive to take the furniture, which her husband sold to pay gambling debts. Seeing nothing to remain for after a confrontation with her husband, Kay leaves with Arlis. Arlis and Kay begin to fall for each other. In the middle of a rainy night, a knock on their motel door introduces Ginnie, a young woman who makes her living stealing jewelry off corpses in funeral homes. Pleading car trouble, she leads Arlis to her car where his estranged father Roy, who exudes sleaze and criminality, is waiting with a back full of buckshot. Arlis patches up his father and lets the pair spend the night in his room. The next day, they go their separate ways. As Ginnie and Roy pass an abandoned house, Ginnie remarks that it's the same house that's in a photograph that Kay is carrying with her. Roy realizes that Kay must be the crying baby he spared 30 years ago. Roy hates loose ends. Arlis comes to the same realization, and tries to break it off with Kay, leaving her in the motel room with some goodbye cash while he goes on a business errand from which he doesn't plan to return. Possibly changing his mind, he calls Kay's motel and learns that she left with Ginnie. Judging by the directions that the motel clerk said Ginnie asked for, Arlis guesses that they're headed for the old house. In fact, Roy was setting a trap for him. Ginnie tells Kay that there's a surprise in store for them at the old house. Arlis soon arrives, and after Roy sends the girls out for a walk, he and Arlis have a confrontation. Roy says he can't trust Arlis not to tell Kay that he murdered her family, so one of them will have to kill Kay. Instead, Arlis shoots his father. Arlis finds it too painful to be with Kay, and too painful to try to explain her past to her (she was told by her foster parents that her family died in a car crash). He tells her "Some things, it just don't do no good to talk about." Kay doesn't understand, but realizes that she and Arlis aren't going to make it. As he told her, he's a creature of habit, and she doesn't fit in. Regretfully, they part. | murder | train | imdb | null |
tt0451094 | Chinjeolhan geumjassi | Geum-ja Lee (Yeong-ae Lee) has spent thirteen years in prison for the murder of a little boy and is about to be released. We see a group of carolers dressed in bright red Santa Claus suits, waiting for her release. One of them remarks that Geum-ja is rumored to be an angel. A man dressed in normal clothes, the Preacher ( Byeong-ok Kim) waits with them and seeing her come out, directs them to sing. Guem-ja approaches, stops and stares at the camera stone faced. Although it's snowing and very cold she is wearing only light clothing. The preacher asks about the winter clothes he sent her, and then uncovers a big block of tofu, presenting it to her. Grinning, he says " It's been hard, hasn't it? 13 and a half years. I'm so proud of you."We see news footage about Geum-ja, covering the murder of a little boy, Park Won-mo. One of his class mates describes the last time he saw the boy. We're told that Geum-ja, 19 years old at the time, confessed to the murder and we see her in police custody before a crowd. The news announcer explains that as shocking as the brutal murder was, everyone was more shocked at Geum-ja's good looks. A director wanted to make a movie about her, and the public took to wearing polka dot dresses, similar to what she wore when arrested.We see Geum-ja, newly in prison, meeting with the preacher who says "Behind that wicked witch's face of yours, I saw the presence of an angel." We see her praying with the preacher. She tells another prisoner "An angel, could that be true? Do you really think an angel resides in me? If so, where was that angel when I was committing such an evil act? I always wondered about this after hearing what the preacher said, and then I realized, that the angel inside me only reveals itself when I invoke it." We see Geum-ja helping other prisoners. She comforts an elderly woman, does another woman's make up, bakes a beautiful cake, and helps a woman study. She explains that the act of invoking an angel is called prayer and says "Actually, prison is an ideal place to learn to pray, because we know that we are all sinners in here." We see that Geum-is speaking into a microphone and there's a banner behind her which says "Testimonials of faith day for Inmates, 1997" She receives much applause from prisoners and officials alike. The preacher is extra enthusiastic, standing to clap for her.We then catch up with the preacher and Geum-ja in present day, resuming with a look at the tofu block. The preacher explains "It's a tradition to eat tofu on release, so that you'll live white and never sin again. Geum-ja reaches for the tofu, but rather than take it she intentionally knocks it to the ground, stunning the carolers and leaving the preacher shaken, in tears. She looks at him coldly and says "Why don't you go screw yourself?" and leaves.Guem-ja visits a hair salon to see her friend and former fellow inmate, Kim Yang-hee (Yeong-ju Seo) Kim is overoyed to see her, crying and giving Geum-ja a hug. We flashback to prison, and see Yang-hee arriving, mentioning that she heard of someone in this prison whose "face would shine." Yang-hee is tripped by another inmate, Ma-nyeo (Ko Su-hee) also known as "the witch" before they all go to bed. While everyone sleeps, we see Geum-ja from behind, sitting, facing a wall, as her face gives off a very bright light.Kim recounts her offense, strangling her pimp. Geum-ja teaches her to pray and lament past lives, and we see that Kim's face glows when she prays. In the present, Kim brings Geum-ja to her home. Kim tries to be affectionate and when Guem-ja is only cold, she remarks that she's changed, and asks if she's started the plan already. Geum-ja says "No. The plan was already started 13 years ago." THey go to to bed, and Geum-ja prays until having a vision of a snowy wasteland, where she is dragging what appears to be a dog with a man's head across the snow. She looks him in the eye and says "Farewell" and shoots him in the forehead. We see that she has dark red eye shadow as she smiles afterwards. We see that the sleeping Geum-ja is also smiling.The next day we see Geum-ja walking down a city street and ending up at Won Mo's parents' kitchen table. Geum-ja has a knife in her hand and slams it down, cutting off one of her own fingers. We're told that she planned to beg their forgiveness until she had no fingers left. The parents are horrified and call an ambulance. Won-mo's father restrains her while they wait for it to arrive. All of the money she had, is needed to get her a finger operation. Days later, she finds work at a bakery, working for a Mr. Chang (Dal-su Oh). She unintentionally causes a scene when a young employee, Geun-shik (Shi-Hoo Kim) is so taken with her beauty that he drops everything he's carrying. He awkwardly asks if he can call her "elder sister." She responds "Just call me Geum-ja."We see her meeting with another ex fellow inmate, Woo Soo Yong (Bu-Seon Kim) who describes the early days of prison, saying "She cried like a baby.Man, it was so depressing." We see a flashback of this happening, and her cell mates getting annoyed with her. A quick flashback shows her robbing a place in a mask with her boyfriend. She explains that she felt like she was going to die because she couldn't be with him. We then see her passing out in the prison yard, as she narrates that she had kidney failure, adding "Then this bitch says she'll give me one of her kidneys. It's not as if a kidney's a bit of fluff, you give away so easily." We see Geum-ju in the medical ward in the bed next to her.Geum-ja looks at her and says "Damn bitch. It brings me bad luck. Stop crying!" before smiling. Geum-ja then meets Woo Soo's boyfriend and we see another flashback of the robbery, as he describes how fearless she was saying he's "married to a goddess." Woo Soo blames him being at her side for her fearlessness. The two fawn all over each other while Guem-ja stares at them expressionless. Woo Soo tells her boyfriend that Geum-ja is "readying a magnificent plan." and asks him to help her. Geum-ja produces a book which contains many folded pieces of paper, which they pin to the wall, producing what looks like plans to build a gun. He asks where she got it, and we see another flashback in prison.Guem-ja is sitting with an elderly woman, Ko Sun-sook, who tells her "Go save yourself." Ko was a spy from North Korea who had Alzheimer's. She speaks to Geum-ja about dogs and chicken bones, while Guem-ja calmly looks after her. We're told that she volunteered to do this. She gives Geum-ja the book, saying "for you have vengeance to take, comrade."We meet another inmate via flashback, Oh Soo-hee (Mi-ran Ra.) We see her getting taking advantage of by a Ma-nyeo, who forces Soo-hee to pleasure her. This happens again another day in the prison bath. Behind them, we see someone cleaning the floor with a mop and leaving. Once sexually satisfied, the tough woman walks away while Soo-hee cries. She slips on the wet floor however, and hits her head on the floor. Soo-hee looks back and sees this, as well as Geum-ja returning to the room looking over the woman's body. Geum-ja waves at Soo-hee, showing a bar of soap in her hand. Soo-hee in the present asks about the red eye shadow. Guem-ja answers "People are always saying I look kind hearted." Soo-hee is a sculptor, and Guem-ja hands her a paper with a drawing, asking if she can make it in silver. Soo hee asks is she's killed "the bastard" yet. Guem-ja says "Not yet." and says she's been busy. She agrees though that she's "saving the best for last."We see Guem-ja at work at the bakery. A man seems fascinated with her and approaches her saying she's changed a lot and he barely recognized her. The man is the detective who was in charge of her case. When the detective's wife asks who Geum-ja "was" Geum-ja tells her story, even teasing the woman saying "I kidnapped and killed a boy...Don't worry, I didn't eat him." The woman leaves the bakery, hysterical, dropping her goods, saying "These were made by hands that have killed." We flashback and see the detective questioning her. Geum-ja is almost angry, insisting that she killed the boy. The detective doesn't seem convinced, asking her to describe a marble the boy had, which went missing, which she can't do. We then see the police escorting her through crime scenes, forcing her to reenact how she did it. At all the scenes, Mr. Baek (Min-sik Choi) is there, and makes slight finger gestures which appear to have some meaning to her.Guem-ja visits an adoption agency. The woman there tells her she can't give out any records. We flashback to see 18 year old Geum-ja, who the narrator describes as "pretty enough to turn any boy's head, but wasn't the least bit particular." We see her calling her teacher, Mr. Baek, reminding him that he told her she was sexy. She tells him that she's pregnant and asks if she can live with him. He asks about her parents and the baby's father, but she says her parents don't want her there, and the father is "just a big kid, not ready for fatherhood." We see her at Mr. Baek's place, getting surprised that he comes to see her, right out of the shower without clothes. Back in the present, Geum-ja climbs up the building where the adoption agency is, breaks a window and steals some files.She then goes to the bakery late that night, surprising Mr. Chang. She asks him for an advance. He says no, but she helps him decorate a cake which he seems to have trouble with, as his hands are shaky. He tells her that he was astonished at a strawberry mousse made by a prison inmate who, using poor ingredients, made a dessert "fit for a king." (referring to her) She just says "Three months advance." He doesn't agree but she acts as if he does, writing down her bank account number, and leaving the cake looking magnificent. She leaves with Guen-shik, who is asking her about killing, figuring she had done something wrong and paid for it and that was it. She tells him however, that she's planning to kill someone else.He's nervous around her, and talks about his future. She gets him back to his room and propositions him to have sex, taking him completely off guard. Afterwards, she tells him, "Mr. Baek said there are good kidnappings and bad kidnappings. He said it was a good kidnapping if the child was returned safely. And since they're rich, a little ransom wouldn't make much difference. And, although they'd have to worry for a few days, the emotional reunion would make the family bond more closely. That's what he said, but then he went and killed Won-mo. The boy kept crying and Mr. Baek said he'd kill him if he didn't stop in five minutes. But then he really did kill him. If he were alive, he'd be your age now, but he's dead. Then the police found a witness. Someone saw me taking Won-mo to a bathhouse.Then one day when i came home from the market, my daughter was gone. I got a call from Mr. Baek. He said to confess and take all the blame or my girl would die too. The kidnapper had kidnapped a kidnapper's kid. Isn't that funny?" She gives him her keys and tells him to keep her candles burning.She flies to Australia, where her daughter lives with adoptive parents. We see her reading them a letter in English, which says she came to see her daughter "once and for all." They don't seem very pleased about it, but they have drinks and they lighten up. The stepmother (Anne Cordiner) tells Geum-ja she's jealous, that she had such a beautiful daughter, but adds "She is now our life!" Bothe her and Geum-ja laugh wildly about it, geu-ja laughing herself right out of her chair. The stepfather (Tony Barry) shows her a picture and says "We love her very much. She's got such a beautiful soul." The stepparents quickly shift from laughing to crying the stepmother saying "What would we do without our Jenny?" That night Geum-ja shares the room with her daughter Jenny (Yea-Young Kwon) who asks if she can take her to Seoul. Geum-ja refuses, reminding her of her "parents." Jenny won't accept that answer and the two argue loudly. In the morning we see the stepparents on the couch looking devastated. Jenny flies to Korea with Geum-ja.We see that her plans are coming together, The pistol is completed and has elaborate silver sculpting on the handle. Woo Soo Young asks "What's the use of all this fanciness?" Geum-ja insists "It has to be pretty. Everything should be pretty." Woo Soo Young's boyfriend tells her she'll need to be up close as it has a very short range. That night, before bed Jenny asks "Why'd you dump me?" Geum-ja answers by telling her they'll go on a picnic. She asks again, however. This time she answers "That's right, a picnic." Jenny wakes up in the night and sees Won-mo playing marbles. She goes back to bed when he doesn't speak English.Geum-ja takes Jenny out the next day and they pick up a puppy. Geun-shik drives them around and Jenny sits in the back seat painting her face to look like a cat. They go out into the woods and find an abandoned schoolhouse. Geun-shik tries to teach Jenny Korean, while Geum-ja takes the gun out for practice.She remembers Mr. Baek in a classroom. We see Mr. Baek eating dinner with a younger woman. He gets up while she's still eating and lifts up her dress from behind, initiating sex. While he's taking her, she informs him of dinner plans. He insists that she isn't the one to pay. We see the caption showing that her name is Park Yi-jeong (Seung-shin Lee) and she served time with Guem-ja. He sits back down at the table to finish his dinner. We see Yi-jeong 's flashback to prison. She's being bullied by Ma-nyeo who had intimidated Oh So-hee, only she's getting beaten up.Geum-ja is later feeding Ma-nyeo in the medical ward. We see that her hair is coming out in clumps. Ma-nyeo says "I used to have a strong stomach. I don't know what the problem is." Geum-ja smiles and feeds her and says "I enjoy helping you." Ma-nyeo remarks "You really are kind hearted." Ma-nyeo is having serious and audible stomach issues. She reassures Geum-ja that she only likes "plump girls." Geum-ja however, tells her, that she'd be happy to eat a lot and put on weight as long as she keeps taking her "medicine." which Geum-ja then puts all over her food. Ma-nyeo leans over to get sick and Geum-ja adds "And, hurry up and die." We see Yi-jeong asking Geum-ja later "You fed her bleach? For how long?" Geum-ja says "Three years." After that Guem-ja inherited the nickname "Witch" which Ma-nyeo had, but was still called "kind hearted Geum-ja." We see Park talking with Geum-ja, saying "It has to be tonight, I can't take it anymore." The narrator explains that another ex inmate found where Mr. Baek was working and they arranged to have Park Yi-jeong visit him, leading to a "romance."The preacher meets Mr. Baek in a classroom. He gives Mr. Baek a picture of Geum-ja at the bakery, meeting with Yi-jeong . He pays the preacher, who says the money will be used for the lord's work. Mr. Baek calls Yi-jeong, (while looking at pictures of her and Geum-ja) and she tells him to start dinner without her. He says he'll wait. We see that he has two other men at the table with him. Guem-ja calls, and Park tells her she has to make Mr. Baek eat before they do something. The two men who were with Mr. Baek, watch Geum-ja leave work with Jenny. The men attempt to abduct them and we see that Park has already been delivered to Mr. Baek, and she watches him eat while tied to a chair. They beat on Geum-ja for a while assuming she's unconscious. She surprises them by getting up and shooting the closest guy in the head, while the guy holding Jenny attempts to back away. She catches him getting right up to him before firing, the narrator saying "Even in these stressful circumstances, she always remembered the range of the gun."We see that Mr. Baek has fallen unconscious with his face right into his plate. A badly beaten Yi-jeong laughs. Geum-ja and Jenny get there and Geum-ja pushes him to the floor with a spoon. She then starts cutting off his hair. Shortly, we see Yi-jeong and Geum-ja with Mr. Baek bound on the floor and Jenny asleep nearby. Geum-ja finds a letter Jenny had written, explaining how she felt about being dumped, that she wants to know the reasons, and telling her saying sorry once is not enough, but she should apologize at least three times. Geum-ja uses a Korean-English dictionary to read the letter. Yi-jeong drives to the abandoned classroom they'd found on their picnic, with Jenny and Mr. Baek in the back.Geum-ja stands behind Mr. Baek, who is tied to a chair, holding her gun to the back of his head, forcing him to translate her Korean into English for Jenny, who sits on her heels nearby. Geum-ja explains that she wanted to have her very much and loved her, but had to go to jail. She adds that she plans to return her to Australia when she's done with Mr. Baek, as her "sins are too big and deep and I don't deserve a sweet child like you. You're innocent, but you had to grow up without a mother.But, that's also part of the punishment I must take. Listen carefully. Everyone makes mistakes. But, if you sin, you have to make atonement for it. Atonement, understand? Atonement. That's right. You have to make atonement. Big atonement for big sins, small atonement for small sins." Jenny asks if she's going to kill Mr. Baek, and wen she says yes, she asks why. Geum-ja says "Because, he made a sinner out of me." Jenny asks what she's done and she answers "This man kidnapped and killed a little boy, and, I helped him." Jenny offers to "say sorry to his mother." which makes Geum-ja both laugh and cry. Jenny asks "You were happy with me, right?" and she says "Too happy, for a sinner." Geum-ja then says "I'm sorry." in English, three times and even adds another.She puts the gun up to Mr. Baek's head, but hears his phone ring and finds a key chain attached to it, with little toys hanging from it. She holds it in front of him and removes his gag. He asks "What's with the eye shadow?" prompting her to pull him backwards to the floor with his own tie. She starts kicking him. She gags him again, and then shoots him in each foot. She calls the detective, who is out with a team, who have found some children's bodies in the woods and are digging them up. She meets with him and shows him the key chain, including the missing marble. She tells him "If you'd found the real killer back then, these children wouldn't have died. Right? You know how this feels. There were four." While Geum-ja is digging through Mr. Baek's place, Mr. Chang calls her and she tells him she can't come to work. He says there are two people looking for her who won't say who they are. We see that it's the Australian stepparents, who both smile, but can't speak anything but English. She finds video of the murdered children and shows the detective, who has to throw up. We see the Australians with Jenny, who is watching video of her cat playing.Geum-ja calls all of the parents of the murdered children to the classroom along with the detective and shows them the video with Mr. Baek in it clearly. Of course, there are extreme reactions, from screaming to throwing things, and some don't appear to register anything at all. She acknowledges each child writing their names and the dates on the chalkboard. Grief stricken, they break down uncontrollably. Once calm, she tells them "He was a teacher at English schools in affluent neighborhoods. He'd pick his victim, kidnap and kill them, then move on to another school. He'd never pick a child from one of his own classes, which is why he was never under suspicion. Children annoyed him, so he would tape them right after kidnapping them and killed them straightaway. The voices you heard on the line while negotiating the ransom were taped off the videos after the kids were already dead. Now, you have two options. If you want lawful punishment we will hand him over to Chief Choi here. But, if you want a speedier, more personalized death for him, you can have it right here and now. One of the parents asks "Does he have a child of his own?" Geum-ja says he's supposed to be sterile. Another parent asked what he needed the money for. She explains that he just put it in the bank and it will be returned. A mother agrees "With no kid, what did he need all that money for?" Geum-ja says "He was going to buy a yacht."They all discuss the options before them. One woman suggesting that turning him in would just lead to long trials. Another suggests that they let Geum-ja do it, since she's already been to jail. Another counters that that is too cowardly as they were their own children. One of them stresses that no one should be forced to cross a line they don't choose to. They start to take a vote, and the concern is raised that someone who votes against their own justice could tell the police. Geum-ja settles it by implying that if anyone informs she will come after them. Won Mo's mother suggests that they all do it together, reminding her husband that he couldn't touch Geum-ja's severed finger. They agree that they "visit" Mr. Baek in groups as they choose. We see then that Mr. Baek has been able to hear the whole conversation via speaker, from the room where he's tied and gagged.They pick numbers on slips of paper to decide who goes in first. They're all given plastic coats and various weapons are available. The detective gives them some tips on proper handling of a knife, to avoid them getting hurt. Won Mo's mother goes first with Geum-ja accompanying her. She asks him Why. He answers "Ma'am there's no such thing as a perfect person." She leaves the room dazed with a bloody knife in her hand. Four of them go in together the next visit. One of the men says "This isn't going to bring our son back. Is it honey?" No one answers, as they all rush to attack him and Geum-ja watches.One of the women in the waiting room, one of the boy's sister, mentions to another's grandmother that the parents all look well off. She says that they could barely afford to keep her brother in his school, and lost their house and everything they had to come up with the ransom. The grandmother listens and answers "My daughter in law killed herself and my son left the country. We all have our own stories to tell." Her father rushes up with an ax to take his turn. She reminds him that the grandmother still has a turn. He collapses on the way out the door, covered in blood and they help him to the other room. The grandmother gets her turn and doesn't bother with the plastic. She looks at him and walks out. We next see the detective pulling scissors with a name tag on them out of Mr. Baek's neck.They work together to drain the blood from the plastic sheet beneath Mr. Baek, and dispose of the evidence. The detective takes a group picture of them all and they bury everytihng including the body in the woods together. Geum-ja asks them to give her a moment before filling in the hole. SHe shoots him with her custom pistol, then drops it in with him and they resume filling.We see everyone together later, sharing a cake at the bakery. They sing happy birthday and blow out candles. The sister of one of the boys whispers to Geum-ja asking if she'll wire the money to their account, giving her the account number, prompting the others to give their own. Everything turns silent and one of the parents says "In France, when there's a break in the conversation like this, they say an angel is passing, causing them all to look up.Guen-shik comes into the bakery and they realize it's snowing and rush out. Geum-ja gets a cigarette from her purse and sees Won Mo's marble roll across the floor. She then sees Won-mo in the corner as if he'd rolled it. He's smoking a cigarette although he's only a little boy. She starts to apologize, but he puts a gag in her mouth, as he ages to how old he would've been and stands up leaving her kneeling in front of him. He looks down at her and walks away.We see Jenny in bed with her stepparents, woken up by smoke, although they still sleep. Geum-ja leaves the bakery and Geun-shik sings after her, the lyrics in the song daring her to look back. He asks if she's really sending Jenny back, she doesn't look back or answer. We see Jenny walking also through the snow barefoot. The narrator says "Geum-ja made a great mistake in her youth, and used other people to achieve
her own goals. But she still didn't find the redemption she so desired." We see her start running with Geun-shik following a little behind. We see that she's run into Jenny and kneels, giving her a hug. THe narrator picks up "In spite of this, no. because of this, I liked Geum-ja." Geum-ja stands offering Jenny a cake. She says "Be white. Live white. Like this." Jenny sticks her finger in the cake and licks it off. She then sticks her finger in it again, but offers it to Geum-ja. "You too." she says, although she licks it off her finger herself when Geum-ja doesn't act. Jenny looks at the snow coming down and says "More white." opening her mouth to catch a snowflake. Geun-shik does the same thing. Geum-ja looks up and smiles, shaking as if she just realized something. She then strikes her head into the cake. Jenny hugs her from behind and the narrator says "Farewell Geum-ja" and we watch the snow fall on the three of them. | comedy, suspenseful, neo noir, murder, cult, violence, flashback, psychedelic, revenge | train | imdb | "Sympathy for Lady Vengeance" is a surprisingly poetic finale to Park's excellent Revenge Trilogy.
The film is nowhere near as violent as its predecessors, although a good deal of mayhem takes place offscreen.Yeong-ae Lee is outstanding as the troubled protagonist Geum-ja, the ex-convict who is seeking redemption as much as revenge.
Although the supporting actors -- including several from Park's earlier films -- are uniformly fine, Lee's performance is the heart of the film."Lady Vengeance" is difficult to describe without revealing major plot points, as the most memorable scenes come at revelatory moments in the story.
Chan-Wook Park was already the Master of Dysfunction after Old Boy, now he can add the title of King of Pain (thanks Sting) to his CV.The depth of feeling in the second half of this film is staggering, and comes in stark contrast to the startling apathy of the first half.
The masterful cinematography is something we have come to expect but the director's ability to compose the most evocative of tableaux never ceases to amaze- the final shot of the movie being a case in point.As the above reviewer says, one must be cryptic in commenting on this film but it must be said that its final act really transforms it from a beautifully crafted work into a masterpiece.This is a film which shocks without ever descending into gratuity, while frequently forcing a guilty laugh with its darker-than-black's-shadow humour..
Clearly if this picture wouldn't have been regarded in the trilogy, many would proclaim Park as stagnant and unable of moving away from these akin proses dealing with revenge.Film opens with the release of Lady Vengeance, a.k.a.
"kind-hearted Geum-ja", played by the elegant Yeong-ae Lee. I was quite surprised by how heavily narrated this film was from the get-go, as I was expecting the major breakdowns and motives revealed at a much later time, lets say right before the final pinnacle.
But I preferred this to how Oldboy played, in a sense that Lady Vengeance didn't largely depended on the "big shocker" to end the film and instead moved along steadily, revealing everything piece by piece.Making comparisons with Park's past two films was much tangible here as with each beautiful classical piece mirroring one from Oldboy there was also the unexaggerated violence similar to that of SFMV.
So many years spent in jail and questions surrounding the well-being of her daughter must have been undoubtedly excruciating for her, but standing next to these people, who unlike her seemed so much more humane and relatable, I felt a lot more sorrow for them than I did for Geum-ja, most likely due to how mechanical and manipulative her character was made to look, which to say the least was brave of the director, if not a bit overzealous.
I think Park needs to make a film that will not only disassociate him from his well talked about and highly debated trilogy flicks, but will devoid him from being thrown into the pool of devaluing comparisons to Hollywood films like Kill Bill as also witnessed with the response to A Bittersweet Life from the press and movie fans.
There I was, in Sitges' film festival, in Barcelona, where one year ago Chan-Wook Park had won his prize for the great masterpiece Old Boy. This time he was presenting his last movie "Sympathy for Lady Vengeance" to end the revenge trilogy.Everyone was waiting for the movie to start, all Park's fans and the lady at the festival announced the director's arrival.
Having only just finished watching a marathon screening of Jewel In The Palace, also another Lee Young-Ae vehicle, a few weeks ago in the comfort of my home, I was pleasantly surprised at how flexible this actress could be in her acting skills.Perhaps it is her plain-faced mien that has not seen the plastic surgeon's knife or the ease with which she looks innocent and then sensual and then psychotic all at once in this film that helped her to put on this character like a pair of pantyhose- sensual, warm, transparent yet opaque.The twists and themes in the show were also very different and very unexpected.
When you think the film is going to come to a close, it walks away from the curtains to take you into an even higher level of movie-going experience.Sympathy for Lady Vengeance boasts of excellent scriptwriting with dark humor lightening up the otherwise even darker theme of vengeance.
Concluding the revenge trilogy that includes "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance" and "Oldboy," this third installment, from director Chan-wook Park, is the most satisfyingly complete.I'll avoid any details of the plot as the less you know going in, the more you'll enjoy this film's twisting and unpredictable path.The lovely Yeong-ae Lee is excellent as Lady Vengeance herself, Geum-ja Lee. It's an intense role and Lee delivers a riveting and believable performance.Visually breathtaking from the opening credits right through to the end, this film demands repeat viewing.
Instead it is just an over-ambitious confused jumble of ideas, not really serious enough to pass as an art film like "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance", and at the same time really not successful as an entertaining (yet intelligent) action-packed thrill-ride like "Oldboy" (the film is actually remarkably action-free).
I actually watched Oldboy first and Lady Vengeance was probably more watchable because Yeong-ae Lee is a great actress, able to somehow pull off a very plain look and ten seconds later look as if she's the sex goddess of the universe.
However almost 14 years later she is released and decides she no longer has need for this and sets out to catch up with those she knew from inside her prison, all the while working up to her plan to take revenge on the man who robbed her of this chunk of her life.Having surprised myself by how much I liked Oldboy, I decided to watch this film as a follow-up.
If you're reading this, then you're probably a fan of Park's previous films and like me have seen the first two films in his revenge trilogy (Sympathy for Mr Vengeance & Old Boy).
'Sympathy For Lady Vengeance' is a straight-forward revenge story with none of the trademark flair or chutzpah displayed by director Park Chan-Wook in the earlier films of the trilogy.
The first two was Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance(2002) and the famous Old Boy (2003) which won the Grand Prix award at the 57th Cannes Film Festival.Park is a young and very talented director (born in 1963) whose techniques in directing is stylish, neat and effective.
In my opinion, Park once again proves himself the best director from Korea.The story has much less twists than in Old Boy. It is actually quite simple this time, it portrays the details about how Lee Young-ae's character takes revenge on the man who made her wrongly imprisoned for over 13 years.
After entering Chan-wook Park's world of vengeance with Old Boy I was immediately entranced by the stark contrast between his beautiful use of cinematography, and the dark violence he portrays.
They were two original films that worked.I just watched Lady Vengeance about a couple days ago, and I am still in awe of how disappointing this movie is.
I feel the director knew people would get bored with his deliberate pace and the convoluted story line, so he conveniently threw in some surprise sex scenes which were actually more graphic than any violence scenes.There's one particular scene toward the end, the actual scene of vengeance, which was actually filmed and colored very timidly.
But it's the style that's the focus here and Park Chan-wook merely makes the process a little different than usual rather than he does make it an extraordinary piece of work.Given its climax and what occurs during that, the film has sort of, in a very seductive manner earned the right for its lead character to ever so slightly turn to the camera and ever so slightly deliver a little speech about atoning.
Sympathy For Lady Vengeance,the last part of Park Chan-wook's vengeance trilogy, is a great film.
Rather its a part of a trilogy of films the explore the theme of revenge or vengeance.The previous two movies may have contained both gratuitous and graphic images, but given the subject it was kind of expected, perhaps its a certain amount of prejudice on my part but I can believe this kind of brutality occurs in parts of Korea..
Lady Vengeance (2005) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Chan-wook Park directed film about a woman (Yeong-ae Lee) who takes blame for a murder she didn't commit so that she can carry out vengeance thirteen years later.
I know people could get truly disappointed by the final film on Park Chan Wook's trilogy being deprived (almost) from any action whatsoever.
While Park Chan-wook's final film in his "revenge trilogy" does have its share of problems, it did impress me.Geum-ja (Yeong-ae Lee) has been imprisoned for thirteen years for a murder she did not commit.
Here, we do not receive the same type of material, and as a result, the character's humanistic traits are really weakened.The supporting cast is okay in their roles, but none of them really shine specifically over the course of the film, nor do they complement Lee in her performance.Lady Vengeance is a step up for Chan-wook, but is still nowhere near the par he set up for himself with Oldboy.
Sympathy for Mr.Vengeance and Old boy are two great parts of a trilogy about revenge made by Chan Wook Park.The third(and last,obviously)part of the trilogy is Lady vengeance,another great movie and,by my point of view,the best of the trilogy.The best thing about the movie is the perfect script it has.This script goes to the past and the present of the life of the main actress,to explain perfectly,things about the script.Sadly,the posters this movie has make it look like an action film and many people will be disappointed because this is not an action film.In Old boy,there were scenes of dynamic violence but,here,the violence is slow.This is the movie with less violence of the trilogy.The slow development this movie has and the portrait of the mental state the main character has,make the movie better and never boring.Like in Old boy and Sympathy for Mr.Vengeance,Wook Park tells a story not too original but perfectly executed.Lady vengeance is a great movie..
It seems unfair that it will ultimately be judged against a masterwork like "Oldboy", which few films I have seen in recent years even rate remotely close to in beauty.The third of Park's revenge films has Lee Young Ae (from JSA) as an antihero seeking vengeance on Mr Baek (the terrific Choi Min-Sik), who was responsible for her wrongful imprisonment and loss of her child to adoption.
Lee Young Ae is terrific (and stylish) in red eyeshadow as the film's centrepiece, while Oldboy's hero Choi Min-Sik and many other stars from the previous vengeance films fill many of the minor roles admirably.From a technical standpoint, "Lady Vengeance" is as close to flawless as any film I have seen, and demonstrates why Park is one of the great directors in modern world cinema.
Lady Vengeance is the story of a woman, Geum-ja Lee, who is sent to prison for 13 years for kidnapping and murdering a young boy.
The third of an already outstanding trilogy, this matches its predecessors (Sympathy for Mr Vengeance and Oldboy) very well, but in its own sense takes its a unique direction from the others.Film follows the tribulations of a women who is piecing back her life after serving time in jail for the kidnap and murder of a young boy.
Director Park Chan-wook's VENGEANCE TRILOGY has been acclaimed all over the world, especially OLDBOY.
The first half is also quite good but some flashbacks serve as speedbreakers.Still as a whole, LADY VENGEANCE is a decent crime drama which can be watched if you have seen the first two movies and want to further explore Park's stylistic writing and direction.
Just what you would expect from Park Chan-wook.Lady Vengeance ends up being the weakest link in its trilogy, but it's still worth a watch if the previous two films have been to your liking..
Reflecting on the filmmakers' goal (stated above) I am not confronted with the possibility that Lady Vengeance is the best movie ever made, and not just because it delivers in exactly this way.The story is about Geum-Ja, a female ex-convict whose kind demeanor gets her released after 14 years of prison (due to the intervention of a creepy Christian activist).
Coming off the heels of his two best films Oldboy and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Lady Vengeance is arguably the weakest film in the trilogy, despite this the film manages to sustain a powerful radiance throughout it's run-time.Guem-Ja Lee(Yeong-ae Lee) has spent thirteen years in prison for the kidnap and murder of a six-year-old boy.
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance might not have the same raw, stripped down intensity of Chan-Wook's previous films in the trilogy.
Starting with a stylishly crafted Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance & following it up with his magnum opus, Oldboy, Park Chan-wook finally brings his Vengeance Trilogy to a bloody & violent conclusion with Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, another very well-crafted revenge thriller.
Violent & dark but with a purpose, just like its predecessors, Sympathy For Lady Vengeance is a bloody, disturbing & unnerving revenge thriller that isn't without its flaws and seems to suffer from the same drawbacks that's present in the first chapter but on an overall scale, it still manages to finish as a satisfying conclusion to Park Chan-wook trilogy of revenge..
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance is the final in Park Chan-Wook's masterful Vengeance trilogy, and rather than label it the "weakest" of the three I prefer to describe Lady V as the "least great" - as there is precious little wrong with this film.After a really effective title sequence we meed the "Lady" of the title, Lee Guem-Ja upon her release from prison after serving a thirteen and a half year sentence for the abduction and murder of a 6 year old boy; despite their being doubt about her culpability, and indeed some evidence to the contrary.
At all other times she is calm, poised and focused.Even when the scope of her plan broadens at one point through unforeseen developments Guem-Ja remains at the helm and makes most of the major decisions, as with Oh Dae-Su in Oldboy I guess over a decade of imprisonment allows a lot of time to formulate a plan, a plan that you can get quite attached to.Speaking of Oldboy the cast of this film contains many Park Chan-Wook regulars from both Oldboy and Sympathy for Mr Vengeance, Dae-Su himself Choi Min-Sik playing a pivotal role here.As you can probably guess through necessity I have left the why, what, who and how's out of this review as the truth and sheer enormity of the situation will have more impact if you don't know in advance.
This is an original and quite interesting story but doesn't deliver anything special.The pace is extremely slow with the action being mostly predictable.The acting is OK good enough with Yeong-ae Lee giving a very believable performance but the dialogue is boring.The ending packs a bit of a punch with a few surprises but not enough to make the film good.I watched this because the director also directed Oldboy which is a manic ride with lots of twists and I was hoping for something similar, this is nothing like that in pace or content.In the end the film is interesting but dull..
This is shot and edited in a great way, but it's the plot that is the least interesting and gripping one (if you compare it with the others ...) The others being two movies that complete his Vengeance trilogy.
Her acting makes this film excel.I think that people either love "Sympathy for Lady Vengeance" or hate it.
And this time with the non-linear, puzzle-like nature of the story for the first half, the audience picks up on things here and there, catching glimpses of what Park is hinting at with the darker, deeper tragedy underlying her own crisis of the spirit.Lady Vengeance, while not a great film, has some of the most beautiful, ugly (in a good way), and outlandish stylistic shots seen in screens in a while.
Park Chan-Wook's 'Lady Vengeance' is the most thought-provoking outing in his celebrated revenge trilogy.
All three movies showed crazy horrible revenge scenes and that is what Park Chan-wook wanted..
Although, before the first chapter of Tarantino's bloodbath (2003), Chan-wook Park had already began his Revenge Trilogy, releasing "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance" in 2002.
Park Chan-wook's previous vengeance trilogy films improved on multiple viewings, and this new one has more than a few details and little mysteries that I need to clear up.
There is no better movie about bloody, female revenge and mother/daughter reunions, filled with time-jumping story lines and camera shots, brilliant acting, and a little Paganini, than 'Sympathy for Lady Vengeance'.
'Sympathy for Lady Vengeance' is a thing of beauty, the most compassionate of Park Chan-wook's "Vengeance Trilogy".
SYMPATHY FOR LADY VENGEANCE (Chan-wook Park, 2005) ***.
The directing is superb, not quite eclipsing Sympathy for Mr Vengeance or Oldboy but coming quite close.Park's directing style is solid and distinctive, he builds off earlier films and ideas to give an air of intensity surrounding the most innocent of scenes.SFLV cuts back on the violence and focuses on personal turmoil, a welcome change from the beginning of his revenge trilogy.
Sympathy For Lady Vengeance is last of three movies that the director made on people who want revenge.
The two previous revenge movies "Mr. Vengeance" and "Oldboy" by Chan-Wook Park were glorious, thoughtful and provocative.
The story made not have as many twist and turns or fast paced and interesting as the previous installments in the vengeance trilogy, but I still thought it was visually amazing with it's Park Chan-Wook trademark style that I really like. |
tt0058371 | The Moon-Spinners | Nicky Ferris and her aunt Frances are traveling on a bus to Crete. When they arrive at their hotel, the Moon Spinners, a village wedding is in progress. The proprietress, Sophia, did not receive the telegram Nicky sent to reserve a room. She says there are no rooms available. Nicky and Frances are exhausted and after Sophia's teenage son Alexis intervenes, she reluctantly gives them a room for the night. But her brother Stratos is furious. Since his return from England he has been acting strangely. He does not want guests staying at the hotel but promises Sophia that soon they will have all the money they want. Sophia is very suspicious of his dealings with what she calls a strange Englishman.Nicky notices a young man in the crowd and learns he is also a guest. His name is Mark Camford and he is on holiday from England. He notices Stratos leaving and asks if he is going snorkeling in the Bay of Dolphins. This makes Stratos angry. Mark tells Nicky that he also likes to snorkel in the bay. They dance and enjoy the wedding festivities. Before saying goodnight, Mark asks Nicky to meet him the following day for a picnic.Instead of going to bed, Mark returns to the Bay of Dolphins to spy on Stratos, who is in a boat. He does not notice that he has been followed. A fight ensues and Mark is shot. He dives into the water and disappears. Stratos and the other man assume he has drowned. Later, Stratos goes to Mark's hotel room and takes all his belongings.The next morning, Nicky is puzzled when Mark doesn't show up for their picnic. Stratos tells her he checked out very early that morning. Not believing him, Nicky goes on a search. She finds Mark's shoe on the beach and traces him to a nearby church. He was shot in the arm but refuses to explain what is going on. Seeing that he needs medical treatment, Nicky covers him with her sweater and races back to the hotel, stopping first in Mark's room to bring him fresh clothing. But there is nothing there. She takes her aunt's traveling blanket and first aid kit, plus a bottle of brandy from the bar. Frances is listening to a group of native women singing and doesn't notice Nicky sneaking in and out.Once Mark is attended to, he orders Nicky to leave but he still won't explain why Stratos is after him. Back at the hotel, Frances reports the loss of her blanket and first aid kit. Stratos realizes that Nicky must have taken them for Mark, which means the young man is not dead after all. He encounters Nicky in the village and she tries to steer him away from the church. But he goes there, forcibly taking her with him, and finds her blood-stained sweater.As the day passes, Frances becomes worried when Nicky doesn't return. Stratos assures her that Nicky has probably gotten lost and will soon turn up. Alexis is riding his donkey near a windmill when he hears a cry for help. Stratos has tied Nicky to a post in the loft. Just then Mark turns up and they rescue her. But Stratos is not far behind and the pair set off for the next village to summon the police. On the way Mark tells Nicky his story. In London he worked at a bank but was fired after a client's jewels disappeared. He suspected Stratos, who fled the country soon after. Determined to clear his name, Mark followed him to Crete and the Bay of Dolphins. He is positive that the missing jewels are somewhere underwater.Sophia suspects that her brother is involved in Nicky's disappearance. Once again he threatens her and hints that something might happen to Alexis if she doesn't keep her mouth shut. Frances is frantic and Stratos makes a point of organizing a search party for Nicky.Stratos's friend catches up with Nicky and Mark. He is overpowered and knocked out, and now the pair have his shotgun. They decide to spend the night in some ruins. Stratos shows up but is spooked by the feral cats occupying the ruins. After a cursory search, he leaves.The next morning, Nicky and Mark are awakened by an elderly man who turns out to be John Gamble, the British counsel. His explanation for being there, to observe the ruins at daybreak, sounds rather fishy. But Mark's injury needs medical treatment, so they agree to accompany him to his home. His wife Cynthia is a nurse and will be able to help Mark. Gamble persuades them to leave the shotgun behind. By the time they reach the consulate, Nicky has told Gamble all about Stratos. Gamble assures them they will be safe there. He will send a car for Frances and arrange for them to be flown to a hospital in Athens.Cynthia takes them upstairs. Gamble goes into a room where Stratos is waiting. He is very angry at Stratos for bungling the operation and asks how he thought two British subjects could disappear without anyone noticing. Stratos mumbles a weak excuse but Gamble is through with him. He orders Stratos to return to the village and wait for further instructions.After a bath and some food, Nicky is feeling much better. Cynthia brings her a dress to wear until her aunt arrives with their luggage. But she fears Mark's injury will become infected. She gave him some medicine and he is sleeping. Nicky goes downstairs and by using Gamble's telescope, observes a yacht on the water. Gamble turns her attention to something else, obviously trying to distract her. When Nicky finally sees Mark, he is very suspicious of the Gambles. He tells Nicky that the jewels cannot be sold on the open market, so Stratos will try to find a private buyer. Madam Habib is a wealthy eccentric who travels on a luxurious yacht. She collects jewels and Stratos will likely approach her. Nicky thinks the yacht she saw might belong to Madam Habib, which turns out to be true.Mark believes that Cynthia has deliberately drugged him. He tries to get dressed but collapses. Frances arrives and Gamble sends them to the airport in a hearse, the only vehicle available because a street festival is going on. Frances is up front with the driver while Nicky and Mark are in the back. He is wearing street clothes under his pajamas and tells Nicky he is returning to the Bay of Dolphins. She follows him but can't keep up. He boards a bus and is gone.Nicky steals a boat and goes out to the yacht. She is taken on board and tells her story to Madam Habib, who is very suspicious of her. Meanwhile, Stratos and his accomplice retrieve the jewels from an underwater container in the Bay of Dolphins. They escape in their boat just as the police, accompanied by Mark, arrive.Madam Habib admits that she is expecting Stratos and forces Nicky to hide in a closet. Stratos arrives with the jewels, giving Madam Habib only a brief glance at them before demanding immediate payment. When she leaves to get the money, Nicky sneezes inside the closet. Stratos finds her and they struggle. Just then the police burst in and arrest Stratos. The jewels will be returned to their rightful owner and Mark's name is cleared. | suspenseful, murder | train | imdb | From Walt Disney, an overly-involved story of jewel thieves and a young girl swept away by intrigue while vacationing in Crete.
Also fabulous: the dizzying sequence where Mills escapes villainous Eli Wallach by jumping from a windmill (beautiful camera-work and direction).
Terrific Terry Gilkyson theme song, fine supporting work from Wallach, Joan Greenwood and young Peter McEnery, who gives Hayley her first screen kiss.
It's also one of my favorite Hayley Mills movies.
The story is a solid mystery with sympathetic characters, and Mills plays a feisty, strong young woman.
I love this movie and recommend it for anyone who likes a good mystery or Hayley Mills or Crete..
Engaging, suspenseful film; Disney's answer to Hitchcock.
Pretty good performances from Eli Wallach as the villian, Hayley Mills and Peter McEnery as the detectives/romantic leads, and Irene Papas as the villian's nervous sister, who dosen't have much to do but makes an impression.
Also, funny comic performances from Joan Greenwood as Mills' aunt and the appearence of Pola Negri, the silent screen star, as the jewel collector Madame Habib.
This was Disney's answer to Hitchcock, and also an apparent attempt to get his young star, Miss Mills, into more adult roles after four years of excellent but very "kiddie" films for the studio.
Unfortunately, she didn't get any more roles like this at Disney; her next and last was in "That Darn Cat!", a very enjoyable and funny film but still aimed more at kids.
She ended up having to leave the studio, do a nude scene in another film, and have an affair with an older man in order to become more adult in the eyes of the world.
Still, this was her starting point, and while Hitchcock could easily have topped this and any other suspense/mystery film, it's still fun to watch and suspenseful, never boring.
Hayley's charming in one of her first puppy-love roles; Joan Greenwood, of the delicious voice, is, as always, indispensable; and Pola Negri does some spirited scenery-chewing in a prominent cameo.
Perhaps that's a sop to help the kiddies follow the story, though, despite the Disney imprimatur, it's not really a little-kids' film.
The Moon-Spinners, which takes Hayley Mills to the island of Crete, is an exciting adventure story that's appropriate for children of all ages.
"Moon-Spinners" moves quickly into action and is definitely better than Mills' previous film, Summer Magic, because of its expansion and explanation of different characters' backgrounds.
If you like Hayley Mills' Disney films, you'll love The Moon-Spinners"..
The best Walt Disney movie I ever watched.
Its almost surprising that I liked this movie so much considering the fact that I have never enjoyed Hayley Mills' acting skills, but she was seriously great in this.
In some of her early films, such as 'Tiger Bay' or 'Whistle Down the Wind', Hayley Mills revealed herself to be one of Britain's most remarkable child actresses, but as an adult her films were generally unremarkable.
The light family films she made in her teenage years for Disney and others can be seen as marking a stage in her decline to the ordinary from the extraordinary.
The studios' determination to fit her into the role of Teenage Virgin Queen occupied a few years earlier by Sandra Dee might also have made it more difficult for the public to accept her as an adult woman.'The Moonspinners' is a typical offering from her Disney period.
Peter McEnery, as Mark, makes an uncharismatic leading man, and the principal baddies (Eli Wallach as suspicious, surly foreigner and John Le Mesurier as smooth but hypocritical English gentleman) are drawn straight from the Official Hollywood Scriptwriter's Guide to Stock Villainous Characters.
There is an amusing cameo from Sheila Hancock as Le Mesurier's alcoholic wife, but the best thing about the film is the presence of Hayley herself.
Hayley was, of course, considerably younger than Audrey and (in my view) less classically beautiful, but shared with her the ability to carry a film through charm and charisma.
'The Moonspinners' is not in the same league as Hayley's best films, but it is worth watching for a chance to see this fine young actress.
I enjoyed the story and the Hitchcock-like suspense in this film.
Amusing adventure comedy, beautiful Hayley Mills and enchanting music.
Constructed a little bit like an Hitchcock movie, where tension is building up slowly but surely and where many characters are not always what they seem to be, it is filled with memorable scenes (the escape from the windmill, for example) and good humor.
I feel the old Disney films are still the best.
As I know many of my students are not familiar with the old films, I showed it to my fifth-graders recently, and they loved it (and asked to see it again).
I first saw it when I was seven years old, so I developed my first crush on Haley Mills.
Yes the movie was very good and still would be good with another leading lady, but I am glad that Mr Disney found Haley Mills!.
No great shakes in terms of script or direction, but it does feature some pretty well-executed stunts, and an extremely winning performance by Hayley Mills.
The Moon Spinners, despite the tag line on IMDb, is not set on a SMALL Greek island, but a rather large one, Crete.
I watched this movie for the first time today, April 17th, 2006..43 years after it was released.I did so mainly because I first went to Crete in 1976, when it was quite undeveloped.
From the moment the alleged British consul played by John Le Mesurier makes an appearance the movie heads off into bizarre territory.
Polo Negri as the much-married Greek millionaire looks like a man in drag, and the last 45 minutes leaves one both bewildered and yawning.But what are astonishing are the stunts.
The motor-boat scenes look a bit hairy too, and I think there would be a lot more Health and Safety regulation now.(McEnery was already showing signs of what would become a considerable dramatic pedigree).But it was an enjoyable romp in parts, and early Sixties Crete looked marvellous and unspoilt.History buffs may recall that a savage battle was fought there in 1941 when German airborne forces wrested control of the island from British and New Zealand forces.
About 130 miles long at its longest point, I recall, and about 80 miles deep.Final note: As teenagers we were all in love with Hayley Mills - she seemed to epitomise the times, fresh-faced, innocent, naive.
I like her work and this Disney film has a certain draw that I enjoy.The setting (actually filmed there) is great and the music a nice backdrop.
You can read more on the plot from others, this is just my opinion overall.But, if you like Hayley in late Disney style, off the coast of Greece somewhere helping McEnery against jewel criminals,...
The Moon-Spinners is by far a classic movie for your video collection.
Classic Disney 60s fare , but not a very good movie....
It fits right in the groove with other Disney movies from that era like "That Darn Cat" and "The Love Bug".
The truly shining moments of the film come only near the end in scenes involving former silent-movie-legend Pola Negri in her final film role.
If you're looking for a "good movie", one with a solid plot and uniformly good acting and directing, then pass on The Moon-Spinners.
But if you want to conjure warm memories of a classic-Disney childhood, and you want to see the last glimpse of the amazing Pola Negri, then definitely watch this film..
No, the acting wasn't the best, the plot has holes, and it is a saccharine Disney movie.
That is my measurement of "pure entertainment." At the first showing I fell deeply in love with Peter McEnery - as only a 14-year-old could do.
The other reviews say pretty much what else I would like to say about the movie.
At the time I wanted to be Haley Mills, I wanted to go to Crete to see the windmills and dance with the locals and hear them sing.
The "moon-spinners" from '64, is latter-day Disney fare, so there's a surprising amount of bite to the story, for a Hayley Mills film.
Hayley, who never looked more lovely, plays young Nikki Ferris, on vacation with her Aunt on Crete.
Hayley is soon mixed up with compatriot Mark Camford and they become embroiled in jewel theft and attempted murder.The film does drag a bit at times, but you can always look at Mayley, a windmill stunt is fun and Eli Wallach has a juicy part as the villainous Stratos.
Some characters introduced very late in the story don't quite make sense, still its an exciting mystery and one does want to see how it turns out.The "Moon-Spinners" is a good family film.
Recommended for fans of Disney live-action and Hayley Mills..
Haley Mills was already the Walt Disney queen and Peter McEnery's talent attributed to the greatness of the film.
It's like the only CLEAN channel on) and I saw Hayley Mills in what looked like an old very beaten church with tombs everywhere.
No one can "film a book." For one thing, they won't fit.
His movies, even the ones he produced at arm's length, like The Moon-Spinners, were always "Disney" movies first and foremost.
and you knew he'd be a wonderful creation in his own right.Though it fits well with Disney's other UK-produced works (Greyfriars Bobby, Emil and the Detectives, Darby O'Gill, etc.) The Moon-Spinners is still very much a Disney movie.
Only the most anorexia-fixated American viewer could fail to find her a vision of beauty in this film.)The story line is slim, to be sure, but actually quite robust by Disney standards.
It is the best of Mills' Disney films and certainly more captivating and suspenseful than their other collaborations.
I would recommend watching the movie before reading the book, otherwise you will be very disappointed..
While I was a great Hayley Mills fan during that era, I found this dumbed down Disney adaptation of Mary Stewart's engrossing novel disappointing.
The story revolves around a young girl, Nikki Ferris, who travels with her aunt to the Greek island of Crete.
While there, Nikki and a handsome young love interest named Mark become involved in unearthing a case of jewel theft and murder, all in connection with the hotel's surly, unwelcoming owner and her villainous brother, Stratos.My complaints are numerous.
Hayley Mills, much as I like this actress, just seemed totally wrong for the role.
Really, the entire plot of this Disney flick deviates so much from the novel that most of the time, I would hardly have recognized it.However, there is lovely Greek scenery and it's undoubtedly an entertaining film for those who haven't read the book.
Hayley gets her first screen kiss here from Peter McEnery who portrays Mark.
Also, I'd definitely recommend this movie for viewing by young people, as it's a whole lot more inspiring than most of what's out there these days.
The only recommendation I would ever give this film is to watch it for the appearance of silent-screen legend; Pola Negri.
Back in the early 1960's - Hayley Mills was easily recognizable as one of the most idealized movie-teens of that era.
The Moon-Spinners was definitely one of Mills' better films.Released in 1964 - The Moon-Spinners was intended to be Disney's attempt at some "Hitchcock"-like intrigue, with a touch of sugar-coated comedy and romance thrown in for good measure.The Moon-Spinners may be just light-weight drama to most, but, all the same, it is thoroughly enjoyable movie-entertainment for all ages.As an added bonus - Silent-Screen star, Pola Negri appeared in this flick as the wicked villainess, Madame Habib.
Although she would soon be leaving Disney Studios Hayley Mills at the age of 18 got a chance at a semi-adult role with a semi-adult romance with young Peter McEnery in The Moon-Spinners.
The film is worth a look if for no other reason than the great location cinematography on the Island of Crete.Mills and her aunt Joan Greenwood are on holiday in Crete and they arrive at the small inn that they were supposed to be staying and the owner, Irene Papas is decidedly cool and has to be forced to provide Mills and Greenwood with accommodations.
He's got his own plans for the jewels.McEnery and Mills make a fine attractive young couple and Eli Wallach as the villain is at his best.
And the chance to see three legends of varying degree as Irene Papas, Joan Greenwood, and silent star Pola Negri in a comeback role is not to be missed.The Moon-Spinners plays a like a Nancy Drew mystery and I wonder why Disney never cast Hayley Mills as the teen sleuth.
If you're looking for a great quality film then this isn't the one, but if you're looking for a fun family movie appropriate for all ages then this is it.
It's a mystery/adventure/romance that epitomizes all cheesy films of the time.
The scenes with Hayley Mills trapped in the rat infested windmill gave me nightmares for weeks.The fact that American parents were all up in arms over innocently sexy European movies while taking their kids to see sadistic Disney films like this one clearly shows the generation gap.Hayley Mills was an icon of the era and admittedly was always shown in more realistic child roles rather than the more phony MARY POPPINS type kids.A fine film but not necessarily for the kiddies..
It is also a fairly dark tale of murder and vengeance.Unfortunately, with Hayley Mills as the principal character, the film becomes a pretty-pretty story of a teenage romance with a few rather obviously sinister 'baddies' thrown in.
John le Mesurier is simply wasted - his character's role in the book is pivotal, whereas in the film he appears towards the end almost as an afterthought.
Hayley didn't fit in this film very well.
Seems like a thrown together movie by Disney just to make money off of Hayley Mills name.
I finally got a copy and am sitting back to relive the two glorious years I spent in the enchanted isle where this was filmed.Hayley Mills was 18 years old at the time of her 7th film, and her career had pretty much run it's course by then.
She is still making movies, but she got her last of three Golden Globe nominations for the 1963 film Summer Magic .
Her last BAFTA nomination came in 1962.I really enjoyed Eli Wallach's performance.It was a goofy movie, but worth the wait.It is noteworthy that this was the last film for Pola Negri, who started her career in 1914..
I quite liked this film.
Being a "Hayley lover' I have seen it a few times.It was the kind of film that made her transition from child to young adult on the screen so smooth.It was partly filmed in Crete so there was some beautiful scenery.
The opening credits were filmed against the most beautiful sunset.Hayley plays Nikki Ferris, who along with her aunt (Joan Greenwood) happen to arrive on one of the islands during a wedding.
No-one (except the young boy) seem pleased to see them - they claim never to have received the telegram that Hayley sent.The plot concerns stolen jewels and Peter McEnerys' efforts to clear himself and expose the real thieves.It is and old fashioned adventure and there are some thrilling parts.
The first thing you notice is Hayley looks different.
She doesn't look like my Hayley.
Along comes Eli Wallach as Stratos in a warm up for his part as Tuco in 'The Good, The Bad And The Ugly' two years later.
He's in the church!" we cry in unison, but it is our Haze who is imprisoned in a windmill and has to be rescued by Mark's young Cretan friend (catch-phrase: "This is no time to make love") in a gob-smacking scene like Hitchcock on acid.
And a six year old Hayley Mills.
AND Hayley Mills is given alcohol and falls over drunk.This horrifying film will give me many a sleepless night.
To see ANY minor abused and corrupted in a film is bad enough, but Hayley Mills?
Don't get me wrong, I actually enjoyed this movie, though not as much as I did in 1964 when I was a freshly minted teenager, and a devotee of Mary Stewart's novels about plucky young women in exotic adventures.
But Hayley Mills was still too juvenile at 17 to portray Nicky Ferris.
She's a fledgling girl compared to the 23-year-old British stage actor Peter McEnery, who plays Mark Canford, her love interest.
The film was shot on Crete, where the story is set (as was the novel, which is rather eviscerated in this screenplay).
Typical of Disney of this period, the sterling supporting cast is comprised of strong character actors, European actors, and Hollywood has-beens-- Eli Wallach as the bad guy, Irene Papas as his rightly censorious sister (far too little of that divine actress), Joan Greenwood as Hayley's aunt, John Le Meseurier as the British consul and the RADA actress Sheila Hancock as his wife, and the silent film siren Pola Negri in her final film role as a jewel-obsessed dowager with a yacht and a pet leopard.If the plot weren't so tedious, perhaps the sloppiness of the film wouldn't be so troublesome.
Nor do they have chemistry, not even in the famous kiss which is over with in a hurry, even though "Hayley's first screen kiss!" was marketed like "Garbo laughs!" To mature eyes, Nicky is an intelligent but heedless teenager, while Mark is a mature young man on a mission to clear his name (he was accused of jewel theft).
I did enjoy the movie-- Crete, the actors- - but oh!
I cannot believe I saw this movie on the list of Hayley Mills' best films!
Feels like the plot was written by a ten year old. |
tt0790736 | R.I.P.D. | A monstrous, hulking like figure busts through a door after Nick Walker (Ryan Reynolds) gives a voiceover saying he's probably had a tougher day at work than the viewer. He then says the monstrous hulk isn't him. Nick and his partner chase the hulking figure into the streets, where it bounds off a truck and onto the side of a building. Standing on the side of the building, the figure taunts them. Nick aims a large revolver as he says that three or four days ago, he didn't know this kind of world existed-- but he wasn't in the RIPD.We go back to three or four days ago (Nick isn't sure which), and we see him burying several broken fragments of what appear to be golden disks, in his back yard. He plants a small orange tree sapling in the hole where he buried the gold. In the morning, he's playfully awoken by his wife Julia (Stephanie Szostak), who asks him about the tree. He plays innocent, but says it's a symbol of prosperity, and hopefully soon they can get a good house, better than the one they have now, and a good car. Julia says she's less worried about money than Nick, and having her husband waking up beside her is all she really wants.Nick arrives at work in the Boston Police Dept, greeting his partner, Bobby Hayes (Kevin Bacon). It turns out Bobby and Nick have secretly stolen the golden pieces from a previous drug bust, and nobody else in the department knows about it. Nick and Bobby planned to keep it for themselves. But Nick suddenly tells Bobby that Julia's assertion that she was happy as long as she had him, has changed his mind. Nick won't turn Bobby in, nor tell anyone he has half the gold, but Nick is going to turn his half in to evidence. He's unwilling to risk Julia's happiness on something he realizes she doesn't really need.At that moment, another officer comes up to call everyone to action; an informant has given up a whole meth operation belonging to a drug lord named Garza, and the department is mobilizing to raid the place and put him out of business. As the officers and a SWAT van ride out, Nick briefly ribs Bobby about a St. Christopher medal he wears around his left wrist, 'for protection.'The hideout is breached, but surprise lasts only a few brief seconds before Garza's men come out with all their firepower brought to bear. Nick spots Garza and pursues him up toward the roof of the building. High up on a catwalk, Nick sees Garza has slipped out a window when Bobby arrives. Bobby doesn't look very cheerful as he approaches his partner, and for good reason: he tells Nick that he can't let him turn the gold in. Bobby opens fire, his semi-automatic rifle knocking Nick off the catwalk to fall down to the ground. He lands right on his neck, which is broken by the impact.Nick's eyes open and he stands, looking around dazed. Time appears to be standing still at the moment he hit the ground. He walks around, looking at the frozen scene of the firefight going on, and outside a breached gate where an explosion has a squad car and several officers frozen still in mid air. Nick's attention is caught by a strange whirlpool like formation among the clouds, and his feet lift off the ground, and he's rising ino the air, higher and higher, and into the whirlpool. He flies up through a surreal vision, one of many countless human figures in a stream toward a hole high above. But then he's pulled sideways, landing in a stark white room, seated in a desk chair before a desk. Sitting behind the desk is an attractive dark-haired woman (Mary-Louise Parker) who watches him with a slightly amused expression. The name Proctor is on a name sign on her desk.Proctor tells Nick that she's here to help him, and she understands what he's feeling right now because she's sat in the same chair he's sitting in. Nick was heading toward Judgement, and Proctor assures him that he could probably use a good word and recommendation, especially after having stolen the gold. Proctor's offer: she's a chief for the RIPD, or Rest In Peace Department. Some people 'slip through the cracks' (Earth's population has grown so large that more people die every day than 'the system' can handle) after dying and remain among the living; this rots their soul, although they continue appearing as normal humans to the living. The RIPD's job is to find these 'deados,' as Proctor calls them, and round them up. Nick must serve among the RIPD for 100 Earth years, and will be operating back in Boston. Nick promptly volunteers to do what he's being asked to do, but Proctor shows she's not so easily fooled; she has a thorough 'case file' on Nick's life, and he wouldn't be sent back to be with Julia again.Proctor takes Nick into the main room for Boston's RIPD 'precinct,' manned by officers from many different times, always adapting to Earth's ever-changing society. Nick's first task is to meet his new partner-- a trigger-happy, rough as sandpaper, wise-talking 'lawman' with an attitude, named Roysephus 'Roy' Pulsipher (Jeff Bridges)... who doesn't like having to have a partner. Seeing that Proctor isn't giving him any options, Roy tells Nick to come with him. A bathroom in the department leads them (when the 'toilet' is flushed) into the bathroom of a VCR repair shop on a Boston street. Their car has the shop's logo on it, as a cover identity. Roy tells Nick that Proctor wants to start Nick off 'with some closure.'This closure, for Nick, means watching his own funeral. He's given a full 21-gun salute, a flag draped over his coffin and then folded up and given to Julia, as she cries softly. But Nick gets angry when he sees the partner who betrayed and killed him, Bobby Hayes, go up to Julia and hug her. Roy doesn't try to stop Nick as he starts running off the hill he's standing on, and into the dispersing funeral crowd to try and talk to Julia.Nick reaches Julia, only to find that she doesn't recognize him. Bobby hurries up, aggressively protecting Julia from Nick, and also apparently not recognizing him. Boston officers grab Nick and keep him away as Bobby protectively gets Julia into a car and they ride away.Roy is waiting for Nick's return, and then explains that he no longer looks like Nick Walker, nor has the same voice. His words will come out jumbled and garbled if he tries to tell anyone who knew Nick, that it's him. The higher powers of the universe don't allow RIPD officers to reveal who they are to anyone that used to know them. Roy hands Nick a set of ID's that allow him access to various private places. The ID's show what he looks like to the living: Nick appears as an elderly Chinese man named Jerry Chen (James Hong). As for Roy-- the living see him as a sexy female blonde bombshell (Marisa Miller). Only to other RIPD do they appear as their former selves.As they drive through the streets of Boston, Nick learns one of the reasons for Roy's dislike of having a partner-- like Nick, Roy was betrayed and murdered by his Earthly partner. He was a Marshall in the 1800's and has been in the RIPD since then. Roy also re-iterates that Nick needs to remember that his wife is now a widow and he can't have her back.They arrive at a building where Roy has heard a deado is hiding in. He explains that a deado's rotting soul infects everything around them, and that anything broken is a strong sign of a deado's presence, such as a broken elevator and signal light. Roy hands Nick a special clip for the gun Proctor gave him; as Roy explains, Earthly weapons are useless against deados. The special handcuffs given Nick are the only way to subdue a deado, and if they are unable to bring one in alive and must defend themselves, the 'soul eraser' bullets will disperse a deado soul if they're struck in the head with them, causing the deado to be "erased" and cease to exist. RIPD can also be erased and cease to exist if struck by such bullets, as Roy cautions Nick.Roy finds his way to an apartment door beside a flickering wall light and a moldy wall. The door is answered by a meek, wimpy-looking man who Roy addresses as Stanley Nawicki (Robert Knepper). Roy flashes his Department of Health ID to get in. Nawicki looks hopelessly confused as Roy has Nick read a question off a card, on whether he'd accept a plate of chicken vindaloo from a teenager on an Ash Wednesday. Roy opens a container of take-out Indian food and makes like he's starting to eat it. Nawicki starts to look ill as Roy does this. Roy makes Nick read off more crazy-sounding questions, but all including the name of a dish from Indian cuisine. Nawicki continues acting more odd and more ill as this happens. When Roy starts exclaiming the name of one of the dishes loudly, some of the food spills from his mouth onto the table right in front of Nawicki, who reacts, revealing his rotted deado nature, with a humongous mouth (Roy says he was a snitch in life). Apparently cumin, a spice in Indian food, forces a deado to reveal itself.But as Nick starts to place the deado cuffs on Nawicki, he pulls off the refrigerator door and wields it as a weapon. Nick fastens the other cuff around his own wrist, so Nawicki pulls off his cuffed arm and grabs a container of milk from the fridge as he runs. He swallows the contents before jumping through the building window. Roy charges at Nick, pushing him through and falling after, and on top, of him. They land on top of Nawicki and corner him. When Nawicki mocks Nick over one of Roy's wise-cracks, Nick beats Nawicki silly with the arm he pulled off, causing Nawicki to regurgitate what he'd swallowed-- several chunks of gold looking just like the ones Nick and Bobby found during the Earthly drug bust. When Nick starts examining these chunks, Nawicki suddenly attacks him, and is erased by Roy.Nick is absorbed in the gold chunks as Roy yakety-yaks about Nick's 'grade' during the bust. Losing his patience, Nick grabs Roy and throws him in front of a bus, which runs him over. This can't harm Roy, like the jump out the window couldn't, but Roy's hat is blown off into the wind, which pisses him off royally.Back at HQ, they note that officers are mobilizing for a surge in deado presence in Boston. Nick, however, is still concerned about the gold, even as it's placed in a storage vault in evidence. Nick knows that Nawicki was trying very hard to protect and hide it, and he's sure that means something that should be followed up on. He's sure that a long-time RIPD veteran like Roy will have a deado informant that can help with the investigation.Roy's informant is named Elliot (Mike O'Malley), and he's a huge Red Sox fan who works in Fenway Park. Roy takes him there and busies himself trying on spare hats Elliot has while Nick questions him about the gold. Elliot seems more interested in mocking Nick and the RIPD in general, but gives in when Nick gets rough. Unfortunately, Elliot insists he really knows nothing about the gold, saying that deados are sentimental and that's why they tend to care about useless things, including what Elliot calls 'talismanic junk.' Nick tosses the chunk of gold to Elliot and tells him to keep his ears open.Nick knows, of course, that Elliot was still lying, and let him keep the gold for a reason. Sure enough, Elliot sneaks out of the stadium and waits with shifty eyes. Even Roy is impressed as he and Nick watch Bobby drive up, and Elliot gives him the gold. Roy and Nick follow Bobby, watching him drive... to Nick's house. Nick is sure, however, that Bobby isn't taking Julia for himself. Hiding, they eavesdrop as Bobby questions Julia about whether Nick seemed okay to her the day he died. Confiding in her that Nick claimed to have buried something, Bobby learns about the orange tree and digs up the gold Nick hid there, letting Julia think Nick stole it. Bobby promises that no heat will come down on Julia for this.Roy grills Nick about his apparently being a dirty cop. It escalates into Nick hitting Roy, but that stops when Bobby puts the gold in the trunk of his car and prepares to drive off. They follow him again and watch as he enters a commercial building and sits down on a public bench. As they wait, Roy schools Nick on more post-death recovery, pointing out that he's far from the only one who now has regrets (Nick knows Julia doesn't know what to think of him right now), and Roy, like Nick, can't resolve them himself, so they all have to learn to live with it.A dog starts barking, which alerts Roy. The dog is agitated at a stout man with dark shades, a tan suit, long sideburns, and a short goatee. Roy knows the man is a deado, and Nick is sure that Bobby is here to meet with him. Bobby hands a briefcase to the deado, which contains the gold. Roy and Nick follow him, grab him and push him through a kitchen into a freezer, grabbing some cumin powder from a shelf. The deado, Pulaski (Devin Ratray), sees Roy and Nick as Jerry Chen and the blonde bombshell, but knows they're RIPD. When Nick shakes some cumin into his hand, offering to 'pop' Pulaski and reveal him, Pulaski grabs Nick's hand and inhales the powder deeply. Roy and Nick watch as Pulaski is revealed as the hulking figure they chase in the beginning of the movie. As Pulaski lands on the building wall and mocks them, Roy attaches a harpoon extension to his soul eraser gun, but Pulaski still proves a tenacious target to take down, dragging Roy along on a zany chase scene across the city scape; a multi-vehicle smash-up resulting when a truck driver sees the blonde bombshell swinging from some cable through the air. Nick fires at Pulaski, who shields his head with the briefcase, leaping up onto a roof. When Roy is still holding on to the harpoon, Pulaski smashes through a window into a corporate board room and rips open the elevator doors. Nick and Roy converge there, Nick shooting the elevator cable so its counterweight yanks it upward. The elevator crashes through the roof of the office building and is wrecked atop it. Nick and Roy recover the gold, but Pulaski escapes, creating more mayhem as he goes.Back at HQ, Proctor, now furious, berates Roy and Nick for allowing a deado to be seen by the living, not to mention the amount of destruction to city property resulted by the bungled arrest. Proctor doesn't care about the gold, only about the failure to contain, that resulted in an exposed deado running loose in Boston in the middle of the day, which is now all over Boston TV. Proctor marches Roy and Nick into a room where a container drops down from a golden-colored chute pipe reaching as far, far up as they can see-- RIPD's "Eternal Affairs." Proctor takes the container and opens it. But as she reads the proclamation, she suddenly appears quite chaste. Although Eternal Affairs is pretty angry at Pulaski's revelation and escape, the proclamation says that the golden chunks recovered by Roy and Nick are components of an extremely dangerous artifact known as the Staff of Jericho. As Proctor explains, the cloud tunnel that Nick was rising through when he died, before he was pulled into Proctor's office, is a one-way tunnel to the afterlife. The Staff of Jericho can reverse the flow of deceased humans, bringing them all back down to Earth, eventually causing the Apocalypse. Aside from the golden components, the artifact requires 'the blood of thine enemy' (human blood) to power it up.Another container drops down from the chute. Proctor reads it and looks unhappy. Eternal Affairs is suspending Nick and Roy from the case, even though recovery of all the artifact components is now red alert priority for the whole RIPD worldwide. A hearing is scheduled for tomorrow, and the chances are high that Roy and Nick will both be erased. Sullen at this verdict, Nick walks away, saying he has somewhere more important to be.Nick goes to a track where he knows Julia still goes to run many evenings. Although he still appears as Jerry Chen to Julia, she recognizes this elderly man from the cemetery and stops, wanting to know why he's following her. Nick walks up to Julia and touches her chin with his forefinger and thumb in a way that makes her smile without realizing it. Snapping herself out of this trance, Julia tells Chen to stay away from her and resumes running.Roy is at the track, telling Nick that trying to say another goodbye to Julia isn't helping. Whether or not they get erased, Julia must live on as a widow, and find her own closure. Roy tells Nick he must do the same. This only makes Nick upset and an argument results in Nick insulting Roy pretty close to home.On a pier, Nick and Roy make peace, and Nick decides he's not taking this lying down; suspension or not, he intends to stop Bobby and the threatened apocalypse, which Roy admits paints him into a corner on whether to take part.Nick and Roy know that Bobby is more than a bagman in the whole deado operation to restore the artifact. He's a major operative, and most likely, a deado himself. What bugs Nick is that he was partners with Bobby for five years, and in all that time as a living Boston police officer, never noticed Bobby having any kind of 'soul stank' that deados exude. When Roy mentions he's heard of rare artifacts capable of masking it, and would be something that Bobby would carry on his person at all times, Nick figures out what Bobby meant when he said he wore his grandmother's St. Christopher medallion around his wrist 'for protection.'Bobby meets a man in a sports jersey in a coffee shop, handing him half of some kind of metallic sphere. They talk about how they've finally built the network to take down RIPD and restore the Staff of Jericho, something no deado has ever been able to do in the past 3,000 years. Bobby tells his cohort to 'find himself some trouble.'Come morning, Julia calls Bobby to tell him about the elderly Chinese man finding her at the track. She can't help but think that Nick is trying to reach out to her from the other side. Bobby tells Julia she probably shouldn't be alone, and he'll take her to lunch later on and they can talk. As Bobby hangs up, he sees a VCR repair shop car pull up in front of his house and watches it knowingly. He punches in a code to unlock and open one of two small, secure containers, one of which is already open. In the other container is another metallic hemisphere like the one he gave to the contact the previous night. He takes it out and puts it in his pocket.Nick and Roy walk toward Bobby's house and agree that Roy will take point at the front while Nick goes around the back. Roy knocks on the door, shows an ID and says he wants to ask a question about a tandoori clay oven. Bobby, of course, knows this sexy blonde lady is an RIPD officer, but plays it cool, inviting 'her' in and then offering a drink.Bobby goes into his kitchen, but stops as Nick darts out of hiding, holding a soul eraser rifle Bobby had hidden there. Bobby sees "Jerry Chen" and knows it's Nick. Roy enters and starts to read one of the cards, but Nick reminds him they can skip that part, and tells Bobby to take off his St. Christopher's medal. Bobby agreeably does so, and the house immediately falls apart from the soul stank. Roy finds and extracts a large cross-shaped piece of gold from the water heater.Nick and Roy put the soul cuffs on Bobby, put the gold in the trunk and drive off to take Bobby in to RIPD headquarters. During the drive, Bobby reveals that a time he was shot during a bust and got a medal after miraculously pulling through, actually killed him. He intends to stay on Earth because he doesn't accept someone or something else deciding what happens to him. But his comment about having 'taken a little on the side to pay for lap dances' arouses Roy's suspicion.RIPD officers at the Boston HQ are bringing in a gothic female deado, sitting her on a bench where several other deados await 'booking' and incarcerating to await final Judgement. Among them is the one in the sports jersey. All of the deados are 'popped' and looking non-human.As Roy and Nick book Bobby and take the metallic hemisphere, Roy raises his voice to his usual loud bluster as he reveals what made him suspicious about the 'lap dance' comment: He and Proctor were briefly lovers, and this might have had a hand in Roy being on the RIPD.Bobby is still cocky as Nick pushes him to the bench with the popped deados, and they all look at each other, a few nodding and watching.Roy brings the metallic hemisphere and the cross-shaped piece of gold to evidence for tagging and storing. One of the evidence clerks mentions that another similar metallic hemisphere was just tagged a few moments ago, and she puts the one brought in by Roy, with the other one that is still in a bin, awaiting storage.As the clerk tosses the hemisphere into the bin with the other hemisphere, the two pieces of metal, finally in close proximity, float a little into the air and begin to spin, moving toward each other to assemble into a complete sphere.Right on cue, Bobby 'casually remarks' to his fellow deados that one of the perks of being a deado is that they can't hear certain frequencies so well. Nick looks toward the evidence vault and sees the metallic sphere assembling itself. But just as he shouts a warning, the sphere gives off a huge sonic pulse that paralyzes all the RIPD staff. Bobby taunts Nick, saying he and the other deados let themselves be captured because they were planning a raid on RIPD HQ. The artifact they smuggled in freezes up RIPD officers but doesn't affect the deados. They storm the evidence vault and grab all the golden components that are in storage. By the time the freeze and stun starts to wear off enough for Roy to shoot the sonic pulse bomb and neutralize it, Bobby and the deados have escaped through the makeshift bathroom and storm out of the VCR repair shop back in Boston, living people scattering in terror.A female unpopped accomplice passes Bobby a cell phone, who tells Pulaski that the raid was a success. Pulaski shouts to a number of deados gathered atop the Boston Commonwealth building, all of whom are carrying more components for the Staff of Jericho. Hurriedly, they all begin putting them together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, assembling the ancient artifact. As they build, energy starts to rise from the spot into the sky, opening a hole in the overhead clouds.Nick, Roy and a number of other RIPD officers race in pursuit. Some of the deados are waiting there, exchanging soul eraser gunfire to slow the RIPD down. As several drive off in a sanitation truck, another jumps down from it, blasting automatic fire from a minigun like soul eraser weapon that wipes out a number of the RIPD officers. Nick and Roy duck back into the shop for cover as the deado's minigun jams. He ducks behind a car where the gothic female deado crouches, and works to fix the jam. Meanwhile, Roy is reloading his twin soul eraser revolvers. This 'Dodge City' like environment is just like his old home turf in the 19th Century as a Marshall in the Old West. He stomps back out into the street, ready for a quickdraw showdown. Just as the minigun wielder and the female deado jump out to resume fire, Roy draws both sixguns and blasts them down, erasing them. He and Nick pick off two other deados hiding in ambush, having figured out their hiding spots from Roy's knowledge of Old West fighting.A wind starts to pick up, and Nick and Roy watch various debris swept off by it. Whirling wind funnels start to form as the artifact nears completion.Meanwhile, two Boston police show up to bring Julia to her planned meeting with Bobby. Their tones of voice and facial expressions show they're unpopped deados in league with Bobby.As Bobby and several deados arrive at the Commonwealth building, Pulaski and a number of other deados prepare a barricade and lots of soul erasing firepower to guard all approaches.Roy and Nick see the largest wind funnel massing over the Commonwealth building and know that's where Bobby is heading. Several cars with deado drivers and passengers pursue them and try to stop them. Using some modern Boston police driving, Nick leads them through a wild chase among several collapsing buildings and garages, that drop parked automobiles that destroy the other deado cars.At the Commonwealth, Bobby tells the deados with him to bring the last components up top while he waits for 'the final piece.' Just then, the car carrying Julia arrives. Bobby takes out some cumin powder and inhales it, 'popping' himself and revealing his deado nature in front of Julia. He grabs her and takes her up to the roof of the Commonwealth.A news helicopter flies near the Commonwealth, trying to make sense of what they're reporting, when a small jeep collides with them, and is knocked back atop the Commonwealth roof.As Roy and Nick approach the barricade, Pulaski fires at them, using his deado agility and acrobatics to his advantage. Nick speeds up, scooping Pulaski atop the hood of the car, then driving it up so the barricade's construction launches the car, with Pulaski and several other deados still clinging to it, up over the barricade. It hits the street on the opposite side and races on, most of the other deados being thrown off, but Pulaski tenaciously clinging to the hood. Nick and Roy both shout the mantra 'relax body' as the car speeds up again, plowing into the side of a building. Pulaski is pinned atop the car hood, between its roof and the building wall-- and Roy and Nick with their guns pointed at him through the broken windshield. They both fire and Pulaski is finally erased.On the Commonwealth roof, the many-armed deado holds Julia fast while Bobby finishes assembling the Staff of Jericho; the cross-shaped piece of gold an apparent centerpiece/console. Bobby then tells Julia that one final piece is needed: the blood of a living human sacrifice, which Bobby intends for Julia to serve as.Nick and Roy bust onto the roof, weapons drawn. Bobby grabs Julia and holds her as a shield, and then takes a long metal rebar with a sharp point, and drives it through Julia's body, impaling her. As the free for all shoothout begins, and Roy's Old West sharpshooting blends with Nick's more modern markshmanship to eradicate the deados, Julia's blood is sucked from her wound into the artifact, a small globe of her blood congealing in an opening within it; powering it up to full. The afterlife tunnel is reversed; dead spirits beginning to free fall back down to Earth.It's time for the final showdown, and Nick and Roy are fighting mad. Reloading their weapons, they storm the roof, erasing all the defending deados. Roy reaches the staff and tries to pry out the cross-shaped centerpiece.As Nick reaches Bobby, the last deado standing, his weapon is empty. Bobby attacks him hand to hand, and is clobbering him as Roy struggles to pull the console centerpiece from the Staff of Jericho. Needing to improvise, he grabs a loose power cable and makes a lasso. Spotting the jeep lying atop the Commonwealth sign, he lassos the jeep and, pulling with all his might, finally dislodges it, bring it down atop the artifact, smashing it.Bobby turns around in disbelief as he sees the jeep crush the Staff of Jericho, breaking apart the components and halting the reverse flow of deceased spirits. When he turns to face Nick again, Nick has slipped one last bullet into his soul eraser and chambers the round; the barrel pointed at Bobby's face. Taking great satisfaction at the vengeance moment's poetic justice, Nick fires, erasing Bobby.Nick hurries to the stricken Julia, who lies dying on the Commonwealth roof. Julia looks around, time seeming paused as she sees Nick at her side, seeing him as he used to be while living. Nick knows this is because Julia has just died and is not rising up toward the afterlife tunnel only because seeing Nick anchors her near. Julia kisses Nick, happy to see her husband with her again, but this moment finally helps Nick to do what he has to do: accept his own death and let go, telling Julia she must live her life without him. Telling Julia he'll always love her, he finally says goodbye.Julia awakens abruptly in a hospital room, a doctor watching over her... or someone Julia merely sees as a doctor, but is actually Proctor. Seeing Julia awaken, the 'doctor' nods to her and heads out, where Nick and Roy are waiting. Proctor tells Nick that Julia will recover.As they leave the hospital building, Proctor tells Nick and Roy that Eternal Affairs conducted the disciplinary hearing without them, despite their having missed it only because they were saving the world. As a new recruit, Nick has been let off with a warning, but Roy has had his term of service extended by fifty-three more years. Annoyed, Roy calls Proctor by her first name, Mildred.Proctor reaches into a bag she's been holding and gives Roy back his hat, which she's managed to recover for him. This appeases Roy's anger promptly. Showing her lingering attraction to Roy, Proctor leans in and gently bites on his goatee before walking off.Roy remembers something he's gotten for Nick. He pulled some strings and gotten him some new ID's, so he will appear to the living as someone other than the elderly Jerry Chen. Nick is happy at this, until he sees the new ID's. Roy just shrugs and says that's all he was able to acquire. They enter their car and we see them in their 'avatar' forms-- Nick now appears to the living as an early adolescent girl scout (Piper Mackenzie Harris). | murder, paranormal, violence, good versus evil, psychedelic, humor | train | imdb | The second half steps it up in both action and comedy and the climactic ending was great.Overall I enjoyed R.I.P.D. It was just a fun movie that you don't need to think about!.
1. I love Ryan Reynolds Jeff Bridges and Kevin Bacon.
The movie basically follows the three act formula, and although the crusty veteran and out of element rookie has been done before I enjoyed Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds on the screen together.
Mary Louise Parker, with a scarily perky character who gets to chew the scenery with a load of offbeat lines, is wonderful as the Proctor.Some reviewers seem to insist on portraying the film as a poor man's ripoff of Men In Black, or Ghostbusters.
'R.I.P.D.': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)One of the summer's biggest expensive casualties is this Dark Horse comic adaptation starring Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges as two police officers in the after life fighting undead ghouls.
That doesn't mean they're bad films though and I actually enjoyed 'R.I.P.D.' to a certain degree (definitely not an especially good movie though).The film opens with a Boston cop named Nick Walker (Reynolds), having a dispute with his partner, Bobby Hayes (Bacon), over whether or not to turn in gold they found at a recent drug bust.
Not a great film by any means but not a bad one either.Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: https://youtu.be/NdWU81GeyN4.
While I won't say this wasn't Men In Black like, it was much better then I expected and did laugh and was entertained most of the way through.
This movie is obviously a spoof on the Men-In-Black movies, with Jeff Bridges reprieving his Rooster Cogburn role, this time in a character named Roy, with highly amusing results.
For whatever reason, it all comes off as a superfluous effort to build comedy from being weird; it worked so well for the Men In Black films, but it all falls rather flat in RIPD.The story overall is pretty fast and compact.
It shows just enough to make the plot work, but it never explains much, never builds on the things it briefly touches on, and never really makes us care.The film uses a lot of stylish camera moves, fast-zooms, and slow-motion effects, which you could either see as being really cool or really dumb.
Acting is a mixed bag: Ryan Reynolds is strangely flat and emotionless throughout, save for the few love scenes, while Jeff Bridges steals the show repeatedly, in a role that almost seems to parody his role from True Grit.
For comic-book-inspired stories about enforcers tackling the supernatural without the general public knowing, the three Men In Black movies succeed in everything RIPD tried to do, but failed.
Jeff Bridges plays a good western character in this movie (as seen in the previews) and Ryan plays a Boston cop (as seen in previews)..
Nick and Hayes are assigned to a raid against a dangerous gang and unexpectedly Hayes kills Nick.Nick is drawn by a tunnel and based on his previous experience in the police department, he is assigned in the afterlife by the Proctor (Mary-Louise Parker) to join the Rest in Peace Department that protects the living world from the undead and work with the old- fashioned agent Roy (Jeff Bridges).
Roy and Nick accidentally find that Hayes in plotting a scheme to revert the sense of the tunnel to the afterlife and bring the Apocalypse to Earth."R.I.P.D." is a silly but entertaining M.I.B. and Blade Runner rip-off combined with the clichés of a rookie cop that is assigned to work with a veteran one.
Swap Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones out for Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges, swap aliens for ghosts/undeads, update the CGI a bit, replace a few letters from the title, and you have R.I.P.D. It's as close to a blatant rip-off as you can get without naming this "M.I.B. 4".
On that note, it's important to understand that this movie isn't just a copy of Ghost Busters (1984) and Men In Black (1997); it's mix along with its own unique traits.The reason why people relate this film to those two movies because it's about a duo, one is newbie and the other, a wisecracking veteran who work together on a paranormal force to take down ghost like creatures.
That's also awesome; a cool giveaway.Back to characters, partnering up with Walker (Reynolds) is Roy played by the charismatic Jeff Bridges.
Most of the time, the tracks were light and goofy and even had a twang in it for the character of Roy. There was even one scene where Bridges is at a stare down and music is being played where it sounds like a mix between Daft Punk's Tron: Legacy (2010) score and Ennio Morricone's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1961).
I think that fans of westerns would love the movie, but fans of Ryan Reynolds who enjoy scenes of him shirtless or romancing the heroine will be disappointed after the first five minutes.
R.I.P.D is a film directed by Robert Schwentke, starring Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges, both capable actors.
Jeff bridges and Ryan Reynolds have great chemistry and I laughed a lot during their interactions.
Not every movie needs to be this profound, dramatic 'work of art', sometimes you just want to watch a fun movie with great acting and chemistry between actors and something unique that you haven't seen before - that's exactly what you get with this one.
Kevin bacon is always solid.What happens when you mix them all with a decent plot, some good action scenes and good visual effects?, This movie.
And, I think that Ryan Reynolds did a better job in this than he did in the x-film "turbo" (which I didn't see but looks terrible)..
The rest of the audience in the theater was laughing right along with us.My husband was chatting with a couple of folks as we were walking out, and they were saying that they could not figure out why this movie was getting such a bad rap because they really enjoyed it too.Jeff Bridges was hilarious in his role as the experienced cop and Ryan Reynolds was marvelous eye candy.
Kevin Bacon played a bad guy we all had a good time disliking.The special effects were so good that they never took you out of the movie to think about how they did it, you just went along for the ride.
(2013)* 1/2 (out of 4) A cop (Ryan Reynolds) is killed by his partner (Kevin Bacon) but instead of going "up or down" he's given a second chance in a police department for dead cops who keep monsters from walking the real streets.
2013 truly was a year of high-profile financial flops, particularly during the Summer months, when a handful of films that had the potential to be blockbusters all failed at varying degrees of misery.Perhaps the most notable, however, was the Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges vehicle "R.I.P.D.", a fast, quirky, 90-minute-thrill-ride with a strong focus on its Fantasy/Sci-Fi leaning.
Robert Schwentke, who directed the amusing and fun action-flick "Red" and the basic-but-kind-hearted "Time Travelers Wife" seems a bit lost with this film.
Let's not be expecting heart-wrenching monologues, dramatic tear-jerking moments or anything like that.However as an enjoyable film with some cool visuals, it sure does deliver on that account.I never really got too into MIB I must say, but I've seen enough of it to say that RIPD can stand on its own, although there are of course similarities.
In case you don't - it's very hard.Ryan Reynolds stars as a slightly corrupt cop who is gunned down before his time, leaving behind his girlfriend and his partner (played by Kevin Bacon - I had no idea he was in this until he popped up!).
Reynolds is partnered with ex-wild western enforcer Jeff Bridges and together the two realise that something very sinister is afoot...It's a buddy cop movie first and foremost, with a great and fun monster story behind it.
Yes, some parts of the plot could use work, but overall, this was a fun, entertaining and action-packed movie.Do not listen to the "professional" critics: watch R.I.P.D and decide for yourself..
Do NOT listen to the idiots that say this movie was bad, Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges were freaking epic in this movie.
automatically awesome.Jeff Bridges is epic in anything, and did a great job in this film.what I didn't like?
This movie doesn't break any new ground, it is formulaic, it doesn't coax the best performances from the actors, but it is entertaining and engaging through the whole film and I enjoyed it.
The effects were interesting and the story drove along nicely.There is action, a love story, double crosses, the whole buddy cop thing, it's just a fun movie.
Just watched this movie on Netflix and baring in mind I heard it bombed at the cinema, I can understand why but not in the way I would have expected.Although in some ways the movie plays out like an alternative version of Men in Black, I actually found this movie a lot more fun especially the roll played by the legend Jeff Bridges.The chemistry between Bridges and Reynolds is pretty good and in my opinion more stand out than the relationship between Will Smith and TL Jones in MiB.If you are looking for a fun film to watch but struggling for choice, look no further, highly recommended..
Feeling long at only 96 minutes, it shuffles from one dull, consequence-free action scene to the next, never once building any momentum or creating any anticipation.The normally likable Ryan Reynolds seems to be sleepwalking his way through this one, and the best thing about the normally reliable Kevin Bacon's performance is convincing us that he's not embarrassed to be there.
R.I.P.D was a silly, fun and thoroughly entertaining Popcorn Movie and after watching the trailer this was exactly what I was expecting and it delivered as promised.Not sure why the movie is getting such bad reviews, although over the past few years good reviews for any movie have declined in favour of bad reviews from wanna be critics who believe they are showing us how clever they are by picking a movie apart.
Are they trying to ruin the movie industry by trying to make all the movies flop, don't get me wrong, some movies are bad, this wasn't.Great action, unique story, I never got bored, funny characters, good special effects I thought.
My family loved it, so if your want to be entertained for 90 minutes your can't go wrong with this movie.A final thought, I know many people in the US especially are still religious, did this vision of the afterlife offend them in some way, I myself am an atheist and still enjoyed the premise, In my opinion the writer/producer/director can depict heaven, the afterlife, limbo or whatever in anyway they choose, after all none of it is real...
I wasn't expecting much in the way of storyline and there were so many bad reviews out there(though to be honest that usually makes me want to see a movie more!) But it was actually good - funny, full of interesting characters, plenty of action.
Key Things I liked It was a little bit funny It had some decent action Jeff bridges was OK in it.
Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds are dead cops who come back to earth as Marissa Miller (S.I. model) and James Hong (old Chinese man).
Ryan looks too serious most of the time and doesn't have good lines.Men in Black was already wearing thin so the monster like villains in RIPD aren't watchable here.
Ryan Reynolds wooden expression of realization that this is a lost cause, Jeff Bridges who has never seen a cowboy role he could refuse, Kevin Bacon who when in doubt just decides to "ham it up", or maybe special effects that aren't good enough to be included in Men In Black.
It's horrible.'RIPD' would have been sort of watchable if Jeff Bridges had used his "the Dude" character rather than his 'True Grit' one.I couldn't understand half of what he said.Ryan Reynold's, what happened to this dude?
But while analyzing acting I saw it seemed the only people who tried were Jeff Bridges and his fake accent, and Mary-Louise Parker (Ryan Reynolds's french wife in the film).
Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges Definitely Don't Make a Team as Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones,But I Found This Movie Very Fun and Enjoyable,.
RIPD is a good movie with a decent but weird storyline and good performances.I don't think this film deserved all the negative criticism it received,it definitely isn't brilliant,but I thought it was very funny at times and overall an enjoyable film.It had that same kind of Men In Black theme to it that I enjoyed,definitely not as much but I still found it very fun.The main thing I really didn't like was getting Jeff Bridges character disguised as a young blonde women,it was very disturbing,especially with an actor as talented and well known as him.RIPD definitely misses a lot,but I found it enjoyable and would recommend it as a fun action movie to anyone over the age of twelve.Nick (Ryan Reynolds),a recently murdered police officer,is murdered and is forced to return to Earth as part of the RIPD,along with a longtime dead cowboy Roy (Jeff Bridges) who helps Nick take his killer Hayes (Kevin Bacon) down..
The FXs are super cartoon and CGI, but work (think Men In Black) Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds have a good chemistry and Kevin Bacon works as the asshole I'm not saying this is a good film by any means.
RIPD is what you expect from a summer sci-fi/action blockbuster without being exceptional at anything except at being 'okay.' Boston PD is a tough beat, but Nick is soon going to realize that the Rest in Peace Department is on a whole other level – so is the plot of R.I.P.D.Seriously, that is no small feat for the RIPD considering Nick (Ryan Reynolds) was killed by his own partner in the line of duty.
RIPD is fun and funny with great chemistry between Reynolds and Bridges.
The afterlife gimmick / cop thing wasn't even mildly entertaining even with Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges on prominent display.
Jeff Bridges seems to be mumbling all the way through the movie and Ryan Reynolds don't really seemed that shocked that he is fighting against these weird looking monsters.
The thing that worked with M.I.B. was that Will Smith was actually funny while Tommy Lee Jones done all of the hard work, but in this one Jeff Bridges is supposed to be the funny one so Ryan Reynolds seems like the moody rookie who fits into R.I.P.D. with ease, which was a bad choice by the director.
I enjoyed it from beginning to end, too bad it did not do better at the box office.It is a shame since Ryan Reynolds has not been on a roll the last few years, having Kevin Bacon and Jeff Bridges doing his "Will Bill" character make up for great time, even it runs less that a hour and forty minutes, I will be waiting to get this on blu-ray when it releases!
Lenkov, 'R.I.P.D' is an ordinary fare, that is strictly a one-time watch.'R.I.P.D' Synopsis: A recently slain cop joins a team of undead police officers working for the Rest in Peace Department and tries to find the man who murdered him.'R.I.P.D' has its share of funny moments, courtesy Jeff Bridges, who impresses in his part, enacting the dead-cop with energy & even the action-sequences are quite good.
The only thing worthwhile in this movie are the performances of Kevin Bacon and Jeff Bridges.
For me, this movie is underrated and, screw all these reviews out there!After Nick (Ryan Reynolds) is murdered by his own partner, he joins the Rest in Peace Department to protect the world from the undeads.
The actors/actresses for the characters were very well chosen and Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges worked very well on screen together.Definitely worth watching if you enjoy a film to kick back and relax to..
It may be a predictable and unoriginal story for the relationship between Roy and Nick (the love/hate kind), but it's such a fun ride watching them together that you just don't care about the predictability.The only real annoying thing for me was the accent for Jeff Bridges character as it's a little hard to understand at times when he's speaking through his gritted teeth.
Also, I'm stating the obvious here - and you'll see for yourself as soon as you watch the movie - but R.I.P.D. is very much like Men In Black, albeit with one huge difference....R.I.P.D. was good and didn't suck.I really don't understand where a lot of the unfavourable criticism has come from for this movie.
Jeff Bridges sounds like he has a mouth full of marbles when he talks and hams it up real good with a performance that alternates between grating and mercilessly annoying and Ryan Reynolds looks well aware he's stuck in a stinker.
We like both Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds so we thought this would be a good bet.
Okay, I love Jeff Bridges and yeah, I like Kevin Bacon and Ryan Reynolds, so I was expecting some fun, and did I get it not.
Some dead people like to hide back on Earth and cause havoc.The trailer makes it look so funny and a lot of fun to watch...
Much of RIPD's saving graces rest upon the backs of it's two leads who in the case of Reynolds overcome a bland character and in the form of Bridges a case of the Rooster Cogburns.Being different versions of Men in Black's agent J and K, Nick and Roy have moments that provide decent chemistry mixed in with some of the films better dialogue. |
tt0118564 | Affliction | Wade Whitehouse (Nick Nolte) drives his daughter Jill (Brigid Tierney) to a Halloween party, as his brother Rolfe (Willem Dafoe) narrates the opening story. Wade is the sheriff of Lawford, a small New Hampshire town, and knows everyone in town. Wade is divorced from his wife, and Jill doesn't want to be at the party. Wade runs into his friend Jack (Jim True-Frost), who's planning to take hunting party out the following day.The next day, Jack tries to bolster his hunting guest's (Sean McCann) confidence while Jack appears a bit shaken from his daughter's rebellion. Wade also operates the town snow plow, and hears about a hunting accident with Jack and his guest Twombley. Wade and Gordon LaRiviere (Holmes Osborne) head to the woods and hear that Twombley was shot dead. Gordon wants to keep a lid on the accident, but Wade starts asking questions.Wade finds out that Twombley was scheduled to testify against organized crime. He talks to his brother Rolfe and says he's getting a divorce lawyer and may start to "bite back". He serves a traffic violation to Mel Gordon, who's Trombley's son-in-law, who threatens to get Wade fired. Wade continues to probe for the truth. Wade spends time with Margie Fogg (Sissy Spacek), and wants to marry her. He tests his theories to her, but she thinks he's crazy.Through various flashbacks, we learn that Wade and Rolfe's father Glen (James Coburn) was an abusive drunk. Wade takes Margie to see his folks. His father is still a drunk, and his mother (Joanna Noyes) is dead. Rolfe breaks the news to his sister Lena (Martha-Marie Kleinhans), and the remaining family gathers together. Glen lashes out at his sons and daughter in grief, and Wade threatens him. Wade and his ex-wife Lillian (Mary Beth Hurt) have a tense discussion at the funeral.Rolfe and Wade talk about the murder, and Rolfe thinks Mel (the victim's son-in-law) organized the hit to keep potential illicit affairs from becoming public. Jack covered it up so as not to lose his hunting license.Mel Gordon talks to Wade's boss, and Wade reviews his custody case with his lawyer (Eugene Lipinski). Afterwards, Wade's boss offers him a new car and tries to keep Wade from prosecuting Mel. Wade now believes Gordon is in cahoots with Mel and Jack. Later, Wade follows Jack in his car and confronts him. Jack pulls out a rifle and shoots Wade's tires.Wade returns to Margie's diner, where she's babysitting Glen. Glen is belligerent, and they fight. He calls Rolfe and describes his latest theory. Wade goes to Alma Pittman (Marian Seldes), who explains that Glen's land and the area around it is being bought by Gordon and Mel. Wade confronts Gordon and Jack in Gordon's office, then storms out, fired by Gordon. Rolfe's advice is to take care of small things, like his recurring toothache and broken transmission. Glen and Margie argue, and Wade finally pulls his tooth with pliers.Wade picks up Jill for visitation, and Lillian is angry about the lawyer. Jill doesn't want to spend time with Wade, and he gets angry. His world is falling apart. Margie leaves him, and Wade strikes Jill. After they leave, Glen and Wade fight, and Wade clubs Glen, killing him. Numbly, Wade douses Glen in gasoline and sets him and the garage on fire. He walks into the kitchen, pours himself a drink, and watches it burn.Rolfe narrates the end of the story. Wade kills Jack, thinking his theories were correct. Lawford is now a zone near the ski resort built by Gordon LaRiviere and Mel.Wade's whereabouts are unknown.(previous synopsis)
The real drama takes place inside the mind of the lead character, Wade. "What is real?" is the fascinating question here. How far do we go to rationalize our acts and desires? This flick is definitely worth watching from a psychological standpoint! | violence, depressing, murder, flashback | train | imdb | The movie looks into the life of a struggling person named Wade Whitehouse, played with extreme intensity by the descriptive Nick Nolte.
Wade's alcoholic father, Glen (James Coburn in an Oscar worthy performance), who abused him and his brother Rolfe (Willem Dafoe) as children, continues to abuse him emotionlly.
The movie is best when allowing Nick Nolte and James Coburn to come to terms with each other's hatred for each other.
The performances are what make this movie much more distinct than similar but lesser films like "The Other Sister" and "The Story of Us," and even better acted than the masterpiece Award winner "American Beauty." Instead of milking the dysfunctional family material to the maximum, the film also has tender dialogue and heartfelt scenes that exhibit a loving relationship between Wade and his girlfriend.
The story is told by the youngest brother (played mainly in voice-over and a small cameo by Willem Dafoe), and traces the events of a small town murder investigation that leads to the mental collapse of Nolte's cop character.
I would recommend this film if for no other reason than to see the brilliant performances of James Coburn (Oscar winner) and Nick Nolte (Oscar nominee)..
This idea is presented well, but by the end it just feels so thick and depressing that it's hard to take anything from the film, because you don't want to remember it.Acting-wise the movie is quite good.
His character is a mean, vengeful, hateful alcoholic who inflicts his pain on others and afflicts one of his sons, Wade, played by Nick Nolte.Very gripping and intense family drama..
At the end of Affliction, all that you know is that Wade is out there in the world, his angers banked.The film works because of Nolte's performance.
The sub-plots mean little, but show us Wade/Nolte in a field of action, and demonstrate that it is not only his personal life that is a mess.Odd that Banks' The Sweet Hereafter locale was moved from upstate New York to British Columbia, and this film of bare rock, flinty New Hampshire was made in Canada also..
I think Mr. Banks and Mr. Schrader each need to cough up $4.50, and maybe I'll forgive the waste of my time.PS Yes, Nolte gave a great performance, but alas there is no Oscar for Best Actor in a Bad, Bad Movie..
This bleak and depressive story deals a small-time sheriff named Wade Whithehouse(Nick Nolte, also producer) from an icy small-town.
But the investigation results to be the catalyst for his ending degradation and all goes wrong, including a teeth suffering.This cold and thought-provoking drama deals about desperation, madness and distress.Outstanding performances, particularly from Nick Nolte as damaged sheriff who looks for redemption during an investigation but gets worse, and James Coburn who won deservedly Oscar for best secondary actor.
Wade is in a dispute with his former wife Lillian Whitehouse Horner about the custody of their daughter Jill, but when a fatal and questionable hunting accident occurs he becomes absorbed with the case.Finely and engagingly directed by American filmmaker Paul Schrader, this finely tuned fictional tale which is narrated by one of the main characters and from multiple viewpoints, draws a literally afflicting and instantly involving portrayal of a domineering and abusive father's relationship with his two contrary sons who has differing views on their upbringing and a crime which one son embraces as it temporarily takes his mind away from his horrible childhood memories.
While notable for it's naturalistic milieu depictions and sterling cinematography by Canadian cinematographer and director Paul Sarrosy, this character-driven and narrative-driven story about family relations and a man's strive to break free from his father's shadow depicts some pervasive studies of character and contains a great score by Canadian composer Michael Brook.This conversational, throughout dramatic and literary psychological drama which is set in the state of New Hampshire during a deer hunting season, is impelled and reinforced by it's cogent narrative structure, substantial character development, poignant flashback scenes, conflicted characters, emotional substance, distinct acting performances by American actors Nick Nolte and James Coburn (1928-2002) and the fine acting performances by American actresses Sissy Spacek, Mary Beth Hurt and American actor Willem Dafoe.
The biggest plus point of the film, is, that it doesn't try to be REAL, because it pretty much is.'Affliction' is the story of Wade Whitehouse, played amazingly by Nolte, a depressed/frustrated and deranged man who hasn't recovered from the child-abuse he suffered from his father, played by the late James Coborn.
Like many of Schrader's iconic anti-heroes, Wade is a man trying desperately to do the best he possibly can, but is unable to shake free from the grip of his abusive, hard drinking father Glenn; an almost personification of benign evil here, swaggering around in front of his children and casually beating his wife with a gleeful abandon.
However, as the film progresses, Wade himself slips further into darker territories, revealing himself to be closer to his father than he initially expected as the film draws to an exasperating close.Much like his scripts for Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, as well as his best film as director with the haunting and surreal Mishima; A Life in Four Chapters (1986), we know that the film is going to reach an eventual violent and downbeat final, as Wade continues to try and find his own kind of redemption amidst a series of unfortunate events.
Right up until then we're drawn into these character's lives through the great all round performances from Nolte, Coburn, Spacek, Dafoe, et al, and from the low-key direction of Schrader.
Nick Nolte, James Coburn and Sissy Spacek in a cold and bleak New Hampshire landscape, all moved and disturbed in their own destinies.
Willem Dafoe has an intriguing voice, which is I'm sure part of why he was chosen for the brother/narrator role.I suppose it would be better without it, because it makes it seem like you are watching an episode of The Waltons,albeit a desperately dysfunctional version.James Coburn was fine.
One quarter captivating mystery thriller, three quarters intense and relentless psychological drama, "Affliction" is unquestionably one of Paul Schrader's finest achievements both as a writer and as a director, and an absolutely devastating and engaging film.The film revolves around the character Wade Whitehouse, played brilliantly by Nick Nolte in what amounts to a masterclass in acting and a career high for Nolte, a troubled small town policeman who is investigating a hunting death while his childhood comes back to haunt him through a series of events that cause him to collapse mentally.
No, Sissy Spacek's character here is very detailed and important, and although her role is relatively small child actress Brigid Tierney is quite excellent as Wade's daughter.The original score by Michael Brook is haunting and memorable and helps keep the film's intensity and atmosphere going, as does Paul Sarossy's cinematography which is suitable to say the least given the harsh setting and subject matter.
Most of the characters are people whom you can respect, but James Coburn's character makes you feel like your stomach just turned to water.Wade Whitehouse (Nick Nolte) is a cop in a small New England town investigating a hunting accident which he believes is a murder.
Very good performances will stir you, and steer you through the bleak tone of the movie.Nick Nolte, Sissy Spacek and James Colburn create believable characters and the script allows the characters to develop--something not all-together common in American movies.Without giving away the ending, which is no surprise if you are thinking while watching the movie, one wonders if the producers ran out of film.
I don't remember if I've ever seen Nolte "disappear" into a role (as Hanks can as easily as breathing), but his Wade Whitehouse is one for the ages.Coburn is exceptional as well, and Spacek provides perfect support, but none of this would have come off as powerfully and as believably were it not for Paul Schrader, who's one of the best screenwriters/directors in the business, yet he still can't get people to remember that he's done other things besides write "Taxi Driver." Schrader's use here of handheld 8mm and black-and-white flashback are prime examples of his imaginative style (check out his tri-styled "Mishima" when you have a chance), and it's a shame that Schrader's not even up for one of the Oscars that either Nolte or Coburn may end up with that night.
A Child Cast as a Man. The movie starts with Wade Whitehouse bringing his daughter to a small town Halloween party.
by Russell Banks, this is an atmospheric film which will leave you with a distinct impression of northern New Hampshire, the cold surreal surroundings, and this telling story of a man's self-destruction.The backdrop of snow and stark whiteness, merely adds to Nick Nolte's character, Wade Whitehouse.
He finds himself at odds with his life, his ex-wife (very well-done by Mary Beth Hurt) his young daughter, his boss (Holmes Osbourne) and his father (James Coburn).Sissy Spacek also portrays Wade's sometime girlfriend, a woman who loves him but can no longer watch him destroy his life.
His alienation is evident even in small things, dealing with a toothache, he merely drinks salt water, and eventually yanks it out; not caring what pain will ensue; he will just have to drink more.James Coburn is excellent as Wade's father, a haunted, angry man, Coburn finds his children to be failures (The only one who survives is Willem Defoe, who escapes to Boston to be a professor).
A seriously heart-rending and agonizing yarn, based on the novel by Russell Banks ("The Sweet Hereafter") and adapted by writer-director Paul Schrader, focuses on the attention of Wade Whitehouse (Nick Nolte), a small-town sheriff who struggles to forget his terrible past and steering clear of the path that his heavily intimidating, alcoholic father, Glenn Whitehouse (James Coburn) took years ago.
Yes, however; the moments serve as a crucial element of the story which can't be forgotten.Recent Oscar nominees Sissy Spacek ("In the Bedroom") and Willem Dafoe ("Shadow of the Vampire") round out the cast as Wade's girlfriend and Rolfe, who's now grown-up and left the town several years ago.
Nolte is fine here, but the movie truly belongs to Coburn, who certainly makes his presence felt here right away and won a Best Supporting Oscar for his performance.
Plus, he(Coburn) makes some old pros of being sadistic like Kevin Bacon and Dennis Hopper look lame."Affliction" may not be Schrader's best film, but it's irriestable to watch.
It's about a man (Nick Nolte), his father (James Coburn), his girlfriend (Sissy Spacek) and his daughter.
Nick Nolte's "everyman" character -- a man who is basically good, but still unable to save himself -- remains fascinating, though against the usual Hollywood-type protagonist which must have made the typical movie-snob audience nervous and unhappy to watch.
There's a good deal of buzz about Nick Nolte's performance as the tortured son of James Coburn's physically abusive father, and the buzz is deserved, but the impact of Nolte's performance is blunted by a nearly incoherent script.The point of what's on screen (I haven't read the novel, so I don't know if it's any more sophisticated than this), is that physical abuse, like a disease, is passed from generation to generation; oh, and it causes low self-esteem and the inability to form close relationships.
Affliction is the story of a man who spends his life trying to live up to his father's expectations of him.Nick Nolte plays Wade Whitehouse a man who is separated from his family, works at a series of meaningless jobs, including that of a part-time police officer, drinks too much and seems to be going nowhere with his life.
James Coburn, who deservedly won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role, is outstanding as Nolte's brutal and boozy father.
I think Paul Schrader is the greatest screenwriter out there, I didn't really like his directorial films, except for Mishima (one of the best movies of all time) and this.
Nick Nolte has in Wade Whitehouse's interpretation one of his great moments, without a doubt, "Affliction " is the best film of his career, that was already being found losing it's breath.
Therefore, "Affliction " went very good for the star's career.The Oscar of this year, without a doubt, deserves to go for him, because the actor achieved to pass for the audience all the emotion and suffering, being, in some moments, impossible to contain the tears.The story is simple, without great moments, it tells a common man's life, equal to me, you or your parents, who, from one hour to another, decides to place all his mistakes and defects back and to look for inside of himself his largest virtues.
With a superb cast, led by Nick Nolte (in his best performance since " The Prince of Tides "), an efficient and diligent direction, a picture that combines with perfection to the climate proposed by the film, "Affliction " is a small masterpiece, a study about the man, about, for more incredible than it seems, the human spirit and about the fact that it always triumphs in the end..
What it does have is a look at some very disfunctional, yet very believable people, and of how one in particular (Nick Nolte's character) got that way.The acting by everyone involved, particularly Nolte and James Coburn, is first-rate.
Nick Nolte was nominated for best actor for his performance here as Wade Whitehouse, a small town New Hampshire sheriff who's really not a very good sheriff.
Outstanding performances by Nolte and Coburn are ably supported by five-time Oscar nominee Sissy Spacek as Wade Whitehouse's girlfriend who watches in disbelief as the man she loves becomes "that which he beheld." This is clearly not a film for all audiences or all tastes.
Affliction, written and directed by the great Paul Schrader from a novel by Russell Banks, starts off like a story you've heard a thousand times.
This is what the film boils down to in a lot of ways, the things that make a man and what being a man really means.Interestingly, the story is told from the outside perspective of Whitehouse's brother Rolfe, played by the always great Willem Dafoe.
James Coburn plays the father, and the man he creates on screen is monstrous.The film is unrelentingly grim and at times downright uncomfortable.
Nick Nolte, Sissy Spacek, & James Coburn turn in some of the finest acting of their careers.
A sad, slow and hard movie to like: Affliction, the film that gave new force for James Coburn's career and earned him an Academy Award, is a difficult drama.
Directed with coldness and distance by Schrader, Affliction is about a problematic sheriff who is scared of become like his old man, a violent and full-of-rage person (Coburn, in a complex part- he does a great job).
...great performances, and a very believable plot.The movie starts out rather dull until James Coburn enters the setting as Wade Whitehouse's (Nick Nolte) father, an abusive drunk who seems to be degrading his son's relationships and reputation as the town cop.
For me, the most interesting relationship has to be between Wade and his ex-wife's family and daughter.Yes, the daughter was way too whiny and I could see how we could dislike her character, but watching Nolte struggling to be tender and commanding with the girl was my favorite part of the film.
As low-rent cop Wade Whitehouse, Nick Nolte gives an impressive, but oppressive, performance, as does Oscar winner James Coburn, who plays Wade's abusive dad.
I don't think it's possible to like Affliction in this regard, but I can tell you I sure as hell respected it.One scene in particular made the film for me: the bloody attempt at dentistry Nick Nolte performs upon himself.
Nolte is well cast as a man on the verge of a complete mental breakdown, due to an unusual hunting accident and his past involving an abusive father(Coburn, in a superb Oscar winning performance).
The main characters, Wade Whitehouse (Nolte) and his abusive father (Coburn) are interesting, believable, and well acted.
The movie becomes a contest between Nick Nolte's character and his father (played brilliantly by the great James Coburn) as to who has the more pathetic life.
The only redeeming thing about this movie is the performance of James Coburn as the alcoholic father.
Based on a novel by Russell Banks who also wrote "The Sweet Hereafter", and directed by Paul Schrader of "Raging Bull" and "The Mosquito Coast" fame, the winter landscape and cold bleakness of the town sets the tone for this exploration of the dark legacy of what it is to be a man.Nick Nolte stars in this dark story of the lone policeman in a small New Hampshire town investigating a hunting accident.
Based on a novel by Russell Banks who also wrote "The Sweet Hereafter", and directed by Paul Schrader of "Raging Bull" and "The Mosquito Coast" fame, the winter landscape and cold bleakness of the town sets the tone for this exploration of the dark legacy of what it is to be a man.Nick Nolte stars in this dark story of the lone policeman in a small New Hampshire town investigating a hunting accident.
James Coburn is excellent as Nick Nolte's father, a brutal and angry old man who typifies a sick machismo which has in turn afflicted his son.
James Coburn is excellent as Nick Nolte's father, a brutal and angry old man who typifies a sick machismo which has in turn afflicted his son.
James Coburn deserved the Oscar he won for his terrifying portrayal of a cruel and abusive man, and watching him we understand why Schrader said he needed an actor who could convincingly terrify a character played by Nick Nolte.
The film, however belongs to James Coburn, Nick Nolte and the impeccable direction of Paul Schrader.
I do think Nolte and Sissy Spacek and Devoe and Coburn are as good a group as you are gonna get, I just didn't like the film. |
tt0092106 | The Transformers: The Movie | Unicron, a mechanical planet that devours other worlds, approaches the planet Lithone. The mechanoid inhabitants on the planet watch helplessly in horror as their planet is destroyed and ingested by Unicron. Only one ship, with a sole passenger, Kranix, escapes the death of his world. Unicron, newly fueled thanks to the resources from Lithone, turns and heads towards its next prey: Cybertron.It is the Earth Year 2005. The Autobots have removed the Decepticons completely from the Earth, but have lost on Cybertron. The Autobots plan their assault on Cybertron from 2 of its moons.Thanks to recon data from Laserbeak, the Decepticons intercept an Autobot Shuttle on a Fuel Transport Trip from Cybertron's Moons to Earth and kill all of the Autobots aboard. They sneak past the early warning systems that protect Earth and lead an attack on Autobot City. Many Autobots are killed during this battle. The Autobots inside Autobots City send a distress signal to the Autobot Moon Bases, hoping that reinforcements will arrive in time.Reinforcements arrive, led by Optimus Prime, who sends the Dinobots in first to stop the Constructicon giant, Devastator, while Optimus prepares to stop Megatron. Optimus Prime and Megatron square off against each other. Megatron is critically wounded in the fight. Optimus Prime dies, but not before passing the Matrix to City Commander, Ultra Magnus.The Decepticons flee Autobot City after Megatron and several other critical Decepticon Warriors are injured or killed. As they travel back to Cybertron, Starscream takes this opportunity to throw Megatron and the wounded Decepticons into deep space to die. He then proceeds to take command of the Decepticons.As Megatron and his fallen minions drift through space helplessly, Unicron pulls them toward him. Unicron fears the Autobot Matrix of Leadership. He makes a deal with Megatron. If Megatron will destroy the Matrix, Unicron would rebuild Megatron and his troops. After haggling with Unicron, Megatron accepts. Unicron places a pain inducing circuit in Megatron's brain, where it could not be removed to keep him under control. Megatron was reborn as Galvatron. Skywarp, Thundercracker, and many Insecticon clones were formed into Cyclonus, Scourge, and the Sweeps.Galvatron arrives on Cybertron just in time to see Starscream being crowned Leader of the Decepticons. Galvatron quickly dispatches the usurper to his throne and gains the servitude of all Decepticons present. Soon afterward, Unicron arrives to Cybertron and devours two of its moons and everyone inhabiting them. Galvatron leads another attack on Autobot City. This forces Ultra Magnus and several other Autobots, namely Arcee, Springer, Blurr, Perceptor, Hot Rod, Kup and the Dinobots to lead the Decepticons away in two shuttles. Hot Rod, Kup and the Dinobots are shot down and crash on Quintessa. Ultra Magnus fools Galvatron into thinking that he had destroyed the Matrix, but Unicron knows better. Magnus and his crew crash-land on the Planet of Junk. Unicron informs Galvatron of Magnus and the Matrix's whereabouts, and Galvatron quickly pursues him.Meanwhile on Quintessa, Hot Rod and Kup, separated from the Dinobots, are captured and taken to be put on trial before a Quintesson Imperial Magistrate in a mock trial and REAL execution for the Quintesson's amusement. They watched as Kranix, the last survivor of Lithone is fed to the Quintesson's executioners, the Sharkticons. The castaway Autobot Wheelie witnesses Hot Rod's & Kup's capture and seeks out the Dinobots to rescue the imprisoned Autobots. Hot Rod and Kup fight valiantly against the hordes of voracious Sharkticons, but the sheer numbers soon overwhelm them. Just as they were being buried beneath the mob of Sharkticons, the Dinobots kick down the door and trample Quintesson and Sharkticon alike. Grimlock then turns the Sharkticons, who fear and revere his strength, against the Quintessons. Wheelie shows the Autobots where a Quintesson Spacecraft can be found.Back on the Planet of Junk, Galvatron destroys the Autobot Shuttle. The Sweeps blow up Ultra Magnus, and Galvatron takes the Matrix. He plans on using the Matrix to control Unicron. As the Decepticons leave, the remaining Autobots are attacked by the Mechanoids indigenous to the planet of Junk, the Junkions. As the Junkions, who perceive the Autobots as thieves and trespassers, are closing in for the kill, the Quintesson ship with Hot Rod, Kup, Wheelie and the Dinobots arrives. Hot Rod greets the Junkions properly and they soon form an alliance. The Junkions rebuild Ultra Magnus, and inform them that Galvatron left for Unicron with the Matrix. The two groups, Autobot and Junkion both leave to battle Galvatron and his master Unicron and to regain the Matrix.Upon reaching Unicron, Galvatron confronts and threatens Unicron with the Matrix. Unfortunately for Galvatron, he cannot open the Matrix to use against Unicron. Unicron is furious with Galvatron for this treachery. Unicron transforms into a gigantic robot mode. Unicron attacks Cybertron to punish Galvatron. The Decepticons counter attack futily. Unicron swallows Galvatron, after Galvatron fires upon him.The Autobots and Junkions arrive and join the battle. Hot Rod flies the Quintesson ship through one of Unicron's eyes. The Autobots bail out of the crashing ship. Hot Rod is separated from the group and stumbles upon Galvatron and the Matrix. Galvatron proposes a truce in ordered to fight Unicron, their common foe, but Unicron uses his torture implant to force Galvatron to destroy Hot Rod. As they fight, Galvatron prepares to crush the life out of Hot Rod. Hot Rod grasps the Matrix and light breaks forth. Optimus Prime's voice speaks from the Matrix "Arise, Rodimus Prime" and Hot Rod is transformed into the new leader of the Autobots, with increased size, wisdom and strength. Rodimus Prime easily defeats Galvatron and throws him through the walls of Unicron, sending the Decepticon tumbling through space. Rodimus then unleashes the power of the Matrix inside of Unicron. Rodimus evacuates the Autobots trapped within Unicron by bursting through Unicron's remaining eye, as the Matrix's power shreds the monster planet from the inside out. As his body explodes, Unicron's head is ejected into orbit around Cybertron, replacing the moons he devoured with an eyeless gaze and a shocked expression upon his face.The Decepticons fled Cybertron as their attacks on Unicron proved ineffective, leaving the empty planet for the Autobots to retake with virtually no resistance. The new leader of the Autobots declares an end to the Great War and a new age of peace. | dark, cruelty, murder, stupid, cult, violence, good versus evil, tragedy, sadist | train | imdb | null |
tt1220198 | The Fourth Kind | An interview between Dr. Abigail Emily Tyler and Olatunde Osunsanmi (the director) kicks off the movie.Tyler (Milla Jovovich) begins to discuss a hypnotism session performed on her by a colleague, Dr. Abel Campos (Elias Koteas), in an attempt to remember back to the night her husband Will (Julian Vergov) was murdered beside her in their bed and to recollect the face of the murderer. However, she cannot recall the face and the session results in leaving her in tears. Campos tries to convince Tyler to take time off so her head can clear, but she insists that she must continue her husband's studies. After a brief scene with her two children, Ashley (Ashley McKenna-Bruce) - who had gone blind soon after her father's death - and Ronnie (Raphaël Coleman) - who blames his mother for the murder of Will - Tyler begins her studies on the sleep-deprived in Nome, Alaska, the isolated town where she lives. She notes that her patients have all awoken during the night to see a white owl watching them outside their windows for hours at a time.Tyler suggests to one patient, Tommy Fisher (Corey Johnson), that she put him under hypnosis to discover something he couldn't remember from the prior night. Under the hypnosis, Fisher says that he had woken to see the owl at his window yet again. It disappears as his door opens, and he goes into hysterics before Tyler can snap him out of it. Terrified and unwilling to reveal what he had seen opening his door, Fisher leaves. That night, the cops are called to the Fisher household to discover that Fisher is holding his wife Sarah (Tyne Rafaeli) and their two children (Pavel Stefanov and Kiera McMaster) hostage, refusing to discuss the situation with anyone other than Tyler. She arrives, and while she attempts to calm him down, Fisher begins screaming in a language that Tyler cannot understand and demanding that she tell him the meaning of what he is saying. When she can't supply a translation, Fisher shoots his wife, their children, and himself. Sheriff August (Will Patton) interrogates Tyler as to whether or not she believes her hypnosis therapy with Fisher that day was in relation to the shooting. When Tyler doesn't see a connection, August becomes enraged and tells her to cease her studies of sleep deprivation and the hypnosis on her patients. After returning home, Tyler grabs her tape recorder and makes notes over her patients, falling asleep while the recorder is still on.The following morning, Tyler arrives at work. Campos is waiting for her, worried after hearing of the Fisher shootings. She assures him that she is all right, and hands her tape recorder to her secretary, asking her to transcribe it. In her office, Scott Stracinsky (Enzo Cilenti), another of Tyler's patients, and his wife Cindy (Alisha Seaton) are waiting. Stracinsky decides to be hypnotized despite the recent tragedy. During the session, he begins shaking and gagging, and Tyler has a difficult time snapping him out of the hypnosis. When she finally does, he reveals that nonhuman creatures had invaded his room. The couple leaves moments before Tyler's secretary enters and tells Tyler that she cannot transcribe the tape. Curious, Tyler and Campos listen to the tape; moments after Tyler finishes her notes and falls asleep, mechanical noises are heard followed by terrified, heart-stopping screams coming straight from Tyler and a distorted voice speaking in an unknown language. She cannot remember anything that had happened that night and goes into denial, but discovers a bruise-like mark on her shoulder and scratches in the floorboards from her fingernails, as if she'd been trying to prevent someone from dragging her out.In her husband's research she finds the name and number of author Dr. Awolowa Odusami (Hakeem Kae-Kazim). Tyler calls the number and asks Odusami if he knew her husband. He claims he didn't, but says that someone using the alias of "John" had called him from that number before. They set up a meeting between Tyler, Odusami, and Campos; during this, Odusami listens to the tape and concludes that the language is Sumerian, a dead language. He mentions that in ancient Sumerian artifacts pictures of men in space suits and UFOs were depicted, and that the voice on the tape speaking the language - saying words such as "destroy" and "ruin" - did not sound human. During the meeting, Stracinsky's wife calls Tyler and begs her to come to their house. She, along with her colleagues, arrives at the house to find Scott in bed, a large bruise on his arm similar to the one on Tyler's shoulder. He wants to be put under hypnosis, because he can't quite remember what happened. Almost immediately after being put under, Stracinsky jerks into an upright position with his head thrown back and his eyes and mouth open wide. He soon begins to levitate off the bed and screams in the Sumerian language. His body is distorted and dropped back onto the bed, seemingly lifeless.Terrified, Tyler hurries to her house and starts packing, intending to flee to North Carolina. Sherriff August comes in; Stracinsky is now paralyzed from the neck down, and August believes that Tyler did it. As he is arresting her, Campos comes in and firmly states that Tyler had nothing to do with the accident. August agrees to leave Tyler at her house under constant surveillance by an officer of his. In the early hours of the morning, the officer spots an object flying over the household and calls August. The police officer also says he saw the three of them entering the starship. When August arrives, he finds a sobbing Tyler in Ashley's room. Tyler claims that a beam of light appeared and took her daughter. August demands Tyler to stop her nonsense, believing that she was the cause behind Ashley's disappearance. Also, he forces Tyler to accept that her late husband wasn't killed by any such stranger as she says she saw: he had committed suicide in front of her. When she wasn't able psychologically to face this fact, her anguished mind lied to herself into believing it was a criminal stranger's fault. This leads August to further believe that Tyler can convince herself of anything. When she continues to insist that it was the work of extraterrestrials, he takes Ronnie, who also believes that his mother was the cause of his sister's kidnapping, out of her custody.Firmly believing that her daughter was abducted, Tyler asks Campos and Odusami to put her under hypnosis to bring her back to the night her tape recorder caught her screaming - which she believes was a recording of her own personal abduction - in an attempt to directly contact the aliens and demand for Ashley back. Campos puts Tyler into a deep sleep, and an inhuman voice speaking through her begins screaming in Sumerian. Tyler begins an almost schizophrenic scene where she and the Sumerian voice speaking through her start arguing. She begs them to bring her daughter back, and yet the voice refuses before it drops Tyler back on the couch. Campos and Odusami try to revitalize her when they themselves start screaming. When the static halts, the camera is now on the floor of an empty room; the three doctors are missing.Osunsanmi asks Tyler what had happened the night of her hypnosis. She tells him that they were abducted, though they were unsure where they had gone or what had been done to them. The interview fades as the film itself continues; Tyler is now in a hospital bed, August and Campos at her bedside. August asks her who killed her husband, and she says all she was aware of was that he was stabbed while they were asleep. Countering her story, August holds up a picture of Will's head with a bullet hole through it alongside a picture of a gun, and tells Tyler that her husband had committed suicide. He asks her yet again where Ashley was, and Tyler swears that her daughter was abducted. She begs Campos to speak up, reminding him that they had gone through the same things. He keeps quiet, and August is forced to remove Ronnie from a worn-down Tyler's custody.Tyler continues to stay true to the story of Ashley's abduction by aliens. As she becomes emotional, Olatunde Osunsanmi (the true director of the film) finally concludes the interview. It is then that the camera zooms out, and the audience is made aware of the fact that Tyler is in a wheelchair, paralyzed. The end credits reveal that no one involved in the real events had wanted to participate in the creation of the film, and that Tyler is under constant surveillance as her health deteriorates day by day ever since her abduction. Her son Ronnie stills blames Dr Tyler for Ashley's disappearance. Ashley has never been found.The end credits rolls with 911 calls reporting sightings of UFOs. | paranormal, psychological, murder | train | imdb | Now whether or not you believe in this is entirely up to you, but give this movie a chance, if nothing else then for its entertainment value."The Fouth Kind" is a unique mix of documentary and ordinary movie, and it worked out well, though sometimes it was a bit too much with the actual footage, it was disruptive in some odd way.The story is quite interesting and compelling, and it grabs a hold of you and keeps you nailed down till the very end of the movie.
You can find it out on IMDb. The "real" Charlotte Milchard is an actress from the UK:Plus, the people in Nome Alaska were angry that the film attributed the missing persons (who probably died from the rugged, harsh, cold terrain if anything) to UFOs and aliens.
But I hadn't heard a thing about it, other than an interview on Coast to Coast AM where a UFO investigator was shooting down the film for claiming it was "real" and making the actual people in UFOlogy look bad, and giving lesser credibility to real, actual stories.
Apparently, you can hear someone yell "action" in the supposedly real footage just before the man shoots his entire family.Personally, I think the movie was a bit of a failure, unless the person viewing it actually believe it to be real.
It felt a little bit like they had no budget, so they only had enough money to hire a couple of good actors, throw them into a poorly scripted movie (with an unconvincing actor as the police detective...) Some overhead shots of a city in Alaska, and wham, you have a film...The only positive thing I can say about this film is one major highlight: indie film-making getting big...
the film-makers got away with making some good cash with little budget, interesting but poorly executed marketing plan, they could afford decent actors (like Milla Jovovich and the guy who played the male psychiatrist)...
I watched this movie with some friends and we started commenting some of the first scenes until the shock came and made us shut up.Trying to remember good scary Sci Fi UFO movies I can't find too much, maybe because its a difficult matter to build as a movie, a lot of attempts ended with cheesy non-credible movies but this isn't the case.The movie has a lot of good tense moments with good acting but kind of start to fail with some ideas in the middle of the story, there are some flaws that make it less credible but still scary.There are some details like the photography and direction that are great and paired with the cast and good story makes the film an enjoyable scary ride..
An alien abduction mockumentary, following a psychologist who's using hypnotherapy to find out just what is going on in her home town, where people keep disappearing under mysterious circumstances.I've read more than a couple of reviews that complained how the 'based on a real story'-shtick wasn't believable.
If a horror movie about alien abductions sounds like something that would entertain you, 'The fourth Kind' is likely to do the trick..
This movie offers nothing new in the way of ideas, and nothing impressive in the way of writing, acting, or photography.Before going to see this film I glanced at several comments on the IMDb site, and writer after writer testified how terrifying they found THE FOURTH KIND.
Now, you can't argue about taste, but given the extreme ordinariness of this movie, I strongly suspect that these comments are part of the film's marketing campaign and do not reflect the reactions of real viewers.What definitely count as false advertising are the repeated claims that this movie is based on real individuals (e.g., a therapist named Abigail Tyler) and true events.
The ridiculous premise is made more ridiculous by the film's disingenuous suggestion that it is based on true events (which it is not).It contains footage of a pseudo-documentary, which insults the intelligence of the viewer, by simply having different actors play the same characters during the fake documentary.
Still though, I came out shocked at how good the movie actually was.First of all, the so-called archival footage and audio that is supposedly real, is fake...or so I think.
I think that the word "alias" probably describes nearly everything in the movie, not only the personalities but the locations, times and numbers too.There is a school of thought that Hollywood is "preparing" the general population for disclosure and comments have been made by "whistle blowers" to the effect that Spielberg, Carter etc have created content which is very similar to some of the things they have "experienced" eg "Taken" and "The X Files"The Fourth Kind certainly falls into that category (if the testimony of "real" abductees is to be believed)I personally really liked the way the film was arranged, the parallel shots and the overall sumptuous rich darkness of it all but it may not be to everyone's liking.
The movie contains some beautiful scenery too.I think I'd have to say, the subject matter and the way it divides the population is probably the key to decide if you should see the film.
While The Fourth Kind ultimately isn't as successful as its predecessors, it takes an original approach on an audacious premise of alien abduction.The Fourth Kind begins with an introduction by lead actress and former Resident Evil star Milla Jovovich, who dramatizes psychiatrist Dr. Abigail Tyler in the film.
Jovovich then closes her remarks stating, "Some of what you are about to see is extremely disturbing." To some extent, she is right.An interview conducted by director Olatunde Osunsanmi with Dr. Tyler is woven into the movie intermittently as she recounts her experiences with alien encounters and abductions.
The audience is constantly forced to challenge what they believe and, while easy to make excuses for some of the alleged "evidence", there are certainly some aspects that will be difficult for skeptics to explain without extensive research.Whether you look at it from a cynical standpoint or as someone who simply enjoys movies, The Fourth Kind is far from perfect.
If you want to be scared, I do recommend seeing this movie.That being said, I have to knock a few points off because of one plot hole, a couple of wooden actors, one tasteless inclusion, the fact that it's really not doing much to improve society, and because it's really not a film so much as a viral firework made to capitalize on it's initial few weeks in the theaters.
Whether it's true or not, its producers probably know that people will end up categorizing it in the same category as the Blair Witch Project- which they will.So while these types of ultra-realistic movies get into our heads by contemporary means- and may require adult diapers for viewing- they really, in my opinion, can't be categorized in the same league as a films that get into our heads and make us forget that we're watching a movie without looking like a home video or a documentary.
It also deserves to be seen on the big screen, for effect- and for it's awesome sound work; and as I mentioned in the title of my review, if you're going to see it, see it soon, because it's inevitable that people will start trying to discredit the supposed truthfulness of it immediately- as is human nature when something far out there, claiming to be the truth, is published.
For some reason I think she turns down movies that play on her beauty and sexiness to somehow act as if she wants to be taken seriously, but it doesn't work, so come on, Milla, you are a beautiful girl, embrace it and stop giving up this B movie crap.Like my Reviews, Hate em?
But combining supposedly real archive footage(that actually looks real for once), an intro and outro by the films star and director and a dramatization of the events that occurred is ingenious and realistically effective.
It shouldn't be surprising, because those fist reviews were written for money -- fake reviews for a fake movie.C'mon, who in their right mind would believe the "actual footage" is real?
Its these ingenious initiatives that makes "The Fourth Kind's" story stand out, its not going to win any awards for originality but boy it does know how to spin a good yarn that will keep your engaged throughout the majority of the film with passable dialogue and well developed characters.Photobucket The film is directed with flair and originally showing a keen eye for the inventive.
They go out of their way to do all but claim that it was based on real events.This movie is even worse than the Blair Witch Project, but at least that movie didn't pretend to be anything other than what it was.Terrible storyline, uninspired special effects, marginal acting.
Aren't we WAY past the day when some goober comes out and says, "the events you are about to see are real, no really, they're really really real, and disturbing too, don't forget disturbing, and I just sorta wanted to warn you ahead of time that this is real and documented and backed up with evidence and it's disturbing, and in case you weren't paying attention for the first second or two: this is based on a true story that is documented and real, and it's disturbing too." Well, cut that out and maybe you have a great beginning.
Designed for the gullible and the easily impressed, "The Fourth Kind" (as in "Close Encounters of
") is an alien-abduction tale that is long on gimmickry and contrivance and short on credibility and suspense.Milla Jovovich plays a hypnotherapist in Nome, Alaska, who, in 2000, allegedly discovered that some mighty strange things had begun happening to the residents of the town, incidents very possibly extraterrestrial in nature.
The movie mixes re-enactments of the events at the time with audio and video recordings purportedly showing us actual, first-hand accounts of those events – although anytime anything of any real interest or significance starts to occur, the sound and images conveniently go to static.Directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi, this warmed-over serving of "Chariots of the Gods" foolishness – combining ancient Sumerian dialects with invasive body-cavity probing – is strictly for the tin-foil hat crowd..
By the end of the movie, people in the theater were actually laughing at the "real" footage - especially the real Abigail Tyler, who's depicted with a ridiculous amount of white pancake makeup, black bug-eyes, and a quivering lip as she talks softly and in monotone throughout the whole movie.
There are people who believe this film to be a true documentary and the filmmaker and distributor took full advantage of that silly sector of the movie-going public.'The Fourth Kind' is an egregious lie--of a new kind.
But as I have previously said: None of this is real.This was a major downer as I am a huge fan of the paranormal and aliens and all that jazz and the writing drove some big parts of it home, however instead of coming out full-faced as fiction, it attempts to sell itself as fact and once you find out the real-cheese of it, it generally becomes the biggest disappointment film of the year.
but the worst thing about the film has to be the "real footage" which is supposed to make it feel that you are watching a true story but it will only leave you frustrated as they are full of static which is put in to try and cover up the rubbish special effects.
I know its not a big huge thing and all, but I think the movie really tripped me out because I had actually seen an owl in the most weirdest place.
go rent communion with Christopher Walken as Whitley Strieber with accompanying Eric Clapton soundtrack if you want a real "based on a true story" abduction thrill -- and if you don't like that movie,.
Even if the "real" footage isn't real (I actually did think it was and that was the only scary thing in the film that something like this could actually happen) it just could have had so much pace and intrigue compared to the tripe that was produced in the end.Just wish I hadn't forked out for a cinema ticket..
From beginning to end they try to make out that this picture is based on true events that happened in a place called Nome, Alaska, but the film was not even made there but elsewhere which is nothing like the real Nome which from all accounts is a boring wilderness.
In brief: the movie pretends to be a dramatization of actual facts when in reality the "real life" true sequences in the picture are totally made up using performers and the lead person is simply fictitious.
If this was supposed to be real and supposed to be scary, well it failed.It was boring and tedious - and to cast Milla as the lead, who - in the beginning of the "documentary" was totally wrong...Elias Koteas was also miscast.Whomever did the casting for this did something so wrong...They did not look like the real people.The editing of joining the "documentary" and the "film" sections was just stupid.The lead up was stupid and the follow through was just as stupid as well.However - casting Milla (a model) with great teeth, hair, skin complexion and hypnotic eyes to replace a woman who does not resemble her at the least was just asinine...What was casting thinking of?
The key point here is this ingenious unique way of storytelling which I didn't experience before (Yeah I didn't watch The Blair Witch Project yet!), so this way of gathering "acted" scenes and a "real/fake" footage was really surprising and effectively chilling and disturbing.
Instead of providing some kind of tension, the movie constantly keeps repeating not only "I'm scared, I'm really scared", but also its theme of being "real" or "based on true events", almost as if the producers realized how fundamentally NOT scary their film turned out, and tried to save a little of the production cost by creating an aura of authenticity to lure at least a minimum amount of viewers into the theater.
The movie is about Psychiatrists Abigail Tyler and her patients in Nome, Alaska who believe they have been abducted by aliens.
4. The fact it's not true.The acting is the movie is actually really good, aside from the lead role, Milla Jovovich; she is probably the worst actress working in Hollywood at the moment.
If it was plot build-up it would have been fine but it wasn't and that just made it really freaking bad.So this film was a waste of my time and money, this is more of a 3:00 morning and can't sleep and it was on HBO so I decided to watch it, type movie.
It had a great premise and trailer but the lack of experience from director, Milla Jovovich being a terrible actress, and the fact it wasn't real (have I mentioned that?) makes this film pretty bad..
As for Milla Jovovich, she was probably supposed to look like an actress as bad as those working on this kind of midnight documentary, or really her lack of fright is not fake.
This was kinda like a failed experiment at a new faux reality horror, what with Milla Jovovich's self-introduction at the start: "Oh hai, I'm Milla Jovovich and I'll be portraying an alien abductee!"I think the gimmick kinda defused the tension of the movie, as it would go back and forth between Jovovich and the "real" victim she was portraying, and the whole documentary feel felt too produced, as opposed to the handicam home-vid feels of other "reality" horrors like Paranormal Activity.It wasn't too scary either.
The film leaves you thinking what's just happened and after watching it about 4 times i have sill to work out what actually was going on and who was to blame from the end outcome.
By the biggest problem of modern TV I mean the concept of portraying something that is 90% (or in this case essentially 100%) or more fake as "reality/documentary" by deliberately make an effort to convince the audience that aspects that are in fact acting are actually genuine real footage.
Though this movie wasn't what I expected, there are a few scenes that to this day still give me chills.Think about The Exorcist done with Aliens/UFOs. Like The Exorcist, I don't think I can watch this one by myself.
If you want to be really really scared - flip a coin and if it turns heads you have to watch this incredibly boring movie again.Do not waste your time!At first we are presented with a speech by Milla, telling us that this is a more or less real story and that names have been changed.
I like the actors (in other movies) and they look like they are trying to do their best in the film, but the scripting just bogs down with no real sci-fi, terror, suspense, drama, or whatever you might be looking for in a movie.If you go expecting the entertainment of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" you will be very disappointed.
Supposedly based on real events, at least that is what Milla Jovovich tells us at the beginning of the film, The Fourth Kind is about alien abductions centered in Nome, Alaska.
This is just advice for those who haven't seen the movie yet and want to experience a truly frightening scenario.Also: the "real" Dr. Abigail Tyler doesn't look anything like Mila Jovovich.
I really liked it, it is a very good movie one that it was worth watching.Is it real?
Also, if the film isn't based on true events, then why do they hesitate to show an alien the whole movie (or whatever the so called witnesses saw, which is never truly explained).
The only thing I found annoying watching this movie ,which by the way was a load of rubbish in its presentation hoping we would believe the "real" footage of evidence , -- was the terrible sound . |
tt0015864 | The Gold Rush | It is in the middle of the Gold Rush. A Lone Prospector (Charlie Chaplin) searches the tundra for gold. But he finds more than gold; he finds love, and an uproarious adventure that forever change the lives of the people he meets.As far as an exact synopsis with the REQUIRED spoilers goes, the Lone Prospector barges into the only cabin in sight during a blizzard and starts gnawing on an old bone left by occupant Black Larsen (Tom Murray). Larsen tries to eject the LP, but another "lone prospector," Big Jim McKay (Mack Swain) also is soon blown into the now-crowded cabin. As the men starve, they cut a deck of cards to see who will go for help and food. Since Larsen draws a deuce of Spades (to the LP's three of spades, and Big Jim's jack of clubs), he must leave, taking his dog with him. In subsequent, unconnected scenes, we see the wanted Larsen gun down two lawmen who recognize him, taking their food and dog team, and discovering McKay's lucky strike claim. Meanwhile, back at the cabin, the starving Big Jim starts to hallucinate that the smaller Lone Prospector is a giant chicken, and eventually attacks him by shotgun and knife. All this, despite the fact that the LP has boiled his right shoe and served Big Jim the "upper" (while settling for the nail-ridden sole, himself). Just as things are getting out of hand, a bear barges into the cabin, and the LP presumably shoots it after it has lumbered back out, solving the prospector's hunger issues. Soon they part ways. Big Jim is shown finding Larsen working his gold strike. When Jim remonstrates, Larsen brains him with a shovel and flees, but quickly falls to his death when a snow ledge breaks off into a chasm.Meanwhile, the Lone Prospector has stumbled into a town and sold his pick and ax, but still sports just one shoe (with his right foot swaddled in cloth). He enters the local "Monte Carlo" dance hall, and is smitten with one of the dance hall girls, Georgia, who herself is being pursued by "ladies' man" Jack Cameron. The LP finds a souvenir photo torn by Jack and discarded on the floor by Georgia, and conceals it in his clothing. Meanwhile, Georgia does not like Jack's raucous behavior, so she dances with the Lone Prospector to spite Jack. After this dance, Jacks accosts Georgia, who flees to a dressing room. When the LP prevents Jack from following, the bigger man blinds the LP by pulling his derby down over his eyes. While the LP is temporarily sightless, a hanging clock falls to cold-cock Jack, and the LP leaves the dance hall, thinking he's won the fight. The next morning, an again hungry Lone Prospector bamboozles cabin-owning prospector Hank Curtis (Henry Bergman) into feeding him coffee and beans. Soon Curtis appoints the LP to be his cabin-sitter as Curtis and his partner return to their own claim. Shortly thereafter, Georgia and three friends have a snowball fight outside the front door of this cabin (which is within earshot of the dance hall), which ends with the LP getting hit in the face with a snowball as he opens his front door. The quartet of dance hall girls come in for a minute, and while the LP goes for more firewood, Georgia discovers the torn picture of herself under his pillow. Upon his return, one of Georgia's colleagues gives the LP an inadvertent "hot-foot" by discarding a match on his right foot after lighting a cigarette. When the fire is extinguished, the LP invites the girls to come back and Georgia promises they will return at 8 p.m. New Years' Eve. A deliriously-happy LP has a pillow fight with himself in the midst of a gymnastics routine after the quartet leaves, so Georgia finds him looking like a giant chicken for real when she comes back a moment later for her forgotten gloves. In order to get money for his upcoming party, the LP shovels the same pile of snow in front of several town businesses, demanding a higher shovel-out fee from each successive business owner.New Year's Eve comes, and the Lone Prospector has his cabin decorated, with the table set for five, and party hats plus wrapped presents at the places reserved for his four female guests. He imagines being asked for a speech, to which he instead responds with the (now-famous) "roll dance" (in which he pretends two rolls skewered with forks are little legs and feet dancing on the table in front of himself). Meanwhile, back at the dance hall, the clock strikes midnight, the Lone Prospector is long-forgotten, Georgia fires a few pistol shots into the ceiling, and a mob of prospectors and dance hall girls sing "Auld Lang Syne" before breaking out to dance to "Turkey in the Straw." The commotion wakens the heart-broken LP, who wanders down toward the noise. Meanwhile, the dance hall girls finally remember their "date" with the LP, and the quartet walks up to the cabin with Jack, who plans to scare his former rival. Finding the cabin empty, Jack forces himself upon Georgia, who slaps him in the face. Back at the dance hall, Georgia writes a note of apology to Jack, saying she loves him, and sends it down from her balcony to Jack on the main floor via messenger. The now-dismissive Jack spies the Lone Prospector in the crowd, and tells a barman to deliver the note--which lacks the name of an addressee--to the LP. A no-longer crestfallen LP tries to get to Georgia in the balcony, but Big Jim McKay (who has amnesia since Black Larsen brained him with a shovel, preventing him from remembering the location of his "mountain of gold"), grabs the Lone Prospector first and says he'll make him a millionaire within a month if the LP can guide him back to the cabin in which they met Black Larsen. The LP races up the balcony to hug a startled Georgia, and then rushes into the next scene, in which he and Jim return to the cabin, better-provisioned than previously. Overnight, another blizzard blows this cabin right to Jim's claim and beyond--half over a cliff. In the morning, Jim and the LP awake to a teeter-totter experience lasting many tense minutes, before the LP is roped out of the cabin by Jim as it's falling into a chasm.The final scene finds Jim and the Lone Prospector as millionaires on a ship departing Alaska. As Jim settles into their suite for a manicure, the LP humors the news media by changing from his swank morning suit into his old mining clothes and shoe. Meanwhile, an unknowing Georgia lurks on the deck below, confined to steerage. A ship's officer tells her to be on the look-out for a stowaway. Just then, a press photographer causes the Lone Prospector to fall backwards, landing at Georgia's feet. Before the LP can say anything to Georgia, who assumes he's the stowaway, the ship's officer returns to apprehend the presumed wrong-doer. Georgia pleads for mercy, digging into her pocket to pay the "stowaways" steerage fare. By then the ship's captain and media have arrived in steerage to explain the LP is really a "multi-millionaire." The Lone Prospector tells the ship's steward to prepare room for Georgia in his luxury suite, and as they pose for a press photo on the first-class deck, the LP gives Georgia a lingering kiss. (By now she is presumably his fiancee.) The end. | romantic, comedy, entertaining | train | imdb | Charlie and Big Jim are left alone and without food when Larson goes off to face the storm looking for food (having drawn the lowest card in another amusing scene), and the scenes in the cabin are some of the best in the entire film.
I am still amazed every time I watch the film at how realistic it looks when there is a long shot from outside showing Charlie hanging from the door of the cabin, which is balanced precariously on the edge of a cliff.
Chaplin's full length films are inherently more famous than his earlier short comedies, and The Gold Rush is one of the best of his full length features.
A must see for any Chaplin fan, but The Gold Rush is also a film that anyone who is interested in quality comedy should watch..
It was Charlie Chaplin's third feature-length film, and marked his comeback of sorts following A Woman of Paris (1923), which he had directed to great critical acclaim but which had been unsuccessful at the box office because it lacked his signature character The Little Tramp.
This movie should be counted among Chaplin's best and most enduring works; many people name City Lights (which I've also seen) as THE best Chaplin movie, but The Gold Rush is still an excellent showcase for one of movie comedy's immortal geniuses.Having first seen this movie years ago on TV, I saw it again in October 2003 as part of my college's silent-film class, on a poor-quality videotape that often prevented the other students and I from laughing at it because we could barely discern what was happening on the screen.
Even so, I was sufficiently intrigued to buy the GR Chaplin Collection DVD, which has a restored silent version of the film that is so good I haven't even bothered to watch the 1942 sound version that's also on the disc.The viewing quality of this restored silent version is excellent, although certain minor details are still hard to see, such as the faces of the cards drawn by the Tramp, Jim McKay and Black Larsen as they try to determine who should go out into the blizzard.
But these are minor complaints, and certainly the restoration allows for full appreciation of the film.The first half-hour of The Gold Rush is in itself worth the purchase price, as it contains some of the funniest scenes I've ever seen in any movie.
And the shoe-eating scene is so famously funny that even people watching it for the first time may feel that they've seen it already: this is in no way a bad thing, but merely reflects the fact that the best silent films long ago entered into the collective memory of our culture.I don't say this to sound pretentious.
Only he could have distilled humor from scenes of starvation and struggles to survive the ravings of a madman.The joy of watching this film today stems from seeing how well Chaplin, as both star and director, finds and maintains the right tone and style for his work, negotiating the fine line between comedy and tragedy.
This is most evident in the scene when McKay and Larsen struggle for the shotgun in the cabin and the Tramp tries desperately to escape the muzzle's aim: the sequence is undeniably hilarious, yet even today the Tramp's grim predicament is just as likely to horrify the viewer.One pleasure of silent comedies such as The Gold Rush is that the lack of a soundtrack leaves more to the imagination, in the same manner that old-time radio comedy got laughs from funny sound effects that showed the audience nothing.
I don't want to spoil the climax for anyone who hasn't seen it, but I believe that even today it remains one of the most vivid depictions in cinema history of man versus the elements, and Chaplin milked all its potential for comedy and suspense.Mack Swain is hilarious as Jim McKay, creating a memorable comic image with his ridiculously small boots and high-domed fur coat.
The ending is cheerfully cynical, improbably reuniting two characters and never revealing Georgia's true feelings for the Tramp.But the bottom line is that The Gold Rush is still funny after almost eighty years, and that's a feat few comedies in any year can ever accomplish.
Like all great movies, The Gold Rush has more than its share of memorable moments, from the Thanksgiving dinner to the dance of the dinner rolls to the cabin teetering on the edge of the mountain.
The film moves along at a brisk pace, following the misadventures of our hero, The Lone Prospector (Charlie Chaplin, of course), as he attempts to hit it big by discovering gold in Alaska.
There are some memorable scenes in the prospectors' rickety cabins, plus some other good material.The version of this that is the easiest to find is the one that Chaplin re-edited in the 1940's, adding his own narration and deleting the title cards, which gives it a slightly different feel.
(These revisions probably make it a bit easier to follow for those who aren't used to silent films.) You can tell from Chaplin's narration how fond he must have been of "The Gold Rush", and he had a lot of good reasons to be pleased with it.
Charlie Chaplin's silent film (also re-released with a narration in the early 1940s) focuses, as usual, on the Little Tramp, and in this case, his attraction to a chorus girl (Georgia Hale).
Charlie Chaplin is the Lone Prospector who goes to Klondike, Alaska in search of gold.There he meets and falls in love to beautiful Georgia (Georgia Hale).In cold and snowy Alaska he rambles forward looking for gold with his fellow prospector Big Jim McKay (Mack Swain) thinking of her.A genius called Charlie Chaplin made in 1925 this silent movie masterpiece known as The Gold Rush.Now nearly 80 years after the film was made we get to watch this genius in a tramp suit doing his job.And he did it well.Better than probably anybody.He could make us laugh and he could make us cry.Maybe even both of those at the same time.Chaplin realized that every good comedy has a little tragedy.
THE GOLD RUSH (United Artists, 1925), written, directed and starring Charlie Chaplin, may not be the very best of the Chaplin feature comedies of the silent era, but has become the very movie in which Chaplin wanted to be most noted for by future generations.
Then in the summer of 1971, THE GOLD RUSH became the initial movie presented on public broadcasting station's 13-week series of "The Silent Years," as hosted by Orson Welles, from the Paul Killian collection with a new and excellent piano score by William Perry.THE GOLD RUSH, which is set in the turn of the century, opens with The Lone Prospector (Charlie Chaplin) coming to Alaska.
The results that follow is classic Chaplin.Aside from a large list of supporting players, which consists of frequent Chaplin character actor Henry Bergman as Hank Curtis, "The Gold Rush" contains many now classic comedy supplements, including the starving Charlie cooking his boot in hot water, and using his shoelace as spaghetti; Charlie's encounter with Georgia; and the near end finale in which Charlie and Big Jim return to the cabin before setting out to find the claim, in which the cabin gets blown away during the blizzard that forces the cabin to be found the next morning halfway over the edge of a cliff which starts to tilt back and forth as the men make their slightest movement.
The most famous sequence of the entire movie is the one where Charlie falls asleep and dreams of himself entertaining his dinner guests by using two forks in two potato rolls as his feet and doing a dance for them.With THE GOLD RUSH being Chaplin's most revived and discussed movie, one must never forget his other artistic achievements that followed, including THE CIRCUS (1928), CITY LIGHTS (1931), MODERN TIMES (1936) and his talkie debut of THE GREAT DICTATOR (1940).
The Gold Rush, while not Chaplin's best film, does feature his best performance and has so many classic bits, it must be seen.
There are plenty of great scenes:Chaplin and Mack Swain in the cabin,crazy with hunger and cabin fever,the touching New Year's Eve party and finally the hilarious finale with the cabin out on the edge of a cliff.The later version which was released with added narration and music wasn't as good as the original,but easier for modern audiences to watch..
It is that ending which makes the Gold Rush the best of Chaplin's works and the one I will watch just for the sheer joy of seeing the artist in his prime.
Once I adjusted to the "silence" of Charlie Chaplin's 1925 silent film, I was able to watch it like any other movie.
While it is impossible to ignore the movie as a silent film, it is equally impossible to ignore it as a great comedy that could capably rival any modern comedy, and, like Chaplin's character, come out on top.
In a story often related by film scholars to wide-eyed students, Chaplin set about creating the comic scenarios for his 1925 classic (I would use the word masterpiece, but he seemed to have made a number of these) The Gold Rush after being inspired by the true tales of cannibalism among the stranded Donner party.
The Gold Rush (1925)If you see this classic Charlie Chaplin movie, it better be the silent version, if only because this is the pure intention, uncompromised.
The 1942 version is a little shorter and faster, but it has Chaplin giving narration instead of using the inter-titles, and he says unnecessary stuff, and it interferes.The best parts of this classic as so good, and so honestly original, and so perfectly unashamedly comic, there is nothing like it.
Chaplin is also gifted with a highly talented supporting cast to play off of, including the admirably ferocious Mack Swain as a brutish fellow prospector and Georgia Hale, noteworthy for being a laudably ambiguous love interest rather than the one dimensional beauties often showcased in Chaplin's films.Arguably one of the strongest cinematic works produced during the silent era, The Gold Rush is more likely to evoke refreshingly genuine raucous laughter, heartfelt tears and finally leave the viewer with an unquenchable beaming smile on their face than almost any film made before or since.
Right now, I still haven't seen too many, but recently, for the first full-length silent comedy to see, I chose "The Gold Rush", a film written, directed by, and starring Charlie Chaplin, a highly renowned filmmaker of his time, as I was aware of this movie's wide appeal, as well as the wide appeal of much of Chaplin's other work.
I wasn't as impressed with it as much as many others have been, but all in all, it was a good experience.Set in the year 1898, during the gold rush of the time (hence the title of the film), Chaplin stars as a silly prospector, one of the many who have bravely come up to face the harsh weather conditions of Alaska, in search for gold!
He experiences being marooned in the cabin with a fellow prospector named Big Jim McKay, both of them without food, and also falls in love with a woman he meets in Alaska named Georgia, and attempts to win her heart!"The Gold Rush" definitely has some very funny and memorable gags.
And I think that's what movie audiences responded to during his hey-day and what they're still responding to now.Perhaps no other scene in a Chaplin film (at least of the ones I've seen) captures this feeling more than the one in "The Gold Rush" where Chaplin has gone to a great deal of effort to prepare a New Year's dinner and is stood up by his date, spending his New Year's alone.
This is the movie with the famous "dancing potatoes" scene, and wait till you see Chaplin eat his boot for dinner, slurping up his shoelace like it's a spaghetti noodle.I strongly recommend Chaplin films to anyone who is moderately interested in early cinema but is turned off by the idea of silent pictures.
The scenes do seem a little bit over done at times though.The movie is about just what is sounds like, Chaplin finds him self searching for gold,and comedy ensues.
One of the quissential silent movies ever made, 'The Gold Rush' is by far Chaplin's best work, has a lot of signature pieces in it, and shows great characterization of the tramp character (eg, putting him in such a strange locale, the Alaskan Gold Rush).
Living in an age where the norm in cinema is heavy action, verbal comedy, and almost all the visuals are done with special effects, Charlie Chaplin's Gold Rush is something I watched out of boredom and did not expect to be as good as it is.
There are countless great scenes here but my personal favorite has to be the sequence in the cabin where the hungry Big Jim McKay (Mack Swain) sees Chaplin's character as a chicken.The way that sequence plays out and the timing is just flawless.
Charlie Chaplin revises his famous role of the little tramp, this time he's out to make it big in the Alaskan gold rush.
The version I watched was the 1942 re-release, which featured a new score, as well as narration from Chaplin himself.Charlie Chaplin is famous for being an influence on many films after his time, which I did not truly appreciate until I saw this movie.
I couldn't tell you what made Chaplin decide some scenes needed narration and others didn't, but I appreciate the restraint, and the understanding that sometimes, narration or dialogue would do more harm than good.I'm usually not that into old films, but The Gold Rush completely won me over.
Proclaimed by Chaplin as the film by which he most wanted to be remembered, 'The Gold Rush' has gone onto much acclaim, but those expecting the charm of 'City Lights' and imaginative sets and situations of 'Modern Times' may be disappointed.
The Gold Rush is a fun adventure with several highlights, but I think a shorter running time for silent films works better.
Along the way, trouble ensues from fellow gold-seekers, love blossoms with a local saloon girl (Georgia Hale), who may not feel as strongly as the prospector does, and many classic silent-era magic is created.Chaplin, who directed, wrote, produced, edited, and starred in this film said this would be his opus; the film he wanted to be remembered for and it would appear he got his wish.
Sandwiched in between the failure of his non-comedy A Woman of Paris and his final days as a silent star in which he was up against the coming of sound, Charlie Chaplin made his most stupendous and expensive film to date, aptly named The Gold Rush.
There are two different versions of this film.I was unaware when I rented the DVD that this was true,and the first of the two versions I viewed was the edited for sound 1942 rerelease.This has none other than Chaplin himself narrating the film.While I found the film to be good,I found myself being slightly annoyed and distracted by Chaplin's chatter,though I am sure he had the best of intentions.After viewing this,I decided to rent the bonus disc which included the original totally silent release from 1925.Though it is a restored version (the piano soundtrack is brand new),I found myself able to enjoy it a lot better.Charlie Chaplin was a genius as a film maker and performer,and it shows here.The Gold Rush is typical Chaplin with its combination of humor and romance,and it even has an edge of the seat thrill toward the end that will rival anything you see today.It's a great film,but when you see it,see it in its original and best silent form..
At first sight, "The Gold Rush" may seem as just another of the Tramp's adventures, but this film goes beyond the slapstick and presents a testament of Chaplin's ideology about life: that there is no laugh without a tear, and that tragedy and comedy walk the very same path.
While Chaplin's intentions were definitely good, "The Gold Rush" is a film that works better in silent form, without the need of anyone narrating or explaining it because it explains itself on its own.Charlie Chaplin was an artist that really knew his craft (his preference for silent comedy shows this), and had a perfect understanding of human nature.
Having lived in poverty in his young years, he knew better than anybody the value of a laugh in the harsher times, so probably he was the only one able to made a film like "The Gold Rush", the film that took Chaplin's comedy to the highest levels.
Charlie Chaplin is a film star who transcends time and not just for those who enjoy silent movies.
We see our story set in the rugged gold rush times in Alaska and Canada known as the Klondike Gold Rush, Chaplin is a lone prospector and he has come to seek his fortune like many others, but some people will help him whilst others will not.The film is as much at times a drama as it is a comedy mixing gags with truly emotional scenes, Chaplin yet again proves himself not only a great actor, but also a director at that level too.
A lone prospector(Chaplin, shy and kind, giving the best of all the great physical performances of anyone in this; he also wrote the narration he provides for the version I watched(of this otherwise silent film, and one can see how it worked purely from its visual storytelling), which is 68 minutes long, or 69 if you count the ending credits) goes to Klondike on the titular gold rush(albeit ironically, this is more of a backdrop), meeting new friends, enemies...
"The Gold Rush" I think is one of the best Charlie Chaplin's movies of all time.
The Gold rush is the second Charlie Chaplin film I've watched recently the other being Modern Time, and both have blown me away.
Whose sentimentality can just warm your heart and make you smile.I think out of two i have scene i prefer Modern Times but that along with The Gold Rush, and Charlie Chaplin in general just have a timeless quality and still remain so effective even now, 80 years on.. |
tt0105414 | Single White Female | In the opening shot, two young twin girls, about 8-years old, are playing with their mother's make-up.Years later, an old apartment building in New-York on a quiet summer night. In her apartment, Allison "Allie" Jones (Bridget Fonda) is making love with her fiancé, Sam Rawson (Steven Weber), who has divorced his first wife. They are making plans for their wedding. Later in the night, the phone rings. It's Sam's former wife, Lisa. Because of a problem with the answering machine, Allison can hear everything Lisa is saying to Sam. And she learns that Sam visited Lisa in the afternoon and had sex with her. Sam hangs up the phone and starts a very heated argument with Allison.In the apartment above Allison's, Graham Knox (Peter Friedman), who is gay, and who is also Allison's best and only friend in the building, can hear the conversation between Allison and Sam through the old ventilation system of the building. A few minutes later, Allison rings Graham's doorbell. She has just kicked Sam out of her apartment and out of her life, and she is crying. She asks Graham to let her sleep in his spare bedroom.In the morning, Graham wakes Allison around 10 a.m., which means she is late for her appointment. This appointment is with Mitchell Myerson (Stephen Tobolowsky) in a restaurant. Allison expects to sell Mitchell her new computer program for designing woman's dresses. But Mitchell wants to buy it cheaper than what Allison expected.Back home, Allison has a long conversation with Graham in the building's laundry room. She informs him of her decision to find a room-mate.Allison puts an ad in a newspaper to find a room mate. The ad starts with: "Single White Female seeks female to share apartment", which explains the title of the film. Because the apartment is a rent-stabilized one, the room-mate would never be able to come on the lease. Several applicants answer the newspaper ad. A very butch girl, who wants to starts redecorating the place. A lesbian, who tries to seduce Allison. A neurotic girl who doesn't stop talking. The last one seems to be the perfect applicant.Allison is ready to call this perfect applicant back, when she sees Sam's picture on the fridge door, and she start crying. The front door was still open and another applicant comes in: she introduces herself as Hedra "Hedy" Carlson (Jennifer Jason Leigh). When she sees Allison crying, she wants to make some tea, but the kitchen water faucet breaks and both girls get showered. While Hedra's clothes are drying, Allison gets to know her better, and decides to take her as a roommate.Allison shows Hedra the basement of the building, including the private locked "cages" where each tenant can stow his stuff, and the incinerator room, which is not supposed to be used by the tenants. She also explained how to use the old elevator, the inner door of which frequently gets stuck and needs the use of a screwdriver hanging on a chain in the elevator cabin.Hedra gets herself settled in Allison's apartment, and the two girls seem to like each other more and more. Allison even helps Hedra to buy nicer clothes. She also gives her a lampshade to put on the lamp in her room, and Hedra gives Allison a pair of earrings that Allison seemed to like. During a conversation between the two girls, Hedra mention she had a twin sister who was stillborn.Allison refuses to take Sam on the phone when he calls her.Hedra keeps a mysterious shoebox, which she is very cautious to hide out of Allison's view.Sam calls while Allison is away, and Hedra erases his message from the answering machine.Hedra buys a Labrador puppy, and pretends that it was given to her on the market. Allison wants Hedra to bring the puppy back to the people who gave it to her. But, during the night, the puppy, who is alone in the kitchen, starts yapping and crying, and Allison takes it with her in her room. Hedra, hidden behind her room's door, watches the whole scene.Allison works a lot on her computer program, and doesn't see Graham as much as she used to. Graham asks her to take care of his cat while he is away for the week-end and gives her his apartment keys. When Allison gets back home, she finds that Sam forced his way in her apartment. Hedra feels bad about it and leaves Sam and Allison alone in the apartment.From the bookshop where she works, Hedra tries to call Allison, but Allison doesn't answer because she is making love with Sam.The same evening, Hedra watches TV alone in the apartment and kicks the puppy away. Meanwhile, Sam and Allison are having sex in the Atherton Hotel, where Sam is staying. When Allison comes back home, she finds Hedra in her room with the puppy. Hedra is very upset, but suddenly she notices the engagement ring on Allison's finger. She understands she will have to move away from the apartment.In Mitchell's office, Allison asks him to set up a demo of her computer program for people who could be interested by it.Sam is sleeping with Allison in her bed and Allison gets up to fetch some water from the bathroom. When she comes back, she finds Hedra talking and laughing with Sam. Later in the night, Allison is awaken by a strange noise and she peeks in Hedra's room where Hedra is masturbating on her bed. Allison is forced to run back to her bed and jump in when she makes a noise. Hedra knows she has been watched by Allison.The next morning, Sam is fixing a broken piece of the balustrade on the balcony, while Hedra is cooking some eggs. When Allison comes out of her room, all dressed up, she is not very happy to find Sam and Hedra having breakfast together. When Hedra asks Allison what she wants her to fix for dinner, Allison answers that Sam and herself will be eating out. After Sam and Allison's departure, the puppy remains behind the front door yapping, and doesn't respond to Hedra's calls and offers of food.Sam and Allison visit a vacant apartment in New York. When they come back home, they find that the puppy has fallen from the balcony and is dead. Apparently, Sam had not fixed the balustrade very well and the puppy was able to squeeze itself through the gap in the balustrade. Hedra gives Allison some pills to help her go to sleep after the puppy's death. Allison asks Sam not to cancel the business trip he had planned.In the morning, Allison is still asleep when the phone rings. It's Mitchell who is waiting for her for the demo they had planned. While choosing what she is going to wear, Allison discovers that Hedra has bought exactly the same clothes as her. After the demo, Mitchell and Allison are alone in Mitchell's office, and Mitchell tries to rape Allison who hits him very hard with both fists in his private parts. She runs away while Mitchell is lying of the floor very much in pain.Back in her apartment, Allison tells Hedra what happened with Mitchell, and Hedra gives Allison some pills. Then she calls Mitchell in his home, pretending she is Allison, and warns him not to try anything against Allison or his family "will get fucked".Hedra takes Allison to her hair stylist and, without Allison knowing, asks the stylist to give her exactly the same red color and the same hairdo as Allison. Allison is not very happy about it.Back home, while Hedra is in the bathroom, Allison searches Hedra's bedroom and finds the shoebox. Inside the shoebox, she finds documents proving that Hedra's real name is Ellen Besch, and that her twin sister didn't die at birth, but drowned when she was nine. She also finds a love letter that Sam had written to Allison and that Hedra has intercepted without telling Allison about it.That evening, Allison wants to talk with Graham about what she has found, but Graham is out. While she is going back to her apartment, she sees Hedra leaving the building in a taxi cab. She follows her in another taxi cab. Still followed by Allison, Hedra enters a very strange nightclub, where some rich people are watching a private sex show, where a man is kept in a cage, and where Hedra is called "Allison" by the bartender.Later that night, Allison comes back to Graham's apartment, and explains the whole situation to him. Graham advises her to get rid of Hedra. But Hedra, back in Allison's apartment, hears the whole conversation through the ventilation system. While Allison and Graham are talking, Hedra enters Graham's apartment (apparently using the key Graham gave Allison to take care of his cat) without anyone noticing her.Back home, Allison puts duct tape on the air vents, because Graham has explained her the acoustic problem of the ventilation system. So she cannot hear what is going on in Graham's apartment. When Graham finds Hedra in his apartment, he tries to persuade her to listen to him, but she brutally attacks him with the metal safety bar of the front door, and leaves him apparently dead on the floor.Allison is trying to reach Hedra's father on the phone, but only gets an answering machine. When she hears Hedra coming back in the apartment, she puts the phone down. Hedra doesn't say a word and go straight into the bathroom. Worried by Hedra staying such a long time under the shower, Allison enters the bathroom and discovers Hedra's blood-stained clothes soaking in the basin. Hedra pretends she had unexpected menstruation.Back in her bedroom, Hedra tells Allison she is "so fucking weak" to go back with Sam. Allison is so shocked that she doesn't answer the phone. Hedra does it and hears her father (who calls her Ellen) asking her to come back home. She slams the phone down and pretends it was an obscene call. When she wants to keep the phone out of its hook, Allison tells her she is expecting a very late call from Sam, coming back to New-York.Later in the night (past 2:00 a.m.), Hedra, who has taken the phone set with her in her room, answers Sam's call from the Atherton Hotel. Sam tells her to tell Allison he has called but not to wake her up.Hedra enters Sam's hotel room in the night, just wearing a raincoat over her naked body. She comes into Sam's bed, and performs oral sex on him while he is still half-asleep. When he eventually wakes up and realizes who is in his bed, it is too late. He is too close from his orgasm and comes into Hedra's mouth. Hedra and Sam then start an argument. When eventually Sam wants to call Allison to tell her the truth, Hedra kills him by thrusting one of the heels of her stiletto-heeled shoes deep into his eye. The tip of the heel must have reached into Sam's brain, because he immediately falls unconscious on the floor. When Hedra goes out of the hotel, the night clerk says "Goodnight, Miss Jones" to her.The next morning, Hedra is getting ready to leave, cleaning the whole apartment spotless. She then takes a suitcase, a cardboard box and a large paper bag down in the basement to put them in Allison's private "cage". Actually she is going in the basement to burn, in the incinerator, all the clothes that makes her look like Allison.While Hedra is away, Allison starts cooking breakfast. She stops when she hears the morning news on TV : a white male has been found murdered in room 612 in the Atherton Hotel. After she got confirmation that Sam has been murdered by calling the hotel, she goes in the bathroom to vomit in the toilet bowl. Meanwhile, in the basement, Hedra is taking a gun out of the boot where she had hidden it, and puts it in her large paper bag.In the bathroom, Allison sees the blood on one of the heels of Hedra's shoes, and understands what happened. When Hedra comes back from the basement, Allison tells her she wants to go and see Graham, even though she in only wearing a very thin sleeveless night shirt over her naked body. Hedra persuades her to get properly dressed before she goes out of the apartment. While Allison is getting dressed, Hedra comes into her bedroom, wearing black gloves, and tells Allison that she is aware that she knows about Sam's death. Hedra confesses having killed Sam, but pretends it was just an accident. When Allison tells her to go to the police, Hedra reminds her that no one, in the building, knows she lives there, and that she is not even on the lease, and also that she has cleaned off all her potential fingerprints. The police will certainly think it is Allison who killed Sam.Threatening Allison with her gun, Hedra forces her to go to Graham's apartment. There she ties Allison on an armchair with duct tape, and gags her with a piece of tape. Then, she dyes her hair from red to her natural black, not too look like Allison anymore. She then switches the TV on and puts the remote control near Allison's tied hand on the armrest of the armchair. She explains she has to go and cash a check. As soon as Hedra is gone, Allison moves the TV sound up to its highest level, and she selects a channel showing a very noisy rock music concert (hoping to attract help).In the bank, while Hedra is cashing her check under her real name of Ellen Besch, a clerk tells her that her father called, and wants her to call him back. She runs away from the bank.Meanwhile, one of Graham's neighbor has been complaining about the TV loud volume to the building manager, who comes with his spare keys to open Graham's door. Hedra comes out of the elevator just in time to stop him from entering the apartment. After she has got rid of the building manager, Hedra switches the TV off and slaps Allison in the face for nearly getting caught. She goes out of the room and comes back with a big kitchen knife, which she puts on Allison throat. She tears the tape gag off Allison's mouth to listen to what Allison wants to tell her. Actually Allison just kisses her on the mouth. Hedra seems not to understand the situation anymore and starts crying on Allison's lap. While stroking Hedra's hair, Allison sees Graham's wallet lying on the floor close to her foot, and kicks it away.That evening in Mitchell's office, all the important data on the program installed by Allison are starting to erase themselves. A warning message explains that, if Allison is not paid within 24 hours, all the data will be irretrievably lost.Back in Graham's apartment, where Allison is making a plane reservation from New York to Los Angeles with Graham's computer over the Internet. She tells Hedra they will pay with Graham's credit card, and send her to get Graham's wallet in the living-room.In Mitchell's office, since he cannot reach any one of the phone number Allison gave him, Mitchell decides to go himself to Allison's place.At Graham's apartment, while Hedra is looking for Graham's wallet, Allison is typing an SOS message on the computer. But Hedra comes back in the room before the message is sent. She switches the computer off and points her gun on Allison's frightened face. Instead of shooting her (aware that Graham's neighbors will hear the gunshot), Hedra instead knocks Allison out by striking her on her forehead with the butt of the pistol.
Hedra takes the elevator down to the basement, while Mitchell is waiting for it in the lobby. In Allison's private "cage" in the basement, Hedra selects a very large suitcase, inside which she can fit herself and brings it back to the elevator.On the 11th floor, Mitchell enters the elevator where Hedra is traveling back from the basement and they ride together to the 12th floor, Graham's floor. When Mitchell sees Hedra opening Graham's door, he explains he wants to see Graham's friend, Allison. Hedra tells him Graham is away on a cruise, but Mitchell recognizes Allison's suitcase, hears Allison's moaning coming from inside the apartment, brutally pushes Hedra out of his way, rushes into the apartment, and slams the door behind him. Mitchell finds Allison lying on the floor, all tied up and gagged with duct tape. He kneels down and starts by taking the gag off, but Hedra enters the room, pointing her gun towards him. Mitchell slowly stands up, and suddenly snatches the gun off Hedra's hands, and throws her across the room, where she remains unconscious on the floor. Mitchell then starts to untie Allison, but Hedra comes back behind him and hits him on the head with a heavy statuette. She gets her gun back, puts a cushion on Mitchell's head to use as a supressor and kills him by shooting him in the face, twice.In the bathroom, Graham, lying in the bathtub, slowly comes back to life.Meanwhile, Hedra is dictating a suicide note to Allison, who writes it on the computer. Hedra presses Allison's hand on the computer screen for her fingerprints to be found by the police. Then she gives her a glass of water and a handful of blue pills. Allison smashes the glass in Hedra's face, and the two girl start fighting. Eventually, Allison smashes Hedra's hand through the window pane, and Hedra drops her gun. Then Allison slashes Hedra's chest with a piece of broken glass from the window, and rushes out of the room.
While Allison is fumbling with the locks and the safety bar of the front door, Hedra comes back behind her, pointing her gun towards her. But Graham jumps on Hedra and throws her on the floor. They start fighting, but Hedra is still holding her gun and trying to shoot Graham. Allison pulls her by the legs out of the apartment and on the landing, and slams the door behind her.Allison runs towards the elevator, but Hedra shoots her in the shoulder. It must be a minor injury because Allison keeps on running and reaches the elevator. She closes the inner door of the cabin, but Hedra points her gun through the vertical bars of the telescopic inner door. Allison squeezes Hedra's hand between the vertical bars, and Hedra drops her gun. Allison picks it up, but she cannot shoot Hedra, because the gun is either empty or has jammed. Hedra enters the cabin, and while the cabin moves slowly down to the basement, the two girls start brutally fighting with them punching, slaping and kicking each other in the small compartment. Eventually Hedra succeeds in strangling Allison unconscious.Hedra pulls the unconscious Allison by the legs out of the elevator, and across the basement empty corridors. She blocks the emergency staircase door with a heavy metal cabinet, and switches the elevator machinery off. Then she goes into the incinerator room to reactivate the fire. When Hedra comes back, with a wheelbarrow, to the place where she had left the unconscious Allison, she discovers that Allison woke up and is gone. She starts looking around for her. She finds a big metal hook in a closet and takes it. Allison is actually hiding in a large metal box, near the ceiling. This box is part of the ventilation system. A rat, frightened by the noise Hedra is making, walks along a pipe towards Allison's hiding place. Just as the rat reaches her, Allison throws it down on Hedra's shoulder. Hedra looks up at the ventilation metal box, but it seems empty.Hedra goes back into the incinerator room, and looks into the ventilation metal box there, thinking that this is where Allison is hiding. But actually Allison is watching her, hidden behind a wall. Hedra keeps looking around. She thinks Allison is hiding in a large closet, but Allison falls upside down, her legs hooked in the pipework running near the ceiling, and stabs Hedra in the back with the screwdriver from the elevator cabin. She gets down on her feet, and stabs her again. Hedra dies on the floor, and Allison closes her eyelids.Some weeks later. Allison has moved into the apartment she had visited with Sam just before the puppy's death. In voice over, she explains that she is trying to forgive Hedra for Sam's death, and also try to do what Hedra couldn't do, forgive herself. She puts Hedra's collection of photographs back in the shoebox, but she doesn't see a picture hidden by some wrapping paper. Actually this picture is a mixture of two pictures, joined together. The left half-side of the picture shows Allison's face, when the right half-side shows Hedra's face. | mystery, insanity, violence, suspenseful, murder | train | imdb | The basic plot is that Allison (Bridget Fonda) gets a roommate for her Manhattan apartment (has anyone ever seen an apartment this large in NYC??) after her skirt-crazy live-in lover Sam (played by "Wings" star Steven Weber) runs around on her.
It stars Bridget Fonda, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Steven Weber, Peter Friedman and Stephen Tobolowsky.
Music is by Howard Shore and cinematography by Luciano Tovoli.When it's revealed that her partner Sam (Weber) has been cheating on her with his ex-wife, Allie Jones (Fonda) kicks him out of the apartment and advertises for a female roommate.
Of the three, Single White Female grossed the least, which is strange since it's a better movie than the other two.Schroeder's (Barfly/Reversal of Fortune) movie isn't a complete success, there's not enough development of the main characters and there's some unintentionally funny moments.
Jennifer Jason Leigh steals the show in this film, she does a superb job handling the transition in the character of Heddy with her body language and shyness into the transition of a sexually charged woman, who is assertive and obviously losing her grip on reality.
Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh are very good but the movie isn't.
Formulaic, formulaic
yeah it's routine Hollywood psycho-thriller territory, but too visually well made by director Barbet Schroeder and comfortably performed in the shape of Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh to not get something out of it.
Also, Jennifer Jason Leigh is always interesting to watch, she adds depth to an otherwise one-dimensional character.Bridget Fonda is also good, as Allison Jones, a NY designer on her way up, (there is an amusing scene with Stephen Tobolowsky as her sleazy client).
Strange.Worth watching for Jason Leigh's performance, or if you like Bridget Fonda.
It's a psychotic thriller about loss, human fragility and the twisted games that could come out of a disturbed mind.It all begins when Allison Jones (played by Brigit Fonda) rents a room in her apartment, after breaking up with her boyfriend, to a girl called Hedra Carlson (Jennifer Jason Leigh), someone she didn't know.
Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh star with Leigh getting the juicier role as the wacko, "Hedy Carlson." Character studies of people like her are usually entertaining.
She also shows a lot of skin in this movie, something else she likes to do in her films.Fonda's character, "Allie Jones," is no Mary Poppins, either, or should I say Fonda isn't anybody pure.
This actress isn't shy, either.The movie starts building its suspense about halfway through when Leigh - the roommate and admirer of Fonda - begins to lose her girlfriend to that guy....and decides to do something about it.There really isn't a lot of violence in this movie, mainly just at the end.
Independent New York businesswoman Bridget Fonda, having just broken up with her fiancé, advertises for a female roommate and feels an immediate kinship with Jennifer Jason Leigh, a straggly, down-to-earth young applicant who may not be exactly what she seems.
After her partner moves out Allie Jones (Fonda) invites Hedra Carlson (Leigh) to move in, only Hedra has a few dark secrets and soon causes problems for her roommate.The 1990's was a big step towards engaging actresses into more notable lead roles.
The final half an hour is well handled as the script notches up a gear into flowing momentum with a good final ending.If you feel inclined to turn off after ten minutes then you can be forgiven as there is little to match your enthusiasm for this picture.But if you get up to the inclusion of the dog then you may as well carry on as the final stages generate some stunning tension.Single White Female is what you may call a wonderful promise that was horribly muddled.
Jennifer Jason Leigh is frighteningly convincing as her psychotic roommate.Fonda as Allie dumps her two-timing boyfriend and is looking for a new roommate within something like a fortnight - OK, first of all this is way too soon.
Because I don't want to move in and have things change.' She had no business getting a roommate whilst she was still getting over Sam. Her neighbour Gram says after the breakup 'You can always call him, Allie.' To which she replies, 'Not if I have a roommate.'Therefore (I know it is mean of me) I sometimes find it difficult to empathise fully with Fonda's character, and find myself sympathising with Heddie at times.I blame the writers for this.
It features a simple story line (which makes it very easy to enter into) in which Allison (Bridget Fonda), having broken up with her boyfriend (Sam Rawson) places an ad in the personals for a roommate, and ends up with Hedra (Jennifer Jason Leigh).
This wound up being one of the most entertaining thrillers since "The Hand That Rocks The Cradle." After her boyfriend Sam cheats on her, beautiful fashion designer Allison Jones advertises for a roommate to share her apartment with.
But Hedy makes it quite clear that she is not going to leave Allie just like that."Single White Female" is one of the sexiest, most sophisticated thrillers I've ever seen, with a great premise, a well-written script by Don Roos, very good direction by Barbet Schroeder, a believable protagonist, and a devilishly delightful villain.
Hedy does some of the worst things a person can possibly do to a friend, especially trying to take over that person's personality and take over their life.Bridget Fonda is great as sweet, innocent Allison, who IMDb says originally was offered the Hedy part as well as Allie.
Allison Jones (Bridget Fonda) has just broken up with her boyfriend Sam Rawson (Steven Weber), and is looking for a new roommate.
She picks Hedra "Hedy" Carlson (Jennifer Jason Leigh), who seems like the perfect roommate.
Finally, the final moment of the climax is hopelessly over-the-top.Still, if you want a good thriller, "Single White Female" is the way to go..
Stuck in between "Last Exit to Brooklyn" and "The Hudsucker Proxy" Jennifer Jason Leigh turns in a solid performance and saves it from the clutches of Bridget Fonda (who was on her way to the inexcusable "Point of No Return" and struggling to find the talent she would display in her later films.) and the woeful Steven Weber.
Most people single out Jennifer Jason Leigh's sinister, neurotic performance but Bridget Fonda had me climbing out of the sofa with anxiety.
The interior design is visually striking and evocative, making early 1990s New York seem like a marvel of charm and lived-in character, while both Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh tear into their respective roles with gusto, delivering the type of compelling performances that leave an impression on even the most passive viewer.
The whole story is telegraphed out from the moment Jennifer Jason Leigh starts acting like a wacko, which is pretty quickly and we just wait for the inevitable cat fight.
although this is a fairly decent psychological suspense thriller,it is predictable at times and a bit of reach in some scenes.still,anyone who's ever had a roommate who is even slightly unbalanced or worse can relate.Bridget Fonda is good as the normal roommate in the equation,but Jennifer Jason Leigh is perfectly cast as the roommate from hell.of course it helps if she has a character to work with.Steven Weber has a small roles as well.Peter Friedman and Stephen Tobolowsky also have small roles.the movie moves along pretty well most of the time but slows down occasionally,and nearly ruins the momentum at times.still,it's a good movie,as these movies go.for me,Single White female is a 6/10.
(Now I know why my parents wouldn't let me watch it).Bridget Fonda is good as Allie, though at times I thought she was a bit wimpy, though was pleased when she stood up to the guy she was working for.
I'd recommend Single White Female to anyone who likes a good thriller.
A woman (Bridget Fonda) advertising for a new roommate finds that something very strange is going on with the tenant (Jennifer Jason Leigh) who decides to move in.There is that old, tired cliché that describes insanity.
SINGLE WHITE FEMALEThis is a thriller from 1992 that I liked a lot when it first came out.The movie is about a woman who has recently broken up with her fiancé decides to get a room mate to help her get over it.
and at time these questions do not get answered, but you presume you know the answer.The ending of the movie is very predictable, but then most thrillers have a predictable ending.For it's time this film is a very good, and if you like thrillers I recommend you give this a watch.
I love Bridget Fonda, I love Jennifer Jason Leigh and I love this movie.
In an interesting twist on the spate of 'jinxed, over-sexed lover turns psycho seeking revenge' films to emerge from this decade, Single White Female surprisingly lasts the tests of time to remain a grippingly well filmed and intense movie with true jump-factor.Just this week i watched it with a newbie who couldn't stand to watch as Fonda rifles through Leigh's shoe box of secrets while she's in the shower.Just by changing the light and camera angle the two central actresses are transformed from vulnerable/disturbed to sexual/confident in a flash...
Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh gave a great performance.
Both women give good performances - and Jennifer Jason Lee, who steals Alison's (Alison, played by Bridget Fonda) "identity" is eerily good.The film's strength lies i its beginning and middle, where understatement is the key, and Jennife Jason Leigh's transformation into her "heroine" or "idol" is well done.However, the film spoils all this by leaning towards silly melodrama and drawn out "fighting scenes" (badly put together at that) which are reminiscent of B-grade movies; it's a pity because what could have been a good psychological thriller compromises itself as it appeals to the LCD at the end..
That said Single White Female does a good job in the 'slasher' genre.The protagonist is recently jilted Bridget Fonda who needs to find a new roommate now that she's dumped her two-timing fiancée.
Of course Ms. Fonda doesn't know this right away, but as she slowly patches up her relationship with the guy, Ms. Leigh begins to go over the deep end.The movie is very formulaic in a 1980s kind of way.
Possible Spoilers:The idea of a female at the terrorist psycho in a movie is fun, and certainly refreshing for fans of slasher films; however, living with the characters for two hours is like living with your least favorite room-mate for two months; Brigit Fonda plays a confused city girl who wants to make ends meet by illegally subletting her apartment; she even takes pictures of her candidates.
Nothing new in this thriller which finds disturbed, possessive 'Hedra' (Jennifer Jason Leigh) moving in with career girl 'Alison' (Bridget Fonda), who has recently separated from her boyfriend.Barbet Schroeder creates his own style in a film which (with two effective lead performances) manages to elicit tension, even if it is not full of surprises.
However, "Single White Female" is a definite improvement on both of these films, though it is not as good as some other thrillers of late.
SINGLE WHITE FEMALE belongs to a series of movies I call the "From Hell" films, thrillers which were popular in the late 80s and early 90s.
While I don't rate it as highly as when I first saw it I still think it is a good film, mainly due to the quality of the two lead actresses, especially Jennifer Jason Leigh who seems to be excellent in everything I've seen her in.Bridget Fonda plays Allison Jones who learns that her fiancé has cheated on her with his ex-wife.
Out of the applicants she chooses Hedra 'Hedy' Carlson a mousy girl played by Jennifer Jason Leigh, at first she seems like the ideal choice but things start to go wrong when it appears that Allie and her fiancé are getting back together.
It's suspenseful, edgy and visually strong and features a couple of characters whose interaction ultimately puts both their lives in danger.Allie Jones (Bridget Fonda) is a young New York City software designer who throws her live-in lover called Sam (Steven Weber) out of their apartment when she discovers that he recently cheated on her with his ex-wife.
Bridget Fonda is remarkably subtle and believable in the way that she conveys the various complexities of Allie's character.The quality of the acting in this movie is consistently good but the outstanding supporting performance comes from Stephen Tobolowsky who is disgustingly smug and sleazy as Allie's business client who tries to exploit her financially and sexually..
"Single White Female" is about a software designer named Allison Jones (Bridget Fonda) who kicks her boyfriend Sam Lawson (Steven Weber) to the curve after having discovered he's been having secret affairs with his ex-wife.
Jennifer Jason Leigh fares much better as the evil roommate Hedy (especially when she dresses like Allison and becomes her evil duplicate), and when her insanity explodes, we are all anticipating as to what menace she's going to commit to next.
When Sam tries to return to Allie's life, Hedy does everything she can to break them apart, even resorting to murder.Single White Female was a thriller that became a hit during the early 1990s – one of a number of psycho-thrillers that made their name at that time.
Single White Female is set in New York City where Allison Jones (Bridget Fonda) shares an apartment with her boyfriend Sam (Steven Weber), unfortunately Allison finds out that Sam has slept with his ex-wife & kicks him out.
At first things are fine but when Allison decides to take Sam back & wants Hedra to move out things take a sinister turn as Hedra turns out to be a bit of a psycho...Produced & directed Barbet Schroeder one has to say I was looking forward to watching Single White Female but ended up being disappointed with it.
As a whole Single White Female is a passable if forgettable thriller that could have been so much better if the makers had taken a few more risks & upped the pace a little.Director Schroeder does alright, he uses the large apartment set quite well but there's not much style to the film & it's largely forgettable.
Jennifer Jason Leigh plays a great psycho and does a good job of looking like Fonda.
So Bridget Fonda realises that her boyfriend with eighties hair is cheating on her, so she chucks him out, finds solace with her atypical camp eighties friend, and decides to get a 'roomie'.After lots of normal people fail her vetting for prefect room mate, she opts for Jennifer Jason Leigh, who is quiet, but listens, and listens, and walks around the apartment with her top off a lot of the time.But hey ho, the boyfriend comes back, so Leigh decides to watch Fatal Attraction, Unlawful Entry, Pacific Heights, and A Kiss Before Dying, in order to get ideas of getting a new apartment in a nice middle class area.Unfortunately she seems more interested in the bad guys, so opts for the psycho route.She starts to copy Fonda, dressing like her and becoming obsessed with her, and although Fonda knows something isn't right with her,she just goes with it.After all,chucking her out wouldn't make a good thriller would it?.In the late eighties and early nineties, these psycho films were everywhere.
The isolation is only psychological, the villain could be anyone's neighbor and the extents of her craze would make you wish to live as far as possible from her.And Jennifer Jason-Leigh is perfectly cast as the girl-next-door villain, Hedra, the word next- door taking all its promisingly horrific meaning since she plays the roommate, the one who shares the apartment, the titular "single white female" being Allison played by a lovely Bridget Fonda.
Single White Female (1992): Dir: Barbet Schroeder / Cast: Bridget Fonda, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Steven Weber, Peter Friedman, Stephen Tobolowski: Engaging thriller with a title that references the relationship status of one female while symbolizing the emptiness of the other.
This has got to be one of the suspense-thriller movies that caught my eye with the title itself.Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh are spectacular in this edge-of-your-seat thriller.
Leigh plays Heddie/Ellen,a nut who masturbates and makes it seem like she has a partner.Allison is played by Fonda,a young woman who just broke up with her two-timing boyfriend Sam, who is played by Steven Weber,and is looking for a roommate to fill her empty room.After many applicants Heddie comes around and Allison finds her to be perfect.But later on she's proved wrong.Allison notices Heddie wearing her same type of clothes, same hairstyle, and life.It's unfortunate for Heddie.
Bridget Fonda plays the protagonist, the insecure and youthful Allison, and Jennifer Jason Leigh her roommate Hedy, who is a quick-tempered and manipulative country girl.
Her change of name can be seen as an attempt to blot out her past and her copying of Allison's looks and mannerisms as being rooted in her desire to recreate her identity as a twin, an identity of which she was robbed by her sister's death.In films of this nature, the most important role is that of the villain, and while Bridget Fonda is certainly good as Allison, the real star is Jennifer Jason Leigh who gives a splendidly creepy performance as Hedy, the shy girl who suddenly turns into an obsessive killer; like Close and de Mornay she is even able to create a certain amount of sympathy for her character.
Allie finds comfort with gay actor neighbour Graham Knox (Peter Friedman), but needing both company and money to keep the apartment she places an ad saying "swf (single white female) seeking roommate", and after a few meetings she finds shy and friendly Hedra 'Hedy' Carlson (Road to Perdition's Jennifer Jason Leigh).
Jennifer Jason Leigh makes a great psycho and Briget Fonda plays a great good guy.I loved the apartments, something about New York apartments are so cool. |
tt1840417 | The Words | Clayton Hammond (Dennis Quaid), a famous author, attends a public reading of his new book, The Words, centered on Rory Jansen (Bradley Cooper), an aspiring writer who lives in New York City with his girlfriend, Dora (Zoe Saldana). With the help of his father (J. K. Simmons), Rory gets a job as a mail supervisor in a literary agency and attempts to sell his first novel, which is repeatedly rejected by publishers.After living together for some time, Rory and Dora marry and, during their honeymoon in Paris, Dora presents Rory with a gift, an old briefcase from an antiques store. Returning to America, Rory finds an old but masterfully written manuscript in the briefcase with a central character named Jack. Rory types the manuscript into his laptop. Later, while using the laptop, Dora happens upon the novel and reads it. Assuming her husband wrote it, Dora encourages him to meet with a publisher, Joseph Cutler (eljko Ivanek), who offers Rory a contract after reading the manuscript, which Rory accepts. The book is a hit and Rory becomes famous.At this point, Hammond takes a break from the reading and goes backstage, where he is introduced by his agent (John Hannah) to Daniella (Olivia Wilde), a student and amateur writer who wants to interview him and notes that he is separated from his wife, although he still wears a wedding ring. Hammond agrees to meet her after the ceremony and returns to the stage, where he continues to read the book.The second part of the reading details Rorys encounter with an unnamed old man (Jeremy Irons) in New York City's Central Park, who reveals himself as the true author of the manuscript and that it was based on his life in Paris. Irons's character explains that he was a young man (played by Ben Barnes) when first stationed in France by the US Army in the final days of World War II where he fell in love with Celia (Nora Arnezeder), a French waitress. They eventually married and had a daughter, but the baby died shortly after birth. Unable to cope with the loss, Celia left him and moved to her parents' house. He then used his pain as inspiration to write the manuscript, which he took to Celia while visiting her at her parents home. She found the story so moving that she chose to return to him. However, she unintentionally left the manuscript in a briefcase on the train after her trip back to Paris, thereby losing it. The scene shifts to the present and the old man explains that he and Celia tried to repair their marriage but they eventually divorced. Irons's character leaves Rory sitting alone on a park bench.The public reading ends and Hammond tells his fans they must buy the book to learn how it ends. Daniella then accompanies Hammond back to his apartment where she pressures him into telling her more. Hammond explains that Rory tells the truth about the creation of the story, first to his wife and then to Cutler, his publisher. Also, Rory tells Cutler he wants to credit the old man as the true author. Cutler angrily advises against this as it would severely damage both their reputations and recommends giving the old man a share of the book's profits instead.Rory then seeks out the old man to pay him and finds him working in a plant nursery. Irons's character refuses the money but, after doing so, reveals that while once riding a train to work, years after his divorce, he spotted Celia with a new husband and a baby girl at a train station. The old man points out that people always move on from their mistakes as Rory will too.Daniella continues to pressure Hammond for more details. He reveals that the old man dies not long after Rorys second meeting with him along with the secret about who the manuscript's author really is. However, Rory cant move on emotionally and is tormented by nightmares until he focuses his grief on another book, one that allows him to tell the true story of the manuscript.Impressed with this, Daniella passionately kisses Hammond on the mouth but he pulls away, apparently unsure about whether to become romantically involved with another woman. However, in that moment, he remembers Rory lying in Dora's arms as she tells him everything will be alright, suggesting The Words is an autobiographic book with Rory as Hammond's surrogate. | dramatic, romantic | train | imdb | Hammond's reading takes us into the life of his character, Rory Jansen (Bradley Cooper), a young author struggling to publish his books make ends meet.
Rory publishes the manuscript under his own name and struggles with the repercussions, while in "real life," Hammond flirts with a young college student named Daniella (Olivia Wilde) at his sophisticated book reading.
The story expands when the true author of Jansen's novel (Jeremy Irons, the "Old Man") approaches Jansen and reveals his heart-wrenching account of the loss of his manuscript and family.
It is telling of our culture to pass by a story, full of such raw, human, emotion, with dis-contempt and frailty.'The Words' is a movie about life, mistakes and the pain we can all feel inside, and it is this ability to relate that makes it so powerful.
He is perfect as the young 'old man' in Paris after the war.I almost never like stories within a story, now do I like stories about authors or actors, they always seem so navel-gazing, but this movie trumps all of those problems in such an amazing excellent way.
The narrator (good choice for Dennis Quaid, especially for His voice) will read for You, Jeremy Irons ("the old man"-a wonderful play of course), Bradley Cooper (just slightly under the other two great actors), Dennis Quaid, Zoe Saldana (good enough), Olivia Wilde (bad choice), Ben Barnes (nice play) and the others, will told the story in a great acting.
However, if you are able to enjoy a movie in spite of silly reviewers questioning the ending, the plot twists, or perhaps and don't require countless Dukes of Hazard-style car chase scenes and seeing the nude bodies of the leading ladies...
This film is about a young struggling writer who makes it big with a manuscript that he did not write."The Words" tells the tale of a struggling writer who has to face moral choices after stealing a manuscript.
While subdued and a little slow-moving, THE WORDS is a good--and not too heavy-handed--modern morality tale of how one serious act of dishonesty irreversibly affects a writer's entire life and career.
Along with "the old man"'s embedded tale, the conversations between best-selling author Clay Hammond and fan/aspiring author Daniella are easily the most engaging aspects of this film.Anyone with interests in fiction writing, the publishing industry, and/or related subjects will probably find THE WORDS a compelling enough film; those without such interests, however, may find it pretty dull.
Jeremy Irons is marvellously convincing as an old man, Dennis Quaid is gut-wrenching as a man haunted by his regrets, Brad Coooper, Olivia Wilde, Zoe Saldana, and the beautiful Nora Arnezeder are all superb as the main players in this film, which will be difficult for anyone who sees it ever to forget.
The cast have all impressed me in previous films; so, I was anxious to watch it.But, the story doesn't even really get going until almost halfway through; and, you would think that we would be compelled to feel something for the characters by then...
This leads to...Story Two, the main story, which shows an author's solitary life is not a romantic one, unless you're handsome Bradley Cooper who plays Rory, a writer who has difficulty with his next novel now.
That is until one day when his loving wife ( Zoe Saldana ) buys him an antique briefcase which happens to contain a lost manuscript by another nameless writer, henceforth named the Old Man ( Jeremy Irons ).
This, of course, leads our conflicted Rory to a moral and ethical crossroads and takes us to...Story Three, in which a young WWII soldier falls for a French woman, played by Ben Barnes and Nora Arnezeder, who love and suffer as beautifully as they look.
It's reassuring, in an age of big budget blockbusters and banal romantic comedies, to have a super film such as The Words that depends on a mature multi layered script and fine acting to bring to the screen a compelling story.I normally would go into a film when discussing it,but I don't want to be a spoiler in this case.
In New York, the aspirant writer Rory Jansen (Bradley Cooper) has written a novel but the editors do not accept to publish it since the story is intimist and non-commercial.
Rory seats on the bench again and the old man tells a dramatic story of pain and loss to him."The Words" is an excellent movie about words and the thin line between fiction and reality.
The writers and directors Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal make an outstanding work supported by a fantastic cast with the names of Jeremy Irons, Bradley Cooper, Dennis Quaid, Zoe Saldana, Olivia Wilde and J.K. Simmons.
The movie of choice this time is Bradley Cooper's latest film entitled the Words, a tale about a struggling writer that discovers a story unlike any he has read.
This act of having the Old Man, Jeremy Irons, tell the tale of Rory's novel, helps to explain how such a feat was created.
The authors (and directors and actors in the film) Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal offer their audience a cinematic experience in the manner in which writers think and work, a story that goes beyond 'words' to philosophy and in the telling of this layered tale of a story about a story about a story they honor the intelligence of the viewer - a refreshing stance in this time of sci-fi, comic book, potty mouth slapstick etc films that crowd the marquees and bring in the bucks.Much of the joy of the film is in the telling: we are left to figure out just what is reality and what is fiction, what is original and what is plagiarism, and who in the final analysis is telling the real tripartite story we have witnessed.
The story is narrated by Clay Hammond (Dennis Quaid) who has written a book about a man Rory (Bradley Cooper) who found fame after years of frustration as a blocked writer when he discovered an old manuscript in a valise and falls in love with the story, copies it verbatim, has it published, and gains fame and fortune - yet always is concerned that he plagiarized some unknown writer's work.
We are left wonder what is fact and what is fiction, and the question is posed as to what have we really have observed.The actors from each section of this tripartite tale offer exemplary performances: Bradley Cooper and Zoë Saldaña make a credible couple caught up in the frustrations of an early writer's career, Jeremy Irons is solid as are the characters in the life he has described with written words (Ben Barnes and Nora Arnezeder), the various publishing industry people (Zeljko Ivanek, Ron Rifkin), and smaller parts by Liz Stauber, J.K. Simmons, Olivia Wilde and others.
The main plot line follows Rory Jansen, a young man struggling to find himself as a writer—that is, until he finds a story he didn't write and gets it published.
None other than Dennis Quaid, who is also portrayed as a writer in the film.I will say that I thought Rory's struggle to find himself as a writer was portrayed pretty well through the screen writing and by Cooper's acting.
And I think the fact that he looked like the average human while he was writing symbolized that the only time Rory was truly himself was when he was writing, when he was at home with the words—which, I think, is a huge part of this film.The ending, without giving anything away, is very ambiguous, to say the least.
In my opinion, I do think this kind of story calls for an ending like this, no matter how annoying it may be to some viewers.As previously mentioned, I'm not a huge fan of the stars in this film.
And yes, the plot line is obviously important, but I felt like the writers could have done something more with Daniella's character so that it wouldn't feel like she was awkward and useless.I would recommend The Words to anyone who wants to be a writer—there are a lot of lessons to be learned from this film.
The idea is new and it makes me feel that there are still great stories to be illustrated.Telling the story in a mysterious way is an advantage ,I suppose; because it provokes a kind of desire inside you for following the characters and guessing what is the real story behind these words..
***SPOILERS*** What is a story within a story movie about a struggling writer Rory Jansen, Bradley Cooper, who comes up with a best seller that he found in a battered suitcase in a Paris gift shop while on his honeymoon with his wife Dora,Zoe Saldana.
It turns out that the parson who in fact did write the story only known as "the Old Man", Jeremy Irons, comes out of hiding, for the last 50 or so years, and makes life a living hell for him.
The confusion goes on until the final minutes of the movie as Hammond tells his story about the life and times of Rory Jenson to a girl that he just met Daniella, Olivia Wlde, who's soon to realize his secret identity of Rory Jansen!
As for the "Old Man" he's completely out of it throughout the entire film in his greenhouse where by growing plants and flowers as he tries to forget his past that Rory or better yet Hammoond dug up with the book that he wrote!Strang confusing but interesting movie that leaves you hanging in the end to just what the hell is going on in it about love found love lost and finally love forgotten in the case of the "Old Man" who now becomes the main obsession in Rory or Hammond's life.
It's when the "Old Man" who's heart couldn't take it, the book that he wrote that was stolen right from under his nose, anymore and suddenly died that both Hammond, or the fictitious Rory Jansen, finally got his act together and continued his life as the great American writer that he knows in his heart of hearts that he isn't.
"The Words" is a 2012 film starring Dennis Quaid, Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Irons, and Olivia Wilde, written and directed by Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal."The Words" begins with an author, Clay Hammond (Quaid) reading part of his book in front of a live audience.
He tells the story of a struggling young writer, Rory (Cooper) who is a good writer, but can't seem to get his work published.
Finally he retypes it and passes it off as his own, and enjoys great success.One day sitting in the park, he meets an Old Man (Irons) who compliments him on his work, and says he has a story of his own.
The Old Man says, "It's about a man who wrote a book and the pis**-ant who stole it." This is a beautiful film, a story within a story within a story - there's the scenario of Hammond reading his book and talking with the reporter, there's Rory's story as told in the book The Words, and the Old Man's story that he wrote -- with wonderful performances by everyone involved, which includes Olivia Wilde as a reporter who wants more information from Hammond and Zeljko Ivanek as Rory's publisher.The film asks the question, can we live with our mistakes and move on, or are we always tainted by them?
This is far from perfect in filmmaking terms, but as far as a drama goes, it's smart enough to keep you in-tuned, which is sometimes the biggest battle for dramas.The plot begins with author Raymond Hammond (Dennis Quaid), giving a public reading of his newest novel titled "The Words," about a young writer named Rory Jansen (Bradley Cooper), who has never been given the time of day by any publisher because his novel is seen as too ambitious, subtle, and experimental for the mainstream public.
His father (J.K. Simmons) sees him as immature and clinging to a dead-dream, reluctantly loaning him money, his wife Dora (Zoe Saldana) believes in him but doesn't see his dream going very far either, and Rory is beginning to question if being a writer is even worth it in the long-run.After Dora buys him an old accordion folder, Rory discovers it houses an entire story, handwritten, and complete with misspellings and a chillingly personal vibe.
Soon, Rory's novel is on bookshelves everywhere, but the guilt of plagiarism will come back to haunt him in the form of subtle, quietly manipulative confrontation.The brief introduction with Quaid, dare I say, unfortunately results in a story of its own, as he becomes romantically involved with Daniella (Olivia Wilde), an amateur author who wants an interview.
As a prolific writer, who is constantly thinking about ways to innovate my work and attract new readers, I can sympathize with Rory on a number of things on a personal level.The second is simply not being good enough, which will prove its thematic relevance throughout the whole story.
However, the film is composed of great performances, is never boring, features dark, clear cinematography that gives it an indescribably poetic feel, and features themes and commentary that will undoubtedly resonate with writers.Starring: Bradley Cooper, Zoe Saldana, Dennis Quaid, and Olivia Wilde.
Mostly because nothing happens and when something does happen, we know exactly what it is because we've been anticipating it for half the movie.Anticipate is likely too strong of a word as it can mean "look forward to." We don't so much look forward to the expected outcomes as sit quietly and very patiently in our theatre seats awaiting some kind of plot development.The opening third of the film is spent on the relationship between Rory and Dora (Zoe Saldana).
The story had a lasting impression on me after the movie was over and I kept wondering about it.IMMERSION: There's something about the way the characters are brought out that makes it all feel real.
Plus the background score feels like it's bringing out the story more clearly rather than just something playing in the background.OVERALL: A great movie experience.
I wanted some closure that would have connected the brilliance of the old man's novel which could have ultimately directly affected me.Perhaps, have me question my life more in depth, or even give an unorthodox inspiration for me (& viewers) to write such a great work of fiction (in the perpetual process).I think to a certain extent we all pass through from what's real and fiction.
2) To have a foundation "grant" large enough to build my dwellings (the reason I'm going to school) down the interior corridor of America for Native Americans and other nomadic people - "Heck, yeah." 3) But more than anything - and perhaps it is only a woman's response - but to be "held" in a Real hug and simply allowed to cry all the turmoil out, would be worth more to the Heart than "take a plant" or "Sir, I liked your book."Beyond that - Truly one of the most inspired movies I have ever seen AND probably the most honest.Could money ever make a man love a woman more than the Words she inspired?
I don't know how this movie ended up in my watch-list (probably because of the amazing Jeremy Irons) but I am so upset having wasted time on it I actually decided to write a review about it.
I don't want to sound like a filthy hipster, but if you give this movie more that a generous 6, you've probably not seen more that 10 films in your whole life..
I also really liked the message that the story tells, in the words on the old man, when he reflects on the reasons for his pain in life.Amazing performance by all the actors.Surprised the movie was rated bad on rotten tomatoes.
The movie involves three different stories with characters that are all tied to each other in the same main big story, referring to a man who wants to be a great writer, the old man who actually wrote the story that takes the writer to be famous and the story of a writer who reads the story of them two.
Whether you are reading the words yourself, hearing them narrated, watching the inspiring events, or hearing the tale from the one that experienced them, each unique perspective reinforces the diversity with which life and its choices are experienced differently by all who come in contact with them.This is what I see in this movie.
A story-within-a-story-within-a-story is the best way I can describe it and its cleverly done, following Bradley Cooper as a struggling writer who finds an old manuscript in a bag and before he knows what he's doing writes the entire thing up on his computer and then passes it off as his own.
Other than Olivia Wilde (miscast, I suppose, since I loved her in other movies), everyone acted beautifully, especially Ben Barnes, who brought his character to life, whose emotions need not be expressed in words but on his face.
The stories inspired by his wife, became more important than his wife, and his life was forever changed.B. Rory Jansen (Bradley Cooper) made a choice to steal from another man.
But that was just my feeling at the end of this sensitive movie, and you are allowed to ignore it!Anyway, I have to tell the Jeremy Irons is simply astonishing as the Old Man and pays all the ticket value.
Unfortunately, the performance is dull too, which comes as a bit of a shock considering the cast it contains like Bradley Cooper, Denis Quaid, Jeremy Irons, Zoe Saldana and Olivia Wilde.
If you look forward to seeing this movie because of Bradley Cooper, Dennis Quaid, or Olivia, honestly The Words is not their best performance, if not their worst.
In other words, the kind of real life story that creates a story like the one Rory is getting credit for. |
tt0047985 | The Desperate Hours | The Griffin brothers, Hal and Glenn, and their accomplice Sam Kobish have escaped from the state prison. An all-points bulletin is issued for them as they are armed and dangerous. Their destination is a quiet neighborhood where they can hide for a day or two. They plan to take a family hostage, preferably one with children as the parents will be more likely to cooperate. Driving a stolen car, they look for a house.Dan and Ellie Hilliard, together with their daughter Cindy and son Ralphie, are just finishing breakfast. Cindy is nineteen and wants to get married. But Dan doesn't like her boyfriend, Chuck. Ralphie leaves for school but neglects to put his bicycle in the garage. Cindy rides to work with her father, who lectures her on the way about Chuck.Once her family is gone, Ellie turns on a portable radio and takes it with her while she straightens the house. The doorbell rings and she goes to answer it. Glenn Griffin is outside, wanting directions. While she is trying to help him, Kobish enters the house from the unlocked kitchen door. Ellie is quickly overpowered. Obviously terrified, she does her best to answer questions. Hal backs Ellie's car out of the garage and replaces it with their stolen one before closing the garage doors. Glenn gives him the radio and tells him to listen for the news.Glenn forces Ellie to tell him where their valuables and cash are hidden. Hal finds a gun in her closet so now both brothers are armed. Kobish, who is brain-damaged, is angry because he doesn't have a gun. He goes into Ralphie's room to play with the toys. In frustration, he knocks most of them on the floor.Glenn forces Ellie to make a person to person telephone call, Mr. James to Mrs. James. He talks to his girlfriend, who is holding money for him. She agrees to bring it to the Hilliard house at midnight, after which time the criminals will leave.Dan and Cindy are the first to arrive home. He goes to put Ellie's car in the garage and notices the stolen one. Puzzled, they go inside and are immediately taken prisoner. Dan instantly promises the criminals all his money if they will leave at once. Glenn laughs and says he doesn't have enough money to tempt them.Meanwhile, the police have a tail on Glenn's girlfriend as she travels. They order that she is not to be pulled over for any traffic violation so she can lead them to him.Ralphie accuses Kobish of wrecking one of his toy planes. He gets the other one and deliberately breaks it. Kobish goes for him and Dan intervenes. He is slightly injured, with a cut on his head.The HIlliards are locked in Dan and Ellie's bedroom. He intends to cooperate so they will not be harmed. He fears if there is a police shootout, he and his family will be injured or killed.Chuck arrives for Cindy. She is allowed to leave after being warned that if she brings the police, her family will be killed. Chuck knows something is wrong and thinks it is her father. He wants to have it out with Dan but Cindy dissuades him.Glenn sends Dan out in Ellie's car for gas, newspapers, and whiskey. He is tempted to call the police but is too fearful for his family's safety. The expensive whiskey he brings back amuses Glenn. He deliberately breaks a bottle, accusing Dan of wanting them to all get drunk and pass out. Kobish grabs a bottle and drinks himself into unconsciousness. Hal puts him in their car to sleep it off.The telephone rings for "Mr. James." Glenn talks to his girlfriend. There is trouble. She was pulled over for speeding but managed to get away. However, now she has no car and can't bring the money to him. Glenn tells her to send it special delivery to Dan's office. Unfortunately the criminals will have to hide at least another day. The Hilliards don't see how they can stand it.Ralphie climbs out his bedroom window onto the roof, intending to cross to the neighbor's roof and drop off. But he slips and falls. When Glenn goes to see what the noise is, Dan locks the door behind him. He shoves Hal out the kitchen door and locks it before shouting to Ellie to call the police. But Glenn calls out that he has Ralphie. The family is forced to re-admit the criminals to their home. Dan scolds Ralphie soundly for risking his life by being on the roof.The next morning, Glenn directs that Ralphie stay home from school. Cindy and Dan are to go to work as usual so nothing will appear suspicious. On the way, Dan tells her not to come home that night, to stay at a hotel or with a girlfriend.Dan is waiting for the mail at work, telling the secretary to bring it directly to him. Chuck shows up and confronts him about being a terrible father, but Dan scarcely takes notice. When the envelope is not in the morning mail, Dan leaves the office and goes to the bank, where he withdraws all his money. He writes an anonymous note to the police, stating that the criminals are hiding in a private home. A shoot-out would almost surely result in innocent people being harmed. He pays a messenger to deliver the note.At home, an old man driving a dump truck pulls into the Hilliard driveway. Glenn shouts for Ellie, who says it is Mr. Patterson to pick up the trash. She says he will come to the door to be paid. Glenn orders her to pay him and examines the check to be sure she hasn't written a note for help. Mr. Patterson notices that Ellie looks ill and she claims to have a headache. Glenn watches from the window as the old man opens the garage door for the trash cans. He sees Glenn's mud-splattered car and stands there looking at it. Since a description of the car has been on the news, Glenn calls for Kobish to take care of matters, including getting the check back. He gives Kobish Hal's gun. Ellie bursts into tears as Kobish slips out and jumps on Mr. Patterson's truck as it is pulling away.The old man promises not to say anything. Kobish orders him to drive out in the country. He gets the check and tears it to shreds before tossing it out the window. Seizing the moment, Mr. Patterson deliberately wrecks the truck. He scrambles to his feet and takes off, but Kobish shoots him in the back.Dan gets a call at work from Kobish, who is hiding in a toolshed at the golf course. He orders Dan to come and get him. When they arrive at the Hilliard home, they discover that Ralphie's teacher is there to drop off his homework. Dan wants to get rid of her quickly, so he pretends to be drunk. Ralphie hands the teacher a folder with his assignment from yesterday. Dan takes it away from her, saying he has to inspect it. The teacher flees. Glenn grabs the folder and reads a note for help that Ralphie wrote.Hal wants to leave and take their chances before the money arrives. Surprisingly it is Dan who tries to talk him out of it, saying that the police are closing in. But Hal has had enough. He carjacks a vehicle and shoves the owner onto the street before driving away. He hears on the news that the police are focusing on a part of town near the Hilliard house. Wanting to warn Glenn, he stops at a restaurant. He is looking up the Hilliards' number in the phone directory when a police officer enters. Hal shoots him and runs into the parking lot. The officer pursues him, returning fire. Hal runs into the road and is hit by a truck. He does not survive.Hal's gun is traced to Dan Hilliard as the owner. While the police are discussing their strategy, Chuck is brought in. He was driving around the neighborhood and seemed suspicious. At first he won't cooperate but then he hears that Dan's gun was found on Hal's body. He offers to go into the house and get Cindy out, but is told no. He slips away and calls Cindy to tell her that he is on his way over. Cindy doesn't want to leave her parents but her mother forces her too.Once she is gone and Ralphie is asleep, Dan tells Ellie that when the money arrives, one of them will have to go along as hostage, just until the criminals are safely out of town. She goes hysterical when she realizes it will be her husband. Dan tells her to wait four hours and call the police.A call from the security guard at Dan's workplace tells them the special delivery letter is there. Dan goes to get it and walks home, per Glenn's instructions. Two men approach him and ask if he is Mr. Hilliard. He denies it at first but is taken to the home of a neighbor. Cindy is there, as well as many police officers. They are going to train guns on the Hilliard home from the attic window. Dan begs them not to and admits to writing the anonymous note. They are frustrated because he didn't trust them enough to get help when he had the chance. At last they agree to let him go home but only for a short time.Glenn wants to take the entire family with them. They lock themselves in a bedroom. Dan convinces Kobish to open the front door because he heard a noise. When Kobish does, Dan shoves him out and locks the door. The police shoot him to death. Ellie manages to escape through the back door to the neighbors, but Glenn pulls a gun on Ralphie. Dan orders Ralphie to leave, that Glenn will not harm him because the gun is empty. When Ralphie gets away, it is just Dan and Glenn. Dan tells him that his brother is dead and that he, Glenn, is responsible. Seeing that he has no choice, Glenn goes outside and throws a rock to burst one of the police lights. He too is killed. The family returns to their house, accompanied by Chuck. | murder | train | imdb | null |
tt0043274 | Alice in Wonderland | On the bank of a tranquil river, Alice (Kathryn Beaumont) grows bored listening to her older sister read aloud from a history book about William I of England. Alice's sister scolds her, gently but firmly, for her lack of attention. At that moment, Alice dreams of living in a world of nonsense ("A World of My Own", as she explains and sings to her little kitten Dinah). Just then, Alice sees a White Rabbit (Bill Thompson) wearing a waistcoat and carrying a large pocket watch. She and Dinah follow him into a rabbit hole, where Alice suddenly falls down into a deep well, leaving Dinah behind.At the bottom, she follows the Rabbit into a large chamber-like hall, but he escapes through a tiny door. The Doorknob (Joseph Kearns) suggests Alice drink from a bottle marked "Drink me." The contents shrink her to a tiny fraction of her original size. The door is locked, and the key appears on the table, which she can not reach. The Doorknob directs her to a cookie marked "Eat me." The cookie makes her grow so large that her head hits the ceiling. She begins to cry; her massive tears flood the room. The Doorknob points out that the "Drink me" bottle still has some fluid left inside, so she finishes the last drop. She becomes so small that she drops inside the bottle. Both she and the bottle drift through the doorknob's keyhole mouth and out to a sea made from Alice's tears.On shore, a Dodo bird (Thompson) leads a group of animals in a futile caucus-race to get dry. Alice meets Tweedledum and Tweedledee (J. Pat O'Malley), two fat twin brothers who recite "The Walrus and the Carpenter", in a sequence that first appeared in Through the Looking-Glass. After sneaking away to the White Rabbit's house, Alice is at first mistaken by him for his maidservant; and then grows to such a large size that she gets stuck inside the house. The Dodo tries to help by first sending Bill the Lizard Chimney Sweep down the chimney, and then setting the house on fire; but Alice eats a carrot from the garden and shrinks down to three inches.Alice sings "All in the Golden Afternoon" with a garden of talking flowers, who originally appeared in Chapter 3 of Through the Looking-GlassAlice chases after the Rabbit again, and in another example of a vignette borrowed from Through the Looking-Glass, she finds herself in a garden of talking flowers and strange insects. The flowers at first befriend Alice, but then mistake her for a weed and angrily drive her out of the flowerbed before she can "take root." She engages a hookah-smoking caterpillar who turns into a butterfly, though not before giving her cryptic advice about the mushroom she is sitting on. Alice breaks off two pieces and nibbles them alternately (first growing very large and unintentionally aggravating a Nesting Mother Bird (Queenie Leonard), who accuses Alice of being a "serpent", then shrinking very small). Finally Alice manages to restore herself to her normal size and stores the pieces in her apron pockets.Alice receives mysterious directions from the Cheshire Cat (Sterling Holloway), an eerily grinning feline that can disappear and reappear at will, which lead her to the garden of the March Hare (Jerry Colonna), who is celebrating his "unbirthday" with the Mad Hatter (Ed Wynn) and the Dormouse. Alice, growing tired of their rudeness and wackiness, decides to go home, abandoning her pursuit of the White Rabbit. She is lost and despondent among the strange creatures (See Below) of the Tulgey Wood, until the Cheshire Cat reappears and shows her a short-cut out of the forest and into the garden of the Queen (and King) of Hearts.In the hedge maze garden, Alice meets some playing cards painting white roses red. The White Rabbit heralds the arrival of the bellicose Queen of Hearts (Verna Felton), the diminutive King (Dink Trout), and a card army. She invites Alice to a strange game of croquet using flamingos as mallets, hedgehogs as balls, and card soldiers as wickets. The Cheshire Cat plays a prank on the Queen, who blames Alice and orders her execution. The King suggests that Alice is to be put on trial instead. At the trial, Alice's nonsensical acquaintances (the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, and the Dormouse) are of no help to her. The Cheshire Cat appears and causes enough distraction to allow Alice to eat the remaining portions of mushroom, causing her to grow to gigantic proportions. At this size, Alice scolds the terrified Queen for her rash behavior, but then starts shrinking back to her normal size all too soon. At the Queen's command of "Off with her head!" all the crazy inhabitants of Wonderland give chase.Coming back to the Doorknob, Alice is told by him that he is still locked, but that she is already on the other side. Looking through the keyhole, Alice sees herself asleep in the park. As the mob draws nearer, she calls, "Alice, wake up!" to her sleeping self until she gradually awakens from the dream to the sound of her sister's voice. The two of them return home for teatime; while Alice muses on her adventures in Wonderland and realizes that perhaps logic and reason exist for a purpose, her sister realizes affectionately that Alice is still young, but will grow-up in time. | fantasy, whimsical, cute, alternate reality, psychedelic, entertaining | train | imdb | null |
tt0062467 | Wait Until Dark | The film opens in a Montreal apartment during a cold wintery morning, where a woman named Lisa (Samantha Jones) waits for an old man to sew bags of heroin into the cloth body of an old-fashioned doll. As she leaves the apartment with the doll, we see the man watching her leave, then dialing someone on the phone. Lisa takes the doll with her on an airline flight to New York City, but when, on disembarking, she sees a man watching her, she becomes worried and gives the doll for safekeeping to a man she'd spoken with on the plane, professional photographer Sam Hendrix (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.). The man who'd been watching Lisa then roughly escorts her away. Later, when Lisa calls Sam to ask for the doll, Sam and his wife are unable to find it.Some time afterward, small-time con artist Mike Talman (Richard Crenna) and his partner Carlino (Jack Weston) arrive at the basement apartment where Sam lives with his wife Susy (Audrey Hepburn), who is blind. The two men watch until both the apartment's occupants have left, then enter. The con men have an appointment with Lisa, who'd been their partner in crime prior to the recent imprisonment of both, but they are met instead by Harry Roat, Jr. (Alan Arkin), whom the audience recognizes as the man from a distance who watched and met Lisa at the airport. He offers them $2,000 each if they find Lisa's doll which is somewhere in the apartment.After discovering Lisa's dead body hanging in a garment bag, Talman and Carlino want to make a quick exit, but Roat points out that they have left their fingerprints all over the apartment, while he has worn gloves. Roat is then able to prevail upon the two to help him dispose of Lisa's body (he claims that he killed her because he caught her going into business for herself). Roat firmly tells Talman and Carlino help him try to find the heroin-stuffed doll.The next day, Susy's neighbor leaves for the weekend, and Sam leaves for a business trip to New Jersey. Once Susy is alone, the criminals begin an elaborate con game: In order to gain entry into the apartment, Talman arrives posing as a friend of Sam's, Carlino poses as a policeman, and Roat poses first as an old man and then as the man's son. Using first an innocuous story about Sam and the doll, then a darker one implying that Lisa has been murdered and that Sam will be suspected, the men persuade Susy to help them find the doll. Talman gives her the number for the phone booth across the street as his own after falsely warning her of a police car stationed outside.During this time, Susy has grown suspicious of Carlino and Roat, and Gloria (Julie Herrod), a girl who lives upstairs and is paid by the couple to help Susy with errands, has been going in and out of the apartment, sometimes without Susy's noticing that she is there. After Talman leaves, Gloria sneaks into the apartment carrying the doll, which she stole some time earlier. She tells Susy there is no police car outside, and Susy discovers the doll. Wanting to confirm her suspicions about Carlino and Roat, Susy tells Gloria to go home and watch the phone booth that is next to Roat's van parked outside on the street. If a man goes into it, Gloria is to phone Susy, let the phone ring twice, and hang up. Gloria tells Susy she can signal her by banging on the pipes.On Carlino's next visit, after he calls Roat at the phone booth, Gloria sends Susy the telephone signal, and she sends the signal a second time after Susy calls Talman to tell him she has the doll. Finally realizing that Talman is a criminal in cahoots with the two others, Susy hides the doll. When he walks in with Corlino and Roat following quietly, she tells him the doll is at Sam's studio. The three criminals leave after Roat cuts the telephone cord.When Susy bangs on the pipes, Gloria comes in and Susy sends her to the downtown bus station in a taxi to wait for Sam. When Susy discovers that the telephone cord has been cut, she prepares to defend herself by putting the criminals in the dark along with her, breaking all the light bulbs in the apartment's light fixtures. She also pours a chemical into a bowl.When Talman returns, she refuses to cooperate when he demands that she hand over the doll. Talman has spent the most time with Susy and he has come to admire her for her quiet strength and ability to stand up to the three criminals, despite her disability. He admits to her that he and his confederates are part of a criminal plot and that Sam, as Susy suspected, is completely innocent of any involvement, while Roat is a particular danger. Susy needn't worry, though, Talman says, as he has sent Carlino to kill Roat.However, Roat has killed Carlino instead outside by running him over (anticipating exactly that they would turn against him). As Talman prepares to leave, pausing to say something to Susy as he stands in the doorway, Roat suddenly appears and stabs him in the back.Intent on acquiring the doll, Roat chains the door shut in the dark apartment, pours gasoline on the floor, and sets a piece of newspaper on fire. A desperate battle follows in which Susy throws the chemical solution in Roat's face and she forces him to put out the fire as well as smashes the last lightbulb in the apartment. But the battle ends when Roat obtains light by opening the refrigerator, whose door he props open with a rag in the hinge. Susy, weeping (that she forgot about the refrigerator), pulls the doll out from its hiding place and hands it to him. While Roat cuts open the doll and gloats over the treasure inside, Susy is able, unnoticed by him, to arm herself with a butcher knife.Roat then announces his intention to rape Susy, but, as he leads her to the bedroom, she manages to stab him in the belly. As she stumbles across the floor toward the kitchen window to scream for help, (in the movie's most shocking scene) Roat suddenly leaps out from the darkened bedroom and grabs her ankle. Screaming, Susy wrenches free, but the dying Roat doggedly pursues her, using the knife with which she stabbed him to drag himself across the floor. Susy is at the refrigerator, trying to close its door and thus extinguish its light, unaware of the rag that is preventing its closure. She then gropes for the refrigerator's cord, murmuring desperately, "Where is it?" As the reeling Roat stands with his last strength and staggers toward her with the knife the refrigerator light finally goes out, and Susy's scream merges with the sound of a police siren...The scene switches to the arrival of police cars outside the apartment. When the police enter with Sam and Gloria, Sam finds an unbroken light bulb and we see the room littered with the bodies of Talman and Roat, but no Susy. Finally, as Sam calls out for her, the door of the unplugged refrigerator moves, and Susy emerges from behind it, shaken but alive. | mystery, suspenseful, horror, murder | train | imdb | In "Wait Until Dark", I really felt sorry for Audrey Hepburn's Susy Hendrix: blind, lied to by a 'nice' guy who is actually in cahoots with a murderer, sassed by the bespectacled neighbor girl, and then--after a hellish night spent being terrorized by thugs--husband Efrem Zimbalist Jr. walks in and doesn't even give her a hand.
To its credit are the performances of Audrey Hepburn as an insecure "champion blind woman," Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. as her encouraging husband, Julie Herrod as her helpful (but rebellious) young friend, and a whole host of (well, three) others as a variety of crooks, cops, and impostors.
I'm not saying it's not horrifying in concept—a blind woman being tormented by some thugs to get information out of her she actually might not have—but the delivery is canned and so compacted in this screen version, shot almost entirely in an apartment, is just creaks.You do get the feeling this is supposed to the be the equal of say "Rope" or "Rear Window" by Hitchcock, which just shows you the limits of many directors and scripts because this doesn't have the depth, the visual panache, the psychological twists, of a good Hitch.
Only a handful of actresses were able to display vulnerability as well as AUDREY HEPBURN does in WAIT UNTIL DARK--and she's especially good here because she's playing a woman recently blinded who is learning how to cope with her handicap when the story begins.The plot's suspense depends entirely on how she gradually (very gradually) becomes aware of the danger she's in when three intruders invade her apartment on a pretext--until finally, she learns that what they are really after is a doll stuffed with heroin that has been stored somewhere within her apartment.It's only when the full realization of her situation becomes clear to Audrey that the story builds to the proper amount of suspense this sort of tale should generate.
Before that, things get a little tedious and there's too much interplay between Hepburn and the interlopers before their devious scheme is developed.The heroin seekers are played in rather theatrical style by ALAN ARKIN, JACK WESTON and RICHARD CRENNA and the stage origins of the original are sometimes clearly evident in the claustrophobic apartment setting.Hepburn's blindness is well-simulated, but the tale itself is a bit too contrived to be taken very seriously.
"Wait Until Dark" is a great thriller that works mostly because of it's story line and performances.Audrey Hepburn plays a blind woman named Susie, whose husband is out.
The twists get a bit confusing at times, but they provide good shocks for the audience.Audrey Hepburn does a good job of playing a blind woman, and knows exactly how to act.Men come and go throughout her apartment, and it's up to the audience (and her) to figure out the plan.
Wonderful Audrey Hepburn as a blind woman in a movie with intense sequences of terror and suspense.
This is highly suspenseful and cerebral mystery that tells about a photographer(Efrem Zimbalist)arriving into N.Y. airport when a young woman(Samantha Jones) delivers secretly a heroin-filled doll.Later his blind wife(Audrey Hepburn),finding alone in their apartment is terrorized by a duo of nasties crooks(Richard Crenna,Jack Weston)and a cruel psycho(Alan Arkin)looking for the drug stuffed doll hided in her basement flat.It's a battle of wits between intelligent blind woman and evil villains and winds up pitting two rival,the obstinate blind girl and brutal psycho against each other in order to save herself and destroy them both.The film contains tension,thriller,drama,mystery and shocks ,including decent scares with tense terror sequences especially in its final part,in a creepy denouement,near of the end with a crazy killer trying murder her.Although is sometimes slow moving and stagy,however is entertaining for the continuous suspense.Audrey Hepburn is sensational in one of her best films and terrific performance by Alan Arkin as a grisly murderer.Sinister and mysterious atmosphere is finely made by the cameraman Charles Lang and appropriate musical score by the classic Henry Mancini(Pink Panther's creator score).The film is produced by Mel Ferrer(Hepburn's husband) and based on Frederick Knotts's writings.The motion picture is well directed by Terence Young ,author of two best James Bond films(Dr No and From Russia with love)and again directed to Audrey Hepburn in a failed film titled ¨Bloodline¨.The movie will like to suspense enthusiastic and Hepburn fans.Rating : Better than average..
I'j not a big fan of thriller plays (and I've acted in this one), but well-made with superb casting - mainly Ms. Hepburn & Mr. Arkin with gliding, smooth support from Mr. Crenna & Mr. Weston; superbly lit with a great set and menacing music, it was Hepburn's last film for nine years and she should have won Best Actress (nominated), and I pick Bonnie & Clyde to win ALL the other categories (acting-wise), she kicks into gear and then retires..until ROBIN & MARION nine years later.Anyway, most stage-play thrillers don't make it on FILM, but this one is very claustrophobic and believable because of Hepburn (who studies with blind people for a while).
Excellent,very underrated suspense where Audrey Hepburn shows how mucheclectic she was from psychological dramas (children's hour) to musicals (My fair lady)to thrillers "in camera " like this absorbing exciting "wait until dark" .Directed by Terence YOung (who directed the best James Bond bar one -Goldfinger-),it never gives the feeling of watching a filmed stage production and however it was a play in the first place.Hepburn is wonderful as the courageous blind woman who 's got to fight against killers (and she gets fine support from Richard Crenna and Alan Arkin) in her apartment.Influenced by "rear window" ,it's perhaps not as good as Hitch's classic,but it rises to the occasion.The scene when Hepburn shoots out (and smashes) all the lights is mind-boggling.So is the fridge's terrifying sequence which climaxes the movie.Every cine buff fond of suspense deserves -and must see- "Wait until dark" Sit down and get some scares...in the dark of course..
One of those high-concept suspense thrillers that falls apart the second you start analyzing its plot, "Wait Until Dark" goes around the world and back again in order to set up its premise -- blind woman being stalked by criminal thugs -- and then sits back and lets the actors do all of the work.
Audrey Hepburn makes this a much better movie than it has any right being, and Alan Arkin delivers a weird but effective performance as the off-kilter psycho who comes after her for some heroin he believes is stashed in her apartment.
The film gives away its stage origins -- most of the action is confined to Hepburn's apartment, and director Terence Young doesn't do a lot to give his movie a cinematic quality.
(NOTE: As much as I liked Mia Farrow in SEE NO EVIL(1971) (another movie with a blind woman in a scary situation), Audrey Hepburn certainly matched her intensity in a movie that had a more complex and sophisticated plot.) Great Movie..
One of my favorite films, Audrey Hepburn terrificly portrays a blind woman who unkowingly possesses a doll that has heroin hidden inside and three men who will do anything to get it back.
Alan Arkin has said that his role as Roats in this film was difficult for him, because he, like everybody else, did not enjoy having to terrorize a character played by lovely Audrey Hepburn.
But what an excellent job of acting and film making.Audrey Hepburn stars as a recently blinded and newly married young lady whose husband unknowingly comes into the possession of a heroin-filled doll.
The three bad guys, Crenna, Weston, and the very evil Arkin hatch elaborate ploys to get the doll back.Well acted with great dialogue WAIT UNTIL DARK has aged very well and is worth the rental..
But its suspense is diluted somewhat by a too talky script, the result perhaps of its origin as a play.Overall, "Wait Until Dark" is a good movie to watch once, mainly for the acting achievements of Arkin and Hepburn..
When Susy returns, Mike lures her telling that he is an old friend from the Army of Sam, while Carlino and Roat pushes Susy in a sick game trying to find where the doll might be."Wait Until Dark" is a classic theatrical thriller, supported by a great screenplay and ,agnificent and unforgettable performances, highlighting Audrey Hepburn and Alan Arkin.
I enjoyed this film as a mystery/thriller.It's excellently acted and very well directed.Audrey Hepburn is really convincing as a blind woman and I love Alan Arkin's performance as a cold-blooded killer.The ending is a real rollercoaster of thrills and suspense.So if you like this genre check out this atmospheric mystery/thriller..
They play act their way into the apartment while the man is away leaving only the blind wife Susy Hendrix (Audrey Hepburn).The whole setup is way too complicated.
Terrence young-who was better known fro directing two James Bond films-and the cast, who are better known for being in romantic comedies, show they can also perform a straight thriller.The plot is simple: would-be heroin dealers harass a blind woman looking for a heroin filled doll in her apartment while the husband is away.
Audrey Hepburn is perfect as Susie, a blind woman caught up in a conspiracy when her husband Sam (Efram Zimbalist Jr) is given a toy doll with a very special secret inside.
Filled with joltingsuspense (check out the chilling, if not totally believable climax) and great performances between Hepburn and Arkin, WAIT UNTIL DARK wins as a one-of-a-kind thriller movie..
Both have a similar style though, a style common to many late-1960's dramatic films.An additional, though perhaps frivolous, reason to watch "Wait Until Dark" is seeing both Alan Arkin and Richard Crenna in earlier movie roles.
I remember clearly all the talk of the last ten minutes of the film, which were the most intensely frightening filmed to that time.The script is dated in some ways: villains never swear and instead say things like "buzz off, kid!" The premise of a complicated scheme to locate a doll stuffed with heroin doesn't fly today when heroin is sent by the boat load.Still, Wait Until Dark shows what's missing in suspense movies of today: a tightly knit structure in which the payoff is delayed.
Contrast this to "horror" movies of today, like the recent remake of "Dawn of the Dead," in which you're shown the zombies in the first 10 minutes before you have time to care about the characters.So don't let the dated nature of the material deter you: see Wait Until Dark and re-discover what constitutes true suspense..
What a really great movie!*possible spoilers*1967's Wait Until Dark is a dark and ultimately intense thriller about a blind woman (Audrey Hepburn) whose home is invaded by criminals bent on recovering their lost doll.
The latter says, point blank, that it's the scariest film ever and that Alan Arkin's steely performance as Roat is the "greatest evocation of screen villainy ever." The former is Ebert's point about the "idiot plot", which many of us have seen in movies of dramatic and thriller and romantic comedy varieties, where a character or characters could get out of the predicament or just general situation they're in by saying something or calling someone or, in this case, locking a door.
I can argue both of these opinions- Ebert's since it's not entirely an idiot plot (Susy has some complex reasons for not alerting the police when she can with the young girl, albeit she tries to call via operator before disconnection), and King's since, frankly, it's not totally scary by today's standards and Arkin, while really brilliant, has been topped over time.But so much of this picture works so well because the writing is focused on characters in a set-up situation that unfolds like a game.
(The recent Jodie Foster thriller "Panic Room", which also features a woman in danger from three criminals and which owes a lot to "Wait Until Dark", was similarly confined to a single house, although that was based on an original screenplay, not a stage play).This was Audrey's last film before her nine-year absence from the cinema (due to events in her private life), but she was still clearly an actress at the height of her powers.
Audrey Hepburn is a doll in this movie,and then there's the other {lethal} doll to consider.And consider we shall,being the focal point and core of story.Let me begin by saying that I find this to be among THE best thrillers of all time.It gave me the jitters when I originally saw back in the 60',and still does.Credit the penetrating and piercing music that scorches and scores the background of almost every scene,with such a probing yet simple killer lullaby.Just hearing that simple melody gets my attention.It is perfectly placed and utilized within movie,and adds greatly to intensity of upcoming drama.
The three criminals (Alan Arkin, Richard Crenna and Jack Weston) decide that instead of just bursting in the place and ransacking it, they'll run a scam on the blind woman--and that is where the film gets REALLY interesting.
I recently watched this film late night when I couldn't sleep, and after only a few minutes, I was completely hooked.Audrey Hepburn was brilliant in it, and I think the character of Susy is a brilliant role model for all blind, or recently blind people.
Adaptations of stage plays can cause considerable difficulties for filmmakers.WAIT UNTIL DARK is especially claustrophobic and stagey;but in this case,it actually works in it's favour.Terence Young directed some absolute howlers in his film career(ACTION OF THE TIGER,INCHON,BLOODLINE among them),but he made some very fine efforts too(DR NO,FROM Russia WITH LOVE,the two best James Bond films),including this one.The film starts off slowly and uncinematically,with a wordy,stage-bound setting up of the plot,but gradually suspense and thrills build up unto the rousing final duel between the blind Audrey Hepburn and psychotic murderer Alan Arkin.Both give first class performances;an excellent actor usually known for his comic roles,it's unusual to see Arkin playing such a maniac though he does it convincingly,and Hepburn makes you believe she is genuinely blind even in real life.The film's pulsating last 15 minutes are as gripping and thrilling a sequence as ever committed to celluloid,with superbly well-judged moments of nerve-jangling shock.The supporting performances are OK,but why didn't child actress Julie Herrod ever make another film?
The final scenes between her,Audrey,and the usually rather stiff Efrem Zimbalist Jnr are very well done and touch the emotions.Henry Mancini's score is sometimes effective but seems on occasions overtly familiar to CHARADE(1963),an Audrey Hepburn/Cary Grant classic Mancini composed several years earlier.The film would've been absolutely outstanding if it wasn't for the indifferent opening scenes,and rather more light relief:the only bits of real humour come at the end credits,when we see Arkin credited as ROAT,ROAT JNR,and ROAT SNR(JNR and SNR were obviously impersonations as part of the subterfuge to steal the heroin-stuffed doll),but it's still a very good thriller nonetheless..
At first everything seems to go well as they try to convince Susie of giving them the doll, but Rote is a cold killer and starts to loose his patience...As this movie proves: a good thriller doesn't need many sets or characters to be very effective.
Thanks to the fine story and the excellent acting by Audrey Hepburn, Alan Arkin, Richard Crenna and Jack Weston, this movie never seems to loosen its grip on you.
As a conclusion I would like to say that if you are interested in a very nice thriller with some nice acting, a great story full of suspense and a timeless feeling, than I wouldn't think twice and watch this little gem.
Wait Until Dark is a good- not great- but very good suspense thriller about a blind woman left alone in her apartment being tormented by three characters who think there's a stash of heroin located somewhere inside.
In this classic movie, the elegant Audrey Hepburn is a young blind woman, left alone by her husband in their apartment.
The set-up of this movie is pretty interesting- a group of criminals (led by the extremely nasty Harry Roat - Alan Arkin, in a terrible performance) have to find a dope-filled doll which accidentally ended up in the hands of a young woman.
Limited thrills and suspense in this film version of the Knott play with Hepburn playing a blind woman who is terrorized by three crooks in pursuit of a doll that has heroin inside of it.
So where's her husband (Zimbalist) when she needs him, and how is a 10-year old girl going to help, especially when the gang's chief assassin (Arkin) looks like he pulls wings off butterflies.The movie's adapted from a stage play, so it's no surprise the scenes are pretty much confined to Susy's apartment.
The surface of Wait Until Dark presents an emotional, becoming performance from Audrey Hepburn, a wonderfully entertaining villain by the great Alan Arkin, the perfect urban atmosphere distinguished in 1960s cinema, and very tense and extensive scenes of suspense.
Audrey Hepburn, so great in light comedies and dramas like BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S, SABRINA and CHARADE, and even musicals (MY FAIR LADY, anyone?) completely took her fans and movie-going audiences by surprise as Suzy, the "champion blind lady" who must outwit three desperate thugs, searching her apartment for a heroin-filled doll she doesn't know she possesses, while her photographer husband, Sam (Efram Zimbalist, Jr.) is away.Richard Crenna is at his best as the most sympathetic of the three bad guys,and Jack Weston is a great comic foil for his compatriots.
Wait Until Dark (1967) is a thriller about a recently blinded woman Susy Hendrix (Audrey Hepburn).
The suspense genre was born on this sort of film and should honestly go back.The movie centers around a recently blind woman Susy Hendrix(Audrey Hepburn) who is terrorized by thugs seeking a doll full of drugs.
Wait Until Dark (1967) Audrey Hepburn, Alan Arkin, Richard Crenna, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Jack Weston, Samantha Jones, Julie Herrod, D: Terence Young. |
tt1302011 | Kung Fu Panda 2 | Years before the events of the first film, Lord Shen (Gary Oldman), the scion of a peacock clan that rules Gongmen City in ancient China, seeks to weaponize gunpowder, which had recently been invented to create fireworks. After discovering from the court's goat Soothsayer (Michelle Yeoh) that "a warrior of black-and-white" will defeat him if he does not change his ways, Shen leads an army of wolves to exterminate the panda population to avert the prophecy. Shen's parents are horrified at this atrocity and exile their son, who swears revenge.
About twenty years later, Po (Jack Black) is living his dream as the Dragon Warrior, protecting the Valley of Peace alongside his friends and fellow kung fu masters, the Furious Five. His teacher Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) tells him, however, that he has yet to achieve inner peace. While defending a village from wolf bandits who have been stealing refined metal for Shen, Po is distracted by a symbol on the wolf leader's (Danny McBride) armor, which causes Po to have a flashback of his mother and allows the wolves to escape. Po asks his goose father, Mr. Ping (James Hong), about his origins. Ping reveals that he found Po as an infant in a radish crate and adopted him, but Po remains unsatisfied, wondering how and why he ended up in the Valley of Peace.
Shifu receives word that Shen has returned to Gongmen City and killed Thundering Rhino, the leader of the kung fu council protecting the City, and is plotting to conquer China with his newly developed weapon, a cannon. Shifu sends Po and the Furious Five to Gongmen City to stop Shen and destroy his weapon. They find the city occupied by Shen's forces, with the two surviving council members Storming Ox and Croc imprisoned. The six heroes ask the council members for help to liberate the city, but the two cite their helplessness against Shen's weapon and refuse. Po and the Five are discovered by the wolf boss and give chase, only to be arrested in front of Shen's tower.
Upon being brought before Shen in his tower, Po and the Five free themselves and destroy Shen's weapon. However, Po is again distracted by a flashback upon seeing the same symbol as before on Shen's plumage, realizing Shen was there the last night Po saw his parents. This allows Shen to escape and destroy the tower with an arsenal of cannons. After Po and the Five escape, Tigress (Angelina Jolie), confronts Po over his distraction, who reluctantly explains that he remembers Shen's presence on the night he was separated from his parents, and wants answers about his past from Shen. Though empathetic, Tigress tells Po to stay behind for his own safety. Despite this, Po breaks into the factory to question Shen, inadvertently foiling the Five's plan to destroy the factory. Shen claims that Po's parents abandoned him, and then blasts Po out of the factory into a river with a cannon, where he is presumed dead.
Po survives and is rescued by the same soothsayer, who takes him to the ruins of the nearby village where Po was born. Guided by the soothsayer to embrace his past, Po remembers that when he was an infant, his parents had sacrificed themselves to save him from Shen's army, his mother hiding him in a radish crate and luring Shen's forces away from him. Po attains inner peace, realizing that he has lived a happy and fulfilling life despite this early tragedy.
Po returns to Gongmen City to save the captive Five and prevent Shen's conquest of China. A battle ensues between Shen's armada, sailing in the heart of Gongmen City, and Po and the Five, joined by Shifu, who has persuaded Ox and Croc to help. Po modifies the movements used during his inner peace training to redirect Shen's cannonballs against his own armada, destroying it. Po then urges Shen to let go of his own past, but Shen attacks Po until Shen slashes the ropes holding up his last cannon, which falls on top of him, crushing him to death. Victorious, Po returns to the Valley of Peace and reunites with Mr. Ping, lovingly declaring the goose to be his father.
At the same time, Po's birth father, Li Shan (Fred Tatasciore), is revealed to have survived Shen's attack and is shown to be living in a far-off, hidden village inhabited by surviving pandas, and senses that his son is still alive. | insanity, revenge, flashback | train | wikipedia | Well, I'm happy to say it's Toy Story 2 kind of animated sequel - a genuine good movie that takes risks and succeeds rather than rehashing the first movie.Po isn't as much of a gastro-kung-fu fighter and fanboi from the first movie but has grown in his personality; he's less the Jack Black as a panda and more of a character that stands on it's own.
Furry, Ferocious and Fun!This Memorial Day weekend I watched Kung Fu Panda 2, the sequel to the action packed comedy starring Po (Jack Black) and the fearsome five.
Clumsiness also plays a role in Po's ability to make us laugh, as what starts out as the stylish moves of a kung fu master quickly turns into a blundering mistake that somehow seems to work for Po. All of these aspects are brought together by Jack Black's voice work as he finds a way to bring a juvenile tone to the comedy, while still sounding wise and honorable during the serious scenes.Perhaps one of the strongest aspects about this movie is the balance of story, action, and detail.
Although the movie is only an hour and half long, some might find the final battle dragged out a little too long and want it to just end, this was not a problem for me however.Overall Kung Fu Panda 2 is a sequel that is a must see, especially for kids and fans of the series.
I take back everything I said earlier because, man oh man, I have to admit that Kung Fu Panda 2 was one of the best animated films I have ever seen.In in this installment, we find Po and the Furious Five defending the Valley of Peace from evil when a new threat rises.
Who would have expected Kung Fu Panda to become a surprising, heartwarming summer hit back in 2008, where I thought it had captured the very essence of a typical martial arts film, and distilled it into an animated piece appealing both to kids and adults alike.
Kung Fu Panda 2 succeeded.Although it certainly did seem that passing the reins over to rookie director Jennifer Yuh was bewildering, but Yuh turned out to be perfect in guiding the sequel and the beloved characters in yet another adventure, with bigger set action pieces, touching dramatic moments, and retaining plenty of humour from the get go.
Credit of course must go to writers Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger in coming up with a natural progression of the story of Po (Jack Black), and filling it with a lot more elements from classic martial arts film formulas such as a jail break involving skilled pugilists in captivity, a pagoda, getting beat down, recovery and recuperation, and the learning of a new, ultimate skill.
To think that the worries came from the scribes being responsible for the snooze-fest Monsters Vs Aliens, and Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel.Kung Fu Panda 2 brings back the A-list voices of Black as Po the Panda, now very much comfortable in his celebrity role of the prophesied Dragon Warrior, and the Furious Five consisting of Angelina Jolie as the no-nonsense, hard hitting Tigress, Seth Rogen as the wisecracking Mantis, David Cross as Crane, Lucy Liu as Viper and the underused Jackie Chan as Monkey, recognizable animals used in distinctive martial arts boxing styles.
Also returning are Dustin Hoffman as Master Shifu and James Hong as Mr Ping, while joining the fray are Gary Oldman as the chief villain Lord Shen the vain peacock, Michelle Yeoh as The Soothsayer, Jean-Claude Van Damme as Master Croc, Dennis Haysbert as Master Oxen and Victor garber as Master Thundering Rhino, the latter three forming some formidable masters of kung fu whose city they're protecting falls under siege.The story continues to loosely adopt from historical developments in China, with the premise being set during the time when gunpowder was discovered and fireworks created, but with the more sinister use of the material also for the creation of weapons such as the cannon, threatening the extinction of martial arts with its formidable firepower.
Lord Shen becomes fanatical in plundering metal from the land with the ambition to rule all of China, but for his Soothsayer to predict his downfall to come from something black and white, hence his dogged massacre of pandas with his wolf pack goons, before setting his sights on and signaling his diabolical intent on some legendary martial arts masters.It's pretty amazing how this under 90 minute film also managed to squeeze in plenty of pathos in the form of Po having to unlock his repressed memory of being necessarily abandoned by his parents following a pattern ala Moses with the pandas being threatened with forced extinction, which provides tons of baby panda to milk some scheming, crafty moments to tug at your heartstrings, and you can hear that audible gasps of "oh so cute"s from female members of the audiences.
Narratively it's pretty predictable following the generic essence of typical kung fu film classics, what with the learning of inner peace and new skills involved that resembled very much like Taichi-quan, but what mattered of course is the delivery that hit expectations, and not buckle under that same weight brought over from a successful first film.Then of course there's the spectacular fight sequences, especially when Po and the Fearsome Five combine to protect the innocent masses against hordes of enemies that come with the requisite comedy, from slapstick to lyrical, like poetry in motion when they showcase their respective, distinctive moves.
Big action set pieces are well designed, and I give my thumbs up to how the villain is modelled after the peacock, which in itself brings about the theme of vanity that almost all villains possess, but in the context of kung fu, it's extremely smart to design Lord Shen to move and utilize his own innate weaponry, that of sneaky darts and fans - a weapon that in Chinese martial arts film, is the weapon of choice of the "wei jun zi" - the "fake gentleman" (sorry if my interpretation sucks, but you get my drift).No qualms about this installment, I would put it in my highly recommended list as a sequel that didn't forget about the spirit of the original, and if the filmmakers can continue to capture exactly what makes martial arts movies tick and distill it like it did for the first two films, I dare say we're in for a mighty strong franchise that will appeal to kids, and every kung fu film fan out there who will probably go nuts at how well this animated series managed to get the formula right..
Otherwise, this movie was really entertaining, both as an action movie and a (admittedly aimed towards kids) comedy, with a strong heart in the center.If Cars 2 doesn't completely blow everyone away, Kung Fu Panda 2 definitely has a rightful chance at winning Best Animated Feature (which my brother jokingly called "The Pixar Award") this year.
This installment of Kung Fu Panda exceeded my expectations in all respects.Animation is superb, characters greatly orchestrated, voice-acting is top-notch, fights are well choreographed and there is enough humor to make you feel that you have regained your childhood back!!!
Tigress (Jolie), Monkey (Chan), Mantis (Rogen), Crane (Cross) & Viper (Liu), heavy hitting star power for a children's animated movie.We also have Shifu (Hoffman) returning as a "Yoda" like mentor and Mr Ping (Hong) as Po's adopted father, who provides comic relief and some touching scenes in equal measure.
For every child friendly chase sequence there is a tender scene which manages to appeal to adults without detracting from the on screen colourful antics.Will Po manage to vanquish evil again, find balance and reconcile his past, well the deviations from the norm can only be stretched so far but the journey is the thing and there is much to enjoy along the way.Could well be the the best animated film of the year, Pixar have definite competition in this genre and perhaps mirroring the arc from Toy Story 1 to 2.
And I also admired the fire and particles effects.The voice cast from this movie includes various famous actors (Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Michelle Yeoh, Angelina Jolie, Gary Oldman, Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu and Jean Claude Van-Damme), but their work lacks of any personality or passion.
Kung Fu Panda 2 is a bit darker than the first – as most sequels are – but there's nothing here that will damage your kids.Kung Fu Panda 2, little moments that undermine traditional action-movie tropes to hilarious effect.The film is funny, but never outrageously so, reducing the laughs to find poignancy with Po's parental quest.
True, animation gives you a lot more breathing room when it comes to imaginary battles, but there were fights and clashes in this movie that were just stunning.Hans Zimmer's score is an energetic.characterization Gary Oldman as the film's primary antagonist Lord Shen who is an albino Indian Peafowl and Victor Garber as Master Thundering Rhino, a Javan Rhinocerosia are awesome.The focus on character is so surprisingly sharp that the conflict seamlessly fuses with the rest of the material, becoming accessible toeveryone in the audience.
This film isn't nearly as good as the 2008 original, but for a sequel it works really well; it probably won't win an Oscar (Rango seems to have it pretty much locked up this year, although I didn't like it), but it is still very entertaining and the entire family will have a good time with this movie.
They seriously need to follow such artistic works with richer and more powerful content if they want to make things work again or else they can try to continue with their older better productions like Chicken Run(2000).Above said, there is however one very nice and emotional scene in Kung Fu Panda 2 which I like the most, and it is when Po remembers his childhood and the way he lost his parents.
Well, Dreamworks's "Kung Fu Panda 2" gets it and it handles it with less irony and a little wit.In this sequel to the 2008 computer animated hit, Po the panda and his gang of heroes try to save China from his parents's old nemesis,an evil peacock named Shen.Jack Black returns as the voice of Po, and he gives the film its touch of laughter.
Kung Fu Panda 2Being on the endangered species list is a good indicator of how successful your species is at martial arts.That is why the giant panda in this animated movie must be some sort of anomaly.When Lord Shen (Gary Oldman), a malevolent peacock, learns from a mystic (Michelle Yeoh) that a panda will overthrow him, he orders the race's annihilation.Years later, Shen's shocked to discover a panda, Po (Jack Black), survived the genocide to become a Kung Fu Dragon Master.Welding a cannon, Shen sets out to conquer China and destroy Po and his Furious Five (Seth Rogen, Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, David Cross, Lucy Liu).An ominous origin tale, Kung Fu Panda 2 delivers equivalent slapstick action to the first, but with a new level of story complexity.Besides, why waste your time decimating the panda population, when their lack of sex-drive will do the job for you?
The plot is actually pretty thin and derivative, and is actually where Kung Fu Panda comes perilously close to Kung Phooey.This time around Po is instructed by Master Shifu to find inner peace in order to save China from Shen (Gary Oldman), a naughty peacock banished from China as a
chick I guess – who dreams of taking over the country with his army of wolves and other nasty looking creatures through the introduction of weapons, with which he plans to kill kung-fu!
This is rightfully so because this is a film about animals showing off their kung fu fighting skills creating an action movie for kids.
In the end the story is not the selling point of the movie and acts as a setup for the third installment of the series leaving the audience with an open ending.Entertaining blockbuster animation at its best placing Jack Black back into his comfort zone as a voice actor within a spectacle of action and color.
Po (Jack Black) returns in another kung fu animation adventure which sees our ever hungry panda face up to a new and devastating threat in the form of angry albino peacock (Gary Oldman) Lord Shen.
The combination of action with the impressive visuals drags you right into the fight alongside the characters.Po can get a bit annoying/repetitive at some points as the Jack Black from within is released and a torrent of 'awesome' and similar such catchphrases are rattled off one after the other but this did seem to be toned down slightly from his usual self so I began to think of Po as Po rather than Black in a panda costume.I think this is a case of the sequel running the original very close and I would be hard pushed to say which one I preferred.
Until a villainous peacock named Shen (Gary Oldman) pops up with a machine that can destroy kung-fu and plans to conquer all of China with it.I loved the first film and this is a worthy sequel.
Kung Fu Panda 2 is undoubtedly the best installment from Dream Works Animation.The movie is rich with excellence in all forms,from artful visuals to depthful story to eye-catchy 3D effects.Newcomer Jennifer Yuh has done an appreciable job by making the sequel look better in all aspects,compared to the first.A good round of applause must be given for the writers Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger for creating a back-story about Po's identity and to make it workout so well in the screen that we will love Po More and more as the story progress.Voices::Jack Black does a fine job to bring-out the emotions of Po excellently on screen.
I also loved the lendings by Garry Oldman,Van Damme and Dennis Haysbert.Some +ves::1)Excellent direction skills by Jennifer Yuh.2)3D was showcased well.3)Characters were given more emotional depth.4)Some genuinely hilarious moments which make us jump of the seats laughing.5)Action sequences were well choreographed.Only -ve which i felt was that the movie seemed lagging at times.On a whole Kung Fu Panda 2 is a worthy(or even better )sequel to Kung Fu Panda.The movie has more in store for all the sections of the audience.A highly recommended movie.Must Watch.Ma Rating::9/10.
Now that is not to say the original Kung Fu Panda is a bad movie, actually it is a very entertaining movie and one of Dreamworks' better films.
Jack Black and Dustin Hoffmann stand out among those who return, and I liked how Po and Tigress'(nice voice work from Angelina Jolie) relationship is further explored here, but overall the standout was Gary Oldman who is absolutely brilliant as the villain Shen the Peacock, who happens to be of now my personal favourite Dreamworks villain because he is actually given layers in alternative to being the standard villain you love to hate.Overall, a great film and better than the (entertaining) original film.
Just when you think that every sequel you watch will amount to little compared to the very first, Kung-Fu panda comes out with an entertaining and hilarious movie which had me rolling in the aisles.
The movie is not quite as much fun as the original (which wasn't a great film to begin with) but it does deliver the laughs and action fans expect.The first film dealt with Po living out his dream by joining his kung fu heroes, 'The Furious Five', and becoming the chosen 'Dragon Warrior'.
Jack Black as Po, this time is accompanied by the first movies' cast, Angleina Jolie as Tigress, Seth Rogen as Mantis, Jackie Chan as Monkey, David Cross as Crane, Lucy Liu as Viper, Dustin Hoffman as Shifu...with a few new additions including Gary Oldman as the wonderfully voice-overed (Po's) menace, Shen; Michelle Yeoh, Jean Claude Van Damm, Dennis Hayesbert etc.
The film was funny and dramatic also really enjoyed Po solidifying his place as the Dragon Warrior in The Furious Five also Lord Shen was a great villain and Even Hilarious at Times better Than Tai Lung The film was brilliant amazing Musical Score by Hans Zimmer(The Lion King) & John Powell(How To Train Your Dragon) also Amazing Direction by Jennifer Yuh Nelson(Spawn) Best Out Of The Kung Fu Panda Trilogy 8/10.
But not only does it have good voice acting, but it has a very impressive ensemble of voice actors on the list, which includes Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Gary Oldman, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, James Hong, Michelle Yeoh and Jean-Claude Van Damme to mention but a few."Kung Fu Panda 2" turned out to be rather enjoyable and entertaining, and I was more than genuinely entertained by the overall movie.
However that didn't lessen my interest instead makes me feel like "step aside Sire's, I am in a mood." For the recent 3D-ish spectators, I won't mind stating that I was not lucky enough to watch it on a giant IMAX 3D screen.With an amazing voice crew (including Jack Black as the fluffy panda Po, Angelina Jolie playing the adverse Tigress, Dustin Hoffman as the one smart master Shifu, Gary Oldman this time as the evil Shen and chunky Jackie Chan as the best Monkey around) under the best visual team of DreamWorks studio, this film fires on nearly every cylinder.
The Soothsayer, the fortune telling goat, reminds me a lot of Rafiki from The Lion King, but the way she explains Lord Shen's reasons for murdering his panda family is good and while having a sense of humor, there's a creepy atmospheric feel about her.The voice acting is great and it's awesome to Jack Black, Gary Oldman, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu, David Cross, and Seth Rogen return along with some new ones.
Kung Fu Panda 2 packs as great a punch as the original and also adds lots of laughs.Po (Jack Black) and the Furious Five are back in action to fight evil. |
tt1160996 | The Colony | A terrified woman (Alex Paxton-Beesley) and a man (Eric Murdoc) run in a corridor. They are running away from something or someone. They reach the end of the corridor and they bang on the door, shouting for somebody else to open up the door.In a grim future world, when people have to live underground because on our planet a new Ice Age has begun, the scarce survivors try keep civilization while waiting for a better future. Briggs (Laurence Fishburne) is the leader of one of these underground places, called colonies. Colony 7 has its own problems. The lack of food and medicine make something as "mild" nowadays as the flu really dangerous, which can lead to a disaster of epidemic proportions. Briggs tries to keep civilization in Colony 7. He has organized a system of 40-day quarantine, to give people the opportunity to get over the flu. After a flu epidemy has killed twenty people within the colony, he has devised a system in which people who are sick after the quarantine period is given a choice: they may be killed, or they may try to live outside, on their own, and try to survive by their own means. Not everybody agrees with these system, though. Mason (Bill Paxton) kills Hal (Sten Eirik), a man who couldn't get over the flu completely, in fear that he would eventually return to the colony, as there is no way for a single human to survive for long in the frozen prairie which our planet has become.Sam (Kevin Zegers) has told Mason to let Hal go, as he has chosen to leave. Hal says that it's not a choice, it's survival, and one less person will mean more food for the rest. Sam explains that people from the cities which reached one of the colonies considered themselves lucky to reach one of the colonies. At the beginning, they had to make do with crammed conditions, but then, people's life expectancy started to dwindle, and now, they are not crammed at all. At colony 7, attempts to keep seeds for when the Ice Age finishes have been done. Sam tells Briggs that Mason killed Hal - Briggs doesn't like that.An SOS from Colony 5 is pulsing two days after the colonizers had said that they were disconecting the radio for some repairs. All the inhabitants of the Colony are called in for a meeting. Briggs tells Mason off, but he makes his disgust clear. Kai (Charlotte Sullivan) is Sam's girlfriend. She keeps seeds locked - she has her laptop connected to an old satellite. When Sam tells her that Hal "has died", she is more accepting. In the meeting, people are on the merge of freezing. Two people are trying to disguise the fact that they are suffering from the flue. Sam says she's already fixed the ventilation system, but for them, it's too late.In this meeting, Briggs says that he'll go to Colony 5, and that he needs two volunteers to go with him. As usual, Mason disagrees - if they bring more people to their own colony, food would be even more scarce. Sam offers himself to go, as Kai will be the person responsible for the turbines' maintenance. Graydon (Atticus Dean Mitchell) offers to go, even though he doesn't have much experience on being on the ground. When Elena ( Kristin Shepherd) coughs, the meeting is called off sooner, as everybody panics. She and her husband are put in quarantine. Briggs says that Kai will be the leader while he's away.That night, Sam dreams of himself as a child (Mitchell Nye), lost in a polar storm, dressed in fur, watching his parents' dead bodies. Sam wakes up and goes to wash his face. Kai also wakes up, They kiss each other.Briggs, Sam and Grayson leave the colony in the freezing cold. Sam looks at the overwhelming frozen desert outside the colony, and reminisces of stories he heard when he was a child. Global warming brought the ice age. One day, it began to snow, and it has never stopped since. Humans tried to change the weather back with some tall structures, - they have to pass the remains of one - but they didn't really work. Later, they have to cross a frozen bridge, full of holes. The river below looks half-iced, but it is not considered safe to cross it on foot. In the middle of the bridge, they find a frozen truck. The dead body of a man lies outside, with a gun by his side; inside lies the dead body of a woman which was shot in the forehead - probably killed by the man outside in desperation when their truck got stuck and they couldn't cross the damaged bridge on it. The three of them also find an emergency helicopter which was used to evacuate people. Inside, they find a caption written on the frozen mist on a window "HELL HAS FROZEN OVER". They use walkie-talkies to communicate with their colony: they are told that the couple is still sick with the flu. Briggs tell them to wait until he comes back. They will sleep inside the helicopter and then move onto Colony 7, which they will reach by midday the following day. Grayson looks at two models in bikinis, Nadia and Crystal - Sam and Briggs can see he's enjoying the experience a lot. Sam says he can't remember when he saw the sun for the last time.When they finally arrive to Colony 5, they see a blood trail outside. Briggs says that they have come to help, so that they should enter anyway, in spite of Graydon's concerns. They smell of smoke, threw a light to see how deep the chimney goes, and they go down by the hand ladder. Graydon would have rather wait outside, but Sam tells him to come down with them.Inside, there are pools of blood everywhere. The three men move around quietly. They find a terrified sleeping man who insists in having the door closed. Leland (Julian Richinds) shows them a message they found: a colony has succeeded in making one of the weather towers towers, melting the ice, dispersing the clouds and even bringing in fertile soil. Briggs writes the localization of the spot, which is the only unclear part of the message. The who speaks is sending out a message, as they haven't got seeds to plant on that soil, so they ask for some other colony's collaboration. Colony 7 sent out some people to that place, which lies outside of Briggs' map, but nobody has returned. Briggs wants to take Leland back with them, but he doesn't want to go. He says that there's somebody else in the colony. Some weird noises are heard. Leland pushes the three of them out, and he locks himself in his communications room again.The three travellers wander around the compound in search of the origin of the pounding. They see a man butchering human remains, and some deformed people - they look like the product of miscegenation - feasting on other human beings. The butcher realises they are there and ties to attack them with their butcher's knife. Briggs and Sam shoot some people while running away. They use a hand bomb to give themselves more time to run. Graydon is attacked by several cannibals. Although Briggs and Sam help him, Graydon dies, and his two friends have to leave his body behind.The cannibals run after the two survivors. Briggs and Leader of the cannibals (Dru Viergever) look at each other, measuring their own strengths. Briggs blows out the entrance of the place, saying that the inhabitants of Colony 7 are beyond their help. They have to rest in the helicopter in spite of the danger, because temperatures are descending dangerously. They are sad for Graydon.The cannibals chase them. Briggs and Sam have to hump a huge hole. Briggs uses dynamite to blow up the bridge, delaying them for a while. Briggs has to set fire to the dynamite again. Finally, the dynamite goes off, creating a huge gap in the bridge but killing Briggs at the same time. The leader stares menacingly at Sam, who runs away to his colony.Sam arrives at Colony 7. Mason kills Elena instead of doing the flu test to her. Kai aims her gun at Mason, but at that moment, Sam arrives. Kai runs to him. Sam faints and Mason uses his shotgun to knock Kai down. When Sam wakes up, he is put in the infirmary and is handcuffed by Mason. Mason nominates himself as the leader, saying that he will reduce food rations by half. Mason doesn't believe Sam when he tells about the cannibals.A boy steals the keys to the cuffs - a boy which Briggs had kindly reprimanded before. Sam frees Kai. Mason learns that Sam has escaped. Sam and Kai look for the location of the ice-free area though Kai's connection to that old satellite. They find a spot of a 12-km gap of blue cloudless sky. Sam takes some random seeds and throws them into his handbag. Mason won't let him and Kai go - he doesn't believe Sam's words yet. Immediately, they listen to the bumping made by the invading cannibals. Sam tells that it's too late now, and that he'll be the king of an empty castle. Mason orders everybody to go to the meeting hall in order to defend the colony. Mason accuses Sam of showing the cannibals their location. The power goes off, and back on. The cannibals try to attack them from their back. The cannibals are moving through the ventilating system. Sam kills a cannibal who was attacking Mason on his back.Sam suggests to leave the place, but some of them want to fight. As they are outnumbered by the cannibals, Sam tells everybody to go back to the meeting hall. A few survivors try to leave through the ventilating system, and one of them stays behind to blow everything up. The leader of the cannibals survive. He and Sam fight face to face. The leader looks to be winning - he shows Sam his sharp pointed teeth while the room starts to burn. Sam hits him with an iron bar, beating him repeatedly in a frenzy. Sam is about to leave, but the leader stops him. Sam uses a butcher knife to cut his head in half.A small group of people succeed in leaving Colony 7. Mason stares at the burning remains. Sam shows them a tin of some produce, and he tells them that they have what they need to survive.They are leaving in search of the warm place.---written by KrystelClaire | dark, boring, murder | train | imdb | There are several stories going on, the efforts to survive, the well-meaning but not entirely successful leadership of Briggs (Laurence Fishbourne) the love story between Sam (Kevin Zegers) a young resident loyal to Briggs and pretty botanist Kai (Charlotte Sullivan) who is in charge of the seed inventory, and militant army veteran Mason (Bill Paxon) who wants to install himself as the colony's dictator.
Interesting atmosphere, solid set of actors, good opening of movie which draws you somewhat in, waiting what will happen next.Solid graphics...Film moves on and somewhere in the end of first third of it, CUT!.Its like somebody came in to the set and said: "Wrap it up guys, we are closing!".End is terrible, and over all everything that happens in first part of the movie is blown in the rest of the movie.Nothing special, already seen, and definitely not gonna see it again.
Like I said i don't see what they where thinking, or what went wrong and who is a guilty party.Graphics, actors, set, atmosphere, story, it all holds separately as parts of good movie but all together just fails terribly..
As the plot states, a small colony of survivors attempt to survive an ice age, and some unforeseen circumstances occur.There isn't much I can say about the movie, apart from the fact that I felt that it was definitely worth the time to watch.
I don't know what the makers were thinking, why will you cast Lawrence Fishburn if you're not going to use it in any meaningful way?.The movie portraits humanity after the ice age has begun.
The Colony only explains partially what happened to the planet and why we as humans destroyed it burning all the fossil fuel which contributed to a new ice age, all humanity is lost and the only remains are some "colonies" beneath the earth.The starting point is quite good, the first minutes of the movie too.
He appears to just shoot himself in the foot with the directing the movie takes.It goes without saying that this was actually an incredible missed opportunity to tell a interesting story of the survivors of humanity...
I was really looking forward into seeing The colony, nice couple of actors, huge fan of Paxton, love the Apocalypse theme, love the mix with the winter and freaking HATE, The Colony!!And here are the reasons: the dialogue is pure cliché, you can predict almost every word that comes out of somebody's mouth, especially during those intense moments.
I know there are many gems out there, where you need to go logic free and just enjoy what you're seeing, but this time, it's beyond anything remotely acceptable.The ending itself is truly pitiful, I seriously couldn't believe it whatsoever, I knew it was about to hit its last minutes, yet I never gave up on it, always hoped for something to happen and leave me with a so-so feeling about it.This movie is truly bad, no reason to recommend it whatsoever.
The only other qualities they share involves isolation and some annoying narration by the lead character.Colony has a strong horror aspect to it, including an answer to the question of what might be the middle-ground between human and zombie.
With a low budget of what it had to deal with it turned out very good.It deals with post apocalyptic colony underground while it is constantly snowing outside.
Since in this film there was no help from outside even the remnants of the civilization left in the colony were attacked by a gang of cannibals.If you like sci fi post apocalyptic films this one is for you..
The plot line was far too predictable and reminiscent of '30 Days of Night' which was a far superior cinematic experience for the genre.'The Colony' left many unanswered questions from beginning to end, like how the climate truly turned so cold based on man-made weather stations to the point in the movie where it seemed this effect was being reversed.
By the end of the film I hoped we'd get some answers on that score but that was left hanging.And of course what led to the entire break down of civilization as a whole which is the underlying story of this movie beyond the clichéd explanation that people will do almost anything under great stress doesn't go far enough.I think in the end I was looking for a more intelligent film which is what actors like Laurence Fishburne and Bill Paxton have brought to projects in the past, I'm a little surprised they agreed to do this film on the script alone.
The movie is predictable from the beginning to the end and you just know whose going to die and live, the main character is an Orlando Bloom lookalike who ends up fighting a massive Zombie when he's only about 4ft.
The only 2 good things about the film is Laurence Fishbourne and Bill Paxton who are movie veterans.
I found the setting of the movie, an underground base effectively surviving underneath a frozen world, a good basis for a story.
He delivered what his crew expected from him and the rest was recovered by the other cast members that I don't know anyone of them.Basically, this movie had a very simple concept, a story that was not expanded, but moves on a certain lane till the end.
A simple, decent directed post-apocalyptic story where the actors playing ordinary human beings living in an underground vault somewhere (I did not understand why were there Cyril letters in the walls while they speak English but whatever).
I was looking forward to watching the Colony because it has some great actors and the plot line sounded good.
Worse yet after the extended period of time it takes to inject any real fear or excitement into the story it has completely failed to engage the viewer by an utter lack of character development even after forty long minutes in.
Well, because of Laurence Fishburne and Bill Paxton.The second reason is that the script is far from many allegedly SF movies in a good sense.
I mean there are no genetic modifications in the "bad" characters, there is no "good" character with delirious mystical ideas, although there are a bit too archetypal...Without spoiling the surprise, the one word that comes to mind, regarding this film is DECENT.You might think of "The Thing" or other psychological thriller in the "cabin fever" genre, but this is a quite film.Don't expect too much and you'll be pleasantly surprised..
So the The colony turns from an "end time" post apocalypse movie to kind of a zombie stuff...
environmentally savvy audience are just not going to buy into this.Some of the younger characters were interesting and I hoped something would happen that they could help develop or would help to develop their roles etc.I would have much rather seen a survival struggle through the blizzard's to find this miraculous colony where they had reversed the weather disaster.Watch it once so at least you can join in the wailing and laments on the pathetic state of modern film making..
When the fate of humanity is at stake, you want Morpheus on your front-lines.7.9/10 – Other good, recent post-apocalyptic movies: "Carriers", "Stakeland", "Snowpiercer", "Land of the Dead", "Survivors of the Dead", "Vanishing on 7th Street", "Pandorum", "Blindness"..
I didn't know if it's a b-movie, I just hadn't heard of it before.Eventually chose to watch it and was actually very positively surprised at first, it looked like a well made and good looking movie with decent acting (I had no idea Bill Paxton was in it too).
The movie actually looks very good and follows an interesting plot, but it all goes down the drain in the end.Not gonna go much more into details, but it hits a different gear totally and in my eyes goes a bit cheap.
There is some Relevance to the Times We live in, like the Climate Change Template.But in the End it is much to do about Not Much as Things Devolve into expected Gory goings on and some Plot Holes Big Enough to Fill the one in the Ozone.
Outdoor CGI done well, more contrast with bright environments like the one briefly pictured in the transmission desperately needed, instead movie gets stuck on even more "zombies" crawling through volts and sewers.Good performances from Fishburne and Zeger, the rest is two dimensional, Viergever does a decent bad guy, if he was given a tiny bit of intellect that would have gone a long way..
They assemble a team to investigate, but what they're about to find out will prove to be shocking, to say the least.It's a movie which bases its story and action in a frozen world, where people lived in underground colonies and fight every day for survival.
Like the one obsessed with control and leadership despite of every logic, the so called hero on which the story focuses but his impact is little in the overall outcome, the fearless leader who leaves his people for a "very important mission" and so on.The events presented can be suspenseful, but unfortunately fall deep into the predictable side.
Still unfortunate, this movie bases its intrigue on some disturbing flaws, like tracks which are somehow not covered by the snow and a terrible blizzard, even after prolonged periods of time, character personalities and decisions which are simply mind-blowing, big inconsistencies like the fuse from two piles of TNT, one which burns in matter of seconds and another which simply is extinguished by the wind/snow, or just big intentional plot holes which somehow allow the antagonists to survive/teleport like otherworldly creatures.
And it really is a shame, as it makes the plot even more pointless and less interesting than it already is.Overall, I found a movie with a good location, with some unsympathetic characters which fight for survival, with some intense but unrealistic fighting scenes which ultimately lead to a favorable but predictable finale.
All I saw was what looked like an arctic disaster movie and one that had both Bill Paxton and Laurence Fishburne on the cast list.Director Jeff Renfroe manages to start out with a rather impressive feat of establishing a very interesting setting and a fair story, along with some detailed characters.
I love a post apocalypse thriller and this movie has some great names attached to it; so I got the popcorn out and everything.The premise is good and well set out.
You can nit pick about individuals scenes or elements but I think as a finished product it holds up quite well.The pacing was deliberate and measured although I can see how some people might interpret that as slow or dragging.I was impressed that the movie chose to hold off on some of the worst excesses of action films, its hard to stage fight scenes dressed in three layers of winter clothing..
But after reading various reviews from particular IMDb I knew this was a B-Movie from the beginning, so my expectations were not very high and that is perhaps why I was OK entertained.The atmosphere in The Colony made me think of scenes from Alien3 where prisoners are being chased in tight hallways.
Paxton will always be Hudson from Aliens in my world.But watch the movie if you are into Sci-Fi with a hint of horror, and would like to to be entertained without having to immerse yourself to deep in the storyline.
The rest of the story is played pretty damn fast and with no time to develop some kind of sane plan to avoid all the trouble.With good actors and good theme I give it 2 just because this was a real disappointment of a movie for me..
It barely possesses any unique qualities, and by the time the movie is over, it will be either forgettable or interchangeable with any mediocre films.Story follows the survivors on Colony 7, led by Briggs (Laurence Fishburne).
The overall concept holds some promise, but there are far too many boring narratives and stupid behaviors from the characters to fully realize its prospect.Script is highly foreseeable, down to the sob stories of the survivors, which to the film's credit, would be salvageable if it actually portrays them instead of having guys talk about it.
Though big budget (at least by Canadian film standards), "The Colony", like just about every Canadian movie, got a token release with little advertising.
Some viewers more charitable than myself may say the movie passes the time, but even they will more likely than not experience a real deja vu with the story - it's all been done before, and better..
I can't rate it better than an OK movie, not one I would go out of my way to watch, but decent for those who enjoy the Post-Apocalypse style..
Yet unlike John Carpenter's remake of The Thing (1982), Colony has a great build up but seemingly loses its way and devolves into a stereotypical, violent chaos with not much in the way of intelligent script writing.The premise of isolated pockets of humanity in a bleak ice-bound, frozen land, the mysterious SOS message, the lonely, dangerous search, the discovery and even further tidbit of hope all are fabulous in their presentation.
And, among the other offerings that find their way into 'bargain bins' up and down the country, this one actually stands out - at least a little bit.Basically, the world has suffered another ice age and the few survivors are left to fend from themselves in their 'colonies.' The first thing that makes this movie nice is the setting.
The 'lead' bad guy does tend to simply roar a lot rather than offer any real 'motivation' for his slide in humanity, hence why I saw this film as a weird 'zombie-like' story (just with cannibals instead of the undead).It may be that 'The Colony' is one of those movies that has a concept which actually exceeds its capabilities.
True is, The Colony doesn't invent the wheel new and the story told is maybe a little too standard but what we get is a decent post-apocalyptic flick set in a world after a new ice age hit Earth with some action and good production and solid acting.
It must be said that if a plot has to rely on the main characters making a litany of stupid mistakes to move it forward, then its probably not a great, well thought out story to begin with...and that's exactly what we have here with The Colony.
There are countless places in the film where the story would have ended abruptly, if only the characters made a good decision.
Released in 2013, "The Colony" is a post-apocalyptic movie about life in North America after the next ice age hits.
Yes, the script is predictable, yes some acting is poor, yes this movie has nothing new, but still I enjoyed watching it and I can honestly recommend to viewers seeking decent Sci-Fi / action / horror flicks.Post production is done well and there is no ugly or cheap looking scenes in the film.
i really didn't know what to expect with this film, looked good on trailer but like a TV movie.
However, not long after arriving, they soon see that something has indeed gone very wrong and what they find there is something of unimaginable horror.The Colony's another of these post-apocalyptic movies so you can imagine that there's nothing really original story-wise here.
This, by the way, is the exact same premise as the much better and more creative film "Snowpiercer."Here, however, instead of a train as in Snowpiercer, the remaining humans live in "colonies," dark, dingy underground industrial complexes, while the surface is covered with ice and ever-falling snow.
"The Colony" had all the right ingredients for a great science fiction film, but the end result of this movie was disappointing.
To jump to the story line briefly, "The Colony" is a movie about a group of humans living in an futuristic setting where Earth has literally froze into a second ice age.
I really liked the idea of this movie and it started out pretty good but quickly went downhill.
And, among the other offerings that find their way into 'bargain bins' up and down the country, this one actually stands out.Basically, the world has suffered another ice age and the few survivors are left to fend from themselves in their 'colonies.' The first thing that makes this movie nice is the setting.
However, because of the short running time (probably due to budget constraints), the film does feel a little rushed.If you accept it for what it is - a B-movie - then you should enjoy it.
However, because of the short running time (probably due to budget constraints), the film does feel a little rushed.If you accept it for what it is - a B-movie - then you should enjoy it.
Global warming etc., leaves the earth in an ice age with a few colonies striving to survive.The story focuses upon the tribulations and adventures of the inhabitants of one particular colony.Not only is the acting good but also the scenes and settings are very convincing.
Part post apocalyptic, part sci-fi, The Colony is about a bitter future where people need to fight against cold, hunger and sickness for survival, but also against each other.The first half may not be like much.
The Colony started a lot better than other post apocalyptic movies.
So an average Hollywood sci-fi.Good actors like Bill Paxton and Laurence Fishburne are stuck in films like this.
The movie starts off slow, but there is some attention to detail about how life would be like in an underground Colony.The acting in general is average - the actors did well given the plodding pace of the story.
I wish we never found out because after traveling to the other colony (Both Laurence's character and Zegers along with a 3rd person)the movie breaks down into a stupid c horror film . |
tt0410952 | Charas: A Joint Effort | Charas (marijuana) is being forested in large quantities in north India. A young British botany student, Sam Higgins (Adam Bedi), is missing for 18 months after wandering these jungles. He was on an independent study of ayurvedic herbs. On the urge of his parents, a London based policeman of Indian descent, Dev Anand (Jimmy Shergill), is sent to locate him. Upon arrival in Delhi, he enlists a tour guide, Ashraf (Uday Chopra), to search the area. He does not know that Ashraf is an undercover policeman, sent by the British and Indian ministers that profit from the marijuana trade. Ashraf does not know that the dreaded drug lord they will encounter is his former police chief, Ranbhir Singh Rathore (Irrfan Khan). The area they enter is full of mistrust, foreigners reign and Indians are viewed as suspicious journalists and police. Everyone they meet is somehow involved in the mystery. This is based on a true story. | flashback | train | imdb | A definitive watch for those people who think Bollywood is all stereotypical. In my review of ROG, I had mentioned that I have pledged myself to try and watch every movie Irfan Khan acts in. Charas falls within that line of study, and I am again kept far away from disappointment.Charas, "A work of fiction based on real facts", tells the story of a Heron plantation "somewhere in the hills of India" that produces the best Heroin in the world, the man who runs it and the involvements of other power-players with it - from international Mafia, to cops, to politicians. In midst of all this, a British desi cop is trying to find a lost Englishman with the help of a street-guide from Delhi.The two lead pairs: Jimmy Shergil as the Brit-desi cop, Uday Chopra as the Delhi-street-smart-guide, Hrishita Bhatt as a girl from the Hills & Namrata Shrodkar as a sort of con-girl play convincing roles for the looks, but not much can be said about their performances. For that matter, none of the performances add any credibility to any of the actors, except for the man - Irfan Khan. Afer watching a few movies of his, I realize he has his own style of portrayal, and he just tweaks a few knobs to become the character he is to. He is something like a desi serious Vince Vaughn - one style, but easily fits anything.Charas is directed by the wonderful Tigmanshu Dhulia; he also made the taut Haasil with half the stars of this movie. This man belongs to the wave of directors that Bollywood has seen come-up in the past few years. These people work on a script, and then stick to it. They work on smaller budgets, base their story in the real world, and do not have chorus dancers at the drop of every emotion. These movies make a watch, more than anything for their departure from mainstream formulaic commercialism. And Charas falls in the above-average bracket of movies made within the said. Yes, it is lacking in some places, but quite fulfilling too. And most fulfilling in it's telling. The way the story progresses and unfolds is quite a treat. The characters are also quite deep, each driven with his/her own beliefs. I so did not miss any of the Khans . The songs are not speed-bumps but still unnecessary.On the whole, a definitive watch for those people who think Bollywood is all stereotypical. I've lent the DVD to a friend who "does not believe in Hindi movies".My Rating --> 3.5 of 5. Surprisingly good. From the cast and look of the movie, this seemed to be another one of those "harsh look at reality" films. This isn't your typical underworld/mafia movie, though. It looks at a new aspect of the underworld--drug smuggling in a specific region of India which supposedly produces the best heroine in the world. You're probably thinking, yeah, and that's supposed to make it any less boring? I actually thought this was an extremely intelligent film.The plot becomes more and more complex and convoluted as the movie goes on.It's an interesting search of a British botanist who has been declared missing ever since he entered the notorious jungle taken over by a gangster known as Policeman (who also has a very interesting story), where grows the deadly plant. Songs are lame, except for the title song. Most people will not like this movie, but if you're up for such a fare, you might want to check it out.. A grade movie. This movie had it all, action, adventure, thrills and great dialogues. Irfan was as usual top-notch. Songs were entertaining and the plot was intelligently developed by the director. The cast and director have made this film from their heart. But as expected these type of Hindi movies go unnoticed by indians abroad and the west. They only like to watch yash chopra's-Johar-Khan processed so-called emotional family dramas. But which are actually d-grade romantic chick flicks. because of these movies, bollywood is laughed upon and no taken seriously by the west! Well done tigmanshu, irfan and co, after haasil you have delivered again... keep trying, hopefully next time will yield better box office gains.. So near yet so far. Timangshu Dhulia, in my opinion, is one of the more talented filmmakers in the Bollywood jungle. His debut film, Haasil, was quite an honest attempt at showing prevalence of student politics in northern India. It suffered from shoddy editing but the intensity of the director and the actors were enough to hold the movie together. Charas has the same intensity from the actors, particularly Irfan (my favourite). But it seems Dhulia is trying to make a noveau Hare Rama Hare Krishna, what with the choppy editing and the hippie feel to the film. There are moments in Charas when I was completely engrossed and then the next minute the tension falls flat. It was a classic case of so near yet so far. |
tt0144084 | American Psycho | Text is too large - max size is 60,000 characters.
A white background. Red drops begin to fall past the opening credits. The drops become a red sauce on a plate. A slab of meat is cut with a knife and garnished with raspberries, then placed on a table. The camera moves over various dishes, most of which are very small and look very expensive. The restaurant is furnished in pinks and greens, and everyone is well-dressed. Waiters tell customers ridiculously decadent specials like squid ravioli and swordfish meatloaf.The setting is New York City, sometime in the 1980s. The vice-presidents of Pierce and Pierce, a Wall Street financial institution, are seated around a table. They include Timothy Bryce (Justin Theroux), Craig McDermott (Josh Lucas), David Van Paten (Bill Sage) and Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale). Bryce says "This is a chick's restaurant. Why aren't we at Dorsia?" McDermott replies "Because Bateman won't give the maitre d' head." Bateman flicks a toothpick at him. They discuss various people in the restaurant, including who Bateman believes to be Paul Allen across the room. Van Paten returns from the bathroom and says that there's no good place to do coke in. They discuss the fact that Allen is handling the Fisher account, which leads McDermott to make racist remarks about Allen being Jewish. "Jesus, McDermott, what does that have to do with anything?" says Patrick. "I've seen that bastard sitting in his office spinning a fucking menorah." Bateman rebukes him. "Not a menorah. A dreidel, you spin a dreidel." McDermott replies "Do you want me to fry you up some potato pancakes? Some latkes?" "No, just cool it with the anti-Semitic remarks." "Oh I forgot. Bateman's dating someone from the ACLU!" Bryce calls Bateman the voice of reason. Looking at the check he remarks "Speaking of reasonable, only $570." They all drop their Platinum American Express cards on top of the bill.At a nightclub, Bryce takes some money out of a clip and gives it to a man in drag, who lets them inside. As some 80's pop music plays from overhead, the men dance while strobe lights flash and some women on stage wave around prop guns like something out of a grind house flick. Bateman orders a drink and hands the bartender a drink ticket, but she tells him drink tickets are no good and that he has to pay in cash. He pays, and then when she's out of earshot, he says "You're a fucking ugly bitch. I want to stab you to death, then play around with your blood." He takes his drink with a smile.The camera pans through Bateman's apartment the next morning. Everything is shades of white, with black counters and shelves. It is sparsely decorated, but looks expensive. "I live in the American Gardens building on West 81st street, on the 11th floor. My name is Patrick Bateman. I'm 27 years old." He describes his diet and exercise routine, and his meticulous daily grooming rituals, which involves no less than 9 different lotions and cleansers. "There is an idea of a Patrick Bateman," he says while peeling off his herb-mint facial mask. "Some kind of abstraction. But there is no 'real me'. Only an entity. Something illusory. And though I can hide my cold gaze, and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours, and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable, I simply am not there."Sweeping over the skyline of downtown New York, the song Walking on Sunshine starts playing. Walking down the hallway to his office, Bateman listens to this song on his headphones with absolutely no expression on his face. Someone passes by him and says "Hey Hamilton. Nice tan." Everyone in the hallway has expensive suits and slicked-back hair. He walks by his secretary, Jean (Chloe Sevigny), to his office door. She's dressed in a long coat and shirt that are too big for her. "Aerobics class, sorry. Any messages?" She follows him into his corner office. She tells him someone cancelled, but she doesn't know what he cancelled or why. "I occasionally box with him at the Harvard Club." She tells him someone named Spencer wants to meet for drinks. He tells her to cancel it. "What should I say?" "Just say no." He tells her to make reservations for him at a restaurant for lunch, as well as dinner reservations at Arcadia on Thursday. "Something romantic?" "No, silly. Forget it. I'll make them. Just get me a mineral water." She tells him he looks nice. Without looking at her, he tells her not to wear that outfit. "Wear a dress or a skirt. You're prettier than that." The phone starts ringing, and he tells her to tell anyone who calls that he isn't there. "And high heels." She leaves. He puts his feet up and starts watching Jeopardy on his office TV.A taxicab makes its way through Chinatown. Inside, Bateman is trying to listen to the new Robert Palmer album on his headphones, but his "supposed" fiancée Evelyn (Reese Witherspoon) keeps distracting him with ideas for their wedding. He says he can't take the time off work to get married. "Your father practically owns the company. You can do anything you like, silly. You hate that job anyway, I don't see why you don't just quit." "Because... I want... to fit... IN." The cab drives up to a restaurant called Espace. "I'm on the verge of tears as we arrive, since I'm positive we won't have a decent table. But we do, and relief washes over me, in an awesome wave." Bryce it already seated next to two punk-rock teens smoking cigarettes. "This is my cousin Vanden and her boyfriend Stash," says Evelyn. Bryce kisses Evelyn on both cheeks, and then starts kissing her neck, slightly crossing the line. Bateman looks at his blurry reflection in a metal menu. As they eat sushi, he remarks "I'm fairly certain that Timothy Bryce and Evelyn are having an affair. Timothy is the only interesting person I know." Bateman doesn't care because he's also having an affair with Courtney Rawlinson, her best friend. "She's usually operating on one or more psychiatric drugs, tonight I believe it's Xanax." She's also engaged to Luis Carruthers, "the biggest doofus in the business." Courtney and Luis are seated beside him, and Courtney, slurring her words, asks Stash whether he thinks Soho is becoming too commercial. "Yes. I read that," says Luis. "Oh who gives a rat's ass," says Bryce. "That affects us," says Vanden. "What about the massacres in Sri Lanka, honey? Don't you know that the Sikhs are killing like, tons of Israelis over there?" Bateman tells him there are more important problems to worry about than Sri Lanka. He tells them they include Apartheid, nuclear arms, terrorism, and world hunger. "We have to provide food and shelter for the homeless, and oppose racial discrimination and promote civil rights, while also promoting equal right for women. We have to encourage a return to traditional moral values. Most importantly, we have to promote general social concern, and less materialism in young people." Bryce almost chokes on his drink as he starts laughing. "Patrick, how thought-provoking," Luis says, feigning tears. Patrick takes a swig of his whiskey.It's nighttime. Patrick takes some money out of an ATM. A woman walks by and he starts following her. They stop at a crosswalk and he says "hello". She hesitantly says hello back. The sign changes to walk and they cross the street.The next day, Bateman argues with an old Chinese woman who runs a dry cleaners. Another Chinese man is looking at some bed sheets with a huge red stain on them. Bateman is trying to tell her that you can't bleach that type of sheet, and that they are very expensive. She continues to babble in a language he can't understand. "Lady, if you don't shut your fucking mouth, I will kill you." She is shocked, but still won't speak English. "I can't understand you! You're a fool! Stupid bitch-ee!" A woman comes in the door and recognizes him. Her name is Victoria. He says hi to her. "It's so silly to come all the way up here," she says, "but they really are the best." "Then why can't they get these stains out?" he says, showing her the sheets. "Can you get through to them? I'm getting nowhere." "What are those?" she says, looking wide-eyed at the stains. "Uh, well it's cranberry juice. Cran-apple." She looks skeptical. He tells her he has a lunch date in 15 minutes, and she tries to make plans with him. He tells her he's booked solid. "What about Saturday?" "Next Saturday? Can't. Matinee of Les Mis." He promises to call her, and then leaves.Patrick paces his apartment in his underwear, on the phone with Courtney Rawlinson (Samantha Mathis). A porno movie is playing on his TV. "You're dating Luis, he's in Arizona. You're fucking me and we haven't made plans. What could you possibly be up to tonight?" She says she's waiting for Luis to call. "Pumpkin you're dating an asshole. Pumpkin you're dating the biggest dickweed in New York. Pumpkin you're dating a tumbling, tumbling dickweed." She tells him to stop calling her pumpkin. He insists that they have dinner, and when she says no, he says he can get them a table at Dorsia. This perks her interest. He tells her to wear something nice. He calls the restaurant, and asks if he can make a reservation for two at 8:00 or 8:30. There is a moment of silence on the other end of the phone, then the man on the other end starts laughing uncontrollably. Patrick hangs up.In a limo, Patrick listens to Courtney describe her day, while she is almost passing out from her medication. "Is that Donald Trump's car?" he asks, looking out the window. Patrick's face is blurred through the plastic divider of the limo. She tells him to shut up. He tells her to take some more lithium, or coke or caffeine to get her out of her slump. "I just want a child," she says, absently looking out the window. "Just two... perfect... children."At the restaurant, she nearly falls asleep at the table and Patrick touches her shoulder and wakes her up. "Are we here?" she asks sleepily. "Yeah," he says, sitting down. "This is Dorsia?" "Yes dear," he says, opening the menu which clearly says Barcadia across it. He tells her she's going to have the peanut butter soup with smoked duck and mashed squash. "New York Matinee called it a 'playful but mysterious little dish. You'll love it." He orders her the red snapper with violets and pine nuts to follow. She thanks him, and then passes out in her chair.A conference table at P&P the next day. Luis thanks Patrick for looking after Courtney. "Dorsia, how impressive. How on Earth did you get a reservation there?" "Lucky I guess," replies Patrick. Luis compliments him on his suit. "Valentino Couture?" "Uh-huh." Luis tries to touch it, but Patrick slaps his hand away. "Your compliment was sufficient Luis." Paul Allen comes up to them. "Hello Halberstram. Nice tie. How the hell are ya?" Narrating, Patrick explains that Allen has mistaken him for "this dickhead Marcus Halberstram." They both work at P&P and do the same exact work, and wear the same glasses and suits. "Marcus and I even go to the same barber. Although I have a slightly better haircut." Allen and Patrick discuss accounts. He asks him about Cecilia, Marcus' girlfriend. "She's great, I'm very lucky," replies Patrick. Bryce and McDermott come in, congratulating Allen on the Fisher account. "Thank you, Baxter." Bryce asks him if he wants to play squash. Allen gives him his card out of his case. An audible tremor goes through the room. "Call me." "How about Friday?" says Bryce. "No can do. I got an 8:30 rez at Dorsia. Great sea urchin seviche." He leaves. Bryce wonders how he managed to swing that. McDermott thinks he's lying. Bateman takes out his new business card, which reads "Patrick BATEMAN - Vice President". "What do you think?" "Very nice," says McDermott. "I picked them up from the printers yesterday." "Nice coloring," says Bryce. "That's 'bone'. And the lettering is something called 'silian rail'." "Cool Bateman. But that's nothing," says Van Paten, laying his card down next to Patrick's. "That is really nice," says Bryce. "Eggshell with romalian type. What do you think?" Van Paten asks Patrick. "Nice," Patrick says, visibly jealous. "How did a nitwit like you get so tasteful?" says Bryce. Biting his nails, Patrick can't believe Bryce prefers Van Paten's card. "You ain't seen nothing yet," says Bryce, taking out his own card. "Raised lettering, pale nimbus, white." Another tremor goes through the room. Holding back his rage, Bateman tells him it's very nice. "Let's see Paul Allen's card." Bryce takes it out of his pocket and hands it to Bateman. It shines with an ethereal glow in the dim light of the conference room, even though it is basically identical to the rest of their cards. Narrating, Patrick says "Look at the subtle off-white coloring. The tasteful thickness of it. Oh my God. It even has a watermark!" He drops the card on the table. "Something wrong?" asks Luis. "Patrick? You're sweating."Nighttime. Patrick walks by a courthouse on his way home. Steam rises from underground vents. He walks through an alley, a black shadow under a pale streetlight. He stops and looks behind him, to see a homeless man by some piles of trash. "Hello. Pat Bateman. Do you want some money? Some food?" He starts taking out some money. "I'm hungry," says the bum. "It's cold out too isn't it? If you're so hungry, why don't you get a job?" The bum says he lost his job. "Why? Were you drinking? Insider trading? Just joking." He asks him his name, and the bum says his name is Al. "Get a god-damn job, Al! You have a negative attitude. That's what's stopping you." He promises to help him get his act together. Al tells him he's a kind man. He puts his hand on Patrick's arm, and Patrick pulls it off, visibly disgusted. "You know how bad you smell? You reek of shit. You know that?" He laughs, and then apologizes. "I don't have anything in common with you." He bends down and opens his briefcase. "Oh thank you mister, thank you. It's cold out here..." "You know what a fucking loser you are?" Patrick suddenly takes a knife out of the briefcase and stabs the bum three times in the stomach, than pushes the shocked man to the ground. The dog barks at Patrick, so he stomps it with his foot, hard enough to kill it. He picks up his briefcase and walks away down the alley.A health spa. A young Asian woman rubs some lotion on Patrick's face. She compliments him on his smooth skin. Later, another Asian woman gives him a manicure. "I have all the characteristics of a human being. Flesh. Blood. Skin. Hair. But not a single, clear, identifiable emotion, except for greed, and disgust. Something horrible is happening inside me, and I don't know why." He is lying in a tanning bed now. "My nightly bloodlust has overflowed into my days. I feel lethal, on the verge of frenzy. I think my mask of sanity is about to slip."A Christmas party. A short man in an elf costume hands out glasses of champagne. 'Deck The Halls' is playing in the background. Patrick takes one, scowling at the bizarre costumes. Someone comes up to him and calls him by the wrong name. "Hey Hamilton. Have a holly-jolly Christmas," says Patrick. "Is Allen still handling the Fisher account?" He points to Paul Allen across the room. "Of course. Who else?" Evelyn comes up to them. "Mistletoe alert! Merry X-mas Patrick. You're late honey." "I've been here the entire time, you just didn't see me." A man behind him puts cloth antlers on Patrick's head without him noticing. "Say hello to Snowball. Snowball says 'hello Patrick'", she says in a childish voice. "What is it?" Patrick looks with disgust at the creature in her arms. "It's a little baby piggy-wiggy, isn't it? It's a Vietnamese potbellied pig. They make darling pets. Don't you? Don't you?" Patrick looks ready to vomit as she pets the animal. "Stop scowling Patrick. You're such a Grinch. What does Mr. Grinch want for Christmas? And don't say breast implants again." Ignoring her, he goes to mingle with the rest of the party. 'Joy to the World' is playing. He says hi to Paul Allen. "Hey Marcus. Merry Christmas, how've you been. Workaholic I suppose?" He calls to Hamilton that they are going to Nell's bar, and that the limo is out front. Patrick says that they should have dinner. Paul suggests that he bring Cecilia. "Cecilia would adore it." "Then let's do it, Marcus." Evelyn comes up to them. Paul compliments her on the party, and then walks away. "Why is he calling you Marcus?" asks Evelyn. Ignoring this, Patrick says "Mistletoe alert!", and kisses her while waving a leafy branch.A restaurant. Most of the tables are empty. Patrick takes his reservation under the name Marcus Halberstram. He is led to a table where Paul is already seated, and he is arguing with a waiter. "I ordered the cilantro crawfish gumbo, which is of course the only excuse one could have for being at this restaurant, which is, by the way, almost completely empty." Patrick ignores this and orders a J&B straight and a Corona. The waiter, who looks slightly effeminate and has a red bandana around his neck, starts to list the specials, but Paul cuts him off and orders a double Absolut martini. "Yes sir. Would you like to hear the specials?" "Not if you want to keep your spleen," says Patrick. The waiter leaves. "This is a real beehive of activity Halberstram. This place is hot, very hot," Paul comments sarcastically. "The mud soup and charcoal arugula are outrageous here," replies Patrick. Paul derides him for being late. "I'm a child of divorce, give me a break. I see they've omitted the pork loin with lime Jell-o." Paul says he could have gotten them a table at Dorsia instead. "Nobody goes there anymore. Is that Ivana Trump?" Patrick says, looking behind him. "Oh geez Patrick. I mean Marcus. What are you thinking? Why would Ivana be at Texarkana?" He asks how Paul ended up getting the Fisher account. "Well I could tell you that Halberstram... but then I'd have to kill ya!" He laughs. Patrick simply stares at him with a vicious smile.They pick at their meals. Patrick says "I like to dissect girls. Did you know I'm utterly insane?" Paul doesn't seem to hear him. He compliments him on his tan. When Patrick says he goes to a salon, Paul says he has a tanning bed at home. "You should look into it." Patrick can barely suppress his rage. Paul asks about Cecilia. "I think she's having dinner with Evelyn Williams." "Evelyn! Great ass. She goes out with that loser Patrick Bateman, what a dork!" Patrick chuckles with inner contempt. "Another martini Paul?"Patrick's apartment. Paul lounges drunk on a chair with a bottle of liquor on the floor beside him. Newspapers are taped to the floor of the living room. Patrick picks up a CD. "Do you like Huey Lewis and the News?" "They're OK," says Paul. Patrick continues "Their early work was a little too new wave for my tastes, but when 'Sports' came out in '83, I think they really came into their own. Commercially and artistically." He goes to the bathroom and puts on a raincoat. "The whole album has a clear crisp sound, and a new sheen of consummate professionalism, that really gives the songs a big boost!" He takes a valium, washes it down, looks at himself in the mirror, and walks back into the living room. On his way back he grabs an axe. Moonwalking backwards, he says that Huey has been compared to Elvis Costello, but that Huey has a more cynical sense of humor. He puts the axe down and starts buttoning up the raincoat behind Paul. "Hey Halberstram," says Paul. "Why are there copies of the Style section all over the floor? Do you have a dog? A little chow or something?" He laughs. "No Allen." "Is that a raincoat?" "Yes it is!" He goes over to the CD player and presses a button. The song 'Hip to Be Square' starts playing. "In '87, Huey released this, Fore, their most accomplished album. I think their undisputed masterpiece is 'Hip to Be Square'." He dances over to the kitchen where he left the axe. "The song is so catchy, most people probably don't listen to the lyrics, but they should, because it's not just about the pleasures of conformity and the importance of trends, it's also a personal statement about the band itself! Hey Paul!" Paul looks around too late to see Patrick charge at him with the axe. Screaming, he swings it into Paul's head splattering blood all over his own face. Paul falls to the floor, pouring blood all over the newspapers. Patrick yells "Try getting a reservation at Dorsia now you fucking stupid bastard!" He swings it down again, and again, screaming, decapitating him. "You... fucking... bastard!" He finally drops the axe and begins composing himself. He takes off the raincoat. He fixes his hair and lights up a cigar. 'Hip to Be Square' continues to play from the stereo.Patrick drags the body through the lobby of his building in a black bag. A trail of blood pours from the bottom of the bag. The doorman looks up at him, and then goes back to writing something. Patrick hails a cab outside, and starts stuffing the bag into the trunk. A voice says his name from the sidewalk. It's Luis. "Patrick. Is that you?" "No Luis. It's not me. You're mistaken." He introduces Patrick to an attractive Asian woman. "We're going to Nell's. Gwendolyn's father is buying it. Ooh. Where did you get that overnight bag?" He eyes the bag with the corpse inside it. "Jean-Paul Gaultier." Patrick slams the trunk and heads off.Later, he arrives at Paul's apartment. "I almost panic when I realize that Paul's place overlooks the park, and is obviously more expensive than mine." He finds his suitcases and starts to pack. "It's time for Paul to take a little trip." He throws some clothes in a suitcase, and then goes to the answering machine. In his best imitation of Paul's voice, he records "It's Paul. I've been called away to London for a few days. Meredith, I'll call you when I get back. Hasta la vista, baby." He takes the suitcase and leaves.In his office the next day, Patrick listens to the song 'The Lady in Red' by Chris De Burgh on his headphones. Jean comes in and tells him that there's someone named Donald Kimball there to see him. "Who?" "Detective Donald Kimball." He looks through the office window. "Tell him I'm at lunch." "Patrick, it's only 10:30. I think he knows you're here." "Send him in, I guess," he says resignedly. Jean goes to get him. Patrick picks up the phone and starts having a pretend conversation with someone, giving him advice on clothes and salons. "Always tip the stylist fifteen percent. Listen John I've gotta go. T. Boone Pickens just walked in. Heh, just joking. No, don't tip the owner of the salon. Right. Got it." He hangs up and apologizes to Kimball. "No I'm sorry, I should have made an appointment. Was that anything important?" Patrick gives a vague synopsis of the call. "Mulling over business problems, examining opportunities, exchanging rumors, spreading gossip." They introduce themselves to each other and shake hands. Kimball apologizes again for barging in. Patrick stuffs some magazines and his walkman into a desk drawer. "So, what's the topic of discussion?" Kimball explains that Meredith hired him to investigate the disappearance of Paul Allen. "I just have some basic questions." Patrick offers him coffee, which he turns down. He offers him a bottle of water, which he also turns down. Bateman presses the intercom button anyways and tells Jean to bring some water. "It's no problem." He asks what the topic of discussion is again, and Kimball repeats he's investigating the disappearance of Paul Allen. Jean comes in with a bottle, and Patrick quickly puts a coaster down before she can put it on the desk. He tells Kimball he hasn't heard anything. "I think his family wants this kept quiet." "Understandable. Lime?" offers Bateman. Kimball insists he's ok. He asks Patrick his age, where he went to school, and his address, the American Gardens building, which Kimball says is very nice. "Thanks," Patrick says smugly. Kimball asks what he knew about Paul Allen. "I'm at a loss. He was part of that whole Yale thing." Kimball asks him what he means. "Well I think for one that he was probably a closet homosexual who did a lot of cocaine. That Yale thing." Kimball asks what kind of person Paul was. "I hope I'm not being cross-examined here." "You feel like that?" "No. Not really." Kimball asks where Paul hung out. Patrick names some places including a yacht club. "He had a yacht?" "No, he just hung out there." "And where did he go to school?" "Don't you know this?" "I just wanted to know if you know." Patrick tells him St. Paul's, then says he just wants to help. "I understand." Patrick asks if he has any witnesses or fingerprints. Kimball tells him about the message on the answering machine, and that Meredith doesn't think he went to London. "Has anyone seen him in London?" "Actually, yes. But I'm having a hard time getting actual verification." He tells him that someone thought they saw Paul there but mistook someone else for him. Patrick asks whether the apartment had been burglarized. Kimball tells him about the missing luggage. Patrick asks whether the police had become involved yet, but Kimball says no. "Basically, no-one's seen or heard anything. It's just strange. One day someone's walking around, going to work, alive, and then..." "Nothing." "People just disappear," says Kimball with a sigh. Bateman says "The earth just... opens up and swallows them." "Eerie. Really eerie." Bateman excuses himself by telling Kimball he has a lunch appointment with Cliff Huxtable at the Four Seasons in 20 minutes. "The Four Seasons? Isn't that a little far up town? I mean, aren't you going to be late?" "No, there's one down here." Patrick promises to call him if he hears anything, and shows him the door.Patrick does stomach crunches while watching The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and then does some jump-rope.Nighttime. A seedy part of town. A blonde woman in a blue coat, a hooker, stands in front of a warehouse on a street corner. She has a face that says she's been hooker for too long. A limousine drives up. Patrick rolls the window down as the car stops in front of her. "I haven't seen you around here," he tells her. "Well you just haven't been looking." "Would you like to see my apartment?" She is reluctant. He holds out some money and asks again. "I'm not supposed to, but I can make an exception," she says, taking the money. "Do you take a credit card? Just joking." He opens the door and invites her in. The car drives away.Patrick makes a phone call on a large cordless phone. "I'd like a girl, early 20's, blonde, who does couples. And I really can't stress blonde enough. Blonde." He hangs up. He tells her his name is Paul Allen, and that he's going to call her Christie. "You'll respond only to Christie, is that clear?" She nods.Patrick's apartment. Patrick pours some mineral water into a bathtub, where Christie is bathing and drinking champagne. "That's a very fine chardonnay you're drinking." The song 'If You Don't Know Me by Now' is playing in the background. Patrick is dressed in a suit and bow tie. "I want you to clean your vagina," he tells her. She puts down the champagne and picks up a bath sponge. "From behind. Get on your knees." He tells her she has a nice body, playfully splashing her with water. The phone rings. It's the second girl in the lobby downstairs. He tells the doorman to send her up. He tells Christie to dry off and choose a robe, then come to the living room.He opens the door for the second girl, and takes her coat. "I'm Paul. Not quite blonde, are you? More like dirty blonde. I'm going to call you Sabrina. I'm Paul Allen." He asks both girls if they want to know what he does for a living. They both say no, lewdly. "Well, I work on Wall Street. At Pierce and Pierce. Have you heard of it?" Sabrina shakes her head, and Patrick clenches his jaw. "You have a really nice place here Paul," says Christie. "How much did you pay for it?" "Well actually Christie, that's none of your business. But I can assure you, it certainly wasn't cheap." Sabrina starts to take out a cigarette. "No! No smoking in here." He offers them chocolate truffles. "I don't want to get you drunk, but uh, that's a very fine chardonnay you're not drinking." He goes over to the stereo and puts on a Phil Collins CD. "I've been a big Genesis fan ever since the release of their 1980 album, 'Duke'. Before that, I really didn't understand any of their work. It was too artsy. Too intellectual. It was on Duke where Phil Collin's presence became more apparent." He goes and stands in the doorway of the bedroom, invitingly. "I think Invisible Touch is the group's undisputed masterpiece." The girls follow him into the bedroom. "It's an epic meditation on intangibility. At the same time it deepens and enriches the meaning of the preceding three albums." He tells Christie to take off the robe, which she does. "Listen to the brilliant ensemble playing of Banks, Collins and Rutherford. You can practically hear every nuance of each instrument," he says, setting up a video camera on a tripod. He tells Sabrina to remove her dress. "In terms of lyrical craftsmanship, and sheer songwriting, this album hits a new peak of professionalism. Sabrina, why don't you dance a little? Take the lyrics to 'Land of Confusion'. In this song, Phil Collins addresses the abuse of political authority. 'In Too Deep' is the most moving pop song of the 1980s," he continues, wrapping a scarf around Christie's neck while Sabrina dances in her lingerie. "About monogamy and commitment. The song is extremely uplifting. Their lyrics are as positive and affirmative as anything I've heard in rock." He turns the camera on and points it towards the bed. "Christie, get down on your knees so Sabrina can see your asshole. Phil Collin's solo career seems to be more commercial, and therefore more satisfying in a narrower way. Especially songs like 'In the Air Tonight' and 'Against All Odds'. Sabrina, don't just stare at it, eat it. But I also think Phil Collins works better within the confines of the group than as a solo artist. And I stress the word 'artist'." He goes to the stereo and switches CDs. "This is 'Sussudio', a great, great song. A personal favorite." He walks back to the bedroom, unbuttoning his shirt.He has sex with both women at once. He flexes his muscles and admires himself in the mirror while doing them doggy-style. He makes them look into the camera. They do oral sex, then missionary. Patrick flexes his muscles in the mirror again. Christie rolls her eyes. They do more doggy-style.Patrick sleeps with a woman on either side of him. He awakens some time later. Christie's arm touches his. "Don't touch the watch." He gets up and goes over to the dresser. The women get up and start to dress. He opens a drawer to reveal a collection of scissors, carving tools and other sharp objects. He takes out a coat hanger. "Can we go now?" asks Christie. "We're not through yet."Some time later, he pays them and shows them the door. They take the money quickly and appear to be in tears. Sabrina's nose is bleeding. They leave and he closes the door behind them.McDermott, Van Paten and Bateman are seated in a bar lounge with drinks in front of them, discussing women. "If they have a good personality and they are not great looking, who fucking cares?" says McDermott. "Well let's just say hypothetically, what if they have a good personality?" replies Bateman. There is a moment of silence, and then all three men burst out laughing. "There are no girls with good personalities!" they say in unison, high-fiving each other. Van Paten says "A good personality consists of a chick with a little hard body who will satisfy all sexual demands without being too slutty about things, and who will essentially keep her dumb fucking mouth shut." McDermott continues: "The only girls with good personalities who are smart or maybe funny or halfway intelligent or talented, though god knows what the fuck that means, are ugly chicks." Van Paten agrees. "And this is because they have to make up for how fucking unattractive they are." Bateman asks them if they know what Ed Gein said about women. Van Paten: "Ed Gein? Maitre d' at Canal Bar?" "No. Serial killer. Wisconsin. The 50's." "What did Ed say?" "He said 'When I see a pretty girl walking down the street, I think two things. One part wants me to take her out, talk to her, be real nice and sweet and treat her right.'" McDermott: "And what did the other part of him think?" "What her head would look like on a stick!" Bateman laughs heartily, but Van Paten and McDermott just look at each other nervously. Luis comes up to their table and says hello. He takes out his new business card and asks their opinion on it. It is a nice looking card with gold lettering. Van Paten says it looks nice. McDermott is uninterested. Bateman swallows as a dramatic crescendo of music starts. Luis leaves and walks up the stairs. Bateman watches him go and Luis gives him look back over his shoulder. Van Paten asks about dinner. "Is that all you ever have to contribute?" snaps Bateman. "Fucking dinner?" McDermott tells him to cheer up. "What's the matter? No shiatsu this morning?" Bateman pushes his hand away as he tries to touch his shoulder. "Do that again and you'll draw back a stub." McDermott tells him "Hang on there little buddy," but Bateman stands up and goes up the stairs behind Luis.Putting on his leather gloves, he enters a bathroom with nice wallpaper and gold mirrors. He slowly walks up behind Luis who is using a urinal. Hands shaking, he slowly puts his fingers around Luis' neck. Luis turns around, looks at Patrick's hands, takes off one of his gloves, and plants a kiss on the back of his hand. "God. Patrick, why here?" Patrick is too shocked to say anything and he can't bring himself to kill Luis. "I've seen you looking at me. I've noticed your... hot body," Luis says, rubbing a finger over Patrick's mouth. "Don't be shy. You can't imagine how long I've wanted this, ever since that Christmas party at Arizona 206. You know the one where you were wearing that red striped paisley Armani tie..." Patrick walks over to the sink in a daze and starts washing his hands, with his gloves still on. He looks like he's about to cry. Luis walks up behind him. "I want you. I want you too!" Patrick starts walking towards the door. "Patrick?" "WHAT IS IT?" he yells. "Where are you going?" "I've got to return some videotapes."He rushes down the stairs. He runs into a man holding a tray of glasses. Looking up the stairs, he sees Luis make a 'call me' gesture with his hand. He leaves without saying a word to McDermott or Van Paten.Patrick walks down the hall to his office. He stops. Kimball is leaning over Jean's desk, talking to her about any reservations Paul Allen might have made. "I've been wanting to talk with you, come into my office," Patrick says, shaking his hand. "Jean. Great jacket. Matsuda?"Inside his office. "Do you remember where you were the night of Paul's disappearance?" asks Kimball. "Which was on the 20th of December." "God. I guess I was probably returning videotapes." He looks at his datebook. "I had a date with a girl named Veronica." "That's not what I've got," says Kimball. "What?" "That's not the information I've received." "What information have you received? I could be wrong." "When was the last time you were with Paul Allen?" "We'd gone to a new musical called 'Oh Africa, Brave Africa'. It was laugh riot. That was about it. I think we had dinner. I hope I've been informative. Long day. I'm a bit scattered." "I'm a bit scattered too. How about lunch in a week or so, when I've sorted out all of this information?" Patrick says okay. Kimball asks him to sort out exactly where he was on the night of the disappearance. "Absolutely. I'm with you on that one." Kimball takes a CD out of his briefcase. "Huey Lewis and the News! Great stuff! I just bought it on my way over here! Have you heard it?" Patrick is stunned, and terrified of possibly becoming friends with this man. "Never. I mean I don't really like singers." "Not a big music fan, huh?" "No I like music, just they're... Huey's too black sounding for me." "To each his own." Kimball closes his briefcase. "So, lunch next week?" "I'll be there."Patrick and Courtney are having sex. Patrick orgasms, then rolls off her. He pulls a stuffed black cat from underneath himself, putting it on Courtney's lap. He gets off the bed and starts getting dressed in front of a mirror. "Will you call me before Easter?" she asks. "Maybe." "What are you doing tonight?" "Dinner at uh, River Cafe." "That's nice," she says, lighting a cigarette. "I never knew you smoked." "You never noticed. Listen, Patrick, can we talk?" "You look... marvelous. There's nothing to say," he says, shutting her out. "You're going to marry Luis." "Isn't that special... Patrick? If I don't see you before Easter, have a nice one okay?" she asks, with a hint of depression in her voice. "You too." He starts to leave. "Patrick?" "Yeah?" "Nothing..." He leaves.A club. Androgynous men and women pack the dance floor. The song 'Pump up the Volume' is playing. Bryce is telling Bateman about STDs while in line to use private stalls for drugs. "There's this theory now that if you can catch the AIDS virus by having sex with someone who is infected, you can catch anything. Alzheimer's, muscular dystrophy, hemophilia, leukemia, diabetes, dyslexia!" "I'm not sure but I don't think dyslexia is a disease," says Bateman. "But who knows? They don't know that. Prove it." Bryce snorts some white powder. "Oh God. It's a fucking milligram of sweetener." Patrick sniffs some. "I want to get high off this, not sprinkle it on my fucking oatmeal." "It's definitely weak, but I have a feeling if we do enough of it we'll be okay," says Bateman. Someone leans over the divider. "Could you keep it down? I'm trying to do drugs!" "Fuck you!" says Bryce. Bateman tells him to calm down. "We'll do it anyway." "That is if the faggot in the next STALL thinks it's okay!" "Fuck you!" says the man. "Fuck YOU!" says Bryce. "Sorry dude. Steroids. Okay let's do it."A club balcony. The song 'What's On Your Mind' is playing. Three blonde women are seated across from Patrick. One of them asks where Craig went. Bryce tells them Gorbachev is downstairs and McDermott went to sign a peace treaty. "He's the one behind Glasnost." Bryce makes a 'he went to get cocaine' gesture to Bateman by tapping his nose. "I thought he was in mergers and acquisitions," she says. "You're not confused are you?" asks Bryce. "No, not really." Another woman says "Gorbachev is NOT downstairs." "Karen's right, Gorbachev is not down stairs. He's at Tunnel." Bateman tells one of the girls to ask him a question. "So what do you do?" "I'm into uh, well murders and executions mostly." "Do you like it?" "Well that depends, why?" "Well most guys I know, who work in mergers and acquisitions, really don't like it." He asks her where she works out.On the street, Patrick and the girl are talking. "You think I'm dumb don't you. You think all models are dumb." "No. I really don't." "That's okay. I don't mind. There's something sweet about you." They both get in the back of a cab. Somewhere a car alarm is going off.Patrick is lounging on the sofa in his office. He has sunglasses on. Between his fingers is a lock of blonde hair. Jean knocks on his door, and he quickly stuffs the hair into his shirt pocket. He picks up a paper and starts twirling a pen. She enters slowly, wearing a baggy brown coat and beige shirt. "Doin' the crossword?" she asks. Every line of the crossword is filled in with either 'meat' or 'bones'. She asks him if he needs any help, but he ignores her. She puts something on his desk. As she walks back to the door, he says "Jean, would you like to accompany me to dinner? That is, if you're not doing anything." She says she doesn't have any plans. He sits up and crosses his legs. "Well! Isn't this a coincidence. Listen, where should we go?" She says she doesn't care where. "How about anywhere you want?" he tells her. "I don't know Patrick, I can't make this decision." "Come on!" he says, chuckling and pointing his pen at her. "Where do you want to go? Anywhere you want, just say it, I can get us in anywhere." She thinks for a minute. "How about..." Patrick flips through his Zagat booklet. "Dorsia?" Patrick looks up. "So. Dorsia is where Jean wants to go." "I don't know, we'll go wherever you want to go." "Dorsia is fine." He picks up a phone and dials the restaurant. "Dorsia, yes?" says the man on the other end. Can you take two tonight at, oh, say nine o'clock?" "We're totally booked." "Really? That's great." "No I said we are totally booked!" "Two at nine? Perfect! See you then!" He hangs up. Jean gives him a quizzical look. "Yeah?" he asks, taking off his sunglasses. "You're... dressed okay." "You didn't give a name." "They know me," he lies. "Why don't you meet me at my place at 7:00 for drinks?" She smiles and starts to leave. "And Jean? You might want to change before we go out."Jean looks out the window of Patrick's place. A telescope is pointed out the window. She's dressed in a pretty green strapless dress. "Patrick it's so elegant. What a wonderful view." Patrick gets some frozen sorbet out of the fridge. Next to the sorbet is a severed head wrapped in plastic. "Jean, sorbet?" "Thanks Patrick. I'd love some." He gives it to her. "Do you want a bite?" "I'm on a diet, but thank you," he says. "No need to lose any weight. You're kidding right? You look great," she tells him. "Very fit." "You can always be thinner... look better." "Well, maybe we shouldn't go out to dinner. I don't want to ruin your willpower." "That's alright. I'm not very good at controlling it anyway." He goes over to a kitchen drawer and starts running his finger over some steak knives. "So, what do you want to do with your life? Just briefly summarize. And don't tell me you enjoy working with children." She tells him she'd like to travel and maybe go back to school. "I don't really know. I'm at a point in my life where there seems to be so many possibilities." Patrick runs his hand across some stainless steel meat cleavers on a triangular base. "I'm just so unsure." He asks her if she has a boyfriend. "No, not really." "Interesting." "Are you seeing anyone? I mean, seriously?" she asks. "Maybe. I don't know. Not really," he says with a smile. "Jean, do you feel, fulfilled? I mean, in your life?" "I guess I do. For a long time I was too focused on my work. But now I've really begun to think about changing myself, developing and growing." Patrick reaches into a closet and takes out some silver duct tape. "Growing. I'm glad you said that. Did you know that Ted Bundy's first dog, a collie, was named Lassie?" he laughs. "Who's Ted Bundy?" "Forget it." "What's that?" "Duct tape. I need it for... taping something." "Patrick, have you ever wanted to make someone happy?" She starts to put her spoon down on his coffee table. "No! Put it in the carton!" "Sorry." He takes something else out of the closet and walks behind her. She repeats her question. "I'm looking for uh..." He holds up a nail gun and points it at the back of her unsuspecting head. "I guess you could say I just want to have a meaningful relationship with someone special." His finger moves toward the trigger. The phone rings, and the answering machine picks it up. It's Evelyn. "Patrick... Patrick! I know you're there. Pick up the phone you bad boy. What are you up to tonight?" He puts the nailgun down behind the couch. "It's me. Don't try to hide. I hope you're not out there with some number you picked up because you're MY Mr. Bateman. My boy next door." Jean sips some wine, looking at Patrick as she listens. "Anyway you never called me and you said you would, and I'll leave a message for Jean about this tomorrow to remind you, but we're having dinner with Melania and Taylor, you know Melania she went to Sweetbriar. And we're meeting at the Cornell club. So I'll see you tomorrow morning honey!" Patrick winces. "Sorry I know you hate that. Bye Patrick. Bye Mr. Big Time CEO. Bye bye." She hangs up. Jean says "Was that Evelyn? Are you still seeing her?" He doesn't answer. "I'm sorry. I have no right to ask that. Do you want me to go?" "Yeah," he finally says. "I don't think I can control myself." "I know I should go. I know I have a tendency to get involved with unavailable men." She asks him if he wants her to go. "I think if you stay, something bad will happen. I think I might hurt you. You don't want to get hurt, do you?" "No, I guess not. I don't want to get bruised." She gets up and starts leaving. On her way out, she reminds him that he has a dinner date with Kimball the next day. "Thanks. It slipped my mind completely."A crowded restaurant. Bateman and Kimball sit across from each other, eating some beef dishes. "So. The night he disappeared. Any thoughts about what you did?" asks Kimball. "I'm not sure. Uh, I had a shower, and some sorbet?" "I think you're getting your dates mixed up." "Well, where do you place Paul that night?" He tells Patrick that according to his datebook, Paul had dinner with Marcus Halberstram, thought Marcus denied it. "Does Marcus have an alibi?" "Yes. I've checked it out, it's clean. Now, where were you?" "Well, where was Marcus?" "He wasn't with Paul Allen. He was at Atlantis with Craig McDermott, Fredrick Dibble, Harry Newman, George Butner, and... you." Patrick looks up. "Oh right, yeah, of course." Kimball makes a 'slipped your mind' gesture. "We had wanted Paul Allen to come, but he had made plans. And I guess I had dinner with Victoria the following night." Kimball says "Personally, I think the guy just went a little nutso, split town for a while, maybe he did go to London. Sightseeing, drinking, whatever. Anyway, I'm pretty sure he'll turn up sooner or later. I mean, to think that one of his friends killed him for no reason whatsoever would be too ridiculous. Isn't that right Patrick?" he says with an eerie smile. Patrick smiles back faintly.Patrick takes a limo to the part of town where he met Christie. She's standing on the same corner. He rolls down the window and calls out to her. "I'm not so sure about this," she tells him. "I had to go to emergency last time." He promises that this won't be anything like last time. She says no. "Just come in the limo and talk to me for a minute. The driver is here. You'll be safe." He holds out some money. Reluctantly, she takes it and gets in. He hands her a drink. "Nothing like last time. I promise," he repeats. "Alright." He tells her she's looking great, and asks how she's been. "I might need a little surgery after last time. My friend told me I should maybe even get a lawyer." "Lawyers are so complicated," he says, writing her a cheque. She takes it and bolts from the car. The car keeps pace with her as she walks. Bateman rolls down the window and whistles at her, waving more money. She stops and looks at the wad. She tries to grab it, but he pulls his hand back. He opens the car door again, moving over to let her get back in. "Half now, half later." He closes the door. He tells her her name is Christie again, and that they are meeting a friend of his named Elizabeth. "She'll be joining us in my new apartment shortly. You'll like her. She's a very nice girl."Paul Allen's apartment. Patrick breaks open a capsule of ecstasy onto a spoon, and puts it into a bottle of wine. A redhead woman in a white silk shirt and black jacket is sitting on the couch across from Christie. She tells her she looks familiar. "Did you go to Dalton? I think I met you at a surf bar, didn't I. It was spicy. Well maybe not spicy but it was definitely a surf bar." She talks on and on in a self-important tone, neither Patrick or Christie really listening to her. Christie tells Patrick that this place is nicer than his other one. "It's not that nice," he says. She asks where he and Elizabeth met. She says it was at the Kentucky Derby in 86. "You were hanging out with that bimbo Alison Poole. Hot number." "What do you mean? She was a hot number." "If you had a platinum card she'd give you a blowjob. Listen, this girl worked at a tanning salon, need I say more?" She sips her wine. She asks what Christie does. "She's my... cousin. She's from... France," says Bateman. Elizabeth asks for the phone to call someone. She asks if Christie summers in Southampton. The person she's calling doesn't answer. "Elizabeth, it's 3 in the morning." "He's a god damn drug dealer, these are his peak hours." She says that the wine tastes weird. She leaves the man a message on his answering machine. She looks at Bateman when she can't remember where she is. "Paul Allen's." "I want the number idiot. Anyway I'm at Paul Norman's and I'll try you again later, and if I don't see you at Canal Bar tomorrow I'm going to sic my hairdresser on you." She hangs up. "Did you know that guy who disappeared, didn't he work at Pierce and Pierce? Was he a friend of yours?" He says no. She asks if he has any coke. He shakes his head. "Or a Halcyon? I would take a Halcyon." "Listen," he says. "I would just like to see the two of you *get it on*." They stare at him. "What's wrong with that? It's totally disease-free." "Patrick you're a lunatic." He asks her if she finds Christie attractive. "Let's not get lewd. I'm in no mood for lewd conversation." He says he thinks it would be a turn-on. She asks Christie if he does this all the time. Christie remains silent. He tells her to drink her wine. "You're telling me you've never gotten it on with a girl?" he asks Elizabeth. "No. I'm not a lesbian. Why would you think I would be into that?" "Well, you went to Sarah Lawrence for one thing." "Those are Sarah Lawrence GUYS, Patrick. You're making me feel weird."Some time later, the drugs having kicked in, and Elizabeth and Christie are feeling each other up on the couch. Patrick says wistfully "Did you know that Whitney Houston's debut LP, called simply 'Whitney Houston', had four number-one singles on it? Did you know that Christie?" Elizabeth starts laughing. "You actually listen to Whitney Houston? You own a Whitney Houston CD? More than one?" she laughs, falling off the couch. "It's hard to choose a favorite amongst so many great tracks. But 'The Greatest Love of All' is one of the best, most powerful songs ever written, about self-preservation, dignity, its universal message crosses all boundaries and instills one with the hope that it's not too late to better ourselves." Elizabeth is still laughing. "Since, Elizabeth, it's impossible in this world we live in to empathize with others, but we can always empathize with ourselves. It's an important message, crucial really, and it's beautifully stated on the album."All three have sex, Patrick on top of both of them. He moves his face down to Elizabeth's torso, and she starts giggling. Christie rolls out from underneath them. She watches them as they fool around under the sheets, and she starts gathering her clothes. A stain begins to form on the sheets: Blood. Elizabeth is screaming. Patrick looks up at Christie with blood on his mouth and a crazed look on his face. Christie runs out of the room, and Patrick chases her naked. She runs to a door and throws it open, to reveal a closet with two dead women in plastic bags hanging on coathangers. The full horror of Patrick's existence finally revealed to her, she lets out a bloodcurdling scream. She enters another room and almost vomits. Spraypainted on the wall is the words 'DIE YUPPIE SCUM' and the room is covered with blood and faeces. She backs out and sees Patrick turn the corner naked wielding a chainsaw. She cuts through a maze of doors and finally runs into a bathroom. She falls into a pool of blood next to another dead, naked woman. Patrick runs in, covered in Elizabeth's blood and starts biting her leg. She kicks him in the face and runs. "Not the face! Not the fucking face you piece of bitch trash!" She runs through the living room and out into the hallway, pounding and screaming on neighbours' doors, but to no avail. Patrick runs after her, stark nude, and chainsaw in hand. She runs down a circular set of stairs. Patrick reaches the top and holds the chainsaw out over the gap, waiting for the right moment. When she nears the bottom, he lets go, and the chainsaw falls end over end, finally hitting its target. He screams in victory. The chainsaw has impaled Christie through the back.Patrick doodles a woman impaled with a chainsaw with a crayon on a paper tablecloth. He hasn't touched his dessert. Evelyn is sitting next to him, asking him to commit to their relationship. The restaurant is crowded with middle-class looking people. "I think Evelyn, that uh, we've lost touch." "Why, what's wrong?" she asks, waving to someone. A woman flashes a gold bracelet to her, and she mouths "It's beautiful. I love it." "My need to engage in homicidal behaviour on a massive scale cannot be corrected, but uh, I have no other way to fulfill my needs. We need to talk. It's over, it's all over," he tells her, scratching a red X over his drawing. "Touchy touchy. I'm sorry I brought up the wedding. Let's just avoid the issue, alright? Now, are we having coffee?" "I'm fucking serious. It's fucking over, us, this is no joke, uh, I don't think we should see each other any more." "But your friends are my friends, and my friends are your friends. I really don't think it would work." She tries to brush some food away from the corner of his mouth, but her stops her. "I know that your friends are my friends, and I've thought about that. You can have 'em." She finally understands. "You're really serious, aren't you? What about the past? Our past?" "We never really shared one," he replies. "You're inhuman." "No. I'm-I'm in touch with humanity." She starts crying. "Evelyn I'm sorry, I just uh... you're not terribly important to me." She cries so loudly that the whole restaurant turns to look at her. "I know my behaviour can be *erratic* sometimes..." "What is it that you want?" she cries. "If you really want to do something for me then stop making this scene *right now*!" he snaps. "Oh God I can't believe this," she weeps. "I'm leaving," he says. "I've assessed the situation and I'm leaving." "But where are you going?" "I have to return some videotapes."Evening. Patrick stops near the lobby of a building to use an ATM. He sticks his card in the machine. Looking down he sees a stray cat. "Here kitty kitty." He picks up the cat and starts petting it. A message comes on the screen of the ATM: 'FEED ME A STRAY CAT'. He tries to put the cat in the card slot of the ATM, but it pushes itself away. He pulls out a 9mm pistol and points it at the cat's head. A woman in a fur coat sees this. "Oh my God. What you doing? Stop that!" He shoots her in the chest and she falls to the ground. He lets the cat go. A siren is heard a block away, and a police car pulls up at the other end of the lobby. He takes his card and walks away. He tries to steal a car, but every car on the street is locked, and he only winds up setting off all their car alarms. He kicks the back of a Porsche and runs. Two police cars cut him off on the next street. They get out, guns drawn. "Drop the weapon! Drop it now! Get on the ground!" He starts to put his hands up, then turns the gun on the officers. They exchange gunfire. He runs behind a parked car for cover, firing and hitting one of them. He fires five more shots, and both police cars explode in a massive fireball. Stunned by his luck, he looks at the gun, then at his watch, and walks away. He breaks into a run, under the support columns of a skyscraper. He walks into the lobby of an apartment. "Burning the midnight oil, Mr. Smith? Don't forget to sign in," says the man at the desk. He pulls out the gun and shoots him in the head. He runs past the elevators. One of them opens and a janitor gets out. He goes around a revolving door, back into the lobby, shoots the janitor, then out the other side. He runs into another lobby. Out of breath and drenched in sweat, he goes up to the desk. Smiling at the doorman, he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a pen, signs in, and goes up in the elevator, crying.He reaches his office. He looks out the window, then hides from the searchlight of a passing police helicopter. Still crying, he makes a phone call. An answering machine picks it up. "Harold, it's Bateman. You're my lawyer so I think you should know, I've killed a lot of people. Some girls in the apartment uptown uh, some homeless people maybe 5 or 10, um an NYU girl I met in Central Park. I left her in a parking lot behind some donut shop. I killed Bethany, my old girlfriend, with a nail gun, and some man, some old faggot with a dog last week. I killed another girl with a chainsaw, I had to, she almost got away and uh someone else there I can't remember maybe a model, but she's dead too. And Paul Allen. I killed Paul Allen with an axe in the face, his body is dissolving in a bathtub in Hell's Kitchen. I don't want to leave anything out here. I guess I've killed maybe 20 people, maybe 40. I have tapes of a lot of it, uh some of the girls have seen the tapes. I even, um..." He almost can't say it. "I ate some of their brains. I tried to cook a little." He starts laughing. "Tonight I, uh, hahahaha... I just had to kill a LOT of people!" Crying again. "And I'm not sure I'm gonna get away with it this time. I guess I'll uh, I mean, ah, I guess I'm a pretty uh, I mean I guess I'm a pretty sick guy." He's smiling. "So, if you get back tomorrow, I may show up at Harry's Bar, so you know, keep your eyes open." He hangs up and tries to compose himself. The helicopter can still be heard buzzing around but is getting fainter.Morning. He showers and picks a suit from his walk-in closet. He goes to Paul Allen's place, putting on a surgical mask because of the smell of the bodies he left there. Opening the door, he finds the place empty and repainted white. Three people are talking in one of the rooms, and the floor is lined with cloth and there is a ladder and some other redecorating equipment. He heads towards the closet where he left two bodies. It contains only paint cans, ladders and buckets. He takes off the mask, stunned. "Are you my 2:00?" asks a well-dressed 40-something woman behind him. "No." "Can I help you?" "I'm looking for Paul Allen's place. Doesn't he live here?" "No he doesn't. Did you see the ad in the Times?" "No. Yeah. I mean yeah. In the times." "There was no ad in the times. I think you should go now." He asks what happened here. She tells him not to make any trouble, and tells him again that he should leave. He starts to leave. "Don't come back," she warns. "I won't. Don't worry." He closes the door behind him.Outside, Bateman calls Jean from a payphone. He downs the rest of a bottle of pills while he waits for her to pick up. She answers. "Jean... I need help." He sounds distraught. "Patrick is that you? Craig McDermott called, he wants to meet you, Van Paten and Bryce at Harry's Bar for drinks." "What did you say you dumb bitch..." he croaks. "Patrick I can't hear you." "What am I doing?" he laughs. "Where are you Patrick? What's wrong?" He starts crying. "I don't think I'm going to... make it, Jean. To the uh, office, this afternoon." "Why?" She sounds worried. "JUST... SAY... NO!" he screams. "What is it? Patrick, are you alright?" "Stop sounding so fucking SAD! JESUS!" he screams, laughing. He hangs up, then tries to compose himself.Jean goes to Patrick's desk. She opens a drawer and finds a leather notebook. The first few pages have regular appointments. One page has a drawing of someone getting killed with a shotgun in the mouth.Patrick reaches Harry's Bar. He straightens his dishevelled hair and goes inside. Bryce, Van Paten and McDermott are sitting and drinking. McDermott tells him he looks wild-eyed. "Rough day at the office?" Bryce is drinking mineral water. "He's a changed man! But he still can't get a reservation to save his life." Bateman tells them he isn't going anywhere unless they have a reservation. They discuss various restaurants. Bateman spots his lawyer, Harold Carnes, across the room, and excuses himself. His lawyer is telling someone how the Japanese will own most of the country by the end of the '90s. "Shut up, Carnes, they will not. So uh, did you get my message?" "Jesus yes! That was hilarious! That *was* you, wasn't it! Bateman killing Allen and the escort girls. That's fabulous. That's rich." He asks him what he means. "The message you left. By the way Davis, how's Cynthia? You're still seeing her, right?" "What do you mean?" "Nothing. It's good to see you. Is that Edward Towers?" He starts to walk away but Bateman stops him. "Davis. I'm not one to bad-mouth anyone. Your joke was amusing. But come on man. You had one fatal flaw. Bateman is such a dork, such a boring, spineless lightweight. Now if you said Bryce, or McDermott, otherwise it was amusing. Now if you'll excuse me, I really must be going." For some odd reason, Carnes keeps calling Patrick "Davis". Patrick angrily stops him again. "I did it, Carnes! I killed him! I'm Patrick Bateman! I chopped Allen's fucking head off," he whispers with tears in his eyes. "The whole message I left on your machine was true." Carnes tries to leave again. "No! Listen, don't you know who I am? I'm not Davis, I'm Patrick Bateman!" He no longer sounds sure who he is. "We talk on the phone all the time. Don't you recognize me? You're my lawyer." He tells Carnes to listen carefully. "I killed Paul Allen. And I liked it. I can't make myself any clearer." Carnes tells him that that isn't possible. "And I don't find this funny anymore." "It never was supposed to be! Why isn't it possible?" "It's just not." "Why not you stupid bastard?" says Patrick. "Because I had dinner with Paul Allen in London twice, just ten days ago." "No you... didn't." Patrick is stunned. He begins to doubt whether he actually killed Allen or not or all those other people. Maybe it was all a fantasy. Maybe Patrick Bateman's real name is Davis. Carnes excuses himself again and he lets him go.Jean continues to look with horror through Patrick's notebook. A crude drawing of a woman getting her limbs cut off with a chainsaw. A naked woman nailed to boards. The more pages she turns, the worse the images get. Page after page is filled with shocking fantasies of rape, murder and mutilation of women.Patrick returns to the table. The guys are watching President Ronald Reagan talking about Iran-Contra on TV. "How can he lie like that?" says Bryce. Van Paten continues to ask where they have reservations, even though he isn't really hungry. "How can he be so fucking... I don't know, cool about it?" "Some guys are just born cool I guess," says Van Paten. Bateman starts laughing. "Bateman? What are you so fucking zany about?" "Ha ha, I'm just a happy camper! Rockin' and a-rollin'!" Turning back to Reagan on the TV, Bryce says "He presents himself as this harmless old codger, but inside... but inside..." "But inside doesn't matter,"A baffled Bateman narrates: "Inside, yes? Inside? Believe it or not Bryce, we're actually listening to you," says McDermott. Bryce asks Bateman what he thinks. "Whatever." Van Paten says he doesn't like dry beers and needs a scotch. Bateman looks over the faces of the people in the room as he narrates. "There are no more barriers to cross. All I have in common with the uncontrollable and the insane, the vicious and the evil, all the mayhem I have caused and my utter indifference toward it I have now surpassed. My pain is constant and sharp, and I do not hope for a better world for anyone. In fact, I want my pain to be inflicted on others, and no one to escape. My punishment continues to elude me. My confession has meant nothing." | dark, suspenseful, comedy, murder, neo noir, boring, fantasy, psychological, cult, violence, insanity, humor, satire, revenge, entertaining, queer | train | imdb | null |
tt6335022 | Dominique Corti: un cammino per la vita | Physician Dominique Corti is the daughter of renowned Canadian surgeon, Lucille Teasdale, and Italian pediatrician, Piero Corti. Dominique was born in northern Uganda, where her parents founded the Lacor Hospital. Through a journey that brings us to Canada, Italy, and Uganda, this documentary explores Dominiques struggle to keep her parents legacy alive.
Much is known about Dominiques mother - one of the first female surgeons in Canada - and the Lacor Hospital, which is today a major African success story. But little is known about Dominique, her life, and her selfless work to keep her parents dream alive. What began in 1959 as a 30-bed bush hospital has become one of the most well respected and fully Africanized medical centres on the continent. The hospital now has 500 beds and 600 staff members, all Ugandans, who treat over 250,000 patients a year. Dominique is President of the Lucille and Piero Corti Foundation in Italy, and a leading member on the Boards of Directors at the Teasdale-Corti Foundation in Canada and at Lacor Hospital.
With her passionate personality and strong moral values, Dominique is rooted in her Canadian and Italian heritage, and works hard to bring hope to the Lacor community. Born in 1962, Dominique grew in and with the hospital, which, against all odds, survived its humble beginnings: one small building run by a handful of nuns with no doctors. The hospital also managed to survive Idi Amins violent regime, the brutal 20-year civil war between the rebels of the Lords Resistance Army and Ugandan government troops, and deadly epidemics, including the world's greatest health challenges: HIV/AIDS and Ebola. Dominique lived through it all, but when the country collapsed, she was finally forced to leave Uganda, and her parents, for her own safety and for a better education.
Her parents came from different backgrounds. Her mother was from a working class family in a francophone neighborhood of Montreal, Quebec. Her father came from a wealthy Italian family of Milan. Dominique speaks perfect Italian, English and French, as well as Acholi, the local language of northern Uganda. Both her parents are now gone. Dr. Teasdale died in 1996 from AIDS contracted while operating on wounded soldiers; Dr. Corti passed away in 2003. Sadly, their chosen successor Dr. Matthew Lukwiya also died, taken during the 2000 Ebola epidemic despite his heroic efforts to contain the disease and protect the community and his staff. Today, it is Dr. Teasdale and Dr. Cortis daughter, Dr. Dominique Corti, who along with many others ensures her parents legacy at Lacor, uniting efforts from Canada, Italy and Uganda.
This film explores Dominiques past through exclusive access to archival footage from the Teasdale-Corti family. Audiences will learn the details of her battle to ensure health access in one of the poorest areas of the world, and the stories behind her tremendous bond with the hospital. Without Lacor Hospital, 250,000 patients would not be treated each year, a remarkable legacy would be lost, and an African success story would disappear. Dominique, a determined and inspiring woman, will move each of us with her story and her strong will to overcome all obstacles to ensure Lacor Hospitals survival. | non fiction | train | imdb | null |
tt0486674 | What Just Happened | Ben (Robert De Niro), a veteran Hollywood producer, is suffering a number of professional and personal problems. His latest film, Fiercely, has a disastrous test screening, mostly because of its ending which features the murder of its main character (played by Sean Penn, who plays himself elsewhere in the film) along with his pet dog.
Ben and his maverick British director, Jeremy Brunell (Michael Wincott), plead their case to studio executive Lou Tarnow (Catherine Keener). She accuses Ben of filming the dog's killing only so he could use it as a "bargaining chip" - to make it easier to negotiate against cutting other problematic scenes. Lou threatens to pull Ben's movie from Cannes and take over editing unless at least the dog's death is removed. Jeremy adamantly refuses, throwing a tantrum.
Adding to Ben's problems, he is having trouble making a clean break from Kelly, his second wife. Ben later discovers his wife is having an affair with Scott Solomon, a married screenwriter who Ben has previously worked with. Scott has a screenplay that he's trying to get off the ground, to which Brad Pitt later becomes attached.
Lastly the studio is threatening to cancel a planned Bruce Willis movie because of the star's unwillingness to shave the large, thick beard that he has grown. Ben's career hinges on the fate of the film, but any attempt to reason with Willis inevitably meets a violent, foul-mouthed response.
Ultimately Jeremy relents and re-edits the ending of Fiercely to have the dog survive. Ben tries to get Willis's agent, Dick Bell, to reason with him and get the beard removed, but his efforts only get Ben fired. Nonetheless, Willis does eventually shave his beard off, and the film goes ahead.
A week later, Ben, Lou and Jeremy attend Cannes, hopeful that they might take a Palme D'Or award. Unfortunately, and without telling Ben or Lou, Jeremy has re-edited Fiercely again, not only killing the dog, but adding nearly a full minute of bullets being shot into their bodies. While the new ending destroys the film's chances of a Palme d'Or and angers many in the audience, others eagerly applaud the final version of the film, including Sean Penn (playing himself). Lou is not impressed, and immediately flies out of Cannes on the studio's private jet, leaving Ben stranded in France.
Ben eventually does make it back home, in time for a photo-shoot of Hollywood's top thirty producers with Vanity Fair, although after the magazine's publishers hear about the debacle in Cannes, Ben is relegated to the far edge of the photo, meaning he will be barely noticeable. | comedy, boring, satire | train | wikipedia | I just got back from an AFI screening of Barry Levinson's satirical comedy, "What Just Happened?", an inside look into the movie business and big studio politics.
Bitter Hollywood Tales from the Front Line", the film version tells the story of a successful Hollywood producer, Ben, played by Robert Deniro, as he juggles his personal and professional crises.
This film has an impressive cast including Robin Wright Penn as Ben's second wife, Kelly; John Turturro as Dick, the stereotypical shifty agent; Stanley Tucci as Scott, the blocked screenplay writer; Michael Wincott as Jeremy, the temperamental director; Catherine Keener, as Lou, the hardcore studio exec; Bruce Willis as the demanding movie star; and Sean Penn as himself.This mildly funny expose of modern-day Hollywood, was entertaining, but a little disappointing.
As a gimmicky farce, it works, but as a satire it was a limp and familiar insider's movie that lacked sharp irony, humor and novel characters.This film won't appeal to everyone, but it does have some good one liners and funny moments.
But in a way What Just Happened was relatable for Levinson, despite it being the stories of Art Linson, semi-famous producer who's had hits and misses throughout his career, and at the same time gave him some ample material for some sardonic, spot-on satire of the industry.
It's not the Player, don't get me wrong, but it gives its winks and nods to the egomania, the preciousness of directors and stars, and how personal lives get caught up in the mix without getting too smug with us common moviegoers.Probably the funniest, as sort of a near running gag, is the latest film that producer Ben (De Niro) is being test-screened for audiences; a rough cut of "Fiercly" starring Sean Penn (who, as with Bruce Willis, plays "Himself" in the film) disturbs the audience because, on top of a bleak end for its hero, a dog is killed on screen (this, for all the wrong reasons, is hysterical funny, if only for the deadpan reaction from DeNiro to the insanely negative response cards).
Aside from some scenes where Levinson decides to rush things along via the speedy transitions, he provides a style that suits the feel of the material, of Ben trying to balance his personal struggles (an ex-wife he can't totally let go of, and his rebellious teen daughter with a secret) with the eternal BS of getting work done in an industry concerned, a lot more often than not, with the final dollar over artistic integrity.
A producer(DeNiro) with two ex-wives and families tries to get a British artsy director(Wincott) to change the ending of their most recent film, and Bruce Willis to shave off a beard(he's also gained weight, but no one seems to worry about him losing *that*) before he stars in a movie.
(Though I don't think intentional) Robert De Nero plays an ailing producer on the decline in the business, he has two ex wives and stress from egotistical stars and their demands, whether it be high maintenance directors or attention seeking actors.The core of the problem I have with the film is that the main character is completely unsympathetic.You'll hate him, he's shallow, selfish, egotistical and devoid of any passion.
I went away from the film thinking that they were trying to tell me that Hollywood is full of artists, but that the system breaks them down into nothing more that monkeys who turn out dross films that appeal to the mass market because focus groups tell them too.Well if the artists are going to produce films like this then maybe there should be some editorial control, away from the hands of the artists because this missed, in my opinion, on just about every level.The film that this will be compared to most is The Player by Robert Altman, a much better film and I highly recommend, the main difference between these two films however is in The Player everyone is in on the joke, Altman never speaks down to the audience and has fun with the story.Tim Robbins (in The Player) is just as much of a shallow and hollow character and you'll dislike him as much as De Nero in this but because you are included in the joke, because you can see how distanced from reality he has become, by being a part of the Hollywood system, you can feel sorry for him.Sadly for De Nero in this I couldn't.I can't recommend this title to anyone but the dedicated film fan who will see a lot of the in jokes about Hollywood, everyone else should give it a miss..
Worse is that it seems that the actors did not know that it could be so boring...Come on, don't tell me they liked the script...Robert De Niro himself looked quite "bored" in the film, and I couldn't help but wonder whether he just got disappointed in the midway of making it...His performance was so...plain, that you cannot give any serious comment on it...Anyway, I do not know what this film is actually trying to convey, but I as a common audience were obviously ignored when it started to tell a story..
It's a great scene, mainly because of De Niro's deadpan but wise monologue, which is the first thing to certify this as his return to form.But despite an effective beginning, the rest of the movie seems scattershot; the narrative tries to skim its way through all the familiar faces of film making (director, studio exec, agent, screenwriter, pompous actor, etc.), while simultaneously trying to prominently develop the long-existing love-hate between Ben and his wife (an acceptable but grounded Robin Wright Penn).
There are some touching scenes that show Ben's tendency as a reactionary: the chair in his ex-wife's house, and his increasing annoyance at Willis, particularly his comments at a funeral.The film works best on the good sportsmanship of the cast and their willingness to laugh at themselves, which, as the film tellingly shows, is universal in the cutthroat world of Hollywood..
The movie is really just a short story about his travails while trying to complete an art house flick called "Fiercely", which starred Sean Penn, who also appears, as himself.The film begins with DeNiro in the initial pre-screening of the movie, attended by the Studio Head, Lou, played by Catherine Kinnear.
The Director was your typical temperamental artist / nutjob, who was violently opposed to any changes to the script.Other key backstories involved Bruce Willis, playing himself, who shows up for a film with a "Grizzly Adams" beard and about 50 pounds overweight, DeNiro's relationships with his two ex-wives and children, his relationship with Stan Tucci, a writer trying to get DeNiro to take on one of his screenplays (and who DeNiro suspects is sleeping with one of his ex-wives), and John Turturro as a craven, dyspeptic Hollywood agent, who could be a candidate for Best Supporting Actor for this role.
The main point seems to be that creativity is squelched in the Hollywood movie-making process, but the two characters who most represent creative integrity in the film (the Actor and the Director) are complete assholes who act cruel and crazy.
In this Hollywood industry in-joke movie by Barry Levinson, Robert De Niro is Ben, a producer who day after day (as on screen datelines inform us) just keeps having to face the same few "big" problems, rolling back in his face every morning in a bunch like Sisyphus' rock.
Now one of his directors, an eccentric Aussie with nail polish, spiky hair, and substance abuse issues called Jeremy Brunell (Michael Wincott), has just ended a new film in a singularly repulsive way involving Sean Penn, multiple bullet wounds, and a little white dog; and, being a classic dysfunctional prima donna, Mr. Brunell staunchly refuses to edit it, going into a psychological meltdown, despite a horrible test audience response and strenuous objections from the studio head, Lou Tarnow, impersonated by Catherine Keener.
What Just Happened (2008) ** (out of 4) Disappointing adaptation of Art Linson's book about a major Hollywood producer (Robert DeNiro) who finds his world both personally and professionally falling apart in the matter of one week.
This movie is an adaptation of film producer Art Linson's tales in the book "What Just Happened: Bitter Hollywood Tales From the Front Line," and as a movie, it's not completely boring, but it doesn't feel like I'm watching anything new.
I personally think they should have left this project alone; it works much better as a book, making anecdotes of the past instead of trying to make this Robert De Niro's producer-character life seem interesting.
There are great lines like "In the end, no director, no stars, not even a title...just a number" (as De Niro looks towards a movie poster with nothing but a dinosaur eye and the amount they got for the film).
I was expecting to watch a excellent movie seeing this one has three of my favourite actors, Bruce Willis, Sean Penn and the one and only Robert De Niro...
And that's the dilemma at the heart of "What Just Happened," Barry Levinson's film of producer Art Linson's own Hollywood expose: it feels rehearsed and dishonest in its intentions, to the point where lynchpin cameos from the likes of Bruce Willis, John Turturro, and Catherine Keener come off as grating, premeditated zingers instead of something genuine (let alone surprising).
While Robert De Niro gamely fills the shoes of a harried, philandering producer met with two major dilemmas over the course of one week (a director's decision to conclude his film with a shot of extreme animal cruelty; a prima-donna actor who refuses to shave his Grizzly Adams beard), the result is only sporadically entertaining, shifting from humor so subtle it barely breaks the surface, to loud attention-grabbers (Willis's initial meltdown is an amusing bit of scenery-chewing).
There are a few funny moments, but only a few.Basically, you can put a great actor in a film, but if you don't give him anything to work with, he just comes across looking a bit sheepish and almost embarrassed to be in it.I never thought I'd see the words 'Straight to DVD' associated with Robert DeNiro, but I think that would explain why this one disappeared before it came.9/10 for the impressive cast.
What Just Happened caught my attention due to the cast, and they performed their tasks well (in spite of often unfinished characters): Robert De Niro, Sean Penn, Bruce Willis, John Turturro, Stanley Tucci are excellent character actors always pleasant to watch.
The movie stars Robert De Niro as a Hollywood producer who can't get his temperamental director (Michael Wincott) to change the ending of his Sean Penn flick to please a demanding studio head.
I had good expectations before watching What Just Happened because Robert De Niro had previously worked with director Barry Levinson in Wag the Dog, one of my favorite political comedies, and I was enthusiastic to see them working together again in a satire of the film industry.
However, I would have thought that screenwriter Art Linson (who also wrote the book this movie is based on) would have had more things to say about Hollywood, since he has been working for various decades as a powerful producer with various mainstream films (such as, for example, Fight Club, Heat and The Untouchables) in his filmography.
And I think that is the main problem from What Just Happened: it does not even remotely go as far as it should, and it simply recycles the same jokes and situations we have seen in much better satires of the film industry, from the movie The Player to TV series like Entourage and Extras.Among the few positive things I can say about this movie, I have to mention the solid performances, from Stanley Tucci as a capricious screenwriter to Michael Wincott as a director/artist obsessed with his vision, without forgetting about Catherine Keener as an inflexible director from a studio and John Turturro as a traitor agent who is only worried in charging his next commission.
This is a satirical look at the chaos of Hollywood and film making based on the memoirs of film producer Art Linson and directed by Barry Levinson.Robert De Niro is the frazzled producer balancing his precarious personal and professional lives.
He has to deal with a prima donna Bruce Willis who refuses to shave off his beard and a highly strung British director who wants an uncompromising ending to a Sean Penn film where a dog meets a nasty fate much to the chagrin of the film studio boss.Its fun poke at Hollywood filled with star turns who are in on the joke and seem to enjoy themselves especially Willis and Penn.
The Fun in Seeing Big Name Actors Play Themselves Wears Thin Quickly as the Cringing Begins Early and Continues for Nearly Two Hours.Robert De Niro, One of the Big Stars who doesn't Play Himself, is a Producer and this is His Life, or at Least Life While Making a Movie or Two. The Setbacks from Bad Press Screenings and Juvenile Behavior from Very Rich and Powerful People is the Story and it is Not that Funny or Even Insightful.
I just watched this film and loved it from the beginning till the end!It's a fantastic,satirical film about the movie industry and based on a true story of a movie producer,Art Linson.In this film he's name is changed to Ben and played brilliantly by Robert De Niro.Sean Penn and Bruce Willis play them self,more or less.Aspecialy Willis is great as a kind of diva version of himself.It's all about the beard in this one!You got to see this film to believe!Hollywood is a crazy place and reality is goofier than fiction!There is only one problem with this picture,if you haven't got a sense of humor you probably won't like this Barry Levinson film.But for everybody else,fantastic film!!!
There's not much of a plot to Barry Levinson's Hollywood insider movie everyone in producer Ben's life is making him miserable (except maybe that chick who comes on to him in the men's room).But it has it's moments: -- The Variety's headline about an agent's suicide has an underliner that says, "Ten percenter goes into turnaround." -- Then the comment about said suicide: "People in Colombia are mourning." -- Michael Wincott, playing a British director, was clearly instructed to act like a crazier Keith Richards, even wearing Indian feathers in his hair.-- The "edgy" moment in the movie-within-a-movie when not only do an adorable dog's brains get blown out, but the blood spatters right on the screen.-- The test audience comment cards after said movie that Ben reads afterwards, including "My wife is still crying" and, in one case, a big drawing of a raised middle finger.-- Bruce Willis' speech at the funeral.-- What happens to John Turturro at the cemetery.-- Bruce's tantrum.-- The director's tantrum.-- At the end, the fate of the world resting on what Bruce Willis looks like when he comes out of his trailer.-- Studio boss Catherine Keener showing the demeanor of an assassin all through the movie.-- DeNiro switching sides back and forth during the argument between the studio head and the director over whether the dog shooting can remain in the movie.It's not "The Player" or even "SOB," both of whom anyone who liked this movie should check out.
There are numerous small roles here by big names stars also, such as a unremarkable couple of appearances by Sean Penn and amusing use of a bearded Bruce Willis, but quite often the camera falls to Michael Wincott for support who gives a caricature but endlessly amusing performance as an artistically conflicted and frustrated director.Rather irksome though is that when it comes to the script and direction under Barry Levinson who himself knows the producer business all too well- the film doesn't achieve the poignancy that one would hope for.
This film is about a Hollywood producer who is having a rather bad time both in his job and in his family.I had rather high hopes that "What Just Happened" would be an intelligent satire, but I was utterly disappointed.
While the Penns share limited screen time in their individual roles, John Turturro as Bruce Willis' casting agent also contributes towards some of the hilarious one-liners with some palpable chemistry in supporting De Niro's lines.The dual climax of the film and also some of its intentionally funny suspense is whether or not the dog lives in the final cut and Bruce Willis shaving his enormous beard, each determining the fate of Ben's career amongst the 30 most powerful producers to appear on "Vanity Fair".
Levinson actually elicits good performances from the stalwart cast he has roped in: Robert De Niro (as a movie producer fraught by professional and private dilemmas), Robin Wright Penn (the ex-wife he cannot bring himself to give up), Catherine Keener (the intimidating studio head), John Turturro (an ulcer-ridden agent), Stanley Tucci (a scriptwriter pal of De Niro's who may be having an affair with Wright) and, as themselves, Sean Penn (who, admittedly, does not have much to do) and Bruce Willis (amusingly sending up his own image by putting on weight and growing a bushy beard!); the film, though, is actually stolen by Michael Wincott as a volatile and uncompromising director who dares to insert a (hilarious) blood-spattered close-up of a dog being shot in the head!
(Is it me or does he look much better with the goatee these days?) The movie is based on real-life producer Art Linson's book which is chock-full of anecdotes and true stories of absurdity from the world of film-making.
I don't know if this movie is trying to show the audience how in need of good movies Hollywood is or the director was just trying to make something different that didn't came out right.I really don't like that Sean Penn and Bruce Willis were playing themselves. |
tt0115536 | El amor perjudica seriamente la salud | Diana Balaguer (Penélope Cruz in a minor role) meets Santi García (Gabino Diego), the bellboy in a luxurious hotel in Madrid. She wants to meet John Lennon in the Beatles' only visit to Spain. Santi hides Diana under the bedroom, while John tries to shag an unknown girl who can't speak a word of English. Both Santi and Diana leave the room after John is called to leave for an interview.Diana comes from a wealthy family well-related with the powers-to-be during Franco's dictatorship in Spain. Santi comes from a poorer family without connections. Santi and Diana start a love affair, but Diana is very pragmatic, she won't ever marry somebody from a poor family.Santi will make a pass to María José (Laura Conejero), a neighbour with the same social status as him. However, he'll dream with Diana all the time. Diana refuses to have a scheduled affair with him, so Santi threatens her with dumping her for ever. Santi has already married María José, and her unfaithfulness is bringing him a lot of trouble. Diana (Ana Belén) will help him: she gives him a million pesetas (around 6,000 euros nowadays). With that money, Santi (Juanjo Puigcorbé) can pay for his training as a pilot and have a better life.Diana will marry a rich man, she will divorce him and marry an Italian tenor, Vittorio Raimondi (Carles Sans) who is very jealous. Once, Santi passes off as a waiter only to be able to be with Diana for a few minutes. The Italin goes after him threatening to kill him.Time goes by. Both lovers have become older. They meet by chance at a luxurious restaurant, each of their with their official spouse. Santi and María José are celebrating their anniversary. María José is angry, she knows that Diana wold like to be with her husband and she is proud that the wealthy Diana can have everything, but she can't have her husband. Each of the couple dance with their spouse, but they imagine they are dancing together. That night there is some terrible news: John Lennon has just been assessinated. A pianist plays one of Lennon's tunes, and that brings melancholy for both Santi and Diana because of the memories they share.Santi will see one of Diana's twin daughters (a role played by Penélope Cruz), and she will feel much tenderness when she sees the daughter looking exactly like her mother when Santi met her.They will meet on another occasion at an airport. Diana has just divorced Raimondi, and Diana and Santi decide to give love an apportunity. They want to run away together, leaving everything behind. However, life is against them. Santi needs to fly King Juan Carlos of Spain's plane back to Madrid. Diana comes across an American millionaire she had known some time before at one of her second husband's party.So each of them will do something else: Diana will go with that wealthy man and Santi will perform a prestigious task, the summit of his career. Their affair will have to wait once again. | comedy, romantic, flashback | train | imdb | Fun romantic comedy with a Spanish-star-cast and dealing with a likable couple during several decades.
In the 60s , Madrid , Beatles are in Spain , two young people, a gorgeous girl named Diana (Penelope Cruz) and the bellboy named Santi (Gabino Diego) meet at a luxurious hotel room as a result of their devotion to John Lennon .
Later on , they take diverse ways , however they will have a recurring relationship during the next thirty years at the oddest places , in the most strange moments , and during historical events that defined ulterior decades .
Years later , Diana (One time grown-up performed by Ana Belen) will marry a cocky , wealthy man (Luis Fernando Alves) , she will divorce him and marry an Italian tenor named Raimondi (Carles Sans) .
While , Santi (one time grown-up played by Juanjo Puigcorbe) has already married María José (Laura Conejero) and her unfaithfulness is bringing him lots of problems .
A very pleasant romantic comedy plenty of humor , emotion , sensitive scenes and mayhem .
"Love Can Seriously Damage Your Health" is Pereira's return to top form, with an intelligent and engaging script which uses amusing situations to give us a good movie in a high sense and intimate sensitivity and that kept me entertained for the almost two hours and some of duration .
Rightly enjoyable and fun-filled , milestone comedy which neatly combines humor , mirth , entertaining situations and amusement .
Pay attention as one couple of younger actors very well played by Gabino Diego and Penelope Cruz alternate with the other pair of older players perfectly performed by Ana Belen and Juanjo Puigcorbe to recreate this 30 year span in this splendid comedy .
Flawless story with a quartet of sensational protagonists , including an unforgettable Penelope Cruz who though plays a secondary acting , she parades sexily at her best and more relaxed and enticing than ever .
The hit of the show is undoubtedly for the fetching Penelope who gives one of the best screen acting .
I liked everyone in the excellent cast, and the male and female actors , especially Penelope Cruz , were all very attractive .
I have seen many, Hollywood-romantic-comedies that couldn't compare with this one, but many give them a higher rating because they are Hollywood-made .
The screenplay manages a lot of laughs from the audience and romantic elements that you never loose your attention from the film.
The only flaw I can find is that some of the story lines are left unexplained and some character arcs end up being implausible.
Some situations are laugh out loud ridiculous and the story proceeds at a breakneck speed that never flags .
This movie is a lot of fun and well worth the time.
I enjoyed the film tremendously and I guarantee you that if you rent it, you'll enjoy it and have a few laughs.
It was funny, great actors and a super soundtrack composed by recently deceased Bernando Bonezzi .
Furthermore , a colorful and evocative cinematography by Juan Amoros .
Nice special effects showing historical deeds in ¨Forrest Gump¨ style .
Rating : Better than average Spanish comedy , you will be glad to saw it.
The picture will appeal to Penelope Cruz fans .
The motion picture was well written and directed by Manuel Gomez Pereira .
He usually writes his films and occasionally for other directors as "What Makes Women Laugh?" by Joaquin Oristell who in "Love Can Seriously Damage Your Health" is screenwriter and producer ; both of them are ordinary collaborators .
Pereira is an expert on comedies as ¨¨Rose sauce¨, Why do they call it love when they mean sex ?¨, ¨Mouth to mouth¨ , "All Men Are the Same" , though he also has made some drama as ¨The hanged man¨ and ¨Between your legs¨ .
His latest projects, however, tanked as "Off Key" starred by an American-all star cast but was a failure both economically and artistically or simply didn't deliver as "Atrévete y Verás" .
Nowadays , he directs TV chapters as ¨Gran Reserva¨ and ¨Cheers¨ series ..
Couldn't leave the film, even though I wanted to!.
This started as something curious to watch, something light.
Well that changed almost imperceptibly as I was drawn into the film and the story.In a way it's a typical story line, yet not so typical as so few people have experienced what happens to the characters.
The emotional levels really pull you up and down as the movie explores the idea of true love vs.
lust and romance vs.
marriage.
Also exploring ideas about getting what you want in life materially and career and classes of society and how those intertwine with attraction and love.The music was also very moving, making the emotions that much stronger.
I'm a man and yet it made me laugh and cry ...
making me think back to events in my own life.Life can be so simple and pure if we want it to be ....
but is that boring?.
Surprisingly Entertaining Romantic Comedy.
El Amor perjudica seriamente la salud (Love Can Seriously Damage Your Health) is a smartly written and produced Spanish Romantic Comedy dating back to 1996 when two of the 'stars' (Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem) were barely known: of course now, their names add enormous credibility to the DVD issue on today's market.
Written and directed by Manuel Gómez Pereira, this is a tale of a boy/man and girl/woman who meet in a slapstick situation in the 1960s when the Beatles were all the rage, fall in love, part and have recurrent meetings over the next thirty years under varying circumstances that prove to be both humorous and sensitive.In the mid 1960s there is a reception for the King of Spain and in the hotel site of the reception we encounter a bellboy Santi (Gabino Diego) and an over the top Beatle's fan Diana (Penélope Cruz) whose antics include hiding under John Lennon's bed as he makes love to a local trollop, much to the chagrin of the smitten Diana.
The two lock in an attraction and over the ensuing years, each becomes married with family in various forms of devotion and fidelity, and as adults Santi (Juanjo Puigcorbé) and Diana (the gorgeous Ana Belén) continue to have mutual assignations in the most bizarre of circumstances.
In the end the repeated replay love affairs take their toll and the two eventually manage to proceed with getting on with their married lives with a degree of normalcy ...
The flavor of the various passing decades during which Santi and Diana meet is well captured by the director, the scenic designer, the musical score and by the quartet of superb actors.
At times, especially in the beginning, the film seems as though it is going to be a slapstick comedy, one that could become tiresome given the subject matter.
But just when madcap 60s pass the tone of the film takes on a more sophisticated stance, dealing with serious issues of lust, infidelity, abuse of power, commitment to family and political changes.
It all works surprisingly well and the film ends like a 1940s enduring love story.
There are numerous bit parts my serious actors, not the least of which is a split moment by an unknown Javier Bardem who even in that twinkle of time gives evidence of the gifted actor he has become.
The very young Penélope Cruz likewise proves not only her early comedic gifts, but shows us that even as a beginner she has electric screen presence.
A fun and tender little diversion of a film.
In Spanish with English subtitles.
Grady Harp.
A terrific atypical romance.
I saw this film as part of a series while I was going to school in Spain.
Spanish films tend be, for the most part, confusing, unsatisfying, and obviously low-budget.
_El amor perjudica seriamente la salud_ is none of these things.
The performances are absolutely outstanding (with a very notable early Penelope Cruz role) and the story is at times screamingly hilarious.
At others, it is devastatingly sad.
It has the wonderful quality of seeming to be a cute little romantic comedy that actually evolves into a complex, finely tuned film that can easily become the topic of a night's conversation after the film.
I've not yet seen it in English, but I'm doing all in my power to find it here in the United States.
Truly, truly excellent..
The love is very funny.
A good film.
The cast is perfect and Gabino Diego is the best of the film.
It is very amusing and enjoyable.
You'll laugh willingly.
You must see it because you'll have a good time and it is worthwhile.
It only have a little defect, the duration is very long, I think..
A mixed success, but I still rate it at 7.
After a well-handled and intriguing light-comedy scene at a reception for the King of Spain, this film returns us to that moment through a thirty-year-long flashback told through numerous rather distinct scenes, each striving toward another amorous turn of triumph in the enduring attraction of the two main characters.
The quality of those triumphs matures over time, and in each we confront, to varying degrees, light suspense, nostalgia and humor.
The dialogue is at times hilarious - quick turns of phrases, clashes of word choice with social surroundings, etc., but of course understanding the Spanish is at times essential for full comic appreciation.In the first half of the film occurs a short sequence of rapid-fire madcap stunts that surprise and work well, but thereafter, slapstick is largely absent through the remainder of the film - or at least till the end.
As already hinted, some of the scenes end so successfully, and with a sentiment seeming so perfectly to wrap up the film, that I was momentarily disillusioned to see it continue.As for acting, the leading actors project wonderfully and are capable of charm and "sutileza" (the English spelling escapes me at the moment).
I order zone-2 dvds from Spain and received this along with Cielo Abierto, which I rate higher (I like Albaladejo's work).
Yet I give this a 7-rating.
With many films I can envision how I might reorder or change the work - with El amor perjudica seriamente la salud, I find the basic plot extremely challenging - yet when it did end, all in my family left the room smiling and laughing.
There is no graphic sex, and whatever violence that occurs is comic.
The language is non-offensive, at least to Spanish sensitivities.
Probably my favorite film with a plot vaguely-vaguely similar to this one is Avanti, with Jack Lemmon..
Interesting, funny, boring and overlong.
Just a week ago I was have this conversation with a friend; she said she wanted to find a man who would marry her and would agree both of them to live in separate places, with their own personal lives.
They would be together only when they felt like it.
That's the relationship that works, in her opinion; in mine, that's choosing the easy way.The premise of the movie is very interesting, even though reminiscent of Forrest Gump.
The movie itself raises a lot of questions about love, lust, relationships, marriage and ultimately, about sharing a life and the evolution of love in a relationship.The movie starts well, setting a warm mood, and delivers us a promising story with funny moments.
After the first hour this cozy movie begins to turn too repetitive and its otherwise empathetic and cheerful main characters start to make you uncomfortable.
We all know passion doesn't last forever and that love has its own evolution in a relationship.
We also know time and distance help to heal frustrated love stories.And as the movie goes by, chance puts the characters in a perpetual never-ending confront about their feelings for each other almost in a masochist way.
Even though this is a comedy, we can see the characters suffer with their impossible love, and at certain point I lost total empathy with the characters - they are only in pain because they don't want to make a decision, for the good or for the bad - so the movie becomes boring and overlong running almost two hours.Hopefully this is a comedy and the title - Love Can Seriously Damage Your Health - could not be more appropriate..
When unfaithfulness is peaceful (web).
Usually, stories about lovers and mistress are drama en end in blood.
Here, it's the opposite: it's funny and happy.
The idea is original and is well played as the separated lovers meet all along their life in Spain.
So it's a good way to learn about the evolution of this country and its people, especially with their King.
But there's more as the first look comes from the Beatles!
It's Pené who plays the young lady and she is cute in this old fashion.
With the years, the mature woman is played by Ana Belen, who has the same sexy look than a very famous Justice Minister of my country (RD).
Thus, it's 100% Latin charm and not at all superficial: their story really speaks about why people can have two loves: as i write for "Douche froide", the reason is the difference.
So it's not really about a competition of lovers, of choosing the best as they are unlike and opposite.
In a way, they can be in good terms together, the bad side is that the unofficial lover is stuck to bits and leftover: he can't never access the best level because if he did, there's no more difference thus no more desire.
So it's funny and tragic to see those lovers meet, dream and leave as it's their fate.
In addition, it's never repetitive as there's a lot of humor, due to the facts that they must do little lies, silly plans for their official families.Again a good surprise from my neighbors !.
Such a romantic story....
I like this film so much!
Believe me: I'm the person who has the world record of hating romantic films, but this one has really touched my heart.I see it as a realistic kind of love story.
Life and different circumstances force both lovers Santi and Diana to postpone the moment when they can be together forever.
At the beginning, it looks like Santi is hooked on somebody who is much powerful and resourceful and who doesn't really need him, but as time goes by the audience can appreciate how much they love each other, no matter how different they are, how their divergent social backgrounds push them apart or whatever circumstances come in their way.
Both need that love in their lives, although life being as it is, it insists in keeping them apart.
Diana marries well: for her money and a good social position are part of her identity as a person, and for him, his profession is something really important: he's had to fight his way to the top, and he's not going to destroy his professional life -something he's fought so hard to have- to the rubbish bin.
It's natural and it happens many times in real life: when people grow older, they mature, and many people become sadder and regretful with lost opportunities, what-could-have-been's and the grim realities of life like routine and mortgages.Of course there are good fun moments, but the anxiety of their separation and the loss of years make both them a bit melancholic.
The scene which presents John Lennon's death is tender, and it means so much for the main characters, and it's a really touching moment. |
tt2140315 | Raaz 3: The Third Dimension | The Movie is on Jealousy and what an Human do for success. In India it's common every where as every family and homes suffering from this. Lots of people are victim of black magic in India . Marriages and Jobs are effected.
The story touches the secrets of Indian Society. Only difference in Movies is Sanaya Plays Role of jealous and insecure woman who gets the help of Magic power and Doctor who plays a role to heal Sanjana from these curse.
The story starts with Shanaya(Bipasha Basu)a once successful actress now on the decline of her career, laughing hysterically while looking herself in a mirror. She then smashes the mirror and kills herself with its broken piece. The film then goes in the flashback, Shanaya Kejal an actress filming for her film. She constantly gets appreciated by her fellow mates, especially by the director, her boyfriend Aditya(Emraan Hashmi). She gets nominated her wins all the filmfare awards. Shanaya is madly in love with Aditya and urges him to marry her as soon as possible. Aditya, still a struggling director, says that once his film becomes a hit he will marry her. Everything goes smoothly until Sanjana Dhanraj(Esha Gupta), a struggling actress comes into picture. Sanjana is much younger than Shanaya and pleads for the directors to offer her even an extra in a film but everyone refuses. As she's on the verge of losing all hope Aditya sees her and is immediately smitten. He offers her the lead role in his film and the film becomes a huge hit. She gets numerous appreciations by the audience and becomes noticeable. Sanjana keeps getting offers for the films and everyone seems to beforgetting Shanaya. In place of Shanaya, Sanjana comes into spotlight and wins all the award she is nominated for. Shanaya begins to envy Sanjana and decides to quit acting and marry Aditya. Aditya is on the horns of dilemma about Sanjana and Shanaya but chooses Sanjana. Shanaya, heartbroken and depressesd, leaves Aditya. Shanaya is unable to think about Sanjana and finally drives towards Aditya and creates a racous which causes him to slap her. Shanaya, even more depressed slowly becomes mad. She seeks help of her uncle Agoo dada(Zeeshan Khalid) a tantrik who helps her to practice black magic and calls upon ghost of Tara. She asks her to make Sanjana's life a living hell. The ghost agrees her and begins to taunt and torture Sanjana more and more until she becomes suicidal. Aditya, unable to see her like this goes to a tantrik who helps him find a way to get rid of the ghost. As soon as the ghost approaches to kill Sanjana, Aditya comes with a locket and taunts the ghost about her past life. The ghost unable to bear the torture vanishes and takes revenge on Shanaya by posessing her. The film then comes to the present and Shanaya does the same what she did in the beginning.But Aditya is Guilty of his deeds has he help Shanaya do magic on Sanjana in return of sex & now he is in love with Sanjana and sleeps with her ,This changes his mind in return he tell Sanjana the truth and helps her get heal of the curse as instructed by the Doctor's Friend the Witchcraft Doctor who instucts to kill the soul and bring Sanjana alive from the Dream world ,where Aditiya have a fight with the Soul. | good versus evil, revenge | train | imdb | null |
tt0330452 | The Interrogation of Michael Crowe | This is a tragic tale on several levels; for the family of Stephanie, the murdered little girl, for Michael, the 14-year-old brother who is accused of her murder, and particularly for the police who refuse to accept the possibility that someone else may have killed her.The story focuses on the48 hours of intense and relentless interviews the police use to break down Michael and get him to admit to killing his sister, Stephanie. For hours on end and in interview after interview, the investigators, detectives, and forensic staff continue to push and peck away at Michael, who finally, in his own desperation to end this Kafakaesque ordeal, tells the cops what he states from the beginning of his "confession" is a a complete lie, that he did kill his sister after all.Hey, wonderful! Eleven hours of intense questioning he finally gives in and cooks up a tale to match the evidence, even though he also tells the police that what he is telling them (his supposed confession) is really a lie but that they wat him to admit to it so he does, kindsa. The kid confesses and now the cops are happy campers. Michael himself now believes the pressure will be off him for good. But, being only 14, the poor lamb is being sacrificed without even realising it.His family is horrified, his parents unbelieving that their son could kill his little sister so brutally, she was stabbed 14 times and Michael, just like about every red-blooded American teenage boy, has lots of drawings of knives used in various poses. He plays Dungeons & Dragons, a role-playng game which can become theoretically a bit violent amongst the players and in which many kinds of blades are usedThe cops like Michael for the crime as they saw him as oddly unaffected over his sister's brutal death, and also while walking past her room with the door open 2 hours earlier, he should've seen her body from the doorway to her room.things change, however, when Michael finally has the chance to talk with his parents, who are appalled at the treatment of their son by the police. The cops had a theory, they needed a confession, and they got it. Cops are allowed tto lie, misconstrue, deceive, and do whatever they need to in order to get hte greatly desired confession, the treasure at the end of the yellow brick road.Unfortunately, a woman approaches one of the detectives attending Stephanie's funeral and tells him about her own son's kinfe collection and the fact that one of those knives is now missing. By her tone, we can assume that perhaps this boy may be a friend of Michael's?next scene we see the parents being greeted by neighbor Bill, who asks them did they remember the homeless man who was going around the neighborhood one the night of the murder banging on everyone's doors looking for his ex-girlfriend. Gosh, didn't they remember that guy? and Bill wasn't alone in reporting him to the cops that night, either. Papa says 'what homeless guy'? Cop says 'he's too mentally incapable to have done it and this is sibling rivaly that got out of hand. Mom counters with Mich
etective then tells them that Josh and arron have also been arrested. they also finally agreed to the cops version of events. Josh was the lookout. Arron told them a therorectical how-to of the killing. Michael's parents don't believe the cops, for sure now.To insure the confession is accurate, the cops tape all the sessions. Taping works both ways.
stephanie is about 10With a coerced confession, and with being tried as adults, all three boys are now in what one could call the ultimate 'deep shit'. and they are off to superior court.At one point, mom comes in and asks Michael how was school? as the new term had just begun. His reply: Well, I didin't have to tell anyone about my summer vacation"ultimately, the case gets dismissed without prejudice (which means the case ca be reopened any time) but with a 40-page report stating why the cops think the boys are guilty, they just can't prove it. All the parents, of course Steven & Sharon Crowe file civin suits.... BUT thank god for sexliesandvideotape!!! That is what saves these kids in the end in their battle for the truthIn the end, on 15 May 2002, the CA State Atty gGen office charged Richard Tulte with the murder of little Steph crowe and completely exonerating Joshua Treadway, Aaron Houser, and Michael Crowe in Stephanie Crowe's death At the time this film was done, on completion of production, The Crowe's lawsuit against the Escondido ploice dept along w the DAs office and others involved in the investigation, is still pending.For those who would like to pursue the actual case, here are a few follow-up links: | brainwashing, murder | train | imdb | This isn't a horror movie - at least not in the sense of genre.
But it is a truly frightening true story about the abuse of police power.Basically, the story is quite simple.
12 year old Stephanie Crowe is brutally murdered in her own home in Escondido, California while her family sleeps.
Without any real evidence, the police decide that her 14 year old brother Michael must be guilty, they ignore evidence pointing to another suspect and they coerce a confession from him after two days of non-stop questioning, filled with lies about what they supposedly "know," threats if he won't confess and promises of help if he will.
Young Michael then becomes the object of a relentless prosecution by the District Attorney, who finally admits that there is no direct evidence but won't give up the case, instead dismissing it "without prejudice," thus leaving possible future prosecution hanging over Michael's head, and leaving the viewer wondering what's going to happen to this boy, until the final decision is revealed at the end.This is truly an excellent, gripping movie.
Superb performances come from Ally Sheedy and Michael Riley as Michael's parents and - I'll use the phrase again - there's a positively frightening performance from John Bourgeois as Detective Claytor.
Not to be overlooked is young Mark Rendall's performance as Michael.
At times I thought he came across as a bit too mature in his portrayal, but, then again, maybe that was Michael.This isn't a particularly well known movie, but everyone should see it.9/10.
Mark Rendall's Performance.
This is an outstanding performance with a full range of emotion and portrayal of a teen boy, from slightly surly to loving, from confusion through desperation, to damaged, toward recovery.
The scenes of the interrogation itself are among the most harrowing, and Mark is excellent.
Later, the anguish of his experience is captured perfectly in the scene with his mother when she wants him to go to the video store with her.This is a good little movie (congratulations Court TV) with strong performances by all of the cast, including the rather creepy portrayal of the detectives getting their way in the interviews.But for me, Mark's work was splendid..
To Be Falsely Accused is the Worst Thing....especially for a child..
This film recently aired on Court TV and it's a grim true story of how California police used intimidation to attain a false confession from an innocent 14-year-old whose sister was killed.
This family, the Crowes, was victimized twice, once by the killer, and then by the police who destroyed their lives.
This film shows the interrogation filmed in very stark lighting where you can't even see the actors eyes.
Ally Sheedy portrays the mother.
A warning: this is a VERY depressing film, as the police brand Michael guilty based on the evidence that he likes to play Dungeons and Dragons with his friends.
And it's interestingly relevant as the Central Park jogger case just released 5 innocent kids after 10 years in jail.
How many innocent people sit in prison now falsely convicted?
very, very moving movie.
i felt the full range of emotions as i watched.
and really - isnt that the definition of a truly great movie??there were a couple of FIRST's for me tonight.
it was the FIRST time i watched "The Interrogation of Michael Crowe.
and after rating over 300 different films over the past one and a half years or so, i give this movies my FIRST 10/10.
young Mark Rendell was simply stunning.....
This movie seriously has some of the best acting I've seen especially by the child-Michael Crowe character.
In fact very good acting all around except by the mother character.
But aside from that, the movie is a good conversion from the real life events.
It is a sad event in real life but the story is movie quality.
Again, Good movie GREAT acting.
Again, Good movie GREAT acting.
I highly suggest this to all types of movie lovers..
real life.
its real frightening to know that this has actually happened.
i was watching this film and love true movies, but this one grabs you and pulls you into the world of unknown.
when i was watching this it was so emotional and the real life story just is great to watch and know what has happened.
i enjoyed this film but the power of the police is a bit scary to know that they can do this.
overall i enjoyed the film.this film is great to watch and is the best real life film i have seen so far.
it was a great film about the real life case of this.
the actors make the film what it is.
when these things happen in real life it is a sad story.
i have looked up the film on the internet and have become interested in this story..
If you've read all the other reviews, you know what the story line is so I won't go into that.
What I will say is that the production and writing of the movie itself were excellent--I didn't realize CourtTV made such high quality productions.
I expected as much out of Ally Sheedy, but the boy who played Michael deserves all the kudos he has been earning.
The supporting characters were also very good.This movie should be viewed by aspiring law students and probably anyone who is interested in personal freedom!.
Especially for a T.V. Movie..
This movie was absolutely stunning.
Although Michael Riley's performance as Stephen Crow was a little dull, the rest of it was fabulous.
Mark Rendall, who played Michael Crow, was unbelievable.
And Ally Sheedy, who played Cheryl Crow, was excellant, as usual.
The real murder took place VERY close to my home, and the accuracy was unbelievable.
This was the one of the most accurate murder cases I've ever seen.
Overall, I give this movie 9/10..
this movie was based on a true story knowing that, it was really hard to watch it, knowing that this actually happened.
My grandparents were watching it and i walked in half way through it, i didn't get to watch it very long.
the story line and everything was awesome but i had to walk away before i broke the television.
i mean really....this actually happened and its awful....if it wasn't a true story and we knew that stuff like this didn't really happen it would have been all the more wonderful but like i said it is true and did happen and it happens everyday in one way or another.........so in my conclusion it was great well the part i watched but make sure there isn't anything around that would break your TV if you throw it hard enough, when you're watching it!!!.
Firstly what a great, emotional performance from the young man playing Michael.I would love to say I'm shocked by this story, but having looked into so many myself, it isn't that surprising at all.
Certainly reminders of the Jon Benet Ramsay case, but with vast differences in wealth and how the family were treated immediately.
One of the best TV movies ever made.
The main reason I liked the film is because it provided such a contrast to mainstream claptrap.
It is shocking how complete the saturation is, with regards to major networks' hour-long cop dramas.
Portrayals of virtuous authorities dominate the airwaves, while the the exact opposite saturate real life.
Inept, lazy cops sit in coffee shops and shoot unarmed people in the back.
To be a good interrogator, values and scruples are detrimental characteristics.
Given carte blanche to use whatever dirty tricks they can devise to achieve confessions, regardless of innocence or guilt, killers are allowed to roam while blindsided taxpayers get sent to anal rape prison for life.
I find it hard to believe that "Law & Order" and "CSI" are so popular while films like "The Interrogation of Michael Crowe" wallow in relative obscurity on Lifetime and Court TV.
This film makes one wonder, why are the major networks so commonly lying to us?
The people that worked on "Michael Crowe" deserve a big pat on the back, and those that work on the mainstream lies should be ashamed of themselves.
This film made me realize that I want to do something about injustice.
Ally Sheedy is HORRIBLE actress.
I couldn't get beyond the extremely hideous performance of Sheedy- she I s so unbelievably bad ; I was embarrassed for her).
Unfortunately, this made for TV movie is based on fact.
Police use entrapment methods all the time.
The lesson to take away from this is: NEVER talk to the police and never watch Ally Sheedy EVER!.
There were Excellent performances by all characters in the movie .I had never heard of this true story before but it is very intriguing portrayal of the heart wrenching tragedy that the California Crowe family endured back in the 1990,s...
It displays the abusive investigative methods and powers of a shoddy police investigation that had no compassion or support for the victim and family ...I didn't really see that it was shot in Ontario Canada until looking it up here ...
Basically I am here to say if you haven't seen this movie .....
When I have the chance to see these kind of movies, I feel ridiculous about all our national fiction, here in Italy.
We never, and I stress never, had and will have the courage to treat a story of "normal" abuse of justice, in a so complete, right, correct, wonderful way.
The actors, starting from Mark, Ally, and all the others are simply incredible.
But when you reach a so high level of quality, it's obvious the all factors converge to create a masterpiece: the story, the writing, the direction, and more generally "the eye".
I can't think that in the same moment, here in Italy they make us sit through things like "Beautiful" , "The good Pope" (a pope almost Superman), "Don Matteo" (a priest almost Superman), "the big brother 3d series",(five for flounders locked in a house 24 hours under cameras...
Is it possible we don't express here so strong writers, and actors, and directors as in "The interrogation of Michael Crowe?"?
These cases happen here too.
"The interrogation of Michael Crowe" is one of the best fictions I've never seen, and I usually "must" watch a lot of fiction, so I can say.
good depiction of actual events.
When twelve-year old honor student Stephanie Ann Crowe was in the process of being stabbed and murdered in her bedroom in Escondido, California in January 1998, she probably had no idea that this review would be written.
Here's how it happened: Despite having numerous reports from Crowe family neighbors of a mysterious and suspicious transient in the vicinity on the night in question, the police assumed because of Stephanie's fourteen-year old brother Michael's claiming to have passed her room without seeing her dead body in the middle of the night and because of his participation in role-playing games that he must be the perpetrator.
He and his surviving sister were put in protective custody and each day he was taken, unbeknownst to his parents, to the police station for questioning.
The police used psychological brutality in many forms and finally broke Michael down, convincing him to confess.
Michael had to spend many stressful months in prison but was eventually exonerated.
This is an excellent depiction of police misconduct.
Although the film doesn't mention it, the fact that Michael's mother, portrayed by Ally Sheedy of Brat Pack fame, is Cheryl Crowe might make many viewers think of Sheryl Crow (note the different spelling), the famous singer of such songs as "All I Wanna Do", "Every Day is a Winding Road", "If it Makes you Happy", "Leaving Las Vegas", "Soak up the Sun" and "Strong Enough".
However, most viewers will be probably be more interested in the issues that the film raises.
The main child actor is astonishingly good; a really heart-rending performance.
A couple of the cops are good too.
Great to see Ally Sheedy again.
Unfortunately, the script is too on-the-nose and the lawyer is a really bad actress, so it brings it all down to a 3-star (out of 5) film.
Overall, it's sort of entertaining in a "disease-of-the-week" TV movie kind of way, but there are many better films you could be watching....
true story TV movie.
Cheryl (Ally Sheedy) and Stephen Crowe (Michael Riley) are loving parents to Michael, Shannon, and Stephanie in Escondido, California.
The police is puzzled by the lack of evidence of a break-in and suspicion immediately falls on the family.
Detective Baker interviews transient Richard Tuite for an unconnected issue and doesn't even consider him for the case.
With relentless interrogation and trickery, they gain false confessions from Michael, his friends Joshua Treadway and Aaron Houser.Based on the real murder in 1998, this TV movie is at a lower level.
It would be melodramatic if there isn't a real story behind it.
The interrogations are tough to watch due to their inherit unbalanced dynamics.
In a way, the audience is stuck inside the room along with Michael and that has some benefits.
Its pretty sad when stuff like this happens, unfortunately it happens more often than one might think, and whats even sadder is in this day and age, more than 10 years after DNA has been recognized in courts as a perfect match, that some people still believe that innocent people are guilty, even when their DNA can prove they are beyond any reasonable doubt innocent.
People will still be looking at this kid that know him and say, "Oh he murdered his sister" , I know this for a fact, a person in a town not far from where I live spent over 10 years in jail for a murder he did not commit, it wasn't until DNA could be used in Canadian courts that he could completely prove his innocence, he was also browbeaten into a confession, but even with the DNA linking the murder to someone else (who has yet to be found) people in his community think the guy is still guilty.
And the fact he had actually met the girl he was accused of killing a couple of times, the place he lives in is about 5000 people at most, probably less at the time of the girl disappearing.
I live in a town of about 15,000 and have met thousands of people in the town I live in over my lifetime, so if one of them gets murdered, am I gonna be on a suspect list?.
After School Special Type Movie, Very Biased Viewpoint.
It's interesting how many people with only a media's perspective of an incident can be so sure of how an event actually occurred.
This movie's presentation is based on taking one side of a traumatic and complex case and virtually no presentation of the other side.
As far as shock value, the movie does a good job.
But anyone who took the time to look at all sides of this actual case would find the movie laughable and inaccurate.
It mocks a reputable and highly regarded police department and discounts the actual work done in the case.
What this case and movie did successfully prove is that the possibility of an innocent person going to jail and a guilty one being set free is entirely possible.
Michael Crowe could very well be guilty and Richard Tuite could very well be innocent.
The legal system isn't perfect and makes mistakes.
There is reasonable doubt in both cases and Tuite never should have been convicted, even if he is guilty.
The evidence against Crowe was more convincing than against Tuite.
Anyone truly interested in the facts of this horrible and very complicated case need to look much deeper than this one-sided viewpoint and dig into the actual prosecution's case against Crowe (and later Tuite) and see what they find.
The Crowe family are shocked and unsettled when 12-year-old daughter Stephanie (a brief, but memorable appearance by Anna Mary Wilson) gets brutally murdered in their home late at night.
The police suspect Stephanie's surly, naive 14-year-old brother Michael (superbly played by Mark Rendall) of the killing and pressure him into making a confession.
Michael's distraught mother Cheryl (an outstanding portrayal by Ally Sheedy) and sympathetic father Stephen (a fine Michael Riley) don't believe the charges and take legal action to get Michael released from jail.
Director Don McBrearty, working from a gripping and thoughtful script by Alan Hines, relates this startling true story of injustice, the untrustworthiness of the police, and how the law can work against us instead of for us with commendable skill, taste and restraint.
The first-rate acting from a uniformly sterling cast rates as another significant asset: Rendall is a revelation as the scared and confused Michael, Sheedy and Riley are equally terrific as his parents, plus there are sturdy supporting performances by Hannah Lochner as Michael's sweet younger sister Shannon, John Bourgeois as the severe, intimidating Detective Claytor, and Rosemary Dunsmore as shrewd defense attorney Dorothy Sorenson.
I loved this movie I thought it was great.
I think Ally Sheedy was mildly convincing as the mother, but I would have preferred to see someone with more talent such as Michelle Pfeiffer play her.
But overall the acting, costumes, script, production, directing, and photography were wonderful.After an intruder named Richard Truits breaks into the Crowe's home and kills Stephanie the oldest daughter the police immediately jump to the conclusion that Micheal is guilty and shame him into a confession.
Later however, he gets a really good public defender who gets him and his accused friends acquitted of the crime.Although, at first they did not know he was the killer, I'm surprised that they did not question the guy since he was found in their neighborhood that morning. |
tt0084787 | The Thing | In the opening shot, an alien spaceship flies through space and enters Earth's atmosphere near Antarctica. Whether or not the ship crashes or lands on Earth is unknown.In Antarctica, the winter months of 1982, a helicopter flies hurriedly after a husky. The man riding next to the pilot shoots a rifle and drops grenades hoping to kill the dog. The runs toward an American research base, Outpost 31, where a 12-man research crew is getting ready for the upcoming winter. The helicopter, which they see is from a Norwegian research base, flies in and lands. The Americans watch puzzled as two men that emerge from the helicopter speak frantically in their native language. One of them pulls the pin on a grenade but clumsily throws it behind him. As he frantically tries to find it in the snow, it explodes, killing him and taking the helicopter with it. The pilot (named Matias in the prequel) is shooting his rifle hysterically and talking frantically; no one can understand what he is saying and the man shoots Bennings (Peter Maloney) in his left leg. The camp leader Garry (Donald Moffat) shoots and kills the gibbering man in defense.Puzzled about why the Norwegians were trying to kill the dog, MacReady (Kurt Russell) the team's helicopter pilot, their doctor, Copper (Richard Dysart) and Norris (Charles Hallahan), go to investigate the Norwegian base. Everyone is dead; one of them had barricaded himself in the radio room and is still sitting frozen in his chair, his wrists and throat slit in an apparent suicide. Mac and Copper explore further, finding a large and empty block of ice. Outside in the snow, along with one or two burned human bodies, Mac and Copper find the burnt and frozen corpse of a twisted creature, not man but not beast, either. They bring it back to their own base for an autopsy, but that muddies up the mystery.That night, the new stray husky is locked in with the sled dogs. The other dogs soon react with fear to the new addition, growling and snarling. The new dog suddenly transforms into a hideous creature with tentacles and crab's legs and starts attacking the other dogs. The scene is discovered by Clark (Richard Masur), who tends to the dogs and he watches, horrified. Mac hears the sounds of the thing's unworldly groan and he immediately responds by sounding the fire alarm, waking up the entire camp who converge on the dog kennel where they see the hideous dog-like creature seemingly consuming the other sled dogs. After shooting at it with their guns, the 'thing' is killed with a flamethrower. (Note: fire is apparently the only effective weapon against the alien creature which can hurt as well as kill it.) An autopsy on the thing's remains reveals its secret: the "thing" is an alien organism that imitates other life forms by attacking, and either digesting or dissolving them and reshaping it's image to appear in the animal or person it kills.The following day, MacReady flies with Palmer and Norris to the crash site of where the Norwegians found the UFO after watching a videotape of the discovery of something buried under the ice, and the Norwegians using thermal charges to melt the ice on the spaceship. They find the alien spaceship in the open crater and haul themselves down to look around. Mac asks Norris how long the ship has been entombed; Norris estimates that it's been there for at least 100,000 years. Up near the crash site, they find a block of the ice cap missing where the thing was discovered and chopped out of the ice by the Norwegians. Back at Outpost 31, Mac theorizes that the Norwegians awakened the creature and it immediately began to attack them.The team decides to place the creature's remains in a storage room. The assistant biologist Fuchs (Joel Polis) asks to speak privately with Mac; he tells Mac that he's been looking through the biologist Blair's (Wilford Brimley) notes and found that Blair believes the organism's cells are still alive and active. Blair has also theorized that the alien might have imitated a thousand other lifeforms across space.That evening, Blair studies cells from this Thing, and watches them attack and replicate other kinds of cells on his computer. Typing his report into his computer, the computer replies that the possibility that one or more team members may be infected by the alien organism is 75%, and that if the alien reached civilization, the Earth's population will be infected and taken over by the alien organism exactly 27,000 hours (around 37 months) after first contact.While Windows (Thomas G. Waites) and Bennings prepare the room to store the remains, it begins to move under the blanket it's been covered with. Windows returns to the room to find Bennings being attacked, wrapped in tentacles. Windows gets the other team members but Bennings has vanished, running out the back door. They find him in the snow, his transformation by the alien nearly complete except for his hands, which are hideously large and grotesque shapes. Mac and the team incinerates him alive and buries him in the snow.Realizing that something like this could take over the world if it got out, Blair kills the surviving sled dogs and destroys the helicopter and the communications equipment (injuring Windows in the process), trapping the crew without hope of rescue. The others, seeing him as a threat, lock him in the camp's tool shed and sedate him.The next morning, fear and paranoia circulates around the camp as nobody knows who may be the thing or who isn't. When blood plasma in the storage room is found to to be tampered with, which a scientific test that could have been used to find out who or who isn't human, Gary and two others (Dr. Copper and Clark) become suspects because of their access to the storage room. As a result they are quarantined by MacReady who takes over as the 'de facto' leader of the team to find out who may be the Thing. When a 'whiteout' storm (an Antarctic storm resembling a winter hurricane) hits the camp, they are forced to hunker down, all of them paranoid and distrustful of one another.The following evening, Fuchs, trying to do research on how the Thing can reproduce and multiply, is waylaid when one of the unseen persons infected, disables the power to the lab. In going after it, Fuchs is killed (off-camera) and his body is found outside in the snow a few hours later by Mac, Nauls and Windows. Either the Thing burned Fuchs to death, or Fuchs burned himself in a suicide to prevent him from being taken over. Mac tells Windows to return to the main building while he goes with Nauls to his shack to investigate: when he left two days before, he'd turned out the lights and they're back on.Some time later, Nauls returns to the camp, nearly collapsing because of the cold. He tells the others he'd found clothing with Mac's name on it in the oil drum near MacReady's shack. As they were struggling back to the main compound, Nauls cut Mac's safety line and made a break for it. Mac is locked outside and breaks the window in another storeroom to enter. He arms himself with a small bundle of dynamite and threatens to blow himself and the rest of them up if they don't back away. When Childs (Keith David) and the others rebel against MacReady (and to express their suspicion that he may be the Thing), Norris collapses when he appears to have a heart attack. When Dr. Copper tries to revive him using defibrillator paddles, Norris' chest suddenly opens up into a monstrous mouth and bites off Copper's arms. MacReady uses a flamethrower to destroy the Norris/Thing, leaving only it's head, which sprouts spider-like legs and tries to crawl away before it is destroyed as well.At this point, MacReady leads the others in a test to determine who is infected. He suggests that everyone give a blood sample, and then those blood samples be poked with a hot piece of wire. The theory is that each part of a Thing will try to survive independently, and therefore the blood would transform to defend itself. Clark makes another attempt on MacReady's life, he is shot and killed by him. Everyone is tied up (including the dead Clark and Copper) while the test is performed. Windows is the first to be tested, and turns out to be human; MacReady arms him with a flamethrower to torch anyone who might be a Thing. As MacReady continues the test (testing the dead bodies of Clark and Copper whom are not infected), he openly accuses Garry of being a duplicate, but instead finds that Palmer (David Clennon) is a Thing clone. As Palmer transforms, MacReady's flamethrower misfires and Windows hesitates to kill the Palmer-Thing, which proves to be a fatal mistake as Palmer-Thing's entire head splits open and turns into a giant mouth, which is used to crush Windows' head. MacReady manages to get his flamethrower working and sets the Palmer-Thing on fire which crashes through the wall to die in the snow. MacReady is then forced to torch Windows with the other flame thrower, since he is now infected and the Thing is coming back through him.MacReady and the three remaining survivors, Childs, Garry, and Nauls (T.K. Carter) are revealed to be not infected. While ordering Childs to stay behind to watch the camp, MacReady, Garry and Nauls go to check on Blair to give him the blood test, and discover the shed empty, save for a space craft Blair had been building under the shed. When the power in the whole compound turns off, the survivors discover that Blair is the last Thing creature and he must be stopped. Finally, realizing how pervasive the infection is and that there is little chance for survival, it is proposed that they blow up the base so the Thing can't get to the rest of the world. Childs runs off, and MacReady, Nauls and Garry set fire to the complex with dynamite to prevent the Thing from freezing itself again.In venturing down into the basement of the camp to set TNT charges, Garry is killed by the infected Blair. Nauls disappears and is never seen again. Then, MacReady comes face-to-face with the huge, tentacle Blair/Thing, which destroys his detonator. So instead, MacReady throws a lighted stick of dynamite at it. Both the Thing and the building explode, but MacReady survives. He stumbles to a ruined shack to find Childs there. Neither of them know whether the other is the Thing, and they both sit ready to kill the other at the first sign. (MacReady is definitely not the Thing, but there is a strong possibility that Childs might have been taken over when he wandered off earlier). They take swigs of a bottle of whiskey as the camera shows a wide shot of the camp in flames. Both men, exhausted and wary of each other, sit among the burning wreckage.... waiting for the fires to go out and the winter weather to consume them. On that dark note, and with a wiry laugh from MacReady, 'The Thing' comes to a close. | psychological, gothic, murder, cult, violence, horror, claustrophobic, suspenseful | train | imdb | "The Thing" is John Carpenter's masterpiece and one of the best classic horror films!.
I love Escape From New York and I love Escape From L.A. but I also love The Thing so much better this is definitely the best Carpenter film a truly masterpiece classic I love R.J. MacReady - Kurt Russell I love everything about this film that is.
This movie will leaving you wondering....is the guy/gal next to you really real?"Trust is a tough thing to come by these days." John Carpenter's The Thing is a seminal piece of horror that is not only a fine specimen of its era, but it also serves as a shining example of horror done absolutely right in any era.
Romero's Dawn of the Dead, and presenting the idea that true terror can be found at any time, in any place, and inside anyone, much like Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, The Thing works on every level, and represents the peak of each and every aspect that may be utilized to make horror films effective.
Granted, this amalgamation of styles is not the only formula for winning horror.The basic plot about this movie is Horror-moister John Carpenter (Halloween, Escape from New York) teams Kurt Russell's outstanding performance with incredible visuals to build this chilling version of the classic The Thing.
The Thing is the best classic horror film from master and genius John Carpenter!
Some find them disgusting, some mere cult.An argument could be made against The Thing being an Alien rip-off; it has its origins in an old sci-fi story and it creates tension by popping a crowd of people (note: all-male) on an isolated outpost (an Antarctic research facility) terrorized by an alien life form.
Rob Bottin has done a great job witch today stands as a milestone is special effects makeup.The movie didn't get a big response when it first hit the big screen due to other alien films at the time and so it's not very well known.
Just to put things in perspective for you before I get into my thoughts on this film, I am only 20 years old and have grown up in the era of CGI, blue screen effects...and this movie was made around the same time i was born.With that said, WOW, I only recently saw John Carpenter's version of 'The Thing', and what a masterpiece it truly is.
In 'The Thing' John Carpenter has truly crafted a paranoia inducing, perhaps gut wrenching classic.The movie is an update of the classic 'The Thing From Outer Space', but only like it's predecessor, this film is in full color, and the characters of this film have much more to worry about than an alien veggieThe film centers around a group of Arctic Researchers you encounter an alien lifeform capable of taking the form of anything it comes into contact with, and out of for that matter.
A box office flop when released, now more then ever when movies are paper thin with plot, and one dimensional in effects, this film can be appreciated as a true masterpiece of sci/fi and horror.
The dialogue is laced with potency and viability for a group of men trying to keep it together under such duress, while Ennio Morricone's score is a wonderful eerie pulse beat that further racks up the sense of doom and paranoia seaming throughout the film.The cast are superb, a solid assembly line of actors led by Carpenter favourite Kurt Russell, whilst the effects used around the characters get the right amount of impact needed.
This is a GREAT movie, and stands as living proof that there were indeed realistic effects before CGI.Set on an isolated base in Antarctica, this version seems almost to pick up where the original version (The Thing From Another World) left off.
John Carpenter's The Thing is hands down the best horror film ever made.
The main reason why this movie is a cult-film is perhaps the splatter-effects created mainly by genius Rob Bottin and that this is the movie that made Kurt Russell what he is today (along with Escape from N.Y.) In my opinion, this is not a great film because of the effects, it has to do with the story, the atmosphere, and of course, the acting.
They both have an isolated setting where no help will be forthcoming, they both feature an attack by an unknown alien entity and they both have unbelievably good special effects, the sheer brutality, goriness and impossibility of which are the stuff of nightmares.The Thing adds the fact that its alien is capable of assuming other shapes, and the movie evolves to a tense hide and seek game and as the pressure rises, the group of scientists and researchers starts to crack.
Another well-loved horror masterpiece from director John Carpenter is this unforgettable re-imagining of the 1951 sci-fi classic The Thing From Another World.
An impressive feat indeed.Another highlight is the great cast of the film, the best of which is hero Kurt Russell in one of his most challenging roles.All around, The Thing is a stunning combination of moody atmosphere and out-of-this-world horrors.
For someone following in the footsteps of Howard Hawks, the filmmaker here has a lot more trust and talent in executing the material than most given the chance to have another go with an old film.With the effects people working to full force- amid what would likely follow Backdraft as containing the most fire per scene (it could become overkill, but it all fits into the suspense after a while)- the actors pull along as a fine ensemble.
It remains one of Carpenter's best; a rare breed of horror film where the story is told clear and precisely by way of the position of the camera, dialog, and timing with the scenes.
The film opens ominously with a flying saucer hurtling towards the earth's atmosphere then we are met with terrific titles which literally 'burn on to the screen 'John Carpenter's 'The Thing' The movie Begins In Antarctica Winter 1982 The first(god damn week of winter) with Two Norwegians in a helicopter who are in hot pursuit of a a Husky, which flees the helicopter and makes it through the snow to a United States science station Outpost 31, The twelve all male occupants emerge to see what's happening.
as the helicopter lands the two men end up dead one accidentally with the help of a misplaced grenade and the other is shot dead.The Americans don't know it yet, but their camp has just been infiltrated by a shape-shifting alien, And as the tag-line so succinctly puts it "Man is the warmest place to hide." this just has to be John Carpenter's finest picture it has now received the recognition it finally deserves, i always watch this classic on a regular basis it's a film upon every viewing you can get different readings to an extent it is quotable there is a prequel in the works but only time will tell if it is going to be on par with this masterpiece be sure you watch this classic in widescreen..
The cinematography is also excellent, with a dark and scary mood.Overral, 'The Thing' is easily John Carpenter's best movie.
The excellent writing, along with the good acting and Carpenter's perfect directing make this one of the best and most scary horror movies ever made.
They have become much more liberal.That's the reason why this film works so well, it's because Mr. Carpenter took a movie and did the things that the original directors couldn't do like add gore and more abstract ideas because back then they couldn't.
The tag line says it all.This is indeed scary stuff.This movie is a timeless masterpiece,Kurt Russel's best movie and John Carpenter's best movie too.In my opinion this is scarier than Alien and that means a lot.The atmosphere is creepy-cold,windy Antarctica.This is the perfect setting for this kind of movies.I remember the 1st time I ever watched The Thing.I was with my cousin and we were on the edges of our sits.This is really gross stuff.The make up effects are superb.Even today 26 years later they still look good as ever.Creator Rob Bottin and his team really did an outstanding job.The effects really help make the alien look terrifying.The best part is that this thing can mimic anything organic it touches.That's the best thing about the movie you can't tell who is who.If you want to be scared a lot this is the perfect choice for you.This might be the scariest film of all time.If you're into sci-fi and horror I can't think of a better picture than this-great characters,perfect setting,non stop chills,thrills and horror..
The Thing (1982), is directed by John Carpenter and stars Kurt Russell, as the leader of a crew stuck in Antarctica in the first week of winter because an alien has made its way into their base, kills anything it touches, and can only be destroyed by fire.
It's based on the John W.Campbell short story "Who Goes There?" The film is awesome.The Thing is an extremely claustrophobic, tense and frightening story, with fantastic acting, perfect direction and brilliant animatronic/models, that made the cast feel sick to their stomachs when they first saw them, and I don't blame them, they are extremely realistic, detailed and scary.
In some of the more tense scenes, for example where they are testing blood to see who is a thing and who isn't, is my favourite scene in the entire film, John Carpenter knows just how long to keep a shot going and keep the audience waiting, this winds up the tension perfectly, to an extremely frightening climax to the scene which is shot perfectly.
In interviews of both the actors and John Carpenter, it has been said that the actors AND the director did not know who was the thing and who wasn't in all of the dialogue scenes, which means that when you are watching it you know just as much as the actors, which really helps with bringing an element of distrust to the film.Overall, The Thing is the perfect science-fiction/horror film, along with Alien.
The Thing is a 1982 sci-fi horror film directed by John Carpenter and stars Kurt Russell as Mack MacReady, a researcher based in Antarctica and our protagonist in the film.
If you love John Carpenter, Kurt Russell, the other cast members mentioned above, horror, action, sci-fi, thrilling, suspense, and alien movies then this is the perfect movie to watch!
Strongly recommended!Movie Nuttball's NOTE:I also recommend these John Carpenter films: Big Trouble in Little China, Halloween, The Fog, Starman, Christine, Village of the Damned, and They Live!If you like alien movies I also recommend the following films: The Thing from another World, The War of the Worlds, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The UFO Incident, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T. the Extra- Terrestrial, Time Walker, Mac and Me, Explorers, Invaders from Mars, Communion, Fire in the Sky, Independence Day, The Arrival, Mars Attacks!
John Carpenter's The Thing is in my opinion the Greatest horror film ever made.
A brilliant mixture of great direction,acting,special effects,score and screenplay making this a all time classic horror film.
This is Carpenter's greatest film and It's not only my all time favorite Horror film it's one of my favorite films of all time period.The Thing tells the story of 12 researchers in a u.s outpost in Antarctica with nothing really happening until the researchers discover that an alien that came to earth years before is stalking them and killing them and imitating them.
One of the reasons I love the film besides the direction and special effects is the paranoia aspect of the film and when the characters stop trusting each other and start wondering who's human and who's not and Carpenter creates a dark end of the world feeling where the end will come from either aliens or man's own disturbing self destruction.
Campbell Jr. from 1939 which did feature a shape-shifting creature, thus making the film more tense and more suspenseful.John Carpenter has never been known for his character build up; in fact the villains in his movies are usually mindless and lack emotion or personality as shown in this film and many others such as Michael Myers in his merciless masterpiece 'Halloween', the car Christine in 'Christine' or the zombie-like ghosts from 'The Fog'.
Although I am not a fan of grotesque special effects, especially as over blown as they are here, John Carpenter's version of 'The Thing' still succeeds as a haunting tale of paranoia and is a highly entertaining and action packed sci-fi film that is sure to entertain even if it's not as great as Don Siegel's classic.Upon the film's release back in 1982, the film did not do so well in the box office, maybe because it came out only two weeks after the phenomenon 'E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial' or maybe it's simply due to its extensive use gore and violence which it earned it an "R" rating by the Motion Picture Association of America.
"The Thing" has to be one of my favourite movies of John Carpenter.It's filled with great acting,moody lighting and jaw-droppingly excellent special effects.Carpenter's direction is great and the tension builds well.There is also plenty of stomach-churning gore to satisfy fans of splatter cinema.Finally there is no love story here(no female characters),no silly humour-just good clean horror!So if you haven't checked this one yet go and see it now!A must-see!.
The Thing is a first movie in the Apocalypse Trilogy, which continued with Prince Of Darkness and ended with In the Mouth of Madness.The Thing is widely regarded as one of John Carpenter's greatest masterpieces, and I would personally consider it a contender for the title of the best horror film ever made.
Kurt Russell stars as R.J. MacReady, an alcoholic Vietnam Vet, thrust into the role of leader of a group of relatively cold and callous men all of whom are readily plunging into manic paranoia and somewhat madness once they realize that they are up against a creature that can take any form, be any one of them.John Carpenter, more than in any other of his films, manages to create a truly believable and incredible atmosphere.
Kurt Russell stars as R.J. MacReady, an alcoholic Vietnam Vet, thrust into the role of leader of a group of relatively cold and callous men all of whom are readily plunging into manic paranoia and somewhat madness once they realize that they are up against a creature that can take any form, be any one of them.John Carpenter, more than in any other of his films, manages to create a truly believable and incredible atmosphere.
I'm not going to give it away here, but to say that it will leave you wondering would be an understatement.Kurt Russell is superb as MacReady....truly conveying the emotions of a man thrust into a situation of unimaginable horror, forced to lead a group of men who cannot trust that the man next to them is not the creature that has driven them to the brink of paranoia and emotional meltdown.I don't care if this movie is 20 years old by now, the special effects in this movie are gut wrenching, mind blowing, and absolutely awesome.
I'm not going to give it away here, but to say that it will leave you wondering would be an understatement.Kurt Russell is superb as MacReady....truly conveying the emotions of a man thrust into a situation of unimaginable horror, forced to lead a group of men who cannot trust that the man next to them is not the creature that has driven them to the brink of paranoia and emotional meltdown.I don't care if this movie is 20 years old by now, the special effects in this movie are gut wrenching, mind blowing, and absolutely awesome.
Here, the story is just a vehicle for the real purpose of this film: pure horror.Almost 30 years later, and John Carpenter's The Thing is still the scariest movie I've ever seen.
After his 1978 movie "Halloween" where horror pictures proved that evil will never die, Carpenter takes evil to a whole new game.Set in the Antarctica region where like "Alien," nobody would hear anybody scream, a group of researchers doing God-knows-what happen to stumble upon a Norwegian rifleman shooting at a dog where after the gunman is shot down, questions are being asked by the group including the no nonsense pilot R.J. MacReady (Kurt Russell) in which they see more what they bargain for.During the film after an attack scene involving an alien dog, the investigation group fears that something has hit them and will never get out.
Paranoia leads to fear, fear leads to questioning and those seeking questions will finally have their answers.John Carpenter's The Thing is a "don't turn off the lights" movie where even during it's time despite the fact that E.T. hogged all the credits, it proves to be a classic thriller from icky special effects to make you either scream or shield your mouth to scenes that you'll remember in your nightmares..
The Thing is a 1982 film directed by John Carpenter (who i am a fan of) it stars Kurt Russell.
Give John Carpenter enough time and money to do it- and he'll do it right!The Thing is based on a science fiction novel called "Who Goes There" and was inspired by Carpenter's repetitive viewing of an earlier film of the same title- but this version is a thousand times better, scarier, and also much more true to the original written story and it also captures such an awesome feeling of isolation and spookiness with the scenery and the camera angles and lighting.What can I say- it's a masterpiece.PLOT: A number of scientists and their support team are out in the arctic doing research- one day a crazy Norwegian shows up wanting to kill a friendly dog.
John Carpenter's The Thing is one of the best horror movies of all time. |
tt0099817 | Dark Angel | An executive entrepreneur is driving his 70,000 brand new car. He puts on a CD of classical music, but it starts blurring away and connecting to the radio. The CD is pushed out of the machine and it distracts this gentleman, who almost has a car accident. He has to steer wildly away from an incoming truck and his car gets stuck in a field nearby. At that moment, a UFO or something like that hits and completely wrecks his car, although this man can jump out of harm. An alien - which looks like a human blind person - floats out of the crater and tells him "I come in peace."Title credits. {The original title was Dark Angel, not I Come in Peace}A burglar (Kevin Page) enters a building. It looks like a police station. Sergeant Hawkins (Luis Lemus) is called to Evidence Room 38. The burglar throws a knife, killing him. Under his dark clothes, the burglar is dressed as a police officer. He takes some drugs and leaves. Another criminal in officer clothes ((Robert Prentiss)) is already waiting for him. Hawkins signs for the drugs he is taking away and leaves the bag even before getting out of the building. A car driver (Steve Chizmadia) is already waiting for them. The burglar tells the driver to drive away quickly. The building explodes and the burglar says that he did that to avoid witnesses. The other two men laugh it off.Det. Jack Caine (Dolph Lundgren) is having some coffee. Jeff Davis is making a narcotics deal of some kind. Caine notices the three burglars, now dressed as businessmen, entering the building. Davis and the three men are making a deal and Caine is listening to their conversation by a hidden mike. However, at that moment, some small-time crooks are hitting on a liquor store. The owner (Jack Wilils) is attacked. The thugs are violent, and punch in the face one of the customers (Jack Verbois) for no reason while a female customer screams her lungs off (Stacey Cortez). Jack has to go to tend to the situation. At that moment, the situation with Jeff Davis and the crooks change completely. Davis is actually Det. Ray Turner (Alex Morris), and his cover is up. Jack kills one of the liquor thugs while Ray is murdered.All the Whiteboys (Sebastian White, Dean Kinkel, David Poynter, Folkert Schmidt, Randall Oliver and Gary Baxley), as the high-time criminals are called by their boss, are leaving the place, when the evil alien, called Talec (Matthias Hues) arrives and says "I come in peace" and starts killing them by throwing some sharp discs and cutting their necks. It's then that Jack enters the deal place and finds Ray dead.Jack is left traumatized for a second. Captain Malone (Jim Haynie) screams to him because he disappeared for 8 days. He is blaming Jack for the lost heroin. A patrolwoman (Suzanne Savoy) announces some important people in. Malone orders Jack to take a holiday or quit. Inspector Switzer (David Ackroyd) of the FBI wants to question Jack. Jack is given a new partner, Special Agent Arwood 'Larry' Smith (Brian Benben), and has to report to Switzer.Malone's secretary (Arienne Battiste) announces Diane Pallone (Betsy Brantley), who can't explain the weird deaths. Larry notices that Diane and Jack used to have a relationship.In a derelict building, a homeless woman notices a thud. Suddenly, everything explodes around her. There is a tunnel through all the walls. Another alien emerges.Larry is taking measures about the position of the bodies. Jack believes in instinct; he realises that the case is gong to be about something completely new. Larry says that he's always ready for everything.A car bark outside Capital Bail Bonds. The owner (Nick Hagler) is annoyed at the barking of Dexter the dog; however, he soon notices somebody approaching and takes his shotgun. The wall is suddenly rubble. Talec appears and thrusts a wire into his chest, and then he kills him.Caine and Smith go to a nude bar, as Caine says that he can think better there. Boner (Michael J. Pollard) was playing snooker. Jack threatens to shoot him in his dick, fearless in spite of being also threatened by a pool hustler (Willie Minor). Boner says that it was the Whiteboys. Smith supports Jack, although he doesn't seem to agree with Jack's methods.They go back to the place of the murders, and hidden behind a loudspeaker, they find the still moving disc; in fact it flies away and wrecks some more until it finds itself stuck again into the same loudspeaker.Talec goes to a warehouse. He interrupts a security guard (Brian Fitkin) and does to him the same he did to the bail office owner. At that moment, Azeck (Jay Bilas) appears and shoots Talec without saying anything; Talec has torun away. Azeck creates havoc in the parking, wrecking cars and burning everything. Talec jumps from a second floor; several witnesses see Azeck and will believe he is the bad guy.Jack invites Smith for a drink at his apartment, while he stares at the photograph of himself enjoying his time with his old girlfriend. Jack visits Diane, who at first slams the door on his face. Jack apologises to her, but she hits him in his face anyway. He kisses her but she asks for some kind of commitment from him. Diane is annoyed with herself for falling into his trap.Jack arrives at this apartment and the door is open - it has been registered. There are soft noises... but it's only Smith. Jack Caine seems to suspect that it's odd that Smith its inside, but maybe it was only chance that he appeared to tell him of other two murders when he saw the door open.At a garage, a mechanic (Mimi Cochran) is working on a car with rock music blasting on. Talec appears to feed on her and then kills her. The alien is feeding on humans.Bruce the scientist (Mark Lowenthal) is nuts and eccentric. He hides his pills and tells about the disc. It is a self-contained magnet, but Bruce has managed to contain it. Jack Caine tells him to hide it.Diane does the autopsy to one of the male victims to Talec, who had used heroin to kill them.Victor Manning (Sherman Howard) sends Caine a photo of himself with bikini girls in Rio, and tells him that he had sent him Warren (Sam Anderson), the head of the Whiteboys. Two of them shoot Caine and Smith in the latter's car. Jack drives even though it's Smith's car. Smith wants to get a warrant on Warren, but Jack doesn't care about that. The Whiteboys get out of a building when their sports car have alarms ringing on. Warren was on a meeting. Warren blames Jack for killing the Whiteboys. Smith has been trapped, so Caine lets him go. Warren wants Jack to go to the drug deal for him, or he'll kill Smith.A clerk (Albert Leong) takes a suitcase and gives an empty one to Jack. The clerk leaves out running with the drugs. When Jack goes after him, he is already dead and Talec attacks him, but lets him go. Smith attacks the two Whiteboys that were keeping him and runs away. Azeck burns everything and leaves. Smith hangs up a stupid blonde (Kristin Baxley)'s call. Diane takes care of Jack's neck wound. She explains that heroin produces well-being because of the endorphins segregated by the human body when inhaled and it produces something similar to ecstasy.Jack thinks that they are dealing with aliens; Smith thinks he's going crazy. Bruce has been beaten to a pulp because he tried to defend the disc. Jack doesn't trust Smith because Bruce says the criminal looked like him.At a supermarket, the alien attacks a weird customer (Wayne Dehart) and the cashier (Brandon Smith) and wants to feed on the security guard (Kevin Howard), but Azeck attacks him first. The two aliens fight each other. Caine and Smith try to tell the Captain that aliens are to blame, but he thinks that they are nuts. Jack, Larry and Diane are not allowed to see the crime scene. Smith goes to talk to his boss, while the good alien is hiding while being badly-hurt. Jack is also told off by his boss, and hes forced to go on a holiday. Jack proposes Diane to go with him on a holiday; she is overjoyed about that and will happily go with her. Diane will never forgive him if he lets her down. Smith agrees with all the decisions taken.The badly-hurt good alien is hiding in Jack's car, and he says "It must be stopped". Smith sees the alien and Jack calms him down, saying that he's in their side. They drive away. The bad angel gives 1,000 overdose of heroin to humans so that the body releases endorphins and he can take them out of the body; that is highly illegal and expensive in the aliens' world. The good alien dies, becomes a kind of light bomb, so now they don't have proof. Smith has taken the alien's weapon - and that will be their proof. Jack wants to have the weapon, but Smith wants to take it to Switzer: he has to pull out his gun to prevent Jack from taking it away. Smith leaves and gives Switzer the gun. First he got the disc and then the gun, Switzer says. This is a case of national interest, but now Smith needs to get rid of their only witness, Jack Caine, and then the military benefits of using the weapons will be enormous. Switzer says that you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs, which startles Smith, as Jack had said that Switzer would say something like that. As Smith is having second thoughts, Switzer tries to kill him, but Caine shoots Switzer first. Smith is told "Never trust nobody. Caine manual. Page one Chapter one by cool-as-a-cucumber Caine. It's now when Smith realises that following the procedures is not always the best option.Smith finds the empty heroin bags. The bad alien is strong and doesn't even realise that Jack is hitting him, but Smith doesn't know how to use the alien gun. The weapon looks stuck until Smith learns how to use it; however, Talec looks almost immune to it. Jack finds the bag of endorphins - and Talec realises he's missed them too late. Talec is pissed-off but well of health.Jack Caine takes care of Smiths' wound and gives him a cooler jacket. Caine and Smith almost shoot Diane, who wants to go with Jack on a holiday. They push her out of the way. The Whiteboys demand their money and shoot Jack, Diane and Smith, but luckily Smith has learned how to use the alien gun. Diane demands an explanation, especially when they had to hide from a police officer (Jackson Burns). One of the Whiteboys shoot him - Talec appears shooting everybody on sight.There is a car persecution scene. The alien kills a patrolman (Tom Campitelli) and Smith shoots him, but Talen is OK again and runs after them. They try to trick the alien, but the alien gun is empty, and normal bullets won't harm him, even at close range. Jack creates a series of explosions in the factory, but the alien is still alright. Jack shoes Talen the vials with the endorphins, and breaks two, which infuriates him.Both throw away their guns. Talec approaches but Jack backs up and runs away. The alien throws a disc after Jack, but it gets stuck at a metal lid. Jack and Talec fight. Talec throws the wire towards Jack, but he holds it with his two hands. There is a tug of war until they are very close and then Jack stings the thing onto Talec. He kicks him onto a broken tube, de facto impaling him. The alien is hurt and repeats I come in piece, to which Jack replices "And you go in pieces asshole".Diane, Jack and Arwood "Larry" Smith leave, shaken but more or less in one piece. Diane inquiries where she and Jack will go for the holiday as she has quit her job. Jack wants to go to Rio but Smith says "No, no, no".End credits roll.---written by KrystelClaire | cult, humor, action, violence | train | imdb | Lundgren had been responsible for the far more stern and serious action flicks Red Scorpion and the under-rated Punisher film yet Dark Angel was one of a string of 3 films Dolph did, very much in the trend of Schwarzenegger's simpler action films like Red Heat, Running Man and Raw Deal.
The concept of the Alien brings in some imaginary and cool weaponry including a super hand gun, and deadly flying CD's that lock into the electric current in the human body, as Dolph's scientist friend (a bit of luck in Dolphy's little black book) explains "It's like setting your radio dial to K-I-L-L!" The script is blessed with some witty one-liners that would make the Governator proud.
And after my wife found out I'm a Dolph Lundgren fan, I think the first thing she asked me was, "do you own "I Come In Peace"?", because she was already a fan of the movie too.
Its just so refreshing to find a sci-fi flick so utterly lacking in pretension, and so deeply committed to doing just one thing perfectly (being entertaining) that I can't help but love it more than many "classic" movies which deserve much more critical kudos.Dolph Lundgren makes for a very competant hero, and as far as "acting" goes, he does a surprisingly admirable job of making his character far more human and warm than many of his contemporaries could ever manage.
An Al Leong appearance certifies this as a good B-grade action movie, and Betsy Brantley (who has played opposite arguably the best Sherlock ever, Jeremy Brett) does a workman's job as Dolph Lundgren's love interest.
Big Dolph Lundgren tackles even bigger Matthias Hues in this fairly enjoyable sci-fi outing from 1990.Our Dolph plays a tough cop who inadvertently becomes involved in a spot of alien trouble after a hulking interplanetary miscreant murders a group of bad guys Dolph was staking out (and high tales it with the haul of heroin they had in their possession).
Well, it turns out that our alien bad boy has discovered a rather gruesome method of producing an even more powerful drug via it's utilisation.....he simply shoots up unwilling victims and then sucks out their resulting endorphin enriched cranial fluids which he intends to sell back home (where ever that may be)!!!Hardly impressed with this, Dolph decides to investigate this grisly case but finds himself constantly undermined by a number of shady factions entering the fray.Matters eventually come to a head when our two mighty leads battle it out in a factory setting (a popular location for action film finales) and Dolph gets to fire off the obligatory final quip before sending his alien nemesis into oblivion.OK, despite the intriguing premise this is utterly ridden with clichés - the new cop partner, troubles with the girlfriend etc etc etc.
Dolph acts as a tough cop fighting the drig mafia, suddenly large amounts of drugs have been stolen from the mafias & non drug addicts are also being killed...n the movie takes a turn from action to a sci-fi thriller.
You can say what you want about Dolph Lundgren - yes, he's made some HORRIBLE movies and at times can make Keanu Reeves look talented - but I Come in Peace is a sizeable cut above the rest of his body of work.
This is one of Dolph Lundgren's best movies.The movie is one of the best sci-fi actions from the early 90's.It has style,great music,awesome action scenes,awesome weapons.great oneliner.I watched it long time ago,and lately I began to think about this movie,so now I'm going to rent it or buy it..
If you can get past the fact the Brain Benben is no action star, and that Dolph just can't act, this isn't a bad movie.
Dolph Lundgren fighting drug dealers and an alien, with car chases, explosions and a compact disc that can cut through just about anything.
But fortunately, that doesn't become a factor, because about 15 minutes into the movie, enter one FBI agent Mr. Smith (played by Brian Benben), who then proceeds to add such comic counterbalance to the mix, that you soon forget stressing out over the laughable story line.This is definitely a movie that doesn't take itself too seriously, and it just seems that everybody involved is having a great time.
Wow. I have never seen a movie about an alien who says he 'comes in peace' but really doesn't cause every person he meets he shoots up with heroin then extracts the resulting dopamine which is some kind of super-heroin for his race which, despite having perfected interstellar travel and little CDs that home in on people and cut their heads off, cannot seem to recreate such a drug.Oh well!
But then, I suppose if they could we wouldn't have got this awesome movie!Dolph Lundgren IS the character he plays, whatever his name is.The alien dude IS the alien dude.Plus Dolph gets this big gun from ANOTHER alien, who is a good guy and like an alien cop or something cause he's chasing the bad alien.And the thing Dolph says when he kills the bad alien at the end is the best thing ever written oh my god in hell.16/08.
It's nothing that's going to change your world but it's a decent way to pass the time, if you're a fan of buddy cop movies or action sci-fi.
It's a shame really, because though he lacks Arnold's natural charisma, he's certainly got more range than Steven Segal, a contemporary whose career did take off.'I come In Peace' (known everywhere outside of North America as 'Dark Angel' for some odd reason) is easily Dolph's best feature film (as the lead).
It's a sci-fi buddy cop movie with a premise that falls apart under even the slightest scrutiny, but Lundgren and co-star Brian Benben have good chemistry and the script is occasionally witty.And because it's the 80s (well, 1990), what are the odds that it ends with a joke/freeze frame/feel good rock song?
'Dark Angel' (or 'I Come in Peace' as it will always be to me) is no more far-fetched in story than the films it aspires to be and manages to make up for its small budget with enough pyrotechnic absurdity to make Michael Bay blush and one-liners that could give Arnie a run for his money.'Dark Angel' follows detective Jack Caine (Dolph Lundgren) whose investigation of Houston's organized drug smuggling syndicate, 'The White Boys' (a tongue-in-cheek troupe of Patrick Bateman clones straight out of 1980's yuppie culture), is interrupted by an extra-terrestrial drug-harvesting alien and the cosmic cop on his trail.
Alien Drug Dealer: 'I come in peace.' Dolph: 'and you go in pieces, asshole.' It's pretty unfor(give)getable.Apparently, 'Dark Angel' (the original title) was envisioned as a big-budget blockbuster (aren't they all) and was written by David Koepp (Jurassic Park, Death Becomes Her, Spider-Man).
The unlikely pairing of Caine and FBI Agent Smith add that buddy cop element synonymous with action films, similar to Red Heat and Alien Nation and although worn adds some humour.
Tough cop Jack Caine (Dolph Lundgren) finds out about his plans and it's up to him and an FBI agent to put an end to the alien's actions.While this is not the most original of movies, it is still very enjoyable.
The film may seem silly at times, but it also has some cool elements that make it entertaining.This is one of Dolph Lundgren's best movies and his fans will not be disappointed because he is in good form here.
In spite of all its flaws, "Dark Angel" is a decent action flick that is a lot of fun to watch and I highly recommend it if you are into 80's action movies.My rating: 6/10.
Matthias Hues makes a good alien villain here, although it not his typical role as brute giant with lots of musclepower, but rather a mysteriously looking creature covered in dark clothing all the time.
There's so much mayhem going on here you really don't stop to think all that much about the story or Dolph Lundgren's very limited acting abilities (watch closely for some fairly obvious line reading).As an action flick "Dark Angel" really delivers in spades.
The sci-fi element is a little out there but it never fails to amuse and the funny bits are fairly well executed with the excellent Brian Benben in top form as Lundgren's partner.Dolph Lundgren, a practical scene stealer is Rocky IV (I MUST BREAK YOU is a classic 80's line), is not exactly a natural leading man.
Detective Jack Caine (Dolph Lundgren) becomes involved when the renegade alien is responsible for the deaths of gang members that he is staking out, leaving behind a razor sharp, disk-like weapon.
When the good alien is mortally wounded, it falls to Jack and his partner, FBI Agent Smith (Brian Benben), to end the killing spree.I had so much fun watching this movie.
Throw in some good special effects, awesome alien weapons, a story that moves along at a good pace, some fun rock songs, and you've got a great action movie!
I loved this film as a kid when it came out, saw it recently and was pleasantly surprised at how well it has aged."I Come in Peace/Dark Angel", at its core, is an action movie that refuses to take itself too seriously, often mocking some of the film's conceits like English-speaking extra-terrestrials.
For a Dolph Lundgren fan like me is I Come in Peace aka...Dark Angel (1990) Dolph's best action science fiction bad-ass flick!
Dolph Lundgren did a lot of direct to video action movies that I haven't seen them yet, but I Come in Peace and Showdown in Little Tokyo are his best films he ever worked on them.
I absolutely enjoy Jan Hammer music theme score, I absolutely love the soundtrack for this film Touch Me Tonight by Shooting Star I have a blast watching this bad-ass flick from the 90's.I come in peace...And you go in pieces, asshole!
because Danny Glover is more bad ass than Dolph Lundgren is in here and Predator is more evil brilliant cruel villain than Bad Alien (Matthias Hues) is.Plot: Dolph Lundgren as Jack Caine, a Houston police detective who teams with an ambitious FBI agent when they discover the killer they are chasing is an alien who has come to Earth to extract chemicals from humans in order to produce a powerful drug.This action flick is about an alien drug lord that has arrived on earth, humans represent ideal drug factories of our endorphin's.
I Come in Peace is not only a sci-fi action flick it is also a horror flick, like how Bad Alien is killing people to get endorphin's to creating a powerful drug.
Special Agent Smith (Brian Benben) pulls out what appears to be a customized Dan Wesson VH-15 fitted with a scope brilliant!Overall: I am giving a 10 to this flick, I only have a problem that Jack has a girlfriend in this film and a second partner helping him battle bad alien.
I Come in Peace (originally produced and released internationally as Dark Angel) is a 1990 American science fiction action film directed by Craig R.
The film is about a rule-breaking vice cop who becomes involved in the investigation of mysterious drug-related murders on the streets of Houston, Texas.10/10 Grade: Bad Ass Seal Of Approval Studio: Vision International Vision PDG, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) Starring: Dolph Lundgren, Brian Benben, Betsy Brantley, Matthias Hues, Jay Bilas, Jim Haynie, David Ackroyd, Sherman Howard, Sam Anderson, Alex Morris Director: Craig R.
Plot: Dolph Lundgren stars as maverick cop Jack Caine, who's teamed with an FBI agent (Brian Benben) to stop an alien who kills humans to feed off their endorphins.First off, I think the title on IMDb should be I Come In Peace because that's what it's called in America not Dark Angel.
The plot is OK (with several influences from Terminator, though) and the cast beginning with Dolph Lundgren (Houston cop Jack Caine) and Matthias Hues (extra-terrestrial drug dealer Talec) get the most out of it.
What lends the film its reputation by far, is drug dealers from outer space harvesting endorphins from human hosts.The element of white-eyed aliens blasting their way through Houston, TX, of course permits a final boss that has near-unlimited hit points and can deliver tremendous damage on the human scale with peculiar weaponry, including a contraption that launches razor-sharp discs hunting for human electric loads.Why this is not Terminator or even Cobra, beyond obvious problems with scripting, explains why Dolph never made it on the scale of Arnie or Sly. Those guys had the ability to deliver both the macho persona and self-aware winks to the audience.
Dolph Lundgren stars as Jack Caine a renegade cop who teams up with a stiff FBI agent Lawrence Smith (Brian Benben) to take down a drug dealer from outerspace.
Fun Mix of Action and Sci-Fi. Dark Angel (1990) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Tough cop Jack Caine (Dolph Lundgren) is forced to team up with a FBI agent (Brian Benben) after a series of bizarre murders.
This is exactly what you'd expect a low-budget action movie from this period to be like.The best thing going for this film is its camp value as there are quite a few scenes that are rather hilarious.
This is another childhood relic of mine and believe it or not it's one of my favorite films of all time, it's also my favorite film with Dolph Lundgren in it, he's always been one of my favorite if most underrated action stars which is something were becoming seriously scarce of.I really like the plot I think it's really unique for the alien invasion subgenere.
I think this film could've had a moderate successful run if it had been released theatrically, but that obviously didn't happen.Lundgren stars as Jack Caine, a Texas cop who likes doing things his own way.
Of course, that doesn't stop this movie from having its flaws but through and through, it's a decent fun.The character of Jack Caine is well played by Lundgren.
The action was good too even though it still had a mid-80's feel to it...I mean it was filmed and released in the very late 80's so I can understand why.Jack Caine is not the most memorable character in film history but Dark Angel is a fun Dolph Lundgren piece if you're in the mood for a silly cop film with a pinch of outer space..
original idea made with great effort and turns out to be just another non-brains action movie that doesn't hold up.the guy playing that intergalactic drug dealer is pretty good, especially as his dialog got about one line; I come in peace, I come in peace.
As a Dolph Lundgren fan, I feel that this movie, whether titled DARK ANGEL or I COME IN PEACE does Dolph justice.
His character of Jack Caine, a Houston cop, finds himself battling a strange character that seems to have come from out of this world.I feel that if you like sci-fi action movies, then this film is definitely for you.
Dolph Lundgren is AMAZING as always, he is very good in the acting department, kicks that ass, has hilarious one liners, had okay chemistry with Benben and was lots of fun to watch!.
Dark Angel is a film about a alien drug dealer who comes to earth to harvest humans for their endorphins and then sell them on a black market.
An alien cop comes to earth as well to attempt to stop this guy, but ends up having to rely on the hero as he is killed in a particularly brutal attack.The only good thing about this movie is the action.
This movie is good for its action and its aliens but little else.
Dark Angel is set in Houston in Texas where detectives Jack Caine (Dolph Lundgren) & Ray Turner (Alex Morris) are trying to bring a gang of drug dealers down known as the 'White Boys'.
Lets look at the evidence, the engaging & fun story is like a cross between Lethal Weapon (1987) with the whole mismatched buddy buddy cop partnership thing going on to very amusing effect here & it's the contrasting styles of hard-man cop Caine & by the book FBI agent Smith that makes Dark Angel consistently so fun, then there's the evil alien that some human cop has to fight plot as seen in The Hidden (1987) & there's also the good alien who tries to help us & cooperates with us plot used in films such as Alien Nation (1988) & Alienator (1990) & to top it off there's some terrificly staged action sequences.
The pace is great & the film never lets up, the story comes along nicely & isn't totally revealed within the first five minutes so there's a bit of a hook here, the character's & dialogue are fun & better than the usual low budget sci-fi actioner & it's a very entertaining film across it's 90 odd minutes with plenty of aliens, explosions, action, car chases, shoot-outs, fights, razor edged flying CD's & one-liners to keep most more than happy.I am pretty sure the old 90's VHS had crap picture but now we can watch it on DVD all the bright neon light lit scenes really shine & overall Dark Angel isn't a bad looking film at all.
Dolph Lundgren (looking quite good in dark hair) is your typical maverick movie detective, a man named Jack Caine who's trying to bring down a criminal empire.
In a few instances the film manages to reach the giddy, destructive heights of an action classic (the four-way street battle between Lundgren, the alien, the cops and the drug dealers is such a moment) and with a few more scenes like these it could have been a classic itself, but instead just misses the mark.. |
tt0031455 | The Hunchback of Notre Dame | The gypsy Esmeralda captures the hearts of many men, including those of Captain Phoebus and Pierre Gringoire, but especially Quasimodo and his guardian Archdeacon Claude Frollo. Frollo is torn between his obsessive lust for Esmeralda and the rules of the Notre Dame Cathedral. He orders bandits to kidnap her, but the hunchback is captured by Phoebus and his guards, who save Esmeralda.
The following day, Quasimodo is sentenced to be flogged and turned on the pillory for one hour, followed by another hour's public exposure. He calls for water. Esmeralda, seeing his thirst, approaches the public stocks and offers him a drink of water. It saves him, and she captures his heart.
Later, Esmeralda is arrested and charged with the attempted murder of Phoebus, whom Frollo actually attempted to kill in jealousy after seeing him trying to seduce Esmeralda. She is sentenced to death by hanging. As she is being led to the gallows, Quasimodo swings down by the bell rope of Notre-Dame and carries her off to the cathedral under the law of sanctuary, temporarily protecting her from arrest.
Frollo later informs Gringoire that the Court of Parlement has voted to remove Esmeralda's right to sanctuary so she can no longer seek shelter in the cathedral and will be taken away to be killed. Clopin, the leader of the Gypsies, hears the news from Gringoire and rallies the citizens of Paris to charge the cathedral and rescue Esmeralda.
When Quasimodo sees the Gypsies, he assumes they are there to hurt Esmeralda, so he drives them off. Likewise, he thinks the King's men want to rescue her, and tries to help them find her. She is rescued by Frollo and her phony husband Gringoire. But after yet another failed attempt to win her love, Frollo betrays Esmeralda by handing her to the troops and watches while she is being hanged.
When Frollo laughs during Esmeralda's hanging, Quasimodo pushes him from the heights of Notre Dame to his death. Quasimodo later goes to Montfaucon, a huge graveyard in Paris where the bodies of the condemned are dumped, where he stays with Esmeralda's dead body until he dies. About eighteen months later, the tomb is opened, and the skeletons are found. As someone tries to separate them, they crumble to dust. | tragedy, romantic, cruelty, murder, melodrama | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0068182 | Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes | Opening titles lay out the background of the story. After the conquest and plundering of the Inca Empire by Spain, natives invented the legend of El Dorado, supposedly situated in the headwaters of the Amazon. In 1560 a Spanish expedition set off from Peru. This is the story of the expedition based on the surviving diary of the monk Gaspar de Carvajal.As the film opens a narrator informs us that it is the 25th of December. The expedition has just passed the final peak of the Andes Mountains and is afforded its first glimpse at the jungle. We see hundreds descending into the Amazonian jungle- Spaniards in full armor, ladies in courtly dress, a monk, and hundreds of enslaved Indians carrying food, cannons, sedans and other supplies. The expedition reaches the bottom of the mountains. While many rest, Don Lope de Aguirre (Klaus Kinski) and Gonzalo Pizarro (Alejandro Repullés) stand looking at the river and discuss what faces them. Aguirre maintains that no one can conquer that river, but Pizarro believes that their journey will be easier from this point forward. Aguirre says, No, from here we are all going under. We see only the raging river for nearly a minute.Their break is not long. The group quickly begins their trek through the jungle. They begin to make their way through the jungle. On his horse, Pizarro struggles to cut through the branches with his sword; Indians struggle to carry the cannon, sedan and other goods. As they struggle in the mud the Indians are accosted by Aguirre for nearly dropping the sedan carrying one of the lady travelers. The narrator states that the Indians are useless as leaders and are dropping off like flies because of colds caused by the dramatic climate changes. The expedition stops and sets up camp near the river. Pizarro delivers a speech to the entire group. They cannot continue like this- the terrain is too difficult, rations are almost depleted, and they cannot hope of finding a populated area for a long time. As such he has changed his plan. Rafts will be built and manned by 40 men- these men will seek food, information about hostile Indians, and directions to El Dorado. They will have one week to return. If they don't return, they will be assumed dead, and the remainder of the expedition will march back the way they came. Don Pedro de Ursua (Ruy Guerra) will be in charge of the group. His mistress Donna Inez (Helena Rojo) will accompany him. Don Lope de Aguirre will be second in command, his daughter will accompany him. Brother Gaspar de Carvajal (Del Negro) will go to take the word of God to the pagans, and Don Fernando (Peter Berling) will represent the royal house of Spain. Pizarro says no one who wasn't selected should feel rejected.The group sets off on three rafts; each raft is rowed by Indians. The Spanish cast wary looks as they can hear only the raging river and the calls of the birds in the jungle surrounding them. One of the rafts gets stuck in an eddy on the other side of the river. As they are swept about in continuous circles, the remaining two rafts land on the other side of the river. They watch, clustered in a group, shouting and gesturing at the other group. Their advice, however, cannot be heard.Ursua and Aguirre discuss the trapped men. Ursua wants to help the men, but Aguirre disagrees. He does not want to stop to help them. Ursua maintains that he is still the one giving orders. As Ursua walks away Aguirre softly says, Is that so?Ursua walks over to Armando, one of the only men who will stay loyal to him, and instructs him to form a rescue party. He is to take as many men and supplies as he needs and cross the river to retrieve the trapped party. The newly formed rescue group ventures into the jungle to find a point where they can cross the river. The remaining men begin to set up camp, putting up coverings made from trees they've cut down; the women relax, and the horse gets water. Darkness falls and the group is gathered around a campfire. They discuss their trapped comrades. Several shots sound. One asks if they are being signaled, another mentions that perhaps it is a battle.Morning comes and the trapped men are dead. The river is calm now and several of the men, led by the monk, venture curiously into the river. The rescue party has just arrived and looks down at the raft, now full of only dead bodies. One notes that three men are missing- two Indians and a Spaniard. Armando directs the rescue party to return to the main body. Be wary of the Indians, he warns, the jungle is infested. One man in the party lags a few feet behind the others. His foot is caught in a trap and he is silently swept up into a tree. A comrade turns to look for him, and retraces his steps. Blood drops onto his helmet and the leaf in front of him. He looks up, and is terror struck. He turns to catch up with the group and runs screaming, Indians! Help, Help!At the camp Aguirre is unnoticed by Carvajal and Ursua as they walk past. They discuss the burial of the murdered men. Carvajal thinks the men must be buried according to a proper Christian burial. Ursua agrees and allows him to begin preparations for the ceremony. The men have passed. Aguirre calls over Perucho, one of his devotees, and mentions that the cannon is looking rusty. Perucho nods and walks over to the aforementioned cannon. Whispering La, la, la, la, he blows on a ashy light and looks around. Seeing no one he shifts the cannon slightly and ignites it. The raft and the men who were left on it are blown to bits.Inez sits halfway in her sedan and addresses Ursua. She reminds him that he knows who is responsible, and if he is allowed to get away with this- what's next? Ursua nods, but tells her they have bigger problems- Indians- theyre everywhere and no one wants to die like the men on the raft. Aguirre wouldn't rebel against the Spanish crown. Inez is skeptical and reminds him that they are no longer in Castile.Aguirre speaks with his daughter Flores. He found a tiny sloth and shares it with her. It is a little animal that sleeps the entire day.Two Spaniards sleep on rocks at the rivers edge. One awakens with a start to realize that the river has flooded and wakes up his comrade. The narrator begins: the river flooded fifteen feet last night. The rafts were swept away. Men begin scouting wood to build new rafts. Iron is collected to forge nails to help hold it together. Aguirre pulls a lifeless Indian from the water and drops him shortly thereafter. Guzman shakes an Indian, demanding an answer- will he run away if Guzman loosens his chains? He gets no answer from the silent slave. A man walks by. Guzman turns his attention to the passerby and accuses him of taking his pot. The black slave advises a conquistador not to use a tree for the raft. His advice is rejected- the advisee is afraid to venture further into the hostile jungle.
As this goes on, Ursua emerges. He asks one man what he is doing, but receives no answer. Another only responds with, everyone is doing it. No one will tell him who ordered them to begin building a raft. Ursua sees Aguirre but says nothing to him. The women observe the men as they work. Flores asks Inez, What does it all mean? Inez tells her to be quiet. It's her father's fault.The men are gathered around Ursua. Ursua speaks: He has decided that they will return to Pizarro. Aguirre is heard in the background, It is not my habit to retreat. Ursua continues: They must hike because the current is too strong. Another declares the plan is suicide- they'll all be killed by Indians! Ursua ignores the interjection- they will return to Pizarro, whatever the cost. Aguirre begins again, Shit on Pizarro- we can conquer without him. Perucho reminds them that this is why they built the rafts this morning. Aguirre calls Cortez to their attention. The great Spanish conquerer only became so renowned because he disregarded his orders. Ursua repeatedly orders Silence! But to no avail. He orders Aguirre put in chains, but is shot in the abdomen. Inez rushes to his side. His loyal Armando draws a sword, but he too is shot. Aguirre orders silence asking if anyone else wishes to join Ursua and Armando. Everyone stands silently. One begins to speak wondering what will happen now? Perhaps there are waterfalls downriver, questions another. What does it matter so long as they get closer to El Dorado, interjects another. Another man notices Ursuas fist is clenched. Surely Ursua will be killed, he mentions, but no one is willing to help him.An Indian plays a flute while Aguirre watches him.Armando is confined to chains in a jail constructed out of tree branches. Inez comforts Ursua.Monk Caspar de Carvajal sits on a rock at the river's edge. Inez approaches him. He is their last hope; Aguirre will kill Ursua and Armando. Carvajal can only console her a little- God is always on the side of the strong.Aguirre approaches Armando's cell. We want you on our side. We need men like you. He circles the cell, thwarting Armando's attempts to avoid his gaze. Think about it- but not too long. Aguirre gathers the men for a speech. They've rid themselves of the troublemakers, now it is time to elect a leader. The choice is clear- Don Fernando de Guzman. Guzman appears confused by the nomination. Perucho immediately set forth a formal proposal among the group to elect Guzman. Aguirre glares at each of the men until they reluctantly raise their hands and the decision is unanimous. Perucho elects Aguirre to remain second in command, the group agrees.Balthasar, one of the Indian slaves, speaks with Flores. He has survived plagues and floods, but what the Spanish have done to him is far worse. They named him Balthasar, his name was Runo Rimac. He was a prince before, and no one could look him in the eye. Now he is a slave like his people were. He feels sorry for Flores though, because there is no escape from this. The men sit and eat. Inez brings Armando some food to eat in his cell. While feeding him through the bars of his jail, Perucho hovers around them taunting them with a steady, la, la, la, la, la. Armando inquires quietly about how Ursua is doing. Inez does not reply.Aguirre rises to address the group again. Their position must be made legal. He orders Gaspar de Carvajal to read a document. Gaspar reads- The article addresses the king. Until yesterday these men considered themselves in the king's service. Fate, Gods Help, and their own work carried them down the river, but now they are 200 miles from Pizarro. Now they will share none of the fruits of their conquest with the Spanish crown. We Rebel Until Death. May our hands perish and our tongues dry up if this is not so. The house of Habsburg is overthrown and Phillip the Second is dethroned. By this declaration you are annihilated. Guzman is king of El Dorado. God Bless.Aguirre seizes the document from Carvajal. He declares that fortune smiles on the brave and spits on the coward. The reluctant King Guzman is shown his throne- merely two pieces of wood with a bit of velvet thrown over it. Scoffing, he asks if this is really to be his throne. Aguirre assures him it is as he forcibly seats him in it. Guzman sits there and begins to tear up. Aguirre inspects the jail cell. Armando has escaped, and the guard is dead.Guzman sits on a bench in the river, washed and massaged by two men. Aguirre comes up behind him and warns that so long as Ursua lives, his life will be in danger. Ursua still has sympathizers within the group. Guzman declares that so long as he is king, law will prevail. There should be a trial. Fine, hisses Aguirre. Try him. Then kill him.Gaspar de Carvajal leads the trial. Perucho testifies that Ursua will say nothing. No one can take what is clenched in his fist, to do so they would have to cut off his hand. Balthasar testifies that he and other Indians have received money from Ursua; Okello testifies that he has received money as well though he is not really sure as to why. Ursua is called on for a defense. Defiant, however, he says nothing. Inez sits next to him. She rises to speak. Back in Spain they paid their servant. Surely they should do the same here, even if they are Indians. Carvajal dismisses her calling her a confused child, no one will hold her testimony against her.Carvajal speaks. He declares that Ursua has been found guilty of treason and will be sentenced to death. Guzman, sitting behind him on a throne confirms the verdict and a confident Aguirre begins to walk away. He turns around, eyes wide and raging, as Guzman begins speaking again. Today is the anniversary of the last moor leaving Spain. He will grant Ursua clemency, but he forfeits all rights as a citizen. His portion will be divided- half for the church, half among the best soldiers. The following day the party continues down the river on their newly built raft. Ursua reclines by Inez, he still refuses to speak, and has begun to lose his vision. It's noon and the party spots a fire on the banks of the river. A village is burning. Aguirre sets up an attack. Okello, the black slave, is stripped save for a loin cloth, so he can scare the Indians. The group lands and, prodded by the Spaniards behind him, Okello reluctantly runs in front of them into the village. The men grab at fruit, and are admonished- they must conquer. King Guzman sits on the edge of a platform eating ripe fruit. As they discover a bucket with human skulls, and a mummy, they realize they are in a village where cannibals lived. Grabbing what little food they can, the disturbed group quickly returns to the raft and begins again to venture down the river.The river comes to a near standstill. Weary adventurers seek refuge under newly built thatched roofs. Inez warns Aguirre as he walks past- She knows his intent to kill Urusa, and God in heaven will punish him for it. Silence falls over the raft as they see Indians on the distant shore. One man is shot and dies. A perturbed Aguirre orders the men to shoot at anything to break the ominous silence. Noting the men are stilled unsettled, Aguirre orders an Indian slave to play the flute for them.Two Indians, a man and a woman, paddle over to the raft in a canoe. The Spaniards are wary of a trap, but pull them up onto the raft. The man explains with Balthasar as a translator that they have long awaited the foretold arrival of the white man with sticks that throw lightning.Guzman listens, but is quickly distracted and focuses only on the gold pendant he rips from the mans neck. They demand to know where the gold came from. The Indian's only answer is that gold is father downriver.
Gaspar de Carvajal steps forward to show the pair a Bible. He holds it up explaining that this is the word of God. He hands it to the man, who takes it and, confused, holds it against his ear. He tells the Spaniards that he hears nothing. Accused of blasphemy, he is killed. Carvajal comments that it is difficult to convert these heathens.Given hope the group begins to dream of the riches of El Dorado. Gold abounds, they have governorships, provinces and Okello even dreams of freedom. While tracing out a map Guzman declares that all the land to the left and to the right is the property of El Dorado. Every day they drift his kingdom grows larger.Okello fixes dinner for Guzman- fish stuffed with fruits and cooked over a fire. Upon being served, Guzman whines that he has no salt and holds out his cup as if expecting wine at a fine dinner. The men behind him however, are counting out the last grains they have. Today there are only ten grains per man. The horse is frightened and begins to thrash around kicking and stomping. Angry that his meal was disturbed, Guzman orders the horse off the raft. The men shove the horse off of the raft and ignore its attempt to get back on. The horse swims to the bank and stands on land the raft floats away. Carvajal muses with Perucho, that Guzman is a dead man. The sight of a horse could scare away armies of Indians, and the horse was meat for a week. Shortly thereafter Guzman is found dead just outside the raft's outhouse.Ursuas fate is sealed by Guzman's death. He is taken by Perucho and two others inland via canoe. Here, they find a tree barely able to hold his weight on its spindly branches, hoist him up so they can tie the rope down, and let him hang. Perucho sits on a branch below him and eats while reciting nonsense, waiting for Ursua to die.With all of its remaining members on board the raft keep moving slowly down the river. They approach a new group of Indians who, according to Balthasars translation, shout, Meat, Meat! Meat is floating by! As the Spaniards land, arrows fly. Spaniards shoot at Indians and light the village on fire. Starving men are soon distracted and begin to lick up salt from the ground. Suddenly a beautifully adorned Inez emerges and walks calmly and alone into the jungle. The attack is complete, and Perucho reports to Aguirre. They followed Inez's tracks a half mile into the jungle but saw neither her nor the Indians. The men accompanying him panicked at the silence and returned to the camp. As he reports a voice comes from the background. A man is plotting to return to Pizarro. He has counted the bends in the river and will travel by night and hide by day to avoid the Indians. Aguirre hears the traitor and comments to Perucho that the man speaking is a head taller than himself, and that should soon change. Perucho walks quietly over and slices the oblivious man's head off mid-sentence. Aguirre speaks- he is the greatest traitor, there will be no greater. The earth bows to his will. Anyone who attempts to leave will die. The group returns to the raft to continue downstream. As they float along, two more men are picked off by the arrows of Indians.Gaspar de Carvajal speaks with Aguirre about morale. They see nothing but death but never see their enemy. Perhaps even El Dorado is an illusion. Aguirre, however, will not have it. Mexico was no illusion, and if they give up then someone else will come along later and take it. Power and Fame are riches as well. Carvajal muses that Aguirre is leading them to their destruction- perhaps even doing so intentionally.Weeks later unbearable suffering is rampant among the men. Many are struck with fever and hallucinations due to hunger and illness. Okello sees a ship with sails in a tree. Carvajal dismisses this as a hallucination. Aguirre, however, is convinced that they will retrieve the ship and go to the Atlantic. Carvajal dares to defy him- the men are sick and near dying. They will not go with Aguirre. Okello is struck by an arrow, then Carvajal. They believe, however, that these are illusions and don't move. Flores walks to the edge of the raft and is struck by an arrow as she looks into the trees in front of her. Aguirre walks over and takes her in his arms. She dies quietly and motionless in Aguirres arms.Monkeys suddenly appear all over the raft and Aguirre follows them around the raft. He speaks- He will reach the Atlantic, take Trinidad from Spain, and Mexico from Cortez. They will have all of New Spain. He will marry his own daughter and found a pure dynasty. They will rule the entire continent together and endure. The film closes with Aguirre being the only person clearly alive. The camera circles him until the credits roll. | murder, cult, violence, insanity, psychedelic, tragedy, suspenseful, historical | train | imdb | Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski's masterful achievement - Aguirre: The Wrath of God (Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes) is a rich and powerful film set deep in the the South American rain forest.
It is too fictionalized (yet plausible) to fit comfortably in the "historical fiction" shoebox; the dialog is as much a presentistic bit of reflexive thinking as it is fitting for the historical context of the film; and the setting is so breathtaking that without a plot and without the brilliant concept and fantastic acting, the film would still be breathtaking and painful.The opening scene, which very slowly depicts a caravan of Spanish soldiers, African and South American Indian slaves, burros, horses, cannons, and provisions making their way down a steep mountain path surrounded by miles of rain forest, is breathtaking and ominous, and sets not just the tone, but the pace of the film.
The rest of the cast rises to the challenge and acts right at Kinski's level, making this film one of the best actors/production team collaborations I have ever seen.This film is definitely not for everybody, it is a long, slow sip of delicious and yet bitter wine which the typical movie-goer will only appreciate when 'in the mood' for something which requires thought and energy to watch.
Due to the incredible hardships while filming on location in the Amazonian jungle, the myth surrounding AGUIRRE has almost outgrown the virtues of the film itself and over the years it has become an almost integral part when (re)viewing this film, even more so since Herzog's documentary MY BEST FIEND (1999) was released about his relationship with "best enemy" and star in many of his films, Klaus Kinski.A mesmerizing exploration of human obsession based on the diaries of Gaspar de Varvajal, a monk who accompanied Gonzalez Pizarro (half-brother of the brutal conqueror of the Incas) and died during the expedition, the film chronicles Pizarro's 1560 Peruvian expedition in search of the legendary city of gold, El Dorado.
To me it is simply astonishing Herzog decided to use their in a film about 16th century Spanish explorers shot on location in the Amazon and somehow it works wonderfully, a perfect blend of image and sound.
Besides the already astonishing, many times near-fatal accidents and Kinski's impossible madman behavior, this film seemed doomed from the start, like an old curse from the Incas.For those less familiar with Herzog's work, FITZCARRALDO (1982), also by Herzog and shot under equally horrendous conditions in the Peruvian jungle, would make a good companion piece.
The camera work is always interesting (he single-handedly "patented" camera shots that don't sweep - they ("you") stare and stare - and stare - at a thing or person or place until it becomes abstract, intense, beautiful, threatening, profound), the scoring is always appropriate yet never expected, and his casting, often using the unique talents of the late Klaus Kinski, guarantee nothing less than an intense experience...even in a film like "Aguirre", which SLOWLY claws and slogs it's way along each and every slippery, dangerous, foreign mile of jungle.
Klaus Kinski's enigmatic and frightening portrayal of man's obsession in Werner Herzog's nightmare masterpiece Aguirre: The Wrath Of God is a German film that is as powerful today as it was when released back in 1972.
Like the 'Mosquito Coast', an almost identical film, it concentrates on the human condition, in how far 'man' can go in his quest of becoming God. Werner Herzog, who's persistence in Klaus Kinski to star in most of his films, is a master storyteller and one great director, famous for other films starring Kinski including "Fitzcarraldo" and "Woyzeck".
"Aguirre: The Wrath Of God", however, is his and Klaus Kinski's most famous and one of the most powerful films of all time.Entirely a true story, set in the 1600s, following the annihilation of the Incas Empire, when the Spanish Conquistadors explored and roamed most of South America, a legendary expedition set out in Peru into the Amazon River to locate the mythical City Of Gold, El Dorado.
Much like Coppola's "Apocalypse Now," we are taken on a mesmerizing journey into the depths of madness with the focus being primarily on mood, setting, atmosphere and images.Klaus Kinski, in one of the best performances I've seen, embodies the insanity that comes with the quest for power.
Werner Herzog's masterpiece follows Klaus Kinski as a conquistador leading a group of men through his personal madness in Peru, searching for the mythical city of gold.
The group continue down the river in search of their goal but conditions are hard and it is only the increasingly unrealistic aims of Aguirre that drives them onwards.In both the film and the making of the film this is best sold as a medieval Apocalypse Now as it has a great collection of stories behind it while also being an interesting journey into the mouth of madness.
The "making of" is told better other places than I can do here so I shan't bother, but suffice to say that at times the film feels like Herzog is just watching his cast to see what happens and not just following his characters.
Stunning, dreamlike film documents (in a somewhat documentary style), the story of Don Lope de Aguirre (Klaus Kinski), who leads a group of Spanish conquistadors into the depths of the jungle in search for El Dorado, the mythical city of gold.
1972's Aguirre, the Wrath of God, by Werner Herzog concerns an expedition formed by Spanish soldiers down the Orinoco and Amazon rivers searching for the fabled Dorado.
But later on , Lope De Aguirre (Klaus Kinski , who was the start of an extremely stormy, and sometimes violent, professional relationship with Herzog that lasted 15 years) taker over the explorers .Slow-moving and interesting film that contains historical events , thrills , double-crosses and wonderful scenarios .
Werner Herzog's widely acclaimed film about a 16th century expedition into the Southern American jungle looks like some hippie commune happened upon a bunch of costumes and a camera and decided to make a movie because "everybody's an artist".Klaus Kinski, in the title role, does his wild-eyed Kinski routine, overshadowing in the process the rest of the cast who seem to be on a mission to demonstrate that acting's actually hard.The editing is poor.
Herzog claims he can't remember what he wrote on these pages."The screenplay was shot as written, with some minor differences."When people say that something's "so bad that it's good", they usually mean that a work of art is unintentionally funny, and indeed I had to laugh when I watched some of the death scenes, which seem like reenactments of something out of The Simpsons.
Meanwhile, one of his most frequent collaborators Klaus Kinski was a somewhat larger than life actor in terms of screen presence with a seamlessly commanding if at times wild style of acting.Having heard nothing but good things about 'Aguirre Wrath of God' and finally getting back on track with my film watching, it was at long last viewed.
Backed by Popol Vuh's haunting score, it is one of the finest shots in the history of cinema.The filming of The Wrath of God is possibly as well-known as the film itself, with stories of poor planning, severe injuries, and leading man Klaus Kinski's generally disruptive and psychopathic behaviour emerging from the cast and crew after the film's release.
Set in 1560, the film tells the story of the ill-fated expedition led by Gonzalo Pizarro (Alejandro Repulles) to find the fabled land of El Dorado.Accompanied by a band of Spanish conquerors and a hundred Indian slaves, Pizarro soon realises that his expedition will soon be cut short by a lack of food, water and supplies and orders a smaller group of approximately 40 men to carry on with the search.
The movie is probably about man's primordial battle with nature or about the horrors of Western conquest or some other noble subtext but getting through the suffering, long stretches of not much happening and a generally uninteresting story make the trip, like the mythical quest for El Dorado depicted in the film, something of a fool's errand.
Aguirre, the Wrath of God sees Klaus Kinski's Don Lope de Aguirre lead, eventually, many Spanish soldiers through the jungles in search of El Dorado, the city of gold.
Aguirre is given a bizarre sort of face thanks to the casting of Kinski, also his actions and general body language right from the off implant a certain degree of un-canniness or eccentricity about him.So for a film to establish both setting and characterisation of the lead role in such a manner is impressive; nobody else is really developed or has as much attention paid to them because, simply put, they are not as important.
nature perspective, one might find the final half an hour of Apocalypto as a good example.The one scene that does stand out as a clear tactic to confuse and force the audience into thinking is the one in which, very early on (perhaps the initial incident?) the leader of the Spaniards is killed off through one way or another creating an ambiguous situation in which the group are already established to be struggling, Aguirre seems to be going a little crazy and now nobody can lead them to El Dorado.
Rather than an example of poor story telling emphasised by unrelated dialogue, it actually acts as a well timed line about something else uttered by someone perhaps going under.And so from this setting of the scene, the character introduction and scenario Aguirre and the band of soldiers travel on a mere raft, down a river which you very much get the feeling is of no return.
In the 16th century, the ruthless and insane Don Lope de Aguirre (Klaus Kinski) leads a Spanish expedition in search of El Dorado.What is most interesting about this picture is not the film itself, but the drama and violence behind the scenes.
So while the audience watches a slow boat to nowhere, the captain and crew become more and more obsessed and assured of their quest to become like God Kings of the New World.Why this movie is worth seeing is for it's photography, the Amazon looks real in this film in all it's inhospitable glory, the films only music comes from native flute, and thought the characters are Spanish, they all speak German, ha!
About the direction I believe also that Werner Herzog did a very good job on it with showing very nice the difference between the personalities of people and how this can affect the evolution of not only a quest but also a whole expedition.Finally I have to say that "Aguirre, the Wrath of God" is a very good movie which worth seeing and I recommend it to everyone.
Writer / director Werner Herzogs' poetic, haunting, beautifully filmed historical drama stars frequent collaborator Klaus Kinski, who plays the title character.
Aguirre leads a successful revolt, and the whole crew sail down the river in search of the legendary El Dorado, the lost city of gold.Herzog works with a first rate filmmaking company to create some absolutely breathtaking images.
This is a plus but does not make up for the mainly amateurish documentary style direction and production which makes it seem more like a 1970s TV docu-drama.The acting of Klaus Kinski is somewhat mesmerising and impressive and the aspect of the film which is interesting is the study of madness/megalomania in action.
'Aguirre: The Wrath of God', a story of Spanish explorers looking for El Dorado, could be summarised as a version of Joseph Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness' (or of the film it inspired, Apocalypse Now'), with one difference: Kurtz is on the boat, i.e. the madman is the leader of the expedition into the jungle, not its object.
So it's no surprise that he was engaged by this story about a group of Spanish conquistadors in 1560 trekking through the Peruvian jungle in search of El Dorado, legendary city of gold, and one man in particular, Aguirre, who stages a mutiny and continues to lead the remaining troupe on an increasingly insane and futile journey when all logic and reason compels them to turn back.It's remarkably easy to forget that you're watching staged action during this film, as the movie drips with authenticity.
The sublime aerial shots which open the film ram home that the painstaking endeavor is the real deal, the crew does go off the beaten path into the ethereal mountains, a mesmerizing hands-on style of filmmaking which has its built-in allure simply because who will not be in awe of a film takes so much human labor against the elemental force to make itself happen (the legendary Herzog-Kinski pair would go to extremes in FITZCARRALDO, a decade later), particularly at a time when the preponderance of offerings hitherto had been studio- bound, steeped in artificial aesthetics.In search of El Dorado, in the mid-16th century, a gold-crazed contingent of Spanish conquistadors goes deep into the Peruvian rain forest, lead by Pedro de Ursúa (famed Portuguese filmmaker Guerra), second-in-command Lope de Aguirre (Kinski), Brother Gaspar (Negro), a rotund nobleman Fernando de Guzmán (Berling), among others, two females, Inés (Rojo), Ursúa's wife and Florés (Rivera), Aguirre's teenage daughter, and many Indian slaves.
Merely watchful and often centering on Kinski's distinctively fierce and emotive visage, the camera expends more time perusing the biome's vista (the ship snagged on top of a tree is a coup de maître of the then young filmmaker, flagging up its powerful metaphoric impact and ludic whimsy) than engaging in the narrative proceedings as their ill-fated destiny lurking ahead, until the final majestic 360-degree twirling shot sending the megalomaniac stranded with numerous skittish monkeys on the raft, paranoid, bereft and dream-dashed.In any fair sense, the film is less potent as a character analysis of an outrageous madman than a gorgeous landscape porn, utterly otherworldly for those outsiders, but Kinski still hounds you with his muted aggro, lunacy and repellence (by dint of Herzog's tactful maneuver, who deliberately lets Kinski rip in his more frenetic performance, but saves the actual shots for the moments when he is abated or simply worn out), which would go beyond the pale in FITZCARRALDO, but here, the final impression is much more balanced and nuanced.One cannot finish the review without mentioning the acclaimed score composed by the West German avant-garde band Popol Vuh, it is unearthly but not intrusive, a bespoke incident music which leaves its repercussions long after the film reaches its finish-line..
Werner Herzog's "Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes" is a perfect example of truly affecting cinema that, even through its simplicity, manages to carve itself a memorable space in our viewing experiences.The film records the failed expedition of Lope de Aguirre (Klaus Kinski) as he leads a small and frightened group of men through the vast desolation and beauty of South America's jungles in the search of the legendary El Dorado.
This is when Kinski's title character, longing for power, takes the occasion to head a mutiny, telling the men that countless treasures lie ahead of them.The essential charm of this film is that it exhibits the cynical, self-accepting personality of Werner Herzog.
In Aquirre's case, it's a journey into madness as he tries to achieve his dreams for El Dorado on earth.Although Kinski, sadly, is no longer with us, I think we can rely on Herzog to continue producing and directing major works of film art.
Director Werner Herzog and actor Klaus Kinski did some fantastic and outstanding works together, besides Aquirre, the Wrath of God I would name Fitzcarraldo (1982), Cobra Verde (1987) and Nosferatu (1979).In Aquirre Kinski plays the ruthless and insane and passion driven Don Lope de Aguirre, leading a Spanish expedition of Conquistadors to find the city of El Dorado and plunder its riches for the Spanish crown and for himself.
"Aguirre, The Wrath of God," is a film by German New Wave key player Werner Herzog about a band of ruthless conquistadors in search of the mythical city of gold, El Dorado..
I admit it was weird to see actors dressed as conquistadors but speak German, but then I think how would a foreign audience feel about seeing a British or American film about their culture or history.Aguirre, The Wrath of God was shot on location and as expected the cinematography was fantastic, showing the beauty but also the harshness of the rainforest.
Man against man; man against nature; man against himself; this story, loosely based upon the search for El Dorado by the Spanish in the 1600s, is a marvel of film-making, and just as watchable today as it was when it was released.Klaus Kinski, in the last of five films he made with Herzog, is magnificent as the man who sought to be a God. He manages a mutiny against Don Ursua (Ruy Guerra), and leads the group to El Dorado.As they travel through the Peruvian jungle, they discover cannibals, people die, they meet some Indians, and men are decapitated.
While the main force of the expedition becomes stationary, Don Lope de Aguirre (Klaus Kinski) leads a small group of these colonizers further down the river, in a paranoid pursuit of mythical El Dorado -The City of Gold.The initial colorful obscurity of German-speaking conquistadors is quickly overshadowed by the documentary-like delivery of this extremely physical film.
The Boredom of God. In 16th century Peru, an obsessed and ruthless Spanish conquistador leads a group of men on a river raft in search of gold in this film, reminiscent of "Apocalypse Now." The location cinematography is beautiful, although surprisingly not in wide-screen format, and Kinski gives an interesting performance in the enigmatic title role.
After reading the script for this film for the first time, Klaus Kinski reportedly screamed for half an hour before the director Werner Herzog could make out what he was saying.
Werner Herzog is one of the most unique directors in cinema history, and Aguirre is the work that most encapsulates his approach to film-making. |
tt0095631 | Midnight Run | Jonathan "The Duke" Mardukas (Grodin) is an accountant who embezzled $15 million from Las Vegas gangster Jimmy Serrano (Dennis Farina) and skipped bail. He is hiding in New York when his Los Angeles bail bondsman, Eddie Moscone (Joe Pantoliano), hires bounty hunter Jack Walsh (De Niro) to bring the accountant in. To get the $100,000 bounty, Jack needs to get "The Duke" back to L.A. before midnight on Friday, or Eddie forfeits the $450,000 bail and faces bankruptcy.The FBI, led by Special Agent Alonzo Mosely (Yaphet Kotto), wants Mardukas under arrest to build their case against Serrano. Alonzo warns Jack not to interfere with his plans, but Jack, under the pretense of accepting, pays no attention, and instead pinches Mosely's identification. Serrano, meanwhile, suspects that Mardukas has access to financial information that could lead to his conviction. Additionally, that information would implicate Serrano and his ties to other mobsters, which could jeopardize his life if exposed. As a result, Serrano intends to have Mardukas killed before he can testify against him in open court.After apprehending Mardukas in Manhattan, Jack is unable to take him to L.A. by plane due to Mardukas' professed fear of flying, which gets them thrown off their transcontinental flight. The pair embark on a wild cross-country chase (with Mardukas even temporarily piloting a plane, proving that his fear of flying was a ruse), relying on various unreliable modes of transportation, all the while dodging the FBI and Serrano's henchmen Tony (Richard Foronjy) and Joey (Robert Miranda). Moscone also hires rival bounty hunter Marvin Dorfler (John Ashton) as insurance in case Jack is unable to deliver Mardukas, but offers him $25,000, claiming he offered the same to Walsh.Throughout their journey, Walsh and The Duke bicker constantly, due to the clash of Walsh's rough-hewn personality and Mardukas' habit of nagging. Much of the movie involves Mardukas' sincere effort to uncover the truth about his captor, a person he suspects is actually a decent man beneath his cynical and embittered exterior. He eventually learns that Jack was a former Chicago undercover detective who refused to go on the take of a heroin dealer he was building a case against. He was then drummed out of the force after being framed for heroin possession by corrupt colleagues and driven out of Chicago, his marriage ended and he became estranged from his family. His ex-wife ended up remarrying one of his colleagues, now a captain, whom Jack insinuates was one of the corrupt members of the force. Jack has not seen his daughter since she was a little girl, and has since then lost all faith in the law, explaining his profession as a bounty hunter. As the plot unfolds, it turns out that the heroin dealer responsible for Jack's framing was Jimmy Serrano himself. Jack, for his part, wants to see the job done so he can retire and open a coffee shop with his promised $100,000 bounty, aware that in doing so, he will most likely be helping Serrano avoid prison. He also has a keen sense of propriety and refuses a bribe from Mardukas, as well as a large cash offering from Serrano's camp in exchange for turning Mardukas over to them.After making it as far as Arizona, the two are chased by dozens of police cars. They narrowly dodge the police, but Mardukas is captured by Dorfler. Finally figuring out that Moscone cheated him and how much The Duke is actually worth, Dorfler decides to give him up to Tony and Joey for $1 million. However, Dorfler inadvertently reveals where he is keeping the fugitive, and is knocked unconscious. Mardukas is captured by Serrano's men, and Dorfler, defeated, decides to go home.Walsh, meanwhile, is finally found by Mosely and his men, and taken into custody. An enraged Walsh calls Moscone and furiously berates him for hiring Dorfler as insurance. Moscone, however, reveals that Dorfler is not delivering The Duke to him, and Walsh realizes that Dorfler has delivered Mardukas to Serrano. Walsh calls Serrano's men and tells them that Mardukas gave him computer disks with enough information to put Serrano away (earlier, Mardukas had informed Walsh that he intended to backup files on to disks but never did). Walsh threatens to turn the disks over to the FBI unless Serrano himself returns The Duke to him at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas. Walsh tells Mosely and the FBI of his plan to deliver Serrano to them (even though the disks to be used in the sting are blank, Serrano's taking possession of them would be enough to indict him for conspiring to destroy government evidence and obstruction of justice), but will only carry it out if he is allowed to return Mardukas to Moscone personally and collect his money. Mosely, since his primary target is Serrano, accepts Walsh's proposal.At the airport, Serrano and Walsh confront each other for the first time since Jack left Chicago. The exchange is interrupted by Dorfler, who sees the exchange going on, not knowing that the FBI are watching and waiting for Serrano to take possession of the disks. Jack, whose microphone wire gets knocked out by Dorfler, yells to the FBI that Serrano has the disks. The FBI move in, arresting Serrano, his men, and Dorfler.As bargained with Mosely, Jack takes the Duke back to Los Angeles. He calls Eddie Moscone and tells him he has Mardukas in L.A. before the deadline - but he is letting him go. Before Jack can leave, they exchange gifts - Jack hands The Duke his broken watch, and Mardukas hands Jack a money belt he had hidden on his person throughout the film, filled with $300,000 in $1,000 bills: he was planning on leaving before Jack showed up, so he didn't have time to use the money. The two part as friends. Mardukas then disappears, and Jack tries to get a cab. However, since the driver doesn't have change for a thousand dollar bill, he zips up his leather jacket and pulls up his collar, preparing to walk home. | comedy, neo noir, entertaining | train | imdb | DeNiro is (Jack Walsh) a self-righteous ex-cop so unpopular with the Chicago police department, now wanting to make one final 'midnight run' that'll pay big so he can buy a nice coffee shop
He is hired by an hysterical bondsman to find and bring back a former Mob accountant called Jonathan "The Duke" Mardukas (Grodin) who has stolen $15 million from the Los Angeles mob, given the money to the 'unfortunates of the earth.' DeNiro quickly captures the 'white-collar criminal' in New York, and is given five days to bring him to Los Angleles, to collect his $100,000 fee...Unfortunately for DeNiro, the fugitive accountant is too neurotic to fly the distance...
The embezzler's ex-boss wants him badly for knowing all his financial transactions, and agent Yaphet Kotto warns Walsh not to interfere with the FBI's plans to bring the 'Duke' into federal court
And if this isn't enough, there is some third-rate bounty hunter (John Ashton) who is intrigued about DeNiro's special deal
In an extended cross-country chase, the two men's personalities and relationship develop
DeNiro shows how to catch talents of improvisation...
He delivers some of the best punchlines, when he replies: 'Well if you don't cooperate, you're gonna suffer from fistophobia.' Charles Grodin is perfect as the prisoner who gets some of Serrano's records on computer disks, figuring if things got too rough, he could always trade them for his life
He continually gets on DeNiro's nerves, and with his soft and ironic tone of voice he advises Walsh that a restaurant is 'a very tricky investment.' He easily dips into Jack Walsh's life ('Don't you want to be loved?'), wandering about his broken marriage ('Did she hurt you, Jack?'), his habits ('Cigarettes are killers.
The best parts of the film are, in fact, the interactions between the two stars
The story holds up perfectly and entertains the viewer in every way
Martin Brest does bring out the realistic, funny and moving sides of his likable characters
Suspense is maintained to the very end.
Way too much objectionable language is the only fault of this otherwise extremely-entertaining film that is justifiably popular.Humor is what makes this "crime film" stand out as tough guys Robert De Niro, Joe Pantoliano, John Ashton, Dennis Farina and others provide a lot of laughs as not-so-tough guy Charles Grodin is escorted from New York to Los Angeles to face retribution from a mob boss.The dialog between Grodin and his bounty hunter captive De Niro, is terrific all the way through.
Part of that has to do with Danny Elfman's score, and part of it has to do with DeNiro's and Grodin's performances, but more than anything, it's the fact that they just don't make movies like this anymore.Midnight Run is without a question a perfect movie, but more importantly, it's a time vessel back to an era where you could tell this kind of story, and make a movie like this, and everyone comes out on top.I love this movie like I love my childhood..
A real American classic: call it a road movie, action comedy, buddy film, whatever---it's a beautiful script, professionally executed.
All the supporting characters are great as well...Witness Dennis Farina talking to his Vegas Lawyer, played by Philip Baker Hall (not the first time he would be a guy in a suit in Vegas named Sidney!), Yaphet Kotto as a frustrated agent or Joe Pants as the shady Bail bondsman.The pacing, dialogue, story, acting, editing are all top notch - I just love this one..
However, with the FBI, the mafia and other bounty hunters all looking to bring in Jonathon for differing reasons, Jack has a hard road ahead of him and that's before he discovers Jonathon's phobias about planes.In terms of cinema, I remember the 80's for one main genre the buddy movie; the genre continues today but that is my overriding memory of the films I saw during this time and since then from the period.
Hardly a dynamic hotbed or imagination and innovation, the genre did throw up many films that are quite enjoyable if you meet them on their own terms and it did occasionally produce some that are very enjoyable and still stand up years later for a combination of reasons, Midnight Run is one of these and, for my money is a great street smart comedy.
Personally I'm not overly bothered by it but it is such a fun film that it seems a shame to make it unsuitable for children by such liberal use of the F word (one or two can be forgiven but every other word pretty much makes it unsuitable), but I suppose it is all part of the tough but fun tone of the film and I enjoy it regardless.Overall this is not one of the greatest films ever nor one of De Niro's best but it is a very, very good genre film and, in my mind, stands out from many other buddy-style movies that have been made in the crime/thriller sort of mould.
It has been rumored that Grodin aggravated Deniro so much on the movie set that it brought out the best in these two actors in the film.The soundtrack is marvelously written by Danny Elfman.
Hello.I actually created an account merely for the purposes of composing a review for this film.I wont waste everyones time with describing the plot and/or what occurs in this film as there as hundreds of numerous other reviews which do just that.I will begin with what i believe is what makes a good film...Far too often i find that in the current climate so much of a film is devoted to CG and "plasticity", if such a word exists, but i suspect that you all know what i mean.Not a lot of what one see's these days is actually devoted to the testament of a good actor, and when this is recognised and witnessed, it is quite an achievement.The reason that this film is such an accomplishment is down to the fact that from beginning to end it is a display of everything that a film should be and all that makes a film good and worthwhile watching.From the start to the finish this film is graced with a good storyline and FANTASTIC acting throughout, even though i could never associate with how any of these characters would feel being put in their situations every scene makes you believe that is believable.Deniro (Jack Walsh)and Grodin (Jonathan Mardukas) are an unsuspected but utterly fantastic combination of 2 characters making this film simply come to life in ways that other films can only hope to strive to achieve, coupled with John Ashton (Marvin) and Dennis Farina (Serano), this makes for a cast that delivers one of the best screen performances individually and as a group that i have ever witnessed.Every scene has meaning and relevance, even scenes that are aired for comic intent solely but still achieving more than that.These days many people are bored by watching actors "act" and simply want whizz and bang and fizz and pop and bells and whistles attached and i suspect it has led to a significant increase in the dumbing down of (hollywood) cinema.Directors and actors should take a page out of the book of this film and realise and re-embrace what is truly needed for a film to stand out regardless of a (suspected) dumbed down audience that exists these days.
If people are too stupid and ignorant to be able to follow a plot then they deserve the drivel that is put on the big screen but i suspect that the majority of people still want a good film, and apologies for digressing from the point but this film is it.Funny and serious all rolled into one from the offset and grittily realistic and truthful and insightful into how people really are.Some of the one liners alone are simply hilarious;"Marvin look out!" "Well i've got 2 words for you, Shut the %$£& up" "96 bottles of beer on the wall" "Would you ever have $£X with a chicken Jack?" "Watch your cigarette with this one Jack!" "Did you do the litmus configuration?"In summary, this film is what makes a film worthwhile watching, fantastic acting, plot, and cast to mention but a few positive aspects of.
The music backgrounds are excellent - touching in folk, blues, country, rock, and the last track that follows the credits is awesome, lasting for almost four minutes.This film is light years beyond any other road movie since it blends action with humour.
The co-stars all turn in memorable performances from Marvin - De Niros single-minded but dumb fellow bounty hunter, to the menacing Jimmy Serrano and his two dumb gangster goons and not forgetting the intensely irritated Special Agent Moseley (please do not watch the cut for TV version - never have I seen a worse hatchet job that manages to wreck just about every one liner in the film).
De Niro has just hours to get Grodin back to bail-bondsman Pantoliano while his ex-boss Dennis Farina (COULD anyone look more mafioso?) wants him back for reasons of extreme revenge....Perhaps on account of the fact that The Duke has put his funds to better use a la Robin Hood style of redistribution of wealth.This is really laugh-out-loud brilliant stuff.
Just by reading the subject in another comment ("You lied to me first") made me laugh out loud alone in front of my computer.There IS action in Midnight Run (chases and stuff), there is also drama (the scene with Walsh's daughter brings me close to tears every time), there is even a bit of suspense in the airport scene, but what really makes this film tick is the comedy resulting from a perfect cast with impeccable timing.
Midnight Run is one of the greatest Comedies ever made,an excellent,hilarious Action-Comedy classic that combines wonderful direction,a terrific ensemble cast,non-stop laughs,an outstanding script,great Action and a memorable score.
All of those elements make Midnight Run one of the best films of the 1980s and a fun,unforgettable movie.Midnight Run tells the story of Jack Walsh(Robert De Niro),a former Chicago Cop turned bounty hunter who after years of being a bounty hunter and chasing criminals wants to retire and open a coffee restaurant.
But before he retires he has to track down and catch accountant and bail jumper Jonathan "The Duke" Mardukas(Charles Grodin)who stole 15 million dollars from the mob and is wanted by the FBI and Jack is asked to bring him from New York to Los Angeles in five days on a Midnight Run for 100,000$.
But Jack and Jonathan's trip isn't going to be easy with the FBI,the Mob and a rival bounty hunter on their trail which leads to laughs and fun.Midnight Run is a brilliant and hilarious Action-Comedy that is an instant classic the first time you watch it,a movie that gives viewers 126 minutes of perfection where everything from the wonderful performances,direction,script and score just works from beginning to end.
The Comedy and laughs in Midnight Run are hysterical and funny with every comedic scene coming at a quick and rapid fire pace that just keeps on going and never stops until the end the Humor feels natural with many scenes that are classic and well-done.
Terrific score,Elfman.In final word,if you love Robert De Niro,Comedies,Action-Comedies or films in general,I highly suggest you see Midnight Run,an excellent and hilarious Action-Comedy classic that you can watch again and again.
I urge anyone who like a lot of action and a little comedy and moral story thrown in to get your can popcorn and watch this movie,as Grodin and De Nero are so far apart in their thinking and way of life you would have thought they would clash but it works fantastic.
All of the acting, in addition to De Niro, was superb: Yaphet Kotto, John Ashton, Dennis Farina, Joe Pantoliano, and my two favorite goofs "Tony and Joey." Charles Grodin is unarguably in his best role: it seems as if he is essentially playing himself.
Yet, De Niro's response is like a bark without a bite - we know that he cannot hit Grodin, in the same way that he hits the other bounty hunter, Marvin.All the other characters make their mark and have their own character: Yaphet Kotto as the FBI agent after De Niro, Denis Farina as the mob boss out for revenge - after both of them, and the bailbonds man Joe Pantoliano.I still laugh out loud at Grodin's deadpan face whenever he drives De Niro completely bananas, with his simple questions and remarks.
Even though he later became a cable TV crackpot obsessed with O.J. SImpson and Howard Stern, Charles Grodin was once a very humourous person and delivers some of the greatest deadpan lines you'll ever hear in this comic adventure.Although it plays for laughs almost the whole way through, Dennis Farina is one scary dude as the villian and the climax at the airport is really riveting and will have you on the edge of your seat.GREAT supporting work from Yaphet Kotto (Alien, Homicide) and Joey Pants (THe Sopranos, The Matrix, Risky Business)..
The rest of the cast are uniformly brilliant, be it the wonderful John Ashton as rival bounty hunter Marvin, the menacing yet cheekily attired Dennis Farina as mob boss Jimmy Serrano, or Yaphet Kotto as the constantly irritated FBI agent Alonso Mosely, it's pretty much a flawless cast in optimum gear.The rating on the big movie sites, though high enough, is still a disgrace, I can only think that DeNiro fans really didn't want to see him doing a comedy?
It is his performance I enjoyed more the second time through.Grodin's doing his usual Curmudgeon Suffering Righteously act (this was the first film I'd seen him in - but I've been thoroughly enjoying his in- character Letterman interviews), and consequently has less depth than the many shades De Niro brings to Walsh, but that's not entirely his fault:Mardukas: "Why don't you get yourself a new watch?" Walsh: "I'll tell you when I know you better." Mardukas: "You know me better?
Midnight Run is a good action comedy film that has a great cast which includes Robert De Niro, Charles Grodin, Yaphet Kotto, John Ashton, Dennis Farina, Joe Pantoliano, Richard Foronjy, Tony Darvo, Robert Miranda, and Philip Baker Hall.
If you like Robert De Niro, Charles Grodin, Yaphet Kotto, Dennis Farina, Joe Pantoliano, and the rest of the cast in the film, Action Comedies, and interesting films then I recommend this film!.
With Midnight Run, he shows incredible leverage and energy as the main character, which is somewhat expected and equally unexpected given his age and his line of roles.De Niro is only assisted by the likes of people like Charles Grodin, writer George Gallo, and director Martin Brest, who stuff Midnight Run's screenplay with about as much action, comedy, and intensity you can ask for.
We're also treated to some truly inspired characters in the supporting cast, courtesy of Yaphet Koto, and John Ashton's brilliantly stupid Marvin Dorfler ("I'm always thinking!") It's a perfect film in so many ways; brilliant script, acting, direction...It's also a hard film to classify, as it transcend genres to give us comedy, action, drama and crime thriller all at once.
With a great cast, including odd-couple Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin leading the way, a humorous script, and impressive action sequences on this cross-country trip gone awry, the film overcomes its 1980s atmosphere, (the first class plane set-up is exact to that used in the Wedding Singer, sorry, I had to point that out), to age gracefully and remain as good now as people I've heard say it was; those who had seen it back then.De Niro is an ex-cop turned bounty hunter for a Los Angeles bail-bondsmana slimy cretin like only Joe Pantoliano can dothat has been enlisted to capture the embezzling accountant of the mob boss that made him lose his job on the force.
Yaphet Kotto's FBI Agent Mosely becomes a lot of fun as he follows one step behind for the duration, the bumbling hit-man are always enjoyable, (having one act like a child, playing around all the time while the other tries to talk to the boss helps), and just the subtle way in which De Niro's past is revealed through his conversations with Grodin bring so much more to what would otherwise be a simple comic actioner.
all things that escalates the already enjoyable genre of the road movie into this masterpiece.Its a shame that Robert Deniro and Charles Grodin have never been paired together on screen since because the way their characters bounce off each other is terrific.
Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin star in this action packed and at times hilarious cross country movie.
It also has the great snappy soundtrack by Danny Elfman, and the uproarious character actor Dennis Farina as the mob boss ("you two better start getting more personally involved in your work or I'm going to blowtorch the both of ya!")So Jack Walsh (Robert Deniro) needs to a bring mob accountant/embezzler John Mardukas(played by Charles Grodin) back to LA by Friday midnight to get a hundred grand from a bond bailsman.
Such as Midnight Run. This is a great buddy comedy about a bounty hunter (De Niro) who is given the job to bring in a fugitive from New York to Los Angeles.
Great Fun. Midnight Run (1988) **** (out of 4)Bounty hunter Jack Walsh (Robert DeNiro) tracks down a crooked accountant (Charles Grodin) and soon the two are being chased by the FBI as well as a Mafia boss (Dennis Farina) and his hit men.
What a great way to start my new year of 2019 with this all time classic action comedy.The story is about a retired cop (Robert de Niro) who has 5 days to find an accountant on the run (Charles Grodin) and bring him to justice.
Martin Brest directed this action-comedy that stars Robert De Nero as Jack Walsh, an ex-cop turned bounty hunter who has taken the job of tracking down Jonathan 'The Duke' Mardukas(played by Charles Grodin) an accountant who embezzled $15 Million from the mob, then donated it to charity. |
tt0091080 | Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI | A year has passed since the events of the previous film, and Crystal Lake has been renamed to Forest Green. Tommy Jarvis, still suffering from hallucinations ever since his past encounter with Jason Voorhees, returns with his friend Allen Hawes, hoping to cremate Jason's body and therefore stop his hallucinations. At the cemetery, they dig up Jason's corpse, but seeing it causes Tommy to snap, and he stabs Jason's body with a metal fence post. As he turns his back on Jason, two lightning bolts strike the post and revive Jason, who kills Hawes.
Tommy makes his way to the sheriff's office, where he panics and attempts to grab weapons, but is caught and arrested. His warning that Jason has returned goes unheeded by Sheriff Mike Garris, who is aware of Tommy's mental problems and thinks he is imagining Jason. On the road, camp counselors Darren and Lizbeth get lost looking for the camp and run into Jason, who impales them both with the metal rod that resurrected him. The next morning, Garris' daughter Megan and her friends Sissy, Cort, and Lizbeth's sister Paula ask him to search for Darren and Lizbeth. Tommy warns them about Jason, but as he is now considered an urban legend, they ignore the warnings, though Megan becomes attracted to him. In the woods, Jason happens upon a corporate paintball game; he kills the players for their equipment. During these kills, Jason discovers that he is far stronger than before when he rips off a man's arm without actually meaning to.
At Camp Forest Green, the children arrive, and the teens do their best to run the camp without Darren and Lizbeth. Meanwhile, Garris decides to escort Tommy out of his jurisdiction due to his influence on Megan. Tommy tries to make a run for Jason's grave, but finds that the caretaker had covered it up to deny responsibility for it being dug up, and Hawes' body is buried in its place. Tommy is then escorted out of town. That night, Jason murders the caretaker and a nearby couple who witness the murder. Meanwhile, Cort goes out to have sex with a girl named Nikki, but both are killed by Jason. The sheriff's men find the victims' bodies and Garris immediately implicates Tommy in the murders, believing he has gone insane imagining Jason.
Tommy contacts Megan and convinces her to help him lure Jason back into Crystal Lake. Meanwhile, Jason makes his way to the camp and kills Sissy, then Paula. Meanwhile, Tommy and Megan are pulled over by Garris. Despite Megan's alibi that she was with Tommy, he does not believe him to be innocent and arrests him, then goes to the camp to investigate. As Tommy and Megan develop a ruse to trick the watching deputy and escape, Jason kills Garris and two other deputies when they arrive at the camp.
Jason is about to kill Megan when Tommy calls to him from the lake; apparently remembering his killer, he goes after him instead. Tommy is attacked in a boat in the middle of the lake and ties a boulder around Jason's neck to trap him. Jason fights back, holding Tommy underwater long enough to drown him. Megan rushes out to save him but is nearly killed when Jason grabs her leg; she turns the boat's activated motor around onto Jason's neck, and he releases her. She takes Tommy back to shore and uses CPR to revive him. Tommy says that it is finally over and Jason is home. Under the water, anchored to the bottom of the lake, Jason stares off into the water, awaiting an opportunity to return. | gothic, murder, paranormal, cult, horror, violence, flashback, insanity, entertaining | train | wikipedia | This movie has everything I just love to death from the setting, from the music from the actors just everything it has in here.Tommy Jarvis goes to the graveyard to get rid of Jason Voorhees' body once and for all, but inadvertently brings him back to life instead.
Martin Becker made special effects and he was great I love practical effects in this movie I love good kills.This movie has Jason walking around like a Terminator from the first film we even have a Deputy Colone (Vincent Guastaferro) aiming with Dan Wesson Model 15-VH with a big laser sight on Tommy in which Megan use the gun either.
This movie also has action I forgot to mentioned but it has ton's of action it is great entertaining action horror film.This movie get's my favorite Bad-Ass Seal Of Approval 10/10 the best Friday the 13th slasher movie ever I love it to death.
Still haunted by his killing of the masked maniac two films ago, our hero Tommy Jarvis (Thom Mathews) ventures to Jason Voorhees' grave just to be sure he's really dead.
But with no one ready to believe that Jason is indeed back, it again falls to Tommy to put evil in its place.The "Friday the 13th" series got back on track with this installment following a Jason-less fifth entry that remains a bitter disappointment for many horror buffs.
Jason Lives has an excellent story line that delivers, however, the gore is relatively low at certain times, but McLoughlin never fails to bring it all back with shots of that very very bloody machete of Jason's.This sequel contains many of my favorite death scenes so far in the series.
I thought Thom Mathews was wicked in Return of The Living Dead, and he is just as good playing Tommy Jarvis in this sequel.Especially like the cool Alice Cooper soundtrack at the end, and well, as for Jennifer Cooke, the girl who plays Megan.....she is just gorgeous.
Friday The 13th Part VI:Jason Lives is an excellent and thrilling sequel and is one of the best films in the series that is filled with great atmospheric direction,a good cast and a memorable score and soundtrack.
All of those elements make Jason Lives my favorite movie in the series and a classic in the Friday The 13th franchise.Friday The 13th Part VI:Jason Lives finds Tommy Jarvis(Thom Matthews)is still haunted by the events in part IV and V wants cremate and burn a dead Jason Voorhees(C.J Graham)at his grave site but things go wrong when Jason is brought back from the dead by a bolt of lighting and is ready to kill again at his old stomping ground Camp Crystal lake(renamed Camp Forest Green).
With the help of feisty Camp Counseler Megan Garris (Jennifer),Tommy vows to destroy Jason once and for all.Friday The 13th Part VI:Jason Lives is a brilliant Friday The 13th sequel and is one of the best and better films in the franchise that was my introduction to Friday The 13th and Jason Voorhees and to this day remains my favorite Friday The 13th film.
What makes Jason Lives very entertaining and memorable is the way writer-director Tom McLoughlin approaches the material giving the series a shot in the arm giving fans a movie that is stylish and atmospheric as well as very explosive and thrilling with intensity and fun.
And while Jason Lives has most of the trademarks that are associated with the Friday The 13th series and other Slasher movies there are thing Jason Lives that feels fresh and creative with an energy and pace that never stops until the very end.
Where most characters in Friday The 13ths and other Slasher films are lined up to be killed and slaughtered the main characters in JL are likable and memorable to the point we feel bad for them when things start to go haywire.
The blood and gore are on full display here with Jason doing what he does best and that's sneaking up on his victims and killing them in gory ways with some of the biggest body count in the series and while the blood and gore is light compared to some of the other films in the franchise the red plasma is still there.
There is also great Rock songs in the movie from Alice Cooper(He's Back-The Man Behind The Mask,Teenage Frankenstein,Hard Rock Summer)and Felony(Animal).In final word,if you love the Friday The 13th series,Jason Voorhees,Horror films or Slasher movies in general,I highly suggest you see Friday The 13th Part VI:Jason Lives,an excellent and thrilling sequel that is one of the best films in the franchise.
Tom McLoughlin (he did another favorite of mine, One Dark Night) does an excellent job directing and really piles on the atmosphere (the opening shot of the misty forest is creepy) and Thom Mathews is the best actor to play Tommy because he is very heroic, attempting to save the lives of those around him and trying to kill Jason once and for all.
The music is pretty good, with that Alice Cooper song in the end credits a nice touch.All in all, a solid Friday sequel which knocks the socks of part 5 and entertains fans of the series..
But you can't keep Jason down and he is brought back to life by the force of lightning, wrecking havoc and death to all in his path.There are many memorable death scenes throughout "Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI", and it will more than keep you gorehounds happy.The cast in the sixth movie were well-cast and the actors and actresses did good jobs with their given roles.
It is interesting that "Jason Lives" strictly follows the classic plot structure (which was introduced in the very first part of "Friday the 13th"), but at the same time film manages to incorporate new elements into the basic story.
While most of the other sequels are just cheap recycled stories of the other movies, at least "Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives" offers something a little fresh in the dulling series.
Thom Mathews from return of the living dead does a spectacular job in the lead role and feels like the natural progression of the adult version of Tommy we saw from the other two films.This volume feels like the scream of the series with many horror nods to other slashers with some pointed out in a big way aka Frankenstein resurrected by lightning and others are subtle like never leaving your credit cards at home.Jason seems more terrifying, stronger and ready to raise heck.
Most range from "bad enough to be good" or "entertaining despite it's flaws" while some titles fall into "just plain bad" territory (A New Beginning, Jason Takes Manhattan and The Final Friday.) But for the most part, this franchise has been surprising competent for the number of films it's put out.
It's ratio of good to bad entries is about 9- 3."Jason Lives" however, is easily the best standalone film of the series.
J. Graham) "mortal" remains to ensure that he never comes back (yeah, right), Tommy and his friend inadvertently wind up actually facilitating the exact opposite of what they intended when a stray lightning bolt strikes the iron prong Tommy impales Jason's body with in a fit of rage, resurrecting the mad slasher for another showdown with promiscuous and/or intoxicated young people.What follows is the best-scripted film in the series up until Jason's future showdown with Freddy Krueger, as he returns to what he does best, procuring himself a machete and inflicting his brutal revenge on just about everyone he meets.
Now Jason is back to his old style by killing people, who are in his way and going back to Camp Forest Green (formerly known as Camp Crystal Lake).Written and Directed by Tom McLoughlin (Date with an Angel, One Dark Night, Sometimes They Came Back) made an surprisingly entertaining sequel to the seemingly endless "Friday the 13th" series.
This one is remember for it's rock songs by Alice Cooper, high body count and an young Tony Goldwyn (Best known for playing villains in high profile films like Ghost, The Last Samurai and The 6th Day) as one of Jason's victims.
Now it's up to Tommy to stop Jason's mindless killing and put him back where he belongs.My opinion OK this movie is a DEEP sequel and to tell the truth it isn't expected to be Great or even average to that but to my surprise I actually enjoyed this film more so than I did the first.
Although this is the best in the series in my opinion its still just another Friday the 13th sequel there nothing special about at all and to tell the truth it had it shouldn't have ever been made just like all the rest of the F13 films after part 3.
And i,ve been a friend of the Friday films since i could walk and this was the first one i saw and is just as good as the fist four films and in my book this and the whole other parts of the series are my favorite movies of all time.
We go to these movies for one simple thing, to see Jason hack, slash, maim, and dismember as many foolish campers and Crystal Lake locals as is possible to squeeze into 90 minutes.If you are of the ilk who likes this type of film, Jason 6 is among the best of the bunch.
Director Tom McLoughlin got it right here, part 6 of the Friday the 13th series, properly titled "Jason Lives" is a fun movie.
When Jason walks out ala James Bond, you know that the movie isn't going to take itself seriously and lets the audience laugh along with the screams, as it borders parody at times, but keeping with the true spirit of the series.
Hero of the last two movies, Tommy Jarvis, digs up Jason to make sure he's really dead, but a bolt of lightning resurrects him, and he returns to his murderous ways.
& has a huge fan base & this movie JASON LIVES is a huge fan favourite & i TOTALLY understand the love for this entry,it has a great atmosphere it has lots of fun characters & a really cool tough Sheriff Garris who is one of my favourite characters in the series along with CREIGHTON DUKE (Jason goes to hell) & Jason looks very cool & Tommy Jarvis is the best version of his character here,so yeah alot of love for a really special entry.
After the utter bust that was New Beginning the franchise finds its feet again and brings Jason Voorhees back from the dead starting a new chapter in his iconic rise to stardom.Tommy Jarvis returns this time played by Thom Mathews (Who I can't take seriously after Return Of The Living Dead 1 & 2).
Sadly it in no way explains his actions at the end of the last film, you'd think that'd be the first thing they'd address.In a weird opening sequence Jason is resurrected and you guessed it, goes on a killing spree.
Don't Make Fun of Yourself, Jason -- That's My Job. Halfway through this woeful installment in the "Friday the 13th" series, a grave digger, who's discovered that the grave of Jason Voorhees has been dug up (by none other than Tommy Jarvis, being played by yet a third actor), looks squarely at the camera and says, "Some people have a strange idea of entertainment." Thus, this "Friday" movie is doomed by a self-referential sense of humor that decides to make a sort of action hero out of Jason.
This movie is just the same old stuff that we saw in the earlier movies: Jason Voorhees stalks and kills people around Camp Crystal Lake (which has been renamed Forest Green for this film).
Following the backlash from fans at the previous instalment's omission of Jason Voorhees as the killer and the general awfulness of the film as a whole, the series took a new direction thanks to the efforts of director and writer Tom McLoughlin.
Jason Lives is the first time Jason has been recognised as a supernatural force (which would explain his refusal to die after being disposed of in a manner of gruesome ways previously) and one of the earliest examples (perhaps the first example?) of a horror movie being so humorously self-reflexive, long before the post-modern horror boom in the 1990's following the success of Scream (1996).A year after A New Beginning (1985), Tommy Jarvis (Thom Mathews) and a friend drive to Jason's grave in the hope of burning the body to rid Tommy of his recurring nightmares.
But his daughter Megan (Jennifer Cooke), believes him and decides to take matters into her own hands.Despite treading very familiar ground to the movies that came before - the film is again little more than an endless series of disposable characters being cut to bloody pieces - Jason Lives is the best in the series thanks to McLoughlin's obvious talent for comedy.
It also has a better story than parts III and IV with the sheriff and his daughter & Tommy going after Jason, plus Megan is one of the top Friday girls in the series.The film runs 9l minutes and the cut version 86 minutes.GRADE: B-.
Jason Lives is action packed, gory, humorous, suspenseful, and even kind of heartwarming all at the same time, the score and soundtrack are amazing, The male and female lead have great chemistry, the acting is pretty decent, the characters are very likable, The kills are creative, and Jason(played expertly by C.J. Graham)has an awesome look in this movie.
Several years after he supposedly killed Jason, Tommy Jarvis digs up Jason's body, on Thursday the 12th, in the middle of a lightning storm, to make sure he's really dead, but then, well, read the title of the movie.
Though iam a big fan of friday the 13th and have liked or enjoyed almost all of its movie's,even those whom most die hard fab's call crap's,i must say this movie was a bit ''Downer''.For starter it was too much fast paced and the story moved so quickly that you lost touch with it until the last sequences when all the fun had gone away.Also,the killing's in the movie were not as much suspenceful,entertaining and likable as in the other part's,people just came and got killed and we didnt even got to know the character's a little bit as in other f13 movies and relative unknowns who suddenly popped into the movie were dispatched just becuz they were with the teens who jason was going to kill,Big deal!also what was the point of the stupid resurrection,it was even worse than jason being sent to hell in part 9.And ofcourse no nudity and liitle sex excitement that most f13 movies contained and some annoying character's like the soldier impersonator's and i loved when these people got killed.But i did had its plus points like the Triple decapitation which i just loved,a very good and bloody scene about a camp counsellor,sissy's friend,getting killed and my favourite Alice cooper's wonderful song 'He's back'.and the final fight sequece.Overall 5 out of 10.
But lightning is attracted to the metal fence-post Tommy stabs into the corpse in a rage and Jason is brought back to life.The series had at this point pulled itself up from the depths that were the first Friday the 13th films.
'Jason Lives' surprisingly is one of the better acted 'Friday the 13th' films and has some characters one cares for (especially Tommy) when they are not making illogical or stupid decisions.
Donning his iconic hockey masked, the newly zombified killer sets off for Camp Crystal Lake, which has been renamed Forest Green with an inevitable blood bath and a showdown between Tommy and his old nemesis on the cards.From the offset, it would be quite easy to mistake Jason Lives as just another generic slasher movie in a franchise which had already ran out of steam by the time it's fifth instalment had come along.
The story here picks up with the Tommy Jarvis character, this time played by Thom Mathews from "Return of the Living Dead" fame, trying to get rid of Jason's body once and for all, but ends up bringing him back to life.
Bad news is that nobody believes that Jason is now a living dead, and Camp Crystal Lake has been opened again under a new name, so Jason has a lot of work to do.This movie follows Tommy's attempt to finally kill Jason, but it gave me the impression that the movie was done with the purpose of pleasing Jason's fans who were disappointed with Part V.
Friday The 13th Part VI Jason Lives is my personal favorite out of the whole series, Jason was back with his Machete and Hockey Mask and even the acting is pretty good Anywho is the Plot Tommy Jarvis is released from the mental institutions in which he has spent most of his adolescence.
Now, Jason's back where he belongs, and this is the first movie of where the Friday series where things start to get great.
Helps make things believable, and the scene where Jason looks at the little girl in the cabin, without making a move to harm her it just wonderful, showing that maybe he isn't as cold hearted as people think, or that he really is just a boy inside a man's body.A great movie in many ways, and I love it...to death!.
Friday the 13th part 6: Jason lives i think wasn't a bad movie.
JASON LIVES is considerably one of the best in the FRIDAY THE 13TH series. |
tt1192628 | Rango | In the back of a small car, in a small aquarium, resides a small, unnamed chameleon (Johnny Depp). The only living creature in his 'environment,' Rango has fancied himself as an actor, with several inanimate object as his friends and fellow thespians. In his self-contained world, Rango's 'friends' tell him that even though he fancies himself a hero, he needs a challenge.The world goes awry when something in the road causes the car to jolt, and the chameleon and his aquarium fly out the back of the vehicle he's in, shattering to the ground. Getting up, the chameleon sees an armadillo in the road, it's mid-section squashed in by a tire. The creature asks for help to get to the other side, and the chameleon assists. Not being used to the heat, the chameleon asks the armadillo where he can find water. The creature tells him he can find it in dirt, a day's journey away.tThe chameleon follows his shadow through the desert, but is almost eaten by a hawk. Taking refuge in a storm drain, the chameleon wakes the next morning to a small rush of water that quickly evaporates in the sun. Close by, he comes across a female lizard named Beans (Isla Fisher). Though at first hostile, Beans gives the chameleon a ride into town. The chameleon attempts to blend in with the locals, and makes his way to a nearby saloon. Going in, he arouses the suspicion of almost everyone in the bar. Several ask to know who he is, and after seeing the word 'Durango' on a bottle of cactus juice, the chamelon claims that his name...is Rango.Rango then attempts to spin a story that makes him seem like a hero. When someone asks if he killed some outlaws known as The Jenkins Brothers, Rango claims to have done it with just one bullet. As he talks, a couple of outlaws enter the room, led by a lizard named Bad Bill (Ray Winstone). Rango attempts to act intimidating, but instead rouses Bill's ire, leading to the two having a showdown in the middle of the town.Rango thinks he's scared off Bad Bill and his boys when they run away...only to realize the hawk he outwitted before is right behind him. Rango then goes running through the town, with the final events looking as if Rango was chasing the hawk, before finally killing him by dropping the town's water tower on it. While some rejoice at the death of the hawk, several make mention that with the hawk's death, a desperado by the name of Rattlesnake Jake (Bill Nighy) could very well return to town. However, Rango casually explains that he isn't afraid, and that he and Jake are brothers.Rango is then brought before the town's Mayor (Ned Beatty), an old turtle who claims that Rango has given the townspeople hope. Rango is then made the town Sheriff.Shortly thereafter, Rango watches perplexed as the townsfolk take part in a strange ritual in which they leave Dirt and head towards a spigot in the desert. The townspeople seek 'salvation' from the spigot, but no water materializes. The townsfolk have been hard-up for water for some time, and after the Mayor admits sacrifices will need to be made, Beans steps forward, accusing the Mayor of somehow being behind their water shortage.It soon becomes clear that the town's bank is also short on water, and the reserves in the vault only has enough water for 5 more days. Rango attempts to quell the townsfolk's further worries, by promising to uphold the law. However, he accidentally mistakes some moles looking to rob the local bank for prospectors, and allows them to continue on, even giving them equipment.The next day, word of the bank robbery spreads. Rango leads a search party through the underground tunnels that criss-cross below the desert. The group then finds a large pipe and follow it out into the desert, where they find the Bank Manager Mr Merrimack, dead.Some distance off, they find the moles with a covered wagon with what appears to be the water jug that once sat in the bank. The group manages to take off with the covered wagon, but not before the moles and the rest of their underground brethren give chase. However, during the chase, the covered tarp on the jug comes undone, and the bottle is found to be empty.One of the moles that brought the jug to his father claims it was empty when he found it, but the townspeople assume the moles made off with their water. The three moles are returned to town for a trial, but the now apparent lack of water has the rest of the town worried.Meanwhile, Rango has come to suspect the Mayor even more. When the Mayor gets wind of Rango's suspicions regarding him, he sends his men to find Rattlesnake Jake. Jake has been told the stories that Rango has mentioned, and gets Rango to confess that everything he has said is a lie, including the death of the Jenkins Brothers (which were actually killed by Jake).Rango then walks out of Dirt, disgraced. He eventually makes his way back to the 2-lane highway. He attempts to cross it like the armadillo from before, and manages to make it across before collapsing. Unconscious, he is carried over the sandy terrain where he encounters 'The Spirit of the West.' The Spirit gives Rango some more courage, but is then helped along by the Armadillo (his mid-section now restored), and some moving cacti. The reach the top of a crest, and down below, see a large city (Las Vegas). Nearby is an emergency valve that appears to have been cut off. It soon makes sense what the Mayor is planning: he intends to make the town of Dirt into the large city below. Rango had also heard that the Mayor had been buying up lots of land, but that Beans was one of the last hold-outs.Rango then returns to Dirt with a plan. He confronts the Mayor and Rattlesnake Jake, who are attempting to coerce Beans into signing over the title to her property. Rango challenges Jake to a duel, and at High Noon, the armadillo and the cacti open the emergency valve, and water floods throughout the town. However, in the wake of Beans possibly being killed, Rango surrenders, and the two are placed in the bank's vault, where the Mayor attempts to drown them. While this is going on, the Mayor's men then turn their guns on Rattlesnake Jake, with the Mayor confidently speaking of how his type will soon be a distant memory.Rango ends up inadvertently turning the tables when one bullet he has manages to break the vault's glass, and the water in the vault washes everyone out into the streets. Jake acknowledges what Rango did, before turning on the Mayor, dragging him out into the desert as the turtle pleads for his life.The citizens then celebrate their newfound fortune as the water rains down around them. | western, revenge, boring | train | imdb | null |
tt0034248 | Suspicion | Lina McLaidlaw (Joan Fontaine) is a prim, proper English lady, and Johnnie Aysgarth (Cary Grant) is a suave, charming playboy. They're as surprised as anyone when they fall madly in love with each other, but since Lina's stuffy parents would never approve of her romance with a cad like Aysgarth, she must elope. Setting up a lovely home after a whirlwind honeymoon on the Continent, Lina begins to see another side of Johnnie; his charm and bonhomie hide the fact that he's not only broke, but a very accomplished liar.Worried about their future, Lina presses Johnnie to find employment, and when he comes home one day showering expensive gifts on her, she believes his story of working for an obscure cousin, managing his estates. Dropping in one day at the office of this cousin, Lina is shocked to find that Johnnie was discharged weeks ago, and is told that she need not worry, as his former employee will not prosecute, at least not at this time.Johnnie always manages to allay Lina's fears with his charm, but she trusts him less and less. One of his old school chums, 'Beaky' Thwaite (Nigel Bruce) has dropped in for a long visit, and Lina begins to suspect the the two of them are cooking up some scheme to cover Johnnie's gambling debts. Beaky has money but little business sense, while Johnnie is always thinking about making money without actually working for it. They have a plan to buy some rocky coastline property and develop a seaside resort, but Johnnie changes his mind at the last minute, so he and Beaky must go to London to dissolve their business arrangement.Lina's suspicions get the better of her as she imagines Beaky meeting an untimely death on the dangerous road along the coast. Johnnie has been reading lots of murder mysteries, intrigued with the techniques of poisoning someone without leaving a trace. When the police come calling a day later, she learns that Beaky has indeed died mysteriously, and when Johnnie returns she finds she can no longer trust him. She cannot even stay in the same room at night with him, and when he brings a simple glass of milk to her before bed, Lina is filled with dread. She fears that Johnnie now plots to poison her, and collect the money from her life insurance.Trying to get away while she still can, she tells Johnnie she must visit her Mother. Johnnie is angry with her, but insists on driving her down the same dangerous coastal road, lined with its jagged cliffs.They speed along, Johnnie drives faster and faster, skirting the edge of the cliff, and veering at the last second down a "shortcut". Lina can only ride along in terror of what Johnnie has planned.As he swerves around a curve, Lina's door falls open and she nearly tumbles out over the edge of the cliff. Screaming, she clings to the car, as Johnnie's hand reaches over. Siezed with terror, she tries to avoid being pushed out, but he lunges at her, and at the last instant pulls her back into the car.Skidding to a stop, he demands to know what's gotten into her. "How much can a man stand?" he asks. Gradually, understanding comes over her, and as Johnnie explains, she realizes that he had nothing to do with Beaky's death, and that his fascination with poison is centered on himself. He meant to commit suicide rather than face his insurmountable debts, and spare his beloved Lina the shame of seeing him in prison. Clinging to him, she vows that they will face the future together, and they turn the car around for home. | romantic, murder | train | imdb | The movie gets quite a lot out of a relatively simple plot.Joan Fontaine gives an excellent performance as Lina, a quiet young woman who finds herself swept away by, and suddenly married to, the charming but irresponsible Johnnie, played by Cary Grant.
Not everyone likes the way that it all ends, but it is worth seeing and deciding for yourself what you think about it.The rest of the cast have mostly limited roles, but give good performances that add to the portrayal of the main characters.
Especially good is Nigel Bruce, who provides a few lighter moments as one of Johnnie's old cronies.While lacking the complexity and excitement of Hitchcock's best pictures, "Suspicion" is still a good example of his ability to keep the audience in lasting suspense.
Having bought the rights to Francis Iles' novel, and despite Hitchcock's insistence on sticking with the original ending, neither preview audiences nor the studio were ready to accept Cary Grant as a murderer.
When you and the audience thought I was in Paris murdering Beaky I was really in Liverpool!" Etc.Huh?In other words, this beautifully produced, directed, acted and written psychological suspense thriller turns out to be about a charming lazy n'er-do-well who's sponged and embezzled his way through life, who marries a beautiful but neurotic aristocrat who, from day one, increasingly assumes the worst about her husband -- convincing herself (and us) that he's killed before and now is about to kill her?"Just kidding," the tacked-on final scene says.
Cary Grant (Johnnie Aysgarth) was 37 when this was released and perhaps at the pinnacle of his sexual charm (but not at the pinnacle of his career by a long shot); and Joan Fontaine (Lina Aysgarth--not "Linda," as the video jacket mistakenly has it), 24, was fresh from her very fine performance in Rebecca (1940) alongside Laurence Olivier, also directed by Alfred Hitchcock, for which he garnered his only Best Picture Oscar.
What is apparent is that Hitchcock had one ending in mind and then had to change it and wasn't able to redo some of the earlier scenes that worked better with the old ending.At any rate, Joan Fontaine is very good, lovely, graceful and focused.
What they wanted here was Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine together romantically with some mystery and doubt along the way.(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!).
However, the theme of a woman suspecting that her husband is a murderer is indeed dark.The movie is about Lina McLaidlaw (Joan Fontaine) who marries the rascally Johnnie Aysgarth (Cary Grant).
Charming and entertaining Hitchcock thriller notable for the genre switch.The film starts out as a romantic comedy, rich girl falls for likeable rogue, but gradually the plot gets darker as Johnnie (Cary Grant) lies and swindles to cover his gambling debts.
Eventually Lina (Joan Fontaine) begins to suspect that he is planning to murder her for money....My only criticism of this film would be the idealised Hollywood version of pastoral English countryside complete with huntsmen, dogs and an eccentric mystery writing spinster.
His acting is so bad at times that I have seen better performances in high school plays or college Theatre Experience classes where a Chemical Engineer is acting for the first time with no formal training.After about 30 minutes of watching this film you may find yourself reaching for the DVD sleeve in the dark to see if you accidentally picked up some kind of special edition version that was cobbled together without any editing.The subject matter is serious, yet the film has a silly and trite feel to it that just seems so out of place you become numb with perplexity."Suspicion" is basically unwatchable and another very very very overrated BAD movie..
In Suspicion, it only makes me wish I were watching another Hitchcock film.Suspicion is about a bashful and unrealistically fragile young woman, played with unseemly melodrama by the otherwise incredibly graceful Joan Fontaine, who marries an enchanting gentleman, only to increasingly suspect him of attempting to kill her.
The film gets better after Grant stops behaving like a buffoon and there are some nice Hitchcock touches, such as the classic scene with the glass of milk, but it is not enough to save this from mediocrity..
But to Hitch didn't like the film for the cutting out the ending, due to production's insistence to retain the sympathetic image Gary Grant, the most attractive of all Hollywood actors ; however Hitch will let ultimately to remake his movie .The motion picture is based on a novel titled : ¨Before the fact¨ and screen written by his familiar brain trust, his wife Alma Reville and Joan Harrison.
-- Besides, didn't Cary prove that your money is not at the root of his love when he married you anyway even after your father cut off your inheritance because of his suspicions of Johnny.Joan Fontaine deserved her Oscar in the film's central role.
"Suspicion" is a classically Hitchcockian film, with Joan Fontaine as a woman who marries a charming scoundrel, played by Cary Grant, who she begins to think might kill for money.
As good as Fontaine is in the role, and she probably is the best thing the film has to offer, the character of Lina never works completely.
Joan Fontaine, star of Hitchcock's previous movie 'Rebecca', is wonderful as Lina ("monkeyface") the woman he woos.
Joan Fontaine won a curious Best Actress Oscar as the increasingly-nervous wife, while Cary Grant (in his gorgeous glory years) works seriously to make the disreputable lout of a husband into a charming cad.
Although this movie features a fabulous cast, including Joan Fontaine, who won an Oscar for her role as Lina Aysgarth, I think it's Cary Grant who steals the show in "Suspicion." Grant is magnificent as Johnnie Aysgarth, an irresponsible yet dashing scoundrel.
=)Masterfully directed by Alfred Hitchcock, this movie belongs on a top ten list of Cary Grant's best films.
This is unique in films of Hitchcock's that I've seen, in that I didn't really enjoy it.In fact, I actually found this quite predictable and annoying.Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine are a newly married couple.
He's the kind of "lovable rogue" character that you've seen in many films, without ever being lovable as far as I am concerned!In fact, it was a barely believable relationship at best, and at times seemed particularly false and implausible.Unable to hold down a job and trying to live an opulent lifestyle, Grant is led to borrow money that he cannot pay back.Fontaine is convinced that he is trying to kill her in order to get the money she is insured for; and presumably what her late father was worth.Average and rather uninteresting all round actually, but as usual you can see the influence on films that have come at a later date..
When two detectives come to their house to investigate the mysterious death of Beaky in Paris, Lina believes Johnny is the murderer and she will be his next victim."Suspicion" is another delightful movie from Alfred Hitchcock, supported by an intriguing and ambiguous plot and wonderful performances of Joan Fontaine, Cary Grant and Nigel Bruce.
The real treat though is seeing character actor Nigel Bruce (who had a small role Hitchcock's Rebecca) in a slightly larger part as Cary Grant's bumbling best friend Beaky.
From my personal point of view it is one of the British Director more subvalorated films This movie was important for Cary Grant, he won his first Oscar nomination, he made here the transition from being a comedian to being respectable character actor, and also was his first collaboration with the master of suspense.
The film slowly develops some wonderful suspense when Lina (Fontaine) begins to suspect that her gambling playboy husband (Grant) may be plotting murder, though, once again, I fear that the vivid colours distracted significantly from the desired atmosphere.
Apart from being the good old master of suspense, Hitch also showcases his sinister and pitch-black sense of humor (notably during the scene when Grant receives a pair of antique chairs as a wedding gift) and his expressionist vision (the famous milk-moment).*edit/update: I just learned that Joan Fontaine passed away at the age of 96; only 3 days after I submitted this review.
Will she end up dead as a means to an end to pay off his gambling debts, or will her imagination end up making her unfairly push away her loving husband?Hitchcock does a good job of keeping the viewer in the dark about Johnnie's true nature until the end, and keeps the movie interesting, as a result.
I don't know, maybe English times were different back in those days but I for one don't think a story that casts the greatest comedic/dramatic actor film has ever known as a secretive control freak/bully makes for a good movie going experience (this thing was made in America at that).Judging this as simply a point in the progression of Hitchcock's great career is this film's only saving grace.
Often talked about as being a grim story in essence, it's something of a comedy drama flecked in mysterious romantic dabblings.Cary Grant is cynical society playboy Johnnie Aysgarth, who romances and then weds Lina McLaidlaw (Fontaine), possibly only for his treasure seeking leanings?
The director then takes his characters, and us the viewers, to the cliff's edge, and delivers an ending that most probably had him chuckling away with carefree abandon.Far from the top tier of Hitchcock movies, Suspicion is however, impeccably acted, well paced and devilishly cheeky.
Alfred Hitchcock directed this romantic suspense yarn that stars Cary Grant as Johnny Aysgarth, a charming but irresponsible gambler who meets Lina McLaidlaw(played by Joan Fontaine) on a train.
The shy Lina is swept away by his charm and good looks, and they get married, much to the chagrin of her parents(played by Cedric Hardwicke & Dame Witty) who know little about him, but it turns out Johnny lives off the money he borrows from friends, one of whom, an amiable man named Beaky(played by Nigel Bruce) mysteriously dies.
Good cast and direction can't save this disappointing film, that never does generate much suspense, and ends most unsatisfactorily; still, Joan Fontaine did win a best actress Academy Award!.
People and the studios weren't happy with this and demanded a lighter tone, mainly for the core details of that suspicion.Cary Grant plays Johnnie Aysgarth, a charming Bon Vivant who spends his life gambling, womanizing and having a good time every time he can.
Nigel Bruce, as Johnnie's best friend gives that dark humor touch that the master always liked to put in film.Alfred Hitchcock was right at home with this tale of obsessive behavior (one of his favorite subjects), and carefully planned the plot of this story based on the novel by Anthony Berkeley.
the sad thing is that the studio was so displeased with the idea of having Cary Grant as possible murderer that they forced Hitchcock to tone down the dark parts and even change the ending he had envisioned for the movie, opting for an anti-climatic that brutalizes what was accomplished at that point.Nevertheless, the master of suspense manages to keep the movie at the right tone and gives great moments thanks to his expert eye with the camera and his ability to tell a story.
Johnnie (Carey Grant) basically tried to kill his wife Lina (Joan Fontaine) by speeding up the car at then of the movie.
In a well developed film by Alfred Hitchcock, the movie is about Johnnie(Grant) being this sincere gentleman for the first time in his life and falls in love with Lina(Fontaine).
...goes the old Elvis song and that's just what smooth seductive Cary Grant does for most of this film to the demure, repressed Jona Fontaine character in Hitchcock's excellent psychological thriller from his early Hollywood era.I'll be blunt and put my cards on the table in agreeing firmly with those who believe that Grant should have stayed a villain right until the end (as I understand was Hitch's original intention, certainly it would have been true to the source novel).
There's good support from the mainly Anglophile cast, particularly Nigel Bruce in a typical bumbling but endearing role as Johnny's best friend and biggest dupe.As well as carrying forward the narrative in characteristic to-the-point style (though perhaps aided unintentionally by the cuts insisted upon by the misguided production top-brass), there are some great Hitchcockian flourishes which true fans will savour, like the cutaway scene on the cliff-top between Fontaine and Grant, (even if placed too early in the narrative) the near-death scene in the car and of course the famous "glowing glass of milk" scene near the end.I'd never seen this minor Hitchcock classic before and really enjoyed it (great musical score too, by the way) while always at the back of my mind harbouring that abiding regret however that we'll never get to see the true director's cut as you surely would with more modern studio-skewered classics..
Cary Grant, (Johnnie Aygarth) played the role of a complete playboy who falls in love with monkey face, a nickname he called Joan Fontaine, (Lina McLaidlaw Aygarth) his wife who he met on a train and borrowed money her for his fare on the train.
It's a natural progression that one might see in other Hitchcock films (to a degree I'm reminded of Shadow of a Doubt, despite that being a far more sinister picture for its upfront attitude), and it works splendidly for the most part because Grant and especially Fontaine are so good in the parts.
Another thrilling mystery from the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock's Suspicion tells the story of Lina; a shy young woman who falls for a charming gentleman named Johnnie, ends up marrying him but when his true character is disclosed, she begins to suspect him of trying to kill her.Hitchcock has given us some of the finest thrillers of all time & even though this film isn't close to his finest efforts, it nonetheless manages to create a gripping atmosphere of doubt & uncertainties and wraps itself up on an ambiguous note, thus leaving its viewers with their own interpretation of the ending.Like any Hitchcock film, Suspicion is technically sound and the plot also benefits a lot from good performances by Cary Grant & Joan Fontaine.
After Johnnie accepts a job working for his cousin, two of Linda's valuable family heirlooms go missing, and the lies and suspicious activities start to build up.Based on the 1932 novel Before the Fact by Frances Iles, Alfred Hitchcock's thriller is notable for the casting of heart-throb and screwball comedy regular Cary Grant as a possible homicidal maniac and compulsive con-man.
Joan Fontaine won the Oscar for Best Actress (the only one for an actor working under Hitchcock), but Grant has remained strangely unrecognised, perhaps for the attitudes and behaviours of his character.
The two films are really miles apart despite coming out in consecutive years in 1940 and 1941, but Fontaine's performance in both highlights Alfred Hitchcock's ability to scout the finest talents in addition to crafting master suspense."Suspicion" is a true romantic thriller that almost exactly like "Rebecca" follows a relatively naive and previously sexless young woman who weds the man of her dreams only to find not everything is as it seems.
In this movie, the daughter (Joan Fontaine) of a general hooks up with a suave dude (Cary Grant) whom she begins to suspect of murder.Among the common themes in AH's films are the guilty woman and the wrong man.
Hitchcock may have been brilliant but he caved in to what the audiences wanted to see.The glass of milk glows eerily as Cary Grant offers it to Joan Fontaine.
The two lead characters, Johnnie (Cary Grant) and Lina (Joan Fontaine), are old fashioned and somewhat locked into antiquated ways of thinking and behaving.
Not having any interest in either Johnnie or Lina, I really could not have cared less how the story ended.I can see how this film might appeal to some viewers, if they are older, or if they like love stories, or are fans of Cary Grant or Joan Fontaine.
Playboy Johnny Aysgarth (Cary Grant) meets quiet Lina McLaidlaw (Joan Fontaine) on a train.
Lina has suspicion that Johnny may have killed him and trying to kill her for the insurance money.Cary Grant is so charming that it's no problem to believe Joan Fontaine would fall for him completely.
Joan Fontaine, Cary Grant and Alfred Hitchcock in Top Form.
Hitchcock has said in print that this film is really about a woman's fantasy life and when looked at from that perspective it is brilliantly executed directorially and by all the actors, especially Joan Fontaine, and it doesn't really quite matter how it ends.
The acting is uniformly excellent, with Cary Grant charming and sometimes chilling as the man suspected of trying to murder his wife, and Joan Fontaine, looking gorgeous as ever even better as Lina giving a performance of edge and vulnerability.
Cary Grant, perhaps the most famous and popular movie actor in the world at the time, gives his most complete performance in his first role for the great Alfred Hitchcock.
The plot is rather simple, and it follows dapper, yet irresponsible, playboy Johnnie Aysgarth (played by the great Cary Grant) and his marriage to Lina (Joan Fontaine), a young woman that he met on a train.
Johnnie Aysgarth (Cary Grant) and Lina McLaidlaw (Joan Fontaine) meet and fall in love.Soon they get married.Lina finds out her husband is broke and believes he wants to kill her.What is the truth?
Fontaine was good.Cary Grant as Johnnie Aysgarth is charming seducer who is at the end turns out to be irresponsible and wasteful playboy.
The story is about doubt, Hitchcock creates just as much doubt in the film with Joan Fontaine's character as he creates for the viewer. |
tt2089654 | Britney Spears: Criminal | At a swanky party, all chandeliers and fancy dress, Britney's privileged, rich-guy boyfriend shows his true colors by deriding her, for looking bored, in public, there on the dancefloor.. Humiliated, she rushes herself off for a pitstop to the bathroom. As she returns, he is chatting up another girl (fringe hairstyle young fox Carmelle Rudder). She retaliates by making a snide comment likening this rival to a prostitute. "So you're not working the street corner tonight, I see?" This earns her a punch from her irate boyfriend as soon as he gets her aside. From the shadows, a vengeful outsider appears, smacking down the undeserving boyfriend, giving him his just desserts. From here on, she becomes this guy's girlfriend. On the back of his motorcycle, zooming down a tunnel, "Mama, I'm in love with a criminal..." In bed with her hunky boyfriend. Lingerie, wispy, revealing, she is hot, and loves to show off for us. He introduces her to handling a firearm. "He is a killer with a gun, gun, gun..." And she is the one smuggling the pistol into the store that they hold up together, a la Bonnie and Clyde. "Mama, please don't cry, I will be alright..." Getaway car, post-victory sex. Inevitably, the police catches up with them, the force close in, and there is a hail of bullets while the two of them embrace. Inexplicably, they do survive, and are seen racing away, fleeing on his motorcycle. The commanding police officer lamely snarls "The suspects have left the building." No doubt towards another steamy, passionate encounter."Mama, I'm in love with a criminal..." | pornographic | train | imdb | better than it is given credit for. Yes, better than it is given credit for. It's only flaw is that this is child star/teenage pop idol Britney, and now that she has grown up, the fanfare has died down, and we just long for the old days. Indeed, the first scene of the music video, she looks bored, as well she should be, the script calls for it, that is what causes the confrontation with her jerk boyfriend, but she also looks older than she is, way older, way, way, way older, and that, especially so early on in the music video, is a fatal flaw. When she hits her stride, she looks absolutely stunning, she basically updates herself, reinventing herself for the Teenies, but this seems to have gone unnoticed, this video I have yet to obtain on DVD, it's not on the local Now series. I suspect this one is overlooked in favor of other more-in-demand stars yet I fail to see the wonder in many of those, for even in her descent, Britney is a hell of a lot more intriguing to watch, and that is a big compliment from me.Ever notice that Britney's rivals in her music videos tend to be brunettes? In this Bonnie and Clyde mini-movie, just like in the later PERFUME, we also see Britney in lingerie, on a bed with her lover, and in a bathroom with the exact kind of perfume bottle.I downloaded from Tubidy, mp4 format at least, thank you, but would have liked to buy this one on an actual DVD.. She told momma she will be alright.... so yes she is. Britney Spears and her criminal boyfriend somehow managed to escape all the shooting from the police and flee on a motorbike. The boyfriend is played by Jason Trawyck, Britney's former fiancé and agent.The song is okay. A bit catchy and she has done much worse in the past, but better already too. There is not really much acting talent needed here. The crime story rushed in here is really just the frame for Britney's singing. Other than that, early on there is a party and afterward we see these modern Bonnie & Clyde rob a store in this 6-minute music video directed by Chris Marrs Piliero. The actual singing starts after about 100 seconds. Solid watch for Britney fans, but if you are not one of these you can give it a pass. |
tt0317705 | The Incredibles | The film opens with a series of short interviews between three famous superheroes including Mr. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson), who possesses super strength, Elastigirl (Holly Hunter), able to stretch her body with amazing flexibility, and Frozone (Samuel L. Jackson), gifted with the ability to create ice.While en route to a special event, Mr. Incredible picks up a police report of a high speed pursuit and suits up before driving to intercept it, seeing as he 'has time'. On the way, he is forced to stop and assist an old woman get her cat out of a tree. Mr. Incredible picks up the tree and shakes the cat out and into its owner's arms just in time to swing the tree onto the road and bring an abrupt halt to the car of the fleeing thieves. As another report comes in, he returns to his car to find a boy dressed in a superhero outfit sitting in the passenger seat. Recognizing the boy as Buddy (Jason Lee), an over-enthusiastic fan who declares to be Mr. Incredibles new ward, 'Incredi-boy', Mr. Incredible ejects him out of the car. On a nearby rooftop, he confronts a burglar sifting through stolen purses but the man is knocked out by the outstretched fist of Elastigirl. Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl engage in some playful banter before she runs off. As Mr. Incredible secures the burglar, Frozone glides by on a bridge of ice, shouting out a reminder that he needs to 'get ready'. However, Mr. Incredible's attention is suddenly drawn to an adjacent building where spotlights illuminate a man preparing to jump to his death. Mr. Incredible foils the suicide attempt by launching himself off the roof and knocking the falling man into an office of the building. He places the injured man aside when he senses something else amiss and walks to a nearby vault that is suddenly blasted open. The super villain, Bomb Voyage (Dominique Louis), emerges with sacks of money.As Mr. Incredible and the French-speaking Voyage face off, they are interrupted by Buddy, displaying rocket boots that he proudly announces to have invented himself. Despite Buddy's eagerness to help, Mr. Incredible tells him to go home. Adding insult to injury, Voyage criticizes Buddy's ridiculous outfit before placing a small bomb on the boy's cape as he leaves to get back-up. Mr. Incredible is forced to drop Voyage and grabs onto Buddy as he takes off, removing the bomb and dropping himself onto an elevated train track. The bomb detonates and destroys part of the track as a train approaches. Mr. Incredible uses his strength to stop the train just in time and later advises responding officers to Voyage's last location. He tells them to send Buddy home before he excuses himself, seeing as he's now late for his event. He hurries to the town church where he de-masks into his alter ego, Robert Parr, greets his friend Lucius Best (alter ego of Frozone), and walks down the aisle to marry Helen (Elastigirl). At the altar, he promises to be more than just Mr. Incredible to his new wife as they are wed in front of an ensemble of witnesses. Unfortunately, their bliss is short-lived as a series of news reports announce (with Teddy Newton) that, in the face of one lawsuit after another involving civilian injuries and collateral damage, Mr. Incredible and other superheroes alike are forced to hang up their suits and assume their secret identities permanently.The Superhero Relocation Program is created to provide ex-superheroes with new jobs and homes and amnesty for past actions. Robert is relocated to the suburbs and, 15 years later, is working a cubicle job in insurance under Gilbert Huph (Wallace Shawn) who is as strict as he is short. Despite his monotonous work, Robert still tries to help people, including Mrs. Hogenson (Jean Sincere), by showing them loopholes in the system to file their claims. Meanwhile, Helen goes to pick up their 9 year-old son, Dash (Spencer Fox), from the principal's office at his school. His teacher, Bernie (Lou Romano), insists that he knows Dash is responsible for a series of humiliating spats during class and presents a video that he claims shows Dash placing a tack on his chair during class, but moving too fast for the camera to see. Unconvinced, the principal (Wayne Canney) dismisses Dash and Helen, much to Bernie's outrage. On the way home, Dash pleads with his mother to be allowed to play sports as an outlet for his super-speed powers but Helen refuses to give him that kind of temptation, repeating that they must try and live normal lives. She then picks up daughter Violet (Sarah Vowell) from junior high. Violet has a crush on schoolmate Tony (Michael Bird) but is too shy to speak to him and uses her invisibility powers to that advantage.Robert returns home, severely disgruntled, and barely manages to restrain his frustration when he slips on a skateboard in the driveway and disfigures his car door. He lifts the car in the air right in front of a boy on a tricycle who remains stunned as Robert calmly lowers the car and walks inside. He joins his family for dinner but seems distant until Helen mentions Dash's sprint in school. While Dash and Violet begin a physical argument, much to baby Jack-Jack's (Eli Fucile and Maeve Andrews) entertainment, Robert goes into the kitchen and notices in the paper that an advocate for superhero rights and fellow super, Gazerbeam, has gone missing. As he returns to the dining room and attempts to quell his family's arguing, Lucius comes knocking and invites Robert out for a night of bowling.In reality, they drive to an alley where they use a police scanner to find local disturbances as a woman with white hair monitors them from nearby. While Lucius proposes that they actually go bowling, Robert picks up a report of a fire. The white-haired woman follows them to an apartment consumed by flames where the ex-heroes, donning masks, manage to find everyone trapped inside. When Lucius is dehydrated to the point of being unable to create ice, Robert plows through an outside wall and into the building next door as the apartment comes crashing down. However, they find that they've landed inside a jewelry store and set off the alarms. A police rookie, already on site, holds Robert and Lucius at gunpoint, thinking them to be robbers, before Lucius grabs a quick drink of water and freezes the man on the spot. The other officers arrive just after Robert and Lucius make their getaway. As she watches, the white-haired woman speaks into a com-link that 'this is the one he's been looking for'.Robert returns home where Helen is none too pleased to find what he's been doing with his time. They have a brief argument about Robert's wasteful reminiscing about the past until Violet and Dash appear, having been woken by the commotion. The following morning, Huph calls Robert to his office and confronts him on the fact that all his customers know the in-and-outs of the system. Robert listens with a grain of salt until he notices a man in a nearby alley getting mugged. His sense of justice still firmly intact, Robert goes to leave when Huph stops him, threatening his job. Robert watches helplessly as the mugger escapes and, with a snide comment of indifference from Huph, finally snaps. He grabs Huph by the neck and tosses him through multiple office walls. In the hospital, Robert meets with Rick Dicker (Bud Luckey), his agent from the relocation program who explains that Robert can't keep trying to be the hero; it costs too much money to wipe memories and fill out all the necessary paperwork. Robert returns home dejected and can't bring himself to tell Helen he just lost his job. As he tosses the contents of his briefcase into the garbage in his office, he finds an unusual package stuffed within. He opens it and a scanner deems the room secure before a video message plays. The woman with white-hair, having infiltrated Robert's place of work to deliver the message, introduces herself as Mirage (Elizabeth Peña) and tells Robert that 'they' know who he is. She offers him a job with a hefty payout and with the opportunity to give Robert a chance to return to superhero work before the message self destructs, causing the sprinkler system in the house to go off. Drying out books later, Robert tells Helen that he's been promoted and will be going on a business trip for a few days.He calls Mirage and is picked up before being flown over a tropical island where Mirage's employer is based. She briefs Mr. Incredible on the mission: a robot invented by her employer has become self-aware and is now wreaking havoc on the island, threatening its facilities. Mr. Incredible is stuffed into an escape pod, with difficulty due to his girth, from the jet and dropped into a section of the island where the robot was last seen. He runs through the jungle, clearly out of shape, and finally comes across the rogue robot. The battle proves challenging since the robot learns from everything he does until they fall into the crater of the island's volcano. Mr. Incredible tricks the robot into destroying itself by removing its head and hiding in its body, sitting comfortably as it pierces its armor with its own claws. Mirage and her employer watche from a monitor via camera bird and Mr. Incredible is invited to dinner. He tells Mirage he usually likes to know who he works for, but seems satisfied regardless.Robert returns home, with a hefty pay, and begins to change his outlook on his life. He pays more attention to his family, bequeaths his wife with gifts, and starts working out to attain a slimmer physique. Before his next assignment, Robert notices a tear in his old supersuit and pays a visit to Edna E Mode (Brad Bird), former designer of the superheroes, now working with fashion models she calls 'skinny brats'. Intrigued by Robert's request for a patch-up, she offers to make him a new suit altogether.When Mirage calls Mr. Incredible for his next mission, Helen checks the phone and becomes immediately suspicious that he is being unfaithful. She attempts to play this off and tells Robert how much she loves him before he leaves for his next 'conference'. He takes a private jet to the island where Mirage escorts him to his room, giving him instructions on where he is to go to be debriefed. He makes it to the conference room on time but finds no one there. Suddenly, the end of the room opens up and a larger version of the robot he battled before attacks. Despite Mr. Incredible's improvements in strength, the robot easily overpowers him and that's when his employer arrives on the scene, wearing rocket boots. The caped man reveals himself to be a grown Buddy, now realized as Syndrome, Mr. Incredible's arch nemesis. He explains that he was devastated after being denied the opportunity to become a hero but, despite having no superpowers, was able to use his dangerous intelligence to invent weapons to profit with, saving the best ones for himself to use for his revenge scheme against Mr. Incredible. Caught monologuing, Syndrome uses a laser invention in his glove to freeze Mr. Incredible and toss him into a nearby river. Mr. Incredible is able to escape by diving off the waterfall and swimming into an underwater cave as Syndrome drops a small bomb in after him. The explosion sends him into a subterranean cavern where he discovers the skeleton of Gazerbeam, still looking at a cryptic word he carved into the cave's wall before dying.Meanwhile, Helen, while vacuuming Robert's office, discovers the patch job in his old supersuit. Suspicious, she calls the only person she knows would have done such a job; Edna. Edna invites a confused Helen over to see the 'new suits' and shows her a series of outfits she's designed for every member of the family. Helen is shocked to see matching suits for everyone, including the baby, and confronts Edna about what Robert is really doing.Back on the island, Mr. Incredible manages to break in to Syndrome's base, taking out a number of guards in the process. He locates a master room behind a wall of flowing lava and, remembering the key word he saw in the cave, hacks into the database. He discovers, to his horror, that Syndrome has been luring ex-supers to the island with the promise of coming out of retirement only to pit them against his robotic inventions, wiping them out one by one. Mr. Incredible is relieved to see that Elastigirl's whereabouts remain unknown but finds that Syndrome is planning, with his latest robot, to attack the metropolis in less than 24 hours.Edna gives an anxious Helen a remote GPS which can track the location of any suit wearer. Helen activates the remote, pinpointing Mr. Incredible's location but simultaneously sending out a transmission which breaks his cover. Immediately, a slew of guns along the walls fire balls of a heavy, sticky substance which expands on impact. The collective weight of the material weighs Mr. Incredible down and he is captured.Devastated to have her fears confirmed, Helen breaks down until Edna demands that she pull herself together and go after her husband; to remind him of who she is as well. Helen takes the suits home and begins packing for her trip, trying unsuccessfully to keep the suits away from curious Dash and Violet. She pushes them out of the room, telling Violet that she's going to collect their father and should be back that night, before calling up an old pilot friend for a special favor. Snogg lends her a jet and, while en route, Helen attempts to make contact with the island. Disheartened to receive no response, she puts the plane on autopilot and goes to change into her supersuit.Meanwhile, Syndrome confronts Mr. Incredible in the detention room. Restrained and held up by an electrical device, Mr. Incredible is helpless as Syndrome demands to know who he contacted when the transmission went through since a government plane is now requesting permission to land on the island. Syndrome plays the message and Mr. Incredible recognizes the voice as Helen's. Noticing his familiarity, Syndrome sends a 'greeting' of SAM missiles.Back on the plane, Elastigirl finds that Violet and Dash have stowed away, wearing their supersuits. Despite their rash decision, Violet amends that she was able to get a babysitter (named Kari (Bret 'Brook' Parker) who is featured with Jack-Jack in their own short) for Jack-Jack who, Elastigirl finds over the phone, turns out to be suitably qualified despite her neuroticism. The call is cut short, however, when she notices the plane has been targeted. She immediately takes evasive action, requesting disengagement from the tower. She soon becomes desperate and demands that Violet place a shield around the plane and shouts to the tower that there are children aboard. Mr. Incredible pleads with Syndrome to call off the missiles but the plane is destroyed and crashes into the sea. Mirage is visibly shaken when she confirms the crash and pushes Syndrome out of the way when Mr. Incredible lunges at him in fury. She is grabbed instead and Mr. Incredible demands that Syndrome let him go or she will be crushed. Syndrome sees through his bluff and scoffs at Mr. Incredible who, knowing he could never harm anyone, releases Mirage and breaks down as they leave. Syndrome calls him weak over his shoulder.Elastigirl and the children, however, survive the attack. With Violet unable to produce a shield, Elastigirl created a ball around them with her flexible body and formed a parachute to land safely in the water. They follow the smoke trail of the missiles to the island with Elastigirl using her body as a makeshift raft while Dash speeds them along like a motor. They make land by nightfall and take residence in a cave. Elastigirl comforts her children, gives them masks to wear, and tells them to take care of each other while she goes to find their father. Should they run into trouble, Elastigirl goes back on her previous rules and tells them to use their powers to the best of their abilities. Violet tries to apologize for her failure on the plane but is consoled and advised not to think and not to worry. Elastigirl infiltrates Syndrome's facility, discovering a hangar with a rocket inside being fitted with the robot and locating Mr. Incredible's whereabouts within the detainment unit. Though a little rusty, Elastigirl proves a formidable enemy to Syndrome's guards.As Violet practices her shield powers, Dash explores the cave and finds a separate tunnel within made of concrete. Before he can go further, Syndrome's rocket is launched and the children are barely able to escape the cave and the wall of fire running through it from the exhaust. Above the atmosphere, the rocket breaks apart and the robot, fitted to an alien-like ship, approaches the metropolis. At dawn, Violet and Dash wake up to see a talking bird which recognizes them as intruders. The alarms are set off and a small army of guards intersect and attack them once they find that they're supers. Dash runs off while Violet uses her invisibility (complete with her custom suit) to evade capture. As he runs from the guards piloting blade flyers, Dash is thrilled to find that he's fast enough to run on water. One by one, the pilots crash into obstacles or each other in their pursuit.Meanwhile, having a change of heart due to Syndrome's indifference to her, Mirage returns to the detainment unit and releases Mr. Incredible, telling him that his family is alive and on the island. Relieved, Mr. Incredible hugs her just as Elastigirl walks in on the apparent romance. She quickly punches Mirage cold before Mr. Incredible pulls her in for an embrace. They then escape the facility together after Mirage tells them that their children have activated the security team. During the fighting, Violet discovers the potential of her powers and she and Dash are, eventually, reunited with their parents in the jungle. All together, they fight against Syndrome's thugs until they are captured, frozen by Syndrome's laser device. The family watches in horror from detainment as Syndrome gushes at the devastation the robot is wreaking over the city. He tells them that he plans to swoop in at the last minute and, using a remote on his wrist to deactivate the robot, save the day. Mr. Incredible is disgusted by Syndrome's plan at pretending to be a hero. Syndrome scoffs at him and says that he will be the only superhero left and, when he's old and had his fun, he'll sell his inventions so that everyone can be super...and when everyone is super, no one will be.Meanwhile, in his apartment in the city, Lucius is preparing for a romantic evening out with his wife, Honey (Kimberly Adair Clark), until he notices the robot rampaging through town. He back tracks to get his suit which he finds missing from its unit and banters with Honey over its location. She tells him that she put it away as he yells that he needs it for the greater good but she argues her plans, saying that she is the 'greatest good he'll ever get'.Back on the island, Violet manages to use her powers to escape and frees her family. They make their way to the hangar where they discover a way, with Mirage's help, to reach the city in time. They fashion a Winnebago to a second rocket and drop in on the city as Syndrome appears and does battle with the robot. However, thanks to the robot's advanced learning technology, it blasts the remote off Syndrome's arm and knocks him into a nearby building, incapacitating him. Mr. Incredible goes in to duke it out and Elastigirl and the children tell him that they intend to help, despite his pleas otherwise; he couldn't bear to lose them a second time or risk them getting injured. Frozone arrives and, as a team, they work to take out the robot. Mr. Incredible finds Syndrome's remote and, through trial and error, they figure out a way to defeat the robot. Using a detached bit of the robot's arm, and remembering his first battle, Mr. Incredible launches it straight through the robot's core, effectively destroying it. The heroes are greeted by the grateful public with applause as Syndrome watches, defeated.The family is taken home by Mr. Dicker and Elastigirl listens to a series of voice messages left for her by a very frantic Kari, explaining that their baby has 'special needs'. When Kari mentions the arrival of a replacement babysitter, Elastigirl says she didn't hire one and they rush into the home to find Syndrome holding Jack-Jack. He freezes the family and explains that, since Mr. Incredible took his future away, he'll return the favor by raising Jack-Jack to be his own sidekick. He blasts the roof and makes an escape for his hovering jet as Jack-Jack cries for his family, helpless on the ground. However, Jack-Jack becomes angry and shows Syndrome his abilities to shape-shift into almost anything, from turning his entire body into metal, fire, and then transforming into a demonic-looking monster that tries to throttle him. Syndrome drops Jack-Jack and Mr. Incredible throws Elastigirl into the air to catch him. She parachutes them down as Mr. Incredible then takes out Syndrome by throwing his car into the jet's engines. Echoing an earlier warning by Edna to Mr. Incredible over her distaste for capes, Syndrome is sucked into one of the engines and the jet explodes, landing in a fiery mess onto the Parr home. However, the family is saved by Violet's quick thinking and a safety shield.The Parr family returns to normal life and attend a track meet together for Dash, happy to participate in sports. The family shouts encouragement, and tells him to hold back a bit to the confusion of other parents, as he runs and eventually comes in second place. Violet secures a date with Tony and the family celebrates together outside the track just as a large drill emerges from beneath the city streets. A new villain dubbed the Underminer (John Ratzenberger) 'declares war on peace and happiness' as the Parr family, the Incredibles, put their masks on. | comedy, murder, paranormal, violence, cute, flashback, action, satire, revenge, entertaining | train | imdb | Not all people are equally talented (just compare Pixar to Dreamworks), but this is no reason to keep the talented people from not reaching their full potential just because it makes the less talented ones feel bad."The Incredibles", while maybe not as hilarious as I had hoped (though it's still very funny), is nonetheless an extremely entertaining movie, that manages to charm you wit its combination of great characters, lots of style, tongue-in-cheek attitude and good message.
I can honestly say this is in my top ten movies of all time, how do Pixar continue to out do themselves at every movie release?The Incredibles is a fantastic story, wonderfully scripted and with the most stunning animation you have ever seen, it provides a perfectly rounded story with plenty of action, laughs and (almost) tears.Basically, this is a story of a man encountering a mid life crisis and leaping headlong into it without a care or a thought for his family, proving exceedingly selfish and failing to see the good in his life.
My only concern is that there is so much similarity to The Watchmen that those who haven't read the graphic novel will be saying "That's the Incredibles movie" when Watchmen finally comes to fruition.The short film showing before this was wonderful in itself, and had the audience laughing out loud loads.
I always expect Pixar films to be above-par, family entertainment, the kinds of films that can have an appeal to adults on a satirical, jab-in-the-side effect by having the characters reacting to each other as they would on a film with a higher rating, whilst giving the bright colors, action, and silliness that appeals to kids.
Watching The Incredibles, their sixth feature-length offering, I wasn't so entertained and amused since their 98 film A Bug's Life, and it almost brought me back to the emotional impact I felt when in the theater for the first time getting Toy Story into my system.
In fact, many of the best scenes in the film take on what we all know in films displaying the 'family unit' and morph it with the power and imagination of superheroes.I won't go too much into the plot as some may already have, except to say that what makes the story in and of itself appealing is how it is a fully formed story, and doesn't try and sell itself short like other animated films (i.e. Sharktale for example).
Jackson and Jason Lee, by the time the high-charged, internally fantasy scenes take off, they take off with great conviction and excitement.Overall, The Incredibles is a film that is, in a way, what audiences wish they could get and rarely do- it's a film with wit and observance, a kind of video-game where the results are not as expectable as can be.
The Incredibles is a great film, and probably my favourite Pixar picture (Toy Story is the best, but that's different to favourite).
There are quite a few funny moments, but the gags don't come as fast as Finding Nemo or Toy Story.That being said, it does have truly amazing action set-pieces, brilliant voice acting, a fabulous script, wonderful characters and the animation is simply.....well....incredible.The music is definitely a stand-out.
The story is really cool and it's obvious that there is a lot of respect here for the source of superheroes, whether it be comic books, serial flicks or Saturday morning cartoons.The movie has an undeniably cool retro feel to it and it shows not only in the design of the picture but also in the music, which definitely sounds like something out of a 60's 007 flick.
Also, the way that many of the characters were dressed also could have put them in that time.However, the thing that I really loved about this film was the fact that even though it was geared primarily to children, it was dark enough in theme to appeal to adults.
I wound up agreeing with them: it's excellent entertainment.The visuals and sound are very impressive, but it's the story that carries this film: a solid combination of humor, drama, suspense, family ties and action.
The action, as in many modern-day films, was overdone in the last half hour of the movie but overall....the DVD is a good investment since people 3 to 63 should enjoy this.As an adult, it's not always easy to keep my attention for two hours with animation but the fact this movie does, tells you how good the story is presented.
From the perfectly created characters to the witty and humorous dialog involved, "The Incredibles" is the ideal film for true fans of the animation and/or comic book genre.
Yet one cannot easily discount the family themes and comic episodes, with characters like superhero-costume designer Edna (voiced by Bird) and Bob's friend Frozone (Samuel L.
Although "The Incredibles" is not the best film Pixar has released (via Disney) since 1995's "Toy Story," I felt it is the most epic.
Even their worst -- "A Bug's Life" -- was better than most animated films."The Incredibles" also returns to the spoof roots of "Monsters, Inc." and "Toy Story" (something "Finding Nemo" did but not as often) -- it parodies cultural references.
(Something hard to do in an underwater sea adventure.) Although this is a family film, it is NOT a "children's film." That is evident from the beginning when the fake news reel in "The Incredibles" features articles about a suicidal man suing superheroes because he "didn't want to be saved." This is clearly a tongue-in-cheek criticism of the shameless legal standards of the day.
A true story!) Another film might not be clever enough to integrate iconic cultural references into itself but "The Incredibles" does.Similarly, using superheroes, Pixar examines the at-home relationship of a family and spoofs our own rituals.
I enjoyed it more than "Finding Nemo" (which I didn't expect to as I loved "Nemo") and just as much as "Toy Story" and "Monsters, Inc." Pixar has solidified a new style of family film-making -- the cultural parody animated film -- and the evidence of this can be seen in such take-offs of the formula as "Shrek" and "Shark Tale" (which featured many cultural references as well).All in all "The Incredibles" is incredibly fun.
I just experienced this film for the second time, and though I didn't really catch anything new, or achieve a different perspective, I was certainly as entertained as I was in the theater the first time.The Incredibles are the family of Mr. Incredible and Elasti-girl, living in a nightmare future where superheroes have been sued and regulated to the point that they are either forced underground or into protection programs complete with assumed identities and mediocre jobs.
Eventually, the entire family gets swept up into a crisis of vast proportion as a forgotten piece of Mr. Incredible's past comes back to threaten the very world which has rejected them all.The film really does derive a lot of its archetypal character points from Marvel's classic Fantastic Four, but adds brilliant humor, a very positive message, and some voice work which really is nothing less than Incredible.
Visually, the film is as good as any of the recent animated features most movie fans have enjoyed, though perhaps slightly less inventive and a bit less pretentious.
Some of that is due to the ever-growing artistry of the Pixar team, which often makes you feel like you're watching a comic book/video game come to life.But as solid as the movie is -- and except for a slow start, I was not bored -- for me, it's missing that little bit of magic to take it to the next level, where millions have found Shrek and Nemo..
Well OK, I can get behind that message, but it's going to be tricky explaining to my six-year-old that when he sees a plane full of bad-guys blow up as it rips through a tree, that this isn't just metaphorical -- that guy is DEAD.But I got more and more disturbed when I saw that the majority of the violence in this movie wasn't being perpetrated by the bad guys at all -- it's mostly coming from our "heroes," The Incredible family themselves.
This film is from another from the much acclaimed Pixar company which have made other hits such as Finding Nemo, A Bug's Life and Monsters Inc, and F.N. and B.L. were pleasant enough (M.I. was pretty poor) so it was slightly unexpected to see Pixar deliver us this dull and unoriginal script for a superhero flick.The Incredibles lacks the intelligent humour which has made so many animated movies in the past decade appeal to all members of the family and it tries to make up for this with poor references to things parents might know and it works with the concept of superheroes who can't just use their powers and have the glory in the world we live in.
Mr. Incredible, Bob Parr, is a former superhero forced into retirement, along with all other super heroes, through legal action , an idea I have long considered given how litigious modern society has become.
Numerous issues are analysed and a very positive message of family, confidence without arrogance and just being there for other people are subtly advocated.All in all I can't recommend this movie enough, particularly as it may well be the last great Pixar film.
Bob fixes up the old suit and goes back to Mr. Incredible leading to journey that the whole family can enjoy.This the best animated film of all time.
The Incredibles is further proof Pixar focuses more on story and characters rather than in-jokes and celebrity voices, as in Dreamworks'features (not that there's anything wrong with that, just look at Shrek 1 AND 2).
incredible movie.For the first time in a Pixar film, the main characters are human: Bob Parr (Craig T.
And their help will be needed when a new threat shows up...The film's best element is the script, which teaches a valuable lesson (family matters more than anything) while providing some jaw-dropping action scenes (no wonder the movie got a PG rating) and various references to the genre (almost every existing superhero is poked at, as well as James Bond and Indiana Jones).
Wonderful and hilarious, she's one of the best animated characters in years (ironically enough, she's voiced by a man, the movie's writer/director, Brad Bird).For those who really love movies, The Incredibles is a must-see in the animated feature category.
The story is excellent, having action and humor in right doses, the characters are very charismatic and it is a movie recommended as an excellent family entertainment.
I don't think I'll ever watch another Disney movie again.I don't know of any kids who are stupid enough to enjoy this loser!I don't care about special effects, I've got to have a STORY!Why doesn't Hollywood believe in hiring real writers anymore?Save this one for Thanksgiving dinner!.
THE INCREDIBLES is an incredibly popular Pixar computer animated action cartoon that made millions at the box office because it's an entertaining and funny romp about a family of super-incredible heroes.Audiences can relate because the heads of the family (Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl--voiced by Craig T.
And when Mr. Incredible's family joins the search for his whereabouts when he's captured by his nemesis, the film lurches forward with even greater speed.Apparently, audiences reacted very enthusiastically to this sort of crime caper action cartoon, animated in great style by Pixar.
In a time when generic superhero movies are released every few months, Pixar created a superhero movie with an engaging story that focuses more on the characters than watching the heroes save the world from total destruction.
The quality of its CGI was jaw dropping too, where as The Incredibles just seemed very good.I think we expect each new computer animated movie to set a higher standard than the previous, but they'll have to level out at some point.
If your a(n) teen/adult who enjoyed this movie then your obviously an idiot who should simply grow up and actually watch some good films like Platoon or The Godfather..
It takes creative minds to come up with such amusing alternatives to what would normally not elicit a second glance from all of us, and most importantly, it is possible and most plausible only in the world of animation where talking fishes and bugs do not seem totally ridiculous.Such imagination is absent with their newest feature, "The Incredibles." This movie's creative insight is that, well, superheroes really CAN have mundane lives.
As hard as it may seem to imagine, this movie more than any other Pixar film could have been filmed in live-action, a cardinal no-no suggestion for any animated flick.The decision to make the film a drama devoid of humor is also not a wise one; scenes that would normally be infused by amusing side-characters are filled with sidekicks there only to advance the plot.
This is wrapped together with what is at best a hackneyed spy or action movie storyline that is not going to win any prizes for originality.This is not a bad film but by Pixar's standards is definitely not a great one..
Wonderfully funny and fast-paced animated valentine to comic book heroes with a unique spin: the titular family of action heroes are part of a federal witness relocation program - after society has deemed them too 'special' resulting in far-too-many legal woes that eventually find themselves back fighting the good fight when Mr. Incredible (Nelson in square-jawed jocularity) faces a new enemy in the form of Syndrome (Lee, having a snarky field day), a former fan of the superhero who has now made it his life's mission to off his one-time would-be mentor, while attempting to raise a family with Elastigirl (the ever feisty and able Hunter) with varied results.
Highly engaging animated comedy, The Incredibles is a highly amusing picture made by Pixar, and as you can imagine, this is a solid piece of work from the studio that constantly turn out great movies.
For his directorial debut in the Pixar Studios, Brad Bird had an idea of genius.Indeed, "The Incredibles" is two things: a superhero movie genre with all the predictable archetypes and it's a commentary on the restraining uniformity of American suburban life.
This achievement is even more remarkable given how familiar we are with these archetypes, yet they work in such a symbiosis that the set-ups are always predictable but not the outcomes, and the starting gimmick reveals itself a never-ending source of fun and entertainment.The identity of superheroes and their struggle to fit in the real life is an overused theme but because we're watching a family movie, the formula is totally reversed, "The Incredibles" is about a 'normal family' trying to keep their super-heroic background secret, the focus is on the normal identity, not the superheroes.
Along the way, the family unites as a team and the children learn a valuable lesson in confidence and self defense mechanisms to take on the world.The villainous fan is outrageous, the practicality of a superhero living a human life is well said and the Super powers are quite staggering especially that of the children.The theme is superb; the comic way in which the story is woven is marvelous and overall, incredible indeed!
This is one of the most mature Pixar movies (if not THE most) with certain themes in the story and action and is incredibly entertaining..
At least till date 3 video games have been released based on the film characters and adventures.The Incredibles is fun all the way the kind of fun you get when watching a good action flick mixed with a wonderful sitcom.
It involves all that is necessary for an entertaining film.The characters at some point of time felt so lively to me that i forgot it was an animation movie.
In a world where superheroes and villains are common, life is good for two heroes named Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl who like their jobs of saving people and finally marry each other.
Things are not what they look like though and soon the whole world is in grave danger, prompting Helen to get back to business too.Pixar Studios' strengths are in good use in the movie: the conventions of James Bond-style action movies are lampooned amusingly, particularly the colourful character designs of the superhero subgenre – actually the whole plot premise sounds similar to the Watchmen graphic novel that was made into a movie in 2009.
Hello this is the first time that I comment a movie in here, and I'm glad this film had that "privilege".I just saw The Incredibles last night for the fifth time, and it thrilled me like the first time.It's amazing the quality of this film, Brad Bird created a masterpiece here,with reminiscences of many great trademarks like James Bond (the most obvious), but also of Indiana Jones, Star Wars, X Men, The Simpsons, and of course the golden age of comics.Visally stunning, the script doesn't' get better than this, the character development is extraordinary (notice how Violet and Dash have similar conversations than their parents, he he) God, this movie is just perfect.I consider myself pretty demanding when i rate films, and this is one of my few 10s.And what to say about Mr, Michael Giachinno, the next "Maestro" of film music, this guy's amazing.Brad Bird is one of the best directors in the industry, such a shame that animated films still are underrated, the job he did here (and in Ratatouille) was worth an Academy Award nod, let's see if he gets it with his next project, a "live action]" film.Mr. Brad Bird and Mt. Michael Giacchino, thank you for your talent.
Still, what sets the film aside other animated films is its characters, which are all enormously clever and creative.The "Incredible" family is a hilarious and fun superhero family, because they're just like us (except for the powers, which they actually come to loathe).
Mr. Incredible (aka Bob Parr) and family all look like action figures and don't mesh with the film's attempt to portray the hassles of real life. |
tt0373469 | Kiss Kiss Bang Bang | The movie opens in flashback to about 1980 at a fair in Indiana of some sort with pie eating contests, etc. The camera settles on a boy magician named "Harry the Great", who is about to perform a trick where he saws a girl in a box in half with a chainsaw. Midway, the girl lets loose with a series of piercing screams, panicking the audience and some nearby adults who rush up and open the box. The girl is just pretending to be hurt and smiles up at the adult man professing "I'm going to be an actress" before he slaps her.The movie cuts to a generic Hollywood beautiful person party where we see Harry (Robert Downey Jr.), fully but shabbily clothed, intentionally teetering at the edge of a pool full of bikini clad women. At this point the narrator (Harry) introduces himself and apologizes, somewhat defensively, for not being very good. "Do you see any other narrators?" he asks. (The movie repeatedly revisits the idea that the narrator isn't a trustworthy source. The symbolism is that the pool represents the Hollywood lifestyle and he's trying to decide whether to jump in or not). He (as the narrator) asks us if we want to know how he got here.We now cut to a small toy store late at night. Two thieves are rummaging around. One of them, Harry, is on the phone with his niece as she describes the action figure ("CyberCop") she wants for Christmas. Harry pretends that the store is open and he's on a regular shopping expedition, but his niece isn't buying it (it's too late at night). A large UPS truck drives by, jostling the wiring on the jury rigged alarm and setting it off. The two run out the back door and into an alley, where they are fired upon by a woman on a fire escape. Harry's partner is hit, but Harry escapes on foot as the police approach. He runs from alley to alley until he encounters a milling group of men who are all dressed in dark thiefish clothing like himself. He runs up a stairway and crashes into a room with 3 or 4 people sitting around a desk. A woman tells him they're not ready for him yet, but another man, a Larry Miller-ish casting agent (played by - who else - Larry Miller), tells him to go ahead and hands him a script. It's from some sort of hard boiled crime thriller in which the main character is being berated for allowing his partner to be killed. Harry stumbles through it for a couple of lines before the similarity to his current situation gets to be too much and he loses it, throwing a chair and putting his head on the lap of one of the casting agents and begging forgiveness. At this moment a cop bursts through the door, before apologising for interrupting and ducking back out. Larry Miller says he's found what he's looking for and hires Harry for the part suspiciously quickly - his motives become clear much later...Meanwhile, back at the party, a woman (Michelle Monaghan) named Harmony is introduced by the narrator, who dips a little into her back story through a few brief flashbacks - noting that she is from a small town, likes reading a crime series about a detective called "Johnny Gossamer", and alluding to the fact that their father may have sexually abused her sister Jenna. The narrator then realizes that he isn't explaining how she got to the party, which he then goes into, the reason involving an actor from a cancelled TV show about a robot who drunkenly broke into her house in his costume. Long story short, she gets invited to the party, where she is seen going over the bookshelves in the house until she finds some copies of the same old paperback detective series - "Johnny Gossamer". She hugs them tenderly, reads from them for a bit and then passes out on a table. A sleazy man enters and, seeing her unconscious - starts to poke around in her underthings before Harry walks in. Harry tries to intervene but ends up being beaten to a pulp - reflecting he never was very good at fighting. After the man walks away, Gay Perry (Val Kilmer) helps Harry up. He tells Harry he's a high end private detective who's been hired by the films producers to train Harry in the ways of private detecting. He takes him into the bathroom and helps him clean up. Harlan Dexter (Corbin Bernsen) pokes his head in and introduces his daughter, who is getting ready to cut her birthday cake. She has apparently been in Europe for many years and threatening to sue her father over her deceased mother's money, but they've patched things up and are all nicey-nicey.Gay Perry is getting ready to leave the party when Harry asks him about the woman. Perry recognises her and recommends Harry go to the Domino bar, which he does.Harry shows up at the club and walks past the doorman without being hassled. He encounters a woman named Flicka (Angela Lindvall) has a brief conversation (she tells him she's a stewardess, he lies and tells her he's a PI (important later). It takes about an hour. The woman from the party is sitting at the bar. Harry sits next to her and launches into conversation. They flirt a little bit with her suggesting Harry take up with the woman across the bar who's 35 and still attempting to act. Harry asks her how old she is and she says she's 34. Harry starts to walk away after a little banter, but she calls him back. She can't believe he doesn't recognize her. She's his childhood friend Harmony (the girl being sawn in half at the beginning of the movie by young magician Harry). Harmony's friend shows up and becomes very hostile - trying to drive Harry off. Harmony calms her down and Harmony and Harry head to a table.Harmony describes growing up in Indiana parallel to Harry. She was turned onto the Johnny Gossamer books by reading them to her invalid mother. Her father was a child molester who abused her younger sister while she stood helplessly by. She compensated by sleeping with everybody in high school except Harry, who was her best friend and Harry's best friend because he asked he not to. As soon as she could, she escaped to Hollywood to be a star, but the only work she's gotten is as a European milkmaid in a cheesy beer commercial with a CGI bear. Harry asks if she wants to come back to his place and, to show he has good intentions, suggests she bring her hostile friend with her.Harry wakes up the next morning with a girl in his bed. He thinks it's Harmony, but is shocked to find out it's her hostile friend instead. He runs to Harmony's place and apologizes profusely at her door. She's initially pissed, but somewhat mollified as he goes.Perry and Harry are heading out to a stake out. Gay Perry says that he's got a commission from a woman named Allison Ames whom he has only spoken to over the phone - to stake a place out and record anything that happens. Harry and Perry drive down a windey dirt road to a woodsy house and hide behind a woodpile with a video camera . Someone comes out of the house in a ski mask, gets in an old beater car and drives off. Harry and Perry follow them by car. They seem to lose him and stop by a pond next to a low ridge to get their bearings. As they look around, the beater car comes shooting airborne over the ridge and lands in the pond. Harry jumps into the water to save the driver as Perry says no one was in the car. Harry persists, and finally Perry dives into the water emerging holding a body. It's a woman in a sundress - she's dead with a broken neck. They drop her on the sand. Harry notices she has no underwear (plot point). Perry says they need to cover this up like they were never there. Harry "helpfully" throws Perry's gun into the water. Perry points out that that was a custom ceramic gun given to him by his mother and it's very traceable. He then smacks Harry in the nose with a briefcase. Two figures in ski masks appear on top of the ridge and shout at them before taking off.Perry drives Harry back to Harry's hotel. As he drops him off and Harry is walking away, Perry returns with Harry's ringing cell phone that was left in the car. Giving it to him and they both listen as Harry answers. It's the police asking him if he knew of Harmony because her body needs to be identified before being ruled as suicide. Harry is left heartbroken and goes back to his hotel room to drown his sorrows when there's a knock at the door. It's Harmony, somehow alive. Turns out her younger sister has come to town, stolen her credit cards, maxed them out ($2000 to an unspecified party) and then committed suicide; which explains the mistaken call; as the police initially identified the sister as Harmony herself. She's distraught and wants to talk to Harry since she thinks he's a private detective (Flicka told her). She eventually badgers Harry into investigating her sister's murder (she doesn't believe it was suicide) and then faints - it seems Harry agrees so he can spend more time with Harmony in much the way he would get a kick out of her crying on his shoulder when she was upset as a teenager.She eventually wakes up again and leaves as Harry heads to the loo. The bathroom is long and deep with the toilet on the far end, a bathtub to the left of the toilet and a towel closet to the right of the toilet. Harry is relieving himself standing up when something on the left catches his eye. He turns to look without interrupting the stream and winds up covering the corpse from the car trunk with pee. Someone's stashed it in his bathroom. He crawls into the towel closet and calls Perry. Perry says that it's a setup and somewhere in the room they must have also hidden a gun. Harry quickly finds it under the bed. Down in the hotel lobby Harmony is just leaving as the cops arrive. She overhears that they're headed to Harry's room and makes a quick judgement to misdirect them to a different room. Perry shows up and they bundle up the corpse again. They can't figure out how to get it out of the hotel, so they decide to take it up to the roof and toss it into a dumpster in an alley. They miss and the body bounces off the edge of the dumpster. Harry and Perry rush down to the alley and shove the body into the trunk of the car. Just at that moment the police drive by. Perry grabs Harry and kisses him to make it seem like they're having a liaison. The police crack some jokes and drive off. Harmony shows up just in time to see the kiss. Harry and Perry ditch the body at a random street side location.The next day Harry and Perry meet and Perry gives Harry two pieces of bad news: 1) He isn't really up for a role in the film. He's being used to demonstrate the producer's seriousness about recasting the role so that Colin Farell will accept less money. 2) He told Harmony that he isn't a PI and she's pissed. Also, it turns out the body in the car was Dexter's daughter (The one who was trying to sue Dexter for the mother's inheritance). Harry heads to the airport to fly home.While he's waiting for his flight he sees Flicka and tries to chat her up, but she's not very interested. Somehow it comes up that Harmony's stage name is Allison Ames (the name of the woman that hired Perry) and he rushes back to Harmony's place realising the $2000 Harmony's sister spent was to hire Perry to investigate the case he and Harry were on when the car drove into the lake. She doesn't want to hear it and slams the door on him, severing a joint and a half of his left ring finger. She rushes him to the hospital where it's precariously sewn back on and lightly bandaged up. They also drug Harry up really good on pain killers, so he's pretty stoned. In a phone call with Harmony he explains the link between the two cases and leaves a message for Perry who will be at a party Harmony is working that evening. Harry heads over (High as a kite) and they find Perry - who seems disinterested and heads off to an unrelated stakeout of some girl, telling the two to behave until he returns. Harry wanders off to look at a dancer dressed like a deer, but is jumped by two thugs (A white guy, and a black one who calls himself "Mustard" - the same thugs in ski masks who appeared on the ridge after the lake crash) who beat him up and almost pull his finger off again before telling him to get out of town. Harmony and Harry rush off to the hospital to get his finger fixed again when Harmony notices that the two black and white thugs are headed towards Perry's stakeout and insists on going to warn Perry before getting Harry's finger fixed. Harry passes out in the back seat as Harmony parks the car and jumps out to find Perry. She's jumped by one of the thugs, but manages to get the better of him and knock him out - unable to kill "Mustard" the thug but taking his gun.A girl with purple hair shows up and Perry starts following her. She purposefully leads him under a bridge, the white thug driving up behind him - starting to line up in order to run Perry over. Harmony rushes to save him, dropping her gun and accidentally catching Perry's attention - he spots the approaching car and leaps out of the way. The driver careers toward a hot dog stand destroying tables - just as Gay Perry prepares to kill the white thug as he exits the vehicle, the hot dog vendor shoots the thug down. In the chaos, the girl with purple hair runs around looking for an escape. She finds a car with the door open and the keys still in it. Of course, it's Harmony's car with Harry passed out in the back seat. Harmony returns to where she left the first thug, but he's gone.Harry wakes up the next day in the back seat of the car in a strange garage in a strange house totally confused (which must mean he got there the entire way without the purple-haired girl seeing him lying asleep in the backseat...) He walks around inside calling out but no one responds. The surviving thug shows up with the girl with purple hair, so Harry hides under a bed. He hears them talking. She's apologizing for the foul up, but says it isn't her fault. The thug agrees and says a number of ominous things about how he's going to set things up so it's never her fault again, and then shoots her dead. Harry holds his fingers to her lips as she mutters before dying. The thug runs off to get something to wrap the body with. So Harry, in a daze, gets out from under the bed. The thug comes back and sees him. The thug starts taunting him until he realizes he's left the gun on the bed. Harry shoots him. Harry's finger has come off, so he puts it in a bowl with ice and calls Perry. While he's talking to him, a dog comes up and grabs the finger. Harry tries to get it back, but the dog swallows it. Harry seems resigned to its loss. He then cleans off the gun, puts the girl's fingerprints on it so the police will think she and the thug killed each other and leaves.Harmony, Perry and Harry get together to wrap things up, secure in the knowledge that the whole thing was a kidnapping plot gone wrong. Perry jokes that it seems anti-climactic: No one's been tortured yet (foreshadowing). Harry and Harmony head up to Harry's room. Harmony mentions that in an attempt to save her sister's sanity, she told her that their father wasn't really their father. She lied that he was a famous Hollywood film star that had visited town on a "Johnny Gossamer" film shoot. They get wasted at the hotel bar. As Harmony strips in the bedroom to go to sleep, Harry is reminded how the body from the lake wasn't wearing underwear. He offers to sleep on the couch, but they both wind up in the bed about to sleep together when Harmony says she has to admit something. The next shot is Harry throwing her out because she confessed to sleeping with his best friend in high school, the one guy he asked her not to. Harry makes sure her fingers are clear before slamming the door.Harmony wanders off when something occurs to her. She calls Harry up and asks if the body in the trunk was raped. He replies that it wasn't, the report came back negative. He hangs up. A little later, Perry calls Harry up and says Harmony left a message saying she had it all figured out. Perry wants to know what Harry told her. Harry racks his brain and then mentions the underwear thing. Perry seems to all of a sudden magically figure out what's going on. Perry and Harry go to the local insane asylum, where they meet a large woman patient. They ask her to lift her robe. She does. No underwear. Perry puts it together: Dexter had hidden her daughter away in the looney bin and replaced her with a lookalike so that he could use her to request that the lawsuit dropped. But the daughter's European boyfriend was coming to visit, so he had to kill her to bring the ruse to a close (the boyfriend would see through the double). Harmony's sister must have been the double, which is why they murdered her and made it look like a suicide. Perry and Harry assume that Harmony also went to the asylum and was grabbed, so now they have to find her.Harry and Perry head out from the asylum where they meet an orderly who holds them at gunpoint and starts marching them back. Perry gets the gun from him and they start trying to interrogate him. Harry, fantastic magician that he is, decides to take the orderly's revolver and pretend to play russian roulette with him to add force to the interrogation. He thinks there's an 8% chance of the one bullet he left in the gun going off. And of course it does. Scratch one orderly. As Perry and Harry hide the body, they're surprised by Dexter and another thug. While they're getting frisked, Perry's phone rings. The thug takes the phone and throws it over to Dexter, but Harry catches it and shuts into the phone that they've been caught by Dexter. The thug retrieves the phone from Harry, listens and tells Dexter that it was just a carpet cleaning service. But it was actually Harmony who managed to pretend to be someone else.They're taken to a hospital to be tortured. We learn the thugs are heading to cremate Dexter's daughter ASAP to remove evidence of gunshot wounds. Thug #3 hooks up electrodes to Harry's balls and proceeds to start the torture. Perry starts taunting him with homophobic slurs. The thug gets angry and starts yelling at Perry, pounding on the electrode button to emphasize his point. Harry's not having a good time. Finally, Perry mimes grabbing at his balls, but it turns out he has a gun hidden there. The thug is killed by bullets flying out of Perry's crotch - he explains homophobes never check the pelvic region.Harmony calls Perry - she's been at home the whole time. She rushes to the hospital. Dexter and company have loaded the body into a van and are about to leave. Harmony grabs the van and drives off. Three thugs who waited at the van grab a car and chase the van. The back doors of the van are open, so the coffin is in danger of flying out at any time. Harmony crashes the van on an overpass, sending the coffin over the edge. It lands on a sign above the underpass. An arm pops out. Harmony's OK, though. Harry and Perry keep running up and get into a gunfight with one of the thugs. The thug is shot, but not before shooting a bullet through Perry's chest and into Harry. Harry tries to give Perry mouth to mouth, but Perry starts coughing up blood. Meanwhile, Harmony has jumped off the road and into a median, slamming her forehead on the grass and drawing blood. The resulting concussion leaves her pretty dazed, but she manages to call Harry on Perry's cell phone and requests a rescue, then passes out. Harry gets up, taking Perry's gun.In the process of attempting this rescue, Dexter shows up and tries to run Harry down. He jumps off the overpass and lands on the coffin perched on the freeway sign. He accidentally drops the gun onto the casket and slides off, hanging onto the arm and dangling above the speeding traffic. Dexter rushes to the edge of the bridge to shoot him, Harry jogging the coffin and knocking the gun down - catching it in the nick of time and shooting Dexter. Dexter remarks on what a good shot it is before dying ("Captain fuckin magic"). Some thugs are speeding towards unconscious Harmony to finish her off, but Harry manages to shoot the driver while dangling from the coffin, dropping onto the roof of the car as it passes under. Managing to kill the last two thugs with some showy moves, Harry staggers over to Harmony, and pulls out a Jonny Gossamer book from his breast pocket - complimenting it on stopping the bullet. Harmony points out that it didn't. The hole goes all the way through - thus Harry passes out.Harry wakes up at the hospital. Harmony is in the room with him. Perry rolls in on a wheelchair. The narrator comments about how much he hates studio enforced happy endings. To slam the point home, everybody who died in the movie walks in (purple-haired girl and thugs included), smiling and waving..... followed by Elvis and Abraham Lincoln. They all disappear, though (except Perry, Harry and Harmony). Perry explains that through his police contacts, he has found that Harmony's sister came to town to find her father, whom she thought was Dexter. She started following him around and what she found eventually saw was Dexter having sex with his "daughter" (which was actually the double and also the one wearing the pink wig). Thinking it was incest, she hired Perry to film it (using Harmony's credit cards) and then killed herself since to her both her real father and pretend father were abusive.Harmony, Harry and Perry head back to Indiana for Harmony's sister's funeral. Perry confronts Harmony's father, who's on oxygen and bedridden and slaps him repeatedly. Her father taunts Perry for taking advantage of someone who's defenseless and Perry smiles. He's made his point.The last shot is a year later. Harry, much better dressed, is making a video recording of himself telling the whole story. Perry, who employs him now, walks up, encourages the audience to stay through the credits, rips on the key grip a little and shuts the camera off.Credits roll. | comedy, dark, neo noir, murder, boring, mystery, bleak, cult, violence, flashback, clever, humor, satire, plot twist, entertaining | train | imdb | Directed and co-written by Shane Black; based on a novel, "Bodies Are Where You Find Them" written by Brett Halliday; and starring Robert Downey Jnr, Val Kilmer and Michelle Monaghan.A terrific opening credit sequence easily sets up the audacity and chagrin of the film for an appreciative audience.
Even the clichés are clever e.g. a tough guy predictably crashes through a glass table, or body after body turns up, to haunt the characters.I strongly recommend the movie, given the talent of Downey and Kilmer.
Breaking down with tears in the office, he accidentally gets the acting job and whisked off to Hollywood with hopes of playing a detective in an upcoming film.Cue Gay Perry a.k.a Val Kilmer who is fantastic in this film with his dry wit and humour adding some hilarious scenes to this film.
He plays a gay detective assigned to help train up Robert Downey Jr. The pair of them get sucked into a story starting with discovery of a corpse and building into deeper plot involving kidnapping and murder.
Shane Black directs this film superbly, keeping it alive with sharp wit.The whole cast clicks together perfectly with Robert Downey Jr and Val Kilmer shining with good support coming from Michelle Monaghan.
The film is accompanied by a very light hearted narration from Robert Downey Jr. which makes the film that even bit more engaging.Overall, a quirky, very amusing film, with a superb cast, and with a run time of 99 minutes, you simply can't afford to miss it.Kiss Kiss Bang Bang...
The language gets pretty rough, there is strong sexual content, Val Kilmer is a detective who just happens to be gay and jokes are made at his expense, there's a decent amount of gunplay, and some people just might not appreciate the unconventionality on display.But I loved the fact that this wasn't formulaic and that the look and style was different than the norm.
Perhaps some might like their movies a little more bright, but I thought it was quite effective at giving the film the pulp detective story vibe that Black was going for.I wouldn't recommend this to my mother, so I won't pretend to know whether this fits *your* taste either.
Yes, a buddy-movie, film-noir, murder mystery, crime-thriller, all rolled into one hip modern self-referential update, packed with amusing references to all the clichés of the genres depicted.
Val Kilmer plays the real private eye, Perry Shrike (half the fun is picking the right name!) who has to learn him the trades of the business, but soon they both wind up in a murder mystery with so many twists and turns (and bodies), it'll make your head spin.
Another mistake then shifts him from actor to private detective, and this is where Val Kilmer comes in and things start to go wrong, more wrong and unbelievably wrong until they've snowballed into an enjoyable detective mess -- all to impress failed actress Harmony (Next big thing: Michelle Monaghan).Shane Black's directorial debut 'Kiss Kiss Bang Bang' is a comic film noir.
What makes it so special is that it mixes equal doses of humour and crime like a $15,000,000 blender, pouring out a balanced end product and glazing it with a clever narrative coating by Robert Downey Jr. Black also sprinkles some rapid-fire dialogue onto his product, which is facilitated by the comedic chemistry between Downey and Kilmer.
Robert Downey Jr., one of the best film actors, is paired in this movie with Val Kilmer, who tends to play heavy roles, but has never been seen as he is shown in the movie.
The chemistry between them seems to indicate these two actors had a lot of fun while making the film, as it shows in the way they play against one another.Lovely Michelle Monaghan is seen as Harmony, a beautiful young hopeful working her way up in Hollywood.
I was lucky enough to see a preview of Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang at a 'mystery' film showing at the Rivoli Cinemas in Melbourne recently.I really don't know what I was expecting, but I wasn't expecting to enjoy the film as throughly as I did.The film centers around Harry (Robert Downey Jnr) a petty thief who while escapes into an audition for a new detective movie.
But with so many bodies all at once, are the cases as separate as they first appear?Having spent a bit of time in the wilderness since his glory days, Shane Black returned to the screens properly as writer and director with an effective film that works surprisingly well in the genre he dominates while also poking fun at it.
Monaghan is sexy but has to carry a lot of the narrative; Bernsen is merely a face; Miller has a small turn but generally everyone is in the shadown of Kilmer, Downey and Black.Overall this is not a perfect film and those that don't like Black or the genre will probably not get it but it is still a lot of fun.
As its title suggests, ""Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" is a film noir spoof whose energy and style compensate for its overall dearth of laughs.The highly complicated plot begins when Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey Jr.), a petty thief living in Manhattan, literally stumbles into a movie acting career while fleeing the police on a heist gone wrong.
Before he knows what's happened, he's standing by a pool in Hollywood surrounded by a slew of movie-making hotshots and wannabe starlets including Val Kilmer as a gay private eye and Michelle Monaghan an aspiring actress who also happens to be a childhood chum from Harry's days growing up in Indiana.
Then, as if he had suddenly fallen into one of those dime store crime novels, Harry finds himself plunged into a dark mystery involving not one but two unexplained murders.Writer/director Shane Blake has a great time lampooning not merely the conventions of film noir and Chandler-esquire pulp fiction - the convoluted plotting, the self-conscious dialogue, the smart-alecky narration and the casual popgun violence - but Tinsel Town phoniness as well.
In both storyline and style, the film often blurs the fine line separating mundane "reality" from the contrivances and absurdities of movie fiction, most notably by having Harry frequently address the audience directly in his narration.There's no denying that "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" is a high energy lark, filled with creativity and imagination and featuring sharp performances from Downey Jr., Kilmer, Monaghan and a whole host of excellent supporting players.
In LA, while escaping from the police after an unsuccessful robbery, the small time thief Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey Jr.) is accidentally submitted to an audition for a role of detective in a movie, and invited to a party.
With the support of Harmony, they find the sordid truth of the case."Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" is a funny, but also violent, action movie with an original screenplay, where the lead character is actually the narrator of the events.
Robert Downey Jr. is excellent in the role of the loser Harry Lockhart and shows a great chemistry with the delicious Michelle Monaghan, and also with his gay partner Val Kilmer.
If you want to see a good self-referential film about bad movies, try "Adaptation." You will miss nothing if you skip "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.".
Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang is definitely that, and it does a generally good job of working in both universes, although it is certainly a more effective comedy than a noir, but it gives the latter a good shot.Harry (Robert Downey, Jr.) is a crook ripping off a department store in New York City (trying to steal a present for his daughter, no less) when a twist of fate causes the alarm to sound and Harry runs for it, happening upon an audition for a film featuring a police detective.
What appeared to be just a routine job becomes a complicated web of lies, deceit and bodies.Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang was written and directed by Shane Black, the writer of the original Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout and The Long Kiss Goodnight, and anyone familiar with his work from those films will instantly recognize his style here.
Kiss kiss, bang bang.Robert Downey, Jr. plays Harry Lockhart, a small-time crook from the east coast who gets his partner killed in a toy store robbery and, on the run from cops, stumbles into an open casting audition.
Go and see it anyway, just for the scenes between Robert Downey Jr and Val Kilmer, Shane Black has written the best material for their characters, I can't find fault in it.
I almost feel like I need to watch it again to fill in the holes.There were jokes throughout, but I felt the direction was poor because the dialogue was so fast that by the time you got to laugh and the audience laughter died down you missed stuff.I loved the Hollywood/NY comparisons.
Shane black writes and directs this hilarious crime comedy caper starring Robert Downey jr, Val Kilmer and Michelle Monaghan.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, his directorial debut, also shares these attributes, but suffers from a convoluted plot and a script so overloaded with witticisms and clever asides that the viewer soon feels overwhelmed by the sheer intensity of the experience.Robert Downey Jr. plays a low-life criminal who inadvertently becomes a potential movie star whilst escaping from a heist gone wrong (on the run, he stumbles into an audition and gets the part).
However, things take a turn for the worse when he goes undercover as a private-eye (in order to gain first hand experience necessary for the role) and witnesses a murder...Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is an ambitious debut several complex plot threads intertwine and an ingenious narrative links scenes - but despite his best efforts, Black loses control of affairs and the film spirals out of control.
Upon arriving he meets his tutor, a real private-eye named "Gay Perry." (Val Kilmer) And as he says, he's not gay "Oh no I'm knee deep in p***y; I just liked the name so much though I'd keep it." Before Harry can say the title of the movie he's starring Harry is thrown into a real murder mystery, involving the sister of his high school sweetheart Harmony played by Michelle Monaghan.
STAR RATING: ***** The Works **** Just Misses the Mark *** That Little Bit In Between ** Lagging Behind * The Pits A career thief (Robert Downey Jr.) and a gay detective (Val Kilmer) both happen to be in Hollywood at the same time to audition for the same role.
It frantically tries to be a non-stop ride of clever in-jokes and wittiness, sometimes it pulls it off (a scene where Downey Jr. and the leading female character sit in a bar and poke fun at celebrity 'lookalikes' is one example) but at other times the film can get a little too smart for it's own good and can grate on the nerves.In the leading roles, Kilmer gives a better performance than usual but Downey Jr. shows a bit of Nicolas Cage syndrome and has no doubt thrown a lot of his own real life crazy personality into this role.
A well adapted Brett Halliday novel done by director Black most of the dialogue is not serious but that is good because in this line of material you want to hear something funny Petty crook Harry Lockhart (Downey Jr.) is mistaken for an actor and sent to L.A where he meets up with his dream girl sweet heart (Monaghan).
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was one of the best films I've seen in a long time
it was entertaining, smart, and funny and it also had great style.
He runs into the extremely enticing aspiring actress Harmony Faith Lane (Michelle Monaghan), whom he manages to convince that he is an actual detective, and gets mixed up in a case Perry is working involving Harmony's kid sister and Harlan Dexter (Corbin Bernsen), a former actor turned entrepreneur.Taking his inspiration from a novel by Brett Halliday, writer & debuting director Shane Black of "Lethal Weapon" fame basically sends up pulp detective fiction and the ever-popular "buddy- cop" genre.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang sees a type of film-noir parody that has Robert Downey Jr's Harry Lockhart, an aspiring actor, entangled in an impenetrable storyline that revolves around an assortment of rich movie people with bad intentions and Byzantine methods of realizing them.
He is very underdeveloped and that's the only thing disappointing because most of Black's villain are at least developed or have a personality which this villain lacked because of the limited screen time that he got.Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a perfect example of how to be clever with its story whether it's a buddy film, a black comedy, or a thriller.
With his directorial debut, Shane Black presents a style full of self-awareness, subverting some clichés of the noir genre while playing others straight, all of this carried by a fantastic performance by Robert Downey Jr as main character Harry Lockhart.It's hard to label Kiss Kiss Bang Bang a buddy cop movie, not with so much more focus on one perceived "buddy" over the other, and neither of them are cops either.
Val Kilmer as Perry and Michelle Monoghan as Harmony also give good performances, but the range Downey gives from smarmy and casual to emotional and serious is stunning, one of the best parts of the movie.However, that particular range can be said for the movie as a whole; it always feels like these are actual people talking and interacting with one another, not people on a screen.
Divided into chapters titled after Raymond Chandler novels, the film follows petty criminal turned aspiring actor Downey as he gets involved with a witty detective (excellently played by Kilmer) and a sexy actress (Monaghan).Downey is a bit of a sad sack into the movie, clueless and rash, and while his performance is quite different, it reminded me a bit of Bob Hope film noir take-offs.
Here's a sophisticated little postmodern film romp, an L.A.-based murder mystery adapted from pulp writer Davis Dresser's (a.k.a. Brett Halliday) 1941 novel, "Bodies Are Where You Find Them." Shane Black (who wrote the screenplays for "Last Action Hero" and the "Lethal Weapons" series) has written - and made his debut directing - a slick movie full of hip, facile dialogue that is self-referential to the max.The mystery story itself and other subplots are adroitly interwoven.
Besides couple of scenes that are written properly and two fantastic actors - Val Kilmer and Robert Downey Jr. that they did their best, this movie is good for direct to video thing.
His trademark snappy dialog is better than ever and there are plenty of "cool or stylish" moments and a wonderful little murder mystery wrapped around a sorta-love story.Casting of Val Kilmer initially seemed like a bad call, but the talented bad boy shines as an openly gay private detective who is hired to teach an actor how to be a PI.
The references to other movies come fast and furious throughout, from "Chinatown" to "Reservoir Dogs," as well as the novels of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett and their countless film adaptations, though the digs at Hollywood aren't quite as scabrous as "L.A. Confidential." Including scenes from a younger Corbin Bernsen crime movie is used here illustratively to the plot almost as integrally as the old Terence Stamp film in "The Limey." He certainly does look like a matinée idol gone to see, but then so does Val Kilmer.A key to making this all original is Robert Downey Jr.'s marvelous comic and earnest turn as a fish out of water as a crook imitating an actor imitating a private investigator, which even recalls what tends to happen to Bob Hope in the "On The Road" movies.
KISS KISS, BANG BANG (2005) ***1/2 Robert Downey, Jr., Val Kilmer, Michelle Monaghan, Corbin Bernsen, Dash Mihok, Larry Miller, Rockmond Dunbar, Shannyn Sossamon, Angela Lindvall.Back in Black!Shane Black is back in a big way.
This sure as hell ain't.Based loosely on a novel by Brett Halliday, "Bodies Are Where You Find Them", the story focuses on small-time petty New York City criminal Harold "Harry" Lockhart (Downey also making a fine comeback to comedy in a well-suited performance tailor made for his fast-talking, sharp minded spite) who winds up an unlikely actor wanna be when a Christmas-time burglary attempt has the pursued by cops Harry bolting unannounced into a late-night film audition where he finds himself overwrought with guilt of his partner's demise which adds hilarity to his 'motive' when he reads the script shoved into his hands which just happens to be a policier (!) and the casting agent Dabney Shaw(funnyman scene-stealer Miller) hires him on the spot.Harry is next whisked to sunny LA by Shaw for meet-and-greets to create serious buzz and enlists the unexpected thief a lesson to be a detective with Shaw's for hire gumshoe "Gay" Perry (Kilmer equally having a ball and a natural flair for tongue-in-cheek humor), a tougher than he appears homosexual who is reluctant to have the flaky Harry tag-along to get notes for his 'character'.
Partnered with private detective Gay Perry (Kilmer), who is to show him the ropes for the part he's to play, things turn just a little weird when dead bodies start turning up in his life
Shane Black's first venture into big feature film directing is a master class of genre bending bravado.
Well, that's definitely the case with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, a film that tries to revive the buddy cops, noir, and postmodern film movement, as well as the careers of director Shane Black and actors Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer.Don't get me wrong.
this movie is one of the only ones i've seen that actually IS all of those things.val kilmer and robert downey jr.
But it has to do with crook Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey Jr.) running form the law, finding himself cast as a private eye in a movie and getting the help of a real gumshoe, Gay Perry (Val Kilmer). |
tt0105156 | Poison Ivy | Sylvie Cooper (Melissa Gilbert) is a alienated and misanthropic teenage girl at a private high school for the wealthy. She first meets "Ivy" (Drew Barrymore), a poor but intelligent and highly trashy girl, at a local hangout where Ivy enjoyed rope-swinging from a tree. A young boy runs up and says, "Come on! A dog got hit!" Sylvie kneels next to the still breathing dog when all of a sudden Ivy crushes the dog's skull with a pipe (to put it out of its misery).While sitting in the office for phoning in a bomb threat to a local TV station (that Sylvie's father works for) she sees Ivy walk in and begins to talk to her. Later that day, when Sylvie's father (Tom Skeritt) picks her up, Ivy asks for a ride. At first Darrel, Sylvie's father, is reluctant, but grudgingly compromises. Ivy tells Sylvie she gets car sick and asks to ride in the front (a ruse to get near Darrel, Ivy has a bit of a fetish for older men). Ivy puts her bare feet on the dashboard and allows her mini-skirt to shrug back onto her hip revealing her legs. Darrel takes notice.A few weeks later, after Sylvie is no longer grounded, they meet again at the same hangout. They walk to Sylvie's house together, on the way Sylvie tells Ivy that Darrel is her adoptive father and that her biological father was black. She also says that she once tried to kill herself. Sylvie invites Ivy into her parent's mansion. They walk into the living room overlooking the San Fernando Valley. Ivy says that if she were to kill herself she'd like to fall. Sylvie's sickly mother, Georgie (Cheryl Ladd), walks in on their conversation, and it turns out that Sylvie was lying about her attempted suicide and her father. Georgie does not want Sylvie to be friends with Ivy initially, but Ivy later wins Georgia over by talking about her scholarship and helping her unblock her oxygen tank.In a voice-over, Sylvie narrates that Georgie liked Ivy's energy and that her mother and stepfather enjoyed Ivy so much that Ivy had practically moved in. Over the next several weeks, Ivy and Sylvie sleep in the same bed and share clothes, but when Georgie offers to lend Ivy some of her clothes because of their similar figures, Ivy begins to wear the expensive clothes.After a spat with her parents, Sylvie says she wants to do something to "make her parents cringe" and Ivy convinces her to get a tattoo so that "they can be like blood sisters".A few days later, Darrel decides to throw a party at his house to try and improve his failing career, and he enlists Sylvie to help him. When Sylvie's boss at the charity center calls Ivy picks up the phone and tells him that Sylvie can work the night of the party, which allows Ivy to fill in. She straightens her hair and wears one of Georgie's dresses. That night, after the party, she dances in the kitchen and then begins to dance with Darrel. Georgie walks in on them and storms upstairs. While Georgie and Darrel are sitting together, Ivy walks in and tells Georgie that she is sorry. She claims that Darrel came into the kitchen to cry, and that she was only hugging him to make him feel better. Georgie believes her and accepts a glass of champagne from Ivy. She then falls unconscious because of the pills Ivy had put in the champagne beforehand. Ivy sits on the bed next to Georgie, and begins to massage Darrel with her foot while he kisses her legs.Ivy appears to change over the next few days. She continues to straighten her hair and wears more and more of Georgie's clothing. Sylvie becomes increasingly irritated with Ivy and throws a fit when she finds Ivy with her dog in Georgie's sports car. She makes Fred (the dog) choose between her and Ivy. Ivy cheats and shakes the treats in her pockets while she calls Fred. That day, Sylvie skips school and tries to spend some time alone to sort things out in her head. Darrel picks Ivy up and they go out into the forest where Ivy gets Darrel drunk while they have sex. The next morning, Georgie plays a record that Sylvie made for her and walks out onto her balcony. Ivy walks up behind her and begins talking to Georgie. Then, without warning, Ivy pushes Georgie off the balcony and makes it look like a suicide (which Georgie regularly threatened).A few weeks later, Sylvie washes Georgie's old sports car and Ivy walks up with the urn holding Georgie's remains. She suggests that they take a ride as a final goodbye to Georgie. While she's driving, Ivy begins to hum the song that Georgie was playing the morning Ivy pushed her. Sylvie confronts her and Ivy crashes the car to avoid answering. Sylvie is knocked out from a severe head injury. Ivy moves the unconcious Sylvie into the driver's seat to incriminate Sylvie.In the hospital, Sylvie hallucinates that her mother is sitting in front of her. This inspires her to get back to her house in an attempt to save her father from Ivy. When she gets to her house, it is storming. She runs inside to get out of the rain, experiencing hallucinations all along the way because of her head injury. When she gets inside, she sees Darrel and Ivy having sex and flees the living room and runs outside.Darrel goes to look for Sylvie and tells Ivy to stay inside. Ivy goes up to Georgie's old room and puts in the tape that was playing the morning Georgie died. She puts on Georgie's robe and walks out onto the balcony. Sylvie is sitting outside in the storm and sees the light and, due to her very serious head injury, believes that it is her mother on the balcony. She goes up to the room. Sylvie sees her mother turn around from the balcony.Sylvie tells Georgie that she loves her and Georgie says she loves Sylvie too. They kiss, but then Sylvie comes out of her hallucination and sees that it is really Ivy. Sylvie attacks Ivy and they fight. The fight goes out onto the balcony and Sylvie pushes Ivy off her. Ivy goes off the balcony, but manages to keep from falling by holding on to Sylvie's necklace. The chain breaks and Ivy falls to her death, still clutching the necklace.The film ends with Sylvie narrating that she still loves and misses Ivy, and that she forgives her because "she was even more alone than me". | murder, melodrama | train | imdb | Drew Barrymore turns in the most memorable performance of her career, in this strange, beautifully filmed tale of betrayal and teenage alienation.
The atmosphere is almost haunting, and the relationships between the characters (especially the two teenage girl leads) are well developed enough to hold your interest.Sara Gilbert gives the film a sympathetic center, she's excellent as a bright, likeable high school girl who finds herself in far over her head when she befriends poor little bad girl Drew Barrymore.
I really enjoyed the two main characters in the movie - Cooper ( played by Sara Gilbert ) and Ivy ( Drew Barrymore is brilliant in this character ).
Ivy's loneliness soon starts to evaporate as she gains a mother in Chery Ladd, a friend in Sara Gilbert, but then she sets her eyes on Cooper's father ( played by Tom Skerrit ) and wants him in an intimate way.
All four of the main characters you can develop some feeling for, and you could even feel sorry for Drew Barrymore's Ivy, although I did feel as if sometimes some characters were simply failing to believe what was pretty obvious to everyone else.An 18-year-old Barrymore shines in this role, and Cheryl Ladd is also very convincing.A young Leonardo Di Caprio makes an appearance in a perfectly watchable (but also rather short) film, with good direction from the relatively unknown Katt Shea..
"Poison Ivy" begins rather endearingly, with high school outcast Sara Gilbert (looking like the modern equivalent of a teen beatnik) befriended by a striking blonde student with lots o' leg and a fake tattoo.
Poison Ivy is a good teenage drama movie, starring Sara Gilbert and Drew Barrymore, who both give great performances here.
When she ends up moving in with her friend, Sylvie played by Gilbert, Ivy slowly and seductively works her way into the lives of her 'new' family.
A teenage Drew Barrymore lends her undeniable sex appeal to this otherwise unremarkable erotic thriller which uses the well-worn 'family unit threatened by a wicked interloper' plot device as an excuse to deliver loads of cheap titillation.
Drew plays a sultry blonde with a troubled past who befriends socially awkward high school student Sylvie Cooper (Sara Gilbert) in order to scheme her way into her family.
Sylvie is captivated by her new BFF's wild streak, unaware that the luscious lolita has designs on her father and will kill to get what she wants...Although, on the surface, this film gives the impression of being a stylish, sexy and sophisticated thriller, with an almost noir-ish atmosphere and a cool slow-burn approach, when all is said and done, this is trash exploitation, pure and simple, as one might expect from the director of Stripped to Kill and Stripped to Kill II: Live Girls.Not that I'm complaining, mind, since I'm a big fan of the lovely Miss Barrymore, and trashy exploitation in general, and this film gave me plenty to smile about, namely miss Barrymore in a series of very sexy get-ups.6 out of 10, bumped up to 7 for all the gratuitous Drew!.
Drew Barrymore plays Ivy a Lolita-like teen that gradually moves in with a shy reclusive classmate Sylvie(Sara Gilbert)and the presence of the streetwise Ivy starts a chain reaction of mixed emotions.
Sylvie's self destructive mother(Cheryl Ladd)is jealous of her husband's(Tom Skerritt) reaction to Ivy's seductive ways.
Drew Barrymore plays a young outcast girls that befriends a rich girl and immediately starts moving in with her and trying to steal everything from her, her life, her family, everything.
Drew Barrymore never looked better than she did in this film and it's easy to see why Tom Skerritt is tempted by the teenage temptress.
Sara Gilbert, who older readers may remember from Roseanne and younger readers as an occasional actress in The Big Bang Theory, plays a very good supporting role in this tight, memorable, and erotic thriller.There is a little too much on the music playing in the background but all in all, this is a good film to kill an hour-and-a-half with, particularly as it involves Ms Barrymore at her sexy looking best in a role that she excelled in.
Poison Ivy marks Drew Barrymore's return to the big screen, and it's an impressive comeback, as a sexy seductress.
Poison Ivy is a by the numbers Fatal Attraction type of movie, with some small thrills, shock moments, plus some tame sex scenes, as mistakenly implied to the viewer by it's R rating, one brief moment including Skeritt and Drew, doing it in the buff, which probably was more more wise, considering the age difference.
...that's the basic plot of 1992's "Poison Ivy" starring Drew Barrymore in the titular role.
The movie comes from a long tradition of films about a hot little babysitter (or nanny or friend) taking control of the family by winning the hearts of the kids and seducing the husband.
In "Poison Ivy" Drew, as Ivy, plays a friend of the awkward misfit Sylvie (Sara Gilbert).
Tom Skerritt plays the slowly-seduced husband and Cheryl Ladd the withering (but still beautiful) mother."Poison Ivy" is more stylized than the aforementioned examples and technically better due to a much bigger budget.
It just goes to show that all the financial success and material possessions in the world can't buy happiness and love.Drew was almost 17 during filming and plays the sultry little tamale well, which brings up why people tend to look down on the film -- it's nothing more than a lethal Lolita tale with a slick garnishment and they write it off as trash exploitation.
Trash exploitation or not, it's good fodder for a movie, particularly if it's done stylishly, like "Poison Ivy".The film runs 88 minutes and the unrated version 93 minutes, both available on the DVD.GRADE: B+.
Drew Barrymore gives a sketchy performance in the lead role; at times she is effective, but at others she looks embarrassed with the clunky script that does the film no favours.
"Poison Ivy" follows wealthy but bookish Los Angeles teenager Sylvie (Sara Gilbert), who befriends Ivy (Drew Barrymore), a troubled girl from the wrong side of the tracks.
While their friendship begins with moments of usual teenage rebellion, Ivy's infiltration of the family unit, including Sylvie's father and ill mother (Tom Skerritt and Cheryl Ladd) grows more and more disturbed.Perhaps more of a melodrama and meditation on loneliness than the outright thriller that it sometimes is labeled as, "Poison Ivy" is a prime slice of early-nineties teen schlock, fitted with bad behavior, daddy issues, and a dolled up sixteen-year-old Drew Barrymore playing a devilish Lolita opposite an early "Roseanne"-era Sara Gilbert.
Katt Shea, who made a name for herself directing other hard-edged female-led thrillers like "Streets" and "Stripped to Kill" directs, and the movie is stylish and has some fantastic compositions scattered throughout (a gorgeous, artful overhead shot of the two girls getting into a car accident is a prime example).
Tom Skerritt plays the questionable father bewitched by the teenaged Ivy, while Cheryl Ladd has a more peripheral role as the suicidal mother.
She is taken with the sexy trashy new girl (Drew Barrymore) who has a fake Ivy tattoo on her thigh.
Sylvie befriends the new girl and gives her the name Ivy. Ivy starts insinuating into Sylvie's life causing trouble in her family and even seducing her father.Drew was shedding her child star status at the time.
(Not meant as a review)(but not to be hidden on the Board Posts either)Interestingly, the plot featured Drew Barrymore as Ivy replacing Cheryl Ladd as Mrs Cooper.
Drew Barrymore performs excellent in this movie, she plays the role of a seductress quite well, from the first scene with her friend's dad to the last seen.
It's your average, run-of-the-mill "thriller" with no thrills.Drew Barrymore plays Ivy, a psychopathic killer who moves in with the "rich, good girl" and slowly begins to wreak havoc on the girl's upper-class life.Drew Barrymore wasn't exactly showing off her acting skills in this movie.2/5 stars -John Ulmer.
Drew Barrymore plays a nameless teenage seductress given the nickname of 'Ivy' who moves in with lonely, sexually confused adopted Sylvie Cooper (Sara Gilbert of "Roseanne" fame) and her family.
From a legal standpoint, it would be considered "heresay."And not only can we not trust what Ivy tells us, we quickly learn we cannot believe what Cooper tells us either as she lies to Ivy -- and us -- by her claim of her biological father being black, and she adopted, when that wasn't true, and the lie she told Ivy -- and us -- that she cut herself trying to commit suicide, and then told us a few moments later, that THAT wasn't true, either.And Cooper's narrative time-jumps, almost as if she's in a hurry to tell her story, and within a few minutes of the movie we go from them speaking of wishing to be friends to Ivy moving in with the family.
And so the household is drawn into a web of deadly attractions where sex, lies, even murder are the weapons in a terrifying fight for survival.Well, the back of the DVD tells you enough, but let me tell you why i give this film 10/10.Drew Barrymore plays one hell of sinister character here.
poison ivy is an erotic thriller,drew Barrymore plays a wicked teenage vixen hell bent on destroying the lives of everyone around her,shes sort of a sociopath,she befriends a wealthy girl(Sara gilbert)and tries to corrupt her.tom skerrit and Cheryl ladd play Sara Gilbert's parents as many times as i seen this film i never seen Leonardo d'caprio in it.
you might call this an erotic suspense.there are two versions available an r rated and an unrated version,i recommend this movie to anyone who likes suspenseful thrillers and drew Barrymore fans.directed by katt Shea who did a little movie with roger corman called stripped to kill (1987)with Kay lenz.i give this movie 8 out of 10..
I don't necesarily see the murder as something calculating and evil, I actually got the impression that Drew Barrymores character actually liked her friends mother and that she, in her own naive way wanted to help her put an end to her misery.
Not Quite How I Remembered It. I remember seeing this a very long time ago when it was first released and being enchanted with a younger Drew Barrymore but more recently I saw this again on a DVD and all I can say is that it's not quite the way I remembered this movie.Either that or I have gotten older and my values have changed but seeing this again it really doesn't feel like the same film I saw back in 1993.
Also how underused was Sara Gilbert and Cheryl Ladd, not to mention Tom Skerrit who not IMHO had the potential to take a bigger role in this movie, instead he plays that of a lovesick middle aged man.
Drew Barrymore plays Ivy and never convinces as the teenage seductress.
I suppose it's Sylvie we're supposed to sympathize with after Ivy starts screwing things up but the way Gilbert plays the part it's real hard to feel anything for the character.
Poison Ivy was made just before her career started to take off, but unfortunately her performance here is so childish and clumsy that the first impression I got was not "hey, here's young Drew Barrymore" but more "hey, it's that kid from E.T making out with that kid from Roseanne", which gave the whole thing an awkward feel.At its core Poison Ivy is a run-of-the-mill erotic thriller of the kind that was all over in the early 90's, it's filled with clichés that have been explored in dozens of better movies from Single White Female to Swimming Pool; but Barrymore is unconvincing in the role of the seductive femme fatale, and as it is the scenes of awkward teen Barrymore seducing older Tom Skerritt just made me uncomfortable and felt like Skerritt is the real villain.
Terrible acting from some at least somewhat talented people (Barrymore, Skerritt and Sara Gilbert are all awful - Cheryl Ladd is the only one who gives a passable performance) can almost be overlooked thanks to very solid cinematography, but as the movie progresses it's impossible to not realize how silly the whole thing is.
i guess this movie is OK.it has a few good moments,but it's generally pretty slow.it is watchable for sure,but given the premise i thought they could have developed the story and the characters more.for me,the villain in the movie is a bit weak,which is something i really wish they had worked on a bit more.a stronger villain would have elevated the movie.one thing's for sure,it is a weird movie.i really like the music.it's suitably sombre.the acting is good,for what the actors had to work with.i also like the dark tone of the movie.overall though,i guess i was a little disappointed.the story had so much potential which the movie barely hinted at.for me,Poison Ivy is a 6/10.
Trashy, but entertaining film about a teenage lolita (Drew Barrymore) who gets involved with her best friend's (Sara Gilbert) dad (Tom Skerritt) and then sets about destroying the family's life, which includes murder.
Drew Barrymore is the best in this movie playing a seducing bitch!
In Poison Ivy, Drew Barrymore is sexy and bad, it's hard to believe it's her.
I liked this movie a little with Drew Barrymore's perfomance.
Drew does the best she can under the circumstances (enough to make the film perhaps much better than it should be) and the chemistry between her and Sara Gilbert is very nice, but her character needs to be more raw.
It centers the seductive, manipulative teenager Ivy (played by Drew Barrymore), who wreaks havoc on her newly found wealthy, but dysfunctional family, which she basically bought her way into through her new friend the introverted Sylvie Cooper (played by Sara Gilbert).
As Ivy slowly works her way into the disrupted family, she seduces Cooper's farther (played by Tom Skerritt) and goes as far as killing Cooper's ill mother, (played by Cheryl Ladd, post Charlie's Angels) and attempts to replace her....
Poison Ivy is appropriately titled as the lead character 'Ivy' played brilliantly by a younger,blonder and trashier looking Drew Barrymore is a conniving,deceitful bitch who moves in with her friend Sylvie Cooper (Roseanne's Sara Gilbert) and slowly begins to destroy the already messed up family.Embarking on a disturbing relationship with the older Tom Skerritt,who plays Mr Darryl Cooper,Ivy is free to move in on the guy,as his wife Mrs Cooper (Cheryl Ladd) is lying in a bed a lot of the time,and has thoughts about committing suicide,sick of her pointless life.With Mrs Cooper out of the way,Ivy seduces Mr Cooper behind her friend Sylvie's back and what happens next is chilling and disturbing as Ivy gets deeper into the life of the family and shows her true colours..
It also made a name for actress Drew Barrymore, who would later go on to high acclaim in many other comedies.Poison Ivy is something of a prototype for the B-grade erotic thriller, a genre that would be one of the 1990s' most prolific genres.
The always challenging transition from adorable child performer to sexy adult star was achieved flamboyantly by actress Drew Barrymore with this erotic drama that unfolds like a paranoia-drenched Lolita also known as Ivy.Poison Ivy is a thriller directed by Katt Shea.
It stars Drew Barrymore, Sara Gilbert, Tom Skerritt and Cheryl Ladd.Sylvie Cooper is a misanthropic student at a private high school for children of the privileged.
The movie is somewhat interesting, especially to see Barrymore and Gilbert as teenagers, but overall this story plows no new ground, and the conclusion is rather predictable.
Sara Gilbert is Sylvie Cooper and Drew Barrymore is the new student, Ivy. They hit it off right away at school and pretty soon Ivy is making herself right at home with the Coopers, practically ends up living there.The dad is Tom Skerritt as Darryl Cooper, General Manager at a local TV station and clearly wealthy.
Drew Barrymore plays Ivy a young teenager who befriends a dysfunctional girl from a wealthy dysfunctional family.
hi,i saw this with knowing about the movie.first i felt it was not a thriller,but after thirty minutes i found the story is having lot of twists.particularly the way she kill her friends mom.up to the end i saw the movie with out missing single word.at least the movie is nice.one thing i want to say i became fan of drew Barrymore,up to one month i used think about her in my dreams,i like her very much,she is a talented actress.
This is a great teenage thriller, that's quite enjoyable,with a very good story and one hell of a sexy performance from Drew Barrymore!.
This is a great teenage thriller, that's quite enjoyable,with a very good story and one hell of a sexy performance from Drew Barrymore!.
But what I was most surprised about was the very good performance by Sara Gilbert, as I hated her character on Rosanne, but I really liked her here, as she had excellent chemistry with Barrymore, plus the ending is very good and somewhat shocking!.
This is a great teenage thriller, that's quite enjoyable, with a very good story and one hell of a sexy performance from Drew Barrymore, I highly recommend this one!.
Poison Ivy is set in Los Angeles where Sylvie Cooper (Sara Gilbert) has been summoned to the principal's office at school for phoning in a bomb threat to her father's television station, there she meets & talks to the mysterious & alluring Ivy (Drew Barrymore).
The acting is pretty poor, I thought Barrymore was very wooden with no menace or sexuality about her performance at all while Tom Skerritt looks bored.Poison Ivy is a terrible erotic thriller that is neither erotic or thrilling in any way as far as I am concerned, a real damp squib of a limp wristed film that delivers nothing.
Poison Ivy. I looked at the mention of the content, sexual references, and I think Drew Barrymore is quite attractive, but not like this. |
tt0060097 | Amanti d'oltretomba | NIGHTMARE CASTLE AKA NIGHT OF THE DOOMED synopsis AKA LOVERS BEYOND THE TOMB, THE FACELESS MONSTER, ORGASMO**NOTE: In the Italian version all actors are listed by their real Italian names. In the US version they are listed by more American-sounding names. Below they are listed by their real Italian names.**Muriel Hampton Arrowsmith (Barbara Steele) has entered the lab of her husband Dr. Stephen Arrowsmith (Paul Muller) with a drink. He chastises her for entering without permission, commenting on her drinking. She acknowledges that he is leaving for a scientific conference where he will be with other fanatical good-for-nothings like yourself she taunts. He tells her not to speak to him like that. She reminds him that she is his wife and would like to spend the night with him. They kiss. Muriel notices that this has been observed by Solange (Helga Liné), who is waiting to see him off on his long journey. They say their goodbyes and he tells her he will only be a couple of days gone. The carriage is brought up by David (Rik Battaglia) who asks about the new plants. He is told to water them in the greenhouse. Dr. Arrowsmith leaves.Muriel goes to the piano and plays music. Hearing this, David drops what he is doing and heads into the house to meet her. Muriel disrobes, puts on her nightgown and perfume and begins passionate kissing with David, which progresses to the bed. She stops, suggesting they are too near Solanges room and they should go to the greenhouse. Once there, they lie down and begin passionate kissing.Outside we see Dr. Arrowsmith waiting and watching for a signal from Solange. From an upstairs window we see a light flashing back and forth. Holding his cane, he enters the greenhouse and confronts the lovers. He strikes David in the face with his cane, then his wife. Next we see both of them strung up on a wall with Stephen whipping them. He uses a heated poker on David. Next we see Stephen pouring a glass of water from a pitcher. Both look thirsty and Muriel begs for a sip. He brings it close, then pours it out. She curses him with her hatred, but then confesses that she recently remade her will, leaving all her wealth to her step-sister Jenny.Stephen is pouring through a book, presumably a law book, as he plans what he will do. Solange tells him he will have to keep her alive, but that Solange wants her share of the money that he has promised her. He reassures her that he will win and Solange will get what is coming to her. Then he says Jenny will inherit the money, but everyone knows Jenny is mad. She will be confined to a mental hospital and he will discover the cure.Next we see Muriel and David in the bedroom with Muriel chained to the bed and David chained to a chair. Stephen drips acid onto Muriel from a contraption and she cries out. David cries out as well, seeing her suffer. Stephen releases him from the chair and he rises, to be pushed onto the bed with her. Still shackled on his feet with wires connected, Stephen turns on a switch which electrocutes them both in bed. They cry out.Stephen is seen removing her heart from her corpse, which he places in a water tank along with the heart of David. Next we see her ashes placed in an urn with a strange plant.Stephen arrives at the castle with Jenny, who he has just married, having gotten her from the asylum. Solange is annoyed that he married her against their plan. He consoles Solange (who appears years younger) that once Jenny is insane enough to commit that he will be named over her estate and then Solange will get her money. In the meantime, he will see to it that Jenny goes mad.He prepares a hallucinogen to be added to Jennys drink which Solange adds. That night Jenny hears two hearts beating and gets up. She opens a door to find wind and a laughing womans voice. Seeing the plant, which has almost bloomed, she notices drops of blood beside it. She gets back in bed with Stephen, who pretends to be asleep. Later she tells him about her dream and the blood. He tells her it is only a nightmare.Jenny and Stephen are seen at a fountain with white doves. Jenny asks questions about Muriel and Stephen fills her in. She apologizes to Stephen for her outburst last night. He tells her if could be nothing other than delirium, which he hopes will not happen again. Solange comes to tell him that the lab is ready. He goes with her, leaving Jenny at the fountain.In the lab, he finds that one vial is still present in the cabinet: the vial of hallucinogen that Jenny was supposed to have received last night. Solange apologizes and says it couldnt be. He insists otherwise, but tells her that regardless, Jenny seems to not need the drug to go over the edge. He kisses Solange.Jenny finds the sheet music on the piano and asks if Muriel wrote it. She is told that Muriel occasionally did write music. Jenny attempts to play the theme. As the music plays, she seems to become more like Muriel and asks for a drink. The servant brings it, and she remarks that she likes it. Stephen throws down a medical journal that he doesnt care for and complains about the doctor who wrote it. After the music has stopped, he notices that Jenny is gone. He and Solange go to her room, but she is not there. Then a scream is heard. Solange says that it comes from below. They head toward the passage leading down to the crypt. Another scream is heard before they reach it. At the bottom of the stairs, they push open a door to find Jenny white as a ghost, collapsing. Stephen carries her up to her bed. They discuss what happened and she cannot remember parts of it, only that her hands were bloody and she tried to remove the covering to the crypt. He tells her it was all in her imagination. She insists that the door to the crypt was locked, but he says no, it was easily opened when he pushed on it. He tells her that her condition frequently causes things to seem impossible. She begs him not send her back to the asylum and he agrees, but tells her he wants her to get better. Dr. Joyce (Marino Masé) will come and take care of her, since he did for so many years at the hospital.When Dr. Joyce arrives, he is greeted by Stephen and Jenny, who tries to sweep him away to the woods. Stephen intervenes, suggesting that the doctor has just arrived. Dr. Joyce says it is all right, but Jenny agrees that her husband is right, leaving and going inside.Dr. Joyce talks to Jenny about remembering all that has happened to her. He says Stephen has told him everything that has happened recently. She remembers something about David but gets confused. He asks what happened. She tells him that someone else takes over her mind and that then she gets confused. She remembers the crypt and the greenhouse, so they go there in an effort to remember. She says someone was kissing her, but she cant remember who. Someone else came in and struck him. She tells Dr. Joyce that she lost an earring which should be in the leaves below. When he finds it, she seems to recognize it but then when questioned further becomes confused. He suggests maybe she lost it another time. Then she admits that it is not her earring and she has never seen it before.In Dr. Arrowsmiths study, Solange breaks a bottle and he chides her, telling her he was able to restore her youth but not her mind. She reminds him that it is not her mind that he needs. Dr. Joyce comes in to discuss Jennys condition, showing him the earring that she found in the greenhouse. Stephen tells Solange to go find the other earring in Jennys room. Going to a secret location, Solange gets the other earring and goes to Jennys room (which Stephen says has changed per Dr. Joyce). She slips it into the jewel box and tells Jenny the Doctor wants to see it. When Jenny shows her jewelry to Dr. Joyce, she finds the other earring and becomes confused. Stephen brings over the other one, explaining that they are Muriels earrings and that Jenny has never worn them. Confused, she leaves the room.At dinner, Dr. Joyce is discussing wizards and witches of Africa who made contact with the dead, when suddenly Jenny rises, announcing she is tired and will turn it. Stephen tells her he will follow immediately. Jenny leaves and the doctors discuss her condition. All at once Solange cries out, having apparently cut herself. Stephen attends to her, telling Dr. Joyce he will have to take her to the lab to prevent a hemorrhage. He explains that she has a rare blood disorder but that it is nothing. As they leave the room, Dr. Joyce notices her place at the table, looking closely at it. The butler comes in and asks if he wants anything, to which he replies no. Announcing that he will go to his room, he leaves. The butler also looks at the place he was looking.Upstairs, Dr. Joyce finds his room locked and knocks, asking who is there. Behind him there is a noise and he looks around to find a passageway opening in a panel in the wall. He goes through.In the lab, Stephen tells Solange that they will need new blood. He draws some from a container and gives her an injection. He says this worked for now but soon they will need some new solution.Jenny awakens to the sound of the hearts beating. She hears Muriels voice telling her that her blood is being used down in the laboratory and to hurry. Jenny gets up and begins to go.Dr. Joyce finds himself in the crypt looking at graves. He finds Muriels crypt and the lid slides over, revealing it to be empty.Jenny enters the lab and picking up a scalpel, he goes to attack Stephen, who is attending to Solange. Solange cries out as she sees her coming. Striking his face with the scalpel, Jenny renders a cut on Stephen just as Dr. Joyce enters. He takes Jenny back to her room. Solange tells Stephen that it was not the face of Jenny but Muriel.In her room, Jenny draws Dr. Joyce to sit in bed with her. He speaks to her and she looks strangely at him, asking who he is. She tells him she is not Jenny, but Muriel and kisses him. Again he calls Jenny and she kisses him again. Suddenly the doors fly open and a breeze blows through. Seeing no one, Dr. Joyce returns to Jenny, who asks if he saw what she saw. He tells her that he will find out what it was. In the greenhouse, Jenny asks the doctor what Muriel wants with her. He tells her that she must leave these surroundings in order to get better.Solange tells Stephen that the doctor is now a threat and cannot be allowed to leave the castle. He agrees with her. At that moment Dr. Joyce enters and asks to speak to him. Solange leaves. He tells Stephen that he will take Jenny back to the clinic in the morning so she can get better. Stephen agrees and Dr. Joyce retires to his room, beginning to write. Next he calls the butler to prepare his bath. Meanwhile Stephen drills a hole in the wall in the bathroom and connects wires to electrocute Dr. Joyce when he steps into the tub. Before Joyce can do that, the butler returns with towels and fixes them on a rack by the tub. As he brushes by the tub, he accidently knocks the soap bar into the water. Hearing activity, Stephen prepares to throw the switch and does. When he reaches for the soap he cries out as he is electrocuted. Dr. Joyce removes him and next they are seen discussing his death. Joyce pronounces a heart attack and Stephen tells Solange to take Jenny away.Stephen asks Joyce to prepare a death certificate and help move his body back to his room. When that is done, Joyce wants to light a candle for the dead while Stephen leaves. After they both leave the room, the butlers hand falls to the side, revealing a burn on his wrist from the electric shock.Solange meets Stephen in the hall, confessing she is frightened and uncertain of what to do now. He reassures her everything will go as planned. He goes to speak to Jenny, telling her she has been through a shock. She says she is anxious to leave in the morning with Dr. Joyce. At this point he turns on her, accusing Dr. Joyce of manipulating her because she is weak, beautiful and rich. She swears he has done nothing wrong and that they have been friends for many years. He tells her he saw them holding hands in the greenhouse and that he doesnt want to lose her. He persuades her to come with him to Spain or Italy and she agrees.Next we see Dr. Joyce reluctantly telling Jenny that it will be good for her to go elsewhere. She acts as if he might be talking down to her. He tells her he will be leaving in the morning, but that he is very fond of her and if she ever needs anything for her to call upon him. She cries.That night she is dreaming as Muriel again and Dr. Joyce comes in and observes her as she writhes. He asks if it is Muriel and asks where her body is and who killed her. When Stephen comes into the room, he hides behind draperies. Jenny screams when she sees Stephen.Solange begs Stephen for the blood of Jenny to replenish her, saying that Muriels blood is heavy within her, like mercury. He promises that Jennys blood will be available soon.Next morning Dr. Joyce is saying goodbye when Jenny approaches and asks why he is leaving. She asks him if he likes the Hampton Crest which is at the base of a statue of two lovers. She seems more like Muriel. He bids them goodbye and leaves. Solange seems in pain waiting for the new blood.Jenny is seen in her room, packing. Thunder is heard outside. Jenny approaches Stephen and calls him. He comes toward her with a murderous look and slaps her down. Grabbing her, he tells Solange to come to the lab. Meanwhile in the rain we see Dr. Joyce who has returned and enters the castle. Inside, he looks at the Hampton Crest, finally turning it clockwise, which opens a cabinet door. Inside is the container with the two hearts of Muriel and David. He carries it to the desk and removes the dagger. The cries of Muriel and David are heard by Dr. Joyce and seen looking down from a high position.In the lab Stephen tells Jenny that her sister is calling her and that we will no longer have to deal with hearing her cries anymore. Solange cries out that she cant stand it. Stephen brings cotton dipped in ether and puts Jenny to sleep. Solange is told to lie on the other berth. After they are connected with tubes, Stephen tells Solange it will take about two hours and for her to remain still while he prepares for the trip the three of them will make.Stephen comes out and sees Muriel and David with their wounds, facing Dr. Joyce. Stephen hits Joyce from behind with a candlestick, knocking him out. Muriel takes Stephen aside, telling him she will help him see the ecstasy of pain and death that she has. As he pulls her hair aside, he sees her hideously deformed face. She laughs and secures him in the chair, throwing a candle and setting him on fire. Meanwhile David enters the lab and Solange, seeing him, screams. He cuts the blood line, laughing, and it drips on the floor. Next we see Stephens chair with his body completely burnt up. Muriel stops laughing. Solange is shown back in her old body again as David laughs, destroying the lab equipment. Next we see Solange as only a skeleton.Dr. Joyce recovers and stands up. David approaches Jenny on the table and shakes her. She awakens and screams. At this point Dr. Joyce comes in and pulls David away into the lab which is filling with smoke. He picks Jenny up and carries her out. Upstairs they lock the doors to keep David out and turn to run. Jenny is horrified to see Muriel coming toward them. David breaks the doors open and comes in. At this point Dr. Joyce takes the two hearts and throws them into the fire. As they burn, Muriel and David disappear. Dr. Joyce and Jenny run outside into the rain. As they pause and look back, he tells her she is safe now and will have no more problems from Muriel. The two hearts are shown again burning in the fireplace. | paranormal, insanity, revenge, gothic, murder | train | imdb | This movie uses Steele to full advantage, and even casts the sultry, sinister star in a dual role, much like Mario Bava's classic BLACK SUNDAY.
However, her hubby finds that this may not have been the great revenge he thought it would be because his wife left her inheritance to her mentally unbalanced sister(Steele again, this time in a blonde wig).
The stunning Barbara Steele, arguably the most beautiful Scream Queen of all, plays a duel role as an unfaithful wife, who is tortured and murdered by her scientist husband (Jess Franco regular Paul Muller), and the wife's mentally fragile sister.
Steele and Muller are both excellent and well cast, and their performances added to the stylish black and white photography, and an above average Morricone score, make this is a real treat for fans of Italian horror and giallo..
Lushly Gothic visuals, a great score and Barbara Steele....what more could you want from an Italian horror film?.
Our protagonist isn't taking this lying down, however, and it isn't long before he's returning to the castle with a new bride
Just like she did in Mario Bava's masterpiece "Black Sunday", Barbara Steele takes on a dual role.
The plot gives way to a beautiful set of locations; the lushly Gothic castle photographed in the same cinematic style as the best black and white films that Italian cinema has to offer.
Great Italian Gothic horror with the queen of blackness Barbara Steele..
Italian queen of Gothic horror Barbara Steele portrays the wife of a deranged scientist played by Paul Muller whose latest experiments involve electro-stimulation of human blood.When the mad doctor discovers that his wife is unfaithful,he tortures,disfigures and kills her alongside her gardener lover,then removes and preserves the hearts of the victims,using their blood to restore youth and beauty to his own lover Solange.When the madman discovers that his late wife left all her wealth to her mentally unstable sister he quickly sets about courting and marrying the poor girl,then proceeds to drive her completely mad in order to inherit her fortune."Nightmare Castle" is an essence of Italian Gothic horror.It takes place almost entirely in castle interiors,frequently in utter darkness.There are some scenes of depressing violence and the visuals are rich and beautiful.The hypnotic eyes of Barbara Steele are not easy to forget.9 out of 10..
The black and white really sets a mood and the fact the blood is black (because it can't be red) makes it seem even more sinister than it had to be.Luca Palmerini calls this one an "elegantly executed story of love after death." Director Mario Caiano (under the name Allan Grunewald) is upstaged the same year by Mario Bava's "Planet of the Vampires", though I daresay the former is better.
It's a tribute to the strength of Barbara Steele's acting (not to mention her surreal beauty) that this, perhaps on the lower-rung of her Sixties Italian horror films, is still such a superlative experience.
Now that Retromedia has issued a widescreen, pretty clean, uncut 100 minute version of the film on region 1 DVD under one of the alternate titles - THE FACELESS MONSTER - Steele fans and Italian horror fans in general can put away the cut versions (NIGHTMARE CASTLE) and enjoy the movie properly, previously only available in the PAL format from Salvation on videotape (NIGHT OF THE DOOMED.) From that period of time which made her an absolute icon of the genre, and with two masterful films yet to come, especially AN ANGEL FOR SATAN.
But then, the film becomes a talky soap opera, centering around the bad woman's mousy twin sister (played by a blonde Steele) Somebody should have told the director audiences don't want to see their character a colorless, cheerless, unemotional, unimaginative nothing.
Decent Italian Gothic horror with Barbara Steele in a double role (!).
NIGHTMARE CASTLE (Mario Caiano - Italy 1965).Barbara Steele is the wife of a brutal count.
Usually I like Barbara Steele's movies, but Mario Caiano's "Amanti d'oltretomba" ("Nightmare Castle" in English) is a little too slow-moving.
The last scene of the movie looks amazing with Barbara in a ghostly white negligee and long wild black hair covering half her face as she comes back from the dead to seek revenge.
Good thing Doctor Dereck (mase) arrives at the nightmarish castle to help.The movie's richly photographed with glaring close-ups and deep shadow that highlight the Gothic horror.
Barbara Steele has two roles in this somewhat ridiculous thriller that takes the plot of, of all things, The Corpse Vanishes and mixes it up with, of all things, Gaslight, to form a mishmash of different styles, some of it works, some of it doesn't.After killing his newlywed wife after finding her with the Gardner, Dr. Arrowsmith (played quite chillingly by Paul Miller), almost the next day, weds her lookalike sister, just to have a hold on the huge estate his ex-newlywed had.
But soon, the doctor and the sister realize some strange things about the doctor, and if the house is truly haunted or not.Although the plot is somewhat ridiculous, and the dubbing atrocious, Barbara Steele IS easy on the eyes, and Paul Miller is quite fun to watch.
Things turn bad for the scientist as the wife informs him that she had made her step sister (Barabara Steele) the nominee of the property.....The isolated castle with its huge rooms appeared eerie, the atmosphere towards the end with the rainfall n the acting were the only good aspects.
When scientist Dr. Stephen Arrowsmith (Paul Muller) catches his unfaithful wife Muriel (Barbara Steele) with her lover David (Rik Battaglia), he takes revenge by torturing and killing them (using acid and electrocution!).
With a little help from his housemaid and mistress, Solange (Helga Liné), who he has made youthful with a serum made from Muriel's blood, Stephen puts his plan into motion, calling on Jenny's doctor Dereck Joyce (Marino Masé) to observe his new wife's behaviour; however, Stephen doesn't count on the vengeful spirits of Muriel and David to get in his way.With star Steele playing dual roles, brunette and blonde, the actress fetishistically bound and tortured, Nightmare Castle is definitely going to appeal to her legion of fans.
His old woman sidekick Solange is also there to help out, as every murderous cuckold can't get all the heart removing done by himself.Some time later, Steven is now married to Jenny, Muriel's twin sister (Steele, only with blonde hair this time).
Compared to the other 600 or so Italian Gothic horror films I've watched recently, this one drags a bit, but then again the talents of Steele and Muller and the music of Morricone save this from being a total bore-fest.
"Nightmare Castle" aka "The Faceless Monster" aka "Night of the Doomed" aka "Lovers Beyond the Grave" - whatever name you call the film it is a good Gothic horror Italian film.The copy of the film I have is dubbed in the English language quite good.
We have a large creepy house, ghosts, a mad doctor, Jenny who is a woman seemingly going mad, greed, lust, revenge & murder - all are the makings for a good horror film.I have to say this IS a ghost film but the ghosts seem similar to zombies because they can be touched and pushed so I guess they can materialize and solidify their bodies into flesh again.
their is a lot of blood guts , and gore in this one,, not for the squeamish that's for sure,, Barbara Steele while not her greatest role,, she does very well with her part , and is sexy , and beautiful as ever, this is one woman I would definitely not want one my bad side, very fun flick..
"Nightmare Castle" (1965) is a mildly enjoyable horror film starring the ever-creepy Barbara Steele.
In a nutshell, scream queen Barbara Steele (Black Sunday, "The Winds of War", "War and Remembrance") get caught dallying with her lover and is tortured by her husband (Paul Muller).
She plays her step-sister in a dual role, and her ex has to figure out how to get their money.The film features a great score by Ennio Morricone.The atmosphere is terrific and the movie is suspenseful.
Dr. Arrowsmith (Paul Muller) kills his unfaithful wife (Barbara Steel) and her lover.
Years later, the doctor's new wife (Barbara Steel again) starts having nightmares that seem to be related, but she may just be mentally unstable.
This is a pretty average melodramatic thriller and while Barbara Steel is (or was rather) a great genre actress this film isn't among her best.
He tortures and kills his wife Muriel (Barbara Steele) and her lover only to remarry his wife's sister (Jenny - also played by Steele) who inherited her fortune.Now living in the castle of her dead sister, Jenny is haunted by visions of madness, caused by the two souls seeking redemption for their brutal torture and subsequent murders.Some good spooky scenes combined with some eerie atmospheres.
Hoping to continue his lifestyle and his experiments, the count manipulates the sister and marries her, hoping to eliminate her as he did his first wife, not knowing that the spirits of his wife and her lover are out for revenge," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.Barbara Steele (as brunette Muriel Arrowsmith and blonde Jenny Arrowsmith) is the main attraction.
Nightmare Castle (1965) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Dr. Arrowsmith (Paul Muller) leaves his home only to sneak back and see his wife Muriel (Barbara Steele) in the arms of another man.
Before the wife died she informed him that she left her estate to her half-sister Jenny (Steele) so the doctor marries her but it doesn't take long for the dead wife and her lover to return from the dead.NIGHTMARE CASTLE is yet another Italian horror film that Scream Queen Steele appeared it.
The film also benefits from some strong cinematography and a nice score by Ennio Morricone.NIGHTMARE CASTLE doesn't quite reach the level of some of Steele's other movies like CASTLE OF BLOOD and THE HORRIBLE DR.
The cuckolded husband (Paul Muller) is determined to torture and kill his wife (Barbara Steele) and her lover (Rik Battaglia).
He cuts out their hearts and goes on enjoying her money.Dr. Arrowsmith (Muller), much to the surprise of his housekeeper Solange (Helga Liné), marries his wife's twin Jenny (also played by Barbara Steele).Writer/director Mario Caiano, who also gave us the gem Nazi Love Camp 27, manages to tell a compelling story.
Barbara Steele plays the wife and stepsister and this movie is pretty much owned by her good performance.
Directed by Mario Caiano, it stars Barbara Steele who was championed by horror film directors in Italy and who once upon a time even starred in Fellini's 8 1/2.
Fans of the ravishing goddess Barbara Steele will immediately rank "Nightmare Castle" among their favorites, simply because she plays a lovely double-role.
After such brilliant films as "Black Sunday" (1960), "The Pit And The Pendulum" (1961) and "Castle Of Blood" (1964), "Gli Amanti D'Oltretomba" aka "Nightmare Castle" of 1965 is yet another mesmerizing and highly atmospheric Gothic Horror tale starring Horror-goddess Barbara Steele (my favorite actress of all-time) that must not be missed by any true Horror fan.
- Aided by his maid Solange (Helga Liné), the ruthless Dr. Stephen Arrowsmith (Paul Mueller), who conducts bizarre experiments in his eerie castle, catches his beautiful wife, Countess Muriel Arrowsmith (Barbara Steele) red handed with her lover (Giuseppe Addobbati).
Since it was his wife, who brought the wealth into the marriage, he then marries his wife's kind-hearted, but emotionally disturbed sister Jenny (also Barbara Steele), whom Muriel has made beneficiary in her will.
While the Doctor has his own plans with Jenny, his late wife's sister seems strangely possessed when she comes to live at the castle..."Nightmare Castle" is a vastly underrated little genre-gem that delivers pure Gothic Horror greatness in every aspect.
The great acting comes particularly from the wonderful Barbara Steele, who once again delivers a brilliant performance in her double role as Muriel/Jenny Arrowsmith.
Paul Mueller is furthermore great and wonderfully evil in his role as the unscrupulous Doctor Stephen Arrowsmith, and Helga Liné is very good as his accomplice, the maid Solange.
Barbara Steele plays a duel role as an unfaithful wife; and, her mentally fragile sister.
Despite being obviously the same person, it's easy to suspend one's disbelief because the characters are so completely different – the wig doesn't hurt either.The plot gives way to Dr. Stephen Arrowsmith marrying the sister, to keep his hands on his late-wife's fortune (of course after torturing her and her lover in the first part of the movie).
Barbara Steele stars in another great Gothic horror!.
There are also several good looking guys in the cast, especially Laurence Clift as a compassionate doctor who takes a liking to Jenny.So make sure to check this one out if you enjoy Gothic horror as much as I do.
All the characters are great, and I loved the creepy setting as well, plus Barbara Steele and Paul Muller are simply amazing in this!.
The score is especially awesome, as it's quite chilling, and Barbara Steele gives a tour De force performances as both Muriel and Jenny, plus Paul Muller, is absolutely brilliant as the sadistic scientist.
A crazy scientist catches his wife cheating and tortures both her and her lover to death, after he marries her sister because she inherits the castle and the ghosts come back for revenge.The movie is full of horror clichés.
Crazy scientists, castles, ghosts, screaming, but in the atmosphere of a 60's Gothic horror movie those clichés seem to be kind of charming.
The castle and the fact that it is black/white make it look very chilling and one really feels the haunted atmosphere that is the positive part of this movie.Another great thing that saves this movie from a 2/10 rating is the fact that the "Queen of Scream" Barbara Steele is actually playing a dual role.
It is of course not very scary for our time, but seeing Muriel play the organ in the castle at the beginning of the movie made me think that I will love it.
Paul Muller is great in the role of a crazy scientist and I was surprised to see that this is the only part Laurence Clift has played.This movie is not something that I would consider a classic, but it is beautiful and something one could enjoy on a thunder night in in a dark room while eating candy.
This atmospheric Italian period Gothic features one of Barbara Steele's greatest performances.
Clearly made to cash-in on the success of Mario Bava's "Black Sunday", Steele plays dual-roles as woman and monster in both films.
Steele has played this type of role many times before, most notably in the cult classic "Black Sunday", and while her part is fun to watch (as always), the technical flaws of this badly dubbed film are sometimes difficult to stand.
It's quite creepy and effective for the film and fits right in to the story being shown.Story involves a jealous doctor (Paul Muller) who catches his wife Muriel (Barbara Steele) in the arms of her lover, their stableman, David (Rik Battaliga) inside the greenhouse.
There, he finds out that he has been left out of his wife's will and that all her wealth will go to her step sister Jenny (again played by Steele) that will not only make him poor but will put an end to his mad experiments in his quest for the fountain of youth.
Only when Muriel's preserved heart is thrown into the fire will her spirit find peace.This film has excellent atmospherics and a creepy 17th century castle to boot, much like Steel's earlier CASTLE OF BLOOD (1964) had.
Once Muriel and her lover are killed of and half sister Jenny comes into play it becomes basically a movie with a long slow burning build-up to a good albeit unsurprising climax.
Caught having an affair, "Muriel Arrowsmith" (Barbara Steele) and her lover "David" (Rik Battaglia) are tortured and killed by her angry and sadistic husband "Dr. Stephen Arrowsmith" (Paul Muller).
After killing Muriel, Dr. Arrowsmith then marries her half-sister, "Jenny" (also Barbara Steele) and because of her frail mental condition tries to push her over the edge so that he can claim the family inheritance from both her and Muriel.
The doctor torturing his unfaithful wife and her lover fits the persona of a mad doctor which gets this film off to a good start.
What is the only reason for seeing this film - if you like Barbara Steele then you get to see her twice playing twins..
A cheating wife and her lover are murdered by a jealous husband, the wife's stepsister (dual role, played by Barbara Steele); is targeted by his interests, to claim a fortune.The stepsister is prone to fits of psychological complication, and throughout the film; she is frightened to the near point of insanity.The attempts, to drive his stepsister insane; they do not go quite as planned.Nightmare castle, is a good movie.
Barbara Steele once again gets to play a dual role, and also gets to dish out/be at the receiving end of some terrible torture.
A Gothic tale of murder and revenge from the grave.*Special Stars- Barbara Steel plays the wife.*Theme- Justice is for everyone.*Based on- 19th century ghost stories.*Trivia/location/goofs- Is online.
"Nightmare Castle" has one of the best opening lines of any film I've seen - "At this rate you'll destroy all the frogs in the entire county, my dear." So says Muriel Arrowsmith (brunette Barbara Steele) to her pseudo scientist husband Steven (Paul Muller).
To maintain the huge estate left behind by Muriel, Steven schemes to marry Muriel's sister Jenny (blonde Barbara Steele).
Borrowing a plot element from 1958's "The Screaming Skull", Steven intends to drive his new wife slowly insane with the help of lover Solange (Helga Line), an ageless beauty thanks to the scientist's youth inducing blood transfusions.Hampton Castle is the perfect setting for the grim proceedings in a film that has some trouble finding it's real purpose. |
tt0118248 | 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea | The film begins on a rainy night with a haunting nightmare experienced by Professor Pierre Arronax; water seeps in through under the door and as he opens it, he is submerged in water and is falling toward a sea monster. He lands in a net and struggles to get out. He wakes up to see water outside of his window and then the door suddenly opens seeing a figure taunting him, saying "Little man." At this point, Arronax wakes up to the morning sun. He then arrives late at a conference to scientific community. His theory of a giant sea narwhal is scoffed at by all in attendance. The presence of his father, Thierry Arronax and mistress, Lydia Rawlings does little to support Arronax.Arronax boards a train with a companion, Edward Saxon and goes out of his way to make a seat for Cable Attucks, a African-American from New Orleans, Louisiana. They then go on to meet Ned Land, a Canadian sailor and harpooner and from there board the USS Abraham Lincoln, headed by Admiral McCutcheon. A while into the voyage, Ned spots a humpback whale and prepares to harpoon it. Cabe takes note and disagrees. The two get into a fight. Soon after, the sea monster has been spotted; the ship fires but cannon balls merely bounce off the creature.The ship is rammed, sending Arronax, Ned, and Cabe overboard. They find themselves on the outside of the creature, now revealed to be a submarine and are knocked out by gas released from below . The trio soon meets the enigmatic Captain Nemo who has them thrown into a holding cell. Inexplicably soon after, they're being given a tour of the Nautilus. Meanwhile, the injured Lincoln is at sea, and the captain asks for Pierre's diary.The trio on the Nautilus descend with Nemo onto sea floor in diving suits. They encounter Imei (an Asian diving girl ) and rescue her before a bomb detonates, killing a crew member (Nelson?) attempting to repair it. Afterwards, Nemo once again locks up the three guests. Shortly, they attempt to escape only of course for Nemo to block it. Cabe Attucks gets in a fight with Nemo and after a pitched battle, Attucks subdues Nemo. Nemo simply gets up and gains a chokehold defeating Attucks.Nemo was angry and Arronax pledged to repair the Nautilus for Nemo. Arronax hits on the metal and hurts his hands. He went outside to seek for help. Arronax hits on a secret gate and detects a woman onboard.Arronax dreamt on the same nightmare again.When arronax woke up, Nemo visits him and tells Arronax that his hand is disabled, then Nemo shows him a mechanical hand, which has a mechanism to self destruct the Nautilus in an emergency. Arronax finds that he too has a mechanical hand.When Arronax asked Nemo destination, Nemo did not reveal.He goes after the mysterious lady and eventually Cabe Attucks and him meet her along with Imei. She is Nemo's daughter, Mara.Mara explains Geoeconomy to Arronax and Arronax said he knew GEO-ECONOMY but did not know who is Mara's father. Nemo coincidely comes to Mara's room and catches Arronax and Attucks up and told Arronax never visit Mara again.Mara explains the goal of detonating undersea charges set at various points along the sea floor around the globe in an effort to prevent earthquakes from ever happening again.The sub later encounters a lava underwater field and suffers great damage externally and internally. It surfaces in artic to repair wounds and etc.Arronax turned to ask Mara the destination. Mara "if my daddy can not discuss it with you I can not neither"When they nearly reached Atlantis, Arronax saw window "Atlantis!!!!"Mara nodded her head. Nemo brought all people to the destination , ATLANTIS . Arronax was happy.Arronax and Mara looked on the stars on sky. Mara asked Arronax why he pretend stupid. ...Arronax hid in his room writing Diaries and spoke that "what Plato said was right!"when they returned to ship, Ned was going to attack Mara, Arronax chokeheld Ned and saved Mara.Ned land soon escapes but is tracked down. in jail, Ned Land asked for Carving knife and Arronax "would you think Nemo would let you have the knife."Arronax was going to plead for Ned , Nemo "if you come here to plead me release your friend or support Mara. dont waste you breath. "Arronax was going to leave. Nemo pointed to wall heroes/historic figures, "do you know who these men are"Arronax" Italian Mann, Irish Okonroye, O-See-Yo-s-Fo, Poland and Albrain Lincoin."Nemo "Liberators all"Arronax "Dont you feel that you are a pressive monk?" and left nemo.Nemo invited Arronax to his room, to dine with himself. Then the Voyage reached UTOPIAThierry Arronax rival ship army comes.Mara "I can not see my father diligence into ruins"Mara left but unluckily, Mara was caught by Thierry Arronax, and Nemo fired trepedo, Mara was on Thierry's ship and was killed.The Lincoln tracks the nautilus and begins its second assault, this time pouding the Natilus into submission.among all people only Arronax alive."January the first, 19 Hundred. As a new day to a new century I start writing diaries. Cabe and Imei found me and save me back to the shore...no one now believes that Nemo and Nautilus theory, but it's great. at least it can make Nemo and Mara no need to avoid being found. everytime when I open the boat, I start thinking, where would Nemo and Mara locates? Once Nemo said, to live gentleman, the embrace of the sea, here is the independence, here I realise no master. HERE I AM FREE" | sci-fi | train | imdb | null |
tt0040458 | I Remember Mama | Upon completing the last lines of her autobiographical novel, youthful Katrin Hanson reminisces about her family life: In 1910, in a modest San Francisco house, Katrin's Norwegian-born mother, Marta Hanson, computes the weekly budget with help from her husband Lars, daughters Katrin, Christine and Dagmar and son Nels. When the adolescent Nels declares his desire to attend high school, Marta is pleased, but realizes their "little bank" lacks sufficient funds to pay for his education. After each family member offers to make a monetary sacrifice so that Nels may continue his schooling, Trina, Marta's spinster sister, drops by to speak privately with Marta. To Marta's surprise, Trina announces that she is marrying Peter Thorkelson, a homely undertaker, and begs Marta to break the news to their sisters, Sigrid and Jenny, who Trina fears will laugh at her. As predicted, the bossy Jenny and whiny Sigrid laugh upon hearing of the engagement, but when Marta threatens to reveal embarrassing anecdotes about them to Trina, the sisters agree to keep quiet. Later that evening, Jonathan Hyde, the Hansons' erudite, penniless lodger, reads to them from Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities , and the entire family, especially fledgling writer Katrin, is deeply moved by the story. Soon after, the family is visited by Marta's overbearing but big-hearted uncle, Chris Halvorsen, who drives into the city with his common law wife, Jessie Brown. When the lame Chris, whose loud, gruff ways strike fear in the Hanson children, learns that Dagmar, the youngest daughter, is severely ill with mastoiditis, he insists on driving her to the hospital. Because they disapprove of Jessie, Sigrid and Jenny attempt to stop Chris, but he bullies his way past them with Dagmar and Marta in tow. Then the meek Trina and Peter reveal their engagement to Chris, the family's head, and are relieved to receive his blessing. Although Dagmar's operation is a success, Marta is forbidden to see her by the hospital staff. At home, Marta, who promised Dagmar she would visit immediately after the operation, becomes increasingly agitated about the separation and begins scrubbing the floor nervously. Marta's scrubbing inspires a plan: Impersonating a floor-scrubbing maid at the hospital, Marta sneaks into Dagmar's ward and sings a Norwegian lullaby to help her frightened daughter fall asleep. Sometime later, when a recovered Dagmar returns home, she learns that her cat, Uncle Elizabeth, is very ill. Despite Dagmar's belief in her mother's curative powers, Marta feels helpless to save the wounded cat and sends Nels to buy some chloroform with which to kill it. The other children, meanwhile, see Mr. Hyde leaving the house with his suitcases, and Marta discovers that he has left them a check for his overdue rent, as well as his book collection. The family's joy at receiving Mr. Hyde's check is soon undone when Sigrid and Jenny inform them that their lodger has no bank account. Although Sigrid and Jenny are indignant over Mr. Hyde's deception, wise Marta declares that his gift of literature is payment enough. Marta then applies the chloroform to Uncle Elizabeth, but is astounded when, the next morning, an unsuspecting Dagmar marches off with a sleepy but very alive cat. Later, as Katrin nears her school graduation date, she brags to Christine that Marta is going to buy her a much-coveted dresser set as a present. Although the younger, envious Christine tells her that Marta is planning to give her their grandmother's brooch, Katrin does receive the dresser set. As Katrin is about to leave to perform "Portia" in her school's production of The Merchant of Venice , however, Christine informs her that Marta sold her beloved brooch in order to buy the dresser set. Crushed by this revelation, Katrin performs badly in the play, and later presents her mother with her brooch, which she exchanged for the dresser set. Touched by Katrin's gesture, Marta gives her the brooch and scolds Christine for telling. Then, to mark her entrance into adulthood, Katrin's father serves her coffee for the first time. Sometime later, Marta is notified that Uncle Chris is near death, and she takes Katrin to say goodbye to him at his ranch. The alcoholic but still feisty Uncle Chris reveals to Marta that he has no money to leave her, and confesses that he and Jessie have been married for years but have been silent about it because of his nieces' snubbing. After enjoying a last drink with Jessie and Marta, Uncle Chris dies. Marta then tells her sisters the truth about Jessie and that Uncle Chris had long been donating money to help poor lame children. Having "seen" death, Katrin returns to San Francisco with Marta and is devastated when she receives her first literary rejection letter. Determined to bolster Katrin's confidence, Marta takes some of her stories to renowned author Florence Dana Moorhead, who loves to eat, and convinces her to read one by offering to share a family meatball recipe with her. Marta returns home to find Katrin destroying her writings and happily tells her that, while Moorhead agreed that her stories were lacking, she also felt that Katrin was a born author. Taking Moorhead's advice to write about "what she knows," Katrin submits a new story for publication and is overjoyed when she is paid $500 for her efforts. After announcing that some of the money is going to buy the winter coat that Marta has always longed for, Katrin confesses that her mother is the subject of her story and begins to read it aloud. The introduction of her story concludes with the line, "But first and foremost, I remember Mama." | romantic, storytelling | train | imdb | One Saturday afternoon in 1984 I saw the film was to be shown on T.V.I was going to go to my mothers house to tell her but couldn't be bothered as I had other things to do.Later that day I received a phone call to say she had a heart attack and a few hours afterwards died.I am now 61 years old and 8 weeks ago joined a writing course.Everyone was asked what inspired them to write.The others came up with lots of things but all I told them was this tale and most of all "I remember Mama" and I was in tears.
Seven reasons why this has always been one of my all-time favorite films:1) A movie filled with nice, ordinary people you can relate to.2) The sweetness of Barbara Bel Geddes and her character.
She narrates throughout and this story is as much hers as it is "Mama's."3) The great facial closeups and general cinematography, directed by one of the all-time best, George Stevens.4) Oscar Homolka's performance as the gruff-but-kindhearted "Uncle Chris"5) An amazing supporting cast which help make this film so memorable: Ellen Corby, Philip Dorn, Edgar Bergen, Cedric Hardwicke, Hope Landin, Peggy McIntyre, Florence Bates, Steve Brown, Rudy Valley, Tommy Ivo, etc.6) Some important life lessons in here for all viewers.7) Nice touches of sentimentality, with the hard-working devoted mother (played stoically-yet-warmly by Irene Dunne) getting her due in the end..
Irene Dunne (maybe her best performance ever) stars with Barbara Bel Geddes, Oscar Homolka, and Ellen Corby (heartbreaking yet funny as Trina)--all Oscar nominated.
There was so much warmth, so much hope and yet it wasn't the "perfect" family, it was just people living life on life's terms.I'm so glad I finally took the time to watch "I Remember Mama".
The timeless story of the sacrifices a mother makes to assure her family (especially her children) always have everything they need is a best selling novel, a charming Broadway Musical, and best-known as the star-studded 1948 movie classic.Irene Dunne plays "Mama", the matriarch of a Norwegian immigrant family in early 1900's San Francisco.
There really was no "bank".The narrator is a teenage girl (wonderfully played by Barbara Bel Geddes), giving the viewer an insight into her extended family, often sharing funny moments, but also showing very touching scenes.
A young Ellen Corby ("Grandma Walton") is wonderful as Aunt Trina, who is not taken seriously by her relatives, but gains respect when she is courted and wed by a man who loves and treats her well.The film introduces each family member individually, then describes the person, until the viewer seems "at home", knowing everyone well.
Without anything that seems forced or unnatural, the movie covers just about every aspect of family life, and always has something worthwhile to say.Irene Dunne heads up a fine cast, and she gives one of her many quality performances as "Mama".
For her fifth and final Oscar nomination for Best Actress, Irene Dunne aged herself a might, took the Scandinavian accent from Loretta Young who won an Oscar the year before in The Farmer's Daughter and did a wonderful job in the lead role of I Remember Mama.It'a hard to believe that this is the glamorous manager of Roberta's or Cary Grant's fashionable wife in The Awful Truth.
The film is narrated by Barbara Bel Geddes playing young Katarina and it's through her eyes we see the trials of a Norwegian immigrant family growing up in San Francisco, rebuilding after the earthquake.Papa as played by Phillip Dorn is a kindly man and a good provider, but it's Irene Dunne's Mama who is the center of the Hansen family.
Irene Dunne for Best Actress, losing to Jane Wyman for Johnny Belinda, Oscar Homolka for Best Supporting Actor, losing to Walter Huston in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and Barbara Bel Geddes and Ellen Corby both being nominated for Best Supporting Actress, but losing to Claire Trevor for Key Largo.
I Remember Mama was also nominated for Best Black and White Cinematography.Like that other long running Broadway play that Irene Dunne had filmed the year before, Life With Father, I Remember Mama found its audience in an America hearkening back to simpler times.
This play and film had to have a special poignancy among Scandinavians remembering that in one way or another, Norway, Denmark, Finland, and even Iceland were all occupied countries one way or another.George Stevens got such great performances from his whole cast.
I work as a substitute teacher and encourage the kids to see some of the wonderful movies like "Going My Way." Today when I go to the classroom-- I will tell them to see I Remember Mama.
Irene Dunne was magnificent in George Stevens brilliant film I Remember Mama.
Still another Irene Dunne memorable vehicle, this time, it's 1948's "I Remember Mama." Miss Dunne was nominated for best actress once more and once more she would lose, this time to Jane Wyman, as a deaf mute, in "Johnny Belinda."What makes this movie so good is that it is the story of wonderful relations existing in a Norwegian family that has migrated to San Francisco circa the turn of the 20th century.
We also have wonderful Oscar nominated supporting performances by Barbara Bel Geddes, as a loving daughter, and a memorable, but small part by Ellen Corby as spinster Aunt Trina.Oscar Homolka earned a best supporting Oscar nomination for his role of the loud uncle who really had a heart of gold.Wonderful family values are depicted.
Both of their performances here were nominated for Academy awards in 1945.To boot, this film had one of the most amazing directors ever George Stevens(the director of PENNY SERENADE-also in desperate need of a higher quality DVD release-, Talk of The Town, Shane & Giant just to name a few) The story of I REMEMBER MAMA is rich, dramatic, and yet manages to be highly comical at moments-has the same feel-good qualities that other 40's films like "It's A Wonderful Life" brought to the screen in only a manner that the 1940's has been capable of creating since then.
George Stevens directs this sentimental drama about a strong woman(Irene Dunne)guiding and holding together her Norwegian family in San Francisco in the early 1900s.
I Remember Mama was released 68 years ago and although Mrs. Shullivan and my own mother have been deceased for quite some time, we could not help but draw comparisons between our own mothers and the role of Irene Dunne who plays the family matriarch Mama Hansen.
Of course this was a simpler time in the early 1900's and one of the great Directors of all time George Stevens, stuck to the script and allowed his audience to enjoy a simpler time in American history and the daily living rituals of an immigrant Norwegian family that extended to three Aunts (Jenny, Sigrid and spinster Trina played by Ellen Corby) and one gruff Uncle Kris (played superbly by Oskar Homolka) who was both feared and respected.
Mrs. Shullivan and I truly loved this film and directors such as George Stevens who directed I remember Mama rank right up there with the very best directors such as Frank Capra, John Ford, and George Cukor.If you want to see a film that allows you to reminisce about your own childhood and relationship with your extended family then this film will be sure to bring back some of your old memories to the forefront with the narration by then 26 year old actress Barbara Bel Geddes who explains her upbringing and the loving relationship she shared with her siblings, her father, and most importantly her Mama played with such love and thoughtfulness as only actress Irene Dunne could have accomplished.
Saw this years ago and had forgotten what a charming little film it was.Irene Dunn is wonderful as the rock holding together a struggling family, well worth viewing.While not an overtly political flick it obliquely reminds us that the melting pot concept is what made America what it is and is the greatest source of our nations strength.I think it also effectively challenges Tolstoys over quoted line that all happy families are alike.I wonder if a film such as this could even be made today as none of the characters had internal flaws and were able to triumph over life's random and inevitable adversity on their own inner strength and love for each other.I often find it interesting that art such as this was produced by the generation that had survived the deppression won world war two and quietly built what was perhaps the most successful society the world has ever known..
Although long before the days of video, these two films seemed to be on TV often enough for me to become word perfect.I Remember Mama is about a Norwegian family who have come to live in San Francisco and tells of their day to day living.
the performances by Irene Dunne, Philip Dorn, Oskar Homolka, Edger Bergen,Rudy Vallee, EllenCorby, and Barbara Bel Geddes could not be improved upon.The story is very sentimental without being overly sappy.
The actors in this film become their characters, rather than just acting their roles.There is also great attention paid to details such as the positioning of Mama's and uncle Chris' hand in the death bed scene.I recommend this movie for all, especially any one desiring a break from violence..
I REMEMBER MAMA (RKO Radio, 1948), a Dore Schary presentation, produced and directed by George Stevens, stars Irene Dunne in what many consider to be her most memorable motion picture performance.
Based on the play by John Van Druten, and from the novel "Mama's Bank Account" by Kathryn Forbes, it's a heartwarming drama about a Norwegian family of 1910 San Francisco as narrated directly to the screen by Mama's adult daughter, Katrin, wonderfully played by Barbara Bel Geddes.
The movie boasts an amazing supporting cast, Barbara Bel Geddes, Oscar Homolka, Ellen Corby and Edgar Bergen.
With no make-up and sporting a convincing Norwegian accent, she provides the film's heart and emotional anchor as Mama.The framing device for the story is the recently completed manuscript by Katrin Hanson which she reads out loud while reminiscing about her Norwegian family in San Francisco circa 1910.
And when Katrin becomes discouraged enough to give up her writing aspirations, it is again Martha who finagles her way to meeting a famous author and convincing her to read one of Katrin's short stories.Beyond Dunne's exemplary work, there is a sturdy supporting cast to consider - Oscar Homolka bringing the requisite bluster to Uncle Chris, Ellen Corby in her only first-rate screen role as timid Aunt Trina, and at 25, Barbara Bel Geddes conveying convincing adolescent innocence as Katrin.
Kathryn Forbes's loving reminisces of a childhood in San Francisco and of her wonderful ex-Norwegian grandma are sprawled to broad visual scope and performed by an outstanding cast.For maverick filmmaker George Stevens has conveyed her seemingly inconsequential story in all its warm and pleasant character to the screen.
As well, Philip Dorn as Papa and Peggy McIntyre and June Hedin as Bel Geddes's siblings have the flavor of angels, for all their delightful manner.Oskar Homolka, who plays the overbearing Uncle Chris, one of the most laugh-out-loud characters I have ever seen in a movie, gives to it all the broad blunder and goofiness that Stevens has the undiluted sense of humor to augment with overwhelming close-ups and things of the sort.
It's now a couple of weeks after as well as after Memorial Day that I've just watched one of the most touching depictions of a mom and the way she sacrifices for her family done as well on film as this one as helmed by George Stevens and performed ably as well by Irene Dunne as the matriarch.
Special mention should also go to Ellen Corby, Edgar Bergen, Rudy Vallee, and especially, Oscar Homolka as Uncle Chris who provides some of the funniest scenes that this mostly dramatic movie encounters as well as the most touching fate of his character.
Martha Hanson, (Irene Dunne) plays the mother of the family who move to California and she has two daughters and one son and the oldest daughter is Katrin Hanson, (Barbara Bel Geddes) who is always interested in writing in her diary's and hopes to be a writer someday.
I mailed a copy of the movie to my sister -- with three daughters, a son being the oldest, and a cat -- and wondered if she'd feel a bit like Irene Dunne at the very end..
But in those days people did not generally fall into the fatal error of assuming that a woman had to be like the embarrassing Xena Warrior Princess in order to show forth strength.I Remember Mama is an episodic film, really six or seven short films in succession, each of them centering on some event in the life of the immigrant Norwegian family, whose head is played in a genial and understated masculine way by Philip Dorn, but whose beating heart is Mama.
Absolutely beautiful film with an absolutely beautiful performance by Irene Dunne, the best she ever gave.The movie is a series of vignettes told from the point of view of the eldest daughter, played by Barbara Bel Geddes, as she looks back on life with her family in turn-of-the-20th-century San Francisco.
Additional nominations went to Bel Geddes and Ellen Corby in the supporting actress category, and to Oscar Homolka as Best Supporting Actor for his performance as a cranky uncle, one he originated in the stage version upon which this film is based.
My only complaint is that 134 minutes is too long a time to tell such a simple tale of a Norwegian family's struggle to survive in the early 1900s as seen through the wistful eyes of daughter BARBARA BEL GEDDES.IRENE DUNNE is remarkably convincing as the kindly mother with braided blonde hair and Norwegian accent, dealing not only with several children but numerous relatives.
She's given able assistance from a wonderful supporting cast that includes ELLEN CORBY, memorable as the silly, spinsterish Aunt Trina, OSKAR HOMOLKA as a loud-mouthed uncle, and EDGAR BERGEN, PHILIP DORN, BARBARA O'NEIL, RUDY VALLEE and FLORENCE BATES in assorted character roles that are genuinely warm and funny.But, as stated above, it does move at a leisurely pace and adheres too closely to the stage play despite the opening up of a few outdoor scenes.
Three performances really stood out for me within 'I Remember Mama'; the young Barbara Bel Geddes - later the first 'Miss Ellie' in Dallas - as the teenage Katrin; the gloriously hammy Oskar Homolka as Uncle Chris, all bluster and bushy eyebrows; and Cedric Hardwicke as the mysterious lodger Mr Hyde, an avid reader who blends into the family like a long-lost relative.I did think that Irene Dunne's performance was too overdone, particularly her accent and the sequences that required her to veer into a kind of slapstick comedy.
Wholesome writer Barbara Bel Geddes (as Katrin) reminisces about her humble childhood in early twentieth century San Francisco, growing up in a Norwegian immigrant family led buy a most extraordinary mother - Irene Dunne (as Marta "Mama" Hanson).
Oscar Homolka (as Uncle Chris), Edgar Bergen, Ellen Corby (as Aunt Trina), and "Uncle Elizabeth" (as the Family Cat) are remarkable extended family.******* I Remember Mama (3/9/48) George Stevens ~ Irene Dunne, Barbara Bel Geddes, Oscar Homolka, Ellen Corby.
and the scene on the porch of Uncle Chris's country home, shortly after his death----another example of understated dignity and beauty that, like the entire film, rings SO TRUE to life.If you truly value the art of filmmaking, you owe it to yourself (and your family) to own this movie.
The story is told through the eyes (and pen) of the oldest daughter (Barbara Bel Geddes) who praises mama (Irene Dunne in her final Oscar Nominated performance) for looking out for everybody in the family while sometimes neglecting her own needs.
The performances, with the possible exceptions of Barbara Bel Geddes' archly smug ingénue and Oscar Homolka's rather too blustery Uncle Chris, are faultless-especially Irene Dunne's restrained and sensitive portrayal of the lead role, her accent seemingly so natural (not phoney and theatrically forced like John Qualen's) we accept it unquestioningly as her own.The film is slow to get under way, but one is deftly drawn into the action and all our preconceived prejudices against a woman's picture soon melt away under the mastery of George Stevens' ultra-sensitive direction.
In this recollection (first a novel, then a play), based on a real family, Bel Geddes plays a young lady whose life was shaped by the firm but loving hand of her Norwegian immigrant parents, particularly her mother Dunne.
Based on a true story about a family of immigrants from Norway who settled in San Francisco at the turn-of-the-20th century, this heartwarming comedy-drama features an unforgettable Academy Award nominated performance from (five-time Best Actress nominee) Irene Dunne as the titled Mama, the center of this extended family, and the film.It's narrated by the biography's author, Barbara Bel Geddes (who would become known to TV audiences as Miss Ellie on the series Dallas) as the eldest daughter Kathryn Forbes, whose character lovingly recalls growing up with her parents (Philip Dorn plays her father) and siblings.Oscar Homolka plays Mama's older brother Uncle Chris, an outwardly tough character with a soft underbelly, who visits occasionally; he was the first to travel to the "New World" of America, where he became successful enough to do what he pleases (like live "scandalously" with another woman who's not his wife!).
All the while, optimistic Mama and Papa impart some timeless values of unconditional love, hope and perseverance which contribute to making this movie an essential family classic, one that's very much worth the 134 minute time investment it takes to view it.In addition to Dunne, Homolka received a lead actor nomination (his only) and Bel Geddes and Ellen Corby, who plays Mama's sister Aunt Trina, received their only acting nominations, competing against each other in the Supporting Actress category and losing to Claire Trevor and her performance in Key Largo (1948). |
tt0069124 | Private Parts | Young Cheryl (pronounced "CHAIR-ul") is a runaway shacking up with her friend Judy. After Judy throws her out for watching her have sex with a guy, Cheryl packs her suitcase and takes off, along with Judy's wallet, and heads out into the sleaziest part of L.A. looking for her long-lost Aunt Martha's rundown hotel.Aunt Martha is a stout, homely woman with no tolerance for worldly ways. She insists that Cheryl wash "that paint" off before joining her for dinner, and lectures her on the evils of sex. Cheryl plays along for a place to stay, but she soon finds out that the hotel is full of loonies of all types. There's a gay priest who has a thing for male bodybuilders, a drunk guy who doesn't do anything except pass out in his room, and an old lady who wanders around looking for a girl named "Alice". Perhaps the weirdest tenant is a reclusive photographer named George, who shows his affection for Cheryl by spying on her through cracks in the wall, leaving her pornographic reading material in her room, and offering her fetish gear to wear for his amusement. Cheryl craves the attention, but she's not aware that people are being murdered in the hotel. A hunky stud who comes looking for Cheryl gets his head cut off with a machete, and the other tenants of the hotel start dropping off too. Cheryl's arrival seems to have set somebody off.Despite Aunt Martha's objections to men, Cheryl secretly begins dating Jeff, a young man who takes an interest in her. She must take great pains to ensure that Aunt Martha doesn't find out.George will not directly interact with Cheryl, choosing instead to spy on her and photograph her. In one of the film's most disturbing scenes, he engages in a most unusual sex act. He fills a vinyl blow-up doll with water, simulating a body as best he can. He dresses it like Cheryl and attaches a closeup photograph of Cheryl's face to the doll's head. He then gets in bed with it and simulates sex, climaxing with a bizarre moment: he draws a syringe of blood from his body and injects it into the doll.Judy shows up at the hotel looking for Cheryl and is murdered while nosing around in the basement. Eventually we learn that Alice, the girl who used to live at the hotel, has met with the same fate, after becoming the object of George's strange affection.Finally all is revealed. Aunt Martha is the one who has gone machete-happy, murdering anybody who interferes with her notion of morality, as well as anybody who will go near George, who is her child. Note that George is not her son--George is actually female, urged by Aunt Martha to avoid embracing feminine wiles. This explains George's need for a syringe to complete the sex act, as well as his unstable condition. It is also suggested that Aunt Martha is not really a woman herself, but rather a man who has adopted the opposite gender to avoid the moral pitfalls of being male.Before Cheryl can fall victim to George and Martha, Jeff and his father intervene with some rather inept policemen. The film concludes as we learn that Cheryl has taken over Aunt Martha's hotel. Has she also taken over Aunt Martha's strange outlook on life? | insanity, comedy, murder | train | imdb | null |
tt0058333 | The Masque of the Red Death | THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH Grandmother (Sarah Brackett) is gathering kindling. The Man in Red (John Westbrook) calls to her, sitting under a tree. Causing a white rose to turn red, he gives it to her, telling her to take it to her village with the message that the day of their deliverance is at hand. She takes it and bows in honor.A royal carriage enters the village of Catania. Prince Prospero (Vincent Price) is making a personal appearance to invite the villagers to a feast. Gino (David Weston) pulls a baby out of the way just in time to keep it from being run over by the horses and carriage. Prospero gets out and begins inviting people to his feast. Gino sarcastically mouths that they will only receive scraps from his table like dogs. Gino tells Prospero that a holy man told an old woman that they would be delivered from his reign of terror. His father-in-law Ludovico (Nigel Green) comes up beside him. Prospero suggests that they should be on their knees thanking him. With a signal to his guards, the two men are lowered to their knees and strong-armed. Francesca (Jane Asher) runs up and begs for mercy. Prospero questions her and tells her that she must decide whether her father or her husband will die. Alfredo (Patrick Magee) comes up, remarking what entertainment this is for him and how innocent the girl is. Prospero promises that soon he will corrupt her and calls for Francesca to make a decision.A scream is heard and a guard sent to see about it. When the scream continues, Prospero goes himself. In a hut the guard is stunned. Prospero asks what it is, and the guard can only point and tell him to look. The old Grandmother has broken out with the Red Death (red spots on her face).Returning to the others, Prospero questions whether the three had any contact with the woman. When he determines they did not, he tells the guards to take the two men to the castle and he will take the girl. They are loaded up and Prospero tells the guards to burn the village. Gino questions why and Prospero tells him it is his deliverance.At the palace Prospero orders invitations to those whom he wants to attend his feast. Francesca is stripped by maidens and thrown into a hot bath. Prospero enters with Juliana (Hazel Court) and orders the maidens out. Francesca covers herself in modesty. Prospero questions why and asks whether the cross she wears is ornamental or symbolic of her faith. She attests to being a true believer and he orders her to remove it and never wear it again in the castle. He tells Juliana that after her bath to clothe Francesca in her finest gowns. Francesca asks about her father and Gino and is told they are being quartered. Prospero leaves and Juliana assures Francesca that she has not made a good impression on him. Francesca asks if Juliana will do as Prospero has told her. She replies that she will do as he says, as they all must.At the feast, Alfredo tells a woman he will tell her about terror. Prospero, overhearing, asks what he knows of terror. He calls him away into another room. Everyone follows. He questions whether terror is hearing the sounds of time ticking away as he walks past an antiquated clock. He suggests terror may be the sound of a heartbeat in fear or the sound of footsteps approaching.He introduces dancers Esmeralda (Verina Greenlaw) and Hop Toad (Skip Martin) who will entertain. Musicians enter playing and a dwarf, a young girl and a long-haired dog. As Esmeralda dances, Alfredo approaches Prospero, asking about her. Suddenly the girl knocks over a wine drink. Alfredo slaps her and she falls. Hop Toad begins to draw his knife, but upon seeing the anger of Prospero and Alfredo, he instead comes to raise up Esmeralda. Prospero leads Alfredo away, claiming the first act has disappointed but then throws wine in the face of Alfredo, who threatens him. Prospero then tells everyone they are lucky to be in the palace and safe from the Red Death which will spread the countryside.He invites everyone to a masquerade ball the following day at midnight, offering costumes to everyones use. He advises them not to wear red.Francesca enters in a white gown and is introduced to everyone by Prospero. First she is introduced to Señor Veronese (Julian Burton), who is told to act like a pig. He gets on the floor and rolls around as everyone laughs at him. Next Prospero calls for Señor Lampredi (Brian Hewlitt) to become a worm on the floor. He crawls around to everyones amusement. Prospero calls for Señora Escobar (Gaye Brown) to play a braying jackass. Señor Rivoli (Harvey Hall) is told to ride the jackass. Prospero tells everyone else to act like animals. Francesca is horrified.As Francesca is led away by Prospero into private quarters, Alfredo looks on with desire. In a yellow room Prospero tells her that his father once imprisoned a man there for three years. When the man was freed, he no longer could look at the sun or a daffodil. Prospero tells her that it was a test to control a mans mind.In a purple room he tells her that he doesnt believe in God; if God existed He must have died long ago. He believes someone or something exists in His place. Francesca believes in love and the goodness of God.Before they go into another room Prospero tells her she is not ready to enter that room. He tells her to rest from her long day. He promises her that the next day she will see Gino and her father.Prospero, roaming the castle later, is confronted by Juliana, who tells him she is ready to enter the deeper ceremonies which he believes in. He laughingly suggests that she is only ready because she wants to secure her position.In her room Francesca is awakened by the sound of wind. She goes over to a sconce that has gone out. As she turns back, she sees blood on a book and screams. Next she hears Prospero chanting in Latin. Putting on her robe, she goes out to investigate. She goes downstairs, following the sound of his voice. Entering the yellow room, she goes through the purple room and finds the door open to the next room. She goes through it into a black room where she sees Juliana and a raven cawing. Seeing Prospero lying in a coffin looking dead, she goes to touch his face. At that moment he opens his eyes and she screams and runs away. She is startled by Alfredo who is wearing a mask.The next day Prospero shows Francesca a falcon which kills another bird. He tells her it is trained by blinding its eyes until it becomes a slave to its master. He says that God blinded people with the cross and that he serves a different master. She begins to say that he forced her to remove her cross because it offended him. He interrupts her, saying that it offends no one following his master. He felt that it was discourteous to wear the symbol of a dead God. He confesses his master is Satan, Lord of Flies, the Fallen Angel and the Devil.Hearing a horn blowing, he tells her to come. Going to the battlement, he looks down as a carriage arrives. Scarlatti (Paul Whitsun-Jones) demands entrance to the castle as an invited guest. Prospero tells him he is no longer welcome due to the Red Death. He begs for sanctuary and offers up his wife to the Prince. Prospero informs him he has already had that doubtful pleasure. Begging for Prospero to spare him from the Red Death in the name of friendship, Scarlatti receives an arrow below the throat. Prospero throws down a dagger for the wife to kill herself with.In the dungeon, a sword is thrown down before Gino, who is told to learn to fight. He refuses to fight his friend. A swordfight ensues. Prospero and Francesca enter and witness the fight. When Gino wins, he tells Prospero that he will not fight his friend. Prospero promises torture, but Gino tells him that that would be considered losing. Intrigued, Prospero promises that after some thinking he will match the two together in a death fight.Walking through the dungeon, Prospero tells Francesca that sometimes life is cruel. She winces at the sound of a man in pain. She asks if Satan requires torture in his worship. He tells her of a Christian monk many years ago who tortured men, women and children in order to save their souls. He blames this on God. He promises to lead her into the ways of Satan. She refuses.Juliana prays and offers herself to Satan, branding her chest with an upside-down cross and asks to be made into a demon.Alfredo has a conversation with Hop Toad, who desires to serve someone other than Prospero. He promises his talents if Alfredo will take him in. Hop Toad persuades him to come to the ball in the costume of an ape which he will provide. Alfredo is pleased.Francesca hears someone trying to get into her bedroom door. She rises and stands aside as the door opens. Juliana comes in and Francesca sees the brand on her chest, asking if Prospero did it. Juliana admits she did it herself, marking her as a handmaiden of Satan. She tells Francesca that there is one more ceremony where she gives her soul to the devil to be immortal. She is hoping to be bound to Prospero and that Francesca would be out of the way. When Francesca tells her she would love to escape, Juliana gives her a key to the cell and urges her to free Gino and her father and escape.Francesca wanders through the dungeon, passing several men in the throes of torture. Finding the cell with Gino and her father, she frees them. As they pass the guard room, one of the guards sees someone go by and goes to check. A fight ensues with Gino, Ludovico and two guards. Coming out onto the battlement, Gino calls to a guard who turns to face him. It is Prospero, who calls out his guards. Francesca tells him that Juliana betrayed them. Prospero tells her Juliana betrayed him and that one of the two men must die for their sins.At the party, people are seated at long tables as waiters bring platters of food. Dancers and musicians perform. Prospero stands and calls for their attention. He announces that at midnight the masks will go on. He states that some among them still harbor good thoughts. He calls for the next entertainment to come in. Gino and Ludovico come in and stand before him. He throws down five daggers, one of which he says contains a poison that kills in five seconds. He tells them to each cut themselves with one of the daggers. Ludovico goes first, followed by Gino, then Ludovico again and Gino. The final dagger is taken by Ludovico, who tries to stab Prospero across the table with it. Ludovico is stabbed by a sword and falls dead. Prospero calls for them both to be killed since the game was not done correctly. Francesca begs for Ginos life. Prospero announces that he will not kill Gino, but release him so that he can die of the Red Death. Taunting Gino about his God, Prospero asks where his God is now. Gino says he will meet Him in paradise. The command is given to release him and Gino swears he will somehow return for Francesca.Francesca tells Prospero to allow her to go with Gino, which he refuses. Then she says bring him back and she will submit herself to whatever he wishes. At this point Juliana calls from across the room, telling the Prince that she is ready for the final ceremony.Gino is cast out of the castle and runs through the forest. The sounds of Prosperos fiendish laughter and the screams of Francesca are heard on the wind. As he stumbles on, he sees the Man in Red sitting under a tree, playing Tarot cards. Asking how it is going, Gino confesses that he has killed and that he is afraid for Francesca and afraid of Prosperos castle. The Man in Red gives Gino one of his cards as a sign. Gino takes it and returns to the castle.Meanwhile Alfredo is trying on the ape costume. Hop Toad directs him as how to walk slumped over and swinging his arms. He tells Alfredo that he can remove the costume once the unmasking is done.Gino finds a group of villagers heading for the castle to ask forgiveness and receive sanctuary. One woman is carried on a stretcher with the Red Death. Gino tries to stop them but is pushed aside.Juliana begins her ceremony, chanting at the altar. She drinks ceremonial wine drugged with hallucinogens. In the dreams she runs through hazy corridors and then finds herself on an altar. She is horrified to see five different men who wield weapons over her.When she comes to, she hears the laughter of Prospero and calls out to him. Searching from room to room, she tells him that she is now betrothed to the devil. He says there are more horrors to come. In the main room, she approaches the swinging pendulum and hears the voice of Prospero telling her that her fears have just begun. At this point she is attacked by one or more ravens that leave her dead and bloodied on the floor.One woman finds her and cries out. Prospero approaches with the other guests and tells the woman not to grieve for Juliana, for she has wed the devil. He calls for the masquerade to begin.Outside, the villagers arrive and call for mercy. They are told to return to Catania. One guard is sent to fetch Prospero. Gino tries to dissuade the elders from groveling before the Prince. They refuse. Prospero comes out and tells them to go back where they came. When they refuse, he commands his archers to slay them.Inside, Prospero throws jewels down to the people, who scramble to gather them. He tells Francesca that all of these rich people suffer from greed and are desperate for more riches. Then he tells them to rejoice because the remaining villagers are now dead. He has promised all inside his castle will be safe from the Red Death. He tells Francesca that soon she will be initiated into understanding. Prospero and Francesca are seen dancing with the others.Gino climbs the castle walls with a makeshift rope he has made from vines. At the battlement he sees the Man in Red, who tells him to wait until one oclock at which time Francesca will be sent out to him. Gino is anxious to rescue her but is told to be wise. When he is shown a dead guard, he looks back and the Man in Red has vanished.Hop Toad enters the room of Esmeralda and tells her to be ready to leave the castle later when he comes for her. She tells him that she trusts him.At the party, Hop Toad and the ape make their appearance. Hop Toad cracks his whip, telling everyone that he controls the ape. As the ape seizes a woman and falls to the floor with her, Hop Toad unties a rope holding up a light fixture of candles and lowers it just above them. Citing that the ape is out of control, Hop Toad ties him to the candle fixture and lifts him up in the air. Alfredo complains and demands to be released but Hop Toad tells him he has insulted Esmeralda too much and deserves to pay. Dousing the ape with brandy, Hop Toad sets him on fire. As the party goers look on, their laughter changes to screams as the ape burns. The fixture collapses and Prospero calls for the guards to remove it. Hop Toad leaves the room and Prospero calls for a reward to be given to him.Across the crowded dance floor, Prospero sees the Man in Red. Telling Francesca that he commanded that no one should wear red, he follows through the different rooms. In the black room, he is confronted by the Man in Red (whose face is covered). Prospero tries to guess who it is, saying the voice is familiar. Suspecting that it is the devil himself, he makes Francesca bow down. Prospero calls for the man to show his face but is told that he will only see it upon his own death. He tells Prospero that the unmasking will reveal everyones faces soon.Leaving the room, the Man in Red calls for a new dance to begin. Prospero follows. With each wave of his hands, the Man in Red spreads the Red Death to those at the party. Prospero is pleased and remarks that he led all these friends to Satan and corrupted them for him. He asks that Francesca be spared and the Man in Red tells her to go to the battlements. Prospero tells her that he will join her when this is over.Prospero addresses the Man in Red, who denies being the devil. He says that he is death. Prospero insists that his own pact with Satan will save him. The Man in Red says that it will not. Prospero removes the mask to see his face. He is horrified to see his own face, made red from the Red Death. Prospero is then taken by all the guests who jostle him around the room. As the people begin to collapse from the Red Death, Prospero is the only one left standing. He retreats to the black room, hoping to escape from a horrible death. In that room he finds the red-cloaked figure, who strikes him with the Red Death.The Man in Red is seen playing cards with the young girl from the village. Several other men arrive and give reports of the deaths of many. The Man in Red tells them that only six survived: one man and woman, a dwarf and small lady and the girl from the village. | mystery, gothic, murder, cult, atmospheric, philosophical, revenge | train | imdb | Although the film really is an incorporation of two Poe stories....The Masque of the Red Death and Hop-Frog...it is an excellent, atmospheric, quality piece of entertainment.
At the core of the film's strength are the performance of Price as the evil, malignant, malicious Prince Prospero, follower of the devil and cruel sovereign of an area plagued with a all-consuming Red Death, and the fabulous period sets and costumes, many borrowed from the film Beckett.
Some of his best movies as a director were the series of Edgar Allen Poe adaptations he made in the Sixties starring horror legend Vincent Price.
'The Masque Of The Red Death' is one of Roger Corman's greatest achievements and one of the very best horror movies made in the 1960s.
Directed by Roger Corman, the film stars Vincent Price as the diabolical Prince Prospero who holds fear over a plague infested peasantry while jollying it up in his castle.
Vincent Price is the absolute top as the wealthy servant of Satan who thinks his safely locked away in his castle while the plague of the Red Death crosses through the countryside.killing all the poor villagers.
There where all other horror movies can't fulfill in telling a satanic tale without showing a huge amount of bloodshed, Corman's film achieves this effect easily thanks to its atmosphere, its intelligent structure and side plots, the costumes and scenery and the beautiful use of colors.
Possibly the best of the Roger Corman-Vincent Price series of film adaptations of the stories of Edgar Allen Poe, 'The Masque of the Red Death' is a chilling and malevolent tale of decadent devil-worshippers holed up in a castle while the Red Death claims its victims in the village outside.Vincent Price was a gloriously hammy actor who played horror roles with the utmost seriousness.
For those of you who are fans of director Roger Corman's classic 50s sci-fi films like ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS, IT CONQUERED THE WORLD, or THE WASP WOMAN, you are going to be surprised that this is the same man who directed MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH.
Superbly directed and beautifully composed, MASQUE is the first and best of Corman's Poe films of the 1960's.Prince Prospero (played with just enough venom by Vincent Price) is an evil tyrant who hates his citizens and thinks nothing of burning their village to the ground.
The Masque of the Red Death is another triumph over low budget, and sees horror's premier team of Vincent Price, Roger Corman and, of course, Edgar Allen Poe team up to great effect once again.
This Poe story follows the evil Prince Prospero, a man who believes that his master, the Lord of Flies (Satan to you and me), will grant him and his friends that are taking refuge in his castle safety from the disease known as the 'red death' that is laying waste to the surrounding towns and villages.This is a very different production to the earlier films in Corman's Poe cycle.
As usual, he's portrayed by Vincent Price (the finest horror actor to ever live) but unlike the parts he'd played for Corman so far, this character is a strong and malicious presence, and therefore a far cry from the more pathetic characters he played films like 'The Fall of the House of Usher' and 'The Pit and the Pendulum'.
The character is a typical Poe labyrinth and helps to maintain the interest and malicious intent that the film presents for it's running time.The story is one of absolute terror, and through Corman's surreal use of colours and atmosphere, he makes the best of it and the result is a truly terrifying tale of faith, disease and death.
Here, the Prince Prospero is unable to control nature and all die as a result.The story THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH is about the inevitability of fate and death - nobody can avoid it, no matter how hard they build up walls, and in the end they end up searching out for it (and finding it).Roger Corman, as I mentioned in discussing his film about Richard III, took to Edgar Allan Poe as no other major director of horror had before him.
There is also two expansions of the plot tied to the Prince: his kidnapping of Francesca (Jane Asher), Gino (David Weston) and Ludovico (Nigel Green) and the doomed hope of Juliana (Hazel Court) to achieve the goals of total acceptance by Satan in order to secure her hold on Prospero.The end result is not bloated, phony-Poe, but a serious philosophical debate that the evil Prospero actually articulates: He explains to Francesca that he became a Satanist because of serious questions he had about the validity of Christianity.
The evil Prince Prospero (Vincent Price) is riding through the Catania village when he sees that the peasants are dying of Red Death plague.
"The Masque of the Red Death" is a stylish movie directed by Roger Corman, with wonderful cinematography by Nicolas Roeg and based on a story by Edgar Allan Poe. Vincent Price has a great performance in the role of an evil Prince that worships Satan and learns that Death has no master and that each man makes his own Heaven and his own Hell.
Once again scripted by Charles Beaumont and produced/directed by Roger Corman, Masque of the Red Death is a much-beloved horror film from a lost era.
Roger Corman directed this adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's short story, as Vincent Price plays the evil Prince Prospero, who brutally rules over the local peasantry, and abducts a beautiful girl who catches his eye, Francesca(Jane Asher).
But what makes his character, and how Price plays it, so compelling is how he tries to align himself with Satan himself without fulling reckoning whatever power there might be with the "other-side", of a God or the Devil or just Death itself.This might be making it sound like Roger Corman is getting deep on us, for a one-time-only concert kind of deal.
Indeed this is one of the only times Corman was able to conjure up some real scares, sometimes out of things that should be very typical of a B-horror movie, of a "jump" in the surprise of something revealed; the first time someone uncovers someone who has been killed by the Red Death, a face covered in red markings and blood, it is terrifying, and it is what Corman would've usually fallen flat on his face about.I have to think that it had to do with taking just a little more time and care on the production (five weeks instead of the usual three on Poe adaptations), and having a crucial asset of Nicholas Roeg as a DP.
"The Masque Of The Red Death" of 1964 is, alongside "The Pit And The Pendulum" of 1961 and "The Haunted Palace" of 1963 one of the absolute masterpieces of this great cycle, a truly brilliant and essential masterpiece of Gothic Horror that should not be missed by anyone who consider themselves a Horror fan or even a fan of cinema in general.In medieval Italy, a region is terrorized by the evil Prince Prospero (Vincent Price), a sadistic tyrant who has committed his life to the worship of Satan.
No one could have played the leading characters in Corman's Poe adaptations with the brilliance of Vincent Price, and "The Masque Of The Red Death" is the perfect example for that.
Hazel Court is also terrific in her role as Prospero's wife Juliana, and Jane Asher delivers an excellent performance in the female lead, as Francesca, a young woman forced to stay at Prospero's castle.After the success of his previous Poe films Roger Corman had a higher budget for "The Masque Of The Red Death", and, as a true master of atmosphere, he certainly knew how to use it.
Roger Corman had originally planned to make "The Masque Of The Red Death" instantly after his first Poe Film, "House Of Usher" (1960), had become a success.
So this movie recycles the existing sets given the movie grandeur even though its a low budget film.However the film has more than an atmosphere provided by its scenery, its terrifically written giving it an eerie and cerebral quality, add some good acting led by Vincent Price who stays on the right side of ham as the local prince who worships Satan and who believe he and his wealthy friends are safely locked up in his castle while the Red Death sweeps the village.This is a film adaptation of an Edgar Allan Poe novel that gives it justice..
European prince Prospero (Vincent Price) terrorizes the local peasantry while using his castle as a refuge against the "Red Death" plague that stalks the land.Every time Roger Corman touches Edgar Allan Poe, it sparkles with gold.
The Masque Of The Red Death is one of the last Roger Corman's adaptation of an Edgar Allan Poe's story.
The Masque tells the story of Prince Prospero (Vincent Price), a mean and cruel tyrant which decides to invite all of his friends to his castle so they can be protected against the Red Death (sort of a medieval disease).
"The Masque of the Red Death" is another in the series of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations from Producer/Director Roger Corman.
This is one of the best Poe adaptions put on film.The wonderful Vincent Price is the evil and heartless Prince Prospero.
But it was used very well because from the set designs, costumes and everything they really put a hell of an amount of effort and heart into what they were doing to do their very best in emulating Poe. Music is great, I really like the score from the theme to the end credit sequence which is cool since there are tarot cards shown.I really like the story which fits like a glove, which is more centered around a castle run by Prince Prospero (masterfully played by Vincent Price) whom is probably one of my favorite fictional villains.
I do love the Pit and the Pedulum, The Raven and The Fall of the House of Usher just as much, but of the Roger Corman-Vincent Price-Edgar Allen Poe films I find The Masque of the Red Death to be the best.
"The masque of the red death" adapted from Edgar Allen Poe's novel tells the story of a brute prince (Vincent Price) who made a pact with Satan and who has no mercy for the people of the village who are suffering from the terrible red death.
Vincent Price stars as the evil Prince Prospero in this loose adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe's celebrated short story The first few scenes of The Masque Of The Red Death exemplify why kitsch fans see it as Roger Corman's finest moment as a budget-horror director.
'The Masque of the Red Death' is one of the finest Roger Corman's movie and probably the best one in his Poe series.
***** The Masque of the Red Death (1964) Roger Corman ~ Vincent Price, Jane Asher, David Weston.
Another addition to Roger Corman's series of movies adapted from Edgar Allan Poe stories casts Vincent Price as a Satan-worshiping medieval prince holding a party while a horrible plague ravages his fiefdom.
this is one of my favourite movies Vincent Price is brilliantly evil as Prince Prospero (especially the ways he disregards the deaths of his friends and humiliates his guests by making them perform as animals.
the scene when the red death passes among the guests dancing is brilliantly eerie.A total classic and the best of the Roger Corman/Vincent Price Poe adaptations.10 out of 10.
Prince Prospero (Vincent Price) is an evil man who is a big fan of the Satan.In his castle the people are safe from the Red Death which is killing the people in the village.The beautiful Francesca (Jane Asher) is one who has found her way to the castle.She wants to safe her father Ludovico (Nigel Green) and lover Gino (David Weston).There's also Juliana (Hazel Court) who has devoted herself to the Devil.We can't forget Hop Toad (Skip Martin) who does a neat trick at the masquerade.The Masque of the Red Death (1964) is a very fine Roger Corman film.It's based on Edgar Allan Poe's short story.Acting is great in this movie.Vincent Price is very convincing in the lead.He was an excellent actor who was seen in many Poe's movies.This horror movie is filled with scary and creepy scenes.It works today just as good as it worked forty years ago when it was made..
Roger Corman's "The Masque of the Red Death" is an interesting but static attempt at adapting Edgar Allan Poe's story to the screen.
Call me a philistine if you like, but I've always found Roger Corman's lavish adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's The Masque of the Red Death a little too pretentious for my taste, much preferring the director's more trashy B-movie output.
Here, Corman is under the illusion that he is Ingmar Bergman, presenting his tale in an art-house fashion that might look visually impressive (the photography by Nicolas Roeg is definitely eye-catching) but which actually proves surprisingly dull overall, despite the debauchery and decadence on display.Nobody plays loathsome quite like Vincent Price, and here he at his most despicable, as Prince Prospero, a Satan worshipping aristocrat who delights in corrupting the innocent.
Consequently, the fact that Corman may have intentionally intended THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH as as sort of homage to Bergman's 'medieval' films not just THE SEVENTH SEAL but also perhaps THE MAGICIAN aka THE FACE (1958) and THE VIRGIN SPRING (1960) makes the film stand out quite strongly among the Corman/Poe adaptations.However, the similarities between THE SEVENTH SEAL and THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH are not merely confined to the stylized look of the two films but extend also to several plot points, namely: · In MASQUE, Prospero (Vincent Price)'s relationship with Alfredo (Patrick Magee) is very volatile: seemingly conspiratory and in tune in their love of sin and debauchery, but also frequently condescending and ruled by their position in society as a royal and his subject; in THE SEVENTH SEAL, the same ambiguity can been seen to inform the relationship between the Knight Antonius Block (Max von Sydow) and his Squire Jons (Gunnar Bjornstand).· Towards the end of the film, Gino (David Weston) meets Death (unknowingly) under the trees and, in a moment of despair, confesses his doubts about succeeding in saving Francesca (Jane Asher) from Prospero's castle; early on in the film, when Antonius Block goes to confession, he mistakes the figure of Death (who is with his back to him) for a priest and subsequently reveals his strategy by which he would have beaten Death at their ongoing chess game.· In the final sequence, the Red Death is seen playing cards with the little girl from the village; in their first meeting, Antonius Block tries to buy some time for himself by challenging Death to a game of chess which continues throughout the various confrontations they have in the film.· The Red Death finally catches up with Prospero and his minions when he visits the castle during a masked ball; Death knocks (for the last time) on Antonius Block's castle door where the latter has joined his wife for one last, solemn supper.· The films end with a procession of both the Survivors [Francesca, Gino and the little girl in MASQUE; Jof (Nils Poppe), Mia (Bibi Anderssen) and their child in SEAL] and the Damned [the variously cloaked Deaths walking slowly away in MASQUE; Death leading his victims onward in SEAL).· The Plague features prominently in both movies.· The differences between agnosticism, faith and the loss thereof, and mistaken beliefs (e.g. Satanism) is a theme which features strongly in both films.While THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH is certainly among the best of both Corman's and Price's films, I still prefer THE TOMB OF LIGEIA (1964) to it and personally I can't wait for MGM/UA's jam-packed dirt-cheap DVD edition coming out in August!
"The Masque of the Red Death" is the penultimate entry in a series of film adaptations of the works of Edgar Allan Poe directed by Roger Corman between 1960 and 1964.
The final words of the film are also those of the story:- "And darkness and decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all".An element not found in Poe's story is the contrast between the evil and debauchery of Prospero and the innocence and goodness of Francesca.
For Roger Corman – the King of B-movies – Poe adaptations were an opportunity to use Vincent Price at his sinister best, and also to be a little "arty." No doubt he took some inspiration from the European cinema of the era.
Death himself, cloaked in red, delivers a plague to a village under the rule of the cruel, corrupt Prince Prospero(Vincent Price, in one of his finest roles).
I personally like The Pit and the Pendulum (1961) far more than this & still remains my favourite Corman adapted Poe. The Masque of the Red Death is not a film I can recommend despite all the positive word of mouth, very disappointing..
Vincent Price, Jane Asher, Hazel Court and John Westbrook star in Roger Corman's 1964 horror film adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's short story.
Roger Corman directed a handful of memorable cod Poe horror films, I think this was his best, certainly the one for which I have the fondest memories.While the deadly Red Death disease rages in the countryside the weird guests of Count Prospero's castle think themselves safe, including the pure young girl her father and her lover who were abducted for pleasure from their village.
Basically, set in Medieval Europe, the cruel Prince Prospero (Vincent Price), who worships and prays to Satan, is inviting many of the local townspeople to his castle for a gathering to escape the oncoming plague, the Red Death.
The movie stars the deliciously hammy and dashing Vincent Price as the wicked devil-worshipping Prince Prospero, and eventually as the Red Death himself. |
tt2096673 | Inside Out | A girl named Riley (Kaitlyn Dias) is born, and in her mind, Joy (Amy Poehler) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith) are created. As she grows into a young kid, the emotions Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black) and Disgust (Mindy Kaling) form, each one coloring the memories that power the islands in her mind. Since her first memory was scoring a goal in a game with her parents, she has Hockey Island, in addition to Goofball, Family, Honesty and Friendship Islands. Each island is connected to Headquarters via lightlines, and has the appearance of a small theme park. Joy can see how the other emotions can be useful, except for Sadness, because she doesn't ever want Riley to be sad.When Riley is 11, her father (Kyle MacLachlan) starts a new business, and he moves the family from Minnesota to San Francisco. The room in her new home is tiny, and the moving van with all of Riley's stuff keeps getting delayed, so they don't have most of their things. Determined to keep things upbeat, Joy has Riley start a makeshift hockey game in the living room with her dad, using her stick and a wad of paper. Family Island is churning along. Then, Dad gets a business call and quickly has to leave. Sadness tries to take control, but Joy blocks her out, instead giving Riley the idea that she should ask her mom (Diane Lane) to go get pizza.The pizza mission quickly goes wrong, as only pizza made with broccoli (which Riley hates) is served at the local restaurant. Mom asks Riley what her favorite part of the trip was, and Joy serves up the memory of the time Dad tried to take a picture of them posing in front of a cement dinosaur, failing to realize that the car was rolling down the hill behind him, and it crashed into another dino statue. The memory makes Riley laugh, but then suddenly it turns blue after Sadness touches it. Joy is unable to restore the memory, and orders Sadness not to touch any more memories. Joy then tries to set things right by having Riley slide down a banister, causing Goofball Island to come to life. But then, Riley changes her mind and decides to just walk down the stairs. Dumbfounded, Joy investigates and finds a core memory on the floor, and Sadness standing next to the core memory holder, having caused the memory to fall out. The missing core memory caused Goofball Island to go black. When Sadness tries to touch a core memory, Joy quickly pulls her hand back, knowing that the memories can't be changed back once they're turned sad. Determined to keep Sadness from causing any more trouble, Joy takes her to a large collection of mind instruction manuals and tells her to read them.On the first night, Riley has only a sleeping bag in her room, and she's unable to sleep. Riley's emotions realize that the move was a lot worse than Joy had said it would be. Mom comes into the room and thanks Riley for keeping a happy face through the stressful situation. When Riley finally falls asleep, Joy puts on a happy dream of Riley ice skating with her parents. The next day, Riley has her first day at her new school, and Joy gives assignments to the team, telling Sadness that she should just stand still, and not take the controls at all. When Riley arrives in class, the teacher asks her to introduce herself, and tell everyone about her life in Minnesota. Riley talks about playing on a hockey team, but once again the memory turns blue after Sadness touches it. Joy tries to take the memory out, and sees Sadness taking control of the console. Joy finally succeeds in removing the memory and pulls Sadness away from the console, but not before a new sad core memory is created. Joy tries to activate the memory dump, but Sadness stops her from erasing the memory. In the struggle, all of the core memories fall out, and a happy core memory starts to get sucked into the dump tube, and Joy grabs it and finds herself, Sadness and the core memories getting sucked away.Joy and Sadness get dumped out in Riley's long term memory. From a distance, they can see Riley's personality islands lifeless. Knowing that Riley needs her core memories and can't be happy without Joy at the controls, they set out to make their way back to headquarters. With Fear, Anger and Disgust in charge, Riley can only snap back at her parents when they try to talk to her. Frustrated, Dad sends Riley to her room. Joy and Sadness make it to Goofball Island, where they try to walk the lightline back to headquarters, knowing that one misstep will land them in the memory dump below. When Dad comes into the room and tries to cheer Riley up by acting goofy, she rolls over and faces the wall, causing Goofball Island to crumble. Joy and Sadness barely escape falling into the memory dump, and the other emotions are hoping desperately that Joy will return soon.With Goofball Island destroyed, Joy sets out for Friendship Island. The only path is through long term memory, and Sadness remembers from the manual that it's easy to get lost in there. Joy realizes that if Sadness read the manual, she would know how to get back to headquarters, so she lets Sadness lead the way. With Sadness too depressed to walk, Joy has to spend the night dragging her through long term memory, where they encounter Forgetters, who have the job of sending Riley's faded memories to the dump. One memory they vow never to get rid of is the jingle from an old gum commercial, and they send that one up to Headquarters through a recall tube at random times, causing the song to play in Riley's head. Riley is doing an online chat with an old friend, Meg (Paris Van Dyke), who tells her that there's a new girl on her old team who plays really well with her. Anger is at the helm, and Riley abruptly ends the conversation, causing Friendship Island to crumble. Joy and Sadness plan to head to Hockey Island, but then meet up with Riley's imaginary friend, a pink elephant named Bing Bong (Richard Kind).Bing Bong realizes the urgency of the situation, and tries to help the pair get back to headquarters. Joy remembers the rocket ship he had that was powered by Riley's singing. Excited at the prospect of being remembered again, Bing Bong starts to dance, but then trips and cries. Joy notices his tears are actually pieces of candy. Bing Bong gives Joy a bag to hold the core memories that she's been carrying, and tells her that taking the Train of Thought will get them back to headquarters much faster than walking. Bing Bong knows a shortcut that will take them to a train station in Imagination Land, but Sadness warns her that the path isn't safe, having read about the area in the manual. Undeterred, Joy and Bing Bong head into a building, with Sadness reluctantly following. The building turns out to be abstract thought, and the three of them start to lose their body shape. In the final stage, they become straight lines, and are able to inch their way out of the building, but miss the train and decide to go through Imagination Land to reach another station.In Imagination Land, Bing Bong is able to find his old rocket ship, and they run into Riley's imaginary boyfriend. Bing Bong leads them through Preschool World to get to the station. Riley is at the first tryout for the new hockey team, but without her core memories, she can't play well, and she quits in frustration, causing Hockey Island to crumble. Bing Bong realizes that Preschool World is being demolished, and he loses his rocket. Joy is unable to cheer him up, but Sadness consoles him by acknowledging his grief. For the first time, Joy sees that Sadness can be useful. The three catch the train back to headquarters.Back at headquarters, Anger gets the idea to have Riley run away back to Minnesota to create more happy memories, but decides to let her sleep on it. As soon as she falls asleep, the train stops, stranding the trio. They decide to try to wake Riley up by giving her an exciting dream, and set out for Dream Productions. Joy hands Bing Bong the bag that holds the core memories, and then puts on half of a dog costume, and gives the other half to Sadness.At Dream Productions, there is a crew producing Riley's dream, like a movie. Fear is in charge of the dream, which has Riley in class in her underwear and with her teeth falling out. Sadness has doubts that a happy dream will wake Riley, suggesting a scary dream instead, but Joy ignores her idea, and they come into the dream as a cute dog, surprising the movie crew. Bing Bong starts a party in the classroom with balloons and confetti. He dances around and causes the dog costume to rip in half, and Joy chases Sadness around, causing the dream to be half a dog chasing the other half. The scary scene nearly causes Riley to wake up, but a guard tackles Bing Bong and takes him off to the Subconscious. Joy and Sadness follow in an effort to rescue Bing Bong. They can't get in, but then stand near the doors and pretending that they are escaping from the subconscious, they are caught by the guards, and are shoved in as well. They follow Bing Bong's candy tears and find him trapped in a cage made of balloons, that is built on the side of Jangles, the birthday clown (Josh Cooley), asleep on the floor. They're able to free Bing Bong, and they get Jangles to chase them back to Dream Productions. They tell him that there's a birthday party in Dream Productions, and he takes over the dream, startling Riley awake.Joy and Sadness are able to catch the train to headquarters. Anger is furious that he can't even get a good night's sleep with Fear at the controls, and he decides to follow through with his plan to have Riley run away. Joy acknowledges that Sadness had the right idea to scare Riley awake. Bing Bong finds a box of Riley's memories, and Sadness fixates on one where Riley is celebrating with her teammates. Joy thinks that Sadness has finally come around to her own way of thinking, until Sadness reveals that the memory is actually of the time when Riley missed the winning shot, costing her team the game.Riley sneaks downstairs and grabs her mom's credit card from the purse. At first, it seems that her mom will see her with the credit card in her hand, but mom is too involved in her conversation to notice. Honesty Island collapses, sending the train crashing into a cliff. The three escape just before the train falls into the memory dump. Riley shoves her clothes into her backpack and leaves the house, pretending that she's going to school. Family Island starts to crumble, exposing a memory recall tube. Joy and Sadness realize that they could be sucked up and sent back to headquarters. Riley heads out for the bus station, causing Family Island to quake.Joy and Sadness make it to a tube, but Sadness can't get in without turning the core memories sad, and Joy decides to go back alone. The quake causes the tube to break apart, and Sadness watches helplessly as Bing Bong tries to save her, and they both fall into the abyss. Joy realizes that she's in the memory dump, and tries to climb out. Bing Bong finds her and tells her there's no point. Joy finds the sad core memory that never got stored at headquarters. Dejected, Joy goes through Riley's core memories. A tear falls on the memory where Riley is celebrating with her teammates. Wiping away the tear causes the memory to rewind, and Joy sees Riley, just after she had missed her shot, alone in a tree, looking sad. Moving forward, Joy sees Riley's parents console her, and her teammates lift her up on their shoulders. Joy realizes that Sadness had helped Riley by calling attention to her mood.With renewed determination, Joy finds Bing Bong's rocket ship, and sings its broom engines to life. They try several times, with the ship coming closer and closer to escaping. Bing Bong realizes they won't make it out with his weight, so he jumps out and falls back down to the dump, and Joy safely gets out, only to realize that Bing Bong is still in the dump, far below. He cheers her on, and then begins to fade out of existence. Joy sets out to get back to headquarters and save Riley.Riley's parents realize that she isn't home and call her cell phone. With Anger at the helm, she ignores the call and continues to the bus station. Joy is able to follow a trail of memories that Sadness has touched. Riley is standing in line for the bus, and Family Island starts to disappear. Dissuaded, Anger tries to remove his idea. Joy finds Sadness, but Sadness decides Riley would be better off without her. She hops onto a cloud and flies away. Joy finds the Imaginary Boyfriend Generator. Anger can't dislodge his idea, and the console turns black. Riley is unable to have any feeling.Joy creates a stack of imaginary boyfriends, and forms them into a tower, one standing on top of another. She then climbs to the top, and jumps onto a trampoline, which launches her high enough to catch Sadness in midair. Together, they're propelled back to headquarters, where they crash into the window. Disgust taunts Anger to make him erupt in flames, and then uses him to cut a hole in the glass for Joy and Sadness to be pulled back in. Meanwhile, the bus closes its doors and starts to leave the station. Back at headquarters, everyone looks to Joy to save the situation, but she lets Sadness take control. Sadness is able to remove the idea, and Riley gets off the bus and walks home.Riley walks into her house, and her parents run up and hug her. Joy lets Sadness hold the core memories, which turn blue with her touch. With Sadness at the controls, Riley is finally able to cry and honestly say that she misses her old life. Her parents comfort her, and they all talk about the things they miss. Joy hands Sadness the sad core memory she found, and she takes Joy's hand and they both touch the control button. Riley cries and smiles at the same time. Together, Joy and Sadness make a new core memory with both of their touches.Riley's headquarters gets an upgrade with a new button for puberty. All of the islands are back, along with some new ones. Riley is at a hockey game, with her parents cheering her on with painted faces. Riley accidentally bumps into a boy, causing his emotions to overload. Riley's emotions have confidence that they can work together to help her lead a happy life. | romantic, flashback | train | imdb | null |
tt2309260 | The Gallows | In October 1993, there is a high school performance of "The Gallows". The parents of Charlie Grimille record the play and admire their son's performance. Near the end of the play, Charlie's character is set to be hung at the gallows. Tragedy strikes when the door beneath Charlie's feet opens and he falls through with a noose around his neck, effectively hanging and killing him in front of his co-stars and the entire audience.In the present, 20 years later, a student at the same high school, Ryan (Ryan Shoos) tapes his friend (and the events of the film) Reese Houser (Reese Mishler) as he is in a production of "The Gallows" playing the same character Charlie played. Reese acts alongside his crush Pfeifer (Pfeifer Brown), but he never gets to kiss her during their big scene together. Ryan follows Reese and mocks the play while also recording several parents watching the rehearsals. Ryan speaks to a woman who was there during the original performance and witnessed Charlie's death.During the day, Ryan continues to mess around with the theater crew and also to hang out with his girlfriend Cassidy (Cassidy Gifford). Ryan finds out about Reese's crush on Pfeifer and decides to play wingman, so he finds Pfeifer and asks her how she feels about Reese and doing the play with him. She dances around the questions and expresses confidence in the play. As Ryan leaves her, he finds a door that never locks. This gives him an idea that he pitches to Reese and Cassidy in which they will sneak in at night and sabotage the play's set. Ryan knows Reese doesn't want to do the show for any reason other than to impress Pfeifer, so he coerces Reese into doing it so he can later console Pfeifer when she's devastated to see the set ruined.Ryan goes to Reese's house where he's arguing with his dad Rick (John Tanksly) over Reese doing the play. Reese takes Ryan and Cassidy to the school to set off their plan. They knock over some set trees and smash a few things before unscrewing the stairs leading to the gallows. Pfeifer shows up after claiming to have seen Reese's car. Ryan not-so-discreetly leaves the camera to record Reese trying to tell Pfeifer his reason for being there. As they talk, Ryan hears a loud thump that sounds like a bell tolling. The kids get a bit worried and try to leave, only to discover that the door that doesn't lock has somehow now been locked. They can't call for help because they have no signal. In their frustration, Cassidy blabs to Pfeifer that they were there to destroy the set, making Pfeifer angry with all of them, but especially Reese.The four look for an exit when they come across a room filled with files and other documents. They go into an office with a TV that plays footage featuring news coverage of Charlie's death, including the actual incident as well as an interview with Charlie's girlfriend Alexis Ross, the same woman that Ryan spoke to earlier that day. A cast photo is shown of the original cast, and they learn that Charlie was the understudy for the real actor that called in sick. Reese recognizes the person in the photo and runs all the way to the school's memorial of the play to find the same photo. They look on the back of the photo to see the name "Rick Houser", meaning it was Reese's dad that Charlie replaced.Ryan gets separated from the others and we see some footage through his phone. He gets spooked by more loud noises and runs to rejoin his friends. An invisible force pulls Cassidy up by the neck and leaves a mark around it, convincing everyone that there is something unfriendly amongst them.They then go back to the auditorium to spot a vent through which they can crawl. As the noises intensify, Ryan gets frustrated and starts taunting the presence by constantly saying Charlie's name, which has always been bad luck to utter. Ryan climbs a ladder to reach the vent, only to get thrown off by a strong force, causing him to break his leg. Reese and Pfeifer go look for help while Cassidy stays with him. Moments later, Reese and Pfeifer find Cassidy outside the auditorium, unable to re-enter. They hear Ryan yelling until a loud snap is heard. The door opens and the kids can't find Ryan. They find his phone with the screen cracked.We see the last bit of footage from Ryan's phone, showing his messed up leg while Cassidy is with him. She steps out to call the others when the door slams shut. Ryan panics and momentarily sees a figure dressed as the Hangman from the play, holding a noose. Ryan tries crawling away and doesn't see the figure anymore. Seconds later, he is pulled up by his neck.Reese holds the camera to try and keep the light on. While continuing to find a way out, Reese walks through the locker room and hears his phone ringing. It's been placed in a locker, but he sees it's his dad calling. Reese smashes the lock and gets the phone. He tries talking to his dad but only hears static, and then his own voice saying, "He wants me. He's coming for me."Outside, Cassidy cries by herself, unaware that the Hangman is walking behind her. She grabs the camera and looks at the mark on her neck, which has gotten more bruised. She then sees a noose around her neck, and she is pulled away quickly.Reese and Pfeifer pull the fire alarm to try and get the authorities to respond. It goes off but also alerts the Hangman to their presence. He follows them through the auditorium as they make their way to the top of the auditorium, with him nearly grabbing Reese. Up there, they find Ryan and Cassidy's bodies still hanging. They keep running until they see the unlockable door is now re-opened, but no authorities are there. Reese runs outside, but Pfeifer doesn't follow him. Reese makes it outside but hears Pfeifer gasping for air. He runs back in for her and sees her choking onstage. As he tries to help her, the spotlight hits them. Realizing what the spirit wants them to do, they act out their final scene in the play, in which the dialogue parallels their actual thoughts and words, since Reese knows it's him that the Hangman/Charlie wants. Reese finally kisses Pfeifer and walks over to the now-illuminated gallows. He puts the noose around his neck while Pfeifer continues to recite her lines in character. Charlie's spirit tightens the noose around Reese and pulls the lever, hanging Reese. Pfeifer stands onstage and joins hands with Charlie's invisible spirit. Together, they take a bow, while one person in the auditorium starts clapping.... Alexis Ross.The in the final scene, two policemen are entering Pfeifer's home. There's pictures on the wall of Pfeifer and Alexis together. Putting the pieces together, it becomes clear that Pfeifer is Charlie's daughter born after his death. One officer enters the bedroom where footage of the original play is being shown. He looks to the side and is startled to see Alexis brushing Pfeifer's hair. He sees Charlie's death on TV and asks, "Charlie Grimille?" The two ladies look at him with soulless eyes, and Pfeifer responds, "You really shouldn't say that name." The officer looks out the room to see a noose pull his partner against the wall. He turns around to find Charlie, who promptly attacks him. | suspenseful, murder, paranormal, horror, flashback, revenge, prank | train | imdb | Do not, I repeat, Do not fall for the made up 10 star reviews...( It's obvious those affiliated with producing this garbage want to pique the interest of others so they give fake ratings & reviews, hoping others will be interested enough to see it- & they make more $$) Take it from me, Wasting my $ & time on this terrible so-called "movie" left me leaving the theater very upset I wasted $ on this trash & annoyed.
Now,after seeing ( most of ) the movie ( ended up walking out, it was THAT BAD) and then seeing the 10 star reviews, I KNOW the ratings on here can't be trusted...( until you see at least 5,000 - 10,000 people rated it) SO- save your $ , time & irritation -skip this boring, sad excuse & find something better....
Pros:-A few decent performances-Good production design-Has the potential to be scaryCons: -Insufferable main character-Bullshit plot twist that makes no sense-Plot itself is nonsensical-Relies on cheap jump scares-Has a few good ideas, but they're usually screwed up somehow.-Found footage style is given no explanation3/10 (Horrible).
The film is another entry in the overcrowded found footage genre and the story's cameraman was obnoxious and idiotic right from the start.All the characters here are paper-thin and clichéd, they make stupid decisions to put themselves needlessly in peril.But generally there isn't much peril, or danger, or scares.
Distractingly amateurish, The Gallows looked as if it was shot for fifty quid in a spare weekend.It's very annoying to pay a lot of money to see a film as awful as this in the cinema, because it's not even worth a rental.Avoid paying to see the full film and just watch the trailer for free, that way you won't feel robbed..
Spend your time and money on other films, like 'It Follows' which came out this year a way better psychological horror or even Insidious 3 where they have much better intense moments.
The found footage genre is really odd one.I seen to number of them , I liked a lot of them but I hated few of them else And there are some feel are OK.If we the gallows falls in the hated pile, when I first saw the teaser Trailer at insidious 3, I thought it looked and sound really good .
But sadly that was not the case.The doing play on stage but some goes wrong when is accidentally hung on stage.The the movies onto modem time and people getting ready for the same play But the football player who is really bad actor on stage (and off stage as well)They break into school at night and trash stage, then when movie Start to up, with the door that never locks , is locked!What this movie is missing is that that there was no atmosphere at all , I didn't find anything creepy or scary at all.Even the jump scene didn't work and I saw them coming a mile away.I didn't like how the movie ended , it was predicableI going to give this 2 out of 10.
But they are discovered in the act by the play's lead actress and then everything goes to hell as the four find themselves trapped in the building with the vengeful ghost of the boy who died in The Gallows.Another found footage movie trying to find a hook in a played out horror subgenre.
It has most of the usual found footage problems, including my favorite: characters continuing to film the terrifying goings-on in the movie even when all logic would dictate they should drop the camera.
Twenty years later, to honor the cast and the late Charlie Grimille, the students of Beatrice High School decide to resurrect the show, with a student named Pfeifer (Pfeifer Brown) directing the play.Former football star turned thespian Reese (Reese Mishler) has decided to take on the lead role this time around, much to the dismay of his father, who wanted him to continue football, and his pal Ryan (Ryan Shoos), who hangs around the set during rehearsals just to ridicule and belittle the castmates.
Reese, Ryan, and Ryan's girlfriend Cassidy (Cassidy Gifford) go along with their asinine plan, breaking into the school late at night, but once they wind up meeting Pfeifer at the school, they encounter a barrage of paranormal activity and strange occurrences from what is believed to be Charlie's undead ghost.Such is the premise for "The Gallows," the umpteenth rendition of the found footage genre, which I claimed to be "uniformly dead" following the release of 2012's "The Devil Inside." With "The Gallows," a film made on a shoestring budget and released by Blumhouse, a known indie horror company, no new ground is broken but the ground that the film manages to chart is interesting, twisty, and a great deal of fun.I've always found high school/college drama rooms and theaters to be creepy places where one can find just about any old prop or relic.
This movie definitely won't win any awards in the originality department, and the acting (something I usually never mention) is largely uneven from a couple of the cast members, but the worst thing about The Gallows is the atrocity that is the ending.
*** review contains spoilers*** worst movies of (2015) well the first time when i saw the trailer it looked so scary dark and red intense Most of the time we're treated to feet treading floors, epileptic hand-held cameras prowling creepy passages, and dramatic lapses when the characters avert the cameras from the action.
Unfortunately, sound of horror movie and also i like the ideas of movie but then when it turned out to be one of worst movies i have ever seen no likable characters let me tell everyone i am done with found footage movies they even don't go for long as 81 minutes long it was little longer then Unfriended but unless it was better movie then this.
and no likable characters in movie, completely one of idiots in movie acting is very terrible very terrible theyneeded to go drama school more they were worst actors and characters in movie they could got someone else in but even the movie is boring half way i was bored completely i wasn't scared expect for when it was dark and felt same way it was scary Plot: 20 years after a horrific accident during a small town school play, students at the school resurrect the failed show in a misguided attempt to honor the anniversary where Charlie Grim is student who did the play then got hanged in stage then later on it still goes on 2013 then these stupid characters(Ryan shoos)Ryan was such pointless, idiot pointless character making himself number 1 idiot front of people at school and specially stage in movie even such a worse movie i have ever saw and he was with friends with Reese and Cassidy specially they find Pfeifer Ryan wanted trash the play down not respecting the place when someone died ?
and even the girl he liked girl and ruined the stage killing i thought it was lame death scenes all the characters got hanged because it's called gallows they don't die different way lame every different horror kills them the different way but this just hanging, the title of gallows is lame name i liked the trailer all staff but movie was going to be titled stage fright witch has better name apart from using boring name the gallows witch sounds like boring name it's only 1 Gallow there's not many gallows title should of named the Gallow that's it.
movie was going on since 2012 even Ryan making things a lot worse for all his friends got them in danger but i wish he's friends said no that's it got all his friends killed in movie the thing is all actors are so bad like i can't stand it i always think about leaving the theater this movie wasn't scary at all it was just worst story, i love idea of movie with darkness how scary it was i like found footage films but this killed it the all thing no point of making it :/ some of scenes are very scary and dark i like idea of movie with scary is haunted and all that but this with gallows and another crap was like what ?
but the trailer didn't had same scenes in movie i can't remember witch ones but then some how movie didn't do much there's not much too say i am glad this movie got 4.5 very short story line like grade 3 kid had written this movie, movie needs to be more to be scary, more of running around the all school surviving but ending killed it there's not much to write about all plot it mean to watch movie goes for 91 minutes no need for to write plot for this review.
Well, that's pretty much my situation with regards to The Gallows...I saw the trailers for the cinematic release, looked forward to it coming out onto Blu-ray, but only to be disappointed after finally seeing the film.What disappointed me about The Gallows wasn't because it was another found-footage film or that it was another high school "teeny" horror, but because out of those adjectives I used above, it's pretty boring, dull, and lifeless for the most part.
The worst problems is that falls into the cliché that the vast majority of such films have: the classic characters and their so burned development, the classic jump scares, the classic entity/monster/ghost that -somehow- is killing just for the sake of the plot, the classic perfect end to the murderer.I'm mean...
not a fan of movies filmed like this though, the camera made me wanna throw up, by the end i was nauseated and had a headache that was trying to split my skull open.But on the horror level it actually wasn't that bad.
If indeed one day we find ourselves in communication with a great race equal to our technological advancements let us all hope that these visitors do not find a copy of found footage horror film The Gallows, as their judgements upon mankind may be non-recoverable.A film so daft and downright dumb it's hard to fathom how it came into existence in the first place, The Gallows as directed by duo Travis Cluff and Chris Lofing (seriously it took two people to make this turkey!) is the type of film where you can feel your brain cells disappearing with each passing minute as annoying characters make unintelligible decision upon unintelligible decision and seemingly solvable solutions are ignored in the sake of more shakily handled "scares".A new low in the past it's use by date genre of found footage horrors, The Gallows plunges to previously unseen depths of narrative drivel to tell the story of painfully badly acted teenage brats breaking into their seemingly medievally secured school to wreck the set to an upcoming play only to be haunted by an ominous fiend who locks them in the school facility (really there's not a single window that could be smashed to break out of?) to wreck all manner of nasties on them.Watch on in disbelief as these unlikeable creations knock pot plants down, "dismantle" sets by taking a piece of wood out of a stage setting and generally fail at their objective only to be bettered or worsened by the fact that their school break in just happens to be in a school that seemingly has forgone any type of security, whether it be guards, cameras, motion detectors or even the locking of a door that would take 1 minute to fix, this school does not care who wonders its grounds come closing time!
It's almost as if The Gallows creators Cluff and Lofing decided they were onto narrative gold or perhaps just an easy paycheck and set forth on making their film no matter if anything actually made sense or if logic was totally bypassed, it's almost akin to a home movie production, just far less funny or enjoyable.The Gallows is neither scary or original and nothing about the film feels even remotely believable, even in a genre that's not supposed to be clothed in reality.Taking place around some seriously lax logic and scenarios, The Gallows gets its rating purely based around the fact it's something that needs to be seen to be believed as for those that thought modern day horrors and found footage films had reached their lowest ebbs, The Gallows is here to show us all that the bar has been set even lower.In other words, all copies of this film should be locked away or simply destroyed quick smart
before the intergalactic visitors arrive!
I am a big horror movie fan, The Trailer for this film looked good so i couldn't wait for it to come out to watch it.
"The Gallows" is even worse than rubbish; - an utterly boring and amateurish effort with an uninteresting story, loathsome lead characters and shaky camera movements that are possibly even more irritating than in every other found-footage movie ever made.
Oh, the film thinks it explains itself with a random, nonsensical twist ending, but in actuality there's little to bond the story other than a red filter and hyena like screams from off-screen.Besides the idiotic plot, these characters are so painfully written that you may need a sedative to quell the rising anger you will feel at the back of your throat.
"The Gallows" is a horror movie in which we watch a group of friends trying to destroy the scene of a play.
I really don't want to put too much thought on this review,if the writers and directors (yes,two people directed this)don't take the time to write a decent script and create a decent movie I'm not going to make a serious in depth review.This film is insulting to people that want to work in film,it is a joke,the characters in this film are the most unlikable people I have ever seen in a movie.I was rooting for the villain of this movie to kill these idiots(not that the villain is very good either,he actually kinda sucks).And of course we come to the problem with most horror movies today,god damned jump scares,i didn't get scared at any time in this film,there is ZERO suspense,all these guys are trying to do is a cheap jump scare,this movie is found footage and when you find out the reason why it's found footage you will either laugh or cry from how stupid it is.There are two twists in this movie that make the twist in The Happening look like genius.A quick note to all horror directors,jump scares and ear piercing sounds are not scary..
Skip The Gallows unless you're looking for a movie with lots of jump scares or something to laugh at with your friends at the films absurdity..
If the fact that the characters names were also the real names of the actors didn't stop you from watching this movie, then this being an outdated first person blare witch style horror film minus the horror should.
When I saw the trailer I couldn't wait to see it.It looked awesome.After watching The Gallows I'm just glad I didn't pay to go see it.That would've been a MAJOR waste of $$$.It started off good enough even though there wasn't all that much to it.I thought I'd end up actually liking the movie (Boy was I wrong) It started falling apart near the very end & the final ending was just straight up garbage.I absolutely hated it.I hope The Gallows is 1 & done.As much as Hollywood LOVES to make Sequels I truly hope The Gallows doesn't get 1.The movie was bad enough the 1st time that there shouldn't be a 2nd.If you're thinking of paying to watch The Gallows, Take my advice & wait till you can see it for free.There are way better movies out there that you could be spending your $$$ on.
When the horror starts (and it takes a lot of time for it to start) most scenes are filmed in such an annoyingly bad lighting (even for a found footage movie) and everything looks so unnatural and staged, that it's really hard to even follow the movie, let alone care about anything that happens in it.
You are 110 times better watching "My Little Ponys" than this.When I first seen the Trailer, I thought it was gonna be awesomeness and good like other awesome Horror films.
Another found footage film" - no one everWithin 2 minutes of watching The Gallows I didn't care about the story or the characters at all.
I wouldn't watch it again though.There are the usual bits where the camera shows things that couldn't be seen if it was hand held by one person and the almost permanent low light or black became a bit irritating at times but as I said above - it was watchable.The most interesting fact for me is that the estimated budget was $100,000 but it has so far grossed almost $23m - a better percentage return than many high budget movies which makes me wonder what made so many people want to go watch it..
The poster's main image is a girl who looks like she's scared and crying, making the potential moviegoer wonder what happened to her – or what might be about to come out of those red and black shadows to do her harm.Now, only if the movie were as effective as the publicity surrounding it.The film's action begins in late October 1993, when a character named Charlie Grimille is performing in a play called "The Gallows" and suffers the same fate as the Charlie Grimille in the story from 1983.
Today we jump into the latest teen horror movie entitled the Gallows, which also acts as another attempt to revive found footage films. |
tt0049223 | Forbidden Planet | Opening sceneIt is late in the 22nd Century. United Planet cruiser C57D is a year out from Earth base on the way to Altair for a special mission. Commander J.J Adams (Leslie Neilsen) orders the crew to the deceleration booths as the ship drops from light speed to normal space.Adams orders pilot Jerry Farman (Jack Kelly) to lay in a course for the fourth planet. The captain then briefs the crew that they are at their destination, and that they are to look for survivors from the Bellerophon expedition 20 years earlier.As they orbit the planet looking for signs of life, the ship is scanned by a radar facility some 20 square miles in area. Morbius (Walter Pigeon) contacts the ship from the planet asking why the ship is here. Morbius goes on to explain he requires nothing, no rescue is required and he can't guarantee the safety of the ship or its crew.Adams confirms that Morbius was a member of the original crew, but is puzzled at the cryptic warning Morbius realizes the ship is going to land regardless, and gives the pilot coordinates in a desert region of the planet. The ship lands and security details deploy. Within minutes a high speed dust cloud approaches the ship. Adams realizes it is a vehicle, and as it arrives the driver is discovered to be a robot (Robby). Robby welcomes the crew to Altair 4 and invites members of the crew to Morbius' residence.Adams, Farman and Doc Ostrow (Warren Stevens) arrive at the residence and are greeted by Morbius. They sit down to a meal prepared by Robby's food synthesizer and Morbius shows the visitors Robby's other abilities, including his unwavering obedience. Morbius then gives Robby a blaster with orders to shoot Adams. Robby refuses and goes into a mechanical mind lock, disabling him until the order is changed.Morbius then shows the men the defense system of the house (A series of steel shutters). When questioned, Morbius admits that the Belleraphon crew is dead, Morbius and his wife being the only original survivors. Morbius's wife has also died, but months after the others and from natural causes. Morbius goes on to explain many of the crew were torn limb from limb by a strange creature or force living on the planet. The Belleraphon herself was destroyed when the final three surviving members tried to take off for Earth.Adams wonders why this force has remained dormant all these years and never attacked Morbius. As discussions continue, a young woman Altaira (Anne Francis) introduces herself as Morbius daughter. Farman takes an immediate interest in Altaira, and begins to flirt with her
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Altaira then shows the men her ability to control wild animals by petting a wild tiger. During this display the ship checks in on the safety of the away party. Adams explains he will need to check in with Earth for further orders and begins preparations for sending a signal. Because of the power needed the ship will be disabled for up to 10 days. Morbius is mortified by this extended period and offers Robby's services in building the communication facilityThe next day Robby arrives at ship as the crew unloads the engine to power the transmitter. To lighten the tense moment the commander instructs the crane driver to pick up Cookie (Earl Holliman) and move him out of the way. Quinn interrupts the practical joke to report that the assembly is complete and they can transmit in the morning.Meanwhile Cookie goes looking for Robby and organizes for the robot to synthesize some bourbon. Robby takes a sample and tells Cookie he can have 60 gallons ready the next morning for him.Farman continues to court Altair by teaching her how to kiss, and the health benefits of kissing. Adams interrupts the exercise, and is clearly annoyed with a mix of jealous. He then explains to Altair that the clothes she wears are inappropriate around his crew. Altair tries to argue till Adams looses patience and order Altair to leave the area.That night, Altair, still furious, explains to her father what occurred. Altair takes Adams advice to heart and orders Robby to run up a less revealing dress. Meanwhile back at the ship two security guards think they hear breathing in the darkness but see nothing.Inside the ship, one of the crew half asleep sees the inner hatch opened and some material moved around. Next morning the Captain holds court on the events of the night before. Quinn advises the captain that most of the missing and damaged equipment can be replaced except for the Clystron monitor. Angry, the Capt. and Doc go back to Morbius to confront him about what has occurred.Morbius is unavailable, so the two men settle in to wait. Outside Adams sees Altair swimming and goes to speak to her. Thinking she is naked, Adams becomes flustered and unsettled till he realizes she wants him to see her new dress. Altair asks why Adams wont kiss her like everyone else has. He gives in and plants one on her. Behind them a tiger emerges from the forest and attacks Altair, Adams reacts by shooting it. Altair is badly troubled by the incident; the tiger had been her friend, but she can't understand why it acted as if she was an enemy.Returning to the house, Doc and Adams accidentally open Morbius' office. They find a series of strange drawings but no sign of Morbius. He appears through a secret door and is outraged at the intrusion. Adams explains the damage done to the ship the previous night and his concern that Morbius was behind the attack.Morbius admits it is time for explanations. He goes on to tell them about a race of creatures that lived on the planet called the Krell. In the past they had visited Earth, which explains why there are Earth animals on the planet. Morbius believes the Krell civilization collapsed in a single night, right on the verge of their greatest discovery. Today 2000 centuries later, nothing of their cities exists above ground.Morbius then takes them on a tour of the Krell underground installation. Morbius first shows them a device for projecting their knowledge; he explains how he began to piece together information. Then an education device that projects images formed in the mind. Finally he explains what the Krell were expected to do, and how much lower human intelligence is in comparison.Doc tries the intelligence tester but is confused when it does not register as high as Morbius. Morbius then explains it can also boost intelligence, and that the captain of the Belleraphon died using it. Morbius himself was badly injured but when he recovered his IQ had doubled.Adams questions why all the equipment looks brand new. It is explained that all the machines left on the planet are self repairing and Morbius takes them on a tour of the rest of the installation. First they inspect a giant air vent that leads to the core of the planet. There are 400 other such shafts in the area and 9200 thermal reactors spread through the facilities 8000 cubic miles.Later that night the crew has completed the security arrangements and tests the force field fence. Cookie asks permission to go outside the fence. He meets Robby, who gives him the 60 gallons of bourbon.
Outside, something hits the fence and shorts it out. The security team checks the breach but finds nothing. A series of foot-like depressions begin forming leading to the ship. Something unseen enters the ship. A scream echos through the compound.Back at the Morbius residence he argues that only he should be allowed to control the flow of Krell technology back to Earth. In the middle of the discussion, Adams is paged and told that the Chief Quinn has been murdered. Adams breaks off his discussions and heads back to the ship.Later that night Doc finds the footprints and makes a cast. The foot makes no evolutionary sense. It seems to have elements of a four footed and biped creature; also it seems to be both a predator and herbivore. Adams questions Cookie, who was with the robot during the test, and decides the robot was not responsible.The next day at the funeral for Chief, Morbius again warns him of impending doom facing the ship and crew. Adams considers this a challenge and spends the day fortifying the position around the ship. After testing the weapons and satisfied all that could be done has, the radar station suddenly reports movement in the distance moving slowly towards the ship.No one sees anything despite the weapons being under radar fire control. The controller confirms a direct hit, but the object is still moving towards the ship. Suddenly something hits the force field fence, and a huge monster appears outlined in the energy flux. The crew open fire, but seem to do little good. A number of men move forward but are quickly killed.Morbius wakes hearing the screams of Altair. She's had a dream mimicking the attack that has just occurred. As Morbius is waking the creature in the force field disappears. Doc theorizes that the creature is made of some sort of energy, renewing itself second by second.Adams takes Doc in the tractor to visit Morbius, intending to evacuate him from the planet. He leaves orders for the ship to be readied for liftoff. If he and Doc dont get back, the ship is to leave without them. They also want to try and break into Morbius' office and take the brain booster test.They are met at the door by Robby, who disarms them. Altair appears and countermands the orders given to Robby by her father. Seeing a chance, Doc sneaks into the office. Altair argues with Adams about trying to make Morbius return home; she ultimately declares her love for him.Robby appears carrying the injured Doc. Struggling to speak and in heavy pain, Doc explains that the Krell succeeded in their great experiment. However they forgot about the subconscious monsters they would release. Monsters from the id.Morbius sees the dead body of Doc, and makes a series of ugly comments. His daughter reminds him that Doc is dead. Morbius' lack of care convinces Altair she is better off going with Adams. Morbius tries to talk Adams out of taking Altair.Adams demands an explanation of the id. Morbius realizes he is the source of the creature killing everyone. The machine the Krell built was able to release his inner beast, the subconscious monster dwelling deep inside his ancestral mind.Robby interrupts the debate to report something approaching the house. Morbius triggers the defensive shields of the house, which the creature begins to destroy. Morbius then orders Robby to destroy the creature; however, Robby short circuits. Adams explained that it was useless; Robby knew it was Morbius himself.Adams, Altair and Morbius retreat to the Krell lab and seal themselves in by sealing a special indestructible door. Adams convinces Morbius that he is really the monster, and that Morbius cannot actually control his subconscious desires.The group watch as the creature beings the slow process of burning through the door. Panicked, Morbius implores Altair to say it is not so. Suddenly the full realization comes, and he understands that he could endanger or even kill Altair.As the creature breaks through, Morbius rushes forward and denies its existence. Suddenly the creature disappears but Morbius is mortally wounded. With his dying breath he instructs Adams to trigger a self destruct mechanism linked to the reactors of the great machine. The ship and crew have 24 hours to get as far away from the planet as possibleThe next day we see the ship deep in space. Robby and Altair are onboard watching as the planet brightens and is destroyed. Adams assures Altair that her father's memory will shine like a beacon. | comedy, psychological, murder, cult, psychedelic, suspenseful, sci-fi | train | imdb | old and found this movie both highly entertaining and very frightening and unlike any other movie I had seen up until that time.BASIC PLOT: An expedition is sent out from Earth to the fourth planet of Altair, a great mainsequence star in constellation Aquilae to find out what happened to a colony of settlers which landed twenty years before and had not been heard from since.THEME: An inferior civilization (namely ours) comes into contact with the remains of a greatly advanced alien civilization, the Krell-200,000 years removed.
Argue, if you must, that movies like "The Day the Earth Stood Still", "Them" and "Five Million Years to Earth" are the cerebral grand-fathers of the film genre (and I won't disagree with you), but for "science-fiction-as-plot-driven-action-epic," this is it.
Things escalate when members of the crew are attacked and the full extent of the dangers on the planet become more and more clear.I have seen quite a few trashy sci-fi's from the 1950's because I rather enjoy their b-movie qualities but this is far from being a genre film because it stands out from the usual sci-fi's that act as an allegory for communism (whether deliberate or in hindsight) because this film is very intelligent although I assume it was based on the fears of the period as well, or at least I'd like to think so.
It also has a good mix of comedy in the form of the cook and, surprisingly, Robby the Robot (one of the most famous robots in cinema history) but mainly the film succeeds because of the interesting concept and good delivery.It's not all perfect of course and some of the plot holes are a bit of a pain if you really want to pick at them and also the need for a 'happy' ending spoils what should have been a much darker conclusion I don't understand why the script spent so much time warning only to offer an optimistic view of the self same things that it had warned against.
I appear to be one of the few viewers who liked Holliman's work as the comic relief cook but I must admit to finding the rest of the crew (including Kelly and Stevens) to be quite workmanlike even if they weren't 'bad' per se.Overall this is a great piece of sci-fi that has stood up really well over the past 50 or so years.
Sure Star Wars (a movie I have seen at least fifty times) beats all the others in special effects, but this film has every thing else!It has horror(non-graphical), romance, robots, witty repartee, intelligence, (surprisingly good) special effects, and drama.I saw this film a couple of years ago in a revival with a newly struck print, and I was amazed at how well it held up today.
I thought the old 40's style electronics would look hokey, but they somehow looked futuristic and moderne.Ann Francis in here (mostly) short skirts and bare feet with a girlish innocence that is hard to beat still gets a rise out of me.The Krell monster appearing in the ray beams still scares the bejebees out of me.Of course we all know that the "Great Bird of the Galaxy" probably modeled much of "Star Trek" from this movie.No one has yet to beat Robby, the Robot, in terms of personality(sorry, R2D2 and C3PO).This movie, overall, is the standard that all other Science Fiction films will have to measure up to!Honorable mention for the haunting electronic score which kept us all on pins and needles..
Like THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, this film helped make sci-fi respectable instead of the stuff for silly B-movies with cheap costumes and obviously faked sets.
To help strengthen the thought-level of the story, the scriptwriters included elements of Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST, the Biblical story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and Freudian psychology to make an enlightening tale of other-worldly mystery.Leslie Nielsen is in his serious mode here long before he became the comic madman of the NAKED GUN movies and POLICE SQUAD television series.
Robbie the Robot is thrown in for some comic-relief and appeared in many other movies and television shows including LOST IN SPACE.The most interesting aspect of the story for me was Monsters from the Id. The point being made is that the serpent is still in the Garden of Eden because we carry evil around with us wherever we go.This is an excellent entertainment..
A number of factors make it easy for me to state that I still think this is the most important science fiction film ever made, despite some of the acting, outdated dialogue etc.First, there is the scale of imagination in describing the Krell, a humanoid race native to the planet, now all dead, who were 1 million years more advanced than Earth humans(us), and their technology, particularly the 8,000 cubic mile machine.Second, there is the music and sound effects, which are inseparable from each other.
It creates an eerie, unearthly feeling, unlike "2001", which had traditional classical music.Third, its "monster" is not only the most powerful and deadly ever envisioned, it's also based on real science and doesn't break the laws of physics and biology.Finally, and most importantly, Forbidden Planet is the only movie ever made that attempts and, more incredibly, succeeds in making an honest, intelligent and mercilessly logical statement on the limits or ceiling of human (or any other biological entity's) development, no matter how long we survive as a species.In other words, it predicts our inevitable destiny..
To those of us who grew up on science fiction of the 50's and 60's, "Forbidden Planet" is, if not the "all-time" greatest sci-fi film, then it's one of the top three (the other two are "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and "War of the Worlds").The actors are superb, the scenery and graphics are wonderful, and the special effects (though now quite dated) still hold their own today!
At a time when science fiction movies were invariably cheap rubber monsters attacking our cities and scaring our women, "Forbidden Planet" offered an usually thought-provoking plot that worked on a number of levels.
"Forbidden Planet" had awesome special effects for their time (many of which still hold up well today)--but these were used to effectively support the multifaceted plot and characterizations, not try to compensate for their lack.The Shakespearean ("The Tempest") and Freudian ("Id-monster") elements have been noted by many critics.
A flying saucer manned (literally) by a crew of about 20 male space explorers travels hundreds of millions of light years from earth to check in on a colony founded some 25 years ago on a 'forbidden planet.' What they find is a robot more advanced than anything imaginable on earth, a beautiful and totally socially inept young woman, and her father, a hermit philologist haunted by more than the demons of the ancient civilization he has immersed himself in.On the surface, this story is a pulp scifi murder mystery.
If it were not for the goofy retro-art-deco-ness of 1950s sci-fi props, you might think you were watching a 1960s piece.This is a classic of that very special sub-genre of sci fi I like to call 1950s sci-fi, and, though not, in my opinion, the best it is certainly a must see for anybody interested in sci-fi film and special effects.
There's a good reason that Walter Pidgeon is warning off Leslie Nielson and his crew from the relief ship, stuff he dare not dream about.As Doctor Edward Morbius, Pidgeon is the last survivor of an expedition that came to this planet 20 years earlier.
It's interesting to look at science fiction films from different generations and see how are conceptions of the future do change.The story behind Forbidden Planet is a timeless one, about mortal beings trying to play God.You can't write about Forbidden Planet without commenting on Robby the Robot.
His scenes with Earl Holliman who plays the cook on the space ship and his complying with Earl's request for some home spirits are very funny.Robby and the other special effects were nominated for an Oscar, but lost to The Ten Commandments and the parting of the Red Sea. Forbidden Planet's bad luck to run up against a Hollywood founder like Cecil B.
It makes the film seem quite modern (sort of).The Robinsons from "Lost in Space" shopped at the same Galactic Supa- Centre - they bought a scaled down ship, less expensive gear & a cheaper version of Robby but you can easily see the lineage.The special effects must have seemed pretty excellent back in the day because they still look good.
This is by no means a film that a high school student can watch to compensate for reading the play, but it's a fine adaptation, its only cinematic competition being the excellent Western "Yellow Sky".At a time when science fiction was reduced to pulp, "Forbidden Planet" did a lot to advance intelligent, thoughtful genre films.
And the electronic "tonalities", with the eerie, Theremin-like sound enhances the visuals, as does all those subtle echoes.Unlike so many current sci-fi films wherein CGI substitutes for a non-existent plot, the special effects in "Forbidden Planet" enhance an already well-developed plot.
We marvel at the film's set design, animation effects, and matte paintings, all of which combine to create an artistic look that augments and supports the intellectual script.Similar to "The Tempest" in characters, plot, and theme, and aimed at an intelligent audience, "Forbidden Planet" is one of the three or four best sci-fi films ever made..
Forbidden Planet is considered to be one of the best sci-fi movies of all time, and it holds up.
Courtesy of a script that "borrows" from Shakespear's The Tempest, Forbidden Planet is a hokey yet sincere amalgam of dime-store Freudian psychobabble and Asimov/Clarke/Bester with a touch of Philip K Dick SF lit thrown in for good measure.The film's other great strengths is its design, sets and art direction.
From the shiny silver space saucer that takes the crew to Altair 4 and the "Frank Lloyd Wright on Venus" design of Morbius's house to Robby The Robot and the Krell underground city , Forbidden Planet is a visually gorgeous treat.
Many people who watch this movie attest to its many layered-ness from its plot to visual effects ( some which looks very much like a precursor to Star Trek series of the '60s ), choice of main characters ( A captain, doctor, and a first officer - Hmmm, didn't I see that somewhere else ?
The story shifts into a rough version of Shakespeare's 'The Tempest' with the introduction of 3 other characters during this space crew's latest mission to a barren yet wondrous planet: an elder scientist, his young lovely daughter and the scientist's impressive robot, which he apparently tinkered together about 20 years ago.But there are secrets on this planet, dark and deadly, and most of them stem from this anti-social yet seemingly harmless recluse of a scientist (Pidgeon).
I've seen this sci-fi classic many times over the years but never in it's original big screen Cinemascope glory which I'm sure would add to the value of this film.
This is a very good film and one of the best from the golden age of sci-fi movies and for it's influence on the science fiction film genre it deserves a 10..
I think the concept of the space crew and their relationship to one another was carried over to Star Trek and the transporter feature was taken or at least heavily inspired by the opening of the film when the crew assume DC stations (deceleration).We have a serious Leslie Nelson playing Commander Adams and a young 'Oscar Goldman' (Richard Anderson) for The Six Million Dollar Man fans.
***END SPOILER*** I wasn't at all expecting such mature commentary in a 50's sci-fi flick.Furthermore, Dr. Morbius' elaboration on the former inhabitants of his planet, the Krell, is fascinating to this day and the archaic special effects hold up well.One thing that really blows me away every time I catch this flick, of course, is Anne Francis, who plays Altaira (or Alta for short), in her ultra skimpy (and cute) outfits.
Not Japanese at all.the moral denouement is that we best not tamper with forces beyond our comprehension, a necessity it seems of the early atomic age.I admit it's a film of heady contrasts.The sedentary scientist and naive bombshell daughter with their robot, next to the boisterous army crew.The vast and obsolete looking 'futuristic' technology, next to sand deserts and the organic architecture of the house.The pastel colors of the MGM backlot (green skies!), next to the art-deco look of machinery.The thunderous shot that reveals the immensity of the Krell laboratories, compared to everything else being standard eye-level shots - it sticks out.It's so heady, you can trace its unmistakable influence from Star Trek to Alien.
Forbidden Planet not only revolutionized the sci-fi genre with a smart story (loosely based on Shakespeare's The Tempest) with great (if dated) special effects, it saved the genre.
With one of the cleverest stories in the genre, one of its best ever robots (Robby would become a star all on his own) and certainly the best spaceship landing ever, Forbidden Planet is a genre high point and essential viewing for those interested in said genre pieces.
"Forbidden Planet" is no exception to that rule, yet it manages to remain a bracingly original, thoroughly entertaining film, an enduring classic in a cinematic genre that ages faster than unrefrigerated milk.In a plot loosely lifted from Shakespeare's "The Tempest", a flying saucer flown from Earth in 2200 AD lands on the planet Altair 4, where Dr. Morbius (Walter Pidgeon) lives in isolation with his daughter Altaira (Anne Francis) and their helpful robot, Robby.
The 1950s were a golden age for science fiction more on the page than on screen, but "Forbidden Planet" holds up very well.So does the captain of the flying saucer, third-billed Leslie Neilsen, probably the only guy in movies who had to share star billing with not one but two inanimate objects, Robby here and Otto in "Airplane!" Neilsen's later career transformation casts a subversive light on his more serious early roles, but Neilsen here is really good, both in his angry confrontations with Morbius and his comic attempts to disguise his jealous longing for Morbius's daughter.The best performance, other than Robby's deadpan humor, is probably Warren Stevens as "Doc", a member of the saucer's crew who very subtly does a lot to point us in the direction the movie wants our minds to go in while his crewmates ogle the scrumptious Altaira.
The score (electronic music) and special effects are both way ahead of their time and suspension of disbelief is readily achieved from a cast that includes Walter Pidgeon as the scientist who discovers the remains of a lost advanced civilisation on a faraway planet.
Rated a 5-star film for nearly fifty years, and still rated so in some master indexes, Forbidden Planet is considered by many to be the greatest space fiction thriller of all time.
I always thought Robby the Robot was downright silly.The plot itself is probably the most sophisticated in science fiction films with its idea of monsters from the Id. The music score is unique.
A classic 1950's Sci-Fi film, Forbidden Planet will also appeal to movie fans who do not like science fiction.
Commander Adams (Leslie Nielsen) and his crew find only two survivors on Altair-4 where a spaceship disappeared 20 years ago; Dr. Edward Morbius (Walter Pidgeon) and his daughter Altaira (Anne Francis).
How I wish that Robby, the robot, had been given a whole lot more screen-time in this wonderful, 1956, Technicolor, Sci-Fi classic called "Forbidden Planet".
i found this a very watchable movie,at least until the final 30 minutes.it's not really action packed,yet i found it fascinating.it stars Leslie Nielsen at a young age in a serious role.one thing i noticed is how similar to the original Star Trek this movie looks.this movie must have been an inspiration for that show.if not the similarities between the 2 is the biggest coincidence ever.like Star Trek,there is a beautiful woman that the captain falls in love with.the planet looks familiar too.i'm also certain that the robot in the movie greatly inspired the robot in the science fiction TV series Lost in Space.though the special effects may not be that impressive by today's standards,i can see how they would be back then.anyway,like i said,the movie kept my interest until the last 30 minutes or so.which is amazing,since,in my mind,not too much happened the previous 68 minutes.this is definitely not for those that are action and adrenaline junkies.others might enjoy it though.i'll give Forbidden planet a 6/10.
It's also clear after watching this that while Gene Roddenberry may have created "Star Trek" he borrowed rather heavily from "Forbidden Planet" as he did so, and a number of "Star Trek" episodes seem to have their origins in various aspects of the plot of this movie.The story features Walter Pidgeon as Dr. Morbius, the only survivor of the crew of an earth ship that landed on Altaire IV many years before.
Forbidden Planet is a groundbreaking film that became the blueprint for a million sci-fi movies.
As a measure of its influence down through the years, "The Twilight Zone" tv show often borrowed its props, "Star Trek" used it as a conceptual template, Robbie the Robot is still a sci-fi icon, and even its theme--that men despite technical advancements are unfit to be gods--is repeated in the movie "Sphere." Although the narrative and camera techniques are showing their age more and more as time passes, "Forbidden Planet" can still be enjoyed today on the level of exploring ideas..
It also upped standards for the science fiction film.****** Forbidden Planet (3/15/56) Fred Wilcox ~ Walter Pidgeon, Leslie Nielsen, Anne Francis, Earl Holliman.
'Forbidden Planet' is a classic science fiction film, and it is probably best remembered for Robby the Robot. |
tt1216492 | Leap Year | Successful real estate stager Anna Brady (Amy Adams) is frustrated that her cardiologist boyfriend Jeremy Sloane (Adam Scott) still has not proposed to her after four years. She decides to travel from Boston to Dublin, to propose to him on February 29, leap day, while he is there at a conference. According to Irish tradition, a man who is proposed to on leap day must accept the proposal. During the flight, a storm diverts the plane to Wales, where Anna hires a boat to take her to Cork. The severity of the storm, however, forces her to be put ashore at Dingle, where she makes her way to Caragh's Tavern and tries to enlist the help of the surly Irish innkeeper, Declan O'Callaghan (Matthew Goode), to taxi her across the country to Dublin. At first he refuses, but after his tavern is threatened with foreclosure, he agrees to drive her for €500, and the two set out in his old beat-up car. Along the way, he makes fun of her fancy Louis Vuitton luggage, which he calls "Louie", and her belief in a leap year "tradition" of women proposing to men.
Their travel is interrupted by a herd of cows blocking the road. After attempts to move the animals, Anna leans on the car to clean her expensive shoes and causes it to roll downhill into a stream. Continuing on foot, Anna flags down a van with three ne'er-do-wells who offer her a lift. Ignoring Declan's warning, Anna accepts the ride and hands them her luggage, but before she can enter the van, they drive off without her. Anna and Declan eventually make their way on foot to a roadside pub, where they discover the three thieves going through Anna's luggage. Declan fights them off and retrieves Anna's bag, before being thrown out by the pub owner.
Anna and Declan reach a railway station and decide to wait for the next train. While waiting, they hike up a hill to the ruins of a nearby castle, where they get to know each other. He also tells her about a legend of a beautiful young woman promised to a lord she did not love who uses a sleeping potion to put her wedding guests asleep and escapes with another man whom she loves. They lose track of time and miss their train. That night they stay at a bed and breakfast, where they pretend to be married so their conservative hosts will allow them to stay. During dinner, when the other couples kiss to show their love, Anna and Declan are "forced" to kiss as well, causing feelings they had not expected. That night, they sleep in the same bed, but do not admit their feelings for each other.
The next day on the road, Anna and Declan take shelter from a hailstorm at a church where a wedding is taking place. During the reception, Anna has too much to drink and begins to question her intentions with Jeremy, realizing she loves Declan. Just as the two are about to kiss, Anna vomits and passes out. The following morning while waiting for a bus, Declan reveals that he was once engaged but that his fiancée ran off to Dublin with his best friend and his mother's claddagh ring. Anna encourages him to get his ring back. When they arrive at Jeremy's hotel in Dublin, Jeremy surprises her and proposes to her in the lobby. After hesitating, she accepts, just as a dispirited Declan walks away. At their engagement party in Boston, Anna learns that Jeremy decided to "commit" to her only in an effort to impress the manager of the expensive condominium the two were attempting to buy. Dismayed, Anna pulls the fire alarm and leaves after watching Jeremy grab all the electronics—not showing any concern for her. Meanwhile in Dublin, Declan retrieves his mother's ring from his ex-fiancée.
Sometime later, Anna arrives back at Caragh's Tavern at Dingle, where Declan is successfully running his business. She reveals that she broke off her engagement and tells him that all she needs is right here. When she proposes that they get together, Declan leaves the room. Thinking she's been rejected, Anna rushes outside and makes her way to the edge of a nearby cliff overlooking the sea. Declan follows and asks, "Mrs. O'Brady-Callaghan, where the hell are you going?" He then gets down on one knee and proposes to Anna, offering her his mother's claddagh ring. Anna accepts, and the two kiss and embrace each other. | boring, storytelling | train | wikipedia | null |
tt0338188 | The Missing | Set in 1885 in New Mexico, an estranged father shows up at his daughter's ranch and it's made clear he isn't welcome back into her life. He abandoned his family years ago to "go injun." His older granddaughter is kidnapped by a band of assorted thugs of different ethnicities who are taking her to Mexico to sell her into prositution. So dad, daughter and younger granddaughter take off to track down the thugs and get the daughter back.------------------------------`The Missing' is set in New Mexico in 1885. Tommy Lee Jones stars as the estranged father of prairie doctor Maggie Gilkeson (Cate Blanchett), a young woman with two daughters trying to make a living in this isolated wilderness. Tommy Lee Jones had abandoned his family some 20-years earlier to live with the Indians. After a rattlesnake bite, the medicine man tells him that he must reunite with his family to save his life. Maggie hates her father and throws him out of the house. After he leaves, her oldest daughter Lilly (Evan Rachel Wood) is kidnapped by a band of renegade Indians, who have already kidnapped several other girls to sell in Mexico. Maggie goes to town and tells the sheriff, but he cannot help, so she is forced to enlist the help of her father to track down the kidnappers. Douglas Young (the-movie-guy) | good versus evil, cult, suspenseful | train | imdb | The girls playing the daughters were excellenttoo, specially the youngest one, who had a number of intense emotional scenes.I liked the bleak feeling presented in the film...the raw climate, the hopelessness combined with determination that the characters portrayed.
Very reminiscent of 'The Searchers', probably the best of the John Wayne-John Ford teamups, 'Missing' plays better as a thriller set in the West, than as a 'mystical Western' (which is what I think it was really going for).
As a 'local' Arizona long-time US southwestern resident and historian, I have to bite my lip occasionally at many of the ridiculous reviews for this excellent Ron Howard film.It's so easy to spot the ignorant
For all their emotion about this film, most reviewers' clichés, inaccurate statements, mistaken references, mis-understood, mis-referenced or mis-opted views of 'Western movies' (let alone, southwestern history, and general mis-direction of history en toto), grossly reveal the puerile, Hollywood brain-damage
Pity
they could have learned a lot if they only KNEW.
Point-in-fact: his acting crew, notably Tommy Lee Jones, had to learn whole sentences/paragraphs in the Apache-ne-Athe(p/b)ascan derivative language (as well as their meanings), in not just short, 'indian' phrases as in most 'Western-style' films, but to those which accurately depict the spoken word of the time.
And, BTW, Schwieg was absolutely SUPERIOR in the role the man surely deserved not only credibility, but Oscar consideration he is that good; if you knew only a sliver of southwestern history, you'd know his portrayal is not only authentic, but well-portrayed (eastern-USers, Canadians, take note you've no conscience of southwestern US history unless you've studied/lived it mark my word, Pilgrim).Re/ The Entertainment value: - TLJones: always a distinct pleasure, thank you Thomas extraordinarily well-done, and one of your very best efforts applauses; how-went the linguistics for the film?
We had more than an hour and a half building this up as a legitimate and realistic dramatic film taking place in the western time period, and all of a sudden, it's a fantasy movie.
Simply because Ron Howard had a very ambitious idea about how to make a Western movie different and unique, but didn't spend quite enough time developing it.
However, when her eldest daughter Lilly (Evan Rachel Wood) is kidnapped by a rebel group of ex-soldiers led by a witch doctor, Maggie has no choice but to ask her father to help track down the kidnappers and find her daughter.Full of continuous epic action 'The Missing' is a film that does not show many faults and has everything you want to see in a first rate film, from tension to suspense with loads of great drama, tremendous acting and even witchcraft.Director Ron Howard does it yet again, creating a superb film which I think he can easily put into his best of list.
The only real bad thing about this film is that it goes on a bit too long (which in all fairness couldn't really be helped) but despite that, it grips you and holds on tight both unpredictable and unforgettable with great performances from Tommy Lee Jones, who never ceases to amaze, Cate Blanchett who is as good as ever, Evan Rachel Wood Gives another super performance and I was particularly impressed with young Jenna Boyd.* * * * * (5 stars).
Cate Blanchett has been surviving just fine on her own, but when some indians kill her boyfriend and kidnap her eldest daughter (she has one other, who's quite good), she is forced to ask her strange and estranged father (Tommy Lee Jones) for help.Ron Howard finally made that western he's been dreaming of since he was a kiddie putting together home movies of men on horses riding into town (which you can find on The Missing DVD) - and i hope it surpasses his wildest dreams.
"The Missing", starring Cate Blanchett and Tommy Lee Jones, is one of those movies that will come and go without getting noticed by audiences let alone any of the award programs.
That's a shame because it's a tightly plotted film with interesting, sympathetic characters in a Western setting, but minus most of the tired Western genre devices.In "The Missing", Cate Blanchett plays Maggie Gilkeson, a tough, frontier doctor / rancher with two young daughters (played by Evan Rachel Wood and Jenna Boyd), and a farmhand / love interest (Aaron Eckhart) named Brake, who also acts as her family's dedicated protector.Unexpectedly, her father (Tommy Lee Jones) comes back into her life after abandoning his family years before to live with the Indians.
Meanwhile, Tommy Lee Jones continues to be typecast as "the guy who hunts people" which started years ago with "The Fugitive" and hasn't varied much since.In the end, one of the things I liked best about "The Missing" is the genuine danger for all of the major characters.
It came out the same week as Master and Commander- what rotten luck- but it's truly one of Ron Howard's finest movies ever directed (next to Apollo 13).If you'd like to expand your imagination into the possibilities beyond the final cut, then rent the 2 disc version for deleted scenes and alternative endings.
In the support cast of the film appears various actors who usually play Indians roles , such as Eric Schweig and Steve Reevis , because being native origin , and both of them along with Tommy Lee Jones learned some words of the Chiricaghua language .
And a brief role for Val Kilmer, who previously worked together director Ron Howard in Willow , as Kilmer lives on a nearby New Mexico ranch, agreed to producers a secondary cameo in this film .
Of the things I'd like to have seen gone, the whole black magic side of the film didn't work for me and gave the story a mysticism that I didn't think it actually needed.The cast are very good though.
Don't get me wrong, Ron Howard makes good to great movies ( this is a solid film from the historical point of view as well ) but I am left with more questions for him than I feel I will ever get answers..
Blandly directed by Ron Howard, `The Missing' is a grim, depressing western that strands Cate Blanchett and Tommy Lee Jones in two thoroughly uninteresting roles.
Blanchett wants nothing whatsoever to do with him, but when her oldest daughter is kidnapped to be sold into slavery in Mexico, Blanchett reluctantly enlists his aid in getting her back.For all the high caliber talent both behind and in front of the camera, `The Missing' is a surprisingly mediocre, undistinguished film, plodding, overlong and faintly sadistic in character and tone.
She was forced to rely upon someone she had nothing but contempt for,her own father,to get back someone she held dear,her daughter.This is the dilemma faced by Maggie Gilkeson(Cate Blanchett).I found myself admiring the strength of Blanchett's character,as well as the character of Jones (Tommy Lee Jones) for his having the strength to return after a long absence.The story is indeed a compelling one,with strong performances by all and strong direction by Ron Howard.I surprised that there aren't more positive reviews of the film,because for me personally,it did it's job and did it well.Though it is set in a western time period,this is not your typical western,which is a good thing because when comes to this genre,we are always looking for something different than the usual stereotype.This film pulls it off.Well done..
But Eastwood depends on this juxtaposition - the killings of the cowboys are portrayed realistically, the final shoot-out is the stuff myth is made from, the whole point of the movie.Howard actually misses this bet; the grandfather Tommy Lee Jones plays gets too sentimental for the biography of him we are given - he needs to be as hard as the creepy witch-guy he needs to confront to save his granddaughters.
It stars Tommy Lee Jones, Cate Blanchet, Eric Schweig, Evan Rachel Wood, Jenna Boyd, Ray McKinnon, Val Kilmer & Aaron Eckhart.
James Horner scores the music and Salvatore Totino is the cinematographer.New Mexico 1885 and frontier doctor Maggie Gilkeson (Blanchet) has to seek help from her estranged father Samuel Jones/Chaa-duu-ba-its- iidan (Lee Jones), when her eldest daughter is kidnapped by Pesh-Chidin/El Brujo (Schweig) an Apache Warlock who sells girls into prostitution.An obvious variation on John Ford's The Searchers, The Missing slipped under the radar some what of Western fans who were greatly served by Kevin Costner's Open Range released the same year.
While there is plenty enough here for none Western fans to enjoy; from the many colourful characters on show (including a great horror movie like villain in Schweig), to the panoramic scenery, and the number of action sequences that flit in and out of the narrative.
THE GOOD - Cate Blanchett and Tommy Lee Jones are always interesting actors who play intense characters and this movie is no exception.
Cate Blanchett and Tommy Lee Jones and the SUPERB acting jobs they did definitely carried the film.
So begins a 2+ hour long film which portends hard-bitten authenticity but plays out as a run of the mill Western with the usual sterling performance by Blanchett and the usual good-but-not-great work by Jones.
The cast are great, Cate Blanchett gives meat to her character and gives another strong account of herself, and Tommy Lee Jones looks the part and is suitably commanding.
Ron Howard mixed different genres in this movie: Drama, thriller, western and a little bit of horror.
Superbly played by Tommy Lee who really did look every inch the part.All in all a well acted and scripted film with superb camera work making the most of the wonderful scenery that only the American west can provide.Really enjoyed Val Kilmer's cameo role of a Cavalry officer.
Tommy Lee Jones was very good and I thought Cate Blanchett acted rather well.
Anyway The Missing is a good film and if you like to see a western with a big mystery then see The Missing!Movie Nuttball's NOTE:Fans of Tommy Lee Jones, check out these other great films!
Although "The Missing" is generally regarded as director Ron Howard's weakest film, there are few complaints about his casting or his acting for the camera directing.
Tommy Lee, Maggie, and tomboy daughter Dot take off after them.It is about this time that things go from gritty realistic to weird and stupid as we meet Eric Schweig, who has had the Indian role in most of the movies made since 1990.
It's the year 1885 in New Mexico and the story revolves around Maggie Gilkeson(Cate Blanchett) and her two daughters, Lily and Dot. But when unexpectedly one afternoon, Lily(Evan Rachel Wood) is kidnapped by a Indian Madman, along with young and though Dot(Jenna Boyd) who is determined to find her older sister, Maggie is forced to encounter her estranged father Samuel Jones(Tommy Lee Jones) in order to get her daughter back.
This film is called " The Missing " and stars Tommy Lee Jones as a father who's family disowned years ago.
The movie is directed by Ron Howard and that alone tells you it's going to be a good film.
Tommy Lee Jones is Samuel Jones, the wayward father, Cate Blanchett plays Magdalena Gilkeson, his unforgiving daughter and Val Kilmer taking a bit part as Lt. Jim Ducharme.
Surprisingly tough and violent coming from director Ron Howard (although he DOES have "Ransom" to his credit also), this hybrid of occult thriller/western will remind many buffs somewhat of John Wayne's classic "The Searchers." "The Missing" isn't really in that category, but it still is a remarkably gripping drama with more than it's share of surprises.
Over the years, we've had the rare excellent one, "Unforgiven," some lively ones, "Tombstone" and "Silverado," some earnest ones, "Dances with Wolves," and some outright duds, "Dead Man." "The Missing" falls into the lukewarm category, which is surprising since, based on the sensibilities of his previous work, I hoped Ron Howard would make a great western.
In "The Missing," Cate Blanchett calls upon her estranged father, Tommy Lee Jones, a native American wannabe, to help her retrieve her eldest daughter, Evan Rachel Wood, who has been kidnapped by a savage band of Indians led by an evil witch doctor, Eric Schweig.
Brilliant cinematography (as always with a Ron Howard film), flawless performances by everyone (Howard seems to bring out the best in his casts), and a crackling, suspenseful, mysterious plot make this movie entirely watchable.
(I saw The Outlaw Josey Wales recently and was distinctly underwhelmed, although another recent 'western' The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Rober Ford was way better than many other films of its year.) The central relationship and reconciliation between renegade white man Tommy Lee Jones who had abandoned his family and lived as a native American, and Cate Blanchett as the daughter he more or less discarded is surprisingly delicately done and quite convincing.
Estranged from his family after abandoning them years earlier, he returns in mysterious circumstances only to find his daughter Magdalene is not particularly welcoming.However, when a tribe of Apache Indians kidnap her daughter with the intention of selling her as a prostitute, she realises she needs Jones' help to track them down and get her daughter back.As 'Maggie' Cate Blanchett is quite superb.
Sure, it's a kidnap thriller set in ye old days - but mixing these 2 together does not make a new type of film.But if you overlook this and accept the movie as an unremarkable yet solid piece of cinema with good performances, you'll get something out of it..
STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All CostsIn 1885 New Mexico,Maggie Gilchard (Cate Blanchett) raises her daughters on a ranch whilst doing God's work.Having been kicked out of his previous ranch,her long estranged father Samuel (Tommy Lee Jones) arrives back home,hoping to reconcile,only to be treated with contempt by Maggie.Then her daughter is kidnapped and Samuel is offered the perfect chance to make amends for his past mistakes.After a long spate of really bad films (beginning,I think,with the abysmal Double Jeopardy) it is great to see the compelling Jones being first billed in a film that is of an at least watchable quality.The Missing is an impressively deep and skillfully absorbing film,with a well crafted story at it's dispersal that's full of all the right elements of drama and suspense to keep it's audience riveted through to the end.Strong,forceful performances from the lead stars and from the vast majority of the supporting cast do little to hinder matters,as well as fairly good direction from seasoned director Ron Howard.However,for all this,one can't help but notice what a rambling,uninvolving experience it also seems to be,a promising,well made script that just fails to materialize in to something that really engages.***.
Likewise if you're a Cate Blanchett or Tommy Lee Jones fan - both deliver amazingly rich emotional performances.The film starts well and maintains good pacing and momentum.
Reluctantly, Maggie Gilkerson (Blanchett) must ask her long-estranged father Samuel (Tommy Lee Jones) to help her track down her daughter.
Anyway, this movie is good, and this is coming from a guy who will almost never sit down to watch a drama set further into the past than 10 years.It's not The Searchers, but I'm somewhat glad it's not, or there would have been white people playing the Native American roles.
Tommy Lee Jones was his usual cool self, but I think that the real acting marks go to Cate Blanchett in the role of Maggie.
It's as if The Missing is missing that something extra which could have propelled it into the higher latitudes of film greatness.I think the problem is despite all of the above mentioned qualities, when all is said and done, you still end up with nothing more than a story that is a bit too predictable with an underlying conflict between Samuel Jones (Tommy Lee Jones) and his daughter Maggie (Cate Blanchett) that is doled out in bits and pieces to the audience and then left simmering beneath the surface, even to the end.
(Siegel was ruthless to himself in the editing room, once remarking "I don't care if I worked all day to get a shot; if I don't like it, out it goes.") Before undertaking "The Missing," Howard probably should have gone back and watched "The Shootist" and other Siegel flicks many times, because there's the essence of a darn good cinematic story here, but by the end it's like the Grateful Dead tune: "What a long strange trip it's been..."It's 1885 New Mexico (the movie's "look" is perfect) and Cate Blanchett once again pretends she's someone other than Galadriel from "Lord of the Rings" (in one scene I could swear her ears looked pointed).
(From my reading of nineteenth-century history, I can't help thinking they would have been just a little more motivated, if only due to racist aversion to white maidens getting "defiled by Redskins.") The bulk of the movie should then have been the unfolding rocky reconciliation between estranged father and daughter as they retrieve "the missing" of the title.Unfortunately director Howard makes the same mistake here that he did in his earlier "Ransom," a remake of a 1950's kidnapping caper in which the "bad guy" was never seen (except for a gloved hand).
I like Cate Blanchett and Tommy Lee Jones, but this movie was too boringly predictable for me.
I'm not into western movies because I find them corny but, this one aside from having the great cate blanchett, made me watch from the first minute up to the last and I want more!
Despite the immense Cate Blanchett, the good Tommy Lee Jones and other actors, the story has nothing original and many characters are ridiculously stereotyped.
I thought that Cate Blanchett and Tommy Lee Jones were both very good.
Missing, The (2003) Tommy Lee Jones, Cate Blanchett, Evan Rachel Wood, Jenna Boyd, Aaron Eckhart, Val Kilmer, Eric Schweig, D: Ron Howard. |
tt0426592 | Superhero Movie | Rick Riker (Drake Bell) is an unpopular student at Empire High with his only friend Trey (Kevin Hart), living with his uncle Albert (Leslie Nielsen) and Aunt Lucielle (Marion Ross). His crush Jill Johnson (Sara Paxton), who hardly notices him, is dating Rick's bully Lance Landers (Ryan Hansen). Rick and Trey are then shown to be on a school trip to an animal research lab. In the lab Rick meets Lou Landers (Christopher McDonald) who coughs up blood because he is terminally ill. Dr. Strom, the head researcher at the lab, then shows his seven mutated dragonflies, though there are only six there because one has escaped which then bites Rick, and causes his neck to swell.The scene then goes to Rick's house where his Aunt Lucille and Uncle Albert are talking on the couch when Rick comes in. He is very sick, and throws up in a fish tank because of his illness and goes up to his room. Albert and Lucille believe Rick is acting strange, so Albert proceeds to talk to Rick. Rick then passes out from the bite.He wakes up the next morning, with a strange video sent to him from a man wanting to speak to him, later adding Rick as a friend on Facebook. Meanwhile, Lou Landers gets into a scientific accident, transforming into the Hourglass who feeds on human life. At a science fair, with a comically rude and mean-spirited Stephen Hawking who gets physically hurt throughout the film, Rick gets into mishaps, such as becoming stuck to water fountains. He then realizes he has superpowers such as the ability to walk on walls, has incredible strength, but cannot fly. He tests his strength in an alleyway, then decides to test how he can walk up walls. He climbs up and begins to break dance, then has a lie-down on the wall and a cat walks up the wall beside him. He then sees an old woman about to be hit by a truck in the road, and just as she is about to get hit he pushes her out of the way and the truck collides with him stopping it.After his heroic feat he is congratulated by passers-by, but as they are congratulating him he looks to his right and sees he has accidentally pushed the woman into a woodchipper and the dog she was holding the lead of up is slowly getting pulled up into the machine as well. Trey offers to become his sidekick, but Rick resigns. His Uncle and he have a brief fight, which reminds Rick when he was younger and rich with his parents who die in a spoof of Batman Begins. His father urges him to invest of all his money in, not Google, but Enron.Rick later watches the girl of his dreams, Jill, who leaves with Lance in his car. Rick wants a car, and he sets out to get money from the bank. He fails though, with no credit or payment.After his uncle is quickly injured, Rick is met by Xavier (Tracy Morgan) at his school for mutants ala X-Men. Rick is told to make a costume, which he does (and later improves), and he becomes known as the Dragonfly. He quickly becomes a sensation, until his fight with the Hourglass, who ends up cutting him with little hourglass blades. The Hourglass then escapes.Jill is then seen walking in an alleyway and is attacked by thugs, but the Dragonfly saves her. The two then try to kiss, but encounter difficulties as Dragonfly is hanging upside down. They eventually kiss for the first time, and Jill thanks him.The scene then goes to a Thanksgiving dinner at Rick's house. During Thanksgiving Landers visits the family (everyone is unaware he is Hourglass). He nearly catches Rick dressed as the Dragonfly, but later manages to figure out his secret identity.Just as Rick and Jill are about to fall in love, the Hourglass comes in and murders Aunt Lucille. After a comical funeral, Rick decides to throw in the towel as a superhero.Trey and Uncle Albert find Rick after the funeral, and convince him to find and defeat the Hourglass. At a ceremony, Lou, with the help of a Microsoft "Death Machine Maker" disk, concocts a plan to make himself immortal by killing thousands of people. Rick finds out where he plans on doing this; a convention of all races, right next to a comic-con. Lou Landers is awarded the Douchebag Of The Year award, and encounters Rick who believes someone else is the Hourglass. He returns in costume and critically injures Jill. (If you look closely you'll see black suit spider-man.)After a sincere speech given by Stephen Hawkings to Rick (which Rick points out are the lyrics to Celine Dion's Taking Chances), he dons the Dragonfly suit, and battles the Hourglass on the rooftop. Dragonfly heals Jill, but the Hourglass throws an Hourglass bomb onto Dragonfly's crotch. Dragonfly then puts his crotch next to Lou Landers' face, which blows up, killing him. He also saves Jill and himself from falling to their deaths by finally growing wings and being able to fly.The film ends with the Dragonfly and Jill flying in the air sky high, with Rick giving his final narration, only to be stopped short, as both are hit by a helicopter. | absurd, murder, flashback | train | imdb | null |
tt0092005 | Stand by Me | A man (Richard Dreyfuss) sits in his car reading the headline of a newspaper article about a man who had been stabbed to death at a fast food restaurant. He is overcome with a wave of nostalgia and begins to narrate the story of when he was 12 years old and the time he first saw a dead human being.Gordie (Gordon) Lachance (Wil Wheaton) is playing cards inside a tree house with his best friends Chris Chambers (River Phoenix) and Teddy Duchamp (Corey Feldman). Each boy has his own story and a reputation to follow. Chris comes from a family renowned for their dishonesty and abusive nature, which gives him a bad rap despite his tough but kind disposition. Teddy, rather eccentric, is recognizable by the mangled remains of his right ear which his mentally unstable father held down to a hot stove top. His father resides in a mental institution but Teddy speaks highly of him for serving in WWII. The fourth of their group and the butt of many jokes, portly Vern Tessio (Jerry O'Connell), begs to be let in the tree house, saying he has important news. The others make light fun of him until he asks if they want to go see a dead body. They all fall silent as he explains that, while looking for a misplaced penny jar under his porch, he overheard his older brother Billy (Casey Siemaszko) and friend Charlie Hogan (Gary Riley) discuss how Billy found the body of Ray Brower, a kid who had recently gone missing. Gordie and his friends followed the story closely because Ray was around their age, last seen picking blueberries in the woods outside of town. Billy says the kid must have been hit by a train and refuses to report the discovery to the police because he was at the site in a stolen car.Gordie and the others decide to go find the body and accept recognition as local heroes. They make plans to tell their parents they're sleeping over at each other's homes the next day and to meet the next morning on the train tracks leading out of town. Come morning, Gordie goes to fetch his canteen in his older brother's room. A few months prior his brother, Denny (John Cusack), a popular athlete, died in a car accident. Gordie's mother (Frances Lee McCain) has been silent and distant since then and his father (Marshall Bell) asks him why he can't have friends like Denny's or play sports like him. He has no interest in his son's aspirations to become a writer and criticizes Chris for stealing milk money at school. The only support Gordie received was from his brother who gave him an old Yankee cap, something he now cherishes.Gordie meets Chris in town who takes him to a back alley and shows him the gun he swiped from his father's bureau. Gordie lightly takes aim at a garbage can and pulls the trigger, thinking it's not loaded. It is. It fires and sends the two running for the main street where they come across a few members of a gang led by Ace Merrill (Kiefer Sutherland). Chris's older brother, Eyeball (Bradley Gregg) leers at the boys as Ace steals Gordie's cap and threatens Chris with a lit cigarette. They let the boys go unharmed and walk away, laughing. Gordie and Chris meet up with Teddy and Vern at the train tracks where they realize no one's brought food. They take out their money and agree to buy something along the way. As a train approaches, everyone but Teddy gets off the tracks. Teddy imitates shooting an automatic at the train, intent on dodging it at the last second, 'just like my father in Normandy'. Chris, however, pulls him off before the stunt can be performed and yells at him for nearly killing himself.They soon arrive at a local junkyard that is rumored to house a disgruntled owner with a ferocious dog named Chopper which he's supposedly trained to attack any intruders, going right for the person's balls. However, the yard is empty and the four rest in the shade of a car hood for a few minutes while Gordie, after losing a race, goes to retrieve food at the store on the other side. On his way back, he notices the others scrambling over the yard fence and turns just in time to see the owner, Milo Pressman (William Bronder), emerge, yelling for Chopper. Due to the dog's legendary reputation, when Milo shouts for Chopper to 'sick 'em, boy', Gordie imagines that what Milo's saying is 'sick balls'. Gordie frantically runs for the fence with the dog close on his heels but makes it over the top. He turns and sees that Chopper (Popeye) is not the dog he'd expected. Milo rushes over to the fence and berates the four boys for making fun of his dog. Teddy throws a few insults but is shocked silent when Milo calls his father a loony. Teddy breaks down, shouting that his father stormed the beach at Normandy, and has to be led away by the others.Following the train tracks, they come to a bridge. They hesitate to cross, unsure of when the next train is due. Feeling confident, they begin to cross with Chris and Teddy in the lead and Gordie trailing behind Vern, who's chosen to crawl instead of walk. Midway, Vern loses a comb that he packed in his shirt pocket which he'd hoped to use once they found the body and reported it to the local news. Gordie consistently looks back and bends down to feel the rails. A light vibration leads him to see plumes of smoke in the distance. He shouts TRAIN and yells at Vern to get to his feet and run. They are barely able to make it to the other side and off the tracks. Chris jokes that now, at least, they know when the next train is.As they continue deeper into the forest, Chris lags behind with Gordie who is despondent about being a writer and doesn't think much of his talents. Chris tries to encourage him, saying that he wishes he was his father instead so that he could give him proper guidance and support. They set up camp for the night and Gordie tells them all a story about a kid named Lardass Hogan (Andy Lindberg), stuck with such a name because of his weight. Sick and tired of being made fun of for his considerable size, Lardass takes revenge on the rest of his town by forcing himself to violently throw up during a blueberry pie eating contest. What ensues is a comedic chain reaction of perpetual barfing.The boys decide to sleep in shifts and Gordie takes the opportunity, while Vern and Teddy sleep, to talk to Chris alone. Chris confides in him that he hates his family name and the association he has with them, wishing to leave to start fresh somewhere and actually make something of himself. He reveals that he did take the milk money at school first but felt remorseful about it and returned it to one of the teachers, who happened to show up to school the next day in a brand new dress. Chris took the heat for the theft but could never atone to it because of his family's reputation.The next morning, Ace and his gang are seen spending recreational time smoking and hitting mailboxes with baseball bats as they drive through their neighborhood. Billy and Charlie draw Ace's attention with their silence and they finally blab about finding Ray's body. Intent on claiming credit for himself, Ace heads out with them, along with Vince Desjardins (Jason Oliver) and Eyeball.Meanwhile, Gordie and the others take a shortcut through the woods and land in a swamp infested with leeches. They strip down and Gordie finds one attached to his lower extremities, fainting after removing it. Eventually, they come back to the tracks and discover Ray's body (Kent W. Luttrell), knocked clean out of his shoes and lying in some bushes. They decide to build a stretcher for him and Gordie breaks down, crying that his father truly hates him and knowing that he favored Denny.At that moment, Ace and the rest of the gang appear and demand that the boys leave so they can take the body. Chris insults him and Ace pulls out a knife before Gordie fires the gun in the air. He threatens Ace, saying it'll be all too easy to kill him, and Ace leaves. Gordie announces that no one will get the credit for finding Ray; they will instead report it through an anonymous call.They return to town with Gordie narrating that it seemed so much smaller after their journey. As the boys split up and head home, Gordie narrates that Vern and Teddy grew distant over the next few years. Vern married straight out of high school, had four children, and became a fork lift driver at a lumberyard. Teddy attempted to join the army but was rejected due to his poor eyesight and ear injury. He eventually served some jail time and performed odd jobs around Castle Rock. Chris managed to stick it in school with Gordie and went to college to become a lawyer. However, it's revealed that he was stabbed and killed when he tried to break up a fight in a fast food restaurant; the very article Gordie read at the start of the film.Gordie closes the film as he finishes a memoir he's been writing about his childhood and leaves to take his son and friend (Chance Quinn and Jason Naylor) out swimming. | dramatic, cult, flashback, insanity, suspenseful, storytelling | train | imdb | null |
tt0093171 | Hell Comes to Frogtown | This film is set in an post-apocalyptic wasteland where few fertile men and women exist due to atomic fallout. As a result, the government places a high priority on those that can still breed. Shortly before the movie opens, a group of mutant amphibians (who have been exiled to the desert by humans) capture a group of fertile women and are using them as sex slaves.
Sam Hell (Piper) is a nomadic traveler who wanders the countryside. He is eventually captured by an organization of warrior-nurses, the closest thing to a government in his region of the world, who reveal that they located him by tracking the trail of pregnant women left in his wake. Their original plan was to use him as breeding stock with their collection of fertile women, but this was the group captured by the mutants. With their own attempts to capture the women failing, the group presses Hell into service as a mercenary; he is to infiltrate the mutant city (derogatorily referred to as "Frogtown") and rescue the women. To make sure that the rebellious Hell follows his orders, he is forced to wear an electronic protective codpiece that will explode if he disobeys or tries to abort his mission. Having already taken numerous samples of reproductive material from him, he is now deemed far more expendable than the women themselves. To aid him in his mission (and make sure he follows the plan), he is paired with one of the nurses, Spangle (Bergman), and an aggressive guard named Centinella (Verrell).
During their journey to Frogtown, Hell tries numerous times to escape but quickly learns that a device Spangle carries will shock his genitals if used or if he gets too far away from it. Despite their rocky start and Spangle's initial cold demeanor, the pair grow closer during the journey and eventually fall in love. When they reach Frogtown, everyone involved is captured. The frogs' second-in-command, Bull (Nicholas Worth), tortures Hell and attempts to remove the codpiece for its technology. Meanwhile, a slightly drugged Spangle is forced to work as a slave and dance for the frogs' Commander Toty (Brian Frank) in the notable "Dance of the Three Snakes" sequence. Proving more successful than she had wished, the nurse soon finds herself at the mercy of the aroused commander. However, with the codpiece now removed (Bull finally removed it with a chainsaw, but it blew up and killed him), the escaped Hell rescues her along with the group of fertile women (Ellen Crocker, Kim Hewson, Ilana Ishaki, Annie McKinon and Janie Thorson) held captive. | cult, humor | train | wikipedia | Some cool special effects (the frog creatures look really good), bad acting, cheesy plot....Leave your brain at the front door, there's some entertainment to be found here..
So, he is forced by a largely female government called MedTech to go to Frogtown (ruled by mutated Frog people known as Greeners) to rescue fertile women from the evil Toady so he can impregnate them.
Roddy Piper (Sam Hell) is Shanghai'd by the new govt to go around impregnating those women who are still fertile.
It offers more entertainment than a lot of mega buck Hollywood movies, beginning with its casting of wrestling star "Rowdy" Roddy Piper in his first starring role.Piper stars as Sam Hell, a scavenger & drifter in a future wasteland who is discovered to be an incredible stud.
He does this in the company of uptight but sexy Spangle (Sandahl Bergman) and gung ho soldier Centinella (Cec Verrell), and does battle with villains such as Commander Toty (Brian Frank) and Bull (Nicholas Worth).The filmmakers have a good time with their casting choices, including the legendary William Smith (one of Bergmans' fellow cast members in "Conan the Barbarian") as the thuggish Captain Devlin, the highly amusing Rory Calhoun as grizzled old miner Looney Tunes, and Kristi Somers as helpful Greener Arabella.
Come on, now -- the world is full of sterile men and you've got Rowdy Roddy Piper as one of few fertile men left to repopulate the earth, and there's one frontal nudity shot in the whole movie.
Other than that, this movie is ridiculously bad with great b-movie lines such as "how about you try making love to a complete stranger in a hostile mutant territory, see how you like it?" How many other movies have a three- peckered frog king in them?
You have giant mutant frogs trying to control the human race in this post-apocalyptic world.It's a solid B-movie.
In a movie like this, the No 1 thing you want to see is "Rowdy" Roddy Piper and Sandahl Bergman kick a lot of mutant frog butt.
But Piper is likable enough, Sandahl Bergman and Cec Verrell are 2 strong & sexy women, and the "frog effects" are acceptable, so I'm giving this a higher rating than it probably deserves: ** out of 4 stars..
Please avert your eyes as our hero, Sam Hell(Rowdy), gets, for lack of a better word, seduced by every female in the post-apocalyptic world including a mutant frog woman.
Rowdy Roddy Piper is Sam Hell the last potent guy in the impotent post-apocalyptic world.
Rowdy Roddy acts great in this one.My Grade: B-DVD Extras: Commentary by the Late Director Donald Jackson and Writer Randall Frakes (if they got Roddy to take part it would've been MUCH better); plus a trailer and that's all Eye Candy: Cec Verrell got topless, reminding me unfortunately of the dreadful "Inside Out" movies.
This is one of those films that is so bad its wonderful.An absolute classic.Cheap sets,camera work and wooden acting all add to the "Trashy" atmosphere of this movie.Just watch it,I bet you'll want to see it again and again..
In one of his first feature film appearances, former wrestler Roddy Piper plays Sam Hell, a highly fertile man in a post-apocalyptic world that has rendered most of its adult population infertile due to a devastating nuclear war.
This being the late 1980's, and with Hell Comes To Frogtown being unashamedly B-movie ridiculousness, every long-legged female character wants to jump his bones, and do so wearing not very much at all.
It is misogynistic, very, very silly (which I'm sure one would assume from the title) and Piper won't be receiving any Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Academy, but it is occasionally a lot of fun, and features one of most memorable titles in the B-movie canon.With male population numbers heavily reduced due to nuclear war, women now rule the Earth.
But when a group of fertile women are captured by a gang of rapey amphibian mutants who have been affected by the radiation, Sam is employed as a mercenary along with the tough-but- sexy Centinella (Cec Verrell) to enter a place known as 'Frogtown' in order to steal them back.Somehow, Hell Comes To Frogtown has managed to spawn three sequels, the latest being made in 2002.
Of course, the plot isn't really why you would watch a film involving rubber-suited monsters and scantily-clad women, and ultimately, Frogtown suffers from long moments of tedium that plague low-budget films of its ilk.
I think it was a little silly at times, the special effects for the time were probably decent, but the fact is it was entertaining.Roddy Piper as the last potent man, awesome.
I would recommend to sci-fi fans....but don't come in to watching this thinking you've found a diamond in the rough.You could most certainly find a better movie to eat up your time but if you're looking for some thoughtless fun this one might be the right one for the moment.Just a decent movie overall.
Rowdy Roddy Piper stars as Sam Hell (Great name, by the way) the last fertile man on earth who has to impregnate some fertile women to save humanity, while scientist Sandahl Bergman helps Rowdy Roddy out, while falling for him.
I mean you haven't seen surreal until you see a frog trying to chainsaw Roddy Piper's chastity belt (Which will blow up his testicles if he separates from Bergman) and while the film doesn't have a lot of nudity considering the premise, the film is action packed, never boring and works solely on a visceral level.
Shaun Munro's Reviews (ShaunMunro.co.uk):If this film's title wasn't enough of an indication for you - yes, Hell Comes to Frogtown is a cheese piece, a staple of the "so-bad-it's-good" genre of action adventure films, and more to the point, it's a 1980s film, and in all aspects, it is both a considerably under-seen, and dare I say, underrated little gem of a film.By classical film standards, this film may be considered nothing but a resounding smudge on the sleeve of the cinema of yesteryear, yet the opening moments of the film alone should cause you to realise that this was made with the tongue very firmly planted in the cheek - I have an inkling that everyone involved with Hell Comes to Frogtown knew that it would be both an extremely fun film to make, and moreover, be ravaged by critics upon release.The film's plot, which cannot be described as anything less than "offbeat", involves the preposterously-named, hilariously virile Sam Hell (Roddy Piper) standing among the few men left with their reproductive organs in tact following World War 3.
Yes, the plot sounds as though it was torn directly from a pornographic film, but it works, as long as you're not expecting high art, and if you are - what on Earth did you expect with a title like "Hell Comes to Frogtown"?
Of course, this tension is somewhat stunted by the fact that, to every male's cross-legged cringe, the love interest herself, the lead scientist (Sandahl Bergman), is wearing earrings which control an electronic codpiece that Sam wears, and even worse, if the earrings get too far away from her, the codpiece will explode, a plot thread which is of course explored exhaustively.Almost half of the film passes before we finally meet the stars of the show - the inhabitants of Frogtown, by-products of man's nuclear war, melding the DNA of humans and frogs together to create a bestial entity that assumes the form of a human, whilst the skin and facial features resemble that of a frog.
Considering the all-encompassing B-movie aura surrounding this film, the effects are surprisingly impressive looking, and any flaws, such as the often out-of-synch mouth movements, only add to the fun, as if guffaw-inducing frog-men themselves weren't levity enough.
If made today, moreover, without the imposing "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, it likely wouldn't be half as fun, but on the sheer "strength" of its premise alone, would enter into the cult film lexicon.
The best '1 man in a post apocalyptic wasteland trying to impregnate without being taken by mutant frogs' movie you'll see this week!.
Hell comes to Frogtown is a film that follows one of the last virile men on Earth as he tries to impregnate as many women as he can in post-apocalyptic wastelands filled with dangerous characters, not least of which are the human sized frog-people that have evolved since the nuclear wars
Hell comes to Frogtown is not a comic book.
The other hitch is that apparently the maternal instinct of women has been sent into overdrive in a kind of 'want what you can't have' way, and everyone that meets Hell is ready for luvin'.Once the trio get to the titular Frogtown we learn that yes indeedy it is populated by real live giant frog-people who are ruled by the vile and corrupt Toady.
The frog-people are just what you would expect from a low budget 80s movie named Hell comes to Frogtown, they have froggy heads and froggy hands with everything else human and the lips usually don't even nearly sync with the dialogue delivered.The sliminess is well captured though.
Good job I guess
For a movie with fertilization as a central theme there isn't too much horizontal action going on, not even froggy style, and even when Hell finally saves his harem of delectable females all dressed in skimpy undergarments the nudity factor is kept pretty low, with the actresses playing the women all sporting the same 'I left Arizona to be a big Hollywood star for this!' look on their faces.Perhaps the funniest thing about a film called Hell comes to Frogtown is that despite all I have written above they play it all pretty straight.
Sure this is just a '5' movie, but it's the only '1 man in a desolate post-apocalyptic wasteland trying to impregnate as many women as possible while surrounded by mutant frogs' film you'll see this week.Surely that counts for something?.
Hell Comes to Frogtown is a film that many might label as a post-apocalyptic sci-fi movie trying to capitalise on the success of Mad Max. However, many ideas in this film were subsequently ripped off in Mad Max Fury Road!You have the whole Handmaiden's Tale idea of women being used as slaves to breed.
Not to mention there's a character who has a striking resemblance to Chalize Theoron's Furiosa!Roddy Piper (They Live) plays Sam Hell who's captured by the government and must rescue their female slaves from a mutant frog gang.
The story: Roddy Piper is the last sexually potent man on earth and the now female-dominated military has to drive him into a post-holocaust wasteland to impregnate fertile women.
Cec Verrell is spot on as a bad girl soldier, but Sandahl Bergman is a better dancer than an actress and rassler Roddy Piper is from the bargain basement of action stars.
Sandahl Bergman and Rory Calhoun are always enjoyable and as expected the only tolerable actors in a movie that is both forgettable and memorable.Forgettable for the bad costuming and horrible acting and memorable for the same reasons.The acting is so inefficient on most parts it is fun to watch and the costumes in many cases are so silly it they are downright funny.Sandahl and Rowdy Roddy do have a few moments between them that are good.
He told me that Hell Comes to Frogtown was another good Piper movie.
Of course, when you make a film about a post-apocalyptic "Planet of the Frogs" starring a burnt-out wrestler on a minimal budget, the end product is naturally not exactly classic cinema.Still, this movie has its own unique, horrible charm.
One man Sam Hell is sent under watchful eye of a nurse and guard into the wastelands to free a group of women from frog like mutant amphibians.Hell Comes to Frog Town Is an odd ball post apocalyptic B adventure with Rowdy Rody Piper as one of the last fertile men on earth.
Nurse Spangle is played by stunt woman, Conan star Sandahl Bergman who is in great shape but isn't the best actress especially when put along side guards women Cec Verrell who has little screen-time.
HELL COMES TO FROGDOWN is an excruciating B-movie comedy in which the heroic Hell, played by former wrestler Roddy Piper, is released from a jail in a post-apocalyptic world and sent on a rescue mission to free a group of beautiful women from the harem of an evil mutant frog-man.
Not many of the cast are much better, although at least there are parts for welcome actors like biker star William Smith, Nicholas Worth (DON'T ANSWER THE PHONE!), old-timer Rory Calhoun, and the ever-statuesque Sandahl Bergman (CONAN THE BARBARIAN).HELL COMES TO FROGTOWN isn't even an example of so-bad-it's-good film-making.
Hell comes to Frogtown has a real story, great acting, excellent make-up effects, good camera work, a real cut and it is really a pleasure to watch it.Wrestling Legend Roddy Rowdy Piper is fantastic as Sam Hell, Conan's female fighting mate Sandahl Bergmann and the beautiful and sexy Cec Verrell as Centinella team up perfectly with him.
Smartaleck Sam Hell (a lively and engaging performance by wrestler Rowdy Roddy Piper) is one of the few potent men left in the wake of a nuclear holocaust.
Frogtown is about Sam Hell, played by "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, who is a super virile man in a post-apocalyptic world where women rule, mutant frog people terrorize the wasteland and fertile men are like gold.The Fantastic Sandahl Bergman, of Conan The Barbarian fame, plays a special agent assigned to keep Sam Hell and his family jewels safe as he ventures to Frogtown, a city ruled by the frog people in order to save a group of extremely fertile women from the frogs ruler and his right hand...frog Commander Toty.This movie pacts humor, action, sexy women and sometimes sexy frog women all into one enjoyable film.
Rodney Piper, in a post apocalyptic world where is the last fertile man gets captured by government agency Med Tech and has to rescue a harem of fertile women from mutant frogmen.
So its up to the one man army Sam Hell to bust into Frogtown and save the sexy females...then slam dunk em all.In all honesty this really does sound like a big pile of low budget, cheap-ass, tacky soft porn poo.
Hell Comes to Frogtown is set in a future world which has been all but destroyed in the wake of a nuclear war, the earth is now a barren wasteland populated by a few humans & mutant Frog men.
Lone wanderer Sam Hellman (Roddy Piper) is recruited by a company called MedTech, as one of the few fertile men left on Earth his potency is vital in order to repopulate the planet, unfortunately there are few fertile women left either & several such ladies have been kidnapped by mutant Frog man Commander Toty (Brian Frank) who intends to hold them to ransom.
Jackson & R.J. Kizer this desperately wants to be a cult film & almost makes it but just falls a little short, for a film with a title such as Hell Comes to Frogtown it isn't nearly as schlocky or exploitative or funny enough.
Personally I'd have liked to have seen something resembling a cross between Mad Max 2 (1981) with it's amazing post apocalyptic set action scenes & the mutant creature aspect of Planet of the Apes (1968) but Hell Comes to Frogtown plays more like a silly sex comedy set at a desert & an old warehouse than anything else.
At a shade over eighty minutes long you would think Hell Comes to Frogtwon would move like a rocket but alas that is not the case, while it's not exactly boring or slow the pace is a little sluggish & the simplistic & repetitive plot doesn't help, the gags about Roddy Piper & his sexual powers & fertility grow old & while amusing aren't exactly laugh out loud hilarious.
The acting is alright, Roddy Piper has a few amusing one-liners but is mostly quite flat while Sandhal Bergman does OK as the love interest who warms to Piper as the film progresses.Hell Comes to Frogtown as a great title & is a well made, fun little post apocalyptic action film that somehow manages to just miss the mark, light on actual action & gore & nudity the silliness of it all keeps you watching but by the time the end credits rolled I felt a bit underwhelmed.
After a nuclear war has decimated the world creating mutants resembling frogs and left a large percentage of women and all but one man sterile, an organization known as "Med Tech" decides to capture that one specific man named "Sam Hell" (Roddy Piper) who is a criminal operating in the badlands.
It's up to Sam Hell and two Med-tech staff women to get them out of 'Frogtown' and be fertilized for humanity sake.*Special Stars- Roddy Piper, William Smith *Theme- Some men are healthy and potent, but most are not intelligent enough to re-populate the human race without a resistance group.*Based on- The 'Planet of the Apes' genre films and adult porn video plots *Trivia/location/goofs- The filming location was the Frontier Town and surroundings in the old Paramount Ranch area near Agoura Hills.
The first half (or more) of HELL COMES TO FROGTOWN plays out not unlike the second half of Harlan Ellison's A BOY AND HIS DOG (an infinitely superior film, by the way): with the population dwindling and Real Men in short supply, solos like Sam Hell (Rowdy Roddy Piper) are being snatched up and...
Piper does a decent enough job as Hell, and the Frogs are fun to watch, but I would've preferred to have seen them play it all a little straighter: a filmmaker with serious intent could make something like this an instant classic (let us not forget the first TEENAGE MUTANTS NINJA TURTLES movie). |
tt0024210 | The Kennel Murder Case | Philo Vance's dog does not make it into the final of the Long Island Kennel Club's dog show. Fellow competitor Archer Coe (Robert Barrat) is disappointed, having hoped to savor a victory over Vance. Coe is found dead the next morning in his bedroom, locked from the inside. District Attorney Markham (Robert McWade) and Police Sergeant Heath (Eugene Pallette) assume it was suicide, because he was shot through the head and was found holding a pistol. Vance is not convinced. He soon finds evidence that Coe was murdered. Coroner Dr. Doremus (Etienne Girardot) determines the victim died of a stab wound.
There is no shortage of suspects; Coe was very much disliked. His niece Hilda Lake (Mary Astor) resented her uncle's tight control of her finances and jealousy of any men who showed interest in her. Her boyfriend, Sir Thomas MacDonald (Paul Cavanagh), suspected Coe of killing his dog to ensure winning the competition. Raymond Wrede (Ralph Morgan), the dead man's secretary, was in love with Miss Lake, but had been laughed at when he sought Coe's support. Coe's next-door neighbor and lover Doris Delafield (Helen Vinson) had been cheating on him with Eduardo Grassi (Jack La Rue). When Coe found out, he cancelled a contract to sell his collection of Chinese artworks to the Milan museum for which Grassi worked. Liang (James Lee), the cook, had worked long, hard, and illegally to help Coe amass his collection. He warned his employer against the proposed sale and was fired as a result. Even Coe's own brother Brisbane (Frank Conroy) despised Coe. Finally, Gamble (Arthur Hohl), the head servant, had concealed his criminal past.
Brisbane Coe becomes Vance's prime suspect. His alibi of taking a train at the time of the murder is disproved. When he is found dead in a closet, Vance is both puzzled and enlightened. Among Brisbane's effects, Vance finds a book titled Unsolved Murders; a bookmarked page details a method of using string to lock a door through the keyhole without leaving a trace. Part of the mystery is solved.
Later, an attempt is made on the life of Sir Thomas using the same dagger used to kill Coe. Finally, a Doberman Pinscher belonging to Miss Delafield is found seriously injured, apparently struck with a fireside poker. From these and other clues, Vance finally solves the crime.
It turns out that two men sought Coe's life that night. The successful murderer struggled with Coe and stabbed him, leaving him for dead. Coe awakened soon after. Too dazed to recall the fight or notice that he was mortally wounded, he went upstairs to his bedroom and opened his window before dying. Brisbane entered the chamber, saw his brother apparently asleep in his chair. He shot the corpse and arranged the scene to look like a suicide. Downstairs, he ran into the actual killer, who had seen that Archer Coe was still alive and came back to finish the job. In the darkness, he mistook Brisbane for Archer and killed the wrong man. Delafield's dog then wandered in, attracted by the commotion, and attacked the murderer.
While sure of the killer's identity, Vance has no proof. He therefore arranges for Sir Thomas and Wrede to quarrel over Hilda Lake. When Wrede instinctively reaches for the poker to strike his rival, the Doberman recognizes its attacker and leaps on him. Wrede confesses he became enraged when Coe refused to assist his courtship of Miss Lake, precipitating the stabbing. | mystery, murder | train | wikipedia | In the 1920s and 1930s Philo Vance became a household name with publication of the wildly popular S.S. Van Dine (alias for Willard Huntington Wright) novels featuring the patrician amateur detective.Though Kennel is one of the better Philo Vance novels, this adaptation of the eponymous book represents the rare case where a film is better than the original story (which would not film well if precisely represented on screen because of (1) the psychological issues which would be hard to depict, and (2) the novel's culminating violent scene, which the film modifies).The genius in taking one of the lesser of the canonical Philo Vance novels and making it into a classic is, of course, Michael Curtiz's direction; Curtiz being an exceptionally talented director who has, perhaps, the misfortune of being eclipsed by the fame of his films (e.g., Casablanca, Mildred Pierce, and The Adventures of Robin Hood) because of lack of a distinctive style.This film is also a successful example of an early talkie: the sound is fairly good except in some scenes where the boom is obviously too far away, and in one shot (between Robert Barrat and Helen Vinson) we actually see the microphone!
Indeed, his performance is so endearing he reprised the role in other Philo Vance films.While it becomes fairly easy to guess the culprit, the film doesn't suffer for this because of the excellent direction, good sets and wardrobe (check out Mary Astor's chic outfits!), and fine performances.
(Though primarily loved for his work as Nick Charles in the Thin Man films, William Powell gives one of the best (and most subtle) performances of his career in Kennel.) Besides its status as a Hollywood classic, Kennel is an outstanding example of successful story adaptation and early sound film-making.
Talented detective Mr. Philo Vance (William Powell) cancels his overseas trip to investigate an apparently cut and dried case of suicide he has good reason to suspect is really something much more, a rather deliciously complex murder!
Populated with suspicious characters, all connected to a dog show and all having very good reason to murder the apparent suicide victim Archer Coe, it's truly tough to figure this one out or wrap one's head around it but boy, does it proves fascinating to watch unfold before us.
Powell is aided by a host of very talented actors - some first-rate character actors and actresses like Mary Astor as a niece that hated her uncle, Ralph Morgan as the dead man's secretary, Paul Cavanaugh as a rival dog fancier, Arthur Hohl as a mysterious butler, Helen Vinson as the next door kept blonde, and two really good performances by James Lee as the Chinese cook and portly Eugene Palette as a wise-cracking police detective.
It is this depth of suspects and a story that has many plots twists and turns that make The Kennel Murder Case a fast-moving, fun mystery..
William Powell, Michael Curtiz, and a good murder mystery make "The Kennel Murder case" an entertaining film.
Philo Vance (Powell) does some of his most difficult deducting, and Curtiz's direction keeps things moving quickly.When rich, obnoxious Archer Coe is murdered, the case causes lots of difficulty for the police.
The Kennel Murder Case (1933)A precursor to the Thin Man series, starring William Powell as a detective (but without the very supplementary Myrna Loy).
The rest of the cast is good or very good, with a few other recognizable faces, and it gels increasingly as you go until a series of dramatic whodunnit style conclusions wraps it all up.Powell's detective, Philo Vance, was a snobby socialite, and the plots have a quality of private detective vs.
Powell had made a career out of playing the lead character, Philo Vance, in a series of movies made at a couple of studios over several years.
As with so many early talkie stars, it seemed that his time had come and gone, that he was fine for early Depression Prohibition-era films, but that with changing times he was perhaps too mature and dandyish to endure.The Kennel Murder Case, directed by the criminally neglected Michael Curtiz, is one of the last of the "old Powells", while the next year would herald in the first of the new ones, The Thin Man, the success of which would catapult its leading players into the Hollywood stratosphere.
It Was All In The How. William Powell's final outing as Philo Vance occurs in The Kennel Murder Case where the murder of a championship show dog leads to two more murders and one attempt of the human kind.
Had Bill Powell not gone on to greater fame with MGM as Nick Charles of the Thin Man series, he would have been known as the greatest of Philo Vances.
People like Paul Cavanaugh, Helen Vinson, Ralph Morgan, Mary Astor, fill their cast roles well.Warner Brothers liked this version so much that in fact they remade it again in the Thirties with James Stephenson in his one and only outing as Philo Vance.
The film starts in the Long Island Kennel Club where is murdered a dog,later is appeared dead as a case of committing suicide a collector millionaire called Arched,but sleuth debonair Philo Vance(William Powell)to be aware of actually killing.There are many suspects : the secretary(Ralph Morgan),the butler,the Chinese cooker,the contender(Paul Cavanagh) in kennel championship for revenge killing dog ,the nephew(Mary Astor) facing off her tyrant uncle,the Italian man(Jack La Rue),the brother,the attractive neighbour..Stylish Vance tries to find out who murdered tycoon,appearing many clues ,as a book titled:Unsolved murders.
The police Inspector(Eugene Palette)and a coroner are helped by Vance to investigate the mysterious death.The sympathetic forensic medic examines boring the continuous body-count .Who's the killer?.The public enjoys immensely about guess the murder.
The movie is magnificently directed by Hollywood classic director Michael Curtiz.He directs utilizing modern techniques as the image of dead through a lock-door,a split image while are speaking for phone and curtain-image.The tale is remade as ¨Calling Philo Vance¨(1940).The film is a good production Warner Bros, by Vitagraph Corp..
When the much hated Archer Coe turns up dead and is believed to be a suicide, Philo Vance and Detective Heath steps into the scene to find out why a rich man would consider suicide as an option.
The original novel they adapted was "The Kennel Murder Case", perhaps from a writer's standpoint the best of the Philo Vance mysteries by the strange S.S. Van Dine.
Fortunately they assigned suave William Powell first to the character.; later he was played by Basil Rathbone, Warren William, and Paul Lukas before being consigned to "B" picture status.The other question as always with Warner Brothers executives is why they chose Vance as a character; their penchant was to choose men who operated outside the law, with no apparent discrimination between a vicious murderer and a champion of individual rights against all comers.
Philo Vance (William Powell) helps solve multiple murders among the wealthy after a dog show.Usually I hate overly convoluted mysteries (like this) but I LOVE this movie.
It moves very quickly (only 72 minutes), is beautifully directed by Michael Curtiz (he uses tons of camera tricks that just speed the narrative along), has a very ingenious story line (including a solution to a locked room murder that was just incredible) and has a very good cast.
It is the best of the series but, if you like this type of film, catch the other Philo Vance's with Powell and the one with Basil Rathbone.
This fantasy world of nasty rich men who collect Oriental relics (shades of 'The Moonstone'?), inscrutable Chinese servants, ex-cons turned butlers, dog-loving fops, Runyonesque cops, is the perfect habitat for Vance, a man who will drop a cruise to Europe on a fanciful hunch, who knows the social world of these people, and yet is tainted by his interest in crime and association with the police, or would be if he wasn't anything more than a thinking machine, William Powell, the greatest American comedian of the decade, bravely subsuming his idiosyncratic humanity.
Of course it is William Powell as Philo Vance (and Michael Curtiz as director) that makes the film what it is - when did Powell ever make a dud?The army of cops at the crime scene didn't really do a very good job in finding the second dead body and unconscious dog did they!
This is the sixth Philo Vance mystery film and the fifth and last starring William Powell, five films which he made between 1929 and 1933.
(In 1930 a single Philo Vance film intervened which starred Basil Rathbone, THE BISHOP MURDER CASE, see my review).
THE KENNEL MURDER CASE (Warner Brothers, 1933), directed by Michael Curtiz, returns William Powell to the screen playing detective Philo Vance.
While those aforementioned titles along with the entire "Philo Vance" mysteries are as forgotten as the character himself, THE KENNEL MURDER CASE goes on record as the finest and most revived of them all.The story opens at a Long Island Kennel Club where Detective Philo Vance (William Powell) enters his Scottish terrier, Captain McTavish, in a dog show.
Markham (Robert McWade) during the investigation, Vance encounters a total of seven suspects with motives for wanting Cole dead, ranging from his niece, her fiancé, Raymond Wrede (Ralph Morgan), Cole's personal secretary and live-in boarder in love with Hilda; Brisbane Cole (Frank Conroy), the victim's brother who owns a book of unsolved murders; and Liang (James Lee), Cole's Chinese cook.
Being both classic "Philo Vance" and top-notch Powell, THE KENNEL MURDER CASE was unrecognizably remade by Warners as CALLING PHILO VANCE (1940) featuring James Stephenson in the title role; with Margot Stevenson (Hilda Lake); and Richard Kipling (Archer Cole).
As much as other "Philo Vance" mysteries featuring different actors distributed by other film companies through 1947, THE KENNEL MURDER CASE became the of many to be distributed to video cassette.
Sequel: THE DRAGON MURDER CASE (Warners, 1934) starring Warren William as Philo Vance supported by Eugene Palette, Robert McWade and Etienne Girardot resuming their initial roles.
Philo Vance (played wonderfully by William Powell) isn't as smooth and sophisticated as Nick Charles, and there's not the witty banter between man and wife you find in the Thin Man series, but this is a good character.
It's almost as if this Philo Vance mystery takes its cues from Agatha Christie, with the story being so intricately plotted that the least suspected person ends up as the murderer.
However, I have to admit, in this case I did suspect the culprit.WILLIAM POWELL assumes a more serious demeanor as the detective, unlike his characterization of Nick Charles in the Thin Man mysteries.
EUGENE Palette is a befuddled detective who can't decide who's guilty without the aid of Vance and gets a few chuckles along the way.Directed in lively fashion by Michael Curtiz, it's a good little mystery that borrows from a whole bunch of clichés but manages to be tight and entertaining throughout.
Now this does NOT mean that the film is that similar to the Thin Man movies, as THE KENNEL MURDER CASE is not a comedy but more a traditional mystery-detective film.
Now you'd think that not having Nora Charles or Asta or a traditional comic sidekick (something found in practically all series detective films) along for fun would be a detriment, but I didn't miss them at all because this was such an exceptionally well-written film--having a genuinely interesting case as well as uniformly excellent performances by all.The film begins at the dog show and is called The KENNEL Murder Case, though this Philo Vance film actually spends little of the time at the dog show and dogs are not a super-important part of the film.
Before he became defined as Nick Charles in the Thin Man Series, William Powell played another urbane detective named Philo Vance.
William Powell is Philo Vance in "The Kennel Murder Case," a 1933 film also starring Mary Astor, Paul Cavanagh, Eugene Palette, Helen Vinson and Ralph Morgan.
"The Kennel Murder Case" is a great story and a fun film - don't miss it..
Apart from the usual stereotypes of the thirties, Eugene Pallette as the gruff police detective, Jack La Rue as the "swarthy" Italian and of course, James Lee as "The Chinese Cook", this film is THE great mystery of a murder in a locked room.
Its based on a Philo Vance story, A suicide of a man few likes proves to be murder most foul.
I own a good many of these but, curiously enough, have not had the opportunity to watch as many as I would like; suffice it to say that that the only such series I have gone through in its entirety is that of "The Thin Man" (also because it is one of the shortest if most successful).Having mentioned the latter, which gave William Powell his signature role, it is to be noted that he also assumes the lead role in the movie under review as yet another popular fictional sleuth i.e. Philo Vance.
A detestable person gets murdered; there's a house full of suspects; police are baffled, but a lead detective sees clues that the police don't see and solves the crime.The film has some good points.
Powell's Philo Vance is as sharp and observant as Nick Charles but director Michael Curtiz does little with the supporting cast who spend most of their time feeling cheated and looking guilty.Arthur Coe commits suicide in his locked bedroom or so it seems.
Enjoyed viewing this film on TCM and watching a very young William Powell, (Philo Vance) playing detective just like he did with Myrna Loy in the "Thin Man Series".
Back in the 1930's William Powell played in the Philo Vance Series and in this picture, the famous veteran actress Mary Astor, (Hilda Lake) becomes one of the suspects in a murder/suicide case where a man named, Archer Coe, (Robert Barrot) is found dead and Archer was in a room that was bolted from the inside.
Eugene Palette, (Detective Sgt. Heath) appeared in quite a few of these Philo Vance films and also gave a great performance in "Robin Hood" with Errol Flynn.
William Powell is a dog-loving detective but, unlike in the Thin Man films, which were yet to be made, he has neither a glamorous wife in tow nor a weakness for the sauce.The plot concerns the classic mystery of a murdered man in a room locked from the inside.
Philo Vance had many affinities with Bulldog Drummond
He was a gentleman with the kind of polish and elegance only usually associated with the British upper classes and he was also independently wealthy
But there were vital differences
Drummond was an adventurer, charming, gallant, lively
Vance could be pompous, slight1y dull and self-righteous
There was a hint of fundamental cruelty in his manner
"The Kennel Murder Case" is the most impressive of the 14 Vance films made between 1929 and 1947
The story of a murdered collector of Chinoiserie, it has all the ingredients of the classic private eye mystery exotic setting in the blue nose Long Island Kennel Club, three killings for Vance to solve including a baffling "locked room murder," the key to the whole affair, and plenty of suspects
Usually, a detective story setting have proved too static and talkative to make convincing movies even though they work well enough on the printed page, but here Michael Curtiz's direction and the fine editing give the film a pace and urgency that make it altogether different from similar films of its type
William Powell's elegance and suavity made him the perfect Vance and although a year later he switched studios, he stayed in the same genre with the enormously successful and popular "The Thin Man" at MGM.
William Powell as Philo Vance is excellent in this locked room whodunit.
"Markham," says urbane gentleman crime-solver Philo Vance (William Powell) to the district attorney, "I'm coming more and more to the belief that Archer Coe was killed in this room.
The Kennel Murder Case is one of those rare films that show everyone involved at the best of their craft, and working well together to give a good show.
With all the murder mysteries filmed at this time based on stage plays, with a resulting flat camera work, this movie makes the camera almost a character in itself.
William Powell is likable as Philo Vance, detective.
Vance (William Powell) had a line early in the film about Archer Coe's 'psychological impossibility' to kill himself - I had to think about that for a while.
I decided to invest 73 minutes of my to life to THE KENNEL MURDER CASE for one reason only and that is it's directed by the great Michael Curtiz who if he's not considered the greatest film director of the 20th Century is certainly the greatest director of the classic period of Hollywood .
The title fools the audience in to thinking they're going to be watching a story set at a kennel club and indeed the opening location takes place there where a prize winning dog is found dead but this has got nothing to do with the main plot involving a suspected suicide that turns out is a murder The screenplay is confused , inconsistent and just plain bizarre .
"The Kennel Murder Case" was the latest in William Powell's portrayals of famed detective Philo Vance.
***SPOILERS*** Overly plotted, down to the very last pottery fragment, murder mystery that has the great detective Philo Vance, William Powell,completely befuddled until the last five or so minutes in the film.
"The Kennel Murder Case", and other Philo Vance stories, is a light, fast paced precursor to "The Thin Man" series.
The plot of THE KENNEL MURDER CASE is constructed along the lines of an Agatha Christie mystery, complete with an amateur detective (Vance) staging a "big reveal" in a drawing room climax. |
tt0043265 | The African Queen | An English spinster, Rose (Katharine Hepburn), is the sister of a missionary, Rev. Samuel Sayer (Robert Morley). The two Christian missionaries are in a remote African village with grass huts and a little wooden church, which is located somewhere deep in a German African colony during WWI near the Ulanga River. The German war machine appears to brutally start burning the little straw hut village, killing the native women and children while kidnapping the African men, and just as quickly the German terror vanishes. When the smoke clears from the burning village, all is in ruin. The meek and fragile Rev. Samuel Sayer is so distraught by what he has just witnessed he kills himself. Rose is left all alone to fend for herself;she is lost in despair. There is no safety here, and the German threat is all around. There is no way out except to travel south down the dangerous and unforgiving Ulanga River. The river leads to Lake Victoria and possible freedom. Except for the last danger, which is the Louisa - a German gunship that patrols the Tanganyika shore of the lake up to the southern mouth of the river. The Ulanga is filled with dangers like animals that can eat you, rocks and white water rapids that can smash and sink a boat. It has only been successfully navigated once by a map maker named Spangler a hundred years ago and no one since has repeated the feat.Rose is straggling about the burnt village in shock and despair from her brother's suicide when a Mr. Charlie Allnut (Humphrey Bogart) shows up out of nowhere to save her. This scruffy old gin-swigging rummy is a boat captain who is unshaven and crusty. Mr. Allnut is there to deliver mail and supplies to the village. Mr. Allnut travels up and down the northern part of the Ulanga on a rusty old 12-foot boat called the African Queen. The boat barely runs, powered by a small antique steam engine on its last legs kept together and encouraged to run with a few well placed kicks and bangs from a hammer by Mr. Allnut. Mr. Allnut buries Rev. Sayer and takes Rose to the African Queen for safety before the Germans come back. While on the African Queen Rose attempts to convince Mr. Allnut they should go south down the Ulanga and sink the Louisa. Mr. Allnut thinks the spinster is a crazy old maid and tells her so. And Rose thinks Mr. Allnut is washed-up rummy good for nothing coward unfit to be a captain. As impossible as it may seem Mr. Allnut decides to follow her suggestion because its the only way to avoid the Germans, and probably the only way to shut Rose up and stop her from nagging on and on about her crazy plan to fight the German navy.During the first few days aboard the African Queen navigating the Ulanga they annoy each other to the point of being disgusted. Rose reads her bible while Mr. Allnut drinks rum from a generous supply he has on board until he passes out every day. Rose decides to dump all of Mr. Allnuts bottles of gin into the river one morning while Mr. Allnut is still passed out. When Mr. Allnut awakes, he is emotionally destroyed by the thought of no more booze. How could you, Miss? Mr. Allnut asks over and over as the African Queen smokes and tugs along the Ulanga. Rose decides to stop talking to Mr. Allnut and gives him the silent treatment until he gives in to her plan to sink the Louisa. Mr. Allnut continues to talk to Rose even though Rose refuses to acknowledge his existence on the little boat. Mr. Allnut pretends he doesn't care even though the silence is slowing killing him. It is apparent they cannot stand each others company. Finally Mr. Allnut can't take the silence anymore and agrees to Rose's impossible plan to sink the Louisa using home made torpedoes made by Mr. Allnut. Mr Allnut says he can make them from the supplies on the boat - explosives and two gas canisters used for welding.As the two strangers sail down Ulanga River like great map makers before them and determined to sink the Louisa, Rose is impressed by Mr. Allnut's abilities and admires his seamanship when they hit big white water and how he skillfully navigates past the dangerous rocks. They ride into some really rough white water that causes Rose to feel aroused by the thrill of the ride. Not understanding the experience she compares it to a thrilling sermon delivered by her brother when the holy ghost consumed him. The spiritual excitement overcomes her as she describes her excitement to Mr. Allnut. Rose and Mr. Allnut survive a second and more dangerous set of white water rapids, along with extra dangers from African guerrillas shooting at them from the banks of the river hoping to kill them and capture the African Queen. When they realize they have survived certain death again they start hugging and kissing. After they kiss, they realize they are in love. It's implied they are lovers that afternoon after much flirting and a quick nap. However, their troubles are not over as the African Queen breaks down and they work as a team to fix it. Mr. Allnut shaves, baths and listens to Rose read the good book. They make tea and find they adore each others company. They call each other dear and tell each other sweet nothings.Nevertheless there is still more danger ahead. The river disappears, the water is shallow, and Mr. Allnut is forced to get into the mucky river and pull the African Queen by hand to higher water. Blood sucking leeches, mosquitoes, and dangerous animals torment the couple's efforts. The African Queen comes to a complete stop, stuck dead in mucky swamp water and high weeds covering any sight of land or water ways. They are lost in the weeds and can't see anything. They are disheartened and beaten and accept their doomed fate as they hold each other in exhaustion waiting to die. Passed out on the African Queen they lie there defeated. When it begins to rain and the river rises, the African Queen becomes unstuck and floats down the river only a few hundred feet from high water and the mouth of the Ulanga River. The Ulanga River is pouring into Lake Victoria and they see the Louisa gunship for the first time as it makes a routine patrol..The two lovers are now alive again! With new hope and determination they are convinced they can now sink the Louisa. They wait in the banks of the Ulanga out of sight of the Louisa until it comes back on its routine patrol. They have fixed and fastened two homemade torpedoes to the insides of the African Queen. By cutting circle holes above the water line they can stick the tips of the torpedoes through the holes which act as battering rams that will compress on collision and ignite the explosives to explode the gas canisters when they crash into the Louisa at full speed ahead. Rose and Mr. Allnut lovingly argue about who will stay ashore while the other steers the boat into the Louisa. The hero will jump just before the collision and explosion that will sink the Louisa on impact. They both decide they would not want to live without the other so they will do it together. Rose and Mr. Allnut wait until the Louisa comes back on its patrol routine that evening and begin to plan to ram the Louisa. Building steam as the weather starts to change and the waves grow higher. The Louisa is not expecting the African Queen to even be there let alone capable of exploding and sinking the Louisa. As they steam towards the Louisa the lake begins to become rough, a rain storm squalls, and the seas begin filling the boat with water. A rogue wave turns the African Queen upside over tossing Rose and Mr. Allnut into the lake. The two are separated by another huge wave and disappear. Have they drowned? Alas, the Louisa is not sunk and the African Queen appears to be gone with the two star-crossed lovers.The sun appears after the storm and we see Mr. Allnut is alive. He was rescued and captured by the Germans. Mr. Allnut is now standing on the Louisa's deck in the captain's office. He is being interrogated by the Louisa's captain (Peter Bull). The captain is determined to have Mr. Allnut answer his questions. The German captain always ends each question with the threat of death and hanging to Mr. Allnut, who is depressed and despondent. Mr. Allnut answers each question and threat of death with a hopeless sigh of, who cares! Because Mr. Allnut believes his Rose has drowned. Mr. Allnut is relieved by the thought of hanging rather than live without his Rose. Suddenly he hears Rose's voice coming from a life boat that has rescued her. Mr. Allnut, thrilled that Rose is alive, decides to deny he knows her in hopes of saving her from his fated hanging by the Germans. But the very English Rose not only argues with the captain but brags how she and Charlie and the African Queen sailed down the Ulanga, and how Charlie made homemade torpedoes, and how they came within feet of sinking the Louisa by themselves and would have, but the storm saved the Louisa from their doom when the weather caused the African Queen to sink and a wave tossed them into the water. The Louisa's captain thinking them both crazy decides to hang them both. On the deck of the Louisa, Rose and Charlie stand holding hands deeply in love, happy about dying together. Standing there with the hangman's rope around their necks Charlie asks the Louisa's captain to marry them as his last request before hanging. Charlie says he really doesn't care about getting married but it would mean a lot to the Mrs. A teary-eyed Rose is thrilled by the suggestion. The Louisa's captain thinks they are both mad but reluctantly agrees to marry them. The two are so happy to be married that they don't care they are going to be hung. Just as he pronounces them man and wife the Louisa explodes. The sunken African Queen has been hit by the Louisa. Rose and Charlie find themselves swimming and the Louisa is gone. They did it. A wood plank with the name African Queen floats by and the two grab it as they swim to apparent safety. Swimming away, the two sing merrily, "There was an old fisherman..." | suspenseful, cute, humor, boring, romantic | train | imdb | For more about the conditions it was created under, I suggest you read Katherine Hepburn's The Making of The African Queen or How I went to Africa with Bogart, Bacall and Huston and almost lost my mind.
Based on the famous C.S. Forester novel, which it follows quite closely, THE African QUEEN is the simple story of pragmatic river-rat Charlie Allnut (Bogart) and high-minded Methodist missionary spinster Rose Sayer (Hepburn) who are thrown together by chance when German troops sweep through Africa during World War I.
Once safely aboard his beat-up riverboat "The African Queen," Allnut desires nothing more than to dodge the Germans until war's end; Rose, however, determines to strike a blow against the Germans by sailing the boat downriver to attack a German battleship.There are so many fine things about this movie that they are hard to innumerate.
It's a lot of fun to watch, and it is also a film you can admire for the expert way it was put together.Bogart and Hepburn not only give great performances, they are also wonderful together, and they make the on-screen relationship between their characters believable and interesting - it's great to watch as it develops.
Topping it off are the wonderful settings, with a lot of fine shots of wild animals and jungle scenery - there is always plenty to look at, and it also sets off the action nicely.Any one of a number of things would make "The African Queen" worth watching, and as a whole it is a terrific movie.
The original opening of the film with Bogart coming in as church services are being conducted for a few hundred uncomprehending native Africans is Director John Huston's comment on the usefulness of the lives Morley and Hepburn have led up to that point.
What Hepburn and Bogart accomplish by the end of the film makes up for the waste that was Hepburn's life.But The African Queen is a great romance as well.
As was remarked, they're going to have stories to tell their grandkids.When I watch The African Queen I'm reminded of what Bogart's friend Frank Sinatra sang in one of his best ballads about how Love Isn't Just For the Young.
It's all natural that the two main protagonists of "The African Queen" turn the titular boat into the unsung heroine of a military deed, whose success is as improbable as the very thought that a straight-laced Methodist missionary spinster would fall in love with a coarse, rudimentary and gin-soaked mailman, but not so when the romance serves as the very fuel of that mission, and when it's Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn and John Huston on the lead: the miracle of "The African Queen", as movie and story, is the result of three immense talents confidently maneuvering in the same direction.Film historian and critic Richard Schickel said about Hepburn that her secret appeal relied on the characters she usually played: "a woman on her high horse with slightly pretentious, often comically stated ideas about the world.
Dobbs, Bogart was exuding a threatening toughness; as Allnut, it's a new step on his career, as a more lovable kind of loser, in a performance that will earn him an Oscar for Best Actor (Hepburn, Huston and James Agee for the screenplay will also be nominated).
Too bad for him, he's got Hepburn aboard, an iron-lady who followed her bother (Robert Morley) in German East Africa only to witness the efforts of a lifetime being burned down by the Kaiser's army, a fatal shock for the brother.But Rose is stronger than her ill-fated brother and when she accepts to set off aboard "The African Queen", she's most determined to be part of the conflict, not in the victim's departments.
Rosie ignites the fire of bravery in Allnut, and the exhilarating cross of the first obstacles lead to the victorious embrace, sealing the existence of a love that got from one heart to the other, through a taped adrenalin-filled boiler hose, and a few rows as tumultuous as the rapids.This is not Hollywood corny romantic comedy; this is John Huston confronting two genuine characters one another, an inspirational believer and a practical technician, both combining their strengths for survival and accomplishment.
That's "The African Queen": thrilling, romantic, inspiring, starring the two stars, honored by the American Film Institute as the greatest screen legends, Bogart and Hepburn, in interactions full of comedy given the opposition of their personalities and a believable chemistry built on trust, incentive and partnership, this is not 'holding-hands' heroism à la "Titanic", each step is tackled with technical precision.
In Africa during World War I, after Bible-thumping spinster's (Hepburn) missionary brother (Robert Morley) is dead by fevers , a hard-drinking , sympathetic , gin-swigging riverboat captain (Bogart) is persuaded by her to use his boat and undertake a risked trip down African wild rivers .
James Agee and John Huston, who also directed, have a great knack for writing crisp and smooth interplay between the two leads.There aren't very many supporting roles in this movie, but Robert Morley makes the best of his small performance.
The African Queen is an entertaining film done in grand old Hollywood style, and it is probably the most conventional movie John Huston ever made.
Adapted by Huston and James Agee from the novel by C.S. Forester, it's believed that the original intention was to film it as an outright drama, but whether by star design or a going with the flow attitude, the picture turned out to be a drama fused with splices of humour, the kind where the tongue gets firmly stuck in the cheek.As character pieces go, The African Queen has few peers, especially in the pantheon of 50s cinema, then you add the excellent story to work from, with the location work in Congo and Uganda expertly utilised by Huston (clearly revelling in the mix) and his photographer, Jack Cardiff.
This is not the best movie Ford, Bogart, or Hepburn did as individual artists, the but joining of their considerable talents did create a unique and most enjoyable movie that is fondly associated with all of them."The African Queen" is a war movie, romance, adventure, comedy, drama, morality tale, and battle of the sexes all in one and it works on all levels.
In the 1950's,location shooting was a rarity,so the locale selected,everyone involved with this production knew it was going to be very hard work to get this film made.They just didn't know how tough until work began.I guess it helped to have one of the best directors of that day (not to mention in all of cinema history),John Huston,paired with two of the best actors to grace the screen,Humphrey Bogart and Kate Hepburn.The story is very captivating,and these cinema giants,working harder than usual under very adverse conditions,managed to come up with a winner.Definitely on the must see list for any classic cinema fan..
Bogart and Hepburn shine in this two-actors-adventure-movie and even without the breathtaking visual effects of todays' films, it outshines them in its simplicity and authenticity.The plot is very good and straight and the situation where the two characters (polar opposites) interact is an eye candy for all film goers.
This is almost strictly a two-person movie with Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn dominating the story and screen time.
The story also a little unusual in that neither lead actor is in his/her prime, meaning it's almost a middle-age romance story.Once they become enamored with each other, the movie mainly goes into the trials the two have in piloting this boat, "The African Queen" down river with the goal of reaching a German ship and blowing it up.
Yes, it's a World War II movie, of sorts.To be honest, the film does slow down a bit in the beginning of Bogie and Hepburn's romance but the last 30 minutes finish strong with one obstacle after another hitting the pair of adventurers, and it's interesting to watch..
It has a perfect script, two characters who throw sparks off each other, great location work that shows in the photography, and two of the finest performances ever on film--Bogie's gin-slinging boat captain and a prim missionary proving that opposites attract.
The film is typical Huston and many believe that the scene where Bogart is pulling the tiny boat through the reed-lined African swamp, earned him his very first well deserve Oscar.
Along the way, they bicker about various things (she's disgusted by his drinking, he finds her too pious), but they grow to respect each other.Bogart and Hepburn pretty much play their usual roles, and the movie also stars a few crocodiles (most of the movie was filmed on location in Africa).
Staring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn 'The African Queen" touched on brilliance in action, adventure, comedy, and a nice little dose of drama and romance to create a package that anyone would love.The majority of the filming was done with just Bogart and Hepburn as they steamed down the river in the filthy and boozing Captain Charlie Aunt's (Bogart) boat "The African Queen", in which the movie was named after.
Anyone who has seen Hepburn in "True Grit" will realize she is playing pretty close to the same character which could have been a negative but in both cases (Being "True Grit" and "The African Queen") the combined talent of actors easily overpowered the problem.The lone flaw that was obvious in the movie was the fact that a vast majority of the filming appeared to be filmed in studio with fake backgrounds.
Something that will be remembered as one of the moments to be modelled for todays cinematic experience.The movie is based on a novel written by C.S forester about 2 couples played by Hepburn and Bogart going through outrageous circumstances against the Germans.
It was before I had heard of Humphrey Bogart, Katherine Hepburn or the director John Huston, but the romantic adventure story and dazzling imagery really gripped me and seared itself into my memory.
Term "overrated"; it wouldn't be something I would attribute to a film usually as directed by John Huston and starring Humphrey Bogart (co-star Katherine Hepburn is another matter).
It doesn't help matters that cliché steers the ship; Bogart and Hepburns' characters, Charlie and Rosie, are going down a river where at first they can't stand one another as one is a drunkard on gin and the other is a prissy go-for-it-all who doesn't really see the consequences, AND whenever Bogie somehow gets the African Queen over some rapids she suddenly starts to fall in love with the guy.
His prim sister Rose Sayer (Katharine Hepburn) escapes with Charlie Allnut (Humphrey Bogart) on his rickety river steamboat 'African Queen'.
THE AFRICAN_QUEEN is a fine film, starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn.
When there is a tribal uprising in the Belgian Congo and missionary Rose Sayer's (Hepburn) brother (played by Robert Morley) is killed, she enlists the aid of dipsomaniac Charles Allnut (Bogart) to help get her to safety by way of his boat, The African Queen.
Scene for scene, this film only grows better with age, due to the undeniable chemistry between the two leads (Bogart won the Best Actor Oscar; Hepburn was nominated Best Actress) and Huston's magnificent direction, which also netted an Oscar nomination.
The acting by Bogart is brilliant and Katharine Hepburn is as good.It´s exciting and VERY funny.It also have a great direction by John Huston and even if a few of the action scenes feels old and maybe some of the special effects is not fantastic Humphrey Bogart really deserved his Oscar but Katharine Hepburn is as good.The dialogue between them is wonderful.4,5/5.
The African Queen is the film I measure all "man and woman who hate each other at the start but gradually fall in love" movies against.
Even with as scruffy as he appears, he still acts the gentleman, although I do have to ask am I the only one who gets some Bugs Bunny vibes with his performance here?Katharine Hepburn's Rose is one tough dame, and does seem like a very unlikable character during the first portion of the film, not treating Charlie with any respect because he won't agree with her demands and interfering with what ain't her property!
Along with the sound effects of nature in the background and the occasional bit of wildlife, The African Queen gets as close as a movie can get to making me feel like I'm a riverboat in East Africa.
As they overcome obstacle after obstacle the two grow closer and closer together and realize that the only way they can make it is together.The African Queen was originally supposed to be a straight drama, but John Huston found that his actors had so much chemistry and decided to combine other elements into the film which made it the great classic that it is known as today..
I remembered The African Queen as a great movie; a rambling adventure, telling the gently romantic story of Charlie and Rosie's Quixotic cruise to sink the Louisa.
Found it hard to like her, so didn't.In the end I think it is the names of the people involved - Humphrey Bogart, Katherine Hepburn, John Huston - rather than the quality of the movie that make people regard this so highly..
The African Queen is the story of a missionary English woman, Rose, and a Canadian boat man,Charlie, in what was then German East Africa, who go on a mission to torpedo a German gunboat right after the 1st World War began.
They plan on using the African Queen, Charlie's boat, as part of their home made torpedo and bomb the German gunboat with it.It's a charming film about patriotism in times of war, exceeding ones limits for what they believe in and finding love even at the most desperate times.
African Queen was probably one of the first Bogart movie that I ever saw and I was simply mesmerized by his and Katherine Hepburn's portrayals of a hard drinking roustabout teamed up with a prim and proper lady.
I cannot remember Bogart ever making a film in which he had to interpret a character - except in "African Queen", now a classic in the world of cinema.
With a supply of wood for the boiler and a case of gin for himself, he manages to keep going up and down the river on his African Queen.It's a pretty tall story when you come to think of it....a rough neck like Charlie falling in love with Rose a prim and very staid Methodist missionary (Katherine Hepburn).
But it had to be like that because it was just a series of adventures...ever-changing...and danger at every turn of the river.I have to admire the performances of Bogart and Hepburn who were on the screen virtually all the time.
The writing is simple and to the point, the acting and chemistry of the two stars is honest and likeable.Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn play two lonely people in the congo, he a river rat with his own supply boat, her a spinster sister of a christian missionary, their differences in life make the story.
John Huston directs African Queen with the simple touch of an artist, each scene is better than the last, leading up the last great scene.This movie is a a timeless classic.
Released in 1951, the film stars Humphrey Bogart (who won the Academy Award for Best Actor) and Katharine Hepburn, and was directed by John Huston.
Humphrey Bogart (Charlie Allnut) and Katherine Hepburn (Rose Sayer) fight like cats and dogs at first, but fall in love.
John Huston directed this classic WWI romantic adventure that stars Humphrey Bogart as Riverboat Captain Charlie Allnut, an alcoholic and aging veteran of the river who is persuaded to lead pious Rose Sayer(played by Katharine Hepburn) by her missionary brother(played by Robert Morley) who is later beaten and left to die of fever by the German occupiers.
To be fair, the story does stretch credulity to breaking point on many occasions, not just the unlikely romance between crusty old Bogie and prim and proper Kate, but their whole adventure down the river surviving in one piece culminating in the highly improbable destruction of a German warship...and they survive that too.Of course with all this to swallow, for the movie to work you have to engage with the lead characters in what is basically a two-hander for much of the time and who better to engage with than Bogart and Hepburn.
Adventures set in the past in exotic location have also been a popular idea, and the African Queen does that.Set in 1914 on the outbreak of World War One, Rose (Katharine Hepburn) and Samuel Sayer (Robert Morley), are brother and sister from England, working as missionaries in German East Africa.
Rose ends up going with Charlie Allnut (Humphrey Bogart), a Canadian boat captain of the African Queen.
It's the year 1914.The war has started in Europe.Katharine Hepburn plays a British missionary called Rose Sayer who's in Africa with her brother Samuel (Robert Morley).Soon the war comes to Africa and Rose's reverend brother dies.Humphrey Bogart plays a boozing Canadian boat captain Charlie Allnut who has to get Rose back to civilization with the African Queen.Their other intension of the journey is to construct a torpedo and destroy a German warship, the Louisa.On the way they face many difficulties and challenges, the unpredictable weather being one of them.At first Rosie and Charlie nearly hate each other but soon the opposites start to attract and hate turns to love.John Huston, a fine director is in charge of The African Queen (1951).Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn, what a team they make.They share a huge amount of chemistry on that little boat.Besides them there are only a few other actors in the movie.One of them is Theodore Bikel in his early movie role playing First Officer.This movie is a great adventure drama with some war and romance.It's pretty amazing to watch those two people on the boat trying to survive.The movie offers a bit of comedy, as well.It's quite funny to watch Bogie imitating those hippos and apes.I recommend you get on the African Queen and enjoy the ride..
This movie has it all: Romance, Comedy, Action, Adventure, along with great acting done by Katherine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart.. |
tt0065148 | Una sull'altra | San Francisco, California. George Dumurrier (Jean Sorel) is a wealthy and good-looking businessman doctor with the emphasis on the business. He runs a clinic with his younger brother Henry (Alberto De Mendoza), but leaves care of his asthma-stricken wife Susan (Marisa Mell) to her sister Martha (Faith Domergue) and a local nurse. George is soon revealed to be having an affair with Jane (Elsa Martinelli), the personal assistant to Larry (Jena Sobiesky) a trendy photographer. Although very much in love with George, Jane is fatalistic about the future of their relationship.George and Jane travel out of town for a romantic break in Reno. But after arriving at the casino, George receives a phone call from Henry telling him that Susan has died after suffocated during a violent asthma attack. Returning home to his plush San Francisco home, George is consoled by Henry, but frozen out by the hostile Martha who has always disapproved of George marrying her sister. However, a $1 million insurance policy left by Susan is a timely bonus for George's recklessly extended business enterprise. But perhaps too likely as an insurance agent (Bill Vanders) begins tailing George, discovers his affair with Jane, and brings his suspisions to the local police detective, Inspector Wald (John Ireland).Meanwhile, an anonymous tip-off leads George and Jane to 'The Roaring Twenties', a strip club in Reno where the are both astonished the appearance of Monica (also Marissa Mell), a nightclub stripper who, although a luxuriant blond, bears an uncanny resemblance to the dead Susan. George is morbidly attracted to her and soon embarks on an affair that is part detection, part willing seduction. However, when the police, who have been tailing him, arrest Monica, she tells them that she was paid to pose as Susan by a woman calling herself Betty. Monica, as the police discover, is a popular fixture lately among the city's high class prostitutes. She has a devoted wealthy client, named Benjamin Wormser (Riccardo Cucciola), whose hopeless passion she toys with. When Benjamin hears about Monica's arrest, he arrives at the police station with her exorbitant bail, but soon discover that she has already been spring by someone the police will not name.A police search led by Inspector Wald of Monica's apartment turns up an envelope containing money. When George's fingerprints are found on the envelope, the police arrest him and charge him with murdering his wife for the life insurance policy. Monica goes missing, and George is tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. Some months later, on the eve of George's execution, his brother Henry arrives for a visit where in the privacy of an interogation room, the gloating Henry reveals all that has happened: he and Susan have hatched up this entire plot to get him out of the way and get the insurance money all for themselves. Monica is really Susan all along and faked her own death to implicate him. After Henry leaves, George tries to get a stay of execution by informing his lawyer about when Henry said. But despite some last-minute investigation by Inspector Wald, George is unable to clear his name. Only Jane continues to believe his innocence, but she is held in check by Larry.The day arrives as George is taken out of his cell to the gas chamber to be executed, still protesting his innocence. At the last moment, a phone rings where the state governor orders the execution halted as a telex arrives at the local FBI office that is forwarded to the prison authorties. In a twist of fate, the French police in Paris have informed the U.S. authorities that a woman identified as the dead Mrs. Susan Weston and her brother-in-law Henry have been shot dead in a local café by the spurned and suicidal jealous Benjamin Wormser. | insanity, pornographic, murder | train | imdb | This little Italian number is superficially similar to the famous Hitchcock film "Vertigo" in its basic premise and in its San Francisco location.
She also has copious nude scenes (if you're into that sort of thing).You might also have heard of the director of this one, guy named Lucio Fulci, made a few zombie movies or something.
Fulci fans will find the plot of this film to be surprisingly coherent, but will probably be disappointed at the lack of gore (aside from one grisly scene of a post, post-mortem).
No gore this time, but still a great Lucio Fulci film!.
It's hard to believe that this thriller was directed by the same man who would go on to create such gory highlights as Zombie Flesh-Eaters and City of the Living Dead, but indeed this is a film from the Lucio Fulci that us gore hounds know and love.
His later Giallo, such as A Lizard in Woman's Skin and Don't Torture a Duckling weren't as bloody as Fulci fans are used to, and this one is even less so; in fact, it isn't even a horror movie.
Fulci does find time for graphic images, however, but things such as a badly decomposed corpse look out of place in a movie that is much more about mystery and suspense than shocking its audience.
Fulci often doesn't get the respect he deserves when it comes to movie-making, and that's unfair as he really does know how to tell a story.
Shortly thereafter, the corpse of his wife is unearthed and traces of poison are found in the body...The film takes obvious influence from the great Alfred Hitchcock film 'Vertigo', but unlike a lot of Italian films from the sixties and seventies; this one is not merely a retread of its popular American influence.
There is a lack of murders in this film, which may disappoint Giallo and Fulci fans; but the intrigue that appears instead offsets this nicely, and overall I don't hesitate to say that One on Top of the Other is one of the great Giallo films!.
The film is well staged in and around San Francisco and features ample but appropriate nudity.The whole things builds momentum and suspense with an especially cleverly done ending.
It actually looks like it was all shot in English as there is none of the usual rubbery lip sync.Fulci was not a one trick pony director (as the better known Dario Argento definitely is) and if you're interested in seeing his diversity, see this film.
It has as much erotic and exploitative elements as it has elements from pre-giallos like Mario Bava's excellent Blood and black lace and his older work, Girl who knew too much.
It isn't as psychedelic as Fulci's other giallos like Lizard in a woman's skin or as tense as his Don't torture a duckling or Sette notes in nero.
Still, however, I found it very entertaining and I would even say it's one of the best non-gore movies from Fulci I've seen (and trust me on this one, I've seen lots of them too).Movie follows a basic giallo structure, even though it was made in the same year with "the first actual giallo", Dario Argento's fabulous L'uccello dalle piume di cristallo, and in the way that it doesn't rip-off that movie as many other giallos does.
That's why I cannot really say honestly that I found this one to be real giallo, but more like pre-giallo.What comes to the plot of the movie, it's not really as simple as it might seem, but has many twists and misleads when police are trying to find out how the things really are (who is lying, who is telling the truth).
Ending was really nicely surprising too, I really enjoyed it.So, if you are bored with Fulci's not as good non-gore movies or if you just want a quick peak to the fantastic world of pre-giallos, One on top of other is highly recommended.
This may not be a horror film or even strictly a giallo but still it's a top notch sex and psychedelic dressed mystery that is a must see for fans of mid sixties to mid seventies Italian cinema.
In the end, the film even becomes a statement against the death penalty (the story takes place in the U.S.).Although there are certain elements of giallo in here, I wouldn't call "Una sull'altra" a giallo; it's really a rather classic crime story concerning "indecent affairs" (on which some of the English titles refer).All in all a good film, although the average Fulci-fan probably will be disappointed about the lack of any gore in this one..
Again, the dubbing is pretty ropey but if, by this point, you're seeking out some of Fulci's lesser-known works then it's safe to assume you've made your peace with this constant problem.Marissa Mell is great as the femme fatale and Elsa Martinelli is cool and chic as the devoted mistress who, despite herself, can't stop believing in her man.
In fact, the female performances are much stronger than the men, probably because Jean Sorel doesn't have much to do except wander around with his shirt off, looking bewildered.Great photography of San Francisco, looking as good - if not better - than in BULLITT.
The story is suitably set in San Francisco, where the infamous doctor George Dummurier owns a private clinic but spends most of his time on the road with his mistress Jane.
Despite also being known as "Perversion Story", this movie mainly focuses on style and tension, and the only remotely gore sequence involves an autopsy on a decomposing body.
The lack of further murders or sleaze is a bit of a weakness, but this is widely compensated by Fulci's concentration on coherence for a change, and the multiple tributes to classic Film Noirs and Alfred Hitchcock's repertoire.
The acting performances are at least ten times better than usual in Italian horror productions, with Marisa Mell ("Danger: Diabolik!", "Seven Blood-Stained Orchids") and Jean Sorel ("Short Night of the Glass Dolls", "Lizard in a Woman's Skin") really leaving a good impression.
The music by Riz Ortolani is mesmerizing, as always, the choreography is often very imaginative and there's some splendid camera-work with multiple great shots of San Francisco locations.
In case you're an admirer of story-driven crime films, or just Italian cinema in general, this is definitely a movie you should keep an eye open for!
Lucio 'godfather of gore' Fulci may be best known for his ultra-gory Zombie films, but the majority of my fellow fans of Italian Genre-Cinema will probably agree that his Gialli from the early 70s, most notably his greatest masterpiece "Non Si Sevizia Un Paperino" aka.
"Perversion Story"/"One on Top of the Other" pf 1969 is a very gore-less but utterly fascinating Thriller/Mystery which no Cult-fan should consider missing.As some other early specimen for the genre, this isn't a typical example for the Italian Giallo, as it doesn't focus on a series of murders.
The womanizing San Francisco Doctor George Dumurrier (Jean Sorel) is with his mistress, the erotic photographer Jane (Elsa Martinelli) when he hears that his wife, who suffered from grave asthma, has died.
Soon thereafter, George makes the acquaintance of the sexy and mysterious stripper Monica Weston (Marisa Mell), who happens to be the spitting image of his wife.
I do not want to go into detail about the wonderfully convoluted storyline, but I can assure that "Una Sull'Altra" should satisfy any fan of suspenseful mysteries in general and Italian Cult cinema in particular.
The rest of the cast includes several other well-known cult-actors such as Alberto De Mendoza ("Lo Strano Vizio Della Signora Wardh", "La Coda Dello Scorpione"), John Ireland and Riccardo Cucciola, who is probably best known for his role in Mario Bava's 1974 masterpiece "Cani Arrabbiati".As Fulci's later Gialli, "Una Sull'Altra" is elegantly shot.
While the San Francisco setting differs from the typical Italian Giallo-Settings it has a great potential for atmospheric beauty which Fulci makes best use of.
"Una Sull'Altra" is a suspenseful, atmospheric and highly interesting film that is worth watching for many reasons.
The first giallo made by Godfather of Gore Lucio Fulci..
Doctor George Dumurrier(Jean Sorel)is a handsome and rich man who has his own private medical clinic.He is married to Susan(Marisa Mell),but their marriage is unhappy as his wife feels neglected.George has long-time mistress named Jane but he doesn't want to leave Susan while her health is deteriorating.When Susan suddenly dies Dumurrier encounters a stripper who looks strikingly similar to his late wife.Gorgeously photographed giallo obviously inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo".There is plenty of sex and steamy eroticism plus a little bit of violence.I particularly enjoyed Marisa Mell's performance as a cunning femme fatale.San Francisco seeped in late 60's hippie psychedelia is a perfect setting.There is a brief moment of gore when rotting corpse Fulci style is shown.No black gloved killers with childhood traumas,though.8 death rows out of 10..
I must admit that I do not care for the films of Lucio Fulci - his horror films are filled with repulsive gore and devoid of intelligence, and his gialli (murder mysteries) are better but filled with unnecessary perversion and debauchery - so suffice to say I was apprehensive when viewing this giallo by the "godfather of gore".
It does seem to plod somewhat in its initial reels as it focused on the lavish lifestyles of a stripper and a photography model, but once the twists begin at the half-way point the viewer's interest is perked and it manages to hold onto it until the end.The direction is surprisingly subtle and aesthetic for a Fulci film, focusing upon images of mirrors and reflections on glass windows the reflect upon the duality of the characters (each often have two sides to their beings, such as the doctor who is married but is having an affair, but also the fact that the doctor believes his wife has a doppelganger).I wouldn't necessarily recommend this film to many as its material is lurid (despite Fulci's admirable restraint), and the plot isn't anything unique, but it's all done in a very sufficient and stylish manner with just enough intelligence to make it a pleasant watch.
Recommended for giallo fans, a slight recommendation to mystery/thriller aficionados, but others not really interested in the genre should just watch Hitchcock's "Vertigo" again..
But the plot is no less good, and although Fulci is best known for horror, he clearly had thrillers mastered as well..
While my preference in Giallo films lies in the ones that play out in a more Horror or Gothic kind of way, One On Top Of The Other (Perversion Story) sits at the other end of the spectrum which is more of a Crime Detective Thriller.
Jean Sorel and Marissa Mell are both great but this is my least favorite film I've seen either in so far.
One of the many Italian horror/suspense movies, Lucio Fulci's "Una sull'altra" (alternately called "One on Top of the Other" and "Perversion Story" in English) is pretty much what you would expect.
What a combo.Anyway, this story of a San Francisco doctor (Jean Sorel) who lets his wife die while having an affair, only to come across as a stripper who looks strangely like his wife is no masterpiece, but is very enjoyable nonetheless.
As for the sleaze, there's probably more nudity and sex in this movie than in Fulci's A Lizard in a Woman's Skin and Don't Torture a Duckling combined.
As for the mystery elements, Fulci fills the film with enough red herrings and other mystery tricks for two or three movies.
Solid cinematography, nice San Francisco locations, an outstanding Riz Ortolani score, above average acting, and Marisa Mell make One on Top of the Other a new favorite of mine.My only complaint (and it is admittedly a small one) is the amount of screen time showing the film's protagonist sitting on death row waiting to die.
A little tighter editing during this 10 or so minute segment might have helped make One on Top of the Other the best Giallo I've ever seen.I mentioned Marisa Mell in the opening paragraph and if you're a fan, you owe it to yourself to track down a copy of One on Top of the Other.
He's married to the sickly Susan (Marisa Mell), while making time with fashion photographer Jane (Elsa Martinelli).
Soon, he's suspected of having killed her (or arranging to have her killed), but the real wrinkle is that he receives a mysterious message to check out stripper Monica Weston (also played by Mell), a dead ringer for his wife.The masterful Lucio Fulci shows with efforts like this that he had the talent to pull off an effective mystery without resorting to violence.
Much like Hitchcocks' "Vertigo", the American city of San Francisco plays no small part in the telling of the tale, and we get some lovely shots of the place.
Be sure to look out for Bobby Rhodes (from the later "Demoni" horror films) as a prison guard.Highly recommended to Fulci devotees.Eight out of 10..
Deliriously entertaining and stylish Fulci film, though not much of a giallo.
"Perversion Story", as it is hilariously known, is an extremely entertaining stroll through the psychedelic, kinky '60s with some negligible giallo properties.'69 must have been the height of the whole 'porno chic' thing where strippers and nude photo shoots were not considered sleazy in the least.
Gathering inspiration from Vertigo, Fulci felt that the script for Perversion Story ranked among his best.Unlike many of his later films, this movie enjoys a decent budget, with eight weeks of principal photography and location shooting in San Francisco, Reno and Sacramento, including a gas chamber sequence shot at the San Quentin State Prison.George Dumurrier (Jean Sorel, Belle du Jour) is the protagonist, a wealthy doctor who runs a clinic with his younger brother Henry (Alberto de Mendoza, The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh).
He's caring for his asthma-stricken wife Susan, (played by Marisa Mell, just as gorgeous here as she is in Danger: Diabolik and could be the ultimate Fulci girl, as she nearly lost her right eye in a 1963 auto accident, with the distinctive curl of her upper lip the only remaining evidence of the damage) while he's also having an affair with Jane (Elsa Martinelli, The 10th Victim).George and Jane travel to Reno for a romantic getaway whole Susan remains in the care of her sister Marta (Faith Domergue, The House of Seven Corpses) and a nurse.
There's an amazing scene here where we watch the lovers from under the bed -- Fulci almost shoots it as if the camera is below them and we're caught in the space between reality and dream, true life and forbidden passion.When they arrive at a casino, George has a message waiting from his brother: his wife is dead.
Returning home to San Francisco, George meets the disapproving gaze of Marta who believes that he has to be behind her sister's death, as he stands to receive $1 million dollars in life insurance, money he desperately needs for his business.
That said, an insurance agent has been following George and Jane and informs police inspector Wald (John Ireland, I Saw What You Did, The Incubus) of his findings.In the midst of all this scandal, George and Jane get an anonymous tip that leads them to The Roading Twenties strip club, where they meet Monica, an exotic dancer who looks exactly like Susan with blonde hair -- shades of Vertigo fed through Italian sleaze!
For someone who would later contribute to some of cinema's most stomach-churning excesses, this sequence is an exercise in beauty.What's striking about Perversion Story is that on the surface, the film seems like its going to be pure exploitation.
It's the film's most pathetic character that actually closes off the tale.Perversion Story doesn't have all of the trademarks of the giallo -- multiple on-camera murders, POV shots of mayhem and black-gloved killers.
Complete with an uncut 108-minute version with English and Italian audio tracks restored from the original negative (with additional scenes provided by a 35mm print), this edition also features interviews with Jean Sorel and Elsa Martinelli, as well as an incredibly insightful commentary on the movie by Stephen Thrower, author of the book Beyond Terror: The Films of Lucio Fulci.
I don't know who's dead body was in the morgue, was that the nurse assigned to watch over the wife, I don't know.Filmed well, and the scenes of 1969 San Francisco along with the music are worth the admission.
Though Perversion Story pre-dates Fulci's emergence as one of the most beloved Italian horror directors of all time, most genre fans who take a look at this early experiment will end up wishing that he had found his dark muse sooner.Granted, Perversion Story isn't unwatchable, and as a fairly standard twist-driven caper there are times when the film works quite well.
But the absurd denouement falls resoundingly flat, and any steam Fulci builds along the way is abruptly quelled when the film unravels in the final act.The story centers around the womanizing Dr. Dumurrier, his shady mistress, and a stripper/prostitute who bears a striking resemblance to the physician's dead wife, Susan.
As the plot unfolds, we discover that Dr. Dumurrier may be being framed for the murder, and more startlingly, that Susan may not actually be dead at all.Despite the alternate titles' emphasis on the carnal components of the story, Fulci's reliance on soft-core sex to drive the movie is actually notably restrained.
However, Fulci does a fine job of using artistic lighting and angles to heighten the sensuality of these scenes, and thanks to nifty touches like a camera shot looking up through the mattress at the writhing bodies above, even if the actors look bored while they explore each other, you won't be bored watching them.Elsewhere, the acting is decidedly above par, with excellent performances from Jean Sorel and the sultry Marisa Mell as Dr. Dumurrier and exotic dancer Monica Weston, respectively. |
tt1055292 | Life as We Know It | Holly Berenson (Katherine Heigl) is the owner of a small Atlanta bakery, and Eric Messer (Josh Duhamel), (often just known as "Messer") is a promising television technical sports director for the Atlanta Hawks. Their best friends Peter (Hayes MacArthur), an attorney, and Alison Novak (Christina Hendricks) set them up on a blind date that goes horribly wrong, and results in both hating each other. As the years go by, Peter and Alison get married, and have a baby girl named Sophie Christina, and select Holly and Eric as godparents of Sophie. They have become friends, but still tease and banter with each other.
Shortly after Sophie's first birthday, Peter and Alison are killed in a car crash. Holly and Messer learn that in their friends' wills, they were named Sophie's joint guardians. Holly and Messer must put their differences aside and move into Sophie's home to care for her. Living together proves to be a struggle. One night, Holly leaves Sophie with Messer while she covers an important catering job - the same night that he is given the opportunity to direct a big basketball game. Messer takes Sophie to the game, but she constantly distracts him with her crying. When they get home, Messer and Holly argue, but later they make up.
Holly meets Sam (Josh Lucas), Sophie's pediatrician, and finds herself attracted to him. They arrange a date, which is cut short when Messer calls to tell Sam that Sophie has a high fever. Sam and Holly go to the hospital, and Messer sees Holly kiss Sam.
As the two guardians continue to care for Sophie, they discover that raising a child is much more expensive than they had expected, and Holly can no longer afford to implement her plans to expand her business. Messer offers to invest in her company, and eventually Holly agrees. To cement the new relationship, they decide to go on a date. They end up having sex and begin to develop feelings for each other. Their Child Protective Services caseworker, who has previously advised them against getting involved, tells them they must make a firm commitment either to stay together, or break up. Anything in between would be bad for Sophie. Messer is offered a job in Phoenix, Arizona, and he seriously considers taking it up, as it has been his dream for several years, but doesn't discuss it with Holly. Holly is upset when she finds out and tells him to take the job, accusing him of looking for a way out of raising Sophie. Messer goes to Phoenix.
At Thanksgiving Messer returns to Atlanta, hoping to patch things up with Holly (who is hosting a big dinner for neighbors and friends), but finds her in a relationship with Sam. Messer and Holly argue, because Sam mentions Holly is planning to sell the house soon, since it is too expensive to keep up. Messer insists it was Peter and Alison's wish that Sophie be raised in their home, by them together. Holly consistently accuses Messer of deserting her and Sophie, while Messer points out how quickly she replaced him. Messer tells her he loves her, but leaves the dinner, planning to return to Phoenix. Once alone with Holly, Sam says that if he and his ex-wife had fought in the way that Messer and Holly did, they would still be together. He tells Holly it is obvious she needs to work out her feelings for Messer, and leaves.
The caseworker comes for the last appointment to determine whether Holly and Messer are fit parents for Sophie. Holly realizes that she can't take care of Sophie without Messer, and that she loves him. She and Sophie drive to the airport with the caseworker. Holly rushes to buy tickets for all three of them to gain access to the departure gate, but on arriving at the gate, finds that they have missed Messer's flight, which has departed. She returns to the house disappointed. To her surprise, she finds him sitting inside. He tells her he has realized that Peter and Alison chose them to be Sophie's guardians because, together, they are a family.
At Sophie's second birthday party, all the neighbors and friends in attendance. Holly has made an elaborate cupcake display for Sophie, as well as another cake with the number 1 on it. When Messer asks what the cake is for, she says, "It's for us, 'cause we made it a year." They kiss. The guests sing 'Happy Birthday' to Sophie. | dramatic, comedy, entertaining, romantic, sentimental | train | wikipedia | Katherine Heigl is a known, reliable entity who's graced many a movie, but the real discovery for me was Josh Duhamel who conveyed all of his feelings to me, another guy, extremely well in situations I've never really encountered, perhaps better and more agreeably than any other male lead I can think of.
3 years ago Josh Duhamel as Messer and Katherine Heigl as Holly have a set up date by their best friends Peter and Alison (Hayes MacArthur and Christina Hendricks) that terminates in Holly's Smart Car. Holly despises Messer way too much.
Having in common only their love for Sophie, Holly and Messer have their lives turned upside-down and need to support each other to keep the girl with them and honor the wishes of their best friends."Life as We Know It" is a pleasant romance, despite the tragedy and predictability of the story.
I usually like the films of the gorgeous Katherine Heigl and the practically unknown Josh Duhamel is hilarious in the role of a wolf.
Josh Duhamel and Katherine Heigl were good eye candy throughout the movie, and the baby (like most) was absolutely adorable.
Holly (Katherine Heigl) and Eric, known by his last name, Messer (Josh Duhamel) were once set up by close married friends, wife Alison (Christina Hendricks) and hubby Peter (Hayes MacArthur).
Life As We Know It Nowadays, it's commonplace for two people who don't love each other to raise their child in a hostile environment.Surprisingly, while the at odds couple in this rom-com are doing just that, they're doing so with someone else's kid.When they first meet on a blind date set-up by their mutual friends Peter and Alison (Christina Hendricks), uptight Holly (Katherine Heigl) and free-spirited Messer (Josh Duhamel) vow to never see each other again.But their common connection makes that impossible.
And when their friends are killed in a car accident, the pair must put aside their differences and assume custody of the couple's 1- year-old daughter and palatial home.With Katherine Heigl portraying another lovesick female browbeating a deadbeat male into submission, Life As We Know It is redundant.
I watched this movie because I quite like to watch romantic comedies and the plot seemed really interesting, but I'm sorry to say that I was disappointed by this movie.The beginning is good and it seems like something that could happen in real life, but later on the movie turns out to be unconvincing, for example the parts with the social worker are too crazy.I have to point out that the performance of the actors is good, they have good chemistry together and make the plot at least a bit believable.For me, this is just another ordinary romantic comedy (despite the tragic part), one of the movies that I struggled to watch till the end and I will definitely not watch it again..
To make a long story short, "Life as We Know It" lacks eroticism and chemistry, with the result that we cannot believe in the so-called love story involving Holly Berenson (Katherine Heigl) and Eric Messer (Josh Duhamel).
So essentially this movie suffers from two uninteresting characters, Eric and Holly, a boring baby, boring neighbours representing the usual stereotypes (example: the nerd marries a fat woman, who really wants to have sex with the muscular Eric, because he cannot hook up with the hot Russian girl from the Serebro band) and a boring plot.In other words, this movie is a non-romantic-non-comedy..
Thus lacking true wringing drama, the movie also fails on fall on the shoulder of a romantic comedy, as the chemistry between characters is non-existent throughout, while baby toilet humour is bound to fail as a saving grace..
Fixed up on a blind date by mutual friends, a bakery shop owner (Katherine Heigl) and a womanizing bachelor (Josh Duhamel) share an instant dislike; but, after their friends are suddenly killed in a car accident, the bickering un-sweethearts discover they've been awarded joint custody of the couple's infant daughter (along with their expansive two-story home--mortgage-free!).
'LIFE AS WE KNOW IT': Two Stars (Out of Five) Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel star in this rom com about two single unexpecting parents who inherit their dying friends baby daughter.
I don't think the lack of experience was really the problem here though, the writers and director delivered just what the studio wanted them to: another cheesy romantic comedy vehicle for Heigl.Heigl plays Holly, a bakery owner, and Duhamel plays Eric Messer, a TV sports director for the Atlanta Hawks.
Their friends have a baby that they're named the godparents to and when the couple dies in a car accident Holly and Eric find out that they're expected to live in their house together and take care of their child, at least until suitable parents can be found.
These are the words I would use to describe Life As We Know It, a new romantic comedy starring Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel.
I was thoroughly entertained during the movie, from the beginning set up of the main characters mutual disdain for each other through the end where we witness the completed circle of their roller coaster year at the little girl's second birthday.Of course we have the typical very attractive lead characters, chef/cafe owner Holly Berenson (Heigl) and sports TV technician Eric Messer (Duhamel).
Holly's love interest Dr. Sam (Josh Lucas) brings the typical complication to the romantic comedy genre, and of course the audience thinks he is a great guy, but we're always rooting for the unlikely outcome that perhaps doesn't have much basis in reality.Minor characters of the nosy friendly neighbor, a gay couple raising a child, the Child Protective Services worker and a couple of others bring some fresh humor to the mix, keeping the lead characters, as well as the audience on their toes.A truly memorable moment at this Tempe screening, was when I and the entire audience couldn't help but laugh when they put up a picture of Phoenix that was obviously a cut and paste job of several notable parts of the area, next to a sign saying "Phoenix, Downtown" just to make sure we knew where it was supposed to be!
And a couple great quotes like, "She's making the poop face", "Yes honey, I'm your mommy", and my personal favorite, "Having somebody help you doesn't mean you failed, it just means you're not in it alone." Movie was about 2 hours, which seemed a bit long for a comedy, but I was entertained enough to not notice the time.I give it 7/10 stars.
Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel are completely believable in their roles and you find yourself rooting for this "would be" family as they are thrown together following a tragic accident, attempting to adjust to their new responsibilities as caregivers to baby Sophie (who they both love)as well as adjusting to each other - something entirely different being as they despised each other previously.
¨They love Sophie more than anything in the entire world, and out of everyone, Messer, they picked us.¨ Life As We Know It is a very predictable romantic comedy, with uninteresting characters, and a script I felt a 15 year old could have written.
I am not a big fan of rom coms, since they seem to follow the same logic and clichés most films in this genre do, although there have been some pleasant surprises for me (500 Days of Summer, My Best Friend's Wedding, Love Actually, Notting Hill, and Definitely, Maybe are movies which other rom coms should try to measure up to).
Greg Berlanti (who is known for producing mostly TV series) directed this film and the screenplay was adapted from hundreds of other rom coms by Ian Deitchman and Kristis Rusk Robinson.The story takes place in Atlanta where a married couple is trying to hook up two of their best friends together on a blind date.
If you have seen any romantic comedy from Hollywood then you can probably guess what will happen in the next 90 minutes of the film.The movie is predictable, the secondary characters are one dimensional and you don't even care for any of them, and Heigl is once again playing the same role she plays over and over again.
Still the most likable character in the film is the baby, Sophie, and that isn't a very good sign in a movie like this.
Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel star as two people who hate each other - ever since a couple mutual friends arranged a blind date, which went horribly.
Throughout the film the viewer is able to enjoy not only the real-life story and profound feelings of the characters but also some funny moments which do enliven the whole production making it quite a good way to spend one's leisure time on a lazy Saturday night..
A Nutshell Review: Life as We Know It. The talk about town for this film revolves around a similar fiasco about how we in Singapore are so straight laced that we have to substitute "Shagged" with "Shioked" and now with this film, the poster which I thought was hilarious involving both Josh Duhamel and the kid in their respective diapers and bottles being chased after by Katherine Heigl, got removed and in place a rather creative shot from a first person baby's perspective of the two adults fussing over her, but well, you get the point.
Got it.Anyway Life as We Know It talks about how having a child is usually a planned affair, where a couple consciously knows about the trade off involving the loss of freedom, and a collective effort required by two (or probably more, depending on the help rendered from an extended family if any) to raise another human being to provide love and care and to instill good values and principles.
But to dump a baby onto someone else's lap is something irresponsible, but for reasons explained in the film, becomes the basic premise here.With the demise of their respective best friends, Holly Berenson (Ketherine Heigl) and Eric Messer (Josh Duhamel) become saddled with joint guardianship of their less than one year old Sophie (played by triplets Alexis, Brynn and Brooke Clagett) together with a house that has its mortgage paid for by itself.
While the premise may seem to be a little far-fetched, it does contain enough convenience in the story to ensure the child gets to where she's supposed to, with all the legal wrangling quickly passed over, and how other family members get logically and comically weeded out.Katherine Heigl continues to rake up a series of handsome co-stars in her string of romantic comedies, with the likes of Ashton Kutcher in Killers, Gerard Butler in The Ugly Truth, and James Marsden in 27 Dresses, and continues with her usual fine comic timing and stereotypical neurotic, control freak female character portrayals.
Romantic comedies work only if the leads are charming, and somehow Ian Deitchman and Kristin Rusk Robinson's story make no qualms about explicitly mentioning how hot Josh Duhamel's Messer is, and he literally drips machismo.But the scene stealer here hands down are young girls Alexis, Brynn and Brooke Clagett who rotate in their Sophie portrayal.
One can imagine the kind of patience and reshoots required with children on the set, and full marks go to effort in making these scenes a success, because if the child doesn't tug at anyone's heartstrings, it'll become a stretch for the two hotties in the film to want to give up their lives for her rather than to opt for easier alternatives.Predictable fare filled with caricatures are what make Hollywood romantic comedies tick, and this one is no different.
In this Heigl plays Holly Berenson, when Holly is setup on a blind date with Eric Messer (Josh Duhamel) by joint friends of theirs they find out its not going to quite work out between the two of them for the lack of not being to stand each other.
"Life as we know it" is pretty much a predictable insipid film about two successful people having to raise a baby under one roof.There was nothing interesting about their lives other that the constant bickering which arises just for amusement.
It turned out to be a solid, sweet romantic comedy following the ups and downs of parenthood with some real laugh-out-loud moments.My mother and I decided to go because we usually like Katherine Heigl and we weren't disappointed.
It's been done before and by better comedians.Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel are reasonable romantic leads but this movie desperately needs a real comedian as one of the leads to do the jokes.
Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel use on screen chemistry to make this quite original storyline work in a pleasing way, even if at times the film always follows the signposts without ever hinting that it may surprise you.
Duhamel and Heigl played 2 likable characters that have their lives turned upside down when their best friends die and they leave them as guardians to their young daughter, Sophie.
as far as romantic comedies go this one wasn't too bad.i chuckled here and there,and there's one scene which i found hysterical.there are some dramatic moments that also work well.the two leads,Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel have great chemistry and are both convincing in their roles.i thought the premise was an interesting and original one.the situations that arose came off as being realistic and could probably happen in reality.the movie has it's predictable moments,but because the characters are likable,believable and sympathetic,that didn't matter all that much.both Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel showed they have some range during the more serious moments of the film,and both are good at the comedic bits as well.for me,Life as We Know It is a 7/10.
LIFE AS WE KNOW IT is a romantic comedy drama about two single adults named Eric Messer(Josh Duhmel)& Holly(Katherine Heigl) who were set up to go on a date in 2007 but their date back fired.Flash forward a few years later and their best friends had a baby girl named Sophie and they have to look after the tot as her parents died in a freak car accident.
That's Rom Com's for ya they are so predicable you don't even have to buy the DVD or watch the movie to see what is going to happen.The story was nice yet very predictable,the actors were great I saw Katherine Heigl in 27 Dresses and I thought she was OK not the best actress in the world but still this film is worth watching.I'll give it a 7/10 (3 stars).
Both of the Josh's are certainly eye candy for us girls, and it's more than just their looks - it's in their facial expressions; the way they allow us to see inside the character they are portraying, so we fall a little bit in love with their sensitivity and their humour for a while.As for Katherine Heigl, this is another of her memorable roles - right up there with "27 Dresses" and "The Ugly Truth"; in fact, this one has now become my favourite, because of the added dimension this role required of her.I've never cried so much in a movie before, but mine were as much tears of happiness (brought on by the baby's antics, expressions, and development) as they were about the story's sad undercurrent.The comedy, drama, and romance of "Life As We Know It" had me at 'hello'.
You've seen this type of film too many times, like Three Men and a Baby(1987), and Raising Helen(2004), people living the good life, forced to it on hold, when a child has to come live with them, and there not ready to be parents, you get the drift.The story of people who don't like each other too much, Holly(Katherine Heigal), who runs a Delicatisen, and is shy about relationships.
Okay, so Life as We Know It is a rom-com with some drama thrown in as it concerns two people on a blind date that turns disastrous the moment they meet but they can't get away from each other since each is a friend of one of a married couple that just had a baby.
Everybody knows the two main characters will eventually fall in love...that is obvious...it's the ride getting there that is funny, delightful, and very touching at moments.The film has a very classic movie feel about it.
I am curious to see if anything like this would happen in real life, with 2 friends who do not know each other well would raise a baby together for the sake of the child.
Add some icky music and songs throughout, suspend all believability, and it's life as Hollywood knows it.Katherine Heigl proves in this film that she should have stayed on TV, because she is not a movie star.
The result as a whole is a nice film with a charming couple as lead actors.It goes to tell us the story of Eric (Josh Duhamel) and Holly (Katherine Heigl), two people with nothing in common united by their friends who made a surprising bond that they should raise their orphaned baby in case of their death, which eventually happens.
It works because Duhamel and Heigl have an amazing chemistry despite some bad jokes here and there, both in drama and in comedy scenes; the story goes okay and has things we can all enjoy if we're not too much demanding.
If the movie gets into a more dramatic level at many times, the comedy helps a little when these two are trying to do whatever to make the baby sleep or get calm (and that includes improvising a funny song or sings Radiohead's 'Creep' to make her sleep), a taxi driver (Faizon Love) friend of Eric hired as nanny while he's at work, and some nice moments between Holly and a doctor (Josh Lucas) that becomes her love interest.
Sure this movie is formulaic with the familiar characters we've seen in this genre, "Life as We Know It" is a nice little comedy that is not memorable, but a fun film to watch on a rainy day. |
tt0469640 | Bathory | The film is based on the story of Erzsébet Bathory, a Hungarian countess in the 16th and 17th centuries. Her story takes place in a part of the Kingdom of Hungary that is now Slovakia. In this retelling, the Countess is a healer who conducts medical experiments and rudimentary autopsies in a "hospital" beneath her castle. She forms a relationship with a reputed witch, Darvulia, who saves her from poisoning. The witch promises Erzsebet a son and eternal beauty. In return, Erzsebet must sacrifice both love and her reputation. Darvulia becomes Erzsebet's companion. Meanwhile, maidens in the area have been dying of seemingly unrelated causes, and Erzsebet is seen bathing in a large tub of red liquid as the girls' now-mutilated corpses are buried nearby. Two monks later conclude that the water is not blood but is simply colored red by herbs.
After her husband Ferenc Nádasdy's death, Erzsébet quarrels with her scheming friend György Thurzó, who tries to proposition her at her husband's funeral. Thurzo's lover, who is gifted with herbs, offers to help him get revenge for the rejection. Soon afterward, Erzsebet begins to have surreal visions and episodes. In one of these, she stabs a woman to death with scissors. Afterwards, she confesses to Darvulia that she can no longer tell dreams from reality. Darvulia discovers that someone has been placing hallucinogenic mushrooms in Erzsébet's drinks; Erzsébet cannot remember clearly and believes Darvulia responsible. She has the woman thrown out. Thurzó and his wife then capture Darvulia and torture her, cutting out her tongue. Before she dies, she writes Thurzó's name in blood on her cell wall. Erzsébet swears vengeance on him.
Thurzó enlists Erzsébet's sons-in-law and other allies to prosecute her for witchcraft. When their plans repeatedly fail, they nonetheless capture the Countess and torture members of her household to try to obtain incriminating information. The servants are then executed for their alleged crimes, and Erzsébet is imprisoned. Despairing over her separation from her son, she lies on her bed and begins to sing a hymn; the flames from her candles rise and engulf her in flames. Upon hearing of her death, Thurzo concedes that she has once again made the move he least expected, as when they once played chess together, and admits that he has always loved her. | boring, murder, violence, horror, magical realism, psychedelic, romantic, historical | train | wikipedia | And a false myth is born.Although there is a complex epic plot, the film feels more like a series of still pictures.
Apart from the story, the Bathory also takes some time to explain how myths are created and abused to serve one’s needs.
The acting is outstanding but does not stand out as much as the Hungarian costumes that make the film look fresh.Unfortunately the movie is significantly flawed by repetitive comic relief in which two monks use various inventions to spy on the countess.
Redbox got rights to this 2008 reject from Czech TV, and melted it down into a 3 hour movie that they tried to pass off with a horror sub-title, "Countess of Blood".Instead, what you get is a Hungarian History lesson that is about as clear as Goolash.
They take the notorious Blood Countess of Hungary, Erzabet Bathory, who was one of the influences for Dracula, and actually try to spin her in a positive light (Namely, that if she was brutal at all, she was brutal for the time she lived in.) A tighter, shorter movie would have worked better, without the unneeded characters like the two monks who come up with wacky steam-punk inventions.I think the movie looks great and puts you in that time period pretty well...
"Bathory" is a long film divided in three Parts (Ferenc, Darvulia and Thurzo) based on the story and legend of an Hungarian Countess Elizabeth Bathory that lived in the Upper Hungary Sixteenth Century in the period of the Turkish invasion and got the fame of bathing in blood of virgin maids to keep her beauty.
Unfortunately after 141 minutes running time I am not sure whether she was an innocent victim of a conspiracy, bathing on herbs to remain beautiful; or whether she was a criminal logged in the Guinness Book as the remark in the very end since the messy and never clear screenplay shows her as an ambiguous character.
The subplots with the Italian painter and the two spy-monks are quite unnecessary and ridiculous.In the end, director Juraj Jakubisko wastes a great budget and a story with a good potential with a confused tale of greed and treason.
One soon comes to see through the eyes of the lead characters, their brutal and beautiful world lives and breathes again, shockingly, before our eyes.Erzsabet's story is told in a such a colourful, dynamic and thoroughly gripping way, that certainly had me looking forward to seeing more, like asking for a second helping of a surprisingly delicious pudding, I relished what I found to be so enjoyable after having heard such bad reviews.
Frankly a ridiculous quibble, one does not notice anything but how fine the performances truly are.Visually stunning and beautiful, the script gives us a thumpingly good story and altogether it is a mesmerising piece of cinema.
But, I find it interesting and even amusing that the conflicts still continue within these reviews about whose version of history is right (or best) -- the Hungarian Catholics, the Lutherans, the Slovaks, the Romanians in Transylvania, etc.
This story follows the rise and fall of one of history's most prolific serial killers, Countess Báthory who supposedly bathed in virgins blood to stay youthful.
Historical inaccuracies aside and the unnecessary humour injected usually by the monk, this incarnation of the legend is very interesting and adds food for thought to the tale of Báthory.
In addition, it gives an interesting portrayal of politics, religion and royalty of the time.Anna Friel is fantastic as the miss-judged Erzsébet Báthory and gives a wonderful performance, full of range and emotional depth.
This coupled with some fine locations, costumes and performances makes Bathory worth your time..
Lavish, romanticized account of the life and times of 16th century Hungarian countess Erzsébet Bathory, history's most prolific serial killer...BATHORY, a would-be epic with nice period detail, aspires to myth-buster status by painting the "Bloody Countess of Čachtice" as a victim of political chicanery in a male-dominated society but all it accomplishes is a "legend" of its own by white-washing history, facts be damned.
Here, as a wealthy woman who's vast holdings could turn the tide in a power struggle between Catholics and Protestants as they fight off a Muslim invasion, Countess Bathory is more sinned against than sinning and framed for crimes she never committed.
Her many castles were equipped with chambers where she would hideously torture and mutilate her victims, becoming a murder factory where hundreds of girls were killed and processed for the ultimate youth-giving ritual: the bath of blood..."In Juraj Jakubisko's film, Erzsébet Bathory is depicted as an intelligent woman ahead of her time and a Protestant preyed upon by the Catholic Church as well as her late husband's covetous best friend although she still finds time for a passionate affair with the Italian painter Caravaggio (!) as her subjects try inventing spring-powered roller skates, phonographs, still photography, and primitive airplanes a la Leonardo Da Vinci.
I WANTED it to be good, to be a notable reply in the stories, true or untrue, surrounding the countess Bathory, but no matter how hard I try I cannot in good faith recommend anyone to spend two hours on this movie.
If you want to know more about Erzsebet Bathory, this is not the movie for you..
A long, rambling, shambling, doddering, staggering chaos of a film, blighted by (amongst other things): (1) impenetrable Middle European accents, most of them genuine but three put on ~ by Miss Friel, her husband, and her lover; (2) a narrative style that was very much like listening to a boring drunk recounting a shaggy dog story; (3) a schizoid attitude toward the countess herself ~ ambiguity is all very well, but to switch sides several times in the course of one story just makes the storyteller appear 'flakey'; (4) a sub-plot about two spying monks which ...
It was made out to be more of of a history film, but I didn't feel like I was even learning anything.
I went in with high expectations of more blood and gore but instead got this long, drawn out movie that I found myself rolling my eyes at more often than not.
I feel like if I filmed myself using the snapped DVD to cut my wrists and drain out all my blood, it will make a better movie then this..
I won't give away the plot, so I won't comment on the actual content of the movie except to say that it was a completely false portrayal of this terrible woman.The truth is that Elizabeth Bathory was a sadistic, psychopathic murderer who tortured and killed hundreds of young girls, so many in fact that the surrounding towns literally ran out of young women.
Life is too short.This is a fifth rate TV mini-series, with admittedly high production values, hacked together into a really dull, over long (2hour 21 min) feature presentation.Even though Anna Friel is in it, and for some people (me) it's always going to be a draw; but, rose colored memories of leather jackets, patricide, and touching moments of sexual discovery aside, it's still a turd.
Thus, Elisabeth Bathory was turned into a supernatural fiend whose story mainly served to warn women of the evils of "female vanity."Apparently, we have not come very far from the mentality of the nineteenth century, for we still live in a culture that cannot or will not view women as anything other than wholesome pillars of moral rectitude.
Thus, Elisabeth Bathory was turned into a supernatural fiend whose story mainly served to warn women of the evils of "female vanity."Apparently, we have not come very far from the mentality of the nineteenth century, for we still live in a culture that cannot or will not view women as anything other than wholesome pillars of moral rectitude.
And gender feminists refer to the likes of Homolka and others as "classic examples of female victims of male sadism."Now we have this pack of lies, in which Bathory is victimized by power hungry men while she valiantly strives to protect her children.
And gender feminists refer to the likes of Homolka and others as "classic examples of female victims of male sadism."Now we have this pack of lies, in which Bathory is victimized by power hungry men while she valiantly strives to protect her children.
the net result is a blood soaked mess.overall i cannot recommend this amateurish offering from a director who should know better.dont waste your time watching this.clean the fridge instead..
While I am familiar with the myth or legend of Countess Bathory, then I sat down to watch this 2008 movie for entertainment only, not really putting anything more into it.
So whether how much or not this movie was true to the actual Countess and the events that took place in her life, I do not know, nor do I really care; a movie is a media for entertainment.The story in "Bathory" is centered around Erzsébet Báthory, notorious Countess, in the mid-1500's Hungary.
But rumor and dark stories circulate about her bathing in the blood of virgins, having consorted with the devil and having a witch as her right-hand maiden.Right, well, entertainment-wise then "Bathory" was adequate, albeit nothing extraordinary.
I was adequately entertained, although at times I found the movie to just be too slow-paced and too long.The acting in the movie was quite good, as they had some nicely talented actors and actresses on the cast list.
Anna Friel (playing Erzsébet Báthory) and Karel Roden (playing Thurzo) carried the movie quite nicely.One thing that didn't really sit well with me, was the two Catholic monks, or spies as they actually were.
And their array of out of place gadgets were just too much.There are better movies that deal with the Erzsébet Báthory character and story.
it clearly says this is the story of opposing the thought of her being an actual serial killer a.k.a Historical Fiction film.Anyways....The flashbacks or dreams or whatever...
this movie was NOT a waste of time and I'd watch it over and over again.So I rate this 9/10.
unless your one of those people who always fell asleep during history class and do not know the true story of Elizabeth Bathory.
If you are a fan of the Bathory legend, Gothic period films or Anna Friel, this is worth a watch, mostly for Anna Friel's performance and the high quality technical aspects of the film (the cinematography, set design and costume design are fantastic and help the film come off as quite epic at times).
I also really liked the twist on the Bathory tale, which I wont describe here to avoid spoilers but I will say it may be the best thing to come from the film.
There were times I truly enjoyed watching Bathory and was enthralled by the story.But having said all these nice things and recommending a watch for certain people, I cannot emphasize enough how dreadful this film was.
The dialog was horrible, many of the actors in important roles come off as amateur at best, and the worst crime here is the addition of the monks as poorly conceived vehicles for exposition and totally unnecessary comic relief.
It truly helped ruin what could have been a fantastic movie.That is the most obvious example of what makes Bathory so disappointing - seeing the potential of what could have been great constantly squandered by bad film making.
They made a world class epic film with excellent technical work, a great re-imagining of the Bathory legend and a good performance by Ms. Friel, but regularly sabotaged it.
The entire time I watched it the thought running through my mind was "It could have been so good!", so it was quite a frustrating experience.I gave Bathory a 4 which I think is fair.
I went higher because I felt a score that low wouldn't give enough credit to the people who did a very good job in an otherwise bad film but anything over a 4 would be rewarding the incompetence as well.What a missed opportunity..
Elizabeth Bathory is portrayed as a victim to frantic witch huntings of those times and a evil doings of palatin Thurzo.
Bathory is a very boring and dull movie.
Ridiculous.The monks in the movie invent some kind of photo-taking camera, a parachute, a stethoscope-like monitoring bug and roller skating with hairspring shoes that automatically climb mountains.The makers of the movie suggest that the first Hungarian library was founded in the early 17.
People watching the movie are not told either that Hungary was torn to three pieces at that time and that a considerable population of Hungarians died in the 150 years of fighting against Turkish invaders.The main language spoken in the film was English/Slovakian with a few sentences in Hungarian, German and Italian.
The whole movie should have been filmed in Hungarian or better in Latin, since those were the tongues the noblemen talked in.
century and I feel a bit funny about how Slovaks make a derogatory film about Hungarian history with British actors.
Nothing was ever confirmed...so unless the people who made the movie wanted to give their opinion, which I do not believe they intended to do...they would have to leave it just as confusing and surrounded by myth as the entire story was.
A viewer familiar with the name in the title of the movie will come into the theater expecting to look at -- and be horrified by -- the ugliest female murderer in history.
But then again, why he confuses us for a better part of the movie making us think that the heroine is just as spoiled as the Guinness Book of World Records claims?
I imagine mornings on the set must have begun with the director saying something along the lines of "what shall we do today then?" I've no idea if she was mad, if Caravaggio was gay or not, who her husband was and how he had managed to turn into a character from a Sergio Leone movie in the space of 5 minutes.
Don't waste your time with it, don't be lulled into thinking that with a European director and Anna Friel it couldn't really be that bad...
While the film is Czech and possibly "different" ,whomever had the idea to do this did not belong.What was done nicely was the wrap up at the end of that Elsebeth was likely framed by the Hapsburgs.
It is a very attractive version of the life of countess Elizabeth Bathory, one in which she is not a murderer but a victim of a plot carried out in order to spoil her of her fortune in the medieval Hungary.
She a stunning beauty as the countess Bathory, in front of our eyes seems to be the real countess who somehow managed to come in the present times.
If I would have lived in the 16th century and I would have seen Anna Friel as the countess Bathory I had fallen in love with her for sure.
Although the finest art direction, the film is fake in many ways and the rhythm is unstable.The storyline is confused with too many characters and the director didn't decide what to do with Barthory reputation (at the end are a ridiculous notice about the crimes of the countess)The introducing of the Italian painter, as well as the stupid spies and the English version misrepresent the historical facts.
The story has so so much potential, to make a good film of it, but they really ruined it.What comes in my mind, when I think about the way, they made the film?
Bathory really deserves that.In my mind, the film was a big waste of time..
I'm not going to write a traditional review about Bathory, I'll just name a few pros and contras.Pros: - Erzsébet Báthory isn't shown as a blood bathing demoness, rather as a protestant mistress of high nobility trying to survive in the 16-17th century, in the Kingdom of Hungary and someone who is loved by the peasants throughout her lands.The names are correct and the locations as well, even though they are mentioned by their Slovakian names, and not their original Hungarian names.Clothes, dresses and makeups are fairly authentic contrary to the ones seen in the other movie about Erzsébet Báthory: The Countess.Anna Friel the actress who portrays Erzsébet Báthory is charming and talented, a bit more grace would have helped though.Cons: - The movie did quite a good job portraying locations and names, but tried too much by showing battle scenes (which are quite pathetic) that do not belong to the story.
Sometimes less is more.English language is good, sure the film can get to a larger audience this way but authenticity should have required Hungarian.
Funny thing is, Hungarian language can be heard throughout the movie – usually when cussing or shouting – but it's pretty pointless, just like the use of Slovak.
I am well acquainted with the story of Elizabeth Bathory, having read books and various write ups about her, including the exact testimonies given at the time by her contemporaries, 3 women and 1 man I believe.
I expected a movie worthy of this true life story, and I was most definitely disappointed.
While I started watching with a lot of interest, this movie was more a series of disjointed events than a cohesive story.
After about 30-45 minutes the movie became numbingly dull and I gave up completely on trying to make any sense of the nonsensical dialog and weird happenings.
Things that I liked about the movie:The main actress was really good.
Costumes and photography were very good.What I did not like:The story is completely misrepresented.
It seems like the whole purpose of the film/plot was to exculpate Bathory from all the crimes is said to have committed.
I was looking forward to watching a movie about countess Bathory, and the crimes she committed, not a nonsense beautified version of her personality to the extremes.
I would really want to see a movie about Bathory with a proper and not misleading plot. |
tt0022231 | One More Time | Foxy is a policeman on the beat. He handily subdues a criminal who pops out of a trashcan and sprays bullets with a machine gun. Foxy has his own gun. It shoots out an expandable arm with a platform on the end. A mouse with a mallet stands on the platform and knocks the criminal unconscious; Foxy slams the lid back on the trashcan.Meanwhile, a mouse in his tiny car and a hippo in her oversized automobile are rudely hogging the road and refusing in turns to let each other pass. The hippo gets the better of the mouse, but accidentally runs over Foxy. Foxy starts to write the lady out a ticket. Her weeping and her pleading lead him to forgo the ticket and throw a trashcan over her head instead.Foxy goes to visit his girlfriend at the nickelodeon. She has a huge dog with a penchant for licking everyone. Foxy's girl plays the piano, and Foxy dances. But their musical fun is brief; suddenly, they hear a machine gun. A tough-looking bird in a tiny roadster is chasing, and shooting at, a hippo in top hat and tails. The bird backs the hippo against a brick wall and steals his pocket watch. The police give chase, and Foxy runs after him on foot. The bird drives through a pipe and comes out the other end in a huge car with three tough mugs riding in back. One of the mugs stops Foxy by spitting tobacco juice at him. He stops the police by throwing a grenade, which explodes and destroys their cop car, turning it into a tandem bicycle. The blackened policemen immediately ride it into the mud.Foxy hasn't given up. And he redoubles his efforts when the criminals drive by the nickelodeon and kidnap his girlfriend. Foxy hops on a wooden horse and rides after them. The horse has an expandable neck; Foxy extends its head, grabs the girl with its teeth and pulls her out of the car. Now Foxy and his girl are pursued by the criminals. Foxy tricks them by riding into the jail. They drive in after him, but he, his wooden horse and his girl pop out of the manhole in the street. Foxy slams the door on the criminals.All seems well, but the bad guys have the last laugh. The tough little bird pops out of the manhole and shoots Foxy with his machine gun. Foxy screams "Yow!" as we iris out.All the dialogue is sung to the tune of "One More Time," using substitute lyrics.Foxy: (yelling at traffic) One more time. / Just one more time. / One more time.***Foxy: (to the criminal in the trashcan) No more crime, big boy. / No more crime.***Hippo: Uh-oh, one more fine.Foxy: Yeah, one more fine. / For running me down and the fire plug too, / There's a great big cell at the jail for you. / One more fine. / Yeah, one more fine.Hippo: Don't you bawl me out. / Don't you call me names.Foxy: Aw, tell it to the judge. / I know you dames. / One more fine. / Yeah, one more fine.Hippo: Eating all alone will make me lazy.Foxy: Talkin' alone will make you crazy.Hippo: Please let me go / Just this one time? / You can drink my gin. / You can have my dough. / Please, won't you let me go? / Just one more time?Foxy: (spoken) Aw, baloney! (throws trashcan over her head)Hippo: (sniffs the air) I know. Old Gold.***Policemen: One more time. / Just one more time. / It took long enough / For the old rough stuff / To come out in the open sure enough.Tough mugs: Oh, not this time. No, not this time. Ha ha ha!Foxy: You're not so hot!Tough mugs: You're on the spot.Policemen: One more time. / You're just in time. / For one more ride / To the calaboose. / You know that judge / Won't turn you loose.Tough mugs: Not this time. Ha ha ha! | psychedelic | train | imdb | An early Merrie Melodie shows its pedigree..
"One More Time" is an antique cartoon: a relic from an era when sound was new and characters had huge, googly eyes adapted for a harsh world in black and white.
The story is boilerplate cops and robbers, and gets its title from the song the characters sing throughout its length.
And it's a very hot song: a jazzy, cautionary tale that would have been at home in any burlesque house or gambling backroom.
Brave Officer Foxy represents law and order, and he doggedly pursues the baddies in a Prohibition-age world of rubbery menace where the entire cast sways and bounces to the music's devilish rhythm.
The animation team of Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising and "Friz" Freleng produced three Merrie Melodies starring Foxy, and "One More Time" is their meanest.
In 1931 they were still walking in Disney's footsteps, so their thugs are jowly, scruffy lowlifes of uncertain species (presumably canine), whereas Foxy wears a resemblance to a certain rodent who will go nameless here.
The toon's simple plot gets personal when the thugs abduct girlfriend Roxy, but Foxy rescues her and corrals the fleeing toughs straight to the jailhouse.
As he padlocks the door, the angry jailbirds deliver the song's finale through the barred windows.
In triumph, our hero assumes centerstage and takes his bows while Roxy looks on dreamily.
However, the cocky officer ought to be watching his back, because a baddie has emerged from a manhole with a machine gun.
Foxy takes one bow too many and presents a perfect target for the mug who opens fire.
With a cry of "Yeowwww!" that lasts to the closing fade, poor Foxy throws up his arms and grinds his backside helplessly on the pavement as the mug spanks him with gunfire.
The moral: "Crime does not pay, but getting the last laugh does.".
Foxy, we hardly knew ye..
Foxy's hour upon the stage was a brief one, perhaps three cartoons, for reasons both obvious and not so clear.
The Foxy cartoons are entertaining enough, but not overly so.
I suspect Foxy was a wee bit too much like a certain rodent for the studio's taste and comfort for him to continue on for very long.
Rumors persist that Foxy left Warner Brothers and struck it rich wildcatting in the Texas oil fields, but this has not been confirmed.
It is hoped that his life was a happy one once retired from the screen.
Worth watching.
Recommended for fans of black and white cartoons..
Foxy appears for one last time.
The third Foxy cartoon after 'Lady, Play Your Mandolin!' and 'Smile, Darn Ya Smile', 'One More Time' like those two is not great but still pretty good, and perhaps the best of the three.Once again, 'One More Time's' story is limited, with a thin structure, little sense and is somewhat derivative.
Some of the sound is slightly rough and not as crisp as it could have been even for an early cartoon.Animation is uneven, the black and white is crisp and there are some lovely details, good flexibility and perspective visuals, but other parts are on the crude side like with the character designs.However, much of the animation is not bad and generally it's the best-looking of the three Foxy cartoons.
The music is suitably peppy and devilish, while there is a nice mix of amusing and dark moments.
The most note-worthy example of the latter being a pretty ballsy ending, the one thing surprising about the story.
Foxy is the most compelling and expressive of all three of his cartoons.In summary, Foxy's last cartoon is a decent one.
7/10 Bethany Cox. Hiding a gun in his pants?
Doesn't he worry about losing his manhood?.
One of the few cartoons starring Foxy - Warner Bros.
soon decided that Merrie Melodies wouldn't feature any of the stars* - casts the vulpine character as a cop.
But I ask you: what cop in his right mind sticks his pistol in the front of his pants?!
There are plenty of things that a guy can stick in that area, but a gun could easily deprive him of his manhood.So, this is an OK cartoon, despite the limited plot.
In case you're wondering what's up with the song, for about the first six or seven years, Merrie Melodies cartoons would always take the name of a song and have the characters sing the song in one scene (hence titles like "One More Time" and "I Haven't Got a Hat").
WB ended this by the end of the '30s.*In the late '30s Elmer Fudd's prototype Egghead began appearing regularly in Merrie Melodies, followed by Sniffles, Inki, and finally Bugs Bunny..
It's hard to watch the ending of ONE MORE TIME .
. in which a crook machine-guns policeman Foxy on an American street without thinking of the Dallas Cop Massacre of 2016.
Inter-species hatred between rodents Foxy and his gal Roxy and an eclectic group of thugs comprised of two canines, a primate, and a machine-gunning bird show that these bomb-tossing anarchists out to monopolize America's streets through their Domestic Terrorism need to be Neutralized with Extreme Prejudice by bomb-wielding robots (such as the one used in Dallas, and the unarmed 'Bot with which Foxy rescues the kidnapped Roxy).
America's current breakdown of Law & Order is predicted here by Warner Bros.' budding Looney Tunes Animation Division, which would go on to prognosticate most of America's 21st Century Calamities, Catastrophes, Cataclysms, and Apocalypti.
When a rich, limousine-driving hippo lady tries to flee from a hit-and-run crash, she brazenly attempts to bribe Foxy--who quickly nails her in her tracks--with "gin and dough." As Leader Trump was quoted as saying Oct. 7, 2016, he'd have settled this skirt's hash with a real good groping.
Clearly, Warner is warning the U.S. with ONE MORE TIME that only a male leader such as Foxy or Trump is capable of bailing America out of her current Moral Morass. |
tt0775539 | Stomp the Yard | DJ Williams (Columbus Short) is a young man in inner-city Los Angeles. He and his younger brother Duron (Chris Brown) compete in local dance competitions as members of a crew known as the "Goon Squad". During the battle there are backs and forths, but in the end of the battle the Goon Squad win a cash-prize, and the leader of the rival crew goes all in for a double or nothing battle,which DJ accepts much to the dismay of his brother who knows that if the opposing crew leader thinks he got hustled the crew won't be able to spend the money they win, the Goon Squad wins the second battle and the losing home crew responds by ambushing DJ and his crewmates after the show. A fight breaks out, and the leader of the rival crew starts beating up DJ. Duron pushes him away and starts fighting him, leading the rival to pull out a gun and shoot Duron, killing him.
Arrested for assault, DJ is subsequently sent by his mother to live with his aunt Jackie (Valerie Pettiford) and uncle Nate (Harry J. Lennix) in Atlanta, Georgia, where he is to attend historically black Truth University. Nate, the physical plant director at Truth, aims to teach DJ responsibility and puts him to work doing maintenance as part of a work-study program.
DJ sees April Palmer (Meagan Good), to whom he is immediately attracted. After registration, he moves into his dorm room, where he meets his new roommate Rich Brown (Ne-Yo). Rich meets DJ at a stepping competition on the green between the Truth chapters of rival fraternities Theta Nu Theta and Mu Gamma Xi. The Mu Gamma Xi crew, seven-time national stepping champions, easily steals the show until DJ sees April across the way and runs right through their step line in an attempt to speak to her. That night, Rich and his friends go out to a local club called the Phoenix and invite DJ along. Hoping to impress April and upstage Grant and the Gammas (all of whom are also in attendance), DJ takes to the floor. Despite the animosity between DJ and Grant, the Gammas recognize his skills as a dancer and their chapter president Zeke (Laz Alonso) invites him to pledge for Mu Gamma Xi. DJ turns down both Zeke's offer as well as an offer from the Theta Nu Theta chapter's leader Sylvester (Brian White).
After learning that April is a student history tutor, DJ signs himself up for tutoring so that he can spend time with her. The two slowly begin a friendship and DJ takes April out to dinner. During their date, April discusses the importance of black fraternities and sororities with DJ, and tells him to visit Heritage Hall on the campus' Greek Row.
The next day, DJ learns about the significant number of African-American historical figures and celebrities who were members of various Greek-letter organizations, and decides to pledge for the Theta chapter along with Rich and their friend Noel (Jermaine Williams). After "crossing over" to become official Theta members, DJ, Rich, and Noel join the Thetas' step crew.
While having dinner, April breaks up with Grant due to his chauvinistic attitude and his failure to know anything about her, particularly that green is her favorite color. She grows closer to DJ and they eventually become a couple. While at practice, DJ, Rich, Noel and other new members realize the step dance moves are old fashion and aren't good enough to win the stepping competition. So they decide to take the time to learn fresher moves. Sly then gathers his older member and challenges DJ and the rest to an old school vs. new school stepping contest. DJ's team loses the contest due to his showboating. They remind DJ, much like Duron did earlier in the film, that it is about the team and not about him. DJ apologizes to the entire fraternity and is quickly forgiven. Sly also requests DJ to show the team some of his moves.
A few days before the competition, Grant stumbles upon DJ's file and discovers his assault record and presents it to the board. The board then decide to suspend DJ for not disclosing his criminal record. Dr. Palmer, who is April's father, calls in DJ to his office. He was willing to uplift his suspension on the condition that he is to no longer date April. DJ declines the ultimatum and walks away. DJ then tells Nate and Jackie about the suspension. They then reveal that Jackie dated Dr. Palmer until she met Nate and there has been some animosity between Nate and Palmer ever since. Jackie confronts Dr. Palmer about DJ's suspension and Palmer claims he was only protecting April. April then confronted her father about the situation. Palmer then overturned the board's decision deciding that he would rather deal with DJ in April's life than lose his daughter.
DJ's suspension was finally uplifted and he rejoins the Thetas to compete alongside them against the Gammas in the stepping competition. Both teams were tied at the end and it was brought into sudden death rules to determine a winner. Unknown to DJ and the Thetas, the Gammas had recorded DJ practicing his moves prior to the competition. Going first, Grant does DJ's exact routine from the videotape. After he finishes, DJ matches Grant move for move, but tosses in something the Gammas didn't get on tape. The Thetas finally defeats the Gammas. April goes on stage to hug and kiss DJ and while celebrating their victory DJ still wearing Duron's gloves kisses his fist and throws it in the air in Honor of his brother. The Thetas then do their new cheer and have their picture taken where its hung in the Heritage Hall. | romantic, murder | train | wikipedia | The performances - acting and dancing - were very good.It's a shame that so many people have such hatred in their hearts that they won't expand their own minds by learning of cultures outside of their own.
STOMP THE YARD comes as a pleasant surprise to those of us who have yet to be introduced to 'stepping' - a sport/dance form that is not break dancing, not hip-hop, not modern dance, not clogging, not ballet, but instead is an exhilarating display of rhythm, physical dexterity, and creative choreography that makes this little film well worth watching.The story is minimal and hackneyed and serves basically as an outline for the dance performances.
The ending is predictable but sensitive and with a message.The real star of the film is the magnificently choreographed and executed dancing, performed by the actual cast members.
I had not seen the actor who played DJ previously but found him quite capable as was the female lead.Plot-wise vaguely reminiscent of Save the Last Dance.I don't know what people that rated this low were expecting - my thought is that "the dance" was the main point of the whole movie and entertainment enough in itself.
Get out of here and save yourself the trouble.Next, you have the "too-badass for class antagonist." I believe I saw this kind of character in "You Got Served." (Another cinematic turd.) Then there's the chick on campus that takes a shine to the main dude, but turns on him once he screws up and does/says something stupid.And finally, the fact that there's almost no good dialogue, and no comedy to flesh it out.If you're going to make a movie, take these things into account...
Stomp the Yard is as much entertainment as any film I've seen recently.After a rage-fueled brawl takes his brother's (singer Chris Brown in a cameo) life, DJ (Columbus Short) moves out of the streets of L.A. and in with his aunt and uncle (Harry Lennix of The Matrix Series).
DJ soon meets a friend in his roommate Rich (singer Ne-Yo) and the beautiful daughter of the school's president (Meagan Good of Waist Deep).You may be wondering how the dancing and stepping fits in with the plot, but that is the interesting thing.
The choreography is simply brilliant, blowing all other dancing movies of recent memory (Step Up, Take the Lead, You Got Served) out of the water.
Take the drums out of Drumline and you've got Stomp the Yard, a clumsy, by-the-numbers look at the competitive world of a complex, synchronized dance form known as stepping, a tradition for black college fraternities.High-caliber stepping is an exciting sight, and Stomp the Yard's dance scenes have a poise and visual flair that surpasses any music video: stroboscopic rapid-fire body popping, impressive slow-motion acrobatics and razor-sharp group steps backed by a thundering soundtrack.It's tragic, then, that the thin, formulaic characters and plot are no deeper than your average music video, with the typical fish-out-of-water bad boy falling for his archenemy's girl, getting off on the wrong foot with his fraternity brothers and ultimately learning a valuable lesson about teamwork.If the rest of Stomp the Yard were half as deft as its footwork, it'd be watchable.
when this movie came out i thought it was just a rip off of you got served witch was one of the worst movies I've ever seen, so i thought this would be too, but i was wrong, this movie was good, i don't see what was so bad about it, there was good acting, good dancing, good directing, decent script, and maybe a little bit of cliché's and predictability thrown in but the good out weigh the bad, if i controlled this rating i would give it a 7.
something, but a 3.1, thats just stupid, i'm sure there were pleanty of people who rated this movie without seeing it, so please see the movie first, because this movie deserves a lot of credit for its genre, and may i add the fact that meagan good is one of the sexiest movies alive to the list of good things about this movie, and my favorite part of the movie, which was the soundtrack, especially walk it out, and that scene with the song, so please see this movie and don't trust bad advertising at stupid people rating when they don't know sh*t about what there rating.
Let me say right up front that my husband and I are White and around 50, and we really liked this film: my motivation for writing this review is to get other people to see it!
Predictable but engaging, and very watchable: I needed to use the restroom but didn't want to miss anything(!), because the dance/step moves are so great.
Anyone who likes dance films, even martial arts, should catch this one--you'll marvel at the athleticism and synchronicity of the moves, enjoy the posturing and confrontations, and buy into DJ's story.
This movie is just a whole lot of "Yo, we'll beat yo (beep)and "Oh its on!"if you have ever watched "You Got Served" this movie is the exact same, except they call it "stompin the yard" now, and black fraternities are in it instead of marques Houston.
Do or do not, there is no try." Just because you try to put on a decent movie doesn't mean it's going to be; and "Stomp" most assuredly wasn't.I equate films like this to chick flicks.
Leading character suffers tragedy of some sort (of varying degrees, depending on the movie's intention--make you cry, make you happy, inspire you, etc.), experiences a change of scene, begins to flourish, is reminded of tragedy and begins to fall apart again, is uplifted by new friends to overcome tragedy, and ultimately become a better person.
But since all the cool stomping parts are buried under a lot of sappy, seen-it-all-before filler, "Stomp the Yard" ends up labeled as one of the duller movie-going moments in my life, and will be filed away in my memory banks as such.Remember kids: It's not a black or white thing--it's a sucky movie thing.
From the opening battle scene in Los Angeles to the heart-pumping wanna get up and cheer/dance nationals competition in the end, Stomp the Yard was, although somewhat cliché, a pretty impressive movie.
Other than that, if you are looking for a movie to surpass the typical crap that is released in January and don't mind a recycled plot (done a little better this time of course) see Stomp the Yard..
I went to the movie expecting a mediocre plot with some cool step sequences (like so many other 'dance' movies that are fun to watch but sheer fluff).
STOMP THE YARD is an old-fashioned college movie about someone who shows up for the wrong reasons and slowly comes to recognize that college offers more than a ticket to a life in a foreign realm: last month I looked at ANNAPOLIS SALUTE from 1937 with exactly the same story, and I don't doubt it was decrepit with age then.But when you're dealing with an old story, the issue is not the age of the plot -- we can assume it's used because it works and the question becomes one of details.
Here, we have the story tricked out with issues of belonging -- to a fraternity -- and dance competitions.Now the choreography of the movie is excellent -- but the style of dance is about confrontation and aggression And that runs directly contrary to the theme of the movie and is a weakness.I rush to note that the performances are good, even though some of the characters are written -- particularly the lead, DJ -- as a mass of immiscible contradictions.
The story has been told a million times before ( boy from the hood is given an opportunity to get out of his dead end environment) but there aren't many movies that show us blacks in higher education, much less the intense stomp competitions so popular in black universities.
If you want to waste your hard earned dollars like I did and spend it on complete filth that contains nothing even slightly interesting than I would recommend that you go watch this movie..
This movie tries to show black American men in a positive way, and shed some light on the long proud tradition of stepping.
I walked into this movie knowing nothing about it other than that ridiculous line from the previews in which Sway is yelling, "I've never seen stepping like this before!" But I knew better than to take it seriously.
As a member of the First sorority created by African American women at Howard University in 1908,Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated, and a recent graduate of a Historically Black University (Clark Atlanta University which is the college that was used as the set for Stomp the Yard, Drumline, and School Daze)I must say the movie was exactly as I expected, an extremely exaggerated display of Greek-life and the HBCU experience.
The plot was completely predictable - kind of a mixture of "Drumline", "Bring it On", heck any bad boy/girl leaves 'hood joins team and learns to play well with others movie.But the film was a lot of fun to watch and brought well deserved attention to "stepping" at HBCU's (historically black colleges and universities)As a Mom, I appreciated the positive messages about higher education.If you've seen the fascinating David LaChapelle documentary "Rize," you'll recognize some of the krumpers/steppers, "Miss Prissy" and "Tight Eyez".
I think it's absurd that people are commenting before they've even seen the movie...That's what I call ignorant.The movie was pretty good, honestly a lot better than I expected for it to be.
Whether it be the importance of striving to be your best, the integrity and importance of being in a brotherhood with good purposes, FINE (and I mean fine...) men, culture, GREAT stepping, and drama, emotion, and meaning underlying everything.Don't just say it's like every other "gangster" movie...because it's not.
It has much more of a plot than a movie like "You got Served", although the dancing was probably equal.
It was well shot which if you are in the industry you will appreciate how talented you have to be to flesh out the varying skin tones of African Americans and lastly DJ (Columbus Short) was a skilled dancer and actor who kept me entertained.This actor stepped up to the challenge to play a character whose layers consisted of more than rage and ghetto rage.
Part of African-American Fraternal Greek culture is stepping and I haven't heard about another movie pertaining to this topic in recent history.It's an entertaining popcorn movie with great stepping..
I don't recommend anyone to see this movie unless you know the cast and crew members and decide to make fun of them ..I guess the only people who would enjoy this movie are the Disney channel watching little kids who are into this new dance fad thing.
Stomp the Yard, is a film about a young man who has to deal with college life in a new state after his brother is killed in a violent brawl.
With a new love interest, a new life, and a new style of dance, he must change the traditional way of stepping into something unique, something that's never been seen before.....Overall, the film was quite weak.
This scene really gave me a sense of pride when I saw it, and a respect for the leaders of the past.I(in addition to my mother) spent most of our time ridiculing the rest of the film.I appreciate Stomp the Yard for trying to show a well-known culture in a respected community, but it just didn't go deep enough for me to really care, or want to care for that matter..
Stomp the Yard is a fantastic dance movie!.
The phrase 'stomp the yard' refers to a style of dance originating in the African community and used almost ritualistically in black fraternities and sororities around the country.The combination of stepping mixed with hip hop moves was a treat.
Dancers are like technology, evolving ever more quickly, as the dancing wasn't quite this good just three years ago in 2004's You Got Served.
Anyone who has ever tried to step, 'krump' or break-dance can appreciate the amount of work it takes to do these acrobatic moves.The movie stars Columbus Short, a refreshing talent.
The good parts about this movie are the dancing, music, and might I add, all of Columbus Short and Brian White's fineness throughout, haha.
I did read other reviews before attending "Stomp the Yard", and approached it with a little skepticism.However, this is definitely not your average movie like "You Got Served" or others (it does get across the essence of stepping as an African American fraternity/sorority member).
It was a good quality movie but so unreal like Drumline, and everybody in college, well a HBCU can agree honestly.
With this movie people will think the black colleges are all about ans like this.
I mean yea they dance, yea its Stomp Battles, but it actually has substance and a deeper message.Really amazed by this movie, and would definitely see it again.
Of course, it doesn't have to be about reality for me to think it's a good film, but the problem here is that the dance-off, or "stomp", sections are incredibly bizarre, yet they're played completely straight.
The movie did what it was suppose to, it focus a lot on the art of stepping and dancing and yes they even tried to have a little plot which is what i thought we wanted?
I personally enjoyed the music,the dancing and stepping because that was what the movie was all about.
The music is great, the story is sweet, and you will definitely leave the movie theater singing, dancing, and feeling good!
t's good enough to make you wish that director Sylvain White had taken a documentary approach to the material, something along the lines of David LaChapelle's 2005 film Rize, about the rigorous, gravity-defying street-dance styles of krumping and clowning.Instead, White's movie focuses on young, surly DJ (Columbus Short), who moves to Atlanta from Los Angeles after his younger brother (R&B singer Chris Brown) is fatally shot in a fight.There he attends the fictional, historically black Truth University, where the fraternities and their step competitions dominate the social scene.
The story line is standard but then a lot of movies in this genre are like that and you go knowing that.Go enjoy the dance and let yourself accept the regular plot line without much fanfare.Everybody that was in the theater that night clapped when it was over which rarely happens in movies.
Overall i thought it was good but it was missing something it didn't have the swagger that made it it's own it felt like Drumline and You got served but it had nothing that made you say Wow i've never seen that but i enjoyed it and suggest you watch it you might like it you might not it all depends check it out.
Stomp the yard is a fantastic movie if you enjoy the kind of movie where talented people show off a skill you'll most likely never have(ala bring it on, you got served, drumline).
If you have seen any sort of dancing or cheerleader movie you will always be three steps ahead of the plot.
He falls in love with April (Meagan Good), the main squeeze of a prominent member of the opposite camp, bringing about plenty of issues as they square off on the dance floor.Clocking close to 2 hours, you'll probably find it amusing as you sit through deja vu moments identified from the movies mentioned, and you'll be able to stay one step ahead of formula every step of the way.
Lol it's funny that you're complaining about $9 that you spent on the movie that's chump change and it doesn't take a lot of brains to eat you simpleton just be glad you got to see part of the African American culture that you're not privy to seeing everyday unlike white fraternities and sororities stepping/stomping is something we do together showing our own individual styles but at the same time our unity.
I'll admit, I wasn't expecting to like this movie when I went to see it, but there are no good movies out at this moment, so my girlfriend and I chose Stomp the Yard.
With most movies like this one, its hard to find dancers that can act, and actors that can dance, but I have to say, this movie did contain very well acting, and a great cast.
Yes if you go to this movie you will leave the theater feeling like you just worked-out and enjoyed every minute of it.
I believe that anyone who is open minded and loves dancing and culture will enjoy watching this movie.
If you want good acting, a strong storyline and great entertainment, you need to see Stomp the Yard..
I just wish people would stop voting for a movie that they propbably haven't seen just because they don't like dance or MTV.
If you wanted to do another dance movie then by all means do one but don't take a tradition like stepping and try to make it commercial and sell it to the masses.
If you want to see another dance movie like You Got Served then go watch this.
It was really well done - although I like School Daze - people who did not PLEDGE or join Traditional Black Greek Organizations missed a lot of the message in this movie.
Hi, I thought the movie had a good message along with good dancing and stepping.Although the movie was focused on Alpha Phi Alpha vs Kappa Alpha Psi, I would've like to see more stomping from the other greeks.Also, there is no way that the competition came down to a tie before they had the stomp off.
The movie tried to show an aspect of African-American fraternities and sororities within the frame work of a feature film. |
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